Monolith Paragraph

Yes, I realized my Revelation mistake (no "s" at the end) once I left. In my defense, I have not read that as the book title for a year. I´ve been reading the title Apocalipsis. And I´m feeling like writing just one, big chunky paragraph. And so it shall be.

We got to celebrate two investigator birthdays in a row! So it was a happy week. And I make snickerdoodles for one which were a hit. Although the process was a bit interesting in a smaller house with not much equipment to bake. Even though I know things I make here could be much better, these people haven´t tried it so I can get away with what I can do here. :) For all they know I´m a master chef. :)  I heard about the games and people showed us clips from the World Cup. Turns out that Germany won against Argentina 1-0 in overtime. And Germany absolutely destroyed Brasil 7-1 last week. The news showed people burning buses and rioting after the loss. Dang. Well it turns out the World Cup wasn´t during my year mark but it was happening during my year-left mark. Speaking of which, I got the package for my year mark! I was happily surprised. I didn´t think I would get a package. I loved it all and I actually still have the funfetti pancake mix so that´ll be the "birthday" cake for me and my companion. We get to celebrate together! So my companion is Elder Weeks from South Jordan Utah. He was in the MTC with me. Although I didn´t see him much since we were 102 people at the end. He´s a good hardworker and enjoys contacting. There´s not anything like being Persian or surfer to relate so that´s why I just put nice because he is. I finally met a Paraguayan (I think that´s the word in English?)! I´ve been waiting to meet one my whole mission but I never have until Saturday. He and his friend came to play soccer when we were there so they played with us. I finally got to mention that my brother was there and a couple of his areas but there wasn´t time for much else because we were playing soccer. We were passing by some old contacts from the former missionaries and I found a couple interesting ones. One was apparently on the fifth floor and it turned out that the address was a one floor house. The other one was impossible to find that day because the road to get there didn´t seem to exist anymore. The part of the wall where it should open up just was just a 20 foot wide diiferent style wall. I was excited to go to my companion and say "There´s a wall there. Trust me." I hope you all know what that´s from.* So in the glorious tradition of having a ridiculous amount of holidays for random things, this is apparently the week of concerts so last night we were serenaded with a violin-cello-bass-guitar band which was actually pretty cool. While listening to it I actually dropped my flip-flop on the optometrist´s sign below on the first floor. So I bent a wire hanger and tied it to our very long clothes line and I got to play flip flop fishing before going to bed which is interesting at that height with a lot of wind. And I went on two exchanges (weird english missionary words!) this week with Elder Brewer from Segovia and one of our beloved zone leaders from Madrid named Elder Iñiguez. And being near the end of the transfer the number of inside jokes increases daily, but they would take too long to explain. Anyways, this is plenty long. See you later! I love you all!

.Elder Morgan

*It's a quote from "The Emperor's New Groove."

Elder Morgan apparently forgot to tell the English family he was bringing

 a family of four

 investigators. This is his apology.

Revelations

I haven´t had a p-day with nothing in a long time. It´s always been a trip or sports or something else that takes up most of the day. Today we are just cruising at our own pace and I have plenty of time to write. I´ve sort of followed the pattern of the the New Testament books by getting smaller and smaller. Well, here´s Revelations! Although not as profound, confusing, or prophetic. 

Well, in a year from now I will have left Spain and be on my home. AAAHHH! That´s scary. It was just yesterday that we were talking in the MTC about how the World Cup would be our halfway point. My mind is so confused. It seems like time doesn´t exist. If I ever talk about things that I happened before the mission I don´t account for the time on the mission and talk like today is the first day of the mission. It's also amazing to be hitting my year IN the mission on the 24th. 

Well the 4th of July was exciting but not. I made a boss American breakfast of lots of eggs and well cooked bacon and toast and a giant box (They come in 1 liter man-juice-box sizes here) of orange juice. We went up to the other elder´s piso because they had an American flag drawn on their whiteboard and we sang the Star-Spangled Banner loud and proud which was followed by the pledge of allegiance. For lunch we ate at a American styled restaurant called Foster´s Hollywood. Then we happened to pass by the English Family´s house and reminded them what day it is. And by the way, they want me to correct my past sins of calling them a Scottish family. They want to be called English even though they´re all a mix of Scottish, English, and Spanish. And we happened to find 8 sparklers in our closet and we lit those to finish off the day. It was all little things but we loved it.

I tried to make poppyseed bread! So, there were two problems. One, the recipe I have from home says to add 1/2 tsp. of each extract to the glaze which made it brown and taste like extract without sugar. Maybe also because the almond extract comes in 2 mL vials so it might be more powerful (Could you research that for me? They´re made by Dr. Oetker). And the ovens here cooked it weird so the knife came out clean when it was "done" but it was still pretty uncooked in some parts. But the second loaf came out partially edible and I didn´t add the extracts for that one. :)

So I had another boss European moment this week. There´s an open air market for fruit and clothing and jazz that fills the plaza here twice a week. So I went and bought peaches the old school way from a man that owned a fruit stand with coins from my coin pouch. I felt like a boss. And I bought a yierbabuena (No idea what the translation is. It´s kind of like mint) plant to grow for making herbal tea that tastes really good. So far it´s alive. On the way back from buying it some man snuck up behind me, rubbed his fingers on the the leaves, and told me that it was good and kept on turning around after walking away to give me a thumbs up. Random. 

Oh dang straight I´ve taught a class, but only English class. Our ward´s pretty solid. We´re getting a chapel in the near future, but that´s probably after I leave. But they don´t have us do much in church. In Segovia they only have 20 people so the missionaries have to do the sacrament and teach every once in a while. But so far it´s just been wards for me. Maybe later I´ll be in the branches in the north. Who knows. I´ve just given up on trying to guess. Transfers are so random, I might just get sent to Portugal.

That´s nuts to hear about all the mission calls. It´s so cool! I was happy to see people on that list you sent. Although that does mean I´ll be pretty lonely when I get back friends-wise. But it´s worth it. I´m so excited to talk to them after our missions.

Nevermind, that wasn´t Revelations status but I´ll finish the other chapters later. I love you all!

Os quiero!

-Elder Morgan the Younger

The Street Life

I don´t have much time so this is going to be kinda short.

Yes, my companion´s mom is on the Missionary Mom thingamajig. I knew the the pictures from my British mum would make you happy, Mom. I´m still trying to find a camera cable. The problem is that even I wanted to take it straight off the card, I can´t because it´s a "Sony Memory Stick" which is thinner and weird and not an SD card.

(From Daniel's Mom): More photos from his "British Mum," Sister Lobaco. They seem to have the Missionaries--more than one set--over for dinner and games every Sunday evening, and she is sweet enough to send me pictures every week. She did want to say that they aren't allowed to have the missionaries over unless they have an investigator with them.

Investigators! Well, Ismael and his sister are pretty boss but their parents won´t let them be baptized because they´re afraid they´ll leave the church later in their lives. It´s frustrating. The parents know the church is good for their kids but they still have that idea. Thre´s another nice lady and her 2 kids but they just want to be 100% sure which is good, but also will take a long time and that´s hard to reach as an investigator sometimes. 

I´m excited to hear about mission calls! Have you checked my Facebook recently for those? I haven´t heard many for a while. Yes, we are proudly supporting the USA from a third person view. I hope we go far this year!

A quick funny story! We were knocking doors and heard a guy look through the peephole, walk away, and flick a switch. Right after that we heard a low quality recording of a dog barking and then a flick to turn it off. Then he turned it on a couple more times for good measure. We started leaving (whilst laughing quietly) but I rang the doorbell again just so he´d play it more.

I have a few more little things to write but there´s not much time. Mostly I´m just in the streets most of the day. Love you all!

Os quiero,

Elder Morgan the Younger

We have iPads now!

No, we do not have iPads. I just wrote the iPad thing at the bottom (of his last email) for kicks and giggles and to hear reactions. I wish it was true. I guess I shouldn´t deceive people as a missionary. I´ll be dodging lightning bolts after writing this.

Yes, we already heard about Portugal and the States. We hear it from people right after each game and from missionaries the next morning. We can´t watch it so whatever info we get spreads fast. So we get to enjoy the world cup vicariously through the rest of the world. We´re still cheering for you America!

Well transfers came and I´m still here just as expected, but President took out every senior companion in our district (5 in total) and so all of us left have like a transfer in our area except one Elder who just finished his training here. So we´re in quite the fun situation. We´ll see how this goes.

New Companion Elder Weeks

But, my new companion seems nice. He´s from my same MTC group and I met him briefly. His name is Elder Weeks. He´s from Utah like most of us. More specifically South Jordan And right now in this transfer we´re on that part of the rollercoaster where you start going over the first big hill and you see what kind of rollercoaster it is. Let´s hope there´s no upside down loopdi-loop jazz going on in the future. Although I suppose there are some masochistic people who like those in the not figurative sense. But that is not me so it fits my metaphor. After being on so many rollercoasters I could use a few laps on the merry-go-round. But I only have a year left in this amusement park so I´ll enjoy it while I can.

Not much to report. Just sort of cruising along up here on top of this rollercoaster waiting to see what happens next. Please pray for me to have no big loops!

Os quiero,

-Elder Morgan

Hold On!

I have to admit that I have failed at writing for the last two weeks in my journal but now I have! Now  I remember more random jazz.

First off, turns out my companion is a convert of about 2 years now. He never told me until a few days ago. He got baptized a couple years ago and left when he had a year in the church for his mission. But he essentially was raised as a dry member (not wet by the waters of baptism) all his teenage years. I don´t know if that´s a term at home. There´s lots of that here. Like an "eternigator" is an eternal investigator as in those people who have investigated for a LONG time and probably won´t ever finish investigating. Although I know for a fact that is only a mission term. 

Random news! I just noticed the grocery store paid me back with a penny from England. It´s not that exciting, but at the same time it is. Although it´s weird that I´ve gotten so used to the Euro. I like having coins for 50 cents and a euro and 2 euros. We need more of that in America. Although the bills are weird. I still have a $20 in my wallet for my first American meal in Atlanta on my way back and it looks so long compared to the Euros. 

Spain is pretty bummed about their loss in the World Cup. It was a very quiet morning after their loss. And whenever we´re at somebody´s house the TV is on the news which is still about Spain´s loss. Did the paper have a guy in bright green kneeling down? That picture is everywhere now for news about the loss. All the bars have TVs or projectors outside so whenever we´re outside we get to glance at the score and the countries. And everyone tells us the final scores. It seems to be the only thing to talk about here. I´m excited to hear about how America does but I´ve heard that we´ll probably have to face Germany soon which will be scary.

I think I mentioned that there are a lot of Muslims here. Because of that, we talk to a lot of Muslims and have a lot of them as friends, although we usually can´t teach. Anyways, we were talking to our friend named Achmed (who was dressed in his boss Muslim dress to go pray in the mosque) and a Spanish man walked by and stopped and said "Wow. I never thought I´d see two Mormons and a Muslim together." and continued to tell us how amazed he was. And when we stopped talking to Achmed another man thought we were trying to argue with Achmed and we couldn´t convince him so he said to us "The Moor was very difficult?" which is kind of not nice to say and weird but that´s Spaniards for you a lot of the time. They are kind of racist. But it´s fun to be in a city with so many Muslims and see their culture. Hopefully I can get a Qu´ran soon. I´ve always wanted to get one just for fun and the problem is that you can´t buy one. They can only be given and so I´m waiting for one in English from one of our friends. 

The work continues at it´s own pace but it seems like it´ll get a lot better soon. Not much news there.

It´s weird reading about Wesley going home. That´ll be me in almost a year. I remember talking in the MTC about the World Cup being our half way mark and a year away but it´s already here! Weird! This last transfer has been pretty fast too. It´s like riding a sled and you can´t really do much about it speeding up except hold on. I love you guys a lot and I´ll write more next week!

Os quiero,

Elder Morgan

Fallen

Well, this has been kind of an uneventful week. What´s there to tell? They set up a medieval market for the weekend and we passed by to see it. It was pretty cool. They had lots of women´s clothing, leather work, food (mostly sausages and meats and breads), jewelry, and random sections of things like herbal remedies for EVERYTHING and they sold bricks of stuff like frankincense and myrrh. And there was cliche medieval Spanish music which I forgot includes bagpipes since the Celts were here.

Elder Fisher visited for a few minutes and he was just like I remembered him. I got to see his family which was cool. His mom took pictures (see above) and will send them so you´ll be happy, Mom. I also got to see Jhony from Torrejón! It´s weird to think that Wesley´s home too. Not much is different for me about that until I get home, though. That´ll be an interesting day. This all makes me think of that more. 

More and more I notice the giant cross from The Valley of the Fallen. It´s a huge cross that they put over this fancy cemetary and they bury important people there like Franco, the guy who was dictator here. It´s not close but if you look at the mountains there´s a giant cross just sticking out of them. 

My companion accidentally led us on a bus ride all the way to Madrid instead of a nearby pueblo so we had a nice hour and a half of riding there and back. And everyone´s mad at him because all the investigators and recent converts of the other missionaries invite him over to do things and like him more sometimes and always want him to baptize them. It´s funny but at the same time they´re getting tired of it. 

Besides that the work is slow here and so we just carry on and try to do our best. It seems like there is a points system and each area is given a number of points to spread around. And the categories are like companions and how the area looks and the ward and the contacting and the apartment and the investigators and so forth. So if the area is very beautiful, the other areas have to have fewer points. If the work is great, the other areas have to have fewer points. So you can have a great looking area with a nice ward but then the work is much harder or a nice looking area with a good amount of work but a terrible ward and companion. For example, Segovia is gorgeous and they have nice missionaries there, but the work is terrible and there is only a branch of 20 people. So my area is more gorgeous here, but the points have to come from the work so it´s not too grand here. 

So it wasn´t too grand of a week again, but hopefully this is the bottom because once you´ve hit rock bottom the only way to go is up, so this next week should be nice. Keep me in your prayers! Love you all!

Onward Christian Soldiers

I found a Nicaraguan lady! Her name is Juana and hopefully we´ll teach her this week. She didn´t believe my Nicaraguan ancestry but it was cool to meet her. She´s not from Managua, but she´s from a little pueblo. Although usually I just say that Grandma is Spanish but lived in Central America all her life.

Ya, I wish I could´ve been in Torrejon. Part of our Peruvian family got baptized! Leslie is the mom and Jennifer is the daughter. They´re the people who cancelled their baptismal date a couple months ago. Even though I wasn´t there, they still call me and Elder Fisher their missionaries. Especially me since I taught them for 4 months and only missed 3 weeks before the baptism. I´m happy they made it finally. I´m definitely going to visit for some p-day. The only two left in the family are the 4 year old daughter and the dad who is waiting to see how they go. I really wish I could´ve gone. They´re just a little trip on the same train line as I am but President said no. Apparently he doesn´t let anyone go to other baptisms even if it´s the next area over.  And another friend of my first recent convert, Henry from Nigeria, who I half taught just got baptized too. I´m happy for him too but the other baptism means so much more to me.

Yep, I´m almost on the countdown, but not yet. It´s weird to think Wesley is finishing so soon! Elder Fisher just finished on Saturday. He´s going to visit Villalba some day soon so that´ll be fun. There´s not much news here. It seems the farther north you go the less work there is. Elder Shamsabadi´s old companion is really north and he has absolutely no investigators. Oh! I think I mentioned that we´re teaching a man that is exactly like the man from Up. He´s a short, stout little Spaniard with parted white hair and a cane and huge square glasses. He drives a little tiny European car and he´s living in a house he built with his own hands. He´s just too adorable. I´ll send pictures when I get a cord.

There´s not much to say. It´s been a slow, less joyful week and I really need to be remembered in prayers if you all could. I love you all!

Os quiero,