Sister Morrow Gathers Much Moss

"All I want for Christmas is youuuuuu to get baptized" -Mariah Carey

Hello everyone!! 

I think I've been exposed to the Florida humidity for too long because the moss really got to me this week ha-ha. 

Tuesday we drove up to Jacksonville and dropped sister Sheffield off at the mission home! She finished her 18months and headed home to her family! We were sad to see her go but it was good! The apartment feels a little empty with just two of us here ha-ha! 

We had a memorial service for Sister Sheffield this week. She was such an amazing missionary and we are going to miss her a lot in our district! 

We are having a special program for church next week since it's Christmas, and we got volunteered to sing with the young women! On Wednesday we went over to one of the leaders house to practice the song and then we went and handed out candy canes downtown with them. It was super fun! When we were going to the leaders house to practice we pulled up and knocked on the door and this guy answered and I didn't recognize him so we started talking to him like we were supposed to be there and he seemed really confused. It turns out we were at the wrong house.... whoops!! I had put the address wrong in the GPS and the house we were supposed to be at was actually a few streets down.... dang moss! 

We got a referral this week from the elders. On the notes in area book it said "Brittany was nice but seemed more interested in Elder McConkie than the lesson. Maybe y'all will have more luck" We went by to try and see her but she wasn't home so we decided to leave a note for her on the door. Sister Tryon wrote it in her best elder handwriting hoping that would make her more likely to call us back hahahaha sneaky missionary work 

Friday we had another amazing lesson with Bongani!!! We taught him the Plan of Salvation again and he said that he knew it was true. He told us that he had been praying a few days ago about if this was true and he said that he felt something in his heart "like a tiny bit of hope or something" and that he knew it was true! It was such a miracle! When we were walking home from his lesson it was dark and I was tired so I was just walking with my head down trying to not fall asleep and I walked right into some low hanging branches on the sidewalk and my hair got all tangled in the branches. I was seriously stuck and Sister Tryon had to help me get loose from the tree...it took some great effort and I wasn't sure I was going to make it out but we got it figured out ha-ha.

This week we discovered they have wifi at sonic. Life changing. Now we can do area book work while eating mozzarella sticks and I've never been happier! 

Saturday we were out with a member for most of the day. We had taught a few lessons and then we had her drop us off so we could do some tracting. The whole time we were with the member I was in the front seat trying to look at our area book on one iPad, while looking at the GPS on the other iPad, and I was texting back members/investigators all at the same time. I was kind of scatter brained (moss brained) and as we were getting out of the car I somehow managed to forget the phone. Sister F always got after me for forgetting the phone places but I guess I never learned. We got out but didn't realize we didn't have the phone for about an hour. Once we realized it was chaos. Ha-ha being a missionary and not having a phone or a car is really stressful!  We didn't have a ride for church the next day and we didn't know how to call the member to get our phone back or to check if she even had it! We got it back from her at church the next day and it was such a relief. I'm thankful for technology 

 

southern comfort eggnog and I’m so flipping excited hahahaha

Sunday night we were at a member’s house eating dinner. We were sitting waiting to eat when I noticed my legs were super itchy. I'm used to having mosquito bites so I figured it was just that but then they were REALLY itchy and I noticed all this little spots all over my legs and I was kind of worried so I called the mission nurse and she told me it sounded like I had chigger bites. Which are the worst. She sent me home for the night and made me take some Benadryl and put a cold compress on it. I wrote most of this email after taking the Benadryl last night and I had to basically rewrite it this morning. Moss+medication is not a good mix hahahaha 

I got an awesome care package from home this week and felt very inspired by this sloth book hahaha 

I found this quote this week that I really loved, it says 

"When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. We should put God ahead of everyone else in our lives." 

As a missionary it's easy to get hung up on things and get frustrated when things don't work out. I'm learning to put God first in everything and just have faith that it will all work out in the end. I'm so thankful for the opportunity that I have to serve and all the life lessons I'm learning! I LOVE TOUGH THINGS!! 

Talk to you in 6 days fam <33

I love y'all! Have a blessed week and a merry Christmas!!!

xoxo

Sister Morrow

(this whole email is my moss moment for the week hahaha)

Adjusting to Car Share Life

We were all bundled up after our dinner appointment ready to walk home and the members thought it was hilarious...IT WAS SO COLD THOUGH! The member was awesome and gave us a ride home though ha-ha 

Hello everyone! 

This was a long, awesome, exhausting week ha-ha 

Tuesday we had trade offs with our Sister Training Leaders and I got to stay in St. Augustine with Sister Caton and my two companions went up to St. John's with Sister Colson. I was super excited because Sister Caton is from Albuquerque NM!!! We talked all day about tumbleweeds, turquoise, and skin walkers and it was awesome! That night we had our ward Relief Society Social and the theme was Christmas around the world. Our relief society president somehow convinced us to help her with her table and had us dress up as Dutch people. I felt very connected to my heritage ha-ha! The costumes were pretty great and it was fun to spend some time with our ward members!! They are seriously the best 

 

Our relief society prez served her mission in Holland so she had us all decked out ha-ha the wooden shoes were the best 

Tuesday we also found out that we were being put into a car share with the sisters in the other ward in St. Augustine...which means that instead of having our own car like we used to we share with them and have the car about 3 1/2 days a week. The rest of the days we are either biking or walking. This isn't that bad (I was anticipating this on my mission) except in St. Augustine they don't believe in side walks or street lights...and all of the roads are super narrow and go off into retention ditches on the sides...so there's no room for us to safely bike...which means a LOT of walking for us. We've been carless since Thursday and we averaged walking about 7-10miles everyday. It's been hard adjusting to that but it's still fun! We get to talk to people that are out walking and we spend a lot of time talking and singing Christmas songs so it makes the time go by fast! When you first become a missionary there's this little booklet that you have to read everyday called "adjusting to missionary life". It teaches you how to deal with homesickness, loneliness, stress etc. So we've been joking that we are in the adjusting to car share life phase of our missions’ ha-ha! But it's okay we love though things!!  

 

We were trackting on our trade off and I was like "Oh my gosh...Sister Caton.... there’s a kokopeli!!!!" We freaked out because that's basically the symbol for New Mexico lol so of course we had to knock that house. We walked up to the door and they had a wreath with dried green chilies on them. So basically 100% they are from NM. No one answered so we will have to try again sometime ha-ha 

Thursday we had our mission Christmas party and it was so fun!!! I got to see all my friends and we all did funny skits and ate food and had a devotional and it was just a great time. All the zones were supposed to prepare a 10min skit for everyone and for ours we did American Idol style auditions for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. I might be biased but our skit was totally the funniest.

At the Christmas party I got to see sister f and our favorite senior couple the Bookers!!! We stayed with them when we were evacuated to Gainesville for the Hurricane! It was so fun to see everyone 

Saturday night we drove down to Palatka to do caroling as a zone! We weren't really given any background information before hand, just an address and what time we were supposed to be there. We figured we would just stand downtown or something and sing but when we got there we realized we were part of this big production. We were at the state park and they had this pathway with like 8 different groups of carolers spaced out on the path and the people would ride through on these trailers and they would stop and we would sing and then they would keep driving. It was way cool! We were there caroling for like 5 hours and it was really cold outside so we were dead by the end. It was really fun to be all together as a zone though and singing about Christmas and Jesus!! It was awesome 

Wednesday we went and juiced with sister Lusk. She knows my love for fruits and veggies and all things healthy, and knows how rarely we get food like that in the south lol, so she always spoils me. We juiced cucumbers, beats, carrots, pineapple, and kale and she sent me home with a huge mason jar full of juice. On Sunday she came up to me and said "I brought two more jars of juice for you. They're in the kitchen" My heart hurt I was so happy ha-ha! My mom would be so proud 

We had an amazing lesson with Bongani this week!! It's been awhile since we've really been able to work with him so y'all might not remember him but we finally got back into a regular teaching schedule with him and we've seen MIRACLES!! We were teaching him last night and we took the other sisters with us. We were able to all bear our testimonies on the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked a lot about Prophets and Joseph Smith and Bongani said he's been reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it and said it's finally starting to make sense to him and he feels it's true. He is so elect and I get so hyped every time we teach him!! With everything that's been happening the last few weeks I've been really stressing out and frustrated.... but we taught one lesson and it turned everything around! I LOVE THAT ABOUT MISSIONARY WORK! It's so hard but so rewarding!! 

 

I got a package from home this week that had the cutest little tree with ornaments and lights and a little nativity!! It makes my studies way more festive 

Tomorrow we are driving up to Jacksonville to drop off Sister Sheffield at the mission home so she can fly home on Wednesday! I'm sad to see her go but it'll be good too. Its crazy to see someone at the end of her 18months with literally only days left and then compare it to me out barely 4 months. It makes you realize how fast it goes by!! Mission time is weird where days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days but I'm trying to appreciate it all ha-ha 

We made cake with a lady in our ward for service and we had homemade whip cream with it. yummy!!!!!

I hope y'all have taken the opportunity to watch the #LIGHTtheWORLD video. If not go watch it!!! We share it with people at least 5 times a day and I love it every single time. I love the opportunity I have to serve my Savior and strive to be more like him! I hope we can all work on that this Christmas season 

I love y'all so much!!! Have a blessed week!

xoxo 

Sister Morrow 

-Weekly Moss Moment 

The moss didn't get me this week until Sunday night. I was so close to making it a whole week moss free. While we were teaching Bongani we were at a really serious part of the lesson and I was in the middle of sharing my testimony when all of a sudden I heard this really loud scary sound (if you know me at all you know I jump at any loud ish sound ha-ha). So I jumped and was like "Ah!!! What was that?!" ... it turns out it was just one of those automatic air fresheners that sprays like every 20min or whatever ha-ha super scary. Sometimes missionaries lose it during lessons. Almost always it has to do with the dang moss!! 

Selfies with Sister F and our mission president’s wife Sister Lee! She's the sweetest lady and I love her SO MUCH!

Riding with some missionaries into the park for caroling. We were the last group so we had to ride pretty far into the park. It looked like we were in real world jurassic park

My fav organization

High quality pics of our zone caroling. We don't have flash on our iPads so an elder took this picture holding up a flashlight next to his iPad hahaha

3's Company

This day we were out walking the streets of SA and knocking some doors. We walked past this one house and a little yappy dog came running up to the fence and was barking super loud. Sister Sheffield like screamed, ran away, and pushed me into the direction of the dog haha not cool man! We got a good laugh out of the whole situation 

Hello everyone!! 

This was a super strange and crazy week! 

Wednesday we dropped Sister F off at the church in Jacksonville and I got my new companion Sister Sheffield! She's from Pennsylvania, went to BYU before her mission, and is going home this transfer. We get along great and I love her already! 

Thursday was the worldwide day of service to kick off the church's Christmas initiative! We went as a district to help out one of our ward members. He lives way out in the woods and for our service we helped him put mulch on his extremely long drive way. The mulch was in these huge piles so we had to move it around a lot and spread it out and we were all super tired and dirty by the end. We saw more poisonous spiders so it was a typical day of service. By the end we were exhausted but it was so fun to work with all the missionaries and help someone that really needed it!  After we finished with the service we went with the other sisters to a deaf lesson. We just sat in and I barely understood any of it but it was so fun!! I got to sign the opening prayer, which was awesome! 

We went caroling as a district before we all got split up! It was super fun but it was like 80 degrees outside so it didn't feel very Christmassy 

The most exciting thing that happened this week was John Bytheway coming and doing a devotional. He's a Mormon motivational speaker and he is AMAZING!! All the missionaries sang in a choir so we were all able to go and it was just so powerful being surrounded by so many missionaries singing about serving God. The spirit at the Devotional was so strong. He talked all about pressing forward, and what that really means. He said that in life we are either wandering or we are pressing forward and I loved that! I think it's so wonderful to know that we can constantly be growing and trying to be better. Life is crazy and really hard sometimes but when we have a solid foundation in the gospel of Jesus Christ and we are striving to keep the commandments and repent we won't feel lost or out of place. At the devotional I got to see Sister F and it was a sweet reunion. It had only been like 2 days but it was still awesome haha! We were glued together the whole night catching up on our areas and investigators. I miss her a ton but I know she's doing great work up in Normandy. 

SISTER BRIAN!! I love her because she laughs at all my jokes. True friend. She will be missed 

My skirt is wrinkly and my converse are muddy...sorry mom!!! It's the moss 

Another crazy thing that happened this day...as we were driving to the devotional our mission president called and told us that there was a sister that had gone home for health issues that was coming back to the mission and that she would be joining us on Sunday and we would be a trio until Sister Sheffield goes home! This was a big surprise to us but we were really excited!! So yesterday President and Sister Lee drove down from Jacksonville and dropped off our new companion Sister Tyron!! She's super sweet and I totally stalked her blog before the mission so that was funny haha! Being in a trio has been interesting so far but it's also been really fun :) 

Trio life!! Sister Tryon, Sister Sheffield, and Sister (To)Morrow 

If y'all haven't had the chance yet to see the Light the World campaign you really need to check it out. There's a small act of service that we can do every day leading up to Christmas! As I've been thinking about service and Christmas and all that good stuff I came across this scripture in my studies 

Mosiah 2:17 

And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

Amen. So true. 

I love being a missionary and serving those around me! I know as we take the time to help lift and strengthen others this Christmas season we will see that bond grow so much with our Heavenly Father!!! 

I love y'all so much! Have a blessed week <33

xoxo

Sister Morrow

-Weekly Moss Moment 

So rewind to service on Thursday. We had to drive super far so we just rode with the other sisters and brought our pros clothes with us so we could change in the car before the deaf lesson. We finished the service and we were all muddy and gross...and Sister Sheffield and I realized we forgot to bring another pair of shoes with us. We were like 15miles from our apartment so there was no way to go grab shoes...so we went to the lesson with our dirty sneakers on. Super professional haha hopefully this week I will remember my shoes...dang moss!!