ESCOBAR, WEEK 48: TRANSFERRED

Alright,

As you all have probably already guessed. I got transferred! I am now in an area that is called Escobar. It's apparently the first church in Argentina or in Buenos Aires. It's definitely not the city but it's pretty nice. The most awesome thing about it is that I am on BIKE. Yes, it finally happened. Which is fine but I just know that the first week is going to kill me. Sore body, exhausted, sun beating down and everything. That's what it's like but it's okay! It will help me get in shape and enjoy faster and cheaper transportation. I am just nervous about the sun. I don't want my rare and delicate Oregon tan to get ruined. But I will adopt an Argentine missionary tan. Definitely going to buy some sunscreen if it exists here. Pray for me!

My new companion is, Elder G*. He is from Chubut, Argentina which is in the south. It's interesting that he also has 2 nieces and one on the way just like I did. So that was an immediate connection that we made. Pretty cool. He has one transfer more than me on the mission. 

Well, today we went and played soccer which was pretty awesome but SUPER hot. It was cool to see the zone. I am with Elder G* (MTC companion) again. Which is definitely a blessing. Also with Elder L* who was my companion in Soldati. Which is cool too because he is a great friend. Also, you can tell a lot about a person by the way they play soccer. That's a fact. 

Packing for transfers is always a humbling time. Also frustrating but that's besides the point. I don't know where the stuff comes from! Books, scriptures, ties, shirts, pants, winter gear. I swear it's multiplying in the suit case. I am thinking about cutting down on some things that I haven't used...

Anyways, That's all the time I had! Conference was AMAZING.

Love you all

Pray for me. 

Love, 

Elder Moore

MUNRO, WEEK 47: ANOTHER BAPTISM

Well alright family! 

I don't have much time to do everything because we have a short p-day today because Friday we are going to go to the Temple to prepare ourselves for General Conference! I am very excited! I hope that everybody watches General Conference! I hope I get to listen to it in English. When it's the voice of somebody else, it just doesn't grab my attention. At all. 

Well, this week finished great! S* got baptized and confirmed and gave his testimony in Church. It was amazing. I met him 4 and a half months ago and it's incredible to see the change. It's almost black and white. I am very grateful to see that change. It's humbling and makes me think "What have I done to be a different person for the better in the past 4.5 months?" Below are some pictures of the service! 

Anyways. Yeah, I am learning a lot concerning the ward and how to work and collaborate with other people. It is a great blessing and I get some weird happiness when I am in a meeting with people. I like sorting things out, working plans and stuff. I am becoming an organized person! 

I know that this is a short e-mail but next week will be better!

Love you all! 

Love, 

Elder Moore

MUNRO, WEEK 46: WEDDING BELLS

Well...wow! What a week!

First off, we had a wedding!!! It was awesome. It was an honor to be the witnesses for the wedding. :) S* and A* are both doing great. Any marriage advice for them? My companion and I gave them a drawing of Jesus Christ that my companion did, (I just bought the picture frame). It turned out really good! 

(Don't laugh about the picture of me in the wedding. I am more interested than I look. Haha.)

This weekend on Saturday is going to be the baptism for S* and then on Sunday he gets confirmed. We are very excited and we need your prayers for him. Always the week before baptism is difficult! 

This week we also did some service at a member's house! We got to shovel a whole lot of rock and stuff into bags and everything and haul them out to the front. It was good to get some physical work done! It is a good change to the daily mission grind. 

Our investigator that got baptized last week has experienced one of the hardest weeks of her life and couldn't be confirmed the next week because she was super sick. It's very tricky because she thinks that these bad things are a sign from God. So pray for her! 

As I work with the members and the counselors, I learn a lot. So much that I have started to keep a little book about all the things that I have learned. Just so I don't forget in the future. The President called us the other day because he knows of the challenges in the area and he told me that it is a good thing that I get to experience these things here on the mission, so afterwards I can be even better. So that was pretty cool! Tomorrow is the President's birthday. I was set apart on the President's birthday. Cool! 

Anyways, that is all I have. Next week we have a short P-DAY because we go to the temple that Friday! So I will write furiously. 

Thank you for everything! It's fun to see the nieces grow! What about te nephews? 

I love you all! 

Love, 

Elder Moore

MUNRO, WEEK 45: A BAPTISM

Allllright! How is everybody doing? I hope very well with school, health, kids and things.

This week was good. Lots of walking but lots of appointments! We also were blessed with a baptism which is one of the photos attached. We found M* Thursday a week and a half ago. The end of this week was Stake Conference. And we have a rule that a person has to attend the church 3 times to be baptized. So she attended Sunday the 7th. Then the President told us that if she attended the Stake Conference meetings, she could be baptized this weekend. We told her that and she said yes, let's do it; the sooner the better. So we taught her every day. She read, she prayed, and her testimony grew so fast, that Sunday she was able to be interviewed and then baptized. It was a great experience. She was baptized in two other religions but when she attended the first time Sunday she told us on our way to her home, "that was incredible, it was so complete, so full (of doctrine) and organized." So we explained how God's house (church) is a house of order and authority. And that's how he directed us to have the church. So that was pretty cool. That was just another testimony to me that yeah this is the Church of God. That everything about the church testifies of the truthfulness of it even down to how a Worldwide church is organized and run. It was pretty cool. 

This picture is of me drinking chocolate milk from a bombilla. Which is not a drug or anything so don't worry. What it is is basically a metal straw with a filter at the end. It is for mate (mah Tay) which is an herbal drink that is very common, however, for missionaries we cannot drink mate. However, I bought the bombilla and use it as a metal straw. It's pretty cool. 

This last picture is of peanut butter crunchy. The Argentinian type. It's pretty good. A little on the expensive side but I just cut back on other things. 

This week I added a little bit to my testimony about patience and prayer. There have been times when I pray, I feel like I need the blessings, or the help or the answer NOW or I am going to blow up or something. But what I have come to know that, is the Lord knows exactly what we need and is willing to give us these things. But unlike us, he knows when we really need it. Sometimes we think we are at our wits end, we are spent, and there is nothing left, the Lord makes us wait just a little bit more, just to push ourselves a little more, strive a little bit more and then we receive what we need. Which, like Elder Bednar said (I think) that the blessing we receive is different from what we wanted but better than we expected because the Lord knew what we needed. So yeah, the Lord's time and in His way is what will really help us. 

So keep praying a little bit more sincerely. Be a little bit more patient because the Lord knows what we really need. 

This week we have a wedding! The 19th is the wedding of S* and A* and as you can imagine they are experiencing the trials! So pray for them! The week after that will be the baptism of S* too and he is excited but it's a fight! So pray for him. 

Anyway that's about it. Thanks for the emails! I love you all! 

Love, 

Elder Moore

MUNRO, WEEK 44: A RELIGIOUS MINISTER

Alright! 

Well, first off we have Stake Conference this coming week! Woohoo! That means that if an investigator comes to the Saturday meeting and Sunday meeting they can be baptized the next week! The rule is that they have to have to attend at least 3 times. So this week we have the possibility of baptizing two different women. We have a family Home Evening with them tonight. It's going to be great! 

Today, we also went to the Registro Civil here in Munro. (It's where people get married) and we filled out papers with A* & S* because they asked us to be the 2 witnesses! That's awesome. I recently received my DNI (identification for Argentina) and that means that I can be legally a witness! It was also pretty cool to put "Religious Minister" as my occupation. Interesting!

Today we played soccer and it was awesome. S* gave me an old ball and I have been practicing juggling in the apartment in the morning and i am slowly improving! I will send pictures. :) 

I have found out that I like meetings with the ward...Ward Council and stuff. I like talking bold, helping people do the missionary work, making goals and then completing them! Getting things done! 

Anyways, I don't have much time because I am starving and we have to eat before we go back out. 

It is weird to think how fast the mission has passed! I just keep working! 

I love you all! 

Love, 

Elder Moore

MUNRO, WEEK 43: A WEIRD MISSIONARY

Alright family! Nothing much happened this past week. But I do have some news. 

A* & S* are going to get married the 19th of September and then S* is going to be baptized the 27th. So pray for them that it happens. For some reason the exclamation point and question mark buttons have stopped work only this ª and + appears. Argentine keyboards are so weirdª.

Anyways, this week we worked pretty dang hard to find and have someone in the church. We had 4 set of investigators to go to the church PLUS we had a set baptism this week. Members and us passed by for 4 investigators and neither one of them went to the church. Then, our baptism disappeared. We haven't been able to find her for 5 days... So, that's just great. Haha. 

Good luck to every one for the new school yearª. I hope it goes great. Study strong, work hard, and I will do thesameª. We can only challenge the Lord for blessings when we are obedientª Read and Pray and GO TO CHURCHª and HELP THE MISSIONARIES. 

I am a very fortunate soul. Something cool that happened this past week is two families told me "You are a weird missionary" I said why. They then said that I am not like other gringos. I laugh more and am more animated and stuff. Then they both told my companion to be more happy. :) Haha. That's awesome. I am glad and grateful for the personality that the Lord has blessed me withª. 

Keep praying for me and my companion. We have to find and find and findª. I love you all.  

Love, 

Elder Moore

MUNRO, WEEK 42: THE PARTY CONTINUES

Well, as you can see by the subject of the email. The party CONTINUES in MUNRO! Same companion and everything. It seems that I will be here for another transfer after too because this is the last transfer of my companion. So we will see what will happen! 

Anyways, this past week was good. Munro is a great ward. A return missionary took us out to dinner after working with us for a day, we had great pizza but I didn't have my camera with me to take a picture. I will try to get that picture though. 

We have an investigator that has her baptism this weekend, so pray for her! 

It got cold again here! Had a storm and it was raining and blowing. It got so cold last night in the pension that I got out of bed, put on socks, pants, long johns and went back to bed. It was great. :) 

There is a member in our ward that is a PE teacher at a university or high school and we were talking all about missionaries and their health after the mission. It was pretty interesting. He explained how to burn fat and exercises and everything. A member that was with us (in one of the photos) said this which was just plain funny: "So it that you are saying is that there isn't a magic pill or some Chinese cream that I can just smear on my body to make it go away. That I actually have to do exercises!" The member laughed and said yes. Then he said. "Forget it, I will just keep eating what I want." Ha!

A really REALLY cool story that happened with this member and his family is this. We stopped by to get to know him a little bit more and to meet his wife who went inactive for some reason. They have 2 kids one that 5 years old and the other thats 3. We decided to teach the OLA. Orar. Leer. Asistir (Pray, Read, Attend) And how these three things can helps us receive the blessings that God wants to give us and that we need. I drew a picture of a faucet and that the three things (OLA) were pipes that directed that water to a flower which is our testimony. The kids were really attentive. The Spirit was there too. Then they satarted drawing their own pictures so we kept talking to the parents. Then at the very end I looked at the picture of the daughter and asked her what she drew. So she explained it proudly to everyone. It was the temple and next to it she drew each member of her family and she proudly said "Even mommy is there too!" (she is inactive and the kids know it) I then pointed to what was above it and asked and what's this? It was a heart with an arrow to another heart that was broken in half, and then it had another arrow that pointed to a heart that was whole again. She said " I don't know, I just wanted to draw it!" I testify that she was prompted by the Spirit. And she drew what was needed in that very moment. Everybody in the room knew it. The little girl kept on drawing and it was quiet for a moment as everyone was reflecting on the simple but profound doctrine that this daughter of God had drew. I then testified that whatever problem we may have had or have now in our lives, it can be fixed by God. By the OLA. 3 simples things and the Lord can repair our lives. It was a time I will never forget. It's so true. 

The next day as we were heading to sacrament meeting, the Bishop called us and asked if I could give a talk on the importance of reading the Book Of Mormon. For 10 minutes. I did. I talked about this experience. How when we read, we receive and if we don't, we don't get anything. It's that simple. If investigators can receive an answer from God and change their life and get baptized in only three weeks, why can't we, as members, do the same but faster? We know the commandments, we know the standards of God, what we should do and shouldn't. The change isn't that drastic for us. We are already baptized. We just got to read!! The Book of Mormon is TRUE! Without it, we have nothing. No hope, no future, no happiness, no church, no priesthood, no authority. Nothing. THAT'S WHY WE HAVE IT. To establish the Light of the Gospel. READ IT. PRAY ABOUT IT. APPLY IT. Establish the Gospel in our own lives. We can't testify of the Book of Mormon with divine power if we don't have a solid testimony first. Every problem, difficulty, trial, or situation that we have, has an antidote in the Book of Mormon. Read it! :) That's my testimony. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

That about sums it all up for this week! I will make brownies this week. I hope it goes well! 

Love you all. 

Please pray for me!

Love, 

Elder Moore

PICTURES

A great family -- pioneers! They helped open one of the Munro wards back in the day. 

Another family we're working with. The man and woman in the right of the photo are going to get married in a few weeks! Civily first, then the husband will be baptized. Then they will be sealed in a year. They are awesome. 

Me celebrating when I heard they took out a date to get married!

Me and E* with our missing teeth. We are growing up!

This is of a part of the district. 

MUNRO, WEEK 41: WEEK 6

Well, this week was long. 

I went on divisions...TWICE! That makes 7 times this transfers. Which is definitely a record. They have been great experiences. The zone had a goal to do a lot more divisions to learn and to expand the work. It was pretty interesting. Sometimes difficult but I learned a LOT!!

Well, today we have plans to go to WALMART! Yep. [That's right, Taylor, the company has spread its slimy tentacles here.] Haha - it's okay with me because I heard that they have peanut butter. So they won me over. 

This week was a little bit more difficult in finding people. But we found someone named M*. She is great. About 40 years old but she is progressing and came to church! And she fit right in with the members and everything. 

This week that is coming is the last week in the transfer. So we will see what the Lord has in store for me! 

I really don't have much to talk about this past week. Things have been just chugging a long. 

The weather is already starting to heat up. 70s or so. I already broke out the first short sleeve the other day. This summer is going to be a doozy. Yay. :( Winter was absolutely nothing. Only a few really cold days that was it. 

I love you all I hope everything is good! 

Love, 

Elder Moore

MUNRO, WEEK 40: WEEK 5

Hello!

Well, family I have 30 minutes to write and then get back to the work! 

Today we went early to play soccer and volleyball and made smoothies. They were great! Mango and Kumquats (which are weird) and everything. 

This week was very busy. Walking with a purpose every day in every part of the area. The ward is really progressing in the missionary work. For 8 weeks we have been talking with the ward about goals, ward missionaries, regular meetings, people to accompany the missionaries, home teachers and plans. The past 2 weeks they established home teachers, called a new Relief Society presidency, have had 2 meetings that are now regular every week, and then they just called and set apart 3 ward missionaries. IT'S AWESOME. I feel like the missionaries and the ward are starting to work together. It's a great feeling. :) 

Here's a funny story. One day we were walking to a house of a less active. We were talking with the family outside and out of the corner of my eye I saw a lady of about 60 years watching us. We said goodbye and as we were walking I made eye contact with this person, my companion too. We decided to detour and talk to her. She is from a providence north of here. She has a big family and we talked to her about the Plan of Salvation. She accepted to listen to us. We came back the next day and taught about the Restoration because she is Catholic. She accepted the lesson and told us that she was going to pray, but then she told us a story about how when she was alone one day, pregnant she went into labor early. 3 people came to her in a white shirt and tie and helped her to the hospital. Then when they returned a few days after she gave them lunch but they only ate seeds and honey and grains. (In this moment my companion and I looked at each other and he whispered the 3 Nephites.) We left and we came back the next day. She told us that she had news for us. That she said her prayer and something came to her memory. She went and retrieved an old book and opened it up. And a picture was there; a picture of three Elders. The first Elders that opened up the area where she was. They were all dressed in white. She then realized that she was a baptized member of the church! It was a very happy moment for us (also sad because we lost an investigator that was progressing) but it was great!  

So that is my story of the week. Very interesting. 

Thanks for all your prayers! I love you all! 

Love, 

Elder Moore

MUNRO, WEEK 39: WEEK 4 OF TRANSFERS

Well, hello family! 

It's great to write to you all once again, although I must admit I don't know what to write... 

Yes, we went to a place called Tecnopolis. Which is the Argentina version of OMSI. But not quite the same caliber. They had some cool things and exhibits but the others were just plain weird and space fillers. They had a huge warehouse of just futuristic clothing for extreme conditions... woohoooooo... But then they had a cool hands-on application place and I got to participate in this blind maze race where I only had a sensor in my hands to navigate a small maze that beeped when I got close to a wall. It was pretty cool. It was all about bats and how they find food. Hope you enjoy the pictures:

We had a crazy crazy week. Lots of traveling and lots of divisions. There is a sick Elder in our zone. Which happens to be Elder G*, my companion and best friend in the MTC. He has been in his apartment with some type of virus for a week. I had the awesome opportunity to do divisions with his companion so I could stay with him in his apartment for an hour or two. It was a great blessing! We just talked and talked and worked on papers for the mission and stuff. It was great! Definitely a blessing for us, almost like a recharge. Haha. 

Anyways, we have found lots of people to teach but none of them are able to go to church so we stop teaching them because they can't progress. So it's a little frustrating in that part of the work. But we go on! Eventually we will find someone that is ready for the waters of baptism! 

That's about it! I love you all! Thanks for your prayers. 

Love, 

Elder Moore