There Are People Waiting For The Gospel, They Just Don't Know Where To Find It

Hey family!

I'm glad to hear from you again :).  Jax, no more getting sick, yeah? Thats enough for know! Glad you're starting to feel better :).  And Brayden!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  You're getting so old!  22!  Haha how does it feel to be old?  I hope you have a FANTASTIC day.  Josh, that is sooo exciting your papers are almost done! Wow!!  You guys are all growing up so fast :). Haha. And I definitely will be watching those videos eventually.  haha. Thank you for choosing to serve a mission.  You are going to LOVE it, sooo much.  Mom, the last few pictures you've had curly hair?!  Looks great :). Ali, glad the mono is slooowly getting better :). And dad! Wow you're staying busy! haha sounds like a fun project :).  Holy moly I love you all :)

This week we have visited M-- a couple times to help her prepare for her baptism this saturday!  She lives with her grandma, who is member.  She will be baptized in a river close to her house.  She is sooo excited!  Ah.  During one lesson, we asked her to share her testimony, and she was SO SHY to at first, but she did!  She is so sweet, I love her :).

Yesterday after church, we went on splits!  Most sundays we do. I went with our branch president and his wife, M--, and her little cousin, I--.  We are teaching I-- too :). Everyone we planned to visit wasn't home!  So we stopped by another investigator named M--.  She too wasn't home, but her mom was!  P--, who we have taught a couple times before!  She was just visiting for a few days, and lives far away in the bukid.  It's been probably about a month since we've seen her.  I sat down and started talking to her, and she said she had been reading the book of mormon, and really liked it! She said its clearer than the bible, and she likes to read it.  She goes to a different church in hinunangan. She shared the pamphlets we gave her with the pastor there, and was explaining them to him. Pres cinco came over too and was talking with us and said he too felt that she was SO receptive.  It is amazing how prepared people like her are for the gospel.  There are people waiting for the gospel, they just don't know where to find it!  We do, so we need to go find them :).  It's all possible with the spirit.  That's one of the things i've learned here, is that just RELY on the spirit, and trust that He will lead us where we need to go, and tell us what we need to say.  One thing I love too is that the spirit helps us know exactly what we need to do better as well.  And then you get chance after chance to work on it!  Even after messing up and retrying and stumbling though, you still have the chance to ALWAYS improve.  It's pretty amazing.  A missionary let me borrow his book the Continuous Atonement this week, and I have LOVED reading some of it again. (i read instead of writing in my journal.  oops haha.  I'll catch up this week :) ).  As we continously repent and rely on Christ, we can be clean and worthy of the spirit, and can become more and more like Christ.  What a miracle.  How blessed are we to know this!  I am so grateful for our Savior and for His Atonement. I KNOW He loves us and is always there for us.  Don't forget that, yeah? We need the power of the atonement every day :).

I love you :)  Time to go!  have a wonderful week! take care!

Sister Mortensen

Everyone That We Visited Came To Church!

Hello!  

Sounds like you had a great time in st. george!  Down to two kids? Holy moly!   haha mom i'm glad you had a fun time playing bingo :). how's jaxsens eye doing? hopefully he'll get healed up quick.  And ali with her mono?  Still bothering her? does it always last this long?  Ah, i still feel bad about that hike at the cabin....

I'm glad you weren't worried :).  this week has been kinda weird!  sunday night and monday we were in sogod, then tuesday morning we had zone training in sogod, and then went to tacloban till friday!  It was very strange being away from home for so long.  We were only able to work in our area Saturday and sunday.  It was SO NICE to be back to work where I could actually understand everyone!  We went on splits with the tacloban sisters on thursday, so we taught in waray-waray.  And it was tough.  Haha!  Made me realize how much cebuano i really do know.

Saturday we went and taught a girl named M--!  This coming saturday will be her baptismal interview, and then she'll be baptized on feb 28!  Brayden's birthday!  We are so excited for her.  She is 11 years old, and says she wants to serve a mission too when she grows up.  She understands the gospel pretty well  and is SO EXCITED to be baptized.

We stopped by to visit sister G--, an old nanay that has been sick for the past few weeks and hasn't been able to come to church.  We visited with her and talked about relying on the Lord and following his commandments.  

That evening, we were on our way to visit two less active families, the M-- and S-- families.  They are busy all the time and hide from us sometimes if they're actually home, but we wanted to go try to visit them and invite them to church.  But on the way, we had the thought to go visit Bro L-- and Sis L--, investigators that live close.  So we went there and....sister M was there! as well as A--, another investigator!  We were so excited.  We were able to share with all of them about the blessings that come from going to church each sunday.  It was great since Bro L-- and Sis L-- have very strong testimonies and were able to help Sister M-- and A--.

So then yesterday, everyone that we visited came to church!  We were so excited.  Another investigator, P--, came to church for the first time yesterday as well!  The branch was so great and was talking to them all and were so excited too.  I'm grateful we've been blessed, even though we were away from our area for so much of the week.

Time to go!  Love you all :).  Keep praying and reading your scriptures and doing all those things you know we should :)

Love, Sister Mortensen

Last P-Day Activity Going to the Farm

Working With Members and Getting Punted ALL Day

Some of My Favorite Missionaries--My Nana, Sister Kalua Santiago and Sister Brereton (She is the one who got hurt, but she is fine now.)

Sogod Zone - February 2015 - They Are Also Pretty Great!

Email Surprise From Sister K

Mortensen family :) 

You will probably receive pictures of us three from Sister Mortensen. But Just wanted to send an email your way saying that she is doing great! And she is a great missionary! so strong in the gospel! I was so happy that i got to see her again, and her trainee. She is learning so much. And it is hard, but she is a trooper! 

My parents mentioned that they met you also! They said they had such a great time talking with you folks about us. Haha :) Hope all is well with you back home! :) 

-Sister Kalua-Santiago

Sister Kalua-Santiago and Sister Mortensen

Sister Laniton, Sister Kalua-Santiago, Sister Mortensen

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

Happy Tuesday everyone!  

This is probably the only time i'll be able to say that to you all on my mission! Nope not breaking any rules, I'm actually at the mission home right now emailing on sister Maurer's computer!  Yesterday we had a zone activity at the farm in sogod, the one we went to last time, and a sister got hurt!  She was jumping over a pile of sticks and kinda got one stuck in her leg.  She is totally fine :).  Good thing she's tough though, she didn't even cry!  I went with her to the hospital with two elders and they got it all taken care of.  Like I said, it would have been super simple to take care of in america, but this is the phillipines! Its a little different over here :).  They admitted her and gave her an IV and wanted her to stay overnight. She is totally fine, and went home that night :).  We hurried home to get to an fhe and so didnt have time to email.  This morning we came back to sogod for zone conference! And then came to tacloban for sisters training tomorrow! and trainees follow up on friday, then we'll go home that evening :).  

I did get the package! Thank you soooo much! it was so fun!  I shared the oreos at zone training meeting, so now they all love you guys too :). love all the pictures, and the ones you emailed too.  You guys look like youre doing great, i love it :) 

Ok thats crazy that kirk is home!  Haha and he looks SO different! Haha!  Glad he's so happy :). And Tia is so big! wow!

This last week has flown by!  Been lots of fun and very busy :). I LOVE my anak.  D--, who you asked about, was busy whenever we tried to teach her, and didn't come to church :(.  We'll keep trying this week. Elylisa is the member we work with. She is gonna serve a mission!  Turns 19 this summer and will hopefully go soon after that.  SO EXCITED for her.  Her little brother too is gonna serve, he turns 18 around the same time.  They are both going to be AWESOME.  For real.  Their dad is a recent convert, and their mom is about to get baptized! Speaking of missionaries, JOSH! that is so exciting!  I can't believe it!  You're all grown up :).  Haha keep preparing!  

Sorry for the quick one.  I'll tell you ALL about everything once I'm home :).  But for now, love you all!  Have a great week!

Love, Sister Mortensen

This Has Been One Of The Best Weeks Of My Mission

Hellooo family!  I love you all :)

Sister laniton is the best!  We are having so much fun together, and learning lots of course.  I love her :).  Smores isnt something they know about here, I taught her about them :).  And yeah a lot of people do ask about home, i carry around pictures of our bukid/mountains and snow, since a lot of people ask about that haha.  It definitely is hard to explain how it is different.  

This has been one of the best weeks of my mission!  Over and over again we met people who we KNOW were prepared by the Lord.  Its amazing!

The A-- family, who we were sooo excited about last week, we found out that we can't teach anymore :(.  The husband doesn't want her to listen to us missionaries, and she doesn't want to fight him over it.  She says she will pray for his heart to be softened, and we will as well :).  We were pretty sad about that.  Since we had some time, we went to contact an OYM named P-- O--, in an area nearby that we hadn't been to yet.  He was working, but his wife was home and said to come back that evening. So we started talking to their neighbor across the street!  D--.  She let us come in, and we taught her the restoration.  And then my anak, how cool is she, asks her, "If you come to know for yourself that the book of mormon is true and that this is His true church restored on the earth, will you follow the example of the Savior and be baptized by someone who holds His authority?"  And she says.....yes!  On the first lesson.  Holy moly.  The spirit was so strong!  We had a branch missionary working with us and she was so surprised! She said it was so cool though, and was so excited.

As we were walking home for lunch, we stopped to take pictures (I'll send them:) ) and were laughing and having fun, and there was this one lady standing in her house laughing at us!  So of course, we go and talk to her, and she invited us to come back next week and share more with her :).

Elylisa, A Branch Missionary Who Is Preparing For Her Own Mission, and Sister Mortensen

Sister Laniton and Sister Mortensen

That night we went back to visit the O-- family who we had met earlier.  The tatay was tired from working so he was asleep, but we taught the nanay and her grand daughter.  And they were soo receptive to the spirit, it was amazing!  We went back to teach them again later in the week, and 4 more of their neighbors joined in too.  Ah.  They are so great.  And this was all just one day!  There was a bunch more people I wanted to tell you all about but I'm kinda running out of time.   Ahhh. But I'm so grateful for the Lord's guidance in this work, because He knows who is ready and where we need to go to meet them.  We just need to ALWAYS follow the promptings of the spirit :). 

Sister Mortensen