(H)ailey (A)nne (M)orrison

Well, we thought she was being cured but not enough liquid intake put her back at the doctor's office today for a 3 hour visit. She had her fill to drink (intravenously) and was told to go home and take in some water the normal way.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Marau Sigaanisucu Isoa Vakatawa Toribau

Happy Birthday! You don't look a day over 39!

Burch Reunion

What a wonderful reunion. "Fun In The Sun" must have been the theme. Wilma took care of everyone and everything from the good food to awesome activities, from the slip-n-slide to Brian's slice-n-dash.

Thanks for the memories!

Letter from Elder Morrison

hey family!
things are pretty good this week. today we're in columbia for p-day. we're having a 'zone p-day' i guess you could say, and Alex will be here. i'll see about getting some pictures for you. we're probably going to be playing some basketball or volleyball. well, for service this week, we hung some cabinets, and leveled out a bowed wall for sheetrock. we also did some fence building and hay moving. on the day we did the hay moving, the guy that was selling the hay asked how long we'd be in missouri, and after i told him, he said "oh, you'll be talkin' funny by the time you leave". well, just to let you know how long i've already been here, the next day we went to brother ward's to do service and we took out a base-board for a counter top. the nails stayed in the wall, and i heard myself then say "you're gonna have to pound them nails in". i'm officially turning redneck, guys. dont be surprised when i come home and call everyone 'fellers'. lol. well, i had a pretty fun experience this week. we got invited to a revival. the thing is, is that when we got there, we found out it was a black church, and they were doing the 'hallelujah' and 'praise Jesus' deal. the weird part was when at the end, the guest evangelist asked us all to stand, hold hands with the person next to you, in groups of 2, and pray for each other. it was kinda quiet at that point, so the lady said "i wanna hear you prayin' out loud!"
so everyone's praying loud for they're partner, and me and elder parkinson are just kinda freaked out, and we're standing there holding hands, and the pastor is running around anointing people with oil, which he did to us as well. definitely an interesting experience, and a real life look at the apostasy. good stuff.
sounds like kevakin had a good birthday. i guess i'll be able to be with him for the next one! and creesha, i know what it's like to do the tonsil thing.
no fun at all, i know. in fact, because of it, i had to miss a cub scout trip to the Grand Coulee Dam, and to try to make me feel better, they brought me a can of orange soda. bummer, huh?
that's awesome to hear about Brian McCaffery. i kinda always figured he'd join the church, with all the influence from Roman. i wouldnt be surprised if his dad and Brent also did.
well, i guess that's about all for this week. i hope you have a fun time with HBR, and ty, travel safe. i hope you're still savvy on your spanish.
lol.
Elder Morrison

Post-Op

Hailey spent her second night at home last night since her tonsils disappeared. She has checked under her pillow and still no money from the tonsil fairy.

She thinks she can't talk so she continually writes on the magnadoodle to give us messages.

Oh... about the picture. She hates it when she gets bunny ears in pictures. Deb won!

SURGERY STRESS

Hailey is at the hospital with Deb today to pre-register for her tonsil surgery on Friday…and…I must say she is a little stressed. The doctor told her she wouldn’t be able to scream for the next 2 weeks, and that put her over the edge. It was all put in perspective when I told her when Kevakin went to the hospital for his circumcision surgery he couldn't walk for over a year!

...so look all around you for somebody who, is smiling and happy, my goodness it's you -- happy birthday Kevakin !

Creesh went shopping at the dollar store and found Kevakin the perfect present. All he really wanted was dinner at the local Mexican restaurant so he could eat the cherry off the sopapia and wear the sombrero (or as Deb calls it... "the mexican lice hat"). He got everything he wanted. ¡Feliz cumpleaños Kevakin!

Dam !

Letter from Elder Morrison

well, another week down is right. we've had a pretty busy week, but not necessarily with appointments. again, we've done a bunch of service. i got trained a little bit in carpentry this week. as well as the usual construction, plus a little farm work, and moving. nothing like working up a sweat like you can never have in WA...before noon! it's been pretty dang muggy the last few days. we had a little rain, but the time before the rain and right after the rain are soooooo humid. no fun there. our work this week consisted of building bookshelves with an investigator, Jerry, also putting sheetrock on a 10 foot ceiling with Brother Ward, moving another member's stuff, and moving/putting up a fence for an investigator, Leslie. it's been a pretty 'work-hard' week. lots of good things have started to happen as well. i may have told you about the lady named Christina that we were teaching. after a while we couldnt contact her and left it up to her to call us. well, that was about 6 weeks ago, if not longer. this week, Elder Parkinson and i had this thought to go see her. we didnt know what to say, and we didnt know how we'd go about talking with her, but we knew we should go see her. we went by, and she invited us right in. we sat down, and talked for a few minutes, and then she told us that wasnt a really good time, but that she'd like to set up another time for us to come back. we have a return appointment tomorrow, and we're way excited. we've also been playing basketball with a guy named jason, who is a friend of a member here. he's been asking Jessica (the member) questions about the church, and now we're working into teaching him. and Leslie hasnt been taught in over 3 months, but now she's meeting with us again. the Lord is really working with us as we've been serving. i think that is what has really been helping. obviously, there is still a TON to be done, but things are starting to roll, and you gotta start somewhere. the bike isnt treating me too well, or maybe it's just the amount of service we're doing, but my knees have been suffering a bit lately with some stiffness and the like. i think i'm going to buy one of those knee straps that is for osgood-schlatter's, and just wear it under my pants. maybe that would help. one day it actually was hard for me to get up some stairs. i had to do it slowly. i dont know what will happen, but our president's interviews are this week, so i'll talk to him about that. sounds like the reunions went well, and that dad is teaching that there shouldnt be gender discrimination. if a girl wants to pee on the grass, then i guess that's alright. lol. i'm really glad that you guys have showed compassion to those people. i know they appreciated it very much, and if there's anything i've learned on my mission, it's that you simply cannot help someone and still be in a bad mood. it cant be done. so many times, especially in this area, i have been discouraged, and in a bad mood, but then we'll find someone to help, and i feel so much better. serving and helping someone out is also a really good 'in' to share the gospel. when people see you care about them, they'll want to listen to what you'll say. speaking of which, have the missionaries taught you what to say? if not, i'd highly suggest you get your missionaries to go over the first lesson with you, with the 'restoration' pamphlet. get to know it, so you'll have that info on hand if you are called to share it. seriously, it's really something you need to know. well, i guess this week, being wednesday, i'll have been out for 14 months. time lately has just gone by like crazy. i cant believe i've already been in this area for that long. the wards are going to be moving to Kelso next month, and they told me when i get home and engaged that they better receive an invitation. lol. they've become really good friends, and i'll probably stay in contact with them for a long time. have you heard from Jeanne much lately? i talked to her about a week or 2 ago, and she said she had heard from you, but i know that she really really really appreciates your emails. well, i guess that's all for this week. i hope you guys have a good week, and i'll type at you next week. love you!Elder Morrison

Morrison Reunion

My brother Kerry, was in charge of the reunion this year, and I must say he did a WONDERFUL job. Good food, not overplanned, and provided a great atmosphire for all the family to build good memories. Friday (the yellow day) was filled with "fun at steadman's". This is a famly from RaftRiver that loaned us their back yard for about 4 hours. They have a HUGH slip-n-slide we all had fun on, and a Zip line that aided in Tyler breaking his toe. I know... Ty breaking a bone?... how can that be?.... it's not even hockey season yet. Anyway, the broken bone was the only mishap.

Saturday was filled with good food, 4-wheeler road trips, an auction that put our family reunion fun in the black by $600, and an evening playing bluegrass music. Don't think it can get better than that.

Tyler & Kylee spent some late night time painting the Oakley Rock... Shush... nowbody knows.

We head off for some more fun with the Burch bunch in the morning!

Hippie Child

"... no I can't come over right now, I'm in the middle of a sewing project."

First Love

Today at the swimming pool Kevakin's secret love (14 year old Abby Stones) brushed up against his left arm while she was tending to her life guarding duties. A kid can't wash such precious girl germs off all in the same day!

Kevakin Just Checking

As our family diligently works together building a quilt for the family reunion, Kevakin checks to see if he can participate in such an activity and still retain his manhood.

Letter from Elder Morrison

the bike made it, in good shape, and i really enjoyed the pictures and candy and stuff. i have heard of sunblock and i would have used it if i had thought about it and had some at the time. it's all better now though, and i'm sure i have a sweet tan now. actually, my missionary tan is coming along pretty nicely, although, it will take until the end of the summer to have it done. the dark forearms and 'half-n-half neck". gotta love those fat collars. last week i picked up a couple new ties, which i was pretty happy about. good old polyester ties, probably from the 70's. that's the way to go. as far as other service...this week we did painting. that's about all for brother ward, and then we mowed a couple lawns and fixed a guy's computer (hardware problems). last week we moved some boxes of books, and the lady got us a care package with some food in it. we were really grateful for that.
the new building for the branch here is scheduled for August 7th. of course a week ago it was scheduled for july 24th. before that it was scheduled sometime in june. they're hoping to get in by labor day. lol. the building is actually already built. it used to be the county hospital, but now it is rented out for buisinesses, or in our case, churches.
this week we had some intense weather. we had lots of rain and thunderstorms. in fact one day we had flash floods. i have a video of it from a car, which isnt the greatest, but it gives you an idea. the video was taken about 5 minutes after it started raining hard. i'll send it through gmail.
this week we also had a festival out here, in boonville. it is called heritage days, and it reminds me of spring fest in ML, but like half the size. it was still good though,and we saw their parade. after the parade, we started contacting like crazy. it was pretty fun.
as far as the work goes, it's still pretty slow, but we're making progress.
we're finding people through the members. we've received a few referrals.
we've gotten a couple things going on through the members, and we're just advising. hopefully something comes from that.

well, i guess that's about it. love you!

Elder Morrison

Surf & Slide

The fun part is watching the kid next to kevakin.

Catch Up

I was going to post some pictures along with commentary, however KK said it all...
http://www.kaelynnearl.blogspot.com/

Letter from Elder Morrison

well, i guess there's another week gone. this one went pretty fast. lots of service this week. we sprayed weeds for a family that has about 30 acres. that was pretty fun, but we got sunburned in the process. sunburn with a regular shirt mixed with the collared shirt the rest of the time is no fun. it's getting better though.
i know you'd like to hear a bunch of spiritual experiences with investigators, but you gotta have investigators first! the work is still really slow, but we're trying to work with the members, and hopefully in a couple of weeks, we'll have a few solid ones. brother reynolds's dog died this week. it got hit by a car. we can tell he's really torn up about it. he's now living with the wards, because his house has been just torn apart with our remodeling. we're almost to the point to where we can paint now in the living room, and we got a new door in also. it's been a bit of work, but it's kinda been fun too. transfers were this week, and we had only one change in our district. he's a tongan guy, elder va'enuku. he's pretty cool.
last night we got a chance to go to the Methodist church here in town. every sunday night they have a service, that's just music. this one was special because they had it outside, and they had a bbq, so we figured since we were invited, and there was going to be food, we'd check it out. it wasn't as exciting as the lady made it up to be, but it was pretty good. we took a member with us, ben elmer, who just turned 18. he thought it was pretty interesting too.
well, that's all that's happened this week, really. i hope you all are doing well. although i have to say that if i'm going to answer your questions, you should answer mine. lol. where is your missionary from in missouri?

love you!

Elder Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

ok, so i just typed a whole email, and then something happened where i lost it. so i guess i'll just have to give you the rundown again. this week has been a little better. we seem to be teaching more, but not really having many more investigators. we are starting to teach members though, and then ask them to prayerfully develop a list of 5 names of people that we can either teach or do service for. we did service for brother ward this week scraping plaster off the walls of the house we put the roof on. it was definitely a chore. and to make it harder, we had the neighbor kid really wanting to help, and he was only like 10, so he couldnt do much but get in the way. oh, well, we got it done, after like 7 hours, and then the wards fed us dinner. that was nice. i think i told you how our miles got cut and so we have to use our bikes a lot. and then i got a flat tire, and then not even a week later, i got another one. we spent one day on foot, and my feet and knees were just shot by the end of the day. oh well, that's what happens.
i am not getting transferred, so me and elder parkinson are staying together another one. so you can send my bike to the wards. as for the card, i havent spent it all, but i was planning on getting some pants next week in columbia. i could probably get brother ward to check my email for me in the middle of the week. i'll probably have him do that on thursday, for whatever you wanted.
where is your missionary from in missouri? i wonder if i know the area he's from?
by the way, we are getting some nasty weather. the last couple weeks we've had thunderstorms, and the missouri river is actually flooding. another 3 feet and the RR tracks will be covered here in boonville. luckily we live on high ground, so i'm not worried at all.

well, i'm about out of time now, so i hope you're all doing well. love you, and i'll type at you next week!

Elder Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

well, this week has been a pretty slow one. we havent had much go on. jason, who was the guy i was talking about last week has apparently gone missing or something. we cant contact him at all. i think the only reason he answered his phone ONCE was because he didnt know who it was that was calling. so we're still just trying to find. we're starting to work more with the members, and try to get some referrals out of them. i hope you guys arent like the people that when we ask them to do something as simple as give out 3 pass-along cards, it's like pulling teeth. people say they want to do missionary work, but i have yet to see it in action with most of them. we've done quite a bit of service though. we helped an elderly lady in the branch dig a trench type thing in her yard. that was some pretty good work. we also mowed her lawn and her neighbors too. she fed us lunch afterward, which was nice. after that we went and mowed another lawn of someone we found tracting. we'll see if she lets us come back to teach. everything else has kinda fallen through. we helped finish up the roof this weekend, which is good to be done. we also mowed that lawn, and used the weedeater. one thing about missouri...you dont have to work at getting things to grow! there was soooo many weeds and thick....stuff....it was like a jungle in there. its sad to hear that people i know have passed into the spirit world. but i'm sure they're doing just fine, and fulfilling callings elsewhere. we need missionaries there just as much as we do here.
we had our combined district meeting this week. that's like a zone conference but we have our interviews with president turley. he says he's not sure about what will happen at transfers, but we have a feeling we'll probably be staying together another one. things are going good though. i did get to see alex at cdm, since he's in my zone now. we also talk on the phone quite a bit, at least twice a week. it's nice to have some family to talk to out here.
we found some garage sale opportunities this week with some sweet ties. i picked up 5 ties for like 2 bucks. not bad at all. elder parkinson got some nasty ones, including an all leather tie (i didnt know that was socially acceptable, lol). it will be a good laugh at our district meetings though.
its fine if grandma uses my guitar. its not like i'm going to be using it any time soon. lol. that's the easier one to play too, as the strings are lighter and closer to the frets.
well, i guess that's about all from this week. glad to hear you're all doing well, and tell ty to save his money. he's gonna want it in a couple of years.

love you,
Elder Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

hey family. it's been a pretty good week. i guess i'll start off with the spiritual experience that happened this week. we were out tracting and were crossing a street. a guy crossed after us going another way. i had the impression "that guy needs to be contacted". so i turned around and contacted him. it turns out that he's in the same position as young Joseph Smith. very confused about religion, and is trying to find the right one. he was very excited about the message of the restoration, and we'll be teaching him more this week. his name is jason.
well, i'm really missing spring-fest. i'm really excited to be able to go next year. no fun run for me though. good job ty and kevin with that. no way i could keep up with that. it's hard to find some exercise that wont hurt my knees too much. we've been getting on the bikes a bit lately, but we're staying away from it the last couple days due to rain. today, we gave up part of our p-day to help brother ward and brother reynolds put some tin roofing on brother reynolds's house. it's a heck of a job, and they would have been up a creek without a paddle without us today. elder parkinson was able to climb all over the roof pretty well, and me and brother reynolds were cutting peices. brother reynolds just turned 81, but he's pretty able with that stuff for his age. i'm also pretty stoked about the waterpark. i'm way excited to get on that and give it a whirl. ty looks like he's doing pretty well on it. are they not letting people stand up?
you're gonna have to show me a picture of the new car. in st. louis, gas is up over 4 bucks, but we're lucky out here. it's only 3.69 :-P well, summer is definitely coming up on us quick out here. the humidity is already getting way uncomfortable, just like when i first got into missouri. we had a day in the 90s on sunday. that was not fun at all. the church building was way hot too. luckily, we'll have our own building in july hopefully. i'm pretty glad i only have one summer left. i'll be getting home before it gets way bad out here.

well, i guess i'm about out of stuff to say. hopefully i have some good stories for you next week. love you!

Elder Morrison