November 29, 2010

Hi Mom!!

I spent some time replying to an Email from grandma. Things are going good here, but we are about to leave the library. I think we are coming back later though so I will work on an email for you then. I was SOOSOOOOO glad to hear about your AWESOME Thanksgiving. We had an awesome thanksgiving here too! here is a list of a few things I thought of that I could use for Christmas.

PS dont worry about me having to haul stuff to paris. I have LOTS of room in my suitcase AND am far way from reaching the wait limit in either bag.
I could use razor blades
a first aid kit
sonic-care head
A calender
and the special dental floss that I can use with my permenant retainer.

(any ideas on what I can do about my retainer that I lost at the MTC?)
Its getting colder here and I am realizing that I didnt exactly prepare for cold weather. So if you could remember to send a hoodie and some gloves that would be great!


WHAT time do you get off work today?
Love you sooo MUCH!
Elder Morgan


Things are going much better here. I am feeling a little sick today. Think I am getting another cold :/ It has been pretty cold here the past few days and our heater doesn’t work. :( But I am doing great! I have not heard anything about my visa.

One of the members here who is very quiet came up to me after my talk on Sunday. He said that never in 25 years had he given a referral to the missionaries, but he wants me to teach someone this week. Elder Laelau also said that he had a feeling that I might be here for a while. I’m not sure how long ill be here but I definitely realize now that I have a lot to do while I am here.

The Radio broadcast was a little hectic this past week. When we got there we were having some technical difficulties with our broadcasting equipment and our tech didn’t get it fixed until about ½ hour later. So we shortened our message and each got to talk for 6-8 minutes.

The Other missionaries in that picture are visa waiters going to Brazil and no they were not in my district at the MTC. Brazil and Mexico are the Hardest countries to get visas for right not is what I have heard. There are a ton of visa waiters here going to brazil. So many that they opened up a strictly Portuguese speaking area.

Thanksgiving was great!! We played football from like 9-almost 1:00 It was a lot of fun! After that we went to lunch at a Hawaiian families house (I don’t know how to spell there name…. Kalanuies?. It was supper good. Then we went to have desert and more food and play board games at the Finchers house. After that we went and visited the Suda’s. All in all it was a very very fun thanksgiving. I was thinking about you all day though and was extremely happy to know that you were gonna get to go visit Brad. I was even happier to hear how much fun you had and how you felt like you fit right in. It was nice to hear a little about Brad’s two sons. Tell them I say Hi and I appreciate their prayers.

I am not homesick at all. It’s the strangest thing though, whenever I am not obedient or doing something I know I shouldn’t be doing, I find that I become homesick very quickly. Its funny how that works isn’t it? But No, as of right now I am having the time of my life.

I did get an email from grae today and I Just barely got one from dad. I had time to write a real quick reply to Grae’s but not to dads. Ill email him next week for sure. We talked a little last week so I don’t feel to bad about not getting back to him.

As for you and Brad. I honestly really couldn’t be happier for you. I am so excited! Its so nice to know that you are so happy and doing so well.

My mission area is great. I am making good friends with everyone here. I spoke in church on Sunday and I did a absolutely horrible job, but hopefully you will understand why when you read my email to grandma below. This week went by super fast because of Thanksgiving though. This week we have a district meeting and an entire mission training. It should be an AWESOME week. I am still learning a lot. Other than that not a whole lot is new.

OH that reminds me! It would be awesome if you could think of some cheap easy to make, fast meals and send me Recipes’? A lot of the Elders Eat out constantly here and I cant stand all greasy food they eat 24-7 here. Its crazy! I think I have had 2salads since I have arrived. Another Thing I would love is actual print outs of pictures. It costs like 25 cents for every piece of paper I print out here and I would love a few good pictures of family and friends to keep in my scripture case?

As for me sending you pictures, I have asked around and I have figured out what is the best way to send you pictures. As of right not I have 2 memory cards for my camera. I have not even filled up the first one yet. So what everybody does here, is they have their parents mail them a SMALL external hard drive (25 gigs or smaller) I back up all the pictures onto that here. And send you one memory card at a time with pictures on it. This way I can edit my pictures and leave little notes on them so I remember what is what and you can have a copy of the pictures. The mission president asks us to only use myldsmail.net when we are on the internet so I don’t know if I should do smugmug. So can you mail me a small external hard drive when you get the chance? Either that or should I just buy one here next p-day? Its important to have a backup of the pictures because I guess it is not unheard of for people in the post office to steal camera memory cards.

I sent a lengthy email to grandma, it was a cool experience that I had this past week. Ill copy and paste it here:

I am soo happy to hear everything is going so well back home. Its so great to hear that everybody is doing so well. I still pray every day for you and I know that everything is gonna be just fine!

I had kind of a weird experience the other day that I wanted to tell you about though. So on this past week I was asked to speak in church on sunday. But before I go any further I have been really struggling ever since I have gotten to Georgia with being obedient. Well I looked up a bunch of scriptures and felt fairly prepared as sunday approached. Well as I got ready for bed on saturday, I decided that I would start fasting that night for help in being more obedient. So I started my fast and got in bed.

Well as I went to bed on saturday night I had a dream. I dreamed that I was home from my mission and that I was going to visit everybody at your old house in Banks where Jake lives now. Well I remember in my dream that we were all in the living room visiting (the room looked like it did when you lived there) and Grandpa came into the room. It was very weird but extremely realistic at the same time. But I remember everybody in the room was NOT suprised to see him, even though every single person acknowledged the fact that he was dead. Well Grandpa came over and I hugged him and I remember I was very emotional in my dream. But as we stopped hugging I remember looking at him and neither of us said a word to each other... using our mouths. But it was almost like we could tell exactly what each other was thinking. Well I remember reminding him that I had gone on my mission and I giving him this look that basically said "arent you proud of me?" Perhaps the most unique thing about this dream is what happened next. I remember his face did not change the entire dream, he just smiled and It made me feel good, I was able to tell that he was perfectly happy with me and that he loved me so much and was so proud of me. But at the same time he managed to tell me that I could have done better (on my mission). To me this wasnt weird. But the feeling I had when he told me all this was. As I think back on this dream I have come to believe that I have never before felt the same way that grandpa made me feel in this dream. I could feel how much he loved me, perfectly and it made me so happy, but at the same time he was able to make me realize things I could have done better without any hard feelings. I really wish I could describe this dream better. It was amazing.

But I was so overwhelmed by this dream as I woke up on sunday morning that I was in some sort of a funk and COMPLETELY failed on my talk ha ha. It was without a doubt one of the most embarrassing experiences ever! But man was it cool!! I know that I had that dream for a reason. I have really struggled with being perfectly obedient on my mission. I like to blame my disobedience on my companions but this dream really helped me.

If you look up "Angels" in the Bible dictionary (I just so happened to "stumble" across this on sunday morning, after my dream but before my talk) it says in one way or another that there are a couple different forms of angels, one of them being spirits that have not yet, or have ALREADY obtained physical bodies of flesh and bone. I guess the whole reason I tell you all this is that I now know the Grandpa is truly watching over me here and helping me.

I have not yet decided who I will personally tell about this amazing special experience I have had, but if you feel prompted or feel that somebody would appreciate this story feel free to share it. I already can already feel my mission turning around, I am striving to be more obedient and I can already feel an extreme difference. As I read through this I thought it was a little bit weird because its not like there were any revelations in the dream on HOW I could be more obedient or any "secrets to success" but I just have this renewed desire to be more obedient and I guess when I think about it, thats truly all I ever needed. The Lord knows us better than we can Imagine. Its because of this dream that I know that. And because of that, I know the Lord has a plan for you, and you might not understand why you haven't been able to find a job yet, but I know if you just keep on putting your faith in the Lord he will bless you more than you can Immagine. I didnt understand why as I prepared to leave on my mission my mom was going through such a rough time but looking back and how the Lord blessed my family at the last minute may not have been what I thought was best at the time or leading up to that point, But I would certainly never go back and change anything knowing what I know now. I love you Grandma, I hope things continue to go just great over there :) Thanks so much for the email!

Love you Tons mom! So glad to hear you are doing so well! I really am! Love you!
Elder Morgan