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!

Camera malfunction and stolen scriptures! Yikes!

Buying donuts from my sweet recent convert, 

who by the way received the priesthood yesterday and has found a name of a 

deceased ancestor to take to the temple on Saturday!

This week:

Subject: no fotos this week.....

Yeah let's just talk about the saddest story of the week..............

I left my camera with one of our 14 year old converts during an activity so she could take pictures, and she accidentally deleted all of the pictures and videos from my mission................

so no pictures this week.  Here's hoping that mom has been saving my pics for the past 17 months. This would happen the last month of my mission!

But I have a little esperanza because Elder Krueger is all techy and says he can recover the pictures, so he has my camera and will be working on it. PRAYERS. 

This week was interesting.  Lots of divisions and lots of tender mercies.  I am learning that the Lord always blesses us, sometimes we just have the little tender mercies blessings instead of the huge baptizing a family of 5 blessings.  But when we are obedient, he blesses us. :) 

Romans 12:18

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

That was my theme this week.  Patience and do everything within your power to keep the peace. haha.  You are all probably thinking Hermana Moore is falling apart, but no, I'm keeping it together, as much as lieth in me, IM KEEPING IT TOGETHER.  For that reason, the Lord is blessing us.

One of the biggest tender mercies this week was on Tuesday when Hermana Merrill called me out of the blue and goes hey theres a road block and I can't go back to my area in Malacatan for 3 hours, can we come work with you guys in your area for a few hours?  I had been praying that morning that the Lord could bless me with SOMETHING to help me to calm down or make it through another day and I was imagining something else but the Lord sent me what I needed...... MY HERMANA MERRILL. Have I said it before?  I love that girl!  I was with her on divisions for 3 hours and it was so nice to teach with her, someone who is just such an incredible missionary.  We found some new investigators and ended it with some granizadas.   Have I ever mentioned that my tastes have changed here.  I now love granizadas and I love fruit but you have to put lime and salt and consome and pepitoria and chile on it.  I literally ate a watermelon today smothered in chile and lime and salt. and then I drank the juice.  Oh and I can't eat anything without tortillas now.... might be a hard adjustment.  But don't worry.  I bought a comal so I'll be making tortillas every night.  Make sure to have corn flour ready for me because we are going to be making tortillas!!!! :) 

I also went on divisions with Hermana Outsen this week.  She has a lot of time in the mission too, so it was fun and she is pilas!  She started her mission in my area so we spent almost the whole day finding her old investigators and inviting them to come to church again!  They seem like a bunch of cool people and I am really excited. :)

I ALSO went on divisions this week with Hermana Herrera.  She is a mini missionary.  Our mission is doing this super cool thing where they got 34 18 and 19 year old jovenes to come be missionaries with us for 3 weeks.  So our mission has a ton more missionaries right now and we are working so hard!  Most of the zone leaders have two minis and so that means they get to do double the work they normally do!  I was with Hermana Herrera for a day and wow it was so fun!  Even though she's only been a mini for 4 days she was so fun and pilas and FULL of the Spirit.  We saw so many miracles! We were in her area and I don't know anyone there and she didn't either so we basically contacted the whole day and we ended up finding a family of 8! BLESSINGS!  It was funny because I was like hmm I don't know this area so I have no idea where to go... but I want ice cream so let's go look for ice cream and contact the owner.  So we did and she owned a tortilleria too so I had to show her that I can in fact tortillar and then turns out she doesn't go to a church and the missionaries had NEVER stopped by her house!  So she was super positive and prepared by the Lord!  All because I was hungry. Haha. 

This week our activity to shake things up a bit and contact in  NEW FUN WAY was to have a car wash in the chapel parking lot. HAHAHAHAH.  Don't worry I wasn't washing the cars, I was just on the corner of the church for 3 hours sweating my brains out screaming CAR WASH GRATIS to every tuktukero and car that passed by!  Super sun burnt and super lost my voice! (didn't you know, I'm black now.  Seriously I'm tanner than I have ever been in my life.  It's my inner Puerto Rican coming out!  Haha get ready for tan, blonde Erica.)   We got a ton of references.  The cool part was that once they were in the parking lot we took them out of their cars and showed them the chapel in a super cool tour!  We had members inside the chapel to explain every room and then in the last room of the sacrament meeting room we had the video "Gracias a El" playing.  SO COOL.  I really love activities.  We have another cool one this week that involves Minute To Win It games.  Should be hilarious! :) 

Okay funny moment of the week. I have gotten really in to essential oils here on my mission....have I ever talked about that?  Thanks Hermana Cadavieco!..... and they are my cure all to everything.  This week in weekly planning my comp was like I'm so tired that I can't keep my eyes open! So I said, "Oh don't worry, peppermint oil wakes you up.  Let me put it on your forehead." I did and then thought, hey I bet if I put it on her cheeks too, it'll make her more awake.......... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA.  Homegirl couldn't even CLOSE HER EYES for the rest of our planning session!  She said, "It burns hermana!"  Woooops, my bad! 

I think that is it for this week.  Sorry for the lack of pictures. I bet this email will be super boring. Hopefully next week I have my pictures back. :( if not, I hope you saved them all mommy! :)

*note from the editor: Yes I did. And of course most are on this blog:)

love love love,

hermana moore

Last Week:

Subject: tribulations bring PATIENCE.

Romans 5:3

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience.

If I could describe this week in a scripture, it would be that one. 

What the week.  Where do I even begin.  Let's just start with the fact that I cried more this week than I did last week!  And I wasn't even sick!  Sad tears, happy tears, bitter tears, joyful tears....and rain on top of that!  Missions are just wet experiences. ha!

Skinny me. hahah jk!  Street food for the win!  Do you see all of that mayo and ketchup and grease!  Hot diggity dog!  We have to support our investigators.....It's like a mission law.  And that trumps the don't eat street food mission law.  Haha! 

We have been finding a lot of people who want to get baptized lately.  Just people that have been being prepared by the Lord for a long time and we show up to make sure they get an interview and have white clothes, and then baptism!  It's nuts.  I'm telling you, I've seen more miracles like that here in Reu than any other area of my mission.  Here I thought I wouldn't like Reu.  I was so wrong.  I love this place!  But with that comes a lot of crap from the adversary!  It's like a well known fact here in the mission that when you start to have success in an area is when you start to see a ton of tribulation!  Like in your companionship, in your personal life, or other things. and when it rains it pours!  Okay enough of the pity party.... let's get on to the miracles! 

So this week Marisol FINALLY got baptized!  She was ready to get baptized a few weeks ago but on the day of her baptism her mom fell and she lives in the capitol so she had to leave all of a sudden and help her.   She got back finally this Friday night and was baptized the next day.  We had been reading in the Book of Mormon with her and praying at night time over the phone.  She is such a cute girl.  She has so much faith and has started challenging members of her family to get baptized too!   So cute!  I love baptizing jovenes because they are just full of love and excitement to baptize everyone! 

This week I went on divisions with Hermana Mendez, she is from Mexico and is in her training still! She's a newbie!  But she is so incredible!  She taught me so much!  I was amazed with her teaching ability!  She taught me something cool, to challenge someone to baptism in lesson 1 when you teach about the earthly ministry of Jesucristo.  It was the coolest idea ever and eliminates a lot of back tracking and re-teaching!  We did it all day and literally committed 3 new investigators to baptism! Hermana Mendez!  You're amazing!  Cutie. 

Now for the coolest miracle probably ever......

On Saturday we went to a different chapel in the center of Reu for a baptism of some other hermanas in our zone. we were helping to make some drinks when my comp needed to go to the bathroom , so we left and left all our stuff in the kitchen.  As we leave the bathroom we see a man enter into the kitchen.  We were like oh cool the members are showing up!  But then when we get to the kitchen we both just got this really bad feeling.   My comp opened the door and looked inside and we go in and I see this man with his hands IN MY BAG.   He turns around and he looks super caught and my comp was like uhm do you need something?   He was like oh i just came in because I was looking for agua pura.   Me being the gullible person that I am said, "Oh we don't have agua pura here just from the tap."  He was like oh okay then I'll leave.  We just let him leave like idiots.  I thought to myself as he left, how weird it looked like there was something under his shirt... then I was like OH MY GOSH he just tried to rob me!  So I go look in my bags and find that my cell phone, camera and wallet are all there.   I was so relieved like wow good thing we got here quickly!  Then we went on our merry way. It wasn't until 20 minutes later that I realized that my bag felt a little lighter than normal.  I checked in my bag and to my dismay he had stollen my TRIPLE.   My Book of Mormon.  MY MOST PRIZED POSSESSION.  With the ONLY picture I have of my baptism and all the scriptures I have marked for the past 17 months of my life.  My heart was crushed.  We went to our baptism and when we sat down at the church I just broke down.  I know it doesn't seem like that big of a deal but scriptures are the most valuable thing we own.  Then my comp was like, hey let's just pray.   She prayed in English, she's a cutie sometimes, and asked the Lord to soften that man's heart.  Afterwards I felt a little better and we had a beautiful baptism and everything.  When we were going home and I checked the phone and saw a missed call from the zone leaders.  So I call and they go, "Hermana Moore you owe me 20 qutez!"  I'm like wait what why.   I guess the elders were going to a cita in their area when they saw this drunk man on the other side of the street with a Bible in his hand.  They just thought, huh, how weird why would a drunk have a Bible.  Then they recognized my scripture case and were like NO WAY.  So they chase him down and they are like HEY!  That's ours! and the drunk goes, "Nooooooooooo. It's a tall white girl's!"  He had opened my scriptures and looked at all my pics and taken everything out.  So the elders finally got him to sell it to them for 20 quetz.  It smells like alcohol and has some puke on it but its BACK AND ITS ALL MINE. 

What a miracle right?!?  Seriously, God loves me.  He somehow placed the elders in the path of the drunk and got me my scriptures back!  I was reading in Jesus the Christ and found something I loved....

"Miracles cannot be in contravention of natural law, but are wrought through the operation of laws not universally or commonly recognized."

James E. Talmage

Mission 5K!!  Woooooo Woooooo!

Canches!

I ran.  She walked.  But Homegirl finished. So proud!

Best Buddies!

God loves me and I know it because he answered the sweetest and simplest prayer that a drunk man's heart would be softened and that my scriptures would be returned. 

Hermana Ostler said something funny when she found out.... he was looking for water and found living water, or the scriptures!  Funny one..... didn't make me laugh! 

Another sweet moment this week was when we were teaching a joven and we asked him if he believed that what happened with Joseph Smith was true and he said yes I do.  I was like, but why?! And he was like,  I just do, it feels right.  Aw I love my job!

And now, onto another week.  Should be a crazy one, and fun.  Haha

pray for me!

love love love,

hermana moore

Two weeks of Erica stories

Drinking coco the Guat way

This week:

Subject: BOOOOOOOOO!

Happy Halloween this week! I definitely celebrated Halloween this year, but in a horrible, horrible way. 

Just a disclaimer, this might be disgusting..... tmi? yeah.

So on Halloween we were just working like normal and it started to rain, typical right?  So my comp said, "Hey let's stop by that tienda and buy a nylon to wear over us so we don't get wet."  So we walk in a tienda and I get that awful terrible feeling of,  "Hermana Moore, you need a bathroom.... NOW". So I look at the lady working the tienda and say,  "Pardon hermana, necesito su baño, AHORRITA." I think she sensed the urgency so she threw me a roll of tp and I ran to the bathroom. I don't need to explain what happened for the next 45 minutes, but it involved me not leaving that bathroom.  I don't know if I have ever explained to you guys about the infamous "boo".  "Boo" is what we missionaries say when we have... alright let's just say it, explosive diarrhea, it's just that it happens so frequently in the mission that we made a term for it.  It's called boo because it scares you when it happens. Fine one second, NOT fine the next. Lucky me I experienced the WORST BOO OF MY LIFE on Halloween.  So while all you were watching scary movies and trick or treating, I was having my own little scare in a small dark bathroom full of spiders next to a cantina.  And afterwards, we went home and I fell asleep around 6:30 pm, and slept hard until my alarm went off the next day at 6:30 am. 

Low point.

But hey on the bright side everyone says I look like I'm losing weight!  Hahaha!

Other than that, this week was great! We saw a lot of miracles and a lot of cohetes.  Guatemalans are firework CRAZY.  

Fireworks for Sister Goddard's birthday

The sisters in our zone

November 1 is "Dia de los Santos" which is just another reason to not have school or work and get drunk in the streets and throw firecrackers at unsuspecting missionaries!  I can't tell you how many times this week I was like no porfa don't throw them!  Wait two minutes! Porfa! Hahaha.  They all just laughed and we ran really quick through the danger zone. They do not like Halloween here. I said, "Feliz Halloween to 3 people and they were like shame on you devil worshipper!  Yikes, my b.  But then I understood why when later on that day some crazy kids ran up to me in all black with Chuckie masks on saying, "Give me some money! Give me some money!" I was like,  "No!  Get out of here crazy patojos!"   They would NOT leave me alone!  I just pushed my way through them and my comp and I started to run away! I was so sad, come on kids, that's not Halloween!  You're doing it wrong!

Here in Guate the real fun starts the day AFTER Halloween.  That's when all of Guatemala gets super stoked to eat FIAMBRE, otherwise known as soggy, purple meat salad.  And you can't even use a tortilla to get it down, just a fork and a prayer in your heart that your gag reflexes will go to sleep for 30 minutes.  Yikes.  I'm glad that this week was my LAST time eating fiambre.  Ever. 

This week we saw a huge miracle.  So on Tuesday night everything had fallen through and we decided to pray to know what to do.  We thought of someone so we headed to go visit them, on the way we passed by a joven who is a member of the church and he decided to go with us.  The person we wanted to visit wasn't home so we were like great, still nothing to do!  Then the joven said,  "Hey why don't we go visit Angel!"  And we were like oh yeah!  Let's go!  Angel is a 12 year old boy who was invited to church by his friend last week and came!  He is cute but we didn't think much of it because our appt. with him fell through on Sunday night, so we figured he wasn't interested.  So we show up to his house Tuesday night and he goes,  "Hermanas! I want to invite you to my baptism this Saturday!"  I'm like wait what...... are other missionaries teaching him?  I was so confused. but then we talked and turns out he just wanted to be baptized so badly that he had started planning his baptism!  He had already invited a bunch of people!  Hahah so we were like awesome, first we have a few things to do.  First off we need permission from your mom.  Then we need to teach you ALOT of stuff!  So he's like no prob I'll get my mom right now!  Then the mom came in and she was pretty against it at first but the Holy Spirit touched her heart and 10 minutes later she signed his registro! The next few days we visited him every day and taught him EVERYTHING.  Next thing I know he was interviewed and bam! BAPTIZED on Saturday!  Angel is an incredible kid.  He already knows the whole ward because he goes to every activity and already invited everyone to his baptism!  We had quite the show up to his baptism. :)  So excited for this little guy!  He will be a great missionary one day! :) 

What else, oh Hermana Pister left me this week. I was so sad. I cried. I MISS YOU PISTER.  It's okay, we will be reunited in a few short weeks. 

And, that's it.  Haha pray for me that I can be more patient and loving?  Would be appreciated. :)

love love love,

hermana moore

Last week:

Subject: 6 more weeks here and gone...

We were walking around and found this random Monkey statue.  See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil!

And just like that, another transfer is gone!  This Wednesday starts the LAST TRANSFER OF MY MISSION.  What in the world!  How did that happen!  I still feel like I just got here, but then at the same time I feel like I have been here for my entire life.  It's a weird unexplainable feeling. 

So this week was nuts!  I wasn't with my comp 4 days this week between divisions with the hermanas of the zone and my comp having to go to the mission office to help with the English program. Needless to say, it was a different week!  I started out going on divisions with Hermana Castro!  She is from Honduras and came to the mission the same time I did, so we are really good friends!  We have been together almost our whole missions in the same zones, so it has been fun seeing each other progress. :)  She has been kind of sad and feeling a little burnt out in her area so we just decided to do everything we have ever wanted to do in terms of contacting but haven't ever done because we were afraid or because comps didn't want to.... so I was like I want to sing!  We literally just walked up to people and started singing and would ask them if they want more joy in their lives??  We met a ton of cool people!  We even saw this guy playing his guitar on the side of the road and we were like let's go sing with him!  So we showed him the hymn book and in two minutes we three were jamming out to Come Come Ye Saints.  It turned out being very born-again-Christian-rock-like but it was awesome! Turns out he is an atheist.... wait did you catch that?  Atheist.  This is the FIRST TIME I have met an Atheist in this country.  In 16 months!  I'm telling you, everyone believes in Jesus here!  Except this guy!  But we had a super cool lesson with him.  It was so different teaching him because I couldn't just be like hey just pray to know if its true because he was like why would I pray if God doesn't exist!  So we had to teach him like the missionaries in the Book of Mormon taught King Lamoni!  It was awesome.  We had such a great time together!  Until the morning when I found Hermana Castro doubled over in pain!  We called the nurses and next thing I know she was on her way to the capitol and in the end she had surgery and got 20, yes TWENTY, kidney stones removed.  Poor girl!  But she is resting in the mission home right now where there are hot showers, air conditioning, and nice beds, so I'm pretty sure she is feeling good right about now. :)

Then the next day my companion had to be in the mission office to help missionaries take their English exam and I didn't want to be sitting around doing nothing all day in the mission office, so we found some jovencitas to do divisions with us!  I went out with a sweet girl named Astrit!  She is 17 and it was the first time she had gone out with missionaries before.  She is so cute! I was so excited to go out with her and really show her how incredible this work is.  Then we almost got attacked by goats, and then some dogs chased after us. and then some investigator was hitting on her and then it started pouring rain. HAHAHAHAHAHAH.  Welcome to the REALITY of the mission.  We had fun together though. 

How we dress for the rain.  We look like little ducks!

Oh and I'm happy to report that I am still training for the mission 5 k in December. I ran 10 laps at the sports complex 4 times this week!  Yeeaaahhhh. :)  Only funny thing is that it makes me super hungry, so I'm eating more... but it's fine because I work out. Hermana Pister told me she's on her 6 week diet.  It's called 6 weeks to skinny!  Me too!  Hahahaha.   Surprise!  The mission fills you with the spirit.... and fat..................

So a fun thing we did this week with the hermanas of Monterrey, or Hermana Goddard and Hermana Merrill was that we decided to do something we all have wanted to do.  We did what they did in the Best Two Years and took a box of Books of Mormon to a public place and just gave out Books of Mormon for 3 hours!  We gave out 26 and it was so cool!  A lot of people were like no thank you, but I applaud you for what you are doing.... haha one man literally stood up and applauded.  Oh and I met someone that lives in my old area of Buena Vista and I just about cried. 

My girl Merary! :) She's like a spiritual fireball, as Elder Krueger says.  Such an amazing girl. 

My fave girls! We are teaching their family. :)

The girl on my lap is named Gusy. she is my twin and everyone calls her my daughter because she is really white and has curly canche hair! hahahaha mihaja.... 

Funny moment this week.  There is a jovencita that we are teaching that really wants to be baptized so we were teaching her the commandments.  She really understood the day of rest commandment that we can't work on Sundays and we asked her when she learned it.... Hahahahahahahahahahahaha. Funny story with that.  She didn't come to church last week because they were going to sell food in front of her house.  So in the afternoon we passed by and they were selling food and they were like, hermanas support us and buy something!  I was like heck no!  It's Sunday!  We don't buy on Sundays!  She was like why not?  So I said its one of the 10 Commandments silly!  She was like well at least you can say a prayer and bless our little venta and I was like no we can't!  And I can promise you that you wont sell anything because the Lord doesn't bless us for breaking the commandments! She was like oh whatever..... but a few days later she told us that they didn't sell anything!!!!  Talk about an object lesson right??  So she totally believes in the day of rest now. :)  She should be getting baptized next week :) 

Other than that.... it was just a great week.  Learning LOTS about patience and trying to be humble, I'm so excited to start off this transfer.  I know that it will be full of miracles! :) 

Scripture of the week is Alma 7:23.

And now I would that ye should be ^ahumble, and be ^bsubmissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.

Yep. need to tattoo that one on my forehead. 

:)

love love love,

hermana moore 

Miracles of Diligence

Hermana Merrill did a photo shoot:)

A WEEK OF MIRACLES!!!!  Sorry do I say that every week?  Have you gotten sick of it yet?  Well sorry I'm not sorry but that's what you will be hearing about for the next few weeks. 

The sun is coming out on our area, Tzununa is rising from the dust!!!  Too dramatic, but I am in love with this area and the members and the work we are doing!  I didn't know the Lord could prepare so many people for His Gospel! It is such a priveledge to be an instrument in His hands!  We just need to trust in Him! :)

So this week was so awesome, we tried a lot of new things this week!  Like an awesome movie night activity!  We watched Johnny Lingo (it made us feel baggy, we want to be someone's 8 cow woman! hahahaha) and I learned how to make popcorn without a microwave, and I made like 40 bags of it! We had 50 something people there, 8 of them being investigators! :)  That is a huge deal!  Also this week we got together with the hermanas from the ward that borders ours,  Hermana Merrill and Hermana Goddard, and drew the Plan of Salvation in chalk on the road! A friend of mine told me he had done it in his mission and ever since then I have wanted to do it. so one morning we just decided, today is that day!  Haha you should have seen the people flock to us, they had never seen chalk like that before.  There were 20 kids around us and parents and store workers and they were like what are these crazy white girls doing??  We were able to walk quite a few of them through the Plan of Salvation, literally, and invite them to church!  Let's be honest, none of them came, but it was a fun different way to work and ALOT of people saw us, good publicity! 

Another fun part of this week was that I was able to go on divisions with Hermana Laiche in my area. Hermana Laiche is possibly one of the cutest hermanas ever. EVER. she is from Peru and she started her mission in Coatepeque when I was there.  I remember when she got to the mission and bore her testimony to us and was just like oozing love and it was her first day!  

Hermnaa Laiche and I at the famous Tzununa Bridge!

Her love has somehow increased and our day together was just SO fun!  She loved my investigators to death! we saw so many miracles in our time together and at night we ate super unhealthy food.  But it's okay that we eat unhealthy because us hermanas of Retalhuleu are WORKING OUT!!!!!  President said he is going to have a 4k race and my hermanas are training for it!  Every week we go to this public track and run our little booties off!  It's so so fun and I am so sore!  Even this morning when my comp was like noooo its p-day, I made her get up and sit on the side of the road and watch me run for 45 minutes! 

girls in the zone at the track

Okay time to talk about the miraculous baptisms we had!  So this week we baptized Rocio and Carla. another little member girl was baptized too!  Her and Carla are both 8 years old and it just made me remember my own baptism!  I reminisced and it was lovely! :)  Rocio is just a baptism that fell from the skies.  Missionaries have been teaching her for 4 years and she has been going to church and loves it and has wanted to be baptized!  But her grandma never gave her permission!  When I got here I was like what could it hurt to meet her grandma?  So we met her and she became my best friend. She is a sassy old woman and I love her.   Then 3 days later Rocio calls us and goes,  "Hermanas! my Grandma said I can get baptized!"   Then just like that, this Saturday she was baptized.  We literally visited her TWICE,  because she already knew everything!  She has been at church for a while! I loved her prayer the last time we taught her.  She just thanked God for changing her grandmother's heart.  It made me realize that we don't really do anything as missionaries, God does all the work and we just witness the miracles happen! :)

Carla also got baptized this week.  She is 8 years old and her mom is a less active member, so it doesn't count for us in terms of numbers, but I just knew that if we didn't prepare everything for her baptism, then no one would have.  The ward is busy with lots of other things and it's hard to put the time into little 8 year olds from less active families.  So we helped.  She is the cutest girl ever and ALWAYS volunteered to say the prayer and sing "Put Your Shoulder To The Wheel", her favorite hymn.  She is a little gift from God for her family and because of her, family and friends are coming to church now and we are teaching them!  It has been such a lesson to me about how we need to follow the Spirit instead of just worrying about numbers and more numbers!  I love being a missionary!

Yesterday after church we visited all the people that miraculously came to church on their own and wow, these people are so prepared!  It was lesson after lesson of ,  "Yes hermanas, I know the church is true!  When can I get baptized?"!   We were like wait, what! are you serious!!!!  It just proves to me that the members know all the prepared people because every single one of them were references!!  One of them gave us a list of his questions and one was,  "How do you know that the church has the authority of God to baptize?"  Wow could you ask a more perfect question???????  So incredible!

I love teaching! :)  One of them came up to me at church and asked,  "Hermana Moore, I want to know if this church is true but I can't pray.  Will you teach me?"   Heck yes with tears in my eyes! Prepared people!  In Reu! What is happening! :)

This week I have been focusing a lot on diligence.  It can be easy to say, I know that contacting doesn't work so I'm not going to do it, but what I have seen is that when we put in our part, all of our effort, the Lord rewards us with the miracles!  So we did a lot of contacting this week in different ways.  One day we went around with cake pans to tell people we were making cake and they were invited!  Then we taught them the message of the restoration using those pans!  Ha I love my job! :)

Today we went to the beach in Champerico! SUCH A FUN DAY.  I am burnt to a crisp and so red; but I love my mission and my life.  Don't let it end!! :)

Hermana Goddard, me , Hermana Merrill

Granazidas at the beach!

love love love, 

hermana moore

p.s.  I read Enos 1 this week and it just changed my life.  He was so diligent!  Verse 1 made me think of you guys mom and dad.  Thanks for being my examples. :)

pic of me and the comp at the beach! :)