9/26/16... Winston is safe......no riots here

B ball today was a blast. Gets pretty intense with me Elder Masoe, and Elder Shults 

HEYO!
We are all safe here in Winston, I haven`t seen anything go down or heard of anything going down here. Its all just downtown Charlotte on a couple blocks. But people have been talking about it and its a big subject around here.  No need to worry though.

Had a really fun week.  Monday was the greatest, we did the laser tag stuff which was seriously one of the funnest things I have ever done. Then we went shopping after for food and stuff. We also went to a sweet store called Camel City Goods  Yes, the cigarette company, Camel, because it was from here but its all just Winston stuff and i got a sweet 3/4 sleeve Winston tee shirt.

Tuesday was pretty slow nothing too big happened, then Wednesday we had got a referral from, Elder Zesiger in Kernersville about a lady who was interested and wanted us to do some service. So we go over there to mow her lawn and her lawn is one big hill.....I had to push mow this lady's lawn uphill.....and she wasn't even home.  Her mom was there to tell us what to do, so we didn't even get to talk with her.  It was one of my worst lawns ever mowed and I didnt even care.  I was drenched in sweat.  If its a hot day here you just sweat if youre standing still.

We had zone conference on Thursday which was in Statesville, about an hour away.  It was great, we had a lot of trainings, and we talked for a while about John 15:1-15 about the vine and the branches. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, we can be purified through Him so that we can bring forth good fruit. We talked about a lot of other great things, President and Sister Alexander are so amazing.  They're the nicest people.  I guess they have their own beehives that make them honey and she said she would give me some one time.  She is so nice! 

After the meeting we were able to find 2 new investigators which is super awesome!  We are going to see them again tomorow so we are hoping that everything goes well! 

Friday we went and did some service at the orphanage which is always super fun, we just followed this guy with a chain saw and picked up all the branches, which sounds pretty lame but we made it a good time.  Me and Elder Shults get a long super well, he a trash talker so basketball gets pretty intense on P-day. And then the guy took us out to lunch afterwards which was nice.  It is so great to live in the states and be able to order just a nice bacon burger!

I also learned the importance of good planning on Friday.  We had a lesson with Brad Taylor who could progress pretty good hopefully soon.  But we just weren't prepared as well as we should have been.  It didn't go as well as we wanted, not terrible, but not very great.

We talked to a super interesting guy Saturday.  He was a former investigator. He talked for a solid 20 minutes and we couldn't get a word in... Then we bring up the Book of Mormon and he was like "oh ya i read that, i believe its word of God."  We were thrown off by this, so we tried to help him understand that if the book is true then there is a living prophet today and stuff and he thinks theres many prophets so it was strange but hopefully this week we can help him with that.

Not much too interesting happened this week we werent able to have a solid lesson with Tiffany at all and I don't think I took many pictures, so ill have to send some later today and take some more.

Qs...

Did you get the charger cord for your shaver?  Did it fit?
Yes got it thank you! 

How much money do you get each month?  What do you spend it on?  Is it enough?
We get 165 a month so if we dont eat out a lot we have more than enough. I still have about 60 left for this week so i might buy some good food actually haha hot dogs with chilli sauce get old. 

What was the funniest thing that happened this week?
Funniest thing that happened.....hmmm not sure nothing super funny happened but we always have a good time in the apartment with the other elders. Today should be super fun because its Elder Mautz 2nd to last p day. 

Love yall so much
love ya mom!

Sorry for the lack of pictures this week

9/19/16... I just want to be the best missionary I can be and I want to be there now, but I'm not, so it's hard.

Pretty fun week and it flew by.

We were on bikes so some of it was pretty slow. Numbers wise we didn't have a very good week which was a little disappointing but......not too bad and that's just how missionary work goes some times. But we did a lot of really fun things this week.

Tuesday we went to our trainer trainee meeting which was really fun. President Alexander talked to us on a bunch of stuff and we all did 4 minute restoration role plays. And it went really well I'm getting a lot better at teaching and getting used to it. Preach my gospel helps a lot. And we got to talk to the APs what are super cool Elder Clark and Elder Blanco are really nice and super fun. Elder Clark lives by Newport and we talked about Afters Ice Cream dessert place.

Trainer trainee meeting pic

One very exciting thing that happened this week was on Thursday I think. We had an appointment with Tiffany for a follow up and we didn't realize she lived 10 miles away, Soooo we tried to get a , member to come and drive us but we couldn't. So we realized it was an hour bike ride and we thought it'd be worth it so we just went for it. We were drenched in sweat, so we sat down for a minute before our lesson. The lesson went really well! She is accepted the baptismal date for Oct 22. It was so awesome she is really great! Then we realized we had to bike back and that was going to be killer, we called up another one of our investigators David Brewer and he drove 20 minutes to come get us it was great! We were so siked about Tiffany though it was awesome!

Friday was super fun we did service for an orphanage, it's this huge land that has a ton of houses for these kids with a  school there. We were getting one of the houses ready to be lived in again, because a lot of the buildings hadn't had kids in it for 50 years or so. So we moved furniture, taped stuff for painters to come. Then we stopped for a bit and they fed us pizza, after pizza we played basketball for a bit. It was the movers versus Elder Mautz, Elder Shultz, and me and another Elder. One of the movers went after a ball and stumbled over and got up and his finger was SIDEWAYS! It was so gross and he just popped it back in it was insane!

Orphanage

We were super excited for Sunday for Sacrament meeting we projected about 4 investigators to be there but stuff got in the way and we ended up not having any it was kind of a bummer, but that's how it goes sometimes.

P-day was much needed after a long bike week!  We have been waiting for this p day since I got here. We played laser tag with Brother Hiatt--this isn't no arcade laser tag though--these guns are almost $800 a gun. They're paintball guns converted to laser tag. He can customize the games so we could play team death match, free for all, a bunch of other super fun games. We played at his farm so it's a huge area to play in there abandoned houses and stuff.  We park the cars in the middle for cover.  My legs are super cut up and I think I'll need to check for ticks too. I'm so dirty and sweaty right now but that was so much fun it was a blast!

Brother Hiatt's farm where we played laser tag 

Sorry the pictures last time were blurry I'll figure it out. The Amazon Pantry thing is perfect all that stuff was awesome! And all the boxes get sent to the apartment office, so we just have to pick them up when they notify us that we got something.

Other than that stuff it was a pretty slow week we weren't able to teach a lot of lessons this week. But it was really fun and we now have a car for the next 2 weeks!
Transfers are in 2 weeks and I guess anything could happen I might stay with Elder Leavitt or I might finish my training with another elder, we'll see, either way it'll be great I've had a good time.

Spiritual nugget we have been sharing Alma 13:24 with our dinner lessons.
Angels are preparing people to hear the gospel so we just need to find those that are ready! 

Love you all! Love you mom!
Elder Morgan


excerpts from Brad's letter to Jeff:

Subject:  Why does BYU keep playing their JV team?

Geeeeeez byu needs to step it up! I heard Mariners went on a little 8 game win streak huh?

...we must think the same or something because Alma 32:28 is one of my favorite scriptures too. Just planting seeds!

I was a little bummed by our numbers this week but I always remember that you told me those don't matter! Some talk I read said, "Numbers don't matter but we can't deny the information from them"...or something like that.   I just want to be the best missionary I can be and I want to be there now, but I'm not, so it's hard. But I try my best everyday so I can be that missionary as quick as I can.

Hope you have an amazing week. And hope training for the biking hasn't been too hard!

Love you
Elder Morgan

Just a chair I'll need later in life

9/12/16... We exceeded all our goals this week. I was so happy...

Howdy my dudes

We had such an awesome week it has been so fun. The week flew by so quick only because it was car week probably and we got to enjoy the A.C but about an hour ago we got switched to a tri-share which is 3 companions share 2 cars so we will bike this next week and car the next 2 weeks.

Larry-- such a humble man...he is amazing 

Last Monday night we went to a less active lady named Barbara and it was so funny, she is totally a baptist-mormon (theres a lot of those here) they shout amen and stuff during sacrament. it is so funny. But i think this lady had been to a baptist church since the day she was baptized, she totally had no idea what the Godhead was and how Heavenly Father and Jesus were separate beings so it was kinda funny and she was yellin at us and stuff preachin her stuff. Then we of course had a prayer circle, they happen to us all the time here, hold hands in a circle and they pray its super funny sometimes but they love God so much its great.I don't think i've mentioned Larry yet. He had it all, he owned 6 mercedes dealerships, harleys, world class billiards player, big house, smokin wife, had it all.  6 years ago he had a stroke and his wife divorced him took his house money and kids, his left arm is paralyzed and he cant read or write anymore... just devastating. He is such a humbled man now, he cant say what he is thinking so we finish his sentences all the time, he is amazing though, we just downloaded the Book of Mormon on CDs so he can listen to them. i cant imagine what it would be like in his situation. He is such a great person. He has such a weird sleep schedule, sleeps during the day and is awake at night so its really hard for him to come to church but i think we're just going to jump on him before church and wake him up one day.

Wedensdays highlight was dinner with the Royals who fed us steak and some other great food! They are both converts and he was excommunicated earlier and was baptized last year, repentance is so real and its so awesome to see him do that.
We have such a different ward, most of them are medical students at wake forest so they don't know a lot of people to give us referrals but they're super fun they're all newlyweds and stuff.

We had a zone meeting Friday and it was so crazy.  the Zone leaders in our apartment spent so much time planning and it was so fun! It was called fight club, first rule we don't talk about fight club only the gospel. Then the 5 trainings were find-kwan-doe, plan-to-hand combat, karateach, tag team, and Master missionaries.... we wrote all the things keeping us back from being masters on a board and the we all broke the boards later it was pretty fun!

Fight Club Zone Meeting

A miracle we saw this week was we weren't having much success one day so we just thought we'd say a prayer and we looked for people to go try and find and about 30 minutes later we found someone. we had no idea where she came from or who she was, just popped up on our area book so we went to go see her and we taught the restoration and it was so awesome. she said she'd read the book and pray about it and she said she was waiting for us to come for a while.  it was so cool it was such a good feeling after that.

But overall it was an awesome week, i went on exchange with Elder Ball on thursday but i was bummed-- all our new investigators 2nd lessons were on thursdsay, so i missed those.  But they all went well, i guess, which is awesome. 

We exceeded all our goals this week. i was so happy... we found 4 new investigators 10 lessons, and 2 at churh plus 2 less actives at church it was so cool to see!

2  of the best things that are in North Carolina...Watermelon shakes and hush puppies.  Cook Out is fast food and they have the best shakes i have ever had.....ever.  They are amazing. 

Love you all so much

sorry it took so long to write--we kept playing basketball and they kept making me stop writing so we could play.
We also played Dominion today card game that is really fun, and strategic.

Love you so much mom!  Have an awesome week!

our zone activity, we went to a park and played kickball and roasted some dogs
(Classic Brad--Photo Bombing in the back!)

Elder Mauts is the one in the chair, he has 5 generations.....he trained 2 people  they trained my trainer, and then he trained me, and he goes home in a couple weeks so we got a pic.

The Faulkners showed me his new toy he got...that was on exchange

Did you get your packages??

I got one package, the protein.  but i think there is still one i need to pick up and ill be able to pick it up tomorrow probably!

Do you want/ need anything else?  

I cant think of anything else right now....maybe work on putting some music together for me. Just stuff that brings the spirit, put ukelele church songs and stuff like "how can i be", maybe have sarah do that. 

Do you have enough ties?  or what type/color would you want?

I dont have a lot of ties. If you did send some, dont send any crazy ones that would stand out or no fat ties. I like the one i got at called to surf--i like those ones. 

Excerpts from Brad's letter to Jeff:

HEYYYY papi 

I hope Yall are ready for that bike tip it sounds like it is going to be really hard but im sure it will be a blast, you and mom always have such a great time on those youll love it.
I got the Mass Gainer...thank you for that.  i'll keep you updated on my weight progress, i am 165 right now and thats better than i ever was before.
Ill tell more about some of the miracles this week in my other letter but we had so many this week it was amazing. I am so excited that you shared that scripture... i love it and have memorized it , it is our mission scripture and it has meant a lot to me. It brings a new meaning to being a true disciple of christ. i have strived my best to do that while i have been here.  

3 Ne 5:13 Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.

The other elders are amazing in my apartment and have helped me realized how i can become a better disciple of christ. The Lord prepared a lot of people this week to hear our message and we  taught a restoration lesson that the spirit was so strong and it just made me feel so good about being a missionary and what our purpose is to be here! i love it 

Thanks for the updates i hope yall are doing so well. How is parker doing being the only kid?
Crazy about byu and utah i bet you were a little fired up haha,
love you so much and want to thank you for being an amazing parent and great example of a great priesthood holder
Elder Morgan 

9/5/16... Bikeeeee Weeeeekkkk

Bikeeeee Weeeeekkkk

I thought this week was going to be so hard with biking and the heat and humidity and everything but it ended up being sooo good!

Basketball monday was so fun i almost dunked in the game it was so fun, there are some ballers in the zone I have not been able to throw yet besides in the mtc, I am going to wait until after winter to throw, just give myself a nice break, but i have been doing bands and stuff to keep my arm in shape. Today we are going to have a zone activity and have a cook out at the park it should be really fun!

TUESDAY
one of the worst experiences of my life happened this day. It happened at mcdonalds.......mcnuggets did me so dirty. After district meeting, which was really good, we all went out to lunch.......mcdonalds had a 50 mcnugget challenge so we all did it and it suckeddddddd so much. 400 NUGGETS between us. i almost threw up after about 40, then we had to get on bikes the rest of the day it was sooo bad. But it was a good time actually... i just felt the effects of it the rest of the week.

mcnuggets did me so dirty 

This week was mostly very hottttt so i was drenched in sweat for most of the day. But this weekend it cooled off a lot and it rained saturday. The thunder here is so awesome the clouds are really low so the thunder is so loud and lightning sounds like bombs its really cool.

We were able to talk to a lot of people because we were on bikes, we try to talk to everyone we see and it payed off. We gave out a lot of restoration pamhlets and got some numbers so hopefully they turn into new investigators this next week. We had some great lessons too. This old couple named the Brusters had some very strange beliefs in everything and he believed that all religions were true so it was tough to help him then he said he hated mitt romney and said he was scum and stuff, that if he walked in here he'd put a bullet in his back haha but they were really nice. A lot of people this week gave us water and stuff were really nice. 

Saturday night was really great also!  We did service for 3 hours earlier helping somebody move, which always takes longer than expected, but they told us theyd take us out to eat wherever we wanted this week so that is pretty exciting! Later saturday night we planned on stopping by 3 houses. We biked pretty far to get there and then we talked to a previous minister who was really nice, he said he did enough time in the church and hasnt been for years haha. Then we had a lesson with a less active. Then we stopped and talked to this nice indian guy who again believed in all religions so its hard to teach people like that but he was very nice, then his drunk buddy at his house wanted to talk with us and he was going off on some weird book of enoch stuff. But we just gave him some pamphlets and said read these when he's not drunk haha. 

Then our last house we talked to Leon who said he was looking for a new church which was perfect, so hopefully this next week he can come to church and we can have another lesson with him. 

This sunday was awesome.  Fasting was tough and i was super hungry but we saw a lot of miracles.  On sunday, Deizy Tellez, who is from Columbia Bogota, came to church, she hadnt been to church in 10 years came with her son who is 10 and i think they really liked it they're were a lot of great testimonies that were shared that were perfect for her to hear. Also her son is 10 and he is going to be baptized this month or early next hopefully which is super exciting. 

Sunday night we got dropped off from the other elders at the area we wanted to bike  and we had a lesson with a less active and a new investigator who we're trying to get to read the book of mormon more. Then later we were walking and i just wanted to turn around and walk the other way so we did and ended up running into a guy named frank who at first didn't want to talk then we introduced ourselves and he opened up and he is producing gospel music and sang to us in the middle of the street and he was actually very good and we are going to call him this week and talk more about the restoration.

Overall super great week had so much fun this week.  me and elder leavitt get along great and i love the other missionaries in our apartment it is so fun all the time!

Love you all so much, love you mom 

Questions........

Did you end up having a cook out at Byron's?  How is he? 
HAHA no byron is a G though haha he said we could drive his mustang the week we're on bike and we said we cant and he told us to break the rules haha he is awesome but not progressing much hopefully we can get him to church this month.

Take some pics of your apartment... You said people you meet are used to hearing gunshots ... Do you feel safe where you live??
Yes safe its just like any town there is ghetto parts and nice parts, i feel safe.

How is bike riding going for you???  Do your pants work ok for bike riding?  Is your booty SORE? 

Biking wasnt as bad as i thought it was going to be i actually like it and hopefully i build some leg muscle, i am now 165 so gained about 7 lbs since i left. Not getting fat though haha 

Have you been able to workout?  How is that going?  Are you throwing at all?
Ya we have wieghts in the appartment and we lift every morning and some nights its good. No throwing yet just working out and doing band work every couple days 

I want to send you a package this week... What are you craving?  And is there anything you need?
Yes please oreos double stuff. Just surprise the rest i guess.

Send me some like triple x mass gainer protien straight from amazon that would be the best!

Scripture / Quote of the week?

Ahhh perfect quote for the week, we listened to an old talk like night about baseball 

"There is no disgrace in falling down, the disgrace is in not gettin back up and laying there" Paul H Dunn
We all fail and especially in missionary work there is a lot of failure, comes with the job but the success brings me so much more happiness that the failures dont matter, i think baseball helped me realizing that failure is just part of life and its how you react and how you improve to the failure that matters. 

talks about baseball and babe ruth... great talk... listen to it for me!

Love Y'all so much 

didnt take a lot of pics... im sorry madre but here is the mcdonalds one, then just a random ghetto cruiser

ghetto cruiser

Excerpts from B's letter to Jeff:

I cant believe that about the branch!! that is such a miracle.
they call this mission the mission of miracles. There are miracles everywhere sometimes we need to open our eyes too see them, i didnt ever see them before my mission but now i see them everywhere! You've had so many miracles with your branch it is awesome...120 people...that is so good! 

Bike week was actually very good and i like it a lot more than i thought i would've. Im getting better everyday at talking to people and bringing up gospel truths that apply to their lives, elder leavitt is really good at it so im trying to learn as fast as i can. 

That is so awesome about the byu game--mom told me about that!
Too bad about the mariners though....so weird they choked at the end they dont ever do that before playoffs haha

It really has gone by fast and i totally noticed exactly what you said the days go by so much quicker if youre trying youre hardest to do missionarywork and loving it.

Send me some triple x mass gainer straight from amazon to here. Protein is so expensive i cant afford it for every month with the money they give us. I  have been eating well too i make eggs or cereal in the morning and then have a sandwhich and some other stuff for lunch and then dinner changes with our schedule and members.
Love you
Elder Morgan