This last week flew by yet.... seems so long ago.... if any of you know what that's like you have experience what I just deemed as a 'one o'dem short-longs'. You could probably refer to a number of time increments that way. Maybe like an hour of heavy lifting, or a 5 min wall sit. Sometimes a day is long but is over before you know it; awe the paradox of life and time.
Well to the important stuff.
Tito's baptism was pushed a week. He is having a hard time but is doing so well. I feel like he does I think. I am just struggling a long and often find myself beating on myself and feeling inadequate and just making the same old mistakes (its so frustrating) but really there is progress. Its like what the Ensign said about a baby walking to a parent with out-stretched arms (I think it was last month). The baby falls over a couple times on its way but it still makes its way. Although the baby falls the parent doesn't love the child less or think less of the baby, nor does the parent scold the child but utters only encouragement, "It’s OK, get up." :) come to mommy." Most of us learned to walk that way. God does the same for us now. Tito and I and all of us fall right on our face but our Father in Heaven and our Savior stand there with arms wide open calling us by name.
This week we exceeded last week’s number of lessons by 4. Elder Mitchell and I are raising the bar for Huntington and progress is still being made. Soon I hope for some real evidence of that progression, some crescendo if you will. :)
We get along quite well with our pad mates and the district all seems to be pushing the work forward.
We have many referrals media, member, and missionary. We have really narrowed down the branch list and are finding out who everyone is and whether or not they want contact. Because of our efforts in looking up Less Active members a surprising thing has happened. Our number of lessons with non-members have increased. Also we have found amazing part member families who are super nice, like Aaron and his wife Leah. I'll be talking more about them later (hopefully).
Well I don't have much more to say. However I will say that I learn and relearn every day these last few weeks that it doesn't matter how many times you read the book of Mormon, because each time it feels almost like a different book. Not only do you read stories you don't remember but you learn doctrines and receive revelations that you never have before, even by reading verses that you have read hundreds of times before! The mission is reading the BOM on a schedule together and I am loving it. It's a blessing to me in my life right now. I encourage you all to make sure you are reading and praying every day. Even 10 or 15 min is better than nothing.
OK, love you peeps. Chill out a'ight?!
Elder Samuel Austin Morris
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Progress
Good news everyone! Tito is solid. He will be getting baptized on the 19th and confirmed on the 20th. He has really, really progressed. Many of his issues have diminished or disappeared. He has been doing well with not drinking coffee and is staying clean in all elements of his life to the best of his ability. He is excited and resolute about being baptized. In fact when he wasn't able to get a ride to church yesterday he walked! HE WALKED! Ha-ha. It really showed us that he is serious. He considers himself a part of the church already and invited one of the caretakers at his house to come to the baptism. Since he was first being taught until now his domineer has brightened his nerves have calmed, his understanding has expanded, his testimony has increased and he is altogether happier. The gospel works miracles. It transforms all of us who put in.
In other Good News, Jose and Marta got married. Jose was the investigator I set a marriage date with before I handed him over to the Spanish elders. The wedding was very nice and they both looked very nice. Jose is and Marta is beautiful. Jose is still frustrated that I don't come over anymore and thinks it’s because i don't like him. Ha-ha. I wanted to be over there really bad! Ha-ha. I'm pretty sure they will get baptized soon. Jose has a few concerns but Marta is ready when he is. I pray the Spanish elders listen to the spirit to know what they need to do and say to help Jose learn the doctrines he needs to know in order to progress and fully accept the gospel, or to have a testimony of Christ's modern day church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. :)
Elder Mitchell and I are starting to get things moving finally. We taught more lessons than have been taught in the English pool in a long while. We just seemed to be in the right place at the right time multiple times this week. We are getting more potentials and talking to more people. Much of success I feel is based off of our focus. As Elder Pearson says we get what we focus on consistently. If our focus is success and our attitude is positive and our outlook optimistic what thing can bring us down. God is on our side, we just got to remember this is his work (his mission) if we accept his will, he does all the work. We are the tools not the workers. If I am an ax and the lords work is a tree, I as an ax can decide i know what is best and beat the tree with my handle (thinking that's what I'm supposed to do) or I can let the Axeman (the lord) use me how I’m meant to be used and actually accomplish something, anyway. Ha-ha, funny analogy.
Ben Scott a new investigator is a cool guy. Wants to start his own church. Well... we're gonna show him he can help expand the already established true church of Christ and that he doesn't have to worry about making his own. His friend he grew up with Ira Greenbey (my friend since I served in Plainview YSA branch) is his next door neighbor. He will help us.
Sister Roseto a less active member we have been meeting with was inspired to share the gospel at a store and mentioned the Book of Mormon. Well the guy was interested and allowed us to meet with him. I'll tell you how that develops. But cool right!? Missionary work the way it should be! Member work! :)
I think my companion is itching to go... he asked me how much longer I’m gonna be about 5 min ago... so I'll leave it at that. I love you all! Thank you for your prayers I need 'em. Thanks for your love and support!
Love,
Elder Samuel Austin Morris
In other Good News, Jose and Marta got married. Jose was the investigator I set a marriage date with before I handed him over to the Spanish elders. The wedding was very nice and they both looked very nice. Jose is and Marta is beautiful. Jose is still frustrated that I don't come over anymore and thinks it’s because i don't like him. Ha-ha. I wanted to be over there really bad! Ha-ha. I'm pretty sure they will get baptized soon. Jose has a few concerns but Marta is ready when he is. I pray the Spanish elders listen to the spirit to know what they need to do and say to help Jose learn the doctrines he needs to know in order to progress and fully accept the gospel, or to have a testimony of Christ's modern day church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. :)
Elder Mitchell and I are starting to get things moving finally. We taught more lessons than have been taught in the English pool in a long while. We just seemed to be in the right place at the right time multiple times this week. We are getting more potentials and talking to more people. Much of success I feel is based off of our focus. As Elder Pearson says we get what we focus on consistently. If our focus is success and our attitude is positive and our outlook optimistic what thing can bring us down. God is on our side, we just got to remember this is his work (his mission) if we accept his will, he does all the work. We are the tools not the workers. If I am an ax and the lords work is a tree, I as an ax can decide i know what is best and beat the tree with my handle (thinking that's what I'm supposed to do) or I can let the Axeman (the lord) use me how I’m meant to be used and actually accomplish something, anyway. Ha-ha, funny analogy.
Ben Scott a new investigator is a cool guy. Wants to start his own church. Well... we're gonna show him he can help expand the already established true church of Christ and that he doesn't have to worry about making his own. His friend he grew up with Ira Greenbey (my friend since I served in Plainview YSA branch) is his next door neighbor. He will help us.
Sister Roseto a less active member we have been meeting with was inspired to share the gospel at a store and mentioned the Book of Mormon. Well the guy was interested and allowed us to meet with him. I'll tell you how that develops. But cool right!? Missionary work the way it should be! Member work! :)
I think my companion is itching to go... he asked me how much longer I’m gonna be about 5 min ago... so I'll leave it at that. I love you all! Thank you for your prayers I need 'em. Thanks for your love and support!
Love,
Elder Samuel Austin Morris
Monday, February 7, 2011
Meringue Land
So all the world was a pie this week. Like some of you may know it snowed a lot a little while back. Well for NY it was pretty powdery snow! We got a little bit more this week and then it rained really cold rain! So wherever there was snow there was a glossy-stiff-half-an-inch-thick layer of Ice. Well, it made everything look like someone made white cake batter and poured it everywhere! The way it was shaped was all rounded because it was warm enough just before the rain to start to melt the snow and then cold enough that the rain froze on the snow. It oozed everywhere and looked so interesting and amazing to me! Ha-ha. Well, That's way I say the world was a pie, cause the snow looked so much like Meringue (without the browning) except where the snow was dirty or on the side of the roads, in those cases however it was not browned it was.... dingied (dingy + past tense).
I keep forgetting if I had forgotten this or not... but here it is, I wanted to say thank you to Mike and Risa because they sent me an awesome package! I loved it! It had no return address so I couldn't send a letter back to them. So thanks you two! It was really great! My favorite part is what you did for Elder Jeong. That was the best thing you could have said and it got to him just in time, right before he left back to Korea! How did you know how to say that in Korean? How did you type it up like that? So cool. You two rock! So thoughtful and nice! :) thanks!
We have been working hard, looking up lots of people! So far we are still kinda... well, we are doing what needs to be done. We've really helped organize the area better I believe and we are learning a lot about the members here. Eventually some good things should happen! :)
Tito still has his baptismal date, but he didn't make it to Church yesterday, I'm not sure why. As far as I know he is still drinking about 6 cups of coffee a day. We don't really know how to help him cause he lives in a place with a bunch of other people so we can’t really have him throw it out. Plus he has a Dunkn Doughnuts really close to his house. He understands the word of wisdom and knows he'll be blessed for it, and has experience blessings when he has tried it... but I think he just doesn't see any immediate consequences so it doesn't seem like an urgent thing. Anyway, he is great!
We confronted Khan. We went to his work. He was surprised. You should have seen his face. But it changed to a smile cause I smiled at him and nodded my head. I shouldn't have done it, it was my instinct though... anyway, he has 20 min left of his shift but he tried to escape and wouldn't answer our questions directly, he offered a drink but we declined. We set up a way for him to say sorry and all he could say was about 5 different lies that all clearly conflicted one another.
Well he went into the back and on his way he said to give him a call (after he told us he lost his phone). Well we gave him a call later and he refused to talk to Elder Mitchell and insisted that he talk to his "buddy" elder Morris. If you know me, you know that really frustrated me.
1. because he was being rude to my companion (which always feels worse to me than when I am getting the blows)
2. because I’s not cause he likes me more it’s because he knows he can smooth talk me easier than he can Elder Mitchell >:( and
3. because the word buddy has just always seemed so derogatory to me. Any way,
Khan called later (to our surprise) and so Mitchell had me answer it. Khan said he was sick. I asked if he was ever even really interested and he didn't know what that meant, he told me to stop talking in code to him. He sounded drunk or high so I asked if he was feeling all right and he told me he had the flu.... well eventually he tied to get us to meet him at another restaurant... I told him we already tired that one with him. I said if we could pick the place and it was in the city of our choosing or at a member’s house or at the church, we would meet with him. He said no. If it had to be only in certain cities "then forget about it!"... well we weren't about to break any rules for this guy or fall for the same crap again so we said all right then forget about it. He ended the conversation with a "I'm gonna reimburse you. I don't know how and I don't know when, but I'll reimburse you." He called again while we were at Church but didn't know cause our phone was on silent. We are so confused about him. We don't get why he would call. There is so much we don't understand about him. I don't understand why I feel so bad for him. Well if he decides he wants to meet us again under the proper circumstances we will. But we will not go the 90% for him. He has to do that now. Anyway, weird... but I pray he gets things figured out. Elder Mitchell thinks he might be scared of us.
The best part of the week was a fabulous mission conference on Saturday! It was great. One of those meetings that inspire you and make you feel like you need to repent without making you feel like a bad person. It was a Seventy named Elder Pearson. It was really uplifting and many of my questions were answered about life and missions and missionary work. The rest of my questions are important. I know the answers to some of the questions I had won’t change anything because it doesn't affect me... wow that was ambiguous! lol. Anyway, I guess I just realized what’s really important and that there is no use worrying about things you have no control over or that are in the past. It’s funny how sometime you learn a lesson that has always been a part of how you have done things. For example one of the points he taught was that we choose our attitudes and emotions and our reactions to other people’s actions and to our circumstances. I used to go around telling everyone to stop stressing out and to choose to be happy! What happened? I ask myself! Ha-ha. I guess New York rubbed off on me for bit there. But now I'm telling myself to smile and be happy and know that I can't worry about stuff. Worrying never helped anyone. Also I learned that Identity essentially controls our reality. Also I learned that Obedience blesses us with faith which causes us to repent and make covenants which gives us spiritual power. What good is any amount of authority if it’s not backed up with some real power! Anyway, it’s one of those things that you really just had to be there. The impressions I had could not be written down because I had no real way to articulate them.
Well I love you all! Remember that You are all children of God and each have an individual divine purpose. Let’s all try to define ourselves as disciples and rid ourselves of all the unwanted traits we have that are holding us back from our potential and our capacity!
Love,
--
-Elder Samuel Austin Morris
I keep forgetting if I had forgotten this or not... but here it is, I wanted to say thank you to Mike and Risa because they sent me an awesome package! I loved it! It had no return address so I couldn't send a letter back to them. So thanks you two! It was really great! My favorite part is what you did for Elder Jeong. That was the best thing you could have said and it got to him just in time, right before he left back to Korea! How did you know how to say that in Korean? How did you type it up like that? So cool. You two rock! So thoughtful and nice! :) thanks!
We have been working hard, looking up lots of people! So far we are still kinda... well, we are doing what needs to be done. We've really helped organize the area better I believe and we are learning a lot about the members here. Eventually some good things should happen! :)
Tito still has his baptismal date, but he didn't make it to Church yesterday, I'm not sure why. As far as I know he is still drinking about 6 cups of coffee a day. We don't really know how to help him cause he lives in a place with a bunch of other people so we can’t really have him throw it out. Plus he has a Dunkn Doughnuts really close to his house. He understands the word of wisdom and knows he'll be blessed for it, and has experience blessings when he has tried it... but I think he just doesn't see any immediate consequences so it doesn't seem like an urgent thing. Anyway, he is great!
We confronted Khan. We went to his work. He was surprised. You should have seen his face. But it changed to a smile cause I smiled at him and nodded my head. I shouldn't have done it, it was my instinct though... anyway, he has 20 min left of his shift but he tried to escape and wouldn't answer our questions directly, he offered a drink but we declined. We set up a way for him to say sorry and all he could say was about 5 different lies that all clearly conflicted one another.
Well he went into the back and on his way he said to give him a call (after he told us he lost his phone). Well we gave him a call later and he refused to talk to Elder Mitchell and insisted that he talk to his "buddy" elder Morris. If you know me, you know that really frustrated me.
1. because he was being rude to my companion (which always feels worse to me than when I am getting the blows)
2. because I’s not cause he likes me more it’s because he knows he can smooth talk me easier than he can Elder Mitchell >:( and
3. because the word buddy has just always seemed so derogatory to me. Any way,
Khan called later (to our surprise) and so Mitchell had me answer it. Khan said he was sick. I asked if he was ever even really interested and he didn't know what that meant, he told me to stop talking in code to him. He sounded drunk or high so I asked if he was feeling all right and he told me he had the flu.... well eventually he tied to get us to meet him at another restaurant... I told him we already tired that one with him. I said if we could pick the place and it was in the city of our choosing or at a member’s house or at the church, we would meet with him. He said no. If it had to be only in certain cities "then forget about it!"... well we weren't about to break any rules for this guy or fall for the same crap again so we said all right then forget about it. He ended the conversation with a "I'm gonna reimburse you. I don't know how and I don't know when, but I'll reimburse you." He called again while we were at Church but didn't know cause our phone was on silent. We are so confused about him. We don't get why he would call. There is so much we don't understand about him. I don't understand why I feel so bad for him. Well if he decides he wants to meet us again under the proper circumstances we will. But we will not go the 90% for him. He has to do that now. Anyway, weird... but I pray he gets things figured out. Elder Mitchell thinks he might be scared of us.
The best part of the week was a fabulous mission conference on Saturday! It was great. One of those meetings that inspire you and make you feel like you need to repent without making you feel like a bad person. It was a Seventy named Elder Pearson. It was really uplifting and many of my questions were answered about life and missions and missionary work. The rest of my questions are important. I know the answers to some of the questions I had won’t change anything because it doesn't affect me... wow that was ambiguous! lol. Anyway, I guess I just realized what’s really important and that there is no use worrying about things you have no control over or that are in the past. It’s funny how sometime you learn a lesson that has always been a part of how you have done things. For example one of the points he taught was that we choose our attitudes and emotions and our reactions to other people’s actions and to our circumstances. I used to go around telling everyone to stop stressing out and to choose to be happy! What happened? I ask myself! Ha-ha. I guess New York rubbed off on me for bit there. But now I'm telling myself to smile and be happy and know that I can't worry about stuff. Worrying never helped anyone. Also I learned that Identity essentially controls our reality. Also I learned that Obedience blesses us with faith which causes us to repent and make covenants which gives us spiritual power. What good is any amount of authority if it’s not backed up with some real power! Anyway, it’s one of those things that you really just had to be there. The impressions I had could not be written down because I had no real way to articulate them.
Well I love you all! Remember that You are all children of God and each have an individual divine purpose. Let’s all try to define ourselves as disciples and rid ourselves of all the unwanted traits we have that are holding us back from our potential and our capacity!
Love,
--
-Elder Samuel Austin Morris
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