Luke's Letter Dated November 18, 2013

Hello!!! 

It's been another great week! Nothing too exciting most of the week. On saturday we had to wake up at 4 to go to the mission office. We had a special meeting with all three of the missions in Buenos Aires plus the MTC here in buenos aires. Elder Jeffery R. Holland was presiding at the meeting. Also there were the president of the area, and one of the members of the presidency of the 70.

Elder Holland began by saying "I came halfway around the world to tell you one thing. It'll take me a while to say it, and i'll use a lot of words. But that one thing is that I love you." He went on to say that we are the most prayed for group of people on this planet. Perhaps only the prophet is more prayed for than us. 

He went on to say that his work, and our work is the same. Every day, we have the responsibility of saving souls. He said that we are never ever to forget what we learned here. We can't just come out on the mission, then go on with "Real Life" He said that this is the closest thing to "Real life" we will ever experience. He said the most crushing thing in his life is to see a missionary who has walked away from all of this. 

I couldn't help but think about my companion who ran away. I hope he realizes what he walked away from. And that he will remain faithful in the gospel, and live up to the covenants that he has made. 

He told us, concerning converts, that the only thing he can promise us is that if we have even one single ounce of integrity, we will convert ourselves. 

He told us why they chose the title of the manual to be "Preach My Gospel" He expounded each word. He spent the most time on the word "My" He said this is the lords gospel. Not ours. If we want it our way we have to go somewhere else. (He then made a burger king reference) lol. I wish I had time to relate fully what he said to us. But I don't. Some other day. 

One really funny part. Elder Holland was speaking in English, and he had a translator there speking spanish. In one point elder Holland said "You need to savor every part of your mission. The good, the bad, the in's, the outs, the ups, the downs, the side to side, the back and forth......" He went on like that for a second, then realized that that was nearly impossible to translate. He stopped and looked at the translator. The translator calmy translated it the best he could, it sounded smooth, and made a lot of sense. Elder holland then grabbed the translator and kissed him on the cheek. haha. It was absolutely hilarious! It was really cool to see him speak in an environment where he could be a little bit more relaxed, and have a little more fun. 

I love this work. 

I love this gospel. 

I love this mission. 

And I love all of you.

Elder Morgan

Luke's Letter Dated November 11, 2013

Well this week flew by like crazy!! It seems like just yesterday it was P-day. 

I kinda forgot completely that Halloween was last week. It wasn't a really big deal here. Kinda weird. 

We have been working hard to find families who are going to progress, this week we found a couple of them! 

WE have still been working with the Robles Family. They have some difficulties to overcome, but with a little faith they'll be able to do it! The daughter now wants to be baptized the 24th of this month. (Mom's birthday!!!) 

That day we'll have at least two baptisms, the elders in our ward will have like 6, and the sisters will have 8. Plus we have district conference that Sunday, so the other missionaries will be having their baptisms in our chapel. Overall we're going to have about 20 baptisms at one time!!! It's gonna be pretty awesome!! 

So we were looking in some directories and records of our area, and found out that we have three cities that we've never even been to. We decided to go to one of them Saturday.  It was about a ten minute train ride down there. Then we had to walk like 10 km in total. We were looking for a few less active families. We got super lost and didn't find even one of them. lol. It was good though, we got to contact some people down there, and know a new area.

We are looking forward to working more in that area! We'll just have to bring our bikes next time! 

I hope that everything is going well for all of you! 

Look for ways to share the gospel with those you know this week! 

Love you!!

Elder Morgan

Letter From Luke Dated November 4, 2013

Hello!! 

This week has been pretty sweet! I'm in Lujan. My area is like mostly country. I dunno really how to describe it in english. The spanish word for it is campo. But it's pretty sweet! We are like one of the few areas in the mission that has bikes. It's nice. But I think I enjoy walking more. It's easier to talk with more people when you walk. But my companion like never stops. He has so much energy! It's pretty sweet! 

We have been finding families like crazy. We have one family, the Robles Family. They're all pretty awesome! They came to church this sunday. They're like all super ready to change their lives. It's pretty sweet! The Lord really answers prayers and helps his servants with what they need. 

Sorry for the short letter. I'm running out of time on the computer. 

I love you all! Hope you have a great week!

Elder Morgan

Luke's Letter Dated October 28, 2013

So this week has been... Interesting. It started out like any other week. Just normal. Until wednesday. 

I woke up to a little surprise. I woke up to not have a companion. BAD. 

Luckily I lived with other elders so I wasn't alone. But still BAD. I didn't have a companion. We didn't know where he was. REALLY BAD. After half a million phone calls and a really really long talk with the zone leaders. The President decided that I needed to pack up all my things and my companion's things and come to the office. 

As we got looking through my companion's things we found more and more clues about where he would have gone. Somehow he woke up in the middle of the night and packed a suitcase and just left. I don't even know how he did it. 

So I packed all my stuff and went to the office. I stayed in the office for three days. I now understand the phrase bored to death. It was bad. haha. It gave me a lot of time to think though. So that was good. 

We had a bunch of new missionaries coming in, so I was able to talk to them for a little while. That helped keep me sane. 

This weekend I went out with Elder Hazlett. (My comp in SLC) and wow. This mission has changed him. A lot! I love it. He has transformed for the better. Like crazy! I want that kind of transformation in my life. 

I want to have a sacred mission. I want to become a truly converted desciple of Jesus Christ. I want to return with honor. While I was in the apartment of Elder Hazlett I met a lot of missionaries. His apartment is kinda like the hotel for the mission. All the new missionaries and the ones going home stay there. 

I met one that was going home named Elder Morgan from Tennesee. I started talking to him. He seemed like I could trust him, so I told him everything that had happened. He helped me so much. I told him I was nervous for my interview with President. He gave me a hug and said don't you dare be nervous! 

Right before I went in to talk to President today. I saw Elder Morgan and he looked me in the eyes and told me to be an example. To be strong. And to always do what god wants me to. He helped me a ton through a really hard time! 

I talked with President this morning. We talked for a while. In the end he told me that we're just gonna move on and keep working. I love that man. He's awesome! 

I got my new companion today. Elder Hernandez from Columbia. He's a boss! We're in a place called Lujan. It's way different from my last area from what I've seen so far. We're on bikes too! haha. It rocks.

I love you all! 

Have a great week!!!

Elder Morgan

Letter From Luke Dated October 21, 2013

Hey! 

This week has been pretty sweet. Honestly we didn't get to work too much. But it was pretty good still! 

A while back we had to go to the capital (a 3.5 hour trip consisting of two buses, a train, and a taxi kinda thing) to get my companion's toenail looked at. It was ingrown pretty bad. 

Dr. Flinders told us that it's better to wait until it gets either worse or better until we do something. Well... It got worse. So we went back and the doctor took off half of the toenail. 

Now my comp barely can walk . Not so great. So he works as hard and as long as he can. Then he has to stop and take a break. So that's pretty much been our week! My comp has the best attitude about the whole situation ever though. He's an absolute boss!

I'm running out of time on the computer. But one really really cool thing that happened last night we had a lesson with a guy who is in a family where everyone is members except him and his son. They've had missionaries passing by for like 16 years now. And he always said that it's not his time to get baptized, or some other excuse like that. 

Last night we were talking with him and he said ya know? I think it's my time. We started talking about it and set a date for him to to get baptized. Then, at the end of the lesson, we were about to leave with a prayer, and he said that he would say it! He has never ever prayed with the missionaries. He is super prepared. Comes to church almost every Sunday even if his family doesn't come with him. 

Just goes to show that the Lord is preparing people everywhere. We just have to find them.

Love you all!

Elder Morgan 

Luke's Letter Dated October 14, 2013

Wow. These last 8 months have flown by. Looking back it's all gone soo fast! I just hope that the next 16 months are slower than the first 8. 

This week has been really really good We've been working like crazy! One of the days we had planned to go to the edge of our area to contact some former investigators. We went out there, it was a really long walk. We got there and none of them were home or would let us in the door. So we decided to do some tracting in the area. We didn't have much luck. We were just turning on to another street when a guy started hollering at us telling us to come over there. We got over there and he was suuuuper drunk. We got talking to him a little bit, he told us his name was Sergio Lucas and that the missionaries had come to his house before. He told us he was going to come to church on Sunday with us. We talked to him for a minute and told him we'd come back when he was sober. So that's what we did. 

Two days later we came back and talked to him. We taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel and he was so excited! We invited him to be baptized the end of this month, and he said yes. I've never seen anyone so excited about it than him! He's a boss!! He came with us to church and absolutely loved it! He's already given us referrals to a couple of his friends in the area too! He's a capo! 

So I'm loving Argentina.

I always thought i'd miss music on a mission. Especially outside the country cause I thought I wouldn't hear any music in English. But that's not a problem. Argentines like their music. Loud. Most houses have their massive speakers faced out the window blasting music. And a lot of the times that music is from the states. One of those little tender mercies (: 

The dogs down here are crazy. They're everywhere. In like one block it's not unusual to see like 20 dogs sleeping in the street. Not on the sidewalks, not in peoples yards, In the streets. It's kinda funny. Every now and then they'll like follow us too. It's pretty cool. Most of them are pretty nice, they just need a bath. Bad. lol. 

I'm loving it. I'm gaining weight. Not cool. We eat like a ton of pastas. And lunch is like the big meal here, not dinner, so my eating habits are like horrible. I stuff myself at 1, Then am starving at like 9. So I eat cereal. haha. Healthy, I know. 

We're looking forward to a good week! I hope you all have a good week too!!

Love you all!

Elder Luke Morgan


Luke said, "It's too dangerous to carry my camera with me. So I don't have too many pictures"

 Kinda a landscape of the houses there.

 The awesome Oreos they have here! (Despicable me) (: 

My companion and I at an all you can eat pizza place. (I ate 14 pieces) 

Luke's letter dated October 7, 2013

HOLA!!

This week has flown by really quick! We've been working our little tails off! haha. 

We walk a ton here. We walk about 10 to 13 miles a day. Compared to my area back in utah, the area here is huge! 

Back in utah we didn't tract at all. Here we tract quite a bit! My companion and I get home at night pretty much dead... It's really cool though. I love it! 

So In my letter last week I wasn't able to be super specific about things cause i didn`t have too much time. But now I have a little bit more time. So, I'll start with the food. We eat a ton of pastas and meat. I haven't had any steak yet. But i'm looking forward to it! We have bread with like every meal. Bread for Argentines is like tortillas for mexicans. 

The weather is changing here. It's starting to get hot. It's gonna get really really hot. I'm gonna have two summers here! (: .... 

The language isn't too different from the mexican spanish that I learned in Utah. So I don't have too much trouble understanding people. 

The city that I am in is kinda big. in size. It's mostly residential. Mostly dirt streets. The houses are fairly small. It's really a pretty cool place! 

One interesting thing. They don't really have garbage truck service here. So people just burn their trash. There is trash fires like everywhere all the time. Anything in specific you wanna know?? I just like can't think of anything about here to say. haha.

We found a super awesome guy this week. Jose. We found him knocking doors. He opened the door, and after a little persuasion he let us in the house (:  He works construction. And sleeps. That's all he has time to do. The only day he has off is sunday (YESSS!!) He really seemed kinda depressed, lonely and down. But when we started sharing the message of the Restoration of the Gospel, he lit up. It was like a light came on in his eyes. We invited him to be baptized, he said "of course!" Soo cool. Seems like he's been super prepared. I'm so excited for him!

I hope you all have a good week! I love you all!! (:

Elder Morgan