Beautiful Paraguay

Well, here are some pictures. There is one of our kitchen, which is a million times better now than it was when I got here.

Our shelves of food and pamphlets.

My bedroom--Ken Kenworthy will be happy to know everyone thinks his map is awesome.

My desk, along with our chart of investigators and how they are progressing towards baptism.

There are also two of the view from our apartment.

Unfortunately we cannot take pictures while proselyting, so that may be the best you get for now. Just know that this country is beautiful. The ground is red and full of hills. The trees are green, and there are hundreds of different kinds. That street you see in the picture is the biggest highway in Paraguay--it goes from here to Asunción. And that is about the only named street in our area. Other addresses are just general distances and landmarks, which has made it a little hard to learn the area. We are doing a lot of searching for less-active members in our ward right now. There are about 600 on record. We are trying to work with ward leaders to get home teaching and other programs going to help that. One great family is the Vargas family. Lucio, the dad, is pretty much a younger John Lisonbee. They were less-active when we got here, but they love having us over to teach investigators, and they attend almost every week.

People in Paraguay are so inviting, which is a contrast from Buenos Aires. Sometimes we will just say hi and they will pull out chairs so we can teach a lesson. Part of that may be because there are missionaries of other religions who often stop by and share scriptures. These people are very religious. Sometimes we ask if they believe in Jesus Christ and they look at us like we asked if they drink water. They have a lot of faith, and many people have vivid dreams, some of which have helped them be converted. One thing we have been working on is helping people say real prayers. They are so used to reciting prayers that they don´t understand the concept. This is part of the 8 Fundamentals, which we studied in the CCM and now during our training program. Those fundamentals are great ways to apply the principles of Preach My Gospel to make our teaching effective. They are:

• The Doctrine of Christ--The Missionary Purpose (More simply: love them and baptize them)
• The Role of the Holy Ghost in Converstion
• Revelation through Prayer
• Revelation through the Book of Mormon
• Revelation through Church Attendance
• Teach People, Not Lessons
• We Invite, They Commit, We Follow Up
• How to Begin Teaching

Well, I am going to do a bit in Spanish again. Maybe I will do this every week. *El principio de ésta semana fue muy bien. Estamos trabajando MUCHO con los miembros, y es obvio que hay una diferencia en las lecciones. Junior Ramos, un joven en nuestro barrio, nos acompaña mucho. El va a ser un buen misionero. Tambien, estamos intentando a trabajar más con el líder misional de barrio, Elio Martinez, y los otros lideres. Hno Martinez es un converso reciente, pero tieno demasiado energia y testimonio.

Unfortunately, the end of the week was not as successful as we had hoped. We had one investigator at church, Chilo. That was a miracle. He is the son of Ursula, a recent convert (she is pretty much Grandmother Willow). He may even be ready to be baptized this week! We´ll see. The Aguinaga family, Freddy, Antonia, and Selva, did not attend, which is frustrating because they are so close to being ready. They know it is true, they just have to accept it. We have made progress with Junior and Perla, and he has been drinking less after we taught the word of wisdom**. He also told us he turned down a $50,000 offer to deliver drugs to Brazil because of our lessons. That´s exciting. Anibal missed church again. We really have to find out why. We also could not meet with Alejandra this week. I am going to try to keep you updated on these people, especially those who I think will be baptized, but if I ever forget to tell you about anything, feel free to ask. (Like Miguel, who has succumbed to pressure from his neighbors and does not want to visit with us anymore).

Utah is called the factory because that is where all the missionaries come from. Guarani is hard to learn, but I am picking it up little by little. Glad to hear about Romney, BYU football, and Daniel´s internship. I am so excited for him! Things are going well, overall. Last P-Day I tried to make Sopa Paraguaya. I have a lot to learn about cooking. But it was surprisingly edible. I also made no-bake cookies with some Peanut Butter that the last missionary left. Everyone in our district loved those. (Luckily those are hard to ruin). The fondo is pretty far away. I would guess about a mile. We do a lot of walking, which I enjoy. Fasting made it tough, as did the heat, which is back. But, to paraphrase a slogan from some sports company that I cannot remember, Pain is temporary but Conversion is forever. Yeah, that didn´t sound as cool as I was expecting. Pretty much we are doing all we can to help these people come to Jesus Christ, and that is what is most important. I love you all!

-Elder Wesley Morgan

*The beginning of this week was very good.  We are working A LOT with the members, and it's obvious that there is a difference in the lessons.  Junior Ramos, a young man in our ward, is accompanying us a lot.  He will be a good missionary.  Also, we are planning to work more with the ward mission leader, Elio Martinez, and the other leaders.  Brother Martinez is a recent convert, but he has a lot of energy and testimony.

**The Word of Wisdom is a law of health that was revealed to Joseph Smith by the Lord that Latter-day Saints live by.  We are promised physical and spiritual strength if we follow it.  To learn more about it, visit here.

It's Cold?!

As it says in the subject line, it is actually cold, and has been for a couple days. It's about 50-60 degrees F, which is about what it got down to in Buenos Aires. At least I can wear my suit coat and enjoy it (we are required to wear it to church and other important meetings). I also have to make sure I mention intersting cultural things about Paraguay as they come, because in a year this will all seem normal. Clapping at the gate rather than knocking on doors is no longer strange. One thing that I can count on here, without fail, is that every time I tell a member I am from Utah they say, "Ah, la fabrica," which means "the factory." Also everyone, and I mean everyone, has this certain type of chair that I will try to explain. It has a metal frame like a lawn chair, but the part you sit on is all brightly colored plastic cords (like jump ropes) weaved together. Some salesman made a lot of money off of those.

People in Paraguay are very simple, and I have had to understand that they do not think the same way as me. They are all laborers or store-keepers; there are very few intellectual jobs, except lawyers (which a lot of people want to become). They are not stupid, because 90% of them can speak two languages. But we definitely have to keep the concepts and questions in our lessons very basic. So many times we will ask people questions and they will not understand that it was a question or answer yes when it was not a yes/no question. Sometimes that is because they just weren't listening, but I think it may also be due to the different structure of Guaraní. I am actually learning a little of that every day. I can greet people, say I'm hungry, ask who is going to say the prayer, and a few other basic phrases.

I heard that David Mella got his mission call to Uruguay and is going to the Buenos Aire MTC!! That is awesome! I am so excited for him. Now, to answer your questions. A man in our ward does our laundry; we just have to leave our clothes in the church on Mondays. We do usually eat a snack at 9:30 when we get back to the apartment, but that is pretty much it unless someone feeds us while we are out. I speak only Spanish with my companion, and I try to do the same with other missionaries. I feel like my comprehension is improving, but I still have a long way to go. The people here often speak Jopará, which means they will go in and out of Guaraní and Spanish, so it is sometimes hard to follow.

*Brittany quiere que yo escriba una porción en Español, entonces, aquí está. Esta jueves tuvimos una Conferencia de Zona con Elder Jorge F. Zeballos y su esposa. Eso fue muy purete (esa es una palabra que se use acá para decir "muy bien." Nadie sabe si es Español o Guaraní). Aprendimos mucho sobre nuestro propósito como misioneros y como podemos trabajar con los miembros--muy importante para conversión. También es muy importante que ame a su compañero. Necesita enseñar con unidad y disfrutar cada momento, entonces yo necesito ser amigos mejores con cada una, aunque sea difícil. En la conferencia, vi a Elder Brown, Elder Adamson, y Elder Villar, porque incluyó todos los misioneres en Ciudad del Este y Caaguazú. Me encantó verlos, y ellos están teniendo éxito también.

Well, none of the 8 or 9 people we committed to come ot church with us actually attended. That´s including Anibal, our awesome investigator. Hopefully we´ll find out why. It may have something to do with his mother-in-law, who tells us to leave him to his own religion every time we come by. He hates that. He came with us to a lesson with Alejandra, a girl we met this week. She was awesome. She is about 15, and she says she feels a lot like Joseph Smith. She also really wants to read the Book of Mormon--apparently she had one before but her aunt took it away. Unfortunately, we can't visit her until Saturday, so we have to hope things go well until then. We also have to make sure a man over 18 is there, which is a rule for every lesson. We are finding more and more investigators and giving them baptismal dates, which is important for helping people progress. This week we met Junior, a happy young Brazilian guy who actually talked to us first. Unfortunately, he is often drunk, so we have not been able to teach him a real lesson. When he is drunk he starts going off in Portuguese (it is amazing how many people here speak that AND the other two native languages) about how much he knows about the Bible (he has studied Theology for 9 years). The Aguinaga family, Freddy, Antonia, y Selva, are doing well. They did not attend church, but they are reading and praying about baptism. They really like us and the gospel. We have been going out to the "fondo"** where they live quite often, which takes a lot of time. In "el fondo," most of the houses are just wooden boards, but they have an oven, a TV, and sometimes a sink.

Our ward mission leader gave us the idea to have a family home evenings with our investigators and members so they feel like they have friends. So, to end my letter, I´d love to hear some ideas for FHE activities. Right now all we have is videos like The Testaments, and most of the games I remember playing require English or a certain board. So if anyone has any ideas for other games to play with families, I would love to hear them. Thank you for your prayers, and know that I am praying for you too.

Con mucho amor,***
Elder Wesley Morgan

*Spanish translation (with zero help from Danny, thank you very much):

Brittany wanted me to write part in Spanish, so, here it is.  This Thursday we had a zone conference with Elder Jorge F. Zeballos and his wife.  This was very "purete" (this is a word that they use here to say "very good."  Nobody knows if it's Spanish or Guaraní).  We learned a lot about our purpose as missionaries and how we should work with the members--very important for conversion.  It's also very important that you love your companion.  You need to teach with unity and enjoy every moment, so I need to be better friends with each one, although it may be difficult.  In the conference, I saw Elder Brown, Elder Adamson, and Elder Villar, because it included all the missionaries in Ciudad del Este and Caaguazú.  I love seeing them, and they were also excited.

**I had to ask Danny this one.  It basically means the boondocks.

***With much love

Feelin' Stronger Every Day

Mom, I hope you got the Chicago reference*. It was great to hear your encouraging words and the news about Truman. Sorry that last week's letter was so short, and I forgot to mention a lot of things. My companion's name is Leonardo Izurieta, and I attached a picture of him. He is 24 and lives in Buenos Aires. He has only been out here 3 transfers (3 months being trained in Obrero, Asuncion and 6 weeks here as Junior Companion), but he is now District Leader and my trainer. He is a little worried about handling all that responsibility, but he does it well. It is just the two of us in the apartment, which is even dirtier than the Taj at Mack's Inn. But I am working very hard on cleaning it up. Our goal is to one day be able to walk around the rooms without flip flops. As I explained last week, this city has red dirt everywhere, so pretty much every floor in every building gets the bottom of your feet orange. I have also killed quite a few roaches, which makes me think of that Missionary Impossible game. I will have to play that when I get back. I am sure I will laugh a lot.

Elder Izurieta and Elder Morgan

Also, I think Paraguay is just always hot. It gets down to 70 degrees and these people put on jackets. I think winter just means it rains a little more often, but that has only happened twice while I have been here, and it was not very much. As far as food goes, we eat cereal or oatmeal every morning, and then we cook lunch or eat with a member. We do not eat dinner, which was hard for me at first, but I have adjusted to that (as has my belt). The food is great! I have already tried mandioca, a potato-like vegetable that they eat a lot, and and nísperos, some yellow sour grapes, among other things. Also, I feel like an important part of every mission is the street snacks. Have I already mentioned Alfajors? They had them in BA, and they are here, too. I love them so much. There is also Chipa, which is a cheesy bread you can get pretty much anywhere. I love it all.

Mandioca

Life in Paraguay is always an adventure. So far as I can tell, the word crosswalk does not exist in Spanish. We run across highways, hike across cobblestone roads, hitchike with crazy people, and ride packed buses. We really have run into a lot of weird people. Some other religions, who I will not mention specifically, have some messed-up ideas. This guy yesterday was sure that we were American spies, even though he has attended our church and seen that everyone in the ward is native. At the same time, we have also run into a lot of people who have definitely been prepared by the Lord, such as people who were baptized a long time ago or have read the Book of Mormon. I know that if you have faith and pray for guidance, the Lord will lead you to those who are ready to hear your message. Just don't be afraid to talk to them!



Welcome to the Paraguay Asuncion Mission!

Now, the most important part: investigators. Right now we only have one investigator who is truly progressing. His name is Anibal, and he is golden. He wants to come early to help clean the chapel, and he just loves everything about the church. He is married, and he might have some opposition from his family. Other than that, he accepts every lesson and is always feeling the spirit. We are lucky to have people like that. Joel and Dolly, our great family from last week could not attend church because they were moving, but they are building a house in our area. We would love to keep teaching them once they move back. There is also Sergio and Blásida, who did not attend church yesterday, even though they were sure they would. We will find out why and decide if we need to push their baptismal date. They have three little girls, so the church would be great for them, but it is hard for all of them to get there. We have a lot of people who could be ready for baptism in the next few weeks, so hopefully September will be full of baptisms! I attended my first on Saturday, done by Elder Dyer and Elder Bravo in our ward. They are really great missionaries. And that made me really want to help people get baptized! We are studying and working hard, so we hope to see some miracles. I love you all!

-Elder Wesley Morgan

P.S. Elder Hinton, who Daniel and several of my friends know, is in my district! He has been pretty sick, so please pray for him, as I hope you do for everyone I mention in these letters. :)

*The subject of Wesley's email/title of this blog post is the title of a song by the group Chicago.

Pictures from Buenos Aires!

The MTC!  In Buenos Aires, it is on the temple grounds.



Elder Morgan's District in the MTC

All the District Leaders

The Buenos Aires Temple at night

Elder Morgan at the Buenos Aires Temple

Newly renovated Buenos Aires Temple.  Elder Morgan and his district got to go in a few times to help get it cleaned up and ready for the open house.

A classroom in the MTC

One of the bunk beds in the missionary dorm rooms

Elder Morgan with Elder Amodio - the crazy elder from Italy

Elder Cuases (a favorite missionary) and Elder Morgan

Elder Morgan and Elder Paredes (another favorite)

Elder Sorensen and Elder Morgan - nice ties!  Somebody also went to Missionary Mall before leaving Utah.

Elder Morgan with Elder Viana from Uruguay.  It is Elder Viana's dream to go to BYU in Provo after his mission, so Wesley gave him his BYU Men's Chorus t-shirt.  Awww!

"The Tres Leches" - Elder Brown, Elder Cutler, and Elder Morgan, threesome companionship in the MTC

Elder Mendoza, MTC companion for the last two weeks.  This was Elder Morgan's first Latino companion!

Short Email

So with the pictures*, I do not have time to write much more. I have an hour every week to email family and Presidente Agazzani. Next week I should be able to write to the other people I love. Suffice it to say that it has been a tough first week. I am pretty stressed about all I have to do and become. I know I did a lot to prepare, but I still feel pretty inadequate, especially in Spanish. (if any missionary ever thinks he can wait until the mission to learn a language, gain testimony or read the Book of Mormon/Preach My Gospel, he is in for a smack in the face). I know that there are a lot of people praying for me, and with the Lord, all things are possible. Also, as many people have advised me to do, I am not going to write much in these letters about me. My mission is not about me, it is about the people I am serving. I will tell you a bit about how I am doing and what the place is like, of course. Speaking of which, my area is Ciudad del Este 2.2. It is the second largest city in Paraguay and there are a lot of missionaries here ("2.2¨ means 2nd companionship in the 2nd ward). The ground is red/orange and rocky, and we walk a lot. It is like one big hiking trip in southern Utah. Thank my awesome scout leaders for preparing me. The people are wonderful. They have so little, but they are always feeding us. I feel like Elijah (1 Kings 17). I am getting to know all our investigators, members, and inactives. We have seen a few small miracles, and I hope to see more. Joel and Dolly are our golden family. We happened to find him walking on the same road as us, and they are so receptive. We have another young family, Cristian and Mariela, who we just met. They are a little tougher, because they are solid in what they already believe. But I am sure when they recognize the truth they will change. There is also Miguel, a teenager our age who moved from Buenos Aires to get away from a bad group of friends. We just challenged him to quit smoking, so please pray for him. I will also pray for Aunt Karen, and the others who need help back home. It is great to hear how people are doing ESPECIALLY mission calls. Love hearing about those. This truly is the Lord´s work.

With love as always,
Elder Wesley Morgan

*Elder Morgan also emailed a bunch of pictures, which is what took up most of his email time.  We will be posting those on the blog soon, so keep an eye out!

Finally Where I Belong

Just sending you a quick email to assure you that I have arrived safely in Asuncion Paraguay. It`s the middle of winter and it is hot and humid. I cannot express to you how happy I am to finally be here. It was also great to have a few letters waiting for me here. President Agazzani seems awesome. Travel was safe, and a lot shorter than last time. And Elder Cuases, one of my good friends from the CCM, and I handed out pamphlets at the airport. Trying to hit the ground running. Love ya!

-Elder Morgan

Grande Eres Tu

Here is a video of Elder Morgan and some of the elders in his district singing "Grande Eres Tu" ("How Great Thou Art").