5/16/2016

Hey y'alll! 

I hope everyone had a great week! Things are going just fine out here in Africa! To be honest, I’m not feeling so good today. I’ve got some small sickness coming on. Hopefully it won’t be anything to bad.

 Anyway an update from this past week: it rained really hard one day right as we went out to proselyte. We actually go stuck under a small shop hiding from the rain! It went from about 11 to 3. But let me just say how amazing the cool breeze was! A big relief from the hot sun!  The locals say the weather will start cooling down now and we'll have more rain.

This past week we didn’t have very many lessons but did have a great opportunity to attend the Temple with our recent converts. It was so relaxing and was such a great day! I had the chance to actually do the confirmations for some of the people there that day. It’s definitely a goal to attend the temple every month with a recent convert!

You remember Lawrence?? We were teaching him a while back but left to Cape Coast for break. Well he’s back and we're preparing him for baptism!!

Speaking of baptism, Kwesie Aggrey was finally baptized in the Kojo Bedu ward this past Sunday. I guess they got permission from the wife to be baptized. So that feels like a big pile of rocks was lifted off our shoulders.

So yeah, not doing so good right now so I’m gonna cut it a little short today!

Love and miss y’all so much!

Keep your heads up because everything will work out in the end!

Love,

Elder Morris

5/9/2016 MOTHER'S DAY

GOOD AFTERNOON!!!!! First, Happy Mother’s day to all MOTHERS and future mothers out there!! Thank you for being Awesome!!! I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say, I don’t know what we'd do without you!!!

So this last week was the last week before transfer... Well nothing surprising... President said we're all staying in our areas till we get to know the members better and work with them more. So I guess it’s a good thing and somehow a bad thing if you wanted your comp to leave... Not saying names’ ha-ha

It’s okay though, it’s the challenges that build us and make us stronger!!

A quote by someone who I love so much once said “I choose to be happy.  The most fun part about life is trying to figure it out.  If something is not working, change and do it a different way until you find something that does work and makes you happy.  Missions are hard, but so is life.  So make the most of it." -Charles Morris AKA DAD!!

It’s so true though. We can choose to be happy or not. Thank goodness I like being optimistic ha ha-ha. When life gets hard I remind myself that it’s only for a small time and I still have great moments ahead of me!

Any who so the rest of last week on Wednesday we went to Accra to Have Zone Conference. It was great to see old friends and also great to hear from Elder Stanfill from the 70. We received great inspiration and guidance on how to be better missionaries when it comes to working with members. That’s why we'll be staying in our areas for a long time ha-ha.

We've been teaching a lot of good people and then.... sadness. We have to postpone or can’t baptize because of issues. Like Okay I won’t say names but

One person didn’t tell us he was married and there’s been talk of him cheating on his wife so we have to postpone till things calm down and we get approval from the wife,

Another is married to a polygamist man so she can’t be baptized.

Another is a polygamist so we can’t baptize him or his wife.

One is Pregnant so we have to wait till she delivers but she’ll go to Kenya till then and then come back in like August.

So, I’d just like to prove that there truly is opposition in all things!!

We'll just go back to work now. We are working with members trying to get referrals (because that’s been the most successful tool in baptizing, is through member referrals!!).

A cool experience from last week. I GOT TO HOLD A MONKEY!!!!! Like the small one in the movie, Night at the Museum. It was adorable and I picked him up and put him on my shoulder! Just so no one is alarmed, it’s a pet of a member. So it’s not wild ha-ha

Then in the end I finished the week calling my family for mother’s day!! It was so good to hear their voices and chat with them for a small time!

I hope everyone has a great week!! Pray for rain here in Ghana!! We need it!! Ha-ha-ha

Love and miss y’all!!

Elder Morris!

5/2/2016

Another fast fast week here in Africa!! The sun is shining bright, but we did get some rain last week which felt really nice!! It was great to have cool weather for a change.

I just like to say, like Nephi I am not mighty in writing but rather in speech. So if any part of this email seems out of place, that’s why ha-ha

So a good week! We had the opportunity to set a baptismal date for a Sis Mary, who is by far now my favorite investigator ever!!!! Here’s why!

After she attended church Sunday, which she said she really enjoyed all the classes and learning, we went to her place to start teaching her about the plan of salvation. As we sit down with her she started telling us her story when she was reading the "plan of salvation" pamphlet. She said I was reading when I just started to cry. Tears were flowing down my face and I couldn’t figure out why!!! That moment I knew that this was the true church I had been looking for! Everything is true that you’ve taught me, Joseph smith, restoration of the priesthood, everything!!

I was so happy to hear those words!! I knew she knew this is the only true church of Jesus Christ on the earth!! We extended a baptismal date earlier in the week for May 22nd. She accepted!

She keeps commitments and everything, truly prepared by the Lord beforehand!!

For Kwesi we had some issues come up (probably shouldn’t write) but we have postponed his baptism. Hopefully he’s able to work out the situation soon. But we know there is OPPOSITION IN ALL THINGS! Ha-ha-ha where would the fun be without it.

This coming Wednesday we're having a zone conference and Elder Stanfill from the 70 will be joining us!

Also to all missionaries, WE CALL HOME THIS WEEK!!!!!!! Can’t wait to talk with the Family!

So this week I was reading about some church history and I came across the history of the Book of Mormon. It was interesting to read that Mormon added the small plates of Nephi "for a wise purpose". Little did I know it relates to Martin Harris losing the Manuscript of the 116 pages from the book of Lehi. It was the voice of the spirit which had told Mormon to add the small plates of Nephi. This was because the lord new in due time, the 116 pages would be lost.

So I thought... When the spirit whispers something to me, do I listen and follow the guidance or do I just pass it over. Is there a "wise purpose" that the lord is trying to put in place? So just a little thought.

I definitely feel that I’m able to recognize the voice of the spirit more than before my mission. Which I’m very grateful for because I know that will help me in my decision making.

We had our monthly Fast and Testimony meeting this last Sunday and I felt prompted to share my test. I read a quote somewhere one time that a "Testimony shared is a testimony kept". So wanting to share and build my testimony I followed the prompting of sharing. From God is our loving Heavenly Father to Families are ordained of God.

My love for this Gospel is strong! I know it comes with promised blessings as we use our agency and choose to follow the example or our savior Jesus Christ.

I hope y’all have a great week!! Love and miss you a lot!!

Lead me, guide me

So a speedy week out here in Ghana!!

No much is going on. We had our Stake Conference this week and had the opportunity to hear from President Snow and his wife. Besides that I couldn't really understand or hear the other speakers. We were sitting in the very back.

I finally got a hair cut!!! Did it myself and with the help of Elder Evans and Elder Wilcox. I'd send a pic if this cafe would let me but I can't sorry, someday.

Highlight of the week, I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with a younger missionary (He's just about 4 weeks on the mission). I was the senior comp that day but we were in his area. I was with Elder Ngwenya from Zimbabwe. We started teaching and I let him open the lessons. Then when I saw the chance to step in and show him what I have learned so far on mission. It was great leading the lessons that day but at the close of the day Elder Ngwenya said to me, "Elder Morris, you have a very interesting way of teaching," hahaha He then told me that he thought it was so cool how I was able to use scriptures to answer the questions the investigators had and how comfortable I was talking with them. At the beginning of my mission I thought to myself,  I'll never be able to be good at scriptures or talking, or leading a lesson. But after having that exchange it really opened my eyes to how much I actually know and how much I've grown as a missionary. What a great experience!!

I continue to pray for charity towards others including my comp. We've been doing better together but again the longer you're with them the more satan tries to get us to fight and argue. But having charity is the key! That comes by loving the Savior more and knowing him better. We can do that by studying His ways. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but the counsel we received from Elder Rasband was to study the topics in the Topical guide about Jesus Christ, and by doing so we will gain more love for him and what he did for us. It's working for me. As I learn more about Christ, I gain greater appreciation for the sacrifice he made for us!

A little update on the people we're teaching, we are preparing a man named Kwesi Aggrey to be baptized in the coming week!! the only problem is he doesn't live in our ward boundaries. We're working to figure out how to help him go to his own ward. He's a little resistant but hopefully he'll soften his heart and understand.

We also met a new lady, Sis Mary. She's around 50 years old and is just great!!! She was a referral from a lady in our ward. She understands the things we've been teaching and even came to Stake Conference this last Sunday. She told us after how much she liked it, how peaceful and simple it was. She said she's planning to come this next Sunday to see how our regular worship service is.

I love and miss y'all so much! I hope you have a great week! Please keep these people in your prayers as well as me!! I pray for you each and everyday!!

May God bless you!

Love,

Elder Morris

Families are Forever

Hello once again! Another week gone by!! Time is flying to be honest!

So here’s my week in a nutshell: Those who were baptized last week were confirmed this past Sunday! YAY! And we've continued teaching Bro Kwesi this week, preparing him for his own baptism. Update on Lawrence, he'll be getting baptized this next Sunday (even though we have Stake Conference). We've arranged with our Bishop to have it after because Lawrence travels to Cape Coast for School every other week. This is the only way we could figure out when to hold it. We’re very excited for him!!

Also Bishop announced that they (the ward) would be going to the temple May 7th and they're taking our recent converts! President Snow, our Mission President said we could attend the temple with our recent converts. We're looking so forward to going with them!! I LOVE THE TEMPLE!!!!!

So crazy story of the week…When we first started teaching Janet, Princess, and Priscilla, they had another girl living with them named Lydia. She’s 17 and her story was her parents both died and so she came to Ansaful to find work. She met Sis Janet and her kids and Janet offered to take her in. Lydia has been living with them for a while now. Well, last week we showed up to visit the family and they told us that Lydia had ran away. When she left, she stole some of the girls dresses and 50 GHC from selling oranges the night before. So…this whole time we were fooled thinking Lydia was wanting to learn the gospel. What a shame it was when we heard the news. The family also couldn’t find any of the Books of Mormon we gave them and they suspect Lydia took all of them. At least she has the word of God with her, right?! haha

On Sunday we had a new investigator in our investigators class. Her name is Ester. It was her first time to visit us. She started asking a lot of questions during the class so we said if she would stay after we would help her understand. So we did. She started throwing questions at us left and right! "Who do you pray to? What’s the priesthood?" on and on and on!!! We finally told her, hold up, let’s answer each question, one at a time. We taught about Jesus Chirst establishing his church all the way through the Restoration and through Joseph Smith in like 45 minutes!! As we were teaching she continued to have one question right after another! Some of which didn’t even have to do with the topic. We arranged to visit her throughout the week and answer her questions. It should be an interesting week.

Something I’ve been thinking about lately is how grateful I am to know that families can be together forever!!! That song runs through my mind a lot, "I have a family here on earth, they are so good to me, I want to share my life with them through all eternity! Families can be together forever, through Heavenly Fathers plan" How true those words are and through the power of priesthood we have the binding power here on earth to bind our families forever. May all of us grow to love our families and understand the importance they have in our lives. I’ve never realized how much my family means to me until being away from them. May we also teach our kids, or prepare to teach our future kids about God and Jesus Christ. Especially the significant role He plays in our daily lives. Teach your children to live the words of the prophets including the living prophet we have today!

I love y’all so much!! Thank you for your constant support and love! May God be with you all!

Love ,

Elder Morris

Another good, hot week here in Ghana!

This is what when down this week.

On Wednesday we had interviews with our Mission President. Let me just say President Snow is a great guy! I sat down and kinda opened up to him about how I'm struggling with getting along with my companion and how I'm praying for Charity and then he really helped me out. He gave me some tips that he used at one point in his life. It was to love the Savior more. Basically if I can strengthen my love for Jesus Christ, it will help me see that the whole mission is just part of a bigger plan for me! It's helping me to grow to become a better husband, father, and even grandparent some day!! Most importantly it's helping me become a disciple of Jesus Christ. I believe this is true!

The things I'm learning now and the person I will become will help me when I have the same issues with my spouse or future children. He kept saying this was all preparing me to become a father! So in the end, I was uplifted and felt joy in knowing that it was preparing me for further things to come. After the interview I realized I need to be more humble and already I've seen my relationship with my companion grow.

Janet and her twins, Princess and Priscilla, were all baptized this last Sunday! As well as Matthew! While I've been with Elder Sakala we've been blessed to have 7 strong investigators be baptized. We are working with 2 others that are progressing well and really feel a desire to be baptized.

We received a referral from a ward member and this guy is GOLDEN!!! (a name typically given to an investigator who is prepared in every way to receive Christ). His name is Kwesi. He is just awesome! He's really my favorite so far. We taught all the first lesson this last week and when we asked him to pray about Joseph Smith and if he was really called as a prophet he told us the experience he had. He said he was contemplating whether he would actually get an answer or not. Finally he just decided to pray. He said, "God,  I'm coming to you in prayer with real intent." He continued to ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet and then he said not even a second later he felt this strong feeling go through him, like nothing he had ever felt before. I asked was it a good feeling, he said "it was so good, so good I knew that I had received my answer!"

His testimony of God answering prayers strengthened my own testimony. He will answer each and every one of us who ask with real intent. It made me think about the book of Enos in the Book of Mormon. In fact if you read this email, open up to the book of Enos in the and read. Look for the words he uses to describe his prayer! I challenge us to all strengthen our prayers and make them more meaningful. Ask with real intent and God will answer your prayer. 

I love and miss y'all!! Keep pressing forward in faith! Keep a song in your heart, and sail on and smile! :)

Love,

Elder Morris

Sail On and Smile

So sorry that I didn't get a weekly update sent last week. Not much happened anyway. hahah I realized yesterday that I've been in Africa 7 months! General Conference Sunday was yesterday but we weren't able to watch due to the time difference. We might see one or two sessions eventually. It's sad but I guess I have the Ensign to look forward to.

For those of you who remember Sis Janet and her twin daughters, Princess and Priscilla, they'll be baptized this upcoming Sunday if things go as planned. We've also been working with a guy named Lawrence and his nephew Matthew, who is 9, his mother is a member. They are also preparing to be baptized this Sunday! It's exciting seeing the work move forward.

We've be struggling to find new investigators but it seems the Lord keeps placing people on our path to teach. So that's good. This last Sunday we had 8 new investigators at church. Out of the whole district, we had a total of 12 but 8 of them were from our ward. So the work is definitely going well here!

Some challenges I've had would be working with and getting along with my comp. Elder Sakala. I pray for charity and I'm going with a my new Groove "Sail on and smile!"

So, when things go bad I remember it won't last for forever and I need to endure the bad to appreciate the good. It's all part of life. Patience is a virtue. So continue pressing forward.

We won't be taking our recent converts to the temple anymore because the ward usually goes at the end of April. That means they will join the ward members to go.

Sorry for such a short weekly but that's about all. Rainy season coming soon so I'm happy about that. It's been hot lately! Eating is becoming a chore. It's hard to do because we eat a lot of the same things every day. Rice, stew, and foo foo. 

Can you believe I crave foo foo now?! I never thought the day would come. ha ha

Love and miss y'alll. Hope you have a great week

Remember to sail on and smile!

Love and miss you,

Elder Morris