Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!

Buenos Dias!!! Como estan? 

How was your week? I certainly hope it went well! School is officially out here so I can picture everyone at home just taking a break and going out and doing fun things. Work can be included in that list of fun if you can make it fun! That is what we try to do.

This past week was pretty crazy. On Monday and Tuesday I was up in Cathedral City with Sister Hall and we worked both areas for those two days. It was a little stressful but we seemed to make it just fine. Then on Wednesday we drove all the way up to Highland to get our new companions. I am with Hermana Jimenez!!! She is from New Jersey but her family is from Mexico. She is about 4 ft 11 in. I feel like I am back in Bolivia... just a little bit! She is really sweet and is such a great missionary. She has been out for 7 months and works really hard. I feel like we are going to get a lot of things done in this area! 

We have been working really hard this week to help Hna Jimenez get to know the people in our area. However, that has been super difficult because almost all of the members and investigators have been super busy and we haven't been able to see them. This week we had no progressing investigators. It was my first week in a while having that, but we will just find a way to help them. It was especially sad because on her first night here one of our investigators called us 5 minutes before the lesson to say that they didn't want us coming over anymore. It was so heart-breaking. They were investigators that were difficult but I could see them as some of the churches strongest members someday. However, I know that missionaries will stop by again someday and they will be more ready to hear this message. It was also a little hard to work with it being so hot! We got up to 111 degrees this week. I couldn't believe it. It is just hot! Hopefully we will adjust.

On Saturday we had our ward Father's Day Party! It was a lot of fun. They had decorated the Gym to look almost likes a sports bar with tons of games, soccer playing on a big tv, lots of food, etc. It was a lot of fun. We got Salvador to go and I think he really enjoyed it. That reminds me! Happy Father's Day dad!!! I hope that you have a wonderful day and that you get to relax and enjoy a beautiful summer Sunday! :) Thank you so much for your emails and all that you are doing for me. I really appreciate it!

I know that was short but that is everything for this week! I hope you know that I love you all and that this work is amazing! We are working hard and with the iPads that we are getting on Wednesday we will be able to work even harder! This is the Lord's work and I am grateful to be one of His servants out here in California.

Thank you so much for everything that you do for me. I love you all so very much!!!

Hermana Morey

Artlet

Buenos Dias!!! Como estan?! Ojola que todo esta bien con ustedes!!!!

How are you all doing? I hope you have had a wonderful week! I can't believe that it was the end of the transfer. Sometimes it feels like you blink and all of a sudden everything is changing. Don't get me wrong, I love changes, but it goes so quickly! 

This week was a pretty crazy week. Do you remember how we asked you all to pray for Arlet? For her mom to give us permission to baptize her? Well after a lot of fasting and prayer we called. So, let me set up this scene for you. We are in the Relief Society room with the long square table. There are 8 missionaries gathered around this table all staring at the red phone in my hand. If anyone had walked in they would have thought we were crazy. The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife! Now, on to the story. She answered the phone and sounded really nice! I introduced us and told her how we knew Arlet and how Arlet had asked to be baptized. She told us that Arlet had already been baptized.... We all looked at each other and then the District Leader whispered "Just say that she wants to be baptized again." So I did. She paused for a moment... and then said "Well, I don't see why not! It is the same God and if she wants to do this for Him than that is okay with me!" We ended the call and then there was a mini missionary party! We were all SO happy!!! It honestly was a miracle. I learned that God listens to prayers and he will prepare a way for His children to keep the commandments. Also, I know Spanish. I learned that too.

We spent a lot of this week preparing for the baptism and it couldn't have come at a better time. Transfers. We felt like I was going to be leaving and that Hermana Yeager was going to stay here. Also, she told me a couple days ago that she had a bad feeling that she was going to train... well, on Saturday we got a call saying that Hna Yeager is training! However, She is going to be white-wash training in a new area. I will be staying here and Hermana Jimenez is going to be my new companion. I am so excited! I have served around her before and she is really fun. She if from New Jersey but she is a Native Spanish speaker. I am so excited for this!

The work is going on! I have noticed that when we are diligent, that is when we see the results. I made it a goal to ask everyone for referrals every time I talked to them. I wasn't perfect at it but I knew it would bring blessings. On Saturday andSunday we received 8 referral families. I couldn't believe it. The Lord ALWAYS keeps His promise. No matter what.

I am so grateful for this opportunity to share this gospel. It honestly is here to help us to understand that there is a way to be happy! This life is hard, but we can still be happy. :) 

I love you all so very much. Thank you so much for all of your prayers in my behalf, and for all of my investigators as well. It honestly makes a difference. 

Have a wonderful week!!!

Love,

Hermana Morey

Prayers

Buenos dias mi familia!!! Como estan? Como estuvo su semana? Ojala que todo esta bien con ustedes. :)

I can't believe that it is June. I kind of had a mini heart attack this morning when I realized it and also realized that I was probably the very last person to say rabbits. (8 am my time) Does that mean I get the bad luck this month? I sure hope not!

This week was a little rough. I am not going to lie about that. After emailing last week we went to go and see Hermana Escudero and she told us that she actually wasn't interested. The only reason why she went to church was to be with her son. BAM! Ouch. That one really hurt. There is no way that she faked interest for that long. The spirit was SO strong in those lessons and she was doing everything and then just to stop cold turkey? That just put a damper on our day and then we just tried to keep working. On Thursday we had exchanges and I stayed in my area with Sister Hall. She is super duper quiet and it was hard to get her to say anything to me let alone others. She is brand new in the mission and I think she is a little shy. I pulled out ALL of the stops on Thursday so that she could have a good experience for her first one. We had all set appointments but every single one canceled. I literally tried to see everyone I could think of. Investigators, less-actives, potentials, contact referrals, etc. Nobody was home or would let us in. Not one single person. We didn't see anyone! I felt really bad but I knew that I had tried my very best. I knew she was a little disappointed but I did everything that was in my power. 

I need your help! I need prayers. Lots and lots of prayers. Little Artet is 8 years old and wants to be baptized more than anyone else I have ever met in my whole life. She wants to get baptized next week and we only need the permission from her mom and everything will be perfect. She passed her interview and everything! The only problem... they don't think her mom will give it to us. We are going to be calling her at 12:15 tomorrow and we are asking literally EVERYONE to be praying constantly until that time and if everyone can be praying at that time (California time) tomorrow we know that her mom can say yes. We are begging all of you to please pray!!! We fasted yesterday for it and we have faith that it can happen. I would like to thank all of you in advance!

I also hope you all know how much I love this mission. I can feel it changing me every day to be more of the person that God would have me be! I am so extremely blessed and I am working harder than ever to be the best missionary that I can. I know for a fact that this is the true church on Earth and as we keep the covenants that we made with the Lord we can be saved. I also know that it is the ONLY way that we can achieve eternal salvation. That is why I am so willing to do all I can to help others be able to have eternal families and to live with God again. This work is so special and I am so grateful to be here.

I hope you all have an amazing week! I love you with all of my heart!

Hermana Morey

The Year Mark

Hello my dearest family,

How are you doing this week? Can you believe that May is almost over? I sure cant'! I don't know if you realized it but I hit my year mark on Sunday. That was weird. I still feel really new and un-experienced! However, I am the 2nd oldest spanish sister in the mission!

This week was pretty good. Last Tuesday we had a lesson with Hna Escudero and I felt strongly to promise her that if she sincerely prayed daily to see if June 14th was when she should be baptized and came to the baptism on Saturday that she would not only feel but see angels. The spirit was SO strong I could almost reach out and grab it. All week we were super excited and just waiting and waiting. Saturday rolled around and we were all at the baptism. It was an amazingly powerful baptism because 3 kids were getting baptized and one has autism but can function pretty well. We talked to her after and just said that she was only confused as to why it was in English and then left. Then, on Sunday she didn't come. Her son said that she didn't want to. We invited her to another baptism and she didn't come. I was really upset. I couldn't understand why I felt so strongly to promise her those blessings and then have her just drop. However, today I had a meeting with President Van Cott for interviews and he explained that if that is not what she wanted, if this gospel is not what she truly wants, then God isn't going to send her an angel and waste her time. Something like that. We are granted blessings according to our desires. 

The Hermana Conference went really well. No, we are not all getting banished to Mexico mom! It was interesting because we sat down and President Van Cott asked us why we were there? We were all silent. He said "I don't even know why we are here. I just have had so many promptings to have one of these meetings that I couldn't put it off any longer!" I thought that was really interesting. A sister mentioned that maybe it is because so many are new and struggling. That was not the reason. The reason was to help us with what we felt like we needed! We talked about learning the language, planning, and just missionary work. It was really nice to have that spiritual uplifting. Now, tomorrow we have our iPad training with Elder Gonzalez. We won't get the iPads right away but we are training for them and will be finding out all of the information. I am really interested to see how it will change the work that we do! 

This email is pretty short but I hope you know that the Lord lives and loves each and every one of us. That is something that I have really been feeling today. The Love that heavenly father has for us is there to help us grow. If we aren't struggling we aren't progressing. Sometimes we just sit and are happy and don't have problems but we aren't learning the lessons that we need to. As I have struggled in the mission I try to think that means that I am drawing closer to God. It says in the scriptures that as we draw closer to God we are shown our weaknesses. So it is okay to feel weak, but just rely on the Lord that He will keep us going! 

I know that the Lord is with me. Even when things don't go according to MY plan, I know that it is better to follow HIS plan.

Thank you so much for all of your love and support! You are always in my prayers!

Love,

Hermana Morey

"Technology is supposed to be our servant, not our masters."

Hello Family and Friends!!! Happy Monday!!!

This week was actually a really good week even though it felt eternal! I am not sure why but we got a ton of things done. So, to start out, last Tuesday we had a Zone Meeting and our APs were there to tell us that we have an Hermana Conference this Wednesday. What that means is that all of the Spanish Sisters in our mission, yep all 19 of us, will be going up to Highland for a 4 hour conference. We have all been trying to figure out what we will be talking about and we can't figure it out. I am pretty sure they are just going to talk about how almost all of the Spanish Elders are going home so we need to take charge. For some reason our mission isn't getting man;y new missionaries. We used to have 280 missionaries but at the end of this transfer we will only have 145. That isn't very many! Also, there are less Spanish missionaries so we will have bigger areas and more work to do. That will make things a little harder but the Lord is always doing what He knows is the best. I trust Him and know that whatever happens will be what I need to do!

On Wednesday we had a lesson with an investigator family named the Chavez. They are a family of 5 and the mom and 3 kids all want to get baptized but are waiting for their husband. He has some REALLY strange ideas... and he knows the Bible really well. He believes that he has the priesthood and the Holy Ghost because he prayed and he asked for it. We tried to explain the Priesthood using the Bible but then he went off on how the Apostles couldn't heal that one man because they didn't have enough Faith and how they did have the Priesthood. We were really frustrated so we just ended with a prayer and tried to get out of there. He asked us to wait for a moment and then found a scripture in the bible and turned to us and said that we don't have the authority to teach because it says in the Bible that if a woman wants to say something she has to go through her husband. Probably not the best thing that you could say to sister missionaries. Hna Chavez's eyes went wide and she shushed her husband and looked terrified. We just looked at him and then said that we needed to go and left. What are we supposed to do in a moment like that? We didn't want to get mad at him, but we didn't have time to explain that we do have authority. We are praying for him.

On the plus side! Saturday we had decided to go and visit a bunch of less actives in our newer area. We planned it all out and then with 10 minutes left in comp study I had a feeling to look at the Elder's notes from that area. I kid you not, EVERY single person that we had signed up to see had moved. So we decided to go an visit members in that area. We made plans and left only to realize that it was the ward temple trip and everyone was gone. We couldn't believe it. Nobody was home! We had a feeling that we just needed to keep working. If we did, everything would work out. We didn't see anyone until about 6:30 and that lesson went well. After that we got a call from a less active asking us to stop by at 8:20. We had no idea why but we went. It turns out her boyfriends daughter Arlet, she is 8, wants to get baptized! She has been coming to church for a couple weeks and wants to follow God. She is super smart and learns really quickly! She wants to be baptized on the 7th and got permission from her parents. It was such an amazing blessing from Enduring to the End. They even gave us Cheesecake. 

The Lord is here in this work!! Next week we have our Mission Conference for iPads and we are studying how to use them effectively. It is amazing what they have figured out! They are training us so that when we get home, we will be able to use technology efficiently and not waste time with it. The phrase that I loved was "technology is supposed to be our servant, not our masters." I am excited for the work to progress!!

I love you all so much! I can't thank you enough for everything that you do for me. Please let me know if I can do anything for you! I hope you have an amazing week!!!!!

Love always,

Hermana Morey

P.S. Happy 18th birthday Bethany!!!!!! You are an adult!!! I hope you have an amazing birthday!!!!!!

Focusing on Miracles

Dear Family and Friends, Hello!

I hope that you are all doing well and that you had a wonderful Mother's Day. It was so extremely wonderful to be able to see a lot of you yesterday. It was fun to be able to see you all in one place for the first time since Sariah left on her mission! One thing that amazes me is the family. I have always understood and appreciated family but there is something different on a mission. You learn more than in any other way possible how important and wonderful families are. I am also grateful because I have an amazing family! Thank you for all being on last night even if it was super late for some of you. :) 

This week I would just like to focus a little bit on miracles. A lot of times we think that miracles are things that happen that usually aren't possible. That is not true! They can be simple, small, and fun things that happen right when you need it. There are some miracles that I have seen this past week...

1. When we go to visit the Beltran family, the Garcia family, and the Quinteros family, we get a little worried about how we are going to get in because they all live in gated communities that are really hard to get in! However, this week, every single time we tried to go visit them, someone always went in before us to let us in and out. Every. Single. Time. That is a miracle and a blessing! 

2. This week nobody signed up to feed us. We were a little worried about it but we knew that everything would work out. Plus, we didn't have a lot of time to buy food on Monday, however, we were extremely blessed and we didn't eat dinner at home once this week. Not even once. Also, there was so much extra food that we had lunch as well. God always provides for his Missionaries.

3. Our investigators are changing their lives. Those who had been fighting are now getting along better and progressing together. They accept the gospel and are keeping commitments. 

4. Hermano Munoz has been inactive since his son was killed a year ago. However, after a very powerful lesson on forgiveness he said that he wants to start paying his tithing again and come back to church.

The Lord really is leading the missionary work around the work. These may not seem like big things, but they were huge to us! We are so grateful for all of your prayers and support. I have needed and appreciate every single one of them. I hope you all know that I know that this church is true. There is no way that it isn't! Whenever we feel like it isn't... usually that is because we aren't wanting to work for it. As Elder Holland Said "missionary work isn't easy because Salvation is not a cheap experience."

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!!

Hermana Morey

P.S. Happy birthday Hailey!!!!!! I meant to sing to you yesterday but I totally forgot! I hope you have a wonderful day! Enjoy Portugal!!!

P.P.S Happy birthday Megan!!!!! I hope you have an amazing day as well!!!

Proof that a mission doesn't change who you are deep down

"Just Wait..."

Hello!!! How are you all doing this week?!

Can you believe that is is already May?! Where is the time going? This week was actually a pretty good week. We always seemed to be busy and we had a couple great lessons. We started working in our new area on Saturday and that was a little rough because nobody was home.... for some reason nobody is home during the weekends. That makes it a little harder. Also, this week was HOT! Okay not terrible but it was staying around 105 every day. To me that is hot! Everyone just keeps saying "just wait." I am so tired of the phrase! When I was in Logan for school and I was cold everyone would say Just wait! Now that I am here they still say it. :) That is okay, My missionary tan lines are getting pretty defined, I now how permanent white socks on my feet and a white watch on my wrist. :) 

This week we had a really good lesson with Salvador and Andrea. They have been going through some pretty hard times which made them put religion aside. We had a kind of "come to Jesus" meeting and they committed to come to church. They ended up coming, FINALLY, and they were going to leave after the first hour but the Sunday school teacher talked them into staying for the second hour. it was perfect. Andrea told us that our prayers are working and that things are getting better. Prayers are so powerful!!! 

With Felicia and Max... we realized that Max didn't quite understand that there is only 1 true church. He thought that each person had the church that was right for them. We had an amazing spiritual lesson where he was able to tell us that he Knows that this church is true. They accepted a baptismal date for next year. (He is on parole so he can't get baptized sooner than that without first presidency approval) we will work on that but they are doing well!!

Also... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM!!!!! It feels so weird to be writing this so early when it isn't until Sunday but I hope you know how much I love you. :) Thank you so much for all of the support and love that you have shown me not only while I have been gone but always. :) You are the most amazing mother in the whole world and I hope you know that you are my hero and I just want to be more like you and to make you proud. Thank you so much for everything that you do for me. You will always have me to count on!!! I am so excited to call home on Sunday and to talk to you. :) 

I hope you all have an amazing week this week!! Thank you so much for your prayers in my behalf!!!!

Love,

Hermana Morey