he's on his way...

june 16, 2011 around 6:38 pm utah time...

(left st. vincent around 6:00am this morning)

(long flight home - 2 three hour layovers - ugh!)

(he's almost here....)

we can't wait!!!!!!!!

6/13/2011

I feel kinda odd right now... words can't quite express it...


I love this place so much. In church yesterday, President Jackson surprised me by having me bear my testimony in sacrament meeting. In my testimony i revealed that i was going flying away on Wednesday and was returning home. Everybody's jaws dropped. It was a neat exerience to share my testimony one last time with these great people. I love the members here more than most things in the world. They're so humble and genuine it's amazing. I sat there pondering in church just what this next week would be like and it was just too weird. This past week was a sure grinding one, trying to finish strong and keep going, luckily we really did have a good week. President Jackson is crazy awesome. He took 2 hours with us each day for 3 days and we went tracting, just trying to find some families to teach. We didn't have much success but the fact we were out there with him that long was absolutely amazing. If all members of the church were like that we'd see some amazing things happen in the world.


I had a couple questions actually. Things i'm bringing home include pepper sauce, mauby syrup, a cutlass, etc... Is there anything you would like me to buy and bring with me? I don't know what kind of things you'd like. I'm getting a haircut tomorrow, doing some last minute shopping, and seeing all the members i can to say goodbye. Today is a holiday here in St. vincent, "Whit Monday". The branch right now is having a big fun day with food, drinks, games, sports, etc. They're having a blast. The internet shop lady that we go to every week opened just for us so we could email our families. She's 30 bucks richer and we are happy. Haha.


Elder Bharat is staying in Calliaqua (unless he complains to president), Elder Winzenried is training a new missionary in Kingstown 2, and Elder Jensen is staying to have a new ZL come to St. Vincent. Pretty cool if you ask me. To answer your question, i love our apartment.... a lot. We can open our back door and watch the sun set over the ocean, or the moon over the ocean, or the waves on the ocean.... Can you tell i'm going to miss the ocean? It's just a beautiful apartment, and one of the cheapest in the mission.


This past week was pretty fun, Gracie whom i have told you about, told us that her son caught 2 iguanas and asked if we wanted to buy them. I jumped at the opportunity, bought myself to big iguanas for about 15 dollars USD, and it was way cool. Gracie cooked them up for us and they tasted way good. Was like a fish mixed with chicken. It still had its skin on it and it was weird, but still good. Church was great, a lot of members came and it was a good week for Calliaqua. Brother Woodward, who was baptized about a month or 2 ago, was given the aaronic priesthood yesterday. I felt the spirit strong and i felt like i actually helped in his conversion. It was good to see someone with whom you spent so much time, take that step and receive those blessings. They're a fun family.


This morning we took one more day on the beach. We played some short games of cricket and just enjoyed the beach once more. Nothing like it at home. the Salt lake doesn't count.


To answer some questions from last week, I LOVE breadfruit. What they do here with it, they take it and put it in the fire and roast it for about 20-30 minutes. Then it gets soft on the inside and it's way good with like stewed chicken or something like that. Stew chicken is not like a stew you make and put in the oven by the way... it's a lot different! I"ll show ya later. My favorite fruits here are wax apples, mangos, plumrose, pineapples, and that's about it. I love soursop too. Way good. They have a lot of provisions here, like edo's, plantains, green figs, sweet potatoes, dashin, irish potatoes, etc. I love them all but sweet potatoes and dashin is my favorite. Dumplings are found a lot in their soups. We drink about 1 or 2 coconuts a day, they're delicious.


I don't know what else to say. I"m trying to record all my thoughts, feelings, and impressions daily, and when i return home i'd like to write down a bunch of stuff about each place i've been, maybe you can help me with that, but i've noticed i don't have a good memory for details. journals are way important. i've filled up 4 by the way..


I just want to say THANKS for everything you do for me. I can't believe this is the end. It's been quite the crazy rollercoaster and i'm excited to talk to ya'll about it. It seems like when you get at this point, you're alot more sensitive to the spirit and you feel some pretty crazy feelings. I am gonna bawl leaving this west indies. I can't imagine serving anywhere else. You NEED to meet these people i've served for 2 years!


I love ya'll. I'll see ya thursday...

--

Elder Nathan Morris

PO Box 601
Kingstown, St. Vincent
West Indies

6/6/11

Hello!


Things went pretty good this past week. We did a lot of service and worked pretty hard at making sure our recent converts stayed.. converted. Haha. President Gamiette gave us a challenge when we were in Trinidad that all those going home should not speak of it with members, and limit it with other missionaries. So I haven't told anyone that i'm leaving next week. Not telling anyone until Sunday after church. Weird i just have 1 more sunday here.


As per the work, our "progressing" investigators didn't come to church, but we saw a lot of good things happen. There's a family here, the mcdowald's, who are just an awesome family. They're struggling with basically everything but they're way fun. Saturday they helped us plan an activity to watch the new joseph smith: prophet of the restoration movie. So we got everything ready, and they brought some neighbors and some othe rmembers were there. It was way fun. I felt the spirit way strong and i know everybody else did as well. One of their neighbors was in tears and didn't want it to end. (she has never been interested previously.) Basically it was a good experience for the family and it strengthened their testimony a lot (and mine too.. haha) I felt such a strong feeling for those pioneers and early members of the church. Couldn't imagine going through things like that...


Next week i'll be there with ya'll. That feels way weird. We gotta plan a trip back here. I can already tell i'm going to miss it here way bad. I love these people. This week we got to help Gracie (picture of her included - the one with the sombrero) cut down the bush on her land that she's minding. We took some cutlasses and chopped away for 4 hours. It was really fun and she cooked some good food to eat when we finished. Today we went to the Owia Salt Ponds. We didn't swim don't worry, but we had a lot of fun climbing on the rocks and taking fun pictures. It's like this big circular rock formation a little out from the beach, and it makes a nice, calm pool for people to swim in. We had a lot of fun. It was a WAY long drive, it being at the very most north tip of the island, and us living at the very southern tip. We had a blast though.


Personally i'm feeling fantastic. I haven't felt this good in a long time. Through fasting and prayer, lots of study, i've received a lot of strength from the Lord and i'm making it through these last weeks. I pray we have a good one this week. I love ya tons and i hope you have a good week as well. Don't stress too much. BTW - I would like to know the topic of my homecoming talk. if possible please. Not saying i'm not confident i could do it on a whim but i'd rather be able to think and ponder about it awhile.


Don't get too trunky folks!


Elder Morris