Q & A

Hello again family!

I will start by answering questions that Mom has sent me.  It's tons easier to answer questions that to actually think of things to write.  I'm excited.  

[Is it hot and humid there?]

Yes.  All the time.  It's disgusting.  Every morning, walk out onto the porch, take a deep breath, and say out loud:

"Man, I am so glad I live in Vancouver, Washington."

Seriously, it's the Garden of Eden up there.  

[Are you getting along with your companion?]

Yep!  We just had transfers.  It was super sad seeing elder Sorenson go, but it was his time.  He was excited, but nervous to go home.  And it probably didn't help that I kept finding him articles about marriage in the Ensign.  

Elder Seastrand is my new companion.  He and I were actually in the same district last transfer, and we've been on exchanges before, so we get along.  He just bought a bunch of Pokemon cards today, so that was awesome.  

[How is the ward treating you?]

Pretty good.  The problem is that they had a bad missionary a couple of years back, and everyone remembers him.  So it's hard getting them to trust us.  But we have several fantastic families in the ward that are willing to do a lot to help us further the work.  

[What keeps me firm in the Gospel when I experience doubts and challenges?]

Several things.  Diligent scripture study is a big help, as well as prayer.  I also try to always remember the spiritual experiences I've had in my life.  Satan is really good at getting us to forget the things that built up our faith in the first place.  I ask God to help me remember the events in my life that have developed my testimony, and that helps a lot.  

Not much has happened this week. I got to see elder Rowley from my MTC district and talk to him about this business idea elder Klake and I had in the MTC.  He's totally on board.  Good thing we don't have to worry about that for a while, but still, exciting! 

I also figured out that Slenderman is real.  He's Cain.  It all makes sense.  

What kind of car did you get?  I want pictures!  Also, i'm working on taking more pictures, so expect some of me next week.  

I can't think of much else to say.  We have a couple of investigators that are progressing, and we're excited about them.  The biggest thing that has helped me with missionary work is genuinely caring about the people you serve.  That's a big one.  All our investigators are awesome.  

I hope everything is going well back home!  I keep thinking about Spongebob for some reason.  You should watch another episode for family home evening.  Maybe the one where he rips his pants.  Or the one where they deliver the pizza.  Or the marching band one.  Or the one where Patrick helps Spongebob pass his boating exam.  Those ones are all awesome.  

Elder Jordan Morgan

If The Nineth Lion Ate the Sun

Hello again family!  

What is new... The crazy bible basher lady has started to ignore us when we see her.  We think it's a combination of our refusal to argue, us helping her sister find her house, and one of our investigators talking to her.  Make a note: Being Christlike is good.  It only took me 21 years.  Go figure.  =)

So people always ask "What advice do you have for someone who is preparing to go on a mission?"  It's a hard question to answer, because you don't want to say something that is super obvious, like "Read the scriptures." (You should, though.  Read the scriptures.) You also don't want to say something really nebulous, like "Become a disciple of Christ."  You want to give something easy to understand, and practical.  So this week as I was pondering this, I had a flash of inspiration.  Something that really, truly helped me prepare for my mission.  So to all those who are wondering what you can do to prepare to serve a mission, this is the advice I give:

Work in retail.  

I am not joking in the slightest.  A large chain shopping market is preferable.  Lowe's, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Wal-Mart if you're particularly brave.  I can't think of anything I did back home that gave me more practical experience for what the mission field is like than working customer service at Lowe's.  So that is the advice I give you all.  

This week has been good.  Three of our investigators have doing super well.  Like, they're about ready to fall into the font.  It's going to be awesome.  One is a black couple in their 80's, and they are pretty much some of the coolest people out there.  And I've met his mom, who is 99, about to turn 100, so my idea of "old" has been changed forever.  We're super excited for all of them.  Imagine that?  The thing I like most about my mission so far is meeting new people!  Maybe it's because I don't have the internet anymore.  But people are like a human internet!  Does that make sense?  Probably not.  Oh well.  

So I found out that my new companion is Elder Seastrand, who is actually in our district already, and he's awesome.  We've been on exchanges before!  Also, this will be my fourth transfer in Plainfield, which I am totally fine with, because Plainfield is pretty awesome and I love the people here.  We're going to convert the whole city, Dan Jones style.  Or like that episode of the Simpsons with The Leader.  "A Leader Bean!"  

Also, elder Seastrand and I have decided to start every morning by leaping out of the bed at 6:30 and high-fiving in the air.  We just want to get each day started off on the right foot.  It's going to be awesome. 

So has anything interesting happened back home?  We really don't hear anything.  And we're fine with that, because we've learned that the world is an awful place.  Like elder Sorenson was scrolling down on facebook and saw that someone he knew posted the trailer for 50 shades of grey, and everyone was super excited.  Showed me some of the comments people were making, and I was like "We live in Babylon!"  It's alright.  Christ is coming back.  And there's going to come a point where the world is going to need to lean on the members of this church.  

I hope everything is going well, because things are going great here.  I've found out that I'm in charge of what I like, so I'm not worried about losing my personality, or doing anything that I don't like, because I can just decide to like it!  It works super well, you should all try it if you're not doing it already.  I love you all!

Elder Jordan Morgan

The Pros and Cons

This week has been a little bit eventful:

We found 5 new potential investigators this week.  That was pretty sweet.  We teach them tonight and tomorrow.  They're all totally getting baptized.  

The members do feed us really well.  I've become a legend in the ward because I don't eat a ton.  I'm just not a big fan of food in general.  Which is fine, because it keeps me from gaining weight.  Seriously, you look at the pictures of some of the missionaries out here before their mission, and you can hardly recognize them.  

My favorite parts about being on a mission are: 

1. The time goes really fast, because you are really busy.  

2. You get to spend all of your time teaching/talking to people about the gospel.

3. You get to meet cool people and find out more about them. 

4. You get to see really weird things.  Like, really weird.  

5. You get to make some cool friends.  Elder K is one of my best friends now, and we're going to start a business together when we get back from our missions.  

There are more, but I can't think of any off of the top of my head.  

Some things that are challenging:

1. People won't listen to you. 

2. Our ward in particular doesn't exactly trust missionaries.  I guess the ones they've had in the past were a little lacking.  Like the one who, while living with members, would sneak out at night to go spend time with a less active girl in the ward.  And then, after his mission, came back and married her.  That sort of thing tends to make people not trust missionaries that well.  

3. I miss the internet.  The internet is awesome.  I also realize how much fun stuff I had to do back home, and how I never did any of it.  Seriously, i'm never going to even be able to be bored again.  

But my mission has been fantastic so far, and it's only going to keep getting better.  It's weird to think that i've served six months.  And there was a year in between two of those, so it went by really fast.  I'm glad I'm out here.  

I hope everyone is doing well.  It's super great to hear about everyone being super spiritual.  Please do everything you can to keep that up, because it'll be awesome.  I've seen what happens to families that start to relax when it comes to spiritual things out here, and it's not good.  

I will write again next week.  Have fun!

Jordan

Best Day of My Mission Yet!

Good Morning Family!

Sit down my friends and saddle your children on your laps, as I tell you the story of...

THE GREATEST DAY OF MY MISSION EVER

June 7, 2014

7:00 am- Elder Sorenson and I begin filling the font at the church.  It takes about 2 1/2 hours.  As per tradition, we watched The Phone Call on lds.org.  It is super hilarious, and you should all watch it. 

9:30 am- Elder Sorenson and I successfully clean the font out with a pool skimmer of our own invention.

10:00 am- Jon's baptism.  It was super amazing!  We had one of our investigators come, as well as Jon's sister and mother, who are not members.  The spirit was super strong and our investigator had a fantastic time and is starting to open up more.  

12:00 pm- Jon invites us to Chili's to celebrate with he and his family.  Awesome. 

12:10 pm- The Zone Leaders stop us to give us something.  It was your package!  And what a package is was.  It was truly amazing.

12:15 pm- We find out that the Lindsey Stirling album you sent is not the one that we've listened to about 500 times, but is in fact her brand new one, Shatter Me.  And it is BOSS.  You should all listen to it.  

12:30 pm- Chili's.  We met another one of Jon's sisters, and we had a really good discussion with both of them.  

2:00 pm- We find out that the Professor Layton CD has a ton more music on it than we thought it would, and it was all AWESOME.  Whoever burned that, props to them. 

2:15 pm- We notice that one of the less actives in our ward who we have never gotten to meet with is having a garage sale.  We talk to her for about 20 minutes and set up a time to meet with her.  We also found out that she works for Monster Truck, and that she produces their television shows, which is like, one of my dream jobs.  I talked to her about how she got to that position, and it was super informative. She also gave us a lamp, which we needed, so that was awesome.

2:45 pm- We move a couch from Oswego to our apartment that a ward member wanted to donate to the mission.  There's something satisfying about successfully moving a couch in the truck. 

6:30 pm- We get to meet with a member who is becoming less active.  He is super awesome, and really funny.  We had a great time with him, and he got really excited about coming to church the next day.  

8:00 pm- We start dinner.  Today was transfer calls, so we had been waiting all day to hear from the assistants whether or not we would even be getting a call, and if so, what would be happening.

8:30 pm- We get a text from the assistants saying that we WILL be getting a transfer call.  

8:45 pm After much mourning, elder Sorenson figures out that we might not be getting transferred, but rather I might be getting called as district leader.  I find out that not only has he not been in a leadership position on his mission, he does not want to.  I tell him that that pretty much guarantees he's going to serve as district leader for his last transfer.  He disagrees.  We have a new hope.

9:00 pm- The phone rings.  It's President Fenn.  Elder Sorenson can't believe his eyes.  We talk to him, and he tells us that we're not being transferred and that Elder Sorenson is being made district leader.  I was freaking out, because I was totally right.  As soon as he hangs up the phone, I run to our study room and start blasting We Are the Champions.  Elder Sorenson remains chagrined, but happy that we get to stay together.  

10:30 pm- Bedtime.  The end of the greatest day of my mission ever.

It was pretty awesome. I'm not sure there could be a better day.  

How is everyone doing back home?  I have no idea what's going on back home.  Please email, family!  And thanks to those of you who do.  

I'm having the time of my life out here, and it's all because of my attitude.  Your attitude is one of the few things you truly have 100% control over, and it affects your outlook on life.  So be in a good mood!

Jordan

I was hugged

Hello again family!

They actually moved our pday to today because they wanted us to proselyte on memorial day.  Make sure everyone knows that that's the reason I didn't email yesterday.  I don't want anyone to be all like "Oh no!  Jordan hates me!"  

We got locked out of our apartment again this week.  Luckily, we had installed some blinds on one of our bedroom windows and had left the window unlocked, so my companion hoisted me up there and I made a less than graceful entrance into the room.  It was pretty hilarious.  

We have an investigator preparing for baptism on the 7th!  He's super excited.  His wife has been a member for a while, and he's excited to be able to share this part of her life.  It'll be awesome when they can finally be sealed in the temple.  Also, he's just the coolest guy. 

One of our investigators hugged me this week.  He's 93 years old, so he gets the honor of being the oldest person I've ever hugged.  

If you've sent a package, I still haven't got it and probably until I go to the transfer meeting.  And we'll only go to that if one of us gets transferred, so we'll see.  Did you send those CD's?

Life has been good out here in Plainfield.  It's starting to get a little warm, and it gets really humid out here, so that's been fun.  It's fine, though.  I try to look on the positive side of things.  Like how walking is a ton of fun, and it burns calories!

So I've devised a puzzle for the family to solve.  You might need to post it on the family website if you're having trouble.  

A2, B4, C6, D8, E3, F1, G7, H5

_ _ _ _ _ _ (A six letter word)

BOSQR FKU KJ EOQEGDJB RCS EKNS. RCS SDBCR MTSSJP DP KJS KA IY AQVKODRSE. US PTOS RK NODJG YKTO KVQHRDJS. 

Best of luck to you.  

I can't think of much else that has happened this week, but I also don't remember what happens to me all that well.  The days are starting to all roll together.  It's crazy to think that I'm a week away from 5 months.  That's crazy!  And when thinking about how there was a year in between four of those months, that's even crazier!  Time goes by so fast.  I'm working on paying more attention to the present, and savoring it, because in 20 years these will be "The good old days." So i'm trying to enjoy them while I'm in them.  

Make sure to pray every day, preferably morning and night, and really study the Book of Mormon every day.  Seriously, it will make your life so much better.  The Book of Mormon is a tool that God has given us to assist in our receiving of revelation, and it totally works.  Also, if you write down what God tells you, I've found that He's more willing to say more.  

Elder Jordan Morgan

May 12, 2014

I'm sorry that this email this week is going to be a tiny bit shorter, but i've just spent quite a while emailing Carter and i'm running out of time.  

So this week I got a new companion.  his name is elder Sorenson, and he's awesome.  We have the same sense of humor, and things are always hilarious between us.  He also has Lindsey Sterling's album, which is awesome.  That would be something awesome to send me.  She's a member who plays the violin and got really big lately.  She also has an I'm a Mormon video, which is awesome, you should all watch it.  

I hope everyone is doing well, though dad said that Parker and Davis aren't feeling too well.  I'm sorry about that.  I hope everyone's feeling better by now.  

I love getting emails from you throughout the week, they're awesome to read.  

I also LOVED the package you sent.  Seriously, whoever was in charge of picking out the stuff inside it really knows me.  The hexbugs are awesome, I freaked out when I saw them.  That's the sort of thing that fills me with childlike wonder.  The day I got them, I built a soccer field for them out of legos on my desk, and now my companion and I will watch them play.  It's pretty awesome.  We're waiting to see if they'll gain sentience.  Thanks for the sleep mask as well, i was thinking of getting one but I couldn't make up my mind.  With the sleep mask and the earplugs, I can sleep anywhere now, and it's amazing.  The CD's were awesome as well.  

The work's been going great.  We got the son of one of our investigators interested and learning from us, so that was awesome.  We're working on getting the rest of our investigators moving.  They're kind of dragging their feet right now.  And one of them was trying to get a job on a riverboat casino, and we found out this week that she didn't get it.  Is it bad that we were sort of glad?  It just wouldn't be a good environment for her.  Or anyone.  

I promise I will send pictures next week.  I have some, I just forgot to bring the connector for the computer.  For my plaque, why not just use my profile picture on facebook?

For mothers day, we are going to a members home right after church, so I may be able to skype from there.  More likely than that, we'll go to the closest church building and skype from there.  Actually, i just talked to my companion, and we'll be going to the church building at 4:30 out time, which would be 2:30 for you.  I need your skype account information and your facetime information, just in case.  I'll also be able to email you on mothers day to figure it everything out for the call, so it shouldn't be a problem.  I don't know my skype account information yet, i need to get it from the Tech Elders (Which, by the way, is a new leadership position now that we have iPads.  How cool is that?)

I have to get going, but I wanted to end with some advice our mission president gave us:  "If you're ever nervous and don't know what to say, testify of the Prophet Joseph Smith."  I think this mostly applies to missionary work, but you could use it day to day life as well.  

Elder Jordan Morgan

May 19, 2014

Hi family!

I'm trying to think of things that happened this week that I can tell you about.  I'm not sure.  We got one of our investigators on date to be baptized this transfer!  That was pretty sweet.  His wife is an active member already, and they are super excited to finally be able to progress in the Gospel.  The problem is that they are moving to Utah soon, so I will not be there when they get sealed.  But still it's good.  

We're also working with another investigator about getting her on date to be baptized.  She really wants to, but unfortunately her husband is being a little difficult.  We're not sure if he would outright refuse to allow her to be baptized, but we'll see.  Hopefully not.  But she's a fantastic investigator.  She's like the man that finds the pearl of great price.  She has a lot to lose from proceeding down the path she has begun to take, but she doesn't care because she knows that the Gospel is true, and that this is truly the Lord's church.  

Also, I had mentioned to her at one point that I like My Little Pony, and she thought that was cool. Then she texted us a couple of days later and was like "I learned a new term today: Brony."  I asked her who had told her that, and she said that she had told her 16 year old son that I like My Little Pony, and he was like "He's a brony?  That's so COOL!"  And he's right.  It is so cool.  That show is awesome.  

The space bar on the keyboard that i'm typing on is squeaking, and it's driving me crazy.  I just found out that if I hit it with my left thumb instead of my right, then it doesn't.  I also just found out that it's really hard for me to type using my left thumb to hit the spacebar.  Have you ever tried it?  You should try it.  

Other than what i've said, nothing new and exciting has happened.  We're going to talk to a couple of our investigators tonight about getting them back on date.  They really just need to get moving, and a lot of it has been our fault for not having a real plan with them.  We'll see though.  I'm sure it'll be fine.  Most things usually are.  

Make sure you are reading the Book of Mormon EVERY DAY.  It has the answer to pretty much any of your life questions, especially because the Book of Mormon is one of the best tools we have for receiving revelation.  The Book of Mormon, combined with prayer, will answer any question you have about your life and what you should do.  

Elder Jordan Morgan