10/19/15... This is the story of the new cell phone, interwoven with lots of details and tidbits that I think you will enjoy

my sweet sweet fam,

ITS OCTOBER NINETEENTH PEOPLE!

you know what that means!!

seriously, thank you so much for all of the fun b day wishes from SO many people, I died! And even died a little more with the fun birthday package.. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! As always, you guys thought of everything and just made me feel so so special. 

I have been pondering on what dad wrote in his letter, that "there is not a better gift than the knowledge of a job well done on His behalf and fulfilling the measure of your creation."

I really could not agree more.. I wouldn't dare to say that I feel like my mission has been a job well done or anything and give myself a big 'happy birthday pat on the back'-- But, what I can say, is that I truly have felt the Lord with me as I try to give Him my all and as I try to understand more of the measure of my (our) creation, the potential within me and within all of us to serve Him and become like Him, and in the process find true happiness. I am so grateful to be here in Thailand today wearing my nametag, birthday number 2 on the ole' mish, happier than I have ever been in my life. It is the sweeeeeetest thing and the greatest gift from my dear Father in Heaven to be one of His missionaries. 

And to top it off-- this has just been one of the best, most spiritually uplifting, jam packed weekends EVER with the Mission Tour with Elder Funk from the Quorum of the Seventy and a KILLER District Conference. The best! And now today, President and Sister Johnson are spending P-Day with us here- we are going up to some way cool stairway to heaven type thing,  and then we have a HUGE FHE planned tonight with all the YSAs at Jenese and Troy's house. How fun is that?! 

Elder and Sister Funk, such LEGENDS

Sister Johnson... oh how I ADORE HER!!!!

That being said though, I don't have tons of time to write today, I have an interview with President a little after 12! -- so I think instead of giving you a weak grocery list type of report for the week, I will just tell you one of my favorite stories in usual Sister Morgan story telling fashion plus LOTS of pics.........

this is the story of the new cell phone, interwoven with lots of details and tidbits that I think you will enjoy, HA!

So earlier this week we went and visited our fav Brayoon at his house in between appts, just a friendly little stop in share a message, then on our way. Like I said, he is doing so great! He confirmed that he would be coming to District Conference on Sunday and was pretty excited about it. YES! 

Time goes on, we teach some way awesome new investigators at their house (STORY TO COME NEXT WEEK!)- a GOLDEN referral from President James, I get really sick one day and have a miraculous overnight healing, yada yada, until it is FRIDAY, Mission Tour with Elder and Sister Funk. Oh my goodness you guys, it was so good. We are spoiled in this mission with just the best learning opportunities, I feel like everything he said, as well as the Johnsons, was so inspired. One of my favorite things they talked about in regards to our baptismal covenants is that ALWAYS=ALWAYS... When we ALWAYS remember Him, we are promised that we will ALWAYS have His Spirit to be with us. And if you read my letter last week, you know that has been on my mind! I plan on having a constant flow of Greg Olsen paintings running through my mind for the rest of my life after that one liner........ always remembering Him and thus ALWAYS having His Spirit. 

Another part of the conference was that to our surprise, we got new cell phones! You guys these phones are SO nice.. I don't even know why we got new ones, cause our other ones were way good. But yeah, they are like way ultra flat and have gospel library on them. So we are eating our Mexican lunch (you asked what you can do for my b-day.. Go to Costa Vida of course! I forgot how yummy mexican is) and Elder Grange hands me our new phone and is like "hey don't get any of your food on it HAHA" just like a little friendly joke, well little did he know that I did not get any food on it thank you very much but that little joke would totally backfire on him!

So the conference ends, Elder and Sister Grange are long gone, and I go to call one of our investigators and it says that the phone can't call out......... dang. So we take the SIM card out like 10 times, everyone is trying to help us, we bike all the way out to Central to see if we can get it fixed at the cell place and they are like "Umm yeah, this is not your SIM card, it can't work until you get the right one and you need your contract and everything to do that..." Sis Mags and I look at each other....the Granges were supposedly on a plane back to Bangkok already. Haha, I don't know if you understand people, on the mission YOU MAKE 10,000 CALLS A DAY... It was literally like they had come, broken our legs, and left us stranded. hahaha for reals! Visions of us having to send up smoke signals and send out messenger pigeons to our investigators for the next who knows how long filled my mind....YIKES. We start praying..........

That night we use someone else's phone, get a hold of Elder Grange, and he says that they haven't left yet and that we need to meet him at his hotel in the morning. OK yes, we can do that! So we get all ready, bike WAY far out to his hotel, which gave us a really cool tour of the more touristy side of ChiangMai (I can totally see why people come here HOLY COW) and finally find him, only to find out that he thought our phone didn't work, not that our SIM didn't work, that he couldn't do anything probably until Monday when the representative that the Church goes through can get things sorted out. Still no phone. We keep praying and bike back to the church. Mind you I am wearing a flannel dress during all of this in like 1,000 degrees. HA! pics will be included, don't worry. So we get to the church, Elder Grange calls someone else and says that we need to get to the other Central across town by 11 AM with my passport to show them and they will be able to get us a new SIM that works. So like the pioneers of old, we embark out into the wild once again, no way to get a hold of or notify friends or relatives or anyone if we get lost (HAAAAAAAA poor us) and by the grace of God alone, we found the cell store, got a new SIM and were back in business. 100 missed calls and texts start buzzing in... and there are a few missed calls from Brayoon......... yes Brayoon!

I am thinking to myself, ok this is odd, usually he doesn't call us, its more of a we call him type of thing and so I call him back... he is all "SISTER MORGAN! WHY DID YOU NOT ANSWER THE PHONE AT ALL YESTERDAY??? WHAT THE HECK???"

In my mind I am thinking, dude, do you know how many times you have blown off our calls, where is this coming from?!?! hahaha I am just like laughing so hard like, "sorry what can we do for you??"

And then he says it. The thing that shows someone is really changing their heart. As is the natural thing to do when one starts to feel and remember the love of the Savior and the light of the gospel (Elder Bednar teaches about this SO crazy spot on in his talk The Character of Christ) he TURNED out. He says to us, "I have two people that I want you to bring back to church! They are ready and I need you to give them a call."

For some reason, I think the heat of the whole cell phone fiasco (literal heat as well, still wearing the flannel dress, sitting in an open aired taxi type of thing as I am talking to him, hotter than heckkkkk) made this experience all the more tender and special to take it all in. hahaha tear sweat mixture filled my eyes. YES YES YES. when we are all working together, members missionaries, less actives, everyone it is B-L-I-S-S.

post phone retrieval in Central Festival... VICTORY

So yeah, you bet we called them and are meeting with them this week. And you bet we are going to use Brayoon as our secret weapon from now on with finding all the old members that are ready to come back. And you bet he showed up at District Conference on Sunday wearing his best forest green suit. you bet he did! 

Brayoon in his GREEN suit, sorry I didn't get a front view!

There it is, my fav experience of the week, the long version of course. I wish I had time to tell you the rest of the ins and outs of the week cause there was some goooooooooooood stuff, but this is all I've got today!

 I sure love you guys so so much and can't image twenty one years of life with anyone else! Thanks for having me and thanks for stickin with me........ here is my ponderization for the week (I really hope you guys have been ponderizing one scripture a week since conf!!) I thought it would be fitting: 

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a [woman] I put away childish things" 1 Corinthians 13:11

yep, adulthood people. its my life now................... oh no

xoxo Sister Morgs

woke up to this! LOVE MY SISTERS!

my work out mat too <3

translating for Sister Funk

ok so this is the flannel dress.......... Sister Olsen and I have a test we came up with for when we go to the dress shops here. It is the "is this Free People or is this just ugly?" test. If it errs on the Free People side then it is a go........ if you know Free People you know sometimes it can be both Free People and ugly but you decide on this one.. HAHA I love it!

soo many people at District Conference... there was a HUGE feast after 

Penguin! She is leaving for her mish to Arizona in a few weeks

my P-Log CREW!!!! miss them and love them SO much.. such a treat to reunite with them

with the two FUNNIEST sisters in P-Log. so glad Mags could meet them

still besties

teaching with my picture book.......... the kids love me

ok this is from FHE this week.... SO funny. remember how I said it is colder here right now? well if you look at the members you would think it was like a balmy -25 the way they have responded. HAHA! 

FHE

Dear families of Sister Morgan and Sister Magabua,

Today Elder Funk and I attended a zone conference in connection with our mission tour in the Thailand Bangkok Mission. We enjoy being with the missionaries and love the feeling the Spirit.

During the zone conference we did a demonstration about teaching for conversion by using the Book of Mormon. We taught from 3 Nephi 11 and Alma 7 about Jesus Christ. Sister Magbanua and Sister Morgan were our investigators during this role play demonstration. 

They are happy and doing wonderful work. We appreciate their help during our demonstration. We are blessed to have many wonderful experiences. 
Such fun!
Love, Sister Funk

Enjoying Mexican food for lunch

Discussion after the demonstration

President and Sister Johnson listening to the discussion

10/12/15... jeeeeeeeesh the gospel is so good

FAM!!!!!!!!

thanks for all the fun news and updates! I am so stoked on the AZ trip, sounds like you are having a blast, and I can feel it, there is good stuff around the corner for BIG B.........

I would attribute Brad's good playing to the advice I threw in at the end of my last letter, but ugh you guys DIDN'T EVEN GET IT! :/

so sorry about that!

so here it is, round two on your updates from me today, hopefully it is not an overload for you guys....... 

It was seriously another great week! I think the craziest thing for us right now is that it is actually COLD outside, or cold for those of us who have forgotten what real cold is like. haaaa YIKES. Dreaming of the sunshine at night while we listen to the rain fall... but not just fall, not just pour, it like ROCKETS from the sky. It sounds like when the dryer is on the final spin and is just rapid throwing the clothes around to get every bit of moisture wicked off of them.... that is the rain on our house in the middle of the night these days. CRAZY! kind of cool but kind of UNREAL!

also kind of unreal that I remember the sounds of a dryer considering that no one has dryers in Thailand. 

so check on the weather update, check on the Thailand tid bit, but you want the good stuff, the miracles , and I've got them people don't worry...

I will start with a little update on Brother Brayoon. He has been SO busy lately with work so we have been just giving him a little space, but the other day Mags and I decided we couldn't take it anymore and we needed to go see him! We went by, and he was in the middle of getting an order of fruitcake or something ready to deliver, but when he saw us he just like lit up! He grabbed some stools for us to sit and talk while he put the finishing touches on the cake. There is something different in his eyes these days, and it was so cool to see that although it may be a little bit of a rough road back (the details are unimportant) he is beginning to feel the HOPE that only comes through the Savior and his Atonement. No one is ever too far gone and I really think he is awakening to that. Other cutest part-- he totally had made Sister Stoker's carrot cake and was so giddy to have us try it! He just like cut us both these ginormous slices and was just waiting for our reviews.. It was way moist and actually good, but bless his heart I don't know what he did but for some reason it was like WAY dark brown, like it looked chocolate. Regardless of the cake, he is so rad and he said he is pretty sure he will be coming for the District Conference this weekend but he's not making us any promises.................

last time he pulled the Im not making any promises one, we got Pres Johnson in on it and BOOM he melted. Definitely not afraid to go there again.................... ha, we sure love him!

Ok so another hilarious, precious, soooooo funny update, Brother ไบร์ท (Bright) is doing so good. He is just best friends with Elder Stoker these days and has gotten a copy of every single "teachings of the prophet so and so" book that the church has ever printed + every other church manual offered as well. He loves to study, I mean this is a kid who's life was devoted to gospel study to become a Priest (I imagine those nuns had a pretty rigorous schedule for him HAHA nacho libre running through the mind) so now to have all of these new study materials-- he is in HEAVEN! He still has some teaching commitment at his old church teaching the kids and he let us know he has been teaching them from the Book of Mormon and has stocked their library with pamphlets on the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity etc for, and I quote "in case one of the kids has a question someday and can't find the answer, he will find these and know the truth." Haha, he really has the most pure intentions and just wants to help all people come unto Christ. I have been SO impressed with his understanding and testimony of prophets. The other day we were really wanting to review and solidify on the Restoration with him and for part of the lesson we watched Anderson's talk from last conference "Joseph Smith". We gave him the homework to take the challenge and record his testimony of JS on his iphone, he was thrilled. There is a huge YSA retreat coming up this week and he is all nervous practicing how he is going to talk to the girls and stuff. PRICELESS 

AHH ok this leads me to another PRICELESS happening this week. Remember how I said ออย (Ooi), an RC here that we work with brought her daughter to church last Sunday? Well this week, we totally taught her. You guys, it was so special, I can't even tell you. Can't even tell you. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and given the background that we knew about her.. that she has been suicidal, depressed, just so so sad, we really taught it in the light of the hope of the Atonement. As we talked about our purpose here on earth, that the most important thing that has ever happened is that Heavenly Father sent His son, and that because of this, we can be made whole, light filled her little frame and tears streamed down her pale cheeks. She basically jumped from her seat when we taught about baptism, and I think my fav part of it all was from the corner of my eye seeing Sister ออย's expression through the whole thing. The Spirit and the love in the air was tangible, because as Elder Holland put it last weekend, "No love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love of a devoted mother has for her child." It's true people, I've felt it from my own mom, and I saw it with this mom this last week. They came and watched conference all weekend and she will be baptized at the end of the month. YES

Other coolest experience with one of our investigators this week........ So เปิ้ล (Buun!) cutest lady we started teaching last week is just doing so good. Well we had a lesson scheduled with her this week, confirmed in the morning all is well, then right before, she calls and is like, "Sister! I can't come! There is a huge car parked in front of my driveway and I can't leave!" I told her to say a prayer, that Sister Mags and I would say a prayer, and that we would wait and see her at the church soon. We quickly went in the other room, said a prayer.... not 20 minutes later, she comes walking in the door! She was beaming and so responsive all during the lesson on the Plan of Salvation. At the end she shared with us just how special/ amazing it was for her to see that her prayers worked! That she asked Heavenly Father to make it possible for her to come, and He really DID. I love more than ANYTHING in this world seeing investigators have personal experiences with the Spirit and with Heavenly Father. YAY. Our challenge to her this week: Bring your husband to learn with us... because after all, is heaven (aka Celestial Glory) really going to be heaven without the ones we love there too?

I think we all know the answer to that one!!!!!! She accepted with a smile.........

This week has been a little funny in that EVERYONE is สอบing ("sobbing" aka TESTING at school) right now so lots of our investigators/ RCs just can't meet at all. I'm not kidding, you hear one word in Thailand as a missionary.... "sobbing" and you know it is goodnight, lights out, they CANNOT MEET with you right now. it is CRAZY. I remember in my greeniehood Sister Croft telling me about when the mobs were going on here, at the same time everyone was testing too so they would always just say everyone's "MOBBIN AND SOBBIN" haha no mobbin, but it has definitely left us in our planning just doing what the Spirit leads us to do. 

And the Lord literally DID just lead us SO many times this week to places that maybe we wouldn't have gone if we were just doing the "norm". That was the case Wednesday night/Thursday. For some reason I had this thought that I needed to text Sister Brinlee (the lady from Texas that I LOVE) and see how she was doing/ just let her know we love her. I send the text, and she responds two seconds later, "I just got home from running errands and my entire main floor is flooded, do you know anyone that can help me?" 

I quickly called her home teacher, the Elders Quorum Pres and Brother Chambers and they rounded up a team. In the morning we received a message from her saying that never in her entire life had she had such a quick response and outpouring of love as she saw the night before. I am not kidding you guys, the members here are AMAZING. They are amazing. They were at her house right away, cleaned it all up, Sister น้อย (Noi, the one who's house we went to and learned how to cook a few weeks ago, her husband is the EQP) brought her food and goodies and just like that, a member in a time of stress was relieved. 

I think of Elder Christofferson's talk (LOVED SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!) about why do we have a church? well this is one example of why. My mind flashes back to all of the many times our own family has been on the receiving end of a generous unexpected helping hand from ward members etc and no doubt the Savior uses His church to help and look after the Lord's children. 

We  really felt like we should go visit her the next day, and not completely sure why, we felt like we should share Bednar's words on "The Load". With tears in her eyes she told us of the timing of that message and thanked us for following the Spirit because she really needed to hear that at this time. Its like I said last week, as a missionary, a lot of times you are thinking, "I don't really know this person's EXACT needs, how can I help them?" But that is the most important part. As HUMANS we will never know. But Heavenly Father does and He will give His servants (aka ALL OF US), if we seek it, a portion of the Spirit so we can KNOW. 

How grateful I am for this time on my mission to learn the ways of the Spirit.

Which leads me to my favorite part of this week. this week I had an awakening, a realization, a saving, an actualization of feelings that maybe already existed but were not very clear. like OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS, the Lord just like laid it out before me, "Sister Morgan, this is what you want. This is what I need from you. This is what life is ALL about."

you are wondering, right? what happened?

What happened was that I was thinking back to the summer before my freshman year riding in the car with Paige back to Grandma Phyllis's house from EFY. I thought Paige was the COOLEST funniest nicest cousin in the world and we were just talking about life and boys and everything and I remember she mentioned to me that one of her favorite talks is this one video on YouTube called "advice from Elder Busche". It became one of my favorite videos in high school, but this last week it just came into my mind and I knew I should see if I could print it out. 

What I didn't know was that it is actually a TALK that Elder F. Enzio Busche gave in 1996 at BYUI or something and that it is a lot longer than the video. It is called "Unleashing the Dormant Spirit" and it has changedddddddddddddd my world!

PLEASE READ IT. 

I would love to dissect the whole thing for you........ but you have to do it for yourself. I guess what the realization was, the awakening, the change, was that I am learning that of all things I desire in life, the thing I desire the most, is to feel the Spirit, to have the Holy Ghost as my constant companion.  

To have His Spirit with us always has greater implications than I think we realize, or that I am just starting to realize in the slightest. Fears are dispelled, greater trust and closeness is felt between us and the Savior and Heavenly Father, we are upheld in our efforts to overcome weaknesses, trials are seen in their true light, we are filled with a perfect brightness of hope as we endure to the end..... it goes on and on!

That being said, I was ECSTATIC to hear the repeated theme throughout several of the talks this last weekend of having the Spirit to be with us. I think my fav fav fav talks were Elder Lawrence's and Elder Eyrings. I could have cried. I think I did cry. I feel like the Lord prepared my heart for this conference in the most perfect way and I left as we always desire to, ready to be better, move forward and continue in becoming perfected in Him... 

jeeeeeeeesh the gospel is so good. Mags and I are happy and loving life. So excited for this coming week with all of the fun ahead... Starting Friday we have Mission Tour with Elder Funk, then District Conference with everyone from the North coming up here (aka I get to see all of my P-Log people!) and then Monday President and Sister J are going to stay here for our P-day.......... I am hoping we get to play some basketball with him aka take down the president in bump HA!

I think maybe they decided to extend their stay in ChiangMai to Monday cause word got around to them that OCTOBER 19th is one of the best days of the year???????????????? I don't know, there is speculation that that is the case. 

HA! 

I sure love you guys and I hope you have the BEST BEST week 

xoxo Sister Morgan

ps this week I got stung by a bee, and we also waxed my arms.  haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa yikes

so apparently this is the only picture I took this week.......... we show up at FHE and what do we see? The navy blue shoes that were Sister Pecks that we accidentally gave away.. HA!! part hilarious/part we are the worst

SO sorry I didnt take more. I will get more from the other sisters and send them next week 

10/5/15... In each of these... sorrows, embarrassments, disappointments, oh what blessings, victories and joys were they surrounded, if not surpassed by...

Since we didn't go to transfers....... 

here are some from the first day of last transfer traveling up here to ChiangMai...BLAST FROM THE PAST

train station....... right before the madness of loading luggage and bikes for 8 missionaries 
onto a train in like 4 minutes!

on the train... its a mess!

sleepin on the sleeper train

.....this is why we were totally fine to miss out on this transfer meeting... the traveling is CRAZY!

FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!
hey hey hey.......... so stoked on all of the updates, especially that Grandma and Grandpa are up living the high life in Kennewick for the week! And you know you are far from home when spell check says "Kennewick" is spelled wrong! haha I hope you take Grandma to Country Mercantile for me and take lots of pics too (especially document any/all Floyd chronicles which you know are my absolute fav.)

**thanks mom and dad for both including tidbits already... the golf commentary, the iphone incident. SO CLASSIC. Grandpa Floyd I love you more than life! all of you actually!

This week I have been doing lots of thinking. I keep thinking about my cute cousin/one of my very best friends who is about to enter the mission field in two days..... thinking about how EXCITED I am for her and just thinking about my experience as a missionary and all that it has meant to me... reviewing the good, the bad, the in between

I guess what I want to say to you today is that in the words of Love you Long Time....... "I've got a secret." (LYLT reference for you there Tyler cheeeeeeeeee)

On my mission, and especially recently, I have had lots of people- members, emails from friends serving in other missions, letters from people back home, companions, my Mission President, and even you, my family- say to me something like,

"Sister Morgan, how do you have so much enthusiasm for missionary work/ for the gospel?"....or some version of, "How is there so much energy in your letters... it can't always be the BEST WEEK EVER like you say it is week after week.." or from one of my companions, "Seriously if you call our investigator one more time to follow up, they will get a restraining order...." 

HAHA I really can't help myself... I love this work!!

And the secret to loving it is really no secret at all. 

No the secret is not that you just need to serve in Thailand where everything is perfect and there are countrywide water fights, good food, cool transfer videos posted to Facebook, and elephant rides on P-day.

The truth of the matter is that it is NOT perfect here-- there are sorrows, embarrassments, disappointments. Oh are there sorrows! I can't begin to describe the all encompassing pain of heart when you are sitting on the curb, eyes filled with tears after a visit to dear investigators, who in a trial of faith have decided that they "just can't come to church anymore.", digging deep past the hurt and confusion, arm around companion, saying a prayer to find peace. Yeah, that happened this week! Or the disappointment and sadness that come from the coolest walk in investigators suddenly blocking your calls, leaving you wondering, "what went wrong?" That one happened too. Not to mention the rejection of being told we have to leave the street market by angry police officers and being told by those we invite- in perfect English- "we thing you are weird." haha yes, that happened! 

These seemingly awful, way bad things happen- but the secret to it all is this:

I learned early on in my mission the peace and joy (enthusiasm, love, energy, excitement, all of those things) that come from having one principle always in my mind, and choosing to let it RULE MY WORLD. It is the principle that the Lord teaches Joseph Smith while he is in prison:

"If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea; if thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee;... And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather in blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my [daughter], that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?"

By remembering this always, essentially I choose EVERYDAY to myself, write the story of my mission, of my life. It is the "You are Special" by Max Lucado (that book that everyone is familiar with about wooden people) concept. When we choose to be like Lucy (or is her name Lexi? I don't remember!) and only let the 'gold stars', the good stuff, the miracles stick, we ultimately invite the Atonement of Jesus Christ to take affect in our lives- because it is only through Him that the 'black dots', the bad times, the "unmiracles" can be forgotten. 

It is through the Atonement that all that seems unfair or not right about missionary work or life can be taken away. And what's more, to on occasion weep somewhat as he wept, grieve somewhat as he grieved, and pray somewhat as he prayed, is to come to know him, our Savior. And that my family and friends, is the greatest honor, and my-our- life's work. 

So here I find myself again, sitting n front of a computer, looking back on the week... and like always, all I have to say is, it was seriously the BEST WEEK EVER! 

kick us out from inviting in the street market and we will just buy some friendship rings to ease the pain... whoever said money can't buy happiness??? HAHAHA jk, but really, how cute are these!? 

In each of those above sorrows, embarrassments, disappointments, oh what blessings, victories and joys were they surrounded, if not surpassed by. To give you just a taste:

To start off the week, Mags and I got the news that we will be staying in Chiang Mai together for another transfer!! We were both relieved cause we both feel like we just got here and have so much work left to do in this place! We had a fun send off FHE with the YSAs for Sister Peck and Elder Davenport who left us. Gooooooooooooood times for sure

gonna miss this cute girl-- SISTER PECK! don't mind that this is the grossest pic in the world HAHAHA

yum

Then this entire week we have been on a mad rampage/ campaign to spread CONFERENCE FEVER, aka get the members so excited to hear from the Lord' s representatives this coming weekend, and if I do say so myself, their mouths are watering for the good stuff coming their way in a few days!! 

We have been watching talks from past conference sessions with investigators RCs and LAs and I am definitely not one for "one size fits all" kind of teaching, but I guess you could say Heavenly Father just helped us SO much in knowing the exact talks to choose, because for each of the different people we were working with, the talks had such a cool, personal, inspired effect. 

The talk we watched with several of them was "Living the Gospel Joyful" from President Uchtdorf in the General Women's sesh from last October... sooooooo good.

Sister อาร์ม (Arm) our investigator who had just gotten the divorce before we started teaching her really understood so much better from watching it that we sacrifice blessings Heavenly Father wants to give us so badly when we are disobedient. She LOVED all it said about how much He loves us too. That was one of my favorite things to hear her say, was that since coming to church/ learning with us, she loves herself so much more than she ever has. Also, best thing EVER... later in the week when I called to make sure she was coming to church, she said she wasn't sure if she could cause they had no one to watch the dog. I told her to pray and to keep in mind what she watched about obedience and blessings etc. Sure enough, I look out the glass door from the sacrament room and she is tying her dog to the leg of the sofa chair in the waiting area.... HAHAHA. She comes right in, sits right by me and doesn't say one word. We shared a little laugh when there were faint barks heard as the deacons opened the door to pass to those sitting in the overflow... She left promptly after Sacrament, seriously it was the funniest/ most precious thing ever......... 

For Sister ออย (Ooi) one of the RCs we take care of who is a single mother, the reminder that HF is not concerned with our income or appearance or amount of friends on Facebook was so spot on. She was glowing after... and then, this SUNDAY, an answer to her prayers and ours, she came to church! She finally was able to switch her schedule and the most special part of it all-- her 14 year old daughter came!! (Her daughter has some severe social problems, like has been suicidal and will not allow anyone to their house etc... for her suddenly to be WANTING to a. leave the house, and b. learn about the gospel is nothing short of a MIRACLE) YAAAAAAAAY

Sister ฝน (Phone) another RC that we LOVE, again just rang out so much with the message of a loving Heavenly Father who is there for us always. We drew a 5 year plan for her life, and to our surprise, the very first thing she drew was the TEMPLE! We felt prompted to watch another video with her after, "Is not this the Fast I have Chosen?" by President Eyring....... in tears she thanked us over and over for helping her understand why HF wants us to fast, something she has never understood. So grateful for those little whisperings to act even when you don't know why...

it wouldn't be Thailand if the members didn't bring you their random snacks and goodies...
Mags indulging in a ginormous wafer? HAHA

That was the case on Saturday night too. We were watching the General Women's session with the Relief Society Sisters, and in walks the investigator we had planned to meet with! She didn't answer the phone that afternoon when I called to confirm, so I kind of figured she must have forgotten... nope! She came in in the middle of one of the talks that was kind of heavy on chastity etc and I was just thinking "Ok crap, this is maybe too much! We don't want to scare her!" But then I just had this peaceful assurance, "Sister Morgan, you don't know her, but I do. Do you not think I sent her here at this moment for a reason?" We finished the rest of the conference, and were able to teach her too. She loved it, told us it made her think a lot about different things in life that she has never thought about before, and she wants to be baptized! 

SO yes.... his week I am just like filled to the BRIM with gratitude/ thanks /love for LDS.org. I would send them a cookie bouquet if I knew who was behind the whole operation HOLY COW it has been the best thing ever to get these talks, have our investigators download the apps, and to be able to navigate it all so easily in different languages. It changed our world this week....... especially when we were teaching in CHINESE

I will come out and say it, Ming, our Chinese investigator, is the COOLEST. He is doing soo good, the only problem is, he is only free in the mornings and afternoons, and ALL of the Chinese speakers in the branch are only free at night. So serious miracle early this week, Brother Paul, this guy who has been here for about a month with his cute family and is a Chinese professor at BYUI, taught with us! Such a fun lesson and I think my favorite thing that Ming said after we taught him some of the commandments was "I can't wait to tell my wife about this! She will be so happy." So good. Well then we are meeting with him later in the week, Brother Paul and his fam have since left, and there we are, NO TRANSLATOR..... but that is where LDS.org saved the day!!! HAHA I printed out all of these pages in Chinese and labeled them at the top for us to remember which was which ("tithing", "fasting", "Family Proclamation" "BAPTISM" etc) haha it was like hand him paper, he reads it, speak broken Thai to confirm understanding, hand him next paper etc. haaaaaaa. He has such pure desires and has the apps all downloaded to watch some conference this weekend and has a date for baptism around October 19 (A WAY SPECIAL TIME OF THE YEAR IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF) so excited!!!!!!!

Ming and Brother Paul with the MANDARIN Plan of Salvation that I drew! I think I want to learn Chinese!

so yeah....... good stuff in the works over here!! We are working hard, setting lots of goals, and laughing probably more than we should........

especially when stuff happens like I make the mistake of asking an LA we are working with if her boyfriend we meet with to start teaching if he is her nephew.... as in her little sister's son.. YIKES!!!!!!!!!

goodness gracious.

I sure love you guys and am so thankful for the prayers and loves,

have the BEST WEEK!

xo, Sister Morgan

AND GOOD LUCK in AZ BIG B!!!!!!! Throw it fast and throw it hard is probably the best advice I can think of to give you 

I LOVE the Hmong stuff here in the North... it is Anthropologie to a T. I have to restrain myself from buying it ALL!! fun market shopping on Monday (I didn't buy anything just so you know)

like this pillow that the Chambers have at their house... SO cute right? iwillfindone