I owe to my mission..

This week has been amazing as well! Seriously, I just love being a missionary. I cannot believe how fast time is going. It is making me so sad but I am loving every second that I have left of serving the Lord here in Missouri. 

Last Monday, we had our FHE lesson with the Russell's. I absolutely love that family so much. We taught them the first part of the plan of salvation and are going over tonight to finish it up :)

On Wednesday we had interviews with President and Sister Vest during our district meeting. I feel so incredibly blessed to be serving in this mission with the Vests. Yesterday, they brought all their extended family into the jail in the evening and I got to take them through on a presentation! I have learned so much from both of them and know that I needed to be in this mission because of them.  Yesterday, there was a couple from Shoal Creek Valley that we were starting to teach before I left that came into the jail too! They came in with one of my favorite families! It was so much fun to go through the jail with them. The wife of the family came up to me afterwards and said that she has been through the history presentation at the jail countless times but never understood the history as well as this time when I took them through. That is huge coming from her if only you knew. Haha. So yesterday was very good! 

Thursday we went on exchanges with the sisters in the Liberty 1st Ward and are done with exchanges for the rest of the transfer now. I was with Sister Anderson in Doniphan! She is such an amazing missionary!! That morning, Sister Baggett and I both gave trainings at TMTM. I gave a training on the miracle of a mission. I jus talked about what being a successful missionary means and then I quoted some of the talk by Elder Holland called "The Miracle of a Mission". This is one of the parts of his talk that has been meaning so much to me recently...

"In two years my life was changed forever and forever and forever. Everything I hold dear, everything I cherish in one way or another, I owe to the experience that converged from my childhood, my lovely parents, and my good home. Converged and passed into my soul on a mission. Everything — my marriage to Sister Holland, my children, the fact that they have been on missions and all married in the temple and now are raising children to go on missions and be married in the temple, my education, and my chance to have a profession in education, my church assignments—everything that has ever blessed me I owe to the gospel, collectively, broadly, and to my mission specifically."

I can't even begin to describe how true that is. Here was an elder who served out here like a year ago that said "everyone says that missions change you. Missions do not change you, the Atonement of Jesus Christ changes you. The mission is just a greenhouse for the Atonement to take place". I am so grateful for this little greenhouse that I get to live in for these 18 months to help shape who I need to be. 

Yesterday, we were also asked to help in primary by telling the kids how we prepared for missions and we came in a little early and got to listen to end of their singing time and they were singing the song, "Gethsemane". It was the sweetest thing ever. The chorus of the song goes like this: 

Gethsemane, Jesus loves me, so he went willingly to Gethsemane. 

The strongest battle that ever was done. The hardest fight that ever had won. 

The fight was won by Jesus. Gethsemane, Jesus loves me. 

So he gives willingly, in Gethsemane. 

I am so grateful for my Savior. I am grateful for His Grace and for His love for ALL of us. 

Saturday, we had some awesome opportunities to do some service before our shift at the jail. We did lots of gardening and cleaning! I love getting to do service. Our bishop was talking last week to us about the importance of serving and letting others serve you. He said that one the most meaningful home teaching visits was when his home teacher asked what he could do for him and the bishop told him he had to do a lot of lawn mowing to do and asked if he could come help for his home teaching visit. So, instead of a formal family lesson, they mowed lawns together! He said there were two very important needed things that made this one of his best home teaching experiences... 1. his home teacher caring enough to serve him/letting him know that and 2. him allowing his home teacher to serve him.  Letting other serve us keeps us humble and also allows others to receive the blessings of service. I am not the best at letting my companion, friends, others serve me but I love serving others. I have been realizing more and more that others need to be able to feel that love and peace of serving too and I can help others to feel that Christlike spirit! 

Picture time! We took like no pictures this week, so this is all there is. Haha 

Exchanges!

My sweet companion 😍

Sister Morgan

Thank goodness for Grace!

Hello family!

This week has been a crazy one. We had two exchanges, MLC, zone
training, TMTM (Thursday Morning Training Meeting) at the jail, shifts
at the jail, etc. I love these weeks though. I feel like it is during
all of this that we get to experience Grace - the enabling power of
the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We are able to do things that we would
not be able to do on our own.

Monday night after our intense game of frisbee with our zone, we went
to a members home to teach FHE :) it's the Russell family and I just
love them. We were praying of how we can help the members and we
wanted to teach the missionary lessons to a few active families and we
felt super prompted to start with their family. We taught the
Restoration and the Spirit was so strong. It was so cool, before we
started teaching the lesson, we were just getting to know their family
better etc and Sister Baggett told them how we didn't really know why
we needed to be there but we just felt like we needed to be there.
Brother and Sister Russell looked over at each other and just smiled
and then said, "there is definitely a reason why you are here". they
said they would tell us afterwards (ps.. Still haven't found out.
Biggest cliffhanger ever). The lesson was so led by the Spirit. I love
sharing the Restoration to members. The Spirit is just so powerful and
my testimony of this gospel is strengthened so much. We were talking
about the importance of prophets and how grateful we are to have
prophets back on the earth because of the Restoration and I was
thinking about what President Monson said in April. I love that he
said that "if we choose Christ, we will have always made the correct
choice". That is so true! I am so grateful for that I know the purpose
of this life. It has helped me to know why my choices are important
and what choices I need to make in order to live with my family after
this life with our loving Heavenly Father.

So Tuesday we went on exchanges with the sisters in Liberty 2nd Ward.
I was with Sister Peterson for the exchange. She is so incredible! I
learned so much from her. I think e biggest thing I learned from her
was about prayer. It is always a good reminder that when we pray, we
are literally communicating with Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for
the love that I feel from Him when I pray sincerely. That love is so
needed to have confidence in ourselves, and not confidence based on
worldly standards but inner confidence because we know God loves us
and we are his daughters and sons.

Wednesday we had MLC and wow! I missed MLC last transfer. Those
meetings have had such an impact on my life. President Vest talked
about the importance of the desires of our heart at MLC. I was reading
this scripture in the Book of Mormon earlier in the week that talks
about why our desires are so important. Enos 1:12 says "And it came to
pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord
said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because
of thy faith." If we have righteous desires, we will accomplish
righteous things and same for the opposite. It is so important that we
are centered on Christ.

Friday we double zone trained in independence. Haha. Meaning we
trained at a zone training from 9:30-12:30 and then again at
3:30-6:30. So spiritually exhausting but it was so good. So the first
meeting, I trained on Grace and how the ought the Atonement of Jesus
Christ we can truly change and become better. It is something I am
super passionate about. I am so grateful for my Savior because He has
enabled me to become more than I could have become on my own. Anyways,
so we were about 30 minutes into the second zone training, and I did
not feel good about giving that same training to this second group of
missionaries which is what I had planned on doing. So... That
completely freaked me out but I followed the Spirit and got up and
just relied on the Spirit to tell me what this second group of
missionaries needed to know and feel about the Atonement. I love the
feeling of feeling the Spirit work through me. Even though it was
terrifying to get up and train with nothing prepared, I am so grateful
that I did that. The Spirit was so strong and whatever I said
(literally can't even remember) was needed for that different group I
guess! I love being a missionary long story short.

Saturday, we went on another exchange. We went with the Shoal Creek
Valley sisters. I went with Sister Eraso, a new missionary who has
been out two weeks, and I got to go back to my old area! Sister Eraso
is such an incredible missionary. She loves serving others. It was
definitely exchange that was inspired. I love her dearly.

Church on Sunday was amazing as always. I can't tell you how much we
need the sacrament and the whole sabbath day to renew us! I love it.
Also, I can't remember if I told you all last week how much I love
this Ward, and especially this Ward council. It so amazing. They all
(especially the bishop) has such a desire to improve as a Ward and is
constantly thinking of how they can progress more. It is the coolest
thing to see how humble they all are and how that spirit of humility
changes the whole Ward to be better and to have a more united spirit.
They also love missionary work which I know affects the Ward so much.

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week! I love you all so much!!

Sister Morgan

Picture time!!

- after our intense game of ultimate frisbee :)
- heart attacking members with Sister Peterson on exchanges!
- party with the Wilsons, our favorite senior couple, at the jail
- more Sister Peterson exchange pictures :)
- my lovely companion Sister Baggett ❤️ we went to our favorite
grilled wrap place Thursday night because we were craving it for
dinner so badly and we got their dessert s'mores wrap. So perfect
while we did a little preparing for our trainings :)
- selfie with Sister Eraso on exchanges!

Oops. The rest of the pictures.

Sister Morgan

> On Sep 5, 2016, at 2:41 PM, Cydne Morgan <cydne.morgan@myldsmail.net> wrote:
>
> Hello Family!
>
> This week has gone by super quick!
> Happy Labor Day!!! I hope all the family who is hanging out in St.
> George this weekend have been having a blast!
>
> Church yesterday was so incredible! I love fast Sundays, really just
> Sunday's in general.
>
> Last pday, we got a little surprise when Sister Helmbold and her comp
> came to our PDAY to hang out for a bit!
>
> I am having such a hard time even remembering what we did this week
> but it was so good. I love the Liberty Jail so much. Our Ward is
> amazing as well. We are starting a 40 day fast with he Ward tomorrow.
> Every day for 40 days, a member (or more) has signed up to fast to
> help someone hey know come closer to Christ. The Ward is super pumped
> about it! Seriously this Ward is celestial. I was sitting in PEC
> yesterday morning just completely in awe. Every PEC/Ward Council is so
> spiritual. Our bishop is incredible.
>
> At FMTM this week at the VC, President Vest did a whole training on my
> favorite story in the Book of Mormon, ether 2-3 about the Brother of
> Jared. It was so incredible and just what I needed to hear. I love
> learning how our Heavenly Father answers prayers in those chapters. He
> will sometimes tell us exactly the answer. Other times, He trusts us
> enough to have us tell Him our ideas and do everything we can first. I
> love that our Heavenly Father has so much faith in us and wants to
> help us grow. It is something that I have seen so much on my mission.
> In others and in myself. 15 months ago, I never thought I would be the
> person that I am today. I never thought that the Atonement of Jesus
> Christ could change my nature this much - truly changing my desires.
> But through Him, everything is possible. We can become more like Him
> and strengthen our weaknesses so much. I. Love. This. Gospel.
>
> And I love all of you!!! Have such a great week!
> Sister Morgan
>
> Pictures!
> -pday!
> - when Sister Baggett underestimated how far this guy's house was and
> we ended up walking 3.5 miles to an appt. one night. Haha
> - after TMTM! We trained on the history of the jail and did some role
> plays in the rotunda! :)
> - when you love your companion so much that you have to cover your
> eyes so you stop distracting her during her language study by just
> wanting to chat. Haha.
> - at the Emmett's house. They make "man cakes" for all the
> missionaries. Pretty much a giant pancake the size of a whole griddle.
> Haha. Sister Baggett and I passed this time and watched the elders
> suffer. I absolutely LOVE this family though. Hey are the absolute
> best.
> - we crashed FMTM at the VC too when President and Sister Vest came. I
> just love the Vests.
> - driving back to Liberty and our poor baby, Sister Eraso, was soo sleepy ☺️
> - tryi toto remake that video of that cute little girl... But, got
> interrupted by people comin out of their house. Haha
>
> <image8.jpeg>
>
> <image10.jpeg>
>
>
> <image1.jpeg>
>
>
>
>
> <Video.MOV>
>

He changes us!

Hello Family!

This week has gone by super quick!
Happy Labor Day!!! I hope all the family who is hanging out in St.
George this weekend have been having a blast!

Church yesterday was so incredible! I love fast Sundays, really just
Sunday's in general.

Last pday, we got a little surprise when Sister Helmbold and her comp
came to our PDAY to hang out for a bit!

I am having such a hard time even remembering what we did this week
but it was so good. I love the Liberty Jail so much. Our Ward is
amazing as well. We are starting a 40 day fast with he Ward tomorrow.
Every day for 40 days, a member (or more) has signed up to fast to
help someone hey know come closer to Christ. The Ward is super pumped
about it! Seriously this Ward is celestial. I was sitting in PEC
yesterday morning just completely in awe. Every PEC/Ward Council is so
spiritual. Our bishop is incredible.

At FMTM this week at the VC, President Vest did a whole training on my
favorite story in the Book of Mormon, ether 2-3 about the Brother of
Jared. It was so incredible and just what I needed to hear. I love
learning how our Heavenly Father answers prayers in those chapters. He
will sometimes tell us exactly the answer. Other times, He trusts us
enough to have us tell Him our ideas and do everything we can first. I
love that our Heavenly Father has so much faith in us and wants to
help us grow. It is something that I have seen so much on my mission.
In others and in myself. 15 months ago, I never thought I would be the
person that I am today. I never thought that the Atonement of Jesus
Christ could change my nature this much - truly changing my desires.
But through Him, everything is possible. We can become more like Him
and strengthen our weaknesses so much. I. Love. This. Gospel.

And I love all of you!!! Have such a great week!
Sister Morgan

Pictures!
-pday!
- when Sister Baggett underestimated how far this guy's house was and
we ended up walking 3.5 miles to an appt. one night. Haha
- after TMTM! We trained on the history of the jail and did some role
plays in the rotunda! :)
- when you love your companion so much that you have to cover your
eyes so you stop distracting her during her language study by just
wanting to chat. Haha.
- at the Emmett's house. They make "man cakes" for all the
missionaries. Pretty much a giant pancake the size of a whole griddle.
Haha. Sister Baggett and I passed this time and watched the elders
suffer. I absolutely LOVE this family though. Hey are the absolute
best.
- we crashed FMTM at the VC too when President and Sister Vest came. I
just love the Vests.
- driving back to Liberty and our poor baby, Sister Eraso, was soo sleepy ☺️
- tryi toto remake that video of that cute little girl... But, got
interrupted by people comin out of their house. Haha