Duke the Legend

Hey family!

 

It's so good to hear from all of you! Thank you for the emails! I seriously do love hearing about all of your cool adventures! It makes me laugh my head off when you all say that you are dying of heat. Haha! Me! Too! I love it most of the time :)

 

This week was fantastic! We had to walk pretty much every day though because we were running out of kilometers. Thank goodness tomorrow is July! Whoa... It's July. :) I like walking a lot because we have been able to meet tons of new people! But we aren't able to teach as many lessons a week compared to the times when we have a car. Last Monday we just relaxed and slept, yeah, slept! At home because we were saving on our mileage. It was really nice!

 

On Tuesday we visited Laura at Pedro St. James where she works just to see how she was doing. We asked her about church and how she felt about it as well. She is great but she told us that she felt like she was REALLY welcomed at church but she didn't like that there wasn't a pastor who just stands up there and preaches. What? Are we for real? And then she said, 'I am just waiting for God to send me some signs or something so that I can know where he wants me to go." HA! In my mind I was thinking, "Oh my heavens. We are standing here talking to you." Someday she will realize the feelings she had. The Spirit is undeniable! I can't wait for that day. As we were walking this day I said to Sister Mashabela that we should go visit a member, Sister Smalldon, who is very old. And she lives a couple miles away. Sister Mashabela was a little reluctant because we were both exhausted and it was hot but I was grateful she agreed. As we got there Sister Smalldon was sitting outside her house crying. I was glad that we acted on that thought. She really needed help from us. She is struggling and going through some really tough times.

 

We had Zone Meeting on Wednesday which was awesome! As always! :) We talked about having Cornelius experiences. In Acts 10. Read the whole chapter it is great! But we specifically talked about how Cornelius and Peter were so prepared to receive those promptings. In verses 19-21 the Spirit tells him that three men are here to see him and that he should go with them. Doubting Nothing. And Peter does! How many of us would have been able to do that?? He had A LOT of trust in the Lord. This week try to recognize the Cornelius experiences that will happen to you. Are you prepared to have them? This week we DEFINITELY had a lot of them and this helped us to be better at recognizing them.

 

Thursday we were walking around the Prospect area and a guy in a truck stopped us and started talking to us. He was like, "Hey! Are you guys mormons?? Mashabela? That's sound African. Mouritsen? That sounds like its from Denmark and Danish. Where are you guys from? haha. Yeah wow. He was crazy. The guy had a HUGE beard that he had been growing for 18 months too. yeah. Wow. It was nasty and Sister Mashabela asked to touch it. haha! Anyway, we ended up inviting him to church not thinking he would come but he did! It was really funny though. After sacrament, one of the members came up to us and was like, "there is a strange guy out there with a beard who says he knows you and wants to talk to you?" We looked at each other and just busted up laughing. So we walk outside and he is there on his really nice bike, one that they use in the races, biker shorts and a zipped all the way down shirt. Bare chest, beer belly, bushy beard and all. We were like, "Hey you came!" He said he was just passing through and was wondering what was going on inside the church. He also said that he was going to finish his biking, go shower, eat some eggs and then come back for the last class which was Priesthood. And he DID come back! Luckily it was combined with Relief Society and Priesthood and the Spirit was AMAZING! The lesson was great. We'll see if he comes back again. He says he lives in a little shack on the river where he just eats coconuts and wants us to come by and talk to him. Ha! He even called himself Tarzan, but his name is Duke :) Funny guy. And he also knew like ALL the members! Which was crazy! Apparently he is well known around the island for his biking. He has biked in races all over the world. He's a Legend. Haha. Dad. ;)

 

That is pretty much all that happened this week. It was great! It has been raining up to our ankles today though. Seriously. Our ankles. So we are going to go home to sleep. :) I hope you all have fantastic weeks! I love you all so much! Keep your Spirits full and have a blessed week!

 

Love,

 

Sister Mouritsen

June 23, 2014: Two months down today! :( :)

Hello Family!

I love you all so much! It sounds like everything is good. Thanks for the emails!

Life is great down here! It was a crazy week with transfers and everything. Last Monday we went to the beach again because Sister Tominey was leaving and wanted to see it one more time. A member, Sister Ashby and her daughter Mariah, took us. I love that family! They are pretty much our parents out here! Her husband is the branch mission leader.

Tuesday morning we woke up at 5 to get Sister Tominey to the airport. We were exhausted. We didn't end up getting there until about 6:15 though. When we got there they wouldn't let her on the plane because apparently you have to be to the gate 2-3 hours before the plane leaves! Haha! So that worked out! She got another day here in Cayman! The office scheduled her another flight for Wednesday morning.

So Wednesday morning we had to get up at 4! Nosah! We were like zombies because we were already exhausted from the previous morning. We took her to the airport and came back and slept for about an hour until we had to get up at 6:30. So Wednesday we were in a trio. It was Sister Mashabela, Sister Coleman, and me. The day was great! We also had district meeting. The Zone Leaders in Freeport taught because Sister Tominey was gone. We talked about overcoming our doubts and fears and fortifying our faith. Wow it was amazing! The missionaries out here are just so inspired and I learn something every time we talk to them. We talked about Mosiah 11-18 when it talks about Abinadi and when he teaches King Noah and the priests are dumb and all that and they harden their hearts against the Lord. Then Abinadi is burned at the stake in Chapter 17. But, Abinadi not knowing, there is one man that he touches. Alma. And Alma believes and goes on to preach the word and organize the church and eventually many, many people are baptized. I love that story so much! On Wednesday it just hit me even harder though. We need to be examples every single day of our lives. 24/7. There are always people watching. Be that good example and continually try your best to follow Jesus Christ and become like him. In Preach My Gospel there is a section all about Christlike attributes. Go and read it. You will love it. Promise. Haha! Then evaluate yourself on how you are doing to become like Christ and not just become like Christ sometimes, or when you feel like it. That's like saying you only want to be a member of the one true church on this whole earth sometimes. That's like saying you only want to strive for exaltation, eternal life and the celestial kingdom sometimes. There is so much we need to do and we don't have much time to do it. Don't procrastinate. Be the example ALL the time. Once you realize, (like I did) how much is at stake here and how BADLY we need to strive ALL the time to be like Christ you will also do those things to bring you closer to our goal. If you aren't ALWAYS striving for the Celestial Kingdom, then what are you striving for? What is YOUR purpose of being here?

Sorry.... There is my little peanut gallery for the day. I just kind of went off. haha! Gotta love the Spirit!

Anyway, later that night we went and visited Tyrone. We taught him about keeping the Sabbath Day holy, the Sacrament, and briefly the Law of Chastity, and the Word of Wisdom. It was a great lesson. The Spirit was really strong. After the lesson the three of us went to the car and drove away. As Sister Mashabela and I were talking we all of the sudden got a phone call. It was from Sister Coleman. .....What? haha! We look in the back, She's not there! We flipped! hahaha! So we turn around and went back to pick her up! It was so funny! I felt really bad that we left her on that dark scary road. I think she wasn't offended... jk haha! It was awesome though.

Thursday we went and picked up Sister Newcomer from the airport. She only has two transfers left. Looks like she will be dying in Cayman. She is awesome though! We love her!

Sister Mashabela and I had Ashley, a member from Honduras, with us to go and teach her best friend named Mya, who is about 16 and Caymanian. I love Mya! She is awesome! Ashley has brought her to church twice and Mya absolutely loves church! She loves the spirit that you feel there. She says it is different than anything she has ever felt. The lesson we had was amazing too! We talked more about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and the Spirit. And MAN the spirit was strong! We committed her to be baptized on July 12th too! I am praying so hard that everything works out and that she will be able to fight off the adversary and temptations that come her way. She is amazing! After we went and visited Mya, we went and visited a man named 'Iced Tea' who loves to record music for people. His real name is Phillip and he is hilarious! He is Jamaican. He loves God and we can't wait to see him again to teach him about the Restoration!

Friday we stopped by quickly before a dinner appointment to see Tyrone and we asked him how he was doing with preparing and getting ready for his baptism. I think we are going to drop him soon. He is not really keeping commitments which makes me so so so so so so sad because I know what this can do for his life! And he has totally felt the Spirit! Anyway, as we were leaving he handed me a note. When we got into the car Sister Mashabela and I opened it up and it said, "Would you marry me?" Ha! Nosah! He needs to figure out his priorities. haha. Sister Mashabela and I just laughed our heads off!

It was a good week though. We had some great lessons. I hope that you all have a fantastic and blessed week. I love you all and I pray for you daily! Keep going strong. Always do those things that are pleasing to our father in heaven. Thanks for the emails!

Love,

Sister Mouritsen 

June 16, 2014: Transfer Week!

Hello family!

Thanks for all of the emails! It sounds like everyone is doing great. I just love hearing about what's happening up there! It is weird to me to think that life is still going on............You are all so amazing and inspire me everyday. Your emails really lift me up. Especially through the hard times. Thank you!

Monday was crazy. Sister Mashabela and I got these emails from the office elders saying that we had gone over our mileage for the month by almost 900 miles! On this little island?? Come on. It's like 19 miles at the longest point across. So we were really frustrated with that. When we called them we were like, "You calculated our mileage in miles and we are using Kilometers." We told him like 3 times, "Our car is in Kilometers!" And we knew that we haven't gone over. They were like, "Well... let me make some phone calls." So he calls back and he's like, "Guess what, I have good news for ya! Your car is in Kilometers! No need to worry!" WHAT?!?!? REALLY?!?!? We didn't know! You should have seen my face. haha! We are just glad that it's fixed. Otherwise we would have been walking and that would have never worked out.

We also went and visited a less active who just got reactivated and he is from the Philipines. His name is Henry. He just got a new roommate named Arnell who is also from the Philipines. We began teaching him and we have taught him the first two lessons and we are hoping that he gets baptized on July 12th. Yes, Hal, it's your birthday. :) I'm praying that it works out!

Tuesday we went to see someone named Mel. We walk up to the house and knocked on the door asking for Mel and this huge Jamaican lady was like, "You have the wrong house. Who are you?" So we told her and she started yelling around for someone named Keith to come listen to what we have to say and she invited us into her house! My first thought, "Whoa. These people are going to get baptized! Gotta love the Spirit leading you to them!" Haha... Yeah no. We walked into her house and turned to the left and walked into this big open room. Yeah, it's a church. The Glad Tidings Church. We all sit down and she starts preaching to us about how we aren't supposed to commit adultery and all of that stuff. She told us to open up to Isaiah 1 at one point and we were like "okay, where do you want us to start reading?" She didn't answer so we just started at the beginning and we taught about what it said and then she went off on another tangent. haha! She didn't know what she was talking about. Then we asked her, so what do you know about our church. She mentioned Joseph Smith. We eventually shared the first vision with her and she just shrugged it off. She turned to me after that and was like, "So when were you saved?" I had the most confused look on my face. I had never been asked that before. Luckily I have an amazing companion who saw the look on my face and she jumped in and said, "She was eight." haha.. I'm so dumb.. It meant when were you baptized... yeah.... Then she turns to me again and is like, "Okay, I'm going to get into your personal life. Are you married? Do you have a boyfriend? Do you guys sleep together? Do you kiss? Do you hold hands? Do you hug?" I sat there like... what?? Did she just say what I think she said? Eventually we told her about marriage and how we will get married when we get home and she gave me her blessing that my future husband and I will have a long lasting life until we die and that we will have a really happy marriage and all will be well. haha! Well, glad I got her blessing. I mean. What was I going to do without it...... Needless to say, we won't be getting lost on her doorstep again. At least she knows about the first vision right?....

Wednesday we had District meeting which was FANTASTIC! I love Wednesdays so much! A scripture that really hit me hard during it was D&C 88:67. Check it out and apply it to yourself. Is your eye single to his glory? If not look at the blessings you could receive. :) haha! Who wouldn't want those!!!

Thursday we had an interesting discussion with someone named Earl. He is Baptist and doesn't believe that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings. Psh. He says that once you study and study and study and learn more about God, he will put his spirit in you and then you are good. haha! He also said that there are times when he is studying so hard that he has to stop because it'll make him explode. Like literally die because he is going so deep into knowing about God. I don't know about you but when I study and study it make me want to study more. Not explode..... People and their ideas.

On Friday we had interviews with President Brown. Holy cow I was sweating almost more than usual. It was good though. Kind of weird over Skype but, whatever. He is such an inspired man!! It really helped to see what things I need to improve on. We also had Trade-Offs. I went with Sister Coleman this time. It was a great day. It was nice getting to hang around the West Bay area.

Saturday, we got transfer calls at 7 am because transfers are on Wednesday! Wow. Already??? Sister Mashabela and I weren't worried though because I am still in training. We will be here for at least another six weeks. I'm happy! But Sister Tominey is getting transferred. She is going to Boulevard in Kingston. She is so great! We are going to get Sister Newcomer who will be Sister Coleman's new companion. I'm excited to meet her! She sounds great!

Sunday, happy father's day!... we were planning on Tyrone, and Arnell coming to church but they never showed. We were super bummed out. Hopefully they will come next week.

Well, we are going to go to the beach now. I hope everyone has a fantastic week! I love you all so much! Thanks for your emails and updates! Be strong! And think about this quote:

"If you don't have a nametag pinned on your shirt, paint one on your heart." - Neil L. Anderson

Love,

Sister Mouritsen :)

This is a creation sister Mashabela and I had. Tyrone always gives us fish. :)

I Love Missionary Work!

Hey Family!

It's good to hear from you! I love you guys so much! When I heard that you all had gone and had the best time in Dingle and Yellowstone it made me jealous. And then I remembered I was a missionary so I wasn't anymore but I was jealous that you guys probably had Aunt Leah's Pancakes. haha! So I made some for myself this morning! Mmm! Those things are dang good. Except that our pans at our apartment are so old that it kind of burned them. But still totally worth it. :) All of the pictures are so beautiful! I forgot what pine trees and mountains looked like.... jk haha.

This week was great! Hurricane season started June 1 and goes until November 30. We have been preparing and stocking up the apartment just in case something happens. So it's been SUPER rainy all week. And when it gets rainy in the Caribbean, no one lets you in or comes out of their houses. It's just wonderful for church.... Oh well. It does help keep it a little bit cooler so that's a plus. But I'd much rather see people in the heat than not see people when it's cool.

The Stake was also formed this weekend! Elder Holland came! I guess it was awesome but we wouldn't know. They wouldn't even let us Skype in to see him. I am so excited that we have a stake though!!!

On Tuesday we went to visit Laura, the lady who came to church a couple weeks ago. Well.... She and her husband decided to drop us. They said that they would rather go to the church they grew up in because it's closer to them. Psh! We were discouraged because we know that they both felt something! The spirit was so strong in our lessons and at church especially! It was like everything that was said that day applied to them! Hopefully they will recognize the spirit that they felt and they will want to bring that back into their lives. We taught a couple by the names of Paul and Veronica too. They are Jamaican and they are great! We taught them the Restoration and gave them Books of Mormons and they loved it. Paul said that he thought that we were just going to come preach to them more about the bible. (And they know a lot about the Bible. They go to the Agapa church.) They said that they were definitely going to read the Book of Mormon. I can't wait to follow up with them and see if they actually did! The Spirit was so strong and really brought us up after we were dropped by Laura.

Wednesday we had District meeting trade-offs. I was super nervous... I went with Sister Tominey, the sister training leader here in Cayman. But it actually didn't go too bad. It went really well. Sister Mashabela and Sister Coleman went together in the West Bay area and neither of them can drive so they had to walk... haha! It was an interesting day.

On Thursday we went and did service for a member named Ghie. She lives right behind us in an apartment so we walked over there expecting it to just take us about an hour or two. We were just going to rake up all of the leaves and garbage that were around the house. Let me tell ya. It was chucka chucka! (messy) Nosah! We didn't finish until 12! It hadn't been cleaned out for years. There were roaches and 40 leggers and scorpions. ugh...  And all we had to clean it with was some over used useless brooms with like 2 inch bristles and some dust pans. Yeah. It took forever. For some reason it just kept reminding me of the story of you Colt when you and Cichy had to clean up all that honey that you spilled everywhere. haha! Aren't missions great?!?! :) Anyway, everyone kept driving by and being like, "WHOA! It's about time this place got cleaned! I was about to call the health department!" And they kept asking who the four of us were and it helped us to get people to teach. One lady that lives in the apartments with Ghie, she is also Philipino and is also named Ghie, said that she was going to serve us dinner Friday night at 8..... haha... ha. ha... Well Friday night comes and we went over there at 8 and there were lots of people, lots of food, and they were all outside because there wasn't any more garbage or leaves, music was blasting, they were smoking and later a bunch more people came and they brought alcohol. Then Ghie, the non-member went inside and stripped down to this skanky tie dye outfit. yeah. We quickly ate, said goodbye and left. haha! It was adventure.

On Sunday we woke up to lots of thunder and lightning. It was awesome! But there was also lots of rain... Meaning... no one comes to church. More than half the people there were tourists. haha! AND Tyrone came to church!!! Whayasay?!?!?! Ya. Tyrone. We flipped! It was awesome! He was late and got there during the water but it was awesome! I can't wait to visit him this week to see what he thought about it! It was a good day! I mean come on, he came even though it rained and he woke up late! The church is true.

In my personal study this week I read a couple talks, one by Elder Holland called, "The First Great Commandment", amazing, and one by Elder Cook called, "Can You Feel So Now." Wow. All I can say is go check them out. Holy cow. There was a quote at the back of one of them that I loved it said, "I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: to reach the port  of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie anchor." -Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Well I hope you all have a fantastic week! It's great to hear from you! I love you all so much!

Love,

Sister Mouritsen

Wait.......It's Monday already?

Don't the weeks just fly by??? It's so bitter sweet. Isn't life great? I just love it.

Sounds like everyone had a fantastic week!

I forgot my planner with all of my notes of what happened this week so sorry this isn't too detailed... :/

This week was awesome. But then again, even if it wasn't awesome.. I would still say that it was awesome. Haha! Missionary work is Awesome!!!

Last Tuesday we saw Raskitta again, the Rasta man. We had a member come with us and it was a great lesson! The spirit was so strong! Those people are just stubborn though. We ended the lesson and he wouldn't take the Book of Mormon! So we just said goodbye, left it on the chair, and booked it outta there! Hopefully someone picks it up and reads it. We'll see. :)

On Wednesday we had a zone meeting which was amazing! It included all of the off island people. So Cayman, Nassau, Freeport, and Turks. You definitely should all study this: We read in Joseph Smith History 1:19. At the very end of it, it talks about having a form of godliness and the power of godliness. Are we a 'Form' of Godliness or do we have the 'Power' of Godliness? This isn't just likened to us as missionaries. It can be likened to everyone. This also raises another question, do we have to start as a form of godliness to get to having the power of godliness? I will let you all answer that ;) Studying this has REAALLY made me want to be a missionary with the power of godliness. To be able to change someone's view the first time meeting them. To help them feel the Spirit from the very first second. I want to be a powerful member of this church. So what are you doing to break out of being a form of godliness, to having the power of godliness? I know that as you study this and learn more about it, you will definitely see your potential and what you can become and what our Heavenly Father wants us to become. But it's not like you can just GET the power of godliness and be done. This is a continual process. It's always progressing and moving forward. Like President Eyring says, Raise the Bar. Keep climbing. You can always go higher. If you're not moving forward, you're moving backward. But really, if you're not moving upward, you're moving downward.

We saw Matilda on Thursday and we taught her the Restoration. She has a problem with understanding why we have prophets. WHAT?? Yeah. I know. The spirit was so strong though and we are hoping that she will start coming to church. We also saw Tyrone and we taught him the Plan of Salvation. It really interested him so I hope he starts coming to church too.

Saturday we saw Rico and his family. We taught them the Restoration and holy cow the spirit was so strong!! We had taught them the plan of salvation before and they kept fighting us if you remember. Well this time they just sat and listened. You could tell they were touched. I can't wait to hear about how they feel about the Book of Mormon! I love that book!

This week was just full of food appointments.... I hate them. After we eat at least. haha! The food is sooo good! But it is making me sick because we get fed so much! This past month I have never had so much seafood in my whole life! I love it!! I don't even get sick of it. I'm turning into you dad! It's great! Well... Sorry this email is so short and not detailed. I will be better next week. I love you all and I hope that you have a fantastic week! This Gospel is True! Teach it to everyone who comes in your path! Especially teach it by example. I love you all!

Love,

Sister Mouritsen