August 31, 2015

Friends and Family,

Sorry this is coming late, we had a combined zone activity today 2
hours away, which means 4 hours driving round trip, so we have been
given extra time to finish emails and shopping and other necessities
tonight. Thanks to everyone who sent their favorite songs and told me
about their experiences reconnecting! Shout out to a high school band
friend who chose me as their friend to reconnect with!

So I'm now in Lewiston NY and things are slow. My new companion and I
are both new to the area so it's interesting trying to meet people and
get things rolling! But challenge accepted! It'll be fun, and hard,
but most of all, it'll be a good experience to push myself to give
more than I've ever given of myself and learn to love more people more
perfectly.

Challenge of the week, this is a thought I had the other day: We would
be a lot more healthy and fit if all the calories we ate and all the
exercise we did affected our spouse's body, not ours. We wouldn't eat
that extra cookie and we'd push ourselves to jog one more lap because
we want our spouse to be healthy and fit. But when it's our own body,
we justify eating that extra candy bar and skip our daily set of push
ups because, well, we are happy with how we look. But think, your body
is a temple Heavenly Father has given you. I'm not married, so I can't
think about eating my spouse's calories or exercising for them, but I
do love God and want to please Him. The challenge this week is to
choose healthy foods and do a little more exercise than we usually do
to make our temples more "fit" for the kingdom! Love God enough by
taking care of the body He has blessed us with!

Also, let me know what some of your ideas are so I can use and spread
them! Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Moon

August 24, 2015

(No Su

Well, if any of you (or all of you) didn't get an email last week
that would be because I completely forgot to send one! Sorry about
that!

So my favorite song... Oh that's a hard one. I love 80's music and
hymns Disney music. I would have to say as of right now, my favorite
one is "You're the Inspiration" by Chicago. Thanks everyone who
answered that! Music is a wonderful thing that can cause many feelings
and emotions that would not be discovered any other way. I love music!

Well I'll be transferred to Lewiston New York tomorrow and will bid
Geneseo goodbye! I'm excited to have the opportunity to go somewhere
new and hit the ground running!

This week's challenge is to contact one of your old friends you
haven't contacted in a while. One quote I've heard recently is "we're
so connected that we aren't connecting" as in we are so linked
together through social media that we aren't actually connecting
(talking, interacting, spending time with each other physically
present rather than virtually). I thought that was awesome, so I
wanted to share it! Let me know how it goes (if it isn't too
personal)!

Everyone, have a great week!

-Elder Moon

August 10, 2015

Friends and Family, 

 Well my question is how can you love the sinner and hate the sin? It's
easy to hate the sin, but sometimes I find myself hating the sinner
too. If I knew how to answer this question, I'd be much better than I
am now. But I think the answer is practice. Constantly trying and
serving and praying for a change of heart to see others the way God
sees them.

Thanks for everyone who sent their questions, all of like 3 people.
Haha, but that's fine. 

This week's challenge is to tell me what your
favorite song is and why (religious, pop, rock, any genre).

I'm doing well, we've seen a few miracles this last week. One lady was
super excited to get a copy of the Book of Mormon and was anxious to
read it (which never happens). We were about to walk down Main Street
and just try to meet people, but I got a thought "go to the Gaby
family" and I thought to myself "nah" and immediately the same thought
came into my mind as surprisingly as if it was a new thought "go to
the Gaby's" so I asked my companion "do you want to go to the Gaby's?"
And he said "yeah." So we walked over there and gave someone a copy of
the Book of Mormon on the way, and as it turns out, the Gaby's were
there and we sat and taught a lesson and invited them to a member's
house (their friends) for another lesson later on! It was amazing! 

 That's all from Elder Moon, everyone have a great week! 

 -Elder Moon 

PS shout out to my awesome sister who gave a phenomenal homecoming
talk yesterday!!

Hey dad---look at this!  (fake dunk!)

August 3, 2015

Friends and family,

Well this week was good. We had a few crazy people yell at us and ask us random strange questions and lots of rejection, but we also had lots of success. For example (on the less positive side) I went up to one man walking by and said "hey sir, how are you?" And he yelled "GO!! I'm tired of talking to preachers!!" That was a little crazy...

I'm pretty sure he was crazy too, or on drugs based on the way he turned and looked at us and all. But everyone deserves to be loved.

So a note of apology, the first few emails I've sent have been a little forceful about reading the Book of Mormon or other things. I apologize if I seemed to take away your agency (free will/ability to choose). Everyone has their own choices to make. However, it's still true that you won't know until you try. So I invite (not force) you to give it a shot! The worst that could happen is you get sucked into goodness and spend more time than you expected deeply thinking about what is written. :)

I will be honest, I didn't pick a specific thing to increase my faith in Christ this last week among the rush of last week. But I finished the Book of Mormon for the 8th time and still know it's true, and that increased my faith in Him!

This week's challenge: think of a question, preferably a spiritual question, and then ask me. I'll give you my answer next week, but also pray about it and see what you learn!

With love,

-Elder Moon

July 27, 2015

Friends and family,

Super quick email today because I'm short on time. Thanks to everyone who sent me their favorite New Testament scripture! Mine is John 7:17.

I hope everyone has a great week and for those who are concerned with how I'm doing, I'm doing just fine! Service and sharing the gospel is a blast! My sister just made it home safely from her mission, way to return with honor (which is different from getting honorably released, you can get honorably released from full time missionary service and not return with honor, but my sister is doing both today, yay sister!).

Challenge for this week: pick one way to improve your faith in Christ and let me know what it is, then follow up and report on how it went!

Love,

-Elder Moon

July 20, 2015

Friends and family,

Well I'm super excited to be with a new companion. My last companion and I were complete opposites so we clashed a lot. We still got along and did work, but it was rough. This new companion and I agree on lots of things and work together well. We will have many new stories from the new level of work we will be doing from raising our bar!

We had one progressing investigator and when we came in he said this will be our last meeting together. We asked him why and he said he likes his church and doesn't want to change. We explained we aren't trying to push anyone anywhere and only want to add to what people have. We read parts of Mosiah 3 and talked about the restoration again. He then committed to read from and pray about the what? You guessed it! The Book of Mormon! And we also scheduled another meeting with him (refer to the statement above about this being our last meeting). Miracles happen my friends!!

So, my favorite attribute is charity/love. My math teacher from freshman and sophomore year sent an awesome email about her thoughts on this and I completely agree with her! I think this attribute is the most important (it says it's the most important in the scriptures too) but it really is! If you're full of love toward God first and everyone else second and THEN yourself, you'll always be happier because you're focusing OUT and not IN!

Anyway, this week's challenge: send me your favorite New Testament scripture! Tell me what it is and why you love it!

-Elder Moon

July 13, 2015

Friends and Family,

So this week is transfer week, which means missionaries get swapped
around a little. I'm staying here but my trainer is going on to be an
assistant to the president (one of the responsibilities missionaries
can have). So Elder W is leaving me and Elder L will join
me!

I'd like to thank my grandma, mother, aunt, and cousin (that's who I
remember, sorry if I forgot to mention you) for sending me their
testimonies of the Book of Mormon! The Hill Cumorah Pageant started
this last week and it's all about that wonderful book! After the rest
of you send in your testimonies, venture out to Palmyra NY and check
out the pageant! It's free and parking is free too!

As I said before, Christ-like attributes this week! Send me your
favorite ones and a list of ones you want to work on this week! As an
added bonus, tell me what you're going to do to WORK ON THEM this
week!! :)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. It is the
ONLY church on earth that has the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ without minor flaws in its doctrine. If you do not believe this
or are offended by it, I'll take a moment to apologize for undue
offense. I respect every individual's beliefs and don't want to put
anyone down for what they believe in. But I do not apologize for my
bold declaration of the truth. Some of you laugh or roll your eyes and
mutter "truth." That is fine. You have your agency (right and ability
to make your own choices). Before you move on though, but after you
roll your eyes and mumble, ask yourself this question: "what if he's
right?" Jared Moon, now Elder Moon, may have a track record for being
right often, and maybe he doesn't. But of this I know I am right. This
church is true. The only way you can KNOW if it is true (not just deny
it) is if you read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Please do this.
I promise you will regret NOT taking this challenge (if you haven't
already) at judgement day. Please do it for your own best interests.
It will bless your life beyond measure, beyond what you believe right
now. I'm giving 2 whole years of my life, the prime years of my life,
for this. The least YOU can do is read and pray about it.

With love,

-Elder Moon

Pictures-

Palmyra Pageant!

First day in the mission with President and Sister Francis at the place it ALL began!