A deer and a hiss

This is how to make real Sopapillas form South America!! Eat your heart out Mitch (Elder Morris).

Sept 30, 2013

For the past two weeks we were not able to email back and forth with Sister Morris as there was a glitch on the church email system. We received her emails 30 min to 8 hours after she sent them and she did not get any of our emails. Thanks to a sweet family, the Hendershot's, she was able to email us from their home AND she received permission from Pres Richardson to email us on Tuesday after the glitch was fixed. This is a compilation of the two days. I asked her if she was able to see the General Relief Society Meeting on Saturday, I told her I cried when the Sister Missionaries started singing and I saw her best friend, Sister Sarah Naylor……

Mom- We did get to see the Relief Society meeting! We watched it at the church and there is actually a really funny story that goes along with that. So we were watching it in the chapel and all of the sudden I see SARAH!!!! I started to choke up and all the sudden yelled out, "That's my best friend!!!!" And then I broke down in tears. Of course, just like you. Then I got embarrassed but luckily all the ladies in my ward are awesome so they all laughed at completely understood. I cried every time I saw her and when she came on screen I told Sister Boman, "I guarantee Tammy (Sarah, Sister Naylor’s Mom) and my Mom are bawling right now." I was obviously right.

Monday: We had an awesome P-Day. President cut down our study time and gave us an extra hour on P-Days now!!!!! AWESOME!!! Perfect time to go on the mission. ;) We went to Sister H house and Sister Boman ordered a Vera Bradley bag for $69.00. She was about to order it and I said whoa, whoa, WHOA. Let me work my discount magic. Sure enough I found a $15 off coupon plus free shipping! I was a hero!!! Ya Mom, doing you proud....even on the mission.

                                       

Tuesday: I was having more struggles with my Salmonella at the beginning of the week. I was not throwing up anymore but had diarrhea constantly. I was up all night and got about 2 hours of sleep. But that did not stop me! We had to go to Lavale (about 50 minutes away) for district meeting. So we are headed on our way and we pass this deer that is splattered across the street. It was the worst one I have seen, and there are a lot here. Anyway, about 30 seconds after we passed the deer, all of the sudden we hit something and I start to hear a hissing. We couldn't see anything and so we didn't think of anything. As you can now assume, about 30 seconds later our car started to freak out and so did I. (I actually was really calm.....I was very impressed.) I knew right away we had a flat tire and we pulled over. We got out and looked at the tire and sure enough it was a goner. So we called the appointed people and got it taken care of. We waited for about 40 minutes until someone was able to changed. Then we drove 50 miles per hour to Lavale, (TOOK FOREVER) and got to a Sears. As they looked at the tire to find out what had happened and you would not believe it...A FLIPPIN' DEER BONE POPPED OUR TIRE. Was this a joke??? No. It was ridiculous, but we laughed. :) Now, Sherry (our car) has a new tire. Part of the miracle is that the man who put the new tire on told us that we were very lucky that we didn't get seriously hurt in an accident as the tire should have exploded at the speed we were traveling on the interstate. Oh, the blessings of being a missionary.

Wednesday: Today was a miracle day for us. We had received 2 media referrals and were super excited because these were people that actually wanted to see us!!! The first person we called was a total dud and DID NOT want to see us. We were pretty sad. The second one said she just wanted a bible, so we went to drop one off.  We headed to her place and when we got there we knocked and knocked but no answer. Just as we were going to leave, a car pulled up and a lady yelled out, "What do you want!?" We ran to the car and asked her if she had requested a bible. She said yes and we told her who we were. SHE TOTALLY WANTS US TO COME BACK. It was super awesome and we are so excited to go see her! We hope she will be a new investigator. :)

Thursday: More complications from the Salmonella, but it is ok! We watched 17 miracles with one of our Recent Converts and it was so awesome! It reminded me how easy a mission is compared to what the pioneers went through to get here. I hope I never forget that.

Friday: Today's highlight was our dinner with the C family. It was SO MUCH FUN! They are total country-folks and the stories they told us were SO FUNNY! You can totally tell the difference of people from Utah and here. But honestly I love that people out here are just themselves and they don't worry about impressing everyone else. Sometimes I feel like some people at home need to learn that lesson. We watched the Mormon Message video called "Good Things to Come." by Elder Holland. He's totally my favorite speaker. He talks about how he can see his younger self struggling and just wishes he could say "Don't give up. The road gets easier, it will all be worth it." I wish my future self could come tell me that too. But I know that it will all be worth it in the end, and that keeps me going. It is a lesson for us all.

This week has been full of ups and downs, but if anything I have growing faith in the work that is going forward in not only Hancock, but all around the world. I am so proud to be a missionary at this time, and I cannot wait to hear the words of the prophet and apostles next weekend! It's like Christmas as a missionary! Please continue to write me, the letters keep me going!

Oh, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!! You are the greatest Mom I could ever ask for. I love you to the moon and back. Always and forever.

I love you all!

Sister Morris

P.S. Transfers are on Oct 9^th. I do not know if I will be staying in Hancock or if I will be training someone as a greenie of six weeks. My Zone Leader told me I might be training, I hope I am able to stay in Hancock. So if you write me, mail it before Thursday or I might not get it if I am transferred. I will know more by Monday. You can always email me at madison.morris@myldsmail.net