August 19, 2013

Hello! How`s it going? AWESOME! Happy wedding this Saturday to Brock!!! I`m so excited I can`t even hide it! I`ve been telling people that he`s getting married and everyone says, "Do you get to go home for that?," "no," "that`s so sad!!!" But it`s okay! The mission is pretty cool too. I hope that the wedding works out well and that everything goes to plan.
Here in Colombia things are going pretty well! It`s a little warm, but that`s okay. We`re working really hard at finding new investigators, but it`s hard when we have a lot of good people, but they don`t all complete with their commitments so we need to start finding new people to teach. We had 4 investigators come to church yesterday. Enrique (the awesome investigator from last week that I talked about) and his girlfriend came. She`s still a little sceptical because we don`t believe that Maria is our mom, but eh.... We`ll work and that haha.
We also have another investigator who comes every week and is awesome, but we need to do some paper work so that he can get married and then he can get baptized. His name is Angel and he`s blind, but he comes and is faithful. He also writes songs and says that he wants to talk to the leaders of the church to see if they can get published. It`ll be a little hard but who knows, maybe some day haha.
The other companionship here in the house baptized this last week and that was a neat experience, but we had to travel quite a ways to do the baptism to get to a pool, but hopefully we find a pool here close this week for Enrique`s baptism on Saturday.
Unfortunately the attendance here in ther group this week was pretty low (35 people). So this week my companion and I put a goal to and visit more members, and hopefully that works out well.
Yeah, that`s all from Colombia, but I hope the wedding goes well!
Bye!!!!

August 12, 2013

So this week was super awesome for several reasons but one in particular..... I GOT MY BIRTHDAY PACKAGE!!!! Thank you!!!! I love all of it, but especially the photos. I didn´t even know our family had pictures haha.
This week here in the group we had stake conference so I got to find a bus and organize all that and then yesterday morning it got here early and drove us straight to Barranquilla for stake conference. After the conference we were stuck waiting for about 50 minutes because the bus drove left and nobody could find him, some people were upset, but the majority were okay. It was awesome over all because we had about 50 people with us and 4 of them were investigators, but that´s not even the best part. The stake I´m in now is the same stake where I started my mission so I got to see like all the people from my first ward.
One of my companions once said that the greatest blessing in the mission is being able to see your converts active, and he wasn´t kidding! I was so happy to see 3 converts there! One of them, Clara, is an investigator that we found on a street corner and she got baptized along with her daughter and yesterday she came up and said "Elder Morgan! I never thought I´d see you again! My son´s getting baptized next week and I want to thank you for talking to me in the street that day about 5 months ago." She´s the best haha.
Also in this last week one of our investigators named Enrique (I think I mentioned him last week, He´s the one that gained a testimony super fast) is doing really REALLY well. We were worried because he didn´t want to tell his girlfriend about his choice to be baptized, but on Saturday he brought her to the lesson (He also had asked us how we do marriage in our church and just about keeled over when we explained that in our church marriage is for eternity). In the end of the lesson he told her to ask us a question and she said, "Is it true that in your church people get married for eternity?" "Yes," we said. "What do I have to do to get married in a temple?" We then explained that she just needed to get baptized. Then her boyfriend, Enrique, put his arm around her and said, "Elders,.. we want to get sealed in a temple for eternity."............... YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just about died and asked if he was actually Colombian or not because this is SOOOOO not Colombian haha. We have a lesson with them tonight.
That´s the news from Sabanalarga! Adios!

Happy Birthday Cole! August 5, 2013

Hello family! So here I am in my new area. I was really sad to leave Valledupar and one of the members who cooks us lunch on Tuesdays cried when I said I was leaving. I really loved Valledupar and it´s awesome, but when the Lord calls... We answer haha.I was assigned to a new area called Sabanalarga. It´s interesting because it´s in the same stake that I was in the beginning of my mission, but Sabanalarga is a "pueblo" (A smaller city). I was called here but I´m still a district leader, but district leader here in this pueblo is different because it´s not a ward, nor a branch... IT´S A GROUP!!! What does that mean? That as district leader I´m also the group leader hahaha. I get to host sacrament meeting, I give assignments for the talks the next week, and we also live in the church haha. It´s a two story house and we live upstairs. The weirdest part was when they blessed the sacrament and then served me first haha. That was a little bit of a schocker and I looked at my companion to make sure we weren´t in apostasy haha.But the group is super awesome. There´s like 1 REAL family that is a mom, dad, and kids and they help with everything. There are some other members that are really faithful and come to every activity too. The group is actually part of a branch that is about 30 minutes away and every sunday we get to carry the tithing over to the branch president. I was excited to meet the branch president til he opened the door and turned out to be a 23 year-old returned missionary who just got home from his mission a year ago hahaha. This is gonna be really fun!! I really am like super stoked, also because we have some good investigators. A guy named Enrique came to the church a week ago just to ask who we were, and the elder before me and my new companion (Elder Abad, he´s awesome and short) made an appointment with him. We met with him and presented the book of mormon, then the next day at night he knocked on the door out of breath because he said he had been running to the church every hour to talk to us. We sat down and he looked at us and said, "Elders, there are answers... a whole lot of answers. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and I want to get baptized."...... WHOA!!!!!!!! What a rush!!!Anyways, as far as my birthday goes... it was right after transfers so nobody in the ward knew, but my companion gave me a hug during personal study time. Then later in the day after a baptismal interview everyone in the church sang me happy birthday. They´re so nice haha.In love you all and thanks for the birthday wishes!!!Have a great week!

July 29, 2013

So the week ended and the transfer is coming to an end. We have transfers on Wednesday. I don't know what's going to happen, but if I could choose I'd like to stay here in this ward because it's super sweet and the people are great, but we'll see. It's not very likely that I'll stay with my companion because we already have 3 transfers together which is super rare, and I think we're both ready for a change haha.
One of our investigators named Kevin is doing great. His baptismal date is August 10th and he's really preparing himself. He says that he doesn't feel too prepared, but he wants to do it. We told him that we know he's ready and he got really excited, so that's awesome.
This last week has been interesting because the one of the zone leaders that lived with us had to leave. So all last week we had a mini missionary in the house, but this week the zone leader just finds random members every day to leave with him and then at night we all have to sleep in the same room because of the rules, and our room is too small so we sleep in his room and who gets the floor.... Cole gets the floor haha. It's a little cooler down there, but it's still the floor haha.
The sister missionarys are fighting again and so I get to talk to them and tell them to love each other a lot which is fun, but I just pray a lot because I think God's the only one who can handle that situation haha.
Sorry, not much happened this week. Everyone enjoy your August 3rd! It's the day that the greatest blessing EVER came into the world! haha
Love you bye!

July 22, 2013

Hello. So this week was good! I feel like we´re working really hard and we´ve been blessed. We have several investigators that are progressing well to get baptized so I´m pretty stoked about that. On Saturday it was Colombia´s independance day! Not as cool as America´s, but hey, they try.
So last Monday (pday) we went downtown here in Valledupar because we wanted a picture of the whole city. So we went to the tallest building and said that we were foreigners who love Valledupar and we wanted to take a photo because we´re only here for a little bit. We did that 3 times to different people until we got to the administrator of the building who told one of the maintenance guys to take us up. IT WAS SWEET! Here are some pictures of it.
Then that night we did a family home evening with an investigator in a members house. Another picture
We´re a little nervous because one of our investigators has a problem. Her name is Kelly and she lives with a member, but the member is still married to his ex-wife. We´ve been working with them and the ward so that he can get divorced, so that they can get married, so that she can get baptized. We finally had some good headway and the divorce is going to happen soon!, but now her boyfriend doesn´t know if he actually wants to get married to her.... boys.
On Tuesday night I interviewed a lady named Arelis and her son for baptism. She´s an investigator of the other missionaries that we live with, and is currently fighting cancer. But a few days before her baptism one of the missionaries I live with had to go to the mission home because he´s really injured, so she said that she wanted me to baptize her. It was really nice of her and the other missionaries make fun of me and say that I´m stealing baptisms, oh well haha. But it was cool. Other picture.
Yesterday only 3 investigators came to church, but it´s a whole lot better than none! One of them is the son of a less-active member and we were nervous because he said he wanted his dad to baptize him, but his dad is, as the bishop says, "a lying alcoholic," but yesterday the dad said he´ll let someone else baptize his kid if he´s not worthy, but we´re going to work with them really hard so that the dad can do it.
Well, have a good week! And a good pioneer day!

July 15, 2013

Another week come and gone. But it was a good one! SIX! Investigators came to church yesterday! We were super blessed! One of them can`t walk so we threw him and his wheelchair in a taxi and went to the church because he was late getting ready. Then during the meetings he had to go to the bathroom and one member (a true sent) took him to the bathroom and helped him go... using a soda bottle..... haha Oh Colombia.
But really a lot of people came to church and it`s wonderful.
On Wednesday my companion and I started up English class, but hardly anybody went because it was raining. But the few people who came enjoyed it and are going to bring friends this week.
We`re getting blessed because members are starting to give us references which is awesome. A lot of people have started inviting us to talk to their family members who aren`t members yet and that is a great way to baptize.
On Tuesday we got to meet our new mission president!!! His name is President Searle (prounouced sUrl) and he`s short haha. Everyone was shocked because we all thought he`d be a tall, tough farmer. But he`s a short, nice and humble farmer haha. He`s working hard to practice his spanish again, but his poor wife.... she`s learning it all new still haha. She`s super nice, but nobody can understand her spanish haha.
When they came she just wanted to talk to me because I`m the only gringo in the zone and asked me help her haha. We all had personal interviews later in the day and she also talked with every missionary. When my companion and I showed up for our interviews she smiled and said "Elder Morgan!!! Come and help!!!" haha So I got to translate for some other Elders haha. But they`re really nice and from Idaho, but no connection to mom or Grandpa.
Well, have a nice week! I love you all!

July 8, 2013

Okay so I attached some pictures from last week. There`s one of the baptism last Saturday, a family home even last Monday, and my daily planner and what it looked like on the 4th of july haha. What a great day the 4th of july right! Quite a few people during the day said, "Wait.... Today is your holiday!!!" haha. I woke up, put on the star spangled banner, and other related tunes and at night time I received my package (thanks) and opened to find the Declaration of Independance inside! I love you America!
I`d say that we had a pretty routine week here. We`re teaching some pretty good people, but we need to find more always haha. Here in the ward the bishopric is really supportive and wants to help. We told the bishop about one of our investigators and their matrimonial problem and he said he wanted to help. The problem is that he`s married... to his ex-wife still, and so they can`t get married until he gets divorced, but his ex-wife left and they can`t find her to get a divorce. And his new wife can`t get baptized until they get married! But the bishop called them into his office and talked to them about how they can fix the problem and so that was really nice of him. But this couple also sells arepas on a street corner and they cook them, cut them open and then put butter and cheese inside......  Whoda thunk that even in Colombia that can have sparks of American genius!!!!
We haven`t met our new president yet, but he`s coming here to Valledupar tomorrow! That should be exciting. He`s going to come and do a little conference and then afterwards interview every missionary. So I`m excited to meet him tomorrow.
Best news of the week! The zone leaders just barely went to Barranquilla to get all of our stuff and I finally got the Liahona (ensign) from the last general conference in English haha. I hardly understood it when it happenes so these last few days have been awesome reading all of the great talks. I loved the talk by Elder Holland.
We`ve been working with a less active family lately and the husband and wife and HUGE problems. Like he calls her names and the kids do too, but she says he`s a bad priesthood holder and things like that. But we taught them this last week and they came to church smiling and talking to eachother! This is good since last week they came at different times and didn`t even sit together.
We had 4 investigators come to church yesterday and that was wonderful. 2 of them are some young single guys and I was worried they were gonna be bored, but I looked back during the last hymn and they were staring at me smiling and giving me a thumbs up haha. We have a lesson with them tonight. I`m super jealous about all the fun 4th of July stuff, but Colombia`s pretty cool too. Everyone here thinks that all we eat at home is hot dogs and hamburgers, so when they asked what a typicle 4th of july food is.... I didn`t want to say, but then I remembered that everyone wants to live there and said hot dogs and hamburgers with pride.
I love you and hope the best for you all! bye!

July 1, 2013

Well I`m really sorry because there`s not like anytime to write. We lost a lot of time in the morning and I don`t really know why haha. But we played basketball today which was fun and our new convert (we`re getting there) invited us over for lunch!
This last week was really cool in our new area. I really like it here. The ward is super excited to have us here and wants to work with us so we`ve been blessed in that way. The best part of the week however was the baptism of Lenis! She is awesome and all that my companion and I really did was finish teaching her the lessons, she was super ready and is super excited now to be a member.
Something cool happened this week walking in the street. A guy called us and said "Elders come here!" So we went over. He said "My name`s Lorenzo and the missionaries were teaching my wife a year ago, then we moved and told the sisters to visit us, but they never came. Will you come and teach my wife who wants to get baptized?" Why yes... yes we will haha. We went to their house and it was super awesome. She has a testimony, but he has to get divorced so that they can get married, but they`re already working on the paperwork. WOOHOO!! They said they weren`t going to church because she wanted to be part of the ward, not just attend. So we explained that we`d help, but they had to go. AND THEY WENT!!! And she was just smiling ear to ear the whole time! and he was less active, but was busting out scriptures I`ve never even heard of before in the classes and blowing the teachers` minds! What a find! haha
Another guy we found a week ago came to church and is actually reading in the book of mormon. He doesn`t really understand our lessons, but loves and understands what he reads in there. He smokes, but we`re gonna talk about that soon haha.
Also in the baptism of this new convert a TON of people showed up (first time in my mission). She had a lot of support and now her mom and sister want to get baptized too! woohoo!!!!
I wish I could write more, but we`re basically out of time. Our new president just got here, but we haven`t heard anything from him yet. Should be cool to meet him.

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!