"Everbody's changing, and I don't feel the saaaaame"

Hey y'all.

So this has probably been the best, longest, most exhausting, rewarding, stressful week of my entire mission thus far. 

As ya know, we had beloved TRANSFERS. I thought I'd be a little bummed or something, but I am just loving it all. Sister Kittel (just one of the best members ever, that's all) drove us from Fair Oaks down past Manteca and Tracey to drop Sister Hale off in her new area... And I left my trainer there... yeah that was weird. Then we picked up Sister Zenger in South Stockton (every CALI  SAC missionary's dream.. Stockton is straight up ghettofabulous. But the people are so humble and it's so great to be able to teach them) and took her back to good old Citrus Heights up in here :) We're both trying to figure out how the whole mission thing works without our trainers haha, but it has been SUCH a wonderful few days. We have stayed SO BUSY. We're up at 6:30 for exercise and getting ready for the day. We have studies from 8-11 (Pessoal, companheirismo, e lingua), then lunch, and then we stay out working from then til after dark. We come home and plan and we're soooo exhausted, so as soon as we finish planning we just crash til 6:30 the next morning.

We have met so many wonderful people already. I just love everything about where I'm at right now. We were out on Thursday night I think, and we met this lady and her friend (here comes a little story time. My favorite.). We met them pulling into the driveway of her house and started talking. She has a suuuper super strong testimony of Christ and her church. (Which is great). She started talking to us and as we spoke we got that she believes in the trinity, that God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are all one (Which is also great, lots of people do.) We explained that we believe that they are 3 separate beings who are one in PURPOSE. She kind of stared at us with that "you poor thing, I pity you, you don't know anything" look. (Thanks for caring, but I mean we kind of know a little something) And we started talking about scriptures and before we left she asked to pray with us. (That's cool. We pray all the time. We love praying. Let's do it.) And along with our different beliefs, obviously people pray differently too. In our church we know that we make prayer special and reverent. We close our eyes, fold our arms, stay quiet while someone offers the prayer... Ya know. Not tonight! The lady and her friend grabbed our hands (Again, that's great. Prayer circles are great. Loved the days  in FCA at Charlotte High for See You At The Pole. It's wonderful) and basically the lady gave a prayer and basically asked that we could learn truth and find our way and not be confused and all this good stuff, and she's shaking my hand all around and her friend was just talkin away through the prayer like "Yes. yes. yes. YES." agreeing.. that's nice but it was just awk awk awk. And when it was over she hugged us and looked us in the eyes and told us how young we were and how much life we had ahead of us and how we need to be enlightened and find truth.. Fabulous. Totally appreciate the concern. She was a sweet lady.. But like I said, we know a little somethin too haha. I'm so glad that I have such a firm testimony of this gospel. I love that I learn something new every single time I open the scriptures, there really is no end to learning. I'm so thankful for my Savior and the knowledge I have of Him. And I think overall I'm so glad to have the knowledge of WHY I'm HERE, and where I'm going. It puts everything else in perspective for me. The gospel is just so great. 

LARRY!

Larry is just the greatest. We've gotten to know each other so well in these 3 months and I just love it. I've probably said it before, but honestly.. My investigators are my babies. NO ONE MESSES WITH MY KID. I WILL TAKE YOU OUT. (In the most Christ-like way, of course).. So Larry is solid. He's doing everything he needs to do. He knows everything he needs to know from us. He's sharing about the church and what he's learning with EVERYONE that he talks to... Literally, everyone. He tells us stories of conversations he has with some guy on this street corner or at the store or the park... EVERYONE.  And yet he has had such a tough week. We gave him a surprise visit on Saturday and he told us a little of what's on his mind.. and he wasn't planning on coming to church or even going forward with it all until we stopped by. He felt the spirit and was reminded of it, and he's trying to get rid of the negativity in his life and move forward. He is a champ. We had a great great chat, saw him at church yesterday, and talked to him on the phone last night. We talked for a while and he just went silent and I could not get him to respond to anything.. He has some health problems so I was concerned and tried to call him back and nothing, and probably 10 minutes later he called me. He had a seizure while we were on the phone and I was the first person he called when he came out of it, he was super slow and his memory was foggy and I just kept talking to him to help him get back. I honestly have never been so worried in my life. I know he has seizures and he's had a few since I've known him, but none while we were around or talking. I love Larry so much and it is the WORST to hear him when he's not feeling 100%. We know each other really well, and he knows it and he knows that I know when he's off, if that makes sense. If he's upset, I know it, and last night when he had a seizure, I DEFINITELY knew it. I just want him to be perfectly healthy and happy and have no worries or negative things affecting him in his life and I want him to realize that he's ready to be baptized when he wants to be, is that so much to ask? Larry always looks at me, points and says "You're something else, ya know that?" I always shrug it off, he thinks I've helped him, but what he doesn't realize is how much he has done for me. I have learned SO MUCH from Larry, I don't even know where to begin.

I'm just so thankful to be exactly where I'm at right now. I love being right here, in the Northridge ward, in the Carmichael stake, in the California Sacramento mission. There is no place I'd rather be right now. I've had so many experiences here and lessons that I KNOW I would not have learned any other way. I just love it all. 

Love always,

Sister Morrill

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OH BTDUBBS

This just in:

My new companion's name is spelt Z-E-N-G-E-R... not A. 

That is all. 

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TRANSFERS TRANSFERS ERRRBODY TRANSFERS

The transfers are coming! The transfers are coming!

I am actually so excited. 

For real. 

We got transfer calls yesterday.

We move in & out and all around tomorrow.

Sister Hale got her call at like 6:00 and I had to wait until 8:30.

LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE I TELL YOU.

So here it is mmkay?

(drum roll please)

badadadadadadada

Sister Hale is going to Manteca and opening a new area.

I am staying here in Carmichael and my new companion will be Sister Zanger.. Zenger? one of those. 

I AM SO EXCITED. 

Sad to leave my "mama", but it's been a long 3 months and change is needed haha. We're ready to move. 

Sister Zanger came in with me, so we're both on our third transfer and I love her already. I didn't get to know her suuuper well before but she's fun and just so excited to be here. We're gonna get stuff DONE :)  (and ya know, maybe baptize Larry and Donna) That'd be great.

I know I've said this like 10 times already but really, I. Am. So. Excited. I'm ready for a change.

ummmm shoot I didn't bring last transfer's planner. I don't even remember what happened this week. We did missionary stuff, taught people, preached the gospel, invited others to come unto Christ.. ya know, the usual. Just bein' missionaries and what not. 

OH WAIT DUDE (I'm not supposed to say dude, whatever. it's out there) 

We had our Open House on Saturday! IT WAS GREAT OKAY. Last year our ward and La Sierra did one, and they had like 3 people show up... So I was really nervous about this haha. But there was a great turn out and we got to talk to a bunch of people and there was free food and cotton candy and popcorn (you can't go wrong there) AND THERE WAS PEACH COBBLER. I LOVE THE BOY SCOUTS IN OUR WARD. 

We're going to the Sacramento temple today!! I am pumped. First time since the MTC in Provo, yeahhhh boy! Well transfers are really the most exciting thing that's goin on right now so THAT'S ALL FOLKS. 

Wait PS it rained on Saturday and it was great. Except it was cold rain, which was weird. I love the rain. It doesn't rain here in the summer usually. WEIRD. I don't know why I'm so excited about the rain but whatever. Thought yall would like to know I guess. OKAY PEACE OUT WRITE ME LOVE YOU ALL WRITE ME. Did I mention write me? I love mail. Letters are great. Write me.

Okay that's all buh bye. <3

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Semana 12 no campo da missao!

Hay hay hay!

This week hasn't been too crazy sooo sorry if this gets boring.. Ummm we've been visiting Annie, Donna and Larry a lot. Donna's other bird, Rosie, tried to kill me.. that was cool. He attacks black shoes and we came in and saw that he was out of his cage.. so I flung my shoes off and crawled on Donna's rocking chair.. I kinda looked like a fool, but i don't really care because I didn't want to lose a foot to a cockatoo.. I thought I'd be safe without my shoes on so I chilled out, but Rosie kept looking at me, and he just randomely RAN at me (yes, cockatoos can do that.. and they're fast) and tried to take off a toe.. so I jumped on to Donna's couch so Donna could protect me. I can handle spiders and gators and whatever the heck else you wanna throw at me..but throw in a stupid loud bird and I lose it, man. 

We got to help one of the best couples everrr paint, remove wallpaper, put up sheetrock and all that jazz, in their new house on Saturday... I am the master wallpaper remover.... and Elder Johnson did a fabulous job at destroying a wall when he was trying to remove wallpaper. It was a good time. 

Ummm we had two dinners AGAIN last night. But this time we were prepared so we didn't stuff ourselves the first time... The members love to feed us, that's for sure. PS this ward has the greatest members ever, I love them. I do nottttt want to leave these people!

We have an open house at the church this Saturday.. Hoping hoping hoping that it goes well! Transfers are NEXT WEEK. This transfer has flooooown by, I am not diggin it. Sister Hale thinks she'll be transferred and I'll be in charge of the area... yeah that's terrifying. But we'll seeeee. 

PS our Pday is on Tuesday next week because of transfers... don't get all excited because ya don't get a letter on Monday. and we're going to the Sacramento Temple then too! I'm psyched. 

I really don't have anything else to say about the past week... That's sad. This one will just be short and sweet I guess. LOVE YALL. If you read this ASAP I'll be on email for like another 20ish minutes maybe... you should say hi.. I don't care who ya are. It's currently 12:32 PM California time.. 

Alright I miss yall, love ya... tchau tchau.. ate logo!

Saudades, 

Sister Morrill

Also random tidbit- my portugues has turned to crap at this point and I am terrified to go to Brazil and try to understand everyone speak it there.. and reply. Uhh ohhhh spaghettios. But I really don't care at the same time... because IT'S BRAZIL AND I'M PUMPED... whenever it is that I get there haha.. No visa yetttt!

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Peace and blessings yall, peace and blessings.

HEYYYY ERRBODY! 

This week was SO GREAT. So, so good. I'll tell ya the small not so funny things first and get it out of the way..

First of all, along with my newfound peanut butter craze, I LOVE SPAM. I hate myself for admitting to it, but for real. You can eat it with anything. It's wonderful. And it's cheap. 

We went to visit a member that just moved into the ward, and we knocked and he didn't answer, but this black guy named Peetey opened the door on the other side of the apartment and started talking to us..He was high as a kite but we asked him if he knew this guy, and he's like "oh yeah, he's mah homeboy... from Utah." We asked what his name was (we didn't know the first name) and he's just like "uhhh i dunno! He's mah homeboy!" .....Yeah, I think you lose all credit as a thug when you say your homeboy is from UTAH. I met Peetey before when I was on exchanges though haha, he's a funny guy :)

We had TWO DINNERS in 1 DAY on Tuesday..... NO WAY MAN, NEVER AGAIN. We had dinner with one family and it was great.... But then as we are pulling out from their house, we get a text from Sister McConnell saying that dinner would be ready in a few minutes... So we called her and we're just like "hey! so dinners ready? yeah?....Wait are you serious?" ....she was. There was some miscommunication about our dinner calendar and Sister McConnell is supposed to feed us tomorrowwww instead. But we drove to the McConnells and ate dinner with them anyways since it was all prepared haha... AND she had carrot cake for dessert. I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE. Sister Hale and I had to roll each other back to the car. And even better, we had dinner leftovers from a couple days earlier for our lunch that day... Tooooooo much food. #StatesideMissionaryProbs 

This weekend was THE BOMB. First of all, I got a bunch of mail on Friday, and a package and a letter from one of my best friends in the entire world. It was better than Christmas man. But Saturday was fabulous. We had studies in the morning and went to a soccer game!....With good cause, don't worry. There are like 6 kids from our ward that play on this team and Jack REALLY wanted us to see him play, so we dropped by to support everybody haha. Ahh, I miss my soccer days. But that was cool. Then we went to visit Annie in the old folks' rehab home... We went for a lesson and later Annie wanted to go play bingo with all the senior citizens, so we brought her up to bingo.. and the old people all rounded us up in their wheelchairs and made us stay for a little while while they played. OLD BROKEN PEOPLE ARE SO FUNNY. Seriously it was a greattt time. There was this huge guy named Norman who was making jokes and kissy faces at this lady, and she would just look at him all wide-eyed saying "Ohhhh DON'T YOU DARE KISS ME!" I was crying laughing, they are so so sooo funny. That lady was trying to tell us a story and forgot what she was talking about, so she's just like "ohhh shoot, I suffer from CRS... Can't Remember Shhhh...Squat." Love ittt. Then after THAT, we had a lesson with LARRRRRRRRRYYYY. He's progressing sooooo sooo much. He's not goin' for baptism on the 14th haha, buuuut some day :) I stinkin love him. 

I got attacked by Donna's bird earlier this week.. That was fun. His name is Peek A Boo and he was sitting on my shoulder, and I was reading a scripture and he just chomped down on my ear... it's all in one piece still, but it HURT.

Sister Hale and I had to speak again on Sunday.. I do notttt dig it, but I guess it went well. OH, Paul Hansen just returned from his mission in Pocatello Idaho, and he gave his homecoming talk with us.. but Ian Weir was his trainer!! SMALL WORLD GUYS. PS, I LOVE YOU WEIR FAMILY. HI. I have some funny quotes, buuuut I'm outta email time. 

Paz e bencaos!

Com amor,

Sister Morrill

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Haja o que houver

HEY ALL YOU LOVELY PEOPLE. 

How is normal life out there? What's goin onnnnn?

So last week I don't remember if I told you, but the week BEFORE that we had exchanges.. and it was AWESOME. I was staying here and working with one of the sister training leaders Sister Acker, and Sister Hale was going to East Sac with Sister Loli.. sooo I was leading the area and in charge of everything. Planning, leading the way, doing ALL the talking with people I've never met in my life, and ALL of that.. and I was honestly terrified. The night before I was just sick to my stomach because I thought I was just going to ruin the entire day and that Sister Acker would think I'm a terrible missionary, and allllll this stuff was just running through my head. I didn't think I could do it at all. But Sister Acker came Tuesday night (a couple weeks ago), and we were together all day Wednesday and it was actually WONDERFUL. Sister Acker hardly talked at all so I thought I was screwed at first, but it turned into the BEST day I've had on the mission thus far. We worked SO hard, we talked to so many people, added an investigator, and just saw so many great things happen that day. It felt so good. I did it and didn't mess anything (or anyone) up :')

At that point I felt like I was finally figuring out this whole "missionary work" thing. I felt great about what we did and everyone we saw, and what I was able to do on Wednesday, and that it would be relatively smooth sailing from here on out.... Ha. Good joke.

Then last week happened, and EVERYTHING flipped. I went from the bestttt day the week before to the HARDEST week I've had yet. It's been a loooong week. Especially Wednesday, I just couldn't do anything right. I can look back and see the humor in it, but I was SO frustrated all day Wednesday. We went to see this lady that I met on exchanges at some apartment, and I knocked on one door thinking it was the right door, but some other lady opened the door and I just said hi and froze, looked at my companion, looked back at the lady, and nothing was coming out of my mouth.. I just kinda looked back and forth like an idiot, so Sister Hale threw herself under the bus with me and asks the lady "Are you Johnnie?" and the woman who answered the door just looks at us like........no. and Sister Hale continues "Oh, we're looking for Johnnie. I'm Sister Hale!" and the lady was just like "uhhh that's great, hope you find her!" AWKWARRRRD. 

    So after that we tried ANOTHER door, that I was SURE had to be Johnnie's...and no one answered.. Which was crazy lucky for me, because I later found her apt number WRITTEN IN MY PLANNER, and the second door we knocked was also the wrong apartment... Sweet. 

    But wait! THAT'S NOT ALL! We were walking out of the apartment complex to the car, but there's this girl next to her boyfriend getting in the pool, and I SWEAR she looked like Johnnie. She saw me and smiled and said something to me so I thought "OH! It's Johnnie! She didn't answer cause she was in the pool." So I went to the gate by the pool and start talking to her. I was just rambling like "Heyyyy how are you?! We were just trying to see you! I wanted you to meet my companion since we were on exchanges last week!" and allllll this stuff, and the girl just smiled and went with it like "oh cool! I'm good. blahblahblahblahblah" and then she asks me what my name is and I told her, I figured she only met me once so I wasn't surprised she didn't remember my name.. and then Sister Hale introduces herself and the lady is like "Cool, I'm ALEXA" ALEXA. NOT JOHNNIE. She was probably terrified because we told her we were just looking for her and I was so gung ho about her meeting my real companion and I didn't actually know the girl. So I tried to play it off like "Welllllll, we'll let you go swim then.. It was nice to meet you kjasdfoiejakje" and as we walk away Sister Hale was like "...........did you know her?" "nope" "did she talk to you?" "....nope... she smiled and waved like she knew me, so I started talking" "But you didn't know her?" "nope....................I thought it was Johnnie" Sister Hale just laaauughed and laughed and laughed. 

   It's funny now, but that day I was SO done. MISSIONS ARE AWKWARD GUYS. EMBRACE IT. 

Yeah I was about ready for the end of the transfer... or for Brazil.. or something. 3 more weeks of the transfer and WHO KNOWS how long until I get a visa... I've got some time here! It's great though, I love it. Some days are hard, but the lessons that come out of it are so worth it. 

We had zone conference on Friday and it was fabulous! it was a long long looong day and we sat through most of it, but we all got a spiritual round-house kick to the face, it was AWESOME. I learned so much and it was awesome to see President and the other zones around us :)

Oh BTDubbs, LARRY'S GETTING BAPTIZED.......he just doesn't know it yet. We talked to him on the phone last week, and we asked him about baptism again, and while he went over the river and threw the woods trying to talk around it, he said "ya know, I feel like it's just going to happen [some day]" ....So I took it into my own hands to just "make it happen". We're planning it all out, reserving the building, making a baptismal program and all of that good stuff.. and we'll get a lesson with him some time this week and break it to him.. We all know Larry's getting baptized at some point.. it might as well be September 14th, yeah? 

Well well well, time to peace out..

Hope yall are doing well.. WRITE ME LETTERS. I LIKE HEARING FROM EVERYONE. LITERALLY. EVERYONE. 

Com amar e saudades,

Sister Morrill

Larry-ism of the week:

"I'm dressed up in here as tight as a peacock!"

   -talkin about being dressed in his Sunday best!

.....what, Larry?

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