So you want a pamphlet?

Another week down. This week we were able to meet more of the members in our new ward and we found a couple of investigators also. We have been out contacting to try and find new investigators each day. We have also been trying to work with some less active people because there are many less actives. The work is starting to take shape!

Like never before, my testimony of God preparing people and then putting them in your path has increased a lot this week. We contacted a teenage girl whose mother´s whole family is LDS but her. She had so many questions about us and what our standards are and what we believe. She has a serious desire to investigating the church, which is just really awesome all around. We also talked to this police officer that was born in Mexico but went to high school in California and spoke English. We talked to him about who we were and what we were doing and then he told us that his mom had attended our church a couple of times and he had actually gone a couple of times too. He told us that he was interested in learning more about the church. Oh, and as we were talking in English, I forgot the words so I stopped and went back to Spanish. That was kinda weird. Then another day as we were out tracting, we had stopped for a minute to try and listen to the spirit to tell us which street we should walk down. So when we decided on a street we started walking and about half way down the street, a lady stops us and asked us if we have any pamphlets for her to read. Heck, which one would you like!? Then she told us she thought that we were Jehovah's Witnesses. Well I said something to the effect that no, we were better than Jehovah's Witnesses. Obviously with respect, it just had that effect. So we gave her the Restoration pamphlet and told her to read it and we are going to have a lesson with her today. Later we saw her little daughter riding her bike in the street and she came over and told us that she had read the pamphlet 2 times and really liked it and her mom did too. 

It just goes to show that the work of the Lord will be moving on, through whatever means necessary. The work of the Lord doesn't stop. 1 Nephi 9:6. Also this week, I have had the chance to see the Spirit working through me. D&C 84:85. "Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man." There were times when I have had no idea what I am saying or what I can possibly say to the people or what they are going to ask. But I know that more than any other time in my mission, I have been used for the good of the people and the good of my companion. He doesn't know much about being a missionary or how to handle situations and the spirit has used me to teach not only him, but myself also. When we try to listen to the spirit, and we pray earnestly to find it, it will be hard to miss. Love you all! Have a fantastic week and enjoy General Conference!!!

-Élder Morris

Elder Morris left his camera in his last apartment but promises that he will have pictures for his mother next week.

So much for the Comfort Zone!

And now it’s time for... Where In Monterrey is Elder Morris!!! Well folks, I got transferred to the area of Infonavit. It is a lot smaller than my old area and has about 1/3 of the membership. Oh, did I mention that we are also opening this area? Yeah, they pulled both of the old elders out and put me and my new companion in. And by new I mean fresh off the plane. Yeah, I am also training!! Yeah, it’s true. I am in a completely new area, with a completely new companion, with completely no idea what is going on!!! It is pretty great. Well, not really, but then you move on and then you start working and then it starts to be great.

Training is tough. Everything you do is being watched by a scrupulous eye and you have to plan everything, well you pretty much have to do everything. And then on top of that we are opening the area so I feel like pretty much I have a thousand things to juggle. It is going to be tough for a couple weeks, that's for sure.

But enough with that, let's get to the good stuff! This Saturday we had the amazing opportunity to receive inspired direction from Pres. Johnson, the area president, Elder Tad Callister, in the presidency of the 70, and to put the icing on the cake, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the 12 apostles!!!!!!!! So yeah, pretty much a powerhouse team right there. It was so awesome to listen to them speak and give very inspired messages. Something that was really clear was that there is no doubt that this work is being hastened like nothing else ever has. They stressed the importance of our call and the importance that every member has to share the gospel with those around them. They also shared really great talks about how to not be discouraged, which helped me a lot. Pres. Bird asked us all to fast the day before and have questions in mind to receive revelation from their talks. Well, the first two talks that were given were direct answers to my questions. There isn't anything like receiving personal revelation from a special witness of Jesus Christ. It was something that I can't even put into words. Really pretty dang great and something that I really needed.

So, what have I learned this week? Turn things over to the Lord. Sometimes he asks us to do things and we ask how can I  possibly to that. But what we should be asking is how the Lord is going to help me do that. I think it might be the most used scripture of all the Church, and a little cliché, but it is still really good and applicable here. 1 Nephi 3:7 "that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." And that is the truth right there. Also, that if we prepare ourselves sufficiently, we will receive revelation from our father. You might not have an apostle come to your area, but there is a little thing called General Conference coming up in a couple weeks. There will be 15 prophets, seers, and revelators giving us direction directly from our Father. That sounds like a pretty good way to revive revelation to me.

Well, I love you all! Thanks for reading wherever this is being put! Have a fantastic week!!! I'll be keepin' on keepin' on!

-Élder Morris



ON THE MOVE!!!

This week was good! We have done a ton with the families in our area and we are expecting some baptisms real soon. Too bad I will be in a different area because I am getting transferred. What a pain, right? But whatever it is, it is the Lord's plan. So I have packed all my stuff and I am just waiting to move out tomorrow. I have really enjoyed my time here. I have learned so much. I can't really picture a different area because this one is the only one I have ever known in Mexico. It will be tough to leave the people of our ward too, but that is the life of a missionary. 

Well, the Familia Cr are pretty much prepared for baptism. The Elders after me just have to teach a couple more lessons and after that it is just a waiting game until they can get baptized. They couldn't have been more prepared by the hand of the Lord.

In other news, WE GET TO MEET AN APOSTLE THIS WEEK!!! Yeah, I am a little excited. This weekend we will get to hear from Elder Quinten L. Cook. So I am really excited for that!! We have a special session for our mission and the Reynosa mission on Saturday and also a session on Sunday, but I don't know if that is just for this stake or all the stakes in our mission. 

So my thoughts on leaving for my first transfer... Well, I am a little nervous and a little bummed. I was really learning a lot from my companion and I have become really close to the people in my area. We have been teaching the Familia Cr and I have become really close to them. My other feelings are of gratitude to my Father, sincere appreciation for hard work, and I am determined to work hard in my next area. I know that whatever happens is in the hands of the Lord and that I am just trying to be an instrument in his hands. I know that for whatever reason it is, I will be working like crazy to find it. I know that President Bird receives revelation for our mission and only does what the Lord directs him to do. So, next week I will be emailing from my new area!  I will let you know how it goes.... Well, maybe. :) Talk to you next week from somewhere in Monterrey!!!

-Elder Morris

A Birthday is just another day in the life of a Missionary.

Well, another year bites the dust. It is super weird. Yup, the calendar says March 6th, my watch too, but that still didn't make it feel like my birthday. But the important thing isn't to celebrate a birthday, it is to preach the gospel, so that is what I did. And we got 5 new investigators! So that was a pretty good birthday present. Well they are the familia Gz and they were references. We are going to have to work with them a lot. They have a sincere interest in growing closer to God, but they are going to be tough to convince (their words, not mine). But luckily we don't have to convince them. We had a good lesson in the home of the member family who gave us the reference so they felt the spirit. But if they are dead set on keeping their hearts closed then there isn't much we can do. But when we show them our love for them and when they feel the love of our Father for them, they will realize the truthfulness. I hope.

This week was good! We have had lessons with the family C almost every day to prepare them for baptism. They are coming along just great! They really are excited to change their lives and to see all of the blessings of the gospel. Heck, they have already started to see the blessings. They had been looking for jobs for a while and within this week, they found good jobs, which give them Sundays off, which is rare in Monterrey. And the little boy loves to show us his test scores because since we told him to pray for help, his scores have been in the 90s while as before they were in the 60s. We gave them the lesson on the Word of Wisdom, which we thought would be tough because the grandma really likes coffee. When we gave the lesson, she told us that she had actually been reading something that said that coffee is bad for your body so everything that we were talking about made complete sense. They are just waiting to get into those waters of baptism!! It is just too bad that transfers are next week. 

This week in Gospel Principals we talked about prayer. How are our prayers answered? In what way do we receive answers? Is it by an angel, a pillar of light, or an unembodied voice telling us what we must do? It is possible, but not likely. Most times it is by thoughts that pop up in our mind and our feelings, reading in the scriptures, or by someone else. Many people have a hard time receiving answers to prayers because they don't know how to recognize their answers. Galatians 5:22-23 says that "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" When we are asking something, we need to pay attention to our feelings after. Any one of these can be the Spirit testifying of the answer. Or the opposite can happen. "You shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong" (D&C 9:9) Our answers might come through the scriptures. We may be reading the same pasage that we have read many and many times over, but something new might jump of the page (or screen in our digital age) that we had never noticed before. Whether it is just a word or a whole verse, the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, were written for us, for our time, and for our help. Our answers may come through others. God often sends His administering angels to our aid, but those administering angels often take the form of regular human beings. One of the greatest feelings there is to know that through you, God has worked miracles and that through you another’s prayers have been answered. We all know of someone that has had a huge impact on our lives, whether through a kind word in a rough time, or a great act of service that was heaven-sent. These people are people, but don't doubt that they, knowingly or not, were on an errand from above. God knows us, He knows our desires, and He knows how to help us. "He will take upon Him their infirmities, that

His bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that He may know according to the flesh how to succor His people according to their infirmities." (Alma 7:12) We are never, nor will we ever be, alone in this life. Trust in our Savior because He has trusted in you. He has invested more than you will ever know in you. Don't ever look down, look up. I hope you all have a fantastic week! Lots of love from México!!

-Élder Morris

A Birthday gift. Very talented!

Thanks for all the Birthday Wishes!!!

2/25/14

So these last two weeks have been pretty good! We have done a ton of work! It is pretty awesome. What isn't awesome is having to battle Satan at pretty much every turn. We have this really awesome family who are really ready and have definitely been prepared by the Lord to receive this message. The Familia C. Long story short, they are a family of 4 adults and 4 little ones.  They all have received answers that the church is true and the book of Mormon is true also. The 8 year old told his grandma he doesn't want to go to school because he thinks it would be better to go with us all day to learn this stuff because he feels it is important. They took a pamphlet about the plan of salvation that we had given them and gave it to someone else that had someone die and explained a little bit about it. So pretty much they are the highest quality of golden investigators there is. The only problem is that Satan knows that too and is working against them pretty hard. For every time we have scheduled a lesson or on Sundays, something bad happens. First was the daughter-in-law dislocated her knee Saturday night, then sometimes  on the weekend one of the daughters (adult) has to work extra for someone else and doesn't get home until 6 in the morning on Sunday. So right now we are just trying to keep encouraging them and helping them the most we can. But it is only a matter of time before they are baptized because nothing can stop this work or the will of God. (1 Nephi 9:6) I have a testimony that even with all the inadequacies of humans and the efforts of Satan God's plan will always come out on top. Love ya all! Have a great week!!

-Élder Morris

3/3/14

¿Que tal? ¿Como están? Well I am doing great! This week we had 5 investigators in our sacrament meeting. So you could say that that is pretty awesome. Also those investigators are all a family and they all have been super prepared and are all progressing like they are already members. Freak, the abuela asked to sign up on the calendar to feed us!! They are already asking what the Relief Society president wants them to bring for activities and everything!!! They are all super awesome and are super excited for their baptisms! 

Also this week we had a Zone conference. It was awesome. I don't really have more than that to say. It was just plain awesome. President Bird talked about the sacrament, the importance of it for us and for our investigators. We talked about why it was important and the things it stood for and how we all need to be preparing ourselves for it during the week, not just when we walk into the sacrament meeting. Also that every time we partake of the sacrament, it should be a spiritual experience. It is not just a piece of bread or a swallow of water. When we think about what they represent, why we do it, and what that means for us personally, we are prepared to receive revelation, forgiveness, direction, and just all around blessings. We also talked about prayer, why we need to pray, and what we need to pray for. President Hinckley said that too often our prayers are like ordering a pizza. We place our demands and hang up. Our prayers, like the sacrament, should be an experience where we feel close to our Heavenly Father. He is the most powerful being in all of the universe and yet He listens to each of us individually, to our personal needs. And to our righteous desires He gives to us freely. And when we don't want to pray or we don't feel like praying, we should pray until we feel like praying. It is Satan that teaches a person not to pray. (Sometimes it is just hard to teach that when it is their mother-in-law that says not to pray.... "Your mother-in-law is Satan." But then again, many times the mother-in-law IS Satan, but that is another story entirely. Mine won’t be of course. (Obviously coming from someone not married) LOL

I know that this Church is the Church of Jesus Christ. No other church has His name, nor the right to it, because no other church is His. I know that when we align our will with His, there is nothing that will happen that is not in the plan. And that plan is the Plan of Happiness, the Plan of Salvation, and the Plan of God. I know that each of us have the right of agency and that through our choices we can bring eternal joy to us and those around us. There is no book truer than The Book of Mormon, nor will there ever be. We are in the last days of the last days. The time is now to come to Christ. Don't put anything off until tomorrow because there might not be one. Live your life in a way that you would proudly have Christ accompanying you daily. I love my family, I love the gospel, and I love the Lord.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and cards!! They really are something special when you feel cut off from everything of your past life. So thank you SO much!!!! I hope you all have a fantastic week!! 

-Élder Morris

Gabe and I on P-day

This is the worst act of violence I've seen. One gang marking their territory,and warning the others of what's to come. Poor Spider Man!

Picture of Monterrey

Run for the Border!

Hiking the mountain outside of Monterrey with Elder Toledo and our Zone

Selfie with Gabe

Transfer was very,very good to me!

Boom, I don't have to be a trainer! Nope, my companion has 11 months in the mission. His name is Élder Toledo. He is from Cancun and he is pretty much the coolest. He is the new district leader and so in his responsibilities he is super straightforward, and in lessons too. But when it is just me and him in the streets or in our house he is super chill. And we are already working super hard. We put 4 new baptismal dates this week. The family C. are super excited and they are really awesome! 

So with a new companion there are obviously things that change.  Elder H. was awesome and I loved my time with him. He had only been in the mission field 3 months before he was my senior companion. Having a companion with more experience is so great! So like I said, we are working really hard. We have two people really close to baptism, one family who we just started teaching and another couple who are expecting a baby soon and are really interested about the importance of family. Things are looking pretty good. It is just too bad that transfers are only 6 weeks and people have to attend church 5 times to be baptized. I am really excited for the future in this area.

So the family C. had run-ins with missionaries before but never actually took lessons. I think that they lived near them and just saw the way they lived and the way they acted and it left an impression on them. I really think that those missionaries planted seeds that they didn't even know. And now they are ready to accept the gospel!

Gabe made it out to the mission field on Tuesday. He is in my Zone!! His trainer is the other Elder Morris. Thanks for sending the stuff!!! That sweater is way warm and way sweet!! Big thanks go out to Gabe for bringing me stuff from home. Awesome!

Well things are really different, but things are GREAT TOO! I am expecting good stuff to happen in this transfer!! I love you all! Have a fantastic week!!

Gabe and me on transfer day. Love having someone from home here!

Elder Toledo and I (new Comp)

 All snuggled and warm with my new cold gear from home. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Shout out to my PL2 Hommies!

Rockin the Tie, Braxton and I!!

Well, my time in Pedregal hasn't come to an end yet, but for my companion it has. Tomorrow I will find out who my new companion. The ZL's are in my district so we have become way close and they and my district leader all told me they recommended me to train someone. So there is a chance that I might train, which I really don't want. I still have so much to learn it isn't even funny. But yeah, exciting stuff for tomorrow. Also Elder Farmer gets here tomorrow! I am super excited to see a familiar face! 

Every Tuesday after our district meeting we do an open house type thing where 2 companionships leave and go and contact around the church and the third companionship stays in the church to do a tour if the other elders find anyone interested. Well we did a little open house on Thursday in the afternoon. It was just us and the ZL's so we had to take turns going back and forth because we only had one set of keys. Me and my companion were contacting in the streets below the church when we walked past a mom, her teenage daughter, and a little girl. I felt like I should talk to them, but with just 2 elders we couldn't do a tour with only women, so I shrugged it off. Then we were walking back the other way because there wasn't anyone on the other side and I saw the same trio. A thought popped into my head that was something like "are you seriously going to pass them up again?" So despite the fact that we couldn't have a lesson with them, I contacted them anyway and invited them to take a tour. They were really excited, which surprised me. As 

we were walking to the church, I was just hoping that the other elders were there so that we could have a lesson. When we got to the church, they were just finishing a lesson, which meant they could accompany us for a lesson. Long story short they were really excited and accepted baptismal dates. The only downer is that they aren't in my area, but that doesn't matter as long as they get a chance to hear this message! So, you’re probably asking "what did you learn from this experience Elder Morris?" Well, number one is that I am dumb sometimes, or a lot, you choose. Two, When God has prepared someone and wants something done, nothing will stop, not even an ignorant missionary. And three, I am grateful that the Lord gives us second chances, and third chances, and however many we need to correct what is wrong, because ultimately, His will, will be done.

Another cool little story is that we contacted a man in the street a while back. A contact is a contact right? Well not when the contact recognizes you as someone that can help and confides in you to help with a problem. We may have been looking for someone to contact, but he was looking for something much more than two young men in ties. He was looking to change his life. We had a lesson with this man and he has all the necessary desires to become a disciple of Christ. So my question for you all is what are you looking for? Are you looking for trivial things that might just fulfill the needs for that day, or are you looking for things that will change your life? Things that might change your eternity and the eternities of those around you? And when you are looking for these things, are you willing to change everything, maybe give up things like this man, just to know the Savior better. I know that no one is perfect, and looking for the things of eternity is a lifelong pursuit, with many pitfalls and traps set up along the way, but I also know that we are never walking this path alone. At times we may be running the path, others we may be crawling, and others still we may have fallen off the path, but we will always have a hand outstretched to help us out. Look for that hand.

Love ya all and have a wonderful week!! ¡¡ La Iglesia es verdadera!!

-Élder Morris

Snow down under! Oh by the way, the apartment has no heat.

 My last Campechanas with Elder Hernandez.