Week 42: Following the Spirit

May 29, 2017

    This week was fantastic! I am really starting to love the area more and the people are awesome! I was able to see some awesome miracles and just have a lot of fun. We also had our last interviews with president Rehm this week, so that was a bit sad too.

    It was a great start to this week being able to meet the rest of the zone for pday. We played sports in the gym and it was just fun being with great people. It was a really cool experience I had because one of the missionaries serving here was really struggling with stuff at home and was off from the rest of the group for a while. So I went over and asked him what was up and he just kind of told me everything he was struggling with and I had no idea what to say so I just listened for a while until he got it all out. I was able to give him a blessing and then we went and played some more basketball. It was cool though because he texted me that night and told me how much it meant to him even though I didn't really do anything haha. Fortunately he is doing better now!

      It was pretty cool because yesterday we had about 20 minutes to go tracting and we set a goal to find one new investigator. So we tracted to whole thing and got to the last door and this guy was standing outside smoking and we walked up and he started off by saying "I know why you are here and I'm not interested." So we just started talking to him about his life and things and then just tied it in with the Book of Mormon and the gospel and asked if we could come back and teach him more and he said yes! I thought it was pretty funny and also pretty cool that when we promised the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ he turned out to be interested!

    Also it was so so cool and great because John was baptized last weekend!!! I forgot to put it in my last email but Elder Garton was able to baptize him! I was bummed that I was not able to see him be baptized, it was sad to get transferred a week before he was baptized but I was super happy to hear it all went well! 

    Another cool thing that happened this week was stake coordination! It went really well but the cool thing was, we did it in this building that the used to do temple ordinances in, like baptisms for the dead, but it's not a temple! It said "Holiness to the Lord" on the front and I just thought it was super cool to have a meeting in there.

The Temple/Non-Temple

  Anyways it was a  great week, I felt the Spirit a lot and have really enjoyed teaching members here and testifying of Jesus Christ! I hope everyone also had a fun week!

Love,

Elder Morgan

Tony, a member that comes out with us to lessons and loves the missionaries, has a bit of a disability. I love him to death!

Week 41: The Work is Moving Forward

May 22, 2017

   Well oh boy this was a great week! The time just goes by so fast, it feels like I emailed everyone yesterday! But this was a wonderful week though! The Valley is really growing on me and I know I will continue to enjoy serving here more and more! 

   The work is definitely moving forward here. When I got here, there weren't a lot of people that we were teaching but we are finding a lot more people to teach. It was an awesome miracle to see because at church this week a less active lady brought her nonmember boyfriend and he really liked it! He said he wanted to take the missionary discussions so we are pretty excited. 

   We were also able to speak in sacrament meeting in one of our wards about missionary work. It went really well and right after a lady came up to us and told us about a friend she has that is a member but hasn't been to church for years. She told us that he wants to go to the temple for the first time and she said she would invite him to her house so we could teach him the lessons there! It was perfect so I am also pretty excited about that. 

    One fun part of the week was being able to go on exchanges with the Elders serving in La Jara. I went with Elder Conrad down to his area and it was an awesome day! Elder Conrad has been out for one transfer longer than me and is an awesome guy! He is from Utah. We were able to have a very positive day and I was able to attend one of their district meetings. La Jara is really small! Most of the towns in the San Luis Valley are very small yet there are quite a few members. Members of the Church were able to settle some parts of the Valley so there are a ton of members in Sanford. Pretty funny because everyone has to ask their parents if they are related before they date.The missionaries serving here are great and I am excited to be able to serve with them. 

    Our new mission President, president Stevenson is coming in July (I think) and sent us a letter and he and his wife sound awesome! I am so excited, though I will miss President Rehm a lot! 

   This week was one of the most spiritual on my mission as well. I just was able to feel the Spirit a lot as I testified of the joys that come from Jesus Christ and His gospel. I really do love the gospel and have a strong testimony that it is the way to happiness! Happiness will never be found in wickedness while it will always be found in righteous living!

   It was a wonderful week and I am grateful to be serving here. I hope everyone will have a fun week and choose the right!

    

Love,

Elder Morgan

P-Day Hike

P-Day Hike

Week 40: Everything is Awesome!

May 15, 2017

    This week was awesome! I'm in the San Luis Valley now serving in Alamosa 2nd and 4th wards and it is awesome! I am companions with Elder Nelson and it is just going to be a fun transfer! 

    So Alamosa is pretty cool, it is a lot smaller than Pueblo and very different. We are working with a returning member that has a temple date for the 26th of this month so that is very exciting but we are working with not too many investigators so we get to do some finding! Our most progressing investigator is going to jail for a month for shooting a gun above the heads of some homeless people trying to steal his marijuana so that was a bummer. He is really cool though and said that he would read the whole Book of Mormon while he was there so that is awesome! I am really excited to try and get the work rolling in this area, It is going to be awesome! We found a good amount of new people to teach this week so I'm excited. 

    My companion Elder Nelson is awesome! We get a long super well. He is from southern California and has been out for the same amount of time as me and is assigned as a Spanish speaking missionary. So that is really cool because I get to learn Spanish now! 

    It was super cool because this week I was able to "help" teach my first lesson in all spanish! It was so cool! Easily one of my favorite lessons that I have taught while on my mission. I somehow figured out how to say some very basic things and it was just really cool.

   The Zone here is pretty dang cool too! I really miss Pueblo though, the missionaries there were so dang cool. In this zone there is definitely more disobedience, so we have to do a lot more loving correction haha. Not going to lie it's probably my least favorite thing to do but it has to be done! But I am very happy to be able to serve with some amazing missionaries here. 

My district in Pueblo with Elders Garton, Nelson and Tallman, Super super fun district.

My new district with all the mission moms and kids next to each other

    Definite highlight of the week was being able to talk to my beautiful family on Mother's Day!! It was so awesome and I love my family so much! 

    I definitely have a testimony that the Lord will bless our efforts here. This is His work and I love doing it! Well I hope everyone is doing well and will have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Morgan

Week 39: Transfers!

May 8, 2017

   This week has been wonderful! It was my last week in Pueblo because I am being transferred to the valley, Alamosa 2nd and 4th wards! It was a great final week here though, I will miss it. 

   I am very excited to serve in my new area! I have heard a lot about the Valley. It is one of the first places that the Latter Day Saints settled so it is like a mini Utah in some places. It has a pretty high elevation up there and some years is the coldest place on the continent! It is about a 3 hour drive up to the mission home and it just sounds like a lot of fun! I guess I will find out if everything I have heard is true pretty soon! 

    I am super excited though because for the first year of my mission I will have had perfect weather! Serving in Canon City and Pueblo for winter was perfect because it didn't get too cold and the Valley only gets up to like 85 in summer!

   My new companion will be Elder Nelson. I have met him a few times but don't know too much about him but that he used to be a Spanish missionary and that he is a big guy haha. he has been out for i think a transfer less than me and has been a zone leader for oneless than me as well. I am excited to get to know him though. 

   I will be sad to leave Pueblo though! It has been an awesome area! Elder Garton and I got along really well and we were so busy, it felt like I was only here for a month or so but it has been 3! I have made some amazing connections with people here and will definitely have to come back to visit some of them.

   I think the highlight of this week was being able to meet with the Trujillos. They are a family in the ward that is awesome! The husband was baptized several years ago and he and his wife were able to be sealed a couple years ago! But no one taught him how to give blessings or hold Family Home Evening or anything! So after dinner he asked us to come over again and teach him that stuff. It was an awesome experience to be able to show him how to do those things. It made me grateful that I had a Father that taught me those things. 

    It was a great week though! I am excited for some change and will strive to move the work forward in Alamosa with all that I have!

Love,

Elder Morgan

New Address: Elder Jonah Morgan,  22069 Mullins Ave. Apt 120,  Alamosa, CO 80101

A Cute Puppy, not so much a cute smile.

The street Jonah will live on one day...

Bro. Mead, Jonah's favorite Ward Mission Leader

Brother Stewart and the Elders

Last day of service at the Zoo...

...with a vulture

His Squad

Week 38: Gaining Wisdom, Setting Goals in Faith, and Gerald

May 1, 2017

    This week was great! We have lots of good things happening in this area and transfers are coming up, I'm excited to see what happens. The weeks just continue to fly by quick! 

    

   One highlight of the week was Zone Conference. It is always such an awesome experience. Every time I go I am very humbled. There is always so much to work on to become a better missionary and the things that are taught at Zone Conference are always exactly what I need to hear. I think the biggest thing I learned and am still learning that will help me through my whole life is the difference between teaching Doctrine and talking about behavior. There is a quote in Preach my Gospel the says "A study of Doctrine will change behavior quicker than a study of behavior will change behavior," to paraphrase. So we went over what we can do to be better at teaching Doctrine because it is so easy to slip into teaching behavior. In any teaching situation we should be teaching Doctrine. 

    Another fun thing that happened this week was being able to go on exchanges with Pueblo West 1st and 2nd ward, I went with Elder Smith to his area and we had a great day! Elder Smith is really funny and he was actually just made the new assistant to the president yesterday so that was cool. Anyways it was awesome because for 3 exchanges in a row we have set goals in faith and the Lord has helped us to achieve them last minute. We set a goal to find 2 new people to teach and the last 2 people we talked to while knocking doors ended up being interested super cool! I definitely know that as we set righteous goals in faith, the Lord will help us to achieve them.

Elder Smith and I at Liberty Point

Elder Smith and I eating pizza that someone dropped off for dinner

    One of the people we found that day was so great. She was a teenage girl that just needed the gospel! As we were talking with her, I felt so much charity for her and just wanted her to be converted to the Lord right there because she would have such a happier life! 

    John is doing very well. We had to push back his baptismal date a couple weeks because he is struggling to quit smoking but is getting so close! He thinks he will be done with it all in the middle of this week, super excited for him! 

   It also snowed this week and I made my first snow man! Pretty cool, his name is Gerald. Colorado's weather is weird, all the snow malted a day later.

Gerald

   It was a wonderful week though and I am happy to be serving here in CO! Hope everyone is doing well!

Love,

Elder Morgan