Hot! Dang Hot!

What´s up!? Us, well, nothing much. We are just sitting here sweating.  It gets a little hot sometimes but that is all right. Okay, first things first. HAPPY BIRTHDAY (two days ago) TO MY DAD!!!! You all know how great he is and all he does for EVERYONE that surrounds him. If you don't know him, GET TO KNOW HIM!!!! He'll make your life better! haha He really does brighten up your day with a small act of service, often large acts of service, a funny joke, or just trying to make you smile with an accent (which are often Mexican... I will finally be able to beat him at that...) He is the perfect example of a humble, hardworking, priesthood holder. And what more, the perfect example of a loving father. An example that I hope to try and mimic one day. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Morris for birthing him so that I could be birthed to him. LOVE YA DAD!!

Let's see, what else.... This week was pretty usual. We didn't have a lot of lessons because we had a few meetings to go to and we had our Zone Conference, which was pretty much ALL day... But we learned some really good stuff.

Update on the investigators, Martha is still a rock’in and a roll’in. She is going to be baptized this Sunday!! She is such a cute little old lady. She said the prayer to end our gospel principles class and just thanked our Heavenly Father for sending her all of the blessings and changes she has seen in her life. And for the chance that she is going to have to be baptized in one week and for the strength to press forward in the true church. Really a cool experience! 

That leaves us with Ramiro. This guy is smart. His first time in the church he noticed all of the little things wrong with the ward. I don't know if you know but our ward is a little bit of apostasy. So he pretty much was telling us all of the things that happened that shouldn't happen in the chapel because it is a "holy place where we go to worship and learn from our Father." His words, not mine. Well, my words, but a translation of his. :)  He is just super prepared and his going to be a good leader in the church someday. We were talking about Christ and what he looks like and if anyone has ever seen him. That led us to the topic of prophets. That led him to ask if I had ever been in close proximity to a prophet before. I had the opportunity to give a personal testimony of the power and authority of the apostolic calling that Elder Cook has and to testify, with every fiber of my being and from the depths of my heart, that he is a prophet of God and a special witness the Jesus is the Christ. About that, I have no doubt. It was a super powerful experience. Something that I will never forget. 

Yeah, that’s about all I got for this week. 

Keep trying, even when you are down. Don't look from side to side for answers, because you'll just find opinions. Look up, because all truth comes from God. I hope you all have a great week! 

-Elder Morris

The picture doesn't do the tan justice at all! It's just a freckle past a hair.

I made Spaghetti and couldn't find any garlic bread. Then I saw this, it's here somewhere.

We can't have a dog so this is my pet Pedro.

And a Bolt of Lightning came down. JK

Hello my friends and family.

What's crackin!? How is life? I hope it is good! It probably isn't as good as mine, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt. I mean, not very many people can find more than a couple golden investigators at one time!! Okay, Well let's get started, shall we?

This week was great! I mean, every week is great, but you just have some weeks that are really great and others that are just barely great. Well this week was one of those really great weeks. 

We have been teaching Martha for a while now and she is progressing really well. She is the one whose family lived in Utah for a couple years and who was exposed to the church up there. She has been taking lessons for a couple weeks with us and has attended church 4 times. She has told us that when she had open heart surgery, missionaries were in the hospital and gave her a Book of Mormon and she had read a little bit of it. Obviously she has been prepared by the hand of the Lord. So she is set to be baptized on the 23 of August.

Then we have also found another guy named Ramiro. He is a gentleman who has a store in the street market that you frequently find in the streets of Mexico. He also had contact with the missionaries in another city but didn't think much about it. We never could get an in home visit with him but we would always have little "Contact Lessons" with him in the street or in the park. One day we saw him at the market and he told us that he has been passing through some rough times and that he would like to talk with us, so we set up a time with him to meet him in the park and talk. Well we waited and he didn't show up. The next day we are walking through the park and we heard someone yelling at us. We turn around and he is hurrying to catch up with us. He told us that he had gotten stuck doing something and couldn't make it. He asked us to come to his little one room apartment and we had a lesson with him. The next day we go back and set a date for baptism. The next day we went to get him for church and he came with us. Since then we have been having lessons almost every other day and he is progressing really well!! Just to give you an idea, we gave him the Restoration pamphlet and when we returned the next day we asked him if he had it so that we could talk about it. He was like "Oh, this one? Yeah, I have read it twice already. Let me tell you what I learned." He then proceeded to tell us about it. He continued talking about the list of terms that are found in the back and then defined them for us in his own words. I just sat there open mouthed and was like "is this even real? Somebody throw a Book of Mormon at me." It was so cool! He has already come to church 2 times.  He is scheduled to be baptized in the first week of September. 

Some really good stuff is going on out here. Oh, something really cool that happened yesterday. Our convert, Elias, is really popular in the neighborhood and has many friends. Through him we have made a lot of friends as well. Well some of these friends haven't wanted to give up the whole drinking thing yet (but we are working on it).

 Well yesterday we were walking down the street and saw a group of them out and about (drinking) and so we went over to talk with them. We made some jokes, told them to stop drinking, they thought that was another joke, and we were all laughing and they were drunk and it was just funny. Then all of the sudden this guy comes out of one the garages and says "Do you know what you are?" Well, yeah, duh. I am a 19-year-old living in Mexico preaching the everlasting gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't let me respond, he just continued "You're liars" No sooner had the words left his mouth when he was struck by lightning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha-ha Okay, he wasn't struck by lightning, but all of our friends who were just a little under the influence, started yelling at him, telling him he was crazy and to get lost. One guy even had his arm cocked ready to knock the guy out. It was freaking awesome!!! Ha-ha I have never had something like that happen before in my entire life!!! Then later on that night Elias sent us a message that neither he nor his friends would ever let anything happen to us. It was a super great feeling. 

Well, that is all I have!! When things are looking down, just know that it is because something good is around the corner. Remember, we have dark times so that we can appreciate the beauty of the bright times later on!!! Have a great week!!!

-Élder Morris

Change someone's life!

Wow, two weeks without writing home is really weird. Sorry about that. Sometimes the internet places are really slow and then just delete the email you have been working on for 30 minutes. But yeah, ni modo Life goes on! Ha-ha I hope I can remember the stuff that has happened.....

Well to start us off, WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!!! Yeah, we did. It is true. Right in the water and everything. I was starting to believe that baptisms were impossible in this area, but now we have evidence that it is possible! Elias got baptized and a lot of his friends and family came. Because of his example, a lot of people are now trying to follow the footsteps of our Savior as well. Ha-ha Elias is pretty great. He teaches and bible bashes others about Joseph Smith and about how he was a prophet and all that jazz. But that just helped me realized that the influence that we have in the way we live our lives has a huge impact on others. Whether we know it or not, we have to be aware that we are being watched at every moment. Every action we make will influence someone. A thought from the Sister Bird this week ties in nicely I do believe. "Daily choices are going to have a great effect for a long time in your life and in the lives of generations to follow." I am going to add "and to the innocent bystanders in your life. Who knows what a "Hey, how's it going?" or a "I like your shirt" or just a simple smile will do. "Behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." So I challenge you to go out there and change the world!!! Or at least change somebodies world! Go "confound the wise"!!!!

In other news, we have an investigator that is progressing super well! Her name is Martha. She is a little bit older, but she is super awesome. She always gives us water when we pass by, and I don't mean just water, but like lemon, mango, and cantaloupe. Okay, so I know that sounds weird, a drink made of cantaloupe? But it is SO freaking good!!! I might buy some cantaloupes and make it this week, just to test out our new blender.... And by new blender I mean the one that has been sitting in the box since I got here, which was about 5 months ago.... Anyways, back from that side street. She is progressing really well. Just a quick little example. She had an open heart surgery a while back. She really can't do much without tiring. But, she volunteered, VOLUNTEERED, to come help us sweep and clean the streets and sidewalks around the church. It is so awesome!! We had a lesson with her this week that was super sweet also. I was on an exchanges with the ZL's and we just finished talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We had given her the homework to pray to know if this was the true church of God, if Joseph Smith was a prophet, and if the Book of Mormon is true. Well, she did all of that and after a little coxing and digging, she came straight out with it. She has received her answer that it is true!!!! Ah, there is nothing like hearing those words come out of a person’s mouth!!! 

Sorry, but we are going to jump back to Elias for a minute. So one day when we were passing by, we saw that one of his friends, who is taking lessons from the other elders in our ward, was sitting out on the porch. We stopped by to see how he was doing, encourage him to keep fighting the temptations to drink, that kind of stuff. Then Elias comes out and we have a lesson with the two of them. The best part of the lesson was when Elias shared his testimony. He talked about how he had had troubles dropping the beers too and how this Gospel has blessed his life. Then for about 20 minutes he went off on how if he was forced from the chapel, he would stand at the door to listen, and if he was forced from the door he would wait outside the building, and if he was forced out of the gates he would still stand there, holding onto the bars because he knows that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ upon the earth. It was probably the coolest thing that could have happened at that moment!!

I hope you all have a fantastic week and are enjoying the summer sun. I know I am, with a whole lot of sunscreen!!!! Keep the faith, change somebodies world!!!! 

-Èlder Morris

Our Zones Temple day. 

I know, selfies are popular here too!

This is Elias, our Superstar convert.