Week 2!

Greetings all!  I'm doing great here at the MTC!  I'm growing more than I ever have in my life and, even though I'm FAR from perfect, each day I can feel myself become a little more like the Savior.  What a wonderful opportunity it is to be able to serve Him everyday with all my might, mind, and strength.

This past week my companion had to go home due to some personal issues.  It was sad, but before he left our district gave him so presents and let him know that we really appreciate the contribution he was to our district.  Since my companion left I've moved into a tripanionship and have had to relocate to the room with the rest of my district.  At first I was a little frustrated that I would lose my quiet room and closet space, but it's been a huge blessing to be with the rest of my district!  They're some of the best elders you could ever meet and I have so much fun sharing a room with them.  Also, we all help each other get up on time, because it's not easy getting up at 6:00 every morning.

My district has taken up playing beach volleyball on the sand courts.  It's a lot of fun and our district is really good and has some great players.  The only problem is that I absolutely stink at it, haha.  Oh well, I guess volleyball isn't one of my gifts, and I'm okay with that, haha.

I enjoy learning the language and it's been coming fairly easily to me.  It's such a cool experience to read the scriptures in a foreign tongue.  It's like reading them for the first time all over again and I gain new insights every day from reading in Portuguese.  The gift of tongues is a real thing, especially when you're out on a mission, and I can feel the Lord blessing me with it everyday.

We have the privilege of walking around the Provo Temple grounds every Sunday and of attending a Temple session every Tuesday morning.  Both days there has been an anti-Mormon protester with a big cross who's been shouting various things at us as we walk by.  It's a really interesting experience to see someone so vehemently opposed to the Church.  It was actually pretty funny because he kept shouting at us things like, "Jesus is the only way to salvation!" and we all wanted to shout back, "Yes, we agree with you!  Why are you yelling at us?"  Haha.  He's mostly harmless though, and if anything it adds a little adventure to the day.  The other day he brought a friend along with him who was really nice and didn't seem that into it.  We joked that he was probably the junior companion, haha.  There's just something funny about seeing a guy do the least effective proselyting to one of the most effective proselyting groups in the world, haha.

Everyone here is a little antsy about the devotional tonight because the choir was told that it would be broadcast to every MTC in the world, making us pretty sure that a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will be addressing us tonight.  Everyone's excited and silently hoping that it's Elder Holland, haha.

Well, email time is limited on P-Day and I've got a lot of chores to do so I can't write too much.  Before I sign off I just want to say that the Gospel is absolutely true.  I can feel it more than I've ever felt it before.  I know for a surety that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and that He suffered for our sins so that we could return to live with our Heavenly Father.  I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is His true church and that He stands at the head of it today.  I know that he restored His gospel through a latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith, and that He continues to call prophets and that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today.  I know that The Book of Mormon is true and that we can learn more from it than from any other book on Earth.  I miss you all, but this work is far too important to even think about going home now.

Your friend,

Elder Carter Morgan

First Letter Home!!

Greetings from the MTC!

I'm doing great here!  The Spirit is incredibly strong and everyday I can feel my testimony grow and my relationship with our Heavenly Father and Christ deepen.  It's like living in a temple, except you get to laugh way too loud with your district.  It's such an amazing experience here and I'm so glad that I chose to serve a mission.  While it's been hard (some days harder than others), it's been the most amazing experience of my life and I'm excited to share the Gospel with the people of Brazil and probably Pocatello, Idaho because we're almost certain we won't get our visas in time.

I mentioned my district earlier and let me say that they're fantastic!  My district consists of Elders Steiner, Carter (I know, right?), and Thomas who are all from the South, and myself, Elder Grondel (our district leader), and Elder McCrea, who are all from the Northwest.  Elder Thomas is my companion and he's a big football player from Tennessee.  Needless to say we aren't exactly the same.  He's got a strong testimony though and he's great to plan a lesson with.  Our district also has four sisters!  They're Sisters Culp, Wood, Skidmore, and Araujo.  I've included pictures of them all in this letter.  I'm so glad that more women have decided to serve missions because the sisters in our district are such a blessing and they inspire us to be our best.  Everyone in our district has an incredibly strong testimony and it's an amazing opportunity to help each other strengthen and grow everyday.

We've been learning Portuguese from day 1 and I'm picking it up really quickly.  My district calls me the "all star" and I've been helping the rest of the missionaries learn it.  I'm learning so much quicker than I did Spanish in school.  We've only been learning for six days and we've already taught three 30 minute lessons in ONLY PORTUGUESE to an actor/investigator.  It's been really difficult because my companion still struggles a bit with the language and none of us can understand what the investigator is saying back to us, but we've had a lot of great moments where we've felt the direction of the Spirit.  I can already pray fluently in Portuguese and it's been a real spiritual strengthener to speak to Heavenly Father in the language of my mission.

We went on a walk around the temple grounds the other day and on route there was a protester with a big cross who was shouting about how he was going "to teach us the power of the cross."  It was my first experience with a real Anti-Mormon protester so it was pretty interesting.

We're on some weird old person schedule here at the MTC.  Since my whole branch is full of visa waiters we have to get up at 6:00 AM, eat breakfast at 6:30 AM, eat Lunch at 11:00 AM, and eat dinner at 4:00 PM.  Bedtime is at 10:30 PM.  Needless to say we get pretty hungry by then and our district has taken all the food from departing missionaries that we can get. 

If any of you are wondering, I've gotten "Elder Lautner" way too many times.  Also, everyone here thinks they're the first person to tell me that I look like Taylor Lautner.  Oh well.  I guess there are a lot worse people to look like in life.  Maybe I can convert some people in my mission due to my vague resemblance.

I know it's only my first week here, but I love the MTC and I don't want to be one of those missionaries who always talks about "just getting out into the field."  This is the only time in my whole mission that I have to focus on my training and my training alone.  I'm excited to be a missionary and a personal representative of Jesus Christ and I'm doing all that I can to give these two years to Him.  I have a testimony of this Gospel and I know that I'm doing the right thing.  I miss you all, but I don't miss you enough to want to go home because what I'm doing here is important.  Eu tenho um testemunho de Jesus Cristo e Seu evanglho.  Eu sei que o igreja e verdadeiro.

From,

Elder Carter Morgan

Parting Words From Elder Morgan

I leave for the Provo MTC tomorrow at 6:00 in the morning.  I'm thrilled to be off serving the Lord and can't wait to get started.  Before I left I wanted to make sure that I share one of my favorite scriptures which is 1 Nephi 11:16-17.

"And he said unto me:  Knowest thou the condescension of God?

And I said unto him:  I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things."

If you'd like to write me here's the address:


Mailing Address:
Elder Carter David Morgan
SEP24 BRA-SPW
2013 N 900 E Unit 301
Provo UT 84602

Email Address:
carter.morgan@myldsmail.net

Thank you all for all the wonderful support.  I'll see you in two years!

One Week To Go

Today marks one week to go until Carter leaves on his mission to Brazil!  He will be flying out Wednesday, Aug. 14th to the Provo MTC for 9 weeks or until his visa arrives.  For anyone interested, Carter will be speaking in our ward this coming Sunday at 9:00 am at the Hearthwood Building--any and all are welcome.

With the church's encouragement we look forward to sharing Carter's letters, pictures and testimony with all of our friends and family here on his blog.  Exciting times ahead!