10/31/16... I love the South. The culture is so different with churches on every block.

 

I had a really fun week, not because we saw a lot of success or a lot of miracles but because I just told myself everyday is going to be the best day and I am going to make the most of the 2 years that I have here. 

I love the South.  The culture is so different with churches on every block. We have a lot of great conversations.  Like today, this old lady at Walmart just came up to me and gave me a Baptist plan of salvation pamphlet and invited me to church haha. I really have no idea what Baptists believe because so many of the churches have different pastors that preach different things.  It is interesting to talk to some people. 

I can never remember what i did during the week or what day something happened, i have to read my journal to remember! 

I think it was Wednesday we were knocking on some doors in this apartment that we have found some investigators in previously and we talked to some kids and gave them some pamphlets, then we talked to their neighbor who was a nice lady and we talked about the book of mormon and she was super happy that we talked to her. We go see her in a couple days so hopefully that goes well. 

We didnt have any exciting lessons with any progressing investigators. We got some bad news about Huan Huan.  He is trying to be a head medical guy in China and to do that he would need to be an active Communist leader so that is going to set him back for a while.  We will see how that goes.  He hasn't come to church in a couple weeks. 

We went to P.F. Changs with a single lady in the ward named sister Gaskil.  She is so nice. The orange chicken was bomb and then the first song to come on was the one that goes "this is gonna be the best day of my life" and so i decided everyday is just going to be the best day of my life from then on. Then the week just kept getting better. 

We had an appointment set up for Saturday at 6 with Brittany and JJ but we realized that is the same time as the Halloween party. We were first just planning on proselyting but our ward mission leader told us to go so we had to go then. So we went Thursday night with Sister Dewsnup to invite her to the party. The Dewsnups are awesome.  They're from Eugene, Oregon... I told them I was there this summer. So we invited her and she came! She has 2 daughters that are seriously the cutest kids ever. I think they had fun. 

Sunday came and Jon came and we were going to have another lesson with them later that night but it didn't work out so hopefully more great things come this week from all of them.  

All around this was a great week, this next week we have Zone Conference with 2 other zones so I'll see Elder Zesiger and Elder Fife from the MTC... I'm excited! 

Love you all so much!
Elder Morgan

Tell us about your ward--big/small?  

It's pretty medium size, a lot of young couples that go to Wake Forest Medical School so they're super busy all the time with studying.

How has the weather been?  
It's been cooler about 60 to 70s 

What is your favorite missionary moment this week?
This week was probably just talking with people about the Book of Mormon.  It's amazing to help people who already have a love for Christ realize there's more. 

What are your plans for your birthday??
Nothing special just a normal day of missionary work. Oh I have plans to find someone elect though

Plans for Halloween??

We have to be in by 6 unless we have appointments, but we are on bikes so we can't bike around tonight.

 excerpts from Brad's letter to Jeff:

love you

Hope Halloween is great for y'all and that you got the yard nice and scaried up for all the kids. I got the Nicholls's Halloween card and I was laughing so hard.  I was so excited they sent me one!  

Hope you have a great week. I really have been able to see myself grow this week. I realized that I was setting too high expectations for myself and I can only achieve them if I have the constant companionship of the spirit to help guide me. I have really been able to have fun trying to find people to teach and have a good attitude about it. 

Thanks... love you so much 

Elder Morgan 

10/24/16... New shoes, service, miracles and a few flat tires.

The Aldos

Had a really fun week!

So for P-Day on Monday we went to the mall and I got a sweater at HnM and then I got some shoes at Aldo that are super slick. There were these shoes that Elder Shults thought were sweet and they didnt have laces just buckles. We were all baggin on these shoes talkin some smack on them and so he says what are the odds that you get these shoes with me, i said 1 and 30...... and Elder Leavitt counted down 3-2-1 and we both said 14..... so now i am obligated to buy these buckle shoes. 

We'll see if it actually happens i doubt it, but i might be wearing buckle shoes soon.

Then we went and played basketball at the church which was fun as always. 

Tuesday we went and did service at the orphanage again. Its always super fun when we go do that. We threw some hay bales around for a while, and then we were getting ready to leave and he called us over to go help him corral some horses. We chased down these horsed for like 30 minutes and some were the mini horses and it was so funny. Horses are massive and one started to charge right at Elder Leavitt and he barely got out of the way we were laughing so hard! Afterwards we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch for the half off deal they have. We each got 15 wings and it was sooooo good.

B dubs dubs

Later that night we went to the hospital to visist a man who had just got diagnosed with cancer and had internal bleeding. It was pretty sad, but we gave him a blessing. 

Wednesday we biked a lot and we were coming back for lunch, and I popped my bike tire on a drain! It was terrible so we walked back to the apartment. After that it was pretty rough and our attitudes might have been a little bad. We started walking to the other people we wanted to see when this lady drives by and yells something out the window and we couldn't hear her but she pulled over. Turned out she was super nice and had a lot of experience with family history stuff and wanted us to come over sometime so she could bake for us haha! It was such a miracle and it made us a lot happier as we worked and went to find the rest of the night. 

We hadn't found anyone new to teach this week, so we had a lot of green or finding to do. Friday i just told myself it was going to be a great day and that i was going to have fun while finding. We didn't end up finding anyone new, but i had fun and it was fun talking to people even though they used their agency most of the time to not talk to us. 

Saturday we drove to Pilot Mountain for a baptism over there because the other elders were on exchange and realized neither of them had their driving privileges. So Elder Leavitt and i had to cancel one of our solid appointments, which was sad, and drive the other elders to Pilot Mountian which is about 30 minutes from Winston. I think we are planning on hiking Pilot Mountain in a couple weeks also. Saturday night we hadn't found any new investigators at all and our zone goal was 100 and we had about 95 so we new we had to find some people to help out in the goal this week. It was about 7:30 Saturday night when we remembered this lady who lives just 2 floors above us who we had talked with before....oh ya before this Elder Leavitt had just popped both of his tires on a pothole so we were stuck. This lady was home and her husband was there also, they were super nice and we taught them a bit and set up another appointment. We were pretty stoked to meet them especially because it was the very end of the week.

Sunday was all right.  We didn't have any investigators at church but it is still a blessing to take the sacrament every week and feel the Savior's love in your life.  

love you all!
love you mom! 

Questions:

Did you get the mass gainer?
yup i now have 21lbs of it haha ...it will last me quite a long time. 

Do you want a mini blender?
no i have one that elder mautz left for me

What are you studying right now?
studying the book of mormon as a mission and i just read in jacob 1-3 today and it talked about avoiding pride and greed. I am going to do the christlike attribute acivity for all of the attributes.

What do you want for your BIRTHDAY???
Gift cards to chipotle, chicfila, maybe send some nike black socks. I cant where socks with designs so i only have about 6 pairs that i can wear. 

What was your favorite miracle this week?
miracle of the week was the lady stopping and talking to us about family history. It really brightened my day and week.

When are transfers?  Should I still send your birthday packages to your same address?

transfers are the 15th of nov so ya send them to the same address. 

Excerpts from Brad's letter to Jeff...

Thats crazy about Parker's date!  haha I will have to ask him about that . That is so awesome about the branch.
That is so funny that you mentioned Elder Cornish's talk, Am I Good Enough. That was my favorite talk as well! I love it, it was a big confidence booster to think that way. I am going to start to have that as my mindset from now on, "Yes I am good enough!"

I'm so excited for you and how things are going up there. 

I really wish we were able to go to the temple here.  We ate dinner at the Royal's house on Friday.  Brother Royal was excommunicated and just got his blessing restored.  It was so amazing to talk to him about it and how much a blessing the temple is. And his wife is going through for the first time this Thursday and she overcame smoking.  It was so great to see the things they have done. 

Love you and I'm stoked about the branch...
Elder Morgan 

my sutdy area

kitchen

the other elders study room

workout stuff

living room

NOTE:  Brad's BIRTHDAY is November 2... so if you want to drop him a note, his address is:

Elder Brad Morgan

200 Forest Park Cr Apt 217

Winston-Salem, NC 

27127

or his email address is:  bradley.morgan@myldsmail.net

Thanks!

10/17/16... This week was up and down like crazy as well...

We did a big service project with another zone on Thursday at the Childrens' Home Orphanage.

heyyyyyy

This week was up and down like crazy as well. 

To start it off I had the worst P-day ever last week. Let me go through our day, we cleaned which was terrible, then we went to the 'Gerocery Store' (Best 2 Years voice). tHENNN...we were getting ready play some ball and we all decided to take pre-workout so we all could have some energy. Well, it turns out--
pre-workout is the worst thing ever invented and it gave me the worst migraine I have ever had in my life. So we didn't go out Monday night because I couldn't even look at a light without my brain exploding. 

Tuesday-Thursday was a lot of finding and contacting people. We were out all day workin hard... and nothin.  We had only a few conversations with people that wouldn't even count as lessons. We also did a big service project with another zone on Thursday at the Childrens' Home Orphanage. I volunteered for the worst job too, pressure washing-- haha mom would appreciate that!  Me and Elder Zesiger were the pressure washers.  It was super fun to be able to talk to him again and talk about our zones and stuff.  He is awesome!

Friday we had zone meeting which was really great I got a lot of great things out of it. We focused on goal setting and how we can set high goals that are obtainable.

We had a goal for 3 new investigators this week and we had 0 all the way until Saturday.  It was a really slow week and we didn't have a lot of success at all. Then Saturday came and we were knockin some doors.  This couple invited us in and we taught the restoration and they were pretty interested. So we were at 2 NI for the week at Saturday.  We really wanted to reach our goal because you feel so much better when you do.  Then Sunday came and we had a lot of hope that we were going to have a lot of people at church-- we could have had 5 that said they'd come. Only 2 showed up, but it was great! We taught Huan Huan the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he wants to get baptized.  It looks like it will be early November time. Then later that night we had set up an appointment with Sister Davidson a less active and her non member boyfriend, Jon. It went so great, we taught the restoration and he was really interested.  I gave the first vision account and it was awesome.  The spirit was so strong in the room and he was really prepared to hear the gospel. So that was a huge highlight to our week after a rough start.  We were pretty stoked to be able to reach all our goals this week. 

I just got a haircut and then we are going to the mall to get some shoes and a sweater for winter. Then going to play some ball probably. Elder Shults is a big trash talker, he always says he is gonna dunk on me.

Got a hair cut! 

Also I cannot belive that about Cooper.  That is so sad to hear. That must be so tough... I can't even imagine. He was awesome.  He was always super fun to play against and I just remember him being super nice and complimentary whenever I saw him. 

You can send another package whenever, we ate all the food pretty quick. haha We eat a lot of food. We are good on laundry detergent and clorox wipes though. 

Love yall so much and hope everyone is doing well! 

love you mom!
Elder Morgan 

excerpts from Brad's letter to Jeff:

This week was really tough for the first 4 days, but its amazing how it can turn around with a good weekend. This will be bike week and it should be good. It's supposed to be high 70s so we will work hard even if we are drenched in sweat after it. 

To answer your question, our motto should be "If ye keep the commandments, ye shall prosper in the land." I am reading in 1 and 2nd Nephi so that is a huge theme.  I think if we really try and keep the commandments, as in read he scriptures daily, pray often, follow the prophet and pay an honest tithe that our family will be blessed in a lot of ways.....and our future families.

LOVE YOU dad thanks for the great email 

Elder Morgan

PS.  What are your thoughts on the motto, I know you always would talk about that theme of the Book of Mormon, so i thought it would fit well.

10/10/16... We started feeling the affects of the hurricane...but thankfully nothing serious at all happened in Winston.

Our district before this transfer 

Heyyyyyyy

We had another great week, a lot of good times and a lot of miracles!

This Monday was super fun! We played basketball for like 6 hours...... I had taken pre-workout before and it was insane, I had so much energy it was so funny. Needless to say my team out hussled the other team every game haha. I dont think its very healthy to take pre-workout though, my heart didnt stop racing for the whole day. It made missionary work really easy at the end of the day though.

Elder Mautz left us Tuesday and we got another Zone Leader, Elder Craig, in the apartment.  He is really fun too.

Elder Mautz's last P day 

We have really been focusing on our finding efforts and trying to find new investigators this week.   We knocked on a lot more random doors which isn't always successful, but people in the south love talking about Jesus Christ so usually we have a lot of good conversation. We were able to find 3 new investigators. One is 86 and we helped her pick up some stuff in her yard then we started teaching her and she was very nice.  Her only concern is that her church is paying for her grave and burial so we will see what happens.

oHHHHH and we ate out at Pizza Hut for their buffet the other day and we were just sittin there regretting eating so much food and guess what comes on? Jack Johnson, I knew the Lord's been looking out for me haha!!!

Thursday we went and did service at the orphanage again and we helped sweep out some halls that had just been painted and stuff, there was dust everywhere and we had to wear some gas masks (not really just dust masks but gas masks sounds cooler). Then later that night after weekly planning and dinner we went knocking again, we found a lady who was verry interested in the book of mormon and learning more.  We are hoping to see her again this week!

Friday we started feeling the affects of the hurricane. Nothing serious at all in Winston--just rained all day Friday and Saturday with pretty light winds. We try to be as productive as possible when we only have bikes and its pouring out so we do a lot of online-proselyting in those situations. We had Chic-fil-A for dinner, which we do a lot and then it drains your money for the month. We got back and decided we would just get out in the rain and go for it. We bike a little less than a mile to David Brewers house who was just leaving for dinner. So we turned around and biked back and by the time we got back I was soaked! I mean you woulda thought we went swimming. Then we just went and got Cook Out shakes with the zone leaders. 

Saturday was another super rainy day, it didnt stop at all. It was not a downpour but just a constant rain, so biking anywhere just ends up getting you soaked. Later that night we walked with our umbrellas to Larrys house......he wasnt home! We got back and we were still drenched haha. The wind was stronger and all of the rain was just blowing right under our umbrellas haha. Saturday during some rainy down time we might have played a little bit of soccer in the apartment haha.

Sunday the rain was gone and we were excited to hopefully see some investigators at church. None of them showed except Huan Huan the Chinese man our ward mission leader is workin with. He has read the entire Book of Mormon and we taught him the Plan of Salvation yesterday and it went really well, he just doesnt understand a lot of English and the concept of Faith is new to him. But i really think that he could be baptized soon we are just letting our member take the lead.

We also had a mission fast this week because it was fast sunday......but our ward fasted last week so we did it again.
Today......p day should be really fun.  We are going to clean our apartment! ...You know I love doing that!  But we got the dirtiest apartment award, so we're gettin on it..... (Mom it's really not that bad, our inspectors are just kookoo.)  But we are playing some ball and going to the mall to get a sweater and I might buy some meeting shoes to look spiffy haha.

Love you so much!
Elder Morgan

excerpts from Brad's letter to Jeff:

Ya the storm wasn't anything serious up in Winston but I was actually hoping we were going to get something a little more serious.  That probably would have been cool to experience...but good thing nobody got injured over here.  What were the injuries like in other cities?  I heard it was one of the worst hurricanes in decades. 

I really felt y'alls prayers this week.  I've been praying hard for new investigators as well. Tyler's ceremony sounded really fun. I'm sure you loved mom and Sarah going shopping all day. 

Overall I'm having a great time and me and Elder Leavitt are getting along really well, I see myself improving on different things ever day. I definitely recieve strength from Heavenly Father a ton. 

Love you 

thanks for the updates 

Elder Morgan 

This is how green NC is. 

Qs

Was the weather very severe when it hit Winston-Salem? Or had it calmed to a regular Tri Cities windstorm?  
Not bad up north in wintson not really any floods at all either. 

How about the rest of your mission?  Will you be involved in any relief efforts?
I'm not sure about south of us like Charlotte.  I don't think it was anything other than wind and rain. No relief efforts are needed over here and i dont think president would have us drive to South Carolina to help.  That is pretty far.

Who have you been keeping in touch with?  (I got a text from "the worst shooter in the MCC" today asking for your email! :). Is that Trevor?
haha that is trevor... been keepin up with a lot of people--ethan jake rt jashaun kelly kendal ellie and even a couple from the mtc. 

Tell us about what you are studying in the scriptures?
We just started as a mission reading the BoM and I had just finished it last week. Just read about Lehi's vision about the tree of life today.  I'm highlighting anything with the doctrine of Christ, faith repentance, baptism...so on. Nephi had so much faith... it is amazing.

What's your daily schedule?
workout 630 

study 8 

training for greenies 10 

lunch 

out the door 1 

work until dinner 

then get back at 9 

plan 

workout some more. 

What kinds of food are you eating/cooking in your apartment?
depends, mac n cheese, eggs, and other just depends, i usually try to eat a lot of protien........

Do you need a winter coat??
I will let you know if you need to ship that coat i might need it but maybe not. 

What do you want for your birthday?????  Please send me a wish list. 
Chic-Fil-A gift card, maybe a Chipotle one too.  I'll think of stuff this week too. 

10/3/16... Had an awesome week!! General Conference was soooo great.

Elder Mautz, me, and Elder Shultz

Had an awesome week!!
General Conference was soooo great.  I really loved it. Its almost like General Conference means so much more when you are on a mission.

So I guess a lot of things happened this week that were really fun. I went on 2 exchanges also.
Monday we played basketball and stuff which was really fun... always love getting some ballin in. 

Then later Monday night we went to our dinner at the Hiatts, there are a million Hiatts in NC. Right as we get ready to leave, it starts pouring rain. We were in a car which was fine, we drove to our planned area and we run into a dead end...we had to walk down the street to the house and then the guy gives us a referral for down the street.....we walked in the pouring rain and were soaked haha  We talked with this guy named Wally about the bible and stuff.  A lot of people have really strong faith here. 

Tuesday was pretty fun also, we got a random call from a member who wanted to take us out to dinner which was awesome....but it was at K and W which is a rip-off buffet and I hate it.  All the food is so bland and gross but it was free so I ate it haha. Later that night we went to see our new investigator, Chris.  We found out that he loves basketball.  We ended up talking on his porch for 30 minutes about the NBA it was so fun we was going off on how much these players are making and stuff. We told him we would call him to come play with us for this p day, he talked himself up pretty good so we will see what happens. 

Wednesday was District meeting and then I went on exchange with Elder Masoe....the 300 lb lineman going to USC. It was so fun! They have a basketball hoop that can lower so before we went to bed we played dunkball. He is massive so he could move me pretty easy. We played 2 games of 21 and he beat me the first game and I ended up beating him the 2nd game. I ended up a little bloody after too. haha Whats a good game without some blood though.

Elder Masoe wears a football helmet when he bikes because no helmet fits him. 

The next day i got back and went on exchange with Elder Mautz who leaves this Wedesday for home. We did service that morning at the orphanage and moved a bunch of hay bails around and planted seed in a field.  It was pretty fun and pretty hot haha. They feed us when we go over there which is really nice too.

We also had a great member do some missionary work and helped us get a solid new investigator this week named Huan Huan, he speaks Mandarin and they had a skype lesson while I was on exchange with a Chinese teacher at the MTC. So if you will pray that he continues to progress and isnt too busy, that would be so amazing!

Then came general conference which was awesome!!! I liked so many of the talks, one of my favorites was elder Cornish talk about Gods love for us and one thing that he said was pretty profound, how saying I will repent later is a mockery to the atonement. There were a lot of other amazing talks, I still haven't been able to look over all my notes yet.  Another great one was Elder Nelson's on feeling Joy... It was great. 

After conference we went and ate at Bad Daddy's Burgers which is like an amazing Bobs. I was so full but it was soooo good, and it was like a sports bar so we got some updates on some games haha. Also i am so mad that the mariners blew it, especially Felix thats such a bummer... and the same situation happened last year. 

I loved hearing about yalls bike trip it looked so fun! 

This week flew by.  I've learned from Elder Mautz that as you fill your day with worthwhile things and you're busy, it goes by faster and is way more productive. 

Please send some more protein this week.  I ran out.  (just the same mass gainer one is good)

Thanks for the updates I love hearing about how yalls weeks go.

Love yall 

Love you mom
Elder Morgan

the clouds are always super low here, so the thunder is like gunshots right in your ear

Qs

I forgot to tell you Angie Scrimsher's sister, BROOKE SANDERS lives pretty close to Winston-Salem in Tobaccoville. I was wondering if you might know them because he is a bishop there. He's a doctor--but I can't remember his first name.  Is that in your area? 

No Tobacovlle is really close though. I think the Sanders, might know Elder Hulet or Hall who are super cool.  They are the area right next to Winston. Also Yadkinville is super close, about 20 miles... so if I'm still here, Elder Hutchins will need to come visit.  

How is your companion?

My companion is awesome we get along really well.  We are getting to know each other more as the time goes on which is nice. 

When are transfers??

Transfers happen on tuesday, i will most likely be in Winston for a while.  Actually we just found out I am staying here and so is Elder Leavitt.  But we are getting a new elder in our apartment for our new zone leader, Elder Craig.  

How is Tiffany?  Did you get to meet with her?

Didn't get to see Tiffany this week.  She wont answer our calls or texts so we had to take her off date.  I'm praying we will be able to get in touch with her really soon.  

Is bike week next week?  Do you have thin-hybrid tires on your bike for road biking?  Or do you have wide mountain bike tires?  I hope it's a good enough bike with lots of gears... I know how hard it can get to pedal up the street--even when it is just barely uphill.
😜

Yes its bike week and we get really good bikes actually.  It has 10 gears and medium width tires. 

Do you have enough clothes?  Do you need more basketball clothes or your basketball shoes?

I am good on clothes and am good on basketball stuff.