drum roll please.... I WAS REASSIGNED TO SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA. sadly, none of you guessed it right, I couldn't even believe it at first when I opened the letter! These past three days have been absolutely CRAZY.

 

I opened my reassignment call on friday and as I was flipping through the reassignment packet (which included flight information)... I read in the wee little corner of the second page that I WOULD BE LEAVING SATURDAY MORNING (aka: less than 18 hours later) to fly to Arizona and get straight to work. I when I saw that.... I cried a little (inside of course.) I mean who wouldn't be scared!!! We had no information about anything; all I knew was that I needed to report to the travel office at 4:30 the next day. I was in mini freak out mode the rest of the day and managed to pull myself together enough to sleep a couple hours that night.  Woke up at 3:50am on Saturday morning, got to the airport with Sister Fairbanks and Elder Molinaro ( from my district) and seriously felt like Will Ferrell from Elf in that one scene where he is fresh out of the North Pole and frollicks around new York city (eating chewed gum and getting hit by cabs). IT WAS GREAT. In the airport, we actually got to eat REAL FOOD... like jamba juice; then, I was lucky enough to get to talk to my family on the pay phone, it was amazing! And I randomly saw my cousin who works in the airport! The flight was only an hour and 15 minutes. so we landed in scorching Arizona at around 10 am.  We were carted over to the mission home (me with my two bags... one weighing 49 pounds, and the other 70 pounds...that was a miracle in and of itself). We got to meet the mission president and his sweet wife and we've slept at the mission home for the past two days.

 

They dropped some pretty big news on us that freaked me out a bit.  First, this is a BRAND NEW MISSION, opened only a month ago, and this area is new and redrawn. Second, I would paired up with sister Fairbanks (the girl from my MTC district) which means that WE WOULD HAVE NO TRAINER. YES, ME A GREENIE WITH ANOTHER GREENIE, AND no trainer. Lets just say we both almost peed our pants(skirts) when they told us that. Thirdly, we would be riding bikes. YES, us sisters in our long skirts riding bikes in this wonderfully warm 115 degree weather. Fourth, we would be working solely with inactive and less active members...without any updated area book!

 

After the shock of hearing all that wore off, we basically passed out.... and got to meet our ward for the first time yesterday. The ward is tiny, made up of single, elderly people and newlywed couples. THERE IS A LOT OF WORK TO BE DONE, but we know that we can do it and they we can make this ward one that is strong and unified.  The 2nd counselor to the bishop told us that 75% of the ward is inactive...so we know that we are much needed and we're excited for all the good we can do.

 

Anyways, today its 98 degrees and people are talking about how glorious the weather is.... this is a great warmup for BRAZIL.

 

Love you all, have a great week and I'll keep you updated on the crazy happenings here in Arizona!

 

Love,

sister healy (the perpetual visa waiter)

 

 

                                            Morgan and her new mission president and his wife

 

              

                                                                      Salt Lake City Airport

                                                      Waiting for her flight to Arizona

I made it safely (to Scottsdale, AZ where Morgan was rerouted awaiting Brazilian visa).
Me with my mission president and his wife.

Morgan also ran into her cousin Brad at the Salt Lake City airport just before departure as she was chatting with her fam! Go Morgan! Enjoy the 115 degree heat!

Yes... the rumor is true... THIS IS MY LAST WEEK HERE AT THE MTC. CRAZYTOWN, I know.  No news yet on my visa, so what is going to happen is that this friday (yes in 3 days) we get our reassignments to somewhere in the US until the ridiculously slow Brazilian Government gives me my visa.  In the MTC, word on the street is that my reassignment would be to either somewhere in Tennesse; somewhere in Michigan; Pocatello, Idaho; Texas; and last but not least BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. Yes, there is potential that I could be reassigned to Boston. There are a couple of other places that I could head out to but those are the BIG 5. I could leave this saturday, monday, tuesday, or wednesday.... SO I'LL KEEP YOU POSTED, or at least as posted as a missionary can!

This past week was pretty great. Not only are we 6th week missionaries on top of the food chain here at the MTC, but we also know everything there is to know about the MTC... which includes NEVER eating the leftover eggs they serve, EVER. It was so great because last week Elder Scott, from the Quorum of the 12 apostles came to speak to us. He talked about prayer and its many implications in our lives. It was so amazing! He had such a presence and the love he expressed for his wife, who passed away about 20 years ago, was heartwarming.

 

 Now onto to some saddening news (at least for me), I was all set to break the record this friday for the mile run, so I gave the record plaque one good glance over to inspire myself.... WELL GUESS WHAT?? Unbeknownst to me, some sister broke the mile record by 45 seconds a little over a week ago. It went from 5:52 to 5:08. YUP. I will give it my most valiant effort this friday.... but yeah, that was quite depressing to find out. On the brighter side, I'm almost done with reading the Book of Mormon.  This will be the first time I've read it all the way through and can I just say, it truly has changed me for the better!

 

This past week, my companion sister miller and chose to read a couple conference talk about family and there is a quotation from Prophet Joseph F. Smith that really hit me: 

" There can be no genuine happiness seperate and apart from the home, and every effort made to sanctify and preserve its influence is uplifting to those who toil and sacrifice for its establishment.  Men and women often seek to establish some other life from that of the home; they would make themselves believe that the home means restraint; that the highest liberty is the fullest opportunity to move about at will. there is no happiness without service and there is no greater service than that in the home."

 

I'll end this weeks email with that.

 Love you all and remember to love your families too! I SURE LOVE MINE. SHOUT OUT TO YOU MOM.  

 

PS: send me an email guessing where you think I'll be reassigned:)  morgan.healy@myldsmail.net

 

Much love,

 

sister healy  

Well HELLO EVERYONE! Crazy to say it but, its officially been a month. STILL IN SHOCK. This past week here at the MTC has been great, and time seriously feels like it's passing faster and faster each day. At the beginning of last week, one of the elders in our district was just slightly ill, but by the end of last week there was a FULL BLOWN INFLUENZA in district 14. I'm not kidding, people were coughing, and hacking, and other germ infested things... I was scared. I even took the extra precaution of wiping hand sanitizer all over my desk every hour. and it worked! I SURVIVED.

                  As far as the language goes, I can feel myself becoming more comfortable day by day. Though I am having a bit of a struggle with verb conjugations, I know that it will come with time... I mean at least a sister can hope.. right! haha. 

             This past sunday we had a really great experience.  Our district president, President Jackson, when he was in his 20s served his mission in Sao Paulo Brazil.  He met and eventually baptized this young woman who lived there at the time, her name was Seria Makua.  About 30 years after serving his mission there, he was called to serve as mission president in a different region of Brazil with his wife.  He had long since lost contact with Seria Makua, but when a young elder with the last name of Makua was called to serve his mission under President Jackson, it was discovered that this very elder was the son of Seria Makua!!! President Jackson resumed talking to her and discovered that she and her family had moved to the US and because of her conversion in the church over 1,000 people, including children, grandchildren, and friends, had since joined the church. They came and shared their feelings and testimonies with us in the MTC and it was just an all around AMAZING EXPERIENCE. It is so astounding to see the effect of just one person's conversion. It was a reminder to me that we all have the potential to change lives for the better and that we never can truly understand the magnitude of our influence on other people. So be the best person you can and know that no matter how small, no act of kindness of faith or of generosity ever goes unnoticed. 

             No word yet on the VISA, but I'll be sure to keep y'all updated. What most likely will happen is that I will be reassigned to somewhere in the United States until my visa comes in. So pretty much, I have NO IDEA where I will be in 2 weeks time, but it's all good!! Other side note-- I'm going to break the mile record this week and get my name in gold on that wall. YAHOO.

 Love you all and hope you have a fantastic week, because YOU ARE FANTASTIC.

 

Until we meet again,

Sister Healy  

 

 Morgan and her companion with their new door signage

 Fellow missionaries

Outdoor break to escape the germ-fest classroom :)

Third Week in the MTC

Third week...

and.... I'M HALFWAY THROUGH MY TIME HERE AT THE MTC! Feeling extremely excited and nervous about that one. A quick update: two of the elders in our district go their visas this past week and headed off to finish their training at the Brazilian MTC. CRAZY. I'm hoping my visa comes before these next three weeks are done, but either way, even if I end up going somewhere in the united states before I leave for brazil, I know it's for the best!

SO, this week... my companion and I had the opportunity to go to the TRC. This was our first time and it was AWESOME! Prior to this, our two teachers, Brother Buttars and Brother Nothumb (I know GREAT names), have acted as fake people who are interested in learning more about the church. They take on the role of a "particular" person and that "investigator" is the one that we teach lessons to. Well this past week, we got to teach REAL PEOPLE. I was a little nervous going in, mainly because I didn't feel that prepared with my Portuguese, but it went great. The two people we taught are both Mormon already, but we still go to share with them a message. We had a GREAT lesson with one of the guys, named Nathan. We started our conversation just getting to know him, but then bluntly asked if there was anything he was having a hard time with or wanted to talk to us about. He paused for a second and then went on to tell us about how his 18 year old sister was going through a really difficult time. We gave him all the advice that we felt prompted to and told him that we knew things would work out in time. At the end of that lesson it was amazing to see the change in him and it was amazing how I felt! He seemed reassured by the things that we had told him and I was ECSTATIC... I MEAN HE'S A REAL PERSON with real issues. It was great.

What else... the food is still the same... the weather is nice and warm... and OH YEAH, on sunday we had what's called a fasting testimony meeting. Which means that prior to the church service you fast (restrain from eating or drinking anything for 24 hours). You can fast for a concern you have about a person or about yourself, or for a trial your having. Anything that you think God can help you with. Anyway, at the testimony meeting, I went up and shared my feelings about the gospel. I seriously shot up like a bullet as soon as they announced that people could bear their testimonies. Other than a few conjugation mess ups it went well! And at the end of the meeting our District President told me that I did phenomenally with my Portuguese. GREATEST COMPLIMENT EVER.

I miss you all a lot, but am so excited to serve the people of Brazil! No extremely funny stories have come to mind, but I'll just end with a slightly awkward experience I had. So, everyday after lunch slips and letters are dropped off in the classroom and I was super excited when I got a slip to pick up a package. Long story short as I was walking out of the building to pick up my package I ran into a glass door and fell over. YUP. THAT HAPPENED. TOOO many other stories like that to share haha Love you all! HAVE A GREAT WEEK:)

"some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them"

Let's CHOOSE to be great!

Sister Healy

 

 

ALRIGHT EVERYONE, SO ITS OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL, I HAVE SURVIVED MY SECOND WEEK HERE IN THE MTC. Crazy, I know! Time seems to pass by faster and faster each day that I'm here. So how are ya'll doing?

I'll give you a quick update on my week. In my district there are 14 elders and sisters and our teacher Brother Buttars ( I know cool name) is pretty much the greatest. He also served his mission in Brazil and so yesterday we got him to go off on a tangent about all of the crazy good/not so good experiences that he had in Brazil.  There was this one time that he and his companion were invited over to have dinner at this elderly woman's house. She was very poor and EXTREMELY OLD. Anyways long story short, she tells them that they are going to have macaroni salad for dinner. When she served up this so called "salad"  Buttars looks at the plate and realized... HIS FOOD IS MOVING. Upon closer inspection he realizes that those little things... actually not so little things in his maraconi salad are MAGGOTS. The sardines that she had used had been rotting for a while  and due to fact that she couldn't see very well she didn't even know. She told the elders to eat up, and brother Buttars looked at his companion; they knew how much it meant to her to have them over for dinner.. so they decided to eat it, wriggling maggots and all...... HOPEFULLY in the near future, I don't have any stories similar to that but who knows?! haha The food here at the MTC  is good... my go to meals are cereal and peanut butter sandwiches, you can never go wrong with peanut butter; though I know in Brazil peanut butter is 25-50$ a jar, so I'm going to eat it up while I can!!

             What else? Learning portuguese here has been a slow but steady progression. A couple days ago we taught a lesson for 30 minutes all in portuguese with no notes. YAY US! A typical daily schedule consists of getting up at 5:45, eating, class, eating, class, running, class, study, eating, study study study. REPEAT. There are times that I feel like my head is about to explode but all in all it's been GOOD! I've seen many random friends of friends here and the reason is that all mormons are somehow connected... I SWEAR ON MY LIFE HAHA. My companion is from Colorado and she's a sweetheart we have a ton of fun together so that's all good.

            Depending on the day, we have gym time for 50 minutes, and in the large gym here at the MTC they have a record board. The other day, I was walking by and looked at the mile time record for sister missionaries... IT'S 5:52. I'M GOING TO TOAST THAT RECORD. The one bummer is that the track is only 1/10th of a mile, but either way I'm going to crush that record and get my name up on that board. So future missionaries, you can tell all your friends you knew me... haha. All in all, my experience here at the mtc has been great! Everyone is so nice and so intent on bettering the lives of those around them. It truly is an inspiration and makes me want to be a better person.

 

Have an amazing week everyone, and next week when I write I will have reached my halfway point here at the mtc! LOVE YOU ALL, STAY AWESOME. OH... AND WRITE ME A LETTER OR EMAIL.

 

LOVE,

 

SISTER HEALY

HELLO EVERYONE, Commo Vai?!!!! IT'S OFFICIAL, I'VE SURVIVED MY FIRST WEEK IN THE MTC... Miracles really do happen ha ha. So how are you all doing? Here in the MTC things are great, though it does seem as though I've been here for eons when in reality its only been 6 days.  Let me first start out by saying I've NEVER seen so many mormons in my life... It's cray.  Every where you walk there are literally hordes of white shirted elders and not so white skirted sisters speaking, or attempting to speak Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, French... any language you name, its here. I'm still trying to decide exactly how I want to organize these FANTASTIC AND INSPIRATIONAL EMAILS I'll be sending out but I think this week I'll just share some highlights and lowlights that happened each day!

 

So, last Wednesday when Candace and my mother dropped me off here at the MTC, let me just say that I felt like I was in shock, so many smiling mormon faces EVERYWHERE.. it was insane, but the good kind of insane of course. I was immediately herded along to my room and then to the tiny room, that's literally the size of 2 bathroom stalls where me and the 13 other people in my district will be studying for the next 6 weeks.  I met my companion, or more like was smashed against my companion as soon as I entered the room haha. Her name is sister miller and she is from Colorado Springs. She's almost 22 and she's a sweetheart.  There are 6 sisters and 8 elders in total in my district and a majority of us are from Texas, California, and Georgia... random, I know! Anyways everyone in my district is great, especially the sisters. Sister Haueter (the coolest ginger you'll ever meet) and I are definitely the sassiest of the group and we hit it off right off the bat!! Last Wednesday was honestly the LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE, mainly because it was just so overwhelming. 

 

Since being here I've really realized how grateful I am that all of ya'll are in my life!!! Seriously, you guys are the best!

 

Okay, sorry, continuing on... probably the most awkward thing about last Wednesday was in the big orientation meeting we had. My district sat in the first row and the MTC president and his wife were up sitting in the chairs looking out at all of us... suffice it to say the MTC president's wife, whose name I have forgotten, kept looking at me and then she whispered something to the women next to her. As everyone else was singng she came down  from the podium and motioned for me and my comp to follow her outside. We did.. and she then told me that my shirt was not appropriate mission attire. DEFINITELY THE MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT OF MY LIFE. ever. ever. ever. ever. SO YEAH... now I am the most mission appropriate sister you'll ever see. Not about to have the wrath of the MTC president's wife come down on my again. LESSON LEARNED.

 

So far its been amazing to see how all the other missionaries are so strong in the church and how much they love me... for some reason teh thing on the computer just said me allotted time is almost up, which doesn't make sense but I guess I'll just close for my first week. I've really learned here that though things have been difficult, especially getting up SUPER EARLY (5:45am), I have so much to be grateful for and so much to look forward to. AND SO DO ALL OF YOU. Life is a great thing that is meant to be endured but mainly enjoyed. the MTC has taught me that in full. I LOVE YALL LIKE CRAZY AND I WILL HAVE PLENTY MORE EMBARRASING STORIES TO SHARE IN THE WEEKS AHEAD. Don't you worry. Have a fantastic week!

Love,

 

Sister Healy