Merry Christmas

Hello everyone!

I don't have much time today so this will be pretty short. I hope you all had an awesome Christmas! I loved getting to see my parents and Mike and Megan on skype! Hopefully I'll get to see a few more of you next time! Christmas here was so crazy and busy! We tried to make it to every less active and members house that we possibly could and saw a few of our investigators as well. I'm pretty sure that just about every house that we stopped at had something for us to eat or take home to eat later. I hope I never have to eat that much food again in my life. Being a missionary puts a whole new spin on Christmas. I got to focus on Christ and all that he has done for each and every one of us! I pray that you all to feel the spirit of Christmas as we celebrated our saviors birth this year!

I love and miss you all,

Elder Morgan

 

 

Merry Christmas Everyone!

 

Hello Everyone! and Merry Christmas!

Sorry I am on a day late, we were just insanely busy yesterday and didn't get any time to email!

This week has been pretty awesome! We have mostly been sharing the story of Christ's birth with everyone that will listen to us. It has been an awesome experience and I have been able to feel the true spirit of Christmas as we have been sharing it with others. Being on a mission has definitely made me think a lot differently about Christmas. I am able to focus on the birth of our Savior and what a gift he is to each and every one of us!

For all of you that thought it would be super cold up here.....it so far hasn't been cold what so ever! There has just been lots and lots of rain, and we have gotten very very wet. The other day was one of the nicer days that we have had so we thought that we would try walking around in our area instead of using our car. We came out of one of our investigators homes and it was down pouring! On our walk back to our apartment my companion was talking about how his companion last year would drive through puddles and spray people as they were walking. Not 10 seconds after telling his story, a HUGE dually truck....with a trailer....drove by and covered us with a good 8 foot wall of muddy salty water!  We were soaked to the bone! I couldn't help but laugh hysterically because of the timing of his story.

I hope you all have an amazing Christmas and I can't wait to see some of you when I get to skype home! I love you all and I hope you get the chance to share the Christmas spirit with someone!

Love Elder Morgan

Service With a Shovel and a Smile

Hello Everyone!

My companion and I had an awesome week this week! I am still a little sore from all of the shoveling that we did this week, but we saw so many blessings from doing it! We had lessons with people that have never let us in before and we were able to get in a couple extra lessons with the ones that we have been teaching!

I thought that I would miss out on all of the Christmas stuff that we usually do at home but, I was wrong. The Dupont family is taking us with them today to go out and cut down a Christmas tree with them today! The ward here is awesome and they are taking very good care of us for Christmas this year!

We had a Zone Conference this week and it was pretty much how we can be instruments in the hands of the Lord and how we can be the instruments that he wants us to be, not the ones that we want to be. They gave us about 20 minutes to find a quiet room and read our patriarchal blessings and to really look for strengths that we have been given. It was the 1st time that I have really gotten to pray about and read just my blessing.  There are so many things that I have been missing! It is so humbling to see what the Lord see's not only in me but in all of us, and what potential we can truly reach when we WILLINGLY  heed to the promptings of the spirit and become the instrument that he needs us to be!

I hope that everything is going good at home! I love and miss you all and hope you all have an amazing Christmas!

Love Elder Morgan

When in Rome...Enjoy the Snow!

We had transfer calls on Saturday and I get to stay in Rome for at least another 6 weeks! That means that I actually get to start opening packages that I have gotten haha. New York is teaching me a lot!.....especially how important it is to be clean, some of you would die if you saw how much junk people hold on to! It is definitely a humbling experience and a good way to share the talents that I have been given. We are supposed to get our 1st big snow storm tomorrow, they are saying that we could get up to 2 feet! I am hoping that it is going to snow so much that our mission pres will have to let us drive snow mobiles! I'll have to keep my fingers crossed for that one. We have had a lot of people ask for blessings this week because of surgeries that they are going to be having. I love giving blessings! I know that that the words that are said do not come from me but from the power of the Holy Ghost!

Couldn't wait for Christmas...

There have been a lot of things happening in our ward. To start, we have had two funerals in the past two weeks, both from the same family, a mother and a daughter. It has made me think a lot about the ones that we have lost in our family. I am so grateful that we have been given the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and that we will be able to live through eternity with our families. I am pretty sure that the Plan of Salvation has become my favorite lesson to teach.

We also had a "come to the manger" activity. Everyone in the ward brings all of their nativity sets and puts them in the cultural hall. They have it like an open house for everyone to come and see all of the different nativities. Not too many people came threw to look at them. It was set up from 10 to 5 and only about 20 people came through. It was still fun though.

Well, that is it for this week. I hope that you are all doing well. I can't wait to talk to and see some of you on Christmas! I love and miss you all!

 

We stole the sisters windshield wipers :) we were going to give them back the next day but it started to snow really hard like an hour later so we took them back haha

Elder Morgan

Lesson on Gratitude

Hey everyone! This week flew by! I can't believe that there is only one week left in this transfer! I don't know where all of the time goes! The main event this week was Thanksgiving! 1st to start the day off we got to go and play in a turkey bowl down at the stake center in Utica.....I thought that the 8 inches of snow that we got that night would put a damper on things but it didn't! It was so much fun! Then we had our normal district meeting after.....oh also forgot to mention that I had to try and starve myself of breakfast and lunch so I could pack down 2 Thanksgiving dinners! The first dinner that we went to was with Brother Withey, He is an older man in our ward and he lives by himself. It was nice to be able to share some of the day with him so he didn't have to be by himself on Thanksgiving. After attempting to portion my food, which didn't work out to good, we headed over to one of our investigators, Chuck. He wanted us to come over an hour or so before dinner was ready so we could read and talk about the Book Of Mormon with him. It is so awesome to see how much he has changed in the last 4 months and how much he has progressed! After we read with him it had been about 2 hours since our last meal ended and I still felt like the button on my pants was going to shoot across the room. I was shammed into putting heaping amounts of food on to my plate, and somehow was able to cram down another dinner. Even though I was not around family, Thanksgiving ended up being pretty dang good.
 

I also was asked to give a talk in church on Sunday. I was asked to speak on how my gratitude had changed since coming on a mission. I had to narrow it down to a few things otherwise I think I could have taken up the whole hour! I got it down to 4 things; family ( I even said I was grateful for brothers and sisters), priesthood blessing, the Gospel, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Being asked to prepare a talk on gratitude could not have come at a more perfect time. As I am sure that mom has told every single person on the planet by now, I had a few rough days last week with what is going on with dad. Preparing a talk on gratitude, especially gratitude for the Atonement, really helped bring an over whelming feeling of comfort and peace. It helped me remember that I have someone that knows exactly what I am feeling, and knows exactly what I need to get through it. I don't think that it was a coincidence that I was asked to talk on gratitude this week.

I got the Christmas countdown package the other day....it took everything I had not to tear everything open the second I got it. Thank you Mom for sending it and thank you Shalise for helping her!

I love and miss you all! Can't wait to talk to some of you on Christmas!

Elder Morgan  

The Gospel is true... even in Wendy's!

Hello Everyone!

This week last week has been pretty good, a little crazy with trying to work between two areas, but still good! So there are a lot of refugee families living in Rome and Utica that are members of the church. It has really put into perspective how the gospel is being shared and accepted all over the world!! And I get to be a part of it!

We had such a cool random thing happen to us last week. It snowed like 6 inches just a few days ago so we went and shoveled some of the older members driveways. One of the members came out and would not let us leave with out taking 10 dollars from her to go and get hot chocolate. Later that night we decided to go to Wendy's of all places to go and get hot chocolate. Before we even sit down this guy recognizes that we are LDS missionaries and starts asking us where we are from, I was expecting him to start ripping into us about something. He actually said that we had some quote "stones" for coming out on missions. He remember a few years back that a couple of missionaries had help his mom out at a red cross during Christmas time and how he really appreciated what they did. The conversation changed to what we did before we came out and if we played any sports. Turns out, the guy is a huge hockey fan, and my comp, who happens to be from Canada, also loves hockey. My comp pulls his chair over to this man and his families table and starts talking about hockey. After about 10 minutes out of no where he starts talking about religion and wants to know what we believe that is different from the Catholics. We pretty much taught him the 1st lesson in the middle of a Wendy's! We are going over to his house later this week to help him put up Christmas lights and teach him more! I am convinced that this little chain of events happening was inspired from the get go!  It just goes to show that the Lord knows what he is doing when he puts certain people in certain areas!

Thanks for all of your prayers and support! I love and miss you all!

Elder Morgan

A Broken Leg and Reading the Book of Mormon Again!

Hello Everyone!

Sorry if this email gets cut a little short, I might get to talk to a certain someone that I have not talked to in what feels like a very very long time. Anyway.....this has been a very busy and very crazy week. One of the Elders in our district broke his leg on Saturday helping someone move and he was sent home which sucks because he was an awesome missionary and has only been out for 4 transfers! I felt so bad for him! His companion, starting later today, is getting put with me and my comp. I will now be in a trio and will get to work in Rome and in Utica! It has been super crazy trying to work out how we can work in Rome and Utica and still see everyone that we are teaching in both places! It is going to be crazy getting used to, but I am so excited for all of the people that we will get to teach!

I recently started The Book Of Mormon again. I had a feeling that I should focus on everything that has to do with faith this time. So starting from the beginning I have been marking everything that mentions faith. Holy crap! I never realized how much faith has to do with literally EVERYTHING we do. It has been such a huge help to me, especially with everything that has been going on at home.

I hate to cut this short but.........that certain someone just got online:)

I love and miss you all!

Elder Morgan

Happy Halloween

 

Hello Everyone,

So we just ended our second transfer! This one went by so fast! Everybody says that they only get faster and I find it hard to believe. My new companion is Elder Cosman, he's from Eastern Canada. Other than sounding like a little kid because of his accent he has turned out to be a pretty good guy. He loves playing hockey and he watched top gear almost as much as I did so we get a long pretty good!

We were able to start teaching a new investigator last week. He is a US History teacher at the high school so he has to teach about the westward expansion and they touch on "Mormonism". He said at first he only wanted to learn more so he could teach his students more about it. He told us that as he did research on Joseph Smith, he came across Mormon.org and loved what he saw. He said that the more he found out about us he couldn't help but want to know more on a spiritual level as well. We also got permission to watch the Saratav Approach on Halloween. There was a part in it that was talking about prayer, and that light will always overcome darkness. That made me think about our new investigator, how he at first only wanted to know more from an educational stand point, but as he started looking for more, light over came darkness. He now wants to be baptized and become a member of our church!

This is the greatest old guy in the world, Brother Withey.

That's pretty much the highlight of the week! I guess besides a surprise phone call. But I hope everyone is doing well! I'm sure you have all been updated on what is going on with Dad, I know that you all probably pray for him already but just keep him in your prayers. Matt and I could also use a little extra help while we are out here. It is hard for us to hear what will be happening and not being to help at home. I know that miracles come after the trials of our faith, this is definitely one of those trials. I love and miss you all!

Elder Morgan

The hazards of playing basketball...Smashed Thumb!

 

Service and New Beginnings

Hello Everyone!

This last week has been pretty crazy. We have had a lot of opportunities for service this week. We helped one of the former investigators in the area move out of her home and it was HUGE! It was such a cool house! She said it was built in like the 1840's too. I am so glad that she called us to help her move. We were able to get all of the heavy stuff out for her and she was so greatfull because her and her new husband never would have been able to do it by themselves! She couldn't believe that we wouldn't take money from her so she wrote us a super nice letter instead haha. We told her that there

would be missionaries in Tennessee where she is moving. Hopefully our service will help her want to meet with the missionaries in Tennessee. We also got a few referrals this week. They had the Book of Mormon play up in Syracuse this last week and the missionaries in that area handed out over 80 BOM's the 1st night! they actually ran out and had to tell people that they could request one on Mormon.org. We have already gotten two referrals from that! Also a few months ago we had a family history fair here in Rome. We had a room set up with a bunch of stuff about what we believed just in case people were curious. Turns out only one man walked through it. Just yesterday he contacted us and said that he wanted to learn more!! I know that the lord has blessed us and is trusting us with these new people to teach and I cannot wait to meet them later this week!!
This week is the last week of my 2nd transfer and it has gone by in a flash! I am staying in Rome but Elder Prestwich is going down to Delhi and gets to drive the new jeep. I am kind of jealous of the jeep cause I'm not a huge fan of our Corolla haha. My new comp will be Elder Cosman, and he's Canadian....So it will be an interesting few months.

Thanks for all of your prayers and emails! They really help so much! I love and miss you all and hope to hear from you soon.

Elder Morgan

Never ignore a prompting from the Holy Ghost

 

Hello Everyone!

I can't believe 3 months has already gone by! I love it here! This week we had stake conference. We were invited to go to the priesthood leadership and adult sessions because there were a lot of talks on hastening the work. There has been a really big push for members to start being missionaries! Whether it be online with social media, people at work or other members of their family, they have been challenged to share the Restored Gospel with them! I am so excited to see how many members will try and do this! I hope a lot of referrals come from it because it would make our jobs a lot easier, especially sense it is starting

to get cold here, knocking on doors kind of hurts your knuckles when your hands are cold.
The best part of this week has definitely been with a less active member that we have been trying so hard to get to church. One night we were walking by his home and just had a feeling that we should stop by. He let us in and his non member friend was there! It was perfect! We shared a quick message with him and had him watch a Mormon Message clip. The spirit was so strong and you could tell that this non member could feel it too. We asked him if we could continue to teach him and without hesitating he
 

said that he would really like that. Then without us even asking him he said that he would like to come to church some time and that he would get the less active member to take him! It was awesome! On our way out we told the less active member about stake conference and away we went. On Sunday about 20 minutes into the session in walks this less active member who has not come to church in years! He must have felt something during that last lesson, he drove 30 minutes to the stake center! I have a very good feeling that he will continue to come to church now and be able to take the sacrament!

I'm going to share with you the same thing that we shared with this less active member. Here is the clip that we had him watch. http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3701964025001  You might have to watch it twice, once just to be able to see what this young man went through and how he was able to find the church. The second time pay attention to what the members did to help this young man on his journey. Through their example, friendship and acting on promptings from the Holy Ghost, they helped save this mans life. You never know when someone will be watching or listening. Never ignore a prompting from the Holy Ghost, that prompting may be an answer to someone's prayer. I know that through our examples and efforts we can ALL help bring others to Christ.

Thank you for all of your emails, prayers and support! I love and miss you all!

Elder Morgan

 

My 2nd transfer is almost over and it feels like it just started yesterday!

Hello Everyone!

Sorry I am on a little latter. The library was closed today because of Columbus day. We ended up going down to Utica to play basketball with the other Elders so we got to come in the family history center to email this week!

Time is FLYING by!! My 2nd transfer is almost over and it feels like it just started yesterday! The work is going great. We have been meeting with lots of less active members this week and trying really hard to realize why going to church in important! Unfortunately only one of the families made it this week but it was awesome to see them there!

We had ZTM this week and it was on how we can us the Book of Mormon to help those that we teach receive personal revelation. It was such a good training. We did some roll plays, which are usually super awkward, but even though you are just pretending to teach someone's investigator the spirit is still there and helps you SO MUCH! I just have to say that inspired questions are the coolest things in the world! Especially when there is a room full of missionaries and they all have the feeling to ask the exact same thing! The spirit knows exactly what the investigator needs to hear and we as missionaries need to be able to feel and act on the promptings from the holy ghost if we are going to help convert people!

I love being a missionary! During my personal study I came across a scripture that pretty much says what I am feeling perfectly. It is Alma 29:9 "I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy." I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be an instrument in God's hands!

I love and miss you all!

Elder Morgan

Hey Elder, do we teach Catholics?

 

Hello Everyone!!

Not gonna lie, this week has been a pretty slow week. I think it may have been because I was so excited for conference! It has been really hard to find new people to teach. A lot of them think that what were are doing is great and they wish us luck but none of them want to hear our message. One of the members said that he had a comp on his mission that ran into a lot of Catholics, he said that one time when someone answered the door and said that they were

Catholic his companion replied " Hey Elder, do we teach Catholics?" his companions companion said "I think we do." He then turned back to the person at the door and said " Yes we definitely teach Catholics too." I am super tempted to give this a try haha not sure if it would really work, but it is what I feel like saying! We have had some awesome lessons with some of the less active members though. We have been trying to get a specific family to read from the Book Of Mormon every day together and they haven't been doing so hot. When we saw

The coat was a little small!

them on Friday, we felt that we should ask them how they 1st gained their testimony of the Book Of Mormon. Talk about an inspired question! They both bore their testimonies to us about the Book Of Mormon and of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The spirit was there and it was SO strong! Through a few more inspired questions ( I say inspired because I know that there is no way I would have come up with them on my own) I truly think that because of the feeling that they felt, they will read together every day! I am so excited to see them again this week and see how much they progressed! If I am this excited for them, I cannot even imagine how our Heaven Father feels! I'm sure that he feels that way every time any of his children succeed!

Conference was amazing! I actually really listened and paid attention to every talk haha. There were so many great messages that were shared. I know that a lot of them really hit home for me and made me want to change and become so much better! I hope you all got a chance to watch it! 

 

Yes, I'm tracting an out house...

New York is great! It is finally starting to get a little bit colder and I won't be surprised when there is snow on the ground in the next 2 weeks.  I love and miss you all!

Love

Elder Morgan

This is the doodle dumpster....don't ask me whats in it because I dont know!

#didyouthinktopray

Hello Everyone!


#didyouthinktopray

So this week has been the longest week so far. We had a lot of appointments fall through and the areas that we have been tracting in are all super Catholic....not gonna lie, it has gets super annoying when people say "oh were already catholic so we're good". But I know that everyone still has their agency and can choose for themselves. There has been some good things also. On Monday I somehow got talked into going running in the morning....WE WENT 3 MILES!!!  I haven't run more than a mile since High School! So I was SUPER sore for the first half of the week. Then we were playing basketball with the zone leaders and I dropped an elbow right in Elder Halls eyebrow and split it right open! We decided that we didn't have time to go get him stitches, so we went to the store and just bought some super glue:) We met with a lot of less active members this week and have really been trying to get everyone into reading the Book Of Mormon. I think it has been working because a lot of them actually came to church this week! It couldn't have been more perfect since it was

Carolyn Morgan #didyouthinktopray

testimony meeting. The 7 year old kid Carter that I told you about in my last email got up at the very beginning and shared his testimony of the Book Of Mormon. It was such a simple and brief testimony but there was so much power behind it! There is not a doubt in my mind that through Carters testimony, the spirit was able to touch the heart of every person there, Member, non-member or less active. It was freaking awesome! Then we had Zone Conference this week, it was on faith unto baptism. I am realizing more and more what a huge part faith plays in everything that we do! We also talked about Elder Bednars message about sweeping the earth with a flood. I am extending the challenge to each of you to watch "I pray when" here is the link: http://www.mormonchannel.org/more-videos?v=3738361705001, and take a picture of yourself or your family and when you pray, then post it on facebook or instagram. Of course don't forget the #didyouthinktopray. The lord is truly hastening his work and even though you are not called as missionaries you can help spread the gospel through social media!

 I pray when I need peace. #‎didyouthinktopray‬

Thank you all for all of your letter and support and especially the prayers! I can feel them and they help me keep going everyday! I love and miss you all!

 Elder Morgan

 

To the Mogan Brady Family,

I would love to fill this page with photos of all of you taking Ryan's challenge. Please email your pictures to dstilson@comcast.net and I will update them on his blog.

Thanks, Shalise Stilson 

 

Faith, Prayer and Service

Hello Everyone!
 It has been a pretty good week with lots of service!! We had transfers this week and I am still in Rome with Elder Prestwich. One of Zone leaders Elder Bybee got transferred so we said bye to him on Tuesday and went and got ice cream at Nicki Doodles.  The we helped the Polands stack a ton of wood!! Everyone out here pretty much refuses to use a normal heater out here because it is so expensive! I'm sure that I will get to stack at least a whole forests worth of wood by this winter.  But the Polands are awesome! They fed us dinner after we helped them. While we were eating their oldest son, Carter he's 7, asked if he could share his testimony with us. He said that they just finished the Book Of Mormon and he did what Moroni told him to do. He said that after he prayed he felt the same way the people did after eating the fruit from the tree of life, he just felt all warm and happy inside. It is so cool to see how the spirit can testify to us at even such a young age! Then on Friday we got to go and help another lady in our ward paint her play room. Holy Crap did that take forever!!!!! After we got done painting we did a lot of tracting. We found one older guy, his name is Keneth.

I killed my 1st and hopefully only bedbug

He could talk your ear off. But he told us how ever since he was little his mom always taught them to pay no matter where they were. He is letting us come back today to teach him about the restoration and I am super excited about that!! Then on Saturday guess what we got to do.....yep,  more service! We helped a less active member get his pool ready for winter. It was pretty fun and I now no longer ever ever want to have a pool haha. After service we had planned to drive all of the way out to Camden, it's only 20 miles away but when you have limited miles, 20 miles is a long way! We didn't really have any set appointments so when we said a pray before we left our apartment, we prayed that people would be home and that we would meet new people in the area that we would be working. We didn't get to teach very many people but everyone was home!! We were able to set up return appointments on Tuesday when we go back up there with like 10 people!!! My testimony of Prayer in being strengthened everyday! It was funny ready Matt's email last week and he said that their Zone Conference was on having faith the baptize, turns out ours is on the exact same thing!! I never realized how much more meaningful things are when we have faith that our Heavenly Father will help us! Even just in simple things like praying that people would be home! I know that the reason we were able to see so many people yesterday is because we had FAITH that our pray would be answered!

It is starting to get colder here and the leaves are starting to change into the brightest yellows, reds and oranges I have ever seen!! I will make sure to send pictures when all of the trees start to change! I am starting to get used to the rain....except for yesterday, we had to hid under the garage at a fire station because it was starting to soak threw our "water proof" jackets! But I love it here in New York!!

I hope everything is going well at home! I Love and miss you all!

Love

Elder Morgan 

 

I made it through my 1st transfer!

Hello Everyone!

It has been a pretty good week! I made it through my 1st transfer! It went by so fast and I have a feeling this second one will be even faster with General Conference and Stake Conference! It is already starting to get cold here! it was like 30 degrees this morning when we went to the gym with our ZL's. It does make it nice though, especially since we have done a ton of tracting this week! We also had a baptism this week! We invited a few of our investigators but unfortunately none of them showed up....super frustrating

but oh well. We have had to work really hard at finding people lately. oh and we had a JW come out and start yelling at us this week and it was super funny! One of our Zone leaders, Elder Bybee, is getting transferred to a different zone which kinda sucks cause he is a super awesome missionary and we have gotten to be pretty good friends. We see them a lot because their apartment is like 3 minutes away from our. I hope everyone is doing well! I love and miss you all so much!  AND GOOD LUCK SHEALEIGH!!!!!! :):)

Elder Morgan

 

 

 

Day at the Utica Zoo