Trio Lifeeeeeeeeeee

Hello!

So it may look like I got transferred, but I didn't. We got the email Monday night saying we were both staying. Tuesday we get a call from the AP's saying we are receiving. So this transfer I am in a trio!!!!!! Sister Conrad joined us and she's awesome! Its been a lot of fun and we've been busy busy busy because the elders in our area were transferred so we absorbed their area book as well. But do not send mail to my address, because we ended up moving on Saturday to the elder's old apartment.

 My new address is: 4425 Jamie Court #105 Lakeland, FL 33813

What else is new? I have 11 people set to be baptized, the most at one time on my mission! I am so excited to be teaching all these people and seeing their lives change. Sammy is set to be baptized on Saturday. :)

Some thoughts from church:

We had the topic of forgiveness again, I guess we all need it again! 

-Keep a journal and write in it at the end of each day, atleast one way you've seen the hand of the Lord in your life that day. 

-"Heavenly Father will not give us more than He can help us handle."

-You need to decide beforehand how you will react when something really hard happens.

-An idea to let go of forgiveness is this: Pick a date on the calendar and say "after this day, I am letting it go." It works!

-We are not defined by the worst thing we've ever done. 

-The teacher told this story. Once there was a man who picked up a rock for every time someone made him angry and put it in his pocket. His pockets got so full, he started piling the rocks in his house. Soon his house was full of rocks. When hearing of this man, a local school decided to take a field trip to his house to look at all the different rocks. Someone asked why he had so many and he told them why. A child suggested that he should count all the times someone said something nice to him or he did to someone else. The man hadn't thought of that before. He decided instead of picking up rocks, he would plant flowers in his back yard instead. He became a great gardener and a happy one too. 

I liked this story, I may have left some things out but the overall picture is there. Don't harbor rocks, plant flowers instead. 

I love you all and wish for everyone to look for the good, not the bad. 

Love, 

Sister Morgan

Sister Conrad, Nasman, and I

Sammy, our investigator being baptized on Saturday

Katalina and our date set, Marissa

 We made 7 layer bean dip!

Sister Conrad

Boots, the apartment cat

Goodbye apartment!

Alice, our neighbor, and our trio

Aren't I so cute? Sister Conrad drew this of me!

Random trailers next to the highway

Fun in the Sun!

Howdy Folks!

We had a busy week and it was wonderful. I love busy weeks!

On Monday we had the mission beach party!! It was held at Bradenton beach this year. It was cool because we passed some places that I remember going to when visiting my Aunt Margaret in Anna Maria island growing up. Mostly restaurants :) It was beautiful! I'll send some pictures. 

Tuesday night we had a RS activity where we brought a pair of shoes and told everyone an experience in them. Well, I've become a crier in the past month of the mission- probably because its getting closer to the end so I pore out my soul more) and told them about my missionary shoes. How much walking and biking I've done in them, how much sweat and tears and hard work I've done with them. I bore my testimony on how important this work is, and how many lives I've seen changed through the gospel. There wasn't a single dry eye in the room. ;)

We've been teaching Sammy this week and she is great. We are behind schedule with lessons but we are still pushing for July 2nd. We also have two dates- one with a referral, and the other with an 8 year old. So excited! 

President told me at the beach party that I would have a departing interview with him since I was sad that he leaves right before me. So we drove up Friday morning to Tampa and I met with him. I don't feel like it's the end of my mission but I guess its getting there. Tomorrow is my 17 month mark. Crazy. I will miss him!

Saturday was awesome. We had Juneteenth all day: African American slave freedom celebration. Us missionaries were the only white people there. We set up a booth with pamphlets and Books of Mormon and Bibles and the family history people came and set theirs up with ours. It was fun. Loud music though, and a few crazy preachers but besides that, it was a great way to put the face of the church out there. Its funny to think that some people don't know that our church has a ton of African Americans in it. It's the church of Jesus Christ, not the church of white people- everyone is very welcome! 

Anyways, this next week is transfers. It's a week early because President Cusick is leaving and they want it sorted out before President Cooper comes in. I think we are both staying but only God knows. 

Spiritual thought: What is true greatness? Is it being beautiful, skinny, rich, have lots of toys? No. Its having a good attitude, showing your faith, and serving others. In God's eyes, we are truly great when we care for those around us and do the small things. Look outside yourself. Go open the door for someone elderly, let someone go in front of you in the grocery line, don't have road rage. It's small things that add up to something great. (Read 1 Nephi 16:29) 

Love you all, we'll see if I'm still in Lakeland next week. 

Love,

Sister Morgan

Get ready for pictures! 

Papaya tree and pineapple plant!

 An orange tree 

 Our booth at Juneteenth

A "black people fish fry!" 

 Bradenton Beach...beautiful Carribean waves!

 White sand of Bradenton Beach (Near Anna Maria Island and Aunt Margaret's)

 Reunion with Sister Judkins!

 Sister Stefanie Cusick, me, President Mark Cusick 

 Sister Morgan selfie at the beach!

Random group!

 Look familiar? 

Juneeeeeeeee

Sorry, I have no time today! 

Going to the beach for a mission gathering, Bradenton beach! Will be fun! 

Sammy has her date set, her husband is a member and they called us saying she wants to take the lessons! This past week we've taught a few times and yesterday she came to church! I love her, she is progressing well and looking forward to her baptism!!!! 

I survived last week's storm, it wasn't that bad actually where I was at. Some flooding and wind and extra rain but not bad. Overall we weren't affected as much as the coastal areas. We stayed in on Monday and didn't go out until Tues afternoon when the flooding was done. So we are fine!  This summer should be full of storms though! I hope my video works because I almost got hit by lightning! (Not really). 

My spiritual thought for the week: Do it because you love God.

Yesterday our lesson was on tithing in particular. In our church no one gets paid, not the bishop or prophet or teachers. All volunteer. But we live the commandment of tithing because we give back to the Lord a piece of what He has already given us. The money goes to maintaining churches and building temples and missionary work and family history research. In Malachi 3:5-12 it talks about tithing. God says to prove him- if we pay tithes faithfully, he WILL bless us, but we have to have faith. He may not bless us financially, but he will with protection and strength. But the main reason we need to pay tithing is because we love Him. Not because He loves us, or because we know we should, but because we know He is the one who gave us everything in the first place and we want to show Him that we put Him above everything else. Its the same way with other commandments- prayer, reading scriptures, word of wisdom- we do it because we love Him and know that He will always be there for us when we are there for Him. 

Sorry its short! Hope you have a good week, pictures to come next week!

Love,

Sister Morgan

 Flooding from tropical storm Colin, June 6th 2016

  Catfish Country is where we ate on my birthday with the Nelsons. 

  From my birthday luncheon! Eating green onion appetizers......

....and fried gator! 

 Sister Nasman and I ... ready for cheesecake anyone?

Sister Nelson with us outside Catfish Country

 Peacock

Mangos!

Krispy Kreme!

How old am I?

Hello everyone!

I am officially old enough to drink. So I drank some.....water all day!

The beginning of this week was super tough, not going to lie. We were out tracting and biking and in the hot sun, having hardly any success. I tried keeping a positive attitude about it and kept praying for Heavenly Father to lead us to the person who wants to be taught by us and be baptized. It was a struggle. But, on Wed or Thurs we changed things around! We decided no more tracting unless it is around a member's home! This has pushed us to see more members and ask for referrals. This is, after all, their work, we are just helping! We told God that we were going to really plan everyday out- so well that He will know exactly where we are and place people in our path. I have felt my faith grow as this has happened. I look forward to next week because we have great plans! 

Miracle of the week: Last week we got a call from someone who is a member, saying that his wife wants to be baptized! We couldn't go over right away because they live in Bartow and we had no miles. We went over on Saturday and had the most amazing lesson! Her name is Samantha and she has lots of questions. She had been asking David, her hubby, for a while now about the church and he finally said she should call the missionaries. When we got there we talked for a while, answering questions, and she told us she was thinking of converting. We shared the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. She cried at the end, saying that she felt tingling all over during the first vision and that she knew from that feeling that this church is true. She has a date to be baptized in July and we are so excited! She is amazing! 

My birthday was an okay day. It was rough in the morning but the best part was going to dinner with the Nelsons at Catfish Country! Its this southern place that has all sorts of food - hush puppies, gator, coleslaw, fish, frog legs, you name it! We got an appetizer of fried gator tail, which I have had before, and it was pretty good! Tastes like chicken. :) Then I had a crab-stuffed flounder and other stuff. Pretty good. But the best part was that the Nelsons were able to come, I love them!!!!!!!! Sister Nelson has been such a strength to me. She even got me a gift which was so sweet. I'll try to send pictures. 

Yesterday we had a lesson in Relief Society based on Elder Hollands talk from the past General Conference. I can testify that the leaders of our church love us so much! They can see how much God loves us and they feel the same. We are not perfect. Imperfect people are all God has ever had to deal with! But we get credit for trying. So don't give up, its all part of the plan to grow and change while we are here. 

Anyways, I love you all! Have a good week! Tropical Storm Colin is suppose to hit us today, should be fun!

Love,

Sister Morgan

 A nice one and a funny one of Sister Nasman and I