May 26, 2009

Well hello there!! It's me!

Well I will warn you now.... this email isn't going to be too interesting. It was a week full of basically... nothing. Nothing real exciting or great happened this week. I did drop my pride and go back and see Alister for the first time in 10 days. He is doing good. I really like him and we are going to continue to work with him. Maybe he'll come around. Maybe not. I don't know.

We did stop by Gavino's house this week to make sure he was coming to church so that he could be baptized on the 6th. Carlos, another person who we are kind of teaching that lives With Gavino told us they were planning on coming and that they would see us there. They never showed up. Just another disappiontment. But it's ok.... after enough of them you learn to get used to it.Once again it's that lack of commitment. They have a testimony but no commitment.

So this week one of our investiagtors invited us to go play soccer with him. So we accepted. And showed up at the place and there was like 40 hispanics there! It was nuts! So we played in a tennis court and it was 5 on 5. So there was like 7 or 8 teams. And if you scored first you stayed and the other team left the court and a new team came on. I was the only white kid there. So I adopted the nickname Gamacho or Wedo, both slang for white kid. Haha. So that was cool. I scored 4 goals. It was sweet! Scoring on mexicans. :) Our team won 9 games in a row before finally losing. It was a lot of fun. But I was so dang tired! And they play pretty rough, shoving you into the fences and stuff. Ah it was great!

We went and saw Arturo Vega. One of my favorite people. He is so cool and so honest with us. We talked with him some and he is still content with his Baptist church. He says he has had some bad examples of members in his church with the people he works with. Ya never know who is watching you I guess and that is why it is important to always be a good example. But we are going to continue to teach him. I love that guy.

Bad news.... Alina, the woman with her family we have been teaching. The one we commited to baptism for June 13th. She is a great woman that was so interested in our church and loves what we teach! But she said she would talk to her husband about being baptized. He said that he doesn't want her to meet with us anymore and that she couldn't get baptized in our church. So that was sad.... Hopefully his heart will soften and all will be ok. But I don't know.... he is a strong catholic. So that was sad and a bummer. But oh well. We'll keep praying for her and hoping that one day she calls and says we can come back and see her. But as for now she has to be "dropped."


So yes we did get another car. We need a car! Our area is so huge and without one we would almost be useless. But yeah I am feeling better from the accident. Still little bruises and aches. But nothing too serious. But I did find out that if I do lose these 2 court cases I lose my driving privelages for the rest of my mission. Haha, oh well.... But yeah I would lose them for the next 18 months. Which actually I wouldn't mind. I don't like driving anymore anyways.

So yeah from the emails and letters I get it sounds like everyone has companionship issues for some reason. I don't know why. It's a bummer. But oh well... it happens. Elder Herrera goes home in 2 1/2 weeks and is getting more and more trunkier as time goes on. But oh well what can ya do about that. I do know that I will continue to stay in this area after he is gone though. Who knows for how long though. At least until this whole stupid car accident situation is over. So probably up through August. It's horrible. just like Jana said, You can't have bad feelings in your companionship because then the spirit isn't there to testify to those you teach. And the spirit is the most important tool we have. It's what really converts.

That quote you shared with me from Brigham Young is so true. Salvation is not a cheap experience. We have to experience things to earn living with Heavenly Father forever. He isn't going to just give it to us. He tests us to find out if we are really worthy of being in his presence for eternity. It was never the plan for this life to be easy. And as you said, sometimes I don't know either why it's called The Plan of Happiness. But sometimes we need to look back on our struggles to really enjoy those happy moments we have. And we do experience so much joy in this life, but sometimes it's overlooked because we focus on the bad that has happened. Sometimes we just need to stop and take a look at all we have been given. Because really we can find something that brings us joy every day. Not in every moment. But in every day. We have something that we are grateful for. Sometimes it's not always the most obvious thing. Sometimes we have to search really hard to find that one thing that brought us joy that day. But I do know that the Lord does bless us every day. Sometimes we just don't recognize it.

I love you all very much and miss you. Take care! Sorry this email didn't have a lot in it. But this week just didn't contain a whole lot for us. But this next week is looking pretty good. :)

Love you all!
Love, Elder Moore