all good things

Okay so last week (after I emailed) we watched the Boston Marathon at the Mission Office! It was so cool (and way inspirational) to see everyone running and everyone who was pushing along their family members. My favorite part was that we had like 40 missionaries lined up in this one spot and every time there was a Mormon runner they would see us and get SO EXCITED it was like an extra adrenaline rush for them! haha it was great! 

We got a member referral this week for a girl named Elena! She's so cool we taught her the first lesson on tuesday and she's suuuper solid. She's excited to learn all about the plan of salvation and hopefully we will be setting up a baptism date with her this week!

ALFREDO! Okay so last week his phone BROKE. Like we had NO contact with him and we were freaking out (because he's our most progressing investigator and we love him and he is supposed to get baptized soon ya know) ANYWAYS so we were praying and praying to find a way to get in contact with him and it got to the point where we were willing to go tract the ENTIRE town of Newton to try and find this guy. BUT THE LORD BLESSED US SO HARD. We were eating lunch on thursday and we get a call from an unknown number and who is it? ALFREDO! we were so excited and happy! His phone should be getting fixed this week but we'll see! we've met with him twice since then and we will be meeting with him more and more before he get's baptized on the 14th! 

On Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Spanish sisters (hermanas haha) and if there's one thing I learned, It's that I'm SO grateful I didn't get called spanish speaking. I literally don't think I understood a single thing that happened THE ENTIRE DAY. and THEY DIDN'T STOP FEEDING US. Every house we went to fed us! WE ATE LIKE 7 TIMES AND I DON'T UNDERSTAND. It's hard to pay attention in a lesson that is all in a language you know 0 of. so I might have fallen asleep a few times and hermana Lira just laughed at me and said it happens every time they go on exchanges with english sisters. oh well. 

Then on Friday we had District meeting and went to lunch afterwards and we were all together when we got t-texts (texts that tell us who's getting transferred where) and surprise surprise I'm staying in cambridge! so is my companion! We're super excited for everyone who's coming in though! It's going to be a SOLID zone. 

On Saturday we got to go to the recent convert temple date! We helped out in the Baptistery and it was such an amazing experiece to witness people go into the temple for the first time and do baptisms for their own ancestors. IT WAS PACKED THOUGH. i have never seen that many people in a baptistery before! It was way cool. 

ANYWAYS that's about it for this week! It FLEW but I feel like I say that every week. I can't believe I've been out two months??? super weird. Anyways I love you all have a great week (:

-Sister Morley

what a week

I feel like this week was 8 years long, but also like it was 8 seconds long. It was so so good though.

1. So last monday after I emailed we went to the stake center to play basketball and hang out with our zone, which was great! Except it started snowing SO HARD (well at least I thought it was snowing so hard) and it was SO SO COLD. and me, not knowing any better, was not dressed properly for it (i don't understand how people here can just whip out all their winter gear from their little purses whenever it snows? like was that in there the whole time?) and because of the snow, the public transit was way off so we couldn't figure out how to get to our dinner and eventually the zone leaders had to pick us up and take us haha and they all freaked out when they saw me because apparently I looked an inch from death from all the running around in the freezing cold weather. Safe to say i felt about an inch from death ahhaha. It's way too cold here.

2.We had a few lessons this week and they all went relatively well! Alfredo started recognizing the answers to his prayers, and Patrick is making bigger and bigger strides towards baptism! we're so excited for this coming month! it's cool because even we're teaching our investigators who are borderline crazy, it's amazing to realize that the spirit is still there with us, helping us and carrying us through everything we need to do, teach, and say. It's the most comforting feeling in the world.

3. I GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE ON WEDNESDAY. The Boston temple is BEAUTIFUL (although I have to admit I'm still partial to the Gilbert Temple) It was amazing! I got to see my MTC companion Sister Clark. I love her to pieces, and as I always say to her, I hope we get companioned together someday.

4. On our way to service on thursday we met this guy named Jajuan who we both just felt like we needed to stop and talk to. He just sat and told us his story and cried and accepted to hear the gospel! we met with him and his girlfriend Sheila on Friday, and to be honest, it was a lot of sitting and listening. and sometimes that's what the first lesson is. And it's good because we really get a feeling of what they need. the spirit was so strong, and we're meeting them again this week. ALSO on our way BACK from service, it was POURING. and i mean we were DRENCHED even with umbrellas it was ridiculous hahahaha I'll attatch a picture.

5. We had zone meeting on friday which was so great but also funny because my companion was the STL in our zone before I got here, so we were still given tons of stuff to do haha. we had to make the entire lunch and everything so it was crazy. I put a picture of most of our zone in this email, some of them already left, but for the most part thats it. I love my zone so much i am so blessed. especially my zone leaders, theyre the best.

6. On saturday the portugese elders in our area got to baptise their investigator Aline! we love her. because she's YSA age, she actually is starting to go to our ward now! So we got to go to her baptism and bring some of our investigators. even though it was all in portugese, it was such an amazing experience. you could feel her happiness and God's love for her. Heavenly Father loves us so much its so incredible. 

Okay well that's all for this week! Have a good week and I love you all and the church is so true! 

Love, 

Sister Morley

SNOW

TOO MUCH SNOW. It's April and it's snowing. I don't get it. BUT despite the cold, I'm still loving Cambridge! It's amazing. and CONFERENCE was amazing! (would i even be a real missionary if I didn't bring up conference in my weekly email?) if you didn't get to watch it, I highly recommend that you go online RIGHT NOW and watch it. or at least watch Elder Holland, Elder Richmond, President Iring, and President Monsons talks. They were my favorite. 

This past week was good! not our best week but it was good! I keep trying to figure out how to format my emails but I think I'm just going to stick with lists or else I forget everything I was going to write.

1. In the MTC they teach you how to teach lessons in 45 minutes or less. My comp and i have a goal to actually do that because it seems like ALL of our investigators have 873 questions for every lesson! which I mean it's good that they want to know and understand what we're teaching but it makes teaching short lessons really really difficult!  

2. We committed Patrick to baptism! I'm so excited because I really love patrick. He found US and said he wants to become a member and bring his inactive girlfriend back to the church!!! now they just have to get married!! hahaha I'm so excited for them but kinda nervous for the next lesson when we tell them that! but we're excited because his baptisimal date is may 7th, and his girlfriend got baptised on may 4th so we might be able to move it to the 4th which would be so cool for them! 

3. One of the people we're teaching is george. He had a baptisimal date a few months ago but it fell through and missionaries havent been able to get in contact with him since then! but he came up to us a few weeks ago when he saw us on the streets and said he wanted to learn again! so we taught him and his girlfreind tina this week, and now we have to get them married too! it's about to be a crazy wedding season here in Cambridge, MA. 

4.Alfredo is still doing well! hopefully still on track to get baptised on the 23rd! the only sketch thing is that a few days ago he was saying something about wanting a sign so we might have to clear some things up about how we get answers to our prayers haha.

5. OKAY so below is a picture of my comp and i outside looking MISERABLE because so yesterday we had a dinner at a members house and we left and went to go wait for the bus and it was about 8:00 and we are supposed to be home by 9, which would usually be pleanty of time except public transportation is SUPER unreliable on weekends so we were outsite and it was like 30 degrees and windy and we were waiting for like 30 minutes and the bus WASN'T COMING. and eventually we called a member to drive us home and we maybe got there by 9:30. IT WAS SO COLD. 

6. One cool story from this week is that sister Graham and i were at the saturday morning session of general conference and we get a phone call from some random number and we go out to answer it and it's this girl named Dominique and shes like yeah i want to come to your church what time is it and we told her about how its general conference and where it is and so she came on sunday, and turns out she dated a few mormons in high school but she was catholic and never wanted to learn anything but now she just felt like it was time that she became open minded to our religion! so she looked us up and found out number! it was such an amazing experience so hopefully we will be able to teach her soon! 

It's STILL snowing as I'm typing this, which isn't cool but I know that Temples are the most Holy places on this Earth, and I know that if we attend them often that we will be blessed beyond measure! I love temples, and I love our prophet and the apostles and the revelation they receive for our church. seriously, if you didn't get to watch conference, GO WATCH IT.

 

I LOVE YOU ALL so much. Also i had my first bowl of clam chowder this week, which rocked.

-Sister Morley

p.s. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/media/session_5_talk_8/4829866645001?lang=eng