27 Apr 10

All right, we had an ok week. Our TTI's were low but our lessons were great. We're running low on miles though. We're only given 1000 miles for the month and we have practically used them all up. We can only go about 20 miles a day now till Friday. We've already spent a few days on bikes so we'll be using them over the next couple days..... in Phoenix!! (I saw that it was going to be 93 today in Mesa, 70's the rest of the week, with storms on the weekend)

 

I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday (my 5th one on my mission.) and it was great. It was about Preach My Gospel and the missionary work in the Ward. We are the only companionship in the Zone that covers more then one Ward. And they both need help with missionary work. This past month has been scarce on dinners but next month looks like it's filled up nicely. The member support varries between wards.

 

My interview with President Bassett was yesterday. It was probubly one of the best interviews I've had. He helped me figure out what to say to people when they say "we don't need another book (Book of Mormon)" His coucel was great. I love that man. He is deffanently going somewere.

 

I had to help Elder Johnson out with a purchase last week so when my account gets unlocked and you see a few dollers missing, don't worry 'cuse he's paying me back.

 

Thats all I have for you this week. TTI

 

Jacob

20 April 10

....the Phoenix Zone (where Jacob is currently serving) is actually made up of more Spanish companionships then English. We see the Spanish missionaries all the time. The Culture of the mission is great and it's always great to see other missionaries at the same apartment complex ministering to the Spanish people. It definitely strengthens me during my hard times. (There is a young man in our ward that was just called to Jacob's Mission, speaking Spanish. Just before Jacob left, we had boundary changes and mix-ups all over the Stake, so he is not familiar with the family. He would totally recognize them though, he's not connecting the dots!)

 

I'm pretty sure I'm staying in the Arizona Mesa mission. Only the Winslow and Holbrook Stakes are going to the New Mexico mission and I'm in the Phoenix East Stake and it's most likely that I will stay here.

 

We had a pretty awesome lesson yesterday with 2 of our investigators. They had broken the news to us that they plan on being married May 1st. Which is great (we hadn't even taught the law of Chastity yet) and we moved on to teach the Plan of Salvation. At the end I felt prompted to tack a mormon.org card which has the Salt Lake Temple on it and teach eternal marriage. So I did. Afterward, Aaron, the husband asked us, "How do we do that? We want to do that. We want to be married in the Temple" We told them that it's not impossible and everyone can be married in the Temple. We have to prepare ourselves to enter the Temple because it is the House of God. And we need to be Baptised by proper authority. They said "I don't care if I need to be baptized again we will do what ever we can to be married there! " Why can't we all be like Aaron and Evett? Where we try and do our best to be together with the ones we love? Why is it so hard? Because it was hard for Him.

 

We went to the Temple this morning and had a great session and thought a lot about Aaron and Evett as I was there..........."

 

TTI

 

Yacoob

I thought for the last part of his Mission, I would add the Spiritual Thought that Mike puts into his letter to Jacob, they are always good. Love, Jenn =)

We know that opposition will be for our experience in the end, for all of us, if we can stay focused here and now. In the words of Lloyd Newell of Music and the Spoken Word, “…who among us has not faced a challenge or difficulty with some uncertainty or misgiving? Are we strong enough, wise enough, brave enough to carry on? It’s been said that old age is not for the weak, but neither is it for the young or the middle aged. Whatever you face right now, remember that you have faced other problems and made it past them, gone through trials before and come out stronger on the other side. You’ve learned and grown and now you have the wisdom that comes of experience…and what you’ve witnessed your whole life is courage and strength and faith, and none of it was acquired in a day, a month or a year. It comes little by little, over time…”

04 Apr 10

Earthquake? I have no idea what you're talking about. (This is what happens when he doesn't watch the news. We had other friends in Mesa who felt the earthquake in Baja, so when we asked Jacob in his letter, this was his response) 

Well, I hope Tyler realizes that each of us are missionaries no matter if we serve for 2 years or not. The Lord still loves him and Tyler obviously has a desire to serve, so like the Lord has promised he is called to the work. (One of his friends came home from the MTC) 

I loved the package. Thank you everyone who sent a picture. It was SWEET! The first thing I said after viewing all the pictures was. "HOLY CRAP!! MY FAMILY IS HUGE!!!!" Seriously! Your all enormous! Becca is... pretty? I can't believe I just called my own sister pretty. And Richy is like a Kenyan in China!!!

So why does Brianna have such a long engagement? How did they meet? Who is he? Where is he from? You can't just do this to me! (His cousin got engaged. I thought she had sent him the info, but I guess not. I will fill him in) 

So the Easter Pageant was this last week .I missed it last year 'cuse I was in the MTC but I got to see it this year. As missionaries we got to "work it", meaning we got to go around the audience and ask people if they would like to learn more. We just talked to another guy this morning who saw the Easter Pageant (play on Christ's last week) and he was very touched by it though he couldn't be sealed with his wife who is a member, after she died. We told him there's a process so that everyone is invited to attend the Temple, you just have to make certain promises (baptism). He was very interested and wanted to learn more.

 And guess who I ran into at the Pageant? .....................................................Hillary Lake (Jenna Demars' daughter, they were in high school together, she was his senior prom date)! Yup. We got our picture taken together. I was talking to this guy and all of a sudden Sister Lake comes up and smiles at me and say's "Hi, Elder Morgan (without looking at my name tag)" I stared at her for a second, recognizing her from somewhere but couldn't remember where. And then I remembered. " ...say hello to Hillary" and she pointed behind me and she came walking down the sidewalk and we were both speechless. Wierdest/ Best story of my mission next to Tesha. 

Speaking of General Conference, talk about calling down the powers of Heaven! It was amazing. Was General Conference this awesome before I came on my mission or is it just because it's the Last Days? I don't have my notes on me to talk about specifics but I love those men. I've decided that my favorite speaker is President Uchtdorf. He is my favorite.  

Then after that we had Zone Conference on Monday. Great stuff. President Bassett is going to be anoucned in the next conference as a new General Authority, he's so awesome. (That is not quite how it works, just shows how much Jacob admires his Mission President)

 TTI

 Elder Morgan

24 Mar 10

I'm now in the Phoenix Zone. My new companion is Elder Johnson from Bountiful UT. He's been out for about 14 months. I'm in a car now. So it's exciting stuff.

I did get the homemade cookie cake. It was very good. Thank you. (My Visiting Teacher was visiting her son in Mesa. She and her grandkids made a giant cookie, decorated it and left it on his doorstep. She is the best!!)

Now I'm emailing from a Library now which means I have limited time, about an hour. So I won't have as much time to chat as I have before. But I would still love to do so. 

Not much to report this week as I have only been in the area for a day. But I'm sure I'll have an amazing missionary story for you next week. 

Elder Johnson is a really cool missionary. I'm excited to work with him.

Elder Morgan

Such a kid of few words this week. Love Jenn =)

16 Mar 10

Well we had an amazing Zone Development Meeting yesterday. I had an interview with President Bassett and it was awesome. That man is definitely going to be the next Apostle.

We've had probably the worst week ever on our mission’s numbers this past week. All our lessons fell through and nobody would answer the door. But then we had the best day ever yesterday. We found a new investigator and taught a lady that's going to get baptized this week.

Her name is Kim and she has an 8 year old daughter named Ashlyn and they are both getting baptized on Saturday at 3. She is awesome. She will be the fastest person to get baptized after finding her. 5 weeks it took her. And she's ready.

Today we're having lunch with the Avichucos! Yeay! This past transfer Elder Hoopes came down from Heber and is serving in the area next to us so Rayleen Avichuco called on Sunday and said it's time for a Family Reunion! SO we're meeting at Jack-in-the-Box and they’re bringing their son, Brother Taylor (the ward mission leader) and their missionaries. So it's going to be an awesome day.

We turned Mandi and Mike over to the ward since they weren't keeping their commitments. I had a hard time doing that. They have become my friends and I had a hard time telling them that there’s other people out there that are willing to keep the commitments we were leaving with them. But that doesn't mean that we would stop coming by. I talked with President Bassett about that and he told me the difference between being bold and overbearing is love. "If they know you love them then you can say whatever you want to them." he said. And that's something I've always struggled with is knowing how to drop investigators. Because I really do love them and I think they do benefit from our lessons.

Anyway, transfers are this week. I'll let you know what's going on.

Love you all. TTI

Jacob

09 Mar 10

Well, this has been a very Spiritual week. We have had wonderful blessings given to use this week.

We had Stake Conference this past Sunday. Where President Jensen (2nd counselor) talked on "the real world" and how we should not let these electronic devices distract from the Spirit. President Lambert (1st counselor) talked on Testimonies and how we as members of the church can know if we have a testimony. And President Whimmpy (Stake President) on Happiness. I loved Conference. Because Scooter, who was baptized on Jan. 9, was invited by President Lambert to share his testimony to the entire Stake, which were spread between 2 buildings. His testimony was so pure and simple my heart broke. I am so proud of him and his brother Tee-tye. They are so smart and are excited to be missionaries. They call us their best friends. And I can see the love they have for us when we come and visit. They run out the door excited to shake our hand with our own secret handshakes. They are awesome.

After Stake Conference we went to a Mission Presidents Fireside. That's were Recent Converts share there testimonies and conversion stories and at the end President and Sister Bassett share there testimonies as well. I had never been to one before. And let me tell you, President Bassett is very likely to become a General Authority. He is only 42 and he has been a Bishop, Stake President and Mission President. Just like President Monson.

We got a call from Sister Livingston in the Mission Office. She said that there was a baby in the Falcon Hill ward that needed a blessing as soon as possible. She gave us the address and the name of the mother. We had a scheduled appointment that we would be late, too. We found the apartment in a very confusing complex pretty fast. We knocked on the door and a young women answered. She looked at us and looked back and said "Oh, I didn't know if you were coming. My mom said she called the missionaries but... never mind, thank you for coming. You can come in." We stepped in while she disappeared into another room to change out of her jammies. The baby was laying on his stomach, sleeping on the couch. He was very tiny. Mom came back with some masks for us to ware and said it was doctors orders. She said the baby was 4 weeks old and she had spent the past 3 weeks going to and from the hospital. She told us that he was sick with something I had never heard before. We figured she was less-active because of clues from what she was wearing and from other things around the house. We told her to hold the baby while we gave the blessing. Elder Lemmon anointed and I sealed and blessed. As soon as my hands touched his tiny head, the Spirit took over my body and opened my mouth. I could see Heavenly Fathers love for this young baby. I thought I could feel what he would go through in his life. I'm not sure what it was but I know that at that time I wanted that child to heal and have the chance to live his life as I have. I know God loved all 4 of us in that room equally enough as he loved Joseph Smith to answer his question. Because of that, he will answer our questions.

Time is short and it's time to go. talk to you next week. Love you all. TTI

Jacob

3 Mar 10

Well, it didn't seem like it till the end but it has been a very long week. We had Zone Conference, then we went on exchanges, then I had bike trouble (cool story) then we had a long lesson on Saturday that we ended up milking a baptism date out of, then Sunday which is all ready long with four sacrament meetings to go to. Just long.

So with all the rain my bike got all the grease washed out of the crank and it was making this horrible squeek, you know the kind that not only get to your ears but somehow the sound waves travel through the canals in your ears and down the spinal cord to, anyway it was just unpleasant. So I got some tools and tried to grease up the crank as best as I could, put it back together and it sounded great, meaning silent. So we continued that night on our bikes and I just got a lot of resistance. So fearing I broke something I called up John Delp (the one guy who gave me the bike.) to come and fix it. He came and it was good seeing him from my last area. He's been on probation for 2 years so he can't get baptized but he told me then that the missionaries set a date for him. His last day on probation is September 13. He's getting baptized September 14. I told him I would do my best to be there. 

Apparently I had destroyed the ball bearings in the bike. He got new ones and installed it for free. I love that man. I'll take you to meet him once you come and pick me up, Dad. 

We set a baptismal date for a girl named Kim Christmas. March 20^th. 

Kinda short on time today but love you all and TTI

Jacob