Last Week - The Farewell Tour

LOVE Y'ALL



Abby our RC. She's 10 and the sweetest thing ever

OP district



 The Watchmans my favorite people



Orlando Temple



President and Sister Lee







President and Sister Haddock












district milkshake moment 







Sister Spina and Layla




The Eppersons (WML)



our super cute investigator Chris





Our investigator Helen

Serving in the Dagum South

two of my RC drove down from Hillaird to say goodbye to me this week. Malaekai and Maveryk were so fun to teach and I'm going to miss these goofy boys 

WOW...not sure how this is possible but this is my last weekly email. Time has gone by so fast and I've loved my mission so much. Sister Esquerra and I have been working so hard the past few weeks and it has made time go even faster. I love my companion, I love my area, I LOVE being a missionary. 

Not much to report on this week. We did lots of finding and street contacting and we met some really interesting people. I had my final interview with President Lee and he's the sweetest man on the planet. We talked about my mission experience and he gave me some really great life advice.  I'm so thankful I got to serve here with him as my mission President. The Lord knew what I needed! 



our investigator Helen taught us how to make jam this week. It was so fun!! We made orange marmalade and blueberry jam and they were both super super good! our fridge is full of jam from Helen haha 

I'm going the keep this brief since we have a million things to do today to prepare for leaving...but I wanted to thank all of you for sticking with me on this crazy adventures. Honestly y'all are amazing. All the support/words of encouragement/prayers made a HUGE difference. I couldn't have done this without y'all! 





The past few weeks I've been reflecting a lot on my mission and the different experiences I've had. It's amazing to see how much I've learned and grown. My mission has had its ups and downs..but the ups always outweigh the downs. I know this is Heavenly Fathers work. He loves his children and wants all of them to be able to live with him again. Life is so much more fulfilling when we focus on other people and do all we can to help them feel God's love for them. 

I found this quote a few weeks ago that I just loved (I forgot to write down who said it....sorry!)

"Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace. Whoever will lose his live in the service of God will find eternal life."

My mission has changed me forever. Sounds cliche but it's SO true. I gave everything I had to God the last 18 months, and through trials and long sweaty days in florida and crazy awesome miracles he's changed me. God is so good and I'm thankful for the time I've been able to serve.

I love y'all so much! 
See ya in a week <33 

xoxo
Sister Morrow



-Weekly Moss Moment-
One last moss moment. Wow. It's like Heavenly Father knew this would be the last one so he gave me a super mossy week and lots of experiences to choose from. Ask me about the strange man we met with plastic food sometime. That's a good story. 

So last night we were getting ready for bed and when I came out of the bathroom Sister Esuqerra was standing by my door with a shoe in her hand. She informed me that while she was showering a HUGE cockroach ran across her foot and is just chilling in her shower. Bless her soul I would have just died right then and there if that happened to me. She didn't know exactly where it went but the thing was huge so we figured it wouldn't be too hard to find. She had some towels sitting in the edge of her tub and we thought it was hiding somewhere in there. So one by one we threw them inside the tub and then we found it. I'm not exaggerating I swear...the cockroach was the size of like a large mouse. IT WAS HUGE. It skuttled under another rag and was hiding but we could see the big lump where it was. I've killed a few cockroaches over the course of my mission but this was different and I was about to die. We texted SOS to the elders and they called and tried to give us a pep talk. I had the shoe in my hand for probably 10 min trying to get the courage to smoosh the dang thing. I was sweaty and anxious and we were just a mess hahaha! So I perched myself up on the tub and after lots of screams and gagging I go to hit it with the shoe..AND IT MOVED AND I MISSED AND IT SKUTTLED AWAY. I'm serious though yall. This was like the queen cockroach or something it was sooo big. We didn't see where it went and we went into straight panic mode. Nothing bonds a companionship like cockroach hunting. We accepted defeat though and the elders ran over and killed it for us while we waited outside. They rock haha! I've learned that it doesn't matter how clean you keep your apartment there will always be roaches. Bleh! 

1&2 two of my RC drove down from Hillaird to say goodbye to me this week. Malaekai and Maveryk were so fun to teach and I'm going to miss these goofy boys 

3&4&5 our investigator Helen taught us how to make jam this week. It was so fun!! We made orange marmalade and blueberry jam and they were both super super good! our fridge is full of jam from Helen haha 

18 MONTHS

ANOTHER WEEK GONE? man time is flying

This week we had a big focus on finding people to teach. We went out of our way to talk with people and we had some awesome miracles! One day we were out in an area and we tried this former investigator. He works as a youth pastor and wasn't very interested but was still really nice! We asked if he knew anyone in the area that could use a scripture/uplifting message and he pointed us to some people that lived down the street in an apartment complex. We didn't even know it existed so we were super pumped. We went and tried some of the people he said and the first door we knocked on we met this super sweet lady named Amanda! She said she's been interested more in religion lately and she wanted us to bring her a Bible this week! Another cool experience happened later in the week while we were in a different part of our area. No one was really home that we were trying so we were walking around to see if there were people outside we could talk to. We saw this man sitting on his porch so we went and we were able to have a conversation with him about religion. He had a lot of really great questions. We read with him from the Book of Mormon a bit and the spirit was really strong as he was reading scriptures about Christ. We've had a goal to use the Book of Mormon more in our teaching and it's made a HUGE difference!!



nope nope nope


The Elders called us this week to give us a referral from one of their investigators. We stopped by to see her and she's amazing! Her name is Lena and when her friend told her she was meeting with Mormon missionaries she asked if they could come see her too! She's had a lot of recent struggles and wants God in her life more. We talked about the Book of Mormon and read with her and talked about God leading us through prophets. She loved everything and was soaking it up like a sponge. She has 3 sons, is super sweet and open, and is just so prepared for the gospel. We are so so excited about her!! 




working with my buddy porter 

For Valentine's day we spent it with the Eppersons and it was so fun. We went a little early to help Sister Epperson get everything ready and our main job was to make all of the chocolate covered strawberries. We had 3 big cases of strawberries that we dipped and then decorated. She has three young boys that wanted to help and so It was kind of hectic but still good haha! After dinner and strawberries she passed out paper hearts with everyone's names on them and we passed them around and wrote something we love about each person. It was a great way to spend our Valentine's day :))  

The rest of the week was full of contacting and service. It's been warming up and so we've been helping some of our investigators with their yard work. It's been fun but it's also crazy it's already in the 80s everyday and it's only February!! That's Florida for ya haha



Valentine's day with the Eppersons ❤❤

Well next week will be my last group email. I can't believe it. I'm just trying to enjoy every day I have left in Florida because I know these next 2 weeks are going to fly by(or feel like an eternity I'm not sure)

Thank you all so much for your continued support the last 18 months. All the emails, letters, packages, and prayers are much appreciated!! I love y'all so much and I LOVE being a missionary! 

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

xoxo

Sister Morrow

FLORIDA 

-Weekly Moss Moment- 

The star this week is one of my fav people, Porter. He's our WML's 3yr old son and he is hilarious and super wild. I love him so much. So at dinner this week Porter insisted on sitting next to one of the Elders. 2 seconds into dinner he spilled his water all over the place so we got it all cleaned up and then we were good. A solid 10min went by and we were all like "wow porter you are doing so good!!" Not even 2 seconds later he turned to Elder Hibbert and started smaking his arm with his burrito. Chicken, sour cream, and guacamole got all over his white shirt and pants and we were dying. Classic Porter hahaha 

On Sunday his mom was playing the piano for sacrament meeting so we sat by them and Porter sat in between me and Sister Esquerra. I helped him find the right hymn and we drew some pictures together. It was awesome. He had this little blue plane he was playing with and about halfway through the meeting he leaned over my lap and was waving the plane through the air. Then he looked at me and slammed the plane right into my face. Pretty painful but also kind of funny. He kept trying to do it and I said "no Porter please don't do that it hurts" and he said "no I promise it doesn't hurt. See" and then he would aim for my face again...he's so adorable though so I wasnt even mad hahaha

The Pizza Curse

I LOVE FLORIDA

In the last 14 days Sister Esquerra and I have been fed pizza 10 times. 10. Times. I love pizza but wow yeah it's been rough. We decided that it all started when we ate pizza for her 21st birthday and that we somehow messed with the universe and had some freaky Friday weird bday voodoo and so now we have to eat pizza 21 times to break the curse. At the rate we're going we should hopefully be done soon. Pray for us haha 

Pizza curse 

We had a super busy and great week here in OP! 

Tears were shed in walmart last week. I totally would have bought it if I didn't have to fit all my stuff into 2 suitcases in a few weeks

This week we met this super sweet lady named Sister Spina! She just moved here from Italy and she's amazing. We went by to see her and she opened up about some recent trials she's been having. We just listened, offered support, and tried our best to help. We asked her how her Book of Mormon reading was going and she said she doesn't ever read. We offered to Skype with her a few times every week and read all together which she was excited about. Saturday we were driving to an appointment and I just had the thought to send her a scripture. We texted her one of our favorites and she replied saying she read it and all the cross references and that it was exactly what she needed. She came to church with her daughter and we were so so so happy to see her



My life 24/7 🌬😑


We had zone conference this week and it was amazing! It was my last one and I had to give my departing testimony. It was surreal and I still forget sometimes that I only have a few weeks left. Lots of mixed emotions over here. I had to say goodbye to a lot of mission friends that I won't see again before I go home which was sad. I'm so thankful I got to come here and meet so many wonderful people. God is so good. 



Sister Ridenhour <33 

I also got to go on a trade off with one of my favorite humans, Sister Ridenhour. We came out together and served in the same zone in Gainesville and we had so much fun! I went with her to Normandy for the night and it was crazy. We were able to meet a lot of people and just talk with everyone. We were trying to find a LA member and they weren't home. It was pretty dark but we heard some kids playing and people talking outside so we walked down the street to go talk to them. They were outside this trailer and there weren't any street lights so they couldn't see us. We didn't want to look super creepy so we turned our phone flashlight on and yelled out "Excuse me? Hello?" I was like ah man this is awkward...but we ended up meeting the mom and she was so sweet! Her name was Amanda and she said that she had been talking with her husband that day about finding a new church to go to. It was a total miracle!! I've learned that we just have to follow the spirit and talk with everyone we can! We are constantly being led to people that are prepared we just have to be diligent and show our faith(which often times in florida means walking down sketchy dirt road in the dark) 



Sis Harris my MTC comp

Part of me wishes I could stay here forever. I love the people here so much and I love getting to go out everyday and share the gospel. In church yesterday someone said "Jesus has always been good for me." It made me smile and I realized I feel the same way. I'm going to miss the strong faith of the people in the South. They are amazing examples of being open and dedicated to Jesus Christ and I've learned so much from them. I love being a missionary and I know Jesus loves all of y'all!

I love y'all! Have a blessed week!

xoxo

Sister Morrow 

I love Florida so much I never want to leave

-Weekly Moss Moment-

While in Normandy we stopped by to see this random Less Active that they'd never met before. We talked to her on her doorstep and she was pretty cranky and mean. She was complaining to us about how her helper lady had come but hadnt been able to do her dishes. We offered to come in and do them for her and she agreed! We went inside and went to work. She had two sinks full and so we each took a side and started scrubbing. She told us not to use dirty dish water so we left the water on to rinse them. About 2 dishes in she came in and told me I was doing it wrong and to put the plug in the drain so I did and kept working. A few dishes later she came in and said it was wrong again and was like "uggghhh ahhhhh ohhhh wahhhh dirty dish water ahhhh" like super sad and disappointed. I was so confused. We just did what we were told! So I took the plug out and went back to how we were washing them initially. We finished her dishes and headed out asap. She was super kooky man idk.

Cotton Candy Gelati from Jeremiahs 👍😮

sister Esquerra

Sis goeller at zone conference 

Spiritual Promptings and an Orange Canoe

No bake cookies with my fav sisters 👭👭

I found out last night that the Winter Olympics start this week. What the heck!! I'm super bummed! We had a 20 minute conversation with a lady (she rambled, we listened) about how one of the skaters is Mormon and she was so shocked we didn't know anything about it... whoops haha

This week felt super busy. We had lots of lessons and lots of service and yeah. It was a good one. 

 OP District from last transfer

This week we were added to a group chat by the the sisters that had been in Orange Park a few transfers ago. It was with a girl named Ashley and they were introducing the new sisters to her. We set up another group chat with her with just us and we have been talking with her a lot! The one hang up is we didn't have a teaching record for her! So we didn't know anything about her or what she had been taught in the past. We asked our ward mission leader about her at correlation and he didn't remember her or know anything about her. So we went into it blind but ended up having a really good lesson with her! She's dealing with a lot of health problems so we just talked about Heavenly Father and trusting in Him. 

Esquerra turned 12 this week and it was so fun


We taught Robbie and Rosa and also our investigator Alan again this week! All of them are doing well! We are just really trying to help them read from the Book of Mormon and so we were able to bring members with us to their lessons and read together. We send them scripture texts and try to remind them and they seem to be doing really well! 

There's a sweet older lady that we do service for every week named Chris. The church helped clear out a fallen tree after Irma and ever since then the sisters have been coming by helping with her garden and other odd jobs. We stopped by to see her Sunday and had a really really great visit. We were talking with her about family history and genealogy (which she LOVES) and we talked about her tree and experiences she had working online and then she asked us "why do Mormons care so much about genealogy?" We were able to talk about temples with her and explain their purpose. We also testified of eternal families and the Plan of Salvation. We haven't been actively teaching her the whole time I've been here but the spirit was so strong as we talked about our families and how we know we can be with them forever. She told us she's been reading the Book of Mormon on her own without us even knowing. It was a tender mercy and a great way to end our week :) 

The Middleburg sisters dropped off a bday surprise for her and they brought homemade frybread and popcorn. We were SO excited for the frybread

Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference and all of the meetings were SO good! One of the speakers talked a lot about Christ and finding peace in Him. One of my favorite things she said was "love is making space in your life for someone." If we really love someone it doesn't matter how busy we are we will make time for them and make them a priority. The next day Elder Godoy from the seventy spoke about a similar thing. He said that love is related with actions more than words or feelings. 

God so love the world he gave His only Begotten Son 

If ye love me keep my commandments 

It's not God so loved the world he had warm fuzzy feelings and that was it. Love requires action. He gave us the most important gift he could have ever given, Jesus Christ. He loved us so much that he was willing to give all he had to help us return to live with Him again. We also have to act to show our love. As we make space for God in our life and keep His commandments we will be happier. I know we can find lasting peace despite the circumstances in life we might face.

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

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

xoxo

Sister Morrow 

The most new mexican street in OP

-Weekly Moss Moment-
Sunday afternoon we decided to bake some cookies to deliver to people later that night (If you're going to interrupt the super bowl you better do it with cookies) we were missing some key ingredients so the Elders let us borrow them. As soon as they left we realized we didn't have a cookie sheet (this apartment has 0 supplies/household items) so the Elders let us borrow that too. Bless their hearts. They brought us the 3 they had in their apartment and they were nasty. Like honestly so gross. They promised they washed them but they were black and greasy and I was not having it. I was scrubbing them and black gunk was coming off. After about 10 minutes of washing they still looked scary and so we were stumped. I vaguely remembered a Facebook video I watched like 2yrs ago with a bunch of life hacks. One of them was for cleaning pans but I couldn't remember what they used. For some reason I decided they used ketchup and so we whipped out our bottle of ketchup, squirted it all over the pans, and started scrubbing. We were laughing too hard at how ridiculous we felt that we didn't get much scrubbing done. Don't trust Facebook hacks from 2 years ago, esp if you have a mossy brain. We gave up on those pans and just went across the street and borrowed some better ones from the church haha! 

We had a sister lunch/bday celebration for Sister Esquerra and Sister Perry💖

Be Awesome in Jesus

 #westsidebestside

Welp this week was kind of strange! All the missionaries have been getting sick and this week it hit me. I had the flu and was stuck inside for 2 days. I'm still not feeling 100% but I'm getting there so that's a blessing! This email might be kind of sucky since we weren't able to go out much and there's not a whole ton to report on...but I'll do my best haha! 

Sister Esquerra turns 21 tomorrow so we are for sure going to party hard by sharing the good word. I love her so much!! 


This week we met this awesome guy named Alan! He was a former and we called him a few weeks ago and set up an appointment. When we went to see him he said he had been reading his Book of Mormon ever since we called him last week and he really wants to come to church! He was having a lot of health problems the last time he was meeting with the missionaries but he's doing much better now and we are super excited to keep meeting with him! 

Throwback to LAST YEAR. My daughter/trainee/bb hits her year mark this which which blows my mind and makes me feel super old. I LOVE YOU SISTER GOELLER <33


Our church building in is right on Blanding which is the busiest road in Orange Park. It's location makes it so lots of random people just walk in and join us for services on Sunday (which is AWESOME) and last week like 5 or 6 people just showed up. 2 of those people were Tanya and Simmy. They stayed all three hours last week and they loved it! We were talking with them after and we found out they are both pastors for a different faith. They just moved here from Tampa and are staying across the street from the church. They just googled the closet church and decided to come. They loved it so much they came back again yesterday and stayed the whole time! They asked for more copies of the Book of Mormon because they love it so much and want to give some copies to their friends haha! They are so great but also kind of kooky. We were talking with them after church and when we were leaving Tayna said "Bye sweet babies. Have a good day and be awesome in Jesus!" Hahaha I love her!

Matching with Sister Watchman at mission prep. Her husband came up with this awesome acronym for the prospective missionaries 😒 hahah

Last week we set a goal to use the Book of Mormon more in our teaching and so during companionship study every morning we would pick a scripture and try to use it throughout the day. We went to deliver a Bible to this guy named Travis and we asked if we could talk to him for a few minutes about Jesus Christ and give him a copy of the Book of Mormon as well. He hadn't heard anything about the BoM before and was super interested. We asked him about his religious background and his relationship with God and he opened up a ton. He shared some trials he has been experiencing lately and he said that he feels like God is there and Jesus is real but that they don't really know him or care about what happens in his life.  We were able to talk about God's love for us and share our testimony of Christ with him. That morning the scripture we had planned to share was from Alma 7:11-12 which says 

"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

As we read this scripture and taught Travis about Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us I felt the spirit so strong. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us so much!! They know us personally and are aware of our struggles. God wants us to find lasting joy in this life and He is there to help us. I am so thankful I get to share this message with people all day. Being a missionary is the best thing ever! 

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

-Weekly Moss Moment- 
our district shirts 💥

Our first week in OP we went and did service at the Clothes Closet. We got stuck in the toy room and the elders were going through bags of clothes and hanging stuff up. We didn't know this but the elders found all these funny shirts that someone had donated that and there was just enough for all of us to have one. At our last district meeting on Tuesday they gave them to us and we were dying. They were all from some kind of camp and each year they had a different phrase on the front. For example there was X-treme faith, Giddy up with God(with a cowboy hat), and my favorite one said Jesus has my heart on the front God has my back on the other side. They are corny and awesome and my favorite shirts ever hahaha definitely some moss involved somewhere idk

The Dog Days

OP District!!

Well transfer call was this Saturday and.....IM STAYING IN OP!! What a relief. From our interviews with President Lee Sister Esquerra and I thought we might be getting split up but we are staying together and she will be my last companion. So crazy this is my last transfer! The next 6 weeks are going to fly by but I'm excited to work as hard as I can until the very end😁😁

This week looking back felt really busy but I can't think of anything super exciting to report on...we spent most of our days out trying to find formers and Less Active members. We were able to have another lesson with our investigators Robbie and Rosa! We talked with them a lot about their religious background and what we can do to help them. Robbie mentioned to us how important his family is and we were able to talk with them a little bit about temples and eternal families. They were really interested in that and so we are going to talk about it more when we go back this week!! 

This week I hit 17 months so we got some ice cream to celebrate! 

Wednesday night the sister serving up in Brunswick came and stayed the night with us! Sister Heiner was going to the temple early the next morning and it's a pretty long drive so they just stayed with us! They got here kind of late and we all stayed up way too late talking haha! She had to be at the mission office really early so we didn't get much sleep that night but it was worth it haha! Her companion Sister Rhoads stayed with us for the day and it was a blast. We went and did service with our district at the clothes closet! We were in charge of organizing the toy room and it was a MESS so we filled up like 20 trash bags full of stuff. They only keep really nice toys and there was a lot of weird stuff in there that they just wanted to get rid of. It was kind of overwhelming how much stuff they had shoved in this one tiny room but it was a lot better in the end!

We did service this week wrapping plants in a lady's garden. We had another cold week and she didn't want her plants to die haha! 

We also had a lesson that day with Glenda. Her husband is a member but he had been less active for a really long time. He just recently started coming back to church and asked us to come teach his wife! She is the sweetest lady ever!! She has already read the whole Book of Mormon and she comes to church with Joe every week! We had a really good visit with them and she opened up to us about some of her concerns. Hopefully we can help resolve some of them so she can get baptized! They're an amazing family and sent us on our way with a big box of fudge haha

This week I hit 17 months so we got some ice cream to celebrate! 

This weekend the elders investigator Steve got baptized! His wife is a member and he's been investigating the church for a little over 2 years. Everyone in the ward knows him and we were all just so excited for him and for their family!  We were able to attend the service and the spirit was so strong! He shared his testimony of the Book of Mormon at the end and how it's completely changed his life. He said the spirit slowly chipped away at him for 2 years until he couldn't wait any more and he had to be baptized! We were able to go over to their house after for a bonfire/barbeque and basically the whole ward came too haha! They were burning people's old Christmas Trees which was really crazy haha! We weren't able to stay for very long and so we went to find Steve to tell him bye and congratulate him one more time and when I shook his hand he pulled me in for a big bear hug and you could just see that he was beaming. Such a great day!! 

district milkshake moment before the transfer call

Three years ago this week my family lost my oldest brother Alex. So much has happened in these last few years and it seems like forever ago and just yesterday at the same time. I know that because Jesus Christ suffered for our sins, died, and was resurrected we will be able to be together as a family again someday. I have a new perspective and know that it's possible to feel joy and grief at the same time. Our lives were meant to be a mix of all these different emotions (there must be opposition in all things) because that it how we grow and see things the way God intended us to see them. 

"the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death." Mosiah 16:7-8

I love y'all! Have a blessed week 

xoxo

Sister Morrow 

 (we love freddys)

-Weekly Moss Moment-

Sunday night we went to the church to sync our tablets and put in a few lesson reports before heading home for the night. When we got to the church we realized the elders has left their bikes in one of the hallways. We always joke about trying to ride their bikes. One of the Elders is super tall (6'9 to be exact) and so the bike seat comes up to above my waist. It was late and no one was at the church so I decided to try and get on and ride it. I hiked my leg over the middle bar and put my feet on the peddles. At this point the seat is still way higher then I can reach so I grabbed the wall to steady myself and jumped up trying to sit on the seat. This didn't go over very well and the bike toppled over. I screamed and jumped and landed on the floor with the bike on top of me. Sister Esquerra and I died laughing. It was so funny! Luckily no one was around because it was super embarrassing and not very modest haha!