I am Shae's dad. It is my responsibility to update the blog with his weekly e-mail that he sends to us. I have not been consistent. I will do better. Just wanted to apologize that I posted 4 or 5 of his letters today. You are now current if you read all postings.
Kind regards and thank you for your prayers and support of my son.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
11/03/2009: Whatever they told me, they lied
You read that subject line absolutely correctly. They said Arizona, people laughed in my face and said "you're going to DIE it's so hot there!" "You'll come home like a lobster!
"Well guess what?? I tan in Arizona! Also, this week it was so ridiculously cold in the mornings I almost died.
Ok, so it's an exaggeration, but the point is, in the mornings when we get up to work out...it's like 40 degrees. And here I was fooled into thinking it was 100 year round. See? it's not so bad here :). Anyways, the "Jacket" rule is now in effect.
Any day with the temperature above 75 degrados, we have to wear our suit coats, a rule I'm not too fond of, but it's all good.
New Games:
Pullover!: Objective: Talk to people, Rules: When driving and you see someone on the side of the road and you feel we should talk to them, you say "Pullover!" and the person who didn't say "pullover" has to talk to them. It's INTENSE and it gets us all psyched to talk to everyone about the awesomeness which is the Gospel. :)
Ok, what happened this week? Well, I think everyone should know I got H1N1 aka Swine Flu......................................now before my mom dies of freaking out, everyone should know it was the Vaccine for it, but it's true, I've had it...more or less. Haha I didn't get sick, I'm healthy and very very well here in Arizona.
This week I went on splits with the English Elders...that was interesting. Let's just say it was WAY nice to be able to effectively communicate, but let's also say that English people are WAY more rude and harsh than spanish. I'm ok with the trade-off I've decided. communication, for treatment...Props to you English goers. :) This morning I had a neat little revelation. We woke up at 3:15 to get ready and get to the temple by 6 a.m. session, and I get kinda cranky in the morning sometimes, but I realized that just cause I'm up early, doesn't mean I should get mad for any reason...I'm the same Elder Morgan I was 5ish hours ago when I went to bed...changed my attitude. :)
Another cool realization: We went to breakfast at a $3.99 breakfast buffet for missionaries, and it was weird to realize that whenever the elders wanted to talk about something amongst themselves, they just said it in spanish...and here's the realization. I can speak spanish. ok ok so before God strikes me for being prideful, I'm DEFINATELY not good at spanish...but now that I'm beginning to understand more, I'm beginning to speak better, and it's just all coming together. It was a neat thing for me to realize.
Also. Halloween. Ward trunk or Treat. We definitely (definately?) had the best trunk. The kids had to reach through a hole into the trunk full of little blown up trashbags, only to realize on the other side of the hole was an elder in the trunk to grab their hand, shake them around a little, then give them some candy. it was cool. The niños love us.
I'd like to close with just a quick little experience. Tracting = knocking doors = ineffective. We decided this week to test the Lord. If we set an appointment with someone, and they aren't there when we go, we decided we must be there for some reason so we tract that street. So the DAY we started doing this, 2 doors past our appointment we found this ladi named Marí. She's WAY AWESOME. At first was like "I don't need church, cause they're all led by men" Then we testified that God is guiding His true church through a prophet and how SHE can know for HERSELF. She invited us in to come teach her. it was a neat experience. Way neat. She was way into it, and asked us to come back and share more with her whole family. So we'll see how that flies this week. :) I'm done. My fingers are a punto de morir. (about to die) I love you all. thanks so much for your support! As Elder Nicholas would say (from Georgia) "Ya'll're so tight". My prayers are with you all!
-Elder Morgan
"Well guess what?? I tan in Arizona! Also, this week it was so ridiculously cold in the mornings I almost died.
Ok, so it's an exaggeration, but the point is, in the mornings when we get up to work out...it's like 40 degrees. And here I was fooled into thinking it was 100 year round. See? it's not so bad here :). Anyways, the "Jacket" rule is now in effect.
Any day with the temperature above 75 degrados, we have to wear our suit coats, a rule I'm not too fond of, but it's all good.
New Games:
Pullover!: Objective: Talk to people, Rules: When driving and you see someone on the side of the road and you feel we should talk to them, you say "Pullover!" and the person who didn't say "pullover" has to talk to them. It's INTENSE and it gets us all psyched to talk to everyone about the awesomeness which is the Gospel. :)
Ok, what happened this week? Well, I think everyone should know I got H1N1 aka Swine Flu......................................now before my mom dies of freaking out, everyone should know it was the Vaccine for it, but it's true, I've had it...more or less. Haha I didn't get sick, I'm healthy and very very well here in Arizona.
This week I went on splits with the English Elders...that was interesting. Let's just say it was WAY nice to be able to effectively communicate, but let's also say that English people are WAY more rude and harsh than spanish. I'm ok with the trade-off I've decided. communication, for treatment...Props to you English goers. :) This morning I had a neat little revelation. We woke up at 3:15 to get ready and get to the temple by 6 a.m. session, and I get kinda cranky in the morning sometimes, but I realized that just cause I'm up early, doesn't mean I should get mad for any reason...I'm the same Elder Morgan I was 5ish hours ago when I went to bed...changed my attitude. :)
Another cool realization: We went to breakfast at a $3.99 breakfast buffet for missionaries, and it was weird to realize that whenever the elders wanted to talk about something amongst themselves, they just said it in spanish...and here's the realization. I can speak spanish. ok ok so before God strikes me for being prideful, I'm DEFINATELY not good at spanish...but now that I'm beginning to understand more, I'm beginning to speak better, and it's just all coming together. It was a neat thing for me to realize.
Also. Halloween. Ward trunk or Treat. We definitely (definately?) had the best trunk. The kids had to reach through a hole into the trunk full of little blown up trashbags, only to realize on the other side of the hole was an elder in the trunk to grab their hand, shake them around a little, then give them some candy. it was cool. The niños love us.
I'd like to close with just a quick little experience. Tracting = knocking doors = ineffective. We decided this week to test the Lord. If we set an appointment with someone, and they aren't there when we go, we decided we must be there for some reason so we tract that street. So the DAY we started doing this, 2 doors past our appointment we found this ladi named Marí. She's WAY AWESOME. At first was like "I don't need church, cause they're all led by men" Then we testified that God is guiding His true church through a prophet and how SHE can know for HERSELF. She invited us in to come teach her. it was a neat experience. Way neat. She was way into it, and asked us to come back and share more with her whole family. So we'll see how that flies this week. :) I'm done. My fingers are a punto de morir. (about to die) I love you all. thanks so much for your support! As Elder Nicholas would say (from Georgia) "Ya'll're so tight". My prayers are with you all!
-Elder Morgan
10/27/2009: A nice week in Phoenix
Greetings, hola, bonjour, awakietashika, and all those hellos to you: (p.s. I'm pretty sure awakietashika doesn't mean anything)
Well I'm really sad to hear about Sister Hemming. She was so so so awesome, and I'm sure that right now she's organizing a choir of youth to sing the song of love to the hearts of the people still here. I don't doubt her desire to spread a happy song, and her testimony with anyone. She'll be greatly missed I'm sure. Tell Keri things'll be ok and to think about the happy day we'll all be together again.
I didn't know I was eating intestine...until I put the first piece in my mouth and everyone went "oooooooh!!!!! Elder that's INTESTINE!!!" then they all laughed. joy. :) Also, I've decided to spend some of my time on Sundays learning to play more hymns, evidently there are a lot of wards and branches with no one to play for them, so I should be getting some good piano experience here!
Rules for Halloween? Just another normal day. We're going to a ward trunk n treat thing, but after, we're knocking doors, and teaching lessons. yeah I have permiso to drive now, so we all three alternate driving days, and I think I'm good on my license, but I have the option of renewing to an AZ one which I think I will cause it doesn't expire until I'm 65...that's cool.
Mom, about the members, it's really sad. They aren't super friendly or outgoing to the people we bring. Often they are left to sit alone, in the which case, we elders split up to sit with them all. One family we're teaching has next-door-neighbors who are members so they chat and sit together. Other than that, they unfortunately aren't too helpful...we have a hard time getting anyone to come teach with us. It's a struggle, but we're trying to win their trust by doing awesome Noches de Hogar (FHE) with them. We'll see how that goes.
Thought: Elder Moffitt, in his old age and wisdom said that people said a lot that we are the "chosen generation" and maybe that is so because we're chosen to realize that the members can help the missionaries in more ways, so when we're all done with our missions, this generation will be the AWESOME ward member support for the next wave of missionaries. Matt: you better be doing something missionary like still. if not, get going you bum! just because you don't have a tag, doesn't mean you can't share the light of the Gospel with others :) .
Schedule:
5:45 wake up
6:00 meet at church where we play soccer with other missionaries in the gym (or at their apartment to lift weights)
6:45-8:00 shower/breakfast (Elder Nicholas takes forever.)
8:00 personal study
9:00 companionship study
10:00 Spanish study
11:00 Lunch
12:00 begin proselyting
5:00 dinner at a member's house/message there
6:00 continue preaching
9:00 home (unless teaching a lesson then it's allowed to be 9:30)
9:30 plan for the next day/write in journal/discuss spanish problems
10:30 in bed, lights out, sleep
Ugh I hate how long my letters get, but there's so much to say!!!! For a cool thing I've started dreaming in spanish. Funny thing is, it's slow spanish JUST like how I speak. it makes sense, but I remember waking up after my first spanish dream and just being like "WHOA!" "my dream was in spanish!" it was cool.
Here's a quick spill out of the SWEET things that happened this week:
Today: Climbed a mountain here, Iron Mountain, or Squaw peak. it was intense
Yesterday: Taught an AWESOME Lesson. We went to a less active member's house to teach them, they happened to have a friend over, who happened to want to learn more, who happened to understand everything we said. At the end of the lesson, she looked at us, and said "that makes perfect sense. do you have a book of mormon I can read so I can be sure before I get baptized?" first lesson. that was WAY sweet. We invited her to pray...and after the prayer she just filled with emotion and through the tears told us she'd never felt like that before. it was an amazing experience. All because some members had befriended someone, and talked about the church. Last
Friday: we taught a guy named Sergio. This little mexican is like a sponge!!! He soaked it all up, and just asked for more. He's going to read the whole book of mormon these next two weeks he told us and he said he'll see how he feels after that. Basically that means he knows this is the truth, and he's going to get baptized and start his road to Heaven.
Last Thursday: We taught AGAIN a friend of a member named Olga, who loved church and wants to keep coming cause she "feels something different". That's all the cool stuff. Aside from that, just the normal people who are drunk and on crack all the time, there are Gay people everywhere here and they hate us and yell at us and spit on us as they drive by. Met a guy who challenged our knowledge of the bible by asking us who the most notorious killer in the bible and the United States was...he told us they were the same person:Moses. I think he was high. A lady who told us that her pastor told her that she isn't allowed to change religions...and she believes him. we met our new neighbors...get this, she's a black lady named Shae. Loved that. alrighty! that's all for this one!
Love you all thanks for your support and prayers...we definitely need them here. OH!!! one more thing! Elder Nicholas has been feeling a little lack of mail this past transfer...if you were planning on writing me this week, will you write him instead? Just a hello, thanks, add a thought/poem/encouragement, send it to the same address just put Elder Adam Nicholas instead of Elder Shae Morgan :) this is something I've wanted to do to help serve one of my companions. Thanks!
-Elder Morgan
Well I'm really sad to hear about Sister Hemming. She was so so so awesome, and I'm sure that right now she's organizing a choir of youth to sing the song of love to the hearts of the people still here. I don't doubt her desire to spread a happy song, and her testimony with anyone. She'll be greatly missed I'm sure. Tell Keri things'll be ok and to think about the happy day we'll all be together again.
I didn't know I was eating intestine...until I put the first piece in my mouth and everyone went "oooooooh!!!!! Elder that's INTESTINE!!!" then they all laughed. joy. :) Also, I've decided to spend some of my time on Sundays learning to play more hymns, evidently there are a lot of wards and branches with no one to play for them, so I should be getting some good piano experience here!
Rules for Halloween? Just another normal day. We're going to a ward trunk n treat thing, but after, we're knocking doors, and teaching lessons. yeah I have permiso to drive now, so we all three alternate driving days, and I think I'm good on my license, but I have the option of renewing to an AZ one which I think I will cause it doesn't expire until I'm 65...that's cool.
Mom, about the members, it's really sad. They aren't super friendly or outgoing to the people we bring. Often they are left to sit alone, in the which case, we elders split up to sit with them all. One family we're teaching has next-door-neighbors who are members so they chat and sit together. Other than that, they unfortunately aren't too helpful...we have a hard time getting anyone to come teach with us. It's a struggle, but we're trying to win their trust by doing awesome Noches de Hogar (FHE) with them. We'll see how that goes.
Thought: Elder Moffitt, in his old age and wisdom said that people said a lot that we are the "chosen generation" and maybe that is so because we're chosen to realize that the members can help the missionaries in more ways, so when we're all done with our missions, this generation will be the AWESOME ward member support for the next wave of missionaries. Matt: you better be doing something missionary like still. if not, get going you bum! just because you don't have a tag, doesn't mean you can't share the light of the Gospel with others :) .
Schedule:
5:45 wake up
6:00 meet at church where we play soccer with other missionaries in the gym (or at their apartment to lift weights)
6:45-8:00 shower/breakfast (Elder Nicholas takes forever.)
8:00 personal study
9:00 companionship study
10:00 Spanish study
11:00 Lunch
12:00 begin proselyting
5:00 dinner at a member's house/message there
6:00 continue preaching
9:00 home (unless teaching a lesson then it's allowed to be 9:30)
9:30 plan for the next day/write in journal/discuss spanish problems
10:30 in bed, lights out, sleep
Ugh I hate how long my letters get, but there's so much to say!!!! For a cool thing I've started dreaming in spanish. Funny thing is, it's slow spanish JUST like how I speak. it makes sense, but I remember waking up after my first spanish dream and just being like "WHOA!" "my dream was in spanish!" it was cool.
Here's a quick spill out of the SWEET things that happened this week:
Today: Climbed a mountain here, Iron Mountain, or Squaw peak. it was intense
Yesterday: Taught an AWESOME Lesson. We went to a less active member's house to teach them, they happened to have a friend over, who happened to want to learn more, who happened to understand everything we said. At the end of the lesson, she looked at us, and said "that makes perfect sense. do you have a book of mormon I can read so I can be sure before I get baptized?" first lesson. that was WAY sweet. We invited her to pray...and after the prayer she just filled with emotion and through the tears told us she'd never felt like that before. it was an amazing experience. All because some members had befriended someone, and talked about the church. Last
Friday: we taught a guy named Sergio. This little mexican is like a sponge!!! He soaked it all up, and just asked for more. He's going to read the whole book of mormon these next two weeks he told us and he said he'll see how he feels after that. Basically that means he knows this is the truth, and he's going to get baptized and start his road to Heaven.
Last Thursday: We taught AGAIN a friend of a member named Olga, who loved church and wants to keep coming cause she "feels something different". That's all the cool stuff. Aside from that, just the normal people who are drunk and on crack all the time, there are Gay people everywhere here and they hate us and yell at us and spit on us as they drive by. Met a guy who challenged our knowledge of the bible by asking us who the most notorious killer in the bible and the United States was...he told us they were the same person:Moses. I think he was high. A lady who told us that her pastor told her that she isn't allowed to change religions...and she believes him. we met our new neighbors...get this, she's a black lady named Shae. Loved that. alrighty! that's all for this one!
Love you all thanks for your support and prayers...we definitely need them here. OH!!! one more thing! Elder Nicholas has been feeling a little lack of mail this past transfer...if you were planning on writing me this week, will you write him instead? Just a hello, thanks, add a thought/poem/encouragement, send it to the same address just put Elder Adam Nicholas instead of Elder Shae Morgan :) this is something I've wanted to do to help serve one of my companions. Thanks!
-Elder Morgan
10/20/2009: I ate something gross this week
Family, Another week here and gone again in Phoenix, yeah we did get a nice little warm spell...wasn't too bad though only broke 100 twice. But this morning it's fresh and cool with a little breeze so hopefully it stays this way for a while. :) Wow I don't know where to begin! this week was pretty intense. I guess I'll start off with something uber cool.Remember the last letter when I described pedro being a 5' something short dude who weighs 300 pounds? Well God I guess in his sense of humor remembered that and when we asked Pedro who he wanted to baptize him, he asked me. Yeah. intense right? So the baptizm was last Saturday and it was really neat. The Service was interesting. We decided that no one knows how to play piano in our area...so I, always talking about music, was assigned to learn 2 hymns in an hour during language study so I could play at the baptism. Guess what? I don't really play piano. But the Lord helps us in our weeknesses and I can proudly say that I can pump out a pretty mean version of "I like to look for rainbows"(aka when I am baptized) and "Come Follow Me". :) that was neat. ALSO, whilst practicing, Elder Nicholas left the font going on full blast and the font overflowed ALMOST into the room, but we got it to turn off just befor it rose to the threshold of the door. Whew thank goodness. But the service was wonderful, the spirit was there, and Pedro was confirmed the day after as a member of the church of Jesus Christ. Something new I ate this week. Pig intestine. Yeah. Don't think you have to go foreign to eat UBER WEIRD stuff. And just so you know, it's nasty (in my opinion). Well the work is bustling here in Phoenix. We're super busy, teaching a TON, and we set some mor baptismal dates for November. I'm excited to be part of these people's experiences as they go and do to experience the change that Jesus offers to everyone. He puts us in the right place at the right time to find people. One guy was playing the accordian outside, and I went up and chit chatted about music for a bit. He then insisted that we teach him about our message. He ate. it. up. And why? maybe cause it's true. Maybe because Christ organized a church founded on a prophet and apostles, and no other church on the earth has that organization. Maybe because we believe God is the same yesterday when he called people to guide his people, and today, because there is someone now to guide his people, and forever. I can't find any way this can be false, and truth rings familiar in the ears of people who are willing to listen. That's why people listen, that's why it's actually effective to send 19 year old guys who don't know much out into the world to teach people in every language. We have lots of moments where we say in the car "only on a mission can you find 19 year olds who...." then finish it off with something like "talk about the scriptures while lifting weights" "turn up their "favorite song"" which happens to be classical motab. It's a cool thing. an apostle once said that the Gospel challenges us to not just BE something or someone, but to BECOME. I LOVE this thought, because we aren't here just to be, and live, and be tossed around. We're here to become something,learn, gain experience, grow. If we are true disciples and followers of Christ we will have the desire, the URGE, to DO not just sit around. To ACT, not just be acted upon. To become someone, not just be. I hope this ramble made sense. I love you all. Thanks for all your support. I pray for you every day. -Elder Morgan
10/13/09: Okee Dokie Arti....choke-ee?
Alright, So I'm experiencing some insane madness called I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SPELL IN ENGLISH. the more and more I speak spanish, the more and more C's I put where K's should go and Z's where S's should be and...basically I'm not sure my kids and their kids will be able to read my journal. it's bad. First of all and the most exciting is PEDRO! Pedro, I think I've talked a bit about him, but he's this short mexican guy, like 5'3 or something...but he's gotta be 300 pounds. he's pretty huge. So we found him because he was dating a member who was in the english ward, but they broke up, but he still called us to come teach him. Well, we've taught all he needs to know. and you guessed it...he's been interviewed and set to be baptised this saturday!!! woot woot!!! He's been a testimony to me about how much people can change. He was kinda closed off and dark in a way at first, but the more and more he kept his promises to the Lord, read the scriptures, and prayed, the more he lightened up and now he's just a big smiling ball of happyness! We're really excited for that. Also, the work is going INSANE here. They HAVE to split us this transfer. I don't know how it goes number wise for other missions, but this week passed we taght 22 lessons, contacted 210 people on the street, and have 13 new investigators, for a few numbers. it shows improvement, but at the same time, I know we can do better so we're working hard! In the movie Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration, there's a part that shows a man who is sick, and he said his pride has brought him very low. Joseph then tells him the Lord will raise him high. They bless him and he is healed. I'd like to write about this. We all have our fallings and shortcomings. There is so much to work on and to better. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed, like the world is falling down. I feel like that sometimes. Our pride brings us low so we can be humble and ask to help see things how God sees them. Look at people how God looks at people. Serve as He would if He were here. The hard times are easy to see as a curse. A misfortune, the whole world against you...maybe that's so we can turn around and see how blessed we are. That we have a loving father in heaven who humbles us so we can be lifted higher than we ever could have before we started to trust in him. Then after all we can do to turn our will over to His, and do what He would have us do, we are healed. I LOVE the scripture Isaiah 53 which says Surely he has born our sorrows carried our greifs etc, then later says that through his stripes, we are healed. Healed. Not temporarily satisfied, but HEALED completely from the pain and hurt of the hard times. ok good shpeel. Thanks goes out to the Tuttle family for the goodies and letter, my companions were thrilled by the peanut butter cheerio bars. :) Also, thanks Momma Slezak for the note about Garrett, he is in every single one of my prayers. God will provide. Some people are ready other's aren't. But when you find the ones that are, it's magic. We were refferred to a guy named Christopher. He told us he's looking for a REAL way to change and get free of his past. He said he was baptised in another church, but that he still didn't feel it...maybe we'd be different. at the end of the lesson one, he just flat out Told us, he feels the spirit telling him the things we taught were the truth. (cool? I think....yes.) So we'll see where that goes! If you're reading this and you aren't too sure about this whole "LDS church" thing, I challenge you to find out for yourself. We aren't here to convince you, but rather ask you to ask God. He'll tell you the truth if you ask him. (James 1:5) I promise you that there is no other church that makes so much sense, is so perfect, has the same teachings and doctrines as did the church Jesus organized. Read the book of mormon and ask yourself, in 63 days, could anyone NOT inspired by God create such a text? I submit it to be impossible without the gift and power of God given to a Prophet. Well this is getting muy long. Wrap up just saying spanish is improving. slowly yet surely. I'm praying for you all always. -Elder Morgan
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