Tuesday, April 8, 2014

ch-ch-ch-changes version 4

YEP. thats right, changes, AGAIN! I am now in my fourth area, 6th companion, in San Francisco Zapotitlan! Its only like 30 minutes from my last area and in the same stake but a different zone. 

Pictures of my last zone and district.
Zone of the month and district of the month!


I LOVE MY NEW AREA. I LOVE MY NEW COMP. I LOVE MY MISSION.
Moore and Phillips!!  Las Colochas as the people call us!!!
(Editor's note:  I think that means curly haired girls)


My companion likes to save little patitos

Alright sorry, just had to get that out there.  I don't even know where to start, theres literally SO much to write about. So when I found out that I had changes, I just bawled, mostly because I would be leaving my three baby girls in Santo Domingo.  They are literally my soul sisters.  They are the only people I went to say bye to... there were LOTS of tears and my heart still aches a little bit; but then I had to work a little bit, then pack up all my stuff and leave!  
My heart

My sassy heart.  She gave me a pair of earrings.

My other heart

I went all the way to Reu to go to the change meeting just to get sent back to Mazate!  Haha, yeah I'm still in Mazate, just the other side.  I'm higher up so it's not nearly as hot.  Actually it's overcast and lovely every single day!  I feel like I'm in heaven!  My new comp is Hermana Phillips.  She has a little less time than me but oh my gosh, she is the HARDEST WORKING MISSIONARY I have ever met.  She is wearing me out!!  Like I have never slept so hard than this week!  I have been having super strange dreams though, like horseback riding cats?  I'm gonna ask my good Guatemalan friends to interpret them for me, should get a good laugh! hahaha.
 Our area is the most rural area I have had yet!  I thought my last area was rural... this one we work in a tiny aldea surrounded by fincas!  It's basically all jungle and if it's not jungle it's just huge rolling hills of grass where the cows eat, oh and lots and lots of cane fields.  Welcome to paradise. :)  
My view outside my window at 5:45am

This chompipe tried to kill me!

My favorite vegetable here, whiskil

This also means that the people are SO HUMBLE!  So willing and ready to hear the gospel.  I feel so blessed to be here:)  
Me with some member children

This whole week was like the movie Rat Race trying to get people to come to conference!  On Friday President Ruiz came to our zone meeting and was like let's DOUBLE your goal for investigators brought to conference!  If you beat the other zones I'll give you a p-day at my house!!!  So that put us into OVERDRIVE.  We had an original goal of bringing 7 investigators to conference, but we upped it to 15!!  We worked so flippin hard this week, just talking to every living soul and inviting them to hear from the Prophet!  Heck at one point we stood up on a bus and just started preaching and inviting everyone!  That was definitely a mission first!  In the end we spent a good 2 and a half hours before every session to bring people to the conference and our area is a good 30 minutes from the stake center.  So it was a lot of busing around and talking with everyone!!!  In the end we brought 7 investigators!  Haha, so we made our original goal; but really I think we just needed that extra push to bring 15 to actually make our goal of 7.  We went places we never would have and brought people we hadn't considered bringing before the weekend started.  Along the way we saw SO MANY MIRACLES. 
Saturday morning we were running around like mad women trying to bring people, in the end we got to the church with no one! NO ONE!  So we went to a pay phone and started calling every phone number we had.  We didn't have much change so we were limited to 30 second phone calls.  Basically it turned into,  "HERMANA!, we are going to hear the prophet.  Come to the church by the stadium now!"  click, done.  haha.  So we got to our last quarter and the phone didn't answer so my comp quick hit the receiver and bam! out came not one but THREE quarters!  What a miracle!  So we made 3 more miracle phone calls!  
The best reference box ever. Look at how many of Jesus' hands are pointing into the box?
How could you say no to that????

Then we went in to conference and were just accepting the fact that no one came, when in walks a small man named Rolando!  He is homeless but came to church last week! AND HE CAME TO ALL FOUR SESSIONS OF CONFERENCE! HE IS incredible.  He is so smart and ready for the Gospel!  A few years ago he found a Teachings of the Prophet George Albert Smith book in the street and has read it many times so he basically already knows the Gospel!  He has been so fun to teach and a total miracle! :)
Also a blind woman came, talk about faith... "Hey woman come with us on a bus to a place you don't know to hear the prophet!" Such faith!!
I think my favorite thing I learned in the conference was from Elder Ballard's talk where he talked about John and Paul helping a lame man and healing him, as it says in Acts 3:1-8, they took him by the hand and HELPED him rise, and then they went to the temple, TOGETHER, praising God.  What an example to us of what we should do as members of the church, help our loved ones by taking them by the hand, and leading them to the truth! :) 

I love my mission, it has become the most sacred and incredible experience of my life.  I hope you all enjoyed and learned from conference, do what they told us, be a happy and exemplary disciple of Jesus Christ. 

love love love,
Hermana Moore


p.s. Here in the hill country I have to look out for the Drendecito, otherwise knows as the midget that roams the hills braiding the horses hair.  The members here are particularly scared of him.  I think it would be fun to meet him!  Cuidado con Drendecito, el hombrecito que trensa al cabello de los caballos. :)

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