Week 55: Short Emails......stink for the parents...

August 28, 2017

   So this week was pretty awesome! We went on exchanges and the work is finally starting to pick up!

   We went on exchanges with the Elders in Antonito and I went with Elder Westwood into my area. He is a brand new missionary and is really awesome! We had an awesome day and made some great contacts. Elder Westwood is from Washington and he is super excited to be a missionary so it was a lot of fun!

Elder Westwood and I

    It was also pretty cool this week because we saw a lady from our apartment complex that we had given a Book of Mormon too a few week ago and started talking to her. She said she had been reading it and was interested in learning more! So we have an appointment set up with her and that will be awesome! 

    Anyways the work is going good and I am having  alot of fun with everything! Sorry this one is a bit shorter, we are going on a long hike today and are leaving pretty quick here! Sure love you all

Love,

Elder Morgan

From another email we received:

This week has been good though, I am loving the work! I just am kind of hoping I end up in 2nd ward after this transfer because it is a biking area and I love biking areas and this is the perfect time of year to bike around! Well I love you and hope you have a wonderful week!

Funny Story From Last Week:

Pretty funny this week because I continue to do strange things in my sleep haha! So my comp tells me in the morning that middle of the night last night I woke up and had another little episode that went like this:

Me: thumping on the bed

Comp: Wakes up asks what I'm doing

Me: I need my shoes

Comp: No you dont

Me:Ya you're right, lay down again

comp: Are you going to use your blanket or whatever

me: I'm so confused

Comp: Ya i bet you are

Me: You're a little butthole!

So ya this is like a weekly thing haha!

Zone Conference

Week 54: Developing Unshakable Faith in Jesus Christ

August 21, 2017

    Well this week was wonderful! I can't believe that it is already halfway through this transfer, it is going so quick. This week was pretty quick with exchanges and a few conferences. 

    Started off the week by going on exchanges with the Elders in La Jara. I went with Elder Fuller down to La Jara and we had an awesome day. I came out with Elder Fuller and love him to death, he's a great guy. He really likes deep doctrine and singing so it was a fun day. La Jara is this tiny little town that would be so fun to serve in. It was pretty cool because we walked around a bit and found 2 new people to teach just by talking to the people on the streets. 

    Later in the week we had our Zone Conference and that was really good. We were trained on making our studies more spiritual and full of revelation. We were also taught about extending commitments to people. President and Sister Stevenson are just awesome and I learn so much form them.

 

   The next big thing we had going on this week was Stake Conference. The Alamosa Stake had a visiting member of the 70 come and speak, Elder Scott. He was awesome. The main message that he gave to us from the 12 and the First Presidency was that we need to develop unshakable faith in Jesus Christ by reading the Book of Mormon and keeping the Sabbath Day holy because we will need it for the coming days. Also that we need to do more to share the gospel with those around us. It was a great conference. 

    It was pretty neat because we had Doyle come with us to Stake conference and we were sitting in the 2nd row and I was really hoping that Elder Scott would introduce himself to Doyle before the meeting because I thought we probably wouldn't be able to see him after. So Elder Scott went and shook everyone's hand in the first row and said hi and I totally thought he would say hi to Doyle but he didn't see him. So I was a little bummed but I also thought to myself that he is the servant of the Lord and the Spirit will tell him what he needs to do. Then 2-3 minutes before the meeting started, he came down off the stand just to come and tell Doyle he was happy to see him there! I was pretty excited about that. 

    The other cool thing that happened was just being able to teach Brian and Teresa. brian was baptized several months ago in a different area but moved here and is now less active and Teresa is his girlfriend who we are teaching. The last couple times, we have just read the Book of Mormon with them because they still aren't doing it and they have been awesome lessons. This time we read with them again and I really think they will read and pray about the Book of Mormon this time!

   Anyways it has been a great week and I have learned so much. I think it will be a lifelong pursuit of mine to develop unshakable faith in Jesus Christ. 

Love,

Elder Morgan

A family in the ward that we are tight with. We taught them the missionary discussions and then invited them to invite someone else to take them

Week 53: Temple, Service and Wasps (oh my!)

August 14, 2017

    Well this week was pretty great! We were in Springs for 3 days for MLC and for the Temple Trip I was able to go on! 

    We started off the week going up to MLC in Springs and that went really well. President Stevenson is definitely inspired and it is awesome being with him. We stayed with the Assistants to the President the whole time we were there and that was so fun. It was crazy because my trainer, Elder Rogers went home this week and stayed with us before he was taken to the airport! It was good to be able to see him and just weird because he was going on his temple trip when he was training me last year and now I was in his position. 

    The Temple was so awesome! We go to the temple at our halfway mark and I finally got to go! It was so cool seeing all the people that I came out with. I know the temple is the house of the Lord and the Spirit is so strong in there. The Lord's greatest blessing for us are in His holy Temples. We had dinner and a devotional afterwards and set some goals for the rest of our missions. It was just a great experience and made me excited for the second half of my mission. 

Temple Trip with Elder Ketring, Jonah's MTC Companion!

     Other than that, the work in our area is still going pretty slow. A few weeks ago we had so any awesome people we were teaching but in these past couple weeks they have all wanted to stop meeting with us. So we have one person that we are able to meet with regularly now. So we are working on finding more people to teach. The Lord is preparing people for the gospel, we jsut have to find them! 

    It was pretty cool this week because I had my first allergic reaction! We were helping some people move into the ward and I was stung by 2 wasps or yellowjackets on my leg in the span of about 5 minutes! It started swelling up a little bit at first and I didn't think too much of it but later in the day my ankle and lower leg got huge! By the end of the night it was pretty uncomfortable to walk on but I got some steroids and a priesthood blessing. In the morning it was still swollen and itchy but didn't hurt to walk on! So it turned out well. 

Allergic Reaction

     The one person we are teaching is Teresa. She is dating this less active member and she is awesome! This week we read Alma 32 with her and it was so cool to see her feel the spirit. So we will keep teaching her and hopefully she will get to church this next week! 

     Anyways it has been a great week and hopefully this next week we will find some more people. This is the truth, Joseph Smith was a prophet, the Book of Mormon is the word of God and Jesus is the Christ!

Love,

Elder Morgan

Last week's p-day hike

Service Project for the Bacon Family

Week 52: One Year!!!

August 7, 2017

    This week has been awesome! I I'll have been out for a year on the 10th!! Isn't that crazy!? I can't believe it, it has gone by so fast already. This week was a little slow though because Elder Nelson got pretty sick so we had a few days in where we didn't do much. 

     We started off the week with a text from Ali saying that she couldn't meet with us anymore because she talked to her grandparents and thy din't want her too! So that was a bummer and then almost all of our other investigators have said they don't want to meet anymore as well so we have one person we are teaching that is sort of progressing haha. That is alright though because now we have enough time to go and find some awesome, prepared people to teach. Whatever happens it is in the Lord's hands so it will turn out fine.   

     One awesome thing that happened this week is that Caleb is back in town! He is a recently returned missionary whose parents are in our ward. He was here about 2 months ago and he came to a lot of appointments with us and he is just awesome! So he came back for a few weeks until he goes back to school. 

    On Saturday we were able to go on exchanges with the assistants to the President and that was really good! I went with Elder Boatman and he is such a great guy! it was cool because we were driving back from lunch and saw this big thing going on in the park and decided to go talk to people there and it turned out to be a BBQ competition! So we got to go around and hand out copies of the Book of Mormon and try people's BBQ. That was pretty cool and we were able to have some good conversations. 

    Other than that nothing too exciting happened, just trying to expand our teaching pool and find the elect of God! Hope everyone has a great week!

Love, 

Elder Morgan

Making M&M Madness with his District

In a separate email, Jonah wrote:

CAN YOU BELIEVE I HAVE BEEN OUT FOR A YEAR!!!??? I was probably getting set apart and packed by this time last year. I am really excited to be able to do all the stuff that you do when you have been out for a year like:

• Reading my journal of everyday from the year before
• Saying I get home in August instead of next august
• Saying I have a a certain amount of months left instead of saying I have been out for this many
• Making fun of all the noobs who just got here
• Being on the downhill

Man it is going to be awesome! I have heard from so many people that it goes faster when you hit the year mark and that is just sick. I also found out today in President's email that he is going to try and keep people in the same area for 6-8 months at a time, that is so long!! I really liked being in my areas for 3 months so that was a bit of a bummer but it will still be good. 

Jonah is also super excited to go on his Temple Jubilee, where he gets to go to the Temple in Denver Colorado for the day to celebrate his 1-year mark!