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