My Last Week: 18 Months, 4 Secteurs, 11 Companions, and 1 Big Testimony!

November 28, 2016

Cher tous,

This week was even more AWESOME than last week and the week before that and the week before that!

Juste vite fait: HAPPY late THANKSGIVING!! I'm so thankful for this gospel, this experience, our Savior Jesus Christ and His atonement, for the sun that shines (even though it's hot), and the rain that falls, for the humidity, for the many stars I see at night, for the Livre de Mormon, for this mission, for my friends and famille, for those I have met and taught and watched and changed, for the gift of tongues, for my loving Heavenly Father. I could go on and on, but my gratitude for this life is eternal!

So I've thought a good bit about what I wanted to write today. And I've realized that nothing I say will really fully explain ni express my real feelings about my life on the mission.

Let me start off by saying that 18 months flies by in a heartbeat, and that I was blessed in being forced to change in ways I never thought I needed. I've learned that stress is a choice, patience is a BIG virtue, and charity should be an everyday action. I've learned that it's always better to love others as who they are instead of judging them for not being lie us or doing what we do. We never know what someone has been through in their life to become how they are; we must simpy look at them through the eyes of our Heavenly Father and feel of His love for them.

We witness miracles, hardships, heartbreak, become more in tune with the Spirit, and increase our testimony of His gospel and blessings that He promises us.

I honestly could go on and on about the blessings and changes I've seen on my mission, and of course bore some people to death, but in all in all words cannot describe a mission. It just can't. J'arrive pas a croire tous ce que j'ai fait dans ma vie. J'arrive pas a croire que c'est presque finit.

"Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace." -President Ezra Taft Benson

I love this gospel more than anything! There are no regrets with the choice that I made ni the work that I did. THIS CHURCH IS TRUE!!! #blessed

Ua here au ia outou. E mea parau mau i te ekalesia a Iesu Mesia i te feia mo'a i te mau mahana hopa nei!

Je vous aime! L'eglise de Jesus-Christ des Saints des derniers jours est vraie!

I love y'all! The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-Day saints is true!

signing off,
Tuahine/Soeur Morrill :)

p.s. today is my last email, because next monday I will be chez President

p.s.s. For those who want to know my finish date is 5 Decembre and I reach home the 6 Decembre. For more information on my flight information y'all can contact my mom :) bdmorril@ix.netcom.com

p.s.s. See y'all in the #205 et #801

peace n' blessin's

District d'oof 

My companion is truly the best, French, and a lot shorter than me lol

A temple of the temple will never get old

November 21, 2016 - Another Great Week & Driving Without Brakes - Protection Personified!

Salut everyone!

This week was AMAZING!

First of all..."let me take a selfie"...no je rigole.

But seriously I gotta start from the beginning.

Monday was super great, even though we sacrificed most of our pday to have anoher conseil des dirigeants chez President. It was all worth it, because we had Elder Cardon, a 70 who helps oversee the missionary work in the south Pacific region. Him and his wife came, and boy o' boy are they some of the nicest people ever!

Elder Cardon is such a sweet and humble man. The first thing he said when he stood up to give his formation was "I'm sorry that I don't speak French. I pray that some day I will so that I can get to know you all personally." He then had all the Francophones who still didn't understand English sit on the front couches together while 2 elders sat behind them and translated everything he said during the entire meeting.

Tuesday we had our Conference Multi-Zone with the zones of Punaauia, Paea (us), Papeari, and Taravao. And again Elder Cardon was super amazing and puissant. He talked about eternal famillies and the goal that we should have on the mission to teach families, because FAMILIES can be FOREVER! He said "you don't just see an individual but a famille, with decendants, and sons and daughters of God."

"Everything in this world will try to convince you that this GOSPEL isn't real...learn to listen and understand that voice of the spirit." - Elder Cardon

At the end of the Conference we left to drop off other missionaries. Upon driving I noticed that the brakes on our car were weak. We went back to the chapelle where President and Elder Cardon were still and had President drive our car. President gets done and says "you don't have any brakes...the garage is already closed, so il faut que you drive carefully home and then to a garage the next day to check them out." Elder Cardon gets out of the car and drills President with questions to find out if the car was safe enough to drive home (30 minutes the opposite direction in rush hour traffic). We get home just fine...probably made many people mad along the way for driving super under the speed limit but hey "better safe than sorry."

Wednesday, we headed out early to the other end of our zone where the only garage is located. We met the mechanic...super nice guy, named Vai, didn't believe in God...unil we came along haha. He lifts up the hood, looks at our brake fluid, cusses a lot and starts to laugh.

"Soeur ma...y'all are lucky to be alive right now."

"Really? Why is that?"....because (keep in mind) literally neither of us had any previous knowledge about cars let alone brake fluid, brakes assistants, ni brake pads.

"There's water in your brake fluid (apparently there shouldn't be), and your brake pads suck." ...oooh.

He then goes on to tell us that afer he saw our car that his belief in God fortified. According to Vai we shouldnt be alive, but with that being said it goes to show that we had the Lord looking out for us and protecting us :).

One of our lecons for this week was with Jean-Michel. A fairly new amis de l'eglise. NOTE: He was the one that called us a few weeks ago to tell us that he was to high to drive home for his lecon. Well good news...he was "all there" and we started teaching the Plan of Salvation! Y'all that lecon was AMAZING! The spirit was super strong to help us testify to J-M that God has a plan for ALL of us to return to Him again. I was super grateful for the gift of tongues that day. And super grateful for the spirit qui etait la. J-M even said that what we said really touched him and that though it's gonna be super super hard to stop smoking weed that he's gonna try anyway. AND that he felt "a weird kinda peace fill his body," haha IT WAS THE SPIRIT!!! HE FELT THE SPIRIT!!

So yea...that lecon was super top and though it may seem unlikely des fois to us J-M is slowly developing the desire to change and become better!!! Woohoo!!!

Je vous aime beaucoup! Prennez-soin de vous-memes!

-Soeur/Tuahine Morrill :)

p.s. Vai told us that he wants to take the missionary lecons now!! Woohoo x2!

p.p.s. Jean-Michel came to the Saturday evening session of Conference de Pieu (Stake Conference) and he got there early. When we found him he was wearing a t-shirt that said "Lost..." hahahahaha AND Jean-Michel didn't smoke the ENTIRE day Saturday so that he could come to conference!

November 14, 2016 - AWESOME Week!

November 14, 2016

Chers tous,

This week was AWESOME! I honestly don't really remember what all happened and when, because everything is starting to blur together.

I don't have much time today. This week starts the Pacific island tour of the 70 regional presidency, so tonight we get to hang with the one and only Elder Cadron and his wife for a soiree familial chez President Bize himself. I'm pretty sure it'll be pretty awesome and pretty sure that it'll be in English lol. I'm just super pumped for this week, because we have so much stuff going on!

We did, however, do splits with Taravao 1 et 2. It was soooooo great, and I had the amazing pleasure to return to my beloved Taravao 1 and work with Soeur Jimmy (she's from Vanauatu) for the day.

I was able to reunite with membres, amis, and convertis! Y'all....it was such a great day! When I left Taravao that night I cried...again.

So Soeur Domenech and I were barely together until the end of the week.

This past week we taught one of our amis, Raina. She still has trouble believing in God, but the last lecon we had with her was super puissant! This spirit was so strong, and we could definitely tell she was feeling something. We simply explained that He is all powerful, and that He loves her. In a nutshell...that's what we talked about. But if only I took a picture of her face while we were teaching. She was so zoned in, and her eyes lit up so many times when we mentioned the Savior, His love, atoning sacrifice, and the hardship that our Heavenly Father had to go through to sacrifice His son. Even though there is still a ways to go in helping Raina believe in God it'll all be worth it in the end, and the love of the gospel and the spirit will just flood her heart #tissuesready.

So a lot of people have told me this past week...Soeur Morrill tu termin bientot. Comment tu te sens? (Soeur Morrill you finish soon. How do you feel?) my honest answer? I don't know. The time that I have left here may seem a long time for those in school or at work, but for a missionary it flies by. Last week I said that I wanted to make the most out of what time I still have left, and that is still true. Having so little time left has made me more motivated to work harder to help my companion and the secteur that I will leave behind.

This church is SO TRUE! And I love it more every day of my life.

Ua here au ia outou roa et mea faahiahia roa ia outou!

-Tuahine/Soeur Morrill :)

November 7, 2016

Hey y'all!

I hope everyone is doing great! This week was faaaaantabulous, and I was able to do a big self evaluation about my mission and establish what I still want to accomplish with the weeks that I have left.

This past Thursday we had conseil des dirigeants with Président Bize and the other leaders of the mission. We focused a lot on obedience and numbers. And with the year soon coming to an end it has stressed a lot of us out. 

Des fois we focused too much on achieving a numerical goal than inviting others to come unto Christ (worldwide mission objective), and looking back I realized that achieving that numbers goal never really brought happiness on the mission. My comp and I really saw that we were the happiest when we forgot about numbers, lost ourselves in the work, and lived and breathed off of the joy and happiness of helping the people we teach. And while focusing on those feelings of happiness, we saw that we would also achieve our weekly goals without even knowing it!

We focused our formation in our réunion de zone the other day on the feelings of joy we feel after a hard days work...even if the numbers that day don't show it. So y'all...live and breath the happiness of this work and let those feelings motivate others to COME UNTO CHRIST!!  Woohoooo!!!

Other than that:

- we had a super fun movie night with our ward. We watched Other Side of Heaven, ate pizza and other foods that made us gain more weight :')

- Yesterday one of our amis called us from Papeete to tell us that he was too high to drive back home to Papra (40 minute drive) for his leçon #weedalldayerday

This work is AWESOME everyone! I hope y'all have the opportunity to grow your testimonies of Heavenly Father's love for us and Christ's restored gospel! Cool!

Ok...so yea that's it everyone! Haha passez une bonne semaine tout le monde! Je vous aime!

-Sœur/ Tuahine Morrill :)

October 31, 2016

Chers tous,

So this week again was SUPER DUPER great! AND nothing really happened this week!

Just to cut to the chase of everything:

- First of all HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! Everyone is cleaning and decorating graves/tombes of all the dead in the local cemetary here.

- Nephi got baptized and it was super great! He got up to bare his testimony apres and was so nervous but you could totally feel the spirit as he spoke!

- We exploded our kilometrage that we had for this month because #transfers

- Assistants called out all the missionaries because we don't "pay attention" to the kilometrage of our cars.

- I helped feed a newly born kitten who was abandoned by its mother....it died later on that day

- we taught an amis that is addicted to almost every illegal substance there is

- And I got my flight plans.

That's it. So as y'all can see....I didn't really have a super eventful week, but the stuff that we were able to do was super great!

Je vous aime beaucoup!

-Soeur/Tuahine Morrill :)

PICTURES!!
1. Good ole Elder Ruff (from my MTC promo got to baptize Nephi)

2. throwin' up signs??

October 23, 2016

Chers tous,
I hope y'all and your pets are doing great! So before I decide to go on an email rampage I will have you know that I was barely in my secteur this week....again.
- Drove over 500 kilometers in 2 days on the same road (Tahiti is only so big you guys).
- Taught a super great English class, and had a Française try and correct me on how to speak English
- Didn't get home till 10h30 one night because of transfers #quelechec
- Helped President transport multiple 10 gallon water jugs to another soeurs' home because water isn't clean on the presqu'île
- Talked to a lady that is named after the famous beer of Tahiti (Hinano)
- Drank 2 chocolate frappés from Macdo
- A cockroach jumped onto my back and then onto my leg one night chez une famille....no lie I almost lost it #hatethem
- Had Nephi's entretien de baptême and afterwards he made us and the elders hamburgers :)
- Had one of the assistants chew me out, because we had to do an emergency exchange, and I didn't prevenir them in advance #sorry
But after all of that went down, Soeur Tidjine and I met a reference that the DZs of Punaauia gave us. His name is Jean-Michel and is super cool. He met the elders after he had been in his 4th scooter accident, and he told us that he forced himself to be nice to the missionaries, but grace a leur great attitude porte par l'esprit he accepted the lecons and we met him sunday. We walk in and he is walking wih a limp with a big bandage on his forehead with a mesh cap to keep it in place. He sits down and Sr Tidjine and I introduce ourselves and talk a little bit about the church. He comes to have a lot of questions about LIFE in general. He asked us "why did God let me live after my 4th accident? Why does he want me to keep suffering?" His question made me super sad actually. This is a man who has a lot of questions, but can't find the answers. He's down hearted and doesn't see the worth in living anymore if he thinks that Heavenly Father is keeping him on this earth to just suffer.
Y'all...we all have a purpose on this earth, and Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us. Yes, it may take a while for us to finally answer "why am I really here?" but when we do we can all experience a love that is indescribable and attainable by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the end Jean-Michel hesitantly accepted to see us again next week, but I could see in his eyes a sliiiiight glimmer of hope! Wooohoo!!!

Je vous aime!

Soeur/Tuahine Morrill :)

October 17, 2016

Heeeeey you guys!!!
So this week was fantastic!
We had to do a lot of ballads...again out of our zone so we were rarely in the secteur, but we had some pretty sweet miracles:
- Cathy said that she LOVED the chapelle and was super touched by every thing that was said!
- We met an old amis named Louise who said that she's been waiting for the missionaries to come by again. She didn't have our number, so all she had to do was wait and pray!
Au lieu de ça we got TRANSFER CALLS! AND I'm staying in Temarua! Which means that I'm "dying" (finishing my mission) here! I'm absolutely PUMPED that I'm staying in this secteur! I love my amis, the members, and the secteur en general! ....but....Soeur Tidjine is getting transferred, something that was super hard for both of us to accept, but she's going to my old secteur of Nuuroa so I'm pretty excited for her!
Yesterday after notre chapelle we got the ok from assistants to head to another zone (Faaa) for their conference de pieu (stake conference)! One of my converti recents received the Pretrise Melchizadek (the second order of priesthood) and asked if I could come and be there with him and his famille. After the meeting we filed into a small room. I took a seat with his wife and his two children. We watched as men of the stake placed their hands upon his head and set him apart and gave him the priesthood.
Though the room was quiet, I could feel the Spirit of the Lord in the room. A feeling of love and peace washed over me. I started to cry as they blessed Irving, for I knew that he was now able to bless his famille with this power that Heavenly Father has entrusted him with. I couldn't have been more grateful for that opportunity.
The famille AMARU is a famille Soeur Lasso and I met when we were in Taravao together (Novembrer 2015-April  2016). The couple was not married and had been living in concubinage for over 15 years. Their kids are ones I absolutely ADORE, and we taught them for a good few months. A week after I was emergency transferred out of Taravao I got a call from Soeur Lasso telling me that Line and Irving want to get married and baptized along with their daughter Heimiti! I watched this famille become united. I watched them enter into the waters of baptism and come out completely clean of all they have done before. I can see the light on their faces, the happiness, the JOY of this gospel that has filled all of their hearts and their home. And now I am a witness of the amazing power of the priesthood that has been given to the father of the famille. He finally has the power to bless his famille!!
I'm so grateful for the priesthood, for it is the power of God that he bestows upon worthy men of the Church to bless others! Y'ALL....it's seriously one of the greatest things that our Heavenly Father has given us today!!
Apart from that this week was great!
I love you all so much! Je vous aime beaucoup! Ua here au ia outou!
Passez une très bonne semaine! Bisoux à vous tous!

-Soeur/Tuahine Morrill :)