Leaving the 99

Well it seems like the JW´s are back in action. They´ve been visiting a lot of people including our ward and investigators. They have weird magazines. I´ve never seen one before. And it took me the longest time to realize that "La Atalaya" was "The Watchtower." Thankfully our peeps are boss so all is well.

I almost had an epic story but I´ll just tell the potential story. We were searching for a less active member in the edges of Villalba. I felt very much like a shepherd looking for the 1 and leaving the 99 because it was mud paths and a river and lots of open ground since this was all off the map. Every person out there has a huge dog, but behind the fence and on a leash. On our way back to civilization I turned the corner to see a large German Shepherd about 50 feet away without a leash or fence in a position to start running at us. It all registered very fast in my head and I started booking it. I was ahead so my companion didn´t see it and asked why I started running and I explained why and he thought I was joking (Ya, we mess with each other a lot) so I invited him to check if he so desired but he didn´t feel that brave so we booked it away. Thankfully the dog didn´t have enough much interest in us to follow us all the way back to Villalba or else we would have been literally dead meat.

A bunch of missionaries left this last Friday to get to school on time. It was really sad to say goodbye. One of them was also Hermana Manner from Villalba so we had sad farewells here. She reminded me that before I realized it, I would be the one crying in district meeting while we all sing #89 ("Para Siempre Dios Esté Con Vos" or for us "God Be With You ´Til We Meet Again"). Scary thought.

The bakery continues as I will now make brownies for a less actives surprise birthday party. And recently today I became the computer guy here at the locutorio (internet café). Some beloved adults who needed help asked for my help with Word and email and whatnot. Don´t let people know that you know computers well either. They swarm. Not really, but sort of. I´m a bit dramatic. Anyways, it made me nostalgic for helping Mom at home with stuff.

At last the furnace fire is decreasing and we´re getting clouds and a bit of rain and it actually gets a bit chilly in the middle of the night! Huzzah! My favorite seasons of fall and winter are back in style! Bring on the cold!

Os quiero,

Elder Morgan the Younger

I think his companion, Elder Sargent,  is the Elder on the left in the first picture, and in the last picture. But since he has yet to send me a recent photo, I am guessing. (These photos are from Sis. Lobaco in his ward who sometimes sends me a photo on Facebook--but not usually with captions. I am grateful to get to see his smiling face since he is pretty inconsistent with sending photos. )

Elder Morgan's Bakery

So I am with Elder Sargent from Fruit Heights, Utah. He grew up with 4 sisters so he´s really chill and nice, although a bit too nice. He rarely voices his opinion but we´re making him more bold. He´s like 6' 2" and I´ll send pictures later. We live in the same building, just on the 4th floor, not the 3rd floor. We all work in the same geographical area, just not the same investigators. What usually happens in this mission outside of Madrid is that we have our main city and other smaller cities and pueblos. Like when I was in Torrejón there was a couple cities mashed together called San Fernando and Coslada and they were part of our area and we had pueblos all the way up to the airport and some about two hours south of us. So we generally try to work in other cities too, but usually we work the most in the main city.

Yes, a large batch was lots of mugs. Snickerdoodles in a mug?! Yes, I do want that recipe. By the way, Snickerdoodle is a really funny word to get people to say here because they can barely say the small English words. So I became a bakery this week. On Wednesday we baked brownies for the sister missionaries (because we felt bad that a member made them cook for us at their house. It´s just latin culture that the men chill out while the women work in the kitchen but the sisters were not happy with the experience. And trust me, we tried to avoid it but this was a sweet old lady who was very firm on them cooking.), then we made brownies for a recent convert´s birthday on Friday and then the sisters asked us to make brownies for the baptism on Saturday and people are still asking me for distant future catering. Dang. Don´t tell people that you can bake.

I really miss Chris. I cannot wait to return to see my siblings' posterity.

We remain with the infamous Nokia phone that is indestructable. They are just a small screen and 12 buttons and can barely text. Not even a flip phone. But on the plus side they can basically survive a nuclear blast. When we get more technology, I´ll will definitely be telling you all about it. Trust me, we´ve been waiting anxiously for a while. 

Well one of the less actives we are teaching got sent to jail (yes, awkward) and guess who he wanted to call for his one call? He wanted to call us to tell us he couldn´t make it to the lesson we had scheduled that night. I love him so much. Sadly he didn´t have our number with him. But we was only in for one night, though.

Umm... There were other things that I meant to tell you but I wrote them down and forgot to bring them! It´s because we´re going to Madrid to play volleyball and say goodbye to a lot of missionaries. I gotta go but I love you and and miss you loads! Stay strong!

Os quiero,

Elder Morgan the Younger

And Then There were Two...

So we excitingly started the week in our trio and a very successful day on Tuesday. Yes, we received all the investigators of the new third companion which is in our same city. So on Tuesday night we got a call from President. It turns out that a guy from Utah got his visa all of a sudden and was going to arrive to Spain on Wednesday and my former companion, Elder Weeks, was going to train him. And so it was. So we got to do the whole move upstairs in reverse again. Ya, that was a bit ridiculous. But at least our mattresses on the ground now have frames to sit on. So now I´m back to a companionship. The trio was fun for 2 and a half days. I kind of preferred it but oh well. And it´s interesting that the greenie is basically the same as Elder Weeks was at the beginning of the mission so he can relate and make him a good missionary.

Turns out, he´s a vegetarian. Those don´t do well here. There are others and like all the others, he has to just suck it up and eat what people give him to not offend people. On Sunday a family fed us each a giant slice of pot roast and so we got to see him eat a giant slice of beef. It was interesting.

Well, sadly part of all this mess up means that I will no longer be teaching my investigators even though I will be staying in Villalba. That also includes the golden investigator who wants to come to lessons with us. It´s rough not teaching them, but I guess I can get to know all these new ones instead. 

We always offer service to people on the street when we contact them and one lady actually called us for help. It´s cool to do service, but we´re wondering if she´s a witch or something because she just has lots of weird old jars full of leaves and twigs and who knows what just filling her kitchen. Either way, we helped her pack her interesting items away in boxes.

I finally made a large batch of brownies in a mug! It was for all us elders and an investigator family and it came out well. One of the ways to a person´s heart is through the stomach. And yes, it works.

Umm, I´m assuming a Super Moon is a really big looking moon? Ya, it looked pretty big yesterday. And I hesitate to say this but who´s Kara? Is she the future Stephenson baby? Sorry Heather if it is! I only heard the name once a while ago.

Like I´ve said before, I don´t like talking much about lessons or investigators´ lives, but we have a guy who has a drinking problem partially because of depression. Any ideas how to help? We obviously have done plenty to help, but does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks! 

Well I will do all in my power to add photos but this computer here is a bit sketch so I make no promises! I love you all! Have a great week!

Os quiero,

Elder Morgan the Younger

The photos worked! Here they are:

Bullfight Ring

Daniel and District - his companion Elder Weeks is in the "Y" shirt

"My first and last meeting in a catholic church because we went to an investigator´s daughter´s first communion."

The beautiful street is the most gorgeous Spanish city in the world called El Escorial. That was my first p-day in Villalba.

"The canal that runs through the city and the beautiful park at sunset."

"A shot of the beautiful valley we live in that I took from the train."

Here is the fountain at Parque Retiro when I went to a farewell party. This is the park I contacted at in the MTC.

 

Matthew 18:16

Well the scripture that is the title is a hint to the news about transfers. We took one more with us and we are now a trio in Villalba! Elder Muller left for the islands and Elder Sargent is with us and we make a trio. This´ll be fun! Most people say they don´t like trios but I´m excited for it. So we´re going to be moving a lot of stuff to the apartment upstairs so today we have a lot to do and this will be short-ish. Although it´s very possible that we go back into 2 companionships next transfer. This year´s equivalent of my group hits the field next transfer so it´ll be interesting. We´ll see what happens.

My new companion is Elder Sargent from Fruit Heights. He´s 20 and really nice. We actually scared the heck out of him the other day by hiding and then setting the piano to play a song automatically and jumped from hiding when he walked into the room. But this should be a pretty nice transfer.

An investigator that we´ve taught two lessons to has already asked us if he can join us on lessons to help teach. Dang. A kid here just got called to Finland on his mission but it´s ok because he´s half Finnish. And the ward is nice as usual. And I have a whole area´s worth of new investigators to meet and teach so it´ll be fun.

Forgive me Mom, for I have sinned. In all this fun transfer jazz I didn´t bring my hard drive or camera with me so I can´t do photos this week. I´ll probably get them to you next week. Elder Shamsabadi got a camera from his family that has Wifi so it sends photos automatically home. But you´ll just have to rely on your forgetful son. 

I can´t stare at a screen too long anyways. I´m getting a headache. I gots to go move! I love you all and I´ll see you later!

Os quiero,

Elder Morgan the Younger