WoW! Sounds like you had a crazy week! I have to say I really am sad that Sparkle Josh has finished his run... and man was it a good run. Has somebody told Katie yet, I think she could take this hard... I'm a little bummed I won't be able to take it out for one more cruise but I'm sure that Honda is waiting to head back down to utah soon. Yea for old cars! The tea party looked amazing!!!! You are all wonderful! That sounds like a lot of fun and looked delicious. Thanks for the tips on how to sleep on a train. We are very lucky as sisters to have the privilege of a whole coupe so not to worry, I don't have to sit by crazy people all night, and we have a bed! I also found out that we will get to do this lovely little trip to Samara and back, one more time on Friday-Saturday and then on Monday! Yea for not living where your
mission president lives. Ali your new baby is absolutely adorable. I'm so happy that you got another girl! Good luck with your kids, you are a fabulous mom! Well this week was really good. The Visa trip went very smoothly and except for the lack of sleep, the loud and overpacked Moscow airport (as usual) and the lady who loves to say 1,1,1,1,2,4,1,1 over and over again I would call it a success! I am now officially legal to be in Russia three more months. It is seeming really really crazy that I only have one more of those left! WHAT! Well I think the big news and most exciting part of this week's email is the TEMPLE DEDICATION! Huzzah! And yes, we were allowed to watch it and we even got to watch the Spectaular satruday night that they
always do before the dedicate a temple. So the dedication was amazing and it is such a blessing that now there is a temple so close to RUSSIA! (Just think, it means the next temple they announce could be IN Russia). The prophet came to dedicate the temple and it was definitely a wonderful experience. it is so powerful every time the
prophet gets up to speak. The spirit and power he has is so strong and I just feed off of his testimony and willingness to serve. It was so neat to be there with my Russian brothers and sisters and see their testimonies adn willingness to serve as well. I loved being able to be in the temple! It is a blessing and has a special spirit there. The Kiev temple is incredibly beautiful (you should look at pictures on
the internet). We had memorized "I love to see the temple" in Russian and so have been singing that all week. It was sad to leave the chapel when the dedication was over because I really felt like I was leaving the temple. But I know "I;m going back someday". The trip to Samara was a lot of fun and it was great to see some other
sisters. IN Penza we are the only sisters and so we get HUNGRY for sisters. We got to meet the new sister in our mission, sister Linyova and she is really really cute. We also got to see Sister Loboda and I saw SIster Tedrow on our visa trip., It was great to be able to talk to them all and I had a great time with Sister Tedrow "cathcing up". Can you believe we haven't seen each other for 6 months? AH!
So our investigaotr did get baptized on satuday and it was a great experience. We really enjoyed being able to see her enter into that covenant with her Heavenly Father. Sister Jackson and I did a musical number at her service and it went well. Sister Jackson has a beautiful voice and so she sang and I played. We were lucky to have a lot of members there and have their support. Our investigator felt the Spirit
really strong and had a great experience knowing that the ward loves her and knowing that she had entered into a covenant with her Heavenly Father and was now a member of our church. Baptism is such a neat experience! Then right after the service was the Cultural Spectacular for the temple and it was also great. We loved being able to see
people we knew in the program like Elder Kashapov, Sister Horenko,Sister Walker( an MTC roommate) and some youth from our mission. It was a beautiful program and the dancing and singing was of course amazing. It was overall a fantastic night. Aren;t we lucky! One funny story-- Wednesday night we were heading to the train station
to get on our train to head back to Penza when a HUGE rain storm hit. And I mean huge. I haven't seen one of those in my life. People getting on the bus were DRENCHED head to foot and just dripping water. Luckily we were on the bus when all of the chaos started and it ended quickly but the amount of water dumped in those few minutes was CRAZY! The road were flooded! We saw cars just stuck in the road with rivers passing them. We got out of the bus and needed to cross the road but
there was no way to do it without being in the water up to our calves. So we watched people try to manuever through the rivers for awhile and decided that the best option was to... just take off our shoes and jump right in. So with shoes in hand we headed across the river and made it to the other side of the street with no hard done. Thankfully we had a towel, dried off our feet and headed to the train station
where we got on the train to Penza and arrived safely at home THursday morning. so yes, I walked through Russian streets barefoot and I'm proud of it. I also need to report (for anyone who served in this mission) that Elder Gersimenko is now in our district here in PENZA! SHOCK! After having been the Assistant to the President for what seems an eternity he had made his way to us. There you have it, the news is
out. Well I hope you all have a good week and everything goes well with the
"schoolers". Good luck with classes, moving in, meeting friends etc. I love you all!
Thanks Jill for the email-- it made my day! And you are crazy-- 50? Really? good luck and you better magnify that new calling. That sounds like a winner.
Well love and kisses. The Church is true! Sister Morris
Monday, August 30, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
More Pictures
1. BABA KATYA and Baba Jenya-- two babyshki in the ward in Penza-- who I LOVE!
2. Lena (my true love here) and I at Park Pobedi when I was still in Saratov
3. Me on my first train! WOohoo!
1. After church I"m really really tired and |I just decided to take a
little nap-- the couches were way too tempting.
2. A view of Penza-- A REALLY REALLY pretty city!
3. what I eat almost every morning-- cornflakes-- I love them.
2. Lena (my true love here) and I at Park Pobedi when I was still in Saratov
3. Me on my first train! WOohoo!
1. After church I"m really really tired and |I just decided to take a
little nap-- the couches were way too tempting.
2. A view of Penza-- A REALLY REALLY pretty city!
3. what I eat almost every morning-- cornflakes-- I love them.
Another week another train ride
Well another week and another train ride. Right now I am typing this email in a post office in Samara after having spent a very sleepless night on a train from Penza to Samara. We got on the train around 10 last night and arrived in Samara at 6! YEA! It is so hard to sleep on trains! I don't know how people do it. If there are any suggestions out there that would be great because I"m really feeling the fatigue setting in from not sleeping. But oh well. Life goes on.
So.... this week was good. Just "missionarying" as usual but lots of good things happened. We were able to meet with some great inactive members this week and that was great. It is always such a good experience to see them light up when they talk about their baptism. THey know this church is still true but for some reason or another haven't been able to come to church but it is so great to be able to work with them.
This week we were also able to continue the "new" tradition of District Meeting-- in person-- which was great. It is such a great break to be able to get together every week with the ELders and talk about our investigatiors, get their help and opinions and just feel like we aren't alone in this work.
I would like to also announce to everyone that I had a big full week of goal accomplishing. Well... First, Sister and I had set a goal to eat a baked good everyday and we nailed it. Then i had set a personal goal to memorize "Follow the Prophet" in Russian-- yes, all 9 verses, and I did it. THis morning we did a mini-performance and I only messed up a couple of times when I couldn't remember if it was the verse with Jonah or Daniel about lions and whales. That song is golden. Even better in Russian. It took a full week of memorizing every verse every day while we contacted but we did it!!!! I can also say that I walked on a balance beam. Thanks to the support of my companion I walked all the way across and back which is really scary for me-- someone with NO balance and NO self-confidence in those kinds of things. But look... as my mom always says... we can do HARD things!
We had a great experience tracting this week. We had decided to zaidyom to an apartment where a former investigator had lived. We knocked and talked to her briefly but she replied that she just wasn't interested but we decided to knock the whole podezd. We went up to the top floor, knocked on the first door, and the lady immediately let us in! We had a FANTASTIC lesson with her and we were able to talk about the power of prayer and the PLan of Salvation. Her husband had died and she had been struggling with a lot of thoughts about the plan o flife, why we are here and if there is something afterwards. After talking to her for ahile we found out that she had actually met with the missioanries a few years ago and had the Book of Mormon. We asked her to read it adn pray to know if it was true. It was a great experience and testimony-building experiecne to me to know that yes, Heavenly Father does prepare people and does help them to accept this Gospel. He is in charge of everything!
Saturday we paid our rent and our hazaika brought us a HUGE bag of tomatoes. We knew that we wuold be going out of town this week and so had to do something with them and so we made a big pot of tomato sauce/soup. It was really really yummy and we were even able to freeze some so I"m looking forward to that when we get home. We will be here in samara today, I will go to Lithuania tomorrow to renew my visa, we will work here in samara on Wed and then that night take a train back to Penza. Whew!!! A crazy week but all is well. I love yuo all! Thanks for the great emails and good luck Taylor at BYU and all of you returning to school and HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVA! That is so crazy she is already two. |I just hope she knows who her favorite aunt is;) Lots of love!
Sister Morris
So.... this week was good. Just "missionarying" as usual but lots of good things happened. We were able to meet with some great inactive members this week and that was great. It is always such a good experience to see them light up when they talk about their baptism. THey know this church is still true but for some reason or another haven't been able to come to church but it is so great to be able to work with them.
This week we were also able to continue the "new" tradition of District Meeting-- in person-- which was great. It is such a great break to be able to get together every week with the ELders and talk about our investigatiors, get their help and opinions and just feel like we aren't alone in this work.
I would like to also announce to everyone that I had a big full week of goal accomplishing. Well... First, Sister and I had set a goal to eat a baked good everyday and we nailed it. Then i had set a personal goal to memorize "Follow the Prophet" in Russian-- yes, all 9 verses, and I did it. THis morning we did a mini-performance and I only messed up a couple of times when I couldn't remember if it was the verse with Jonah or Daniel about lions and whales. That song is golden. Even better in Russian. It took a full week of memorizing every verse every day while we contacted but we did it!!!! I can also say that I walked on a balance beam. Thanks to the support of my companion I walked all the way across and back which is really scary for me-- someone with NO balance and NO self-confidence in those kinds of things. But look... as my mom always says... we can do HARD things!
We had a great experience tracting this week. We had decided to zaidyom to an apartment where a former investigator had lived. We knocked and talked to her briefly but she replied that she just wasn't interested but we decided to knock the whole podezd. We went up to the top floor, knocked on the first door, and the lady immediately let us in! We had a FANTASTIC lesson with her and we were able to talk about the power of prayer and the PLan of Salvation. Her husband had died and she had been struggling with a lot of thoughts about the plan o flife, why we are here and if there is something afterwards. After talking to her for ahile we found out that she had actually met with the missioanries a few years ago and had the Book of Mormon. We asked her to read it adn pray to know if it was true. It was a great experience and testimony-building experiecne to me to know that yes, Heavenly Father does prepare people and does help them to accept this Gospel. He is in charge of everything!
Saturday we paid our rent and our hazaika brought us a HUGE bag of tomatoes. We knew that we wuold be going out of town this week and so had to do something with them and so we made a big pot of tomato sauce/soup. It was really really yummy and we were even able to freeze some so I"m looking forward to that when we get home. We will be here in samara today, I will go to Lithuania tomorrow to renew my visa, we will work here in samara on Wed and then that night take a train back to Penza. Whew!!! A crazy week but all is well. I love yuo all! Thanks for the great emails and good luck Taylor at BYU and all of you returning to school and HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVA! That is so crazy she is already two. |I just hope she knows who her favorite aunt is;) Lots of love!
Sister Morris
Monday, August 16, 2010
My Future?
Well another week in Penza FLEW by. I can't believe that we are already here writing emails again but things are going really well. Penza is great. This week was filled with lots of TRAVELING on buses and martshytkas. AH! We have an investigaor that lives in a different part of the city and so have been "yekating" to her a lot recently but it has been good. Thursday night we had an "intersting" experience.
The Elders gave us a contact so we were pretty excited. Well I called him and talked to him for awhile and set up a meeting with him and HIS WIFE for that night. I think I asked about 5 times if his wife would be there because it seemed a little fishy. He said yes and we went out. We decided to just meet on a park bench- the safest option- and he immediately sat down (without his wife) and started askign us questions. The Elders had said he wanted the "Together Forever" DVD and so we gave that to him. He then proceeded to ask if I would watch it with him. I said, "no" very firmly and said that he could watch it with his wife, to which he responded, well when you are my wfie, you can watch it with me. Excellent. So our conversation defintiely took a
downhill turn where he proposed to me several times (not the first time on the mission), asking when I would be his wife etc. YES! I told him no, we would never be meeting again, etc. etc. but nothing seemed to work. Oh the joys of missionaring.
I also fell this week. HARD. YOu may ask how that is even possible because it is summer, the roads DON"T have ice and snow, but I fell. And now my knee has a sweet bruise and a huge ptch of "rug burn" on my knee. Yes, I still have the gift. I can also say for the first time on my missoin I had my fortune read, or maybe better to just say my DESTINY read. Awesome. Unfortunately the proposal was not inclued in it... hmmmm...something;s not right. I will definitely have to talk more about that later but on to the spiritual things...
We had a great lesson with a member this week and did a practice to help her know how to invite her family and friends to hear the Gospel. At first she was a little hesitant but got used to the idea and we did a great practice with her. It was so great to see how excited she was at the end to see that she had invied her "friend" (Sister Jackson) to come to a Family Home Evening. It is so fun to see the joy that the Gospel brings into our lives and especially as we share it. Here in Penza, and Russia in general, we have been preparing for the Kiev Temple dedication and we are all so excited! That is another blessing in our lives that I can't even express in words! These members sacrifice everything to go to the temple! I am soooooooooooo
excited to go to the temple as soon as I get home. I miss it so much and just the great feeling of peace and comfort there. The temple is the best place to be. How lucky we truly are. So I guess that's about all for this week. Again we are soooooo excited for the dedication of the temple in 2 weeks and the blessing that will come from that here in the Ukraine and Russia. The Gospel is moving forward. I love you
all! Thanks for the emails and love and support. Have a great week and go to the temple! Oh and i forgot to mention that Elder Swainston is the best district
leader in the whole wide world and he is just so cool;) He also gets bonus points becasue he loves LOST. (Yes, we know our moms (me, sister jackson, and elder swainston) read our blogs and compare. So he has asked me to include something about
him in every email)
Sister Morris
The Elders gave us a contact so we were pretty excited. Well I called him and talked to him for awhile and set up a meeting with him and HIS WIFE for that night. I think I asked about 5 times if his wife would be there because it seemed a little fishy. He said yes and we went out. We decided to just meet on a park bench- the safest option- and he immediately sat down (without his wife) and started askign us questions. The Elders had said he wanted the "Together Forever" DVD and so we gave that to him. He then proceeded to ask if I would watch it with him. I said, "no" very firmly and said that he could watch it with his wife, to which he responded, well when you are my wfie, you can watch it with me. Excellent. So our conversation defintiely took a
downhill turn where he proposed to me several times (not the first time on the mission), asking when I would be his wife etc. YES! I told him no, we would never be meeting again, etc. etc. but nothing seemed to work. Oh the joys of missionaring.
I also fell this week. HARD. YOu may ask how that is even possible because it is summer, the roads DON"T have ice and snow, but I fell. And now my knee has a sweet bruise and a huge ptch of "rug burn" on my knee. Yes, I still have the gift. I can also say for the first time on my missoin I had my fortune read, or maybe better to just say my DESTINY read. Awesome. Unfortunately the proposal was not inclued in it... hmmmm...something;s not right. I will definitely have to talk more about that later but on to the spiritual things...
We had a great lesson with a member this week and did a practice to help her know how to invite her family and friends to hear the Gospel. At first she was a little hesitant but got used to the idea and we did a great practice with her. It was so great to see how excited she was at the end to see that she had invied her "friend" (Sister Jackson) to come to a Family Home Evening. It is so fun to see the joy that the Gospel brings into our lives and especially as we share it. Here in Penza, and Russia in general, we have been preparing for the Kiev Temple dedication and we are all so excited! That is another blessing in our lives that I can't even express in words! These members sacrifice everything to go to the temple! I am soooooooooooo
excited to go to the temple as soon as I get home. I miss it so much and just the great feeling of peace and comfort there. The temple is the best place to be. How lucky we truly are. So I guess that's about all for this week. Again we are soooooo excited for the dedication of the temple in 2 weeks and the blessing that will come from that here in the Ukraine and Russia. The Gospel is moving forward. I love you
all! Thanks for the emails and love and support. Have a great week and go to the temple! Oh and i forgot to mention that Elder Swainston is the best district
leader in the whole wide world and he is just so cool;) He also gets bonus points becasue he loves LOST. (Yes, we know our moms (me, sister jackson, and elder swainston) read our blogs and compare. So he has asked me to include something about
him in every email)
Sister Morris
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Pictures from Sister Stolyarova
Whitney's former companion emailed me a bunch of pictures today. Whitney looks so happy!
THE INCREDIBLES! (It was really a movie about my family on their Pioneer Trek)
WOW! I absoulately loved hearing about your trek stories!!! They are
amazing and I'm sure have really strengthened your testimony and
helped everyone on the trek to know that God lives, He loves us, and
for them to see all of the amazing blessings he has given us. I
completely forgot last week to tell my parents HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! I am
so grateful for the amazing and committed parents I have. I can't tell
anoyone enough here about them and their example. They have taught me
EVERYTHING i know and i am so grateful for their example and love.
They are the best parents in the world! They write me everyweek, even
my dad;) they show their love and respect for each other and they know
how to work together. Thanks mom and dad for being so awesome. And in
this week;s news... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEVIN! I can't believe how grown up
you are...;) I am so blessed to have the amazing family I do. I hope
you have a fantastic birthday! I love you!
Well this week, of course, was amazing. I LOVE PENZA! Thanks Sis.
Pike(Harmon?) for the emails. It was amazing and I loved it! You look
so goooooooooooood.... and let's just say it was your training that
did everything. Penza is a fantastic city, from the billboards that
say smoking is bad, to the people who are friendly. I love being here
and working here with these amazing members. Every week at church is
so cool to see how many members are here and how strong they are. It
is great. With the warm weather we have been doing a lot of contacting
and that has been pretty good. We had a couple lessons with
investigators this week and so are excited to see them progressing. I
think the biggest news this week is that we had District MEETING-- in
person. FIRST TIME ON MY MISSION! It was crazy! We ususally just have
district meeting over the phone but this week they called us Monday
night and said we would be having it at the church building on
Tuesday. It was so great to get together with the 4 Elders here and
discuss our investigaotrs and help each other know how to resolve
concerns. It was also great to be able to see Elder Hollingshead and
Kazakov, our Assistant and Zone Leader. They did a great fireside
Wednesday night for the church members on how to do missionary work
with the missionaries and it was great. We did a practice with the
members where they invited their friends to either an acitivity or
church or just to a family home evening. It was a great experience and
we really enjoyed district meeting and the fireside. I enjoyed being
able to discuss with two of the sisters here, how they can help their
friends and family hear about the Gospel. I shared with them the
thought that was from conference a few years ago, to never skip
talking about SUNDAY. When we are at work or just talking to our
friends, we should still be mentioning what we did on Sunday. We can
tell them, with confidence, we WENT TO CHURCH! We can tell them of the
blessings we receive and why we go to church every week. It was great
and I loved working with them!
We had a couple great lessons with members this week and were able to
teach them about the Restored Gospel. It is so interesting because on
a mission you teach the 1st lesson a lot, and as members of the churhc
we already know the information that is there, but everytime we teach
it or even here it we understand something better or different. We
also get a confirmation that the message is true and it gives us an
opportunity to bear our testimony. I loved being able to teach this
message with the members and then hear them bear their testimony how
they know this church is true. It was also great to see how they know
that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He did see God the Father and Jesus
Christ and he did restore the power and authority here on the earth
to perfrom saving ordinances like baptism! Like those pioneers, these
beautiful Russian people are pioneers here, preahing the Gospel to
their friends, opening their mouths at work, on the buses, in their
podezds, helping their brother and sisters to hear this Gospel, this
message of JOY! We have that same responsibiliyt and blessing. To
share the gospel with those around us!
We also had a great lesson with Baba Jenya who is 85 and still
amazingly strong. We talked a lot about the perspective we get from
the Gospel and just from life. It is so intersting to see how when we
know something, and then we go through a trial or some type of change,
and we learn about the same thing again-- we know more, we see it from
a differenct perspective and we are able to then apply it differently
in our lives and know more about it.
Well I think that is all for this week. I hope everyone has a great
week, filled with missionarying... okay and swimming, barbecuing,
camping, mountain bike riding and all of that other stuff! Remember
man is to have JOY! Go do it. I love you all and love this Gospel.
Thanks for the mail, support, prayers and love. You are the best!
Sister Morris
amazing and I'm sure have really strengthened your testimony and
helped everyone on the trek to know that God lives, He loves us, and
for them to see all of the amazing blessings he has given us. I
completely forgot last week to tell my parents HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! I am
so grateful for the amazing and committed parents I have. I can't tell
anoyone enough here about them and their example. They have taught me
EVERYTHING i know and i am so grateful for their example and love.
They are the best parents in the world! They write me everyweek, even
my dad;) they show their love and respect for each other and they know
how to work together. Thanks mom and dad for being so awesome. And in
this week;s news... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEVIN! I can't believe how grown up
you are...;) I am so blessed to have the amazing family I do. I hope
you have a fantastic birthday! I love you!
Well this week, of course, was amazing. I LOVE PENZA! Thanks Sis.
Pike(Harmon?) for the emails. It was amazing and I loved it! You look
so goooooooooooood.... and let's just say it was your training that
did everything. Penza is a fantastic city, from the billboards that
say smoking is bad, to the people who are friendly. I love being here
and working here with these amazing members. Every week at church is
so cool to see how many members are here and how strong they are. It
is great. With the warm weather we have been doing a lot of contacting
and that has been pretty good. We had a couple lessons with
investigators this week and so are excited to see them progressing. I
think the biggest news this week is that we had District MEETING-- in
person. FIRST TIME ON MY MISSION! It was crazy! We ususally just have
district meeting over the phone but this week they called us Monday
night and said we would be having it at the church building on
Tuesday. It was so great to get together with the 4 Elders here and
discuss our investigaotrs and help each other know how to resolve
concerns. It was also great to be able to see Elder Hollingshead and
Kazakov, our Assistant and Zone Leader. They did a great fireside
Wednesday night for the church members on how to do missionary work
with the missionaries and it was great. We did a practice with the
members where they invited their friends to either an acitivity or
church or just to a family home evening. It was a great experience and
we really enjoyed district meeting and the fireside. I enjoyed being
able to discuss with two of the sisters here, how they can help their
friends and family hear about the Gospel. I shared with them the
thought that was from conference a few years ago, to never skip
talking about SUNDAY. When we are at work or just talking to our
friends, we should still be mentioning what we did on Sunday. We can
tell them, with confidence, we WENT TO CHURCH! We can tell them of the
blessings we receive and why we go to church every week. It was great
and I loved working with them!
We had a couple great lessons with members this week and were able to
teach them about the Restored Gospel. It is so interesting because on
a mission you teach the 1st lesson a lot, and as members of the churhc
we already know the information that is there, but everytime we teach
it or even here it we understand something better or different. We
also get a confirmation that the message is true and it gives us an
opportunity to bear our testimony. I loved being able to teach this
message with the members and then hear them bear their testimony how
they know this church is true. It was also great to see how they know
that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He did see God the Father and Jesus
Christ and he did restore the power and authority here on the earth
to perfrom saving ordinances like baptism! Like those pioneers, these
beautiful Russian people are pioneers here, preahing the Gospel to
their friends, opening their mouths at work, on the buses, in their
podezds, helping their brother and sisters to hear this Gospel, this
message of JOY! We have that same responsibiliyt and blessing. To
share the gospel with those around us!
We also had a great lesson with Baba Jenya who is 85 and still
amazingly strong. We talked a lot about the perspective we get from
the Gospel and just from life. It is so intersting to see how when we
know something, and then we go through a trial or some type of change,
and we learn about the same thing again-- we know more, we see it from
a differenct perspective and we are able to then apply it differently
in our lives and know more about it.
Well I think that is all for this week. I hope everyone has a great
week, filled with missionarying... okay and swimming, barbecuing,
camping, mountain bike riding and all of that other stuff! Remember
man is to have JOY! Go do it. I love you all and love this Gospel.
Thanks for the mail, support, prayers and love. You are the best!
Sister Morris
Saturday, August 7, 2010
One Word...HOT
WOW! Time is flying! I can't believe that it is already AUGUST!!!
AHHHHHH! What happened to July? Well everything is going great in
Penza. It really is a fantastic city and fantastic WARD! I love them!
It is so fun to get to know them and to hear how they found the Gospel
and then to help them share it with their friends. We have had a
really good week and I am really excited for another one. It should be
good!
Good luck on the trek! That sounds like it will be a LOT of fun! Don't
let anyone die and especialy don't let Jed Manwaring take his bike or
his handcart off a ledge he hasn't seen;) Is the weather hot there? It
is definitey hot here! They are saying that Russia hasn't seen a
summer like this.... well basically...ever... and that it is really
really hot for Russia and I agree. Whew. But the heat only helps us
appreciate the cold that will be here soon... oh don't we love
opposition in all things;)
Well I guess I'll just give a good old rundown of the week. Monday was
P-day and we ran around all day like chickens with our heads cut off
trying to find internet, a place to buy food, all of the things we
needed for the new apartment etc. but we did it. We then had a lesson
with a new investigator that night which went really well. Tuesday we
had a great day! We needed to go visit a member in a different area
and so got on the bus we thought went to her house. Well we talked to
the conductor on the bus, only to find out that yes, it did go to her
house, but it also went the LONG way!!! And by long, I mean an hour
extra. YES! So we started to talk to the conductor and were blessed to
have a great conversation with her, exchange information and give her
the Together Forever DVD. It was a definite testimony builder that
Heavenly Father is always preparing people and putting people in our
paths and all we need to do is talk to them! It was a blessing that we
were able to talk to her, even though we were on the wrong bus. We
then had our lesson with our member (only about 45 minutes late) and
it was GREAT! She is amazing and we are so excited to start working
with her. Thursday we had a great lesson with an inactive lady in our
ward with our Relief Society Presdient who is "a hero". Our Relief
Society President recently got married and is just a cute newlywed.
She served on a mission a couple years ago and so it was really FUN to
work with her and just talk about our missions. She is definitley a
hero of mine now. She is STRONG and I loved hearing her testimony.
Friday night we had a lesson with the Branch President and his wife
which was also great. They are so willing to share the Gospel with
those they know and so we are really working with them to get some
investigators to start teaching. I may have said this last week, but I
found the JED MANWARING of Russia. Our Branch President is just a Jed
copy and I love it! He has so much energy, loves missionay work and is
always ready to WORK so we are really looking forward to continuing
working with them. Saturdya we had the opportunity to work with one of
beautiful sisters on the street and it was FANTASTIC. It was so great
to have her out contacting with us--- in 100 heat-- and to hear her
testify to people how the Gospel has blessed her family. We had a
great conversation with a lady about trials and it was so sweet to
hear how our member could relate to her. It really helps when the
people we talk to see that we are normal people. They see that she has
kids, a husband, a job and that the Gospel still blesses her. Often
and unfortunatley people jsut see 2 young American girls and think
that the church can't help them but the GOspel helps EVERYONE! Old and
young. We also met our hazaika that night and she is really nice! We
got new plastic windows in our apartment so that was a lot of fun. But
becase of the workers doing the windows in our house we couldn't use
our kitchen so ended up buying some lunch at LENTA the big grocery
story and starting our fast on a park bench outisde. Oh the life of a
missionay-- I LOVE IT! It is scaring me to death to think that in 5
months I'm going to be home! AH! Where did the time go!
Sunday was great as usual beacuse we had church and I love Fast and
Testimony meeting. The meeting was so powerful and the testiomnies
were absolutely perfect. I loved hearing how the Lord had blessed
people and to see His love for them. It is such a beautiful Gospel we
have and I love seeing how many different aspects it has. While on the
bus to church we talked to a lady who was just so confused why two
beatiful girls from america would "waste" their time and energy
preaching about some church. It was defintiely intersting to talk to
her and explaing that it was our desire because we have seen how the
Gopsel blesses us. We also had the opportunity after church to go and
visit an invalid grandma in our ward which was a lot of fun. That
night we tracted and it was very rewarding. We had a lot of great
conversations and I loved getting to know people and hear their
stories. we met a lot of nice moms and it was a blessing from Heavenly
Father that so many were open and willing to talk to us. Heavenly
Father really does answer prayers and is watching this work.
So I think that sums up the week. Dad thanks for the reminder about
pioneers. They did so much for us and set such an example for us.
Their faith was incredible and like my dad siad there are pioneers all
over the world today, doing hard things in a hard time. The saints
here in Russia are all pioneers, whether they are the first member in
their family, or helping their friends come to church they are doing a
great and incredible work. The committment this week is to be a
pioneer! Do something you've never done. Go talk to someone on a bus
about the church, give your neighbor a church film, invite the
missionaries over to teach a discussion or go on a handcart trek;) I
love you all and hope yuo have a fantastic week! Go share the
Gospel!!!
Sister Morris
AHHHHHH! What happened to July? Well everything is going great in
Penza. It really is a fantastic city and fantastic WARD! I love them!
It is so fun to get to know them and to hear how they found the Gospel
and then to help them share it with their friends. We have had a
really good week and I am really excited for another one. It should be
good!
Good luck on the trek! That sounds like it will be a LOT of fun! Don't
let anyone die and especialy don't let Jed Manwaring take his bike or
his handcart off a ledge he hasn't seen;) Is the weather hot there? It
is definitey hot here! They are saying that Russia hasn't seen a
summer like this.... well basically...ever... and that it is really
really hot for Russia and I agree. Whew. But the heat only helps us
appreciate the cold that will be here soon... oh don't we love
opposition in all things;)
Well I guess I'll just give a good old rundown of the week. Monday was
P-day and we ran around all day like chickens with our heads cut off
trying to find internet, a place to buy food, all of the things we
needed for the new apartment etc. but we did it. We then had a lesson
with a new investigator that night which went really well. Tuesday we
had a great day! We needed to go visit a member in a different area
and so got on the bus we thought went to her house. Well we talked to
the conductor on the bus, only to find out that yes, it did go to her
house, but it also went the LONG way!!! And by long, I mean an hour
extra. YES! So we started to talk to the conductor and were blessed to
have a great conversation with her, exchange information and give her
the Together Forever DVD. It was a definite testimony builder that
Heavenly Father is always preparing people and putting people in our
paths and all we need to do is talk to them! It was a blessing that we
were able to talk to her, even though we were on the wrong bus. We
then had our lesson with our member (only about 45 minutes late) and
it was GREAT! She is amazing and we are so excited to start working
with her. Thursday we had a great lesson with an inactive lady in our
ward with our Relief Society Presdient who is "a hero". Our Relief
Society President recently got married and is just a cute newlywed.
She served on a mission a couple years ago and so it was really FUN to
work with her and just talk about our missions. She is definitley a
hero of mine now. She is STRONG and I loved hearing her testimony.
Friday night we had a lesson with the Branch President and his wife
which was also great. They are so willing to share the Gospel with
those they know and so we are really working with them to get some
investigators to start teaching. I may have said this last week, but I
found the JED MANWARING of Russia. Our Branch President is just a Jed
copy and I love it! He has so much energy, loves missionay work and is
always ready to WORK so we are really looking forward to continuing
working with them. Saturdya we had the opportunity to work with one of
beautiful sisters on the street and it was FANTASTIC. It was so great
to have her out contacting with us--- in 100 heat-- and to hear her
testify to people how the Gospel has blessed her family. We had a
great conversation with a lady about trials and it was so sweet to
hear how our member could relate to her. It really helps when the
people we talk to see that we are normal people. They see that she has
kids, a husband, a job and that the Gospel still blesses her. Often
and unfortunatley people jsut see 2 young American girls and think
that the church can't help them but the GOspel helps EVERYONE! Old and
young. We also met our hazaika that night and she is really nice! We
got new plastic windows in our apartment so that was a lot of fun. But
becase of the workers doing the windows in our house we couldn't use
our kitchen so ended up buying some lunch at LENTA the big grocery
story and starting our fast on a park bench outisde. Oh the life of a
missionay-- I LOVE IT! It is scaring me to death to think that in 5
months I'm going to be home! AH! Where did the time go!
Sunday was great as usual beacuse we had church and I love Fast and
Testimony meeting. The meeting was so powerful and the testiomnies
were absolutely perfect. I loved hearing how the Lord had blessed
people and to see His love for them. It is such a beautiful Gospel we
have and I love seeing how many different aspects it has. While on the
bus to church we talked to a lady who was just so confused why two
beatiful girls from america would "waste" their time and energy
preaching about some church. It was defintiely intersting to talk to
her and explaing that it was our desire because we have seen how the
Gopsel blesses us. We also had the opportunity after church to go and
visit an invalid grandma in our ward which was a lot of fun. That
night we tracted and it was very rewarding. We had a lot of great
conversations and I loved getting to know people and hear their
stories. we met a lot of nice moms and it was a blessing from Heavenly
Father that so many were open and willing to talk to us. Heavenly
Father really does answer prayers and is watching this work.
So I think that sums up the week. Dad thanks for the reminder about
pioneers. They did so much for us and set such an example for us.
Their faith was incredible and like my dad siad there are pioneers all
over the world today, doing hard things in a hard time. The saints
here in Russia are all pioneers, whether they are the first member in
their family, or helping their friends come to church they are doing a
great and incredible work. The committment this week is to be a
pioneer! Do something you've never done. Go talk to someone on a bus
about the church, give your neighbor a church film, invite the
missionaries over to teach a discussion or go on a handcart trek;) I
love you all and hope yuo have a fantastic week! Go share the
Gospel!!!
Sister Morris
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