Oi! Sorry this will be very short this week.
We had a great week, lots of hard work, we are really starting to get the members helping us with out work and are trying to really unify our ward here.
Since we didn´t get to see conference we read ´The Man´s´* talk for a companion study about focusing on the things that are the most important. I would encourage EVERYBODY to find it and read it. It is very good and very wise council to just steady the course, slow down our mind a little and focus on the things that REALLY matter. We have been trying to apply that principle to our work here and really just focus on the things of greatest importance instead of trying to do it all at once.
Turns out a member of our ward is from Haiti and speaks five languages. That is cool, we had lunch with him today. He is a stud.
Sorry, but that is really all there is time for today.
I love you all, take care.
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigo
Elder David F. Morgan
*By the way, "The Man" is Elder Uchtdorf. For those of you who don't belong to my church he is one of our church leaders.
We have a prophet at the head of the church and 12 apostles. Elder Uchtdorf is one of the 12 apostles.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
We need a miracle
Oi!
Wow, I am just beat, so tired, but SO happy, funny how that works. But seriously I am tired.
So we had a great week. We found, we taught and we testified.
We really struggled finding new people to teach though. I had really been having a hard time just opening my mouth and talking to people, talking to people on the street, the store, wherever. I didn´t get it, I just REALLY felt so uneasy about talking to people. (this was last week.) I had been praying so much for the strength and courage to just trust The Lord and talk with people and share what I have to offer.
It really happened, The Lord's promise that our mouths will be filled with what we need to say. I just started going to talk to people and it seemed like before I new it I was talking and writing down address and the words were just being put in my mouth. It is still kind of scary, but sometimes there isn´t a magic pill that makes things easier, your just square your shoulders and do it, and The Lords promises to be with us.
I have really learned a lot this week, especially about always having a prayer in your heart. I always thought that was kind of a funny expression and how could you be always praying. I feel like I am somewhat starting to figure out what that means, Sometimes ( maybe even usually) it is just the yearnings of our hearts and not actually the words that are our prayers.
So I only got to watch conference on Saturday OR Priesthood session so I never saw ´The Man´speak, I was more than a little bummed about that but we could only go if we had people investigating the church to come with us (and we didn´t) everybody we are teaching went Sunday. So we spent the day trying to find new people to teach. It was kind of funny, we spend the whole day (we started earlier than usual too) trying to talk to everybody, going to the houses of the people we contacted that week, talked to people on the street, knocked doors, went to references we had received, EVERYTHING, and nobody accepted us Saturday, but I felt so good just knowing I had done my part. This is where this weeks miracle comes in. Sunday we spent trying to teach or getting people to conference. Conference was really good by the way, it was kind of funny to have it dubbed over in Portuguese but I understood just fine, I am really starting to gain more confidence with the language, but I have to actually focus. If I actively listen I get the vast majority of what is going on, especially in a gospel setting. I didn´t have any problems at conference, I just have to tune in, I can't let my mind wander.
So yes, this weeks miracle. We got back into Simões at about 8 and we had a half hour to find people. We just walked across the street and knocked on a door. Elder Pàlandi turned to me and said, we really could use a miracle. A man opened the door and we gave a short message and asked if we could come in and share more, much to my surprise the response was, ´sure come on in´(not something that happens often) It was a good lesson and I felt blessed and they were great people and we are going to return and talk to them more this week. I thought, wow miracle, someone actually let us in, sweet. It was almost time to go home but, we decided to knock a bit more. We got rejected at one and then we stopped at another. Elder Palandi said again, we really could use another miracle, and two more people to teach. A man answered the door again and much to my surprise let us in to talk with he and his wife ( TWO more people to teach) They were very receptive and we had a great conversation with them and they invited us to come back again. I really felt that they were people honest in heart and doing all they can to follow The Lord. Que Milagre! We had put in all of our effort to find people to teach all week and had come up with nothing. When we showed The Lord we were willing to go until the last minute he blessed us to be lead to people who would accept us and hear our message.
We are really working hard here and I love it. Plus I sleep like a baby every night.
Okay, I will wrap this up. I hope everything is going well back home. Sounds like dad had quite an adventure getting to Salt Lake,
Much Love
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigo
Elder David F. Morgan
Wow, I am just beat, so tired, but SO happy, funny how that works. But seriously I am tired.
So we had a great week. We found, we taught and we testified.
We really struggled finding new people to teach though. I had really been having a hard time just opening my mouth and talking to people, talking to people on the street, the store, wherever. I didn´t get it, I just REALLY felt so uneasy about talking to people. (this was last week.) I had been praying so much for the strength and courage to just trust The Lord and talk with people and share what I have to offer.
It really happened, The Lord's promise that our mouths will be filled with what we need to say. I just started going to talk to people and it seemed like before I new it I was talking and writing down address and the words were just being put in my mouth. It is still kind of scary, but sometimes there isn´t a magic pill that makes things easier, your just square your shoulders and do it, and The Lords promises to be with us.
I have really learned a lot this week, especially about always having a prayer in your heart. I always thought that was kind of a funny expression and how could you be always praying. I feel like I am somewhat starting to figure out what that means, Sometimes ( maybe even usually) it is just the yearnings of our hearts and not actually the words that are our prayers.
So I only got to watch conference on Saturday OR Priesthood session so I never saw ´The Man´speak, I was more than a little bummed about that but we could only go if we had people investigating the church to come with us (and we didn´t) everybody we are teaching went Sunday. So we spent the day trying to find new people to teach. It was kind of funny, we spend the whole day (we started earlier than usual too) trying to talk to everybody, going to the houses of the people we contacted that week, talked to people on the street, knocked doors, went to references we had received, EVERYTHING, and nobody accepted us Saturday, but I felt so good just knowing I had done my part. This is where this weeks miracle comes in. Sunday we spent trying to teach or getting people to conference. Conference was really good by the way, it was kind of funny to have it dubbed over in Portuguese but I understood just fine, I am really starting to gain more confidence with the language, but I have to actually focus. If I actively listen I get the vast majority of what is going on, especially in a gospel setting. I didn´t have any problems at conference, I just have to tune in, I can't let my mind wander.
So yes, this weeks miracle. We got back into Simões at about 8 and we had a half hour to find people. We just walked across the street and knocked on a door. Elder Pàlandi turned to me and said, we really could use a miracle. A man opened the door and we gave a short message and asked if we could come in and share more, much to my surprise the response was, ´sure come on in´(not something that happens often) It was a good lesson and I felt blessed and they were great people and we are going to return and talk to them more this week. I thought, wow miracle, someone actually let us in, sweet. It was almost time to go home but, we decided to knock a bit more. We got rejected at one and then we stopped at another. Elder Palandi said again, we really could use another miracle, and two more people to teach. A man answered the door again and much to my surprise let us in to talk with he and his wife ( TWO more people to teach) They were very receptive and we had a great conversation with them and they invited us to come back again. I really felt that they were people honest in heart and doing all they can to follow The Lord. Que Milagre! We had put in all of our effort to find people to teach all week and had come up with nothing. When we showed The Lord we were willing to go until the last minute he blessed us to be lead to people who would accept us and hear our message.
We are really working hard here and I love it. Plus I sleep like a baby every night.
Okay, I will wrap this up. I hope everything is going well back home. Sounds like dad had quite an adventure getting to Salt Lake,
Much Love
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigo
Elder David F. Morgan
Monday, October 3, 2011
New Address
We've been given an updated address for sending packages to Elder Morgan. I'm assuming it's also for letters because as of now we don't have a direct address for sending letters.
Brazil Porto Alegre South Mission
Elder David F. Morgan (they want his full name)
Av. Princesa Isabel, 342-B
Santana-Porto Alegre, RS 90629-000
Brazil
Priority mail is still required.
Brazil Porto Alegre South Mission
Elder David F. Morgan (they want his full name)
Av. Princesa Isabel, 342-B
Santana-Porto Alegre, RS 90629-000
Brazil
Priority mail is still required.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
(no subject)
Oi!
So once again another week has come and passed and I don´t know what happened too it, and it was full of ups and downs, mostly ups.
I am REALLY trying to remember what happened though, it is all in my journal and no longer in my head. We had a specialized training on i think Tuesday but I won´t bet any money on that. It was very powerful and very inspiring. We talked about being diligent and really acting on our faith and I felt very energized to just get out there and talk to the whole world. It was though a fairly hard week. We had a few people we were teaching tell us they didn´t want to meet with us anymore and that is always very heartbreaking, when you know what you have to say will bless their life and their families and they turn away from it, but you can never force them. Especially one of the young men we are teaching Rafael, he is our buddy and we really love him, but he really isn´t interested in our message anymore, I think he got a lot of opposition from his family. But I won´t dwell on that.
SO excited to hear about Grant being out in the mission field. WOOHOO! Sounds like he is hitting the pavement well. That is what it is all about, I am learning that myself. Despite having a great meeting earlier in the week, we did struggle a bit this week. Elder Palandi and I are still adjusting to teaching together and how all the personalities in our apartment fit together. He is a really good guitar player too, so after planning and everything at night, we play the blues sometimes.
We also met some really good people this week too, and are shifting a lot of our work to a new part of our area that a lot of the missionaries before us ignored because it is really hard to work downtown. I feel very strongly that the people there need to have the same opportunity to hear the message of The Gospel and that yes, it will be hard, but there are people there being prepared by The Lord to hear His Gospel. Life wasn´t always meant to be easy anyways.
I am trying to think of a funny story for this week, but I got nothing except trying to explain to E. Falcão what the Blues were.
Oh! So I also finally met Elder (stole my name) Morgan, he is from Salem, we wondered if we were possibly related. His name is Daniel. He keeps getting my letters ha, Auntie-Ria´s letter to me had been opened and read by the time I finally got it.
About miracles, you will find them if you look for them. We definitely had a few this week. I hope one of them was meeting our goal to have 120 people at church this Sunday! I don´t know what our number was this LAST week of the month. We REALLY struggled having investigators at church (this means we had 0 by the way) and it looked like it was pretty close!
I will finish my rambling for this week I promise. We talked to Tamiris (Vanda´s grand-daughter) the other day. She is SOOOO prepared for baptism and a half. It is so neat to see the changes that The Gospel makes in the lives of people. There is just a light about her now, a confidence, she just needs to recognize it in herself. We are going to meet with her tonight and talk about The Temple with her. We are also going to invite her to GENERAL CONFERENCE!! WOOHOO! I guess this will be the REAL test of my language skills, I have noticed a lot of improvement lately. I really have no problems understanding anything at church. I understand a lot more than I can say now. When I hear a word, I understand it, but I need to incorporate them into my own vocabulary too.
I think I still need to spend more time focusing on others and not on myself so much. That is a real problem with humanity I think. Well, not a problem, just something we could all stand to work on, especially me. I encourage you all to diligently seek for something to do for somebody else on a daily basis, pray for opportunities and the sensitivity to recognize them. Okay, I really am finished. Except for this. After the four minute mile was broken, within 3 months 17 other people broke that record. What changed? People believed they could do it now. Don´t wait, be the one to break the record. Believe you can.
I testify that God loves and knows His children and is mindful of each one. Have a great week. I love you all
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigão
Elder David F. Morgan
So once again another week has come and passed and I don´t know what happened too it, and it was full of ups and downs, mostly ups.
I am REALLY trying to remember what happened though, it is all in my journal and no longer in my head. We had a specialized training on i think Tuesday but I won´t bet any money on that. It was very powerful and very inspiring. We talked about being diligent and really acting on our faith and I felt very energized to just get out there and talk to the whole world. It was though a fairly hard week. We had a few people we were teaching tell us they didn´t want to meet with us anymore and that is always very heartbreaking, when you know what you have to say will bless their life and their families and they turn away from it, but you can never force them. Especially one of the young men we are teaching Rafael, he is our buddy and we really love him, but he really isn´t interested in our message anymore, I think he got a lot of opposition from his family. But I won´t dwell on that.
SO excited to hear about Grant being out in the mission field. WOOHOO! Sounds like he is hitting the pavement well. That is what it is all about, I am learning that myself. Despite having a great meeting earlier in the week, we did struggle a bit this week. Elder Palandi and I are still adjusting to teaching together and how all the personalities in our apartment fit together. He is a really good guitar player too, so after planning and everything at night, we play the blues sometimes.
We also met some really good people this week too, and are shifting a lot of our work to a new part of our area that a lot of the missionaries before us ignored because it is really hard to work downtown. I feel very strongly that the people there need to have the same opportunity to hear the message of The Gospel and that yes, it will be hard, but there are people there being prepared by The Lord to hear His Gospel. Life wasn´t always meant to be easy anyways.
I am trying to think of a funny story for this week, but I got nothing except trying to explain to E. Falcão what the Blues were.
Oh! So I also finally met Elder (stole my name) Morgan, he is from Salem, we wondered if we were possibly related. His name is Daniel. He keeps getting my letters ha, Auntie-Ria´s letter to me had been opened and read by the time I finally got it.
About miracles, you will find them if you look for them. We definitely had a few this week. I hope one of them was meeting our goal to have 120 people at church this Sunday! I don´t know what our number was this LAST week of the month. We REALLY struggled having investigators at church (this means we had 0 by the way) and it looked like it was pretty close!
I will finish my rambling for this week I promise. We talked to Tamiris (Vanda´s grand-daughter) the other day. She is SOOOO prepared for baptism and a half. It is so neat to see the changes that The Gospel makes in the lives of people. There is just a light about her now, a confidence, she just needs to recognize it in herself. We are going to meet with her tonight and talk about The Temple with her. We are also going to invite her to GENERAL CONFERENCE!! WOOHOO! I guess this will be the REAL test of my language skills, I have noticed a lot of improvement lately. I really have no problems understanding anything at church. I understand a lot more than I can say now. When I hear a word, I understand it, but I need to incorporate them into my own vocabulary too.
I think I still need to spend more time focusing on others and not on myself so much. That is a real problem with humanity I think. Well, not a problem, just something we could all stand to work on, especially me. I encourage you all to diligently seek for something to do for somebody else on a daily basis, pray for opportunities and the sensitivity to recognize them. Okay, I really am finished. Except for this. After the four minute mile was broken, within 3 months 17 other people broke that record. What changed? People believed they could do it now. Don´t wait, be the one to break the record. Believe you can.
I testify that God loves and knows His children and is mindful of each one. Have a great week. I love you all
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigão
Elder David F. Morgan
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
(no subject)
òla!
Well, still here in good ole Simões Lopes. My new companion showed up last Tuesday and we have been hard at work ever since. Elder Palandi, is the greatest fake out of any missionary you will ever meet. When I met him I didn´t want to ask him where he was from because you just can´t tell if he is just a really good speaking American or just a funny speaking native. He is from São Paulo but looks like he is straight out of California ( which we tell people he is). He just has been here for long enough and had enough American companions to really mess with his accent. He is our district leader here, so he replaced E. Gramosa in that regard too and he is doing a great job. Elder Hansen stayed here and we got E. Falcão as well, he is from Fortaleza, and also a great guy, I am really excited for the work that will get done in our district here and our zone as well.
So today makes five months as a missionary, I arrived in Brasil Five months from tomorrow though. I can´t believe it, the time really does go so quickly. To think that in another month I will have been here for six months just blows me away. It is fun to get Taylor's letters and to hear about how he feels closing in on the last six months, and I can´t believe that Jordan is already home! I really won´t dwell on the time though.
We had a good week, a lot of good work done, we have a lot of plans of how we can help our area improve and it will really start to take off when E. Palandi knows the area a little better. I can already see improvement in having a fresh pair come in though and the progress we are making.
We only have one more week to go in trying to make our goal to get a chapel for the members here in Simões. I really feel like we will make it, but it´s not over until it´s over. Now we just have to keep it up, demonstrate that we always need to be working this hard and inviting others to come unto Christ and it can be fun haha.
We starting teaching a family this weak too and I am really excited to be working with them. We had been teaching the son (Nicolas) for a little while already and he is very interested and a REALLY intelligent kid, he blows me away sometimes and we are now teaching his parents, they have a lot of questions and we are going slow but I have a lot of hope for them.
I have had a lot on my mind this week. I was reading a talk in my study and a swimmer was quoted when asked about how he had become the great athlete that he is today, the reply was. ´I kick when I don´t want to kick, I stroke when I don´t want to stroke´ I thought about how this applies to missionary work and our lives. We can either go with the flow and become what life makes us, or we can have a vision of who we want to be and work to that end, it won´t always be fun or easy, but the results will be worth it. If we can ignore that ´natural man´that says just stop, give up when it is hard, master that, and do difficult things, it will be worth it. I hope that makes sense, it does in my mind but I don´t know if I am writing it down correctly. So when It is hard I think that very phrase. ´Kick when I don´t want to kick, stroke when I don´t want to stroke.´
It is all about doing things diligently, that will yield the best results.
We have Zone conference in a few days, that is always really uplifting and I always find something I can do to improve.
Well, I am going to go play soccer now. I love you all. Take care, Pray always.
Love, Seu Filho, Irmão, e amigo.
Elder David F Morgan
Well, still here in good ole Simões Lopes. My new companion showed up last Tuesday and we have been hard at work ever since. Elder Palandi, is the greatest fake out of any missionary you will ever meet. When I met him I didn´t want to ask him where he was from because you just can´t tell if he is just a really good speaking American or just a funny speaking native. He is from São Paulo but looks like he is straight out of California ( which we tell people he is). He just has been here for long enough and had enough American companions to really mess with his accent. He is our district leader here, so he replaced E. Gramosa in that regard too and he is doing a great job. Elder Hansen stayed here and we got E. Falcão as well, he is from Fortaleza, and also a great guy, I am really excited for the work that will get done in our district here and our zone as well.
So today makes five months as a missionary, I arrived in Brasil Five months from tomorrow though. I can´t believe it, the time really does go so quickly. To think that in another month I will have been here for six months just blows me away. It is fun to get Taylor's letters and to hear about how he feels closing in on the last six months, and I can´t believe that Jordan is already home! I really won´t dwell on the time though.
We had a good week, a lot of good work done, we have a lot of plans of how we can help our area improve and it will really start to take off when E. Palandi knows the area a little better. I can already see improvement in having a fresh pair come in though and the progress we are making.
We only have one more week to go in trying to make our goal to get a chapel for the members here in Simões. I really feel like we will make it, but it´s not over until it´s over. Now we just have to keep it up, demonstrate that we always need to be working this hard and inviting others to come unto Christ and it can be fun haha.
We starting teaching a family this weak too and I am really excited to be working with them. We had been teaching the son (Nicolas) for a little while already and he is very interested and a REALLY intelligent kid, he blows me away sometimes and we are now teaching his parents, they have a lot of questions and we are going slow but I have a lot of hope for them.
I have had a lot on my mind this week. I was reading a talk in my study and a swimmer was quoted when asked about how he had become the great athlete that he is today, the reply was. ´I kick when I don´t want to kick, I stroke when I don´t want to stroke´ I thought about how this applies to missionary work and our lives. We can either go with the flow and become what life makes us, or we can have a vision of who we want to be and work to that end, it won´t always be fun or easy, but the results will be worth it. If we can ignore that ´natural man´that says just stop, give up when it is hard, master that, and do difficult things, it will be worth it. I hope that makes sense, it does in my mind but I don´t know if I am writing it down correctly. So when It is hard I think that very phrase. ´Kick when I don´t want to kick, stroke when I don´t want to stroke.´
It is all about doing things diligently, that will yield the best results.
We have Zone conference in a few days, that is always really uplifting and I always find something I can do to improve.
Well, I am going to go play soccer now. I love you all. Take care, Pray always.
Love, Seu Filho, Irmão, e amigo.
Elder David F Morgan
Thursday, September 15, 2011
The Newest Pictures
Elder Morgan says "Us with the most awsome kids in the world:
Older Boy, Eduardo
Younger Bruno
Girl with Dark hair. Marcella
Youngest girl Bela"
Elder Morgan holding a dried out armadillo.
Elder Morgan and Elder Gramosa.
Elder Morgan and Elder Gramosa messing around before a district meeting.
In Elder Morgan's words: "Us and the Gauchós making churrasco."
Elder Morgan and Elder Gramosa with Vanda.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
156! Independence Day! Transfers. BATISMO!!
Oi familia e amigos!
Today is transfers day and it is weird. We just saw E. Gramosa and E. Lopes off at the bus station. I am really going to miss Elder Gramosa a lot. What a great guy, great missionary, great friend. It is a weird feeling to say goodbye to somebody that you have spent almost every waking moment with for the last 12 weeks. I am having a really hard time summing up my feelings about this, so I will leave that for my journal ha.But I am staying here in Simões Lopes and two more Elders will be coming to replace E. Gramosa and E Lopes. I am excited for this next transfer.
So we also had another zone division this last week too. I was with Elder Rogers again, what a guy. We had some way neat experiences teaching. We always have a good time together too, it was really neat thing too because last time we started teaching a couple, it was our first meeting with them, and I got to go visit them this last week too and they are doing great.
oh ya, and we made chocolate peanut butter smoothies too, so good.
So a really exciting part about this week was last Sunday! So our goal is having 120 people in sacrament meeting all this month. We had 156 this last Sunday! The ward is just REALLY coming together, I was a little worried that we would lose the fire after last week but we didn´t at all. Two more weeks! Really I just want September to never end, keep this up always.
Also, this last Wednesday was Brazilian Independence day, we had a great time. We ate Churrasco with a recent convert and her family. Seriously, it was just a blast and I felt great. And then we had a service project helping a lady in our ward. She has two small kids and is a single mother so we went and put together a bunk bed, fixed a sink, cleaned up. ETC.
ALSO, the Simões Lopes District had TWO baptisms this week.
E. Gramosa and I baptized a lady named Vanda, we have been teaching her for most of this transfer and she was just ready. Going to church consistently and then we invited her to baptism. She had planned to go on two week travel, she put that on hold and declared that she was going to be baptized this week.
So a lot went on this last week. It was a good week too, off course we had some hard times and disappointments as well, but I just look back on it and it was great. I was super exhausted though whew.
Well, I am going to run. I am with E. Hansen for the day and we need to get ready for the new Elders to come here.
I am really struggling to have one definite spiritual or insightful thought to share this week. So, go to the scriptures and find one, apply it. I love you all. Take care.
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigo.
Elder David F. Morgan
Today is transfers day and it is weird. We just saw E. Gramosa and E. Lopes off at the bus station. I am really going to miss Elder Gramosa a lot. What a great guy, great missionary, great friend. It is a weird feeling to say goodbye to somebody that you have spent almost every waking moment with for the last 12 weeks. I am having a really hard time summing up my feelings about this, so I will leave that for my journal ha.But I am staying here in Simões Lopes and two more Elders will be coming to replace E. Gramosa and E Lopes. I am excited for this next transfer.
So we also had another zone division this last week too. I was with Elder Rogers again, what a guy. We had some way neat experiences teaching. We always have a good time together too, it was really neat thing too because last time we started teaching a couple, it was our first meeting with them, and I got to go visit them this last week too and they are doing great.
oh ya, and we made chocolate peanut butter smoothies too, so good.
So a really exciting part about this week was last Sunday! So our goal is having 120 people in sacrament meeting all this month. We had 156 this last Sunday! The ward is just REALLY coming together, I was a little worried that we would lose the fire after last week but we didn´t at all. Two more weeks! Really I just want September to never end, keep this up always.
Also, this last Wednesday was Brazilian Independence day, we had a great time. We ate Churrasco with a recent convert and her family. Seriously, it was just a blast and I felt great. And then we had a service project helping a lady in our ward. She has two small kids and is a single mother so we went and put together a bunk bed, fixed a sink, cleaned up. ETC.
ALSO, the Simões Lopes District had TWO baptisms this week.
E. Gramosa and I baptized a lady named Vanda, we have been teaching her for most of this transfer and she was just ready. Going to church consistently and then we invited her to baptism. She had planned to go on two week travel, she put that on hold and declared that she was going to be baptized this week.
So a lot went on this last week. It was a good week too, off course we had some hard times and disappointments as well, but I just look back on it and it was great. I was super exhausted though whew.
Well, I am going to run. I am with E. Hansen for the day and we need to get ready for the new Elders to come here.
I am really struggling to have one definite spiritual or insightful thought to share this week. So, go to the scriptures and find one, apply it. I love you all. Take care.
Seu Filho, Irmão, e Amigo.
Elder David F. Morgan
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