The Work is coming alive! Just in time for Transfers?

Well, another week bites the dust. Who knew they would fly by so freaking fast! It is hard to think about what to write because it seems like it was just yesterday that I sent an email. Hmmm, well the weather is good, not too hot or too cold. I am still breathing, that´s pretty good. Oh, and we have an investigator who actually wants, and is able to go to church!!!! He didn't come yesterday because he had to work but he asked his boss if he could start coming in later so he could attend church!! And he is reading in The Book of Mormon!! All I have to say is it is about time! We have had this type of thing before but nothing ever really happend. This time I really hope that something comes from this. The family just seems ready. The son came to mutual on Tuesday which really surprised us. She had enough confidence in us that she allowed us to take him to mutual! So that was pretty great!! And we got 2 new baptismal dates. One I am not sure about but the other was asking all the right questions and really seems interested. It is just too bad it is right before the next transfer.

In other news, I got asked to give a talk 10 minutes before sacrament meeting started. Ask me to prepare a talk for sacrament in English and I will need more time than that. But in Spanish? Well, I whipped out the trusty old scriptures and tried to remember scriptures that would be relevant. The only problem is that the scriptures are written in ancient Spanish so they use weird words and they have big words that I don't understand quite yet so who knows really what the heck I was saying. But it went really well, I think. I had people tell me I did a good job so that means that they at least understood some of what I said, right? Ah, who knows?

Well, that's all I have this week. Sorry it is short. Hopefully I have more exciting news next week.

Yo sé que este iglesia es verdadera. Sé que sin la Expiación de Jesucristo,  somos nada. Sé, también, que mediante Su expiación, podemos recibir perdón por todo de nuestros pecados. Nadie es perfecto, pero somos perfectibles y mediante la mano del Maestro podemos desarrollar para ser instrumentos in Su obra. Este obra no es la Obra Misional. Este es la Obra del Salvación, la Obra del Señor.   Sé que nuestro siempre Padre Celestial nos ayuda cuando oremos y pedir por ayuda. Nunca estamos solo. Espero que tengan una semana muy bonita y que siempre recuerdan que es nuestro Padre que nos dio todo. ¡Los amo mucho! Translation for us Gringos:

I know this church is true. I know that without the Atonement of Jesus Christ, you are nothing. I also know that through His Atonement, you can receive forgiveness for all of our sins. Nobody's perfect, but we are perfected by the Master's hand, and we can develop to be instruments in His work. This work is not the Missionary Work. This is the Work of Salvation, the Lord's Work. I know our Heavenly Father always helps us when we pray and ask for help. We are never alone. Hope you have one week very nice and always remember that it is our Father who gave us everything.I love you very much!

-Élder Morris
p.s. For you spanish speakers, if there are faults, I am still working on it, Okay!? Sheesh.

Ask and Ye shall receive!

So this week we had Stake Conference. But this wasn't just any other ordinary stake conference. No, this stake conference we had the talks from the Sunday session by General Authorities. And not just area authorities, no, we had a special transmission from Salt Lake. The speakers: Robert D. Hales, D. Todd Christofferson, Craig C. Christensen, and Neill F. Marriott. So that was pretty dang awesome. Elder Christensen and Elder Christofferson both know Spanish and gave their talks in Spanish. They had near perfect Spanish. That was way cool for us to hear their actual voices in Spanish because most the members have only ever heard the translator. Like usual, the main topic was missionary work. Members working with the Missionaries. The M&M's of the Work of Salvation. One talk was given about an athlete in the Olympics who tore some muscle in his leg during a race, but got back up and hobbled across the finish line. In an interview afterwards he was asked why he didn't wait for medical attention. He said "My country didn't send me here to just start a race; they sent me here to finish one." Our Father in Heaven has sent us here to finish the race. We all start this race of life, the objective being to find the Gospel. But finding the Gospel is not finishing the race. It us just like one leg of the marathon of life. And we don't slow down and stop just because we have finished a portion of the race. We need to sprint to the finish line. We need to do all we can to make sure that even when we stumble over what seem like insurmountable hurdles, we pick ourselves back up and finish. Even if that means getting help to stand back up. That is the beauty of the Gospel. We are not alone. We have a family, we have a ward family, and we have our Savior and Redeemer. And sometimes we are not the ones that have fallen, but we should always be the ones willing to help those who have.

Another point was that families should be our number one priority. Today, there are so many things that the world is trying to say are important. Some things like school, work, or other pursuits of things less worthy. We were told that you should put your family, maintaining or starting one, at the top of your list. And all the men got grilled about getting married. You know, I would love to and all but it’s not something I can do at the moment. Ha-ha but I do know how important families are. Your family will be forever, so why not start now!?

Anyway, this week I have gained a little bit of a stronger testimony that our Heavenly Father is always watching over us. We were giving a lesson to a mother and her son and we were answering some questions about missionaries. She asked if our mothers or we were ever scared about being in Mexico, a country not particularly known for its safety. I don't know why but I just testified that, as the Lord's representatives, we have His protection and authority. While I was saying this I had the Spirit testify in my heart the words I was saying were true. This is the Lord's work; no one and nothing can stop it. One other little thing that was way sweet was that yesterday, Sunday; we were out doing our usual proselyting and all of the sudden I got a big headache. I carry some ibuprofen in my bag with me all the time just in case, but I can usually buy water from the little stores on every street corner. Well with it being Sunday, I couldn't. I told my companion "Man, I really wish I had a bottle of water right now." Well, we sat down to do a little planning session before our next lesson and two teenagers walk up with brand new water bottles that they got out of some promotion or something and were like "Hey, I have these water bottles but I don't really like purified water. Do you want them?" Numero uno- Who doesn't like purified water? And numero dos- Heck yeah I would like some water! So, after contacting these fine young gentlemen and setting appointments, I was like, "I have never witnessed the power of the 'ask and ye shall receive' like that before!" ha-ha it was pretty awesome. Well, that's all I got for this week. I hope you all have an awesome week!! Like always, keep the faith!! Someone I really love sent me this really awesome scripture this week. "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you...” John 15:7 Love you all!!

-Élder Morris

Holy Frozen Tacos!!!

Holy frosted tacos Batman, the weather here is insane!! In 2 days it went from sweating and getting a little sunburnt to putting on all the clothes I have!! BRRR!

The weeks has brought a lot of rain. I think it rained for 7 days with only one day not raining, Sunday. (coincidence? No such thing) So, me and my companion initiated Operation No Splashdown. And for you Modern Family watchers not that kind of splashdown!! The streets here turn into rivers and lakes when it rains so there is always a ton of water in the roads. It just so happens that we spend a lot of time in the streets. So with all of the taxis and cars running around like nuts, we have to take extreme caution in not getting soaked from corbata a zapatos! Because once you get wet, it is freezing cold and you never dry out!

These last two weeks have been a mixture of ups and downs! Missionary work is not easy. We all know that. But sometimes when you feel you should be swimming in the Olympics, we are doing all we can just to keep our head above water. Sometimes when we feel we should be running marathons, we are doing everything we can just to stay standing. I won't bore you with details but there were times when I felt this way. It seemed like I was watching everything spiral down the drain. But then Thursday came. Thursday was the day that my zone was able to go to the temple. I am just going to tell you right now, there is absolutely no place on the face of this earth that can compare to the House of the Lord. If you can't go yet, prepare yourself to. If you can go and you aren't, all I can say in the vocabulary of a missionary is why the freak not? I can testify and I can promise that the temple is the closest place to heaven we can go without actually going there. The presence of the Lord literally resides in that building. It doesn't matter if you are endowed or not, GO TO THE TEMPLE! Anyway, you can probably tell that I had a good experience in the temple. All I am going to say is that things are looking a whole lot brighter because of the temple. 

Yesterday was fast Sunday, I want to stress the importance of fasting and prayer as well. In Helaman 3:35 it says that "Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God." Read that a couple times and let that sink in. All that just because of 1. faith 2. prayer 3. fasting. Now go and pray and ask if you can have the same change wrought in you. I know that answer will be yes. If you don't get an answer let me know and we will figure out what is wrong. I love you guys and I love this work and I love my Heavenly Father. Remember that even when we try to look at the big picture, we can't see what God sees because He is the one painting the picture!! Have a great week!! Stay strong!!

-.Élder Morris

We saw the piece on the Missionaries in NYC shoe shining and free hot Chocolate.

The only problem is the day we did it it was 78 degrees and not many people wear shoes to shine.               (it was cold the day before, promise) 

I guess it's the effort that counts, right?

My awesome tree from the Ward Family. LOVED IT!!