August 25, 2014

Dear Family and Friends, 

I AM STAYING IN THE A. WARD FOR ANOTHER 6 WEEKS!!!!  I am so excited that Sister R and I are staying together.  We had 16 lessons this week, and had several miracles happen.

First off, we met with Charlie and he said he is willing to pay tithing and he'll stop smoking this week, and prepare for BAPTISM on September 13th!  The Lord really does work in miraculous ways.  It has been amazing to see him change over the past 5 months I've been working with him. 

On Thursday we got to dinner about 15 minutes early, so I decided we should do some tracting.  We went to one house and knocked on the door.  Turns out that Ida is a lost member and her husband is not a member.  We got Ida's information so we can get her records here, and we reviewed the Introduction of the Book of Mormon, and asked her husband if he would be baptized when he knows it's true.  He said, "Well, I don't see why not"  We found a new investigator because the Spirit prompted us to knock on that door.  We could've just showed up to dinner a little early, but where's the fun in that?  The Spirit is amazing!

I also got to pull out Ethan's first tooth.  It was so funny.  He wouldn't let his mom do it because he was scared, but he let me do it.  I pulled it out and he had this horrified look on his face, then he saw his tooth in my hand and he started laughing haha.  It was the best.

I also had the opportunity to shake hands with Elder Russell M. Nelson and hear him speak.  He answered a lot of the questions I had, and said a lot of amazing things.

He shared Moroni 10:32-33 and told us to take out the word grace and replace it with Atonement.

32 Yea, come‍unto Christ, and be perfected‍in him, and deny‍yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love‍God with all your might, mind andstrength, then is his Atonement sufficient for you, that by his Atonement ye may be perfect‍in Christ; and if by the Atonement of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the powerof God.

 33 And again, if ye by the Atonement of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified‍in Christ by the Atonement of God, through the shedding of the blood‍ofChrist, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

Pretty neat!

He also taught me more about enduring to the end.  He said, "enduring to the end means getting your own endowment and sealing ordinances.  We will never be perfected in this life, but we will be in the next.  Heart surgeons, morticians, and beauticians will be unemployed in the next life".  He's a pretty funny guy.

Someone also asked the question "How do we improve our personal prayers?" and he said, "Pray".  I know that as we pray we can receive answers to the question we have, if we are in tune with the Spirit.

I hope everyone has a great week.  Love,

Sister Moon

Pictures:

Avery looks like me I guess??

Look Ethan has a hole in his mouth :)

It actually rained here!  WOW

My 2 companions.  Sister S and Sister R

August 18, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Last week we had 13 lessons again....  We have been doing a lot of service and getting the ward mission plan ready to present so we have been keeping super busy!  School started last week too, so everybody's been busy here in H. 

We are still biking slowly but surely...Sister R's leg is still cut open, and is taking a really long time to heal because we keep biking.  We are hoping that it will heal soon.  I think we should ride a tandem bike so she doesn't have to push so hard...she doesn't like that idea.  When she has a nasty scar she can't blame me...I tried to help.  :)

Last week we talked with Debbie who is still struggling with her smoking.  Her son (who also smokes and who had no desire to stop smoking when we talked to him last month) said he will stop smoking with Debbie.  He said they will do the program we made up for them together.  We are hoping that this will work, and they can support each other in their decision to stop smoking!  That was the biggest miracle of the week.

We did have some sad news last week...Charlie no longer has a baptismal date.  He is down to 2 cigarettes a day and still wants to stop smoking, but is not willing to pay tithing.  We are still working with him though because we don't think he understands the blessings that come from paying tithing.  He also got a calling yesterday at church.  He's the Assistant Building Cleaner Coordinator!!  He is so excited about that!  We still have hope that he will be baptized soon!

Well I have been in A Ward for 5 transfers and transfer calls come out this Saturday sooooo who knows where I'll be next week!  Hopefully still here for one more transfer, but who knows.  I really hope I stay because I love this ward and the people we are working with.  I'll be praying hard this week.

I hope everyone has a great week!  Keep being awesome!  Love,

Sister Moon

Pictures:

The finished work of "trimming" Sister H's trees.

Biking down a street and we come across Avacado Street

August 11, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 This week was amazing!  It was full of meetings and service, but it was a good one.  We had Zone Meeting, Zone Conference and an 7 hour service project that consisted of painting someone's house!  We only had 13 lessons, but hey that's Taylor Swift's lucky number so it wasn't all that bad. 

 We did witness a miracle yesterday!  Sister H came to church yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!  She hadn't been to church in 25 years, until yesterday.  It was amazing.  She walked in very slowly with her cane and said "Oh there's my partners in crime" and pointed to us.  Oh it was a great meeting.

 We also found a new investigator this week, Zach.  We were biking down the street and we saw one of our investigators, Devan, longboarding so we stopped to talk to him.  His friend, Zach, was there and wanted to know more about the church.  We had a good 30 minute conversation about our beliefs and the Book of Mormon, and planned a time to see them again this week.  That morning we had been praying to find those the Lord had prepared for us while we were biking.  Miracles do happen when you ask for them!

We painted a lot this week, and my arms are TIRED!  It was hard work, but we got the job done.  We had a great time hanging out with Jennifer, and now her house looks way nicer :)

 This week at Zone Meeting and Conference we learned lot.  I'll share some of my favorite quotes.

"Faith in not us working harder, but us believing more"

"Our purpose is not only to warn, but to teach.  Not only to teach, but to baptize.  Not only to baptize, but to save"  -D. Todd Christofferson

"Things that grow slower, live longer"  -Boyd. K. Packer

"The gospel doesn't change the reality of life, but it changes our perspective"

"People don't care how much you know until the know how much you care"

In anything we do we have to have a desire to do it or we're wasting our time.  Sister H talked a lot about this and she shared her favorite quote.  "YOUGOTTAWANNA"  It's so true.  You have to want to do something before you'll ever do it.  YOU GOTTA WANNA do it.  Missionary work is hard , but this week I'm going to WANNA do everything no matter how hard it is, and then we will see miracles.  This holds true for anything, not just missionary work, school is starting soon so make that your motto!  YOUGOTTAWANNA.

I know that Jesus Christ died for each one of us, and He wants us to make it back to live with Him and the Father, but we have to get there.  He's provided the path (The Plan of Salvation) and the map (The Scriptures), so all we have to do it let Him guide us.  We can all feel the Holy Ghost guide us IF we listen.  Listen because it's worth it.  There's nothing worldly that takes precedence over that feeling.

I hope everyone has a great week!  Love,

Sister Moon

Photos:
Tiger Tennis shirts
Facials
Service

August 4, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 

This week was alright.  Sister R leg got infected because we "biked too much" apparently.  We waited in Urgent Care for over 5 hours, and finally talked to a doctor for like 2 minutes, and she wrote a prescription then said goodbye.  Oh well.  She is taking antibiotics so that's good.  We did have 18 lessons this week.  We biked about 30 miles...yeah we should probably take it a little easy.

 

We did go on exchanges this week.  This was the best exchange I've been on.  I still hate exchanges, but our new Sister Training Leaders are pretty nice.  I went with Sister C (a different Sister C) to Silver Lakes.  We had a good time teaching together AND I got to ride in a car!!!! SWEEEET!!!!

 We played tennis again this morning against members in our ward.  We totally beat them today!  6-4!!!!  This is the first time we've beat them.  It was super fun!  I'm so glad Sister R plays tennis because we are having tons of fun doing that.

 

Charlie (Investigator) is still progressing, and he is smoking half of what he was a month ago.  And Debbie (Less Active) is struggling to stop smoking.  They could both use prayers!  They are both awesome, and I can't wait for them to receive the blessings that come from living the gospel.

 

Hope everyone has a great week!  Love,

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

The tradition continues!  (burning something every 6 months!)

 

Sister C and I after exchanges

Tennis with the J's!  We played the parents.