True Friendship

Happy to be home after 20 hours of flying from Prague

Evan, Elder Nowland, Barrett

Elder Nowland and his Friends

Elder Nowland and Meredith

Welcome Home

Elder Nowland, Garrett, Brad

Last email

The Last Sunday in the Czech Republic

The last city

Elder Nowland

served in...

Ceske Budejovice

Eva

Matejckova

and Elder Nowland

- she is his Czech "mom".

Her son served a mission in Arizona.

She sends pictures to us here at

home when he forgets.

She lives in Prague but went to

Ceske Budejovice to say goodbye

on his last sunday. We love her so much.

_______________________________________

Elder Nowland's last email home:

I have pondered over my thoughts, and what i should write.
I have erased three times already.

I love these people. I am not ready to leave them.

I have learned to love their great qualities and learned to help them in their weaknesses and appreciate the progress that they make. No one can replace your family. But it is also very difficult to replace the people that you have served for the past 2 years of your life. A human heart in all honesty and truth grows close to the person/people that it serves. I stand by what i wrote last week, that if anyone needs to strengthen a relationship or overcome bad feelings towards another, then they need to serve that individual.

I love these people.

I have my second family here.

Serve those in your branch or ward and i promise that those people will become your second family. That is why we call each other brother and sister. We are family. If we dont feel that way, then let us pull up our socks and get to work serving.

I cant wait to see you. The flight home is going to be very difficult for me. I am going to be lost in thoughts of sadness and joy.

I love you all.

(p.s. they cant take my tag away from me. I will fight to the death for it.)

-- Starsi Morgan Nowland

I have been contemplating what I should write about from this past week. Since I have left the city of Liberec I have heard fearful stories about back biting and hatred mixed in among the members of the branch in that city. As I reflect on my time spent there in that city I feel a lot like Paul. When I was there we taught with the members a lot and saw much progress not only in the increase of membership but also in the increase of spirituality of the members. I'm not sure what has happened to cause the current circumstance. Yet whatever caused it my heart is pained because of the fact that I am seeing the warnings that Paul gave in his letters to Rome and Corinth and others, coming to life in that city and others.

If there is any voice of warning that I could raise it would be to Fight against Satan and his apostate ways by turning our minds and hearts unto God. The First and great commandment as taught by Christ himself is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart. The second is like unto it, Love thy neighbor as thyself. When I think about the word love I see happiness and joy I see pure understanding, I see patience and compassion. And most of all I see service. If there is anyone in our lives that causes anger to rise within our hearts, if there ever comes a time when we say to ourselves, “why can't they stop being selfish, why won't they stop thinking about themselves all the time, why won't they just understand that what I'm saying is right and better for both of us?” If that time ever comes I would share a piece of advice that I have learned this past eight weeks...something that I had to do myself and will have to continue doing. Stop sinning in your heart and repent for not keeping the commandments of God. Loving our neighbor is a commandment given directly from God spoken by the lips of the Savior Himself. This is the second most important commandment of all the commands given to us by God. I testify that if we can't learn to keep this commandment in this life, then by what hope do we expect to be able to handle the responsibility that is going to be given in the celestial kingdom?

Can you imagine the frustration to watch your children go in and out of belief and obedience. To give them a great sign...They change and praise your name...then they forget the experience and break the commandments losing the Holy Ghost...and finally they fall complaining that You have abandoned them. God watches this process over and over, yet he remains full of love. The best way to love is to serve. Let us be ever engaged in looking for ways that we can serve our enemies. It is a difficult task because it requires one of the greatest and most pure emotions contained within the human body, Love. If we think that we know what love is then let us go and serve those that cause us the most pain and grief and stress in our lives. I believe that one of the greatest causes of apostasy in any time period is the failure to keep these first two and greatest commandments. Love God and love your neighbor (whether friend or enemy). I look forward to the day when I can say that I have an absolute and pure love for everyone. Until then I will have to give thanks to my Savior for the Atonement He performed because I will be using it until that day comes.

Read the scriptures they are inspired. I testify of that.
Family i love you so much and am so excited to see you again but until that time arrives i will serve the Lord with all my might here in the czech republic. Tell all those who commented last week, thank you for their kind words. With those words they have strengthened my desire to continue faithfully to the end.

-- With LoveStarsi Morgan Nowland

1 Feb 2010

Alright so i have to start by telling you about a miracle that happened just last night. So this whole week we have been putting some effort into finding new investigators. The other companionship gave us a challenge to find 4 new investigators. We received that challenge on tuesday. on wednesday and on sunday we were in prague. We come back on sunday evening to ceske budejovice without any new investigators. We had a great experience when we brought a young man in off of the street and taught him in the church building. Unfortunately he did not know his schedule for the following days or even for the coming week so we were unable to set-up the next meeting. I was getting really nervous by about 18.00 when our plans to visit a family were hindered by the fact that the family wasn't home. I was nervous and the time was ticking. At 19:00 sunday evening we went to visit our baptismal date Karel at his work. When we arrived at the Panelok where he works as a security guard, he was talking to a lady. We asked her if she was a believer and through a series of events, we were led to a man the speaks hungarian. So we enter into the home of this man's family and Elder Horvath starts teaching him while i began teaching his wife and this lady that we met with Karel. It was a very simple and powerful lesson. We taught them the restoration of authority through Joseph Smith. We told them that there exists evidence of the fact that this man really is a prophet, The Book of Mormon. Mid-way through the discussion a man comes in and looks very displeased. He asks if we are Jehovah's Witnesses, we reply no sir, and he quickly shoots out,"then Mormons!" I nod,"yes sir we are, have you spoken to us before?" He told us that he has but doesn't want anything to do with us, he has his own evangelistic faith. It was pretty scary for a moment that the spirit and purposes of the meeting would be ruined. I asked him,"What about your faith brings you happiness?" He quickly mentioned that it saved him from a destructive life of alcohol and drugs. We then found out that this man has the same last name, Horvath, it broke down the barriers and we set up a time to return to teach more and prayed. We walked home that night with 4 new investigators.

I'm convinced that teaching boldly by the power of God is the most effective way to teach this gospel. As we water down the message and the doctrine, we water down the power of the Holy Ghost to carry this message to the hearts of the listeners. The message of the restoration is real and true. All the churches that have thus been on the earth since the death of Christ and his apostles have accomplished their purposes. Which were to maintain faith in God and Jesus Christ on the earth in the hearts of men until the time was again right, that a man could be prepared in faith to receive an elect calling to be raised up as a prophet of God and given the holy priesthood to not simply bring faith unto men but by that power bring salvation unto every soul that would believe.

This is the Last dispensation. We must prepare ourselves to meet God our eternal and heavenly Father. I love this Gospel i Love what i am doing, because i know its true.

-- With love, Your son,Starsi Morgan Nowland

p.s. thank you for being the greatest family ever! I am so glad that we will have eternity together. Stay faithful my family as i also strive to fulfil the commandments of God. We can conquer this life and see the Glory of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He hast sent. Until next week.

This saturday was going to be a really exciting day. We were going to travel to two different cities to do some reactivation work with less-actives, and then visit a new investigator that is really beginning to make some great progress. Saturday morning came and an hour before we were supposed to be on our way both individuals cancelled on us. (Here we will see the importance of having back-up plans)...because we didn't have any.

Nevertheless, we prayed and sought counsel from the Lord. We started to make some phone calls in an effort to fill up the recently gained 5 hours. What happened was a miracle. At the end of the day as we walked back into our house fairly exhausted and nearly frozen we had taught a member lesson, two other lessons, a less-active, received 2 referrals, and found 2 new investigators. Every lesson we taught was short, simple, and full of testimony...the key ingredients for really spiritual lessons.

It was so amazing to see that often times when we think we have got everything under control, and we think we know what we are doing; then comes along God and says," my sons i have something else in mind, i have a different plan, a much more effective plan." I have learned that even after we have given ourselves to much thought and planning, that we still need to be willing to let the Lord lead our steps. It is exactly what President Slovacek has asked and said over and over," Who was the senior companion in your companionship today?" We should all be serving in a 3-some" The Lord's plans are so much more effective than ours.

In a call-in session with my Zone Leaders I had a lesson reconfirmed that it doesn't matter what positions of leadership that we have served in, or if the person that is now our leader was once under our stewardship, our leaders receive direct revelation for us. My leader Elder Crane talked about a study that he had recently had about faith. He mentioned that the Savior told us that if we have faith as a grain of mustard seed then we can say unto a mountain,"move!" and it will be moved. He said after reading that verse he read Ether 12:30. There it talks about how the brother of Jared said unto the mountain, (I dont remember the name of the mountain) "Move", and it moved. If we recall that the brother of Jared lived quite some time before Christ was on the earth; therefore, when Christ made the statement that is recorded in Matthew chapter 12ish, Christ was saying it is not because it was simply possible, no, but because it had actually happened. By faith, strong faith i might add, a mountain literally was moved. My Zone Leader was inspiried to study faith because a few days later he would need to use that study to inspire a fellow missionary. I know God calls people to positions of authority for the puporse of inspiring his children to lift themselves up into a better cause. I know the Holy Ghost is real and has a powerful influence. The Work will go forth because God will continue to inspire His leaders who are righteous men and women.

Have faith, I love you family. The Lord is my Shepherd, He will show me where to go and what to do

.-- With love, Your son,Starsi Morgan Nowland

18 Jan 2010

So this week we had the Zone Leaders come into our area and they helped me a lot to regain the extra boost and energy to continue moving forward in the work. I needed the good example of my leaders to show me and remind me of my duty and calling as a missionary. Looking forward into life i can see this principle being so important. It doesn't matter how much we know or think that we know, it doesn't matter how high our calling is or how high our callings were, our leaders always receive strength and revelation from the Lord to know how to best lead us and how to assist us in our weaknesses. The Lord is a wise man with much greater insight than we could ever muster. He knows where we have been and what we have done to serve Him, and He knows how to lead our leaders; whether they be older or younger, wiser or lacking wisdom, quicker or slower. We should always be willing and ready to accept council from those who the Lord has placed in our lives to help us.
I have a bit of random yet exciting news. So two days ago i found out that there is a new senior couple serving in our mission. Their name is the "Heywoods!!" can you believe that!! The Heywoods got their mission call to serve in the Czech Republic. Isn't that just so awesome!!! I haven't actually seen them yet and i might never see them before i leave because they are serving in Brno and have no real reason to come to Ceske Budejovice. They said that they might be able to be in Prague on transfer day. We'll see.
I don't have a lot of time today unfortunately. We spent most of our morning defrosting and cleaning out our fridge.
We are working hard and focusing in on some very specific investigators to move them towards baptism.
Did you understand your flight itinerary that I sent? i did thank you for doing that.
Is it possible to get a better flight schedule?

-- With love, Your son,Starsi Morgan Nowland

Zdravim vas!
I know it has been a long time and i will apologize but our past few Preparation days have been on saturdays because of the holidays and in this little town everything closes down . So there were no internet places open bohuzel (unfortunately).
I just gave a talk in church this past sunday kind of as a farewell. It was a really powerful experience as i prayed, prepared, and gave the talk. After being completely stumped as to what i should say, it finally hit me that i needed to talk about miracles and told them about two specific miracles that i recently saw on my mission. The First one was about how my companion and I found Petr, and how he was so prepared and told us in our first ever meeting with him that he had been studying the Book of Mormon every night before going to bed for the past two years abd how he knows that it is the word of God just as the Bible is. He then told us that he has done everything he could in his life to get in line with God and His teachings and how the only thing that is missing is Baptism. He was baptized recieved the priesthood of God a few weeks later and baptized another man by that priesthood power. The second miracle was Kennedy and how he had had a dream 10 years before and saw the dream come to life as he came and watched General Conference. He was baptized a month later. I testified about the power of faith in bringing about God's hand in our lives.

There is a God in heaven that has feelings that has a perfected body of flesh and bone. Joseph Smith saw Him and His son Jesus Christ. I know with my heart ,mind, and soul that this is true. For i felt the presence of God that day when i prayed with frustration to my Father in Heaven. He humbled me because He loves me. A Random power or mist or energy does not know how to love, only a real being that has first Himself experienced what love is. God lives.
-- With love, Your son,Starsi Morgan Nowland

21 Dec 2009

Ahoj Vsichni!
Well i have some interesting news for you. My new companion is from Hungary!! Can you believe that!! His name is Starsi Horvath. He speaks decent english, fluent hungarian, and pretty fluent German. He has been a member of the church for a total of 3 years now!! He is the only active member in his family his parents are both non-members and claim atheism. He is a very spiritual individual. Czech for him is about as difficult for americans. Although he does catch onto the grammar a bit faster. I will keep things brief. I am really nervous for this transfer because i dont want to become lazy and lose sight of my goals and desires to finish strong. Satan has an interesting way of using such ideas as, "you have done so much now that your mission is already a success" or "Just hit the standards and that is enough." It scares me when those thoughts jump into my head, but it is a part of the "increasing of our faith" that we all must experience. So i am in 1Nephi 16 right now and i just read about when Nephi broke his bow. The whole family was being obedient and had kept all the commandments of the Lord. They were all doing what they should and had what they needed in life. In this great state of obedience and faith is when Nephi's bow broke. I find it interesting that even when we are doing everything and keeping all the commandments of the Lord that he still gives us trials so that we can truly show the power of our faith and bring our faith up to a new level. I look forward to talking to you all this week.

I love you family soo much!!! cant wait!!!
-- With love, Your son,Starsi Morgan Nowland

14 Dec 2009

Je to neuveritelny ze vanoce jsou jenom za rohem! zda se mi jakoby byly jenom vcera. Je mi to lito ze nemuzu byt s vami ale se mnou budete v duchu. A pres mobil.

It is unbelievable that christmas is only around the corner! It seems like it was just yesterday. Its sad that that i cant be with you but you will be with me in spirit. And through the phone!!

Your prayers for the Roberts worked because both of them came to church again this sunday. I was able to sit down with them and with brother Harf to talk to them about the importance and neccessity of baptism, before entering th temple, because here we only have primary and sunday school, and the topic of the sunday school lesson was temple work and ordinances for the living and the dead. Needless to say i was doing all that i could to fill them in so that they could understand. Afterwards i simply explained that the most important thing for them to do right now is to find out that Joseph Smith really is a prophet. Brother Harf was a Lutheran at first and converted when he was 18 years old. He bore his testimony about the need to be baptized twice because the roberts had been baptized as babies as are most people in this country. It really is very sad to me that nearly every person in this country was baptized as a baby, yet only 1 out of about every 50 people we talk to really believes in God, and only 1 out of about every 200 of those follows the catholic beliefs. These people are very confused about religion and God. It turned out to be a very good lesson. Brother Harf invited them to be taught at their home next sunday after church at 16:00. We now currently have three baptismal dates sitting in our area for january next year.
Well just for your information we just recieved our transfer fax today, and transfers will be on wednesday. And so the results are.....I am staying in Ceske Budejovice, and........hold on to your hats....! Im staying as district leader but i am going to be training a new missionary. I am really excited for this opportunity to raise up a missionary that will stand in my stead.

For christmas as of right now we have nowhere to go for dinner so we might just be doing our own thing. I would really like to give the new missionary an opportunity to see what czech christmas is like...Well see what we can work out.

I will be going into prague on wednesday to get trained and then to find who will be my companion.

The work is so much more fun when you are really giving your heart to it and forgetting yourself. I set a personal goal for myself for this last transfer. I want to truly become a Preach My Gospel Missionary before i leave. So i am going to be reading the book of mormon again from cover to cover and studying Preach my gospel from cover to cover. I am excited for what this transfer can be for me. I am excited for what this transfer can be for my companion, and also what it can be for this city.

Now time for questions:

What have you opened in your package so far? (as best you can remember) Laser pointer, socks, floss, toothbrush and tops, Step counter, pen, thats all i can remember.
What do you like best about your new city? It has a very pretty namesti area.
Have you taken pictures of your apartment yet? Not yet but i do have a few.
Have you given out the children's gifts yet? not yet im waiting until the branch christmas activity. We are going to have a white elephant gift giving party. In czech it is called the Bily Sloun.

It will be so fun to be together. Whitney and i will have a lot to discuss and a lot of stories to share. Im looking forward to seeing you whitts.

With love, Your son, and brother
Starsi Morgan Nowland

7 Dec 2009

Ahojte vsichni!
Family, this week was a fun one i have a few cool experiences to share.

Elder Pearson set a goal to get up every morning at 5:30 to study Czech. I decided to do it with him. I would have to say that even though that is a very cosmetic sacrifice it was a great help for us in seeing a raised amount of success. The Zone Leaders also came down for an exchange, it was a decent exchange. I felt a good amount of energy from them. They came in and went to work with us to find on the streets. I am very thankful that they came. While I was finding with Elder Mittanck, we contacted two men that we sat down with at our building and ended up inviting them to church. The basis of the lesson was to show the Lord that you want his help by coming to church. Well, here is the cool part. A day or two later these two men met another man, that was down on his luck, in a housing panelak. This man asked the two guys that we had contacted, named Robert and Robert, if they knew the address for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they replied that they had just met missionaries from the church a few days before and that they were going to be going there for church on Sunday and that this man could go with them. All three of these men came to church and really felt of the spirit as missionaries and members bore their testimonies. One of the Roberts actually got up himself and bore a very appropriate testimony about the trials of life and looking to God for relief. Cool Experience number one.

Cool experience number two: I have been giving a lot of thought to how i can better allow the Holy Ghost to do all of the teaching in our companionship. I have felt lately that i have not been allowing him to speak but that instead i have been trying to do all the teaching myself. So after church on sunday our newest investigator came and sat down next to me while he was waiting for president to have time to meet with him. We just started talking to each other i asked him how he was feeling. He told me that he was lost in his thoughts about the difficulties he is having in his life. This is where the cool stuff happened. I felt impressed to begin talking to him about Matthew 6 where Christ talks about the Lilies of the field. After we read the passage, words began flowing from my mouth. I know that sounds a bit cliche but it is true. The thoughts entered into my head so smoothly, and clearly. Receiving the thoughts is one thing but moving them out into words is another. The thing was though that the thoughts entered into my head in czech. Therefore, they came out very fluently in czech as well. I felt very relaxed and comfortable. I was speaking fluently. It was amazing and he was taking in every word and i could see the words really making an impression on his mind. I cited scriptures and asked questions so easily. It was an amazing experience. The Holy Ghost really taught through me. It was a very spiritual experience.

We went to Prague to go to the turkey bowl( our Zone lost by one) and to go to Zone Conference (very spirituallly uplifting about giving three gifts to christ for the next three weeks, one gift every week. It relates to the frankincense, gold, and myrrh).

Question time:

Did you get your Christmas Package? yes
Have you started opening the gifts? yes
If so, are you having fun with it? you know it! thanks a bunch
Is it snowing? nope
What are some things you are going to buy for yourself from CR before coming home? Shoes, pictures, postcards

Do the Czech people do anything special for the Christmas season? We just had a big event on the town square where a massive three story angel came and blessed the city. Then, another normal sized angel zip-lined from the tall clock tower across the square to the town hall, dropping magic dust as it went.

Are there like Christmas concerts and do the village squares put up tons of Christmas lights, like Temple Square? There is an iceskating rink that covers a fourth of the square, and there are little decorations on the lamp posts. Also, a big chrstmas tree!!!
Well i must go now, im glad that i was able to write.
The mission is way more fun when you are having success and the only way to have success is to work hard, and work with the Lord.

Your son, Starsi' Nowland

23 Nov 2009

Hey family It has been a good week,

Heres what happened
At the beginning of this week we had a wonderful thing happen, we committed our investigator to be baptized. He accepted and now has a date for second of January! It was a really great lesson. The topic was receiving blessings from sacrifice. He is a really great young man and will make a great priest. We are also teaching his family, which consists of his Father and younger brother. They are a really great family So our meeting with him went over really well, when we committed him to baptism he was a little nervous but looked at us and said that he trusts us and will try hard to be prepared for the date. He reached his hand across the table and shook saying you have my word I set that as a date and do what I can to make it. It was a really cool experience.


Later in the week I went on exchanges with Elder Hill. It was awesome what happened with Elder Pearson because he was on exchanges with Elder Vivona, they went tracting on that first night they got let into a panelak and then into someone’s home and taught a lesson and the individual became a new investigator. The Cool thing is that this lady has a family that can also be introduced to the gospel! Elder Pearson was on cloud nine. Then the following day when the two were together again for district finding, they found and taught another new investigator! It was awesome! They were so happy.

On Saturday we baked up some banana bread and went out and paid a few visits to some of the Less-Actives in the city. It was a wonderful opportunity to serve these wonderful people. Best of all was that the two less actives that we visited and challenged to come to church actually came!! It was super.
As a district we put a big focus on finding and were able to find 9 new investigators as a district!!! It was a solid finding week but wasn’t solid with people at church. So we are going to continue building our areas and then push to get the new investigators coming to church! On sunday we went out to an investigators house that lives about 30 min away. Her name is Adela, and she restores old dilapidated books. We had a good meeting out at her house. She lives way out in the country but she is a great lady and repaired my scriptures for me because the pages came unsewn so she resewed them back in for me.
Take care this week and do something fun together while you are still empty nesters!!!--



With love,

Your son,Starsi Morgan Nowland

16 Nov 2009

Hey family!!!
You all sent such great letters this week. Thank you for that Here is what went down

I will not lie about the fact that we have been struggling with trying to find new investigators. We have had righteous desires and righteous actions towards trying to accomplish our goals, but we just haven’t been able to make the solid connection. I have been praying every night for increased faith with which the Lord might be able to work miracles. We have really been striving to talk with all of our progressing investigators about baptism inviting them to work with us toward a date of baptism. It was hard as we were striving to endure with patience the trials that the adversary kept placing in our path. Well, I am here to tell you that the Lord never loses! Out of nowhere an older investigator, that had been out of the country for a while sent us a text asking to meet. We meet with him and quickly found out that he had been humbled and had lost all motivation to strive for his life’s goals. He came to us looking for answers, so we told him that he needs to repent. It was so cool just like the apostles of old we said to him,” this is what repentance is and how we do it, you need to repent, and then you will find the joy that you once had swell back into your body. It was very powerful! We set up a meeting for two days later and taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We went through all the five steps that lead to eternal life, and then told him, “you are here right now at the step of repentance, we are going to help you to repent so that you can take the next step which is baptism by immersion and authority.” He accepted the challenge and is now working towards the 12th of December!

The Lord’s work will always go forward...”no unhallowed hand will stop this work from progressing.” Of that i am sure. We simply have to choose if we will be the ones to bring the work to light now in this time while we are here, or if we will grow lazy and leave it off for the next worthy soul. No matter what though this work will go forward.

Being a missionary is many things, it is hard, it is trying, and it is a learning process, but it is also rewarding, amazing, full of miracles, and up to this point it really has been the best two years (well year and some odd months). I am blessed to be here.

A little insight:
The main thing that i have really come to recognize is that with whatever we are doing, we need to always look for the fun in it. Everybody really only wants to be happy. It is what motivates each one of us to do what we do, to make the choices that we make. Too many people get lost in the things that bring very short temporary happiness, and ignore that thoughts that there could be something better; thats when people give up hope; that is what brings tears to my eyes...people without hope. So always look for the path that will bring greater happiness than you currently have. Always be open to inspiration.

Questions:
Have you had lots of snow? not at all yet
Take lots of pictures and especially of your new apartment ok? ill do my best
Are you close to a czech crystal store? (is that what it is called - the little glass sparkly beads for making necklaces) They are everywhere, i can go looking in one, i have never really been inside one yet. What can i get for you?
Enjoy this week family. Mam vas rad. I love you.
Remember be happy!--
With love,
Your son,Starsi Morgan Nowland

9 Nov 2009

Hey family, Ahoj Rodino!

So we had finding on the plan. We were feeling the burn of the previous days of finding. We had spent dedicated time out on the street looking for people that “had ears to hear” the message. We hadn’t seen very much success. It was hard, to continue talking to these people as our faith was taking hit after hit of, “No Time” “give me peace!”, and, “I’m hurrying.” We took some time to sit down and really talk about what was going on. We each shared our feelings. I then offered a true prayer for us where I truly begged the Lord to show us success, to lead us. We went out after that and talked with energy and fire, the denials and shut-downs didn’t stop coming, but we continued in the face of it. Then, finally, we stopped a young man and asked him to sit down with us for a few minutes. We had a great conversation with him. His isn’t a believer and isn’t terribly interested in the gospel and has his own beliefs, but he was willing to meet again two days later on Saturday. He showed up and we had a good talk with him about the gospel and its effect in our lives. We told him about the Book of Mormon and the history and knowledge that it holds, because he is really interested in the history of religions. It was a great blessing form the Lord to see him answer our prayers. We got a few numbers from some really great people and ended up meeting with two other individuals that will make great new investigators as soon as we can get them to find an opening in their schedules to meet with us again. I really saw an answer to our prayers. Answers come in all sizes and altitudes of amazingness, but they come.
The biggest struggle that the district is having right now is that we don’t have enough people that we can be teaching so we are going to put a bigger push on finding these next few weeks.
Successes are that we have been doing an extra contact game that involves a punishment of having to wear the same tie the next day if you don’t get all ten extra contacts. It has really helped us to contact couples and larger groups of people. If you come home with only 6 extra contacts then the next day you have to wear the same tie, and you have to get the 4 that you missed from the day before and then your 10 for that day.

We are getting there. Keep praying for us.

Stepanka Anderlova and Honza Barta were at church this Sunday. It was Wonderful!
Question time: How long will it take a package to get to you? im not sure maybe three weeks
Do you get to travel to Prague or is it too far away? It is about three hours by train, so not too often.
Take care this week! i love you so much!
Thank you for the letters, they are very motivating. you are the greatest!-- With love,
Your son, Starsi Morgan Nowland

2 Nov 2009

Hey family!
This week was a busy one, We moved out of our apartment temporarily. We are getting new windows put in so we had to make ourselves scarce. We are now bunking in with the other elders for at least a week! its exciting! We had Zone Conference as well which was welcomed and needed.

So I think the highlight of this week that you should know about is the experience that I shared in Zone Conference. So on Tuesday we had 6 lessons in the plan, three of which we had set up with members ready to come and assist us. We had a challenge given to us by our Zone leaders to teach 6 member lessons. We didn’t exactly hit that goal this week but…! We did hit the standards in member lessons which was so awesome! It is possible to hit standards in member lessons in every single city in this mission. We just have to be willing to put the work into finding solid investigators and then setting them all up for a time that our member can make. It takes a lot of work on our part as missionaries, but it is do-able! Anyways so on Tuesday as all of our lessons started falling through, I started to feel the pressure that would be put on us in the latter part of the week. Elder Pearson and I felt at the end of the day that we really needed to repent of the way that we handled the let down of all of our investigators falling out. This is the amazing part, so on Thursday we really pushed hard to have two meetings at least with members present. It was turning out to be hard as we had one investigator that said that he couldn’t meet as early as we had set up. The only time he could meet was at the exact same time as another meeting that was in another location of the city. We set it up anyways and I was just hoping and praying that we would be able to find two members to go with us. I texted our branch president, President Chrdle, and asked if he would be willing to go on real “Splits” with us. He very simple responded “ok.” You couldn’t imagine how happy I was. The only trick left was to find one other member that would be able to go with us. So I gave Brother Harf a call. He gladly accepted. Again my joy was full as I see our goals and dreams for this city become a reality. We ended the night with a prayer in our branch president’s basement. WE had two wonderful member lessons and another two set up for Saturday that went through without a hitch.

The Lord might work in mysterious ways, but he is always working and bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

Questions:Do you have Halloween in Czech? The members really are the only ones who will celebrate, and it is mostly just an activity night where the kids dress up but they dont go trick or treating.

Well i dont have anything else to say but, i love you and im excited that member lessons are starting to go here little by little.

Thank you so much for helping me with college stuff. Say hi to the band peoples for me, Say hi to rachel, blaine, erin, kailey, barrett, and evan for me if you see them. Oh and could you let me know when christopher is supposed to be getting home?
I love you soooooo much, Opravdu, ja nikdy nelham, ja vas mam fakt rad. Vy jste nejlepsi rodina na svete.--

With love, Your son,
Starsi Morgan Nowland

Pictures in Ceske Budejovice Oct 2009

Pictures Elder Nowland sent me this week
without any labels, so I am left to guess...

Sauerkraut and ?












Elder Pearson















The bus stop perhaps?













Elder Pearson, Elder Vivona (looks like he
needs a jacket), Elder Hill & Elder Nowland
are they trying to look like a boy band or what?

That pose has Elder Nowland's name written
all over it.

















Another castle...













Elder Nowland in a goofy face in front of the
castle with Elder Pearson













The city square of Ceske Budejovice












Fountain in Ceske Budejovice
















Could this possibly be the NORMAL
picture of Elder Nowland that I have
been begging for with his companion,
Elder Pearson. Wonder how long it
will be before I get another normal
face picture?













See I told you it wouldn't last long.
















The boy is NOT NORMAL















Need I say anything more. LOL.













Posin' again for the Missionary Boy Band -
who knows?

Until next time - and we never know what

that may bring now do we? But we wouldn't

change him for anything. Life is never dull in

the Nowland home.

He always makes fun of the antics of his

dad - the apple does not fall far from the tree
now does it?