7/28/18... WELCOME HOME ELDER MORGAN!!!!!

 

7/23/18... LAST WEEK... and it was the CraZieSt week of my whole mission!

Wow ya this week has been crazy and I have a ton of details to write about! I'll just go through the week because it's one big long story, pretty much.  

So Monday we had a pretty normal P-day. President Adler told us not to get together with other missionaries on Pday, so they're pretty normal now. (Except when you're in a trio, it's still a party.) We also got a call... I can't remember if it was Tuesday or Monday... but Elder Fife who is going home with me, is going to come to our companionship for the last week....yes, 4 elders in 1 companionship. President Adler literally said the 2 elders can just party until they go home. So we were so confused of how we were going to do things with 4.... But this situation worked itself out which you'll find out about in a second... 

Tuesday was a weird day-- something just felt a little off for a little bit. It was probably one of the longest days of my mission for some reason. We had a good lesson with the guy from Nepal who we met the week before. We brought him a Book of Mormon in Nepali.  Turns out he can't read Nepali, so we showed him how to listen to it in Nepali or English on lds.org. He is a good humble guy but we referred him to the YSA sisters this week. A few lessons fell through that night and we got back and we were messin around a little bit and Elder Talgo and Anderson started wrestling... Both of them are pretty stubborn and wouldn't give up, so it went on for a minute and somehow they went to the ground.  Elder Anderson's leg got caught in Elder Talgo's and they hit the table & the ground and there was a loud pop on the way down.  Elder Anderson was definitely hurt. He couldn't move his leg because it hurt so bad. I knew we had to get to the hospital so I tried to figure out how to carry him, but he would let us move him, so we called the ambulance. They showed up and assessed what was going on and they quickly realized he snapped his tibia and most likely his fibula. They gave him some drugs to get the pain down and as they were putting him in a splint Elder Anderson was just screaming. I felt so bad. So they took him to the hospital.  We talked to President Adler and they met us there too. 

Fast forward-- I slept at the mission president's home while Elder Talgo stayed in the hospital with Elder Anderson. We got there and finally went to bed around 4am.  He let me sleep until 7:30. I got ready and picked up Elder Fife & went to the hospital. It was so crazy. They planned to do surgery on his leg. He broke his tibia and 2 breaks in his fibula. They stuck a rod down his tibia through his knee. He is going to be able to stay on his mission.  They just gave him crutches and he can walk as much as the pain allows. That night after surgery I slept in the hospital with Elder Anderson. Nurses kept coming in so it was a long night, but kind of fun to sleep somewhere weird like that for a night. 

Then the next day Elder Anderson got out at about noon which is a lot earlier than we thought was going to happen. So we went back, and got things situated for him.  Since then we have just rotated staying with Elder Anderson and the other 2 will go out and work. He is doing better and is up and around more now but he has just been laying down a lot and trying to get better. So it was a good thing Elder Fife came because now we can actually go out and be productive so that is good. 

 

 On the other side of things though... Sandra got baptized this Saturday and she is doing really well. We were able to set it up so that members were reading with her over the phone this week so it just help her keep progressing. The baptism went well.  It took 3 tries but it happened! It was a short little service and she was really nervous for it. Then she got confirmed yesterday which went super good too! It was pretty neat to get to see her be baptized before I go home.  She is an amazing person. 

We also got referral this week named Clifford.  We talked to him over the phone and on Thursday after Elder Anderson got back, Elder Talgo and Fife went to go have a lesson with him. Turns out he had been praying to know which church he should join and he got an answer that he needs to join this church! So he asked if he could be baptized and he set a date. It was such a miracle. He knows a lot about the church already too.  He had met with missionaries and had gone to church before. We taught him again yesterday and I got to go meet him and he's a great guy that is excited to learn more about the gospel. So that was an incredible miracle. 

Unfortunatly a couple of our people we are teaching were a little MIA this week and we even set up a ride for one and they didn't answer the door, 2 weeks in a row... That's just a little embarrassing kind of when that happens, so we are going to back off a little bit and see if they reach out to us or anything. 

Friday I got to eat dinner with Jason Thomas from Pineville.  He is doing so good and that was a lot of fun getting to see him. He should be going to the temple in October sometime and I told him I'd love to get to come back for it and see him if I can. And then the Sheppards, who you asked about, mom, is a family from Pineville who are some of my favorite people. They took us out for lunch Saturday before Sandra's baptism. Brother Nick came from Salisbury and took us to lunch on Friday too which was fun seeing him again. 

Q)  What do you want to eat for your first meal back?  What are you craving???

COSTA VIDA NO DOUBT!! I'VE BEEN CRAVING IT FOR 2 YEARS!

Q) Is there anyone specific you would like me to personally invite to your homecoming?

Not anyone specifically but I want all my friends to come. I'll invite some over email today too, I just made the event and I'll send it out right now.

Q)  Do you have another exit interview with him?  or was that it?

Ya I'll have an exit interview with him the 26th at the Mission President's home I think. It will be good.

Q)  What is your schedule for this week?

Tuesday and Wednesday will be normal we will try and crunch in as much work as we can, then Thursday is Zone Conference so I'll give my departing testimony and drive home with President and Sister Adler after that with Elder Fife. 

Also... one more Q...  What ever happened with Elder Hutchens's sister? (I think, Tonja in Salisbury?)

I was just thinking about this the other night. We were teaching her and had a few lessons with her in Salisbury. She was reading and came to a Book of Mormon class at the church, she got along with some of the members and things were going super good. She worked on Sundays and we were having a hard time reaching her and at that point I got transferred. And I asked the elders there about her a few times after that but cant remember what ended up happening. I'll give them a call again about it this week. 

Love y'all, 

Love you momma see you soon! 

.......and they anxiously await his return 

 

Can I send you pizza tonight? 

What are some of his favorites and I’ll send him a quick Amazon box...

He is in bed most of the time right now. 

He doesn't eat much sugar. He doesn't like Mexican very much. That would be really nice of you to send a box we don't have much food at the apartment. Thanks love you 

Okay. I sent Elder Anderson (and Elder Talgo) an Amazon Pantry Get Well Soon box.  

For some reason it looks like it is being shipped in like 4 or 5 boxes???  Some will be there Thursday and the rest will be there by Friday. 

Please give him our best and tell him we are praying for him and a speedy recovery. 

And to Elder Anderson AND Elder Talgo—THANK YOU FOR PUTTING UP WITH ELDER MORGAN!!😂😂😂 

  

And to you and Elder Fife—

Sprint. 

Leave it all out there. I love you. 

7/16/18... We have been having a ton of fun in the trio still with Elder Talgo and Elder Anderson

 

Hey everyone!

A lot happened this week so I'm going to try and just give y'all the best parts and remember some details. We have been having a ton of fun in the trio still, Elder Talgo and Elder Anderson are so funny, so we have a good time together. I'm really glad I get to finish with both of them and glad Elder Anderson and I haven't wanted to kill each other since we've been together the last 4 months. 

 

Earlier this week we had met a guy who was just sitting outside on a chair and talked to him a little about the Book of Mormon and what it was. He didn't speak very good English but he told us he was from Chuukee which is never heard of before. So we told him we'd get him a Book of Mormon in that language, not knowing if we'd even be able to find one. And we got one and we brought it back to them the next night and had a lesson with him and his son. They were so grateful the we would take the time to bring them this that could help them come closer to Jesus Christ and bring them peace. This other guy we met in the same complex later this week we stopped and talked to and he said he was from Nepal. He told us how he needed peace in his life. We told him a little about what we do and how we help people gain more peace and purpose in life and set another appt with him for the next day. We went to go teach him and he had been waiting for us...which is kind of rare sadly lol.  And again he mentioned he needed peace and comfort in his life, and while he was talking, I felt so much love for him and I was just so excited because I knew the gospel is exactly what will help him in his life. I just wanted to give it all to him and help him. These are the things I will miss so much about being a full time missionary and having little experiences like this all the time. I know with all my heart that the gospel is the answer to our trials and hard times in this life that the Savior will lead us if we just turn to him and humble ourselves, he will do so much more with our lives than we could ever imagine. 

Another miracle that happened this week, we were walking out of a lesson with Jeanette I think back to our can and a guy pulled over in his car and got talking to us a little bit. He said he wanted to know who we were and he wanted us to come teach him something. So we got his info and set an appointment with him. We went by for our appointment and we realized the apartments were numbers and we had a letter...we were like great he scammed us haha. But we walked around for a minute looking for something and he walked out with his dog right then and asked us what we were doing....we told him we were looking for him but had the wrong address and he said he'd been waiting for us. He invited us in and we had a pretty good lesson with him. He too just expressed how much chaos was in his life and he needed some peace. It was a miracle we were able to find him again though. 

Something funny that happened..... So one night I think It was Monday we were walking to an appointment I think and we saw this guy laying in his van with the seat laid back and he was sleeping...and his window was rolled down. We told Elder Anderson we'd each give him a dollar if he walked up to him tossed a pine cone at him through the window and gave him a pass along card.....He did it! He walked right up, hit this guy with a pine cone and gave him a pass along card. It was so funny, the guy was probably super confused what was happening. We've really been trying to talk to everyone lol. 

We had a really good lesson with Jill this week, idk If I've mentioned her before but she's a referral from a member here. And we had a really good lesson with her on the restoration and a little about the Book of Mormon. It was really solid and she even asked us about baptism at the end of the lesson on her own. So we talked to her a little about it, didn't feel like we needed to set a date yet but we probably will do that this week hopefully. It has been a huge blessing though getting to teach so many great people lately. Sandra is still doing well we are a little nervous for this week with her baptism coming up because both of out lessons this week fell through but I think she'll make it, she is really great. We are going to teach her tonight so that'll be good. Quenisha is doing really great... well as far as we know. She was supposed to come to church with her 5 kids yesterday but we haven't been able to contact them recently. So hopefully things go well this week and we get to teach her more. All of our people we are teaching are so great though and it's a blessing to get to work with them. 

Q's 

Did you get the SD card for your tablet?
Why do they wipe it clean??
Hey yes I got them! I had already bought a drive for it that I put everything on just before you sent me the email about it, so I probably won't open them. They have to get the software off that they installed at the beginning so they factory reset it. 

Is there anything else you need? Another duffel bag?
No I'm all good I think I might try and ship a box home just to get rid of a few things so I can be under the 50lb mark.

Is there anything we can do to help anyone out there?
No it's under control down here 
Have you gotten any type of practice schedule for August? We really want to have a short MORGAN FAMILY REUNION with just us somewhere and are trying to coordinate everyone’s schedules. It’s been a bit tricky!!!

I sent you the emails that he sent me that have some info on them. Not sure calendar-wise yet and days off though. 

Love y'all!

Love you mom!

Elder Morgan 

    

7/9/2018...My last MLC and President Adler's first MLC...

Good mornin everyone! 

Another week has flown by! 

We had a really good week for the most part. It was super busy so you know when that happened so can never remember what we did so I will try my best to make this an interesting email, maybe I'll just make up a few stories for you. 

Tuesday we got mauled by a bear and Elder Anderson went to the hospital, so we were actually... 

Now I remember Tuesday was MLC. I was super excited for it, I knew it was going to be my last and President Adler first so I was excited to see how he'd run things and what we'd talk about. It was a lot of counseling which was really good. He came up with a concern or something we need to improve and he had each of us share a possible solution to the problem and then we narrowed it down to 5 action items. It was really good.  I think he is big on helping us become better leaders and being good decision makers. He said theirs 2 principles to good leadership, 1. decision making, and 2. love. He also made some changes in things he wants and doesn't want us to do anymore, not big changes but I think it will all be really good and inspired. He is really straight forward, and wants to get things done. But he also super loving and is really funny too so I think he'll be a really good mission President. I think I will be staying in the mission home with him and Sister Adler and Elder Fife when I go home ,so hopefully that will be a good time.  I think President and Sister Alexander did some dating role plays before they went home haha. 

We had a short lesson with Quenisha that night and the relief society had brought her a meal that day which was so awesome of them to do. Then set up a church tour with Alesia that night which ended up talking through twice!

The Fourth! Woke up and read a talk by President Benson about the Constitution and it was really good. The Lord had a big role in foundation of this country. We had 2 dinners that night, the Cielos invited us over for their little block party and that was a lot of fun, we got to know a lot of people in their neighborhood and she made some incredible enchiladas. Then we went over to the Laxtons,he is our ward mission leader and we had burgers over their and baked beans. Then President Adler told us at our meeting to get out in the community and go to some events and things like that so we tried to find some places we could go out in the community. We found a huge event in uptown, but by the time we got out of traffic and could've watched fireworks it was way too late to stay.  So we didn't get to watch any fireworks that night unfortunately, but we did hear them all night...haha.  And they're still going off at night all the time. 

We went on exchanges with the Harrisburg Elders and I was with Elder Howsman, he is a great missionary and a good guy. We were able to find a lady who let us in right when she saw us and we were able to share the Book of Mormon with her and bear a short testimony. I'm so grateful for the testimony the Lord has helped me develop out here and the experiences I've had. It's such a blessing to get to share the blessings of the gospel with others. I feel it so much more in my heart when I share it now than at the beginning of my mission. Later I found out they out Quenisha and her daughter on date for baptism for the 18th of August! So I was really excited to hear that and Quenisha couldn't wait to tell me when we went to see them a few days later. 

We also had a really good experience with a lady named Jeanette too.  We have been teaching her for a few weeks and it's a little hard to have good contact with her. There is a bit of a language barrier there and so we brought her a Swahili Book of Mormon last time we came. She hadn't read any so we read the introduction with her. It was incredible to see how happy she was as she was reading in Swahili and reading about the Book of Mormon and what it was. She was so excited that she'd be able to understand when she reads. 

Overall super good week, not really and crazy stories to tell but had some good experiences and things that strengthens my testimony that this is the Lord's work. 

Love y'all 

Love you mom,

Elder Morgan 

 

 

 

7/2/18... We had our Meet and Greet with President and Sister Adler!

Holla madre!!

Wow y all are in Slovakia right now.  That blows my mind!  Lol I still can't believe how many trips y'all have been on since I've been gone, I don't think I could even count them all. Oh well, we'll have some fun ones. We need to go somewhere cool this winter though because I'll have free time haha. Tell Pavol I said hi, that's so cool y'all got to go see his graduation, tell him I said congratulations. 

This week has been wild. Tuesday we went on exchanges and I was with Elder Crouch and Elder Anderson and Elder Hull went Kannapolis. It was a fun exchange Elder Crouch is a great guy. We were able to teach some people I think, i cant really remember back that far right now. But that night Elder Crouch taught me how to solve a rubiks cube! That's right! I can officially come home from my mission successfully now that I've learned that. I'm actually so proud of myself for it haha. Oh wait I remember one lesson we taught, we went with Brother Cielo to the lady who we blessed her home last week. We had a great lesson with her and read the Book of Mormon the Brother Cielo took us to get some food....also a weird thing happened there. The bartender guy was speaking Spanish to brother Cielo and asked who we were and said that we were "sexy" hahaha I wanted to puke.  

But that night we also got calls for transfers.....and the whole zone got switched up pretty much. Elder Hull got transferred to York, SC. Which was really surprising. Elder Anderson and I are staying and we got an Elder named Elder Talgo! He's awesome.  He's a convert of about 4 years and has a 4yr degree from USC already about to go to law school next year. He has been out about 20 months and he's a really great elder.  I'm excited to get to finish my mission with him and Elder Anderson. Wednesday was all over the place thing to get to our lessons and pack and see people to say goodbye. We went to the Cielos last and they made us the best guacamole I've ever had (besides yours mom of course) it was sooooo good, she put jalapeno juice in it too and we had quesadillas with guac and it was amazing. Then Thursday we transferred got Elder Talgo and we had 5 appointments scheduled for that night and all of them fell through! All of them, even a church tour. But Brother Ange came out with us and it was fun getting to know him, we visited some part member families and he took us to get ritas which is soft serve ice cream with Italian Ice, it's pretty good. 

Friday we had our meet and greet with President and Sister Adler! That was a lot of fun. Very interesting though. Their flight got cancelled from Atlanta to Charlotte so they drove 4 hours last night and were exhausted that day. But they're from Germany, they have thick German accents, kind of like an Elder Uchtdorf and Arnold Schwartzenegar combined! It's so awesome haha. You have to really listen to get it all. They're so nice though and are so excited to be here. We had a short 5 minute interview with them and they seem really good. Pretty exciting to be a part of this switch.  He said he's not really going to change anything at least until he gets a good grasp on everything for a while. Then he had his first mission president's fireside this Sunday and we were able to go to that. Sabrina came who is a recent convert and we are actually going to start teaching her sister today which is really exciting, she came to church on Sunday. 

Went on a triple date last night...... lol no of course not, but we had a dinner with a couple in the ward and they told us that 3 non members were going to be at dinner. So we were like, awesome that's a great opportunity. We get there and sit down for a minute and they told us that four 20 yr old girls were staying with them haha. It was kind of funny but it was a good dinner, we ended up giving them copies of the Book of Mormon and reading a little bit out of it. 

Qs
HOW’S THE NEW MISSION PRESIDENT??? 

He is really great, don't know him too well yet but they are very German, 4 kids. 2 boys, 2 girls. He is so nice, wants all his missionaries to be really happy but expects us to work hard so it'll be really good. 

How was your goodbye with President Alexander?? 

It was short the last goodbye was really at zone conference last week and it was actually pretty tough, it was hard because it was like saying goodbye to them and realizing ,y mission will be over so soon and it just hit me that day saying goodbye. 

Did he give you your exit interview? 

No we talked about trying to do one, but he was just so busy before he left.  I didn't want to put something else on him, they both said come visit them when I get to Utah though.

Or will the new one?

The new one will, idk when though
How is Sandra?

She is doing great, still progressing and looking to get baptized the week before so leave so that's really exciting. 

Did you have any investigators at church?

Ya sabrinas sister came and next week we should have quit a bit there!
Have you been doing the exercises Tim sent you?

 Ya they've been really good, it's been fun getting back into the drill work and stuff again. 

Love y'all

Love you mom!

Elder Morgan