I'll Be Home for Christmas... if only by way of Skype

Sorry I did not explain everything last week. As I said, I was pretty sick. But I miraculously felt better the next day! I am here in Asunción, Barrio Amambay (one of the oldest in Paraguay). There are two sister missionaries who share the ward with us. The name is one of the few that is not based on the location. If you want to look up it on a map, look for Mercado 4. That is the big market with a lot of shops, poor people, and streets to avoid. We are right on the border between the two missions.

I was just thinking about Brother Buss when this ward was doing tithing settlements (fudge!). He was such a nice man. I can´t believe Danny had never seen It´s a Wonderful Life. I guess he will be even jollier now. If that´s possible.

We´ll talk tomorrow, so I won´t write too much. We have been busy this week with a zone conference, travelling to three other areas to study or teach with other missionaries, and just knocking on a lot of doors trying to find people (that is not something I ever had to do much of before). I just want to share one experience I had while on a companion exchange with Elder Speedy in Centro (one of the only areas in the mission more urban than ours). On the street we started talking to a Dutch man whose accent and blond hair made him seem very much like an Indiana Jones villain. I have never had someone attack my testimony like that (and in my own language). He basically said, "I am much older than you and I have investigated every religion there is. You don´t know that your religion is true, neither can you convince me. Religion just causes wars, I have my own relationship with God. Your religion does not accept people the way they are. People cannot change." Wow, that must be what missionaries in Europe have to deal with all the time (I worry about Elder Claypool often--he has it a lot harder than I do in many ways). I have only ever had to fight against corrupt tradicions with weak logic. Never have I had someone here say things like that so aggressively, but also very logically. It startled me, but I testified to him that I know what I have felt is an answer from God, and this much good could not come from a false religion. I tried to teach that the Atonement of Christ means that people CAN change, but he would not let us say much at all. Though it may not have helped him, it strengthened me. I felt like Jacob agains Sherem, or one of the other Book of Mormon prophets. I now know that our faith needs to be tried and tested if it is to become "unshakable."

-Elder Wesley Morgan

In the big city

Well, there you have a picture of my new companion, Elder Knudsen, and I. He is 24 and Argenitnian (very familiar). He was a Zone Leader in the neighboring zone back in Ciudad del Este, so I had met him once or twice. He is very laid-back and a great leader. He is patient with me as I learn, especially since he was also made a leader quite young in the mission. I really have been so lucky with companions. I was honestly expecting 8 of the 12 (average number of companions for a mission) to be full of trouble. I believe both of my past companions will soon be Zone Leaders and all of my future companions for the next space of time will have to be. What a blessing the Lord has given me.

That being said, I am sure I will have plenty of excitement with those I lead. We have already had to send one Elder out to an area in the middle of no where for his last few weeks of the mission for touching and threatening members. His companion. Elder Bravo--my friend from the last district, will have to be in a trio for this transfer. This week we also did studies with Elder Pavon, who just came from Mexico. It still seems like last week that the Zone Leader´s did that with me my first week. I think that helped me relate to him and give him the encouragment and advice he needed.

This city [Asunción] is huge, though my area is smaller than the last. There are lot of people who have pretty much nothing, a large market, and some very rich people. We also happen to have a lot of Koreans in our area, most of whom speak only Korean and the missionares have had zero success with them. Could you send me a few Korean phrases, like how to say hello a few differnt ways and "We are Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints"? It may not convert them right away, but is a start. Maybe I will be able to communicate with Liz Hilton when she gets back. :)

We do a lot of walking, it is very hot, and I am fairly sick today (let´s hope it goes away soon). But hey, I know without a doubt that we are blessed for hard work. We only have one investigator I´ll mention this week. Her name is Vanina, and after a few lessons she says she has prayed and know the church is true. We just have to overcome family opposition and get her to church (it is like Maria again but 10 years younger). The members are a great support, so we will do our best to work with them as much as possible. I am definitely overomcing one of my last challenges--learning their names and the streets here--a lot faster than my last area. There are actually street names and numbers! Woohoo!

I don´t know how to say Merry Christmas in Guaraní...probably Navidad Porá! Haha you probably didn´t laugh at that as much as I did.

Rohayhu (I love you)

-Elder Morgan

Pictures from last week:

One of the pictures of Elder Morgan's hand signals from a lesson on prayer

Elder Morgan's newest investigator... just kidding!  His face is awesome in this picture.

Elder Morgan's new companion... just kidding again!

The last of the red dirt roads we'll be seeing for awhile now that Elder Morgan is in the city

Elder Nielsen and Elder Morgan at a ward activity

"And we have Lidia, her son, and Hermano Brisuela (Alma 13:24). He is pretty much my hero. Elder Nielsen thinks he is one of the 3 Nephites..."

 

What a week!

So, I had quite a few pictures to send you, none of which are working right now. I will try to send them next week. Grrr. I did take pictures of a Family Home Evening doing the hand signals lesson, me with a monkey, and a beautiful part of our area we went to for our ward party on Saturday. That was the infamous 8th of December, when many people travel (including walking) to visit the monument to the Virgin of Ca´acupé. It is a pretty big holiday, so members usually have an activity since the pilgrimage is obviously only for Catholics. Really though, we went out to that amazing part of our area twice this week, and it is gorgeous. This area is very big, and I do not think missionaries have been out there in a while. I am sure that field is white and ready to harvest. The one person we have been teaching out there is named Lidia. She is amazing. I wish I could tell you how many miralces and coincidences it took just to get to our first lesson, but I do not have time. In the words of Inigo Montoya, "I will sum up." She has come to church three weeks in a row now, and last Friday when we could not find anyone to teach we decided to go try to find the house of Hermano Brisuela, who told us about her. He is living here temporarily, but he is a returned missionary and has already taught her a lot of the lessons. She studied to be a nun but left because she realized it was not true. She has searched for the true church all her life and when we taught the first lesson she knew that the Bible supports everything we do. She has to come to this man´s house at nights so she can read the Book of Mormon and get answers to her questions because the people she lives with hit her children and have threatened to destroy any Book of Mormon they see. So even the situation at the beginning of that lesson was just a powerful testament that this is the true church. The Spirit got more powerful as we shared the story of Joseph Smith, and she easily accepted the invitation to be baptized THIS SATURDAY.

Unfortunately, Maria did not get baptized. We had an awesome lesson with her and the bishop where she said she would skip her meetings and come back to church...and then the night before her family said they would disown her. She said she will try to work with them. It was so disappointing. This has happened to me a few times in the mission, and it happened to two other missionaries in our district the same night. I still have hope for her, she has an incredible testimony. Unfortunately, she really wants me to baptize her, but that will not happen. We got a phone call yesterday from President Agazzani. Apparently I am going to be a Zone Leader*. I was shocked. I am the youngest missionary to be a Zone Leader as long as anyone can remember. I am thankful to the Lord for the experiences and abilities (like Spanish, which I did not have before the mission) he has given to me to prepare for this. I know that it does not make me any better than any other missionary. I am still very nervous to have so much responsibility, but a member we visited happened to give me exactly the scripture I needed--1 Kings 3:5-15. I also have Joshua 1:5-9, which helped me in the CCM as a District Leader. I don´t know where or with whom, but I am sure this will be quite the ride!

I have been reading those Christmas stories, which are quite nice. I definitely have a lot more of Christmas here than in many other countries: we still see the occasional tree, lights, or Santa Claus. I always love hearing about how the family is doing, and I was very excited to see that Jackie Clark is going to Indianapolis! That is so cool. I hope she gets sent to our Indy 2nd ward at some point.  Both of my companions have been great, but Elder Nielsen did work harder and was a little more obedient. I feel good about how I am leaving this area. He will be training a new missionary who gets to start off with an awesome baptism. There is also Alfredo and Fabiola, a great couple who has come to church a couple times. We will see what the future holds. Please keep praying for me, I am going to need it!

Love,
Elder Wesley Morgan

*In a mission, each companionship is part of a district, which is usually made of 4 to 8 missionaries.  (Remember when Elder Morgan was called to be a district leader in the CCM?)  A zone is made up of several districts, and Elder Morgan has been called to be in charge of one of the zones in his mission!  As he said, it is very rare for an elder this young to be called to this position.  But we all know Elder Morgan is awesome, so I don't think anyone is surprised.  :)

December has already arrived!

Time sure flies! It still seems like a few weeks ago that I was saying goodbye to you at the airport. Now I might be in the last week of of my first area. We´ll talk about that in a minute. First as always, the children of God that we are teaching. Maria is amazing to teach. We reviewed the baptismal interview and she will definitely pass it. She just has to find a way to get out of those meetings to get a house...or just not go to them. I don´t want to tell her to do that, because she has been going to them all year and it seems like she is close to getting one. But they seem like a scam to me and I know that obeying the Lord and being baptized (2 Nephi 31:11-12) will do her more good than anything else. We´ll see what we can do. We had FOUR people in church this week, two of which were actually in church last week, we just didn´t know! It is a lady who lives way out in the edge of our area, and a less-active member we did not even know has been bringing her.

There is also Alfredo and Fabiola Caceres who came to church. They are very intelligent, open people. I really enjoy teaching them. We just answer their questions and testify of what we know. It is awesome when people just understand. Pedro and Olga Caceres (they are not related so far as we know) are pretty similar. He always has a lot of questions about things like Polygamy and the Fall, but if we give him a scripture to read and a few days to think about it, he always feels the Spirit and gets to the right conclusion. He now understands the principle of obedience and revelation (how the Lord can change the laws of the church such as polygamy) better than a lot of members. We have one other couple, Ever and Perla, who could also progress. Our goal is to teach all of them with at least one member this week. We did not get our goal of 20 lessons with a member present, but that is okay. We are always learning better ways to work in this area.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about Vincent last week! He was my first lesson in English here in Paraguay. He was a Brazilian American who just travels around the world on his bike. He is pretty much a hobo, but he is pretty smart and loves nature. It was such an interesting lesson. I did enjoy testifying in English. I never realized that missionaries probably have to explain the language of prayer (thee/thou).

One thing we did to work more with the members was have a fun family home evening with the Portillo family (picture attached). I made snickerdoodles, which they and my companion loved (I gave him the recipe and he just made them again today). We had forgotten about Thanksgiving, so at dinner with them we all talked about things we were thankful for. It was a bit more comical than at home, but it is good to laugh with the members. I have been a bit disappointed with the lack of success so far with Elder Nielsen. I think I expected that when I got a missionary who was so obedient and experienced we would just baptize the whole world. But I have come to realize we may have been put together not so that we could have a lot of success now, but so that we could learn things to bring more success to the Lord´s work later. I do not know if I am staying this change, but I have decided to have the attitude that I will be here so I can keep wanting to help these people who are progressing. At the same time, I am trying to make sure everything is ready so that Elder Nielsen could stay if he has to.

We really have learned so much together, and I will sure miss him if he leaves. He sends a random request...could you send me that picture of me wrapping myself up for Rian that homecoming date? She was in a church music video, and he is just amazed that I know her AND have even gone on a date with her. It was really funny. He has been pretty sick, and we could not even go out to work yesterday (I did not enjoy that). Hopefully we will be raring to go tomorrow!

I still don´t believe the wrist-chip thing anymore than I believe the many people who are talking about the end of the wolrd (Matthew 24:36). Christmas does seem pretty big commerically here, though the people are not as wealthy. The 8th of December is an important day for a lot of Catholics who focus on Mary, but we will have to see how the rest of the season goes.

Now, the most exciting thing, MY PACKAGE!! I was so happy to get that. I only had to pay 15,000 Guaranies (3 or 4 dollars). I did decide it would be better to open it all because it would be hard to handle that if I leave next week (transfers are the 12th). I promise I will wait with the other one! I really did love it, even just getting a package was way exciting. I loved getting the things I had asked for: hymns, pedometer, and Peanut Butter, and you sent me some things I had been thinking about buying but did not ask for like scripture pencils and post-its. The mini-Predicad Mi Evangelio will be very useful for district meetings and Zone Conferences. There is a picture of how I translated the Plan of Salvation. Elder Nielsen also thanks you for the stocking. I love the decorations (except that crystal tree that did not survive), and I think out of the whole package my favorite thing may have been the motivational poster from the talk by Elder Uchtdorf. It means a lot to me that you remember that. We are handing out those pictures of the Nativity, listening to the Hamilton Singers, and loving this season. I would suggest you send a letter to any store that says Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas and read the December Liahona (Ensign). There are some great stories in there about Prophets and Missionaries at Christmas. Love you so much!

-Elder Wesley Morgan

P.S. You should know that one of the most common comments I get when I show people pictures is "Tu mamá es muy linda." :) *

*Your mom is very pretty.  :)

Every Member a Missionary!

Well, to overcome a tough week last week, we have tried to work a lot more with the members (one of the most important things you can do as a missionary). We decided to make it a goal in weekly planning, which we do on Thursdays, to try to have 20 lessons with a member present next week, which is the "Standard of Excellence. (Side note: at the beginning of my mission I was given the mistaken idea that those standards were expected of us every week...that gave me some pretty unrealistic expectations and was part of the reason the beginning of my mission was so difficult). Due to an explosion of lessons, we almost hit 20 THIS week--we were one short! So we will keep working hard and hope to reach our goal next week. Unfortunately we still did not have anyone in church or with a baptismal date...but there may be other ways to improve those things. That is the fun part about missionary work: there is alway something else to improve and half the battle is just finding out what it is.

Our two biggest hopes right now are Maria Villalva (still waiting for a miracle with her meetings) and Mariela, who we just started teaching this week. She has come to church with the members who live nearby a few times, and she seemed excited to get baptized this next week. But she did not want to tell us that she is living with her boyfriend, and I think that may have been why she did not come to church. We will see what we can do to resolve those problems and help her prepare to be baptized and confirmed the following week.

One other thing we are doing right now is teaching the members how they can do missionary work on their own. Preach My Gospel chapter 9 teaches 5 things they can do, and we added scriptures and hand signals to make it a fun lesson that they can remember. We have:
1. Pray and follow the Spirit (Mormon 9:21)
2. Give Service (Mosiah 2:17)
3. Make friends (Helaman 6:3)
4. Open Your Mouth (Doctrine and Covenants 33:8-10)
5. Invite others to strengthen their faith in Christ (Moroni 7:13)
That last part includes inviting people to come to church, talk to the missionaries, come to FHE, etc. I hope you all do those things, too! God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power. Just have faith. :)

The other thing we are focusing on is helping people feel more comfortable in lessons so they can learn by the Spirit. We had a lesson this week where that happened and the people just asked everything they had been worrying about. Elder Bednar did a great job of that in the conference we had--he made us feel like we could ask anything. He also taught us a few things we can do to help people feel comfortable. We do not want them to just say what they think we expect, because they will not progress. Really, I am learning that it is always worth it to obey, study, and everything else that helps us have the Spirit. There is just no way to help people change without it.

I really do not miss much food from home. My companion showed me how to make french toast sticks and maple syrup, and it was nice to have that again. We are trying to learn a lot of new things to make. Unfortunately, most of the things I made in college needed a crock pot or George Foreman grill, and a lot of the recipes you sent me with require many things I also do not have access to. But we are trying to make other simple things like pizza. I am teaching Elder Nielsen singing techniques, which is interesting. He is a super fun missionary. Side note for the blog: he is not really receiving any letters and he gets back in July, so if any girl wants to write an awesome future RM, his first name is Matthew and they can send letters the same way they would to me.

President Agazzani does not come out here that often (about every 3 months), so we were pretty lucky. And we are about a 5 or 6 hour drive from Asunción. I do pray for everyone in the family--especially Karen--and I will be sure to pray for Grandma more too. Glad to hear you all enjoyed Thanksgiving...I did not even remember it. But I am trying to be more thankful in my prayers! Thank you for all you do and have done for me. Love you lots!

-Elder Wesley Morgan

Visit from President Agazzani!

I love hearing about my fellow-laborers in gather Israel! Haha, I am sure Trevor is an awesome trainer, and I do feel bad for Makade being in such a tough mission. That is pretty crazy how similar Corbin´s mission is. The difference is that we do not get rejected very often. The people here are too nice to reject us directly. They just make up excuses or don´t do anything we ask them to....honestly it would just save us time sometimes if they just told us they were not interested. Every mission has its challenges and blessings. And we really do not have much to update about investigators, because we dropped even more of them after no one at all came to church. This was the first time in my mission that happened, but only because I have had a lot of miracles on Sundays. Ismael and Patricia, despite our best efforts, have lost interest. The Gamarra family is awesome and I would love to baptize 15 people, but they need to start coming to church. They have started to read the Book of Mormon, so we will decide when we stop by if we will really drop them. Our one hope is Maria Villalva, who is awesome! She always tells us about times she has shared her testimony or overcome tempation to drink coffee or alcohol. She has so much faith. Unfortunately she has to go to a meeting every Sunday for a few more weeks so she can get a house. We are praying often with and for her so she can be baptized, confirmed, and stay active in the church as soon as possible.



Elder Morgan, President Agazzani, and Elder Nielsen

Other than that, we are doing all we can to find new investigators. We had a day where we found 10 new people! It was awesome. We met with a juvenile delinquent center and the local army barracks (which Elder Nielsen loved) to see if we can start teaching classes there. We do need approval from President Agazzani for that. Speaking of that, you can see that he came to visit us! He and his wife came to our Zone training, which was amazing as usual. Then they stopped by our house the morning to do studies with us, which was quite enjoyable. That picture of the three of us would be great to put somewhere on the blog in a permanent place. Also, we talked a lot about rules and I have to ask you to inform people that I am absolutely not allowed to read or send emails to anyone who is not a parent, grandparent, or sibling. So please ask everyone else not to email me (I have to delete it), but to send it to me by Dear Elder (which would be more exciting for me anyway!).

"My shoulders have been getting pretty orange and dirty from my backpack, sweat, and this hot, dusty climate. So, to look more like a representative of the Lord, I bought a shoulder bag. I also cut and resewed the strap to make it into a waist-bag. (I still use my backpack occasionally). It would be a good idea for any missionary going to a similar climate to bring a large waist pack. :)"

I am always learning a lot as we study and put new things in practice. We came up with a great example to explain why people need to come to church to receive an answer. We love it because it forces the investigators to think and come up with the answer themselves, which we are trying to do a lot more. Here it goes: There is a blind and deaf man sitting in his house, and he wants to know if it is raining outside. What can he do? (Go outside). But how will he know if it is raining? (He has to FEEL it). I also have learned that it is so important to teach in a place where there is not a lot of loud music nearby (which happens often here), because if the Spirit is not there to teach we are wasting our time and breath.

Pretty landscape photo of Paraguay

 

A few more cultural things. There are always guys on motorcycles who ride around and sell chipa. I enjoy the Chipa, but they have these recordings of an announcer talking about how good the chipa is that you sure get sick of hearing. Also, Paraguayans think you will die if you eat milk and watermelon together. We have a lot of good laughs about that. Really though, I am learning to like/tolerate a lot of foods that I always hated: coconut, mayo, egg salad, fish. The mission sure does change you. I am sending this late because we have been helping Elder Martinez, who has been very sick with bronchitis. Please remember him in your prayers. And maybe me, too. ;)

Love,

Elder Wesley Morgan

"Jorgelina. Miembro de la Iglesia. Bautizada."

Well, I am still here in Ciudad del Este 2.2. Elder Izurieta left for Coronel Oviedo, where he will be companions with Elder Adamson! I love my new companion, Elder Matthew Nielsen! The picture attached is of him. He is a hard worker who walks fast, talks to everyone, and knows how to work with members. That is one thing we are trying to do more of. The more I think about it, the less it makes sense to work in an area where there are no members. People need the support and the friendship of members if they are going to come to church, commit to make changes in their life including baptism, and stay active in the church. Elder Nielsen has also already taught me a lot about setting achievable goals. I love doing that! I don´t know how long I will get to work with him, but I am sure we will have a lot of success and fun together while it lasts. Elder Nielsen has lived a lot of places, including Brazil (he speaks Portuguese), and most recently was in New York attending West Point. He was the mission secretary, and it is interesting you should mention the office because he says I am the type of missionary who will probably be in the office soon. I think I would like that! We´ll see.

Elder Morgan says, "My favorite part about these pictures is Hermano Benitez. He is wearing Sergio`s blue shirt because he and Elio Martinez, the ward mission leader, lent their clothes to Sergio at the last minute for the wedding."

More exciting news, as you saw from the picture in the emails with the pictures, Sergio and Blásida finally got married and baptized! It was very stressful because they were very late, even though we did a lot to get them there early. We also had to run and make copies of our passports so we could be witnesses, and then the font started to flood (for once we actually had too much water). Once that all settled down, it all went well and it was a spiritual experience for all. This was the first time I got to do the baptism...which is amazing. I cannot wait to do that again. It could happen soon with Ismael and Patricia, who are still waiting to receive an answer that the church is true. We talked about that in our district meeting and someone suggested that they might need to repent to receive that revelation. Sure enough, we talked to them about their situation and he admitted he feels really bad that he did not get married before moving in together. So they agreed to get married this Saturday! More weddings! They need to attend church at least once more before getting baptized, so hopefully that will be next week. The other people we are working a lot with is the Gamarra family, another huge family of mostly adults (the other one, the Villalva family, is looking grim right now. Their dad does not want us to come by, but Maria still tries to come to church). They always ask very interesting questions, and they are a little set in their religion, but I really have hope for them. If we can help them all, that would be over 15 baptisms! That would probably be the happiest day of my life.

Two more interesting experiences. First, I got to help the primary practice for their program by playing piano. Difficult, but a lot of fun. We also got to visit Jorgelina, a lady in our ward who is very close to dying of cancer. She has wanted the sacrament and a blessing from the missionaries for a while but her family has not let us come by until now. The title [of this email], which means "Member of the church, baptized," is about all she could say. It was such a touching experience. She is great. I read Alma 46:39-41 this morning and thought of her.

Now, to answer your questions. I never thought to compare alfajors to moon pies. They are usually a little crunchier and more delicious. Haha, and I was just saying that I got used to keeping my distance from girls, not that the girls in Utah are as bad as the ones here. Paraguayans do not play baseball, but I have seen them play something that looks like cricket, but two on two. It is suprising how well I can already communicate a lot of basic things in Guaraní. I can teach you a bit. Remember that in Guaraní, the ch makes a sh sound. "Mba´e" means how or what. So the three common ways to say hi to people (how are you) are "Mba'eichapa," "Mba'eitecopio," and "Mba'elaporte." I can kind of explain what each of those words mean...but it`s not worth it. What is your name is "Mba'aicha nde rera?." And "my name is" would be "Che rera..."

Great to hear about the cars, Steelers Game, Star Wars, etc. I keep praying for you, and I hope all is well. Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you or tell you about. Love you all!

-Elder Wesley Morgan

Missionaries waiting outside the church at 4 AM to go to the missionary conference Wesley mentioned in his last post.

The "beautiful landscape of Paraguay"

Elder Morgan and Elder Izurieta with the Baez family