Opposition in All Things

and by opposition i mean really there was only one bad thing this week. and by one bad thing i mean that i had the worst cold in the history of colds! It almost completely knocked me out. I got it on wednesday and today is the first day I've felt better! It's crazy! It probably wouldn't have lasted so long except we had such a good week lined up, I couldn't miss anything so we just kept going! 

We witnessed like 800 miracles this week, but I don't have time (or motivation) to put them all in here! So I'll just tell a few.

1. WE GOT SOMEONE TO COMMIT TO BAPTISM ON THE FIRST LESSON. His name is Alfredo (remember the one who thought i was a nun hahaha) (turns out a lot of people have thought we are nuns so thats cool) but yeah we had a lesson with him and the spirit was SO STRONG and at the end we asked him if he would be baptised on April 23 and he said YES! and he came to church on sunday and told everyone he is coming back! We're so excited we're teaching him again tonight.

2. We had 10 nonmembers at church on sunday! That alone is a HUGE miracle. The spirit was so strong because of the Easter program and almost everyone who was there kept saying they want to come back! it was amazing!

3. Daniel. haha he's so great. he's from Brazil and we met him at a bus stop and

without us even asking, he just said, "I want to know more about your church on your name tag!" He came to church and said that this is the first time he's felt like he's home since leaving Brazil. We're teaching him for the first time this week, and will hopefully set a date for him too!

Okay so those are three cool miracles that the Lord has worked in our lives. Sister Graham and I are doing great. We eat tons and tons because all the singles LOVE to feed us. We get to pet lots of dogs on the street which ROCKS and then usually we get to contact their owners! 

Yesterday we had TWO easter dinners which was way cool but also I didn't think i could eat that much! unfortunately because i was sick and kinda gross looking most of the week, the easter sunday picture is the only one we have for you guys this week! oh well. IF ANYONE WANTs a postcard email me your address because i bought some cute ones and i want to send them out to everyone (:

The church is so true guys. Conference is coming up, which I'm SO excited for. AND ALL OF YOU SHOULD BE EXCITED TOO because we literally get to hear what The Lord has for us to hear. Christ loves us, and he's our best friend. It doesn't matter what you're going through in life, he's waking through it with you, and he knows what you're feeling because HE feels it too. And because he's felt what you're feeling and because he's suffered for our sins, he can plead with our Heavenly Father for our forgiveness and that is the most amazing thing in the whole world! I love this gospel so much, and I'm so excited for conference and I love all of you!

-Sister Morley

Long post, sorry

WOW what a week. I've never been so cold and tired and happy in my whole life. we did so much this week and it just FLEW by. This email is pretty long mostly because I'm introducing everything and everyone we're working with.

Stuff: Okay so as far as missionary work, we had a few lessons. You really do meet and teach some interesting people here. We taught a guy named Jim on Tuesday. He's super cool but it's weird because he only has a house phone so it's hard to get in contact with him sometimes. He has A LOT of questions. and i mean A LOT. and not just about what we're teaching, but like deep deep doctrinal questions haha it's crazy! We also taught a girl from China named Autumn and she's super Buddhist which is cool. she doesn't speak much English so we had a guy from our ward who spoke it come and help translate but we're passing her off to the Chinese elders soon, which will be good for her. Another interesting guy we taught this week is Frank. He's so interesting. he has had a really hard life before now and it's so cool to see him as he's just now getting back on his feet and we are there with the Gospel helping him up as well. We also taught a girl from Japan this week named Nina. IT WAS SO COOL. we also had a member there to help with translation a bit because the english was a little rough, but she is so open and eager to have a relationship with God, and she said the sweetest prayer at the end of the lesson! We also taught a couple (amanda and luis) this week. Amanda was baptised a few years ago, but kinda went inactive for a while and shes really trying to come back to the church. she really wants a temple marriage and luis is really serious about taking the lessons! the hardest part is that they're kinda afraid of actually getting married but he can't get baptised unless they get married! so we'll see how that goes. they're all so amazing though.

Funny Stories:  Okay some of these i don't know aren't even that funny but here goes. 

1. turns out im still bad at walking and running because i trip like every three seconds and im destroying my knees. 

2. Okay i debated putting this under stuff, but Kathleen is too funny so I'm putting her under funny stories. So shes an investigator, and she LOVES wine. LOVES IT with all her heart. and she loves having us over for dinner but she always drinks wine before we come over so shes always telling us the vraziest funniest things and we're just like alright kathleen haha and it's so hard to teach her because she's DRUNK ahha ah but we love her so much and she really loves us so we're making progress.

3. We do service at a food bank every thursday and there's a special needs guy who works there whos way cool and everyone loves him but for some readon he decided he HATES me and sister graham! and he always walks up to the elders when we're talking to them and tells them how bad we are and the elders just go along with it its so funny but also sad because he's so cool i just want him to be my friend

Miracles: I'm remembering peoples names! We have yet to get lost in the city. There are people in our ward who literally speak like every language so whenever we have an investigator we are always able to find someone who is a fit for them. The Atonement. The Atonement is a miracle in my life every single day and my love for Christ grows every time i think of him and see his hand in my life. if you have't watched the church Easter video yet, go watch it. it's amazing. Also i ate spicy chili and DIDN'T DIE and if that isn't a miracle, i don't know what is. 

Alright well that's about it for this week. Write me letters! I love letters! You can send them to the address i sent last week or to 400 Mt Auburn St Watertown MA 

BOSTON

Okay and by Boston, I mean Cambridge. So my area is the Cambridge area and I'm serving in two singles wards with all these crazy smart students in med school and harvard and it's crazy. One thing I've been having to get used to is PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. I've been on buses and trains and well i guess that's it but still its super weird. I miss cars. I walk around in the city in Harvard square a lot! THE LORD IS DEFINITELY HASTENING HIS WORK HERE IN MASSACHUSETTS. i came into the area with SO MANY potential investigators. We've been teaching tons of first lessons and doing lot's of contacting which is scary but cool! My companion is sister graham! shes super nice and normal AND TALLER THAN ME WHICH IS SO COOL. there are a lot of short girls in my mission so i got blessed haha.

some funny stories this week:

1. So we were on the bus on the way to an appointment and this guy comes up to me and reads my nametag and pulls out his earphones and says "so are you like a nun in training or something?" HAHA i don't think i look like a nun??? but it was actually way cool because i ended up being able to talk to him about the church and getting his number so we are setting up an appointment with him soon! 

2. OKAY so this story is kinda odd. In one of the wards i serve in theres a guy named bobby who has been coming to church for over two years, and believes it's THE true church. BUT. he's gay. and he's so convinced we're going to change our policy on gay marriage and it's kinda funny. we were teaching him (because technically he's still an investigator) and he was saying "yeah i think once everyone gets to know me they'll end up changing their policy" so hahaha wish us luck on how we can break the news to him. any advice???

3. sorry if i don't get back to all of your emails this week but i promise I'm trying!!

4. SEND ME YOUR ADDRESSES and send me letters. I LOVE LETTERS.

my address is: 182 W Central St Natick MA

5. HAHAHA I ALREADY HAVE HAD TO GIVE A TALK IN SACRAMENT just my luck

okay i think that's about it! sorry my pictures are lowkey kinda awful but they'll improve i promise haha also some of these are still from the mtc but that's okay.

the city is slowly growing on me

the church is still true

i love all of you

TODAY IS DAY 20 WOO

-sister morley

BLESSED

I HAVE BEEN SO BLESSED. if you have ever been on a mission or been in the mtc and thought you had a pretty cool district, I am so so sorry but you're wrong. my district is the best thing that has ever happened to the mtc. they're my best friends. Threyre so cool, and so amazing and all i can say is that wow I have been blessed. IM SENDING SO MANY PICTURES because pictures are worth a thousand words, right? I will probably send them in a different email though for the sake of space. The Lord is working miracles in our lives. We have all grown so much in the gospel and had our minds blown at least 4 times a day. the mtc is kinda weird though because you go from praying night and day to praying at least 98 times a day and its insane. I AM ALWAYS BUSY and i LOVE every second of it. If you're not sure if you want to go on  a mission i highly recommend it. OKAY but no joke they do not procrastinate throwing you into the field. Like the first day we met our first investigator. but I'm so happy. there is such a cool spirit here in the mtc because every one (or mostly everyone) who is here is SO EXCITED to go out and serve the Lord and wow there is so much happiness it's phenomenal.  My teachers are so cool and are so good at helping us grow closer to Christ and learn how to better search and study the scriptures. every one and their mother is at the mtc right now ps. Ive seen elder lyman elder pothier, elder peterson, elder taylor, sister christiansen literallty everyone it is so cool. so i promise my email with pictures is going to be way more interesting with actual stories and people! Woo!
okay so the first one is me with elder boatman and elder johannason (all the elders are going to colorado springs) the second one is me and my way short but way great companion sister clark. and the third one is my entire district! from left to right it is sister archer and sister doucharmme (georgia) sister clark and i (boston) elder smith and rodella and johanneson and boatman! the very last picture is was special to me because even i got super sick one day this week and my entire district got together and wrote me letters and it was the sweetest thing in the entire world. once again, so blessed. SIDE NOTE if i am on your missionary email list can you change my email to amber.morley@myldsmail.net??? because obviously my email has changed. thanks (:

p.s. i would send more pictures but unfortunately space is limited and i dont want to annoy you with 34893578 emails so

deuces, sister morley

one week (can you believe it??)

I'm so close. and it 100% doesn't feel real at all. I gave my farewell on sunday and thought hey I should post it on my mission blog. you're a genius amber. obvioulsy some stuff was changed as i was actually up on the stand giving my actual talk, but here ya go. here's the gist of it!

 Farewell talk

Hi for all of those who don’t know me my name is amber morley, but soon to be sister morley. I’ve been called to serve in the Massachusetts Boston mission, and I leave next Wednesday. I’m way excited and way way ready to leave. Before I start my talk I want to say a little about why I’ve chosen to go on a mission. I’ve always loved the gospel, and it’s always been something solid and unchanging in my life that has never failed to bring me happiness. I was about 14 when I first thought about going but being my 14-year-old self I thought no I’m probably going to be the girl who gets married at 19 because that’s the cool thing to do. But time went on and the age change happened and that’s when I really realized that yeah I think I’m supposed to go on a mission. I realized I wanted to share the happiness I felt from it with everyone. And through lots of prayer and fasting I finally officially decided to go about halfway through my senior year. And obviously I didn’t get married right away so here I am. I’ve been asked to speak on how the charity of Christ makes us want to serve, which I love because it really applies to my life right now as I’m about to leave on my mission to serve for a year and a half.

In order to understand why charity makes us want to serve, we must first understand what charity is. More specifically we need to understand what Christ-like charity is. In Moroni 7:47 it states that “charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever” so what is the pure love of Christ? One of my favorite stories is one in the book of Mark where all the mothers are begging the Disciples of Christ to let him see and bless their children. The answer was always “no, no they aren’t important enough, or he has better more significant things to do etc.” but Christ, being full of pure love and charity, interrupted and blessed each and every child for whatever they might have been needing at the time. Serving, and loving everyone, may not always be the most popular or understandable thing to do. But when has our Heavenly father ever cared about popular.

So how does charity connect with service? C. Max Caldwell stated in a 1992 conference talk that “Jesus’ love was inseparably connected to and resulted from his life of serving, sacrificing, and giving in behalf of others. We cannot develop Christlike love except by practicing the process prescribed by the Master.”

I love this quote, because it so simply and perfectly states something that I’m supposed to give a 10 minute long talk on. Christ has given us an infallible method of developing Christ-like charity. You must serve as he did in order to develop that love. Just as we are to follow his example in baptism, humility, honesty, in lack of judgment, kindness, and everything else he exemplified perfectly, we are to follow his perfect example of service. He has also given us a commandment, which is to love thy neighbor as thyself. How then do we show our love to others? The same way Christ would show us his love if he were on the earth right now. Service. The same way Christ does show us his love right now, which is through his tender mercies. If we let Christ and his love work through us, we can become a tender mercy for someone who needs it desperately. Without the pure love of Christ with us, service is just service. It’s good, it’s honorable, but it isn’t as meaningful or as focused as it has the potential to be. We don’t know everything that is going on with every person in our family, every person in our ward, and definitely not every person in the world. But Christ does. He suffered for each and every one of us. He knows our sins and sorrows, our trials and tribulations, our heartaches and hardships. Who better to rely on for service inspiration than the one who knows exactly who needs what and who can best serve each person best.

When preparing this talk, I read a conference address from president Hinckley called “charity never faileth” it reads in part “I had occasion the other evening to do a little research on the Willie and Martin handcart companies of 1856. There were more than a thousand in those companies, converts to the Church from Scandinavia and the British Isles. They were late in arriving in the States, and dangerously late in leaving Iowa City to begin the long walk to this valley. They became trapped in the snows of Wyoming. Fortunately they were passed on the way by several missionaries who were returning from England and who, when they saw the plight of the handcart Saints, pushed on to this valley and reported what they had seen to President Brigham Young. That was on the Saturday of the October conference of 1856. The next morning, Sunday, he stood before the people in the old tabernacle that stood on this square, and said in the morning session: “I will now give this people the subject and the text for the Elders who may speak to-day and during the conference,” he announced. “It is this. … Many of our brethren and sister are on the plains with handcarts, and probably many are now seven hundred miles from this place, and they must be brought here, we must send assistance to them. The text will be, ‘to get them here that is my religion; that is the dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess. It is to save the people.””

When I read this, I imagined his statement as more of a call to service. I can imagine the same principles being applied today if we can understand how we can relate it to our time I can imagine if he were to look out on the people of this generation he might have said something like this: “I will now give this people the subject for the service of those who may live today on this earth. It is that many of our brethren and sister are in the world with trials and hardships beyond imagination, and probably now far from truth and happiness and peace. And they must be brought here. We must send assistance to them, we must help them, we must serve them. To get them here, to bring them to the light, to serve them physically and spiritually, that is my religion. It is to save the people.”

How do we then save the people? In doctrine and covenants 82, it states that the worth of souls is great unto God. And if we bring save it be one soul unto him, how great shall be our joy. And what if that one person starts with ourselves. What if we are that one soul that we bring unto God? Then, we will find joy. And with that brings a desire to make others as happy as we are. God wants us to find joy, and to help others find joy. And we find and give joy through service. We find joy through the little things. We find joy giving an hour of our time to service organizations. We find joy serving in the temple. We find joy in listening to a prompting to call up an old friend and ask how they’re doing. We find joy in praying for and recommending a friend in mind to the missionaries. (and I’m only saying that because soon I’m going to be the missionary begging members to give me the names of their friends who could be potential investigators). And we get this drive to serve through our love for others. Through charity. As we learn to see people how God sees them, and learn to love the way our Heavenly Father loves, we will begin to have our minds and hearts opened to desires and opportunities for service.

I know that if we truly work on having Christ like charity, that he will help us and bless us. And that is our desires are to serve that he will give us promptings and opportunities for service. I know that the next year and a half of my life is not going to be easy, and honestly is probably going to be filled with way more service than I could have ever imagined doing in my entire life, but it will all be worth it. I know that this gospel is true. I know that the temple is the happiest, most peaceful place on earth, and I am so grateful for the blessings that can be found there. I know that Christ lives, and I can’t wait to teach the gospel for the next 18 months in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

some of my favorite people who made the trip to az to come to my farewell!

hello

It's me! and by me I mean Amber (soon to be sister) Morley. I've been called to serve in the Massachusetts Boston mission on February 24, 2016. Something you should probably know about me, is that I love pictures. Hopefully I'll have more pictures than I do words on this blog, because everyone loves seeing what's going on more than reading about it (or at least I do). Another thing you should know about me is that I've never been so much as less than 10 hours (if even) from the east coast. I think it's safe to say I have little to no idea how I'm going to handle the cold. I was born and raised in southern California and Arizona, so the snow is uncharted territory. I did go to a semester of byu so I suppose you could say I've had a brief introduction to the frozen weather, but I'm crossing my fingers I won't die out there. 

I'm pretty much going into this mission blind. Crazy excited, but blind. I'm the first one of my siblings to serve a mission, and the first girl out of my friends to serve. Hopefully I'll be able to figure things out as I go, and drop hints and give advice to anyone who is going to serve a mission too because wow there's a lot to do! as of today I leave in two and a half weeks and I still haven't finished everything I need to do before I head out. Hahaah wish me luck.