August 27th, 2019

This is it

Hello everyone

This is going to be my last email. Last week I sent one, but it didn't work so I apologize. Here are some random pictures I took the last few weeks.

What more can be said? I get home in 8 days from now. A week and a day....

I have never felt so blessed in my life. There are many great things that have happened in the last two years. What a journey it has been...

I am somewhat in denial that I am going home soon. It was all worth it.

I k ow this email was not that long. I will leave you with my testimony.

I know that there is a God, and that He loves us. I know that He sent His Only Begotten Son to pay the demands of justice on our behalf, for our sins and our slip-ups. I know that He knows all of us by name, personally and intimately. I know that He spoke to the boy Joseph Smith and brought forth the Book of Mormon for us. I know that The Savior Lives. I know that we are spiritual beings having a mortal experience, and that this is not the end. I know that Russel M Nelson is the Prophet of God on the earth. Gods love is real, and I have felt it in my life. I know He is there.

I love you guys. I will probably see some of you in the future.

And to the rest I bid adieu

-Elder Moore










August 13th, 2019

What

Hello friends and family

Yesterday I had my last zone Conference. I cried a lot near the end when they asked the departing missionaries to bare their testimony. It was pretty cool. Big boys do cry.

My weekly emails have been a bit skimpy lately, mostly because every day we do the same thing, basically. New experiences do happen, but what more can be said about tweakers in Needles?

This weekend we are having a wedding-baptism. A member of the church is marrying this guy we taught and they are getting hitched on Saturday. The guy getting Baptized asked me to Baptize him, so this will be a good last hurrah, seeing as the next baptisms won't occur while I am here. Needles has definitely topped being my favorite area I have served in. I love all of my areas, but Needles is definitely the most unique one and since it is my last area, it is special.

Yesterday we had zone Conference at the mission office, which is in Las Vegas. My current companion is from Shelly Idaho and he has never driven in a city before (sorry to say but Idaho Falls and Rexburg don't count for city driving once you've been in an actual city). He was very nervous and I was teaching him how to drive in the city. He did great and we didn't die, so that was nice. It was about a 2 to 3 hour drive from Needles and so we didn't get back until last night at around 8. We hit the streets for about an hour and we talked to our friend Benny, a semi-homeless guy who loves the church a lot.

Check it out now: today we are going to Parker to party with our zone leaders. And by party, I mean exchanges with them. Not Parker Idaho, Parker Arizona. Don't get your hopes up.

Have fun wherever you are at. I will probably send at least one more weekly email before I get shipped home.

Keep the faith

-Elder Moore




August 6th, 2019

Another week in the heat

Hey Everyone

It was a good week. I don't have much to report this time around. We have been busy working out in the heat. It reached 121 degrees yesterday. I helped a family RIP up some tile. I killed a ton of giant wasps with a stick in the chapel before the font got filled up. We Baptized two people on Saturday. I make lots of calls now. We have been doing a lot of service lately. I bought bratwursts today. For lunch I had steamed corn, asparagus, and carrots with some cooked up bratwursts. It was tasty. I got my departing interview on my schedule now. The work is moving along and I have less than a month left in the mission field. I have to work super hard before I get home. So I am going to do that. The Gospel is True and Christ is indeed the Savior of mankind. Just don't give up and move forward.

I might normally apologize for the short email, but not today. I have a lot to do.

Have a good one!

-Elder Moore



More about those baptized (seen above):


Continued: They are. The family that adopted them is super awesome. They want to feed me one more time before I go home. They guy in the photo is a convert. A farmer from Ohio. He is funny to talk to. They have 4 biological children that are all grown up and have families and they adopted what is now 4 more kids. Young Ones. Two 6 or 7 year olds and an 11 and 13 year old.

  


July 30th, 2019

Meth Hillbillies

Hello friends and Family

I heard a funny phrase the other day. It was "Meth Hillbillies" so I decided to name my email that.

We had a Baptism! It was super spiritual and I got to perform the ordinance. It was a boy who has a bunch of people he knows in church. He started attending and so we started teaching him. He doesn't have a very supportive family and so now the church is his family I guess.

We had to clean up the Baptismal font. There were a ton of roaches in there. We had to flush them out and pour chemicals down the drains so they didn't surface. It was gross/fun.

A member does glassblowing and so we got our names engraved on some glass mugs. I will try to get a picture for next time. I love drinking mugs.

Other fun shenanigans include these things called "Tarantula hawks". They aren't birds nor tarantulas. They are wasps. Really big ones. They are black with some cool looking red tinted wings, and they are huge. They hunt tarantulas and our chapel is infested with them. It is very horrifying/awesome.

We had a storm last week. It rained all around us but never on us. There was a ton of lightning. And because of science and other such things apparently the rain made it so a swarm of grasshoppers have now infested Needles. There are a ton here. Walking down the street makes it so they all jump out at once and I feel like some kind of grasshopper wizard, because if you walk with your arms outstretched it looks like you are calling a bunch if grasshoppers out of the sand.
I just learned that there are a swarm of grasshoppers in Las Vegas too. They have been swarming to the Mirage on the strip so tourists are getting wrecked by bugs.

I have been extra tired this week. I have to make a bunch of phone calls and set up our meetings and whatnot and it just adds on stuff to do. It is not bad... I just get tired faster.

We have to clean out the font again this week too. We have another round of Baptisms this Saturday....

Well... that is all for now.

I'll talk to y'all later
-Elder Moore


July 23rd, 2019

Mojave

Hello
Transfers happen this week.

I am finishing my mission in Needles. My companion is still Elder Watson. And I have also been assigned as the District Leader for my last 6 weeks. I managed to dodge the Leadership bullet for so long...

I don't have a whole lot to say this time around. We have a Baptism this Saturday which is nice, and it looks like I will be performing the ordinance. It has been some time since I have done so.

This week was the last district leaders last week. They drove to our area to interview the person being Baptized and then we made a trip to Jack in the Box and ate it at our apartment. The Elders there are in a three pack so we had 5 missionaries eating lunch in our apartment. It was good fun because those Elders are goofy guys.

I learned that if you drop even a little bit of humidity into 110 degree weather that it becomes infinitely worse. It is cloudy here and it makes you feel... heavy.
Or maybe it is because I am a big guy already.

I am going to be super lame and end my email right here. I have a lot to do today being the new district leader and transfers happen tomorrow. I will probably send a bigger, better, email next week.

-Elder Moore



July 16th, 2019

Titery-Irie-Aye

For some reason the last email didn't send so here is the email without the pics. Maybe those will send later.

Hello friends and family.

This week I met a punk rocker and I talked about some old bands I used to listen to back home with him. He had a girlfriend who told us she has a bunch of family that are members of the church, and that she was surprised a "goody two shoes" knew about all that stuff. It was fun to break stereotypes because I knew some of the bands he was wearing the logo of. I never saw a people get so wide-eyed over a missionary in that context. It was fun.

We had a lesson with a drunk guy who called my companion racist. It was hilarious because he thought I was his best friend, so he told me to help my companion become not racist. Disclaimer: my companion is not racist. I don't think he knows what races are anyways. All he knows is humans and potatoes.

I went on exchanges with an Elder Wolfe last week and he is going home in a week from today. It was crazy to talk about how our two years is almost up. Wild stuff. I'm not trunky or anything... just realistic. We have been having a ton of success lately.

We went on a wild goose chase for a returning members home that took us on some old dirt back roads that took us down by the Colorado river and through some fields. We listened to some old folksy-country-rocky Christian tunes that were incredibly appropriate for our environment. I felt so happy in these moments. We found his house two days ago after trying to find it a second time. I had a smile on my face the whole time. Every waking moment is a blessing because the Lord is placing me in a bunch of situations that happen to make me feel joyful, cheerful, and frankly... at peace with everything.

My companion gave me a painting of Christ sitting next to a campfire, with His apostles on a boat in the background. I appreciate it a lot. I (metaphorically) see myself in it.

I have been feeling very spiritual lately. I don't know what is going on, but I feel like the Lord is doing everything, and I just happen to be along for the ride.

We are going to have some Baptisms soon. Woot.

Now for a cool thing...

There is a lady in our area that has been taught for a long time by missionaries. She happened to drive by and she asked us to text her and stop by. So we did. At church there was a girl who attended who is about our age and we weren't sure who she was but she left before we met her. We taught the lady who talked to us on the street a few times and she expressed some concerns and things about receiving a sign from God that she should be Baptized. So we decided to teach her about the Holy Spirit and how to receive answers from God. We learned that her daughter was the girl who went to church a few days before, and so the next thing we did was we taught the lesson on the Spirit. Her daughter happened to be there, and long story short, her daughter listened in and then shared a very personal experience about when she prayed and felt something come to her and comfort her. It was timed so perfectly. We ended up planning out a lesson on a different subject for our next lesson and so everything seemed to line up perfectly. We got to our next lesson and felt prompted to change our original lesson and we focused on teaching the Restoration of the Gospel instead. The spirit was so strong. Turns out next week they are leaving to go to upstate New York and have changed some of their plans to visit Palmyra and the Sacred Grove. It all happened to line up so perfectly and we are literally watching God set everything up, and we happen to be along for the ride. I am actually drafting this the night of these events so they are fresh. This has been nearly a 5 week experience so far. I think the biggest thing for me was to bare My testimony of Gods love to this girl. Because of personal things that I cannot discuss here, she forgot her eternal identity as a daughter of God. That is the best way I can describe it without going into detail. The more we testified of Gods love the stronger the spirit felt. I also had the privilege to bare testimony of the Book of Mormon to her. I nearly cried. It was one of the most sincere testimony I think I ever bore. I love this Gospel. God is in command, so we do not have need to fear. He knows all of us personally. We are never out of reach for His love. Sometimes we forget and we put ourselves in situations where we forget His love or we ignore it... but it is there. Please do not forget it.

-Elder Moore



July 9th, 2019

Murica

Hello friends and family.

I ate cheddar bratwursts and drank Liberty Brew Mountain Dew on the 4th of July. It was delicious. I cooked the brats myself.

We had zone Conference in Kingman Arizona. It was fun. One more zone conference to go.

We did a good amount of service this week. Loaded up a trailer, helped some people move... it was good and makes me feel good.
I miss the physical labor.

We have quite a few Baptisms coming up. We are finishing teaching some people and they are getting ready to go into the water. Well, in a few weeks. But here we are getting ready to baptize.

We have been finding some solid people that we are beginning to teach. It is pretty cool. I'm feeling a lot of blessings coming our way.

I found some funny little images while watching some missionary and Bible videos.

Today we are going on exchanges (at the end of p-day). Lake Havasu here we come. I will be staying there and I will be with an Elder named Elder Wolfe. He has about 2 and a half weeks left so this will be fun. We are the oldest missionaries in our zone.

I have been giving out the Book of Mormon a lot. We are almost out of copies. It is very true and I know that it is indeed true. I feel the spirit even just thinking about it. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He was not perfect person, just a man whom was called of God. I know that Russel M Nelson is the prophet God has called for our day, that he does indeed have the Priesthood authority of God restored to the earth. I know that it is all true. That God lives, and we are His children. He hears our prayers and knows our name. He knows us personally. We have just forgotten.

-Elder Moore











July 2nd, 2019

Tweaker Town

Hello friends and family

I do not have a lot to say. Today, for a preparation day, will be super busy. So perhaps some pictures will suffice.

I went through a spooky tunnel and saw some funny graffiti. You will see it.

The sunsets here make the sky light up like fire. You will see it. (That photo I like to call "Lidless, wreathed in flame")

Here is another photo of a "no littering sing" being used to litter.

Also a picture of some stud.

It got up to 109 yesterday. Most people have been calling us crazy for being out in the heat. Of course we are not crazy, Just smelly from all the sweat.

I was on the LDS Media app looking for a video to share in a lesson with someone and I am pretty sure I found a picture of myself. I distinctly remember sitting in that chair when we had a sub teacher in seminary. Plus I know that shirt. Plus that is how I sit in class. I'm famous. Who else would wear a heavy metal band shirt to a seminary class?

Anyways

I have a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The simple and pure power of repenting through the Atonement of Jesus Christ brings exquisite joy, and I have felt the redeeming love of the Savior. I know He is Real and this Gospel is True.

-Elder Moore




June 25th, 2019

Hobo Van

Hello friends and family

This week was fun. We moved a lot of stuff.

There is a member in our ward who is homeless right now. He is a beach bum at heart. He used to live in a boat in Hawaii. Now he lives here in Needles because he lives close to a few temples. He lived in a low I come house that he got kicked out of because he has too much money. So he called us and we helped him move his stuff to a storage shed and so he lives in a van right now. Here is a picture of me in the back of it after we helped him move. He was super awesome. We met approximately 3 hobo people who live in RVs and cars and whatnot that my companion noted, I really got along with.

So if I can claim anything, it is that hobos are my friends.

We also got a call this week from some members who live in a house that is slightly over 100 years old. The house is slanted. They needed help moving out a fridge. Inside the house there are about 6-7 cats in there that live on the shelves and a bunch of tunnels in the walls. It was dark and muggy inside the house. All of the windows were blocked shut with wooden planks and old paintings. One member who lived there was blind. We had to knock the fridge doors off so it could fit through the slanted doorways. There was so much hair in that house. If you have have ever seen the waves of the sea, it was like waves of the sea on the carpet. Cat hair. Clumps everywhere. I might burn the shirt I wore. I got many questionable Grimes and slimes on my hands from moving the fridge through the house. And do not confuse my description of the house for displeasure. It was an adventure, and those particular members are very nice people!

We went to someone's house the other day and there was a  lady that was drinking some hard whiskey and vodka. I have never met anyone so drunk in my life. She went from telling us that she was drinking herself to death and then insisted that we watch an interview of the local biker church pastor in Needles. We left and decided to come back later, hopefully when she was sober.

I will get to see a wedding in August (if I am still here). We are baptizing a guy and then he is going to marry s member of the church. He asked me to Baptize him, so hopefully I will still be around. I love needles and the people in it. I hope I finish my mission here. It is the bestest place in the Colorado river tri-state area. We met a bunch of less active members on the streets who just walk up to us and start talking and so we invite them to church and we give them copies of the Book of Mormon. It has been fun.

The Gospel is incredibly true. I have been studying the Book of Mormon. That book is true. I have felt closer to God than ever before because of it. Every time I desire to feel the spirit and to feel closer to God and my savior, I read and study it. If you want to know God, pray to Him, and then read this book. I know without a shadow of a doubt that it is true. A significant amount of peace has entered my heart, even this very day, because of it. And by these things I know that God has called a prophet today and that we are indeed the Children of a Loving God.

So don't you ever forget it.

-Elder Moore





June 18th, 2019

Desert Nomad Mayhem

Hello friends and family

This week I got a new companion. He is from Shelly Idaho. His name is Elder Watson. I pray that he and another missionary, named Elder Holmes, become companions someday.

This week was very stressful. We got dropped by people out of the blue, and with whatever stuff I could salvage from it, we are now on the look for more people to teach the Gospel to. Other people we are teaching are leaving town on some camping trip so we will not have contact with them for a month. Those people are basically already members though.

It is getting toasty over here in Needles.
Thank goodness for shade.

We went to teach a lesson to someone in a rented out hotel room down near an overpass and while we were talking to this Cherokee lady about her Baptism, a bunch of homeless people barged in and told their story about how they are now homeless. It was a bit awkward. But fun. There were a few nomads in town already anyways.

Elder Watson is still pretty green. This is his 2nd area and he is learning a lot about drugs. Mostly because I have been telling him about what I have learned about drugs. He didn't realize that there is a lot of it in our mission. From North Las Vegas to Blythe, we have many drugs, and druggies to go with it. I personally have never done drugs, especially illegal ones. I have been around them briefly on my mission on occasion, but it only persuades me to further stay away from them. Illegal drugs are no good. Nobody wants to walk around without wearing pants and yelling at cars in the street.

Or maybe they do.

I like being here. Needles is a fun town. Being in a desert wasteland surrounded by nomads, druggies, bikers, and fiery faith filled desert Christian's is appealing to me.

That is all for now.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. It speaks to the soul and enlightens the mind in such a way that we spiritually grow when we study its pages.

-Elder Moore


June 11th, 2019

Oof

I went to the hospital.

Not for me though.

My companion had kidney stones. We went to the hospital in Needles and they tried conning us to spend 50000 dollars on an ambulance to Vegas. But we decided "nope". So we hitched a ride with our zone leaders to the hospital in Henderson. We spent 2 and a half days in hospitals. From Saturday Morning until Monday evening. I slept on a cot and then in the hospital room. I forgot my razor so I also am growing a beard now I guess (just kidding, I am going to shave soon). I stared at a wall and also read Saints a lot. Also listened to the Book of Mormon on audio.

Here are some district pictures. That is my district. The sister next to me and the elder on the bottom right are from Rexburg.

I could see the strip from my window in the nighttime at the hospital.

I am super tired from this week. One person we are teaching was supposed to get interviewed for her baptism and then come to church, but instead went to the hospital. That was at the beginning of the week. By the end WE were in the hospital. Then two other kids got interviewed but they aren't getting adopted on the day they were supposed to so now they are getting g Baptized in August. So we may or may not have some Baptisms this month now. What matters is that it happens... and then we ended up in the hospital for 3 days. So this week was pretty crazy. I am tired.

Oh and Elder Taylor is getting transferred.

I also ate a duck fetus a few days ago in between the hospital trips in Henderson. Why? It is called Balut. It is a Filipino thing. It tasted like an egg. But it was a duck fetus. So basically an egg yoke with a beak. Yum.

Elder Picinich and Elder McKee, two of my former companions return home tomorrow. And then at the end of next transfer, 4 of my other companions will return home....
Time is running out.

Elder Taylor gave me a bacon flowchart too.

The Gospel is True! I am tired! Goodbye!

Elder Mooooooooooooooooore
















June 4th, 2019

Smoke and Dirt

Hi everyone

It finally got up to 100 degrees this week. Now only 30 more degrees to go until it hits the real summer temperatures.

I am incredibly tired right now. I didn't sleep very well these past few nights. We have a lot to do. The people we are teaching are getting closer and closer to their Baptismal dates, and we have to do a lot. We do not have a ward mission leader and no ward missionaries so we are doing pretty much everything by ourselves to prepare these people for Baptism. The ward members know the people and they help us with lessons and in between visits but it has just been crazy and I really really need a p-day.

Luckily that is today.

One lady we are teaching was supposed to get interviewed for her Baptism yesterday but she ended up in the hospital with a horrible allergic reaction to something. We hope she gets better soon.

One challenge that is also somewhat frustrating is the kind of people that live in Needles. People here are not very self reliant... so we have to do everything for them, or make sure that they can do things on their own (ie read the Book of Mormon, go to church regularly, get baptized... ) it is difficult. But they eventually learn how to be self reliant I think. An ironic thing here is that the ward has a self reliance class, but nobody goes to it. But it is because they have to rely on someone else to take them there and then help them with the course.

I guess the moral of my email is to be an agent and not an object. Go do stuff of your own free will and choice. Go do good things without having to be compelled. Be humble and repent rather than be humbled and then repent. In Alma chapter 32, Alma speaks about this idea. Being humble and living the Gospel without being compelled or seeking for signs without trying to believe on your own. It is pretty good. Y'all should read it.

Here is a picture. The ground I am on is Majave village ground. In my hand are three copies of the Book of Mormon. That day (yesterday) we determined to go the Arizona village and give out copies of the Book of Mormon to them. Not only do they love Jesus Christ, but they love their Native traditions and culture. So when we explain that the Book of Mormon is about Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father from the perspective of people who lived in the Americas many many years ago, they want it and they want us to return and teach them. It bridges a gap for them, which they appreciate us filling. I was in the California village (same tribe, different state) on Thursday and I gave a copy to one native man who nearly started crying when I explained the Book of Mormon and gave him one. It is honestly the best gift we could give to our friends in the villages. It is my favorite place to work in, personally. The natives are chill and they like what we have to say.

Stay firm in the faith, stay honest, and stay true

-Elder Moore



May 28th, 2019

Neatles

Twas a good week

Hey everybody!
It rained a but here. It was quite refreshing. We have been teaching a lot of people. There is plenty of work to do here. We had zone Conference this week. Everyone in our zone and also the Kingman zone met at Lake Havasu. It was a good meeting. There were a few missionaries there that I actually know. Most of them are young and I don't k oe them. I have been blessed to have older companions who I know for the most part.

There are a few pictures here. One of them is an old apartment or motel building that got condemned because of bed bugs. Too many bed bugs I guess.
Las tweek we went on exchanges and so I was out of the area for about 3 days altogether. By the time I got back a few more houses burned down. We leave for a few days and havoc gets wreaked...

The on picture of Elder Taylor knocking on the door is a haunted house door. The other one is just the door, but the house is missing.

I also took some random photos of Needles because it looks neat.

We have a few Baptisms we have to prepare the next few weeks. We are teaching a few people who are getting Baptized this mo th. This ward does not have a ward mission leader so we will have to set it up ourselves I guess. It will be fun!

I have a story.
Yesterday we were hitting the streets and we were going around the Letter streets. If you know anything about letter streets, it means they are super old streets and have probably deteriorated over time, so they are the ghetto streets now. We have them in old Henderson, in Las Vegas, and also in Needles. Well we went down a street and we were looking for an older contact in our areabook. When we found the door, it may have been the most ghettoest little apartment ever. The door was wide open, all the glass was cracked, the wood looked rotted away... it was super awesome! Anyways, there was a guy in there and when he saw us, he lit up and he shouted something very loudly. He invited us inside. There were a lot of fun smells inside this guys apartment. He wasn't alone and he had a wife there with him. They were an older couple. Well after speaking with them, they were super not sober at all, and let's just say that only 3 of the 4 substances they were on are legal in the State of California. They had a large print copy of the Book of Mormon and they started showing us all of their different bibles, and the wife who was more sober than the husband told us that we needed to come by and read the scriptures with him so that the "Devils liquor" didn't pull him away anymore. We obliged. This was by far the greatest little contact I have ever had because of all the wild things that were going on here. I felt super privileged to experience this. Boy oh boy they sure need the Gospel. So we are teaching this couple now! I'm glad we found them. They were fun.

Here is a more spiritual story that happened on Sunday night. Elder Taylor and I had been busy doing other stuff and so we didn't get out to proselytize until 8 o clock that night. We had a goal to start teaching a certain number of people that week and we were short of our goal. So we prayed for help and hit the dark Needles Streets. We went to a particular neighborhood that people always sit outside and talk even at night so we went there. We talked to quite a few people but nobody was giving us the time of day. We would start teaching and then they would look at their phone or their watch and then they would run away and tell us to stop by later (even though we didn't know which houses were theres, because they always hang out with neighbors at different houses).  Eventually we were walking at it was getting close for the time to go in and we start walking in a different direction. We saw a man walking across the street. He was walking fast and was on his way home. We started talking to him and I offered him a little picture of Jesus Christ. He said he needed it, and we both saw that he was crying. We asked him how he was doing and he informed us that his best friend had died and so he was mourning. We expressed our sorrows for him and with s good amount of symphony we shared a small portion of the plan of Salvation with him. He wanted us to come back and so we are going to teach him later this week.
If there is one thing I have learned it is that the Lord answers prayers. I have learned for myself that if we get on our knees, pray, and then get on our feet and work, the Lord will work wonderful miracles to show us His power and His strength. It was a spiritual experience that lit another fire for missionary work in my heart. I love this Work.

Well I hope you all enjoyed this email because that is all I have to say.
Love you byeeeeee
-Elder Moore