So I will try to write just a little more about our conference with Elder Holland, just lot´s of distraction where I am at, I'm not managing to concentrate very well, plus it is getting harder and harder to write in english.
I still don´t understand how Apostles and other General Authorities of the church manage to be so light, but firm at the same time when they speak they can burn you and do so with love to where you don´t even notice it ha. It was really inspiring, He told us he wanted to talk to us as being apostolic, because we are one sent witha message, from the moment we wake until the moment we lay our head down to sleep, we bring a message, of The Savior Jesus Christ. We have two years to represent The Lord and we must use every single solitary moment, because after this, it is never the same. I thought it interesting that he commented that no, it wasn´t fair what is asked of us as missionaries, that it is hard, but no apoligies. Admiration, respect, but no apologies.
It is true, it can be challanging, but it is worth it, and it is the least I can do.
After he let us know very straightly, that our mission is of such grand importance, we had a lesson on WHY
We talked about the fall of Adam and Eve and how that really was a necesary part of the plan of Salvation, so that we could all come to the earth and have mortal experiences. It seems that many think that we would all be riding bare back on zeebras and drinking passion fruit juice if they hadn´t left the garden, but they knew what they were doing, and we are now here because of them. But, this still left us with a debt to be paid, and Christ paid that debt. THAT is the importance of The Atonement. Jesus Christ, really is the center of God´s plan for His children. He let us know that this truth, was in our young, and frankly ignorant hands, and that put a huge responsibilty upon us. He encouraged us and let us know how much he loves us. I am so grateful to The Lord for sending one of His Holy Apostles to teach and council us. I wish I could share everything with you but that just isn´t possible ha. Just know it was incredible.
Lots of love again.
Elder David F. Morgan
Monday, April 30, 2012
Did you bring sunscreen?
Oi!
So, this week was super super busy, I will save the good part for last.
We had interviews with Pres. Swenson on tuesday. Fastest interview of my whole life ha. Basically, he asked if I wanted to talk about anything, I said I was good, he asked if it was good with Elder Cardoso, also with a positive reply, he read a scripture and we prayed and left. We talked a little bit later together about our zone and how it is progressing, but even that was pretty quick. No complaints. We are really wanting to unify our zone more, everybody seems to be just working alone, and when we are united and excited we will see a lot more progress.
We also had Zone Council one Thursday, it was good to see how some other zone leaders are moving ahead and what things we can learn together.
We didn´t really get to teach that much this week, it was really rushed, and a lot of a our appointments fell through, that is all part of being a missionary.
Then the good stuff!
On Friday our whole mission met with the mission POA North (Porto Alegre North) to have a conference with Elder Jeffery R. Holland! SOOO good! Wow, I wanna write a lot but I am super tired ha and having trouble focusing. One thing I have always noticed about the great spiritual giants that I have had the privilege of meeting, is that usually their wives are every bit as incredible and spiritual (if not, more so) as they are. Elder Hollands wife talked a lot with us about scriptures that inspire us to be our best and lift us up when we are feeling down. Ha, she told us about her favorite scripture regarding missionary work, Jeremaiah 16; 14-16, talking about fishers and hunters The Lord will send to find his people, and that we are part of that miracle.
Elder Muniz, brought sunblock and asked if we needed some because were going to all get a burning haha. Elder Hollands talk was super good. He asked told us about how important our mission is and told us that the word APOSTLE means ~one sent with a message~ and so that we need to be apostolic. The greatest compliment that The Lord could pay us is to call us His discliples, but now the big question. Do we measure up? That is a good question.
Afterwards he talked with us about WHY our mission is so important, how it will change our lives and the lives of others. The importance of the fall of Adam and Eve, and most important, The Atonement of The Lord Jesus Christ. The answer to every problem in the universe is The Atonement. All of my notes and everything we learned I won´t be passing on right now, it would take to long and there is lots of distraction where I am trying to write.
Ha not much of an email for such a great week. I hope everybody is good back home. Lots of love.
Seu Filho, Irmao, e Amigo
Elder David F. Morgan
So, this week was super super busy, I will save the good part for last.
We had interviews with Pres. Swenson on tuesday. Fastest interview of my whole life ha. Basically, he asked if I wanted to talk about anything, I said I was good, he asked if it was good with Elder Cardoso, also with a positive reply, he read a scripture and we prayed and left. We talked a little bit later together about our zone and how it is progressing, but even that was pretty quick. No complaints. We are really wanting to unify our zone more, everybody seems to be just working alone, and when we are united and excited we will see a lot more progress.
We also had Zone Council one Thursday, it was good to see how some other zone leaders are moving ahead and what things we can learn together.
We didn´t really get to teach that much this week, it was really rushed, and a lot of a our appointments fell through, that is all part of being a missionary.
Then the good stuff!
On Friday our whole mission met with the mission POA North (Porto Alegre North) to have a conference with Elder Jeffery R. Holland! SOOO good! Wow, I wanna write a lot but I am super tired ha and having trouble focusing. One thing I have always noticed about the great spiritual giants that I have had the privilege of meeting, is that usually their wives are every bit as incredible and spiritual (if not, more so) as they are. Elder Hollands wife talked a lot with us about scriptures that inspire us to be our best and lift us up when we are feeling down. Ha, she told us about her favorite scripture regarding missionary work, Jeremaiah 16; 14-16, talking about fishers and hunters The Lord will send to find his people, and that we are part of that miracle.
Elder Muniz, brought sunblock and asked if we needed some because were going to all get a burning haha. Elder Hollands talk was super good. He asked told us about how important our mission is and told us that the word APOSTLE means ~one sent with a message~ and so that we need to be apostolic. The greatest compliment that The Lord could pay us is to call us His discliples, but now the big question. Do we measure up? That is a good question.
Afterwards he talked with us about WHY our mission is so important, how it will change our lives and the lives of others. The importance of the fall of Adam and Eve, and most important, The Atonement of The Lord Jesus Christ. The answer to every problem in the universe is The Atonement. All of my notes and everything we learned I won´t be passing on right now, it would take to long and there is lots of distraction where I am trying to write.
Ha not much of an email for such a great week. I hope everybody is good back home. Lots of love.
Seu Filho, Irmao, e Amigo
Elder David F. Morgan
Monday, April 23, 2012
Celestial Week
Oi!
HOORAY! Congrats to Krista and Kenny, so cool that there will be yet ANOTHER little one for me to know when I get home. (If that is only family and not public new yet, feel free to delete that part) So weird/ cool to think about that. Anyways 100% congrats! Sounds like you are handlin pregnancy fairly well until now too hehe. Clarissa that we baptized last week is starting to have it pretty rough, but she IS pregnant with twins. Anyways, moving on. Super happy for ya.
By the way, the new GMAIL thing, absolutely terrible, just so everybody knows my opinion. It is making my email writing efficiancy SUPER bad.
To start off, we had another really great week. Iara was baptized yesterday before church and confirmed in sacrament meeting. We have been teaching her since I got here, and she has progressed REALLY well, loves church and all the members, but something has always gotten in the way of her going to church and being baptzied, plus she is moving to another part of town. In a bold moment, we invited her to baptized Sunday morning before church, and she accepted. It was funny, we woke up early and were on our way to pick her up. We called and she let us know she was already ready to go. When we finally got there she called us and told us she decided not to wait anymore, and left to church on her own. When we got to the chapel, somebody had emptied the baptismal font that we had left full! (AHHHH) so we filled it up, but let her know that water would be super cold, she didn´t even care, she just was ready to be baptized and said she was feeling warm enough in her heart. What a person, she was so excited to just finally be baptized. (But just to make it nicer, we heated up water on the stove and put it in with the cold water to help out a bit) It was a great way to start the day.
Wow, this area is blowing my mind. We are starting to have a lot of success. We have really built a good relationship with the members and they have started to help us out a lot in our work, making visits with us and helping people feel welcome at church. Working with the members of the church is a very important part of missionary service and we are having a lot of success with it. I know we can do better than we are right now too, and we are just starting to scratch the surface. We had a ward mission leader called yesterday too. Thus far in my mission I am pretty much used to working without one, we will see how that goes, I am sure he will be a blessing to our work here.
Hump day was cool, ha. Funny thing is that I got into a pretty big ´discussion´ that morning with Elder Cardoso (actually a continuation of one the night before). We resolved a lot of things and worked like crazy, and ended up having a really good day. We made churrasco (pretty much anytime you are celebrating here, that is what you will eat) with Elder Muniz, Elder Fagg, Elder Annunçiação, and Elder Sroka ( also from my group) I didn´t get around to burning a tie, and I should have taken pictures at the celebration, but it was still fun. Mostly we just talked ha. And I ate a nerds rope that Hanna Knudson sent to me. I can´t believe I have passed half of my time here already. It is flying by and I feel like there is so much more to be done. It really puts a perspective on things. All in all, super good though.
Being a missionary sure is funny. Especially the companion part. You have a guy ´in your face´ so to speak, from the moment you wake up until the moment you go back to sleep that night, and whatever you do, you do it together. Thus far as a missionary I have not ever been prone to argue or fight with my companion, sure we had a our moments of disagreement but never anything serious. I am defentely more open with Elder Cardoso than any of my other companions before, we are really close and working way good together, ha but we end up having our little disagreement moments more than I ever have before. I think it is kind of healthy, because we don´t just keep it inside, we are both really intrested and passionate about what we are doing, and so we work through it together, and if we don´t agree, we work through that. Plus he is just kind of crazy.
We were REALLY wanting to meet our goal of lessons w/ members last night, and we were just missing one. Luckily we had gotten a referal and it was our last visit that night. Edemar. He has been a member for about ten years or so from what I understand, but has been inactive for that last few years because he went through a pretty rough seperation. He was really receptive and told us a lot about his story and how much he loves missionary work and working in the church. We mostly just talked with him, and then we ended up teaching him and his girlfriend and she seemed interested and they were receptive to having us back again. It really went well and I am excited to go back and teach them this next week.
Well, this week will be full I am sure, seeing as we have Interviews, Zone Council, and a special conference w/ Elder Jeffery R. Holland, so I suppose I will have a lot to write about in the coming week. I hope you are all doing very well. All my love.
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigo
Elder David F. Morgan
HOORAY! Congrats to Krista and Kenny, so cool that there will be yet ANOTHER little one for me to know when I get home. (If that is only family and not public new yet, feel free to delete that part) So weird/ cool to think about that. Anyways 100% congrats! Sounds like you are handlin pregnancy fairly well until now too hehe. Clarissa that we baptized last week is starting to have it pretty rough, but she IS pregnant with twins. Anyways, moving on. Super happy for ya.
By the way, the new GMAIL thing, absolutely terrible, just so everybody knows my opinion. It is making my email writing efficiancy SUPER bad.
To start off, we had another really great week. Iara was baptized yesterday before church and confirmed in sacrament meeting. We have been teaching her since I got here, and she has progressed REALLY well, loves church and all the members, but something has always gotten in the way of her going to church and being baptzied, plus she is moving to another part of town. In a bold moment, we invited her to baptized Sunday morning before church, and she accepted. It was funny, we woke up early and were on our way to pick her up. We called and she let us know she was already ready to go. When we finally got there she called us and told us she decided not to wait anymore, and left to church on her own. When we got to the chapel, somebody had emptied the baptismal font that we had left full! (AHHHH) so we filled it up, but let her know that water would be super cold, she didn´t even care, she just was ready to be baptized and said she was feeling warm enough in her heart. What a person, she was so excited to just finally be baptized. (But just to make it nicer, we heated up water on the stove and put it in with the cold water to help out a bit) It was a great way to start the day.
Wow, this area is blowing my mind. We are starting to have a lot of success. We have really built a good relationship with the members and they have started to help us out a lot in our work, making visits with us and helping people feel welcome at church. Working with the members of the church is a very important part of missionary service and we are having a lot of success with it. I know we can do better than we are right now too, and we are just starting to scratch the surface. We had a ward mission leader called yesterday too. Thus far in my mission I am pretty much used to working without one, we will see how that goes, I am sure he will be a blessing to our work here.
Hump day was cool, ha. Funny thing is that I got into a pretty big ´discussion´ that morning with Elder Cardoso (actually a continuation of one the night before). We resolved a lot of things and worked like crazy, and ended up having a really good day. We made churrasco (pretty much anytime you are celebrating here, that is what you will eat) with Elder Muniz, Elder Fagg, Elder Annunçiação, and Elder Sroka ( also from my group) I didn´t get around to burning a tie, and I should have taken pictures at the celebration, but it was still fun. Mostly we just talked ha. And I ate a nerds rope that Hanna Knudson sent to me. I can´t believe I have passed half of my time here already. It is flying by and I feel like there is so much more to be done. It really puts a perspective on things. All in all, super good though.
Being a missionary sure is funny. Especially the companion part. You have a guy ´in your face´ so to speak, from the moment you wake up until the moment you go back to sleep that night, and whatever you do, you do it together. Thus far as a missionary I have not ever been prone to argue or fight with my companion, sure we had a our moments of disagreement but never anything serious. I am defentely more open with Elder Cardoso than any of my other companions before, we are really close and working way good together, ha but we end up having our little disagreement moments more than I ever have before. I think it is kind of healthy, because we don´t just keep it inside, we are both really intrested and passionate about what we are doing, and so we work through it together, and if we don´t agree, we work through that. Plus he is just kind of crazy.
We were REALLY wanting to meet our goal of lessons w/ members last night, and we were just missing one. Luckily we had gotten a referal and it was our last visit that night. Edemar. He has been a member for about ten years or so from what I understand, but has been inactive for that last few years because he went through a pretty rough seperation. He was really receptive and told us a lot about his story and how much he loves missionary work and working in the church. We mostly just talked with him, and then we ended up teaching him and his girlfriend and she seemed interested and they were receptive to having us back again. It really went well and I am excited to go back and teach them this next week.
Well, this week will be full I am sure, seeing as we have Interviews, Zone Council, and a special conference w/ Elder Jeffery R. Holland, so I suppose I will have a lot to write about in the coming week. I hope you are all doing very well. All my love.
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigo
Elder David F. Morgan
Monday, April 16, 2012
No title, it was a good week
Oi!
What?! Jared is going to Russia?!! that´s awesome!!! Congradulations! When did we get this old?! It kind of freaks me out seeing my buddies leave on missions, or friends getting married, etc. I can´t believe this coming week is hump week for me! (the means the one year mark) Anyways, 100% congrats for Jared, that will be awesome! Ha and super cold!
So, AGAIN, I don´t really remember most of this week. I can´t believe this was only the first week of the new transfer. Our week was CELESTIAL. We taught A LOT, had members present in most of our lessons, we had investigators at church, and Clarissa was baptized on Saturday and yesterday was confirmed a member of A Igreja de Jesus Cristo, dos Santos dos Últimos Dias. (the name of the church) Needless to say, this week pretty much rocked. I feel very grateful that The Lord is blessing us so much.
We are working really closely with a family. Moacir, Madelaine, Ricardo, and Eduardo. They are super great, I can tell they are feeling The Spirit, but we really are helping them to develop a firmer faith in Christ so they can progress in The Gospel. You would never think it was so hard for somebody to pray right? They have started to share with us experiences they have had, applying what they have learned with us (prayer etc.) and it is obvious that The Lord is working in their lives. I hope we can be an instrument in His hands to help them accept the Gospel.
We have a few other families that we are working with and we have a lot of hope for them. It will really require dedication and prayers, and after all we can do I know The Lord will make up the rest where we will inevitably fall short. That is the amazing thing about The Lord´s plan, it allows and requires that we grow and do ALL we can do, while still helping us to be humble and rely on him.
Clarissa´s baptism was really good. It rained really hard all that day, so only people who have cars (not many) came to her baptism, but it was a good simple. I forgot to bring my camera and send pictures, but I will do that next week. I am REALLY bad about taking pictures. REALLY bad. Really. It was really spiritual though and she was very pleased. And yesterday was her birthday, so WHAT a present right?
We had another mini miracle too. A lady we have been teaching, Káren, has been having trouble to come to church because she worked really odd hours, but she found a different job, with normal stable hours and we will be able to work with her a lot more and she will be able to come to church now! She came yesterday!
Also! Last week, E. Almeida got transferred here to our zone, and I was able to ask him how Camaquã was when he left. That family that came to stake conference when I was there (Valmir, Jossara, and Camilla) they had been going to church when he left and were becoming active members of the church again! The Lord really does hear and answer our prayers, sometime, somewhere. I prayed so much about them when I was there and I was so happy to know they are now coming back and are going to be able to reap all the blessings that Heavenly Father has for them,
Next, SUPER exciting notice. On Abril 27, Élder Jeffery R. Holland will be coming to visit both Porto Alegre North, and POA South missions! WHAT?! I am so excited, looks like he will be visiting Grant´s mission and then be coming here the following week! How exciting will that be! To meet and learn directly from and Apostle of The Lord Jesus Christ on a more intimate and personal setting. General Conference is amazing, but it will for sure be a little different than being in the same room. I am really looking forward to that!
Wow, a lot to do and take in. Life sure is funny huh?
We were going to have a zone activity today to unite and excite the zone a little bit, but nobody has any money, our monthly allotment hasn't come in yet so we will have to postpone that until next week. It will be good though.
That about sums it up. Next time I write I will have been a missionary for over a year. I have no idea when that happened. Sometimes I feel like I have so much time left and then other times I feel like my mission is already ending and that it is gone by too fast for me to keep up with.
Just a thought... hang on, i´m having trouble translating it in my head.. Basically it comes down to, don´t wait for The Lord to humble you, when he is blessing you, keep doing what is right so he can continue to do so. Humble yourself, it is a lot easier that way.
Tudo de bom pra vocês e tudo de meu amor.
Seu Filho, Irmão, e amigão-
Elder David. F Morgan
What?! Jared is going to Russia?!! that´s awesome!!! Congradulations! When did we get this old?! It kind of freaks me out seeing my buddies leave on missions, or friends getting married, etc. I can´t believe this coming week is hump week for me! (the means the one year mark) Anyways, 100% congrats for Jared, that will be awesome! Ha and super cold!
So, AGAIN, I don´t really remember most of this week. I can´t believe this was only the first week of the new transfer. Our week was CELESTIAL. We taught A LOT, had members present in most of our lessons, we had investigators at church, and Clarissa was baptized on Saturday and yesterday was confirmed a member of A Igreja de Jesus Cristo, dos Santos dos Últimos Dias. (the name of the church) Needless to say, this week pretty much rocked. I feel very grateful that The Lord is blessing us so much.
We are working really closely with a family. Moacir, Madelaine, Ricardo, and Eduardo. They are super great, I can tell they are feeling The Spirit, but we really are helping them to develop a firmer faith in Christ so they can progress in The Gospel. You would never think it was so hard for somebody to pray right? They have started to share with us experiences they have had, applying what they have learned with us (prayer etc.) and it is obvious that The Lord is working in their lives. I hope we can be an instrument in His hands to help them accept the Gospel.
We have a few other families that we are working with and we have a lot of hope for them. It will really require dedication and prayers, and after all we can do I know The Lord will make up the rest where we will inevitably fall short. That is the amazing thing about The Lord´s plan, it allows and requires that we grow and do ALL we can do, while still helping us to be humble and rely on him.
Clarissa´s baptism was really good. It rained really hard all that day, so only people who have cars (not many) came to her baptism, but it was a good simple. I forgot to bring my camera and send pictures, but I will do that next week. I am REALLY bad about taking pictures. REALLY bad. Really. It was really spiritual though and she was very pleased. And yesterday was her birthday, so WHAT a present right?
We had another mini miracle too. A lady we have been teaching, Káren, has been having trouble to come to church because she worked really odd hours, but she found a different job, with normal stable hours and we will be able to work with her a lot more and she will be able to come to church now! She came yesterday!
Also! Last week, E. Almeida got transferred here to our zone, and I was able to ask him how Camaquã was when he left. That family that came to stake conference when I was there (Valmir, Jossara, and Camilla) they had been going to church when he left and were becoming active members of the church again! The Lord really does hear and answer our prayers, sometime, somewhere. I prayed so much about them when I was there and I was so happy to know they are now coming back and are going to be able to reap all the blessings that Heavenly Father has for them,
Next, SUPER exciting notice. On Abril 27, Élder Jeffery R. Holland will be coming to visit both Porto Alegre North, and POA South missions! WHAT?! I am so excited, looks like he will be visiting Grant´s mission and then be coming here the following week! How exciting will that be! To meet and learn directly from and Apostle of The Lord Jesus Christ on a more intimate and personal setting. General Conference is amazing, but it will for sure be a little different than being in the same room. I am really looking forward to that!
Wow, a lot to do and take in. Life sure is funny huh?
We were going to have a zone activity today to unite and excite the zone a little bit, but nobody has any money, our monthly allotment hasn't come in yet so we will have to postpone that until next week. It will be good though.
That about sums it up. Next time I write I will have been a missionary for over a year. I have no idea when that happened. Sometimes I feel like I have so much time left and then other times I feel like my mission is already ending and that it is gone by too fast for me to keep up with.
Just a thought... hang on, i´m having trouble translating it in my head.. Basically it comes down to, don´t wait for The Lord to humble you, when he is blessing you, keep doing what is right so he can continue to do so. Humble yourself, it is a lot easier that way.
Tudo de bom pra vocês e tudo de meu amor.
Seu Filho, Irmão, e amigão-
Elder David. F Morgan
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
What a week
Oi!
So there is a lot to take in this week it seems. Lots of things happening back home, and a lot of things happening here in the promised land.
Easter, was way good, but I will get to that later and save the best for last.
We had kind of a slow week, but a lot of good things DID happen.
We had a family night with an investigator Káren and her family on I think it was Thursday night that was great. She really started to enjoy what we teach and feel The Spirit, we still haven´t gotten her to go to church though, but being a single mom is not easy, we are really trying to help her understand that The Gospel will be a blessing in her life and the life of her children and will ease the burdens and heal the pain she has experienced in her past. Anyways, family night was awesome, we envited another investigator, Clarissa who is going to be baptized this Saturday (WOOHOO!) and we gave a message about the word of wisdom and how the Commandments of The Lord are a foundation in our lives. then we played Jenga (super fun) and made french toast. Way good night, good Spirit. I thought about how often, we think of The Spirit, as that burning in our hearts, and a clear mind, that feeling of quiet reverence that comes over us, but He has so many other roles than that. In those really light, wholesome, and fun moments, The Spirit is there, and he testifies that this is REAL lasting happiness.
Friday, also good. Don´t really remember what happened specifically, but we taught a lot and it was way good. I studied about The Atonement in Gethsemani, and the Crucifiction, and it was nice just to ponder that, and the love The Lord showed. Saturday I studied about The Spirit world and how Christ also fufilled part of his ministry there ´preaching to the spirits in prison´ (reference in Peter, but I don´t rememeber now specifically)
And of course Sunday, the glorious ressurection of The Savior. It was interesting to really ponder about Easter (Páscoa in portuguese) How there is such a giant fanfare over Christmas and a whole season devoted to it, and it seems that Easter is a weekend that comes and goes and we celebrate and then, done. I never really took the time to think about how the birth of The Lord Jesus Christ, wouldn't really mean much if he hadn´t actually completed the mission he came to fufill. Easter really means, the victory of good over evil. Christ ´overcame the world´ and we all can live with God the Father and our families if we, through our obedience to The Lord and his commandments can secure for ourselves his grace. All of this is really too deep to put down in an email.
It was also fun to study about the deliverence of Israel from Egypt and where Easter originated. I highly recommend it, even though it is a few days late.
It was so fun to see pictures of Louie and Shelby at the CTM!
Also, Elder Carvalho, that was in my district in Camaquã sent me a picture of him and Grant together! Ha, It was so weird when Grant said he knew him. Ha I didn´t know he was serving in his ward though.
Ha, Lauren Howe, ya I remember her too. I don´t remember what year I had seminary with her though... It must have been my sophomore year. That´s cool, she is way awesome.
Ha and congrats to Shaun, you have made your way into the Wendy´s world... do you get free or discounted food? Parabéns burger flipper :p If Bri is now Princess, can Shaun be Frosty? (fyi: Bri was just hired as receptionist for a Disney CEO in New York)
Anyways, I hope you all had a great week too. I sure did, we were bombarded with love from the members (and chocolate too, I will be so fat) The Releif Society sisters sang ´Hark All Ye Nations, Hear Heavens Voice´ for us and wanted us to know that they loved us and were grateful for us being with them so far from our families to serve The Lord. It was really nice and I felt very warm inside.
Plus we ate Churrasco. So our ward here is super great. We have really worked on gaining the hearts and confidence of the members and we are starting to work really well together in the missionary work. I am going to go now. We are going to eat lunch with a SUPER cool guy in our ward named Nathan. He told me he posted something on my facebook, so if you saw that, it´s him. So. Have a good week. I love you all. Remember to serve others, you will be happy.
Com Grande amor
Seu filho, irmão, e amigo
Elder David F Morgan
So there is a lot to take in this week it seems. Lots of things happening back home, and a lot of things happening here in the promised land.
Easter, was way good, but I will get to that later and save the best for last.
We had kind of a slow week, but a lot of good things DID happen.
We had a family night with an investigator Káren and her family on I think it was Thursday night that was great. She really started to enjoy what we teach and feel The Spirit, we still haven´t gotten her to go to church though, but being a single mom is not easy, we are really trying to help her understand that The Gospel will be a blessing in her life and the life of her children and will ease the burdens and heal the pain she has experienced in her past. Anyways, family night was awesome, we envited another investigator, Clarissa who is going to be baptized this Saturday (WOOHOO!) and we gave a message about the word of wisdom and how the Commandments of The Lord are a foundation in our lives. then we played Jenga (super fun) and made french toast. Way good night, good Spirit. I thought about how often, we think of The Spirit, as that burning in our hearts, and a clear mind, that feeling of quiet reverence that comes over us, but He has so many other roles than that. In those really light, wholesome, and fun moments, The Spirit is there, and he testifies that this is REAL lasting happiness.
Friday, also good. Don´t really remember what happened specifically, but we taught a lot and it was way good. I studied about The Atonement in Gethsemani, and the Crucifiction, and it was nice just to ponder that, and the love The Lord showed. Saturday I studied about The Spirit world and how Christ also fufilled part of his ministry there ´preaching to the spirits in prison´ (reference in Peter, but I don´t rememeber now specifically)
And of course Sunday, the glorious ressurection of The Savior. It was interesting to really ponder about Easter (Páscoa in portuguese) How there is such a giant fanfare over Christmas and a whole season devoted to it, and it seems that Easter is a weekend that comes and goes and we celebrate and then, done. I never really took the time to think about how the birth of The Lord Jesus Christ, wouldn't really mean much if he hadn´t actually completed the mission he came to fufill. Easter really means, the victory of good over evil. Christ ´overcame the world´ and we all can live with God the Father and our families if we, through our obedience to The Lord and his commandments can secure for ourselves his grace. All of this is really too deep to put down in an email.
It was also fun to study about the deliverence of Israel from Egypt and where Easter originated. I highly recommend it, even though it is a few days late.
It was so fun to see pictures of Louie and Shelby at the CTM!
Also, Elder Carvalho, that was in my district in Camaquã sent me a picture of him and Grant together! Ha, It was so weird when Grant said he knew him. Ha I didn´t know he was serving in his ward though.
Ha, Lauren Howe, ya I remember her too. I don´t remember what year I had seminary with her though... It must have been my sophomore year. That´s cool, she is way awesome.
Ha and congrats to Shaun, you have made your way into the Wendy´s world... do you get free or discounted food? Parabéns burger flipper :p If Bri is now Princess, can Shaun be Frosty? (fyi: Bri was just hired as receptionist for a Disney CEO in New York)
Anyways, I hope you all had a great week too. I sure did, we were bombarded with love from the members (and chocolate too, I will be so fat) The Releif Society sisters sang ´Hark All Ye Nations, Hear Heavens Voice´ for us and wanted us to know that they loved us and were grateful for us being with them so far from our families to serve The Lord. It was really nice and I felt very warm inside.
Plus we ate Churrasco. So our ward here is super great. We have really worked on gaining the hearts and confidence of the members and we are starting to work really well together in the missionary work. I am going to go now. We are going to eat lunch with a SUPER cool guy in our ward named Nathan. He told me he posted something on my facebook, so if you saw that, it´s him. So. Have a good week. I love you all. Remember to serve others, you will be happy.
Com Grande amor
Seu filho, irmão, e amigo
Elder David F Morgan
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
FAMÍLIAS, SERVIÇO e CONFERÊNCIA
Oi!
Wow, so this week past super fast. If this email is short we will probably be coming back to write later today, so this might be ´to be continued´ we´ll see. It seems like there isn´t much time to write lately.
We had a super good week in that we found a LOT of people to teach, and even better they are complete families! Nothing is better than teaching a complete family, and we happend upon three of them! Oh YA! It was kind of funny, we were walking along and a lady asked us ´aren´t you the Mormons?` we told her it was a nickname of the church and if she would like to learn more we would love to come and visit her. She told us no but that everybody on her street was really needing to be taught (??) so we got her address so she could refer us to who she would like us to teach. In looking for her we found a couple, and we found another family accross the street that we taught The Plan of Salvation too, and we are going back to visit their neighbors later this week too. Also, on Sunday we went to visit a family that we started teaching last week. They were putting up a brick wall and we had offered our help. Ha, they were suprised to see that we ACTUALLY showed up to help. We are both fairly inexperienced but we managed to help a little bit, I think the best part is we actually started to build a relationship with them. We ended up eating lunch twice because the mother of the family cooked lunch and said she would be hurt if we didn´t eat with them. So we ate fast and then booked it to our lunch appointment with the members.
Wow, lot´s to say and not enough time to say it all. We also are teaching Clarissa, a woman who showed up last Sunday randomly to church. She has been attending church in Cachoeirinha (little waterfall) for the last year but hadn´t been able to baptized. She moved back here and showed up at church and told us she wanted to be baptized, ha and we were really happy to help her with that haha, she will be baptized next week.
Really the only bummer about the week is that NOBODY showed up for General Conference, we invited and committed everybody to come and they said they would and when it actually comes down to it. Nothing. It is kind of hard to see so much work and prayers and then get to the end of the week and nothing. Oh well, that is part of being a missionary.
Okay. I´m leaving. but I´ll be back. But just incase I don´t manage to. Uchtdorf é O Cara! (Ya, that´s right)
Muito Amor
Elder F. Morgan
CONTINUED.......
I will finish up this email, We just had a sweet churrasco with some missionaries and it was lots of fun.
I really enjoyed General Conference. Once again I didn´t get to watch the saturday session because we didn´t have any investigators that went, but I am looking forward to reading all about it in the Liahona. I really liked Elder Anderson´s talk, we should all ask ourselves. ´What does Christ think of me?´ when it REALLY comes down to it, that is what is going to matter. In my personal opinion, I think a lot of what Christ thinks about it us will depend on the service we rendered to God´s children with our time here on earth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naqX9iYE0V0
So I really wanted to share this video with everyone. My companion has a lot of these on his ipod and this really touched me. Probably some of you have already seen it. If the video doesn´t show up with this link, look up on youtube. Gordon B. Hinckley- lessons I learned as a boy.
I had more to say but I have forgotten it. I can´t believe how quickly this transfer has passed by, they just get faster and faster. It is really sad to see so many of my friends leaving the mission, and it is weird to have people coming to me to ask for help or advice, I can´t believe and sometimes don´t want to accept how old I am getting on the mission. It is going by way super fast.
By the way, sorry I am way behind on writing back letters to everybody, I will try to write soon, but it just has been really hectic lately.
So it´s spring break there and the weather is crummy, ha suprise suprise.
So it is amazing how attatched I become to everywhere I go as a missionary, I am already afraid that I will be transfered out of here and leave all these great people I am coming to love. Also, when I got in this area, my English was struggling a bit. But about half of our ward speaks English, it is SUPER weird, and I have had to talk with the new Americans in our zone a lot to explain things so now I can just switch in and out between the two pretty easily. The thing is that Elder Cardoso wants me to help him learn English, it is a really big test of my patience, I am realizing now how hard it must have been for Elder Gramosa to work with me when I first showed up and just how much patience he really had. Elder Cardoso is pretty awesome, he is a really good missionary and is helping me a lot, especially to really be bold, ha he reminds me a lot of Tom, it is pretty great, I tell him that too, so I almost feel at home!
Hey, Louie and Shelby are in the MTC now right? Who else is heading out soon.
Well, now I am going to go for real, I don´t really remember what to write. Thank you for all of your prayers, it means so much to me.
Have a good week. To jump back to my Boy Scout days... Do a Good Turn Daily.
Lots of Love
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigão
Elder David F. Morgan
Wow, so this week past super fast. If this email is short we will probably be coming back to write later today, so this might be ´to be continued´ we´ll see. It seems like there isn´t much time to write lately.
We had a super good week in that we found a LOT of people to teach, and even better they are complete families! Nothing is better than teaching a complete family, and we happend upon three of them! Oh YA! It was kind of funny, we were walking along and a lady asked us ´aren´t you the Mormons?` we told her it was a nickname of the church and if she would like to learn more we would love to come and visit her. She told us no but that everybody on her street was really needing to be taught (??) so we got her address so she could refer us to who she would like us to teach. In looking for her we found a couple, and we found another family accross the street that we taught The Plan of Salvation too, and we are going back to visit their neighbors later this week too. Also, on Sunday we went to visit a family that we started teaching last week. They were putting up a brick wall and we had offered our help. Ha, they were suprised to see that we ACTUALLY showed up to help. We are both fairly inexperienced but we managed to help a little bit, I think the best part is we actually started to build a relationship with them. We ended up eating lunch twice because the mother of the family cooked lunch and said she would be hurt if we didn´t eat with them. So we ate fast and then booked it to our lunch appointment with the members.
Wow, lot´s to say and not enough time to say it all. We also are teaching Clarissa, a woman who showed up last Sunday randomly to church. She has been attending church in Cachoeirinha (little waterfall) for the last year but hadn´t been able to baptized. She moved back here and showed up at church and told us she wanted to be baptized, ha and we were really happy to help her with that haha, she will be baptized next week.
Really the only bummer about the week is that NOBODY showed up for General Conference, we invited and committed everybody to come and they said they would and when it actually comes down to it. Nothing. It is kind of hard to see so much work and prayers and then get to the end of the week and nothing. Oh well, that is part of being a missionary.
Okay. I´m leaving. but I´ll be back. But just incase I don´t manage to. Uchtdorf é O Cara! (Ya, that´s right)
Muito Amor
Elder F. Morgan
CONTINUED.......
I will finish up this email, We just had a sweet churrasco with some missionaries and it was lots of fun.
I really enjoyed General Conference. Once again I didn´t get to watch the saturday session because we didn´t have any investigators that went, but I am looking forward to reading all about it in the Liahona. I really liked Elder Anderson´s talk, we should all ask ourselves. ´What does Christ think of me?´ when it REALLY comes down to it, that is what is going to matter. In my personal opinion, I think a lot of what Christ thinks about it us will depend on the service we rendered to God´s children with our time here on earth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naqX9iYE0V0
So I really wanted to share this video with everyone. My companion has a lot of these on his ipod and this really touched me. Probably some of you have already seen it. If the video doesn´t show up with this link, look up on youtube. Gordon B. Hinckley- lessons I learned as a boy.
I had more to say but I have forgotten it. I can´t believe how quickly this transfer has passed by, they just get faster and faster. It is really sad to see so many of my friends leaving the mission, and it is weird to have people coming to me to ask for help or advice, I can´t believe and sometimes don´t want to accept how old I am getting on the mission. It is going by way super fast.
By the way, sorry I am way behind on writing back letters to everybody, I will try to write soon, but it just has been really hectic lately.
So it´s spring break there and the weather is crummy, ha suprise suprise.
So it is amazing how attatched I become to everywhere I go as a missionary, I am already afraid that I will be transfered out of here and leave all these great people I am coming to love. Also, when I got in this area, my English was struggling a bit. But about half of our ward speaks English, it is SUPER weird, and I have had to talk with the new Americans in our zone a lot to explain things so now I can just switch in and out between the two pretty easily. The thing is that Elder Cardoso wants me to help him learn English, it is a really big test of my patience, I am realizing now how hard it must have been for Elder Gramosa to work with me when I first showed up and just how much patience he really had. Elder Cardoso is pretty awesome, he is a really good missionary and is helping me a lot, especially to really be bold, ha he reminds me a lot of Tom, it is pretty great, I tell him that too, so I almost feel at home!
Hey, Louie and Shelby are in the MTC now right? Who else is heading out soon.
Well, now I am going to go for real, I don´t really remember what to write. Thank you for all of your prayers, it means so much to me.
Have a good week. To jump back to my Boy Scout days... Do a Good Turn Daily.
Lots of Love
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigão
Elder David F. Morgan
Fast Week
Oi!
I would say we had a really good week. But I don´t remember exactly what happened, I say that a lot huh?
Elder Cardoso was sick, but he kept trying to be a macho man and tough it out ha, it made him a little unpleasant to be with this week but I knew it wasn´t anything personal, poor guy, he had a fever yesterday. We went to a member house so I could use the bathroom real fast and when I came out he had fallen asleep sitting on the front porch.
We had a headache trying to get the member involved and have a lot of members present in our lessons last week, so this week we made cookies and cards and distributed them to all the members who left with us and helped out last week and we are going to keep doing it. I am learning a lot about how to work with people here on the mission, and especially here in this area. It really doesn´t cost a single penny to be kind to someone. And it doesnt cost too much to go out of you way to say thank you or say something nice. Basically if we are going to be representatives of Christ, people should feel edified, and strengthened because we were there, lot´s of time that only takes us noticing them and praising them for their good efforts. I hope this is making sense. Basically we have been trying to always be looking on the good side of what happens and try to notice and praise the uplifting acts of others.
I am runing out of time. Sorry this is short. Lot´s of love.
I hope you are all well.
Seu filho, amigo, e irmão
Elder Morgan
I would say we had a really good week. But I don´t remember exactly what happened, I say that a lot huh?
Elder Cardoso was sick, but he kept trying to be a macho man and tough it out ha, it made him a little unpleasant to be with this week but I knew it wasn´t anything personal, poor guy, he had a fever yesterday. We went to a member house so I could use the bathroom real fast and when I came out he had fallen asleep sitting on the front porch.
We had a headache trying to get the member involved and have a lot of members present in our lessons last week, so this week we made cookies and cards and distributed them to all the members who left with us and helped out last week and we are going to keep doing it. I am learning a lot about how to work with people here on the mission, and especially here in this area. It really doesn´t cost a single penny to be kind to someone. And it doesnt cost too much to go out of you way to say thank you or say something nice. Basically if we are going to be representatives of Christ, people should feel edified, and strengthened because we were there, lot´s of time that only takes us noticing them and praising them for their good efforts. I hope this is making sense. Basically we have been trying to always be looking on the good side of what happens and try to notice and praise the uplifting acts of others.
I am runing out of time. Sorry this is short. Lot´s of love.
I hope you are all well.
Seu filho, amigo, e irmão
Elder Morgan
Hard Week, SOOOO worth it
Oi!
So, I´m actually here in the mission office writing this email. It´s been 11 months since I have been here, weird. So I am in those weird 3 days between when I was set apart as a missionary, travled and arrived in at the CTM. So yesterday, today, and tomorrow are all part of my ´month markers´ here in the mission. Ya, it´s now been eleven. One more and I will have been a missionary for a year. I don´t know if I´m ready for that yet.
Congradulations to Jenn and Chris! Gracie is a real cutie! I just some other Elders in here her pictures. I am so happy for you, I can´t wait to meet her ha. Grace is actually one of my favorite names for a girl too ha! Tão Perfeitinha ela é. And everybody is recovering well?
Skyler is a district leader? That´s awesome! He sent me an email a long while back. I´m not allowed to email back ha but I forgot to ask for his address. Could somebody get that for me?
Oh since Grant said it I can say it too then. I didn´t say anything cause I didn´t want anybody freaking out. Ha I got robbed too. Well our house did. They didn´t take that much though. Just my nike´s and some money that we (I) had lying around. Ha and they cut their hand breaking open our door so they left some blood around. It was kind of crazy haha. I took pictures. I guess they didn´t know spend all day away from home or they could have basically taken everything. What a blessing that they didn´t right?
So we had a pretty hard week. I can´t believe that we actually managed to get as much work done as we did. We had a goal to have 10 lessons with a member present this week. We had a division, emergency meetings and other such nonsense that got in the way, plus our zone is having some transfers that are happening, so the week was kind of turned upside down, but it was still really good.
Yara is progressing well. She is workign towards baptism and really seeking answers to her prayers. We brought the bishop with us to go visit her on tuesday and she was just tickled pink over that. The light went out during the lesson, (that happens a lot her) so we taught in the dark. We are really praying for a family to start teaching, The Gospel really does bless families in incredible ways and the best way to apply it is in the family, and where we also reap the most blessings.
A young lady we started teaching went to church this week. We didn´t get her ´´namarido´´ (bofriend/husband) to go with us. We havn´t been able to teach him much yet, just once. She is progressing well. We had a neat experience where The Spirit helped us discern what she needed and we were able to ask some questions that helped us to know her needs better and where she could see what was keeping her from finding answers to her prayers. Her name is Suianne. She is sixteen.... and has a ten month old baby so we would really like to help their family be united and grow in The Gospel. Big problem her is little kids trying to play house. 16, 15, 14, or even younger teenagers starting families, and they can´t manage to get along and usually the family ends up being broken up.
We worked super hard this week, it payed off. It wasn´t without some pain, but it was good. We are making cards for all the members who taught with us this week. (trying to butter them up a little haha)
I had a lot of really deep thoughts for this week that I have completely forgotten right now.
It is starting to cool down here. Still hot, but cooling. Personally I would be fine with just baking for the next year. Cold weather and I are not good freinds. Just bugs that get me. Ha one thing here. So especially because we are out in the woods, there is lots of bugs. Even closing the house off, using a fan, and putting on bug spray at night I still wake up with spots of blood all over my shirt from where mosquitos got squished in the night. Something a little nitty-gritty for ya. ´
To finish, because I´can´t remember my profound thoughts. A quoute I found by President Monson.
´Never let a problem to be solved, become more important than a person to be loved.´
I find that to be very good advice in regard to missionary work.
Lot´s of love.
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigo
Elder David F Morgan
So, I´m actually here in the mission office writing this email. It´s been 11 months since I have been here, weird. So I am in those weird 3 days between when I was set apart as a missionary, travled and arrived in at the CTM. So yesterday, today, and tomorrow are all part of my ´month markers´ here in the mission. Ya, it´s now been eleven. One more and I will have been a missionary for a year. I don´t know if I´m ready for that yet.
Congradulations to Jenn and Chris! Gracie is a real cutie! I just some other Elders in here her pictures. I am so happy for you, I can´t wait to meet her ha. Grace is actually one of my favorite names for a girl too ha! Tão Perfeitinha ela é. And everybody is recovering well?
Skyler is a district leader? That´s awesome! He sent me an email a long while back. I´m not allowed to email back ha but I forgot to ask for his address. Could somebody get that for me?
Oh since Grant said it I can say it too then. I didn´t say anything cause I didn´t want anybody freaking out. Ha I got robbed too. Well our house did. They didn´t take that much though. Just my nike´s and some money that we (I) had lying around. Ha and they cut their hand breaking open our door so they left some blood around. It was kind of crazy haha. I took pictures. I guess they didn´t know spend all day away from home or they could have basically taken everything. What a blessing that they didn´t right?
So we had a pretty hard week. I can´t believe that we actually managed to get as much work done as we did. We had a goal to have 10 lessons with a member present this week. We had a division, emergency meetings and other such nonsense that got in the way, plus our zone is having some transfers that are happening, so the week was kind of turned upside down, but it was still really good.
Yara is progressing well. She is workign towards baptism and really seeking answers to her prayers. We brought the bishop with us to go visit her on tuesday and she was just tickled pink over that. The light went out during the lesson, (that happens a lot her) so we taught in the dark. We are really praying for a family to start teaching, The Gospel really does bless families in incredible ways and the best way to apply it is in the family, and where we also reap the most blessings.
A young lady we started teaching went to church this week. We didn´t get her ´´namarido´´ (bofriend/husband) to go with us. We havn´t been able to teach him much yet, just once. She is progressing well. We had a neat experience where The Spirit helped us discern what she needed and we were able to ask some questions that helped us to know her needs better and where she could see what was keeping her from finding answers to her prayers. Her name is Suianne. She is sixteen.... and has a ten month old baby so we would really like to help their family be united and grow in The Gospel. Big problem her is little kids trying to play house. 16, 15, 14, or even younger teenagers starting families, and they can´t manage to get along and usually the family ends up being broken up.
We worked super hard this week, it payed off. It wasn´t without some pain, but it was good. We are making cards for all the members who taught with us this week. (trying to butter them up a little haha)
I had a lot of really deep thoughts for this week that I have completely forgotten right now.
It is starting to cool down here. Still hot, but cooling. Personally I would be fine with just baking for the next year. Cold weather and I are not good freinds. Just bugs that get me. Ha one thing here. So especially because we are out in the woods, there is lots of bugs. Even closing the house off, using a fan, and putting on bug spray at night I still wake up with spots of blood all over my shirt from where mosquitos got squished in the night. Something a little nitty-gritty for ya. ´
To finish, because I´can´t remember my profound thoughts. A quoute I found by President Monson.
´Never let a problem to be solved, become more important than a person to be loved.´
I find that to be very good advice in regard to missionary work.
Lot´s of love.
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigo
Elder David F Morgan
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