Letter from Elder Morrison

well, i've been in sullivan for a week now. i'm starting to get the feel of it. it's a real small town, about 6500. my companion, Elder Anglesey, reminds me a lot of Jason Earl. he's just kinda got the same personality about him. i dont have my camera with me, so no pics this week sorry. Elder Nelson did serve in sullivan here about 4 months ago or so. he's pretty cool. i knew that the person that called you was his grandma, but not all the other connections. crazy. elder garn will be happy to hear that his friend is in ML now. i'll call him today and let him know. that way when he comes back, he can bring garn with him and we can hang out. so i remembered i didnt give you my address like on saturday, so sorry about that. it is
6 Fig St. #25
Sullivan, MO 63080
that's it.
less than a month until i get to call you. i'm really happy about that. i cant wait.
sounds like kevakin has possibly found his knack. sounds like everyone's enjoying hockey that's doing it.
i hope that taking donna and the joneses to the nativity opens a teaching opportunity for the missionaries there. they'd really be happy if they came to find the gospel in their lives.
and the frog tank again? man,what a bummer. and even more to only find 12 of the frogs. speaking of pets, i want a pic of cassia. probly one of kevakin sucking his lip, petting her tail. haha.
well, this week has been great. we are teaching some children, who have a date of the 23rd of dec. and then a guy named Dennis who has a date of the 30th. we're real excited about that. we also have some really good things coming up hopefully.
well, sorry, i dont have much else to say. cant wait to get your package you're going to send.
love you all so much, miss you too,
Elder Morrison

60 days to build -- 6 hours to tear down

This morning we woke up to a pool of water under the vivarium. As of now, 12 frogs are in a cup and the plants in a 10 gallon fish tank. I couldn't resist the photo op when Deb was helping clean up the guck. Tomorrow will be better than today.

Injured

Ty the goal boy was injured yesterday at hockey practice. He has been bed bound for the past 23 hours and still not feeling well this morning. He insists he will be better by game time Tuesday. Teenagers.... what do you do?

Tar Heels Win 73-63. . . but not without a fight.

The number one Tar Heels won the Las Vegas Invitational but not without a fight from BYU.
The headlines in the paper this morning read: "North Carolina held off a surprising BYU".

On friday BYU knocked off sixth-ranked Louisville. Now that was a good game. Last night Trent Plaistead shot a game-high 24 points and pulled down 17 rebounds for the Cougars. Man- That guy can play!

The bald man Jonathan Tavernari was awesome. In the firs half it seemed he couldn't miss the deep 3 pointers. Both sides played close early in the game, then the Tar Heels pulled away. North Carolina led by as many as nine late in the first half, but the bald boy hit a three at the first- half buzzer and brought BYU to the score of 38-31 at half.
BYU began the second half strong with bald boy hitting another long three-ball, our Cougars led 44-42, with about 4 minuets left to play in the game but the Tar Heels regained their form and pulled away when the time ran out. Just seeing the score 73-63 tends to be deceiving. Go Cougars! I just hope the Cougar-Bronco game on the 29th of next month is just as close.

Honolulu

Hawaii may be BCS bound. Boise State put up a good fight, but Hawaii had definitely watched a lot of BSU films. If you tried to call my house last night, I apologize for the busy signal... yes, the phone was off the hook.

Hawaii beat Boise State 39-27 last night and won its "first ever" outright Western Athletic Conference title.
Colt Brennan threw five touchdowns and broke a major college career record. He finished 40 of 53 for 495 yards. and left our Broncos with 10-2.

Brennan has passed for 126 touchdowns in his three years at Hawaii.

Ty Detmer (Ty Morrison's namesake of whom he shares the same birthday) had held the record with 121.

I think Hawaii played a near flawless game. Boise was outplayed and made it hard to sleep last night. Good Luck Hawaii!

May all your homes be decorated in blue and orange this holiday season!

GO BRONCOS!

Letter from Elder Morrison

well, i sure did miss being home for thanksgiving. it just felt like another day in the mission...except we got to eat twice. and at both there was more than too much food. i really did miss potato salad. they apparently dont know what that is, or how to make it out here. so we didnt get any. plenty of green bean casserole though. they love their green bean casserole. one place we even had "sweet potata mashers". aparrently they cant say mashed sweet potaoes or something. we left with leftovers from one family, the Kaehlers. the other one was with an adopted grandma (Ethel Sdorris i think is how you spell her name.). she's really great. we just call her grama. she's a recent convert of just over a year. actually there was a picture of me on her wall before i even got there. me and elder Andersen went to the temple when she got her endowment, because he was trained here and knew Ethel. we did a big group picture, and its on her wall. so i got on the wall before my current comp even.
my comp now is Elder Anglesey. he's really cool. we're having a good time already. we've been shooting some hoops on our little 'door hoop'. kinda fun. we're playing a game called Munchkin too. its a fun card game. Elder Anglesey is from Pocatello.
well, Sullivan is a little teeny town (well, big to oakley) of about 6000. the area has a branch, and covers a lot of smaller towns in the area like St. Clair. these places are kinda like oakley, but with people from hicktown, MO. dad, you know how they are. by the way, dad, can you give me a list of all your areas? i know you'll probably have to hit the record books to remember them, but i'd appreciate it. this library isnt as dumb as the other ones. i can send pics now. so i'm sending a couple of a few things.
alright well, i guess i'm about done. sorry it didnt come yesterday, but the libraries are closed on thanksgiving. love you all,

Elder Morrison

Happy Thanksgiving

One less than last year. We missed seeing everyone at the thanksgiving table. We did get an email from Sister Trulove saying that Mackenzie was transferred to a small town called Sullivan about an hour and a half drive southwest of St. Louis.

Creesh, Kevakin & I went and shot guns this morning while mom stayed at home and cooked dinner. She was very happy about it.

Old Man Hockey Practice

The puck stops here. However, I did what I could to let most go by to build the confidence of the players... (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

Ty Stops Another

Tyler had a good practice tonight. He learned the T-Glide from Coach George and was picking it up like a pro. Here he was stopping one of several for the night.... Good Job Ty!

Kevakin's Hockey Practice

He Shoots...

He Scores !!!

Kevakin gets the "golden dollar" award by being the last standing in the elimination shootout.

Letter from Elder Morrison

ok, so for the recap on thanksgiving. transfers are the day before. that means the soonest i could know what i'm doing for thanksgiving is sunday night. so i have no clue what's going on for that at this point. well, we went and played hockey AGAIN today. i was a little upset cuz it's not ice, i'm not on skates, and there's not sufficient pads. i got 2 pucks to the forearm (between the armor and the glove, bare skin), 1 to the thigh, and 1 to the sweet spot. needless to say, i got tore up. the knees arent really doing any better, but i only have really 2 days of big work until transfers. looks like i'm not gonna get an ice skating session before i get taken away. we'll see what happens with transfers.
as far as the work's going, its a little slow again. we have Ryan still, who hasnt been to church yet because of the most random things. he's going to be baptized, we're just not sure when yet. hopefully i'm close enough to here in my next area to come to his baptism. 2 people from Haiti came to church today who had the connection with the employment center. he was eating church up, and when we asked if we could teach him more, he was more than willing. they could be baptized here in another month, i bet. that's really all, just a lot of bike riding and knocking doors besides that.
well, i guess that's really about all. i'll let you know where i'm transferred next week. any mail for the next week-ish should be sent to the mission office.
love you,
Elder Morrison

Oregon Snow & Rain

After our 1,000 mile HBR road trip, Spencer & I make it home Sunday evening. The entire trip was made with the windshield wipers on, which was just OK with me.
I'm adding a video here that Spencer took while I was driving to give you an idea of what some of our driving conditions were like. I'll post more later.

First Hockey Game of the Season !

I hate to brag... well I like to brag on my kids, but this time I am bragging on me.
It was a great night in the goalie crease tonight. I had 31 shots on goal and let 6 get by. I didn't think it was to bad for the first time and neither did the other 2 goalies. Their numbers were a bit better than mine. One let 4 by and the other let 5. I didn't know what their shots on goal came to but I believe it couldn't have been much different.
I'm posting this picture to remind me what my catch glove looked like after the first night. Several puck catches marked it up a bit. The worst was the skate cut on the upper edge.
As for injuries... I took a 90 mile per hour puck on the right side of my mask. I still just hear ringing in that ear. Perhaps it's mom saying I'm a ding dong. Anyway, I hope it is better by tomorrow night when Spencer and I take our "Mancation" to Eugene, OR to hear Hot Buttered Rum. A deaf ear would not be the thing to have. Unless your deb at the concert, then she would appreciate it.
Well, enough is enough... Tyler plays in goal tomorrow night for his first time, wish I could be around to see it. I'm sure he'll do a lot better than dad.
Until next time...Keep that five hole closed and keep your stick blade flat on the ice.

Oakley Goes To State !

By beating the Council Lumberjacks 27-24 last night, the Oakley Hornets advance to the 1A state championship for a chance at their first title since 1985. Kevin called my cell phone with 34 seconds left in the game to give me the news. They will play in the Mini-dome in Pocatello next weekend.
Good luck to the Hornets! We all know the reason for their success lies entirely with the cheerleading squad.... Go Kylee & Kelby! However, Crawford & Judy Jones' grandson at quarterback may have had some influence.
Speaking of Oakley, here is some "FYI" about our home town.
Oakley was named for William Oakley, the proprietor of a townsite known as Oakley Meadows. Oakley has served as home to a surprising number of famous Americans. David B. Haight, former member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was born in Oakley. The current Governor of Utah, and the former Governor of Massachusetts can trace their stock to Oakley. Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah is the grandson of David Haight, and Mitt Romney (US Presidential hopeful) is the son of another famous Oakley-ite, George Romney. Yet another Oakley Romney, Marion G. Romney, was a Councilor in the First Presidency of the church.
Oakley is also rich in old west lore, such as the tale of Diamondfild Jack (the jail that housed Jack is in the city park) and the story of Gobo Fango who's grave is one of my favorite to visit in the Oakley Cemetery.
This tiny town has turned out leaders in politics, business, and entertainment....not bad for a town of 700 people. The town is also home to current Idaho's Assistant House Majority Leader Scott Bedke (Sarah Jones' husband), and syndicated radio talk show personality Steven Mitton (my cousin).
Oakley has become recognized world-wide for its Middle Mountain quarries of Rocky Mountain quartzite building stone known as "Oakley Stone". Quarry operators ship out thousand of tons a month to locations around the globe. Deb's relatives own the Oakley Valley Stone Co. where her mom and sister-in-law work.
Last but not least we can't forget the world famous "Clark's for Shopping" and the Searl's chicken sandwich.

Letter from Elder Morrison

well, as far as the Christmas thing goes (holy crap it's almost Christmas?!?!), i'm not in big need of anything really. i bought a little (well, maybe not so little) sweater, and the coat works nice. everything that was sent last time should keep me pretty warm, except i will probly look into some thermals. i'd rather just buy them here though. thanksgiving is going to be interesting this year. let me explain the situation. doing the full-time bike thing is destroying my knees. i talked to president about it, and 99% chance i'll be transferred at the next transfer to a country area (full time car) or to the inner city where it's mostly on bus. transfers are the day before thanksgiving, 2 weeks from yesterday. i hope i can last that long and still be productive. my knees really are struggling, and after the last few days i'm amazed i'm still up and running. so i'm probably gonna be transferred here in 2 weeks, making my 3rd area after being out only 6 months. not entirely excited about that. i'd like to stay in st. peters because we have Ryan, who will be getting baptized next transfer. plus me and Elder Smith are getting along great, and are working well together. but the Lord will do what He wants to do. i just have to roll with it.Good job for creesh and kevakin with grades! it's really good to see them doing well!i'm really sad i wont be playing hockey this year (or next). we were in a mall that had a cabela's in it today and they had an ice rink in the mall. in fact, the practice ice for the Blues. i really really really wanted to go, but i couldnt convince anyone (just like it's been for the last 11 weeks) and so pretty much if i get to go ice skating, it'll have to be in my next area (or next year). i'm really kinda upset about that, but i guess you can only do so much when it costs 8 bucks to go. as far as the work goes, its been really slow this week. since monday we havent had one appointment go through. (i think we had one dinner). so there's really not anything to report on, sorry. today for p-day, we went to the city for a bit to let some of the elders donate plasma. turns out they couldnt, and so we had some extra time this morning before playing basketball. we went to the arch for a bit, but it was too early for it to be open, or the museum, so we took a couple pics and then left. then we played some b-ball and went to the cabela's and some stores in that mall. nothing really else to say, except that it's dang cold on a bike in 40 degrees.Love you all,Elder Morrison

Football Saturday

BYU beats Colorado State 35-16














BSU beats San Jose State University 42-7

Fall Back

What a good weekend to get an extra hour of sleep. Yesterday morning we took off to Spokane for a couple of reasons... First, Tyler wanted to go to the Moses Lake Chiefs playoff football game. While he witnessed that team loose in the last 12 seconds, Deb, Creesh, Kevakin & I went clothes shopping. I'm glad I only have to do that once a year. It was time to get new suits, shirts, etc. Later we picked Ty up at the football stadium and went to "Hockey Armour" to look at some used goalie pants for Ty. While we were there the owner of the store gave us 6 tickets to the Chiefs vs. Vancouver Giants game. The game went into overtime and then a sudden death shootout. Chiefs lost 2-1. It was a very exciting game. We then waited for about an hour after the game so the kids could get Dustin Tokarski's autograph. That put us in bed well after midnight. Now, it is time to get ready for church. Happy Sabbath to all.

Letter from Elder Morrison

i cant believe that its already november. so crazy. 2 weeks and 2 days and i'll have been out 6 whole months. this morning we went and played some more roller hockey. yeah, i was goalie again. then we dropped everyone off at the skate park, while me and elder smith took the car to the mall so he could spend his birthday money.
we went to the trunk or treat for our ward combined with the st. charles ward. i have some pics, which i would send if my these compurters were'nt retarded. we parked our bikes and put a box on the front of one for our trunk. i'll have to send pics when i can. maybe next week at jeanne's. i had never seen it before, but there were shorts and short sleeves for halloween. and it was COMFORTABLE! i couldnt believe that it was still like 60-65 degrees. elder smith and i were shocked. in his town (rexburg) there's often snow for halloween.
as far as the work goes for this week, its been a little slow. our appointments have fallen through a lot. i think i told you that ryan has a baptismal date of december 1st. one month. he didnt come to church this week cuz his g-ma died. so we're gonna meet with him tomorrow, first time in about a week. we're also working with Amy and Joseph, the unmarried couple. she's ready for a baptismal commitment, we think, but he's really holding her back. he's not too enthused about the whole thing.
well, that's about it really. hope you're all doing well, and that life's not being too hard on you. remember to say your prayers and read your scriptures.
love you,
Elder Morrison