August 25, 2014

Hi hi hi hi!!!!!!!

Well, this week started out with more tracting than I have ever done on my mission. Tuesday, Wednesday and Part of Thursday all we did was tract. We wanted to get the word as much as possible about the open house. Lets just say my dogs were barkin' (if anyone doesn't know what that means, it means my feet hurt real bad) at the end of each day. At the end of each day I said quite a gracious prayer to Heavenly Father thanking him that I did not get called on a walking mission. I think I would have died. Some funny things happened while tracting. We had one lady scream at us the whole time we were walking down the street. Ya.. that was awkward. Oh well. We also had a man open the door with a shot gun. That was a little alarming. Don't worry we sweet talked him into putting it down, and had him agree to come to the open house. Also, for the past week, or at least when we were tracting it was sunny. Hallelujah! It was so sunny in fact I got sick tan lines on my feet. Nothing better!

The Sitka sisters came in to help us with the open house. That was super fun. We had 5 chicas Thursday through Saturday in our tiny little apartment. It was crowded, but it was nice and fun to be around other missionaries for a little while. So the open house... we spent hours preparing for the thing. Meetings upon meetings we attended and sadly only about 100 non-members showed up. We were pretty sad, but hey... at least 100 came. We didn't get any referrals, but we are hoping that it planted a seed for most people.

I am officially a real adult. This week I got my horizontal license. Wohooooooooooo. I passed yet another driving test. :) cheers to 21!

On Saturday each missionary companionship picked one family in their ward to go and hymn carol to. It was amazing to see how 9 missionaries singing can bring people to church! Both families we visited came. It was a miracle!

This week at church only one investigator showed up. J is 11 and is friends with one of the girls in our ward. We have been teaching her for a while. Her parents won't let her get baptized, but we are hoping they will soften their hearts sooner than later. It is always fun having her at church on Sunday. This Sunday we had to speak in sacrament, teach the youths Sunday School class, and speak at a fireside , which concluded the open house weekend. It was a busy day, but I loved doing it! So much fun. The fireside went well. Our investigator S came with her daughter. She totally felt the spirit and wants to come to another one. We had to opportunity to teach her again this week. We were able to talk about God's love and the Book of Mormon. I think she is slowly progressing towards the gospel.

We were able to teach Sa again this week. It was pretty awesome. She totally knows the church is true which is just so happy. We got a text from her last night telling us that her husband read part of the Book of Mormon. This is a HUGE miracle considering he used to hate mormons. I seriously can't wait for their whole family to join the church. It is just going to be so happy!

I hope everyone has had a fantastic week! I love you all! Keep bringing miracles to God's work wherever you may be :)

Sister Morrison 

Glacier across the lake near Juneau

Sister Morrison and her zone at the new church building's open house!

August 18, 2014

Hi family and friends!!!!!!

This week I highly considered building an ark. It literally has rained a good 10 inches this week. Not a single moment without rain this week. I wonder if my shoes will ever dry out! There are flood warning all over Juneau. It is pretty crazy. Thursday we set a rain record in a rainforest. It rained four inches in one day. Can you believe that? I am pretty sure Murrieta has like 2 inches of rain for like the whole year. So.. Grandpa Morrison since you are the water guy. I think you should settle some deal with Alaska, particuarly Juneau, to get some of the water transported down to good ole California.

This week was kind of a slow week as far as the work goes. I think honestly everyone was depressed, due to the amount of rain that no one wanted to meet with us. We had to do a TON of tracting. It was a good thing though. At the end of this week we have an Open house for our new building. This is a once in a lifetime kind of thing for Juneau. We had to get the word out! We are hoping to have about 2,000 people walk through. Hopefully, lots of members will bring their friends. A lot of this week has been pumping up members and challenging them to invite their friends. There is a non-deniable spirit that is felt in the chapel. I am so excited for non-members to feel it. We are praying and fasting all week for people to come. Hopefully, (hope in gospel terms means assurance) we will get lots of new investigators and we will have to fill up the baptismal font like every week!

We did meet with W this week. Missionaries have been meeting with him for years. He really hasn't shown any type of commitments while teaching him over the last few months, but finally a miracle happened this week. We got to their house and him and his wife happily announced that they had prayed together! Seriously, the best news ever. We were able to teach them all about the Holy Ghost and how we can receive answers to our prayers. Earlier that day, they had been listening to the Christian radio station that apparently said that the sister missionaries walking around Juneau are not allowed to talk about the Holy Ghost with people. On the bright side people are noticing that we are making a difference in Juneau, and they are nervous that we are going to take away part of their congregations. And... how cool was it that the Holy Ghost prompted us to teach them about that. It was just sooo cool!

We were not able to meet with S this week, because she was busy with family in town, but we have an appointment with her this Saturday. H didn't come to church this Sunday. We think he moved back to Missouri, but hey, at least we could help plant a little seed. Earlier this month we had a dinner with an active member family that invited a friend named S. She actually came the next Sunday to church! She has been out of town since, but guess what? We have a meeting with her tonight, We are so excited! Sadly, this week L and L half dropped us. They said they were pretty much 99% Mormon and we needed to spend our time teaching other people about Christ that need him. They agreed to come to our church once a month. We are pretty sad, but we hope they will come to realize that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints is the only true and living church on the face of the earth.

Well, this week one of our returning less actives got a new juicer and she wanted us to be the guinea pig and try all of her combinations of juicing. Folks, I had to drink a cup of straight carrot juice. I literally thought I was going to puke on her floor. So nasty. Word to the wise. Don't ever drink carrot juice okay?

This week like I said already, we went tracting a lot. A little miracle happened when we left a card on someones door. They called us later that night to thank us for what we did. They said they didn't want to convert, but that they really appreciate when people try and bring others closer to Christ. It made tracting all worth it. At least someone appreciated / benefited from what we did.

I hope you all are doing to great. What are you going to do this week to help Hasten the work of Salvation?

Love you lots,

Sister Morrison 

Downtown Juneau

Online meetings with other missionaries.

Sister Dall and Morrison passing out the Open House cards.

August 11, 2014

 Hello friends and family. 

Juneau definitely has its pluses of living here. This week John Bytheway (a famous Mormon speaker) was on a cruise and decided to do an hour fireside for all of Juneau during his pit stop here. The fireside was at 10 am Tuesday morning which was a pretty random time, but we were just grateful that he was able to speak to us. He talked to all about coming unto Christ and how important it is that people realize church is a hospital for sinners, not a country club for vacationers. I loved that analogy. Everyone should feel that they can come closer to Christ while attending church.

We had a few miracles this week. We are teaching a lady named S and her family. Her husband is not really for the church and wants nothing to do with it. Well, in the middle of the week Sister Dall and I got the prompting to text S and ask her if she wanted a tour of the new church building. She texted back right away and said, “Yes, how soon can we do it?” We set something up for the next day. She had texted us earlier telling us to pray for her husband because he might be coming. Well, lo and behold he showed up! Their entire family came to the church. MIRACLE. We took them all around the building and ended up in the chapel. We told them to pick a bench and quietly ponder what the Lord is asking of them. Folks, they were sitting in the chapel for 35 minutes! There were about 5 minutes of silence and the rest they were asking questions all about the church and they talked all about the positive energy that they could feel in the church. It was so cool! We met with S again later that week. She just thanked us so much for the tour because apparently it softened her husbands heart towards the gospel. The Lord really does work in mysterious ways to bring souls unto Christ.

Speaking of bringing souls unto Christ. This week we had dinner at an active members home. We were planning on teaching our investigator J (whose 12) right after dinner at their house. Well, right when we showed up we noticed someone else there too. His name is H (he is in his mid twenties) and he was living with this family on an internship for a couple of weeks. Turns out he has been super interested in the Mormon religion because he lives right by a temple in Missouri. Miracle. The member had already taught him like the first two lessons, so it was perfect. We were able to teach them both about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was wonderful. We invited them both to church and they both came. Wohooo! H also participated a TON in all of the classes. Hopefully, we can teach him more this week. It is cool that he ended up in a members home. The Lord puts people in the right place at the right time.

We put a twelve year old girl on date for baptism. Her name is L. She is getting baptized Thanksgiving weekend when all of her family is in town. We are so excited!

We took a young woman out with us this week. It was fun seeing the youth get excited about missionary work. If a few weeks we are teaching a youth Sunday school class. Each one of them has taken the challenge to bring one non-member friend. We are super excited.

This week has been rain, rain, rain and more rain. It is the most Juneau has seen for a summer. Hopefully, the downpours stop soon! Also, this week has been countless miracles. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve here in the promised land!

Love you all so much!

Sister Morrison 

The three Sisters with some of their investigators.

John Bytheway on his quick visit to Juneau 

Just part of the rap Sister Morrison and Dall made up!

August 4, 2014

Well hello everyone!

Transfers are happening tomorrow. Sister Dall and I are staying here in Juneau for another 6 weeks! At the end of this transfer I will have been here for 7.5 months. It is just crazy! Sister Dill is being transferd to Wasilla to train a new missionary. Looks like we are saying goodbye to the trio and going back to the normal companionship!

What a week it has been. Surprisingly the sun was out for a total of 3 whole days. It was glourious. This week was Youth Conference for Juneau. Kids from all over South East Alaska came in for the 4 day conference. On the first day the stake asked us to play some games with the kids for about two hours and teach them something. So, we decided to do it outside because for once there was actually sun! It was about 65 degress, but it felt like 90! We played games like missionary tag and other unity building games. We concluded by spliting off into three groups and taught each of the groups the main points from the first three missionary lessons. They then had to present their lessons to the group. It was super fun! My companions and I got a laugh about thirty minutes or so into the games when about 5 kids came up to us with rosy cheeks, sweaty and looking quite sick. They informed us that they needed to go inside because they were about to have a heat stroke. Can you believe it? A heat stroke in 65 degree weather?! These poor kids would die if they lived in California.

We had the opportunity to help clean out a bedroom for a lady that just went to jail. It was absolutely disgusting. It makes me so sad that people live the way that they do. We literally boxed up probably like 30 boxes of just junk. I wish I had a dumpster near by so I could throw it all away. I was glad to help though. That would be stressful going to jail and then having to have someone else pack up all your stuff.

This week the new church building opened up! It is absolutely gorgeous! It looks exactly like our Murrieta building. That makes me a little homesick, but it is okay. Due to the new building opening we spent like all week inviting people to come. It was a good excuse to go over to people's homes that dont normally like us there. Well, all of the work payed off because we had 5 investigators at church and 5 less active families at church. It was truly a miracle! I cannot wait for the church tours to happen. Hopefully, lots of people will bring their friends.

Our investigators are doing great! L and L came to church! They are slowy progressing, but still keeping commitments so that is happy. We also had Brother U come to church. We have been working for months trying to get them to come to chruch. After having a lesson about the difference between strive and try and talking all about putting our faith into action he came! Woohooo! S still loves the gospel. We are just waiting on her husband to let her come to church. Hopefully, it will be soon!

We are really focusing this next transfer on our faith to find people to share the gospel with. Sister Dall and I are pumped to see what the Lord has in store for us! Bring it on transfer number 5 in Juneau!

Love you all! Remember the prophet of God has asked us all to Hasten the work of Salvation. What will you do this week to help hasten the work of Salvation?

Sister Morrison 

July 28, 2014

Hey hey hey! 

It looks like you all had so much fun at the family reunion. Grandma, thanks so much for making me a card board cut out! That was too funny when I saw some of the pictures. I am glad you had so much fun. Just wait until Allison and I are back at the next one! 

Well, this week as I was sleeping and dreaming about Carrie Underwood feeding us a dinner I was suddenly awakened by my bed swaying back and forth. Moments after the swaying, my bed started shaking super hard. Then it clicked. It was an earthquake. It was pretty scary. It lasted for about 2 minutes. I was about to get out of bed and run outside when it stopped. The earthquake was a 6.3. Thankfully no one was hurt. The only thing hurt were the telephone/internet wire in the ocean that connect all reception down south. So, for two days we lived as the old missionaries did without a phone. We knocked on a lot of people's doors just to relay silly messages. Looks like I have now survived the 2014 flood and earthquake!

This week my comp, Sister Dill decided to slide down a slide at a park we were walking by. Well, she was too tall for the enclosed tube slide and sadly wacked her head super hard while trying to slide down. She actually got a concussion from it. We had to keep a close eye on her. It was pretty scary. Looks like missionaries shouldn't slide down slides anymore. 

S our investigator is progressing. Last week we had the opportunity to teach her about prophets. Well, following up on that lesson she told us that she had gone onto lds.org and learned about General Conference. She then listened to several talks. She said she loved them and she believes Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. Two of her kids now sit in on the lessons. It was so fun teaching them the 10 Commandments this week. They love the gospel and are slowly progressing. 

This week we had a dinner with an active family. Just as dinner started they called a non-member friend to come over. S showed up and we taught her a little bit about the Atonement. She loved it. We then invited her to church. Not really excepting her to come she totally did!!! She stayed all three hours and I am pretty sure is coming back next week! Woohoo for member missionary work! 

L and L are this old couple. They came again to church on Sunday. I am not to sure how interested they are in making commitments, but they are very interested in learning more about the gospel! We meet with them again to teach them the Plan of Salvation tonight. 

Things are going great here. Transfer calls are on Friday! Crazy how time flies when you are having fun! Hope you all have a great week! Love you! Remember to help hasten the work of salvation!

love you!! 

Sister Morrison