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
Monday, May 24, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Got Milk?
hello everybody!
this week was the longest week known to man-kind. it was so slow. so so slow. first of all, all of the investigators we had when i came in are just dropping off the map. i think i brought bad luck with me here. apparently they had all these awesome people coming to church and getting ready to be baptized.. and then i come in and i've only been able to meet one of them. they're not home and they're all going through sad crazy life things like miscarriages and children dying and families being unsupportive and blah blah blah. so we've been sad we can't help anyone.
second: our car broke down for a few days so we had to ride bikes. it's not bad when you choose to ride bikes. but when you're all of the sudden forced to ride bikes and your area spans about 40 miles so you can't reach everyone in time or make your appointments, it's kind of stinky. lots of things fell through and we sweated a lot.
i guess it's really just those two things. i don't know why. it was just a long week. spirits are still high though. we find lots of things to laugh at and things to get our minds off of the heat.
there's a big grapefruit factory here in mission. anytime you're within a 15 mile radius of it, it smells soooo nice. that's definitely a plus of this area. this week, we were walking down the street and saw a soda can rolling down the road. my companion said, "oh look, a mexican tumbleweed!" ha. no offense to any mexicans... but man they love their sodas. and they love throwing them in the road around here..
oh we went to one of our many food appointments this week and it's this sweet old woman who lives alone. she made us some really delicious food. and some cookies for dessert. everything was great until she pulled out the mystery milk to wash it down. she said she made it just for us. the first thing that turned me off to it was the large amount of foam on top. the second thing that turned me off to it was that it smelled really salty. i poured a little in my glass and she got offended. she said to fill my glass because she made it just for us. gulp. my companion had a look of shear terror because i guess at a previous dinner appointment with this woman she had fed them milk that was straight from the cow. not pasteurized or anything. thick and warm. maybe that's normal to my grandpa and my aunts/uncles/dad who were raised on a dairy farm. i don't really know the process of milking cows. but anyway, the milk was horrible and not refreshing. when we left her house we were just busting up laughing. we still don't know what it was from. we didn't dare ask.
anyway.. i think that's about all the adventure we had this week. i hope all is well with everyone. don't be afraid to write a letter every now and then...
xoxo
brittany
this week was the longest week known to man-kind. it was so slow. so so slow. first of all, all of the investigators we had when i came in are just dropping off the map. i think i brought bad luck with me here. apparently they had all these awesome people coming to church and getting ready to be baptized.. and then i come in and i've only been able to meet one of them. they're not home and they're all going through sad crazy life things like miscarriages and children dying and families being unsupportive and blah blah blah. so we've been sad we can't help anyone.
second: our car broke down for a few days so we had to ride bikes. it's not bad when you choose to ride bikes. but when you're all of the sudden forced to ride bikes and your area spans about 40 miles so you can't reach everyone in time or make your appointments, it's kind of stinky. lots of things fell through and we sweated a lot.
i guess it's really just those two things. i don't know why. it was just a long week. spirits are still high though. we find lots of things to laugh at and things to get our minds off of the heat.
there's a big grapefruit factory here in mission. anytime you're within a 15 mile radius of it, it smells soooo nice. that's definitely a plus of this area. this week, we were walking down the street and saw a soda can rolling down the road. my companion said, "oh look, a mexican tumbleweed!" ha. no offense to any mexicans... but man they love their sodas. and they love throwing them in the road around here..
oh we went to one of our many food appointments this week and it's this sweet old woman who lives alone. she made us some really delicious food. and some cookies for dessert. everything was great until she pulled out the mystery milk to wash it down. she said she made it just for us. the first thing that turned me off to it was the large amount of foam on top. the second thing that turned me off to it was that it smelled really salty. i poured a little in my glass and she got offended. she said to fill my glass because she made it just for us. gulp. my companion had a look of shear terror because i guess at a previous dinner appointment with this woman she had fed them milk that was straight from the cow. not pasteurized or anything. thick and warm. maybe that's normal to my grandpa and my aunts/uncles/dad who were raised on a dairy farm. i don't really know the process of milking cows. but anyway, the milk was horrible and not refreshing. when we left her house we were just busting up laughing. we still don't know what it was from. we didn't dare ask.
anyway.. i think that's about all the adventure we had this week. i hope all is well with everyone. don't be afraid to write a letter every now and then...
xoxo
brittany
Monday, May 10, 2010
A misson to Mission
hello from mission texas!
it is hot, muggy, and windy here. but... i have now lived in my apartment for 6 days and have YET to see a roach. it is an upgrade for sure. although there are some ants...
things are nice here. my area is about 5 times bigger than it was in laredo so there is lots of ground to cover. and the members here are awesome. we have a food appointment every day this week, and we even had to tell some people no and schedule them for next week. my companion said that sometimes they would get like 4 in one day before because her old companion could never say no. ha. crazy. my companion is great. her name is sister call and she is from washington state. we have fun together. we have very similar personalities and she knows lots of oldies music so we sing a lot together. she's also very organized, which is the complete opposite of me, so she's very good at scheduling our time and we get a lot done. i love it.
we're teaching some pretty cool people here. lots of spanish. a lot more than in laredo actually, and we were speaking it lots up there too. everybody here speaks it though and our area is on the border. right at the international bridge. it's pretty cool. the fence is super small from the border and i feel like people can cross it super easily. and they do. hmm... what else. it's still south texas, it's still super hot, there's still lots of delicious mexican food to eat, and lots of orange trees. i will have more next week hopefully, when i get to know the people better.
xoxo
brittany
it is hot, muggy, and windy here. but... i have now lived in my apartment for 6 days and have YET to see a roach. it is an upgrade for sure. although there are some ants...
things are nice here. my area is about 5 times bigger than it was in laredo so there is lots of ground to cover. and the members here are awesome. we have a food appointment every day this week, and we even had to tell some people no and schedule them for next week. my companion said that sometimes they would get like 4 in one day before because her old companion could never say no. ha. crazy. my companion is great. her name is sister call and she is from washington state. we have fun together. we have very similar personalities and she knows lots of oldies music so we sing a lot together. she's also very organized, which is the complete opposite of me, so she's very good at scheduling our time and we get a lot done. i love it.
we're teaching some pretty cool people here. lots of spanish. a lot more than in laredo actually, and we were speaking it lots up there too. everybody here speaks it though and our area is on the border. right at the international bridge. it's pretty cool. the fence is super small from the border and i feel like people can cross it super easily. and they do. hmm... what else. it's still south texas, it's still super hot, there's still lots of delicious mexican food to eat, and lots of orange trees. i will have more next week hopefully, when i get to know the people better.
xoxo
brittany
Monday, May 3, 2010
Tasty snacks.....
hello, world!
this seems like it has been the longest week of my mission life so far. it's because we were awaiting transfers. and sadly, i am being transferred. goo. i will be going to a place called mission, texas. i know nothing about it except that it's more humid than it is here in laredo. so that will suck. sister kellett and i are enraged. but it's okay because we decided we will be sealed in the eternal friendship room in the temple. so a few transfers without is nothing. :) i'm mostly sad that i won't be seeing frank and jesus' baptism in two weeks. they are so awesome. jesus this week told us he is going to read the whole book of mormon before the end of may. we didn't even ask him to, he just wants to! he's so awesome. and frank bore his testimony in testimony meeting this sunday. i love those kids. it's amazing how the lord really has prepared people out there.
in other news: sister kellett ate a cockroach this morning. she had a mug full of chocolate frosting (we had been eating crepes with choc. frosting for breakfast.. that was the first mistake..) and with what was left in the mug she put in the microwave and decided to drink it. huge mistake. somewhere in the events of this morning a roach climbed into her mug. and she did not discover until it was too late. she felt something squirming in her mouth and she spit it out and voila. it was a dead roachie. i HATE the roaches. our whole apartment complex has problems with them. the exterminator has come three times now and i feel like the problem just gets worse. i guess that will be nice about moving out...
i'm not quite sure about my new address yet so if anyone is sending me anything you can just send it to the mission office.
texas mcallen mission
200 w. la vista ave.
mcallen, texas 78501
oh. this is funny. have i told you about our investigator, sonia? she's awesome. an older woman in her sixties. she cried when we first met her.. anyway, she had a baptismal date. she came to church last week. she was awesome. then, the next tuesday we went to her house for our appointment and some new lady answered the door. we asked her where sonia was. she said,
no estoy segura. ella iba a casar, pero nos dijo que iba a regresar ayer.
in other words, sonia eloped. ELOPED. the sweet little sixty year old lady. ha. so we're not really sure what's going to happen there. we haven't been able to get a hold of her since then.
anyway... we're having an icecream party tonight with some of the members here and some of our recent converts. to say goodbye to sweet yolanda who is moving to dallas, and also to me now. boo. anyway. that's all i've got for now. i hope everyone is doing well. until next week.
xoxo
brittany
this seems like it has been the longest week of my mission life so far. it's because we were awaiting transfers. and sadly, i am being transferred. goo. i will be going to a place called mission, texas. i know nothing about it except that it's more humid than it is here in laredo. so that will suck. sister kellett and i are enraged. but it's okay because we decided we will be sealed in the eternal friendship room in the temple. so a few transfers without is nothing. :) i'm mostly sad that i won't be seeing frank and jesus' baptism in two weeks. they are so awesome. jesus this week told us he is going to read the whole book of mormon before the end of may. we didn't even ask him to, he just wants to! he's so awesome. and frank bore his testimony in testimony meeting this sunday. i love those kids. it's amazing how the lord really has prepared people out there.
in other news: sister kellett ate a cockroach this morning. she had a mug full of chocolate frosting (we had been eating crepes with choc. frosting for breakfast.. that was the first mistake..) and with what was left in the mug she put in the microwave and decided to drink it. huge mistake. somewhere in the events of this morning a roach climbed into her mug. and she did not discover until it was too late. she felt something squirming in her mouth and she spit it out and voila. it was a dead roachie. i HATE the roaches. our whole apartment complex has problems with them. the exterminator has come three times now and i feel like the problem just gets worse. i guess that will be nice about moving out...
i'm not quite sure about my new address yet so if anyone is sending me anything you can just send it to the mission office.
texas mcallen mission
200 w. la vista ave.
mcallen, texas 78501
oh. this is funny. have i told you about our investigator, sonia? she's awesome. an older woman in her sixties. she cried when we first met her.. anyway, she had a baptismal date. she came to church last week. she was awesome. then, the next tuesday we went to her house for our appointment and some new lady answered the door. we asked her where sonia was. she said,
no estoy segura. ella iba a casar, pero nos dijo que iba a regresar ayer.
in other words, sonia eloped. ELOPED. the sweet little sixty year old lady. ha. so we're not really sure what's going to happen there. we haven't been able to get a hold of her since then.
anyway... we're having an icecream party tonight with some of the members here and some of our recent converts. to say goodbye to sweet yolanda who is moving to dallas, and also to me now. boo. anyway. that's all i've got for now. i hope everyone is doing well. until next week.
xoxo
brittany
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Hot Days...Hot Wings...
hello people!
it was a hot one here in south texas. we had our first two days of 100 degrees this week. it just gets hotter and hotter. we were out knocking doors at like 7:30 the other night and it was 96. pretty crazy. all in all it's not too bad though. i'd still rather suffer the heat than scrape ice off of cars and bear an 8 month winter in utah. we'll see if i'm still singing that tune after 7 months of 100 degrees though...
this week we (investigator frank and his family, member family Gibsons, me and sis. kellett) went to a place called buffalo wild wings. perhaps you have heard of it. they offer this challenge where if you can eat 12 of their most spicy wings in under six minutes you get your picture on this wall of fame and a t-shirt. so frank and the gibson boy who is 16 wanted to try it and we all went along for a laugh. i have never seen two sixteen year old boys cry in my life... let alone wimper like little babies. but it happened. i have it on video. tears were streaming and they were sobbing and saying things like.. "i never should have done this!!" ha. and to make it worse, neither of them completed the challenge. frank had one left. the manager of the restaurant yelled after to everyone in the place, "everyone.. i have an announcement, frank and jared just miserably failed the wild wing challenge!" ha. so funny.
sister kellett and i taught like 13 lessons to less active members this week. usually people only do like 4 or 5 max in a week here... we did 13. but the fruits of our labors paid off when 7 of them came to church. some of them we had never even seen at church before, it had been so long. it was awesome. and goes to show that some people just need a little encouragement and someone to show they love them.
that's about all i have for this week. except if you want some crazy news, google the stuff that is happening in nuevo laredo right now. that's the mexico city that we border. 10 minutes from where i live. it's pretty dangerous over there. i never really knew because we don't watch the news... anyway... i'm being careful.
transfers are next week. i've already been in the field for two transfers. crazy. hasta next week...
xoxo
brittany
it was a hot one here in south texas. we had our first two days of 100 degrees this week. it just gets hotter and hotter. we were out knocking doors at like 7:30 the other night and it was 96. pretty crazy. all in all it's not too bad though. i'd still rather suffer the heat than scrape ice off of cars and bear an 8 month winter in utah. we'll see if i'm still singing that tune after 7 months of 100 degrees though...
this week we (investigator frank and his family, member family Gibsons, me and sis. kellett) went to a place called buffalo wild wings. perhaps you have heard of it. they offer this challenge where if you can eat 12 of their most spicy wings in under six minutes you get your picture on this wall of fame and a t-shirt. so frank and the gibson boy who is 16 wanted to try it and we all went along for a laugh. i have never seen two sixteen year old boys cry in my life... let alone wimper like little babies. but it happened. i have it on video. tears were streaming and they were sobbing and saying things like.. "i never should have done this!!" ha. and to make it worse, neither of them completed the challenge. frank had one left. the manager of the restaurant yelled after to everyone in the place, "everyone.. i have an announcement, frank and jared just miserably failed the wild wing challenge!" ha. so funny.
sister kellett and i taught like 13 lessons to less active members this week. usually people only do like 4 or 5 max in a week here... we did 13. but the fruits of our labors paid off when 7 of them came to church. some of them we had never even seen at church before, it had been so long. it was awesome. and goes to show that some people just need a little encouragement and someone to show they love them.
that's about all i have for this week. except if you want some crazy news, google the stuff that is happening in nuevo laredo right now. that's the mexico city that we border. 10 minutes from where i live. it's pretty dangerous over there. i never really knew because we don't watch the news... anyway... i'm being careful.
transfers are next week. i've already been in the field for two transfers. crazy. hasta next week...
xoxo
brittany
Monday, April 19, 2010
Dogs on the loose!
hello people!
it seems like this week has been one month. a shload of things happened.
funny story #1)
one day sister kellett and i were out knocking doors. we usually do opposite sides of the street or neighbors or something so we can each be talking to somebody. so i went up to this house and sister kellett was a few houses down. this house had a little gate to the entrance, as many houses here do. so i opened it. as i opened it, these three dogs came running from the front door which was open a little crack. so i tried to hurry and get in and then shut the gate, but one of the dogs slipped out to freedom. i knocked on the door. "what do you want!?" somebody yelled. and i said, i'm sorry, i accidentally just let one of your dogs out. i then hear stomping gradually coming my way and a woman yelling "what are you stupid!!?? why did you open the gate? why are you in my yard!? get out of my house! why did you open the gate?!!" she came to the door and said, "well are you going to help me find the dog?" and i said of course i will! i was still sounding cheery becuase i was mostly trying to hold back the laughter at how ridiculous she was being. she laughed and said "yeah, right." when i said i would help her find the dog. like it was something so ludacrous to think i would help her solve the problem that i caused. anyway.. then her husband and daughter pull up in the car in the drive way as we are walking down and the mom says "this girl just let bruiser out." then. i have never seen such a death glare cast as i did from this tall lanky teenage girl. she let out this groan and took huge strides to go get the dog. sister kellett came out from the porch of the house she was at to see what all the commotion was and the dog was right by her. so she starts calling the dog and the lady yells "she's not going to come to you!" super pissed off. so we asked if we could help them and they just scoffed and sighed and rolled their eyes. throwing a tantrum. and they told us not to help. so we left. it was the funniest and most awkward thing ever. the dog didn't even run away it was like two houses away and wouldn't come when they called him, probably because he knew even better than we did that his owners were crazy. it was awesome.
other things that happened:
-i got attacked by red ants and still have bites all over my feet and ankles to prove it. i made a vow to kill every red ant i see now.
-sister kellett and i learned how to make soy milk, tofu, and okara. we are trying it today.
-alfredo's baptism was amazing
-frank and his whole family came to alfredo's baptism and frank came up to me after and said, "i want to get baptized. i want to do it god's way." how cute is he? we love him. he'll probably get baptized in a couple weeks. with his family.
-our sweet sweet investigator sonia came to church this week. i will have to tell you the story of how we met her another time. because i am out of time.
hope you are all having a swell week. until next time.
love,
britt
it seems like this week has been one month. a shload of things happened.
funny story #1)
one day sister kellett and i were out knocking doors. we usually do opposite sides of the street or neighbors or something so we can each be talking to somebody. so i went up to this house and sister kellett was a few houses down. this house had a little gate to the entrance, as many houses here do. so i opened it. as i opened it, these three dogs came running from the front door which was open a little crack. so i tried to hurry and get in and then shut the gate, but one of the dogs slipped out to freedom. i knocked on the door. "what do you want!?" somebody yelled. and i said, i'm sorry, i accidentally just let one of your dogs out. i then hear stomping gradually coming my way and a woman yelling "what are you stupid!!?? why did you open the gate? why are you in my yard!? get out of my house! why did you open the gate?!!" she came to the door and said, "well are you going to help me find the dog?" and i said of course i will! i was still sounding cheery becuase i was mostly trying to hold back the laughter at how ridiculous she was being. she laughed and said "yeah, right." when i said i would help her find the dog. like it was something so ludacrous to think i would help her solve the problem that i caused. anyway.. then her husband and daughter pull up in the car in the drive way as we are walking down and the mom says "this girl just let bruiser out." then. i have never seen such a death glare cast as i did from this tall lanky teenage girl. she let out this groan and took huge strides to go get the dog. sister kellett came out from the porch of the house she was at to see what all the commotion was and the dog was right by her. so she starts calling the dog and the lady yells "she's not going to come to you!" super pissed off. so we asked if we could help them and they just scoffed and sighed and rolled their eyes. throwing a tantrum. and they told us not to help. so we left. it was the funniest and most awkward thing ever. the dog didn't even run away it was like two houses away and wouldn't come when they called him, probably because he knew even better than we did that his owners were crazy. it was awesome.
other things that happened:
-i got attacked by red ants and still have bites all over my feet and ankles to prove it. i made a vow to kill every red ant i see now.
-sister kellett and i learned how to make soy milk, tofu, and okara. we are trying it today.
-alfredo's baptism was amazing
-frank and his whole family came to alfredo's baptism and frank came up to me after and said, "i want to get baptized. i want to do it god's way." how cute is he? we love him. he'll probably get baptized in a couple weeks. with his family.
-our sweet sweet investigator sonia came to church this week. i will have to tell you the story of how we met her another time. because i am out of time.
hope you are all having a swell week. until next time.
love,
britt
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