the miracle of liz. (a must read)

For any of you, who are trying to come closer to your Father in Heaven, I want you to know that it is possible and it is worth it. Feeling the Spirit in our lives from doing the little things each days is a life changer. I know that conversion is a life long process. I know that daily prayer and scripture study is what keeps me converted. I love this gospel so much. This is how we find true happiness and it is how Liz is finding true happiness. It is the best!!


That was definitely the highlight of my week. Other things include:

- Having a lesson with our stake president with a part member family in the ward who lives very very humbly. She was so grateful to have the stake president in her home. He extended the invitation to church and she came this Sunday
- Having a million people at church on Sunday! It is normally a struggle and a half to get one or two people to come to church (investigators or less actives). This week, 7 investigators came to church and 3 less actives came to church. It was pure craziness and bliss. Two members even brought their friends to church yesterday! like WHAT! secret: if you want to make the missionaries in your ward so happy, bring a friend to church and introduce him/her to them. :)
- going on exchanges with the sisters in Clinton MO

- working with our fabulous members. This family is one of my favorites. I hope I stay enthused about member missionary work as this family has. He also taught us how to make Italian pasta from his mission!

- my sweet companion (who doesn't like sushi), alllowed us to get sushi the night we didn't have a dinner because I was craving it and hadn't had it in a year! #truelove and I figured it deserved a picture :)

also, look how gross this dead rat was outside one of our investigator's house!

I love you all!
Sister Morgandear family,

I wish you all could be out here on a mission with me and experience
these wonderful things with me each week instead of me trying to tell
you a glimpse of a quarter of the feelings and stories I have. For
now, this will do though.

I know I probably say this every week, but more than any other time in
my mission, SO much has happened this week. And I am aware that I
share miracles with you all every week. I want to share a story with
you all this week, but first, I love this scripture in Moroni 7:29

"My beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you,
Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men."

Miracles are going on around us every day. Heavenly Father is reaching
out in love to His children, helping them along and answering their
prayers. all. the. time. I love how it says that angels minister to
the children of men. It is through these ministering angels that
people are converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Spirit touches
their heart enlightens their understanding in a way that only can come
from God. That is exactly what happened with Liz this week.

Tuesday morning, we had a lesson with Liz at the Visitors Center. We
have taught her pretty much everything. We have read parts of the Book
of Mormon with her. She has come to church. She has prayed. Everything
in the books, but she still had concerns about the church. Social
concerns, family concerns, political concerns, doctrine concerns. You
name it. We decided to watch Meet the Mormons with her. We finished
the movie, the Spirit was of course so strong. (If any of you haven't
seen that movie, go watch it.. pretty sure it's on Netflix or
YouTube.. it's the best). We talked for a little bit but not about too
much.

Thursday morning, we got an email from Liz. Here's a short excerpt from it:

"Where is all this coming from? Tuesday, after that movie, I was kind
of speechless. Not me, right?! I had an overwhelming feeling of peace
and ease that I would "do this thing," i.e. be baptized, and it would
all work out. All the issues I have had with the church, that you both
have heard me voice my concerns about, all that did not matter. I
cannot even really remember what we talked about after the film
because I was trying to understand what was going on with me and what
it all meant. The words I spoke were certainly not my own. Something
was talking through me, at least that is what it felt like. On the
ride home, that serenity continued. Something about you two, what we
just watched and what I have been learning about suddenly made sense.
It suddenly clicked and I could see clearly. Does that even make
sense?
Anyway, I was wanting to catch you up on that aspect of things and
maybe chat about that baptism plan you had for me and if even though I
adamantly declined at first, could we maybe be able to reinstate it? I
know. I am all over the place. hahaha "

I wish you all could have been with Sister Hixon and I when we read
that email!! haha. We were freaking out.

We met with her on Saturday for like 2 hours and just talked about
everything. Made plans for her to be baptized on June 11 (the day that
we tried to set for her 2 weeks ago). When we were setting her date,
we decided to kneel and ask in prayer what day for her to be baptized.
She has to give up some things cold turkey to be baptized on June 11
so we wanted to know if that was the right date for her. She finished
the prayer and just said, "June 11 it is!" Ah! It was incredible! One
of the things Liz is giving up is tea, which she loves! We made an
agreement that we would give up soda for the rest of our missions with
her, so no more Dr. Pepper during our p-day chick-fil-a visits, but
for someone that we adore :)

She came to church on Sunday and ran down the hall as soon as she came
in to give us a hug and was just beaming all day. That sacrament
meeting in the YSA was so catered to her and the things she is going
through it was incredible. She was sobbing throughout it all. She is a
miracle. Conversion is a miracle.

wedding week!!! (+missionary work)

Also, they are selling the Willis house so this was the last sleepover there :(

And just a couple days ago (Saturday), I was with Sister Oldroyd out here in KC! We finally got to be companions! I love her so much! This is exchange was so fun and so many amazing things happened. We were right where we needed to be at just the right times. I love it when that happens! We had dinner with the Ramirez family. It was so amazing. They are awesome home and visiting teachers and it was so incredible to hear their stories and the miracles that they have been apart of. We showed them the Mormon Message called "Reach Out With Love" and all four of us were in tears afterwards. I have gained such a love for reactivation work. And it truly is "no task for the idler" as President Monson says in that video. I absolutely love the less-active members that we are working with now and it is truly a work of love. When they are able to FEEL that we love them, they progress. Anyways, we went out with Sister Ramirez afterwards to visit one of the sisters she visit teaches who is coming back to church now :) It was so awesome to see the love that this sister had towards her visiting teacher. That is one thing when I get home that I am going to be better at. Being a visiting teacher is the best calling there is in my opinion (and guess what!! we all get that calling!! ;)

Last Sunday, we had to say goodbye to one of our favorite members, Sister Oliver. She is the best member missionary and an inspiration to me. She is leaving to Australia for a couple months!!

AND I got to see my favorite Pauline at the VC too! I love her so much!

oh yeah, and it has been raining SOO much here and I chopped my hair off!!

but back to the wedding festivities (the best part of the weeks):

I got to see RACHY on Wednesday! We went out to BBQ in KC with her cute mom and then to a lesson with Ken! She is such an amazing missionary already. Her testimony was sooo powerful.

and then Thursday was the wedding!!
I am so grateful I got to be at the sealing. It was such a special experience to be a part of and it was SO GOOD to see you all family!!! I love and miss you all dearly!

still waiting on more pictures from the wedding. .. cough cough..

Sister Morgan

Hello famILY!

Long time, no see!
It was so great to see some of you all last week! Congrats Ben and
Lyndsey on getting married! I am so glad that I was able to be there
for your sealing :) Aren't temples amazing?! I am so grateful for
temples and the opportunity that we have to be together with our
family members forever. It is such a comfort to me to know that I will
be with my family members after this life because the blessings of the
temple. And now, Lynds and Ben have those same blessings!! Wooo!!!
Also ps, I finally have an older brother!! YES!!

Really though, long time, no email! There is so much that has happened
these last two weeks in our area, then we'll get to the wedding. There
is no possible way for me to share all of the awesome things that have
happened with you. We have met some amazing people and some amazing
families recently. That is one of my favorite parts about the mission
is just getting to meet so many people and to be able to learn from
each one of them. It is so incredible. We really can learn from every
single person we meet.

But here are just a few highlights:

Exchanges. I went on two exchanges. Both with sisters that serve in
Independence. I got to be with Sister Murdoch again and we did lots of
service in her area. Have I mentioned that I LOVE Independence? It was
a stake service project so it was so fun to be able to see members
that I served with in my last areas there!

Air Force Bases by day, boonie farms by night.

Then we had an appointment out in the boonie towns outside of Warrensburg that we got lost going to in the middle of no where with lots of cows in the road and in pouring rain. We made it though!

Sister Phillips is an amazing missionary. So strong and has an even stronger testimony of God's love and His plan for us.

We also have been teaching this woman named Leila. She is so amazing. She is from Iran and is so excited to start coming to church! We heart attacked her door this week because she works so much and was just feeling really down on herself. She called us that evening and left us the sweetest voicemail. She is so precious.

ALSO! The Little Blue River YSA Branch got discontinued last week and got merged in with the Shawnee Mission YSA Ward and we found out we get to be over it as well, which is way exciting that we get to stay with all of our favorite branch members :) Yesterday was our first time in the ward and it was so fun! also so strange! Sister Hixon and I felt like we were back in a BYU YSA ward. ha. We just always make sure that our name tags are always seen. :) The boundaries are huge as well. They go all the way to the border of Lawrence, Kansas, include the Olathe KS, Lenexa KS, and KC MO stakes! it's a good adventure :)

Anyways, I love you all so much! Have a great week and HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the amazing mothers out there. There is no other calling more divine than being a mother. And a special shout out to my celestial mom who put up with so much raising me. I love her so much and she deserves more than this world.

These flowers are for you Mom!!

Sister MorganHello family!!

This week flew by as usual!

We went on exchanges with the sisters in Warrensburg! I went with
Sister Phillips to her area! It was so fun! We ate dinner on Whiteman
Air Force Base with some members that live there which was so fun! It
was so intense, everyone was in uniform and so intense! Sister Philips
forgot her ID and the girl at the desk was so straight faced and said,
"we can't let you in." we were like, even though we are missionaries?!
haha, so we drove back to the apartment to get her ID. ALSO! tender
mercy. back in the MTC, my mom sent me my Social Security card and I
just put it in my wallet and just last week, I was like, I probably
need to take this out and put it in a safer place, but just didn't and
thank goodness I didn't. It has been sitting in my wallet with me the
past 11 months of my mission for that night when they needed the
number and I would not have it memorized. God sure does watch out for
us, doesn't He?!
Being on base seemed like we were just walking around the movie set of
The Giver or some movie like that, except it was all real life! so
fun!

And look, the base has a perfect photo op place for exchanges!! haha,
we ran out into the rain to take this :)