7/27/2015: 15 months down..... Nosah!

Wah Gwan mi friens??

Well I hope that you all had a great week! I know that we did. It was a little slow but not too bad at all. :) Sister Robinson and I are just loving getting to serve the Lord together. :) We just get along so dang well. haha. 

We did a lot of finding of less-actives this week so it was fun hiking around and searching for them. :) One of the families, the Smiths, lives way up in the hills and it was just reminding me of the Ochi days when all we did was hike up mountains to see people. It was a lot of fun and I was really glad that we ended up finding them. We had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon with them the spirit was very strong and I just hope and pray that they'll start coming back to church and that they'll be able to find the taxi fair to do so. They say they want to so we'll see. :) 

I had the opportunity to do trade-offs this week in May Pen again. I was with Sister Dasha who is from South Africa. Man she is awesome! We worked hard and were able to have some cool experiences and some great lessons. But man... May Pen is so hot and dusty.... hahaha. So much different than cool cool Mandeville. 

On Tuesday we had another amazing lesson with Demarce! Blue is actually his dog. So we went to his house and did service. We swept and mopped and cleaned up well and it looks nice. We then were able to have such a good lesson with him. We talked about the atonement and watched Elder Holland's talk, "Where Justice, Love, and Mercy Meet" that he gave in the April conference. Holy cow. The spirit was just so strong. He told us that he finally tried our 'challenge' to pray for at least 20 minutes. Or just as long as he can. President Brown has said that we should pray until the Spirit directs our prayers. So we challenged him to this. He said that he received some answers to his prayers and that he would continue to do it. He has just progressed so much! His prayers are just amazing now. I just really can't get over how much progress he has made. Prayer and fasting really does work. haha. 

One of our investigators, Dave, left and went to Cayman this week... He's going to be there for 3 weeks.. ugh. But it's cool because we got to pass him on to Sister Garrett and her trainee Sister Wright and I'm sure they will take good care of him there. I hope and pray they can get in touch. I know he is in good hands. He's in my hometown. :)

My testimony was really strengthened this week about the temple. The island-wide temple trip was last week from Monday to Saturday. The members at church who were able to go were just glowing! Oh man. Just the way that they talked about it... there is no place like the temple. It truly is the house of the Lord and I cannot wait until I get the opportunity to return. I really have grown to appreciate it even more because of these members' sacrifices to go. They really did sacrifice everything. Their money for meals and everything, you name it. And they have been blessed like crazy. They went to the Dominican Republic.

I do know that this church is true. There is no way that it is not. :) I am forever changed by the mission so far. I know that Christ lives. 

I love you all. Have a great week and be safe. 

Love,

Sister Mouritsen 

7/20/2015: Another week in paradise :)

Good afternoon my family!

Man, this week was pretty rough and slow. But it happens. :) Gotta keep a smile on the face of course. :)

Tuesday we had a GREAT lesson with Demarce again! Gosh it was great. He had some questions for us when we began and that was cool. Everything that he asked it was like a direct scripture popped into our heads that answered the question perfectly. We were able to talk about some things like what the purpose of this life is.(Whenever that question comes up man I just think of you Mads. ;) hahaha) But we talked about how we need to have the right end goal. We need to have an eternal perspective. Without that eternal perspective or an idea of our potential which all requires us to really understand the plan of salvation, we can't achieve fully what we were meant to. 

We then read with him in 3 Nephi 11:1-11, when it talks about the voice that they hear. And that the voice 'did pierce them that did hear'. We talked about how sometimes when we are searching for answers we don't recognize them or we aren't prepared or listening for them. I have just always thought when reading this that that line of 'them that did hear' is so small but significant. Are we always a part of them that did hear? What causes us not to be a part of them? What do we need to start doing and what do we need to stop doing? We were looking in Preach My Gospel during studies under the faith section in Christlike attributes and we decided to write down the self-evaluation for the faith section for him to do which is at the end of the chapter. When we saw him at church yesterday he seemed different. Like this really helped him to see where he was at and where he can improve and strengthen the faith that he does have. It was a cool experience. :)

On Thursday, I had the opportunity to drive Sister Lewis, the Jamaican, my old companion a year ago in Cayman, to Kingston for her exit devotional. So Sister Robinson stayed in Hopeton with Sister Slater, who came to the mission with me. She's also from Jamaica. Kingston actually. But anyway, I got to actually go to the devotional with Sister Lewis, which was so crazy weird. haha. She needed a companion. So it was just her and another elder, the AP's and President and Sister Brown. We met at a really nice restaurant with a pool that you walk over a bridge to get to the tables which are lit by candlelight. Wow. It was cool man. And the discussion that we had was all about marriage. haha. Goodness gracious. The whole time I'm thinking, I know I'm gonna have to face this sometime but... just let me be a missionary still! hahaha. Wow it was really cool though. I learned A LOT. I just love listening to President and Sister Brown. They are so inspirational and they just care about everyone so deeply. So Sister Lewis is back home now in Sav. President Brown took her home on Saturday. The mission is different without her. 

Saturday I had the great opportunity to go on trade-offs with one of the District Leaders who is actually our District Leader, Sister Williams. She is from Northern California. Man is she powerful too!  She's in the same stake as Sister Garrett. But we had a cool experience. So we were searching for a less-active and calling out trying to find him but were unsuccessful. There was a small goat trail road that went up a hill that kind of looked like it went no where but I felt that we should attempt it. So we did. And as we were walking we just kinda laughed when we got to the top because there was just nothing. And then all of the sudden there was a male voice that said as we were walking back from where we came, 'you can't just pass and not stop and talk to me'. We were like, 'well, where are you?' haha. It came from a window in a house. So we walked through some bush and made it to the front of the house where a young guy came out and we began talking to him. His name is Kenute and he loves God and he talked about how he went through a crazy experience where he was held up at gun point and hit the guy and then ran and tried to jump a wall and ended up braking his ankles and the guy tried shooting at his head but it ended up hitting through is ear and in the side of his head. This happened 3 years ago. He is very humble and is still recovering from it so he turned to farming to make a living. Well we had a great lesson with him and invited him to church and he came yesterday! And he even said that he had been invited a long time ago by missionaries and was able to go twice but then stopped. He also said that he would be coming back next week as well! Man he is just so cool! And so prepared! I'm excited to see where it goes with him as the sisters teach him. :) We just had a really good day all together. 

We also had a funny experience yesterday. So we had our appointments all fall through so we decided to call a less active in our area to see if we could come see her. She directed us to where she lives and man was it far..... We drove for about an hour before we got to her home! So it's really hard for her to come to church because it's about a $500 round trip. She is originally a member from Spanish Town and so is her boyfriend and her two brothers who were there. She said that she really misses the church and wants to come back but has some setbacks. We were able to have a really spiritual lesson with her and she was very grateful that we were able to come by. Her name is Sheviene and she is just the sweetest lady ever! I want her to come back so badly! She says she is going to move back to Spanish Town hopefully soon if things line up. I hope and pray it happens. 

Well, I love you all. I hope you have a fantastic week! Be safe! Keep on keepin' on!

Love,

Sister Mouritsen

7/13/2015: Wah Gwan?!

Wah Gwan?!

Good afternoon my wonderful family!

This week was a great week of course. I mean nothing too exciting happened but it was still awesome.

I had the opportunity to go to MLC (Mission Leader Council) again this week. Man was it great! That literally is one of my most favorite meetings to go to. I mean I love them all but this one is my favorite. Getting to council together about the mission and everything and then coming out with a solution is really awesome and inspirational.

A cool thing happened this week. We were teaching some guys about the Restoration on Tuesday, Buju and Roshane, and we had a pretty good lesson with them. They seemed pretty interested. Daneisha, who is a member, was with us and she bore some powerful testimony. Then a guy walked up and started talking to us and was wondering what the heck we are all about and was asking about the Spirit and we were able to help him to understand the nature of the Godhead more and specifically the Spirit and it was a really cool experience. I think that he could feel the Spirit from when we were teaching Buju and Roshane as he walked up because he was asking why it felt different and good when he walked up. It was cool. We haven't been able to see him since though. He's been busy... We are hoping to be able to see him again soon though. He is awesome! His name is Roy.

We had another cool experience with the Wright Family on Saturday. We had the opportunity to watch the Restoration video with them. Man was the Spirit so strong in their home too! They even wanted to watch another one so they clicked on the one about the apostasy and we were like... uhh.. okay. haha. But it was interesting to see how that influenced them even more and they understood more about how Christ's church needs to be and how it has to have certain points to it like baptism by immersion and by the proper authority. After we watched it they sat there for a second and then we asked how they were feeling and Patrick the husband said, 'All of this is true. But...' And then proceeded to tell us things about their church....  I was sad... But we were able to testify about the Book of Mormon and how praying to know if it is true will help them to know that there is only one church with all of the truth on the earth which is why it was restored just through one person. Joseph Smith. Not many people. They are such a great family though and every time we get to teach them I just can't help but picture them in white temple clothing getting sealed as a family. Someday. I know it will happen. I love this family!

Sorry for the short email. Not much else happened this week.... Well lots always happens haha but.... These were the most exciting things.

I do know without a doubt though that this is Christ's church and we are so blessed to be able to be apart of it. It has blessed my life more than anything and I will forever be grateful for the decision that I made to get to serve the Lord and share the Gospel with these people. I know this is true. And I know that the Book of Mormon is true. Most of all, I know that God lives and I know that Jesus Christ lives and they love us more than anything.

I love you all. Be safe. Be good. Be strong. :) Continue to ETTE!

Love,

Sister Mouritsen

7/6/2015: Transfer Day :)

Good morning my family :)

Not too much happened this week. We just had transfers so we were driving back and forth a lot between Mandeville and Spanish Town. 

Tuesday Sister Robinson and I picked up Sister Lewis, the one that I served around in Nassau and took her to the Trainers meeting a long with Sister Oman, who we then picked up in Old Harbour and her companion Sister Slater. They both came out with me and they get to serve together! I'm so excited for Sister Lewis and Oman to train though! It's both their first time and they are so excited as well and I know that they will be GREAT trainers! President Brown let Sister Robinson and me stay in the trainers meeting which was interesting because she is still in training haha. So we were like spotlighted getting asked questions and all that stuff. It was great though because it really helped the meeting to go well and for the trainers to hear from Sister Robinson about the training and her experiences and then from me as the trainer. It was a great meeting and I was able to learn a lot once again. That is my 3rd trainers meeting that I have had the opportunity to go to and they are so different every single time! It really helped so much. The Spirit was very strong and I was able to see where I can improve as a trainer and just as a missionary in general. :) Sister Robinson and I are great though. We are just sisters and I am positive that we have been friends for longer than when we met on May 20. 

The next day we had Transfers! Which is probably one of my most favorite meetings. One of them. So we drove to May Pen to pick up Sister Lewis and Sister Brown and had to drop off Sister Robinson there so they she could stay with Sister Frey so that she wouldn't be alone. Sad day... But I love getting to meet the new missionaries at transfers and getting to hear the testimonies of their trainers! It is just so cool to see how perfect every trainer is for the new missionary. It really helps the training experience to go smoothly for them to transition from the real world haha. And that they get the opportunity to serve each other and the Lord together. 

Another reason that I love transfer meeting is that we get the opportunity to hear the testimonies of those missionaries who are going home... Which is the saddest thing ever. A lot of them went home this transfer.... At the beginning of the transfer when President Brown's wife, Sister Brown, got up to bear her testimony she talked about how the Elders going home were the first Elders they had when they started their mission. They have already been serving for 2 years! She talked about how time goes by so quickly... And that we need to make the best of it. And to live in the present! Though that can be one of the hardest things to do sometimes. 

After transfers I drove Sister Lewis and her new trainee who is from South Africa, Sister Dasha (and she even knew sister Mashabela,who goes home next transfer....) and sister Judd back to May Pen. Picked up Sister Robinson and away we went back home to Mandeville. We were able to see Demarce on the way home and had a great lesson with him about the Restoration. We were able to watch the video with him because he has a laptop! Gotta make use of the technology when it's around. hahaha. But it was very inspiring and he just talks like he is a member! Man! His family though is the struggle at the moment. If only they could see the blessings the church could bring them in their lives. We were able to do a fast with him yesterday on some specific things he has been struggling with and it seemed to help, which was great. 

We were also able to have an awesome lesson with Clifton as well! He finally called us this week and told us that he was reading the Book of Mormon and had some questions. MAN! We freaked! We were just so excited and happy! He said he loved it and really wants to keep reading it because it is so interesting. He read 1 Nephi 8 about the Tree of Life that we left with him. Yes man! It was great. :) Blessings come with patience.

We had a really cool lesson with the Wright Family as well. They have been reading the Book of Mormon together! But they said that they forgot to pray about it.... Man. The only thing they are struggling to understand though is the Priesthood. So we are doing our best to study up more and pray about how we can help them specifically to understand. They are an amazing family and so tight! The whole lesson I was just picturing them in the temple in white hahaha! Gotta start with baptism though..... :) 

Things seem to be looking up and going great. I really have gained a testimony of fasting and prayer this week. They do wonders! 

Well I love you all so much. Be safe. Be smart. Pray. Keep on Keepin on.  Big up yuhself.

Bless up. :)

Love,

Sister Mouritsen