September 28, 2015

Friends and family,

Another good week. Some other missionaries in our ward had a baptism and we had an investigator named Stephanie and her kids attend that! It was awesome! She's read over half the Book of Mormon within the last 2 weeks, holy cow! Talk about dedication!!

We are having a hard time getting lots of our appointments to actually happen. People here are willing to set them but either aren't home when we show up or say "now's not a good time." If anyone has ideas of how to solve that problem, that would be great! 

Thanks and special shout out to my band director, math teacher, Amanda, my grandparents, and my mom (and anyone I forgot) for telling me their favorite Christmas songs! Funniest one I got was Mr Bayless's choice, Los Peces En El Rio. I haven't heard that song in a very long time! Lots of "Oh Holy Night" responses too! Mine is Angels We Have Heard on High, but Hark the Harold Angels Sing is a close second... however, like my dad's mom, in the last few years I've really liked the 4th verse of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." So that's that.

New challenge: For this week, find a way you're prideful and STOP IT! If you're too competitive (now I support good competition that motivates us to improve, but I mean the "I'm superior to you" competitiveness), be willing to be a cheerful loser if/when you lose. If you're too rude to a spouse, child, parent, or friend, be extra nice this week, even if they deserve it. Suck up your pride and be generous. You'll be a true winner that way. 

Have a great week!

-Elder Moon

September 21, 2015

Friends and family,

Well this last week wasn't as much based on numbers, but was just as awesome! We had several lessons and some people were excited to learn while others were not. That's the joy of being a missionary, some people love to listen and others feel you're wasting their time.

Challenge of the week: Tell me your favorite Christmas song! I know that's a long time from now, but Christmas is a great time and everyone is happy then, so why not now?!

Sorry this was shorter than normal, and that its after 6 NY time, we had a zone Pday activity which was fun but I hate when they go over time. I'm talking to the mission president about it.

-Elder Moon

Here's Canada!!

September 14, 2015

Friends and family,

This last week was awesome! We gave out 52 copies of the Book of Mormon, had 48 other lessons, and found 11 new investigators! That is incredibly more than I've ever seen done! It was definitely a week filled with blessings!

For reporting on my failure this last week to be more healthy, I didn't eat as much junk (treats) and exercised more. Didn't really change much weight wise, but I was healthier. 

This week's challenge is to share something you believe with someone, anyone! A friend, a stranger, a sinking or relative or anyone! 

Know that I know the Book of Mormon is true. Having passed out as many copies as we did this last week, I had the opportunity to share what is was SEVERAL times. It's another testament of Jesus Christ. So if you like the bible, see what's in the Book of Mormon! There are verses in both the old and new testaments that reference it, and it verifies the truthfulness of the bible, so they complete one another! I love both books!

We'll have a great week everyone!

-Elder Moon

September 7, 2015

Friends and family,

Well this last week was good, but this coming week will be better! We
met more people and gave out 10 copies of the Book of Mormon. But we
can do better! In regards to my challenge last week, I started
learning to cook and make more things on my own. The con of that is I
made ice cream and other treats, so I gained a few pounds rather than
lose them... So I'll try to swap that around this coming week so as to
not be a hypocrite!

This week's challenge is to repent of something you've done in the
past (long ago, recently, or presently). This was inspired by my
having not done my last challenge.

A scripture for the week is Mosiah 2:41. It's in the Book of Mormon.
If you don't own a copy, you can request one on Mormon.org for free,
or you can read it free online. Several websites have irk including
lds.org.

I hope everyone has a great week and thanks to everyone who gave me
ideas or emailed me personally about the challenge!

-Elder Moon

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!)