12/28/10

Christmas was definitely the best. I'll give you a run-down on what we did!


During the week everybody and their dogs were in Kingstown shopping and we could barely meet with any of our investigators. We weren't able to have much success in that area of the work but it was an okay week. We were able to do a lot of work with the members, strengthening them, but that was about it. In St. Vincent, Christmases are weird. This is throughout the west indies. The season isn't about traditions and family, it's about cleaning the whole house, putting new lanoleum down, new curtains, new couch cushions, etc. They work on their house all the way until Christmas eve. Christmas day they sit around, eat ham, and sleep. Haha merry christmas! They don't have as much fun traditions as we did back home. It was kinda sad cause more than half of the people we talked to don't like christmas, they just say it's too busy and too tiring. It is what you make it I guess. We made ours a blast. That's for sure!!


Friday Night the other elders came over and we began our christmas festivities. Like i said we took christmas lights and taped them to the wall in the shape of a large christmas tree. We drank tons of hot chocolate, and played Uno and dominoes. We watched Lion King for Christmas eve which was really fun. Christmas day was really fun. Woke up and opened our presents which was fun. It was so great to get your package on Christmas eve so i had some things to open. Haha it was a blast. We watched a couple more movies, including Princess and the Frog which i really liked, honestly. It was one of my favorites. We went out to the Brown's to give them a gift, Elder Welch bought their family the hymns on cd which the mom had ordered but Elder Welch paid for it and we delivered it to them. They gave us cake and ginger beer which i don't relaly like but the cake was good. Haha. Then we went to Sister Samuel's for lunch. They had a lot of family over so I felt a little out of place but it was fun. We played dominoes. Elder Carter and I beat Elder Baxter and Welch 9 times in a row, so they had to cook the pie we had for the evening and serve it to us as well. The meal was delicious. Lots of meat, lots of rice. They had dashin and fried plantain which was way good with the gravy. It was weird cause everybody but Sister Samuel and us were drinking rum and wine. This is the caribbean I guess. After we went back, watched a Christmas Carol then went to the church to talk to YOU!


Did i mention my favorite part of the day was talking to you on Skype?? That was so much fun to be able to see and hear you as well!! Bryce was way funny when he was dancing. That made me laugh pretty hard. Megan, to answer you, I did get the letter and the pictures from Kira! They made my weekend. Haha tell Kira thanks and I love her too! I'm going to draw a picture and send it back. It was so weird to see you on Skype. I was anticipating it all day though. We kept on saying "hey we get to see our family in... 5 hours." haha we're not trunky, just human. I loved it though. I miss all of you a ton and it was so fun to talk with you. For Mother's day we gotta do that again. If it's possible. I can't believe the time is running so short.


Mom, to answer your question, and to tell everyone else, my mission has been extended a week. This transfer was 7 weeks long. It was to solve an MTC problem i guess so the transfers are all a week later now. I'm being released on the 16th of June. Transfer day is tomorrow now. Which i'm staying with Elder Welch. I'm still crossing my fingers i get to serve with Elder Prince before our missions are through.


All in all, Christmas was way fun. Us 4 in St. Vincent made these district shirts which were really cool. It's a black polo shirt. ON the front is "vincy district" in pirates lettering, then above that is a skull with a santa hat on it. On the right sleeve it says WIM Christmas 2010. The left sleeve says our names. For me it's Morris. Hah. Then on the back is a big baptism symbol with snowflakes around it that says "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" They are really cool shirts. It was pretty expensive to make but way worth it.


It feels weird cause it was nice to take a rest from the work but now it feels weird getting back to work. I don't have any more time to write but know that i'm happy, life is good, work will be awesome this week and we're going to get a ton done. We are excited about the new transfer!


I love ya- Elder Morris

12/20/10

Don't you hate it when you have 25 minutes left at an internet cafe and you realize you have to use the restroom?? Goodness. One time I was in Guyana and I almost had an accident. I had to run out of the shop and over to Church's Chicken and use thier bathroom. Oh... the joys of third world country bowel movements. That was probably too much but hey that's a big part of a mission. Hah.


Merry Christmas!!! On Friday night we had our annual Christmas party. It started out interesting. We got there about 10 minutes before and nothing was set up or ready. We put out tables, got the food out, and then the branch president and those in charge showed up 30 minutes late. There were a lot of problems with the food after, for instead of a buffet they served those attending (about 70) one by one. Therefore instead of everybody getting food in a few minutes after an hour there was still some very hungry people waiting patiently (and most impatiently) for food. We had a lot of investigators there too, which was great they came but Shevorn with her 3 kids, all way young, was pretty upset. She was one that wasn't fed and she got up and left. Saturday was damage control as we went and talked to those that were obviously offended to help them build back up the trust and courage in their testimonies. It was a really fun program though. The best was seeing the primary kids get up there and sing some christmas carols. It was a fun event and it's fun to see people's attitudes and what a difference it makes. Some were just fine with waiting an hour. Brother Drakes, one of the nicest guys ever, just sat there patient. It's 9 o clock, he is starving, and he is partly crippled and has to walk an hour back to his home. But there he is with a big smile on his face. The members were relentless trying to feed us but it seemed like we were the only ones that noticed the unhappy guests. So they'd give us a heaping plate of delicious food and we'd just go and give it to someone that needed it more than we did. People were happier, we felt better, and although we went home hungry our bowl of cereal was just fine. Haha.


Over the weekend, the Travelling Assistants came to St. Vincent on their tour. This is the first time President has had travelling assistants. Elder Hicken, my ZL from Barbados went on splits with me on Saturday and it was a blast. All day we just were finding all these great people, having great lessons, and it was just way fun. Elder Hicken is from Holladay, and he is good friends with the Muir's. Do they have a son named Ryan? If so then yeah that's the right family. I was with Elder Lake on Sunday, he's from Bountiful. We had a great weekend, both Elder Welch and I. We found tons of just ready prepared people. Most weren't able to come to church but we finally have some great people to work with. I had been praying for it for a while and finally we were led to some great ones. Funny Story. On Sunday Elder Lake and I went to this member named Bailey. Now he is probably the hardest to understand person i've met from the west indies. Just mumbles. He's like 82 and has 25 kids (before he was a member thank goodness). Not married. We were there for like half an hour teaching him the lessons over again and all Elder Lake understood was Jesus is good and "amen" when he said the prayer. He's quite the character. Haha. Shevorn wasn't able to come to church again. She's got so many things in her way but she's doing well overall i guess... we can't keeep teaching if she doesn't come to church.


This week is going to be way fun. Friday night (christmas eve) we're getting together with the Kingstown missionaries and sleeping over in Calliaqua. We're buying pies and they're baking cookies. We're going to find a service activity to do in the morning and then at 1 Sister Samuel, a wealthy lady from England invited us to Lunch. The rest of the day we're going to Walilou bay where they filmed pirates of the caribbean and to some waterfalls up the west coast. Then we're going back to do calls and stuff. It'll be a fun christmas. I'm super excited. I still haven't gotten any packages. I'm crossing my fingers they come this week but if not oh well! I wasn't able to send my stuff home to you for christmas. They aren't sending normal packages to the states right now and DHL would cost like 200 bucks (EC) like 80 US. I decided to wait... haha.


I'm so grateful for all of you. Family has really been the most important thing to me. While in the past I wasn't the best example of it I am grateful the Savior is there to help me be better. I have so many fun memories on Christmas eve, watching It's a wonderful Life, reading christmas stories, and eating delicious food. It was a time to just be with the family. I can't wait for next year. I hope you all have a great week and an awesome Christmas!


Love ya, Elder Morris

12/13/10

Election fever! Every five years they have elections and today is election day. It's been so crazy this past month. It's just a huge grafitti war between ULP (red) and NDP (yellow) United labour party and new democratic party. It's not good at all. Violence and yellow and red paint all over everything. Huge conventions and parties all over the place. But luckily it's also christmas season so you hear christmas music and see houses begin to put lights up and there's a big christmas tree on the hill in our area that has blue lights all over it. It's that time of the year. It really doesn't feel like christmas though, again. It never does! It's going to be fun though. We'll probably hike to some waterfalls and stuff for christmas. then a member invited us to her house (which is way nice) and we're having lunch there. I don't know what time i'll call. I"ll let you know next week. It'd be better for you to call me though. It's a 3 hour difference.

This week was really crazy. Elder Welch was sick a couple days so i got time to write in my journal, read the scriptures, and write a bunch of letters. We found a few really cool people this week, saying that they all wanted to be baptized and come to the church on sunday but Sunday comes and it was really disappointing. The branch is really struggling and none of the investigators we have been working with came. That is just the culture in St. Vincent. Integrity is hard to find and nobody will put ther mind to do anyting. You ask them if they're coming Sunday and they say "God willing" or "I'll try to see if i can come". Even the members say that. It's embarrasing, really. We're trying so hard and sometimes it feels like we're trying to get through a concrete wall.

We did have some good things happen though! We challenged ilke i said Brother Lewis, the recent convert here, to read the book of mormon in 1 week. He finished the BOM on friday and read the entire doctrine and covenants on Saturday and Sunday. He did it! It really is changing him too. He has had such a hard past and it still has been bothering him a lot. He was happy though at church on Sunday, blessing the sacrament. It's way cool to see people just change because of the power of the scriptures. Just read them... Friday was an awesome day. We found several new people, 3 of them being very interested and look like great people to begin working with. They loved the restoration and all comitted to read, pray, and come to church, and be baptized. The work here is kinda weird, cause finding isn't too big of a problem, teaching isn't that big of a problem, it's just getting people to actually follow thruogh with what they commit to do, which not many of them do! It isn't osmething in our control either. We teach and find to the best ability that God has given us, letting the spirit touch them and testify of what we say, then they have the choice to listen and do what we invite them to do. It's so difficult to see the laziness of the people here take over and just say, "no i didn't get time at all. so busy" Even though they don't have a job and sit around doing nothing all day. Didn't get time? busy-ness is a choice. Can get very stressful. I'm happy though, don't worry. This week is going to be really good. We have the Christmas party this week at the branch which will probably get 60 people there even though there were only 30 at church. Oh, priorities...

As per your question on things for coming to pick me up. President Gamiette is fine with it, to a point. He just doesn't like it when they hang around the office and stuff. Just time for one quick visit to the office and usually you'll be there for the farewell dinner at the mission home. You should make sure and come for that. Guyana would be fun definitely to visit. I want you to see that country. It's gorgeous and so humble. I think a day to visit people and sightsee ( only really need a day for that) and then a day to go to Kaieteur Falls which i think is a must. It is expensive but look at pictures online of it. It's awesome! Trinidad would be good, but probably only for a day and a half or something. Only a few people to see there, really and to see maracas beach. That's about it in Trinidad. Then there's Barbados and St. Vincent. Barbados would be so much fun... if I could swim. Beaches are gorgeous there. It'd be fun to go there for a day. St. Vincent would probably be 2 days. There's a lot of stuff to do here and we could take a boat to a couple of the grenadines. It's awesome here. I really don't want to stretch the budget though. If it's too much which it probably is it's okay. Let me know what you think! It was really fun to see missionary's families come pick them up. If you want, you can call the mission office and talk with Sister Wheeler. Ask for her when you call and tell her you're Elder Morris' Mom and you had some questions. Haha.

Things really are going well here in St. vincent. We still have some great things to look forward to. Shevorn, our main investigator, has 3 kids under the age of 3 and that's what's really keepign her back from progressing. If she had more time she would be way faithful and baptized by now. I do lov eit here though. It's a beautiful country and there are some awesome people. The country has tons of hills and the roads are absolutely crazy. Driving here is intense. I'm taking lots of pics and videos so i can get a good depiction of it for ya. Haha.. I love ya much and I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season. I love the work and i love serving these people.

Love, Elder Morris

12/06/10

Hello to all!

This past week was pretty rainy. Whenever it rains in the West Indies nobody likes to have you inside your home and everyone becomes super busy and can't meet with you. It's pretty magical how that happens. A little rain and also you don'tave time to sit down and read the Book of Mormon for 5 minutes either. Don't you know this will save you? Goodness. It was a really tough weekend and from about 1-9 on Saturday we drove from member to investigator to member to investigator getting denied time after time after time. We were pretty tired of it. We tried tracting in the rain and it just was not working. I'm pretty embarrased sometimes for the culture here. Laziness...

We had a couple good experiences yesterday though. We saw Brother Lewis, a recent convert, who has had a dark past. I'll save you the details. needless to say he still feels trapped by his past and it's hard for him to see past it. We were talking about something completely different when I received the impression to challenge him to read the book of mormon from cover to cover, this week. He doesn't work so he has time. It was pretty cool. He accepted it and I promised him that a miracle will happen. Told him to expect one. Also there's this part member family here that the mom isn't a member but all the kids. The mom can't get baptized due to the fact she is not married. But she is way strong! she was fasting yesterday and they read together, have family home evenings, etc. She's a crazy good mom and she was asking us about the organization of the apostles and 70's and everything. She loves the church and would be one of the coolest members if she was one. It was just cool to see a converted person. Lots of the members just come to church but they don't do anything else. The church is more than just church.

I was wondering what you were thinking about coming to pick me up. Are you still thinking about it? If you are i think it'd be really fun. I really would love to go to Guyana for like 2 days and Trinidad for like 1 or 2. It'd be super expensive.... but think about it. I'm about 50/50. If you come that's great. If you don't? That's fine too.

As per our investigators, none of them made it to church but we're still praying and working with Shevorn, Christine, and the Brown's. they're pretty serious about it. We're praying for a white Christmas... Sometimes there's not much else we can do. We do the best we possibly can. LIke Pres. Monson says, "do your duty, that is best. Leave unto the Lord, all the rest." We're still working our hardest it was just a disappointing week. We saw the 1st pres. christmas devotional last night. Which was awesome. Just us 4 missionaries watched it at the church on the computer in the office. I love the church. Just seeing everything. Temple square. The church is definitely true.

I don't have my camera cord with me or else i'd send pictures. This week is going to be definitley better and we both have a clear confirmation from the Spirit that success is coming. Refiner's fire, right? This mission is so different from anywhere i can think of. West Indians are pretty hard-hearted. But God loves them and that's why we're here. Someone out here needs to hear the gospel. Look past the whiteness of our skin and realize that we're sent by God.. Someone will this week. I'll tell you about it next week. I'm excited to share with ya the success that happens this upcoming week.

I love you all and keep being awesome. I'm looking forward to the package!!!

Love, Elder Morris

11/29/2010

Hello to all!

This past week was way good. President said we could gather the district for a thanksgiving meal but only for 1 hour. We went grocery shopping on Monday and we saw that a real turkey was 463 dollars (EC) so like 180 US. We thought that'd be a bad idea. We decided to buy a bunch of steaks. Haha we had everything else though. We splurged and bought a cookies and cream pie and rootbeer, vanilla ice cream for root beer floats. Then we had a ton stuffing (stove top), mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, bread. It was a FEAST. We were pretty proud of ourselves. It turned out actually pretty good. The steaks were tasty, and everything else tasted like thanksgiving. We then played dominoes for a bit then had to go. Elder Carter and I went on tradeoffs which was way fun. Last time we served together was in Siparia, Trinidad when we were in the same district. We had a great day though. Thanksgiving was awesome. I am sure you all had a great one too.

We found some good success this past week too. We asked a recent convert if she knew any people that just have been having a hard time or something big like a new baby, death in the family, etc. She pointed us to a lady, Shevorn, that had been taught by missionaries in the past. She had a 2 day old baby when we met her and she was way humble and prepared for the truth. She told us nothing is holding her back now and that she wants to be baptized. She already had been reading the BOM every day and knows the church is true. She couldn't come to church but she'll be getting baptized on the 18th. On Saturday, we were teaching a less active lady and we asked her the same question. She pointed us to this new lady that moved in from Trinidad. We went over and taught her with the less active and her name was Christine. She told us that she was looking for the true church and she loved the restoration lesson. She came to church with the member next door yesterday and we gave her a book of mormon. She's really cool and is excited to learn more. There's also a part member family that is getting married soon. Once that happens the husband and daughter will be baptized. Hopefully before the end of the year. We're really seeing a lot of good things happening. We're working harder than ever and we're always happy. I loved this past week. We reached almost every single one of our goals we set for the week which is always a great thing.

Dad- you asked about my schedule. It's the same everywhere, mostly.

6:30 wake up. I excercise (perfect pushup, situps mostly) Eat cereal, oatmeal or a bagel with cream cheese.

8:00 studies. 1 hour personal and 1 hour companionship. The 1 hour always runs out way too fast. I wishe there was more but then there'd be less proselyting time.

10:00 Go outside and work. We come in aroudn 12:30 or 1 for a big lunch for just one hour. The unwritten rule in the mission is that we don't eat dinner because it's at such a prime time to proselyte. So we go without and just eat something small after we get home aorund 9. That way we get one more hour to teach or tract or something. I've gotten used to it, i don't get hungry.

9:00 plan for 30 minut. Then write in journal, etc.

10:30 bedtime.

that's my schedule!

Life is really good in St. Vincent. I love it here. There's crazy people everywhere, Rastas selling all sorts of stuff everywhere. There's churches on every corner and Seventh Day Adventists hate our guts. Everybody likes to argue here which gets way annoying. I just like to smile at them and just let them talk. Arguing goes nowhere. They'll go away just more convinced they're right. There's tons of hills here in this country. But the people mostly are nice and it's not too hard to find new investigators. The hard part is people's pride. One of the greatest barriers to people's progression is their unwillingness to let go of traditions and doctrine they've grown up with their whole lives and accept the revealed truths of the gospel. I hope you all know how much I love the gospel. One of the things i always love to tell people if they have any problems with anything is to pray until you feel better. I tried it last night. It was late, around like 11. I was reading some Liahonah's and the night kinda ended bad so i wasn't in too good of a mood. I knelt down and jus tprayed and prayed, unloading my concerns and desires before Heavenly Father. I then told him of my willingness to follow him and do whatver it takes to help the people here. I felt the assurance come and the peace come over me. Needless to say I went to bed feeling happy as a clam. I know this is the truth. That's not the question. I'd do anything for the gospel. I love this work and it's changing me. I just hope i can keep it up after my mission. \

Pictures are of Bro. Drakes and I scooping out the seeds of a calabash. He sells these to tourists. The other ones are of our p-day today. We waded in ankle deep water out to this island in our area. It was way fun. Haha

11/22/2010

So there were some cool things that happened this week. Well some were good some were not so good.

First way funny thing. In the mission we get 10 contacts each day as a companionship. Because Elder Carter and Welch went to Trinidad for training, Elder Baxter and I were companions for half the week. On monday night we were getting contacts in Kingstown. We had 7 by 8:45 and it was about time to drive back. We walked past this restaurant and this big fat guy, the owner came up to us and said "buy 2 hamburgers right now. We need to close." I was like what? I don't have time/money for that. "Buy them right now. 2 for 1. buy one get one free. 7 dollars (EC). Well that i couldn't turn down. We walked in and bought the burgers, and the crew working there was really friendly. We ended up talking to and contacting all of them. In 3 minutes we got a free burger, 3 contacts and we could go home and sleep. However we were walking down the street and this vagrant asked us for food. I was holding a free hamburger in my hand. I felt bad so i gave him the burger and he gulped it down. A few minutes later we were talking to this group of people when i saw a hundred dollar bill on the ground. I picked it up and asked anyone if they lost some money. This one girl that was walking further up said she lost a hundred dollars and I showed her it and gave it to her. I pray she really did lose the money. Lots of people would just lie and say it's theirs. But i've never given so much within 5 minutes in my life. A hamburger and 100 dollars. Haha it was a pretty funny moment.

Next crazy thing. Lots of rain on Saturday morning. I looked outside and i noticed that our parking lot was full of water. Hmm. i look outside and see the river next to our apartment overflowing the bank. It was like 10 feet higher than usual. Just rushing on and flooding the town. I then look through the door and see water begin to come through the bottom of the door. We grabbed all the stuff on the ground, putting it on our couches and beds and then watched as tons of water just flooded our apartment building. From 9-2 we scooped and cleaned the water out. We helped other apartments too. That was pretty crazy though. Haven't seen that much water before. Some pictures are included. The one with the missionary is Elder Welch.

As per the missionary work, it's really not going too well right now. We don't have a lot of cool investigators. Only a couple. There's a lot of people that could be baptized if they had their marriage issues figured out. We had a record high at church though, 52! That was the most they've had in the past like 6 months. Elder welch has been working in this area for 5 months. He goes home in January. We work way hard together though and we are going to see a lot of good results come just now. I'm happy as always and i pray that we have more investigators. We do have this one guy Darcy who's read through 1 Nephi and loves it he just needs to come to church. He could be baptized within a few weeks. I'll update you more on the work next week. I don't have any time left though. Putting the pictures on took a long time with this computer. I love you all though and I'm grateful for everything you all do.

LOVE,

Elder Morris

PS: Elder Nelson, Ryan, I got your letter this week! I'll reply to ya. Love ya buddy.

11/15/2010

St. Vincent is beautiful! I flew in Wednesday morning and landed at E.T. Joshua airport. He was a past prime minister here and also a member of the church. I think he's dead now. Cool fact though. The airport was way ghetto. In one small room, probably the size of our kitchen and living room side by side, there was immigration, the place to pick up luggage, and customs, with the exit right behind customs. Falling apart. Needless to say the grandeur of the Barbados airport was 1000 times better than this. St. Vincent is really cool though. the people are a lot more humble here than other islands i've been to. There are some great members in the Calliaqua branch. There's only 4 missionaries on the island. 2 in Kingstown Branch, Elder Carter and Baxter, whom i knew in trinidad, and us 2 in Calliaqua. Elder Welch and I get along just fine and we're working hard. Calliaqua branch is struggling right now but things are turning around. They've had recent baptisms lately and we have some great less actives we're working with.


It was sad to leave Barbados. Said goodbye to it on Tuesday. Because the area was being blanked I had to stay up way late Tuesday updating the area book and making sure i left adequate instructions for the next missionaries. Elder Hoepel is still in Barbados but just another area. We sure had a lot of fun together. He's planning to visit utah in 10 years and always says he's gonna give my wife a big hug. We'll see, Elder Hoepel.


Elder Prince actually served in this same area last year. He baptized this awesome family, the Williams' who are still doing great. I wish we were serving together but I'm still prayin for it. This past week we worked our butts off. The apartment here is pretty nice. Lots of ants, mosquitoes, but other than that we have A/C, hot shower, so we're lucky. Not many apartments in the West indies have that. I don't have tons of time left, sorry. I wrote President a lengthy email. Things are going well though and I'm happy. I'll send some pictures next week of the island and me and Elder Welch.


Love ya!


Elder Morris


PS: Funny experience of the week. We went to a less active's house, Gracie, here in Calliaqua. I ate these small "tree tree cakes" that she gave us. I didn't know what they were at the time. Tasted weird. A little fishy and kinda like fried flour stuff like phollourie or stuff like that. Turns out she likes to catch these small fish pronounced "Tree trees" I don't think that's how they're spelled but that's how it sounded. She catches the fish which are like an inch long each in a net then puts them in this flour batter stuff then fries them in little cakes that look like oatmeal cookies. The whole fish. Bones eyes and everything. Tasted... alright. They were fine when i ate them then when i figured out what they were they all of a sudden didn't taste too good. I'd eat them again but that was sure a surprise. haha!

--

Elder Nathan Morris

PO Box 601
Kingstown, St. Vincent
West Indies