I believe in miracles....you FAITHFUL thang!

What a crazy week!  The title is to acknowledge mine and my comps new theme song.... I believe in miracles, you faithful thang!  Hahahah we don't always sing worldly songs, but when we do we just replace the worldly words for mission words!  Hahahahahaha. 

Have I mentioned I love my comp? I LOVE HER!!!!!!.  

Surprise, every thing is easier when you love your comp, in the .... more difficult companionships that I have had I was always asking mom, how can having a comp in the mission be like marriage???  This is awful!  Hahaha but I think it'll be better because in theory I'll actually like my husband right?  So anyways, good comps are fun, and my comp is awesome.  She is on the hunt for miracles every. single. day.  So every day we are just trying so hard or trying something new and it is so fun!  We walk everywhere so we have some bomb calves now! Beach season,  I'm ready for ya! (joking) but we have seen so many miracles.  I can't even remember them all, but basically we just work really hard, sweat all the time and have so much fun. SO MUCH FUN. :)  Oh and we match everyday. :) 

Chapin breakfast after cleaning for 4 hours and burning our rotting trash!  I learned that hairspray does not help to burn rotting food.  Woopsy.  We almost died!"

This week we were walking and laughing when all of a sudden we saw this large dog pointing at us. we were both like oh dang this might get ugly.  So we try to cross to the other side of the street and the dog starts charging at me!  I'm trying to beat it off with my umbrella and pushing my comp away, how valiant right, and then we got hit by a motorcycle.  Yeah double whammy.  Dog from oneside and incoming traffic from the other. don't worry though, I'm a dramatic person so you can minimize that story a lot and visualize the moto actually just like love tapping my comp and me just kicking the dog. It was hilarious.  Then I proceeded to yell at the neighbor boy who was the owner of the dog.  Hahaha woopsy!  I was like " ESTAS LOCO? CONTROLA TU CHUCHO!" And then we walked away with our dignity intact.  Hahahaha.  Watch out....Hermana Moore is getting cray cray in her old age. :)

Let's see what else, oh this week we had a multi zone conference in Reu so we all decided to put on our corte and look absolutely fabulous :)  

At the beginning of my mission I swore I wouldn't wear corte in public or off the plane... but now I'm reconsidering.  Hahaha, but the conference was awesome.  We watched a video of Bruce R.  McConkie giving this awesome talk and something that he said really struck me....

I shall not know any better then than I know now that Jesus Christ lives.

He was talking about when he sees Jesus Christ again.  That was such an incredible thought to me. I just thought, how is MY faith.  How is MY testimony of the man whose name is on my name tag. What do you think?  Are you there yet?  If not, what can you do to get to that point in a testimony? :)

With our convert and matching outfits again!

Also this week I learned that my great grandma died.  It made me sad to think that I wont be able to see her when I get home... but at the same time, I KNOW, without a single doubt in my mind, that I WILL see her again.  When I see her she will not be the frail grandma that I have known. she will be beautiful and perfected.  She will be healthy and full of light.  I know that right now she is listening to missionaries like me in a place of rest called the spirit world.  I hope and pray that she accepts their message of hope and Jesus Christ because I didn't exactly offer that to her while she was alive. I made myself a promise this week.  I will never let anyone else go out of this world without hearing my testimony and responding to my invitation.  Attention everybody, especially my family members...

I KNOW that Jesus Christ lives.  I know that He died for me, and you, and every other living soul on earth. I know that through Him we WILL live again. I know that through Him we have ordinances, which are rites that we must pass through to progress in this life and show Him that we are willing to change. I invite every single one of you to get on your knees and pray, ask God in the name of Jesus Christ if you are ready to meet Him. If you feel that you are not yet ready, ask Him what you need to do to get ready and when you receive your answer, DO IT. What you all need to do is simple, and I invite every one of you to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God.  It is the ONLY way we can return to live with God.  The ONLY way. please, pray and ask God. I want to see all of you there.  2 Nephi 9 : 41. 

We all have pins that say "he leido el libro de mormon", or I have read the Book of Mormon!  Because we did it in a month!  Yeah!!!!!

I seriously love all of you so much.  Don't be sad because we lost a family member, just rejoice in her life and learn what you can do to help her. But I hope you all know that I shall not know any better in the day of judgment than I know now, that Grandma Marianne will live again. I know that she will take on a perfect body and that she will live with God if she chooses to accept the ordinances that we will do for her in one year.

love love love,

hermana moore 

New Week, New Change, New Comp!

What a QUICK week!!!  This week my almost 5 months with Hermana Phillips ended and I received a new companion!

HERMANA JORDAN. 

Okay seriously she is probably the most positive/nicest/most faithful person I have ever met.  Let's just say these next 6 weeks are going to be FUN!!! :)

So Hermana Phillips left on Wednesday morning and in came Hermana Jordan!  And right when she came in I told her our ... predicament.  There is a joven who has gone to church twice and is going to seminary and wants to get baptized, or so I've heard because I've only talked to him once, and he could totally get baptized this Saturday!  But he is IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND.  And she just looks at me and goes, hermana, we are baptizing him this Saturday!  So basically the whole week was the quest to find GERBER! Yeah it's pronounced "Herbert" but I think his mom saw the jar of gerber baby food and just fell in love with it?  Anyways we call him our gerber baby, hahaha.  Not to his face of course, he's 16!  Haha.  Wednesday we looked for him, nothing.  Thursday the same.  Friday I was starting to get nervous, but my comp was like no! have faith we WILL find him!  So we decided to just walk in to his house and be like we demand to know where he is!  I was terrified because we had heard that his family was not supportive and they live next to a river where some man got macheted a month ago.  So we went in broad daylight don't worry, but we were scared.  So we walk in and the mom goes, HERMANAS!   My son wants to get baptized in your church!!  We are both just like..........................................is this real?

So we start explaining to her what our purpose as missionaries is and she is like heck yeah baptize him! 5 minutes after we met her she was signing his baptismal form.  Yeah we had permission for his baptism and we hadn't even asked him if he wanted to do it yet!  My comp hadn't even met him yet! So by some miracle we found him soon after and called the elders and they interviewed him and the next day, he was baptized! 

Now I hope your not all rolling your eyes and thinking oh just another typical met him and throw him in the water type of baptism... this kid is a MIRACLE.  He has completely changed his life in the two weeks he has been going to church.  He only ever wants to be in the church.  He's like half way through the Book of Mormon and he wants to serve a mission.  He keeps telling us,  "Just two more years sisters!" :)  It makes my heart so happy! :)  It's just a totally miracle because we did nothing.  The ward just got a new young men's president and he is doing tons of activities and basically reactivated the entire young men's class.  And they are bringing friends!  I feel like I'm doing my real job, just teaching and baptizing the people that the members bring!"  I read an article this week that I loved about member missionary work.  It said, missionaries are full time teachers, members are full time finders!  You better believe it!  Have you given a reference to the missionaries lately?  Or ever?  If not, DO IT.  Swallow your pride and share this glad message with everyone!  Ah just do it..... you will never regret it. 

FHE with all our recent converts

Our convert! Abelino! :) He came with a white shirt and tie and he is just rockin' it right now!!!! Miracle!

I'm especially learning a lot about that right now because my comp is a convert.  She was baptized two years ago and is the only member in her family!  Her best friend shared the gospel with her and now she is sharing it with the people of Guatemala.  Talk about a miracle from just sharing what you love with those you love. DO IT DO IT DO IT!!!!!!!!!! :)

It's been pretty chilly lately, and I love it!  When it rains we are cold and I put on a long sleeve shirt  (like the Catalina t-shirt! I feel honored to have it I like almost cried and I have worn it every night! Picture to come next week!  I'm an honorary sailer!!!!!) and sleep with two blankets!  Ah I never want to leave San Francisco! It's mission dream land!!!!!!! truly!!!!!!!

Hermana Phillips, look who's wearing your bows!

Alright well my times up!  Love you all and hope you have a great week. 

love love love,

hermana moore

Last week:

Subject: I'm from Guatemala now

   look what I bought!CORTEEEEEEEEEEE. :)

Wow, what an insane week this was!  I feel like I have been in this country my whole life now, it's been a long time!  So long that I am in fact turing into a chapin.  This week I did something I never would have done a year ago.... so I made oatmeal for breakfast, I had already boiled the water and I poured the packet in and even cut up an apple, fancy ooo, and then I sit down at my desk, pray and then look down.  It was apple cinnamon flavored but gee have the cinnamon specs always been that big? and black? and segmented?  Oh no, of course not... because it's not cinnamon,  they are dead ants.... I thought for a second, do I throw it away?... or do I ... eat it?

I ate it.

And that's proof that I've been in a foreign less than hygienic country for almost 14 months. HA!

Another fun Guate thing, the earthquakes. Yikes, we had 8 this week, that we felt.  One happened on Wednesday morning when I was complaining to my comp about earthquakes.  They really scare me and waking up to your entire third floor world shaking isn't exactly fun... so while I was saying "I'm so sick of earthquakes!"... the earth started quaking...... UGH!  No more no more!!!!!!  So pray for my safety, and my sanity!

beautiful sunrise

Let's see, this week was pretty amazing.  We had an incredible ward baptism this week, basically the whole ward attended.  Our sweet Yoseline got baptized.  She is just the sweetest little girl :)  Also Hno. Byron got baptized.  He has been going to church for a year but couldn't get baptized because of divorce issues, but this week he finally got baptized.  It was the most joyful baptism I've seen :)  This man leaves with us all the time, his testimony is incredible.  It was such a joy to be a small part of his conversion process :)

Also this week we set a baptism with this man that we were working with for my entire time here.  His heart changed so much and I have never seen him happier.  Then last night, he told us he changed his mind.  We are kind of really sad, but I know that lord has a plan and will help him accept the truth one day, I hope. :( That's the hard part of being a missionary. 

But there are joyful parts too. Like how the husband of Hna. Ana, who got baptized a few weeks ago, got interviewed and now has his fecha for his baptism.  This family is just a complete miracle. I really feel like we didn't do anything.  We just knocked on their door and gave them the book of mormon and invited them to church.  They have worked so hard to learn everything in this gospel.  I really feel like I just watched them change faster than we could even keep up!  Her dad is Hno. Francisco who got baptized last week.  This week he passed the sacrament!  I didn't even know he got the priesthood!  But this ward is way ahead of us :)  So this week will be pretty incredible because on Sunday we are baptizing a family :)  That's the best thing in the world. IN THE WORLD. :)  I know they'll make it to the temple.  And hear my words, I'm COMING BACK FOR THEIR SEALING NEXT AUGUST. They gotta get sealed so he can be the next bishop, seriously, they are that pilas! :)

Today was basically awesome.  We woke up at 4 am to go to one of our recent convert's farm and make cheese out of the milk they got from their cows!!!!! I love his granja and it was so fun, something my comp and I could both enjoy, me with the cooking and her with the animals!  Then they made us this huge breakfast and we ate the cheese we made!  Ahhh it was so fun, I'm totes mailing it when I get home :)  We took lots of pics :)  It was lovely. 

making cheese!

making tortillas

lunch on the granja

this is how we cook corn...just throw it on the fire!

Oh and my brother turned 25 this week. OLD MAN.  I'll give you a gift or something when I get back. You want a typical skirt that the men here wear right???? ;) jokes jokes :) 

Well I'm sorry if this email is lame, I'm just having fun sending lots of pics. :)  Love you guys, choose the right and oh yeah I learned how to say albino in spanish! "hijo del sol" or child of light!  How lovely right!! :) 

Haha so yeah. Love!

the roads are so muddy.  I ruined my new shoes.

love love love,

hermana moore :)

This week:

Subject: I never want to leave!

Seriously, the mission just gets better and better!  I don't understand why it gets so amazing right before you are about to leave!  I am going to live up these next 4 months because wow, I will never have this amazing opportunity again. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. 

Cute comp ice cream shot.  We got this for free because we finished the other hermanas food when they felt like they couldn't eat anymore.  "and her stomach grew three sizes that day!"  Hahahahahahahahaha, I have eating skills. 

So this week was basically beyond words incredible.  Do you remember last week when I was like really sad because a hermano that was going to get baptized up and decided not to because of his old pastor?  Well persistence works. God is good, and miracles happen once in a while :) 

Sunday night he effectively broke up with us.  I cried.  Monday night he didn't even speak to us.  When I walked out of their house on Sunday night I was so hurt.  I know I shouldn't take these things personally but I was like I never want to come back here!  I know.... how Christlike... but my comp is amazing, she doesn't give up, ever.  So we went back on  Monday and it was still really sad.  On Tuesday we went with the district leader to try to help him resolve his doubts.  He was still very closed off but by the end we got him to have a kneeling prayer with us and in it he asked God humbly if he should be baptized.  He asked us to pray with him from our house during the night time from 1 - 3 am so he could receive his answer.  We were like heck yeah we have nothing better to do!!!  So we set our alarms, multiple ones... for 1 am and we SLEPT THROUGH IT.  The spirit woke me up at 1:45 am and I was like PHILLIPS WAKE UP. PRAYING TIME!!!!  So we started to pray.  I don't know when but I fell asleep and next thing I knew it was 6:30.  So then that morning at 10 we went to Abelino to see if he got his answer.  I remember rounding the corner that goes to their house and I just had knots in my stomach.  I was SO NERVOUS!!!!!  But we went in and started talking.  We brought Hno.  Byron with us - he had to wait a year to get baptized but finally got baptized last week.  He bore the strongest testimony to Abelino and then we asked him, "Abelino, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized this Friday?" 

He looked down and then said, "Ya know hermanas, I had been saying I wouldn't .... but I know now that I should." 

My eyes just filled with tears and I felt surrounded by heaven!  Holy ground I'm telling you!!!!  He asked Hno. Byron to baptize him and he did!  Wow it was just a miracle. Abelino's brother is on a mission in Nicaragua.  I'm so grateful to have been a part of a miracle for this other missionary and I PRAY that I can be a part of the same thing..... hint hint. :)

His baptism was beautiful, and then the next day WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE WITH ALL OF OUR RECENT CONVERTS!  Yeah we filled a bus.... :)  I'm in a very prepared area.  

Rolando at the temple!

It was so incredible to be at the temple again.  The last time I was there was in January.  It was right before I experienced one of the hardest trials of my life and experienced well.... a lot of adversity.  But here I am nearly 7 months later and I was just overwhelmed with God's love.  He loves me enough to give me trials.  He wants me to change and become better.  I am so GLAD there are trials in this life.  I just felt like the luckiest girl in the world.  My converts felt the spirit really strong too.  Hno. Francisco told us that he felt like going to the temple was the last missing piece in his soul, he now feels complete. Ana was having a hard time and being at the temple brought the spirit back to her. Vicenta, my less active family, told me that she had never felt so surrounded by joy then when she was inside the temple with her husband.  They plan on getting sealed in December.  

My familia Pacheco. we reactivated them and baptized their son and they went to the temple with us this weekend.  She told me, "Hermana, we will be back here in December and we will get sealed!!!" SUCH A BLESSING! THIS FAMILY IS MY MIRACLE. :) 

Abelino couldn't go inside because he wasn't confirmed yet but he just sat outside on the grass all day and said he felt surrounded by peace.  He has such faith and wants to "evangelizar" with us ... ha! :)  My sweet niños that got baptized this past month were such angels.  They loved being near the House of the Lord.  Even though they couldn't go inside they felt the spirit.  I'm so proud of them :)

Me and my favorite baby boy! 8 year old Gerson :) 

ALSO while I was at the temple I was blessed to see members from every single one of my areas. I saw my ward from Las Flores.  They were on a temple trip too!  I saw some of my favorite members from San Marcos.  They updated me on some awesome converts and I saw my bishop from Coatepeque!!! All of them gave me reports on my converts and again..... I FEEL SO BLESSED!!!!!!!!!!!! MY FAMILY FROM COATEPÉQUE IS DOING GOOD!!!!!!!!!  I love being a missionary. LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

Then we came back tired and car sick only to get ready for FRANCISCO'S BAPTISM on Sunday morning!  Ana's husband Francisco was baptized and we baptized a FAMILY.  

What a blessing. I literally feel like WE did so little in his conversion process, the spirit did it all.  We just taught him and set up his baptism.  So he was baptized and confirmed and even received the priesthood, all in one day!!!!!!  Super star day!!!  And his wife received a calling to be the second counselor in the relief society presidency that day too!!!!!  Yeah it's pretty cool to sit in ward council with your convert of one month. :)  Swimming, basking and wading in the blessings right now :) 

And wow so much else happened this week but I'm out of time!!!!!

Love you all..... choose the right and wow, serve a mission. there is NOTHING like it. 

love love love,

hermana moore

p.s. I wore corte to the temple. every one thought we looked super cool! I LOVE CORTE. :)  I bought more today.  I'm an addict. :)