ESCOBAR, Week 58: Christmas Season

Well hello family! 

I hope everything is going great this Christmas Season! 

Here, it is baking hot, and we are about to go play soccer! My skin is not so white now! Well, yes, it still is but its should be a wee bit darker. 

Anyways, this week was very interesting! 

We had a capilla abierta or an open chapel. It turned out pretty good! We distributed over 500 invitations. Lots of members came and brought at least someone. We found a few families that came and are interested in learning a little bit more. I was in charge of the baptismal font so I was dressed in white and I got to explain how it is and what it was and why its absolutely necessary! it was neat! Until it started to absolutely pour down rain. It was a reminder from God that He can flood the Earth if he wants. It was amazing. It lasted for about 20 minutes but they were bullets. Pretty cool.

Well, we are working hard! Heading towards the end of the transfer and things are getting anxious. What will the transfers bring and everything. Not that we expect a huge change. But you just never know!

Well, that's all I have for now. 

I love you all! 

Please pray for me! 

Love,

 Elder Moore

 Chapel in Elder Moore's Area

 Pictures from the Open House

ESCOBAR, Week 57: A really short one!

Hey family, 

Well I wont have a lot of time...we are in a members home to write because today is a holiday. I think its the day of the virgin or something. I can´t remember. Yeah! 

Well, this past week was hot. The temperature is going to keep rising. Woohoo. 

Today we have an activity with the whole mission, a day of sports and Peruvian food. 

Anyways, 

This week we have the open church where we are going to have a ton of people be there. We found a friend of a member who is a newspaper seller and he agreed to put 400 invitations in the newspapers that he sells. Please pray for us! We want the success. 

Hey, 

I love you all but we have to go! Maybe we will be on later. 

Love, 

Elder Moore

ESCOBAR Week 56: Another Short one

Hello family. 

This is going to be another short one! We had to go to the offices today to pick up some things we needed so sadly we spent a huge chunk of time on the bus. But it was for things we needed in order to preach. 

Well, we had a baptism this week! The Lord definitely blessed us. Her name is Nancy. And it is quite a story! 

Here is the story. 

We filled up the font. It was full. Then 30 minutes before the baptism we go to look and make sure everything is ready. The font was almost empty. Some misbehaved kid (who is well known for touch everything that is really important) touched the button to drain the font and wasn´t tall enough to touch the off button.  He drained the font. The pump seal broke and water was all over the floor in the Women's bathroom. We didn´t know this. So we go to turn on the water, nothing comes out. We try a sink in the church. Nothing comes out. We tell the Bishop and the ward mission leader and they go out to the tank and just start flipping breakers and switches and finally the water re-enters the building. Now its filling up again. We put it on full blast which at the very least takes 3 hours. We tell the members that we are going to wait 1 hour and that we are going to baptize standing in the water on our knees. One by one the members leave. Slowly but surely the font fills. 

30 minutes later we tell Nancy that she can get dressed. We ask the sisters to help her. They walk in the bathroom. No joke, 10 seconds in she slips, falls and splits open the front of her knee while spraining it  a little. The sisters run out (my companion is changing) grab towels and paper and stuff and run back in. I asked, what happened and they didn´t respond. The newest sister is from Idaho and she just said as she was running by  "she fell". In my mind I was like "oh no, there it goes." More sisters run in and they are all saying call an ambulance. I ask them how bad it is and they say bad. I ask if I can go in to look at it. And nobody responds. I ask the Bishop to accompany me and we go in. Nancy was on a chair, almost crying and sisters around her asking if she can bend her knee. From all the yelling and crying and running I thought she literally broke her leg in half! 

We walk in and we look at the wound. It was a good solid direct hit. We put bandages and things. After about 15 minutes or 20 minutes she gets up and starts to limp around. Members are telling me to call an ambulance and in my mind I was going to let Nancy decide. It was her day. We asked her, offering to schedule the baptism another day. She thinks and after about 5 seconds says. "No, I need to be baptized today, I want to." All in all it was a huge example of faith. The trial and then the blessing. At the end. There were 8 people in the baptismal service. Nancy, 4 missionaries, The ward mission leader and his wife, and another sister. The Bishop had to go because his wife and daughter were sick, so he gave us permission to do it with out him. We only had 3 priesthood holders. One to baptize and 2 to be witnesses. It was a very humble service but the spirit was strong. The talks were short, there were sweet testimonies and  poorly sung hymns, but we all felt the messages to be true so we didn´t even notice. 

I will never forget that baptism and the faith of Nancy! She is doing great. In about an hour and a half we have a meeting with her! 

Anyways, 

that all I have. 

I have more to tell you next week! 

I love you all!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Love, 

Elder Moore

ESCOBAR, Week 55: National Sovereignty Day

Well, 

I wish I could have some super cool explanation why I didn´t write yesterday. But I don´t. It was an Argentinan holiday called 'National Sovereignty Day' or something like that. All the internet places were closed so the President gave my companion and I permission to write today. 

Hmm. The investigators are doing good. There is this one lady named Nancy that is super ready but she is dyslexic (I think). So she can´t read or write but when we talk and she prays and listens, she says that she can feel that the things are true. She is trying to work on getting better so she can read but apparently its pretty bad. It was from her drug usage when she was young (Don´t do drugs). The others are doing well. We hope to see a few baptisms this month for Christmas! 

We had one lady who was on the bus, passed the church, looked at it and she said that it just called to her so she got off and entered and sat in the back of a seminary graduation. She liked it so much that she came back the next day for sacrament meeting. And then stayed the next 2 hours. And now we have an appointment with her today. :) 

We, as a mission, are trying to reach 2000 baptism in the year of 2014. We, as a mission, right now are at 1760 give or take a few. Our montly average is about 180 I think. So the President has been admonishing us to give everything our all, apply everything, help everyone, and to leave the burden to the Lord for the miracles. Which is so true. I don´t know who said it but someone said, "the time for the missionaries to be knocking on doors is and should be coming to an end. In the wickedness and darkness of the world today, compared to the glory, and light and truth and help that the gospel offers, it is the time when people should be knocking on the missionaries doors." Or something like that. It is true! There are people looking for the gospel, they just need help finding it! 

Something that I forgot to tell you all the last week is that we had an Apostle visit us. (I don´t know how it slipped my mind) Elder D. Todd. Christofferson and a few seventies, came to Buenos Aires! We had a meeting with him along with the Buenos Aires West Mission. I tried looking for Elder Lyman but I couldn´t see him. We got up at 4 in the morning to get there 2 hours early. We sat in front! It was great. Very interesting. Although,  when it came to the question and answer part I thought we totally blew it. The questions were just ridiculous. He is an Apostle! And you want to ask him if some scripture in Moses is appropriate to share with investigators? Oh come on. I wanted to ask him, if he could go back to his mission and talk to himself, what advice would he give? Million dollar question. Million dollars. But he didn´t call on me. But it was awesome. Really amazing. 

Yesterday for P-day we went to a place called Puerto de Fruto. Which I think is a Fruit Port. But its a super cheap touristy place. They sell authentic stuff super cheap. I bought a few touristy things and some true blue Argentinean things. I am happy. Mom would be happy there too. Its in Tigre. You can look it up. 

Anyways, thats about it. 

I love you all! 

Please continue to pray for me. I need the prayers! I feel like I am more and more tired everyday but from somewhere the energy is coming. 

Love, 

Elder Moore

ESCOBAR, WEEK 54: Transfers came and went

Well hello. 

So you know, transfers came and went, and now I am in... Escobar! And I am with.... The same companion. Elder Goyeneche. Which I am fine with, We are very excited for this transfer. Great and marvelous things will be brought to pass. 

This past Sunday we had a new investigator in the church! Her name is Nancy. She is separated and has a son of almost 12 years named, Brian. They are really great and she absolutely loves the church. She said it was a lot more warm and friendly than the other churches. She also loved that there are classes for every age group and not just the adults. Anyways, her and her son have accepted to be baptized on November 30th! So please pray for them! 

Well, not much else has happened this week. We have the investigator that also attended last week that lives in on the very corner  of our area. Everyday we have to take a bus for about 25 minutes to go see her and her husband. They are both progressing well. The husband found a small job washing cars and detailing them so he works long hours for now but the Lord will bless them as he has blessed us! 

We are taking a new initiative in trying to serve the members. In two weeks we have done 2 or 3 projects which have included: building a fence, putting a new roof on a house, and shoveling rock and dirt. Side Note: what is the metal called that is like sheet metal but its wavy and usually for barns and things? In Spanish its called 'chapa', but I can´t remember what its called in English.  Anyways, I love the type of physical labor of getting down in the dirt and shoveling. It is a great change.

Well, I didn´t bring money sufficient to keep writing! So I have to go. Pictures next week.

I love you all!

 Love, 

Elder Moore

ESCOBAR, Week 53: This week was a good week

We worked even harder and we saw the results! 

We upped our lessons this week to 23 what a blessing! We found a few people that are really good. A miracle that happened this week is that we went looking for two investigators to go to church on Sunday. We went and something had happened to the son during the night so they were leaving to go to the hospital and could not go to church. We tried to help but nothing would be of asistance to them. So we went to the church super depressed that we had a good week but no results. We also were fasting for an attendance that week. During sacrament I sat next to a kid who was a less active, and my companion sat in the back. Halfway through the service. Two people entered dressed in regular clothes and sat next to my companion and listened. My companion asked who they were and where they came from. One of them is a less active member from 25 years ago. He had been attending every now and then a different ward so they wouldn´t recognize him. Then today he woke up early with a desire to go to our chapel which is his assigned ward. He talked with his wife who isn´t a member and they decided to go. They said it was the greatest church experience that they have had. They loved it and the ward welcomed them so well which I am sure that is what tipped the scales. We showed the wife the baptismal font and she asked if we could teach her what is necessary to be baptized, so we accepted. It was a wonderful miracle. The Lord sent us someone that was ready to listen to the gospel after seeing us work hard and hearing the prayers of everybody. 

Also that day we visited a new member from the transfer before and we talked about what she needs for her and her son (her husband passed away a year ago from cancer) since they live in very humble circumstances. We received news that the Bishop received revelation that he needs to help the convert build a house with church funds and he put her on the priority list for the Elders Quorom and High Priests group. We also offered our help in the building process. Its going to be great. We were very excited and emotional to hear it. The Lord takes care of His family. 

Anyways, this week was a week of tender mercies. Definitely strengthened my testimony even more about the Church. 

I am hoping and trying to be converted every day to the gospel. People are waiting and watching! Good things are happening in the world. 

I love you all! 

Love, 

Elder Moore