25 May 10

It's starting to get warm here. We hit 100 last week and school is out in Arizona. We had a pretty good week. Our entire district has 3 transfers or less left except the District Leader and me who came out at the same time. So last week, by Friday our TTI's were the worst they've been in my entire mission, so we called Elder Geilmen and he had about 12 for the week. SO we made a little wager. Whoever got the most TTI's on Saturday gets to buy the other companionship a 75 cent fountain drink at the QT. So we ended up with 71 TTI's and they had 57. That is the most I've ever gotten in one day. It's not the proper motivation to TTI, but we have gotten a lot of potential Investigators because of it. So our final talley for the week was 83 TTI's which is still not so good. But we taught a ton of Investigator lessons. 21 total! And we've started off great this week with 29 TTI’s, 3 lessons and 1 new Investigator for Monday. 

We also had a great experience. One of our Investigators, Kenny, is having a hard time letting his pastor know that he is meeting with us and is considering joining the Mormon church, but he doesn't know if it's worth losing his friendship because he doesn't know if the church is true yet. He has been reading and is understanding everything. So we read 2 Nephi 33 with him, and after that he closed the book looked at it for 2 min and said "It's true. I have to do it." We literally watched a man gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It was been the single most spiritual moment of my mission. We're planning on setting a date with him next time.

Short on time again.

Love you all,

Elder Jacob

18 May 10

Good morning family and friends. It's looking to be a hot week here in the AZ. Last night was a long night as Elder Geilmen and Alcontara came and spent the night. Elder Geilmen and Elder Forkner have been friends their entire missions and since Elder Geilmen is going home in 3 weeks and Elder Forkner is going home in 9, they seem to want to spend every waking moment together. Geilmen and Alcontara cover the Spanish work in our area and are on bikes so we see them all the time. 

So we had a great week last week. All our numbers were great except TTI's. We found 8 new investigators and taught 14 investigator lessons. Combined with our less active and member lessons we got a total of 20 lessons last week which is exactly what Elder Parry has set for weekly goals. But we only talked to 64 people so our TTI's have been a little short, but the whole point of TTI'ing is to find new investigators. The mission standard for New Investigators is 4 a week. And we doubled that, but that dosen't mean we don't have to TTI. It's not the most effective way to find but it is effective. One of our new investigatores last week came from a member who talked to her friend at school and we're pretty sure she asked her if she wanted to get baptised, and here she is learning more about modern day revelation and the restored church. 

It dosen't take much just a little prayer and faith so we can help those who don't know they're looking for it. We know were the gate is. Lets help those them find it, so they too can be happy along with us. It's the best feeling ever to see someone progress in life. It's an even better feeling to see someone progress in the gospel.

TTI

Love

Elder Morgan

11 May 10

We had a great 79 minute conversation with him Sunday night. He's doing as well as he sounds in his emails. He mentioned that he'd been studying Cleon Skousen and some deeper church doctrine and so when I wrote him today I cautioned him to be careful and not stray too far from the first principles and ordinances of the gospel, Faith, Repentance, Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost... (Mike)

"Thanks for the concern. You know what they say "If the church wasn't true the missionaries would have figured it out a long time ago. Actually these studies (which haven't been part of my morning studies) have helped me find answers to peoples questions and prepare answers to frequently asked questions that have helped others draw closer to Christ. But you are correct there have been Bishops, Stake Presidents and General Authorities that have lost there testimonies because of something they weren't prepared to hear or couldn't fully understand or just wasn't true. 

There was a guy in my last area who, on his mission, was called to look up all the anti material and find out how to defend using scriptures and talks by Apostles. He's a great guy, Bro Lowry was. I learned alot from him when we had an investigator who just wouldn't except the Book of Mormon and the investigator left us a little depressed and angry after many hours of arguing and trying to prove one thing against the other, but Bro. Lowry helped put us back in good spirits again. I know this Church is the absolute manifestation of the church Christ set up and no paper, salamander or stockmarket statistic can persuade me otherwise. Because all I need is Christ. 

Well, after you asked me if I had any bad times on my mission and I said I can't really think of any (I have a hard time coming up with memories on the spot, good or bad.) I've been really dehydrated the past few weeks but that is easily fixable. It's something I talked to President about and he told me to keep up the good spirits. I have had a few sick days on my mission. Those were probably the 3 worst days of my mission (next to exchanges with Elder Jenkins). 

But I tell you there is no better feeling as a missionary then to know you're working hard. Its hard to work hard. But hey, salvation is never easy, especially if you're working on other people's salvation too. 

Love you all, Happy 19th and 15th Birthday middle kids! 

TTI 

Jacob

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 =)