Lord, to whom shall we go?

Well fam, this week was CRAZY!!! We had two divisions back to back!! Sister Smyth is Sister Training Leader and President decided this transfer that he wants the training leaders to do divisions with every companionship in the zone every transfer. So this week we had two! On Wednesday I went to Matosinhos with Sister Gouveia which was a lot of fun! Thenon Thursday, Sister Bastes was with me in Guimarães! That was an interesting day because both Sister Bastes and I are in our first transfer so we are both pretty new but thankfully she speaks Portuguese! We had a great time together! It was kind of scary being the one to get us to appointments and activities but thankfully I only got us lost once! Haha It was an insane two days! Both Sister Gouveia and Sister Bastes are from Brazil and neither of them speak any English which was quite an adventure. I was so nervous before hand but I was surprised at how much I knew! At the same time I realized just how much I need to learn. But that's okay! It was a great motivator for me to work hard at the language and learn all of the lessons in Portuguese. But I will say I was thrilled to be back with Sister Smyth! After divisions were over we just looked at each other and grinned and said "Backstreet is BACK!!!!" and had a great rest of the week together. We made cookies for some members (You know that made me happy!), practiced our musical number for the Mission Tour this week, and met some great people! 

Speaking of the Mission Tour, tomorrow Elder Zwick is coming for a mission conference! We are so excited! He actually came and spoke to my zone the first day in the MTC and was amazing so I am very excited to hear him speak again! Granted, he served in Brazil which means the conference will be in Portuguese, but tudo bem! It will be a blast Our district is singing "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" and we are hoping it goes well!

This week we had a lesson with a recent convert who was struggling with some doubts about prophets and other church doctrines. While we were teaching, I remembered one of my favorite scriptures in John 6:66-69. It talks about how Christ's disciples begin turning away from Him and so Christ asks His apostles "Will ye also go away?" And I love Peter's response. He says "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." I love that so much! We all have doubts, we all have questions, but that doesn't mean we stop following the Savior because He has the words of eternal life. The gospel is a gospel of joy and a gospel of peace. It isn't easy to live, but it is worth every effort. There will be times we feel our testimonies are fragile and we are weak, but if we rely on the Savior, everything will work out. Our testimonies will be strengthened, and our faith in the gospel will grow. Every promise God has made will be fulfilled and we will be happier than we can possibly imagine. So ask your questions! But when you do, remember to continue to rely on Christ. Read the scriptures, pray, go to church, and in time we will find the answers to our questions. 

I love you all! Have a wondeful week! 

Com amor,

Sister Morey

Pictures:

Sister Smyth and I adventuring in the forest

A Portuguese parade yesterday!! 

One Month in Portugal!

Helloooooooo Everyone!!!

What a great week this has been! I can't believe I have been here a whole month! Time is so funny here. The days are so slow but then you look back and a whole month has flown by! 

But let's talk about the past few weeks! I didn't do a great job of updating y'all last week so here we go!

 One thing I forgot to mention last week was that Sister Smyth and I got to stop by FSY which is EFY in Portugal! They held it here at the college in Guimarães and it was a BLAST! They called us because there were a few workers helping with FSY that weren't members and so we came and talked to them about the church and gave them a Book of Mormon. After that we went in and chatted with all of the people running FSY and helped them cut up fruit and had a great time!

Miracle last week! Okay it was the end of a long day and we were knocking some apartment buildings. Sister Smyth and I were both exhausted but we were chugging along and then we knocked on a door and Consuela opened it. It turns out she is a less active! We talked to her and she was telling us about how her husband is Catholic and none of her kids have been baptized. Then she started to cry a little bit and told us that she had been praying recently for more light in her life and had started to think Heavenly Father wasn't answering, but she knew that we were the answer. It was such an incredible experience! You never know where the Lord is leading you! We haven't taught her family yet because they've been busy but this week hopefully! 

Yesterday was a great Sunday because two of our investigators came to church! Ricardo is 16 and we have been teaching his whole family but only he wanted to come. And he loved it! He is so excited about the church! We are teaching his whole family again this week and hope they all come next Sunday! The other investigator is Larinda and she is the mom of a recent convert. She has come to church so many times and really loves it. She lives far away so it is hard to teach her but we are figuring it out! 

Other updates: I saw Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the store and Sister Smyth and I had a little nerd moment about it.Other fun things:

1. The local pasteleria has 3 pastries for 1 euro every day at 7....let's just say Sister Smyth and I have had to make serious health goals...

2. The other day as we were walking a lady called out to us and said "Hello my fellow Americans!!!!!" Her name was Joy and she is from Indiana and is the funniest lady ever! She has lived here for 6 years and so she always recognizes the missionaries and likes to chat with them. She was talking about how hard Portuguese is and told me to embrace my inner yoda to learn the sentence structure. It was a blast to talk to her and we hope we find her again!

3. Sister Smyth is a fantastic singer and basically knows every musical out there. Including....Fiddler on the Roof. We have had a great time singing that together as we walk home :)

Alright that is enough updates for now! I hope you all are having a great week! My scripture for you this week is John 16:33. I love this scripture! We don't need to fear because Christ has overcome the world and through Him, all things are possible. I can learn Portuguese and find people ready to recieve the gospel, and you can do the things that are hard for you too! 

Com amor,

Sister Morey

When the going gets rough you know what you gotta do? Just keep swimming!

Olá Everyone! Tudo Bem?

What a crazy few weeks these have been! But they have been such great weeks! I love it here and am so happy to be serving here! Things are settled down and I have gotten into a rhythm which has helped a lot! And the Portuguese is coming along! As much as I want to wake up one day and just understand what everyone is saying, I know that it will come a little bit at a time. But I am able to understand a little more every day and that is all that matters. Yesterday I bore my testimony again in sacrament meeting and let me tell you, I wanted to die realizing I was going to have to go up there again, but it turned out better than I expected! My brain was working so fast trying to put the conjugations together but I think everything worked out! :) 

We got to go to Porto twice this week! Once because Sister Smyth had leadership council so I got to go on a division with some other sisters (Including my favorite Sister Hulsey!), and the second time for our zone meeting. It was so fun getting to meet all of the other missionaries! And for our meeting our president included some clips from Apollo 13 so we got to have a little movie party which we were all very excited about!

I'm sorry I don't have a lot of time, but I will have a better update and pictures next week. But to follow up with the title of the e-mail, over the past few weeks I have realized that we all have hard times. All of us! There will always be hard moments. But we choose what we do with those hard times. We choose whether we let those moments make us miserable or if we will embrace them, learn from them, and keep moving forward! Life is hard, but there are so many things that make it worth it. So keep swimming! Keep looking for the good! Look for the little blessings and miracles in every day. Because they are there. This life is a life for us to learn and to grow, but God wants us to enjoy this life! He is there, constantly strengthening us and showing us His love, we just have to look for it. 

I love you all so very much! Have a wonderful week!

Com muito amor,

Sister Morey

Once Upon a Time in Portugal!

Oh my goodness guess what!! I am in Portugal!!!!!!!

I can't even begin to describe what a week this has been! From traveling for 24 plus hours, getting to Portugal, meeting my mission president, President Amorim, getting my trainer (Sister Smyth), coming to my area, Guimarães, and then finishing off the week has been quite the ride! But I'll do my best to update you!

1. I know you all want to know about the language and I think the best way I can sum it up for you is with a quote from The Best Two Years. You know when Elder Calhoun first talks to someone in Holland and just stares at them blank faced and then turns around and says "That isn't the language I learned in the MTC." Well folks, that has been the past week of my life! I'll be honest, it's definitely tough not being able to understand people because I have no idea what to say back to them! But baby steps! I know I'll get there! I did share my testimony in sacrament meeting this week which was terrifying but I was really glad I did. I figured that the best way for me to show the Lord and my branch my willingness to learn was by opening my mouth and sharing my testimony. A lot of people came up to me and said that I spoke well (at least I think that is what they said...) Just know that I smile a lot and look to Sister Smyth a lot for help :) 

2. Speaking of Sister Smyth, she is AMAZING!! She is from California and has been out here a year! She is so nice and cheers me on every day. After the lessons when I am slightly skeptical of how I spoke, she always says "You are doing so well! I feel the Spirit every time you speak!" I am so grateful for her! She makes me laugh and is so fun to talk to. I have been very blessed to have her as a trainer. We work hard every day and are doing our best to find people and families ready to be baptized. Speaing of which...yesterday we had quite the miracle! Our mission goal is to have 12 lessons a week and we had 11 yesterday. So we prayed and prayed that as we went out that we would find one person to teach by the time we had to turn our numbers in at 5. So we went out and started knocking doors. And....nothing. It was 4:45 and we hadn't found anyone! But then as we were walking up the hill I heard something, turned around, and there was a lady outside her house. Well it turns out she is the nicest lady in the world! We talked to her for about 15 minutes and then she said we could come back again! Miracles happen ladies and gentlemen. 

3. Finally, Guimarães is the most beautiful place I have seen! I honestly feel like I am walking around in a movie! It is one of the oldest cities in Portugal. There is a castle, cobblestone streets, alleyways with laundry hanging down, everything! It is so beautiful! Every day I just think "I am in the most beautiful place in the world!" Also, right now there are festivals going on so there are parades and bands and all kinds of great things!

Alright I have to run, but know that I love you all so much and that we can all do hard things as we rely on the Lord!

Com muito amor,

Sister Morey

T-minus 6 days until PORTUGAL!!

Hello hello!

Another week has just flown by! And now I have one more week before I hop on a plane and go to Portugal! I can't even believe it! I am so excited! 

Okay I am short on time but I'll give some quick updates 

1. Best moment of the week was getting flight plans! We leave the MTC at 3:50 am on Monday morning ( who really needs sleep anyways?) The best part of the flight plans (besides going to Portugal of course) is that one of our stops is in Frankfurt, Germany! And here I was thinking I wasn't going to Germany on my mission! Yes, it is only the airport, but it counts. 

2. We had skype TRC this week where we talk to members in our missions! We talked to an RM from Lisbon and it was so cool! He was really nice and told us about the history of Portugal, helped correct our Portuguese, and told us a little bit about Porto. It made me so excited to go! 

3. We had another really great lesson with one of our investigators this week! We found the video "Because of Him" in Portuguese (Gracas a Ele) and showed that in our lesson and then talked about the Atonement. It was such a powerful moment for all of us and once again, Sister Hulsey and I walked out of the lesson beaming. 

Other than that everything is great! I tried playing basketball this week and remembered why I play tennis and Sister Hulsey and I forget our cell phone on the daily much to the dismay of the front desk (we are supposed to have it all the time in case the MTC needs to get a hold of a sister in our zone) But I am as happy as can be!  I am so excited for this week but am also so sad this is the last one! I will miss it here so much.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week! Continuar para frente! A Igreja e verdadiera!

Love,

Sister Morey

And then...an apostle showed up

Hello everyone!

What a great week this week was! (Do I say that every week?) But really, this week was so good and I'll start with the best!

Yesterday for devotional the MTC presidency said that we would be watching the Character of Christ by Elder Bednar all together because we got so many new missionaries this week. So we watched the video, but half way through the MTC president left and was gone for a really long time. Then, after the video was over, the MTC president came back in and who was behind him? Elder Bednar and his wife! As soon as we saw him everyone went silent and stood up but inside we were all super excited. He did a question and answer session with us and it was amazing for lack of a better word. I learned so much! We talked a lot about being charitable and how it isn't just something we practice, it is something we become. Also one girl asked how we can be more worthy of the Spirit and Elder Bednar basically said "Just be good! Don't beat yourself up about mistakes or imperfections. You aren't perfect and you won't ever be perfect! So just do your best and you will have the Spirit with you." Let me tell you, I needed that. Finally, I had a question in my mind that I have been thinking about for a long time and while he didn't answer my question directly, through one of his other answers I found out how I should go find my answer (hint: it's by reading the Book of Mormon). The Spirit was so strong in the meeting and it was a great reminder to me that apostles are called of God. 

Next big part of yesterday: I know you were all wondering how greeting for sacrament meeting went...well apparently Sister Hulsey and I aren't the best greeters because our Branch President came out and told us we were fired and that we were the new Zone Sister Training Leaders instead! So we had a bunch of training meetings yesterday and now we are in charge of all the girls in our zone and are the designated nightly huggers. I definitely wasn't expecting it but Sister Hulsey and I are excited! 

Another big part of the week was hosting on Wednesday. It was a blast! It was crazy to think that that was me only 3 weeks ago. It feels more like 3 years ago! But we had so much fun showing the new missionaries around and telling them all about the MTC.

And finally, my favorite part of the week! Sister Hulsey and I had a lesson with our investigator Rodenei and it was one of the most spiritual and happiest moments I have had so far in the MTC. We were talking about how faith and Rodenei was talking about how he needs physical evidence for him to believe things are true. At that moment 2 things popped into my head. The first was the scripture in Alma that talks about how faith is things which are not seen and the second was the last two paragraphs of the introduction to the Book of Mormon which promises us that if we read the Book of Mormon with real intent and pray, we will know that the Book of Mormon is true, that Jesus is our Savior, that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's church on the Earth. After we read those two things, Sister Hulsey and I both bore our testimonies about the Book of Mormon and having faith and you could feel the Spirit so strongly and all 3 of us were grinning from ear to ear! After the lesson was over Sister Hulsey and I basically skipped back to class we were so happy! The Church is so true and I am so grateful that the Holy Ghost helps guide our minds when we are serving others!

All in all, this was a great week! We hit our one month mark this week which is just crazy. I love the MTC, I love being a missionary, and I am so grateful for all of you for teaching me the gospel and supporting me in all that I do! 

Tudo bem!

Love,

Sister Morey

Shall we not go on in so great a cause?

Hello hello!

Wow, has another week already gone by? The time just flies! And I am halfway through my time in the MTC! How crazy is that?

This week was such a great week! The best one by far! We started off by doing TRC on Monday which is where we go and basically just talk with return missionaries that speak our language. It is a little scary because they talk really fast and I don't understand half of what they are saying, but it was still such a great experience! We have that again tonight and I am excited to see how it goes! 

Along with that, lessons this week went SO WELL! Something just clicked this week and I am more excited to teach than nervous. Sister Hulsey and I have been focusing a lot on teaching to the needs of our investigator, not just giving them a bunch of information, and that has really helped bring the Spirit into our lessons. Every time I can feel the Spirit reminding me of scriptures that relate to what we are talking about and helping me remember the words I need as I bear my testimony. It is such an incredible experience every time. It's funny because even though our investigators are our teachers, when we get into our lessons, they don't feel like our teachers anymore. The lessons feel so real! Our teacher Irmao Read read us a quote that says "Role plays are how God trains His missionaries." I definitely have seen that and am so grateful from all that I learn in our lessons. 

Funny story of the week: One evening Irmao Curtis took us outside and told us we were going to be doing role plays. I asked him if we were doing them in English (one can always hope) and he just looked at me and said "Seester...." Word to the wise: never ask your Portuguese teacher if you can talk in English. 

The other highlights of the week were our Mormon Message Marathon we had yesterday which of course was amazing, we went to the temple today which was lovely, we get to host new missionaries this week which I am so excited for, and guess who was called to be the greeter for Sacrament Meetings in our branch? You've got it! Your's truly! And finally, last night we watched the Joseph Smith movie and it was so great! I have seen it several times but it had been a long time and was a great reminder to me of how important the Restoration is! We laughed, we cried, and we all walked out wanting to be better missionaries. It definitely reminded me that being a member of the church has never been easy, but it is always worth it. At the very end of the video Joseph Smith says "Shall we not go on in so great a cause?" And that is our new motto! Because what could be a greater cause to be a part of than this? 

And that's all for now folks! I love and miss you all and am so grateful for all of the love and support! The church is true!

Love,

Sister Morey