howdy people!
i have been trying to incorporate more words like howdy and y'all into my vocabulary. even though i'm serving more in mexico, i want to claim the texas accent. this was a week of some pretty sweet miracles.
we had a zone conference and we studied a talk by elder holland called "the divine companionship." this month as a mission we're focusing on having the spirit more powerfully with us as we teach. sister martinez and i started the 'purification challenge' and we fasted about things that we can give up that are distracting us or poking at our own spirits. one of the things i decided (reluctantly) to give up is naps. not that naps are bad, but it was to the point where i'd be out working and instead of focusing on people i was thinking about when i'd get home to take my nap. so. with the exception of p-day, i am no longer a nap taking person. i don't know how i'm going to do it. but somehow i will survive and become a better and more focused missionary from it. i can survive from my 8 hours of sleep.
this week we started teaching a girl named jazzmin. yes, that is how it's spelled. she's the daughter of a less-active woman that we found on our first day here. we had no idea where to go or what to do or how to start being in a new area, so we just said a prayer that we would be guided to someone who needed us. we found this woman, maria. she had been baptized about 25 years ago but fell away from the church pretty soon after being baptized. she kept dodging our appointments for the first week we were here but then we finally convinced her to make some time for us. she completely opened up and was crying and remembered that when she got baptized, the elders gave her a blessing and promised her that she would be able to have children. she had been married twice before and the doctors told her that she would never be able to have children. so then, a couple years after her baptism, she got pregnant, at the age of 32. then she had another child at the age of 33. she said she had completely forgotten about that until we came. so she committed to start reading the scriptures every night and praying and meeting with us some more. so the next time we came over, her daughter jazzmin was there. she's 19. my companion and i both felt prompted to invite her to come and listen. we asked maria and she told us she didn't think she would want to, but we asked her anyway. she came and sat with us and the spirit was so strong. we taught her about jesus christ and faith and repentance and baptism. the spirit was so strong, i felt like my heart was going to leap out of my chest. i asked them if they felt the peace. they answered without a delay and said they had felt it the whole time we had been there. we testified of the holy ghost. jazzmin cried. she accepted a baptismal date. maria suddenly remembered all of these feelings that she had from when she was baptized and was baring testimony about how she knew this was god's church. it was such an amazing experience.
i'm so grateful to be a missionary and to see heavenly father do his work. i know that he loves each of his children and is constantly preparing them. we can help him in his work if we are just pure and listen for the spirit to guide us.
hope that you all are happy and healthy and well.
love,
hermana morrill
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Growing Branches
hello queridos!
this has been a fast week. it seems like it was just monday two days ago.
amber, our sixteen year old we found last week is still doing awesome. she prayed and got an answer that she should get baptized. she's been reading the book of mormon and is just so awesome. we love her. we're hoping to start teaching her whole family this week, since spring break will be over and people will have more regular schedules.
we also found a great lady named beatriz this week. i say lady, but in fact she is only 19. she just seems like a lady to me because she already has three children. it's pretty crazy. she made some very big mistakes in her past but she has completely been changing her life around. she wants so badly to repent and has already come a long way. we taught her about repentance and baptism and she said she wanted to get baptized on the 17th of april. when we saw her again last night she said she had already talked to her husband about it and told him that she is planning on getting baptized and coming to church with us and that she knows its right because we've been able to answer the questions that she's always had and nobody has been able to answer. she's great. we are meeting with "husband" tonight to teach both of them. "husband" is really boyfriend.. so they will have to get married before they can get baptized, but i just know that beatriz has the faith to do pretty much anything that the lord asks her to.
this week was the first week our english branch met. they just split it from the ward last week and so yesterday was all the organization and everything. there were probably about 30-35 people tops. the spirit was so strong there. there was a spirit of humility there as young and/or unexperienced people got called to leadership positions, and of unity as everybody was supporting each other and so willing to help out. i kept imagining what it would be like to be in the very first sacrament meeting of church history when joseph smith and a handful of people organized the church for the first time. i could really feel heavenly father's approval and the spirit was so thick you could swim in it. it was a really neat experience and i am excited to be a part of helping this little branch grow.
well.. i am about out of time. choose the right!
love
brittany
this has been a fast week. it seems like it was just monday two days ago.
amber, our sixteen year old we found last week is still doing awesome. she prayed and got an answer that she should get baptized. she's been reading the book of mormon and is just so awesome. we love her. we're hoping to start teaching her whole family this week, since spring break will be over and people will have more regular schedules.
we also found a great lady named beatriz this week. i say lady, but in fact she is only 19. she just seems like a lady to me because she already has three children. it's pretty crazy. she made some very big mistakes in her past but she has completely been changing her life around. she wants so badly to repent and has already come a long way. we taught her about repentance and baptism and she said she wanted to get baptized on the 17th of april. when we saw her again last night she said she had already talked to her husband about it and told him that she is planning on getting baptized and coming to church with us and that she knows its right because we've been able to answer the questions that she's always had and nobody has been able to answer. she's great. we are meeting with "husband" tonight to teach both of them. "husband" is really boyfriend.. so they will have to get married before they can get baptized, but i just know that beatriz has the faith to do pretty much anything that the lord asks her to.
this week was the first week our english branch met. they just split it from the ward last week and so yesterday was all the organization and everything. there were probably about 30-35 people tops. the spirit was so strong there. there was a spirit of humility there as young and/or unexperienced people got called to leadership positions, and of unity as everybody was supporting each other and so willing to help out. i kept imagining what it would be like to be in the very first sacrament meeting of church history when joseph smith and a handful of people organized the church for the first time. i could really feel heavenly father's approval and the spirit was so thick you could swim in it. it was a really neat experience and i am excited to be a part of helping this little branch grow.
well.. i am about out of time. choose the right!
love
brittany
Monday, March 14, 2011
Out of my comfort Zone....literally!
hello, world!
greetings from my new area in san benito, texas. it's awesome. we cover a little bit of a city called harlingen, and then pretty much the whole north of san benito, and a couple other little pueblitos named rio hondo and lozana. we serve in two branches with few members.. our spanish branch is just meeting in an office building in the "downtown" part of san benito. we've got a lot of work to do. san benito is beautiful and country-like. lots of roads without names and fields and dirt and palm trees and little neighborhoods that look so mexico-esque. it's very different from mcallen and mission, which are a lot like west jordan, just with more latinos. so far, the members have been so helpful. we went to the spanish branch this week for a wedding (an investigator is getting baptized, but had to get married first.) and we got to meet lots of the members and they are just the sweetest and most faithful people ever. a lot of them are new converts themselves... one of the converts in our area just got baptized a month ago and is already in the young women's presidency. it's pretty amazing because since people get responsibilities so fast, they strengthen their faith and stay active and everybody helps each other. it's pretty amazing.
we've been feeling a little overwhelmed... our area is about three times as big as my last area was (and my last area was pretty darn big) and we don't really have a clue where we're going. but somebody said in church this week that "faith doesn't grow in comfort zones" so i know that this experience will only build my faith. i was definitely in my own little comfort zone their in mission for so long.
we did find a cool girl yesterday named Amber.. she's sixteen. we set a baptismal date with her for the 17th of april. she's really awesome. so we are slowly building up the area. hopefully we'll see some good things happening.
anyway... not much else to update on. definitely looking forward to my p-day nap right now. hope you're all doing swell.
love,
me
greetings from my new area in san benito, texas. it's awesome. we cover a little bit of a city called harlingen, and then pretty much the whole north of san benito, and a couple other little pueblitos named rio hondo and lozana. we serve in two branches with few members.. our spanish branch is just meeting in an office building in the "downtown" part of san benito. we've got a lot of work to do. san benito is beautiful and country-like. lots of roads without names and fields and dirt and palm trees and little neighborhoods that look so mexico-esque. it's very different from mcallen and mission, which are a lot like west jordan, just with more latinos. so far, the members have been so helpful. we went to the spanish branch this week for a wedding (an investigator is getting baptized, but had to get married first.) and we got to meet lots of the members and they are just the sweetest and most faithful people ever. a lot of them are new converts themselves... one of the converts in our area just got baptized a month ago and is already in the young women's presidency. it's pretty amazing because since people get responsibilities so fast, they strengthen their faith and stay active and everybody helps each other. it's pretty amazing.
we've been feeling a little overwhelmed... our area is about three times as big as my last area was (and my last area was pretty darn big) and we don't really have a clue where we're going. but somebody said in church this week that "faith doesn't grow in comfort zones" so i know that this experience will only build my faith. i was definitely in my own little comfort zone their in mission for so long.
we did find a cool girl yesterday named Amber.. she's sixteen. we set a baptismal date with her for the 17th of april. she's really awesome. so we are slowly building up the area. hopefully we'll see some good things happening.
anyway... not much else to update on. definitely looking forward to my p-day nap right now. hope you're all doing swell.
love,
me
Monday, March 7, 2011
hello, everybody!
this has been a week of exciting news.
1) Kim is having her baby right now as we speak! They don't know if it's a boy or a girl... it was going to be a surprise. So we'll find out today. YAY! Also we found out their dog is pregnant. (i feel like i have to live through their family. ha.)
2) We found out where sister martinez is going... San Benito. Surprise of the week: I'm going with her! We leave on friday. I am excited but also sad. i've been in this area for seven months... i've kind of become attached. i also don't like it because it makes the end of my mission seem closer. i'm pretty sure this will be my last area.. i'll have two and a half transfers left. blech. we get to live in a members home though... we'll be living a life of luxury.
3) Mariana got baptized! She is still just the sweetest woman that I know. She was so happy.
hmm. i think that's it. it seemed like there was so much more. this week we got to go to a thing called border fest. janet jackson came and performed. as well as salina gomez. apparently it's a big deal. we had a booth set up and got to hand out cards and candy and talk to people about the church. apparently there were like 800,000 people that went or some riduculous number. so that was fun and different.
i'm sad to be leaving all of the amazing people that we are teaching. the torres family and briana should be getting baptized any week now. but i feel good about going to san benito with sister martinez. she is awesome. plus she is straight from mexico so i will get to finish off the mission speaking lots of espanol. well, that's it for me this week. hope you're all fine and dandy.
love,
sister morrill
this has been a week of exciting news.
1) Kim is having her baby right now as we speak! They don't know if it's a boy or a girl... it was going to be a surprise. So we'll find out today. YAY! Also we found out their dog is pregnant. (i feel like i have to live through their family. ha.)
2) We found out where sister martinez is going... San Benito. Surprise of the week: I'm going with her! We leave on friday. I am excited but also sad. i've been in this area for seven months... i've kind of become attached. i also don't like it because it makes the end of my mission seem closer. i'm pretty sure this will be my last area.. i'll have two and a half transfers left. blech. we get to live in a members home though... we'll be living a life of luxury.
3) Mariana got baptized! She is still just the sweetest woman that I know. She was so happy.
hmm. i think that's it. it seemed like there was so much more. this week we got to go to a thing called border fest. janet jackson came and performed. as well as salina gomez. apparently it's a big deal. we had a booth set up and got to hand out cards and candy and talk to people about the church. apparently there were like 800,000 people that went or some riduculous number. so that was fun and different.
i'm sad to be leaving all of the amazing people that we are teaching. the torres family and briana should be getting baptized any week now. but i feel good about going to san benito with sister martinez. she is awesome. plus she is straight from mexico so i will get to finish off the mission speaking lots of espanol. well, that's it for me this week. hope you're all fine and dandy.
love,
sister morrill
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