Unusual Happenings at EHS

Greetings from Osasco, SP!  Transfers are upon us and Elder Guamangallo will be leaving the area for bigger adventures and greener pastures.  I, however, will stay here with our appropriately sized adventures and nice-shade-of-green-not-too-green pastures.  My new companion will be Elder Da Silva, a Brazilian, so I´m pretty psyched about that.

We had an AWESOME contact this week!  We were walking down the street and we saw a woman walking briskly in our direction.  Sometimes if people are walking too fast I don´t like to stop them because they might be in a big rush or going for a run, and since I used to run a bit back home I know it´s annoying to be stopped.  But we decided to stop her anyway and we met a great woman!  In our little conversation that we had on the street she told us that the moment she saw us she thought, "If those two young men stop me then it´ll be a sign from God."  She was so receptive to our message that she agreed to be baptized right in the middle of the contact!  We´re going to work with her a lot this week and hope things pan out, seeing as she has a smoking and drinking problem.

A member brought a new family to church this week!  Luckily they live in our area so we´ll start teaching them soon.  They´re a young couple with a young child and they´ve been thinking about getting baptized in a church.  We´re hoping to make some good progress with them too!

We teach a recent convert here in the ward named Luzia.  She´s older and was born blind.  She is also the nicest woman on the planet.  She´s so sincere and since she can´t do much for us she tries to do little things to show her appreciation.  For example, we mentioned our birthdays once to her three months ago and she memorized them and remembers them to this day.  She told us that she´ll never forget them.  The pure love of Christ just radiates from her.

The youth of the church here in Brazil are downright punks!  Not really, but I´ve struck up some pretty good friendships with most of them so we like to joke around.  I sat down in Priesthood this Sunday and one of them tapped me on the shoulder and said that I was in the wrong class and that the young women were meeting down the hall.  Downright punks, I say!  In return, I usually just tell them that I´m superior because I come from the best country on Earth.  I also refer to one of them, Junior, as my "irmão preto," which just means "black brother."  In return, I am his "irmão branco" or "white brother."

As I´ve heard of some unusual happenings at my old school, Evergreen High School, let´s all remember to follow the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and show mercy for those in unfortunate circumstances and not judge them in an unrighteous way.  At the same time, let´s remember that we can NEVER condone sin and must support the just punishments for certain actions.  While it´s difficult to seperate the sin from the sinner, I believe that this ability is one of the highest marks of a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

Your friend,

Elder Carter David Morgan

Another week

Greetings from Osasco, SP!  This week was good!  Elder Guamangallo and I have been focusing on talking with EVERYONE!  Since we live in a pretty big city, "everyone" can mean a lot of people.  The mission has a goal that each companionship should talk with 20 different people each day and this week Elder Guamangallo and I talked with 100 people in one day!  It was awesome!

We were able to teach a mother and her ten year-old daughter this week, which was awesome.  You could really tell during the lesson that she just GOT IT.  She was really interested in reading the Book of Mormon and has promised to come to church this week.  She can´t be baptized yet because she´s living with her boyfriend and they´re not married, which is a huge problem in Brazil.  But you know what´s crazy?  Even though she´s been living with this guy for ten years, out of the blue they decided to go ahead and actually get married about a week before we met them!  They´ve already set a date at the courthouse and everything!  I took this as a big sign that God has been preparing them to meet with us.

It´s been absolutely pouring everyday here, which is good fun.  The good news is that it only usually lasts for two hours or so each day.  The bad news is that you can NEVER TELL WHEN IT WILL HAPPEN.  It´s like a flash flood everyday!

That´s about it!  Thanks for the prayers!

Your friend,
Elder Morgan

Happy New Years!

Happy 2015, everyone!  While the holidays were great, São Paulo gets a little deserted during this part of the year and the only people left on the streets are the drunks, haha.  The whole mission is excited for things to get a little bit back to normal, haha.

We contacted an address that we had picked up earlier this week in an apartment complex.  We got buzzed in just fine but when we got to the apartment we found out it was the wrong guy!  I guess there was some sort of confusion with addresses, but this new guy, Osmar, was super cool and we were able to teach him about the Restoration.  He was super interested and it was a great lesson, but his work schedule is pretty crazy so it´ll be a longer road with him.

We´re trying hard to work with the members of the ward down here, particularly the Priests.  We´re starting to do a lot of exchanges with them so they can get a feel of missionary work.  I wish I had done things like that before my mission.

As a mission we have permission to watch the Disney movie Malificent today.  I´m super excited!  I bought a copy from a vendor on the street for a buck today!  It´s probably totally illegal, but I love Brazil!

That´s about it for this week!  New Years is a great time to look towards the future and think about how we can move forward in our lives with the Savior.  The Church made a great video about this which I´ve included at the bottom.  It´s based off a much larger Elder Holland BYU devotional, which everyone should read if they have the time.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrZij9MSTRI

Devotional: https://www.lds.org/liahona/2010/01/the-best-is-yet-to-be?lang=eng

Your friend,
Elder Morgan

Your friend,

Elder Morgan

Christmas

Greetings from Osasco, SP!  We had a really good week down here!  Elder Guamangallo and I opened the area and it´s been a lot of building, but this week we´ve seen the Lord bless us and our hard work pay off.  Here´s some of the cool stuff that happened this week:

First off, we had an AWESOME mission Christmas party!  It was at the church owned camp in Caucaia, sort of the country of São Paulo, and it was beautiful.  At the party I got to see my original MTC district again, this time a year and a half later.  The ban on soccer was also lifted for a couple hours which made a lot of elders really happy.  We also presented our skit as a zone and it went great!  That was a lot of fun, although acting is a lot harder in Portuguese, haha.

Elder Guamangallo and I found a family this week!  They live on a street close to our house and as we were walking to begin our work for the day we struck up a conversation with the mom who invited us in to teach her, her husband, and her two teenage children.  They´ve all agreed to be baptized, which is awesome!  We have another appointment with them tomorrow and we´re hoping everything works out great.

We also taught a man named Marco, a referral from the orchestra concert at the church.  He´s in his fifties and has a young family and is totally open to anything about Christ.  We taught him about the Restoration and left a Book of Mormon, which he agreed to read with care.  We invited him to church and he said he would definitely come, as long as nothing came up at the last minute.  We agreed to call him an hour before church but when we tried to we found out that we had the wrong number!  We were a little worried so we said a prayer as a companionship and asked God that he would remind Marco of the commitment he made to go to church.  When we got to church he wasn´t there, which was disappointing.  I went to use the bathroom and when I came back guess who my companion was talking with in the chapel?  That´s right, Marco!  It was awesome!  The sacrament meeting was absolutely great, all about the Atonement, and Marco really enjoyed it.  He even read the Book of Mormon passage we left with him!  We´re excited for him!

That´s about it for this week.  Keep the faith!

Your friend,

Elder Carter David Morgan

Chicken Hearts and Testimony

Greetings from Osasco, SP!  Things are going well down here in the beautiful land of jungles and smog and we had a lot of fun this week in the Novo Osasco B area.  Here´s the down low:

After district meeting while we were waiting to do follow-up with our district leader, we started a foosball competition with the zone using the table that the church has.  Elder Lopes, a missionary from Cape Verde, and I totally DOMINATED.  Six games in a row, baby!  I give him the credit, as I think foosball may be the national sport of Cape Verde.  I have no information to base this claim off of, but I´m going to go with it.

I definitely ate a chicken heart this week.  Wait, scratch that.  I ate FOUR chicken hearts this week!  I guess it´s kind of a delicacy here in Brazil.  Why they eat chicken hearts, I do not know.  It´s cheaper to buy lunch meat down here than chicken hearts, haha.

Had a great experience this week where we were working in one of the poorer parts of our area.  An appointment had fallen through so we stopped to say a prayer and ask for direction on what we should do.  We felt prompted to continue a bit further into the neighborhood and walked until we hit a dead end.  There we met a family, introduced ourselves as servants of Jesus Christ, and were able to pick up a lot of investigators because of it!  You never know how the Lord is preparing his children to hear the Gospel.

We had Elder W. Rodriguez´s birthday party this week at a member´s home.  It was pretty awesome, mostly because I got to drink Guarana and eat cake with Kit Kat bars.

That´s about it for this week.  Keep the faith!

Your friend,

Elder Carter David Morgan

Merry December, from Elder Morgan!  I´ll admit, I´m a little homesick for the cold December weather of home, seeing as we´re about to head into summer down here.  But that doesn´t change the fact that the work is good and we´re having lots of fun!

To start off, it rained A TON this past week.  Like, a ton.  The first time we camped out under a gas station for an hour or so just waiting for it to pass because it was coming down in sheets.  Elder Guamangallo and I have a knack for carrying around our umbrellas all day on the days it DOESN´T rain, and then not bringing them the days it does.  We´re not very good at predicting the weather apparently, haha.

(Me waiting in the rain)

(This shows you how crazy the rain is here)

We also had our zone conference this week, which was fun.  It´s always great to hear from the Mission President.  President Del Guerso is a great guy and his words were very inspiring.  He talked about how we shouldn´t judge others becaue everyone is at a different moment of spirituality in their lives, and even though we may be at a high point there might be others that are at a low.  It definitely made me think.  We also got to watch the Pixar short, "One Man Band," which is hilarious.

Also at zone conference I got to see some of my old friends.  I´ve included pictures of Sister Culp and I, both trying to do sporty things.  As you can see, we don´t know a lot about sports.

The Portuguese is coming along well and I rarely feel totally lost anymore, but by some weird stroke of luck all of my church leaders have the WEIRDEST accents.  My bishop, ward mission leader, and mission president all sound like they came from Mars, not Brazil.  It´s always fun in coordination meetings, especially because our ward mission leader likes to speak English with me, but quite frankly I can´t tell what language he´s speaking at all.  "What, Irmão Adão?  Are you speaking English or Portuguese?"  Good times, good times.

During lunches with our ward members, Elder W. Rodriguez constantly introduces my companion as a Peruvian, even though he´s from Ecuador.  Not sure what that´s about, but I think it´s pretty dang funny.

My nickname of "Captain" from California has continued in Brazil, only this time I´m "Cápitan America."  It´s pretty sick.  I got this nickname mostly because I like to give the other elders a hard time by pointing at random objects such as cups, floors, pencils, or the sky, and saying, "You know who invented that?  An American."

Okay, weird story of the week.  While contacting a potential investigator a woman that we didn´t recognize came out of the neighboring house.  We asked her about her neighbor and she gave us some information.  She then saw our nametags and asked if we were men of God.  When we told her that we most certainly were she hugged me, kissed me on the cheek, and then did the same to my companion, all while we stood as stiff as a board.  She then began weeping, put a cross keychain in my shirt pocket, and went back inside, praising God.  Not sure what that was about, but hopefully it helped her.

Things about Brazil:

- Stroganaff is, like, the king of all meals here in Brazil.  Everyone loves it, and I must admit that it´s pretty dang good.

- Brazilians think that McDonald´s is LEGIT.  Like, straight up fancy.  It´s considered high class.

- Snow is fascinating to Brazilians.  My roommates were legitimately shocked when I told them that, yes, I had indeed seen snow in my life.

That´s about it for me.  Thanks!

Your friend,

Elder Carter David Morgan

- Beijo e braco

Greetings from São Paulo, Brazil!  This past week has been fun and I'm acclamating to Brazil.  I was able to see three members of my original MTC district, which was nice.  It was good being able to catch up with them after a year apart in the states.

Went to one of the Mission Councils this week.  There I saw Elder Nissinen and Elder Jacobsen, two of my friends that were serving in Rancho Cucamonga with me.  We ate lunch together and had a good time laughing and reminiscing about the good ol' days of California.

I gave a talk at the meeting for new missionaries this week.  I attended because my companions were giving a training.  The talk went as well as you could expect a talk given by some with one week of Portuguese would go, haha.  But it was cool because at that meeting I ran into my very first companion in the Provo MTC, Elder Thomas.    It was good to catch up with him.

I did exchanges with one of the Assitants, Elder Sales, and we worked all day in a Brazillian favela, which was good fun.  The people here have very open hearts, especially when it comes to the Gospel.  The people were very hospitable and kind to us.

Yesterday was my birthday and I spent it in the hospital, haha.  While working in the favela I got bitten by some weird sort of mosquito and had an allergic reaction to it.  I was covered in TONS of red spots for a day or two, which I thought were just normal mosquito bites at first.  But then I noticed that I kept getting lumps without mosquitos so we left church early and went to the hospital, which is fortunately in our area.  The doctors informed me that it was nothing serious and that after a few shots and pills that I'd be completely fine.  The medicine made me super sleepy though and the doctor said I had to rest for the day, so in the end I got what every missionary wants for their birthday, a seven hour nap!  It was pretty awesome.

That's about if for this week!  Até mais!

Seu amigo,

Elder Morgan

November 10, 2014

I'm leaving the office tomorrow to open a new area in the city of Osasco!  I'm excited!  The office has been fun, but it's time for me to spread my wings and fly.  I'll be living in a house with two other Brazilians and my companion, who's from Ecuador.  I'll be the only American so my Portuguese is going to get really good, haha.

Had to speak English a couple times this week because of Americans that came into the mission office.  We only have one other American here and he's kind of forgotten how to speak English.  It's pretty funny, haha.

Thing about Brazil:

- Dryers aren't really a thing down here.  Clothes lines for us!

I don't have a ton of time to write today.  The church is true, the book is azul!  Dang it, that doesn't have the same ring to it in Portuguese.

Ate mais!

Your friend,
Elder Carter David Morgan

November 17, 2014

Greetings from Osasco, São Paulo!  Elder Guamangallo and I arrived in the new Novo Osasco B area this Tuesday and have been working hard ever since!  Opening a new area has definitely been interesting, but Elder Guamangallo has served around her before and knows a little bit about the layout of the streets, so that combined with our trusty map and the natural sense of direction I have that comes from my slight resemblance of a Native American has really helped us out a lot.

Elder Guamangallo is pretty sick.  He has roughly the same time on his mission as me and is a super tall, super chill Ecuadorian.  Also, absolutely no one in Brazil can pronounce his name.  I´ve looked up all the Portuguese words that begin with "gua" and have begun introducing him as various objects during contacts.  It´s pretty fun.

My companion:  Elder G. 

Me standing awkwardly in Osasco

We arrived in the Novo Osasco B area to discover that we´re rooming in an apartment the size of a shoebox with two other elders and one bathroom.  Four elders.  One bathroom.  The mornings are always interesting, but good.    I´m a regular speed demon when it comes to the shower now.

In my move from the office to Osasco I accidentally left my sandals, so I had to bust out the white temple slippers and wear those around the house.  They look pretty sick.  But you may be asking yourself, "Elder Morgan, what do you do when you´re in the shower?"  Well folks, that´s what grocery bags tied around your feet are for.  Brazil has only upped my level of class.

Since we opened an area, we didn´t really have any investigators.  Like, at all.  But we found a lot this week!  Among them are a woman named Silva, who´s Catholic and deals with a lot of health issues but we had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon and we should be meeting with her again tonight.

It started POURING one day this week and we didn´t have our umbrellas so we asked the owner of a small shop if we could stay there for a bit.  Brazilians are super nice and she said yes and we talked a bit about the Bible and some of her favorite scriptures.  We talked about how we have another testament of Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon, and left her with a copy and a return appointment.  She was a pleasant woman and hopefully we see some progress there.

It turns out I´m the first American missionary in the Novo Osasco ward in about a year, so the ward´s pretty excited.  It´s funny to hear some of the members try to speak English with me, because quite frankly I can understand their Portuguese better than their English, haha.

I´ve been getting a lot of questions about food.  The food here is really good.  Meat, beans, potatoes, rice.  Pretty much that.  Quite frankly, I had more sketchy meals in the states.  Things like "It´s an organic chicken-spinach combination without the chicken!  Instead it´s been replaced with tofu!"  What the heck, people?  We could all learn a little from these Brazilians down here.  Also, lunch is the main meal and we have it with members and they feed you a ton, so you don´t really have to have dinner.  You just stuff yourself at lunch and work the rest of the day.  A big money and time saver.

Things about Brazil:

- There´s about one millions dogs that roam the streets of São Paulo.  They are homeless and I want to help all of them.  However, they will bite you if you try to pet them.  I may or may not know this by experience.  My dream is to figure out a way to charm the dogs, become their leader, and be followed around the streets by twenty loyal attack dogs.

- My first name, Carter, is INCREDIBLY strange to Brazilians.  Like, they´ve never heard it before, can´t even begin to think how you´d spell it, and I have to repeat it several times before it registers with them.  It´s pretty funny.

- Brazilian juice?  SUPER good.  We get it with every meal.

- Guarana, the soda, is the In N´ Out of Brazil.  At first you have it and think, "Why on Earth does everyone love this so much?  It´s not that good."  Then you have it a few more times and realize that it´s the nectar of the Gods.

That´s out it for this week.  Thanks for the prayers, I certainly need them!

Your friend,

Elder Carter David Morgan

November 24, 2014

Greetings from Osasco, SP!  Another good week down here in the land of Guarana and chocolate pizza.  We had the ward primary program this week, which was good fun.  The missionaries were invited to sing the "We are as the army of Helaman" song, which was good fun.  What was not good fun was the fact that I don´t have the words memorized in Portuguese so my wardmate had to frantically scribble them into my planner so I wouldn´t look like a total idiot, haha.  Everything worked out in the end, though.

Our zone is preparing a skit for the upcoming Mission Christmas party.  The skit is Lehi hosting a dinner for various characters throughout the scriptures.  I play Mormon, and I have the killer line (made my yours truly) of looking at the dishes on the table, acting indignant, and saying "Sorry, I only use golden plates." Buh dum, kish.

Apparently all Brazilians think that all Americans are rich and beautiful.  So you can imagine their disappointment when I showed up instead, haha.  I was told by a member that my accent doesn´t seem American, but rather Russian, whatever that´s supposed to mean.  My companion also said that I don´t look American, but European.  I asked him what he thought Americans look like and he said "Red hair, blue eyes."  These people have a lot to learn about America, haha.

I was reunited with my flip flops this week, so I don´t have to use my temple slippers anymore, a welcome change.

There are visa-waiters here too, but they´re Brazilians who are waiting on visas to Angola.  We are a mighty and proud people.  We cannot be surpressed!

The ward had a baptism this week!  It was an older, blind woman and it was really cool!  She´s the relative of an active member and she was so sweet and grateful for the ordinance.

We taught an investigator this week who said that he KNOWS that we´re sent from God because we speak unusually well Portuguese for the time we´ve both been in Brazil.  The gift of tongues is certainly real and it was nice to see it used as a testament of our sacred calling.

Things about Brazil:

- You know how everyone and their dog told me in the United States that I looked like Jacob Black?  Well, Twilight´s not as popular here so now the new thing is that everyone asks me if I´m related to J.P. Morgan.  Also, my zone leader looks EXACTLY like Edward from Twilight.  I´ll have to get a picture.

- Milk comes in boxes here, not jugs.  This is actually kind of nice, because it keeps for a lot longer and you don´t have to refrigerate it until a day or two before you use it.  This way you don´t have to buy a whole other fridge just for milk coughcouchMorganscoughcough.

- In case you haven´t already tried it, put maple syrup on your ice cream.  It´s a thing down here and it´s sooooo good.

That´s about it for this week!  Keep the faith!

Your friend,
Carter David Morgan