Elder Bieber?

Well it has been another great week here in paradise. Twas my birthday on Saturday and it was a pretty awesome day. We just taught normal lessons during the day but one of the investigators house is way far away. We usually take a Guagua (piece o crap taxi) to his house but we didn't have any money to get there so we just rode the bishops motorcycle there instead. It was probably about a 45 minute ride.   By the time we got there my butt was dead. During the ride I realizes how pretty Nagua really is. Everything is so green and big. The mountains here aren't the same but are just as sick in a different way. 

After we got back we had a baptism of two 8 year old kids. One of the dads was running way late and they were going to have me baptise one of the kids but he made it just in time. That's a good thing for me because I don't know the baptism prayer in Spanish yet. 

Then later that night I had two surprise birthday parties. One by the Bishop's family, because it was also the bishop's wife and son's birthday.They had three cakes made for us. It was a sweet party. Then later I thought that we had one more lesson but it was a surprise party at one of our investigator's houses. It was an awesome day!

 The rest of this week has been normal for the DR. Everyday I see things that would be crazy in the States but is totally normal here. A funny thing that has been happening lately is that everyone thinks that I look like Justin Beiber. He is way big here, so just because I'm white and sexy people think that I am JB. What the crap! The bishops wife just calls me Justin... 

It has been raining like crazy the past couple of days. Every time we go out I forget my umbrella so I get soaked. I have a hard time sleeping at night because the thunder, barking dogs, and freaking roosters. The roosters here suck because they think that the sun is rising at 2am. 

I have been teaching a lot of lessons lately so I guess that I am progressing in the language. As I have always said, the people here are awesome! They are so loving and caring even though they don't really know me. I have learned a lot about life out here. Lots of these people out here have pretty crappy lives and its not because of anything that they have done.  Bad things happen to good people but everything happens for a reason. We might not know why it is happening at the time, but Heavenly Father knows us better than we do. He is all knowing so everything that happens for a purpose. Life isn't always fair and that is why we need the gospel in our lives. No matter who you are, you can be saved and live with your family for eternity if you follow his commandments and the words of the prophets. I have been so blessed in my life and I am so grateful for it. I miss you all!!

Love Elder Morgan

Who Needs a Seatbelt

Well I would like to start out by saying that I am sorry to all of the people that wrote me emails... It has been crazy here because they are having a crazy strike or something... I freakin love you all so very much though!! 

Anyways this week has been sick. Tons of awesome and spiritual experiences. The days are starting to fly by because I am getting in the missionary routine. I don't know where to start... I just want to say that Nagua is one of the best places on earth! It is incredibly beautiful. Almost every morning my comp and I run to the beach and watch the sunrise. It is unbelievable! We usually don't have time for studies in the morning because we usually are doing some type of service for someone. Service has got to be one of the greatest things ever invented. You help someone in need and feel very good inside, everyone benefits from it. I kind of regret complaining when we had to do service for mutual or something. But its alright because I will have two years to serve the wonderful people of the DR. 

I am already used to the living conditions. The food is really good but unhealthy. I think that I am gaining some poundage. I did the math and the church gives us about $2 a day for food... Its all good because the food here is super cheep. 

I see crazy crap everyday so i think that it will be a shock when i go home in 2 and everything is normal. I swear that I have seen more naked babies than there are churches in Utah... I am growing super close to the people here. They are all so wonderful. There is this little girl in our ward whose name is D. She is the cutest little girl that I have ever seen!! At first the only thing that she would say to me was ¨Feo Blanco¨, which means ugly white... Its alright because we are like best friends now even though I have no idea what she says to me. 

The Spanish is coming. Instead of just bearing my testimony at the end of our lessons I am now starting to teach the lessons. Yesterday was crazy because we had a meeting with the President in Santiago. Transportation is really hard because of the strike. So last night we had to ride in the bed of a little truck for an hour and a half! It was a party! We just sang songs, pretended that we were on the top of the titanic and other dumb things to make the time go by faster. 

I am learning so much about myself everyday. I also have learned about how wonderful life is and how important it is for us to have the gospel in our lives. It has been a super busy week. I am supposed to go to Santiago tomorrow but it might not happen because there are strikes going on there. Our area is super big so we walk somewhere around 6 or 7 miles a day. My feet hurt so dang bad but I cant complain because there are people here that don't have shoes. There are lots or crazy people here, one that we see everyday is this old Gypsy lady that is like 120.. idk how she is still alive but every time we walk past her house she says ¨give me one peso¨. We just smile and wave but it is pretty funny because a peso is pretty much worthless. Wellzz I g2g so I want you all to know that I miss you! The Church is an amazing blessing in my life and I am so grateful for it!

Love Elder Morgan

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Small Spaces and Beautiful Places..

Well, this week was hard but wonderful. Change is a very hard thing. A mission helps you learn how to move on from things that you don't need to dwell on. Haha... One of the biggest changes that I made in the past week was getting used to where I live. At first I thought that the MTC was a piece of crap. I soon realized that I was living in the Garden of Eden... Where I live, in reality is pretty awesome. I have a great view of palm trees and rusty roof tops. I wake up every day and get to see a picture perfect sunrise.
My companion is a great guy. I have learned so much from him in only one week. Yes it is hard with him not knowing any English but, it is forcing me to learn Spanish so its a good thing. 
I would say that my biggest struggle right now is the Spanish. It is hard because I can't tell people what I want to when we are teaching lessons. I usually just sit and listen because I can understand most of what they say. I just don't know what to say back to them. 
The people here are amazing! They are all so humble and caring. They are all starting to get used to a skinny white boy from America that barely knows Spanish. I am getting close with lots of them. The bishop and his family do so much for us.
Want to hear something crazy-- There are 35,000 members in the DR only 5000 of them are active... So the work that we usually do is try to reactivate those members. We still have tons of investigators though. I had someone accept my baptism question this past week. I was stoked! We also have a couple that is getting baptized on the 26th of this month. The day of my birthday! Pretty cool birthday present huh! I think that we will get to do it in the ocean. 
Everyday here is an adventure. Everyday I eat at least 20 tropical fruits. We have coconut milk at least once a day and make fruit smoothies. I am starting to see how much missions bless lives. I know that I have only started but I know that my life is going to change for the better. I love and miss you all!! 

Love, Elder Morgan

I am learning new things about myself every day..

 Nagua, DR

 Elder Morgan's new companion.

Holla Holla! well it has been one of the craziest weeks of my life. It was a fun last week at the mtc. It is sad to think that I won't be able to go to a temple for the next two years. It sucked leaving because I had to say goodbye to all of the people that I was friends with there. First they make me say goodbye to my real family, then they make me say goodbye to my MTC family. I will miss all of the wonderful people that I met there. 

I am finally out in the field and it is loco! I am in a small town on the beach called Nagua. It is super hot and humid here but its alright because I'm not a baby.. It literally took us the whole day to drive from Santiago to Nagua. We crammed 10 missionaries in a minivan and drove for about 2 hours. Then we were dropped off at a bus station and waited all day for a ride out. My new companion's name is Elder H..... He is from here and speaks about 0% English... Its good for me though because I will learn the Spanish a lot faster. 

Santiago was great! I met my mission parents and they are the most wonderful people ever. The mission home was super nice. Today is my first full day as a real missionary. It is kind of funny because all of the people stare at me like I have boogers on my face but I think its just because I am white... haha. 

So much has happened this past week that there is no way I can write it all but last night after I arrived here we went out and taught a few lessons and had a ward FHE meeting thing. My apartment is pretty dang small but it could be worse. At least I have power and running water unlike some of the other missionaries here. 

I am pretty nervous here because this is the start of my real life. This is the first time that I have to make my own food, clean my room, unclog the toilet and lots of other things that mom used to do for me. To be honest I kind of like this simple life style. You learn to live poor here and its kind of fun. I am learning new things about myself every day. Missions are hard but they are well worth all of the sacrifices. I know that my journey has just begun but I know that the lord will help me when I need it. My new day for P'Day is Wednesday. If you want to send me letters, send it to this address.

I miss you all like crazy!! The church is TRUE!!

Love Elder Morgan

Elder Parker Morgan
 Y PARA CARTAS 
SDQ 8013    
P.O.    BOX 025725      
MIAMI, FL      33102-5725.

He is off to Santiago, DR...

I was notified by the CCM President that Parker left the CCM yesterday morning.  He was very excited to get out and serve.  He told me Parker is going to make a fabulous missionary and that we raised a great kid.

We probably won't hear from him for a little bit.  I am not sure what day is his Pday is now.

The package we sent to him through USPS didn't make it too the CCM in time.  He also assured me that is would be transferred to him without problems.  I am worried it will be further pilfered by more mail people and he will end up with only spaghetti noodles out of all the stuff we sent him!.

COCONUTS..of sorts

Wow! I Love hearing about how everyone is doing. Don't worry about the Dear Elders anymore. I cant receive them when I am in the field. I can't believe that I go out on Tuesday! 

The main thing that I do for exercise is play ultimate Frisbee. It is super fun and aggressive. Thanks for sending the package!  I also ripped a pair of my pants... Oh well.

Anyways Wow.. this last week was wonderful tons happened so I will just tell you about a few things.  Last Friday we had the chance to go tracting with the Santo Domingo East missionary's. It took us awhile to get to the place where we were meeting the other elders. We all got split up and received new companions for the day. I was lucky because my companionship had three guys in it. Me, Elder Farnsworth, and Elder Matin. Elder Matin was a 24 year old missionary from Mexico who has been out for 14 months. I think that it is safe to say that he is probably one of the goofiest guys that I have ever met. Anyways we walked over to our area from where they dropped us off. I honestly could not believe some of the things that i saw. Everything was so dirty. There were people selling raw chicken with swarms of flies on them. i was told that the area that i was sent to was the poorest part of the DR. We taught a lady who lived in a tin shed half the size of our 2 car garage, with her 4 kids. The ground was pure garbage. There are tons of stray dogs and chickens walking around eating all of the garbage. Someone told me that most of the dogs were rabid so that sucks if you get bit. 

One of the weirder things that I say and apparently happens a lot is when we were in the middle of our lesson with this lady and randomly out of no where she whipped out her "thang" and started breast feeding her baby. This continued the whole lesson. It actually wasn't too awkward but still a little weird. I just couldn't believe that people could actually survive in these living conditions! We taught a few more lessons that night. The people here are soo awesome and humble. It was such an awesome experience. I am stoked because we get to go out again tomorrow.

 Another awesome thing that happened is, this whole time that i have been here I have wanted to get a coconut from one of the temple's trees. One night when we were on a temple walk I found one that had fallen off. HAHA it literally took 9 guys and about an hour to get it open. We had to shred it apart with our hands. I don't know why I am telling you this but it was one of the most epic things ever. 

The elders here really are so great. Some of us have had lots of fun pranking each other. Everyone says that a mission is what you make of it. Some of the missionary's take the exact obedience thing way to far and make their time here miserable. They just need to chill. I have had tons of spiritual experiences here and am so great full for this opportunity to be here. 

I can't wait to watch conference and actually listen to all of the talks for once in my life. I just wanted to share my testimony that i know that this church is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. There is no way that a 14 year old kid would lie about having a vision and would take so much persecution. Joseph Smith gave his life for the true gospel of Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of god and contains answers to any questions that we may have. I know that if we are faithful to the church and endure to the end, we can all live with our families in God's presence for eternity. I love my family more than anything in this world and would do anything for them. Life is wonderful if you follow Christ. I might not get to email for awhile because i will going into the field on Tuesday. I love you all so much!

Peace and Love

<3 Elder Morgan