Onwards and Upwards requires action...

My dear loved ones,

First the bad news. Sister Morin is being transferred out this Wednesday. It's awful I know. She and I have become fast friends and I'm sad to see her go, but she's gonna kill it in Berryville. 

Now the good news. The gospel is real and all-encompassing!

This week I wish to be very frank with you and I hope understandable.

I spoke with numerous people and I had doors shut in my face so quickly you'd have thought you had imagined it was even opened in the first place. But what absolutely breaks my heart the most is when I hear people say "Oh I know everything about Jesus." Or worse yet, "I don't want YOUR Jesus." 

Let me be clear. Every single human person who ever was, will be, or is on this Earth has the same Savior Jesus Christ. The same Redeemer who knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane to pay the price of your sins and save you from eternal damnation and despair. We all have the gift of his atonement waiting for us to open and use it. He has paid the price. It's gone! You have no reason to fear or be sorrowful because you can have absolute perfect happiness and joy. Your soul can be purified in His sanctuary. His love encompasses you completely. 

But I must now add a word of caution. This does not mean you can sit idly by as watch as Jesus Christ cleans up your messes. You do not get to call on the Lord and wait for Him to come fix your mistakes. He has already come as far as he can to us. Now, it is our turn to take steps towards Him. Your desire to be more like him should drive you to do more than just learn. It should fill you with a desire to act. And your work is never done. Your faith can always be built on. How do we build faith? By trusting in the Lord and acting on that faith, trust and hope. He will show you evidence that He is there. He is by your side fighting for you! When you recognize Him, then it becomes pure knowledge, and you will therefore have more faith in Him. Now, I don't know about you, but I do not know everything there is to know in this life. I am constantly learning about life and others and love and faith. I am on this very looongggg journey back to my Heavenly Father. And I hope to be able to help others get there as well. That's part of the reason why I'm out here in Cumberland, Maryland. I'm serving others because I want other people to be at the place I am so they can progress even farther. We are all here to support each other. My companion Sister Morin says "We're all just walking each other home." It's so true my friends! And the best path has already been laid out before us. Follow in Jesus Christ's footprints and I promise you will NEVER fail. And He is there to help you. He can tell you where to turn or jump or climb because he has already been through this path. He has already run the marathon for you. He had laid down his life and made the ultimate sacrifice for ALL of us. It is beyond my comprehension, the power and reach of his love. You are never alone. 

Jeffery R. Holland says, "Divine compassion is never absent."

You will never be outside of the Saviors reach. You will never drift too far. I promise that ocean you seem to be drifting through is simply a kiddie pool, and your loving Father is always watching and making sure you're safe. 

I love you all so much. You're all a child of a loving Heavenly Father. You have divine potential!

God bless you!

Love, Sister Morrison 

Onwards and Upwards! 

I'm a Jesus Girl

YES I KNOW. I forgotted to send my group email last week. I'm ashamed. My apologies friends. And after I got so many emails from people saying how much I bless their lives with my fantastic emails, too ;)

Gee whiz. Well I gotta catch you all up. 

Fun fact: gave my first talk as a missionary yesterday. Turns out it's just as scary as giving a talk back home, but truth be told I think I was more prepared. Something about two hours of study time every single morning makes a difference I think. When I practiced it the night before, it was almost 15 minutes long. I had 10 minutes to speak haha. 

Second fun fact: Not only did I speak, but I also sang Come Thou Fount, and they asked me to give the opening prayer. So that's cool. It's just a party over here. Copies of my impressive talk are available, although recordings are actually illegal. Sorry y'all.  

As it turns out, I absolutely LOVE being a missionary. Who knew?! Its seriously just a big fat blessing and I've only been out in the field for a little over a month! I'm not sure where to begin because these past 2 weeks have just been one tender mercy to the next but I'll try to not rant or make it too long. Bear with me.

There is this precious couple, who is blessedly young, that we get to teach. We were led by God to them, because they had gone inactive and hadn't been taught for a while and we generally don't have time to visit all the inactive members. We have around 700 members in our ward but only 150 actually show up. And even then some are so old that it's hit or miss whether or not they come. But anyways, we went to their house. Well her mom was there and let us right in. But because her sweet mama talks too much, we were going into the third lesson with basically no idea of what their needs were. We had no lesson planned and we had no idea what the Lord needed His children to hear. So nervously we head in. My friends, The Lord will give us what we need and when we need it, because He loves us. During that lesson, the Spirit was stronger than ever. I was able to share with them exactly what the Lord wanted them to hear. He knows our needs. He knows what is in our hearts. He knows the very longings of our souls. He wants to bless you, I promise. I was humbled to be able to be the mouthpiece of the Lord. 

Second piece. Me and my comp were casually walking down the road when a beloved, blessed son of God comes walking across the street yelling "ladies!" This man was probably 40-50 years old and his pants were sagging probably mid-thigh. His bright yellow bandana was pretty cool though. Anyways, he walks over and asks, "Yous Mormon ?" Well of course we are. And then he holds out his hands and asks for us to pray for him. I was almost unsure how to feel about that. Humbled that he recognizes that we have something special, surprised that he wanted prayers and blessings, or amused because my companion was terrified. Well I said a prayer for him and he thanked us and apologized for scaring us and he and his friend carried on their merry way. To sum it up, every single one of God's children is in need of some sort of support or blessing. The seemingly worst of the lot or the best of the best. We all need the Lord. Don't feel embarrassed to ask for help getting there. We each have our own strengths and weaknesses for a reason. My strengths are for your weaknesses and vice versa. We are here to support one another. Believe it or not, the Lord knows what He's doing. He meant for us to go through pain and heartache, because that makes us stronger and better. But He did not mean for us to go through it alone. The Savior, Jesus Christ, has already gone through it in the loneliest journey in all of human history. There is no reason for us to do this alone. He is there with you right now. This very second He is uplifting you and helping you through. He knows you perfectly and loves you with a perfect love. 

Okay, one or two more things. I know this is already suuuuper long. Sorry sorry. 

OKAY, so we went to our friend Fredy's house. We had to stay outside because his girlfriend was outside. The morning after our lesson, we woke up ITCHY. Turns out, his porch was infested with spiders. I have almost 20 bites all over my legs. And they were super itchy. Sooo we're wearing pants every time we go over there from now on. 

Anyways, I have a ton of stories, but I'll stop taking up so much time. Love you all! Keep building on your faith and never be afraid to share what you believe. You'll find that people respect you for it. 

You are all in my prayers (yes my knees are suffering but you can bet it's worth it!) God loves you!

All my love,

Sister Morrison 

Onwards and Upwards! 

You're an adult now, wear a belt

Guys!

This is week was sooo cool! God really is a God of miracles! I'm serious. I say it a lot, but if you look for the miracles in your life, you will see that they are there and they are SWEET! He just loves us a lot I think. I mean, I know. He does. I can promise you that. 

So first we're gonna throw it back to 2010 or somewhere back in my youth. For those of you who don't know my maman, (that's French for momma,) first of all, shame on you because she's the best lady I know or will ever know, and secondly, if you are blessed enough to have her chocolate chip cookies, you now know that they are the best in the whole wide world. So way back when I was a young squirt my maman told me to memorize her recipe. So guess who memorized the recipe? Me, that's who. And guess who's blessed alll these years later? Me, that's who! And GUESS who had the brilliant idea of making these cookies? Wow I'm so proud! You're right, it was me, and yes it was a fantastic idea. Thank you. So my poor companion and I went to the store last Monday and got supplies for these little bites of heaven. We didn't actually make them until Friday but I was certainly hyping them up all week and praying that they would actually turn out. Friday comes and we wake up. It was quite possibly the quickest I've gotten out of bed in my life. Which means it was a normal sedate pace, but it was quick in my heart because I was uber excited to make these cookies. Lo and behold, after I began mixing and adding ingredients we had just the right amount of eggs left in the carton, and I remembered how much baking soda (2 teaspoons) so blessings from God. And everyone is obsessed with them now, so not only was I spreading the message of the gospel but the worlds best cookies. Win win, I think.

This week we've met so many awesome and elect people. My mission President said we should find an elect a day and k was like cool but how do we do that because sometimes we go all day without a single person opening the door or getting the door slammed in our face. But once again we see that the Lord provides for His children. Exhibit A: it was nearly time to go home and we had been knocking doors all day. All day folks! We skipped lunch because we felt good about a certain area and a few people and no one was home and no one answered. We hadn't shared a single message all day and I was anxious. Finally we say okay. Less than an hour left, let's go home and tract around our apartment. So I feel super good about this ladies house and we pull up and knock and a man answers the door and literally says "Nope." And closes the door. First of all, ouch. Secondly, what are we supposed to do now? So we walk and call out to people and knock and nope no nobody. Then we get to this lady and her granddaughter on a porch swing. We strike up a conversation and a half hour later we hand the little girl a Book of Mormon and we're setting a return appointment. And that happens all the time! Last night we were running out of time and patience with the people in a certain neighborhood. I literally heard someone yell through the door "No one is home. Go away!" So we said a quick prayer and went to the bathroom at a Circle K. We had met one of the guys who works there before and he was working there again. One conversation and Book of Mormon later we have an appointment with him! 

Life is just so good. Honestly guys we are so blessed! There is no reason for us to not smile! Find something happy and positive each day to just make you smile and carry you through. I promise God can help you up in all of your problems. He wants you to be happy! I love you all so very much and I'm grateful for you all the more everyday!

Onwards and Upwards!

Love, Sister Morrison