Week 71: Finding Santa and A Few New People to Teach

December 18, 2017

    This week was great! We had zone conference, found a lot of people to teach and I am just loving the work here! 

    Zone Conference was awesome! We had it on Tuesday and it was a Christmas one so after a spiritual part we celebrated the Holidays for a bit. We had an ugly sweater contest and then a white elephant gift exchange. I ended up with a ceramic fish that is now hanging above my desk. It was awesome and great being able to spend some with some great people. 

Some Mission Buddies

    We also had our ward Christmas Party and that went really well, our ward is so cool! So I got to meet a lot more of the ward and see Santa!!!!

Jonah with Santa!

    This week we found 5 new people to teach, which is good because we need to get busy! We found a lot of older youth and younger adults. Our mission president has asked us to be working more with that age group so that is awesome!

    It was great because on Sunday we met with Ryker and his family. He is the nine year old whose family is being reactivated. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and he is going to be baptized on January 27th! So that is awesome and we are excited about that. 

     Other than that I am just getting excited for Christmas! It came up so quick. Anyways things are going well and I'm having a blast. 

Love,

Elder Morgan

Week 70: New Area & New Companion

December 11, 2017

    Well this was an exciting week! I came into Falcon area Tuesday, and am loving it so far! My new companion is Elder Davis and he is a great guy. Falcon is a super cool area and ward and I am excited to be here!

Elder Davis & Elder Morgan

   This new area is so cool! It is my favorite area so far. The place we live is huge! President Stevenson called it the Taj Mahal of the mission. It is brand new and has 3 bedrooms and a fire place and stuff! So that is super nice and we drive a new Tacoma, so we are really spoiled here haha. Falcon is a great ward though, they haven't had missionaries for about a year and were so excited for us to be there. The work is hopefully going to pick up soon. Almost no one from the area book is still here so we are starting from scratch but have a few people we are working with who I will talk about below. I thought I was going to the city this last transfer because I haven't had an area yet where I have been in a big city. I've always been in the boonies, and then I got here and it is a really rural area again. So that is good. I think this is the one area I have served in that I could actually live in after the mission.

    So the training meeting on Tuesday went really well and it got me excited to train a new missionary. I was assigned to be companions with Elder Davis and it has been awesome so far! Elder Davis is from Fort Collins and is a great missionary. He is excited to be here and is a hard worker. He is doing a 2 transfer trial mission so I will only have him for one transfer, unfortunately, because he has to experience transfers. But he is an awesome guy. He likes reading and has a strong testimony.  

(Parent Note: 2-Transfer Missions are fairly new. Basically, new missionaries who may have challenges with the stress and rigors of Missionary life are called on a Mission to a fairly local area for 3 months, or 2 transfers. Once they complete the 2-Transfers, they, along with their companions and Mission President determine if they should continue onto a full-time mission for the remaining 21 months, or they will be honorably released from their service. It is a great way for those young men who may have challenges to have the opportunity to serve.)

   Falcon is an awesome area! I love it here! Meeting everyone in the Ward yesterday was great and it reminds me a lot of my ward at home. Falcon is a nicer area of Eastern Colorado Springs and is about 20 minutes outside of actual Colorado Springs. It is a smaller town and I will get to work in the rural areas a lot of the time. The Ward hasn't had missionaries for a while so they were so excited for us to be working in their Ward. I am excited to be here and to get the work moving.

    We have seen so many miracles the past few days. Our book with all the records of people the missionaries used to teach is not very helpful because a lot of the people have moved. So we got here and didn't have anyone to teach but luckily the Bishop gave us about 10 people that we could go stop by and that gave us a few people to teach. It was so cool though because one of the ladies on the list is a less active lady who just moved here who has a nine year old girl (her name is Rain) who she wants to be baptized. So that was someone right off the bat that we could start teaching. Then one of the evening we were getting ward list from the clerk and he told us about a family that was recently reactivated and had a kid (Ryker) who might be nine and wasn't baptized. So the mom was actually in the building that night and her sons birthday was that day and she said that she wanted him to be baptized as well, so that was another person we could teach! 

    We have also been able to do a good amount of finding and have been led to some great people. So hopefully the work will continue to progress. Elder Davis and I are really trying hard to have the Spirit to guide us and so far it is going well. The Lord will provide! 

    Anyways things are going well and I am having a blast and I am grateful to be doing the work of the Lord!

Love,

Elder Morgan

Week 69: Leaving Alamosa

December 4, 2017

    This week has been awesome! It was my last week in Alamosa and I will miss being here so much. Elder Lewis and Elder Talanoa are some of my best friends and I have loved serving with them, I will miss them! But this week we were able to do some exchanges with our zone leaders and teach some awesome people!

District Pictures before leaving Alamosa, CO

The District

    So I am being transferred to Falcon and I have the opportunity to train again! Falcon is a ward in the High Plains Stake and I am so excited to serve there. It hasn't had missionaries for over a year so we will be able to start the work there from scratch. I am sad to leave but it will be good to have a change. (They haven't had missionaries for so long apparently because there were not enough missionaries, housing and not enough member support.)

     I was able to be with Elder Powell on exchanges for a day and that was awesome because we were in 4th ward and I was able to say bye to a few members that I love in that ward. Elder Powell is awesome and I learned a lot from him. 

The Kesters

Dessert at the Bacon's Home

The Duttons

         Other than that it was just a good week, it felt like it went by so quick because it was the last week here. We found 13 new people to teach so that was a great way to finish it off. We watched the Christmas Devotional and it was so awesome! I loved the speakers and songs and it was a great start to Christmas. 

     Also Elder Lewis and Elder Talanoa are training a new missionary together! But anyways Hope everyone has a great week and reads their scriptures and #LightstheWorld by remembering the true meaning of Christmas, Christ! 

Love,

Elder Morgan

Jonah's New Address is:

Elder Jonah Morgan

6739 Gelbvieh Rd,Peyton, CO 80831
It's a 3 Bedroom Duplex. He's pretty excited!

Week 68: Thanksgiving and Finishing Strong in Alamosa

November 27, 2017

    This was an awesome week! It went by so quick with Thanksgiving and a few other meetings we had. It was a great week though, can't believe November is almost over! 

    Thanksgiving was so fun this time around! We had a missionary turkey bowl on Monday and that was awesome and then on Thanksgiving we had a stake turkey bowl that was fun as well! We had dinner with the Bacon's, a family I love in our ward. Their son Caleb came back from college this week and it was great to see him. He is one of my good friends that helped us out a lot when he was here a few months ago. All the missionaries in Alamosa had dinner there so it was really fun to be with them all. 

Thanksgiving!

    This week we also we trained on the Church's Christmas Initiative: Light the World. It is an awesome way to bring the Christmas spirit in as we serve those around us and bring the light of Christ into others and our own lives. On LDS.org there are videos everyday leading up to Christmas of ideas for us to serve those around us. Definitely check it out and share it with everyone! 

Light the World

    On Saturday we had a new missionary training meeting where we met with President Stevenson and his wife and the Assistants and all the other missionaries in training. We talked about the fundamentals of missionary work and it was awesome! I learned so much. Every time I go to a meeting like that, I come away with so many things I need to improve on. So it was good to be there.

   Other than that we were out looking for more people to teach this week and didn't have too much success but this next week is going to be awesome! It is more than likely that this is my last week in this area so I have to finish strong here. 

    Alright, hope everyone has a wonderful week and enjoys the holiday season!

Love, 

Elder Morgan

Week 67: Mission Tour, A New Family To Teach and an Update on his Pet Plant

November 20, 2017

   Well this week was awesome! We had our Mission Tour and Elder Sitati of the Seventy came and was able to teach us for a few hours. This week we also found an awesome family and also got a little sick at the beginning of the week. 

    Mission tour was awesome though. Elder Sitati is from Africa and is a great guy. He was really funny and gave some awesome instruction of how we can become better missionaries. He talked to us about spending time with the people we teach to gain their trust and figure out what their concerns are. He also talked about how we can use our missionary purpose to answer our questions. It was an awesome day though. 

Mission Tour with Elder Sitati

    The next day we were going to do a district blitz in Rio Grande area and we decided to bike there and that was awesome! Monte Vista is the town we went to and it took us an hour and a half to bike there and then we were able to go and find a lot of people for the Rio Grande sisters to teach.

A P-Day Hike to an Arch...that's all he said. :)

    It was great because on Monday we were going through our list of members and decided to go and visit the Mortensens. So we went over ad they had us come in and Brother Mortensen is a member but his wife and daughter are not. So we were just talking and they had been looking to go to a church and they wanted us to come back and teach their family! So we went back later and the week and had dinner with them and had an awesome lesson and then they came to church! It was pretty cool so I am excited to keep teaching them. 

    Anyways hope everyone has a great week and spreads the gospel! 

Love,

Elder Morgan

I've been getting some questions about my plant and how it doing so I sent some pictures of some childhood memories....

Week 66: Single Digits: 9 Months Left!

November 13, 2017

   This week was awesome! We found some awesome people to teach and I am really excited. We had interviews with our Mission President and also another district blitz. I also ripped my suit on Sunday, so that was too bad haha. 

    So we are teaching some really cool people. Wyatt is one who we started teaching about a week ago and is an awesome guy! We taught him this week and taught probably one of the worst lessons I have ever been a part of haha. We were just not teaching very well at all but somehow it turned out alright. We are also still teaching Don who is a super cool guy. He is going through a divorce and is ready for the word of God. I am excited about teaching them and we were able to find some more prepared people this week that will hopefully turn out well.

    On Friday we did another district blitz and found some great people for the Alamosa 3rd ward. We met some awesome people and handed out a good amount of copies of the Book of Mormon. I went with Elder Powell who is my zone leader now. He is really cool and one of my good friends from the MTC so it was good to be with him for a couple hours. We also went on exchanges and Elder Talanoa and I went with Elder Laga, our other zone leader who I also came out with. He is an awesome Elder and I learned a lot from him.

Elder Laga and I after our exchange

     This week we had interviews with President Stevenson and he is an awesome guy. I love interviews because we get to talk with Sister Stevenson while our companions are in interviews and she is funny and so nice. 

     Then on Sunday as we were about to leave church I lifted up my arms and my suit jacket ripped from my shoulder all the way down to the bottom of the jacket. Then it ripped more on the shoulder when biking so it was just hanging from a little part of the sleeve. Haha so that was pretty crazy, good thing I have another. 

Well, there goes that suit!

     Anyways it was a great week and my testimony of this gospel has been strengthened so much. I know that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God and that Jesus Christ is our Savior.

Love,

Elder Morgan

The Tongan Santa Claus and I, Elder Talanoa found a Santa suit when we were doing a safeguards for technology course online.

Week 65: Fun Spreading the Gospel

November 6, 2017

    This week was great! We had a lot of fun spreading the Gospel. The work is still a bit slow right now but is definitely picking up. It is funny how we are super busy one week and then don't have as much to do the next week or 2. We found a lot of good people to teach this week that will hopefully lead to a lot of good things. 

     It was so cool this week because we were able to do a blitz in our area after district meeting this week and it went really well. I had never done that before but what happens is after district meeting we all go and find in another companionship's area for a couple hours. So this time we went and did i in our area and we found 4 new people to teach so that was exciting.

   One of the people we found is Wyatt. He is a super cool guy going to college here. He is in this adventure club thing so they do awesome stuff all the time. But he has never been really religious but is open to learn!

     Another cool miracle happened this week with Don. So Don is a guy we met about a month ago and haven't been able to teach again, he always had to reschedule and I got the feeling that something was going on in his life. So we were riding home and were going to drop our bikes off and walk around for a while but Elder Talanoa being inspired by the spirit was leading and rode right by the house and on to Don's. I was kind of confused but we followed him and got to Don's and knocked on his door and he opened up and invited us in and told us that he was going through a divorce and his wife had just moved out a week ago. He was ready to change and learn, so that was awesome. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ can help him.

    Pretty crazy because we went to an investigators house that we hadn't seen in about a month and he invited us in and had 90ish marijuana plants hanging up to dry out in his house. I have never seen so much weed but he was confident he wasn't going to get in trouble about it haha.   

    Yesterday was pretty funny because we had a few appointments after church and every one of them fell through so we had like 6 hours of time to just walk around and try to see people and find some more people to teach. 

  Anyways hope everyone has a great week, love you all! 

Love,

Elder Morgan

Week 64: Coming of Age...He Finally Split His Pants!

October 30, 2017

    Well this was a great week! We knocked on lots of doors, went to our ward Halloween party and were able to find a couple awesome people to teach.

     This week we had a lot of appointments cancel on us so we were able to get out and tract for a while. that wasn't working too well so we decided to go to some of the members on the list and share with them the message of the restoration. So we look at our list of members and go to the first one on the list and we stopped by and as we were talking with her, a friend of hers walked up and we were able to have an awesome lesson with this lady and the member was able to bear testimony with us. It was the perfect situation and I wish that would happen with all the members we stop by! So now we are teaching this lady, pretty cool! 

    Our ward Halloween party was great! There were a ton of nonmembers there and people who hadn't been to church in a while so we were able to talk to a lot of them. Our Bishop brought us some pumpkins to carve so we could be in the pumpkin carving contest and that was fun! But when I was grabbing my pumpkin off the ground, my pants ripped pretty bad so that was pretty funny.

Pumpkin Carving for the Ward Halloween Party

Coming of Age: Split Pants!

    Other than that we were able to do some fun service as well. We helped  member build his house and then helped some people move boxes around in their house before they move to Florida.

Service under someone's house

Called out to fix a down power line

Called out to fix a down power line

    Anyways this next week we are going to try and find a ton of people to teach and heave lots of fun spreading the good word that Christ has come! Hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Elder Morgan

District Photos

District Photos

Week 63: The Work is Challenging...

October 23, 2017

    This week was awesome! We had almost all our appointments fall through and did lots of tracting so that was fun. Elder Talanoa's bike is also broken so we were walking for a couple days and that was nice because it tires me out so I slept really well! 

      Anyways unfortunately both Doyle and Diana decided they didn't want to get baptized but that is okay because now we have more time to find prepared people to teach. We were able to find a lot more people to teach this week that I am really excited about. 

     This next transfer we have a mission tour with Elder Sitati of the Seventy which I am pretty excited about. He will come and talk to the mission for a couple days in November. 

    Alright, not anything else too exciting happened this week but I am sure we will find some awesome people this next week to teach. Love you guys and hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love, 

Elder Morgan

Week 62: The Pain of Overeating

October 16, 2017

   Man I can't believe it is Monday again! Transfers were this week and luckily I am staying with Elder Lewis and Elder Talanoa to finish their training! I almost thought that I would be transferred like it happened when I was being trained and my training got transferred after the first transfer. So anyways I am glad to stay. It was a 5 week transfer because our mission president went out of town during the usual transfer week so now this next transfer is 7 weeks.

    The best part of this week was being able to teach Lance and Diana some more! They are a way funny family that we found by helping them carry some stuff into their house. Lance is a member of the church and Diana is not. So we have been teaching them and they have been reading the Book of Mormon and Diana said she would be baptized in November! Pretty awesome, they are great.

    We also went on exchanges with the zone leaders and I went with Elder Nelson back to 4th ward and that was great! Elder Nelson is being transferred up to Springs and I will miss him a lot. It was good to be his companion for 3 transfers and then in his district for another one. 

     It was also fun because we were able to help finish up a member of the ward's house by caulking everything. That was fun because we have been able to help since I have been here with his house and it has been fun! 

     One funny thing that happened this week was us being so overfed 2 times this week! So first time we had just locked up our bikes and were about to go tract this street with the hour we had before dinner and this truck honks at us and waves and pulls into a driveway close to us. So I thought it was a member and went up to go talk to them but it was this Hispanic couple that I couldn't understand very well at first but they invited us in. So we go in and they sit us down and just feed us this 3 course meal that was super good! It was pretty neat to meet such nice people and we are going to bring a Spanish Book of Mormon to them. But then we had to go straight to our next dinner so I was just so full after that. Then a couple nights later, we had set up a lesson with this less active family in the ward so we went right after dinner to their house. Walked in and were talking for a little bit and then they started saying a prayer and their son said "please bless the food" in his prayer and I looked up at my companions and was trying so hard not to laugh because just 20 minutes before at dinner we told these members about how we got overfed earlier in the week. So then we ate another dinner and I think I got some stretch marks on my belly now.

    Other than that it has just been a great week! We have found a lot of solid people to teach and I love serving here. It is also starting to get colder now and this is the part of the mission that gets pretty darn cold. Luckily I won't be here for the really cold part but it already snowed last Monday, it was really light but still! Alright well I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Morgan

Jonah's District

Week 61: Uncovering Potatoes and People to Teach

October 9, 2017

   This week went by so quick! This reminds me of when I was being trained because the weeks just seem so fast. It was a great week though and we saw a lot of miracles and had lots of fun. 

   The week started out with interviews with President Stevenson and that went really well. not too much to say about that but it was good. 

   We got to do some fun service, harvesting potatoes. They showed us the place where they keep all the potatoes and they have like 7 million of them!  

Harvesting Potatoes!

    We also found this awesome family to teach! The wife is an inactive member and the husband is not a member but they have a year old daughter and are super awesome. We were going out visiting people with our ward mission leader and we went and saw them. I am excited to start teaching them.

   We also found a family who is really funny and awesome. We saw them unpacking their car one day and went and helped them and it turned out that he was a member and his wife and kids are not. So we set up a time we could come back and start teaching them. It was cool because we came back at the perfect time for them. We came and he said that he had just lost his job and a bunch of other things were going wrong in their lives and I felt like Ammon did in the Book of Mormon when the flock of sheep were scattered. The other servants were panicking, thinking that the king would kill them and Ammon saw that and was happy because he saw a chance to show them the power of God in their lives! I was thinking that same thing when they were talking about their problems because the teachings of Jesus can help them so much right now. Anyways it will be great to continue teaching them. 

     The definite highlight of the week was setting a baptismal date for Doyle! When Elder Nelson and I met him he was in red underwear and was hammered drunk and high and telling us how much he hated his life. Now whenever we see him he is happy to see us and tells us he loves us and tells us thank you for helping him to change his life. So cool to see how Jesus Christ changes people. So he said he would be baptized on October 30th and we are happy for him. 

    Other than that is has been a fun week and I have loved being out here preaching the gospel.

Love,

Elder Morgan

Some Downtime

Week 60: Biking in the Rain, Zone Conference and General Conference

October 2, 2017

    This week was great! We had exchanges, zone conference and general conference! It all made this week go by so fast, I can't believe it is Monday already again! 

    So we started off the week with lots of rain and biking around in it! Biking in the rain is probably less fun than biking in no rain but it was still fun haha. We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and that went really well. I went with Elder Powell and we stayed in Alamosa 2nd ward. Elder Powell is awesome and it was fun to be with him for the day. We actually came into the mission together and sat next to each other on the plane ride to CO. We didn't have too much happen that day but we found a lot of potential people to teach. 

My Sweet Ride

    A little bit later in the week we drove up to Pueblo for Zone Conference and that was awesome! I always learn so much from zone conferences and always find things that I can do better. They taught us about how to work with ward councils mainly and then how we can set goals and make plans more effectively. 

    General Conference was awesome as well, I love hearing the Prophets and Apostles speak to us. We watched it at Tony's house and he is a funny dude. He wouldn't let us turn up the volume so we could hear it for a while because he thought his neighbors would hear and he would get kicked out of his apartment. He has a bit of a disability but I love him to death haha. Anyways some of my favorite talks were given by President Nelson, President Uchtdorf, and Elder Renlund. The leaders of the Lord's Church are inspired men. 

Watching Conference with some Elders

    Well it was an awesome week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Morgan

Week 59: Service

September 25, 2017

    This week was great! We are having a lot of fun and finding a lot of new people to teach. Elder Talanoa and Elder Lewis are awesome missionaries and being on bikes with them has been good, it is going by so fast! 

    So this week we started a couple new service projects that are way fun! We do service now a the homeless shelter and cook lunch for them one day and then we go to a food bank the next day and help set that up. It is fun to be able to serve with some great people. One guy that shows us how to cook is named Afam and he is so cool! He asks us lots of questions about our religion as well and we were able to give him a Book of Mormon. We also helped out a lady this week by chopping a bunch of her wood. Definitely a good week for service!

    Also so funny story: so the sisters were talking to their Ward Mission Leader about Willy and he thought he had already been baptized in Manassa years ago. So he looked it up and he was totally baptized haha so don't really know what happened there because we talked to Willy and asked him about when he had met with missionaries before and he said it just wasn't the right time for him to get baptized. So we will talk to him about it this week haha. 

    Anyways hope everyone will have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Morgan

Here is some additional info about his new companions:  

Elder Lewis is from Hawaii and plays football and volleyball. He grew up in Utah but moved to Hawaii when he was 12. Elder Talanoa is from Tonga but moved to Portland Oregon 2 years ago. he wants to play pro rugby when he gets home.

Jonah's District

Jonah's zone at the corn maze in La Jara

Week 58: Training New Missionaries

September 18, 2017

    This was was pretty great! Started off on Tuesday driving up to Springs to get some new missionaries! We have had a successful week and it makes me feel like I am going home soon being with new missionaries. My testimony has grown a lot this week though and we have seen a lot of miracles. 

    So one Tuesday, I drove up with Elder Davies to Springs. Elder Davies is a missionary from England who I have served around for a while and he was going home! It was good to be able to catch up with him and see what he had learned from his 2 years here in the mission. We then got to Springs and had a couple hours of meetings and lunch and then we found out who we were training. My new companions names are Elders Lewis and Talanoa. They are super cool guys and we are having fun! Elder Lewis is from Hawaii and Elder Talanoa is from Tonga, it is fun being with them. 

 Elder Talanoa and Elders Lewis

 Elder Talanoa and Elders Lewis

     It is way fun because we get to be on bikes! That is the best because you get to talk to so many more people and it feels good to bike around. Definitely feel like a real missionary when I am on the bikes. 

    One thing I definitely gained a testimony of is talking with everyone. It is so much easier on bike and it was so cool because we found 9 new people to teach this week and 7 or 8 of those were from just talking to people on the way to appointments. 

    An awesome miracle that happened this week was finding someone who was super prepared. His name is Willy and we were on our way to do some service at a food bank and saw him and he said he wanted to learn more. So the next day we went over and had an awesome lesson with him and he committed to be baptized mid October, super cool! 

     Other than that I am just loving being out here. It is crazy to me how quick it goes by, it seems like yesterday that I just here into the mission. Anyways hope everyone will have a good week!

Love,

Elder Morgan