New Area!

Greetings from São Paulo, Brasil!  It was a great week this week getting to know the new area!  It´s a lot different from my old area, but it´s really good!  It´s a lot poorer but the people are really humble and ready to listen?

So, what are two of the best things in a mission?  Going back to an old area to visit, and a baptism.  What´s even better?  Doing both at the same time!  Yesterday I got to go back to Novo Osasco and watch Pedro´s baptism!  Pedro´s such a stud with a super strong testimony.  He gave up a lot to join the church and I´m sure that if the ward takes good care of him that he´ll stay firm in the faith.

We´re teaching a lot of good families here!  The only problem is that that none of them are married legally so we´ve got to get on that.  They all really want to be baptized and are coming to church, they just can´t be baptized until they get married.  Once they get married it´ll be super sick!

We live in a bit of a nicer house here.  It´s not on the fifth floor of an apartment building without an elevator like the last one, so that´s something.  We also don´t live with another companionship so that gives us a little bit of breathing room.

That´s about it for the week!  Things are going good and we´re excited to be working down here!  Wish me and my companion, Elder Chayson, luck!

Your friend,

Elder Carter David Morgan

"Lemme Break it Down For Ya"

Greetings from Osasco, SP!  This week has been a week of miracles as Elder Da Silva and I have been doing our best to give our all!  Lemme break it down for ya.

So, last week I talked about our drunk investigator, Pedro, that went to church when he was a little less than sober.  Well, this week we went back to visit him and he was anxiously awaiting us.  He´s really interested in the church and likes what he´s learning.  He even said he´s losing the desire to stop drinking!  The mission´s been focusing a lot on baptizing those who are "self-sufficient" in the sense that the members don´t need to constantly bring them to church.  We talked about this with Pedro and told him that this week he´d have to get to church on his own, even though the church is in downtown Osasco, a couple of miles away.  We also did this to see how committed he was and to know if it was productive to contine teaching him.  He agreed and as we started to teach him we notice that he was super determined to understand and get himself to church, to the point that he started brainstorming which of his neighbors he could ask for a ride.  Seeing his real intent, we told him not to worry and that we´d get him a ride this week.  He stopped for a bit and then told us "No.  I don´t need a ride.  This week I´ll go to church alone to show my faith.  This week I´ll got to church by my faith."  We were pretty shocked at that!  Fast-forward to Sunday and ten minutes after the meeting starts he´s still not there.  Twenty and nothing.  Figuring he must have gotten drunk or something we kinda lost hope.  That´s when I left for the hall one last time just to see if he was, hopefully, there.  Lo and behold, standing in the middle of the hall in a dirty white shirt and plaid dress pants was our good friend Pedro.  He had a great time at church for the second time and when we tried to get a ride for him to get back home he turned it down and said that he had to "get to know the route."  I think he´ll be coming for a long time, haha.  He´s also set to be baptized in a few weeks!

We also found a great family!  This woman told us that even though she´s been attending her church for 11 years, she´s never felt the urge to be baptized.  When we presented the message of the Restoration she agreed to pray and if she receives an answer to be baptized too!  Ah yeah!

That´s about it!  Thanks for everything!

Your friend,
Elder Carter David Morgan

"The bookmark we made--we were unusually proud of it"

"Elder Barton and I ordered "American" pizza.  It came with scrambled eggs on top..."