8.15.2016

One Year! 🎉🎂😳

Attention all human beings how are reading this email: Sister Maya and

I hit our year mark on Friday and it was awesome!! Why? Because we got

to spend the day at a combined zone training so not only did I get

some good training, but I also got to see all of my old companions!

(minus Sister Durfee 😥) It was great to see each one, because they

are the best missionaries around, and all we did was laugh and have a

good time when we saw each other. The training was also really good!

Recently we've taken a mission survey to see how our obedience on

certain things are going. Most people hate all those numbers, but I

was eating it up! Now I know even more clearly what I can work on :)

We sang a medley of As Sisters in Zion and We'll Bring he World His

Truth. I may not be the next American Idol, but I do love to sing, and

that song just brings the spirit like no other.

Slowly but surely I am getting to know more of the members here. When

I went to Lock Haven I had no problem remembering who people were, but

here I ask people their name and five minutes later I've already

forgotten that and what they look like. Hopefully I will be able to

catch on soon because if not I'm going to start driving people nuts!

The people who I do remember though are awesome! Most are convert's

with amazing conversion stories. That's nice because they typically

appreciate missionaries more.

Well, the spirit of Elijah has finally caught up to me. Each week we

get a set amount of time to do family history, but I never used the

time. But, since our building has a family history center I was able

to learn how to index and its a lot of fun! I really enjoy doing the

draft papers because it give detailed information about what the

people looked like and I just imagine short chubby people, or super

tall dudes. It's the closest thing to a computer game that a

missionary gets, but it is sure helping people find their ancestors so

I enjoy that time each week.

Since my first transfer out I have not gotten a media referral of any

sort, until these past two weeks. We have been asking everyone we meet

for a referral but no one has been biting, when out of the blue we got

four referrals sent to us! Two of them were media referrals which are

like candy to missionaries! Although none have made too much progress

now I am so grateful for those Mormon ads, and for other missionaries

who send us people.

Sister Maya and I were able to meet N, a less active, for the

first time this week. She is so awesome and has been a member for

about five years. Although she isn't super active she still has an

awesome testimony of the gospel. We gave her a temple open house

invitation and told her that our goal for her was the temple. She was

super excited and motivated to start changing. We are excited for her!

We taught D the law of tithing this past week and he received it

super well. He understood how he will be blessed, and even if he

doesn't get too much fun money to spend during each month, he knew

that paying his tithing was more important. I was so grateful that he

accepted it. I love tithing so much and it makes so much sense, but to

so many people, they don't see how it can benefit them and is too big

of a sacrifice. Sometimes I wish I could hack into people's bank

accounts and just pay it for them, but that wouldn't do them any good

and I'd just end up in jail. So, needless to say, I was happy when

D was on board.

It's so weird to think I have been out a year and people now look at

me as an "older" missionary. Sometimes I wake up and still feel like I

need to get ready for school or work, but other days I'm super pumped

to go and teach people (usually Tuesday's cause that day is stacked

with lessons haha). But, besides the fact that I feel like a normal

human, I know I am not. I only have 18 months to be a missionary, so I

better live it up while I can! Thankfully, I've come to love PA and

all its quirks, so that shouldn't be a problem!

Sister Morrison

Burning a skirt on our one year mark!

Flashback to a year ago when my group arrived in

Pennsylvania!

Sister Thompson and I with our matching

Walmart purses, and the yellow watermelon she gave

me. It was the coolest thing ever!

Cool picture of the Sh that toured the

Philadelphia temple.

8.08.2016

The inception of Brooke: Brooke in Brookville

Well, I'm officially in Brookville now! Some missionaries get the cool

picture of themselves by a street sign of their name, but heck, I've

got a town named after me! Not too many people can say they are so

famous that a place is named after them. I guess I'm just super cool

or something ;) one cool thing about my area is that we cover

Punxsutawney: home of Punxsutawney Phil, the Ground Hog Day celebrity!

Sadly, I don't think I'll be here to celebrate that glorious day when

February rolls around, but the town is really cool. They have

groundhog statues everywhere! It makes me laugh a lot, but at least

they've got something to brag about!

I've also upgraded from a branch to a small Ward, and I seriously

wanted to throw a party when I walked in the chapel and saw actual

pews versus folding chairs. Who would've thought that would make me

that happy? There are also a bunch of less actives that we get to work

with which is exciting. I haven't worked with legit less actives in a

while, so it should be fun.

My companion is Sister Maya, from Phoenix, Arizona. She seriously is

amazing. She is a convert of about two years now, and her family

doesn't really support her decision to go on a mission. In fact, she

had to sell everything she owned so she could afford to be here. She

literally has nothing back at home. Crazy! She loves it though, and I

admire her faith to leave everything behind to serve the Lord. She

loves her mission a bunch, and works hard each day. I admire her a

lot.

We were able to meet with an investigator named D who has the

cutest little kids. As we taught her the Plan of salvation she loved

it, and at the end of the lesson we committed her to be baptized and

she said yes! That was exciting, and our next challenge is getting her

to church. I think it's so funny how people are so willing to get

baptized into a church they have never been to. For Pete's sake, we

would be funky vu doo Satan worshippers and they would have no idea!

Good think we aren't though :)

We have another investigator with a baptismal date named D. His

family is learning from the missionaries in a different area and that

is how we found him. He's awesome, but I don't know him too well yet. 

So I have to give a shout out to N, V, and L from

Franklin, PA. I didn't know them until Monday but they are the

kindest, nicest, most awesome people ever! They knew Sister Thompson

and wanted to spend the day with her, so they drove out to us, then

took us to Knoebles where we also met up with Sister Birch and Farnes.

Not many people would drive across the state to spend a few hours with

someone, so it meant a lot to us. They rock and made our Pday Rock as

well!

Sister Morrison

Some sketchy rusted, shaky stairs we climbed up. After a certain point

I couldn't go higher so I made sister Maya go and knock on the door.

Transfer Day!

Pday gang minus L!

Me and Birch! Don't mind the wet hair, we just got

off a water ride.

8.03.2016

LET's SEND BROOKE SOME STUFF!!!!! (She may only be at this address for the next couple of weeks)

Ok, so I partially lied about my address, I forgot to put which part of

the house I live in. So here is my legit address:

91 1/2 Euclid Ave. Apt. B

Brookville, PA 15825

  

Also, mom (or anyone else), if you could please send me some recipes that would be

great! Love you ❤️

Sister Morrison

PS, don't worry I'm not breaking the rules, we were told to send you

our address once we figured it out 😀🐄😂😘🤑😎🤓🙃👭👗🐱🐈🌭

8.01.2016

Cows, baptism, and hypnotizing

Well, my time here in Lock Haven will be ending tomorrow, I'm getting

transferred to Brookville. I'm sad to leave and a little surprised

because I wasn't sick of Sister Thompson yet. Usually you know you are

getting transferred because you love your companion to death, but you

need time away to appreciate each other. Luckily, I got to end the

transfer with a bang and had a good week!

Ju got baptized! It was great, and probably the smoothest baptism

yet. Her family came and there was a great turnout. Sister M

gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost. Overall, it was a happy moment

for us all.

We went and helped S milk the cows again! Well, more like his

daughter D. It was so much fun! Before you put the milking

machines on them you have to do a few little steps, one including hand

milking them to get them to start releasing milk. Well, sometimes you

don't have good aim and end up spraying yourself, and sometimes you

get a good aim and can get your companion pretty good. Not that I did

that or anything ;) To put the machines on you have to get your whole

body up right behind the cow, and the whole time I was terrified that

it was going to kick me in the face. Thankfully the worst thing that

happened was that I got sprayed a little with pee. I had it much

better than Sister Thompson though, she got pooped on!

Last night, as part of a goodbye from R, she hypnotized me!

Everyone could not stop laughing at me, and once I figured out what I

did I couldn't stop laughing either. She showed me how to hypnotize

other people, so I'll have to do it to you all when I get home :)

Sister Morrison

Moomon milkers!

Ju's Baptism!

'

Got my goodbye poster from W!

Here is a field of sunflowers by our house

so we got a picture.

Staying goodbye to the S's, the senior couple in

Williamsport. I feel like a giant next to them.

7.25.2016

Cows, and the temple!

This week was a hot rough one. We taught a total of four lessons, our

new investigators from last week are far from interested, and our

finding efforts felt a bit wasted. But, despite all the you stuff, we

had some good laughs and a Sunday that we will never forget! 

Ju is full speed ahead for her baptism this upcoming Friday! She has

quit smoking and finished her lessons. All she has left is her

baptismal interview. She is so excited, and so are we! I've never seen

someone so willing to accept the gospel, or willing to make changes in

her life so fast. I feel blessed to help her, and feel super lucky

because it's not every day that you have someone say they want

baptized (yes, I know I have bad grammar; it's the way people talk out

here) after attending another baptismal service.

Lessons with D are not the traditional lessons. Thankfully another

elder got permission to Skype in and translate for us. It seems fairly

normal, except for the part when D changes the subject almost every

five minutes. This past week his big exciting news for us was that he

lifted some weights at the YMCA. Although it is a bit frustrating

sometimes, he does need a friend so I am happy to be one. 

I was once again reminded of my hate for the rain. Last Monday we were

walking to a lesson when it started raining harder than I've ever

seen. In about thirty seconds I was soaked! We ran as fast as we could

to get to our lesson, and once we finally made it they stood inside

and stared at us outside their door in the pouring rain. That was a

bummer, and not quite what I was expecting!

We also learned how to milk cows! It was smelly and cow poop was

everywhere but it was so much fun! I think I heard the word tit about

fifty times, and saw a cow who just had a baby. Her boob, milk holding

thing, was so big, I'm pretty sure Sister Thompson could fit inside of

it! I am so excited for next week when we get to try it all ourselves! 

 Alright, the most glorious thing happened in Philadelphia yesterday,

and we were there to witness it. I'm not talking about the preparation

for the Democratic National Convention occurring today, although that

did cause the traffic to get about twice as bad. We got to go to the

first tour of the temple reserved for missionaries and nonmembers that

they brought! Thanks to Sister N we were able to get down there and

have two nonmembers with us. We picked up D, her nephew that got

baptized in November, and his housemate D, as well as her Aunt

J. It was a long day in the car, but totally worth it! 

The temple is right in the middle of the city, and is beautiful! The

exterior and interior are decorated to look a bit like the

revolutionary times, and there were so many gorgeous painting and

murals including one when you first walk in of the signers of the

Declaration of Independence. You could feel the spirit from the moment

you stepped out of your car, and it felt so good to be in the House of

the Lord. It had been almost a year for me! Even with the spirit and

the reverent attitude of everyone, of course there had to be some

funny moments. D, one of the nonmembers, is hilarious! When they

talked about the two mirrors that showed yourself for eternity he

stood up, looked at himself and waved. He thought it was so cool!

Later, we were walking down a hallways and passed a drinking fountain.

He took a sip, and with a big grin on his face said "I just drank some

holy water!" I couldn't help but chuckle a little when I heard that

one.

On the way back it was getting late, and Sister N who was driving

was getting a little tired. We couldn't help drive because of mission

rules, so I ended up singing hymns to her to help her stay awake. I'm

sure all of your are dying laughing because we all know I cannot sign,

but it worked and she stayed awake. Probably because her ears were

hurting too bad to get comfortable enough to sleep haha.

Sister Morrison

We tried to find the PA Grand Canyon on Monday but t

his was all we could find. It was still pretty though!

 

We had interviews with President this past week.

Celebrating sister M's birthday at the ice shack.

We took a picture of our skype lesson. It

cracks me up because Sister Thompson looks like

Mike from Monsters Inc. haha

Sorry, we don't have pictures of our whole group and the temple,

hopefully next week we can send some!

But enjoy our picture by Jesus :)

7.18.2016

Cows and temple invitations

Apparently a new app has come out that has people roaming the streets

all the time. Pokemon Gó has been the latest craze, and as

missionaries we love it! So many more people are out which makes

street contacting a lot easier. We were able to figure out some local

hubs where people cluster together so we know where to catch these

video game addicts :)

Over the past few weeks we have handed out about 150 temple open house

invitations to people as we try to find people to teach, and sadly we

haven't seen much success. Until this past week! We were able to teach

a ton of lessons on the street, and get a few new investigators! So

far our return appointments have fallen through, but it's giving us

some hope because we are starting to perk people's interest about our

church.

We also taught Ju about the temple using the new Temples and

Families pamphlet. That thing makes teaching so much easier and has

lots of cool temple pictures in it. Ju was really excited and loved

learning about the temple. We got her really excited to go to the

Palmyra temple, sacred grove, and Priesthood Restoration cite in the

beginning of August. Although we won't be able to go with her, we are

really hoping that we can get Sister M, M, and G to all

go with her so it can be one big happy family day at the temple!

Little did we know, at the food bank some of the other volunteers

thought we were Mennonites. I thought it was a little funny, yet at

the same time it was a little bit of a blow to my self esteem. I

thought I was doing good at not looking frumpy but I guess I was

wrong. Why else would they mistake us for girls that wear skirts to

their ankles and have their hair in a bun covered by a mini cloth?

We also got a cool tour of a dairy farm this past week! Ja,

another food bank volunteer, lives across from the Lutheran church and

she told us to come look at some puppies that were born. We went over

to check them out and also got to see three different calves all born

that day. We stuck our finger in one of their mouths and it felt so

weird!! It was like an oversized slobbery, toothless human was sucking

on your finger with a super rough tongue. It was quite the experience!

And a bonus is that we set up service to go milk some cows next week!

We went on two different exchanges with our new areas, and they seem

to be a lot like Lock Haven. When I spent the day in Ridgeway all we

did was tract, and let's just say the time went slower that molasses.

I am not a tracting missionary but I had to put a smile on my face and

pretend I did! Basically the main takeaway I had from the two

exchanges was that I need to get over myself. Who cares that I'm in a

hard area, so are other people. And I am so lucky that I have a

companion that dislikes tracting as much as I do because I don't have

to do it everyday.

Sister Morrison

Inviting Pokemon players to the Philadelphia temple open house!

Guess why I'm in the middle of a corn field...

I had to pee and there was no bathroom around.

Funny thing, I had to duck down and hide from an Amish

buggie as it rode past haha

Post potty selfie ;)

What's a trip to a dairy farm without stepping

in a fresh cow pie?

Newborn calf sucking on my thumb!

7.11.2016

Hot hot hot!

Apparently we broke a record this past week for some type of heat +

humidity scale, and on top of that we've spent lots of time walking

around trying to find people to teach, so you can only imagine what

type of week it was for us.

Thankfully, we had a dinner scheduled last Monday, so our Fourth of

July wasn't a total bust. Since you can buy fireworks here we had a

little driveway show. It was raining the whole time, but thankfully

that didn't stop the party! There are a bunch of little carnivals and

block parties around here, and one of them happened to be right by our

house. On Saturday night we got to sit outside with Sister N and

watch some real fireworks before we hit the hay. I'm glad I got to see

some fireworks because I thought I might be jipped this year.

We had zone training this past week, and it went great. Usually role

plays are involved, and to be honest, I can never take them 100

percent serious when we practice with other missionaries because you

know it's fake. Well, this time the zone leaders surprised us all and

had members, less actives, and investigators waiting to role play with

us. I felt like I was in the MTC again getting ready to go in blind to

a TRC lesson. We ended up getting a legit investigator which was a

little nerve racking, but it went fine. I thought it was cool that

they put so much effort into our training. Plus, I got to see Sister

Birch! Sadly, because of the mission boundary change we no longer go

on exchanges with her area, but at least I get to see her at some

meetings now!

We had a lesson about tithing with Ju, and it went awesome! Tithing

was something she straight up told us she didn't really believe in

when we first met with her, so we were a little weary to teach it. As

we talked about it for a little she completely accepted it without any

reservation! That was such a relief! She is getting super excited for

her baptism which makes me happy to see. Yesterday the M's were

sick, so they didn't come to church, but Ju came all by herself!

That was even more of a witness to me that she really wants to be

baptized because she came to church alone without her family.

HAGS,

Sister Morrison

Williamsport Zone

Susquehanna River

Happy 4th of July!

Sadly, we have no 7-11 around here to get a free slurpee, so we

settled for a Sheetz slushi.

7.04.2016

Hot dogs and scabies

Happy Fourth of July! Today is going to be a little rough because for

the first time I am living in a state that allows you to buy fireworks

and light them yourself. The sad part is mission rules prohibit it, so

no fireworks for me! I was really bummed that I wouldn't be able to

watch the hot dog eating contest this year, so I decided to bring the

hot dog eating to me! After district meeting we recruited other

missionaries, and in a matter of ten minutes I ate six hot dogs. It

was so gross, but totally worth it haha!

The programmed piano that our branch uses to sing at church didn't

have any recorded patriotic songs in it, so last week I was asked to

actually play the piano instead of push a button. It was a perfect

excuse for me to be able to practice the piano a bit this week, and it

was so great! I've really missed sitting down and playing the piano

for semi leisure. Thankfully, I also didn't make a complete fool of

myself during church haha.

This past week we went to Ju's to teach her a lesson and within a

matter of minutes she told us she is ready to be baptized!!! We are so

excited for her, and she is now planning on being baptized on July 29,

a perfect way to end a transfer. We were super surprised because just

last week she told us that she would tell us when she would be ready

at the end of July, but she said she was thinking about it and it just

felt right. We are so excited!

We met D this past week with Brother R, and it was so good to

see members already reaching out to help him. What made our lesson

even better was that Brother R's colleges' daughter knows a

little sign language so she came along to help us. She isn't a member,

but she has so much charity that I'm not surprised if she gets

baptized soon ;) Later that night Brother R sent us a text about

how S called her mom crying "good" tears after our lesson because

she could see the love that our church has for each other, and because

she got to act as the hands of God as she signed for us. Talk about a

cool story!

We did an exchange with the sisters in our district this past week.

They also serve in a small branch so it's nice to know we have other

people who know what we are going through. For some reason the sister

that I was on exchange with and I didn't start off on the right foot.

I don't know why but you could just sense a little hostility whenever

we got put together for role plays and stuff. The cool thing was we

were totally able to knock down the awkward barrier and become really

good friends! I am so grateful for that because no one likes knowing

that you have a riff with someone.

We ended our past two weeks with one word: scabies. I seriously don't

know how Pennsylvania has so many bugs that like to burrow in your

skin, but due to exchanges, Sister Thompson and I got some bugs.

Thankfully I only got one or two bites, but I feel so bad for Sister

Thompson because she got a lot more than I did. On Sunday we were told

to go to Walmart to buy the cream that kills the bugs, and let me tell

you how weird that was. Obviously, we teach people all the time that

we should not shop on Sunday so Sister Johnson told us to take our

name tags off so we wouldn't portray two disobedient Mormons. Spending

two hours in a Walmart without name tags on a Sunday is probably

something most missionaries will never do, but now I can happily say

that we are bug free again!

Sister Morrison

The studious, boring, serious leaders here in the PPM

J has this ceramic horse outside his door, and since he

wasn't home when we went for our lesson I decided to capitalize

on the opportunity!

Before we started eating hot dogs!

The champions!