December 28, 2015

Friends and family,

Oh boy. Merry late Christmas everyone! And have a happy new year this
week! I sent a tiny email two weeks ago because I was short on time
and then didn't have a working iPad last week to send anything on. So
it's been a while.

Things are still going alright here but we want to kick them up. Our
goal is to have 5 lessons a week with a member present and 2 at
sacrament meeting each Sunday. Those are missionary terms for some of
the things we help people do.

Did you read Luke 2 about the Christmas story? I read it several times
before and on Christmas Day and it was great! If you didn't, you
should! Also, 3 Nephi 1 is a great Book of Mormon story that happens
at the same time but on the other side of the world. Both of those
stories testify of the same thing and it's amazing how two totally
different groups of people can respond so differently to miracles and
signs like that!

So that'll be the challenge this week, read those chapters if you
didn't last week. It doesn't count if you read them in the past. You
should read them again. If you did just barely read them last week,
ponder them and think of something you should do to act on what you
learned.

Have a great rest of this 2015th year since Christ came that seemed to
fly by! Hopefully 2016 is even better for each of you!

-Elder Moon

December 14, 2015

Family and Friends,

Well I have one minute, so love you all! Sorry I forgot to email
anything today! I'm alive and wish you all a merry Christmas!

-Elder Moon

December 8, 2015

Friends and family,

This is the same explanation for all the emails I'm sending, just copying and pasting it. Sorry I didn't email yesterday, we had a zone conference so our preparation day was moved to today. The cool thing is Elder Gregory A Schwitzer (gave the talk "Let the Clarion Trumpet Sound" last general conference, the October 2015 one) came and spoke to us! And he interviewed a few missionaries beforehand and I was one of those people who got interviewed! That was cool! He just asked some get to know you and your family type questions and things like that, but it was cool!

Besides that awesome zone conference not much is different here. We went to the temple today and have been doing more work with the investigators. Hopefully I'll have more stories in the coming weeks. Some things are worth writing about, but most are just stuck in my journal and haven't made it to emails yet. 

Challenge this week is listen to Christmas music! Have a great week!

-Elder Moon

November 23, 2015

Friends and family,

Ready for Thanksgiving everyone!? Well it's here! I might be that guy you hate, but I'm so pumped for Christmas! I love that time of year even though Thanksgiving hasn't happened. But I'll patiently wait. Thanksgiving is awesome too!

This last week was full of plowing through all our people and seeing who's ready and who isn't really interested. We found some were actually more interested than we thought AND we found new people in that quest to visit everyone. There's more for this week though, so it'll probably be much like this last week. But it was a good week, so I'm excited for the next few days. I hope that made sense... 

Challenge for this week, make a list of 100 things you're thankful for! You don't need to send it to me, but if you do I will read it :)

Thanks for the childhood memories everyone who shared them with me! Have a wonderful Turkey Day!!

-Elder Moon

November 16, 2015

Family and Friends,

Well we set a baptismal date with Juna this week. She's a person we met a few weeks ago. Pray for her to desire to continue progressing toward that big step near the end of December!

I will be staying here in Lewiston getting a new companion so that'll be fun. We had a slower week this last week trying to contact several people we'd talked to before and lost touch with. I also got to go on exchanges with a Zone Leader and he re emphasized how we need to focus on the elect. If people aren't progressing and aren't really interested now, drop them for future missionaries to come by later when they're more prepared. It's not rude to drop them, it shows you love them enough to patiently wait for them to be ready. 

Challenge this week! Share a favorite childhood memory (anything high school or younger, so not really childhood but whatever) with someone you care about! Love you all and have a great week!

-Elder Moon

November 9, 2015

Friends and Family,

This week we didn't almost get shot, so that's a plus! We had some good lessons and had a total of 5 lessons taught with members present, so that's good! We got other members involved that usually don't come out with us, so progress is in the works! I just realized every sentence I type ends with "so_____" after the first part, so I guess I'm consistent!

We have a new rule in our mission of "out the door in 44" which now includes meal appointments. That will be hard to follow because we have to have a spiritual thought and eat all in that time. Some of you are thinking "that's not too hard" which is right. But the difficult aspect comes in when we consider the traditions of the members here. They're very used to an hour, so things will seem rushed and some might take offense (that we're more concerned with the clock than their needs). So my advice is be thankful for the freedom you have now and don't take it for granted!

That leads me to this week's challenge: use your agency (ability to choose) to increase your agency. Choose to kick an addiction to free yourself from those chains (giving you freedom from that addiction). Choose to give to others to then have somebody indebted to you and have the freedom to control them (ok, maybe not for that reason, that was a joke people). But really, find a way to use your agency to increase it! 

And, as always, have a great week!

-Elder Moon

November 2, 2015

Friends and Family,

Well there was a crazy story that we were part of yesterday. We were tracting (going door to door) and this man came out at this one house, yelling and swearing at us to go away. So we left as he requested. I said as we walked away "we were just offering service" and he said "I'll show you service!" Oh, a small detail I forgot to mention: he was pointing a gun at us when he opened the door. So that was fun! But neither of us got shot, so all is well!

Other than that exciting news and some drama within the ward and some misunderstandings we had to deal with, everything went well. Hope everyone's week went well and this next one will go even better!

This week's challenge is to pray. If you already do pray daily, find a way to make those prayers more meaningful!

-Elder Moon