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