May 31, 2014

We had a baptism on Saturday and it was awesome! Quite a few ward members showed up and I really felt good about Rafael. He´s a great convert and he´s already been interviewed by the bishop and I think he´ll endure to the end!

This week we´ve been doing a lot of exchanges and my companion has been getting to know a lot of the mission and I´ve been here in our area trying to find less active members and new investigators, but we´re having a little bit of trouble. 

This week we´ve got leadership counsel on Wednesday so we´re getting prepared for that and we also start zone conferences... and we are not very prepared for that.. but we´ll get there!

We did have an investigator in church on Sunday named Julian. He´s a referral from a member and he´s 72, and does not understand a whole lot, but we´re patient with him and I think he´ll get there.

So that´s what´s new. Here are some pictures of Rafaels baptism and the transfer board since that´s where I spend most of my time haha.

Spiritual experience: we were looking for a less active and the address was wrong, but we got there and we just felt like something was there. So we started contacting and ended up finding another less active who feels bad and had been praying for a relief from her sins so.... the missionaries showed up!!!! haha. She´s already gone to church and is making major changes in her life. What a blessing the gospel is.

Love, Elder Morgan

May 24, 2014

Hello. Here we are at the start of another transfer and it´s starting off SUPER well! We had a great week last week with 3 investigators in church and we were able to teach a lot of people! It was sad to see Elder Schwab leave the office on Tuesday, but it´s been great here with Elder Urresta!

We´re hitting the area as hard as we possibly can and we´re trying to help all of the less actives and investigators progress.

On Tuesday the new missionaries arrived and that´s always fun. I love seeing the ones that are super excited and come running down the escalator, the ones who have the fear of god in their eyes not knowing what to expect (that was me), and the always so mature sisters haha.

a lot of things went wrong when they got here. We had a bus without air conditioning, a lot of traffic causing us to get there late, etc. but in the end it all worked out very well. We trained the new missionaries and it went very well and we got to help the trainers build their confidence as well.

On thursday we did an exchange and I got to work with elder Jensen from grantsville, utah. He´s awesome and we had a good day. Yesterday we told president we had to leave to got and go work early and we got out and taught like 7 lessons, it was great!

I´m sad because 2 of the brand new missionaries have already gone home as well as 2 other sick elders, but god´s work will not be frustrated.

We have a baptism today in about an hour and I´m baptizing! woohoo!!!

Love you all bye!

May 17, 2014

So it was great to see you all on Sunday!!! I was really happy to see that everyone is doing well and to see grandma!!! I really miss you all a ton.

So we´re finishing up the transfers here in the office and president just assigned a new assistant!!! My companion Elder Schwab will be leaving the offce on Tuesday so yesterday my new companion got here. His name is Elder Urresta from Ecuador! He´s a great missionary! I´ve known him since the beginning of my mission and I´m excited to work with him.

Also this week I got to do an exchange in Santa Marta in my old area which was fantastic! I loved it, but it made me miss my old area. I got to see the people that I taught and baptized and they´re ALL doing great and are active in the church.

This week we´re working hard so that our investigator Rafael can get baptzed! He´s so great and I love him a lot.He really has to come to know christ and repentance and he feels that change that comes through the atonement in his life.

We were also able to find another young kid named Sebastian who´s super cool and who´s already read the book of mormon quite a bit and prayed.

I love you all! bye 

May 12, 2014

So we just talked yesterday, but all is well here. I loved seeing you all and I´m glad to see that everyone is super happy. 

This last week we had leadership counsel and it went pretty well. We had a few of the zone leaders train and they did really well.

My companion went to Cartagena to do exchanges for a few days and so while he was out I had the area all to myself. I worked with Elder Palmer one day and then I worked with a new missionary who came in from Chile. He got here on Friday and it was a real pleasure working with him. 

He was in this mission about 2 years ago and then he went home, but he came back!!! It was great to feel the power of this elders testimony. He really has just come back ready to work. 

We were able to find some great people as well, but I felt really bad. I made him walk a lot and he got some pretty bad blisters hahaha. But that´s okay.

Today was pday but we spent most of it doing transfers with president.

I love the mission and there´s not a lot of time today to write. Love you bye!!!

May 3, 2014

Hello family and dearly loved ones.

Another week here in the beloved Colombia Barranquilla mission and things are going forward. As I´ve mentioned we´ve been working a lot with the less actives, we actually are teaching a whole family of less-active members and we were fortunate enough to have them come to church this last Sunday! They were super happy in the church and they were very well welcomed! Everyone was happy for them, but nobody sat by the wife, but she still said that she´ll come this coming Sunday.

We have an investigator that´s close to baptism, his name is Rafael. He´s 19 and he´s working hard to be able to get baptized. We had some great lessons with him this week. He said tha from all the preparation that he´s doing he´s really been able to FEEL that this is the true church.

Also this week one of the intercambios that we did was with the zone leaders that are in my first area, and I got to go to my old area!!!! We saw quite a few people that I met there and they were all happy and said, "you´re so skinny and you can talk now!!!!" It was great. haha

I got to see Diego, who always left with us when I was there and it was great to be able to leave with him again.

That´s basically how the week went. We´re on the search for a new assistant here in the mission to replace my companion either this transfer or the next, so we´re kind of out checking all of the missionaries out.

Yesterday we had  an intercambio with the zone leaders in Santa Marta so we drove all the way there early in the morning and then we came back right after, but I got sick in the car and had to ask the driver to pull over... luckily it was just a dry heave... but it was pretty close hahaha.

Glad that Disneyland went well, and I´m was super happy/sad to see the picture of everyone with the chararacters... I want to go!!!

Anyways, I love you all! bye! 

April 26, 2014

So here we are working, just working in the work of the Lord, but we`re still waiting for a few baptisms to click into place. We have some good people, just need to complete some more commitments.

This week we`ve been able to do some exchanges which has been really fun. I got to work with Elder Palmer here in my area (our district leader and the executive secretary). We had some great success. Yesterday I got to go to a zone called Hipordromo which is just south of Barranquilla... It`s pretty sandy haha. I worked with Elder Chavez from Perù. He`s a great missionary, but I feel bad because he`s pretty sick.

As far as investigators go... We have this one family (Lopez) that are progressing well. They went to church on Sunday, and they liked it, but they still don`t read in the book of mormon.

We also have Rafael who`s doing great because he`s reading and praying and he says that he`s felt his faith grow which is super awesome. He`s told us that he feels bad in his house because his family (aunts uncles cousins) all are like atheists or evagelical christians (CRAZIES) So being able to meet the nice, peaceful restored gospel has really helped him out.

We also are teaching a lady named Brisley that`s the nanny for a less active family and she recently returned from a long trip, but it`s sad becasue her mom on the trip said that she shouldn`t get baptized in the church because she`s really worldly and not ready to make a commitment like baptism, but we`re helping her out.

The whole mission is really excited after the Elder Waddell tour, but some missionaries didn`t interpret his little talk right. We`ve been hearing a lot of missionaries say that there`s no need to knock on doors or to talk to people in the street because those would just be "numbers" (I hate when missionaries use that word haha.) So we`re making a training for the upcoming leadership counsel to help them focus on the people, and getting references.

Whilst meditating in the street about whether knocking on doors was really useful or not we knocked on a door. And for a 19 year-old kid who said he`s been looking for the truth and says that he doesn`t feel "full" in his church.... THAT folks is why we knock on doors haha.

Love you all bye!

April 19, 2014

Wowzers folks!!!

So yesterday we just finished the mission tour with Elder Waddell (of the 70) and it was an experience to say the least!!!

We headed out early Wednesday morning to Santa Marta because that´s where he flew in to. We got there and it was quite the rush making sure that all the food was going to get there on time, that the interview rooms were ready and water and just everything, but we got it all.

He showed up and he´s about 6 foot 9 I think haha. He´s HUGE!! he said hello and then got to work interviewing 2 or 3 missionaries and then did the special conference.

The conference was just absolutely awesome. he taught us about WHY we´re here, WHAT it is that we are doing, and HOW we can do it better. He talked a lot about how we need to be working more with the less active members and that activating a less active family is the same as baptizing a family of investigators. I loved it because he explained to us that here it´s almost too easy to baptized, and that the goal is NOT to just baptize... but to get people to the temple.. it was super great.

Our mission president also gave a great talk about obedience and sister searle blew everyone out of the water with her talk. She talked about the importance of the holy ghost. Sister waddell was also there and she´s so loving and nice and she just wanted to talk to us the whole time hahaha.That night we left Santa Marta and got to our house and about 9

The next day we got up and headed to a church here in Barranquilla for the next meeting and it was also fantastic! And after the conference we got to eat dinner with them and the stake president. It was awesome because we got to do some really great and personal questions. His wife said that he loves answering doctrinal questions, so who would pass that up hahahaha. We ate salmon and coconut rice... yumm!!! That night we also got to go to the members meeting where he talked about how to do a ward counsel and going "to the rescue."

It was funny because he asked, "Elders, did you feel like I was direct and tough on the missionaries."

"yes," we replied, "but it was great."

He said, "just wait til I get my hand on the members.".............

HAHAHAHAHA It was awesome!!! He was SUPER direct and corrected every little error, but I know that he helped.

But that´s not even the best part. I was in the member meeting and I saw some people from my first area, but I wanted to see members from Sabanalarga (the little town I served in for 6 months) But I wasn´t sure I would because it´s far away, but some did show up. I saw them and smiled and then.... I SAW THE DAD OF THAT FAMILY I BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!! The family we baptized in January. I smiled from ear to ear and had to hold in my jump for joy.

After the meeting we run over and I hugged him... He was happy too and he said that he´s been called as the ward mission leader, his wife is now the gospel principles teacher, and the whole family is going to church!!!!

I was very content.

The next day we went to Cartagena and the conference was also great. In the cartagena conference I could feel so strongly the importance of why I´m here, and some things that I need to do. It was an amazing experience. 

Last night Elder Waddell hugged us and said, " thank you elders and keep up the good work."

I loved all the conferences and learned new things in every one by what he said and by the spirit.

Last night we traveled home really late, but thank the great god above that we got home safe around 11 haha.

 I love you all!

church is true!

bye!

April 12, 2014

Hello!

So we got the transfers all done and they went really well! We got almost every zones zone leaders changed which we´re hoping helps out with the obedience issue that we seem to have been facing. 

We saw conference and WOW!!! It was absolutely amazing! I loved the talk by Elder Holland, Elder Bednar, Elder Ballard and the 70 who talked about the preparation fro a 4 minute experience. I feel super excited! I love conference now! Thank you mission! haha

My companion and I have been fighting really hard for people in our area. We´re passing for a tougher time proselyting wise because we´ve been in the office doing transfers a lot. Some nights we were here until 10:30 or even a little later haha... oops!

But here with the new transfer we´re super excited! We´ve got the tour of Elder Waddell this week! (he totally said the prayer at the end of the first session haha) We will be traveling throughout the mission with him from wednesday until Friday visiting all the cities!

My companion and I are alos super commited to doing exchanges with ALL of the zone leaders this transfer to see how the mission is doing. I really like doing exchanges!

On Friday we were talking about how we need new investigators and how we need to not only teach by the spirit, but FIND by the spirit as well. So we said a prayer just before we headed out and asked the lord to guide us.

We found SEVEN new investigators yesterday. FAMILIES!!!!  I feel great about them! I hope and pray they´ll progress.

We also have another family that´s getting close to a baptismal date.

pray that we find people who want to get baptized! haha

I forgot to tell you guys! But like 2 months or so ago I asked you all to pray for a lady named Alexi who was facing challenges from her other church. (i was in santa marta) Well she got baptized and know that your prayers helped her.

I love you family and friends and the mission is fantastic. BYE!!!