# 59

Dear President,

Thank you for sharing those scriptures with me. Interestingly enough, Sister W and I talked about change a lot this week and I emailed out some of the same scriptures to the sisters in the weekly email this week. I've thought a lot about change for myself mostly because I'm not content with not changing. As I go to the meeting this week and as a I continue in my missionary service, I really want to focus on changing my view of others. It's generally pretty easy for me to love people, but I really want to be able to just view them with "the eyes of love" as Sister H would say...or in other words I want to act on my love for others so that I can develop a more true and Christ-like love for everyone and keep my eyes single to the glory of God.

This week was amazing. I know there's a hymn about counting all of our blessings, but it's impossible! This week was filled with them. 

The baptism we had went well and afterwards, the daughter of the lady who was baptized came up to us and wanted to be baptized next week. She had been learning from us before, but I think actually seeing her mom get baptized just increased her desire that much more...so hopefully this Saturday she will be baptized as well! We met with her on Sunday for a while and scheduled her interview for Tuesday. Amazingly, she has no Word of Wisdom issues and has had no abortions. 

We also met with another one of our investigators, who has been progressing well and extended a baptismal date to her. She accepted and is continuing to do well with commitments...except for attending church. She wants to come, but her family is in town every weekend and she hasn't been able to attend. We are going to suggest that she invite them to come with her to church and try to get her coming. 

We also met with another investigator who has been hard to meet with in the past because her son was in the hospital. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she has been reading from it well. We also gave her a baptismal date...and she said "That's great, of course I will be baptized! And my son too!" We still need to teach her most of the lessons though, but she has been coming to church pretty frequently. 

We also met with a contact from the street who invited us over to meet a few of her friends. We were able to meet with her a few times to establish our expectations. She's a little...enthusiastic? Is that the right word? Well, she showed us a magic trick and almost caught me on fire because she was so excited... But she is happy and she acts on commitments, so hopefully we will be able to extend a date to her in our next meeting. 

We also were walking home from church yesterday and stopped to talk to a lady on the street. She opened up to us on the street and invited us over and we felt the spirit so strong in her house! We did How To Begin Teachings and she introduced us to her daughter in law, who pointed to my CTR ring and told me that her husband has one....so somewhere along the way they've had connection with the church before. We will be meeting with them tonight to give them a baptismal date and bring them a Book of Mormon. 

There's also a lady in our ward who is moving out of her apartment (which is a pretty nice apartment) to move in with her daughter. She's already talked to G about renting her apartment out, but she just wanted us to let you know about it too. It's in Davitashen about 3 blocks up from the church. 

Exchanges this week were...hard. But it was good to get to know Sister F and see how she is doing.  I talked to her about how she has been such a light to the missionaries and the Armenians.We talked about some ways to ease the stress (like being more obedient, on time, more efficient planning, and working with the members better). I wrote a list of members who've had referrals in the past and of less actives they could work with. I also showed them a few of my old investigators who may be ready to work with again. So hopefully that area will see improvement. When I was there, we were able to visit with quite a few people though, so hopefully they keep it up. Sister F expressed to me that she wants to get better at the language, so I gave her a few ideas for language study and we set some goals. She wants to make sure she is learning all 10 of her words everyday, reads from the Book of Mormon in Armenian during her meal times and also use her language study to focus on the grammar. I'll be following up with her on that. 

I love you both so much!

Love,

Sister Morreall

Dear Family,

This week was a really good one for this area...we had a baptism and will be having one this Saturday too. We picked up two new investigators, who seem to be so ready to be taught. 

When I was on exchanges this week, I had the opportunity to see all of my recent converts from when I served there...even the one who is from the other country! It was a tender mercy to be in that area at the time because he called on the phone and asked to meet...I had no idea he was back in the country and I just happened to be in the area! I also got to meet Elder M (member of the 70) from Artashat. He is so awesome!

We also got some calls from some people in Jordan...that's right the country Jordan, who  had heard about the church and had some questions. So that was amazing! We also contacted a few Jordanians this week who live on the same street as one of our members. 

We had fun playing soccer on the street with some kids for a little bit too...some people were staring and amazed that two American girls in school could play, but it opened up opportunities to talk about the gospel so that was cool. 

I'm grateful for my companion who has been a great strength to me...did I tell you she sounds a lot like Breezy? So when she talks sometimes it feels like I'm talking to Breezy haha. 

Also, we'll be going to Georgia in two weeks, I'm not sure if I'll be able to write that Monday since we will be on the road that day. So do not be worried if I don't write! Dad, you can email the mission office to let me know the updates on everything.

I love and miss you all so much and I was grateful to get an email from all of you this week.

I love and miss you!

Love,

Misa :)

Random things:

I almost got set on fire this week by an investigator's magic trick.

Right before I almost caught fire.

I got flashed by a granny.

This super old grandma in our ward gets happy every time we come visit because she misses her grandkids. She asked this week if she could paint our nails, so we let her and she actually did a super good job! But she got super mad at me because I bite my nails...oops. But it made her day :)

# 58

Dear President,

This week was great! I am learning so much from Sister W every day. She is a great missionary. We've been working hard with our investigators and less actives, and we've had a lot of good laughs too :)

We have two investigators close to baptism that will hopefully be baptized together this Saturday. The mom has been  

We have two investigators close to baptism that will hopefuilly be baptized together this Saturday. The mom has been meeting with us more frequently as the daughter has been busy with her newborn, but we hope that she will find the time this week to meet so that they can both be baptized together. If not, the daughter will likely be baptized next week. We had a great lesson this past week though on the Gospel of Christ and the Law of Chastity. We had concerns that the mom may have had abortions in the past, but to our delight she hasn't! That was such a huge blessing. They really have been prepared...I can't remember if I told you but both of them had also been living the Word of Wisdom their whole lives before we ever talked to them about it. Amazing!

Our next closest to baptism is an older women that had been in contact with the elders before. We went over to her house to serve her this week (we did some house work and cleaned) and she was just loving every second of it! She was so happy. It's been interesting watching her grow, because when I first met her, she was casual, but everytime we go back to visit she just keeps getting happier and happier! She has a baptismal date for the middle of June and our only concern with her right now is that she hasn't been coming to church because her family comes to town on Sundays. But she promised us last week that she would come, so we will see this week!

We also met with quite a few contacts this week as we feel that our pool of investigastors is becoming shallow. We met with two women this week, who had met with the elders before and we are hoping to meet with them again and pick them up as investigators. 

We are also working with a family in the ward whose grandmother has expressed interest in baptism. She can't come to church because of her limited mobility, but she has such a good heart and her grandkids promised to read the Book of Mormon to her :) So we will be working with her as well. 

We met with a lot of less actives this week as well and quite a few showed up to church. We will continue to visit them and ask for referrals. 

We are also going to be trying to put on some ward activites this transfer so that the members can bring their friends to a "less threatening" environment and get them more involved in the work.

Exchanges this week with Sister Awent well. 

We have exchanges with the Arabkir Sisters this week. I will be with Sister F, if you have anything you would like me to discuss or work on with her, let me know!

The Gyumri sisters will be having a mini misisonary with them this week from the 20th-24th. I think it will be good for Sister Mas she is always up for a challenge and has tackled a lot of her goals she's set for her training already. I think this will be more of a challenge and learning experience for her. And of course, Sister MD is the mini missionary queen, so she will love it too!

Because you mentioned that you memorized D&C 4 when you were a missionary, I've set that as a new goal for me too. I want to have that memorized within a week or two. 

Thank you for all that you do! I love you and Sister C!

Have a great week!

Sister Morreall

Dear Family,

I hope you all are doing well! I love and miss you all so much!!

I got an email from my convert from out of the country:

how are you?I hope fine..I hope that you will be glad  with the power of God...

i am Fine..thanks alot,,

 I wish I would be with you and other friends..

 I am  strong and happy in my life .we are learning good things.. .

 we pray for you and other friends.

I  also teach all the good things to my friends..every day

thank you very much..

and have a grate moments with God.

(signed his name)

Doesn't that just make you happy? :)

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

We get to go on exchanges every week and this week I am going back to Arabkir (where  Iwas trained) so that will be fun! We're also going to Georgia in two weeks, so that will be cool.

   I hopI do like my new area! The ward here is more established and has the church routine down. Being a sister training leader is just like being a "regular" missionary before, but I am aware of a lot more of the sisters' concerns and needs.

I have a lot of pictures, but they usually have other people in them so I will try to send one next week of just me!

Love you always and forever!

Love,

Misa                                                           

# 57

Dear President,

This week was great! We met with all of our investigators this week and were able to give a few some baptismal dates. All but one have a baptismal date. Three are scheduled for May 24th.

Our closest investigators to baptism are relatives of a recent convert. They are a mother and daughter. We were able to teach them about the Plan of Salvation this week. The mother seemed a little nervous about the spirit world and how her father is in spirit prison right now. So we are going to be meeting with them today to review that and to also talk about temple work and the reason we do temple work is so our loved ones have the opportunity to progress from spirit prison to paradise. 

We also met with an older lady and her husband and taught the Plan of Salvation as well. They seemed to understand it well and accepted a baptismal date. They seem to kind of just be "coasting" though...we haven't really found which aspect of the gospel really motivates them yet. But you bet we will be working on figuring that out this week!

We met with another woman and focused on strengthening our testimony of the gospel through reading the Book of Mormon. She really likes the Bible, so it has been hard to get her to focus on the Book of Mormon, so I think the next few lessons will be reading lessons of some of the doctrine of Christ chapters. 

Also, we stopped by to visit an investigator who lives next door to the church, but hasn't been coming on Sundays. We talked to her about the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy and she expressed that she really likes coming to our church because it is family oriented. That was the first time I ever had an Armenian tell me that! She noticed though that kids were allowed in and that there are classes for everyone. She appreciates that. Hopefully, this Sunday we will see her back at church again.

We talked with the Artashat sisters this week and we will be going on exchanges with them on Thursday at 12:00 until Friday at 12:00.  I will be going to Artashat with Sister A.  Is there anything you would like me talk to her about specifically? If so, please let me know. I plan just on showing by example how to love the work and the people.

We will call Sister L this week to see if she's been doing any better and get you updated on that. 

I was reading in D&C 4 last night before I went to bed and I was thinking a lot about my service as a missionary so far and just how I've really seen an effect from loving the Armenian people and the missionaries. And I think that as a transfer goal, I want to focus on keeping my "eye single to the glory of God".

Thank you so much for letting me use your office yesterday to skype my family! My family was so excited, especially my mom.  I heard from the emails this week that it just brightened up her day. She's been doing well and had a great Mothers' Day. I hope Sister C did as well!

I love you!

Love,

Sister Morreall

Dear Family,

I LOVED SKYPING WITH ALL OF YOU!! It was great to see and talk with you. You all look great! 

Dear Mom,

As far as being back in the city...I enjoy it! I realized I am a city girl. But I really really really miss Vanadzor and the experiences I had there....you just don't see chickens crossing the road and shepherds herding their sheep with staff in hand in the city!

I hope you had an awesome Mothers' Day...thanks for being my mommy :)

Have a great week!!

Love,

Misa :)

# 55

I got transferred to Ajapnyak (the Assistants' area) as a Sister Training Leader (which I feel so unqualified for since I haven't trained or opened an area). I know you didn't have those when you were a missionary, so I'll just explain some responsibilities a bit. We have a lot of the same responsibilities as the assistants do, except for the priesthood aspect. We work a lot with President on determining transfers (which I got to participate in this past week as a trio - before one of the STLs went home), exchanges with the sisters, going to Georgia to unify us with the missionaries there, going to mission leadership council (with the zone leaders and assistants) and doing interviews with other sisters. I never realized how much work the STLs do and I definitely am so humbled and have felt a little overwhelmed at first (especially being the youngest sister training leader we've had and also being the youngest leader mission wise). I've been trying to catch up on a lot of things from my companion (Sister W from Cedar City Utah). She's been a great help since I feel like I was just thrown into this. But do you have any advice in regards to leadership? I've felt my biggest strength will be to just love the missionaries. It's been pretty cool to see how much the missionaries' needs are discussed and how much the leaders know the missionaries individually (maybe that's just because we're a small mission), but I hope I can continue to express love and appreciation for all of them.

I had the chance to help assign the new missionaries to their trainers and pick mini missionaries as well. It's also been cool to see how the new missionaries are doing. They are getting along just fine. The Malatia sisters are living with us for this week since their apartment is being redone, so I've been able to work with them and talk to the trainer and trainee individually in that companionship. They're doing super well. 

My companion is great. She is so down to earth. A little bit about her: She's 22 and the youngest of 3. She's going to school to be a pediatrician. She played basketball in college at SUU. She's deaf in one ear (so I \always have to walk on the right side of her so she can hear). She's been a STL for a while and has been a huge help to me.

One thing that made me feel good though was President and Sister C said that they knew for 4 months that I was going to come to the area...and Sister W knew when I went on exchanges with her last transfer...she said it was hard for her not to say anything but she felt and knew I was ready to be there. So that made me feel good :)

Also, the Stake President is in my new area and I love him!! He's so great! I bore my testimony last week and he came up and said "thank you so much for your testimony my pretty daughter." So sweet!!! The Bishop here is pretty awesome too...he assigned me to speak next week in church so we'll see how that goes. 

Love you,

Misa :)

Dear President,

I still can't believe that I'm here in Ajapnyak right now...but with that being said I am happy to be here! I never realized how much the leaders in the mission truly think about each missionary in the mission. The last few days I have really seen how much love they have for everyone. Which is so key! It is a privilege to be apart of the missionary leadership council and to be included in assigning missionaries to serve together. Thank you for letting me apart of that. I've already seen the thought and preparation and the inspiration involved in that. 

I am so excited to be with my companion! She is great :) She has included me in every decision so far and has being catching me up to speed on goals for the mission and with the needs of the sisters. All while being patient with me and my newness to the area! I've got a stellar leader and friend as a companion, you know that?

We've been able to meet with a few of our ward members this week and I've been able to become familiar we them, which was a great help for Sunday. We visited with our Bishop and his family and also with our Ward Mission Leader (who has been less-active lately). We worked a bit with him and talked about strengthening his testimony in times of trial and hardship. The Assistants had a great spiritual thought from D&C 122 and I was able to bear my testimony. At the end of the lesson, he told us that he hadn't felt the spirit like that in a long time and that he hadn't prayed for three months, but he offered the closing prayer. Hopefully, he will recognize that he needs to be doing his daily "work" (reading, praying, coming to church) to get his daily bread (blessings). We also met with a less-active older woman who was at home injured. We visited her and shared Alma 7:11-13 and talked about Christ's atonement making up for everything we lack in and any illness or injury we may face in this life. That seemed to touch her. We also met with a few other members and their non-member family members to see how that were doing and how we could serve them. 

We also met with quite a few contacts and were introduced to their family members. We did How To Begin Teachings with them and established our purpose and we hope to pick them up as investigators soon. 

We are working with one mother and daughter right now (the daughter is married to a recent member) and were able to teach them about the Restoration and a tripod. They accepted a date to be baptized on May 24, so we will be working a lot with them to make that happen! They come to church pretty frequently and we don't believe there will be any Word of Wisdom obstacles there. 

It should be a good upcoming week as I come to know more of our investigators and members.

Thank you for you time and your love!!

Love,

Sister Morreall