April 28, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

I have been out 3 months as of today!

This week was crazy!  We have Elder's in our Ward now, so we had to split the area.  It was sad to give them some of our investigators and people that we visit, but it wouldn't be fair to them if we kept everyone so it needed to happen.  We did get the area that we wanted though, so that was good.  We now have to bike 2 miles before we even get into our area, but it's the nicer area so it'll be worth it.  We had 23 lessons this week, and bikes about 40 miles.  This weekend it was really cold (random!) so we only biked 2.5 days this week.

This week we decided to focus on helping our investigators to progress.  We extended 4 baptismal dates.  Bill accepted his for May 10th, and Jackie, Charlie, and Peggy said they would pray about theirs.  We have been working with Jackie forever and she is so close.  We fasted for her to accept the date (May 24th), because before she has said "No, I am not ready".  When we asked her, she said she needs to pray about it, and keep reading the Book of Mormon, and talk to her husband because she wants him to be there (and he works in Texas!)  She is so close!!  We went over the Baptismal Questions with her, and she believes that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God, which is a step up from last time.  She is just struggling with the church being restored through Joseph Smith.  She says she believes it, but she wants to have a little more faith before she is baptized.  Jackie is really trying to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, so if everyone prays for her then I know she will gain that testimony.  Prayer works!!

We also went on a 25 mile bike ride on Thursday to visit a ton of Less Actives.  We went to the very end of our area to visit 4 people that we had never visited before and they all turned us down and told us not to come back.  We were feeling pretty discouraged because we rode about 10 miles out of the way, with no success.  On our way to dinner, there was a lady who was walking out to her car with her 2 little boys.  I felt impressed to stop and talk to her.  We did, and we talked about what we do as missionaries and asked if we could teach her and her family.  She said yes and we made an appointment for Tuesday.  That was just one example of the little tender mercies that the Lord has blessed us with this week.

We also helped out with the Mormon Helping Hands.  We hula-hoed for over 3 hours at an elementary school.  Thanks to Sister Hansen we are professionals!  It was crazy and really tiring, but then we got to relax a bit.  Jennifer (her daughter, Piper, just got baptized) needed to practice her facial skills, and so we each got to have a facial.  It was interesting because we did it ourselves.  She just told us what to do.  Last night, Sister Soleta and I each gave each other massages because we were sooooo sore.  I'm feeling a little better now haha.

I read 1 Nephi 22:26 today and really studied it.  I found a quote that President Petersen said a while ago.  The verse says, "because of the righteousness of his people, Satan has no power".  President Petersen said that "That could happen now.  If we are righteous, Satan can essentially be bound".  Let us all strive to be 100% obedient so Satan can have no power over us.

 

Hope everyone has a great week!  Love you,

Sister Moon

Pictures:

Dinner at Bill's

Facial with Jennifer

Beautiful sunset :)

 

April 21, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 Happy Easter!  Sister S and I are staying together in the A Ward!  Transfer #3 here I come.  We really wanted to stay together, so when the call came we didn't answer it.  We were afraid.  Then they called right back and we answered it.  Elder B said, "I've got some bad news for you..........you are staying together!"  Our hearts dropped a little bit, but then we were relieved.  We really didn't believe it.  Oh I love our ward, and I want to stay here for a really long time!  Also Sister H needs us to finish cleaning her yard.  We hula-hoed...again.

We had a great week until Friday.  So Sister S and I were helping the Lee's move and we were jumping on their trampoline.  First of all, I'd like to confess to hurting her leg.  We were jumping on the trampoline and we were trying to do the double bounce thing, where you bounce the other person up high.  Well she didn't understand that she was supposed to go up, so when she landed (she's supposed to land on her butt) she landed leaning back so she went sideways instead of straight up.  It was an in-ground trampoline so she didn't fall off, but she did land on the metal part.  She hit her shin.  Luckily, nothing really bad happened.  It was only bruised.  She's getting better now, but we didn't get to ride our bikes this weekend.  We did ride at the beginning of the week though...A LOT.  We rode 38 miles in 3 days :)

 Another crazy story: While walking up a hill with my bike, Sister S said, "Is that a snake?!"  So I went backwards with my bike to see (only a few feet), but my chain popped off, so my bike immediately stopped, but my body didn't.  I flipped backwards over my bike and cut up my left leg and ankle a bit, but it wasn't bad.  Don't worry it wasn't a snake...and I fixed my chain!

 Alrighty so this week we visited Nelson.  He's 15 and wants religion in his life.  We have been meeting with him, but it's always on the front porch.  We met with him yesterday and asked if he would be willing to be baptized.  He opened the door and yelled, "Yo Mom.  You down with me being baptized?!"  It was probably the funniest thing ever.  But he agreed to be baptized on May 10th so that's amazing!!  Please keep Nelson and Bill in your prayers!  They are progressing!

 This Sunday was the best church meeting I've ever been in!  Sister H gave an amazing lesson in Relief Society.  We talked about reflecting during the sacrament.  Reflection means more than just thinking.  When you look at your reflection you see yourself.  When we reflect on the Savior we should be thinking of things we can do to make ourselves more like the Savior. 

When Christ went into the Garden and suffered, He came back out and noticed that His disciples were sleeping.  We need to make sure that we are always awake!  We cannot be asleep during the sacrament or awake during church and then fall asleep during the rest of the week.  We need to always remember Him!  "Because of Him death has no sting, the grave no victory.  We can start again and again and again.  Because of Him guilt becomes peace, regret becomes relief, despair becomes hope.  Because of him we have second chances, clean slates, new beginnings.  There is no such thing as the end, because of Him."  Watch the video "Because of Him".  It's the best. 

 

I hope everyone has a super fantastic week!  Love,

 

Sister Moon

Pictures: 
District Leader, Elder B,  Sis S
Zone Leaders, Elder N and Elder F.
Sis S
California flowers!

April 14, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was the best week ever!  In our area, no one has ever had more than 30 lessons.  Sooo Sister S and I made a goal to get 30 lessons.  We had 28 lessons on Saturday, and had 4 appointments set for Sunday.  We were so excited, but then 3 of our appointments cancelled, so we went out to all our investigators houses and tried to find people to teach.  We ended up having 31 lessons!

 We also rode our bikes 52 miles this week.  Our Mission President encouraged us to talk to everyone, so whenever we passed people we would always say hello, then keep pedaling.  At the beginning of the week, Sister S and I promised that we would STOP AND TALK to everyone we saw.  We decided we should give everyone the chance to hear our message (not just hear us say hello).  We did this, and we found 5 new investigators this week, because we stopped and talked to people getting their mail, watering their trees, and walking home from school.  We will continue to do this and hopefully find more and more people to teach. 

 

At the end of this week I noticed that I wore the same shoes everyday, and now everyone can tell.  It's hot here and the sun is shining and I am tanning :)  You gotta love tan lines.

 

We went to contact a referral, but the person we were trying to see didn't live there.  We ended up talking to the lady that answered the door; her name was Christina.  She said that she is looking for a church and she believes we were there for a reason.  She asked us if we would come in and pray with her to give her strength.  We read some scriptures with her, and then prayed with her family.  Hopefully we can meet with her this week, and encourage her to come to church.  She is going through some really hard times right now, so keep her in your prayers. 

 We also met Charlie while we were riding our bikes.  He is looking for direction in his life, and wants to join a church.  He came to church with us yesterday, and really enjoyed it.  He told his story of how we found him during Sunday School.  He said that he saw us pass by once and we didn't stop, so he kinda felt bad.  Then he said, "this week they stopped and actually wanted to talk to me".  He said he really wanted to make friends and was very glad that we took the time to stop and talk with him.  That made me feel great to know that I was able to be an answer to his prayers when we stopped and talked with him. 

 And Bill...Bill is struggling with the fact that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world.  He just needs to put aside the facts and read the scriptures with faith.  I felt impressed to give him Mosiah 14 to read because it is about Jesus Christ.  The next morning I was reading 1 Nephi 19:23 and it says "but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord, their Redeemer, I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah".  This scripture basically says that if you want to believe that the Lord is the Redeemer then read Isaiah.  Bill needs to know that and Mosiah 14 is compared to Isaiah 53.  I know that the Spirit prompted me to give that chapter to Bill, and then reassured me, the next morning, that that is what Bill needed.  Please pray for Bill that he will know that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer.  We will move his baptismal date to make sure he is ready.

Transfers are also this week so I need one more prayer from y'all.  Pray that Sister S and I will stay together!  We love the Ward we are in, and the investigators we are teaching.  We would love to stay together for another 6 weeks.  I will let you know, next week, if I'm staying and who my companion is.  Hope everyone has a fantastic week! 

 

Tip of the day: Always be grateful!  Thankfulness is expressed in words.  Gratitude is expressed through actions.

 

Love you guys and miss you guys!

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

Hula Hoe-ing...again

Tan Line!

Our zone shirts (yes I know the saying is not grammatically correct.  I told the zone leaders, but they didn't care)

April 7, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 

This week was awesome!  Conference week is always awesome!  We taught 23 lessons this week, and found 1 new investigator.  We also did some more service for Sister H (the 80 something year old).  We raked, hula hoed, trimmed bushes, and dug up dead bushes.  Oh it was quite the day.  We had 2 cancelled appointments Thursday morning so we went and helped Sister H for over 2 hours!  We were so sore the next day.  I also finished the Book of Mormon yesterday and in case anyone was wondering...it's still true!

 

We taught Bill this week and he agreed to get baptized on April 19th!!!!  We will continue to work with him to make sure he's ready.  He's a great guy, so it should be good.  :)

We had our District Meeting on Tuesday morning.  We began with a song and a prayer and announcements, like normal.  Then Elder S was in charge of giving a training.  He went up and said this is a very unique training that you will only get once on your mission, then he pulled out an IPAD from his backpack.  He said our mission is now getting IPADS.  He told us everything about it.  He said we will get it next month because they are letting the District Leaders and Zone Leaders have them first.  He explained exactly what we would be able to do on them, and if we keep all the rules we can take it home with us when we leave!!!!  This training went on for 15 minutes!!!!  Then he said, "Oh yeah and I forgot one last thing...April Fools".  You can imagine how excited everyone was.  We were all freaking out, only to have our dreams crushed by Elder Swan.  I will admit that was the best April Fools joke. 

We also went on exchanges on Wednesday.  I stayed in Arrowhead with Sister Cook while Sister Soleta went to Silver Lakes with Sister P.  We had a pretty great day.  It was super cold and windy, but luckily we didn't have to tract because we kept busy and had 4 lessons.  Sister C is really smart so we had a great Companion Study, but she is really shy and quiet so I'm glad to have Sister S back!  Sister S and I know how to have fun :)

Friday was a rough day.  We came out of a lesson, and my tire, on my bike,was flat.  We went to the closest member's house and pumped it up and rode as fast as we could to Brother G's house and he patched it up.  We thought everything was good, so we went to our next lesson.  After we talked with Liz we started to head home for dinner.  When we got halfway home my tire went completely flat.  We called Brother G, but he didn't answer so we called Brother R.  He came and picked us up and told us that he'd have it fixed in the morning.  He's such a great guy!  In the morning we went to pick it up and apparently when Brother G put the patched tube back in he pinched it so that's why it went flat so fast.  The tube was not patchable, so Brother R bought me a new tube that morning!  He's awesome.  I'm so glad we have men that know stuff about bikes in our ward!  Hopefully this tube will be better than the last one.  This week is supposed to be in the 80's so we should be riding like crazy!

And of course the best part of the week was Conference.  I will share some of my favorite quotes with you.  I won't share all of them though, so I encourage everyone to watch or re-watch General Conference!!

"It's a narrow path, but it can be successfully traveled" - Jeffrey R. Holland

 

"Love what the Lord loves.  We do this by being a disciple" - Ronald A. Rasband

"Coupled with prayer, the Book of Mormon gives power to strengthen families" - Linda S. Reeves

"Don't let whirlwinds drag you down. This is your day to stand.  Follow more diligently his commandments" - Neil L. Andersen

 

"Faith is the anecdote for fear" - Russell M. Nelson

 

"Don't become overwhelmed with trivial things.  Learn simple things.  Righteously influence others...He [Jesus Christ] taught, served, and loved others.  That's what we need to do.  He invited us to follow His perfect example. - Richard G. Scott

"Being grateful in our circumstances is an act of faith in God" - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

 

"There is no physical pain or weakness that the Savior did not experience first.  The Son of God perfectly knows how we feel.  He has perfect empathy.  He can extend to us his arm of mercy.  He can help us be more than we could ever be without Him.  - David A. Bednar

 

Hope everyone has a great week!  Love,

Sister Moon

Pictures:

Making Filipino food

Sister C and I

Helping out Sister H and the "fruits of our labor"- lots of sticks and weeds.

And Bill

 

March 31, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was pretty great!  We had 22 lessons!  It was a struggle to get that last one; we went to like 7 less active member's houses until someone was finally home, but we got it! 

The weather was awful this week.  We didn't ride our bikes very much, only about 20 miles total, because it was super windy.  Sister S also said it was too cold, but it was like 65-70 degrees.  This week is supposed to be worse so we will see how much we ride.  But, we were the only ones in our District that didn't go over our miles!!!!  Thanks to our super awesome bikes.

Also, on Friday, I experienced my first earthquake.  We were doing our nightly planning and the table and refrigerator started shaking.  It wasn't bad at all, but still, my first earthquake :)  I believe it was a 5.1.

We now have 4 progressing investigators: Bill (it was his birthday yesterday :)), Jackie, Yolanda, and Wendy.  I think Yolanda is golden.  She has great questions, and really wants to learn!  They are all striving for a testimony of the Book of Mormon, so Sister S and I are working hard with them and answering their questions through the Book of Mormon.  It has been a great week working with them!

 We also met Mary; she's our new investigator.  She is 73 years old, and has decided she wants help with her Family History.  Since Sister S and I are experts, NOT, we decided to help her.  We can use a computer a little better than she can, but that's about it. Haha.  No, but we actually have been able to find her mother, father, and uncle.  We are building her family tree, and she is so excited.  I love Family History!! 

This week we also had the most interesting meal ever.  We went to the Lee's and ate spaghetti...except she wouldn't let us use plates or forks.  She dumped the spaghetti and sauce in the middle of the table and told us to dig in.  It was quite disgusting!  I have no idea why she decided to do that!  It was so weird.  We just used the garlic bread to pick up the spaghetti so it was a little less gross, but it was still nasty!

On Saturday we also had a Sister's conference!  We went down to Rancho Cucamonga and watched the Sister's Conference, broadcasted from Salt Lake, with all the other Sister's in our Mission.  It was a great experience!  I have a few great quotes I'd like to share with you:

"We are covenant making daughters.  Making covenants protects, prepares, and empowers us".  -Rosemary M. Wixom

"Everyone is welcome to walk the path of eternal life" - Rosemary M. Wixom

"We need to not only love each other more, but love each other better" - Bonnie L. Oscarson

"All the easy things the church has to do have been done.  It's hard work now!" - Linda K. Burton

"Here I am send me...The Lord needs women like that say this" - Linda K. Burton

 

"Help wanted: parents to bring up their kids in the gospel, serve as mentors, listen and act to promptings, live the gospel daily, to do temple and family history, to be missionaries, to be rescuers, to be convent keepers and to stand firm, and to be true disciples of the Lord, Jesus Christ" - Linda K. Burton

"Our trials are perfectly chosen for us.  People have been chosen to help us through our trials, and we have been chosen to help others through their trials". -Henry B. Eyring

"Heavenly Father smiles on you when He sees you help a women on the covenant path of God.  He sees you as what you'll become.  When you progress, Heavenly Father is pleased.  Now we have a great responsibility" - Henry B. Eyring

 

Hope everyone has a great week!  Love you all,

Sister Moon

 

Pictures: Crazy Californian House, Weird Spaghetti Dinner, and Sister M from the MTC and I!