11/27/17... Thanksgiving was so fun!

Hey mom! And everyone haha, I don't actually know how much of my emails get sent out or if it's the whole thing, how do you do it usually? 

 We had a lot of great things happen! Thanksgiving was so fun! 

So I'll go through Thursday, thanksgiving. Our ward had a turkey bowl! They planned it for a few weeks so I was so hyped to go play in it all week. So we go play there, the assistants came, Elder Carol and Grieve. Then we took Sharon elders with us, because our wards were playing against each other. It was nice to get out and run around for a few hours! We went and played a pickup game with these guys that came, missionaries vs. Them and we wrecked them!  It was way fun. Then we went home showered up and went to our lunch appt. She was really nice, she made us some Mexican food, her mom and dad were there and they all were just so grateful to have us in their home, they weren't members but they weren't interested in the Church, but they were great people, very humble and loving. After lunch we went and baked some muffins to bring around to some of our investigators and invited them to some things, and showed then light the world. It was fun, not a lot of people really wanted to talk much on thanks giving but we tried. Then we went to the Riebes home and it was soooo good!  He smoked, then fried the turkey! So good. It was a lot of fun too.  

  

Saturday was super busy again! We were on exchange Friday so I was in South Carolina, with Elder Fox. We had a good time, they're on an Indian reservation, so it kind of reminded me how we'd go by all those fireworks on the Indian res haha. Friday we get a call saying that a lady needs help moving into her new home. We we like ok we could stop by for a but and see how we can help.....we pull up and a 27 ft uhaul is full. And it's just us and 2 ladies. So we hopped on it and got to work. 2.5 hours later it was empty. Man can tell ya we were sore the next morning lol. 

We weren't able to teach Maureen or Jack much this week, they were either sick or out of town. So we got to do a lot of finding and tried to get creative. We found a couple people we think will be pretty promising in wanting to learn more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I love being on a mission and getting to see people recognize the spirit in their lives and then see the changes that come from it. I just want to help as many people as I can feel the Spirit in their lives because it's happiness that lasts, rather than the happiness that the world gives. Everyone should think of how they can spread the light of Christ this Christmas and light the world makes it so easy to do that. 

Sunday we were at church, we unfortunately weren't able to get anyone there that we'd been teaching. But what was super amazing was that we got a call from a member telling us how this man in a family wants us to come teach him about the church really bad. It was a really good day though, we had dinner at bishops house and after dinner the mom asked if we all wanted to sing Christmas songs. So we sing and it was way off tune, of course, and everywhere and it made me think the whole time of us and the Nicholls just wailing on the chimes. I was laughing. 

Qs...

What do you order at your weekly Pho?  I've never had it... Tell me what to order...

I get just get rare beef flank and brisket in it and it's way good. Then doctor it up with siracha and some lime. 

Do you guys get a Christmas tree?  I can send you a small one if you want one...?

Haha no we don't have one but the other elders do and we might do Christmas at their house since it's on a p day...that rides on me staying here though of course, transfers are the 7th.

What exactly is the "Pilot Program" you are in?  What do they have you doing differently?

Use technology more, work with members a ton, plan with them to share the gospel. New Preach My Gospel will come out soon, idk if this is part of the pilot but we are teaching a lot simpler, only teaching a few principles and extending 1 commitment usually. 

Do you have any Christmas requests?  I am trying to get everything today on Cyber Monday so I can be done early... Send me a list...  

White dress shirts, a few of mine have ripped. Long sleeve and short. If I move areas they'll let me email my new address i think. 

Also, did you think of anyone in need that we can help?

I don't think so right now. If I do i might just have you put some money on my card and I can get some stuff. 

Love y'all!

Elder Morgan

Dad,

Had a good week! 

We've just been working hard trying to figure out how to utilize all the trainings we've been given, haven't figured them out too much but we saw some miracles!  someone called and asked to be taught and they want to get baptized. It made my week, I just want to help as many people as I can and it has just been a little frustrating not exactly knowing how they want us to do things so it was nice to see that miracle, I think the Lord blessed us for just trying our best. Anyway love you dad!

11/20/17...What a blessing it is to have the power to act in God's name for the blessing of His children.

Wow y'all looked like you had so much fun in Nicaragua and Costa Rica! That must have been such a good experience. It was probably fun to practice your spanish too. We teach an English class on Thursday nights and we have some people come, one actually came to church this week with the sisters, but it's fun to work on my spanish. I've lost a lot of stuff since high school. Also that I didn't try very hard to keep much of my spanish. I wish I did though. 

We had a busy week! This Saturday we had a super solid lesson with the Nigerian family and her husband was finally in the lesson. He was in the hospital 2 times last week and it was pretty serious it seemed like. He is going to get a big surgery soon. But we went over and we asked if we could give him a blessing. Just as we were about to start his uncle came in and we got to share with him what a priesthood blessing is and by what authority it was done by. What a blessing it is to have the power to act in God's name for the blessing of His children. Great way to talk about the Restoration. So we have him a blessing and the Spirit was just so strong we say down and started talking to him about his relationship with God. Then we asked him a question, don't remember what but he then shared that he noticed the light this his family has now that they are meeting with us and coming to church. He also said I chose this church for my family and you know I chose this church because my family is there on Sunday, they would not be there if I didn't chose it. That lesson was probably the highlight of the week. 

We are really trying to figure out all the new things and ideas that salt lake has told us to pilot. They gave of us a ton of good ideas and new ways to do things but didn't give a whole lot of specifics on how to utilize them and use our time effectively, so we are really trying to figure the best ways to use our time, they pretty much told us any door knocking is a waste of time, so whenever we knocked on any doors we almost felt guilty because they told us it was ineffective. But this week we really are starting to understand the ways that they want us to use our time. Mostly spending it for our investigators and members homes. We will go into members homes for about 30 minutes and then use the new planning guidelines that we got to say who do you know that would benefit from the Gospel, then make goals and plans to help them progress in some way, the goal could be super simple too. Then in 2 weeks reevaluate that goal and make more plans. The new planning guidelines are really good, they are a little tough to follow when you have a whole day to plan for sometimes but they are great in helping people progress in their faith. It would be super good for you mom, in your new calling it could be really good. It just sparks a lot of ideas by asking questions about what they need and how to help. I'll send them to you. 

This Sunday we had an investigator at church and one of his friends from Connecticut walk in and they got to talk and meet again it was super fun, they took us to breakfast this morning and it was really fun, they brought their son and we had a good time. I told him he should take Sarah on a date and he said he would. Ya never know haha. 

Saturday was a super busy day. I'll go through the schedule for ya mom! So we woke up at 5:30 went and played some basketball against the assistants and some other elders. 4v4. Then came back did some panning but our day was pretty booked. Studied for and hour and 15 min. I studied from the Book of Mormon, New Testament and Preach My Gospel. Then went to coordination which was great, our ward mission leader helps us out a ton. We went to get our weekly pho with Star and Jason after that. I live for the weekly pho now haha I love that stuff --I'd never had it before Jason invited us! Then we drove down to a baptism in rock hill, from a lady Elder Ward found in his last area. She called the church and he answered. It was really great. 

I love missionary work. I've just seen so much how easy it is to share the gospel, I really want to take these things I'm learning and use them the rest of my life. Elder Ward and I came up with a ton of fun ideas to share the gospel, but unfortunately many of the ideas are not dignified for a missionary so we said we'll do them so when we get back. One was a lantern festival to kick off light the world. The other was kind of a modern Santa in the city photo booth promoting light the world. And some other fun ideas. After that we went and got some dinner with a member to a pretty good restaurant which is always fun. Then went and saw some people in the area and had a lesson with Maureen after that! Then it was a night. That's a solid day, also got a lot of people contact info so we can hopefully start teaching some more of them this next week! Overall awesome week! 

Qs

—Will you email the Coach Waddoups and ask what all needs to be done ahead of time—application etc. I want to make sure you are dialed in. I talked to Debi about Connor going to Salt Lake Community with you or to LDS Business College. She thought it was a great idea.
I'd love that! We gotta make that happen, it'd be so fun to room with him. 

—how are the workouts going? You looked great in the video!
They're still goin!
—do you need more protein or anything from Amazon Pantry?
Ya you could send some, I just don't have a ton of faith in them right now, ie, I didn't gain a pound from the other 15lb bag lol. But why not try. 
—what are your plans for Thanksgiving?
Got a good lunch set up and good dinner with a guy that loves to cook so it'll be super fun! Hopefully we can talk to some families at home without bugging them. 
(I think we are heading back down to Utah on Wed to be with Gma and Gpa at Becky’s. Then we will go to the cabin in Heber later with my fam....you know—the same old, same old)

Not really wanting to do Black Friday shopping...but Sarah is working that night at JCrew so maybe we will have to go haggle her!

—are there any families in your ward or that you are teaching that we can help with Christmas?? I could get presents and send them to you...and you and Elder Ward could doorbell ditch or be Santa...
Not that I can think of. I'll let you know next week if we find out! 
—what are your favorite things to make for yourself to eat?
Chicken and rice mostly. I don't know how to make many delicacies lol, maybe send me some easy recipes....that would actually be awesome!
—what is your typical daily schedule?

Check above! 

Love you so much mom! Don't stress too much about your calling or how other people might compare you. Comparing is the worst thing that we can do it just doesn't help thinking about any of that stuff, I did that a lot to myself at the beginning of my mission, comparing myself to other missionaries who I thought were "better" than me. Just focus on the Savior, think about how you can be a Christlike leader and that'll be best! 

Love you! 

11/13/17...We saw some big miracles this week and are also trying to use social media more

Can't believe y'all are in Nicaragua right now! That's got to be so fun! We will need to do that when I get back for sure! That's such a neat opportunity. I can't believe that y'all are doing that-- it's doing so much good.  I have been thinking about service more and about how much Heavenly Father wants us to serve others. There's a man in our ward who always is helping and always volunteering when someone needs to move or other things.  And I asked him "how did you make serving a priority, most people look for any little thing to get out of service" and he thinks for a minute and says, "Hand me that pamphlet right there." And I give him he pamphlet and I look at it and it has the Savior on the front holding a lamb and he says, "No matter what I do and no matter how much I try, I will never be able to pay him back."  And then he bore his testimony of the Savior.  It was the highlight of my week listening to him tell us how he is able to make service a priority because of Jesus. 

A lot happened this week though. We had a lot of fun and saw some big miracles too!  We have been really trying to think outside the box and find new ways to spread the Gospel. We are also trying to use social media more, so we decided to make a few videos that we can almost mass send out to people in the Pineville area. We sent out a ton and we only got a few responses but a lady messaged us and said she used to be a member, and we set up a church tour with her that we're doing tonight.  We also made a video for the #LightTheWorld initiative that we are going to send out before the calendar starts. They showed us the video for it and it is so good.  Y'all are going to love it.  Y'all should try and do all of the services ideas for the month too! 

Let's see...what else happened this week? 

Oh ya.... so one day we got a call from one of the members that said, "hey there's a lady I home teach who has a 9 year old son that wants us to teach him and he wants to get baptized."  So we taught him a couple times this week and it was pretty funny.  Elder Ward and I taught him the restoration compared it to Pokemon!  It was super fun.  He now knows that the Christs church with the full pokedex was lost but he brought it back in our day haha.  That was really fun teaching them.  We also started a Book of Mormon class this week.  It was alright, we didn't have a huge turn out but it was a good lesson.  We also had our English class again, we had some people come again which was really good.  The sisters are starting to teach one of them now too. 

We went up to Uptown today and it was super fun!  We walked around the Bank of America stadium.  The Panthers are playing the Dolphins tonight, so there was a bunch of people over there.  We walked by the baseball stadium up there,  AAA team. Then just hung out at a park for a bit. Elder Berryhill and Elder Christensen were with us.  I'll send some pictures!

 

Last night we got a call from that same member and he told us that he has someone he wants us to teach.  It was a member that has some family members that wanted to have us teach them. We were super excited and we went over there and he wasn't too excited to see us actually, nice guy but didn't really want us to teach him. 

Hope y'all have a ton of fun in Nicaragua! 

I want to go to that place with you when I get back! 

I am so grateful you and dad set such a good example of service to me as a kid. It has definitely influenced me!

Love you mom! 

Qs

Quote of the week?

"Every seed bringeth forth unto it's own likeness"

Hows Elder Ward?

He's super fun, really chill guy. He like a lot for the same things I do. He's from San Diego, went to BYU for a year before. 

When do you transition to the smartphones?

We have them right now! They're way better than the old bricks.

11/6/17...We are changing a lot of how we plan and how we teach right now

My birthday was super fun. Brother Nick from Salisbury came and took us for lunch to a diner. It was a lot of fun. After that we came back and did our planning for the week. We are changing a lot of how we plan and how we teach right now so we are kind of adjusting to it and figuring it out. After that star took us out to dinner to bonefish grill! Had to go there it's a family special of course got some bang bang shrimp. I should have got the tacos but I got sword fish and it was not too good. But I didn't let it ruin the vibe. We had a lot of fun, they gave me free desert and star got me some ties. After that we went to our English class and we had 4 people show up. Honestly really fun teaching those classes, not much has come from it st but I think if people start coming more consistently then we will see more people want to investigate the church. We are also starting a Book of Mormon class on Tuesdays, in hoping we can get a good turn out, I don't know how much it's going to turn out so far because we aren't in charge of it but it could be really good. We're using Facebook a lot more now with members and using group chat with them, and putting people that are investigating the church into. 

Monday and Tuesday were really hectic. We went to MLC Tuesday and it took all day. Monday night we ate dinner and realized none of the elders going the next day to MLC had a car.....so we had to pick them all up that night. We called the assistants and they said they'd drop off all the mission van....this is a 12 seater! So we took off around 9 to go pick up all of these hooligans. We drove to Newport to pick one up then headed over about 20 more minutes to catawba....then over to fort mill to pick up some other elders, it was about 11:30 when we got back and rounded everyone up. It was a long night, I had fun driving the massive van though. Then we had to get up early to drove to Mlc which was just in uptown. It was really good, there were some good trainings on leadership and being a Christ like leader. We also talked about really focusing on helping others progress in the doctrine of Christ and how we can do that better. It was a solid meeting. After that we went and got some sushi. And let me tell ya it was some bomb sushi! One had mango on it and another had lemon slice with salmon, oh it was amazing. After that we get driving home and there's some heavy traffic in Charlotte at 5pm. We're bumper to bumper for a while and then this boy rear ended us. It was under 10mph probably but it was some damage to the trunk. So that took about an hour, then we get back and the other elders both sets tell us there rides cancelled on them......and we can't put 6 people in our car so we had to drop each one off separately. It took forever!! We didn't even have time to go out at all, we got back in at like 10 from driving for HOURS. It was ridiculous! But still fun, elder ward and I had a good time. 

We had some miracles this week too! We had a couple meetings on Friday but as we were leaving we saw a guy sitting on a bench by the church so we went and talked to him. Come to find out he was from Jamaica so I gotta try out the little patwa I know....... wagwon! 

So I got the packages a little scattered, I got the lulus Wednesday and Thursday and then the Amazon pantry came on Thursday. Same with the treats box! They were all so nice! Thank you for everything mom! Also thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Morgan for the cards and the cash they sent. Thank you to Grandma Carol for the cookies I loved them! And everyone who sent me an email or reached out, it was really nice! 

Sunday was a super fun day too, church was really good, there was a girl who said she'd bear her testimony if I did so we went up and she bore such a sweet testimony of how the Gospel has blessed her in school. It was so good. Then we went and had another lesson with the Jamaican guy which went really good. Then we taught star about the temple, she just went and did baptisms this week and she loved it. Then we went to dinner at bishops house which is always fun. After that we went to a fireside with our mission President. So star and Jason took us and I got asked to conduct it and I told messed up and President had to come correct it all hahaha it was pretty funny/embarrassing. 

Anyway that was about the jist of the week. 

I'll send some pictures of golfing today. It was a lot of fun Brother Sears is the man. I hit the ball pretty good but my short game was wayyyyyy bad, I drove the the ball like 320 a few times. 

Love y'all so much thanks for the birthday wishes! 

Love you mom! 

-Elder Morgan 

Hey B!

Hope you had a great week and a great birthday. 

Did you get a bunch of the packages I sent?  

The care package with cookies, muddy buddies and peanut butter bars...Southridge watch etc??

The lululemon pants?? Do they fit?

The garments?

The amazon Pantry? Did you like everything?

Hope it was a good day. 

B...I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.   I will always be your biggest fan. 

Love, Mom

PS. Please tell us how your birthday went,    who reached out to you from here, and what you did out there. 

❤️

I appreciate your letters so much. I love reading them honestly, they are so nice. You mean the world to me and I love you so much. 

I am just so bad at writing emails. I feel terrible that I haven't been good at writing you personally. I seriously loved everything you got me for my birthday too! Those pants are the best! Literally they've changed my life. I can testify haha. 

...I love you so much mom please always remember that even when I am bad at writing, you are my favorite person  in the whole world. I hope you know I love you so much and brag about you when I get the chance to other people here. 

You are the best! 

Hey send me a good picture of you and dad together, send a few, maybe of y'all doing something fun.