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.

Elaine, Sacred Spots of MO, and happiness.

Hello family!!

This week has been absolutely crazy!! There have been so many things that happened! I'll try to tell about as many as I have time for.  

This morning, we got to skype with Sister Dalton for Friday morning training meeting! It was so amazing. I absolutely adore that woman. She is so Christlike and the passion she has for this gospel is contagious. She talked with us a lot about the Christlike attribute of virtue. It is so fun to hear her testimony of that attribute and how she received the inspiration to add it to the young women's theme. I loved it. 

We all wore our young woman's medallion this morning for it. Ah! She is incredible. I loved all of the things she told us. I am so grateful for this mission where we can truly be refined and polished into the person our Heavenly Father wants us to be and for the opportunity I have to strengthen my faith and testimony while I help others strengthen theirs as well.  Sister Dalton invited all of us to go and read President Nelson's talk again and really study it. I want to invite you all to read his talk again as well. Women are so important in this work, especially the women of this generation.  Some other sisters and I were talking about that yesterday as well when we all went to...

ADAM-ONDI-AHMAN!!!

:)

Words cannot describe how I feel about this mission and especially these sacred sites that are here. The VC directors, Elder and Sister Toronto took us up to Adam-Ondi-Ahman and Far West yesterday. What an incredible opportunity it was. A couple that lives up close there toured us around ALL of Adam-Ondi-Ahman for a couple of hours. The Spirit that is there is absolutely incredible.  I feel so blessed to be apart of this mission. Adam-Ondi-Ahman is where Adam and Eve went when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden and where Adam blessed his posterity before he passed away. It is ALSO where a great sacrament meeting will occur at the Second Coming of our Savior. 

Everyone, I cannot tell you clearly enough how important it is that we stay faithful during these last days. We live in a time where our faith will be tested and it is utterly important that we use all the time we have here to build up our Heavenly Father's kingdom. 

{on preacher's rock}

Lynds, told ya I'd use my fanny pack on my mission ;)

To my family: nothing else is of greater importance than this gospel. I'm realizing that more and more every single day being here but especially at Adam-Ondi-Ahman. Like Elder Uchtdorf said, "EXALTATION is our goal, discipleship is our journey." We each need to be doing our part in order to make it to the celestial kingdom together. Because I care so much about you all and love you, I'm going to preach a bit... Go to church. Stay all three hours. Partake of the sacrament worthily. Repent before you go to church. Use the atonement. Do not let a day go by when you don't think about the sacrifice that your Savior did for you. He is everything. Do not get distracted with the world, I've realized how easy it is to get distracted and it scares me. ... Ha, it makes me never want to come home.. Seriously though, do the simple and small things, they add up! I think you get the point, but please please please don't forget it. This gospel means so much to me, it is everything. 

Back to Adam-Ondi-Ahman, it was truly an incredible spiritual experience but we also had so much fun. I am so grateful to be able to serve around so many amazing sisters. They uplift me so much and I can't imagine my mission without them. 

After leaving Adam-Ondi-Ahman, I can't even describe to you the peace that we all felt. I have never in my whole life felt so peaceful. There was no possible way for Satan to enter into that sacred site and put even an ounce of doubt into anybody's thoughts. The church is true!

After Adam-Ondi-Ahman, we went it Far West! 

Ah! It was so amazing to be able to go to all these sites after 5 years. I never realized how much I truly LOVED these sites until returning. I have an undying love for .. Well, this gospel.. And these sacred sites. The church history tour forever changed me.. BECAUSE OF the Spirit there. 

My favorite district leader left today... We'll get to that later, but he always says, "people say missions change you. My mission didn't change me, the atonement of Jesus Christ changed me. The mission is simply a greenhouse to the Atonement to work" it's so true though. 

My crazy Tongan friend goes home this transfer :(

We took a tour of the Liberty Jail afterwards when we dropped the Jail sisters off. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith, the prophet of the Restoration, and his bravery and courage, and his testimony. I can testify to you all that he is a prophet of God and he restored the full gospel onto the earth today for US. 

Other crazy things that happened this week:

Some fun visitors came into the VC!

Hi dad and grandpa!!!  Sister Helmbold and I get to take them through the VC together. Sooo good to see them! :)

Our last district meeting this transfer..

This was the best district meeting I've been apart of. Elder Taylor's "Sermon on a Box" haha. I love being able to be around so many "seasoned" missionaries to learn from and be inspired by. 

We also had zone training this week ... I know... As if our week couldn't have gotten any better 

I LOVE this mission and Independence.

One last fun story for you..

Monday in our area we had the coolest experience. We met this CUTE lady walking her adorable dog. We were able to testify of the Restoration to her and really teach the whole first lesson to her on the street. Ah! I love the people here so much. Tears just started streaming down her face as I recited the first vision to her. I felt prompted to point out to her that what she was feeling fit then was the Spirit testifying to her that what we were sharing with her was truth. She told us that she was crying because we were brave girls. Haha, yep! Talking to everyone we see about religion in this world where 1. Most people don't talk to anyone they see that they don't know and 2. You definitely don't talk about religion is brave. And it is scary at times, but the overwhelming Spirit you feel while bearing testimony and testifying of Christ is worth it. That feeling is always worth all the awkward times. Haha. 

Thanks so much everyone for all that you do. I love you guys! I hope you had such a great week! I'll talk to you Thursday!!!! Crazy to think that there are only two weeks left of this transfer. 

Oh... And guess who will be studying Advertising at BYU next winter! Just barely got that email like 5 minutes ago 😍

I love you all so much!!!

Sister Morgan

Never have I ever...

Would look over at each other every time the sabbath day got brought up and would just in aww say, "wow, the whole world just got rebuked. Haha" but for real, that is my goal. To make my sabbath days more spiritual and more uplifting. I want to get better/start repenting BEFORE I even get to church. It is sooo necessary for us to have the spirit with us every single day in this world. That is why the sabbath is so important!!!

Anyways, make sure you go and watch conference and keep reviewing your notes and the talks. Getting to hear from the prophet and apostles of the world is such a blessing!!! Don't ever take that for granted!!

The rest of this week..
This weekend was seriously just a spiritual feast! Friday we had zone conference from 9-5 in Lenexa Kansas (we got to stop at chick fil a on the way back too :) also, sooo weird being out of independence! This place is just a special place. Haha, Kansas is like the normal world. It reminded me so much of Vegas and Utah.

The cute members here are AMAZING, hey gave us all cotton candy at zone conference #presh.

So then conference.. The Torontos are adorable and got us all cinnamon rolls for conference Saturday cause they heard some sisters mention when we were talking about our family's conference traditions that a lot of us would have cinnamon rolls. They are so cute.

I can't even say how pumped we were for conference. We were jumping and running around the VC for those two hours that we had to wait that morning. Haha. CONFERENCE IS AMAZING.

We went over to Kyles on Monday and ah! He is amazing! We asked him how conference was and he just couldn't stop telling us about the prophet and how wise he is and how he loved what he said. And we were just overjoyed saying, "I know right?!" Haha. Afterwards, he took us around the trailer park after his lesson and he introduced us to the whole neighborhood pretty much. So awesome!

TUESDAY! I got a CRAZY surprise to see this girl walk up to the VC!

So good to see Claudia. We went through Gods Plan together. I love you Claudia! Thanks for making my day :)

When the VC gets slow we find other things to do... Haha

And WEDNESDAY! Miracles! Like I said last week, Sister Flake and I are trying to talk to seriously everyone. It has been amazing. And hilarious. The funny contacts of this week:
- giving out Book of Mormons (or Books of Mormon ha) through our car to.. Two guys begging for money who sang us a little song to say thanks. And this guy walking on the street.. Ha. He fell down trying to grab the book from the car as we were starting to move. Haha. Missionary work is so fun.
- pulling over when we see anyone to talk to. Haha. We probably seem like crazy people but everyone needs to hear this message!
But, one of those contacts.. We met this lady really quickly before she got in her car and asked if we could come back to share more. And she said yes! She said any day at 10am so we said we'd come back Wednesday. We normally don't get done with studies and lunch till noon, so it was kind of weird already being out of our house by 9:30 but we felt like we needed to go to this "tentative appointment" even though we couldn't confirm with her because we didn't have her number and we couldn't remember her name. Anyways, we show up and her daughter in law was he only one there and so we asked her if we could come in and share the message with her instead and she said yes! She had a two week old daughter there. I'm not even kidding, this was probably my favorite lesson that I've taught/been apart of on my mission. We taught her the restoration and the spirit was soo strong. Sister Flake and I read this scripture a couple days ago (D&C 50:13-14,17-22) talking about (esp. v. 22) how we know if an investigator or anyone we are teaching feels the spirit. This scripture answers that ... If/when we are feeling the spirit, we know they are as well, because the receiver(them) and the teacher(us) are both edified when the spirit teaches. This lesson was amazing. We are teaching her again TOMORROW! Her name is Deonna and she is amazing. Gorgeous and adorable and so ah! Just amazing! I love this mission and all the miracles that happen.

Here's our #TreatTuesday pic

I have learned so much while being out here. No, it isn't always fun and happy all the time but I can honestly say I have never been happier in my life. What President Eyring said in his talk is so true. We need to have the Spirit with us as our constant companion (I liked how one of the apostles said that the Spirit is our best "traveling companion"). Having the Spirit with us as a companion is truly the source of real happiness. I testify that that is true. Everything that is good comes from our Heavenly Father. I love you all so much. Thanks so much for everything.

Have such a great week everyone! Tell me the scripture y'all are "ponderizing" this week too! (Go read/listen to Elder Durrant's talk to find the definition of ponderizing ;)
This is my scripture for the week: Enos 1:15. I love it :) can't wait to hear yours!!!

Love,
Sister MorganBeen so happy in my life! (Even while being rebuked) haha.

Everyone! Conference was... Incredible. Probably my favorite
conference I've ever listened to. If you missed some of the sessions
or didn't see any of it, go to lds.org right now and watch it. Some of
my favorite things from conference were Presidemt Uchtdorf's talk. I
loved how he said over and over how we need to simplify our
discipleship and simplify the gospel. It's so true! (Of course ha) but
it's always such a great reminder. I get so overwhelmed sometimes with
all the things I need to change in my life or things I need to improve
on to be a better follower of Christ, but it's important that we focus
on the small things... Which really are the big things. Speaking of
things to improve on... Elder Lawrence's talk was soo good as well.
Make sure you pray and ask Heavenly Father, "What lack I yet?". Our
discipleship can be so much more manageable when we are given
something specific to work and focus on. After all, "our goal is
exaltation. Discipleship is our journey." But about being
rebuked... Throughout conference me and the other sisters

Four months too fast!!

So to start out, Kyle got confirmed in church on Sunday and bore his testimony in fast and testimony meeting. His testimony was ah! I can't even describe how amazing it was except for the fact that I was like almost bawling afterwards. He is so amazing. He was describing how he knew that this church was true and just described the spirit so perfectly by saying, "I'm not sure how to describe it, it just felt good, it felt right, and it makes me happy". I can't even say how much he has changed these past three months. He is so happy and just glowing now. His life has been changed through the atonement of Christ and it has been the biggest tender mercy of my life to be able to witness it. All things are possible through Christ.

We started his new member lessons yesterday. We had our lesson as we killed around this lake by his house, it was such an amazing experience. The Spirit was so strong as we were able to have such peace and quiet as we shared with him the message of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ with him.

It was right here in the lesson (I couldn't help but sneak a picture), after we had circled the lake, that we stopped to talk about Joseph Smith. The Spirit was so strong. Kyle listened as we shared with him the experience that Joseph Smith. It was incredible. Being able to recite the first vision to someone with the words from a prophet is so powerful. Ah! My life has just been so blessed by knowing Kyle. I love this gospel and how it truly changes lives.

Other highlights... Haha, Tuesday was amazing. We found this apartment complex that is "golden". We seriously have found sooo many people that are soo interested learning more about this restored gospel there. We love it. So on Tuesday, we parked out car in the neighborhood and went to go tract/street contact, and as we were leaving this car pulled up to us and these two girls got out and came up to us apologizing for what happened.. This...

So no mom and Lynds, I didn't crash the car already (yet😉)

I'm convinced that God's ways are higher than our ways though. We were able to share a Book of Mormon with these two sweet girls and share a little bit about this restored gospel. Coincidences don't exist. God has a plan for everything and everyone. Haha Sister Flake and I probably seemed like we were crazy to these girls as we're just happy to be able to talk to them and share the gospel with them. Haha missionary work is so fun! I seriously just can't get enough of it, I love it. I love getting to meet so many different type of people and I have come to realize how individual and personal the atonement is. It is for everyone. Even for these people...

I'm telling you all, missionary work is so fun! So many things to find joy and laughter in, so many lives to witness change, so much work to do! But this sign though.. Haha we laughed and were like well... It doesn't say proselyting.. Idk what proselytizing is.. *knock, knock* haha.

Sister Flake and I have been trying so hard this past week to really find the elect. To find those who Heavenly Father is preparing to enter the waters of baptism. Because as D&C 4 says, "the field is white already to harvest!" So many miracles have been happening. Kinda fun story from Monday. Sister Flake and I had 10 minutes in a neighborhood before we had to head to a lesson, we got together and said a prayer asking to find the person whom Heavenly Father was preparing. In that 10 minutes we only talked to one couple, a mom and a daughter who were sitting in their car as we walked past. We were headed back to the car and had a feeling that we needed to go back and tell them of our experience. So we did! We testified to them that we had faith in our Heavenly Father's plan for us and that He needed us to come back to talk to them. We got to share a Book of Mormon with them and taught them a short mini lesson. We don't know yet what ended happening with them but those small moments are some of the greatest joys of missionary work. They make it so fun. I just love it. Testifying of my Savior is what makes this work amazing for me, it makes me so happy. Everyone needs to know this truth.

Back to the week... Last PDAY, we found the cutest shirts on the square, so yay for matching during PDAY sports :)

I have so much more to say.. But no more time! But, this weekend is conference! I'm so stoked. Everyone always says that conference is the best on your mission, I understand now! I can't wait! I can't even say how grateful I am for a living prophet who guides the whole world with the authority from God. Make sure to watch it! On tv, or on lds.org! Saturday and Sunday (11-1 and 3-5pm MO time :)

I am so grateful to be here in this mission. I am grateful for the times I have to grow and be stretched in order to become the person my Heavenly Father wants me to be. God is so good. If I could tell everyone in the whole world one thing and help them to truly understand one thing, that would be that their Heavenly Father and their Savior loves them. With a perfect, unwavering love. Charity. Something that has been coming up sooo frequently lately. And something I am still trying to understand more and also develop more in myself. Having enough charity to show our love and gratitude for Him by being more obedient. And the charity to help others feel the love that He has for them.

I love you all so much. Know that you are loved. I hope at least some snippet of this email made sense. I wish so badly that I could express better what missions are like and the experiences that I'm having. The saying that the most important convert you have on your mission is yourself is the most accurate saying ever.

Love,
Sister MorganHello again from another amazing week here in the MIM!

It has been sooo good getting to hear from so many of you! It
seriously makes my days so much better. I am so incredibly grateful to
have such loving friends and family. I feel so blessed.

This week was... a miracle. I don't even know where to start. This
transfer has been the best. Sister Flake is amazing. I learn so much
from her. And wow. Our area. Soo amazing. I have always loved
Independence 4th Ward, but every day that goes by here, I keep hoping
that President will keep me here all 18 months.. Ha. It really would
be amazing.

During one of our sonic runs (actually the first one. Ha) it's just
like back up at byu... Except they're at 8:30pm haha. And we can't eat
in the car. Haha