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.

July 28, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 Happy 6 months to me!!  1 year to go!!  I'll be home in 365 days from today :)  It's going by soooo quick and I'm still in my first area :)

 Well this last week was an interesting one!  We did have 20 lessons, but we only biked like 28 miles.  Why so little??  Well you see we had to get member rides have the places we went because Sister R decided to cut open her leg...

 Ok so Wednesday night Sister R was getting off her bike to get the mail and she cut her shin on the "sprocket" which is a sharp thing by the pedal haha.  It gashed quite a bit, and wouldn't stop bleeding.  We cleaned it all up in our apartment, and then called the mission nurse.  She told us we needed to go to the Urgent Care place and get stitches.  We decided that we didn't want to wait 4 hours, so we called Brother J and asked if he could do it.  He's a dentist, and he stitches up people after they get their wisdom teeth taken out, so he's certified :).  He said he'd meet us at his dental office and do it.  Brother J had me help with the cutting of the stitches for the first 2 stitches, then he had me do the stitching for the last stitch.  I'm not certified, but I did a pretty dang good job, because the stitch is still in there :).  Oh it was an eventful day.

 

We also found 2 new investigators this week, which was amazing because we've been praying for new people to teach!  We are still helping our investigators, and they are doing better.  We hope to get them to come to church so prayers for that would be great!  Charlie, Jackie, Peggy, Lynn, and James!!!!  Thanks.

 

We have been working with Charlie and he's a slow learner so we don't know if he picks up everything that we teach, but on Wednesday we talked more about baptism with him and a miracle happened.  He was talking about how he'd been to other churches and thought about getting baptized.  Then he said "but, you're church actually has the stuff to do real baptisms"...yes he was referring to the Priesthood and yes we about fell out of our chairs!  He is planning to get baptized September 6th.  He still needs to stop smoking. 

 Also, the nights have been so cool here in the High Desert.  For that reason, Sister R and I slept on the balcony a couple of nights ago.  Next time we do that, we'll bring our mattresses out because the cement is a little hard, but it was totally worth it!  Maybe we're weird, but hey we had fun :).

 Hope everyone likes blood :)  If not don't look at the pictures!  Have a great week and enjoy life!  Love,

 Sister Moon

 

July 21, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week we had 20 lessons, and made our goal of having more member present lessons than other lessons taught!  We biked about 50 miles....I don't remember what we started at this week, but on my odometer so far we have over 220 miles (in 4 weeks) so yeah those calves of steel are starting to show :)
 
This week we also got sick, so that was no fun.  We did service on Friday, and I think we got sick from that.  We cleaned up one of our investigator's yards and it was disgusting and dirty.  We woke up Saturday feeling awful!!  We went to our 3 appointments then got a ride home and passed out for 2 hours.  Then we attempted weekly planning.  We are starting to feel a little better, but now the Elders in our ward are sick (they helped us with the service)!!  Hopefully we can all get better soon so we can help the work progress in the Arrowhead Ward!!
 

Debbie got her Priesthood Blessing and hasn't smoked for 4 days now!!  She is still preparing to go to the temple.  Keep her in your prayers!  She lives with her son, and he smokes so it's tough for her all the time!  She is keeping that eternal perspective so that's great!!

 

We played tennis again this morning, and lost!  But this time we only lost 4-6, and we had some good games that we didn't have time to play a second set!  We're getting better...kinda.  We think we lost because we were sick :)...it's a pretty good excuse :)

 

We also went to the Hesperia Airport that Bill (our Recent Convert) owns, and I found a plane with my name on it!!  I feel like my dad...he has a plane with his name on it!  Go Moon!!

 

I hope everyone has a great week.  If you can, go swimming and enjoy summer for me!!  It's hotter than heck here :) Love you guys,

Sister Moon

 

P.S. Teancum got plastic surgery on his toe so he's good.  I bought a new pedal and he's all fixed up!

 

Pictures:

Service at Peggy's aka Getting Sick!!

Plane with "Moon" written on it!  It's my plane!!

 

July 14, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

We survived transfers!  Sister R and I are together fort another 6 weeks...at least!!!!  This week we biked 59 miles and had 18 lessons.  We are still working with Charlie and Jackie, our top 2 investigators, and hope to help them progress toward baptism this transfer.  Prayers for them would be great!

 We also went on exchanges last week.  I stayed in the Arrowhead Ward with Sister Price.  I don't really like exchanges because it's weird to have a temporary companion for the day, but it wasn't that bad.  We had fun with each other, and now the Sister Training Leaders understand why we're so tired all the time.  The hills in our area are killer!

 This week Teancum (my bike) broke his toe.  It was so sad.  My pedal broke in half, so now I've got to figure out how to get that fixed.  Hopefully they have pedals at Wal-Mart!  It's just a little harder to pedal because my foot isn't balanced, but it's not that bad. 

 We also attended a pool party for Relief Society last week, but didn't swim of course.  It was tempting, but we just talked with members and got to know them better.  We also had several people come out that we invited, so that was great!

 This morning Sister R and I played tennis with the J's and they kicked our butts, but we will get better and before this transfer is over we'll beat them...maybe.  I didn't realize how much I missed tennis.  It was so fun, and since Sister R and I both played in High School we are planning to play more often.  It was great.

 This week I also came up with a cool lesson.  When we call 9-1-1 it's because we run into an emergency, so 9-1-1 is supposed help us out right?  Well, I have come up with a way to get out of a spiritual emergency.  In The Family Proclamation it says, "Successful...families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."  That's the 9 things.  Then we learn in Moses 7:18 that we are to have "one heart and one mind", which represents the 1 and the other 1.  I know that if we live by these principles then our families can receive help when we have spiritual emergencies.  Remember that it doesn't mean that we won't have emergencies, but it does mean we will have help.

 

I hope everyone is having a great week. 

 

Love,

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:

The Best District Ever :) and we're staying the same!

Teancum's toe!

 

June 30, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Last week was pretty good.  We had 20 lessons and we biked a ton!  We got odometers for our bikes so now we don't have to estimate how much we biked.  We biked 51.5 miles last week.  The wind was again crazy, so every morning we stretch so we can get through that day.  I am also outside A TON so I will attach a picture of my feet and wrist.  I call this "Welcome to California Sunshine"

We had a couple meetings with the Young Women last week and they are starting to open up to us.  It's fun hanging out with them because I was in their shoes like 2 years ago :)

We also went down the hill this week and had the 4 week new missionary meeting.  We learned a lot about how to be better trainers and we talked about all the problems people are having with their companions.  I am SOOO GRATEFUL that Sister R and I get along.  There are several missionaries that do not get along...AT ALL.  Oh my companion is awesome! 

We also talked to Sister Hobbs (our Mission President's wife) about getting massages.  We talked about it for a while and we told her that we just want the one where you go into the mall and sit in the chair and someone massages your back and neck for like 15 minutes.  Sister Hobbs said that was fine, but President isn't sure about it, so they are going to call Salt Lake about it.  I'm pretty sure they won't allow it, but if they do then all you missionaries out there can thank us for asking the question :)  I really hope they say yes....we are sooo sore all the time.

Yesterday at church we learned about faith.  FAITH is the Fantastic Adventure In Trusting Him.  We make decisions either because of our faith or because of our lack of faith.  W also learned that we make our own happiness.  No matter what is going on around us we can choose to be happy.  Look at Job for example.  We are "not yet as Job" so let us all stay faithful! 

Hope everyone has a great week.  Love,

Sister Moon

Pictures:

Sister R and I at the Rancho Cucamonga Mission Sign

Welcome to California Sunshine :)

June 23, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week we had 22 lessons!!!!  We worked so hard to have 22 lessons and we finally made our goal...last night.  We biked over 60 miles and walked 4 (Sister R got a flat tire so we had to walk while it was being fixed).  The wind was crazy last week; on Wednesday the gusts of wind got up to 65mph.  Try riding a bike in that.  I felt like I just kept pedaling, but got nowhere.  My calves of steel are starting to come in...I can feel it.

 Our investigators are doing well.  Jackie is planning to get baptized at the end of next month!!!!  We don't have a date yet, but the week her husband is in town she said she'll be baptized.  I'm so excited...it's getting closer.  Charlie is still trying to stop smoking, but he is coming to church and starting to understand more.  We hope he can stop smoking soon so he can get baptized.  Keep him in your prayers please.  Wendy, our Ward Mission Leader's girlfriend, is progressing too.  She is starting to ask some really good questions and is praying about the Book of Mormon.  We hope to be able to follow the Spirit next time we teach her and answer all her questions.  She is awesome.

Remember to always be grateful for the trials we have.  I have been frustrated with not having a car, but on Sunday someone said something that caught my attention.  They said, "The stars are always there, but we only notice them when it's dark".  How true is that?  I'm so blessed, but sometimes my world needs to get a little dark for me to realize how blessed I really am.  Overall I'm doing pretty good.  Biking is hard, but it's also good exercise.  Sister Rietz and I get along great and we talk while we ride our bikes so at least it's not super boring :)  We even biked up the Newhall Hill this week...the whole way!  Normally we walk up half of it so that was an accomplishment!

I hope everyone is having a great summer.  I love and miss you guys,

Sister Moon

Picture:

 So there are shopping carts everywhere!!!!  We decided to have a little fun instead of exercising.

June 16, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

 This week we had 18 lessons and biked 49 miles in 40mph winds.  It was crazyyyyy.  We are so sore and tired all the time, but we found a new investigator while we were riding this week so that was AWESOME!!  We stopped on our bikes and started talking to her.  We taught her the whole Restoration and she said she understood and wanted us to come back.  Her name is April...she's so sweet.

 

We also helped Wendy, one of our investigators, pull out a stump from her yard.  It seemed impossible at the beginning, but we kept doing the little things over and over and BAM the stump came out.  "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass"  :)  She was so grateful for our help.  Needless to say, we had fun doing it even if it was at 7:20 in the morning :)

 

We also helped Bonny learn how to ride a bike.  She is a slow learner and her grandmother (Sister Hansen-the one we help in the yard all the time) can't help her do certain things.  It was super awesome to see her learn and how excited she got when she actually did it! 

 Ok so this week we almost died.  Mom maybe you shouldn't read this.  We were just riding our bikes up the street when this car comes wayyyy over and almost hits up.  We were by a school and we were in the bus loading zone (and school was out so it was empty).  The car came way over like 10 feet out of his lane then quickly swerves out of the way.  We looked at the guy and he had his mouth wide open and he was passed out.  He was swerving all over the road.  We didn't know what to do.  Some truck came and asked if we were ok and then chased the guy down.  We biked about 2 minutes up the street and there was this lady outside totally freaking out.  Apparently this guy had ran over a "stop ahead" sign.  He totally plowed it into the ground.  We have no idea what happened to this guy, but we do know that the Lord keeps His missionaries safe. 

 

Have a great week everyone!  Love,

Sister Moon

 

Pictures:
"The Stump"
Crazy Wind
Bonny