Feb 18, 2010

Feb 18, 2010
Thanks to all the friends who showed up at the airport - we were so surprised to find out how many have been following the blog for 2 years. You all are great!

Elder Nowland and His Friends

Elder Nowland and His Friends
We've Been waiting for you.

28 July 2009

25 July 2009

Hey family,

So this week has been superb. We were in Slovakia at the beginning at this week for zone conference. So left Sunday evening to Zilina, the trip was about 4 hours from Prague. We spent the night in Zilina, and had zone conference Monday morning. It was really funny, because our training had to do with a balloon game. Our training was on communicating clearly. And so we developed a fake game that had no rules, or instructions. We simply gave each missionary a balloon, had two tally takers, and two parakeets (the Parakeets and tally takers had no real purpose). We then gave one player from each team a balloon with the jolly roger (mom's note: I think he means a jolly rancher) on it. Then all at once, we gave them 10 seconds and said "Go!" It was really funny to watch how the missionaries reacted. Most of them started blowing up their balloons, some were highly confused and just sat and stared. We then got into our training which ended up pretty good. The next few days were pretty hectic as we traveled to Banska Bystrice, Trencin, Brno, and finally back to Prague. While we were in Banska Bystrice, I had a really cool experience contacting with Elder Haberman. On their town square in Banska Bystrice there is a really ornate, beautiful, luxurious fountain. Sitting on the fountain was a young couple, Elder Haberman and I contacted them about what they think of when they hear the word "church." To make a long story short, we had a really great conversation, and took them back to the church building, where we taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was unique to see how even though each one of them had different ideas about religion, that they helped each other to overcome certain concerns.

I found this cool analogy in the office for how to teach the third lesson, using a story with pictures about a man who is traveling to his father's house. Even though there was a lot of driving across the two republics, Elder Guzy and I got to know each other better by telling stories all along the way. He really is a great missionary, and has a really funny past.I have come to the knowledge that, when we really rely on the promptings of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit can make us sound a lot more impressive than we really are. As we went into the second conference in Brno, I felt like this came true with myself, because I was required to contact Elder Guzy as a part of our training. I didn't quite feel ready for the contact but as i got into it i really began to testify and feel the spirit testifying through me. The spirit entered the room with such a great strength, that it really made the whole training so much more powerful. I am so thankful that God our Father in heaven doesn't leave us here on this earth without any contact from Him, but rather he sends us his spirit that a part of Him might be in each one of us that we can feel such great promptings from our Heavenly Father who knows us so well.

You have a lot of questions this week so I'm going to get right to it:
Has our package arrived yet? yes and thank you soooo much! the grits were a nice surprise
Was the chocolate melted? it was a little bit
Did you eat it anyway? Of course!!!
Anything in particular you want sent...more pop tarts, etc? i don't really see anything that i would like at this moment. Maybe wait on the next package for a few weeks.
Are your shoes holding out? yeah they are doing pretty well. I think they might last me to the end

Are you getting letters from any of your friends? Not a whole lot. the last one i got was from Lindsay Owens and one from Kailey

Are you still having fun being an AP? yes, it is a lot of fun but i look forward to the day when i can get back out and just work in the field again

What neat things have you done with the missionaries lately? Just the training about communicating clearly, and how they didn't have a clue what to do with the balloons because we did not express what we really wanted even though we were very enthusiastic.

How often do you get to drive? Pretty much everyday we are in the car
What kind of car do you drive? It is an Opel Astra (I put a picture of a similar one above)



(Moms note: I have to paste in my letter to Morgan so his response below makes sense, but it is funny, so I hope it is worth it. I was asking him questions...
Did you get your package?
Was the chocolate melted?
Did you eat it anyway?
(golly that started sounding like the little song "I found a peanut, I found a peanut..."
Do you know that song?

OK, I really am not as insane as this letter is sounding, I am just your same goofy mom as always. Here is his response in which he pasted part of my letter:)



(golly that started sounding like the little song "I found a peanut, I found a peanut..."
Do you know that song? i do know that song! I think Andy was the first person to introduce me to it.Well that is all that i have for this week. The transfer is winding down, which is scary, but things always continue on and we must always move forward.
Elder Chambers is going to be going home here in 3 weeks when the transfer ends, which is very sad for me, but he has to move on too.
Take care family!--
With love, Your son,
Starsi Morgan Nowland