Email June 23, 2008

Hey Family,

I hope you are all enjoying the summer. It´s already getting really hot here. I guess it doesn´t get it´s hottest until July and august, haha, i´m glad we get the middle of the day to be inside and study. we have medio dia from 2 to 530. where we go home, eat, study, and then go out and work again. it´s great because we miss the hottest part of the day. Things are going well here. Maria didn´t come to church but she had been sick so we´ll just blame it on that. I really hope she comes next week. I didn´t give my talk either. I was ready for it, but i think the other two ladies talked too long, i´m not complaining. I now have a talk i can use as soon as i need it. i think my favorite thing that happened this week was our lesson we had today. Today we had an amazing lesson with a family from britain. For our pday we went to a an older members house with the other hermanas. She lives on a like fruit tree farm thing. It was so much fun. She made us yummy food and treated us like queens. I loved her. Then she took us to her neighbors house to teach them the gospel. She told them. I know this is true, and i don´t want you to come to me on the other side of the veil and ask me why i never shared the gospel with you. We came with the intention of teaching the first lesson which is the restoration, But at the beggining the husband said I want to let you know my feelings now, I have a hard time believing that a god who is all knowing and all powerful would send us to a world where people are so bad and suffer so much. That was his biggest concern, believe me he had many others. The whole time he was talking I just sat there thinking, this family is so ready for the gospel. All his answers are right here. Well, Hermana Ross started with the 2nd lesson instead, the plan of salvation. It was an amazing lesson. The spirit was so strong. I loved it. There were 4 hermanas and 2 members teaching this couple and their 8 year old daughter. Somehow it worked. We all bore our testimonies and wanted for them to understand so badly. One of the members said, look at these girls, they are so young and are far away from there families, but they are here, sharing this message. And I felt the spirit so strong and I tried to share my testimony and told them how our family is so close and so happy and how people notice us, and it is because we have the gospel in our lives. It makes us so happy. I totally bawled. I´m such a baby. But the spirit was there, i wasnt the only one crying durning the lesson. At the end of the lesson the man said he still had doubts. he couldn´t understand why god would let people suffer still. why some people are born with so much and little children in africa die so young. how could that be a perfect plan. He promised to read the book of mormon. Over and over again in Preach My Gospel, it said the book of mormon is "Convincing evidence" of Jesus Christ and the restoration and just the gospel. I really think he and his family will progress. The book of mormon is powerful, and it will answer his questions if he has an open heart. He wants to know, and his wife really wants to believe she will see her family again, i really have high hopes for them. I wish they were in our area, they are actually in the other Hermanas area though. But that´s ok, i´m still excited anyway.

This week we found out Graciela, one of our great investigators, is moving. haha, it´s just funny to me now. They all go. Carlos leaves in a week or so too. We still have Amanda and Godwin and Isabel though. Along with the new African investigator we met this week. Africans are awesome. I love them. They are so funny!!! Roland is from Nigeria and is just a really happy guy. open to the gospel. He likes learning about the Book of Mormon and the gospel and we like teaching him. one because he is fun to teach and two because it´s in English. I feel much more useful during those lessons. He didn´t come to church yesterday, but we´ll get him next week. lol. The funny thing about Africans is they tend to ask us if we have boyfriends. We´ve gotten really good at telling them yes. It´s really funny. At least they are upfront about it, then we don´t feel bad being upfront back. we just tell them we don´t date as missionaries. That didn´t work with one of them. He wanted to marry my companion. hahahah. It was so funny....we gave him to the elders. The Africans we are actually teaching don´t want to marry or date us though, so that is definitely a good thing. they aren´t scary or creepy, so don´t worry about that. They are really sweet people actually. And they are super funny. There isn´t a ton more going on right now. Wednesday is zone conference and apparently i have a ton of mail. Yay, i´m so excited. it will be fun to see everyone from my zone and hear from president and all that fun stuff. Thanks for sending me a package. I am so excited about that. Oh, if you have any good simple recipes will you send them my way? Hermana Ross likes to make cookies and pancakes for us and stuff, and my comp brought a recipe book, i think that was really smart. Oh, could you send me a recipe for banana bread? That would be perfect. That´s really all I´ve thought of that i want. Maybe the chocolate chip cookie recipe that you make. Thanks so much. If you get busy no worries, it´s really not very important. Just for fun. But you are so great you will probably be excited for me the whole time you are looking for the recipes. I just love you. You are so supportive and so good to me. I love you so much. I am so glad we are friends. Thanks so much for your emails. I love them. They really lift my spirits. even when i don´t need a lift. I was so happy today, but somehow talking to you and dad made me even happier. oh and thanks for always sending me the missionary letter. That is so much fun to read! Oh, and before i forget, i may not be writing until the 4th next week because we might change our pday for the Holiday. So if you don´t get an email Monday that´s why. Well, i love you so much!! I hope you have a really good and really fun week!!!!I love you!!!

XOXOXOXO
Love ,
Morgan