A Dream Is Wish Your Heart Makes

BUENAS TARDES. 

This week was just a blur.  It was the fastest week of my mission!  I have tried to start this email in like 10 different ways but nothing is coming out right, I'm just emotionally drained, can't come up with deep ending thoughts.  So I'm just going to pretend its a normal week and write like I always have. 

sugar cane

This week was incredible!  We did a lot of service this week, ha, but I don't know if I can call it service.  It's basically like the members wanted to teach me to do something and called it servicio. ha! Hermana Moore, we need help making our homemade donuts!  Will you help us!  Hahaha, they knew I just wanted to learn.  Ha!  But don't worry, we did LOTS of missionary work this week too.  Most of the week we were focusing on how we can get as many people as possible to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional last night.  We had a dvd of the video the church released last week, "El Es La Dadiva" or "He Is The Gift", and we showed it to everyone we could!  So many people were touched by that video.  It is incredible, I have it memorized now, haha!  We showed it to a lot of people that normally close the door on us but who can resist talking about Christmas right??  So anyway our stake had this super cool activity after the devotional.  Somehow they found a ton of those floating lanterns from Tangled in the Megapaca so we bought them and let our investigators light them, accompanied by a member, and set them off into the night sky!  What the GORGEOUS!  

It was like a movie, all these members and investigators collaborating and then seeing the beauitiful lanterns float off into the sky.  It was gorgeous!  They all went towards the moon.  All the neighbors of the church came out and were like "Woah what are the Mormons doing???"  So cool!  The missionaries got to contact them too!  It was a night full of the Spirit and I really think the investigators felt it a ton! :)

This week I got to go to the temple with all the missionaries who go home this week, all 26 of us!  

The group! Minus Pister and Bontempo who beat us, but we are a happy little bunch.

Webster!

It was an incredible experience to be with the same hermanas that I started with.  We all just talked on the way up about how much we have learned and how QUICKLY the time has gone by.  It was incredible.  I have to come back to that temple next year sometime.  Have to!  

After the temple we had our final interviews with president.  Have I ever said that I LOVE my mission president!  He is so incredible and told me exactly what I had to hear.  I had questions and he answered them!  He talked about my five goals after the mission (school, work, marriage, calling, temple) and focused a lot on one of those.  Yikes.  Haha but it was a cool experience.  The first thing he said is wow hermana moore, you can speak Spanish now!  I remember your first interview and you were silent! Hahahaha.  I guess I kinda talked his ear off.  I hope to stay in contact with him my whole life!

Okay funny moments of the week.... I killed a chicken this week.  With my hands.  Granted I had a knife too. (I hope Olivia isn't reading this, are you still vegetarian?)  But it's kind of a rite of passage here, so I had to do it.  Her name was Murusha.  She was old.  She died without complaint and when we made her into soup, she didn't taste very good.  

After living in Gautemala for 18 months.  I'm kinda over chicken, and that whole chicken murdering experience sealed the deal.  Mom, please NO MORE CHICKEN. EVER.  But it was funny because in the morning before I was pretty nervous, and I was telling my comp about it and she goes, look Hermana Moore.... do you think Nefi was nervous when he was commanded to kill Laban!?  Do you think he wanted to do it!?Hahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha she told me to confide in the Holy Ghost and He would help me. Too bad humans and chicken are different and God didn't command me to kill the chicken! Hahaha I love my comp and our funny conversations in English!

I have felt so much love this week, I thought it would be easy to leave this ward since I have only been here for like 3 months but it is turning out to be really difficult.  I love these people, their kind words and simple gifts are touching my heart.  I have to come back one day! 

My surprise goodbye party from the relief society!

We are working with this family right now and they were a reference of a member from another ward and we were nervous to meet them because the member said he was super duro, but we went and said a little prayer and we met the nicest little family of three ever!  They told us that they go to another church but have heard a lot about our church. so we just started teaching them!  We felt such a connection with them and something just told me, they will get baptized Hermana Moore!  I can just feel it!  Then at the end of the lesson, we hadn't challenged them to be baptized yet, the dad goes, hypothetical question..... if we decided to perseverar in your church and get baptized (I'm like wait what did he just say!!!)  Does that mean my son could be a missionary like you two?  I was like uhm YES.  Oh and will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood authority of God?  He told us he would pray about it. SO COOL. :)  I feel so blessed to have been able to teach such prepared people.  Our part as missionaries is so little.  But it's been an absolute pleasure. 

matching zone jerseys

This Sunday was fast Sunday of course and I was sitting next to some of our investigators, 10 and 8 year old girls whose parents are members but not interested in coming back to church but happily send their daughters to church, haha, and i just felt that little burning in my chest that was like go bear your testimony!  So I did and when I sat back down the 8 year old gave me a hug and looked at me and said, when I grow up I want to be a missionary just like you!  At that point I just completely lost it. 

It was always MY dream to become a missionary.  It was always my dream to serve the Lord!  And now I AM!  And now, it's over.  In the blink of an eye, my dream came true and ended.  My heart is full and broken at the same time, its a weird feeling.  But now it's time to find a new dream, and I'm ready. 

For the last time.

love love love,

hermana moore

Last Two Full Weeks On the Mission

November 24, 2014

Subject: another week of no pictures!

On a scale of 0 to 100 I have a level 3 desire to write right now.  Half of me was just like I'll just say I'm still alive and I'll tell you the rest when I get home, but I'm pretty sure mom would kill me.  So let's see what I can whip up :)

This week I have no pictures (again), but the office elders fixed my memory card up all good they are going to give it to me tomorrow and I will start taking pics again. BUT I probs wont send any more home because they said that my card had 50 viruses on it, what with using sketchy internet places for 18 months I'm not surprised, so they said I should be careful, so I'd rather not lose ALL my pictures again and I'll just show them to you all when I get home :) 

This week it was pretty dang hot and really I don't remember much of anything we did.  I know we worked a lot but everything is just a big blur.   I learned a lot about my comp this week. I learned that we have the same taste in music. HA!  Sometimes we sing Miley Cyrus songs, don't tell anyone.  It's the little known secret, if you have a companion that drives you bonkers, just sing!  You can't talk when you're singing!  Haha, she knows all the lyrics to all my favorite songs so we just sing all the time and end up getting along pretty well.  The other day it was raining really hard and I was like dang this reminds me of High School Musical, so we straight up did the duet to Breakin Free!  In the streets one night!  My umbrella was my microfone! :)  Haha that's one thing I've learned here in the mission... let the little things go.  If singing High School Musical keeps the peace in my companionship, LET IT BE.  It is so much more important to love each other so we can have the spirit with us than to be super strict on all the rules and hate each other!

My comp said something interesting this week in comp study.  She has been studying more about Jesus´ life lately and she was telling me about something she learned when she said, you know, if you don't know a person, you cant love them. As I've gotten to know Him better, I love Him more. 

I am finding that to be true with my own comp.  The more I just sit and talk to her and find out about her life, the more I love her!  It's like finally my prayers to be able to see her in God's eyes is happening.  Some nights we just tell each other silly stories form our past and giggle on my hammock and then we sing Adele.  Haha it's pretty funny; but I love my comp a lot more now, and that's the key. :)

Something that has been cracking me up lately is that I notice a phrase a lot more these past few days than I did before. In hymns, scriptures, anything..... "and ye shall find rest" "enter into the rest of the Lord" "rest awaiteth the righteous" "and He shall give them rest in their souls"........ hahahahahahahha is rest coming my way or something? Nah I try not to think about it. :)

This week we did something super cool as a district!  We all went to an area that was super far away and we taught, together, a big family of like 20 people that some of the hermanas from our zone are teaching!  They didn't understand the restoration really well so we decided to PERFORM it for them! We had costumes and lines and a narrator and it was awesome!  We even had an elder be Joseph Smith!  He looked the part with suspenders and he kinda looks like a 14 year old boy so it was great! I was a contentious pastor and an apostle!  Haha surprise there are no women speaking roles in the restoration.   But it was so cool and we felt the spirit so strongly!   On the way back, we were in the back of a pickup truck like cattle standing up, ha, and it started pouring rain!   Here we are 12 soaked missionaries and still have a while more to ride so we all just started singing!  We sang all the missionary hymns and it was just one of those super happy moments of my life :)  One of those moments where I was like dang,  I'm probably the luckiest girl in the world :) 

With that, I'm off.  Gotta work hard this week! 

love love love,

hermana moore

December 1, 2014

Subject: all is well :)

We sleep like princesses now so we don't get denghee or chikinguya.  

These mosquitos are getting lethal here! 

And should we die (end our missions) before our journey’s through,

Happy day! All is well!

We then are free from toil and sorrow too,

With the just we shall dwell.

But if our lives are spared again

To see the Saints their rest obtain

O how we’ll make this chorus swell—

All is well, all is well!

I was singing this hymn ALL week.  This week was truly incredible.  Last week was pretty stinky, and this week was the opposite.  I felt so guided by the spirit this week and we found the people that the Lord has been preparing. It's funny because last week was my last week to find people that I could be here to see their baptisms, if they attended church the 2 Sundays and got baptized my last Saturday, so all week I was like on a rampage to find people.... and we found like 3 new investigators.  If you are a missionary or have been, you know that is a HORRIBLE dat, at least for Central America!  Haha.  This week we found A TON of people, and I won't be here to see their baptisms.  It's really been a lesson for me.  It's like the Lord is telling me, just work hard and trust in Me and I will make you an instrument in the saving of souls.  It doesn't matter if I'm here in person or here in spirit, I KNOW that people we found this week will be baptized, and l'll get to see them one day in the celestial kingdom. :) In the end, ALL IS WELL. :)

But wow, this week was INCREDIBLE.  Have I mentioned that yet?? INCREDIBLE!!!!  We would get home every night and just be like wow, how did we find that many people today?? 

Probably the biggest achievement this week was on Saturday when we were making lunch and I was chilling on my hammock when I looked over at my comp making her own instant soup with quesadillas. BROUGHT TEARS TO MY EYES.  This is the same girl who told me she didn't know how to make ramen when we first became comps.  Oh how we have progressed together.  I love my comp.  I'll sure miss her when I get home.  Maybe one day I'll go visit her in Peru? :)

I went on divisions this week with a mini misionera.  She is from here in Reu but was a comp of an hermana here in our mission for 3 weeks, and her name is Hermana Gonzalez!  Homegirl has THREE WEEKS as a missionary, no mtc, nothing, and she is incredible!  I felt like I was teaching with a missionary that had a year in the mission. :)  She is waiting for her real mission call right now and will be heading out soon :)  We shared the church's big Christmas video with a lot of people and they really responded well.  Have you guys seen it yet?

http://www.mormon.org/spa/navidad

Anyway it's an incredible opportunity for us missionaries to talk about the gospel and for them to listen to us!  Come on!  Who can say no to a Christmas song and a video right?!  That's when we pull out our folletos and we are like HA!  You already let us in now you have to listen to us :)  We are like Moroni, we use tactics but for good reasons :) sneaky sneaky!

We were teaching this woman this week and she had this beautiful spiritual epiphany moment right in front of us.  She was like the Mormon church is just the best.  It just has everything that I need. and we were like that's because it's TRUE! :)  That was after we watched the restoration video with her. Wow what a gift it is to be able to participate in the miracle of conversion. :)  While I was on divisions we ended the night with dinner with a member family.  We had my FAVORITE chapin food: beans, eggs, crema, platanos fritos, and tortillas.  We all just laughed and ate and talked about the spiciest food we ever ate here.  I had this out of body moment when we were there where I just saw myself laughing and eating with this beautiful family in a house in the middle of a jungle and tears just came to my eyes.  I just thought, will I ever be in this moment again?  I am excited to see everyone at home, but I'm leaving a big part of my heart in this beautiful country. 

Last night one of the recent converts in the ward asked me if all the families I have brought to church and all the people I loved asked me to stay here what I would do. I didn't even have to think a second, I was like I'd stay in a heart beat; but they'd never ask me that because they know that I have another work to do at home.  I just realized that this place means so much to me.  These people, the language, how I have grown in the gospel here, it just blows my mind.  I told him that I have more family in Guatemala than I do in the United States. (don't get me wrong, I love ya family, but I'm leaving behind a lot of my brothers and sisters here.)  Anyway, tear tear, all good things must come to an end. But I know that there are good things on the horizon, 

But here I am, last week in this crazy thing we call a mission, and I'm going to give it my ALL!  I'm also killing a chicken on Wednesday.... it's a kind of despedida I'm told.  All I know is my ward mission leader was like "Wear clothes you can get messy in.... it's just gonna be you and the chicken and a knife." 

Goodness gracious. 

Well, love you all.  Until next time :)

love love love

hermana moore

Alma 40:12

P.S. I made a goal today to share the gospel with someone (at least one person) everyday in December.   That counts even AFTER I get home.  I challenge you all to do it too!  Just invite them to watch the "He is the Gift" video and invite them to church!  Woo!  We can do it! :) 

P.S.  This is my friend Lorito. :)

He kissed me first and then got shy!

He made a nest in my hair!