April 2nd, 2012

What a week!

Well, not too much happened this week, but then the end of the week was spectacular!!!! I love General Conference so much and I am so glad that I got to watch it! Also, Im so glad that I am a member of this church and have the knowledge of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

I loved a ton of talks a lot but I did however have some favorites! I think i will write another email later saying which talks are my favorites and why they are! Yup, i will devote a whole email to that. Sounds good! :)

I want to meet these guys that helped Dad come to know of the Gospel!! Man.. 

Im so jealous that you guys got to go to conference! I kept thinking that whole time "My mommy and daddy are there... :)" and im pretty sure that i said that to some people as well.. :)

As for today, the transfer was today! As you will find out, i will stay in the office for the next 6-9 months... so im not really gonna have any new news about switching areas for a while until presidente switches the areas of the assistants/secretary's! I will however get another companion here in another couple months or so! I think i will say with Elder Berg for this transfer and then he will train a new secretary to take his spot, then me and the other secretary will be together for a good time! 

So what were some of your favorite talks? How was it to be in the room with all of those powerful souls?! Did you just cry your little heart out? 

I havent given up on my goal that i made 6 months ago to be in MOTAB one day! Listening to them these past couple days has just strengthened that desire!

Well, I love you so much!

Com amor,

March 27 2012

Que confusão de uma semana!

Im so jealous that you guys are going to conference! but i think that i will get to watch it in english this time! im so excited!!! Im sure i will get to see all 5 sessions. Im so happy that it is only  a week away!

well a normal day we get to the office at 9, i do a whole bunch on stuff (everything on a computer) and then we leave at about 6:30 or 7. Im actually back in Torreão (the area that i was in before being a secretary) because a missionary had pneumonia and he got out of the hospital after being in there for 9 days last week and im his companion/mother right now :) haha

so we dont really get to work that much at night for now because he is still recuperating from everything. Poor guy. His name is elder moat and he is still in his first transfer here in Recife. He doesnt really speak anything of portuguese and it pretty shy. but that is okay because we are helping him come out of his shell! i like him a lot and it will be cool to see him grow in his relationships with others and develop his talents even more so that he can be of good use to our Heavenly Father during his time here on the mission. 

I have been doing a couple divisions with Elder Batschi so that i can get out and work some and see some of the families that we had been teaching together. This past week i went to visit the family of Robson! They are so wonderful and i have an extremely deep love for them. They get visits from the missionarys almost every day and they are soaking up all of the knowledge we have to give them! But that is a very good thing. OH! Something really cool happened yesterday at church! Robson recieved the arronic priesthood and now is a teacher. Then he got made the 1st counsiler of the teachers quorum!!! Im so happy for him. Also, his whole family was at church and his little sister will be baptized this wednesday night! Im so extremely happy for them all. His mother (Selma) is such a sweetheart, but is one of the most timid people I have ever met! She is now working on getting legaly married with her husband so that they can enter the waters of baptism too. I love them!

I havent gotten any packages yet! But i will wait patiently... kind of. :) I will know the exact moment that it gets here though because im always in the office now!

Love you all so much and have a wonderful week this week!

Com amor,

Elder Moore

19 March 12

Hello! Another week in the office!

So, this past week I feel like Ive learned a TON and the information keeps washing over me like the big waves im close to now! The office is a blast and it is really a great experience to be so close to President all the time! He is a great guy. And a pretty big guy! I will have to send yall a picture one day. He is from Curitiba, Brasil and was a sealer in the temple and part of the Curitiba Temple Presidency before his call as Mission President of the Brasil Recife mission! I dont know what else you want to know about him!

Yes, we have air conditioning in the office! It is really weird to not sweat all day, but one thing office members tend to do...is get fat! That will NOT happen to me! I refuse! 

Awesome that you guys got to meet with Elder Anderson! I still havent seen an apostle in my life, but we will all get the chance in a couple weeks to hear all of them :D im so excited for that!

We DO have some good investigators! And our area is awesome!!! It is RIGHT on the beach so I get to see the ocean almost every day... that may or may not be a good thing. I miss it! Haha :)

It is really weird, because we leave the office at about 6:30 and get home (in our area) about 6:45, and it is already really dark, so we only get to work for a couple hours each day before we go home! As you can imagine, it is a little dificult to mark meetings with our investigators, but the Lord blesses us for our dutys and somehow it still works out! A couple weeks ago a girl named Stella got baptised and she is so cool! She is 15 and a little fireball! Always has something to say and usually it is something good :). We are working a lot with her family and her sister who is 17 wants to get baptized, and we are working on her mom and dads legal mariage (that is a huge thing in Brasil).

Speaking of marriage... THE TAYLORS ARE GETTING MARRIED?! Woah! Didnt see that one coming, but that is cool! Tell them i wish them both the best and that i miss both of them! It is so weird! 

And yeah Derek will be home in a couple weeks too! Then James. Then all the boys from my class, then me! But that is so far away! And i dont really like how fast the time is going... If i come home a transfer early, Ill be coming home in a year a couple weeks... i dont like that... I need more time here! The more time I have on the mission, the more i realize how tiny 2 years really is.. it is ridiculous how fast time flys and how happy you become the more time you spend in the service (right now a little bit of a different service) of your fellow missionaries and all the people around you! It is also really strange that every time you leave an area, it seems like you are leaving home all over again. At first, it was my home in Garanhuns. I loved it there. I changed so much in the time i was there and made a lot of great friends that i hope i will keep in contact with forever! Then it was Torreão, the unlikely home... because when i got there the ward was a mess and it didnt seem like we would have success at all, but with an amazing companion, we got the job done and i felt like i left a bit pre-matuely there (im really sorry for the spelling). We were teaching a WONDERFUL family of about 12 and i only had the opportunity to baptize one amazing young man. I hope and pray every day that that incredible family will come to an understanding of the things that I know to be true and be baptized and take that step in becoming an eternal family! 

Now, I am here. In the ala pina. The ward is great and I had the opportunity to give a talk yesterday! I think that i have become a lot more comfortable with speaking in public since ive been here! I never thought that i would do this, but i forgot to look at the clock during my talk and finally got a card slipped onto the podium that said "seu tempo acabou, muito obrigado!" It also had a little smiley face on it. In translation, "Your time finished, thanks!" I looked at the clock and had been talking for about 15 minutes (seemed like 15 seconds) when i was asked to give a short 5 minute talk. It was kind of funny, but i wasnt done talking! :) A little more about my area right now ----- it is right on the beach and it is wonderful to be here, but it is so HOT. The sun just roasts you, but now im inside more than outside i think because of the office! We share the area with the Assistants and we live with them too. Being in the office, I know EVERYTHING about the mission now. Sometimes, it is awesome. Other times, it is not too awesome knowing that bad things occur in missions. I would like them all to just be perfect! :)

Well, that is about it for this past week or so! If possible, time is going even faster now that im here in the office! There is always something to do or something that needs to be fixed! 

I love you all and hope that everything is well!

Com amor,

Elder Moore

5 March 2012

So, it hasnt been that long since i wrote to you guys, but i feels like forever! Yup, the Temple was GREAT and i love it so much! Hope everything goes well with Dave and he gets to feelin better soon! Yes I want more details about the mission! I want a TON of details from everyone! You should give me an outline of what happened on you missions (what area - what companions - and what leadership responsibilities - and for how long!) :) i know it sounds like a lot of work, but i konw you can all do it!!! :)

 

So this past friday we got a new companion! Elder Jensen. He is 19 and had 5 months on the mission. From Brigham City, Utah and just looks like a Utah boy. So we went out on Saturday and worked (we won the contact contest by the way) (by a lot...) (cause we are AWESOME.) and then we had two more missionarys sleep at our house on sturday and sunday night (one of the Elders hadnt gotten his patriarchal blessing yet so they came here to get it Sunday) so we had a full house for the past couple nights!

 

Everything was good, but then we did something this morning that no one wanted to do. We took Elder Jensen to the mission office this morning so that he could go the airport. And go home..

 

It was one of the saddest things ever and i felt terrible.

 

We didnt know when we picked him up Friday night that this would be happening, but the idea was in the back of our minds for a while..then the phone call came and we knew what was going on.

 

So that was the past couple days, now im a little bummed out, but we just gotta get back in the work and do everything we can for the little time that we have.

 

One happy thing that i thought of yesterday. ITS ALMOST GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! Woo hoo! Im way excited for that but cant believe that its been 6 months since the last one! How weird!

 

Well, I love you all and my assignment for you this week is to go read Chapter 5 of Alma, it is just SO GOOD! I love it alot. I love all of you alot also!

 

Com amor,

Elder Moore

29 Feb, 2012

So, this week was pretty good!

 

Sorry im wrighting so late! Our pday got switched to wednesday this week cause we went to the TEMPLE! It was so great and something ive really been needing. So im wrighting today because we didnt have time yesterday, so this will be pretty fast!

 

Good things that happened this past week...and a half... OH! For this week we made a competition in our District because we are all really good friends! We are having a contact making competition! None of our areas really have a bunch of investigators so we are doing as many contacts this week to try and get more! The two losers will bring cake and or juice to district meeting next week so everyone can have a fun party! Pretty sure we are gonna win though...  :D

 

This week was just good! We had the baptism of Robson this past sunday and he chose me to baptize him so i was defintily happy about that. We are also gettting really close with his mom and dad and 3 younger siblings and I know that they will take the step and follow our Savior and Master and be baptized too! Love that family!

 

Well, sorrry this is so short this week, but I love you all and will wright again on Monday! Until then,

 

Com amor,

Elder Moore

Feb 19th, 2012

Carnival!

So, just for the record, carnival in Brazil is kind of ridiculous. It is pretty much the best holiday ever! If you are not a member of the church that is.... but its all good! We have some rules that we have to be in our houses at 5:30 during this holiday and that kind of cuts back on the work.. also, we have to stay out of some areas of our area. Its all good though! 

So, not too much to report this week, it has been really hard because of carnival. everyone leaves the bad places except for the people who want to be bad, and the people who are bad dont usually want to hear about Jesus... so this is kind of a hard time for us missionaries! Especially since Recife has the 2nd biggest carnival... IN THE WORLD. Its cool though. 

How is everyone? I miss you guys! It was HILARIOUS to hear that you guys got pooped on. That really brightened my day! :) Hope i get my camel pack soon! Its not so much for the water part of it as it is for the backpack. It is the PERFECT size for a missionary! Little and compact so that you can fit your scriptures and pamphlets and a book of mormon in, but then it still has the wide backpack straps! Perfect! 

Transfers were today and Elder Batschi and I stayed together! Im starting my 6th transfer and next week ill make 9 months on the mission... WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?! This is absolutely crazy. 

Well, that is about it for today. We are gonna go try to find an open store so that we can buy some food and water for our house, but everything seems like its  closed so that kind of sucks. Oh well!

Love you all so much!

Com amor,

Elder Moore

Valentines Day!

Valentines Day!

So, here was my week!

Tuesday and Wednesday was work as usual and we didnt have any cool experiences that i want to share... :) 

Thursday - ZONE CONFERENCE! Woo hhoo! It was awesome. I LOVE getting to go to zone conferences. We had presidente and sister there and we had the famous... Doctor Call! He is the guy that stays in São Paulo and we talk to him if we are sick. So ive talked to him a couple times on the phone during my mission, but ive never seen his face! Everyone just look at him and said... He is real!!!! It was pretty cool. So he gave a big presentation about health and Presidente talked to us about spiritual health and how we need to be better missionaries and all that good stuff. It was so wonderful! But every zone conference we have something that makes me feel the spirit really strong, we have the testimonys of the missionaries who arent gonna be there the next zone conference... it is always so strong to hear their testimonys and to hear their experiences. Its weird to think that that is gonna be me one day... 

Friday and Saturday were like tuesday and wednesday :) 

Sunday - Sunday was kind of a bummer day. Weve been teaching this guy named Robson a lot and he is really interested in the Gospel and is just such a wonderful kid! But, his mom doesnt let him come to church... So we went throughout our day and got.... wait for it.... NINE REFERENCES OF PEOPLE!!!!! Wooahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So now this week im SO excited to go contact these people that are waiting for us!!! This week is gonna be pretty cool, but carnival is starting up...dangit.. that means that everyone drinks more than usual and they do terable things on the streets... its pretty bad and kind of a dangerous time of year for missionaries. 

Well, that was my week! 

I found something pretty cool when i was studying the scriptures this week! Well, not really cool, but it really makes you think! At the end of 2nd Néfi when he is saying his goodbyes he is saying goodbye to all of his friends and loved ones, then he says the FINAL goodbye to all of the wicked people because he wont reunite with them again in the Celestial Kingdom...really makes you think and want to be a better person so that you never have final goodbyes with anyone! At least it does for me. Also, that is another thought that i had is that when we as missionários teach people about the gospel and they understand it, they are then responsable for the things that they do! That means that we as missionairies have to teach them exactly right..or else its OUR fault at the last day! What a calling huh? I think it goes a looottt deeper than some young men realize. We are representatives of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Think about those words... 

Well, i love you all! Thanks for everything! Oh yeah, i prolly ride 3 or 4 busses a day and its cool, but usually really crowded. 

Com amor,

Elder Moore