1/17/11

Hello!

Tomorrow is Zone conference!!! I can't wait. We only have them every 3 months and so this is my 2nd to last zone conference. Grenada and St. Vincent missionaries are flying to Barbados tonight then flying back tomorrow night. Zone conference usually goes from like 9-3 or something. I'm way excited for I haven't seen President Gamiette (let alone talked with him) for 3 months. That can really be hard sometimes, not seeing the mission president very much. All is well though cause tomorrow i will. Dad- to answer your questions, the planes that LIAT uses are these small twin propeller planes. They carry about 30 passengers or so and wrok really well for inter-caribbean flights. No big jet planes can come to st. vincent cause it's such a small airport. the security stuff is still the same just smaller lines because less people are flying. The mission pays for the trip and orders the tickets when they know when the Zone conferences will be which is usually about 2 weeks before the Zone conference. The president always travels with the Assistants, yes. It's quite fun and I'm way excited to see barbados again. I love that country. I just hope i can get some flying fish and chips. Mmmmm....

I want to tell ya of a cool experience we had yesterday. At church we met in Kingstown with both branches and had District Conference. It was a broadcast from the Conference Center broadcasting to the Caribbean area. Sister Thompson of the R/S spoke first, then an 70, Kent Richards, then Elder Oaks, then President Uchtdorf. It was amazing because they spoke to the needs of the Caribbean which are of course different from other parts of the world. Elder Oaks seemed to be the one that had to give the bad news and tell us what work needs to be done and where the caribbean needs improvement. He used many statistics t hat were really interesting. For example. 40 percent of children being born in the US are out of wedlock. I can't imagine the percentage for the Caribbean but it seems like it would be 70-80 percent. That seems to be such a horrible trend these days. Finding a husband and wife is a rarity and when we meed some we usually congratulate them for making that wise decision. Elder Oaks talked a lot about tithing and how when when it is paid in a country the entire country (not just the tithe payers) is blessed. It was an amazing meeting. The spirit was way strong. Elder Oaks' talk was my favorite just because he really did bring up the things that they need to change. Here there is no real youth programs set up yet and that's taking a toll, not many are paying tithes, and law of chastity issues. He talked a lot about the "gospel culture" which needs to be implemented in these developing countries. President Uchtdorf was very encouraging and spoke for a long time about how to become converted and stay converted. I wish more people could have been at the meeting.

At the end of the meeting we saw one of our investigators that came, Jasmine. We didn't see her come into the church, we weren't even expecting her, but she came all on her own. She lives on the top of a large hill in a small, 5 foot by 10 foot wooden house. She has 5 kids and only gets about 50 dollars a week from her child's father. It was amazing to see her make that sacrifice to come all the way to Kingstown to find the truth. We taught her later that day and she said that she felt strange ( a good kind of strange). She had the spirit with her as we read from the Book of Mormon and someone that we didn't think would go anymore now became one of our strongest investigators. Great thing to see that happen.

This week we worked harder than i ever think i've worked in my whole mission. On Saturday night we walked in and just fell on the couches. We were exhausted and fell asleep within minutes. I'm still trying to get over it as I am still way tired. However when we're working our hardest it feels so much better. We had a really successful week. I'm happy. I was thinking just now about how much i love the west indies. Despite all of its quirks and bad habits, I love these countries. There is nowhere like it in the world. This week ahead i'm pretty excited about and i'll let you all know how the zone conference goes and everything. I love you all!!

Elder Morris

PS: Grandpa, I did get your package! I thought i mentioned it two weeks ago but thank you so much! I also got the one from the caldwells. They were welcome treats and I will write back, when I have time. Which today i have none.

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Elder Nathan Morris

1/10/11

Hello there!

Life is going pretty normal here in St. Vincent. We're working so hard but sometimes it can be really hard to see the fruits of your labors. Especially if you worked your 100 percent hardest the whole week to try and get people to come to church and none of them come. There's a cool family that we're teaching. The mom, Pompei and her 2 boys. She's older but the boys are pretty young, both 11. (1 adopted). They seemed golden. Everything was looking great, like they have all prayed about the message, they are feeling the spirit, all excited to be baptized. But Sunday comes and one of the kids was sick and had to go to the hospital. Next week we're crossing our fingers. Elder Welch is especially trying to keep his hope alive because this is his last chance to bring someone into the waters of baptism as he's still Elder Welch.

It was fun, yesterday, after church we went to one of the members' houses. His last name is Bullock. His wife isn't a member but her father passed away last month. They're an east indian family so they invited us over to have 7 curry. Vegetarian curry but 7 different kinds. Like eggplant, pumpkin, dhall, etc. Eating them on these big leaves. Usually it's a Diwali tradition but they do it once in awhile for special occasions. I missed my chance to do it when I was in Guyana for Diwali but it was really fun. All the elders came and we definitely had a great time. About 100-150 people there, and 6 white guys from America. We felt pretty awkward and out of place but some drunk guys came up to us and made us feel right at home with some jokes they thought were hilarious. It was pretty funny.

Some weeks are better than others, and there have definitely been better weeks than this past one. Sometimes it feels like we're just working for numbers which isn't good. We did get most of our goals this week but none of our investigators came and so it's like all our work that we had didn't really help the branch progress. Calliaqua (Cal-ick-wa) is having a lot of problems. But good news, to cheer us up we made some Sorrel and homemade oreo cookies. We were pretty proud of it and shared with the rest of the district. Next Monday night we fly to Barbados for Zone conference. I'm way excited to see people there again. I'm going tofind out how Sherneal is doing there to see if she's been baptized or if she's still having problems. It's always nice to fly.

About coming to pick me up. I think a cruise would be fun, but i think it'd be very fun to do just a simple trip. Like 1 or 2 days in Trinidad, and 1 or 2 days in Guyana. In guyana i'd definitely want to do the kaietur falls. Please tell me what you think. We can go to the islands on a cruise another time but i want you to see Trinidad and Guyana.

That about wraps up our week.. We continue to try, I'm studying and learning tons and personally i feel pretty good but the work just isn't progressing the way we wish it would. Time to buckle down.

I love ya!

Elder Morris

Pictures next week ;)

1/3/11

What a fantastic week! We worked extra hard. Elder Welch and I both want to finish our missions strong and he's going home in 5 weeks, so we did work! It's kinda sad though. This week we found a ton of new people around the island that seemed way prepared, way ready for the gospel. A lot of them fell through, however. That's such a problem here. We'll find some great investigators then they'll talk to their friends and get a bunch of anti back about us. We were teaching this guy, Junior, this week who pulled out a piece of anti-mormon literature that was 30 years old! It was an antique. He has heard so much bad stuff that he does not have ears to hear if you know what i mean. Blinded by craftiness. This week really was great though. I've felt lately the Spirit's direction more than I ever have... it's the best.

We do have some news. There was an emergency transfer and we have 2 more missionaries now on the island! We have Elder Ackerman, who i was real good friends with in Trinidad, then Elder Bybee who was in the same zone as us June-July time. They're going to be a way fun addition and it makes this island feel like we actually have a district. 4 just wasn't enough. New years was kinda weird here, just lots and lots and lots of alcohol. We were going to wake up at like 11:50 and call the other missionaries and drink our sparkling grape juice but we slept through the alarm.

It's pretty cool, I've been studying tons from Jesus the Christ lately and am just learning all these cool pieces of doctrine about Christ I never thought about. Like how Adam and Eve being cast out was a result of them breaking the word of wisdom. I just never thought of it like that. Right now i've never felt better in my entire life. Over the course of my mission i've really gotten to know the Savior personally. He helped me a lot through some hard times. He helped me feel clean and pure as I've repented over and over and over again. I wouldn't be anything without the Savior. It's interesting too, the more you're focused on Christ and the stronger your testimony is of the Atonement, the stronger your desire to help others know the truth. It really is an interesting dynamic.

I was reading a conference talk by my main man, President Eyring, and he talked about Remembering. About looking for the Lord's hand in your life, and remembering it by writing those things down and things like that. I started at the bottom of every journal entry to write a small thing of how the Lord influenced my life that day. How he helped us in some way. It helps me see even bad days as blessings.

Church was okay, none of our "progressing" investigators came to church but we still have a lot of promising people coming up. Honestly i can't fathom in my small brain what it's like to be in a ward with over a hundred people (at least) in attendance every single week. I can't remember what it feels like. The only thing i really remember is my farewell, seeing over 500 people in front of me. Dang that was scary.

Overall it was a fantastic week, i hope i can save you the mushy stuff by just saying i'm changing and i'm happier than i've ever been. I love this gospel. I know my Savior lives and i wouldn't be doing anything else right now.

Love, Elder Morris

Mom, about the travelling, I think i'm happy with just going home the normal way. Flying home and getting picked up at the airport. It would be fun to go back though, that's for sure!! A cruise could be fun.

Pictures: A kid washing our car with his new toy, it was free :D, some picture i thought was cool in the bush while we were tracting one day, and fried chicken wings overlooking the ocean. I love food!
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Elder Nathan Morris