Christmas

Hi everyone!!!

Well it has been a while since I have written and I am sorry for that. We have been busy busy as always but I have been enjoying my mission. Time is flying by, only 6 months to go! I'll give you a bit of an update on what's been going on.

The month of December has been so crazy busy. We had zone conferences which took up two weeks and that is where we traveled up to Tamale and Techiman and Sunyani. We had a good trip up there, we had a chance to go with our sisters up in Tamale for the first time and they are killing it! We sent a group of missionaries home before Christmas and prepared for our mid-transfer. President wanted all of our new leaders in place before the 23rd because on the 23rd we wanted to have MLC (Missionary Leadership Council).

We got all of our new leaders into their areas safe and sound and started to plan for the MLC. We started MLC on the 22nd. We had dinner and a devotional in which my companion and I spoke. The next morning we got up early and got onto a bus at 6am. We drove about 2 ½ hours down to Obuasi. We got to Obuasi and started our hike. We hiked up a couple mountains and when we got to the top of the last one we had a little MLC/devotional. It was so fun being with all the leaders of the mission. I have really loved getting to know and work with them. The new MLC that we have will push this mission forward. I'm excited for what they will do.

My birthday went well, it was just a normal day nothing too special. We were in our area and then had burgers so we enjoyed. We also played pickle ball that morning.

Christmas was great as well, again not like back home but simply being with the people is all I care about. We had some few parties and then ended the night chopping fufu at one of our members places with some other missionaries. We also played pickleball Christmas morning which was fun.

We started pickleball Saturdays! The Garrisons and Moomies are two couples that we have in the mission and they brought some pickleball equipment with them. They have been playing for awhile now and we just found out. So we asked if we could join, they play every Saturday at the mission office so we will start to join them. They are pretty good, and we have fun while playing.

Other then that it's the same old same old. We have transfer week this week and so we are busy picking missionaries from the airport, doing orientations, trainings, etc. We are also getting ready for zone conferences in a couple weeks so we are starting to plan for them, It never ends! We manage to stay busy every single day of every single week. Managing our area and our mission duties. Its not easy but with the Lord's help we are managing. I am still learning lots and know that I will continue to learn every single day. There is never a dull moment though.

I almost forgot about our group! If you remember we started a group in Kwanouma. We started it from nothing and we missionaries where doing pretty much everything, presiding, teaching, giving talks, blessing and passing the sacrament, haha, we did it all. But we have been working really hard to grow it into a Branch. Well guess what! Two Sundays ago we got approval for our Kwanwoma Branch! This past Sunday we got a branch president called and his two counselors. We are excited to have them and are grateful for the progress we are making. Next step is growing it into a ward! We have a lot of work cut out for us in our area and in the mission. So like I said we are staying so busy, which I enjoy. Stephanie and Janet's family are still coming to church and we have loved getting to know them more. We are excited for the next steps in our branch and I will keep all y'all updated. 

I hope you guys are doing great. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well! Thanks for the prayers and the love, I appreciate it. I love you all

Love Elder Morgan 

Thanksgiving in Africa

Hey oo! 

Sorry I am so bad at writing emails, But I will give all y'all an update on what's been going on. 

I feel like I say this in every single email, but we are so crazy busy. Every single day something comes up with the mission. We are managing our area and our mission tasks. I think I mentioned I got my new companion. He is a Ghanaian and we get along very well. He is super fun and keeps things light in the apartment. We are having fun together. 

The power has been going out like 3-4 times a week the past couple of weeks and so we are trying to manage with the lights off. I will tell you though, that it will be so nice when I get back to America where I don't have to worry about lights going out. I am used to it now, but it still sucks when you get back from a long day and get back to lights out. It is fun though being with the office elders. We all sleep in the same apartment so we have fun together. 

We have been enjoying the time in our area. We have met some really great people. I think I mentioned some of them. This family we have been working with has three girls and a mom and they are so much fun. We fixed their fence and have been doing a lot of service for them. We have agreat relationship with them and their neighbors across the street. We have also met a girl named Stephanie. Stephanie is one of my favorite people. She has come to church twice and we have been able to visit her these past couple weeks. She is in her twenties and is such a good person. We have enjoyed getting to know her and her family. I have had some great experiences teaching her and enjoy the talks that we have had. God is so good and he is preparing so many people for us. This is the joy that is here on mission. Being with the people and building these relationships is what I love so much. 

I realize now that I don't think I told you how our Thanksgiving went! We spent the morning at this big service project. It was the kickoff for Light the world in Kumasi. On Thanksgiving we had to package a bunch of bags with food. They had beans, ghari, sugar, oil, tomato paste, etc. Plenty items and we had about 20 missionaries there, putting these bags together. The bags ended up being so freaking heavy, like 75-100 pounds per bag and we had around 400 bags. We had to load them all into a big semi truck from the Chapel and it was no easy task. We put so much work into that, I should have been paid lol. Like seriously it was so much more then a service project, it was manual labor. What made it worse was it was so stinking hot. Especially when you are up in a semi truck packing these heavy bags with not a lot of airflow. I was so sore after that service lol. But it went from 9am-3pm. Then that night we went to the mission office where we had our Thanksgiving dinner with our office couple the Coombs. We had chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, rolls. It was actually really good and we took some time to say what we were thankful for. We had to show our African companions what Thanksgiving was because they didn't know. And then at the end we had some pies that sister Coombs made. Overall it was a great Thanksgiving. 

On the 2nd of December we sent the Coombs home. They finished their mission and I will miss them a lot. They were so great to have around and helped out so much. I will miss them, but there replacements (the Garrisons) will be great. 

We are starting our Christmas zone conferences this week. Today we are driving to Techiman and it starts our week long Road trip. We will go from Techiman to Sunyani, back to Techiman and then journey up to tamale and back. Lots of driving ahead and now I will be the one having to do all the driving as my companion can't drive. So I'm preparing for a long week full of zone conferences, exchanges and driving. It should be fun!.. But will also be long. 

That's about it as far as updates. I Still can't believe it's December, time is moving really fast. I am enjoying my mission and the experiences I am having. I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts

I appreciate the love and support, thank you guys. Stay safe and have a good week this week! Love you all

Love, Elder Morgan