April 3, 2017

Family and Friends!

This week was great. Conference was awesome! Lots of good talks, and they are all online (or will be this week) so if you missed them you can watch them and listen to them as much as you want forever! I strongly recommend them, they're good talks! 

As for contacting all those people, this week was slower because Elder Gardner got sick for two days. We weren't allowed to leave our apartment since he threw up so I read the Book of Mormon. I was in Helaman 9 when he woke up sick Tuesday morning and I finished Moroni 10 Wednesday evening (about 150 pages or so, and these pages have tiny words, so it was lots of reading and I was all readed out). I'm currently on page 56 of the Doctrine and Covenants and would love to finish that this month. We did call several of the people whose phone numbers we had while he was sick. Not much came of it. I'm going to try and get all the people on the list contacted this week. Then I won't leave anything undone if I leave the area for my last transfer, and if I stay I'll have things cleaned up for a fresh start for my last transfer!

This week's challenge, I encourage each of us to make our prayers more meaningful. A big focus of the face to face event in Palmyra a few weeks ago and another theme of conference was about the spirit and prayer. In making our prayers more meaningful we will access heaven more fully. We can do this by visualizing ourselves at the throne of God and treating the prayer as not a conversation but us speaking to God The Father. He loves us, but we need to be reverent and not treat it as a casual conversation. Pray for the spirit and follow what inspiration you receive! 

Have an awesome week everyone!

-Elder Moon

March 27, 2017

Friends and Family,

This week was anticipated to be full of contacting those formers and potentials but it ended up being full of exchanges and mini exchanges. We had lots of deaf work going on so my companion was going to those teaching appointments with another ASL missionary. I got to do finding in their area while he got to teach and contact those deaf people. I also got to miss out on visiting my previous area (V) and seeing the coolest family there (the M's). They also stopped by the mission office and got to see the Spencer's, so I just got shafted time after time this week! But the church is still true and the work is the same regardless of where you are! At least that's what they say ;) jk it is! 

I did have a good week, even though I didn't get to do the fun things. Life isn't always about fun. I quoted this in my graduation speech and think it's about time I say it again. Vivian Green said "life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain!" I think I said that right. In life we shouldn't be waiting for something better tomorrow or next week or next year. We shouldn't be looking forward to our next chapter. We should plan for it and be excited for it, but if we are longing for it we will miss out on the opportunities of today and the blessings we could've found. We are in charge of how much we enjoy each situation, so we should find the joy in each opportunity we're given. 

The challenge this week is to be optimistic! If that's too hard, the other challenge is to have a question or two and take it to conference. Then watch conference, any or all sessions, looking for the answer(s). They are at 10 AM and 2 PM this Saturday and Sunday (Mountain time, so if you're in Texas or Kansas, it's an hour later; if you're on the East like me it's two hours later, those on the West coast it's an hour earlier, so don't sleep in too long!). You can find it on BYU TV or on lds.org.

Well have an awesome week everyone! Be optimistic or inquisitive or both! :)

-Elder Moon

March 20, 2017

Friends and Family!

This week was safe, but slow. We had a pretty good blizzard with several feet of snow and lots of shoveling happened. Not as much teaching but we hope this week has more. During some of the hours we weren't allowed to drive, we went through all the former investigators in our area book and looked at who might be interested now and who wouldn't be. We're going to try and contact all the ones who might be interested either this week or the next. Hopefully some become new investigators! 

Ed quit coffee! He's been free of it since his priesthood blessing! His next step is tea and then he'll be ready to get baptized! Becky actually met with us on Monday and our appointment cancelled due to weather this week. We're trying to reschedule. Some other people showed some interested so their names might come up soon if they start progressing!

Challenge of the week is to go into nature and thank Heavenly Father for the beautiful creations you see! I recently finished the reference book True to the Faith and one thing that really stood out to me was the gratitude section. If you want an additional challenge, go read that section!

Have an awesome week and love you all!

-Elder Moon

March 13, 2017

Friends and family!

Well I wasn't fortunate enough to get another apostolic slap this week, but we did have a good week! One of the people we are teaching is trying to quit drinking coffee and he has avoided it for I think 5 days straight now, which is awesome for him! Hopefully he can keep it up! There isn't much happening that's out of the ordinary. We are teaching a few people but our teaching pool is small. Most of the people are still up in the air and we're trying to consistently meet with them.

Challenge of the week is to be of good cheer! Smile at at least 5 people everyday, and they have to be different people everyday.

Therefore, 35 people will get free smiles this week! If you're a hermit and don't see people because you stay home all day, get out and enjoy some fresh air! Love you all!

-Elder Moon

March 6, 2017

Friends and family,

I'll spend the email telling about our experience with Elder Holland coming to our mission: I was playing the prelude in the gym waiting for him to arrive. We were all in our positions for a big picture and I was playing off to the side. After playing for a while, I heard his voice and in my head I was like "ah he's here!" He sounds like he does in Conference and recordings, it's not like those people who have different sounding voices in real life. Anyway, as he walked into the gym, he bee-lined (I think that's how you use that term, maybe I'm spelling it wrong which isn't unusual) right over to me and walked quickly over to me and as he approached me I looked over and he said "thank you for playing" and then I guess he heard me miss a note at some point because right after that, he slapped me! No joke, he straight up slapped me! As he did, he said "I'm glad your mother made you practice." The slap was more of a pat (like his wife's name) on the cheek, but nonetheless, I was slapped by an apostle!

After the picture, he went in the hall and shook everyone's hand as we went into the chapel. He asked everyone their name and where they're from. He told us later he did it to "interview everyone" and didn't care too much what their names were or their native land. He just needed us to say something and looked into our eyes/souls to see how we were doing. He then told President Evans he felt our mission was pretty good. He didn't sense any serious struggle, there might be 1 or

2 struggling but that's normal for a mission. It was pretty cool! But the bummer is he didn't interview me! I was at the end of the line since I was playing after the picture too. As I went by he said thanks for playing again, and I think I just said "no problem" or something, but I didn't tell him my name or anything. Oh well.

His address to us was good and pretty similar in lots of ways to when he came to the MTC. Then he came down from the stand and then used the chalkboard. He wrote parts of 1 Nephi 1 about Lehi's experience like "prophet, prayer, vision, received a book, book had prophecy, he testified to the people, people wanted to kill him, etc." Then Elder Holland asked us "who's story is that?" Someone said "Joseph Smith's."

He said something like "what, is that Joseph's story that he wrote down since he wrote the Book of Mormon and we're trying to pull a fast one on everyone, that this is all made up by him? NO! THAT'S EVERY PROPHET'S STORY!!" It was so cool! I originally thought the person who answered was wrong because it was about Lehi, but then it clicked and I realized it was Joseph Smith's story, and every other prophet's story! No true prophet has ever been accepted by everyone. No true prophet has ever left this world  unscathed and free of persecution.

Why? Because Satan knows they're a threat to his work and a great advocate to God's work. The adversary will always tempt people to reject the truth and persecute the righteous mouthpieces of God. All the persecution against Joseph is compelling enough evidence to consider his truthful prophetic mantel.

The challenge this week is to pray to know if the heavens are opened.

If God really would call a prophet today. As you do, wait for an answer! I know you can receive it if you ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, and with faith in Christ! Love you all!

-Elder Moon

February 27, 2017

Friends and Family!

This week was pretty good. We have two people back on date and we'll see how those turn out. They're both for a few weeks from now. I will be staying in this area this next transfer and will still be with Elder G. I'm learning a little ASL and was able to sign the sacrament prayer for bread yesterday at church. If you don't know what that is, you should go to an LDS service this Sunday and see what I had to interpret! :)

We were also able to go to V last night for dinner and stopped by the deaf people out there. They were busy packing for a vacation to Cambodia, BUT they set up an actual appointment for us to come teach them, so we're excited things are picking up there! And it was always good to go to the M's house for dinner. They're the best!

This week or weekend Elder Holland (an apostle) and President Eyring (from the first presidency) will be here for a Face to Face event for the youth. They will be doing a special missionary meeting for us and I've been asked to play prelude on the piano as they show up. Not everyone is able to say they've played the piano for an apostle and someone from the first presidency! 

So the challenge this week is to practice a musical instrument. Because if I'm playing for them, I'll be nervous! So that'll be something important for me to do and I figured I'd make it easy for me and challenge something I'm already doing ;) love y'all!

-Elder Moon

February 20, 2017

Friends and Family,

This week was good! We went to the sites with D who was baptized last week. He loved it! As we were leaving the Sacred Grove he was repeatedly saying "The Mormon Book is true! It's true! People don't believe me and they won't read it, but it's true!" It was awesome to see his love for the gospel! During that trip, I was able to go on splits and go to the temple with C from B! She was able to be baptized for some of her ancestors and I was able to do the baptizing! Then she asked me to be baptized for her male ancestors and it was such a cool experience! 

This coming week we have several appointments set up which is nice! Usually we don't have much set. So hopefully this week will be super successful and we can do lots of teaching! 

This week' challenge is to stay hydrated! It's warming up here in New York so it's important we stay hydrated so we can serve God "with all [our] heart might mind and strength" (D&C 4:2). Have an wonderful watery week! Love you all!

-Elder Moon