Letter from Luke dated 04-22-13

Hey!

So this week has gone by so fast! On tuesday we had a referral competition which was really fun, and we got a bunch of referrals. Even a few Golden ones. On thursday we went to Temple Square with a family. It was a really awesome experience! We watched the "God's Plan For Families" Presentation. Not gonna lie, I cried a little at the end. But this family really enjoyed the experience, and they are really coming to love the church! On friday night we went on splits with the Assistants to the President. My companion and I were down in the Young Single Adult area in Salt Lake. We didn't know that we were going to temple square, so we didn't bring our suits. So we both felt like super out of place just wearing the white shirts! But it was still good! Then we went to a YSA comedy night. The comedians were awesome! One of them had his bishop there, which was absolutely hilarious! We have a couple people who should be getting Baptized next week! I'm really excited for them! 

One thing I learned this week is that if I just make my mind shut up, and really focus on listening to the person we're teaching, the words to say can be given to me. It says many times in the scriptures that the words will be given to you in the very moment. I have a testimony of that! It's so cool to see the spirit work on people through me, and through other missionaries.

Sorry for the short letter. The computers weren't working. So I didn't have too much time today!

I Love You All!!

Elder Luke Morgan

Luke's Letter Dated 04-15-2013

Hey everyone!

So this week has been pretty sweet! Last Tuesday we went down to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to meet with the Argentine consulate. The consul from Argentina spent about half an hour talking about the country, culture, customs, and answering questions. I learned a lot about Argentina, which was really good!  Then he called us up one by one, looked over our paperwork with our fingerprints and everything, had us sign the application, then he signed it. A little uneventful, but not too bad! He said that it should be about 6 more weeks before we get our visas. There's about 20 of us here in this mission waiting to go to Argentina, so we're all really excited about all this!

The rest of the week went pretty good! We have split our area up between four of us, but only one my companion and I have the car. So the other two elders have the area close to our house, which is where the concentration of the hispanic community is up here, And we have all of farmington, fruit heights, and most of kaysville. As you could imagine, there's not too many hispanic people all through these areas, so we're working hard trying to find people!

Elder Thevenin and I taught the Elders  quorum in a ward in Kaysville. With the talks given in General Conference a lot of people have been getting excited about Missionary work. So we just taught them about how members can help with the work. Working here in Utah is an interesting experience. There's 200 missionaries in this mission, and 300,000 members. Which makes the work of finding really fall upon the members. I really look forward to using my experiences in how the members can help the work when I get to Argentina.  

As far as investigators, we have a couple families that we're working with. Two of them have marriage that they need to get taken care of before they can be baptized. One is working on citizenship papers, and the other needs to get their divorces finalized before they can be married. We're working with a few other people, getting them ready for baptism. I'm loving all this! I get to play a part in the lord changing people's lives! 

I got to go to the Salt Lake Temple today!!! This was my first time going through a session there. What an awesome experience!! I really love going to the temple! It always makes me feel so peaceful and good!

I love you all!! Thank you for everything you all do for me!

--Elder Luke Morgan

Letter From Luke 04/08/13

Hey everyone!

So this week has been really really good. It's been spring break up here, so a lot of families have been out of town. But we still found people to teach and help! 

One of the days this week My companion, who is a zone leader, had to conduct a baptismal interview. So I went on transfers with another elder for a night. It was pretty cool to be able to go out and teach someone who i had never met before. The family we taught was so receptive, and loved to learn about the gospel.  We've got two families who we are teaching, both of them are super solid. One of them is going to get married here pretty soon, then will get baptized. The other, we originally were teaching the 18 year old boy, Moises. But after coming by a few times, his parents started wanting to listen to us. They're all on date to be baptized later this month. It's really cool to see how the lord has prepared people to receive this gospel. With some people, we really only have to ask them to be baptized, and they accept.  

With General Conference being this weekend, we really wanted to find tickets so our investigators could go. This was fairly difficult. We called everyone we could think of. Finally we came up with a few tickets to give to a family. As conference came closer, we got calls from stake presidents, saying that they had tickets for us. Friday night we were planning how to use our tickets, and we were able to bring our investigators to every session except the two Sunday sessions. We were so excited! For the priesthood session, we wanted to invite one of our investigators, Moises. When we talked to him about it, he said that he wasn't going to be able to come with us because he had to go make a baseball video for his application to some colleges.  We were super bummed out. We really wanted him to be able to go.  Our appointment to watch the Saturday Afternoon session fell through, so we went to the bishop's house and watched there. About halfway through the session, Bishop Resek came downstairs and asked us if we had anybody that could use tickets for the sunday afternoon session. My companion and I looked at each other, rather shocked. Then we told the Bishop that we really needed tickets for a few investigators. He said he would see what he could do. So the next morning we went back to his house for breakfast, he couldn't be there because he was translating for some of the speakers in Conference. But one of his sons handed us some tickets. we had 8 tickets in total, half for the balcony, And half for plaza, right in front of the pulpit. So we called Moises, and told him that we were able to get tickets, he was so excited to come with us! We ended up being able to take him, a member, and another family. Our seats were about 15 rows back, pretty much right in front of the pulpit. It was so cool! Seeing the Prophet and the Apostles speak that close was absolutely amazing!

So I was able to watch the thing on tv between the sunday sessions. I saw myself like a whole bunch in the choir, Also my mission president was on there! That was pretty cool!

I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve in this mission, and with these people. I know that God has a purpose for me being here in Salt Lake rather than Argentina. I'm so grateful for the chance I have to serve the Lord, and spread this gospel. Thank you for all that you all have done for me to get me to this point. You have all impacted my life in so many ways.

I love you all!

Elder Luke Morgan

Mission Blog

Luke's mission has a blog.

mamawinnsplace.blogspot.com

Luke's Letter Dated 04-01-13

Hola!

So this has been my first week in the field now! I'm assigned to the Farmington zone. My area covers south Layton, down to Lagoon. We cover 14 stakes, our ward has about 200 people in it or so. All spanish speaking. We only teach Spanish speakers, but most of them speak some english too, So I understand the conversations as well.  We live in a little townhome in Kaysville. There's 6 of us living there now. But barely enough room for 4. So me and the other visa waiter have to keep all of our stuff in the unfinished basement, and sleep  in the living room. I sleep on the couch, and he sleeps on an air mattress. It's not the greatest, but it works! So being in Utah, all the members love missionaries! So we get fed every night, and sometimes twice a day. Last night we had the biggest dinner ever with one of our stake presidents. It was awesome! Mostly we eat out with spanish families, and i'm LOVING the food! Which isn't good, considering I already gained 10 pounds in the MTC. My goal is to not come back too fat! 

We had a talent show on friday night with our ward. There was a lot of cool stuff there, Jaun Direction (one direction) some clowns (one elder is terrified of clowns) and we did the Haka (I think i spelled that right) like the tongan war dance. It was pretty cool! We had a guy from new zeland there with us, so he really rocked it. Our ward mission leader Eric Russec had his band there. It was really fun!  

We have about 6 or 7 investigators. Some are super solid, but some just flake out on us. Like yesterday, we had this family who said they would for sure come to church. But we get about halfway through sacrament meeting (which started at 11) and see that they're not there. So we leave and go to their house, and he's out weed-eating his lawn. We get talking to him and he said he was too tired to come to church. We thought it was a really lame excuse. Oh well. Some other investigators are looking pretty solid for baptism pretty soon here. Hopefully we'll have at least a couple this transfer. Our mission is the highest baptizing in the world. The goal for this year is 3500. Our mission president recieved revelation on this goal while reading Alma 4:5. Pretty high, but I know these guys can do it!

So I'll be here for at least one transfer (6 weeks) because my mission president made a deal with the missionary department that he could have us for that long just so it doesn't screw up our transfer schedule. I'm really loving being here, even though I'm only like an hour and a half from home! It's still awesome to be here! It doesn't even feel like i'm in Utah still. It's kinda weird. But yeah it's pretty nice here! We play soccer with the ward and some investigators every saturday, we play basketball every morning, and on mondays we go to the sports-plex here in kaysville. I guess it's like a huge gym with a trampoline park, soccer fields, basketball courts, all kinds of stuff. I'm pretty stoked for that!  

We will probably get to go to general conference this next week, we're really excited and so are the families that we will get to take! It should be a really good experience.  Every now and then we get to take investigators down to temple square, just to let them get out of their environment, and into one that they can feel the spirit. I haven't been able to do this yet, but i'm pretty excited for it!

So... I think that rather that sending letters, emails will be better. They're gonna be faster, and especially in Argentina email will be tons faster. I still like getting letters in the mail though! But yeah! I just wanna hear from you all!

Spread my email address around. Like facebook and stuff. That'd rock.

I love you all, I pray for you every day, and i look forward to hearing from you!

Love,  Elder Luke Morgan

New Zealand missionary explaining the haka

Our car, at our ward mission leaders house, his 18 year old sister likes to screw with the missionaries

A shopping list that someone helped us with.

Letter from Luke Dated March 22, 2013

Hola Familia! 

Como estan ustedes? Esta es mi ultima semana en el CCM! Voy al mision la proxima semana!

Okay. I'm done typing in the spanish. So this last week in the MTC has been pretty good! For the most part it has been the same as the other weeks. Just a few things that made this week awesome! So on Tuesday we got to teach in the TRC. (Teaching Resource Center) This is a place where we get to go teach members, and our whole purpose in the TRC is to bring others closer to Christ. So this tuesday my companion and I got to teach this awesome sister, she lives in Provo, but is originally from Peru. She speaks very very little English, she is very active in the church. She was baptized when she was in her twenties and since then has converted her husband, who just got done serving as bishop, and she's raised 7 kids in the gospel and most all of them have stayed very active! As we were with her, we didn't do much teaching. She was the one who taught us! She bore her beautiful testimony of the Book of Mormon and shared with us a few personal experiences. It was an awesome experience.

So on Sunday during choir practice the director, Bro. Eggett, said that we needed to show up early for Tuesday practice if we wanted to guarantee ourselves a seat. He said that Tuesday would be a "Special Night." So we all thought it was going to be Pres. Monson, or Pres. Uchtdorf or someone like that. So tuesday rolls around, and we show up for choir practice an hour and a half early. We still had a huge line to wait in. After we finally got in we got sat down and just hung out for a little while, and looked over the music. The song we were singing is called "Like ten thousand leigons marching." They had a special arrangement made just for Bro. Eggett and for this night. We were all super crazy excited. So as it got closer to time to start, Bro. Eggett got there, and we started singing a little bit. Then he stopped us in the middle of a part of the song and said " Okay. I can't hold it from you anymore. You guys know the little show between sessions of conference where they show like some special place in the church? Well this time, that special place is the MTC. And they have asked us to perform this song tonight so they can get footage for this show." So during the whole practice we had cameras right in our faces. You should all watch the show though. I was sitting in like the third row over in the section on the right of the conductor right on the aisle. So that was pretty sweet!

On tuesday we also got a letter from church headquarters that says we can now email anyone, not just family. And we will have more time for email. So share my email with like everyone. And put it out on my facebook too!

So. The most important event of this week. Yesterday we were stuck in a class from 8 to 6. But my district all snuck out of this class at the same time, so we could go find out where we are getting reassigned to. (all of us don't have our visas yet.) So two hermanas are going to St George! One elder is going to Boise Idaho! One Elder is going to Ogden! One hermana is going to Provo! (she's not extremely excited) Then there's me. I'm going, with three other Elders and 3 other hermanas, to....... SALT LAKE CITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll be there as long as it takes to get my visa, so it could be 3 weeks, it could be 6 months. We'll just have to see. I'm excited, but nervous. I'm hoping i'll be able to go to conference at least one session, but we'll see if i'm able to.

So I just want to share with you my testimony of the Book of Mormon. So before I came here, I never really read it too much, and when i did, I never actually studied its words. But as I've had time to really study this book, I have learned to love it. Joseph Smith said "any man will come closer to god by abiding by [the book of mormon's] precepts than by any other book." I can testify that is true. I have come so much closer with God, learned so much, and strengthened my testimony so much through this book! If you look for it, the answers to absolutely any problem you could have are contained in this book. Elder Bednar gave a suggestion that whenever we have a problem, we go buy an inexpensive, paperback copy of the Book of Mormon, Label it on the cover what our problem is, then read, from the title page to the end of Moroni, and highlight every passage that has anything to do with that problem. Then, go back and read everything we have marked and make a summary of it. This will be the solution to our problem. And by the time we get to be old we will have four or five hundred copies of the book of Mormon, and four or five hundred answers to our problems. I add to his words and say that the answers to every problem we could have is in this Book. And if we study all these words, with the spirit, our lives will be forever bettered. I say these things, in the name of my lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Letter From Luke Dated March 15, 2013

Hey everyone!
   So things here are about the same. We have about 6 hours of class every day, plus 4 hours or so of study time. Our teachers are trying to give us as much study time as possible, so some of us have become "investigators" for other missionaries in the class. I'm one of them, I took my background story from like 10 different people I've known and associated with throughout my life. This is really helping me understand the way an investigator feels during a lesson and how to better approach their needs. I'm really grateful for this opportunity that I have to get a different perspective on the whole process.
   We had a devotional on Tuesday night. Elder Paul V. Johnson of the seventy came to speak to us. It's such an amazing experience to hear from a general authority every single week. Hardly anyone in the world has an opportunity like this. I sing in the choir every week for the devotional, partly because it gets me good seats, and partly because I like to sing in the choir. The director, Brother Eggett is one of the funniest guys I've ever met, and he usually tells a story about the gospel, and applies it in a way we've never heard of. Last Sunday he told of the atonement of Christ in a way that i had never thought of. It really made me think of how much more grateful we should be for the things Christ has done for us.
   Almost everyone in my district is sick in some way. My companion has pneumonia plus some kind of viral infection in his lungs, another elder has been having severe allergic reactions to something that he's been in contact with here so his face and hands swell up almost every day, one of the other elders has "severe digestive issues." Lets just say the food isn't treating him too well. I'm not really sick. Every now and then I feel a little bit of cold symptoms, but other than that I'm doing great! Since my companion is sick we have had to go to the student health clinic off campus a few times now. Yesterday we had to go there to get him some more medicine and on the way back the shuttle driver went up by the riverwoods and a few other places around Provo. It was nice to get out, even if just for a second.
   This next Wednesday I'll have the opportunity to host new missionaries. So I'll be one of those who patiently waits while the missionary says goodbye to his family. I'm pretty excited for this! This last Monday we had the chance to host senior missionaries. This was pretty cool, the senior missionaries are so nice and fun!
   So. Bad news. Yesterday we all got some papers in our mailbox. It said something along the lines of this; "Elder Morgan, We regret to inform you that you have not yet received your visa clearance for Argentina and will not be able to travel to Argentina on your scheduled date. Your name will be put in for reassignment. We will have your reassignment on Thursday."  So from everything I've heard, most of the time a reassignment is only for one transfer. And afterwards I will be able to go to Argentina. So on Thursday I get to find out where I'm going!! Pretty exciting!
   Said goodbye to my friend Chase on Monday, and to my friend JD yesterday. That was all kinda bittersweet. Soon I'll be the one leaving, That'll be interesting for sure!
   So we've been playing a game called El Nativo. Every day we all draw papers, they either say Gringo or El Nativo. If you draw El Nativo you can only speak Spanish for the next day. If you draw gringo you have to make everyone think you're the nativo. Well, I have no clue how it happened since I barely spoke any spanish, but I got voted for the most times! So I won my teachers favorite tie! This is a pretty big deal, Just saying. I'll try to send pictures of it later today. 
   So I know most of you are like 5 minutes away, but still. It's really nice to have spring coming up. The days are a lot nicer here. Since there's just a bunch of big buildings on campus it can be really dark throughout the days. But lately it's been a lot brighter. We get to study outside a lot more, and today we're having lunch outside. That'll be really nice!
   I love showing off my letters from my nieces, nephews, and all my family to the people in my district. The Hermanas (Sisters) in my district love seeing stuff from the family.
   I'll get you my address for my reassignment as soon as I can. But in the meantime, Keep writing letters! Dear Elder would probably be best right now just because of the lack of time before I leave.
   
   I'm so grateful for the the opportunity I have to consecrate my life to serving the lord for two years! I know without a shadow of a doubt that what I'm doing here will help me and others throughout the rest of our lives. I know that this church is the only true restored gospel, that Joseph Smith truly was a prophet of God, and that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God called today. I know that the Book of Mormon can be a great blessing in all of our lives, and that the answer to any question we may have is contained in its pages. I know these things to be true. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
   I love you all.     
     Elder Morgan