General Conference and such

Greetings from Elder Morgan in...... (wouldn't you like to know)

Transfers were this week, so guess what?
I'm still in Phoenix.
I'm with the same companions.
Nothing changed. So For another 6 weeks I'll be here in the Catalina Branch in Phoenix. Our area hasn't split or anything, so it'll be the same thing for at least 6 more weeks.

Nice good fun happy stuff: Hector, or Hermano Contreras, the ward mission leader, came up with a new nickname for me...and actually it's spreading through the ward, not sure if that's a good thing or not, but here it is Capitan (in spanish how hector says it Kah-Pee-Tahn) Yeah. they even suggested getting a pirate costume and an empty bottle so I can pose at the ward halloween party for all the ex-drinkers as their favorite mascot. I'm not sure how that would fly with my conscience though.

One of the first letters I got from a friend in the MTC mentioned the Lord's tender mercies. I like to link this trail of thought with "little miracles". When we do our best, and try our best, God shows us his tender mercies, by putting people in our lives, giving us a happy thought, and other numerous ways. This week we saw a few of those.

We were doing a D and P in a neighborhood (drive and pray) where we drive around praying for someone, then when we see people, we park, jump out and talk to them. We did that to one such fellow. John Emery, he spoke english, but told us it was a miracle we showed up. He was trying to contact a mormon church for a few months but didn't know how.

He'd noticed something different about our church and wanted it in his life. In our short 5 minute conversation he told us how he wanted to be a member and asked to listen to the missionaries. 3 days later, the english elders taught him, and he has a baptismal date set for the near future.

Tender Mercy #2: my second week here I took down someone's name and address, but we never got to visiting him, a few days ago we were in the area and tried to stop by his house. Problem being, the address he had told us was his house, was an apartment complex. We decided to just go knock a door. The apartments were filled with people from Congo Africa who said barely anyone spoke Spanish. On our way out, we talked to a 15 year old girl (who had RIDICULOUSLY poofy hair) and she told us her and her family were members! They had moved and the missionaries lost track of them. She took us to her apartment, and we met the happy family and we got them in touch with the branch again. They went to general conference the next day.

Cool beans.

The church is true!

Spanish Update: I'm doing alright speaking still. I'm learning all sorts of vocab and grammar rules every day, and I'm getting better by trying. Understanding: Still a struggle, good news is now I'm mostly in the ballgame. Before where it was a few key words, now I'm catching whole complete thoughts, and it's helped me a lot to be able to answer questions and make appropriate comments. A big help to this is just talking with the little kids at church. They use basic, easy, spanish and like to laugh and correct these old white guys when they mess up. Also, I listend to about 1/4 of conference in spanish. That helped, I think.

General Conference: Main thing I think about is the Book of Mormon. I add my thoughts to Elder Holland's. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WAY A FARM BOY WITH A 3RD GRADE EDUCATION COULD HAVE FABRICATED AND CREATED SUCH AN INTRICATE, INVOLVED, AND INSPIRED TEXT. There is no way in the short period he had, that a highly educated man in the 1800's could have done it. There is no way, save by the help of God, that anyone, could have translated a record, by nothing more than dim candlelight, and have that book be the means of bringing 13,000,000+ people to Christ and His restored gospel. How we don't emphasize this enough!

Also, I loved the talk on temperance. I don't think I'm temperate enough. I've had some really frustrating times this week, and sometimes I feel like busting into shards rather than enduring strong.

More thoughts: Prayer is a hard thing for me, because I have a hard time understanding answers that come. Don't worry, I always pray, and I feel strengthened from doing so, but sometimes I wish I could say "what's 1352624 x 264823" and hear the answer just as clear as a person talking to me. So maybe not a math problem, but say "Heavenly father, should I go here?" and hear "yes" or "no" Maybe it's cause I'm not turning my whole self over, maybe it's because we have to act to receive our answers. Whatever it is, I'm gonna figure it out, and pray harder and harder.

Well, I'm gonna run.
Thanks so much familiy. You mean so much to me. Thank you so much friends, you're awesome and I'm praying for you every day.

Elder Morgan