January 6 email from Leah

Dear family,
Transfers are next Wednesday, so I'll let you know what happens. I'm going to miss all of my cute Nepali families if I get transferred. They are so sweet and I love them so much! I think a pretty good amount of Nepali refugees were sent to AZ as well by the way. Some of the families I've talked to have said they have family or know people in AZ (Tuscon specifically).
Yesterday we had 24 hr exchanges. There is one set of exchange sisters each transfer that do exchanges with each companionship to make sure everyone's doing okay. It was interesting teaching with another sister and I look forward to working with more sisters and different personalities throughout my mission. Must be the military brat in me that likes change!
We were able to put 2 people on date this week (one yesterday and one Monday) which we're really happy about seeing as about 7 or so of our investigators that had dates dropped us recently. So we were having some tough times for a little, but I know the Lord always blesses us and sends miracles after the trial of our faith!
This morning my whole Zone went to the 7am session at the temple. Leave it to the elders to pick the earlier time (we wanted to go to the 8:00). We woke up at 5:40 and didn't take showers...don't tell anyone!...

I'm so glad everyone had a nice Christmas and holiday, etc. Mine was really wonderful and I truly enjoyed all of the wonderful gifts I received (physical and spiritual!).
I love you all lots and lots.
Love,
Sister Leah Morris

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from Leah

Dear family,
It was so nice to talk to you on Christmas. I am such a spoiled girl! I really loved everything I received. Everyone was too kind...

Yesterday we had a Pday from 6-9pm and then today we had an all day Pday. It's been an interesting time to start my mission with all these holidays at the start. The time goes by so quickly here! I'm sure you'll all agree it seems like this year has gone by extremely fast.
If we met our goal for the mission for 2009 we have a really special treat planned. On January 26th the whole mission will have an all day Pday and will spend from 8am to 8pm in the temple. Can you believe it? I hope we get to. I think it'll be really neat...

I love you all so much and hope you had a wonderful holiday season remembering the true meaning of Christmas and making righteous goals for you and your families for the new year.
Love,
Sister Morris

Leah's Thanksgiving

I spent Thanksgiving at home as my companion was sick. Well actually that's not entirely true. We spent the morning at insta-care where she got treated for her nausea and hives she got some how on her neck. I was basically sick with the flu Monday through Wednesday and she was sick Thursday through Sunday! So she spent most of Thanksgiving sleeping while I tried to find things to keep me busy! I was glad Mom had sent me a few Thanksgiving type items. I took pictures (as I was very bored!) to show you what I spent my day doing. I didn't get ready for the day, so sorry I'm not wearing any make-up! Anyway, I thought it was kind of funny and it was actually a pretty nice and relaxing day. Someone brought a little thanksgiving by for us around 8pm at night and we also got a little Filipino food, not that either of us had much of an appetite.
First I put a festive bow in my hair (orange of course).
Then I made appetizers and the instant potatoes mom sent me (they were really yummy!) and tried to make banana creme pies, but all we had was rice milk and I guess you can't make pudding with rice milk? It didn't set up so I ended up drinking the pies!
The elders came over to give my companion a blessing and then of course asked if they could do anything more for us, so I told them they could put up our tree (a member is letting us borrow it) and they gladly did! Isn't it pretty?

I love you all! Our families are so important and I am so grateful for the family we have.
Love,
Sister Morris

She has a new mission in mind!

Leah- Utah Salt Lake City Mission September 2009-March 2010

Dad and I dropped Leah off at the MTC on Wednesday, September 30. We were really feeling quite emotional and expected to have a teary farewell, but we drove into the parking lot and Elders lined the sidewalk to welcome everyone. Two handsome Elders came to the car, began chatting with Leah , grabbed her bags and said she's in good hands Mom and Dad. We gave farewell hugs and she walked away, laughing and chatting.

Excerpts from her first email:
“I have a wonderful companion… Sister Westover (Nikelle) from Saratoga Springs. She's 6ft tall and it's nice having a companion taller than me! A few people have asked if we're real sisters, so I guess we look a little alike (she has dimples too). We've already become great friends.
It has been really fun running into all the people I know, one of my old roommates from the Muir house, another girl and three other guys (or I should say another sister and 3 other elders). I love my other roommates as well! Sister Allan is going to the Mesa visiter’s center and two other sisters are going to temple square--one is from Argentina, Sister Salinas and the other is from Peru, Sister Barona. Sister Salinas is 27 and a really amazing sister. It was neat talking to all of the sister's about how they came upon the decision to serve a mission. I've heard so many people (especially cynical boys) say sisters serve just because they couldn't get married. Just listening to the story of these sisters and many others, this couldn't be farther from the truth! I am especially impressed by the sisters from other countries. Many of the sisters on my floor are going to temple square, so there are a lot of sisters from all over (Africa, Germany, the Netherlands, many Asian countries, etc.).
This work is so amazing and I feel so honored to be able to go out and teach. Love Leah”

(2nd email)
So some of the elders in my distric started making up a new version of Nephi's courage using some of their own names in the song. I thought it'd be funny if we made up a version to tease the elders with. So on Sunday, our last day all together, we sang this to the elders in our district ( to the theme of Nephi's courage):

The Lord calls missionaries to go and preach his word.
To the unbelievers all around the world.
All of the elders were just to immature,
So he called the sisters, He knew they would endure.

So you'll be happy to know I haven't lost my sense of humor or my teasing nature. I thankfully attribute this attitude to many years of being the baby of the family.

We watched a really wonderful and powerful talk Elder Holland gave at the MTC in 2001 titled The Miracle of a Mission. One of the things he reminded us all of is that "salvation isn't cheap. It was never meant to be and never will be easy." Anyway, the whole talk is great.

I leave tomorrow at 6am so I've been washing laundry and trying to get packed today. My entire district left yesterday, so I am all alone! Well actually I am with a solo sister who is going to Cambodia Vietnemese speaking and a sister that was supposed to leave this morning to Tempe, but injured her knee and now has to spend the next week going to physical therapy.