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

October 19, 2015

Well, this is my addition for this week: Christ lives! Two simple words, but they're filled with incomprehensible truth! And the challenge, which doesn't relate to that declaration at all: what song reminds you the most of me?

Have an even better blast this week than last week everyone!

Caption:  New haircut!

October 12, 2015

Friends and family,

I want to clarify my comment last week: "I truly am superior to him and must win every time." That was an example of what my prideful side would say. I don't actually think I'm superior to him. I was just saying that's the side of me that I have to subdue and conquer. That kind of attitude would most definitely be prideful and that's what I was working to avoid. So letting someone have the victory is one way we can destroy those tempting thoughts of supremacy. 

But yes, we definitely need to avoid those thoughts every time we can. Anyway, one great way to overcome pride is by loving others. Sometimes it's hard, but it's good to do and a happy way to live.

Miracle of the week! Several weeks ago we met a man out jogging named Shevah. He didn't give us any contact info so we just deleted him out of our records last week. Like 5 days later we happened to run into him and he gave us a number to call! Crazy!! So we added him back to the records but I thought there was NO WAY we could possibly find him again. And he found us! What a blessing! We also had Stephanie and her daughter come to church and they want to come next week with her whole family! That's awesome!!

Anyway, challenge of the week is to ponderize a scripture of your choice! Pick a verse you like or don't know or anything in between. Then memorize it and think about it several times every day. Tell me what happens because of it!

Happy Birthday to my favorite sister, Lauren!!!

Have a blast this week everyone!

-Elder Moon

Who has time to carry two loads??

October 5, 2015

Family and friends,

Well this last week I thought of some ways to be less prideful. One way was doing other people's dishes without making some snide comment about how "it'd be nice if people would do their own dishes" or something like that. Just silently serving. I also determined I would let a Elder G"out-kick" me at the end of our morning jog we do each day (minus Sunday). He started kicking and I just let him beat me because I usually just out kick him when he thinks he can beat me. I am truly superior to him and MUST win every time, so I do! But that's prideful, so I just sucked it up on Saturday and let him finish first. I then spent several different segments of time wishing I had just out-kicked him and won so I would be able to say I always won, but that was just self-defeating (since I knew I needed to let him finish first for my pride to begin to die). Pride is annoying.

Anyway, thanks for all the responses and general conference was awesome this last weekend! Check out some of the talks at lds.org! There are some pretty awesome ones! 

This week's challenge is to think of a challenge for me! And then do it too, so you can't pick something impossible because you'll be just as accountable! Hope everything goes well for everyone this coming week!

-Elder Moon

Caption:Elder G informed me that strainers don't work like funnels (I knew this, I just spilled a lot...haha)