We have no need to be sad...ever.

Here is Morgan's letter for this week. She sounds great! I made her promise she wasn't just saying that so I wouldn't worry too! She said she really is doing much better. As usual, my questions are in green, her answers are in red! Thanks for your support of Morgan. She loves you all!

She did try pictures again, on the same computer, and they didn't work, again!!! She said, maybe next week!

Lisa

Hi sweet girl,
So all I can say is AwEsOmE!! I hope you really are feeling better and not just telling me that...if you are, you're in big trouble with me. I hope you told the mission mom what's happening. She needs to know anyway.

My comp had told her what was happening. But I really am doing so much better!! Pinky Promise. I am doing amazing actually. I am so excited to be here. I absolutely love this area. I LOVE it! I LOVE my companion, I am feeling so blessed to be here. I am learning so much and I am just literally so HAPPY!!!

Also, about the cold, that just means NO BUGS. Can't be too sad about that part. That may be a blessing in disguise. I do hope you're warm enough though. Where did you get the blanket to wrap up in...just the one you took with you?

There are blankets in the house. All is well!! But it really is such a blessing cause NO bugs. I have a couple bug bites but nothing like I imagined!! I AM SO GRATEFUL! I just feel so blessed to be here in this area!!

I am so sad, as you are I'm sure, that your photos didn't come through. I hope that doesn't mean they are all lost. If you can, try again. You're p-days shouldn't be as busy, maybe, where you are now and not with the nurses busy schedule. By the way, how old was she. Everyone asks me that and I had no idea.

She was 23...but ya we finally get p days. Yesterday was kind of weird for me because I had time to just relax. We went and bought groceries, dropped our clothes off to be washed, and cleaned the house a bit, wrote some letters, and my comp slept for like 3 hours and I read Jesus the Christ for like 3 hours. It was SO nice to have some time to relax, to have a real p day!!

Now how do you do lisa dry and cook? (Darn auto correct---I didn't look at this, she was right, I meant laundry!)

lisa dry...not sure what this is...hahaha but i think you meant laundry. We have a member who does our garments and another member do all the other clothes. The member who does our garments also cooks our lunches. When we have time to go and eat, otherwise we just eat on the run...literally, or fast. hahaha we fast a lot, but its all great because we need to see some miracles here.

Jenny was telling me yesterday at church that she had gall stones on her mission, just from the change in types of food, etc. That is another possibility to keep in mind for your pain. Higher back pains I think she said. She said a good cranberry and lemon cleanse would be a good idea.

thank you for the info...I eat fruit and vegetables, not so much here...i dont know why they dont have more...but we arent allowed to eat very many, because we will get sick if we do, so we just dont!!

Anyway...I was talking to Sis. Hansen this past week, she's the SLC North mission pres wife. She said you need to give yourself time to adjust to the new surroundings, and food, and environment, new regimen. Your body will adjust, just give yourself time.

So Jeremy got his license on Friday. CrAzY! It's so weird. He's a good driver though. Hope he stays safe. He got a 4.0 so we are in trouble insurance wise. ;) He is planning on water polo this season too. He plays with jazz band at all home bball games. Boys and girls games.

Jer is a stud. What a cool kid!! 4.0...why did you have to have such smart kids...hahahaha if you weren't such great parents and helped your kids do well in school...you might not have to pay the insurance! hahaha really though, you guys are the best!! ahh seriously...THE BEST! (They always love you while they are on their missions! Thank goodness!)

Ashley probably told you she made the volleyball team. She's so happy. She has volleyball (6am practices), dance with Gunn every other day, and gymnastics once a week. That ought to keep her active and sleeping well at night!
SHE DID NOT TELL ME!!! that girl...voy a matarla.

Man you have to hear about Al's last game. He's going to write and tell you --- if he doesn't tell me and we will. Think double-double just as he promised you he would. He delivered in a big way against Mtn. View.

I will email them and ask about it!!

Dad spoke in sacrament with Adam Strong for church yesterday. It was Adams homecoming. Dad's too I guess.

Sounds like a great meeting! Lindsey emailed me and said, [wow, your dad is a man of God.] it is so true. Dad is the bomb. Wish I had been there to hear it!!

Do you still not have an address?? Is that just how it is there---no house delivery, or is that just for you guys as missionaries?

We don't have house delivery...only to the mission home.

I hope you're safe in this new area. You wouldn't tell me anyway, but I pray you're safe!!!

So safe. No need to worry!

WELL, I'M HOPING FOR PHOTOS again. Hope they work if you can send any. Take care of you please. Thanks for sharing your weeks with us. So many people ask how you are doing. I felt like this week I could say you are doing well. That felt sooo good!!

I LOVE YOU!

Mom

Ok voy a compartir un poco sobre este semana y despues voy a tratar a enviar fotos.

So we have a tiny branch. Like had 35 people at church on Sunday, and the little church building is a tiny room with a couple rooms off the side for classes.

Something really cool that we get to do. We have an investigator that is in a Alcohol and Drug Rehab center. It is about a 45 minute bus ride from everything else in our area, which is HUGE! Our area is giant, in the mountains, so lots of hills and it is just like hiking mt. oly every day! haaha anyways so this man we go to teach in the rehab center...then after we taught him we taught the whole group. Everyone..it was like confession session. hahaha it was really cool actually!!

I am going to try to send pictures now. I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH! my fav scripture this week...Mosiah 3:7. We will never suffer as much s crist suffered. no man ever will. This was a chicote...or like a slap in the face, call to repentance...for me this week. I have been complaining about having some pain in my feet or whatever...I AM SO SELFISH. Christ suffered so much for all of us, and I have this amazing opportunity to invite people to come unto christ...what am i complaining about. Silly me....sorry for al my complaints! please forgive me. but most of all please remember all that Christ has done for us. We have no need to be sad...ever. This gospel is peace. This gospel is happiness. We are so blessed to be a part of it!

LOVE YOU ALL SO DANG MUCH!!

Hermana Oliphant

And a couple of extra paragraphs as we chatted for about three seconds:

In the mornings it is pretty cold, but not awful. I am doing great. We walk so fast and run so much I am always sweating anyways, so the cold air feels great! I AM FEELING SO BLESSED. The pain in my legs and feet are going away. Thank you all for your prayers and your blessing...I know that is why I am feeling better. I am able to run....like run pretty fast and feel good! Miracles!

I LOVE my companion. SO MUCH! We have so much fun, and she is teaching me SO MUCH! I am so grateful for this change. I think with my last companion, she was so confident with her teaching and such, she didn’t need me to do much and so I was getting content with just letting her do the talking, but with Hermana Yepez, I have to do more and so I am learning more and progressing better! I really love her so much. I am so grateful! She is so cute! We are doing great together!

I am Feeling so Blessed!

Morgan has had some health issues as I have mentioned before so I had asked her to ask for a blessing. This was her response.

We did get blessings actually from the bishop. Like a week and a half ago. It is a tradition here that they do blessing the beginning of the year and so we wanted one. It was an amazing blessing. I understood EVERYTHING! He was so specific and the Spirit was so strong. A LOT OF THE BLESSING WAS ABOUT MY HEALTH! The bishop has no idea I have been having problems. It was an amazing experience. I have been blessed. SO MUCH. I will tell you about my new area in a bit, but yes I am so grateful. I am always seeing miracles. Every time I feel like I can’t do anymore I am carried. I know my Savior is right here with me.

This change is going to be SO HARD. So my new area is San Martin. We are like in the middle of nowhere. It is like 3 or 4 hours from everything. We have to wake up like at 4 in the morning if we have meetings. Like today we had district meeting and we had to wake up at 430. Yesterday we had a meeting with Elder Quintin L. Cook! IT WAS SO AMAZING. But the night before we had to have a sleepover with some other sisters that lived closer! Pues, con 8 otro hermanas! Hahaha anyways, ya this area is great though.

So the meeting with Elder Cook. It was so, so great. I got to see all my MTC friends!!! It was so fun! There were 3 missions there, central, east and south! What a great opportunity!

Transfers! I am so sad to leave my old area, but I know this new area is going to bring many miracles! My companion is Hermana Yepez. She is from Ecuador and is just so cute. She is TINY! Hahaha She runs everywhere which equals a nice speed walk for me cause she is so little. I am excited. I am already learning so much from her. She has 4 months in the misión and is just incredible. I am feeling so blessed!! But yes I really am SO excited about this new area and the chance I have to learn and grow here! It is going to be exciting seeing as my companion doesn’t speak English at all, but it’s ok because I can understand her and it is just going to help me be able to speak better. The gift of tongues is real. I can’t understand all the words people say, but I know exactly what they are saying. It is such an incredible blessing!

Also this area is so cold!! LIKE SO COLD! We are up in the mountains and I can see my breath in the morning and it is just so cold. Thanks for the tights!

The baptism (before she left her first area) was amazing. No water in the church, of course, so we called in a truck to bring in the water! Hahaha SO FUNNY! But it was awesome!! We even had an investigator there who will get baptized this next week. We are going to have 3 men baptized this next week after I leave.

My Spanish is improving every day and I am feeling so blessed!!!

Oh I forgot to mention I gave my first sacrament meeting talk. hahaha Ya the bishop thought it would be fun to ask me to speak Saturday night at 9 pm because it would be my last Sunday! So I did it, and it actually went just fine I think!! The people all said they could understand me. I started out saying that since the spirit was the teacher I was going to speak in English because they would learn from the spirit both ways and everyone thought that was funny, so it was great!!

K gotta go!! LOVE YOU GUYS!!

I am learning a lot each day...

I have a few snippets from Morgans email this week. I caught her and we chatted back and forth so they are sort of all over the place. As usual, my questions will be in green, her answers will be in red. Am I pushing my luck to ask each of you that cares about her to send another prayer her way to help her in healing from some physical issues she is having?  If it is not asking too much again, I know she would appreciate it, and so would we.  She won't want me to include that she is struggling with a few different physical ailments, but I can't ask for your help and not give you a little bit of detail! She has definitely learned that PRAYERS WORK! THANK YOU!!  One thing that stays constant with Morgan, through all these little set backs, SHE REMAINS POSITIVE and upbeat and happy and loves what she is doing!

I just need to know how you are?
I am good. I am struggling with different things obviously, but I am good! hahaha One thing I am learning is that spiritual strength is much more important than physical. Before my acl tear I was so confident in my physical abilities...I think the Lord gave me this challenge to teach me that there is more to strength than just the physical aspect of it. It has definitely been a humbling experience...FOR SURE! The hardest part is that I want to be able to work harder, faster or whatever, and I feel like I can't when I am not strong or have pain. That's the hardest part for me. I want to give more, but I cant right now!!
Remember that---"I can't RIGHT NOW". Let yourself heal and then you can double time it!

I was looking in the church news at the new mission president assignment names, and your mission is the ONLY ONE that still says "To Be Announced". No name attached to it yet. Or I would tell you! I know it doesn't matter, however!
WEIRD!! Guess what, Elder Cook is coming to speak to us next week! SO EXCITECD!!!

Love you so much! Fill us in. Tell us everything.
So for this week, we were supposed to have a baptism this past Sunday ... and the 2 days prior to his interview he started acting very different ...we knew something was up but he didn't say anything was different ...we went to his interview and our district leader said it as the strangest interview hes ever had. Like this man didn't know anything. None of the answers ...we had gone over every question with him like 3 days prior and he did amazingly! It was odd. We feel he has some major issues with some things. We are heart broken because he was doing so amazing.

It is amazing how satan works on those who are trying to progress ... and how easily they can fall if they aren't careful. We see it too often, and we are trying to understand how we can help them have more faith in the Savior so they can be stronger.

Oh, before I forget, next week we have changes, and a fireside with Elder Cook so I won't be emailing until Wednesday the 23! FYI!

Yesterday was p-day and since my comp is the nurse whenever there is a doctors appt. she has to be there, so often she doesn't really actually get a p day. Yesterday we had to go to the capital with an elder for an eye appt. and so we spent the day there then went to the mission office to do some other nurse stuff. President asked me if I was excited to be transferred...WHAT! So yes, I am getting transferred next week because my comp has to train Sister Newman to be the new nurse. I AM SO SAD. Only because I am in love with the peole here. I can't leave them!! I am sad, but it will be a fun new adventure I am sure.

My Spanish improves every day. I still feel silly cause I know people can't understand me half the time, and I want to be able to talk more to let the people know how much I love them, but it gets better every day, I am trying to remember everything and it's so hard to remember things. The days all run together! hahaha We have a baptism this next Saturday. The only one will get to see in this area. This mans girlfriend is a member and he kept telling us he never received an answer...we could tell that he had but he didn't think so. One day we were teaching him and he said I want to be baptized this next Saturday....WHAT!!! hahaha he said I prayed and said I was going to be baptized and if I didn't receive the answer that I shouldn't, then that's what I was going to do. So now he is getting baptized and he is so excited. I AM SO EXCITED. What an example of faith. Sometimes the people here blow my mind. NO ALWAYS! They are amazing! I feel so blessed to know them and learn from them. It is such a sacrifice for people to give others their food, yet without fail people give us food just when we need it most and not just like a little, all that they have. Its so hard to take it, but we do it, knowing they will be blessed for it.

I am learning a lot each day. I pray for you all everyday and I have a letter for you coming one day! I hope you know how much I admire and love and pray for you! I HAVE THE BEST FAMILY EVER!!! Literally!! Love you more than you'll ever know!
Hermana Oliphant

A sweet exchange between Morgan and her Dad!

PLEASE NOTICE that there are four posts added today!  They are all very fun to see and to read!

I got permission from Brent to share this sweet communication they got to have on Tuesday! 

It is a bit personal, but I love her upbeat, positive attitude. Morgan doesn't know I am sharing this, I hope she won't mind. 

She is having some more health issues and she is handling them PERFECTLY!!!

I just added this photo from last June for a "visual"! =)

Dad: "Are you still there?" (she doesn't know who is asking at this point, it is usually me, Lisa, but I was at work!)

Morgan: "Yes, I have 40 minutes!"

Dad: "It's your dad I hope every thing is going good. I worry about your health but also know your on the lords side. I am just finishing a letter and told you in the letter about my hip. I love you so very much. Dad"

Morgan: "LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! I always love your letters! Make my life. My health will be fine...the Lord knows what hes doing. I think hes testing me to see how badly I want to be here. It has really tested me. haha But its getting better. Thank goodness for prayer and for miracles, because I am seeing them always."

Dad: " I feel that The Lord shares with those he loves most some physical pain so we can experience some of the pain he had to pay for each of us. Love you to death (not literally) Love, your dad -- can't wait to hear from you next week!!!"

Morgan: "Thank you! I am definitely learning to rely on the lord!! LOVE YOU SO SO SO SO SO MUCH!!"

The best week so far...

This week has been good! The best so far. It gets better every day! We got to go to Antigua for a zone activity yesterday! It was so fun to get out. I got FRIED. Oops. But we got to see some amazing things and I took some fun pictures I am going to send you and hope they come through!! I know I know..I am super cute here on the mission with no make up and all my acne, but pictures are still fun! We have like 4 men going to get baptized in the next 2 weeks and we are SO excited!! One, Juaquin, literally the cutest man. Like we just love him. When we go to their house he hides behind the door and like peeks around the corner, he is just a sweetheart. He has really bad bronchitis…he was going to get baptized this past week, but he was in the hospital the night before when he was supposed to have his interview, so he has to wait another week…he is maazing and came to church the day after being in the hospital…he is the best. Another is Enrique…HE IS AMAZING: He already is praying about going on a mission. His prayers amaze me everytime. He is just great. He loved the BOM and he loves the gospel. The others are Kevin and Byron. Both of their novias…girlfriends…are memebers, so they are very interested in the church..obviously! haha but they will be baptized soon. WE have this AMAZING WOMAN: Aleydra. We found her in the street one day with her daughters…she works all day everyday and makes literally next to nothing…she wants to bad to come to church…THE MIRACLE IS SHE FOUND A NEW JOB THIS WEEK THAT SHE DOESN’T HAVE TO WORK SUNDAYS AND SHE GETS PAID MORE: She did this all on her own..because she wants to go to church. She is amazing! WE LOVE HER SO MUCH!

Some photos of Morgan she sent --- finally!

She said, "Hahahahaha. This was a good day of work! I am going to have the UGLIEST feet after 18 months...

hopefully dad will still give me massages after this hahahahahahaha!"

She bought one piece of chocolate on their p-day trip to Antigua. It was "amazing, so expensive. That little thing I bought was like Q15...which is like 3 or 4 dollars but I had to try it. It was so good." She has run out of chocolate from Sis. VanderLinden and is very sad about that! She also said "notice my tan line on my neck?" 

"This amazing woman who doesn't even have food for her family...I mean literally nothing... sent this home with us one night. Chicken, tomale, bread, tortillas, and ponche...SHE IS LITERALLY OUR MOTHER HERE. She cannot be baptized yet, but she is going to see miracles, she is amazing!"

Good times...

Funny moments!

We are sitting in a lesson and its very spiritual, right after the prayer and my companion stands up and SCREAMS! Hahaha the family was like oh my goodness what is wrong…she she jumps up and like shakes and a cat falls out of her skirt…. hahahahahahahaa the families cat had like jumped her and was like in her skirt. IT WAS SO FUNNY! Literally laughed so hard we cried…I almost wet my pants…we had to get up and go outside to compose ourselves. Haha it was so funny!!

I have this problem with the language…I say Buenos Dias…ALL DAY! Like at 9 pm…I'm yelling Buenos dias…it’s a problems cause that’s like me telling you good morning at 9 pm. People just laugh at me. I am learning….slowly..now I just say Feliz Dia..happy day! hahahaha

I chased a cockroach around the house trying to kill it the other day...literally chased it...they are SO FAST!!

I went to contact this man in a wheel chair the other day in the street and as I walked up he had a dead, stuffed rat in his hand he was trying to sell....hahaha I LAUGHED SO HARD!!! it was wild! it was like a preserved pet..but a rat. gross!

I still am not very good at directions...so i get going walking nice and fast, and end up like crossing the street when we should be knocking on a door....its funny in person..I don't know how to explain it..basically i look like an idiot and my comp just laughs at me!

We do have fun on the mission! I promise!