#SPRINGBREAG2014INTHEDR

 #SPRINGBREAG2014INTHEDR dang I hope that you all have fun on spring break...  

This week we worked super hard. We had four days in a row where we left at 9am and got back to the house around 10pm. I am absolutely pooped...We met the goals of excellence which almost no one in the mission meets. We have one of our investigators who we are baptizing this Saturday. He is a cool dude. He is a Haitian who is a friend of one of out less actives. We have been working really hard with him to be prepared to get baptized on this date.  He also has another Haitian friend that only speaks french. I gave him all of the pamphlets that we had in french and he read them all in the first visit. I really wish that I could speak every language!! He is super interested so we will see where it all goes. We also have three other investigators with baptism dates. I hope that all goes well with them.  Other than that the work is going great. 

We have been visiting a Sister who was a less active, who has changed so much. She was inviting us over to her house like 4 or 5 times a week. Then one day she offered to cook for us because she likes our prescence. Every stinkin day this week I have gone home stuffed fat! She makes so much food! She has such a strong testimony and loves everything about this gospel. 

This week one of the other Elders in Nagua got sick with parasites. I have been lucky so far with not getting sick. We went and visited him and it just looked so sucky. I hope that I never get sick. Today was a super chill Pday. We just got up and cleaned the house. Later I waited two hours to get my hair cut. Everyone still calls me ¨Justin¨...  That's pretty much it for this week. I love my mission and all of the things it is teaching me. My testimony is growing every day. Serving people is the best way we can show our love for them. I am so lucky to serve the people here in the DR. I love you all so much! Bye bye.

Love Elder Morgan

Eencie Weencie Spider (?!)

Whut up normal people?? I know that it is weird that I am actually writing on Wednesday. This is because we have power, which is very rare on Wednesdays. 

Well this week was great! General Conference was just amazing. Every message was so strong and powerful. Its awesome because on the mission you are focused on every word that they say. I wish it was like that before..I kind of wish that I could go back in time and wake myself up for every General Conference that I have slept through..... haha all well. We got to watch it on little T.V.s in the chapel that dropped the signal every 5 minutes. I hope that you all loved it as much as I did. Well as for the work, all is going great! We have four investigators with baptism dates. We are finding more and more people to teach every week. My comp is a great missionary who is pretty bold. I think that is why we have so many people with dates. 

I got a stupid story for ya. So on Monday we were teaching one of the kids that chills on the street with our friends. We were having a good lesson with him talking about the plan of salvation. He kept on bringing things up about UFOs and other weird stuff about the end of the world. Random I know. Well we were trying to get him back on track to the subject. Then out of nowhere I saw a dark thing run across the floor behind the kids seat. I thought that It was a mouse but when I went to check it out I found out that it wasn't a mouse. It was a friggin huge spider!!! I screamed like a girl as I jumped back and almost fell on one of the kids. I hate spiders! Well I felt super stupid as the smallest kid there starts tapping it with his hand. It was the biggest spider that I have seen in my life! Well okay that was a stupid story. Some other news is the bread stealing cat is back. I found my big loaf of bread half eaten this morning. I am going to kill that thing! 

Well that's all for this week. It was a chill week. I know that I am doing the work of the Lord in helping people to receive the truth. I love my mission and I love this gospel. I love you all so much and wish you all have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Morgan

Baptism and Bacon

 My first Baptism

Well this week was just great! It started off pretty hard but got better. I can now say that I am the type of person that doesn't like change. The mission is full of it... It took me a few days to adapt to how my new comp does things but after that things have been awesome. We have been having tons of success with finding new people and giving them baptism dates. All we can do now is keep on teaching them and hoping that they will stick with it.

Last Saturday I invited all of the street punks to come eat bacon at our house. They said that they had never eaten bacon so I went to the store and bought a ton. We ate and tried to share a message with them but they were more interested in the bacon... haha it was super fun though. 

Saturday night I got to baptize a kid whose dad is a less active. It was my first time baptizing in Spanish so that was pretty cool. We have some members here that are soo amazing. There are at least four older sisters on our ward that have taken me in as their ¨kid¨ They have so much love for the missionary's. We have one member whose name is sandy and she is so funny. She is always super happy and positive. This week she told us that the owner is going to kick her out of her House because she doesn't have any money. She told me that she isn't even worried because she said that the lord is on her side and that it will all work out. She has been a great example to me of a member that endures to the end with faith. 

Sometimes I feel like my mission is going to go in forever, but when I actually look at the things it is teaching me and all of the experiences it is giving me. It wouldn't be that bad being here forever. I love my mission and I love this gospel. I am so excited to hear from the leaders of the Church this weekend. I love you all so much!!

Love Elder Morgan

 Bacon with the street punks.

Lovely Samana

After 6 Months I Have a New Companion

Well another crazy week!  I finally got the package with all of the letters in it. I just have to say that I am so thankful for every single one. It made my day reading all of them. You guys really are the best. Thank you!! Yesterday was transfers and I finally have a new comp. His name is Elder Caceres from Peru. I seems like a super nice dude and likes to work really hard. I had a ton of fun being with Elder Henriques for 6 months. He was crazy like me so when you mix the two together you get some crazy story's. Last week we were visiting with a less active lady who is just the coolest person that I have met. She made us empanadas and also wanted to make a Harlem shake video with us. We spent the whole week visiting members because it was Henriques' last week. We ate soooo much food! Everyone offered to cook food for us so pretty much at all of the appointments we ate like kings. I probably gained like 30 pounds from it all but I will just work it off when I get home...nah. Well I know that this is super short but we gots to go right now. I love you all!! 

Elder Morgan

My new Comp Elder Caseres

A week of Spiritual and Motivational Boosts

Hey,hey, things are chilly in the DR as usual. Actually this week has been a really calm week. Not much happened just the good ole missionary stuff. On Monday we had a conference of zones where Elder Zivic from the First Quorum of the Seventies came and talked to us. It was really nice to hear what he had to say. It was a spiritual and motivational boost that all of us needed. I also got to see some of the missionary's that were in the MTC with me, so that was fun. 

Today we spent the whole morning building a dog house for a dog that lives on the streets. We have a neighbor who is a little crazy in the head that wanted us to make this house for the dog. It turned out to be a piece of crap... I learned that construction probably isn't the best occupation for me.. haha all well I don't think the dog will even use it anyways.   

We have been teaching lots of new people who we hope will be progressing investigators. It kind of stinks because we have 3 of them who are so ready to be baptized but there is something to do with the law that is holding them back. All of them have to do with marriage actually. Its okay because all of them are super great people. They all have strong testimony's in the church and already consider themselves members. Other than that all is going great. Next week is transfers so I am guessing that my comp will finally be leaving. Haha we will see what happens. Right now as I am writing, this these two old Dominican Lady's are creepily hitting on me. Weeeeeiiirrd!! Well I love you all so much and am so thankful for all of my blessings in my life!

Love Elder Morgan

Ask God with Real Intent..

What up?! Today was probably one of the sickest pdays that I will have on my mission. President Douglas gave is permission to go down to Samana again but this time we got to go Zip lining!!! It was so chill!! A less active from Idaho owns it so he let us go for free. It was deep in the jungly mountains and was so high off the ground. There were 13 lines then at the end there was a river with a cool rope swing into the water. All of the workers there were crazy Dominicans. One of them was telling me that after I am done zip lining, that I should go buy a drink called Mama Juana at the bar. He told me that it it is bad for single people because children are made after you drink it. A weird/ funny sales pitch I had to tell him that I am a missionary and cant drink that crap. The owner dude is living the dream life! He just started the whole thing like four years ago but it is so legit! He has also made tree houses and hammock beds that you can rent for the night. Then after zip lining he took us to this beach that was like the most beautiful thing that I have seen! The beach that was right next to the one we were at was owned by Shakira. I wanted to go over there to see if she was there, but there were big rocks blocking it.   If anyone wants the adventure of a lifetime you need to go there! Its called like Samana zip lining or something. I really have the sickest mission in the world. 

So it has been another good week in here Nagua. We are still teaching all of these new people that we have found in the last month. Some of them have real potential. It is pretty difficult here to convert the Catholics. They are all crazy strong in what they believe because everyone here is Catholic. But the problem is, is they don't really know much about their religion or the bible. So it is hard introducing something new to them like the Book of Mormon. It is so true that God prepares people to receive his word. It is just hard to be patient sometimes with them. That is one of the great blessings of serving a mission, all of the little things that it teaches you that will benefit you for the rest of your life. I have already felt that I have changed into a better person in such a short amount of time. If any of you are thinking about serving a mission, ask God with real intention to know what you should do. I did, and got my answer clear as can be.I love my mission and I love the Gospel! I also love you all so much!

Love, Elder Morgan

Why Missionaries shouldn't Sunbathe.

Sup yall!. Sorry for not writing last week. The not having power thing kind of sucks sometimes. Well these past two weeks have been really fun. Haha here's  stupid story of the week . Last pday there wasn't any power for the whole day so we were all bored just chillin in the house with nothin to do. So after a while one of the new elders, Elder Gothard, and I were looking for anything to do to pass the time. So we decided that we were going to go tanning on the roof. Now this isn't the best idea when your body hasn't seen sunlight for over six months. Another thing that didn't help is that we had a full bottle of baby oil in the house. I tried to put on just a little but half of the bottle spilled out all over my chest, so I just rubbed it all in... Bad idea. Elder Gothard and I chilled up there for over an hour... another bad idea. I came down and was a little disappointed that I was still whiter than a ghost, but that didn't last long. About two hours later I was a little red. Then that night... I was a lobster! I didn't get any sleep for the next two days because it hurt so bad. All I wanted was a little color... The past four days I have been peelin harder than a snake. Its like I am a walking snow cloud. I know pretty stupid. Haha all well. 

Also in these past two weeks it has been pretty hard emotionally. There has been at least ten deaths here in Nagua of people that we have had to assist in the funerals. A few days ago we got the sad news that one of out investigators was shot and killed. I still don't know the real story because I have heard about 20 different versions. I just don't like seeing people crying as hard as they do here. I really feel bad for the members who loose it at these funerals because it is like they have forgotten the knowledge that they have of the gospel, that families can be together forever. They act like they will never see this person again. We have been going around to all of these families who has lost someone recently and are reteaching the plan of salvation to them to help comfort them. I really feel so blessed to have this knowledge in my life. I know that families can be together forever if we just follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for my parents for helping me have this mission experience.I love you all so much!

Love Elder Morgan