December 19th 2011

Hey Everyone!

Hope that your enjoying Christmas time.  Well I got the call last night and I am getting transferred :(  I'm kind of sad. We thought that it was going to be my companion that was getting transfered. We didn't even think that it would be me but oh well.  It looks like im leaving the area just when things are starting to pick up. We are meeting a ton of great people and I'm sure the lady in the wheelchair is going to be baptized sometime next transfer.  And possibly some great new investigators but I guess thats just how it goes.  I haven't opened any presents yet but hopefully nobody has sent anything to me here in the apartments.  I hope my new area is good and has a good companion.  That's so great about Chan's baby--thats really awesome!  I'm so glad everything went well. I'm excited to get some pictures.  I'm sure she is really cute and I bet Chan and Trev are really happy.  But no they dont let us skype here so that kind of bites.  But I will have to call you on Christmas because in the new area there will be a new phone so i dont even know the number yet.  But plan on me still calling home at 2 pm here and 1 pm there.  Hopefully it still works out cuz i don't know what time their church is or anything cuz they don't tell you where you are going.  So i don't know what the plans will be so lets still plan on 2 and if for some reason that doesnt work out I will still call sometime close.  I'm really excited to call home and talk to everyone!  Well, we are headed to the Salt Lick Restaurant at 1:00--I'm sure it will be some more great BBQ!  I also got a Christmas card from Julie and Cade and it just sounds like they are doing good.  Hopefully I stay in my new are for a while.  Maybe I will get to test out the bike.  It sure will be cold tho but I'm not sure what I would like better the cold or extreme heat.  I've made it a goal to finish the Book of Mormon before Christmas so i will be pretty close.  Well everyone gotta run--I will call you on Christmas. I'm really excited to talk to everyone!  I love you all a ton! :)

Elder Morgensen  

December 12th, 2011

Hey everyone!

Wow it sounds like its pretty cold there i remember scraping frost off the windshield in the morning glad i don't have to do that for a little while.  Its kind of weird here though it got down to like 35 one day while we were knocking and we were both freezing it felt like it was 0 degrees outside i think it was because of the humidity.  But we had a fun ward Christmas party on Saturday we had a really good meal along with some entertainment and the live nativity play it was pretty fun.  Me and my companion went to a local thrift shop and bought some old Christmas sweaters for the party.  They were only 3 bucks each but they keep you really warm i ended up liking it ha ha.  It was pretty fun wearing them to the party.  Thanks so much for the Christmas picture it looks really good!  I'm sure the house looks all nice and decorated.  We do have a small artifical Christmas tree in our apartment that had a few bulbs on it but my companion knocked it off the counter so it shattered all the bulbs but the lights still work so its nice having it in the apartment.  I'm pretty excited for next Monday a member has offered to take us out to a great BBQ place its called the Salt Lick.  It's supposed to be really good but its out of our area so we called the President and he said that would be fine.  We had something pretty cool happen this week with the lady in the wheelchair her name is Janis Payne.  She kept cancelling appointments on us because she would say she is in too much pain or doesnt feel good so finally we offered to come over and give her a blessing.  She didn't really know what was going on but she said she would like one.  My companion annointed her with the oil and then i sealed it and gave her the blessing.  She looked pretty astonished when we were done.  She then told us that she had never felt something like that before.  She said that for the past 19 years she has always had bad pains in her shoulders.  She said it doesn't matter how many pain pills she takes she said that its always there.  But then she told us that this is the first time in 19 years that she hasnt had pain in her shoulders.  She was pretty amazed she really couldn't believe it and honestly i couldn't either.  I think at that point she recognized us as true representatives of Jesus Christ and everything now clicked with the Priesthood and authority.  It was pretty cool to witness we went on to teach her and she just kept feeling and rubbing her shoulders and thats all she wanted to talk about.  So we went back the next day and taught her the Word of Wisdom because she smokes and drinks coffee.  She said she is really going to try to quit we brought her a how to stop smoking packet that the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve put together.  Its supposed to work in a week its just a routine throughout the day to follow.  It calls for a few things so we went and bought her some grapefruit juice and cinnamon mouthwash and some vitamin c pills and gave them to her.  We then told her that we would be calling her everyday to see how things are going and stopping by at the end of our nights and just talking with her to see how she is doing.  I'm kind of sad because that was like 4 days ago and she hasn't returned our calls and either hasn't been home or hasn't answered the door when we gone by.  So i don't know she pretty much saw a miracle and now won't do anything about it.  We aren't even sure right now if she is using the program but oh well there isn't much we can do at this point until we can get in contact with her.  So thats been how my week has gone we have done a lot of knocking we haven't had hardly any appointments.  But we are still having a good time.  I'm really excited to hear about Chantel getting her new baby!  I can't wait to see a picture.  I can't believe that me Candace and Courtney will be aunts and uncles and you Mom and Dad will be a Grandma and Grandpa!  That's pretty crazy and you aren't even 50 yet dad ha ha.

Well everyone glad to hear that you are all doing well.

Wish you the best I love ya!:)

Elder Morgensen  

December 5th, 2011

Hey Everyone!

I really miss the winters there in Beaver its always a fun time of year.  Yesterday me and my companion stayed to the nativity display that our stake had put up for the community to come and see.  It was really pretty to see and it seemed like a lot of people came.  After that we watched the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional it was really good i really enjoyed it.  As for the great family that we found the day before we were going to go back for our appointment they randomly texted us and thanked us for meeting with them and said after some discussion they aren't interested with talking anymore.  It was kind of crazy we texted back and forth for about a half hour but we couldn't convince them to even let us come back.  So that was kind of sad.  We definitely know that the guy knows its true i think they are just being lazy because they know it takes a lot of work.  But oh well they are in the area book now and hopefully Elders will get them in the future.  As for the lady we are still working with her its kind of a slow progression she couldn't make it out to church yesterday because of the rain it rained pretty good yesterday.  So we are just back to the finding again we knock on a ton of doors.  Its crazy how many people we meet that grew up around the church and know a ton of great members but they just aren't interested.  There even seems to be a a few people that grew up in the church and are members but they go to a different church because of their spouse.  It just seems really weird to me but oh well.  Hopefully the work will start to pick up here luckily the members are great.  We just want them to be giving us more referrals because we don't really get any.  So we are trying to work with the ward mission leader to get something going and help him set up the ward mission plan for the year.  That will be really cool to hear where Grandma and Raymond get their call to i think they will really enjoy it. I hear from James and Bryce every week they are doing great. James always tells me to tell you all hello.  Bryce will be back in the summer and James has just about been out a year--crazy how time flies.  I guess i have almost been gone 3 months but it does seem like a lot longer.  I also talk to Josh Robinson he is doing pretty good. I guess right after he finished the training program his President made him a trainer so thats really cool.  Thats crazy the Statton and Clayton will be coming home but i guess it has been a while.  But yeah i got that email from Chantel. I guess she is due around the 15th so thats really soon!  A lot of great stuff happening in our family right now--we really do have the best family!  I'm really excited for Chantel--I cant wait to see a picture of the baby and hear her name.  I will be excited to talk to ya on Christmas and cant wait!  Thanks Candace for the scripture. You must be learning something in seminary--thats a really good scripture.  Make sure to pay attention in seminary and not skip out like i did. Seminary has a lot of great stuff in it.  Court you will have to tell me how basketball is going. It's probably nice that mom is coaching.  Well, take care and i will talk to ya next week.

Love, Elder Morgensen    

11-28-11

Hey everyone, I had a great Thanksgiving!  We got to eat a main Thanksgiving meal with a family at 2:00.  They originally scheduled it for 1:00 but i know how that goes (ha ha).  We had a message to present to the members about giving thanks for the atonement of Jesus Christ so that was pretty great.  We went to like 6 different families that day and everyone kept trying to feed us pie and stuff we got pretty full.  And then we ate another Thanksgiving dinner at like 7 so we had a great day.

We started to listen to a bit of Christmas music already and people are starting to get their lights up around town.  Christmas time is definitely the time I am going to miss being home.  I already miss the warm fire and Christmas music that I'm sure your already enjoying. I don't know about my trainer if he is going to stay here for Christmas or not. He goes home the first part of February so only 1 more transfer for him after this one. Sounds like it gettin pretty cold there.  Its been getting surprisingly cold here so i bought a black sweater to wear over my white shirt so between that and the suit jacket we stay pretty warm.  But the lady didnt end up going to the baptism on Tuesday she was in too much pain she has some health problems and she is in a wheelchair and she didn't come to church this week becasue she was feeling sick but we have another appointment with her on Tuesday so hopefully she will be feeling better and hopefully her health improves but as far as we can tell she is making decent progress.  As for the sheriff and his wife we ate BBQ at their house on Wednesday night and then shared a short lesson of the restoration and gave them some pamphlets before we left.  They are looking more and more solid.  We have another appointment set up with them to go over and teach a full length lesson.  Its going to be kinda hard to get them at church every week because he gets every other weekend off and she works at the jail and works 4 weekends and then gets off for 4.  But we will just have to wait and see what happens with them.  I will try and send some more pictures next week.  Christmas season is great to be able to share a message of Jesus Christ with people.  And we are going to try and lift peoples spirits for the holidays since some people don't have much.  I'm gonna try and send home a christmas picture of me and my companion and maybe that one can go on the card.  If you get a chance send me some pictures of the family and maybe even some old pictures.  Thanks for everything.

Love Elder Morgensen! 

11-21-11

Things here in Texas are going good.  I think we will be eating a lot of food on Thanksgiving everyone wants us to eat at least a little bit with them so that will be a fun day.  Luckily we can just be with the members that day and wont have to tract or anything.  We are working with a lady right now that seems to look pretty promising.  She investigated the church like 20 years ago.  Her soon was converted and served a mission but wasnt able to convert his mom.  The missionaries have been working with her in the past but havent had much success.  She is a smoker so she has some health issues and she is in a wheelchair.  She isnt paralyzed but just cant move very easy.  Her son called us Monday and said his mom went to church with him down in San Marcos ward on Sunday and he said he thinks his mom is ready to hear from the missionaries again.  So we set up an appointment with her and her son and taught her the restoration and everything kind of just clicked with her.  She accepted our invitation to be baptized and said yes and would work towards that.  She came to church with us yesterday and really liked it.  She is also going to come to a baptism on Tuesday to watch.  We went over yesterday after church and helped her son put up Christmas decorations for her.  It was good to get to know them and her son is really happy that she wants to get baptized now.  Also out tracting this week we knocked on a door and this lady answered.  She seemed really sad and didnt seem very interested to talk with us.  We were only talking to her for like 30 seconds and her husband came up to the door in his Sheriffs uniform and immediately invited us to come inside.  It was really weird because we didnt even ask if we could come in.  So we sat down not having a clue what was happening.  He said he is about to go to work but wanted to talk with us for a minute.  He said growing up his mom would always let the missionaries come over and she would feed them and he said his whole family loved the spirit that the missionaries brought into their home when he was younger.  So when he saw who we were he wanted us to come in.  He started to ask us how he could receive forgivness.  We just shared a short message with him about the atonement because we knew he had to go.  He asked who he would talk to if he wanted to know more about our church.  We told him we were the ones.  So we have an appointment with him this Wednesday they are going to have us over to eat some BBQ and tell them more about the gospel.  He seemed really sincere about wanting forgivness.  So we are hoping that they will investigate the church.  So that was kind of our week as far as missionary work.