Leaving the Bush

Hey Everyone!!

This week had an awesome Zone Conference and now I am in Freetown awaiting to go to Ghana this coming week. 

Last Sunday I received a call from President Harper telling me that I will be transferred and will need to pack my bags and bring them to the Zone Conference in Bo, we would leave the next day. I began to pack my bags a bit and then went to church. Before the meeting started I told our Branch President that I would be going on transfer and He began to cry!! We then began the meeting and I was asked to bear my testimony. I was so sad! It has been my favorite area I have been in so far, and also the most work I have had so far. It has been so awesome to serve there with the people I was with, I learned so much out there. It was a little bit sad because I did not have too much time to say goodbye to anyone because we had to leave so early the next morning. I received many calls and texts saying goodbyes, it made me feel pretty good! The next morning we left to go to Zone Conference.

We left on Monday morning and did some small shopping and ate at a restaurant. The next morning we all had exchanges with different missionaries, my companion and I went with the Zone Leaders. It was a really good exchange and I was able to learn a lot from each of them! After the exchange on Tuesday, we had our Zone Conference on Wednesday. The Zone Conference was so awesome and uplifting! 

The past few days I have been proselytizing in my old area and it is so nice to see some old people that I used to teach! It is such a joyful experience!! 
I am so grateful to be a missionary!! Love you guys!

-Elder Morgan

Eli & Elder Borup

Eli & Elder Obasi

Zone Conference

Dentistry in Sierra Leone

Hello everyone!

I had such a good week! It was full of wonderful experiences and some traveling!

We are currently waiting for a bus to come pick us up to go to Bo for Zone Conference! We will have an exchange with the Zone Leaders to borrow and then Zone Conference on Wednesday! I am pretty excited for the Zone Conference!

Usually transfer news is a week after Zone conference, but President called me and said to pack my bags and prepare to be transferred a little bit early! So I hurried and packed and will bring it to Bo. 

A few months ago, I had some dental work done. It has continued to give me some trouble, so I got it worked on the last time we came to Bo as well. It has continued to pain me and so now I will be going to Ghana to get it worked on (hopefully for good)! There is just not adequate dental care in Sierra Leone and so the best place to get it worked on is in Ghana. I will be there by the end of the  month and will probably be there for a week! 

Parent Note: Eli told us today when he called that he's been to the "dentist 3 times in Sierra Leone for this toothache. The way they've handled it so far has been to tap his teeth with a hammer to find the one that's painful. Once identified, they drill out the tooth (without any Novocain) and then use a hook tool to dig out the decay. They then send him on his way. Since that hasn't been working (shocking....) they are sending him to Ghana to go see a real dentist who can take care of the tooth once and for all.

I am grateful to be serving as a full time missionary for The Church! It has been the biggest blessing in my life so far!!

-Elder Morgan

Pastor Joe

Hey Everyone!!

I had another great and busy week with the work out here in the bush! We had a good exchange with the Mogbwemo Elders and had some good experiences!

On Wednesday I had an exchange with Elder Luyindula from the DR Congo! He has about 3 months until he returns home and so it was such a great opportunity to learn from him! He has served as a Zone Leader and a District Leader a few times, so it was nice to hear about his opinion on a few things I have been thinking about. 

We had some awesome lessons but my favorite was with a Pastor named Joe Lavai. (Back story... We met Joe a few weeks ago and asked Him if he would like us to come and teach him, he agreed and we have come almost everyday since then. At first it was a little bumpy because he was just trying to argue with us. Because of this we prayed and felt like we should give him a Book of Mormon, we gave him one and once he began to read it, he is all ears! The Book of Mormon has power to change even the hardest of hearts!) In this lesson we talked about faith. As we began to talk about how we should put our faith in our Savior Jesus Christ, a fellow Pastor in the area came and began to argue a little bit. We calmed the talk down and just bore powerful testimony testifying of the truthfulness of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Restoration is something that President Harper has asked us to study and prepare to teach about. The idea came from President Nelson's invitation last conference. He has asked us to read and study the first vision to help us prepare. 

I am grateful for the Restoration and I think about it often. I find myself trying to put myself in Joseph Smith's shoes. It is so wonderful to know the truth! The truth of the Restoration! The truth of the Gospel! I wish I could just share it with everyone! I am grateful to be a missionary and serving where I am at this time, I have learned things that I could not have learned if I had not come to the bush! It is a humbling experience!

Thanks everyone, see you next week!

-Elder Morgan

A Sierra Leone Barbershop

A company here called Vimetco has a pair of Topi's. We named this one Abu Bakar.

This is Desmond and Abdul. They are like two peas in a pod and love to play with my companion and I!

Exploding Goats and Powerful Witnesses

Hey Everyone!

I had a great week! The weeks now are just kind of moving in fast motion so it is hard to think of anything significant that happened! The Societies were still very active this week but will now be dying down because the Holiday season has ended. We committed two people to baptism and just had a good time this week. 

To start off, we kind of had a cool experience in Mata (the homegroup that we cover). One day we went to one of the people we teach and he told us that he needed to go somewhere quick, so we sat on his porch and waited for him. As we were waiting for him, two big pastors in the area came up to us and began to talk with us. As the conversation went on, my companion asked them if they had ever heard about the Book of Mormon to which they replied that they had not. Elder Obasi began to talk about the Book of Mormon and then I also shared some scriptures to show that the Book of Mormon is centered on Jesus Christ. I shared 2 Nephi 25:26, this is my favorite scripture to use when teaching about the Book of Mormon, after we had answered their questions they began to be very intrigued in our message and asked to come and visit them on Wednesday! As I pondered on this experience, I came to the realization of the power of the Book of Mormon! I am so grateful for the truth that it contains!

We had another very precious experience with one of the people we are teaching named Mamie Jusu. One day we came to her house and found her very down on herself, we asked her what was wrong and we came to find out that her older sister died while giving birth to a child which also died. She began to cry and really was not in a good state. I tried to console her and after she had calmed down we then had the privilege to talk about the Plan of salvation with her. As we began to expound on the Spirit World, she became very excited. She began to smile and just say " Elders this is a truth I will never forget, thank you" over and over again. As we walked away, I thought about the truth that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has given us and I am so grateful for that! Those are just two of the many experiences we had this week. I am so grateful for the Gospel! It is good to know the truth.   

Today I got to speak with my Mom and Dad, they are just the absolute best! I am so grateful for the family that I have been given, they are so good to me and they are my best role models. I love them very much and can't wait to see them again!

See you next week!

-Elder Morgan

This is how they skin and prepare goats. They put the goat on a fire and burn off all the skin. It begins to swell up and they cut it open. It explodes. They then clean themselves off and take all the guts out, and then they clean meat and cook it.

These two kids would not leave us alone in a lesson and so I took a picture with them!