It was my Birthday, and it was awesome :)

Wow...what a week!!! I think this week was officially the most up and down week that I have had in all! There were some awesome things and some things that were ehhhh ok. haha

But first things first, Mariela got baptized!! She did it! It was a long road, but seriously she has been such a good example of pure faith and repentance during this trip. She was sooooo happy when we told her we were going to have the service and all on Wednesday, and she got there 30 minutes early just to make sure that everything was gonna go alright. There were some awesome messages given, but when she actually got baptized, that moment was so special and the spirit was so strong. She came up out of the water crying of joy. She made it! Something that she worked so hard for and so long, and she made it! She kept studying more and more in the harder moments, and overall, her patience won over! And thanks to her help, we are now teaching, and close to committing to baptism, a very good friend of hers!!! So that was a huge highlight of the week!

At the baptism of Mariela. The road was tough, but the destination worth it.

Really not much else happened this week that can come close to the awesome baptism. It was my birthday though and we did get treated to a nice lunch at Porterhouse Steaks, and that was totally awesome! We went just with Pte and Hna Collado. And it was super awesome because we were able to celebrate both Elder Velazquez's ( Feb. 24th) and my (Feb. 26th) birthdays. So that was kinda nice and a real treat! Thank you everyone for all the birthday wishes!

Opening up the birthday package from the fam! It was awesome, and I loved it so much. It actually got here last Friday, so I had been waiting a while to open it!!!

This little add in is not going to help me with my new workout/eating vision...but I love them anyway, cause they're soooo good! :)

At the lunch at Porterhouse Steaks! :) All in all a great birthday in the mission! :)

But to be completely honest, this week has been a little difficult. Again we did not get out to the area much, for multiple reasons. And it is getting a little frustrating. But I will work through it. I am just looking forward to when I have all day every day to "teach and preach and work as missionaries (that aren´t secretaries) doooooooo!" :)

Anyway, I love how the gospel blesses the lives of people when they truly accept it. It was sooooo fulfilling and joyful to see how happy Mariela was to open the door and let Jesus into her life. And I want to keep sharing and keep helping people every day!!!!!

I'm Out,
Elder Moser

6'-3"!!

Hola Familia y amigos!
Como les va con todo? Aqui estoy bien, y animado siempre para ser un misionero!!

Sooo I decided the other day that I have gotten taller, and I wanted to check to see if it was true. So after a slightly complicated process, I was able to measure to see how tall I am. And I am already a little past 6'3"! So that was kind of exciting! hahaha I don't really know if I actually want to be any taller, but when it happens, i just naturally get excited because it is like I just accomplished something hahaha. Anyway enough of the useless information.

Update on the exercise: We are still going strong, and it is getting harder and harder each day. The sets are getting larger and larger at an increasing pace, and I am not sure how I feel about that. We are already up to doing 250 squats, 185 push ups, 230 sit ups and so on with a few other types of workouts. But the best part is is that I can already see the results. There is a high probability that I will not finish in the office with a "financier's gut" haha But we will see.

As far as things in the area goes, we have had a couple interesting experiences. As I explained last week, we are starting a new method of working, and it is focusing a lot more of our efforts on member missionary work. We have successfully handed out 6 sheets of paper and committed to each of the people to write at least 10 names. To the date, we still have 0................ BUT we are going to have many in the end, because the members are beginning to trust us a little more. Unfortunately, some of the missionaries that were in this area a long time ago were not exactly the most dedicated type. They were what we call "fritos". I don't know exactly who they are, but this is what some of the members tell us. Although the members still loved them, they did not really want to give their friends and family to them to work with. So now with this project that we are doing, we are really changing their minds. They are really opening up to us and sharing a lot of experiences and willingness to help. And on a very important note, they are also sharing their food :D haha that is a good sign that the people here like you, when they give you food, not just something to drink hahah So anyway, that is moving along forward.

But honestly this week overall has been a tough one. I guess I just feel like I am not getting as much time in the area to work as I would really like. I am kind of done with the office style life. I mean its cool and all, with the air conditioning, ;) but I just have a huge desire to work. With a new secretary it always takes a little longer to do things, so sometimes we get trapped here with an assignment that he has to do. Other times we just have a lot to do in the first place. So overall we have not been getting into the area a whole lot. But I know that it will improve quickly. I just need to keep focused, and then when the moment really does come that I am out of the office, I will be so much more grateful for it!

One of the biggest things that I think about right now is the promise that when we are doing the things right, we will have Jesus Christ by our side in this life to help us through everything. We have really been focusing on teaching that to the members in this last week, to help them remember why we keep the commandments and come to church. And then at the end, why it is super important to share the Gospel with others; so that they too can have this help in their lives, so that they can aim for celestial glory. It is a journey that needs to begin today. It can't wait. We cannot procrastinate the day of our repentance. It is amazing the little things that satan uses to guide people off the path. Many people here think that when they are offered a job, it is the only option, and that even if it requires them to work on Sundays, they have to take it. Or the same with studying. It is even super common for returned missionaries to say that. And it is so frustrating for me. It is basically saying that they don't trust that if they just keep enduring, that God will help them out of their rough situation. They are accepting to leave Jesus' side in this journey of life because they see an "easier route". Jesus wants to help them climb the mountain, or get across the river in their lives, but they see an alternate route and decide to leave Jesus because they lack the faith in the moment to believe that he can help us through the challenge. I just want to tell you that that is not the correct way. We need to trust in the Lord with all of our heart. Trust that if we turn down the job offer on Sundays, that a better job is waiting around the corner. Trust that even though we don't have enough to buy food for dinner, that it is more important to pay our tithing, that the blessings will come and we will have food to eat. Trust that when something goes wrong, He will help us through it. I know that this is true, I have lived it and I have seen many powerful examples of it.

Kind of a cool story...One of the sisters in the branch was telling us when we visited her in her house about how she used to sell sodas from her house, and that of course she would not sell on Sundays to make sure she was keeping the Sabbath day holy. With this little "job" she was really making just enough to get by. But every Sunday when she came back from choir practice, she would have a lineup of people begging her to sell them sodas. She decided to make a very hard decision! Instead of putting up with the temptation always of people wanting her to work on Sundays, she decided to take out the business completely! She had faith that taking herself out of the temptation, the Lord would help her find a different way to make the money that she needed. After all that, she started sewing, and that was how she made her money after that! So that was a really cool story to me, of really having faith that the Lord will help you through your trials if you have faith in him!

That is about all for this week, but I want you to know that I love this Gospel and I want to be more and more like this sister that told us this story, every day!

Love, Elder Moser

Back to 2!

Well it is official! Elder Maradiaga made the Maiden Voyage (by plane) to Puerto Cabezas. I think it is pretty safe to say that he will be finishing his mission there with all of the Miskitos! haha But he is happy and he was ready to leave. For that, we were happy to send him! I had a great time with Elder Maradiaga though, and I am gonna miss him!

Now it is just down to the two of us, and I have decided that I really like a whole lot better being in a regular 2 missionary companionship. It is just so much smoother the teaching and all. It is kind of awkward when there is three, because when one person finished talking, the other two don't know who is supposed to speak in the moment. But when there are just 2, it is obvious that it is supposed to be the one that wasn't talking. So I like it, and I have noticed that our lessons lately have been a lot smoother! haha

Elder Maradiaga left us a nice parting gift! Some sparkling cider!

My new companion...Elder Velazquez!

Here in the mission, President is staring a new program, and the real goal of the program is to work waaaaaay more with the members. What we used to do in the past when we visited members was teach a small message, and then ask for a reference of a friend or neighbor or someone, and we would rejoice if they gave us one name to go contact! But things are changing. Today is a new day. And the work of salvation is hastening! President has created a plan, that consists of 3 steps:

1. Identify the Chosen People
We will go to a members house, and help them to generate a list of 10 names of people that they know that are not members that can benefit from hearing the message of the restored gospel. We then make the plan.

2. Pray and Plan
Then they will pray, and in this prayer they will mention each name and something about them, a reason why they could use the gospel in their lives, or something like that. Then they will make a plan of who will visit this person, what will they do in the visit, and when will they do it.

3. Contact the people and Verify for progress
After the plans are made, we will visit with the member to help them teach, and help them take part in missionary work.

I really feel like the Lord is hastening the work every day and I am so grateful to be able to play a part in it as a full time missionary. It is such a blessing to be able to leave everything behind and share the thing that has brought so much hope and joy to my life in so many instances. I have learned to trust in God more than anything. I think that is why it is so frustrating when people say they want to trust in God more than the flesh, but just don't do it. I have seen the blessings in my life when we put God first in EVERYTHING! Sometimes we think we have a better idea, but we don't have the best idea! Only our Heavenly Father has the best idea, and we have to take that leap of faith!

I am so grateful to know of the truth of this Gospel, and I hope that I can share it with as many people as possible!

Sorry not a whole lot happened to report this week! We are really working hard mainly to find some new investigators!

Love Elder Moser

One more pic...

And we had yet another little friend visit us this week! We found him at 5:30 in the morning!

The Blessing of Repentance

Dear family and friends,

So first things first, an update on the exercise!! I know, it is probably hard to believe, but I am still going strong with the whole wake up at 5:20 every morning to do exercise. In fact, Elder Velazquez is so committed to the every morning part, that even when we would have to wake up early to do some sort of errand, we wake up even earlier to do exercise! So one day this week we woke up at 4:15!!! That one was super tough for me, but it is worth the sacrifice because I have already started to feel a lot better!! Today we did 150 squats and miraculously, I can walk just normal! That is a huge difference than day 1 when we did 50 and I couldn't even walk. haha!

Also, to help out with avoiding health issues, we have been trying to eat a little better. For me, that is not much on changing what I eat, but how much I eat.... Back in the day when I was swimming for 2-4 hours a day, I could eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and not even give a first thought. But things are a little different now..... haha so overall I am already feeling a lot better and it has only been like 12 days now!!

So this last week with Mariela was sort of an interesting one. The Branch President had a concern about going ahead with the baptism, and wanted that she would be interviewed again. But this time with a different focus. So Saturday in the morning we invited the zone leader again to do another interview with certain focuses, and he informed us that it would be better if she could speak with Pte Collado before she was baptized, so it would have to be postponed. At first I was a little frustrated, because the next three days after that were really difficult because she was not home. She took a spontaneous trip to Juigalpa and so I thought maybe she got offended and was hiding from us. I just wanted the opportunity to speak with her to resolve the doubts that she had. So finally, last night, we had our first encounter with her, and I taught her while on divisions with a member. ***side note: we just experienced another earthquake :) so we had to rush out of the office and wait outside for a bit. But it was seriously super tiny haha***  So we taught Mariela, but she was actually a little offended that she had to be interviewed two different times. We took that as a good opportunity to teach really in depth about Repentance!

We explained that real repentance is a very delicate process. But at the same time, it is super important, and one part of repentance is to confess the sin that we have committed. I think having taught that, she understood a lot more clearly that it was a very important part of repentance to confess. But all in all, everything is fine, and we told her that the best situation right now would be to talk to someone who has better authority to determine if she is repented already so that she can really feel free from the previous sins through baptism.

This really taught me a lesson too as I was teaching! haha Imagine that! She is totally ready and has such a great heart and true desires, but if a person needs more time or has something more to learn, there is no need to rush things. All will happen as it is supposed to happen if we are giving our best effort!

Oh also just a quick side note, it was presidents birthday on Saturday, so we (Elder Maradiaga, Velazquez and I) went up to the mission home on Saturday morning to have birthday breakfast and cake with president! That was super awesome, and now the mother of Sister Collado was also in town, so both of the grandmas were here! haha

Something I have been thinking about a little bit lately is agency. We listened to a talk by John Bytheway one day in the car this week and he talked a little about how God is all about freedom and Satan is all about addiction! And it is so true, but sometimes it doesn't sound that way! Satan is really clever making it sound the exact opposite. Often I have heard the phrase, "But because you are mormon, that means you can't do like anything right? Like you can't even have fun?" That is 100% not even true at all. But satan makes it sound really good. The truth of the matter is that we have the commandments to give us freedom, but along with that, WE HAVE TO MAKE THE CHOICE!!!

Agency, the blessing of being able to choose. Think about a life without agency. Assuming we followed Lucifer´s plan from the start, we would never choose to do the right, we would be forced to do it. How BORING would that life be. We would not know what it is like to have sorrow for bad choices, and therefore we would not know how great it feels and how FREE we feel when we are following the commandments. God permitted us to have agency out of love, so that we could make the choices to enter into His kingdom and have eternal happiness. Satan wishes for us to suffer, as he suffers, but we have a choice:
(2 Nephi 2:27) 27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.
We are in this life to prove to God that we want to enter into his Kingdom
(Alma 34:32) 32 For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.
And when we make the decisions to keep his commandments, we are worthy of his blessings and eternal happiness
(Mosiah 2:41) 41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
I know that agency is a wonderful blessing that God permitted us to keep as we entered our life here on the earth. And that he has given us the commandments as a guide to help us get through this life!

I love you all and hope that this week is a great one!
Elder Moser

Only one pic from this week. but its a good one! :) We caught these two little friends that were running around in the house for a little while. It was all fun and games, but then someone got hurt.... haha needless to say, we caught our two food robbers! Elder Maradiaga took care of them afterwards...