May 24, 2010

So it sounds like you had quite the week! Wish I could say my week was half as interesting as yours........ BUT I can't.

So I'm going to start off by being brutally honest. Mom, that house looks like a dumb. But you're right, I won't judge it. And I have faith that you can turn this place around. I'm just glad I don't have to be part of "turning it around." Because yes, I have little faith right now after seeing those pictures. :) Just kidding mom! I'm sure it will look great when you are done with it!! I love you!!
I trust that you know what you are doing and that it will look great by the time I get home!! It looks like it has some real potential.

That is so exciting that Brooklyn leaves for Taiwan this week! I am so excited for her. She is a lucky girl, I hope she knows that. Wish her luck and tell her I love her too!!!!!

Well.... This week was just another week in the mission. Still struggling with teaching people and getting people to progress. We are also working right now with a lot of less actives. We spent our whole meeting with our mission leader on Wednesday discussing less actives. We have about 15 right now that used to be very active in the church and now don't come at all. So an hour and a half was spent discussing them and what can be done to help them out.

We came up with a few ideas which are some pretty cool ones. We are going to start playing soccer every Saturday morning so we can start to build some sort of unity in the group. So we are inviting everyone in our group and asking them to invite their friends. So this should be fun. And the elders in Crete are going to do the same. Then the first Saturday in July we are going to have a championship game. Lincoln vs. Crete. Haha, I'm so excited for that!

We are also going to be having a fireside about Christ, and we are going to invite the Omaha ward to come down and join us. So hopefully we can get more people to understand Christ and his atonement better and strengthen their testimony in him. Usually people go less active because they have a very weak testimony. I'm really sick of the excuses people give for not coming to church.

Also this next Sunday we are having a fifth Sunday fireside during the last hour of church and I've spent some time putting together family mission plans. We have a group family mission plan but it is pretty much non existent. No one looks at it or does a thing on it. So I've put together individual family ones and I'll be teaching the lesson and presenting the family mission plans this week. Wish me luck. Hopefully it goes well and we can get people helping us out more with missionary work instead of them being the people we are having to focus on.

Also we are going to start teaching english classes. I made flyers for those as well and we will be handing them out to everyone we see and posting them on bulletin boards and the local hispanic stores. So that way we can find people to teach. And we will teach the classes in the church. So then we can invite them for church on Sundays. So hopefully we can find more people that way.

Yeah I know I asked to get out of Omaha. I was tired of being there and I have almost been here now 6 months. And usually after being in an area after 6 months I am done and ready to leave. But not here. This place is having so much troubles right now. And as much as I hate it, and as much crap that I have dealt with over the course of the last 2 months. I'm not ready to leave it. I still feel like there is a lot that can be done here and a lot that I can do. I've been trying really hard. But maybe I just need to try harder. I was so bummed when I didn't go to Crete. It really sucked. But now I'm glad that I stayed here. I think it is definitely helping me to learn patience. Kind of. I haven't quite learned it yet. Since I still get so mad when peole make dumb excuses to why they didn't come to church. But I hope I stay here longer because I don't feel like I've done enough here.

Well we used to teach a guy named David. He was ALWAYS drunk!!! He would be there talking about killing himself and swearing and it was just bad. Well we ran into him again. He had been clean for 5 days and looked great. He was a nice guy. Had a button up shirt on, hair combed over. It's amazing to see what not drinking can do to a person. You really do have so much more freedom. So we taught him and hopefully we can get him set for baptism soon because he loves what we teach and he wants to go out and teach with us. Only minor problem we have with him is..... he lives in his van. But that's ok, we'll work with that. :)

So quick story. We were teaching a 19 year old named Estefany. We gave her a Book of Mormon and asked her to pray about it. So we came back a few days later and we were talking with her and asked her if she had read. She said yes. Then we asked if she had prayed. She said yes. Then we asked if she had gotten an answer. And she said she had a dream. In her dream her mom, who had died about 10 years ago, came to her. She told us that she never has dreams of her mom. So her mom answered her in her dream and told her that this church was not something new but that it was God's church and that she should learn more about it. So she told her that she had felt she recieved the answer that this is the true church. We were so excited!! But the only bad thing is..... that she left for Mexico this past Saturday. I hope he finds the church down there. We gave her all the information needed to be ale to contact the missionaries there.

So there is a chance we may be moving back into our old apartment. In this apartment people are allowed to smoke inside and Elder Rigby has asthma and it has been bothering him. So we'll find out today if they send us back to the old one or not. We hope so. Cause that old apartment is the bomb!!

haha wow must stink to be living in Utah right now!! Here it has been 80's and 90's and very very VERY humid. It's such a wet heat. But I don't mind. I love hot weather! But I can't believe that it is snowing there! That is crazy! Sorry. :)

Thank you for the pictures! Hahaha Justin looks way happy in that top picure with his mission call. I've never seen that kid smile so big!! And that is a hideous suit he is wearing. Tell him to leave it for me. :) Laynie looks so grown up!!! Good grief. And you and Brooklyn look great!! Betty is such a sweetheart!! Geez I miss my family. ;) Haha yeah I know ya'll are still going to be there when I get home :) And I"m looking forward to seeing you all soon. Time really does fly. Those were some great pictures. Especially of Dawson and Brooklyn. Gosh our famliy is the best!!!!!!!

Hey mom my pday will be on Tuesday of next week because of the holiday. Just letting ya know. I love you!!!!!! Good luck with our new way awesome house! It will be great. :) Well that's it for this week. I hope everything starts to get better there. I love you all!!!!

Love,
Elder Moore
Go Lakers!!!

May 17, 2010 Fuimos al templo y hicimos un sesion en espanol, fue bien chido!!‏

Well hello there!

Another transfer down and a few more to go. I stayed with Elder Rigby. But we did get kicked out of our apartment and moved to another one. So the address there is:
1411 D st #7
Lincoln, NE 68502
It's cheaper..... and it's obvious why. It's a tiny little bugger, but whatever. Right now we are living there with 2 other missionaries. They are actually moving down to Crete today. Yup they opened Crete. Yay. So I got to go down there and show the 2 missionaries that are opening it around and show them who we are teaching and tell them about everyone. That was great.... I was actually pretty mad when I found out that I was going there. But whatever, life goes on. That's become my new saying lately if you haven't been able to tell.

So this past Saturday was cool. We had a spanish meeting up in Omaha. I gave a one hour training on the culture. It was about finding common ground and building upon it. It went really well. So the meeting was 5 hours long and then we went to the temple and did a session in Spanish. That was a lot of fun. I'd never done one in Spanish before so I really enjoyed it!! It was cool to be able to understand the whole thing too!

Afterwards we went over to the Sandovals and had dinner with them and with the Riveras. Ah that was so nice to be back with some of my old friends. Haha, there was no handshakes there. Every one of them hugged me. It was so nice to be with some of the people that I have come to love. It was a party there. The Riveras, the Sandovals, and 6 missionaries.

Well honestly that is about all that happened this week. The work is going..... That's about all I can say about that right now. We did find a few new people this week and we are working on contacting the former investigators. So this transfer should be a good one we are hoping. We need a good transfer.

Well have fun in La Verkin! You'll have to send me some pictures of the house. I would appreciate that. And thank you so much for the package!! I loved it. I love you Mom!!!!! You are the best!!!

I love you!!!
Love,
Elder Moore

May 10, 2010

I don't really have much to say this week because I told you all of it yesterday. So I figured I would attach some pictures for you to enjoy since this email is going to be very very short.

The first picture is of the can tower we are building in our apartment.



And sorry the 2nd picture is a little blurry but that was at the part we had at church.



This one is of the dancers that danced at our party. It was a lot of fun.


And lastly, here is a picture of some sidewalk art we did. We didn't have chalk so we used Tums :)



Well yesterday was a great day and I loved talking to all of you!!! It was so great to hear your voices and hear that everyone is doing so well! Mom, I hope that you had a great mother's day!!! You deserve it. You are a great mother and I love you! Thank you for the advice you gave me yesterday and for the great stories of Weston. That kid is a hoot.

We were supposed to go golfing today but there is a big rainstorm today, so we are getting some good rain too. At like 5:30 this morning we had thunder that shook the entire apartment. IT was so crazy!!!!! And way loud. Nuts!!

Well I hope you all have a fantastic week. This could be my last one in Lincoln. But I guess we'll see... Wednesday is transfers. I got a call this morning from the office and they asked me again about apartments in Crete so there is a chance they could be opening it this transfer. But I guess we'll wait and see. Gosh, how many times have you heard that? But it was cool to get a call and have them ask me about a specific apartment I told them we liked... so maybe there is hope.

Well have a fantastic week. I love you all!!!!!
Love
Elder Moore

May 3, 2010 Git R Done

Woohoo!!!!!! I wish you all had some idea of how happy I am for Justin!!! He is going to have a great time serving his mission there in Nicaragua that lucky kid! I'm even more excited for him because I'm going to go pick him up! :) But really the hispanic people are absolutely incredible and Justin you are really going to come to love them. You are very lucky, I hope you know that. You are going to have such a fantastic time and I am so excited for you!

So I know that the last few weeks I have been kind of a downer, and honestly this week was no better. Like these past few weeks I have been flipped off sworn at and called queer/fag more times than I have my entire mission. I have learned to laugh it off where it doesn't even bother me. Also, we had 15 people total in church yesterday and 6 of them were visiting from Utah and spoke no spanish. So that goes to tell you how well our little group is doing. But these past few weeks have made me think a lot. So I'm going to share with you my thoughts. Who ever said that the mission is the best 2 years of your life was a liar. I'm sure that the first few years of marriage are better. The first few years of having your first kid are better. So the mission I would say will not be best 2 years of my life, but I know that they will be the best 2 years FOR my life. I know that this amazing experience is preparing me for future callings in the church, of husband and father. I know that the mission has helped me come to know that this is the only true church. On the mission I have felt the Savior's love and power more than I ever have at any point previously in my life. I've gained a stronger testimony of the Holy Ghost and it's role, and the help that it provides. The mission has made ME better. And has strengthed my personal testimony of the gospel.

I know that all the hard times I've encountered this past little while has taught me a lot and will somehow work out for my good. There is a lesson we can learn from every experience we have. God sees the big picture and we don't. I haven't figured out the lesson I'm supposed to learn yet, I'm working on it, but I'm sure one day it will be crystal clear and I'll understand why I've had to go through these things I've had to go through these past few weeks. I love the mission, it has been a great 17 months, but there is so much heartache and trial that takes place in the mission. And on the other hand there is so much joy and happiness when you see someone that you have come to love accept the gospel, enter into the waters of baptism, and come closer to Christ. There is no better feeling than that in the world.

I've also thought quite a bit about Noah. Poor guy. He taught the gospel for 100 years!!! And during that 100 years he only managed to save his family, and Noah knew that even if he were just to save his family, he was successful. I can't imagine being called to be a prophet, by God, and trying to preach to people that just reject you and don't listen to anything you have to say. It's sad because we know the truth, we know the blessings and joy that being a member of the TRUE church brings, and to watch people turn it all down because they would rather be part of the world is just so sad.

This past week we had to drop Hector as an investigator. That was hard. I've been working with him since I got here. My first day I was here I started teaching him. But he just isn't ready, and is not yet willing to change.

Before I forget, Thursday night 3 tornadoes touched ground and we had a crazy awesome storm! Non stop lightning and thunder, strong rain, hail, and as I said before....TORNADOES! They were advising everyone to stop driving to get away from windows and watch out for flying debree. It was legit.



So anyways.... this past week we went down to Nebraska City which is about 55-60 miles east of us to go visit some people that the missionaries had found out there. So we did and I have to tell you, I'm not one to bash with anyone.... but, the Jehova's Witnesses are just so much fun. So I went with Elder Routladge to visit this guy named Mario and his wife. They have talked to him some because he speaks a little english. So he likes us, she doesn't. So we were sitting on their porch just talking and then the wife started getting into it with me, and I just sat there and let her rip our church and me apart for about 15 minutes and when she was done... I asked.... is that all? And she said yes. So then I started. I started to show her that everything she had just said about us was not true using her very own bible. She said that Joseph Smith didn't see God because the bible says no one can see God. So I showed her where Moses and God talked face to face like a man and his friend talk. Haha, she was amazed that that was in her bible. So she started taking notes so that she could discuss this stuff with the Jehovah's Witnesses that come over every Friday to teach her. She then started talking about how God doesn't call Prophets anymore, so we discussed that as well. I hate how many people quote that part in Matthew where Christ says to beware of false prophets. No one knows the verse afterwards that talks about their fruits and by them ye shall know them. Then we talked about how I came to know that Joseph Smith saw God and we talked about how by faith and prayer we can know, because God will answer us. So by the end of our hour long conversation, she was convinced that we could possibly be the true church. It was so AWESOME! Odds are the Jehovah Witnesses have already destroyed what was just built, but oh well.... it was a really cool experience helping her realize that God does call prophets, that he does keep revealing things to us in this day, and that he loves us enough to bring forth another book of scripture that testifies of Christ and that can help us learn more about him.

So pretty much I've just been so tired of nobody wanting the Gospel. We are teaching plenty, but not finding any that want to progress right now. It's that dang free agency that I have come to dislike with a passion. But anyways.... I started reading through our area book on Sunday night, and I read every former investigator sheet that was in there, ha it took me like 2 and a half hours. I was up a little past bed time. But I found some good names of people that were interested but for some reason or another stopped listening to the missionaries. So this week should be fun. We are going to go out and contact all these people. It's really hard though because people here move so much. Hispanics move in and live there for like 3 months and boom, there gone again. So hopefully we can find some people.

So about the Mother's day phone call. I'll probably be calling there at yeah... 3:30 your time. Because our church goes from 1-4. So we'll get out at 4 and make our calls ok? Ok!! We are thinking we may just go buy a pay as you go phone and put some minutes on there. It's probably our best option right now. But we may also use a member's phone. So still not sure. But we'll see... either way, I'll be calling at 3:30ish your time.



So this week my spanish really came in handy. I've made quite a few friends down there in Nebraska City the 3 times I've gone down there. So one of them gave me a call Saturday night saying that they had some spanish guy in front of their house needing help but they couldn't understand what he was saying. So they asked if I could translate so I said sure. This is when I know my spanish has gotten good, he was so drunk and I was talking to him on the phone. So he started to tell me how he had been drinking and had crashed his car into the lake and that the police would take it out but that he couldn't get it back until Tuesday but he needed to get to Omaha that night. Haha. So anyways... I told Bill and Leslie his story and anyways they ended up giving him a ride to Omaha and all.... but I love spanish! Justin, you're going to LOVE learning it. It's so much fun!

Well that is pretty much the jist of the week. I'm really looking forward to this week though. It should be a really good one we are hoping. We need a good week. It's been far too long without one. I can't wait to talk to you all on Sunday!!! But until then, stay good, and be safe. I love you!

Love,
Elder Moore

PS.......GO LAKERS!