Well Hellooo! 6/11/2012

This week has been a great week! So many things have happened this week. I'll start off with a really sweet one. Okay, so Elder Quinton and I are really working with this semi-active family, the Rodriguez. They are such a nice family. The mother is from El Salvador and father from Peru. The mother loves us coming over to visit the family. Last week she even bought us a lot of fruit!. (We have been trying to eat quite a bit more fruit because it's healthy!) The kids, Stephanie, Caesar and Marvin are great kids! We have been trying to get the family back to church. Anyway, we were visiting with them hoping to read scriptures with them, but they wanted us to randomly flip through the Book of Mormon and stop on a random page and teach them a lesson...I was kinda nervous, I'm not gonna lie. I study the Book of Mormon every day, and I have read it from cover to cover, but I still was a little nervous, but, it turned out great! We landed on....Ether 12! Whooo! ha. We taught about faith, hope, and charity. It turned out to be a very excellent lesson.

So what I am about to say next was pretty dang sweet if I do say so myself! The next missionary activity we did after meeting with the Rodriguez's wasn't tracting, wasn't teaching lessons, wasn't service...it was BASKETABLL. Right next to the Rodriguez's house were two guys in their 20's playing basketball. They were in between us and our car. So when we walked by them we asked how there day was. They kinda snickered at us and then they said jokingly, "Do you guys wanna play basketball?" Elder Quinton and I looked at each other and said, "Okay". So while we were rolling up our sleeves, taking off our watch, but still keeping our ties, name tag and regular missionary attire on, they were kinda in disbelief that missionaries said yes to playing basketball with them. Now, these were the type of guys who if they weren't wearing their basketball clothes would be wearing flat brimmed hats, an earring, and some super nice Nike's. (One of the guys was even 6' 6.) But Elder Quinton and I were up for the challenge! As missionaries we play basketball every Tues, Thurs, and Sat morning for our workouts and we play a little on p-day, so we were excited to play ANYDAY, even if we were in our missionary attire.

They told us,  "We'll just play to seven." I guess they thought it would be a short easy game. BUT, Elder Quinton and I played REALLY well that game! Being on a mission has taught me a lot. The mission taught me how to be a better person, a better friend, a better companion, a better listener, a better teacher, but also a better b-ball player! So this was awesome! We were just playing every shot was one point, but eventually the score was 6-6!...They scored the last point, but then they totally wanted to keep on playing to 11 because it was close! We were all breathing pretty deeply and it was intense. I know I shouldn't be prideful, but Elder Quinton and I made some very good looking shots and lay-ups. Right in the middle of this game, their friends showed up in the cul-de-sac in there Escalades and nice looking cars with some music blaring.. I could only imagine what they were thinking. "Are those missionaries they're playing with? Wow. The missionaries are gonna get killed."...or at least they thought something like that. Haha.  Anyway as the game was ending it was 9-10. We had 9 and they had 10 and it was their ball. They scored....BUT that's okay! Yeah, we would have liked to have won, but for us that's not really what it was all about. We wanted all those guys to know that missionaries were alright and that missionaries are just regular people...and they can play sports too! It was an awesome experience. After the game, both of those guys said if they're ever out again, "Come play with us." Their friends would say stuff like, "That was a pretty good game. Good job." Our goal was accomplished. I know I just said it already, but we just wanted them to know we are regular people. We wanted to break down barriers. I love doing missionary work.

I know I am where I am supposed to be. I love missionary work. I love helping others come unto Chirst. I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Trevor A. Morgan

p.s. Tranfers are today. Elder Quinton and I are staying in Oregon City!