Sister Morrison takes on the Steel City: 1.30.2017

Haircuts, butt cheeks, and so many changes!!!

Holy cow, this week we got some pretty big changes that not only affect us, but missionaries worldwide. The first hour and fourth-five minutes of the broadcast were wonderful. We learned how we can become better teachers, and missionaries in general. But then, during the last fifteen minutes they threw lots of stuff at us that made all our heads want to explode! It was crazy, and although I've got to change from what I've done for 17 months, I know it was inspired. The spirit was too strong to deny it. There were significant changes regarding our key indicators and scheduling.

Key Indicators: we used to have nine things that we reported each week. Now there are only four: people baptized and confirmed, investigators at sacrament meeting, investigators with a baptismal date, and new investigators.

I am super pumped about this! No longer will we feel crappy about ourselves because the number of lessons we taught during the week were low. We are also given more trust on how we spend our time. They want results, and we are given full reigns on how to accomplish it. I think the best part of this is that we can now really help establish the ward in whatever way the ward would like to use us. It will be more up the ward mission plan to prioritize our efforts.

Scheduling: We have been given a half hour longer to get ready in the morning, nightly planning has been moved to the morning before studies, lunch was cut to a half hour, companionship study can be a half hour to an hour, and we are given another half hour in the evening to do whatever we want (so people can get more sleep if needed). In addition, based on what your mission president feels appropriate he can adjust the time you wake up or go in for the day depending on the culture of where you serve. Oh and I forgot to add, Pday got extended by two hours!

I love planning in the morning, it's great because you don't feel bad calling people late at night anymore. Plus, if things fall through you can change them before you start studying for things. I love it!
The half hour lunch is a bit of a struggle for me. I feel like we eat, and then are out and about again with no time to rest. It's ok though, I'll get over it.
The extra half hour in the morning and night are great, but I don't know what to do! I'm so used to getting ready by 8:00am, that the next half hour I usually just sit around twirling my thumbs. I'm sure over time I'll slow down a bit. Or actually try to look presentable. Nahhh, the days of doing my hair are longggg gone! But, now I'll probably be getting another half hour of sleep which is cool.
I'm super pumped for two more hours to do whatever on Pday! So family, get ready to email me at 5am now ;) Just kidding, I'm not mean enough to make you do that.

Sister Piña needed a haircuts pretty bad, but didn't want to pay for one, so she recruited Elder Robertson and I to cut it. I have no idea why she would think that was a good idea considering neither of us have cut girls hair. After about a half hour of doing our best and snipping everywhere it looked awful. Ok, well the front was really bad, the back was not too bad. We tried to tell her that she needed a professional but she refused, and ended up using clippers to fix the front of her hair. Let's just say Sister Piña and I are extreme opposites because I happily paid $20 to have a legit person cut my hair, and have some peace knowing it will turn out well.

We also had a dinner with one of my favorite families here, the J's. They had one of their friends over, and somehow movies got brought up which lead to Sister Jordan saying how one actor was gorgeous. S, her friend, then chimes in saying that Mr. Clean on the new commercial is soooo hot! We all started laughing because he's a cartoon, but she insisted that we pull up the commercial because his butt is so attractive. Next thing I know, she has a cell phone right in front of our noses and we are watching a bald cartoon flex his butt cheeks which cleaning. Sally kept repeating how attractive he was, and all we could do was laugh. Who knew a cleaning commercial could be a highlight of my week?

G and W got back Monday, and we were able to meet with them. Thankfully there are no hard feelings, and we were able to see where they stood. From this point we decided it would be best to start from the beginning and reteach the lessons. G isn't ready for baptism, and we don't want to push it too much. He does want to do an extensive study of the Book of Mormon which is great, but it also sounds like he doesn't realize that no matter how well you study it the first time, you will never learn it all at once. Hopefully he will see that learning the gospel is a lifelong pursuit, and not just a one and done type of thing.

Both Sister Piña and I spoke in sacrament meeting last week (I spoke two weeks ago, and she spoke last week), because a speaker got sick and so we filled in. It was good though because I just shared the most valuable lesson that I've learned on my mission: the enabling power of the atonement is real! Holy cow, it works cause if it didn't, then I would've been home about fifteen months ago. I am so grateful that we are strengthened and supported when we reach out for help from Christ. He really is the best.

These past two months in Berwick have been pretty tough. We've been struggling to find people to teach, numbers are always low, and after a while it just wears on your spirits. Last night was a total answer to prayers. We were having a dinner with a family for the first time and they were wonderful. As we wrapped up our spiritual thought the dad told us "God loves you. You are in the right place, doing the right things, and angels are surrounding you. Thank you so much for the work you are doing." It was such a little thing, but it meant the world for me to hear. I have really been struggling to know why I was doubled into Berwick with Sister Piña because on most days we get as much success as we would if we were inside all day. I still have no idea why I am here, but Brother Chartrand's comment gave me the encouraging boost that I needed to keep chugging along.

Sister Morrison