Come to Church, Anna Right

Hey Family!

So it has occurred to me, based on the last few letters I've received, that I've been an incredible pessimist and forgotten to tell you all the fantastic things that are going on in Converse. I love Converse. Things are going really well. Jordan's baptism is finally coming together. I don't know that I've actually told you about Jordan, but he is fantastic. He's 50, retired air force, and blind. He’s super independent and lives alone, but can't drive. It has been super challenging arranging for people to give him a ride to church, but the ward is starting to catch on that they are about to have their first baptism in over a year. And they are getting excited to see him there. Yay!

We've also started going back into a part of our area that missionaries haven't been to in several months due to...stuff. Anyway, we were there for like 2 hours and taught a lesson and set up 3 return appointments and didn't even have to knock on any doors. :)

We've also been teaching quite a few lessons to people we hope will begin to progress soon. This last week we've been focusing on reactivating a few less active members, and they all came to church yesterday!!! Anna Right was the Relief Society president. When she was released she got offended, stopped going to church, and took the rest of her family with her. We tried to visit them earlier in the week, and her husband told us she wasn't feeling well and sent us away. We went back a few days later and he was about to send us away when I said, "Can I ask you a favor? Can I use your restroom?" He kind of sighed and then let us in. Score! I want in to the bathroom and just sat there for forever. I wanted to make sure Sister Schwarze got nice and comfortable before I came out. They also had a copy of Gorden B. Hinckley's book Stand A Little Taller sitting in the bathroom. I flipped it open to the page about keeping the Sabbath day holy. Then I wedged it between the towels a little bit so it would stay open. Oh I'm so clever. I came out and Sis Schwarze was sitting on the couch, so I hurried and sat by her before Brother Right could send us on our way. We talked with him for another 20 or 30 minutes, invited him to Jordan's baptism, and told him we need him at church. Anna Right never came out while we were there, but imagine my surprise when they were two rows in front of us in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. Brother Bloxham was also at church (which was good because I was ready to go into his house and start yelling at him about how he's breaking his temple covenants which probably wouldn't have gone over well).

We also found this less active family who joined the church 3 1/2 years ago and have been inactive for the past 3 years. They’re military, so when they moved to Converse they stopped going to church. Sad. So we've invited the Mortons along to both lessons we've had with the Pipers. and the Mortons have been absolutely fantastic in fellowshipping them. The Sis Piper asked to get Sunday off in two weeks so they can come to church! I pray every day that happens. When we mentioned this family in Ward Council no one had ever heard of them. Can you believe that?

I had an interview with President Jones yesterday and that was fantastic. He is so amazing. When we finished we went and got Sis Schwarze; then President shakes our hands and says, "Oh I'll give you a hug" and hugged both of us! Then he said "Don’t tell anyone." Who am I going to tell? He's the mission president. Well, I guess I just told all of you. Oops. Don’t  tell.

We also had a two day training this week (Wed and Thurs) and it was so good. I just kept thinking, "Oh, that's how you do it." Of course, I've been thinking that every day since October 19, but this was like a concentrated dose. We went through all the missionary fundamentals which I was trained with in the MTC, but a lot of us out here have never really been exposed to them because we're new. I also got to talk to a lot of other missionaries which was fun. It was all of the Zone leaders, district leaders, and all the sisters in the San Antonio area. The sisters got to come because we're special. :) *ting. 

Mom and Dad I hope you liked that card I sent you. I thought it was fantastic which is why I forwarded it to you. Santa Clause wearing Texas get up and riding a chili through the sky. what could be better? 
Well, unfortunately I'm out of time, but I hope this letter helps you all see how fantastic Converse is and how well I'm doing. I love you all and hope to hear more from you soon.
Can you all believe I've been gone for 3 months? That’s so crazy!
ok, well I really have to go, but I love you!!!

Love,
   Morgan, That Super Cool Girl You All Know


Yay for a good email! We also got some pictures from Morgan this week.

seriously, have you ever had rice before?

My Dear Family,

So I want to begin my email today with a story. We were invited over to the bishop's for dinner Monday night. He had his counselors and their families there, and we had this huge Asian dinner. (The bishopric is all white but they are all married to Asian women so that's why we were eating Asian food.) So anyway, I, being the "new missionary," was asked several times that night where I was from. I told them all I was from Idaho and then they would make a comment about potatoes, and I would make a joke how, being from Idaho, I only ever eat potatoes. So I told the bishop's wife I only ever eat potatoes because I'm from Idaho and that I'd never had one of the dishes on the table.

She than asked, "Have you ever had rice before?"

I said, "Yes I've had rice before."

She did not believe me! She asked three more times, and I told her three more times that I had had rice before. Then she looks at me very seriously and says, "Seriously, have you ever had rice before? because some people have never had rice."

I don't know who those "some people" are who have never had rice before but I let the subject drop even though I still don't think she believed me. It was pretty funny.

Secondly, I haven't gotten a letter from anybody in 3 weeks...just so you know.

Thirdly...thirdly... I'm trying to make this a really good email, but I just do the same thing every day. I could tell you stories about people yelling at me about how my religion is wrong, but I don't think you want to hear about that. It's just me and my companion all day every day, and I've already told you about her so I can't say too much there. 

Oh, I know. I'll tell you about the Sandwich* girls. They are ages 8 and 12, but neither of them is baptized. Their dad (who is Mormon) is blind and deaf so they spend most of their time living with their mom's parents (who are Catholic). The mom lives in Mexico and they never see her. The dad is super pushy and wants his kids to get baptized, but they don't want it. They always say, "It's a big decision and I just need to think about it." basically they are just really stubborn. So the younger girl, Angela, can't read English but speaks it well enough that you wouldn't guess that she doesn't really understand when people speak to her. So all the past missionaries have been trying to teach her in English, and she would get really bored and never pay attention since she couldn’t understand. But I started teaching her in Spanish while Sis Schwarze taught the older one in English, and Angela opened up like a floodgate. She talks so much in Spanish. I gave her a Spanish Book of Mormon and she carries it everywhere with her. On Sunday morning she helped me pass out programs and then sat by me. It was pretty cute. I hope this helps us get to the bottom of why she doesn’t want to be baptized and helps her understand why baptism is so important. She is my only opportunity here to use my Spanish. I study every day but I can still feel it slipping away because I never have a chance to use it. It’s so sad. I hope I get transferred to the border soon, but who knows when that will happen. I'm in Converse for at least 3 months :\. Not that I don't like it, but it's all in English and I prefer to teach in Spanish because that's how I learned.

Anna, aren't you so excited to do school this summer! That means you get to go play in a foreign country for 9 months! I'm super jealous. Rachel, help mom out. Camilla, just do the play and if you get a dumb part oh well. That just means you can goof off more during play practice. Jessica, yeah. You need to work on that.

Mom and Dad, hope work is going well and the kids aren't driving you too crazy.

I love you all. DFTBA (dftba) (dftba)

Love, Hermana Heeder aka Morgan


* All non-missionary names have been changed.

Just Me

Dear Family,

Everything here is going well. We mostly just study and get doors shut in our faces. Woohoo. On an exciting note, I saw a car at church with those vinyl stickers of the family, but everyone in the family was a Daleck and the pets were Doctor Who's robotic dog, K-9! It made me so happy. I'm such a nerd.

Mom, I need quarters so if you could send me a roll that would be nice. No one in this area trades cash for quarters. I don't understand it but whatever. One roll should last until I can figure out where to get some.
SOMEONE WRITE ME A LETTER, PLEASE. Someone, I think you know who you are. Also, thank you Sis. Jepson for the Christmas present.

Ok, so this letter is going to be short because I have nothing to really say. I get up, study, knock doors, and go to bed every day. This area is full of rich Catholics*.

Ok, well, I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week. I'll let you know if we get to teach anyone or if anything funny happens, but until then just remember I spend all day every day being awesome.

Love,

Morgan

* I would just like to note that teaching rich people is often much more difficult than teaching poor people. It is a lot harder to find people to teach when they aren't already desperately looking for something. I feel for her. Please pray that she will find people whose hearts have been softened.

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.