4/24/17... I'll write y'all a letter right quick

Every Southerner says right quick instead of really quick. Like "I'll fix y'all a sandwich right quick." 

Had a super fun week! It flew by! 

We just got done playing some basketball against some guys in the ward it was super fun! ....my companion is a trash talker and so we had a bet that winner bought breakfast....we lost and I hate losing haha! 

Last P day was the funnest p day I have had on my mission probably! Beach volleyball is honestly one of my favorite games now! It was some pretty good competition too. We played spike ball too! My team mate was Elder Hatch(AP) and we killed it. It was awesome. 

We had a lot of miracles this week too! We have been finding like crazy trying to just keep our teaching pool flowing because we dropped a bunch of people last week. And we found some solid people! Saturday night we were going to see a former in an apartment complex and we pull up and there's all these Spanish families sitting outside lol. We sat for a second and we're like well where do we start haha we went to the far end and started talking to some people and at first it seemed like none of them spoke English haha then one of the girls spoke up and was like I want to hear a message about Jesus Christ! Then the 2 guys by her just got up and left so we could sit in their seats haha. We started talking and she was like I just want to be prepared for the second coming so I don't drink or smoke!.....golden haha. We taught her the restoration and she was so excited, she accepted to be baptized and the only problem is her whole family speaks Spanish and she doesn't have the car on Sundays but this next week she does have the car! We're so stoked to help her progress. 

A couple weeks ago we had knocked into a lady named Amber, we started to talk to her and we taught the restoration on her doorstep and she was just so excited and had the biggest smile on her face! It was so awesome! She was super interested in it all. Only problem was her and her fiance work like alllllll the time so we couldn't set a return appointment. Well we gave her a bit, told her we'd stay in contact so we could come by whenever they're free. Yesterday we decided to stop by and see if she's home. We knock into her fiance and he was so stoked to see us, he was like ya me and my wife have been talking about coming to y'alls church. And we were able to set a return appointment too! 

We found some other great new investigators this week and put 2 of them on date for baptism. A lady named Keosha who had gone on a church tour once but never came to church because she worked Sundays. We taught her and her schedule is free on Sundays now! It was a miracle how we found her too. We were going to a formers house and they weren't home. So we looked around and saw one apartment had some kids toys so we decided to knock it because it could be a family. We knock and it's the lady we were looking for in the other apartment! The Spirit definitely lead us to her. Sometimes you don't even realize the Spirit is telling you something until after it's so crazy to think about. I love it!  

Saturday night we were driving around in da ghetto and we see some kids playing some ball so we roll up and ask if we can play them. It was fun we played 21 and lost but we had a good time. 

We're going to do some fishing at the Mesiscos today and then have dinner and FHE it'll be super fun!

Love yall! 

Elder Morgan 

 

  

4/17/17... Man I love the South!

Man I love the South!!!

The weather here is amazing, it's upper 70's and humid. I honestly love the humidity it makes you feel like you're in Hawaii sometimes. And everything is super green right now, we were knocking on some doors the other night and we were pretty much in the woods it was pretty sweet actually. Last Sunday we had dinner at the Thomas and this Sunday we did too it was so nice of them to have us over. But their kid Brody is playing baseball and so he is in coach pitch right now. I gave him some pitching lessons and it was so fun! Today we are going to the Mesiscos.....they have a lake on their property.  Their daughter plays D1 beach volleyball, so we're going to play beach volleyball as a district today and I'm super stoked. It's going to be so fun! I'm going to bring my gloves too so we can play catch. I'm hyped! I was so tempted to go to the fair here and ride some of the rides so we called our zone leaders to see if we could and they shut that idea down 😭 oh well. 

Tuesday we went and taught a potential investigator named Angie, she was super nice and friendly. We were only able to teach her about the Book of Mormon because she talked so much. But we got done teaching and she just started making us some fried chicken wings haha. Honestly they were some of the best chicken wings I've ever had 😂 it was a little sketchy though I didn't want to get food poisoning. We went back and taught her the full restoration yesterday. It was so funny, she is pretty ghetto and so she was just like give it to me straight I don't want no lies. It was awesome so we taught her and she had some great questions and the spirit totally took over the lesson because at one point she handed us the book of Mormon back and somehow she ended up being really interested in it. We were amazed. 

The family that we started teaching a couple weeks ago, the Bennetts are amazing. The mom is pregnant and about to burst any day now and the dad plays basketball.  He said he might go play overseas next year. But they had posted this thing on facebook where they didn't realize God's hand in their life until 2 young men showed up at their house. It was sweet. They didn't come to church this week unfortunately, she was in the hospital.  It seems like every time someone starts meeting with the Missionaries they get sick haha. But we are really excited about them. Annie is doing alright, she was supposed to quit smoking Saturday and she didn't come to church which was too bad. Donna is struggling still, she is really wanting to be all in and it's so hard for her to give up her old habits and addictions which is kind of sad to see but I know she can overcome her problems If she just needs to relies on the Lord for help. 

Last night we were knocking on some doors and we needed to find 1 more person to reach our goal for the week and the first door we knock on is a Puerto Rican man who played baseball over there! His English was pretty good but we taught him the restoration on his door step and he accepted our invitations and wants to learn more. We also found another Spanish lady and luckily we had and Spanish Book of Mormon in the car and she was really excited to read it and ND learn more it was a couple miracles last night it was fun. 

Qs

What are your responsibilities as a District Leader?

Not much just lead the district, conduct district meeting every wednesday. 

How is Elder Kimball?  I know you said he moved from Russia when he was 10, but where did he live after that? What is he like?  Interests?  Talents?  Etc?

He's a nice guy, cool, from Soda Springs, Idaho, lived on a farm. He played football, has never thrown a baseball in his life. He's super competitive in everything we do. He's been out a little less than me. He's a good teacher. 

Do you need anything?

Oreos, some bathroom cleaner maybe 409, clorox bleach spray. Whatever food you feel inspired to put in haha. 

Time for an Amazon Pantry reload?  

List your favorites that you are out of...  and also those you still have and you don't need...

Oreos and idk what else actually 

Oh... PS... Uncle John said we have a bunch of ancestors from Salisbury!  Has he written to you about them? and their names?  

What? People always say a ton of Morgan's are from here and I told them I didn't think I was us haha 

Love yall!

Elder Morgan 

 

4/10/17... Yooooo cheeehuuuu! ...UNC won and a ton of other miracles!

Thats a very Tyler like subject line haha 

Such a good week this week ton of miracles! 

First miracle UNC won!  haha everyone was going pretty crazy here!

Also Gotta give a shout out to Mr. Gorilla ball Kirchhoff for hitting a walk off. 

Last Monday was pretty lame :( we emailed and went and played some basketball by ourselves at the church it was alright. And we went and got haircuts at sports clips after.....couldn't help but check the TV......Kershaw was pitching on opening day my heart sank, 2nd miracle haha. 3rd miracle happened later that night we had set up a return appointment with a lady who had just told us to come back another day. Well we did and she was super excited and nice! Her husband wasn't really going to let us in then we told him that we desire to share our message because it blesses families and he let us right in. He had to leave for work and the wife barely spoke English... and a minute later her daughter walks in who speaks perfect English and was super interested in our message it was great!  They both said they'd be baptized. So that was a pretty sweet miracle itself! 

I got to go to a meeting in Charlotte this week on Tuesday! Best meeting ever....besides Elder Cook's conference we had. I felt like I learned so much and that I was spiritually filled afterward. We went to B dubs dubs after 😍 so good!  We carpooled with Elder Shultz and Hampshire. 

We found a ton of new investigators this week, we are really working to get them to church now. A few months ago Elder Grieve and his companion knocked on a door and a man came out and wasn't interested. Elder Grieve and I knocked on the same door, him not realizing it and the same guy came out and told us he was interested. We weren't able to teach them for a bit because of their schedule but we got talking to his wife and she was super interested in coming to church. We hadn't even taught them anything yet. Sunday came around and rounded we didn't see them so we were a little bummed, then right after Sacrament ends they walk in the door! They stayed for the next 2 hours and the kid texted the mom during it and said he loved it and that they need to come back every week! We had to teach her about the Book of Mormon during class ha and she loved it! The lesson was on scriptures....funny how the spirit works like that. We had set up another appointment to see them Sunday night so we went over and taught them the full restoration, her and her 9 and 8 yr old. They really liked it and all of them were super excited to be baptized! It was amazing! They were all so good! 

We taught Annie and Sean Friday and Saturday too! Friday we taught obedience. I love teaching obedience, everyone understands why we need to be Obedient when we show them the blessings. Then Saturday we taught her the word of wisdom! She is so committed to living it! She said next Saturday she will quit completely of everything. We also read 1 Nephi 8 with her, I love reading that chapter with investigators, so good! 

Our bishop told us the other week we should listen to the last talk given by Bruce R. McConkie, called the Purifying Power of Gethsemane.  It's an amazing talk, and I encourage everyone to read it without any distractions.

Today we are going up to High Point for our zone activity where we are coloring eggs and eating taco salad....sounds super good 😑. 

Love yall happy to hear Cabo was fun and you got to eat a ton of chips and guacamole! 

Love you mom,

Elder Morgan 

 

 

4/3/17... Transfers this week... We drove Elder Grieves to Charlotte and picked up Elder Kimball

 

Transfers this week!

Tuesday we went and drove down to Charlotte to drop off Elder Grieve and pick up Elder Kimball. We had Brother Patrick Thomas and Mikey Smyre drive us. They are 2 of the funniest people I have ever met it was so funny the whole way. We got there and I got to see Elder Montandon and Elder Murray from Winston. Then we got Elder Kimball, he is 20 and has been out about as long as me. He is a good guy, pretty big dude too. And has a pretty crazy background, he came to the US when he was 10 so he doesn't speak Russian anymore. 

The week before Elder Grieve left, we had knocked into a Spanish home and we found one of them that speaks English.  We got talking and she said that she had met with missionaries in Honduras when she was a kid! She was really excited to meet with us, and really interested in finding out if it's true! It was interesting trying to teach them without speaking Spanish. Luckily one of the sisters in the ward just got off her mission Spanish speaking and helped out a ton because her friend is Spanish speaking only and is really interested too! 

On Wednesdays we have a lesson at the church of investigators and recent converts and it was great, we had 2 investigators come, and it was lot of fun, we just have a short lesson and a game and I think that they liked it. 

On Thursday we went on exchanges and Elder Shultz came down here to Salisbury! It was awesome, if y'all don't remember Elder Shultz and I lived in the same apartment for 3 months so we had a really good times. We ate at Go Burrito of course which is like a super hip Costa Vida, I still miss Costa Vida though... They have better burritos. 

There's this sweet mural right by Go Burrito! 

Tuesday we were a little bummed, we got a call Tuesday right after exchanged and it was Michelle, a lady that we had found a couple weeks earlier, that had been reading the book of Mormon like crazy. and she came to church. She said she just wanted to stay baptist right now. That was pretty sad she was really solid. 

We found a guy named Charles last week and it was pretty funny. We knock on his door and he comes out. We start teaching the restoration after a bit and he was asking us a bunch to show him evidence of all this in the bible. Well we did and he was still a little hard hearted and we just told him to open his heart because if it was true he would be held accountable for rejecting it. After that he said he would accept a book and read. I really hope he does because it truly softens hearts when they read it. 

Also General Conference was so good this whole week. I hope everybody got a chance to watch it! It's hard to say which one was my favorite but I really like Elder Andersons one Saturday about putting off the world and Elder Ballard's about goal setting. It really made me think of my future and how I really do need to set a vision for my life and set goals to reach them. 

Also Elder Bednar's talk of course.  I can't believe it's been a year since I opened my call! That's insane. I also thought of how fun that trip was with everyone and that I love yall! 

We had dinner last night with the Thomas' and the Smyres, the Thomas have 2 crazy little kids that fight all day... it's so funny. And I got to throw a baseball with one of them so it was so fun. This ward is so nice. 

I'll send some pics this time! They are of our old district.  We don't have any of the new district, but I'll get one this week. 

Love yall so much!

Love you mom ! 

Elder Morgan

 

Also went bowling last P day which was really fun, no pics of that though.