# 48

President usually writes nice letters to me every week, and I;m sorry I don't send them always, but I thought you'd like this one from last week.

Thank you Sister Morreall.

I was noticing you in zone conference last week. You have changed. Your countenance, your looks. I can indeed see his image in your countenance. You have grown up. Not that you were immature or childish, don't get me wrong. You just look different. You look good. Your mission has been good for you in more ways than one. 

I'm sorry about your crazy weekend last week. I hope this one was better.

Talk to the Elders and decide how best to take care of the teaching in Alaverdi. They seem a little confused.

Keep up the good work.

We love you.

Be safe!

Dear President,

Thank you so much for your kind letter. Your words really mean a lot to me. 

I loved Zone Conference this past week. Thank you so much for your preparation and time in teaching. I value and treasure your input and counsel. I've had a concern this week from the meeting that I've been thinking about and contemplating a lot. It's about our taxi driver and his family. Their situation was mentioned in Zone Conference, and in review after the meeting, my companion and I felt that it might have seemed like we weren't trying to meet with them. We did call them throughout the week and had been praying for them. Lately, they have just been making choices on their own that are not in line with the doctrine and principles we have taught them. It has really been hard for me to see this family struggle. It has been a constant experience throughout my mission...seeing people that I love make incorrect choices and it breaks my heart. But as Joseph Smith taught, we teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves. It was their choice to break the Word of Wisdom and to decide not to meet with us anymore. I can't help but think if this is how Noah, Nephi and even Christ Himself felt after they had taught their people the truths of the gospel and then watched their people make incorrect choices. Jesus Christ, the greatest person to ever have and ever will have walk to the earth, established his gospel and then a few hundred years later watched his people fall into apostacy! 

It hurts me to know that he labored for all of His children, but not all of His children will accept Him. That's a lot like what we're doing now I suppose, as was mentioned in the conference. I was reading in Preach My Gospel on charity a few days ago and a sentence really stuck out to me. Talking about the people we teach, it said "You will see them as children of God with the potential of becoming like our Heavenly Father, and you will labor in their behalf." We are truly doing the Lord's work here in Armenia and of course we are going to feel as He did for His people here. 

The story about the highest baptizing missionary is great. I love hearing about it. It motivates me to do better. But I think the success in the story is not that he baptized so many people, but rather he pictured them as Christ pictures them and he made his will the God's will.

I hold myself accountable to the Lord often, as I mentioned in the meeting. I admit some days are better than others, but Heavenly Father always lets me know how He feels about my work...actually, His work. I feel at peace. 

I know that He loves me. I know that you and Sister C love all of us missionaries and I am grateful for your inspired teachings at Zone Conference. Elder Holland visited a mission in Mexico last year and he said "It is one thing for leaders to have to worry about the sheep, but having to worry about the shepherds? It simply should not be." Please let me know of the ways I can improve in my missionary work. 

With our investigators this week, there is much to tell. Despite being told not to meet with them anymore, we were thinking about our taxi driver and his family. We called and invited them to the Women's Day activity at the church. The wife and the kids came! The father was busy at work, but when he picked him up he was very cordial and invited us to call him and return to visit him again this week. We will be going back this week to meet with them. 

We also met with the grandmother and our little angel this week. We had another miracle this week with them as well. Their family is against them coming to church, but despite the family pressure, the 12 year old came to church. We had a little scare at church when we thought that the family members were going to come and take her home, but they never came. The grandmother also signed the permission slip for the 12 year old to be baptized and they both plan on being baptized (probably in Gyumri) on March 29th. We do have one concern with them though. The grandmother has been watching the granddaughter for 12 years, and is technically the guardian because the mother is away in England and hasn't been sending any financial support for the 12 years, but we will be working with our bishop this week to try and and get the documentation from the government. Would you come up to Vanadzor or interview via skype or telephone?

We also met with the single mother and her relative this past week. They plan on being baptized this week together, although we will probably move the relative's date back because she has not been attending church. We have hopes that the single mother will be baptized this week though. We  do have a concern about the Word of Wisdom however. She has told us that she does not smoke and we haven't actually seen her smoke, but with circumstantial evidence we believe that she does. We will be reviewing the baptismal interview with her today in hopes about addressing that problem. If she says that there is no problem even after all we've tried, and we feel good about it, we will still schedule her interview for this week. (We are hoping there really is no smoking issue and that she is honest and will pass her interview to be baptized). If everything goes well, she will be baptized this Saturday.

We met with an older woman investigator this week as well who would like to be baptized (she has a date for March 29th), but because her son is against the church, she is waiting until he leaves for Russia to make further decisions on her progress towards baptism. 

We went to Alaverdi this week with our Bishop and met with the mother, her friend and the two children we are teaching there. They have been keeping commitments and are excited to be baptized! We taught about the Word of Wisdom and the mother is a coffee drinking, but we challenged her to reduce her coffee intake daily and hopefully by this week she will be done. She wants to stop drinking, so hopefully her desire will  help her to overcome this challenge. We met the father this week as well and he had many questions, but at this time is not looking to be baptized with his family. We will continue to keep friendly relations with him though. The parents also signed the permission slips for thieir children to be baptized, so the only concern we have now with them is whether they have a zoks (marriage license). We will address that at our next meeting with them.

We also met with a member in Alaverdi who has two grandchildren (one girl -11- and one boy - 8) who want to be baptized. We began teaching them and gave them Books of Mormon and baptismal dates as well. 

We also met with a twenty year old mother who has been a long time investigator of the church, but has recently expressed interest in being baptized. Her husband is a less-active member and her mother-in-law is a strong member. Her siblings also have all been baptized. We have hopes that this investigator and her mother will be baptized and complete their family. She has been reading and praying when we visit, and our only concern is that she and her husband do not have a zoks, so we will also address that will them this week when we visit. 

All of the investigators in Alaverdi have baptismal dates for March 30th.

The senior couple and all of the elders have been such a great support with everything, especially all of our investigators. My companion has been a great support as well. I love them all! 

Sorry, my letter was so long this week. Thank you for your love and for your time!

I love you,

Sister Morreall

Fun/cool facts:

I went to a funeral this week. A long time investigator's mom died. In Armenia they leave the body in the house for days and display it in a coffin with mirrors around and a bowl of blood underneath the person's head. Usually only women enter the room and mourn (wailing and crying). It was an interesting experience... especially since this was my first time ever seeing a dead person.