Transfers!

Hello again family!

So the big news is that I'm being transferred!  I'm leaving St.
Charles.  We're both leaving, actually.  They are taking out the
elders and putting another set of sisters in!  which is a little weird
and it doesn't happen that often, but it is solving more than one
problem, which just goes to show that President Fenn is inspired.

Anyway, since we were being transferred and yesterday was our last
full day of proselyting, we had asked the Lord to make it the best day
that we had ever had in the St. Charles west area, and our prayers
were answered.  We got to see a lot of good people, and the night
ended with a pretty short notice lesson with two of our investigators.
Their names are James and Barbara, and they are members.  James came
to church last week and had a great time and totally felt the Spirit,
and at this meeting he told us that he wanted to move forward with
this and that God had been answering his prayers.  So now he's on
date!  For March 7th!  And since my new area is literally right next
to this one, I'll probably get to go!  It's going to be great.  And
now Barbara wants to get baptized!  She has told us that she hasn't
felt like she's gotten an answer yet, so we told her that we want to
wait till that happens.  Contrary to popular belief, the mormons don't
just throw anyone into the font.  They need to be doing it for the
right reasons.  So that was awesome!

Yeah, so my new area is the Elgin 1st ward, which is literally the
area directly above my current one.  But it's a shared area with a set
of sisters, and we're in the northern part.  Which has a mall!!! I'm
super excited.  I love the mall.  On preparation days only, of course.
Even though it's an Elgin ward, it's mostly in a city called
Carpentersville.  I've heard several different things about it.  Also,
my companion sounds super cool, and he was half trained by Elder
Rowley, who was in the MTC with me and is super awesome.

So I am sending a package in the mail today that is full of a ton of
stuff that I really like and want, but I just plain don't have room
for anymore.  If you could put it somewhere safe, that would be great.
Thanks!

Other than what I've said, there isn't a whole lot of news.  There has
been a drastic change in the area in the past transfer and it has been
awesome.  Weeks like this are what make me sad that my mission is
going to end.

It's great to hear about everyones missionary efforts back home!
Missionary work cannot succeed if only the missionaries are doing it.
The members really need to be doing the brunt of the work.  So thanks
for helping!  And do we have sisters or elders in our ward back home?

Everything has been great!  And I'll have preparation day on Monday
again!  It's going to be a Pdaypalooza!

Elder Morgan

Snowmageddon

Hi family!

So this week has been super awesome, we found a new investigator! His
name is Tim and he has a super strong faith in Christ, which is why he
invited us in. We taught the restoration (because the restoration is
awesome) and he was super eager to read the Book of Mormon. He really
liked what we were teaching, and he's also on of a job, so we got him
in touch with LDS employment services, so it's going to be awesome. We
also met a ton of people that were willing to have us back.

So that's too bad about the super bowl. Lol jk I don't care about
sports. I know enough about it to make fun of it, which drives my
companion crazy. It's super funny.

Don't worry, we totally get along. He is total white bread, though.
But we have a ton of fun. Every time we knock on a door and a he dog
ounces on it, we make jokes about Cujo, which incidentally, I totally
did not think he would get that reference. Good on him.

So we just survived the legitimate SNOWMAGEDDON. I will send pictures.
Needless to say, the first thing I did his morning for p day was
shovel miles upon miles of snow. Seriously. We had snow for days.

So that's super messed up about what's going down at evergreen. Yeah,
being a facebook missionary, we aren't in a bubble. Like, at all. I
know all about the ice bucket challenge and Ebola and deflate gate and
gamer gate. So yeah, that was going around. The important thing to
remember is that even though she has sinned, and what she did is
definitely wrong both in sight of the law and the Lord, she is our
sister and can be forgiven if she repents. We also need to remember
that the Savior didn't just suffer for our sins, he suffered for all
of our pains and afflictions. He can help all those affected by this
incident. He doesn't turn anyone away, and the Atonement can bring
peace to all those who's hearts may be failing them right now.

So we're going to the church right now for fun times. I hope everyone
has a great day today!

Love,

Elder Jordan Morgan

It's a little bit cold...

So this week has been a bit better.  We found another new
investigator!  He is the coach of some of the young women in our ward,
and he was super impressed that they wouldn't play on sundays. See,
this is why it's so important to be good examples!  People notice
those sorts of things!  Even if they don't agree with your principles
entirely, people still respect someone that lives a principled life.
I think it's because they know deep down that they should be following
the Gospel as well.

I have a new companion!  He is from Murray, Utah. And he's super
white.  And super mormon. But he's also super nice and not judgmental
at all.

 He's only
been out for three months, so I'm still showing him a lot of stuff.
He works hard and is REALLY REALLY NICE.  LIKE, THE NICEST.  I only
emphasize this because I have had too much experience with elders
(never sisters) in my mission who are not super nice.  Just be nice to
people, ok?

Church has been awesome.  I finally got the games!  Thanks for that!
We are going to hang out with some church service missionaries today
and play them with them.  They are called the Thompsons, and they are
super awesome.  They're the ones that check our apartment.

We are also working with a less active member that wants to get the
Melchizedek priesthood and his patriarchal blessing!  That's awesome!

Also, we were with a young couple in our ward last night, and they
randomly slipped $25 dollars into a thing of food that they gave us.
We went back to make sure it wasn't a Technicolor Dreamcoat type test
of character, but they meant to do it.  So it looks like we're going
to Giordano's for lunch at some point! Awesome!  Also, this couple had
been thinking of moving to Vancouver, and I've pretty much got them
convinced.

So speaking of that, I've reached that sad point of living in Illinois
long enough that 20 degrees is now "Warm."  I will send a picture of
the weather report for a couple of days ago.

Other than that, I haven't had a whole lot more happen this week. It's
been super fun!  I hope everyone else's week has been awesome!

Love,

Jordan

Happy Leif Erickson Day

Actually, it's not. It's on October 9th. Yep. It's totally a real
holiday. Prepare to celebrate.

Hi everyone!

This week went by really, really fast.  Probably because we've been
super busy.  We have an investigator!  She investigated a couple of
years ago, but quit because she thought that we were the FLDS church
and that Thomas S. Monson was Charles Manson.  So yeah, that happened.
She missed her last appointment, but is seriously considering getting
baptized.

We had our Christmas fireside a the mission home!  Santa came!  And
gave us presents!  Well, the ones our families had sent.  But still!
And then we got to hear President Fenn talk about the Christmas story.
Everyone needs to fix their nativity scenes, because they aren't
doctrinally correct.  It's way too nice looking.  The real stable was
more like a cave, and it was disgusting, which symbolizes the Savior's
condescension.  Then we talked about the duality of Christ.  And how
there were like, 20 or 30 wise men.  Well, we don't really KNOW that,
but he figured that if you were going to see the Messiah, you wouldn't
just go alone.  You'd take your family and friends and everything.
And that they didn't even show up until Jesus was a little older,
like, two or three, and by that point they are in a house.  So yeah,
it was super awesome.

We've had a lot of cool experiences finding by the Spirit.  It's
awesome to know that you are doing something that the Lord has
literally asked you to do.  It's been great.

I was burned by Five Guys this week.  I swear on my life I will never
eat at that place again.  A member took us there, and the things it
did to our bodies... I won't go into it.  Needless to say, I am glad
we have a washer and dryer in our apartment.

To answer a question, yes, I can read emails during the week.  I can't
respond till Monday, and that includes writing letters. So yeah, fun
fact for the day.

So story of the week: I did what is probably the most dangerous thing
I have ever done before on Tuesday.  By accident, of course.  So a
member asked us to help him clean out his barn.  As we were there, the
conversation somehow turned to fireworks.  That reminded him that he
had a room in the upper level of the barn COMPLETELY FULL OF
FIREWORKS. Ten year old fireworks.  From China.  That he had modified
by hand.  And he wanted them all downstairs.  We had prayed beforehand
and my companion and I were like, "Well, we'll just need to be
careful.  I mean, it's not like they're just going to go off on their
own, right?"  So we carried all the cardboard boxes full of fireworks
downstairs.  Soon there was just a wooden crate left, which was
labeled "Caution: Highly Explosive."  We asked the member, and he was
like "Oh, that's where I keep all of my black powder.  Whenever I
break a firework, I just pour the black powder into a ziplock baggie
and throw it in there."  Those may have been the most horrifying words
I had ever heard another human being speak.  My companion and I went
upstairs, but neither of us would touch the thing.  We decided to open
the crate and see exactly what was inside, just to be safe.  But then
we were convinced that even opening the thing would result in an
explosion, the likes of which would rival Krakatoa.  Finally, I pried
the box open and... Empty. Completely empty.  We carried the box
downstairs and when the member asked us what took so long, we told him
we were worried about the black powder.  He was like "Oh, THAT'S the
box you were talking about?"  He pointed to another box, one I had
carried down the stairs by myself. "It's THAT one."  My companion
lifted the lid off of it, and it was FULL of black powder in little
baggies.  So yeah, I pretty much almost died.  The Lord answered our
prayers, though, and I have lived to tell the tale. So yeah, that was
exciting.

Other than that, things have been good.  I'm super excited to be out
here.  I have less than a year left, and it's super sad.  It's going
by really fast.  And this morning, I realized that this January would
be my last as a missionary, and I kind of freaked out.  How?  How did
this happen?  I don't know.  But yeah, I'm trying to make the most of
it, and do everything the Lord has asked me to do.  I know that if we
let Him guide us, He will make more of us than we could ever make of
ourselves.

Elder Jordan Morgan

"The Giver"

Does anyone get the subject line?

So you guys saw the Giver?  How was it?  Did they keep the super
christian themes in it, or did they water it down?

The book is super christian.  I mean, they got rid of all opposition,
which makes everyone neither happy nor sad, which is straight out of 2
Nephi 2:11.  And the thing I liked about the book was that it really
looked like their world was perfect, but then as Jonas slowly learns
the truth about things, he realizes that things are awful.  Like
Plato's cave!  And then the community chooses one person to bear all
the sufferings of everyone in the world?  The Giver is a Christ
figure!  And Jonas is only a letter away from Jonah, the prophet who
fled his calling!  Like Jonas does!  Well, Jonas was doing it for a
good reason, but still!  Christianity is all over that book, yet I
wouldn't be surprised if they toned it down for the movie.  Whatever.
I'll have to see it when I get home.

Thanks to everyone that emailed me!  That was awesome.  I love getting
emails from people in the family.  Make sure you write Carter too.

That is insane about Devin and Jordan coming home.  I couldn't believe
it, but then I thought about it and was like "Well, it is December."
That's pretty crazy.

Speaking of coming home, my mission president is working it out with
the mission department to set my release date for December 9th, 2015.
He thinks that that is when I should be able to go home, and so do I.
We both feel good about it.  He doesn't foresee there being a problem
(It's a little different for me, since they apparently didn't take
into account my time already served when they set my release date),
but maybe I'll get to talk to an apostle!  It's a long shot, but
still, that would be awesome!

Things have been going good in the area.  We are meeting with a TON of
members to help them create their own family mission plans, rather
than doing what some missionaries do and try to guilt them into doing
missionary work.  It works a ton better when people set goals
themselves, rather than go with the goals that other people want to
set for them.  And this way, when we leave the area, the work doesn't
leave with us, it stays with the ward.

I told Davis this, but it totally pays off to stick with the piano,
because then you get to do awesome things on your mission like playing
Let It Go at the ward Christmas party.  It was pretty awesome.

Someone commented on one of Mom's statuses on Facebook, asking if I
know the Joss'.  I totes do.  He's our first counselor, and he's
awesome.  The whole family is.  I guess they lived in the Cascade Park
ward for like, eight years.  They know the Gages!

Other than that, not a whole lot to report this week.  Thanks for the
Advent calender! It's awesome.  Except now the first thing I eat every
morning is candy.  Which isn't really an odd thing for me, actually.
I love candy.

Love,

Jordan

The Swanky Part of Town

Hello again family!

Things are awesome here in St. Charles. We have one of the worst

apartments in the mission, but this is America, so it's still pretty

nice.  Fun facts about it:

-The person living below us controls our heat.

-The light switches to the bathroom are in the hall and the light

switches to the hall are in the hall closet.

-The front door doesn't open from the inside, so we have to pry it

open with a butter knife.

It's pretty nice besides that.  The members in this area are crazy

rich, and one of them bought Temperpedic mattress pads for our beds,

so that was awesome. They're the best beds in the whole mission.

Other ridiculous things that have happened since I got here:

-I was fed a $40 steak.

-We were "official" fancy cheese testers, since that sort of thing

just happens all the time here.

-We were fed Thanksgiving twice.

It's kind of ridiculous, but the members are all super nice and

awesome.  We're trying to spend as much time with them as we can,

since missionary work is best done through the members.  It's

difficult (WAY harder than tracting.), but the results are tons

better.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR FIGURING OUT BYU FOR ME!!!

I'm super excited, and yes, less worried.  It's going to be great.

I'm going to try to figure out today when to go home.  I've been

thinking about it for a while, even though I thought I wouldn't need

to figure it out for a long time, but now it's come right up, and I'm

glad I've already put some thought into it.  There's been a lot of

prayer involved, studying it out, and talking to my mission president.

I'm going to make some calls today and then I'll let you know.

We have two investigators, and they're pretty cool.  We have a lesson

with one of them tomorrow, and he sounded excited, so that's going to

be great.

Thanks for the advent calender!  It's going to be awesome.  I really

like it a lot.

We got paid today, so we're going to Giordano's.  It's a deep dish

place, and it's not too expensive, and it's delicious.  I feel bad for

everyone that has not experienced it.  It's the best deep dish I've

found out here (yes, there really is deep dish pizza EVERYWHERE. It's

the greatest thing in the world. At first I was like, "What's the big

deal? It's just thick pizza."  I was wrong.  So wrong.  So many years

wasted!)

I am doing good.  Things are well.  I am co-senior companion right

now, but it doesn't mean much.  No one is really in charge in a

companionship.  It's good preparation for marriage.  If the Ensign has

taught me anything, it's that neither spouse is in charge.  They make

decisions together.  We do kind of have a problem with unrighteous

dominion in our mission, but it's just a few elders.

I hope everyone is having fun!  And Christmas is coming crazy fast!

It seems like mothers day was just last week!  It's insane.

Have a good week!

Jordan

Catching UP!

So...I'm a little behind on blog updates so here's a few:

Hi family!

So about stories of the people we're teaching: I would love to send
them, but we currently have no investigators. They all left the state
the transfer i got here. So we pretty much spend our tome contacting
referrals and meeting with members. We did meet an awesome man from
india the other day, named Venka. He's super cool, but doesn't want to
change religions, but also loves the discipline our church has. He's
awesome.

I guess i can talk about the ones from Plainfield. We had Kasie and
Kelsie, two twins who lived together with their kids. They were super
awesome, and are close to coming into e church, but they have a little
bit more to go. They introduced us to their friend Katrina, who wants
to be baptized, but her husband won't let her. She's super awesome
too.

Then we had the Lilly's, who are 80 years old, black, and awesome.
They have a grandson who played for the pacers, but he's since been
traded to the celtics, i think.

Then we had Sam and Sandy, who are 93 and 73, respectively. Sam is one
of the two people who invented the board game Operation. He also
played guitar on the radio back in the 20's, and had a friend who
played the piano in a mob joint.

Then we had Jon, who was baptized. He was the non member husband of
an active member, and claimed to be atheist.

Then we had Kathleen, who was a less active member who has a son on a
mission. She and i got along really well, and her daughter Brianna,
whose thirteen, is awesome and loves doctor who.

There was brother Torres, a less active member who did not feel at
home in our ward, so the bishop of his old ward sent us to reactivate
him. He ended up going to Nauvoo with our ward mission leader, and now
is a ward missionary and is super strong.

There is Subhash, who moved here from india ten years ago, was
homeless, and was living with a friend when the sisters knocked on his
door. He converted, and his family has disowned him, but he now has a
great job snd a nice house, and married an lds woman from Germany that
he met online.

Plainfield was awesome. I really want to visit it after my mission.

My mission is super fun, and everyone should serve one, if they are
able. I hope everything is going well back home!

Also, we went to the temple today, and it was awesome! Everyone should
go there, if they are able.

Love,

Jordan

Hello family!

There is nothing much new to report. There should be some packages
coming to the house soon. One of them, the bigger one, is full of fun
stuffs for the family. The smaller one is my stuff. Please put it
somewhere safe.

There is a member in he ward that is helping me with an awesome
project that I am working on. We're still in the planning and prepping
phases, so I'll let you know how things are going as it develops.

I get to speak in church this Sunday! It's on faith, so I'm kind of
nervous, because that's a big topic. And I'm speaking on high council
Sunday, so that will be interesting.

We still have no new investigators, but we do have lots of awesome
ward members who are trying to help with that. People are going to
show up, I just know it.

We're also planning on talking to our president to see if we can go
downtown for a pday.  He's a pretty reasonable man, so we'll see.

I hope everything is going fine back home. I pick up on things now and
again on Facebook, so that's been cool.

Have a great day!

Elder Jordan Morgan

Do you get the subject line? Tell Parker I want to play that game with
him when it home, because I keep seeing pictures of it when we do
online proselyting, and it looks AWESOME.

Two exciting things happened this week: I got to speak in sacrament
meeting! That wasn't so exciting as it was terrifying. I don't know
why, I'm a missionary, all I do is talk to people. But for some reason
whenever I get up to speak in front of a crowd, I get really nervous.
Maybe it's because they're all facing a different direction than I am.
I feel outnumbered.


I got to speak on faith, which was awesome. I'm only now starting to
get faith, and it's been super awesome. I talked about how it's a
principle of action, because true faith always motivates someone to
some sort of action. It was a lot of fun.

Then we finally got a ward mission leader! We hadn't had one the
entire time, so that was a nice surprise. His name is brother Abromov,
and he's from Soviet Russia. Like, he grew up in the Soviet Union. How
intense is that? He's super cool, and his wife is a recent convert.
Her name is Lybov (Pronounced Luba.) She's super nice, and loves
having us over for dinner.

So we're at the mall right now, and it's been awesome. Have I ever
mentioned that we have, like, the largest mall in the United States in
our area? It's called the Woodfield mall, and it's gigantic. There's
pretty much every store you could ever ask for in here, including an
AWESOME anime store.

So this week has involved lots of experiences with heeding the
direction of the Spirit and finding people to teach. Sometimes
missionaries (and members, frankly) fall into the trap of thinking
that busy=productive. This isn't necessarily true. For instance, I
could decide to walk to our appointment clear out in Barrington. It
would take about six hours, so we would be perfectly busy the whole
time, but would we be productive? Hardly. I had an experience with
this while I was on exchanges with an elder that is very much like,
"gogogoallthetimehurry!" Which I don't really like. Instead, I was
sitting there trying to heed the spirit in which person we should go
visit. He just wanted me to pick someone and get moving because he
thought we were wasting time, and I thought that it was a pretty sad
thing if you call trying to listen to the Spirit "wasting time." But
finally a name felt good to me, and we drove clear out to visit it,
and we found a man that's interested in coming to church! And he's
Russian, and speaks little English, but we just got a new ward mission
leader that speaks fluent Russian! How about that. Things have never
worked out so well as I have seen them work out on my mission. It's
been great.

So keep reading the scriptures and doing good things, and being nice
to people. Especially being nice to people. I've spent a lot of time
wishing I had been nicer to people in high school, so just do it,
alright? It makes everything better.

Jordan

First things first: When on earth did we get a fire pit?  And the deck
expanded? Nobody tells me anything!  I just saw it on the Facebook!

This week has been really, really cold.  It finally started snowing,
which back home is like "Yay!" But here it's like "It begins..."
We're supposed to have a really bad winter this year, but we'll see.
It is so cold.  Like, crazy cold.  It's the humidity.  It gets you
both ways.  You feel like you're melting in the summer, and then in
the winter it manages to permeate every single part of you're
clothing.  It's currently twenty degrees out right now, but with the
wind chill it feels more like -20.  Tis truly the windy city.

So Davis wants a fox that wears a top hat and takes people shoes?
That sounds awesome.  We actually saw a fox running across the street
a couple days ago, and it was awesome.  And it reminded me of my
perfect pet! I want a falcon that is trained both to deliver messages
to my friends and family, and also it stays within hearing range of me
all the time, so at any moment outside I can just whistle, and it
swoops down and perches on my arm.  I'd be like a pokemon master.  It
would be fantastic.

I'm sending a picture of a plate that one of the members in the ward
gave me.  You'll understand when you see it.  It's pretty awesome.

I have no idea what everyone is so busy with in the states.  It's
like, we ask them to read the Book of Mormon, and then a week later
they were like "Oh, I was too busy, and didn't get a chance."  Really?
There are 168 hours in the week, and 10,080 minutes in those hours,
and you were busy during every single one of them?  I would almost
rather people just say that they didn't want to read it, because THEN
we can maybe help with the real problem.

I'm excited for Christmas to.  It's next transfer!  That's pretty
crazy. Time is going by too fast out here.  Like, it's already pday
today.  That's insane.  And transfer calls are this saturday, which is
also insane.  They are going by too fast.  And I hate transfer calls.
The suspense is almost too much.

A mission is awesome, and I wouldn't trade the things that I have
learned out here for anything.  Please keep writing!

Jordan

I'm being transferred!

That went by really fast.  True, I was only in this area for half as
long as I was in my first area, but still!  Three months!  Like
nothing!

It'll be sad saying goodbye to my companion for a spell, but I'll see
him again. Apparenty my next companion is super cool

I'm going to an area called St. Charles.  It's supposed to be pretty
wealthy, so it'll be an adventure.

So this transfer is the Christmas transfer!  It's going to be awesome
to get to talk to everyone!

Is it snowing over there?  Because it was rainging earlier, and it
just turned to snow.  You know how you would watch the sequel to
Frosty the Snowman and all the adults were like "Snow is awful, we
must get rid of it!" And you were like "Those jerks!  They hate fun!"
Well, now I kind of sympathize with them.  The snow wouldn't be too
bad if it wasn't SO DANG COLD!!!  It was ten degrees all last week,
with the wind chill!  It's awful.  But my companion is being
transferred up to Beloit, Wisconsin, so I shouldn't be complaining.
At least I'm heading southwest.

People should email!  I like hearing from people!  And to everyone who
does email, thank you so much!  Have a great day!

Elder Jordan Morgan