Starsi'(Elder) Nowland Missionary in the Czech Republic: March 2008

Dear Family & Friends,

We heard from the Mission President in Las Vegas on Sunday, March 30, 2007. He called to let us know that Morgan would be leaving on Tuesday, April 1st to fly to the Czech Republic. He was very nice and said that once they met Elder Nowland, they prayed really hard to have his visa take a very long time because they really wanted to keep him. They said that Elder Nowland must have been praying for his visa to come quickly and for some reason the Lord saw fit to answer his prayer instead. He was very complimentary of Morgan's attitude and how excited he was to serve the Lord and his likeable personality. We did hear from Morgan yesterday via email. He also sent some voice files that he has recorded since he has been out. He really likes his companion in Las Vegas, Elder Thibideu, he said all the kids call him Elder Tiptoe. He is from Calgary, Canada (the same place our future son-in-law is from). Morgan leaves today at 10am on Delta 786 from Las Vegas to Atlanta and then has a 2 1/2 hr layover where a few of the other missionaries awaiting Czech visas were serving a temporary mission and they fly out this evening at 7:30pm on Delta 62 nonstop to Prague arriving there at 11am tomorrow morning. It will be a 16 hr flight for Morgan. It is 9 1/2 hrs from Atlanta to Prague. I hope he gets some sleep. He is so excited he probably won't sleep, but he should get a chance to call from the Atlanta airport. Jeff and I thought about going out to dinner tonight and we hear the Atlanta Airport food is great....haha, don't worry we aren't going but it is tempting. Enjoy the pictures I posted and use his new address now to write to him. He would love to get some letters.

Temporarily Reassigned

Dear friends and family,

I just heard from Morgan (Starsi' Nowland)last night. He was able to make a call because he has been temporarily reassigned while he waits on his visa. He will be leaving Monday, Mar 24th to go to the Nevada-Las Vegas West Mission. It should only be for a couple of weeks but could be a couple of months depending on the visa. There were 13 in his district. Two were going to Slovakia and they didn't need visas so they are going straight to their mission and 6 others who were going to the Czech Republic got their visas and 5 going to the Czech Republic did not get their visas and they are all temporarily reassigned. Our son is the only one being separated from the other 4. That is because they are all going to the Georgia-Atlanta Mission. Hmmmmm. Now try and figure that one out. Do they think his mom would drive just a mere 60 minutes south and try and see him or what? Sooooo he is going to Nevada with another Elder who is waiting on his visa for Slovenia. And with all of the civil unrest in Serbia and Croatia Morgan said many of those missionaries have been reassigned permanently to Canada. He said that was a very sad day for those missionaries. He said he is very thankful that he is just waiting for his visa. He was actually very excited to go stateside for a few weeks so he can get the opportunity to teach the lessons in English before he has to give them in Czech. He shared his testimony in Czech and it sounded so great. I didn't understand a word he said but I felt his humble spirit, I got a lump in my throat. Whew. I can't even write this without tears. It was very special. If you want to write to him I have put his temporary address for the mission office at the top.

10 March 2008

I will update from the emails/letters we have received in March. He currently has only 14 days left in the MTC and then he flies out to the Czech Republic. He says he is really excited and nervous. We send him a package every week with healthy snacks (at his request) and some fun things too. For St. Patrick's Day we sent him a funny tall green (of course) hat, blinking bow tie, a large pin that says
"Are we green yet?" - quite appropriate for greenie missionaries, green jelly beans, and other fun things. In a previous letter he asked for a Czech Flag to use as a bed covering. Instead of a nylon flag, I got cotton fabric and made him a summer blanket with the flag pattern. He should get it by the end of the week. I am sure he will love it - he better it was a labor of love.

He has taught the first 2 lessons in Czech and said he did quite well but the language is very difficult to learn. He says the "gift of tongues" is literally at work.

One week he didn't get but one or 2 letters and felt very deprived but said it really humbled him. We reminded him of the 3 calls we got from him the entire summer when he was at BYU and how many messages we left for him to call us and he was always too busy. Hmmm. The emails we receive are always very short, so he must be writing to some of you instead of us, so let me know if you have any news I haven't posted.

He always begs for more letters in each email, so here is a plea to friends and family to write this week. I will post his new address next week once he leaves the MTC.