Maya and Tanya

Well this week was good!

The main thing that happened this week was that we picked up a new investigator! We are so excited about her, her name is Maya and apparently she has been "taught" by several sets of missionaries before. And I say "taught" because she never actually got the lessons? Weird, I know. BUT we were able to teach her the Restoration for the first time, which was amazing. We asked her how she felt, and she said good! We asked how she knew she felt good, and she said because she had a "goose rash" (keep in mind she's from India haha) We told her her goosebumps were a way that she could know she was feeling the spirit! We were then able to teach her to pray, and hear her pray for the first time! 1st prayers are always the sweetest. They are so sincere and honest and heartfelt. 

Other than that we tried to do a lot of finding, OH BUT THE BEST THING HAPPENED IN MY LAST AREA BECASUE TANYA WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy for her and Andriy even though I'm sad I wasn't able to be there I know that it was the best decision she could have made! If you want to find joy, Joy comes through Christ, I know this, and I want those I teach and those I talk to to know this.

Love you all! 

1. Sister Thompson & I

2. Weekly Planning...pretty much how that goes

longest. week. ever.

I have no idea what I'm doing.

We have no idea what we're doing.

The zone has no idea what we're doing.

President doesn't know what we're doing.

The AP's don't know what we're doing.

That is a poem I just wrote about how this week went. We are so lost hahahah it has been the craziest week ever! We pretty much have just prayed a lot and hoped that someone would tell us SOMETHING about Belmont. BUT the area is AWESOME. The members are so nice, and we LOVE it. 

This week was mostly just stopping by people that are on the ward directory, and asking them who we should visit!

Anyways, I also forgot my card reader this week, so no pictures haha sorry, it's been crazy.

Okay yeah that's it woohoo!

snow & Belmont

Okay so here's the thing. It snowed pretty much all week this week. Literally it was kinda the worst. We had to stay inside most of the week and we almost went crazy BUT it was still okay. The snow is super pretty but also super cold so I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think I still prefer sand. 

BUT here's the real news. On Friday, I found out I am being transferred to BELMONT, MA. (think boston temple) But I'm not just getting casually transferred there, Me & my new companion Sister Thompson are SHOTGUNNING (aka white-washing, kicking the elders out, etc.) Belmont. It's going to be crazy. 

wow 20 years old

Yeah that's right I turned 20 this week! Crazy crazy crazy. I don't have a ton of time, but I will tell a few things that were awesome.

Okay, mainly one thing. Andriy's wife (the one who kept him from being baptized for years, and the one who was very against the church after he was baptized) SET A DATE TO BE BAPTIZED ON FEBRUARY 25th!!!!!!! We are SO excited! She suddenly just decided she believes it all and she want's to raise her family in the church, and wow  it was the best day ever when she told us. It was so cute, afterwords Andriy was talking to us, and he said "This is the best news...probably..ever!" And so yeah we are so excited for them to get sealed in a year or so! (:

BUT anyways it was a great week & I have a lot of pictures. 

1. Terrible picture of me, but the seminary class threw me a birthday party! woohoo!

2. Picture of Sister Behrmann & I (and elder schrader) at Heublien tower last week!

3. What the elders got me for my birthday? His name is Warren. But woo for being 20!

1. The Elwells! He is the stake president and their family is seriously the best

2. My desk space b/c Happy Valentines day

3. More snow

OH and T-Texts are this week, so probably getting transferred, so yeah wish me luck.

84 Miracles

This week, our zone set a really daunting goal of getting 65 new investigators in a week. And that is not a small number, especially for our mission & especially for our zone. And we worked SO hard. And we fasted. And we prayed. And we truly saw miracles. 84 of them in fact! Our zone with the help & guidance of the Lord were able to find 84 people who were prepared enough to listen to & invite us back to teach more about the Restoration of Christ's church. It was truly amazing. 

ANYWAYS Other than that, I would say the highlight of the week was last night we got to teach Andriy's wife for the first time! We taught her the plan of salvation & she loved it! It has been so amazing to see the changes in Andriy soften her heart, and see how the ward reaching out to them has really changed her perspective on the church. 

We got to go to the temple again this week! It was so amazing. A convert of just over a year was able to go for the first time! It was way cool to have us & all the elders who had taught him come back for his special day. Him & his wife are getting sealed in March! It's amazing how happiness is truly found in the temple & by keeping the commandments God has given us!!

Oh & sorry I didn't write last week, we were hiking in the snow & I did not have the drive to type a whole email! But wahoo for this week! & I will send more pictures soon! (:

Love you all!

-Sister Morley

1. Me @ the temple

2. Me w/ Nikki @ church!

Reese's Puff

The title of my email is as such because as we speak, I am eating Reese's Puffs. 

This week was pretty good, but I mainly want to talk about two things that we did that were absolute miracles. 

1. We taught seminary AND EVERYONE STAYED AWAKE AND PAYED ATTENTION!!! I LOVED IT. I love all the youth that we get to work with & I love these wards that we get to serve in, It's the best. 

2. The second miracle is one that we have been waiting and praying for Since Andriy got Baptized in August. On Sunday we were talking to Andriy and we asked him if he was coming to Gospel Principles with us & he said that he was not going to be able to because he was meeting with our ward mission leader. So I go to our ward mission leader and I asled if we were having class and he said "No, I'm going to be teaching them how to do family history work" And I said "them?" AND I LOOK OVER AND ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK BECAUSE ANDRIY'S WIFE IS THERE WITH HIS DAUGHTER AND SHE WAS AT CHURCH AND YES SHE STAYED THE WHOLE 3 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And she has been and was fellowshipped SO much and she told a member that she just decided that what Andriy believes is true and she want's to learn more SO WE ARE PROBABLY GOING TO START TEACHING HER VERY SOON AND I AM SO EXCITED THEY ARE GOING TO BE THE BEST FAMILY EVER!

So yeah, 2 great miracles. 

1. Flower fight from like 3 weeks ago (seriously we have like the best zone ever)

2. Sister Behrmann & I

3.SEMINARY

DAVE

again with the snow

Seriously though, there's a lot of snow out there. 

Anyways, we had a pretty good week this week! We picked up 3 NEW INVESTIGATORS! SO good. Okay so here's the problem, every week I get on here with the intent to write in detail everything that happened this week, and then I get on and my mind is like "nah". So I will write a few things. 

We picked up an investigator named James this week. He's a referral from the temple that we FINALLY got in contact with. He's awesome. He was in the military and he KNOWS there is a God and he has seen His hand in his life so many times! 

Okay I don't know what to say, I promise this was a great week. If you need a good talk to listen to, listen to Safety for the Soul by Jeffery R Holland.

1. When Elders ask you to make them a planner

2. OUR DISTRICT FINALLY IS MORE THAN JUST US AND THE ELDERS

3. At the beginning of the snow storm

1. Self-explanitory

2. Our house haha

3. The hat a Ukrainian member gave me

New Year, Same Area

YEAH you guessed it, T-texts came in and I'm STAYING for another 6 weeks!!! That will be a total of 7.5 months in this area, which is AWESOME because this is the best area EVER. I'm so excited, and also that means I will be able to finish training! Last P-day we had a second Christmas with a white elephant gift exchange (I got popcorn. Nice.) and a "snowball" fight (I'll send pictures probably in like an hour) But it was SO fun. This week we got to teach Kathy! She is a former that we picked up a few weeks ago, and we've just been able to start meeting with her. She is WAY more prepared than the last time she was taught in 2008. Hopefully she will be getting baptized very soon! 

ALSO I cannot believe that is is 2017, that is so weird. I feel like we just celebrated 2016 & now here we are. 

Over Christmas skype my mom told me to write longer e-mails, & today I'm going to fail her because this is pretty much the end of my email...

I'll send pictures eventually!

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.