Oh Dean-o I Will Miss You

Oh Dean-o... Thanks for everything. In small words you have made me a better person.. I have so many great memories of Dean-o that I will never forget. From the great times in Lake Powell on the good ol´houseboat, to the great nights spent up in the Coffey's cabin and to the most cherished of all for me, the sweet moments of chilling on the lake fishing. Dean really was like my second Dad. Ever since day one of the Coffeys moving into the neighborhood, he took me in as a son. I don't think that anyone has a bad memory about Dean. I was over at the Coffey house almost more than I was at my house. In all of the time that I spent over there I never saw Dean in a bad mood. He was always cracking jokes with his distinct chuckle making everyone else laugh. He was such a selfless person. I remember times when Matt and I would beg him to take us out to go fishing knowing that he was busy and had other things to do, he would make time to spend quality time with all of his sons. I could go on for hours writing about how great of a person Dean was. The truth is that his unexpected loss has been extremely hard for me. These have been some of the hardest days for me as a missionary. But I realized something today. Being PDay I had a lot of time to think. Everything that has happened has helped me have more faith in the great Plan of Salvation. We just have to accept the fact that God has a purpose in everyone and in everything.  That for some reason that we don't know in this instant, God needed Dean. I love the Coffey family so much. I wish I was there to be with you all. Just know that everything will be okay. All we have to do now is make him proud with everything that we do in life. Even though I have tripped and fallen, I will get back up and make ol´ Dean-o proud. I will serve and live life just how he did. Happy. I send all of my love to Deb, Ashley, Drew, Matt, Chase, Addy and Cam.. My second family. Lets just follow the big mans example and love life!

Lost

September 4, 2014

What upp! It was another great fun filled week.- So to start, last Saturday I got to go back to my old area to see one of my investigators get baptized. Jeffery was a kid that I taught for a transfer while I was in Tamboril. It was so great to see! 

So yeah its pretty cool to think that I have a year on the mish. The time went by so fast. It kinda makes me nervous that this year will go by faster. I just love it here... But the work is going pretty good. My area is alot harder than my others. We are contacting a lot in the streets which is pretty fun. I love meeting new people and hearing about their lives. The other day we found a golden investigator! It is this young girl that is super chill with everything. She isn't like the other Dominican youth that goes out and party's every night. We shared just a little bit of our message and she was super interested! It was so sweet. I just hope that she keeps on listening and progressing.  

Yesterday we went to a waterfall for pday. It was like a two hour hike to get to the waterfall. I was talking the whole time to another Elder so I never payed attention of how we got there. So after we played for a little we started to come back. I was talking with the other Elder and we just kept on walking down the river... After like 40 minutes of walking we realized that we were not on the same trail we came. Haha the only living thing that was close to us was a few cows. It felt like a dumb and dumber moment. I thought it was so funny that we were lost in some DR mountains. I was so ready to rough it and stay the night. The other Elder was pretty freaked out so he wanted to find anyone to help. After screaming and walking for awhile we found an old guy with his machete. Like a Dominican cowboy. We asked him where the trail was to get back to town was. He said that we were far away...haha but after that all went well we found the trail and made the long walk back. I was kinda bummed that we got back. I just wanted to camp.. It was a great day though. Missions really are so awesome! I love mine so much and wouldn't trade it foe anything. I am so lucky to be out here. I see how much the lord blesses his children.

I love you all so much!
Love Elder Morgan

A Terrible Idea.... (Playing with Bats)

I'm pretty sure Elder Morgan has no idea how many terrible diseases come from bats!  Including Ebola!!  Pray for his stupidity, I think he might need it:)  

This week was pretty normal... It has been raining like crazy here. I also believe that it has been the coldest that I have felt the weather, Like 70 degrees..... Hahah its too hot here. 
The work is going pretty good. This area that I am in right now is a lot different than the other areas that I have had so I have to learn how to do things here. I have met some cool people who have taught me a lot. Along with some RMs from the ward. Two days ago I had splits with the zone leaders, crazy things happened. When we were walking to their house we found a half dead bat.. So we put it in a Styrofoam box and took it to their house. We left the house to work for the day. When we got back it was dead.... So we took advantage of the situation. We took tons of pics with it.. Its not everyday where you can hold a real bat in your hands!!! After we felt to bad to just throw it away, so we decided to tape it on the wall as a decoration. It is a very unique wall piece... Hahah 
The next day we had a service project with the zone in Tamboril. We were making a wood house for one of the members. We spent the whole day cutting out the weeds
from the field. I got so sun burnt  on my face neck and legs. I can't even move my head when I wear my white shirt. I have to move my whole body to look around.... I'm so white.. 
Well that's just about all that happened this week. No one said that the mission is easy. Even a year into it I still have hard days. But every day I learn new things. You just have to always have a positive attitude with everything. We get
so many hidden blessings from the lord everyday. I love  you all sooo
much!
Luv Elder Morgan

                                                           Sunburn!

                                            Building the house

                       Work Crew

Baptisms

Yeah so this week was so sick! Lots of stuff is going on. First of all we baptizes the polanco family!! It was the coolestthing. This family is so awesome. I only met them like three weeks ago but I already feel like I am part of their family. It was so cool to work with them to see how fast their testimony's grew. The baptism was super cool It was my comp Elder Simonis, Elder Murphy his old comp,and I who Baptized them. Haha It was so stupid. When my comp went to baptize he had to redo it three times. Haaha I was laughing at him because he messed up on the prayer. Then it came time for me to go.When all was ready I shut my eyes to say the prayer and and in my mind all of the words mixed together so I made up my own word... Knowing it was wrong I still dunked him... I had to redo it... But it went all good the second time. Haha so dumb. Then when we finished we brought
out two big tubs of ice cream that we had bought earlier that day. Then one of the mom members told us that one of the ice creams had rum in it.... I was like Are you kidding me.....? I just spent like my who lives savings on that Ice cream and I cant even eat it!? I wanted to eat it so bad... We just ended up giving it to some gangsters chillin in the street... But overall it was such a cool day! That made me super motivated to find another golden family in this area. Really a
family like that is every missionaries dream. Its super weird because at this point in my mission I have forgotten what it feels like to live the comfortable life... Today for Pday I hooked up with Elder Gothard and we went to the mall Hahaha Both of us were so trunkie from being in a building with air conditioning and with stores that have real brand name clothes. We were both having flashbacks of our lives before the mish. I think that Elder Gothard cried a few tears hahaha
Ahh Just don't take all of the crap that you guys have up there in the states!!! Well that's pretty much all that has happened this week. I love and miss you all! And will see you in less than a year!!!
Love Elder Morgan

Epic Hair Failure

What up!! Well first of all I'm gunna start off with a fun fact! In a year from today  I will be home! Yeah I finish August 13th 2015! It is crazy to think about that. I am half way done! I have been through so much and met so many cool people. Its things like those that make the mission worth it.  

Well anyways lot's of cool stuff has happened. Last week I got to go back to Tamboril for a day, it was so fun to see everyone again!  My area right now is pretty awesome!  It is super different that Nagua or Tamboril. It is more in the city. The members here are super cool and so are our investigators. It is always hard to change areas and to get to know the members and investigators. This
Saturday we will be baptizing a family.  They really are some of the coolest people. The dad is a less active and the rest are investigators. It is so cool to see how strong their testimonies are. Other that that the work is going good. 

My comp and I are working super hard. It is hard right now because of the heat. It kills me!! Last week I was in the first earthquake of my life. It was just a
little jolt but still I almost pooped my pants.

HA ha another stupid Elder Morgan story…. So one time I was in the bathroom getting ready to shower, I was checkin myself in the mirror when I noticed that my hair wad getting out of control in the back. Do I tried to fix it. I got my face razor and a piece of card board and started to go at it. I used the cardboard to keep it a strait line. While I was cutting I slipped and cut to high...    So I went out and asked my comp to fix it. After he did his thang and fixed it as good as he could I want back, showered and went out for the day. While we were out I noticed that everyone was giving me the ugliest looks. Then I heard someone say that I had a helmet on. I want home and took a pic to see how bad it was. It wasn't until then that I saw how high I had cut my hair..... It was like half way up my head..... It looks so bad. Hahah Today I got it fixed. Hahah You learn from experiences... Well that's all that's going on in life right now... I love you all so much. I love the gospel and my mission.
Luv Elder Morgana

 Helmet Head… Notice the tan line on the back of my head!

Way nice Stake Center church in Hato Maye

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Cigars

Well another crazy week has gone by. Well first of all, I have some crazy news, I got transferred to a new area. My new area is called Hato Mayor, it is still in Santiago and in the same zone as Tamboril. I was kind of bummed to have such little time in Tamboril. Even though I only had 6 weeks, I met and got close to lots of the members there. Change is never easy. It was hard for me last night saying my goodbyes to the people that I just got used to. Well President is a very wise man and will always respect his decisions.  My new area seems pretty cool. Also I am excited to be in the district that I am in. We got some good Elders here. I am happy to still have the chance to be DL, I still have many things to learn. The companion that I had was really having a hard time enjoying his mission. I think that he was just super homesick. Although it was one of my hardest transfers, I have learned so much from all of the hard times I had. I am happy to be here with my new comp. His name is Elder Simones and is from Haiti. I think that we are going to have a great time together.

So this last week I got to learn a lot about cigars... We took a tour through one of the factories where our friend works. It was cool to see the process that the tobacco went through to become a cigar. Haha I know this is a weird example but it is the same with us in this life. We start out as rough and ugly leaves. But after we have time and experience in our life we learn to accept the lords help or hand in our life to shape and form us in to the type of person that he wants to be. After a long process of having the lords hands work with us, we can be perfected. Just as the the ugly tobacco goes through the process to change into a perfect cigar. Now I am not saying that tobacco is good for you and all of that junk. It was just cool for me to see that whole process. I feel the same in my mission. I am now learning to accept the lords help in my life to help shape me into the man he wants me to be. I know all of this is random but that's all that's going on in my life. I love my mission and all of the wonderful people from the DR. I love and miss you all!

Love Elder Morgan 

Relationships

Well it seems like it was just yesterday when I wrote you about last week. This week was a good one for me. My comp and I both have gotten better from our sicknesses so it was a good week full of work. One of my favorite things about the mission is making new friends. 

It is so cool to see the change in relationships with the time. There have been so many times where we meet someone and by the way they act I judge them and say to myself "they are not going to progress" But all it takes is a few visits to gain their trust. We have been visiting this one family ever since I got to Tamboril. Every time we taught them it was going no where. Then one lesson we talked to them a little less about the gospel and a little more about their lives. I realized that we didn't have our trust. By the end of the night they invited us to have dinner with them two nights later. On Sunday we had dinner with them. It was so great we talked and talked and talked. Before we left they had invited us to another dinner night, lunch whenever we want in their house, and and a trip to some property that they have far away that is full of fruits and veggies. Haha I don't think we will be able to do that, but it was so cool to see how fast that we gained their trust. Honestly I have learned that trust is key in mission work, but more than trust its being a good friend and showing the person that you really care about them. 

This week alone we got to get really close with three other families. Life is so much better when you have friends and when you are a good friend to others. Although the mission has never been super easy, I am thankful for all of the things that it has taught me up until now. I am so glad that I have friends at home  and in all parts of the world who care about how I am doing. I love you all so much!! Thanks for everything!

Love Elder Morgan