What an amazing life we have to live...
This really is an amazing life that we live and we are so lucky to have the privledge of being here on the earth! We have a body! That in and of itself is amazing. Our Heavenly Father let us come here to get a body so that we could take that step to becoming like he is! He also gave us the Holy Ghost so that we can know when we are doing right things and wrong things. I love teaching that to people and seeing their reactions! It's almost always different reactions and you really get to learn about people by how they react in certain situations!
This past while has been wonderful. So incredibly wonderful. I've been experiencing the tender mercies of the Lord and He has been helping me grow and mature in my spirituality. I'm so blessed and grateful for the blessings my Father in Heaven gives me. We are forever in His debt. That is one thing that I learned a long time ago, but has been reenforced here on the mission. We can try to repay Him by doing what is right and helping others as much as possible, but every time we do that, He will just keep piling on the blessings. That's why the most successful missionaires are the ones you see always serving, loving, teaching, and helping. Plus through all that service and love, you just become a happy person in general!
I had this opportunity this past Sunday to give a talk in our new ward! It was the second sunday that we had been there and I consider myself lucky because I got to speak alongside a general athority! Elder Granja (a new area seventy) was speaking and the Bishop has asked me the previous week to talk on the subject of....THE BOOK OF MORMON! What a great thing to talk about! Plus it's easy to talk for 15 minutes about the Book of Mormon so I didn't have to worry about finding a bunch of material :). Well I had a very sacred experience that happened because of that talk that I will not share in here, but I'm positive will share with people throughout my life when the Spirit of the Lord prompts me to. Let's just say that it was the most blantant answer from my Heavenly Father that I've ever had. It was just in the nick of time and I will be eternally grateful for it. It was like a steroid for my testimony and I have been so incredibly happy ever since.
This past monday we had the start of a new transfer and... I have a new companion! Elder Berg (my old companion) will be training a new secretary to take his spot here in 5 weeks so I'm in a trio now. His name is Elder Venâncio and is from Santos, São Paulo. He is a great Elder and has 7 months on the mission. He is very funny and we are getting along great. I'm so lucky to have such great luck with companions! Most...actually all of them have turned out to be my best friends. Elder Pires, Elder Dias, Elder Batschi, Elder Berg, and now Elder Venâncio. I'm so blessed once again and I'm so lucky to have had these great companions to go forth and share the good word of Christ.
As you guys know, I've been excited to serve a mission for a while, but i never in a million years would have guessed what lay in store for me. I have a testimony that gets strenghtened every day that missionaries really are called by God and that they go EXACTLY where the Lord needs them and they have the exact Presidente that they need during their service. That is something new that I learned during the mission. Of course you are going to help everyone you share your message with and you'll grow by yourself, but your Mission President is such a huge factor in your mission! He molds you and I am so greatful to have President Lanius and to have been so close to him for these past 5 months or so. I learn more about life and the Gospel every time I'm with him and he is a huge role model in my life. I will try to keep in touch with him forever and I wish you guys could meet him one day. He is a great man with such an amazing spirit and knowledge. I love him and his example.
I'm so greatful for y'all (family) and the friends who write to me and support me. It means so much to hear from people back home who let you know that they are proud of you and help you through the hard times...yup, the hard times, while a mission is one of the best things someone could do in their life, it is incredibly hard and you feel helpless and overwhelmed at times. It's in these moments that you grow. It's through the refiners fire that we become purified and sanctified. I've been through it time and time again and I know that I will continue to pass through it, because I'm not perfect...not even close. I will always learn and always better myself. That is pretty much the message that we get through the scriptures about repentence and enduring to the end, so I take it that if we are better tomorrow then we are today, we are on the right path. But by chance if we regress in life, we still have that knowledge of where we were once and that should be able to give us the drive to continue on until we pass that peak that we were at before. Always aim to be better, always aim for perfection.
So, I just want you all to know how much I love this Church and how greatful I am for my Saviour Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. For any out there who are wondering why I'm on a mission, it's because I know this Church to be the Church of Jesus Christ that was reesablished by Him in our days so that we can prepare for His coming and help others do the same. That is my purpose right now, to teach others about what I came to know was true as a silly, pensative, a little lost, 16 year old boy. I received an answer at the exact time that I needed to, and I will remember those feelings and that answer forever. I have a love for missionary work and sharing this Gospel with those who don't know of it yet, or those who knew of it once, but lost that vision. I know that we always have two choices. We can choose the right and repent and become better ever day, following Christ...OR we can choose the easy way, the fun way, even the carefree way, and eventually end up regreting entirely the choices that we've made, ye even the choice we made to follow the Devil down to his kingdom.
Christ and our Father in Heaven love us and want us to be happy forever, and the only thing they ask is that we follow the things that they've told us to do. It's not too hard. Sometimes the adversary makes you think it is, but it really isn't.
I love you all and am so happy to be here on the mission. Please pray for those who have lost sight of the path or are searching for it for the first time. Prayers are answered and throught them miricales come to pass.
- Elder Moore
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