February 23, 2015

Hello friends.

Well, here is some cool news. We had dinner with a family in our ward named the H's. Turns out they lived in the Long Beach 10th ward back in the day and they know Clark and Genie Poston. Apparently, the Poston's gave them a Coleman water jug for a Wedding gift. Whoever talks to the Poston's next tell them the H's said hello. Also, their nephew is serving in Abundancia in Paraguay. The gospel sure is a small small world.

Okay, our investigator A is not really progressing. Sadly, she is not keeping any commitments and wasn't at church yesterday. Tomorrow at our lesson with them we have a sister coming with us who her and her husband just got called to be mission presidents in Mexico. This is one of their assignments to come out with the missionaries. Hopefully, we can a really great lesson teaching the second half of the Plan of Salvation.

Okay, Elder Ballard and Elder Rasband were just awesome! They were only with us for about 1.5 hours, but it was just what I needed. They taught us how to ask for more referrals from people and how to talk to more people about the gospel. Elder Ballard promised us that if we talked to 10 people a day outside of teaching appointments and tracting that our baptisms will double. I have been working extra hard and hopefully we can see some positive results from it soon. He also taught us that whenever he is having a hard moment in life he just pulls out a picture of Christ and looks at it. After looking at it he knows that everything will be okay. I decided to put up a picture of Christ in our car and try to look at it more often. Every time there is a hard moment I look at it. It seriously bring immediate peace. It is incredible. You all should try it. One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Timothy 1:7. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind." I feel like it applies perfectly!

This week we volunteered at a Senior Center. Most everyone their has dementia. It is so sad, but can be pretty fun sometimes. Sister Strong painted everyone's fingernails and I painted with the old ladies. While painting an old lady rolled up to me and said with what she thought was a whisper voice, but in all reality was a shouting voice... at least you don't have a butt the size of that lady over there. So awkward. The director of place, who the lady was talking about is about 300 pounds. She heard the whole thing. So awkward. Hopefully, you are laughing and feel really bad for me.

We had dinner with a part member family this week. It was great. They invited some non-members. We were able to talk to them all about missionary life and the gospel. It was the best. The part member family invited them to come to the next dinner we have with them. They happily agreed.

The weather here has been so weird. It is actually pouring rain right now. I am all about warmer weather, except for the face that it makes the roads insanely icy. Yesterday, we got a text saying that we could stay inside all day because of road conditions. No way jose were we staying inside on a Sunday. We had way too much to do. I drove with much caution. No need to fear!!!!

Well, last night a member told us a story about when he fought a bear in a cave. Talk about crazy! Remind to tell you about it when I get home.

I love you all! I hope all is well!!!

Love,

Sister Morrison

Exchanges with Sister Ogden

February 17, 2015

Hello Hello.

Big news. M. Russell Ballard, Elder Rasband and Bishop Stevensen are coming to Alaska tomorrow. They are on their way to Asia for some conference and have  a lay over in Anchorage. So.. instead of exploring Alaska for a few hours they want to meet with the missionaries. I am so excited. Hopefully, I can be really edified and really learn a lot from these great men, the lords chosen disciples.

This past week we had dinner with the B's. It was great. It is fun to have some what of a connection with home. We talked all about God's love that he has for each one of his children. There is so much power that comes from teaching that lesson! It was the best.

We were able to teach our investigator A and her husband. We taught them the Restoration. It was great. They both agreed to pray to know Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. That is a big step! They also  both committed to come to church on Sunday, but sadly they went snowmobiling in Valdez instead.

We have continued meeting with the active members in our ward. We have met with just about all of them. They are so nice letting us into their homes to share a message. So, where ever you are, call up the missionaries and invite them to come share a gospel message with you. Trust me... it will be an answer to a lot of missionaries prayers.

We met with Sister D this week. She has gone through a lot in her life, but she strengthened my testimony as she bore testimony of the love that she has for her Savior. The Lord is really there waiting for us to turn to him. He loves us and wants to help us. All we have to do is ask for his help and he will guide us through our lives. Meeting with her reminded me of the poem, "Footprints in the sand". You should all read that when you have a chance.

Valentine's Day is a pretty dumb day as a missionary. Literally no one wants you over which is completely understandable. Sister Strong and I decided to make the best of it. We had a ward potluck after church on Sunday so we decided to make invitations and deliver them to everyone on Saturday. We reminded them and invited them to bring a friend. We also visited all of the old single ladies in the ward. Thankfully, we were able to fill up our day with only one awkward situation. There is a girl in our ward that just got back from her mission. We were dropping off the reminder flyer. She answered the door and she looked a little surprised. She started talking really fast, basically trying to rush us out of her house when all of the sudden there was a knock at the door. It was her date. I feel so bad. We totally crashed the date. Oh well. Something awkward has to happen or it just isn't Valentine's Day.

The ward "Linger Longer" (potluck) was a success. Everyone was able to talk to each other and really get to know each other. That was great since the ward was just created a few weeks ago. No one brought their friends, but a less active came so that was happy!

Yesterday we climbed Mount Baldy. Don't worry. I still have all of my hair. It was a tough hike, but so fun. It was really snowy so going down was quite the adventure. We had to slide down on our behinds and then drag an ice ax behind us to slow us down so that we wouldn't fly off the mountain. It was a crazy awesome adventure. Pictures to come...

Well, I hope all is well. I love you! Remember to share the gospel and use the missionaries in your wards. They.need.your.help. Pray for inspiration to know who is in your path that you could help bring closer to the Savior.

Sister Morrison

On top of Mt. Baldy

Sliding down!

January 9, 2015

Hello friends and family.

Can you believe it is Valentine's Day coming up this weekend? Man time has flown by.

So this week has been super cold. One of the down sides of having a truck is that it has no thermometer so we never know how cold it is, but a member has taught me a really helpful trick. You ready for it? It will probably cause you to laugh pretty hard. Depending how cold it is outside the snow as a certain squeaky pitch when you walk on it. So... in other words. The colder the snow the squeakier it is. Sister Strong had fun this week trying to decipher how cold it was based on the squeakiness of the snow. I think the weather resided at about -5 this whole week with lots of wind. I think the wind chill probably made it feel about -20.

We did some fun service this week. We were able to help out at a Nature Center in Eagle River. There was going to be a big bike race this week, and part of the trails snow needed to be packed down that the snow machines could not get to. So... they asked us missionaries to go and snow shoe the trail to pack down the snow. How could we say no? We got to go snow shoe for about three miles for free and not even on a P-day. Could service get any better? It was pretty cold, but being out in the mountains made it all worth it.

This week we had a the opportunity to go out to lunch with President and Sister Robinson right before our Zone Meeting. That was a treat. They took Sister Strong and I out to Subway. I just love them so much. They are amazing. We were able to talk to them a lot about our ward and the unique challenges that it presents. By the end of the lunch President told Sister Strong that we could also help worth with the Arctic Valley Ward. Right now there are senior missionaries in that ward. They are getting ready to go home and are trying to wrap things up. They need some help working with people that they don't have time for. We happily accepted. Looks like when you pray really hard for more work the Lord really does provide.

This week we were able to meet with our investigator A and her husband J. It was a great lesson. We talked about the love that our Heavenly Father has for us. The spirit was very strong and the room was filled with tears. Their is a great power that comes from the Holy Ghost as we teach about each persons divine nature. We invited them to come church, but sadly they couldn't because J is getting out the military today and had to do a whole bunch of stuff yesterday for that. They said they would come this week though :)

We had an awesome FHE with a family that has all non-member children. We decided to keep it real basic. So I had this idea.... we popped a bag of popcorn and gave each kid like 30 popped pieces of popcorn. We then asked them to find two that were identical. They couldn't find two of the same. We then talked about how we are all different. Each person has different talents and abilities. but we emphasized the importance of being God's children. The lesson went pretty good. Hopefully the kids will start investigating the church soon.

We were also able to have a lesson with a lady that was previously a do not contact, but let us in because apparently we have a nice ora about us. Pretty funny right?

So something very interesting happened at church on Sunday. We only had one hour of church.  Can anyone guess why? The pipes leading up to the church froze up. Therefore nothing could move through the sewer or water lines. Only in Alaska would this happen. As we were sitting in ward council the Stake President called our Bishop and said to only have one hour of church and to call everyone on the ward list to use the bathroom before they came. At the beginning of Sacrament meeting they made the same announcement but added that if you had to leave sacrament early to use the facilities that would be okay. It was kind of weird only having one hour.

Well, I hope all is well. Things are going good here. I have recently been studying what it means to have a mighty change of heart. I have learned more about the Atonement than I ever thought I could. God answers prayers and has provided a Savior that is right there for us when we need him most. Remember that he waiting there to lift and carry you through some of your most difficult and trying times in your life.

Keep the faith, serve others and look for daily miracles.

I love you!!!

Sister Morrison

Snow shoeing!

Snow shoeing with the zone

Snow shoeing with the zone

January 2, 2015

Hello Hello!

Happy February. Oh and happy "click day" to me. I have been out for 16 months. Man time flies when you are having fun. In the mission we call it our sweet 16. You are supposed to do something fun. There are two other elders that I came out with in my district, so for P-day we are having a huge nerf gun war at the church. It should be fun.

So this week has been full of meeting people and trying to get to know everyone we possibly can on the ward roster. I think we have made some sort of contact with about 90% of them. We have been in several active members homes sharing messages and helping them get fired up about missionary work. We got one referral that we will be contacting today. Apparently, she was given the Book of Mormon a little while back. We are excited to contact her! Hopefully, the ward will get more excited about sharing the gospel here pretty quickly. Everyone is still pretty pumped about having sister missionaries.

We have an investigator named A. She is Cherokee Indian. I totally love her already. Her husband, J, is less active. They just had a baby and named him little J. K, big J's mom lives in the house with them. K is sadly less active too. For heavens sake she even served a mission. We are going to get her back to church again. A has investigating the church for about a year now. They just moved into our ward boundaries, so we get to teach them now. It's happy. They are very outgoing people so we have just about invited everyone in the ward to be their friends. The ward is doing a great job welcoming them in. They now have home teachers, visiting teachers, play dates and the whole nine yards. And to make matters better... They came to church yesterday. On Super Bowl Sunday! They have only been to church once in the last year. We were just thrilled.

Everyone in the ward has a cat. Honestly, it is pretty scary. I guess a mission is one way to get over the cat fear.... maybe? Thankfully, Sister Strong likes cats and pets them all so I don't have to. It is has been really cold here lately. We sure have had to really bundle up. We went caroling on Saturday night and met one of our investigators P. They might start going to the Spanish Branch, but we will still stop by.

Things are going good. Keep trying to help the missionaries out in your wards. They need your support. Pray for them and give them people to go and see. As your friends come closer to the Savior your testimony will be strengthened immensely. I promise.

Hope all is well "down south" :) If you don't know what that means....well look it up :)

Love you all!

Sister Morrison

Sister Strong and Morrison 

New view from Mt. Baldy