November 21, 2008

Missionary journal question: "what's your favorite discussion?" 

My favorite discussion is #2!  The plan of salvation.  The plan brings so much hope.  It lets us know how much our Father in Heaven loves us.  It answers the questions: Who are we?  Where did we come from?  Why are we here on Earth?  Where are we going after this life?  It just feels good to know that Heavenly Father had a plan for us before this life and that He is wiling to shar it with us now.  It's also a doctrine that other churches don't have.  It always goes over pretty smoothly.  It just makes me happy.  I mean, how could it not?  

I don't think I told you about Chris's baptism in all the excitement of transfers.  It was pretty awesome.  He kept teasing us that he was going to wait until his birthday on the 24th of December.  He followed through and was baptized on November 9th.  It was pretty much the coolest ever.  The spirit was way strong there.  He had brought his whole family.  You could tell that was a day that both him and the ward had waited for for a long time.  I know you and I waited a long time for it!  Everyone gave really good talks.  It was pretty much the perfect baptism.  We are now even talking with his parents. We did some service at their house today and then taught David- his dad- the message of the restoration.  It was pretty sweet!  We tore out some of his trees by hand... well, pick ax.  Man James, we need some help with getting some new people to teach, so pray for the hearts of the people of Seguin.

My boy is starting to come out of his shell, but he still has some work to do.  He seems happier.  He's learning social skills and teaching skills.  They for sure gave him the right comp.

How does Texas feel about Obama?  Most of them hate it.  lol.  It's so hard to know what is true from them.  Nobody ever talks about his campaign so I don't really know what he wants to do.  I hear he is raising gun taxes.  Texans love their guns.  How do you feel about guns?  Texas is not for abortion, gays, and they love guns.  They think Obama will take that.  What do you mean Michigan legalized marijuana?  To what extent?  That's crazy talk! 

I'm doing well.  I'm happy.  I'm standing so tall.  I could do better on the journal thing  Keep up the good work.  Look for missionary opportunities.  Pray for them too!  

Nathan's New Greenie! (email)

Well, a couple of things to know about my boy... He is from Mesa Arizona. He's 19. Favorite color is navy blue. He likes cars and computers. He has pretty bad self-esteem issues, but it didn't take me to long to get him to stop being quite. He was a little unsure about his teaching, but he's doing better now. I'm slowly pushing him to be better. It's kinda fun. The weird thing is that I never thought about is how he wouldn't do anything with out me telling him to. He won't even eat breakfast with out me telling him to. he's getting better at that tho. All in all, I know he likes me and I've been showing him tons of love. He is way excited for baptism and we are going to get one this transfer for sure! It's amazing the blessings the boy has received. He hasn't had one mean person yell at him on a doorstep. Everyone he talks to is nice. . .I got a lot on my hands and it is way stressful. I'm doing great training and he's starting to learn social skills that he should have learned forever ago.

Email News!

Transfer calls came on Monday.  Elder Morris is staying at the same address in Seguin.  BUT he has some exciting news!!  He is becoming a senior companion, and he gets to train a brand new missionary straight from the MTC!  This is a pretty exciting leadership opportunity, especially since he's only been out for 7 and a half months!  He is nervous, but also excited to be the best senior companion and trainer he can be.  He knows he is prepared.  

And as you can see from the pictures, Nathan baptized Chris on November 9.  :)

Also, I added a new element to the blog.  If you would like to get notifications on when there are new posts, click the link that says "follow this blog".  The link is at the top of the left column right above Nathan's addresses.  You can follow publicly or privately.  

November 3, 2008

Day light savings time is throwing me off.  I feel ready for bed way too soon now.  What's a typical P-Day for me?  I wake up and do my laundry.  After that's all done we drive 15 miles to the New Braunfels library.  You know, we all email and such.  After that, we go shop and play.  This P-Day we went fishing.  I caught 3 fish.  Pretty sweet!  I threw them back, of course.  I still don't know how I feel about fish.  I'm a lot less of a picky eater now that I have to eat everything.  After 6:00, we do normal missionary stuff, and at night I write letters.  

November 7, 2008

Journal sticker: "Discribe your airplane ride to the mission field and back home."  I was so excited to get on the plane and meet the President, my companion, and my first investigator.  Elder Leonard and Dutson were way excited too!  They both got seats together in the back of the plane (little did I know that this would be a foreshadowing of the mission field.)  I walked to my seat thinking the plane was tiny.  I had to scrunch down because the ceiling was so low.  I was seated by myself.  It was slightly depressing to be seated away from all the other missionaries, but I practiced my spanish the whole way.  There was tons of turbulence landing.  I'm for sure that wasn't normal.  As for the ride home... I expect a bigger plane.  I expect to sit with my friends. 

As for Elder Dutson and Elder Leonard being a foreshadowing... You see, they have always been together in the mission field.  As a matter of fact, they are both serving in Riverside right now.  It is in Austin and it's a completely spanish speaking ward.  There are 6 elders that belong to this ward.  These 6 elders go to church together and eat dinner together.  I am only a little jealous!  :)  They get to see each other every day.

Doesn't praying for help on things like cello seem so cool?  It really does help.  I love how the Lord will help you out when you ask.  LOL!  For some things...  Funny story.  You remember my way swollen eye?  Well, the night before I prayed for help getting wicked sweet abs.  I think the eye was the Lord telling me to be a little less vain and worry more about the work.  

October 26, 2008

Share your thoughts and feelings of your first baptism. My first on paper baptism was Koby. He was baptized on my 2nd day in the mission field. I was glad that he was getting baptized but I didn't feel connected to him at all. He is 9. I mean, it was a walk in baptism. I felt silly and awkward. I knew no one. I felt unready. My mind was exploding from just getting in the field. All in all, it didn't feel satisfying at all. I felt like I had robbed someone's baptism. It's ok though, because I became friends with him later. I think I have pretty much explained many other baptisms. I don't talk about this one much, just because it doesn't feel like it was mine.

In your first wonderful letter you asked about the seasons here. Man, it's getting cold for my liking here in Texas. It gets to 50 degrees in the mornings. You know how I hate the cold. It's still pretty warm in the day though. It did rain here in seguin... I wish it would do that more. We don't have seasons in Texas. It never turns into Autumn. Leaves do fall, but they don't change color on the trees. It's kinda like the tree sheds it's leaves. It rains when ever it feels like it. We don't get snow, but if it rains during the day, it gets cold enough at night to turn the ground into ice in winter time. I hear spring time here is way awesome! Tons of Texas wild flowers. I LOVE RAIN TOO!

Guess what prayer of ours finally got answered?!? CHRIS IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! That's right. Es verdad! Can you believe it? I always knew he would, I just didn't know if I would see it. He is getting baptized on the 9th of November. Here is how it went down. Chris had been canceling on us for family stuff he needed to do. It was a big bummer. He kept coming up with really stupid doubts. Anyways, because he had been canceling, we hadn't seen him in a while. His wife called and said that Chris had too many questions that she couldn't answer and that we needed to come over and make an appointment. She's really cute, she always makes phone calls to us behind his back to keep us updated on him. She really wanted him baptized. So we called Chris and made an appointment with him that day. Side note: A general authority came from the 70 earlier this week to talk to our mission. He he talked about using the BOM more in our teaching will lead to more baptisms. I felt like we needed to read Alma 32 with Chris focusing on acting on the spirit. So we did. The spirit was there so strong! After we finished teaching, we asked him what he thought. He said "this teaches me I need to make the next step which is baptism, but I don't know." I said "where did you get baptism?" Man, all I can say is that the Lord blinded my eyes. Read Alma 32:16. I then pointed to him and said "Chris, that is the spirit telling you what you need to do. Think how much more that scripture means to you now because it was taught to you by the spirit." How could no one point out verse 16? That was a bombin' scripture! It's cause the Lord knows what he's doin'! It was awesome. He said he wasn't sure about his family, but we told him that he needs to be the example. Man, Finger and I taught with such unity. We asked when felt good for baptism and he said the 9th and we planned it all out. Just another general authority promise come true. I love it how the Lord's servant's promises always come true.

P.S. I'm gonna be dippin' chris!