Monday, July 30, 2012

Short on time

Óla!
Ya, there is no time again to write, also the backspace on this keyboard is in the wrong place and it is REALLY throwing me off.
Summing up (sorry)
Maicon was baptized on Saturday. We spent all day there fiddling with the heater that literally caught fire at the last baptism trying to get the water warm. At the last minute the person who was supossed to pick up Maicon couldn´t, and it was stressful. But when Maicon showed up that baptismal went really well. He gave Brother Lima a big hug after the ordinance was finished and we sang all together to try and keep The Spirit while they were changing clothes.
Maicon bore his testimony afterwards as well (never seen that before) he was really converted and it was very powerful. We never got a Book of Mormon in braile for him, but we are working on geting materials, until now he just listens to it.
He received the Aaronic preisthood yesterday after his confirmation and the ward is really embracing him.
Silvana didn´t manage to leave the cigarettes, her son went to the hospital and when she was way stressed she smoked a few, but she has progressed SOOO much in these last few weeks, I am 100% sure that she will be baptized soon.
Also, we had a miracle, Ione, a guy in the wards mom, has been investigating the church for who knows how many years now, and we have been teaching her. A few days ago we got a text from her son telling us to go to a member's house and they were going to meet us there. She really wants to be baptized and we prayed with her, went over the baptismal interview questions, she went to church this Sunday and is really excited to take this really important step. What a miracle. She wants to be a good example for her children who are less active and she is wants to do what is right. The Lord is blessing us so much.
There will be transfers again this next week, but it would be a big suprise if I left. Honestly, I am still adapting to the ward and the area, it is being a little rough.
I stopped puking, now Elder Alencar is a mess. Bummer.
Hey, times up. I love you all very much. Thank you for your prayers.


Elder David F Morgan

Friday, July 27, 2012

Last week of President Swenson

So I have more time that I thought and I have another topic to talk about.
This is the last week of President and Sister Swenson here in our mission. I am so sad to see them go. They came to OUR ward here yesterday to give their last talks here as President of the mission POA south. They taught me so many things and everytime I talk to them I want to be a better person and a better missionary.
Our new President, President and Sister Castro will be here on Saturday. We are having a zone conference with them this week or next so we should be getting to know them pretty soon. I am sure they will also be great, but making the change with be weird. It is hard to imagine anybody else in President or Sister Swensons place, they are so loving and dedicated. Everytime we have a conference, you can´t run away, they WILL find you, and WILL hug you. I have tried to escape it before, just to see if they would notice, yup, they did.
Wow. there really aren´t even enough words to express how great they are. Love them so much and they will be missed. Wow, this is the hardest part about writing, trying to explain all the feelings that are inside of me. Just love, that´s all I can use to describe it.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Ya, I puked

Óla
SOOOOOOOOOOOO little time.
We had a way good week. Summing up.
Maicon will be baptized on Saturday, is progressing very well, he loves his coffee but is willing to give it up because he wants to do what is right, and was tickled when we explained about the plan of salvation, he understood very well. ( like I said, he is SUPER smart) Please continue praying for him.

Silvana, has gone a few days without smoking and is really progressing, PLEASE continue to keep her in your prayers, so she can resist the temptation and progress to being baptized. She is really determined but lives where she is surrounded by others who smoke and so it is hard.

I had a special suprise this week. I got a call from Elder Amaral, a lady I had been teaching in Agronomia, Conceiçâo, was going to be baptized, and I got permission from Pres. Castro to go, I also ended up being the one to perform the baptism. It was really special and fun to go back and see everyone that I didn´t get to say good bye to in Conceiçâo before I left so it was really great. Very strong spirit.
So just to finish up, I have been a little sick this past week. Lots of stomach problems, when we were coming home from the baptism yesterday it was crowded, and I had already been on the bus for a while, I was already pretty sick and ha. one bus stop before ours I told Elder Alencar we were going to have to get off the bus in a hurry. Ya, I got up and puked.. a lot. So after a year and three months I have finally puked on my mission.. hooray! :P E. Alencar called Sister Castro and when she found out how long I have been feeling sick she got on my case a little bit ha. Anyways, I am feeling better now.
Well folks, that is all I have time for.
All of my love to ya
Elder David F Morgan

Monday, July 16, 2012

Sem Assunto

Óla!
So, once again I will be starting my email like this: Wow, I´m tired, haha just getting that out of the way.


We had a week that was not EXCELLENTE but had some good parts!
We started teaching a guy named Maicon, He is 23 years old, very intelligent, and interestingly.. blind. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted to prepare himself for baptism and to learn more. He came to church on Sunday and really liked it a lot. He lives really close to a recent convert named Carol so he went with her and she has been there to answer questions for him and everything. We are working on getting a copy of The Book of Mormon ( or O Livro de Mórmon) in audio or brail for him. We found one in brail, but it was english, why? I don´t know. He is way nice and pays attention to EVERYTHING, he told me it is easy to pick me out because of my accent, I am the gringo haha. But my accent is getting better, there is some people who haven´t believed me when I said I was north american, they think I am from Santa Catarina or something like that. Anyways he went to church fasting and has a lot of curiosity to know more, and we have lots of hopes for me, please keep him in your prayers, we hope for him to be baptized at the end of this month.


We are also teaching a lady named Silvana, her son is already a member of the church and she is very interested, wants to be baptzed, but is just having some problems giving up her smokes. We are making goals and helping her with that, we even thought of using this as a way to find people to teach, offer classes about how to quit smoking, you would be suprised at how much of that we do as missionaries. She is way funny, we and another member gave her a blessing this last week, and she lives way close to the relief society president that helps her a lot.


Also, on Friday all of our lights went out, (Elder Alencar was taking a shower and it went cold on him hehe) we passed the weekend just using candles because we couldn´t get an electrition... electrician... how do you spell that? In portuguese it´s eletricista. Anyways he was only able to come today, so we have power again.


We have been receiving a lot of member referals lately, almost too many for us to keep up with, but President Castro has really been stressing that we work with members and priesthood leaders, we managed to meet some of these referals and a few are GOLDEN, we just need to start teaching them now. We were going to have a family night yesterday with a couple in the ward and another young couple, but at the last minute they had to cancel.. bummer. Please pray for us to have success with this, and that these people with be able to meet with us and open to The Gospel.


We have been walking ALOT, our area is like a giant bowl, and we live in the middle, but anywhere else we want to go is up up up. It is good though. We also had interviews with the rest of the zone this last Friday, President Castro talked with Elder Alencar and I at the end to talk about our zone and what we could do. Again, already love that man. It seems weird to think he has only been here three weeks.


We used the frisbee today, playing soccer, and frisbee etc. It was way fun, just WAY too many people.


OH!!! I learned how to solve a rubiks cube this week too!


In closing, I have been thinking a lot about the concept of gossip this week. It really isn´t necessary. I don´t know if it is a hymn or just a song, but it was sung at General Conference, titled. ´Let us all speak kind words to each other´ I would add, to and about each other. Let us see others as The Savior sees us and speak kindly to others. Just something I have been thinking about recently. All of my love!


Elder David F. Morgan

Sem Assunto

Óla!
So, once again I will be starting my email like this: Wow, I´m tired, haha just getting that out of the way.


We had a week that was not EXCELLENTE but had some good parts!
We started teaching a guy named Maicon, He is 23 years old, very intelligent, and interestingly.. blind. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted to prepare himself for baptism and to learn more. He came to church on Sunday and really liked it a lot. He lives really close to a recent convert named Carol so he went with her and she has been there to answer questions for him and everything. We are working on getting a copy of The Book of Mormon ( or O Livro de Mórmon) in audio or brail for him. We found one in brail, but it was english, why? I don´t know. He is way nice and pays attention to EVERYTHING, he told me it is easy to pick me out because of my accent, I am the gringo haha. But my accent is getting better, there is some people who haven´t believed me when I said I was north american, they think I am from Santa Catarina or something like that. Anyways he went to church fasting and has a lot of curiosity to know more, and we have lots of hopes for me, please keep him in your prayers, we hope for him to be baptized at the end of this month.


We are also teaching a lady named Silvana, her son is already a member of the church and she is very interested, wants to be baptzed, but is just having some problems giving up her smokes. We are making goals and helping her with that, we even thought of using this as a way to find people to teach, offer classes about how to quit smoking, you would be suprised at how much of that we do as missionaries. She is way funny, we and another member gave her a blessing this last week, and she lives way close to the relief society president that helps her a lot.


Also, on Friday all of our lights went out, (Elder Alencar was taking a shower and it went cold on him hehe) we passed the weekend just using candles because we couldn´t get an electrition... electrician... how do you spell that? In portuguese it´s eletricista. Anyways he was only able to come today, so we have power again.


We have been receiving a lot of member referals lately, almost too many for us to keep up with, but President Castro has really been stressing that we work with members and priesthood leaders, we managed to meet some of these referals and a few are GOLDEN, we just need to start teaching them now. We were going to have a family night yesterday with a couple in the ward and another young couple, but at the last minute they had to cancel.. bummer. Please pray for us to have success with this, and that these people with be able to meet with us and open to The Gospel.


We have been walking ALOT, our area is like a giant bowl, and we live in the middle, but anywhere else we want to go is up up up. It is good though. We also had interviews with the rest of the zone this last Friday, President Castro talked with Elder Alencar and I at the end to talk about our zone and what we could do. Again, already love that man. It seems weird to think he has only been here three weeks.


We used the frisbee today, playing soccer, and frisbee etc. It was way fun, just WAY too many people.


OH!!! I learned how to solve a rubiks cube this week too!


In closing, I have been thinking a lot about the concept of gossip this week. It really isn´t necessary. I don´t know if it is a hymn or just a song, but it was sung at General Conference, titled. ´Let us all speak kind words to each other´ I would add, to and about each other. Let us see others as The Savior sees us and speak kindly to others. Just something I have been thinking about recently. All of my love!


Elder David F. Morgan

Monday, July 9, 2012

A fast one

Óla
So this is going to be VERY quick.
We had Zone Leaders Council on Tuesday. 4 1/2 hours of training and then interviews. BTWS our new President, President Castro is... AWESOME! Already love him to death. We talked about working with the members and we practiced asking and following up with referals. My interview was really good.
Cool Experience!:
When we were in the mission office a lady came in, she told us she was looking to find out more about the church and about the missionaries. Why we do what we do. No better time to show up, or place to go. Mission Leadership and a new mission President, we started sharing experiences with her and explaining things for her.
It was really neat, she told us that she wanted to know more because she said ´sometimes people are downright rude to you guys, and it doesnt faze you, you just keep smiling and talk to more people´ she couldn´t understand it and she talked about the warmth she feels when she talks with the missionaries etc. We told her about The Spirit, and we do this only for love of God and our brothers and sisters. She accepted us meeting with her (lives in the assitants area) and in weekly report today, Elder Tolentino (assitant) told me she went to church, and wants to be baptized! Miracles Happen!
Our goal as a mission this month is 100 people baptized, and we are really working hard to help people make until baptism and continued activity in the church. We are doing this by working really closely w/ the members and priesthood leaders of the church. I am really praying for this miracle in the ´whole entire´ mission. haha
We also had Zone Conference on Tuesday. We met Sister Castro (from Urugay) her accent is really a mix of Spanish and Portuguese but we understand everything she says. They also have 3 kids with them here. The whole family is really great.
We had a tiring week, I hope to see lots of fruit from this work and training.
Thats all I have time for.
I love you, and thank you for your thoughts and prayers on my behalf.
Elder D. F. Morgan

Monday, July 2, 2012

new transfer, area, and president

Wow, I just lost what was quite a sizable email, and all of my attempts to recover it have been futile. Prepare yourselves for the revised version cause I am too lazy to write it out again, I have been cleaning ALL day. 

Óla!
So yup, I got transfered. I am in Medianeira ( Zone Porto Alegre) w/ my new companion Elder Alencar from Fortaleza, Ceará (up north... which is still south for you ha. ) He is way cool, I already like him. I would say he is excited or upbeat.. but I think he passes either one of those two words... maybe hyper-active would be more accurate. He plays guitar and sings though, so that it fun ha. So far, really like him. I miss Elder Amaral soooo much though, I love him a lot, I was really looking forward to another transfer with him. (Still slightly upset about being transfered, but trying to mantain a submissive humility in compliance w/ The Lords´will :P ) It was really hard to say good bye to everyone in Agronomia though, I will miss them a lot, I can although already see some of The Lords´ wisdom in transfering me.

By the way, advice for future missionaries. When you are transfered. PLEASE leave the apartment at least semi-clean for the next guy. All I am going to say about that.

Sad news: President and Sister Swenson left for home on Saturday.. :(
Happy news: President and Sister Castro and family showed up on Saturday. (still haven´t met them)
We have zone council tomorrow followed by interviews w/ all the ZL´s tomorrow so we will know who they are finally , plus on Wednesday we have zone conference, again followed by interviews. We will be leaving last becaue we live the closest, so anybody who has to transfer will be interviewed and leave first. It might be a long two days, I am really excited though.
By the way, my English has gotten way better, SO much easier to switch back and forth now.

Sounds like you are having a bumper crop of fruit back home, I love telling people the variaties of fruit in our yard, things like raspberries and blackberries and cherries are rare and expensive here. But we run a little short on guava and mango in the states, and also, bananas are WAY better here.

We have a few investgators here already and they are progressing well, but our teaching pool is really small, we are working on doing some activities to excite the ward a bit and work with member referals. ( I challenge ALL of you who read this to think of somebody that you could refer the missionaries to pass this referal to them, or better, talk with your friend and invite them, and then invite the missionaries, helps SOOO much, or if you would like to hear the missionaries, talk to you closest LDS friend and they can help you out.)

So that is the more or less resumed email, that still turned out to be a good length really. I love you all, hope all is well. Thank you for all your prayers on my behalf.

Elder David F Morgan