I've been slacking on posting Carter's letters so here is catch up--with his most recent first:
Apri. 21, 2015
What a great week! We´re talking baptisms, baby! Our investigator Adriana was baptized! It was pretty sick! We´re working on getting her to the temple soon!
-Primary
We met a super sick guy yesterday! He had a ton of respect for us and was confused about why there are so many churches in the world. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he was so happy because he said it was the first time he´s ever received a gift in the name of God for free.
We went to the Central Park of São Paulo today, which was super fun. I showing up all these Brazilians with my mad frisbee skills. They insist it´s a game for dogs, but I also insist that soccer is just the lamer version of foosball.
Running out of time this week! That´s about it!
Your friend,
Elder Carter David Morgan
"Me lamenting missing the premiere of the Avengers 2 this week. :("
"Photo of the baptism with Irmã Antonia, who fellowshipped Adriana, and our ward mission leader, Bruno."
This is truly a photo to be remembered. Before I left for Brazil the Abitos and I went to Chick-Fil-A and they slipped a packet of Chick-Fil-A sauce in my bag without me knowing. Fun fact: Chick-Fil-A sauce doesn´t go bad after six months. Truly delicious.
"I made friends with a street dog while out working. He followed me for a bit and I let me pet him."
April 13, 2015
Greetings from São Paulo, Brasil! Exciting news! Out of the nine missions in São Paulo, our mission, Brasil São Paulo Oeste, was chosen to attend a special meeting with Elder Christofferson at the Brasil MTC! How crazy is that! This either means we did something really right or something really wrong! It´ll happen in May and he´ll be the THIRD apostle that I´ll have met on my mission! That´s pretty sick!
Our investigator, Adriana, is all set to be baptized this week! She´s really liking what she´s learning and she´s keeping all her commitments. Those are the best kinds of investigators, the ones where there´s no hair pulling and begging, they just keep the commitments, haha. She´s a little nervous, but excited too!
We also found another family this week and they´re super excited to be baptized too. We asked them at their doorstep if we could share a message with them and they let us in without hesitation. We talked a bit about faith in Jesus Christ and baptism and the mom accepted the invitation to be baptized immediately. Her friend, however, responded that she was happy with her Catholic faith and didn´t want to change. We were about to let it drop there but we felt inspired to ask her if she had been praying a lot lately. She said she´d been praying more than she ever had in her life. We asked her if she was asking God for guidance and she said she was. We told her that God had answered her prayer and that she could know for herself if she acted. Well, she prayed the next night, accepted a baptismal date, and everyone went to church this Sunday!
We had the opportunity to teach the Primary children about the First Vision this Sunday. Man, those kids are nuts. Someone of my favorite moments:
Teacher: "Who knows who Joseph Smith is?"
Kids: "Me! Me! Me! Meeeee!
Teacher: "Who knows who Joseph Smith is?"
Kids: "Me! Me! Me! Meeeee!
Teacher: "Just raise your hand, don´t shout 'me!'"
Despite this warning, this happened about eighty more times, haha.
Teacher: "Joseph Smith had a book he read to learn about God..."
Kids: "THE BOOK OF MORMON! THE BOOK OF MORMON!"
Us: "The Book of Mormon wasn´t translated yet..."
Teacher: "Who knows the scripture James 1:5?"
Half the kids raise their hands, including a three year-old.
Teacher, a little surprised to the three year-old: "Rafael, you know it?"
Rafael: "Know what?"
Rafael: "Know what?"
Teacher: "The scripture."
Rafael: "What scripture?"
Rafael: "What scripture?"
Haha, it was pretty hilarious. I told the teacher afterwards that about twelve years ago I was exactly like those kids in Primary and that now in three months I will have successfully completed a full-time mission. I told her not to lose hope, haha.
That´s about it for the week! Thanks for the prayers!
Your friend,
Elder Carter David Morgan
-Adriana will be baptized
-New family
"Me gesturing to the glory that is Brasil."
"Me, my comp, and Elder Acuna with pizza."
April 6, 2015
Greetings from São Paulo, Brasil! Things go well in our constant fight to bring light to the people who need it here and we´re seeing some good success!
The family we´ve been teaching for a while continues to make good progress and absolutely love what they´re learning. I´ve never seen three people so focused on a lesson before. When we were explaining the Plan of Salvation to them they were so captivated that they all refused to answer the door when someone knocked! No one wanted to leave the lesson, haha! They´re ready to be baptized, they´re just working through some relationship issues before they seal the deal and get married, which is a pre-requisite to baptism.
We have another investigator who´s preparing to be baptized as well. She´s quite timid but enjoys what she´s learning. We had told her that we´d swing by her house at 12:30 to bring her to General Conference this Sunday. Well, due to some extenuating circumstances, we weren´t able to make it there until 1:00. I was sure that she would have left at that point, but she was sitting loyaly by the door with her daughter and Book of Mormon in hand. We´re excited for her!
Wasn´t General Conference awesome?! I´ve downloaded the talks and I´m excited to hear them in English. I was able to understand the Portuguese just fine, but it´s great to hear the emotion of the apostles´ voices.
Wasn´t General Conference awesome?! I´ve downloaded the talks and I´m excited to hear them in English. I was able to understand the Portuguese just fine, but it´s great to hear the emotion of the apostles´ voices.
Though there are some today that feel that the prophets and apostles don´t have our best interests at heart, I assure you that they do. They are guided by God and will not lead us astray. Indeed, it is not in the program.
Your friend,
Elder Carter David Morgan
Mar 30, 2015
Greetings from São Paulo, Brasil! Things are going well here in the Alvorada ward adn we´re seeing some great stuff get done.
We found a woman named Adriana this week by talking to her in her doorway. She responded really well to the message of the Restoration and accepted a baptismal date! She said she had always wondered which church she should join and why there were so many but she says that our message answered those questions.
Our ward mission leader introduced us to his friend who had investigated the church a few years ago. This week he started re-investigating and wants to start working towards getting baptized! He´s a little worried about some of the commandments, but we had a good lesson with him and he seemed better after that.
We found a woman named Adriana this week by talking to her in her doorway. She responded really well to the message of the Restoration and accepted a baptismal date! She said she had always wondered which church she should join and why there were so many but she says that our message answered those questions.
I did an exchange with some other elders in the district and EVERYTHING fell through. Like, literally everything. We walked A LOT that day, haha. I think all in all we ended up sharing a Gospel principle with 89 people that day, which was pretty nuts. It was good fun, though.
It´s simple, but reading the scriptures daily, praying daily, and going to church every week will prevent about 95% of the problems common to humanity. I´ve seen testimonies of that DAILY while on my mission. Make sure to do the small and simple things to stay close to Jesus Christ!
Your friend,
Elder Carter David Morgan
Elder Carter David Morgan
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