# 72

Dear President, 

This week I've truly been able to see the blessings that Heavenly Father has in store for me, this mission and Armenia. It has been incredible to see.

We had four baptisms this week (the family of 3 women and a long time investigator). All of the baptisms went very well...we missed you and Ssiter C. Please tell Sister C thank you for the little cameo and magnet for our little family, they loved it! The little girl wouldn't stop playing with it after the baptism. It was very sweet. All four were confirmed at church and gave very nice testimonies. I feel like the testimonies of my investigators from when I first started teaching them until now are a reflection of my testimony of the Savior at the beginning of my mission until now. It has grown. I feel like I have more meaning and power behind the words I say now. I hope this doesn't sound weird, but I think I bear my testimony better in Armenian now than I do in English...

Anyway, one of the women (the one who is pregnant) was very sick on her baptisal date and when she got confirmed (they took her to the hospital afterwards), but I was so impressed that she wanted to be baptized and confirmed so bad that she came despite everything!

This week we've worked a lot with the Stake regarding sending short term missionaries out. We have I think 6 going out this week with sisters, just for about 5 days. They will be sent to Center, Hrazdan, Gyumri, Malatia, Vanadzor and Charenstavan. The Charenstavan sisters weren't so excited when we told them the news, but I think that having an Armenian with them will help them a lot with their member work and also in speaking Armenian with each other on the streets. 

We had an exchange with Artashat sisters this week. On my end, it seemed like things were going well with the companionship. I talked to Sister T about planning and making sure that she has goals and specific things she wants to accomplish for the day. Of course it is always important to follow the Spirit, but the Spirit loves a schedule! We also talked about helping Sister L to formulate a language study plan. I found out after the exchange that she does have a language plan and that they could tighten up on a few areas regarding obedience. (Sister B said Sister L was pretty open with her about some things.) So we will be following up withthe sisters regarding planning, nightly prayer, OYMing, and a language study plan. Sister T said she was open with you about what happened when they went to Vernasage a few weeks ago, but I talked to her about making sure she is obedient to the white handbook and they it doesn't interfere with her missionary work again. Overall, it was a good exchange and she was very happy (like always)!

We're planning on heading to Gerogia this week to go on exchanges with Sisters P and C to discuss planning and see how they are doing. We are also hoping to meet with Sisters B and S for a little bit before heading back down Thursday night. If there is anything we can do to help them, please let us know.

This week in studies I studied a lot from Alma 4 and 5. I just love how Alma says that the only way to point the people back to Christ is by "bearing down in pure testimony". He then talks about having authority and power from Goid and then poceeds to just testify and the whole city is changed! Peoples hearts are opened and changed. I know that I need to work on strengthing my testimony by sharing it more frequently (notjust with investigators, but with members and missionaries alike). I'm making it a goal this week to work on that and I will let you know any experiences I have next week.

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

Love,

Sister Morreall

# 71

President's letter to whole mission.  Hello to "the best" missionaries in the world,

I can't believe we are halfway thru August already. Before we know it there will be snow on the ground. We have some of the best weather months to do missionary work coming up. Not too hot, not too cold.

Could we offer you another caution to watch what you eat. We have had many stomach problems lately. Especially in these warm summer days, meat could be left out a little to long in the heat.

Referring to eating meat;

"And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine."

D&C 89:13

Because it makes missionaries sick when it's hot. We ask you to be wise.

There is much talk in your letters about doing the things we have been asked by Elders Bennett and Bednar. Thank you! A thought from one of our missionaries: (taken from Misa's letter to the pres last week) :

"Holy miracles! This week was full of them. My companion and I for the last few weeks have really been focusing on President Bennett's and Elder Bednar's counsel. We've implimented their counsel into the work by setting weekly goals and we've seen huge improvement with the area! We've mostly been focusing on inviting, promising and testifying, finding people in between lessons, asking for refferals, focusing on finding families and calls of love. And our area has seen great growth! It's nothing that we haven't done before, but I feel like the blessings are comng because we've been trying to show the Lord improvement and made steps to be better in all of these areas.

It really works!"

We were in a member's home last week and they told us of a small act of kindness that was done by two missionaries, and they went on and on and on about how good it made them feel. They were so impressed. It really does make a difference! Thank you! I'm sure there have been many more acts of love, of which we have not heard.

As you have noticed, our focus for the month of August in our training plan is studying. How are you doing along those lines? We have attended some great zone and district meetings where excellent instruction has been given. Personal, companion, and language. Stephen B. Allen, managing director of the missionary department said; "Answers to the problems of today will be found in our morning scripture study". Another of our missionaries took the challenge to study a little from the Book of Mormon every day from cover to cover. In adding to Elder Allen's testimony, he said; "Many times during the day the problems that had arisen were answered in his morning Book of Mormon study." It really is true!

We love you all and wish a great week on all of you. "Raise the Bar"!

This is my personal email from President:

Hi Sister Morreall,

Great scripture!

Heart attack! Sister H was so impressed and touched by your kindness. Way to go.

How was your exchange with Charentsavan? Sister K is having nose bleed problems. Any thoughts?

Your area was so great last week. I hope it continues as you continue to consecrate yourselves to this great work.

We are looking forward to a couple of good days in Georgia. Just when you get things going we yank you out. 

We are hoping you can do an exchange with Sisters C and P. Sister C can use some strengthening. Her biggest concern seems to be her abilities in planning so they have missionary filled days, especially when everything cancels and they are left to ask, what do you want to do? I don't know, what do you want to do? They are both great Sisters. They can and will benefit from your strength.

We look forward to talking about upcoming mission leadership council and concerns you may have, during our travels.

How's Mom?

We love you. See you soon.

Dear Family, 

You are all such awesome examples to me. As I was reading emails today I was thinking of how blessed I am that Heavenly Father let me be surrounded with such am azing people who have been such great examples to me my whole life. I love you all!

I was supposed to head up to Georgia this week, but me and my comp had VISA troubles, so we stayed back, but in teh next couple of weeks we will be heading up. So just a warning, you may not get an email on a Monday in the next few weeks, but don't worry!! I will still write that week on a different day. 

I love and miss you all so much!

Love,

Misa :)

Dear President,

You're email this week was very sweet, thank you.

I cannot tell you all of the blessings I have seen in just these past few weeks. It has been incredible. Our members have shown such an increase in love and trust towards us. They openly and freely talk about people they want to see join the church and make changes to their lives. Many of them have taken steps towards talking to family members and friends about their interest in the church and we have been working with a lot of members on how to help introduce their friends to the gospel. We are going to try and meet with many of these people this week. Interestingly, most of the referrals we have gotten are actually from investigators though! Our investigators have been talking about us with their friends and family and we actually met with two referrals from an investigator this week and gave them baptismal dates for September 20. Meeting them has been one of the most humbling experiences I've had on my mission thus far. 

They are a young couple. He has a heart problem and is in and out of the hospital. Because of his heart problem, he can't get work and can't provide for his young wife and their 1 year old daughter. They live in a stable like shed in the back of their house. We met with them a few times and they sincerely and truly just have hope in Christ and trust that he will watch over them. They don't want money. They don't want us to come babysit or clean or find a new house. They just want to follow Christ. We had a very touching meeting this week which was filled with the Spirit. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. When we left, our member said "there's something special about them". I couldn't help but think about another young couple with a babe born in a manger. 

We also have four investigators (fingers crossed) getting baptized this week. Two investigators will need an interview by you,, but the other two will just be interviewed by our district leader this week. 

We are still trying to meet with the 13 year old's family, but will be able to meet with her mother and her today, so hopefully we can talk about a baptismal date for the whole family.

Because of the amount of investigators and people we are working with in our area, we are probably going to be having a short term missionary come up this week. The hope is that we can cover more ground with a short term missionary and a member, and help our investigators reach their baptismal dates. 

No worries about Georgia. I feel like this is Heavenly Father's way of saying we need to stay in the area and take care of His sheep this week. We'll make it up some other time :) Please give the sisters our love and the Bluncks as well.

My exchange with Sister K went very well. She has improved much in the language since my first exchange with her. She seemed stressed about the area, but moreso of "trying to live up to past missionaries legends." So we talked a lot about being yourself, but being your best most Christlike self and not worrying about past missonaries or anyone else. She's going to try not to compare herself and to work diligently and focus in her area. She never said anything about bloody noses and I never saw anything while I was there (I found about it after the exchange), so I'm not sure what is causing that.

This week we are planning to go to Centers' District Meeting and go on exchanges with Sisters Tenguerian and Long immediately after. We heard that Sister Long has been really tired lately and her body has been exhausted and also Sister Tenguerian doesn't know how she can best help Sister Long with the language, so we're going to try and help them out with that. If there's anything we can do for you or for them, please let us know.

Thank you for your love and for your example. I lvoe you and Sister C, so much!

Have a great time in Georgia with the missionaries and a great week!

Love,

Sister Morreall

# 70

Dear President,

Holy miracles! This week was full of them. Sister B and I for the last few weeks have really been focusing on President Bennett's and Elder Bednar's counsel. We've implimented their counsel into the work by setting weekly goals and we've seen huge improvement with the area! We've mostly been focusing on inviting, promising and testifying, finding people in between lessons, asking for refferals, focusing on finding families and calls of love. And our area has seen great growth! It's nothing that we haven't done before, but I feel like teh blessings are comng because we've been trying to show the Lord improvement and made steps to be better in all of these areas.

Our 13 year old investigator and her father came to church together! The father was very nice and seemed to really enjoy church. He couldn't stay the whole time because he had work, but we called them after church and scheduled an appointment to meet with them this week. Ideally, we want to meet with the whole family together and teach them all, so we are working towards that. But hopefully we can at least get a new baptismal date for the daughter. 

We are also working with three women (55 year old, 22 year old and an 8 year old). All three are progressing very well. They came to church. They read together in a little study group everyday from the scriptures. The two oldest are also weining themselves off of coffee which seems to be going well. Their only concern is that their husbands won't let them be baptized...but we were able to get in contact with the husbands and talked to them for a bit about our puspose. I think their hearts were softened a bit. They were very nice towards us and respected our work as missionaries. Our investigators are going to ask again about baptism this week.

We are also working with an older lady whose granddaughter comes with her to the lessons. She has been in contact wit the church for about 10 years and is ready to be baptized. She has no Word of Wisdom problems and we just helped her start back into readign the Book of Mormon. Hopefully she will be baptized at the end of the month. 

We are also working with one of our neighbors (she lives across the hall from us)! She was curious about what we believe, so we went over one day and taught her a little bit about the Restoration. Her mother is sick, so she wasn't able to make it to church, but we are going to schedule a time to meet with her and help her start reading from the Book of Mormon. 

We are also working with a member's mom (and the member's eight year old son) to help them be prepared for baptism together by teh end of the month. The member's mom has no Word of Wisdom problems either, but has trouble reading because of eyesight so we are hopiong to set up a reading group where her grandkids will read to her from the Book of Mormon. 

We also met with a husband and wife that we met on the street. We established expectations and did How To Begin Teachings and then extended baptismal dates to them. There date is in September. I'm excited to start working with them!

As far as ward goals, I think we have around 10 baptisms for the year (out of forty), we (as sisters) hope to have at least 6 more this transfer (if not more).

Thank you for your update on the Charensavan sisters. We actually contacted the zone leaders and district leader this morning to see how the sisters were doing. We are going to go on an exchange with them this Wednesday . We plan on focusing on working with ward members and showing our love to the sisters. If there is anything you would like us to know beforehand, please give us a call! 

Sister B is so amazing. She's really brought new life to Ajapnyak. Because she's always asking questions and wanting to improve, we've been able to do some fun things in our lessons to help teach investigators. (She's really good at using analogies and examples!) We also decided this week that we were going to "hear tattack" our Bishop and the Stake President's family by leaving cut out hearts on their doors and leaving banana bread on their doorstep. They really enjoyed it and it's really strengthened our already good relationship with them...it's even better!

Today I was reading in Mosiah chapter 5 and these verses really caught my eye: (v. 11-12) "And I would that ye should remember also, that this is the name that I said I should give unto you that never should be blotted out, except it be through transgression; therefore, take heed that ye do not transgress, that the name be not blotted out of your hearts. I say unto you, I would that ye should remember to retain the name written always in your hearts, that ye are not found on the left hand of God, but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be called, and also, the name by which he shall call you." I was thinking about how this applies to missionary work and just how everything we do in missionary work is centered on Jesus Christ. That as we do what he would do, and do it how he does it, we truly take upon ourselves His name. Yes, it's true we all wear nametags with his name on it, but I want to be the type of person that has His name and His being written on my soul...on my being. I want to be familiar enough with Him so that I can hear Him when he calls and recognize Him when I see Him. Now and after this life. That's what we are helping others to do. To take upon Christ's name and to become like Him through coming to know Him.

I'm grateful to be here in Armenia doing the Lord's work. There is no other place I'd rather be than here right now. Thank you for caring so much about me and the missionaries individually. I always feel like I can always be open with you and Sister C about anything. Thank you for trust, your example and your love!

Love,

Sister Morreall

# 69

Dear President,

We had an incredible week this week! So many miracles. Sister B and I have been focusing on finding families and asking referrals from EVERYONE. Literally everyone. We were blessed with answers to our prayers this week. Many of our ward members, including our Bishop and members we have been working with for a long time, introduced us to many of their friends who want to be baptized. We were able to invite them to church and to meet with them and pick them up as investigators. A few have met with the missionaries before, but just decided now that they want to be baptized. It was truly a blessing and a faith builder to me. I think we picked up 6 new investigators this week and have a few uncontacted referrals that we are trying to meet with. Many members have offered their homes to meet in too.  We are excited to begin teaching these new investigators and to give them baptismal dates. 

We've been working with a grandmother of a member family. They are hopefully going to be baptized together on Auguest 26th to complete a family. The grandma is a little worried if she'll make it because of her health, but Sister B's story of the grandma who got baptized with three priesthood holders really reassured our investigator that it will be okay!

We are also working on the mother whose girls are in Georgia. She has potential to be baptized whenever she decides, we're just waiting on her decision. We don't want to force her, so we've been just talking about the blessings of baptism so she comes to a decision on her own. We're trying to strengthen her up by helping her increase her Book of Mormon study and prayers. 

The Stake President and a member friend met with the 13 year old's dad this week. He wants her to hold off on baptism. He said that she can still meet with us and come to church, so we will continue to teach her. We invited the whole family to church next week, so hopefully the dad will come and his heart will soften so his daughter (and hopefully even his wife) will be baptized. 

We heard that Sister Ba is struggling a little bit in finding joy in working in her area right now. She said it has been a little hard finding her way around the area and trying to fill their day with people to see. So we have been giving her calls lately to see how she's doing and we will proabbly go on an exchange next week to see how she is doing. Hopefully Zone Meeting tomorrow will give her a boost. 

I had a unique experience on Sunday. I woke up feeling very peaceful, which for me isn't exactly normal since we get up and get straight to work and most of the time I have a million things running through my head. But nothing seemed to weigh on me. During the sacrament ordinance, I had a silent but strong confirmation that my work here in Armenia is acceptable to my Heavenly Father. I don't know why it came to me then or why I needed it then, but I felt that. It was a such a tender mercy to me to know that my Father knows me and he knows the work I'm doing here. I know for the rest of my mission, that no matter who gets baptized or who accepts the gospel message, it's okay because I've been trying my best, even though I'm imperfect. It's enough.

I'm grateful that you and Sister C have been such strong examples to me of always being happy and letting the Lord do His work. I'm grateful for your love.

I love you both so much!

Have a great week!

Sister Morreall