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