Week 51: The Longest Time in One Place

July 31, 2017

   Well this week was great! Last week of the transfer and I am staying another one with Elder Nelson! This will be the longest I have spent in an area or with a companion, so it will be good! Actually our whole district is staying the same, and it is one of my favorite districts I have been in so that is exciting.

The coolest District

The coolest District with me wearing a small shirt the Sisters found

Our Zone Water Balloon Fight

The Zone (a little blurry picture)

    So we started off the week having exchanges with the Elders in Antonito. I went down to Antonito with Elder Rodela and I had fun! We met with this girl that is waiting to get baptized until she moves out of her parent's house because they don't approve of it. She was so awesome and had such a strong testimony. She read all of the Doctrine and CovenantsThat was crazy and it definitely strengthened my testimony of the gospel seeing how committed she was to it. 

    We had a really awesome lesson this week with Ali. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and it was just a great lesson. Ali has been to church once and hasn't been able to make it again but hopefully we will get her there again this next week. The Spirit was definitely strong though and it was so neat when she told us about her experience reading the Book of Mormon. She said that it brought a very peaceful feeling and that it felt like she was getting a hug. So we told her that was the Spirit and asked her to continue reading it and praying about it. 

   Well other than that it was just a fun week! I definitely felt the Spirit and grew closer to my Savior this week. My testimony of this gospel and the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ is always growing. 

Love,

Elder Morgan

A guy who rides around on this bike and is super funny

Week 50: Manassa Days Celebration/Pioneer Days!

July 24, 2017

    Well this week went by so quick! We were so busy and that always makes it go by fast. The highlights of this week were getting to know President Stevenson really well (I think I saw him almost everyday this week!) and then the Manassa Days Celebration/Pioneer Days!

    So we started out the week by having interviews with president Stevenson and that went so well! I  love him and his wife so much, they are awesome! I am glad I get to have 2 mission presidents. They are from Chino California and are excited to be here.

   That evening President Stevenson came to a lesson with us and it went pretty well! We were having it at a members home and unfortunately the investigator didn't show up so we just taught the members the lesson. It was a good lesson and the spirit was strong. 

    Then on the one normal day we had we did a bunch of planning and preparing for the celebrations. We got a ton of supplies from the mission office to set up a booth for people to come see.

   So the first celebration we went to was Sanford days. Sanford is a town that is 90% mormon and they had a little parade and BBQ and things happen. It was pretty cool, we set up our missionary booth and handed out like 2 copies of the Book of Mormon haha, that is not very many. So that wasn't a very productive day but it was still fun to be there.

    The next 2 day were the Manassa Pioneer Days and that was awesome! Super successful too! We started out both days by pulling handcarts in the town's parade and singing missionary songs. They have a ton of floats and it's a pretty big deal down here. The town goes from 1000 people to over 10000! Families told me that more people come home for this than they do for Christmas. Anyways we then had our booth set up and had a couple sets of missionaries working it and the other missionaries walking around handing out copies of the Book of Mormon. We had 5 boxes of BOM's sent down from Springs to us and we ran out! We handed out over 250 copies between the 20 missionaries there and got a lot of referrals for people! It was so awesome and fun. We also got to ride some of the carnival rides and that was awesome, definitely never thought I would be able to do stuff like that while serving a mission. It was a great couple of days and I felt really lucky to be down here while this all went on.

Jonah's District

Jonah's Zone

    Another good thing that happened was we saw Ali at Pioneer Days! So we texted her member friend to setup an appointment and the member said that she didn't want to meet with us anymore like a week ago. But we saw Ali this weekend and she was way excited to see us and said she had been wanting to set something up and that she had been sick so don't really know what happened with the miscommunication with the member but we are excited!

    This has been a great week though and transfers are coming up next week! Well hope everyone has a great week and will become closer with our Savior!

Love,

Elder Morgan

The Manassa Colorado Pioneer Celebration turns a town of 1,000 into a town of 10,000 for the weekend! 

Here's how Jonah described it: 

Pioneer days was awesome! We got to ride rides and Sister Stevenson went with us on one! It was a whole lot of walking though. (I asked him why he looked so happy in the pictures and this was his reply...) Haha ya in my defense that was probably on the second time around because they go there and back and it is literally the length of the town! We probably walked over 3 miles pulling handcarts and stepping in horse poop. It was fun though...and extremely sweaty

Week 49: The Lord's Timing is Perfect!

July 17, 2017

    This week went by so fast! We are busy and it makes the time fly. It has been an awesome week in the service of the Lord!

    We started out the week on exchanges with the AP's, they are so great! They both came down and worked in our area. I was with Elder Smith and he is such a funny guy. It is cool because before he was AP, he was a district leader in my zone in Pueblo, so I have gotten to go on 3 exchanges with him now! He served in this area a few months ago so he was able to show me a lot of people that they used to work with that had slipped through the cracks. It was a good day and I learned a lot.

   That evening we started exchanges with the La Jara Elders. Elder Pope came up here to my area and we had a great exchange. Elder Pope was also in Pueblo when I was there and was being trained. It was so cool to see how much he had changed. He was a bit quiet and not too confident before but now he is so much different and a good teacher! We had a fun day and it was cool because we were walking around and started talking to this guy when it started raining pretty hard. He offered us a ride back to our car at our apartments and we gladly accepted. On the ride we continued to talk to him and he seemed pretty interested and he lives almost all of the commandments already! But after we had finished talking to him and he drove away we ran into Nick! He is awesome and was pretty interested in the gospel. He accepted a Book of Mormon and we are going to meet with him soon, the Lord's timing is perfect!

     We also had a lesson with a guy named Johnny. He used to date a recently returned missionary and she introduced us to him. We read through Alma 32 and talked about the Book of Mormon with him and the spirit was so strong there. the Book of Mormon speaks for itself and will convince any honest seeker of truth that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. 

     Last really great thing that happened was being able to teach Lynn. So a guy in our ward was watching a conference talk at a restaurant and the waitress asked who it was and he said it was "an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ" and he asked if she wanted to set up an appointment with him and the missionaries so she could learn more and she did! So Lynn is a wonderful lady who has felt like something was missing in her life for a while and was so receptive. It was a fun lesson and we have another one this week.

    It was too bad this week though because we had 3 investigators that were really awesome and promising and they all wanted to stop meeting with us this week! That was a bummer but I am sure they will come around someday.

   Anyways it was a fun week and I love being a missionary! This is definitely true!

 

Love,

Elder Morgan

Penitente Canyon, a super cool canyon where they went hiking

Just chillin'

Week 48: 11 Months!!!

July 10, 2017

     This week was great! It went by so quick and it was a lot of fun! I met our new mission president this week, went to MLC, went to a zone conference and we had a baptism! So it was a busy week.

   President Stevenson, our new mission president, is so awesome! He is completely different from President Rehm but I really like him. He is also way tall, like 6'4 so it is pretty awkward to hug him but that is ok. Sister Stevenson is also great. they will be a lot of fun and I am grateful for them. I met them at MLC on Wednesday in Springs and it was a great meeting. They have a great vision for the mission and it will be fun working with them. 

    We had a one conference with him the next day and that went really well. He gave us a kind of mission motto thing that is FOSA. So that means Faith, Obedience, Skills as a missionary and Attributes of Christ. So those are the things that I am going o focus on. But he is definitely inspired and I love him and his wife so much already. 

    Another highlight of the week was Chris getting baptized! We had the baptismal service on Saturday and it went really well. Chris is just awesome. He was confirmed the next day at church. 

Chris' Baptism

Chris' Baptism

    This week my testimony of Jesus Christ and his church and gospel have grown so much. I know this is the truth and that it is the way to happiness. We gave talks in church yesterday and I was left with about 1 minute in the meeting so I condensed 15 minutes into 1 haha but it still turned out pretty well. 

   Well I hope everyone has a great week and reads their scriptures and prays everyday.

Love,

Elder Morgan

Zapata Falls

4th of July

4th of July

Week 47: New Mission President

July 3, 2017

   This week was so awesome!! It flew by. I can't believe it is already July, crazy! This week we got our new mission president and i will get to meet him. He emailed and sounds great!

    We started out with the week with a farewell zone conference for President Rehm. It was so sad. President Rehm is so awesome and I have learned so much from him. I haven't cried very much on my mission but I definitely did there! President and Sister Rehm's last remarks had to do with strengthening our faith in Jesus Christ and worshiping Him. 

    We then were able to go on exchanges with the Elders in Del Norte. I went with Elder Madsen and he is so awesome! He was in my district when I first came out and he is so funny. Del Notre is a funny little town. They don't have too much going on there so we walked around for hours and it was awesome. We made some good contacts and got some great potential investigators. It was fun though.

   Chris is still doing really well and is planning on being baptized this Saturday! He is so prepared and teaching him is great! he works at Dominos and is a really good guy. he reads the Book of Mormon a lot and always remembers verses he read during lessons, it is pretty cool. So we are excited for that.

    We also had another lesson with Tiffany and the spirit was so strong! both lessons with her have been amazing and the members whose house we were at shared some personal stories of their faith in Christ and it was just amazing. But when we challenged Tiffany to be baptized she said no! She said she just wanted to learn about it so that was a bummer but I am sure she will come around. 

   We also found out this week that the Allens are moving to Utah! They are one of my favorite families and I will miss them so much! So we are going to help them pack for a little bit today. 

The Allens

    This week my faith in Christ was strengthened so much. I believe that he is our Savior and Redeemer and that he knows and loves us perfectly!

  Anyways I hope that everyone will have a fun and wonderful week!

Love, 

Elder Morgan

Family Home Evening

Week 46: Tons of Miracles this week!

June 26, 2017

   This was such a great week! the work is really going well here and we started teaching a ton of prepared people this week! We also get our new mission president this week so that will be fun.

    Great start to the week when last Monday we were walking up to the church and this guy called us over that was sitting on ground next to the church. He told us he had been taught by missionaries before and was ready to be baptized! Apparently he was taught in springs before and had a baptismal date but had a last minute move here in Alamosa! So we began teaching him and set another baptismal date for July 8th! His name is Chris and he is awesome! He has had a rough past couple years but I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ can help him.

    We also taught Tiffany this week. A family in the ward had us over for dinner and invited a nonmember friend and we talked about the message of the Restoration after dinner and she was super interested! So we are now teaching her and she is doing great! 

   Next cool person we are teaching is Ali! Last week having dinner with a member, we asked if there was anyone we could teach and their daughter told us about her friend who was really struggling and that she might be interested. So we set up and appointment and then taught her! She is 15 and is great! She thought it was awesome and committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. She was also at church the next day so that was super cool! Ton of miracles this week! 

   We were able to go to the wedding of a recent convert this week as well. Tom was baptized not too long ago and married Beth, a super awesome lady and they are moving into our ward! So that was pretty cool. 

    Other than that I am just excited to keep working in this area. Hope everyone is doing well!

love,

Elder Morgan

My New District