Stoked to be in Nicaragua!!

Hey world,

Sometimes on the mission I feel like I am still just beginning, other days I feel like I leave tomorrow, no matter what I always just end up deciding to try and work just a little bit harder. I decided that I could always work a little smarter or a little harder every day. I decided to quit measuring my success in numbers a while ago. Something my old comp taught me (some missionaries use that as an excuse to be lazy), but he taught me that success is measured by two big factors 1. if you feel the spirit and work in union with him 2. if you improved from the day before.

Let me tell you the results are impressive. And as a natural side effect I find my numbers and successes are growing. Progress is after all God´s work and glory, progression unto perfection and immortality unto eternal life. So if we can sincerely say we are at least a little better than what we were the day before, we are successful.

It has been my pleasure and privilege to be a missionary, AND I AM SO PUMPED FOR THESE NEXT 10 MONTHS that I got left!!! I feel my testimony and relationship with my Redeemer growing every day.

We had a beautiful experience, a younger couple had been passing through some trials. He had had an accident at work and fell and destroyed his spinal column. He has slowly been deteriorating over time, but we offered to give him a blessing and it was so powerful and spiritual. I was on a companion exchange with an Elder that has been struggling with spirituality and he had tears running down his face after he finished the blessing. That Elder is a large Hawaiian man with a big heart, and he expressed so much love and gratitude toward that humble little family.

Experiences like these can only be had when we are working in the Lords work. Truly striving to bring others unto Christ, truly helping them develop faith in Him to allow them to be resurrected unto immortality and eternal life. The ultimate miracle of the gospel is our progress unto eternal life. Such a miracle that me, and all of us, have such value in God´s eyes, that He would send His Son to complete a perfect and eternal atonement that allows such unworthy creatures to be able to be the benefactors of the blessings of the gospel (in their infinite entirety!!).

I love you all and I am so stoked to be here in Nicaragua!!

Love,
Elder Morrison

I'm on a horse

Now excuse the title, I did not ride the horse, that would be disobedient. But my favorite bolito in Leon robbed one of the thousands of stray horses here and rode it through the streets so happy, whipping it trying to get it to run, but it wouldn't. But he was yelling victory cheers and looking like the most accomplished man this side of the Mississippi.

About my new comp, Elder Rush, he is a stud. We have been motivating each other to get better and work harder and we are seeing a ton of miracles and getting stuff done!! He is from Utah and played football and rugby, he is short and strong and fast, a true muscle hamster. We get along famously.

One of the families we are teaching and will be baptizing shortly had a son that got sick and what not, so the mom asked us to visit her and bless her son in the hospital. We went and the lady that shared the room with them had a little 5 month baby that was also sick so we gave the baby a blessing too. Upon finishing the blessing we realized the mom was crying and we found out that 2 days later she was packing her bag and dressing the baby because he had a miraculous recovery and was being discharged, she told us that and that this week she was going to come to church with us. After the blessings we left to go get food for our investigator, we entered the hospital with food when the cutest old Grandma called us over and found out we were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She told us that she has been a faithful member for 45 years (she is like 90 years old) and now she is sick and needs a blessing and she wants it now!! So in the lobby of the emergency room in Leon we gave that little Grandma a blessing. Afterward she thanked us and told us we were angels sent to her by God.  It was such a sweet experience. 

All three of those people have been discharged from the hospital as of today!! Yay for the power of God and healing!! 

And Friday night we got a call from a long time investigator that he wanted to be baptized Saturday, so we baptized Freddy!!! He is a super humble man and has a strong testimony of the church and we are very pumped for him and his decision to make such a sacred covenant!!

We told him we would have to go to the other side of Leon to be baptized and he said he didn't care, he'd go to heaven or hell to be baptized!! So coool!!

Due to the work and heat, I don't think I have sweat more in my life than in Leon. I am seriously so hot!! Not even football daily doubles touches the amount of heat here!! Luckily the water is clean here and I am PARASITE FREE (for now). So normal bodily functions for the time being!!

Love you all very much we are seeing the hand of the Lord in our labors every day, this has been definitely a top 5 week of the mission!! 

Love Elder Morrison

Enjoy the freak out of it

Well, that title is my theme, enjoy the freak out of it. I decided that today as I sat in the bus station. (A bus station in this country is a big open area with thousands of people yelling, selling, and tossing garbage, and yelling more, and honking horns and CHAOS).

Why? Because it was changes, and Elder Wilkes, my comp, left Sunday because today he had to fly to Puerto Cabezas, at the same time killing my dream of going to Puerto Cabezas myself. And so I stayed and had to plan out by myself how I was going to send and receive about 30 missionaries to all parts of this country. And it was extremely stressful. Then I decided something. Enjoy the freak out of it.

This week was really good, we got stuff done. We have been helping a family get married and baptized and we have had a ton of wonderful obstacles (mainly with city hall, which just imagine city hall in the states, only with people 2x more grouchy and technology from 1977). But the family are such elect souls!! They walk over one and a half hours to get to church, and she has read 300 pages of the Book of Mormon in 3 weeks. Pretty neat.

Because Elder Wilkes left I am now with Elder Rush, he was in Matagalpa with me, his trainer was my first DL, and he is a stud. He was in Puerto Cabezas before, so God is definitely mocking me because I want to go there so bad.

Anyway, I love Leon and missionary work. I love my Lord Jesus Christ, I know he is my Savior and Redeemer. I know He lives and loves each and everyone of us. I know that He truly did complete an infinite atonement that allows each and every one of us to become one with God and be the benefactors, one day, of life eternal. I know that in this life we, through this atonement, can be joyful in this life and peaceful too.

Love you all very much!
Stay Sweet and Enjoy the Freak out of it,
Love Elder Morrison

One year down, One to go

Hey so today for pday Presidente Poncio invited all of the zone to come and eat lunch, cooked by Hermana Poncio, at his house, unfortunately upon arrival my camera died. But his house is GORGEOUS. And the food was divine. We have a really vacanal zone we get along great and we baptize because we work hard, but party (missionary style which includes singing on the bus hymns accompanied by a guitar) harder.

We had the grand miracle of baptizing three this week, Naydling Maryeling and Marlon. They had been waiting for months for their parents to let them get baptized and finally they got it!! Naydling has been going to seminary for a while now, which is awesome and Marlon is already saving up for a suit to go on a mission!!

The baptismal service was really neat, they wanted to do it in the morning. And it was very special and beautiful.

This week we are planning on marrying and baptizing a couple that is really cool, she has read 200 pages of the Book of Mormon in 3 weeks. Truthfully is a huge testament that as missionaries we do not convert nor prepare, it is the Lord. We have a grand and amazing calling, but we must always remember that we are but instruments and we depend completely on the Lord for everything.

I read something comical the other day. An old general authority when training people always told them "Don't forget rule number 6"

Naturally they ask, "Well what is it?"

"Don't take yourself so darn seriously."

Then they ask "Well what are the other 5?"

To which he would say, "There are none."

So, I try not to take myself too darn seriously, but instead I try (try) to stay humble and kind. And be a "polished shaft" in the quiver of the Lord.

I yet lack much polishing but I am striving every day to be the best I can. I love missionary work so much, because it truly is the work of the Lord. And I can't think of anywhere else I should be.

Shout out to my Uncle Jace, he told me something in a letter that I got early on in my mission that I took to heart. That the Lord doesn't need me in the work, but that I need the work. It is a truly purifying and edifying experience to be here.

Love you all very much, 

Stay sweet, 

Love Elder Morrison