24 Feb 10

Well, we had Zone Conference yesterday and received some startling yet exciting news... They're splitting our mission. As of July 1 the New Mexico Farmington Mission will be born. The missions it will effect are the Utah Provo Mission, a mission in New Mexico somewere, the Arizona Mesa, Tucson and Phoenix missions. Two of our Zones up north that cover Holbrook and Payson will go to the new mission. That means that the missionaries in those zones will also be a part of the new mission. Not speculating at all, but I have been in this area for 5 months. I'm due for a transfer. There is a good chance that I could be going up north. Now, not to be completely absurd and get everyone excited for what might happen, but Tyler (Hamberg from our Ward in the MTC now) is going to the Phoenix mission that is also being effected by this change. The Phoenix Mission is the one losing the most territory. So it could be possible that Tyler and I could be in the same mission as of July 1.

 

This is very exciting news. 1. the Church is growing significantly 2. The Arizona Mesa Mission will be the smallest mission in Arizona. Enough to hold its own. That means that we have been making extraordinary progress as a mission.

 

Elder Lemmon and I had a pretty good week. Nothing bad happened. Nothing amazing eather. We've been working hard to find new investigators and we've been receiving blessings as we've done so. But it seems we're on the down slope. We've learned each others weaknessess and have gotten to know each other a little more which makes it easier for us to excuse the other. But it's good because as we started out not knowing eachother and doing great as a companionship, how much more joy will it bring when we do know each other and do great.

 

I love the Book of Mormon. I know it's true. I know that we can be together forever as we apply it's teachings which is the hard part, at least for me.

 

TTI

 

Jacob

I had to ask Mike what TTI stood for. He says it's Teach, Testify, Inspire.....something they use in the mission.

Faith

Yes, I have been gone for quite a while. I almost forgot my password to into my Blog account! But Jacob has had a great experience I wanted to share.

Jacob had some dental issues last week and here is his side of the story.

Well, last Wednesday I had a dentist appointment at 8:30 am. Doctor Gills took one look at the upper right wisdom tooth and said, "That's going to have to come out. Today." I was happy to have it out 'cause it hurt to yawn, cough, spit, chew, suck, lick, gnaw etc., everything except talk. So he made a phone call to an Oral Surgeon who is a member, named Doctor Porter who said he could fit me in that very morning. On the way there I called Sister Bassett and informed her of the situation. She said she would have to make a few calls to Salt Lake and to Mom before they could operate. We get there and the secretary knew who we were and was poking fun at me for not getting my wisdom teeth out before my mission. I filled out the little forms and signed papers and they said they would do everything for free. They checked out the tooth ran through the procedure with me and said they were ready. I called Sister Bassett to get the okay and off we were to the operating room. Elder Lemmon was with me the whole time. They stuck me on some laughing gas (which didn't do anything) and gave me three shots of Novocain. Everything was numb. But when he finally pulled the sucker out, it hurt!!! They stuck a piece of gauze in my mouth and gave me my prescription and sent me off. We were in and out. The whole thing took about 10- 15 minutes. I called Sister Bassett and told her how it went and that I knew I could not cover the price for the prescriptions they gave me. (a narcotic, Ibuprofen, and Antibiotics) Elder Lemmon said he could cover the difference. The total was $50.07. We were in line to make the purchase and a lady in front of us noticed my lack of finances and asked for cash back and paid 40$ of it. She said "I'm not even a member of your church, but I know I need to help you because of what you do, and I need the blessings as well."

The whole thing cost me $10. 

I thought back to when we were in the Oral Surgeons office in Spokane and Mom was trying to decide a date to have the surgery to get all of my wisdom teeth out and the total cost was about $4,000. I didn't want to do it 'cause I don't like being put under (anesthesia), but I just felt like it wasn't supposed to happen. Dad was unemployed at the time and it would have put us in a very tight spot. I excused it as taking one for the family because I knew my wisdom teeth would cause me problems on my mission. And they have as each one has grown in. But now I see what blessings and a leap of faith it was. I didn't know I was taking a leap of faith. But I am very thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of my family and what is best for them.

The very first week with Elder Lemmon has gone by fast. The first couple days were tough 'cause I couldn't ride a bike thanks to the drugs. But we were able to have someone from each Ward pick us up and drive us around.

Our numbers have sky rocketed since we got back on our bikes. When I was with Elder Davenport we got about 13 TTI a day. Yesterday we got 54 TTI's!! And we found 3 new investigators! Insanity!! So it's been awesome.

I will defiantly pray more for my family and the struggles they are facing.

Love you all. Look forward to seeing what’s new in my family’s life next week.

TTI

Jacob

As a side note, we keep hearing from friends of friends, that Jacob has eaten in their home! That is cool for us, the LDS world is small and close! Love, Jenn =)

Jacob's Birthday

Happy birthday to me! And so is was! I got the package from home on Thursday and loved the pictures! We popped in the new Reflections of Christ CD and the Christmas one (We have a 5 disc changer in our car!) and loved it. I had one of the little blowers you sent me in my mouth all day long blowing it and yelling "It's my birthday!" Elder Davenport was pretty sick of it by the end of the day. The Avichucos came out with there grandson Brandon and took us to lunch. They got me an awesome pocket watch which is great because the watch I us to have I couldn't ware because the metal gave me a rash.

Nice going CV!!! Love. It. What is Richy going to be playing next year? Looking forward to seeing the shows a year and 5 months from now.

So funny story! President Bassett (Mission President) calls Elder Davenport and I on Wednesday and says "What's this I hear about you two watching Transformers 2?!"... And we're all "Ummmm... What?" I was thinking about saying "yeah, it was great President, you should see it" but I didn't. But seriously, had no idea what he was talking about. Then he says "I just got a call from someone that it's one of you Elders birthday and they said something about you going over to a part members house and watching it saying 'nobody will know.' That true" So here's how it went. This part member family I just met were watching Transformers 2 when we showed up to check up on them. We stayed at the door while they paused the movie and talked to us. I told them that my birthday was next week and they wanted to have a BBQ for me. (They are one of the most sarcastic families out there.) And we said, joking around, "oh yeah, we'll come over and share a few beers, watch Transformers 2, nobody will know" they laughed knowing we were kidding and we left. Well the wife shared the story with one of the members in the ward saying how she thought we were funny when we said that. And she told someone, and they told someone who called the Mission President Who called us to rip our guts out. I thought it was pretty funny, but there is a lesson from this ultimate game of telephone that we are constantly being evaluated in everything we do. It was a learning experience for me.

Exchanges are tonight. Elder Jenkins our district leader will be coming to our area and Elder Davenport will be going to his area. I hope I know the area well enough to make our day effective tomorrow.

Thanks for the pics I will look forward to seeing more as well as hearing your about your adventures on the mp3. Great Idea! Glad I thought of it! Ohhh. I'm proud of my humility aren't I.

Hakob

27 Oct 09

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR ELDER MORGAN !HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!



You know I think there’s been a few emails that say..."I’ll let Mallory tell you about that" or "That's Richy's story to tell." Ok. That's cool but... I'm not getting anything from them. But hey, if they are doing homework or reading their scriptures rather than writing me that's ok.

Alright, very exciting to hear CV's killer (marching band) season. Can't wait to hear about how they do against the top dogs in the Northwest this weekend. Oh so exciting.

You know I read the most amazing story on prayer in the Old Testament. Genesis 24. Pretty amazing if you ask me. Look at the servant of Abraham and how he praises God in this chapter. I think it's a very good example of giving thanks through our prayers.


Anyway, thanks again for all the prayer, and loves from y'all.


Elder Jacob Frank Morgan

21 Oct 09

I just realized that I forgot to post last weeks letter. I have been trying to get his birthday package put together and ready for the mail tomorrow. His birthday is on Friday, 30 Oct. He will be the big 2-0 ! Wow, I will have a 20-yo! Where does the time go........

"Congrats on the job! I'm excited to make more trips to Hawaii. It's a big thing in this mission. Missionaries play ukuleles and do Tongan dances a lot here. It's pretty cool.

Man! CV is tearing it up (Marching Band)! Yes that's what I like to here! WHOOT! Go Richy Rich.

We have a baptism this week. Yet another 18 year. His name is Jeff Simms. Don't think you could possibly get me the memory card by this Sat. So I can get pictures. It's ok if you don't. No big deal. (We found one on sale at Fred Myer's and FedEx'd him a new card. Zeke chomped on the one he mailed us and we are seeing if we can get anything off of it....YIKES!!)

The Avachucos are coming and taking Elder Davenport and I to dinner on my Birthday. They are such great people.

We had an excellent Zone Conference yesterday. Can I issue a challenge for my family? Next time you have the missionaries over ask them about role play. We do it all the time every week in district meeting. Ask them if you could do a role play on sharing the gospel with some of your friends. So think of someone you could talk to about the church and ask the missionaries to help you in inviting them to come unto Christ. The work we do as missionaries is finding. Teaching and Baptizing is just a side effect of finding. So the real work is finding. Will you do that? I know that when you do, the Lord will bless the lives of those you speak to as well as your own.

Anyway, That's all I got. Oh yeah Nastia Liukin’s (US gymnast) birthday is coming up. Oh Wait it's my birthday too!!!

Luv ya,

Jacob"

and a letter for mom:

"Hey yesterday was Zone Conference so today is P-day

I'm glad you enjoyed getting my letter and it's totally fine that my card was lost. I have a new plan. So Elder Davenport got a CD from a couple friends at home and they recorded their letter on it. And we listened to it in the car. So I thought of a better idea. I got this 1 GB mp3 player that has voice recording and plugs right into the computer. I'll record a "letter" and send it to you. You can plug it into your computer take the files off, listen to them and record your own letter. You can have friends or/and family record things and then you can send it off to me. Every time I do email I can take the files off (after I listen to them.) and record my responses and send them off again. You would have to remember to take the files off every time though. So it would take less time then writing a letter and people could say whats going on instead of taking time out of there day to write a letter. But of course this doesn't mean you can't send me letters on paper. ( sounds complicated to me....)

You know I think you should take the kids to Huhut! By the way (trunky comment) when I get back that's the first place we're going. They don't have one here! (celebration dinner for Mike getting a new job!)

My study lately has been the Old Testament. Manly Genesis. There are some awesome stories in Genesis. Some messed up ones too. But there is a book I want to read that one of our Ward Mission Leaders has. It's called Life Everlasting. Amazing book. Talks about the Spirit world and visions prophets have had. The stories that he was telling me just strangthend my testimony. My main study that I'm trying to understand is Jacobs Ladder in Genesis 26 I think. I got some of it but I can't figure out what the rest of it means.

Love you too!

Jacob

He sounds good, doesn't he? We were just talking tonight about how it's been 7 months, but seems like a year......love and miss him. Thanks for keeping interested in what he is doing. Love, Jenn =)

13 Oct 09

Well it has been a great first week in my second area. Elder D and I get along great and we have become very good friends. We were good friends even before this transfer. Our personalities and teaching styles mesh great. He's been out a little under a year. He's from Rexburg but went to college in Seattle, and loves Washington. So automatic brownie points for me, he says.

But, man... you should see some of these houses up here. They are absolutely beautiful!! We ate dinner at a member’s house, or should I say mansion, and it was so awesome! I met the founder of Cold Stone the other day. Yep Cold Stone ice cream. He's a member of the church. He's in one of our wards. Donny Sutherland. We're teaching his Mom and sister who both have baptismal dates for later this month.

I got to go to a baptism of one of the people I was teaching in my last area. Elder H and I were the first missionaries to teach him. He is great. We watched him change his life around in 3 whole months. He stopped smoking in 4 days. 4!! He is a man of very few words but when he speaks he says the right words. He is also a very.... large... man. (he took up 3 chairs) It took 2 very tall very buff men to baptize him. His jump suit wouldn't even zip up all the way. They had to angle him diagonally to get him under the water. It took a while to get him positioned with some verbal help and opinions from the congregation and it was the first baptism I've been to where everyone clapped once the ordinance was preformed. It was great. We brought and Investigator named T from our area who has a baptismal date too and she loved it and can't wait to be baptized.

So, yeah, T. Remember Donny Sutherland, the founder of Cold Stone? His daughter was sent to prison for DUI where a fatality was involved (which is a entirely different story and a blessing in itself that she got 4 years instead of life). She met T in prison and they became great friends. T's time was up and she had absolutely nothing and no one to go back to. She went to church in prison and basically told God that she was putting her life in his hands and directly after that service the daughter came to her and said "My mom is going to pick you up." And she did. They gave her an apartment to live in and bought her groceries. It was truly a miracle. And that was 3 weeks ago. The Sutherland's are a great family. Almost all our work in that ward is thanks to them.

Heck. Yes! Way to live up to the Central Valley Bears Awesome Title!! I can't wait to hear about next week’s (marching band) results. I want to know how Evergreen is doing this year. Do we have a chance to beat them?

That is so awesome Elder Bednar is coming to our Stake Center! I want you to tell me all about it. You got it?

There’s a less active member who goes scuba diving in the Salt River and picks up thousands of sunglasses that people drop in there when they go on float trips and he gave me these $125 sunglasses that are awesome except I can't wear them because I don't have contacts soooo... some contacts would be a nice birthday present if possible. And it's not that I want them just for the sunglasses, its because it's Arizona and my eyes are dying and shriveling up from the sun.

So yeah, the work here is great. Amazing members here, really awesome. And I can't wait for the progress to explode in this area.

Love Jacob

Jacob's birthday is on the 30th, right before Halloween, so if you want to send him Birthday wishes, get them ready. Love, Jenn =)

06 Oct 09

I'VE BEEN TRANSFERED!!!! Finally! I'm in a car! And our apartment is huge! I'm in Las Sendas. I went from the poorest of the poor to the richest of the rich. My new companion is Elder Davenport from Rexburg Idaho. Which is awesome 'cause he was in my district for my first three transfers out and been on a few exchanges with him. He is great, very down to earth without being in the world. I'm going to miss my “greeny” area.


Dad, have you been to the Phoenix airport before? Did you ever make it outside? Oh wait it was only 87 degrees yesterday so...

Well that’s awesome that CV made second. So they didn't get to play in Finals? Since when does the rain stop CV?

Ah, General Conference. Sooooooooooooo good. My favorite talk is probably Elder Bednar’s talk on hypocrisy and Elder Holland’s talk on the Book of Mormon. He looked torqued during that one. And President Monson’s on service. It was a great Conference.

Elder Erickson went home today. He is my idle. I know, I know the 2nd commandment. But he was amazing.

I'll send my video card home tomorrow with all my pictures and videos.

Birthday presents. My light board would be really nice. The Avichucos are getting me a pocket watch. My Zune has been acting up lately but it still works fine. It's not necessary for my salvation. As I think of them I'll write them down and let you know next week.

I love you all and look forward to talking with you next week.

Elder Jacob Frank Morgan

He sounds so up beat today! Makes my heart sing.....Love, Jenn =)