Sister Morrison takes on the Steel City: January 2016

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

1.25.2016

Good Morning!

Hi all,

Not much has changed this past week in comparison to last. We are

still trying to pick up some new investigators and talk with as many

people as possible. We have found some awesome people this past week,

but sadly they all live in area outside of where we teach, so some

other missionaries got some wonderful news when it comes to referrals!

It's always a wonderful treat like Christmas when you get news of a

referral, so it's nice to help make other missionary's day. Plus, in

the three areas where we sent new investigators those missionaries

have been having a rough time teaching people so it gave them a little

boost.

We had exchanges this past week. Once again I stayed in my area. I'm

starting to think that I will never leave on an exchange. Oh well. It

went really well and we were able to teach lots of lessons and do some

service. It's always interesting to hear other missionary's stories

because most of them have serve out east which is completely different

from the areas I have served in. Maybe on day I will go to farmland,

but for now I am happy to be in the ghetto city.

This past week I got the wonderful opportunity of witnessing a man

snort cocaine on the bus. It gave me the worst feeling in the world,

and strengthened my testimony on how much I hate drugs. They ruin your

life, and do no good. I am grateful that I do not have to deal with

overcoming addictions because from the looks of it, it seems extremely

hard. But, from going to the Addiction Recovery Program each week that

the church offers, I have come to know that through Christ anything is

possible, even when you feel low and like it can't be done.

The R family is going through a little bit of a rough patch and it

kills me! I just want to take away all their struggles and make life

nice and easy for them. Sadly, I can't do that. We've talked a lot

with them about having faith in Jesus Christ when times get rough.

It's always good to know that someone has your back and is willing to

help when we ask through prayer and are obedient to the commandments.

Hopefully they will get out of this funk, the ward is a great support

system which is a huge relief as well.

On Wednesday we had a worldwide missionary broadcast where we were

trained by some of the General Authorities on how to become more

effective missionaries. Apparently this has not happened in over a

decade, but because they finally got a good handle on the increased

number of missionaries who come out, they were able to train us again.

It was really good, and I learned so much. One thing it talked about

was asking for referrals from everyone. Since then we have tried to

ask everyone we talk to about who would be interested, and we have

found some good success. Hopefully we can continue to get some

investigators that way! They also said that we should focus on the

powerful message of the First Vision with less actives. It will help

rekindle that testimony that they once had. Right after the broadcast

we went to meet with L who has started coming back to church. We

scrapped our original lesson and went with the First Vision. We talked

about how even Joseph Smith faces opposition when he was trying to do

the right thing, and that through prayer he was able to overcome them.

You could really feel the spirit, and my testimony of following the

prophets was definitely strengthened within a matter of hours of

hearing their counsel.

Sadly, no super funny moments happened this week. Hopefully next week

a good story will happen so I can get you all in a roaring fit. The

cold is cold, and I'm ready for summer. Thankfully the weather has

been "mild" and that January is almost over. Only two more months of

cold and then I will have survived my first winter here!

Sister Morrison

Brooke & Sister K

They are becoming pros and shoveling people's driveways!

Some of the elders did think it would be funny to dump a whole bunch of snow on her head!

Monday, January 18, 2016

1.18.2016

It's snowing craps and dogs! 🌨💩

First off, I know the saying is usually "it's raining cats and dogs,"

but I adjusted it is week to better fit the stories I had. Enjoy :)

This week has been an interesting one. We have still not been able to

pick up anyone solid, and our teaching pool has been smaller than it

has ever been since I've been in this area. Last night as we were

reporting our numbers regarding how many lessons taught to our

district leader I kept thinking "how the heck did we remiss busy, we

didn't even really teach this week?" It's been a little hard for me

because I feel like I am doing something wrong, and being a failure of

a missionary and as a trainer. I constantly tell myself that Satan

wants me to feel that way, and that I am doing my best to be obedient

and talk to as many people as possible. Sometimes you simply don't see

the success right away. I have been able to relate this to working at

USAF. As I would make the graphs of the sales reports and such there

was always a three month lag between when the sales people made their

call time and all that was expected of them, and their profit

increase. They had to keep working hard while they didn't see much

reward for their work, but it was going to come just after they put in

the effort. Right now we are just in the lag time between work and

reward, and I just need to keep praying and doing all I can go receive

those blessings from Heavenly Father.

This week we helped with a karaoke party at the old folks home. They

love their patriotic songs which we all learned in elementary school.

Well everyone except Sister Kwasney since she is from Canada. It was

fun to teach her the fun songs like Yankee Doodle and Dixieland.

I shoveled snow for the first time this past week. It really came down

Tuesday and I felt like it was never going to end. Trying to shovel

snow is probably one of the most frustrating things ever. There is no

way you can get all the snow picked up with all these broken

sidewalks. Let's just say that being slightly OCD is both a blessing

and a curse, and the curse side was more prominent with shoveling

snow.

We had zone training this past week and poor Sister Kwasney woke up

with a migraine, so she was dying all day. Luckily our Relief Society

president was able to give her some medicine so it went away. It also

made her pass out during the entire training, but I wouldn't blame

her! Elder Masina said something that I thought was really cool. He

said that we aren't called to a place, but called in place of the

Savior. Obviously we were assigned to a certain area of the world, but

on behalf of Christ. I represent Him, which is scary but also cool.

Ok, now for probably the grossest story you have heard from me so far.

Well, we came home one night and Sister Kwasney's stomach was a little

upset so she went straight to the bathroom. It was so bad that our

little two bedroom attic reeked and the toilet got clogged. I really

had to use the bathroom, so I went downstairs to use the vacant

apartment on the second floor's bathroom. I sat down and by the time

it took me to pee I had already felt two drops of some liquid hit me

on the head. I was so disgusted because I was terrified that it would

be poop coming from upstairs. Well, sure enough, there is a leak in

our toilet and I was lucky enough to discover it by having poop water

fall into my head.

Sister Morrison

There is a little dock in Sewickley that you can walk to, and leads

right to a pretty lookout of the Ohio River. It's one of my favorite

places to go to when we are in that part of our area.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

I am continually amazed as to how serious people here in Pittsburgh are when it comes to sports. The attitude and energy of the city revolves around whether or not the Pirates, Penguins, and most importantly, the Steelers win or loose. Thankfully, not only the Steelers got into the playoffs, but they also won Saturday night so everyone has been super friendly and happy walking down the streets. Thankfully, it will continue this upcoming week because of their close win! All the missionaries joke because die hard fan to us means that if the Steelers loose, the number of lessons that we teach the upcoming week also dies hard.

We had interviews with our mission president this past week, and one of the questions that he asked us was what our two goals for 2016 are. Well, here are mine:

1. Pass out 150 Book of Mormons; eventually this goal is going to get tough when I get to the more rural areas of Pennsylvania, but it's making me take advantage of living in the city and talking to everyone I see.

2. Love Pennsylvania and develop a more positive attitude; I've been trying to adapt and love Pennsylvania, but honestly I know that I can do a much better job of trying to enjoy this place. I feel like once I love where I am at, then it will be easier for me to love those who I come in contact with everyday. Plus, I want to completely kick my old habit of being a pessimist in the butt, so people will see me as always happy and someone they want to be around.

We were able to pick up a few new investigators this past week. One of them was J's neighbor, T. He said that he sees us walking around all the time and would be interested in us coming back to teach him a little more about Jesus Christ. Hopefully he will start progressing! It was really a miracle how we met him. We were waiting for a member to show up to our lesson with J. Sadly, our member forgot, but it was totally worked out great because if we never waited for him then we wouldn't have been outside to meet T.

We were outside of a member's house who hoards things helping her move stuff to the side of the street for trash day. I was trying to get a bag out of a basket to throw it away when this nasty water came spilling out all over my feet. Not only was it gross and semi-moldy, it was freezing! I definitely learned how important it is to keep your feet warm and dry during the winter! Helping out was totally worth it though because Sister T said that she feels that she is now ready to go to the temple and do the work for her ancestors! That is something that we have been working on for a long time so it was exciting to see her progress.

Sadly, the R's and J didn't come to church yesterday. I was so excited to have E pass the sacrament, and J hasn't been in two weeks for random reasons. Agency is totally a double sided sword. It's great when people choose to do the right thing, but when they don't make the right choices, or don't make church a priority it totally kills you. I have to keep reminding myself that they are still really new to the church and that they are still adjusting from a lifestyle that they no longer have. Sometimes it just takes time to get used to all the new things that they took on when they chose to be baptized.

We helped at a Primary activity this past weekend that was based around reading our scriptures. The four of us missionaries made a little iron rod simulation. We had an iron rod made out of dental floss, and told all the kids to not let go, no matter how tempting. We had the lights turned off in the room, with little flashlights to make it dark, and then we were on the side of the rod tempting them to let go and come play with Nerf guns, balls, and candy. It was cool to see how some kids didn't let go and were fixed on staying on the rod, and how some let go right away. The part that got me the most was when one girl was playing with the guns with me and her older sister came back trying to get her to grab onto the rod again. That really put my mission into perspective. I am on the rod, and want others who have let got to grab onto the rod again so they can make it to the tree of life: eternal life.

So Sydney Crosby, a Penguin's player, lives in our area. A couple months ago I met some guys who knew where he lived and told us which house it was. I was totally excited to tract to that house and try and teach an NHL hockey player. Well, we told the elders about where Crosby lives, and while they were in that area teaching a lesson they knocked on the door and got a potential investigator. They totally poached our area and took away our opportunity to knock on the door!! We were a little upset about that, but if they end up teaching the lady who answered the door then they will have to hand her over to us since that's our teaching area. I guess there could be something good that came out of that.

We were at a member's home and had to catch a bus in nine minutes and it was a good half mile away. Knowing me and buses, I am super paranoid about missing them. We sprinted to the stop and thankfully made it with three minutes to spare. That's when Sister Kwasney voiced how she had to really use the bathroom. Well, we were right next to the highway, but there was a little stair case that lead to a street down below. Next thing I know Sister Kwasney was peeing on the stairs! I got a pretty good laugh about that, and I'm glad to know that my companion is a little crazy. We get along really well which is nice.

Saturday we had dinner at the R's and they invited some of their really good friends from the ward. It was like a big party! It was so fun to be with them and see them really feel loved and welcomed in the ward. Brother K and D have really been great at making them feel loved, giving them rides to church, and making sure that they are alright. It has seriously been a blessing to us missionaries!

Sister Morrison

Our Saturday night gang: The R's, Brother K, D, J, and the missionaries. Oh and Brother K's dog Brigham who he strategically named so he could be a missionary more often.

We meet with Brother Kr's every week. He is probably one of the most die hard Pittsburgh fans that I have ever met. He gave us some Penguin's beanies so we could "look more local." I guess people can point us out because we don't say Pixburgh, Stillers, or yinz. Or maybe it's the fact that we have nametags on our chest haha

Me and Kwasney. It's funny because everyone gets her name mixed up. Some of the best ones that I have heard are Sister Kwanzaa, Kwanzi, or Kwase. I get a hoot out of it!

Friday, January 8, 2016

1.04.2016

Winter is Here

Happy New Year everyone! This week has been really weird and crazy, and I can't believe it's already Monday again.

Tuesday were transfers, and all the trainers got a call Monday night saying that 12 / 13 new missionaries got stuck in Detroit because of a blizzard, so we were most likely going to be companionless until Thursday. We weren't really sure what we were going to do, but Tuesday morning they sent out new logistics where everyone was paired together with another trainer for Wednesday. Everyone but me because I was the lucky one who got her new missionary. Sister Kwasney is from Canada and served a transfer in Canada while she waited for her visa. Because she didn't fly through Michigan she was able to get here no problem on Tuesday. She is awesome and loves to laugh and have a good time. She also likes sports and is not one of those totally emotional girls, which I am so relieved about because I am not sure what I would do if I got a companion like that.

Because only one greenie was here on Tuesday the training meeting got pushed to Thursday. Our day was spent in Green Tree, being trained on how to be a good trainer. That really helped me get somewhat of an idea of how to do things. It was also nice to catch up with a couple of missionaries since we no longer have transfer meetings where you can talk to each other. Once we got home for the meetings we had to be in by 5:30 because it was New Years Eve. For the next four hours we were told to deep clean our apartments and then send in pictures to the mission office. Our apartment is tiny, like two mini rooms and was pretty clean, but we really used the time to get the nitty gritty stuff like cleaning the walls and ceiling fans. It felt so good! We didn't stay up for the new year, weird, but I did wake up from everyone banging pots and pans outside. So, I can say that I was up at midnight and stilled obeyed mission rules!

Our investigator pool has been depleted, so now we have moved onto the finding part of being a missionary. We were able to hand out four Book of Mormons to people on the street, and have gained a solid potential. Sadly, no new investigators yet, but they will come eventually as long as we work hard, are persistent on opportunities, and have the faith to find who Heavenly Father wants us to find. That's one thing that I learned recently. In Preach My Gospel there are a bunch of different suggestions on how to find people to teach. All of them are there to teach us how to better our faith in finding people and relying on the Lord to put people in our path. As we have the faith, we will find.

This past year I succeeded at not eating candy. January 1 rolled around and I ate a solid meal only for dinner. The rest of the day I spent shoving my face full of every candy I could get my hands on. The whole day I felt sick to my stomach and was pretty sure I was going to vomit and any minute, but thankfully I didn't. Good thing I am doing no candy again for 2016 because I still feel a little nasty from eating all that sugar.

I also got the wonderful opportunity to eat / drink a shrimp slushi that the elders in our ward made. A few weeks ago I lost the game "What are the Odds" and had to drink one. Well, the day finally came this week and let me tell you, it was so bad I couldn't even swallow. I was gagging the entire time and it was horrendous! The chunks of shrimp, that they did not shell, was probably the worst part because the texture was like vomit. It was bad, but you can't back down from a challenge!

E got the Aaronic priesthood today at church and bore his testimony. I felt so much like a proud parent watching their kid win an award. It was great! Their family is doing so well, and they continue to get better and better every single day. We are also going to start teaching Z, S's friend! She needs a little guidance and direction in her life, so hopefully we will be able to help her with that!

It started snowing last night, and now the ground is covered in that wretched white stuff. I'm not sure how I am going to survive the winter because from what I hear, Pennsylvania winters are brutal.

Sister Morrison

Birch and I at the Cathedral of Learning. That place is legit! We went with a bunch of missionaries and rode the elevator to the 36th floor and then ran down all the stairs.