I'm Thankful for . . . Fuzz!

Happy Thanksgiving! I was sad not to be able to spend Thanksgiving with all of my family, but so grateful that ironically Fuzz was able to take his leave from Iraq so he could be here with me for the holiday! He had to take so many different flights to get out of Iraq, and then several different stops after that to get here. I was so excited to finally see him-- it had been 7 months! That's a very long time to be away from your very best friend in the whole wide world! I was waiting for him at the air train-- I'd been there long enough and giddy enough with every person that I talked to on the phone for the employees at the gate to start getting excited about who I was so anxious to see. They would see me get all excited every time a new train would pull up at the station. . . they'd watch my searching eyes scathe the masses exiting the train. . . they had to notice my nervousness as I impatiently waited for him. The station would fill with a crowd of strangers. . . and then quickly dissolve, leaving only me standing in the barren hall. . . train after train--- the suspense was totally killing them! haha silly giddy girl, I'm sure they appreciated the romantic drama as a mild source of appropriate on-the-job entertainment.

Finally! His train-- I felt like I was waiting for my missionary-- even though I've never actually had one of those before-- (7 months was insane, 2 yrs would've killed me)! He was the first one off the train. . . I could see him coming and wanted so badly to run to him. . . but the gate was in the way-- I could only just wait. He couldn't figure the pass thing out for a second or two, so one of my new buddies that was just about as excited as I was to finally see him, went and helped him out so he could finally cross through the gate~




We had a whole week together! I only had to work a couple hours one day, and the rest of the time was ours. We went to New Moon together. . . a date that had been scheduled about a year in advance, we went shopping at the American Girl Place-- I was in heaven! I had only dreamt of actually shopping there as a child. We were shopping for Fuzz's nieces that are all getting the dolls for Christmas- it was so much fun matching up outfits for their dolls that match their unique interests and personality's.


We wandered around New York a lot. The weather was awesome, so we were able to just take our time exploring, and shopping, and just walk around looking at all the glittery Christmas decorations that transformed the city.

Here we are in Times Square-- on our way to our show. . !



We tried our luck with the Wicked lottery. There were so many people there that we almost didn't even want to try. . . but we did, and we won! The show was fantastic- the company wasn't so bad either;)




We went down to see the Macy's Day Parade-- but there were so many people it was impossible to really even see anything, you have to get up really early to get a good spot there. We came home early and got a jump start on dinner. . . which was a good thing because it took us the rest of the day to cook it-- yes Fuzz too, at first he held back and just kept to washing my dishes and taking out the trash. . . and then he finally couldn't take it anymore and unleashed his mad cooking skills; everything he made tasted amazing! We didn't actually even eat dinner until almost 9:00, and it took us about 5 min for us both to get completely stuffed! We were so full that we didn't even have room for dessert-- and I always have room for dessert!



We explored Central Park . . .












. . . and meandered our way over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We went to the Chelsea Market, browsed a Burton Snowboarding sample sale, and then made our way over to the good ole must-see Union Square farmers market.

We piled on the toppings at our favorite Ice cream place-- 16 Handles. We had scooped up so much cookie dough and stacked up the Oreo's and Recess' so high that there was hardly any room for the Ice cream! We topped it off with lots of chocolate syrup and then literally inhaled it-- needless to say we both got major tummy-aches after that. It was so good though- totally worth it; every one of the 5000 calories, and the bloated bellies that we're still hangin' on to.

Nobody acts like they're in love in this city. . . so we got lots of stares and comments as we openly expressed a little PDA (Adults-- this is an acronym for Public Display of Affection) here and there. "Oh look-- Kodak Moment" or "Kiss kiss!!!" Thumbs up;) I took that as, "Way to be brave enough to let yourselves fall-- not enough people dare do that these days." or "He's a hottie! Congrats on your lucky catch!"



Fuzz got so excited when he found the NBA Store on 5th Avenue! He bought almost every piece of Utah Jazz merchandise in the store-- he even bought me a John Stockton shirt-- that I love!

Here's Fuzz hangin' out with his buddies he found in the store.



Goodbye's are always so hard. . . but only 5 more months and we'll see each other again!

Melissa and Me

Melissa, my cousin, had been out visiting Boston this week. She took a detour on her way to Philly where she will get to present her thesis at a conference, and spent a day here with me in New York! It was so much fun to see her-- she really is just another one of my sisters. We went exploring for the afternoon around battery park and visited the 911 site, meandered our way through Wall Street, waved at Lady Liberty, and watched some fun street dancers! That night I had my first performance of Kenneth Cope's "Women at the Well." It was fun to be in New York--a million miles from home, and still have a family member in the audience;) After that we explored Times Square-- always so full of tourists! Gotta love em;) and finally rested to eat-- at Planet Hollywood. Melissa had never been to one, so it was a fun opportunity for me to make the introduction.

Today we went to church down by the Lincoln Center- it's actually in the same building as the Manhattan Temple-- but they're totally separated off. I had been in that ward for a month- over a year ago- and knew that there was a pretty good possibility I'd run into a few familiar faces, but as we were walking in Melissa said, "How about we play a game--and see if we can find one person here that I might already know-- that would be cool if I knew somebody here." As soon as we walked into the chapel we found friend after friend, after friend after friend . . . of Melissa. Everybody knew her-- I take that back, every guy knew her, (there were a few girls too). It was so fun to see all the round-a-bout ways she was connected to so many different people! "Oh I went on a blind date with him once, I know her from a conference I was at this weekend, he served with my brother on his mission. . ." haha it was awesome to see all of her connections!

This weekend was just so much fun! And there are just so many more exciting things ahead. Can't wait to tell you all about them!

Sick-- and Tired of it!

So exactly one week ago, I took my first sick day off work since I've been in New York. For one year and two months, I've been fortunate enough to never receive any sort of illness that would require me to stay home on bed rest, and then last week I had to go and destroy my good-health streak. I would have done all I could do to hide it-- I actually did that for about a week, and then one day I just crashed. I called mom as I was leaving work early on Tuesday and asked her what I should get at Duane Reade-- for all of you that may not know what a Duane Reade is, let me explain.
If you've ever been to New York City you remember-- for they're nearly impossible to miss-- the Duane Reade drugstores on nearly ever corner, every corner that the Starbucks' are not. I literally just typed "Duane Reade Drugstore New York, NY" into the Google Maps search and just for my little Manhattan Island 1,941 results showed up! Wild I know-- what can I say, New Yorkers need their drugs, and this is where we go to get them. So back to my story . . . I'm on the phone with mom. . . sneezing like crazy. . . headachey. . . can't get enough tissues . . . ears throbbing from blowing out my brains all day. . . puffy watery eyes. . . and to top it off, my Asthma started kicking in. . . wheezing. . . yes Morgan, wheezing-- and I couldn't help but laugh listening to myself. haha. . . Mom escorted me through the aisles making sure I got more then everything I needed. . . just in case. . . haha we got all different kinds of medicine, a new big box of tissues, some Clorox antibacterial wipes so nobody else would get sick, cough drops etc. Mom was so patient with me but I couldn't put the phone right up to my ear. . . they just ached to hear anything, not that you were annoying or loud mom, I promise.
I handed over my goods to the cashier, along with my last paycheck-- okay, it wasn't quite that much, but sure felt like it! I got home with my new "Cure-me" tool kit, and called mom for further instruction. "You put this on now. . . take a little of that. . . take your this. . . put that on. . . drink this. . . put some of that in it. . ." I was so overwhelmed by the thought of actually nursing myself back to good health. This was something I've never had to do before-- and I never realized how hard it actually is. You have to be the sick patient and the nurse at the same time-- What?! So overcome with a flood of built up emotions, this final realization. . . broke down my dam, and I fell apart. I felt like I was three again, throwing a three year old tantrum, must be watching too much "Supernanny" lately, because I fell to my knees sobbing, with my purse coat and everything, telling mom that I couldn't do it. She talked back to me like I was three, "Oh come on Chan, seriously, you need to take care of yourself or you won't get better!" I knew she was right, but I felt so sick I couldn't even listen to her anymore, so I minded her and got back up, took everything she told me to, just like she said-- no cutting corners, because I'd have to tell her later when she would ask me, and she'd make sure I did it all sooner or later. Then I crashed. . .
So this was all last week. I stayed in bed all day and just told my body that was all the time I would give it, because I had things to get done-- and a life I had to get back to. Well I thought it minded me. . . I felt well enough that next day to go back to work, but at a lack of energy. I don't do anything wildly strenuous at work, so that didn't cause any problems.
Halloween was kinda a rebound day. . . I had some errands to run, and then felt blah by the time my Friends were ready to go out. I didn't want to be a party-pooper, and I thought that it would be fun to finally see the Halloween parade that I have heard so much about. So I went. It took over an hour to get down to the village. It was totally night time-- totally dark-- and totally pouring. There were a million people, and I'm no giant-- so it was impossible for me and the majority of people there to even see anything. I lasted about a whole 5 min. It was so not worth getting sick again-- and luckily there was another girl, Rachel that was feelin' the need to ditch the remainder of the parade with me. I was sorry to see her costume drenched. She was going to a dance after the parade-- so she had friends to see, and guys to meet! Poor thing, I think that we left soon enough that she was able to salvage her costume for the dance though-- and she had naturally curly hair so the rain only helped improve her locks! This was my Halloween 2009-- woohoo! Haha I seriously can't wait to make up for it in 2010, I've got a feeling that it will be a very good year!
Oh yea, so I'm sick today. I know the suspense is just killin' ya and you're just dying to hear all about it! So I woke up this morning with a little tummy ache, nothing unbearable, just a bit of discomfort. It wasn't till I started putting my makeup on that I literally watched my face in the mirror as it turned a pale pale green. I immediately started sweating that chilling sweat that only comes when you know you're body is about to tell you something you're never ready to hear. I was instantly so nauseous that I turned and knelt down, hunched over the toilet praying for whatever ailment inside me to find it's escape-- preferably in the next twenty minutes, so I wouldn't be late for my train.
No ailment released- I felt like if their was no physical evidence that I was sick, that I could make it through another work day. I was fine enough to stand now, just taking my weak stomach into consideration as I proceeded to gather my things for work in a delicately slow, gentle manner. I caught my first train! So excited that I was just sure today was going to be a smooth day from here on out. My second train came, but was so jammed packed that it took a few seconds for the people on the train to organize themselves in a manner that would allow an accessible exit for the subway patrons to get off of thier train onto the platform. There were maybe 8 or so that got off and about 15 of us or so waiting to get on to take their places. We all crammed ourselves in, and I immediately closed my eyes because of my vulnerable, claustrophobic tendencies. Then the doors snapped tightly closed right behind me. We were all going to be stuck like this for the next 13 minutes or so-- and that was only without any delays. I have been forced to survive in similar circumstances since I've been here and have learned from those experiences that the best thing for me to do is to loosen my scarf and unbutton my jacket, keep my eyes closed, continue to breathe listening to each breathe, and just think about anything but where I was, and how many people I'm smashed up against, and how impossible it would be to escape if there was any sort of emergency. . . underground. My favorite place to go to is a beautiful spacious green field, full of colorful flowers. I imagine just walking around, taking time to smell each flower, imagine the petals, their unique sweet scent, the fresh cool breeze in my face, and Morgan holding my hand. Yea I know-- totally cheesy-- Fuzz don't kill me for writing this! haha but just the thought of being in such a peaceful SPACIOUS place is normally enough to do the trick. Exceptions are few and far between. . . but today was one of those especially rare occasions-- I thought I was going to die. No even worse than that, I knew I was going to puke on 15 zillion strangers that I would unavoidably run into every other morning for the rest of my time here in the city as their commuting schedule conforms exactly with mine--
The cold sweat began again, almost the instant the doors clamped shut behind me, I was so hot but so cold at the same time. I kept my chin up, and just thought about the breathing, how important it was just to continue to breathe. . . I struggled to keep my eyes closed, and stay focused on the field, the flowers, so many different colors and sweet smells. . . Fuzz right there, telling me that I was going to be just fine, squeezing my hand tightly. I thought about his medicinal touch, whenever I've been sick. I had already undone my scarf and unbuttoned my coat, so I frantically put my hand up to my stomach, just to barely touch it-- essentilly giving it that "magical" touch. The touch was fatal. I knew the instant that my fingers grazed my stomach that I wasn't going to be okay. Not for a while. I could feel the icy cool sweat drip down my temples. I hadn't realized how much I was perspiring until then. . . It was impossible for me to refrain from my panic now! I was going to puke. So many innocent people. . . would have to suffer because I selfishly chose to ride the subway today- sick. I thought about the 5o million adds I'd seen on the train that said, "If your feeling under the weather. . . STAY HOME!" and "Nobody else wants to get sick!" Idiot-- what was I thinking! I thought about the most recent add that included the high statistics for New Yorkers that don't have any paid sick days. My stupidity was not only going to cause these innocent victims fatal discomfort-- it was going to cost them valuable time, and money too! I couldn't bear to watch out the window as we skipped the various subway stops. . . 125th. . .116th. . .110th. . . 103rd. . .96th. . .86th. . .81st. . . and then 72nd. . ! I knew that if I could just hold my breath a second longer we would be to 59th street and then the doors would open and I could save these peoples lives! But the train began to slow down, and it took longer than I had anticipated, my hurling timer had gone off too soon--- this was it. . . Suddenly I saw a light--I'm serious-- we were there! At the station! How much more pathetic was it going to look when I erupted on all of these nice people just as the doors were finally beginning to open. HERE I GO. . . I faced the door, not sure where exactly I was aiming. . . dry heave. . .YES! There was nothing there! Just then the doors opened. . . and there was the trash can! HOORAY! I continued to dry heave as I made my way over to the trash can, not sure if I'd even be able to reach the top of it when I got there. . . I was shocked that people weren't staring or trying to get away from me, and then I thought about how I probably looked to them; it probably looked just like I was coughing-- hard. I made it to the trash can just in time. . . blagh! Stomach acid galore--- now everybody was watching-- the two trains on either side of me, the people all around me on the platform, the group of officers standing in front of me. . . blagh. . .I couldn't have cared less-- I had made it! Prayer is real! I felt like I had just saved my whole planet from a toxic explosion. Even after my episode at the garbage can, I still didn't feel like I was safe to get back on the trains for a little bit. Oh no-- I needed some time. I came out of the hole in the ground, called mom and dad-- and asked what to do. I called my work and told them that I didn't know what I had, food poisoning, the flu, or whatever, but that I didn't think that it would be smart, or safe for them if I went in to work. When I finally made it home I was grateful for my resolution- because I still felt sick. My room was normal temperature but as I got in bed I couldn't stop shaking! I was so cold,. . .even with all of my millions of blankets on top of me-- I just felt like I was holding an Ice pack in the freezer-- nothing was changing, I wasn't getting any warmer. Somehow, sometime after that, I finally fell asleep. After my bizarre 3 hour crash-- I say bizarre, because my dreams are always insane whenever I have any sort of a fever, or my body just isn't feeling well-- I received a phone call from my work, calling to check up on me. I knew that today was office day-- and that it was already going to be a crazy busy day for everybody there-- and with me gone I knew that there were some things that just were not going to get done. So I told my work that I would be happy to work from bed for the next few hours-- I was glad to have something to do to make me feel like I wasn't completely worthless today, and to help them out a little bit.
So here I am. . . . writing about my 2 whole sick days in the city-- completely different symptoms, completely different stories, hoping to end this exhausting, recurring pattern here and now. I don't have any more time to be sick! I have Melissa, my cousin, coming this weekend, and then Morgan coming in two weekends~! I'll be home-home in 3 weeks after that-- and then I run my race 3 weeks after Christmas! That pretty much takes up all of my sick, personal, and vacation days for the next year! Tara-- I'll try to still save one for you and Trav;)
With all those fun things coming up-- I don't even have time to let the thought of being sick cross my mind. I am grateful to be getting this all out of my system right now. So I can just enjoy the rest of my time out here!
Everybody watch what you touch. . . wash your hands constantly and just DON'T get Sick- okay?!

It's Pumpkin Time!

After my run in Brooklyn this morning-- I headed back to Manhattan and another park, Central Park. I had seen advertisement for this festival in the park earlier this morning, and was curious to come see all the fun stuff first hand! There was this massive line of people to get into a pumpkin patch! They would all get a free pumpkin to take home-- one per person, isn't that great?! I didn't nave time to stand in the line, but had fun watching all of these little kids trade pumpkins-- eye them with a spin to make sure that they were the perfect one! It was a fun family affair-- and we can never have enough of those, especially here in the city, where families are so seldom seen it's nice to be reminded that they're still here;)




























They had all different kinds of fun activities for kids. There were face paintings, games, concerts . . . fall markets . . . and more!





Did you know that there is such thing as professional pumpkin carvers--? Well now ya do, and here's a picture of one of them! He was carving peoples faces on their pumpkins too!

Nike's Human Race 10k

This morning I got to wake up bright and early to head down to Brooklyn, Prospect Park, for my very first real race! The subway lines were of course all a mess this morning and all backed up-- so there were a ton of us that were going to be cutting it close. When we got to our final stop, (there were actually a ton of our fellow runners on the train with us) we all started running up and out of the ground towards the starting line-- it looked like fire coming out of the ground as we were all in bright red and yellow! There were a million of us-- literally running about a half a mile through the park to the starting line. This girl I sat next to on the train told me that we wouldn't start until 8:30 because that's what they did last year. . . I heard a gunshot-- 8:00 sharp . . . the race had begun! We continued to run, only quickening our paces. . . and then suddenly we saw it. An army of red and yellow soldiers-- literally thousands began charging towards our hundreds-- it was like the race was going in two completely opposite directions! We kept running. . . though gradually sifted off of the main path onto the muddy grass-- did I mention it was raining? Haha it was only little sprinkles here and there, but it had been pouring all night, and the sky was ready to open back up again to finish the job! We finally made it to the beginning where we had to check our bags into the bus-- yes, bus. We had 10 school buses full of our bags with our numbers attached to them, because the race would begin in a completely different place than where it would end.

We started running! It seemed like we'd been running for a little while when we came across the 4 mile point! YES! Wait-- those were the easiest four miles I've ever run! I must be on fire-- must have been my breakfast, or just the adrenaline! About a minute later we passed the one mile mark-- the 4 mile mark we had previously seen was what we were suppose to pay attention to the second time around the park. Now these parks aren't like UT parks-- well national parks, yes. But city parks-- not even close. This park was like a mini forest about a 3 mile circumference, full of trails, statues, trees, meadows, lakes. . . it was gorgeous!

The run felt so good-- I can't wait 'till my next one! I was nervous about how much energy I should be conserving to make it, so I held back a little in the beginning not wanting to get too tired too fast. But as I came to the 5 mile mark-- I held nothing back! I felt like I was sprinting-- it was by far my fastest mile of the race-- I don't know if it was that my endorphins had finally started kicking in, or if my body was just finally warmed up, just that it was the last 1.3 miles of the race, the rain that was beginning to sprinkle us, or the fact that it was all level plateaus and down-hill's to the end-- maybe it was just the combination of it all-- but it felt great! I actually finished with my Ipod on the same song that I began with. . . Chambawamba. . . haha- I'd made the full cycle on that play list. There was mud everywhere, but we didn't care--we wanted our banana's and Gatorade! They kept passing us food-- but we had to hold everything they gave us because there was nowhere to sit-- and we had to stand in a line, literally 10 buses long-- to get our bags that we'd checked in at the beginning of the race. I stood in line for about 30 minutes and moved up about one bus' legnth. I was going to be here all day-- in the rain! My arms were getting tired of holding all my fruit and drinks so I brilliantly began eating my edible hand weights. Then just put all my leftovers, (pit, core, and peeling) in my water bottle and screwed the lid on tight-- voila! I needed to find something to entertain myself besides tapping my foot in line.

Totally oblivious to whatever the silent cue was, I watched as everyone in front and behind me whorded the front of the line to bus "0". That was my bus-- it was also the bus that had all the stuff on it for all the Tardies like me-- therefore packed clear full with our bags. Then suddenly bags began moshing from the bus-- seriously-- our bags floated over the crowd, passed around without any sense of direction until they were either snagged personally by their owners or dropped to the muddy ground beneath us. Hundreds of bags---hundreds of people--- all over my head. I could hardly see anything, totally lost in the mass of wet smelly runners. I could see below me though and had to watch out for the bags below-- not to get them anymore muddy or roughed up than they already were! I couldn't believe it! Everyone was going crazy-- there was so much noise, confusion and frustration! I finally found my bag-- thank goodness-- I went to walk away and just about stepped on something-- only had to look once to see that it was my camera case holding my camera-- in the mud! It had fallen out sometime before I'd even discovered my bag. I was just so so grateful that I found it because there were so many people shouting that their bags were gone. There was one of the main Nike guys running toward the mosh pit of people and bags surrounding the bus screaming, "Who's idea was this!!! Do you have any idea how stupid this is?! This defeats the whole purpose of the 'bag watch'!!!" We couldn't have said it any better. Although he was the man with the power, it was already too late. The entire bus had been emptied onto the streets. We were stoked to finally find our stuff so we could leave the contentious scene.

It was all sMilEs after that though-- we did it! For me and my friends it was one of our first real races-- we're all excited to see what race will be next!

Happy Birthday LEX!

We celebrated Lexi's birthday on Monday with all of our friends-- it was so much fun to see our friends that we haven't seen forever! We went to one of Lexi's favorite restaurants. . . originally "Pizza by the Inch,". . . called "PINCH,"which came together with a small restaurant from downtown in the villiage that was a variety of "Something Macaroni," called "SMAC" so their new place is called, "Pinch and Smac" I kid you not! Their food was awesome! Here are a few pics we snuck at the end with the few of us that were left.



These were our numbers for all of our tables:



We got home that night from the party only to find another surprise in the kitchen left from our neighbor Bobbi from downstairs-- a huge Crumbs cupcake with a candel for Lex to blow out. Antonia and I busted out the matches and our cameras for another Kodak moment. As I went to get my stuff out of my room, my computer started ringing. . . yes, my computer--It was Fuzz! He was calling me on Skype! So we brought him into the kitchen with us and set him on the table, turned out the lights, and lit the candel. . . "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. . . . !" We all sang even Fuzz-- in the computer center in Iraq. Lexi's his friend too! It was so much fun ;) Happy Birthday-- birthday girl!

Team in Training SHOUT-OUT!

If you look up on the right hand corner of my blog you'll see a small link to my site for Team in Training. I have loved being a part of this team! I've never been a runner but knew the second that I heard about this that it was something that I wanted/needed to be a part of. We are earning money for the Leukemia, Lymphoma Society, to help finance cures for cancer. I am running with people that actually have cancer-- they claim to need us, but I'm telling you, these people are changing my life! We train as a group twice a week and also on our own. I've been able to see various parts of the city that I never even knew were there! To think I might have lived here and never seen them! I started this training with about 2 miles being my limit-- never having really pushed myself much farther than that, but yesterday we were suppose to run 6 miles in Central park, and I kinda missed the turn off the trail on my way back...totally got lost talking to some other runners- but got an extra great workout! I felt great at the time, but my body reminded me later that this was something I'd never done to it before...I totally crashed, my bed and blankets never felt so comfortable mmm... So there are some in our group that are running the full marathon, either in Phoenix, Miami, or Orlando in Disney World-- and then there are half marathons with each of those. I'm signed up for the Orlando half marathon in January-- And to my surprise. . . the fundraising is turning out to be more challenging then the running! I'm trying to earn the bulk of it by early November. It's at that time that we have to tell them whether or not we think we'll be able to earn the rest of the money, so that they can book our flights and hotel for the race. So everyone please tell all your friends and family--- your work could also be a great sponsor! Okay-- so there's my plug on Team in Training;)

US Open 2009

I had the opportunity to go to the US Open after work yesterday. It was amazing! I watched the girls play, Sharapova dominated, and then a little of the men's night matches. It took so long just to get into the stadium because there were So many people! It was definitely one of the funnest things I've done since I've been here. I was really impressed with something that one of last nights players said as they were interviewed before their match. The reporter commented to Parakova before her match that she had played some top players before, like one of the William's sisters, and proceeded to ask if she thought that because of experiences like that, she felt better prepared for this match against Sharapova. She was foreign, from Bulgaria, and spoke very simple English, but I was really impressed with her response to that question. What she said, essentially, was that this match was a new match, and no other matches right now mattered; not her last match against Sharapova, nor her previous win. It was a new battle for her and she wasn't going to let anything else interfere with her game. Nothing else mattered. That's how it is sometimes, isn't it? Life brings us challenges that we hope to overcome, or just endure until their passing. Every day is like a new match-- always so unpredictable. If we let ourselves get carried away in miserable yesterdays, it prevents us from ever moving on, creating a new today, and foreseeing better tomorrows. My yesterday will not determine the outcome of my today. . .

Our Soldier

SPC Morgan K. Iverson

Active Army
Stationed in Basra, Iraq

Morgan left for Iraq in May of this year. The article below was written and submitted by his mother DeAnn to the Mormon Times. It's contents were published this past July in a special article recognizing courageous saints in the service.

"Morgan served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Missouri Independence mission. He was home for 2 years when he came to me and told me he had to join the army. It was a feeling he had since he had returned home. He followed those strong feelings and joined the army in the medical field. He received his basic training in Ft Benning, Georgia and his advanced training in Ft Sam Houston, Texas. He is/was stationed in El Paso, Texas at Ft Bliss/Biggs Air Field. Morgan is now a combat medic.
He is a fine example to the members of his troop of what a good LDS member should be, and some of them have become interested in learning more about the church. He helped one of his fellow soldiers, and a friend to become active again and work thru the steps of repentance process to become an elder before they were deployed. It was because of his quiet and unwavering example.
Morgan is an example to all whether in the army or wherever he is. He carries extra Book of Mormon with him to give away whenever possible. He is jokingly and respectively called “the prophet” by the men he serves with. Morgan stands in “holy places”. He finds the church and attends the temple wherever and whenever he can.
He has been in Iraq for five weeks now. He feels that he is continuing his mission in the army. He is currently trying to organize a church group to have meetings on Sundays. He knows the lord is with him at all times and will bless him as he strives to do what is right and stay close to him."



It has now been almost four months since he arrived in Basra. I'm so proud of him! I might sit and complain because I don't have any air conditioning. . . but he doesn't have it either. It's a lot hotter there, and he has to stand out in the sun for hours wearing his full uniform and boots. He's my superman. He knows that's where he is suppose to be, and what he is suppose to be doing. I know that this experience has given him the opportunty to grow closer to our Heavenly Father. He's all that he really has out there. He has fellow soldiers as well as sergeants inquire about his beliefs, and has had many opportunity's to share his testimony with them. Many know of him and his faith, he's resolved to do whatever he needs to, to show others that he truly believes ---he knows that his actions as well as words are constantly being observed and, and watches himself to make sure his actions are consistant with what he preaches. He's my best friend! I know that he's suppose to be there, and because of that, I know that everything will be okay. I do miss him; we all miss him, but know that we'll see him before we even know it! Keep fighting for what's right Morgan; we love you!








Some of his fellow medics.

The Iraqi children just love the American soldiers!

This was our last day together before he left for Iraq. I can't believe it's already been 4 months! Only twice that much longer. . . and he'll be home!