Letter Dated March 8, 2013

Hola!

So this week has been pretty good! we got to go to two really good devotionals plus a good mission confrence!  The tuesday devotional was my favorite, it was Elder Aidukaitis of the seventy. He was very animated and funny! He focused on the kingdoms of glory and the fact that we can choose what kingdom we go to. If we make a decision as to which kingdom we want to go to, our actions will reflect that choice. Pretty cool the way he worded it. The rest of the week was pretty good! we said goodbye to one of our favorite districts, which was kinda hard, but in two weeks, we'll be the ones going away. But the rest of the week we just had normal classes, we're learning a lot more about the conversion process and what it takes to convert someone. Also we're working on our teaching skills which are improving. A lot! My spanish is coming along pretty good! I know so much more than when i first got here! its pretty cool! So i'm sending a couple of pictures, hopefully they work. One is an elder who is in the army as well, we hit it off immediately! The other is an elder from Springville. Elder Britt, he's the funniest guy i've ever met! And the one of a spoon is a game we play, where we try to sneak spoons into peoples pockets, bags, and clothes without them knowing! it's way fun! And i'm going to try to send of a video of our zone singing god be with you till we meet again in spanish. "para siempre dios este con vos" I think that a lot of times songs and scriptures in spanish are ten times more beautiful than in english. Keep sending me letters! I love hearing from everyone! Oh and Hermana Romero says hi. I know you don't know her, but she told me to say it. 

Love,     Elder Morgan

P.s. 
Send this to anyone i may have missed, which is a lot of people!

Letter Dated March 1, 2013

Luke Wrote,

Hola!
So i'm almost done with week 3! It's been pretty good! I have been learning a lot, having a lot of fun, and had a few cool experiences!  

On sunday we had a fireside, the director of the missionary department of the church came. It was pretty sweet! He spoke a lot on working hard, and staying faithful. After the Sunday firesides we get to watch a movie. This week was the testaments. Truly an awesome movie. I didn't cry. Not never. That just doesn't happen. 

Monday we got two new investigators. Noemi and Ignacio (nacho). Who are really our teachers. I'm pretty sure they suffer from multiple personality disorder. 

Tuesday we just had class and stuff, then in the evening I went to choir practice so i could get a good seat for the devotional. During practice a bunch of security people went and cleared the whole building for  bombs and stuff. So we were pretty sure whoever it was would be a big deal. (My companion said it was gonna be Jesus.) 

But the room filled up, people started to begin sitting on the stand, then all at once, every person in the whole room stood up. I look over at the doors and M. Russell Ballard is walking in. Pretty sweet! We sung consider the lillies. It was pretty cool. 

Elder Ballard spoke a lot on missionary work, the influx of missionaries, and the power and authority that we have as missionaries. He said that he wishes he could show us the power and glory of Jesus Christ. It was a really impressive talk. 

Wednesday was fairly uneventful. Besides the fact that I got to see the one and only Chase Wilson! It was pretty cool. We saw eachother. Then everything started going in slow motion, dramatic music started playing, and we ran towards each other. Or maybe i just ran into him in the lunch room. That would be true too. 

So, we get kinda bored in the residences at night. Last night we played an epic game of nerf gun hide and go seek/ capture the flag/ tag. It was awesome. My knees are now all skinned up. It's bad.

So today i get to go to the temple. I love going there!

My district is pretty fun! We have 6 Elders, and 6 Hermanas. we have a lot of fun! We're like a tight little family. And we even focus and learn every now and then.

So chances are I will get reassigned. I'll just be sent to a mission in the states for a little while. Hopefully Huston Texas! Whatever mission Tanner is in!

So I hope everyone has a good week, I really wanna hear from you all!

Elder Morgan

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Letter From Luke Dated February 22, 2013

Luke wrote,

So i've been in like 7 days now. and it feels like 7 months. I don't know why it feels so long. But it just does for some reason. My first investigator's name was Marley. However, she turned out to be one of my teachers. So it was kinda weird. The best lessons i taught were complete tangents from where we planned to go, primarily guided by the spirit. Pretty cool. So I was reading in 2 nephi 25 or 26, i cant remember which one. And it just hit me how accurately Nephi prophesied the coming of the lord, how his life would go, how he would die, and when he would come over to the americas. That's pretty cool!

So on wednesday i was able to watch people get dropped off by their families. It was a little bittersweet. When you dropped me off, it was so surreal that that would be the last time i see you for two years. Crazy. But i'm loving this place, My district is awesome! We have 6 elders y 6 Hermanas. We're all so spirited and have a great time, and work really really hard. It's pretty fun.
 
Send food and candy. haha. 

So ties are like currency here. Every night we have tie trades, and it gets pretty crazy. Ugly ties and paisley ties are the biggest items. haha
Send letters.Dearelder.com is the way to go from what everyone says. I can only get email once a week, but letters come every day.
Love,
Luke

sept 8

Hey Mom
How's everything goin back home? I think I wanna come spend some time up there when I get back.  Even if it's for a few days.
So today is our combative test.  Pretty much we go into this shoot house like we're going to clear it.  The drill Sgt act like enemies and will attack you.  One got my battle buddy, so I cleared my sector of fire then jumped on the drill Sgt.  I choked the drill Sgt till they let go.  then threw them to the ground.  Then jumped on top of them and pinned them down till my battle buddy was able to detain them.  It was so much fun!!!!!
Before this my drill Sgt told us that he wanted us to be extremely violent.  He even told us he wanted us to "accidentally" break/bruise some drill sgts's ribs.
I'm learning alot here I learned that the dairy shakes in the MRE are actually just a very strong laxative.  I've also learned that everyone gets skittles in their MRE at least once.  Except ME.  I never get skittles.  I might get a phone call in the next few days.  It all depends if first Sgt. thought our barracks looked alright. 
One of my battle buddies was called in by our captain and command Sgt. major.  The red cross had called and told them that his wife had their baby, then he died just a few minutes later.  We all feel horrible about it.  He's  probably going home to Puerto Rico now.  He's keeping his head up though.
The mail is weird here. Sometimes we'll get it everyday.  Sometimes not for 2 weeks.  We're going on almost a week now.  It sucks!!!
So next week we have the night infiltration course.  It's this big mission that has a whole battalion working on it.  At one point they're going to shoot live .50 caliber rounds at us.  It's gonna be sweet.. We have to crawl through razor wire and all that stuff.  It'll be pretty cool.  But we won't get done till like 3 am.  We won't get any  sleep that night. After that we have a 3 day field training then we're done!
love ya
Luke
ps
I've been sick for like 3 weeks with that same chest thing I always get.  But I don't wanna go to sick call.  so my medicine is a ton or oranges and cough drops.  It's just awesome.

8-19

Hey mom,
I didn't even know you were going back to Utah at all.  sounds like you had tons of fun reading your letter makes me wish I coulda been there. I really appreciate you helping me with my room.  When you come out to my graduation could you bring my camera.  Also, I'm going to have keynan and tahsha look for me a laptop.  Probably, I'm gonna need something to entertain me during AIT All my battle buddies are gonna be out drinking on the weekend and the army is looking for reasons to kick people out. So I'm no going to give them one.  People already don't take this seriously. Like right now, we're all sitting in a room, and all the Privates are impersonation the Drill Sgt's. Laughing and giggling.  Even a drill is in here and laughing.,  There is like no military bearing (?) in here. I mean it's funny and all, but it's not appropriate.  Oh well, I'm just keeping my mouth shut and sittin here. So I hope everything is going good back home.
Love Luke.
ps.  could you send me deodorant and gold bond powder and cough drops and stamps.

8-31
Hey mom,
Just got your letter . sounds like you're having a lot of fun with Leah!
Love the stamps! Thank you so much.  I dunno what I want for my birthday.  Maybe like some kinda gift card? I dunno.  It sucks you won't be here to go to church with me. I can go off the 28th and hang hout. 
Qualified BRM the other day.  Just got off FTX 2 ( field training exercise) I's a 2  day exercise .  It poured the whole time .  And I got put in as PG after two other people got fired.  Then I got fired,  nobody really know why.  Oh well, I didn't like it too much anyways.
ps
a letter was sent out to dad with detailed graduation info.


9-10
Hey mom,
I'm doing pretty good here.  Everything is routine now.  Even when I don't do PT in the morning it feels weird.  I need to keep my PT up when I get home.  I hope Zane or Kolton or someone will work with me.  Talk to Zane on Facebook tell him I miss him and wish he was here and can't wait  to see him and everyone whin I get back.  I have a picture of me zane and Derick at graduation hanging in my wall locker I love it. 
I wish you could come to my barracks for one day and see what it's like. You would see the high quality living accommodations I have here.  NOT.  My barracks were built in about the 60's.  They're not the greatest.
So Ive learned that laundry has to be an ongoing steady thing.  I do a load like every other day .  And I have to fight for a washer.  We have to share 4 washers between 42 people.  The other platoons only have 2 washers for about 42 people. 
So I got to shoot an M$ with night vision and an IR Laser.  So pretty much it's completely dark outside and looking through the night vision you can see absolutely everything.  It's the coolest thing ever.
So we traded this dirtbag Private for a really annoying Private.  I dunno quite how I feel about it yet.  But, I really hated the dirtbag.  He didn't have respect for anyone, not his peers, not drill sgt's , not even our captian.  and he really didn't respect women,  That made me mad.  But the drill sgt's hated him too.  so they made his life hell.
So pretty much I have 1 more week of training.  Then one week in the field. Then graduation.  It's getting so close.  I saw another company start up the other day.  It was crazy to think I've come so far.
love you
Luke

Luke's Letter dated 03 Sept 2012

Hey Everyone, 

So today is Labor Day.  We've had it pretty easy.  We got to  to sleep in till 5:30.  Then went straight to chow.  Then we got to have just a little free time.  We cleaned the barracks, cleaned weapons, I read my scriptures, and took a nap on top of the washing machine.  We're safe from the D.S. when we're in the latrine.  

We had some good hard P.T. Afterward our D.S. told us to lay down on the floor in our rooms for 20 minutes.  It was crazy!  This kinda stuff never happens!

I'm getting really close to being done.  I only have some advanced rifle marksmanship, Urban OPS, combatives drill, ceremony competition, and a 4 day field training exercise left.  

It sounds like a lot, but it's gonna fly by.  I've only got 23 days left.  It's going by so fast!

I can't wait to see you all again. 

Luke

Luke's Letter Dated 27 Aug 2012

Hey Everyone, 

So today we have 1 month left!  It's hard to believe I've already been here that long.  Time flies!  

It seems like just yesterday I was leaving home.  Although I'm doing really good here, I miss home.  I miss my family, I miss my friends, I miss work, I miss the mountains, and I miss music!  We sing cadence while we march.  But it's just not the same as real music.  Some of the cadences are a ton of fun though!  When we get all 197 of us in the company sounding off together it sounds pretty sweet.  

But I'm also really happy I have the opportunity to be here, to learn new things, to help people to become a better person and to serve my country.  

I got made a squad leader today.  Basically I'm responsible for 18 people in my platoon.  I have to know where they are at all times and work out any problems they may have.  I have 2 team leaders to help me out with that but it's still a lot of work.  I also have to eat last.  Which really sucks.  I usually have 2-3 minutes to et. 

Can't wait to see you all. 

Luke