The World is Quiet Here

So, first week. It's been quite the week. My companion said it's been an insane week for him too. Another Elder took our keys 3 hours north so it was quite the trip getting home. We had to room 5 elders going to the Islands that day. We've been a hotel basically. We had elders staying for zone conference, the island elders, and a Segovia elder, and one other that I can't remember. Segovia was open for 4 days and now it closed again. All I really can say is that things went corrupt so they took the elders out.

So, I've been told the first week is the worst week of your life and it was definitely leaning towards that. I've been sick for a few weeks but we don't know what it is yet. Tests are coming back soon. Some guesses were things like Mono. Part of it is I'm not getting REM sleep, they think, and so it's kind of rough doing such hard work. Whatever it is, I'm still going to work and stay until I can't physically do the mission work. And a lot of people spread around a nice cold which seems to like me a lot and wants to stay a week longer than everyone else. And apparently the second most popular activity in Spain after breathing is smoking. Not really but there are a lot of smokers here which doesn't help much. We live in the southeast area of Madrid which is the ghetto. There are lots of Spanish gypsies which are much different than the Romanian gypsies who lie and beg more money and whatnot. Nothing got stolen. 

After a series of events, we have almost no investigators from the start so it's been a lot of contacting on the streets. The investigators we have can be frustrating. There's a guy from Africa who is angry at some people in the ward over misunderstandings and we have to help him get more of a testimony of the priesthood. We have this awesome guy John Anthony who has taken the lessons, he's just trying to quit smoking. He's doing well. He started at 20 per day around when I got here and now he's only doing 5. He wants to get baptized on his birthday which is the third of next month. Hopefully that will work out. He calls us 5 times a day to talk shortly. He always says, "Hello my friend" in his deep Spanish voice in English whenever he starts talking to anyone. He once called us to basically tell us that he was at work and couldn't talk and had to go. He's a sweet guy. We´re getting more contacts to hopefully it will be better. We went to a member's house and apparently we had talked to the husband at church, the hermanas talked to the wife at church, and the hometeachers just came over so we all taught at once and had a good laugh about accidentally overlapping. 

Our apartment is a mess. It came from not so clean elders sooooo, ya. Dishwashing soap is expensive so we use the sink, people don't wash that much, and we have very few dishes so finding a clean dish around here is hard. We're trying to fix that. We do have air conditioning which is a blessing. And the weather is getting better. We finally got hand soap and laundry detergent so that will be nicer. Ah, the ghetto. But hey, it's home. Since our scale is sketchy, I'm not sure how much I've lost but I think I lost 10 to 20 pounds this week. It's a lot of work and we don´t eat big meals. Any illusion I had about cooking or using any simple recipe are out the window. It's just been things that require no cooking or can be heated in the microwave. The milk's not too bad. Most liquids come in a 1 liter box. All the ingredients are expensive, not worth getting for a short amount of time, and/or I have no time. I´m eating all my food groups, though. We were fed by a member once. It was really nice and made me happy. They were nice members from the north visiting the temple who knew my companion.

I went to my first Sunday in a ward. It was nice. I can't understand much but I get what I can. I got to talk a bit this Sunday. Our ward building is the one on temple grounds so I see the MTC a lot and get nostalgic. I miss that place now. Especially the people. Strange how it's that way for most everyone. When you're in, you want out. When you're out, you want in. My companion's nice. He´s very patient and understanding. He's very experienced. He doesn't like people to bring it up, but he leaves in 12 weeks right after he trains me. Elder Shumway. It's a good sign that he thinks that way. It means he'll go good until the end. I'm getting better little by little. They say the mission gets better and faster as you go on, so all I can do is keep working. It's a bit slow and rough right now. I definitely need prayers and support. 

Sorry that I didn't respond to anything or stuff. I'm pretty exhausted physically, emotionally, mentally, and whatnot. I'll write better emails when I'm well, rested, and doing better. Spain is gorgeous. Every street is tree lined. There are many flavors of cobblestones. The good ones have good grip but aren't a rockslide. We have 10 missionaries in our ward. 6 hermanas and 4 elders. One of the hermanas, Hermana Seastrand, turned out to be Mr. Seastrand's niece I think. He's a teacher at Orem High. We use the public transport system like none other. Mom, I got your letter that you meant to reach me in the MTC but I got it now. Thanks for it, it helped. So, I'm pooped. I'll write more next week and hopefully more coherently. Tell me if any of this doesn't make sense and I'll explain it next week and probably tell more next week. How things are changing, it'll be much better, Wish me luck! Or rather pray me luck. 

P.S. The liking/loving system goes like so:

Me gusta - I like (whatever or whoever)

Me encanta - I really like (whatever or whoever)

Te/Le quiero - I love you (really friends way or slightly romantic)

Te/Le amo - I love you (Family and significant others.)

Now you are bilingual..

Les amo,

Elder Morgan the Younger

Letter from Mission Pres. - 1st Area!

Dear Parents of Elder Morgan,

We received your son into our mission Tuesday morning. We brought him to the Mission Home and fed him lunch. We gave him an overview of the mission and some of the rules and expectations, and spent most of the day with him. He was excited, and seemed ready to get to work.

With President and Sister Jackson

 
Later that afternoon, we had a meeting at the Stake Center in Madrid on Temple Square, and met with his trainer to discuss the new 12 week training program. During this 12 week period, your son will have an extra hour of companion study each day, and will be given specific things that he must report to the Mission President. We know that this is an inspired program, and will help to make missionaries better teachers and better followers of Christ. Please encourage your son in this program. It will help him develop tools that will help him to have a successful mission, and a more successful and fulfilling life after his mission. 

  

Elder Morgan has been assigned to the Madrid area, in Barrio 8. He will serve with Elder Shumway, who is from Arizona. Elder Shumway is a happy, obedient missionary, who will be a good first companion for your son. 

Our Preparation Day is on Monday. Elder Morgan is instructed to email his immediate family every week. We look forward to getting to know him and working along side him in this great work here in the Spain, Madrid Mission. We can tell he will be a great missionary. Thank you for sharing him with us! We already love him.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Jackson


Missionaries just out of the MTC
 

 

Quick Email before my first Transfer!

So, I get to send an email today and say that I´m alive and being transferred to my first area. I´ll write a more lengthy and eloquent letter on next Monday, my new P-day.

And of course this means all the addresses* and jazz like that need to be changed. I´m so excited! I´m guessing like 5 baptisms in the first week. Thus it begins.

Vale,
Elder Morgan the Younger

*See Mission Home address on the right.

Last Week in the CCM (MTC)

I don´t have much time. Today´s been more hectic than usual. We´re a-leaving. Although since I live out of a suitcase I´m already half packed. We leave on Tuesday.

Oh my goodness. We actually had clouds yesterday! So the sunset was amazing. I got some boss pictures and the sky looks like it´s a fire. I can send them later, but not in the MTC. We had Dominoes Pizza last Friday! We´ve had "pizza" here but it´s more like tomato sauce on pita bread. And the "hamburgers" are pretty sketchy too.

So, interesting story. Or rather, interesting for a missionary. My shoes have always felt different and I assumed the left one fit better because I had worn it around the store for a while. Nope. The right one is a different size. Extra wide and normal are a big difference when normal barely fits.

Yesterday we went to the mall and I am excited for buying clothes right before I leave. Not to sound weird but a lot of that clothing is boss looking and it´s pretty dang cheap. You can buy some sweet shoes for 3€ which is like 5 bucks. It´s been so hot here. It´s been 40 a lot which is like 105. Although, it may be on the downhill after that rain.

I love the talk called The Character of Christ by Elder Bednar. I wish you guys could see it. The main message was that the greatest attribute of Christ was that he always "turns out". When people would be thinking about themselves he is always thinking of others. Like after his encounter with the devil you can read in the JST that instead of getting angels to help him after a huge encounter like that, he sent them to John who is in prison. You can find examples everywhere.

I really want to type more and I will next week. I like the MTC but I am excited to get out because we make sardines seem cozy. And all the sardines don´t have to use things meant for a group half or third their size.

Vale,
Elder Morgan the Younger

101 Dalmations--Wait, I Mean Missionaries

And thus the mad typing rush begins. So, Prado. Definitely worth the free ticket. More than that? No. A lot of depressed or dying or naked people or all of the above. That and random stories from history that I've never heard of before. The only thing that made me excited was recognizing mythology stuff, the copy of the Mona Lisa that I thought was real but then it wasn't, and the very literal titles of paintings that didn't have a title. Such as: Dead Birds, A Zebra, A knight with his left hand on his crest. Pretty self explanatory. I was also excited to see modern art. Oh wait, no. They only have pictures from 1890 and backwards. Whoopdeedoo. That word sounds better out loud. 

So, I've been playing football (soccer) a lot and not gotten a single goal. Mostly because I stayed on defense. But Monday I got three goals in one game. In fancy footballer lingo it's called a hat trick. At dinner we had drinking competitions, but not with alcohol. Something much worse and harder to drink. Gaspacho. Olive oil plus salsa and vegetables in a blender essentially. We had a few people just gag and spit out half way through. It's was pretty great. 

Lessons are going a lot better. Apparently Spanish people talk very fast. Ya. They do. People from the south drop their S's and use the ceta on c's and z's and speak even faster sooooo, ya. It's hard. Thank goodness they're only from Andalusia. That covers the south. I had a miraculous moment yesterday. We were hearing a story from a guy about an investigator and he was speaking really fast Spanish. I was understanding pretty well and suddenly I realized that I could understand him perfectly. I don´t know when it started. It was like Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites. It sounded almost like English. Then I realized that he had switched to his really thick accented English halfway through. Psych! But I still understood the beginning well. 

My Philipino companion got his man-skirts sent to him today. They're pretty sick. Oh, and tell the Lisonbee's that Elder Fonseca is in my room. I forgot to mention that. They know him. So we got more missionaries. It's good, but it's cramped. This place is meant to hold about 70 people max. We have a 101. It's interesting because they didn't get endowed and whatnot until they got here and spent a day here. We couldn't kick it in garments in the halls yesterday. Dorm halls. Not anywhere else because they have a fit if you even wear t-shirts on temple grounds that aren't your hall or the opposite side from the temple. 

We almost never get fluffy clouds. We get really flat wispy clouds that are thick. We're going to the mall today and we're all excited because we need stuff. Apparently the European equivalent of Walmart is some French place called Carrefour? Something like that. I ran out of stuff and need hangers (Almost wrote hangars. Don't need those. No planes.), and mere mortal underwear for workouts. We play football in "The Oven" a concrete pit, stadium, thing. It's been like 103 midday most days and we sweat like a fat person sprinting across the Sahara for a burger. That came out of nowhere. Or rather, it did come from my head. Wow, I should probably stop writing before sentences get weird. Scratch that. Weirder.

Vale,

Elder Morgan the Younger

Missionary Choir

A senior missionary couple at the Madrid Temple does a blog where they post every Sunday the missionaries in the MTC there singing on the steps of the temple.  You can see Daniel in the photos and the video each week starting with July 29 to Sept. 1.  Here's the link:  http://missionarycoupleinmadridspain.blogspot.com/

Here is one of the videos of the choir.  Daniel is basically in the middle:

A Real Missionary Now

The stadium we visited was called Bernabeu. It was pretty great but not too exciting. There were a lot of trophies and whatnot. It´s huge though. They just added on and added on.  I got lots of sweet pictures. Today we´re going to Prado Museum.

So I´m now known for telling jokes. People ask me all the time to tell but I´m not some sort of jukebox comedian so I do it in my own time. Never saw the bear and strawberry tree statue. Something may have been stolen by gypsies but I´m not sure. I'll explain later. 

Dang, I want to see the new temple video but we won´t get it until it´s translated into Spanish in the late fall. My companion is great. I love my district and room and zone. We all get along besides a few people who take things way too seriously or complain. It´s fun to hear that you met his mom. 

Our printer doesn´t work so I don't even get to print off everything so I´m sorry if I don´t respond to everything. My schedule is pretty normal. Studying, class, and investigators are most of the day with meals in between. Thursdays we get to go the temple and go on an expedition and listen to amazing devotionals from old talks. They are amazing. We heard one from Elder Bednar that was amazing. Sadly we can´t see them outside the MTC. The big thing he said was that people ask him how to know if something is just a thought or the spirit. His response was "Don´t worry about it. Just be a good boy or girl." He shared experiences where it was inspired thoughts, but he couldn´t feel tons of spirit. Fridays we do service. Saturdays we proselyte in the park. 

I´m apparently a real missionary now because I´m been sworn at and I passed out a Book of Mormon. We passed out the BoM to an interested, funny Cuban guy and this lady yelled in English, "Buzz off! Do you understand?" When we just said hello she used a very colorful word instead. After that we prayed and found the Cuban guy so it was good. Sundays are pretty chill. We have church. We got to tour the temple today. 

I gotta make like a banana and split because there is the ever present schedule and pressure of email. Love you all! I wish I had more time!

-Elder Morgan the Younger

P.S. That means "Wesley" has to sign it as the older. Yes it does.

As a bonus, I found his MTC companion's mom on the Missionary Mom email site and we've exchanged a few emails.  She was nice enough to send to me a bit that her son shared with her that had to do with my son.  Here it is:

 

"Viernes (Friday) - Normal day except I feel I had a really good comp talk with my companion. We didn´t teach our first investigators very well and kinda got reprimanded so he was feeling frustrated and I was frustrated so I was like Élder we can´t do this. We need to go talk about it and figure something out. So we did and our lessons have been improving since."