March 16, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

FASTING WORKS!!!!  Last week was amazing.  We fasted on Tuesday to help us find, teach, and baptize.  Then guess what happened??  We were able to find 4 new investigators!  We were about to set a baptismal date with Aaron for April 25th.  We also were able to talk about baptism with Serena and then with John.  They both want to be baptized in April, but we haven't officially set any dates with them yet.  The Lord is totally in this work.  He is waiting to answer our prayers, but first we have to say our prayers so He can answer them.

John (Investigator) and his almost wife Karla (Less Active) came to church yesterday.  The topics we discussed were totally for them.  We talked about the Atonement and baptism and commitment.  Yesterday was so amazing.  John bore his testimony to us yesterday and explained why he knows the gospel is true.  He is my favorite person to teach right now.  I really don't want to get transferred because I really want to continue to help him and Karla on their journey to the temple :).

Transfers are in a week though, and Sister M and I both have the feeling that we are both leaving.  We are going to continue to pray that one of us stays so we can keep teaching the people that are finally starting to trust us, but we'll see what God has in store for us!

We did have some funny quotes from last week.

"What's a revelator?"  "Someone who receives revelation"  "Ohhhh soooo like me.  I received revelation once, but that was when I was on drugs so I don't think that counts"

"I have to clean up some lady's garage.  I have to wear gloves and a mask...there could be rattlesnakes, spiders, or dead people"

"I'm afraid of the hospital because you can come out dead!"

"He [Nephi] said he's going to speak plainly....he's a LIAR" 

And now for jokes:

How come Joseph Smith couldn't have dinner?

Because Moroni took all the plates.

How come the Lamanites always had bad knees?

Because of all the Nephites

Well I hope everyone has a great week.  I'll talk to you all later.  Love,

Sister Moon

Pictures:

The T Family

Karla and John

March 9, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Last week was rough.  We set a goal to have 22 lessons and we tried really hard to achieve it, but unfortunately we had 22 cancelled appointments instead.  Literally everyone cancelled on us last week! We had some really good back-up plans though so we did end up still having 19 lessons.

The miracle of last week was that John (Investigator) and Karla (Less Active) actually came to church!!!!  Karla hadn't been to church since she met John, which was about 20 years ago, so it was a huge miracle to see them there.  I love them so much, and I know John will be baptized some day.  He has that desire, but he's working through some things right now.  After church we taught John the Plan of Salvation and the Spirit was SUPER strong!  He said he knows it's true and he will continue reading the Book of Mormon.  It is so amazing to see someone who is willing to change.  It has made me realize that I need to not be so stubborn sometimes :).  It's so much nicer when people change because of the gospel and don't expect the gospel to change.

This week we are fasting to find, teach, and baptize, and we have the faith that this week will be amazing!! Hope yours is great too. 

Love,

Sister Moon

P.S. We are lame and didn't take any pictures last week.

March 2, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Last week was CRAZY!  We had a lot of interesting things happen!  We did teach 16 lessons though so that was a blessing.

 

We also had to drop our top investigator because he told Sister M that he was in love with her.  We told him that we couldn't ever come back to his house because that was very inappropriate.  We told him that the Elders could teach him, but he said he wasn't interested.  It's sad to see how that all went down, but it was an answer to our fast because we wanted to know what to do with him.  Now we know.

 

We also received a call from a member that lives in the A mission.  Her name was Tri (pronounced Tree), and she asked us if we could help out at a funeral.  We were asked to serve food at 2:00.  We showed up at the park and waited and waited.  Finally at 4:00 the people from the funeral showed up.  Everyone asked what we were doing there.  We awkwardly told them we were there to help serve food.  We waited for 20 minutes until Tri showed up.  Well guess what?  It just so happens that Tri was their limo driver and she wasn't even invited to this dinner.  It was a family gathering that she wanted to go to so she invited us to make it look like she was in charge of the food.  Oh my goodness.  That was the worst experience ever.  Now every time I see a tree I can't help but get upset.  Ugh.

 

Last week we also went on exchanges.  I got to be with the other Sister M that I served with in H so that was exciting!  We got to talk about the good 'ole days. 

 

Other than that we are just struggling with helping our investigators to progress.  Prayers for that would be great!  Hope everyone has a fantastic week.  Love,

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

 

MM M- sandwich

Happy 13 Months :)

Linda asked us to take a letter to the post office for her.  She said it was very important that it got to where it was going.  It was a little bit heavier than a normal letter so she put a lot of stamps on it to make sure it was enough :)  CRAZY

 

 

February 23, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Last week was interesting.  We've been doing a lot of changing up who we're working with.  Some people aren't progressing so we've dropped them.  We did have a great zone meeting and President and Sister Hobbs joined us.  We learned a lot about how to improve our studies, so we have been working on that.  I just think our studies will get even better when we have iPads, but that's never going to happen soooo I guess we'll just deal with what we have now. 

 We were able to teach the Tullos family the Plan of Salvation and the lesson went great!!  Brandon, one of the teenagers, didn't have any questions the entire time, until the end.  We told him that murderers would go to the telestial kingdom and he said, "So if all the murderers go there then does that mean they will all kill each other until there aren't any people left in that kingdom?"  Most random question, but hey at least he was paying attention :)

 
We also rode bikes for the first time in a while last week.  We rode about 9 miles on Saturday.  We were doing pretty well until we were about .2 miles from our apartment when Sister Martinez decided to bite a chunk out of the concrete.  She totally flew off her bike...I heard a scream and I turned around...sure enough there she was on the ground.  Luckily the only thing that got hurt was her pride.  Good times.
 
Other than that this week has been pretty average.  It was cold last week so that's wasn't fun :(.  Hope everyone is staying warm and having a good 'ole time.  Love,

Sister Moon

 P.S.  My toe is doing just fine.

 

Pictures:

It got so cold last week this is what I felt like doing.  It was in the low 50's...what the heck?

 Also I found the key to love!!!!  It's called missionary work :)

 

February 16, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Last week was amazing!!!!  We found 5 new investigators!!  3 of them are part of the T family.  Brother T is a less active and now his wife and 2 kids are investigating.  They are super awesome and have really good questions.  They are totally getting sealed one day :)  I can't wait.

 

Also, Jerome (Less Active) and his 2 little boys came to church yesterday!!  Jerome is like my favorite person ever!  He was sitting in Gospel Principles class and the teacher asked, "How has the restored gospel blessed your life?"  Jerome raised his hand and said, "Well, I'm a member already...I think...haha yeah I grew up in the church and it was good but then I just stopped coming.  I'm so grateful that my name was on some list and that the sister stopped by and visited me.  It's really nice to be back.  I'm grateful for them teaching me more about the gospel and helping it to bless my life."  He is AWESOME and his 2 boys are the cutest little kids ever!!

We did have the opportunity to play savage ball (dodge ball) this morning.  I'm pretty competitive so I was playing really hard.  I was jumping up and down and landing pretty hard on my feet. I finally got out and I sat down on the floor, and realized my toe was hurting...well I took my shoe and sock off and realized some of the skin underneath my big toe was not connected to my toe anymore.  So I went to the bathroom and taped it back together.  No worries  I'm sure I'll be fine.

Other than that things have been pretty much the same.  We are teaching people and working hard.  Have a great week.  Love,

Sister Moon
Pictures:
Dead Girl Moon...

My toe :)

February 9, 2015

Sister M and I are both staying in O in the MV Ward!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We are excited to stay in this ward because it is AMAZING.  We are planning to do so much work this transfer!

 
Our investigator Brandon is moving this week, but he asked us if we could hook him up with some missionaries in Santa Monica because he wants to keep coming to church.  I say he'll be baptized in a few months!!  We did teach the best lesson ever to him about the Plan of Salvation.  The Spirit was SOOO strong.  Sister M and I both started crying during the closing prayer when Brandon explained that he'd been wondering about some questions but he didn't ask us because he didn't think anyone knew the answers, but he got all the answers to his questions during the lesson.  MIRACLE! 

 

We had 20 lessons last week. We basically had a pretty normal week, so I'll share some of my favorite quotes from this week.  We meet a lot of interesting people here in California...

 1. "Matthew if you don't put that down I'm going to throw this salad dressing at you!"  -Our Ward Mission Leader to his special needs son

2. "My stove is broken!  That's why my meatloaf was dryer than heck!" -70 year old woman

3. "I don't even get stoned anymore, but if I did...I'd be trippin out on these plants." -Less Active

4. "I told my husband if he ever cheated on me I'd beat him the head with a baseball bat.  So far he's done good." -87 year old woman

5. "Do you smell flowers?"  "What?"  "Ok fine...it's marijuana....but don't worry it's medical.  Take a deep whiff" -Crazy Lady

6. "Sir can I get you to sign right here"- Me volunteering at the Food Bank  "Last time I did that I ended up in the U.S. Army...7 years I was in the U.S. Army..." -Crazy man

7. "Oh he doesn't live here anymore?  Well, do you have a forwarding address for him?"  -Sister Martinez and I  "Try...JAIL"- The less active's mom that we were trying to find

8. "That blessing was trippy" -Less Active who received a Priesthood blessing before surgery

9. "Sisters, if you ever see the lady I visit teach tell her she owes me money!  She better pay me back.  If not I'm gonna set my boys on her." -Active Lady :/

10. "The address is 718 E J street...then it's what the kids call a hashtag now-a-days then 18B" -Really old lady that apparently thought we didn't know it used to be a number sign.

11. "So what does unrealistic mean?...ohhh so it's like telling someone they look like a cow but really they're a human?" -A Tongan sister that's trying to learn English :)

12. "I graduated high school 55 years ago....oh wait...not that long ago...it was only 45 years ago...I'm not that old...haha" -A sister in our ward who really graduated high school 65 years ago, but we didn't want to be the bearer of bad news so we let her think it was 45 years ago :)

13. I'm taking this new medication.  I'm in so much pain....oh where's my baby??  Oh there's my cat..." -A Lady who is apparently taking "new medication"

 

So that is basically what missionary work is like...you get to have super amazing lessons like the one we had with Brandon then you spend the rest of your time talking to crazy people, but it's the best!  Have a great week.  Love,

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

 

The District

Ward Volleyball Night

Brandon aka coolest investigator ever

The snake kept moving so we couldn't get a good picture...

 

February 2, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

 Last week was amazing!!  We had the privilege of getting 22 lessons!!!!  We got a new investigator that just moved here from Utah, and she knows about the church, and she wants to take the lessons!!  Andddd I hit my 1 year mark!  Woot woot.

This is the last week of the transfer so we are saying potential goodbyes to everyone...just in case.  I really love this ward and I want to stay another transfer, but we'll see what happens. 

We had a really great lesson yesterday in Relief Society about Christ helping us through our trials.  We read the story of the apostles who were sitting in a boat and Christ is watching them from far away.  He goes to help them and He's walking on water, then Peter comes out on the water too, but starts to doubt when immediately Christ helps him.  We read the 3 different accounts in Mark 6:45-52, Matthew 14:22-33, and John 6:15-21.

 We talked about how Christ allowed them to go through the trial, even though he could have easily helped them before they rowed 3 miles in treacherous wind.  He could've rescued them, but He knew they never would grow if they didn't experience these trials.  This is the same in our lives.  If we don't go through hard times then we never would learn to rely on the Lord.

 
Another interesting insight is the fact that the Savior actually told them to get in the boat.  Sometimes we pray for guidance and the Lord directs us to a certain path, things are going fine when suddenly something happens.  We get frustrated because we're doing everything right.  Why would this happen?  Well, just because we follow what God wants us to do doesn't mean that we won't have trials.  Sometimes these trials are blessings in disguise.  

"Moreover, enforced change usually does not last, while productive enduring can ingrain permanent change"   Neal A. Maxwell.

I know that Jesus Christ came to earth and provided for us an example.  We should always be striving to become like Christ.  I also know that it is impossible for us to be perfect by ourselves.  We need the Atonement so we can repent and be worthy to live in God's presence again.  I know that Christ lives today and He is willing to help us through anything, but we have to let Him in first. 

I love the scripture in Moroni 10:32  that says, "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God."

I know if we come unto Christ by reading our scriptures, going to church, and asking ourselves "What would Jesus do?", and we use the Atonement and repent of our sins, and strive never to go back to our old sins, and if we love God with all our being then and only then can we be made perfect in Christ and have eternal life.  Have a great week.  Love,

 

Sister Moon

Pictures:

What the heck is wrong with people in California??

Restoration :)

Our investigators!!  The Noriega Family.

January 26, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

 Last week was so AMAZING.  The best news is that my brother got his mission call and he's going to the ROCHESTER NEW YORK mission!!  He will leave May 20th which means I will miss seeing him by about 2 months, but that means I just have to wait 22 months when I get home :) and we all know 22 is a great number!

 We had 23 lessons this week so we were super excited about that!  We committed Pedro to baptism on March 21st and he accepted.  We have a lot more teaching to do, but he came to church twice and he really likes it.  His wife came yesterday too, so we are planning to set a date with her this week.

 We also had Zone Conference last week so I got to hang our with my buddies, Sister R and Sister M.  It was a great meeting, and we talked a lot about the Spirit.  We learned how the Spirit works more and then we were able to really fell the Spirit last week during our lessons. 

 We taught Sabrina the Restoration and the Spirit definitely guided the lesson.  We usually tell the shortened version of the "First Vision" which I have memorized and it's really easy to say, but for some reason during the lesson I couldn't remember the shortened version.  I kept saying the longer version in my head, and I couldn't remember the short version for the life of me. I decided that maybe I should just say the longer version.  That's what I did, and we ended up talking about how Joseph Smith struggled and had to go through trials (which is the part that is taken out of the shortened version), and then he was able to receive his answer.  We talked about how that is basically what she's going through at the moment and the Spirit was so strong.  It was the best lesson ever.

 

Have a great week!  Love,
Sister Moon

Pictures:

The Costa Family

Sister Shelby and Sister Boudreau

My favorite investigator, Lynette

 

January 16, 2015

Dear family and Friends,

 This week is going great so far.  We got to go to the temple this morning which was AMAZING.  If you ever want to feel the Spirit to its max then go to the temple!  Everyone is so nice and helpful, so I can't wait till heaven because it will feel like that all the time!  But don't worry I'm not planning on dying anytime soon...

Today is our P-day so I won't be back until January 26th so I'll probably have more to say then, but until then I will just share a story with you.  

Once upon a time we had over 600 people on our ward list and no one knew who 300 of them were.  We decided that we would see if we could verify everyone's address.  Well it's been about 2 months now and we are down to 5 people that haven't yet been verified.  We have been working hard!  I may or may not have lifted Sister M up so she could peek into some windows to see if anyone lived there.  We may or may not have tricked the mailman into showing us someone's mail.  We may or may not have called their parents to see if they still lived there.  We may or may not have looked at people's packages by their doorstep.  We may or may not have helped our Ward Mission Leader Facebook stalk people.  But, the point is that we only have 5 people to go!!  It's been a good week.

 

Talk to you all later.  Love,

 

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

Sister T and I

 Zone Temple Trip

 

January 12, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

 This week was awesome!  We had 15 lessons, and continued to find people from our Ward List.  We didn't do much that was different from every week, except we had Stake Conference which was awesome!!

 Elder Bassett from the 70 came and spoke to us.  He spoke a lot about enduring to the end and about going to the temple.  A questioned was asked, "If you went to trial right now would there be enough evidence to convict you as a temple worshipper?"  We talked a lot about this question, and we decided that we need to put the temple first in our lives.  The temple is literally heaven on earth, and in a world that is going crazy we need to go to the temple to feel the peace that God wants to give us.

 We are super excited because we actually get to go to the temple this Friday, so we will have another P-day this Friday, and not the following Monday. 

 There is a quote I found this week that was amazing and I want to share it with you.  It says, "Looking for the path to safety in the counsel of prophets makes sense to those with strong faith…the choice not to take prophetic counsel changes the very ground upon which we stand. It becomes more dangerous. The failure to take prophetic counsel lessens our power to take inspired counsel in the future. The best time to have decided to help Noah build the ark was the first time he asked. Each time he asked after that, each failure to respond would have lessened sensitivity to the Spirit. And so each time his request would have seemed more foolish, until the rain came. And then it was too late.

~ Elder Henry B. Eyring

The Spirit can only dwell with us if we are worthy.  I hope we can all listen to the Spirit and do what God would have us do and become what God would have us become, even if it's not what we want.  Have a great week.  Love,

 

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

I'll meet you at the corner of Moon dust and Moon Crest :)

 

Exchanges

This car though...AMEN