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