The Frog Lives On...

THE FROG LIVES ON. . . in our sink. Haha the frog is living in our drain and we can't get it out. Every once in a while it talks to us and it echoes really loudly in the apartment. Talk about creepy in the middle of the night...

THE RUNDOWN:

So remember when I used to do my hair? Yeah those days are long gone.

Remember when you would tell me to read my scriptures and I'd only read one verse and thought I'd die? Now I almost start crying at the end of personal study time every day because I want to keep reading my Book of Mormon.

Remember when you told me one day I'd like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir? It happened.

My feet are getting nice and calloused so I'll be expecting a good long pedicure when I get home in a year and a few months.

I wake up to a rooster crow every morning. Literally. It's not just in the movies, it's real life.

I wait a half hour for my water to almost be considered boiling to make pasta to eat with my beans.

Often times I think camping would be a luxurious alternative to living in our house.

I take bucket showers.

I walk a lot.

I sound like a child but I try to teach.

I have gotten good at smiling, nodding, and acting like I know what's going on.

I love being a missionary.

So the other day we had a zone meeting and like usual I almost understood half of what they said. At one point we all surrounded the baptismal font while a sister read an inspirational quote about baptism in spanish. No, I didn't understand it, but it gave me a moment to think. Looking into the font I was brought back to my baptism on my 8th birthday. I didn't really understand the entirety of the gift I was receiving as I entered the waters of baptism, and my dad helped me situate my hands just right so I could plug my nose. I remember thinking, "I'm clean. I'm perfect." Granted, for a moment I was. But soon enough, I was making mistakes. I still am. But now I can take the sacrament and be clean again.

Being on my mission I have learned more about the blessings received at baptism. I still can't comprehend it all. But we become candidates for eternal life with our Father who loves us more than we can imagine. When I was baptized, I didn't have any idea that in about 10 years I would be living in Guatemala, inviting people every day to be baptized and to allow the light of the gospel into their lives.

I love the conversion story of King Lamoni. "The dark veil of unbelief was being cast away from his mind, and the light which did light up his mind, which was the light of the glory of God, which was a marvelous light of his goodness - yea, this light had infused such joy into his soul, the cloud of darkness having been dispelled, and that the light of everlasting life was lit up in his soul"

I don't know what that's like yet, to see that kind of a beautiful change in my investigators, but I know that I will see that change in their eyes as we guide those prepared by the Lord and help them find their way to the baptismal font and then onward in their lives.

I love this work and I love our Father who has provided such a perfect plan for us.

Family, I am so jealous that you are in New York/ Baltimore/ wherever you are.

Sophie, my companion has "You Raise Me Up" by Josh Groban and we blast it every day and it reminds me of when we sang our hearts out at the concert! p.s. You are so stinkin gorgeous.
Mom, send a letter to Dean Kaelin and tell him to tell David Archuleta to wait for me.  Thanks.

I love you all! Until next week.

No Empty Chairs.

Morgan