Hard Work Pays Off!!

Hey! 

So this week was pretty dang good! We had an investigator tell us that he has received an answer. We have found people who are ready to change their lives. Things are just looking better!

 This week we had a lesson with Julio along with a member family. We talked about the way to receive answers because the last time we invited him to pray to find the answer to if what we are teaching is true or not. I was expecting him to say "well I forgot because I was working," or "I just didn't have time" (The favorite excuses). But when I asked him if he had prayed about it he just looked at me and said "yes, I have." I then asked him if he had received and answer. He said that he did. Then he told us about how he had a job to do at work and he prayed for help and he had felt like his mind was opened. He told us that he had to do his work on the computer and he had never had much experience with stuff like that. But when he went to do it he felt like he was blessed with the ability to complete his task. When he gave it to the boss he said that it was super well done and congratulated him. He said that he had a peace and tranquility in his heart. Well folks, as missionaries, that is what we look for! It was a super awesome experience! 

This week we have found 7 new investigators with 5 of them having baptismal dates! Two of them we found visiting less active families. Alejandro and his son Jorge. Alejandro's dad is a member. We talked to them for a while and shared the importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He and his son, Jorge who is fifteen, right then and there made a promise and commitment with each other and with our Heavenly Father that they would be baptized! For a fifteen year old, Jorge is really attentive and really in tune with the things we teach.

All in all we are working really hard and we are starting to see the results! People, fasting and prayer works! It may be a trail of your faith, but in the end God knows what is best for you. Don't give up and never look down. Keep your head up and look to the Heavens because that is where your answers and guidance are! I hope you all have a good week!!! Sea file!

-Èlder Morris

Great Mother's Day call home!

So, how is life going? Me? Well, if you’re asking. Which you’re not, but I am going to tell ya any ways. This week has been really good. We have been able to find some new investigators and we have been able to increase the amount of people we are visiting. 

This p-day we were able to hike the Cerro de la Silla (Chair Hill) again! It was way awesome! The sister missionaries almost didn't make it but they persevered! Something different than last time was that this time you could actually see a lot of Monterrey. The other time was super foggy and you couldn't really see anything. This time was a lot better.

One of the people that we found this week is named Ricardo. We had contacted his mom a few weeks ago. Her name is Cantalari or something like that. So, when I was looking through the list of contacts that we had her name just stuck out. I threw it into our plans as a backup plan. Our appointment fell and we just passed by the house to see if she was there. She wasn't. But her son was. We just contacted him very briefly and explained who we were and what we do. I had a thought come to me to ask him if he had some time that we could share a little bit more about us and that I knew it could bless his life. I thought for sure he was going to say something like "well, I just got out of the shower so maybe another time." Just getting out of the shower? I know that sounds like a weird excuse to use but I will explain. All he had was a towel around his waist. But he just said, "of course, just give me a minute." So he invited us in and we sat and were expecting to wait for him to get dressed. Nope, he just put a shirt on and then came and had a lesson with us, with only a towel for pants. It was pretty dang awesome! At the end we set a date for baptism and are we going back to visit him this week. 

Yesterday all the elders in our ward gave talks. It was funny because the American elders gave talks on following Christ's example and defending the faith. The Mexican Elders gave talks on repentance and on keeping the Sabbath day Holy. It was definitely a Mercy and Justice meeting. 

Another thing that was really funny that happened this week was that we were making a contact and Elder Luna was talking, all of the sudden he just turns to me to continue on. I thought that was a little weird.  After when we were walking away he turns and says to me "Elder Morris, something happened." I was like, "yeah, we just made a contact." "No, something else." He turns and points to his shoulder. A pigeon had pooped on his shoulder!!! I couldn't stop laughing. It was so funny! We tore up a piece of paper and cleaned it up the best we could. Ha-ha oh man was it funny! 

Well I just want to give a shout out to all the mother's out there! I know that there are some great moms who have made a great impact on my life, but nothing and no one compares to my mom. She has stuck with me through a lot of stuff and I am eternally grateful for the fact that she even still loves me! I wouldn't trade the world for the moments that I have had with her, good and bad. (More good than bad, trust me!) Happy Mother's Day to the best mom out there! And all the other mothers as well. You really don't know how much of an impact you have on your children and how they will be forever grateful for the things you taught and demonstrated through acts of love. 

 Remember that it takes courage to DIE for something you believe in, but even more to LIVE for it! My hope is that we can all take the necessary steps in our lives to live for what we believe. I hope you all have a great week!!! Don't only keep the faith, defend it!

-Elder Morris

What an experience to have Mitch larger than life in our family room!

 View from the Hill Top

 Me and Elder Luna

 Our District

 Cool little cave. Oh and the spiders the size of our hands!

Constant Changes

Well, how many weeks has it been? Who knows and who wants to know!? I feel like it’s a time warp in the mission field. I taught the gospel principles class on Sunday. For me it felt like 2 weeks ago, so when I asked my companion who did the lesson he just looked at me and was like "are you serious"? Ha-ha, but it is all good! I am just enjoying living in the moment right now!

Well this week brought some changes. We now have 4 elders in Infonavit. I feel really bad for the other elders because their house is probably the worst in the mission. The elders before me and my companion NEVER cleaned and with us not living there it had a month and a half of disuse. So needless to say we are on the search for a new one! 

With new elders, we needed to divide the area. I must say that the division didn't go our way. We have 2 investigators remaining in our area. The rest were graciously (or grudgingly, you chose. ha-ha) handed over to the new missionaries to care for. But hey, it is okay, we started new before, why not again!? The Crazy thing is one of the new Elders is the son of one of my dad’s friends from his single days. He and my dad just connected on Facebook this week. Elder Nay is a great guy and a great missionary that loves to work hard.

This week, like you already know, was fast and testimony meeting. Unfortunately I didn't get to bear my testimony because there were no open spaces. But the fasting part was awesome! We had been struggling to find new investigators this week because of the division. So of course, I was fasting for new investigators. Well yesterday after we broke our fast, we went to work! We are working in the part of the area that we had scarcely visited so we were just passing by addresses of people we had contacted. We passed by one house and found a man named Roberto. He invited us in and we had an awesome lesson with him. He accepted to be baptized when he receives and answer.(Which he will) Then a little bit later on we were trying to contact people on another street and we saw a guy washing his car, so naturally we went over to help him out. Well, he denied us. But he told us, "how about you go over and help my neighbor with his car." So we were like, hey that's okay with us! So we went over and offered to help Julio wash his car. He said no, but then invited us to eat dinner with him! We had to decline because we can't eat dinner with members or anyone. He said, "So if you won't let me feed you, I am not going to let you wash my car, Simple as that," so we laughed and said "Well how about we share a message about Jesus Christ?" That he was all up for. It was awesome. He just left his car half washed and invited us into his house in total confidence and we had an awesome lesson with him and his wife who is about 8 and a half months pregnant. Can I get a Plan of Salvation lesson and an AMEN?! It was really an awesome lesson and he offered us hospitality like none other. This new/old area is starting to look really good! When we got home that night we just looked at each other and my companion said, "What did you fast for?" Ha-ha, he had fasted for the same thing as me and it definitely worked!!  I have never had such rapid results to fasting or had the answer be so direct. This definitely strengthened my testimony of the importance of the fast. I know that we are never alone. That we always have help. Nothing is ever out of our reach because nothing is ever out of the reach of God. If it is part of his plan, it will happen. We just have to put our trust in him and go to work! I know that when we align our will with His, we will see His hand and His miracles in our lives.

Well, that’s all I have! This church is true! I know it with every fiber of my being!! Never feel like you can't get on your knees and have a personal conversation with our Heavenly Father because that is how you will receive personal revelation and direction.  I hope you guys have a great week!!

-Élder Morris

This is how we celebrated my Companion Elder Luna's Birthday!!!  I really do love the food here!

Time FLIES when your having FUN!

So, another transfer down. Where the heck did the past 6 weeks go? Life is nuts! I’m sorry I haven’t sent any photos. I left my charger in my last apartment and I haven’t got it back yet.  We are getting 2 other missionaries in our ward. So our already pretty small area is about to get really small! And it is either going to bite for us or for the new missionaries because 3/4 of our investigators are in one half of the area! But hey, if we have to start over with the number of investigators when we got here, we will have the same as what we had to begin with! The assistants called us and asked us if our area would be suitable for Hermana’s (Sisters), ha ha good one. I have had more "experiences" with borrachos (drunks) in the first 3 weeks than I had had in all of my 6 months in my other area. So yeah, we are going to get some more Elders. Well this week I had intercambios (exchanges) with my district leader and with the zone leaders. My companion and the district leader we were going to have a young man from the ward with them that night, but we decided to keep him with us. We were going to visit a sister that we contacted but then Elder Ramirez decided to visit a contact that they had had. We got there and they let us right in and the whole family was there except for the dad, which is really rare. Then we found out that they knew the family of the young man that was with us. The further into the lesson we found out that they had actually received lessons from missionaries years before and had actually attended church for like 3 years consistently. Nothing happens by coincidence. The contact, the teenager that was with us, the family together, and the missionaries before, everything was set up by the hand of the Lord. The work is like a fine tuned orchestra of instruments. We can be the most expensive instruments, the biggest, or just look the best, But nothing will ever happen until the Master picks you up to play. We need to prepare ourselves for the time when we will be called upon to play. 

Another cool thing that happened this week was that we taught a lesson with a police officer (see 4-5 emails ago) that had actually contacted us. We had other plans but we were passing his house and I just thought, "Hey, we are here and we don't have any fixed appointment so let’s stop by." Well long story short, he has had some seriously crazy stories about getting shot and all that kind of stuff and he has a different point of view on life now. He has been looking to put God back into his life. We gave him the Restoration lesson and have an appointment for another lesson! There were a lot of beer cans in his house so I thought that we were going to have to have a talk. When we were asking him what he was looking for in our lessons and talks he told us that he wanted to quit and that he has been trying for a while to find a way to not drink. He just has friends that drink so he does it to socialize. Well, let me tell you, we have the best way to quit! It is called the Spirit and it never fails when you do your part! 

All in all I am really excited for this next transfer! We might even change houses to one with a washer and a dryer! I am not going to get my hopes up but I am going to keep my fingers crossed!! No matter what happens in your life, our Father in heaven always has the road map. Sometimes we would like to go straight to the destination, but a lot of the times He wants us to take the scenic route, which can be a lot harder and a lot longer but a whole heck of a lot more rewarding too. Remember that he always has our best interests at heart. I love this gospel and I love serving as a representative of Christ. I love this people and I love the opportunity I have to serve them. I don't think that I realize it enough, but the time that I have is extremely short. I need to make the most of it!!! I hope you have a fantastic week!! 

-Élder Morris

Semana Santa (Holy Week)

Well this week was the Catholics "Semana Santa" or holy week. This is also Spring Break, so a lot of people leave town and go on vacation or visit with family. We had some pretty sweet conversations with some people this week about Christ. When Elder Cook came to our mission the first thing he did was to meet with the head  of the Catholic Church in Monterrey to talk and offer assistance. Our Mission President thought it would be good to follow his footsteps and reach out to the other churches in each of our areas. So we have been going into all of the churches in our area when we pass them to look for their Priest, Father or Pastor. It was hard to find anyone at the churches to talk to. At one church we were able to talk with a Pastor. We talked to him and offered to help out with anything that we could because we were both just trying to serve God. The first help he asked for was to donate money. We told him as missionaries we are not paid and do not have any money.  The second was that he wanted us to respect that people were catholic and let them be.  Then he asked what the basic principles of what we believe were. We just gave him the 3 pamphlets that we always use. The Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we explained what we believe. It was a very interesting experience, in the end we are all children of God. I am very grateful for my Savior and his sacrifice for all of us. I know that he lives and loves each one of us, that he knows us as individuals, by name and that if we ask him for help he will be there for us. He died that we may live.

Well, in other news, we baptized a woman named Maria on Saturday! She said that she had turned down an all-expense-paid trip with friends to come and fulfill her promise with God. She is a great example of someone who is dedicated to serve God and put Him first. That was a testimony builder for me. Well, that’s about all I got this week! Thanks for all your love and support!! Have a fantastic week!!
-Élder Morris


Ok I’m still laughing: Funny story, we were at our food appointment yesterday and the little daughter told us there were spiders but she killed them. Obviously I told my comp about those nefarious barking spiders (they live in Mexico too). He just started saying  how we have spiders in our house all the time and that we kill them. It was so funny, I was completely crying!!!! I couldn't handle it because he was just so serious about it!!! Ok, I'm not all grown up yet.:)

I was able to attend the Baptism of the Castor Family from my last area. Love these people!

Maria is the newest addition to our Ward. 

One Pair down!

We can get by with a little help from our friends.

Well this week was great! The Castor family got baptized!! This is the family from my last area. Well only three but the other two just have 1 more time to attend church then they can be baptized. They were super ready!! We went to the Temple today! That is always super awesome!! There is such a spirit of peace and profound joy in the House of the Lord. 

Well this week we had a FHE with the whole ward, and of course they threw the assignment for the first one on the missionaries. We had an awesome lesson about Prophets and their role in our life and how they can really help us lead a better life. I learned that I need to trust my companion more. As a trainer you have to teach them everything from scratch. You think that they don't have any idea what to do so you take it upon yourself to do everything. As we were teaching he asked for volunteers. I thought we were going to start the activity that we had planned for after the lesson. So in my mind I started thinking of ways I could fix the situation and not embarrass my companion. While I was doing that, he explained what he was doing to the ward and what the object of the lesson was, not moving to the activity, it turned out to be an awesome example and a way for the ward to participate in the lesson. Something that I had not thought about. I felt stupid. He has the same calling as I do. He has the same authority that I do. He has the same responsibilities that I do. He has the same promise of the help of the spirit that I do. So why would I think that he couldn't handle it or come up with awesome ideas? It gave me something to think about and to ponder on. How many times do we mistakenly judge another’s actions? How many times, with the final result, do we find out that those actions were perfect for the situation, maybe even inspired? This isn't just in the gospel sense, but in whatever setting. We are always thinking that our way is the way that things should be done. Maybe we think that we have the route mapped out so we don't stop to ask for directions, when maybe there is a shortcut that someone else might know? That is something that I really like. Ask for help.

Sometimes in my life, I take things upon myself and forget that I have people around me who are just waiting to help, who have the shortcut that I could take to make my path easier. It is something that I need to work on, trusting in others to help with the problems that I "could" handle on my own, but it would be easier with a little help from my friends. We all need a little from our friends!  Our forever faithful friend who will never fail us is the Spirit. How many times do we stop with a problem and ask for help from the one who knows everything? Who will "give to all men liberally and upbraideth not"? I would like each of us to take a step back and look at what we are loading onto our backs and realize that there are others there to help us with our loads. Remember the Lord, that "[His] yoke is easy, and [His] burden is light” Love those around you and love the Lord and your life will be a whole lot easier!!! Dare to be a Mormon, dare to stand alone. I hope you all have a great week!!!

Élder Morris

Don't Rummage Through the Garbage.

Wow, first of I would just like to apologize to all the women out there for ever thinking "eh, cramps can't be that bad..." Let me explain a little. This weekend I had a thing called Gastritis. Long story short it is when you eat more spicy foods and greasy foods than your body is used to. When this happens, it pretty much destroys your gastro-intestinal system for a while. So through conference, and while we were contacting to bring people to conference, every 5-10 minutes I would be doubled over in what felt like hands wringing my stomach. So really not a great experience. And the mission president’s wife told us that it pretty much felt like the kinds of cramps women have. So yeah, all you ladies out there are pretty much warriors. 

Well, this weekend was super awesome!! Conference, like always, was super great!! And I got to watch it in English so I got the WHOLE picture. Something that really struck me was the repeated advice to defend the faith and not change just because the world is. Obviously the world is heading in a worse and worse direction. The need for staying "true to the faith" is becoming ever more prevalent every day. With the garbage that is in the world, we are constantly being sucked in. And "we shouldn't rummage through garbage". That is why the work is hastening on. We have what the world needs. It is something that can't be hid and that won't ever stop. The things that the church stands for will always be contrary to the norms of the world, but that is because the norms of the world are the norms of Satan. The world is degrading faster than we realize. We need to realize just how needed our courage is and just how much is at stake here. The world is built on sand, its roots are in loose soil and, sooner rather than later, it will fall. We just CAN'T have our roots intermingled with those of the world. It is just that simple. We must have our feet planted in the Rock that is the Savior. There is no other option. 

So I just want to share a quick experience from the week. We were teaching a less active member of our ward the gospel of Jesus Christ. We got done teaching and her grandson, who is 10, turned to his aunt and said "well, when am I going to be baptized?" Me and my companion just looked at one another for a second and then we explained the requirements. He is super excited to be baptized!! That is living proof that the Gospel is not hard. It is not complicated and it is not difficult. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple, so genuine, that even a 10-year-old boy can see the value of it and feel the spirit testify of the truth. We shouldn't teach or think about it as a level above that of a child. There is a reason that we are baptized at 8-years-old. 

Well I hope you all have a fantastic week! Be safe and Keep the faith. Stand for what is right, even when you have to stand alone! ¡Hasta Luego!

-Élder Morris