Hola Hola!

Hola Familia!!!

Como estan?! I got dad's short email this morning and hopefully I'll be receiving his Dear Elders this week! Mom, thanks so much for the first small surprise package...it was great, I loved everything. Hair ties and the Nu-go bars...we get hungry here and we aren't allowed to eat in the classrooms anymore because they are having a problem with mice...so we get SO hungry..it's great to have something to eat at night..and let's be honest vending machine food isn't the best. Here I am on another great P-day..the weather now is beautiful and none of us (like the poor old senior missionary) slipped on the way to the temple. Ah I love seeing nature and God's beautiful creations. And I got waffles for breakfast at the temple today... DELICIOUS!

I loved Austin's email. I just love reading missionary mail..it's weird exciting to think i am one of those missionaries now. Let's see so since I am such a "organized" missionary these days I wrote out an outline last night of what I want to tell you ..so hopefully I can get this sent to you in a timely manner. And not forget to write anything.

So guess what?! I gave my first talk in Spanish for sacrament meeting this past Sunday! Everyone of course was nice and said I did a great job, and the Zone Leader came up and asked if I had had previous Spanish because I did so well....so I guess I did pretty good..it's amazing how the Lord helps you and how inspired my Branch President was to call upon me to talk. I needed the confidence that if I opened my mouth I could do it! I spoke on del don de Espirtu Santo (Gift of the Holy Ghost if you can't tell)

Well I give my thanks again for all the letters and packages. I am so grateful for such supportive family and friends!! Kate thanks again for keeping up the blog..I hear it's going great ;). I will hopefully be able to write hand written letters to everyone who has sent me Dear Elders...if not you know who you are and THANK YOU! Mom, I haven't gotten the shot yet, I will probably get it in a couple weeks. Mom I enjoy all your small Dear Elders and the uplifting quotes..they are great!!!

Speaking of uplifting our speakers Tuesday were L. Whitney Clayton and his wife! It was fun to think I have served them meals at the JSMB..yea I am pretty legit. Anyway their topics were AMAZING. Of course Sis Clayton was very sweet, I loved how she touched on opposition and how we shouldn't be afraid of it. She said "The Hard way is usually the best way". I love that quote because it's so true, the best blessings and satisfaction come from us doing the hard things when we are able to come closer to our heavenly father and work hard with struggling investigators to see their relationships with Christ grow...ah can't wait for that moment. She also touched on seeing the good and having a happy heart always!

Elder Clayton spoke on the importance of companionships and teaching two by two. My favorite point in his talk was where he pointed out in the song "Love One Another"- love one another, by this shall all men know ye are my disciples.  I love that!!! I have never thought of it that way but, it's so true that by our actions and love towards our companions all shall know we are His disciples.  Oh I also sang in the choir that night..yea I am also learning how to sing while I am here (ha I wish) but we sang "Jesus once of humble birth"...this song has a great story, I encourage you all to read over it and think about the story and focus on he once was but NOW...ahh it's great!

After the devotional i had an interview with Bro Davis (member of branch pres). It was really great and one thing he reminded me of was not to compare myself to others right now as a missionary and even in life as a mother and wife...as long as we are being diligent and doing our best we are accepted by the Lord.

So one thing I loved learning about this week was the importance of prayer through conversion...we can see many miracles like Laman and Lemuel, angels but we will not truly be converted until we ourselves pray with the intent to do what God asks and receive a confirmation that it's true.  We also need to remember our relationship with our Heavenly Father...we are his children..continue to pray always!!! Prayer is so powerful!

so a District in our zone going to Mexico who have been here for like 11 weeks or something finally got reassigned. The ones going to mexico are going to the Ogden Utah mission and the ones serving in Peru are going to Mesa. They are really excited to get out in the field (they are all Elders)...so you can imagine their restlessness....

Since my companion is Coordinating Sister I get to go with her to take the new Sisters to their dorms...the 4  new ones we got yesterday are in a different newer building than us...they are lucky!! But I am sure the ones we are in are preparing us for Chile. Anyway I love going with her because we get to be there to comfort the new girls and bear our testimonies on the specialness of this experience and learning exact obedience in the MTC...the more I am here the more  I see the importance..we are representatives of Jesus Christ, Satan is going to try his hardest to tempt us..the rules are here for our protection...whether we see it now or not..I know they will protect us/me.

So fun thing for the week....umm I don't remember what day since they all blend together but one night as we were going back to the dorms our roommates Hermana Plothow saw the fire extenguisher and said "it would be fun to use that sometimes" and than she was so excited to get to bed early that night before 10....but she had jinxed us and someone burnt their popcorn and set the fire alarms off...we had to be redirected into a different building for like 20 min...and of course our room is right by the microwave...we got the great smell of burnt popcorn smoke..thankful the firemen brought fans...but this reminded me of my oh so sweet baby sister, Katelyn, who loves to over cook and burn and smell up the house ;), she'd fit right in here :).  And then like the next day the workers in the building we have class in set the fire alarms off..we're just loving it here :).

Let's see I think that's about it. It's cool to be a missionary and the beginning of "history" with all these girls coming in, I'm sure you guys have heard of the 2nd MTC in the world that's going to be the Mexico...that's so cool!!! Just think of all the people the missionaries are going to help and in such a short time...we truly are in the last days! I love you all!!! Oh this week for service we washed windows, the great thing is when we clean them they are already pretty clean so it doesn't take long...and our showers drain, YAY!!

les amo (I think that means love you all... I am still working on my grammar . Thanks for all your prayers and support. I hope everyone is staying safe and doing well..hopefully Jonny and Rach and family are feeling better. love you guys!

con amor,

Morgan