Week...what? oh yeah halfway.‏
From:
Shae Morgan (shae.d.morgan.mes@myldsmail.net)
Sent:
Tue 7/21/09 5:05 PM
To:
morganet@msn.com; shadanielm@hotmail.com
Familamily...so life is pretty darn good here. week 4 is coming up and as of this coming friday I'll have hit the 1/2 through the MTC...which also means only 23 months left :(. Real quick thing to note: Mom, and family if you could dearelder me long e-mails that would be better for me, because I'm spending about a third of my total e-mail time reading and then I have little time to type...even though I'm a beast typist (humble too). :) Ooook so week three hmm...yeah mom you're right we did start lesson 2 in spanish. we're not really supposed to until week 6...but what the heck :) So the first time we taught it, we were smoother than butter out on a hot day. The next time, we thought we were up for a challenge, so we asked that the "investigator" have a little deep problem something they really want help with. This was an ABSOLUTE FAILURE. We started getting to know the guy, (a native speaker by the way) and he was telling us something was bothering him. After assuring him we were there to help, and give a message of peace and comfort, he told us that his father had passed away, but that wasn't necessarily his problem...except for the fact that I thought he said that his problem WAS that his father had passed away. Soooo I jump right into how families can be together forever, and how God made a plan so that it's possible... we get to the end of the lesson, where we can ask for feedback, and he was like...I told you that my father passing away wasn't my main concern. And it turns out that his scenario he had been given was that he had cancer...so that was just a total failure for not getting to the heart of the problem. Oh well all is well. Todo esta bien :)Mom, I have a short little fun note for you. this week I learned that the "haré finca" means "I will do/make farm" so yeah...I feel pretty stupid now for saying that so much. ONE MORE story. So two of the hermanas in our district are gone now, but we still have Hermana Voigt. She was having a really bad day, and at lunch she was kinda just blowing steam and saying why everything was going so horribly....Shae stupidity instincts kick in...he reaches his arm out....moves it in her direction as if to comfort her with a side arm hug....then realizes he's a set apart missionary and that he really can't do that, freaked out, knocked over his cup and fell out of his chair.yeah. felt pretty stupid about that too. OOOK so about the work. It's awesome. Lesson 2, down in spanish. ok so it still needs a TON of work. But it's getting there...I can mumble through it and mostly conjugate all the verbs the right way. We still listen to general conference talks in spanish, and that's been a great help learning vocab and just getting used to how different people say stuff. Elder Reid and I are doing great...which is a major answer to prayer. I know God hears our prayers and even desires of our heart. This week, we've really straightened things out, and set some high goals. Just yesterday we had this ridiculous goal of "contacting" 100 people. Which entails introducing ourselves, getting to know them a little bit, and concluding by bearing testimony of some principle. and guess what? we did it. at 9:35 at night we bore testimony to a whole beginner spanish district and put our number at 108 contacts for that day. I feel really great about bearing testimony and stuff like that. Speaking of which. We taught lesson 2 a 3rd time in spanish...and I had a great experience. We were in the very beginning just talking about how God loves us...and out of nowhere I just spewed out "Do you understand that God is a real being who loves you?" Now...I don't know how to say that...I could piece it together now, but it just came out then. And then whoosh, and peace. the whole room was quiet...and this missionary, this human being, felt the spirit of the Lord testify that what we were saying is true. If he didn't, I sure did. And it was the first time I've really felt the love of God obviously manifest in my spanish teaching. One more quick thing. Every Sunday, there's a devotional, and then the opportunity to watch 1 of 4 church films. This week we watched The Testaments. And I think that everyone needs to watch that again. It's amazing. :) Thanks for all you love and support and prayers. I love you all and I miss you tons. But I'd miss not being here more :) -Elder Morgan

Wahoo familia como estan?! estoy muy agradecido para su correo electronico y las cartas que yo hube recibido! ok english. Thanks for the e-mails and letters. From everyone really. This week has been an awesome time here. At the MTC. Starting my 4th week officially tomorrow, so that's kinda nuts. Some of my district (the advanced bunch) are already gone...that's insane, but they left for the field, and Garrett, I gotta say I'm a little envious of you only being here for 3 weeks...you get to just run out and DO stuff instead of study study study study. Anyhow, I'm grateful to be here, I love learning, I love all the spanish going on. I just love missionary work! Sooo....This week was cool. Each week on Friday we have a "task" to complete. This week we had to 1)contact 2)get to know someone 3) set an appointment all in spanish, then once we set the appointment, pretend to teach the first lesson. Second time trying in english, we actually did most of the lesson in spanish. I'm getting really excited as my vocab continually is increasing and my unknown vocab (I think that's what I'm gonna call those words put into my mouth) keeps going up too! it's been pretty insane. I KNOW that God helps His missionaries. I thought I was pretty good at Spanish, but now I know how far I have to go, and I know He is beside me wanting to help. Funny story about language...I was (fake) contacting with my companion, Elder Reid, and we were getting to the 1st lesson part, and I was trying to bear testimony that if they were righteous, and follow the commandments, I know they will be blessed. Sooo I'm fully capable of contacting, getting to know someone, and telling them how absolutely wonderful the message is I have for them and how it can bless them and their families, but I had ABSOLUTELY no clue how to say righteous. It was really funny, cause I realized I learned how to say all the negative stuff the Gospel can overcome, but I hadn't learned how to say righteous. Goofy me.. Anywho...Another funny story! We have a "Cuarto Secreto" (secret room) where we practice teaching lessons. And by we I mean, Me, E. Reid, E. Allred, and E. Covey. Anyway, we've totally beefed up this story of our AWESOME secret room...and last week a new district was assigned to our previously empty room. No bueno. sooo...we of course had to make a NEW secret room, and we couldn't find one...anyhow, funny part right here. So we had to go "contact" 10 people in our building...well everyone was in class or busy...but we were SET on doing this, so we contacted people in line in the bathroom. we left with not 10...but 14 contacts, and no one else in our district had quite as much success (mom you may or may not want to include this in the mass e-mail...I trust your judgement.) Anyhow all is well, and now that there are 2 elders gone from my room (Elders Carrillo y De La Fuente have left for the field) and E. Allred and Covey never had roommates, we're consolidating our rooms, so we'll be roommates. That'll be great and I think we'll get a lot done. The work is good, the food is good, the Spirit is the wonderful peace I feel everyday even after the hardest ones. Thanks for your support, thanks for your prayers. If you have questions, shoot me an e-mail, ooor DearElder.com me or, write me a letter :) Thanks again.Hasta Ver-Elder Morgan

Hello familamily!

Week 2: Mission Report: 2 words. qué pasó? haha ok so that's just a little chiste (joke) as all is well here in MTC land. Or "MTCia" so lovingly named by Elder Allred. He's such a goofball and keeps our district lively and animated. As for Elder Barnes, no he's not from the STL. He's from Topeka Kansas, he actually knew me from EFY and I basically inspired him to play guitar...interesting how the world works out huh? Anyway, he's not serving in Mesa, So much has happened this week! so, I don't know if I've mentioned this or not yet, but we have 3 hermanas in our district now, Hermanas Voigt (Serving in Mesa AZ!), Tracy (Panama), and Brown (Barcelona Espana). Also we added another Elder who moved up from beginner. Elder Mullen (serving in Long Beach CA) Sooo...Elder mullen and barnes are going to Long Beach, Elders Allred and Covey are serving in Tegucigalpa (sorry president Slezak I know I murdered that), Honduras mission, and Elder McDonald is serving in Chile Concepción and elder Hansen in Santiago chile. Then Reid and I going to Mesa. So that's the low-down of my TOTALLY INSANELY AWESOME DISTRICT. Basically we're the best.

Anyhow so today I went to the Temple. LOVE. haha it was wonderful, and a great experience. Classes? I'm doing a great job with spanish. I 'm really getting used to speaking and hearing it. I'm doing pretty good at understanding it. I can listen to conference talks and basically get everything out of it. unless it's Dallin H Oaks or someone with crazy language skills.

I need a line of authority sent to me just so you know. :) That's something else. Thursdays we have english fasts and we don't speak english the whole day...not going to lie it was really really rough and we had a hard time expressing ourselves. I'm gonna go get my laundry now, but I'll write another e-mail later since I have time left, so I'll ask more questions later!
Mucho amor -Elder Morgan

AHHH I'm totally stoaked about being here! I have no clue half of what I just went through, but no worries a new message is on its way for you in the mail completely explaining my first day. I'm typing as fast as my little fingers can go (boasting an impressive 80 words a minute) haha just playing. Anyhow I LOVE IT HERE it's so incredibly AWESOME!!!! I love it so so so much. The Spirit is ALWAYS here if you're doing the things you should be doing. Really, all the little rules aren't that hard to follow. Really, it's not bad. cause they give you 8 hours to sleep!!! I don't think I EVER pulled that off at college (oops :( ) anyhow.

My days! I've been here 5 days this is starting th 6th. It's been nuts. My district is way neat comprising of Me, Elder Reid (comp), Elder Barnes, Elder Hansen, Elder McDonald, Elder Covey (yes, the grandson of Steven R.), and elder Allred (muy muy muy comico y amable). And we just had the pleasure of gaining a new addition to our distrito! 3 hermanas!! ellas estan muy muy alegres y simpatico tambien. Hermana Brown, Voigt (also going to Mesa Arizona), and Hermana Tracy. They are such an awesome strength to our distrito. I love hearing their testimonies, and you just can see the shining goodness in their eyes. Ok. Class description. I have 2 maetros (teachers). Hermana Hawley, and Hermano Stanfield. Hermana Hawley served in Spain and yes renae she speaks spanish with the lisp and everything. I'm glad you spoke like that cause it makes it easy for me to understand her while everyone else is having a really really hard time. Hno Stanfield served in Argentine and he has some FUNNY ways to say things. He's very helpful, as they both don't speak in english to us whatsoever, Hno stanfield especially is good at acting out the word, or explaining it in simpler terms. I love it. loooove it. So as I said, we are basically a no-english distrito. Class lessons are 100% spanish except for when we are COMPLETELY LOST. Which believe it or not doesn't happen much. We're all pretty darn good at spanish. The first day, we were extremely blown away, but now that we've been here 5 days, the spirit is definitely helping us out in the translation department. Yesterday, I understood every single thing Hna Hawley said. what a blessing! I know I don't know all the words, or how she was using them, but I know that I understood the entirety of her messge, even down to the little details, and for that little glimpse into the gift of understanding, I'm incredibly grateful for.

This is my longest e-mail probably because I have more time cause I don't get to read anything you have tried to send to me. Any messages from family and friends need to be sent to this address, or I won't be able to read them. shae.d.morgan.mes@myldsmail.org or wherever this message is coming from. maybe it's .net. oh well. just try and get any messages to me. Dear Elder.com is AWESOME. use it my box number is #105 and my estimated leaving date is Aug. 24 ( no early release here!) So I have 8.5 weeks to go insane and learn a ton of spanish and discussions in spanish and how to teach and everything else in the world. I've already learned so much!

I know mom probably wants a play by play of everything I do each day so here it is. 6:10 I wake up to beat the 6:30 rush to the showers. This gives me more time to feel the spirit in the morning instead of being rushed here and there to get to class on time. So, I wake up, pray for me, my companion, and my district. Shower, brush, change into awesome white shirt, slacks, and a DARN good tie, then I head to class by 7:00 personal study until breakfast at 7:45. Then class for 4 hours, till lunch, then lunch class for near 4 hours, then dinner, then comp study, and MDT (missionary directed time to study, language study, use the teaching evaltuation center, or referral center) That's pretty much it.

Seralyn just left for EFY huh....goodness you better keep those boys away from her Matt! Have an AWESOME time counselor-ing, it's going to be great and I hope you never ever doubt for a second if a prompting from the spirit to talk to a boy or girl is of God, because you may just be the thing that starts them changing for the better. That's what happened to me, and I'm forever grateful for that moment of my life.

ok I'm pretty ADD cause I just threw that in mid-schedule. So, After MDT is comp inventory (where we talk about our day and what we can do better) and then after that is study time, praying time, comp prayer, then lights out at 10:30. We also usually have a gym period (which is heaven here.) and sometimes we have devotionals and other stuff.

Ask me questions I'd love to answer anything next week!! Make sure this makes it to the blog and I'm starting to run down on time, but we'll see what I can do.

Sooooo Devotionals! that's something to talk about. This week alone, we had Jeffery R. Holland come speak to us. That was SUCH an awesome lesson about divine companionship, and how if we strive to be obedient, then we're a companionship of 3 not 2 and one is a member of the Godhead....wow. I think of the miracles performed and the converting power of the spirit when Lehi and Nephi in the book of mormon (the end not the beginning) preached and brought in TONS of people into the church. I'm so grateful for that ability to have the spirit as a companion when things get hard. Cause things get hard, really hard, the days are long, 100% spanish when you don't even really speak it gets discouraging sometimes, but "lo I am with thee " and the Lord will go before me and follow behind me so long as I am obedient to His commandments. Mi testimonio? En espanol? pues. Yo tengo un testimonio que el Evangelio de Jesucristo esta restaurado a la tierra. Tenemos un profeta viviente, se llama Thomas S. Monson. Yo se que Jesucristo es mi Salvador y Redentor...y que a traves a la Expiacion, podemos ser limpios de pecados. Y yo digo estas cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo Amen.

I love you all very much,Thanks for your support,My time is goneHurrah for Israel!-Elder Shae D. Morgan P.S. Mom, don't worry about my health. I only live on the top floor of the Quarantine building with 3 floors of contaminated elders with the Swine Flu...er...H1N1. haha No all is well there's a ton of hand sanatizer here so it's all good, and we're taking major precautions. Thanks Love ya! Bye