Patience Is Key To Finding Peace

Hey y'all!

I hope your week was full of love, roses, chocolate, and Christ!

This week was great. On Wednesday, we went tracting and found a mother and daughter who moved to Cochran from South Carolina last August. They have been through a lot and moved here on a whim, but they believe God has led them here and led us to them! They have been through a lot and are so grateful for everything they have. They are awesome! She invited us right in when we first met them, so we taught them about prophets and the priesthood. We went back on Monday and shared the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. She really appreciated our honesty and patience with them, she felt forced to go to church growing up and wants more for her daughter. She was raised in the Pentecostal church, but has studied many different religions. They are excited to learn more about the LDS church! I love them!

We had exchanges this week and I went to Macon with Sister Boyer! Our exchange began with an elderly man calling us over and proceeded to ask us if we were looking to give him some love.. so I told him we are always seeking to share the love of Christ. There is far too much to go around for us to keep it to ourselves! After several minutes he drove off haha there is something interesting in every day! All of our plans fell through for the day, but God is in charge and His plan is not typically what we have in mind. It was an awesome exchange though, I am really grateful for Sister Boyer because she is a wonderful missionary. She goes home in about two weeks but is still working hard and a great example to me.

I am studying about "long suffering" right now, and I have been learning a lot about patience. I think long suffering is important because nothing lasting comes quickly. I have been trying to understand how to find peace in stressful situations. A scripture I came across during my studies helped me a lot, I love it because it helps me put into perspective God's plan for us. 

Hebrews 12:1

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,"

I'm grateful for our Savior because I know that He blesses us as we seek to understand and follow Him. 

I love y'all! Have a blessed week!

Sister Morrill

God Is Love

Hey y'all,

Happy Valentines Day! I hope y'all treat someone special tomorrow (and always)!

We had an interesting week, we were able to have dinner and a lesson with two people. We taught a Spanish speaking man (he is awesome) in a members home after dinner on Saturday.  He has been reading the Book of Mormon for a while and has a beautiful testimony of Jesus Christ. We taught him and the family the gospel of Jesus Christ and it was so fun. We constructed a 3 layer cake, each layer represented another step. The candles on top represented the Gift of the Holy Ghost "by fire" and then we had a plate with a slice for "enjoy (endure) to the end". He was able to better understand the concept of the Holy Ghost and repentance. He loves Enos because it captures repentance so well, but I love that he mentioned that chapter because we had left that with him several weeks ago and it stuck with him. We are grateful for our Spanish speaking member and her willingness to translate for us. She is awesome, but we were able to exercise our Espanol and he said he was impressed haha! Muy bien! 

We invited a different man who had been taught in the past by other missionaries to dinner at another members home. We had seen him a few weeks ago and left him with the Book of Mormon and several passages to read. He texted us and said he had been reading and found an interesting truth he felt like God had presented him. So on Sunday we all ate together and then went into the living room to learn about the Restoration. It was a very good learning experience for me. The family we were with is so faithful and intelligent. The man questioned more than he was willing to listen, but the father bore sincere testimony and told him the only way to know whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet of God is to read the Book of Mormon and pray to ask God. If the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet. He was very straight forward and the man accepted our invitation to read the account of Jesus Christ when he visited the people in the Americas. He told us he only reads out of the four gospels in the Bible, so that is the "meat and potatoes" in the Book of Mormon. 

I know the gospel truly does bless families. I am grateful for the wonderful spirit it can bring into a home and I am grateful for those who are faithful and obedient in following God to have it present. I love the Spirit because I feel peace no matter where I am when it is with me :)

One of the many perfect characteristics of Christ is long-suffering. We live in an instant world, but all great things take time to develop. I don't know why things happen, but I do know that we are each accountable for the way we respond to situations. Patience in all things is the easiest way to endure, but the most challenging. I know that God doesn't give any of His children any trial we can't overcome. He loves us so much!

I love y'all so much too, have a wonderful Valentines Day! Help someone feel love :)

Sister Morrill

D&C 112:11

I know thy heart, and have heard thy prayers concerning thy brethren. Be not partial towards them in love above many others, but let thy love be for them as for thyself; and let thy love abound unto all men, and unto all who love my name. 

Faith, Our Individual Journey

Howdy hey!

I hope y'all enjoyed the weekend! Someone told us its "Sister Super Bowl Sunday", but hey we live in a world where we can make up our own holidays and choose whether or not we want to participate! However God's work doesn't stop, even for football.

This week we had our Zone Conference on Tuesday in Macon and we had the privilege to hear from Elder Claudio Costa on Saturday! Elder Costa is a convert of 41 years and his conversion story seriously inspired me. He didn't want missionaries to teach him, but after he overheard Sister teaching someone else in his home he went in his room and took the challenge they had left with the person they had taught. He told us after reading, pondering, and praying about each individual paragraph in the Joseph Smith history that he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was a prophet called of God. If I remember correctly he said it took him 14 hours. He went on to talk about how grateful he was for the gospel and how blessed he felt. He still faces challenges, as we all do, but in those 41 years there has not been a single day where he did not feel happy. He knows God's plan for us :) 

This week most of our appointments fell through and one of the people we were teaching moved to Atlanta with her mom. But hey, can't have a rainbow without a little rain! This weekend we were able to fast with a woman for a Sunday she can have off of work, so she can be baptized and confirmed. We taught the girl who's on date for the 18th about the importance of daily repentance and used a tool that one of the senior couples shared during Zone Conference this week.

1. Hope

2. Remember 

3. Act

Faith is belief put into action! Faith without works is dead, even Satan believed in Heavenly Father (actually he had a sure and perfect knowledge of him), but Jesus Christ was willing to act on His faith and I know I have been blessed because of Him. We can hope for a better tomorrow, because we remember yesterday, and through Christ we can find the strength to overcome all things!

At the end of our Zone Conference, Elder Costa emphasized the importance of a spiritual lesson rather than a social lesson. I really loved that because we are here to build the Kingdom of God, rather than to preach what is comfortable. The Gospel of Jesus Christ afflicts the comfortable, and comforts the afflicted! I absolutely love it from either end, because this life is all about progression. 

I really appreciate all the support I receive from y'all, I feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family! Y'all are a blessing to me and I love ya! Have a blessed week,

Sister Morrill

Alma 5

"15 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?

16 I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?"