nate morris west indies mission

tide pool - Las Cuevas Beach
cool rock and tree - Las Cuevas Beach
Elder Ackerman, me, Elder Lang, Elder Olsen
jellyfish - Las Cuevas Beach
nate on Las Cuevas Beach with the sunrise behind him
Nate with Elder Lang - Las Cuevas Beach

May 5, 2010



Hello!

This week was a great week. I'll highlight some cool experiences.

1st. Zone Conference!!! Wow it is always such a spiritually uplifting meeting. I wish we had them more often. We learned a lot about prayer. Looked at some scriptures which I don't have at the top of my head, well that's false, D&C 50:26-30 about how because we have been ordained, endowed, and set apart, if it is God's will, there is phenomenal power in prayer. We can ask for anything and we will receive it. In v. 29 it says as long as we are purified and cleansed from sin, then v. 30 talks about how it has to be according to the will of the father. It was pretty cool. There was some other cool ideas as well. I learned a lot from the Conference. The mission seems to be in a drought lately, and President told us why and what we need to do to get out of it. Focused on prayer, our desires, and our diligence. It was very good. Talked about goals and how goals reflect the desires of our hearts. So then we talked about how to work on our desires. It was a great meeting. Every zone conference of course I get a 1 on 1 interview with President Gamiette which is always fantastic.

2nd. Splits with the Assistants. Definitely a perk to living with the Assistants. They needed to transfer their investigators to us because they'll be out of the country for a week. I went with Elder Damm, the new Assistant and also my zone leader in Guyana, which was way fun. We taught some great lessons. I was introduced to Chris. He and his extended family was there. They had been taught two days before, and instead of praying about the message, they decided to go to their pastor and ask him. So all of them, but Chris, were attacking us the whole time. We taught about priesthood keys given to Peter and the apostles, which with Pentecostals are confused with the Holy Ghost. They think that everyone has the Holy Ghost and that gives them the authority to baptize, to heal, etc. They were pretty crazy about it. This one lady was yelling at us about it and got up and left. All we were doing was teaching the correct doctrine. We did not fight back, but only continue teaching and helping them learn the concept. Only Chris picked it up. He said he would pray about it and how he wants to know if these things are really true. Peter, Chris' uncle, stayed the whole time. Funny experience. We were teaching about the foundation of Christ's church as explained by Paul in Ephesians 2:19-20. We read it and we asked him what Paul says God's house is built upon. He says that we can't take how it says prophets and apostles literally. He said that the gospel is the rock and Christ is the head. We read the scripture again and again. He did not understand. It's a definite testimony to me that only some hearts are ready to hear this message. Some people just won't accept the restored gospel. Like 1 Ne 13 and 14 talk about with the church of the lamb of god. Its numbers will be few but spread throughout all of the land.

3rd. P-day yesterday!!! Wow what a fantastic P-day. We woke up at 4:30 and we joined the zone in going to the beach for sunrise. It was about a 30-40 minute drive, reminded me of the road to Hana. Fun driving though. Fantastic pictures. We walked all of Las Cuevas beach all the way to the end. We didn't wade around too much in the water because of how many jelly-fish were being washed up on the beach but it was really fun. Only downside? Sandflies. My legs have never itched worse in my entire life. Wow!!!! My ankles and feet feel like Braille. Haha. I'll send pictures of the outing separately. We got pizza hut for lunch then played settlers of Zarahemla for a few hours after.

4th. Saturday we helped Brother Paul, the most recent convert here, with the cement foundation for the addition he's building to his house. We and the Assistants went up there. The ap's were there for 5 hours. We joined them for the last 2, from 7-9. In the West Indies they don't have very many cement mixer trucks. It's all mixed by shovel. We carried the buckets up the hill to their house for 2 hours. Needless to say we were ALL exhausted after. Especially the assistants.

Those are basically the biggest things that happened this week. Our investigators didn't come to church and aren't progressing very much so we're working on finding new ones. I'm feelin pretty good right now though. I've never felt so blessed. I love this life I'm living right now. In last week's email I talked about how Heavenly Father and I had some things we needed to talk about. And we did. I felt like I got my answer I was looking for. I realized my potential, my task at hand, and the things I need to accomplish. I realized that my calling right now in San Juan is to help Elder Miles to get his fire back, to motivate him. Elder Scott and I had a long talk about it and I wasn't working very hard with him at first and how he could tell that I wasn't as happy. I've refocused and things are going to be a lot better in the coming weeks.

Thanks, Dad for your counsel, you're right, we are doing a lot of what you suggested but it helped a lot. Mom, thank you so much for telling me about your own personal experiences with the revelation you received. While the girls may not realize it right now, they're so blessed to have you helping them. You are working so hard! Tell Bev to please send me Matt's address, so I can write him letters. I haven't heard from him in 10 months. Same with Ryan Nelson, and well.. all the rest of my friends. Haha. I am in good contact with Elder Stebbing, Matthew Dibb, Jeff Sanchez, and Elder Daines. But I don't have any idea how the rest of them are doing.

I love you guys so much. Thanks for all that you have done for me.

Elder Morris

PS: Elder Prince and I talked on the phone a couple days ago on our 11 month mark (May 3rd). He is still doing great! Elder Beeson is also doing great in Guyana.



PS: Here are some pictures from P-day yesterday!!!
1. Me and Elder Lang in front of a sweet sunrise lookout.
2. This cool rock and tree on the beach that looked way cool.
3. Elder Ackerman, me, Elder Lang, and Elder Olsen in the lifeguard tower.
4. Me under the sun breaking over the mountain.
5. A cool picture I thought, a little tide pool off the beach next to some bush.
6. A dead jellyfish on the beach. Haha I thought it was a cool picture.