June 27, 2016

Friends and Family,

This last week went well. It's just the same old same old. Finding people who might be interested and then not really going anywhere with them. They either change their minds or lie about actually being interested. But we'll keep trying to find the people like Henry! He's been coming to church for 3 weeks and came to a fireside (devotional type meeting) last night! He still wants to be baptized and is almost done with 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon! He's sincere!

We are getting a new mission president this week. It'll be sad to see President Francis go but also exciting to meet President Evans!

This week's challenge is to read your favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon. I will be finishing it for the 10th time cover to cover this Wednesday and it's so good! If you don't have a favorite, the shortest one is 3 Nephi 30 but a great choice is 3 Nephi 11!

Have a blast this week!

-Elder Moon

June 20, 2016

Friends and Family,

We got transfer calls this morning and our whole district is staying the same! An update on Henry: he came to church, is still excited about learning, and is willing to live the word of wisdom even though there are some addictions that have yet to be broken. Prayers for him would be great! He's so prepared!

Other people, Dan and Jan and Carmine and Mandy and all these people haven't really been in contact, but we're still working on it! A couple newer people are Jamie, Jana, and Bruce. Hopefully things will pick up with them and they'll be as solid as Henry!

Thanks Mom for letting me know what Jared means, I have an awesome name! Did anyone else find out anything cool about their name? I hope so, it was the first gift your parents gave you and it'll be with you for life!

This week's challenge has two parts: one is find a scripture that can help someone feel God's love. If you find a good one, let me know! The second part is to write five simple ways you've seen His love in your own life. Here's just five ways I've seen a his love in my life:

1. He blessed me with a wonderful family (immediate and extended)!

2. He blessed me with an incredible love for the scriptures!

3. He gave me citizenship in this great country of freedom!

4. He fills me with patience when people do dumb things and I have to put up with it!

5. I've been able to see His tender mercies from helping me smile when things go wrong to showing us people who want to learn about the gospel!

Be grateful for all you've been given! Have a fun week!

-Elder Moon

June 13, 2016

Friends and Family,

This last week was awesome! We met every single goal we set in weekly planning. I've never had that happen in my entire life! We usually exceed some, make some, and miss some. But this time we either made or beat all of them! It was great! We also got all of our June Jubilee goals so this week was awesome!

Henry came to church and has a baptism date, so keep praying for him!

We still can't meet with Dan but we met Josh who seemed really interested! Prayers from them would be great too! Jan was going to come to church but had to babysit grandkids. Grandkids are good, but hopefully she comes next week!

I'm getting better at basketball, so that's another fun fact, but I'm still not close to bringing honor to our family name when it comes to that average sport ;)

This week's challenge is to discover what your name means! Understand the meaning behind the name your parents chose for you. Is if a family name? Are you named after someone great? Or are you the one to make that name great? Or both!? Learn what your name means in Latin or Greek or Hebrew or whatever and live up to it! If it's something mediocre, make it superb! Ps, if someone can look up what "Jared"

stands for and email that to me, that'd be great...we don't have that privilege of using Google... Thanks!

Love you all and have a great week!

-Elder Moon

Here's a great picture based on Elder Holland's conference talk.  You can listen to Elder Holland's amazing talk at the link below.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/tomorrow-the-lord-will-do-wonders-among-you?lang=eng.

June 6, 2016

Friends and Family,

I hope you all got to thank someone who's made a difference in your life and someone you can remember for that (Memorial Day challenge).

If not, you still have time to!

So this week was good. We had a challenge from our zone leaders to have a "June Jubilee." We're getting a new mission president in July and we want to purge the mission and re-consecrate ourselves to be the best missionaries when he gets here. This Jubilee is in reference to the Jubilee year of the Old Testament when on the 50th year, all debts were forgiven, all slaves were freed, all prisoners were liberated, and all land was returned to the original owner. It was a year to just "start over" in all aspects of living. They challenged us to get 70 contacts, find 4 new investigators, have 2 lessons with a member present, and give out 6 copies of the Book of Mormon every week in June. We did it! One week down, 3 to go! This is super motivating for me and I hope it motivates the other missionaries in this zone. Even more importantly, hence why I'm sending this to you, I hope it motivates you to be a little better this June Jubilee!

We haven't been able to contact Dan this last week, but please keep praying for him! Also please pray for Jan and Mike to be interested and stay interested in learning more and improving their lives!

One fun thing we did this week is hear about the ice cream challenge.

A gallon in an hour. Haha, I prepared by drinking a gallon of water in an hour 2 nights this last week (yes, I had to get up and use the facilities so many times throughout the night, but never threw up). My companion and I tag teamed a gallon and succeeded in 35 minutes!

Neither of us threw up too! It's hard, don't think you can do it yourself! Also, don't try to play basketball right after, it's not as much fun as... Well I don't really find basketball fun on a regular stomach, sorry Dad. But it was still a fun little challenge!

Missions are hard and fun and good and good for you and others! Lots of benefits and lots of trials! One thing I'm working on this week is trying to help others see how this message can bless them in wherever they are in life. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been given to us for our happiness now and in eternity. It is there for us to use whether we are old or young, male or female, smart or uneducated, rich or poor. It's for everyone, and it helps us at all times. No, I correct myself. It CAN help us at all times. It only will if we reach out and grab it!

I challenge each one of us to pick something about ourselves we don't like and treat the rest of this month like a June Jubilee and leave it behind! When July comes, I hope I'm emailing a long list of people who have abandoned something they didn't like about themselves and can smile all the more brightly for their grand accomplishment! Christ's Atonement can do more than forgive sins, it can help us change bad habits and even change our natures!

-Elder Moon

May 30, 2016

Friends and family!

This is Memorial Day! Remember those who are fallen! In Alma 62:37 it
talks about someone who died and was a true friend to liberty and
suffered much defending his country! Another who gave His life to save
us was Jesus Christ, "Remember remember that it is upon the Rock of
our Redeemer who is Christ, the Son of God, that we must build our
foundations" (Helaman 5:12). Among all the memorials for today, make
sure to remember Christ and what He has done for all of us!

If you want to add people to your prayers, pray for Dan and Mandy and
Carmine please! If they read the things we left them they'll be
wonderfully prepared!

This week's challenge is to thank the family of someone who served our
country, thank a military person (active duty, vet, whatever), or
thank someone who has made a difference in your life! I personally
want to thank my Dad and Grandpa Moon (his dad) for their service!
Love you both!

Have a great week everyone and remember in whom you have trusted! :)

-Elder Moon

May 23, 2016

Friends and Family,  (It's HUMP day!!!)  1 year down and 1 year to go!

This will be rather short today since we are only taking half our Pday. Why? Because we're going to the temple this Wednesday! That'll be nice, the temple is great!

We did a ton of finding this week and gave out 18 copies of the Book of Mormon. That's a ton for this area! The average is probably like 4.

So yeah, I hope some people read from it! We're also trying to find people who are actually interested in what we have to share. It's crazy, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest product ever invented and yet people won't even listen to a free sample of this gift! It's free! People go buy overpriced useless products all the time and they won't even try out something that will improve the quality of their lives at any stage of life!

On a brighter note, there was a stake musical fireside yesterday which was awesome. So many good songs and great singers/musicians here!

This week's challenge is to listen to a song that you like that means a lot to you and then write down why (or in this modern world of obnoxious technology, you can type it). Share that with someone. So make sure it's good enough that you're willing to share it with someone!

Best wishes to everyone this week!

-Elder Moon

(In memory of day 1 of the mission)

May 16, 2016

Friends and Family,

Here I am in C. There are a LOT of members here who are not
active and don't come to church. Apparently there was a lot of drama
that caused people to get offended and leave or other reasons that
prevented them from coming. But it's a nice area and it's partly on an
Indian Reservation. People here are pretty nice. Work here is slow,
but we're going to push through and try to get more members coming to
church. We will also focus on the blessings of the gospel and how they
help unify families. People love family, so this should be a good
approach. It's also helpful that there are 4 main families on the
reservation and just about everyone is related to someone. Hence, the
focus on families.

I hope you all got the chance to compliment someone this last week! I
did a few times and it just makes the world better. If we could all
just think of one another as brothers and sisters we'd be such a
delightful people! There's a scripture that says "And The Lord called
His people Zion because they were of one heart and one mind" and it
goes on to say how we need to be righteous and love one another. We
had stake conference (church where multiple congregations come
together) and one of the speakers talked about a line from the song
"Called To Serve." The long is "Far and wide we tell The Father's
story, far and wide His love proclaim." He mentioned how important it
is to spread The Father's love to everyone we meet.

This week's challenge is to spread The Father's love to a family
member who needs it. We all need it, but if there's a particular
family member who might be struggling, take the longer road and truly
reach out to them, rather than cop out and tell someone quickly just
to get it over with.

Well, Heavenly Father loves each of you, never forget that! And so do
I! Have a great week!

-Elder Moon