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

6/25/18... Cameron's Baptism and President and Sister Alexander's Last Week

Had a pretty good week this week. We even had a surprise baptism which is always great. Well sort of surprise, Cameron was going to be gone for a while last week and so we thought we'd have to push it back but they still wanted to do it this week so we were able to find ways to teach him and get his interview scheduled. We had some fun lessons with him though I took some pictures of them. The baptism was good President came and he confirmed Cameron right after the baptism. It was probably the last baptism President and Sister Alexander will go to here. They go home this Friday morning. 

It will be really weird getting the new president this week. We don't know a whole lot about him, except he's from Germany.  He has a big personality (whatever that means) lol, and he owned some sort of clothing business in Germany, also he was an area authority in Europe before this so that's pretty cool. I'm excited to meet him, see how things change and what not, learn from a new President for a month. I'm really going to miss President and Sister Alexander though. We had our last zone conference this week with them and it was awesome. Sister Alexander gave a great training. They both talked a lot about careers and marriage sort of. Sister Alexander talked about being a good parent and preparing for that. It was really good, it got all of the missionaries thinking about home though haha. President talked about how to choose a career and really how to be successful. He talked about a pyramid with personal assets, market availability, and passion or interests. It was really good I took a ton of notes because I needed that training a lot! It was really good he encouraged everyone to go to school really hard. But we did talk about missionary work and both President and Sister Alexander bore really powerful testimonies which was awesome. Then we sang the mission song with them for the last time and it was just a tear festival pretty much. 

Went on exchanges this week with Elder Magnusson.  He is a Spanish elder here. We stayed in Reedy Creek with Elder Anderson. We had some apt. in the afternoon then we had dinner at Patriarch Siggs. Kind of interesting Elder Magnusson sang a song while we were eating dinner. Then Patriarch Sigg came out teaching with us, it was such an interesting lesson! We go into see a lady who ordered a bible and she told us all about how these spirits were kind of tormenting her and she actually was really concerned about them and so we got talking and ended up blessing her home. Then she told us about a nail in her kitchen floor that was sticking out so Patriarch Sigg drives home, the 3 of us stay and teach her about the restoration. He get back...knocks on the door right during the first vision of course and screws this thing south of the ground... It was a screw not a nail actually. She was really interested in the Gospel and having us teach more to them. So she said she'd like to come to church and have us come back and teach more! So we cast out a spirit and got a return appointment, she wasn't able to come to church but we are teaching her again tomorrow. 

Overall really good week and this week should be awesome too with the new president coming in! Just got done playing some catch today, that was really fun. 

LOVE  Y'ALL 

LOVE YA MAMMA HAPPY B DAY!

Elder Morgan 

6/18/18... Last interview with President Alexander

Hola hermanos y hermanas! 

Yup so this week we had our last interviews with President and Sister Alexander! They're so great. I'm so glad I had been able to learn from them and serve with them. President asked about baseball and school and stuff and we talked about maybe if I could get a departing interview from him because I won't know the new mission President much. He really just wants me to enjoy the time I have left. I get caught up in the stress sometimes and just need to enjoy it. Sister Alexander is the best too I asked them last time if we could do a reunion on their house boat on Lake Powell haha! 

This week we had a lot of appointments fall through but we also had a lot of opportunities to teach that were unexpected. The relief society President gave us a list of unknown people and we've been trying to knock some of those out. With that a lot of people have moved or weren't home so we tried talking to their neighbors and were able to meet some new people to teach this week. There is this one neighborhood with a ton of refugees & a lot of them do not like us but some of them are really nice and we met a family from the Congo who we started teaching. They're really nice and their understanding of English is pretty good. The mom Jeanette came to church this Sunday and brought her little newborn baby. We're hoping to get to teach the whole family soon she has a few little baby kids that are super cute. This is the same neighborhood where we were in little Thailand! We also come across a lot of drunk people in there. And when we first got here elder hull did not want to go their because he almost got robbed their I think and we pulled up the first time and the first thing a guy says to me is "hey you got a couple bucks I can have" I was like, this is not happening haha. I think Jeanette liked church though so that's exciting. 

Cameron was working to get baptized next week and I guess he'll be out of town all week to be with his dad which is understandable, it's fathers day so we're going to move that back a few weeks. We had such an awesome lesson with him on Monday we taught him the plan of salvation on a white board and he loved it and understood it super good. It was awesome he was making all these connections and seemed to understand the importance of living the gospel in this life to be able to go back to heavenly father. 

We went on exchanges with University City elders. I was with Elder Rives and Elder Anderson here in Reedy Creek. It was super fun. I love Elder Rives. He's a super good guy. I think he's going to UVU too so I'll get to hang out with him when we're home too. 

We just went to a trampoline park and it was like the worst experience ever lol. I could jump on those things for hours back home, but here I did a few flips and felt like I was going to throw up the whole time haha. It was so sad! Fun, but I wish I didn't get so dizzy. 

Sandra is doing good, not much new on her this week but she is still awesome and we love her! I started something called My Plan today, it's something that helps you set goals for your return home and stuff so you can keep growing and progress. So I'm excited to do that I think it will be really good. It talked about always retaining a remembrance of the things you've learned. I thought it was great ...I've been thinking about it for a bit, how important it is to just remember the times where we had spiritual experiences and remember the Savior everyday. And then that really shows the importance of the sacrament. I've really gained a love for taking the sacrament weekly!

Love y'all 

Love you momma! Happy Father's Day Daddio love you too

Elder Morgan 

6/11/18... It was about 90 all week and super humid, so we were definitely blessed to have a car.

 

This week went by super fast again and I can say it was better than last week! We had a lot to do this week because we got a car and we could reach a lot more people. I'm having a hard time remember what even happened so I hope this email isn't boring! It was about 90 all week and super humid, so we were definitely blessed to have a car. Friday and Saturday were pretty interesting-- Friday we normally go help these people at the Mint Hill Historical Society which was a lot of fun actually.  We cut down some massive trees and I learned I could totally cut down trees for the rest of my life and totally be fine! 

Saturday night, though, we were trying to find some of our investigators we hadn't got in contact with and we hadn't really got anyone to commit to coming to church with us. I was really praying for a miracle and I felt like I just needed to be calm and have faith that the Lord would provide someone for us to teach. We tried a family earlier but they weren't home and that night we thought we should go back and see them. We pulled up and she let us right in. She was the one who had to cancel last minute for church last week. But she said her and her kids were totally down for church tomorrow and they asked for us to get them a ride. We got a ride for them and like 5 minutes in they showed up and we were so relieved.  The drought was over!! Also the kid I think I wrote about him but we stated teaching a 9 yr old who President called us about and he came to church. We are teaching him tonight again and hopefully we can put together a fun plan of salvation lesson and get him involved. Teaching kids is fun but it's a lot harder to get creative and keep them really involved! 

I went on exchanges with Elder Buss in Albemarle. Elder Buss is really funny he's from Utah and really smart guy. We taught a few lessons, one we taught a family about the commandments and he brought a string of lights and taught how the commandments light a path for us to our Heavenly Father and help us become like Him as we live them. It was fun.  I always like teaching kids because it makes you become a better teacher. One of my favorite talks in conference was about teaching kids in the home, by Elder Durant. If you haven't studied it is definitely recommend it! 

Fixing flats isn't too hard, I'm actually not that good at it though --a bunch of my patches have failed haha. 

How is Sandra?  Send some pics of her!  

She said she'd be at church but didn't end up coming. We are teaching her tonight. She is doing great just needs to come to church when she is off work. 

Did you ever get the package I sent with the Sonicare for Elder Anderson and all the treats??

Ya I got it and Elder Anderson was super stoked about it! Thank you so much. 

Do you need anything?

I'm doing pretty good right now. Not anything I can think of

Are you sore or hurt from when you fell off your bike?  

No it wasn't bad just slid in the grass.  

Is the car fixed?

It'll be fixed half way through this week I think but we are borrowing a car until then. 

How's the trio going?

It's pretty good.  We are getting used to it more. I'm hoping we don't get sick of it because we'll probably be together until I go home lol. Just trying to get everyone to participate the same is probably the hardest part. 

When are transfers?  

June 27th

Have you talked to or had correspondence with your coach?

Ya he emailed us this week and actually wrote a super inspiring letter encouraging us to finish strong and really gain a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and make a plan to stay strong when we go home. 

Have you emailed Tim to congratulate him? and to ask him to help you get in baseball shape?

Ya I sent him an email last week.  He said he would help me get back into shape and stuff before I go, he said he would probably get me throwing off a mound before I go too so that's awesome. 

Anyways ya pretty good week thanks for all the prayers this week I could feel them. Something I've been praying more for is the ministering of angels and trying to utilize that more in our missionary work. 

Love y'all 

Love you mom!

Elder Morgan 

6/4/18... Toughest Week Yet...

This week was a long week! I thought last week was a tough one but somehow this one topped it. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong pretty much, not totally... there were some good things that happened still though. 

We went on exchanges on Tuesday and that was actually a lot of fun. I went with Elder Miller into their area. We biked in the afternoon and it was pretty fun.  We went and taught a couple who is from Walla Walla, so that was fun talking with them a little bit. Then we picked up the van and taught a couple people that night, a man who was arguing about being saved and stuff when we were saying the same things. Then the next morning we had a lesson and we taught these people who had breakfast for us and everything which was a score. 

Our car is in the shop right now, and they told us it'd probably be in the shop for another couple weeks because there was more damage.  The previous elders got in a wreck before we got here. So, we had a bike week. I got a few flat tires and Elder Hull got a few flat tires and that was just the start of our bike problems. We were biking somewhere on Friday and I was going pretty fast and jumped a little median thing then wrecked into a curb and rolled into the grass. I was fine. It was a stupid crash, but I got up and rode like 2 miles and my chain locked up the back tire. We tried to fix it and the derailed had pretty much snapped off and bent the gears. Luckily this guy named Bob, who might be the most interesting man in the world, hooked us up with a ride home. He is like 83 and he biked a 560 mile trip. So, I took my bike into the mission office and swapped it for another missionary's bike. 

I'll run you through what happened Saturday though. We helped someone move in the morning-- all went good with that. Then we biked a few miles to an appointment.  That fell through and I got a flat tire on my way there. But while there, we found a guy who invited us back to come teach him and his family though...more on him later in the story. We got picked up from the Spanish elders, they helped us fix the flat and get all the stuff we needed to patch it. Got it fixed. Biked a good ways to an appointment, that fell through. Then we bike back to the guy we met and he was super drunk and just went off on a rant to us. Then we biked more and another appointment fell through. It makes it so much more frustrating when you're biking and an appointment falls through too. 

So that didn't work out it was about 7:30 by now and we start biking to see some people and a bunch of parts just fell out of Elder Hull's back tire. His axle broke in half and just fell out. So his bike was all jacked up at that point. We walked a few miles to a gas station and a bishop from another ward pulled up and asked to help us.  He got us some Gatorade and made sure we had a ride and stuff. Then we got a ride and got back home around 9 and it was just a long day. 

Before this the 2 days earlier we got caught in some gnarly rain storms. But we did have a pretty sweet miracle happen...2 so I can't say all of it was for nothing. The Lord was definitely blessing us for trying even though it just kept going wrong. We biked a good bit to an appointment and she was really happy.  It was Sandra and she set a baptismal date for herself that night. For the end of July, so that was awesome even though it's a bit away. Then earlier that week while we were on exchanges we got a call from President and he told us that he has a family in the ward that wants to get baptized.  It's a part member family. So tonight we have an appointment with them and we are really excited about that.  It was definitely a miracle to have these things happen and it made all the hard times of the week worth it I think. You know in missionary work when you face an odd amount of opposition, something good is about to happen, so I guess I'm excited for the good to start happening. Sunday we were super siked we were going to have a few people at church that had never came and we had rides for them and then that morning they fell through so that was a big bummer, but it's going to be alright. 

So ya overall it was a crazy week and a lot happened. But it's the Lord's work, so it'll all work out. That's the great thing about it. 

Love y'all 

Love you mom!

Elder Morgan