4.11.2016

From the land of no cell reception 📡

We had zone training this week, and the stake president came and gave

us a mini pump up about our zone. He told a story about a previous

mission president who had a revelation one night about how there are

5,000 prepared people in the Williamsport stake ready to be baptized.

That was over ten years ago, and since then there have been maybe 400.

He basically said that this is true nowadays more than ever, and that

we just need to find them. That was crazy to hear such a thing, but I

believe it. When I was on the west side of the mission most people

referred to the Williamsport zone as the vortex of no return because

we are so far away from practically everything. Needless to say, I was

terrified to get assigned here, but now that I'm here I am realizing

more and more that this place is the mission's best kept secret! There

is so much work going on, and there is a fire about the members.

I finally attended church, and it's way different from anything I've

ever seen. I counted and there was a total of twenty six people

including Sister Durfee and me. I already have an assignment to speak

in church and got thrown into the usual grew month rotation haha. They

also don't have anyone to play the piano; they have an electronic

piano that can play about half the songs in the hymn book. I played a

little bit of prelude music and even though I was super rusty and

honestly not very good, I was looked at like a superstar. They kept

saying how there's just something different about a live pianist.

Honestly the difference is that the piano doesn't make any mistakes

and I will had my fair share. I never thought I'd need this talent in

the U.S. but I was wrong! Hopefully they don't mind singing the four

hymns I know over and over!

The members here are much different. Honestly, I think they are a

little burned out since the numbers are so small, but they are hard

workers. They really want to see missionary success, and are great at

giving solid referrals to us. They want their branch to grow. That is

a really nice change and a missionary's dream. Their coordination with

us missionaries is a little strange though. From what it sounds like,

in the past the missionaries and the branch were not on the same path,

but they are in the middle of streamlining the efforts to make it more

effective. My last area was great at that kind of thing, so it's weird

to see the contrast.

We had our last week of forums at LHU and they were a huge success. We

decided to just go up to people instead of ask them if they have a

minute (we should already be doing that), and we got to teach so many

lessons and pass out about thirty Book of Mormons, get a ton of

potentials, and six new investigators over the four hours that we were

on campus. It felt great to talk to a bunch of people in that short

amount of time; it's a rare occurrence out here. This upcoming week we

are going to be meeting with a bunch of the students, and I hope we

can teach a few before their semester ends.

The M twins are continuing to do great. Tuesday we taught them

the Word of Wisdom and they had an uproar about not drinking coffee. I

didn't think that would be a problem since they were nine, but boy oh

boy was I wrong! Thankfully when we went back on Friday they were cool

headed and said that they hadn't drank coffee since. They really want

to be baptized.

We had a lesson with R, who watched all four sessions of General

Conference last weekend. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and

she really liked the idea of us all being one big family in Christ. We

invited her to be baptized and she said yes! She understands it's a

big commitment and wants to make sure she is prepared, but that's what

missionaries are for.

So the last story is a bit of an ironic one. Last time I was with

Sister Durfee we got TIWI installed in our cars that tells us if we

ever do anything wrong while driving. Well the TIWI in this car hasn't

been sticking to the windshield, so they tried duct tape. That didn't

even work, so we called our fleet coordinator and he said to unplug it

till he sends out some glue. That means we can speed or not wear out

seatbelt and no one would ever know haha. Don't worry, we are still

driving safe. Sister Durfee and I just think it's funny because of how

much I loved TIWI when we first got it because it made her less of a

crazy driver. TIWI has really conditioned her over the past seven

months so it's not bad without it, thank goodness!

Sister Morrison

Wendy was baptized a little over six months ago and has already read

the Book of Mormon. These are the notes she took! #fatstack

We have district meetings in Williamsport, PA. Home of the Little

League World Championship!

LOOKIN' GOOD SISTER MORRISON!!!!!