Still Workin

Ok well some great things happened this week.
1. We invited Jenny Catron (the daughter of a less active sister in our branch) to be baptized and she said yes. Sister Catron came to church. It’s been a long time, It was awesome to see her. [i was mad though cause the branch really didn't fellowship her very well and she left before relief society started which was what she probably needed most] I machine-gunned everyone in the foyer when i saw her walk out. I didn't want to be the church police so i let her go. Me saying, "Where are you going? You should go to relief society" is not nearly as effective as a beautiful sister taking her in an arm and saying, " Sister Catron, will you sit next to me in relief society?"

2. The branch council is getting stoked and everyone is excited to work with and focus on the Hollister family. Soon we will get our Elders quorum president over there as well as our young men’s president. We are really gonna try to take advantage of this opportunity and excitement and we pray that the Hollisters are receptive to it. They will make a great addition to our branch, they are wonderful people and we need their strength. I hope that the spirit of Elijah that has been with Bro Hollister opens him up to feeling the spirit that is with our members causing him to accept lessons with his family and come back to church. When he reactivates he could then baptize his wife and two kids. It would be so wonderful and beautiful

3. It’s been really rainy and stormy, so I’ve been sleeping a lot better than I was (with the exception of the one night i didn't sleep at all....) But finally we have had some sun yesterday and today. Spring has silly weather.

4. If you don't know, I planted a grapefruit. I have a 3 inch plant now... it looks like grass... I really hope it’s a tree instead though. Ha-ha. If it is my Joy will be overflowing! Ha-ha. Also, I made a sock monkey this week with my time before bed and before study time. His name is Snort-porth. He looks grumpy but he has an eye single to the glory of God, so I feel that he is qualified for the work. :)

This upcoming week is the last week of the transfer; weird. So potentially I could be leaving. We will see. I'll be sad to leave Huntington because I’ve put so much into it. I've really tried to help the teaching pool grow and get the members excited and leave the area better than it was. I think I’ve succeeded (with the help of Elder Mitchell of course) but I’d really like to see the out comes to the efforts we've made. I hope if I do get transferred that the next elder is qualified to magnify what we have done; someone who will see the Hollisters and Jenny to baptism and keep up the trend of missionary work in the branch.

Whatever happens is in God’s hands. Despite the outcomes I am a better person and the work will not stop. The work of the lord is a stone cut forth without hands rolling to fill the whole earth.

I love you.

PS Ben is doing well. We love him. We just got to get him to read the Book of Mormon. When he has a testimony of that then he will understand why we do what we do and what our calling is.

We have some new investigators this week, I’ll tell you if anything happens with them; also we are teaching this wonderful Pakistani family! I haven't met anyone from Pakistan I didn't like so far. They are so wonderful. Ha-ha. Nahid and Syed. Their son is Jimmy and their daughter is Lilly. Nahid is super generous and really loves us coming over. She is going to cook for us this Saturday. I'm supper excited! I really hope they will progress because they would be a great family in our branch as well. :)

OK g2g.

-Elder Samuel Austin Morris

And the Skies are Grey

It’s been pretty overcast the last few days and I’m sick of it! At least it’s not cold any more. :)

Well, this week went fast! It feels like not too long ago I was in the house of a Catholic family who dominated me. lol

Let me explain. Last Monday we went and saw Ben Scott and had a great lesson with him (we're taking a different approach) more of a bible study, he doesn't seem to respond well to anything else. He doesn't have the attention span if it’s not right out of the New Testament.

After the lesson we looked up potentials (Mitchell and I call 'em pots) and the first one we went to let us in. It turns out that it was not the potential we were looking for, she moved, but we were all excited cause a family let us in with no hesitation. Things started well and we began from the top of the plan of salvation so that we could explain to them the way that our families can be together forever. It ended pretty fast cause this man and his wife practice teaching when their kids go to bed (I am joking but, it wouldn't surprise me if it were true). There really wasn't a way to defend ourselves without bashing and so the spirit constrained me from speaking. The only things I could get out were questions and occasionally a brief explanation of our doctrine concerning whatever subject they brought up and questioned us on.

Fortunately my companion was able to testify a few times, but he realized that they were very, very set in their ways. That there wasn't much we could say to get them to just listen to our message without an interruption in the form of a rebuttal. I think if I were to have tried to defend the doctrines I would have done so emotionally and not by the spirit and would have dug us a pit. So our whole purpose was to just try to leave with a neutral, "Hey, this is what you believe and makes since to you, this is what we believe and makes since to us. All we are here to do is invite you to read the book of Mormon. Have a nice day. Yes we will accept one of your books or pamphlets, thank you. Thank you for your time. Here is our number. Thank you for your number. Give us a call if you need help with spring cleaning."

Wooooohhhh..... I'll tell you I felt like a man with the palsy in a cage fight. We were beat down by a tag teaming WWF defending champions’ duo. I'll give them credit. 90% of the people we talk to have no Idea what the doctrines of their religion are, let alone how to defend it. Of course they said some contradicting statements and some silly things, but they knew just how to change the subject or flip it onto us when we called them out on it. Needless to say, the rest of my week was spent studying the apostasy. I thought it was interesting that they defended their church using almost word for word things I've said to people in the past. I am more motivated to follow the council of our prophet from General Conference now; that is to learn the doctrine and the doctrines of the priesthood. Hard times are coming, we will be tried and persecuted and we have to know how to be like Abinidi. I want to be able to stand firm and confound the wise all the way to my burial if needs be. I can't afford to simply take the beatings with as skinny as I am, I've got to learn to deflect them or redirect them. Dragon Ball Z style YO! Ha-ha. I encourage all of you to do the same.

Well, I have recovered mostly and am continuing to recover thanks to the amazing contrast to those feelings that i have felt in lessons and church and studies since then.

Let me tell you, Tito Rocks! the way he understands and uses the spirit is refreshing. When we have a lesson with him the spirit is there and like D&C 50 we are all edified together.

Good things are happening. We met with our branch President and our coordinator and the elder’s quorum president and are developing a plan to help two part member families progress and become complete. The Hollister family is one, and they rock, I know good things will happen, I pray they are receptive. The other is the Catrons.

In attempts to make an appointment with the Catorns yesterday however we discovered that she is in the hospital!!!! :( So we went right over and gave her a blessing, we told her home teacher who is going over today and we told the branch president who told the Relief Society to take advantage of the opportunity to start supplying some relief, to do what they do best. :) I'll keep you posted on the outcome. Pray for these two families.

That’s all I have for you but to end I'll tell you a funny thing that happened last week that I forgot to tell you about.

We went to the church and the guy downstairs in the library told us that they were having pluming problems... well he asked us if we were having problems, so I responded, "I don't know, we will go check!" he didn't stop us. It seemed totally normal to me. We flushed every toilet... we flooded the library with poopie-pee-pee-water. :S The guy was totally flabbergasted at our stupidity and the extra work we caused him. I felt stupid so I got to work mopping up the nasty water in my suit. The guy tried to stop me but I insisted. That put us back to neutral ground. Hopefully he will see us as stupid but harmful and respectful until the next missionaries can come along and show him that most of us aren't stupid. lol. That’s all.

Love,
-Elder Samuel Austin Morris

Huntington

Conference Rocked as usual. That was the most exciting thing that happened. We invited so many people, but no one came. Big surprise. lol. At least Tito made it Sunday morning! Cool. :) The blessing for me though (of no investigators being there) is that I got to focus on what the speakers were saying and just soak it up without having to worry about explaining things or making sure they are understanding and not falling asleep. The sad part though is that we promised people their questions would be answered and guess what? I heard so many answers that applied to the people we teach and those who don't make it out much. It would have been great for them. Hopefully they will still get the message from the Internet or when it all gets typed up.

Sorry there really isn't much to say this time. We had a good week though, not really number wise, but otherwise.

Everything is fine--Nothing is broken, :)

I love you all! :) You all are influences on me that have made me who I am.

-Elder Samuel Austin Morris