Emails Monday, February 23, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is so fun I get you on your birthday!!!! I just love you ok!!! So what are you doing for your birthday? We are so simple. but we have so much fun!!! I hope your birthday is awesome!!! I Love you so much!!!

I got my package two days ago!!! I LOVED IT!!!!!!! thank you so much!!! It got here fast!!! I have really enjoyed eating that chocolate! ha ha. I LOVE my sweater too. I have worn it 2 days strait. ha ha. It´s perfect. Thanks so much!! I love how Kade sent me so many letters. I love them. Thanks Kade!!! Thank you everyone.

I hope you all had a fun valentines day. And I´m glad Hayley is going to the dance with Mitch and not the scary stalker guy. ha ha. Poor girl can´t help it. she´s just too dang cute. I am glad you liked the pictures.

What happens with the grapes is you eat one grape with every strike of the clock at midnight. kind of fun.

Hermana Swenson's name is Susanne. She´s awesome. I think we´ll do good together. We decided not to move. I feel bad because i wanted to help out the bishop and Stake president but we never felt good about it. so we decided to stay. And I feel really good about that decision.

I did hear that it was really hard to get packages to Chile. But if they didn´t say anything in her papers maybe people are exaggerating. I´m not sure. I just heard the mail system is really bad there and sometimes the package doesn´t get to the missionary. But I´m sending stuff anyway. I also heard putting religious stickers on the box makes people less likely to steal them. I don´t know if that´s true or not but hey, why not.

Elder Bednar was awesome!!!! I was in the front row on the left side of the chapel. He walked in and we all stood up and he is totally an apostle. His face is a lot softer and a little more aged than I thought. But he is still very young and one of my new favorite speakers. He came with Elder Oaks of the 70. He taught in a really interesting way. He would ask us questions. actually he reminded me a lot of dad. He would ask questions until he felt like we had answered it well. He wanted us to dig deeper and to be involved in the discussion. He told us the importance of asking good questions. he told us we are not the teachers, the holy ghost is. He told us....I need my journal. My mind just went blank. It was awesome though. I´ll have to write you a more detailed letter about what he talked about later today. But it was so cool. Oh and when he taught he invited Elder Oaks to get up whenever he felt like it to add anything to what elder Bednar had said. I´m running out of time so i think i´ll tell you more about the conference in a letter. But we all got to shake his hand at the end. Cool Huh!!!

I loved the snow pictures. I can´t believe how much there is. I am really liking Spain right now. ha ha. It looks like the dogs would like it here too. ha ha. That snow is as tall as them. I bet Kade loved it. Well I better run. I love you so much!!! I hope you have a great Week and that the snow melts soon.

I love you!! I hope you had an amazing birthday. You´ll have to let me know how it goes. I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Morgan

Hey dad!!!

How are you doing with all that snow out there?? It looks so cold!!!! So how are things down in Layton? How is work going? Did I ever tell you I talked to Monica a few months ago when I was still in Sevilla. She got our number from the elders in Cordoba and gave me a call. Fun huh. It was fun to talk to her. and in Spanish too. I loved it. She is so great!!! I really like her. if you ever see her tell her hi for me. I love the simple fun our family has. We have an awesome family and I have always been very grateful for that. I like what you said about getting every little bit of growth out of these next 6 months as I can. It has gone by so fast. I already feel like I´m not ready for it to end yet. Like there is still so much to do and to learn. I think one of my biggest problems is that if I´m not perfect I feel like I've failed. I realized
I just need to learn to enjoy the ride a little more. It´s work and it´s important, but I have to be better about not worrying so much about being perfect. I don´t want to come home with regrets because I didn´t achieve the impossible perfection I think I should have. I enjoy my mission more when I don´t worry so much. Just go and do and enjoy it. does that make sense? This mission is a great blessing and a great opportunity and this work is real. I just want to do it right. It´s a lot more fun now that i understand Spanish too. I thought about that the other day. In malaga I didn´t understand anything and now I am taking notes at church because the lesson was so good and I understood it all. What a miracle. The Lord really blesses his missionaries.

Well I better run. I´m out of time. But I hope you know that I love you! I often compare you to the missionaries of our mission. I know you were the best. You are awesome. Give mom a birthday hug for me. I hope you have a great day, and a great week. Thanks so much for my package. I LOVE IT!! I always do. You guys are awesome!!! I love you!!!

Love,
Morgan

Email Monday, February 16, 2009

!HOLA!

So Big News....Should I wait to tell you until the end of the email??? haha, Just Kidding. Hermana Smith just got transferred to Almeria. And I am soooooo excited for my new companion to come. Not because I don´t love Hermana Smith, Because I really do. We get along great together, but my new companion´s name is Hermana Swenson and I LOVE her. She started her mission in Sevilla. She was there 2 transfers with me. When I was trying to figure out what was going to happen with transfers I thought, I would love it if Hermana Swenson was my companion. Oh my gosh I´m excited!!! I love Hermana Swenson!! She is from California. She´s been on her mission for 3 transfers now and is just a doll. And, just like every other missionary out here, I think she goes to BYU. but I could be wrong. Shes a doll. I love her.

So guess what else i think is super cool...I played soccer in Cadiz today. There is this big old wall and It´s called...I don´t remember. Puerta de la tierra or something like that. Its apparently the only way to enter Cadiz on land. That wall is part of the soccer court. How cool is that. I played soccer in Cadiz. haha. I don´t know why that´s so cool to me. I played it in Sevilla and Malaga too but hey. Cadiz is just cool. I love Cadiz. It´s a really cool city. So that is what we did for pday today. And I loved it!!! No goals, But i did play some good defence. I wore a Ute shirt and Hermana Smith wore her BYU sweatshirt. My team won the most. haha.

I am so excited for my package. Thank you so much. That will be so fun. I bet I´ll get it when Hermana Swenson gets here. This Thursday all of the mission is going to Malaga. After the conference with Elder Bednar Hermana smith will go to Almeria and Hermana Swenson will come home with me. Then the two of us have to decide where to live. There is a widow in our ward who is lonely and the bishop wants us to move in with her. It´s our choice, even President Mellor has left it up to us. That is a huge decision to make. The widow is 84 and really sweet. The problem is Pepi is also lonely and really sweet and not a member. And there are a lot of reasons why each decision would be good or bad and we want to help out the ward but we want to do what the Lord wants us to do and so far we have felt better about staying. So, we have to make a decision soon. We would be moving in in march. So pray for us. We need it. We just want to do the right thing.

Don´t worry about mail. If we move, we´ll still visit Pepi. So it´s kind of a busy week. I am so excited about the letter Madi wrote me in Spanish. I just love her. I am so excited for her. I´m sorry it has snowed so much. Spring is teasing us here. Some days it´s rainy and cold and then we have days like today where the sun is shining and there´s not a cloud in the sky. I never know if I should wear my coat or not.

Kade is so dang cute. I love that he is such a good dad with his bears. Everyone tells me he looks like me. It always makes me so happy. They either comment about Kade looking like me or mom. And They all say my parents "Son muy joven.

"That is so cool you got a Wii. I have played it one time I think. It was fun. I bet you guys are having a lot of fun with that. Things are still going great in San Fernando. I love it here. Thank you for all your prayers. The Lord is still putting people in our path. I love it here.

I love you so much!!! Thanks for the email. I love hearing about everything that is happening at home. I sent you letters and a post card this week. So look for those in the mail. I love you so much!!!! Have an awesome week!!!!!I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

Love, Morgan

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX


Hey Dad!!!
I just love you!!! How was your valentines day? How was visiting your sisters? So I already just said everything that is going on in the mission right now in the other email.. But we did have an awesome lesson with a kid from Bolivia yesterday. We talked about the restoration..I think that´s how you spell it...i´m so used to Spanish...restauración. anyway, we watched the restoration movie with him and in the end it talks a tiny bit about the Book of Mormon. Well when the movie ended he was like " What are those new scriptures it talked about" But it wasn´t a defensive, "a bible we have a bible". He really wanted to know. We were like wow, ok, um we actually brought you a copy. It just surprised me, I always talk with my companions about how when someone really has interest, we aren´t sure we heard them right. haha, or that they understand. I love it when people are so open to the gospel like that. This kid, Luis. Is really a good kid. He´s like 20 and he´s in the military. He´s from Bolivia. There are a ton of Bolivians here. We are so excited to teach him, but a little worried because he will be in Italy for the Next month. But, he has the Book of Mormon and he told us he feels a peace when he´s with us. So a month is kind of a set back but not the end of the world. Haha. I love South Americans. They are so humble and willing to listen.

Well dad i love you so much. The time is up. I will talk to you next week!!! I LOVE YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Morgan

San Fernando Postcard

Hola Familia!

So this is San Fernando. The left side is our area and there are 2 Elders on the other side. It is a very pretty city. I really like it a lot. Today was a pretty relaxed p-day. We did some shopping and just took our time doing it. It's been nice. Right now I am trying to write down a couple good soup and salad recipes. It's really random, but a green salad with apples and (sometimes) those baby corn things with vinegar and olive oil is really good! And they have this vegetable soup that is pumpkin, potatoes, and anything else you want, all mixed (mashed) together. It just looks like a yellowish paste, but it's SO good. hopefully I'll be able to make you some when I come home.

New Year's Eve Pictures

"Hermanas Swenson, Me, Griotti and Lewis at the Baena's house New Year's Eve. They eat 12 grapes by the time the clock strikes 12. This is us with our grapes. They come in a cute little can.

Email February 09, 2009

I am so glad to hear that Tanner got his Christmas Package. I am glad he liked it. I wanted to send some fun treats in it but apparently the US doesn´t allow any food in from spain. I didn´t want to chance losing the package because it had food in it. But i´m glad he liked the scarf and the hat. I´m also glad you got my letters. Tell madi to get the sleeping bag!!! The last thing you want to do is be kept up all night because you are cold. I love her. She is so awesome!!!!The accent in Andalucia is just bad. They all cut off thier words but it´s definately worse in Cadiz. Actually it´s not as bad as people made it out to be. that´s funny that you said sometimes you pause to think i´m really living in spain. That happened to me a lot this week. haha. I always love your packages. They do have peanut butter here but it´s really expensive and not near as good. I am totally going to buy dad a pin for his tie. I´ll send it with that package i´ve been trying to finish since november. haha. I´m glad madi liked my spanish letter. Let the fun begin. I am so excited about this. We are totally both going to be speaking spanish. I keep hearing that in south america the missionaries are really lucky because they usually have a lot of native companions. If that is true, madi really is really lucky. It makes such a huge difference. I wish i could have another spanish speaking companion. The culture difference is hard but is does miracles with your spanish. I probablly wont have another native companion though. there arent many here. Ok, Here is the address I have. Tirso de Molina 611100 San Fernando (Cádiz)EspañaI don´t know what was wrong on the address but just to be sure, this is what hermana smith tells me is the address of our house. We have been so blessed here. Every week we are finding more people to teach. In the conference president went to they said we were part of the reawakening of europe as far as missionary work goes. So cool!!!! The lord is really blessing us. We are very excited to work here. So fun news....All the missionaries are going to Malaga the 19th to have a special conference with Elder Bednar!!! Cool huh!!! I am so excited!!! So if I don´t write next pday it´s because they decided to change pday. I´m not sure if they´re going to change it or not. but it´s possible. Isn´t that cool though. Well, I wanted to write more but i just had a computer scare and don´t want to lose this email. I love you so much!!! i hope you have a great week!!! I will pray for Rosa to come to madi´s farewell!! I think that´s awesome!!! I love you so much!!!! Talk to you soon!!!!

Love.
Morgan

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Letter, January 12, 2009

January 12, 2009
Hey family,

I thought I’d write you a quick hello. I love you all so much. I’m doing good out here in Spain. After being with H. Griotti 9 weeks, my Spanish is doing great. I am feeling much more confident in my ability to speak to people and I am understanding them too. The people here have a really thick accent. Cadiz is known for it’s poor accent. They cut their endings so it sounds like…well, not Spanish. But most of them I can understand okay. I love my ward. It’s so strong and everything seems to revolve around missionary work. I am so excited to work here. I love my companion. She’s such a hard worker and just a sweetheart! I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with her.

So that you know – I listen to those conference talks you sent me every day while I get ready. I love them. That peanut butter you sent me is sooo good. I love it! I ate some of it yesterday with some cookies. They’re basically graham crackers in cookie form. They’re good, but even better with peanut butter from home.

Okay Zelda fans…if I remember right the main village on the 2nd Zelda game for ’64 looks kind of like San Fernando. I think. I’ll take some pictures and you can compare them to Zelda.

How are the mission preparations going? How’s the espanol? I’m going to buy a Spanish key chain to send to Madi. – Madi – you have to send me one for Chile. I tell everyone about my sister going to Chile. I am so excited.

Well family – I love you all so much. I’m sorry I took so long to send your Christmas card. I hope you get it by Valentine’s day.

Kade – I love you so much! I am going to send you something from Spain.

Tanner – I can’t wait to give you your Christmas/Valentine’s Day present. I hope you like it.

Dallin – don’t stay up too late talking to Brian and are you really like as tall as me now? J

Hayley – Everyone says you’re beautiful. I can’t wait to go to school with you at Weber. Are you going to take choir?

Madi – Once I get home and have a steady paycheck I will be sending you a ton of fun packages. I can’t wait to talk to you in Spanish.

Mom – Thanks for being so great. I’ve always felt like an especially loved missionary. I can’t wait to run errands & go biking with you & out to lunch when I get home. I love you.

Dad – Como va tu Espanol? I love you? We are doing a mission night. Japanese food & Spanish food “together”. Thanks for your example. I love you?

I LOVE YOU

La Mejor familia que hay!

Love ya,
Morgan

Email Monday, February 2, 2009

Ok, I love your email. I can´t believe you were friends with Elder Woodbury´s aunt. He was my first district leader in Sevilla. hahaha. Oh, that´s funny. I love it. I love Elder Davis. He was an awesome Missionary. He is one of the first ones I met in the field. He worked in the office for a long time. Every time I have had to do residency he was there. He´s a great kid. Sara should date him. haha.

Thanks so much for praying for us to find more people to teach in San Fernando. Guess what, we found 3 this week. The Lord has been blessing us so much. We will probably also be teaching at least 2 more new people this week if our appointments go through ok. Maybe even more. The lord is really blessing us a lot. Thank you so much for your prayers. I know that has made a difference in the work here. Monica is doing well. We´re just giving her the lessons and trying to help her understand them well. I haven´t heard anything about Maria Jose but I´m sure I will be able to talk to the Hermanas soon because I am guessing Zone conference is in a couple weeks. I am anxious to hear how she is doing.

So with biggest loser, the losers all give 10 euros each to buy the winner something cool from Spain. We all send in our weight to Hermana Lindley so she can keep a record for us. Haha. It´s kind of fun huh. I think we started officially yesterday. I would love to do biggest loser with you when i get home. I seriously would love to. i can´t wait to be athletic again. I think my body is mad at me.

Tell Grandma and Grandpa thank you so much!!! They are so sweet. I can´t believe them. I just love them. I will have to write them today.

Oh, before I forget. The Baena´s address is the same as my Seville address. We share a mailbox. You can just put Baena family or Hermana y Hermana Baena or something like that. You probably don´t want to write them anything and put it through an Internet translator though. It doesn´t work too well. But he understands a little English and his son speaks English so English is fine. I´ll get you maria Jose´s address too. She would LOVE to hear from you. She want´s to meet you.

The computer is about to kick me off. I love you so much: Tell tanner his package is green. When he sees a very great package that says correos. It´s for him. Well. I love you so much!!!!! I hope you have such a great week. I love reading your emails every week. They just make my day. I love you so much.
Love,
Morgan

PS: I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

XOXO

Hey Dad!

I loved your email today. I loved reading about that experience and how the Lord really does guide us. I think I have met Leo Parra. I know I have met someone from a spanish speaking county, I'm sure it must have been him because there are't many in Utah.

Speaking of Parra. The last name of one of the councelors in the Madrid Temple presidency is Parra. I think I told you about how he came to visit for a couple weeks because his brothers wife just got baptized. He came for the baptism. Well, one of the last nights he was here, Hermana Smith and I were invited to a Family Home Evening with Him and his Brother Pedro and Elizabeth who just got baptized and some members. Well, when we got to Pedro and Elizabeth's house we were surprised to find the entire Temple presidency and their wives there. So yeah, We basically had a Family Home Evening with the Temple Presidency. It was really cool. Poor Pedro had to give the lesson and was really nervous. The Temple President is from Bountiful. President Moore. He has been serving there about 2 months now.

Oh and Elder Bednar is coming to Spain! Just a little side note. Haha. Cool huh. We still don'tknow if we'll get to go to the meeting or not because president Mellor said he would just be meeting with the leaders here in San Fernando but they have started anouncing that he's coming in Sacrament Meeting so who knows. It would be really cool if we got to go hear him speak.

Right now we have been doing a lot of contacts. and passing by a lot of references. We have a few new investigators too. One is named Alex. He's from Bolivia. We think he could really progress. The lord has been blessing us a lot lately. You would be so impressed with this ward here. It is soooo cool. They eat, sleep, and breath missionary work. Every talk, every lesson. Everything is about missionary work. It is so cool, the feeling here. I can feel it. There is an excitement on both sides of the veil. Something is going to happen with the missionary work here. President Mellor just had a meeting with the mission presidents and authorities in Europe. The work is up 9 percent in our part of Europe and we had 20% more baptisims in Spain this year. I think in just our mission. Things are looking up here. It's so neat to be apart of this.

Well, I better go. I Love you so much. You are such a great example to me. And you are right. This is the Lords work. I love you so much!!!! Have a great week!!! If I'm ever struggling with anything I just pray that you and mom will know to pray for me more. And I know you pray for me all the time and I am so grateful for that. And for your faith in the Lord and in Me. I love you so much! I really do. I can't wait to give you that hug when I get home!!! I love you!!!! Have a great week!!

Love,
Morgan

Keep The Faith and Keep up the Spanish. I love it! You guys are awesome!!!!

Te Amo!