The field is white and ready to harvest.....

Reunited Trio!
Editor's note:  These three roomed at the Missionary Training Center in Provo over a year ago. Time flies!

Divisions with Hermana Webster!  We went out to visit with my recent convert and our recently reactivated best friend!"  Delvis and Gerber are so pilas, they don't hang out in the street.  They read the Book of Mormon and go out with us and go to seminary.  They rock. 

.... literally this week I thrust in my sickle in a field.... but it had already been harvested!  Haha, this week we went out and helped our recent converts in their MILPA, otherwise known as the corn field! We did some hard work, no not really we just echar´d abono, or fertilizer, but I was sweating!  It was hard work!  We did it so that they would have NO excuse not to go to church!  We met up with them at 7 am and went to work for a couple hours!  I was really grateful for the experience because, well basically because now when people are like nope we can't go to church we have to go to the milpa; I can say no problem we will come and help you on Saturday.... been there done that, NO EXCUSES! Hahahahahaha so that was really fun :)  We took pictures, don't worry. we are officially Guatemalan farm girls.  If you hadn't noticed yet we basically live in a super agricultury part of the county... Welcome to La Costa!  Haha. 

even though this picture is blurry, I love it!

Let's see other than that this week was pretty insane.  My poor comp is really sick and here it rains so much which makes colds so much worse.  So we were braving the rain most of the week but by the end we needed to stay in.  I had lots of study time and lots of time to read old letters.  Talk about baggy (I think in the US they call it trunky)  Basically if you have ever written me in my mission I read it this week.  But then we could go out and work and I was pumped!  We have been working super hard with this huge family lately.  We go there everyday.  They are like our best friends and they LOVE to learn! When we taught them the word of wisdom they were ready to leave smoking, drinking, coffee, the works.  Here in Guatemala coffee is a BIG deal.  But Guatemalan mormons are so cool that they created a drink called morcaf.  I think I have written about it before, but it is a coffee not made of coffee.  It's like made of wheat and cinnamon and aba and trigo and other stuff.  So it's totally okay to drink and has like the same flavor as coffee.  I'm def bringing like 20 bags home.  Apparently you can only find it in Guatemala.   Anyways we told them to have hot water ready for our next appointment and we would be bringing morcaf and pan dulce.  So we had a little morcaf party with them, and they LOVED IT!!!!!!! :)  Now it's all they drink and we may have a big party in white this Saturday.... I don't want to say anything yet..... but send your prayers towards San Francisco this Saturday :)

We had a sports night in the ward this week and I played soccer with all the jovenes.  Now if you know me you know I hate soccer.   Literally so much.... but I played on a team of little kiddos aged 11 and younger and I HELPED TO SCORE A GOAL.  Yeah I'm pretty happy :)  Then it started to rain and we went inside and played.... conejito gordito.... or in English.... CHUBBY BUNNY.  It took us a while to get them to understand that you don't eat the marshmallow, you have to talk with it in there! But once they got that down they were hilarious!  

Literally they each got like 2 marshmallows until Hermana Pister, who got 6.  Way to represent the USA!  Then our ward mission leader did 7.... it was kind of disgusting.  After that we were like alright.... were done.  Hahahahahahahahaha. 

So on a spiritual note..... this week I was talking with Francisco, my sassy convert from 2 months ago, and he was like talking about why he loves being a member and having the Gospel and he said to me..... "Ahora yo tengo el 'porque'."   Isn't that cute???  Now I have the "why" of life.  I love him! Also I gave him a hard cover bible this week cuz he didn't have one and I was like sorry it's pretty heavy... and he goes but it will make me soul feel less heavy.  Okay, he's a poet!  It was prettier in Spanish , but you get the point :) 

Alright and last but not least..... go listen to the song......called "chicarron con pelos".  We saw it on a bus,  I'm not a bad missionary, and it is literally a perfect portrait of who these people are .  I ADORE THEM.  Can I be Guatemalan? :)

Well I'm out of time :)  Until next week :)

love love love,

hermana moore

2 nefi 10:23, helped me a lot this week :) 

This is a pic of us dancing under the rain,.  It's our mission president's theme for us right now!  This is our.... we just set baptismal dates with a family, face! :)  So happy. such joy being a missionary!!!!!!! :) 

Happy Birthday Erica!

Subject: 21 candles

Oh my dear family!  What an incredible week this was!  I just feel so happy right now :)  I turned 21 this week! (not 22, mom. I literally told everyone this week that my mom thought I was turning 22 and a lot of them were like well she probably just registered you a year after and you really were born in 1992 not 1993, that kind of stuff happens you know... and  I'm like no, that doesn't happen outside of Guatemala.  But they kind of scared me.  Mom I was born in 1993, right?  I'm 21 right?  Let me know.....)

But this was the best birthday.  Ever.  In the history of birthdays. EVER.  So it all started at 4:30 am when I woke up to sparks shooting out under my door. HA!  Hermana Pister lives with me now and it's like the most fun thing ever, and oh yeah she's CRAZY!  So it's a Guatemalan tradition to burn cohetes, firecrackers, and throw them under the cumplañeros bed at 4:30 to wake them up.  And they did just that, but the door was locked thank goodness!  Still, we might have burned some of the furniture, woops!  Anyways there were lots of firecrackers and then they came in and sang me the birthday song here, las mañanitas!  

Then we had pan dulce and hot coco, I guess the tradition is cafe and pan but we don't drink coffee and coco is better!  That was a wonderful way to start the day, I love the girls that live with me.  Seriously San Francisco is just a constant party :) 

Then we had to get ready and run to the church to fill up the baptismal font for our baptism, or so I thought.  We were running late so we ran into the church only to find a surprise breakfast birthday party from the tropa loca! awwwww I love the missionary crew in this ward.  All our elderly retired friends. :)  They're like my dads here.  They knew I loved breakfast so they made me a yummy breakfast! :) And cake!  And bananas with honey! So cute!!!!

After breakfast we had a BAPTISM!  Best birthday ever right? saturday morning Abelardo got baptized.  He is the little brother of Gerber, our miracle baptism from 2 weeks ago. Abelardo is 12, even though he is very small.  Hey these people are just smaller!  And he is so smart!  He is a little sponge!  

I made cinnamon rolls for his baptism and we ate them and celebrated another soul coming unto Christ :)  I love my job :)  

Then we had lunch with a member and it was exactly what I wanted, American food!  Spaghetti and salad.  Sweet simplicity.  

Then we had a great day working super hard and inviting everyone who's anyone to church!  The hermanas had a baptsim at night so we did that! Then someone invited us to dinner!  Then we came home and the hermanas had made me a birthday table with cake and presents and a piñata.  So we just had our own little party at night and I blew out a ton of candles. :)  So yeah, I'm a blessed little missionary and I couldn't be happier. :)  I mean having your birthday with the most giving people in the world is kinda fun.  I basically doubled my souvenirs. How will any birthday ever compare, I don't know. :)

Time to talk about the miracles of this week.  So we had no idea what to do one day, we were in the process of leaving a lot of investigators cause they weren't progressing and we needed to find new ones.  My companion was like what should we do?   We prayed.  Then I remembered this stack of references we had received for that art in the park activity a while back.  So we pulled it out and there was a reference of a family, the familia Garcia.  I called the number and this man answered.  I'm really awkward on the phone.... I was just like, uh hermano Garcia?  He was like no, wrong number.  But I'm like WAIT HERMANO.  I was just thinking no, I have to get a hold of this family somehow so I was just like hey hermano have you ever heard of the church? No?  Wanna hear about it?  So I start bearing my testimony and basically teaching him.  Then I was like wait what is your name again hermano? And he goes, look I'll just give you the number you really want.... sound good?  I'm like wait..... what?  He gave me a number and then hung up.  What in the world?  I called the number.... it's the family.  How did that happen? NO IDEA.  All I know is that the Lord works absolute miracles. So we got to put a cita with the familia Garcia,  We went and met them and wow, it's like a completely prepared family of 8.  They were like we are just so confused by all these churches.  Well obviously the Lord wants us here and He wants us to teach you guys.  So teach them we did!  They are really cool and I have really high hopes for them :) 

THIS WEEK we were supposed to have a noche de cine, but the power was out..... but here, no luz is no problema! :) Instead of watching a movie, hermana Pister taught the whole ward how to find constellations.  We are really high up so we can see a lot of stars here :)  It was a magical starry night. I love this ward so much.  I love my companion and I love seeing miracles!!! I hope it never ever ends. Even after my mission.  It's just lovely.

I hope you all had a lovely week and were able to serve someone else.  Good luck starting school Jill and Tim! I will be praying for you guys :)

love you so much!

love love love,

hermana moore

P.S. D&C 63:47

He that is faithful and endureth shall overcome the world.  My theme this week. 

This week:

Subject: the hunchback of San Francisco

Another week, another email!  There is just so much that happened this week it blows my mind!  The week just flew by!  P-day is already over, sheesh I feel like this week is already over too!  Life flies by when you're having fun!

This week started off with a two day Hermanas conference in Reu! SO FUN to see all my fave hermanas from the mission!  We had a lot of instruction on how to be more consecrated as missionaries! and we ate a lot of food and played volleyball!  My team won (third place)!!  It was a really great weekend, and we got to stay in a hotel, with air conditioning... enough said. :)  Then when we got back from the conference, it was to work!  And work we did! :)

hermanas conference and i saw my baby girl Hermana Cadavieco! :) such a beauty!

This week it rained a ton.  I think the highlight of the rain was yesterday when we were walking down to the rural part of our area around 3:30 in the afternoon.  We saw these black thunderheads ahead and we both just looked at each other and were like huh.... good thing we are far from the house, have no umbrella and NO money... do we press on or fall back!  PRESS ON!  Then we started singing "trabajemos hoy en la obra del señor!"... about 109 minutes later it started raining.  We walked all the way there in the rain, about 20 minutes under CHOROS of water.... and by the time we got there, it didn't stop, no don't worry it didn't stop until this morning!  Someone gave us a towel and coco to drink.  Everything got soaked.  Literally we were wetter than we would have been had we just jumped in a pool.  We convinced a tuktukero to take us back to our house so we could change.  We were so wet!  When we came back out, we looked like missionaries from the states!  Sweaters, boots and scarves!  Thank goodness for my 4 week stint in the mountains to stock up my cold weather clothes!  It gets chilly here in San Fran! :) 

so wet:(

not wet:)

This week we also did some service with the zone! we went to limpiar un parque,  I thought that meant pick up trash.  No that meant clean all the weeds!  I chose the weed wacker, and I learned how to use it!  I weed wacked half of a soccer field.  Yeah here in Guatemala we sometimes do things in the most inconvenient way possible!  Lawn mower?  Why would you do that when you have a weed wacker and a machete, duh.  I've got some NICE blisters from that.  But good news, looks like if BYU doesn't work out I have a nice future career of garden work!  Watch out Los Angeles, I'm coming for your weeds!

Other than that this week was a lot of contacting, no knocking on doors here, just yelling at the gate.  I learned something new, it's easy to get in houses when you have no umbrella and its pouring!  Funny thing with this area is we can get into any house we want to, teach a good lesson but basically everyone is already attending a church and wants nothing to do with us after 30 minutes! hahahahahah.  But besides all that we were able to bring a family to church this week, that's a huge miracle, it's a feat I'm telling you!  Except this family was just like already ready and we just walked together.  It was really nice to sit in church next to a big family :)  Makes me feel like I'm doing my job right and it was a really big blessing because in terms of stats we had a bad week, not a ton of lessons and hardly any new investigators, but we had a family in church so I was happy! :)  Oh and another proud missionary moment, when one convert blessed the sacrament for the first time, another convert passed the sacrament for the first time and another gave a talk for the first time (Rolando!).  Proud mama right here! PROUD MAMA! :)  Did you catch that my previously homeless convert gave a TALK in church this week??????  Yeah he has progressed so much! :)  He asked me this week,  "What does prayer mean to you?"  And I was like...... uh...... awk question but .... and he was like I need help, I'm giving a talk!  He ended up giving a beautiful perfectly timed talk.  Is this what it feels like to have stellar kids?? Aw I love it!" :) 

the hermanas of San Francisco

Oh I should explain what my title means.... I am the hunchback of San Francisco... I was bitten by a bee this week, I think I might be allergic because my back, where I was bit, swelled up huge!  When the elders saw it they were all like WOAH what is that!  No pictures of that, no one needs to see that. It's gone down now, but now I'm terrified of bees.  Oh the things I've learned about my body in this country...........

his shirt....... it says, big butts, things i like and cannot lie about. if only these people knew what their shirts said!

With that, I'm out of time!  Sorry if this was a little all over the place... I'm a little sick right now but I want to get off and go work! THE FIELD IS WHITE ALREADY TO HARVEST.  Gotta go reap some souls :)

tortillas whaadduupp?

Look, I'm Jillian!

love love love, 

hermana moore 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With our convert and matching outfits again!

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

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

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

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

love love love,

hermana moore 

New Week, New Change, New Comp!

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

HERMANA JORDAN. 

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

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

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

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

FHE with all our recent converts

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

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

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

Hermana Phillips, look who's wearing your bows!

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

love love love,

hermana moore