2017 here we come!!

WOW Merry (late) Christmas every one! This week FLEW by. I mean absolutely flew. Kinda like the year 2016.

I don't remember a ton because honestly, it really was over in the blink of an eye. BUT Wednesday was AWESOME because it was return & report! For those of you (or all of you) who don't remember what that is from when I went as a newbie, It's when trainers & trainees go to Boston & split up & get trained on how to be better missionaries! We also get to eat lunch all together, and go to the temple! It was awesome. We learned all about teaching repentance, and how that can drive our investigators to further conversion! It was great. The temple was amazing as always & the drive home was way long. BUT it was still an amazing day all around.

On Christmas Eve, we got fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We went to this family the Pulley's house for lunch, & they fed us clam chowder & we got to play pool with them (& I won of course) and then we headed off to dinner at the Elwell's home! President Elwell is the stake president of our stake & he's in one of our wards & he's AWESOME. 

For Christmas, it was a little crazy! We had breakfast at a member in our neighborhood's house, Avon ward Church, Lunch at a members house, Canton ward church, Dinner at the Eberly's & Skyping home! It was good to talk to my family! 

Anyways, that's about it. It was a great week & this week we find out if I'm getting transferred!!! I really, really, really would rather not. Anyways, have a good new years! 

1. Our district

2. Our Zone

3. Us with the Pulleys!

 

1. Sushi

2. Return & Report

3. Christmas Eve

4. Fog & Snow (I LOVE FOG)

Snow & Christmas

I guess you could say it's going to be a white Christmas here in Connecticut. But you could also say it's going to be a cold one. It was so cold ALL week. The wind chill was at one point -20 (yeah no thanks ct) BUT it was great, because we picked up a new investigator this week! All our tracting has payed off because we found someone to teach! WAHOO! 

This week we also had Christmas conference (wow this week was so fast I can't believe that was this week) and one of the AP's (Elder Nixon) gave a talk on the Atonement and how it is the center of Christmas. It was a pretty good talk, and at the end he challenged all of us to make the atonement a more central part of our studies, and so I did, and WOW you feel so much closer to Christ the more you study about him and what he did for us. We also had a huge testimony meeting with half the mission, and if there is one thing I know, it's that it doesn't matter what we are going through, Christ has been through it all. Then we all got to go to the temple!

I can't believe how much it snowed this week, but I DROVE IN IT AND WE DIDN'T DIE. God is real guys. 

But really, He is real. And he loves us. And because of Jesus Christ, we can all live with him again. And I'm SO grateful for that. Always remember that THAT is the reason for Christmas. 

Love you all! Merry Christmas!!! 

Snow again

So in case you couldn't guess...IT'S SNOWING.

This week we did a lot of contacting, with not a ton of success. And if there is something I've learned about missionary work, is that no matter what, it isn't easy. It wasn't easy for Christ, it wasn't easy for his 12 Apostles, and it certainly won't be easy for us. The point is (and this stands with all things) that we do our best, and no matter what happens, or what the outcome is, we know we did the Lord's will. It's like Abinidi, how he could have easily thought that his efforts were a waste, and that there was no point, but we all know that Alma was touched by his words, and because of him, a whole nation was brought back into belief. We never know the full extent of the impact we have on peoples lives, so always do your best to leave people better than you found them.

1. Sister Behrmann & I at the Hartford Temple

2. Pondering life by our lil' Christmas Tree

3. Trying to study #davethecat

Just a week, but so close to Christmas!

To be 100% honest I do not have much to say about this week. Not that it was a bad week, it was just a week, ya know? I hope all of you got a chance to watch the Christmas video online! It's probably my favorite one that they've made so far. 

This week I was thinking a lot about Christmas and how cool it would have been to be at Christ's birth, and then I thought, you know what? I probably was there. We were probably all watching from heaven, shouting praises to God, and for all mankind, because Christ was born. Yesterday at the Christmas Devotional, one of the speakers (forgive me, I don't remember which one) said that if there was no Easter, there would be no Christmas. Which is so true! If Jesus Christ hadn't come and accomplished the thing he came on earth to do, there would be no reason to celebrate his birth. In fact, there would be no reason to celebrate anything at all, because there would be no hope, and all would be lost. I'm so grateful for this season to reflect upon His birth and all the He has done for us. He truly is the way we can all return and live with our families forever.

-Sister Morley

Oh & it's snowing. 

wahoo for sister behrmann!

In case you couldn't guess, Sister Behrmann is the new sister I get to train! And literally, she's the greatest ever. This week was one of those weeks where SO much happened I do not even know what to write. 

On Wednesday, before sister Holt left, we were able to go to the newly dedicated Hartford Temple! It was amazing to see the whole thing come together. The temple is truly an amazing place. I met my new companion!! It was so cool they called up all the new missionaries one by one and announced who their trainers were and when she stood up I knew it was going to be me! I was SO excited, and still am obviously. 

Oh yeah this week was thanksgiving, which is weird. We went over to our bishops house and there were a few families there, but they demoted us to the teenager table. Although I guess that's half fair because ya know I'm still 19. NOT FOR LONG THOUGH.

Then all this weekend we did stop-by's on stop-by's on stop-by's. SO MANY. BUT it was awesome because we were able to pick up 4 new investigators, and visit a lot of people who said that they really needed us right then. It's amazing how the Lord clears our schedule for us to do what he needs us to do.

ALSO THE CHRISTMAS VIDEO IS OUT AND IT IS THE BEST ONE THEY'VE EVER MADE AND I'M SO EXCITED EVERYONE WATCH IT OKAY.

https://www.mormon.org/?cid=HP_FR_25-11-2016_dMIS_fmorg_xLIDyL1-A_

Alrighty that's about it.

1. Our new (and still tiny) district

2. Elders "hey check your porch when you get home" and there was a TREE on our porch. 

3."hey do you sisters have food storage? NO?! Honey we gotta get these ladies some of our freeze-dried food!"

Snow, Transfers, Apostles, Training, Baptisms

Yes, It's snowing, Yes transfers are on wednesday, and yes I'm training. AND YES I MET ELDER HOLLAND AND ELDER EYRING AT THE HARTFORD TEMPLE. 

I will tell one amazing experience from the Temple dedication. Elder Holland was talking about how long he personally has been waiting for this temple, and how much it means to him. He said of the temple, that he has no greater love for ANYTHING more than his family. That life would be dim and hopeless if he didn't have the hope of seeing them after death. That God would not be the loving Heavenly Father that we know him to be, if he did not let our family relationships go beyond the grave. He said that "I would join the church for the doctrine of the eternal family alone." It was amazing. In all the talks, you could feel SO strong, the love that our Heavenly Father has for us, and as a result of that, the amazing truths of his great plan. Families can be together forever, and it is all through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I love this gospel. 

After the dedication, the hartford and new haven zone's were asked to help move all the furnature back in the temple. they got us all in there and had us go into a room and sit for like 10 minutes. And then, in walks President Eyring. And he's smiling ear to ear, SO happy. He was almost in tears when he saw all of us. he goes up to the front and shakes Sister Holt's and my hands, and a few others. It was incredible. Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, he walks out and Elder Holland walks in. "Now THIS is where all the REAL work get's done!" AHH he was so REAL and it was so cool! He walks up to the front, and he's showing his family around and he starts talking to his security guard (who we worked with a lot at the temple) and his security guard turns to us and the 2 other sets of sisters there and says "These sisters are some of the best, most hard working sisters I've ever known. They made the open house possible, and they are incredible" And Elder holland looks at us and says that he believes it. IT WAS So cool. then he shook our hands, told a greenie he was "so cute" and patted his cheek, and walks out. wow. The Lord's church really is run by prophets and apostals called of God. The spirit and love they bring with them is incredible. It was so so amazing. 

This week we also had the amazing opportunity to go to the cultural celebration, and oh yeah two of our investigators got baptized!!! Saturday was AMAZING! The joy and light that the gospel brings into peoples lives is absolutely amazing. THIS CHURCH IS SO TRUE. if you don't know it yet, you can. It will change you if you let it.

I love you all!

-Sister Morley

1. Baptism of Sara!

2. Baptism of Eric!

3. Cultural celebration! 

Don't worry, SO many more pictures to come.

I don't even know

Really though, I don't know what happened this week. It was CRAZY and to be honest, feels like a blur. 

Mary- Still hangin in there, isn't in the hospital, but is really eager to finally hear the lessons! We're hoping she will be able to be baptized in December!

Doug- We had a lesson with him this week, and he is really, really having a hard time in his life right now. he read the whole Book of Mormon though, which is awesome! 

Chelsea- AH okay so she is a convert who has been through A LOT lately and she has the cutest son named Carter and we have been teaching her recently and wow I just love her.

This week we had zone conference! I LOVE ZONE CONFERENCE. And I just love all the missionaries and my mission president and I love being a missionary and I don't ever want to go home and it was just wow. An amazing week, but also a stressful one. It's great. 

Love you all!

-Sister Morley

1. Our district @ some reservoir? We made it a goal to visit pretty much all pretty places in our areas on p-day.

2. Me feeding sheep

3. CHRISTMAS

4.Service @ the temple

So many things

This week, WOW. 

So flash back to the temple open house, a man named Doug walked up to me in the reception tent, asking how he could get a Book of Mormon, because he wanted to know more about the church. He wanted one right then, but we didn't have any left, so I had him fill out a comment card & promised I would have someone bring him one. When we get comment cards, we're supposed to put them in a basket, where they are collected and then distributed the next day. But for some reason I really felt the need to keep this one and ENSURE he got visited. He said he LOVED the temple and was so, so grateful. Flash forward 3 weeks, and turns out he's in our area. We had finished with the temple, and we were able to stop by his house and give him the Book of Mormon. He invited us onto his porch, and with big blue sad eyes he explained that he was finally taking time off from work to grieve the loss of his son, who died last year, and how he's always kinda been a self-proclaimed atheist, but lately he's been reading more spiritual books. He said that he thinks the Book of Mormon will really help him. We promised him that it really, really will. We set up a time to meet with him in 2 weeks, because he said he doesn't want to meet until he finishes the book (and he said he will read it three times in two weeks so he really, really gets everything out of it). We were filled with so much love towards this man that we barely knew, freezing our socks off during the first snow of the season in October. Our God truly is a God of Miracles.

Anyways, this week was amazing. We were able to have a lot of lessons and pick up an investigator named LaShaya. She's SUPER awesome. She even wants to start bringing her friend to the lessons with her, and we're so excited! 

Mike is still on date to be baptized on the 26th of November, and Eric is still on date to be baptized on the 19th (same day of the cultural celebration) and Sarah is ALSOS on date to be baptized on the 19th! IT'S GOING TO BE A CRAZY MONTH! But we're so excited for everything the end of 2016 has in store for us and for this area! The temple has placed so many miracles in our path, and I am SO grateful for this. My mission is almost half-way over! I am getting to the point where no way I don't want this to end, I feel like It's getting to the best part and I just want this to last forever!

Anyways, pictures! 

1. This is the lake we live on. Is it cool or what??

2. Me & Dave

That's actually it for today! WAHOO!

Love you all! 

-Sister Morley

SNOW

You're never going to believe this, but it's the morning of October 27th, 2016 and I step out of the door and start screaming and my companion runs out behind me to see if there's a bear or something, but no, IT WAS SNOWING. REAL LIFE SNOWING. I could not believe my eyes.  

MONDAY- We carved pumpkins as a zone

TUESDAY- SISTER HOLT'S 21ST BIRTHDAY WAHOO!!! 

THURSDAY- SNOW and we picked up like 3 investigators from the temple WAY-HO

Okay so obviously a lot more than this happened but to be honest I have ZERO time. We have a lot of solid investigators and I'm SO excited for this upcoming week! (:

8 months & no mas temple

The temple ended on Saturday. That isn't a happy thing.With the temple, it has been the CRAZIEST and FASTEST month ever. It was filled with so many highs and also some not-so-highs, but for the most part it was phenomenal. I don't even know where to begin with this. First of all 100% none of what Sister Holt and I did to prep for and help run this open house was actually us. It was the Lord. It was the spirit. I know it, because I am not capable of doing what we did. Something I'm working on doing in my mission and especially with the temple is not counting the cost. It's so easy for me to think wow we spent this many hours on this and we redid the schedule this many times and so on and so forth, but when I step back and look at it all, it's so pointless to count the cost. There is no cost to this amazing experience. Seeing my own testimony grow, and seeing the testimonies of all our loved sisters grow has been just the most incredible thing. I love those sisters. It was a really hard goodbye. I love the temple. I love all the people we worked with, I love all the people we met, and I can't believe it's over. Today is my 8 MONTH MARK. If you can even believe that. This 100% for sure has been (and probably will be) the absolute highlight of my mission, if not life. I have learned more about sacrifice, consecration, and teaching people not lessons in this past month than in all 7 months before this. If anything, Heavenly Father needed me to be at the temple to become the missionary he wants me to be. I'm definitely not all the way there yet, but I'm closer. I'm going to treasure these experiences and these sisters my whole life long, and I can't wait to start teaching again (although we have already spent some days in our area and set 2 dates #letsgooo). 

But anyways I'll send lots of pictures (:

-Sister Morley

Last week of the open house???

If you were to ask me if I'm ready for this temple open house to be over I would say "no". Over the past month, I have become so close to so many sisters and I don't want them all to leave! I've had the most incredible experiences meeting some of the most amazing people, and some of the most prepared people for the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

This week was great. But, just like every week that we have been here at the open house, we don't have a lot of time to email, BUT we have PICTURES. Pictures of us with our roommates, who we love, pictures of us with the senior couple temple missionaries the Holbrooks, and pictures of beautiful Connecticut! (: It's SO pretty here this time of year.

The one thing I have noticed the most since serving at the temple, is how incredibly HOPEFUL the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. Having the knowledge that we CAN be together after this life with our family, is the most amazing thing I could ever know, and that we could ever know. I'm so so so grateful for this knowledge. 

I love you all so much and I'll be sending more pictures in just a second! 

P.s. my p-day is back to Monday this coming week so wahoo!!