5/28/18... Brought to ya courtesy of: The Red White and Blue! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

It's a miracle!!!  President just said we could go to this Knights game for Memorial Day! 

We had another super busy week here in da good ol queen city! This week was exchanges and we survived exchanges, which was pretty expected. It will be super interesting to see what happens this next transfer.  The end of this transfer is June 27th. I think Elder Anderson could stay and just take my place when I leave or he could get transferred and a new elder comes in, either way I think I'll be in a trio until the end of my mission! Crazy haha. 

A lot happened this week and I guess a lot didn't happen...we had a lot of things fall through, we haven't been able to get in contact with May and that family at all.  They've kind of been dodging us, unfortunately. We did kind of have a miracle with that though--A lady had ordered a Book of Mormon online so we went to deliver it to her. She was super interested in learning more, she lives in the same neighborhood as May. We go to knock on May's door one day to see if she is home and I look over and she is waving us over. So we walk down there and she had been telling all her friends about it and we ended up teaching one of her friends right there. Somehow we keep finding all these pregnant women though lol. That lady is about to have a baby so it'll probably hard to teach her regularly. 

Hmm let's see what else.... We taught Sandra a few times this week. She is progressing but not very fast, she didn't come to church yesterday and we don't really know why sooo that was kind of a bummer. 

We got a referral Friday from some other elders at the same place that we almost got shot last Friday and we had an appointment at night with him....He missed that appointment too so we didn't stay in there too long. Also when we drove in there, there was a black Israelite preacher with his speakers preaching and idk If y'all know about the Black Israelites but they hate white people and especially hate white Christian missionaries. I think they think we are the embodiment of Satan or something so we got out of there right quick. 

Our car is in the shop this week so we 're driving the assistants 12 seater van! It's a beast.  haha it's so fun driving that thing around. We drove to Gastonia on Saturday for a baptism of a lady that Elder Hull taught. And I just passed out in the back row on the way home-- it was a tender mercy. 

Reading the Book of Mormon has made me so much more patriotic! For those of you who don't know, the Book of Mormon takes place in ancient America (North and South America) and the Lord promises the people that if they serve the God of the Land who is Jesus Christ that they will be a free nation and won't be taken into captivity but will prosper. Knowing this has made me love America a lot. Ether Chapter 1 talks a lot about it if you want to read it today. I'll always be grateful for those that died for our freedom. #Murica! 

Overall it was a tough week but that's alright we got next week, and this is the Lord's work so it'll all work out!

I got to give a shootout to PJ for just being a stud, killin it in track! Then I got to give a shout out to SHS baseball for hanging some banners! And a shout out to Ellie for being a stud too!

Love y'all

Love you mom!

-Elder Morgan

 

It was so awesome!! Seriously I can't believe how fun that was haha 

5/21/18... Almost Got Caught in a Gunfight!

This week was seriously so crazy! Overall really fun week and we saw some awesome miracles!

Last Monday we went and ate some tacos.  There's a killer Mexican place, it's like the most authentic one in NC I think. Then played some frisbee golf with some other missionaries. It was kind of lame you spend half the time looking for other people's discs, I feel like, until you are really good. But later that night after a great lesson with Sandra we knocked on this lady's door who we had talked to before named Giselle. She said they were having such a hard time building a table right then and so we went in and helped them finish their table. It took a while and I was dripping sweat by the end haha. But after that they told us they wanted to feed us dinner! I think they'll be really open to the message of the restoration so that'll be really fun.  She had to reschedule once but hopefully that'll happen this week soon. 

Sandra is still doing really well! She had a little stumbling block for a minute because she didn't understand what she was reading in the scriptures so she wanted to restart. So she started over and the next time we went by she was so happy. She knew Satan was trying to stop her and this week she read a ton and understood it. It was pretty neat too, we took the family history lady in our ward and she set up an account for her and she found a ton of family members she had no idea about!  It was really great to see how happy Sandra was and get to experience the Spirit of family history. 

Then we went on exchanges Tuesday, that was a lot of fun. I went with Elder McFadden in Kannapolis. We tried to catch the bus but missed it, so we had to hop on our bikes and get going. It was pouring rain before that, but when we got going, it got super hot and I was drenched in sweat in like 5 minutes. But it probably helped because we knocked on a guys door and just asked if we could come in and cool down for a second and ended up teaching him a little bit and he invited us back! Then we biked a lot more, and I had just eaten Jack in the Box so that killed me! We were able to give a lady a blessing at the hospital which was another good experience we had. Then taught a crazy guy in an old folks home. 

When I got back from exchanges they had some appointments that I was excited about.  We had tried to go see a lady in the ward last week. When we knocked on the door the lady said that that woman had moved but that she wanted us to come teach her kids and her. So that was awesome, they went and taught them and they all were super interested in having us come teach them more. They missed their return apt yesterday, but hoping it still works out. Ok for the craziest story of the  all though.....Saturday night. We go to see this lady in the ward that no one really knew. We knock on the door and the guy yells for his grandma across the street. She comes over and she was really nice, really funny lady just was talking our ears off. She was speaking Ebonics so you couldn't understand really most of it. The guys, there are 4 of them, big guys, all super nice, step outside while we were talking. So we are talking to this lady a bit and a car screeches up and 4 dudes get out and they all start yelling at each other. The mom goes out and starts yelling at them all too!! She comes back in and we tell her we need to have a prayer...Elder Anderson prays and in the middle of the prayer they all start going at it again! I couldn't stop laughing, you know when you're trying so hard not to laugh but you just can't stop it. Then... amen. And we get up to go and the guy runs back in and said y'all got to go before they come back! He tells the story to us...man it was hilarious.... "Tony's baby momma's boyfriend pulled up on us! Said Why your boy Tony hiden from meh" We got out of there real quick! Idk If they all made it through the night. So I guess that was a miracle that we lived. 

We met another lady that we are really excited about too.  She is a member but her kids aren't and she told us she really wants to come again and get her kids involved! We are hoping to really start teaching them this week too. 

Ya so that's the deets pretty much! Oh ya we went to Bass Pro Shop today--That was awesome.

Love y'all!

Love you momma!

Hey the videos aren't working! I don't think they'll come through they might be too big or something, ill keep trying though. I don't think you should send them over Facebook, they've asked us not to do that

I wish I could send you a video I took this week. We almost got caught in a gun fight in the ghetto Saturday night! It was so wild! These huge black guys were screaming at each other while we were trying to pray with this lady so we could get out of there! It was honestly the funniest thing ever! Craziest lesson of my mission probably haha. I'll write about it in my big email. 

How are you doing?

Any update on the classes thing? 

5/14/18... Happy Mother's Day!

This week was a complete blur haha  

All I remember is I went to bed every night exhausted and woke up wishing I had more time to sleep!  We had to take the car into the shop this Thursday because the elders who lived here before us rear ended someone before we got here. So Thursday we lucked up and got to pick up the mission 12 passenger van and drove that the rest of the night. 

Then Friday we had our zone conference, which was really good. Had a lot of talks on using family history work to find new people to teach, kind of keeping that in our mind. We talked about how we can strengthen our testimonies of it before we share. My testimony has grown a little bit with it when I am helping people do family history and a few names that they didn't know will pop up and fill in and to watch their faces and how they react is pretty cool to watch. I haven't really had that experience for myself, but I hope to one day. I gave a short talk too on being personable yet dignified. I thought there were two main points that stuck out to me about it--one was to be confident that the Lord has blessed each of us with different talents and abilities to bless the lives of others. And two was to remember that our purpose as missionaries is to help people come to Christ. I think it helps you be yourself knowing you're unique and have been placed In a certain place for a reason. And remember the purpose you are here helps you be dignified. Idk I hope it helped someone at least. 

Saturday was a crazy day! Everything seemed to just go wrong haha. I'll walk ya through the day. I tried to patch a hole in my bike tire before studies...because i was racing the other elders in one night and threw my bike over the rail and tried to go through the back door and my tire popped😤. So the patch ripped and my tire was flat again. The assistants dropped us off with our bikes at our first appointment at 10. No answer. Thought we could walk to a close bike shop....nearest on is 3 miles. Walk to a gas station thinking they'll have one and it didn't work. Tried Family Dollar, nothing. As we were walking out, a guy yelled and told us he has a compressor in his truck! This man is a saint. haha  We were so frustrated at this point. His pump could only get it half full so we biked to our next appointment at 12. Had lunch with them too. Their neighbor had a compressor and it wasn't working...then right before we were about to walk to a different bike shop, he runs out with a hand pump that did the job. FINALLY! Then we mobbed to a few people after that, stopped at the church to crack some cold ones ( a dewsky of course). Then biked to our dinner appointment.  It was the 2nd counselor so we had a good talk with him about the missionary work in the ward. Then we met with bishop that night too.  By this time we smelled like pigs. Had a good discussion with him too. Then we got a ride home from the assistants. It was a long day to say the least! 

Then obviously got to top the week off by talking to the fam yesterday which was super fun! So good to see everyone and get to talk.  It was awesome. This week should be super busy again so I'll try and remember what happens, and take lots of pictures, Mom! 

Just got done playing some disc golf. It was pretty fun, I was super tired so I wasn't too into it. I can chuck the friz pretty good I just don't totally know where it's going lol. We're going to help someone move tonight and then have an appointment with Sandra and a lady named Tonya who hopefully we'll be able to have a good lesson with them tonight! 

Love y'all! 

"Live in the now!"

Love you mom 

Elder Morgan 

5/7/18... Every goal we set this week, each day we actually accomplished...except 1

Hey what's up y'all!

It's been super busy week. We had a long meeting almost all of Tuesday. It was actually a really good meeting though, we felt inspired to focus on setting daily goals. So everyday this week we set goals, either contacting a certain amount of people, finding a new investigator, planning for something. Every goal we set this week each day we actually accomplished...except 1 :(. But it was super inspiring to see that, once you put your mind to something and keep it on your mind for the day you get a lot done. We put a sticky note in our car of what we wanted to focus on. I think I actually want to try and make this a habit and do it when I get home too. It'll be hard to remember but you feel so accomplished when you set a goal and reach it. We also talked about doing church tours with people to help them get familiar with the church building before they come. We actually had a church tour the next day with President and Sister Alexander. Sister Alexander had been sharing the gospel with her hair dresser for a few months and she wanted to come see the church. So we showed her around the church...honestly it felt a little but awkward with President watching our every move, he didn't talk much so it was weird. But she seemed to really like it, she even started to cry a bit at the end, I think she felt the spirit while we were sitting in the chapel. Then President took us all out to dinner afterwards to a little pizza place, that was fun. 

Wednesday we had interviews with President. Those are always really good, good to be able to talk and get some advice from him. He talked to me about possible classes and said he would talk to me more about business before I go home, which I would like a lot because he is a very successful business man. He told me to do 2 things with my time left. Enjoy it, and pass on what I've learned to younger missionaries. He also talked about how we need to live in the now, not wait for the next event in life to be happy. Don't wait to graduate college to be happy but enjoy college and try your best now! Tyler would always say that! It's a good life motto!! 

We found a few new people to teach this week and I'm actually really excited for a lesson we have tonight, with a referral. She seems super excited about the gospel so I hope it pans out and she feels the spirit in our lesson today. Later tonight we have a dinner with an investigator at a her house too so hopefully that all goes good and she enjoys that. That's with Sandra, and Sandra actually fasted for the first time this week!  We started the fast with her and so we will see tonight how she enjoyed that....they're obviously hard to enjoy haha but hopefully she has felt some spiritual strength from it! 

Today we got haircuts in uptown from a member in our ward and he pretty much cut all my hair with a straight razor! It was wild he was so good! It was really impressive to watch him do it. He shaved my neck too which was awesome! Barbers are legit, idk If I want to to to just any great clips anymore haha. Then had some activity, and we did an Olympics where district competed against district and chose one person for each event. It was pretty fun I think people had fun. Then we played disc golf after and I had a lot of fun, I didn't think I'd really like it but it was fun. It was super hot so I day dreamed of getting out on the boat in a few months a little bit today eeehhhhh! Time has been flying... But I still got a good chunk of time left out here. 

Overall great week. We unfortunately didn't have anybody at church one of our investigators we thought was going to come was totally MIA all week. It was a bummer about that but hopefully things work out this week, cross your fingas. 

Qs

FIRST THINGS FIRST...WHEN ARE WE SKYPING???!!  D MINUS 7 DAYS by my count!!!  I am SO excited to SEE you I can hardly wait.  I watched the video of our whole Skype from Christmas the other day... I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

--Our church is at 10am-1pm Pacific time which is 1-3pm your time.  I may have Ward Council at 8 but I would much rather Skype with you if it is better for you in the morning.  

Let's plan on skyping at 4pm my time. So right after church for y'all. Does that sound good? We just have church at 9-12 est. Then with y'alls church, we can do if after that at 4 my time. 

Does your mission do the "After Mission Prep" program?  I remember when Tyler was out, they started a program where the missionaries would set certain goals and make plans for their futures after the mission. I was talking to Sam Smith at church today and he told me the sister missionaries in their ward are doing it... Does your mission do that?

Ya it starts when you have 6 weeks left, so I'll start mine in about 6 weeks. It's called my plan and I guess it goes through like dating and temple marriage so that'll be fun 😊

How are the tablets and smart phones going?  Dad went to a lesson here where the missionaries had a family just watch the restoration video on their little phone while the missionaries and dad just sat there because the screen was so small they couldn't see it...  Are you allowed to use a cord to hook your phone to the tv?  That would have been nice... then they could have all seen and discussed...  just wondering what all you are doing with the added technology.  It is so amazing.  

They're good, I definitely wouldn't watch the restoration movie on a smart phone, that's a little weird. They're really good for showing pictures of what you're teaching, or a small video for the kids. I use my tablet for videos way more than the phone because it's so small. I think they're great though. You can if you buy a cable that hooks to a tv but those are pretty expensive I think. 

Did you get the shirts???  It said they were delivered last week.

Yes they're perfect....the office didn't notify us, which is kind of annoying but oh well

Did you get the Amazon Pantry?  Did you like it?  I hope the brands I picked were okay.. I know you don't like spicy stuff so that was literally the only non spicy chili and mild salsa... they don't have the Pace mild chunky that you like so I try to get the next best thing.  Hope it all tastes okay. 

Yes loved it! You're the best, I've gotten a little better with spicy foods since being on my mission lol. Like I can eat some siracha sauce on my food now, but it destroys my insides if you know what I mean! 

Love y'all!

Love you mom! Talk to you soon!

Elder Morgan

4/30/18... Little Thailand and Gastonia

This week has been awesome! So much happened and it felt like it was just go go go. The days go by so fast when you finish one thing and then you're late to the next.  It's been a blast though. We haven't killed each other quite yet in the trio (but we've gotten pretty close.) 😂  No, it's been really fun. I've been loving it so far.  

I guess I'll tell y'all a little about the great peeps we are teaching and then some stories that happened this week. 

Sandra-- I think I talked about her last week, but we were able to teach her a few times this last week. She has a testimony that this is true, but we want to help her have a spiritual experience with the Book of Mormon to help her strengthen her testimony more. She rewrites the pamphlets we give her and sends them to her son who is in jail right now. She is really solid! We also had a miracle this week. She works a lot of Sundays, so it's hard for her to get off.  But this week her boss told her she'd been working too many hours and he gave her Sunday off, so she came to church yesterday! We taught her with sister Thompson this week whose husband grew up in the Tri-Cities!  It was fun to talk to him about that. He is awesome. 

We are also teaching another family I mentioned last week. Some crazy things happened with them this week.  She was in the hospital for a bit so that was hectic. The mom is doing really well.  She has felt the spirit and recognizes that she is feeling the spirit,  which is really important.  And she has really started to repent on her own without us needing to push her much. They came to church for all 3 hours in Sunday too, which really made our week. When our investigators come to church it makes the whole week feel so much more successful.  So that's good!  I think they liked church a lot. They are progressing right now. I love getting to see the spirit work in other people's lives.  You see small changes almost every time you visit them and that makes me so happy as a missionary getting to see that. 

One of the kids in our ward named Aor is from Thailand.  He joined the church about 4 years ago and is leaving on his mission this Wednesday.  So he spoke in church yesterday and had a little farewell get together at his house. We thought it was going to be just a normal little farewell thing. Nope, this was way better! We walked in and not many people were there--just like his family and none of them speak English besides him. We take our shoes off, and all sit criss cross on the ground. Then all of a sudden loads of Asians keep walking through the door haha. The place was full. Then another guy walks in and I guess he was a preacher. But he get ups and they start having like a Sunday service devotional thing idk...(in another language of course.)  It was awesome watching this happen because we had no idea what the heck was going on. Then he puts his hand on Aor and blesses him. Then he finishes and they bring out food and we had a huge feast just right there on the ground. It was seriously awesome just being able to witness a little of their culture and really not know what was going on. I'll send some pics of it! It made me realize Sarah was probably doing this everyday!

Little Thailand 

Friday we got to go to Gastonia to a baptism of a girl that I taught on exchanges in Gastonia.  She asked if I would say the closing prayer. That was a lot of fun, it was an incredible baptism.  The Spirit was very present.  I got to see Elder Zesiger, Destany and the Hickmans.  It was fun seeing them again. Saturday we also got to go to a baptism of a lady named Esmeralda.  I was able to interview her the week earlier and that was awesome.  She found a pass along card and just felt the spirit prompt her strongly to call the number! She was really prepared for this at this time. 

This week is going to be super busy! We have a meeting all day on Tuesday, interviews on Wednesday and then a bunch of stuff to do the rest of the weekend. So I'll probably blink and be writing a letter again next week. 

Love y'all!

Love you momma!

Elder Anderson zonkin out in the car 😂

Qs

Did you make the chocolate chip cookies?  How did they turn out?  I'll put some chocolate chips and stuff in your Amazon Pantry box.  

Ya we made them! They didn't turn out super good lol. Burned one batch and underdid (if that's a word haha) the second. In my defense Elder Hull wouldn't let me touch the baking process, so I'm blaming him 😂

Did you get my little house warming package?

Ya I got it! Thank you so much, you are a life saver!!

Did you get the shirts?  Do they fit?

I haven't gotten them yet! We've checked most days, but nothing yet. 

Have you heard from your coach about housing?  

No I haven't. He will let us know probably. 

Do you know I love you???

Yesh of course!

Is there anything I can do for YOU???

Ummmm have you looked at my classes much yet? We get to Skype next week too, we could talk about that! 

   

 

4/23/18... Elder Anderson, Elder Hull and Elder Morgan--A Week of Miracles and a Service Project at the Rodeo

This week was definitely an interesting week...We did see some great miracles which I am really excited about!  

The trio is a lot of fun.  It's still weird having 3 people.  It's hard to find a balance in teaching with 3 of us. There is never a dull moment though--it's pretty fun most of the time. We gave out a bunch of Gladys Knight gift bags this week again.  We havent gotten a whole of of interest from those people yet, but we still have some people to follow up with...havent given up yet. We are teaching a lady named Sandra. We taught her a couple times this week.  We had just gotten done teaching her when that lady sent you the picture of us. She told us this week that she had been reading and praying about what she should do, and she said she got an answer that she needs to be baptized.  So obviously that was music to our ears and we were really excited for her. She works a lot though on Sundays and so that's been a little road block we have to work around. 

The other family we are teaching pretty regularly is the fam I talked about last week. They are doing pretty good.  They seemed to really understand the restoration when we taught it to them. They haven't kept many commitments yet but they said they want to get baptized and we actually set a date for them for the end of May. They haven't come to church yet.  She works a crazy schedule and works on Sundays. Third shift. I pray I never have to work a 3rd shift... I probably just jinxed myself by saying that but whatevs. 

We are getting to know the ward better, there are some super great people here. The bishop is in his 30s and he's really good.  

Somehow we got a roped into doing some service project this weekend. These people needed out help to park people at a rodeo, so we told her we could help.  We were actually pretty excited at the start to help at a rodeo, then after we got there, we realized that this job could be done with 4 people and we had about 15. So It really ended up being kind of a waste of time which is a bummer. Elder Hull and I got cowboy hats to wear for it too 😂. 

  

This is crazy. Get this... so Elder Hull is he 3rd of 4 kids, he has an older sister...shes 23, an older brother who is 26, and a younger brother who is 17. We literally have the exact same family! haha. He is super fun though.  He went to a semester at Utah State before his mission, so he is 21. Elder Anderson is actually a convert of 4 yrs and is 23. So I've been out the longest and I'm the youngest! It's been a lot of fun with them. 

That is about it for the week.  We found a few other people to teach from last week's family history booth that we did.  We had a lesson with a professor and he had some questions about how we believe the Spirit works and doing baptisms for deceased ancestors. We asked some questions at first and he said he did believe that baptism was essential. So we realized we should first talk about that because in order to understand why we do baptisms for deceased ancestors you need to believe baptism is essential for salvation. Then we talked about the spirit world in 1 Peter 3:19-20 and 4:6. Then 1 Corinthians 15:29 when Paul is teaching about the Resurrection and mentions doing baptisms for the dead. I love teaching with the bible-- it is the same doctrine and same gospel taught in the Book of Mormon.  I have loved being able to see people realize that. I love being a missionary and I really don't want to think about that day when I won't be a missionary. 

Love y'all 

Love you mom u da best! 

Qs

Are you getting acclimated to the new place?  ...to your new comps?  

Ya pretty good so far, still getting to know where everything is.  It is so densely populated here that it is hard to get familiar with all the street signs and stuff. 

How is it going with 3 guys?

It's good, it's almost a little bit harder sometimes but when we are all on top of things we get a lot more done.

What are your favorite memories of Grandma and Grandpa's house?  

When we would camp out back and Grandpa would pop a garbage bag full of popcorn and tell us Okiefanokie Swamp stories. When he would do surgery on us to get all the Pepsi out of us. Or when we would play office upstairs.

Time for an Amazon Pantry in your new place?  

Requests?

Sure!! We found out chilli and Mac and cheese together is incredible. Maybe send some chilli cans and Mac n cheese.

 

  

4/16/18... Transfer to Reedy Creek with Elder Hull AND Elder Anderson

Sooooo hello everyone!!  

This week has been one for the books for sure. Tuesday night around 8:50p, right when we thought we were off the hook, we got a call from President and he told us I was getting transferred. So right now I am in Reedy Creek, and I'm so stoked! This is one of the most coveted areas in the mission!  It has almost all of uptown Charlotte in it and east of Charlotte. It's going to be so much fun.

Saturday we were driving to go see someone and we were in uptown and it was just crazy. The city was packed and on one of the corners was a big Black Israelite stand. I don't know much about them, but I know they hate us... haha They don't like the missionaries.  They were all dressed like they were ready for war and had speakers and a microphone just preaching. But I'm almost 90% sure if we would have gotten out of the car, we could have been shot instantly... haha. It was something you would see on a movie, honestly. 

Tuesday I can't even remember what happened really.  All I remember is that a member took us to Golden Corral and it feels like it was a year ago already. Then Wednesday was pretty busy.  We went to say goodbye to as many people as we could and had a few lessons in the afternoon. Shelby was definitely my hardest area to leave, mostly because I know that I am going into my last area and I'll probably finish here. It just hit me more as I was packing. I will miss a lot of the people from Shelby and I'm so grateful for the experiences that I had and the people I got to meet and be a part of their lives. Shelby is a great place, I'll never forget my time there. I got to say goodbye to the Hickmans and the Simpsons, Tom and Destany and everyone else. Brother Camp drove us down to Charlotte on Thursday.

 This week has been such a blast though.  My new companions--yes, plural--are Elder Hull and Elder Anderson. They are a ton of fun and we have been having a really good time. I think there is a good chance that we will even be together for the rest of my time. After the Gladys Knight event, Reedy Creek got the most referrals. 26! So we have been seriously running around like crazy trying to give the gift bags to them all and teach them more. It's been really busy. We met a family this week who we are really excited about. We got to talking with the mom and she is just really set on getting on the right path with her and her family. She has 3 kids and they started to read the scriptures at night and say family prayer together. We had a ride for them and everything to church, but she ended up getting called into work last minute.  It's always interesting getting to know the members of the ward in a new place. They weren't super welcoming at the start, so we really are hoping to get the member trust up this transfer because it is so key to have a good relationship with the ward. I'm really excited to be here and see what the Lord has in store for us. 

Overall it was a great week, I'm sad to leave Shelby but it'll be a good time to grow and be in a new place.  

Love y'all!

Love you mom 

Here is my new address: 

6022 Apt. D Delta Crossing Lane 

Charlotte, NC 28212