The End Is Near....haha:)

Wow! Here I am again! Week 5, done! and I have been here for one month as of today! Oh and BONUS I leave in TEN days!  Oh my happy, happy day!  I seriously can't believe I'm leaving here so soon!  It has gone by so fast!  Yesterday we got our travel plans! We leave the MTC on Monday at 6pm, fly out of Salt Lake at 10 pm and then fly from LAX to Guatemala at 12:01 am.  We land at 5:50am in the land of endless spring!  From there, who knows what happens!  Who cares!  Ha!  I literally screamed and cried when I got the travel plans!  Oh the little things. 

travel plans!

So this week was another amazing week here at the MTC! This week I feel like I learned so much about prayer and studying. I love studying!  Have I said that yet?  Because I do!  I'm obsessed with the topical guide. I have been studying about angels and the resurrection lately. Oh and phrases like: Humble seekers of happiness, Rest in the Lord and Children of Light! Highly recommend all of those study topics to everyone!  Blowin' my mind! Sometimes I'll be reading the scriptures and I'm just like, wait, was this here before?  Have I ever read this?  Did I ever read any of this ever?  Because I don't know how I could have missed this stuff! :)

So this week I was called to be Sister Training Leader! Its fun! I get to talk to all the girls in the zone every night and love their guts out! :) Buuutttt, they are dissolving our zone after we leave because they dont have enough missionaries to fill it... so I am STL over 4 sisters!  Woo!  It's fine and I'm loving it :) I'm just happy for another opportunity to serve:)

random funny picture

So Sunday was fast Sunday. Ha fast Sunday isn't the easiest when your companion is hypoglycemic and needs to eat!  But Hermana Webster and I made do and just prayed all day to make our fast easier.  I love fasting. :) and dinner after fasting.  It just makes me grateful for food:)  But we also had mission conference on Sunday and that was really cool!  It's like stake conference and it was incredible!  There was this amazing viola solo and it brought the spirit SO strongly.  We also heard from a group of missionaries that are actually serving their missions here at the MTC!  There is a group of 10 of them and they all work on digital missionary work!  So on mormon.org when you see the "chat with a mormon" button, that's them!  They are on our floor in our classroom building so we see them a lot! They are incredible!  One of them spoke and told us how he had been teaching a man from New Mexico over skype, phone calls and facebook messaging for a year and a half. The elder's name is Elder Boardman.  He has physical disabilities but that didn't stop him from baptizing this man in person last wednesday! after a year and a half! his joy was incredible!  I am just so amazed that this work can be done in so many different ways!  Technology is such a blessing and I am excited to utilize it in missionary work soon!  I mean we don't expect them to give us iPads in Guatemala... haha that would last like a day... but I am excited to see what they have us do! :)

Oh my goodness, we have the best teachers here at the MTC! I think they are all angels. Seriously, the most incredible people I have ever met!  This week we said goodbye to a teacher. :( Hermana Kitto is the sweetest soul that exists in this world. ever. I adore her!  We have alot of the same clothes so we planned a twin day!  We wore the same dress, thanks Downeast!   I just loved being twins with the greatest RM ever!  So the investigator she plays, Elizabeth, is getting baptized!  You know, if you had told me after our first lesson that we would have a baptismal date for her a few lessons later, I wouldn't have believed you!  But hearts change!  The Lord works miracles!  And women can share the Spirit with each other!  I don't know what it is, but it is somehow so much easier to connect with women!  I mean we just say a prayer and all of a sudden we are all crying and it's like a big group spiritual hug! :) But saying goodbye to Hermana Kitto was so hard.  I wish she could come with us!  Be my trainer!  Slash be my sister! Ah!  She gave us all these sweet notes and even somehow sneakily wrote in our journals!  On missions everyone has like a yearbook/notebook thing where all the people you love write in it before you leave them!  So she was the first one in mine!  I told her after my mission I'm going to be her live-in nanny or something.  It will happen!  Oh Hermana Kitto!  We love you!

twinners!

So when Hermana Kitto left, we gained a substitute!  Hermano Bulloch.  Goodness.  This teacher is to the elders what Hermana Kitto was to us!  They are OBSESSED with him.  Several times they were like,  "You're such a Homie!  We love you!  Come live with us!"  No joke.  At one point he was telling a story and I looked over at our elders and a row of 5 of them were looking at him, mesmerized all with their hand on their chins.  Like there wasn't another person that existed in this world!  Ha he is pretty awesome!  He is a great storyteller!  I swear that's all we did in class, and we loved every second!  Tim he reminds me so much of you! He is like Brian Regan funny.  And he is stoked on missionary work.  I think our district needed him!  After being here for so long I think we kind of lost sight of why we are here.  We are on missions!  We are going to serve the Lord!  He made us so excited!  He gave us that enthusiasm for missionary work!  Ten days from now we will all be in the homes of people of the world, teaching them the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!  Teaching them that this life has a prupose! and the God loves them so so so much. I just can't wait. I couldn't even sleep last night! all i could think about was the reality of my call!  Hermano Bulloch said something way cool last night. He said that we should be thrilled to do this work! This is the time in the history of missionary work where we win! We are ushering in the coming of Jesus Christ!  We are like His welcoming party!  He said that there are HOSTS of people on the other side cheering us on!  Among them are the greatest missionaires this world has known! Like Peter, Ammon, and Alma and Aaron! They are the example for us and they are helping us more than we know :)

sorry it's sideways

So this week in the TRC we got to teach a man named Elder Crockett! He is a senior missionary and... well we didn't really teach him, he taught us!  We had planned to go in and talk about how to overcome trials. But when we were walking in I just thought, no. we need to talk about prayer!  And wow, he ended up teachung US about prayer!  We asked him to say the closing prayer and wow!  He was just talking to God. Like how we would talk to our parents!  It blew my mind!  He was like, Padre Celestial, it is a beautiful day today!  These hermanas just taught me a wonderful lesson!  We are so blessed to be here!  Then he basically gave us a blessing.  He blessed us to quickly remember the htings we needed to know.  He blessed us to be happy and ready to go out into the field! that man!  He taught me so much!  Also one of our elders was talking to us and said we need to pray in a personal manner. he said, when we email home on p-day we don't just say... thanks for the letters.... write me more.... bye. We tell them everything about our lives and every exciting thing that happened!  So I have been trying to apply that.  I encourage you all to do that too!  It makes a world of a difference.

Speaking of prayer... it works. this week I have been sick.  Such a bad cough!  But, I'll put it this way... I have been ill yet blessed!  On Monday night during class I had this awful cough spasm attack.  I literally couldn't breathe/ make it stop.  It was so frustrating!  I just wanted to cry. and we were about to teach a lesson! So we went to the bathroom and I just sat there and said a little prayer.  I just asked to be able to teach, I just wanted to be able to serve. and within minutes... it stopped!  Literally I was fine and we taught a lesson and I had another one of those, I actually know what I'm doing look at me testify moments! oh goodness, its sweet when that happens. God loves His children, I feel it every single day! :)

This week we had a filed trip! all the guatemalan missionaries got to go a whole two miles away in a van to the police station to redo our background checks!  Ha talk about most exciting thing of our lives! it was way fun! I love the people going to my mission and I'm excited to get to know them better! :)

acting like thugs, haha!

Guatemala girls

So I got the package from the reunion, mom! I feel so loved! I LOVE MY WHIPPLES!!!!!!! goodness!  So much good advice and I just loved every single card! :)  Us hermanas also got a package this week from the mom of an elder in our district!  So sweet!  Ha we actually got two!  One of brownies and one of scotchies!  Goodness we feel loved!  It was addressed to "Las hermanas bonitas" Ah stop it!  But we seriously love our elders and their moms! :)  AND I got a package from the Vercillos this week!  How you fit that many candy boxes into a box, I'll never know!  But I'm so grateful and I loved every single thing!  Tell Will that I love him and I'm doing our secret handshake as I type this!

we love mail!!!

Oh, so for some reason everyone is under the impression that I'm fluent in Spanish already!  Thanks for the confidence boost!  Ha, I'm trying but definitely not fluent!  I had my first all Spanish day and wow! I only spoke like less then 30 English words the whole day!  The gift of tongues is real!  REAL I TELL YOU!  I love this language!  I'm so blessed to be here! :)   Oh but I definitely had some funny moments. I was attempting to explain the pre-existence to one of our investigators and he asked me why he doesn't remember any of it?  I was like, well that's a golden question!  I was like there is this thing called a candle, when we were born we passed through this candle and it took away all of our memories of the pre-earth life. After we die we will pass through this candle again and remember it all! well obviously I got some vocab messed up!  Turns out the word for "veil" is not vela... that means candle!  Ha, he was literally laughing at me!  Oh well, live and learn! :)

So I love all of you so much.  I want to remind you to pray always.  Never go a day without studying the word of God.  We always kneel to pray here at the MTC and I am proud to report that I have some HOT calluses on my knees. :)  They are gorgeous!  I can't wait till they get black and blue!  I will do anything for this work!  I am so excited to be alive during this great time:)  Choose the right all of you. Oh, and write me letters, because they will be few and far between in Guatemala.  So I love having them now and being able to save them for Guatemala! :)

love love love you,

Hermana Moore!

Two Weeks of Heaven at the MTC - Erica Style

Highlights from June 28th email:

Oh my where to start! I feel like I was just sitting here! Yet it's a week later! Ha! The MTC really is a time warp! :) But felicidades to me, I have officially been here for 2 weeks! Haha truth be told, it feels like I have been here my whole life... but in a good way! :) I love the MTC so much! I have honestly never been happier in my life. :)

Holding a "love note" from my comp

So this week was incredible in a thousand different ways! All week long we were surrounded by apostles and mission presidents and the likes! You could feel their presence! Haha the one bad side of that situation was that they took over our cafeteria and we got bumped to the gym. Ha! BYU catering all week long. It's cool though. They gave us lots of ice cream so we were Happy. Oh and one day we had Cafe Rio. You could say I died. I ate it so fast... Hannah would have said she was impressed. ;) But other than that, we love mission president training! especially because we got to attend the Work of Salvation Broadcast at the Marriott Center! Okay how incredible was that! I was more excited for that meeting than I have ever been for Christmas, no jokes. I was like shaking in my seat! It was so incredible and we are all obsessed with the Apostles! Seriously, they are cool. I hope that everyone was as inspired as I felt! Goodness we have work to do don't we! But I am just thrilled that we can do this work together. This is seriously the best thing. My favorite part was how they told us to just love the investigators! I feel like I have so much love ready to use when I'm out there! They will honestly be scared of how much I love them! I just adore them already! :) When the meeting started I had chills all over my body! Thats how strong the spirit was!!! So, if you missed it... GO WATCH IT! Like seriously do that before you even write me! ;)

Everyone going to Guatemala 7/24!

Goodness I love devotionals here. We had a devotional onTuesday and Sister Janice Kapp Perry spoke to us. She wrote quite a few primary songs and like every efy song you have ever heard. and surprise! She is like 80! BUT... that doesnt mean anything! She is HILARIOUS! hahahaha so she was telling us about how she met her husband and his first line to her... it was the best! Apparently she was doing a test for a clarinet and he said, "those lips were meant for more than clarinet playing!" saucy old man!!! Hahahaha, and then this old man of hers leapt off his chair and ran up to her and KISSED HER! ON THE MOUTH! hahaha! Want to know how to get a standing ovation at the MTC?... do this! It was the funniest thing of my life! They are the cutest couple. She also had us sing a medley of childrens songs that she wrote... haha... and one of the songs, We'll Bring The World His Truth, she changed the words for us from "We will be the Lord's missionaries" to "We are NOW the Lords missionaries"! AH! We are! I loved it! She is a sweet woman! She also sang us her testimony and said, imagine I am your grandma. You bet I did! Love you grandma :)

So I love studying. I am filling my spiritual canteen! hahahaha, I had to say that, I'm sorry. But we calculated how much time we will study on our misions.... 76.5 days. YES! I love it! I love reading the scriptures. and honestly I haven't met anyone here that doesn't love study time. It's my favorite. Class time is fun too. We have two new investigators! they are both our teachers but we pretend really well :) One of them is going really well and the other... we are struggling with! First time our investigators havent been like baptize me!  But I guess that's reality so we are trying everything we can! :) We do a lot of role play teaching as a companionship because Hermana Webster and I aren't very good at chatting... so we are trying to get better! Ha! The other day we were practicing and sometime things get mistranslated / sometimes I cant speak Spanish. I guess I ended up saying,  "podemos entrar su casa",  which is like "can we enter your house?"  Everyone was like, no. that's weird. dont say that. whoops!  Another time I told a lady she could give birth instead of show the light of Christ or something.... I'm trying! Hahaha. But really I am learning so much. We were teaching one of our elders the other day and I had the greatest experience! for the first ime in my life I felt myself straight up testify!  It was insane, I didn't stumble on any words, and this is in Spanish, and I was just testifying and it felt so powerful!  It was the most incredible thing ever! I totally felt the Holy Ghost take control! Ahhhhh, I can't wait to do that in real life! It is just an amazing feeling. I invite all of you to do that!

So I got to meet my mission president this week! What a sweet man! He and his wife are from Panama and are the first Panamanian (?) mission presidents ever! They are darling, and little!  Haha I already feel like a giant! They can't really speak English but I could understand them and that felt incredible. :) My mission president is like a smaller darker version of Elder Holland! the man can testify!  He has such an incredible testimony and he wants us to have the same thing! I am so excited to serve under him!  We asked if we could go to the temple while on our mission and he said, "if you bring a family there to get sealed."... so I guess I have work to do!  But then he eased up a bit and I'm pretty sure he will be taking us!  But really they are incredible!  Such hardworking inspired people:)

So now some adventure stories:) my companion Hermana Pister has been sick this week :( but that meant we got to do some things we nromally would not have done! like LEAVE THE MTC! we got to go to the student health center so she could get some medicine.  This place is a block away! and they let us walk!!!! ahahahahahhhhhhhhhhh! most exhilerating experience ever. no jokes!  We were partying with excitement when we left!  It felt unreal!  Then the sweet doctor man gave us pill bottles full of m&m's! haha!  We took a lot of pictures!  Then, oh my gosh, I saw my old hometeacher Zac Ipson!  Hahaha my companions freaked out a little when I starting yelling at the shirtless man running by us!  But we got a picture together and it was fun to see someone from the real world! :)

During gym time... I don't work out anymore... ha!  We play sand volleyball and kickball instead! I love it! and dad, you would be proud, I finally got my overhand serve down! ha! We usually play with our elders from our district, unless they ditch us for soccer. ha. we love them!  We are all seriously best friends. I instituted love circle in our district so we could bond more.  For those of you who dont know, love circle is when you put one person in the middle and everyone has to say 3 things they love about that person.  Oh except here we call it circulo de amistad.   Elder/sister relations are weird. but it has been really fun and everyone is so kind and sincere!  It's weird to think I didn't know these people two weeks ago!  Now they feel like family! :) And sometimes we feel like they don't like us... but then they leave us sweet messages ion the board!   We are just like their moms. but granted they are all 18 so they really do feel like our sons/brothers.

Oh in the Tuesday night devotional Sister Perry showed us her "family song" and told us to write one for our families... so as a district we wrote one! hahaha. It goes to the tune of spongebobs fun song... :) something like: f is for fmailies being forever, u is for unity, n is for nuestro proposito aqui in the mtc! and then the second verse is : m is for missions all over the world, t is for truth and right, c is for conversion through the holy ghost oh come unto Jesus Christ! haha our teachers... loved it. ha! speaking of teachers... Tim, my teacher is perfect!  You should marry her. WE LOVE HERMANA KITTO.  Most perfect human being ever. She teaches us so much and her and I have a lot of the same clothes so we are going to be gemelas one of these days! :)

I have another bug story! I was waiting in line for something when I felt something on my leg. I looked down and there are hundreds.... LITERALLY HUNDREDS... of ants on my leg! I guess I stepped in/was standing in an ant hill?!?! oh my word. some of them bit me. lets just say people think I'm weird since I flipped the heck out!  I must have looked like a crazy person. but honestly I can still feel them.  I probably shouldn't be complaining since the bug situation in Guatemala is a tad worse than it is here in Utah.  Oh well. I will survive!  Oh other sad news... my CTR ring broke in half. spontaneously! while on my hand. I don't know why but its really sad :(

Okay and thank you for all the amazing packages and letters! I have more food than I can eat in my room right now but I'm trying!  Haha, if you really love me then maybe send me some Dr. Pepper?   Oh and dear elders are my favorite thing in the universe.  Mom, if you sent me one everyday im pretty sure you'll be the greatest human being ever. ever! :)  Except our district leader is always hiding our letters from us which BUGS. but we get them eventually. oh elders. can't live with em (literally) can't live without em.

I love having companions.  They are the best people. I learn so much from them!  Like Hermana Pister is a boss at chatting it up and making people feel comfortable! and Hermana Webster is amazing at sharing her testimony! I am trying so hard to learn from both of them! they say that I'm good at making commitments with people, haha I think I just ask everyone to read, pray and get baptized, so I hope that's a good thing!  Those are like the only sentences I know forward and backwards in Spanish!  It's crazy how well we all get along. we have had a bad case of the giggles this week.  I swear everything we do is the funniest thing in this world!  Like whenever someone calls Hermana Pister (peaster),  "Sister Pisster".... I die!  I literally laugh so hard I can't breathe!  We just love laughing! And it's fine because Hermana Pister says if you aren't laughing hard and working hard then you aren't doing it right. and we are definitely doing both! ha. Seriously laughing is my outlet!  I probably do it too much!

Jet Pack vacuums!

Oh ps I'm sick. :( cough, sniffle. ugh. I guess that's what happens when your companion is sick! I'm taking dayquil and such just pray for me:)

Love you all so much and I miss you! I appreciate the prayers and letters and thoughts!!!

2 nefi 9:41

He is the way. the ONLY way. Never forget that.

love,

Hermana Moore (mas) ;)

This Past week: Pero Ahora Lo Creo!

Oh my goodness! What a week! But really, this week was incredible. INCREDIBLE I TELL YOU!!!

So where to start! Oh, maybe I'll explain the title of this email. So we currently have two progressing investigators which means that we teach them a couple times a week.  They are our teachers but they are acting like people from their own missions. It is a pretty cool thing! I always get a little nervous before we go in and then I just end up loving it! On Monday we had the single greatest teaching experience. ever. We taught Elizabeth, who is Hermana Kitto. We had had a couple rough lessons with her. She straight up told us once, I don't believe what you are saying but I'll listen. ha! thanks! So this last lesson we decided to teach her about the restoration of the Gospel. We walked in and we felt ready. Little did we know that the Spirit would be so strong! Literally in minutes my heart was beating so fast and I just knew something felt different. We were chatting with her and then asked her why she keeps inviting us back. She said that she felt something different with us and she noticed that when she met with us, and other missionaries previously, so had a peace in her life. We told her this is the Spirit. then we all just felt impressed to tell her how much her Heavenly Father LOVES her! I felt His love for her! It was incredible! I had the opportunity to teach her about the restoration when Joseph Smith had the First Vision. Okay. the Spirit gave it actually because I have never been able to speak Spanish like I did in that moment.  I was so excited and at one point I think I even threw my hands in the air. I was speaking so fast I had no idea what I was saying! The gift of tongues is real. I can testify of that.  Then I gave Joseph Smiths account of the first vision. So here is my dirty little secret, I haven't memorized the First Vision in Spanish yet. It's kinda hard; but when I gave it to Elizabeth... I  don't know what happened. I have never felt myself speak with such power. im telling you the gift of tongues and the spirit was speaking for me! It's amazing how when you testify of things you really realize just how true it is.  How much you actually KNOW that what you are talking about is true. We all just sat there like blubbering babies but I don't care, it was one of the greatest moments of my life.  Then we asked her to pray. she always says no but this time she was like yes, I want to.  So we all knelt and prayed and she gave the sweetest prayer. She was praying and she said something along the lines of, "Father, I have heard this message before, many times before, and because of my hard heart I haven't believed it. Pero ahore lo creo."  That last part means, but now I believe.  Never have any other words sounded so sweet.  We asked her to get baptized and she said she would think about it.  After we left my companions and i just hugged each other and cried.  I have never felt this kind of joy before.  Or this much of it!  Now this was on  Monday night and this joy has literally not left me!  Even as I sit here typing! I cant even describe how happy I feel. Alma 26:16.  That's how I feel.  Inexpressible joy.  I literally feel like I floated on a cloud this entire week. It is described really well in Mosiah 2:41... interminable felicidad. never-ending happiness.  People. this is the happiest I have ever been. and it is from sharing this glad message! I invite ALL of you to join in on the happy parade! everyone is welcome. :)

We taught some other lessons this week. We have another investigator named Andreis. he is older and a family man but lsot his job so he is going through a rough time. We have been teaching him and it has been such a cool experience. its definitely different than teaching women... we cant rely so much on emotions. It's a learning experience. We asked him to pray and he said the sweetest prayer!  He thanked the Lord for us Hermanitas.  Ahh, we love him!  That means like little sisters!  I love people.  I SERIOUSLY LOVE THEM.  Never have I been so full of soo much love.  I love it!

 So other than lessons, this week has been full of amazing devotionals. we heard from Sister Sheri Dew, and two men that I don't remember the names of.  But oh my goodness life changing devotionals! one devotional talked about how sacred our call is. people keep telling us that we are set apart and we deserve to be led by the spirit. we just need to be worthy and let him take control!  I love that!  We also learned alot about magnifying our part in this work.  There is a saying, "what'ere thou art, act well thy part." oh my yes! i love this!  The speaker stressed that there are different parts to play in this world.  You are a part. you may be a 5, 8, or a 10, or whatever else.  If you are a 5... be a 5!  Be the best dang 5 the world has ever seen.  Because someone out there needs a 5.  They dont need an 8 or a 10 or a 100.  They need you.  They need YOUR testimony and your special witness.  They need your experiences and your love. so be you. be the best you. Heavenly Father created you just as you are supposed to be.  So now our job is to find our part. and to magnify the heck out of it.  I think I know my part. I feel like I was born for this work. Someone told me that your mission lasts your whole life, you just need to find a way to start it. Well, it's started. and I'm never letting it end!  I might as well just change my first name to Hermana. ;)

4000 missionaries going to a devotional

Oh I have been studying a lot about patience this week and I found this incredible talk.  Please read it! "Continue in Patience" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. It was for a priesthood session but I adore it. one line I loved: "Patience can transform ordinary men and women into saints and angels." I love that. A lot of people call us sisters at the MTC "angels". I kind of love it.  One of our investigators called us her angelitas.  Yeah I'm in love with that.  The errand of angels.  Yes. I am in love with that.  I LOVE THIS WORK.

I have been trying to study D&C 4 this week.  That section is amazing!  Amazing I tell you! I honestly have made it through 4 verses in 3 days.  There is too much good stuff!  I adore, adore, adore personal study time.  It's like so fun to search the scriptures!  The topical guide is my new best friend.  I just feel like I am learning so much!

Haha looking over this email  I feel like I need a reality check.  So many people have written me and asked me if I'm fluent yet and what its like to speak Spanish 24/7... ehhhhh...... so we try really hard to do that but it doesn't always happen.  In fact sometimes the gift of tongues is.... not so much absent... but its like just holding back to see what you can do. ;)  Exhibit A: me trying to explain the pre-existence in Spanish! HA!  I guess I said the reason we don't remember anything from the pre-earth life is because we passed through a candle. yes. I need to work on vocab obviously! haaaaaaaaa. my comp was dying and laughing so hard!  Speaking of comps. I'm in love with mine!  Seriously they are my soul sisters from the preexistence.  It's funny because we probably never would have been friends without being companions.; we are all so different but some how have so much fun and teach really well together!  We all have different strengths that compliment each other really well.

Oh we did TRC for the first time this week! TRC is where you go in and teach a Spanish speaker.  They are all members, we just teach them a spiritual thought. but surprise guess who my TRC person was!  President Magnusson's daughter!  Normally I'm not super good at chatting/getting to know someone at the beginning of a lesson, but when I make a connection like I did with her, gosh I could not shut up!  So that was a blessing.  That lesson we taught about joy... and boy oh boy did we all feel it!  Family!  This life is about having joy!  Let's be joyful!  It's just so happy to be joyful and I love it so much :).

So on our schedule there are alot, and I mean ALOT, of missionaries going to Korea. so we see them all day everyday and we have stsrted to make friends with them! :)  They are teaching us Korean. I am getting pretty good! no joke. I can say hello my name is Hermana Moore, how are you, and good morning! :)  They say my accent is good too.  I'm learning the alphabet next.  It's so fun. I love it! :)

OH MY GOSH THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LETTERS AND PACKAGES.  Who are you people!  You are too wonderful!  I got an incredible package from Linds and Hannah with everything and more. i cried. it was beyond perfect and I love them/ owe them my life. :)

So we sing in choir and apparently my face was on the mega tron! ha!  Like just my face, singing. luckily I wasn't doing anything stupid! ha! people kept coming up to me saying hey I saw you!  Some elders in my district told me that me "countenance shone brightly"...that's about as close to a compliment as we get here at the mtc! :)

I am working on translating my mormon.org profile into Spanish.  It's taking forever but I'll send you a link when im done!

we taught a grammar conept in class. I love teaching. I want to work here when I'm off the mission! oh Hermana Pister fainted in class, she is hypoglycemic.  I CAUGHT HER!  I'm the first person in the history of her life who has caught her. ha!

Ah! I have no time!  I wanted to tell about July 4th!  We got to watch a movie, 17 Miracles (so we wouldn't hear Carrie Underwood at the stadium of fire concert) and then eat ice cream and watch fireworks till 11 pm! no bed time! ha! exhilerating!  The fireworks were incredible. I am so grateful for this country.  We had a great district meeting moment of silence and wow. I'm proud to be an American.

ps I love my elders in my district.  They are my brothers.  Their spiritual maturity baffles me!  And wow out of time!  Gotta go!  Love all of you to the moon and back!  Keep writing! :) love love love

Hermana Moore.

Week two - Dr. Pepper, bee stings and other MTC stories!

 Ah! its week two! I made it to Sunday! It's been a week and a half! Hallelujah! :) Only 4 1/2 more weeks! That's not too bad. :) So wow I have so much to write about this week! 

first off... THANK YOU to everyone that is loving the heck out of me via letters and packages and dear elders and prayers. I cant tell you how much it means to me. Every day I have gotten sweet advice and comfort from someone and it just gets me through the hard times! Ah, I can never thank all of you enough. And mom! those cinnamon rolls are amazing. I almost cried. Oh and the cupcakes. and the nutella. especially the nutella. I eat that stuff by the crackerful and it makes me happy. :) Oh and Abby, Sister Adams, left on Tuesday for her mission and she gave me all the food her boyfriend, Dallan, gave her! Oh my gosh. I had a huge box full of food. Dr. Pepper namely. I love Abby and I love her for giving me Dr. Pepper. It was such a blessing having her here the first few days. I knew I could always go to her to get a hug or a smile!

Basically, the MTC is amazing. I AM SO BLESSED TO HAVE BEEN SENT HERE. I know we were switched to the Provo MTC for a reason-- actually many reasons! And I am loving it! First reason... the World Wide "Work of Salvation" broadcast this Sunday that I get to attend! I think it is at 4! We tried to join the choir for it but it is too full! but still! I will be at the Marriott Center on Sunday with the Prophet and all the Apostles. I just cant wait! It will be a spiritual feast!  Oh and another thing about this week... all the new mission presidents are here training! Meaning MY new mission president is here! We are trying to find President Ruiz and I am determined to find him and shake his hand! 

Token MTC map picture!

So lets go all the way back to Sunday... Fathers Day! Happy belated Fathers Day Daddy! I love you! So grateful for your support and example over the years! :) We started church off with "Music and the Spoken Word" and it was a special on Fathers Day. Wow, want to make 2,000 girls home sick? Do this! Congrats MTC. There was seriously not a dry eye in the room! It was so amazing though. We then had the opportunity to hear from Sister Neill F. Marriott! She is the new 2nd counselor of the... young womens presidency? She is hilarious! She told us her conversion story and inspired us to be bold and happy. :)

 Okay so on Saturday our district changed! We lost an elder to the beginner class and gained 3 more! So now we are a whopping 13 person district! It's huge. We all have to fit into this eensy room. Ha! It's funny! We have gotten very close... haha. We had to move around a bit so the sisters weren't too close to the elders, go figure, but now we have this amazing view of Squaw Peak out the window. It's gorgeous to watch the sun set on that peak every day! So our new elders are: Elder Montgomery, Goodman and Kreuger. Elder Kreuger is going to our mission in Guatemala so we swap stories about what we have heard for Guatemala all the time! ha! something about spiders as big as my head... I just try to ignore it! 

Our P-day temple trip

But really our district is so close! We are all friends and we love playing beach volleyball together on Mondays and Thursdays during gym time! We aren't allowed to dive... but I sometimes fall in the direction of the ball and I think thats fine! ;) It is so incredible to put our feet in the sand! Oh my goodness it's a blessing and leaving the MTC is pretty cool too :) The other day we were walking back and I felt something on my neck so I swiped it away and BAM... bee sting! or wasp bite I'm not sure. But it was my first one ever! And I think my district could tell... I kinda freaked out. ;)

In terms of Spanish... I love this language! I am just so grateful to have the opportunity to learn it, then speak it with people! I sat next to some sisters going to Russia the other day and my heart started like palpitating for them! That alphabet is ridiculous! And they just read it like its no big deal! Let's just say the gift of tongues is real, and it is here at the MTC! It is crazy how much the curriculum here helps. We memorize these amazing sentences in like 3 minutes! And its just great! I feel like I'm really making progress. I'm just so grateful I studied Spanish so much before I got here, because I keep seeing sisters that are just starting and they look so stressed! I feel like im just prancing around the MTC like Hola! Esta Bien! Este Evangelio es verdadero! (because it is, you know)  :) Hermana Webster told us that she heard a quote from a prophet that if you read the Book of Mormon in your mission language out loud (I may have just added the out loud part I'm not sure) then by the time you finish it you will be fluent!!!! So I'm taking that challenge and having faith that it will come true for me. I read it out loud while I ELLIPTICAL during gym time. It's a little awkward with other people around me but who cares! I'm going to be fluent in... 600 pages! Rock on.

Haha the food is still normal. I'm not sure if I'll ever step on a scale till I get home. we just eat so much! but we workout! Haha Hermana Pister taught us some yoga the other day.... I'm so good, not!  This picture is our tree pose. hahaha.

So there is a hymn in the Spanish hymnbook that doesn't exist in English. It is himno 88 and it is called: Placentero Nos es trabajar. One of our teachers told us the story about it. The author Andres C. Gonzales was a member of the church in Mexico at a time of Mormon/ religious persecution. He was in jail because of his beliefs. He wrote this song when he knew he was going to die. If you read the words, translate them, you can't help but feel his incredible testimony. He died for his beliefs. The last verse is especially powerful. Adios, o adios. He knows he is going to die. Ah I just cant get over it. It is an amazing song. I think we will sing it in sacrament meeting as a district. 

So Hermana Pister was sick last night :( Before we left class, early so she could sleep, the elders asked her if she wanted a blessing and she said yes. So then all 10 of our elders gave her a blessing. It was incredible to see her surrounded by all ten of them! Ah they are so great. A little immature sometimes but they will be incredible missionaries! :)

We taught our investigator, Analis, four times this past week! What an amazing experience! She wants to get baptized! She has such great faith! (and I know she is fake but it was amazing.) Surprise! We can speak Spanish! It is just amazing to see what the Spirit can do. And surprise, surprise, our investigator turned out to be.... our teacher! We knew it! Ah, but I don't even care! She is the sweetest lady I have ever met! Hermana Kitto. I seriously love her! She always hugs us and kisses our cheeks! Hugs here at the MTC are a dime a dozen. I love hugs. LOVE them. Haha even the elders do hugs! They hug each other and it's hilarious.

Oh Jilly! I told a story about you with my investigator! Haha except I got some words a little mixed up. I was trying to tell the story about when you got locked in the bathroom at the hardware store with grandpa and you didn't know what to do so you said a prayer.... except it turned into "she got lost in a bathroom"... uhm... what? Yeah I'm working on my vocab now. My investigator was like... oh uh okay. hahaha. classic. Oh and sweet Jillian! Your talk was incredible. Thank you for sending it to me :) Miss you baby girl!

 Wow this place is just incredible. I cant describe how grateful I am to be here. I miss all of you so much so please write me letters and such. Those are just the best!

Love you all to the moon and back!

Love,

Hermana Moore :)

p.s. I got my district to call me Hermana Mas! Success!

FIRST DAYS IN THE MTC!!!

HOLA HOLA HOLA! wait, is this real right now? YES. it is! ahhhh! okay I don't even know where to start! So I am here at the MTC and it is my first p day! I have only been here for 2 days but alas, its p day. and hallelujah it is! So I'll just do a detailed description of the past few days. So Wednesday after Tim dropped me off (love you brother :)).

Being dropped off at the MTC! 

I was whisked away by my sweet host and I got my tags and such! I was like tagged, like knighted or something, by this sweet woman. I almost started crying! I love my tag!!!!! best two names to have on my chest, mine and my Savior's!:) Oh and then the best part of the day... first person i saw with my tag on was... SISTER ABBY ADAMS!!!! best day ever. We were literally crying. It was such a comfort and definitely a tender mercy.

Sister Abby Adams and I

 So I was able to drop my stuff off, then up to the fifth floor of my classroom building and BAM! SPANISH! DISTRICT! GOSPEL! woah, sorry for the caps. hahaha. but really it was amazing! My teachers rock! Hermano Kent and Hermana Wadsworth? or went worth... or something.. haha. So we were all like spanish-y with each other. Oh and I met my district! I love them!!!

My District

Oh I havent even mentioned mis companeras yet! I am in a trio! I am with Hermana Pister (pronounced like easter) and Hermana Webster! Sweet sweet girls! Hermana Pister is from Oregon and she rocks at spanish! literally fluent! Hermana Webster is from Washington state and is just the sweetest! I love them! Being in a trio rocks so far! We are the trynamic trio :)

The Trynamic Trio!!

So anyways my district. There are 7 elders and us three hermanas. All of our elders just graduated from high school, they are all 18! and all but one are from happy valley, usa! haha so that is fun. :) They kind of kept their distance from us at first, intimidated? Who knows... but now we are all becoming friends. :) So what else... oh the infamous food of the MTC... its alright. I definitely have had my fair share of heart burn. buuuuutttt. I work out now so I can eat whatever I want! yeah! Seriously though I run! We have gym time everyday so we run around a track and memorize things. Like we memorized "our purpose" in English and Spanish yesterday! So that makes the time go by faster! so nice! We have lots of workshops here at the MTC, especially the first week apparently. :) The first night here we had a workshop where we as a group taught people. Okay this was the hardest thing ever. truly, I felt like a failure! the investigators were so difficult. I was at the point of like, you don't want us here so we can leave. That was hard. I felt pretty discouraged. But then the next morning we had a "people and your purpose" workshop where basically I left super encouraged and in love with this work!!!! :) It was all about loving the heck out of your investigators. Each is a child of God! truly! I am so excited to get out and meet my peoples!! And love their guts out :) Yesterday we had our first long class time thing. 4 hours! But I loved it! Something about the Gospel and Spanish. It just rocks! :) The best combination ever! We prayed, discussed and testified in spanish! yay!  After I email we get to go to the temple! I need it so I am excited! :) P-days are nice because its chill and we get to do what we want. As long as what we want is laundry, email, eat, and study. Haha but I snuck in a nap! which I needed, because I havent been sleeping the best here. It's all good soon enough I'll be so tired that my body will force itself to sleep... right? :) So the MTC is just a great place. Everyone and their companion says hi to you all the time. Or hola in my case. :) I have seen so many people I know!

Writing letters to my Fam!

I had the best breakfast yesterday... blueberry muffin tops cereal. its real. I promise. Haha everyone keeps telling us not to drink the orange juice, whatever that means. I think its a joke but I'm too afraid to test it. They have like 4 different kinds though! So I'll probably try it soon! more about p days... we woke up at 5:40 this morning, instead of the usual 6:30, to do service. yay! We clean windows around the MTC from 6:05-7 on 

p-days. So that is hilarious. Now every time I see a window I'm like "don't touch it!" since I clean them. But I'm pretty sure they have people cleaning them everyday. With all the missionaries here, almost 4000, and not very many service opportunities, I'm sure there is repetition! Speaking of numbers... the day I came in, Wednesday, there were 800 other missionaries that came in that day. WOW! and in our introductional devotional there was an entire row of missionaries from Japan! They are so cute, I love seeing them around campus. They dont speak any English! I guess we are the closest MTC to them! Oh so I was saying how I have seen so many friends here! i see alot of people from colorado, like Elder Langford (junior haha)! and then alot of people from school. I love seeing sisters because then I can hug them. im loving hugs lately, i take all the ones i can get! haha I instituted companionship hug and its great. We do it every night after companionship prayer. :) Oh by the way, I was made senior companion! haha don't be so impressed, he chose it based on who was the earliest last name in the alphabet. So thanks mom and dad for the last name:) but I like it. I'll be senior for two weeks and then we switch! so I'll try not to get power hungry :) I love being here you guys. so much. this church is so true. and the atonement will cover anything you ever will need it to. I want all of you to know that the Lord loves YOU. and it is never to late to join, or rejoin, the fold of Christ. I encourage all of you to read the scriptures as often as you can! I am in Alma 8 right now and I love it! Alma and Amulek are such rockstar missionaries! :) 

Love, Erica

Farewell Talk

Good morning brothers and sisters. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Erica Moore and in 15 days I will be set apart as a missionary for this amazing church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I still can’t believe this is real. Can I just say first, I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. He made it possible so that I can have joy for eternity. And He is my best friend.

I feel so incredibly blessed to be standing here at this pulpit right now—regardless of how nervous I may feel! I am truly overwhelmed when I think about all of the people, events and choices that led me here and continue to direct me everyday. Its funny how the smallest things in our lives contribute so largely to our destiny. Today I want to share a few moments in my life that prepared me for what will be the greatest adventure of my life thus far. And of course I am talking about serving as a full-time missionary.  

Alright, let’s go back to August 2011, I think that is when this whole journey started. I had just started my freshman year at BYU. It was such an amazing, fun experience. Everything about college just enthralled me! So many new people, fun classes, a huge campus to explore, roommates, dessert for every meal! It was crazy to say the least. And then during the first week of school, amidst all of this, I got my first real world calling from my singles ward bishop. I still remember the confusion I felt when my Bishop called me to be the Ward Mission Leader along with another student in my ward. However, this confusion lasted about 3 seconds and then I just felt this calm excitement, if that even exists? As my Bishop explained my duties I became more and more excited, and by the time I left his office I was sure that I had just been called to the single greatest calling in the church. And honestly, that was the most perfect calling for me my freshman year of college. I was introduced into this new exciting world of missionary work.

Normally, people in this calling would work with the full-time missionaries in the ward on missionary work. However in a ward where every person within the ward boundaries was an active member and there were no missionaries assigned to our ward, my calling was a little different. As part of my calling I taught the mission preparation class on Sundays for anybody who wanted to attend—but specifically for the young men in the ward since all of them were headed off on missions of their own at the end of the year. Teaching that class was such an incredible experience. My favorite part was when we did role-play missionary discussions.

I was going through my journals while preparing for this talk and found an entry that I would like to read. And just a caution, I am an AVID journal writer so I am going to read a few excerpts in my talk today. So this is from October 2011

“Have I ever told you that I love missionary work? Anyways, in mission prep today we let everyone teach each other. It went great! I stepped in on one and attempted to show them an example. I was so astonished at how much came out. I didn’t even know what I was saying. The spirit truly works wonders! It was incredible. I can be a missionary now.”

I also was encouraged to find missionary opportunities for members of the ward outside of the mission prep class. This led me to volunteer as an investigator at the Missionary Training Center, which was only a 5-minute walk from my dorm. Basically I would go in and pretend to be a non-member while two brand new missionaries would teach me the gospel. I think I must have been taught the “first discussion” over 50 times during my time there. And let me tell you, every single lesson was different! There was even a few times when the missionaries would teach me, the fake investigator, about something that I needed to hear in my own life. They always followed the spirit no matter what persona I took on. They seemed to always teach me the perfect gospel truth for my particular made up scenario. I hope that when I'm on my mission I am able to follow the spirit every time I teach someone like those missionaries did.

Now, my freshman year wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies as I have made it sound. Along with this incredible and honestly, overwhelming enthusiasm came some other emotions—namely frustration and impatience. During the time that I held this calling I was 18 years old. 3 whole years shy of being eligible for missionary service since the age requirement was 21 for women. I saw countless friends open mission calls and prepare to serve in the immediate future. And here I was, expected to just wait around for three years? I felt so ready to go. I had these righteous desires, why couldn’t I go?

After many prayers, lots of temple visits and reading my patriarchal blessing I came to a conclusion. My journal entry from November 5 2011 reads this:

“I think I am slowly accepting that I may not go on a mission at this time in my life, something that I do NOT want to accept, but I think I need to… Priorities. And no matter what my priorities are, the Lord kind of has a say. And His say counts to me. So if this is as close as I am getting to missionary work in my life, so be it. Ouch that hurts to say.”

           

            I know, I know… I sound real thrilled about my conclusion. But, as time passed over the next few months I began to focus on other things and search out my next big adventure in life. If I wasn’t going on a mission, then there must have been some great work the Lord had in store for me, right? The missionary fire inside of me did not die, it was just tamed a little bit. During this time I learned so much about myself and had countless experiences that molded me into the person I am today. For example I learned a lot about my divine nature as a woman. Last time I spoke in this ward a little over a year ago, I talked about what motherhood means to me. In one of my journal entries I talked about how much I loved the gospels emphasis on families because women have such an integral role. With this, came a new and enriched understanding of the priesthood too. I love how everything in this gospel fits so well together. My testimony has grown so much and I am actually grateful for the time I had to wait to serve a mission…Never thought I’d hear myself say that! But, I tried to fill my life with goals and plans that all led me to my happily ever after.

One of these plans was a study abroad to Spain. This had been my dream since I first took a Spanish class in 7^th grade. Finally, I was getting to a time in my life where I could actually go. But yet, it seemed like every problem or obstacle that could get in the way, did. By the time my sophomore year at BYU begun, I found myself very frustrated… AGAIN. Again I was faced with the dilemma of wanting something so badly that just didn’t have a place in my life. I was also facing some confusion on my major. I remember It got to a point in September of 2012 where I had given up on doing a study abroad and I was talking to my mom and I just said, “mom, I am not working towards anything anymore. In high school I was working towards BYU. Up until now I have been trying to work towards this study abroad. I have no idea what to work towards now.” I felt directionless. I even stopped journaling for a time because I just didn’t feel like I had anything to say. Being the goal-oriented person that I am I just didn’t know what to do.

I was sitting in church one Sunday in early October and someone talked about a general conference talk from President Eyering from October 2007. He told a story about how, when he was going through a hard time in his life, everyday he would write down an answer to this question: How have I seen the Hand of God in my life today? The result in his life was miraculous. Of the experience he said,

“More than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ. And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance—even things we did not notice or pay attention to when they happened.”

When I heard this, I decided that this was something I needed to do, so I went to the bookstore the next day and bought this journal. On the front it has a quote by Marjorie Pay Hinckley that reads, “Everything you are learning now is preparing you for something else.” how appropriate.

Lets see, I started this journal on October 1,2012. Just 5 days later was The General Conference of our church. My roommate and I had kind of made it a tradition to attend at least one session of General Conference live at the conference center in Salt Lake since we were only 45 minutes away. We decided to attend the Saturday morning session, even though we didn’t have tickets. We scalped tickets outside the conference center and somehow scored the best seats I have ever gotten!

I remember driving down to conference that morning with Lindsey. We were both so looking forward to conference and the answers we would receive there. I felt like I was wrapping up my problems in a bag and giving them to the speakers at conference, knowing that I would receive an answer. Lindsey and I were talking about this and other things on the way up when we started talking about how cool the sister missionaries at temple square were.

While waiting in line to get in we were like “ahh how cool would it be to be missionaries right now!”  We got to our seats and we were surprised when the ushers kept ushering us forward. By the time we got to our seats I realized that we were 20 rows away from the Prophet. We felt pretty lucky. We were sitting next to this sweet lady from the Phillipines and it was her first time attending conference. We chatted with her a little bit about how awesome it is to see it live. So we sat and conference started. I had this journal in hand and I pulled it out to take notes on the talks. I'm going to read to you guys what I wrote that day.

But first, I want to read something. As many of you know, President Monson, our prophet, was the first speaker that day. He made a huge announcement that young men could begin missionary service at age 18 instead of 19. When he said this I freaked out. I'm pretty sure my jaw literally dropped. And then the idea of lowering the age for sister missionaries popped into my head. And then, as if he heard my question, President Monson said,

“As we have prayerfully pondered the age at which young men may begin their missionary service, we have also given consideration to the age at which a young woman might serve. Today I am pleased to announce that able, worthy young women who have the desire to serve may be recommended for missionary service beginning at age 19, instead of age 21.”

In my journal I wrote…

I remember sitting there after he said those words and not being able to stop the tears. Our newfound friend next to us from the Philippines leaned over and said, “how old are you?” and I responded “19.” I, at that moment, was suddenly old enough to serve as a full-time missionary. I honestly don’t remember what any other speaker said during that session. The entire time I just felt this peace and a knowledge that I was supposed to serve a mission.

After the session ended, I looked down at my phone and had about a million messages from my family. So, Lindsey and I came out of the conference center and split up for a little bit to call our parents. Before I called them I sat down for a minute on a bench right next to the Salt Lake Temple and I said a prayer and asked if this was the right thing for me. I have never felt a stronger YES in my life. I sat there just overjoyed looking at the temple. I called my parents and it was just the sweetest moment because I didn’t have to say anything and my mom and I just cried on the phone to each other. When we could finally talk my mom said something like Erica, you are going on a mission. And I said, I know.

           

In the months following that day I have had hundreds of confirmations that this is the right thing for me to do. Its funny how easy it felt to prepare for my mission during the past few months. And I truly believe that this was because I had been so prepared throughout my life.

If I were to attribute all of the things in my life that prepared me for my mission it would be Proverbs 3: 5-6, which says:

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

This scripture helped me so many times during this process. Especially on a night this past January when I had been expecting my mission call for two days… and it still hadn’t come. I was pretty devastated; looking back I'm like uhm why were you so sad it was in the mail! But it was a really sad day for me. Its actually kind of funny, when I checked the mail that day for my call, all I found was a letter from a friend on a mission with Proverbs 3:5-6 on it. Little did he know that that scripture would get me through not only the next 24 hours until I got my call, but basically every day since then. When I read it that night it was like the biggest light bulb moment ever! Lean not unto thine own understanding. YOU don’t know what ahead. But you know who does? The Lord. And He would LOVE for you to talk to Him about it. I truly believe that when we align our will with the Lord, We will find more joy than we have ever experience before.

Thanks to my experience teaching and being in mission prep classes I haven’t really worried about teaching or knowing how to teach effectively. I have just been so prepared! In my volunteering at the MTC I got to experience missionary-work firsthand and it made it so much less foreign to me.

Even with the language I haven’t worried much. I always wondered why I had such a desire to take Spanish classes during middle school, high school and college. I honestly think it was so that I could spread the gospel in that language. I am hoping that learning the language won’t be too hard since I have a pretty strong foundation of the language.

One amazing part of my preparations to serve a mission was realizing how much support I had, which really enabled me to reach new heights in my spirituality. When doubts came my way, they didn’t stand a chance because I always felt so surrounded by positivity and support. I have amazing friends and in my moments of frustration, which, as you heard, occurred quite often over the past two years, their support has gotten me through. I could never thank you guys enough for your words of wisdom. I feel like a completely different person than I was before I started college—and it’s all thanks to the amazing examples that I am privileged to call my best friends.

And most importantly I know that I will have a successful mission because I know how to receive help from the Lord! My parents taught me from day one to involve the Lord in every part of my life through prayer. Having to make such a huge decision of whether or not to serve a mission couldn’t have even happened without my parents. I was so guided by my parents to turn to the Lord. With their help and support I received my answer. Without them, this journey would have been so much harder. I have never doubted that every member of my family supported me in my desires to serve a mission. And that, is a huge blessing. They have been my rock always, and I know that they will continue to support me while I am in Guatemala.

Even though I didn’t know it, the Lord has been preparing me to serve a mission now my whole life. I never even thought it was possible! The day I opened my mission call was truly the happiest day of my life. Until I went through the temple, then that was the happiest day of my life. I have never felt so guided, confident, happy and close to the Lord in my life. I can truly testify that as we align our will with His will, we are the happiest we could ever be.