February 20th, 2012

Hey family!

Glad that you all had a great week and a good Valentines Day.  We had a pretty good week this week.  Right now we have kind of dropped Wanda but we are still going to try and talk to her some more.  We aren't sure if she is really interested or just likes to talk to us.  We teach a lot of people tho each week.  We have been finding inactive members lately and their records aren't here so nobody knows about them.  So we are trying to do less active work and keep finding people to teach.  First lessons are pretty common but getting those second and third lessons are the tricky part.  We are working with a few people though.  Nobody came to church yesterday we really thought that at least one person would come but oh well maybe next week.  It rained and poured a few days this week.  It sucked too cuz I just got my suit dry cleaned and then that Wednesday, Thursday and Friday it rained pretty good and there's always mud on the sidewalks and stuff so it gets my pants dirty a lot of times but my rain jacket works pretty well and keeps my suit and stuff dry.  We had a zone conference this week it was pretty good.  The assistants and the zone leaders did some trainings and President Jones talked to us.  Now we have to keep track of all the people that we contact each day.  Its crazy we have to track so many numbers and now one more and this will be the hardest one.  Anyone that we talk to at all in the day we have record.  He did this whole equation thing up front of all these numbers trickling down to a baptism.  Cuz out of like 10 contacts the average is getting 1 QGC (quality gospel conversation) and out of like 10 QGC's the average is like 1 1st lesson.  And out of like 20 1st lessons an average of one person gets baptized.  So he went over the mission goals for baptisms and stuff.  But the zone conference was good I got a letter from James and Bryce.  You will have to thank Natalie for the package she sent me she has given me 20 bucks every month that I've been out.  It's really nice of them to send me stuff.  But yeah the street name is Babcock sorry if I told u wrong.  I noticed that they were all saying Badcock but they still made it to me haha.  I also got the Valentines card from Chan with the pic of Ava in it she is really cute.  But yeah that cd should be able to copy u will have to send me one when u get a chance.  I hope the basketball teams do good at state that will be fun to go watch.  Next time u see Rhett tell him to email me.  James just baptized a girl he got permission from his mission president and got to go back to his old area and baptize her so he said that was cool.  I guess Josh's old girlfriend Kelby is getting married.  Oh well it will be good for when we get back and go to college haha.  thats funny about Tevan he always wanted to be the one in charge and I guess now is has chance haha.  Is Beeker still there or did he leave?  Sounds like Courtney has been playing some really good basketball--thats awesome Courtney!  I'm sure your gonna love all stars--you'll be great!  That was cool that u made both your foul shots to go into overtime. I bet u were pretty nervous haha. Keep having fun and doing good in school!  Hey Monkey you are gonna love the Parade of Homes. I remember when I went it was way sweet. There are houses that u would never imagine could be so big and nice.  I remember when I went I left knowing that I wanted a house like that haha.  It's crazy that your birthday is only a few weeks away and you'll be the big 16!  What are u gonna do for your birthday?  Well anyways thats all I got for this week. I love you all very much!  Have a good week!:)  and tell Grandpa Morgensen hi for me!

 

Love, Elder Morgensen

February 13th, 2012

Hey everyone!  Well it sure has been cold here in Texas these past few days.  It's been in the low 40's and sometimes high 30's.  It’s that humid cold so it feels colder than it really is and especially when the air is hitting u on a bike.  We have just been working hard this week knocking on doors and talking to everyone.  We find some pretty interesting people.  A lot of people these days when we ask them if they are religious they just say they are spiritual and have their own beliefs about God.  It's weird hearing everyone's different beliefs.  It’s funny they just think that they know everything and that everything they believe is true.  The people with their own beliefs are all the lazy ones that think they can just do whatever.  There is really only 1 person we are working with and it is this lady named Wanda.  We've met with her 3 times this week and are making a little bit of progress.  It was weird cuz it was like around 8 pm and we were just knocking on doors in this dark apartment complex and we saw this lady in another building up on the 3rd floor balcony smoking.  So usually we just wouldn’t leave where we were and try to go talk to her.  But we decided to and so we were down on the ground and started to talk to her while she was clear on the 3rd floor.  We talked for like 5 minutes and then we asked if we could come up and she let us so that was cool.  She has a kid and is divorced and she is also from Canada like my companion so they had stuff to talk about and we have developed a pretty good relationship with her.  We hope that she wants to keep meeting with us.  We took a member to our last lesson with us and it went really well so we are having a dinner with her at his house this week so hopefully it turns out.  We taught a lot of lessons this week but just had nobody at church or anything so oh well we will keep trying.  One of the kids in the ward just got his call to the St. George Utah mission so that was cool.  He's up at BYU right now but I met him when he was home for Christmas break.  His name is Kirk Bassett so if he somehow ends up in Beaver u will have to say hi to him.  The bishop wants the priest age young men to go out with us to see what it’s like teaching.  So starting this week every Tuesday one of them will go out with us for a few hours so it should be pretty fun.  We are also doing a presentation for the relief society on missionary work in a few weeks so we've got to prepare for that.  So that’s pretty much it for the work for this week.  Thanks for the Valentines package u sent me I got it on Saturday.  I really like the truffles.  Sounds like dad had a pretty fun birthday!  Red Lobster sounds really good!  I remember eating there before I went into the MTC and that is crazy that was 5 months ago.  I'll be at a year in no time.  I’m glad u finally got some snow there and not just cold.  I’m sure mom enjoys watching Ava.  I hope Chantel is able to pass all of her tests and be done with school soon.  I hope I will be able to handle the heat here because I have heard it’s pretty bad.  I laugh at everyone now in their huge winter coats and scarves and gloves but I’m sure they will be laughing at me in the summer haha.  I’m glad Grandma and Raymond are getting close with their mission papers it will be interesting to find out where they go.  Well that’s all I’ve got for this week.  Have an awesome week and I love you all a lot!  Next time u send something to me if u can just throw in a Beaver County Journal so I can read a little of what’s up in Beaver I would sure appreciate it - thanks!:)

Love, Elder Morgensen

February 6th, 2012

Hey Everyone!

Well I hope you enjoyed the Super Bowl, cuz I didn’t (haha).  It was really tough knocking the whole time that the game was on.  I’m glad u told me who won.  I was wondering because I think the whole fourth quarter nobody opened the door so we didn’t get any updates.  Well I’m glad it was a good game and it wasn’t boring.  I bet the patriots coach was pretty mad about it.  Well dad, I hope you have a happy 50th birthday on Saturday!  That’s pretty cool cuz you still look really young!  Make sure to do something fun this weekend.  My new companion is pretty cool.  He is from Canada it’s a town called Cartson and I think there is a temple there.  It’s not deep into Canada and only like 20 minutes from the border.  His name is Elder McMurray.  The guy we have been working with called and dropped us yesterday he just said he isn’t ready to give some things up like alcohol and smoking and getting married.  He sounded completely different on the phone from when we meet with him.  I think he just hit a low point or maybe a little bipolar.  So I talked to him for a good ten minutes on the phone and just told him to keep thinking about it and we plan to stop by and see him sometime soon and see how he is doing.  He pretty much denied everything he had told us before that he knew he needed to change but now just wants to live his life how he wants to so we will see what happens with him.  We have just done a lot of knocking this week and have found a few pretty cool people that we hope we can meet with again.  It seems like u can get in a door and teach an awesome lesson and they feel the spirit but after a day or two they don’t really want u to come back.  So hopefully all of our appointments work out.  We had stake conference yesterday and it was really cool.  We had a member of the first quorum of the seventy there and he gave a really good talk.  I love hearing from the general authorities.  Well that’s pretty much how the work has been going.  It’s been rainy and cold this week so we've gotten pretty wet on the bikes a few times.  It’s really not fun when it rains haha.  That’s exciting that Ava will be getting blessed soon.  Will most of the family come up for that?  It sounds like life is pretty normal there.  Have you gotten any snow lately or is it still just cold?  Is my car still in the garage?  Courtney it sounds like your b-ball game is really improving and I’m excited to watch ya play when I get back.  It sounds like Candace has been hitting the weight room to get ready for softball, that’s really cool.  I’m sure you will make the team and I will be excited to hear about the games.  Well family I love ya and take care! :) say hi to chan, trev, and ava for me.

Love, Elder Morgensen 

January 30, 2012

Hey Everyone!

Well we got transfer calls last night and my companion is getting transferred down to the border.  So I will be getting a new companion on Wednesday.  It seems like when you get used to a companion they leave or you leave (ha ha).  But oh well I'm glad I am staying in the area--it's really nice and I like it a lot.  The members here are cool they just need to give us referrals (ha ha).  But we called the cop guy and talked to him for a bit and it turns out that he lives outside of our area so we just are going to call him into the office as a referral and they will call the missionaries that cover his area.  So I hope that something happens with that.  But the investigator we are working with is pretty cool.  He came to church again yesterday and we didn't know it was fast Sunday because i guess Stake Conference is the next week.  But it turned out good. There wasn't any crazy people that got up.  All he really has to do to get baptized is get married.  We took him to a baptism a few days ago and he really liked it.  The only problem is that his girlfriend doesn't want to join the church so she is kind of a hinderence.  They both come to church but they won't stay for the 3 hours because she just wants to leave after Sacrament. So we are going to have to work with the two somehow.  So that's how that is going.  One night at dinner this week we were just getting to know the family and I told him I was from Beaver and he said that he knew someone on his mission that was from Beaver. So I asked him where he served and he said in Italy.  So I was like, oh that's my uncle Tyler Black (ha ha).  They weren't companions but he said that he knew him so I thought that was cool. The guys last name is Halverson. I actually got a letter from Tyler this week so when I write him back I will make sure to tell him that and see if he remembers him.  And thanks dad for my line of authority--it's good to have.  Thats really cool that Tyson is going to Peru.  That sounds really fun!  It sounds like you had a fun trip over to see them.  Sounds like the monkey's had fun watching that basketball game. I remember going to those EFY things. They were always really fun and the speakers are always awesome!  I'm glad they liked it. Wow time is just flying by--it will be the Summer in no time!  That's really cool that dad is turning 50 really soon--you will have to do something fun for his birthday.  It's crazy how the time flies. At the beginning of March I will have been out for 6 months! It's not a ton of time but it's a good chunk.  Well, I will talk to you all next week and let you know about my new companion!  Hopefully he is cool (ha ha).  Take care everyone. Love ya lots!  

Elder Morgensen