Happy New Year!

Hello family and Friends!

First off, it was wonderful to be able to talk to my family on Christmas! It may or may not have ended in tears... but hey, that is okay. When I came out from talking at the Pineda's house they had 3 different families from our ward there. They all could tell that I had been crying and all of the Hermanas came up to give me hugs. They all have missionaries out so they understood. Hermana Zamora was excited to talk to her son who left in October and wanted to know how it was from a missionaries perpective. Unfortunately her son Luis had been attacked on Monday and had bruises and scrapes but is okay. Aren't we so blessed to have the Lord on our sides?!

I am not going to lie.. this week was almost impossible to teach. Everyone was either gone or busy with their families. We tried very hard to work and find and everything but our numbers were very low. Fortunately we know that we did our best. Ilse passed her Baptismal interview!!! She will be getting baptized on January 17th. We need ot work a little bit on her testimony of Joseph Smith but it has been amazing to see her grow and change as she has learned more about the Savior. She has such an honest desire to follow our Savior and is willing to do anything that she needs to get there. I am so proud of her and everything that she is doing. 

On Saturday we had a Mission Wide Conference! It was so amazing. All of the missionaries were together to learn more about Jesus Christ. We studied His teachings, and His prayers. It was such a good experience to study our savior because he was the perfect example of how we need to serve our missions. I learned to much! We had Elder Highum come from our Area authority and he talked a lot about how it isn't the numbers it is the people. We are working very hard to keep that in mind. I also was able to learn a lot about how I can be more like the Savior. We need to know our Savior and not just of Him. It was really good. I am inspired to be a better missionary!

We realized that we are sending a lot of people home this transfer. That means that in February we will be down to 8 Spanish sister missionaries! Only 8! However, we will be having 2 new sisters and then 8 more. That means we will all be training soon! I can't believe it. I am nervous but know that "Whom the Lord calls, He qualifies."  I have to have Faith that through the Lord I can do anything. I am excited!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Years! I will talk to you next year!

Don't forget to look back on 2014 and make goals on how we can be better Children of our Heavenly Father in 2015!

Hermana Morey

This is the cow's head they got to eat for dinner!

High School Reunion

Apparently 37 degrees is cold out there!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

First off, I would like to thank every single person who sent me a Christmas letter the past two weeks! I am so grateful for the outpouring of love that I have felt from so many different families. I pray for you all and I hope you all know how grateful I am for each and every one of you!

This past week has been pretty great. We have been working very hard and trying to spread the Christmas cheer to everyone we see! We have had to drop several investigators, even some I really loved which was extremely hard, but the Lord has blessed us with finding a lot of new people to teach. What is a better Christmas present than to learn that you have a loving Heavenly Father!? I am so grateful for this opportunity to help others feel this wonderful Spirit. 

Have you noticed how Satan has been working very hard to ruin the Spirit of Christmas? Everyone is fighting over gifts, who is getting who what, how expensive is it, how much, and even shortening the name to x-mas. He littlerally took Christ out of Christmas. It breaks my heart how quick people are to forget the many blessings that God has sent us. (That is from the Book of Mormon, Alma) God loves us so much but sometimes we forget that all good things come from Him. Just think, how could a Father send His only son to live a life where so many people would reject him, smite him, and kill him? That must have been so hard. However, it is because He loves each and every one of us that He gave His son so that we can all live with Him again! How fortunate are we to have this knowledge.

I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas and that you can feel the Love of our Father in Heaven. Please don't forget the real meaning! I promise that God loves you and that He wants the best for you. :) I am so grateful to know all of you and thank you so much for your love, support, and your prayers. 

Love always and Merry Christmas!

Hermana Clarissa Morey

Rain!

Hello again!

These weeks just seem to be getting faster and faster! We just finished our last transfer and I can't believe it. My district leader, Hermana Tapia, Hermana Zamora, and 24 other people are going home. That is a big group! I am going to miss them but know that I still have things to be doing here.

This week was pretty good. On Friday it POURED! It was raining so hard. Hermana Lozano was feeling really sick so she stayed with a member while Hermana Zomora and I went to do a service project. We went to volunteer at a senior citizen christmas party. It was so much fun! We talked to a lot of people and helped them make a cute craft. We ended up talking to a lot of people about the gospel and someone told me that they had heard that people from our church were really mean but we didn't seem like that. That is good. I generally try and be a nice person! It was a lot of fun and it was nice to be able to go and do service. After that we picked up Hermana Lozano and got to work. we had to walk a little bit and there were seriously rivers in the road, lakes, (giant puddles) and such. We had fun and Hermana Zomora kept saying that she thought we were going to get trench-foot because our feet were so wet. Also, we felt like pioneers fording rivers! This rain was different than the last one because it was really cold outside. Recently it has just been freezing! We are working hard to stay warm and to share the gospel. 

This week we have started doing our Christmas Family Home Evening with members in our ward. It is such a cool experience because the spirit is so strong! We read Luke 2 while Hermana Zamora plays her Violin and then sing Silent Night. After that we have the members share an experience when they felt that Heavenly Father was mindful of them. We have heard such wonderful experiences! It really helps me to focus on the real meaning of Christmas because it is all about how Heavenly Father loves us so much that He gave his only son. How, I would love to hear your responses to our question. What is one experience that you have had where you knew that your Heavenly Father was mindful of you?  You can respond in a letter, or however you would like! I would love to hear it! 

Yesterday we met with Ilse again and last Sunday we gave her a Book of Mormon and she is already on 2 Nephi. She told us that she literally couldn't put it down. Do we feel the same way about our scriptures? A lot of us have had them our whole lives but do we really appreciate what a blessing they are? We can show our gratitude by actually studying them and even better, applying them! 

I hope you have an amazing week! I love you all and I hope and pray that you can feel my love and the love of the Savior in all you do!

Thank you so much for everything!

Hermana Morey

P.S. Mom I got my christmas package! Thank you so much! Hermana Zomora opened it to make sure the presents were wrapped so that we could put them under the tree. I loved the writing on them. Thank you so much!

Zamoreyano

Hello!!!

In case you are wondering Zamoreyano is our companionship name. Zamora, Morey, and Lozano. It is fun! This week has completely flown by! I can't even believe it. We are all working very hard to make the trio work out and have been doing a pretty good job. We are having fun and we are laughing maybe a little too much! We are working hard and are using the fact that we all love music to help bless our area. 

This week... it rained... hard. It was on Tuesday and we really didn't have many people that we could see so we ended up walking for a little bit. I wore my rain jacket, we had one umbrella, and we put on a smile and walked. We were SOAKED!!!! California roads weren't built for rain so we had rivers running everywhere and our feet were soaked. It was so much fun! It spiked up a couple conversations, people thinking we are crazy, and we were able to explain our purpose. We realized that if we put on a smile people would realize that we must have something worth listening to because why else would we be so happy while walking in the rain?! It was really cool... and then cold. We were walking to an appointment when it just started raining extremely hard! Somehow a member in one of the English wards was at the stoplight and stopped what she was doing to give us a ride to our next appointment. What a blessing! The Lord really knows what we need.

As I mentioned earlier we are using our music skills to bless our area. We have planned a Christmas Family Home Evening for members in our ward. Hermana Zamora plays the violin and Hermana Lozano and I sing. We have a musical reading, we read the Luke 2 story while Hermana Zamora plays the violin and it ends in Silent Night. Then we will be showing the "He is the Gift." and something like that! It really brings the spirit and we are encouraging members to invite non-member friends to come when we go to their house. Hopefully it all works out. Our first one is tonight! 

Yesterday we had 8 people say that they would come to church... and we only had 1. We were excited for the one but pretty disappointed about the rest. We aren't sure what happened and are going to be working hard to figure that out. We did a inacctive family to come to church! It was amazing!!!!! That was a miracle moment.  The investigator that did come, Ilse, (Ill-say) came and we had an appointment with her after church where she accepted a baptismal date, and when we invited her to the Christmas devotional she said yes! We got to see it! it was so powerful and she had tears in her eyes. She just gets it. We were so happy and the spirit was so strong. 

It has been a great week with so many blessings. I can honestly say that I know that Heavenly Father is working hard in this area and I am grateful to be a part of it! Thank you so much for the package!!! it was so fun and we decorated our apartment. I gave my companions the advent calendars and I am using the cute paper chain. Perfect! I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

Love always,
Hermana Morey

Bring on the Trio

Hello!!!

I hope this letter finds you all well and enjoying the Christmas season! I absolutely love this time of year! I will admit that it throws me off to be celebrating Thanksgiving and the Christmas season at 80 degrees... but it is this time of year!

This past week has been a pretty interesting week. We knew that it would be hard to see people on Thanksgiving so we made a TON of cookies and cute little Turkey cards with D&C 78:19 on it. We delivered them to all of the members, less-actives, and investigators in our area. It was a lot of work but was a lot of fun as well. We ate dinner with the Pineda family and they made it really special for us. The Turkey was AMAZING! I don't know how they did it but I loved it. They also had a ham but they had covered it with Pineapple rings... so I kept away from that one. Also, Hermana Zamora, the member not my companion, gave us some homemade cheesecake and Pumpkin Pie. It was delicious! It was really cool to be able to go around and see everyone and give them the cookies. Hopefully they were able to remember to give thanks to the Lord for all of our many blessings!

Yesterday we all had to give talks/testimonies in Sacrament meeting. I spoke on how everything we do is centered in Christ and how we have the privilege of sharing this message of Christ with our families, friends, and neighbors. Hopefully people will be sharing the gospel and how God loved us so He gave His Son. Especially around this time of year I feel like people need to know that Christ was born to save them. We all need our own relationship with Christ!

We got a new investigator this week! Her name is Elsa, Illsa? Something like that. She is 27, has a son, and is really great. She is interested in the Bible but she was praying about which church was true when a friend talked to her about our church. She loves coming and really feels the spirit. I love watching people have their own conversion! God is mindful of each and every one of us.

SURPRISE! Yesterday morning when we woke up everything seemed normal... however, by the time we went to bed last night we had 3 beds in our room, 3 desks in the main room... and as of this morning we have a new companion! Yes, we are in a trio! Our new companions name is Hermana Lozano and she is from Georga. She started in the SLC Utah mission but her family moved to Tooele so she got reassigned here. I will be her companion until she goes home in February! Also, Hermana Zamora goes home in 3 weeks... I feel like such a new missionary! We will be working hard to make things work as a trio. Pray for us! We seem to get along well so far so it should be really good.

I love you all and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you have a wonderful week! thank you so much for all of your love, support, and prayers on my behalf!

Love,

Hermana Morey  

Thanksgiving

Hello my dear family and friends!

I hope and pray that you are all doing well! This past week has been a little interesting. We had the slowest week of my entire mission! We ended up walked for about 2 hours every day trying to find new people. Even though we ran out of people to see, we had seen all of our members, less actives, and investigators, we had a really grate week! We got members to come to our lessons, we helped the members with their missionary work, and did our best to make everyone feel loved,

I went on exchanges to good old San Bernadino this week! I was with Hermana Wong who was born in Samoa but grew up in Utah and Alaska. She actually went to Middle school in the same place! She is Sariah's age and she recognized a picture of her. It was a really fun exchange! We got to go and do service at "Lighthouse for the Blind." It is a place where blind people can go and learn how to do everyday things, eat lunch, and be around other people. We helped make lunch, passed out drinks and food, and then washed the dishes. It was so much fun. I wish there were more service opportunities in our area! Then we went and tried to contact some of the less-actives that she didn't know in her area. That was fun and they got 2 new investigators from it! Also, one of her investigators thought I was 16. :) That was fun considering everyone seems to think I am 25. 

Yesterday was the ward's primary program! It was so cute! All of the little kids had to do their part in Spanish and they all belted the primary songs in Spanish as well. What made it even better was a super stressful Sunday! There were a ton of new investigators at church that day and we were trying to find people to sit by all of them and make them feel at home. Also, Laura Espinosa showed up to church with her 5 kids! That in all honesty was a miracle. I got to go and sit by them and the ward members were such amazing helpers and friendshippers. I am so grateful for this ward! Laura was only going to stay for an hour but she liked it so much that she stayed for all three! I was exhausted after church but it was worth it!

Our ward is having their Thanksgiving party this Saturday! They are going to be cooking 16 turkeys and all of the other good things. As good sister missionaries we offered to help cook and I think they are going to have us cooking a turkey! Whoot! Thank you mom for teaching me how to do that and helping me know how to cook! I am glad that we get to help others in their work.

I am so grateful that this week is Thanksgiving and that we get to focus on the things that we are grateful for. I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to be a missionary and to help my brothers and sisters feel the love of our Savior. I am so grateful for each and every one of you and for your prayers and support that you show for me. Thank you so much for everything! I wish I had words to better express my gratitude but I am doing my best to show my gratitude by giving my all to the Lord. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you get to feel the love of our Heavenly Father as you spend time with friends and family!

Love always,
Hermana Morey

Time is Flying

Hello!!!

How are you all doing? I can't even believe that it is also so close to Thanksgiving! Time seriously is just flying by! I don't even know how to really handle it all. 

This week was pretty good! I am still used to our weeks just filling up with appointments but as we baptized most of our investigators we don't have as many people to see. That makes things a lot different in how we approach our work. We spend a lot of time trying to work with less-actives and members to try and get them working on their own missionary work and trying to get referrals of people that we can teach. As of right now we are still asking everyone that we talk to for referrals but haven't gotten much yet. However, we are still faithful and work hard to be finding people and helping the people around us.

On Friday we had Zone conference! It was such an amazing experience. I had been praying for several things for a little over a week had didn't feel like I was getting an answer; however, at the Zone Conference President Van Cott answered every single one of them! That really strengthened my testimony because I knew that the Lord had answered my prayers but not in the way that I had been expecting. We talked a lot about conversion and especially conversion of people in the Book of Mormon. We had an assignment to find as many stories as we could of how people are converted and then he called on people to share their stories. Even though I wasn't called to share my story I really was able to grow more in my conversion. I realized that there are conversion stories in the Book of Mormon that we don't really focus on. For example, Nephi didn't always just believe the words of his father, he went and prayed and then was willing to act on it. This was a really great assignment! I challenge you all to look at conversion stories!

As for investigators, we have a mom and a daughter named Maria y Dulce who like to be taught at 8 in the morning. While it is a little hard to be ready and at someone's house by this time it has been such a great experience to be able to work with them! It is worth it. All of the missionaries in our ward decided to wake up earlier than 6:30 so that we can get in more exercise time. All 4 Elders get up at 5:30 and we get up at 6. I feel like I have so much more energy during the day to go and work! Also, we have a little bit of time to stretch and I can almost tough my toes! I am so proud! However, the reason why we are doing this is so that we can be fit and healthy so we can be better instruments in the Lord's hands. It has really shown me why our bodies are so important and why it is so important to keep them healthy!

This week Hermana Zamora went to a baptism in her fist area and I needed to stay here and work. One of our recent converts, Yayis, became my companion for the evening! We had a lot of fun working and she really clicked with an investigator family that we were going to stop working with. It is really amazing how the Lord works! They invited us to come back and we will take her with us next time as well. 

That is all for this week! Just know that I love you all and am praying for you. Thank you so much for all of your love and support for me. Please let me know if I can do anything for you or if you need special prayers! Good luck with everything!

Love always,

Hermana Morey

Baptism Joys

Hello everyone!

I hope and pray that you all are doing well! This email is going to be a little jumbled and short.

This week was a hard week for teaching lessons. We were extremely busy all week but we just didn't get the numbers to prove it. The best part of the week was the Devi and Michael got baptized! We were working very hard to get them ready and excited for this baptism.

So details about the baptism. At the last baptism we had the water heater was broken and the water was freezing cold! We weren't about to let that happen so we got there two hours early and kept boiling water and dumping it in. We were prepared! We took our pots and everything. While we were waiting for the water to boil we practice a music number for the baptism. We did Nearer my God to thee and Hermana Zamora played the violin while I played the piano. When it was time for the baptism we were so excited! Everything was going well until we realized that we had forgotten to explain how the baptism works to Devi. Don't even ask me how we forgot that... we hurried back with her and tried to explain it and she got nervous because she didn't understand. Fortunately Elder Miller who was baptizing her was able to calmly explain it. Next problem... the water was FREEZING COLD! All of our work didn't make a degree of difference. Apparently it was bad. When Michael got in the water he looked at us and said that he didn't want to do it anymore, the water was too cold. Fortunately Hermano Teniza was able to soothe him and did it really quickly so they could go get warm. Gha. We felt so bad! There was nothing we could do about that though.

That really was the highlight for the week. Also, Transfers. I had forgotten that people change for transfers because it didn't feel like either of us would be moving. However, when I got to church on Sunday all of the Elders kept telling me to enjoy my last Sunday in this ward. They were all talking to me about how to make it the best last Sunday in a ward when one of the English sisters came up to me and said Congratulations! My heart dropped. I didn't want to leave! Apparently my face was pretty funny in that moment because everyone laughed for about 5 minutes. At lest I am entertaining! Fortunately they didn't really know and I am not moving areas. I am glad because I love working here! I feel like I still have so much more to do here and now I get the opportunity to do it.

I love you all so much! I hope that everything is going well. Don't forget to read your scriptures and say your prayers! 

Love always,

Hermana Morey

Locked Out

Buenos tardes mis amigos! Como estan?

I honestly can't believe that it is already November. I feel like it should still be September. How was everyone's Halloween? Did you do anything fun?

This week started off with our continuous round of bad luck. :) On Monday we accidentally locked our keys in the trunk of our car and when we called Elder Miller, the missionary in charge of cars, he was in Utah. We don't blame him in the slightest because he deserves a break! It was starting to get dark so we walked to Angie's house which was fairly close and waited for Elder Miller to get in contact with the APs. It turns out the APs couldn't get the key to us until the next morning and seeing as our Apartment keys were with the car keys we went back to the English Sisters apartment for take 2 of our sleepover. The APs were able to get the keys to our district leader and the sisters dropped us off at the Stake center for our District meeting. We had a great meeting and then proceeded to walk for 3 hours to get back to our car. Talk about adventure! It was really cool though because we stopped for a quick break, my back was hurting really badly and Hermana Zamora's hips where aching, and while we waited an old investigator saw us and pulled over to talk to us! I hadn't seen him in a long time and then we were able to set up an appointment to see him again. Coincidence? I think NOT! There are no coincidences in missionary work. :)

After that this week has been fairly normal! The weather completely changed and it is wonderful and even really cold at times. On Halloween we had to come in at 6 and weekly plan so that we weren't out on the street. It was fun because we had a really good planning session.

This week we have been working really hard with Debbie and Michael. They are both getting baptized this Saturday! They are both such great people and Michael is the sweetest 9 year-old boy. We are so excited for them and I will tell you more about the baptism next week!

We also have been working hard with Laura and her daughter Darlene. They both really love what we are teaching them but we are having a hard time getting them to come to church! We are praying and working hard to figure out the best ways to help them.

Well, that is all for this week! I hope you are all doing well and I want you all to know that there is no place I would rather be than out on a mission serving the Lord! Have a wonderful week!

Love always,

Hermana Morey

Baptism

Buenas tardes!!!!!

Come le va? This week has been a wonderfull week of ups, downs, and farther downs. :) 

To start off, we still can't find that mouse... it is starting to worry us because it ate the bait out of our traps and moved the traps but didn't get caught! How does it even manage that one?

Monday was a pretty interesting day. We had an appointment with a referral and were really excited about it. The lady reads the Bible every day with her two daughters and is searching for the right church. However.... when we brought up Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon... she kind of got mean. She mentioned how it never said anything about another Book in the Bible and all of these things. I was trying to bear my testimony and she turned and started to attack my testimony. Man. I was so mad! I have never experienced someone attacking something that I hold so dear. I managed to keep my patience and we just left. Just know that you shouldn't attack someone's testimony.... they won't be too pleased.

The best part about this week.... we had a baptism! The Pineda family got baptized! I can't even tell you how happy that made me. We worked so hard to make it a really perfect day and it all went so well. Lupe had told us that she wanted the baptism to be really small and to just have her family there. (So almost a secret baptism.) So, naturally, the entire ward shows up! I have never seen a baptism so full. They loved it though and you could feel the love that the ward has for this family so strongly! Everything was going well until we realized that even though we had the Hot water as hot as it will go... the water was still freezing!!! We felt so bad! We tried to get it to warm up but there was nothing we could do. Other than that, everything went perfectly well!  Hermana Tapia and her new companion were there! It was the first time I have seen her since we got new companions and the last time I will see her before she leaves. It was sad but it was really fun to see her. Her companion Hermana Lutu is in the air force and is such a cute and fun girl. We had a lot of fun.

Last night as we got back from a REALLY long day we were looking forward to starting to plan and then just relaxing after we finished... the only problem was that apparently our lock broke and we couldn't get in to our apartment!!! What is this? We were trying to figure out what to do and there wasn't a thing. We tried to get in through the window, call the office, nothing. We were officially homeless. It was weird to just have a couple things but not anything else. Fortunately we have English Sisters who live fairly close who took us in for the night. Slumber-party!!! We were so grateful and today we were able to get back into our apartment. (They are fixing our door for us.) Also, this weak I gained a very strong testimony of Guardian Angles. I know that the Lord has more planned for me in this life and the miracles I saw this week made me want to work even harder to be the person that God knows I can be!

I hope you are all enjoying life and that you can feel the love that God has for each one of us! If you can I would like you all to go back and read the testimony of Joseph Smith because it really is so powerful! I went and read that this morning and my testimony of what I am teaching is even stronger.

Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers! I am praying for you as well!

Love,

Hermana Morey

I Needed To Be Both There And Here

Hola buenas Tardes!!!!

Come le ha ido su semana? The weather here is wonderful today! It is about 75 degrees and breezy. The only problem is that the smog is so thick that we can't really see anything. Other than that... wonderful!!!

This week has been such a great week. To start off I had exchanges on Tuesday night and I got to spend time with Hermana Smith. She just barely got into the mission and is a visa-waiter waiting to go to Panama. It was really fun to talk with her because it gave me time to think more about Bolivia and the good things I got to do and see there. So, for some reason whenever you do exchanges everything goes badly. All of your appointments cancel, people aren't home, you meet strange people, you know, the usual. I felt bad because we ended up walking a ton! We talk to people and just tried to make things work. She was a really good sport about it which helped a lot. While we were walking a car pulled over and a man asked us if we wanted a ride. We were politely refusing and he started to dig through his wallet. I was thinking, oh this man wants to promote his business and didn't think anything else. However, he pulled out his temple recommend and said, don't worry, I am one of you guys! It was so funny! We told him that we were almost to our next appointment but thanked him for the offer. As I look back on that it really amazed/inspired me. I realized that he was so proud of the fact that he had a temple recommend and that he could say that he was worthy to go into the temple. Do we all feel that way about our temple recommends? I have been determined now to always have it with me and to remember what it means instead of just storing it until I need it.

On Friday we had Elder Evans of the General 70 come and talk to us. It was an AMAZING mission conference! He started out talking about how we are in this exact mission because this is where God wanted us. HERE. We are here to learn from President Van Cott. From the people. It really struck me that the Lord must need me here and I needed to learn things in Bolivia as well. It isn't that I couldn't handle being in the 3rd world country, it is that I was needed both here and there. He also talked about how we need to talk WITH people and not just TO people. There is a big difference. It was such a wonderful day and I came out wanting to be a much better missionary. It made me want to work as hard as I can while I still have time here!

For the conference we needed to wake up at 5:30. That was a little hard. We hurried and got all pretty and ready to go and RIGHT as we were about to leave I saw... the mouse. Let me explain. We hear a mouse in our apartment earlier this week but haven't seen anything or heard anything else. On Thursday we say that something had been chewing on Hermana Zamora's cake. (Someone gave her a Peruvian cake and it was in a big thick package.) We realized that the mouse must be in the apartment... yay. The worst part about seeing the mouse was that I saw him run into OUR ROOM!!!!! That was not good. We set up mouse traps later but haven't seen/heard anything since then. Oh what to do....

Other than that I am doing well! The Pineda family is getting baptized on Friday!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy! They are going to be such great members and I am happy for the changes they are making in their lives. I will send pictures next week!

Thank you all for your prayers and everything you do for me! I really appreciate it! Welcome home Sariah. You look happy and I hope you are enjoying everything at home.

Love,

Hermana Morey (officially the only one this time.)

Thank You, All My Teachers

Hello family and friends!

How are you all doing on this lovely October afternoon? It sounds like you are all really really busy but are loving what you are doing!!

This week has been so crazy busy that I am just exhausted! Our ward activity last Monday went SO well! We had over 50 people show up and they all loved it. Good thing the Elders helped us so much. I feel like people will be more excited to go to future activities which was our goal.

On Wednesday it was Hna Zamora's birthday and I knew that she thought that it was going to be a small forgotten birthday. However, I surprised her with a Peruvian dinner with a Peruvian member in our ward! That means we had two dinners that night but she loved it. We also got two cakes and it was a really great day! I am glad that I was able to help her have a fun missionary birthday. We still worked hard but we made it fun as well. (I will send pictures of me putting her face in the cake.)

It has been really busy getting the Pineda family ready for their baptism next week. We are at their house almost every day! We also have 4 other investigators on date and are working so hard to get them all ready to be baptized. Who would have thought that missionary work would be so stressful! Fortunately we have the Lord on our side because I know that I couldn't do this alone.

This Friday we have Elder Evans coming for a mission conference! We have to be at our stake center by 7:15 which means we will need to get up an hour early. That will be... fun. :) No, I am really excited for this conference and am so grateful that I get to be here for this!

We had the Stake Presidency come to our Ward Council this past Sunday and I learned so much. One of them talked about how the only real training and preparation that we get for our missions came from our Sunday School teachers, Seminary teachers, and parents. We don't go to a formal school, we don't study all day... but because of everything that these teachers have done for us we can come out here and bring others unto Christ. I really want to thank all of my teachers for helping me gain a testimony so that I can be here as a missionary today. The gospel is amazing!!!

I am sorry but that is all for this week! I love you all so much! Sariah, WELCOME HOME!!!! Welcome back to the states. :) I wish I could be there to welcome you but I will just have to see you next November. Be safe. Do good things and never forget the work you did out there in Nicaragua!

I love you all!!

Love,

Hermana Morey (Now the only Hermana Morey)

Driving a Truck

Hola mis hermanos!

Como estas? How are you guys doing? Wasn't conference the past couple of days just amazing?! I absolutely loved it. I can't believe how quickly the time flew by. I was able to watch conference in English at our stake center with all of the other missionaries and some members. I can't even decide which talk was my favorite because they were all so good! It was cool because there were some that I felt like were perfect for some of the people we are teaching. I am excited about that. I think that the questions that I went in to conference with were all answered about 6 times in the first session alone. It was amazing! I am sad that conference isn't for another six months but I am so grateful that I was able to watch it. What did you guys think?

So, at first I was really nervous to lead my area. However, I have grown so much in the past week! I realized that I know a lot of Spanish! Not only that... but I know my way around. The Lord really has been blessing me. My new companions name is Hermana Zamora. She was born in Peru but is from Fresno California. She is super happy and has some great ideas. We have been working hard with Lupe and her family and also with all of our other investigators. We had more lessons this week than we have in past weeks which was a great feeling. 

Okay, this is going to sound a little worldly... but we had to take in our car to get it fixed... and they gave us a truck!!!!! We got to drive a truck for a couple days until we got a different corrola. (the Zone Leaders needed the truck to help people move and we got an older corrola.) Needless to say... we felt really cool. 

Tuesday was Hermana Tapia's last day in the area so we spent time saying goodbye to investigators and members. We had a lesson with the Pineda family (Lupe, Israel, Yayis, and Santos.) and they all just seemed super distracted! Finally we had Israel say the closing prayer and in it he said "and please bless president Van Cott that he will let Hermana Tapia come back for our Baptism on the 25th of October. Yes, I do mean the baptism of my WHOLE FAMILY!!!!" Oh my goodness. Hermana Tapia cried. We were SO HAPPY!!!! Now we are working very hard to help them finish their lessons so that they can be ready that day. Please pray for them! They are such solid investigators though. Last night we had a lesson with the whole family and Israel was helping teach Santos. I remembered the first day I met him and he said that churches were just businesses that wanted money. now he has such a strong testimony. The gospel is amazing!

Tonight we are doing a Family Home Evening activity as a ward and the missionaries are in charge. Hermana Tapia had a great idea but unfortunately... she left. That kind of put me in charge. The Elders are really good at helping though. We are doing a tree of life activity and just are going to blindfold everyone and have them go into a room and follow a rope. THe rope is going to lead to a tree outside. While traveling on the rope there are going to be people trying to lead them away from the rope. If they let go an "angel" will tell them to repent and hold back on to the rod. At the end the tree will be all lit up and we will have the Bishop talk about what it means. (we aren't explaining before, just telling them to keep walking and don't let go.) I know I didn't explain it very well... but it is going to be really cool!!!

In between sessions of conference yesterday we had an appointment with a reference. It was a member present reference. We weren't too sure about it, but it was amazing!!!! This family was so ready to hear the gospel and really want us to come back. I should never doubt again! 

I am sorry this email was all over the place... know that I love you all so very much an am praying for you. Gracias por ser un bueno ejemplo para mi. You are all so very wonderful. Thanks for all of your prayers and support!

Love always,

Hermana Morey

Leading the Area

Hello everyone!

Well, to start out... transfers were this week! With everything that was happening in our area we felt sure that we were both going to be staying here! However, after six weeks of praying that we would either stay together or that I would be the one to leave..... Hermana Tapia was transferred to Borrego Springs! I will be leading my area! Woot.... haha. With the Lord all things are possible right? My new companion will be Hermana Zamora. She was born in Peru but grew up in San Jose California. I am excited to be able to work with her! I am not sure... but I think she goes home in December so I might be her last companion.

This week was a really good week! We had a lesson with Jorge about what he felt like he needed in order to progress. We felt strongly to challenge him to live the Gospel 100% for one week and see how he felt. He started the week yesterday and first the first time in a while he not only came to church... but he stayed for 3 hours!!! I am so excited for him and for what he will experience this week.

Did I mention Angie before? She is 24 and cuts hair. She is a less-active and we are working with her to help her draw closer to Christ. Lately she has been reading her scriptures and praying every day! We have been so excited for her. This last Thursday she decided to fast. She started in the morning and when she prayed that evening she said that she prayed harder than she ever had before and felt the Spirit stronger than she had before. We were so extremely excited for her and for the wonderful things that she is doing in her life. It is times like this that make the mission so wonderful!

Lupe and her family are such amazing people. I can't even tell you how much I love that family!  We had such an amazing lesson with Isreal and Yayis and even though they didn't accept the date we gave them at the time, they said that they would pray about it and give us a date this week. Wow. When I first met them I didn't think that would EVER happen. It is amazing to see the Lord working on the hearts of the people. So, the family is a little complicated. However, they all live really close and are with each other all the time. So, Yayis' mom Linda and her dad live across the street. They came to a lesson that we had with them last night and we read Alma 32 with them and talked about how to have faith you need to nurture your "seed of faith." The spirit during that lesson was so strong! EVERYONE felt it!!! We asked Lupe again to be baptized and she might get baptized tomorrow night! Please pray for her! I love this family SO MUCH!!!!!

I have to tell you that I LOVE watching the trains pass by! It has become one of my favorite things about this area. Also, Women's conference was amazing! I love how they focused on our duty to be prepared for the temple. Also, I like how President Uchtdorf didn't just tell us that we are special and move on. He got down to the point and told us that we have work to do! I love that! We can always improve and it is nice to hear it in a nice way. I am so excited for conference this weekend!

You have all heard about Meet the Mormons by now I assume. As missionaries we got to have a special preview of the movie on Thursday Morning and I really liked it! It was different than what I thought it would be... but they did such a good job! If you have time you really should go see it!

I love you all so much!!! Wish me luck on leading my area! Know that I am always praying for you.

Love always,

Hermana Morey

This cob of corn has mayonnaise, Parmesan, and chile