Summer Shorts again even though it's a bit chilly here‏

World:

I´m sick so this will be a short-ish email.

Well, Torrejón is gone for now. I hope to return for some p-day or baptism or something. I´ll really miss that area. But everyone says that Villalba is awesome so I´m excited. Our apartment could almost fit in our living room in Torrejón, so that´s a bit of an adjustment. The ward seems nice. There´s lots more Spaniards in it. And a few Scottish people! Mercifully it´s a bit colder here and in all of Spain recently. The streets are kind of scary to put together and remember. Although we don´t work as far out as we did in Torrejón. My companion´s pretty nice. And all the other missionaries.

We teach a sweet little old Spanish man who looks so much like the man from Up. Some lady at an English school offered us jobs as teachers. You can get free Qurans here and it´s pretty interesting to read. They even have some nice anti Christian guides in the back, although it mostly against Catholic doctrine like the Trinity and the JST fixed a lot of the flaws they pointed out and they end each "victory" with words like "Allah is above such blasphemy. Praise be to Allah!" and cute things like that. And there´s more jazz to explain later. And that Muslim man who fought with us in Torrejón? He lives here. The elders were almost about to meet with him but then I came. There are a lot of Muslims here. Speaking of other religions, we got invited to the First Communion of our investigator´s daughter. That´s also a story for another time.

I had a suprisingly delicious soup made with cow innards. The Scottish family made me try Marmite which is pretty strong stuff. It tastes like when I chewed the vitamin pills. Grody. We just came back from a gorgeous city called El Escorial! I´ll write more next week too. I´m just so tired and gross feeling. I love you all! Miss you loads!

Os quiero,

Elder Morgan the Younger

Long Time No See!

Well, I just talked to probably most of the people who read this, but here we go! I´m going to Villalba! It´s a city between Madrid and Segovia. It´s in the mountains and mercifully should be a little cooler. My companion will be Elder Shamsabadi. I don´t know much about him, but I´ve heard good things about him. And the area! Both my first two companions, Elder Shumway and Elder Fisher, have served there and loved it! For Brother Corbridge, tell him that Segovia is opened and has a companionship of Elders and one of Sisters.

I loved serving in Torrejón de Ardoz, and I will definitely go back someday! I was there for a quarter of my mission, six months! I´ve left a big family there, but hopefully I´ll still be able to write and stay in contact with everyone. It really stinks to go, but that´s part of the mission, and the future looks good in Villalba too. If only I could have both places.

One last picture from Torrejon. With Elder Fisher and convert Raquel.

 

Next week I´ll write from Villalba! I love you all! See you again in half a year on Skype!

-Elder Morgan the Younger

Furnace of Affliction

Mom: You had Inca Cola! I love that stuff! It tastes like bubble gum. We usually drink the knock off brand called Andin´s Crystal (I think that´s what it is called). They also probably had Postobon brand sodas and Guaraná. I didn´t think you could get that stuff there! I´m excited to go explore Utah for Latino stores and hopefully a Spanish store.

World:

To my beloved English teachers, the unknown orator of last week´s quote was Clinton Duffy who was warden of San Quentin Prison (thanks, Mom). My photo now leaves the wanted list and the price on my head leaves with it. That was a close one. 

Random paragraph time! Brace yourselves. My journal lives to fight many more days. I won´t need one until fall. Maybe it could come in a surprise fall package for a certain beloved missionary in Spain? Who knows. I would kill for barely Spring like weather today. The furnace of affliction in 1 Nephi 20:10 is becoming all too literal with how hot it´s getting here already. At least I´ll be refined. I miss cold weather that lasts until May and June. Through some techonlogical wizardry we have set our ringtone as the music from the Shire in LoTR and it makes me so happy every time someone calls. Sometimes we just sit and listen before we pick up the phone. It´s wonderful. Life is much better because I had all my pants repaired! I know I should be all self sufficient and learn how to do it on my own, but some of the holes were huge. Madrid played against Munich for the second time. We were walking in the middle of nowhere but we still heard the first goal in every direction in Spanish surround sound from every bar in the city. 

Spain has increased in their ridiculousness. Firstly, they have yet another holiday. Because of that holiday the world shut down. One of our investigators had to go to the hospital last week but they said they couldn´t scan her until today becuase that day was the day BEFORE a holiday and they didn´t want to do that on that day. I need to smack someone. And they are making the world change from monthly magnetic tickets (bus passes I, Mom, am presuming) to convenient little cards which is more convenient, but at the same time to change it you have to go to one of 3 spots in central Madrid and to charge it you must go to one specific ATM in Torrejon. Only Spain could make something worse by making it better.

At Zone Meeting we saw the most boss videos ever, one of which supposedly went pretty viral outside of the mormon world. The more famous one is called Because of Him and the other is called something like My Kingdom is Not of This World. They are fantastic. 

We had a day where every single thing failed from lunch to lessons to English classes. All you can really do is laugh or cry so it was pretty funny. One thing I did was remember how to sing one of my favorite songs called "Tomorrow Will Be Kinder." If anyone wants to hear it, look it up on Grooveshark, not Youtube. 

My partner played the part of Satan by offering me the forbidden fruit of a Ferrero Rosche (However you spell that fancy chocolate jazz) while I was fasting and I had absolutely forgotten I was fasting until a minute after I ate it. He offered like him too so we yelled some Garden of Eden quotes at each other and I called him Satan. It was really frustrating but it was also fun. 

We figured out how to make a real game of American football on a small concrete football (soccer) court behind our church. We had to adjust some things, but we got a full game in and it felt wonderful. And the next day one of our investigators taught us rugby. Basketball is quite prevalent here so the only thing we lack is baseball. I´ll have to ask the Dominicans about that one here. 

And here´s a late "May the Fourth be with you." Turns out it doesn´t work in Spanish. "La Fuerza sea contigo" is "May the force be with you" and "El Cuatro de Mayo sea contigo" doesn´t have much in common. Among missionaries we had quite the time saying it. And today we´ll celebrate Cinco de Mayo by making some guacamole, which I love now. And avocados too because we eat those so much! Let´s hope I haven´t forgotten too many holidays here. I have grandpa´s boss airforce tie for Veteran´s Day but I have nothing for the 4th of July to wear, but probably plenty to eat. We´ll see how that goes.

I hope you´re all doing well! I´m glad Danny´s peril* has passed for the most part! I´ll see you guys in a week! Ya, I´ll probably call at 10 AM Utah time. I may be pretty sad too because transfers are revealed Saturday and we think I´ll leave. I love this ward too much! But it´ll be awesome to see the family. Hasta luego!

Os quiero!

-Elder Morgan the Younger

*Elder Morgan's brother-in-law passed all the classes at UVU he needed to in order to get into his Optometry Grad School.

Okhien-vba-azekpe‏*

Well last week we had to do a far away shopping trip to get to some stores because we all needed stuff and we just got back late. My companion left his sheets in his last area so we had to get those. I bought a memory foam pillow that was imported from the celestial kingdom. I have slept wonder- fully ever since. Although the down side is getting up in the morning is a bit harder, but I fight it.

I did indeed make the cream soda. It took 2 tries, though. The first time our vanilla had gone bad or something so it tasted weird and the vanilla smelled kind of rubbery. But the second time we got good, new vanilla and I added the cream this time. It doesn´t taste like cream soda, but it tastes like a rootbeer float which is good enough for me. And it looks funny because the cream makes it look sketchy, but it´s good. Yes, I have an ever growing recipe book. I´m going to cook delicious things at home. My comp just made baked beans and gave me the recipe so I can have that here!

Easter is huge here, but not at the same time. Holy Week is the holiday. They have a huge parade which giant floats of Jesus in various places, a bunch of people in what we know as purple KKK robes, a few in the same thing but black, and some in black robes carrying crosses behind the floats. And a bajillion candles. Not much else happens. The only other thing we found out is they eat fish all week and make torrijas. Most people forgot that Sunday was Easter.

Henry and Paul, two of the Nigerian converts, gave us a weird bean, seed thing like I said last week. It´s apparently antibiotic and cured my companion overnight. It tastes absolutely horrible and I have a picture of one of the sisters eating it. I´ll send it later. (Sorry about pictures! I´ll send them soon!). They also taught us greetings and farewells in Edo, the native dialect of Nigeria. It makes Nigerians very happy when you speak it and sometimes very shocked. It´s so fun! A very simple one is "azekpe" (Ah-ZEK-pay) which is see you later. They get more complicated like "okhien-vba-azekpe" (We´ll see you later) with weird pronunciations, but I´ll explain those at home. They´re too hard to write.

A real bummer is a mom and a daughter from a Peruvian family were going to be baptized last Saturday but decided not to the weekend before. It´s terribly frustrating especially after working with them for so long, but we can hope for change. I remembered a quote in my first area that I really like. It was some famous guy talking with someone else and the other man said "Leopards can´t change their spots" but the famous guy said "Yes, but I work with men, and men change every day." Great quote. No idea who said it. My English teachers would kill me if they saw me cite that with no info. Sorry Mr. Ellingford and Ms. Young! But it´s a wonderful quote and we are hoping and praying much. 

Not much happened this week that I can remember that I haven´t already said. Oh! I bought a copy of "Don Quijote" from a giant book stand that people set up in the plaza. It´s already like 20 years old and has a cool, fancy hard cover. It looks beautiful. And it was only 10€ since it was old. Dang, I can´t remember much else. Maybe we just had a normal week. Or maybe I´m losing my memory. I feel like that sometimes. Well, I hope I remember to write next week! I love you all and miss you loads!

Os quiero

-Elder Morgan the Younger

*Nigerian (Edo) for "We'll see you later"

Summer Shorts

Well this email will be as short as the shorts on the people here in summer. That´s pretty dang short. Sorry that I won´t respond to anything! Two of our African recent converts gave us a weird bean/seed thing called bitter cola for our sickness. It is indeed very bitter and healed my companion the next morning. I wasn´t very sick anyways so I didn´t change much. We teach an awesome Dominican man in a bar and we started teaching the other bartender who is a woman from Peru. They couldn´t meet for a lesson, they could just talk (we meet in their bar). After a lesson of just talking, we found out that he´s 39 (looks 27. Maybe I´ll send pictures one day) and he lived in New York for 20 years, speaks English perfectly with a New Yorker accent, he´s married to the woman, and they invited us to eat chicken at their bar anytime (It´s called Mayra´s Chicken). It was weird to discover this suddenly from a man we met a long while ago and it felt like a dream and on my way home the dream feeling was confirmed by people in purple KKK robes and hoods and big floats of Jesus. It was an odd night. I´ll explain more later. We baptized a man last week who is the husband of the recent convert woman from Nigeria that we baptized a few months ago! That´s my week in short! I´ll respond, write more, and make paragraphs next week! I love you and and miss you loads!

-Elder Morgan

In Soviet Russia, you don't come to church--Church comes to you.‏

There are many signs pointing to me leaving, next transfer. Ya, I´ve made many long lasting friendships here. I also have many vacations to take down to Ecuador and probably many places to stay. But we´ll see what happens. I´ll tell you guys in person! You never know.

I still am "in charge". I´m written as the senior companion and I´ve been in the area a while, so I still have much to do. But I´m glad the area is up and running normally again. And the bus strike ended! Now we don´t have to walk ridiculous distances. It´s all getting much better day by day.

We had a farewell party for a ward member from Cuba who´s going back for half a year. Everyone´s very sad. She´s really nice. We´ve all been doing well with baptisms! We have one like every other week or sometimes a few weeks in a row! The hermanas just baptized almost a whole family from Ecuador. The father is waiting a bit and the extremely cute baby is obviously too young. And I hate that rule about not picking up babies. 

I got the birthday package! Thank you mum! The socks were a bit short, but they´re really comfy. It´s funny to see that missionaries enjoy package openings vicariously through other missionaries. Everyone gets excited when there´s a package. And I had to explain to a lot of people my late package scheme. They all thought the mail system here was just that terrible.

We got to go to the temple! I love it. I´ll be sad to not be able to go in farther areas. The people in the Canaries especially can´t go. Although once in a while we do get to give tours if we live close. Mostly they involve outside stuff but they can chill out in the waiting room. Raquel, our Spanish convert, didn´t want to leave when we took her in. And there´s lots of cool facts and lessons to do. Like there´s an olive tree next to it from the Garden of Gethsemane that´s a couple thousand years old. I´ll give the tour to everyone when we visit.

I found what is essentially corn nuts but with the giant corn (something like homily in English) from Ecuador! It´s dang good. Our Spanish investigator (who´s just waiting for marriage papers) made us Holy Week food. It´s called Torrijas and it´s a fancier and tastier version of French Toast. It just has more spices and it´s more wet and they sprinkle granulated sugar on it. I don´t remember if I mentioned it, but I found out at the beginning of the mission that our "grilled cheese maker" is a sandwich maker and it makes really good things. If you put lots of nutella in a sandwich it´s amazing.

I forgot to ask an investigator if we could help him with anything and he pointed it out. So I asked if we could help with anything and for the first time he said yes and we taught him and his brother (my first convert) how to tie a tie. It was very funny and hard. Nigerians are a very direct people and they mocked each other a lot for their mistakes and we laughed a lot. And I was on intercambios with Elder Johnson from Washington (Aunt Toni, He says he´s heard of Yakima and has been there.) and he learned a bit of Édu (A Nigerian dialect) from other investigators and these people kind of flipped out when they heard him say it. They laughed a lot too. They´re kind of a laughing people. It´s fun to be around them. 

We taught the young men this Sunday! Although one didn´t come to church so we brought church to him and we all went to his house. One guy went in first and then secretly opened the door for us and we all suprised him in his living room. It was a really strong lesson and I loved it. 

We had a small ward sports activity this morning, and we represented America with american football. Firstly, I was proud walking down the street dressed normally with a football in my hand and being a big, tall American speaking English. The football has a magical effect. But when we got there they all acted like the football was an object from space and wanted to touch it and asked how to throw it since it´s not just a normal ball. It was really funny to watch, and we all had fun today.

I hesitate to say things that will happen in the future, because they seem to realize that I mentioned them and change themselves. But I´m excited for this transfer and we´ll do good work here. I´ll be sad to leave this area when the time comes, but for now, I can enjoy it. Miss you and and love you loads!

Os quiero,

Elder Morgan

Future Father?

Ya, I´m staying in Torrejón but all things are now leaning towards me leaving in 6 weeks. Although I get to do the mother´s day phone call here too! I didn´t think I could do the Christmas call and the Mother´s Day call in the same place. But, ya, I´ll probably go. Although it´s somewhat for the good. If I stay longer it will be even harder to leave later. I´ll have spent a quarter of my mission here already at the end of this transfer. We´ll see what happens. You never know.

New Companion Elder Bybee from Ogden

My new companion! Well this week isn´t the best week to describe him by. His whole district up north got really sick--some had bronchitis--and so he´s been really deathly. We went to the doctor and got meds, but he´s already infected us and most of our area is sick. It´s near impossible not to get sick when your companion is sick like that. Hopefully I don´t reach the bronchitis level. But we´re getting better! He´s pretty chill and normal. He´s from South Ogden, Utah. He´s a bit small which is weird after Elder Fisher. He seems pretty friendly. He was in the MTC with me!

With Brother Echeverry and Elder Bybee

This has been a very interesting week! I am now the one leading the area because my comp´s sick, it´s my area, and I know the area well. It was pretty rough the first couple days, but it´s gotten loads better and I feel calm again. My teaching skills can now shine because I have many more opportunities to talk! That´s one downside of before. But it´s all good now. Although I still have much to learn. It´s pretty cool being the leader, though. After this I´ll be ready for many more things! 

I was thinking about it, and I realized that most of the people from my group are probably training this summer. We make up almost a 4th of the mission and more than half the mission has been out less than a year. So comparatively, we´re old. So I´m bracing myself to become a father this summer and to raise a young'un. Who knows what will happen.

Ya, Hermana Hansen is great! She was in my first area with me! It was cool to see her again. She was kind of relieved to get out and come to a nice ward. This is kind of the state-of-rest ward. I´ve heard it´s the best ward in the mission and I´d believe it. 

Culture and Spanish? Well some culture first. It´s food, though. Here they sell boss suckers with gum inside, but the flavors are really good and some are odd like Lulo and Maracuyá which I believe are (Wild Apple? No idea) and passion fruit. I don´t have any cute little Spanish lessons. Just large concepts. Those are boring jazz. You learn so much Spanish from just talking, though. OH! Quick thing. Torrejón means really big tower so our city means Ardoz´s Big Tower I guess. And here I realized Cafe Paesan means countryman café. Paisano means countryman here.

Conference was really good! The only downside was that we didn´t see it in the stake center so we could only see it in Spanish. We´ll have to see it in English later. I´ll be able to comment more on it when I see it in English! Especially since I didn´t take notes really because I was focusing on understanding.

Photos from General Conference

For conference my companion made a dessert called slutty brownies. Odd name, but they´re really good. In a pan you put cookie dough on the bottom, cover that with oreos, and then cover all that with brownie batter and it comes out delicious. It´s a little too good. But it´s simple and I like it.

And thanks to the continued bus strike we got to walk across all of Torrejón to give a blessing at the hospital, but it was fun.It´s getting hot and I´m not ok with that, but I can´t really change that so I´ll accept it. I´m so used to winters lasting until May. I miss my beloved wintery state!

Thanks for all the updates on missions and weddings! Tell Tim to look for a woman named Veronica with a daughter named Mía and for a family with the last name Ferrari that should haev a return missionary daughter in a year. And forward the email of the máte in the toilet to Tim. Tell him it tastes like it looks. 

Thanks for always writing me, guys! I love hearing everything! I miss you loads and love you more! I´m still praying for you all!

Os quiero,

Elder Morgan the Younger