When September Ends

Wow!!!! That was the fastest month and fastest change yet! That was incredible! Its official...the new change just started and I will be killing Elder Compton! So we are going to work our tushes off to give it a good finish for Elder Compton!! I am super excited! haha!

Just like the last few weeks have been, another week so busy with missionary work that there are no odd stories to tell. No encounters with bagos and no dangerous things. We did get to have a really cool lesson with a new investigator named Betty. She is such a cool person. And I feel really bad for her at the same time. Her husband has a job that has him out at the sea for 90 days at a time, and he has to go out 3 times per year. This means he is really only home a total of 90 days in the year. And the 90 days are all pretty much at one time, so normally he only comes home for like 4 days at a time!! But anyway, Betty has such a high level of understanding. She reads the pamphlet that we left at the contact with her, which was also a miracle! We were walking down the street and her daughter Bethlehem came running after us and said, "Hey wait! my mom wants to talk with you guys. She wants to go with you to church!" So we went and talked with her and she actually just wanted us to translate a call she had to make to the states! So we offered our service and invited her to church, and she's actually friends with some really good members! The Watson family! So she gladly accepted to come to church!and she understood the first lesson so well! She will progress so well!

The baptism this week of Jeffery! This was super awesome! Andres and Josefina have been preparing their son to be baptized. They read the scriptures and bring him to church every week! So this week he got baptized! It was super cool because he has a nice nica face in the pic before the baptism, and then he has a nice smile on the one after. He was so happy after being baptized! It is so cool to see that family continue to grow in the church!

We have been trying again to get to know more of the members this week and inviting them to come to appointments with us! They are so much more affective! It is also a really affective way to strengthen the members!!

I just weighed myself this week! I now weigh 167 pounds...............I have lost almost 30 pounds while being here in Puerto............... I don't know if i am doing something wrong or what. I feel like I am eating a lot! But apparently not!!

I know that this is the work of the Lord. He puts trials in our ways and gives us success as he sees fit. Sometimes we may get tired and discouraged, but if we are patient and always trust that the lord is at the wheel, he will guide us to happiness when we put forth our biggest effort!!! Like Carrie Underwood says "Jesus take the wheel" ;) hahah

Love You All!!

Elder Moser

Pics this week...

A traditional house of people here in Puerto. This is the house of Pte. Kingsman, the district pres.

Just a traditional plate of food here! For the looking!

Elder Monson being a goober!! haha he is really flexible!

Some were chosen before the world was!

So this was a great week!! We had lots of fun and all, and working hard and we finished the week off this week with the baptism of Carlos Campos!! The little brother of Oscar Baker. Yeah!! It was so great! He is so awesome! He was so ready since the moment I met him 3 weeks ago! He already had 5 Books of Mormon, he owns the video of the restoration and he has a few pamphlets like For the Strength of Youth and things like that. He just wants more than anything to become a missionary like his older brother! So he is totally going to go out with us to prepare!

The baptism with Carlos!

And a little of fun with him afterward

It was really cool to be able to take part in the preparation for him to be baptized. I really didn't do anything except get the signature from his mom. haha! He was already ready! So he asked me to baptized him so that we could keep it in the family! haha A llittle recognition to Sawyer there! :) haha

The rest of the week was just very missionary like. Nothing really too new. But to answer some questions...This is really only the beginning of the rainy season! We are just getting into it! Apparently it gets kind of cold here, like maybe the low 80s haha. You asked about laundry, there is a sister that we pay here to do our laundry. She is awesome! It is at the same house as our food appointment and they do such a good job. The only problem is that in hand washing, when your clothes get dirty in the same spot every time, it starts to wear out a little quicker haha oh well it's all good!

Have a great week! Love You All!
Elder Moser

Pictures of my house and down the street.

Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding!

Well what a week!! I really don't remember much, because we were just working really hard all week and it is kind of just a blur and here it is Monday again. This change is going so stinking fast..... It is already week 5!! I literally feel like this has passed by in a few days!!

But we have been working hard, and loving the mission!! On Tuesday night, we had a close call with a big gang..... It was 8:15 at night and we saw Wilmer our recent convert in the street right before the cemetery, and we decided we would teach a last little lesson in the street before we headed home. So we pulled out the scriptures, and said a little prayer, and then out of nowhere comes a huge group of like 20 guys between the ages of 18-23. Most were probably drunk and had machetes down their pants. So Wilmer told us, just don't pay attention to them and hopefully they will pass. So we started to "read" the scriptures! (it was actually like super dark so we couldn't read, we just said a scripture mastery of Moroni 7:45) and some of the bagos stopped and stood around us in a circle... I got pretty nervous, but Elder Compton kept "reading" and asked one of the bagos what charity was. After about 4 minutes of talking and talking, they thanked us for the message and left.........yeah, thank you for that small miracle........... yikes! Needless to say, we decided that it would be a good idea to take the long way home to avoid following to where they were going!

On a more positive note, I finished reading the Book of Mormon again this week and as I was reflecting on the whole thing, I determined that a big message that God wanted to convey to me at this time in my life was the importance of putting my trust in him. Just as I talked about last week. I challenge all to never let yourself trust more in yourself than in God! :)

Have a great week!

Love Elder Moser

Pics this week...

Some days are just really wet and muddy here in Puerto.....

Sooooo here is a typical bathroom (unfinished because it will have walls when it is done) but normally there are only two holes..... this one has four ;) haha!

Found ourselves a new mode of transportation! :)

In a cool little canyon.

A very nice bridge. It is like a game here. Apparently the drunk people take the planks off the bridge.

Wet feet!

HAHAHA! So I really like your question. "How are your feet?" hahaha That is a good one. About 3 weeks ago I began to suffer what you would call ´constant wet foot síndrome´ and I decided it had to change. I discovered that on the bottom of my shoes, (both pairs) there was a giant split in the sole of my shoe and it just wasn't quite as waterproof as it was in the beginning of the misión ;) hahah so my feet were wet all the time and they were getting pretty gross...... so I payed 8 dollars to get my shoes re-soled and what do you know?! My feet haven't gotten wet since!! So to answer your question, no, my feet are already getting better!! And luckily they never got too bad. In extreme cases of bad weather, I wear some rain boots that I bought here, also for 8 dollars! :) A lot cheaper than having them shipped out here...So no more wet feet now! But the rainy season is coming in hard right now, this last week has been a tooooooon of rain!!

You also asked about the meat. Well here in Puerto, the beef is actually very expensive because not many people here close by have farms. So since it is right on the ocean, we eat a lot of turtle!! It is one of the cheaper types of meat. I honestly love turtle. It is really tasty. But there are a few missionaries, and Hna Collado that are anti turtle killing. So she shuns the eating of turtle. As far as the lobster goes, I have had it a few times, and I still haven't acquired very well to the seafood taste...yeah, so it can be rough....The worst of it all is the shrimp. I don't know why, but I have eaten shrimp 2 times and both times later in the day I was throwing up and losing 10 pounds....(it has been served several more than two times, but I just haven't eaten it...) I don't know if you noticed, but all of the weight that I acquired in the office has left me, and maybe more :O I am pretty dang skinny now! Like when I was swimming! hahah So in the food realm, the seafood is winning over me.

I absolutely love it here in Puerto, but something that I learn every day is the importance of faith. I haven't quite figured out the best way to help others increase their faith when they think that they already have sufficient faith. It is a very common thought here that someone who is just doing good (praying and reading the scriptures when there is time) will be saved. They have a hard time showing their faith when they are put through trials. We all have our hard moments but we need to have faith to follow Christ no matter what!!

A great example is Adan. He came back from the ocean last Friday, and we began to teach him again. He told us that he was once again going to go out to the sea, the coming Saturday (8 days) and that he wouldn't be able to complete with his new goal to get baptized. But then he told us about a dream where the concept was that there was a large cross in front of him, one side of gold and one side of silver. He said that in his dream, the cross fell over, the gold side facing down. He asked us what that could mean! So in the momento, I answered explaining to him "in life we can strive with faith for the gold or we can strive for the silver. We can achieve the silver simply by trusting in our own efforts. The silver seems good, we can live off of it, we think we are happy, but we fail to see that there is the potential of gold if we gave a little more effort and had faith. The gold can only be achieved through trusting in the Lord and working together with him." For Adan in particular, the cross fell with the gold side down, telling him that he chose to trust in his own efforts, and settling for the silver. Don't settle for the silver, it will not get you into heaven!

Love You all!!!
Elder Moser