Georgetown Sunset in Georgetown

August 24, 2009

Alright so this week nothin much has changed. Our zone isn't doing to well. We're the only area with sucess so far this transfer. 1 baptism in 3 weeks for all 6 companionships.

We will have a baptism Sunday for Raymond. He is a friend of Salim's. We wouldn't have met him if we weren't trying to reach every single goal every day. One night we needed a new investigator and a referral so we had the Salim's call a friend and invite him over. We taught Raymond the first lesson and it went way good. He loved it and committed to baptism right there. We wouldn't have met him if we weren't trying to complete all our goals.

My testimony is growing every single day! I love it here even if it is super hot and sweaty every day! It hasn't rained to much latley because the rainy season just ended. I'm becoming a better teacher as I keep studying every morning.

Haha, we found a rat in the apartment the other day! Very entertaining - both Elder Stebbing and I running around in our G's wielding cricket bats! It got away though. Haha, don't worry. Our apartment is fine. First time we've had a rat in a very long time.

I loved reading your emails. Can't respond much. I wish I could. Just know things are going very well. SEND THE TIES!! Yes they are ugly. We're missionaries! That's the culture. Ugly fat ties. Haha. They are worth lots of money here.

Elder Morris

August 17, 2009

Hey there!

Hello from Guyana. BTW to those that are interested it's "Guy-Anna" (Pronunciation wise.) Busy, busy week! The new way of contacting people has really made it difficult to get our 20 contacts. The results will improve because of it, but it takes a whole lotta work. Also, we've found a lot of new people recently, but like all of our investigators have only been to church once which makes it difficult if you have a goal of 6 baptisms the month of August.

Tuesday we did exchanges with the Zone leaders. Elder Scott came with me in Kitty and we tore it up. We reached all our goals, found cool new people, and got all of our contacts. He's an awesome missionary and I really learned a lot from him. He's a way funny guy too, always laughing. We also had a zone meeting that day taught by the zone leaders learning more about the changes President Gamiette wants in the mission. He basically is raising the bar for missionaries; helping us just be better teachers, people and missionaries. It's been really interesting. With this it raises the bar for investigators too. Instead of just baptizing lots of people, we are now focused on that and making sure that they are reading the Book of Mormon lots, love coming to church, understand everything, etc. It'll be tough but retention will improve so much!

The week was okay. We worked way hard, and surpassed many of our goals for the week, but many of our investigators didn't come to church halting the work a little bit. We'll work harder this week I guess.

Well, Love you all
Elder Morris

Michelle's baptism (with brother Baptiste)
Member family's son - smiles so big

Dark sky over Georgetown

August 10, 2009

Hey!

One thing I like about Guyana? - Using goodnight as a greeting. Like “Hello goodnight” (at the evening time of course). Anyways, things are going splendidly here.

This week was pretty snazzy. We had a goal of finding 10 new investigators (basically someone new we teach the first lesson to). On Friday we only had 3 so we really needed to pick it up. Elder Hamilton, one of the Assistants, surprised us on Saturday and went out with us the whole day. The President wanted to visit Guyana and talk with all the zone leaders and stuff like that for a few days, so Elder Hamilton did exchanges with us. What an example of teaching and testifying to everyone we meet! I really learned a lot. Not just to invite people to church like everybody else does, but to also talk about how there’s a prophet on the earth today like Moses or Noah! It was really great. We reached our investigator goal due to us praying for help and working hard to find new people.

Also, each day we’re supposed to get 20 contacts (someone random that we talk to on the street). It’s not that hard to get, but President Gamiette has changed it to 20 people we get contact information for, which is A LOT harder. Took us all day to get 20.

We baptized Michelle on Saturday. President Barrow, the Elders Quorum President was chosen to perform it. She was so excited to be baptized! In the picture, a random member that was there jumped in our picture with just the missionaries and Michelle. Brother Baptiste! Weird guy, but pretty funny, haha.

Basically the whole us getting kicked out of Guyana thing blew over. We never heard what happened and everybody says it’s all good so we are here to stay. Tinesha moved out Saturday so we had to hand her over to the next missionaries. She was progressing well and had been to church two weeks in a row! It wasn’t cool. But she’ll still probably get baptized which is great.

Well that was pretty much it for this week. Pictures are included. One was a dark black sky looming over Georgetown. It got worse after we left and began to POUR, POUR POUR! I’ve never seen so much rain in my life. Next picture is of this member family’s son. He is the funniest. Smiles so big like 90 percent of the time! Last picture is of Michelle’s baptism. It was a good week! I love you all so much.

Elder Morris

August 3, 2009

Hey whappin? (What's happening in Creolese) haha

Life is GOOD! I'm doing great! Today's my 2 month mark, meaning I am approximatley....8.33 percent done with my mission. Crazy!! I'm feeling great though and am enjoying my time here. So today was transfer breakfast because transfers are Wednesday. (Every 6 weeks). Zone leader, Elder Marshall's going to Trinidad, but Elder Stebbing and I both stay in Kitty. We're doin' good. He has 2 transfers left on his mission. Elder Stebbing and I get along great. He's pretty cool. Goes to BYU as well. Breakfast was omlets provided by the Evans'. They're an awesome senior couple! They leave in 3 months though.

News! Michelle is getting baptized Saturday! She chose President Barrow to do the baptism (EQ Pres). He's a way cool guy and she is so ready to be baptized. She has been baptized before but knows why she needs it again. Knows everything really well. It was just put off because she didn't know much but now we have taught her well!

No baptisms this weekend.

News! We might be kicked out of Guyana Thursday. All missionaries in Guyana may be kicked out Thursday. The government issued and order for 50 missionaries to leave by Thursday. President Hymas, President Pooran, and the attorneys are working against it. If we do, like it has happened before, it won't be a big deal. There's no reason to be worried. The church will make sure we're being provided for. And we'll be able to return soon anyways like it has in the past. No time to say more about it.

News! I have lost 30 pounds in this transfer. 6 weeks. I feel great though I think it was just because I was sick at the first part and didn't eat much. 1 weigh 175 now. Now I just need to start exercising.

Seriously this branch is pretty fun. So many funny/wierd/insane people. Guyanese are funny people. I will definantly miss them after my mission. They were playing this wierd game at New Converts night and the old Elders Quorum President was just way too excited. Jumping up and down, singing loudly, haha! Just a funny sight! I have a video of it and...too hard to send videos so maybe another time.

We've been teaching this girl, Tinesha, and she's way excited about it. She's come to church two times already and brings her whole family, cousins, brothers, etc. Most have been pretty cool and will probably get baptized.

Interesting note about transfers. Elder Beeson, my old comp, is with Elder Park next transfer. Park came out in the same group with us. Wierd that they are both together. Usually they put older missionaries with the younger to still be training them and such.

About the package. Don't worry about sending too much stuff. I can buy things here. But send candy, not chocolate. Like Swedish fish and such. Oh, and the Evans address is actually 243 Cedar Courts not 248. Also, I got the letter from home! Got it Thursday so it took about 2 weeks to get here. Not too shabby!

Well I'm doing great. Sorry I couldn't talk about you very much but I love your emails so much!!! I love hearing news from home. Keep it up! An email doesn't take to long to write.

Elder Morris

Baptism of Stacy

Happy Birthday Mom!

Nate from his email

July 27, 2009

Things are going great! To answer your question we walk everywhere and take buses to different villages. Buses are just vans with numbers painted on them. They like to fit 20 people in one van and blast reggae. Ha ha, quite the experience!

This week was pretty sweet! Tuesday we had a district meeting at this park place where there are monkeys in the trees! It was fun. We fed them bread and they snatched it out of our hands and on our heads! It was really cool. I have never played with monkeys before!

Things are going great here. From being sick I lost like 15 pounds and I actually feel better than I have in a while. Just gotta make sure to eat foods I’m used to. I still don’t eat as much as I used to but that is changing. Like for example today we ate at “The Brazilian” which is this sweet restaurant with guys walking around with meat cutting it off for you. Expensive but we had been saving up for it. It was fun!

Saturday was Stacy’s baptism! She has been ready for so long. She was excited and it was a nice baptism.

Yesterday was branch conference. President Hymas spoke but instead of his talk he started off saying, “The spirit is subdued.” He said that the spirit wasn’t in the room. For some reason he didn’t feel like giving his talk and instead talked to the branch and kept saying that they needed to repent. He talked how he felt wickedness in the room and that the people needed to shape up and repent. Without it, he said, how is the branch supposed to grow? It was quite interesting. He is such a good speaker and I was looking forward for his talk but what he said was inspired and I hope the branch takes note. It was very weird.

Anyhow, we’ve found some new people that we’re teaching. This family we just happened to tract into on accident. This kid yelled at us and was like, “Hey come talk to my cousin!” She was like 18 and showed up to church with a friend and a cousin. It was pretty cool.

So I’ve had some sweet studies. I’ve read like 200 pages of the Book of Mormon in the last month ‘cause I’ve just been trying to read the whole thing well and get an overview of the whole thing before I get into some sweet study. Praying before study helps so much.

Well hey I know this was a weird email but I don’t have much time. I love you! I wish I could say more! Tell Ryan to send the ties to the address in Guyana. Amy, I couldn't reply to either - tell her I love her. HAPPY BIRTHDAY (Mom) AND I LOVE YOU!

Hey Mom!

This past week was a really good one. Thought I’d mention I’m feeling much better but am not eating as much or else I start to feel sick again. I feel great now. Probably just hadn’t gotten used to the climate/area whatever. I sweat like crazy here! You should see my collars after a hard day’s work. Dark brown! Haha. Don’t worry I bought some spray and wash.

To answer questions from you, yes! We do work with the new converts. We teach them all the lessons over again. President Gamiette said that if the convert stays active for 42 days after baptism they stay active. Pretty cool statistic. Veneta moved over the river to Esecuevo for a short time but she’s solid. She’ll be back soon. The Salims’ grandmother died this week so they have been over the river as well this week

Did you know that most people here only make 200 dollars US a month? We get 540 as a companionship just for food and travel. I can’t imagine. Btw that is 108,000 guyanese dollars. Haha!

Zone conference this week!! WOW!!!!!!!!!! That’s all I can say. I learned SO SO SO much. WE took the beatitudes found in the Sermon on the Mount both in BOM and Matthew and we learned that they are more important than we think. We made a list of each thing we need to do. Like mourn for our sins. That’s important! Repentance is absolutely essential and we need to OWN the atonement and know it is extremely positively important before we can teach others about it. And when teaching others we need to make sure they OWN it as well. That’s what makes them prepared for baptism. To make sure they know how important it is and how it applies to them. I don’t have time to say everything I learned but believe me I learned TONS. I feel different. Like a different person. President Gamiette is an incredible person and I have a lot to learn from him. WOW.

We were only able to baptize one person this weekend. We had three that were ready but they required second interviews by someone in the mission presidency. After talking with President Gamiette he decided to push back Stacy’s baptism and Michelle’s as well. Stacy will be getting baptized this weekend and Michelle in 2 or three weeks. Angela, a short Amerindian lady, way nice, got baptized by me this weekend! Picture included. She is super short! She moved in last week and had been taught by the missionaries in Linden. They are breaking new ground and are having great success there. She was very ready and is always feeling the spirit. She knows without a doubt this is the true church. And so do I! Soon a stake will be in place in Georgetown and from there we will be able to go into the interior and over the Esecuevo river. The interior sounds AWESOME! We will be the first missionaries to ever step foot into there. I can’t imagine what it’d be like. I can’t believe that I’ve been here for 4 weeks and have 4 baptisms. They said to anticipate a baptism a week!

About Wilt Weekend. It didn’t work out at all. 38 people in the entire mission!! Not good. Only 2/6 companionships baptized this weekend in Georgetown . It was too bad. There are 5 zones in Guyana to put it in perspective. I love it though. I think it was a lesson to not focus on the number, but making sure that each person is really ready to enter the waters into baptism and make a covenant with God. Retention is a big problem here. People think that baptism is the final step instead of the beginning. They get forgotten and forget the church and continue with their lives. Our branch, Georgetown 2nd, has a really good program set up to go out and retrieve those people. Thursday nights the Relief Society, Priesthood, and Young Women go out and visit less actives to help them come back to church. It’s working pretty good. I like our branch. Some way cool, crazy, awesome people. Haha, just thinking about em makes me laugh. I’ll take a video of the branch this week and send it so you can meet them! If I have time of course!

Dad wanted me to include some ideas on how to study preach my gospel. Go through it each chapter and do each activity. Do companion studies with mom too. At the end of each chapter it has them. Member missionary work is ESSENTIAL here. Please help the missionaries and think of referrals for them. They LOVE it. Just go through the whole book doing each activity and every activity at the end of each chapter. Also, do the Christ like attributes quiz and figure out what you could improve on each week and work on it for that week! A lot of things I know, but it’ll help. It helps me! I see how important Preach My Gospel is now. I see why each missionary comes home wishing he would have studied it before he went on the mission. I’m keepin up though no worries.

BTW give my congratulations to Rachel (Gray) on her engagement! Dad told me about it. Todd seems like a cool guy.
Well that’s all I can really say. I love getting your emails and I work hard to make sure to reply to everything you ask me! I love it here. What a unique environment, walking down the street, being called white boy archers (gay white boys), jokin with drunk rastas, (dreadlocks Bob Marley types), playing cricket, etc. It’s all good. Haha I like being called spies too. They think we’re really from the FBI. Haha it’s way fun. Well I love you mom. More next week!

Elder Morris.