From Trash to Treasure

Another week in the blossoming metropolis of Hesperia, CA.  We continue to boldly forge through this mysterious country known as the "High Desert."  In very few missions do you have to deal with culture shock when you get transferred from one area to another, but the Rancho Cucamonga mission is just special like that.  It's always a big transition when you move from the valley to the desert or vice versa, but it's almost always a good transition.

This week our stake had its Pioneer Day activity.  I'm proud to say that I bested many in various feats of strength, most of which required lots of pulling or tugging things.  Too bad the pioneers didn't have Magic, that probably would've kept them more entertained.  I also got the chance to shake a little plastic container of cream into butter, but then at the last minute when I was about to open it and enjoy the hard earned fruits of my labor I accidentally let it slip and it got everywhere.  That was a sad point of my mission.

Tender mercy of the Lord: One of my good missionary friends who I spent three transfers with in Chino, Sister Toolan, was transferred out of Chino two transfers before I was.  She's here in Hesperia and though we're not in the same zone we DO share the same church building, so Elder Brown and I get to see her and her companion (who's also pretty legit) fairly often.  I've included pictures of the three of us.  By the way, in that picture of us and Sister Toolan she looks super awkward and it totally looks like we're super lame and creepy elders that forced a girl to take a picture with us.  But I want ALL OF YOU to know that Sister Toolan LITERALLY threatened to kill us if we left the Pioneer Day activity without a picture.  So it was totally her idea.

Speaking of Elder Brown, he's dang good at taking pictures of me.  I've included a picture that he took of me riding my bike along the road.  He took that picture WHILE HE WAS RIDING HIS BIKE AS WELL.  That's crazy!  We've been compiling an "action shot" series of me while on my mission and it's turning out fairly well.

While wandering through the desert we found a pile of trash and I used some of it to turn me into a modern day stripling warrior.  Pictures are included for your enjoyment.  Also, by that pile of trash there's never ANYONE, especially cars.  Yet while I donned my armor THREE different cars passed by.  That was pretty embarrassing.

The California aqueduct runs smack through the middle of our area.  So anytime we want to cross our area we have to bike through the undeveloped desert, find a gap in the barbwire fence, throw our bikes and ourselves under it, find a bridge that crosses the aqueduct, lower our bikes into the four foot pits that guard the bridges, lift them out again to cross the bridge, and then repeat the whole process except in reverse when we get to the other side.  It's quite an adventure.  But as we were crossing the aqueduct we actually ran into a group of kids sidling along the side of the bridge, which is weird because you NEVER see anyone by the aqueduct.  I made a joke to them that when they fell in I wanted pictures and they stopped us and asked us what religion we are.  We told them that we were Mormons and they said they wanted to ask us some questions.  So we hopped off the aqueduct and were able to teach them about the Restoration which was super good.  They all took copies of the Book of Mormon but most of them were just visiting from out of town so we won't be the ones teaching them.  It was super cool!

Fun fact: I am scheduled to fly home exactly one year from today.  Get ready, everyone.  The time is not far from my triumphant return.

For all you future missionaries out there: Want to be a good missionary?  Be a good home teacher/visiting teacher.  Home teaching is just missionary work to members and missionary work is just home teaching to non-members.  Also learn how to make LOTS of small talk.  I find testifying of the Gospel to be easy, it's the small talk on the streets that's harder.

Have a great week!

Your friend,
Elder Carter David Morgan

"Dude You Slapped A Fish!"

Greetings from Hesperia, CA!  It's been a crazy week coming to this new area.  It's been a lot of getting used to the desert again.  It's crazy up here.  Flat, brown, dirt, dead, things like that.  But it's been a lot of fun.  We've been tearing it up on bike.  There's a lot of off roading that has to happen in our area so we have a lot of fun.  There's this one hill that's super hard to climb and had a bone at the top.  We called it Bone Hill because we lack creativity.  Elder Brown and I decided that whoever could climb it first would win the bone and become the King of Bone Hill.  I can proudly say that after many attempts and much perseverance, I am the King of Bone Hill.  All hail King Morgan!

We've been working really hard this week.  The work in this area... has not been performing as well as it could be.  So Elder Brown and I have been tearing it up, talking with everyone we see like mad men.  That's really the only way to do it as a missionary for personal finding.  Tracting is absolutely terrible so instead we ambush people as they walk the streets.  And guess what?  It's totally working!  We found a family of people to teach that way!  They're the Hernandez family and the mom, Gloria, is really interested.  We taught her the Restoration in her front yard and she took really well to it.  She also told us that she thinks we're sent from because she believes in signs and has a good friend named Morgan whose favorite football team is the Browns.  We'll take it.

Our new ward seems pretty cool.  There's a lot more youth in it than my old ward.  They seemed really receptive to Elder Brown and I.  At first the ward was really angry with us because they used to have a set of elders and a set of sisters but we replaced the set of sisters, but after meeting us they seemed to warm up.  I'm confident that we'll be able to get some good work done with them.

We live with our zone leaders now.  It's really interesting.  I woke up to a guitar musical number while one shouted over and over again, "It's P-Day!  It's P-Day!"  They also wrestle frequently and one of them always says, "Dude, you slapped a fish."

That's about it for this week.  Keep it classy!

Your friend,

Elder Carter David Morgan

Transferred to the Wilderness

Greetings from Hesperia, CA!  That's right, folks, Elder Morgan has been transferred from Chino.  I spent seven and a half months in Chino and I absolutely loved it.  It's time for me to move on, though.  So, President Hobbs, the mad man that he is, devised an ingenious plan to create the coolest transfer of my mission.  You see, I spent all five transfers in Chino with Elder Brown, probably my best friend in the mission.  We were in the same zone but never served together.  So President Hobbs took us both out of our Chino wards and whitewashed us into the desert together.  Whitewashing is when two missionaries leave an area and two new missionaries enter.  We live in an apartment with our zone leaders and it's pretty sick.  Still on bike, though.  I had heard a rumor that we'd be in a truck area, but that turned out to be false.  I'm okay with that, though.  I'd prefer to continue my mission as a real missionary, not a car missionary.  (Kidding, kidding...)

So I'm back in the desert for at least another transfer.  It's nice to return to my roots but man is it crazy weird.  I had grown used to the comforts of the valley.  The desert is super brown and super gray.  Not a lot of people here.  It's a completely different world.  Chino was everything you imagine Southern California to be.  Hesperia is... not, haha.  It'll be fun, though.  The people are super humble in the desert and very ready to hear the restored Gospel.

For those of you unfamiliar with missionary work, whitewashing is super hard.  It's so crazy going into an area where neither of you know anyone or anything.  It's also super weird because this ward, the Ranchero ward, had a set of sisters before us and some of the ward was, uh, not so happy to see them moved out for another set of elders.  That's okay, though!  We're gonna tear it up like bosses!  The ward will be forced to love us!  We're excited to get working.  There's not a whole lot going on in this area so it's a great place to start building.  We're super excited.

Saying goodbye to the Walnut Park ward was very hard.  I got a lot of nice compliments from those I labored with.  I will miss them all very much, but I know that's not the last time we'll all see each other.  That's the beauty of the gospel, we'll all see each other again if we hold out faithful to the end.

There's not much else I can think of at the moment.  Got to see a lot of my missionary friends at transfer meeting which was super fun.  My brain's a little jumbled at the moment with transfers so my thoughts are scattered.  I hope you all have a great week and wish Elder Brown and I luck!

Your friend,

Elder Carter David Morgan 

Look Mom--No Hands!

It's another fantastic email from everyone's favorite visa-waiter!  This week was pretty good!  The first week of the new transfer is always interesting.  The whole zone's leadership got switched up so we're all trying to get used to the new way of doing things.  I had the opportunity to run my first district meeting this Tuesday and it went really well!  I prayed really hard about it beforehand and the Lord definitely guided me on what to teach about.  We had a great discussion on charity and love and it really got the whole district thinking.  I love my district and it's great to be able to work more closely with them.

To try to find more investigators we teamed up with some of the sister missionaries in the stake and we drew the plan of salvation in sidewalk chalk at the park and left contact information.  You never know what might happen!

As we were biking this week a man ran out of his house with his shirt off, stopped us in the street, and pointed to his son and told us to put him on a mission.  We told him that his son would have to be baptized before we could do that.  Long story short, we're teaching the family now.  We'll see how this goes.

We went to a dinner with a member family this week.  They're a young couple with a toddler, a baby, and a Siberian Husky puppy.  I almost passed out from the adorable-ness of it all.  Needless to say, we'll be trying to get them scheduled for dinner more often.

So, I was biking home from church the other day and decided to race with my companion.  It was neck and neck so I started speeding up really fast towards the end and had just passed him as we pull into our gravel driveway at about fifteen miles per hour.  I prepared to slow down to celebrate my victory by pulling my brakes.  It was at this point that I noticed that BOTH my front and back brakes had given out.  I screamed "I don't have brakes!" as I plowed straight into my companion and knocked him over into the grass.  He emerged from the accident with a bruised elbow.  I, on the other hand, skidded across the gravel driveway and tore up my hands really bad.  Fortunately, I was wearing a nice suit so the rest of my body didn't take much damage.  Unfortunately, I was wearing a nice suit so my suit doesn't look too nice anymore.  One of the ladies in the ward bandaged me up pretty well at dinner though, so I'm doing just fine.

That's about all I can think of right now.  Make sure to read the Book of Mormon!  It's a good book, I'm telling ya!  Also,l if you don't have a copy of it then I'm sure your friendly neighborhood missionaries would be happy to give you one!  Heck, invite them in as well so they can explain what it is and how we got it.  You won't regret it, I promise.

Your friend,
Elder Carter David Morgan

More salutations from Chino, CA!  This week is the last week of the transfer and I always find it to be a time of reflection.  This has been one of, if not the best transfer of my mission.  I've had an absolute blast.  It's always a non-stop party here in Walnut Park when Elder Robertson and I are together.  Not since I was trained have I ever had this much fun with my companion.  It's always great to form those mission friendships that'll last for far longer than the mission.

C is being baptized this Saturday!  We're super excited!  She's still progressing really well and her testimony grows stronger each and every day.  She has so much faith in Jesus Christ and we're so proud of her!  Her baptismal interview is today and we've already gone over the questions with her and she passed with flying colors!  We're super excited to see her enter the waters of baptism.  Our ward mission leader will be performing the baptism and I will be performing her confirmation in Sacrament Meeting the following day.  I couldn't ask for a better way to end the transfer!

And as if things couldn't get better, we have ANOTHER super solid investigator and she's great!  She's very religious and has a sincere desire to know the truth.  She says the doctrines of the Restoration, prophets, and the Plan of Salvation were like the missing pieces of a puzzle in her life.  She said they cleared up so much about God's character and put such peace in her heart!  She came to church this Sunday and told us in a text afterwards that she had a fantastic time and she can't wait to meet with us this Wednesday!  It was amazing!  She wants to learn all she can about prophets and she constantly reads the Book of Mormon to find out it's true for herself.  It's so cool to watch her progress!

One of my good friends, Elder Bringhurst, just got his visa this week.  I'll be sad to see him go, but he's really excited to serve in Brazil.  I'm the eternal visa-waiter over here.  Oh well.  If it's the nature of my calling to labor all my days among the saints of Southern California then I shall consider myself highly favored and blessed.

We had an AWESOME district meeting today about the Savior.  Well, we almost always talk about Jesus Christ but this one was especially powerful.  Our district leader, Elder Tyler, did a great job with it.  I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to devote all my time, talents, and energy to proclaiming our Savior's name wherever I go.  I even have the opportunity to wear his name over my heart every day.  How cool is that!

Read your scriptures, say your prayers, go to church.  Honestly, you'd be surprised how hard it is for some people to do that.  But trust me, it works wonders.  Do those things and God will always be able to help you along the strait and narrow path.

Your friend,
Elder Carter David Morgan

"How to Find People to Teach"

Holy cow.  May already.  How the time flies.  I can't believe I've been out for almost nine months.  And the best part?  I don't even want to go home!  I'm loving it out here!  Elder Robertson and I have been tearing it up in Walnut Park!  We've had a lot of miracles happen this week and it's been absolutely fantastic!

So, we've been trying to find new people to teach, like we always are.  So in order to find new ways to find people to teach I turned to Chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel, conveniently titled, "How Do I Find People To Teach?"  I then proceeded to take out a highlighter and highlight everything I wasn't doing as a missionary.  I found 37 things, haha.  There's room for improvement.  So we set out this week to apply the principles that we learned in Preach My Gospel and find new investigators.

Our first miracle began with a text message last Monday.  It was a referral from Mormon.org for a woman named C.  She had put in her information to meet with missionaries and wrote that she had recently gone through a loss in her family and was interested in LDS beliefs.  So we go to contact her on Tuesday and her husband answers the door and tells us that she's sleeping at the moment and that we should come back later.  So we're about to unlock our bikes from her house when we realize that one of the 37 things we weren't doing was to work in the neighborhood after contacting a referral.  So we decide to leave our bikes there and knock a few doors and help people put up their trash cans that had blown over since it was a windy day.  Well, while knocking doors we got a return appointment which was awesome, but that's not even the best part!  The best part is when we went to get our bikes we found C. sitting on her door step waiting for us!  After her husband told her that the missionaries had come looking for her she got up out of bed and looked outside where she saw our bikes.  Well, she figured that we had to come back sometime soon to get them so she sat down and waited for us to come back.  When we met her she told us about some of the trials she was having and asked who she had to talk to get more information about our church.  Uh... you're looking at them, haha.  We set up an appointment for the next day.  That appointment went over 90 minutes because of all the questions she had!  Then she set up an appointment for the next day!  She said that she believes that God has led her to our church.  She committed to read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, pray about baptism, and come to church!  She came to church this Sunday and asked tons of questions in class.  One of her concerns is that her sons don't know how to do laundry and she's worried about how that will affect them when they serve their missions, haha.  That's a a concern we can work with.

Along with C, we were able to get two of our investigators and their two girls to church for the first time this Sunday!  They've been investigating for a bit but have concerns about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  The dad really lights up whenever we talk but the mom is a little apprehensive about some things.  They've been going to a born-again mega church and said that they want to go to church where the feel the closest to God.  We told them that they would only know if they felt closest to God at ours if they came and they did!  They almost got lost and went home but we stood out on the corner while sacrament meeting was going to give them directions.  When we brought them in through the chapel doors the ward was so excited!  It was a cool sight to see the missionaries bringing in a young family.  And they loved it!  It was fast and testimony meeting so the spirit was so strong!  They especially loved how a girl about their daughter's age was able to bear her testimony over the pulpit to the whole congregation!  The mom loved Relief Society and their daughter loved Primary!  The dad said he felt really welcomed!  We're hoping they continue to come.

Those are just some of the cool things that have happened this week.  With my new companion I'm finding that I have a lot more stories from my mission than I realized I did.  The problem is that we're so busy that we hardly have times to tell these stories so I find myself saying things like, "That reminds me of the time that my companion got hit by a car.  But that's a story for another time."  Then I realize how weird my mission CURRENTLY is.  For example, I'm currently teaching an old lady with a one-eyed Boston Terrier who has a drag queen son in San Francisco.  That doesn't happen everyday.  Oh wait, it does in Southern California.  Man, California.

It's great being able to serve out here everyday.  I hope that the rest of my mission continues to be like this.  Elder Robertson is awesome.  He has so many strengths and is helping me to be the best missionary I can be.  We're really hopeful about the progress of this area and we hope to be better missionaries than we were last week.  The work is true, the Atonement is real, and I'm so glad to be a part of all of this.

Until next time,

Elder Carter David Morgan

new companion

Greetings from Chino, CA!  Things are going great out here!  I met my new missionary this week, his name is Elder Robertson!  Fun fact, his dad and my dad both served in the Veracruz, Mexico mission around the same time!  Crazy!  Elder Robertson is super cool and is really eager to learn and be a great missionary!  We've already gotten a lot of good work done together and it's only going to get better!

One of my favorite parts of being a missionary is that we get to invite others to come to Christ at any place or at any time.  We've had a lot of cool opportunities to teach people in really unconventional locations this week.  We taught two young fathers in their garage about the Plan of Salvation while we sat in camping chairs, that was pretty cool.  We also met a man outside of a trailer park who talked to us for a while and he said that he wanted to get close to God but he didn't know how so we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and told him to read and pray about it.  He told us that he hadn't prayed in two years and we said that today was an excellent time to change that and he said his first prayer on the spot!  We also got to teach a man who said his first prayer with a Book of Mormon in one hand and a cigarette in the other.  It's been a really cool week!

We continue to make good progress with our investigators.  We're looking at some baptisms in the near future!  It's going to be exciting!  I'm grateful for this opportunity I have to be out here serving the Lord.

Your friend,

Elder Carter David Morgan