January 25, 2016

Friends and family,

Well we didn't make it this week. We had our 5 lessons with a member present but we didn't have anyone at church. There were 8 people in line to come and nobody did. They all either got sick, had to babysit, or slammed their hand in a door and broke two fingers or other things.

Well, we'll try to get it next week.

Challenge, invite someone to church this week! Whether they come or not is beyond your control, but invite someone! Someone who doesn't usually come, don't be that guy who invites the person they always sit next to. That's cheap. Go big!

Love you all!

-Elder Moon

January 19, 2016

Friends and family,

This is annoying. We literally were scrapping to get two people at church last Sunday. We need to be more proactive so we don't have to rely on a miracle to come in and save us. But we did go to the temple today which is why our emails are coming today rather than Monday.

This last week was good. We have a family that was going to come to church but the mom got sick and wasn't up for coming. Hopefully they'll all come next Sunday.

A thought I have is that if we look at one another as brothers and sisters, we wouldn't want to seriously hurt one another. But we've all had conflicts with our siblings growing up (I had quite the quarrelsome sister, she always tried to pick a fight with innocent Jared... Ok, maybe I wasn't so innocent...) but we do have those trials and troubles with siblings. BUT if we see each other as brothers and sisters AND if we imagine God, our Heavenly Father, watching us as if we were little children, then every time we wanted to symbolically hit our sibling, we'd see Him give us "the look" and we would drop our figurative fists in shame. We'd feel Godly sorrow for trying to hurt a human heart that cannot be healed without more love than we can offer and more time than we have to give.

So for a challenge this week, I want you to all look up the Mormon Message "The Other Prodigal" by Jeffrey R Holland. It's like 6 minutes, and if you think that's not too long, you should also look up the whole talk that it comes from. It's worth the 15 minutes or so, I promise! It'll totally motivate you to be more generous to others! I'd add the link on here but I don't know how and probably can't anyway with our restrictions to Internet as missionaries. Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Moon

January 11, 2016

Friends and Family,

We did it! 5 member present lessons on Saturday with things pulling through at the last second again! And 4 people at sacrament meeting!

So this week we are going I to try and get more member present lessons earlier in the week. We had exchanges so I wasn't in our area for Wednesday which is one of the days we try to get some, and this last Wednesday none happened. One was scheduled, but it didn't pull through.

Thanks Grandma Smith for that compliment this week! Hopefully you all complimented people too! Also, I hope everyone stays warm and safe!

We've gotten some snow and icy roads, so everyone stay safe!

Hmm, what's a good challenge for this week? Pray for someone close to you this week every day by name. It can be a parent, a spouse, a child, a friend, or whoever!

Good luck those in school and those who work (which in some way that includes all of us, working at a job, as a parent, as a disciple of Christ, etc.)! Love you!

-Elder Moon

January 4, 2016

Friends and family:

I want to start off sharing a miracle that happened this week. I had set the goal to have 5 member present lessons and 2 at sacrament meeting every week. This week we had one on Wednesday and then we had 5 on Saturday. So we exceeded that goal this week, which was a great start to that goal this week. We also had several people say they would come to church but nobody did. A member was picking some up and others would drive themselves. No luck. Finally, about a few minutes into testimonies I saw Stephanie Richards and her daughter walk into the chapel. I almost had to hold back the tears (and I'm usually not a very emotional person) but with fasting for this new year's resolution and hearing a testimony on fasting, knowing I can only do my small part and can't accomplish his goal without God's help, I can't force people to come to church, I know this sentence is a run on, but it was just amazing. This week the entire goal was met and pulled through miraculously at the "last second." I'm nervous that this goal won't be reached every week, but I can't say that or I'll lose hope. I'll just take it one week at a time and work for and hope for the best.

Other than that, there weren't any earth shattering events. I hope everyone is having a wonderful new year and has made resolutions they can strive to keep. Sorry about the bad grammar if that wasn't correctly worded... Especially sorry to Mrs. Johnston (my former English teacher) if that's the case. I think it's right...

Anyway, a challenge this week is to compliment someone everyday. It can be a different someone each day, your choice!

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Moon

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