# 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