December 8, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 

I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT I'M FELLIN' 22!!!!  That's right...last week we got 22 lessons!  That is a record for our ward!  We worked so hard this week and we saw sooooo many miracles.

Miracle 1: We found 3 new investigators last week!

Miracle 2: Linda (our progressing investigator) came to church yesterday and bore her testimony in sacrament meeting. :)

Miracle 3: When we were teaching one of our new investigators at the library this other kid came up to us and asked what we were talking about.  He had his headphones in and he was sitting across the room, so we thought he wasn't paying attention, but he said he listened to the whole Restoration lesson.  He also said he's trying to find a church and he really wants to meet with us and learn more!!

Miracle 4: We went on Exchanges and I got to be with Sister S!  She is amazing.  We taught super well together and we get along great.

Miracle 5:  It actually rained  A LOT, and we're in a drought!

Miracle 6: Linda said she'd pray about the baptismal date of January 3rd.

Miracle 7: The Christmas Devotional was amazing. 

Miracle 8: Our recent convert's son is getting baptized on December 20th.  He's 8 so it doesn't count as a convert baptism, but we still taught him all the lessons!

Miracle 9: Sabrina came to church!

Miracle 10: Sabrina wants to be baptized so she's going to go to rehab and get better!  She's finally making progress.

Miracle 11: We were so busy that we only had time for 1 dinner this week, so I lost 1 pound :)

Miracle 12: We got to celebrate Sister B's 21st birthday.

Miracle 13: I'M FEELING 22!!!!  Woot woot

 

Well, that is all I have to say for today.  God is watching out for all of us.  He does answer prayers and HE LOVES US.  If you haven't had the chance to see "He is the Gift" then I would suggest watching it now.  It definitely brings in the holiday spirit.  I hope everyone ahs a great week.  Love,

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

Sister S :)

Linda with us after we sang at the Nativity Festival

 

 

December 1, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 This week was pretty crazy!  We met a lot of cool people and got a lot of stuff done.  We had 14 appointments which was pretty sweet considering everyone went out of town.  We also got 3 member present lessons, which has never happened here because the members are always so busy, so that was a miracle.  Tender mercies right?

 We did have a sad story for this week.  We went to teach Joey and he was walking outside when we were walking up to his door.  He said, "Hey I have to go grab some milk for my mom, but I'll be right back".  We waited for 30 minutes and he never came back.  "Run Joey run"...that's now our theme song haha.  I guess we'll just have to find someone else to teach the gospel too :)

 We had a great lesson with Brandon this week, and he really wants to learn more.  Linda also came to church yesterday and had a great time.  They are our main 2 investigators so keep them in your prayers!

We had a great Thanksgiving on Thursday!  We had a ton of food and a ton of pie.  We had 28 pies, I believe.  We ate with our Bishop's family and they had a lot of people so we did it at the church.  It was fun, and I ate a ton.  I am grateful for a lot of things but most importantly I'm grateful for my family, temples, the doctrine and knowledge that we have knowing that families can be together forever, the scriptures, and of course Taylor Swift...whom I did hear today in the store for 5 seconds.  Tender mercies again...  Well I hope everyone has a great day.  Love you all,

Sister Moon

Pictures:

Pie...and lots of it.
Welcome to Ontario

The cutest family that we visit in a nursing home :)

 

November 24, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

I got my new companion this week and her name is....Sister M.  She is pretty awesome.  Her dad's in the Army (yeah the Air Force is still better) so she's moved around a lot too, but currently she's from Maryland.  She loves to run, so we'll be doing a lot of that.  She is excited to be here so we are going to do work this transfer!!

 

Funny story:  So I went to the training meeting before we figured out who our companions were and 4 of the new sisters came up to me and said, "Are you Sister Moon?"  I said, "Yes".  They said, "Oh cool.  We met your mom in the MTC."  Now that is crazy!!  I told my mom I was training and she said she'd find my companion...I thought she was kidding, but sure enough she found her!  Mom said she's never met anyone going to Rancho until that day.  Coincidence?  I think not.

We had a great week, and we found a new investigator yesterday.  Her name is Linda (now we have 2 investigators named Linda) and she truly has a desire to know if the Book of Mormon is true.  She is awesome.  We are excited to continue working with her. 

Also, we had a ward activity and we watched a slideshow with pictures of the ward and all the things they've done this year.  So this slideshow had music....and guess what?!?!  I heard Taylor Swift!!!!  That's right I have now heard "Shake it Off" and I approve.  Gotta love those tender mercies :)

And I think my mom wins the award for the most creative package.  She's awesome.  I got some turkey jerky, baked potato Pringles, stuffing, mini apple pies, crasins, ect.  The box was perfect.  Priceless.

 

Well, I think that's about it.  Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!  Love you all,

Sister Moon

Pictures:

Sister M and my mom

Sister M and I (2)

 

Thanksgiving Package

 

November 17, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 Well transfers were this morning and I am staying here in Ontario, but Sister M is leaving to go to Rancho Cucamonga.  I have Sister H as my temporary companion for 2 days because I am training again!  I will get my real companion on Wednesday straight from the MTC.  I'm pretty excited, but also really nervous.  I will have more information next week. 

 Anyways, last week was definitely a week of service.  We did over 18 hours of service which consisted of: helping 3 families move (different days), stacking hay, wrapping birthday presents, shelving books at the library, and hauling 75 pound planks of wood for 5 hours.  It was quite an eventful week, and I am definitely stronger because of it.  We did teach 9 lessons this week aside from the service. 

 

We also had a goodbye campfire district dinner since most of our district is leaving.  We roasted hot dogs and had a good ole' time.  It was cold outside, but we managed to get through it.  I'm going to miss our awesome district!

 Well, we did have a Mission Conference and Elder Golden was able to come.  He spoke to us a lot about the importance of sacrament meeting attendance and we put into practice what he taught us and Linda came to church for the first time!!!!  We now have 1 progressing investigator and we are looking forward to seeing her this week. 

 Sister H also gave a great training on effective studies and she gave us tips on how to stay awake during studies.  She said, "Well, I have heard from several people that Sister Moon has a great way of staying awake during studies.  She paces around the room while she reads her scriptures!"  Yes, I do walk around during personal study, BUT I have yet to fall asleep during studies soooo I guess I'm doing something right.  It may be weird, but hey it works :)

Well, that's about it for today.  I hope everyone is staying warm and having fun. 

 

Love,

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

 You are now entering the mission field :) Wow who would've thought?

 Awesome District Dinner

 The B's.  man I'm gonna miss them (They're moving)

 The Hesperia crew reunited!  Sister R and C

 

November 10, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This morning we had to opportunity to help someone move.  It was a great way to start our P-day haha...we moved a ton of furniture and boxes down into a U-haul.  It doesn't sound that bad right?  Well, she lives on the 3rd floor and they don't have elevators soooo yeah.  My arms are still shaking.  I'm so weak :)

 Last week was eventful.  We did a lot of work, and met a lot of cool people.  We met 3 potential investigators and set up lessons with them for this week.  We also met with a few part-member families.  One of the less actives in our ward, Lisa, came to church yesterday!!!  She hasn't been in like 7 years, so that was a big step for her.  We are meeting with her on Wednesday and she's feeding us dinner.  She is awesome!

 This week we have a lot of meetings, but they're the good meetings so it should be great.  We have zone meeting and a mission conference!  Who knows maybe we'll get iPads...haha yeah not gonna happen.  But the end of this week is transfers!!  Who knows what will happen.  I'll let you all know next week.  Hopefully it's good news :)

 And one last thing.  This is a great quote and my motto for missionary work:

 "If you could only see the vision I have.  I wish I had your bodies to do this work.  I would run from house to house telling everyone of the gospel, and after I lost strength to run I would begin to walk, and after I  collapsed from walking, I would begin to crawl, and after my knees were so bloody that I could not use them, I would use my arms to drag myself, and once the muscles in my body were gone, I would begin to yell, "Oh, only if you could see the vision as I have".  -President Kimball

 

Have a great week.  Love,

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

Service at the Food Bank
The Hesperia missionaries that came to Ontario...we've been together for forever!
Our District :)

November 3, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Last week we had 15 lessons which is the best we've had so far in Ontario!  We are going through the ward list and trying to figure out who's moved.  There are like 700 people in our ward, but only 100 that come to church.  We need some serious help.  We did meet a few part member families last week so we will see where that goes!!

 

Great news!  The treadmills in the gym started working again so we are back to exercising intensely everyday!  Birthday candy + Halloween = we really need those treadmills to work!  That was a miracle we experienced last week. 2 miles every morning...check

 

Also, I GOT TO GO ON EXCHANGES WITH SISTER S.  We had so much fun together!  We both decided that we want to be companions again haha.  We told President so we'll see what happens...yeah not gonna happen.  We had a great time in Chino together.  We got to celebrate my 9 month mark together!  She is seriously the nicest person ever.  I love Sister S!  We are a bit crazy when we're together so we've got some interesting memories.  Anyone wondering what I'd look like with black hair?  Or S with brown hair??
 

We are looking forward to another great week.  Stay warm everyone!  Love,

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

 Sister S and I

Crazy Halloween house and another Sister S!

October 27, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Uh-oh!  Guess what day it is?

 

Guess what DAY…IT…IS??????  

 

Huh? Anybody?

 

It’s HUMP DAY!!!! 

 

Yep, I'm halfway there!  I will be home in 9 months from today.  It seems like it's gone by really fast and really slow at the same time.  There are still things I want to do so I better hurry up!

 

So last week was pretty good.  We had 11 lessons, and we found 2 new investigators.  2 weeks ago I felt impressed to go talk to this lady (after we had already gotten in the car).  I said no yes no yes...and eventually decided to just go say hello.  We did and turns out she doesn't speak English.  It was so awkward and I was wondering why I felt impressed to talk to her.  Then a 10 year old comes out of the house and we start talking to her.  She said she wants to learn about Jesus Christ so we set up an appointment to meet with her and her mom.  We met with them last week and they are interested so we are going back this week to teach them another lesson.  God does have His hand in this work.

 

Another miracle:  We were flipping through the ward list and calling random Less Actives to see if we could set up an appointment.  We called the N.s and they answered the phone (that's a miracle in itself)  then they invited us over for a lesson.  We had a great lesson with them and they said they want to feed us a meal.  We gave them our phone number and they said they'd call us.  We didn't hear from them for a few days so we figured we'd call them.  We looked at the ward list and they don't have a phone number listed...I am not sure how we got their phone number to call them the first time, but I do know that there was a reason we were supposed to, so God made it possible.  I do have a testimony that "with God all things are possible". 

 

Last week I also got to go see Stephanie get baptized and all the missionaries that taught her sang "Nearer my God to Thee" and it was beautiful (despite my awful singing voice).  It was amazing to see her get baptized by her husband!  Oh this week was full of miracles!

 

That's about it for now.  Everyone have a great week!  Love,

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

 

I beat Elder C. in Tennis even though he was wearing a Taylor Swift shirt...another miracle

Stephanie's baptism

HUMP DAY

 

October 20, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 

This week was pretty successful!  We had 13 lessons and you know why that's a good number.  #TaylorSwift  We did find 2 new investogators that live in our apartment complex.  We saw them moving 2 weeks ago and asked if they needed help.  They said yes!  And then we helped them and talked about the church, and they said we could come back.  Last week we went back and taught the Restoration!  They want us to come back.  Oh yeah!

 
We were also told to get flu shots so we got flu shots.  Apparently you can go to Walmart and get those done.  Who would've thought?  Not me.  But if I get sick then I'm blaming Walmart!  It took 2 hours to get it done, but our zone finished first so President Hobbs is buying us ice cream!! 

We met up with Ed last week and checked up on his reading.  We figured he'd have read the Introduction and a few chapters of 1 Nephi, but guess what!?  He's in Mosiah 2.  He is flying through the Book of Mormon!!  He is doing so well.  He said he really liked it and it's helping him get through some stuff he's going through.  The Book of Mormon is true and I know it can help anyone with what they're going through.  I've experienced that and I've helped others to feel that too.  It really does work.

We also went on a hike for a zone activity so that was exciting!  Mount Baldy...great times. 

 Well, tonight is a special night because Stephanie is getting baptized and I get to go back to Hesperia!!  I'm pretty excited!  It's going to be great.  I hope everyone has a super fantastic week and all goes well.  Love,

 Sister Moon

Pictures:

Weird Truck we saw haha

Flu Shot

Hiking

 

October 14, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

I had a great birthday so I want to thank all those that were a part of it.  It was fast Sunday when I opened all my presents so that was fun especially since most of the presents contained food...ok all of them did.  

My mom had the best idea ever!  She had people write on balloons and sent them to me.  I will have to share what Devon put on his balloon because it was so funny!  He said, "Want to know why sisters only serve 18 months?  Because this would happen if they served 2 years, and the church isn't quite ready for that"  Picture is attached.  I started laughing so hard when I saw it haha.  Good one.  Thank you to all those who made my birthday awesome!

 So this ward is actually really good!  I'm excited to be a part of it.  Our Ward Mission Leader is awesome!  We found 2 new investigators this week and one has a baptsimal date on November 8th and the other one came to church on Sunday.  We are killing it here in Ontario and it's great!

 So for my birthday I basically received all candy because everyone know I love candy!  :)  I will show you how much candy I have...yes it's a lot!  But when I got it I was like, "Hey I can work this candy off because our apartment has a gym" and last week we went to the gym every morning and ran so I figured we'd do the same this week.  Today we went down to the gym and there was a sign that said "Gym closed due to misuse of equipment".  Are you kidding me...so basically yes I'm going to get fat :)

 Well that's about all the time I have for today.  But I hope everyone has the best day ever!  Love,

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

 

Happy Birthday to me

Devon's Balloon

Me getting fat...

October 6, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 

I am in ONTARIO!  Transfers were today so I don't really know much about anything, but I'm sure it'll be great!  My companion is Sister M, and she's from Tonga.  She seems really sweet, and she's a convert to the church.  I am excited to be down the hill...I see green and trees and weird stuff like that.  ALSO, great news....SISTER S is my SISTER TRAINING LEADER :)  I am so excited, it's crazy!  This is only my 2nd area so I'm excited to get to work!

 

This past week was good.  I had to say goodbye to a lot of people so it was sad, but I just know I'll go back and visit so I'll be back there soon enough.  I will really miss the members in the A Ward, but I'm sure the MV Ward is great! 

 

We even had a great birthday celebration before I left Hesperia.  Sister Lewis put together a great b-day party for Elder O (October 6th) Sister R (October 11th) and me (October 12th).  It was so fun...I am going to miss everyone!

 

Conference was also really amazing!  I just love how we can pray and find answers in Conference.  I had a question: "What Christ-like attribute should I work on most so I can be the best missionary and future mother?"  I prayed about this question and went to Conference seeking an answer.  A lot of the speakers spoke about The Gospel of Jesus Christ.  That's not really an attribute, but I figured I could take that as my answer, because it was something I could work on.  Then today President Hobbs spoke to us all and he said, "Elders and Sister I need you to know one thing.  If you live the Gospel of Jesus Christ you will develop all the Christ-like attributes".  That was not a coincidence!  The Lord does answer prayers, and He does love us, and He does want what's best for us!  Instead of having to work on one attribute the Lord needs me to work on ALL of them... :)

 

I hope everyone has a great week.  Next time you hear from me I won't be 19...I'll be a mature 20 year old....WHATTT???  That's right mom and dad...you're getting old.  Love you all,

 

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

Birthday PARTAYYY  (yes there are 61 candles in that cake.  Olsen is turning 21 and R and I are turning 20 )

Birthday Party again...

My new companion Sister M