Week 23 & 24 - Yes, I'm still here! :-)

Family of mine!!!

Helllllllo!!!! Love you all soooooooooooooo much. I can't even describe the love, and there are far too few o's in the world to express it in email format. 

Anyways, sorry that I didn't write last week! We were super busy on Monday. We went to a pizza buffet place and it was delicious and then we went to go buy some ties for my companion.

Elder Segundo (Elder Morgan's companion)

Last week was a little hard because we lost a few investigators and the work was slow, but this week was good.

Patricia, Janet, Joslyn

This week we had the baptism of 3 investigators. Patricia, Janet, and Joslyn. They're a family! But the dad doesn’t want anything to do with us. It was so awesome though because during one of the lessons Patricia said, "Even if my husband doesn't want us to get baptized, we're doing it! We know this is true!" Wooot! They are so chosen! 

Baptism

We also met a bunch of people this week. 

The sad news of the week is that our District Leader, Elder Chaparon, got transferred!!! :-(

I learned so much from him and he helped me out a bunch.

We're doing good here, trying to stay positive even when life gets us down! 

Tijuana Temple

I want to tell you all my dream of this week. I was in our house and all of a sudden I went outside and a huge plane crash landed in our backyard! So I ran over there and everyone was dead inside, but Elder Segundo and I were there. Well, when we started to leave the plane, they all turned into Zombies and started chasing us and my backpack got stuck and I couldn't run away! Then we turned into Zombies too and it was actually kind of cool. It was like a dream of 20 minutes, but that's all I remember. 

Now there's the Derek (Elder Morgan) I know!!

Anyways,

I love you all so much. I know that this church is true and that we should have charity. If we have charity, we have love for everyone and everything else we need to do will become natural! 

Love you all! 

Happy Easter!

A few pictures of his apartment

Study roon

Bedroom  :-)

Week 22 - Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Suess

Hey there family!

I love all of you to the moon and back!

This week has been really great.

Elder Segundo (Elder Morgan's companion)

This week started out with a Zone Meeting where we talked about how we can use Family History in our work. I know that Family History work is super important in this life. We can do the work for others who have passed on, in the temples. We can do missionary work from our own houses! Familysearch.org is a great resource! I hope all of you are using your My Family pamphlets! I know that there are people waiting on the other side of the veil to receive these ordinances!

We also found a family of 6 this week. All of them are super nice and we're hoping that they progress well and really gain a true faith in Christ.

This week we also had a Multi-Zone Conference with the Mission President. All the missionaries had to prepare talks on Repentance. Of course, being me, I finished my talk on the bus ride over there on a crumbled piece of paper. Every time we have a conference like this they choose one lucky missionary to give their prepared talk. This time, guess what...... Tada! They chose me. It went really well actually. After I got down, the Mission President said to the whole conference, "You all have just witnessed a true manifestation of the Gift of Tongues. Wow." I hope that something that I said is something that someone needed to hear!

Elder Chaparon (From Guatemala, Elder Morgan's District Leader)

I want to bear my testimony to all of you about Fasting. I know it’s something that people don't always bear testimonies on. Well, this week I saw miracles and I know that it is all due to fasting. Fasting here is a real sacrifice especially when you're climbing hills in the 90 degree weather, but I know that the power of fasting is real. I know that this church is true and with all the power that I can muster up I will serve The Lord until the day that I am welcomed back into His presence where I will continue to do His will. I love all of you so much! Keep holding on to that Iron Rod!

 

Love,

Elder Morgan

P.S. Sweating has become a normal thing for me here.

Week 21 - Post General Conference

Helllllllllo Family!

I love you all so much and think of you often.

This week was pretty good.  We focused ourselves a little more on less active members. There's a ton in this ward. Here in La Morita (My sector) the people sometimes reject us.  Please everyone that is reading this go onto YouTube and watch "The Work of Salvation and The Atonement". Elder Holland and Elder Eyring speak and it's soooooo powerful!  Sometimes I feel like asking, "Why do the people reject us? Why is this hard?"  Then I think of the Savior and what he did and I can't help but be forever grateful!

I loved Conference this week!  The translating part was a little difficult for me, but during the Priesthood Session I said a little prayer and it was like night and day. The Gift of Tongues kicked in and I could understand everything perfectly as if it was in English.  I know that The Gift of Tongues is real.  I live it everyday!  I really love to listen to the Prophet speak!  The only bummer is that I didn't get to hear his actual voice.

Of course I was playing Where's Dave-o (A game we play in our family every Conference in order to find Dave Belt singing in the Tabernacle Choir) haha. My companion even started playing by the end of it!

We're doing really great here. Working hard and being blessed. We should be having some baptisms in the next few weeks.

Something that I have learned this week is that we're here to teach people, not lessons. As a missionary, sometimes it can become easy to just run through the motions of the lessons after you've taught them hundreds and thousands of times, but we're hear to listen to these people.  They are sons and daughters of God.  I love the quote by Elder Holland when he says that "These people are not baptismal statistics disguised as people.  They are Children of God.  Our Brothers and Sisters".  I love this work. Something that I really want to work on is helping people gain faith in Christ.  Faith leads us to do everything that we need to.  Obey the commandments, repent, go to church, everything happens after we first have faith!

I love you all so much! I want you to know that this work is true and that I love my Savior and the Atonement that he performed for me.

Love,

Elder Morgan 

Editor's Note: He still hasn't gotten his packages (little over a month now), so still no camera, and so no pictures.   :-(

 

Week 20 - And then there were 2

Family!!!

I love you all so so so so so so so so so so so much! 

This week has been a roller coaster! 

This week our district leader and his companion got switched out. Elder Velasquez went over to their sector and we received a new district leader.

That means that Elder Segundo who has 2 weeks in the mission and me are on our own!  In a sector we barely know with members and investigators we barely know. ahhhhhh.  I was freaked out, but now I'm good because The Spirit has really guided us this week.

We found 20 new investigators this week.  We also found a family of 9, haha.  It's going good.

Sometimes we find ourselves saying, "Now what?" when all of our plans fall through, but this is when revelation really kicks in and we start finding people! I have a strong testimony of this work!

3 of our investigators are progressing really well.  The mom told us the other day that she had been praying for years for help from God and a sign or something, and she felt that God wasn't listening or something, but she's now realized that we're the help that God has sent!  These people are awesome. 

We are doing really well here and having a great time being on our own. 

Also, we have cucarachas in our house :) 

I know that this church is true.  I've been really focusing my study on the Apostasy this week. It's all prophesied in the bible and the need for a restoration!  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he restored the Gospel! 

I love you all.

Elder Morgan

Editor's note: Elder Morgan still hasn't gotten all his packages, so he's still missing a camera (he should get everything today (Tues)), so still no pictures.