Hello There 7/30/2012

Hey there family!!!

This week has been another GREAT week in the Oregon City 3rd Ward.

Missionaries have many wonderful experiences happen to them, but his week just seemed to be an all around great week. This week Elder Quinton and I were able to reach a few of our goals and beat some as well.

Our opportunities to teach are growing. I know that comes from finding as much as we can when we have time. Elder Quinton and I have found success from our area book and prayerfully looking at who we should visit. We were able to pick up a new investigator from that. We also strive to "teach when we find and find when we teach". When we go to some lessons nearby, we will walk to those lessons because we know there will be some people on the streets.

A few weeks ago we were street contacting and we ran into this man named Ryan. We shared our message and he was interested. Even more so he said he thinks he was a member and he wanted to come back to church, but he wasn't quite sure if he was a member or not because he thinks his parents left the church. We gave him the missionaries phone number for the area he lived in and I'm not sure if he was a member or not, but now the missionaries are teaching him! I have a personal testimony that street contacting and tracting is worth our time, even more than just that story.

We also have found a few less active members who were not on record that we are beginning to teach due to tracting, even "country tracting". Elder Quinton and I decided we would tract out in Beaver Creek. It is a lot more open and has farms, but we were able to find a new family to teach. The husband is a L.A. member but is eager to meet with us. The wife and kids are not members and we don't know too much about them, but we are excited to work with the whole family.

This week Elder Quinton, Debbie (our investigator), Bro. Westover (member) , and myself fasted for Debbie knowing what to do with her job situation. I know the adversary wanted us not have this fast. In just one day Elder Quinton and I were given 24 oatmeal raisin cookies, 20 dollars for lunch, and 48 eggs and 2 loaves of bread! We never get offered that much food in one day, especially when fasting!

The day previous we had a lesson with Debbie and she was talking about how she didn't know what to do with her job situation. Interestingly enough Bro. Westover asked us if we all would like to fast for Debbie (Debbie being included in this fast) and then meet the next day and conclude it. At the first lesson we of course talked about what a fast is and then we talked about how fasting and prayer go right along with each other. Elder Quinton and I actually prepared to talk about prayer that day. The Lord works in mysterious (but amazing) ways. At the last lesson, we talked about Alma 17, and how fasting and prayer (among others things) was how the Lord blessed them and gave them courage to face whatever trials they went through. It was a great fast. We all grew spiritually from it and we know God will bless Debbie is her job situation. He already is beginning to.

Thanks for all that you guys do for me!

Love,

Elder Trevor A. Morgan

A Visit to the Columbia Gorge

It's P-day and time to explore the Columbia Gorge!

NATURE... GOD'S HEAVEN ON EARTH!

Missionaries and their guide by some AWESOME falls.

Some serious perspective... up close and personal!

ALWAYS prepared to teach the gospel and share the word of God,
 from every mountain, hill and climb.  :) 

BEAUTIFUL!!! Columbia River

Top view... 

Are you looking UP or DOWN???

Howdy, 6/25/2012

Hey family!

I hope things are going well in VA! How is summer going for you guys? Our summer is pretty much sunny some days, rainy most... especially on p-day. (ha-ha) But that's okay. Some nights our apartment is really hot, but Elder Quinton and I fixed that problem! We actually have a pretty big apartment so we decided to move our beds into the living room. The reason we did this was because our room was hot AND we have an AC unit in the living room. SO, we put our beds right by the AC unit and now we sleep great! We found this AC unit in our closet and it's pretty old, and maybe not in the best shape, but it works!

This week was an interesting week. We had a lot of our appointments fall through, but that's okay. Elder Quinton and I have set a high standard for ourselves. Even with that being said, we still made sure we stayed busy. We had a lot of potential investigators we needed to go visit so that gave us the opportunity to do that. We had a great weekly planning session, so next week (which will be this week is gonna be great!)

On Tuesday we had dinner at the Bangater's house (not related to the other Bangerters in my last area) and I got to sing some musical theater! Sister Bangater has a really nice, old, baby grand piano. I don't know exactly how it happened, but Elder Quinton and I were talking with her and the topic of music and singing came up. She has a TON of musical theater books so she picked "Bring Him Home" and I sang and she accompanied me. That was soooo fun! She also played some other Phantom of the Opera song that I have heard before but I can't remember it. That was way fun too! She wants me to come over some p-day and she'll practice some more songs so I can sing them. I thought that was pretty cool. It just felt so good to sing those songs. I haven't really sung musical theater in like 2ish years. It was fun to do.


I love you guys.


Elder Trevor A. Morgan

Long Time No See...

Elder Morgan looking a little surprised!

Where do our investigators live???????

Ready to study :)

Chillin'... literally...

It's Elder Morgan driving a Ford Focus... 

"Beats those bikes ANY DAY!"
After 7 1/2 months on a bike...

LOVIN' IT!!

Hellooooooo! 6/18/2012

Hey there family!

This week has been another great week in Oregon City. We stayed very busy this week. We did lots of service and taught many lessons. There is a 94 year old lady in our ward and she hasn't (and cant, obviously) pick her weeds so we went and have helped over the last few weeks, to help make her house look better on the outside. We don't have much spare time, but when we have an hour or so, we will give her a call and see if we can come on over to help. It was a cool experience to help her. While I was pulling weeds I was thinking a lot about what my friends are doing right now and what I would be doing if I wasn't on a mission. Its summer time, so maybe I would be outside chilling at the pool. Maybe I'd be playing "COD" with my friends. Maybe I'd be watching TV or something. I feel like I have changed. Really not a huge difference because I would still be "Trevor", but I feel like I am more focused on the important things of life, one of them being service to others.

Right now, I don't have a desire to play video games, I don't have a desire to watch TV, or to listen to "regular" music. I don't have a desire to go to the pool. All I want to do is to help people. Missionaries are called to "invite other to come unto Christ". That is what we do. But I have learned there are so many ways to accomplish that task. Teaching, tracting, street contacting are some ways, but doing service, being a good example, saying "hey" to everyone, ...even playing basketball with guys, all are forms of "inviting people to come unto Christ". As missionaries, most people know what we do and who we stand for. If we can serve or teach them, and bring more happiness into their lives, we want to do this, because we know that it is not us bringing them that happiness, but it's the Lord giving them that happiness. As missionaries, we are truly just instruments by which this can happen.

Elder Quinton and I want to do all we can in the Oregon City 3rd ward to help, teach, serve, and love others...members or non-members. We are all sons and daughter of God and because of that we all need to show our love and sincere respect for each other. As missionaries we are called to SERVE. I have just begun to understand what "called to serve" really means. I try to follow King Benjamin's teachings and example from the Book of Mormon, which is, "For behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of you God." (Mosiah 2:17) This statement is so true.

The mission of Jesus Christ was the ultimate service anyone could have given. We are all called to follow him. As a missionary, we are representatives of Jesus Christ, there is no way I can come close to the amount of service he has given anyone, but I can look towards Him, serve anyone I can and testify of His divinity and power. I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that God loves us and wants us to return to Him and that it is only through the grace of Jesus Christ by which that is possible. By entering into covenants, baptism being the first, we can feel our Saviors love more powerfully that ever. If we follow Him and use the atoning power of Jesus Christ in our lives, His grace will make up for all of our imperfections that we have, and one day we can stand before God with clean hands and a pure heart and have a fullness of joy for eternity.

Elder Quinton and I share this neat lesson, which we call simply "The Paper Lesson." It demonstrates the life of Christ and faith in Him. We use a piece of paper and we tell a story about 2 missionaries knocking on this man's door. The man says, "I know about you Mormons. You guys come knocking on my door all the time. I've never let you all in but I'll tell you what, If you can make this piece of paper (the old man hand a piece of printer paper to the Elders) into a cross by only ripping it once...I'll let you in.

Now I can't tell you IF the missionaries did it or HOW they did it...that would ruin the lesson. Make sure you remind me to show you this lesson when I'm back home! (Or ask one of the Elders and see if they know it. ha) They might or might not...ha.

In this lesson we talk about How important Jesus Christ is in our lives. He loves us so much. Our Father in Heaven loves us so much "that he gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the World to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." (John 3:16-17) I know this is true. I know He lives and He loves us.

I love you guys! Thank you for your prayers!

Love,

Elder Trevor A. Morgan

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!

Did You Know????

LDS Missionary Program

The Church's missionary program is one of its most recognized characteristics. Mormon missionaries can be seen on the streets of hundreds of major cities in the world as well as in thousands of smaller communities.

The missionary effort is based on the New Testament pattern of missionaries serving in pairs, teaching the gospel and baptizing believers in the name of Jesus Christ (see, for example, the work of Peter and John in the book of Acts).

More than 50,000 missionaries are serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at any one time. Most are young people under the age of 25, serving in nearly 350 missions throughout the world.

Missionaries can be single men between the ages of 19 and 25, single women over the age of 21 or retired couples. Missionaries work with a companion of the same gender during their mission, with the exception of couples, who work with their spouse. Single men serve missions for two years and single women serve missions for 18 months.

Missionaries receive their assignment from Church headquarters and are sent only to countries where governments allow the Church to operate. Missionaries do not request their area of assignment and do not know beforehand whether they will be required to learn a language.

Prior to going to their assigned area, missionaries spend a short period of time at one of 17 missionary training centers throughout the world. There they learn how to teach the gospel in an orderly and clear way and, if necessary, they begin to learn the language of the people they will be teaching. The largest training center is in Provo, Utah, with additional centers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, England, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Spain and South Korea.

Male missionaries are addressed with the title “Elder” and women are addressed with the title “Sister.”

A typical missionary day begins by waking at 6:30 a.m. for personal study. The day is spent proselytizing by following up on appointments, visiting homes or meeting people in the street or other public places. Missionaries end their day by 10:30 p.m.

In some parts of the world, missionaries are sent only to serve humanitarian or other specialized missions. Those missionaries do not proselytize.

Missionary work is voluntary. Missionaries fund their own missions — except for their transportation to and from their field of labor — and are not paid for their services.  

Contacts with family and friends during this time of service are limited to letters and occasional phone calls to family at special times. Missionaries avoid entertainment, parties or other activities common to this age-group as long as they are on their missions, so they can focus entirely on the work of serving and of teaching others the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(http://www.mormonnewsroom.org.nz/topic/missionary-program)