12/26/16... Christmas was a lot of fun!

Christmas SKYPE!!

Dad!

It was so awesome seeing y'all yesterday.  Everybody looked so good! I'm glad that everybody is happy!  I don't feel grown up yet haha I still feel like a little high schooler.  I hope you all have an amazing time in Hawaii and be safe!  Christmas was really fun actually!  We went to the Dewsnup's for breakfast and opened presents then went to church. After church I Skyped y'all. Then we went to dinner at the Johnson's and it was a lot of fun! There were 3 other families all with little kids, then we did the nativity with the kids. It was great. After that we felt we should go see Larry. We brought him food and he was really happy to see us, he was really lonely and sad before we got there it seemed like.

Tell mom I said hi and that I love her

Love you

Elder Morgan

Larry always showin off his trophies haha 

Mom!  

Hey it was so good talking to you yesterday! You all look so good! It was so nice seeing your faces.   I hope yall are having a blast in Hawaii right now.  

This week was pretty slow but really fun. Christmas was a lot of fun! We went to the Dewsnup's in the morning.  They're a pretty hip couple in our ward.  ...Then church...Then talked to y'all. ...Then went to our dinner later at the Johnson's, with the Bennions, Evans, and Brother Joey.  It was really fun.  They all have a bunch of little kids and we did a nativity at the end.  Saturday night we went to Waffle House which is just a breakfast place.  It was our Christmas dinner and our last dinner with Elder Craig. 

Love you so much it was great talking with you!

Elder Morgan  

Did the keyboard work for your tablet!?

Ya the keyboard was perfect! Thank you! The case was the wrong size but I just took it off and use the keyboard and it works awesome. 

-Who can we specifically pray for?

Sister Davidson and her son Jacob, and her boyfriend Jon. They have so much potential and are going through a hard time. 

-Did you get the money in the card?  Just want to make sure you saw it and don't throw it away. Use it for yourself or to help someone in need. 

Yeah I got it... thanks... you're the best! 

Love you all so much! 

Larry gave us a knife and a zippo lighter 

12/19/16... Lots of training meetings this week... but it has been neat seeing improvement from lesson to lesson.

Heyyyy    

This week was really fun! 

Tuesday we had our Trainer Trainee meeting that it felt like I was just at the other week with Elder Leavitt. It was really good.  We had a lot of trainings...President spoke mostly about the trainees and not being homesick and some other stuff.  But we role played a lot, practiced teaching the restoration and inviting someone to pray, read, and be baptized. Elder Montandon is improving on a lot of things. Our lessons are getting a lot better.  It's been pretty neat seeing him from lesson to lesson and how he improves. 

Then on Wednesday we had zone meeting. We had a couple really good trainings on teaching repentance, and then baptizing, and how to begin teaching.  

A lot of our investigators are super busy and had some pretty rough things come up. One couple, the husband fell down a flight of stairs and broke some ribs. Then that same day they got in a wreck, hit and run. So they are set back pretty far.  Then our other investigators got robbed and their house flooded. It's been crazy and kinda rough.  We have had to do so much finding lately because all of our investigators are busy or out of town.

We were able to find 3 new investigators though which was nice.  We were going to find one of our new investigators from a couple weeks ago named Alex.  He wasn't home so we knocked on his neighbor's door--wasn't home...Knocked on his other neighbor's door and before we could say anything he let us in. We went in and told us he had talked with missionaries a while back.  We were able to teach him the restoration and Elder Montandon killed it.  It was crazy how much he has grown since his first lesson. 

What else do you want for Christmas?

I love the penguin ties those are so sweet. 

Have you had any cool experiences with #Light the World?

Not really, we just have been serving at Habitat a lot lately and the guy we work with says he gets emails a lot asking who we asking who we are. It's nice seeing good things come from doing simple service.

How is the weather there?

It's FREEZING! it's supposed to get really cold soon, but it was really warm today which was really weird, it was like 60 almost. And when it rains and it's cold, it freezes and the whole city shuts down. No one works. 

What week do you ride bikes? 

We have a car this week. We switch every week from car to bike. 

Do they do anything cool for the holidays there?  

Not really, just Christmas like the west pretty much .

Is there anything unique about North Carolina that is different from here? 

Yeah there's a lot of trees, and Cook Out which is a fast food place.  The weather is a lot different. The people are different. 

Love you mom, sorry it was a little short today 

Happy to see you soon! 

Elder Morgan 

12/12/16... We didn't see a lot of success finding anyone...but it was just a good week and I was happy.

Brother Bello

This week was really fun.  We didn't see a lot of success finding anyone or didn't really get to meet with any of our investigators, but it was just a good week and I was happy. 

Monday we played basketball like usual which is always so fun! We play 3 on 3 on 3 so it's not exactly playing full court it just makes you run more which is good because we don't get to run much. And I played catch! it was great my arm was sore the next day it felt good, I miss that feeling. 

Wednesday was really fun one of the new members of our ward will take us out to dinner every couple weeks, she took us to PF Changs last time and she took us to this little Italian diner which was really good. After that we went and visited a couple of less actives.  We have been visiting less actives more lately--just sharing Light the World with them.  But we go up to this lady's door and I had to pee worse than I ever had....only it was bad. We get up there and I wasn't going to make it through the video so I had to pause the video and ask her if I could go in and use her bathroom...it was a little awkward but she didn't mind and was nice.  I guess we are making it up by raking her leaves this next week.  After that we went to another less active guys house and he talked FOREVER!  We couldn't get out of there haha it was a little annoying because it shot all our plans that night.  Wedensdays we also had district meeting in the morning and we had to pick up the Bethania Elders and we were about 30 minutes late because of traffic--it was bad. 

Thursday and Friday we do service at Habitat for Humanity restore and we move furniture and stuff for them. Friday after service we had to take the other Bethania Elders home so we went to lunch with them at East Coast Wings which is super good.  I love wings! So Elder Harrison and I split 25 and he wanted to put 1 habanero wing mixed with the others. We were both super scared it was like Russian Roulette with wings, so I eat one and I was like oh that was it for sure...couple wings later he gets one and he was like nope this is it and we were both about the cry from the heat. Turns out the habanero sauce got on about 5 other wings and it killed me! It was so hot, about as hot as the time Kirchhoff made me eat a ghost pepper...

Saturday was also a great day, sometimes Saturdays feel like the longest days because you proselyte for like 9 hours. But it flew by, we were a little bummed we didn't find anyone but Elder Montandon and I made it fun still. Then we went to Taco Bell I think for dinner-- That's the go to. 

We visited Brother Bello, who is the guy Elder Leavitt and I gave a blessing to before he left.  Well we walked in and he was perfectly fine!  All of his health problems had gone away in the 2 weeks! 

Also last Sunday we gave a blessing to a lady in the hospital. We got a call later that she was leaving the hospital that day. It was amazing to see the power of the priesthood work in lives around us. It truly is the power of God. 

Sunday we had Stake Conference which was really great!  I guess President talked about Huan Huan during the Priesthood session Saturday night. But they talked about being a light on a hill for others to see and how by being an example to those around us we can share the gospel. 

Love y'all

Elder Morgan

Qs

Do the members feed you dinner every night?  if not, what are you making?

Ehhhhh...we get fed 3 or 4 times a week sometimes 2 sometimes 5. 

What types of things do you cook?  or make for yourself?  

Taco Bell. I make sandwiches sometimes or chicken and rice was probably the biggest thing I've made. 

How is Elder Montandon?  

He is good he has learned a lot in the last couple weeks. We get along really well.

Who are the other two elders living with you again?

Elder Murray and Elder Craig.....Elder Craig know Elder Hutchens who was in Dad's YSA Branch. 

How are you on money?

Pretty good.  I've budgeted better this month but we got out to eat a lot so no telling how long it will last.   

How are you on warm clothes?  

Good I want to get a jacket that most of the missionaries wear. I  can get it on p- day one day at Marshalls probably.

Do you want your black snowboard jacket?  or the black North Face?

No its fine 

Do you need snowboots?

No it just gets icy and not much snow 

Christmas List?  

T-Bell card, sock suspender-shirt tucker thingy and WHAT ELSE?!?!

Yes can you get me one of those wallets called a Thread wallet.  It's super small. 

Is there anyone there who could use anything for Christmas?   If you send us the names and ages etc, we could send you money or presents...  

Not that I can think of 

Any missionaries who need support?

Not that I know of. 

Are you wearing your retainer??  WEAR IT!!!  at least to bed...

Yeah I wear it every night. 

Elder Montandon always taking selfies

12/5/16... Huan Huan's Baptism!

This week was soooo slow honestly, we worked hard and didn't really talk to anyone that was interested which was kind of a bummer. I am learning a lot every week. I can't explain how much I've learned just from training, I'm convinced that this was for me to learn as much or more than the guy I'm training.  

Monday was really fun P day is always a blast with the other Elders in our district and the other district that we play with. Elder Montandon is a baller, he can dunk pretty hard. He gets out of control sometimes and it's funny to watch. 

Highlight of the week was definitely Saturday though so I'll just talk about that. Tuesday we had met with Huan Huan and went over some of the details of the baptism and planned it out. He is so awesome. Then Saturday came and the baptism was at 9. It was so awesome to see his face after he came out of the water.  It was the biggest smile I've ever seen, and then he waved at everyone in the crowd. I was so happy for him. I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost after and then he gave his testimony. It was amazing that he wanted honor God by doing this, he has such amazing faith. 

Also President and Sister Alexander came to the baptism which was a nice surprise. 

It rained a couple times this week which was nice because there are some wild fires in NC right now. But it has been getting really cold. Biking at night in the cold is rough especially because you cant do anything about your face and it just freezes in the wind. But the hand warmers and other winter stuff have been life savers. 

I also got to play catch today! It was soo nice, to be able to throw. My arm felt good and everything.  It was just in the gym so I just threw pretty light. 

Fast Sunday was also yesterday which was really great. I had been thinking about patience and wondering if I had patience or if I was just telling myself that i think I was pretty patient. So I fasted that I could be more patient with others and also just with life, and also charity. I think I will be happier as well as those around me if I can get better at both of those attributes. 

How was your interview with President Alexander?  What did you ask him?  What did you learn?  Tell us all about it.  

It was really good, he is so great. I just asked him how I can be a better trainer pretty much and how I can help Elder Montandon because a lot of the time I don't know how to help and He just told me to lead by example and love him and the Lord will do the rest. 

You said you got to throw last week... How did your arm feel?  How did you do?  

Felt really good it was fun. Tell Tim the changeup is going to need some work asap when I get back to get it back to where it was. 

Tell us the funniest thing that happened this week... (I love hearing these! )  

 Umm thats a tough one I cant think of a super funny thing that happened. Probably just how big of a smile Huan had on his face after he came out of the water. 

Other than investigators... What can we send you for Christmas??  Is there anything that you've see other elders have that you would think would be nice?

Hmm there are these things that attach to your shirt and your socks and go under your pants and keep your shirt tucked in and your socks pulled up-- thats nice. 

T bell gift card maybe? 

Also shout out to Nate being a State Champ! Thats pretty sweet that he got to be a part of that and get there I am super happy for him!........I still hope you all wore your Southridge baseball gear to the game though haha jk 

Love you all 

love you mom

Elder Morgan!