March 16, 2009

Well Hello!!!Well this has been an interesting week, full of ups, downs, horizontals, and verticals. Missions are crazy. I can't say it enough. Well this is the last week of the first transfer. Yay! I made it through number one. There is a good chance that I will be getting a new companion. Elder Shumway has been in this area for 5 transfers, he is as good as gone. And the area will be mine, and probably, Elder Keentana, from Mexico. We are playing a guessing game right now. But that is what it is looking like.
Ok before anything I felt like I robbed you all a little bit.... I didn't really share how great of feeling I had after baptizing Oscar.So Oscar as you know was my first baptism. Holiness! It was so amazing, as I said the water was FREEZING but that didn't matter. I felt so much joy in my heart as I baptized him. Watching him change his life. And start new. I became addicted to baptizing. That was such a cool experience for me. I loved it. And I could just feel the spirit so strongly. It was just.... wow. I can't wait till the next and the next and etc. :) But now, there is no greater feeling in the world then being a part of that. Something crazy happened this week.... Well I started understanding spanish better. Ha yeah, nuts. I started teaching more, and speaking more, and understanding more. It doesn't feel like as much of a barrier as it used to be. Everyday it is getting a little better.
Ok so this story happened like 3 weeks ago but I keep forgetting to put it in here. So We were talking to a woman named Pastora. Ha she is crazy out of her mind. First off.... So I thought my spanish was getting better when we went and visited her. And she is a blabber. And she started telling a story about how one day she was on her porch and just lifted up on the ground and started flying. It wasn't a dream, this actually happened. And she said she was up in the clouds flying over Omaha, and then God set her back down on the porch. Mmmm.... I thought I must have understood that wrong. So when we left I asked Elder Shumway..... What did she say? And he told me, and I was like oh! I guess my Spanish isn't that bad after all. So I had heard right. She thought she could fly.
Ok so why did I title this e-mail.... I'm only 19. Well for this reason.
#1- My first baptism, Oscar Mendez. Well they have been married all of 11 days. And now seperated. He called us and told us to get over to his house. We did. His wife had kicked him out of the house, he was depressed, so started drinking again. And yeah.... We are trying to salvage it. And turn him around. So we spent a good amount of time over at there house talking with them. Funny thing though... she kicked him out. We called the Bishop and the Bishop took him to a shelter. Oscar had his Book of Mormon with him and started teaching people there at the shelfter. Oh yeah!!! He brought 2 other people with him to church. The guy is a missionary machine! Funny guy.
#2- Another investigator, named Maria. She is divorced, her husband and 3 kids are Mormons. We are teaching her in a member's house. Sister Bailey. She is really nice! And always has food for us when we come over.Well anyways.... Maria, lost her job, and left her dad's house where she was living because he is a drunk and beats on her. So she called us..... She didn't know what else to do, she didn't have a job or a place to stay and just said, "What should I do?" Well we called Sister Bailey and she stayed 2 nights with her and now a memeber in Sister Bailey's ward is renting her a place for cheap and she got a job at Applebees now. I think that she is going to be baptized. She has a lot of faith in us.
#3- Julio and Elmer, their apartment doesn't have light or gas. They called us..... #4- Veronica, her house doesn't have light, gas, or water. They called us....
Well at least people have a lot of faith in us that we can solve their problems. Haha. It is very hard seeing so many people suffering and not knowing what to do sometimes. It's like, ha everything we do is just winging it sometimes. But I love it! Elisa, once again didn't come to church. She told us she would be there and that she would skip work to be there because she wants to be baptized. We had a date for her for this Friday but she didn't come to church, she went to work, so we are going to have to RESET her yet again. Dang it. She was pretty sad when we told her last week that we had to move her baptism date to the 20th and not the 14th because she missed church. I wonder how she will react tonight when we go and see her. I liked her better unemployed. I am just being selfish now. But before her job we could meet with her whenever, now she is never home. I am glad she has work now.
This week during a lesson, a woman whipped out her breast and started feeding her child. HA! I just about fell out of my chair! Oh my gosh, I can't even write about it without being immature and laughing, so I won't say anything else about that.
Last week it was very foggy! Couldn't see much. This week it is like 65! So we aren't wearing suitcoats. Ah! It is so so nice!!So I have become hispanic. Well not really but I am working on it. I have hot sauce on everything I eat. And tortillas with every meal!!! In the fridge I think I have like 40 tortillas. And I do as the latinos to. I don't use a spatula to flip stuff. Just my hands. It burns sometimes, but they are getting stronger. :)So I have come to realize that spanish people are just too nice! They don't want to say no, so they lie to you instead. I wish they would just say no. Especially when they say thay are going to come to church, so we find them a ride and then they don't.By the way that is another hard thing. Finding rides. No one has cars here because they don't have jobs. And they don't have jobs because they don't have papers. No one does. But they all do have cool and sad stories about how they crossed the border to get here. It's neat stuff. but most of them haven't seen their kids in years or their wives or yeah.... I feel terrible just hearing there horrible stories.It's hard when people need this gospel. But they don't accept it. It's hard knowing the change that it can bring about in their lives and knowing that it WILL help them, but still, they don't accept it. They become content with the lives they live.
I love you all very much family!! I miss you like.... well I dont know. we will just say I miss you. :) The work is amazing!Every member of the church is a missionary and has the responsibility to share this gospel. Remember that. Many are searching for the truth but they know not where to find it. Share it. Because we have it. We know where to find it. This is an amazing work. The healing power it contains is undescrible. I know that this is true. I have given myself to the Lord for it. When we live it, we bring ourselves closer to our Savior. We can feel his love. Live it!I love you all!!!
Love always-Elder Moore