THE INCREDIBLES! (It was really a movie about my family on their Pioneer Trek)

WOW! I absoulately loved hearing about your trek stories!!! They are
amazing and I'm sure have really strengthened your testimony and
helped everyone on the trek to know that God lives, He loves us, and
for them to see all of the amazing blessings he has given us. I
completely forgot last week to tell my parents HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! I am
so grateful for the amazing and committed parents I have. I can't tell
anoyone enough here about them and their example. They have taught me
EVERYTHING i know and i am so grateful for their example and love.
They are the best parents in the world! They write me everyweek, even
my dad;) they show their love and respect for each other and they know
how to work together. Thanks mom and dad for being so awesome. And in
this week;s news... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEVIN! I can't believe how grown up
you are...;) I am so blessed to have the amazing family I do. I hope
you have a fantastic birthday! I love you!
Well this week, of course, was amazing. I LOVE PENZA! Thanks Sis.
Pike(Harmon?) for the emails. It was amazing and I loved it! You look
so goooooooooooood.... and let's just say it was your training that
did everything. Penza is a fantastic city, from the billboards that
say smoking is bad, to the people who are friendly. I love being here
and working here with these amazing members. Every week at church is
so cool to see how many members are here and how strong they are. It
is great. With the warm weather we have been doing a lot of contacting
and that has been pretty good. We had a couple lessons with
investigators this week and so are excited to see them progressing. I
think the biggest news this week is that we had District MEETING-- in
person. FIRST TIME ON MY MISSION! It was crazy! We ususally just have
district meeting over the phone but this week they called us Monday
night and said we would be having it at the church building on
Tuesday. It was so great to get together with the 4 Elders here and
discuss our investigaotrs and help each other know how to resolve
concerns. It was also great to be able to see Elder Hollingshead and
Kazakov, our Assistant and Zone Leader. They did a great fireside
Wednesday night for the church members on how to do missionary work
with the missionaries and it was great. We did a practice with the
members where they invited their friends to either an acitivity or
church or just to a family home evening. It was a great experience and
we really enjoyed district meeting and the fireside. I enjoyed being
able to discuss with two of the sisters here, how they can help their
friends and family hear about the Gospel. I shared with them the
thought that was from conference a few years ago, to never skip
talking about SUNDAY. When we are at work or just talking to our
friends, we should still be mentioning what we did on Sunday. We can
tell them, with confidence, we WENT TO CHURCH! We can tell them of the
blessings we receive and why we go to church every week. It was great
and I loved working with them!
We had a couple great lessons with members this week and were able to
teach them about the Restored Gospel. It is so interesting because on
a mission you teach the 1st lesson a lot, and as members of the churhc
we already know the information that is there, but everytime we teach
it or even here it we understand something better or different. We
also get a confirmation that the message is true and it gives us an
opportunity to bear our testimony. I loved being able to teach this
message with the members and then hear them bear their testimony how
they know this church is true. It was also great to see how they know
that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He did see God the Father and Jesus
Christ and he did restore the power and authority here on the earth
to perfrom saving ordinances like baptism! Like those pioneers, these
beautiful Russian people are pioneers here, preahing the Gospel to
their friends, opening their mouths at work, on the buses, in their
podezds, helping their brother and sisters to hear this Gospel, this
message of JOY! We have that same responsibiliyt and blessing. To
share the gospel with those around us!
We also had a great lesson with Baba Jenya who is 85 and still
amazingly strong. We talked a lot about the perspective we get from
the Gospel and just from life. It is so intersting to see how when we
know something, and then we go through a trial or some type of change,
and we learn about the same thing again-- we know more, we see it from
a differenct perspective and we are able to then apply it differently
in our lives and know more about it.
Well I think that is all for this week. I hope everyone has a great
week, filled with missionarying... okay and swimming, barbecuing,
camping, mountain bike riding and all of that other stuff! Remember
man is to have JOY! Go do it. I love you all and love this Gospel.
Thanks for the mail, support, prayers and love. You are the best!
Sister Morris