SISTER HARDING

If you couldn't tell my the title of this email, I really love my new companion. She's actually the cutest, most hard working, greatest person ever. I love her a lot. She's been through so much and she's still just amazing. 

On Monday of this week I don't know if I said this in my last email, but we went to the top of the hub restaurant on the prudential building on the 52nd floor! it was super cool! (see pic 1)

On Tuesday we had a SUPER cool lesson with Jim! We talked about the Book of Mormon and specific prayers (because for some reason he doesn't want to pray specifically) and then we all knelt down and each took a turn praying to know if the Book of Mormon was true. Then we all stayed kneeling with our eyes closed for about 5-7 minutes and just listened. The spirit was sooooo strong it was incredible! Then we all got up and talked about what we felt, and he said that he still isn't 100% sure if it's true but he couldn't shake the feeling that this church is right and that there's something very right about everything we've been teaching him. So hopefully he will continue to progress even faster!

On Wednesday it was CRAZY. We did service with a bunch of people learning English (I understood nothing any of them said, but it was still great) and the S. Graham left for providence! I had a few companions between then and the time S Harding got there. We taught a lesson to Franco (the one from Uganda that I have a really hard time understanding) and apparently he's been reading and praying about the Book of Mormon everyday! SO we're excited about that. Then I met Sister Harding and she's everything I said she was at the beginning of the email and I love her. (see pic 2)

On Friday we did chapel tours which was okay. Then we had some lessons (sorry I'm getting lazy and running out of time to email) and the lessons were good! 

Yesterday we had the weirdest lesson ever with a guy who didn't really speak English so he just talked about how there was a shooting this past week or something which was really sad but yeah we will probably be referring him to the spanish sisters hhaha.

Pic 3 is of Maria and I. She's fabulous and engaged which means that this was her last week in the singles ward ):

Pic 4 is of me and good ol' Muhammad Ali (who apparently died this week?) 

ANYWAYS that's all for this week, love you all!

-Sister Morley

the time has come

If you couldn't guess by the title of the email, transfers came in and SISTER GRAHAM IS LEAVING ME. My new companions name is Sister Harding (she's from England, which is so cool) ANYWAYS we had a super great week this week. We saw a lot of blessings from our labors, which was great. 

On Monday we went to the Museum of Fine Arts! It was super cool (and yeah we were definitely looking at all the ancient american artifacts and talking about how it was all just costly apparel and false idols). We picked up three new investigators this week! Franco, Ritik, and Colleen! They're super cool but I have learned on my mission that I actually have a REALLY hard time understanding people with accents so a lot of the time I have to ask my companion whats going on ahaha. dang it. 

We also had zone meeting this week! It was way cool and it was all about prayer, and the power of prayer in our investigators and in our own conversion. I wish I could adequately write about how important and essential prayer is for each of us. It doesn't matter how long it's been since you've prayed, just start again! Our Heavenly Father wants SO BADLY to hear from us! 

The elders that we share a building with had a baptism on Saturday and 1. the spirit was SUPER strong and 2. we had 4 investigators there! it was so awesome and they all got to feel the spirit and yeah it was great. 

This week we did service at an old folks home and played bingo (they are so funny hhaha) and we worked at the food bank again (which is always fun) 

THEN YESTERDAY we were at church probably about 90% of the day, seriously. And so were the elders and as luck would have it ALL OF OUR DINNER APPOINTMENTS CANCELLED like what are the odds of that?? so we all just ended up having a missionary dinner. it was so delicious.

The mission is actually the greatest thing in the entire world. I am so happy (and tired) and so excited for everything to come! The church is true, and the Book of Mormon is LITERALLY the word of God. I promise you that it is. Read it. 

Love you all, have a good week! 

P.s. sorry for the mediocre pictures. I love my zone they're the greatest ever. 

cool things

OKAY so this week we had a lot of cool things happen. For one, it actually got WARM for 2 whole days this week! Another cool thing, is that EVERYONE and their DOG graduated this week so basically everyone was walking around in these huge graduation gown robe things that are all decked out with all of their accomplishments and phds and everything (but I have a missionary name tag, so I win)

ANYWAYS. This week was really cool because we were able to teach a 15 step program to stop smoking! We taught it to a member named Enrique to help him quit! His non-member fiance (who's definitely getting baptized) was there and supporting him and it was so great! as of today he's been 5 days without smoking! woo! It was a really cool and really powerful lesson. 

I feel like a lot happened this week, but a lot of it isn't worth putting in an email. Like we had a picnic and played bingo with some fun old folks OH and we picked up this SUPER cool investigator from Uganda named Michael! He's WAY cool and super religious and said he'd pray and fast about the book of mormon and if it's true he'll get baptised! so we're stoked about that! 

We got to go to the temple again this morning! It was great I love the temple so much (: OH and yesterday sister graham gave a talk in church so we invited EVERYONE to come watch her speak and we have this one potential investigator who, no kidding, his name is Juice and he plays religious music on the saxophone so we invited him to come and he was like "No, but I'll come play outside your church so that people will want to come in and watch you speak!" SO WE GET TO CHURCH AND HE'S JUST PLAYIN THE SAXOPHONE HAHA it was great. 

ANYWAYS that's about it for this week! The church is true! Here are some good pictures of Juice playing his Saxophone, me holding Enriques crushed cigarettes, and me making some BOMB chocolate covered strawberries. Stay tuned for more pictures.

Trains are literally the bane of our existence. We fall asleep on them, and we get separated from our companions because of them.

OKAY THAT'S IT FOR THIS WEEK! Love you all!

-Sister Morley

what a day, what a week

Wow. Finals being over REALLY open up doors. I don't have a TON of time to email right now, but just a few things real quick! This week we were CRAZY busy because suddenly everyone and their mother could meet with us! I have a feeling this is about to be a great summer. 

Okay so miracles really do happen! Fasting really does work! Alfredo wanted us to fast with him that he could get work off on sundays so he can go to church and get baptised on June 11! So obviously we were super excited and WOW we saw the blessings from it because he was able to talk to his manager and get transferred to a different unit and NOW HE DOESN'T HAVE TO WORK ON SUNDAYS!!! We are SO excited. 

Another miracle that happened this week is that we found TWO binders full of former investigators just chillin in a cabinet at the church building. What they were doing there, I have no idea. BUT we are currently going through them and COOLEST STORY OF THE WEEK. So like two nights ago we got home a little early so we decided to contact some of them and we felt like we should call this girl named Eve. So we call her and she answers and she's SO excited that we called and asking us all these questions and then she goes "so it's reallly funny that you called because today I was sitting in Harvard square thinking about how I kinda wanted to come back to church and see if it will make me happier." SO WE'RE MEETING WITH HER THIS WEEK! Miracles. do. happen.

Today was so great. We started off the day by playing ultimate frisbee and spike ball with our zone at Harvard stadium. Then there was a man in our stake named Bert who is WAY nice and LOVES missionaries. Today was his birthday, so he wanted to take a bunch of us out to lunch! So we went to a super fancy restaurant and all 10 missionaries ate the best lunch ever. Then (he thinks the sisters are better) he bought sister Graham and me MASSIVE bouquets of flowers. Then he took us to L.A. Burdick (which is the coolest chocolate shop ever) and bought all of us chocolate! So yeah today was great. 

But that's about all I have time for today! Love you all and have a good week! (:

-Sister Morley

Slow but we got chocolate

HELLO EVERYONE! Okay so this week actually went by REALLY slow. It was the last week of finals so no one wanted to meet with us and on top of that EVERYTHING cancelled that we did have planned. Even zone conference. And zone conference NEVER cancels. Oh well. It was still a good week!

On Tuesday we went to a member's house who LOVES feeding missionaries. And he gave us so. much. chocolate. I'll definitely attach a picture. It's ridiculous. BUT we got food poisoning so we were sick all day Wednesday when we were doing weekly planning which was something we both just laughed about. We picked up a new investigator named Chris! He's super cool and he has a baptismal date for July 2! We also met with Sami and Patrick again and they're SO CLOSE to getting engaged they just have to take that leap of faith! They're SO cute I just want them to get married and for him to be baptized! We did our Thursday service as per usual which is always super fun, but they guy in charge of it (his name is kelly and he's from haiti) is SUPER loud and always tells the same joke about a guy with no arms... anyways. On Friday we taught Alfredo again and GUESS WHAT HIS PHONE IS GETTING FIXED THIS FRIDAY!!!! So we will actually be able to get in contact with him whenever we need to! So he should be getting baptized VERY soon! So I guess this week was relatively uneventful but we're STOKED for this coming week because EVERYONE IS WILLING TO MEET WITH US NOW THAT FINALS ARE OVER! WAHOO! Also here's a picture of us with Patrick and Sami (: We love them a lot! 

-Sister Morley 

yeah still cold

so it rained this literal entire week. which is fine except also way too cold for me. It's may and I'm way over wearing my coat.

ANYWAYS. So this week and next week are finals for harvard and mit and basically all the smart schools and grad schools and med schools and yeah. so NO ONE wants to talk to us or meet with us because theyre all busy studying and taking tests so this week was kinda mediocre.

On tuesday my companion had surgery. AND SHE WAS AWAKE FOR IT. okay to be honest it was just a mole removal BUT STILL i was there and got to watch it and it was siiiiiick (in the cool way not in the gross way) On Wednesday we taught Leonardo again, which went really well! He's still on track for his June 25 baptismal date! On thursday (cinco de mayo) we did weekly planning (as per usual) and service! we do service at a food bank with some of the elders in our zone and this week they were filming us haha it was super weird. Then Friday we had Zone meeting which was all  about how to gain and show more love for our investigators. it was really spiritual, and it's so cool how principles we learn to apply on the mission can turn around and be applied in real life too with our families. On friday night we had dinner with the recent convert in the portugese branch Aline! she took us to a brazilian grill and it was PHENOMINAL. like I'm slightly obsessed with it. ALSO friday was sister grahams ONE YEAR MARK!!! she only has 6 months left! In honor of that, I decorated the house, and we took some super awkward pictures that ill definitely attach On Saturday we had exchanges AGAIN with the spanish sisters BUT THIS TIME they had to come into our area SO I DIDNT HAVE TO FALL ASLEEP IN SPANISH LESSONS HALLELUJIA. But as luck would have it, the morning of exchanges, everything cancelled hahahahah. go figure. so we contacted a TON. We ended up teaching leonardo and then exchanged back right before dinner. For dinner we went to George and Tina's hosue! Tina is a recent(ish) convert and George wants to get baptised SO bad! he just hasnt been able to come to church so we're trying really hard with him! they fed us an irish dinner though because theyre from ireland! And of course yesterday was mothers day and i got to skype home! which made my week so great! 

But even on the weeks where everyone has finals, and appointments cancel, missionary work is still the greatest and most rewarding work literally ever. I'm dead tired 90% of the time, but I'm also crazy happy and LOVE being a missionary! I love you all and thank's for all your support! 

-Sister Morley

FLYIN

this week FLEW (hence the caption) but it was SO FUN. Speaking of flying this email is gonna be quick and probably short.

On monday we went to Revere Beach with our zone which was so fun I love my zone! Then on Tuesday we taught a lesson with the Portuguese Elders to a guy we contacted on the bus, and he committed to baptism! (to be fair I only know that because the elders told me what happened, i didn't understand any of the actual lesson, but it's cool)

Then on Wednesday we taught Jim again, and he always has SO many questions haha it's great but man it's exhausting sometimes. THEN we had this SUPER cool lesson with a guy I contacted on exchanges named Leonardo! (okay so technically his names leonard because his dad forgot to write the o on his birth certificate but hes working on changing his name so oh well) we taught him the restoration with a less active member and everyone was getting emotional and then he committed to baptism on June 25! He came to church on sunday and even bore his testimony! 

On Thursday we had a lesson with Sami and Patrick and basically had a HUGE hheart to heart about marriage AND WOW I have never felt to much love in a lesson, it was incredible. I'm skipping friday because not much happened. BUT SATURDAY WAS GREAT. 

We had service literally all day and it was SO FUN. We cleaned up the charles river, then went to lunch, and then helped someone move. Sometimes you just need a day to JUST serve. It was such a good day. 

ANYWAYS SORRY FOR THE SHORT LETTER but also not sorry because i have great pictures this week so yay. (definitely will attach some separately)

love you all! give your missionaries referrals! 

-Sister Morley

ps the pictures on this email are of us and our zone leaders and then us and our missionary friends who got transferred ):