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

Wasps...

Well one again I am writing super late in the week because of sucky power. IDK why but these past few months the power has been going out a ton here. All well... just don't take power for granted!!! We got to do some fun and crazy service this past week. My comp and I got to go with some members who own some land in the Banao mountains. The mountains here are super cool but very different than the ones we have at home. Everything is pure green on the mountains here. When we were hiking up it felt that I was an a tropical jungle with all of the birds chirping. We went to help gather up all of the fruits and vegetables they have growing there. His land had so much vegetation! The whole day we made super good fresh squeezed orange juice. I got stung by a dang  black Dominican wasp when I was up in a tree picking guanabanas. I freaked out like a little girl and almost fell out of the tree. All of the other guys were staring at me like I was a little princess who broke a nail. It freakin hurt though! As soon as I got down from the tree one of the guys had his pants half way down and told my to hold still... Yeah he tried to pee on my leg.. I kept on hopping around trying to do my best to stay away from this guy. He ended up peeing in a cup and dripped a few drops on the sting because he said that the venom of these wasps is very strong. My leg was swollen, numb and smelt like pee for the rest of the day. 

I also had my first Wendy's in six months and shaved one whole leg and stripes in the other because I was bored on Pday... yolo...not. In all honesty this week has been a very good and successful week with the missionary work but also one of the hardest weeks that I have had emotionally.We have found tons of new people to teach in such a short amount of time. Heavenly Father has really been answering mine any companions prayers. it seems that everyone that we have found in the past two weeks have lots of desire to know more. I have great faith and hope that they will keep on having us visit with them. Hearing about what happened last week to the amazing Trudy Budge really put me in a funk. Trudy Budge was truly the most Christlike person that I have ever known. She was practically my other mom growing up. I have so many memories of her turning boring or normal situations in to very fun and unforgettable memories. I feel like she has always been the greatest example to everyone, and has always had a positive attitude about everything in life. I have been so blessed in life by her and her family. I love the Budge family so much and know that they will all be strong through this. I know that God answers all of our prayers if we just have a little drop of faith. I love my mission and all of the great adventures I am having. I live my family and know that we can be together forever. I love you all!

Love Elder Morgan

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Fasting With Faith Really Does Work

I had a very eventful week  these past seven days. As always we had our English class on Saturday. It is full of little girls of our ward. Sunday we had super good attendance in church so I was pumped about that. We also got three really good references as well. I have been praying for something like this to happen for awhile. Fasting with faith really does work! I think that this was the first time in my life that I actually fasted with faith. All of the other times I think I was just starving myself without much meaning. Pretty dumb huh?

Anyways then on Tuesday I went to the farmers market to go get a Duck to eat. They didn't have any so then we just got a rooster instead. If you have ever seen rush hour 2 it was just like when the crazy Asian lady is trying to sell the chicken to the dude with a knife in her hand ready to cut its head off. Right when we came up to them they went and grabbed two live roosters out of the cage slit their throats, defeathered them and gutted them in less than five minutes. 

Anyways this past Wednesday we got to go to Samana again. This time there was a huge cruise boat that was full of white people. It was so weird seeing so many people the same color as me. It was so nice to talk to people in English, but I'm not going to lie, my social skills in English suck! It was fun though. We met an elderly couple earlier this week who were ex mission presidents of the Columbia mission. They live in Samana for the winter in a private condo on the beach. We went there and ate lunch. It was the coolest thing!. I am going to miss the beach when I get transferred. Transfers are this next Wednesday. I don't thing that I will be transfers out this time. I bet I will stay for one more. Lots of other great things happened this week but I am way to lazy to tell them. Sorry, you'll just have to wait until I get back to hear them. Well that's it for this week. I love my mission and this gospel that we have! I miss you all!

Love, Elder Morgan

Bleach Could be the Magic Remedy...

Missionary time is really the weirdest thing. The saying ¨Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days¨ is so true. Actually only the part about the weeks feeling like days. Anyways everything is going great here. 

Two days ago big green chunks of moss started coming out of my shower head when I was showering. Its annoying because we have to clean the water tank frequently because it gets dirty fast. We went and visited that old guy with the catheter yesterday. I told him about the moss in my shower and he said that we need to pour bleach in the water tank to clean it. He also said that he likes to drink bleach to kill parasites in his stomach. He also pours it on all of his cuts. I guess bleach is his magic remedy for everything. We had a zone P-Day here in Nagua. It was super fun. 

We just spent the whole day chillin at the beach. I claimed a coconut tree and got two coconuts down to drink. I kinda wish that I could serve my whole mission here in Nagua. I know I will miss the beach when I get transferred out. We also had a ward talent show the other night. There were just lots of little dramas that people did. I was in one of them. I played a policeman who got to beat up some robbers. Haha I guess I did a good job at beating up the bad guys (one was my comp) that some of the little kids started crying. 

Our work still is mostly focused on reactivating less active members. Sometimes it is really frustrating because lots of people are just lazy. They don't think that they are capable of going to church once a week for three stinkin hours. That's one thing that I don't get, God gives us 168 hours a week and some people cant even give him 3. IDK its just something I have been thinking of. So yeah that was the little update of my week. I love my mission so much! It is an has taught me so much about myself. I love the gospel and that I am a member of this wonderful and true church. I love you all!

Love Elder Morgan