Elder Eli Morgan
Serving in Sierra Leone
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Tour of Eli's Compound
Eli didn't write a letter this week, but we did record a video of him giving a tour of his compound. The way Skype records, you see a split window of Jen and I at 5:30am when he woke us up. Just pay attention to the right side of the screen. :)
Monday, October 21, 2019
Finding a Book of Mormon on a Train
Good Day People of America,
Man, I just had such a good week. We are really seeing the miracles in our area from our work. That is a good feeling - it's a feeling that you cant ever replace! This week I just felt pure joy. Something about talking about and sharing The Gospel of Jesus Christ and seeing the way it affects a person's life is very special! Man, this Church is so flipping true, and Jesus Christ is just the best.
This week went by kind of fast. We had a baptism and some awesome experiences!
At the beginning of the week we realized we are mostly teaching women and made a goal to contact some men. We had taken some time out of a few days to contact some people. It is so easy in this country because they all love to hear the Word of God. As we were contacting a woman actually came up to us and asked us to come and teach her so we set up an appointment to come see her. A few days later we went to her house but she was not there. As we were greeting her neighbors a man called us over and asked us to sit down. He told us his name is Desmond Hilliard and that He lived in America for 11 years in the 1980's-1990's. One day he was taking a train to his house in Ohio, as he came onto the train he found a new Book of Mormon on one of the seats and began to read it. Well it turns out he has been reading it for 40 years and has never really truly known where it came from, but he's estimated to have read the book about 100 times. He began to tell us stories from the Book of Mormon and how it connected to the Bible. We got super excited and asked to come back the next day.
We came back that next morning and helped him understand more about the spiritual side of the Book of Mormon and what it can do for us. We then invited him to pray about it and he said that he would. We then asked him to pray to close our lesson and he said a prayer from the book of Psalms in the Old testament. We were kind of confused and then taught him how to really pray.
We then came back the next day and he bore a simple but passionate testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and how when he had prayed using his own words he felt hopeful and loved. After he said this we bore testimony about Gods love for us and why it is so important.
Another awesome story-
One day as we were walking to Desmond's house a man stopped us in the street and asked us where our church was and said that he wants to meet with us. We told him where to find the church and made an appointment to come today (Monday). We did not really expect him to come to church, but he showed up and had a great time! We then went to his house today and found out that he is a Section Chief in Sierra Leone, he is a chief over 24 villages! He had some super inspired questions and has already read some of the Book of Mormon and some pamphlets we gave him. It is pretty awesome!
It is so awesome to see our work pay off, all of the sudden our Branch has gotten the Spirit of awesomeness and they are on a roll! I am just feeling very blessed to be serving in this area. I am also so grateful for my family, I love them so much.
Some things coming up for me:
See you guys next week! Shoot me an email!
-Elder Morgan
Man, I just had such a good week. We are really seeing the miracles in our area from our work. That is a good feeling - it's a feeling that you cant ever replace! This week I just felt pure joy. Something about talking about and sharing The Gospel of Jesus Christ and seeing the way it affects a person's life is very special! Man, this Church is so flipping true, and Jesus Christ is just the best.
This week went by kind of fast. We had a baptism and some awesome experiences!
At the beginning of the week we realized we are mostly teaching women and made a goal to contact some men. We had taken some time out of a few days to contact some people. It is so easy in this country because they all love to hear the Word of God. As we were contacting a woman actually came up to us and asked us to come and teach her so we set up an appointment to come see her. A few days later we went to her house but she was not there. As we were greeting her neighbors a man called us over and asked us to sit down. He told us his name is Desmond Hilliard and that He lived in America for 11 years in the 1980's-1990's. One day he was taking a train to his house in Ohio, as he came onto the train he found a new Book of Mormon on one of the seats and began to read it. Well it turns out he has been reading it for 40 years and has never really truly known where it came from, but he's estimated to have read the book about 100 times. He began to tell us stories from the Book of Mormon and how it connected to the Bible. We got super excited and asked to come back the next day.
We came back that next morning and helped him understand more about the spiritual side of the Book of Mormon and what it can do for us. We then invited him to pray about it and he said that he would. We then asked him to pray to close our lesson and he said a prayer from the book of Psalms in the Old testament. We were kind of confused and then taught him how to really pray.
We then came back the next day and he bore a simple but passionate testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and how when he had prayed using his own words he felt hopeful and loved. After he said this we bore testimony about Gods love for us and why it is so important.
Another awesome story-
One day as we were walking to Desmond's house a man stopped us in the street and asked us where our church was and said that he wants to meet with us. We told him where to find the church and made an appointment to come today (Monday). We did not really expect him to come to church, but he showed up and had a great time! We then went to his house today and found out that he is a Section Chief in Sierra Leone, he is a chief over 24 villages! He had some super inspired questions and has already read some of the Book of Mormon and some pamphlets we gave him. It is pretty awesome!
It is so awesome to see our work pay off, all of the sudden our Branch has gotten the Spirit of awesomeness and they are on a roll! I am just feeling very blessed to be serving in this area. I am also so grateful for my family, I love them so much.
Some things coming up for me:
- Tomorrow I hit 11 months in Sierra Leone, that means almost to the half way point!
- We are having an exchange with our District Leader on Wednesday.
- Next week is our Zone conference where Elder Nash is doing a mission tour!
See you guys next week! Shoot me an email!
-Elder Morgan
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Rats, Cockroaches. Bed Bugs and a PB&J!
Hello Everyone!
This week went pretty quick. We worked hard, relocated our rat friends, got rid of my bed bugs and had a visit from President and Sister Harper!
Like I said above we had a busy week of proselyting and getting some more things figured out for our areas. We kind of had to run around a little bit because we are planning on having a baptism this coming Saturday with people in the Mogbwemo Branch so we were going there and making sure they were ready. On Saturday we split our companionship with the other companionship of missionaries and did baptismal interviews! It was a good experience and fun to hear their testimonies.
Usually every Thursday we meet as a District (a group of missionaries who live close together) and have a small meeting together, but we then got word that President and Sister Harper would be coming and wanted to push it back until Monday (yesterday). It was so fun to have them there!! It was there first time coming to Rutile and they had a great time. After our District Council we then went back to our apartment and Sister Harper brought lunch! I have never been so excited to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and juice in my life. It was the most delicious thing I have eaten in this country so far haha.
(We received these pictures from the mission Facebook page from Sister Harper)
It is an inspiration for us to see the areas of these faithful missionaries. These missionaries definitely serve out in the bush and are loved by the Lord and the people. They are trustworthy and true and the Lord is using them to further His work in these pioneer branches of the church in Sierra Leone.
They then brought out some rat, cockroach and bed bug poison along with my sheets and pillow that I left in Freetown. Lets just say I had a VERY good night of rest!
Overall, we just had an awesome week and I am excited to do it again!
-Elder Morgan
Some Pictures From FreeTown:
Some Pictures of His New Area (Mogbwemo and Rutile):
This week went pretty quick. We worked hard, relocated our rat friends, got rid of my bed bugs and had a visit from President and Sister Harper!
Like I said above we had a busy week of proselyting and getting some more things figured out for our areas. We kind of had to run around a little bit because we are planning on having a baptism this coming Saturday with people in the Mogbwemo Branch so we were going there and making sure they were ready. On Saturday we split our companionship with the other companionship of missionaries and did baptismal interviews! It was a good experience and fun to hear their testimonies.
Usually every Thursday we meet as a District (a group of missionaries who live close together) and have a small meeting together, but we then got word that President and Sister Harper would be coming and wanted to push it back until Monday (yesterday). It was so fun to have them there!! It was there first time coming to Rutile and they had a great time. After our District Council we then went back to our apartment and Sister Harper brought lunch! I have never been so excited to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and juice in my life. It was the most delicious thing I have eaten in this country so far haha.
(We received these pictures from the mission Facebook page from Sister Harper)
It is an inspiration for us to see the areas of these faithful missionaries. These missionaries definitely serve out in the bush and are loved by the Lord and the people. They are trustworthy and true and the Lord is using them to further His work in these pioneer branches of the church in Sierra Leone.
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| Elder Morgan and Elder Obasi in front of their apartment in Moriba Town |
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Elder Moffat sharing a Book of Mormon moment!
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| Elder Morgan led a wonderful discussion on improving our teaching and the power of repentance. |
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| What a joy to be with them! |
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| At the chapel in Moriba Town for District Leader Council—Elders Morgan, Obasi, Moffat, and Allotey |
Overall, we just had an awesome week and I am excited to do it again!
-Elder Morgan
Some Pictures From FreeTown:
Some Pictures of His New Area (Mogbwemo and Rutile):
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Life in the Bush
Hey Everyone!
Well this week has been so interesting and I have received a warm welcome from the Bush!
So I am going to start this email from last Sunday night...
Elder Dilebo and I had just gotten back from proselyting and went up to President's Apartment where all the missionaries going on transfer were. We ate dinner and watched the new Book of Mormon videos then had a small devotional. After the devotional, President pulled me aside and told me a few things about our area. He told me about the problems they had had in the past and what needed to be done. He also said that we would be white washing 2 areas! That means the previous missionaries were both taken out and 2 new missionaries come in to take their place. So it is a little bit challenging to find out where things are and how it all works in the area. So after our little meeting I was really excited to get into our areas and check it all out!
We woke up at 4:30am to go to Rutile on Monday. It was a long drive and we had 1 extra missionary in the car and so it was a tight fit on a VERY bumpy road. But we got to the apartment safely, and found some nice rats and cockroaches to welcome us home. We then cleaned it up and met with our Branch President. After our meeting with Him, we came back to find out that our Generator was broken, so we called it in and they came the next day, meaning we had no power that night. The next day it broke again and it did not get fixed until Sunday night at about 9:30pm, this made it a bit challenging seeing as though we only had one small phone flash light to see in the night time Haha.
We also figured out that the previous missionaries did not really do to much and so they had like 1 investigator in the area book and so this week we have been searching for people to teach in both of our areas.
We thought that we were doing pretty good and then on Thursday we could not come out of the apartment because everyone wanted to kill a Chief in our area. This chief sold some land to a mining company, but the rest of the people didn't agree with that decision, so they were searching for him to kill him. They blocked off the road and were waiting for him, but all is well because they never found him.
We then watched a little bit of General Conference and found out that a temple will be built in Sierra Leone! Everyone is so excited!
Overall, this has been a very exciting week to say the least. I am very grateful to be here and to put some good hard work into the area. It needs it. The Bush is very simple. We eat rice for every meal and go proselyte. There are no paved roads, no big stores, not too much noise so it is a bit boring but I am really enjoying it! The areas are both big and challenging but The Lord makes our burdens light and this is a way to show the Lord that I love Him! Thanks for all the emails and support. Love ya!
-Elder Morgan
Well this week has been so interesting and I have received a warm welcome from the Bush!
So I am going to start this email from last Sunday night...
Elder Dilebo and I had just gotten back from proselyting and went up to President's Apartment where all the missionaries going on transfer were. We ate dinner and watched the new Book of Mormon videos then had a small devotional. After the devotional, President pulled me aside and told me a few things about our area. He told me about the problems they had had in the past and what needed to be done. He also said that we would be white washing 2 areas! That means the previous missionaries were both taken out and 2 new missionaries come in to take their place. So it is a little bit challenging to find out where things are and how it all works in the area. So after our little meeting I was really excited to get into our areas and check it all out!
We woke up at 4:30am to go to Rutile on Monday. It was a long drive and we had 1 extra missionary in the car and so it was a tight fit on a VERY bumpy road. But we got to the apartment safely, and found some nice rats and cockroaches to welcome us home. We then cleaned it up and met with our Branch President. After our meeting with Him, we came back to find out that our Generator was broken, so we called it in and they came the next day, meaning we had no power that night. The next day it broke again and it did not get fixed until Sunday night at about 9:30pm, this made it a bit challenging seeing as though we only had one small phone flash light to see in the night time Haha.
We also figured out that the previous missionaries did not really do to much and so they had like 1 investigator in the area book and so this week we have been searching for people to teach in both of our areas.
We thought that we were doing pretty good and then on Thursday we could not come out of the apartment because everyone wanted to kill a Chief in our area. This chief sold some land to a mining company, but the rest of the people didn't agree with that decision, so they were searching for him to kill him. They blocked off the road and were waiting for him, but all is well because they never found him.
We then watched a little bit of General Conference and found out that a temple will be built in Sierra Leone! Everyone is so excited!
Overall, this has been a very exciting week to say the least. I am very grateful to be here and to put some good hard work into the area. It needs it. The Bush is very simple. We eat rice for every meal and go proselyte. There are no paved roads, no big stores, not too much noise so it is a bit boring but I am really enjoying it! The areas are both big and challenging but The Lord makes our burdens light and this is a way to show the Lord that I love Him! Thanks for all the emails and support. Love ya!
-Elder Morgan
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