August 21st, 2018

Boom Roasted

Dear Friends and Family

This week was transfers.  Nothing happened!  Me and Elder Picinich are staying here for another 6 weeks.  Woot woot!

This last week was incredibly successful. We set some people with baptismal dates and we are getting more people to Church. I'm tired and super happy!

I got sunburned finally. My tire tube got wrecked somehow and so I could no longer patch it up. A member happened to have the same tube and they let me use it, but before that happened we were walking in the 110 degree weather.  The UV index was pretty high that day as well, so we got roasted.  I am already starting to heal, but next time we are taking the sunscreen with us because it did not last that long. Funny enough we had a ward ice cream social that night, and we brought some people who are taking the lessons to that, and we got "roasted" by the members as well! It was funny, and they all gave the same advice. "Use more sunscreen"

It's weird to think that I am coming up on my year mark.  Has it really been that long?

In a week we are going to have TWO general authorities tour the mission. Lynn G. Robbins and one other 70 are going to be in the mission for about a week.  It's going to be pretty awesome. They are going to randomly interview some people as well. I am excited!

This week we helped our Ward Mission Leader move some of his extended family's stuff out of his house.  He is the one who is a retired Army General. He has been out of town, but it has been good to hear back from him and help him move some boxes. We also helped out a family remove carpet from their house. It was fun! They fed us nachos.

I forgot to send some of these other pictures, but one sister in our Ward is from Norway so she has some wooden Vikings and trolls on one of her shelves and I'm a nerd for that sort of thing so I took pictures...

Oh also, I have one picture of a duck. Why do I have that? There was a duck outside of our apartment. Are there ducks in the desert? Well I found one. No idea where it came from.  But...it was there.

Also, here is a picture of an American flag made of bullet casings.

Okay, so I found this scripture while in a personal study and it really stuck out to me...

Alma 7
15 Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism.

The interesting thing that we sometimes fail to recognize is that sins do indeed bind us down.  We keep ourselves from happiness and we keep ourselves from blessings when we sin.  Because of the Savior and His Atonement, we can be forgiven from them on conditions of repentance. About 4 verses before this there are 3 verses on Christ's Atonement and what it actually means.  It's Alma 7: 11-13.  I invite all of you to read about it and ponder what Christ did for you.  Because of Him we can feel relief from guilt, shame and all the bad feelings that always accompany sin. Wickedness never was happiness, after all. (Alma 41:10) Why not lay aside every sin? The Lord is waiting for you to let Him heal you. Why not keep his commandments and repent? Relief and happiness are waiting for you. I know that if we earnestly seek the Lord's help and set aside every sin, that He will heal us and guide us back to our Heavenly Father. I know that permanent relief from guilt and shame comes only through the Lord Jesus Christ. So let us make those changes and get back on track.


Thanks for all the love and support!

-Elder Moore