First Week in San Antonio/ Converse

We got to talk to Morgan on Sunday. We also got an email from her on Monday! (Monday is her new email day.) She is happy and funny as ever. It was a real treat to talk to her. She arrived in San Antonio last Tuesday. She and the rest of the missionaries spent their first day at the mission home having dinner and entrance interviews. On Wednesday she contacted people and passed out Book of Mormons at the Alamo. Then she attended a mission Christmas devotional.

Currently, she is in a suburb of San Antonio called Converse. She says the people are really nice, so that's good. Unfortunately, it's an English speaking area. Hopefully she will be moved to as Spanish speaking area soon. She says she can't wait to get moved closer to the Mexican boarder where everyone speaks Spanish. But until then, I know she is content to go where ever she is needed.

So without further ado, here is Morgan's email:

Dear Family and Friends,

To begin my letter today I just want to say thanks for all the fantastic Christmas gifts. Specifically, however, I would like to thank you for the ear plugs you sent me several weeks ago. I had hoped that once I left the MTC my days of sleeping in the same room with someone who snores would be over. Alas, it is not so. I discovered last night that my companion does snore and I am a light sleeper so I put in my ear plugs and the world became a much happier place. I also wanted to thank you for the letter I got at Christmas conference. I admit I kind of cried when I read it. I'm a crier ok. What do you expect?

I was glad to hear all of your voices yesterday and to get your emails this morning. James, I was glad you could be there too. In our mission we follow the white handbook exactly so I'm not allowed to email you but I'll include you in my family email :) there isn't really a ton for me to say today except that I hope you have a fun drive to Arizona. (ugh *shudder)  :) and I hope it's warm. Also, I lied to you yesterday on the phone. I have no idea what kind of car I drive and just said the 1st one that came to my head; sorry about that. It was pretty believable though. I drive a Chevy Malibu, and I checked the oil today.

Yesterday after I hung up with you we had Christmas dinner with the Hunters. They are fantastic and have the cutest little kids. I love Mormons so much!  After that we went to visit a woman in an assisted living home who has some sort of memory loss disease. My heart broke every time she asked me where I was from which was about 10 times in 45 minutes. We just had the same conversation over and over, but we did get to read some scriptures to her and talk about church and she enjoyed that.

Oh, don’t forget to put my name on letters and packages or I probably won't get it. That's what happened to my Christmas packages by the way. The MTC mail room was very confused, but that's ok. They got over it, and I got my presents. Ok, I’m just talking about pointless stuff now so I'll let you go. Keep sending me letters because I love them and tell everyone thank you for the Christmas cards I got.

Love you all. :b..... I just drooled on you all. hahaha. That’s how much I love you. On the smiley face scale of 1 to 10 the drooley face is an 11 because I think it's so funny.

Lots of awesome love,

Morganthecoolest

p.s. Morgan has been getting your letters. She doesn't have a lot of time to respond to you. But she is very appreciative. Keep sending them!

No Email

As you may have seen, we didn't get an email from Morgan this week. She probably figured she would be talking to us soon enough. Plus, I know she was busy packing and preparing to fly to San Antonio. She did call and talk to our dad for a few minutes from the airport on Tuesday. She seemed excited and happy. We also know that she arrived safely.
So after her call home Sunday I will fill you in on all the interesting details about where she is, her trainer, and how her first couple of days in the Field have been. If we're really lucky she may even talk about her feelings. (gasp)


Until then, Merry Christmas and God Bless!

creepy puppets and ugly dresses

Hey family,

So first for the really good stuff, Nora got baptized today!!! Ok so Nora isn't real. She's one of our MTC investigators/ our teacher pretending to be an investigator; but she got ‘baptized’ and ‘confirmed’ today and is leaving for Mexico on Friday for Christmas. This week has been so long and stressful but it's also been a lot of fun too.

Oh, I have a fohawk again, and I love it. Everyone else loves it too! I think my coolness points go up by 100 every time I cut my hair like this.

Most likely this email will make no sense whatsoever...

I found the most amazing, ugly, give-away-box dress I've ever seen. It’s like Star Wars meets Hawaii. It has the biggest poofed sleeves I've ever seen. They make my shoulders huge but the rest of the dress fits me really well.

We’re having a Secret Santa with our Zone this week before we leave for Texas. It's been way fun… the poor elder who gets stuff from me… I made the ugliest pillow-case-doll ever and put it on his chair. The puppet’s name is Princess Edna.

That’s so exciting that James is getting home. Tell him I say ‘hi’ and give him my address if you so feel the desire.

Sister Morgan Heeder

Texas San Antonio Mission

404 E. Ramsey Rd #105

San Antonio, TX 78216

That's the mission home. I really wish I had something super witty* to say right now, but I'm kind of lacking. I get to call home in a week and a half. I'll give you more details about Christmas when I get them. I like that my 1st Sunday in the mission field will also be my 1st Christmas in the mission field. It's going to be so crazy busy! I'm not really sure what exactly is going to be going on but I'm sure it will be awesome.

Scripture challenge this week is 2 Nephi 9 and other things about the Plan of Salvation.

I am a four-square queen. I just started playing and I'm so good. The elders are all in awe of me. I recently won my first 4-square battle and it felt so good. I really like winning. The sad part is that I only have 4 days of gym left :( oh well I'll survive I guess.

Oh, so I've been getting a ton of Christmas cards so tell everyone thank you. I don't know who some of these cards are from but I'm guessing they’re people in our ward.

I’m starting to get more excited for Christmas b/c even though it doesn’t exist in the MTC it does in Texas and I'll be there in a week from today. Isn’t that crazy? If you want to send me any more Dear Elders make sure you do it before Monday morning or I will never get it. Even that might be cutting it close.

I hope you're all having a fantastic week. Sorry my emails are so poor, but maybe they'll get better in the field when I don't have a time limit.

I love you all and I pray for you always. Have a Merry Christmas.

Love,

Morgan

Doctor Who

Dear Family [and Friends],

In case you're wondering there is absolutely no reason for me to title this email "DoctorWho" apart from the fact that I just felt like it. So now on to what I've been doing this week. To be honest I don't really remember because I'm pretty sure yesterday was Tuesday, and I just sent you an email. Ok, I'll think really hard and see what I can come up with... I read in the Book of Mormon... I read in Preach My Gospel... I...studied Spanish....Oh! I got to watch the Christmas Devotional and that was sweet.

I keep forgetting it's almost Christmas because, oh yeah, I live in a time vortex. Just two more weeks, just two more weeks. Texas here I come! If we want to get into real specifics I'll tell you: I read the book of Omni today and I've been studying the Plan of Salvation this week...

Ok, so I just remembered something kind of exciting. Hna. Probert and I get to host new missionaries tomorrow. I would be a lot more excited if it weren't so cold. Also, we've been selected to do a "how to begin teaching" workshop for the new missionaries on Wednesday night. So that should be fun. We went to a training meeting yesterday with about 10 other missionaries, and there was no one there to do the training. We started studying on our own, and when someone finally showed up he said, “Sorry, I don't have time to train you today, so I'll see you when we meet on Wednesday. Good luck,” and he left.

By the way, what is going on with this whole blog thing? I keep hearing about it, but I have no idea what's on it, which for some reason makes me a little nervous b/c, you know, it's about me and it's on the internet forever for the whole world to read. But, you know what, I'm cool with it 'cuz I'm just cool like that :) *Ting.

I almost wet myself reading the letter from Uncle Bob. About the cafeteria food....yeah...

Thanksgiving was awesome. My district is way tight, so it was like I was spending the holidays with family. It was really nice.

I'm so out of time.

I love you all!

Love,

Morgan (Alliteration) Heeder


p.s. I found this card in the book store, and I really liked it. It had a flock of sheep, and one of the sheep is wearing a bright red bow-tie. It says, " The thing I miss most about being with you...is no one here thinks I'm funny." I seriously thought about sending it to you, but decided it would be a lie b/c people here do think I'm funny...because I am. and besides, bow-ties are cool. :)

* Don't forget to alliterate when you write to Morgan. It's funny.

The Food Gave Me the Runs for 3 Days

Oh my goodness family,

I about wet myself reading some of your emails. But I don't have much time to write because they only give me 30 minutes.

Holy cow it's been a crazy couple of weeks. Thanksgiving was so good. I think the food gave me the runs for three days; but other than that it was a good day. We wore turkey hats that Hna Probert made, and we made gumdrop turkeys as a district. Elder Nelson came and spoke to us; we did a service project; and we watched 17 Miracles, which I really liked. I cried. Oooh, and last Tuesday Elder Christofferson spoke to us, so we got to see two of the Quorum of the 12 in the same week!

I met Weston Dransfield's trainer the other day when I went to the chiropractor, and he said Weston was one of his favorite companions. So you can tell his parents if you like.

There’s not much else I have time to tell now, but I love you all and hope to hear from you soon.

Love,

Morgan

Pictures

Today is Thanksgiving and the family is feeling a little homesick for Morgan. But we are so grateful that she is serving a mission! Today she will have a Thanksgiving meal and one of the General Authorities of the Church will come speak to all the the missionaries in the Missionary Training Center. Lucky!

Luckily for us, we got some pictures from Morgan via snail mail. Here they are!

This is from the afternoon we dropped Morgan off at the MTC.

Morgan and her companion.

Here she is with her companion again at the Provo Temple. (P.S. Morgan is pretty tall, but her companion dwarfs her. The girl must be huge. I wonder how tall she is.)

Morgan with her district. These are the people that she spends a good 12+ hours a day with.

A Bright Green One to Match My Awesomeness

So, funny story...ok it's not really that funny and really quite sad. The other night (last Tuesday) I fell asleep with my watch on as usual. In the middle of the night I woke up as usual, took it off and threw it on the floor b/c it kept getting caught on my blankets.Tthe next morning, not as usual, I forgot to put it back on so I went the whole day not knowing what time it was . :( When we got back to the room that night I couldn't find my watch anywhere. I cleaned up all my stuff and enlisted the help of all my roommates. After much searching and brainstorming Hna. McKay decided it must have fallen in the garbage can which sits right next to my bed. I immediately started digging through the garbage when another of the hermanas said,"Oh, I took it out this morning." I was crushed. So the next day I want to the bookstore to find out when they would get more watches in b/c I wanted to get another bright green one that would equal my personality in awesomeness, but they didn't have any. So I walked away and went another day without knowing the time. I returned to the bookstore the next day and there were still no bright green watches but I knew I wouldn't be able to last another day without knowing the time so I bought a navy blue watch which is not as cool but still serves its purpose.

This week has been really good apart from throwing my watch away in my sleep. oh, and I didn't get any letters b/c DearElder is down or something so that was kind of sad. I don't know though, maybe no one wrote me any letters anyway. Temple walk this week was amazing. it was so cold but the mountians are so pretty right now. I met a sister from San Antonio and she said it will be in the 80s when I get there. hahahahaha.

Scripture Study Challange: Alma 31-32 and 3 Nephi 27

I'm hoping for a letter today so I'll cut this email short in case I need time to respond to anything.

Love,

Hermana Heeder/Morgan

I got a letter, I got a letter, I got a letter hey, hey, hey, hey!

Morgan's weekly letter is here! I want us to take a few things away form this. First, having mono stinks. Second, remember to have fun. Third, we should all alliterate when we speak to Morgan. It makes her happy. I suggest Magical Morgan but am open to your suggestions. Fourth, write more letters. Fifth, granola bars.

Hey Family,

Today is my 4 week mark and Sunday is the half way point!!!! I’m so excited to go to Texas. Sometimes I am just so done with the MTC. Then I think, “Thank goodness I still have five weeks here.” Holy poop.

Thanks for all of the letters this week. They are awesome. OK we had this fireside on Sunday that basically said, pay your tithing and DON’T HAVE FUN!!! Ok not really but … yeah that’s pretty much what it was. So here is my piece of advice for you, pay your tithing and HAVE LOTS OF FUN! b/c I can’t :(

So I saw Arlin on Friday and was so excited! I gave him a hug in the lunchroom without even thinking about it. There you go, Brent. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to come up with a song and choreography, but I’ll work on that, Brent.  I don’t see Arlin very much because we’re on different schedules. Plus he’s down stairs and I’m upstairs. But we’ve passed each other a few times so far and I see him at a distance.

Dad, if you could address me as ‘Dear Daughter’ all the time I would appreciate it. I mostly like it because it’s alliterative, so I guess you could come up with some other alliterative name for me, and that would be ok too.

I’m sick, so that’s tons of fun. Just kidding, it’s not. But I’m on antibiotics, so that’s good even if they make me want to throw up :/ I slept most of 11.11.11 and almost threw up thrice. Not cool. I even slept through 11:11 and didn’t get to make the most epic wish of my life. It pretty much sucked.

My Spanish is GOOD. It’s crazy how quickly I’ve picked it up. We speak only Spanish from 12- 9:30. It’s intense. One person we practice taught told me I have a Portuguese accent which I am definitely not upset about even if I’m speaking Spanish.

List of things I miss:

1. Music. I never thought I’d say this because I don’t even listen to music that often, bit it’s definitely one of the things I miss most.

2. Making my own food. I think I’m going to get fat here, which would be pretty impressive but is still possible. I do work out every day here which I’ve never done before, so I guess I’m not too worried about it. But I do miss being able to control my own eating schedule.

The Church is true! D&C 100, 1 Nephi 10-11, Moroni 7. Read them.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Love,

Morgan

"One of them snores" and " I ripped their hearts out of their faces"

Dear Family,

I am a terrible person!

We got 4 new hermanas this week, and one of them snores. I lie awake every night from 4:30 to 6:30. I'm so tired. Good thing the Lord blesses his missionaries, or I wouldn’t be able to function. I'm so tired.

Ok, here's the real reason I'm a terrible person. The elders lied to us. They told us Elder Glandon had PUNCHED OUT A WINDOW, and that he had given elder spencer a fat lip. When the truth came out that Glandon scratched his hand on a loose screw and that Spencer got his fat lip b/c he was checking out a sister missionary and ran into a pole, we knew we had to get them back.

Monday morning we got my luggage out and went down into the zone leader's classroom. We told them we wanted to prank our elders, hehehe. I stayed in another room and Hermana Probert went into our room and told our elders I was going home to get married. They didn’t believe her at first. But she said I'd gotten a letter a week ago that I hadn't really been talking about, and that Sunday I'd fasted to know if I should stay or go home to get married and had gotten my answer. Then the zone leaders came in and said my sister would be there in 15 minutes and Probert needed to come get me.

I had my suitcases, and we came around the corner as if I were about to leave. I said my goodbyes and thanked the elders for everything. Then the zone leaders escorted us out the building. We about died laughing. I was so proud of myself and felt so bad at the same time. We made 7 grown men cry. I ripped their hearts out of their faces! I apologized a million times, but it was so funny.

I'm glad to hear everyone is doing well at home. I miss you all. I feel like these last two weeks have been two months, but I'm learning a lot.

Love Morgan

Halloween is Over

Morgan has been in the MTC for two full weeks now. Crazy.

It turned bitter cold in Provo overnight with snow and a mean wind. It’s a good thing Morgan is a tough girl from Bear Lake, or she would be frozen. As it is, I don’t think she packed many warm clothes. So it’s also a good thing she has a great big sister (AKA me :). I sent her a package of gloves, socks, and a scarf today. That should help. But I know another care package would be nice, and a letter would warm her heart (hint, hint, nudge, nudge).

Morgan is doing well. I am so proud of her for choosing to serve and I admire her tenacity. She is already in the missionary mindset and will be great in the mission field. Here are the highlights from her email:

Sorry about the poopy email last week. I forgot that I had entered the ultimate time vortex where the days become weeks and the weeks become days and the months are something entirely new…

So much has happened this week I don't even know where to start. Hermana Probert and I got our first baptismal commitment from Juan aka Hermano Hunt and it was really exciting. We also taught another teacher/investigator and challenged him to be baptized. He said no but he will say yes…

The language is coming amazingly well. Holy cow does the Lord bless his missionaries. The gift of tongues is real and we have all received it.

I got really sick yesterday and the elders gave me a blessing. It was so good and was just what I needed to hear. I was healed and told that I was well loved of the lord and my district. I feel a million times better today even though I still have a runny nose… Paz Y bendiciones, peace and blessings.

Love you all

Love.

Morgan (Hermana Heeder) 

First Email

Morgan sent her first email from the Missionary Training Center today. And I quote, "Hey, I'm super happy. Send me a letter." That was the entire email. She added a little more in the family email. It said, "I get the gospel puked on me every day all day so please just talk about stuff. I don't care what." Maybe if we all send her really good letters she will reward us with a good email. I wrote one on a sacrament meeting program, not for lack of paper, but because that's just how much I care. (I really do care, though.) It's going in the mail today!


One great way to write to her is through dearelder.com. It's free to mail to the MTC from this website, and she gets it the next day while she's there. All you have to do is create an account, enter her name, and know that she is going to the San Antonio Texas Mission. Once she is in Texas, you can still use dear elder, but you will have to pay for the stamp.


If you would rather send a hand written letter (maybe even on some stationary), here is her current mailing address:


Sister Morgan Heeder
MTC Mailbox 225
TX-SAN 1221
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT84604-1793

Sainara

We dropped Morgan off at the Missionary Training Center a week ago Wednesday. It was a bittersweet moment. The whole family is proud of her, but we’ll miss her too. She brings a lot of life to the part when we are all together, and will leave a void in her absence. To her credit, she kept us laughing until the moment she was gone. For her part, I know Morgan was excited and nervous. By the time last Wednesday got here, she was tired of all the long, drawn out goodbyes. Mostly, she just thought they were a nuisance, but there were those few that were sad and painful. That’s one reason I really respect her for going. Morgan is doing the hard thing. She knew what the right thing was for her and went at it will full force. That takes a lot of guts!

One thing I can say is that Morgan will be one of the cutest sisters at the MTC. When the family dropped her off we pulled up the curb and lovingly kicked her out of the car. (The curbside drop off is a much better method than the awful video missionaries and their families used to have to watch.) It was so fun to see her walk off in her cute pink coat and a line of Elders, each pulling a lime green piece of luggage, following behind.

Here are some pictures she took last Sunday. She is wearing the same coat she wore when we dropped her off. 

More pictures will follow.