nate morris west indies mission

he's on his way...

2011-06-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!!!!

2011-06-13T13:07:00.001-07:00

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

2011-06-06T20:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-31T12:45:00.000-07:00

5/30/11

Hello everyone! This past week was kinda bad actually. I had food poisoning on Thursday, then we’re moving into a new apartment. Infact we already did, this morning. It’s BEAUTIFUL!!! It’s overlooking the ocean, has air conditioning, hot water, huge fridge, brand new appliances, all from the states.. I tell ya what it’s amazing.. And! It’s half the price of our other apartment. That took up way too much time so we weren’t able to get tons done. Sadly. I hit kinda a mental wall this past week. I was having a tough time keeping myself going but i received a lot of personal revelation which really helped transform me. I am feeling tons better now and am ready to get some work done. Elder Bharat asked me, is Sister Nicholls going to be your last baptism? I didn’t know how to answer that cause i don’t want it to be but i think it will be. But what a great baptism to end on..

Sister Nicholls gave a talk on Testimony this past week in church and it was awesome. She bore a powerful one and i was way proud of her. Shevorn John is teaching the Young Women’s class now and is doing awesome. I’m really happy with all of these people. Things are going so well for them. We’re having a bit of trouble getting the other leaders (except President Jackson – you gotta meet that guy) to do their jobs. Church was great on Sunday though. No kids peeing on the floor or mental teenagers. Hah.

Mom – just an idea, dad was telling me that you’re putting together a bunch of stuff from my mission. I have a ton of awesome pictures that we can all look at and print out when i get back. So don’t think that all the pictures i’ve sent is it. Haha.

In other news, i’m leaving in the nick of time. Carnival is beginning about a week after i leave. I’m so sick of seeing their “costumes”(really just an excuse to wear lingerie on the streets) and hearing their disgusting music.. That’s one thing i won’t miss about the Caribbean. They’re already starting a bunch of festivities and stuff so the Elders in Kingstown are surrounded by sin.. haha.

I don’t know what else to report on, really. Tell Elder Cox i miss him bad. He is awesome and i’m sure that he was a legit missionary.I hope things are going well at home and i can’t believe things are going so fast. Yes, time is still flying by. Life is good though. Can’t believe i won’t be a missionary for much longer.... i don’t know how to feel about that one.

I love ya tons!

Elder Morris

2011-05-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

5/23/11

I really don't have much to say... i don't know why!

Church was crazy yesterday. A child peed her pants during sacrament meeting making a mess everywhere, meanwhile a 16 year old kid with mental problems was just making one set of problems for everybody at church, asking for money, stealing food from the kitchen, etc. It was quite the sunday...

The week was pretty good. We worked really hard and had a lot of great lessons. We found several new people we can start working with. So that's good. Patrick and Natasha's other daughter that's 10 should be baptized in the next few weeks. The branch is doing kinda good. Most people here can't get over the traditional belief that God and Christ are the same person. Few members get the basic doctrines of the church. That's been quite the obstacle to overcome.

Ah. One thing. I love the hymn selection of "A poor wayfaring man of grief." for the sacrament meeting on the 19th. Did you know that was my absolute favorite hymn? You had to know... haha. I'd like to know the topic i'll be speaking on too...

That's about it though i guess. hah. I love ya tons!

--

Elder Nathan Morris

PO Box 601
Kingstown, St. Vincent
West Indies

2011-05-20T07:21:00.002-07:00

5/16/11

I don't have much to report on this week. Half the island (missionaries that is) is sick and so we had a lot of stuff to do still and didn't get tons done. However Sister Nicholls was baptized on Saturday. We asked her husband (1st counselor in EQ pres.) if he was coming, and he said probably not, that he had something else to do. He didn't want to baptize her either. Kinda weird... but Elder Henderson pretty much made him come to the baptism and actually he performed the confirmation the following sunday. It was great to see Brother Nicholls fulfill his priesthood duties. It was a great weekend in that respect to see her make those covenants with the Lord.

Elder Bharat, my companion, has a really bad cold, another Elder has some weird virus, so we did a lot of splits this week to cover other areas. There is so much potential here in Calliaqua branch.

We were teaching the Brown's last night, and i felt an impression to begin talking about the temple. We taught about it, and brother brown, who is having trouble getting divorced to his previous wife, just lit up. He is way excited to go the temple now, and he told us he's finally going to get the marraige stuff in order so he can get baptized and go to the temple a year later. He really loves his family and wants to get sealed to them. It was a great experience. You should have heard his prayer as we left. Way sincere and we all felt the spirit.

2011-05-20T07:21:00.001-07:00

5/9/11

Hello!

Weird i just talked to you last night. I was telling Elder Winzenried on the phone, it doesn't even feel real! Like i just talked to you but it doesn't feel like it at all. It was fun however and I enjoyed seeing everybody. All the kids are getting way older and i like how Addie thinks that i'm just inside of a computer. haha.

This past week was pretty tough due to transfers, we had to buy the elders a bunch of stuff, do a bunch of errands, carry people to the doctor (missionary is sick), etc. We weren't able to get much done which at the end of the week can be really stressful because you have to report to president your not so good of a week..

We are however excited for this week. We might have a baptism of Sister Nichols. Her husband is in the EQ presidency and she's finally getting baptized. She's been an investigator for years. We also are going to do a lot of finding so that we can see even more people come into the fold later in the transfer.

I don't know what else to report really, i'll answer your questions, haha. Elder Stewart's companion was Elder Jensen. Elder Jensen is from Salt Lake City. Now we have Elder Winzenried with Elder Charles, from Las Vegas and Guyana respectively. There's like 15-20 natives in the mission. Elder Livingston from Wyoming is with Elder Jensen now. It is a sweet zone. I'm excited for it.

It's kinda funny emailing right after you talk to your family... you just run out of things to say. Ooh! One thing i'll report. This morning we gathered as a zone and played cricket on the beach. We got some sweet pictures and had a lot of fun. I love it here!

Love ya'll - Elder Morris

2011-05-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

5/3/11

On Thursday of this past week I received a phone call from the Assistants. I will be staying with Elder Bharat in Calliaqua to finish my mission. Quite the uninteresting transfer, ent? They're opening up a new area and we'll get the car full time. Yes! We had been sharing it during the week. We had it Tuesday through Thursday then Elder Stewart had it Friday through Monday.

We did have 2 baptisms this past weekend. Patrick and Natasha Woodward. The fact that it happened Saturday is the real miracle. He was working day-shift this week so we had to meet with him in the night. Here's the catch. We had to teach them a bunch of stuff and get them interviewed on Thursday. Well, we didn't get to teach them at all throughout the week until Friday night at 8 o clock. We had a great lesson, taught them the rest of the things they needed for the interview. Before this lesson we thought we weren't having a baptism and it'd need to be pushed back. Well we had Elder Stewart come over in the morning and interview Patrick and Natasha at about 8 in the morning Saturday. They passed and we set the baptism for that same day for 4 o clock. The baptism went great! Now, Patrick was working Sunday during the day but in order to receive the gift of the holy ghost (and to keep the day holy) he missed work to go to church with his family. He won't lose his job or anything, he works for a security company and they're easy about stuff like that, but it was a great sacrifice that he needed to make and because he made that he'll be blessed immensely. It was a great experience to see the Lord's hand in making sure that they were added to the fold this weekend.

Sunday night the other elders came over after planning to spend the night and we baked the awesome cake in my package, and decorated the apartment. Haha it was 2 weeks late and we just did it for fun and some funny pictures but it was a fun time. Delicious cake by the way... wow.

Weird to hear about the new appliances. Our kitchen will look completely different! I'll cook ya some chicken curry if ya let me. Roti too! By the way, I don't know how to pay for tuition for BYU so if you could help me and do it, that would make my day! Everything is changing so rapidly it seems. Young single adult stakes? That's way weird! I was expecting to just go back to the family ward for a couple months. Oh well change is good, haha.

To answer your question, Dad, I am interested in what's going on in the NBA finals. I'm not like obsessed with it but it's nice to hear what news is going on. Crazy thing about Bin Laden and all that. Hope nothing bad happens because of it.

As per mother's day, i think i added you already on the Henderson's computer but i'll be skyping you about 7 o clock our time, which i think is 4 o clock your time. i think.. I'm excited too but yeah it doesn't feel the same cause i'll just be there in a few weeks.

I only remember a couple times where missionaries ate at our house. I cannot imagine having a dinner appointment every single day of the week. Most days we don't even eat dinner. The only times are the rare occurrence of a member feeding us (about once a week). Sounds like you had fun though. I had myself a potato bar this past week. Chili and cheese on the potato but it works for me and it was delicious. We're buying more today. I hope and pray nothing happens with the flooding.

Things are going well here in St. Vincent though. I"m happy, Elder Bharat and I are doing alot better together and the work is progressing. I'm staying strong and not very trunky, just doin the normal thing. I love ya tons!

Elder Morris

I attached some pictures. 2 before the baptism, 1 of the Browne family (the girl in the yellow is Annie, who was baptized last weekend), then 2 of our birthday party Sunday night.

2011-05-20T07:15:00.000-07:00

4/25/11

Happy Easter Monday! Do you celebrate that at home? I forgot.. but they do here! It's a holiday but the internet shop lady opened just for us. she is awesome. This past week was a big ol' rollercoaster. Companion problems were the low part of it, and the high part of the rollercoaster was trinidad.

Here is why i loved the meeting in Trinidad.
1. I saw Elder Beeson. Haven't seen him since last April.
2. I saw Elder Prince. Haven't seen him since last August.
3. I shook hands with President Vinas of the 70.
4. We had an amazing meeting where the spirit was there in abundance.
5. I got to fly in a plane!

I didn't get to eat any doubles which was disappointing, but i did get to have trinidad KFC which is the best KFC in the entire world. Seriously. I'm turning black. Not in color but i talk like one and eat like one. FRIED CHICKEN!

The meeting with President Vinas was pretty great. It was really basic and wasn't as deep as i thought it would be. We talked mostly of the challenges the church is experiencing in the caribbean. Mostly with the leaders of the individual branches. We read a lot out of Handbook 2 of the church handbook of instructions and focused on the missionaries role in the missionary work of the branch. It was a really good experience and I learned a lot. It was quite the opportunity to be at that meeting.

I don't really need to go into details about the companion stuff, really it sufficeth me to say it was enough trials and is pushing my endurance to its limits.

Saturday, while i was in Trinidad, Annie Brown was baptized. I don't have pictures yet of it but i will soon. I heard it went really well. This upcoming saturday the Woodward family will be baptized as well. They hopefully will be ready for their interview and all will go well for this weekend.

My birthday as you can guess was just a normal day, except i ate at subway, and bought reeses' peanut butter cup ice cream. Delicious. Thanks dad! My companion actually wasn't hungry and didn't want ice cream. He was depressed that day. Oh well.

I will surely get your packages this week! Hopefully. I got Grandpa's birthday card which was a great surprise. It was fun to hear from him. Please let him know how much I love him and am grateful for him!

I don't have much more to report about, transfers are next week so i'll find out about that this week. Pray for a change. I've been here forever... haha.

I love you all and thanks for all you do!

Elder Morris

--

Elder Nathan Morris

PO Box 601
Kingstown, St. Vincent
West Indies

2011-04-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

4/18/11

I mean.. Great week! We are teaching a wonderful family, the woodward's, who came to church yesterday and is converted to the true restored gospel! They will be baptized on the 30th! (if he can miss work to come to church this sunday..) And we're having a daughter of a part member family, Annie Brown, get baptized this Saturday. that's pretty cool. I'll miss it cause i'll be in trinidad but that's alright.

I don't have tons to report on though now that i think about it.. It was a week of success and a week of disappointment. Some of my favorite members here fell back into past addictions that they (in the past) had overcome. However at church we had a record breaking week. For the first time in mission history, Calliaqua branch had 72 people at church. There's like 140 members total so that's really good!! We were way excited. A lot of our investigators we're working with came to church and things are looking good here.

It doesn't feel like my birthday's tomorrow. Just another day in my book. I haven't gotten any packages yet, but that's okay! We'll check the mail tomorrow too. I think i'll celebrate by... eating stew chicken and rice (like every other day) and teaching. Maybe we'll make the trip to Church's chicken. Haha. I'm happy though all in all. I don't really have any complaints at all. I'm just content with life, but am excited to continue getting better.

Love you all!!

--

Elder Nathan Morris

PO Box 601
Kingstown, St. Vincent
West Indies

2011-04-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

4/11/11

Life is good, again, here in St. Vincent. I've been here awhile!! I need a change of scenery... I had a dream a few nights ago i'll be going to St. maarten to finish my mission but that just wouldn't make sense. Who knows? Haha.

No baptisms this week but this week was good for finding new people to teach. We found the Woodward family which are really cool and prepared. (A real family!!! They don't drink, smoke, do drugs, beat their kids, etc.) They have values! They all want to get baptized, however didn't come to church. Neither did anyone really that were preparing to be baptized last week. Shana couldn't come again, we don't know what to do with her. She just doesn't have the fire she used to. The woodwards had a weird concern. We taught the plan of salvation, but they believed that all we do is sit around and glorify god forever and ever after we die. We're all brothers and sisters up there and there is no need for families in heaven. What?? What's the point? Why would God create us for that purpose?? We all know his work but it was just interesting to hear others' views of God's plan for us. The knowledge we have as saints is just priceless. I dunno we had a good week. Elder Bharat was sick a couple days, but our zone here in St. Vincent is kickin butt. We're going to have some baptisms by the end of this month. A wife of a member came to church, Sister Nichols, and just told us that she is finally ready to be baptized. Great! I have no objections at all! Haha being a missionary is really fun sometimes.

I have gotten into the fad of listening to firesides, conference talks, etc. I can get them on the church website and put them on my ipod during my hour here. This week is a Bruce R. McConkie week. His voice freaks me out sometimes. He yells when he gets really into the talk, but they're always mind-blowing.

i'm 21 next week. That means i have the option of legally purchasing alcohol in the United States! However here all you have to be is 18. However, here no one cares, i saw a 6 year old purchase a huge bottle of rum last week. Rum, marijuana, and immorality is just rampant here. But! I was thinking about it today and I just love these people. There are some great ones. For example, a member named Gracie. she is a gem. She loves to feed us. This past week she fed us Turtle, iguana, cow skin (yes.... the skin of a cow.. there was hair on it still too. nasty), and cow bobby (breast - really she means the utter... yes... the utter.... yes... it was gross!). However whenever she cooks normal food it is always amazing. vincy people are so generous and willing to serve. They're an example to me of the lady that gave those 2 mites compared to the rich guys giving just part of their wealth.

I love hearing your testimonies and the things that the Lord is doing for all of you. Know that I love you all tons!

Elder Morris

2011-04-24T16:26:00.002-07:00

4/04/11

What a week! Airport runs, zone conference, fireside, general conference (all 5 sessions), and phew... it's over. We were extremely busy but were able to get a lot done as well. Our baptism this week didn't come to church so next week it'll be pushed back to. My soul was filled however and am ready as ever to keep going. (sounds cheesy but true.) My favorite thing ever was President Eyring's joke at the beginning of his talk in Priesthood session. that was hilarious. "Well.. pete went to prison too.... I lived in a tough neighborhood..." haha. All of conference was amazing. Elder Bednar's talk on revelation, Elder Scott's talk on his marraige to Jeanine. I learned tons and am excited for what lies ahead in my life.

Zone Conference was pretty good as well. Now, our car is pretty beat up due to past missionaries not knowing how to drive well. Therefore we are missing the rear bumber and there's dents all over the front bumper. Having no choice I proceeded to pick President Gamiette and the Assistants up in that vehicle on Friday morning. Luckily he was so disappointed in the car he told me to secure a new car. Hooray! We need one bad. Haha if all goes well. It was a good conference however and even though there were 30 missionaries here Heavenly Father helped us get everyone back and forth where they need to be on time. Everything went great!

Now, here's something I'm embarrased about. In Priesthood session there were 4 local members that hold the priesthood, 6 missionaries (including Sister Henderson) and 3 wives of those local members. Really?? The most important time of the year to be there and nobody shows.. I dunno. Not many realize the full import of having a prophet on the earth. I made some resolutions which i will never break. 1, never to miss priesthood session of general conference. 2, to feast on the word of christ daily. 3, to be a full tithe payer. I dunno it's just simple.

life is good here in vincent, nothing much else to report. I'm happy and healthy.

Love ya!

Elder Morris

--

Elder Nathan Morris

PO Box 601
Kingstown, St. Vincent
West Indies

2011-04-24T16:26:00.001-07:00

3/28/11

I love it here. The people, the culture (the good parts of it. not the rum), the scenery, etc.

This past week was good. Really busy getting everybody transfered and to and from the airport but it went well. Elder Bharat is now my companion and he's a short east indian kid. haha. that's really how i can describe him. I don't have pictures yet or i'd send some. But he is way cool! Elder Beeson served with him for like 3 transfers and he is just a really hard worker. He's focused on the missionary work 100 percent and that's helping me stay strong. I'm just happier when we're working as hard as we can.

With all the school stuff, i wrote in my journal basically the same thing. How in awe I was of how Heavenly Father opened up the way for everything just perfectly. Signing up for summer semester, registering for classes, etc. I really didn't ever feel way good about you coming to pick me up and now we know why! I had to go to school 3 days after i get home. Haha. I dunno i'm excited to live at home during the summer and also go to school. Everything really just went well. Just trust in the Lord and all things will work out. I was happy about it all.

This week is going to be way hard to get stuff done. Here's why.
Thursday=33 missionaries fly in to St. Vincent for zone conference (i'll be driving to and from the airport all day.)
Friday=Zone Conference from 9-4, Fireside from 7-8.
Saturday=General Conference
Sunday=General Conference.

That basically leaves us 2 days to get work done. But it'll be good. We found a lady from St. Lucia last week named Kizey (pronounced Kizzie). She was super interested and actually called us over asking us what we teach. She has never really been close with her Heavenly Father and wants to be baptized. She coudln't come to church this week but the next two weeks she'll come and then get baptized. Really it was exciting. We've already taught her a bunch and she's doing awesome. We also started teaching Sister Rogers' (member/recent convert) granddaughter, Shana. She has come to church the past month or two. she's 21 but she told us she wants to get baptized. Before she was very hesitant and didn't do anything we invited her like reading or such. So we stopped teaching her. But this past week we picked her back up and now she'll be baptized on the 9th. She's doing great and really is preparing herself.

Life is good here in the West Indies. I couldn't really be happier. The only way i'd be happier is if Prince and Beeson were here with me. I'll see wha ti can work out with president for my last transfer ;).

I can't believe the weeks are just coming to an end. I really don't have much time left. But i'm working hard and things are going well in St. vincent. Elder Stewart is here with me and he's training a next missionary. He was an ap when i was in the office and he's a way good missionary. We're all going to see some great miracles come our way here in St. vincent.

I dunno what else to say. I love you all and am excited to be there soon, but i wouldn't be anywhere else right now.

Love, Elder Morris

--

Elder Nathan Morris

PO Box 601
Kingstown, St. Vincent
West Indies

2011-03-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

3/22/11

So guess what? On Friday afternoon I received a call from the assistants. They informed us of our transfers on Wednesday. Every single person on the island is leaving, except me! Haha. I'll be staying in Calliaqua with an elder named Elder Bharat. He's guyanese, and east indian, about 5 feet tall, and 90 pounds. He served awhile with Elder Beeson and I think it'll be a good transfer. He's a good missionary i hear. Last time i served around Elder Bharat was my 3rd transfer when i was in Rose Hall in Guyana. Before he was a set apart full time missionary. Kingstown is going back to 2 missionaries and Elder Stewart, one of the AP's when i was in the office is going to train a new missionary there. It'll be an interesting transfer. I really liked serving around Elders Barstow, Ackerman, and Peterson. Elder Murray and I were just getting some things going here in Calliaqua but he'll grow a lot going back to Guyana.

Calliaqua branch was awesome on Sunday. President Macintosh was here with his wife and a lot got done! Brother Rondell Lewis served as a temporary missionary for last week with Elder Peterson and he was ordained an Elder on Sunday. He is too old to go on a mission but he is doing so great. It's awesome to see people's conversion push them for bigger and better things. He now is preparing to go to the temple at the end of this year. The branch is doing a ton better. We don't have any really good investigators right now, honestly. But there's a part member family where the daughter (10) will be baptized in a couple weeks. Then there's a granddaughter of a member that's 20 that's been coming to church the last several weeks. She'll probably be baptized in April we just haven't been able to work with her a lot. Really we just keep getting tons of distractions keeping the work back. We did 3 service things last week and all day Saturday we helped with a marraige at the Kingstown church (awesome actually. Young couple getting sealed in the temple this week). We weren't able to get a lot of work done in the field cause of all this. We gotta limit the service we give. Usually people don't like us to help but we've been weeding farms, building houses, etc the past 5 weeks. haha it's fun but it really takes a toll on me. (Physically and Mentally)

Life is good in general. I'm relieved that you're not coming to pick me up honestly. Now i can just focus on things that matter most. I am excited to finish strong. It'll be fun to go back with all of you to see the mission but it'll be fun to meet ya'll at the airport in a couple months. Can't believe Ryan Nelson is gonna be home this time next month. Crazy sauce. yesterday was a good day. We ate dinner at the Henderson's and they fed us delicious chicken enchiladas and had cake and ice cream. I love having a couple here serving... :D

I love ya tons and am grateful for everything and all of the encouragement. I wouldn't be anywhere else right now.

Elder Morris

2011-03-15T15:44:00.000-07:00

3/14/2011

We had a fantastic baptism after church on Sunday. Shevorn was ready and it turned out so great. We started at the branch with song/prayer and 2 talks on baptism and the holy ghost. Then we moved down to the beach. A truck came and picked all the members who wanted to go up and we drove the rav4 down with the senior couple. It was a gorgeous sunny day by the way and the beach was perfect. It felt way good to go in the water. Don't worry i didn't take a swim. Haha. The spirit was so strong the whole afternoon. After the baptism on the beach we sang I am a child of god and then had a 10 minute testimony meeting. Shevorn was crying and just had this huge smile on her face. We talked to her later on in the day and she just told us how good she felt. How clean and pure she felt and how excited she is to come to church for the rest of her life. What a great experience..

The events leading up the baptism were quite hectic. We had her 1st interview on Wednesday and we found out Friday (which really made me vexed) that she needed to talk to President Gamiette to finish up the interview process. We should have found out Wednesday but we rushed over to shevorn's then we couldn't get in contact with president. We had to leave Shevorn's and finally around 7 at night he called back. He couldn't call her that night because he was getting on a plane that moment to Guyana. So we had to push the baptism back to Sunday after church. But all in all, more members were able to come, and really Sunday was just the perfect day for it. Heavenly Father really throws us some curve balls sometimes.

That really was the highlight of our week.

I love ya and thanks for all you do!

Elder Morris

2011-03-11T07:46:00.000-08:00

3/7/2011

One time in a lesson a couple weeks ago we sang Hello hello hello hello we welcome you today hello hello ......... that one primary song. It was awesome. It was 3 missionaries and a member family that knew the song too. It was way random and hilarious. At the end we just cracked up laughing. Haha.

This past week was a tough one. We tried to make the best of it but this is what made it tough. Tuesday we had service, where we loaded up rice bags half full of sand, carried them down a hill and continued the process for 4 hours. We were dead. Imagine 50 pounds of sand, lifting the bag onto your shoulders then going down a hill, unloading at the bottom. It seemed like the large pile of sand at the top was neverending. It was a member that was building his house. It was really fun actually, got a great workout, but were dead the rest of the day. We worked and stuff but we were tired. The NEXT DAY we went to anothe rmember's farm and picked peanuts in the blaring sun from 8 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon. My neck and legs were absolutely scorched. Worst sunburn of my mission. Reminds me of my farewell talk. That took a ton out of us too. It is way fun doing service but i think doing things in moderation applies in this instance.

Shevorn came to church and is still planning to be baptized this Saturday. I'll send pictures next week. She is an amazing person and we took a member couple with us teaching last night and they loved her, said she was one of the coolest people they've taught. I love seeing member work in action. Let's just be friends with everybody. Dang it's not that hard.

The work other than that is moving along. We have a couple other people that are progressing towards baptism. There was about 52 people at church on Sunday and so things are still going well for the branch. I love it here in St. Vincent. I wouldn't be anywhere else, yes that includes home. 3 months from now i'll want to be home... haha.

As per our discussion on coming to pick me up. I think the kaeteur falls trip is worth it. It's definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's the tallest single drop waterfall in the world! I was thinking just Trinidad on Wednesday Evening, Thursday Guyana (Kaeteu Falls), Friday Guyana (to see people and places), Saturday Trinidad (see people and a beach or two), Sunday Church in Curepe ward in Trinidad, Then home monday would be fine. IF! If you want to go somewhere else and if we can afford it. We could do Barbados or St. Vincent, haven't thought that far but that's what i'd like for Guyana/Trinidad. I can't think too much about it or my brain will explode.

I love you and I'll write more about it next week!

Love, elder Morris

PS: Mom, for my birthday package, I don't really need too much. Just a nice classy 34 inch belt, 2 stafford short sleeve shirts, and some new socks. That's all i need!

Thank you so much. ONE LOVE!

2011-03-01T08:13:00.002-08:00

2/28/2011

So l ike i said last week I visited St. Lucia this past week for 2 days. Left Tuesday got back Wednesday night. It was gorgeous there. It was like St. Vincent except less hills, and white sand beaches. It was way pretty. The people were really fun to talk to and it was a good place. I'd love to serve there. It was an amazing meeting we had with president Gamiette and the AP's. We learned a lot about the spirit and how to keep it with us constantly. I learned tons and it's really helped us already in our work. The meeting was Wednesday so on Tuesday we got to eat at Dominos. Best pizza i've had on my mission. Dang it was american. I love America.

We had an awesome lesson with Shevorn this past week the day after I got back from Training. She had been through so much but finally has decided to give all she has to the lord, like King Lamoni "I would give up all my sins to know thee". She has that idea about her now. She asked us "I'm ready to get baptized, if i come to church on sunday and keep coming, when is the soonest I can get baptized?" The spirit was so strong. We taught and invited her to be baptized on the 12th of March. On Sunday, she was the 1st person there. An Hour early. it was so great to see. She is so committed now and knows it's true. The next lesson, we had an awesome lesson and this lady from Guyana committed to be baptized. The rest of the week as we relied 100 percent on the spirit we saw similar miracles and things just fall into place. The spirit is real and we saw so many blessings come this past week. I'm excited to have a baptism coming up next weekend then we have more coming the following weeks. There really isn't a better way to teach except by the spirit.

I dunno what else to report. Life is great in my opinion. I'm happy. I always have room to improve and i'm really trying to buckle town and be the best i can be. This upcoming week i want to really purify myself to be 100 percent led by the spirit. I know that this is the true gospel and i'm only humbled and grateful for my call to serve as one of Christ's representatives.

Love, Elder Morris

2011-03-01T08:13:00.001-08:00

2/21/2011

This past week started out different, which was hard on me personally. We took the senior couple around and showed them members, branch leaders, etc for the whole week. The first 4 days we didn't get almost anything done. I was praying and prayin g and praying for sucess to come, and Saturday and Sunday actually turned out way good. We borrowed the Henderson's car and found a bunch of new, really cool people. We found the bacchus family which expressed to us their intense desire to go to church and get baptized. They sounded awesome. The Laborde family, the family we taught a few times then handed over to the Zone leaders, i dunno if i told you about them, is getting baptized next weekend! I was way excited to hear that. It made me feel like i actually did something!! I have been working my tail off and i feel like i'm doing okay but i'm starting to see success come.

Church on Sunday was one of the best parts. We were surprised to see 61 people at church!!! It just keeps getting better. It was awesome. President Jackson is doing such a good job. Usually it's 50 a week to get a building but the area presidency says the average weekly attendance needs to be over 65 to get a real branch building. We're at a rented house right now on top of a hill. Beautiful sight but we're running out of room. Wouldn't it be great to see that fulfilled?? Even though we're not having a lot of success in terms of baptisms, the branch is getting stronger! A month ago i wouldn't have believed seeing 61 people at church. The highest it's ever been was like 65 or so. That was like a year and a half ago.

Found out actually i'm going to St. Lucia for a couple days for some training. That'll be really sweet and i'm excited. I don't get to see Elder Prince who is serving there which is sad but i'm definitely going to have a good phone conversation with him. I miss that kid bad!! I'm happy with the area and things are getting a lot better. Elder Murray and I are having fun and being on our own two feet actually isn't that bad. It's pretty fun. I feel like a real missionary again. Hah.

One of our progressing investigators, Shevorn, i dunno if i've told you about her, she was beat by her kid's father and it was really bad this time. He should be arrested today and going to prison for awhile. She had a lot of stitches on her face. It is really sad to see... Domestic abuse is so prevalent here in the west indies. Is that how it is back home too?? Hope not.. I barely remember what home is like and driving on the right hand side of the road seems like a foreign idea to me.

I don't have much else to report about, but i will have more to report about next week. I love the work and i'm happy:D

Love, Elder Morris

2011-03-01T08:08:00.000-08:00

2/14/2011

Some interesting news. Because the zone leader here crashed so much driving he can't drive in Kingstown. Therefore Elder Murray became my companion and Elder Taylor went to Kingstown to be with Elder Peterson. I was way disappointed. It happened mid-day Wednesday (transfer day). Elder Taylor and I really got along well. Elder Murray is from Guyana and Elder Carter was serving with him last transfer. He is an interesting kid. He's way homesick for Guyana. It'll be a very difficult transfer all of a sudden. I love the Guyanese people to death they just are different than us and it'll take some getting used to (again).

Because of the fact Kingstown elders didn't know Kingstown at all, we were with them the rest of the week showing them around and going on splits. Because of that, Calliaqua was hardly touched and we weren't able to teach many people. However church attendance was at 58!!!! the average is about 40 or less and it was so great to see that small chapel fill up. President Jackson is doing such a great job as the branch president and Calliaqua will never be the same since.

A new senior couple is coming to the island. That's pretty cool. The Henderson's. We picked their apartment and it's way nice. It's 3/4 the price of our apartment and about 4 times the size and 10 times nicer. I was tempted to just take that apartment as our own. But yes we will be on foot from Tuesday on. That'll stink. But i guess i'll lose some more weight.

About that. This morning, we drove to La Soufreire, the volcano here. We hiked to the top of it. It was awesome!!! About a 3 hour hike round trip and it was pouring the whole time. I loved it. There was so much wind that it was dangerous at the top. It was a steep fall. The crater is huge. But we couldn't see it because the fog was so thick. Like 30 foot visibility. Great P-day though.

I'm excited about calliaqua but i wish i was still with Elder Taylor. That's gonna be tough. Thanks for all you do and i'll have a better report next week. I love ya tons!

Elder Morris

2011-03-01T08:05:00.000-08:00

2/07/2011

I'm excited this week!

President Jackson is going to turn this branch around. He's been a member for 10 years, been to the temple several times, and is just overall a very awesome strong member. We're going member finding on Tuesday with him, to introduce him to all the members. We left our apartment at 7:45 Sunday morning to pick him and his family up at 8:15, then getting to the church before 8:40. So it'll take awhile but it's very worth it. We're losing the car next week as well. A senior couple is coming. But everything is very promising! We're going to get a lot more people at church and i'm excited for the progress that will come.

We received transfer calls this past week. I will be with an Elder named Elder Taylor. I was in the office when he came through his first few days and he'll be really fun to serve with. President said he's having a very difficult time right now however and he has expressed his desires to return home early. So my assignment is to keep him here and get him loving the work again. He said it's going to be a heavy load but I hope it goes well. I'll be on my knees plenty this next transfer. Elder Welch is going home but spending about 2 weeks in the caribbean with his family. He is extremely excited. President told me that if i do well this next transfer he'll let me do whatever i want the last two transfers of my mission. He said as long as the lord approves.

So, yes I am still in Calliaqua for the next 6 weeks but it'll be good. I am learning to love it here. Now here's something cool about this past week! Sister Brown, a member in Kingstown, told us about a family of one of her students. She teaches at the school for disabled kids. The daughter is always super sick but she's the nicest cutest little girl. Her family is very interested! The husband isn't of course, like most of the men here, but the entire family went to Kingstown church on Sunday. They're on the border of areas so Kingstown will be teaching them from now on but they loved church and they are very promising! We taught them twice this past week both with Sister Brown and it was way fun. Member teaching and fellowshipping is well, there's no good substitute.

There's not much else to report about, this next week will be quite interesting but it'll be good. Not much time left but i'm very excited to push until the end. It's going to be a good finish. I love the gospel, and this transfer I'm trying to purify and perfect myself to try and have the spirit with me more fully to see more success. I feel confident that success will come after this long drought i've been in. I love and am grateful for all of you!

Elder Morris

--

Elder Nathan Morris

PO Box 601
Kingstown, St. Vincent
West Indies

2011-02-06T20:22:00.000-08:00

1/31/11

Hello!

This past week has been so up and down. Definitely not the best week on my mission. There were so many crazy things that happened.

1. Our branch president was released this past sunday for branch conference. Replaced by a strong melchezidek priesthood holder named Brother Jackson from Kinstown branch. He doesn't have a car so we will pick him up every week for church. I've never seen that before, transplanting members between branches. Calliaqua really needs the help thouh.

2. On Friday in Kingstown there was a political rally for the opposing party. They were rallying against the new bill that they're passing. I guess a few more taxes will be added. But we were walking through town past the crowd of like 1000 people and we heard some screams. We look to the left and we see like 15 army guys walking toward the crowd holding riot shields and big police batons. They didn't do anything to the people they were just providing protection. But a bunch of people were running from them and screaming. It was pretty intense. One police officer was hurt in the rally but that was it. We got out of there pretty quick.

3. We were driving Brother Lewis home Saturday night and we saw a guy beating a lady in the middle of the street. We put on our brights, stopped the car and Brother Lewis got out and stopped him. It was horrible. The lady was pregnant and the guy was just evil. A bunch of people came out and helped and Brother Lewis talked to him for like 20 minutes calming him down. I guess she was doing drugs and he was mad at her so he decided taking her out to the main road and physically abusing her publically was the best solution. Goodness...

4. Someone stole the toyota chrome logo on our car above the license plate today.... Lame.

I dunno all these things were just ridiculous. We weren't able to get much work done but this next week should be tons better. I'm excited about the new branch president. He's a great man and we'll be able to get lot of things done. Our past branch president just wouldn't do anything and the branch was falling apart. President Macintosh in the WIM presidency was here over the weekend and we were able to get a lot of things sorted our. Institute and Seminary are going to be a lot bigger part of the church here in St. Vincent now. The programs were not working very well but wow it'll be so much better now. I'm excited about what will happen in the next little while. We're going to see a lot of success. It really does come from having a good branch president.

Dad to answer y our question, a few missionaries break rules, but it's nothing as bad as what you described. Sometimes a missionary will take a swim, but most of the disobedience is coming in early and long lunches. It's not too bad here. It sounds like everything is so busy at home and you don't have any time at all. I hope things are going well. Things are going well with us. We have a few really great investigators. They didn't come to church this past week but they are still progressing along. The work has been slow but it's still moving.

I love you all!

Elder Morris

2011-02-06T20:19:00.000-08:00

1/24/11

This past week was pretty up and down!

Ups include Barbados. Wow. That was so great, to be able to go back and visit the island again. I forgot how civilized and americanized it is compared to st. vincent. Monday night we slept over at the zone leaders' apartment and I got to call Black Rock and talk to Elder Hoepel. he just got put back in the area and we had a blast gaffing about the area and the good times we had. Some cool news about Black Rock, it is on fire right now! Not literally but missionary work wise. The week after I left they got a new branch president, President Moody. He is from Utah and has a family and everything, works for the embassy. Well he totally has changed everything around! When I was there we'd get mid-30's at church every week but last week they had 60! Baptisms are happening and people that haven't been to church in years are coming back. Home teaching is going, and things are just going great there. Sherneal hasn't been baptized still, she hasn't overcome a few things but she still is interested and comes to church every other week or so. That was pretty sad to hear but she will. Zone Conference the next day was great. Really my favorite part, sadly, wasn't the actual conference but seeing Elder Hoepel and everybody that's in Barbados. Elder Hoepel and I are great friends and I miss him a ton. Zone conference was great and President spoke a lot about relationships with our companions. It was pretty interesting and helped a lot. Elder Welch and I get along okay, but it definitely could be better. It helped a lot though. The spirit was there in great abundance. Interviews was interesting. We talked a lot about next few transfers. I asked him what the possiblieties were of serving around Elder Prince or Beeson and he didn't really answer me. He said he could only guarantee that they'd be at the departure devotional. He did tell me however that he might want me to train next transfer. It'll be interesting to see what happens. I can't believe that after February 9th, I'll only have 3 more transfers left.. Wow.

The week was pretty difficult actually. We tried, but none of our progressing investigators came to church. Jasmine is still doing well we just think she felt shamed because she doesn't have modest church clothes. That was one of the things Elder Oaks spoke of at last week's conference so she probably felt pretty guilty. She definitely wants to change and be baptized though. She has 5 kids in this tiny board house. I feel way bad for her but the best medicine is the gospel. It would help her and her family so much. We don't really have much else going for us right now. Except that last night the Adams' family came teaching with us (they're from Kingstown branch) and they wanted to visit Brother Lewis, a recent convert here that is receving a calling and the melchezidek priesthood this next week. We got to visit with all 3 of his sisters which was a first. First time we've been able to sit with all of the family there and they should be coming to church next week. So I hope that turns out well.

Today was pretty great. We woke up early and drove to Dark View Falls which was pretty fun. Took some great pictures. 2 waterfalls that's just a short 5 minute hike away from the road. On our way back we stopped at Waliliabou bay which is where they filmed a lot of Pirates of the Caribbean. Remember the part with Jack Sparrow riding in on his tiny boat that is sinking as it gets to the port? I stood on that port today! I bought a bunch of shells from this cool rasta guy that was selling and I got a whale tooth necklace. It was a cool morning and i'll send home the shells in the next few weeks. I'll attach some pictures.

Well I don't know what else to report. Life is good. It's weird being with a missionary that's going home. He is trunky and he tlaks about home a lot. Haha. We're still working though and i pray to see some of these great people get baptized soon..

Love, Elder Morris

--

Elder Nathan Morris

PO Box 601
Kingstown, St. Vincent
West Indies

2011-01-17T14:55:00.001-08:00

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.

--

Elder Nathan Morris

2011-01-17T14:53:00.000-08:00

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 ;)

2011-01-17T14:49:00.000-08:00

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!
--

Elder Nathan Morris

2010-12-31T14:45:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-31T14:41:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-31T14:35:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-31T14:29:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-04T10:45:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-04T10:39:00.002-08:00

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.

2010-12-04T10:39:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-14T23:23:00.000-08:00

11/08/10

Sunday Morning I got a phone call from President telling me of my transfer to St. Vincent. I've only been here 3 months. I am going to miss it here so much. I have really loved serving in Barbados. I've really grown to love the people here. The country itself is just gorgeous. I really would love to come back here. Even just for a short vacation.

I'm going to Calliaqua, St. Vincent. I"ll have a car and my companion will be Elder Welch. He goes home very soon. I hear he is a very hard worker so I know next transfer we'll be able to get a lot of things done. I really was pretty disappointed to get that transfer call. Oh well. After a lot of prayer I know it's what is best for me. This is truly where the Lord needs me. I felt it and know it.

Sherneal wasn't baptized this past week. She's super ready and 100 percent converted though. She is one of the coolest converts I've taught. Knows without doubt that this is the true restored gospel. Her testimony really has strengthened mine. She just was given one more week by President for some other reasons.

This past week was actually really, really good. We worked our butts off and got a ton done. Gloria and her whole family came to church this past weekend which was awesome to see. They are way cool. Church really was great yesterday. A lot of less actives and investigators we'd been working with came. Black Rock will have a few baptisms coming up that's for sure. It was pretty random. We met lady from Canada who served a mission in France. She had been praying for help because she didn't know where anything was where she had a room for the night and she saw us walk by. "Elders!" We turned and she was way cool. Came to church Sunday with her non-member aunt who we're now teaching and wants to be baptized. I love the West Indies.

Dad to answer some of your questions.

I do have a tan. It's the best it'll ever get. I only put sunscreen on my nose. that' sthe only part that burns now. The rest is just a mild tan. Which is the reason you don't see it very well.

There isn't too many bugs here in Barbados. Mosquitos a bit but nothing bad at all. Guyana there's tons, trinidad there's a lot but here it's fine. Lots of little lizards, a bird loves to come into our apartment and steal the bread. That's about it.

Playing the piano. A member here knows how to play. I play sometimes for district meetings but that's basically it. I get to practice a lot because we have a keyboard in the apartment which is pretty awesome.

We did well w/ith our money this transfer. I do however need to buy some things today. Other than that it's been fine.

I dunno that's pretty much it for me. I hope things are going well for you all. I love you and miss you.

Elder Morris

New address!!!

PO BOX 601
Kingstown, St. Vincent
West Indies

2010-11-14T23:19:00.000-08:00

Hurricane Pictures!

2010-11-14T23:17:00.000-08:00

11/01/10

I don't know if you get news of the West Indies in your neck of the woods but we had Tropical Storm pass through Barbados on Saturday. It was almost classified as a hurricane but it is now as it heads towards Jamaica. It hit Barbados then St. Lucia and St. Vincent, then went all the way up. Saturday I woke up at 6:30 like always but noticed it was windy outside. Hmmm... that's not good. It was way strong. Power went out around 9 in the morning and several large trees around us were blown down. We could see someone's roof was completely torn off. We were on the phone with many of the missionaries throughout the day. There was a curfew in place all day so no one was allowed outside. The strong winds and rains lasted until around 1 or 2 and it was just off and on the rest of the day. The Zone leaders apartment still doesn't have power haha. We were pretty lucky in black rock. It didn't get hit too hard but the eastern part of the island there were tons of floods and houses being washed away. One of our investigators, Theresa lost her home. All the members are okay, nothing too damaging but some lost part of their roof and their fences and stuff like that. We were safe, we just stayed inside and read Ensign articles all day. I caught up on my journal, took a nap, etc. We're lucky it wasn't a hurricane when it hit us or else it would have been a lot worse! It kinda hurt our week pretty bad. Due to a lot of the members having trouble with their houses they didn't have church yesterday but we got approval and all the missionaries met up and took the sacrament at the Sisters' apartment with the Boman's (senior couple here). The rest of the day yesterday was lame, everybody was shopping, fixing their houses, and nobody wanted our help. Everybody was too preoccupied. Sad event hitting the west indies. No fatalities, just a lot of damaged houses.

Friday we had the coolest lesson with Sherneal. She had been having doubts about a lot of things about the church, mostly baptisms for the dead and the kingdoms of glory. On Wednesday she had come to institute and she said that everything taught was just for her. She got home in tears just thinking about all the things she had been taught and wrote in her journal which she read to us on Friday, "Today I decided I would not have anymore doubts concerning the church. I have decided to join the faith and put all doubts behind. I know it's the right thing to do and I know this is the truth." She said the next day after she wrote that she felt peace and love inside all throughout the day. We invited her to be baptized next Sunday and she accepted one-time (quickly). She is way excited to be baptized and she knows it is the truth. One of the coolest lessons/experiences i've had.

Bazil was interviewed and wasn't ready for baptism yet. He hasn't received a testimony yet and so we'll continue to help. We've tried almost everything we can do but we'll keep trying.

Wednesday I went on tradeoffs with Elder Thomas and we had a blast. He's the funniest guy. We taught our investigator Everett and he asked us "so what do I have to do to get baptized? How long does it take? When's the soonest I can be baptized?" We told him and gave him a baptismal date which he accepted. It was a cool lesson haha i love being asked those questions. We met with him later in the week and he wasn't as cool. He just talked the entire time. Asking us if he understood what he was telling us. I said "Everett, I assure you. We understand everything you are telling us." He replied "You sure? You better be sure to understand what I am saying. You know the gospel, when you preach it, you better be sure to apply the things you teach. You youngsters don't really understand." I wasn't very happy. I bit my tongue and just stayed quiet. I am not usually a fan when people despise your youth. They don't think that we actually know what we're talking about. I know what it's like to repent. I know what it's like to change my life. I know what the power of the atonement feels like. Nothing anybody says can change my mind for I know these things and have felt them. Everett is still doing alright, he's reading the book of mormon but he doesn't really let us teach him anything. He just complains about how hard life is. We try to help and really teach him things he needs but he won't let us. I guess we'll keep trying.

Funny thing. On tradeoffs we passed a house that had a big sign with red paint saying "NO JEHOVAH WITNESSES." We laughed pretty hard and called into the house. They didn't come outside. 5 minutes later we were teaching somebody down the street and the lady said "You're not Jehovah Witnesses are you?" We said no and she said "Thank goodness, I just can't stand them!" It was pretty funny..

Transfers are next Wednesday. I find out where I'm going on thursday so I'll let you know next week. Who knows where i'll be. Probably still here in Black Rock. I wouldn't mind. I love it here. It's been fun. I'd love to serve in a couple more countries though. I have 3 flags under my belt right now which is pretty cool but it'd be fun to go other places. I gotta email President but it sounds like everyone had fun for halloween. Nobody really celebrates it here. Some do and it's getting more popular. They only started celebrating it 2 years ago here. We saw some decorations in a hallmark store here but that's it. Happy Halloween! I love ya all.

--

Elder Nathan Morris

Apartment 6 Eagle Towers

Washington Avenue
Black Rock, St. Michael
Barbados, West Indies

2010-11-14T23:14:00.000-08:00

10/25/10

ZONE CONFERENCE

Was great! It's always fun to see a lot of your past companions and friends at zone conferences. Missionaries from Grenada and St. Vincent flew in for the conference. I got to talk a lot with Elder Carter and Elder Jones, got to meet some new people I never had met before. It was a blast. Of course that wasn't the highlight. President Gamiette taught us all about "Holiness". what it means and how to achieve it. How we are building temples within ourselves and with the people around us. It was a great conference. We learned a lot, practiced a lot of teaching skills, etc. In one role play I was teaching with Elder Howe. We were teaching Sister Gamiette. At one point in the role play Elder Howe was testifying of the Savior. The spirit was way strong, even in this simple practice teaching experience and Sister Gamiette started to cry. She's like "this is the first time this has ever happened in a zone conference!" President joked about it with us after and said we're gonna get it for making his wife cry. They are way cool though. I love President and Sister Gamiette. They're gems.

My interview was pretty great. He talked a lot about the changes he's seeing taking place with me and with the other missionaries and he told me how proud he was of all the changes. I wish interviews happened more often cause every 3 months? That means i only have 2 left? Not counting time or anything it's just too bad i won't get many more interviews/zone conferences. I really pray/hope that i'll be able to serve with Elder Prince. It'd be the coolest thing ever. Going home after having served together in the Caribbean. That would be the best.

This week was really good. Because of conference we didn't have as much time to get all the things done we needed to. But we worked our bottom's off. Bazil has a baptism date for this upcoming sunday. He is doing a ton better and at church he was beginning to participate in the lessons. It was pretty great to see. We've started workign with a less active/part member family who are awesome. Sister White and her daughters. Way fun family. They are really going to work on coming back into full activity and one of the daughters is 12 and hasn't been baptized so it'll be fun to keep completing the family. We had a lot of fun this week. Sherneal however didn't come to church.. She said she couldn't catch a bus.

I don't really know what else to report on. I had a dream Wednesday night that Mom was with me in Barbados and she looked at me and said "it's going to rain tomorrow". It rained a lot the next afternoon. Haha it was kinda cool. I've had some crazy dreams on my mission and it's been fun to write them down. I've written like 90 of them. Call me crazy. Actually my name's Elder Morris and I like the way I am.. :D

Well enjoy the week, hopefully we baptize this week. Bazil is doing better but i'm not sure if he's ready for baptism. The interview will tell the tale i guess. He needs the church so much in his life. He's had it rough. I'll send pictures next week :)

Much Love,

Elder Morris

2010-10-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

i have been HORRIBLE at keeping up this blog. sorry! here are the last several letters from Nate.

9/20/10
Hey Family!

This week was pretty great. We're still working with Bazil. Hopefully should be ready for baptism this weekend. We've been teaching him every day and he came to church and he has the desire, but I don't know if the testimony is 100 percent there. We taught him at the church with a member this past week and we watched Finding Faith in Christ with him then bore testimonies on the Savior and the Atonement. It was a great lesson, the spirit was felt and I think it helped him realize the seriousness of the gospel. Sometimes people, especially here, think religion is just for looks. They seriously do believe in God, and Christ, but the common belief is that it's "all one God" and that religion doesn't matter, cause in the end we'll all be saved. All you have to do is believe in Christ. The 1st Counselor in the Branch Presidency here said it perfectly. "There's a bar on every corner in Barbados, and for every bar, there's a church right next door." No exaggeration really. There's 2 bars across the street from our church and a church right next to them. It's pretty sad. Mom you were talking about how Vegas is just a sad place with all the wickedness it has. That's just how the world is i've seen. Guyana, Trinidad, Barbados, all the same really. Hearts set upon the vain things of this world. It's hard to break people of their traditions.

That's why we need the spirit in our work.. We had a cool experience this past week teaching a lady we tracted into. We were just listening, teaching to whatever she needed, trying our hardest to listen and let the spirit guide our thoughts and words. Near the end of the lesson it felt like we were just talking. Like we weren't really helping her understand. But after testifying of the restoration and inviting her to be baptized, her accepting, then inviting her to say a kneeling prayer, she told Heavenly Father that she's never felt like this in her life. That she knew our message was true, and that she has the desire to be baptized. It was amazing. The whole time the spirit had been working in her. We were just messengers. What we said didn't really matter, but what she felt from the Spirit is what really mattered. It was great.

Didn't do anything this morning for P-day. Just relaxed, wrote letters, cleaned the apartment. President and the AP's are here for a leadership training meeting with like 25 other missionaries in the island zones. Having meetings this week. I get to see a lot of old friends. Elder Noah is going home next week and I really hope we get to go on splits one of these nights that they are here.

I'm doing just great though, no problems in my neck of the woods. We're working our hardest. I can assure you of that. We're not seeing tons of success but I gotta remember that it took 14 years for the Sons of Mosiah to have their success. Haha. I do love the work and I'm happy to be in this paradise of Barbados, no matter what riff raff comes along with it.

I love ya-

Elder Morris

Pictures included. 2 from the caves last week, 1 of the church, 1 of me, and one of the apartment building.

9/27/10
Can't believe this'll be the 3rd general conference of my mission this weekend.

Of course I'm stoked for it.. President Eyring's my main man. Get the popcorn folks!!

This past week was just great. We had a lot of fun working hard this week. On Monday we got a call from a lady, Sherneal, who just said "hey I got this number from a friend and I need to talk to someone about God. Do you talk to people?" I said yes and she wanted to meet with us as soon as possible. The next morning she was at the church. Her friend is a member who had already taught her the restoration and given her a book of mormon. She had already read Moroni Chapter 10. We retaught the restoration. she is going through a lot right now and Her family does not want her to meet with us but she said she needs to talk with people about God and religion. She is awesome. She read a lot and had lots of questions each time we taught. She is excited and is preparing for baptism on the 16th of October. We met with her a few more times during the week and came to church. She's about 23 or 24 and has a kid and so when she got to church the young single adult sisters in the branch just flocked to her. Made friends with her, talked with her, and are coming with her to conference this next weekend. General Conference is only shown at the branch in the Christ's Church parish so all of us will be going there.

We've also been teaching this guy, Forde. He is an interesting man for sure. He knows so much about the bible and funny enough has the same beliefs as we do about everything. He always says after we teach him "you know, no other church teaches what we're talking about right?" We're like "yeah we know." He calls himself the professor and says that we are the students but I can tell that he notices something different about us. He is a great guy. he's coming to conference this weekend, all 5 sessions. And he said that if he does find out that this is the truth, he will be baptized. We'll see how it goes!

Being in black rock we have some interesting experiences. Wednesday was an interesting one for sure. We were going up to teach a family and one of our investigators, Anand, stumbled upon us on the side of the road. He was very, very, drunk. He was smoking and burning himself with a cigarette. He's a 19 year old indian from Guyana and his girlfriend had just broken up with him. His girlfriend was the daughter of the family we're teaching, she's 14.... yeah I know. Weird. Illegal in most countries.. But we sent him home, got rid of the cigarettes and he came to church on Sunday. Just a weird experience. He kept on saying stuff like "Man, she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me, man!" "She didn't know what true love was, man" As he fought through his drunken tears. It was sad, but a little humorous. Interesting people in the west indies that's for sure.

We had a lot of good successes this past week and I am really starting to like this area, even with all the quirks that come along with it. This past week we actually got transfer calls. I should have told you transfers were coming up. I'm staying here in black rock with a missionary named Elder Lubberink. He's from the Netherlands I think and has been serving in Suriname. He used to be a professional ballroom dancer and is actually a really cool guy. I've met him in Trinidad a couple times and he is pretty cool. Elder Hoepel sadly enough is leaving and is going to Suriname to serve. He actually is serving in the city right next to where his family lives.. That's definitely going to be a trial for him, since he'll see his mom all day saturday and all day sunday at general conference. Haha. I've had a blast with Elder Hoepel. He always talks about how in 10 years he's going to come and visit Utah and give my wife a big hug. I'm gonna miss him.

This morning for P-day we went to Bathsheba. A surfing beach here. It was amazing. We gathered coconuts and broke them open, drank the water and ate the coconut itself. That was a lot of fun and we took some great pictures. A few are included.

The work is progressing here and we're seeing great things happen. I love you all and I am grateful for this blessing I've been given to serve in this beautiful part of the world.

Elder Morris

PS: Mom- Tell Bev to send Matt's email to me. I'd love to hear updates of him. I like to see what's goin on with Ryan too.

10/4/10
News!

I"m not with Elder Lubberink. I"m with Elder Hoepel still! There was an emergency transfer so he's still with me. NEver left. So yeah he's my companion for the next 6 weeks! I'm grateful. He's way fun.

I'm a big fan of general conference. If i had facebook i'd click "become a fan."

Loved ALL of it. President Uchtdorf's jokes, Elder Holland's talk, and my main man President Eyring gave some amazing talks as well. Elder Nelson's talk on missionaries was great. It was fun to be able to stand up when he invited all the full time missionaries to. I loved all of conference, took many notes, and now wish i had all the audio files on my ipod so i could listen again and again. I learned a ton. When I saw Elder Ballard's talk i laughed thinking that dad is probably just way happy that he's talking about fly fishing. Reminded me of one of your Lead the Way's, Dad. The one about matching the hatch. Kudos.

This past week was pretty good. We had a funny experience on Friday. We had an appointment in Speightstown which is like 45 minutes bus ride away. He sounded very cool and so we were excited to go. We go there suffering through a smelly packed bus ride and loud dancehall music then find he wasn't there. didn't answer his phone and was nowhere to be found. We called him before we left and he said we could come and he'd be there. Oh well. We were walking around and found a lady that had been taught by missionaries like 30 years ago. We were helping her shave off palm leaves to make brooms and her friend walks by and says, hey, the mormons used to teach me like 24 years ago in St. Vincent. We invited both of them to learn more and bore our testimonies and they both weren't very interested but they were very friendly and I thought it was just cool how we were in the right place at the right time.

Bazil came to conference and when we asked him how it was he said "it was ok." We tried to get him to tell us what he learned and he didn't answer us. We're pretty sure he isn't 100 percent there mentally. We're praying and trying to figure out what to do but no answer yet. We'll keep trying.

Sherneal and Mr. Forde didn't come. Sherneal is still doing good but we're not going to teach Mr. Forde anymore. He doesn't think we can offer him anything more than what he knows. Well see how it goes when we teach a drop lesson to him.

We found some cool people this week but i don't like talking about them before we really know if they're going anywhere. We really have to filter so many people. We'll get like 10 new people a week but only 1 or 2 really go anywhere. I really have to improve.

Mom- You asked about what we could plan when I'm going home. I need to talk about it with Elder Prince but his mom and fam is coming to pick him up and if we somehow worked something out where we could do it together would be fantastic. Just an idea. I will think about it more this week and let you know next week what i think.

Loved how Conference talked a lot about building yourself up and making sure that your foundation is there. Doing all the basics and being 100 percent obedient like Elder Kearon talked about. (loved that talk). I'll keep trying. I'm privileged and blessed to be here and I'm grateful for the things I've learned and all that you do back home.

I love ya-

Elder Morris

10/11/10
Hello!

District Conference was this past weekend. It was great to see President Gamiette again. Haven't seen him in 2 months. It's so weird not being around him all the time. I definitely took that for granted. He taught great. The priesthood session, we were invited to, he told everybody simply: "I do not have an agenda. No planned talk. So, what questions do you have?" After a few minutes of getting everyone comfortable they started to ask questions. President, with the spirit as his companion, then was able to answer all of their questions in a masterful way and teaching the things that the leaders here really did need to know. It was awesome. It all went perfect. Haha. Sunday session the district presidency was released and a new one called. Not much was happening with the old one and President made a quick move to get things going here in Barbados. The new one is way good.

Our week was alright. A lot of our investigators are not progressing really... We got this guy Troy who has been in prison, loves looking for fast money, and has absolutely nothing right now. The first lesson was cool. the second lesson was alright, then the third lesson we realized after he kept on talking about how he's waiting for a miracle and waiting for someone to reach down and pick him up in the form of money. We had the realization that he somehow thinks that the church can just give him a bunch of money and send him to the states. we put things pretty simply and taught him some o fthe commandments to see if he is willing to do the work to become a part of God's fold. We'll see how it goes. It was pretty funny though. Forde was dropped yesterday. We asked him if he'd prayed about the book of mormon like he said he would and he said "I don't have to pray. God has given me a brain and reasoning powers. I already know the book of mormon is true because it agrees with the Bible 100 percent. I will NOT pray about it!" His pride is robbing him of his faith, really. He is a cool guy but we aren't going back for awhile.. If he comes to church, and wants us to come back we'll start again i guess.

I'm getting better at cooking. Haha Sunday I cooked some chicken tenders up, fried them in oil with tons of really good seasoning. Then I had penne pasta and tomato sauce. Yeah it's easy but it's better than eating fast food, mac and cheese, tuna fish sandwiches, or spaghetti. I really like to eat quick and get like a half hour extra to study the book of mormon instead of taking 45 minutes just to cook. This week i'm giong to try to cook curry shrimp and rice. I'll let you know how it goes.

This week is going to be a really good one. I'm excited to find a lot of new people this week. I love this work. I'm growing all the time, not really physically. Technically i'm shrinking. Losing a lot of weight. Which is good. Using the perfect pushup too which is awesome. Haha.

Mom, don't worry about the length of your emails. I love long emails! Haha and Dad, thanks for the picture. Pretty funny to see me like... 10 years ago.

I love ya all, don't worry about me, things are going fine.

Love, Elder Morris

PS: I was thinking about it more, Mom, and if it's possible to work something out with Elder Prince and his family I think it'd be fun if you came down. But either way is fine with me. Money is tight lately and it's totally fine if you don't come and pick me up. I'd be fine either way.

What do you think?

10/18/10
Heelloooooooo! La la la.... I can't spell Sienfield? Dang i've been away for awhile...

Anyways... this week was pretty good. We got to clean up the yard of a cool member family, the Miller's. It took 3 hours Thursday morning and Friday morning as well. My back still hurts. We killed 5 huge centipedes and their yard has never looked better. Haha it was way fun. I miss doing service. There was a lot we could help with in Guyana but lately nobody likes accepting help from you. I didn't take any pictures but Elder Hoepel and I had a blast.

We found a lot of new people this week but really in weird situations and ones that aren't going to progress too quick if at all. One such person, his name being Paul, call name being "Turkey", was rather ridiculous. He was proud to tell us he has 3 kids, the oldest being 20, and with three different moms, and has a different girlfriend right now. Also he was happy to pull out his marijuana stash and roll some up and while offering us, giving it to his friend who began to smoke it. We left but he wants us to come back... The west indies is definitely an interesting place.

We have zone conference tomorrow which i'm way excited for. I am extremely excited to have an interview with President Gamiette. I haven't had one for a long time with him with the new schedule. I feel like i've never done better in my mission than i am doing right now, but i still feel like i'm not at all as good as I could be. It seems to be an ongoing battle. You'll improve in one area you were struggling in then as soon as you climb that mountain you'll soon realize that there's an even larger mountain to climb just ahead. There's so much to improve on. Yet so little time to do it in. Only 2 hours to study during the morning and it doesn't feel like it's enough sometimes. How did I manage when I was home and it was hard for me to even read a little bit a day? I'm just grateful for the things i've learned and can hopefully continue to do when I get home. I love this work so much and while i may look back and see things i should have done better, regrets you could say of not doing my best at a specific time, but then I have over 7 months left where I can pick it up and do my best. Personal progression really is amplified in this short time i'm out here. I'm so grateful for the choice i made to come. I wish every one could go on a mission.

Our main investigator Sherneal is doing great. She is reading and praying and has a testimony of the BOM and Joseph Smith but the only thing that's holding her back from even accepting a baptismal date is baptisms for the dead. She's worried about it and doesn't want to set a baptism date until she knows it's true. so that's what we'll focus on this week. Elder Hoepel always encourages me. I was downhearted about it. That she wasn't doing as good as she really could be but he just says, "Don't you know we're doing God's work? We're led by the spirit. We're doing the best that we can. Whatever happens it's what is supposed to happen." Elder Hoepel is right and I need to TRUST in that more often. I love Presidnet Eyring's talk on trust. We can all learn to trust in God more. I sure need to. Things are going well here in Barbados. My curry beef and rice turned out great and was very tasty. I am making more this week :D. Rita from trinidad told me how to make it and is sending me roti with the AP's this week when they come for zone conference. Haha. I love this place. Nothing like the West Indies!

I love ya all!

Elder Morris

--

Elder Nathan Morris

Apartment 6 Eagle Towers

Washington Avenue
Black Rock, St. Michael
Barbados, West Indies

2010-09-13T13:32:00.001-07:00

September 13, 2010

Did I tell you there's a psychiatric hospital in our area? Pretty funny. We walk by and they always start yelling at us. Black Rock is an interesting place, that's for sure.

So this week, we went on trade-offs this week. I got to go to St. Philip with Elder Babbel. He's in my group so it was pretty fun. I got to drive a big Toyota HiLux (basically a toyota tundra right hand drive). It was way powerful. We did some good work, rewarded ourselves with milkshakes from "Cheffete" which is a fast food place with almost everything. Roti, chicken, burgers, the works. Good though. The rest of the week was actually pretty tough. We'd have full days and backups for every appointment, and almost everything, every single day, fell through. We tried to work as hard and smart as we could. We did alright. We taught a lot of lessons but our main progressing investigators weren't really progressing this week. All except for Bazil.

Bazil is doing great. He is reading and praying every single day. He was asked at church on Sunday when he's getting baptized and he said, "well.. I'm praying about getting baptized on the 25th." He seems happy and enjoying church, and step by step we're trying to teach him the doctrine behind it all. It was branch conference Sunday and it was great. 2 great talks by the district.

Overall we've seen a refining process going on lately in the mission and in the areas. President is really focusing on the doctrine of repentance and becoming 100 percent obedient in order to receive in fulness the blessings of the Holy Ghost. It's really something i've personally been fasting/praying for and I've seen changes happen to me. My desire is strengthened and I'm continuing to be happier and hard working every single day.

I can't believe you are having so much fun! Amy traveling the US and you all going to San Diego and Cancun. What??? I'm happy for you and it sounds like you're having a great time. I'm praying for ya and I'm grateful for all the things I've been blessed with out here in the gorgeous country of Barbados. Today we were in "Animal Flower Cave" at the most northern part of the island. That was pretty neat. Took some fun pictures, I'll attach one for ya. well i tried but not working today. next week! We're having fun here but all of us missionaries here in Barbados are doin great things as well. I'm grateful with how the Lord has blessed us.

I wish i could send more pictures of stuff like the church and things but I don't have many pictures. More next week for sure.

I got the package!! Got it tuesday. Picked it up from the post office. It was awesome!!! Thank you so much for the new socks, perfect pushup, all the candy and the cd's. Ryan the Tie is great too. Haha. The socks have already gone through a lot. This week was RAIN. On Wednesday we were stuck under a shop in tons of rain while the streets turned in to 1 foot deep rivers. Stuck for like an hour until it let up a little. Then started back bad by the time we got back to the apartment for lunch.

I love you all -

Elder Morris

2010-09-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

September 6, 2010

Hey everyone!

This week was pretty good. We're teaching some interesting (in a good, funny way) people. We got 4 people at church but only 1 of those is really progressing. This guy named Peterson. He's the recent convert, Janis', friend. He is way cool. He wants to get baptized but doesn't think he's ready. He's been to church 4 times. On saturday a ton of our appointments fell through so it was a TON of walking in the hot sun just trying to talk to everybody we could. We saw Peterson 5 times during that day. He was like, "Elder Morris this can't be a coincidence! I'm coming to church tomorrow no matter what!" Even though Janis was sick and didn't come he came on his own and he is doing great.

Other than that we're still teaching that guy, Bazil, but he couldn't come to church but he is doing fine. Other than that we're working hard and trying our best to find some cool people. We're teaching a cool family of 6 that is from Guyana and so we're excited about the potential there. Even in Barbados some of the best people I know are from Guyana. Haha. I miss that place.

This morning we were at the beach just messing around and we buried Elder Hoepel in the sand. Turned him into a Merman with a large trident. It was way funny. Took some good pictures and had some good fun on the white sand. I really am learning to love this place. Even though the people are sometimes a bit crazy. We've met some great people and we're having a lot of fun while doing the work.

I haven't gotten the package yet but question. Did Elder Damm ever come by the house and drop of the stuff I gave him to take? Steelpan and some other random souvenir stuff. I hope he did. He said he was but i'll email him and check. Things are going great on this part of the world. Elder Hoepel is a really funny missionary and we're always makin jokes. He's fun to serve with. He speaks good english so teaching with him isn't a problem at all. People think he's like 16 but he's really 21.

I don't really know what else to report this week. That's about it for us. My feet ache and my legs are sore but just another day in the life. Wouldn't trade this time for anything else.

Love, Elder Morris

2010-08-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

August 30, 2010

Hello America!

This morning we went to "the crane." Supposedly one of the nicest beaches in Barbados, thus one of the best in the world. The sand was fantastic. It was almost milky. Weird but it was awesome. Elder Jones and I buried ourselves in the sand up to our knees and we played football and cricket. Way fun.

This past week was tough but better than last week. We've been working with this guy Bazil who says a spirit inside him won't let him pray. But.. we're trying to figure out what to do. He's reading the Book of Mormon but having trouble getting an answer to his prayers because of the evil spirit inside of him. I've never dealt with anything like this so we're definitely in new territory. Thank goodness for the priesthood we have. He came to church and that was cool so we're still working with him.

We still don't know a ton of members here and although we're getting a bigger teaching pool we still have a lot of downtime. Which means a ton of walking around and talking to everybody we can. It's goin alright though. But the days can feel very long sometimes. Church yesterday was interesting... to say the least. Our branch president, well let's just say a change needs to be made. He has no enthusiasm and causes a lot of contention. We're trying to figure out what to do about him but we'll figure out something.. It's cool though. A lot of the active members have been active for 20+ years. So they know the gospel well but they're comfortable with the way things are, but things need to be changed. It's a trial and member work is hard to come by but we're still trying.

I've been reading a ton of the BOM still and it's fantastic. I"m loving every minute of it. Learning tons and feeling the spirit more and more. I've realized that if we want to become better and feel the spirit more we have to sacrifice more and be more obedient. So, i've been doing that and i've been gaining a strong testimony of that process since. I love the book of Mosiah. It is sweet! To see the hand of the Lord in delivering his righteous people. It's such a common theme and still happens, even today. Look at the pioneers and the early saints. Same kind of thing. However like in Mosiah 23 how it said the lord seeth fit to chasten his people. We'll ALWAYS have trials. that's what gets us better and stronger.

To answer some questions: Mom, Barbados was part of the Puerto Rico San Juan East mission, which was Billy Oden's mission. He served in Oistins Barbados and i see his name on records and stuff which is fun. He's way sweet and did great here. Also, Elder Hoepel does know dutch. But we've only met one person that can speak dutch, so it doesn't really help.

WEll that's about it from here. Lots of trials, lots of blessings. We're working hard and being obedient so that's what counts. I love ya and i hope you have a great week!

Elder Morris

PS: I"ll be eagerly awaiting the package!

PPSS: Elder Nelson i'm also excited to get your letter! Hope things are going well for ya and Matt, I love reading your emails too. Keep doing great.

PPPSSS: Pictures! Just random ones from today's expedition. The one with the kid in the red shirt is Elder Hoepel!

2010-08-30T18:11:00.002-07:00

August 23, 2010

Good Afternoon!

Last week was sooooo crazy. Heavenly Father was definitely testing my patience and faith. The last couple days in the office were way hectic. It was transfer week so we had to deal with all that, a missionary had a heart attack, i had to say goodbye to people in San Juan, and then I was thrown in Barbados! Haha. It was ridiculous. Sometimes all i could do was shake my head and say to my self "i can't believe it." Sometimes I wish i could just have a day to sleep. But no can do.

Alright. Here's the situation in Barbados. 4 areas. Black Rock, Christ's Church, Oistins, and St. Phillip. Black rock is where I am. It's on the west coast but we cover about half of the island. all of the northern part of the island and the west side of the southern part of the island. Gorgeous beaches, but economically, not doing very well. The people love alcohol and parties. Just like everywhere else in the caribbean. My companion is Elder Hoepel. He's from Suriname. This is his 2nd transfer. He is doing great though. I don't have a picture of him to send. Sorry. Next week I will. Also I don't have any pictures really at all of Barbados. Haven't had time to take any. Our apartment is nice. Big but no Air conditioning. Some of the members in Curepe, in Trinidad, served their missions in Barbados and said that if i want to get anything done it's through member work. Otherwise it's a lot of tracting and contacting. The first two days not going to lie were very hard on me. Felt like Abinidi with the people of King Noah. (that's where i'm at right now in the BOM so it's on my mind). Elder Hoepel and his last companion didn't do any member work really so they don't know where any members live. And they aren't really teaching any investigators. They baptized 2 great people though that we're teaching the new member lessons to. Janis, and Gopaul. Janis is about 50 and seems just like an old time member. She is way awesome. Gopaul is guyanese and can't read and write so that's kinda difficult. Anyways, so those first two days here were basically spent walking around the streets talking to anyone we could all day. Only taught a couple lessons. We kept at it though and Friday and Saturday were great days. We set a couple baptisms dates, one of which came to church on Sunday. Friend of Janis'. His name is Peterson. He's cool and wants to get baptized. He is already reading the book of mormon too. That's about it for our work though this past week. Tough start but we're getting the ball rolling.

It was pretty tough on me mentally those first days in Barbados. I just prayed more than i have in a long time. I asked what i should do to feel good about the transfer. To feel the spirit more. To be given the strength and courage to continue. My answer came. I felt specifically "FEAST". I began to read the BOM more than i ever have on my whole mission. So basically my whole life. Every chance I get i'm reading. I love it. Then came the peace and strength that i needed. A lot of prayers and a lot of study. My mind began to push out those thoughts and I'm doing great now. I'm way happy. The work is way tougher here than any other place i've been on my mission but things are going to be great.

I have to go now, wish i could write more and answer more of your questions but i can't. I love you all and thank you for all you do.

Elder Morris

2010-08-30T18:11:00.001-07:00

August 16, 2010

Hey everyone!

This week was not productive! Here's some reasons why. Elder Vaea had an emergency Monday night and we took him to the hospital. He is good now though but he wasn't allowed to go out and work until Friday so we were inside at the office doing stuff all week. Then the new office elder, Elder Ackerman came here on Saturday and I trained him in there all day. So basically, that last week flew by and now I'm flying to Barbados Wednesday afternoon. I'm way excited for that. This next transfer is going to be a fun one. I'll actually get to go out every single day and do some quality work. I am going to miss this though. I've learned tons from President Gamiette and I've matured and grown a lot (spiritually, not physically). It's been a thrill being so close to all the action. Talking to the Zone leaders every week, sometimes more. I'm gonna miss this area a lot. Fantastic members. However it's not as bad as I thought. After church yesterday I told a few people I was leaving and it's not that big of a deal. In Guyana it's different because for some I'm the only missionary they knew. But here longtime members for 10+ years have seen many missionaries. It's not hard to leave, really. Dorris and Rita will be sorely missed. Their after church lunches then all the members that'd teach with us are awesome.

Church was crazy yesterday. They were starting it and only like 20 people were here. So Bishop decided to change Sacrament to the last meeting and have priesthood/relief society first. It actually worked great. President Gamiette taught Gospel Principles. That was amazing. Taught about sacrifice and how we need to put the things that are holding us back on the altar and become more sacred by doing so. It was really sweet. Then in Sacrament Meeting, Keisha, our recent convert, who was called to be the Relief Society Secretary gave a talk on the Sacrament and the importance of it. Baptized for just 1 month she was teaching everybody about the baptismal covenant and what it means, how we honor the sabbath and all this great stuff about the sacrament. It was definitely great to see. She is learning a lot and is becoming more and more converted.

Wow I almost forgot to write about the coolest thing that did happen this week. Tuesday. Zone Conference. Elder Coleman of the 70 taught us the whole time. It was absolutely grand. He taught us all about the power and authority that comes along with this calling. I was grateful just to be present for all of it. I learned so much. He told a lot of amazing stories that I wrote down and I can tell you all in several months in person. Hah. Don't worry. I'm not too trunky. I was privliged to take him to the airport and pick him up and drive President and his wife, the Ap's, and the Colemans around on several occasions. It was really cool. He definitely is on a higher spiritual plane than most people I've met. He's an amazing example. So yeah that was a cool experience.

That's basically it for me though. Not much else to report. Transfer is bittersweet. I will miss this place a lot... I won't be very close to everything that goes on in the mission. It feels way weird... But change is good and now I get to learn even more. I love the work, I'm happy with everything and I hope things are going well at home.

Love, Elder Morris

PS: Here's some requests for the package.

Large Bag of Werther's hard candy, mike and ike's, sour patch kids, that's about it for candy. Pictures from home, maybe a couple pairs of socks, A couple quality pens.. Just some Ideas. Beef Jerky!

2010-08-30T18:08:00.000-07:00

August 9, 2010

Good Afternoon!

This past week has been pretty great. I'm happy so that's always good. I'm pretty dang sure I'm going to Barbados next week. So expect some gorgeous beach within the month!

This morning/last night was crazy. The AP's, President and Sister Gamiette, and Elder and Sister Coleman of the 1st Quorum of the 70 were flying in last night at 8:30. We were picking them up. We get a call saying that the plane was delayed. So we waited at the office until 1:30. Their plane finally got here and so we picked them up. Now, remember I learned how to drive stick 3 months ago. And the bus I'm driving is a huge Toyota Hiace. Feel like I'm driving a school bus. The clutch is really sensitive so it's a bit jumpy if you're not perfect in every shift. Well President said to me as we were leaving the airport, "drive smoothly Elder Morris". Haha i just said, "President, I am doing my best." I was so dang nervous. Not every day you drive around a general authority.

We had a really cool experience Saturday. We went by a part member family/less actives in the morning. The wife's husband, Clyde, was the only one home. In his past he was a spiritual baptist (shouter baptist). He left the faith and his family met the missionaries a few years ago. They were all baptized but him. Usually he never talks to us, never listens, etc. We just started talking with him. Trying to figure out what he really needed and wanted in his life. And we asked if we could sit down and share a message with him. We sat down and started teaching him about the gospel and baptism and things like that, because he did want to change and he does want to know the truth. He was very open in the lesson. He told us all of the things that have kept him from the faith and we committed him to begin searching again. We asked if we could come over regularly and help him prepare for baptism, help him find the truth. He agreed and we invited him to pray right then and there. We all knelt down on the floor and he said a prayer. It was great. He asked for help and guidance to know if it's the truth or not, and for the motivation to change. The spirit was present and it felt great. We told his wife about the experience at church the next day. She was floored! She was shocked that he actually willingly listened and had a lesson with us. She looked like she was going to fall over she was so surprised. She was so happy. I thought it was such a great thing! Even if he doesn't progress towards baptism, because he has a long ways to go, he will get there, and he is progressing. It was great to be a part of that. Who knows what would have happened if we just left when we saw it was just him there.

Our investigators really haven't been progressing too much lately. We found a lot of new people though this week. We had fun. We took a member kid, Cameron, out with us on Friday night. We just were calling into houses and we taught 3 lessons, and found 5 new people. It was a fun night. One of the guys we taught seems cool. It's funny, you can get a lot of new investigators here, but quality ones are far and in between. Taught a cool guy named Brandon on Sunday with Brother Phillips though. He wants to know the truth. He's a single parent and has 5 kids. He said he is going to come visit the church this upcoming Sunday. Even though we were in the office again this week a lot, we got a lot done out in the field and I was way happy. Never had a bad day, really. I'm happy.

Things are great here though. I'm gonna miss Trinidad but I'm excited to get out and see the rest of the mission. I am glad things are going well at home. Sounds like the kids are quite a handful, a fun handful at least. haha.

I love ya!

Elder Morris

2010-07-28T15:38:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone -

Some news, I'm with Elder Vaea now. Elder Miles and him switched places and he's now in Sangre Grande. A good switch. Now they can get work done in Sangre Grande. Elder Vaea is from Tonga. He's a convert and way tight. He learned english in Guyana so he sounds just like a guyanese which talk really bad creolese.

This morning was pretty crazy. We had to take the Guyana Zone Leaders to the airport at 3 AM this morning. I woke up like 8 times in the night because I was worried we'd not make it on time. We got em there on time though. Thus I am way tired right now. These past few days were pretty fun. Basically did errands for the AP's and President cause it was Zone Leader Council and all the ZL's in the mission were here. Made for long nights and few lessons taught. But it worked out good. Like for example I wasn't at my ward this past Sunday. We had to go to the one near the airport because we picked up Elder Noah at 8:50 on Sunday Morning and barely got there in time for sacrament. It was fun to have all of them here. I got to see a lot of mission buddies that i hadn't seen in a long time. It was a blast.

Things are going pretty good for us. Remember how I said Natalie and Prince were avoiding us? We actually taught them 2 times this past weekend. Prince isn't too interested but Natalie still wants to be baptized really bad. She's reading the BOM every day which is a great sign.

Overall things are great. I'm happy with everything. But I don't have any more time so I'll write more next week. Gotta go to correlation.

Love ya!

2010-07-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

Disappointments out of the way first. 1. Natalie and Prince, our "sweet" investigators fell through. We can't figure out what happened. I'm guessing she got into some anti or heard some stuff but they haven't let us teach them since that last sunday. Well i guess that's our only disappointment. that and none of our investigators came to church. We're still working with some promising people but yeah it wasn't too cool.

I don't really get the word "disappointment." It's not like when something good happens to us we say "dang that was a great appointment." Unless you're being sarcastic about a bad doctor's appointment or something which is something I would say.

Mom you asked about some info in your letter. First, the AP's right now are Elder Damm and Elder Stewart. Elder Damm is going home in a month and is way cool. I like him a lot. They're still living in our apartment. Elder Olsen and Elder Lang are in other areas but in the same zone still. So that's why i still mention them. We're all pretty good friends.

We tried to get some work going on Saturday, our only day to get out there for a whole day and get some work done. We taught 2 lessons and had an epic fail. A bunch of our appointments fell through and then President called with a bunch of stuff we had to do before he and the AP's flew to Barbados for the weekend. Wonderful. so the week's teaching was alright. We found a lot of new people but weren't able to progress them. We're still working though. Our investigators now are pretty cool but they're very skeptical and very timid about what we've taught them. Our big focus will be on getting them to church this week.

Sunday was a glorious day. Church was cool. One of our eternal investigators, amos' aunt that comes every other week, brought her daughter and fiance. They're way cool and now are being taught by the Curepe missionaries. Sweet. We showed up to Dorris and Rita's and found ourselves smack-dab in the middle of a Thanksgiving feast. We were way surprised. I can't believe they do all this. I mean even if we didn't come they'd still cook just cause they love food but they spoil us too much. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, cranberry sauce, rolls, plantain, It was a fantastic meal. Then I brought stuff to bake cookies with so we hurried and whipped some delicious cookies up for dessert. All of our appointments fell through... again...

P-day was sweet. Elder Lang and Powers from Arima came over and stayed the night. We woke up and drove to Maracas beach in the morning. Some played football while a few of us went and explored, threw rocks at vultures that were chillin by the fishing boats. Then we all played some ultimate frisbee. Elder Prince and I took some sweet pictures, got "Richard's Bake and Shark", then called it a day.

Then yesterday we were blessed tremendously by the Child's. The auditing senior couple here. They invited us over for dinner so we could fix their computer and printer, and the AP's were invited as well. Roast beef (almost as good as mom's), gravy, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, steamed broccoli, and fruit salad. Then mango ice cream and homemade brownies for dessert. Too bad this doesn't happen regularly. And sorry if this comes off as bragging, I was just way happy about it. Haha.

things are going pretty good with me. I'm learning tons, applying more, and feeling pretty dang good about life and the gospel. I know it's true and won't ever look back. I couldn't ask for more. (except the new journal i need).

I love you all and thanks for the letters and support you've all given me.

Elder Morris

PS: It's so crazy that all these girls back home are getting married! First Dani, Abbey Maughan, Bridget, Kelli, now Karen?? Those are fantastic women and I'm way excited for them. Congrats!

2010-07-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

July 14, 2010

Remember Dave Smiley's hat, "Life is Good?" Good times. I still have my hat that he gave me when I got my eagle. HAHA tell him thanks for me.

I'm still with Elder Miles, the switch didn't end up happening.

Hey Dave. Dave Mecham. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Haha I can't do much all the way out here but here's an air high-five. Smack!

Life is goin pretty good right now. Dad we used that story of "A message to Garcia" in a meeting yesterday. We were talking about initiative and accountability, and it fit right in. It was a great meeting. Mom, I'm a little confused that girls think that nose/lip rings are attractive......They're not. Haha. You both still need to send me some action photos of you on those 4 wheelers. Way jealous! Please don't sell them right before I get home. Haha.

Transfer week x 2 today. Haha the new missionaries from the Dominican Republic MTC flew in last night and we've been busy preparing for them. The work never ends. I'm happy though. Me, Elder Lang, and Elder Olsen, get kicks out of picking odd, unused words like capitalize, supreme, or debacle, and saying them a lot to get the whole zone to say them. We're doing pretty good. Also we make up catch-phrases to describe certain situations like how if you do something that make you feel like a man we call it a "supreme situation." What's funny is that it has caught on with all of the other ones. Haha it's way fun.

Thanks Ryan for the ties. They are fantastic. To trick people in the office I've been changing them every couple of hours. Sister Mimi (the front dest secretary) is from Canada and is crazy. She thinks it's hilarious. Fun stuff.

P-day we played..............ULTIMATE FRISBEE!! Reminded me of old times. I miss playing at Southwood. What was even better was playing on Elder Prince's team! He still has his skills. Haha. It's sweet bein out here with him. Let alone him being in the same zone as me.

So get this. 2 weeks ago the missionaries in North Zone blitzed our area. Finally we saw some great success out of that on Saturday. We called one of the people they met and they said we could come. We came over and met Natalie and Prince. Way sweet couple. Gave us homemade mauby. (Look that up if you want to. Way food drink made out of tree bark.) Then we taught them about the restoration of the gospel, and priesthood authority. They were way excited. When we invited them to prepare to be baptized on the 31st, Natalie looked over at Prince and asked, "Well, what do you say?" Prince just says "yes of course!" Then Natalie loods back and says quickly "well me too." Haha they're really cool. taught them with President Gamiette on Sunday. He was impressed with them. We get there and the Netherlands Spain game is on at 82 minutes. President love football and so he looks at me and says, "Elder Morris we get to watch the game" Haha joking of course. Spiritual lesson and they are even more solid the the 31st. they are getting married in the next two weeks and so we don't have to worry about that!

Things are going well with me though. I'm happy as a clam as they say. Things are moving alon better, still busy in the office but what can you do. There's a quote from Brigham Young about the manufacturers of clothing back when they were beginning missionary work about how if they put their minds to it they will be filled with the spirit even as much as those sharing the gospel all day. Thought it was cool. My calling is to do my best both in the office and in my area. I felt like I wasnn't being useful like I wasn't fulfilling my purpose as a missionary. But I guess I am.

I love you all, and if you want to send me a letter I won't disapprove. Haha.

Edler Morris

PS: Pictures!!

Don't know which order I sent but one is a picture of this random awesome stray dog that came up and jumped up on me at the beach in Grenada. The other one is Elder Damm backing up the huge mission bus out of the driveway to our apartment. (Takes some skills). Then the first one i'm pretty sure is Keisha's baptism!

2010-07-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

2010-07-13T18:55:00.000-07:00

July 9, 2010

Hey everyone-

Things are going well here in Trinidad. This week was transfers and we were extremely busy as usual. It was great to take elder Scott and others who are on their way home to the airport Thursday morning. The mission is definitely losing some quality missionaries.

4th of July definitely wasn't as patriotic as they usually are. I did wear a red white and blue tie though. Monday July 5 we had a barbecue at the senior couple's house. Bring your own meat style. Way good. Had some delicious steaks and bratwurst, then had a devotional with all their neighbors. Pretty fun day. Transfer week has kept us extremely busy. We're never able to get much work done. In the field that is. We were too busy driving all around Trinidad... again. (By the way, mom, the biggest difference in driving here isn't the right side/left side debacle. It's the quality of drivers. People are crazy here and the streets are way narrow so it is just a different style of driving altogether. It's way fun. It's a lot more exciting driving here than back home.)

That's cool about the girl learning about the church in our ward. You don't have to know everything before baptism. Hope the foster parents let the missionaries set that baptism date. Too important. Here we set baptismal dates in the first lesson.

Yesterday I flew to Grenada, that was pretty neat. Haha. Had to go out then back in to renew my driving privileges in the country. I don't know why I don't just get an international driver's license but hey, a trip to Grenada is a trip to Grenada. Elder Gilley also came so we took a taxi to Grand Anse, ate some KFC, then went to the beach and took some pictures. It was pretty sweet. 2 more stamps in my passport so I'm happy.

We had our last show of Nuggle Radio last Friday night. It was a great one too. We'll start it back up when we get back home.

We had our end of transfer breakfast on Monday morning. We stayed the night Sunday night in Curepe and played "signs" for hours. Way fun haha. Woke up realizing nobody brought any food so we went to Rituals (Trinidad Starbucks) and got doughnuts and coffee free ice chillers. Made for a pretty good p-day.

Keisha is still doing great. Her sister was able to come. Natasha. She's a member but she hadn't been to our church in 4 years. Pretty awesome to see her there. Things are going well for them.

That's about it for me. Things are going fine, all is well in this part of Zion!

Much Love,

Elder Morris

2010-07-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

June 23, 2010

Bonjour!

Decided the other day that in the summer after I go home, I’m gonna learn Spanish and French.

Anyways. This past week was stressful. Very... very... stressful. Oh well. Baptizing this Saturday definitely helps. Keisha is getting baptized! She is way excited. Last night she read 7 chapters of 1st Nephi and is loving every second of it. She said her favorite part of the Book of Mormon is that it's teaching her to stick to what she knows to be true, and to have faith in it. She's progressing well. We've taught her everything so tomorrow is her interview, then Saturday morning at the Port of Spain chapel she'll be baptized! We printed out invitations for church and she invited all her friends, her fiancé, and her family. She's learning way fast.

Dareem.... fell through. We couldn't meet with him last week until Friday and I learned the hard way about how quickly Satan moves in on investigators. Dareem on Friday told us that the Book of Mormon is a "good book." He said that this faith is not his faith that he'll choose. We asked him "what about the Book of Mormon? You told us you knew it was true". He kinda shrugged it off but I feel so bad for him. Maybe he'll be prepared a next time. But that's why daily contact is so necessary. Because we couldn't meet with him his testimony got too weak. He'll definitely have another chance though. Marcia is kind of the same story. She has been too busy with work and we haven't been able to meet with her since last week. Didn't come to church so we'll try to meet with her again and help her come but we'll see what we can do.

One of the members out here, Brother Malcolm, took us out Sunday to teach some of the people he's been working on. Don't know if they'll progress but we're seeing them again this week. It was cool though. Brother Malcolm has been a member a long time so he knows what's up. He has been doing his own missionary work. He's like 55 or 60 but he's way cool.

Saturday night we had another episode of Nuggle Radio. Haha it was a blast again. This time we made a top-10 of different "Shame-pain" moments. Where you do something which immediately brings you a sense of shame and pain inside. The failed girl maneuver, when people find out you back-talked them (the back-talk blowup), mistakes in gender, being overly sarcastic and hitting a soft spot, etc. This time we had Elder Ackerman be the producer and he watched over the phones. People made a beeping noise and then he'd say "caller you're on the air" and then they'd start talking. Haha we'd ask for callers with stories about each of the 10 shame pains. Definitely was a blast. Our whole zone was on and a couple from Trinidad central and south zones. About 14-16 listeners. Haha definitely has unified our zone. Helps bring a little comic-relief to help me with stress haha. I'm afraid my hairline's receding!

Things are going good, I am pretty sure I’ll be transferred in 2 weeks. I have been here for 6 months almost. That's a pretty long time if you ask me. Could be Barbados. Everyone's gunning for that cause it's the new island coming into the mission. People are way excited. I had to call the couple on the island for office stuff and while I was doing that I asked if they knew Billy Oden, cause he's in the Puerto Rico East Mission. They said "Yes!! We love Elder Oden!! He was here last transfer!! They talked all about him for like 5 minutes." I told her to give him a call and tell him Elder Morris says hey from the West Indies Mission. Haha it was pretty cool. I'd love to serve in the same area as him! Way cool.

Well, I gotta get going. We have correlation tonight then an FHE with Keisha. We're going over the baptismal interview questions before her interview tomorrow. It'll be good. It was good to hear about all the stuff you've been up to!! I love ya much.

Elder Morris

June 30, 2010

I wish I had more time to write but I don't!

Anyways this past week was sweet. I don't have the picture of the baptism to show you but we baptized Keisha on Saturday! She was way ready, passed her interviews, and is going to be a sweet member of the church. She bore her testimony at the baptism and knows D sure that it is true.

One of the missionaries in the zone has been very ill and so we've been making a lot of hospital runs and airport runs so that's kept us busy. Transfers are next week and I know where I'm going, along with everybody else, but nobody else knows yet in the mission. I'm staying in the office, again, with Elder Miles. I was pretty surprised but the AP's said that president doesn't want to move me out yet. Dang I’ve been in San Juan for 6 months! I guess I’ll be here for another 1 1/2. No problem though. I'll do what I gotta do. My desire/motivation is getting back up to where it needs to be. I woke up this morning and I felt great. I worked out, cleaned up my room and desk, had a sweet personal study on 2 Ne 26 and 27. So now I’m feeling pretty good about things. The situation hasn't changed, but I feel like a lot of the weight has been lifted a little bit off my shoulders.

Barbados is now part of the mission. The missionaries there right now are just waiting for the new ones to come in. There’s 2 now, waiting for the 6 more that'll be there. They hadn't heard from anyone in the mission and so were a bit confused in what was going on. Elder Wheeler in the office called them today and talked to them. Barbados would be a cool place to serve.

Other news, Nuggle Radio was not as good this week. At 10 I had to drive to Sangre Grande which is about an hour away and my phone died halfway there. So Elder Lang had no co-host. Our ratings dropped but it'll be back up to par this next week.

I gotta go but more next week! Things are going great. Thanks for all your words of encouragement and love.

Love,
Elder Morris

2010-06-16T15:21:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-07T19:01:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-22T15:32:00.000-07:00

May 19, 2010

Hey everyone-

I have some news for everyone. I will..... be in the office next transfer with Elder Miles. Again. Big change huh? Haha. I've known transfers the past 2 weeks but I was just waiting till I knew for sure. I don't know what to think. Elder Scott said that President has been happy with how I've been doing in the office and how things are getting done. I thought I'd be outta here, but I guess the Lord has other plans. It has been very hard doing everything in the companionship, doing all of the teaching, planning, studying, etc. It gets to a point where you can do it for a certain amount of time but after awhile you become so dang exhausted. I was at this point on Sunday when Elder Scott noticed while we were at Dorris and Rita's so we had a great talk about responsibilities and relying on the Savior to take the burdens off. I realized I need to keep going, keep working hard, and open my heart up to my Heavenly Father more often. Elder Scott is a great friend. Too bad, next transfer he is going to St. Vincent to train for his final transfer. I'm gonna miss him a lot.

This new family that the AP's found, Zarina and her family, all came to church on Sunday. They liked it so much that they said they're going to keep coming every week. We haven't been able to teach them since church because when we tried to set a baptismal date with them they wanted to wait until they came to church so we're going actually today in about an hour to do that. I'll let you know how it goes. It was a great day at church. President Gamiette and his family, I don't know if I told you, go to my ward and he spoke in church about the temple and putting on the armor of God. It was sweet. He then took over and taught most of the lesson in Gospel Principles which was sweet, then he helped out a lot in the lesson in Priesthood as well. All in all, our investigators learned tons, and I was edified as well which is pretty difficult cause usually a lot of things go wrong at church. Haha.

We took Bro. Malcolm Phillips with us teaching yesterday. He took us to a less active (kind) names Bro. Reefer. He suffered from a stroke a number of years ago so he usually isn't able to attend church. He LOVES the Book of Mormon. He is reading it all of the time. He has a huge print one and it's very broken in if you know what I mean. He reads it all of the time, and is at Ether right now reading about the Jaredites. He was telling us all about it. Great example of humility and love for the Lord. If only the members here could see his example. He is coming to church tomorrow and I haven't seen him there before because it takes him like 5 hours to get ready due to his lack of ability to even get dressed. He is a great person though. Committed. I learned a lot from him.

Monday was definitely a SWEET p-day. We went GOLFING!!! Way fun. Played 9 holes on a not so nice course in Chaguaramas. 100 TT each so about 16 US including club rental. It was me, Elder Lang, Elder Olsen, Elder Ackerman, and Elder Wiederhold. We had a great time and I loved it. We'll be going again in the very near future. I won! I got 61 on a par of 33. Boo-yeah. My best was a bogey on a par-4. Haha. We all had golfer names. Mine was Derek Eagle. Lang was David Bogie (from David Bowie). There was Chip Sullivan, Austin Fairway, and Burke Cartman. We had a blast. While we were finishing the 9th hole, we saw a grey wall in the sky coming very fast towards us. Probably the most water I've ever seen in the sky. Ever. I hit in my triple bogey, then we ran into the clubhouse. Right when we jumped in it started to POUR. I've never seen such a torrent of water as that in my life. Elder Olsen and Elder Lang were off in the distance golfing through it. It had been raining a ton throughout our round so we were all soaked but they got the worst of it. Way fun though. We were shivering on the way home.

We went to this guy last night, Michael, and when we found his house we were stunned. He lives in the richest neighborhood I've ever seen in my life. No joke, one o the houses looked like one of our temples. Too bad that wasn't his house. He lived in an ordinary house next door but wow I gotta take a picture and show you. I've never seen anything like it. Maybe I'm just not used to big houses anymore.

Anyways things are going alright. My studies have been fantastic lately. I've learned a lot about the atonement and my teaching is improving a lot. I hope you all know how much I love this gospel. How much it can change people. I love the Lord and all he has done for me. I know with all my heart that the Book of Mormon is true and I love it with all my heart. I know that through Jesus Christ we can live with our Heavenly Father again. Not many in the world realize how serious that is. We need to be completely clean. How grateful I am that the keys of the kingdom of heaven have been restored on the earth again through the Prophet Joseph Smith so we can enter in through the gate and endure faithfully so we can live with Him again. I love this gospel!

Much love,
Elder Morris

PS: Dad, thanks for all your kind words. That'd be cool for you to send a letter to Amos but I don't have his right address. I should have it soon. Next week I'll give you some addresses of people you should write. I think it's a great idea.

PPSS: Mom!

To answer your questions, the mission blog is about to be taken over by, you guessed it, the office elders. Sister Gamiette and I are going to fix it up Friday morning. Haha. It's gonna be fun. 40days to Zion is a tool just used by this mission, and only by the missionaries. So Elder Vaea was the one who wrote the comment about how Sharon is excited about the temple and the Book of Mormon. It's a tool to help us keep track of recent converts and to help us know what we still have to teach, what we need to do to help them stay active. It really works. Way cool program.

I think it's funny you talked to Bishop Lang about Elder Lang. We're way good friends out here. Way cool guy. By the way, yes I am still writing in my journal. I try to do every night.

2010-05-11T17:35:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-05-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

April 28, 2010

Good morning Vietnam! (If you remember this popular TV show quote you get a gold star)

Basically, this week was a mild one. Office Tuesday through Friday, then Saturday the Luster's, the office senior couple, made us stay from 9-1 watching over the office while the cleaning crew came and cleaned it. Talk about a waste of half a day. President wasn't happy about that one. They're a little confused right now, they weren't trained very long and now have to figure out everything on their own which isn't working.

Some cool, interesting experiences this past week. Thursday. President Gamiette came teaching with us. Because he knows French we went and taught Mussah, the Nigerian man. Now... when Elder Miles taught him, he thought he understood everything and was excited to learn more. President gets there with us and the first question he asked was, "what do you believe in?" A question that Elder Miles forgot to ask. Turns out, Mussah has been a Muslim all his life and his family has ever since recorded history has been popular. President is a champ though. He just asked a whole set of questions, and then bore a very strong testimony of Jesus Christ. By the end of the lesson Mussah had agreed to ask God if Christ was the son of God. I felt bad for Elder Miles, he didn't know what to teach and President would turn the time over to him and he'd just be silent. President really is a man of God though. I felt the spirit very strongly even though it was in French the whole time.

Yesterday was a cool experience. We're at district meeting at the chapel and the Trinidad Central Zone leaders call and say that we were supposed to pick them up and take them to the airport. Something that was never told to us. So we had to zip it out of there to take them to the airport. On our way, Elder Luster (Mission office) called and said that we need to go to the Marriot in Port of Spain after we are done to pick up Elder Alvarado (Area 70) and take him to the mission home. So we get to the Marriot and are waiting for him to come. He comes down finally, gets in the car, then the first thing he asks us is "Elders, I am going to be the future mission president in the Puerto Rico San Juan mission. I need to learn how to teach the lessons better. Will you teach me a 15 minute plan of salvation lesson?" We agreed and taught a general authority the Plan of Salvation. It was going great. We were using good scriptures, asking good questions, things were sweet until we got to the part to teach the Atonement and our life on earth. I finished teaching about the fall of Adam and Elder Miles began teaching about the spirit world and resurrection. It then began to fall apart. Haha luckily a phone call interrupted us then we began talking about what was good/bad about it. I learned a lot from him. He talked about how I'm lucky to teach in my own language. It is a lot easier to become a better teacher in your language and any leadership calling in the church requires teaching. He said that because I am speaking English, I am being prepared for the leadership callings to come in the future. I thought it was pretty cool. Elder Alvorado, who I’ve met several times, is a way cool guy. Like 40 years old, kids, wife, etc. He taught us a lot of cool things and we had a good conversation. He didn't however grill us too hard. We know what we need to improve on.

Monday was a fantastic P-day. We ate at Ruby Tuesday’s and I had chicken tenders, fries, and onion rings. So good. I'm becoming pretty good friends with Elder Lang and Elder Olsen. (Elder Lang's aunt and uncle are the Lang's in our stake.) We had a blast. We drove them around, then went to our apartment and played Settlers of Catan and Monopoly. Great P-day.

Sister Gamiette (wife of mission president) is having us test a food plan. She gave us a shopping list, and recipes for the meals she's having us cook and eat this week. I'm going to write a letter with more details about stuff like this because I don't have much time but it was expensive!! Haha eating healthy is more expensive than I thought. We are eating some good food. We're having omelettes tonight with meat, cheese, green bell peppers, tomatoes, olives, etc. It's fantastic.

Well this week was alright. We are not teaching as much, finding as much success, but I'm still learning a lot. We just need to keep working our hardest. Heavenly Father will help us but we have to work for it. Amos' aunt came to church this past Sunday on her own, again. But Olivia and Amos did not. It's like the members just don't care. There's only so much we can do!! It makes me think what kind of member I’d be if I was at home. Tonight I'm gonna ask heavenly Father what need to do to change things. I am grateful Heavenly Father is there. He wants us to ask him for help. It is then when the windows of heaven can be opened. I love this Gospel. I love it so much. Where else can you find this much happiness? Nowhere.

I love the Lord, I love all of you. Thank you for your support.

Elder Morris

2010-04-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

Good morrow!

I will be emailing on Wednesdays from now on I guess. Haha. Whatever.

Big changes this last week. The night before transfers, President Gamiette called at 10:30 at night changing both Elder Beeson's transfers and Elder Barton's. Elder Beeson is now back in Canje, Berbice in Guyana. The same area he was trained in. Lucky! Elder Barton is now not an AP, but is now in Rosignol, Berbice in Guyana. Crazy. He is dying this transfer and his family is picking him up. Lucky they both get to go back to Guyana.

I am now with Elder Miles. He is a genius on computers, knows how to program anything, write programs, etc. He is from canada, but his family is now living in Orem, Utah. He has "plantar fasciitis" meaning his muscles on the bottom of his feet are damaged. He can walk for about 10-15 minutes at a time. I'm definitely going to miss Elder Beeson though. He helped push me a lot and we became great friends because of it. Hope i get to serve with him again. Elder Miles and I get along fine.

Things are tough with a car and a companion that can't walk around. Usually when appointments would fall through, we'd be able to walk around and contact, tract, etc. Now we can't really do that. It's a lot harder to fill your day. Driving in trinidad is absolutely crazy. Narrow roads and fast crazy drivers make for an interesting environment to say the least. I've gotten used to it now. Now the trouble will be when I get home I won't be used to driving on the right hand side of the road in nice wide streets. It will be fun. Haha. We drive a 2005 Toyota Corolla. Drives pretty good.

We're working in the office now. It's in Valsayn which is like a 15 minute drive away. We enter numbers, take care of some finances, etc. Basically take care of the background stuff that happens in the mission. Right now I'm working on the slideshow on President Gamiette's Macbook for the mission. It's pretty cool but I'd rather be walking the streets teaching.... Someone's gotta do it though. We're there from about 10:30 until 4:30 or 5. That'll be temporary until we get things organized then we can leave earlier to get more work done. I have a personal (and almost companioinship) goal to get 25 lessons a week still. That's the standard in the zone and I want to get it BAD. I want to prove to the Lord that even though I have 7 hours taken away during the day I can still get some work done. I'm excited to work. I feel strengthened spiritually to go ahead and do work!

Last night we dropped simone. That sounds bad. We basically have taught her everything and she has accepted everything, it's just now her choice on whether or not she will leave her alcoholic boyfriend and take the 2 kids, get baptized and start a happy life. The choice sounds easy but it's really driving her nuts. she said she'll continue to come to church every week though. She's way cool.

We're teaching this guy named Mussah from Nigeria. He can only speak arabic and french. Lucky for me I have a french companion. Haha. He seems way cool. Says that he feels power from the book of mormon, says that it feels like it triumphs over evil. We are teaching with President tomorrow evening to see him and invite him to baptism. He's way cool.

It was a pretty good week I guess. Lots of changes, getting used to things, but it's still good. I'll keep a good head on, endure this next transfer with joy, not with pain. It'll be tough but it is very possible.

Love,

Elder Morris

PS: I went to Grenada on Wednesday for a few hours. Haha. We took a taxi, (me Elders Christensen, Clark, and Chambers) and got some real milk from the states at a Grocery store.... YUM. Haven't had it in months. Then went back and came back to Trinidad. Very cool little trip I got to take. I'm lucky to be in this mission.. Haha

Pictures sent:
Elder Beeson, Rita and I at Armina chapel after Oliva's baptism.
Sunset out of our apartment window
Me in Grenada holding real milk. I know it's not a good picture! It was at night. NOt much room for good pictures.
Everybody before the party on Monday. We had a family home evening/ birthday party. Haha.
The Cooks. Starting from Left. Rita, Dorris, Bro. Ningwah, Sis. Ningwah. Delicious food.
A West Indian Birthday. Starting from Bottom Left. Roti, The plates and napkins Mom sent, Curry Potato, Curry Beef, Curry Shrimp, then pizza and a "volcano cake" made by Sis. Ningwah. Soooo good.
Me and Rita
The birthday card Rita made for me. Dorris and Rita are definitely angels. Haha

2010-04-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

April 12, 2010

Hello!

Exciting week this past week. Found out my next transfer which happens this Wednesday. I will be…..(drumroll)……. Staying in San Juan!! But. Here is the good/bad news. Bad news first. Elder Beeson will be going to St Lucia. Good news, Elder Beeson will be going to St. Lucia. He’s going to love it. I’ll miss him a lot. We’ve had a lot of fun these past 3 months. We definitely did some good tie trades though. I now have his superman tie and a couple nice ones he had. He now has a few ties I didn’t really care about so we’re good. Haha.

My new companion will be Elder Miles. He has been in Guadeloupe which is in the French side. I hear he’s a pretty nice guy though. He has a hurt foot so we will actually be office elders. Working in the office mornings and a little bit in the afternoon. We’ll have a car which will make things pretty nice. But… that means I need to work out a lot more. I do not want to gain any weight. That’s the goal. Because of his hurt foot I have to be the one to drive. Now in order to drive here you have to have been here for less than 90 days. Well I’ve been here for more than 90 days so I get to go to Grenada for a day then fly back. That’ll probably happen Tuesday or Wednesday. That’ll be way fun. Gorgeous island. Dang I love this mission. Haha.

Elder Prince is going to St. Vincent. So Elder Beeson just missed him. The AP’s are staying the same so the apartment will be pretty fun.

This past week was definitely better than the last few. Sundays always make or break the week. This Sunday was great! Amos’ sisters, his neice, and his aunt came to church. His 2 sisters will be baptized either this weekend or next. Names are Onella and Shereena. Jeremy King has been teaching them at their home for us because of it being in a dangerous community. Beetham Gardens. Oh the ghetto.

Tony and Cindy, Simone and her kids, and a couple of others that said they were coming did not come to church. Very disappointing. We might have to drop them this week.

Story time. Alright so yesterday we ate at Doris and Rita’s house, which is always phenomenal. They are angels to say the least. If you come and pick me up we will definitely go there. We were very full. Elder Beeson and Scott fell asleep just sitting on the couch after lunch. After that we went by Simone’s to check on them to see what happened. They said they had to go buy things for school tomorrow…. Goodness. So much for keeping the Sabbath day holy. Anyways we went to her brother’s house and taught them the first lesson. They didn’t understand too well but they are coming to church next week. His name is Roffman. His wife, unbeknownst to us, made us a ton of food. A big bowl full of pelau (pretty much fried rice with meat in it, has coconut in it which makes it taste very good actually.), also a baked potato with meat inside of it, and a big piece of lasagna. Remember this is about 30 minutes after we ate a huge lunch after fasting which makes you fuller anyways. I definitely prayed I would be able to eat it and somehow we ate the whole thing and didn’t feel sick at all. Thank goodness for tender mercies.

This week was just a fun week. We taught a lot of people, and just, I dunno, just had a great week. It was fun. You’re always happier at the end of the week knowing you gave all that you could. It’s like Jacob 1:19 or Omni 1:26. We gotta offer our whole souls as a sacrifice. Serve with all our heart. All our minds. It was a happy week.

I don’t really have much else to report. Mom and Dad it sounds like you guys are doing fantastic. Thanks for your great attitude which always lifts me and helps me all the time.

Much Love, Elder Morris

PS: To Emilee and her new husband. CONGRATULATIONS!!! Wish I could be there. I hear everything was great! Sorry I can't really do anything for ya so far away. Haha.

2010-04-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

April 5, 2010

First of all, Happy Easter!

I love General Conference so dang much. This time around was so good. I only wish more members/investigators could have realized how important coming to it was. We had it at the Port of Spain chapel. The building in Curepe is rented and upstairs of the electric company. Only 2 chapels in Trinidad have the satellite. It was so great though. About 26 missionaries and 10 members were there for Saturday sessions. The majority of the members just don't have that full grasp on how important it really is. I guess they could have been watching it at home on the internet... but it was a little disappointing. Luckily on Sunday many members were there. It was a spiritual FEAST these past two days. In my notebook I was taking notes in I wrote at the bottom of Elder Andersen's talk "I do not want this to end." And what a great talk he gave. Such a themed conference, all around families and parenting. Made me very excited about the prospect of having a family of my own someday. I wish everybody would just take a break from life and watch conference every session they can. I LOVED Saturday session but barely anyone was there to see it...

The week was pretty good aside from the fantastic conference. Our investigators are doing okay. The members that were supposed to take them to conference did not so they were not there. Cindy is still meeting with the Jehovah's witnesses and each time she comes to us with a bogus question they had her ask us. She read us 1 Cor. 15:50 about how no flesh can dwell with God. Then we talked about how Christ was resurrected and how they felt his body. Uh...... Can Christ not dwell with God? Goodness. Just bogus things. Is rather frustrating. She is however reading more of the Book of Mormon which is great. Her family is doing good as well. Friday during the day they fed us a FEAST! It was delicious. They had lots of "provisions" which are things like cassava, plantain, sweet potatoes, dashin, etc. I guess it's a classic Trinidadian Easter tradition. They have fried fish and then this fish stew that we drizzled all over all the provisions. It was soooo good.

The members here seem to only like to do good missionary work every few weeks because we haven't received much help lately. We're trying to serve them, build them up through doctrine, but it's just been difficult working with them recently. They don't feel the weight that needs to be felt on their shoulders...

I can't believe you guys didn't have the Easter egg hunt with just Amy. Next year please do it and send pictures. Haha about pictures…send as many as you can!!! I'm going to buy a bigger picture album to put them in. To answer your question Dad, we never see tourists. Port of Spain does a lot but here in San Juan not as much. The Falls, which is the nicest mall here has tons of white people. Very weird to walk around there. Such a nice mall. That's where Coldstone is. By the way the gift card didn't work. Will probably send it back. Thanks for thinkin about me though!!!

I don't really know what to say, this weekend was very fulfilling and I was happy even though we didn't have much success. I love the Lord, his gospel, his Prophet today. I know without a doubt that it is true. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father and giving us so many opportunities to grow and change. I love this work so much... :D

MUCH LOVE,

Elder Morris

Dad - It was exciting to hear about your experience this past week. I'm proud of you too!! Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I guess you'll be a 70 in no time. Just a question, I've been wondering how much do you get to study your scriptures each day? I hope you don't work too much. Saturday I learned so much and it was my favorite session. I wish you could have seen it. I love you so much Dad, thank you for your great example and all of the things you've taught me. I think you did okay as a Dad. Haha.

Love ya, Elder Morris

2010-04-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

Hello America!

Things were fantastic this past week. Olivia Jones got baptized this weekend. It was a great baptism. We got about 15 members to come too which is always good. At Amos’ there was only like 5. She is doing great and will be a great addition to the Curepe ward.

We had Zone Conference this past week. Again like last time they had it at the mission home which is so cool. Our zone isn’t as unified as last time so it wasn’t as good as a conference as last time but still very very good. Learned so much. Me and Elder Beeson got called up to demonstrate teaching the first lesson and we were so dang nervous. Didn’t do as good as we have done in the past. Thrown in the refiner’s fire. Learned a lot. Also, President Gamiette’s main message to us was about the priesthood. Learned a lot of deep things about it. It was pretty intense. Very cool stuff. Dad, I’ll have to show ya when I get back.

Today was definitely one of the best p-days on my mission. The zone slept over at our apartment last night, and all 16 of us went to Maracas Beach for sunrise. Left the apt. at 4:30 AM. We got there at about 6:30 so a little late for sunrise but such a sweet time. I’m attaching a document with pictures cause that’s the only way I can send them at this shop. We played football on the beach then waded around, taking sweet pictures, just havin a blast. The rule here is that you can wade around in the water up to your knees really, but obviously no swimming. So much fun.

Amos’ sisters came to church this weekend. They’re in their 20’s and seem interested. We are teaching them the first lesson tomorrow. We’ll see how things go. Our solid investigators couldn’t come to church yesterday. We have a lot of work to do this work but we’ll get it done. Thank goodness we’re on Heavenly Father’s side.

I got the birthday package! Came on Friday haha. Got here very quickly. Thank you so much. I loved everything I got. Haha Elder Beeson's favorite candy is Airheads so when he saw those he was quick to offer a trade haha. By the way! Nice ties!!! Many people were jealous :D. Also the BYU shirt, propel water powder, the CD, you guys did too dang much! I am way lucky to have such a sweet family. Thanks! I’m excited to throw a party for myself with the stuff you sent on the 19th. Haha. Things are goin well with me though, don't worry. No complaints!

Love, Elder Morris

PS: Sounds like you guys are super busy!! Thanks for taking the time to write!

2010-03-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

March 22, 2010

Good Morning Vietnam!! - If you can get the quote from the popular TV show, props to you.

This week was not as cool as other weeks but it ended with a BANG. Haha

We had great plans set up every single day this week and it was going to be a great one but basically most of them fell through. Saturday we taught 1 lesson. Usually teach 6 or 7. It was a tough week, especially that Saturday. My body is still recuperating from it.

Sunday however. Oh beautiful day. Such a good day. We had 8 investigators at church. Tony and his wife Cindy, Simone and her 2 kids, then Olivia, who we taught for a week and a half but the AP's have been doing most of the teaching, she brought her friend Carson, and this other guy the AP's have had us teach named Arnold. It was a grand day. Olivia is getting baptized this Saturday. Everything has been clicking with her. She has a very strong testimony of the restored gospel, had to give up a lot of things but wow she's gone through so much change during this process. She is legit. She’s like 25 and has 3 kids. Not married but we're setting her up with a member named Julio haha. The baptism Saturday will be great. She was handing out invites at church yesterday.

The Elders Quorum President here, President Barrios, has helped us a ton lately. This family, Tony and Cindy, needed some member help and Barrios and his wife stepped it up and helped out a ton. On Tuesday they came along with their 2 kids who are 7 and 4 and taught a great lesson. Cindy has a ton of concerns about the Book of Mormon and they really helped her out with that. They're going through a tough time, and Cindy just loved Pres. Barrios' wife who really has gotten close with her. We left after the lesson and they talked for another hour before going home at 10:30 Tuesday night. It was way cool. What was great is that we didn't have to push the members to do this; they did it on their own. Cindy has Jehovah's Witnesses come over every few days and they have been trying to prove everything we have told Cindy wrong which just aggravates everything but Cindy told us on Sunday that she will continue going to church until she gets the answer she is looking for. She asked for even a priesthood blessing from Pres. Barrios yesterday afternoon so the Barrios' came with us AGAIN and it was such a spiritual lesson. The spirit was felt so very strong and when she received the blessing she cried her way through it. She told us she felt something she's never felt before. Such a great day yesterday. That's just part of it too!

The Ningwah family have wrapped their arms around Simone and her family. Simone's husband, Dino is an alcoholic but the rest of the family is sooooo coool. They LOVE church. Deon, who is 10 told us he loved church and learned about Adam and Eve. Melissa, 12, loves Young Womens. I dunno, things are just going so great right now. We are going to work on finding even more families that the members can support and bring into the fold because I've seen so many miracles come from member work.

Today is a boring P-day for us. The Zone leaders from the entire mission flew in last night and stayed at our place and it's zone leader council today so we're just doing our own thing. Elder Olsen and Jones are coming over to play Monopoly later today. Elder Prince stayed in our room. He’s a Zone Leader in St. Lucia, and it was way good to see him again and talk with him. He is doing fantastic over there. I wish I could say more. Haha.

I don't know... things are just wonderful and peachy. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father humbling us on Saturday so we can take a step back and realize how blessed we really are. This gospel is true and I'm so grateful I have the opportunity to share it with others. I can only be an Elder for 2 years you know. Only can be a representative, a witness, of Jesus Christ for 2 years of my life. I love it.

Much Love,

Elder Morris

2010-03-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

March 15, 2010
Hello America!

The other day when we were at Ruby Tuesday's there was a white family there from Mesa, Arizona. They said they're the only non-LDS on the street. Haha kinda funny. They were going to Park City next week to go skiing.

We...............(drumroll)..........had a baptism Saturday!! It was great. Trini Time helped it start 1 hour late but it was a great baptism. Very spiritual. It's always good to have baptisms especially future Melchizidek priesthood holders and future missionaries. Amos is way excited and a legit guy.

Another great week. We continue to see many miracles coming our way. Our baptism we had planned for this Saturday couldn't come to church so Olivia will be getting baptized in a couple weeks. Also that awesome family of 4 we found couldn't come as well but are way excited and want to be baptized. It's all in how you teach the first lesson and how they understand how the priesthood keys were restored. We learned a lot from president. We had great success this week. 5 investigators came to church, one family that can't get baptized because the parents aren't married and are illegal from Guyana. But.... somehow the Lord will provide a way. That's Simone and her family. Way cool. Then this lady Jacqueline who is rather crazy but she has a baptism date for the 27th. Things are looking pretty good. Elder Beeson and I are still doing great.

We tried out a new way of planning the week and it has helped a LOT. We have had members teaching with us every day and it is extremely effective. More investigators are excited about coming to church, more members are excited about missionary work. Members that wouldn't teach with us before all of a sudden are asking when they can come teaching. I don't want to leave this area at all. Haha.

We had Papa John's twice this week. Talk about FANTASTIC. It tasted like real pizza. Mozzarella cheese and everything. In the Caribbean they have this "New Zealand cheddar cheese" which really should be called "fake cheese made from cardboard and dirt". Haha Mario's pizza parlour uses that cheese on their pizza which doesn't end well usually.

This morning we played basketball and we had a blast. We dominated.... again! Haha We had 4v4v4. One team would rest while the other two would play. Elder Huntsman, Beeson, and Jones and I took everybody for all they had and more. Haha just kidding it wasn't really that good but we had fun. My favorite play was me posting up on the box against my defender, then Beeson who was up top would lob the ball under the basket over my defender while I cut and make layups all day. I wish I could shoot but it was cool.

I dunno what to say more. This past week was great. This coming week will also be wonderful. It was good to hear from everybody. Dad, I do notice "do good, be good, aim high." It was in a conference talk last October. Of course I remember! Also dad, we have the same problems. We usually catch up on lessons and investigators on Saturday or Friday because most people are home but we don't work as hard or effectively on Tuesday and Wednesday. I would love to fix that problem as well.

It sounds like things are going good.. I love ya. Keep being awesome. Tell Ryan to behave himself. Hah.

Elder Morris

PS: I haven't taken many pictures this transfer so I will repent and take more. I really don't have much recent ones to send.

PPSS: It just started to pour! Hasn't rained in about 2 months. FINALLY!!!!

2010-03-10T16:24:00.000-08:00

March 8, 2010
Hey Everyone –

Things have been going great. We have a baptism this Saturday, and we have been teaching a SWEET family of 4 that should be getting baptized in a few weeks.

Right now I’m sweaty and dirty for we just got done playing American football in Arima. Our team killed. 10-5. (10 TD’s) Haha there was this one play where I faked out my defender, caught the ball, then the safety was comin at me but I juked him out of his boots! TD for the Chupacabras! We had a blast.

The zone is still doing very well with the Zone standard. We worked our butts off this week again and saw the Lord step in again and help us out. We needed a lot of help and received it.

Amos is doing great. Yesterday we had a lesson with him and he’s been preparing for this Saturday and he asked us in the lesson, “Am I getting baptized too soon?” We read Mosiah 18:8-10 with him and the spirit was felt way strong. He sat there for a second after we talked about the scripture then just said, “I feel so light, man I gotta get baptized soon! I’m ready!” Haha he was so excited. He was lookin sharp at church. Nice tie, slacks, shoes, all excited about everything. He’s 19 and wants to serve a mission. Pictures will be sent next week of him. Haha he is a legit guy.

About pictures. I have the memory card reader I just haven’t found the time to send pictures. We might become the office elders soon with a car which will enable us to use the computers to transfer and burn a DVD of pictures I can send home which will be sweet. We’ll see though. If we were to go into the office every day it would just be for an hour or two and we’d share the Assistant’s investigators. Sounds like a cool deal. We’d get a car out of it haha.

We’ve been doing pretty good lately. Me and Elder Beeson are good friends by now and am having a blast serving with him. We also have a lot of fun living with the assistants.

Oooh almost forgot. We got to take out the new missionaries with us on Tuesday when they came in. Went on splits and taught some cool lessons. It was fun to talk to guys that were home a month ago. Haha kinda weird. Luckily it didn’t make me trunky. They were pretty cool. Oh I didn’t even mention. I’ll be staying in SanJuan for another transfer. Haha it started this past week, just forgot to tell ya.

Well I really wish I had more to talk about. Dad it sounds like you did a great job on your talk at stake conference. You’ll have to send me your talk. Also, Dad, what happened to all those quotes and stuff you’d send from your leadership books? Haha just kidding I know you’re busy.

I love ya and know that I’m doing fine. I’m being taken care of.

One love,

Elder Morris

2010-03-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

March 1, 2010

Good Afternoon!

So basically this week was absolutely amazing. At zone conference last week we set a standard of excellence of our key indicators: 10 member lessons, 11 new investigators, 10 referrals, and 5 baptism dates. By Friday we only had 4 new investigators and things were looking very, very down. I began to pray harder than I ever had before. Friday during the day was not good at all, but then near the evening we found 5 new investigators, taught 4 member lessons, and received 2 referrals, set 2 more baptism dates. Wow!! This past week I prayed so hard that Heavenly Father would help us reach our goals and that He’d step in and help where we needed it. He definitely did. We saw so many miracles this week. We ended up reaching and exceeding by a lot our goals for the week. We were able to help out other areas that were suffering. Trinidad North Zone hasn’t had this good of a week for so long. We tore it up.

We had stake conference on Sunday, the 2nd ever in Trinidad. They called the first stake patriarch of Trinidad which was awesome. Now people will be able to receive their patriarchal blessings. It was a great meeting. They’re basically focusing on the members putting their focus on the temple. It was sweet. We were able to get 2 investigators at the stake conference. We were lucky because it was in Port of Spain which is about 20 minutes travel time.

Amos, our investigator getting baptized next week Saturday is awesome. He is so excited to share the gospel. He knows its true and he loves the Book of Mormon. He’s 19 and so he wants to serve a mission as well. His friend, Jeremy King, who is a member, has been teaching him when we can’t meet with him so that has been working great. He will be baptized on the 13th. He’ll definitely be ready. With stake conference they had a young single adults activity in San Fernando on Friday, about 40 minutes drive, and he went! He has a great support system which is key; 3 member friends. Perfect. Haha. He went to stake conference as well.

Anthony came to stake conference. He is very femme. Sister Kotiah picked him up. He’s moving to Port of Spain. Everyone thinks that he is well, gay. But, he’s never told us and he has accepted the Law of Chastity so I guess he’ll still be taught by the missionaries in Port of Spain. I don’t know what’ll happen there.

We have some other great investigators that we’re working with. Things are really looking great in San Juan. This past week pumped us up and we’re way stoked to get going and do the work. I LOVE THIS WORK SO MUCH. I am so happy right now writing this email. You should think about coming to pick me up. The West Indies is just something you just have to experience. Elder Beeson and Elder Prince have people picking them up. We all go home the same time so we could organize a sweet expedition to Guyana, seeing Kaieteur Falls, the rainforest, the Amerindian villages, the beaches in the islands. I don’t know, just food for thought. I love this mission so much! I wish I could show ya what it is like.

I got the Valentines package!!! I loved it. Definitely was packed with awesome stuff. The Twinkies were a bit much. Here I am trying to keep the weight off. Haha. Nah it was awesome. I got the memory card reader but I couldn’t use it at this internet shop so I will be able to send pictures home soon, wasn’t able to today though. Sorry!

I was definitely sad to hear about Grandma but I’m happy she left this life peacefully. I know the Plan of Salvation is real and true. I know I’ll see her again. I love this gospel so dang much. It is the only thing that really brings us true happiness. It sounds like the family is doing well. I love you guys so much!

Elder Morris

PS: This past week I bought some soccer jerseys and some other stuff. We ran out of mission funds yesterday so I’ve used personal money more than usual. I don’t know how much is left but I need to take out a few hundred just to have some cash in case I need to buy something. That’s 50 US. Haha.

Love ya!

2010-02-22T11:50:00.000-08:00

February 22, 2010

Hello from the Caribbean!

We made it out safely from Carnival. All the missionaries in North Zone went to Curepe’s apartment except us and the assistants so we had some fun just chillin’ at home. On Monday, we went to the office to do some work there and then went to Curepe to have a ping-pong tournament and played the game Signs with 16 people. So much fun. We had a blast. It felt weird just chilling not doing any missionary work but rules are rules. We didn’t hear much music, didn’t see anything bad, which was opposite of what people told us it would be. We figured that it got bad on the main road and in Port of Spain - centers of strength. After Signs we went back to our apartment. It was in the middle of Carnival. We had to cross the main road to get to our apartment and it was just FULL of people holding 2 or more beer bottles and dancing around like they were mad. Lots of crazy costumes like Halloween and stuff too. We got out of there FAST and luckily didn’t see much. Over Carnival we played Monopoly 3 times. Elder Scott, like in Georgetown, Guyana, re-did the chance cards and community chest and made it CRAZY. We had a blast.

This week really was a week to remember. Loved it ALL. Wednesday morning the ZLs picked us up, and the whole zone went to this campground up in the mountains next to Correr River or something like that. There we had a zone study. There was a big log in the river, which was just a slow creek, that half of us sat on and we had our feet in the water up to just below our knees for like 2 and a half hours. We talked about what we wanted out of zone conference and what we were going to do to make it the best one yet. We all decided to fast and pray for it and we had a great talk about the atonement. Two in the zone, Elder Duncan and Sookram are going home so we talked about them and what they’ve done in their missions and it was just a way spiritual experience. Loved it.

Thursday we had Zone Conference. The actual conference lasted from 9-4. Then lunch/dinner at 4. The Zone conference was absolutely phenomenal. I wish I could tell you all the things I learned. A lot of sweet stuff about the plan of salvation and how the Celestial Kingdom is the easiest kingdom to get to because the rest have to suffer for their sins because they didn’t take advantage of the atonement. There was a lot more to it but the Assistants and President Gamiette taught us some amazing stuff. The mission is making great strides lately and things are going to be SWEET.

We find out about transfers this Thursday. Should be interesting. Seven new English speakers are coming so a lot of people think that either me or elder Beeson will train. It’ll be fun to see. I’d love to. Elder Prince is just TEARING IT UP in St. Lucia. I wish I could be there with him. One of the best missionaries in the mission. So great.

This week was a bit of a disappointment with our investigators. None of our progressing investigators made it to church. They have been looking so great. Anthony and Nadia are awesome. Nadia is reading the Book of Mormon, asking questions, but she’s afraid to come to church cause she barely knows how to get around in Trinidad. Anthony couldn’t come so Nadia didn’t come on our own. Nadia is still sweet. Anthony is moving to Port of Spain though which is sad.

I feel so great about the work right now. I’m excited to get going and do what the Lord wants me to do. Inside I feel the Spirit more and more. Things are just sweet right now. I realized this week that we represent Christ in San Juan. Like it hit me harder than ever before. I can only be that representative of him for 15 more months. I love this work.

It sounds like everything is crazy back home. It’s always sad to hear about Grandma but I hope she passes away peacefully, and soon. It’s been very hard on everyone it seems. I wish Uncle Craig had the knowledge that we do that if he does indeed come unto Christ he’ll be able to live with them again. It is so real, the spirit has just told me over and over that it is.

I love you all!

Elder Morris

PS: Yes I talked to Elder Richardson on the phone. We were at Sister Doris and Rita's house, 2 cousins from Guyana, (SWEET MEMBERS) that feed us every Sunday after church. They are so cool! It was fun to talk to him, kinda weird though. Just did for a minute or two though.

2010-02-22T11:49:00.000-08:00

February 15, 2010

Hello.

We... have.... new email addresses! So. My new email is nathan.morris@myldsmail.net. Check that. There's a DOT in between my name. Hah. I tried to have it the same but it didn't work.

We're in the office because the AP's were asked by President who is in Grenada with his family on vacation to write the weekly email to the missionaries. Checked my email.

The new email address is done with Gmail which is sweet. Looks exactly like Gmail from home and everything. Sweet.

So with Carnival and everything, we didn't get very many people at church. Anthony and Nadia didn't come, but they still are progressing and doing well, I just don't know what happened. We'll see what happens.

We had a great week but with Carnival and everything it was pretty crazy especially how the bars were full and also the parking lots were full which isn't such a good sign. We had to go in early yesterday and Saturday just a couple hours just cause things started getting pretty crazy.

Sounds like everything is doing fine at home. I didn't get Dad's email. One thing, there's a 3 hour difference and so if Dad sends his email at 9 o clock in the morning your time it gets here for me at 12. Sometimes we email in the mornings like this on P-days.

Can't really write much more than that other than I love ya. I'll write a bit more on Thursday or so when we do 40 days to Zion.

Love,

Elder Morris

2010-02-22T11:35:00.000-08:00

February 11, 2010

Hey Everyone-
This week was such a great week. Awesome! There were ups and downs but, in the end it was sweet.

News about Louis. He was supposed to be baptized Saturday, but...he didn't. The interview was Thursday so we went over with the District Leader, Elder Bryan, and Louis was scared out of his mind. We got talking and Louis just wasn't ready yet. We taught a good lesson, helped calm his down then set a date for the next weekend. Well, he was in Port of Spain of Friday and Saturday then Sunday, he didn't come to church. We tried and tried to meet with him. Went to his house. All the lights on, door cracked open, they didn't come to the door. I guess he got freaked out. He should have been baptized a month ago but all this extra time he's had has made him freak out. We're still going to try with him but it's really too bad. The missionaries before failed to set a baptismal date, which is KET. If you're not working towards a date, you're not really working towards anything. He didn't have one before we got here, then we seet one and worked towards it, did everything we could have. We're going to try this week to get him to church.

News about Anthony. Anthony has been progressing GREAT. He is excited, reading the Book of Mormon. He came to church and we went by about 4 later after church and he told us that he's prayed about it, received an answer and is willing to do absolutely anything to prepare for his baptism on the 20th. He's way ready and very excited.

This week was fantastic. We worked extremely hard, relied on the Lord, and we saw the fruits of our efforts. We have 4 people getting ready to be baptized. We have a strong ward, where some of the members get together and teach others. We taught this guy Amos who is friends with a strong member, Jeremy. Amos had been taught the whole restoration by Jeremy when we met him. Way excited to be baptized. Things are going extremely well in San Juan.

Next week for Carnival, everyone in the Trinidad North zone are coming to our apartment. 16 missionaries in one apartment. It is going to be crazy. Good thing I get my own bed. Haha. It'll be way fun though apart from the really loud soca music and dancehall. We'll have to cover the windows. It's said that of the people on the streets, over 90 percent of them are half naked. Not good at all. We'll have a ping pong table, football, and board games to keep us busy from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday Night. It's not too good of a holiday. Sure it would be cool to see one of the craziest holidays in the world but...as a missionary? Not for me.

Thank you so much for your support. I love all you guys. The work is going fantastic and we're having a great time. About writing letters to converts, I think it's a great idea. I'll have a list for you next email home of people you could write a letter or send an email to. They'd love it. Also, next time I email might be Saturday due to the Carnival. I'll find out then let you know when we get on Thursday to do 40 days to Zion.

Hey, question, when is the package supposed to be here? Thanks for sending it btw. I'm excited to get it. And to send you pictures with the memory card reader!

Love ya!

Elder Morris

2010-02-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

service for haiti

Sorting clothes for Haiti with Elder Beeson

Zone Conference

Christmas Day haircut by sister Bullock

Christmas 2009 - Service at the Orphanage

Christmas 2009 - The Nativity

Feb 1, 2010

Hey!

THis week was quite a good one. We are having a baptism on Saturday, that's part of the good news. His name is Louis. He's about 26 years old, awesome guy. Had a bad past, but has a family now and wants to change. He is great. Loves coming to church each week. He has a 2 year old daughter, Renisha, that is hilarious yet very distracting when she sits there and screams at you. Haha.

Elder Beeson and I are having a great time. We're working very hard and it's just fun when you're doing everything you can to serve. He hurt his foot this week so it was a bit harder getting around but we made do. He is an awesome companion.

This week we did a LOT of service. The United Way for Trinidad and Tobago asked the church to send people to help sort food and clothing donations to be sent to Haiti. On P-Day of all days we went for like 4 hours. Then Wednesday we got asked to come back so we did that for another 4 hours. Took a lot of time out of proselytine, butu we did get a lot of work done. It's pretty cool to see that we really do know how to get things done. Who knew, the white boys know how to work!! As opposed to everyone thinking that we're very lazy and don't know how to work. On Friday we went to Curepe to help Elder Duncan and Elder Jones out doing some service and teaching lessons. They overbooked and couldn't change the appointments so me and Elder Duncan went and cleaned up this lady's yard for a few hours.

It was fun, this morning we played basketball at the Arima chapel. We had a way good time. Our team, the Assistants, Elder Beeson and I and Elder Duncan kicked butt. Way fun. I, however, haven't played forever so I wasn't too good. But it was fun anyways. Made a couple good drives. I love sports on P-day. We couldn't do that in South zone because Siparia was way far away from the other areas so we couldn't move to other areas. Elder Clark and Elder Carter call me from time to time and we chat about how Siparia is doing.

It was great to be able to talk to Grandma. She was able to talk for about 10 minutes which I was grateful for. Grandpa said she wanted to sit up to talk to her grandson on a mission. I love Grandma. Don't worry, I'm not worried about her. I am happy she's going in peace and that people are showing her that she is indeed loved very much. She said that she wanted to send me some money to buy a souvenir. I kept telling her not to warry and that I don't need anything but she wouldn't listen. Haha. Grandma is great. I love her a lot.

Ah. Here's something I can tell you about. Carnival!! Sounds nice, doesn't it? Biggest Holiday down here. Honestly, it is pretty much a holiday of sin. The streets get filled with people wearing barely any clothes, dancing to "soca" music and doing very very immoral things. The missionaries get shipped out and we can't go outside for 3 days. It starts on the 14th this month so two weeks from today. We go to Sangre Grande on Sunday then stay until Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday is when the streets are bad. Wednesday everyone goes to the beach to end the holiday with more badness. Sounds like fun right? One of the biggest tourist destinations in the Caribbean. The biggest one in the work is in Rio de Janeiro, Taylor's mission, so pray for him. Haha.

Curepe ward, the one we go to is awesome. There are some great member families that we can work with and it's the ward that President and his family go to. His family is pretty much one of the coolest families I've met. They are so cool haha. We stacked the chairs and Amy, the little 3 year old girl was climbing on the stacks. My back was turned to the stack of chairs talking with Elder Duncan and all of a sudden, she jumped on my back and grabbed onto my neck. Haha it was hilarious. She's crazy. Sister Gamiette got mad at her. Haha.

Well that's pretty much it folks. The mission is going SWEET. I am loving every minute of it. Can't ask for much more. Except packages and letters including lots of candy (including airheads, sour patch kids and watermelons, and Swedish fish.) Anything like unto it is great too! Ties....ties ties ties. My collection is large in stature but I could use a lot more. (Ryan that one is for you.) hahaha. I'm kiddin. This is a long list of demands. Just ideas of stuff you can send. Elder Barton got a package from his parents from dearelder.com and it had these cravers brand cookies with fudge on the bottom. They were absolutely phenomenal. Haha.

I love the Lord, love this mission, love the missionaries, and love my family back at home. I know this gospel is true and I know that as we seek guidance and counsel from the Lord we really can receive it. Just have faith.

Love ya -

Elder Morris

PS: Included is a picture I took in Guyana. I need a card reader for my memory cards so I can send new pictures. I lost my cord. Next package could you send me one? I need a good one that'll work for both XD picture cards and SD cards. Thank you! I love ya.

PPSS: I didn't get emails from Mom or Dad. If you had questions, I won't be able to answer them until next week. :D

2010-01-29T17:05:00.000-08:00

Jan 25, 2010

Hey Everybody.

Dad-I hope you're doing okay. Sleeping at Grandma and Grandpa's and everything. I wish I could be there with you. I'm not worried. Just...I wish I could be there. It was sad to hear about Grandma. Please. Tell her I love her. Give her a big hug from me. Tell her that I'm staying away from the Spanish girls. (she'll get that...I hope! Haha)

Mom-Yes I DID get a haircut from Sister Bullock at Christmas. They aren't here anymore!!! I miss them bad. Best senior couple in the mission. Them and the Lingren's. They are legit.

Alright so transfers happened and I am way way way happy. I live in North Trinidad which is very Americanized. They have Pricesmarts here. Owned by Costco, ya have to be a member, ets. Bulk food, everything. Looks exactly like Costco. They even have a hotdog and drink deal. They have a Coldstone, big ol grocery stores, wow. I'm in heaven. We really do take things for granted back home. Our apartment has air conditioning units inside each bedroom. A bidet in the bathroom (instead of toilet paper which is actually quite useful) and hot water hearter. It is BEAUTIFUL. The assistants, Elder Scott and Barton, are some of the coolest guys I've met. They are way fun to hand out with and talk to after the day. Elder Beeson I thought would humble up a little bit but he doesn't like to let me talk in lessons. It's rather annoying. I love the guy, we have a lot of fun, just like dad said in his last letter, pride is definitely the issue. He is a great teacher, way cool guy. We are having a lot of fun.

The new area is sweet. I'm actually serving in a WARD. Curepe ward to be exact. We actually have a good ward mission leader, bishopric, etc. Something I've never had my whole mission. Basically SanJuan area is LEGIT. The missionaries before didn't do a dang thing so we got here and there was absolutely NOTHING. We had to start from scratch. The assistants are going on zone conference tour for 3 weeks and they have a cool investigator, Louis, that we get to work with now. He's getting baptized on the 6th of Februray and is doing great. It's going to be a very very fun area. I hope I get to stay awhile.

I am very proud of Dad for being the awesome father/son he is. Ididn't appreciate him enough back home but I do now. Definitely.

I can't write much more, but please tell Grandma I love her. I hope she is doing okay with all of this. My prayers are with her and Grandpa. Also give Grandpa a hug for me. Tell the Smarts thanks for writing to me. It was fun to hear from them haha. They are awesome. Tell Parker I think he's a G and that the ladies are gonna love him if he treats them right.

Love all of ya. Elder Morris

2010-01-29T16:45:00.000-08:00

January 18, 2010

Hey Everyone!

BIG NEWS!! I'm being transferred. Seems like just yesterday I entered Siparia. Basically the way the branch helped us out, supported us, I mean the lack of support, President decided that Siparia is only strong enough to have 1 set of missionaries. I'm giong to be in San Juan, which is north Trinidad (busy city). I'll be with Elder Beeson, my awesome MTC companion. We'll live in the Assistants' aapartment. That's going to be a BLAST. Elder Barton and Elder Scott are the Assistants and I knew them from Guyana and they are way tight. We have air conditioning, water heaters, and a bidet! Haha. Luxuries not found often in this mission. It's been a very long time since I had a hot shower. I'm stoked. Elder Clard and Elder Carter are still in Siparia. I'll miss them a TON. We had a lot of fun as a district. They slept over last night and we just chilled and talked for hours. They're way cool guys. I'm gonna miss Elder Jones too, bad. We got real close near the end of this transfer and now we gotta split. He gave me probably one of the most awesome compliments yesterday. Told me that I'm a lot like Elder Scott wherein I get along with everybody. That meant a lot to me. Elder Jones is a G.

We didn't get close to anyone in the branch really so saying goodbye was pretty easy. Sham is the only one I'm really gonna miss. He helped us do a lot of work and made us many meals. He is a way cool guy. We're goning over for a last dinner tonight. The branch, really, is struggling with pride. They did not accept us and nobody, except for Sham, even knows our names. Well President Nandlall, the Branch President, does but it made it really hard to work when no one is willing to help you at all. If they would have helped we'd probably be seeing a lot more progress letting us stay there.

Zone conference was absolutely amazing on Tuesday. President Gamiette is by far one of the most spiritual influences I have ever met. When he walks in the room you can feel tangible difference. He is absolutely amazing. I learned a ton. The mission is switching to working with members and through them finding new investigators. You can see that's why this area was a bit difficult. Haha. My interview with him was very short. Basically he told me that by the end of my mission he wants me to be a zone leader or an assistant, but that right now I need to get more motivated to go out there and get the job done. I will definitely work on that one. He really has a way with getting you excited for the work.

The Bullocks have gone back to America. We will miss them a ton. They live in Oregon but go down to Utah all the time. Michelle, our golden investigator, didn't come to church, and she isn't praying to knot the truth so I don't know, I feel like we didn't leave the area accomplishing much. Me and Elder Jones worked extremely hard and as smart as possible. I don't feel like it's really a bad thing. Just no success I guess.

That really about it this week. I wish I could send pictures I just don't have time. A DVD of all my pictures and videos will be sent soon.

I love all of you so much.

Elder Morris

PS: Dad I just got your letter. Don't worry about me being humble. I'm probably the most humble person in the mission. (Pun Intended). No really. I've dealt and will continue to deal with prideful missionaries and it's one thing I watch very carefully about myself, making sure I don't let myself slip. It's human nature to think that you're better and more correct than everyone around me. . But it's not the nature of a future God. PPSS: Mom, yes I have been in contact with Elder Sanchez. Haha he's doing great!! His spirits and his testimony I've never seen better. I'm really happy for him. PPPSSS: Mom and Dad, thank you so much for your support. I love you guys.

2010-01-15T15:18:00.000-08:00

January 11, 2010

Hey Everyone!

This week was sweet! We worked way hard this week and it paid off. We found a truckload of new people. Hopefully they progress. We're working hard to do it.

We're working with this really smart lady, Michelle. She came to church yesterday and loved it. She didn't stay all 3 hours so her baptism date is pushed back until February 6. You can see how the baptisms are going to be a lot slower now.

Haha it was fun to hear that Jordan's back. I love that kid. Tell him hi for me will ya? I'm sure he did an awesome job on his mission. I can't imagine how much different a mission in the states would be.

The members in the branch here aren't too cooperative. They don't care too much about helping the missionary work out at all. The only one who does is Sham. We go over to his house every other day for lunch then he helps us teach people a couple times a week. Yesterday he cooked us cookup and barbecued chicken. It was delicious. After, he went teaching with us from 2-9. It was legit. Sham is going to the states late this year or early next year.

This week was really really good. I don't really know what to say about it though. Sorry. Haha I have those weeks from time to time. Just know that we're working hard, doing great and the work is moving forward. "Boldly, nobly and independent!"

Elder Morris

PS: Tell Megan to forward her blog to my email. Also. Tell her to send me pictures from California. That's so sweet they went!!! I bet the girls loved it.

2010-01-05T15:27:00.000-08:00

January 4, 2010

Alright peeps. Here's what's going on?

So this week was pretty sweet. We decided to take a few paths less traveled and we found the most beautiful, awesome places I've seen on my mission. We took one path and about 15 minutes down it at the end, where nobody is, we found a pig farm. This guy was there, his name was Peters, and we taught him about the restoration. We got videos of our adventures this week. I'll have to fugure out a way to send those home.

Another time, we saw this trail on the side of the road that looked like a hike. We decided of course to take it. We ended up in the deep bush and on top of a hill we found a Jehovah's Witness. We taught her the restoration. We went back the next day and she totally denied everything we taught, tried to at least. We bore our testimonies of it, asked her if she'd pray about the Book of Mormon. She said she would definitely not do that because the New World Translation fo the Bible is perfect which is completely, ridiculously false. So pretty much she's going Terrestrial. Oops for her.

On that hike we found a bunch of fruit trees. Tons of five finger fruit. Look it up on the internet. Delicious stuff. I got videos of that too. It was only a 10 minute walk but is was dang fun. We're not having too much success with progressing investigators. We're going to focus on baptismal dates and keeping that as their commitment. Instead of focusing on finding just new investigators, we're focusing on making sure those new investigators know our purpose, which is to help them get an answer to their prayers, read the Book of Mormon, and get baptized. If they reject if and won't, then we don't teach them anymore. It'll work.

Sounds like everybody had a great Christmas/New Years. Tell Brady I said congrats and that I'm WAY jealous. He's gonna do great. Tell Emilee Congrats too. That's pretty sweet about her engagement!!

I got the Christmas Package!!!! I LOVED IT! The CD is great, along with the notebook. I love thee BYU shirt. I was going to ask for another shirt and I dunno how you did it but that's the perfect one. The Under Armor stuff is sweet too because now that I'm not fat, I actually look semi decent in it, hahaha. Tell Grandma and Grandpa thanks for the nice book too! It was fun opening up that package. All the zone was there when I opened it up and everybody was jealous of that tie - a nice thick fatty. Automatically missionaries began to break the 10th commandment because of that tie. (Don't covet :D)

The senior couple/zone leaders pick up the mail everytime they're in Valsayn. We're about an hour and a half away from the mission home, so we can't go pick it up ourselves.

I really don't know much else to say. Things are going great for me and I'm loving Trinidad. The people are a lot less friendly and the members could care less about you, but other than that it's sweet. Haha.

I love ya all.

Elder Morris

PS: Thanks for the advice Mom and Dad. It'll help. BTW Dad, a lot of the stuff in the book you're reading, we are already doing in the mission! I can't talk much about it but just know that I do know some stuff about that ;)

2010-01-05T15:04:00.000-08:00

December 28, 2009

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas in Trinidad was an interesting experience!

Christmas eve, we just went around to members all day because no one wanted to talk to us. The streets were flooded with people buying last minute gifts, just how they are back home. Sham, the coolest guy here, made us ham and cheese sandwiches with onions and they were delicious. We watched "Joseph Smith, The Prophet of the Restoration" with him and his family. He is 29, sweetest guy ever, living with his Mom and Dad. Not married yet. Going to the temple in Utah in September or later. He is legit. Had a fun time with him. We went around to other members all day it was just the most fun there. Haha.

Christmas morning, woke up, then went to our 6 inch Christmas tree where my gift from the Branch President was wrapped. I opened it up and inside was...a TIE!! It was actually pretty nice. A light blue one. We got ready for the day, and got picked up by the Mortons to go to San Fernando where we were going to an orphanage. 12 of us missionaries and the 2 senior couples were there and we sang Christmas songs, did comedy skits, and then dressed all the kids up as wise men, angels, etc. We had them perform a little nativity. It was fun! One of the kids, they were all saying, didn't get any gifts. His gift was that a family from the states was flying him to the US so he could have a FAMILY for Christmas. What a better gift than that? It was a cool experience.

After that, we went to the Mission Home for Lunch and a program. President Gamiette's kids were all there along with all the missionaires and couples throughout Trinidad. President's children are the sweetest coolest kids ever...French Speaking that is. My nieces and Bryce owns all the other ones. This little girl, Amy, is like 3 and she has the cutest smile ever. She would run around and just hang out with all us missionaries. It reminds me of President Monson and how his family was over the Canada Mission. While they were there his wife Frances had a child. How fun would that be? Haha the miossionaries cared for it like their own sister. The lunch was fantastic. President Gamiette is a whiz at ping pong so a table was set up and missionaries were trying to beat him. Elder Nielsen and Elder Beeson actually came pretty close. Elder Mcintosh, a senior, did a cheesy hilarious magic show, and then we just had a talent show with everybody. It was a fun time. After that we went home and enjoyed the rest of the evening talking to our FAMILIES!!!! That was the sweetest thing ever. I thought it'd be different. But it was just fun to relax and gaff with my family. I was laying on the roof of our apartment (little flat concrete roof) looking up at the coconut trees and stars while talking to the people I love. So much fun. I loved to hear from everyone. Amber and Dave, I will talk to you on Mother's day! I wanted to talk to you guys on Christmas but you'll just have to wait 5 months. :D. Hahaha.

Apart from that we had a great week. Elder Jones and I are getting along a lot better. He is a little ADHD. Well a lot ADHD, but we've had some good fun. We're working a lot harder and better. It'll be a fun next few weeks. It was fun with the holidays but I've had enough of being hassled by horribly drunk or hung over people. Haha.

I didn't mention that for 2010, the baptismal requirements in the mission have been raised completely. In the past, they had to be at church 2 times, and be able to get through the baptismal interview. Now they have to have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon being the most correct book in the world, and Joseph Smith being truly a prophet. A lot of other things as well. They have to be at church all 3 hours three weeks in a row. They have to read the Book of Mormon 14 days in a row. There is a ton more but that's just an idea. It will be extremely harder but in return the church will in fact be built. The people brought into the church sill be ones that will help prepare Trinidad and the rest of the West Indies for a temple. Our goal is 1000 endowed members in the mission. President Gamiette said "That's a Temple!" His goal is by the end of his mission, having the West Indies prepared for a temple. It'll be SWEET.

Basically it was a great week. I loved talking to my family. Loved it. Can't wait for Mother's Day. I was able to talk to Grandma and Grandpa which I loved! I miss everyone so much. But I know I'm out here for a reason. How great it is to be doing the same thing that the missionaries of old were doing: Brigham Young and Samuel Smith in Europe, Joseph Smith himself in Canada, the apostles in the east 2000 years ago. I am really out here on behalf of my Heavenly Father. Like Joseph Smith said. "Shall we not go on in so great a cause?" I love this work :D.

Elder Morris

2009-12-22T09:30:00.000-08:00

December 21, 2009

Merry Christmas!!!

Funny story. We're teaching this family, the Dinnoo's. Husband, wife and 2 daughters. They go to a presbyterian churrch. They invited us to attend the church's Christmas program where the girls would be performing. So, we took a member, Sham, with us and saw it. Haha! It was pretty fun actually. They were really excited to see us. When we walked in, you wouldn't believe the stares we got from everybody. They probably couldn't believe 2 missionaries would go to another church. Haha some people I think were offended. We were just there to support that family. It was fun.

One of the best things about Trinidad? WE GET TO EAT AT MEMBERS' HOUSES!!! I'm going to get fat. We have had some good food though. We went and taught this lady, Patsy, who gave us Turkey leg and rice with potato curry. Later in the day, we visited Sham, the 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency, who gave us goat and rice w/dhallpurri. Mmmmmmmm. It was actually very good. Too much food for one day though. I'm used to eating in Guyana which is not eating very much haha. It's been fun though.

We didn't really have much to do this week. We had appointments scattered throughout the week. Now, the people of the West Indies don't know what appointments are. So, we'd show up at the time we set with them and half of them aren't there. The onther half, 90 percent of them, lie and say that they have to go out just now. "Just now" here means soon or in the futures. Like if someone is telling you to do something and you can't right then you say "just now." Haha. I like speaking proper English better though.

Most of the week was tracting, contacting on the street, and teaching the few people we could. We called one of our contacts, Sebastian, who told us to come over right now. He needs somebody. So we go over and when we get there he starts to cry. Says his wife left him, he has no family, and that nobody likes to talk to him. We calmed him down, taught him about the healing power of the atonement of Jesus Christ and he felt a lot better. Invited him to church. He said he can't come because of work but we'll see if we can get him next week.

The Christmas season is fast approaching and it doesn't feel like it AT ALL. Yes, there's Christmas lights up, Christmas music playing from time to time but that isn't any change for us. We can't stop to enjoy the season. It's only work for us. But the work is good and I'm enjoying it. I really am. My companion isn't too much, he doesn't have a good attitude. We blanked the area which means that we don't know any one, where they live, or we don't have anyone to teach. Can be rough. He complained all day Saturday while we walked around and because of that, we didn't have the Spirit and we didn't have a good day. I don't know what to do to help him out. Because of his lack of desire it's hurting me as well. Makes it harder for me to go on and be the hard worker I need to be. But it goes on. If you have any tips let me know. He doesn't listen to me, thinks I don't know anything about missionary work, which is FALSE, and just doesn't respect my opinion. Keep in mind he's only a MONTH ahead of me in the mission. Give me a break!

This Friday we're having a Lunch at the Mission home for Christmas. We're all traveling up to Port of Spain and it'll be a great time. We don't know what we're doing, it's all a big surprise but it sounds like it'll be way fun. Friday morning we're going to an orphanage and putting on a show, dressing the kids up as shepherds and wise men and doing a nativity, giving out presents. It'll be a fun day.

The PHONE CALL!! Alright. We're going to be busy all day until the evening where we're going back to our apartments and doing phone calls home. So, how bout you call about 9 o'clock our time? Which is 6 o'clock in your neck of the woods. I would like to talk to Grandma and Grandpa too. We'll figure something out.

It was weird hearing about the missionaries in our stake from home, Mom. Haha I really have no idea what the work is like there. I don't remember even seeing missionaries except every once in awhile when they'd be at our ward. That's cool about the service missionaries too.

Crazy to read about Bishop Hymas' Christmas message as well. Kind of reminded me that yes, I amd a long ways from home! I almost forgot! Haha. Sounds like he is doing a GREAT job. Tell him I said hello and wish him a Merry Christmas.

Well I really have to get going. It is sad to hear about grandma not feeling well. Tell her that I LOVE HER. I sent her a letter and I hope it reaches soon. I really feel bad for her. I'm glad to hear so many people are giving her the support that she needs.

Elder Morris

PS=I hear the best way to call me is by getting a phone card. Do it the cheapest way possible. I get about an hour to talk. A bit more/less isn't too big of a deal.

2009-12-22T09:21:00.000-08:00

December 14, 2009

Hello from the prideful and rich country of Trinidad! You'd be surprised. Trinidad is super wealthy compared to Guyana. I do miss Guyana though. The people are much nicer and more humble.

So the plane ride over here? A BLAST!!!! I loved it. Elder Prince and I sat together and talked for the whole 1 hour ride. He has a connecting flight to St. Lucia. We got some pictures of us on the plane. His camera though. Way fun! I loved it. What a great experience. Flying for transfers. Not many people get to do that!

There are tons of hills in Trinidad. My legs are getting quite the workout every day. We are opening a new area in Siparia, including Fyzabad and Arin which is about 30 minutes drive away from Siparia. I see a LOT of potential here. The branch gets about 35 people each week at church. Only about 80 members in the branch here. There's one stake in Trinidad and we're in a branch. The other missionaries here are Elder Clark and Elder Carter, both of them are sweet. I like them a lot. Our apartment is brand stinking new. Nice tile and very roomy. The landlord bought new everything: Fridge, stove, beds, the works, way nice serta mattresses. The only problem...nothing was installed when we got there. We had a case of bottled water, 2 matresses, and a working shower. That was it. Now we finally have the fridge, stove, a sink, and the beds. Other than that they're still working on it. Basically we were living like cavemen for a bit. It was pretty cool actually. My companion complained and complained but I just sat back and laughed at it. Haha, it was fun!

I've noticed a lot of change in me recently. Personality wise. It's an answer to my prayers really. I've been praying hard for Christlike love and I'm finally beginning to experience a tiny bit of it. It feels like nothing really gets to me anymore. I just am content with my surroundings and I honestly am felling like I do love everyone. It's been great really.

I can't write much more. I have 2 minutes left. The internet cafe is closing so I gotta go.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder Morris

2009-12-09T07:45:00.000-08:00

Winston Chan and his wife Sharon

Mark John, my companion for 4 days

Me and Bro. Vanderstoop

The Creole shop I ate at almost every day. DELICIOUS!

December 7, 2009

You asked some questions I have just failed to mention in letters home:

To Mom - All people do on Christmas Eve is party and get drunk here. People lives revolove around the rum! We didn't get to see the Christmas Devotional. The Church isn't that established here....yet.

Dad - I have also been wondering about the weather in Guyana. You have not said much about the weather at all. I can see by the weather on MSN that it is pretty much the same temperature every day. Does it rain very much? What do yo do when it rains? Do the streets flood when it rains or does the water drain off pretty well?

Alright, to answer the question about weather. Today for example it poured all morning but now it's way sunny and hot. Basically just totally unpredictable. Very hot, very, very humid. Much hotter than Hawaii. At least it feels so. You get used to it. In Georgetown the streets flood very badly because the drainage is bad but here in Berbice it's so much country that it doesn't flood too much. Tons of muc though. I never thought I'd wash my pants so many times. When it rains hard we don't go around walking. One day it poured until about 2:00PM so we were stuck inside. You can go out and get soaked but everyone stays inside and nobody lets you in when it's raining that hard.

Dad - I am also interested in knowing how you get around. I assume that you don't have any bicycles and walk most of the time. Is a taxi available if you have to go a long distance? I also assume that you use buses from time to time, which you have indicated in your letters. Do the senior couple have cars? Please let me know some of the details about your transportation.

Alright, in Rose Hall apartment the missionaries in times past bought bicycles. They were there but the tires were broken so we didn't use them. In Berbice there are cars that'll give you short drops (100 dollars for a short on each). Normally buses are for longer distances. You just stand on the road and wave your hand out when a car is about to pass. You jump in and say "Rose Hall, at the arch." In Georgetown, there are taxi services. Expensive, but they pick you up and drop you off exactly where you want to go. We used buses (60 dollars for a drop). There are tons of different routes and bus #'s that you just have to memorize. Senior couple do have cars. Nice "07 Toyota Corollas. I'm way used to driving on the left hand side of the road too. It'll be weird to go home and see the opposite.

Dad - You also haven't said much about using your piano playing skills. Do you ever play in meetings at church or missionary meetings? I hopeyou get the chance from time to time. Please let me know.

Sister Greeta in Rose Hall played the keyboard, just and electronic, cheap keyboard. She only could do the really, really, really simplified hymns so she has me do 2 hymns and she does 1. I actually have gotten a tone better at sight reading. I can get through most hymns now. I don't play at missionary meetings though.

And on to my weekly letter!

TRANSFERS!!! I am going to.........Siparia, Trinidad. Whooo! I'm so excited. It's kind of in the countryside of Trinidad. The only fast food is a KFC which I hear is just 100 times better than the states ones. There is a Subway in Point Fortin though, which is just 15 minutes away. My companion will be Elder Kent Jones. I hear he's great, only been out 7 months so just a transfer ahead of me. We're opening up a new area and neither of us has been in Siparia before. The areas are Siparia 1 and 2. 2 is the one where that missionarie already work. 1 is the one I'll be in. Craziness - both blanking the area and starting up the missionary work in a new place!! I'm STOKED for hot showers, a washer AND a dryer, maybe air conditioning too. That'd be too much to ask for. The Bullocks will be in Point Fortin, so very, very close. They are sweet, cook for the missionaries. Love it. The couple in Siparia is the Mortons. I hear they're alright. Sister Morton is very sick so that's not good.

I am sad to leave Guyana. Honestly. But having a missionary to be with that likes to go out and serve is something I just can't wait for. Anybody that has served with any of the Guyanese mini-missionaries knows what I mean. It's just tough. They don't like us because we're white and they think we are really very stupid. But, that's them. Just gotta deal with it. And we do. It got tiring pulling all the weight. I was with Brother Vanderstoop the last 4 days. He's gone now but it was fun. I'll send some pictures. Since it was so short I just didn't really care about what they said/did. I'm going to Trinidad!!

Saying goodbyes was just bittersweet. It really was. I'm going to miss a few people here VERY much. Sister Geeta first of all. She is a phenomenal person. I loved talking with her, learning from her, and trying to teach her new things. We went over once or twice a week. She'd give us a sweet drink and biscuits (Pepsi and crackers/cookies) and it was just fun. Strongest member I've met here.

Saying goodbye to everyone was just sad. Got great pictures. I loved the people here. I had a better time at Kitty but in both places I'll miss it. I'm excited to go to Trinidad though. Elder Beeson will be in my zone which wil be very fun.

THIS MORNING!!! Back Dam. So fun! Just a place that's pretty much just the jungle. Millions of mango trees. For an hour we went around picking up mangos to bring back and eat. Got buckets filled with em. After that we got into a mango fight. Running around crazy, just an all out war pelting each other with mangos. It was so sweet. It was pretty much the best way to say goodbye to Guyana. Slept over at Elder Prince's and we just talked all night. Elder Prince will be going to ............. St. Lucia!! I'll miss him a lot. We got really close.

So. The week was good. Just saying goodbye to people. Getting less actives to come back to church. Winston Chan, his wife Sharon, and their kids were all at church again. The lesson was on exaltation which usually frightens people but they loved it. Winston will be a great asset to the church. They said their goodbyes to me. I was happy to see they weren't converted to me. They just said thank you so much for teaching us and bringing us to this church. We wouldn't have found it without you. I just told him it was my pleasure and that I feel I was guided to call into his house.

Pretty much this weekend was just pictures, pictures, pictures. Taking millions of em. I need to send a bunch home somehow. I'll figure it out when I get to Trinidad.

Forgot to say, 6 MONTHS ON MY MISSION!! Hit my mark on the 3rd. To celebrate the tradition is to burn a tie. I got a picture and video of me doing it so you'll see how it went. Haha!! Me and Elder Prince were on the phone when we both did it. It's a blessing to have him out here I tell ya.

Address in Trinidad:

PO BAG 543 Valsayn, Trinidad

For packages, I'll make sure they bring the Christmas package from Amy to zone conference...But I won't get it for another 6 weeks. I LOVED the package you guys sent me by the way. Basically we just live for them.

The week was good, but I'm looking forward to a great time in Trinidad! Tell Grandma my prayers are with her and I missh them. I haven't sent them a letter yet. I haven't sent anyone a letter in a long time the way p-days have been going lately. Goodness!

Thanks for everything you guys. I love ya.

Elder Morris

2009-12-03T15:48:00.000-08:00

November 30, 2009

Things are going much better this week! Except for the fact I'm in Georgetown today to get a police report. Transfers happen next week so most likely I'm leaving Guyana. So don't send any packages!! I haven't gotten the package yet but I got Dad's parcel of Lead the Way's. Thanks for those by the way. I haven't had time to read them all but I will.

So I love Winston and his family. We've taught them everything, and they are awesome. Very smart family: 3 kids and the parents. Their neighbors are going to start coming to church too. We're teaching them this week. President Johnnie asked if it was okay for Winston to give a talk in sacrament meeting. I said...No!!! Haha he's not baptized yet!

He is going to be a great asset to the church here. I reallyy feel good to see that I had a hand in bringing that family to the church. They're great. They're not just reading the BOM, but studying the principles. Sharon, his wife, LOVED 2 Nephi 9; read it a studied it like 10 times she said. Now she knows about the details about the necessity of the Atonement. I loved hearing her talk about it in Gospel Principles class yesterday.

Church was baller yeasterday. Got 15 less actives back to church that haven't been in FOREVER! I was so happy! Some of them had interviews and got callings to help keep them active. I really feel like I've helped bring back the fire to Rose Hall. Thanks to my prayers and fasting. Fasting really does WORK!

So I'm with Elder Barton right now in Georgetown. He got an email of the recap of the BYU game. SWEET! Way to go cougars. Take that Randy Larson! Tell him I said that...HAha.

We had zone conference last week. We were introduced to a new tool, 40daystozion.com to help reactivate and strngthen our converts. Check it out. I can't give password and stuff, but just to let ya know. Our goal for next year is to reactivate 2400 members in the West Indies. Right now we have 2600 active. 10000 members total.

It's been crazy with companions lately. Mine isn't gonna be here until tomorrow. Brother Singh from Albouystown (the ghetto), Georgetown. I had Mark John, a 16 year old punk member from the branch over the weekend. Hahaha.

It really was a great week. We're seeing some great progress here. I'm sad that I'll probably have to leave. But I'm excited as well. Next week I'll find out for sure where/when I'm going. Don't really know much else to say except just how much better this week was. I love it! Tell Parker that if he doesn't remember who I am when I get back that he's officially our of my will. Haha. Love you all.

Elder Morris

2009-12-03T15:34:00.000-08:00

November 23, 2009

This week. This week!

Goodness. Alright. So last week's email was lame. Sorry for that - just a bad day. The next day, Tuesday wasn't very good either. I think just bottling everything up, pretending I'm loving every second of it caught up with me. Don't get me wrong. I love the work. But I gotta be real. These Guyanesse people are very hard to deal with sometimes. You really don't have any idea. But, the week got better and better. Elder Noah, my district leader, called me up on Tuesday when I was having a bad day. I just wasn't happy. My companion was complaining about whatever, we hadn't been baptizing, so yeah. I dunno, just hard. He called me and read me a talk/;letter thing about Christ. It described a day in the life of the missionary. How all the days run together. Well the missionary prayed that night and pretty much just let everything out. Described how hard it had been. How his companion had been, etc. Then he falls asleep and sees a magnificent vision. He sees Jesus Christ and he says, "We need to talk." Christ begins to just say everything you are going through, I went through. Your companioni is rough? My companion Judas, traded my life for riches, etc. Things like that. Pretty much just saying, whatever you have felt I have felt already and that as a missionary, you are very alike to Christ. The only exception is that He has finished His mission, completed the work. So it really helped motivate me; made me feel a lot better. Ever since then I've been doing a ton better.

So at church yesterday I was very pleased. Winston and his family came to church, their second time. Loved it. Branch President's kinda weird so he kept hinting to Winston that a position in the branch presidency was open and that he very soon could be sitting with him up on the stand. Haha! Wasn't too happy about that! Haha, President Johnnie was off the walls at church. He kinda scared Winston and when I try to tell President Johnnie, try to teach him that what he's doing isn't exactly the right thing, he doesn't think I know anything and blows it off. Haha, whatever - story of Guyana. The people are great. They are. They just need several more years.

So we were going around to the less actives on Saturday. We stop by one of the recent converts that was baptized before I got here. Her name is Rebeckah, and she's a 14 year old girl who can't read. That's not the problem. The problem is that her mom doesn't want to take care of her anymore so she's arranged a 22 year old Hindu to marry her and take her out of the house. Next week she's getting married. There isn't much I could do except encourage them to pray and really think tis trough. I can't advise them, just teach them. But, life goes on.

We had thanksgiving Dinner Friday. The Lingren's did EVERYTHING! They bought a butterball turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, etc. A legit American thanksgiving! Only difference was that there were 5 Americans and 10 Guyanese. Haha! It was way fun. Instead of watching football, we sat and gaffed about sports: football, high school sports, basketball, etc. It was a way fun day.

Well the week was much better. Our people we're teaching are doing very well. The success is coming.

Well, this past week was very good. Not much more to say really. Haha.

Elder Morris

2009-11-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

Nate's Companion - Elder Narine

November 9, 2009

Hello everyone!

I love it here! So this past week was a crazy one. I got to go on tradeoffs with Elder Jones. That kid knows so much about everything. He was taught to be a baptizer pretty much. It's in his genes you might say. However back then they didn't work on retention too much so the 80 he baptized in Rose Hall, only like 5 come to church. But we went around to his inactive converts and had some good lessons with them. I learned a lot from him and it was a great experience. He is an amazing missionary. His wish was to be put in Rose Hall for his last transfer but he got close enough - Canje, which is 20 minutes away.

So we're teaching some great people now. This Chinese guy, Winston, is hilarious. He really wants to find the truth. I gave him a Book of Mormon and taught him about it. Went back Sunday and he was to Alma 28!! He's already read half of it. He's not married legal so before they get baptized they have to get married which is a chore here. We're teaching this girl named SSonia, niece of a member. She is excited about baptism, loves church. It helps to have family in the church. She has two sisters, 14 and 8 years old who love it too. Sonia's 21. We taught the restoration to this guy we met Saturday, Ian, and he LOVES it. He was so excited when I talked about the apostasy. He wants to get baptized and when we gave him a tract he said he'd teach all his friends about Joseph Smith. He didn't dome to church though. That's the hard part, getting people to come to church. We have about 10 people that are solid and want to be baptized but in order to progress them, they need to come to church. We have been working with members more recently which is helping though.

My prayers and fasts are with Grandma. As a zone we fast once a week for help from God and part of mine is for Grandma. I was so sorry to hear about her cancer. I hope everything will work out. Tell he my prayers are with her and that I love her dearly.

Elder Narine and I are doing great together. I'm sending a picture of him with his mission call. He goes to the MTC in 2 weeks. His brother is the one I was with for that one day who was the other picture I sent home. It's different with a Guyanese obviously. I really can't describe what they're like, just completely different. You'll have to meet them to know what I mean. They think we are really weird and stupid for doing things like eating spaghetti or stuff. Haha. Buy the way, get a recipe online for chicken curry and roti and make it. I want you to see how delicious it is. Haha.

I'm sending an email to Bishop Crosby to thank him for his hard work. I love that man. He helped me a lot when I needed it. He was always a good example of love and diligence. Tell Bishop Ed I'm excited to have him as my bishop. I still don't have Megan's email so I can't talk about Dave's surgery with ) that I love them and pray for them always.

Things are going much better here. Baptisms will follow in the coming weeks due to hard work and the Spirit working through me. That's something that I have been seeing so much lately. It really does feel like I am an instrument in God's hands sometimes. I love it!

Elder Morris

2009-11-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

Sister Diane Robison, the wife of Nate's first mission president continues to keep a mission blog of mission happenings. She posted this entry on the mini-missionaries in Guyana on October 3. Because Nate has Brother Narine, and 18 year old mini missionary, right now as a companion, I thought it would be interesting to inclue her post:

" 'For such a time as this,'" Esther 4:14

Just like Esther was specially prepared to save her people, about the 30-40 young men and women in Guyana have been prepared for such a time as this - when most foreign missionaries have been asked to leave the country.

At first I was worried about the work in Guyana, but now I am beginning to see that "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing" (Standard of Truth). In fact, the expulsion of most foreign missionaries may turn out to be a great blessing to the Church in Guyana.

Here's why

During the time my husband and I were serving in the West Indies, there was a rapid increase in baptisms in Guyana. Many wonderful people embraced the Gospel and were baptized, including quite a few teenagers. In fact, President Robison asked each missionary to 'replace himself' before going home by baptizing a young man who would serve a mission. These young Guyanese men and women are now stepping up to replace the full-time missionaries who were expelled from the country. Fifteen of them will serve missions right away and others are preparing to serve as soon as they are quallified. Special arrangements have been made to expedite the mission calls and to allow some to serve as 18 year olds. As they wait to serve officially, many are serving 'mini missions.'

President and Sister Hymas (he is first counselor in the mission presidency) have been serving in Guyana. Here is their description:

"It is pretty cool to see all these young men lined up at the doctor's office and dental clinics and passport offices etc. Many have never been to the doctor or dentist etc so all very new experience for everyone! Scary and profound all at the same time. None of them own more that 1 white shirt and tie. So getting shirts and ties and other stuff needed to serve has been nothing short of a miracle. Thie members here have all donated money and time and talents--to purchase shirts, make pants, get what "their boys" need to serve the Lord. All the foreign missionaries who left Guyana left shirts and ties for those who would be coming to take their place. We had over 40 shirts and 80 ties donated by those missionaries who were forced to depart.

While those who were approved for calls have been getting ready to serve 15 other young men have been living and working with our missionaries so that the work will keep the moving forward in each of the areas.

A you drive around you see our "new companionships" --one white guy and one Guyanese. We are still out in the streets on the Lord's errand! It is profound to see the local young men taking over for their "brothers" who had to leave. It is the Lord's work and as the scriptures poignantly remind us "...it is the work of men that are frustrated, not the work of God that is frustrated..." It is quite a testimony to be a part of such faithful young men and young women who have willing left jobs, family, friends to alleviate the crisis in the missionary effort in Guyana.

In addition, in three of four of the cases the young men who have answered the call to serve are the primary breadwinner in the family so their departure to serve means their family will take a 30 to 70 percent redution in income. The sacrifice is huge!"

So this is what I am thinking.

Can you imagine what will happen to the Church in Guyana in a few years with 30-40 returned missionaries??? They will bring incredible strength and begin a cycle of temple marriages and righteous families that will make a huge difference!

These young Guyanese Saints are wonderful. Every time we did a zone conference I was amazed at the number and personal strength of the young prospective missionaries who attended. One young man came to a zone conference just a few days after he was baptized. I remember the look of excitement on his face when he received his own copy of Preach my Gospel.

Now I am beginning to see why so many strong young people were led to join the Church in Guyana.

It was - for such a time as this."

2009-11-07T11:45:00.000-08:00

November 2, 2009

Howdy folks!

So this week I was put with Elder Narine. He is 18, going into the MTC in the Dominican Republic on November 27th. He is a great companion. It was wierd at first, but we're gonna work hard. It'll be good. I'll only be with him 2 more weeks. Then I'll get someone else. This morning he swept out the WHOLE apartment. He spent an hour cleaning while I was writing letters, etc. that stuff. He's pretty sweet. He can't read very well at all, has a hard time teaching, but dangit he tries with all his heart. It's a great thing to see.

Well this week was great. It really was. It was a test but it turned out to be amazing. One experience I'd like to share. We were tracting in a place called Whim. We ran into this Christian family, Tony, Baby, and Rihanna, their 8 year old daughter. We asked if we could come in and share a message. They listened, understood, and the spirit was so, so strong. We learned at Zone Conference to invite people to baptism when the spirit is in the room the strongest. This way, it makes it hard for them to deny what they feel and say no. After bearing my testimony about how the restored gospel has blessed me, the man started to cry. It was then when I knew they felt the Spirit. I invited them to follow Christ and be baptized. They all accepted and we're going to start working with them more this week. It was a great experience.

Our promising investigators we found the last two weeks fell through. I had to drop them. When they lie and lie about not drinking and not smoking, and then never keep the one commitment that really matters, coming to church, it's time to drop them. It's disheartening, but essential. It's especially hard to fill up your day with people to teach when you have to drop your investigators. We sill be focusing a lot on finding new ones.

Our new Zone leader, Elder Jones, was an assistant the past 3 transfers. He baptized 80 people in my area, so it's wierd to be with him. He is very strict, very serious, but a dang good missionary. It's going to be great to serve under him this next 5 weeks.

5 months!!!! I can't believe it's been 5 months. Just in a month and a half I'll be talkin to ya on the phone. I tell you what. It is always comforting to have Elder Prince out here with me. I love that kid. We call each other all the time and it's fun having him only just a 10 minute drive away. We've become pretty good friends.

My studies have gotten much better these past few weeks. President Gamiette showed us a new method to study. It's called the three column method. Left column is where you put the verses and a title for the line. Middle column is prophetic words used in the verses.
Right column is the meaning or principles learned. You do this every few verses or every main idea in the chapter. Then after you're done with the chapter you put the main idea, or what you learned at the bottom. Kind of a summary of principles taught. I'll send you a picture of what mine looks like next week. I have been learning a LOT. Even from the Ether chapters where it's just political insurrection and war.

I LOVE THIS WORK. My spirits are highter, my faith is growing, and my confidence, shall I say like the sons of Alma, is waxing strong. I can't believe all the tings I've learned. I haven't had too much success in the way of getting in the white clothes and baptizing lately but I've learned my lessons and success will come as I continue to learn and apply the things I learned.

I love you all,
Elder Morris

2009-11-07T11:26:00.000-08:00

October 26, 2009

This past week was a good one, tough, but good. Our investigators fell through, which wasn't good, so we're back to square one. We went to Ayasammy's, and he was drinking rum with his friend, wasted. Not good at all. After 2 lessons on the word of wisdom he was doing well and quitting smoking but not everyone was ready to keep their commitments. He didn't come to church either. We taught with the spirit and testified but we'll see. I'll follow up on him this week. Our other investigators turned out to just like listening to us because we're white church men. We taught this family about how our church is the only church with the priesthood authority and God's true church. After they just said, "Well, all the churches are the same. It's one God. I have my church." The people don't understand!! It was tough. It happens so much in Rose Hall. I'm not saying the people are stupid they just don't understand us when we talk, don't comprehend church things, but they do comprehend Jesus died and God loves them. We should be having a lot of new investigators this week though so it's all good. I haven't baptized in a while. Actually, all of Berbice and Canje hasn't baptized much at all lately. The mission's numbers have plummeted. President Gamiette has raised the bar on baptisms. Only people that have a sincere testimony can get baptized.

Things are looking up though. We got transfer calls this last week. I'll be staying here in Rose Hall, with a local mini-missionary, Brother Narine. Elder Daines is going to St. Maarten to end his mission. Talk about lucky!! Sounds like an amazing place. Elder Duncan, our Zone leader is going to Tobago, an island off Trinidad. Things just keep changing. It'll be fun though. Next transfer will be a good one.

I don't really know what else to tell ya. Things are going fine here; it's just going to be a lot of hard work. Haha, it's not like missionary work is supposed to be easy.

Story time: Last night we slept over at the Zone leaders in New Amsterdam. They have A/C which is hard to find here, so yeah! It was nice. In the morning we went PIRHANA fishing. Haha! Never thought I'd ever do that. We got about 6. Pretty easy to catch. Put a line with a piece of fish on a hook and it'll just grab on and eat it. Haha. Pretty fun morning today. Haha.

Well, that's about it with me. I'm doing great. The Lord's there waiting to help me, so all I have to do is have the faith that He will. I am loving it here!

Elder Morris

2009-10-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

nate in Berbice

The Rastifarian in Nate's journal

yummy food from the holiday.

Berbice

October 19, 2009

Hello!!

So, this week was MUCH better!! We put our minds to it. I fasted and prayed more and harder than I ever had before. We relied on the Spirit. After the zone conference last week we were motivated to do a better job and do some good ol' fashioned work. We got a lot done. We went out after p-day on Tuesday, looking for somewhere to go tracting. We both felt as we were riding in a taxi to stop in this one area in Port Mourant, called Ankerville. Before the end of 1 hour of tracting we had taught 4 lessons and had 5 new investigators. It was wonderful. Being led by the Spirit is a wonderful thing. We had nobody we were teaching who had reall progressed before then, and all of a sudden we have a lot more people from this past week who are excited to get baptized. This guy, Ayasammy, is about 60 years old, but loves to read. He works as a night security gaurd for a shop in Rose Hall. He has already read most of 1st Nephi, and all the tracts we have given him. He is very humbled due to the lack of money, but he is prepared I feel. We met a family living down a shortcut by our house called the Frasers. In the middle of the lesson the lady stopped and said, "So, all I am really trying to do is just find the truth, but I just don't know how to find it!" We challenged her to pray and ask God if our message was true, and when God answers her, if she and her family wants to be baptized. They all accepted and were very excited! Due to this week's past success, I have an increased amount of faith, and my confidence has increased as well in the Lord's ability to work through me. I love being a missionary!

This past week we had a funny experience. So there's a lot of homeless in Guyana, right? Well there's this especially crazy one that is a Rastifarian. We always see him around but one day he came up to us and knelt on the ground yelling praises to us as white gods from heaven. Then he hugged my leg. I shook him off, but then he got up and gave us a big thumbs up with a rotten smile and walked away. Hahaha! It was hilarious! I drew a picture of it in my journal. See the picture. I've been doing that latley. Bought a colored pencil set and have been drawing funny stuff in my journal every day.

So, Saturday night was the holiday of DIWALI! You know, from The Office, the Hindu holiday. It was very fun! There's a Creole restaurant we've been eating at that had a bunch of special food just for the holiday. We had Sweet Rice w/ Dhall Puri, Pumpkin (a combo of blended pumpkin and spices) inside a bake, and lots of fruit. Because we're in such a Hindu neighborhood, there were candles everywhere. It was really pretty actually.

To answer some questions: 1. Dad. Yes we do member present lessons. That is one of our key indicators of conversion, or one of the goals we set. We try to get as many as possible. 2. I liked what Dad said about the mission being a foundation for the rest of my life. I agree completley. As a missionary you begin all these awesome habits that if kept, will keep you safe and sound for the rest of your life. I am loving the changes that I see taking place within me. I don't want to go back to the old me when I'm done here. 3. Mom! Thanks for telling me about the experiences with all the kids! I love hearing about all the nieces and Bryce. They're way fun! For Christmas you'll have to set it up so when we do the webcam chat that everyone will be there.

So, basically I love this place. We're doing much better, my spirits are higher, and I'm working harder , studying more effectivley. My testimony is growing each day. Keep being awesome. Your encouragement is helping me a lot!

Elder Morris

2009-10-22T07:18:00.000-07:00

October 13, 2009

First of all answering some questions:

Dad had some in his email.

About the economy: We do not see the effects of the bad economy in the States because we have an even worse, yet horrible economy here. The average income here is extremely low. Many children don't go to school, and many people can't read. So no we don't see the effects of the US economy here. About doing wash and cooking. We have a washer in the back of the house. Just put in detergent like at home. To fill it up with water you have to fill up buckets and dump it in but it's not bad. Then we hang up the clothes to dry on lines in our apartment. Cooking is like how is was at college. Here, I've been having 2 eggs, toast and sometimes a bowl of cereal for breakfast. For lunch we don't have to much time to cook so usually it's spaghetti, mac and cheese, or sometimes we eat out. There's a local restaurant next to the apartment that has really good bake and salt fish or chicken curry and rice. Pretty delicious! We have pots and pans and a stove at the apartment. No worries there. Haha. Also, fast food: In Berbice it's only Church's chicken which is a huge chain like KFC. In Georgetown there's KFC, Church's, Pizza Hut and Popeye's. Delicious!

Mom!

I love your attitude with all your hard responsiblities in YW. Keep working hard! I love ya. I really liked Elder Scott's talk too. I wrote down a lot of good info from it. I can't wait till we get the Liahona so we can read it. About the [ten missionary] plaques by the bishop's office: Can you take a picture of all of them individually, and then a picture of them all together and send it to me via email? Also, I'd love more pictures from home and with friends and junk for the next package. Also, I need a thing to put consecrated oil in. One of those sweet metal vials at desert book or something. Next package! Haha. I love ya.

So, this past week was a rollercoaster. This week seemed like NOTHING happened. It was rough! I felt like we worked very hard. Elder Daines has the philosophy to just contact on the street those that'd look like they'd take the gospel. I don't like that at all but I just let that happen. Because we've done that, we haven't taught very many people and don't get too much done. Because of that, our numbers the past few weeks have been going down bad. No baptisms scheduled because we're not teaching anyone! We had interviews with President Gamiette Sunday night and he was disappointed with the numbers. He also said someone told him that I don't want to stay in Guyana and train a Guyanese. I don't know where that came from because I would LOVE to do that. I know I can do that. I told him this and he was surprised. He said that originally he had me leaving Guyana because of that next transfer. I told him that I wanted to stay and train someone. He said that if you really want to, there'll be an increase in numbers this week. So, the pressures on. I'm gonna step up and work extra hard this week. Not just so I can stay in Guyana, but because I'm sick of seeing the lack of success in this area. Yes I can blame it on the lack of education in the area and understanding of our messages, but no. It is my fault and I'll just have to do better. I know I can do it. I know how to teach. Heavenly Father will help me. It was a rough interview but I can improve and next interview hopefully he'll be a bit more pleased with me. I could blame it on Elder Daines but I won't. I could have done a lot better. Lessons learned now help me become better in the future.

Zone conference yesterday: It was a GREAT one! It lasted about 4 hours. President taught us so much that we can use. He is a great man, great leader, great teacher. Loved it!! Learned about retention, bringing less actives back, teaching with the Spirit. Learned a lot about how to invite baptism and how to do it when the Spirit in the room is the highest. If we do that, they won't say no. Because they'll feel it is true and something they need to do. There was tons more we learned but I can't write all of it! After he was doing interviews with more people, so we hung out and talked with everybody for another few hours. It was fun catching up with Elder Scott, seeing how my old area is going. ALL of my investigators in Kitty are baptized/being baptized next week. Keysha, Latoya, Mahesh, Pretty. I was very excited about that. Gonna put them in my preach! (First page of Preach my Gospel). I am grateful Elder Moses cleaned up and got them in the water. I loved talking with everybody. I have made tons of good friends here.

Well that's my week. Rough, but lessons learned. I guess my faith just isn't as good as it should be! This next week will be a blast, making up for our past mistakes.

Elder Morris

2009-10-07T13:29:00.000-07:00

October 5, 2009

Dad asked the following questions in his letter to Nate and this was his response:

Dad: Do you have a tan? Are you kind of skinny? Who cuts your hair? Is it short like you like it? How much does it cost to get a haircut? Please send me a current picture when you get a minute.

Nate: Haha! So. I will take a picture sometime this week. My tan? It's okay. Probably pretty dang tan compared to people at home but here with the missionaries I'm not too dark. I'm skinnier. I've lost about 3 inches on the waist. Thank goodness for belts but they're at the last holes. I'll have to punch some new ones in. Here there's random barber shops all around so we just barely got one. 400 dollars a piece. (2 US dollars) Pretty cheap. Did an okay job, but nothing compared to Tammy Haddow. Haha.

This week! What a whirlwind! So. We're still dealing with issues in the branch and the hardened people that are here, but are working ETREMELY hard to find those diamonds in the rough. They're out there. We met a guy on the street; he was kind of interested in the Book of Mormon. I opened the book and read him Alma 34:32. First I asked what he thought the purpose of life was. Then we read it. He was interested! He was into it. He asked who wrote that, I said Alma, a prophet of God. He didn't know who that was but he wanted to know more about it so of course we got his address and phone number and will meet with him this week. The work is hard but so worth it. My attitude is what keeps my head up. I love this work!

I'm still district leader I guess. So I get to do baptismal interviews which I think will be rather exciting. I get to use the spirit to let me know whether or not someone is really prepared to enter into the covenant of baptism. What an opportunity!

Conference....OOOOOhhhh Yeah! I've never been so overwhelmed by the spirit of those amazing talks. I just wrote and wrote and wrote. 24 pages of notes!! Things I can apply to myself now as a missionary, as a son, as a future husband and father. I loved every second of it. We had a satellite at the East Canje chapel which then fed into a tv and a projector. Haha, I got to use my electronic education and helped set up over the phone the ones in Linden and Georgetown as well. It was pretty fun. I really did love every second of it.

As for me.... with this week and this conference: I'm experiencing a change of heart as they say. I feel better, stronger in my relationship with the Lord. My prayers are more fervent. The spirit has been giving me continued revelation. I'm studying better, working smarter. I've never been better and I hope to continue to rise up like it said in the song in Priesthood Session, "Rise up o men of God". I am doing just that. Rising up, magnifying my calling. I'm learning more, working more, and relying on God more.

Mom and Dad. Do not regret anything you didn't do with me growing up and be grateful for the things we did do! This is not pride, just gratitude for everything you have done for me. I've never felt better and I can't imagine being anywhere else in my life right now. How grateful and blessed I am for having parents like you for being patient with me, for always pushing me in the right direction. Yes I made bad choices. That is what the atonement is for. I am different Mom and Dad. I really am. I regret the things I didn't do before the mission. I regret not spending more time with you guys. But regrets are for the past. And all I can do is just express gratitude for you. KNOW HOW MUCH I DO LOVE YOU. While I'm out here never doubt my love for you. Words can't express my gratitude for the things you did for me. I hope one day I can repay you.

A mission is an amazing thing. Something I would never trade. I am blessed to be serving my God in this country. While crazy as it is, I wouldn't trade it for anything! I have to go but this weekend was such a spiritually uplifting one. I love this work and I love Heavenly Father and the Savior for what they do for me. I'm reading Jesus the Christ right now and it's an amazing book. I love learning about the Savior.

Elder Morris

PS: my new address is

26-14 Harkman's Lane
New Amsterdam, Berbice

2009-10-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

September 28, 2009

To all at home! Happy Birthday to all who read this!

Berbice is SWEET! Super rural, 2/3 of the people don't know how to read, and they can't understand me when I talk. I have to speak Creolese. I love it here. See what happened in my area is that this guy got baptized, and he helped bring over 150 people into the church last year. He went apostate and got excommunicated and so now there is only like 30 people at church a week, with over 300 baptized members. It is going to be a though month. The work has totally slowed down in Guyana.

See what happened before was that people thought the numbers were more important than the person, so they'd go about baptizing 10 year old kids because their parents weren't interested and they liked church. I don't know HOW you can think that's a good idea but that's how Guyana did so well last year. Now we're back to what God really wants us to do, baptize only prepared converted people that understand the restoration and the atonement. I love it here. Ya know that's the negative of the work in Guyana but it really is a sweet place. There is a lot of prepared people in the world. I'm lucky to be in such a sweet place.

I'm with Elder Daines now. Being with Elder Noah for those 2 weeks was tough. I learned a lot of things I shouldn't be doing on the mission. Supposedly being this far from the Mission President , a lot of these missionaries in Berbice did a lot of movie watching, music listening, etc. I don't know HOW you can think that's a good idea either!

Elder Daines does missionary work the right way. I'm going to try to emulate more of his ideas. Following the spirit and only teaching prepared people is a necessary thing here. You can go about baptizing unprepared kids and women but I don't think that's how God wants us to operate. He is a great elder and I get along with him great. He has been out 20 months and will be going home soon. He is from Rexburg, Idaho and went to BYU Idaho but will be going to BYU next year studying filmmaking. It will be a great transfer with Elder Daines.

I'm not district leader or training a missionary anymore. I am working hard, but I guess I just wasn't needed as one yet. Elder Prince however will be training a new one. It's fun being so close to him, only a 30 minute drive and over the Berbice bridge. We've been able to gaff a lot. BTW they say that a lot here. Gaffing is sweet.

The work in Rose Hall is interesting. We'll be doing A LOT of finding. We weren't left with anyone to teach, only a 10 year old girl but we won't work much with her, only if she gets a solid link with a member of the church. So the work will be rough but it'll have great rewards. We know we can baptize in Guyana. We can baptize lots. We just have to do it God's way. The work will improve, I'm sure of it.

Can I get Colby's email address?? I want to wish him congratulations on his engagement. I can't believe in one month he'll be married!! That is so crazy.

Well I better be going. Keep it real back in the states. I love it here and don't worry about me! I am loving the work, not homesick, and my testimony is growing all of the time!

Elder Morris!

2009-09-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

September 21, 2009

Hello from Berbice!

Haha, this week was nuts. So! Transfers happened, but a problem arose. None of the scheduled mini missionaries were able to come this week. So for example, in the Canje Zone where I am, there are only me, Elder Noah (my companion for this past week), and Elder Duncan (Zone Leader) covering a HUGE area. It was a hassle. I was only able to work in Rose Hall 1-2 days. When we get some temporary mini missionaries, until the real mini missionaries get here, we will have 3 companionships in our zone. It's gonna be tough but exciting all the same.

These are answers to Dad's questions that he listed in his email:

As a district we meet weekly unless it's zone conference or zone meeting. It'll probably be a bunch of combined zone meetings though, because of lack of numbers. There are only 3 companionships working all of Berbice Zone too. So that makes 12 missionaries in 2 zones. Usually it's about 10-12 per zone. Exchanges happen once a transfer cycle (every 6 weeks). I will serve with everyone in my district; the zone leader serves with everyone in his zone. My district is really just the zone leaders and me.

So I really am not doing much. Elder Noah, my companion this past week, is from Delta, Utah. In Rose Hall, there is an organized branch that can run on its own but still needs missionaries to help with things like tithing. The Crabwood Creek branch, one of the ones that Noah is over, is not as organized and needs missionaries to teach classes and things. Skeldon, another area Noah is covering, is only a group and had 8 people at church. I was in Crabwood Creek and Skeldon this past weekend, so I got to see that. It was pretty rough. The senior couple for my branch was the Treseders, but they have to leave due to the Lock-Up situation. The only couple in Berbice will be the Lingrens in Canje.

I recieved the package on Tuesday!! Thanks so much for all of that! I am very happy with some of the ties. Haha, some of the missionaries are very jealous. The candy and drink mix was very welcome too. Mac and Cheese though can be found here. Don't need to send that from now on, thanks though! I don't know my new mailing address yet; will get it to you ASAP.

Each missionary get 270 US a transfer. Also, the senior companion gets about 200 US for travel to pay for taxi, bus and cars. In Berbice for long trips you take bus, short drops you just flag down a car that's goin along. Most are working taxis.

About the visa situation, not so sure about if it's fixed. All I know is that I should be getting a work permit soon that is either for 90 days or for 1 year. Not sure about the time. Pretty sure it's one year, so I'll be here for awhile. However there is a cap of foreign missionaries. Only 20!! That is not enough for Guyana. That's why they have been rushing to get local missionaries to serve full-time missions.

So basically this week was kinda wierd. Haha. When we got to Berbice on Thursday, there was a big meeting with President Hymas telling us what to expect and how to handle what was before us. It was an amazing lecture/talk. I learned a lot about diligence and complete obedience, setting an example for our mini missionaries. After, I went to the apartment, dropping off all my stuff and unpacking. A nice apartment, mosquito screens on the windows, keeping most mosquitos out. Lots of room, used to hold 4 missionaries. Big beds, full size. Anyway, I like the apartment. The landlord is our branch president, President Johnnie. He's a cool guy, energetic, very willing to work. That night when I got there he called the EQ President, Brother Garret, and he took us around to meet some members.

BTW, until this settles down I'm with Elder Noah. I should be getting Elder Moses, a mini missionary, to serve with me tommorrow. Elder Noah is a funny guy. Not a hard worker but once I get the mini missionary with me we can get to work. He's a cool guy and everything though. I like him.

We were in my area Thursday night and Friday, just seeing members and getting to know that area. Saturday and Sunday we were in Crabwood Creek and Skeldon, Elder Noah's area. Nice area, very rural so it was pretty neat to walk around. Ate some cane, mango, coconuts. It's sweet. Out here members just give you fruit all the time. It just grows on trees so they have a guy climb up a coconut tree and kick down some coconuts for us. It was fun.

Berbice is a crazy place. Haha about the language. It's just horribly broken down English. Replacing her with she and him with he. Like, "What's she name boss?" Or, "Whappin de?" It's pretty fun though. Hard to understand people, but it'll get easier.

My area's pretty interesting. Elder Jones, an assistant to the president right now, served here for about 6 months. He baptized 80 people. So many people have been baptized here, but the attendance at church is horrible. Almost all of the converts about a year ago when the area caught on fire don't go to church anymore. That makes my job pretty rough. Reactivation is now on the list of things for me to do here. I'm excited to get working though; I could do very well here. Just applying the principles President Gamiette wants us to apply and teaching and testifying of the Book of Mormon will be very important.

Also, what happened to BYU and UTAH? I expected as much from Utah State but not BYU and Utah. (Sorry Amy, they are just a horrilbe team!)

Anyways, I've written way to much. I love it here so far. There's no Pizza Hut or KFC but I'll get over it. I'm just glad I get to stay in Guyana, let alone Rose Hall. My area used to be an area where legends were born. No joke. So many amazing missionaries have been through here and baptized grips (lots of people).

Have fun at home. Let me know how things are!

Elder Morris

2009-09-18T13:11:00.000-07:00