April 5, 2014

So on Monday we had to take a missionary that´s going home to this place called Parque Tayrona. Here are the pictures. Our pday was today in the morning due to general conference tomorrow. So I just wanted to send these today, but I think I´ll have a little time to write tomorrow. 

Time is going by super fast. We´re in the middle of transfers deciding where are the missionaries are going to go. It´s wild, but it´s fun. Unfortunately our area isn´t doing too hot due to the lack of work time.

We had leadership counsel on wednesday which was cool. We talked and trained about how to do the daily planning session.

The president is really worried about our emergency plans in the mission, so we´re also looking that over.

Being in the office so far has actually been pretty rough. You don´t really have time to study and the area suffers. I´ve been feeling pretty bad, but I´ve been praying a lot and I feel like the lord just gives us little miracles every now and again.

yesterday we were just walking and I just saw a door open so we rang the door bell and the lady came out and invited us in. We talked to her, her mom, and her daughter. They´re super great and want to read the book of mormon to know if it´s true. I´ve been learning a lot lately about recognizing the small blessings, but I´ve still got a ways to go.

March 29, 2014

HOLA!!!! So this week wasn´t quite as hectic. We still had a zone conference and it was in Valledupar so we got to fly to Valledupar on Wednesday morning! We flew out, did the zone conference right as we got there and then I went out to work with an elder that we´re looking at to be zone leader. It was fun because he is training a gringo in one of my old areas! It was cool to see the same streets that I walked down every day. At the end of the day we ate dinner with a family in the ward. They hardly recognized me, but they said that I´ve gotten a lot skinnier and that they´re worried haha. At night we went and slept at the zone leaders house in Valledupar and we ate a whole lot more food that we ordered and then the fun started.
So Elder Schwab and I were supposed to organize some mid-transfer transfers that same wednesday night, but we weren´t quite sure/we forgot haha. So at about 10:27 we remembered (remember that missionaries are supposed to be in bed at 10:30). But we realized that we had to call them all that night, and the worst part being that they are all sister missionaries. So we started calling them about (3 or 4) at like 10:30 and it was just an emotional disaster!!! We told them all that they had to be in the mission office at 11 the next day. One sister started sobbing, another was happy but her companions started crying, another got SUPER mad because she actually had to go home home. and she didn´t know that was going to happen so she got REALLY mad haha. It was quite the experience and the next day in the office some sister missionaries looked very upset with us haha.

With the president we just started the transfers and it´s pretty interesting. It´s tough because we have some disobedient missionaries who need strong companions, we also need district leaders, and new zone leaders as well.
We also have leadership counsel next week so we need to prepare a training for that.
There is general conference next week which makes me super excited!
And we have to start getting ready for when Elder Waddel comes in like 2 weeks to do a tour of the mission. It makes me nervous because I´ve heard that some 70´s show up to missions and just start asking a ton of questions to the assistants about the staticstics of the mission and I just don´t think I know it all! haha.

How´s home? I hope it´s good.

We also might be going to a tropical beach on Monday with all the missionaries that are going to finish their missions! President wants us to go and babysit.. haha.

Love you bye!

March 24, 2013

Sorry I didn´t write on Saturday.. I was in Santa Marta at zone conference we had to leave really fast and we got home at like 8 o´clock.
On Tuesday I had the great experience of doing an exchange with Elder House!!!! (MTC companion). He´s the zone leader in Cartagena so I went to his area and it was awesome. Cartagena is really hot but we had a good time together.
Lately I´ve been feeling pretty bad here because there´s a lot of disobedience here in this mission, so we´ve been having to visit missionaries and telling them to repent haha. I had to talk to a missionary in Cartagena on Tuesday and tell him to behave and he came to talk to president.
On wednesday morning I got up at 4 with elder house to get here in time for another zone conference. The zone conference went well but I felt bad and embarrassed because i was TOTALLY falling asleep up there on the stand and i saw other missionaries looking and laughing.... oh well haha.
On Friday I went back to santa marta to do another exchange with the zone leaders there. It was really fun. I miss Santa Marta a ton! I just love being there and you can see the beach and everything. The exchange went well. We taught a family that has triplets!! I didn´t even know that those existed down here. We also ordered a "salchipapa" (fries, sausage, and other good stuff put together in one dish) at ) 9:45 at night..... but it neverd showed up........ Poor elder morgan...
Then on Saturday we did the Santa Marta zone conference and that went super well. I liked it because they had dominoes for lunch.
Here as assistant one eats a LOT of food. Being a recently recovered food addict I am a little worried about the situation... but it´s okay. Sister searle has made cupcakes for every zone conference and I´ve eaten 2 or 3 at each one....    WOOHOO!!!!
Yesterday we had all of our appointments fall through and so we started knocking on doors. We were a little tired, but we just kept going. After about an hour and a half or 2 hours my comapanion said "I feel like it´s that house." We went over, knocked and she let us in. She then went on to say that she´s reads the bible and has realized that the true church doesn´t exist, but it looking for the truth. SHE´S SUPER SWEET!!!! and her cousin was there too!! He´s also pretty cool.
2 investigators went to church yesterday.
I love the mission! yay colombia!!!

March 15, 2013

Okay! So this week has been quite eventful up until now! On Sunday an investigator like 5 investigators came to church which was awesome! We´re working pretty hard every chance we get in the area, but our time is very limited.
As as the mission goes it was an eventful week. Monday we had to get up at 3:30 to go and pick up an elder that had to go home early. He was a little sad but he said he was going to come back when he got everything taken care of.
On Tuesday we had to finish up a lot of things for zone conferences which started this week. My companion and I were a little behind so we had to finish our training and get it all practiced and help president. He was a little behind and he´s been having to work on getting a lot of sick missionaries sent home as well. He also helped us in our training. We did an example with the piano, so he we told us to come over to practice at like 9 o´clock. We got there and of course they had dinner set up for us first haha.
Wednesday was our first zone conference. I was nervous but we did get through it. I wasn´t 100% sure if we would get through it all smoothly, but we did. I felt good about it afterwords.
Thursday made me even more nervous because my companion and I decided that someone had to stay in the area (we had a lot of good appointments planned) and so he said that I´d be going to Cartagena by myself to do the zone conference...
We got up early and I headed out with president and sister searle to cartagena. It was pretty nice because we were about 20 minutes into the drive when sister Searle said, "here´s your sandwich, some cut up melon, and a bottle of water." She´s so nice haha. The zone conference also went really well, but we were there late because president had to do interviews. I got home around 9:30, but sister searle made me a pb & j on the way home haha.
Yesterday we did another zone conference but aftterwards was when the real fun began..
There is a lot of disobedience in the mission and so yesterday and today we´ve been digging all that up and we´ve found a lot of bad stuff and missionaries lying for each other. It´s very sad.
Last night we had to go with president to visit a missionary and we got home around 10:45.

On the brighter side. Our area is doing very well. We´re being highly favored of the lord and he´s prepared people in our area even though we can´t work in it as much as we´d like.
Elder Schwab and I get along great. We´ve been playing chess recently. He´s beating me 4-3... but I´ll get him.
I love you all! bye!
Elder Morgan

March 8, 2014

So here we are. We just got through Carnaval here in BArranquilla which was pretty boring here in the office. On Sunday we went to church (nobody came) then we just came back to the office and had to sit here in the office all day. Monday we we in the office a while, but the internet was done and president had to email some people, so he took us back to his apartment (SUPER NICE) to go and do some work. We talked about what we were going to do in the zone conferences and in the leadershiop meeting. Then him and his wife had all the office over to eat hamburgers and play uno... President and sister Searle are the best!!!!!
On Monday night president received the order to send a sick sister missionary home, so on Tuesday morning we got up and 2 to go and take her to the airport. We got there at like 3:40 and had to wait until 4:30 ´til she could pass by security, so we ended up falling asleep at a table in the airport haha..
We later got home, played basketball and then sister searle called us to come and eat breakfast. We showed up and they said they wanted to thank us for going so that they didn´t have to get up early hahaha.
On Wednesday we had to prepare our training for the leadership meeting and finally got out to work at like 7.
Thursday we had the leadership training and it went pretty well!!! I was super nervous! I have been to less of those than most of the zone leaders. Sister Searle said I looked nervous too, but we got through it all haha.
Yesterday we got up at 4 to head to Cartagena for an exchange and it was cool. Cartagena is way hotter, but it´s a super pretty city.
Then today I got at 4 again to be able to get here in time for basketball hahaha.
I´m a little tired... but I love it all!!!

March 1, 2014

Hello! So this week has been really interesting! I got to know a little bit of the new ward on Sunday which was cool, and they are all really nice. I actually gave a talk haha. I also talked with the Elder that I´m replacing. When he spoke he told everyone that he was going home and a lot of people started to cry.
My new companion Elder Schwab and the elder that was leaving were a little sad all the last few days because they´ve been together 6 months and Elder Molina finally had to leave. He cried as he left the office to go to the airport, and in the airport he didn´t want to pass the security. He just kept saying "a little longer, a little longer." He finally had to go and then my companion cried a little. I felt bad, but now we´re in the groove of things. I wish I could say that we´ve been out like crazy, but Carnaval just started so we´re locked in the house and we can´t leave for a few days.
Elder Schwab is awesome and we´re working like crazy. Our area is one of the "tougher" areas according to other missionaries, but we just talk to everyone and we´re finding people to teach.
I´m learning a ton here and I love being able to be close to president. He´s just so great and loving and he loves talking to us. He comes in to our companionship study and just starts telling us about his life and wants to talk about how to help missionaries.
During Carnaval we´re re writing the guide book for missionaries in the mission, and we´re preparing a training for leadership counsel. It´s something that happens every month and I´m a little nervous because we train the zone leaders and the majority are experienced and I´ve only been to one leadership counsel haha. All the zone leaders have called to talk to me, but they all said they´re happy.
We also welcomed the new group of missionaries in. They seem really great. Some of them already seem a little rebellious, but we put the fear of god into them by telling them how to talk and that if they look at a girl below the eyes they´ve sinned and quit being missionaries hahaha.
I´ve been nervous to be here in the office, replacing the ever famous Elder Molina, but  a missionary came and showed me Joshua 1:5 which helped.
Love you all bye!