Morrison Family

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-08-09T16:39:00.001-07:00

hey family, unfortunately i only have about 5 to 10 minutes to email this go around. saturday night was transfers and i found out i was staying. we went bowling with the elliotts this morning at 10 and at 1230 i received a phone call from the AP and they told me i will be going to jurupa zone. i was pissed to say the least. i didnt even really get to say goodbye to anyone. it has been an extremely hard day for me. i will be on bike in the jurupa 2nd ward. sister elliott and her family were devistated, since i received the call while bowling.

the pic that josh peck sent, was us making sushi. some of the best i have ever had. it sounds like you have had a good weekend. my weekend was great, up until today. i was almost certain that i would be here a nother 3 months since elder meehan goes home in 6 weeks. jokes on me right. tell grandma and grandpa i got their email but due to time, i wont be able to read it quite yet. i might be able to hop on the computer tomorrow when i get to jurupa.

i will try to get my teeth looked at as soon as i can. it is a little hectic right now. it is going to be so hard to leave, i love the people here so much and we are finally getting a couple people on date and a few more that look really promising. oh well, you win some you lose some. i dont understand why out of 200 missionaries, im the one that gets a phone call. oh well, the lord will take care of it. he always does.

i love you guys im sorry for the short one. say hi to brett for me. and tell them congrats.

Love Ty

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-08-02T22:26:00.000-07:00

freak balls that is a huge dog! there is no way in heck that is our dog. mom wouldnt allow it in any way what so ever.
anyway it sounds like life is busy back in moses lake. that is pretty good though. how was jerry garcia's birthday party you threw for him? probably as good as the one you threw for neil diamond. haha

thanks for the package! i got it and really appreciate it. all very useful things. i just about ate my self sick with salt water taffy and happy cola. haha. i loved it!

so this week was a little slower. we helped a guy move on wednesday, all day long. that took it out of me. and my back was super sore after it. i got stuck lifting an electric double recliner with someone and that was the heaviest couch i have ever lifted. anyway that took most of the day and then we taught another lesson to sandra, the lesbian girl. we asked her to be baptized but she is a little scared she doesnt know enough. but we will keep teaching her. friday we tracted for 3 hours straight and ran into a guy that rode horses with ezra taft benson. that was cool. he told us some stories with him. saturday we got stuck helping a guy move again. their truck was 5 hours late and they were moving to utah. it took another all dayer, and quite a few ibuprophen. but hey, at least we were of some help.

sunday at church a hawaiian family came up to us and said their 11 year old son wasnt baptized and they want us to teach him and baptize him this month. pretty exciting i must say. we are seeing them tomorrow. the work is finally starting to pick up. its been hard not having any solid investigators for a while but meehan really wants to baptize before he goes home in 7 weeks so we are really working hard.

i had a question for dad. i was wonderin if you could set hailey up on legal sounds and see if she cant find some christian music for me. its amazing how old some music can get after you listen to it for a while. if not, i understand, you guys are really busy.

you are right, the weather here has been a lot cooler than that last week. wee have been really lucky, infact, monday or tuesday night, it got down to 65 in our barn with the swamp cooler going. it was really nice.
well thats all i can think of to write right now, i will be on for another 30 minutes or so if you are around. love ya

love ty

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-07-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

wow sounds like you guys had a busy week thats for sure. i sure do miss pig out. that would be a lot of fun again. this week hasnt been too warm, usually around 90 or so. the nights are finnally starting to cool off. for a while there it was very warm at night.

this week was a really good week i must say. our numbers were up and we really worked hard. when you dont have anyone to teach its hard to keep motivated through the whole week. elder meehan really wants to baptize before he leaves and i want so much to baptize soon as well. we picked up a new investigator named sandra. we talked to her for an hour or so our side her house and she told us she is straight, but has a girlfriend. how that works im not so sure but she seems very promising if we can get this whole roadblock out of the way.

on tuesday at 5 in the evening, we got a phone call from two missionaries that said they wanted to know wehre to meet us for our dinner becasue they were staying with us while they are having a 4 day training meeting in riverside. we were like, what are you even talking about. so they ended up having to stay with us for most of the week in our tiny barn. it was a little crowded but we made them go sleep in the kitchen because they wouldnt fit in our room. it felt pretty intruding, and they ate all my food for breakfast, so that sucks. im outta MSF so i will survive on cereal and protien shakes for a bit until we get MSF in.

i havent gotten a package yet but im sure it will be here soon. thanks for sending that. it will be much appreciated. another elder today was telling me he had to get it sent from home too because he couldnt find it or really even know where to look. im just glad im not on bike right now.

hey, do you know marshall's mission address? i got something to send him but i dont know what it is.
well thats all i can really think of to say right now, i will be on for another 30 min or so, so if you are on, shoot me an email. love ya, and thanks coltin for the post card ;)

<3 elder morrison

ps sister elliott showed me the letter that spencer wrote for dads campaign. nice letter.

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-07-19T22:26:00.001-07:00

dear family,

Wow! sounds like the vacation was a good time! the worst part is always the day after the vacations. going back to the daily life. i really wish i was in the weather you were talking about. i dont know if i told you this already or not, but i think it happened this week. i left my alarm clock in the kitchen because it has a thermometer and we came in at 9 in the p.m. and it said 99.9 degrees. yuck! our room wasnt much better. this morning is the coolest it has been for a week. it got down to 75 when we woke up. but mostly it has been around 85. it is really hard to sleep when it is that warm in there. we have a swamp cooler so that sort of helps keep it down around 85. this week we went to lay sawd, and it was 104 outside. i hate the heat. i cant imagine what it is going to be like next fall when i come home and go from heat to ice.

dad that is so cool to hear about the missionary experience! please dont forget about it. put it at the top of that list. ask him if you can refer him to missionaries. if he is prepared right now, dont be the one to screw it up. haha. wow that is way cool to hear.

this week we were at the park because we had some time before we could go inside and we talked to a girl for a bit. turns out she goes to cross roads and doesnt like it. she goes but is tired of the "mediocre Christian." we are teaching her on tuesday and hopefully she will come to FHE in the singles ward tonight. Elder Meehan and i are pretty sure she is prepared. we are starting the new way of teaching from The Apostles. they are teaching it in the MTC now and we are planning to teach the doctrine of love, using God is our loving heavenly father, and the gospel blesses families, leading into the doctrine of Christ, specifically baptism, and will be committing her to be baptized hopefully mid august or sooner. the AP's bore testimony of this new teaching plan and they said they tried it on 6 people and not one of them rejected the committment to be baptized. i am really excited for it.

yesterday after church i baked the cookies you sent me. i was going to give them to a recent convert for his birthday but i made them and tasted them and it was less than satisfying. Elder meehan and i think its because we used expired margrine. i didnt know it expired but i think it has been expired for a while. oh well it was a good effort.

on thursday we had dinner with jessica lakin at our ward mission leader's house and our mission leader's friend showed up. he is 36 and single, returned missionary but less active. he is a cop that specializes in gangs. he showed us a presentation on Kempo, a martial art that he is a black belt in. he was "being nice" to josh, (Ward mission leader) and josh looked like he was in a whole lot of pain. i could not believe what this guy was doing. he doesnt look like he could at all, but he could kill people in a blink of an eye. it is almost impossible to follow his hands when he moves. it was really somethin else.

durring weekly planning we came up with 57 former investigators to check on. im sure there are at least one or two of them that are ready to be baptized now. its gunna be great week.

well i love you guys, keep on keepin on. good luck with the pig out. say hi to bill for me.

love

Tuh-ty

P.S.---i was wondering if you could send a couple things with the pictures from the beach. i was wondering if you could try to find one of those neck things you put in water and it soaks up the cold water and keeps you cool. i think if i have one in the room i might be able to feel cooled down for once. i cant find any in the stores around here. bummer. i was also wondering if you could send some anti-monkey butt. also an essential if i do say so myself. i dont really know where to even look for that stuff. but i do know its amazing haha.

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-07-06T17:29:00.001-07:00

dear family,

well, dad you were right, i didnt get to email until today.

so my new companion is Elder Meehan. he is from Houston Texas. originaly he served in the tacoma washington mission. he had to go home for surgery and is now here. he has 11 weeks left on his mission. he is so ready to get married. he was puting marriage quotes on his planner. haha i love the guy to death, he is super funny, goofy and , best of all, a hard worker. we are going to have a great transfer. i do miss elder ayers, just because he was really funny, but this change hasnt been extremely hard on me. elder meehan wears an invicta too. go team invicta!! we did however have an argument, of which i learned a lot. we were trackting and he said, "so i noticed you might be a boise state fan?"

of course i told him i was and we started talking about the fiesta bowls and all that. he proceeded to tell me that the first fiesta bowl they won wasnt that impressive of a game and how over rated boise was. so we refrain from talking about college football. all he could say was how good byu was, that they just lose at the wrong times. any time you lose its the wrong time. hahah and he told me he wrote a paper on how disney is a company inspired by the devil. so that was a bummer. but other than that, we have not had the slightest of dissagreements or problems. i think its kinda funny cus everything in our barn is mini and his is XXXL so it makes me giggle.

it sounds like you had a great fourth of july. seems like more working than relaxing. but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. our weekend was a little rough. people dont want to hear a message from mormon missionaries when they are getting hammered. sunday night, we got in right at 9 in the p.m. we planned and did all that and then, (this is between you and i haha;)) climbed on our barn and saw all of corona with fireworks everywhere. it was such a big relaxer.

so a lot of things are being changed in the mission. pretty drastic things. and as our zone leader was telling us, he came to the conclusion. he told us, that world wide, missionaries, that have served for less than a year, as of july first, will be serving 18 month missions. everyone was like holy crap! what the devil!? then he told us he was joking. he got everyone pretty good. i wouldnt have believed it except for the fact that all the other changes were legit.

today, we had our multi-zone conference. we were there at 8, and left at 330. what a long day of meetings. the church building was very warm, at least in the relief society room we were in.

i havent gotten a package or a letter from hailey. but im sure it will be comeing soon. in fact, it might be at home right now. we havent been back to the barn yet.

we finaly got msf money and so i went shopping yesterday. they had some good deals at the store still from the 4th of july.they had 5 bags of chips for 5 bucks and 5 cases of soda for 10 bucks. elder meehan and i are gunna enjoy it, at least for a little while. haah. i also bought a 1 lbs sausage and a steak too, not to mention a watermelon. they had half gallons of minute maid juice for 99 cents so i got a couple of those. i spent 20 bucks and should be pretty happy this week haha.

thats funny about mom at the pool. of couse it would happen to you. kinda like that time coltin was at swim lessons and you fell in. hahaha. im not sure why they bought those chairs, they always seemed pretty flimsy.

Well family, the time has come to go get changed into some slacks instead of suit pants. by the way, i bought another pair of slacks from Khol's because i found a coupon for 10 bucks off when you spend 20. the pants were 55, on sale for 25 so i got them for 15 plus tax. they seem to be pretty nice as well. awesome! i love you guys.

peace n' love >- (atempt at a hand with the peace sign ;)

elder morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-07-01T16:58:00.001-07:00

dear family,

well this week was a pretty lazy week unfortunately. elder ayers and i didnt get much done. we put all of our focus on Elvyn Moo, who got baptized on saturday. we had a couple lessons to teach him still and so we taught him a lot this week. his baptism was the very best baptism i have been to in my entire life. kaity dellenbach sang "when i am baptized" in her arrangement of it. then the baptism. while they were getting changed, elder ayers and i gave the first lesson. there were non-members there and the spirit was so strong. after they came back, katie did another song. there is a story behind this one. elvyn had writen a poem, with a lot of symbolism of the tree of life. he loves that vision. anyway, he is the type of person that likes to fit many words into a sentence. it needed some work so we told him katie and her friend jessica could help him. they spent 4-5 hours working on it thursday, and katie played and sang it on saturday. i couldnt believe what i was hearing. it blew my mind! i heard since katie is working on recording for the efy cd, she might try to get it on there as well. we also had a recent convert speak at it about baptism. she was so scared and nervous. we had to help her writer her talk and everything but she did a great job as well. i was really proud of her.

well i have some big news. transfer calls were saturday evening. we got them at 11 in the pm. elder ayers will be going to Palm Desert. holy smokes. i kinda feel bad for him. i hear it is around 115 degrees this time of the year. im gunna miss him, i hate getting new comps. the whole first week is usually weird, but change is unavoidable on the mission. my new companion is elder meehan. i dont know about him too much, other than he is pretty big and pretty loving. so im pretty excited about it all. i heard this is his last transfer here on the mish, so i think that there is a good possibility of me staying for 5 transferes in this area, which means i will be here for my birthday! i sure hope so.

man i am so glad that i am having this break from working at the pool. it sounds pretty crazy there. how is the campaign going? i hope its goin well. when are the elections?

well, we are going to have lunch soon, so elder ayers can say good bye to some peeps. sorry this one is a bit short, but i will talk to you next week with a bunch of info on my new comp.

love you,

2010-06-08T07:29:00.000-07:00

Kevakin Catches a Turtle with his Fishing Pole!

2010-05-22T18:09:00.000-07:00

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-05-17T21:56:00.001-07:00

the guitar is SUHWEET!!! thank you so much! i dont hve any pictures yet. but i am enjoying it greatly! my fingers hurt really bad, but im getting used to the feel again haha. really, thank you.

so i have quite a bit to tell this week so it might seem as though im rambleing on. so here i go:

first off, red robin was sweet, but on the way there, and back, we drove by the bank of america. there were a bunch of cop cars and cops with assault rifles outside of it. i guess that someone was dumb enough to try to rob the bank. but i also heard it was supposed to be a distraction so they could rob an armorred truck. pretty nuts huh. we waved to the ghetto bird (helicopter) hoping we would get on tv. haha. blew my mind. i guess one of our recent converts was stuck at a store in that same parkinglot and they watched the whole thing. they said they saw the security guard being moved into the ambulance. crazy.

the next day, we had a tie burning party at sister ratliff's house. she invited a couple people from the ward and i burned a tie. i have been in california for 6 months. holy moley. it was kinda a bummer because my tie wouldnt light on fire. it was like a flame retardant tie! it was soaked in alcohol (rubbing alcohol) ;) and as soon as that burned, it just kinda melted the tie a bit. it was frustrating but it was way nice of sister ratliff to throw the party for me. she made a bunch of sallads and cakes and all that jazz. she reminds me a lot of Grandma burch.

We got transfer calls on saturday. e. ayers and i are both staying here. 6 more weeks. ready set go.

they did some pretty big changes however. there are no longer zone leader companionships. each zone has one zone leader, and a junior companion. there are some pretty big changes. one of our zone leaders, elder ottens, is now the AP. he is a great guy. i liked him a lot. he really knows how to lead.

church was amazing yesterday. in the singles ward, they had to samoan or tongan or hawaiian guys speak. all of their family came and it was a packed house. they did a musical number, 4 guys about 18 years old, with a uke. needless to say, it was the very best musical number i have ever heard at church. it went by way to fast. dang good. after church, we had a baptism of Claudia Carbajal. she is the 22 year old that chose english over spanish so we got the baptism into our ward. all week long she has been getting anti-mormon books and such from a co-worker. she said she never once questioned the church, she was just curious about what her co-worker was saying. she knew it was all a bunch of bull butter. her baptism was amazing and katie dellenbach sang as the musical number. top two musical numbers i think i have ever heard. just for the record. ;)

ok one other thing. the other day we ate at this hole inthe wall mexican place and oh my, i got so sick. i had flash backs of peru. the good part was i didnt have to pay to use the bathroom. how tragic.

well, im getting hungry and i gotta figure out a way to print some chords off from kenz. i love you all. thanks for the pics in the mail.

love ty ty

ps. next week, i will email on tuesday.

Farewell Elder Byington

2010-05-04T20:26:00.000-07:00

Tyler's best friend, Chandler Byington catches the 6:30 a.m. Flight out of Pasco, Washington tomorrow morning headed to the MTC and then on to SanJose,CA. We love you Chandler! We will miss you we will pray for your success!

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-05-03T16:02:00.001-07:00

thats right, another week down. we are starting the 5th week of the transfer. that means a total of two more weeks and transfer calls are coming in. Elder Ayers keeps filling my head with all this nonsense about him being transfered and me training a greeny. dont know about all that.

sounds like there is another wave of missionaries comin out to kick satan in the...bum. ;) we sure do need them. could you get chandlers mtc address for me? i have a card for him but i dont know what his address is.

ok while im thinking about it, we will prolly be calling around 4. elder ayers has to do it around then because his parents are 3 hrs different than here. so plan on 4 in the pm.

i got a couple stories for you. first off, this one is for mom. it should make you laugh, it made me. well, there is a kid in the singles ward named brian bills. he has red hair and a raspy voice. one day he was trying to sell a sail boat. everyone asked where he got it from and he said he won it on the price is right. then i asked him if he was wearing a yellow shirt and he said yes. I REMEMBER SEEING HIM ON THE PRICE IS RIGHT!!!!!!!!! it was pretty dang funny, i thought anyway.

ok for papa. there is a guy in the auburndale ward here that is big into ham radio. he would like to talk to you if you could get on. the info he gave me is :

call sign; AF6UI

8 am saturdays
7178 hf 40meters
(unofficial Salt Lake ban)

do with it what you will. i gave him your call sign as well.

ah, poor christy and jeff. Please send them my love. i will continue to keep them in my prayers. i think i have been very sheltered, because i didnt really realize how much crap goes on in the world. not only that, but the number of trials and the size of trials different people have to go through. its been a big eye opener for me. thats for sure.

sounds like all is getting better with the wedding? haha and when the flip did kenz get accepted into byu. last i heard that was a deny stamp. and why isnt he living with isoa and becky? ooo he prolly pissed him off. you dont wanna piss off a brotha, now he gotta live in some appartment. haha just kidding.

so last week, well i guess yesterday, the spanams(spanish missionaries) asked to go on exchanges so one of their investigators could try the english ward. she came, is way awesome, and is getting baptized on the 16th of this month. how great will that be. i feel bad that we are just walking into a baptism but, the fact that she is poking satan in the eye, means a whole new life for her. i sounds like she is getting a lot of crap from her family and friends. i was just saying to elder ayers how sweet it is that when you find those people that are so prepared, that nothing can stop them from coming into the gospel. speaking of that, remember jeannie reyes? the one that got baptized a few weeks ago? well, her husband took her to her moms house where unfortunately, an anti-mormon female of doom, decided to pump as much anti-bull crap as she could into them. ray, her husband took it to heart and will not allow the missionaries to come to their home at all. jeannie has made arrangements and will be transfering jobs and continuing her fight, kicking satan in the....shins....:D and spitting in his face. isnt she so great? yeah i thought so.

welp, get pumped, 6 more days and i will be on the phone. 8 more days and i hit my 6th month mark. can you believe that time just wont stop? we were talkin and were wondering if it continues to go this fast even after you get home and change the pace. i think it will, what would you two say? you are the experienced ones in age....hahah ah i love you all, talk to you shortly,

love ty

My Morning Prayer...

2010-04-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Lord,
THIS YEAR YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZIE. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTRESS, FARAH FAWCETT. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT IS BARACK OBAMA.
Amen.

I won the BANANAGRAMS game tonight!

2010-04-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-04-19T17:36:00.000-07:00

hey family,

well this week has been pretty good i suppose. norco is really nice. it is a very nice area. its too bad not many people want to hear the gospel though. we still dont have any investigators but we are workin on it.

ok so you kinda get what my companion is like, i have an experience for you. we were at district meeting on tuesday and infront of the whole zone of elders, says he has a question about a verse he read in personal study. he wanted to know if he should follow what it says in 2 cor. 13:12. look it up. pretty funny.

yesterday at church, during sacrament meeting, of the family ward, e. ayers tells me that i am giving a talk in singles ward sacrament meeting. fancy that. so in between wards i threw somthin together. they high councilor never showed up either. pretty crazy sacrament meeting.

i also have some other great news. on saturday, i baptized Jeannie from perris! oh my it was such a good experience. she said that she wanted me to come back and baptize her so that was a really neat thing. i didnt get to stay long after but it was so great. i forgot my camera at the house so i cant email you pictures but next week i will try to remember.

so to answer some of your questions. we drive a 2010 malibu and i havent been on a bike for about 2 months, except for friday. we had exchanges and our district leader is on bike. so he came here and i went on bike. his seat was so crappy, i couldnt walk normal for a couple days. oh yeah, that reminds me, the 2nd councilor of the singles ward bishopric is like a regional manager or rep for ihop so he just said stop by friday at 9 in the AM and get some breakfast....so we did. about 10 singles from the ward came too. awesome.

the members do feed us dang well. they are already filling up the may callendar. they only got 4 days left to fill. mom, promise me that if you are feeding the missionaries, dont feed them spaghetti. PROMISE ME! lol im not complainin. im fine with it. ;D

norco is quite a bit bigger than oakley. its just like any other old town...just no sidewalks lol.

everything sounds good at home. HAILEY IS NOT OLD ENOUGH FOR A BOY/GIRL PARTY!!!!!!!!! WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO!?!?! haha good luck with that one.

anyways i dont even know when the date is for kenz. or what place. hmmmm swear to me that you will get a cardboard cut out. not playin. ;)

oh yeah, and i just remembered somthing elder ayers told me. i said hey, you wanna hear a joke?

- womens rights- E. Ayers

haha random.

well, we are going to go eat at in-n-out in a little bit, just gunna wait for Elder Ayers to get done. I love you all

love ty

ps i got a sweet hockey goalie callendar. half of it is in french

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-04-12T18:04:00.001-07:00

just thought i would send a pic of me and wiley. boy was that a fun ride to norco!

sounds like everything is going pretty good at home. i hope coltin feels better soon.

ok first off, my companion.

his name is elder ayers (airs) and he is from, in coltins words i suppose, the mother land.(canada) he is the youngest of 4 and the only one to serve a mission longer than 6 months. he has been out for about 13 months so he is on the downhill slope. he is really funny, and is workin on being obedient. we are doing pretty good, concidering we have no investigators. i have had about all the aboats i can handle hahaha. he is a good guy tho.

norco, horse town usa! i guess this place is famous. they love the horses more than people. they have no sidewalks, just horse trails. and that is the only way i know whether we are in corona or norco. we got sidewalks in corona.

at FHE last week, someone asked where i was from, and the lesson was going on. i said moses lake and this guy popped up from accross the room and was like NO WAY! his name is rick garcia and served 101/2 months in moses lake. he got home from his mission 2007 and i found out he went into the mission with elder piper. he knows andrew hyer and talks with him regularly it sounds like. he is takin us to icecream tonight i guess. but we talked all about people back at home. he knew a lot of my friends.

then we went to the Jones family because he is our ward mission leader. his son in law asked if i knew natalie jones. she married one of his roomates at college. what a small world it really is. another lady in the family ward served a couple months in yakima too. pretty crazy.

our homeshare is pretty cool. we live in a barn that has been made into an apartment. its pretty nice except the last couple elders were sloppy...and we still have dirty dishes because i refuse to clean theirs up. haha i went to the dollar store today and bought a bowl and silverware so i can have clean stuff. other than that its a pretty sweet set up.

when i got here, i saw our car that we are driving. can you say brand new 2010 malibu (tee) haha. its dang nice and it is my turn to drive this week. awesome!

thanks for the easter card! wow, am i spoiled or what. really, thank you. i just realized yesterday that i got to skip a fast sunday. in my last area, they had fast sunday the week after conference. and here they had it the week before. hahahaha. but i basically fasted yesterday. we were at church from 7:30 in the am, until 5 in the pm because we had a lesson there right after. normally we will be able to bounce at 4:15. still a pretty long day haha. so yep, all is well here.

singles ward is so dang funny! it is just like the one at home. i wish you could even reallize. i think i would prolly die at church for being there that long if there wasnt the enormous amounts of comic relief at singles ward. haha

well family, i love you all. i hope everything is going well.

Love T-huh Ty

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-04-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

hey there,

sounds like the weekend was super fun. i kept tellin all my missionary buddies that you were all kickin it with grandma this weekend. it was weird to see a picture with grandma in her own house. and what the heck! why is hailey driving. crap, everyone off the roads.

well first things first, transfer calls came it 10 pm saturday evening. i am being transfered to Norco, CA. it is part of the Corona stake. IM OUTTA PERRIS!!!!! Wiley will be driving me there at 4 or so this afternoon.

i havent gotten an easter card because they have been holding mail because of the transfers. did you guys get the box i sent home? hope so. i was hoping it would get there before you left but yeah right. haha.

i didnt feel the earthquake that everyone is talking about. i guess it was a big one.

not much has happened this week. not much to report. i havent slept well for the past few days because i knew elder anderson was leaving and i thought i was going to be in perris another transfer so i was pretty much freeking out. but it was a great relief to find i was leaving. i was so happy and energetic that night. im really gunna miss some people here, but im glad to be switching things up.

in corona i will be covering a family ward in norco, and the singles ward in the corona stake. i heard both wards are some of the best in the mission. pretty excited about that.

oh yeah funny story. it was april first, you know what that means. elder schenck woke up at 5 am and snuck into our room and switched our clocks forward an hour. he also took our phone becuase he couldnt switch the time. i woke up at what i thought was 715, freaking out. "elder scheck! we all slept in!" he told me i had better get in the shower so we could all be ready to study at 8. i bolted into the bathroom and showered and shaved in about 4-5 minutes. i opened up the curtain and my towel and clothes were all gone. i opened the door and was yelling for E. Kidman to bring me a towel. his first words, where is the phone?? i said, flip kidman! i dont got no phone, i also have no towel or clothes, not real worried about the phone. haha so i got some clothes on and walked into the kitchen and realized that it was actually 630. i was ready for the day by the time i was normally just waking up. they got us pretty good. i then tried to throw a hand full of medimucil on elder schenck in the shower but our homeshare has little alarms on the windows that if they get bumped, they go off. he set one my the door in the bathroom and when i opened it, he heard the alarm, opened up the currtain and BOOM, threw a big old cup of water on me. pretty much i got worked pretty good that whole day. haha a night shortly before that day, i hid under elder andersons bed and he got in bed and didnt see me, so i reached up with my hand and he FREAKED OUT!!!!!! it was dang funny.

G-CON was pretty dang good. i did fall a sleep a couple times for a few minutes, but dang, i havent sat through that much church in a dang long time. the up side was that on sunday, we only had church for 4 hours instead of the usual 6.

well family i love you all, thanks for the emails.

Love ty

Off To The Races

2010-04-06T18:15:00.000-07:00

Weigh-in starts in just a half hour. Kevakin and his Canadian Zamboni is ready and to go!

Welcome Home Sister Burch

2010-04-04T21:48:00.001-07:00

It was a quick trip to Oakley but well worth it. After a year and a half passing without seeing Wilma's smiling face, it was nice to know she was home safe and sound.

This is a quick itinerary of our trip.

Wednesday:

I got off work early (3:30pm) and hit the road. We hit a terrible storm around Baker and ended up traveling about 35mph for what seemed to be forever.

We arrived in Oakley around 2am, hugged Isoa (who was the only one awake) and we went to bed.

Thursday:

I didn't get up until about 9am or so.

We all visited with Grandma Burch for a while and then started getting some work done around the house.

Deb worked in the yard pulling weeds, trimming shrubs and cleaning cobwebs.

Creesh and Kevakin helped a little... (very little) but mostly kept Becky and Isoa's kids entertained.

Me & Isoa pulled video cable and helped the dish network tech hook up the satellite. After a few hours it was done.

Becky pretty much did hair the entire time. (hair cuts, colors, styles etc. even Kevakin got his hair frosted) She worked her butt off. By noon she had 4 heads of hair done. I still don't know how she did it?

Deb, Grandma and Becky went to town in the afternoon to do some shopping while Isoa and I went with Kevin and Grandpa Morrison golfing at the Ponderosa Par 3.

The wind was CRAZY. Nobody in their right mind would have attempted golf in that weather. Long story short... I won! All 18 Holes! (Eat your heart out Kevin!!!!)

After golf and shopping Kevin and Grandpa Morrison took off and left Isoa and I with Deb & Grandma to eat in Burley. Grandma bought a very nice dinner and fun was had by all. (Thanks Mom!!!)

Melvin, Bonnie & Family got in about 1:00 a.m. and we all went to bed.

Friday:

Pretty much a work day on the farm.

We had 3, 4-wheelers with trailers (including Grandpa Morrison's who came to join in the fun).

We went along the fence line and pulled stumps, gathered garbage, and loaded rocks and twigs into a big pile.

John and Joshua pulled out fence posts with the front-end loader and the rest of us picked them up and put them on the trailer to haul off.

The wind didn't seem to stop. Still, I imagined that it could be 90 degrees with no breeze, suddenly the wind was a welcomed friend.

Deb fell on her butt and landed on a stump... Saturday morning she had a black bruise the size of a softball.

We took a break for lunch about two o'clock. (Bonnie made chicken salad sandwiches that were very good.)

After lunch me, Isoa, Creesh, Brindy, Kevakin, Skyler, Kelsey, Ozzy, Jale Cade and Walker picked up the last of the steel posts from the west end of the field and called it quits.

We finished just in time for a snow storm to blow in. everyone went in the house except ozzy, kevakin, skyler and jale cade who stayed outside to jump on the tramp and have a snowball fight.

Lorilee and Mackenzie got there about 9pm.

We visited for a bit and all went to bed by midnight (or there abouts)

Saturday:

I slept in until about 9 or so.

We mostly visited in the front room and watched becky do more hair. That poor girl just kept going.

Then, we watched conference until noon.

We went over to Morrison's to visit for a short time. KK, Christy, and Kerry were there.

We then took Brindy to Searle's to have some tater tots and pizza. The burch family dinner was planned for 4pm so we didn't want to eat too much, but felt the need to give Brindy the whole oakley experience.

Concretia drove the car for the first time. She did a great job and even got the "Oakley Wave" down when passing other cars.

I took all the little kids to Clarks and did the candy thing... you know how that goes... AWESOME!!

The 2pm session of conf didn't get listened to much at the house. The storm had blown snow on the satellite dish and we couldn't get any reception. The radio worked, but not good enough to compete with the kids.

Dinner at 4pm was good. Turkey, Salads etc. Felt like thanksgiving! WONDERFUL!

Gary & Lorraine joined us, but only for a short time.

Then, it was off to the priesthood session. The chapel in Oakley was packed. Kenz and I sat about 6 rows back in the cultural hall. I think we were the only ones in jeans. For sure I was the only one in tie dye.

The session was good. Loved the talk about how they called missionaries. I knew that was coming because Isoa had texted and told me about the talk. That is the one he translated for. Anyway, after priesthood we went back and watched Becky cut josh's hair, then called it a night.

Sunday:

We left for home about 9:30 or so after making the rounds and saying goodbye to everyone.

We followed Kenz in the Subaru to Burley and then parted ways.

The only problem was that part on the highway where it goes from 65mph to 55mph to 45mph.... Kenz was clocked doing 62 in a 45. A little pink ticket and $75 later he was on his way. Not a good way to start a happy easter morning.

We stopped at McDonalds and got some breakfast sandwiches and listened to conference on our way to toward Boise.

We hooked up with Spencer and Ruth in Ontario (they were coming back from a weeklong vacation in Utah visiting family).

The trip went pretty good until we hit tri-cities and the girls patients wore a little thin.

But now, we are home. It is time to get to bed and try to get enough rest to start a new week.

Thanks everyone for a good and memorable time. Welcome home Mom! Hope you recover from a family infested weekend. We look forward to doing it again real soon.

Creesh & Brindy's New Dresses

2010-03-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

Creesh and Brindy sewed their own dresses today to fulfill one of their personal progress requirements. Nice Job Girls!!!

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-03-29T18:52:00.000-07:00

dear family,

First things first...

the oreo contest was SICK!!!!!! we each ate 42 oreos. elder kidman doesnt do stuff like that. but the other 3 of us did. i wanted to throw up so so so bad but couldnt get myself to. we took in 18,000 calories just from the oreos, plus the milk. needless to say, i hate oreos. during the week i thought i would be able to handle one and i put it in my mouth and almost barfed everywhere.another funny story. we started playing this game called the sandwich game. if you make a sandwich, cut it or bite it, then set it down without anything on top of it, it is fair game for someone to punch. elder anderson wouldnt set his sandwich down so i started eating his oranges out of his can and he put the sandwich down to stop me and BOOM BOOM BOOM! destroyed his samich. hahahah it was dang funny.

im so dang jealous that you all get to see grandma. everyone i live with has at the most 6 months left and getting the letters from grandma, all i hear is "im goin home". ah! only 19 and a half left hahahaha. tell grandma hello and i love her, and i will write her next week, not this p-day, we got a lot to do.

i might be transfered this next weekend. it could really go either way. i guess we will wait and see.

we had dinner with the Phillips this last week and i found out she was born in moses lake. she is related to all the duvalls. small world huh?

last tuesday we went and painted with the other missionaries at Wileys house. he had just gotten back from costa rica and had money to buy paint. he was leaving on thursday for france so we had to help him paint sometime inbetween those 3 days. it looks way nice now. they had graffitti everwhere in there so now it looks like a legit house haha. he also showed us upstairs where that murder took place. it was so crazy. it felt like i was monk. it was pretty obvious where everything happened, concidering there are holes in the walls the perfect shape of a head. there is even still a couple drips of blood in the room. it was kinda spooky but i guess ever since elder burton and i dedicated the home, or prayed over there, they havent been bothered by it. thank heavens for the priesthood. ;)

your never gunna guess what i found at the store shopping today.l.............INCA KOLA!!!!!!!! it is bein chilled in our fridge at the moment.

so i had a question for dad. how much do those little printers usually cost? the ones that print it off the sd card? i really want to print pictures off but i hate doing it at walmart because it just adds another thing to go and do on pday. plus its walmart. need i say any more? lol maybe you could look on ebay for me and see what you can find.

oo one more story. we went to teach our recent convert andre and one of their friends showed up. they invited him to listen in and he said sure. he had some dang good questions and as an end result, he said he would be baptized april 17th, 2010. the story is even cooler because we were an hour late for our appt. with them. if we werent late, he wouldnt have been able to make it to the lesson. i always knew there was something good about mormon standard time. i never really appreciated the fact that chandler was late to everything but it just goes to show, chandler knew what was goin down. haha so sweet.

well thats about all, send my love to all the family, i love you all. be safe,

love tu-ty

O Canada!

2010-03-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd post a picture of Kevakin during the off season. He really misses hockey!

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-03-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

hey family,

sounds like everything is goin way good at home! dad, sounds like your trip was a blast. that would be pretty tight.

everyone is growin up. pretty crazy stuff.

i was going to send some pictures home today, but i forgot my camera so i guess that will have to wait until next week. our baptism was pretty good. the member of the bishopric didnt show up until 10 after 4 and it was supposed to start at 4. only 1 person in the ward was there besides the 2 that were on the program. President and Sister Reeves were there though! that was way cool. we also and Diana and Beatrice there as well. i really hope those two decide to be baptized. and there is another twist to the baptism. ELDER BURTON CAME!!! Yay! haha it was so good to see him. at transfers, he was transfered to Murrieta, but now is in riverside as an office assistant! that was so cool to find out. it was a breath of fresh air to be able to talk to him. we all think that they got him to be an OA because the mission office is moving and Burton is freakin huge and can lift stuff haha. he is doing really good though.

i also found out that President Reeves' family are funeral directors haha. lookie there.

i was shocked when mom sent me the newspaper in the mail. that is so sad, i was like no no no no no no. and then i read the police reports and laughed pretty hard haha. he was a good guy though, that's for sure.

can you believe we are starting week 5 of this transfer already? this transfer has gone by pretty fast. zoom ZOOM zoom. i got about a 50\50 chance at bein transfered. i have been in perris a while, but the work is finally starting to pick up. it could really go either way. i think that i would be fine with either.

here in about 2 hours we are going to be having an oreo eating contest. we are seeing who can eat a package of double stuffs the fastest. dunno how well that will go, im just glad i already bought milk. ;)

last week, we went on zone leader exchanges because i am DL-B. lol but i got to go with elder anderson in his area. he has an expired licence...ipso-facto...i got to drive the zone leader truck! it was pretty nice not to sit in the passenger side and get crazy car sick. that was a really good day.

durring the week we went to go check on a less active family, about 15 miles away. we had to treck through dirt roads in mountains to get there. it was pretty crazy but they are really cool people.

welp, thats aboot all i can think of to write. i love you guys and miss you each and everyday.

much love,

Another Puck Stays Out of the Net

2010-03-09T16:06:00.000-08:00

What A Weekend!

In a five game tournament, the Moses Lake Warriors ended up with the 3rd place trophy at the Moscow Idaho Squirt Classic. Kevakin played well and ended the season with a "W" beating Moscow 4-3.

After missing half the season due to a stubborn medical problem, he was able to prove to the team he was worth waiting for.

Comments were made by other coaches and team members that Moses Lake had the best goalie in the tournament. Call me bias, but I would have to agree!

Congrats to the boys on a successful season!

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-03-08T18:29:00.000-08:00

holy flip! your weekend sounded way better than mine! gosh, i so wish i could have seen that game. could you just picture me screamin and yellin! dang! nice job coltin. way to kick trash. those a re some great pictures. im pretty sad i missed all of that, but look at the bright side, only one more season to miss. i have been thinkin about hockey a ton lately. im gunna miss the youth team. its gunna take some getting used to again when i get back. not that that is anywhere near but thats ok.i got an email from chandler, he is comin on down here to cali as well! i think parker called that one too. i wish he was coming to the riverside mission but hey, you win some you lose some.thanks for the package mom and dad. it was good to get. im gunna start doin those exercises in the mornings. we have been running quite a bit and im pretty much a push-up champion. that is unless elder schenck starts putting his 40 pound weights on my back, then i start slowin down haha. the grateful guitar cd is bomb! i love that cd, i have listened to it in the car a couple of times.it was elder burtons birthday last week so elder anderson and i sent him a card. the card said,"happiness is like peeing your pants. everyone can see it, but only you can feel its warmth" i thought it was a dang funny one. i cant remember if i told you that or not. oh well i guess you get to hear it again.Andre Hill was baptized on the 2nd of march, and confirmed yesterday. it was so great to be able to teach him a couple times and watch him be baptized. we are going to start the new member lessons this week.we have yet another baptism coming up. an 11 year old of a part member family. alan sierra has decided he wants to be baptized so he can go on a mission. his family is being reactivated as well. great to see happen. we also have a couple other potential baptisms this month but it will most likely not go down until next month.so i cant remember if i told you or not about one of our investigators kids. her sons name is tupac and her daughters name is tokyo. haha if i told you that already sorry but i mean come on, who names their kid tupac. welcome to california.things are alright with the new comp. i miss burton quite a bit. their personalities are complete opposites. so that is pretty hard to work with but we are doin work. our homeshare got upset because i guess our closets werent organized? im not sure how much more they could be. got white shirts, suits, pants and ties. sweatshirts up top and shoes on the ground. hmmm. good to know he is checkin the closets though.i gotta give a talk on sunday in the perris ward. elder kidman was really excited about it and volunteered me to talk. so there you have it. as of right now, he has 4 typed pages and continues to work on it. i have a couple hand written lines. im sure glad im goin first. i will make him fill many a minute.so i set a goal while i was in the shower 2 days ago. i decided i was going to finish th ebook of mormon this month. i was in 2 nephi 20. i was planning on finishing jacob yesterday but our meeting with brother hodge took a while. rats. guess i will have to pick up double time. isnt the book of mormon a great book? bet you thought you would have never heard me say any book was good. haha.well i guess that i will head off now. i send my love, thank you for all your support.

love elder morrison

ps 3 more days and i have been away from home for 4 months.

one other thing, could you give me kylee;s address? better yet, tell her to write me a letter so i can have it. carlie has written me a couple. family letters are sweet.

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-03-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

hey fam!

wow coltin! nice job! that will be so sweet to play with you again. only about 20 more months haha.well i guess i will tell you about my comp. he is from Logan Utah, and has been out 17 months. he has sculliosus and cant be on bike. he is the oldest of 6. he is a little goofy but thats ok haha. there is some stuff that he does that drives me bonkers but thats alright. gotta learn to deal with it.i honestly thought that a car would be super sweet, however, i do not like it. its nice when its raining but i just dont like it. we dont get to talk to near as many people and we have to constantly worrie about miles. so i was wondering if you ever found anything out on my physical therapy exercises? and could you send me my return with honor ring? if not its alright.so our appt. with ashley fell through, she wasnt there, shocker. as far as diana and beatrice, haha she forgets everything and is so funny to teach. but they sound as though they want to get baptized, just wont pick a date yet. but are you ready for some more shocking news? MY FIRST BAPTISM! haha when we took over other area, they were teaching a kid named Andre Hill. we taught him some comandments and committed him to be baptized. he said yes on the 2nd. tomorrow we will be holding his baptism at 7 pm. im really excited for that. the two lessons we tought to him were at brother Miles' house (coun. in bishopric) around a camp fire. he has the craziest swimmingpool ever. its so nice i was bummed i couldnt swim in it. he said its the largest built in riverside county in the last 5 years, as far as backyard swimmingpools go. its about 4 times as big as kales. and it wraps around a hug rock that they turned into a waterfall. pretty nuts.well, thats about all. its pretty crazy tryin to figure out the new area, even more so since they didnt keep good tabs in the area book. some teaching records dont have an address or a phone number. that sucks. haha

Love you all, thanks for the email.

Love elder morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-02-22T17:08:00.000-08:00

sounds like things are going a lot better up there. i am a little sad that coltin was goin for can. i think that he should have been rootin for the us. but i miss the olympics so much! i keep hearin about all that is goin on and i am like come on! it was pretty sad aboot that guy that died on the luge. i keep tellin people i wish i could watch curling and they all just make fun of me. haha oh well.

well do i have some news for you.

transfer calls came in saturday night. we all knew burton was leaving, but there is a pretty big twist. the elders in the perris ward got doubled out. me and my new companion, elder kidman, are now coving the lake perris ward, as well as the perris ward. that covers all of perris, mead valley, nuevo, and romoland. its safe to say that our area has bout 60,000 people in it. and i get a car. burton is going to murrieta and is on bike,,,,again haha.

im pretty worried, about takin on 2 areas, but we will do fine. this is what the Lord wants, im game.

i got an anouncement from zack. that was so cool to hear. let him know that i say congrats!

so i felt my first earthquake!!!i was going to tell you last week but i forgot,. it was so sweet. just a small one but hey, i felt it. one other cool thing i have forgot to mention. there is an airforce base here and fighter planes fly around all the time. it is so cool seein them in formation.

not much has gone on here. we keep tractin, and we have 4 investigators. 2 of which are not progressing, but are probably the coolest people i know here. one is in her late 60;s and her mom (97) lives wither her and has alsheimers or however you spell it. we walked in and she said who are you boys?

i said"mormon missionaries"

she-" oh i was mormon a long time ago!"

5 min later*

she said who are you boys?

i said"mormon missionaries"

she-" oh i was mormon a long time ago!"

so flippin funny!

one other investigator is recovering from cancer. he is stuck on the pain pills, and his parents dontknow so he has been having a rough time. i think that he talked to them a couple days ago so i hope that went well, everytime we go to see him, he is sleeping. we will keep tryin.

miracle experience- a while ago elder burton set up a return appt with a J-Dub and i knew it was just going to be a bash. so we went there on that day and he wasnt there, so we tracted in that area. we went to a door, opposite side of where we were tracting, to one house, at that house ashley answered. she was very very excited and wants to learn a lot more. i hope that feeling continues onto tomorrow when we have our appt.

well that is about it. a less active in our ward works at In-n-out and gave burton and i shirts. suh-weet! haha they love us. it always seems like the less actives love the missionaries way more. haha.

i know you dont hear much from kenz but how is that whole situation goin? sounds like he is doin fine. i havent heard from cole or marshall or chandler in a long while. but thats ok, they got lots of things goin on. im so glad to hear everyone's papers are in. i am very glad to hear josh is gettin his papers goin.

well i love you all family. take care, i will be calling in only 3 more months. *crazy*

much love

Elder Morrison

Go Canada !

2010-02-21T16:51:00.000-08:00

Coltin can't remember being born in Moses Lake, Washington... USA!

He has Olympic Fever tonight getting ready for the USA vs CANADA hockey game.

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-02-15T22:23:00.001-08:00

Hey family!

well lets start off with what we did today. we just got back from another amazing hike. if you look at my old pictures, the mountain that is right next to the one we climbed last time, the much bigger and more crazy mountain, is the one that we climbed this time. we made really good time, but my legs are super dead and tired. i still have to bike all week. we have been averaging 17 miles a day or so.\

well sounds like coltin is getting better. that is way cool. i hope creesh is starting to feel better. elder anderson is sick and he has been sounding really bad. he had to do a confermation sunday as well. he is a great missionary. we wont hear about transfers until saturday, but there is a very good chance i will stay and take over the area and burton will leave. elder worthen will most likely leave because he has been here for a very long time.

well idk i f you remember me talking about Juanita and Nick, a couple investigators that we had. well we went over to there house thursday for our appt. and they dropped us like a hot rock. OWCH!!!! MY LEG JUST CRAMPED UP!!! ok anyways, that was pretty hard. so now we have 3 investigators. none of which i see getting baptized any time soon. we continue to tract, and yeah. keep on keepin on, just like dad said.

Thanks for the Package! i already ate all the potatoes and candy. it was dang good. i havent tried on my pants but im sure they will be just grand! i also got a package from christy, grandma and jen and kaitlin put one together for me as well. all the other missionaries are getting mad because i get a ton more mail than them. but they never write anyone back so its is there own fault.

well i had a couple things i was goin to tell you but i dont have my planner that has my list in it....hmm....oh yes, i was wondering if you could talk to brother bruce and see if you could get my physical theropy exercises so i can do those in the morning. if not, i guess i will just make it up.

yesterday while tracting, we tracted into an inactive member and she wanted her baby blessed because it was pretty sick. we couldnt go in because no male was in the house. so we did it right there on the door step. that was pretty crazy.

hmm. well i think that is all. i cant really remember, and im tired beyond belief so i cant really think. i hope all is well, cant wait for those copies dads gunna send me. i love new stuff. haha. wellp, i love you all. cant wait to hear from you again,

Love Tuh-Ty

2010-02-08T18:21:00.000-08:00

well hey fam,

crazy how fast this week went by. we are now starting our 5th week in this transfer and that means i have almost been out for 3 months. just like mom said, where has the time gone? i cant believe that grandma is almost done. ya think she is getting "trunkie?"

sounds like the football game was good. superbowl sunday might as well been christmas. elder burton and i went tracting for a few minutes but found out quickly people were busy and upset we were even there. so we knocked on some doors a and quit. i did however knock on a door to hear the score haha.

sounds like the house is a lot different now. you will have to send me some pics of their rooms. toy story is so sweet. every p-day we listen to disney music. and i wanna watch disney movies so bad!

i hope kenz is doin well. forgot all about you huh? i cant believe that he would leave before the super bowl. how terrible.

well lets talk about the investigators real fast. Stephanie = bum. haha she dropped us and doesnt want to learn. she got antied pretty bad.

"new suit Ray" and his wife jeannie came to church yesterday. they stayed for all 3 meetings and are very close to baptism. i am so excited. she signed up to feed us dinner on the 20th and i think we are going to ask her to be baptized on the 21st. still prayin for a date though.

i didnt get to teach the russians because we were on zone leader exchanges that day and i went with elder worthen to his spanish area and anderson went to the lake perris ward. it made it nice to live together still. hahah didnt have to pack up or nothin.

on that exchange day elder worthen had to go get his truck fixed. we dropped it off and went to district meeting. after district meeting we decided to start walking to lunch. we were in sun city so yeah. we walked a couple miles and happened to walk past red robin. what went though our heads? "just got the msf cards refilled, RED ROBIN<> YUM!" haha so bonzi burger it was. then we walked and walked and walked. until 530 when we got a corola because the truck was gunna be there over night.

Elder anderson's birthday was two days ago. while he and elder burton were studying, elder worthen and i snuck out the back door, in the pooring rain, and went to a gas station to get some drinks and a hostes birthday pie. haha he is a great guy and i hope he had an enjoyable birthday.

so do you remember that guy Wiley Fulmer i was talkin about a while ago? well he rides pro freestyle motorcycle. he is way cool but in-active. he said he wanted to come to church last week but he was in panima and he jumped 165 feet. insane. when we walked in his house that day his bike was just in his living room haha. he signed a poster for me so i will send you a pic of that.

so on a random note, i had a realization that The Lord has really blessed me here in perris. because there is not one good looking girl here hahahahahahahahahahaha. it was a good way to get me into missionary mode. ;)

my steak was actually pretty good, considering i had no bbq to use, no seasonings besides salt and pepper. it was really juicy and it was a ribeye. turned out pretty good.

well i love you guys, thanks for the support. just keep on keepin on.

Love

Elder "maverick" Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-02-01T17:59:00.000-08:00

Well hey there family,

sounds like you guys had a crappy week. i cant add much to that statement. elder burton and i have tracted everyday for ever. been tryin but all those days and tracting wears on elder burton pretty bad. but we will keep on keepin on. so i dont remember if i told you about stephanie. last saturday we met her tracting and she wanted to come to church. she came the next day and stayed for all 3 meetings and cried during sacrament meeting. she even signed up to clean the building. we had an appt with her on thursday at 2. however at 9 she called us and said she wasnt ready to learn about the church. poopie. oh well. we did however get 2 new investigators this last week, from russia. we just ordered 3 russian BOM's. pretty sweet. ok im sure i have talked about ray and jeannie. ray was going to come to curch for the first time last week (Jan 24). him and jeannie didnt show up. monday jeannie called us and told us that ray had something to tell us next time we met. so we were freaking out because we thought they were going to drop us. we got there and found out that ray went and bought a suit for church, was all ready to go, but couldnt tie his tie. i was like what the HECK!!!! hahah but they invited us for dinner this last week and everything. they are by far my favorite to go see now.

Heads up for kenz and julie. i started listening to "julies church mix's" and elder anderson got ahold of em. that cd is on its way to circulating around all the mission. pretty tight.

i was wondering if you guys had gotten coles address yet so i can write him back. it has been a while.

also i have something to send to gary armstrong so i was wondering if you could get me his address as well.

at the store this morning i bought a steak to cook. dunno how it will turn out but im hoping it goes well haha. well fam, that is about all i can think to write. i hope things go better for you all. happy birthday mom.

LOVE YOU FAMILY

Elder Morrison

2010-01-25T13:04:00.001-08:00

hey fam!

ah i cant believe i missed his birthday. i kept telling the missionaries that you all loved neil diamond and then they had to bring up saving silverman. haha great show. sounds like superbowl is gunna be fun. im really gunna mis that one. i was hopin that the vikings would get there. thats kinda a bummer.
i hope things are going better for mackenzie. i hope that he enjoys utah. im not sure i would but that is just me. maybe ghaha.

man coltin, maybe they should just cut it off. that would solve a lot of problems. i do suppose that might cause a couple more in the future.

say hi to elder card for me. that is way cool. such a goober. ;)

well this week has been pretty crazy. it has rained, and rained and rained. there has been a lot of flooding goin on. but it stopped the other day and like the next day everything was dry again. crazy.
the worst part is that since we dont have a lot of people to teach, we have been tracting for ever. one of those days we were tracting, we had to cross a river of water in the street to get to a house. we tested it first,(our shoes were already soaked) and it was only about 3 inches deep. then boom! burton stepped into a ditch and it was up to his mid thigh. i almost peed laughing. we have been tracting a lot with the zone leaders. we zebra tract and it was made it a little better. they are great guys. make it a lot of fun. saturday elder anderson and i were tracting together and we knocked on a door and a grandma answered. she was strongly against it but her grand daughter(28) was listening to us while we talked. we left with no success and went the next house. the grand daughter, stephanie came out side and said hey i have a question. anderson was talking to someone so i went over there. she said she wanted to learn moreand wanted to know where the church was. we told her and she came to church and we have another appointment with her on wednesday.

some other investigators are doing well. infact the rest of them. only 4 but they are obeying the word of wisdome. even though they have really bad headaches from giving up coffee.

well i dont remember if i told you about the murder house and how we went over to pray. a guy named wiley fulmer( a professional motocross rider, slash the guys that do flipps and crazy crap) asked us to come by. he is lds, but way inactive. he says we can come kick it any time so we might go race rc cars over there today. he is way tight, but needs some direction haha.

well i dont have much else to say. i love you all and hope things are goin well at home.

remember the church is true and dont let no one tell you otherwise. pray as a family. dont miss a night.

love you
ELder Maverick Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-01-18T13:35:00.001-08:00

ok well my letter just got erased and im really upset because it was a long one.i will do my best with the time i have left.

sounds like coltin has had a good time with hockey. i really miss it.

I did get your letter and your package. thank you so much im excited for a tuna sandwich. i cant light my incents because our homeshare would poo bricks.
so last week i got some oranges. guess how much they cost. 5 lbs for one dollar.

so yesterday for lunch i was about to cook a burrito and worthen said i will give you 4 dollars to eat that liket hat and then i said no but some how the price got up to 10 bucks so i said ok. i am just now recovering. it was nasty.
yesterday was stake conf. and half the stake was supposed to go to the stake center. we went there and they told us to go to the other building because they didnt have satalite reception. we found out later that there was a bomb threat and the bomb squad rolled in and investigated and stuff. thats all i know about it.

Bill and Jesse are brave. i bet brindy and hailey are havin a good time with it. That is crazy about amy. poor girl. you're right, slugger is next.

so we went to fill up the baptismal faunt for a baptism and there was ahuge spider there. after burton flushed it, anderson and burton were walking out the bathroom and e. anderson said you gotta flush those man, its the only way! and a sister from their ward walked by and it was so funny!.

anyway we got an investigator couple to go to that and they really liked it. im sure they will be baptized soon.

i know cole goes into the mtc soon and i was wondering if you could send me his address so i can write him back.

i was also wondering if when you send my camera card back if you could leave the pics on it so that e. anderson can get some from it.

well thats about it, i am out of time. i hope you are all doing well

I love you,
Elder Morrison

2010-01-11T21:30:00.000-08:00

hey fam

well this week was much better. first off...happy month mark to me! i am at two months now. pretty awesome i must say. i am so jealous that you guys went to a hockey game! i miss it so much! yesterday we were at church and elder burton had to "make a call" (elders quarum is terrible here lol) so we went outside and he made his call. the church is right accross the street from a soccer field that is used a lot. there was a game going on and i was watchin it a bit and then BOOM! the goalie starts a fight with one of the other players. then the whole team was goin at it, all inside the net. hahahahahah then this huge crazy mexican lady was screemin bloody murder and slappin people hahah. that made me so happy lol. but it made me miss hockey cus sometimes i just want to throw down lol. so this week we went on exchanges finaly. i went to the perris ward with elder smart while elder burton stayed here with elder verma. elder verma bent my rim on my bike so that sucked. i had to use the 20 bucks dad sent me to get it fixed. it was only 16 dollars but just an inconvenience. but now we are back on top. lets talk about some investigators. i dont know if you remember me talking about juanita and nick, or if i even did, but we hadnt talked to them for almost two and a half weeks because of the holidays. elder burton wanted to drop them and i was like no way jose. so we went and taught them the second part of the plan of slavation and we were talking about the celestial kingdom. she said that is where she wanted to go but if she died right now she wouldnt make it because she isnt baptized. say what?! and elder burton wanted to drop them. we are going to ask them to be baptized on the 7th of Feb. speaking of baptisms. november they had 77 baptisms. the most in a month since president and sister reeves have been here. december numbers were a new record with 104 baptisms. we found that out new years eve. this week was transfers week. we did transfer predictions and guess who won...yours truly. haha elder worthen was really scared because he has been in this zone for 7 months and he thought for sure he was leaving, but, he and elder anderson have 8 people on date for the month of january. when the transfer calls came in he was so happy because all four of us are staying. another 6 weeks in good ol' Perris. one other story. Do you ever remember me telling you about the taylor's? well we went over there to teach a lesson to one of their inactive friends and sister taylor got a phone call. while we were there, Sister Taylor's 16 year-old daughter was diagnosed with MS. everyone was crying and it was really sad and tough. we gave her a blessing, i hope they stay strong. they are a really strong family. me and elder burton put 30 dollars on a gift card to buy them dinner because they didnt want the ward to know yet so no one was gunna get them some grub. i hope it helped them out.

well i dont think i have anything else. except for by the sounds of it, Boise state should have played texas. hahah go broncos.

I love you all

Elder Tyler Morrison

Happy Birthday Kenz

2010-01-05T21:22:00.001-08:00

Letter from Elder Morrison

2010-01-05T19:10:00.000-08:00

hey family
so yesterday we went on a hike and we were gone most of the day and didnt get a chance to email. i really wanted to but i have about 15 min to email right now.
i got the cds and speakers and everything. thank you so much it has really helped. and thanks for the 20 bucks and the newspaper! that is so sweet. haha the best part however was the police records that i read to the other missionaries. haha what a joke. so i put in grateful guitar and the cd doesnt work. i was pretty bummed but that is ok.
so about my week...i have had some troubles. i guess i pissed off a couple of the members by doing stuff i didnt even know was rude or whatever. i looked at my watch while one of them was talking and he was like, "Do you have to be somewhere?!" in a rather stern voice. hah. im tryin just to let it go but idk, it has been wearin on me.other than that everything is going well. we got to teach dakari, i dont remember if i told you about him. we tracted into him and now we are teaching him. sunday we met a girl named alex, and she said she knew one of the girls in our ward. we taught her the first lesson on a corner with the cars goin by, and we gave her a book of mormon. we asked if she would read from it and she said yes. she also said," and im not just saying that, i really will read it." that was really good. our work is starting to take off. we had a slow start when i was here, no one wanted to hear the gospel, but now we are increasing our teaching pool.
HOW BOUT THEM FLIPPIN BRONCO'S!!!!!!!!!i didnt get to see the game but i had our zone leaders call me as soon as they found out because they had dinner with a football fanatic. sounds like a good game. too bad we wont get that chance at number one again.
so some stickers...maybe a boise state one would be sweet. maybe somethin hockey related would be cool.
dad you got me a stamp!?!?! i am so freakin' excited! that is way cool thank you so much. you all have been way nice to me and i really appreciate it.
well, kenz, i didnt get a chance to go to the store. after our hike yesterday we had an hour left of p-day. and laundry wasnt done yet. i didnt forget, it will just be late. Happy Birthday, i hope things are going well for you.
Mom i hope you start feeling better. i wish i could help out. if there is anything i can do let me know. otherwise i will just keep truckin through here in perris.
i wish i could have seen wendy and kevin. i wish i had known they were here! oh well. im pretty sure i cant see family anyway hahah.
ok well im gunna head to district meeting. i love you all so much.i really miss everyone. please keep me in your prayers, and i will do the same. sound like a deal? hahah
Ok take care, kids be good. i love each and everyone of you.

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-12-28T21:18:00.001-08:00

well hey there family
first off
Hola! Feliz navidad! Merry bolated christmas,, christmas was yesterday and incase you were wondering what i got....oh....i dont know....maybe try one hundred and fifty dollars to itunes!!!
haha
ok so the rest of this week has been alright. its hard to get back into the swing of things. today we got someone to come open up the family history center for us. do you remember that shortcut i told you about? well elder worthen decided we should take it in the truck. it was still pretty muddy and to say the least, we are missing a fog light right now. well we have it, just not in the right spot.
anyways thank s so much for the christmas gifts again. they were great. it was way great talking to you all, but it made me a little homesick the next day.
but with the presents, im pretty sure that those gifts ruined any chance of me having a productive study ever again. haha everything will be quiet and goin well and then POW! i will shoot E. Burton in the mellon with my nerf gun. I be Bustin a cap in yo ace son! im a reall gangsta now.
well the night before last, we were both really tired and got into bed at about 10. the zone leaders barely got home after we got in bed and they got us up. so much for havin a full nights sleep. earlier at dinner they got me to eat a chile, they said it was the 3rd hottest chile in the world, but not until after i had eaten it. bad deal my friends. anyway i stole about 10 of them and put them in my pocket because i was going to play a prank on worthen, but we ended up doing something different. elder burton was going to eat 6 of them at once for a tie that worthen had. i recorded it all on video and i will be sending home my card soon so you can see it.
thanks for workin on the cd's. if it is too much hastle, dont worrie about it. i hope things are all going well at home. i cant wait to hear cole and kurts farewell. that will be neat. i cant believe tyler is going to brazil. that is pretty sweet. i wish with how lonely marshall looks, that he would flippin write me back. haha
well family, i dont have much else to write. other than the fact that dinner is going to blow tonight because last time we ate at this persons house there was hair in my lasagna. "barf"
The Hodge is out of town and we have been pretty loud and crazy haha. gotta do it while we can.
i guess that i had better go, so i will talk to you all next week
Much love
Elder Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-12-21T12:58:00.001-08:00

well i keep getting screwed on this whole email thing. this pday is going to be very busy and i only have 20 min to read and write emails. about the hair. haha we have to have a part in our hair. just lookin like a pimpin missionary haha dad that new calling is going to be so tight!!! hahahahahah that is so funny about the phone call, i will be calling the house around 2 or three i think.
i hope that is when anyway. we are going to the taylors to make the phone calls.
i got your christmas package the other day. and i have it all under a christmas tree. i cant wait. its gunna be tight.
i got a gift from grandma and you will have to ask her why i opened it before christmas. i am sending her a letter today. but it was a bsu stocking which was so sweet!
so you all need to make sure that you send me some sweet pics after christmas. i miss seein whats goin down at home. pictures are sweet. getting mail flippin changes a terrible day into a fantastic one. i love it. hahah did kenz like my scripts i gave him? hahah good luck on that whole thing.
ok now i can tell you about the week. we are teaching a couple named Juanita and Nick. they are a mexican couple and they are pretty solid. i hope they get baptized. i can see it happening next transfer. they came to sacrament meeting and it was such a good one. a lot of music. the last one they came to they talked on the media and internet and gaming hahah terrible for an investigator. but they came back so i guess it was good. anyway during the week we got into a bash with a pastor. it really sucked, elder burton was bashing with him and i just stood there. normally bashes dont get to me but this one did and this is why. he was so demeaning towards us as people.
normally people try to bash about scriptures, he was so insulting and hating towards us. i wish he could have heard himself because everything he said contradicted himself. but it put me in a bad mood for a while and im still tryin to shake it off. but i will be fine. just gotta keep on keepin on.
ok sorry this letter isnt long, but i will call you on christmas. i love you all so very much. talk to you in a while,

Love Elder Morrison

ps i heard Paula is getting baptized! pretty sweet.

Still Waiting

2009-12-15T12:35:00.000-08:00

No letter from Tyler yesterday. We will post it as soon as we receive it.
Merry Christmas All!

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-12-07T17:47:00.000-08:00

hey mom and family!
Well i am here in Perris California. now i can tell people that i am livin in perris! haha well my comps name is elder burton. he is from murray Utah. he has been out for onnly 6 months, but has been such a great example to me. our area is a bike area but we cover a lot. unfortunately the second day we ran over a grove of thorns and we havent had bikes the last few days.
ok, our ward is so small. and the chorister is so funny. im pretty sure he was one of the people that was part of the lollipop guild on wizard of oz. Burton hates me for pointing that out because now we cant sing because we laugh.
Unfortunately i will be sending your ipod and my speakers back home. I read on the mission rules the only approved electronic devices are cd player and speaker. :( oh well. we dont listen to music a whole lot anyway.
the zone leaders just moved into our home share. they are great guys. however our missionleader/homeshare is freakin nuts. he makes us dust the door knobs. reminded me of monk. Too bad i didnt get to see the last one.
well the first day we were here we went to teach a family that even elder burton hadnt taught and i was pretty nervous but it went very well. their names are Ray Jeannie and Hector. The other day we tracted into a lady named Jennifer and i gave the entire first lesson on her doorstep. she never stopped me so i just kept going. i gave her a BOM and a Passalong Card. we went back but she had left her house. i hope we get in contact again.
ok story time.
well our area is pretty sketch hahah. part of it is really nice homes and some of it is the flippin ghetto. but we were in the ghetto part and we were going to an appointment. burton made a few calls and i while he was calling i started to get a bad feeling. some people walked by and i shared some gospel with them and they went on their way. then we were going to the appointment and it kept getting worse and worse. this was around 730 or 8. they cancelled on us and we started walking back towards home. i told burton that i had the scariest, worst feeling i have ever had. and he said ok maybe we need to turn around so we turned back to were we were a little before, where the feeling started, and he asked if it was getting better. it was actually getting worse so we decided to go straight to the house and not talk to everyone we see like we normally do. I dont know what was going on over there, i didnt find anything out, but i know we werent supposed to be there at that time. by the time we got back home i was back to normal. nothin to worrie about mom, the lords watchin us.
well i dont have my house address yet. im sorry. i still havent unpacked everything. we have been so busy.
we had dinner with a family that is so awesome. the mom reminds me so much of christy.
there is a nother family, The Sierra's, they drop everything they do to help us. they even gave us a key to their house. they love the missionaries so much.
well it sounds like the paper route is awesome....haha. dont miss those days. but the extra money must be nice.
I cant think of anything else to tell you about. things are going great. i jammed my thumb playing basketball today and it still isnt feeling better. i hope it isnt broken. its the same one i hurt in that hockey game a while back. speaking of hockey, i wish i could see coltin play. maybe send me a couple pictures.
i need to get my charger soon hahah its killin me not to take pics. yesterday we saw 8 or so horses just walking down the 4 lane street with mexicans on them. not s0methin you see everyday.
Well today we are getting a palm tree to decorate for a christmas tree. im excited.
I love you all. You are always in my prayers. cant wait for christmas calling.
Much love,
Elder Morrison

Wonderful Thanksgiving in Oakley

2009-11-29T22:01:00.000-08:00

Letter From Elder Morrison

2009-11-24T13:04:00.001-08:00

Hey family!
this week has been so great! the time is now flying by. kale left today and i got to see him yesterday. that. im already missin that fool.
first lets get down to the nitty gritty.
Battery charger. i did notice i had the wrong one and i wll be mailing that today. thanks for sending me the sweats and sweatshirt. they have been of great help. wasnt expectin it to be so cold here.
anyways my companions name is Elder Sloan from Albuquerque NM. he is awesome and we get along and teach well together. we started leaning and teaching the second lesson and it hasnt been as easy as the first. but we still teach with the spirit and continue to learn the best ways to invite it.
YOU ARE GOING TO THE BYU GAME!!!! nice!!! im sure i will be able to hear the game. most of the elders heard the last game. me and my comp didnt hear it because we were inside most of the time. so there is this elder in my district that is from st. louis. he drives me crazy anyways but he decided he needed to throw out his opinion on Boise State and how they were a crapy team. yeah i argued with him and put him in his place.
wednesday i went on splits with the zone leaders to help them teach the new districts. i went with elder mcconkie and tought the district next door to me. one elder, elder brown, is from othello! he is pretty cool. he is serving in the provo, ut mission. my response was that blows but he said he was super excited that it wasnt out of the country.
at the fireside sunday they told us of the process of wich they pick where we go on our missions. all it is is a big plasma screen tv with your face on it, and by true revelation, we go where we are called. the firesides and devotionals have been so great. we are probably going to hear from one of the 12 on thanksgiving. i asked sister stroud our teacher, if tommy was coming. she seemed pretty offended that i would use a nickname like that. oh well. some people. im sure she would freek if i blessed her with holy water.
cresh, i did find your letter. thank you.
mom and dad thanks for the updates throughout the week, dear elder rocks.
congrats kenz! hope every thing works out. however i never did get your cookies in the mail. raise your hand if your bother's a homo! hahah jk so the food, dad they have mashed potatoes like 3 times a week and its is bomb!!!! they are real good. the food must do something to everyone because 2 days into the mtc, people find farting a game, and not an irritant. its driving me crazy, just reminds me of when kenz would bust just to make me mad.
dad would be in heavin here though because ever corner in every building has hand sanitizers. im sure my hands have never been so clean.
i got letters from christy's family along with a box of awesome candy. one of them being a buzz lightyear pez. i use it frequently. i also got a letter\picture from abby and liza. that made me happy too. all of the letters i have gotten from everyone rock my world every day.
ok i need to clear some things up with the whole sister christiansen deal. Elder McConkie told us she came in the same day and so we had this big conspiracy about who the real sister smart was. this last week, Sister Smart rolled in, with the name tag, Sister Smart. it was fun while it lasted but can you believe im in the MTC with SISTER SMART! pretty nuts. we have made eye contact i might add ;)
sorry these letters are so choppy. i write things as they come to my mind.
I love you Mom, Dad, Kenz, Hailey, Coltin, and now Julie.
Mom and Dad, Thank you so much for raising me up in this church. I dont know if i could have made the choice to be here not being raised in the church. Mom and Dad, I love you with all of my heart, and miss you every day and night. Remember that everything happens for a reason, trials included, and we need to pray to our Heavenly Father for help and to thank him.
We leave the mtc dec. 1st. i cant wait to call you,
Much Love,
Elder Morrison

Just got the scoot serviced for the first time.

2009-11-19T23:26:00.000-08:00

First 200 miles nice.... next 400 could possibly be delightful.

Those Were The Days!

2009-11-19T23:01:00.000-08:00

Dylan, Hannah, Kenz & Ty playing at Mt. Rainier.

Spencer sent this picture to me today to remind me just how old I am.

First Letter From Elder Morrison

2009-11-17T10:49:00.000-08:00

Dear family,

Today is our P-day and we got to attend the temple. I loved it. it made me think of when weall went together and i am so excited to do that again when i come home. Thank you, dad for the letter. it really helped me out. sorry to hear the bad news, what are you doing now? the first three days here were so hard on me. i missed my family and friends. but things are going a lot better now. me and my comp really get along. he is the district leader so i get to go to all the meetings with him. yippee. i ran into kyle the first day here and that really made me feel good. i hadnt seen kale until two days later and i really wanted to see him. man kale's comp is a retard. i feel bad for him. i got to take a picture with kale at the temple on our temple walk sunday afternoon. i will be sending it home as soon a s i can get it printed off.
while im thinking about it, the things i need/would like:
1)Sweats
2)sweatshirt
3) All of the grandparents addressess
4)Josh's address

everything i think i have.

as far as letters go, i get mail twice a day. i am just not supposed to write back until P-day. so please send your letters or dear elder me.
DearElder is pretty sweet and i have gotten a letter from both dad and Chayla. I never reallized how much a letter helps everything. just to get something in the mail is amazing. a missionary looks forward to nothing more than getting a letter in the mail. So please write me!!!
my mtc address is

ELDER TYLER JOHN MORRISON
MTC Mailbox #164
CA-RIV 1201
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, Utah 84604-1793

our estimated departure date is december 1st so i guess thanksgiving will be in the mtc. i hear one of the general authorities will be coming for a devotional for the holidays.
Elder McConkie in our district is the grandson to the one and only Bruce R.
McConkie and he is so funny. i really get along with him.
ok funny story. we had heard\read in the news papers that Elizabeth Smart was coming into the mtc either the same day we did or the week before. We asked our teacher Brother Wilding to use his powers to look up the name in the computer, but never found any one under the name Smart. Elder McConkie swears he saw her with the name tag of Sister Christiansen. however none of us could confirm it was her. so we turned to our teacher once again and asked him to bring us a picture of the true E. Smart. he doesnt have a printer so he took some pics of her on the computer with his phone and showed it to us. we are pretty sure she is the guy. ;) about 80% sure.
(Monk)

We have been learning so much. not so much the doctrine yet, but how to care and love the investigator, how to recognize the spirit, and how to invite the spirit. We have been learning to extend commitments.
yesterday we went to the R.C. (referal center) and learned to make calls. we called out to people that had requested things from lds.org. i was dreading it and finally i said to my self, self, you will call these people. so i called for a total of about an hour and 45 minutes, only one person answered the phone. and then i choked. so over all i would concider it a failure.
haha i hope that as i practice and contiue with faith i will be able to connect with more people and help them feel the spirit.

The food.
oh the food. well it is usually ok, sometimes really good and sometimes i end up just getting a bowl of cereal to make sure there is something in my stomach. sunday mornings we only get cereal, and that sucks. but it is alright. the food hasnt really been making me feel all that well.
makes me think of when "Nephi Crapped into the city"

anyways i miss all of you so much. every chance i get i am thinking and praying for all of you. that is really the only thing i miss, is being able to speak with all of you. Friends, Family.

thank you family and chandler for the notes, i have found everyones except haileys, idk where to look for that one. thanks for the nagg and the shirt papa. haha really made me happy when i found it "yesterday" haha. My family picture broke:( but the picture is still good.

I am so sorry i have no time. the 5 minute warning just popped up. I love you all. i Cant wait to call when i am at the airport.
With all my love, until next week,

Elder Morrison

P.S.
SEND ME LETTERS AND PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations Kenz and Julie!

2009-11-16T18:48:00.000-08:00

We Miss You Elder Morrison

2009-11-10T13:44:00.000-08:00

Good Times (Go Broncos!)

2009-11-10T13:37:00.000-08:00

Tyler - Newest Missionary in Moses Lake

2009-11-09T23:43:00.000-08:00

Creesh and her Surprise Party

2009-10-23T22:57:00.000-07:00

Concretia's friends gave her a surprise party tonight, they decorated the house, brought her presents and made her a very happy girl. A few of the girls are not members of the church so the rest of the girls asked the missionaries to give them a lesson. A good time was had by all. Little did I know that this was a sleep over (missionaries excluded, haha).... it may be a long night.

Busy Week

2009-10-18T22:09:00.000-07:00

Deb addressing Tyler's acceptance letter to the first presidency.

A quick photo opp before going in to the temple.

3 Farewell talks at church today.

Halloween party last night.

Deb, Mackenzie & Coltin (The Famous Ones)

2009-09-23T15:48:00.000-07:00

Tyler's Mission News

2009-09-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

Mission Update by Tyler Morrison

2009-09-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

Day Trip

2009-09-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

Tyler had to work in Spokane, so the rest of us made a 35 min. trip up north to Dry Falls. "Good Times"!

Private Show

2009-09-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

Nat Keefe takes time out to play for the kids before the show in Moses Lake.

Tyler Taking Fashion Advise From Deb

2009-09-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

BSU 19 DUCKS 8

2009-09-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

What a great way to start off a weekend! Now if the sooners will show up for the game later... good luck BYU. I'll be cheering for you from the Hot Buttered Rum grandstands.

Hot Buttered Missoula

2009-09-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

Back from Missoula and gearing up to see Hot Buttered Rum 2 more times this week. Friday night in Spokane and Saturday in Moses Lake.
Missoula was fun. HBR was the highlight. Trampled by Turtles and Great American Taxi took a close second.

No More Rolling Turd

2009-08-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

Mackenzie totaled the car this evening. He escaped with only a burn on his hand from the airbag deploying. Papa John's Pizza Delivery Bike... here we come!

Tyler's Mission Papers Are In

2009-08-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

Now for the 3 week wait.

Cleaning up Mom & Dads Mess

2009-08-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

It's Been A Fair Week

2009-08-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

The Grant County Fair ended today and we picked up all the kid's "stuff". Creesh and Kevakin received blue, red and white ribbons for their scout and young womens projects. We didn't worry about their projects making weight, or pooping all over our yard.
We calculate that they made about $0.17 per pound. Not baaaaaaad.... just a little lamb humor there.
Our congradulations to all the cousins that took animals to the fair and did so well. We are very proud of you. As for Creesh and Kevakin.... Nice Job!

Tyler Ordained an Elder

2009-07-19T15:58:00.001-07:00

Nice Picture of Kevin, Wilma & Jesus

2009-07-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

Wonderful picture Kevin & Grandma... Thanks!

Happy Birthday to Kevakin

2009-07-15T21:18:00.000-07:00

Kevakin turned 10 today. He celebrated with his family launching a 7 foot water rocket!

Driving Miss Daisy

2009-07-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a funeral I missed while on vacation this week

2009-07-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Mr. Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.

Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours.

Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times he still was a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.

Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, two children, John Dough and Jane Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart. The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.

The Reunions

2009-07-12T19:23:00.001-07:00

Kenz & Julie

2009-07-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

Good Morning

2009-06-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

What a sight to wake up to... Either Deb did a rotten job at cubscout day camp or Tyler & Mackenzie's friends have a hard time getting to sleep.

Catch up Photos

2009-06-19T11:37:00.000-07:00

Graduation 2009

2009-06-19T11:02:00.000-07:00

We had a "Graduates" party at our house. Fun was had by all and the weather was PERFECT!

Big Bend College Graduation

2009-06-12T21:50:00.001-07:00

Ty Graduated with honors tonight from Big Bend Community College and received his AA degree in Arts & Sciences. What a slacker!

Last Letter From Elder Morrison

2009-05-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.
2 John 1:12

Love Elder Morrison

Me & Bishop Wright

2009-05-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

Bishop Wright surprised me this afternoon with a quick ride in his new V10 Dodge Viper. When I say "quick" i mean it. WOW! He took me from the freeway onramp at 110 MPH to 140 merging onto the freeway just using 3 of the 6 gears. Just glad to be alive. Sort of brought back the sky diving feelings all over again.

2009 Senior Prom (Moses Lake, Washington)

2009-05-03T23:00:00.001-07:00

Sr. Project

2009-04-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

Time is drawing near for Ty's graduation. Tonight he presented his Sr. Project. He did a good job. The first picture is what it looked like. The second picture is what he wanted it to look like.

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-04-27T11:27:00.001-07:00

well, sounds like another busy week. it also sounds like the missionaries still like our house. i'm pretty excited to come home and see it from the other side. maybe i'll have to do splits with them and ty. it would be good practice for ty.
this week, we had a baptism. marty robinson got baptized on saturday, and he got the aaronic priesthood yesteday. it was great, and he will baptize his youngest daughter this upcoming saturday, which we will go to as well. it's really great to see how much the gospel can change someone for the better in just a short amount of time. he has definitely changed, not that he was bad before, but now he just has the glow of a member of the church. i think you know what that is like.
speaking of pulling out trees, we helped brother robinson pull a tree stump out this week. it's amazing how thick the roots get. it took us about 3 hours to get out. we just used shovels and an axe. then we had dinner with them. they are a great family, and kinda remind me of home. i also noticed on their wall was a big board of their son's mission, and where he served, and his companions, and all that, along with random pictures. are you an obsessive mother like that, mom? lol. i'm not expecting it by any means, but with your love of scrapbooking and whatnot, i wouldnt put it past you.
i'm completely fine being roommates with ty. i've had a lot of trials on the mission involving companions, that me and ty will do just fine. plus, we dont have to spend 24 hours a day together. its always better when you can have alone time. i'm really looking forward to that.
as for my bike, i'll probably ship it home just before i leave, like the day or 2 before transfers. so like the 18th or 19th. that way i can still use it for the time we dont have a car. we actually lose the car a week before transfers, so i have to be on bike my last week. i'm trying to come home in one suitcase, so i'll be de-junking those last couple days. maybe i'll put some stuff in with the bike. that way, it will be a lighter load. i'll be throwing away most of my (kinda) white shirts and socks and other things that are 2 years old and need to be trashed. that will save a lot of room.
as for isoa coming to see me in SLC, i dont know how that all works. if it's possible, it'd be fine with me. i think lex and penni will be there to pick up alex. i dont know. i dont know if i'm allowed to leave the boarding area or what during that time. i dont know how that all works. but if it's possible, i'm game. i'd love to see them. (and anyone else that may be in the area).
dad, i'm glad you have the talent of being concise in your words, but when you tell me that you flew a helicopter...what the heck does that mean? did you get an RC helicopter or what? also, there was a dance that ty went to?
you need to post things on the blog so i know what's going on. or at least give me alittle background.
so you didnt answer my question of when church is so i can call you on mother's day. pretty sure there's only one p-day in between now and then, so i need to know when i can call you to say "yep, still planning on coming home next week..." lol.
well, i guess that's really all that's happening here. cant wait to be home in 3 1/2 weeks (24 days). Love you!
Elder Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-04-20T12:27:00.001-07:00

hey family. after today, it's just 4 p-days left. 3 weeks until mothers day, and then a week and a half from then i'll be home. i'm pretty stoked. speaking of mothers day, when is your church? i think it's going to be a little harder to line up this time, because we're on the 1:00 schedule, with PEC at 11:30. let me know what time your church is. sounds like i'm going to be pretty busy the week i get home.
this week, we've had an amazing thing happen. there was a guy who called us from the ward. his name is marty robinson, and has been going to church for 16 years. however, he was never baptized. he married a member of the church, and the members of this ward have been waiting for 16 years for the phone call we got from him. he said he wants to be baptized. he wants to be able to baptize his youngest daughter, who will be baptized the first saturday of may. so after a visit with him and his wife, and a baptismal interview, he will be baptized this saturday. it's amazing how quick this has come to be. i mean, 16 years isnt quick, but after all of that time, it is so all of the sudden and is happening so quickly. we're really excited for him.
that is the most exciting thing of the week.
our ward mission leader is the one that is taking stuff to oakley. he's actually going to burley. it's really great that they're heading out that way, because there's no way i could get that stuff home. i'm going to try to come home with one suitcase, because i guess you have to pay for any luggage you check, even if it's just one bag. so the more i can put in one bag, the better. i dont want to have to pay more than i need to. i donated some clothes to a clothing drive, because i just wont have room for it. thought i'd at least put it to good use.
you know, it's kinda hard to not be trunky when everyone is constantly reminding you. it just adds to the anxiety of wanting to come home.
i guess that's all that there really is to report this week. i suppose i'll write a bit next week. love you, Elder Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-04-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

hey family. after this email, i will have but 5 more to write. i think you may need to update the countdown on the blog. i dont think it's quite right. anyways...
mom, thanks for the card and the money. i'm really glad you didnt send me cadbury eggs or something that i would be tempted to eat that would be really bad for me. as of this morning, i have lost 42 pounds since the beginning of the year. i figured it out, and that was 12% of my body weight.if everything goes according to plan, i will be lower than when i went to the MTC. it wont be lower than the lowest i was, but i'll leave lower than when i came.
this week has been pretty crazy. monday and tuesday were spent getting Elder Tolman ready for transfers and cleaning up a bit. wednesday was transfers and getting all settled in. me and elder goudie are just picking up where we left off. not much has changed. it's like we just took a 6 week break and are just getting back at it. on friday we got to go to the temple. we went for an endowment session and then when we got done with that, we went to the baptistry and did confirmations with the crystal city branch youth. it was great to see a lot of them there. danielle was able to go as well. elder goudie and i were amazed at how much she's changed for the better since we left. she's a great girl, and it was great to see her in the temple. i was the ones that did her confirmations. it was a very good night. we had stake conference this last weekend. we had a great adult session on saturday night. it was all about the Atonement of Christ. we watched the movie 'the Lamb of God'. after that, it was basically a testimony meeting with people that the stake presidency wanted to hear from. the spirit was very strong there. then we had a broadcast from SLC for our stake conference. we heard from Dallin H. Oaks and President Monson.
i'm pretty excited to be coming home next month. sounds like dad is pretty trunky too. i'm excited to be able to play music and such. i'll have a lot to do when i get home. by the way, when is the cub scout thing? is it really on memorial weekend, and i have to miss springfest?
i've pretty much written down a bunch of things that i want to do when i get home. plus some things that i know are going to be happening. i'll probably just have to play it by ear though. well, i guess that's about it for this week. i guess until next week...
Elder Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-04-06T11:25:00.001-07:00

hey family. this week has been pretty good. it's gotten a little colder. in fact, it snowed this morning, although it wasnt for very long, and none of it stuck. i guess the real highlight of this week would be conference. i really enjoyed Elder Holland's talk on the Atonement. i would suggest you read/listen to that if you didnt get the chance to live. saturday, we had breakfast with our recent convert and his wife and then watched conference there. then we had lunch with the ward mission leader of the o'fallon ward and watched conference there. then we went to red robin with the priesthood of the ward before the priesthood session. brother schmutz bought us dinner, which was really nice. then yesterday, for lunch, we went to our ward mission leader's house and had lunch there, with a dinner appointment after conference. it was a meal appointment weekend!
so transfer calls came last night. Elder Goudie is going to be my killer.
Elder Tolman is going to Goudie's area, which is in Columbia, MO. he'll be training there.
for those of us who cant read the blog page (or that are losing it as they
say) my address is:

1506 Savannah Circle
O'Fallon, MO 63368

and just so you know mom, i think you always told me not to say crappy, too.
just a little 'table turning' i guess.
our ward mission leader has a guitar, i learned this week. and he said he doesnt know how to play it, nor does he have time to right now anyways, so he let me borrow it for the next 6 weeks. it's pretty nice having that there, although my fingers have been pretty sore building up those callouses again.
the medicine is doing well, and even my companion commented the other day "that medicine must be doing good, because i dont think you've had a bad day for a while." so yeah, it's doing good. i'm still kinda struggling with feeling kindof alone, but that's kindof the definition of a missionary.
yesterday in Elder Holland's talk, he started by saying that his message was for the lonely, whether it be...and then listed some things. he said, "it may be a missionary, in the first few weeks of homesickness" and i leaned over to my companion, and said "or the last." lol.
well, i cant really think of much else that has happened this week. i hope everything is going well for you, and that you dont get too trunky. i'm trying not to be, although i'm really excited to go home and be with you, and with my friends, and just be where i feel i belong.

love you,
Elder Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-03-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

hey family. this week has been pretty slow. we've been finishing up on moving out of our old apartment, which we will spend the rest of today doing because it has to be clean for tomorrow. we met with one of our investigators this week and it was a really good appointment. we watched the restoration with her, and she said she was really excited about the book of mormon, and would come to church. she didnt come to church, but we will meet with her this week. she wanted to see general conference. hopefully she'll show up to that.
saturday we had the baptism of john o'rourke. it went really well, and was really spiritual. the confirmation was really great, and there were a ton of people in the circle. we were pretty close together. i think there were probably 10 people in the circle.
this week was really exciting for this reason:i fit back in my plaid suit!!!
i'm really excited about that.
also, i was talking to president turley and he's probably going to put me and goudie back together for my last transfer. he's going to be seeing the counselor too, and president wants us to schedule at the same time to save miles. i'm pretty excited for that.
so that's really all that has happened this week. i dont really know what else to tell you. i have not received the itinerary for my flight. the new mission secretary doesnt do it like they used to, so i havent heard anything at all. apparently 12:30 on the 21st is it.
well, i hope everything goes well in ML for those that are there, and in oakley for those that are there. which reminds me. our ward mission leader is from burley, and is going there in april. i'm going to have him take a tote of stuff there with them to oakley for me, so i have room to pack other things in my suitcases (which one is about to fall apart, might i add) it has a broken zipper in 2 places, which makes it difficult. but it should stay together for the flight.
alright, i hope everyone has a good week.
love you,
Elder Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-03-23T11:29:00.001-07:00

hey family. this week has been pretty hectic as well. we are moving to our new apartment. between thursday and friday we got most of our stuff over to the new one. we stayed the night on thursday night, and then friday morning we realized we forgot some important things. we had no shower curtain, we had no toilet paper, elder tolman had no toilettries. major things. anyway, we had a member take us to walmart and to our other place for a little while to get a few needed items before we could shower that morning. then saturday, we helped some other people move. we have moved like 4 people this week. crazy.
we did get to go to the temple on friday, which was nice. it was kinda nice to get away from crazy everything and just relax and feel the spirit. it was our ward temple night, and there were like 4 people there, and we rode with someone who wasnt even going, but they were going that way, so we hitched a ride. the people that went to the temple didnt have room for us. i'm glad we got there though.
we are going to have a baptism this weekend. his name is John O'Rourke, and he is way solid. he married a member lady, and has gained a testimony of the truthfulness of the book of mormon and the church. i'm so excited for him.
there are a ton of members that ask us how the work is and we're like "there's going to be a baptism on the 28th" and they ask who, and after we tell them, they say "i thought he was a member!" pretty funny. he's a great guy.
we have been working with a couple other people we found tracting. one is darin, who is the christian scientist. he's really solid, and he's having us over tomorrow for dinner and a lesson. we're going to take a priest with us over there, who will be serving a mission within the next year. we're really excited about him.
we're starting to do some member work, which seems to be doing well so far.
we're kinda teachig people how to be member missionaries, and also getting to know members of the ward. i have found a few families that i really like.
also there are a few families that i knew from previous areas that moved here. one is from chesterfield and one from st. peters. there's one family that is way cool. the schmutz (said shmootz) family reminds me a little bit of our family. it's a place where missionaries can be themselves and get off of the pedestal that everyone expects them to be on. they have a son on a mission as well, and sister schmutz has been called as our dinner calendar coordinator, so she gets us dinner appointments. she's really fun.
other than that, there really isnt too much going on. things are getting better, though every day still has a down section to it. things are definitely getting better though.
i dont get to see alex because he's in a different zone, but we talk regularly, especially with questions about crystal city. elder goudie said that the mission wants him to go to the counselor and possibly the psychiatrist i went to. he'll probably be moved to this zone next transfer.
there may even be a possibility of serving with him again, which i would love.
so take this news with a grain of salt...but i weighed myself at our old place and was about the same as last week. but i weighed myself in our new place (which has a tip scale, which i think are really accurate) and it was totally different. the old one said 317, and the new one said 306. so i dont know which to trust, but i like the reading of the latter better. i can almost fit back into my plaid suit, which you better believe i'm coming home in. that is the goal, to be able to come home in that suit. hopefully i'll be able to wear it a couple sundays before i go home, but we'll see.

sister stokes says that the boys miss us a lot. they had the missionaries over for dinner, and the kids were so excited. when alex and his greenie showed up, the oldest got this weird look on his face and looked at his mom, and said "these arent the right ones". lol. i think they miss us a lot, but i miss them a lot too.

well, i guess that's about it for this week. i hope that everything is going well for you, and know that you're all in my prayers.
love you,
Elder Morrison (59 days)

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-03-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

hey, it's weird that this came to my gmail, not my myldsmail account. oh well. things are doing better this week. we've had some pretty good days, and some not so good ones, but on average, the mood has been better. i'm happier most of the time.
today, we're going to play some ultimate frisbee or something. i dont know. but i weighed myself on friday, and i'm down to 317. at the rate i'm going, i'll be able to fit in my plaid suit again before i come home. which is good.
not much really happened this week. we did find one new investigator who we'll see tomorrow. she seemed pretty solid.
congratulations on completing the book of mormon. it's a great feeling of accomplishment when you finish it. the hard part is going back to the beginning and starting again.
man, i really dont have much else to report on this week. my main 2 things were that the medicine is starting to work, and i'm feeling better, plus the wight loss. i guess there's only 9 more p-days until i come home. that's pretty exciting. i guess goudie is having some stomach problems still and the mission doctor thinks its stress, so they want him to go to a counselor. with that info, it may mean that we end up near each other, if not together again. i would really like that.
oh, we're going to be moving into our new apartment this week. the new address will be:
1506 Savannah Circle
O' Fallon, MO 63368

so you can update that on the blog and whatnot.
also mom, i got your letter. thanks for everything that was in it. you know what i mean.

well, i guess that's really all this week. i hope everything gets better with coltin, and tell creesh i got her email, and thanks.
love you,
Elder Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-03-02T14:12:00.000-08:00

so i was almost done with my email, and then the computer messed up and closed the internet, so i have to write it all again.
this week has been really hectic. it's been very stressful for me.
frustrations of learning a new area when you didnt want to leave the old one, as well as getting a new companion when you didnt want to leave the old one, and living in an apartment when you wanted to stay with the family you were with. i kinda put up this mental block of "i dont want to do anything with anyone here. i'll be here for 3 months and then go home, and nobody's going to care". i have started to let that block down, but part is still up.
i went to a counselor at LDS family services, and he was a really nice guy.
he told me to write in my journal 5/7 days a week, and see if it helps. it's made me love writing in my journal. at least for now. in the last 4 days, i've written 12 pages, compared to the 3 i wrote for the previous week combined. i write in it in the morning, at lunch, at dinner if we are home for dinner, and at bedtime. it really helps. it's kindof a way to talk about my problems without talking to anyone about my problems. phone calls to mission friends help too.

my new address is:
132 Mystic Cove
O'Fallon, MO 63368

we will be moving this month, and will let you know the new address.
it sucks to hear about all the trials the family is facing at this point. i dont know that me being home would help anything, but i am really wanting to come home now. i just dont want to deal with it much anymore, which has a lot i think to do with the depression. hopefully in the next couple of weeks, i'll start turning around and the medication will help. i pray for the family all the time. know that i love you a lot!

my companion is Elder Tolman from Vale, OR. he's a very red personality. we started out a little rough, but we're getting better now. he'll probably only be here until the end of the transfer, and then i'll have one more comp before i come home. i'm almost to 2 hands on weeks left. how about that?

i sent the letter for paul lauzier. i hope it gets there soon. i printed off 2, just in case i did something wrong.

hope things are going relatively well for you this week, and i guess i'll type at you next week!
love you,
Elder Morrison

3 More Weeks

2009-02-22T22:17:00.000-08:00

Only 3 more weeks of Hockey left in the Moses Lake season. Kevakin traveled to Kennewick on saturday and played against the Tri-City American Squirts. They lost 11-1. He will go back to the Dr. tomorrow to see if he can get this back injury behind him.

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-02-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

hey family. another week down, 13 to go. today officially marks 21 months since i entered the MTC. pretty crazy. 3 months to go, and i'm getting excited to come home. i know it will be a bittersweet thing, but i am definitely starting to get trunky.
things with the weight are doing alright. i'm going to go to the dr. office today to check my weight for the first time since i went before. they said i can just use their scale whenever, and that way it is consistent. they also did a blood test to see if my weight had caused any other complications or diseases. the only thing that was wrong was that my good cholesterol was pretty low. they want me to start a medication. what do you think about that? i think it is called crestor. to be honest, i havent been taking the medicine that you sent very religiously. the couple times i took it, i noticed it's not really the same thing. and it's kindof an awkward dosage time for a missionary. you're supposed to take it at lunch and at dinner. i need to just start carrying it with me.
today is going to be a really relaxed p-day. we dont really have anything to do, and nobody to hang out with. so we'll probably just get our chores done and then hang out. i dont know if we'll play some games or what.
this saturday will be danielle's baptism. we're really excited. she's a really good girl, and a fun one. we have some good times with her. we may actually play b-ball with her today, since she wont have school.
elder goudie has been pretty sick. we think he has an ulcer. by the stokes'
home health book, that's what it is. so he's trying to get that under control. plus he's getting another cold on top of it. he's been sick for about a month straight. no fun. i cant believe i have made it so far with just a cold that lasted a couple weeks. especially considering what went around the house, and i was the only one not to get it.
we've been getting out on the bikes more. i think that is helping my weight too. i cant wait to be able to swim though. and i'll probably drive to tri-cities or something to get a good skate in before they close for the summer like they do. it's really weird to have people saying to me 'i'm getting married on such and such. are you coming? you'll be home'. like jessica hickman. she's getting married and i got an email from her this week that said something to the effect of 'i expect you at my reception in june.
youll be home by then wont you?' kinda weird.
i did get the valentines card. thanks a ton. it was kindof a bummer day, being that for me it was "single's awareness day" and for goudie he couldnt be with his girlfriend back home that he's planning on marrying (and she is planning on it too). so part of that money went to getting us some ice cream. nothing like 2 well dressed guys getting ice cream together on the same ticket and on valentines day, huh? oh, well, it was good. also, thanks for the letter creesh. it really brightened my day. lol.
i got to see grandma ethel (from sullivan) on friday. her daughter had surgery in festus, and was up here helping her. it was nice to see her again. she said if i come back with my family, she'll cook for us. i told her i just might take her up on that. she makes some great food.

about the scholarship, i dont know which to fill out. i know i need to fill out an application, but neither really apply to me. plus there are things that i need that only you could get to. one is a high school transcript. it also says that i need to reside in grant county for 2 years prior to getting the scholarship. so i dont know how that all works, but i'm going to have to look at it a little closer, and may have to take some time next p-day while elder goudie is packing. transfers are next week. the website for the scholarship is www.lauzier.org. i cant really call the people either, so if you could maybe make a phone call to see which application to fill out and such, that would be great.
i have a couple pictures for you that i'll send through gmail. i think you'll appreciate them.
i guess that's about all this week. type at you next week!
love you,Elder Morrison

Rapid Hair Loss Runs In The Family

2009-02-11T17:21:00.000-08:00

Just got home from work today and this is what Ty had to show me. A father turns his back for one second and BAM! He cuts his hair off.

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-02-09T17:45:00.001-08:00

hey family. i dont know why i didnt get your email last week. kinda weird. well, we've got some really good news this week.
DANIELLE IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! she has set a date for the 21st of Feb, just less than 2 weeks away. we're really excited for her. she has so many struggles, but she is so much more accepted and comfortable in the church than she is anywhere else, i think. she has a lot of problems with her mom, and they dont have a very good relationship. since her mom is the one who forced her to take the lessons (being a recent convert of about a year) danielle has been very uninterested in the gospel and the church. however, recently, we started teaching at another member's house, and ever since then, for the last month or so, she has progressed amazingly. last thursday, elder goudie went to the bathroom after the lesson, and brother rose said to her 'you know, i think elder goudie would love to see you get baptized before he leaves in 3 weeks'. she said 'i was thinking about that anyways'. so after elder goudie came out of the bathroom, she told him and everyone was really excited. sister rose was crying from excitement and happiness. it was a very good night.
this last week, we've picked up a couple new investigators who i think could be really solid. i'm excited about them. one of them just had a death in the family (while we were teaching the 1st lesson, just before the 1st vision) but has invited us to come back, which is a solid gesture by itself.
i got the package. thanks a ton. i think i'm actually losing weight. my belt seems to be getting a little looser. i'm on the tightest setting now. my other pants are starting to fit better (not the ones i came out with or that you sent me). by the way, wal-mart doesnt have my size. we are also starting to ride bikes. the doctor told me to eat right and exercise more, and he said a bike is the best thing next to swimming that i can do for my knees. they arent hurting anymore, so i should be alright. i only have 3 months left, anyways. my size is currently like a 48/32. a 34 length is actually too long because of where it sits on my waist. if you were to get me pants, i'd ask for blue ones.
the other day, we went to help a family clean up their basement. it's the next family we'll be living with. they're the taylor family. they have us over every week for dinner, so i know them pretty good so far. we'll be living in their unfinished basement, which is actually gonna be a pretty sweet setup. i'm going to send some pictures via gmail, so i can send more than one. i'll see what i can dig up.
that's about all this week. hope you have a good week, and i'll talk to you later. love you, Elder Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-01-19T17:14:00.001-08:00

hey family. i almost didnt get to talk to you today. since it's MLK jr. day, the libraries are closed, but a member here has been kind enough to let us use her computer. today was pretty fun. i got to go ice skating!!!! i was so excited. the young women went today, and we live with the young womens president. she told us about it and it happened to land on pday, so i asked if we could go too. the sister missionaries also came from Arnold. it was really fun, even though the outside edge of my left skate was dull. it worked out fine. it was really funny when one of the rink guards decided they wanted to flirt with the sister missionary. i just skated by her and i think it kinda intimidated him and he left. i was really missing my own skates, with my own sharpening job. i am just really happy that i got to for the first time in almost 2 years.
this week we started what is called the purification process. what you do is fast one day for a list of things that the Lord wants you to change. during your fast you write these things down, and then make a covenant with the Lord to do a 40 day fast from the things on the list. we fasted yesterday, and started today. some of these things, i've never wanted to do more in my life. satan will try to work on you hardcore if you start something like this. hopefully i can become a more spiritually driven missionary so that i can find people, and be able to bring them the spirit.
well, on wednesday, i'll have exactly 4 months left. i'm pretty excited to come home and see everyone and see the changes that have been made in everything.
this last week we had a really sweet lesson. there is a girl named danielle who i talked to creesh about. she's the one who has learning disablilties. she's seventeen and has always appeared like she doesnt want to do anything with the church. we had been having lessons at her house, and her mom is a recent convert. danielle was only taking the lessons because her mom wanted her to. we decided to try a different approach. we decided to try a different location, a different atmosphere. we went to her friend's house, who the parents are in the branch presidency and young womens presidency, and we had dinner there and taught about faith and prayer. it was really spiritual, and she even said the closing prayer! this was amazing for her, as it's always been a struggle to get her to pray. this went so well, and she learned and accepted things so well, that we've made it a weekly appointment for dinner and a lesson. we're sooooooo excited for her and her progress. the missionaries have been working with her for well over 7 months (that's how long goudie has been here) and you know its really good when goudie comments things like 'that's the the best lesson weve had with her' and 'shes really progressing now'.
to answer your questions, the clothes were too small for both reasons. my teeth are fine until i get home. they're still kinda sensitive, but not near as bad as before. my knees are doing fine. i got an appointment at a dr. office. they cant get me in until march 6th, so i'm going to do some calling around to see if i can get a sooner one. and i did get the card in the package. i'm going to try not to spend it, because i know it wasnt for me. it was for you guys.
well, i guess that's about all this week. i hope everyone is doing well, and i hope that you know i love you.
Elder Morrison

Letter from Elder Morrison

2009-01-06T10:46:00.000-08:00

hey family!
i did have a good birthday yesterday. in the morning, we were wondering what to do, being p-day and all. we called the sisters who are really close to our area and asked what they were doing. elder goudie also told them it was my birthday, so they sang to me over the phone and then proceeded to call a bunch of people in the zone and set up some volleyball in the morning, we went to lunch at applebee's, and then went bowling. it was a lot of fun.
after bowling, we went to kohl's to do some shopping for elder goudie and then went to dinner with the Higinbotham family. (ty, that's erica's family). they took us to pasta house, which is kinda like old spaghetti factory. it was really good. we just kinda flew by the seat of our pants yesterday. so much that we didnt get everything done we needed to, including email. someone proposed ice skating, and i would have gone had it not been for elder goudie having really really bad knees. he said we could go, but i wanted to include everyone. bowling was a ton of fun though, especially with
2 tongans and and a sister from trinidad and tobago. sister stokes (who we live with) also made me some cinnamon rolls for my birthday that are really good.
this morning we got a call from the sisters at 6:30. one of the sisters is pretty sick, so we gave her a blessing. good thing we were up and going on time today!
i got an email from ashlie smith and she is getting married now. she got engaged on new years. sounds like she is really happy and excited, and i'll even be home for the wedding, which will be nice. also, in case you didnt know, becca claassen got married a couple weeks ago.
as for the clothing situation, i've remembered that 'big and tall' stores should be called 'big OR tall' stores. i found a pair of jeans that fit well, but no dress pants in black, like i need. i dont know where else to shop, but i'll just have to keep looking. i havent been able to get an appt with a doctor here. the doctor i was referred to isnt accepting new patients. maybe i'll just have to go to the hospital and see if they have a physician i can see.
i'm glad the picture frame got there unbroken. i tried to pad it as best as i could. that was my black friday shopping.
mom, as for your talk you have to give, you should see if the library has the dvd 'between heaven and earth'. that might help you out.
i dont know that i really want anything else for my birthday, except my hoodie and my cookies. anything else is up to you.
i'm glad to hear the travel home was good. too bad about the water heater.
the stokes were gone for about 2 weeks, and they turned the heat down in the house to save energy. the house was about 60 degrees the whole time. it was so dang cold. i slept in long pants and a sweatshirt, and in the morning i'd still be freezing. now it seems like the house is extremely warm because we grew accustomed to the cold.
this weekend we are having a baptism. there is a lady who had her records removed from the church, and now after many years has finally come back.
she's a great lady.
well, i guess that's about it. keep on keepin' on. love you!
Elder Morrison

Merry BSU!

2009-01-04T16:37:00.001-08:00

The only thing that could have been better than receiving all this BSU stuff would have been having a picture of Kevin & Wendy buying it! They probably sent all the kids to the car so they wouldn't see them.

Thanks Tolmans! What a wonderful time!

Letter from Elder Morrison

2008-12-29T19:59:00.000-08:00

well, not much to update since Christmas. as for the questions:i didnt get ahold of Ashlie. it was the wrong number, but i did get to talk to grandma burch. she basically told me the same things as in her letter this week. i am calling today to set up a dr. appointment. my teeth are doing the same for now, but i have an appointment tomorrow to get a filling re-done. then i should be done. i bought some Sensodyne toothpaste, which should help with the sensitivity. the teeth are doing a lot better than 3 weeks ago though for sure. i heard from Lex and Penni a week or so ago. if you get the chance can you say thank you to them for me? today, we're planning on doing some shopping to get me some clothes. i'm pretty excited about that. i have a couple pictures for you. i'll send them through gmail to tyler's email account.it flash flooded the other day. there were road closures and stuff. there are acouple pictures of that. well, i guess that's about all since Christmas.Love you much!Elder Morrison

On The First Day of Christmas vacation...

2008-12-24T08:05:00.000-08:00

Coach Petersen gave to me..... a loss to TCU 17-16. That was a big bowl of Purple soup.
The good news was the company. We cheered the Broncos on with Aunt Sherie, Michael, Shane, Steven, Dew Drop, Kara Joy and all of their families. It was wall to wall people, wonderful food and couldn't have been more fun. Well, if BSU would have won it would have been more fun.
This morning Aunt Sherie cooked pancakes, sausage and eggs for breakfast. THANK YOU AUNT SHERIE!
After a good nights sleep now we are headed to Oakley, where we will have the traditional Christmas Eve salad bar and listen to the "bedtime record".
It's supposed to start snowing here in the next 2 hours so we are headed out!

Letter from Elder Morrison

2008-12-22T11:58:00.001-08:00

well, things are going pretty good this week. i've been pretty homesick, with a lot of people coming and going to be with family. i know i only have
5 more months, but that's still 5 months away. anyway, the dentists name is Jeff Johnson, and his office is on St. Charles Rock Rd. but i dont know what city. i'm sure you could find him on google or something. i have been to the dentist here in crystal city, and he's done some work already. he said a lot of the new fillings had chipped or broken, and that's what could be causing some of the sensitivity. he replaced 2 of them, one with a sedative medicine filling. that one has kinda been worn down a bit, so i dont know what will happen with that. on the other hand, because some of them have broken, there is space between the surfaces of of my teeth. this makes it so that when i eat, food gets jammed in there and really makes the gums sore. one of the gums is very very sore, and i have an appointment tomorrow to the that one worked on. i dont know what exactly will happen, but brother parkin, the dentist says if replacement doesnt work, i'll probably need one or more root canals. not liking that at all. the problem is that i didnt have any of the sensitivity or any pain before i got them worked on the first time, so i dont know what happened.
as for court this week, there were 149 dollars worth of fines and court fees. the mission will pay for 49 of that, and i paid the 98 i had in cash there, so i'll just have to pay 2 more. the mission will pick up the rest because of the out of date insurance and the expired plates. after we went to court, elder dandoy said that the weather was going to get bad, so we stayed the night. the weather didnt actually get bad, but it turned out that they needed our help with a zone conference car check and some office work.
so it didnt work out too bad.
yesterday, the warmest i think it got was 20 degrees. after church we had a late lunch with the Higinbotham family. they're really a fun family. they took us to Belleville, IL to see this Christmas exhibit called 'the way of lights' it is at a catholic shrine and was really a good thing. they had tons of lights and you drove through this 'journey to bethlehem'. then they had buildings and stuff made of lights and a manger scene in a cave thing that is on the grounds there. it was really neat. we're going to the Higinbothams for lunch on Christmas.
as for the phone call, i dont really know what to tell you. things are going to be pretty hectic that day. we've also been told that we cant use the cel phones. so i'll probably either get to talk to you less, or it will be in shorter calls but a few of them throughout the day. so i dont really know what to expect. i'll definitely make sure i call though. i'll just call on dad's cel phone just in case you decide to go to oakley anyway.
on saturday, the Taylor family took us to the temple, and then to dinner and a concert put on by a youth choir from a few stakes in the st. louis area.
it was really good. they sang a lot of Christmas songs, and they had a little story along with it. it was loosely based on 'a Christmas Carol'.
i think that's about all this week. cant wait to talk to you in a few days!
love you
Elder Morrison

Tyler's Eggsiting Christmas Time

2008-12-21T16:13:00.001-08:00

The Kids and Their Snow Zamboni

2008-12-21T15:59:00.000-08:00

Letter from Elder Morrison

2008-12-16T13:53:00.001-08:00

wow, you really make me miss playing hockey. i'm way stoked to come back and play. i may even have to go to the tri-cities to practice my skating. well, this week has been a pretty good one. we had our christmas party this week. elder goudie and i did a musical number for the program. we combined 'silent night' with 'samuel tells of the baby jesus' or something like that, from the childrens song book. the piano was too loud, my mic was too low, and it just didnt work very well. so we're going to re-record it, and then i'll send you a cd or something with that on it. when we went to play volleyball, elder goudie hurt his knee again. he's been in pain for the whole week. i dont know what's going to happen, but me and brother stokes gave him a blessing. it was getting better yesterday, but today it's still hurting pretty bad i guess. if it's not really getting better by thursday, he'll get an appointment with the doctor. i talked to a dentist in the branch about my teeth being really sensitive. i didnt like his answer. he said i may have to have a root canal. problem is, is that the pain is in 4 different places. i'm going to schedule an appointment with him, and he'll take a look and see what needs to happen. i really hope i dont need to do that. with elder goudie's knee, we havent been doing much walking, so we havent been tracting really at all. apparently it is kinda hard to get new investigators here. goudie says there hasnt been a new one in like 6 weeks. i hope things get better. last night we had dinner at the stake president's house. they are a great family. he said he was going to call you, and by reading the blog, it sounds like he did. he had a ton of questions for me and i didnt have any clue as to who the mission president was, or who was in the mission or whatever. so he wanted to call and get his info. too bad he wouldnt do it while i was there. oh well. i got the packages. thanks. i did open them, and figured i didnt want to wait until christmas, so i just opened them all. thanks for all the stuff. it's really going to help. the fudge is really good too. i do love your fudge mom. i've determined that since you always send me sugary things that will make me more fat, i've decided what i want for my birthday. i just want some of your chocolate chip cookies. you know the ones. the weather has been pretty bad. yesterday, we were supposed to go to a zone meeting, but it was cancelled due to the weather. so our p-day is today. yesterday, we couldnt really go anywhere, so we played some games with the stokes' and did some cleaning. it's pretty bad today, too, but we'll see what happens. they told us to use judgment on the driving. i'll be going to the post office today though, to mail your package. i packed it different, so it's going to be your christmas present in the bottom, with my mail all around it. you can just throw the mail into a box or something, whatever you've done with my other stuff. i guess that's about it for this week. love you much!Elder Morrisonby they way, i didnt open my presents but one was torn. i may know about a pair of socks.

Elder Morrison Report

2008-12-15T21:20:00.000-08:00

We just receive a phone call from Mackenzie’s Stake President, in Herculaneum, Missouri. They had the missionaries over for dinner tonight and said all was well. Sunday they had sunny 60 degree weather and today the high was 19 degrees. The Mission President had them switch their P-Day this week because they were to attend a zone conference today. Because of the ice storm and all around bad weather, the conference was canceled. Anyway he did not get a letter off to us so there is no update this week except to know that he is alive and well in Herculaneum, Missouri and President Sylvester helped add a few pounds to his already stout frame.

Tri-Cities Hockey

2008-12-14T19:28:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a weekend... Hockey, Hockey and More Hockey. The video that I have uploaded is one of Kevakin's Pre-game warmups. Kevakin "dirtying up the crease" was just too cute not to post.

Neither of the kids won a game and a total of two points were scored the entire weekend by Tyler's Moses Lake team. Aside from a couple of small injures, the kids (and parents) had a great time. Tyler received the MVP award for 2 of the 4 games he played in. That alone was worth the trip.

For my information (and anyone else who would care) I'm posting a few stats here, just so I can go back and relive this weekend war.

Kevakin had 127 saves in 3 games (42, 35 and 50) and let 38 shots in.

Tyler had 181 saves in 3 games (50, 66 and 65) and let 28 shots in. Tyler's 4th game ended after 2 periods of play when members of the opposing team collided mid-ice. The game was called early because of this injury. No stats were taken.

As a comparison of "Shots on Goal" ... we attended a semi-pro game in Kennewick where the Americans and the Giants played. After 3 periods of play, Each team had 22 shots of goal. Tyler and Kevakin have that many in the first period.