Aha moment

This week has gone by SO FAST.  It's ridiculous.  It's because we've been super busy.  We're trying to spend all of the time we have where we're not teaching investigators in members homes doing finding lessons with them.  Finding ought to be done through the members, because that's the way to do it.  Sometimes missionaries will get into that Superman way of thinking and be like "I'm just going to go out on find people on my own."  That is a huge mistake, especially because this often turns out to be hours and hours of tracting.  I'm sorry, but I do not like tracting.  It doesn't give people a fair chance to actually hear our message, and when they open the door and see us standing there, their minds are flooded with untrue stereotypes that cause them to immediately close the door.  Finding should be done through the members.  I've been pushing it really hard, because for a bit, the missionaries and the members in this ward weren't unified.  They got along just fine, but there wasn't a lot of unity on the missionary work.  And when there's a problem, the answer is NEVER to just ignore it.  You try to fix it, and if you can't, then you either find someone that can or move on.  But don't ignore problems.  

We've seen some fantastic people become reactivated in our ward!  It's been awesome.  I love serving a mission.  And I'm glad I came home early.  I was not ready to go out, and I was going out for the wrong reasons.  I am confident that I would not have had the sorts of experiences I'm having now, had I gone out the first time.  Also, something crazy I realized: So I've obviously been called to where I need to be.  I have reasons that make me 100% sure of that.  So if this mission is where I'm supposed to be, then why wasn't I called to it in the first place?  I always struggled with that.  But I received an answer: This mission didn't exist when I got my first call.  This mission was about 1 year ago.  Doodoodoodoodoodoodoodoo.  (That's the Twilight Zone music.) But yeah, that was pretty intense.  

Things have been going great out here.  The summer has been really mild.  That's because I brought all the good weather from Washington out here with me.  I keep telling everyone that's thinking about moving to just move to Washington.  It's simply the best state.  

Send pictures!  PICTURES!

We don't have a ton of time today, so I'll be ending the email here.  This work is truly the work of The Lord.  

Elder Jordan Morgan

"Chester Macaroni"

This week has been pretty good. We had a ton of finding lessons with the members this week.  We're working on getting the ward and the missionaries united on missionary work, and we figure the best way to do that is by listening to the same person: The Lord.  So we've really been pushing revelation and been getting the members to commit to seek revelation on what they can do to further The Lord's work.  It's been great.  

So our super awesome recent convert had an amazing story to tell us this week.  So he was the non-member in a part member family, and no one ever thought he would get baptized, but then he totally did and now he's on spiritual fire.  Anyway, his wife had a really strong prompting from the spirit that they needed to move to Utah, even though she didn't have a job lined up, or a home, and he would have to quit his job.  But he totally supported her, and the family left.  They found a house, and she found a job, but he stayed here so that they woulnd't have a break in their income.  In the time he was here, he was living with his boss.  Anyway, last week their house in Utah kind of burned up.  Not all the way down, but enough that they couldn't live there anymore.  And then on sunday, he came and told us that they were actually going to stay in Illinois, because the guy he was living with offered him the vice-presidents position at his company!  He compared the whole experience to Lehi fleeing to the wilderness, which it pretty much was.  Everyone he knew was like "What on earth are you doing?  Don't quit your job, don't move when you don't have a house down there, don't leave if you don't have any plans!"  And now look what happned.  He's going to be making a ton more money than he would've had they not even left for Utah.  It was pretty crazy.  And I'm super excited, because like I said, he's awesome.  

Also, I need to tell you about another one of the stress dreams I've been having on my mission.  I'm sure you can relate.  You know, those dreams where you wake up and your just so relieved that it was all a dream?  Actually, I have two:

1. I dreamed that elder Rowley and I were companions.  I love elder Rowley, i was in the MTC with him.  Anyway, I dreamed that I took the car by myself to Meijers (It's like a ghetto Winco), and started buying fireworks.  Then all of the sudden, I was like "What am I doing?  Where's my companion?  Why am I buying fireworks? I need to get out of here!"  I looked around for a place to put the fireworks, when all of the sudden I ran into my mission president and his wife, followed closely by elder Rowley, who was crying.  I was relieved when I woke up.  

2. I dreamed that I was companions with elder Linford, an Elder in my district at the time.  He's super nice.  Anyway, we were at the mall, but it looked like Evergreen, and we got in a fight.  It was so bad that I wanted to be alone, so I went to the bathroom, but right before I opened the door, I turned around and swore at him, and a bunch of people heard.  Then while I was in the bathroom, two ward members were outside, and they had the following conversation:

"Did elder Morgan just swear at his companion?"

"I think so, but it's ok."

Then I ended up on the front page of the newspaper because of it, with the following headline: 

"Servants of the Lord, or of the devil?  Mormon elder swears at his companion!"

Then my mission president was like "You've ruined the work in the area!"  I woke up and I was like "Oh my gosh!  Every time!"  

Do you know a Russel family back in vancouver?  Kayla and Jenna Russel?  Because they live here, and Kayla went to Evergreen, and Jenna was living about 10 minutes from me while I was home from my mission.  They know the Carnahans and the Muellers and the Babbs.  Pretty much everyone.  It's pretty crazy.  

One of the less active members we're working with has the greatest cat ever.  His name is Chester Macaroni, because he's orange and bendy.  And super fat.  But that's ok, because it makes him super chill.  He's an orange tabby cat.  I'll make sure to get a picture with him before I leave the area.  

I have a cool story about why iPad's super helpful: We were talking to a less active sister in the ward, and I had to use the bathroom.  When I came back, my companion and the member that came with us were having a discussion about what happens to stillborn children.  The less active sister (who is AWESOME, by the way. She's like my grandma in the field.)  had a stillborn child years ago, and she said that no one in the church has been able to give her a definite answer.  All of the sudden the spirit took hold of my memory and put it to good use, and was like "You've read this in the Handbook 2: Administering to the Church."  So I looked it up on the iPad in like, ten seconds, and read it to her, and she received spiritual confirmation it was true and started crying.  So yeah, the iPad's are totally part of hastening the work.  

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!  And send more puzzles! Did you get my email about the maze puzzle?

Elder Jordan Morgan

Me with Fo, the sunflower.  The planter and the soil were gifts, but I bought the seed.  I love her like I would my own child.  We're also about to go do service, which explains the normal people clothes.

Me, beholding Fo's beauty...

Releasing balloons into the air with a really nice message and our phone number attached.  We call it "sky contacting."