Merry Christmas Eve! 🎄

Sunday we picked Darlene and her family up for church. Right before sacrament started, I looked over at Darlene and she is bouncing in her seat smiling so much and just kept saying, "I'm so excited!" We are so looking forward to her baptism. We are going over to her house this evening to give all her little kids their Christmas presents from the Ward :) I love them.

We also had a small little gift exchange at the VC with all the sisters. It was so fun! We got Elder Wagner, one of the senior elders, a very special gift. Haha. The night before we found a dead mouse in our house and so we put it in his gift. In the bag we wrote, "merry Christmas you filthy animal!" It was soooo funny watching him open it.

The elders and us also went over to our Ward mission leader's house for correlation. I love our Ward mission leader. Him and his family are hilarious. He made us these pineapple drinks and gave us cute little Christmas gifts. The members are too nice to missionaries.

Our Christmas plans include waking up at 5am to open presents with all the sisters at the Willis house, going to the VC at 7:30am for a little Christmas morning training and then we are calling home and then going to eat dinner with a member family, help set up for a wedding, and then go caroling with the elders to the less active members.

Anyways, I don't too much else to say, I'll talk to some of you all tomorrow!!!

Love you! Have a merry Christmas everyone! I love being a missionary over Christmas and getting to talk about the real reason for Christmas with others. It is the best.

Sister Morgan
christmas.mormon.org


Sister MorganHello family!

Merry Christmas Eve!
This week has been so good and full of so many miracles. Weird that it
is already Christmas!! I seriously feel like I just got out here
yesterday, but today actually marks 6 months since being in Missouri!
Time goes by so fast!!

A little bit about our week and then I'll write a bit about our
Christmas plans :)

Friday and Saturday I went on exchanges with Sister Muñoz in North
Kansas City! It was probably one of the highlights of my week... Which
is weird because it seems like forever ago!! It was so nice to be out
of my area.. and just relax a little bit. Haha. And sister muñoz is
amazing! I served with her in the VC my first three months and we
always would joke with each other that we will be companions one
day... That day finally came!! Haha we are still waiting our longer
companionship :) North Kansas City is right by the temple and you
can see the temple from their apartment which is so fun! The whole
exchange I just kept telling her how normal people were out there ..
Nothing like independence that's for sure! Haha.

Goodbye Inde 4th and hello Hill Park!!

Hello everyone!

SOO much has happened! I know I won't be able to write everything that I want to today but I'll give you some highlights of my last week and a half...

1. I got transferred!! so yes, Thursday pdays this transfer.  I am still in Independence and at the Visitors Center but I am in Hill Park ward! This ward is actually right in the center of Independence! If you know anything about Independence, you'll know that it gets crazier (the people) the closer you get to the center.. haha, so literally everyday is an adventure and a half.   I actually just moved downstairs in the Willis house to a different room... so HUGE difference. ha. But I am now living in my own area, which is way fun! One of our amazing investigators lives right across the street from us!   I am follow-up training Sister Moulton this transfer. She is amazing. 

2. Transfers happened obviously. Which means soo many tears at the VC. This was the transfer we have all been dreading for lots of reasons. First, our beloved Sister Allan went home :( 

We are going to miss our spunky little sister leader at the VC. She seriously changed my mission. She is amazing. I love her. 

and second, it marked six months that all 10 sisters that came out together have been serving together (aka.. a BIG change was happening).  Half of us left the VC to go full pros. Here's the last selfie of "The Ten" (As Sister Toronto calls us. haha)

3. Goodbyes. I never thought I would love an area so much like I loved Independence 4th ward. They are my family. Saying goodbye to them was soo hard.. especially saying goodbye to Kyle. But I am so grateful I am still at the VC so they can come visit :)

4. Darlene. how I LOVE her. She is our investigator in Hill Park that is getting baptized the day after Christmas! We are so excited for her. She is this adorable lady from Micronesia with 4 adorable kids. Ricky (or Boom Boom) is my favorite. It was hilarious. The second lesson I had with them, we brought them to the VC and we were going downstairs for our lesson, and Boom Boom and the other three kids raced downstairs. We get down there and Boom Boom has climbed into the history/pioneer part and is now pretending to be one of the manequins there. It was hilarious. Our lesson two nights ago with them, they were dancing around, singing "Follow the Prophet". The smile on Darlene's face as this was happening was so amazing. She loves her kids and loves God.   She is so sensitive to the Spirit as well which is awesome.  We cannot wait for her baptism :)

5. We went to go pick up Darlene and her kids with a member before church and we get there  and oh yeah, it is POURING rain btw. So we get there about thirty minutes before church and she comes out of her apartment with 6 kids!... we barely had room in our member's car for the 5 of them.. so definitely not room for 7 of them. Her neighbor wanted her to bring her kids with her to church so we frantically called every member we could think of to help us give them a ride, we finally did and we roll into church 1.5 minutes before sacrament starts with Darlene and our crew of 6 crazy kids who are jumping in every possible puddle they see  and oh yeah.. Sister Moulton and I are speaking in sacrament. haha. the craziest 30 minutes of my life. but hey, everyone got to church. everyone felt the Spirit during the Sacrament. and the Sabbath was truly a delight. 

6. The Dyers. All week, I had been kind of just preparing myself to not like Hill Park as much as 4th ward.. which isn't the best, I know. I just felt that I would never love a ward as much and I felt like I wasn't really needed in that SPECIFIC area, but I was just there to finish up training.. oh man was I wrong. The Lord works in mysterious ways everyone. I am thoroughly convinced of that.  This whole week has been the Lord SHOWING me that. I want to tell you all the details of everything that led up to this, but it won't make much sense, so I'll summarize and when I get home I will tell you every detail because I will NEVER forget the craziness of this. k? perfect.   

ok.. just kidding.. I typed it all out and it just doesn't make sense. haha ask me later about the Dyers :)  but  long story even shorter, I know that every missionary in the world is where they are for a specific reason. They are with their companion for a specific reason and the Lord is in charge of it all.

I'm not sure what else to write about, this week has been crazy. I love my district, I love my area, I love this work. 

Also, Christmas is just around the corner!! so weird!! I feel like it was 4th of July just yesterday!! I hope everyone is having a peaceful Christmas season and that everyone is remembering to celebrate the birth of our Savior this Christmas, the real reason we celebrate :)   Check out Christmas.mormon.org right now if you haven't already :) 

I am so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ. He is everything. I know that He was born so that all of us could return to live with our Heavenly Father after this life and experience a fullness of joy. His plan and His gospel is a plan of happiness and joy.  

Don't forget to read the Book of Mormon this Christmas season too! From your friendly sister missionaries :)

I love you all so much! 

Sister Morgan

where in the world am I going this transfer? -said every missionary every six weeks

Hello family! Another transfer down.. Craziness. These last six months
have flown by. I seriously feel like I just stepped off the plane
yesterday.
We find out what is happening this transfer Tuesday night, while we are in shift at the visitors center! I got a training call on Friday afternoon. I swear I must not be learning enough, because President wants to keep me in 12 week my whole mission. Haha. Good thing I love
it! Ha.
So a little sneak peak into the life of a sister missionaries at the visitors center during transfer time ... When you are always low on sleep ..

Ha.. I don't quite know how to describe this picture and what happened that night but I'll just say that transfers are a very exciting, nervous, sad, happy, crazy time for missionaries.   My transfer prediction: I'll be going to the Liberty Jail to follow up train one of the missionaries there. But... We shall see! 

I am superrrr sad to probably be leaving. I love 4th Ward, I love my companion, and I love the visitors center but I'm looking forward to everything that the Lord has in store for me this next transfer. 

As far as this week goes... I want to first share a scripture with you all that I read this morning during studies that I LOVE.  Alma 27:18.  "Now was this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seekers of happiness."  

I love the happiness that this gospel brings and I will always strive to be that "humble seeker of happiness". It takes giving up our own pride to accept and live the gospel and to rely on Christ for everything and to only do His will but like that scripture says, that is how we have exceeding great joy. I testify that the reason why missionaries are always so happy and why every returned missionary LOVED their mission is because they had the opportunity to live the gospel and to help others live it, which brings true happiness. Or better said:

Shoutout to Christmas.mormon.org. Everyone go check it out and share with everyone you know this Christmas season. 

Back to this week: Tuesday we had our All Mission Christmas conference. It was sooo good! We had the opportunity to hear so many amazing trainings and got to see all the skits the other zones made. Ours was so fun to be a part of. It was so fun to be able to see everyone from the mission!

Then on Wednesday, we had a missionary dinner that the Independence Stake put on for us. This stake is the best. It was so fun. They had a game show against our mission president and his wife and the stake president and his wife..  I think President Vest won. haha.  

 I went to the trainers meeting on Saturday morning and got to be in a companionship with Sister Helmbold! I love my mission and our mission president. I feel so honored to be able to serve in the MIM :) 

So many miracles have happened this week. Some of my favorites include:

All of Sunday, but specifically one part. We went to go contact a referral that we had set up an appointment with before church and he wasn't there, but his friend answered the door. We shared A Savior Is Born video with him and asked his thoughts on it and he went on and on about Christ and Christmas and bore his testimony to us of the Savior and then thanked us for what we do. ... this literally never happens. He then mentioned that he has met with sisters in COROZAL, BELIZE and Japan and loved how the video showed kids from around the world. (testimony to me again about the inspiration of that video. there have been countless miracles from it). and then, we asked him if he had heard of the Book of Mormon and he said yes. We asked him if he had ready any of it and he said yes! the whole thing. H then testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. He has read it from Lehi to Moroni and knows that it is true and everything!!! Sister Flake and I were just trying so hard to act halfway normal and contain the excitement we were feeling from this miracle. We both felt prompted to invite him to church that started in 30 minutes and before we could say anything, he said I just know that I need to go to church... WHHAATTT!!! So we invited him to church and he said he would come! crazy miracle.   This is seriously the Lord's work.  Something that we have been trying to do in our companionship is follow promptings from the Spirit more, even if they are the tiniest promptings. We have seen so many miracles from that. 

This Sunday was amazing. Such a bittersweet time as it was probably my last Sunday in the Independence 4th ward but my testimony was strengthened so much of the fact that the Lord knows us. He knows you and He knows me. He cares about us and loves us. He is ever so involved in the details of our lives. I have come to know that even more as each day goes by. Fast and Testimony meeting was amazing. The Spirit was so strong and then, we taught Gospel Principles and Kyle seriously just made my day with his comments as we were teaching. We had a little heart to heart with him after class. He is amazing. I hope to be able to learn from the Spirit as well as he does someday. He is so incredible. I am going to miss him. Him with his Pristhood ordination certificate :)

We snuck into Young Womens for the rest of the third hour and they were teaching one of my favorite lessons. Spiritual gifts. I loved this scripture: Doctrine and Covenants 46:8 "Seek ye earnestly the best gifts, always remembering for what they are given"

It is always such a great reminder, especially during this Christmas season, that the best gifts in this life come from God and to focus on those. I am most grateful this year for the gift of Faith. My faith is something so sacred and dear to me and I am eternally grateful to have been given this gospel in my life and for the opportunity I have now to share that with others. 

I love you all so much. I am so grateful for my Savior, especially during this time of year. Take moments to remember Him during this busy time of year. He is the reason we celebrate and the reason we are able to have so much joy in our lives. I can testify to all of you that the joy THIS gospel brings into people's lives in uncomparable to anything of the world. 

I love you and pray about you constantly 

Sister Morgan

merry december.

Merry December everyone!!!

well almost. haha.

This week was so amazing. Lots of stories but I'll just give you a few highlights:

Tuesday we went down to a hospital to visit a girl that we have started teaching. Her name is Samantha. We took another sister from the VC with us, Sister Krause. Short side note about Sister Krause... She is a miracle. She is finishing her mission next week, but there is a video on YouTube about her story. Look up, "Kilee Krause's Journey to an LDS Mission" and watch it.  She was in a severe car accident and wasn't supposed to live. She was put into a coma and as she was sitting in the car waiting for the ambulance to come, she prayed to Heavenly Father and told Him that if He would let her live, she would serve a mission. She was able to fully recover from severe brain damage, multiple cracked bones and, despite what doctors told her, serve a full time 18 month mission. Miracle. Anyways, this girl in the hospital, had almost an identical experience. Sister Krause and he were able to relate so well with each other. It was so amazing to be able to see. Such an incredible moment for us and her family. Her mom got baptized around 5 years ago :)

And then, THANKSGIVING!!  Thanksgiving was sooo good. We went and ate breakfast chocolate pie with some other sisters and made the cute little gingerbread turkey my sweet mom sent us. And then, we went out be to go make some visits. One of recent converts called us and told us her husband got taken to the ICU and her daughter wanted to talk to us. So we were able to go over there and say a prayer with them and comfort her and her daughter for a bit. I am truly so grateful for my family. We had dinner with the Banks family. They are the family that had me over for my birthday and surprised me with cheesecake. They are amazing. 

I think one of my favorite things Bout being on my mission is really getting to know who I want to be and what I want my future family to be like. After lunch, we went to the VC for shift :) the VC is seriously gorgeous. 

Saturday, there was a lighting ceremony at the Visitors Center in the evening. It is getting so cold here! This weekend there was an ice storm and it has been raining so hard since then.  Also, the VC got a makeover with the A Savior is born campaign!! I'll talk more about that in a bit. 

Sunday was of course my favorite day because of church. I LOVE THE SABBATH. I love being able to recommit myself to following the Savior. 

And the other exciting event that happened on Sunday..

This came out. You HAVE TO go check out christmas.mormon.org right now and watch the TWO videos the church put out. They are sooo amazing. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and all that he does for us. I love the video on that website "A World Without a Savior". I cannot imagine my life without a Savior and everything that is made possible because of His Atonement. I am grateful to be a part of His gospel and His true church. 

I know that He lives and that He loves us. I LOVE this Christmas season that we all have to really remember the birth of Jesus Christ.  Also, don't forget to check out the 12 days of social on that same website that start tomorrow!!! ( to the Morgan sisters... Bored shorts has one :)

I love you all so much! Sorry I don't have much more time to write! 

Oh but real fast... Our adventure PDAY .. We went to downtown Kansas City to walk around and shop at the Plaza! It is so gorgeous down there! 

Sister Morgan

on being thankful for the tender mercies.

Hello family,

First of all, happy early Thanksgiving!! I am so grateful for all of you. I am so grateful to be a missionary right now. Seriously, I am madly in love with this work and this restored gospel. I cannot describe how much this gospel means to me. I am grateful to know that I can return to live with my Heavenly Father some day and be with my family forever. I am grateful for temples and the opportunity that all of us have to be sealed with our families for eternity. I cannot think of any greater blessing and promise our Heavenly Father could give to us. I am so grateful for prayer and the chance that we have to communicate and ask questions to Him and receive real personalized answers through the Holy Spirit. How amazing!! I love it! 

This week has been amazing. Full of ups and downs.  A few of the highlights include:

- the perfect exchange with Sister Prior on Wednesday and Thursday. I love Sister Prior. She is such a consecrated missionary and she helped me so much in our area for those short 24 hours. We went to go visit a less active whose girlfriend is one of our investigators. I learned so much from Sister Prior about how to really develop a more trusting relationship with less active members and investigators and how powerful that can be.  We sat and chatted with them for about 45 minutes and then out of nowhere they both bore their testimonies to us of this church and tell us some plans they have for the future about them coming to church more and taking the lessons more. It was a miracle!! All because they were comfortable around us and the Spirit was there guiding the conversation.  She is having her baby in 3 weeks, so after that, we will start having lessons with them more frequently and they will start coming back to church!! It was amazing.   Pretty much that exact same thing happened to another less active family who we brought to the VC the other night as well.  I love being a part of this work and being able to see the miracles the Lord is letting us be a part of. 

- also, Sister Prior cut my hair!!! :)

Oh and we had dinner with the Burroughs. Their daughter is the CUTEST!

- how the Lord answers prayers. I have a very strong testimony of the power of prayer and Thursday evening that was confirmed. Little backstory, as I am approaching 6 months in my mission, I am getting soo nervous about my future about having to come home and keep the habits that I have now and continuing to progress and to strengthen my relationship with my Heavenly Father in His gospel. So, to help myself, I have gone crazy on goal setting. In our companionship, we set personal and comp goals every week and I am setting daily goals to accomplish those goals and then goals for my whole mission and life. Pretty much goals on goals on goals.. aka overwhelming, but also amazing. I love goals.   Anyways, throughout the exchange with Sister Prior, I was talking with her about this and about the end of our missions. and THEN, at the end of shift at the VC that night, a girl walks in and I greet her and get to know her a bit. I took her through God's Plan and then just chatted with her. She just got home from her mission in January to Peru and felt prompted to move here to Independence (love these stories, people are so led by the Spirit it is amazing). Anyways, I asked her how it is being home from her mission, if it is weird or sad or..etc. and she responded so joyfully, "It's great! I love it!" It caught me so off guard. Every missionary I know that goes home has such a hard time with going home and is sooo sad for a month or two afterwards or longer, so I had her come sit down with me and explain to me how she got there. The things she told me was exactly what I needed to hear. This whole experience is extremely hard for me to share and try to write because I'm not sure if any of you will understand, but that's the story of a missionary. right? haha.   Anyways, she shared with me soo many things that I needed to hear and really changed my whole mission. Two things she shared with me were:   1. Live in the present. always. strive to search for His will every day of your life and you will have fulfilled your purpose in this life if you do that and act on the spiritual promptings you receive.   and   2. (after I was thinking to myself.. well great, I've just spent so much time focusing on goals for my future and this is exactly what I am supposed to do... not do that.  ha) she said, "goals are great. They are there for direction."   I really can't describe much else to you all.  This girl is amazing and I feel so privileged to get to meet her and so many others on my mission. but in summary, of that experience.... God is real. He knows you. He loves you and He is so involved in the details of your life that we cannot even comprehend. I have a testimony of that as I have seen glimpses of how He is involved in our lives over and over and over throughout my life. 

- getting a cute package from my sweet momma that included Christmas lights that we put up in our room. Tender mercy. Seriously. That is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. Sister Flake and I are seriously in love with them! 

- Sundays. The Sabbath is truly a Delight. Our ward had their primary program this Sunday. It was soo good! I LOVE primary songs. The simplicity of them and the spirit that comes along with having little children testify of the plain and precious things of this gospel is so inspiring and such a great reminder to us all about the simplicity of this gospel. I am reminded of Elder Uchtdorf's talk.. Simplify.   Sunday evening, we had a lesson with Paulina! She is amazing. She is looking forward to her baptism and it seriously has been such a joy being able to be apart of her conversion. :)  (Paulina is in the red jacket :)

I love you all so much! Have a great thanksgiving weekend. Eat some yummy thanksgiving food for me :)   Remember to record some things you are most grateful for! 

- Sister Morgan

Sister Morgan

It's a byu miracle!

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone has had a fabulous week. This week has been great! We have seen soo many miracles.  I'll share two short stories with you all today.

But first, let us send a selfie.. Weekly party at the library to email :)

1. On Friday, this family that we have been teaching that is one of my favorites (the little boy who called me Rapunzel and Sister Flake Belle #precious) moved out of our ward boundaries and into 3rd ward boundaries  (Sister Baggett and Sister Helmbold.. yes those details matter). We couldn't get in contact with them all week to schedule a time for us to come help them move until literally an hour before. The other sisters were amazing by getting 8 members to come out with them to help them move earlier in the week and we were stressing because we couldn't get in contact with them all week and then everything pulled through! So that in and of itself was a miracle. We were praying soo hard that everything would work out. So we help them move on Friday afternoonand they were just like.. "What is happening? Where did these 10 random people come from?" haha, we forget that outside of the Mormon community, that's... not normal. ha. Anyways, that evening we get a text from our investigator Dawn saying "Thanks so much for helping my family!! It means so much to me!!"   Back story on Dawn.. She came into the VC 4 months ago and Sister BAGGETT taught her the first lesson and committed her to be baptized and she accepted! She lives in our area but then started a job as a truck driver.. so haven't been able to stay in contact with her until Friday night. We got that text and were like.. What in the world? We asked her if that lady was her daughter and she said Yes! You didn't know that?.. haha, umm NO!!! so yeah, crazy miracle. What are the odds of that happening.   It was funny because we had asked that lady if she had heard of the Book of Mormon before and she said that her mom has started reading it and we were like, oh cool! (assuming her mom was RLDS or something) and never thought anything else about it.  

Such a testimony to me that this is the Lord's work. He is involved in every single detail of this work and we, as missionaries and members, just simply are privileged enough to be a part of this. We have such a great calling in these last days everyone! We get to be an instrument in the Lord's hands and help Him in the most important work of eternity.  Elder Holland says it perfectly, "Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of the Almighty God, and it is to change the world." So, what are we going to do? For me, I am going to always serve Him. I am going to always strive to become more like my Savior Jesus Christ. I am going to smile more. I am going pray more sincerely. I am going to repent of all my shortcomings and ask for strength in order to overcome them tomorrow and the next day. I am never going to let a day go by where I don't think of my Savior and all that He did and does for me. I am going to be a disciple.

Miracle break... Playing in the leaves in between longest Spanish presentation ever at the VC :) it was two hours. My mind wanted to explode at the end. Ha

2. Last night we had a lesson with Paulina (the sweet girl we had a lesson with last Sunday) at the Visitors Center that was AWESOME!! We taught the Restoration and showed her the short Restoration movie. The spirt was soo powerful. She wants to change her life and find more meaning to it.. umm.. perfect because those are the exact things we promise to everyone that this message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ can do for them. We invited her to be baptized and she said, "Yes! What do I need to do?"  I wish you all could feel for a moment what Sister Flake and I were feeling at that moment. haha. so. much. joy. pure joy. We are so excited for her. I cannot wait to see how she enjoys this gospel because it truly is amazing. I love it. She has planned to be baptized on December 5th! Less than three weeks away! So we have a lot of planning to do, but we cannot wait. Keep her in your prayers. 

And wow, the Restoration movie. Sooo powerful. I am so blessed to be apart of this gospel and have this knowledge of the restoration. I cannot imagine my life without this knowledge. 

the rest of this week... BYU weekend!! BYU played Missouri on Saturday so literally everyone and their mom was in Independence touring Church History Sites. On Saturday, there were over 1300 people that came into the VC! Which is madness. The highest day in the summer for us was 700 people in one day. All last week, we had an average of 100 people, so Friday and Saturday was like complete craziness for all of us, but I loved it sooo much!!  Also, my sweet friend, Tara, was there!!! It was soo good to see her! She seriously changed my life way back when. We took a picture but I don't have it rn, so I'll send it next week :)  Here's a pic of the tailgate party at the stake center next to the VC... only made me miss BYU slightly... he he. 

 

Till next week!!! I love you all so much!!! Don't forget to pray and read your scriptures!! Can't wait to hear how your week went! 

Sister Morgan

tender mercies & the sabbath day

Hello friends and family,

I love you all so much.  I hope this Monday morning has been amazing already for each and every one of you. I am so grateful for all of you. 

This week, has been crazy. Some lows and some highs. but hey, that's life. and wow am I grateful for the lows. That is when we are tested and that is when we grow.  If our lives were perfect all the time, we would not need to be here. there would be nothing for us to learn. there would be no choices for us to make. those choices, that agency is sooo important.  As for me, I choose to be happy. I choose to be positive, I choose to see the good in every situation (or at least try to haha).  What a difference these simple choices of attitude can make. I hope that each of you this week will make a choice for this week that is personal to you. A goal to improve and to PROGRESS!!  As this sweet old man in our ward always says when we see him, "if you aren't progressing you're in a rut! You know what a rut is? It's a grave! With it's ends kicked out! Have you ever been in a rut? I have.... (then he goes on to tell the exact same story of how he was in a rut 5 years ago when he was driving in his car)"   I can't tell you how many times I have heard him say this story to me .. maybe 30? haha, but wow am I grateful for the principle that it teaches me everytime. Our job here on this earth is to progress, to do exactly what this sweet old man warns us of.. to not be in a rut.  Choose to progress this day. Set a specific goal for something you can do this week.  Some ideas: to read your scriptures for 30 seconds more than you are now (even if that means you are only reading for 30 seconds a day.. it's worth it), compliment one person a day, say thank you more, remember your morning and evening prayers, go to sacrament meeting more prepared spiritually this week, etc., etc.

so, now onto the tender mercies...

as I mentioned above, there were lows this week. Appointments fell through, our investigators won't keep their commitments, so much more. We have been trying so hard to work harder. Try harder to help our members in their missionary efforts more. soo many other things.  

up until this sunday.. :)   I seriously may just write only about this Sunday this week. It was soo good.  

The tender mercy, after all of our appointments canceled on Sunday evening, we went to the VC for an appointment we had with a referral we had received from a senior couple that had served here a while back. We had only met them once and based on the luck we had the past few hours, we were unsure if they would show. They did show up. These sweet two twin teenage sisters are sitting there in the vc talking with one of the other sisters when we walked in. The member that we brought (a girl who is heading out on her mission to New Zealand in January) happened to be good friends with them from High School and was pretty much the best team-up. We took them through God's Plan for His Family and sat at the Christus with them. We testified of eternal families to them and testified of our Savior and the peace that comes from living our lives in harmony with how He would have us live our lives. We invited them to learn more and they really wanted to.  This was the greatest tender mercy of the week.  I testify that our Heavenly Father loves us.  He cares about us and is with us every step of the way in this life.  He answers our prayers. I am so grateful for my Father in Heaven and so grateful to have had so many experiences in my life to witness for myself His love. I invite all of you reading this email to find and have these experiences. He will answer your prayers and He will let you know that He loves you. I can promise you that with every part of me.   I love you all so much. This gospel is true. 

The other part of Sunday.. this weekend was Stake Conference for the Independence Missouri Mission. Elder Baxter came to speak to us. He is from Scotland and the talk that he shared Sunday morning was incredible. He started by having our Stake President call out 10 people in the building to come bear their testimony for a short 2 minutes or 120 seconds if they couldn't keep it short ;) and then he got up and talked to us about the Sabbath and how the Savior SIMPLY wants us to give this one day of the week back to Him. That is all. He wants our hearts to be turned to Him. He wants us to not get distracted on just this one day. He then testified of this church and the work that we get to be apart of.  This church is amazing everyone. More importantly, this gospel is amazing. The plan that our Heavenly Father has created for us is flawless and amazing. I love it. 

I love being a missionary and getting to share this message with others. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world and as my 6 month mark is coming up, I am already getting nervous for coming home. Nothing else in this life will ever come close in value and importance as being a full time missionary for Jesus Christ. 

I love you all so much, thank you for everything you do again.   

My favorite talk of the week: "Things As They Really Are" -Elder Bednar (given at a BYU-I Devo, go check it out)

Here's a picture of a very happy 21 year old and her 30 minute crepe party from 7:15-7:45am. #missionarylife

Sister Morgan

Happy late Halloween everyone!

Happy Halloween everyone!! Do you like our costumes?! He he 

Long time no see!! This (half) week has been so good, especially for my companion and I. I can't even begin to tell you (again) how our Heavenly Father answers our prayers. It is incredible.   I am so grateful for all the miracles that I get to see out her on a mission. It is truly the best thing in the world to get to see other peoples' lives change because of this gospel. 

These past two weeks we have been teaching this guy named Michael. He is so incredible. We were out contacting a potential in an apartment complex a couple weeks ago when we felt prompted to go tract the 4 apartments next door. We did, and the very last of the 4 was Michael. We taught him Saturday afternoon for the second time. He is so genuine and honest. He is one our favorite people to teach. This past lesson, he told of us of how he has been praying to God to find some direction and that very same day was the day that we knocked on his door. He has started reading the Book of Mormon and has loved the parts that he has read. 🙌🏻 it seriously makes me so happy. I absolutely love the hours of study that we get in the mornings to read and study from the a Book of Mormon. It truly is revelation from God for us living in these latter days. I love the Book of Mormon. I love the comfort that I receive when reading that scripture that changes my day or helps me through the hard times that I am having or answers the question that I had. It's the best. 

Last Thursday we went to our Ward trunk or treat party and we were so pleasantly surprised when one of the less actives we are working with walked in the door. Sister Flake and I walked into the church and the first thing she said was, "aww man! We should have invited the Putmans!" And then 30 minutes later, cute little Marisol runs up to us to give us a hug. She is adorable. Every time we are in her neighborhood she runs up to us, gives us a high and then asks to watch a video on our iPads. Ha. 

Don't have too much else to say, but here are some pictures! 

Saturday morning we had our Willis transfer breakfast! Halloween edition! 

Halloween was awesome for Sister Flake and I. We had a full proselyting day, which is always the best. We started our day by making some cupcakes for a part member family we are trying to start teaching and for one of our investigators on date. 

 We went out for lunch at chick fil a with Pauline :) 

Oh yeah... And we also went to chick fil a today for PDAY. Ha. 

Pauline and I matched on Sunday for presidents devotional :)

Sister Morgan

Transfer 4 here we go!

I feel like I am going through a "mid-mission" crisis! Haha, I am constantly wondering to myself if I am doing enough and I have loved being able to take up the challenge that Elder Lawrence gave us ALL during conference and asking Heavenly Father what the one thing that is holding me back from progressing. It works every time.
I cannot describe how grateful I am for prayer. Take a moment to think how truly incredible it is. We, imperfect human beings who are constantly making mistakes and constantly being too prideful to remember our Savior, are still ALWAYS given the amazing privilege and blessing to communicate with our Father in Heaven, who has a perfect undying love for us and has created this amazing plan for us to come to earth to learn and progress and to eventually live with Him again. He always answers our prayers. He will always show His love towards us. He will always forgive us. If you were thinking that prayer really is too good to be true or we don't deserve it... We don't and it is too good, but God loves us. I can testify that it is real and that it works.

We had a training given by the APs at our Friday Morning Training Meeting that was SOO inspired. This work and life in general is hard and it can be discouraging. One of them invited us to get down on our knees that evening and say a vocal prayer and ask God if He was proud of us and if He loved us. I want to leave that invitation with all of you who are reading this email. The Spirit that you will overwhelmingly feel is incredible and I can promise you all that you will feel of His love for you individualized as you take this time to let the Spirit enter your heart. It was one of the most sacred moments on my mission.

The rest of my week consisted of:
Running into Kyle during his neighborhood Halloween party! Haha

Disney themed Transfer Breakfast!

Celebrating Sister Helmbold's birthday Sunday morning with crepes :)

And a VC baptism!! Crazy story! So Sister Flake and I were on teaching center Saturday morning and we took a chat and this girl came on and she said her fiancée wanted to be baptized that afternoon! Apparently he had been taught all the lessons in Idaho but changed his mind on being baptized and went to military boot camp in Texas. He prayed about getting baptized there and received his answer that he should be baptized. Anyways, his fiancée was only in town that weekend. We called his bishop and told him of the situation and got in contact with the missionaries there. We called her back yesterday and they had met with the missionaries at 2pm that day and had a baptismal service ready by 4pm! She sent us some pictures of the day also, such an incredible experience to be apart of. The girl thanked us and said she wouldn't have known what else to do without us. Teaching center miracles are the best! I LOVE all the resources we have to share the gospel.

I don't think I've mentioned how much I love this mission in my emails before. ha 😬 I LOVE this scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 58:
7 And also that you might be honored in laying the foundation, and in bearing record of the land upon which the Zion of God shall stand

I love this work everyone. And I love you all. I pray for you all daily. I am so grateful to be able to have you all as my support. Even though I'm however many miles away, please let me know if there is anything at all that I can do for any of you.


Sister MorganHello family!

Another transfer down. The transfer call didn't come through Wednesday
evening because they switched the phones out for most of the
missionaries, so the APs came to the VC to announce it during prayer
meeting. This transfer is soo weird! All the sisters except for 2 are
staying at the VC just switching companions! Sister Flake and I are
staying together and are finishing training but seriously all the
other sisters just swapped. This has never happened at the VC
apparently but it's so fun! The ten sisters that I came out with are
still in the VC together! :)

This morning, Sister Flake and I took Sister Hixon and Hafoka to
transfers. Sister Hafoka is going home to Tonga on Saturday. I'm gonna
miss her so much. We got to hear her testimony Wednesday morning at
the departure breakfast, she is amazing. I am so grateful to have such
amazing sisters to serve around and learn from. It's overwhelming to
see all these "seasoned" missionaries around all the time who have
truly been changed by the Atonement and try to figure out how we can
do the same. And not just for missionaries on their missions but
everyone striving to be consistently change because of the Atonement.

Cheers to 20 years!

We did meet this amazing guy named Jeff though. We helped him move out of his apartment as we were walking by and we were soo surprised to get this cute text from him later that evening

"Sister snowflake and sister Morgan,
God heard my prayers Friday early in the morning when I rolled outta bed and hit my knees and asked God in Jesus' name to give me the blessings needed for loading the apartment. I hired a company and was sent to strong men whom were more than willing to get the heavy items and work around the fragile things I felt were Surely to break if I left in my bumbling stumbling crippled up body to get out. Then in through the door, wearing two beautiful smiles come to sisters of God was one attention to serve my prayer and blessed me with their help. I was no longer alone in my quest, but saved by His miracle of granting prayers which there is no other explanation of the timing as well as the honesty of His love for sending into beautiful angels with loving souls to step in and being so generous with your time. I worked on Saturday moving furniture and putting my bed together as well as tiring myself to the point of napping my afternoon away and not getting your message till 7:00 PM, missing the little boy's baptism from your congregation. Thank you oh so much for being so much help to little ol' me. You're kindness shall be returned by acts of kindness and blessings. You both are in my prayers and in my heart and thoughts, which I am finding it harder to type because of the tears of joy in my eyes from the actions of my two angels of God. Thank you so kindly, Jeff"

It seriously made our day. You never know how much small acts of service can mean to others, always act on small promptings from the Spirit everyone! We had a lesson with Jeff yesterday, he is awesome!



This week, we also had the youth from one of the wards come into the VC and watch a movie, I got to close the movie with them and invited them to have a short testimony meeting in the theatre room. I can't even get over how strong the youth of the church are! That is the thing I miss most about summer is being able to have hundreds of youth bearing their testimony to me on presentations and just the Spirit that is always in the room. Something I also love is seeing little children walk into the VC with their families ... These kids that are raised by these righteous parents are so strong, I can't even describe it. We are here in this generation, in this last dispensation, to build up the kingdom of God! We are the elect, we are here to do the work that has been prepared for us. I am so grateful to be apart of that right now and can't wait to continue on in this work for the rest of my life! This gospel is incredible. Everyone reading this right now that has a patriarchal blessing, pull it out this evening and read it and take some time to reflect and see the purpose that YOU have in this work. And then, get to work!

If I haven't said this before, I LOVE this gospel. I love this work and I LOVE being a missionary.

I also love Independence and the Independence 4th Ward ❤️
I don't know how some members found out it was my birthday, I told Sister Flake she had to stop telling literally everybody! Haha, but they are seriously the sweetest. One of my favorite couples in the Ward, Brother Banks and Sister Brisson-Banks came up to us on Sunday and told us to stop by on Wednesday sometime so we said ok... Both clueless, because I hadn't told anyone it was my birthday, we showed up, and they surprised me with cheesecake and singing happy birthday. So precious.

Brother Banks is from Australia and always gives us a "pinky" shake and says, "Cheerio!" in his Australian accent every time we see him. It's my favorite. And Sister Brisson-Banks is a genius with family history. Sooo inspiring. I love her.

The rest of the birthday lo-down.. We had district meeting earlier and then had district lunch afterwards. We went to Queen Taco, home of $1 tacos!! :)

and my CHEERS TO 20 YEARS!! Haha

I love the sisters I serve around, they seriously just make my day. Everyday.
Next, we went to the VC, where Sister Fullmer, one of the senior sisters, made me an adorable and delicious cake. (I seriously thought I would to make it out safe with no one knowing its my birthday because Sister Flake's and mine calling was birthday coordinator this transfer.. I was.. Wrong. Ha)

Got a cute little delivery from my daddy 🍓🍫 :) and then Sister Andree came in and surprised us at the VC with another cake AND she bought both of us Kansas City Royals shirts. She is so thoughtful. We had asked her earlier in the week where the best place to get Royals shirts was and she surprised us with our own. Ps. Royals have apparently almost made it into the World Series, literally everybody and their mom wears Royals shirts 99% of the time. Definitely not I'm Vegas anymore. Haha.

Sister Helmbold also serenaded me at the end of shift with her AMAZING arrangement of Called to Serve, Savior Redeemer of My Soul, and I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go. She is soo talented. It seriously my day. I love her so much.

Again, thanks so much for all the thoughtful emails and letters. It made my day. I love you all so much. Now here's to the next 20 years!!

We are currently trying to motivate ourselves to carve these pumpkins we got... But probes not gonna happen.. Ha

Sister Morgan

Ps. Transfers are ALREADY this next week! So crazy! Sooo, I'll either email on Thursday.. Or next Monday.. Or both. Haha depending on if I stay here in Independence or leave! So talk to you all soon!I just have to start out by saying thank you. Thank you so much for
all the love that was sent my way for my birthday, I couldn't have
asked for better family and friends in my life right now. And wow, I'm
20 now! So weird! My second day in adulthood was having to go get a
shot! Woohoo! But good news! I didn't pass out!! Haha

This week has seriously flown by, it makes me so sad to think about
how fast time is going out here. I feel like I have been out for maybe
3 weeks but it's already been almost 5 months. Where is the time
going?!

So this week:
We met with a lady in our Ward who has had to stay at home for a
couple months for medical reasons, she is so amazing. Her home
teachers were bringing her the sacrament when we stopped by, the
priesthood is amazing. We got to visit with her and share a message
with her. Her testimony is so strong and powerful, I absolutely adore
her and I am so grateful for this incredible opportunity I have on a
mission to learn so much from these incredible ladies.

Honestly, his week has been kind of slow. A lot of appointments have
fallen through and it's been so hard to help people keep progressing.
I wish that our investigators could see what we see in them, but the
good news is... Fall is GORGEOUS here. I'm obsessed.