Work of an Office Elder

Hey Everyone!

This week we received 17 Elders and 2 Sisters this week. I also put in some good work with my new companion Elder Dilebo.

If I could descried Elder Dilebo is a few words it would be "He is a gift from Heaven". He really is just that good! He is a hard worker and likes to get things done. I am really excited to what we can do this transfer! 

It was kind of a crazy start to the transfer because of the new missionaries. They are usually not this big so it was kind of crazy. All except two missionaries arrived in the afternoon, the other two arrived at about 11 o'clock that night. We had to wait up for him, so we ran around and tried to get as much done on our agenda as we could. Once they came we showed them were they would sleep and got them figured out. After that we received a call from The Assistants to come and help them with a few things. We were doing some paper work and creating some things for the new missionaries. Turns out we did not get it done until 2am! I don't think my bed has ever been that comfortable! After sleeping we woke back up at 6:30am and I think I had to rip my eyes open. We got dressed and went right back to work. To say the least I think I fell asleep in a few lessons that day! 

Other than that we haven't really had too many exciting experiences. One of our investigators Ramatu Kamara is having some trouble with some commandments. After a long talk about some stuff, we finally asked her if She loved Man or loved God more? We told her to think about it and give an answer next time we go. I really thought about that hard about myself as well. It has really helped me understand that I have SO MANY weaknesses and I really need to rely on The Lord more! Because of this I began to study more about the difference between Meekness and Humility, a pretty cool study topic that I am learning a lot about. Well that is it for me this week!

Here is a link to a video Eli sent us. Since I’m in Alaska, I’ve got to send a link. Hope this works.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10sPXMbQlRyMITzSqG-mBlXfIBY9X27og/view?usp=drivesdk

Love you guys!

-Elder Morgan

A Baptism and Transfer News

Hey Friends and Family!

I had a good and busy week. We did apartment inspections, received transfer news and had a baptism!

Apartment inspections really took up our whole week. We went to waterloo, kissy, and Freetown and even to Lungi! Between Freetown and Lungi there is a peninsula. It is about a 30 minute ferry ride. The Ferry was scheduled to leave at 10:30 am, so we left at 9 am to get there in time. We ended up waiting for about 1 hour and did not leave until 11:30 am. When we arrived at Lungi, it was 12 o'clock and we had to get back on the ferry at 1 o'clock. So we were able to hurry and call the Elder's in Lungi to come meet us at the entrance. We did a quick swap of things and then went right back on the ferry to Freetown! It was kind of a lame trip but we had some good company to keep it light and fun. 

Elder in Lungi

Last night we received transfer news! Leading up to the news we had some steak that Elder Gray's Father sent to us. I t was pretty good! Turns out that Elder Hansen is being transferred to Bo to be a Zone Leader. I will be getting a new companion, Elder Dilebo, from South Africa. He seems like a pretty solid guy and I am excited to switch things things up. We will be Office Elders for one more transfer, while we finish up the Child's training! I am a little bit nervous about training another Office Elder and an Office Couple! But I think The Lord puts us in new and challenging places, because He wants us to learn, grow and rely on Him more. I love Him.

Today we had a wonderful baptism. The Assistants, The Family History Elders, The PZ Elders, and us all combined. We baptized one new member, his name is Ezekiel Kamara. He is a really solid guy and I am grateful for the opportunity! I was asked to give a talk on The Holy Ghost, and I love talking about that! I really enjoyed the baptism. The Child's also came and had such a great time!

Baptism!

Well I am excited for the new adventures that come with a new week. I will write more next week!

Love,
Elder Morgan

One of my padis dem Akim.

The average house in Freetown

My District

Our All Africa Service Project day!

Rain Rain Go Away, Come Again Some Other......Year!

Hello Friends and Family!

I had such a good week as usual. This week went by pretty quick. We are almost to the close of the transfer, and I am kind of excited. Mostly to get out of this office work!  We had a Zone Conference and definitely new experiences like always. Also, the internet keeps going in and out so I don't know how long this email will be! Bare with me!

On Tuesday, we had our Zone Conference. This time we had it in the Mission Home. Usually we will have it in a church building, which is always loud and hard to hear who ever is speaking. It was nice to have a change because it was so quiet and so reverent! Our Zone Leaders gave an instruction on Diligence and it was super awesome. They used some examples in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. It was just a solid reminder to always be on my A-game in missionary work. 

Zone Conference

The Assistants to President then gave a super solid instruction on Repentance. They did it with a focus on The Plan of Salvation. We came here to have joy and repentance can bring joy. It was a really good reminder to repent daily. It reminded me of President Nelson's talk about doing better and being better. After the assistants had finished we had a short break. During which Sister Harper asked me to share an experience of when I felt the power and authority of my calling in a lesson or a day. She then gave a powerful instruction on becoming more converted to the Gospel everyday. Makes me very grateful for Jesus Christ who is very patient with us when we fall short. After she gave her instruction she invited me up to share the experience. I was really grateful to be able to share an experience that is close to my heart. 

Overall, just a really solid Zone Conference. I would say that the topic was becoming converting to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I think that has been a big part of my mission so far - becoming converted. While being here I have truly realized the sweetness of this Gospel and how much of an impact it has made in my life. If I had not come on mission there would be no way I could learn that. It is truly because of the the experiences I have had. I could not have them anywhere else. I am very grateful for my Savior and his atoning sacrifice for me. He loves us more than we can even imagine.

It has been raining here like crazy!!! July and August are the most rainy months in Salone. July was pretty bad, but yesterday was so crazy!! Before I got here I heard people say that it rains sheets out here, and I can affirm that indeed it does rain cats, dogs, cows and not just the sheets but the whole bed! Yesterday was the worst I've seen. It began to rain at about 7 o'clock in the morning really, really hard. After some office work we were able to get proselyting at 12 o'clock and it was pouring. We got into our area and saw some flooding on some of the side roads. We had one appointment and then our next appointment was in the main town. We began to walk and soon found ourselves in about 6 inches of water on the main road! People were running around everywhere and it was kind of crazy! We continued walking with water going up to our mid-shins all the way to our appointments. I wish I had taken some pictures but I am sure it will happen again soon. 

People's homes were flooding like crazy. It is really sad because they cannot do anything to stop it or get out of it. People were moving everything out of their homes just to move it back in and have it get all soaked again. It was really sad because we heard that 6 people died because of the flooding. That was a hard thing to see and hear about.

On a lighter note, here's a funny story...
Tuesday night we had gotten back to our apartment pretty late and found a frog. So, as any immature young adults would do we tried to catch it. Elder Hansen was slowly jogging right behind it and was not watching and ran into a pole! Nothing too serious happened, but he sure thought it was serious haha. He went to bed with a headache and woke up with a headache, so he thought he got a concussion. We stayed in on Wednesday to make sure he was feeling better. But don't worry, when I told Sister Moomey, the mission nurse, she said he should be fine...after she stopped laughing! Morale of the story... just let the frog go his own way undisturbed!

Love you guys!!
-Elder Morgan

Saying Goodbye to Elder Rydieski