How to Write Brittany

Okay, now that she's out in the field here are some updates for writing:







Physical Address

110 Edgewater Circle

San Benito, TX
78586







Her email address has changed to brittany.morrill@myldsmail.net.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas



The burning of the skirt at the one year mark

'ello.
i feel like i have nothing to say because i already talked it all out on the phone.


hello everybody!
merry christmas. i spent my christmas week:
-having a christmas zone conference and whacking a pinata around
-eating til my face turned blue
-singing at a retirement home
-serving food to homeless people
-finding an amazing woman named alda, alone and needing us on christmas eve night
-hanging out with my favorite familia torres
-enjoying the beatiful 70 degree weather
-watching tim get the priesthood and baptize his wife, kim
-eating breakfast with the elders
-talking to my family on the telephone
-working on growing my double chin

i don't feel like writing that much. but it was the most humbling and rewarding and amazing christmas i have ever had and i know that i will never forget it. i hope that future christmases can match to the awesomeness of this one. i hope that all of your christmases were white and wonderful.
love,
sister morrill

Monday, December 20, 2010

Feliz Navidad!

feliz navidad a todos!
esta semana voy a escribir toda mi carta en espanol. ojala que la entiendan. esta semana ha sido muy especial y el espiritu de la navidad esta tan fuerte. hemos tenido las programas de la navidad en la iglesia, y visto "mr. krueger's christmas" y "regocijaos, jesus nacio," y tenido muchas oportunidades de servir a los demas. tambien la clima es tan buena ahorita. estoy muy agradecida por mi llamamiento como misionera y por la gente buena que conozco aqui en mcallen. estoy tan agradecida por mi salvador jesucristo y todo lo que el me ha dado, y por su amor infinito que siento diariamente.
kim had her baptismal interview yesterday, and she'll be getting baptized this sunday. it is going to be a white christmas afterall. (cue drumroll... cheesy missionary joke.) tim got confirmed yesterday and it was awesome. they have been having marital problems, but the two of them working together and strengthening their faith seems to also be strengthening their relationship. they have been really great together lately. kim told us that when tim got baptized she felt really good inside. like a warmth in her chest and that she wanted to cry. we were able to testify to her that it was the spirit and that was really the turning point for her. she's been reading her book of mormon like a maniac and has been really really happy lately. we're so excited for her to get baptized this weekend.
we found a cool family, the figueroa family. the three kids, michelle 15, jackie 13, eric 12 have baptismal dates for january and we are hoping to get their mom.. we are meeting with her on tuesday. they are awesome. we've also been teaching a woman named brandy who has come to church a couple of times now and has a testimony. the only problem is opposition from her crazy husband/boyfriend/baby daddy. we're hoping for some miracles this week though.
the branch president from the young single adults branch down here gave all of the missionary companionships names of less actives members who should be attending the young single adults and wanted us to stop by them and visit them. at first we kind of thought it was a dumb idea and that the members should do it... but it has turned out to be the best thing we've done all week. we've found two new invesigators out of it so far.. family members of the less active members. i will tell you the story of one now:
Rosario Cardenas is the non-member mom of one of the less actives we were going by. turns out the kid got married and moved away. BUT. we had shown up just in the middle of a crisis and were an answer to a prayer. We were talking kind of small talk stuff to her at first. and it was getting to a point where we didn't know what else to say really and there was a silence. rosario looked like she was going to say something and i was sure that it would be "well, thanks for stopping by. see you later." i wanted to hurry and blurt out something about the gospel, but the spirit told me to stay quiet. tears welled up in her eyes and she said, "you know... our family has been going through some really rough times right now." she then told us the story how her daughter almost died last week and is in the hospital in the ICU. it made her step back and think that maybe she didn't push her kids enough or show her example enough in having faith in god. she thought of all these regrets that she had and she wanted her children to know god better. she told us "i think god sent you girls to me as a sign that i need come back to him and learn more about him and bring my family with me." we were able to testify of the power of the book of mormon in converting people to jesus christ and of the peace that it brings and the influence of god's spirit and the power it has to bring families together. as we prayed at the end of our experience the spirit was so strong and we were all crying. rosario grabbed sister busath and told her that she could feel her spirit and her love. it was amazing. she's going to be in the hospital pretty much all this week, but we are planning on stopping by this week and raking her yard and bringing a christmas present, and we will hopefully be able to meet with her when things calm down in the hospital. she said she would read the book of mormon every day until we see her again.
i am so grateful for the spirit that guides us in this work. i am so grateful that each of us gets to be the savior's hands here on earth and do his will if we really seek it out. i am so grateful for prepared people that are searching for truth. i know that heavenly father loves each of his children and is always willing to put people and blessings in our path when we ask for them and have the faith to recognize them. i know that it is only through jesus christ that our joy can be full in this lifetime and in the next.
merry christmas!
i love you all.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Training the Newby

hello, world!
what a week. my new companion's name is sister busath (pronounced b+you+saith) and she is from a place called livermore california in the bay area. she is adorable! everything that comes out of her mouth is love and rainbows and sunshine. it's crazy. i've never known such a loving person. when she speaks to people you can just feel her love. it's cool. my throat is starting to hurt from talking so much this week though. i'm getting sick of the sound of my own voice. ha. she's still working on the spanish so i pretty much have to take over in the spanish lessons, although she does a great job baring her testimony. we've just been trying to speak a lot of spanish to each other and play games and things to constantly be practicing. we're getting there. I pretty much love having a newby around though. I think after a while of being on the mission you start to forget or take for granted all of the blessings you receive. she is so sweet and bright eyed and bushy tailed and it's reminding me of what a miracle missionary work really is. we received a lot of blessings this week.
tim got his interview for his baptism and he'll be all set to go this weekend. we have also been seeing miracles with his wife's heart softening. she even came to church this week, and she cried when we watched a movie with her and has read a chapter in the book of mormon. we are going over to just visit with her alone tonight, and we are going to see if we can set a date with her. tim will get the priesthood the next week and he can baptize her! keep her in your prayers. they are an awesome family and they will do a lot of good in the world.
we met a cool woman this week named mayte (my-tay). it was neat, an appointment we had fell through so we decided to knock on a couple of the neighbors doors. mayte answered the door and i felt like i knew exactly what i needed to say. i told her how we share a message about how we can overcome our trials and how god is always aware of us and waiting for us to come to him... which is something i don't think i've ever said right on a doorstep. usually i say something about families or jesus christ. anyway, she just melted. she let out a sigh. there was a silence. i asked her if she was going through trials right now. she told us about how her family is illegal and her husband got caught by immigration. she has 4 kids under 15, with a baby on the way. she doesn't know when husband will be let out. she can't get a real job because she doesn't have her papers so she sells homemade tortillas and menudo from her house on the weekends. her two year-old son has been sick, having little seizures, and being violent and they are waiting on doctors visits to find out if he has some kind of epilepsy. her life has been crazy, but she is the most optimistic person i have ever met in my life. she has so much faith and just knows that god is watching over her and that her baby will be okay and she is doing everything in her power to make sure that her kids are happy and healthy and loved. she is an amazing soul and i know that god put us in her path to help us right when she needed it. we shared alma 26:31 about how god is aware of all of his children, and he numbers them, and he is with them always. she cried. it was really powerful. my poor companion had no idea what was going on but she bore a simple, pure testimony that just hit home. it was really neat to be a part of. we'll be visiting her more this week. she is awesome.
anyway, other news, i have quit sweets. in order to help an investigator quit smoking, sister busath and i quit sweets. it has been a rough three days, but maybe it will help my fat face go away.
that's all for this week.
love,
me

Monday, November 29, 2010

Thanksgiving Pictures!

This is what happens when my companion makes me angry.

For Mom and Corey....a little late.

Britt and the Torres Family

With one of her investigators and his grandma.

Britt, her companion sister Peterson, and friend Kayla

Sweet Baptism

hello everybody!
i spent too much of my time uploading photos so there's not time to write much. but they say a picture is worth a thousand words, right? anyway.. lots of important things happened this week. ready?
-thanksgiving was great. we spent it with a few families and it was pretty relaxed. stuffed our faces and ate pumpkin pie.
-we got transfer calls. sister petersen is going to my old area in laredo! i am very excited about that. probably more excited than she is. my new companion is going to be: new girl #1. i am training. somebody straight out of the MTC. i will be meeting her tonight and then picking her up tomorrow. should be pretty interesting. i'm all of the sudden worried that i don't really know anything about missionary work and it's going to be craziness. but i know that the lord will bless me and i'll probably find new talents that i never knew that i had.
-tim came to church! he is still awesome. is in the book of mosiah in the book of mormon. he came in a suit and blended right in with everybody. we worried people wouldn't know he was an investigator and wouldn't come and welcome him. ha. but it was great and he loved it and will be back next week.
-we decorated for christmas! it is still a work in progress. we plan on accumulating more decorations. but we put some lights up outside on our little "porch" and we hung up some random santa door wreaths and things. it's nice.
that is all i have time for. wish me luck with the newby!
love,
hermana morrill

Monday, November 22, 2010

Thanksgiving

hello people!
another warm week here in the rio grande valley. the cold weather has gone away and it's been back in the 80s. people have already started decorating their houses for christmas. it's definitely a different look. instead of glistening through the snow, it blows in the warm night breeze through the palm trees. i could get used to it.
tim is still doing awesome. he got an answer to his prayers about joseph smith being a prophet and now he's just unstoppable. except he didn't make it to church this week because his wife was in the hospital. we also found out this week that his wife is pregnant. that's fun. but he has been reading the book of mormon like a madman and he's great. he'll be getting baptized in december.
christian's baptism was nice/funny. his dad, who is a recent convert, baptized him. and we realized when it was too late that we probably should have instructed him on how to baptize a little better. christian went under the water just fine, but his dad didn't really know how to help him back out of the water. he grabbed him by the back of the neck and then christian just kind of had to splash around until he could get himself back up. ha. but they all joked about it after and it was funny. he will now never forget his baptism.
well, in the spirit of thanksgiving, i made a list this morning of some things that i am grateful for today:
-clean refrigerators
-homes that you can feel the spirit in
-my calling to serve the lord
-the fact that i get to spend my days meeting and spending time with people from all walks of life
-naps
-laughing
-silk chocolate soymilk
-p-days
-christmas songs
-pondering
-my companion
-e-mailing my family

i am going to make a list everyday. what are you all grateful for today?
well, i'm about out of time. hope you're all enjoying scraping the ice off of your cars. happy thanksgiving!
love,
sister morrill

Monday, November 15, 2010

Oh Poop!

hello everybody!

today i got pooed on by a bird. it was horrible, because here we have these huge nasty black birds here that are the size of watermelons and they make these weird alien war cry sounds instead of chirping. so, naturally, their poop is not just that normal white milky poop, but it's like real human poop. only a little smaller. anyway, it hit my jacket (thank goodness it wasn't my face) and it smelled horrible. right in the walmart parking lot after getting our groceries. luckily we had just bought toilet paper so we ripped it open and wiped off. anyway... i was just starting to think that birds weren't so bad. but now i hate them again.

this was a good week. we found these two guys (neighbors) named fred and tim. they should be getting baptized on december 5th. they are super awesome. we'll hopefully get tim's wife, kim, in on it too. but she's seeming to be a tougher cookie. anyway, tim said that he had been praying lately that he could get his life back on track and start going to church again. and then we showed up. he told us he knew it was an answer to his prayers. he loves that we can answer his questions, and that the book of mormon can answer his questions, and he is so gung-ho. he's awesome. he was in the army and was in iraq back when things were pretty bad. he's seen some pretty gruesome things. but he is great.

this week our investigator christian is finally getting baptized. have i told you all about him? we've been teaching him ever since my first week here in mission again. so, almost three months. anyway... it has been lots of drama but he is finally doing it and he is so excited and so awesome. he is going to serve a mission.. i know it. he's 21. he's legit. both of his parents are converts as well. and his sister one day will get baptized too, i know it. anyway, we've seen lots of miracles with him and faith building things and answers to prayers and he's awesome.

that's about all i have for today. it's cold here. like 68 degrees. i've been wearing scarves. hope everyone is doing well. until next week!
love,
me

Monday, November 8, 2010

Pictures


Petersen with the smokes Isaac gave us to throw away for him.


Our favorite Philipino mango juice.


My roommates at transers.


We saw this little guy on our way to an appointment. Welcome to the Texas country!


Me and Petersen

Me, Eisley, and Carlos in Brownsville.

My district in order of who goes home first. (what the, I'm second??)





Oh puppies



hello everybody! i actually have no time to write but please enjoy pictures instead.
updates:
--our favorite potheads are not actually that awesome
--we sang christmas songs already at church
--it's actually getting cold here. like 75 degrees in the day.
--i am going to go eat indian food today.

love you all! until next week
-me

p.s. that picture of me and the girl is genesis, the girl we baptized in september.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Funny quotes

hello everybody!
this has been a crazy week and i don't have much time. but let me just tell you about my two favorite/craziest investigators right now, isaac and rigo. they are really sweet and trying to change their lives around. they are actually making tons of progress. they came to church this week and have been cutting way back on their substance abuse. but just let it be known that they are breaking about every single commandment known to mankind in every way possible. i will not tell you much more about them, rather, i will write a list of quotes they said from this week. sister petersen and i thought about the best ones and made a list:

the other night we drove down their street to visit with one of their neighbors. we see them walking across the street, book of mormon in hand. we asked them where they were coming from:
"we were just sitting at the canal, sharing verses, relieving stress."

us: do you know what a prophet is?
"yes, prophets are like.... they're like god's soldiers."

talking about weed:
"i'm not addicted to it. i just have to have it every hour on the hour. i can stop it whenever i want."

us: are you both sober right now?
"yes."
5 minutes later:
"i'm sorry, i'm high."

"is it bad to have three girlfriends?"

"wait, you're going back to utah when this is all over? can we come with you?"

"if somebody gives you girls crap, we'll beat their @#$. you're our homies."

"i think that this bible, and the holy bible are the only ones i will ever read."

"can i like.. give you a hug?"

"wait, we can't do any drugs? what about cocaine? what about chronic? what about xanax? what about virgin mary's? what about ex? what about...(random other drugs my naive brain doesn't even know)"

"@#$!"

"i feel like.. this big right now (holding his fingers really small). you just dominated me."

"my brother is the anti-christ."

"i just need someone to slap me around."

convo, telling them not to fight people:
"wait... what about boxing and UFC fighting. is that okay?"
-yeah, you can box. go for it.
"cool, because there's this underground cagefighting that i want to do on weekends. you can get lots of money."
-wait.. is it illegal?
"yes."
-no you can't do it.

"i mean, you mormons are actually legit. walkin' around, rain or snow.. helpin' a thug in need. you don't see any other #$%#rs doing that."

after we made a quit smoking plan:
"can i sign it in blood?"

"i'm in a band now. rap. we flow. we're called mac-town thugs."

"i'm sober today!"
-good job! (high five) i'm so proud!!
"nobody's ever told me that before.."

end.

those are just a few of the ridiculous things that have come out of their mouths. we've made a lot of progress with them this week though. their quotes make them sound more hopeless than they really are. they are great guys and they are really trying hard to change their lives around.

anyway, the baptism went through this weekend. little jacob estrada. he's so adorable. so we ended the month with a baptism. this week was super long. we worked really hard. we got five people at church though which is a miracle in itself. we're excited for november and i know that some more miracles are coming our way. hope everyone is doing well in your side of the country/world.

love,
britt

Monday, October 25, 2010

Long week...

hello everyone.
this has been a really long week. i think because so much happened in it. it should have been enough to have lasted us a month.
transfers happened and we got a new sister in our apartment named sister bevan. she came from my old area in laredo so she was able to give me updates on everybody. i love frank and jesus! the two brothers who got baptized the week after i left.. they are the sweetest. they sent me a note with her. apparently they have both read the book of mormon like three times now. they are preparing to serve missions. and are just awesome. and i guess all of these things that we would do with them have started a tradition. like my last night with them we took a picture by this dead end sign by their house, and now they do it with every missionary that leaves. and they still go to wendy's every wednesday. they're so cute. it's been nice to have someone to talk laredo with.
sister petersen and i found the most awesome people this week. isaac and his grandma. we first started teaching isaac. he, like nearly everybody in the valley, has had a pretty sketchy life. when he was 12 years old he was high and on shrooms and crashed a four wheeler into a trailer home and was in a coma for 3 months. enough said. anyway, we had this amazing lesson with him about the savior and forgiveness. after we shared this powerful scripture with him, he tooked out his pack of cigarettes, looked at it, looked at us, and then asked us if he could give to us. he said, "i don't need these. i don't want to smoke them anymore." he hasn't smoked one since. it's been six days. he still has a problem with the marijuana, but he is trying to quit. he is amazing. the next time we came over we had a great lesson about repentance. his grandma sat in on it. she cried. she has had an equally rough life and wants to change. we love them. we are going to work hard with them to help them overcome all of their addictions and change their lives around. they are so sweet and willing.
sister bustillos and sister call went home this week. i am suddenly becoming one of the oldest sisters in the mission. five of my seven companions have gone home now, if you count sister carlos who is home on medical leave. it's pretty crazy. where does the time go?
anyway, this week we started this "purification challenge" that our district leader challenged us all to do. we thought of all the things that distract us from the work and decided to cut them out of our lives for forty days. he promised miracles. we're already starting to see miracles in that we randomly may have a baptism this week. this young boy who's parents are coming out of inactivity (they've been back for four months now) will probably get baptized this sunday. we just met him yesterday and his parents said they need to get him baptized. he's so cute. he's been coming to primary and everything so we don't really need to teach him anything. hah.
well. i am out of time. hope you are all doing well. until next week..
xoxo
me

Monday, October 18, 2010

Exciting News

hello people.

this was a week of exciting news.
exciting news number 1:
sister petersen and i will be staying together for another transfer. yay! this is the first time that has happened to me since sister kellett. looks like i finally get to stick around and see some of the fruits of my labor. we're excited.
exciting news number 2:
the church is growing down here! we had a special sacrament meeting with the hidalgo 1st ward (my old spanish ward from mission), my ward now, and another ward. they made a brand new ward and split some wards and changed boundaries and it's awesome. they are buying land to build another chapel that is actually IN mission, since we go to mcallen and la jolla everywhere BUT mission. the other cool part about it is that there are now more spanish wards than english. 5 spanish, 4 english in the stake. i love the hispanic people.
exciting news number 3:
remember my favorite family, the elizondos? the guy who got deported and put in jail from my old mission ward? well with the new ward boundaries, they are going to be in my ward! so i get to see them every sunday again and take them out to lessons with us and everything. i am very happy about that.

we found a cool guy this week named michael. he is 23. he has had a sketchy past... surprise surprise. he has been in and out of jail since he was 17... he just got kicked out of the army last year because he punched his sergeant in the nose and broke it. he has a five year old son that he doesn't get to see very often. anyway, he's really trying to change his life around. he loves the book of mormon. he's read a lot of it. we set a baptismal date with him for the 14th of november. we're hoping things will work out with him. he's a good kid.

anyway, i think that's about all i've got for this week. hope this email finds you all happy and safe.
love,
me

Monday, October 11, 2010

A Slippery Serpent

happy columbus day to all!

the temperature is dropping here down south. it's been even as cold as the 70s in the mornings when we get up to go running. such drastic climate changes have put me under the weather.. i've got a mad 'grippa' (cold) and it has not been fun. who would have known that my body would adjust to being in the scorching heat for so long and get a cold when it's in the 70s. weak.

i seem to have gained my first 2 pounds of mission weight. i held strong for ten months, but i think i've just had one too many desserts at members houses. i am making a plan of action to shed them though. although it's time to gain a little extra and go into hibernation for winter time, right?

well, this week was a week of opposition. all of the people we've been so happy about have slowly been dropping off the radar like flies. i'm learning a lot about the lord's timing. sometimes we just want to see the miracles happen while we're here, but it's not always god's way and sometimes we have to wait. maybe i won't even see the miracles happen with some of these people. but that's okay. we just know that we are doing our best and it's all in their hands to have faith and make good decisions with the knowledge and experience they have. sigh. i hate patience.

anyway.. we have one week left of the transfer. i can't believe it went by so fast. we'll see what changes they throw my way this time. there's not much else to report on this week. we'll hopefully find some new cool people these next few days.

OH. me and sister petersen almost got attacked by a rattle snake. we were knocking doors down this kind of sketchy dirt road (successfully though because we found a family of investigators) but to get back to a main road we had to go through a field of grass. let's just say we heard rattling and saw grass moving and we froze. then we decided to run. it wasn't very funny when it was happening, but now it's pretty funny to think about. don't worry, mom. we learned our lesson and will not run through sketchy fields anymore.. no matter how much of a shortcut it is.

que les pasan bien!xoxo
me

Monday, October 4, 2010

Great story

hello everybody.

i am going to copy and paste the email that i wrote
to my president this week, because you all should know the story too.
it's the story of the fifteen year old on probation that i mentioned
last week, but i didn't share the details because i was too busy
sharing the other story. i got chastised this week in my interview
with president trayner for not sharing this story in my letter to him.

"hello, hello. so, as requested, here is the story of azalea:
it's neat to look at it from the two different sides, now and in thef uture. from our side: the night before it happened, we were planning and i was looking at the map to find a street to contact. this one neighborhood in the bottom far away corner of our area stood out to me. i asked sister petersen about it and she said she couldn't remember ever contacting it. so we decided to go to it first thing in the morning. when we pulled into the neighborhood, sister petersen realized that she had just recently contacted almost that whole neighborhood just weeks before with sister smith. but since we already made the trip out there, we decided to contact this one little street that they hadn't hit. and then of course it was the last door on the street that the miracle happened. we knock on the door and a very sleepy looking fifteen year old girl answered the door. we had just woken her up. we got to know her alittle and then told her that we share a message about jesus christ and how we can strengthen our family relationships by living the things that he has taught us. we said that, still not knowing mucha bout her. she let us in, and we sat down and talked about the doctrine of christ.

Her side: she told us that just the night before she had stayed up half of the night crying and praying, and asking for things to get better with her relationship with her mom. azalea has been locked up three times, and is on probation, and she and her mom do not have a very good relationship. she expressed to us that she even had thoughts of suicide, and that is what brought her to be praying so desperately. we were able to promise her that through jesus christ things with her family could be better. she could be forgiven of all those past things she's done and start a new life. she could have god's spirit with her to guide her and help her make good decisions. that even if things with her family never improve, she has heavenly parents who would always be there for her. we set a baptismal date with her for the 31st of october. she has been reading in her book of mormon and been preparing for that day.

at times like these i know that the spirit of our father in heaven really is here in mcallen and is truly preparing people to receive us, and preparing us to find them. all miracles aside, this week was kind of disappointing (not discouraging). azalea didn't come to conference and we had to drop two of our investigators with baptismal dates. but it's okay. we have faith and we will find more and help the ones we have..."

this week we found caleb at his parents home alone, doing the deed with his girlfriend. it was really awkward and i'd rather not re-hash the details. hah. but we had a "you need to get off the fence and make a decision about something...anything.. or there is nothing else wec an help you with" lesson with him. it was sad but it went well. he is really thinking and meditating on his life and if he wants to choose to be happy or choose to keep getting into trouble all the time. we're hoping that with some time alone to think he'll figure his life out.

anyhoo. general conference was great. i hope everybody enjoyed it. i am running out of time. hope everyone is happy and healthy and well.

until next week.

brittany

Monday, September 27, 2010

Miracles

hello everybody!

i am staying nice and cool here in texas. yes, that's right. we got a cold front this week. so instead of being 96 all day every day it's going to be in the high 80's. i may need a jacket so i don't freeze.
this was a week of miracles! there is this girl named genesis that we are teaching. in fact, missionaries have been teaching her since the beginning of may. she origanally was going to get baptized the first week in june, but her mom wouldn't let her. she's 17, so she needs parental permission. apparently after asking a few different times, after a fast by the whole young womens in the ward, and lots of praying, mom still wouldn't budge. so finally we decided to try and talk to her. miracle number one was that she showed up one night while we were over with genesis. usually her mom is ALWAYS working. the missionaries had only met her twice in the whole 4.5 month period of teaching her. so anyway, she shows up. we help her carry some groceries in. we ask her if we can set up an appointment to visit with her. she said yes. that was miracle number two. so after a couple days the appointment rolls around. she was actually home. that was another miracle. we then just laid it all out. that genesis wanted to get baptized and that we wanted to share with her what we've shared with genesis so that she can understand a little better why it is genesis has been willingly making these changes in her life and coming to church and early morning seminary and youth temple trips even though she couldn't go inside the temple. we taught a little bit to her mom and she completely opened up to us. told us her whole life story. she's had a very tough life. she also expressed her concerns about her daughter joining the church. they were all pretty much misconceptions. she thought that the second she got baptized we would send her off to some foreign country to be a missionary and she'd never see her again. she thought that her daughter wouldn't be able to get a job or do any of the things that she wanted to do in her life. so, two hours and many tears later she finally agreed to let genesis be baptized. she got baptized this weekend, her mom came to it and it was beautiful. her mom sadly expressed that she does not believe in an afterlife and that no book or saying a prayer could ever make her believe otherwise. so teaching her right now isn't much of an option. but i know that with time genesis' example will have a big impressionon her mom and one day she'll find a little more happiness to her life as well.

we have added more troubled youth to our teaching agenda. one girl who we found this week is 15 and has been locked up three times. she is hopefully getting baptized in november (it will take longer because she's on probation and there's lots of paper work and meeting with her parole officer involved) but she is awesome.

anyway. i'm out of time and p-day is a burnin'. today we are trying out a new thai food restaurant to celebrate the baptism. hope you are all doing well!

love,me

Monday, September 20, 2010

Humbled

hello, hello.

this was a long and eventful week. first of all, we had a conference with elder richards from the quorum of the seventy. it was awesome. the theme of the conference was becoming a tool in the hands of the lord. it really built up my faith and confidence and helped my love for the work grow. second of all, we found some really neat people this week, and set three baptismal dates with people for october. caleb is doing alright. we taught him the word of wisdom and he has been having a hard time quitting smoking, so we are really going to try and support him through that this week. sister petersen and i have had some really good lessons this week. really powerful ones where we could just feel the spirit working through us and we've seen lots of good things happen. i continue to feel humbled and tried as i have no idea what i'm doing as far as missionary work goes, and neither does sister petersen. but i think we're running off of pure faith fumes and it's working well for us.

did i tell you all about the crazy old guy investigator named oscar? he's really adorable actually. he's like 84 and he made us pancakes the first time we went over to visit him. he has a few screws loose. he wants to get baptized but he won't quit breaking the word of wisdom to do it. nevertheless, he comes to church every sunday and argues with the sunday school teachers and wreaks havoc. he's very sweet though and the people are patient with him because they know he's not quite all the way there. he calls and says weird things like, "yo quiero casarme con dios" which means i want to marry myself with god." hah. adorable. slash crazy. but we love him.

anyway, i am running out of time but i hope everybody is doing well this week. until next time..

love, brittany

Monday, September 13, 2010

Another great week :)

hello mis queridos!

this was a looong week of finding people to teach. but i would say we had some success. since we're both so new here, we decided the best plan of action would be to look through the former investigator records and go back to people and find less active members. so we were on a hunt most of this week. it was great because we hardly found anybody that we were initially looking for, but as we were actively searching and going about a good cause, we found other prepared people that were placed in our way. at one point we were clear up in the middle of the country in this trailer park and we were seaching for a less active family whose lot number we didn't have. we just decided to knock on every door. we met a sweet girl named dulce. she is 22 and has a two year old son. she and her boyfriend live in a tiny little trailer. she was doing the dishes and we helped her clean. she was able to open up to us about her beliefs in god and how she wants the best for her son and doesn't want him to grow up in gangs or violence and drugs like so many people around here do. she expressed her desires to get back to a church and strengthen her relationship with god. we were able to testify of the gospel and how following jesus christ is the best thing for a family and she asked us to come back and talk with her and her boyfriend this week. she is so sweet and humble and we are excited to work with them more. we were also able to teach a girl named steffany. we were walking down a street, on the hunt for another less active member and we were awkwardly walking exactly the same speed and direction as somebody a good 15 feet in front of us. we decided we could either creepily follow them and not say anything or creepily speed up and harass them with our message. we decided on the latter and started talking to them. she turned out to be the neighbor of this girl who had just been baptized in our church that we didn't know had moved into our area. the conversation with this woman didn't go anywhere, but we did decide to stop by the recent convert and talk to her since now we knew where she lived. when we stopped by the house, recent convert wasn't home, but her sister who has been to church a couple of times and is just awesome was home. we taught her a lesson, gave her a book of mormon, and she is excited to learn more. we're meeting with her on tuesday.

i have a feeling my favorite family in this area is going to be the sanchez family. it's a husband, wife, and three kids who all got baptized in july. they are so amazing. they used to be doing drugs and crimes and had all sorts of problems but have now completely changed their lives around and are going to convert the whole neighborhood with them. well, brother sanchez has an 18 year old son named caleb from another marriage who was living in houston but just moved in with his dad this week. he wanted to leave houston because he was getting in a lot of trouble and wants to change his life around. go back to school. etc. so we taught him twice this week and he came to church and he is just awesome. brother and sister sanchez's testimonies are so strong and they have been such a help in their son's life and process of changing. he's praying about baptism and will hopefully be baptized in october.

anyway. this area is great. the members are awesome, we have at least one food appointment every single day this week. they are treating us well and we are figuring out how to work with the people here. i am continuing to love being a missionary and seeing the hand of the lord in people's lives daily. i know that he really is mindful of his people wherever they are and that we are all numbered to him. he loves us. i have been able to feel a tiny little glimpse of his love for others here in south texas. he is constantly preparing and humbling people to be ready to come unto christ. i know that we have never sinned too much to be able to turn around and come back to him. i know that we will never be able to pay back the things that he did for us, but as we have faith and repent and are baptized as he has asked we can find more happiness in our lives. i know that god answers every humble and honest prayer and that as we seek for truth and light we can find it. i know that today is the day to do it. i know that one day we can all return to live with the savior and jesus christ and i hope to be clean and spotless and have them welcome me into their arms. i know that every single person can have that. i hope that you are all doing well. thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

love,brittany

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Back to Mission

hello everybody!

what a long and great week. we had an awesome lesson with hilaria's husband who has never been to a church since the day he got married. the spirit was very strong and he came to church the next day and read from the book of mormon. he is awesome. their whole family was there for the lesson, including the daughter that is already married, her husband and baby. they all were listening intently and asking questions about the book of mormon. i have a really good feeling about that family. also, i don't remember if i had told you all about ernie but he is awesome. we've been teaching him for a little bit now and he has been afraid to pray about the book of mormon. but we finally convinced him to do it. he did it sunday morning and got his answer. he said that a little while after he prayed he was just sitting and reading a little more and meditating and then all of the sudden a big gust of wind came and the rain started pouring. and then he just felt this overwhelming sense of peace and warmth and he knew that it was the answer to his prayer. he came to church for the first time that morning and he wants to be baptized in october.

sister eisley, carlos and i saw a lot of miracles this past six weeks. it was a little bit sad to find out i would be leaving. yes. i got the call saturday night that i would be transferred on tuesday. but... guess where they sent me? back to mission! i'm actually very excited about it. i am currently writing you all from mission. i'll be serving in a different area so i won't get to go back to all my old people, but it's close enough. my companion, sister peterson, is new to the mission.. she has a good six weeks under her belt. she is so sweet. she actually is from south jordan and went to bingham and we have a few friends in common. she is very sweet and i'm excited to see what happens down here. we're pretty much starting from scratch with 0 baptismal dates right now and about 0 progressing investigators.. so if anybody needs extra things to pray for, you can pray for us to find the people who need us. we'll need some miracles around these parts.

anyway... things are well with me. the weather is cooling down a lot and i'm just adjusting to the changes. i love changes though. hope things are well with all of you. until next week...

love,brittany

Monday, August 30, 2010

Tramposas!

hello!

this was an overwhelmingly awesome week. we saw a lot of miracles happen. first of all, serena and saida got baptized and it was beautiful. their alcoholic butthead dad invited us to his house for dinner next week and said he wants to thank us for all of the good that has happened in his family this last little while. he said more good changes are coming. we're hoping it means that he is planning on stopping drinking or something, but i guess we'll see at dinner.

my favorite person right now is hilaria zapata. some of the elders actually met her but then found out she lives in our area so passed her info along to us. she told sister eisley and me that she has seen us in a dream before. when she saw us it was like she already knew us. the next time we came over she told us about how she was almost going to call us and tell us not to come over anymore because she was just getting confused. she's been getting pressure from her family and from her church. but she said she decided to read the chapter we left her in the book of mormon and then she couldn't put it down. she read it three times and said that all she could think was that she wanted to know more about our church. she came to the baptism and to church this sunday. she is amazing. she called us "tramposas" or in english, tramps. because we come to a town, get people to fall in love with us,and then we leave. (transfers.) ha. that was the first time i had heard that one. anyway, she will hopefully be getting baptized at the end of the month.

other loves: ted and blanca. they're a couple we met.. probably in their fifties. ted is a big white guy who loves glen beck so that's what got us in his door. his wife blanca is a mexican who speaks as much english as he does spanish. i'm not sure how they really communicate to each other, but they are in love. they also want to be baptized. they came to the baptism as well and ted said, "when they baptize me, they'll have to have two guys in there. baptizing me is like baptizing a bear." ha. i love him. but most of all i love the converting spirit that there is in the book of mormon. i have literally seen lives change from that book. including mine.

well, that's it for me this week. hope this letter finds you all well.

love,

brittany

Monday, August 23, 2010

Out of the mouths of babes...

i just want to share a great experience we had this week. we've been working with this family.. the martinez family. the mom, leticia was baptized in the 1980s and hasn't been back to church since then. she now has a family of four children, two of which are of baptismal age who we will be baptizing this weekend. Serena is 13, and Saida is 10. Leticia was expressing some problems they are having in the family to us. the dad is an alcoholic and to say the least they do not have the safest home environment. he doesn't abuse them physically but there is not a lot of emotional or mental stability. anyway, she was mentioning how the dad is kind of questioning why the girls are getting baptized. saying they're too young, it's too fast. etc. etc. leticia said it won't be a problem for the baptism, but just that it's been on her mind. a few minutes later we went to different sides of the room to go over the baptismal questions with the girls separately. leticia sat in on Saida's side. as we were asking her the first question her mom lovingly interrupted and asked if she could ask saida a question. we agreed and she asked, "why is it that you want to be baptized?" i felta little bit of panic for a split second and worried that the mom was doubting the decision. as it went silent while little saida thought about the question, the spirit filled the room. i felt it burning in my heart more strongly than i've ever felt in my life. she replied with a simple, "i want to do the right things. i want to have the holy ghost with me always. her mom's eyes got watery and we were able to testify as representatives of jesus christ that what she was doing was the right thing and that things in their family situation would get better as serena and saida make these promises with heavenly father and as the whole family goes to church to receive more of the spirit of love for their home. it was an amazing experience. i know that the spirit of heavenly father can touch even ten year old's hearts. and that ten year olds have the power to change people's hearts and to be an influence for good in the world. it really strengthened my testimony of the savior's words,"suffer the little children to come unto me."i hope you're all having a great week.

love,me

Monday, August 16, 2010

Good Dog...

hello everybody!
this was a week of funny things. i also think that summer has officially hit here. it's so dang hot. i can't remember a time this week that my body wasn't completely wet from sweat. we talked about the word of wisdom in sunday school and how we should eat meat sparingly and that it is "pleasing unto me that ye eat it not at all except in times of winter or cold or famine." and one of the men said,"but texas doesn't have winter." so i made the comment that maybe nobody should be eating meat down here and they could all cut back ont he diabetes. they didn't like that though this week we went to a member's house and they had a cute little chihuahua named penny. she was sitting on my lap cuddling with me for a few minutes and then sister eisley called her over to her. she jumped off my lap and ran over to sister eisley's and promptly vomited all over her lap. i think that penny is a very good dog. my favorite lesson i taught this week was to a bunch of teenagers. i think i've said this before but i just love teaching teenagers. they are the best. so anyway, they were all sitting outside and sister carlos and i went up to talk to them. we taught them about prayer. how to pray. why to pray. and how keeping commandments gives us blessings. we told them it was the secret to getting the things we want in life. at the end we double dog dared them all to pray at least once every single day for the rest of their lives. then two of the boys taught me how to skateboard. it was awesome. have i told you all about this man we are teaching named vicente? he is awesome. his wife is a member. he has been investigating the church for fourteen years. he is getting baptized in september. he has cancer and is currently going through chemo. he has the coolest family i've ever met and i love them so much. i feel like they are my home away from home. they're all sarcasm and joking which is what it usually is around my dinner table at home.. so it's so fun.i love going over there. anyway. yes. best family ever.this week i'll be going to mcallen for a big four day training, so i'll get to see old companions and district members and etc. possibly even go visit some old investigators and such. i'm very excited. i'll keep you posted. that's about it for me this week though. hope all is well with everybody.
hasta luego, me

Monday, August 9, 2010

Wow! 8 Months already!

hello, peeps.

what a crazy week. we found out late last monday that sister carlos
was going to need to go to corpus christi for five days for a training
so sister eisley and i were left here with the FOUR, not three
mini-missionaries. life was crazy and we stayed up planning until
10:30 at least every night. but. it was completely worth it. those
mini-missionaries had more faith than anyone i've ever met and we
actually ended up setting 9 baptismal dates with them. we found a ton
of cool people and had some of the most amazing spiritual experiences
i've ever had in my mission. we were both completely exhausted by the
end of the week but i wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. i
plan on napping the entire rest of this p-day once i leave the
library. it was nice to have the girls around. i love working with youth. they're always my favorite to teach and find, and it was especially refreshing to have them with me all week. i had two girls with me, sister eisley had two girls with her, and we pretty much just split up the entire week and would only see each other at night when we would plan together for the next day. my girls' names were kristin and vanessa and they were the sweetest things ever. we had a blast. idon't think i've laughed so hard in one week. maybe i have. anyway.. one particular miracle that happened was with a man named brother juarez. he has been investigating the church for so long that everyone calls him "brother juarez." not his first name. anyway... he's had cancer for the last three years or so. has been investigating the church for about 14 years or so. in his whole 14 years he has never agreed to a baptismal date. never never never. he is one of the most stubborn men i've ever met in my life. but. this week he set himself a date. we didn't even pick it, he did. and he will be taking the plunge on september 12. it was awesome. we told the ward mission leader and he about fell off his chair because the man has never agreed to a date. and i owe it all to the faith of the mini-missionaries.i think i learned a lot of important lessons this week. like about how important it is to really have the spirit with you as you teach. and how i can't be so dependent on my companions all the time for certain things. and how attitude really is everything. i think i already knew most of those things, but a different light was shed on them this week. i think i gained a lot more confidence in my own skills as a missionary and how they can be amplified when we are humble and obedient. this was a great week and one of those weeks where you actually dread the going by of it because it means it's one week less you have on your mission. luckily i still have about 10 months. hope you are all well and happy and safe. until next week.

brittany

Monday, August 2, 2010

Yard work and missionary opportunities?

hello world!

this has been an adventure filled week, to say the least. first of all, i got proposed to. ha. my new companion, sister eisley and i were out contacting while our other companion was with a member at a lesson. and we saw these two guys out doing yard work. so she talked to one and i talked to the other. i shared a little about what our message is about, what we do as missionaries, blah blah blah. then he said, "will you marry me?" i said, "what?" and he said "will you marry me?" .... "um, no, sorry." "oh, ok. i'm really well behaved. i just like it when people are into the bible and stuff because they are well behaved. you are really pretty." ha. i thanked him, gave him a pass along card, and moved on. i was flattered. it's just that he was probably 45, being paid minimum wage to be doing yardwork, and probably just wants to marry a white girl to get his papers. anyway. it was awesome. other funny story of the week which also happens to involve yardwork: sister carlos and i were in this trailer park going to an appointment and we saw a guy cutting and moving branches. we asked him if we could help and he let us. as we were helping him drag branches to a pile across the street, he asked us some questions. about what we do, whyj esus is important, stuff like that. and he was really cool. i think both me and sister carlos were thinking he had some potential to be an investigator. well then as we finished helping him and asked if we could come back and visit him sometime his crazy switch went off. literally. like his whole countenance changed and he got a crazy look in his eye and started talking about this whole shpeal about all these times he's bible bashed with people and how he was analyzing us psychologically the whole time we were helping him and how it's not right that we go by "sister" and we should just go by our first names because we call him by his first name and it was psycho. then when we asked him to say a prayer before we left, his prayer was super long and it started pouring rain. but the funny thing was it was a perfectly clear blue sky out. and not 45 seconds after his prayer ended it stopped raining. no joke. that man does voodoo magic or something. it was crazy.anyway.. things are good here. we're just trying to figure out how to make a "tripanionship" work. and we will also have the blessing/headache of having three "mini missionaries" with us this whole week. 16 year old girls from mcallen will be following us around til sunday. should be interesting. i will update you all next week. hope this email finds you all happy and smiling and doing well.

xoxo brittany

Monday, July 26, 2010

Brownsville

hello people!
my favorite quote of this week comes from the mouth of one of our
favorite investigators: "it's hotter than hell's doorknobs down here!"
ha. but really i don't think it's even that hot. people are babies.
it has now been my second week here in brownsville. things i don't
particularly like:
-creepy old man in the spanish ward who asks me to be his wife all the
time. he already has a wife. and he's like 70. i told him he's creepy.
he thinks i was kidding.
-the wild parrots. you might be thinking, 'hey, wild parrots, that's
cool.' but it's not cool when the infest the trees that are outside of
your bedroom window and are constantly squaking at the precise time
when you are falling asleep.
-the fact that there is NOTHING here. i could never live in brownsville.

there are some things i do like though. we've got some pretty cool
investigators. and... that's about it. my companion who goes home
tomorrow told me that it will be like that the whole mission. you'll
hate a place and then the second you start to love it, you'll get
transferred. i want to start loving it fast so i can get out of here.
so sister carlos and i will be getting a new companion this week named
sister eisley. all that i know about her is that she and her brother
are the only two living people in the world with some stomach disease
where she can't eat very much and she has to eat cornstarch and water
sometimes. hah. sister butler was her companion and that was all she
told me about her. i'm sure i will love her though and having another
tripanionship will help us spice things up around here.
anyway.. life is good. we're finding lots of neat people. yesterday we
felt like contacting this certain street instead of going to an
appointment a little early. we were about to knock on this door when
we looked up some stairs and saw a lady on a porch up there. turns out
she has a studio apartment above the garage. she is awesome and long
story short we set a baptismal date with her and she is coming to
church with us this week. it was cool because we never would have
thought to go up those stairs. there's no way we would have found her
if she hadn't been outside right then and we hadn't decided to knock
that street. pretty cool. anyway. i have zero time left. i love you
all and hope life is grand. until next time!
sister morrill

Monday, July 19, 2010

Emergency Transfer

hello people!
so the surprise news of the week is that i was involved in an emergency transfer and am now in the lovely city of brownsville texas. it happens to be the farthest south you can be in the united states and still be in the united states. check it out on a map. i am in little mexico, even more than i was before. so yes, i kissed a boy and they emergency tranferred me here. just kidding. i guess some other sister in mcallen was up to sketchy business and needed to be separated from her companion and they decided that sister bustillos and i would be the ones that have to be sacrificed. mostly because there were some elders in our zone that needed an apartment, so they took this opportunity to kick us out and let them have our awesome three investigators getting baptised. i was pretty upset about it. and still miss my people over there. but i guess it needed to be done.
i am now in a "tripanionship'' with sister butler from california who goes home in ten days, and sister carlos from new york, who i lived with in laredo before. they are both very hard workers and all in all it was an okay move. we ended up setting 3 new baptismal dates this week so i guess heavenly father blesses us when we are working hard, and when we have to leave behind three awesome other baptisms. oh, the mission life.
the highlight of this week was my second day here when our car broke down and we had to walk about 7 miles throughout the day because we didn't all have bikes and we were already far away from where we lived. ha. we sure met a LOT of people that day though. not a lot of very funny things happened this week. one funny thing was when sister carlos saw a man on the street so she started walking to catch up to him and give him a pass along card but he had his earphones in and was listening to music. so she just kept walking faster and faster and yelling "buenas tardes!" but he didn't hear her. it wen't on for like two minutes and me and sister butler just watched from a distance and giggled. then he finally heard her and looked back. shook his finger at her. and then kept walking. oh, the missionary life. i'm a little worried about this next transfer because if sister carlos and i stay together, i may end up teaching most of the spanish lessons by myself. she is the same age as me in the mission, but she is struggling a lot with her spanish and she just doesn't speak when we talk to spanish people. this next little while could be a lot of improving for me in spanish. or a lot of gray hairs. you decide.
well, that's about it for me. hope everything is well in the real world with you all.
happy pioneer day!
xoxo me

Monday, July 12, 2010

Birthday in Texas

Hello e'rybody!

i am writing you from my now 22 year old body. it feels mostly like my 21 year old body, but a lot wiser. more mature. more good looking. etc. thanks to everybody for the packages and letters and things. it was a nice reminder that i still have friends/family somewhere... the birthday was good. it was our planning day which sometimes can be like a mini p-day if you plan fast enough. we had a "girls day" during our break. pedicures, face masks, deep conditioner, and bubble baths. very nice and relaxing. then we went out and worked. nothing too exciting. some of our recent converts threw me a party at night.. we had pizza and cookies and just chatted and laughed. it was fun. then the next day we had our ward mission meeting and the ward mission leader threw me and elder bilton (whose birthday is two days after mine) a party. he brought cake and tacos to the meeting (at 9:30 in the morning) bless his heart. it was sweet. then elder bilton's companion's mom called in and ordered us all pizza to a member's house to celebrate as well. it was a nicely spent birthday. i thought about how my last year's birthday was spent in utah with my friends at the Jenny Lewis/Bon Iver concert. so stinking good. but this was a birthday to be remembered as well, as it will be my only birthday spent as a missionary.

other than birthday goodness, this week was awesome! we found two new investigators who will either be getting baptized in the end of July or the first week of august. their names are jessica and romeo. they're boyfriend and girlfriend, and one of the teenage girls in our ward is friends with them and started talking to them about the gospel. when we went over to meet with them they already knew they had a testimony of the gospel and they were actually fasting. the spirit was so strong there. we all started crying at one point. i think it will be one of my favorite memories of my entire mission. it was so powerful. i've never met two such prepared people and it came as a miracle. they are so excited. sister bustillos and i are so excited. we love them. erin is still doing well as well. the only thing that stinks is that after she gets baptized she is moving to indiana so we won't get to bask in her awesome glory much longer. she is the coolest person i've ever met.

amidst all the great things happening this week, i kind of was in a downer mood some of the time these past couple weeks. i think every missionary goes through this. where you start to be a little more selfish and start thinking about all the things you are sacrificing and "poor me" thoughts start to kick in and you convince yourself that you aren't happy (which isn't true). but i feel like i'm coming out of it. i had a few "a-ha" moments where i realized that what i'm sacrificing will all come back to me ten-fold, and that the joy i'm bringing to other people's lives makes me happy, and that most importantly, we have a savior who sacrificed EVERYTHING for us. my whole life has been about me. but the savior lived his whole life for others and going about his father's business. which probably was not fun. but he did it because he loves us. because he loves me. and he> loves you. i can sacrifice a small amount of "me" time to help other people learn about the savior and know the happiness that i know. we're never alone and when we draw near him, he draws near unto us. i've felt a lot happier lately and am kicking these selfish thoughts in the butt and finding joy in this adventure in my life. i'm grateful for trials that we go through because they help us learn to rely on god more, and to turn inward and fix things about ourselves. i'm grateful for everybody that reads my emails and cares about me and i hope you're all doing well and happy. love you!

xoxo me

Friday, July 9, 2010

Not so Hurricane Alex

buenas!
this was a great week! first of all, the hurricane was child's play.
baby's play. well at least here it was... i hear mexico city was hit pretty hard. it was kind of cool though because when sister bustillos and i got up for our morning run the sky was red. it made me think of that saying..
red sky at night, sailor's delight. red sky in the morn', sailor take warn. we thought it was going to be huge but it really just sprinkled all day. we went to the local grocey store, HEB the day before the hurricane was supposed to hit and it was madness. people were ravaging wild beasts, trying to cut off your shopping cart to get to the aisles first. sadly the thing people were stocking up on was not drinking water. it was not sand bags. it was not trail mix. it was soda. man the mexicans down here drink tons and tons of soda. and they wonder why they all have diabetes.
anyway. other news this week, erin is still awesome. she came to church this week and was crying and took notes. i love her with all my heart. she'll either be getting baptized on the 18th or 31st. we are going to hopefully firm that all up today.
we had a zone conference with our new president trayner today. i love him! he is so funny and sarcastic and smart and awesome.
apparently a lot of things are changing with how they run the missions around the world. i'm pretty excited. we're going to have a few 4 day training conferences, and things like transfer schedules and such are changing too. i'm pretty excited. i like change. it will be cool.
sister bustillos and i are hoping it means we'll stay together for a longer time, but we'll see what happens.
in other news the mosquitoes seem to be especially blood thirsty this week. i can't figure out why. but you seriously can't stand in the same place for more than 4 seconds without have 5 or more of them swarming you. no matter how much bug spray you just sprayed. we roll down the car window for 20 seconds and they are all over in the car.
we have an extra CD case we have been using to attack them all.
well i can't seem to remember what else happened this week. i hope this e-mail finds you all well. until next time...
sister morrill

Happy Birthday to Britt!

Love you Britt!

XOXOXO,

Mom :)

Monday, June 28, 2010

Hurricane Watch

hello hello everybody!

this was another long/hot week in the great rio grande valley. i will put things into bullet points:
--we had a big valley conference.. we combined with 5 zones.. since our mission president is leaving. it was pretty fun. i got to see sister haws (my friend from provo) and some of the missionaries i had served with up in laredo and it was good times to be had by all.
--they invited us sisters and the office elders (including elder clayton, peter's friend's son) to this open house going away party for our mission president and we sang a few musical numbers. this guy in the stake down here i guess is a pretty big hot shot composer and he composed his own arrangements to "a poor wayfaring man of grief" and"god be with you till we meet again." they were beautiful. he played the violin and we had the piano and everybody in the audience wasc rying of course. it was pretty neat to be a part of. i like being down here so close to the mission office to be included in those things.
--erin is still AWESOME and is probably getting baptized. she is like the most open and genuine person i've ever known. she's out of town this week but we're going to visit her friday. i've never met someone so spiritually in tune. she just knows how to pray and recieve answers and her own personal revelation and she sticks to it. she's great.
--that awesome brother and sister ramon and jennifer turned out to be not so awesome. they refused to pray or read anything even though they both had admitted to feeling the spirit. but it's okay. they're young. maybe sometime in the future they'll figure things out and be willing to act on things that they feel. i think it's hard for them because they are getting a lot of persecution from their friends and family.
--there is apparently a hurricane headed our way. sister bustillos and i are kind of excited. if the hurricane hits they'll evacuate us and we'll stay in a church for a day or two or as long as all the unsafestuff is happening, and then we'll go right back out and help people with the relief process. give food and clean up and that type of thing. i think it's a little exciting. but i know it would be bad news for the people here who aren't prepared. so who knows. maybe i shouldn't be wishing for it to come. kind of funny we're getting the new mission president this week.. his welcome present could very well be having to carry out an evacuation plan.--our new mission president happens to be the dad of a girl i went to high school with. small world.
that's about it for me. hope all is well with you. should have some interesting news to share next week if this hurricane happens. until next time.
xoxobrittany
p.s. my birthday is coming up on july 9th... that is all.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Good week!




Pig stomach. Yum!





hiiii everybody.

this has been an amazing week! first of all, me and sister bustillos get along GREAT. i love her with all my heart. she actually lived in provo for a year and knows a lot of the same people i know so it's been fun talking about people. also, she is a vegetarian and has stayed vegetarian on her mission. which means i've been calling all the people who normally feed us nasty greasy meat and telling her that my companion can't eat it, which also means that I can't it. it's great, they think she's the crazy one, and i get off scot free. and meat free. i've also seen that people really don't get offended here if you just tell them ahead of time you don't eat meat. i have been thinking i'm going back to being veggie. i don't think i can look at one more plate of greasy carne molida and my insides can't take it either.
anyway.. it has been an awesome week! like i said before, we were starting from scratch this week. it was a little discouraging planning for our first day and having absolutely no appointments or people to visit, but we stayed positive and found some really awesome people. we even had a whole family come to church. sister call and i only got one person to church all last transfer.
we found this awesome lady named erin. she's from indiana and one of the only white people i've ever met down here, besides the members in the english ward. we gave her a book of mormon this week and she loved it! she read the chapter we gave her to read and she said she didn't need to pray to know it's true because she just knew it when she read it. that it was everything she always knew she believed, she just couldn't find it so clearly put anywhere else. she's about to be going through a divorce too and she used it to find answers and guidance where to go and what to do and she said she received answers. she's so awesome.
we also found this family, a brother and a sister who are 15 and 14. the brother, Ramon is 14 and he is the head altar boy at his catholic church and wants to be a catholic priest. we taught him and his sister about the restoration and the book of mormon. Ramon kind of spouted out his beliefs as a defense to us telling him new stuff. we couldn't get him to shut up actually. then we finally said, you don't have to figure it out logically. you have all the tools. you can read the scriptures and pray about it. don't listen to us or believe us. don't listen to your priest or believe him. study it out yourself and god will tell you what to do. he got really quiet for the first time the whole night and then said, "you know... i think god puts everyone here for a reason." i asked him what he meant and he calmly said. "god wanted me to be really confused right now, and he wanted you two missionaries to come to my door and tell me how to find the answer." it was really neat. we challenged him to read a chapter from the book of mormon and pray about it. we are seeing him tonight, we'll see how it went. his sister Jennifer is awesome. we thought she wasn't interested at all because she was so quiet in the lessons and didn't want to participate. but she said that when we invited her to church, she ha d a burning feeling in her chest and couldn't stop smiling and she went in her house and told her mom that she needed to come to church with us. she told us this whole story about how she's been searching for this her whole life. it was a cool experience. it's amazing to see how god is always answering prayers and putting people in other people's paths at just the right minute.
anyway, i attached some pictures here including the pig stomach, the world's largest killer bee in hidalgo, texas, my two favorite converts frank and jesus, and me holding another bird. why do people here insist on putting their birds in my hands?
hope you're all doing well!
favorite quote of the week:
when asking a woman if she wanted to come to church in english or spanish, "hmm... do you have one in tex-mex?"
dead serious.
people down here...

xoxo
brittany

Monday, June 14, 2010

Funny Girl

hello hello people!

the long awaited transfer news has finally come. my new companion is going to be sister bustillos. the one who came to laredo and i said her life was like the mormon "the hills." should be pretty interesting. turns out me and my dear sweet sister kellett are companion swapping. they're also splitting our area and putting boy missionaries in one half, which happens to be the half that all of our investigators are in, so we'll be starting from scratch. kind of cool,kind of sad. lots of unexpected changes. but that is the mission life for you! life moves on.

this was a cool week. i would like to start by telling a joke that one of the primary kids told: how do you wake up lady gaga? poke-her face.(ba dum cchhhh)(that was a drum roll)

anyway. we had another miracle this week. besides the elizondo familybeing whole again, we witnessed the miracle of the lost kitten. one of our recent converts, Jessica, had a cat and three kittens. we all loved the kittens very much. well jessica lives at an apartment complex that does not allow animals. so one day the manager came and took the kittens away to "animal control" which really means that she dropped them in a field somewhere. we know that BECAUSE... three weeks later, we found one of the kitties!! sister call and i were knocking some doors about a mile away from jessica's house and this little kitten came running to us from somebody's yard. we actually didn't recognize it at this point, but we looked for it's home and after not knowing if it had one and thinking that she looked a little too skinny, we decided to bring it home to jessica who was needing more kitten in her life. when we showed it to her she freaked and said she was pretty sure it was one of the three kittens. then we showed her to the momma cat and she recognized her! it was truly a christmas miracle. we found the kitten a home with one of jessica's best friends, so she still gets to visit and now she has a home. we're not sure what happened to the other two kitties, but hopefully some kind souls stopped and picked them up.

anyway.. i don't have much time to email today.. we have to get stuff ready for transfers. hope you are all having a great week. untilnext time...xoxo

brittany

Friday, June 11, 2010

After the trials come the blessings!

(From Terry) I went to the mail box yesterday and found a hand written letter from Brittany. I knew it had to be important if she couldn't wait to email me on Monday as usual. Here is a transcript of the letter. It's awesome :)


Momma!

I just wanted to write you now instead of waiting til next week to tell you the awesome news. So, as a ward, we fasted for Elizondo's (the one who was in jail). As of Sunday the last they heard was he'd be there at least three months. but we got a call today at around 3:00 from sister Elizondo saying they let him out suddenly. That they had no evidence on him and he's free to go. It was a miracle! We were all crying. They invited us over for dinner tonight and he told us all about it. He said his first night in the jail he was praying and he just had this overwhelming feeling everything was going to be okay. Also, he's going to be applying for citizenship soon because he just found out he qualifies, which means his wife can become legal, which means they can go through the temple! So cool right?

Heavenly Father really answers prayers. I love Mosiah 27:14....he answers the prayers of the righteous. Anyway....that's all!

Love, Britt

Monday, June 7, 2010

Trials of Faith

hello people
another slow week here in mission texas. sister call and i are having a trial of our faith. and so are all of our investigators. they keep getting hit hard with things. but it's ok. we've seen miracles happen too. one thing that was cool this week was when we met elizabeth.
she was baptized about a year ago and has the craziest story ever. we actually got her number from a member of her original ward.
she told she had moved into our ward and gave us her number and address. so we tried to call her and we had the wrong number. we kind of forgot about it for a while but then decided this week to stop by the address and see if anyone was there. she was there. and she almost burst into tears. i guess she had just gotten off the phone with her mom who is a little crazy. she's into televangelism and calls us the "crazy mormon cult" and is very against elizabeth (who is 51) being in the church. she told us that she had been praying all week and asking god to help her figure out what she should do. she said she would go to a different church or do whatever it took to get her relationship back with god. and that her mom had kind of just given her a verbal beating maybe about an hour before we showed up. she said she knew it was an answer to her prayer. so we were excited and told her about the new ward and told her that we already had a ride for her on sunday and then she freaked out even more because i guess when we had actually knocked on the door she had been looking in the phonebook at churches and trying to see if any of them had ride services so that she could get there. she then told us about how the first time she ever met the missionaries she was out pulling weeds in her garden and crying and praying to find god. and mid-prayer the missionaries tapped her on the shoulder. she said she knew right from the start that what they taught her was right. so through fighting with her husband and mom, she ended up getting baptized. then the next sunday when she was supposed to go to church to be confirmed her husband drugged her up on sedatives (he's a nurse or something) so that she couldn't move. one of the members came (the same one that gave us her number) and found her and helped her up and they pressed charges on the husband and now they are divorced. i guess her mom was in on the whole thing too. it's absolutely crazy. but anyway, she is the sweetest woman ever and it's amazing how many prayers she has had answered in the course of the year. the best part is, she is PERFECT for one of our other recent converts and we are going to try and set them up on a date secretly.
:)
anyway. i just took up all of my time writing that story. we are still waiting things out with sister elizondo finding out about her husband in jail. as of right now it's looking like he'll be there three months minimum, if not a year. she's still staying positive about it and everyone in the ward is praying for her. it's still super hot and we still eat way too much. and that is about it. until next week.
xoxo
britt

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Pig Stomach Soup Anyone?

hello people!
this was a hot week. once again. but all in all i still prefer it tothe cold. it's not too bad.my first story is another about a crazy thing i had to eat. pigstomach. pig stomach soup, to be exact. pictures to come. sis. calland i went to a carne asada that this investigator family of ours werethrowing. the woman had just had twins a few months ago and they hadhealth problems becuase the were premature. so this was kind of their"hooray our babies are going to be normal" fiesta? anyway, we had justcome from a dinner appointment but wanted to come and support. so weget there and one of the women offered us food. i politely said that ihad just eaten and just would enjoy the party. but ten minutes latershe handed me a plastic cup full of "frijoles." which happened to be alot more than just frijoles. the mystery meat of choice was pigstomach. there were huge chunks of it and you could see every singlelayer of the pig's body. like the muscle, the dents from veins, andbig chunks of fat. it was horrible. i ate a nibble of the meat, andthen just decided to dodge all the meat and go for the beans. luckilythere were some dogs around and dumping under the table wassuccessful.

my other story is not funny, but sad. there is a woman in thespanish branch here named sister elizondo. she is one of my favoritehuman beings alive, actually. she's about 28 and she is has been amember of the church for two years. she is the young women'spresident. she has two sweet little girls that are 4 and 2 years old.and an awesome awesome husband. i met her on my first day here and weclicked instantly. she is seriously the coolest person i've known.anyway, she's illegal, as most people here are. so they were alwayssuper careful to drive the speed limit and be safe and things. hehusband has a visa and is always crossing the border for work. well,immigration took him in this week and i guess they had caught him fromsome old criminal charge from when he didn't have his visa. so theyhave him in jail. it could be 15 days to three months until they findout what happens. the whole family runs the risk of being deportednow. plus sister elizondo doesn't work (since she's illegal.) so she'salone with the two girls who don't know where their dad is, with noincome, and no idea what is going to happen. i feel so bad for them.she is handling the situation very well. she's trying to stay positiveand knows there is just something she's supposed to learn from it andthat if she keeps doing what she knows is right, everything will workout. no matter what happens. she's getting a lawyer, and hopefullythey can work everything out. pretty sure they can't even hold him forsomething from the past even though now he has papers. but they aredoing it. so it's been a pretty loaded past couple of days. it getsfrustrating not being able to help people with that. and seeing goodpeople be treated like criminals for wanting live in our country.sigh. things will work out...anyway. that's about it for me. i hope this email finds everyonedoing well. until next
week.

xoxobrittany

Monday, May 24, 2010

A Dog's Life

Hello, Hello!
This week thankfully went by a lot faster than the last one. We had a thunderstorm here and it was awesome. I thought they were crazy in Virginia, but no. everything really is bigger in texas. it flooded a good two inches. we have a little garden outside of our apartment and it knocked our poor little baby plants over. we are trying to revive them. we were all reminded that hurricane season is coming. i wouldn't be surprised if we get a hurricane this year, considering all of the natural disasters that have been happening. but don't worry, they'll evacuate us and we'll be safe. hopefully they'll evacuate us to laredo and i can see some old peeps! :) We have to make an emergency bag this week with extra clothes, non-perishable foods and a first-aid kit and stuff so that if we have to evacuate we'll be ready. and we have to keep our gas tank at half full at all times so we can just get out. kind of exciting.
this week was a week of crazy dogs. i almost got eaten by a horse-dog, and also a dog almost ran right into our car. i had seen the horse-dog before. we were coming to a return appointment at a man's house and it was his neighbors dog. it is HUGE. and the last time i saw it, he was so friendly. he came right up to me with his tail wagging and let me pet him. this time was not that nice. we had this recent convert, jessica, with us, and we were going back to the house. i saw the dog like fifteen feet away from me so i started calling to him and coming close to him. jessica said something like, whoa, he looks mean. then i noticed that his fur was standing straight up on his back. he started growling then i realized this was a bad idea. he ran toward me and i turned my back to him and he head-butted me. the look on jessica's face was pure terror. he went back to wear he was and then we noticed that he had a piece of chicken. hah. he was super protective of it. he head-butted me because he thought i was coming for it. so, lesson learned: never trust giant horse dogs, or look for hidden pieces of chicken before talking to them.
the dogs here are nuts. there's this dog on a street of a family that we visit that we have named "Brutus." he's this wimpy little brown dog and he'll always come out of nowhere and be barking at us and chasing our ankles. we'll think we're safe and we've made it all the way down the street but then he comes up behind us and scares us. but this week we scared him. we some him coming in advance and hid behind the car and i jumped and yelled at him and made my best warrior pose. needless to say, brutus has not been chasing us at all the rest of this week. i kind of miss him.
anyway, besides crazy dog stories, this was a pretty mild week. we're about to go do some double dutch jump roping with the elders. i love p-days. i hope this email finds everybody well. until next week!
xoxo
sister morrill