The phone call home and her first email from Louisanna!!!

WELL STACIA IS SO HAPPY FOR MORGAN!!!So Morgan called home last tuesday morning and it was so good to hear her voice!! When we answered the phone and she was so happy to hear our voices but she sounded really shakey.. I could tell she was on the verge of tears but they were tears of happiness...She loved the mtc experience and was so excited to get out on the field... we only got to talk to her for about ten minutes but they were a good ten minutes! I was crying pretty good and I just was so grateful to talk to her!

OK!!! Now for her first letter! She sent her first email!!!Here's the email she sent to the fam!!

Greetings y'all from the GLBRM (Great Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission)!Holy cow, I've been here almost a whole week, and it's AMAZING! Where do I even begin? Hmm...I'll start with transfers, and then go from there. So, Tuesday night we spent at President and Sister Woods' home. They are truly two of the nicest people I have ever met! I love them already! We had a little meeting, explaining the basic rules, and then they fed us dinner...and OH MY HEAVENS WAS IT GOOD!!! Of course, now that I think about it, I hadn't really eaten anything all day (you know how I am on airplanes--better safe than sorry), so they could have fed me fried gator droppings and I probably would have loved it. (I'm exaggerating about the fried gator droppings, Mom. Promise.) WE had roast beef, potatoes, cooked veggies, salad, and the most AMAZING rolls I've ever had in my entire life. Oh boy! :) And THEN, after dinner, we had....wait for it....HOME-MADE ICE CREAM!!!! It was like being home all over again!Anyways, we talked some more about rules, introducing ourselves, and then we got our area assignments. We (Sis. Dalley, Sis. Boulter, and I) opened ours first. Sis. Dalley was going to Metterie, a new sister area. It's a suburb of New Orleans. And her companion was Sis. Martin who was FROM FRANCE!!!! I know, I was so excited for her! Sis. Boulter was going to De Ridder, which is the farthest west area of the mission, right on the Texas border. She laughed, because she has a brother that lives like an hour into Texas, and she's from Fort Worth, and voila! She's pretty much in Texas again. Her companion was Sis. Pennock. And then it was my turn.When I first opened the letter, I read the wrong part (go figure). Sis. Boulter had to lean over and point to the part I was supposed to read. Once I was on the right track, I read, "You have been assigned to labor in the Prairieville area." The office elders--Elders Jones and Jamsa--were excited. This too was a new sisters area! And my companion was Sister Dansie. That made them excited too, because we'd be in their ward, and they LOVE Sister Dansie. Then Sister Woods scurried us all off to bed after our last district prayer with our beloved MTC elders--Elders Cook, Winlow, Syme, & Kent.We got up early (5 AM) the next morning, got ready, ate some homemade cinnamon rolls (P.S. I really like Sister Woods!) and eggs, and then jumped in the Transfer Van and headed off to the stake center to meet everyone else. I saw Elder Crawford--he's my district leader! He looks pretty much the same...except with short hair. It made me laugh. Slowly, we all (our MTC district) seperated and then the transfer van came back with my trainer, Sister Dansie!Sister Dansie is so much fun! I love her to death! I will send pictures, I promise, I just didn't bring the right cord thing today. Next week, I promise! Anywho...Sister Dansie is a blast! She's so cute and fun and excited and she loves being here in Louisiana. She was so excited to find out she'd be serving in Baton Rouge (Prairieville is a suburb) because sisters haven't been there for YEARS--like since before she got here! She told everyone she'd serve there someday, and all the elders were like, "No you won't," and now here she is! I'm learning lots from her, especially how to introduce the concept of baptism right from the start. It's great!We live in a little apartment that the elders lived in before us, which meant that once we got there, we deep cleaned. Dad, your apartment had better have not been as nasty as that was! Because if it was, you had NO room to tell me my room was messy! (Just teasing...but seriously!) Anyway, we got all settled, re-did our map so we'd know where we were going, and got down to business!We inherited a committed invesitgator from the elders before us. Her name is Tina, and she's set to get baptized on the 1st of November. We've talked to her on the phone, and will get to meet her this week. We also found a couple other investigators yesterday. There's Tesseena, whose door we knocked on thinking someone else lived there. She seems really cool! We get to talk to her later this week. And then there is Rasheed and his family. The missionaries had talked to him before, but since he drives for Pepsi, he wasn't home that much. But now he will be, and so we get to teach him and his family. He has three little kids--a girl who is 5, a boy (Cameron) who is 3, and they just had a baby boy a couple weeks ago. We're really excited to talk to them!We met a lot of members of the ward this week. That's where we'll be getting most of our investigators from. We're really pushing member referals because that's what the prophets have been telling us lately. "Every member a missionary!" It works so much better, too! Because a member already knows the person, there is already that basis of trust that is crucial for them to be taught. That's where the missionaries come in. We knock on their door, give them a present (Finding Faith in Christ, Joy to the World, etc.) and tell them how much their member friend appreciates them and says all this nice stuff about them. Because of that friendship, we are more likely to be let in to teach. So please everyone--REFER YOUR FRIENDS! The Second Coming is most assuredly coming, and there isn't much time left. We want all God's children to hear His message!Okay, I'm off my soapbox now. This is so important to me, you have to understand. That's why I might get a little excitable about it. But it's the truth, and people have a right to hear it.One last story, and then I've got to go. So we were driving back to the pad Friday night. We came to a three way stop. It looked like a four way stop, except that we didn't have a stop sign. So we drive through, and we're almost all the way through when this white truck runs his stop sign, and bangs into our back bumper. For a second, we thought we'd just hit a pothole or something. But then I turned around, and saw him keep driving, and that's when it hit me (no pun intended)--we'd just been in a hit and run! We pulled over into a parking lot, and got out to survey the damage. Our nice little maroon Malibu now has a big old dent in the back right bumper. We had to call the office elders, who told us to call 911 and then get back in the car and wait for them (Jamsa and Jones) and the police. Sister Dansie was a little paranoid because she'd just gotten a ticket on the way to transfers, and the Louisiana government is not known for being morally great. But the sherriff that helped us out was so nice, and helped her calm down. We sat and talked to him while we were filling out paperwork. I took a bunch of pictures of the bumper and gave them to Elder Jones who was impressed with that bit of thinking. I admitted that I kinda knew what the insurance company would want, seeing as how I had put a big dent in my own car. That made him laugh. But we finished the paperwork, said good night to the elders and the officer, and went home. And we were only a few minutes late! Yay hooray!In all seriousness, the Lord truly does care for His servants. Had we been going just a bit slower, or had entered the intersection a second earlier, had the truck been going any faster, we would have got broadsided. We said a very grateful prayer that night.Mom and Dad, thank you so much for your letters. I was a bit down yesterday, because we hadn't found too many people willing to listen, and the ones we did find, I let Sister Dansie do the talking because I was scared. But then I read your letters last night, and both of your parting comments were exactly what I needed to hear. Mom, you reminded me not to get discouraged if people weren't lining up to hear what I had to say, and that the right person would hear it and would listen. Dad, you told me that the message I am sharing was so important and that it was God's message, and then you said, "Be not afraid and testify." I almost started to cry reading both of those, because I had been worrying all evening about whether or not I was doing the right thing, and was so frustrated because people weren't listening. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for those words. They bolstered and strengthened me and reminded me that I am out here where I am most needed, that the message I am sharing is that God lives, that Christ lives, and that They love us so much, They've made it possible to be cleansed and return to Them through this gospel, THEIR gospel. And if people don't want to accept that, then that's their choice. But I've been called of God and been asked by Him to tell His children His message and to invite them to come home to Him through baptism, repentance, following the guidance of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. And I will not rest, I will not give up until I've said all I can say so that I can stand before my Father and my Savior and know that I did all I could, that I gave Them my very best. And then I will hear those precious words, "Well done, my daughter. Welcome home." This is the truth, and the only way to return to our Heavenly Father. This is the message that Christ died to give us, that Joseph Smith died to give us, that countless of other worthy and loyal and wonderful souls have dedicated their lives to give us. May we ever remember that. May we always remember the sacrafice that Christ made for us, and that it is after all we can do that He will step in and apply His Atonement, and tell the Father in our behalf, "They have done all they could, and now I will make up the rest." I love you all! Keep those letters and emails coming.

Your Favorite Missionary,Sis. P

ok so that was a pretty good first letter i must say!


heres the mini one she sent to me!!!

Okay, this won't be a very long email, but I just wanted to tell you that I am so thoroughly impressed with your decision to try and go to BYU! I know that you will be blessed for this decision. I love you so much! Keep the emails and letters coming! I only get to write on Mondays, so be patient with me if my emails aren't too long. I LOVE YOU!!!!

Your Big Sister,Morgan

P.S. You might be getting a letter from a sister here in Louisiana. She's an Alpha Phi and I told her about you, and she thinks she knows who you are because your big sister was her little sister....or something like that. Ha ha.

So thats the latest from Sister P!!!!