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, March 29, 2010

Strange smoothies....

Hello people!
It has been a good week here in Laredo. Transfers happened.. we got a new roommate. Somebody had a crush on one of the sisters we lived with so she had to be emergency transferred. We love the new sister though.. she's super funny. Sister Bustillos. She's from California and her life is pretty much like a mormon version of "The Hills." she is swell. also, me and my companion as well as the other two sisters were put on a workout plan/diet by one of the elders in our zone.. he used to be a personal trainer and played football for utah state. anyway, he became our district leader now, so when he calls to get our goals and numbers we talk about our workout plan as well. ha. it's fun. we love our little district. we work hard.
let's see... speaking of working out and eating.. i love the following two foods: any fruit with chili powder, and aloe vera smoothies. sister kellet and i put a whole aloe leaf in the blender with water, ice, a tsp. of sugar, and a cucumber. it is the most delicious and fresh thing ever. and it's super healthy for your apparently. this hippie couple from russia told us about it. so we have one every night. luckily aloe, "savila" grows EVERYWHERE here so we just carry a knife with us and when we see it in fields we cut off a leaf. it's great.
in other news, jehovah's witnesses are ruining our lives. they have stolen two investigators from us. we were teaching this awesome old lady named norma. and i guess she had been studying with the JWs like three times a week as well as with us a few times a week. and then they saw that we left her a book of mormon and told her all these crazy not true things about it and then she freaked out and called us and said she is super busy and won't have any time to see us until at least two months from now. goo. and then also, our dear sweet miriam who was going to be getting baptized next week all of the sudden dropped off the face of the planet. and her dad is jehovah's witness. and she had just been visiting him two weeks ago. so we feel like he got to her too. but we have no confirmation of that. sigh. its a little frustrating because when we see people have been talking to JWs we don't say anything about it or try to tear down their religion or force anything on the people. we always just say to pray about things. always pray about new information you recieve and ask for guidance. we always tell them we don't want them to take our word for it, but to pray and know for themselves. but i think people's influence is sadly a lot stronger than god's influence to some people. or at least it's easier to just trust what some crazy person says, rather than studying and praying about something. but whatever. hopefully they will come around.
we're looking forward to general conference and easter this weekend. easter especially... i think people have a little bit softer of hearts on easter and christmas when it comes to talking to strangers about jesus christ. at least when people realize what easter is actually about. we taught this family the other night about easter and none of them honestly had any clue that easter was about something more than the easter bunny and egg hunts. gotta love commercialized holidays.
well, i think that's about it for me this week. hope all is well on the homefront. don't forget about your favorite sista over here in the heat of south texas.
xoxo
brittany

Monday, March 22, 2010

A day in the life...

Greetings everyone!
it has been a beautiful week here in Laredo. i have officially survived my first transfer. we'll be getting transfer calls today sometime and then people leave tomorrow. it went by super fast. and everyone says that each one goes by faster and faster. i don't want that! i feel like this week sister kellett and i had a break through. we have kind of been in a lull.. probably too much fun-having and not enough work-doing. but we hadn't felt like we were progressing much.. like the people we had been teaching were turning out to be super flaky and we were just having bad luck around the board. but we've really been working on setting goals and taking each lesson more seriously and trying to really focus them on christ and being more bold with people. not sugar coating anything. we had a great week. first, we found sonia. she's an older woman from matamoros, mexico. she's living here in laredo with her niece and cleans her house for her. i found her knocking doors (we split up and do opposite sides of the streets so we can get more done) and it was such a neat experience. we did a little bit of small talk and i testified to her about jesus christ and how following him gives us the most peace in our lives. then she starting crying and said she's been missing a lot peace in her life and that she knew what i was saying was true. i set up an appointment to come back and see her the next day. when we went over she told us that after i had left the day before she felt the happiest she has felt in a long time. she suffers from depression lately, but she said the whole day she was smiling and happy and didn't feel sad. and that she could feel it again while we were over. we went over again this week and brought a member who is AMAZING and it is helping sweet sonia a lot. she has had a lot of crazy things happen to her in her life. her daughter was kidnapped and involved in some sort of underground sex slave trade. and her son does a lot of drugs. sad things. but even in just the three times we've been over to see her i have seen her countenance change. she's much happier and finding more peace in her life.
we also set a baptismal date with an "eternigator." (eternal investigator, for those who don't know.) his wife is a member and had been inactive for a long time. now she is active and alfredo-- the husband-- has been thinking about joining the church too. he's been thinking about it for months and months and months and dragging his feet but we finally got through to him and he says he feels really good about his decision. that he's never felt so right about something.
unfortunately since we've had so many good things happen, we don't really have any crazy people stories. the things you have to sacrifice for a little success...
OH! just kidding i have one kind of funny story. one kid that was probably like 17 years old answered the door just about naked and got sooo embarrassed. ha. he thought we were someone else. he went in to put clothes on and came back out and we all laughed about it. then we had a good chat and are actually going back to visit him tonight. so i'd say it turned out okay.
well that's about it for today. que le vaya bien!
xoxo
brittany

Monday, March 15, 2010

Creepy Old Guy?

buenos dias!

things are going pretty well here in the texas mcallen mission. the weather has been beautiful and we are enjoying it while it lasts.. next month is usually when it starts to get to the hundred degrees and is unbearable. i will probably take less pictures because i'll be sweating the entire summer. so. sorry.
we had kind of a lull with meeting crazy people this week. but we did meet one. his name was dr. mata. in fact, that's the first thing he said to us, "i'm a doctor. dr. mata." he was at least 70 years old. he could barely walk. he hobbled. and he lived in a huge house. there's one neighborhood in our area that is filled with wealthy white people who pay all the mexicans 4$ an hour to clean their houses. that's where we were when we found him. so he takes us inside and shows us all of his fancy things. hobbling around. we thought his maid was home, but she wasn't. big no-no. we aren't supposed to be in men's homes when they are alone. but we found out too late. so at first we just went with it.. he was a sweet old man.. we figured it was an exception. but he soon started to be super creepy. he asked us if we've ever been to the caribbean or if we wanted to go. so we said, of course we want to go some day. who doesn't? and he said, "well i'm planning on going in two months. will you girls go with me?" of course we will not! we tried to explain to him that we were missionaries, we don't really get time off, we try to focus on the missionary work... aside from the fact that you were alive during the great depression... but he was very persistent and told us he would call the mission president and ask permission. ha. then he continued to show us more things around his house. trying to win us over with his art taste and money. we tried teaching him, but he just kept bringing it back to how much money he had. and his private gynecology practice that he had. sick. and how he was the state diplomat. and how his girlfriend just broke up with him. and all these weird things. so we finally to decided to get the heck out of there. and he asked for our phone number and we gave him a fake and told him we'd have elders come back and visit him if he was interested in the gospel. he was a creeper for sure. but i wasn't too scared because he was like 90 years old and we could have taken him.
and that, kids, is why there are rules for missionaries. so we don't go island hopping with 90 year old men and get taken advantage of. bleh.
we meet lots of great people too though. most people in the world are doing the best they can with what they've got and are very kind and want to make changes in their lives and do better. i love those people. i love the crazy people too though. and i think they make for better stories.
hope everyone is doing well! don't forget about your favorite sister missionary in the south. love you all.
xoxo
brittany

Monday, March 8, 2010

Need a good laugh?

hello family!

i have some funny stories from this week. funny story number one: this cute little older mexican lady we were teaching asked me if i was amish. omish. how do you spell that? either way it was funny. there was this sister in our area before me and sister kellett was here who was kind of crazy.. like dressed really weird and was just a little out there.. and she's given us a bad rep. ha. people always ask us weird things and it's because they saw her around and just assume we're all like that. so this lady had been taught by that sister, and i guess the whole time she thought she was amish. so she asked me if i was amish too. sad.
second funny story: we go and visit this recent convert about once a week. she's pretty old and she has typhoid fever, as well as every other disease or sickness imaginable but we are pretty sure she's a hypochondriac. one time we went over and she was like, my arthritis hurts, i'm going to take some morphine. ha. she gets all of her perscription drugs from mexico illegally. she's nuts. one time she called us and she was really sick and i said "is there anything we can do for you? anything you need right now?" and she said, "yes. a bullet." ha. ok. so this week she calls us and sounded like death. she said she had been really really sick for two weeks now. which was false because we had just visited her 5 days ago and she was fine. but anyway. she said she really needed a back rub. so i was like.. um, ok we'll come over. so we went over and she just laid on the couch and we talked with her and her daughter. and sister kellett said "so-and-so, do you want a backrub?" because i was not about to offer. so i being the good companion that i am, fed my companion to the wolves and made her do it. so-and-so said, yes. let me just get out of these clothes. she then lifted up her shirt and had poor sister kellett rub her bare old lady back. so we all just kept talking.. i was talking with the daughter. and i guess i missed it, but after so-and-so was done having her back rubbed, she just rolled over on her back and her old lady bosoms were hanging out and took sister kellett by surprise. she was flashed. by a hypochondriac on morphine. thank heavens i missed the whole thing because i was distracted talking to the daughter. ha. yay for crazy things.
but the good thing is, we've been teaching this 24 year old girl named miriam who is just the love of my life. so cute and sweet and she accepted a baptismal date and came to church and made friends and everything. she is amazing. and her little sister is probably going to be baptised as well. they are adorable. and i love them. that is all.
well. that's about all i have for the week. ciao.
xoxo
brittany

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Monday, March 1, 2010

The craziness continues!

Hello peeps.

This was a crazy week for me full of firsts. first:
-baptism
-sunburn
-road trip to mcallen
-time holding a rooster.

what? i held a rooster. in my arms. this lady we are teaching is the epitome of a crazy cat lady. except besides six cats, she has three dogs (four if you count the stuffed dead one in her living room), a parrot, and a rooster. all living in her home with her. i wanted to take a picture with the rooster and she straight picked it up and put it into my arms. the picture is way funny. i have pure fear in my eyes. i shall send it home some time. that lady's name is maria and she's nuts. she was telling us when she was younger she used to belong to one of those churches that torture themselves. like whip themselves and stuff. ah. and she lets her pets just roam all over. and never bathes them. her house smells like cat pee. and the dog was up on the table eating cookies from this cookie bin and then five minutes later she offered us cookies from the same cookie bin. ha. crazy. she has a jungle in her backyard, no joke. and the inside of her house is stacked from floor to ceiling with weird crazy knick knacks. you can hardly move. she showed us her bathroom and there are heaps of dirty clothes, you can't even get to the toilet. ha. i love her.
our baptism was great! little ester castano. she is 9 years old. her mom just got baptized last month. they are african and had been living in spain and now live in laredo. yolanda just got divorced. her husband was like one of those crazy africans who are into voodoo and stuff. yolanda had been talking to missionaries for five years but her husband wouldn't let her get baptized. he thought she had evil spirits in her and had people come and try to exorcisms on her. so weird. she's like the cutest most normal person ever. anyway. ester is awesome. such a smart girl. there's another little boy who is 5 whose name is haytor (say it like eye-tor) and he's adorable. he never speaks. he has yet to say a word to us. but he's so sweet and runs up and gives us hugs and loves playing with us. we love their family. yolanda can't get a job because she was under her husband's work visa.. so they are struggling pretty bad financially. if anybody needs extra people to pray for, feel free.
sister kellett and i got to road trip three hours to mcallen on friday for some training for new people and their trainers. it was fun to see all the cute little elders i came out with and eat some lunch with them and stuff. good times.
well, i must be going. love you all, happy march 1st!
xoxo
brittany