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 26, 2010
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
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
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
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
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