April 23rd, 2019

I met an Apostle

I haven't washed my hand since Saturday. Coincidentally I met Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Saturday. I got to shake his hand and hear him talk to the mission. Also I'm kidding about not washing my hand. It was very spiritual and Elder Holland has a good sense of humor. It was quite the experience. Plus since our whole mission met I got to interact with all of my previous companions, except for two of them who are finished with there missions. But it was a good "recap" of my mission to be around them. If I can share anything worthy of a weekly email that is not degrading to a prophet, seer, and revelators words, I can simply say that Missionary work and the little things we can leave a great and lasting impact, the kind of which we do not always fully comprehend. So always do good because the little acts of kindness or the little acts of righteousness and guidance we give to others can influence them for good and in turn send out ripple effects that can literally change the world.

I knocked a lot of doors this week. I attached a photo of our mission. See if you can find the Apostle. Also, see if you can find me. You won't get any prize and I can't send you anything for doing it, but if you need something to do, here is the picture.

Also here is a picture of someone my companion taught and that got Baptized. I met her once on an exchange. But I figured I would send a picture of me and my current companion because I don't have any exciting pictures to send.

Anything else I could type right now would basically sound the same as every other weekly email. So allow me to simply say that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. And also the Book of Mormon is Gods revealed word and that Russel M. Nelson is the Lords anointed prophet upon the earth today. I know that these things are true, and it has shaped my life in a way that I did not expect it to. My perspective has changed since I became a missionary. I better understand Gods plan and I know that He has prepared a way for all of His children (us) to return home to Him someday.

-Elder Moore

April 16th, 2019

Knock them all.

Hello friends and family!

I got sick.
It has been a good week though. We did a lot of service, which for being sick, may not have been the smartest thing to do, but oh well. We helped move a part-member family out of the ward and we also helped someone we are teaching move some furniture around in her home.
We tracted a lot of doors this week as well. There are quite a few streets that haven't been knocked at all by missionaries within the last few years so we decided to knock them all.
Also on April 20th, this Saturday, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the quorum of the 12 apostles is coming to visit our mission. I am stoked! I have never met an Apostle before.
We had zone conference this last week too, but it was combined with 3 other zones so I ended up seeing Elder Spataro, Elder Nielson, Elder Picinich, Elder McKee, Elder Perez, and Elder Ames again. All previous companions. It was a lot of fun to see them all again. I haven't seen Elder Perez since we were companions over a year ago so it was a good reunion.
We have also been cleaning up our areabook. There are a few recent converts who got Baptized a year ago and then they disappeared so they basically went inactive in these wards. We finally found them all and are now getting them active....
Short email? Yes.

-Elder Moore

April 9th, 2019

It got warm

Hello friends and family!

Oh boy, Conference Weekend was great! I took some notes and was reviewing them. What a good solid spiritual event. I needed it for sure. Maybe it is just because I am a missionary, but they sure talked a lot about doing missionary work. Funny enough I met some of the speakers. Both of the Cooks who spoke (not including the apostle) I have met before, and one I even roleplayed teaching at the beginning of my mission. Strange how time flies.

Conference was a well needed spiritual boost.
I am also grateful for all the temples that are getting built. The Lord is hastening the Work!

I fear that this email will be uneventful and short mostly because this last week was slow. We didn't have very many lessons and we ended up knocking a ton of doors with not much answers from said doors.

Oh I guess I finally saw rich. I went on exchanges with the district leader. He has the richest wards in the mission,  and so I saw some very big houses. I didn't know people could own a pool that has a 27 foot boat in it that could go around their house, but apparently people can do stuff like that. I also learned that money really doesn't buy you happiness because one guy we met didn't seem overly happy even though he had a bunch of fancy stuff and a big house. People are still people, even with deep pockets.

I was reading in Mosiah about Alma and his people being forced to have labors upon their backs. The Lord told them that He would strengthen them to carry their burdens with ease, and that this would give them a witness of God and His hand in their life. It was a well needed few chapters to read, because we will some day rest from our pains and our afflictions. We just need to hold out faithful and endure our trials with a hope that one day we will rest from them. The Lord will strengthen us, and in the end, we shall rest.

Have a good one

-Elder Moore

(Also I am going to meet an Apostle on the 20th)

(Also, Scorpion)

April 2nd, 2019

What a week

I had a very interesting week.
In some ways it was a bit monotonous, but in others it was exciting.

Last week we gave a biker guy a blessing because he wrecked his bike, and because of that, his arm got wrecked. He is not a member but he requested a prayer, and so we gave him a blessing. He made a few important life changes after that, I am assuming because he was humbled, and he has received blessings. There is a lot to his story, frankly too much to divulge today, let's just say he is slowly repenting and improving.

The legend came to church again. We went to Chick-Fil-A with him, like I said we were going to. It was good that we went because the legend would have been very uncomfortable by himself.... the young men were quite rowdy, and they ended up being the younger boys. But anyways, waffle fries and Gospel.... those are good.

We invited a family to be Baptized. They have a lot of concerns, but we love to resolve those, so this will be fun. They technically said yes... but they really want to learn more. At least they know where this is going!

Elder Ferguson and I learned that we are the 2nd oldest companionship in the mission. Basically that means if you add our times together and everyone added to their companions times, we are older than everyone except one other companionship that has us a beat by about a month. I'm getting old.

We helped a lady clean out her garage yesterday. She is a little crazy, but it was fun. She really loves to pray with us, so we pray with her after we help her clean out around her house. She also gave us stale cookies.

I have been studying in the Book of Mormon... as usual. And a common theme I have been noticing is how it has an overarching theme of separating ourselves from wickedness and becoming humble followers of Jesus Christ. A lot of it talks about getting away from a wicked path, putting off the natural man and becoming a saint.(Mosiah 3:19)

This has given me a quite different perspective on life. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the reason we can separate ourselves from wickedness and by the Redeeming Power of Christ we are made whole from our Sins and made into Humble disciples of Him. The Gospel is what we live in order to separate ourselves from our old and pernicious ways. To know that we don't have to remain in a guilty and fallen state all the time is an incredible blessing. This is the time to change (Alma 34:32) so we should spend our time wisely in order to become the people we are meant to become. Allow the power of the Savior change your life....

Have a good one

-Elder Moore