This was quite the week, and by that, I mean that it wasn't much different from others... haha In fact, this week more than most other weeks, we were given assignments that did not let us go to the area much. But of course, we made the most of the times that we actually did have.
This week, Elder Campbell was really able to learn a lot, and honestly at this point he is pretty much ready to take it on his own! Which is good news! Although a lot of times he is still hesitant about things, it is all getting better day by day.
As far as the work in the area goes, Freddy Garcia (a newly activated member, along with his family) decided finally that he would be married to his girlfriend so that she could get baptized!! It was so nice of him to put her first like that! And they are super awesome too! He is really focused in soccer a lot, but I mean who isn't?! Yeah, but it was really cool because I have always been talking with him telling him that he should get married and he was just kind of unchanging in his opinion the whole time. So then Elder Campbell and I decided that the better focus would have to be getting his girlfriend, Dayana, the desire to be baptized, and then tell her that they would have to get married. So we went forward with that plan, and at the end of teaching lesson 3 with her, she was so full of the desire to be baptized. Then she talked with Freddy and they decided they would get married! so it was a good time.
Right now, I was listening a lot to the talk of Elder Holland from this conference. And I just love the story he shared about the brother that jumped the gap, and wasn't going to be able to hang on. But then his brother was there to grab him and pull him up to safety. Jesus is our brother! He is always here for us! We are constantly falling off of ledges and into holes. But Jesus sees them before we do, and he always has his hand there to keep us from falling to our death. We are never alone. We always have the helping hand of our Savior. We are all fragile, but there is someone who is there to help us when we break. That is always so comforting for me in the good and bad times. We all have them, but we also all have Him! :)
Have a great week! Love you!
Elder Moser
Friday, April 24, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Keep the Spiritual Light Burning
So this week was pretty awesome!
I now have another new companion!! That puts me at 10 different companions in my whole mission. At this rate I may be finishing with many! hahah But Elder Campbell is awesome!! And it is a really cool experience to be with my comp that I had in the MTC! We are getting along really well, and he really enjoys the office work so far! He is learning super quick and really he almost knows like over half of the stuff and it has only been one week. But here´s the kicker! President informed me that for the first three weeks of the change, I am still technically the financier...sooo that means I am not quite finished. So it is not until the last three weeks that Elder Campbell will have the power over the hearts of the missionaries.
This last weekend was super awesome! We were able to have the baptismal service of Helen! And even though people showed up late, we managed to put together a really good baptismal service. We had a couple of talks and sung some good hymns. So all was really well. I got to baptize her. Don't look too closely at the pictures. I had to wear women's pants due to a tragic misplacement of my baptismal pants back in the Rotunda last time I performed the baptism. But that is ok, because they were white :) haha and the baptism was great and the Spirit was so strong.
On Sunday we had the confirmation of Carlos and Helen, and it was really special, because the family of Carlos came that really has rejected us a lot before in the past. His two grandmas that live there have always been nice, but never accepted to hear the gospel. But then all of a sudden they showed up to church! They enjoyed it and all, and it was so great. Also, President Collado decided to visit our branch on Sunday so it was a pretty good Sunday overall!
Throughout the week there was not a whole lot of opportunity in the area, due to the changes and all of that business. But Elder Campbell is learning quickly how to do things. He even already got to experience being "mom" of the Collado kids these last three days while Pte and Hna are out of the country. Haha So he has experienced a lot of new things this week. It is entertaining to see his expressions when we do something new like that for the first time. I can remember back to when I was new, with the same confusion of if we were actually going to pick up Pte´s kids haha.
Other than that, life is just moving along. But this week I have been listening and pondering much the talk of Pte Uchtdorf from Oct 2014. He speaks about a spiritual light that we have within us. It has been very applicable in many lessons that I have had this past week. He speaks about how all of us have a spiritual light inside of us, and when we do things to feed the flame, it gets brighter. But when we do nothing, it starts to weaken and get dimmer. The things we can do to keep it strong once we have achieved to have the light are things like prayer, reading and studying the scriptures, going to church, going to the temple, service, loving others, and really everything good. But when we stop doing one or some of those things, we are letting the light get weaker. The scary part that strikes me really hard is when he says that it is even possible that the light gets so dim that a person will eventually wonder why they ever believed in the first place. I could never imagine losing my testimony like that! It seems impossible! I could never deny what I already know! But at the same time, I take the words of Elder Uchtdorf seriously! If that is possible, I will never let that happen to me! So what does that mean? It means that I ALWAYS, without excuse, need to do those things. There is never a worthy excuse to not do those things. So keep that in mind day to day. Did you study the scriptures today? Did you pray? Are you attending church? Are you visiting other members that need help? Are you paying your tithing? Are you respecting others? Are you patient? Do you make sacrifices in your life to build the kingdom of God? If not, then do it :) It will ONLY make you happier!
I love this Gospel, and the wonderful opportunity I have to dedicate 2 years of my life to only teaching and sharing it.
Love Elder Moser
I now have another new companion!! That puts me at 10 different companions in my whole mission. At this rate I may be finishing with many! hahah But Elder Campbell is awesome!! And it is a really cool experience to be with my comp that I had in the MTC! We are getting along really well, and he really enjoys the office work so far! He is learning super quick and really he almost knows like over half of the stuff and it has only been one week. But here´s the kicker! President informed me that for the first three weeks of the change, I am still technically the financier...sooo that means I am not quite finished. So it is not until the last three weeks that Elder Campbell will have the power over the hearts of the missionaries.
This last weekend was super awesome! We were able to have the baptismal service of Helen! And even though people showed up late, we managed to put together a really good baptismal service. We had a couple of talks and sung some good hymns. So all was really well. I got to baptize her. Don't look too closely at the pictures. I had to wear women's pants due to a tragic misplacement of my baptismal pants back in the Rotunda last time I performed the baptism. But that is ok, because they were white :) haha and the baptism was great and the Spirit was so strong.
The baptism of Helen
On Sunday we had the confirmation of Carlos and Helen, and it was really special, because the family of Carlos came that really has rejected us a lot before in the past. His two grandmas that live there have always been nice, but never accepted to hear the gospel. But then all of a sudden they showed up to church! They enjoyed it and all, and it was so great. Also, President Collado decided to visit our branch on Sunday so it was a pretty good Sunday overall!
Throughout the week there was not a whole lot of opportunity in the area, due to the changes and all of that business. But Elder Campbell is learning quickly how to do things. He even already got to experience being "mom" of the Collado kids these last three days while Pte and Hna are out of the country. Haha So he has experienced a lot of new things this week. It is entertaining to see his expressions when we do something new like that for the first time. I can remember back to when I was new, with the same confusion of if we were actually going to pick up Pte´s kids haha.
Other than that, life is just moving along. But this week I have been listening and pondering much the talk of Pte Uchtdorf from Oct 2014. He speaks about a spiritual light that we have within us. It has been very applicable in many lessons that I have had this past week. He speaks about how all of us have a spiritual light inside of us, and when we do things to feed the flame, it gets brighter. But when we do nothing, it starts to weaken and get dimmer. The things we can do to keep it strong once we have achieved to have the light are things like prayer, reading and studying the scriptures, going to church, going to the temple, service, loving others, and really everything good. But when we stop doing one or some of those things, we are letting the light get weaker. The scary part that strikes me really hard is when he says that it is even possible that the light gets so dim that a person will eventually wonder why they ever believed in the first place. I could never imagine losing my testimony like that! It seems impossible! I could never deny what I already know! But at the same time, I take the words of Elder Uchtdorf seriously! If that is possible, I will never let that happen to me! So what does that mean? It means that I ALWAYS, without excuse, need to do those things. There is never a worthy excuse to not do those things. So keep that in mind day to day. Did you study the scriptures today? Did you pray? Are you attending church? Are you visiting other members that need help? Are you paying your tithing? Are you respecting others? Are you patient? Do you make sacrifices in your life to build the kingdom of God? If not, then do it :) It will ONLY make you happier!
I love this Gospel, and the wonderful opportunity I have to dedicate 2 years of my life to only teaching and sharing it.
Love Elder Moser
Friday, April 10, 2015
3 more days!
That's right! In 3 small days I will receive my new companion!!! AND President already told me who it is!! And it is not at all who I thought it would be. I thought it would be Elder Hobbs, and oddly enough, he was not made financier, but he is ZL in my zone as of 2 weeks ago. The new financier will be Elder Campbell! Recognize the name?! Yep! My MTC companion is going to be the next financier!! So yeah in three days I will not be the man in charge of the money anymore!! But I will be in the office for 6 more weeks training him...haha so I am not going anywhere soon.
On the note of the work in the area, things are going pretty good. This past week, we baptized Carlos Aguilera, the little brother of Jose Antonio and Everth Aguilera. His parents finally gave him permission. And he was super happy about it. His mom was complaining that he was a misbehaved child one of the nights that we went to teach, and when he said the prayer, he asked God that he could not be so misbehaved so that his mom would be happier. It was honestly really awesome, and changed her perspective a lot. So that was a big moment that helped her decided to let him get baptized. Also because she was able to see a change in the older brothers behavior. They are the two that got baptized with their grandma in October! So the family is growing little by little. At some point, the parents, Idania and Ernesto will decide to get married, and then they will be baptized.
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Helen is going to get baptized TOMORROW!!! After many questions and doubts, and many times of feeling the spirit, she finally decided that she already knew that it was true and that she needed to be baptized! It was so awesome to see her progression over time. The spirit trying and trying to enter into her heart many times. Her heart getting softer and softer each time until finally it got in and she had a change of heart! I won't forget the first day we visited and all she wanted to do was ask a ton of questions like why we don't drink coffee, why we believe in polygamy, and all sorts of things like that. But she has come a loooong way! :)
This last conference weekend was awesome!! And I felt sooo good listening to the profet and the authorities in Spanish. I understood sooo much better than I did in October. So I actually learned a lot and was very uplifted by the messages. We have to go to the stake center to watch it, which is about 20 minutes away by car, or like 1 hour walking I would guess (I have never walked) so getting our investigators there was tricky. But I will forever be in debt to Luis Sarantes, for helping us with his car, and coming to ALL 5 sessions of conference. He seriously helped us so much taking investigators on Sunday morning and afternoon, and taking us on Saturday to all three sessions. So yeah, we were able to bring several people to the conference in the stake center.
I think that the common topic of families and marriage was great and all, but I will have to take it as more of new teaching material rather than personal application because...I'm a missionary... and right now I am not with my family...haha! I think one of my personal favorites from that theme of talks was Boyd K. Packer's talk! He was so direct and sincere about the sacred power and responsibility of procreation, and the blessing it is in our lives. The power it has to bring us closer to God, when we align ourselves with what he has asked us. But I think that one of my favorite talks of all was Elder Dale G. Renlund, and his talk about how the Latter-day saints keep trying. I loved 2 main points that he talked about. 1 that a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying. It is so true! There are two types of people in the world. Sinners and sinners! The first type is the type that doesn't do anything about it and just continues in their way, and the second are the people who are trying to be better, and use the atonement of Jesus Christ to become better and keep trying. The second point I really liked is that we have to have patience with others. It is interesting how really we are all the same, like he said about the missionary that looked back and his comp was off his bike just walking. To God, we all seem really alike. We are people trying to become better and better and we have to have patience and respect for others when they, just like us, aren't perfect. I love how he closed with the statement:
If we don’t try, we’re just latter-day sinners; if we don’t persevere, we’re latter-day quitters; and if we don’t allow others to try, we’re just latter-day hypocrites.10 As we try, persevere, and help others to do the same, we are true Latter-day Saints.
It is such true and powerful statement! And it just makes me want to be an even more patient person! And keep making an effort to be a true Latter-day Saint!
I could go on for days about all of the talks of conference, but I really liked that one, so for now I will leave it with that! haha And with that thought I will close.
Love, Elder Moser
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On the note of the work in the area, things are going pretty good. This past week, we baptized Carlos Aguilera, the little brother of Jose Antonio and Everth Aguilera. His parents finally gave him permission. And he was super happy about it. His mom was complaining that he was a misbehaved child one of the nights that we went to teach, and when he said the prayer, he asked God that he could not be so misbehaved so that his mom would be happier. It was honestly really awesome, and changed her perspective a lot. So that was a big moment that helped her decided to let him get baptized. Also because she was able to see a change in the older brothers behavior. They are the two that got baptized with their grandma in October! So the family is growing little by little. At some point, the parents, Idania and Ernesto will decide to get married, and then they will be baptized.
At the Baptism of Carlos!
His older Brother, Jose Antonio, was just ordained a priest about 3 weeks ago, so he got to baptize him!
The Whole family. Eventually everyone in that picture will be members of the church, but they just really like to take their time and give in one by one. haha
Carlos Dwarte is doing really well right now! He has been having lots of appointments with his doctor lately because he just had laser surgery on his eyes like 1 month ago, right before we met him. But he is doing awesome and is progressing super fast. We taught him the word of wisdom after conference last week and he was totally down to just stop drinking coffee. It was so awesome his example of just doing what God asks, and not asking questions. He hasn't drank any coffee since, and says he is having no problems! Such a good example.
Helen is going to get baptized TOMORROW!!! After many questions and doubts, and many times of feeling the spirit, she finally decided that she already knew that it was true and that she needed to be baptized! It was so awesome to see her progression over time. The spirit trying and trying to enter into her heart many times. Her heart getting softer and softer each time until finally it got in and she had a change of heart! I won't forget the first day we visited and all she wanted to do was ask a ton of questions like why we don't drink coffee, why we believe in polygamy, and all sorts of things like that. But she has come a loooong way! :)
This last conference weekend was awesome!! And I felt sooo good listening to the profet and the authorities in Spanish. I understood sooo much better than I did in October. So I actually learned a lot and was very uplifted by the messages. We have to go to the stake center to watch it, which is about 20 minutes away by car, or like 1 hour walking I would guess (I have never walked) so getting our investigators there was tricky. But I will forever be in debt to Luis Sarantes, for helping us with his car, and coming to ALL 5 sessions of conference. He seriously helped us so much taking investigators on Sunday morning and afternoon, and taking us on Saturday to all three sessions. So yeah, we were able to bring several people to the conference in the stake center.
I think that the common topic of families and marriage was great and all, but I will have to take it as more of new teaching material rather than personal application because...I'm a missionary... and right now I am not with my family...haha! I think one of my personal favorites from that theme of talks was Boyd K. Packer's talk! He was so direct and sincere about the sacred power and responsibility of procreation, and the blessing it is in our lives. The power it has to bring us closer to God, when we align ourselves with what he has asked us. But I think that one of my favorite talks of all was Elder Dale G. Renlund, and his talk about how the Latter-day saints keep trying. I loved 2 main points that he talked about. 1 that a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying. It is so true! There are two types of people in the world. Sinners and sinners! The first type is the type that doesn't do anything about it and just continues in their way, and the second are the people who are trying to be better, and use the atonement of Jesus Christ to become better and keep trying. The second point I really liked is that we have to have patience with others. It is interesting how really we are all the same, like he said about the missionary that looked back and his comp was off his bike just walking. To God, we all seem really alike. We are people trying to become better and better and we have to have patience and respect for others when they, just like us, aren't perfect. I love how he closed with the statement:
If we don’t try, we’re just latter-day sinners; if we don’t persevere, we’re latter-day quitters; and if we don’t allow others to try, we’re just latter-day hypocrites.10 As we try, persevere, and help others to do the same, we are true Latter-day Saints.
It is such true and powerful statement! And it just makes me want to be an even more patient person! And keep making an effort to be a true Latter-day Saint!
I could go on for days about all of the talks of conference, but I really liked that one, so for now I will leave it with that! haha And with that thought I will close.
Love, Elder Moser
The new Monday night tradition in the office. Factory pizza and Frescuva
Friday, April 3, 2015
First the Father, then the Son
Aaaand this week went even quicker! Ahhhhh!
Well this week was a really interesting one. And I mean that in many different ways. First of all, our hard work has been paying off little by little. We had several investigators in the church last Sunday, and they are all super awesome and many already have a date to be baptized! Also I figured out like 99% sure who will be my successor. And it will be great!! And...well I don't really know what else, but I will begin.
One of the greatest things that has happened this week is with Carlos! He is really progressing so well!! And it has shown through several things. But we had a lesson with him on Saturday last week, and the goal of this lesson was to teach him about the Book of Mormon and then how to pray. After explaining the Book of Mormon, he just accepted it with no problems, and then came the fun part: teaching him to pray.
We started off normal and explained the four basic steps to a prayer. 1) Direct the prayer to our Heavenly Father, 2) Thank Him, 3) Ask Him for what we need from Him, 4) And lastly, finishing in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Pretty simple right? So we asked him, as a little test to see. What was the first step? And he responded in a very interesting manner saying some interesting name....So we went on to explain a little about the Godhead so that he would have that a little clearer in his mind. Then we asked again what was the first step, and he said The Father. We, being very excited, asked what the second was! He quickly and powerfully responded, "the Son!!! Oh.... no. The Spirit!!! Oh...I don't know...."
So then we explained it briefly again, and asked once again.
"First?" we asked.
"The Father."
"Great Job! And the Second?"
"The Son!!!!!" He responded quickly
"No, it´s-"
"The Spirit??"
"No, to thank-"
"Ahhhhhh yeah, to thank him for aaaaaaaaaalllll that we have" (hand motions included)
We continued, and then tried it again, to see if it had stuck, but no..... the same thing. Again, and again, and again, and again. About 9 times to be exact. And then I decided that it wasn't working. (Yes it took me 9 times to finally decide that). So I told him that we were going to say a prayer together, with the steps: 1) the father. As I was going to say the next step with Carlos, Elder De la Cruz whispered, "He is going to say the son again."
That small statement sent me on a laughing attack for the next 10 minutes. So I couldn't really talk.....at all. And Carlos joined in the laughing which made me feel a little better. He also took advantage of that time to show us the many, many, many medications he is taking for 3 different surgeries he has had recently. But!!!! We did end that lesson with a prayer and he said it, and it was better! And then in the next lesson that we had on Tuesday of this week, he said the closing prayer and it was actually an awesome prayer! Better than some of the members in the branch. Anyway, that was a very cool and slightly funny experience of the week.
Also, Elder Fairbourn has a new admirer in the area. There is a lady who is ALWAYS drunk and standing in the same spot of our area. And sadly it is a frequently traveled part for us. The sadly isn't for me though, it is for Elder Fairbourn. As of about two weeks ago, she has started commenting to him about his nice blue eyes from across the street (he has brown eyes). But each time she gets more and more daring. She crosses the street a little more and more every time. But on Wednesday this week, she took it to the limit. She saw us coming and started to cross the street, so Elder Fairbourn starts walking a little bit faster and a little faster. So she does the same, a little faster and a little faster. After about 2 blocks, she finally stopped. But who knows to what lengths she will go next!
As far as all of the people we brought to church, many are going to be coming to the Conference as well, and also some others that we have found. But something I know is that I am personally super excited to be able to hear the words of our prophet for us in this moment. I am very excited for this conference and I feel like there is something very special that we will hear this time around. There are always special things, but I am just really ready for this one! I hope that you all take advantage of this opportunity to look for answers in this moment of your life in this conference, because they are there!
I think that is all I have to share this week, and if not, it's too late now! :)
Elder Moser
Well this week was a really interesting one. And I mean that in many different ways. First of all, our hard work has been paying off little by little. We had several investigators in the church last Sunday, and they are all super awesome and many already have a date to be baptized! Also I figured out like 99% sure who will be my successor. And it will be great!! And...well I don't really know what else, but I will begin.
One of the greatest things that has happened this week is with Carlos! He is really progressing so well!! And it has shown through several things. But we had a lesson with him on Saturday last week, and the goal of this lesson was to teach him about the Book of Mormon and then how to pray. After explaining the Book of Mormon, he just accepted it with no problems, and then came the fun part: teaching him to pray.
We started off normal and explained the four basic steps to a prayer. 1) Direct the prayer to our Heavenly Father, 2) Thank Him, 3) Ask Him for what we need from Him, 4) And lastly, finishing in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Pretty simple right? So we asked him, as a little test to see. What was the first step? And he responded in a very interesting manner saying some interesting name....So we went on to explain a little about the Godhead so that he would have that a little clearer in his mind. Then we asked again what was the first step, and he said The Father. We, being very excited, asked what the second was! He quickly and powerfully responded, "the Son!!! Oh.... no. The Spirit!!! Oh...I don't know...."
So then we explained it briefly again, and asked once again.
"First?" we asked.
"The Father."
"Great Job! And the Second?"
"The Son!!!!!" He responded quickly
"No, it´s-"
"The Spirit??"
"No, to thank-"
"Ahhhhhh yeah, to thank him for aaaaaaaaaalllll that we have" (hand motions included)
We continued, and then tried it again, to see if it had stuck, but no..... the same thing. Again, and again, and again, and again. About 9 times to be exact. And then I decided that it wasn't working. (Yes it took me 9 times to finally decide that). So I told him that we were going to say a prayer together, with the steps: 1) the father. As I was going to say the next step with Carlos, Elder De la Cruz whispered, "He is going to say the son again."
That small statement sent me on a laughing attack for the next 10 minutes. So I couldn't really talk.....at all. And Carlos joined in the laughing which made me feel a little better. He also took advantage of that time to show us the many, many, many medications he is taking for 3 different surgeries he has had recently. But!!!! We did end that lesson with a prayer and he said it, and it was better! And then in the next lesson that we had on Tuesday of this week, he said the closing prayer and it was actually an awesome prayer! Better than some of the members in the branch. Anyway, that was a very cool and slightly funny experience of the week.
Also, Elder Fairbourn has a new admirer in the area. There is a lady who is ALWAYS drunk and standing in the same spot of our area. And sadly it is a frequently traveled part for us. The sadly isn't for me though, it is for Elder Fairbourn. As of about two weeks ago, she has started commenting to him about his nice blue eyes from across the street (he has brown eyes). But each time she gets more and more daring. She crosses the street a little more and more every time. But on Wednesday this week, she took it to the limit. She saw us coming and started to cross the street, so Elder Fairbourn starts walking a little bit faster and a little faster. So she does the same, a little faster and a little faster. After about 2 blocks, she finally stopped. But who knows to what lengths she will go next!
As far as all of the people we brought to church, many are going to be coming to the Conference as well, and also some others that we have found. But something I know is that I am personally super excited to be able to hear the words of our prophet for us in this moment. I am very excited for this conference and I feel like there is something very special that we will hear this time around. There are always special things, but I am just really ready for this one! I hope that you all take advantage of this opportunity to look for answers in this moment of your life in this conference, because they are there!
I think that is all I have to share this week, and if not, it's too late now! :)
Elder Moser
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