# 64

Dear President,

It was great to see you and Sister C Friday for the Mission Leadership Meeting! 

I've thought about sister exchanges being 48 hours and I really like the idea of it. I think the sisters will get a lot more out of it and be able to see all aspects of missionary work. My only concern is that sometimes planning can be hard for the companion who stays in the area (especially if they do it two nights in a row). Usually , we leave the trainees in their area for the sister exchange, so it might be a little tough on them at the six week mark. But if we do a 48 hour exchange around the 9 week mark in a transfer, they should have more of a handle on planning and the area.

We were thinking this week about some sisters who could help out other sisters in the mission...particularly the Artashat sisters. Sister L will be going to Artashat with Sister T a day and then Sister A will be with Sister S for a day. It will only affect their companionships. We asked them to write about the exchange and how the sister is doing what they learned from the exchange. Hopefully it will give Sister A a boost to be back with Sister S (her MTC companion) and the same for Sister T to be back with Sister L for a day. 

We weren't able to meet with many of our investigators this week because of their schedules, but we've been keeping in good contact with them. We are in the process of finding more investigators as well. It was awesome because on Sunday, two members brought in friends that want to be taught from us. One girl wants to go to the youth conference and she told us that she wants to serve a mission! So we are going to be meeting with them at the member's house this week.

Another big miracle happened this week...our investigator who has been struggling with coming to church finally came! She stayed for all three hours and had a lesson in gospel principles all to her self...the best part was it was all about baptism! She loved it! We are hoping she continues to stay strong and keep coming to church.

We are working with the 8 year old's family right now to help her progress towards baptism. The dad is unsure if she is ready though (he isn't a member). So we are just going to fast and pray and hope that he will allow her to be baptized. 

We are still working with the lady whose daughters are coming back from Georgia. She is progressing well! We have no real concerns for her at the moment, we just hope her daughters will come back soon. 

This week during District Meeting, we talke a lot about "asking", "seeking" and "knocking". I read in Doctrine and Covenants 88 this week "Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" and then a few verses later "And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light...Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will." I learned that as I actuvely seek to to draw close to God, my desires will change to become His will. And what an awesome blessing it is when our will is the Lord's will...He will unveil His face to us. I thought of 3 Nephi when I read that...when the Lord smiles upon the Nephites and is so pleased with them. I hope that one day I can stand before the Lord and know that I've done my absolute best to do what He would have me do. The day I see His face, I want to see Him smiling at me. I know that He loves me and He is my best friend. 

I'm so grateful for all that you and Sister C do for me.

Have a wonderful week,

Sister Morreall

# 63

Sister Morreall, 

It was so good to spend the week with you as we traveled and conducted zone conferences. You continue to amaze me. 

Thank you for your thoughts on the sisters in the mission. I feel confident that they are in good hands, as you and your companion are out and about taking care of their needs. I hope the sister splits went well. Your thoughts on the subject? My thoughts have gone from are they productive, to maybe doing them for 48 hours instead of 24.

Thank you for all you do. We love you. Have a great week.

Dear President,

Thank you for your support and love. It's really easy to feel how much you and Sister C love me and all of the missionaries in the mission. I'm grateful for that, more than I can say over email! I liked your thoughts about sister exchanges. I know a lot of the sisters (especially in the North) could benefit from a longer exchange since we tend to do one only once a transfer. It gives more time to see all aspects of missionary work. Sister W and I will discuss the pros and cons and will be happy to talk to you about it whenever you want. 

We talked to the Georgia Zone Leaders this week to follow up on the exchanges with the sisters there. They talked with the sisters and the sisters seem to be geared up! We heard Sister S SYLed with Sister Sm outside AND inside the apartment haha. (Not sure how much Sister S enjoyed that). Sister B has also given Sister C and Sister B responsibilities (such as the phone, money, keys, etc.) as well. We know you're working on transfers with the zone leaders in Georgia, so we just wanted to fill you in on what we saw inside the apartment (where the Zone Leaders don't know). Sister W and I both felt that Sister B is progressing the most out of all of the sisters there. Everytime she is given a challenge she rises to it well, and she was also the sister we had the least amount of concerns for. Sister S told me during our interview that next transfer she hopes she has the opportunity to serve with Sister C because she feels she trusts Sister C and can help her the most in regards to the language and missionary work than the others. Sister C is working on improving her personal studies. Sister S wants someone to help push her in the language, although she does really well. She lacks confidence sometimes. She is the sweetest thing though! Sister B sometimes tends to dominate in lessons and in studies, but she is going to try and work on holding back and listening to the others' opinions. We think she's a little worn out of trios though. I don't know if that helps much, but that's what we noticed in our interviews and in the apartments. 

The exchange with the Gyumri Sisters went well! It was fun to be back with Sister M. I think that Sister M has been such a light for her. She has changed from when I served with her. It is evident that she is using her last transfer wisely. She is so concerned about making sure she uses every moment to the best of her abilities, but she is doing just fine. She is helping Sister M a lot with the language too. I also spent some time with Sister M..she is a ball of energy! She loves to talk to people...still in English, but she's working on SYLing and learning how to express herself in Armenian. We had a lesson with an English speaker though and Sister M asked a ton of great questions that I know our investigator felt the Spirit from. Sister M is very knowledgeable about the gospel and a great instrument for the Spirit, I just don't think she knows it.

Also, Sister W and I thought you and Sister C might find this funny...during the week we called all of the sisters to tell them about exchanges and when we called Arabkir, they told us that they couldn't go because their investigator (the one they've changed the baptismal date for) was getting baptized. We told them no problem and that we would rearrange the exchanges and have them go on an exchange later, so they could still have the baptism that day and not change it again. So a few minutes after we got off the phone, they called us again asking to know where they would have gone and who they would have been with...so we told them and it was obvious they were disappointed they were going to be missing it. So about half an hour later, they called us and told us that they moved the baptism a day earlier and that they could participate in exchanges now. I guess when we want an investigator to be baptized sooner all we have to do is plan exchanges that week!

Also, we talked to the Gyumri, Malatia and Center District Leaders who will be asking the trainees during their nightly callins how many words they have learned that day and which How To Begin Teaching they are learning that week. (We felt that those sisters have been doing well and we wanted to start holding them accountable and have them step up a bit.) The other trainees we are going to work with more personally to cater to their needs regarding the 12 week program.

Our investigators have been doing well this week. We found out that our investigator who is waiting for her kids to come home will most likely get baptized in July since her daughters will come home July 14th. She is progressing well and practically teaches us  when we come over.

We have another investigator who is absolutely stellar, and accepts everything we teach. She has been reading from the Book of Mormon and praying, but the only challenge for her is coming to church. Her family is always in town, so we are continuing to teach her the doctrine behind coming to church. 

Our English speaker is amazing. She questions God a lot...but it's good. I feel like a lot of our lessons start with her wondering why God lets things happen the way they do sometimes, but they always end with her understanding different principles of the gospel. She's one of my favorite people to teach because she asks us questions and they we respond with questions and then she thinks about it and responds how she feels and 90% of the time it's a gospel truth that we can testify about. 

We also have another investigator we are teaching who knows a lot of the members in the ward. She also really liked learning about the Restoration. Sister M, a member and I all felt like she could get baptize after a meeting we had with her on exchanges. That night we got a call from our Stake President's wife asking us not to teach her though because of the apartment she's worked with the police on in the past?...so we are not sure if we should go back and teach her or not. We are going to talk to our Bishop about it. Do you have any suggestions?

We also have an 8 year old girl in our ward who wants to be baptized. The family, the bishop nor the ward haven't taken any action though. We're not sure if we need to teach her or work with the family to get that going or if they just need to take care of that with the Bishop. Do you know?

This week was a little difficult for me personally. I just felt a little out of the loop on some things regarding the ward. Sister W is awesome and she's been helping me get used to the ward. I know it's hard because she's been here for a while and she knows everything really well, but we had a talk this week just so we'll both be on the same page a little more. I'm really grateful for how happy she is though about everything...we had a few run ins with people on the street this week that would have probably frustrated me if it wasn't for her. She's really good at brushing things off and just smiling afterwards. It's been a huge blessing for me. I'm trying to focus more on being happy like that and not letting things get me down.

Thanks for your love and support. I am looking forward to seeing you and Sister C on Friday for Mission Leadership Council. I love you both!

Love,

Sister Morreall

# 62

Dear Family,

Happy Father's Day Dad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you had an awesome day. Thank you for your example and the love you've shown me throughout my life. I look up to you more than you know! I'm glad Mom's treatment went well and that she is recovering well. I love and miss all of you!

Love,

Misa :)

Fun facts about Georgia:

The Khachapuri there is sooo good and filled with cheese.

Dad's friend, S, knows the missionaries up in Georgia...I didn't get to meet her, but hopefully next time!

I got to attend a baptism there of someone from a different country...it was so amazing! He had such an incredible history...I wish I could tell you over the internet!

The buses there actually are tall enough for you to stand up in without being hunched over.

I was able to speak a little bit of Armenian in lessons, but mostly needed the other missionaries to translate the Georgian for me.

I tried shlor...which is a food that looks and tastes like crab apples, but has a pit inside.

Georgian elections were Sunday...I don't know who won...

There are gypsies in Georgia.

Georgia was way more European than I thought it would be! They also had a Wendy's, McDonald's and Subway!!

Dear President,

I really enjoyed being able to go to all of the Zone Conferences this past week. They were all different, but so great. It was good to hear and learn from all of the different missionaries. I liked the set up of having different missionaries speak and share their thoughts as prompted by the Spirit. I was also very surprised about your sweet comment about me being Christlike...I didn't really know what to say to that in the moment, but I'm very thankful for that sweet compliment. It lifted me. 

I had a chance to talk to Sister T after the Center Zone Conference again. Sister Wand I were thinking about possibly sending a mini down for a little bit. 

Elder M also talked to me a little bit about the sisters in Vandzor...they are still struggling after exchanges. Sister K isn't talking in Armenian and Sister J feels overwhelmed. We are going to work with the Zone Leaders and District Leaders on an individual basis and encourage them to support SYLing and learning vocabulary within the district as much as possible. 

As far as Georgia goes...the Georgian sisters are all doing well! We had a nice exchange with them. They are doing really well as far as the work goes. Sister B is doing so well with teaching and with the language (as far as the Zone Leaders have told us regarding the language). Sister Sis still struggling with the language and so Sister W set goals with her on that. I met with Sister S to talk about how to help strengthen Sister S and to help lead the other sisters. I think Sister S's biggest problem is just her pride. She has the potential to help the sisters a lot more, but she chooses not to sometimes. I asked her what she's doing now to help the sisters become leaders for when she is gone. She set goals on strengthening them spiritually. So we will be following up on that. Sister C had a one on one with me and her concern was mostly about having effective studies. We talked about studying with questions in mind for investigators and she set goals on studying more with questions in order to use her time more wisely. She is doing well with the language and wants to get out of a trio real bad...So does Sister B. I spent most of my time with Sister B and she just said the hardest thing for her now is to let the younger sisters take over because she doesn't trust them...I'm sure you know about all of the details, but I talked a lot with Sister B about letting people help her. Overall, it's just going to be a conscious decision for her...she's going to have to choose it. There are some obedience issues we are going to work with them on as well (like getting home on time and planning.) We talked a lot with the Zone Leaders and are going to contact them once a week to see how the Georgians are doing on their goals and obedience. We have some thoughts for transfers too, which we can talk to you about if you want. We know you talk to the Georgian Zone Leaders a lot about that too, and they know the sisters there very well.

It was good to see you and Sister C a lot this week. I love and respect both of you so much!

Love,

Sister Morreall

# 61

Dear President,

Are you ready for a week full of Zone Conferences? I'm excited! ...and I could whip out D&C 4, but I think you might get tired of hearing it after 4 conferences this week...But I'm up for it!

Our exchange with the Vanadzor Sisters went really well! Vandzor sisters will also be getting a mini missionary this week until Thursday, so hopefully that we ease the stress for both of them and with be good for Sister K as far as the language goes. 

We hope to meet go on exchanges with the Gyumri sisters in the next week and then the Charentsavan sisters after that since we weren't able to go with them this week.

We had a ton of miracles in our area this week! We felt it was because we were out of our area for a day and a half in Vanadzor on exchanges. When we came back to Ajapnyak, the work really picked up! A lot of our members were calling us to go out to lessons with us! One member gave us a refferal that we haven't been able to contact yet, but will continue to work on it. Many of our members brought friends to the Relief Society activity we had this week, so we met a few potential investigators there.

A lady the sisters here have been working with for almost a year told us that she wants to get baptized as soon as her daughters come home from Georgia (which should be in a few weeks)! We're going to set a date with her when they get back!

One of our investigators who is a little older and has a harder time getting out of the house, came to the Nork Elders' baptism this week with us! She loved it! She has a baptismal date in July and our only concern with her is getting her out to church more.

We also met with an investigator who has been a little harder to open up, but we brought a member and our investigator just opened up like a book! It was so wonderful to actually be able to find out her needs. 

A lady came up to us on the street too and asked about the church because she has friends in our ward, so we set up a time to meet with her. We brought one of her friends from the ward as a surprise and it was this members' first time coming to a meeting with the missionaries as a member present. She did wonderfully! She brought pictures of her baptism and bore such a powerful testimony. We picked the lady up as an investigator!

We also met this incredible lady on the street. She has a broken hip because a picnic table umbrella from a restaurant blew over and hit her, so she's a little immobilized. But she's pretty young and has 3 Masters and is working on her Doctorite right now. She studied in Georgia (the state in America) for a few years and knows perfect English. She had a lot of questions about Joseph Smith and the church and so we had a good discussion with her and picked her up as an investigator. 

We also met a family on the street who invited us to their house...they live in a household of 20! We brought them banana bread this week and are hoping to meet with them this week (when we're not busy with Zone Conferences).

It has been quite a busy but wonderful week as far as the week goes. 

I love you and Sister Carlson!

Love,

Sister Morreall

Dear Family,

I am glad to hear Mom's surgery went well! I am so proud of Trev and Asia for both getting the Stake Presidents' Award!! I love and miss you both!!

Love,

Misa :)

# 60

Dear President,

We had a great week this week!

Our investigator's baptism when well and she was confirmed on Sunday.  Her mother, who got baptized a week ago, will probably be getting a calling to serve in the primary. Things are going well for the both of them!

One of our investigators has been progressing nicely, but was unable to come to church because a family member passed away and she went to the funeral.

A few of our investigators came to church this week, but unfortunately we had to give one back to the Lord...she's just been a little too much for the ward members to handle. But the other investigators we have seem to be progressing well. We think one might have a problem with the Word of Wisdom so we're hoping to address that sooner rather than later. 

We are still looking for more people to teach though. Our teaching pool has gotten smaller. We found a few people this week, but they moved to a different area. So we will keep trying! We're trying to figure out ways to work better with our members to receive referrals. 

Missionary Leadership Council went well this week. Sister W and I are hoping to really help out the Georgian Sisters while we're in Georgia next week. This week we will be going on exchanges with the Charenstaven sisters. Sister S will be coming with me to Ajapnyak. Is there anything you would like me to do on exchanges with her?

This week, we had two Armenian young adults call us for mini missions. We were thinking one could serve in Center this week and then next week trade to Malatia (to give the newer sisters some experience with a mini). The other would go to Arabkir next week with the sisters there for a few days. 

I was really grateful for the opportunity to hear from Elder Bednar this week. I really liked what was said about the atonement being enabling. I also liked what Sister Bednar said about searching out the Lord's hand and His grace in our lives everyday. I've really been trying to focus on that and on being happy and grateful for the many blessings that come my way everyday. It's been incredible to see how many there are. I'm going to try and be better this week about letting the Holy Ghost teach me who I really was, am and who I can become.

I was able to memorize D&C 4 this week. There's a lot of power in missionary work that we learn from that section.

Love,

Sister Morreall

Dear Family,

I am glad you all enjoyed your trip to Lake Placid! 

Love and miss you all :)

Love,

Misa :)

Random things:

Sometimes we see President when we go running in the mornings...this week we saw him and he gave us high fives!

One day it was pouring rain and it even starting hailing! So we ran to an appointment and got soaked, so the ward member made us change out of our clothes into robes! We then taught our lesson in her bathrobes and then skyped her son in from Russia so he could learn too. It was crazy haha.

We met some girls from India on the street the other day. They were super nice!!