A HUGE Elder Morris Update

Dear Blog Readers,

I am officially two months and three long letters behind in blogging Elder Morris’s adventures. Thanks for being patient with me. I decided that I can’t go on today until they are typed up and submitted to the cyberworld for your enjoyment. So here they are… from mid-August to almost October. These letters are full of really good stuff!

Love, Jamilyn

August 13, 2009

I can’t tell you how excited I am right now. Everything feels right. It’s been quite some time since that has happened. I’ve been having a slight, what would you call it, new and scary look on the mission. I don’t have much time left. I have people to help. I need to find all of them. I’ve been trying really hard to remain focused- to take nothing away from my focus. Sadly, it has turned me into a poor writer. Thanks for being patient with me and not giving up on me.

Let me tell you why I’m so excited! In these past few weeks, everything is getting better. Our numbers are going way up. We’ve been pushing and loving, and it’s working. August is going to be a great month. We are so going to blow our goals out of the water. Speaking of goals, our companionship: 2/3 baptized, Our district 4/5 baptized, Our zone 13/14 baptized our mission 79/100 baptized. We have been trying as a mission to get 100 baptisms ever since I’ve been here. This month looks like it will happen for sure! Since I’ve had my new and scary look on the mission, we’ve been doing great with lessons and new investigators. My numbers probably look the best that they ever have in the mission. I just feel pumped. You probably don’t care too much about numbers. I do though. I know that they mean people. Numbers = people, thus I care. I love helping people.

Anyways, lets talk about some really fun stuff. We’ll start with the Jackson family, Kris and Jerome. They are probably one of my favorite families. They were so prepared for the gospel. We found them knocking. A month before we found them, they got married. Fifteen days later, Kris has her baby boy Joshua. Fifteen days after that, I get transferred here and we knock into them. Kris always accepted the gospel from the beginning. Always remembered what we had taught her, even though her kids were going crazy during the lessons. After we taught Kris some, she came to church. Then, Jerome lost his job. That made it possible for him to be home, so we could teach him. Church, he would always sleep in for though. Well, Kris’s baptism comes around and he gets forced to church. He loves it. We got him into playing basketball with the ward on Tuesdays and Wednesdays too. So he saw all his basketball buddies at church. Kris’s baptism was beautiful. Jerome came and it helped him a lot. After the baptism, the first thing they grabbed was a tithing slip. We taught them about tithing and how it was important. They wanted to pay right away, even though Jerome didn’t have a job and they were only making $300 a month. The next week Kris and Jerome came to church and paid their tithing. Guess what? Jerome got a call up from an old job and they offered him a permanent spot . How cool, eh? Then Jerome got baptized. It was so so so sweet. Everyone was there. They are so solid. I can’t wait to see them get sealed. Anyways… it’s been great to see them change too. They used to argue, be unhappy and even dress funny. Now, hey smile, love each other, and look shartp. They are preparing for eternal marriage. All in all, they are up there with the Chris Timmermann baptism.

My district is doing a lot better, hopefully. We’ll see how their numbers do this week. The sisters made up and apologized. They decided they can be friends. Shoal Creek A Elders seem happy. I went on exchanges with Elder Schoney in our area. He is a great missionary. We got so much done. Every door we knocked on, pretty much opened and let us in. It was way sweet.

Elder Blaylock and I are doing a lot better. I’ve been focusing on creating unity and dropping bad thoughts about him and not feeding them. If you feed bad thoughts, they grow. About unity for example, we went on a huge thrift store tie hunt on P-day. It was so good for us. We even bought comp unity ties. Focusing on things that we both can do and have fun has united us. Exchanges showed me one thing though. It’s great to live with someone you get along with.

September 7- 14, 2009

I don’t even know where to begin. I’ll just start from right now and work my way back. If there is anything I need to fill you in on as well, I’ll do it along the way. So… Let the fable begin.

Once upon a time, there was a man of great valor. His name was Sir Elder Moris. Most people called him Elder Sir Morris because the “Elder” title was more important. In this story, we will just call him Elder Morris. Elder Morris had just received notice that he was to go to the Land Northward to rally up some troops. He was informed that his responsibilities would be greater. That everyone would be watching him and would follow his lead. He would be tripling the amount of his previous army, and on top of that, he would be assisting in breaking in a new soldier. There was lots of work for him to do.

Ok, that’s taking too long to write like that. I hope you enjoyed it thorugh. As I told you through email, I’m in the Round Rock zone again. It’s so much fun. Elder Leonard is a district leader here. That means that I get to go on exchanges with him. We’ll be comps for a day. Those are pretty much the only missionaries in my zone that I know. Sis. Kliesler was here for 3 days but then she got emergency transferred because she was more than her companion could handle. Kinda sad. She is still having struggles. Let’s tell you a little about my companions. They’re both from California. Here is Elder Palmer:

“Hello, this is Elder Palmer. I am from Redlands, CA. I am excited to be serving along side Elder Morris. I have heard good things about him ever since I came up to Austin. He is invincible and is doing really well. He asked me to say more about myself. So here goes. I am #2 of 6 kids. I used to swim in high school. I went to Harvard before my mission. I love to write and have done a bit of photography. And now here is Elder Tracy”:

“Hola. Me llamo Elder Tracy. I’m from California, around Sacramento. I have 3 sisters (2 older, 1 younger). My oldest sister is now pregnant with her first and my other older sister had her first at the end of June. Elder Morris and Elder Palmer are training me and doing a fine job at it, at least from my perspective. Elder Morris is the man. I did 2 semesters at BYU before my mission, loved it. I run track and cross country. Not sure what else to say, so I’ll stop. That’s the best bet. I’ll throw it back over to Elder Morris now…”

Yeah, they’re both incredible. I love them so much. I just barely found out that Elder Palmer is a big Yo-Yo Ma fan. As a matter of fact, he has met Yo-Yo Ma. He’s been to two of his concerts. How cool is that. I guess Yo-Yo Ma is a Harvard grad, so he still lives by the University.

I have two companions now, but my apartment is really really small. We can fit all of our stuff in it just fine. The only problem is that one bedroom apartments are not made to fit three beds. So I offered myself as a sacrifice and I’m sleeping on the couch in the other room. It’s a really comfy couch

We have been seeing so many miracles as a companionship. Our goal for this month is 4 baptisms. It may be more though. We officially have a “weddism”. It will be my first. I hear that they are way sweet. Joe and Irma are their names. They are so solid. They were having troubles drinking coffee. We we brought over a big box that we called the Faith Box to their house yesterday. We read to them the story of Moses telling Satan to get hence. You know, how you should cast out temptation. Before we could tell Joe what the box was for, he said “You come back next time and ya’ll will see what’s in that box.” So we are going to pick it up tonight and hopefully the coffee maker is in it.. They’re getting married on the 19^th and baptized on the 20^th. Irma is having rouble giving up coffee, so pray for her.

Being in a threesome is so different. It just seems like too many people. It seems overpowering. We’ve worked it out pretty well though. At a doorstop, one person will teach, the other testify, and the lst commit. It still seems like too many people though. But I don’t know if I’ve been this successful in a companionship in a while. We get along really well. I’m so excited. We are seeing tons of miracles. We are being lead by the spirit. Time is going by way too fast. I have so many mixed feelings at this point in my mission.

Right now I am studying the BoM. Sis cutler gave us all a new copy of the BoM and a marking system to go with it. We are supposed to finish by December 23. I just started 2Nephy. We mark Yellow for his name or pronouns referring to him. His words by him or his prophets (thus sayeth the Lord) in red. Green is Christ-like attributes from chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel. Blue is things that apply to the gospel of Jesus Christ. – Lesson 3 of Preach my Gospel. Pretty fun, huh?

I’m so excited for conference! Bring a nonmember friend to conference, k? Anyone I have ever gotten to go see conference has known the church is true. Will you do it? Go watch it at the church too. .

I’m really loving any Hispanic food. Although the best thing I have been fed was a vegan meal I pretty much just love food. I can eat a lot more now, and I’m no longer nervous to eat in front of people. The other day I had a Fudruckers 1 lb. burger, a large fry, and 2 sodas. Crazy, eh?

What do I like about myself and what is my best missionary quality? Luckily enough, we just had comp inventory, so I know the answers my companions think. I’m very cheerful even in hard times. Also, I’m very personal. I see someone’s need and fulfill it. I care about each person individually. That’s what my companions say.

I’m so glad you love cello. We’ve been listening to a lot of cello music lately. Both of my comps like it! I haven’t been able to fine one, but I get two, and they both like it! I love this companionship! My favorite yet!

September 14-21, 2009

Hey again. I told you that I would write you a letter about all my zone leader things that I do and what not, so I thought I’d get started soon.

First, I’ll tell you about Zone Leader council. It’s the first Friday of every month. So, I went to my first one my second day of being a ZL. We had to drop Elder Tracy off with Elder Jensen and his companion, cause he’s not a ZL. Then we picked up Elder Dutson and Elder Erickson and went on the long trip to San Antonio. By long, I mean an hour and a half. It was so much fun. I love them so much. We meet up at the stake center by the temple and talk about ho we can improve the mission. It’s so spiritual. I know President Cutler truly cares about us all. After we council. We race to President’s house. I mean race. There is an unwritten award for being the first one there for some reason. I followed behind President into his gate community. Bad idea. We almost got chopped in half by the gate. I guess the gate is timed. Most gates aren’t. We made it safe though. When we get to president’s house, we just sit and talk for a bit until Sis. Cutler is done making lunch. You’ll never guess what she made. French dips. J I remember how you used to love those. They were so good. I’m glad you are eating healthy now though. After lunch, tey hand out awards such as the horns and the shoe. Following that, we go around the room and everybody bears their testimony. The spirit is always so strong. Wouldn’t you know it, right when I get to the middle of my testimony the doorbell rings. After testimonies, each companionship chooses a hymn to sing. At the very end, they chose to sing “Onward Christian Soldiers.” The secret is at the chorus, everyone starts to march in a circle. They don’t tell the new people so it’s extra funny that way. Even President does it, and he is a very serious man. We sing “love one another” to finish it off. We put our arms around each other and sway back and forth. We sway as far as we can without falling over. It’s fun. After all the singing is over, we take a group picture. We then take off to the office to pick up mail and what not. We just spend time hanging out for a little bit. Then head back home.

Something fun about the car ride home though. The stakes in Austin decided to fast and pray for rain. On our way home, as soon as we hit Austin, it’s a wall of rain. It’s flooding like crazy. I took a wrong turn and ended up taking us off the freeway onto the flooded streets. Water was shooting up 2 feet in the air out of the gutters because there was so much rain. You could barely see. I was for sure our car was going to get stuc in all the water. We dropped Elder Dutson and Erikson off at the church. I left something in the church, so I had to run 15 feet into the church to get it. I was completely soaked from head to toe! The streets were rivers. It was crazy. We drove 15 minutes north to get home to Round Rock and it’s not even raining. I guess that’s what you get for fasting and praying for rain. It hasn’t stopped raining here for a week and that so isn’t Texas.

Another thing that’s different is that you only train once a transfer as a Zone Leader. You have to make it really good. I trained on having faith. That’s probably the biggest thing that I have learned on my mission. Your work, your area, and your companion all have to do with how much faith you have in them. I figured out the area thing with McNeil. As I changed my attitude, the area changed. Seguin, I gained faith in my work. As I went to Shoal Creek, at first I didn’t have faith in Elder Blaylock. He was tough to work with. He was awkward and unfunny. Didn’t love working much either. You helped me see that my attitude was all wrong though. I changed the way I iewed him and increased my faith in him, and it worked. He was a great companion and friend. All because of my faith. After I trained on faith, I committed everyone to do one good thing for themselves, their companion, and their area per day. We passed out white boards so everyone could write down the names of the investigators in the zone, and pray for them by name for them. It was a really good Zone Meeting.

Now, the pesky thing about being a zone leader … exchanges. I guess it’s not too bad, but we did it two days in a row. So I left my area for two days to train other Elders. By the time I came back, I was so lost in my area. It’s amazing how much you miss in two days. I erally missed Elder Palmer and Elder Tracy. I can’t speak enough good stuff about them. A lot can happen in two days.

More that’s happening. Joe and Irma didn’t get baptized this Sunday as planned. They are waiting for 1^st presidency approval. First off, Joe and Irma are solid. Joe is going to be a bishop someday. He just needs a little more time.

We also have a wonderful family of 6 that we are teaching. 3 of them have a date to be baptized in October. Their names are Tanya (mother), Jordan (10) and Epiphany (8). Her other kids are too young. We are trying to teach the husband right now but his work is conflicting. He found some weird religion where he gets up at 3 am , lights a candle, and meditates in the closet. So that will be a new challenge. Pray that his heard will be softened. Tanya really knows that the church is true. She wasn’t able to make it this Sunday because her mother had a stroke in Fort Worth, and is in the hospital. Pray for her mother, and pray that she can make it home soon.

Are you ready for a sweet miracle? The miracle of the week happened when we went to visit some members. The Beck family. The Becks, we had taught them to make a list of 5. So we were going to follow up with them. Well, they cancelled and moved it to two weeks later. So we go to visit them and show up. Their so Alec was supposed to be there, but decided to go for a walk and forgot that we were coming. We go over the list one by one of the people they are going to give us to teach. They get to Alec’s name, and it’s his friend Keenan. Elder Palmer tells us the story about how he randomly bumped into Keenan while street contacting. He was sitting on a rock listening to his ipod. He asked if he had any mormon friends, and Keenan told him that he knew Alec, but he wasn’t very interested. Elder Palmer committed him to talk to Alec if he ever had any questions. Little did he know, Alec is like is best friend and he was waiting to go on a walk with him. Side noteL we had picked up Alec as he was walking home in the pouring rain. We told him that we would only give him a ride if he gave us a referral (as a joke), but he gave us Keenan. We committed him to talk with him about the gospel. That was the end of that. Wo, back to Elder Palmer and the story of finding Keenan on a rock… as soon as Elder Palmer gets done telling the story, guess who walks right in the door? KEENAN! His first words are “looks like I came at the right time.” Ya see, Keenan and Alec had just gone on a walk with each other to talk. Well, the gospel came up. Alec taught him the plan of salvation and about the priesthood. Keenan really wanted to know more and wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon. There we were, Everyone knowing we were talking about him. He sat down and we answered his question of ow he could know it was true. The spirit was so thick in the room. We bore testimony so powerfully. He was saying things like “It just feels good” and “It just makes sense” and II feel like I belong”. Elder Tracy committed him for baptism right then. Or greeny committed him! That’s how strong the spirit was. Elder Tracy says “Once you know this is true, will you be baptized?” Keenan’s response was “I already know it’s true. Yes!” Isn’t that amazing? It was incredible. We taught him 10 minutes and he knew it was true. He couldn’t deny the spirit. Pray for Keenan through, because his family is giving him some real opposition right now. Pray that his parents will soften their hearts. Since he is only 17, he needs their approval So that’s your miracle of the week. I can’t wait to tell you all the miracles I have seen.

*If ya read all the way to the bottom of this post, please leave a comment and tell me that ya read it. Sometimes it feels like I do this for nothing. But I'm sure that's false, right? Right? -Jamilyn