Settling In and Guaymas Strikes Back

Hey everybody! One more week in December, and it's getting closer and closer to Christmas! I'm so excited! People are setting up their decorations here and it's actually getting cold here! I never thought I could get so cold in a place like Mexico! But it's alright, the mission is a learning experience I guess hahaha.

Well first of all, this is our first week in the transfer and our first week in a new area. We're still trying to know all the streets and where the members live, we're starting with all the members and we're contacting people along the way and trying to find the investigators in our area book. What we're doing is called "opening an area" because both missionaries of this companionship are new to this area. It's interesting, a bit difficult but really interesting! Yeah....

We're also going back and forth between our old area and our new one, because they're part of the same ward, and the mission president said that we can still work with some of our old investigators in our last area, Villa Bonita, that were progressing well. So sometimes we're in Villa Bonita, and sometimes we're here in Centro. It's something that is going to take time to get used to haha.

This last saturday and sunday we had the chance to attend a cultural event and the dedication of the Mexico Tijuana temple! On saturday, an organization of people set up a special event to show the culture of that part of Mexico, and how the church has grown in Tijuana. It was an awesome presentation, although I didn't understand the majority of it. I'm pretty sure it'll be on the church website, so you can go see it for yourselves! 

On sunday, we attended the temple dedication, well, we saw the dedication in our chapel. I can't really speak much of the actual service, but it was really nice and really cool to see a new temple being dedicated to the Lord. President Uchtdorf dedicated the temple and some people gave talks and it was really cool :)

Today was a special day for us, because we went back to Guaymas! Which is why I'm writing this email a bit later than normal! We went back to receive our visas, the first time we just went to do the paperwork and it requires a bit of time to make a new card and whatever. So this time we went to the consolate building and we signed more paper to say that everything was OK, and yeah! We ate lunch afterwards and we got back on the bus and headed back to Obregon. It was fun to see a bunch of my missionary friends again!

So that was my week! It was fun, and now we're going to see what more we can do here in our new area!

Until next week!

Elder Morrison

Christmas Message

Hey guys! Last week of this transfer and we're now into December! As of today, I have completed 11 months in the mission and in this next transfer I'll hit the 1-year mark! It's honestly really weird to think that almost a year ago I left my home in Utah and I went to Mexico. I still have a ways to go, so I still need to keep my head in the mission game!

This week went pretty well for us, I don't remember too much, and I don't have my agenda with me to help me remember :P Oh well, I'll try my best to remember what happened. It's just that the time goes by so fast, sometimes I don't even realize! 

Anyways, probably the biggest change as of now, is that we're moving areas! We as in my companion and I. We're going to spend another 6 weeks together, which I am totally fine with, but we're going to now work in a different area, but we're going to stay in the same district, and same ward. It's funny because we're switching areas really, with the sister companionship in our district. Normally they work in a place called Centro, which is the more city-part of Obregon, and where we were was just like a residencial area called Villa Bonita. So, we switched houses and areas, now the sister missionaries are in Villa Bonita and my companion and I are going to work in Centro.

I'm pretty excited to work in this area, I don't care that the sister missionaries told me it can be difficult. I know that we're going to do work and have tons of success! WOO!!!!

We also had our monthly zone conference this week, this last Thursday. It was great because we were supposed to put on our suits for the conference, however, I was not given this memo until we already left the house and we were on our way to the chapel. My companion put on his suit because it was cold outside, so he was fine. I didn't bring my suit, because I wasn't informed until it was too late. Thanks district leader! Nah, it's okay, it was all good :)

Yesterday, which was Sunday, we saw a handful of missionaries that have now finished their missions and were here in the Pioneros ward, and it was great because it was Fast and Testimony meeting and a lot of missionaries bore their testimonies. It was great to see a few old friends that I met earlier in the mission, and it was a bit sad because they were now going home. 

Also! In this fast and testimony meeting, we had the chance to hear the testimony of a little 9 year old kid, who shared a few words about faith. He explained that faith is believing in something or having trust in someone, in this case, Jesus Christ. He then proceeds to bash on the members for not sharing their testimonies, saying that they might not have faith since they weren't going up and sharing their testimonies. Oh man! When he said that, my companion and I died laughing! We laughed reverently, but still! Almost the entire ward was in shock, smiling and laughing at what this kid just said! It was awesome! He's 9 years old and he's already bashing on the nonbelievers! It was so funny and an amazing experience to hear such a big testimony from a little boy.

So those were most of the highlights of this last week, hope you enjoyed :) This week we're going to get ourselves set up in Centro and see what we can do in these next 6 weeks. We do have a few baptisms planned for this transfer, we're going to work super hard so that we can have baptisms for Christmas! What greater gift can you get??? 

Here's to another week! Until next Monday!

Elder Morrison

More Pictures Dec 7th

1 - It gets cold in the morning, and in Mexico we don't have heaters!

2 - A less active that we're teaching gave us ties!

3 - This less active's son wrote us a Christmas letter :P It says "I like to go to the Mormon Church"

4 - My main man Elder Cruz, and I

Pictures Dec 7th

1 - From left to right: Elder Steele, Elder Poaletti (my companion), Hermana Palmer (we went to the same high school), Hermana Perez, Uriel (member), Elder Rojas, and me :)

2 - Spider in the bathroom

3 - I killed the spider

Mission Pics, 30 November 2015

1 - Thanksgiving plate (1st round)

2 - Selfie with part of my district.

3 - Cookie with frosting dessert!

4 - An investigator gave us a giant tortilla! (Ruler for size reference)

Futbolito, Ping Pong, and Mexican Thandsgiving

Hey everybody! So here's another week down, even though I wrote to you guys last Wednesday :) Some more interesting things are going on in our lives here in Mexico, so we're not bored just yet :)

As many of you know, last Thursday was Thanksgiving. The answer is no, Mexicans don't normally celebrate Thanksgiving here....HOWEVER! We had the opportunity to have Thanksgiving dinner in the mission home, with the mission president and his family, our district, the president's assistants, and one of the missionary couples! So yeah, I celebrated Thanksgiving too! I really am grateful for that experience, the food was perfect and oh man, I was so full!

Friday, we after lunch we went to work in one of the sister companionship's areas to help them find more people to teach. Their area is very.........interesting, in the aspect of that there's not a lot of people in the street, and those who we do find normally have no interest in the gospel. We were able to contact a handful of people, most of them said no, but we managed to pull out a referral for the sister missionaries. Do Work!

Saturday, my companion and I helped out the other sister missionaries in our district with a special request from one of their investigators. This investigator, Ruben, has been seeing spirits and has had these weird supernatural feelings in his restaurant. He asked the sister missionaries if my companion and I could come to his restaurant and 'give it a blessing', thinking of when we came to his house and gave him a priesthood blessing. Well, we went and helped him out with his situation. We went to his restaurant with the sister missionaries and Ruben, and we gathered in a circle and we offered a prayer, seemed like a good idea. He said that it helped a lot and thanked us, and then he gave us some sort of salad that he made, (Ruben's a chef).

The rest of the week, we've been working, finding people to teach, and trying to get our investigators to church. It's something that we have to put a little more effort into, church attendance. We know we can get our investigators to church, we have the means, and we're willing to do what we need to!

So, yeah! Here's to another week! November's already over, now into December! Counting down to christmas!

With love,

Elder Morrison

Mission pics - 25 November 2015

1 - Guaymas, outside of the consolate building

2 - Some missionary buddies and I, sitting in the bus station

3 - When it rains, water would come out of this mouth 

4 - My Denver Broncos tie (or Tony the Tiger tie)

Surprise trips to Guaymas (Part 2)

Hey everybody! I luckily found time to write an actual email about this past week, unfortunately I didn't have time yesterday....This normally doesn't happen so no worries :)

This week had a couple of interesting things for my companion and I, the thing most interesting was the fact that I spent my entire P-Day in another part of Mexico, not even in my mission area. So, what happens is that when we are in the mission for about a year, our visas are almost expired. So naturally we have to go renew them, and we do that in a consolate building in a place called Guaymas. It's in the state of Sonora, but north of my mission, it's part of the Mexico Hermosillo mission, I think. It's far away. We took a bus, around 24 or so missionaries, and we headed up north. It takes about 2 or 3 hours to arrive in Guaymas, and we left at around 7:30. We get there at 10:30ish, and we walk to the consolate building. This building is super small and one by one we started signing papers and giving finger prints. A few other missionaries and I didn't have visa pictures, which were required, so we had to go to a local photo place and take some pictures really fast. Everything worked out in the end, and when we were done, we went and ate lunch. There was McDonalds, Little Cesar's, Burger King, and Subway to choose from. I ate subway :) After lunch we went back to the bus station and we started our bus ride back to the mission. We got back at around 5. Then, my companion and I took a bus back to our area, and we got home at like 6:15. Normally, P-day ends at 6:00 at we work for the rest of the day. So, you could say we lost our P-day. Good stuff.

We also had a meeting last Thursday, focused on a new christmas initiative from the Church. It's called A Savior has born, or in Spanish "Ha nacido un Salvador", it's really cool, and we're handing out special cards, and we're inviting people to watch a special christmas video. The video I think is already out in English, but the spanish version comes out the 29th of November. There's a special page that the Church is going to put out, and it's all just going to be awesome. You all should take a look :)

This saturday, we went to a baptism! It wasn't any of our investigators that got baptized, it was of a sister companionship in my district. The new convert's named Chalo, he's a really cool guy actually, he's really nice and it's always nice to have a new member in the Church :) 

The rest of the week, we've been working, finding people to teach, doing the same old missionary routine. I would say that we're doing pretty well, we have a good amount of lessons, and we have some baptisms planned for december. We're going to keep working hard, praying, and we'll see if we can get a few baptisms in before this year is over :)

Road to Guaymas (To be continued)

Hey everybody, today I was really busy doing stuff for my visa, so I don't have much time to write, so I'm going to write my letter tomorrow or sometime soon. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Love,

Elder Morrison

Used Clothes, Surprise Invitations, etc.

Hey everybody! Another week down in November, it's actually starting to cool down now. It's actually a little bit cold in the mornings and at night. I love it! It's amazing, the heat is officially gone and 'winter' is now starting.

This week was pretty good for us, a few good things, a few not as good things. However, we're still pushing through, we're happy with the progress that we've seen with our investigators and we've been finding new investigators every now and again :)

Monday and Tuesday were normal days, P-Day and District meetings, and yeah. Epic story actually, on Tuesday. So, we had appointments planned in the evening, but we were supposed to go to a meeting with the ward missionary leader in the evening as well. We thought, "What are we going to do????", We rushed to all the appointments that we could (only like 3, but still!), we were able to teach 2 of those 3 (which is amazing) and we managed to get a ride from the bishop to the chapel, and we made it in time for the meeting with the ward missionary leader. We were so happy because we thought we were going to either have to drop an appointment or skip the meeting, but we were able to do all that we needed to do. DO WORK!

Wednesday, after eating lunch (and brownies), we took a few hours and we worked in the sister missionaries's area in order to help them out contacting referrals and finding more people for them to teach. They specifically asked my companion and I to accompany them in an appointment with one of their investigators. This investigator is very VERY interesting, she claims to see spirits around her that talk to her and ask her for help and other crazy things. She was feeling sick, so the sister missionaries explained that as elders we were able to give special priesthood blessings. We gave her, and her son who was also feeling sick, blessings and they said that they felt something so special throughout their entire body. I'm just going to say that this was a very interesting experience for all 4 of us missionaries

Thursday, we played foosball (futbolito), it was awesome.

Friday, in the morning as I was cooking breakfast and as my companion was in the shower, we received a call from one of the AP's and he told us that there's a meeting in the chapel in about an hour and we have to go. It was like 7:25 and it started at 8:30. Snap. We rushed to get ready and we hurried to the church as fast as we could. We made it to the chapel, and the meeting hadn't started yet. I think they were waiting for us to arrive so that they could begin. Well.....a little heads up would have been nice! Also, we lost the chance to have 4 lessons, 3 of which could have been really important for us. Oh well, Mission President's orders. The meeting was about how we can improve in our district meetings, other things, and a christmas message that we're going to be sharing with everybody next month. I really am excited for this iniciative, it's going to be great!

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to go to a retirement home and sing hymns for a handful of elderly folk. 3 of the 4 companionships in our district went, it was really fun to go and meet the elderly and sing for them. They loved it and they told us that they want us to come back and sing for them again and again. It was so heartwarming, the Spirit was there, and yeah. Old people are awesome.

On Sunday, in church there was a primary program which was really nice to see. Some primary kids shared little messages and they all sang primary hymns. It reminded me of when I was in primary and when I was part of those programs during sacrament meeting. Then, let's fast forward to the night. We were running all over our area to find rides for our investigators so that they can come to church. We stopped by one member's house and the lights were off. They were our last hope of getting our investigators a ride to church. We were in front of their house, thinking of who else could help us. Then, all of a sudden, the porch light turns on. The wife comes out and asks us if we wanted to come in. They were in another room, watching a movie! The husband said that he just randomly had the need to drink some water so he went to the kitchen to get some water and that's when he saw us. He told his wife to come see and then that's when they invited us in for some dinner. We asked them for help with our investigators and they were more than happy to help. Unfortunately, all of our investigators that were going to go to church.....canceled on us. They all told us that they couldn't come to church in that same morning. It was a bummer for us, but it was for special reasons, so I still have hope for next sunday.

So yeah, my week was quite an interesting one. I'm fine with that, it makes the mission fun! Let's see what we can do in this upcoming week, and we'll see what happens.

Love you all!

Elder Morrison

Mission pics - 16 November 2015

1 - We didn't have a curtain to put over a window in our house.......so we improvised!

2 - Working on my mohawk (Not really, I was tired and I decided to comb my hair into a mohawk)

Gears of War, Reincarnation, and John Lennon

Hey everybody! I finished another week here in Villa Bonita, and this week I officially complete 10 months in the mission field! It feels like I'm still a new missionary, but it seems like I'm not a greenie anymore haha.

This week was an interesting one, a lot of stuff happened that usually doesn't I guess you could say. 

The first few days of this week, we didn't have that many lessons. One of the reasons was that we were talking to a less active for about 3 hours! That's terrible! We completely lost track of time, we did share a message with her. Afterwards, we just started talking about random things, and that's what made us stay for so long. It wasn't something that we're proud of, we agreed to never do that again haha.

Last Friday we had a zone conference, the zone leaders asked us if we wanted to have the meeting Thursday or Friday a couple days earlier. Everybody said Thursday would be better, so the zone leaders decided to have the zone conference on Friday. No, it doesn't make sense. The conference was decent, I'm pretty sure I learned a couple things, yeah...  One part I really liked was that we had a little activity where one person would ask a hard question about doctrine and the rest of us would have to answer that question. There was some really interesting questions, but being super amazing missionaries, we had answers to all of them.....more or less :)

This weekend we had stake conference in our.......stake. We went to some saturday sessions, and the sacrament meeting on sunday, that only lasted for 2 hours instead of 3. A general authority from the 70 came and talked about a lot of things, about responsibility, the Atonement, and other things. He bashed a lot on the bishops of the stake, because not a lot of the ward council came to the reunion on saturday. He spoke very....strongly. Honestly, I enjoyed stake conference, it was good to hear the words of really important people in the church. We even saw the temple president of the Hermosillo temple, along with his wife. I shook hands with him before the reunion started, not knowing who he was. Then they announced who he and his wife were, and I was shocked! I thought, "I just shook hands with a temple president....cool!!". It was a good stake conference.

As of last saturday, we are in a new house. I will attach pictures of the house in this email or in another one. It has more space, and hot water! I'm so happy to take hot showers once again. I like it more than our previous house. Just one challenge right now is that there's a lot of mosquitos here. The mosquitos in these parts carry a disease called "Dengue" (Deng-gay) It's a pain to deal with, and if you get sick with Dengue, it's possible that you could have to stay in your house for a couple days.....due to the pain that it gives you. It's not something good to have, no sir.

So those were some of the highlights of my week this week, hope you enjoyed reading it :)

Here's to another week!

Love,

Elder Morrison

This is what my new house looks like, it's about...15 feet from our last house

Fútbol, Halloween, and the Virgin Mary

Hey everybody! October is over, and now moving on to November. It's really weird for me to think that this year is almost over! Also, this week I'm going to complete 10 months in the mission. I can't explain how weird it is to know that I've been in Mexico for 10 months already, it feels like it hasn't been that long!

So, this week was the first week of this transfer, and wow what an interesting week it was! First, an elder in my district WAS going to train a new missionary in this transfer. However, there was a little problem.....this new missionary didn't come to the mission field. My elder friend, Elder Steele, was waiting and waiting in the chapel for his new trainee to arrive, but he never did! So, he stayed with us for about a day. We actually ended up spending the night in his house (we share the same area, so we live in the same area).  The next day, Tuesday, he received a new companion, Elder Rojas, a mexican that has almost a year in the mission. They get along well, and I feel like they're going to be great companions. 

This week went very well for us, Elder Poaletti and I. It's been the best week I've had since I arrived here last transfer. We were able to find a lot of new investigators, that actually are interested in the gospel. With that said, I feel like we're going to do a lot of work, and have a lot of success in the transfer, maybe even a baptism! We're working on it ;) We get along great, he really is such a cool guy, he likes to work and he's just a nice guy to be around.

As many of you know, this last saturday was Halloween. Fun fact, people trick or treat here too in Mexico! I bet you didn't know that! Because I didn't until I saw tons of little kids dragging their parents around and asking for candy from everyone. It was really cool to see all the little kids dressed up in costumes running around for candy, it reminded me of home :)

Yesterday, was the first sacrament meeting with my new companion, and thankfully one of our investigators was able to come to church! His name is Jonathan, and he's 13, and he's a cool kid. He has a good amount of friends that are members, in fact, they attend the ward that we're in, so he can easily fit in. He likes to listen to our message, and we're planning his baptism for November 28. Prayers would be really nice, I would appreciate it :)

That's really it for this week, not too much, but just enough to make it interesting I guess :)

Until next week!

Elder Morrison

Mission pics - Nov 2 2015

1- The time we slept in Elder Steele's house (the elder who had no companion for a day), I slept on a spare mattress, with a blanket of the Virgin Mary. Don't Say Anything

2- Getting into the Halloween spirit!

3- My companion taking a selfie with a member's dog

4- Elder Rojas with his sweet new ride (not really his car)

Mission pics 2! - Nov 2 2015

1 - My companion and I eating dinner in an investigator's house

2 - This is a Virgin Mary sticker on a window above my desk

3 - This is what the sticker says: Little Virgin, Please send me a boyfriend.

4 - "Um....maybe they're not home"

Farewells and Mike 'n' Ike's

Hey everybody! This last week was the final week of this transfer, and it went by faster than I predicted, and it sure was one of the strangest transfers I have had so far.

This week wasn't too exciting, not too much happened. This past wednesday, we decided to help out another companionship in their area, so we went to their area to work for a couple hours. We all ate lunch together and then we went to work, my companionship and the two other elders we mainly contacted whoever we could find. The main goal was to try to find new referrals and new investigators for the sister companionship. Man, it was hard over in that area! There was hardly anybody in the streets, however we were able to contact around 10 people in about 3 hours, which is good. We didn't have as much success as we wanted, but it's alright. This upcoming week, we're going to do the same thing, but in my area specifically, so I hope it goes well!

This past saturday, we went to a baptism! One of the sister companionships had an investigator that got baptized, his name is Alonso, he's a chill guy. We were able to invite a recent convert's friend to the baptism, a new investigator named Jonatan (Like Jonathan, but mexican). We also had a quick lesson with him afterwards and we agreed on a baptismal date for the 28th of November, so now we're going to see what happens. Jonatan really is a cool kid, I can easily see him in the baptismal font in white clothing :)

So, as I mentioned before, a new transfer has begun, and my companion Elder Calvo left for another area. Today I received a new companion, and he's my first american companion! His name is Elder Poaletti and he's from New Jersey (No he doesn't have an accent) He has about a year in the field and he's a really cool guy, I'm excited to work with him for the next 6 weeks. 

That's really it for this week, so until next monday!

Sincerely,

Elder Morrison

Mission pics, Oct 26 2015

1 - Last District photo of this transfer

2 - There's a part of my area where the streets are places in Africa, so I was in 'Kenya' this week :P

3 -  Took a picture with 'God'

4 - I have the force and was able to hold this leaf in the air (not hung by a spiderweb)

Getting shut down and false interviews

Hey! Finished the second to last week of this transfer, just one more and we'll see where I'll go (or stay) next!

So this week was good in some aspects, and bad in others. First off, we didn't do much. Not because we're lazy, it's because not a lot of people opened their doors, they didn't want to talk to us. Maybe it's because we're ugly or something....I hope not.

We unfortunately had to leave one of our investigators behind, it was an interesting lesson we had with her. We thought she was going to receive an amazing, life-changing answer from God.....but no. She told us she hasn't received anything from God. I mentioned that maybe she needs to come to church in order to feel the Spirit more. She then proceeds to tell me that she will never come to our church nor change to our religion. She said this while laying down on her sofa, like she was waiting to tell us that. Honestly, it hurt. We shared a quick message and we said "See ya!" not to her face, but after we left. So...yeah, that was a fun experience, one of many.

This last thursday, our zone had interviews with the mission president. So, in the morning, at around 10:30, all of us were in the mission office, each of us waiting to get our area books checked, for the interview with the mission president, and for a check-up with the AP's. My companion and I checked our area books with the mission president's wife, talked with the AP's, but we never got an interview with the mission president. We waited and waited, and then waited some more. We were the last ones, along with another companionship, then the mission president comes and tells us that he doesn't have any more time, so we'll have the interviews another day. Are you serious? We've been waiting there in the mission office for hours! We eventually left at like 2:30, we were there for about 3 or 4 hours I'm pretty sure. We still haven't had an interview with the mission president.

So, enough with the negative, now with the positive! On friday, we met a Mariana and Andrés, a pair of young people. Mariana is 15 going on 16, and Andrés is 16. They're boyfriend and girlfriend, and chosen to recieve the gospel. They were really interested, they asked us a lot of questions about us and what we believe, and they accepted another appointment on Sunday. Yesterday, we talked to them and we taught the Restoration and we gave them a Book of Mormon. We also invited them to baptism and they accepted a baptismal date for the 28th of November. I need you all to pray for them, that they can maintain this date, and that they can be baptized! They're really cool people and they really are blessings for us. We have been finding other people as well, and I feel like some of them have potential, we'll see how well they progress this week.

Those are the highlights of this week, the rest of the time we've been working, finding, and doing missionary stuff.

Until next week!

Elder Morrison

Pics! Week 40....something

Woops! Almost forgot to send pictures!

1- Jujo's birthday party! (Kid that was baptized this week)

2- Jujo's and Chuy(Recent convert)'s baptism! 

3- My ball broke :´(

Soccer, meetings, and ripped pants

Hey another week down, and it went by fast, just like normal. A few interesting things happened this week I guess you could say.

One cool thing was that we had a zone meeting this last Wednesday, even though we had one like a week ago, apparently this zone meeting was really the "zone meeting" and the last one was just a "zone conference", I honestly don't know what that means, but it's cool. It was nice to see the other missionaries in my zone and to hear what my leaders have to say. A couple guest speakers came to talk about goal-setting and also ways to conquer addictions, mainly for our investigators.

On Friday, we had the chance to do some service for a member, in fact, the owner of the house that we're renting. She's preparing another house for us to live in, that's like 10 feet away from our current house. This house that she's preparing is nicer, it has some more space, AND it has hot water. SO we're excited for it to be done, and we helped her paint the walls and to cover up some holes in those walls.  We still need to finish painting everything, so some day this week we're going to go in and get it done. I'm mainly doing it so that I can finally take hot showers again hahaha.

Today was fun, because the highlight of this day was that we went to the chapel at noon to play soccer with some of the youth. Let me tell you, the youth here are AMAZING at soccer, I'm pretty sure they play all day whenever they have the chance. I would too actually. Anyways, it was a lot of fun playing with them, even though it was really hot today.

The rest of the week we've just been working, we've been finding some more people to teach, little by little, but still.

Here's to another week! Until Monday!

Elder Morrison

Pics!

1 - Cooking! This sweet apron I found in the house

2 - Painting selfie

3 - I ripped my pants.....

4 - This giant hole where they're building a road

New things and the doctor's office, again....

Hey everybody! This week was an interesting one, we did a few things that were out of the ordinary, and as many of you know, this weekend we saw General Conference!

First off, this week we've had to go to the hospital a few times. No, I'm not sick :) It's my companion. He's been having pain in his lower back these past couple of days, enough pain to go get it checked out. According to the tests, he doesn't have anything serious, I don't remember what really was the cause, but the doctor gave him some medicine to take in order to get rid of the pain. He has to take some pain medicine for his lower back and also a nasal spray because he has a lot of congestion in his head, which is giving him headaches. So, yeah...he's a bit sick I guess you could say.

Also, we had a zone conference this week, this past wednesday. It was fun, and a bit long. The mission president and his wife shared interesting messages, the mission president's wife is pressuring us to stay hydrated and healthy. She showed us a video of how we need to drink 8 glasses of water each day, it was of 2 glasses singing a catchy song. It was awesome actually.

So, General Conference right? It was super cool to see the new apostles, and every single talk was amazing and inspired. Luckily I could watch all the sessions in English, along with some other 'gringos' in my zone, we had our own separate room and we watched the Conference there. I would say that my favorite talk was by Jeffry R Holland and the importance of mothers, or Robert D Hales' talk on getting married. He was pretty straight forward in that talk, I liked it!

Finishing september and going to the gym

Well, september's almost over! It seems that the mission is going by faster and faster, I can't believe that we're going into October! I wonder what I'll do for Halloween! :P

So! This week was a fun week, some good things happened and we're seeing some progress here in Obregon. 

On tuesday, we had our district meeting as usual. This time our zone leaders joined us and they told us there that they want to do companion exchanges with us on friday, alrighty then! After that we planned for the week and everything was normal. Later that day, we went to the chapel again because my companion is teaching the youth how to speak in public without fear and he's also preparing them to act in a little play of a story from the Book of Mormon. It's going to be a lot of fun! We're going to see what we can do in these couple of weeks with this activity.

The next couple of days was just work, up until friday, where we did companion exchanges with the zone leaders. I left my area to go with one zone leader to his own area, and the other leader went with my companion to our own area. It was really fun, it was cool to see another area of the mission and I'm grateful for the opportunity to work with another missionary like our zone leader. He's really cool and relaxed, and he likes to work. 

We ended the companion exchanges the next day, Saturday, by going to the chapel to meet up with the rest of the district to do tours! We handed out pamphlets (or rather we offered them pamphlets) and we invited people to take a tour of the inside of our chapel. We were able to show quite a few people the church, and it was fun! 

Updates with the work, we have an investigator! Her name is Angelica and she's a very nice woman, she has catholic beliefs, but she doesn't currently go to any church. She seems really interested in the gospel, she asks a lot of questions (which is really good!) and she did come to church with us this sunday, although she had to leave early to pick up her daughter from Hermosillo. This week we have planned appointments with other people, and we're going to see what we can pull off. Wish us luck! 

These past couple of day, we've been offered to go work out in a home gym that a member has in his house, naturally we accepted the offer! We've gone twice and it's not too bad, I think we'll be going to this gym a few more times, maybe more :)

So that's my week summed up, also GENERAL CONFERENCE IS NEXT WEEK! WOO! I'm so excited to hear what the prophet and the apostles, and whoever else is going to say! We're going to invite everybody and their dog to General Conference, and also we'll be preparing ourselves spiritually to benefit from Conference as much as we can :)

Love you all and here's to another week!

Elder Morrison

Pics!

-Me

-A little speaker that looks like a soda can

-The member's gym

I left, then I came back and bought some shoes.....

Hey everyone! This week was very interesting for me, due to some minor changes in my missionary life,

First of all, I'm not in Etchojoa anymore, I'm in Obregon....again. What happened was that an Elder here in Obregon got very sick, sick enough that he had to get sent home. So, they sent me to fill his place, in an area called Pioneros. So I left Etchojoa and I returned to Obregon. I'm now in my new new area, Pioneros B. We share this area with another companionship, my good friends that came with me from the MTC, Elder Steele and Elder Juarez. We were in the MTC at the same time, so that's pretty neat.

This past week, while I was in Etchojoa, we mainly just street contacted the entire time because we didn't have any investigators pretty much. Then, I received a call from the AP's (Assistentes) and they tell me that I'm going to Obregon, due to special transfers. I arrived to Obregon, and I waited in the bus station for the AP's and other elders to pick me up and take me to our area. I got settled in, and we went to work a little bit, because I arrived this Saturday.

This sunday, I presented myself to the ward, I said who I was and I bore a little testimony. I never got to see how the branch was in Etchojoa, but the ward in Pioneros is very nice, the members are friendly, and the area is nice. Although, it's going to be a bit difficult.

Here's the situation, my companion is new, he only has 7 weeks in the mission, and since his former trainer was sick most of the time, they don't have anyone to teach, they don't have investigators nor referrals....nothing. Okay then, so it's going to be an interesting transfer, but if we work hard enough we'll get through. I've never trained before, nor been in an area like this. It's going to be a great learning experience! Woo!

Also, today I bought shoes! My shoes were too worn out to use, so I had no other choice, I went to the store and bought a new pair of shoes. Let's see how long they last :)

So, that's what's going on over here in Obregon. Time really is flying by, I can't believe that we're halfway through September! I'm also looking forward to General Conference in a few weeks! I wonder if I'll be able to watch it in English or if I'll watch it in Spanish. Either way, I feel that I'll be able to get the general message :)

Until next week!
Elder Morrison 

Another transfer down, and a new area!

Hey everybody! This week was a really good one! Fun things going on in my life. Still enjoying the heat here in mexico, but it really does feel like it's going down.

This weekend was really special because we got to see the rededication of the Mexico City temple, it was broadcasted in our chapel, since it's the stake center. On saturday, we saw a cultural activity broadcasted from mexico city, we invited some people and they came I was so happy! Anyways, this cultural thing was a play type of thing, where it was about the growth of the church in mexico. Honestly, I loved it! They also made a little summary of the book of mormon, from nephi all the way to joseph smith, it was very well done!

On sunday we were able to see one of the rededication sessions as well. It was awesome! we had to get a little pass to be able to enter, it was a little yellow slip. President Eyring and Elder Holland, along with some 70s took part in rededicating the temple. It was really cool to see President Eyring have a translator at his side, same with Elder Holland. The general authorities were able to speak spanish, so they did! A really cool part was that Elder Holland actually shared a part of his testimony in spanish, I loved it! One of the general authorities, Elder Benjamin de Hoyos, did the dedicatory prayer. It was an amazing experience, honestly :)

Now, some new things are going on here in my life. First off, I'm in a new area! It's called Etchojoa, I'm in the Navajoa Zone, it's south from Obregón. It's still hot as ever but it's really nice here. It's cool, I feel like I'm going to enjoy it. It's less 'city' and more towards the little 'village' type, but not completely. It's in between, if that makes sense. It's going to be a bit difficult because we are 'opening' the area. What that means, is that the missionaries that were here before....left, my companion and I don't know the area, so it's up to us to find the investigators that the previous missionaries were teaching and we need to figure out where everything is, where the members live, and yeah. It's going to be fun! Luckily each area has a folder containing teaching records and other forms about the area, so that should help us a bit. We'll see what happens. I really am excited to get to know this area. New people, new investigators, new everything!

So that's what's going on in my life, wish me luck! Until next monday!

Elder Morrison

Mission Pics!