11-21-2016

Dear family,

WOW, those are the BEST pictures... I love the one where you are shearing the sheep and he's got his head all sideways and the finger peace sign... it made me laugh! As did the video of all the sheep and stuff, I am not going to lie... it looks like the BEST mix of horses, sheep, goats, and alpacas in the world! It makes me kind of homesick though, like it's weird. I love those sheep xD

It's sounds like it has been a really good week for you, though of course stressful at times... I am glad however that things are going pretty well there :)  I really appreciate the emails and spiritual insights... and I'll be sure to keep those things in my prayers!

Anyways though, this has been a really awesome week and I have really learned a LOT from all the things that have happened! I can't believe though how fast this week has FLOWN, I swear it was just yesterday that I was here in CSI Lucao emailing home about my week xD I don't even really know what to say! 

My biggest highlight for this week is the fact that we went to Urdaneta on Thursday for our special conference and got to hear the message of Elder Cook to us here in the Urdaneta Mission (Sorry... there is not any news on the Urdaneta temple) though he did warn us that we need to be doing even better than we are right now... that the temple IS coming and that Pangasinan is going to have a temple at it's center, which means for us missionaries here that we are to prepare the land for the coming of a temple of the Lord. It was a really great time and I learned a lot.

~~Can I just say that Quentin L Cook looks wayyy older in person?? ;)~~

Oh, and he totally has soft old man hands... all of us missionaries got to shake his hands, along with Lyyn G. Robbins and Elder Shayne Bowen. It was just a really really cool experience and we all felt the spirit really well!

What else?? I got to go to the area of the Elders in Dagupan 6th Ward for a baptismal interview (Yes, there are 6 wards in this city and 3 buildings.... a LOT of members here!!!) But it was SO COOL because we had to take boats, but they weren't like the last ones out of like plywood... they were literally like carved from a tree trunk and had bamboo on the sides so it wouldn't be so easy to tip over (I was afraid that we were going to sink or something... it was a tiny little boat). It was actually a lot of fun, I honestly didn't think that I would have so many adventures on my mission! 

It's just been a really great week. Nanay T has finally come to church (T has been taught for a while and is progressing to a new baptismal date in December and Nanay wasn't progressing for a long time) but they both came. This old couple came to church and we really had a great time!

I think that this week is going to be a little less crazy, we have apartment checks... so Elder C and I will be going around to everyones apartment to see how clean they are. And tomorrow at like 5am we plan on going to the beach.... so hopefully I'll have some pretty great pictures! 
Overall I think it's been just another great week in Paradise, and I look forward to another great one :) Love you guys so much! Take care out there in good ol' Virginia!

~Elder Morris

PS- The first funny sign is the "Anay problem" which means termite problem... but someone putting an N in front changed it to NANAY PROBLEM... which is like saying old lady problem?

PSS- The other one that says "Bawal umihi dito, etc..." translates to

                 Not allowed to pee here

                     Only Dogs can pee here

                            Why? Are you a Dog??

And of course you can see the sketchy little canoe looking boat that is pretty much close to just sinking...

11-14-2016

Hi family!

Haha, first things first... I GOT THE CHRISTMAS PACKAGE A MONTH EARLY WOOOOOOO. I had Christmas early this year ;) It was super awesome and I was quite frankly taken back by the whole 5 pounds of Good and Plenty!!! I suppose it wasn't too much of a "sin" to open the package way early because here in the Philippines they totally start Christmas in September! That AND I hit my one year mark this week... so it has been a time of celebration :D Honestly it's kind of crazy that time has flown SO fast, in fact I'm coming down the mountain... though it still feels uphill because we work and work every single day!

Anyways, it sounds like it's been an up and down week at home, but that's all okay. Even though I'm here we still heard all about the results of the election that Donald Trump has been elected President. (A member who is kind of crazy thinks that it is a sign of the second coming because of something about the sound of TRUMPets in the Bible.... like in Revelations) But anyway, I'm not going to say too much about that... because I'm a missionary ;) However... I don't quite know what is going to happen. We totally heard about the riots too. Crazy People.

Anywayyyyys,

           There is some SUPER cool news this week, President D has called for a Mission-wide conference this coming Thursday. (We think that there is going to be news coming about the Urdaneta temple.) And this is what they have up as our Mission News this week...

We are honored to have Elder Quentin L. Cook, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, visit the Philippines. He will be accompanied by Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Presidency of the Seventy, Bishop W. Christopher Waddell of the Presiding Bishopric, Elder Shayne M. Bowen of the Seventy and the Philippines Area President, and Brother Daniel Almeida the Area Director for Temporal Affairs.

So I think it's going to be a pretty awesome week... especially since we'll get to meet and shake hands with each of them! :D

And considering that this has been my week of the whole ONE YEAR MARK...I think that this week has for me been a time of self reflection and really an opportunity to set more personal goals. In case you don't know quite yet, I hit that 'one year mark' just last Friday... and for me it really opened my eyes more and helped me to "see the big picture" so to speak. I realized that there is only a year left of my full time service here in the Philippines and that I should make the best of it that I possibly can.
In light of my recent calling to Zone Leader, I've grown comfortably into the responsibilities and the occasional rigors of the work. As I have been realizing... the successful missionary doesn't always come when they have a TON of lessons and all that, but most of it comes from personal commitment. That's really the aim and goal and hope of what I am doing here... I want to keep BEING a missionary until the end of my time here. And then the results will follow behind.
We are kind of bummed about our investigators not coming to church... because we were SURE of at least 4. One of them is Tatay T and he is supposed to be baptized like this coming week... but it's going to be pushed back to December because he didn't come to church :P And the same goes to another one of our investigators, A.

There is a field here that is white and ready to be harvest... but for some reason it feels like the wheat is just trying to keep itself in the ground xD It's still a whole lot of fun, and I can expect more happy things to keep coming!

I can't wait to email next week and let y'all know about what it was like to meet Quentin L. Cook ;) Love you guys so much!!! Keep on hanging in there :D

~Elder Morris

ps- We went to a part of our area called Tucok. And it's literally this island that is completely covered with like these small homes! We had to take some sort of boat that was built out of ply wood and had a small motor. It was pretty awesome and I'll never forget that experience!

pss- I also don't know if I told you about this, but I totally pulled a Dan Jones on All Saints Day and shared the Plan of Salvation while standing on this big granite coffin.... it was pretty awesome. I'll show y'all the video in a year.

Psss- We totally wore sandals on sunday because an investigator uses the excuse that he can't come to church because he "doesnt have shoes" so told him that we would wear sandals with him... so we did..... BUT HE DIDN'T COME ANYWAY.

pssss- okay, I'm done with the Ps's

OH MY GOSH. I think it would be so awesome to have that "buh GOK" picture on a shirt because that is just too great of a picture!!! It sounds like it was really a great week for you guys! HAPPY HALLOWEEN.... I reach my 1 year mark on Friday! It makes me feel like some old man missionary to be so far in my mission! xD It's so fun to hear about all the adventures that you had this week with the farm work and the strange collection of all the different animals (the alpacas... chickens... sheep... dog... more sheep...etc...etc...etc...) I hope that the election somehow end up going well, but I honestly don't know what;s going to happen. For something that I've been guessing, I more or less feel like they are going to manage to elect the worst possible person they can :P Let's just be honest, that's more or less how the worlds values are going.... right down the CR. (Here in the Philippines we don't call it the "bathroom", we call it the CR.... the comfort room) 

This week has been pretty fun though a pain in the butt at some parts, like when someone stops wanting to listen to this message or literally interrupts us in the middle of a lesson with "I have somewhere to go" (but totally doesn't) but those are kind of stories for other days, I'm focusing on the best parts of this week!! :D It's been a really fun time to teach and keep trying to find people. In fact, one of the big things I've learned this week is how important it is to just talk to everyone about the gospel, because last last week we met this old 76 year old man by OYM literally he stopped by us as we were talking to someone else and he was carrying a bucket of water. But we talked to this old man and it turns out that his deceased brother is actually one of the old bishops here!! We've been teaching him almost daily because he is really progressing and will be baptized this coming November 26! It's just so cool... what I learned is that us as missionaries cannot judge who is going to be ready for this message and who is not! I think that goes for everyone, we never really know who the Lord is preparing to receive this message. Because at the start, this Tatay didn't really strike me as someone ready for the gospel! But what we soon learned is that he is AWESOME I mean this old guy is just super funny, he looks like he falls asleep in the lesson but is actually just pondering what we are saying... I mean really sometimes it looks he is sleeping! But he comes to church every Sunday :)P He doesn't have anywhere to go because he is a caretaker of someones home who lives in another country... so he spends a lot of his time actually reading the BOM!

I realized something too... a lot of people here are actually really good at English, in fact most of the members here can speak it without too much problem... still mostly Tagalog, but it's like Taglish xD That's actually what I'm becoming really fluent in, Taglish because that's actually what a lot of people use here! Now of course in the lessons we just use all Tagalog... but conversational is just fine if it's Taglish (as long as they aren't like difficult English words) But anyway, It's been really fun here in Dagupan. It IS known as "The Promised Land" because we get fed or eat out a LOT... as in we have only eaten maybe 3 or 4 meals at the apartment in the last week! It's pretty great, I'm afraid though of getting like super fat out here.. .#Gonna start exercising #Skadoosh #Learning to live with lardy lumps. (Haha, that last one was a little gross xD)
Anyways, It has also been a really humbling week for me as I continued to settle into the responsibilities that I now have as a Zone Leader in Dagupan Zone. One of my main responsibilities is just to be a good example and then the second one is reimbursing missionaries for basically anything they need... it's way crazy. I've also been pondering on how I can follow the idea of Elder C in redoubling my efforts, which is helping me to continue to grow! I find that when we imagine the temple in the lesson, there seems to be an immediate jump in the spirit and openness of the investigator! The redoubling of effort is something that Elder C came up with as he read in.. DC127:4 I think. It was actually really good! So that is something that I"m working on doing here! But overall, it's been a great week and we are still continuing to try harder every day :) I am actually super Tranky right now... (tranky... a missionary term meaning like thinking about home and stuff) because this Friday is ONE YEAR on my mission. I simple CANNOT believe just how fast time has been flying, and I'm afraid to say that I think I'll be home before I know it!

Thanks again for your emails! I totally gotta go now... time to buy grocery (which reminds me... I bought this hand alcohol (because we don't use hand sanitizer...) and it smells like... TRUCK STATION BATHROOM... like that kind of Lysol smell, or that like... bathroom air freshener. It's such a gross smell xD Anyway, you guys take care, I can't wait to 'hopefully' SKYPE this next month! It's SO CRAZY how fast time has been flying out here! Love you guys so much! 

~Elder Dobby Morris (Sorry, I meant to type just Morris... I don't know where Dobby came from)

Ps- No pics... :( I totally forgot my SDcard-USB converter back at the apartment :P

10-31-2016

I'm sorry guys, I don't really have time to be able to email... so this is gonna just be a quickie and an update from my week! Is that Filipino lady in the ward still fluent in Tagalog??  Because I would LOVE to just get home and talk so someone in another language so that you guys won't understand a thing :D :D It sounds like you guys have had a really awesome Haloween! (We don't celebrate it here...) and just an overall awesome week!  

This has been a CRAZY WEEK! So... last Monday evening the APs called us and told me that I would be transferring. On Tuesday afternoon I transferred to DAGUPAN CITY and have been called as a Zone Leader. But before that... on Tuesday Morning (Because I finished packing) we went quickly with some of the members to the awesome waterfall in Natividad to kind of just say goodbye to the members and stuff. It was a SUPER beautiful waterfall! But that's all I'll say because the rest can be seen in my pictures :D

So anyway, I got picked up and taken to Dagupan City that afternoon. This is kind of the main city in Pangasinan and has some 18 total missionaries working within it's boundaries! And my new companion is named Elder C. He's from Manila, and is fluent in English. I wish though that y'all could here his accent, it is almost like an old italian mafia boss. Not gonna lie... I wish I had his accent :D It's so fun here in Dagupan, it's actually not even that hot! And we've really been working hard to get our lessons and work here (because most people aren't even home... lots of people doing all their work) But I've been meeting some really nice people and members, this ward has some 140+ members and a LOT of them can speak English pretty well :) That's all good though, I haven't been being troubled too much with the language! 

Anyway, something we are working on is getting ready for All Saints Day. (most people dont really celebrate Halloween like in America) It was really interesting, because they actually celebrate here on November 1st though I don't really know why! So we're planning to do as much finding as we can on Tuesday and Wednesday! (We have a curfew those two nights at 6pm so we will start working at 8pm)

I met this totally crazy lady the other day who told me all about that "mormon mafia" and I died laughing. First it was that, and then she kind of "lost it" and started talking about how she believed in Illuminati. She talked about how you can't believe the big media because they're corrupt (which I'm not saying is all false...) and that all she reads is online. (Not everything you read online is true...)

Mom, I had a really really neat experience this week in teaching a member. This Sister has 2 kids, her husband just got recently converted and they have plans on getting sealed next year and then expressed concerns for trials that they are starting to face. As I was hearing the situation of they lives, I realized that they're story was very similar with you and Dad! I hope that you don't mind that I told this Sister your story because it really helped her... we talked a lot abuot the trials that come in the face of great spiritual events. And that is something that I noticed is a really big pattern, there is always some sort of push from satan before there is something of spiritual significance! Take the first vision for example...

Anyways, I am loving it here so far in Dagupan, in fact... they call it the "promised land" of The Urdaneta mission. Not because of the work... because the missionaries get fed a LOT here ;) But other than that, it's just another area.... only city and with a lot of people.

Sige. that's all! See y'all some day :D I'm loving it so much here in the Philippines... it's just amazing how much this is changing my life. I guess that I will be able to understand the viewpoints of others because this is going to change the choices I make for the rest of my life!

Love you guys,

~Elder Morris~

PS- My first day here I found the BEST construction company with one of the worst names ever!. A.S.S.... who names their company that?!\

PSS- We also went to a birthday for Geru. One of the CUTEST LITTLE KIDS ON THE FACE OF THIS PLANET!!!