Monday, August 1, 2016

1 - Want some cricket stew???


2 - Clouds, I like the clouds here


3 - So, I was doing exercise with those elastic bands, and it broke and it whipped my foot...


4 - That is water that leaked from the ceiling one night


Hello! Finishing off July with a bang....of heat! I mean that it's getting hotter here now, but it's whatever, it doesn't get to me. So it's actually kind of weird for me to be passing through July and starting August, and this next Sunday I will officially have 19 months in the mission field, which means I will have about 4 and a half months left....which is not a lot of time for a missionary! It makes me realize that I need to pick up my game, and work even harder so I can finish the mission well!

Anyways, this week was much like the last. My companion got sick again, but this time not of dehydration, but he managed to get a stomach bug. Or something of the sort, we don't really know what he has, but it's been giving him stomach troubles this entire last week. He's had to rest even more, take more medication, and we've had to pray more and more. We went to the hospital today so they could do an analysis with him and later they're going to send the results. So yeah, being sick in the mission is not fun. Don't do it.

So we're going to have baptisms on Sunday.....WOO! We have a young couple, René and Gabi, that we've been teaching, and their baptismal date is for this sunday! It's not on saturday, like normal, because they leave their jobs really late at night from monday to saturday, but sunday they don't work, so that's the opportune moment it seems like. Pictures should be in by next week :)

Yeah, so we really didn't do much this week, since my companion got sick...but he seems better, so I hope we'll be able to get out and do some work. 

Until next week!
Elder Morrison

Monday, July 25, 2016

1 - Preparing.....


2 - ...For the district photo!


3 - The sunsets here are pretty cool


4 - Mexican Subway, with the guapísimo Elder Reid

Hello! I'm finishing yet another week in Sochiloa, and this week was very very different from any other week I've had so far. The heat is getting stronger and stronger still, and we've been getting some precipitation as well! There's plenty of heat, and a good number of rainstorms during the summer here in Obregon. 

So, the reason why this week was so different was because what happened with my companion Elder Reid. In the beginning of the week, he went to Guaymas told renew his visa, so he could be legal still. He came back with a stomach full of pizza and candy, which for a missionary that walks at least a mile a day.....that's not good. He felt sick and tired shortly after he came home, but we thought it would pass the next day.

Tuesday comes, and we have our district meeting and everything is fine. After all that we go to a member's house because we wash our clothes there and we left them there from yesterday. When we got there, my companion looked like he was going to faint! He laid down and we bought him some Suero and we had to cut the day short there because my companion was suffering from the heat, he got dehydrated.

So, for most of the week he's been resting and working on getting better, yesterday we had to go to the hospital and they put him on an IV because he got dehydrated...again. But now, all is well and he's back to health....I hope...

Anyways, we're seeing good progress with some investigators and we're expecting a baptism in a couple weeks! Fingers crossed! This week we're going back to work and we'll see what we can do to find new investigators and do everything else we missionaries do :)

Here's to another week!!
Elder Morrison
1 - President and Sister Myers



2 - These pills have a weird name...



3 - We also cleaned up and painted a house for a new sister companionship



4 - Welcome sister missionaries to District Constitucion

Monday, July 18, 2016

Hey everyone! Passing through the first week of this transfer with my new comp Elder Reid! I'm getting to know him better and we're seeing good progress in our area Sochiloa!

We had quite an experience this last thursday, with our new mission president actually, President Myers. He joined us to an appointment with our investigator René. We came to the house, and we found René alone, his wife wasn't there. We were talking, President Myers was getting to know René...and WOOM! We get hit with rain showers and wind! Then, the light went out! We pulled out our phones with the neat little flashlight and we continued. Then René gets a call from his wife, Gabi, telling him to come pick her up because she doesn't want to drive in the rain. We all decided to go, so we all packed into President Myers's van and we went to go pick up Gabi. We arrived and René hopped off to go with his wife, and the rest of us went back to René's house. While we're on our way back, I get a call from the sister missionaries. Due to the rain, they were stuck in a little store, and they wanted a ride. SO! We went and picked them up, got lost a little, and then we dropped them off by a member's house. THEN! We went back to René's house and had a very powerful lesson. It was a crazy experience that none of us expected, but it all turned out for the better haha.

We also are receiving quite a few fruits from our labor, or rather, food from our labor. In that same night, René gave us some nice chipotle chicken with some rice to take home for dinner! Oh man, it was so good!!! Also, we visited a mom and her daughter this week too. A member talked to us about them and presented us to them and we had a lesson. The next day, or the day after, they call us and they invite us to eat lunch with them! Wow! I wasn't expecting that! I guess we made quite the impression for them to invite us over. 

So, this last week was quite interesting, and we're going to see what we can do in this week to come while the days are getting hotter and hotter, and while we keep drinking more and more water each day haha.

Here's to another week!
Elder Morrison

Monday, July 11, 2016

Hey everyone! Finally done with yet another transfer in the mission, and it looks like I'm staying in Sochiloa for another month and a half! My companion left to another area, and I received a new companion. My new companion is..................a gringo! An elder from the United States! Woah! I received Elder Reid, from Virginia. He has 1 year in the mission field and he's a chill guy! This is the first time I met him, and we're going to rock Sochiloa! It's not often putting two white guys together in Mexico, but I guess it sometimes happens! This should be fun haha...

Also! This last week, we got to meet our new mission president! We had a special zone conference last week and we got to meet President and Sister Myers! They come from Ogden, Utah, and they introduced themselves and also talked about interesting things that we need to apply in the mission field. One of them is that we need to expand our "comfort zone" in order to achieve miracles. When we do that continually, our comfort zone expands, therefore we need to give an even bigger effort in order to achieve even greater miracles! It's a really cool concept and we'll see if it works!

The rest of the time we've been working hard to find new investigators, and continue working with our investigators with their baptismal dates. We're seeing good progress with two investigators, René and Gabriella, a young couple (René is a guy's name here). We're going to keep working with faith so we can get some baptisms! 

That's what's going on in our area, let's hope for the best!
Until next week!
Elder Morrison

Monday, July 4, 2016

I haven't sent pictures in a while, sorry! Also, happy Independence Day!

1 - Our baptism, here's our good buddy Aaron


2 - There's a hidden dog in this tortilla...can you see it?


3 - Sunsets our pretty sweet here


4 - District Constitución, the guy with the grey-white pants is my companion

Hey everyone! Finishing another week in the mission, and wishing a nice farewell to the sister missionaries that were with me in the MTC, as they are finishing their missions while I'm just passing by the 18-month benchmark. This next week will be the last week of this transfer, so by next monday's letter I might have a new companion! It's most likely that I'll be staying in this area, Sochiloa, because my companion already has around 4 and a half months here, so he'll probably get transferred to another area.

So! This week was alright for us, we didn't have as many lessons as we wanted, nor street contacts, but something that went very well for us is that we had 2 investigators come to church! Woo! One of the investigators, is named René, it's a guy. René is a guy's name here....anyways! This guy is super cool, he loves to listen to us and learn the gospel and he wants to improve his life. We call him Leonidas, because when we met him he had this huge manly beard, and he looked like King Leonidas from 300, then he shaved and he looks normal. So, he's our next baptism in sight. Prayers would be helpful so that he and his wife, Gabriella, can progress!

We also had a zone conference on Saturday, and we were expecting to meet our new mission president, President Myers, but no. It was just a normal zone conference. However! We will be having a special zone meeting this week, where we will get to meet President Myers and his wife. I'm excited to meet him, and it'll be interesting having a new mission president. I was getting used to President Munive, oh well!

That was our week pretty much, the rest of the time we've been working hard and dealing with the heat, although it did rain a few times this last week. We're focusing on drinking tons of water to stay hydrated and putting on sunscreen so we don't get cooked by the sun.

Here's to another week!
Elder Morrison 

Monday, June 27, 2016

Hey everyone! Finishing another week in Sochiloa! This week went alright for us, we didn't have that many lessons, and it is getting quite hot....but the good thing is that we had a baptism! Woo! Fruits of our labors! So all of that was pretty much worth it since we had a baptism.

This week was pretty fun actually, we had quite a few events happen throughout the week. 

On monday we had a zone activity! We, as a zone, all went to the stake center of our zone and we played games and had tons of fun. We played Jenga, funny party games, and we played some basketball too. I really enjoyed it, and it was a nice chance to relax and relieve some mission stress hahaha. 

On wednesday, we had a special zone meeting too. This was to say goodbye to our mission president, President Munive. He is now finishing his own time as mission president. Actually as I'm writing this letter, our new mission president is arriving and settling in here in the mission. We heard some training lectures and we all took pictures with President Munive at the end of the meeting. It's sad to see him leave, he really was an amazing mission president, but I'm sure that the new president is going to be just as great!

As I said before, we had a baptism! On saturday, we had the baptismal service and it was in the morning, usually we hold the service in the evening, like at 6. We cleaned the room where the baptismal font was, we cleaned the font, filled it up and prepared everything so the service would be perfect! It was a nice service, a good amount of people came, and my companion and I felt accomplished haha. Afterwards, the new convert's family invited us to have some pizza and cake at their house to celebrate. #fruitsofourlabors

So that was my week! Some good things going on, and we're probably going to meet our new mission president sometime this week! More details coming soon!

Until next week!
Elder Morrison

Monday, June 20, 2016

Hey everyone! Finishing another week of this transfer, and each day I feel it getting hotter and hotter. Supposedly it's supposed to be in about 105 degrees this entire week, so that's pretty cool......not really, drink lots of water!!!!

This week went alright for us, we're seeing progress with our investigators and we're expecting a baptism this saturday (WOO!), fingers crossed! But! We need to find new investigators so we don't end up with nobody to teach, that's bad. We found a good amount of new investigators this past week, and they seem like they can progress, so we'll see what happens. 

On Friday, we had companion exchanges with our district leader. I went to his area, Constitution, and the district leader Elder Nilson from Spanish Fork, UT, came to Sochiloa and worked with my companion. It was fun working with his companion Elder Tellez, we're all friends, we've all met before so we're already good friends, it's the coolest thing ever. We finished the exchanges the day after and I returned to Sochiloa. 

On Sunday, there was a baptism! Of another companionship. But we brought one of our investigators, Aaron, to the baptismal service so he could see how it was done. Aaron is a 11 year old kid that is preparing to be baptized this saturday! We're going to visit him a lot this week to help him prepare and all that stuff, this kid is super cool and he knows his gospel stuff. Prayers would be much appreciated, so that everything works out with Aaron!

And yeah! That was our week, pretty fun, we have some events planned for this week to come, more details next week!
Until next Monday!
Elder Morrison

Monday, June 13, 2016

Hey everyone! I have another week down in the books, and I keep getting older and older in the mission. Something strange in the mission is when you realize how long you've been out in the field when you meet and talk to new missionaries that recently came to the field or have less time than you. For example, in my district, I'm the missionary that has the most time in the field, which is weird for me. I was getting used to being the youngest missionary before, now everyone is telling me "Wow, you've been out for so long!" or "Man, you're almost done!". And I'm just like.....woah you're right hahaha.

Like I said last week, we've been searching for chances to do some service, for members or non members. We got the chance to lend a hand with a family in the ward, by taking down a trampoline. As we all know, we're moving into summer, and therefore it's super hot. The dad of the family asked us to take apart his trampoline, since his kids weren't going to use it because of the heat. We went in the morning, when it wasn't too hot. When we were done, they invited us to eat breakfast, and it was super cool! Service brings blessings!

One day of this past week, I don't remember which, we went to go get some weights! A while ago, there was a companionship of elders in the district, but now sister missionaries have replaced them. The elders before had a nice set of dumbbells and a barbell. We knew that the sister missionaries weren't going to use them, so we asked them for the weights and one morning we went and picked them up! We carried the weights from their house all the way to ours, and it took us like 30 minutes I think. It was tough carrying them all the way from the sisters' house, our shoulders and necks hurt the day after. #getswoll

Today, we took a trip to the mission offices. We were summoned by the mission president and his wife, to check our area books and to practice teaching! We practiced teaching in english and in spanish, and it was the first time I ever taught in english. It was a bit harder than I thought! We passed with flying colors and we received some good advice on how to improve our area. Good stuff.

So those were the highlights of my week. The rest of the time, we've been looking for gold in our area, and finding people to teach. We are preparing for some baptisms in this transfer! More details coming soon!

Until next week!
Elder Morrison

Monday, June 6, 2016

Hey everyone! Passing my first week of this transfer with my new comp Elder Gonzalez, in my new area Sochiloa! I'm still learning the area, and so far it's really nice! It's fairly big, so that means there's plenty of work to do! I've met most of the members, and the ward is very nice. I feel like there's a good amount of potential in this area! Woo!

This week we had the opportunity, twice, to lend a hand to a sister in the ward. We helped her cut branches off of her tree, since it was starting to grow out of control. So the member, Hna. Choni, gave us some shears and we starting cutting! It didn't take too long, but we saw a big difference after. It looked a ton better! We cut the branches off one day, and another day we came back to chop up all of the branches and throw them away. The sister member was so grateful, and she even fed us, so it's so worth it!

We also had a zone conference this week, last Friday. It was a bit extra special because I was returning to the chapel of one of my old areas, Bella Vista. I hadn't stepped foot in that building for about a year until last Friday! It was super cool, and of course the conference was great and I learned a thing or two. 

The rest of the time we were working hard, working with the members, and I was learning the area! Something extra fun is that two sister missionaries came to this area, replacing a companionship of elders. So they're both learning the area, and they're both fairly new missionaries. We're helping them out in any way that we can, so that together we can make this ward grow!

So yeah! That was my week, and we're going to see what we can do in this upcoming week!

Until next monday!
Elder Morrison 

Monday, May 30, 2016

Hey everyone! I'm now done with another transfer in the mission, and here I am starting another one! I've started a new chapter, because I am now in a new area! I have left Angostura, and I'm now in Obregon....again. I'm now in an area called "Sochiloa". My new companion is Elder Gonzales, from the state of Guerrero, which is in Mexico. He has 1 year in the mission, and he's a chill guy! I've met him before, so we're pretty much already friends! He's told me that we're going to work super hard this transfer, and I'm ready to do work! Woo!

Well, this past week, we didn't do too much out of the ordinary. We spent most of the time looking for new people to teach, and trying to find new investigators. We have some investigators that are progressing, Leti and Manuel, a young married couple with a kid. They're super nice and they enjoy learning about the gospel. Yesterday, Manuel came to church with us! Leti couldn't because she got stuck doing house chores, so she wasn't able to come, but she should be coming to church next week!

Like I said, we didn't do much more than work this week, I'm now more focused on my new area Sochiloa! My companion tells me that there's potential here, and I think that's true too! We're going to see what we can do in this week in order to start off on the right foot! Any prayers for success will be appreciated hahaha

Until next week!
Elder Morrison

Monday, May 23, 2016

1 -  This is a fruit called "Guayaba", it's sour!


2 - They spelt my name wrong....


3 - This is called a "Tazo" they sell this little collectible things in bags of chips or cookies or whatever snack


Hey everyone! Passing through the second to last week of this transfer! Which means that this week right now is the last week of the transfer, this might just be my last week in Angostura! Who knows??? Stay tuned for next week!

Now this last week was a bit different for us, we've been working hard, which is normal, to find our investigators and help them progress and get them to church and the same things we do everyday.  We had the priviledge of having our mission leader come back from the United States this week. He came back with a big desire to work with us, he called us one morning and said he wanted to come with us to work and visit people. That was friday, and he also worked with us a bit on sunday, and we were able to visit some of the members, a recent convert, and we were able to meet some new people too! Yay! More investigators!

We also had a special conference in Guasave last Thursday, it was like a normal zone conference but just another one besides the one we had in the beginning of the month. We talked about things we can do to improve and have more success in our areas, we also focused a lot on teaching the principle of repentance. We now are needing to include teaching repentance in every lesson, even where we wouldn't normally do that, for example while we're teaching about the Restoration or something. 

That was pretty much our entire week haha, it was alright. And now, we're going to work extra hard to finish this transfer well! And now we'll see where I go next! Or if I stay another transfer....

Until next week!
Elder Morrison

Monday, May 16, 2016

1 - This is where we play soccer! It's like 10 minutes away from our house!


2 - Super sweaty me and my companion Elder Yat Caal


3 - Rocking the dirt/tan line



Hey everyone! Just passing by another week in Angostura, still going strong. Some fun stuff happened with us this week, just enough to help us not get bored here haha!

In the beginning of this week, we did companion exchanges with the zone leaders! It makes it more interesting because their area is a bit farther away, about an hour or an hour and a half. It was my turn to head up there to "Guasave" to work with one of our zone leaders, Elder Marin from Oaxaca (Wah-ja-ka), while my companion stayed in Angostura to work with the other zone leader, Elder Funes from.....South Jordan. (Or West Jordan I don't remember). It was fun working with Elder Marin, since I already knew him from before, he's an awesome guy!

This week was also our branch conference! Like ward conference (that's a thing, right?) but smaller. Since it was branch conference, our mission president and his wife and son, along with one of his counselors came down to share messages with us. They focused a lot on keeping the Sabbath Day holy, it's been something that the apostles and the prophet have talked about recently. It was nice seeing mission president Munive and his wife, and his son haha. 

A funny (for me, a bit embarassing) story happened to us the other day! We were in the middle of a lesson with an investigator, everything normal. We were talking and explaining things then all of a sudden.........I get a nosebleed. Blood starts to run down, and I'm freaking out on the inside but I keep my cool. When we gave a scripture to our investigator to read, I turned to my companion and told him what was going on. He was astonished, just as I was. When the investigator finished reading, my companion quickly asked for a tissue...for me. The investigator saw me, and quickly ran for a tissue. I plugged my nose with the tissue and everything was fine. It was something small, but it still caught me by surprise haha. 

So....yeah! The rest of the time we've been working hard, trying to find investigators and doing the same old missionary routine!

Until next week!
Elder Morrison

Monday, May 9, 2016

1 - This is my companion's desk, he likes the piano. He wants to learn how to play it


2 - If you didn't know, this is what mexican money looks like. Also, I'm a stacking master


3 - It's an avocado, a very big avocado
Hey everyone! I'm done with another week, and the time keeps passing by faster and faster! As of Saturday, I have completed 16 months in the mission! It doesn't feel like I have that much time, but I also feel like an "experienced" missionary now. When I say "experienced", it means that I now have a general idea of what I'm doing haha.

This week was a bit more difficult for us, but not impossible, we're still alive! The church is still true! We were able to visit some of our investigators still and we were able to meet some new people too.

Fun fact! Apparently every thursday, an Apostle prays for all the missionaries in the world, so therefore Thursdays should be our "best days". It was interesting, because Thursday actually was our best day of the week, the day where we had the most lessons and the most "success" you could say. So, it's true, as you can see :)

We also had a zone conference this week, which are always fun. We went up to Guasave, which was my companion's area for 6 months! He was a zone leader up there in Guasave for an entire 6 months, so it was nice for him to see one of his old areas again. I met some new missionaries there too, fresh out of the MTC haha. It's always strange for me to meet such new missionaries, it makes me remember my first few weeks or months way back when.

As many of you know, Sunday was Mother's Day! So, I was able to talk to my family yesterday and it was great! I love seeing my family, and it's so great to have technology like Skype. My companion talked to his family too, and he also enjoyed seeing his family one last time before he goes home.

Well, that was our week! We're now going to see what we can do in this week to come. We're going to make sure that this week to come is going to be much better than the last!

Until next Monday!
Elder Morrison

Monday, May 2, 2016





1 - (This was taken a while ago) Selfie with the sleepy Elder Horlacher
























3 - My companion likes to play with puppies

4 - He's still playing with it haha
Hey everyone! Finishing the second week of this transfer, finishing April and starting May! We're working hard and we're getting ready to talk to our families on Mother's Day! I'm so excited!

This week, we've found a ton of new investigators, 17 in total. I haven't recieved that many in my entire mission, and I've never seen a number like that. So....it's pretty sweet haha. In this week, we're going to keep teaching them and see which ones are ready to receive the gospel and be baptized! Woo!

We also helped out the members in cleaning the prayer house here, it was in great need of a good sweeping. We all put ourselves to work in sweeping, mopping, and throwing out trash so that our little prayer house looked a lot better, and so that the Spirit can dwell there. The scriptures say that the "Spirit cannot dwell in unholy temples", that applies to uncleaHey everyone! Finishing the second week of this transfer, finishing April and starting May! We're working hard and we're getting ready to talk to our families on Mother's Day! I'm so excited!

This week, we've found a ton of new investigators, 17 in total. I haven't recieved that many in my entire mission, and I've never seen a number like that. So....it's pretty sweet haha. In this week, we're going to keep teaching them and see which ones are ready to receive the gospel and be baptized! Woo!

We also helped out the members in cleaning the prayer house here, it was in great need of a good sweeping. We all put ourselves to work in sweeping, mopping, and throwing out trash so that our little prayer house looked a lot better, and so that the Spirit can dwell there. The scriptures say that the "Spirit cannot dwell in unholy temples", that applies to unclean church buildings!

This last Sunday, we experienced something abnormal too. After the sacrament meeting, something happened to one of the members. This member, named Brenda, left the room all dazed, looking like she didn't know where she was nor who she was. She sat down, she said she had a big headache. We gave her some pain pills and a glass of water, but she still sat there with a confused gaze. We gave her a blessing, and we decided to leave her there to rest and....recuperate? By the end of church she was back to normal, so everything is all right now. It was very interesting...

So yeah! That was our week, pretty fun. We're going to see what we can do in this week to come, and we'll work our way to a baptism! Woo!

Love!
Elder Morrison church buildings!

This last Sunday, we experienced something abnormal too. After the sacrament meeting, something happened to one of the members. This member, named Brenda, left the room all dazed, looking like she didn't know where she was nor who she was. She sat down, she said she had a big headache. We gave her some pain pills and a glass of water, but she still sat there with a confused gaze. We gave her a blessing, and we decided to leave her there to rest and....recuperate? By the end of church she was back to normal, so everything is all right now. It was very interesting...

So yeah! That was our week, pretty fun. We're going to see what we can do in this week to come, and we'll work our way to a baptism! Woo!

Love!
Elder Morrison