Good week, Elder Bednar, SO tired!

Oi!

Well, we have recently left our conference with Elder Bednar, it was amazing! But I won´t start there.

 

So, I got called and asked to come to the office on monday instead of tuesday to get training ready and to prepare for transfers. I managed to visit Catia in Simões Lopes and Wanda ( some of the first people that I met and baptized on my mission) I  sadly didn´t get to say good bye to anybody in my actually area in Princesa Isabel, but maybe when we are on exchanges with the Elders there we will be able to pay a visit. I was sad to not be able to say goodbye, there was a really speacial family that we are teaching that I really wanted to be able to see, so for sure when we are there I will go and visit them.

 

Tuesday was really actually kind of fun. First things first we went to the airport with President Castro and the family to go and pick up the new missionaries at the airport. They were all there waiting around not knowing what to do when me and Elder Singelo got there. First they called over to us and I could tell they were all really excited. I remember meeting President Swenson at the airport and feeling excited to finally know him personally. Our phone stopped working that morning so we had to switch our SIM card, but it didn´t have our contacts so we couldn´t call hardly anyone, it wasn´t a really easy day for our phone to stop working but it was alright.

We gave a quick training to the new missionaries and to get them excited I taught the Baptismal Haka ( I don´t know if I spelt that right, but it´s that polanisian dance :P but not really, just something my trainer had made up. ) We next went and gave a quick training to the new trainers. It was a really good group of missionaries. I had been a little disappointed in the past with a few trainers but I looked on our group there and I feel really good about all of them, I´m sure they will do really well.

 

The work here is really doing well. Elder Dawson and Elder Singelo have done a great work here already. Kenia, a young woman (25) they have been teaching for a few weeks was baptized yesterday! She is really special and understands really clearly what is being taught and is studying and seeking a lot. We also have been teaching Cevanir, that will be baptized next week. When we taught her she talked about how so many people need this message and that she had invited her neighbor to church, then went and invited her to hear our message. So we started teaching Helena. When we were teaching Helena (the neighbor) Cevanir ran into another friend and marked a day for us to go visit her. We don´t really spend to much time in the office thankfully and we have been getting out and going to work a lot, I really like Elder Singelo a lot. Honestly he had slept in our house a few times in Pelotas and I wasn´t too impressed haha, but I like him a lot as a companion.

 

I forgot to mention ( don´t know if anyone will remember him) but Elder Falcão finished his mission this last transfer. When I started my mission he was in Simões Lopes with me. I feel like the last leaf on the tree. He is a really good missionary and was a great leader. I will miss him a bunch.

 

Well, today was our really special conference with Elder Bednar. I don´t really want to attempt to pass along what he taught us cause it won´t come out right, especailly in writing. But we talked a lot about acting and not being acted upon, it was really spiritually motivating and we learned about having our own spiritual experiences instead of waiting for others to help us to have them. He gave a council that was interesting, but I found it insteresting that I had already received this council from The Spirit before, but he reminded me of it. When we go to a meeting we don´t need to take notes on what is being said, the true teacher is The Spirit, so we should pay attention and write down the impressions of The Spirit the come to us when the message is being conveyed. This came to me during last general conference. I was taking notes and I felt really dumb all of the sudden because I new that in a few weeks all of those talks would be sent our in the monthly Liahona, so why would I bother writing down every word he they said, there is already somebody else doing that. So I decided to see what The spirit would impress me to change about my own life as the speakers were talking. It is a much better tactic, I suggest that everyone try it. The true teacher will always be The Spirit, so we should write down what The Teacher teaches.

 

We were sent a few talks to read in preparation for the meeting, and it really helped, we talked about Learning by Faith. That was have to step just a little bit into the darkness and the path is then illuminated just a few steps in front of us to continue walking, most of us want the path illuminated all at once. When we ask for a confirmation of what is right as an answer to our prayers, we must be comitted to following the answer that The Lord will send to us. Again, I´m not really paraphrasing, just explainging what came to me during the meeting. My experience has been that usually, we receive a testemony from The Spirit  by living acording to the commandments and The Spirit confirms to our heart and mind that what we are doing is pleasing to The Lord and will bring us happiness. Faith is much more than just believing but it truly is an action. Man, I love The Gospel. I have started to do a study on The Spirit, how he teaces us and how i can be guided in all I do and be worthy of His company, it seems like The Lord really attended my prayers to learn more by sending one of His special witnesses to teach us today.

 

 

The Lord really does love us. Because of this love, He usually gives us the means, and not the end, so that we grow and learn during our experiences. I love The Savior and His gospel. I also love you all back home, but I honestly don´t think about you too much :P just every now and then. Thanks for the package. Wow, I will be 21 tomorrow, I just remembered that haha.

 

Elder David F Morgan

Transfers....say what?

Óla! 

Sorry I am writing so late today. We had transfers and I got transfered, but instead of having to travel tomorrow like usual, I had to travel today. Uh, I got transfered to Porto Alegre again in the 3rd Ward, I also got assigned to work here in the mission office as the Assistant to the President, so I had to get here "early" today to get some things ready for transfers and training that we will do. It was kind of a suprise cause I don´t really have a whole lot of time left, also I really wanted to stay in Pelotas with Elder Ewer, what a great missionary, I love him so much. 

 

I hadn´t notified you guys either, but this weekend we are going to have a visit in our mission from Elder Bednar! Only, the missionaries from Porto Alegre are going to be able to go, so maybe that is why I forgot to notify everyone, but it will be really neat! 

Also, my P-day is on Saturday now, so expect my letters on Saturday and write me before Saturday to get replies. 

My new companion is Elder Singelo, great guy. Kind of crazy ha, but a good worker and I am excited to work with him. 

Carlos and Edna asked us to not visit them any more. It was pretty sad, but everyone has agency and who knows but us meeting them was a way for The Lord to prepare them to receive The Gospel in the future. We also had some neat experiences finding people this week. 

 

When I was walking to church I was really trying to not get discouraged and to believe that The Lord would open of another opportunity for us. He did! At church came a young man that we had invited once and he went, and then we never managed to meet with him again, but he came to church a second time and he lives pretty far and he had to wake up early to go. Also, a young man in the ward has been bringing his sister to visit church for a few weeks and we managed to talk to her and set up a visit. She doesnt live in our area, but her mom does and she is ALWAYS there on the weekend, so she would only be able to go to church there and has and adress there. Potential. The Lord is really good to us. 

That is all I have time to write I think. 

Please continue with all the prayers, I am really grateful. I love you all

Elder David F Morgan

Lots of stuff going on

Óla,
Man, this was a really long week. We went to Porto Alegre, and passed P-Day traveling and in the mission office.
Did I mention that two short term missionaries are here with us? Yes I believe I did. Elder Sanchez is my companion. I really like him a bunch, but I also miss Elder Ewer already, even though I see him every day. I actually met Elder Sanchez on my first day here. I was walking with Elder de Almeida, and he was with a buddy, and came up behind us. He put on a face of being a stoner and asked. " Hey dude, what do I do to be mormon?" and when I responded about baptisms etc, he asked " Could I get baptized today?" haha, then he told me he was a member here. So it was funny when I found out he was the member being called to be my companion. He sings a lot ha.

Honestly, this week just wiped me out. We didn´t really have a p day, so we came home to a messy house, put two more elders in a small apartment, and we divided up our area and went to work. We had some really good moments teaching this week, and experiences where we felt very guided by The Spirit, but it seems like everything went wrong this week. But that happens sometimes, The Lord tests our faith a little bit, but you just dust yourself off and keep going.
We had a lot of people comitted to coming to church yesterday, in the end, the only one who came was the least likely, a 15 year old kid that we contacted on the street Saturday night and invited, his name is also Matteus. I´m not sure why Matteus and Rejane didn´t go, and we haven´t been able to talk to them yet, but we are going to go there tonight.

Yesterday we were walking past an apartment, and I saw that the window was open, I passed and then the feeling came to me that we should go back, I´ve learned that it is important to follow your "hunches" as a missionary, so we did, and we ended up having a great lesson with two local students here about The Plan of Salvation.

We are seeking to work with the members here to find new people to teach and I know that we are on the right track. The zone has gotten much better too, I feel good about that. I can tell that even if we haven´t seen the results we have hoped for in our area, the change in the zone and the missionaries has been quite mighty. I hope and pray that The Lord will bless us soon to have some fruits of our own and help the ward here. We found Carlos again, he is really great, understand well, and has a lot of desire, but it would appear that he has a drinking problem that gets him down, that is why he didn´t go to church yesterday.

Our area is getting an intensive overhall with two companionships here and I am sure that this next transfer we will have a lot of new people to teach. Loves. I am so excited to hear that Shaun will be serving in Brazil when I read his email this next week :P  Ha ha (note from the Mom, David is hoping Shaun will go to Brazil, we are still waiting for his call)

Loves!

Elder David F Morgan

Ola!

Óla! 

Man, we had a really good hard week. New Years Eve we taught a less active member Vitor, about The Restoration, it was way good, we used a lot of scriptures that Elder Ewer has found lately and shared with me. Man, can I tell everyone again how much I love my comp, he is awesome! 

Our apartment has a few problems with leaks, it rained buckets that night and it was dripping water all over until Thursday, we are going to have to talk with someone about that. 

We have been working really hard, talking to lots of people and planning how to work better with the members. We went on splits on Tuesday. It was way good, we taugt a lot ( I was with Elder M Nascimento from Simões Lopes) He does a great job talking to people on the street and really being excited to talk to them. At the end we talked about things to do better and what we did really right. We have been having a lot of holidays and conferences, but The Lord has blessed us that, even with all of our coming and going we have managed to teach a lot and contact. 

Luis Fernando hasn´t come back from the holidays yet, we are planning on how to invite him to be baptized this month when he gets back, he is more than ready. 

Matteus e Rejane are really well. We had a family night with our first counciler and his family that are way great. We had a really spiritual lesson with Rejane about The Book of Mormon the following day and then we taught them about The Plan of Salvation and Chastity on Saturday. They accept our invitation to marry and to continue going to church. The next day a member went to acompany them to church and they didn´t answer, we went there later and they also didn´t answer. I was a little bummed because we had worked really hard all week and nobody was going to come. During the Sacrament meeting I was praying really hard trying to understand and be taught what we could do differently, I won´t really go into details, but it was a very reverent moment with The Lord. When it all finished, we got a phone call, we went outside to see who it was (never know right?) it was Matteus and Rejane, they said they had accidently slept in and wanted to know if they could still come to church! What a blessing it was, we also ended up having 3 less active members we have been teaching come to church this week!

 

Carlos and Edna, man, broke my heart, Carlos is gung ho and full of The Spirit and is excited to hear us, but Edna poor thing, is already old and tired and doesn´t want to make any life changes, so they chose not to participate, but we are going to pass by every now and then and try to teach him and get The Spirit working in him again, please pray for them.

 

Eliane´s parents won´t let her go to church, they said it is too early in the morning and it is dangerous to be on the street at first. ( she lives on block away from the church, it starts at nine, and there is a family that they know really well that could pass by) Then the father talked to us alone. Ha poor guy, he is worried that if Eliane goes to church, someday she will want to be a missionary and go far away. Iago´s mom still won't let him be baptized and he is getting really discouraged and it is getting hard for us to teach him.

 

We got some weird news the other day. Turns out that two local members will be serving as short term full time missionaries and will be on splits with me and Elder Ewer for the next TWO WEEKS. Honestly it is not that exciting to me because I love Elder Ewer and I want to keep working with him, but we will see each other at night and in the morning. I hope we stay another transfer together too.

Well that is all folks. Loves!

 

Elder David F Morgan