Hello!

Im Doing very weel in Ecuador still. We had zone conference this last week in Otavalo again. It was really good. President Sloan is SUCH a smart guy and he is a very powerful speaker. My interview went very well with him. He did tell me in the interview how appreciative he was for me working hard and being a good example to the other elders here. He also told me I probably wont be here in Tulcan much longer, he feels he needs me somewhere else in the mission but didnt tell me where. We have another 4 weeks left in this exchange though. But who knows, there are alot of elders finishing up there mission this next week so he may move me on an emergencie exchange. But either way, I love Tulcan. Elder McGary and I have picked up alot of new references and invstigators this week. Alot of the people down here think that mormons gorw horns and worship all sorts of wierd things, so we have had to clear up alot of questions this week during lessons. We sent some baptismal dates this week. We have a family of three, Mother son and daughter. The tow kids are 11 and 10 and they are loving the lessons and learning more. The mother doesnt really listen. We just need to show to her the importance and the difference of our church, that we arent just another church. But so the two kids have the baptismal date of feb 7th. So that is really exciting. I was there when we found them and have been there through all of the lessons so far. They are my first investigators with a date. I am really excited about it. The weather hasnt been so well the last few days. Rain rain rain. When the first storm rolled in the other afternoon we were walking from one appointmentto another and we could see the thick black cloud moving in. About two blocks away from the appointment we looked down the street to the left of usand could see just a wall of rain moving towards us within 50 yards. about a block and a half from the house it started to rain and we started to run. The rain drops were HUGE and there were ALOT of them. We got to the house of our appointment but in the 25 seconds it took us to get there we were as wet as if we had just jumped in a river. my socks were wet, my shirt, tie, pants, garnments, backpack. EVERYTHING. And it has rained everyday most of the day since. Not as hard though. I have been able to use that big trenchcoat Jared lent me, thats a blessing for sure! Havent been splashed by any dumptruck yet this week so thats good. Sounds like everything is doing well back home. Oh ya, Happy birthday to everyone who had a birthday this last week and the week upcomming! Gramma, Zach, Rachel, Krysten....Uncle Brian.....I think thats all of you but if I forgot anyone dont worry i still love you. Thank you for all of the letters. Love you all.

Elder Morris

Hola Familia!

Well at transfers last week Elder Castro got exchanged! He got sent to Santo Domingo over on the coast. The Elder that was there came here. Elder McGary from Kennewick Washington. And yes he is a first cousin of the McGary´s in Burton. His aunt is an office lady at the MHS and I graduated with one of his cousins! What a small world! So we are doing very good together. He is one for obeying rules and using time wisely. We didnt really get alot done last week because he had to go back to Quito for a couple of days for a District Leader training meeting, this week will probably about as slow because we have to travel to Otavalo for a couple of days for Zone Conference. Its really rare that two gringos get put together in this mission, but President figured he was the best for the situation.

The past week it has been fairly cold. It hasnt been real sunny at all and it has rained alot. One quick story about that. So when it rains the roads just fill up with water. So the other day we were walking to lunch on the sidewalk and I was pondering in my head about the fact of getting splashed by cars. And I thought, i havent been splashed in the time i have been here, maybe i can make it the WHOLE mission without getting splashed! And not 5 minutes later a dumptruck was comming down the road towards us at a fast pace. I didnt even think about it. i was RIGHT next to a big puddle. Well my reactions were surely not quick enough. So that night I put my clothes in the laundry basket to get washed.

It sounds like everyone is doing very well back home. And i just cant tell everyone enough how glad I am everyone waited till AFTER I got into the mission field to start having kids! That is just so nice. Well I guess the little bums will meet me when I get home. So ya Laura and Chance, Zach and Dad spilled the beans already, I know there´s a baby on the way. Dad said due date is sept 1st. So you better hope it doesnt come on the 3rd, I dont want anyone stealing my thunder!

As far as the work here, last week seemed to me like a episode of Good Investigators Gone Bad! We tried setting up a couple appointments and also simply visiting a few. For some reason people think we cant see through windows on doors or something. They try the whole be sneaky thing and act like they arent at home, then we wait long anough they finally come and then they lie about whose there. Oh well. We still have a few doing good, and we will keep working with all of them. We got a couple more references from a lady in the branch this week. In two weeks time she has given us like 5 differtent references. Its members like that that really halp us out and help the church progress!

As for the pictures I sent home. Yes the chicken head and feet are eaten here, not cooked for flavoring in soup. Its really quite a delicacy to have the feet. Im not such a fan though. We had a lunch the other day the was rice with some cow stomache. Ya youre right, it wasnt good. But stuf like that isnt really popular. More often than not its just soup, some rice and normal parts of chicken! Well I gotta get going but thanks for everything. I always enjoy hearing from home and getting news about stuff. Im doing well. No worries here. Be safe, do whats right!

Elder Morris

Hello Family,

So i have to start out by telling you all how much i loath computers! I just had a big old letter written out on here and now its gone, just gone. This seems to happen about every week to me. oh well. I had a couple fun expericences this week. On saturday us missionaries had a youth activity at the church and just before the activity another elder and i ran down the street a couple blocks to use some phones to call a few more members to remind them about the activity. as we truned one of the corners a bus stopped be hind us and some people got off. I had my back turned to them and all of the sudden i was surrounded! There were 6 kids ages 6-12 hugging me and yelling ¨Elder Morshis!¨ it was a group of member kids comming from the other end of town to go to the activity. When they saw that i wasnt looking they came from behind and suprised me. It was a big old confidence boost! Also earlier this week we were at a recently baptised family´s house giving a quick lesson. We read out of the scriptures and were going around one by one baring testimonies and then each one would look at the pictureof christ we had and would say to him as if he was there with us just whatever they wanted to say. Most of them said things like thank you for my family, the church, things like that. Then the mother went very last, but after her, the littlest boy who is only about 2 or 3 said ¨a mi, a mi¨ (my turn) and so the mom held the picture for him. He looked at the picture, got a big smile on his face, looked and us, then back at the picture again and simply said ¨Te Amo¨ (i love you), then leaned forward and kissed the picture. I couldnt help it, i cried. It was a very special moment and i sure learned a lesson. It was a perfect example of why Christ has always taught that we must become as a child to inherit th kingdom of God.

We got a couple of references this week to new families to teach. Both of the families are golden, I am really excited to get teaching them more. We have left some reading assignments with them and they are actually following through on their assignments. We have FHE with one of them tonight and we are planning on watching the testaments and reading from 3 nephi of when christ came.

A for our companionship, my patience is getting thinner with my companion. I am trying hared each day to try to be on time to all of our appointments and things but its rough sometimes. He enjoys being with member families and his girlyfriends family too much that it is really cutting into our teaching and effectiveness. We waist alot of time and its really getting to me. I have had a few talks with him about and hopefully it will start to change. As of wednesday i will have made it through my first transfer in the mission. So my companion may just get transferred this week, who knows. I will just have to wait to see. Dont worry about me, its just making me learn and grow stronger and faster.

As for thigns from home, i talked to the zone leaders and if you send anything that weighs more the 4.4 lbs it gets a green sticker and when it gets into ecuador it goes to mail jail, and i have to pay an extra 15-25 dollars to get it out, and the process has at times taken up to 7 months for elders. So if you send something under 4.4 lbs it gets a white sticker and goes to the mission home and they get it to me usually 1-2 months is the wait. So remeber not to go over 4.4 lbs on anything and send it to this address:

Elder Morris

Misión Ecuador Quito

Casilla 17-03-078

Robles 640 y Ave. Amazonas

Quito Ecuador

I got the letter from Jared and Krysten last week. Just to be clear on things you two, my dog is NOT for sale and neither are my guns! thank you, now i can sleep better. Thanks for that christmas card though that was nice to get. I am glad to hear that Caleb is doing well. I was a bit worried about him. Hopefully it will kepp getting better. Mary told me about taking him to Cabelas this week. I dont know if it was the thought of Cabelas again or the thought of caleb saying ¨fish¨but i teared up! I miss that little guy. One idea if anyone does send anything, send some postcards of the mauntains and stuff back home. I saw a book the other day at a members home that had a picture of the tetons as the cover! it was pretty neat.

Well im out of time but i love you all and thank you for everything!

Elder Morris

HolaSounds like it was a rough week. Dont worry at all I always remember our family in my prayers. I will surely remember Caleb in them. I hope everything works out ok. Mary took so long going into details on everything in her letter i started crying. I was just wanting to know if the little guy was safe and in the middle of the suspence she would start telling me about how interesting the technology was! But i´m glad to hear he is safe and i hope and pray the medication will fix whatever the problem is. It sure is hard to hear about something like that being so far from home, but i know that the Lord with watch over and protect him. This week i have been studying alot of different talks by apostles and one talk i just read this morning was by Elder Holland title Missionary Wory and The Atonement. It is a very very powerful talk and he gives a promise to the missionaries at the end of it that families will be watched over and protected. So that was what came to my mind when I read the letters this morning.
As for the work here this week, it has been amazing! I have had some great expariences. But first i have to tell you about new years. It was CRAZY! There were SO many people. We had to be in the house by 9pm so i just sat at the window and watched all of the people go by. The streets were completely crouded with people. We live on the main road going through town and for a few miles the road was full of people. Walking with families and friends, they got to one end of the party and would walk down to the other end. There was music being played everywhere. It was so cool. Tons of people walking around wearing masks and stuff. Once in a while there were groups of grown men dressed as women, all of them are straight though (still trying to figure that tradition out). And then they for new years have alot of dummys, they write on papers all of the things from the old year they want to change and then they put the papers on the dummies and midnight they burn all of the dummies in the streets and light of big fireworks! Like always, there were quite a few drunks but we just hung out in the appartment eating pizza. So it was fun i guess.
Anyways.. about the work. On friday elder Monson and i went on an exchange and visited a couple less actives and tried to contact some investingators but noone was home yet from holidays. So we were in an area where last week elder Castro and I rang the doorbell of a two story house. A lady came out and we asked if we could come by to give a lesson and she agreed. So friday elder Monson and i returned to give her a short lesson. Well noone came to the gate when we rang the bell so we waited for a couple of minutes. Then a car showed up. And the lady that got out we recognized! It was a different lady contacted us a couple of weeks ago because she has a friend that is a member and she wants to learn about the church, but she hadnt given us any information on how to contact her. It just so happened to be that she lived in the second story of this house we were at and she was returning home quickly to grab something she had forgotten when she left a while before! And we just happened to be there (not even knowing she lived there) when she came back. So we scheduled an appointment with her for later this afternoon. After that we went to district meeting an us four elders had a good talk about gaining respect of the members and us not just being friends. We set some good goals and really had a good talk about it. After that Elder Monson and I went to get our haircut by a member lady. When we got done she told us we should go visit her buddy that works across the street at some cabinas. So we walked over and began to talk with him. He has TONS of questions about the church. Alot of them about the plan of salvation, and alot about the restoration. Almost everyone ofhis quistions were questions that traditionally the missionary would ask the investigator in the lessons. Like ´who is God to you´ and ´how do you know if youre in the true church of God´ and alot more like that. So we answered as many question as we had time too and we scheduled a lesson with him for tomorrow! Juan Carlos _____ (he wouldnt give us his last name) not YET! I am SO excited to get to teach him! He is golden! ALSO yesterday at church they combined the to brachen again because people had stopped going when they split it. Abnd yesterday we had alot of investigators come to church. One part member family, an investigating couple, a few inactive families, it was just a great sunday! We got 5 new names of investigators yesterday alone! I also bore my testimony yeterday at church. It was awsome! I got up to the mic. and just opened my mouth and words just came out! Not only did they just come out, but they made sense, they were crystal clear, and through my testimony i didnt hardly make gramatical mistake! WAHOO!! I love spanish and i am so so so very blessed! Diligence is they key to success. Persevere to the end of trials, and you will be blessed and receive a testimony. Ether 12:6 and 2Ne. 31:20
Love you all, thank you for yur love and support, it means everything to me. Stay safe, do whats right, our family will be blessed and Celeb will be watched over. Keep up the faith!
Love you
Elder Morris