Hello! Bonjour!
First of all, thank you so
much for all the letters and packages I recieved this week! You are all
the best, and lovely little notes are being sent to you today.
This week absolutely flew by, I feel like it should be Tuesday of last week.
We went to San Fransisco! That was an adventerous day. We woke up at 2:15am,
got showered, dressed, and headed into the "kidnapper van" to be
escorted to the lovely Salt Lake City Airport. Upon arriving at the
airport our travel leader (Elder Travis Hansen) ran to punch in our
confirmation number for our tickets. No luck. He looked around to see if
someone would help us, but there was abosultely nobody in the airport. I
could have told him our tickets were for United, instead of Delta, but I
couldn't pass up the chance for him to freak out a teensy bit. So, I
didn't tell him. For a good 7 minutes. After I told him and we were in
the correct lobby and had our tickets we headed through Security. We
grabbed a bit of breakfast and I bet the Elders they couldn't give out 3
pass a long cards. They ran off to try to prove me wrong. In the mean
time, the sisters with us, Sister Urling and Sister Van Wagenen talked
to a very nice lady who took our picture and sent it to all our
mothers.
The Elders came back complaining everyone was already a memeber and they couldn't find anyone to give their card to.
The
real adventure came when we landed in San Fransisco. We were so lost.
So. Lost. The travel department didn't have a paper in our packet
telling us how to find our driver. Elder Hansen called them, we got the
instructions and then attempted to find out where we were going. No
luck. Because we flew United, instead of Delta, we had to find our way
to the terminal that had the Delta flights, walk to baggage claim, go
out the doors, head to courtyard one by following the dog prints. It
took us 45 minutes to find it. Poor Elder Hansen was so upset because he
felt like he "failed" us as our travel leader. I was just laughing
the whole time.
We walked into the consulate, and met a lady from
India, who has lived in the United States her whole life, getting a visa
to go to Paris on vacation. We discussed religion with her for awhile,
she's what she called a "Spiritual Hindu." She said she doesn't
practice a religion formally, but believes that all things on earth are
connected. It was an interesting conversation. We left her with a pass
along card. It's crazy to feel immediate love for anyone you talk to.
You just want to share everything you know about the gospel because you
know it's going to change their lives, but sometimes people really
aren't interested, and that breaks my heart.
Then we headed to Pier 39 to get some lunch. I love
being in the real world! I love the MTC, but I miss meeting strangers
and eating at restraunts. We took some pictures, saw sea lions, and ate
the most delicious sour dough bread on the planet. We had sour dough
sandwiches at a cheap, delicious cafe', and that is where we placed our
only Book of Mormon. The guy working behind the counter was named
Thumper, like from Bambi, I kid you not, and we was really nice. Anywho,
Sister Urling went back inside to buy a loaf of bread to eat on the
train home, and walked out with a free biscotti from Thumper. Perfect.
We walked back in with my Book, told him a little about the church,
marked 3 Nephi 11 with a pass a long card and committed him to read it.
Bam. We traded a delicious treat for Salvation. Sounds like a fair trade
to me.
Our flight was scheduled to leave at 1:10 and our driver was going to pick us up at noon.
That gave us 10 minutes to contact the people around the stop for our
driver. I sat next to a lady and we asked her about herself and her
kids, and we asked her if she knew a little bit about our church. She
said yes, and we were all waiting for her to say she saw the musical
(that's what everyone says) but she said, I really appreciate you young
people. You aren't trashy or skanky. Your church is great example to the
world. At this point I'm grabbing a book out of my purse, and she
continues, but my husband and I are practicing Scientologists and we
will never leave our church. Crussssshed. So we shared a message about
Christ and left her with a pass along card, just incase.
We said goodbye to San Fran and headed back to the
airport. I enjoyed a nice ginger ale on the plan, munched on a bag of
pretzels and got on Frontrunner to head home. All in all, our trip was
amazing.
I've discovered what I miss the most in the MTC. Ready?
Couches. I miss sitting on a couch so much. I have been 33 days sober
from those wonderful plush things. *sigh* Maybe in Tahiti there will be a
couch.
Speaking of Tahiti.... WE START TAHITIAN TODAY! I know,
we aren't supposed to start for another week, but we are a week ahead
in our french! How wonderful is that? Now I get 7 weeks to stumble over
crazy vowels instead of 6.
On Sunday we had a great lesson on Baptism, and I started thinking about our Baptismal committment, this is what I came up with:
By
being baptized we promise to always remember Christ. We promise to
remember his Sacrifice for us so that we may live with Him again.
Because we remember His Sacrafice, and we use the atonement, we WITNESS Christ lives and through him so may we.
And
because we understand the atonement, we are WILLING to take upon every
trial that comes with being a member of this church because we bear
Christ's name.
With that willing heart we WILLINGLY follow all the commandments given to us through the scriptures and modern-day revelation.
With
all of these things we can achieve the Ultimate Goal, which is, when we
fully commit and keep this covenant we can recieve the Spirit. With the
Spirit of Christ we can do all things. We can command in the name of
God, in behalf of God. We will receive all things, because all things
are for the benefit of men.
I really like that lesson.
In
one of our lessons with Manuarii (our teacher), he was giving our
critique when he told me the ability I had to speak French the way I do
is a miracle to him. This was after he accidentally said in French,
Jesus Christ was killed by the apostles. Oops. So, I guess French is
going well...? J'aime notre instructors. Ils ont l'Esprit est parceque
de ils, nous pouvons ensigner notre amies de l'eglise avec le
Saint-Esprit. (I probably spelled all of that wrong....)
Just on a last note, we watched "Tonic For Our Time" (I
almost wrote that in french....) By Sherri Dew last night. So so good.
This is what I got out of it.
She talked about
what we are focused on. If we focus on the world, and worldly things we
allow Satan to block our view from God. When our focus is on the Savoir
and serving him, then we can really begin to understand what path we are
to take in life. I've had a few friends write me about serving missions
and I thought this applied really well. Focus on the Lord, not the
world. What would He want you to do? Now, He doesn't call all men/women
to serve a mission. Many young women will be impressed not to start
mission papers, but they can take comfort in knowing they are following
the Lord's will. All men are called to serve a mission, but not all may
be able to complete the "normal" time of a mission. Sometimes God just
wants to prove your willingness, and then calls you to a different
aspect of life. You man think your time was cut short, but it wasn't.
You fufilled the time the Lord expected you to serve and you served
whole-heartedly. Take joy in knowing you are obeying and following your
extremely personal plan created by our Savior, just for you.
Be fearless.
I love you all!
Amour,
Morgan
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