june 16, 2010

Hey Everyone -

It's been an interesting week! The office really has been more and more daunting and we have to continue doing more and more. I'm way tired right now. We had zone conference yesterday and there's another one right now so we have been extremely busy preparing everything for President and the Assistants.

Our investigators are doing pretty good right now. Dareem, Keysha, and Marcia are the main ones. Dareem is 19, potential missionary, came to church on his own on Sunday and said that he knows that the Book of Mormon is true and he has a baptismal date for the 26th of June. He's doing great. We had a cool lesson with him last week overcoming some concerns with him about baptism and the holy ghost. He was confused about when you receive the holy ghost, so we showed him Acts chapter 8 and how the holy ghost is not received at baptism but given by the laying on of hands by those in authority. We then showed him some scriptures in the Book of Mormon like in Moroni 6 talking about how your sins are cleansed when you receive the Holy Ghost. Keysha is not doing as well. She was doing great, reading the BOM, planning on baptism, etc. She wasn't able to come to church but she still is planning on being baptized. Marcia is pretty cool. She accepted a baptismal date first lesson for the 3rd of July. She's doing well and we just barely taught her and gave her a book of mormon. She was very interested in it and is still planning on being baptized. Things are looking up for us in terms of the work.

Friday was a way cool experience I had. Now it is way simple, but it was powerful for me. In Companionship study, we were starting and picking a hymn to sing. I thought to myself #89 but for some reason I felt like I shouldn't tell Elder Miles. It sounds lame but I said a quick prayer in my head that elder Miles would be led to that hymn. a few seconds later, Elder Miles chimed in "How bout Hymn #89?" I kinda just sat there in silence for a bit, but I felt the spirit just quickly and quietly bear witness that it was the hand of the lord. And I know it was. Very simple, some would say coincidental, but I know it was from the Lord and I know that my prayer was answered right then and there. Just as easy as that. My prayers can and will be answered as long as it's God's will.

Zone conference was last night. I was pretty burned out and tired but it was a great meeting. It helped me out a lot and I'm gonna change a lot of things in my teaching and missionary work. The ward/branch leaders were able to come to the meeting and our Elders Quorum President, President Barrios was way into it. He loved it! He bore his testimony at the end and he is excited to get out there and do the work. It was cool having the leaders there for the first time. Most of them had never seen a zone conference, but it was way different to us. Cool though.

I gotta tell you about the new sensation that has hit Trinidad North Zone. It's "Nuggle Radio!" Haha Elder Lang and I talk a lot on the phone and when other people are on conference call with us they a re always laughing. Elder Clark, (elder Prince's companion) told us that he could just sit there and listen for hours. So what do we do? We create a missionary radio station where every Friday from 10-11 we talk about random stuff. Embarrasing moments, girl stories, missionary stories, etc. First time, two weeks ago, we had 4 listeners, This last week? We had 10 listeners. This week will be even better. Haha we're having a blast doing it. Nuggle is a candy bar here in trinidad and we decided it sounded like a black non-wizard, so we named our radio station after that. After we get home we plan on doing some podcasts or in the future if possible seriously making a radio talk show at BYU. What missionary can say he created a zone radio station? Not many. Haha.

Personally I'm doing good. We all have our bumps and bruises. It's hard dealing with other missionaries sometimes but I get over it pretty quickly. Haha. I feel more converted lately, and I'm going to continue working harder and being a better missionary. President told me today "Elder Morris, why would I send you out of the office?? We need you here! You've helped us so much!" We all laughed but I'm kinda scared that I really might be staying here another 6 weeks. I do love the area. But I need a change of venue. I would love nothing more than to go to Guyana again or open Barbados when it comes into the mission in July, or either serve with Elder Lang or Elder Prince. Haha

I'm doin great and It was way good to hear from you. I like how you said Elder Barton said it was the time where he was happiest was while he was on a mission. I agree whole-heartedly and am way lucky to be out here. If every member of the church were to know what it is like to serve a mission and what the gospel really truly is, we'd see such a transformation happen in the members. It's definitely been happening to me. It's more of a gradual process. Some weeks are way high i'm ecstatic, spirits are high, but other weeks i'm not as happy, and my spirits are not as high. That's when I just need to suck it up and keep goin. I'm happy. I'm happy you got to go see Elder Barton. I love that kid.

Love you all,

Elder Morris

june 10, 2010

So this week was pretty dang good if I do say so myself!



Sunday was the craziest day so I'll give you an hour by hour look of our day.


9-12 - Church - Our investigator Keisha, sister of a member, she's like 30, is way cool. Came to church.


12:30-2PM - Dorris and Rita's for lunch. Had barbecued lamb. Man Rita can cook!


2:30-5PM - Went teaching the referrals from our investigator "Deanne".


We saw a "senior apostle" from the Church of the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star. His wife's name was Miss Cummings. We were referred to her from Deanne who said that she needed some conversion. haha. We happened to go there when her pastor and 4 other people were there praying and watching a movie about their church. They invited us in and let us share a restoration lesson with all of them. It was a good lesson. Learning about keys of the kingdom, the apostasy, the restoration, and the book of mormon. They were an interesting bunch.... to say the least. The women were covered in big white robes with ornate headdresses on, red sashes around their waist, and the men were just in normal white shirt and white pants. After we finished the pastor said "we have a lot of evidence in the bible against everything you just shared with us, but we won't go into that now. Then he just started preaching about their church. About how in Revelations 12:5 it talks about the "manchild" that will come in the last days. They believe that "manchild" is the "holy spirit personified." He said that the Holy Spirit has a body and lives on the earth right now. In order for us to not go to hell we have to pray to the holy spirit personified. Also he said that the most holy word in the Bible is "let". Because in Genesis when Christ was creating the earth he said "let there be light" and "let there be a firmament in the heavens". So obviously, let is the most holy word..... obviously. They invited us back Saturday where they said we're going to lay down all the facts on the table. He said "I'll bring my ammo next time". Then he started mumbling stuff and then the women all stood up at once and said "hallelujah praise the holy spirit". What I felt I can tell you was not the spirit. So we left quickly after that. Quite an interesting lesson. The actual people that we were referred to were pretty cool. Seemed interested and promised they'd read through the tract and pray about whether or not what we shared was true.


After then we taught a few more people that she told us to go see. One for example was way cool! Her name was Marcia and she is living with her son who's like 12. She said ever since she moved to trinidad she hasn't been to a church. When we taught her about the book of mormon she just lit up. She was way excited about it. We're going back tomorrow to see her.


5-6PM - Went to teach Keisha, the investigator that came to church. She's preparing to get baptized on the 26th of June. She's way ready. When we taught her then she hadn't read yet out of the book of mormon. All she had done was read through the restoration tract. On Tuesday when we went to teach her, she was different. She read 4 chapters of the Book of mormon, had taken notes in the restoration tract, and answered all of the questions in the back. We taught her the plan of salvation. She LOVED it. Is way excited to be baptized, and won't let anything come in her way. She is the sister of an inactive member here and so i'm pretty impressed how she's doing so well with a sister that isn't helping at all.


7 PM - Picked up the AP's at the apartment then went to president's to pick him up and drive them all to the airport for zone conference tour. Had quite the cool experience there. President invited all of us in for a family prayer. We all knelt around the table with his family of 7 and he offered the prayer. Wow! It was great. Felt the presence of the spirit so much and I was so grateful to see that. What a great example he is to us. I look up to President Gamiette a lot. We took them to the airport after and that was it!


As you can see, Sunday was a crazy day.


Other than that, we have been so busy in the office. It's been very tough to get much work done but we're doin it. Last week all we did was prepare everything for zone conference. Remember the slideshows that Sister Robison had? We've been doing them lately and I made the one for last transfer and this transfer. They're pretty great and will be up on the blog soon.


I love this! I realized that i've spent more time on a mission than I have left and it is NOT a good feeling. It is but really I won't be able to do this much longer. I am definitely going to just work my heart out this next year so I can get home and say that I have served a faithful mission and give an accounting to the Lord in the Temple and feel his approval of what i've done.


Well I have to get going but I love you all!


Elder Morris

June 3, 2010



Hey!

Well this week went a lot better. I've been studying a lot about desires lately and I've been practicing on how I can better mold my desires to the Lord's desires. I have been studying the Book of Mormon using the Book of Mormon study guide for institute sections 121-122. I read the section on Alma 29 and I learned a lot about it. I learned about how the motivation behind any action or thought comes from your desires within, subconcious or concious. Very sweet study. That was this morning. I felt led through the scriptures, I read a scripture in Alma 26:27 about how we need to be patient through our afflictions and that is when I can receive success. It hit me pretty hard and I realized a lot of things I already knew but just needed to be reminded of. Man I love studying.

We're working a lot harder on finding new people lately. Even if it drags my car to Mt. Lambert and tracting for 2 and a half hours on Saturday. But here's the catch. Success!!! We only called into 2 houses and both houses we met somebody and taught them. Wow it was way cool. One lady was sweet, said she'd get baptized when she finds out that is true by praying about it. Her name is Beverly. Next we have Deanne and her son Jose. Man she can talk. We tried to present a message but she just talked her head off. She did however give us corn soup and mauby. Mauby kinda tastes like liquid black licorice. When made right, very good. We went back on Tuesday and she told us that she's not interested at all and promised the lord that she'd never visit another church because there's too many. Nice promise. Too bad though. Jose is 20 though and he seemed very receptive and was very cool.

Here I am sitting with Elder Prince right now. He's doing fantastic. We're on trade-off's right now. We were just talking about earlier about how 1 year ago we were in the car driving to Provo. Man!!! Time has flown by. I can't believe I've been out a year. Me and Elder Prince realized on Monday when we were playing ULTIMATE FRISBEE that one year from then we played our last game together with everybody in Southwood Park. Dang. 1 year.... Haha. I have written up a list of goals I have and things I will change. I'll finalize the list in the next few days and make it official. But I revised my morning and night schedule to make it more effective and be able to get a lot more study time in. 2 hours is not enough sometimes. I love change. 2 Ne: 4 Really has been a guide to me on how I can change my life and turn it towards God. I've studied that a lot and I've focused on remembering the things the Lord has done for me, recognizing my faults, making a plan to be better, then praying your heart out for that help. This past week I've really done that a lot. I love it. The gospel is sweet.

We're really starting from scratch right now. We kinda had the elevator effect happen to us these past few weeks and we have very few investigators. But things are looking up and my spirits are high. I have felt led by the spirit a lot lately and I love it so much. I've changed and I continue to every single day.

Saturday morning Elder Barton's family got here. We picked them up from the airport then they took us for coldstone later that day. Haha way fun. His family is great. On Sunday Dorris and Rita cooked up a storm cause they came to visit them. We had curry shrimp, beef, chicken, and channa. With Roti, plantain, and lots of drinks. What a display. Way good!!

We've had a good week and things are looking way up. If you didn't know, on July 1st, Barbados officially will be part of the West Indies Mission. 10 missionaries are being sent to open it up. (Crossing my fingers). Elder Damm said that if he isn't assistant next transfer he might go to end his mission there. Elder Scott told me I should go with him but we'll see. Haha.

Well I love you all so much. I'm doing great and it was great to hear from ya. Seems like things are doing great.

Elder Morris

Answering questions!

Yes it's rainy season in Trinidad. We had a ton this past week. Thank goodness for the Corolla.
We get the Liahona each month, each companionship gets one and so yeah we study the conference talks. They're all fantastic. I have some of the talks on my iPod.
I can't believe you guys saw the Blue Man Group. I've wanted to see them forever!! I've just always thought they're too expensive.

Well that's about it. Love you all!

May 27, 2010



Good Afternoon!

Sorry I'm so late emailing this week! Tuesday and Wednesday were basically spent in the car, between the airport and the office, and back again. I still don't even have that much time.

Not going to lie, this week was tough. Elections were on Monday for the whole country. What they did was a recall election. So the days leading up to the election (last week) were WAY hectic Saturday especially. In our area was the biggest rally in the country. So... Thousands and thousands of people were flooding the streets. The bars were full and most people had a beer in their hands. Basically, President told us to stay inside. Traffic was horrible and so the AP's and we went to the office to get some work done. All of that made it hard to get any work done. We tried and tried but to no avail. Tough week... Zarina hasn't let us come teach her since she came to church. She said that she loved church though and that she'd come next week. She didn't come on Sunday. Either did any of our other investigators. Barely any of our members even came due to all the pre-election fever going on. But, one of the most spiritual sacrament meetings I've been in. Elder Scott is being transferred and he bore his testimony. Way good. Sister Gamiette was bawling on the stage. I'm gonna miss that kid. Priesthood was great as well. We discussed the talk in Conference about the authority and power of the priesthood. Great conference talk. Then Dang! Dorris and Rita made the best food ever! Roast beef, homemade fried chicken, salad, plantain & bacon, etc. Way good. Sunday night Elder Scott taught me how to drive stick. Haha hard at first but it got easy after awhile. Now I’m a pro! I had to learn so I could drive the mission van around for transferring people around. Monday morning we went to Maracas w/ Elders Damm, Scott, and Stewart (new AP replacing Scott). We had a blast there, got shark and bake, then went back. Later we went and played Risk with Lang, Olsen, and the rest of the gang. I lost, but it was fun anyways. Haha.

Tuesday we were taking elders going home all around from the airport to their bed and breakfast, to the office, tracting, contacting, then back to the airport to pick up more, etc. That was Tuesday! Wednesday, we were up at 4 o’ clock. Took Elder Scott and Nielson with their greenies to the airport. From then on we were gone, driving all over the country dropping people to their new areas. That was basically it for me until now. Wow I'm tired though.

Elder Prince is finally in Trinidad. Whooo! I'm way excited for him to be here. He's my zone leader and we're gonna go on tradeoffs on June 3rd (year mark). I can't wait and I'm way excited to get the work going this next transfer. The office has been crazy lately but we're going to be able to do more missionary work this next transfer. Won't be as hectic. I wish so much I could be outside getting sunburned again doing the real work. I'm getting white! Hah.

Well no worries about me.. next week will be a better email. Was kinda rushed but hey. I love you all, and have a great week!

Elder Morris





Mom-

You asked me some questions I forgot to answer!

I study every day for about 2 hours. 1 hour personal 1 hour companion study. Personal study is half Book of Mormon half teaching skills. Companion study is role playing lessons we're teaching that day, practicing techniques, etc. It's a HUGE part of being led by the spirit. If I don't study one day, the day just does not go by good at all. Appointments seem to fall through more, and you are generally more unhappy. But when you have a great study and you learn a lot, you're a lot happier and the spirit does go before you all day. It's fantastic. I wish I knew all this 2 years ago.

Love Elder Morris