December 26, 2016

Family and Friends,

Merry day late Christmas and Happy 5 day early New Year! I hope everyone had a great time with family and friends yesterday and throughout this week! The holidays are the best, especially the ones where we can celebrate the Savior's birth and set goals for a brand new year to more fully reach our potential. Goals that are physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional are very helpful to make sure we become well rounded people. Well rounded isn't referring to getting fat, but fit in every aspect.

This last week was pretty slow in general. We had some good lessons but people were pretty occupied with Christmas and all that hoorah (no idea if that fits there or if it's the right word) so the work was slowed. This week will hopefully be a bit faster.

Stay hanging out with your family and friends for this week, I won't bore you with more New York news.

This week's challenge is to write out your New Year's resolutions. And don't be "that guy" who says "I'm not going to set resolutions just because it's a new year" or some other excuse. Take this opportunity to improve, because we all know we all need it.

Have a great rest of 2016!

-Elder Moon

December 19, 2016

Friends and Family!

Christmas is upon us! We have less than a week! Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year. I love when people are thinking about the true meaning of Christmas and why we should be celebrating it. It makes the world feel more loving and lively. I hope everyone has taken care of everything they need to for the holiday season and they don't get caught up in chaos. It's nice when you don't have to rush around for things at the last second (says every high school or college student about finals and projects... Oh wait, they never know that feeling of peace because they always procrastinate! Yes I've been there and unfortunately will probably be there again and again...)

Anyway, this last week we had some miracles! And some people dropped us. So every rose has its thorns. But the miracle is we had the director of proselyting come train the mission leaders and he told us to always ask for referrals and focus on the ones who are prepared.

Not new stuff, just reminders and tips for doing that. Well we did it that next day and had this kid accept a copy of the Book of Mormon, and then we got 2 referrals from him. When we went to sync our area books that night, he'd referred himself on Mormon.org. We texted him and he said he wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon for his grandparents and another one for his aunt and another one for his uncle and a Spanish one for his Spanish teacher and there's another family that might be interested and he just kept sending referrals!

Crazy!!

So the challenge this week is to prayerfully select a Christlike attribute you want to have as your gift to Christ this Christmas.

Write it down on a paper, describing how you'll act as you give this "gift" to Christ. Then seal it in an envelope and pack it away with your Christmas stuff when you take down the Christmas decorations.

Next year when you get them out, put it under the tree and open it Christmas morning (2017) and see how you did, if you really gave Christ a gift, or if you forgot to make the effort. Remember, today He wants our effort, not our perfection! Perfection is far far away (on Judea's plain) but effort is today!

Have a very Merry Christmas!

-Elder Moon

December 12, 2016

Friends and Family!

This week was good! We had an awesome baptism this last weekend and note to self: make sure the hot water works long before the baptism so you don't have to boil giant pots of water right beforehand. Trust me, it makes it much less stressful if the hot water works!

Taking over the other area in addition to ours was good. A bit of a slow start trying to learn who and where everyone and everything is.

We will be focusing on refining our teaching pool this week and seeing who is actually interested and which less active members are ready to come back into activity.

This week's challenge is to reach out to a person who hasn't been to church in a while. Regardless of your or their religion, invite them to either your or their church again!

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Moon

December 5, 2016

Family and Friends,

I hope everyone has gotten the chance to see the Christmas video and that everyone has started doing the daily challenges. I don't know if I need a weekly challenge with this new Christmas thing going on!

This last week we had some good lessons. We met a few more people who are interested in learning more and we're excited to continue working in this area! We got news about transfers and Elder Gwilliam and I will be staying together. We will also be getting a third companion named Elder Self, so there will be three of us for a time. It will be an interesting twist on things, but I'm excited to see how it goes.

I've never been in a trio before!

Cindy is still doing very well and we are all excited for her baptism this Saturday! If anyone wants to come, it will be at 11 AM (Mom, sorry but mission rules won't allow you, or any family and friends for that matter). We also had several people come to church yesterday that haven't been in a while, so it was good to see them come back!

This weeks challenge is to continue (or start) doing the Christmas activities listed on Mormon.org. An additional challenge is to write

10 reasons why you love Christmas, and then share them with someone means a lot to you.

Love you all and have a great week!

-Elder Moon

Our District

November 28, 2016

Friends and Family!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey day and Thanksgiving! I also hope nobody got hurt or intense over Black Thursday/Friday! This last week was slower but we were going around trying to share holiday specific messages. This week we are going to do a big push for the new Christmas video the church put out. If you haven't seen it, you should!

In fact, the challenge for this week is to watch it and get started on the "light the world in 25 ways over 25 days" service activities. It's just something little we can do each day to bring in the Christmas spirit. It will bring your family together and help you feel love this holiday season!

The doctors haven't found anything, the results were that everything is ok and that we will just wait a little longer and see if something gets better in the next few weeks. If not we'll try another approach.

Love you all!

-Elder Moon

#LIGHTtheWORLD this Christmas season. Serve others like Jesus did “In 25 Ways. Over 25 Days.”
https://www.mormon.org/christmas/light-the-world

November 21, 2016

 Brothers and Sisters,

I'd start with "Friends and Family," but we're all a family and that's what most people are thankful for this week. So I'll refer to you all as my brothers and sisters. And my dear brothers and sisters, I hope you all had and have a fantastic week. I sure had a good week! It had some appointments for both doctors and investigators. But it was good!

We also had a zone conference. And we have Thanksgiving coming up this week! That'll be super awesome!

This week's challenge will be short, but enjoy Thanksgiving! And try to be as grateful as you can all week, especially if you go shopping this Thursday/Friday :)

Have a great-ful week (pun intended)

-Elder Moon

PS The city disobeyed!  

November 14, 2016

Friends and Family,

This last week was kind of annoying with doctor's appointments, but other than those the work here is great! For those of you who haven't heard, I went to the doctor because I've felt like I've been in a dream for the last couple weeks. I function fine, I can remember things and speak normally and physically do everything I could before, I just feel like I'm subconscious the whole time, like I'm not the one doing the things. The doctor didn't see anything wrong but they want to monitor my heart for a 24 hour period just to be sure everything there is ok.

But on a happier note, C came to church and loved it! She wants to come every week and is on track to be baptized on December 3rd. We are so excited for her! E didn't want to come to church again, so we'll keep working with her and see what happened. There are a couple other people we're starting to work with, so more about them might be coming soon!

We had a primary program yesterday at church, and for those who aren't familiar with those, it's where the kids ages 3-11 go up and take turns saying some sentences of basic doctrines they believe and then sing children's songs/hymns about it. The local congregation here is very small and the program wasn't very good. Not super organized, not well done, the piano player could barely play just the melody, and the kids didn't really know what they were supposed to say. Good effort, but like I said, not very good.

Now think of that experience, that program that was far from a Broadway musical or a perfected performance, and compare it to life.

We are surrounded with imperfect people trying to do their little part and half the time they don't know what they're doing. Likewise, going to a church full of saintly gods would be intimidating and would cause us to feel insecure and down on ourselves. I'm thankful for the poorly performed primary program because it helped me remember nobody has reached perfection. It's much more inviting to have flawed people reach out to us and welcome us into their sphere of improvements than it is to have a flawless perfectionist make us feel judged, unloved, and less than acceptable.

My challenge this week is to find someone who has reached out to you in a time you needed it, imperfect as they were, and then thank that person for helping you when you were down. Even though they did it imperfectly, it probably helped a lot.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

-Elder Moon

PS- About the attached picture!  I saw this at someone's house we were teaching. Just the blue side with the clouds, and I said "I have to ask, is Winnie the Pooh on the other side of that? They said yes and I said I need a picture!  (This is the same blanket I had growing up!)  

​

November 7, 2016

Friends and Family!

This last week was pretty good. We found some more people with good potential and had a new person come to church! She really enjoyed it and we hope she comes again! Church is such a great place to gather with fellow men and women who have Christ as the center of their lives and worship Him in unity!

We also had MLC last Friday and had a great time. That stands for mission leadership council, so it's the meeting all the zone leaders and sister training leaders go to and counsel with the mission president and his assistants. The picture below is from that.

Cindy is our most promising investigator and we have high hopes for her. She's the one I wrote about last time. We're meeting with her tonight so prayers that that goes well would be great!

For the challenge, I've been thinking of challenges we all have to face. Sometimes we have trials we don't understand and wish we could switch with someone else. Helaman 7:7 tells about a prophet named Nephi who wanted to switch lives with another Nephi. But he forgot that the older Nephi had siblings that constantly tried to kill him!

That reminds us that when we feel like we'd rather be in someone else's Celestial shoes, we should remember they're not quite as heavenly as we hoped. Our trials are tailored for our good from a God who loves us unconditionally and understands us perfectly.

So I challenge or invite each of us to not envy anyone else this week!

Find ways to count your blessings and when you're tempted to wish you could live another's life, remember your own privileges and potential

:)

That's all for now, love you all!

-Elder Moon

October 31, 2016

Friends and Family,

Thanks to those who answered those questions about Leroy and Jethro!

And happ

y Halloween! Make sure to brush your teeth and don't get a sugar rush! Today we had a great miracle of finding someone who was at a point in life when she just needed hope and help. I love how if we follow the subtle promptings we can be at the right place at the right time and say the right things!

This area is starting to look better. It was pretty dead when I got here and that just means more work to do! If anyone has any ideas for finding people who are interested in the gospel, just let me know!

Challenge of the week: Start a gratitude journal! Do it from the day you read this until thanksgiving, and continue after that if you feel so inspired! Our mission president asked us to do a gratitude journal from the beginning of the transfer until thanksgiving and it's a great way to recognize God's hand in our lives!

Have a great grateful week!

-Elder Moon

The new zone!

October 24, 2016

Family and Friends,

Thanks for everyone's desire to do good in the world! Sometimes people are just not thanked enough and I want each of you to know how thankful those around you are for the good you do for them. This week was good for us. Not the most effective, but still good. I'll be going to Batavia tomorrow which is in the Rochester stake. It'll be a good next transfer!

I have a parable to share. There was a king named Leroy who was loved by all the people in the land. They adored all of his many attributes and he made everyone feel loved and welcomed. He could talk to anyone about anything because they all respected him so much. One day he needed help building a new wall around the kingdom and he asked everyone for help. The wall, which would've taken 3 years to complete, was done in 6 months because of everyone's willingness to put in their "extra mile." The wall looked 20 times better and bigger than the previous wall.

King Jethro was ruled over a neighboring kingdom and was despised and loathed by his people. Anytime he tried to strike up a conversation, the people rolled their eyes and responded sharply. He would typically respond the same way and there wasn't much joy felt throughout the kingdom. There was a sense of social-famine in the land because of this dissonance. The day came for wall repairs in Jethro's kingdom and after trying desperately to get help, it was finished after 10 years.

The final project could hardly be distinguished from the old shambles; hardly a soul put in any effort.

Now my challenge comes in the form of a few questions: What does it take to be King Leroy? Why did things go so poorly in Jethro's kingdom? How can Jethro become more like King Leroy and how can Jethro's people become more like Leroy's people?

Have a great week and I look forward to your responses!

-Elder Moon

October 17, 2016

Friends and Family,

This last week was slow. We didn't have very many lessons because everyone had dropped us the previous week, but we're working to find more people. Anne is someone we met and offered to help clean out her garage. She has MS and broke her foot and couldn't figure out how she was going to do it, but we offered to help and she was just shocked.

She offered to pay us but we said we can't take money. We gave her a restoration pamphlet and she read it by the time we came back the next day to actually help with the garage. Then last Wednesday we had a great lesson with her and a member who lived a few streets over.

That's the highlight of the new hope this week!

Challenges are good, but are they actually helping people? I think at least one person does one of them on any given week, so I'd say it's worth continuing. For this week the challenge will be self-claimed, if that's in anyone's glossary. Choose something you're struggling with or a commandment you don't keep very well or an attribute you want to work on or something you want to do this week. Select something and set it as a goal. Then do it! This challenge will be something you can make as hard or easy as you want, so push yourself but don't burn yourself out!

Have a great week!

-Elder Moon

October 10, 2016

Friends and Family,

This week was just rough in terms of the work! Like half of the people we've been teaching dropped us. People have their agency to accept or reject the message, but it's still rough. However, the people we DO still have are good! The Shin's are back from their vacation so we'll see them again this week. And Linda came to church so that was good!

Personally, I'm doing well, but how are all of you? I hear from some of you every now and then, but for those of you I haven't heard from in a while, how's life? Tell me the new things going on in your life!

The challenge this week is to share with someone your favorite scripture and why you love it. It can be someone you've been meaning to share it with, or a total stranger, but whoever it is, try to make it stretch you. Don't share it with your spouse or sibling just to get it over with, unless you really and truly feel that spouse or sibling needs it. Share with someone you feel prompted to share it with. Then write in your journal about it! As we record spiritual moments we show God we want more promptings and will act on them!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

-Elder Moon

Zone P-day!!

October 3, 2016

Family and Friends!

This last week had pros and cons. Conference was great! And our friend we've been teaching that I sent a picture of last week, well he had a hard weekend. He's stressed and needs more time to figure things out, so we're kind of on pause with him. Sad day! But the Shins are doing great and a few people came to see conference so things are going well! We also want to find more people this week, so if you need something to pray for, that'd would be great! Or prayers for James and the Shin's are always good :)

I hope you were all able to watch conference, or some parts of it at least. It was very good and several talks were awesome! I loved Elder Oaks giving great ideas for missionary work and there were also some quotes from various people about justifying and rationalizing sins. That's not good to do! Someone said to not "minimize our sins" meaning don't think "it's not THAT bad" or it'll cause you to not repent. Repentance is such a wonderful blessing we've been privileged to take part in! But enough of what I thought. Tell me what you liked! 

This week's challenge comes from one of the songs they sang at conference. It's "Let us all press on" and it comes from verse 2. It says: We will not retreat,  though our numbers may be few when compared with the opposite host in view. But an unseen power will aid me and you in the glorious cause of truth! We MUST decide now that we will not retreat! We must never, no never, no never forsake! We may be few but an unseen power really will aid us as we strive to be obedient even when, no, especially when things get hard! 

I challenge each of us to find something to do this week to show we will not retreat even if we have to stand alone! 

Have a great week!

-Elder Moon

September 26, 2016

Friends and Family!

Pride is bad. No fine print, no loopholes, no confusion about it, it's just bad. But simply observing that my dad did his mile and a half for his Air Force PT test in 10:28 and I did the same distance this morning in 10:23 is not a prideful observation :)

Haha, the work is going well here! James is stalwart and consistent, we're meeting with him and our mission president tomorrow to talk about baptism and see how close we are. The attached picture is James and I. He has since been wearing a shirt, tie, and pants to church and keeping all the commitments we leave with him!

The Shin's are also doing well. Slower progress, but progress nonetheless. We also have found several good people who live in the other zone, inner city Rochester, but the work is the same regardless of what area the people live in. We'll have to hand them off to the other missionaries, but oh well!

We have general conference this weekend and my challenge is to watch it! If you've never watched general conference, there are several sessions that are about 2 hours long each. But they're divided into several different talks (sermons/speeches/whatever you want to call

them) and several modern prophets and apostles speak. The talks are an average of about 10 minutes long, so I invite everyone on this list to listen to at least one of them. Those who consistently watch conference every 6 months, I invite you to choose something you can do to get more out of this one than you usually get out of them.

Have a fantastic week everyone!

September 19, 2016

Friends and family!

This last week was really good! We had so much success! We found a new family who live by members of the church and they love how the members have everything together and balanced (faith, family, work, etc.). We offered to help them with that and they invited us over! We're going again tomorrow and it'll be great! Prayers for the Shin family would be great! James is also doing great. He came to a fireside last night and loved it! He's come to church twice and is ready to be baptized.

There are some obstacles to overcome first, but he should be prepared and able to take that step in October!

We've been jogging in the mornings so that's a nice change. My last companion had asthma so exercise wasn't as fun. Jogging is good though, it's easy to use the time efficiently and effectively. We also have another set of elders in our district now so we played basketball today. It was fun! My former companion who's in our district just sprinted right into me and that was less fun now that I have a bruise on my hip, but other than that life is good!

This week's challenge is to not ram into people playing sports. Haha, another challenge is to thank someone every day for something they do.

It can be the same person, but it can't be the same thing! This is a great way to continue the humbling we started last week by showing our gratitude. As we're grateful, we overcome enmity which is the root of pride, an opposite of humility. Enmity toward others and enmity toward God vanish as we show our thanksgiving (maybe this will come up again at the end of November)....

Have a great week!

-Elder Moon

Bro, you live in water, why the umbrella??

September 12, 2016

Friends and family,

We had transfer calls and I'll be staying in Pittsford. Elder Peterson will still be a zone leader with me, but he's going to the other area in our Ward and will train a new missionary. I'll be getting Elder Walther and together we will work hard and bring about much righteousness in this area!

James is doing well! He came to church and loved it! We also had Linda and Cherub come and stay for Sunday school, or at least the first half hour. Amy is going to meet with us this Thursday and we're still looking for those fish who are ready! I thought about it some this last week but I can definitely do better this week! And prayers for those 4 people would be appreciated if you want someone to pray for!

For the challenge, we've been over several things to conversion. For ourselves and for others. Now we want to make sure we're humble about these things and aren't trying to infringe our will on anyone else's, especially God's. So this week I challenge each of us to have the motto "come what may and love it" for this week. If you have time, look up that motto on LDS.org because it's a great talk by Elder Joseph Worthlin.

Love you all and I hope your weeks are great! But if not, come what may and love it! :)

-Elder Moon

September 5, 2016

Friends and Family!

This is going to be short due to zone Pday today! But happy Labor Day and I hope everyone enjoyed not laboring! Things are going well here.

James is preparing to come to church and set a baptism date for October! Linda is still coming along slowly but surely and her kids are now both interested (the daughter Amy was and now Nick the son is!

And his girlfriend wants to learn more too!). The members are not as excited to do anything though in this ward so prayers for them to be excited to share this wonderful message and even be soft enough to have us come by for 5 minutes to help them set goals for the baby steps!

This week's challenge goes along with applying things. Something I read about last week was in the end of John (St John, one of the gospels, not the 3 at the end of the New Testament) was how the apostles caught 153 fish without moving their location. There were fish, but they couldn't find them until The Savior helps them see what to do! I challenge each of us to look at this week and rather than doubt there being fish, expect to catch 153! Rather than doubt you'll do well on a test, study hard and believe in yourself! Instead of dragging your feet, work hard! See the good in this week and believe there will be "fish" :)

Love you!

-Elder Moon

August 29, 2016

Friends and family!

This last week was rather good. We had some lessons and had a miracle at church yesterday. Apparently one of the young women has a friend who has been coming for a few weeks that we didn't know about. She's interested and wants to learn more about the gospel! We set up a time to teach her in the young woman's home! It'll be awesome!

Other than that, things are still going well. We're trying to work more with the members and it's starting to seem like they don't want to do anything. Bummer. I wish everyone would realize spreading the gospel is the duty of every disciple of Christ, not just the ones who wear name tags!

For this ongoing challenge, we'll move to the next step. But a challenge is pathetic if there isn't a follow up. I might as well email this to a wall if I don't follow up. So who was able to read from the scriptures each day last week? If you were able to and did it, wonderful! If you didn't do it, I invite you to do it this week. I was able to and it was wonderful!

The next step is to apply. Jesus tells us how to know if things are from God or not in John 7:17. He teaches that "if any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." We can know if what we studied in the scriptures was true or not by applying a principle in our lives and then evaluating how it affected us. I invite each of us on the second step to pull a principle from their daily studies this week and apply it! You can do a new little one each day based on what you study, or pick something you learned in a study and then work on it all week. Take these correct principles and govern yourselves, and then let me know how you did applying God's word!

With love,

-Elder Moon

August 22, 2016

Friends and Family,

This week was good, and I think I say that a lot. But that's ok because it's better than repeatedly saying "this week was terrible."

So I'm not complaining!

We had Tommy come to the Sacred Grove (some of you may remember Tommy, he was from Victor a few months ago who came to church and left because he didn't expect it to be the way it was). He's come to church the last two weeks in Pittsford now and he believes the first vision happened based on a spiritual confirmation. We asked why he believes it happened and he said something along the lines of "I just feel it's right" which is the spirit! By the way, for those who aren't as familiar, the first vision is when Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I testify that it happened and no power on earth could convince me otherwise. If you have doubts (member of the church or not) I invite you to pray about it, and if you want to take a road trip to Palmyra NY to see where it happened, the Sacred Grove is always there! :)

Linda and her daughter Amy are also on our list of people to visit.

Linda has been investigating the church for months and for the first time she stayed for the 2nd hour of church (she usually leaves after the first hour, sacrament meeting). Amy started looking into the church last week and seems pretty interested in it! She'll be starting her senior year this year and wants to find her place in religion.

As for a challenge, I'm not exactly sure what to use. The scripture "when thou art converted, strengthen thy bretheren" from Luke 22:32 keeps coming to mind. This is what Jesus tells His chief apostle Peter toward the end of His mortal ministry. So for the next few weeks the challenges will be related to this. I invite each of us to become more converted during these linked challenges beginning with scriptures.

Alma 31:5 tells us that the most influential thing in the world is studying God's word. So I invite each of us to commit to do that every day until the next challenge rolls around! Ideally, we keep doing it from this week on each day of our lives, but if that's too much for now, at least do it for 7 days. You can commit to anything for 7 days!

:)

Love you all!

-Elder Moon

My Zone!

August 15, 2016

Friends and family,

This one will be short, we went to the temple which took a good part of the day, but I'm not complaining. The temple is amazing! If you're not worthy to go, I invite you to become worthy to! If you aren't able to go for other reasons, baby steps :) But this last week was good. We got ahold of some more people and had 2 people come to church. Things are starting to pick up!

Challenge: Adam, when he was kicked out of the garden, started offering sacrifices. An angel asked him why he was doing it and he said "I know not save The Lord commanded me" and thn the angel explained the reason to him (see Moses 5:5-7). I challenge each of us to pick a commandment we may not like or fully understand and then study up on it! Pray about it! I can't promise an angel will explain it to you, but I know God answers our prayers!

-Elder Moon

Ask the missionaries, they can help you! 

August 8, 2016

Friends and family,

This week has been much slower. Flushing into an area (coming in at the same time as your companion) isn't very common for missionaries, unless you're Elder Jared Moon in the  New York Rochester Mission! But things will pick up, the Ward is getting excited about missionary work!

Figuring out what zone leaders do is fun as well! We called in numbers yesterday and that was cool (if you don't know what that is, haha you should've gone on a mission!). Other than that, we're just trying to get the ball moving with everything.

This week's challenge is to find someone who has been silently and consistently doing good and tell them you appreciate them for it. You can tell them with a plate of cookies, a thank you card, or a personal visit! Or anything I didn't suggest. The world needs more silent good-doers and the ones we have need to be thanked!

Love you all! Or y'all in my "native" language ;)

-Elder Moon

August 1, 2016

Friends and Family,

Well, transfers have come! I have been here for only 3 months and Elder Bates has been here for 6 months. Now, when missionaries get called to be a trainer, they get a phone call and the invitation is extended. They then attend a train the trainers meeting on the Friday before the transfer week. Training calls come Tuesday. We had set a baptism date with a new person named Kim and called the mission president to tell him. He didn't mention anything about training for either of us. There are a lot of new missionaries coming out and I was perfectly set up to train (companion about to leave and only being here for 2 transfers). But nothing.

Then one of the mission president's assistant 's calls us Thursday night to ask if I'd play the piano for the meeting. The conversation went something like this:

Could Elder Moon play the piano tomorrow?

For what?

The train the trainers meeting.

We aren't going to that.

Why not?

We weren't invited...

Oh, I'm sorry, that's embarrassing, well tell Elder Moon I love his magical playing anyway.

Haha, we were confused why he thought we'd be there. My speculation is I was on that list and then the new mission president took me off for some reason. This reason was unknown to me. Until last night.

I was sitting in a fireside when we got a text from our mission president asking us to call him when convenient. After several minutes and knowing the transfers email (new way of telling about transfers) was coming soon, we decided to step out and call him. He said I was being asked to serve as a zone leader in the Palmyra North Zone in Pittsford NY (the same district I left from 3 months ago as district leader). Plot twist!

Now that I've told that story, it'll be sad to leave some of these people, especially Henry. He's been so awesome! But new things are coming and it'll be exciting!

My challenge for this week is based on the fireside we had. Check yourself. Are you converted to Christ? Are you really, truly, sincerely, more than anything else in the world, converted to Christ?

Ask yourself this question when you wake up every morning: "Am I truly converted to Christ?" If not, what will you do to become more converted to your Savior?

Have a great week everyone!

 -Elder Moon

July 25, 2016

Friends and Family,

I hope everyone had a great week UN-iting themselves with others!

Unity is something that just makes sense. There's no point in contention (unless it's siblings growing up, haha just kidding :)

We had a pretty good week! Not as many great stories as last week, but we had some success. Kim did not come to church and neither did 4 other people that said they would, but we did have Nate and Dusty come! Dusty is the fiancé of a less active member and they're both going to start coming regularly! Nate is friends with a member and his great aunt is a member as well. He seems pretty interested!

I have one more week with Elder Bates and then I'll likely get a new companion since we've been companions for 3 months. He's also been in this area for 6 months so he's due for a ticket out. He's been a good companion, the easiest to get along with, be productive, and enjoy working all at the same time!

I read Esther this last week and it's a really good book! I didn't realize how good it was until I read the whole thing! Great story, awesome principles to pull out and apply to our lives, and not too long either! Esther is a woman who had incredible courage. She asked people to fast for her as she went before the king to plead for her life and the lives of her people. I know the power of fasting and courage can bring blessings and, as needed, miracles to those who put forth the effort and act and ask!

-Elder Moon

PS.  This is where I left a note for my parents that visited the temple the day after I was there.   They found it!!

July 18, 2016

Family and Friends!

This last week was incredible and amazing in so many ways! We went to
the Hill Cumorah Pageant twice, once with Jana and once with Henry. We
went to Joseph Smith's home with Henry before the pageant and our ride
had to go work security at the pageant, so we were going to have no
way of getting to the pageant (3 or so miles away). Worst case we
could've walked. But I knew someone named Tommy from Victor when I
served there a few months ago. He wanted to meet up for pageant so he
met us at the Smith Family Farm (Joseph Smith's home) and drove us! It
was great! Tommy, Henry, and everyone loved the pageant! So if you're
ever in western NY in July, make sure you go see it!

My favorite part of pageant is when Christ comes! There was a little
boy who got lost during one of the nights and was about to go up on
stage. Our ride (the one working security) said "come here buddy, are
you lost?" And he started crying and said "yes" so the member asked
"what are you doing up there?" The boy said something like "I was
going to ask Jesus because I knew He would take me to my daddy" Awwe!
That's so cool and symbolic at the same time!

Here's the incredible miracle: We were going to see a former
investigator that we'd previously met and set a return appointment
for. When we arrived for the set appointment, she was t home. But Josh
and Kim were, and when we asked if they were interested, they said
yes! We sat on their porch and taught them about the restoration. Josh
loved it and when we invited him to be baptized on a specific date, he
said "that's a great goal, but if I know before then can we move it
up?" What!? That doesn't happen very often! Talk about miracles!

Another awesome part of this week was Henry's baptism! It went well
and he's excited to continue moving forward on this new path and never
look back! One thing I thought was cool is the same day we had a
baptism up here, my Dad had a baptism down in Virginia (he's the unit
mission leader, so he works closely with the missionaries down there).
Such unity!

Speaking of unity, the Book of Mormon has a lot of "ites" (like
descendants of a certain person). For example, Jared's descendants are
"Jaredites." Then in one chapter, shortly after Christ visits, the
people have all things in common and are unified in every way. A verse
says "There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there
Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children
of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God." This next comment is
cooler when it's said, so I'll type out how to pronounce it. These
people were UN (pronounced uhn, like the UN in under) ited (rhymes
with righted). I heard someone say this catchy phrase, that "a people
who is UN-ited is United!"

Therefore, the challenge is to try and unite yourself with someone you
have either held a grudge against, lots close contact with, or just
someone you haven't befriended as much as you maybe should have. Next
week we should be more UN-ited! :)

Love you all!

Elder Moon

July 11, 2016

Friends and family!

This last week was good! The Hill Cumorah Pageant is happening! If any of you are in Palmyra New York this week you should check it out! Not that anybody on this mailing list would drive all the way to Palmyra....*cough cough my family cough cough* haha, the mission rules are that you don't see your friends and family for 2 years and we followed those rules! We just had to coordinate where we were going to be and make sure our paths didn't cross. I was officially within .25 miles of them when we drove by their hotel on the highway, but we kept the rules! It was hardest for my mom....

On a different note, Henry is getting baptized this week! Lynn is progressing and will hopefully be well enough to come to church next week (she has serious health problems). But she should hopefully be well enough to come next week!

This week's challenge is to eat healthy. I hope I do this one, Elder Bates and I decided we want to eat lots of vegetables this week. We'll try and then see how it goes and whether I want to do it again next week...

Love you all!

-Elder Moon

PS- Pageant fun!  My family was in this same spot an hour before me!

July 4, 2016

Friends and family,

Happy Independence Day! I hope you all have a wonderful day to celebrate the freedoms we enjoy! There is a scripture in the Book of Mormon that says:

12 Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written.

It's from Ether chapter 2 verse 12. I hope we can all use this verse and show our gratitude for this wonderful country!

Henry is getting baptized next Saturday (the 14th) and he's so ready!

Lynn is beginning to truly investigate. She started with no faith and no hope, but now she's starting to develop some. It's awesome to see those transformations!

This week's challenge is to research one of the founding fathers and learn something new about them this Independence Day/week. And if someone (maybe my Mom) could send me a new fact about the founding fathers so I can fulfill my own challenge since I don't get Google and have very limited other internet access... Thanks!

Have a great week! Love you!

-Elder Moon

June 27, 2016

Friends and Family,

This last week went well. It's just the same old same old. Finding people who might be interested and then not really going anywhere with them. They either change their minds or lie about actually being interested. But we'll keep trying to find the people like Henry! He's been coming to church for 3 weeks and came to a fireside (devotional type meeting) last night! He still wants to be baptized and is almost done with 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon! He's sincere!

We are getting a new mission president this week. It'll be sad to see President Francis go but also exciting to meet President Evans!

This week's challenge is to read your favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon. I will be finishing it for the 10th time cover to cover this Wednesday and it's so good! If you don't have a favorite, the shortest one is 3 Nephi 30 but a great choice is 3 Nephi 11!

Have a blast this week!

-Elder Moon

June 20, 2016

Friends and Family,

We got transfer calls this morning and our whole district is staying the same! An update on Henry: he came to church, is still excited about learning, and is willing to live the word of wisdom even though there are some addictions that have yet to be broken. Prayers for him would be great! He's so prepared!

Other people, Dan and Jan and Carmine and Mandy and all these people haven't really been in contact, but we're still working on it! A couple newer people are Jamie, Jana, and Bruce. Hopefully things will pick up with them and they'll be as solid as Henry!

Thanks Mom for letting me know what Jared means, I have an awesome name! Did anyone else find out anything cool about their name? I hope so, it was the first gift your parents gave you and it'll be with you for life!

This week's challenge has two parts: one is find a scripture that can help someone feel God's love. If you find a good one, let me know! The second part is to write five simple ways you've seen His love in your own life. Here's just five ways I've seen a his love in my life:

1. He blessed me with a wonderful family (immediate and extended)!

2. He blessed me with an incredible love for the scriptures!

3. He gave me citizenship in this great country of freedom!

4. He fills me with patience when people do dumb things and I have to put up with it!

5. I've been able to see His tender mercies from helping me smile when things go wrong to showing us people who want to learn about the gospel!

Be grateful for all you've been given! Have a fun week!

-Elder Moon

June 13, 2016

Friends and Family,

This last week was awesome! We met every single goal we set in weekly planning. I've never had that happen in my entire life! We usually exceed some, make some, and miss some. But this time we either made or beat all of them! It was great! We also got all of our June Jubilee goals so this week was awesome!

Henry came to church and has a baptism date, so keep praying for him!

We still can't meet with Dan but we met Josh who seemed really interested! Prayers from them would be great too! Jan was going to come to church but had to babysit grandkids. Grandkids are good, but hopefully she comes next week!

I'm getting better at basketball, so that's another fun fact, but I'm still not close to bringing honor to our family name when it comes to that average sport ;)

This week's challenge is to discover what your name means! Understand the meaning behind the name your parents chose for you. Is if a family name? Are you named after someone great? Or are you the one to make that name great? Or both!? Learn what your name means in Latin or Greek or Hebrew or whatever and live up to it! If it's something mediocre, make it superb! Ps, if someone can look up what "Jared"

stands for and email that to me, that'd be great...we don't have that privilege of using Google... Thanks!

Love you all and have a great week!

-Elder Moon

Here's a great picture based on Elder Holland's conference talk.  You can listen to Elder Holland's amazing talk at the link below.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/tomorrow-the-lord-will-do-wonders-among-you?lang=eng.

June 6, 2016

Friends and Family,

I hope you all got to thank someone who's made a difference in your life and someone you can remember for that (Memorial Day challenge).

If not, you still have time to!

So this week was good. We had a challenge from our zone leaders to have a "June Jubilee." We're getting a new mission president in July and we want to purge the mission and re-consecrate ourselves to be the best missionaries when he gets here. This Jubilee is in reference to the Jubilee year of the Old Testament when on the 50th year, all debts were forgiven, all slaves were freed, all prisoners were liberated, and all land was returned to the original owner. It was a year to just "start over" in all aspects of living. They challenged us to get 70 contacts, find 4 new investigators, have 2 lessons with a member present, and give out 6 copies of the Book of Mormon every week in June. We did it! One week down, 3 to go! This is super motivating for me and I hope it motivates the other missionaries in this zone. Even more importantly, hence why I'm sending this to you, I hope it motivates you to be a little better this June Jubilee!

We haven't been able to contact Dan this last week, but please keep praying for him! Also please pray for Jan and Mike to be interested and stay interested in learning more and improving their lives!

One fun thing we did this week is hear about the ice cream challenge.

A gallon in an hour. Haha, I prepared by drinking a gallon of water in an hour 2 nights this last week (yes, I had to get up and use the facilities so many times throughout the night, but never threw up). My companion and I tag teamed a gallon and succeeded in 35 minutes!

Neither of us threw up too! It's hard, don't think you can do it yourself! Also, don't try to play basketball right after, it's not as much fun as... Well I don't really find basketball fun on a regular stomach, sorry Dad. But it was still a fun little challenge!

Missions are hard and fun and good and good for you and others! Lots of benefits and lots of trials! One thing I'm working on this week is trying to help others see how this message can bless them in wherever they are in life. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been given to us for our happiness now and in eternity. It is there for us to use whether we are old or young, male or female, smart or uneducated, rich or poor. It's for everyone, and it helps us at all times. No, I correct myself. It CAN help us at all times. It only will if we reach out and grab it!

I challenge each one of us to pick something about ourselves we don't like and treat the rest of this month like a June Jubilee and leave it behind! When July comes, I hope I'm emailing a long list of people who have abandoned something they didn't like about themselves and can smile all the more brightly for their grand accomplishment! Christ's Atonement can do more than forgive sins, it can help us change bad habits and even change our natures!

-Elder Moon

May 30, 2016

Friends and family!

This is Memorial Day! Remember those who are fallen! In Alma 62:37 it
talks about someone who died and was a true friend to liberty and
suffered much defending his country! Another who gave His life to save
us was Jesus Christ, "Remember remember that it is upon the Rock of
our Redeemer who is Christ, the Son of God, that we must build our
foundations" (Helaman 5:12). Among all the memorials for today, make
sure to remember Christ and what He has done for all of us!

If you want to add people to your prayers, pray for Dan and Mandy and
Carmine please! If they read the things we left them they'll be
wonderfully prepared!

This week's challenge is to thank the family of someone who served our
country, thank a military person (active duty, vet, whatever), or
thank someone who has made a difference in your life! I personally
want to thank my Dad and Grandpa Moon (his dad) for their service!
Love you both!

Have a great week everyone and remember in whom you have trusted! :)

-Elder Moon

May 23, 2016

Friends and Family,  (It's HUMP day!!!)  1 year down and 1 year to go!

This will be rather short today since we are only taking half our Pday. Why? Because we're going to the temple this Wednesday! That'll be nice, the temple is great!

We did a ton of finding this week and gave out 18 copies of the Book of Mormon. That's a ton for this area! The average is probably like 4.

So yeah, I hope some people read from it! We're also trying to find people who are actually interested in what we have to share. It's crazy, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest product ever invented and yet people won't even listen to a free sample of this gift! It's free! People go buy overpriced useless products all the time and they won't even try out something that will improve the quality of their lives at any stage of life!

On a brighter note, there was a stake musical fireside yesterday which was awesome. So many good songs and great singers/musicians here!

This week's challenge is to listen to a song that you like that means a lot to you and then write down why (or in this modern world of obnoxious technology, you can type it). Share that with someone. So make sure it's good enough that you're willing to share it with someone!

Best wishes to everyone this week!

-Elder Moon

(In memory of day 1 of the mission)

May 16, 2016

Friends and Family,

Here I am in C. There are a LOT of members here who are not
active and don't come to church. Apparently there was a lot of drama
that caused people to get offended and leave or other reasons that
prevented them from coming. But it's a nice area and it's partly on an
Indian Reservation. People here are pretty nice. Work here is slow,
but we're going to push through and try to get more members coming to
church. We will also focus on the blessings of the gospel and how they
help unify families. People love family, so this should be a good
approach. It's also helpful that there are 4 main families on the
reservation and just about everyone is related to someone. Hence, the
focus on families.

I hope you all got the chance to compliment someone this last week! I
did a few times and it just makes the world better. If we could all
just think of one another as brothers and sisters we'd be such a
delightful people! There's a scripture that says "And The Lord called
His people Zion because they were of one heart and one mind" and it
goes on to say how we need to be righteous and love one another. We
had stake conference (church where multiple congregations come
together) and one of the speakers talked about a line from the song
"Called To Serve." The long is "Far and wide we tell The Father's
story, far and wide His love proclaim." He mentioned how important it
is to spread The Father's love to everyone we meet.

This week's challenge is to spread The Father's love to a family
member who needs it. We all need it, but if there's a particular
family member who might be struggling, take the longer road and truly
reach out to them, rather than cop out and tell someone quickly just
to get it over with.

Well, Heavenly Father loves each of you, never forget that! And so do
I! Have a great week!

-Elder Moon

May 9, 2016

Friends and family,

Well I've had a great time out here in Victor New York. I'll be
transferred to C where there is a branch, not a Ward. For
those of you who think of those as being an appendage of a tree and a
prison term, I'll explain. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints, we call units "wards." Those units cover a certain geography
and and members of the church who live in those boundaries are part of
that Ward. Well, in places where there are very few members, they just
have a "branch" instead of a Ward. It's just another term and
basically means "mini-Ward." I've never served in a branch so it'll be
a new experience being somewhere where there are very few members. It
will remind me of Burkburnett :)

So the challenge last week was to contact your mothers and pray for
thanks for them. I forgot to mention that was a challenge, I just
typed it as an invitation. I hope you all got a chance to do that! I
know I got to talk to my family yesterday which was great! Skype
stopped working but due to other technology blessings, I got to call
them on the phone. I'll take what I can get!

This week's challenge is to go meet someone who you don't know and
give them a compliment! I'll be doing a lot of that seeing as I'll be
going to a new area. So best of luck with that everyone and have a
great week!

Love you all!

-Elder Moon

May 2, 2016

Friends and family!

Well I forgot to mention last week that it was our first week meeting
that New Years resolution in this area! We'd gotten 5 member present
lessons and 2 people at church! Unfortunately we didn't have anybody
show up to church yesterday but we had 5 lessons with members there!

Christina hasn't been doing too well, she's struggling with some
topics so extra prayers for her would be great! Roy, George, and Frank
are also slowly coming along.

This coming Sunday is Mother's Day so that means two things. For all
of you, call your mother and thank her for everything! If you can't
(there are lots of people in this group and some might not be able to
do that in this life) thank your Heavenly Father for what a great mom
you were given! You were her child for a reason! And the second thing
is that I get to actually TALK to my family this Sunday! Yay!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

-Elder Moon

April 25, 2016

Friends and family,

Yesterday was going to be awesome! We had 3 people prepared and ready
to come to church, but Christina didn't come. She's no longer getting
baptized this Saturday because she can't quit smoking and there are
some things she wants to understand more at a slower pace. Tommy came
to church and after sacrament meeting said "this isn't for me" and
rushed out and left. He was Catholic and was expecting candles and
alters and things like that but it wasn't like that. We tried to
explain a little before (no candles) but should've been more thorough.
Sambo also came to church which was nice.

Things are coming along alright. Finding those who are ready and eager
to learn more is the struggle now. Several times though this last week
I had some ideas of things to do like "let's go see this person" and
so we did. It wasn't anything unique but we did them and things worked
out. Nothing super crazy, but just a little reminder that sometimes
the spirit whispers to us through little ideas and God is just seeing
if we will listen. So the challenge this week is to act on little
impressions you get and see how it goes. It might be nothing, but as
you act on them, God will trust you with real impressions in the
future!

Love you all!

-Elder Moon

April 18, 2016

Friends and family,

Well this last week was pretty average. We have not been in contact
with Christina which is not good. If you could pray for us to be able
to get in contact with her that'd be great! Also, we are going to be
meeting with Roy and Frank this week and next, so hopefully those
people are interested too!

A challenge for each of you this week is to write in your journal
every night. Journaling is something some of us (myself included at
times) just don't want to do, but it's awesome for future generations
to read if you do it! There's a scripture in the Book of Mormon
talking about how they labored diligently to write to persuade their
children and bretheren to believe in Christ. Another scripture says
they wrote so their children would look with joy and not sorrow about
all they'd journaled. So make your posterity happy and write!

Love you all!

-Elder Moon

April 12, 2016

Friends and family,

Well today we went to the temple so that's why our Pday and emails are
happening today instead of yesterday. Sorry mom if you thought I
wasn't emailing because you thought I was dead (my mom doesn't think
that, but some moms do, haha). But yeah, we went to the sacred grove
(where Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ) and the Hill
Cumorah visitor's center with Christina and the Maxwell's last
Thursday. That was great! We also had a specialized training at the
Peter Whitmer Farm (where the church was organized after being
restored) that same day, so last Thursday was awesome! Today at the
temple and Sacred Grove where we finished our studies was also great!
This mission is so much better than any other (rejections not welcomed
or valid :)

Things are going alright in this area too, we have had some people
take copies of the Book of Mormon and hopefully they read them! It
just takes the act of reading sincerely and praying about it to know
its true!

Challenge this week is to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon
and write down what your thoughts are. Regardless of how many times
you've read or not read it, you'll have something stand out to you!

Love you all and hope you all have a great mid April week! :)

-Elder Moon