The Rain Came Back

Yep.  Read that title, multiply it by 50 and scream it from the roof tops.  Looks like the rainy season has come back, and it will stay for the REST OF MY MISSION.  Oh joy.  Time to break out the boots again and become known as the gringona with the big green boots!  Hahahahaha.  Yesterday afternoon at like 2 it started to rain, but our house is on the third floor and very open, like we don't really have outside walls.  It's all open or windows and it was raining so hard and so windy that our house flooded! We were all running around with brooms trying to sweep it out, but we just got soaked, inside the house!  Somethings not right there.... ha!

A view of the two volcanoes from my house

another view from my house

So other than getting soaked everyday, this week was an interesting week, to say the least. the highlight was definitely the multi zone conference we had on Thursday.  The new area president, President Duncan, came and spoke to us. HE IS INCREDIBLE!!!!!  We talked about so many things that I needed to hear.  It was amazing.  Also we had more than half the mission there so we got to see a lot of people, including my favorite missionary, mi hija Hermana Cadavieco.  I swear, I love that girl so much!  It was a really nice refresher, spiritually, socially and emotionally.  And physically because I sat half the day.  Ha!  We work so hard everyday, I imagine we walk like 5 miles a day if not more.  So by the time we get home I'm like.... alright I'm dead.... peace out world. 

This week I was thinking a lot about a scripture story of a miracle that Jesus did.  When he healed the paralytic that was lowered down through the roof?  President Duncan told us to think about the love Jesus had for the 4 men that brought their paralyitc friend to Jesus.  I had never thought about that before.  It says in Mark 2 verses 1-5, that based on the faith of the friends the man was healed.  Are we doing everything we can to bring our friends to Jesus Christ?  These men weren't apostles, they were just his friends and their faith and action saved this man!  The room was crowded?  They couldn't get in?  No matter, we will go up on the roof!  Better yet, we will take apart the roof and put our friend in front of the master.  Faith requires ACTION.  How are we acting based on our faith?

There is always more that we can do for the Lord and our friends. 

And now, I'm gonna go have lunch.  Love you all!  I'd appreciate your prayers :)

a successful Family Home Evening

They made me s'mores!

Crazy kids!

love love love,

hermana moore

The Most Blessed Normal Missionary In The World

It's a frog I found!

It didn't turn into a prince , or a person ready to get baptized, like I had been hoping.

Oh my goodness, this week was one that surpasses words.  I have never felt more tired in my life, but I just feel like the Lord is pleased with my work.  It is such a wonderful feeling!!!

SO this week was very special in Central America, the Area Presidency deemed this week the "Semana de la familia" and requested that every ward have activities every single night to bless families and get more of them to the chapel!  Well turns out I'm in the best ward in Guatemala, so we had activities every single night!  I'm talking about FUN activities!  They had some workshops nights, my favorites were "salvando tortillas" or literally how to save the tortillas you didn't use at lunch and repurpose them, and the music workshop where we taught these slightly tone deaf rhythmically blind people to lead music!  There are some funny videos of me trying to help them.  We also had a sports night, even we played!  Ha we played basketball and we were trash talking like crazy!  I even had a Lakers shirt on, and then we lost.  BADLY.  These chapines know how to play ball!  And the last night was the most fun, TALENT SHOW!  You better bet that the ward's favorite hermanas did an act!  We four did a jump roping show!  Hahaha more like Hermana Goddard pulled out her coolest tricks from elementary school and we jump roped in the background.  She is NUTS!!!!!  I swear she is a professional, so they all thought we were pretty cool.  Then last night we had a big fireside with all of the Central American area over satellite and it was awesome!  All about family and marriage and kids and love and..... oh wait, 6 more months?  What? Hahahahahahaha.  Baggy moment.  Anyways the week of the familia was a complete success!  But that wasn't the reason this week was nuts.  All week long we had those activities at 6:30 at night and then we had to get a bunch of people who lived all over the place ready for their baptisms!  And we got them ready!  And they got baptized!!  Basically it was nuts running all over the place and getting everything ready.

We started this week with two people preparing for this Saturday.  My comp and I were pretty content. This Wednesday were changes and neither of us had changes which meant neither of us were training. I know it sounds dumb but we were a little bummed.  We were talking about it and kind of wondering what the Lord wanted of us since we wouldn't be having any sort of ... how do you say it... special purposes other than our area. So we prayed about it and we both just felt the same way... sometimes you have to follow before you lead.  So we decided we were going to be the BEST normal missionaries we can be!  We don't need any special assignments to shine!  We are going to be the most positive, obedient, happy and successful misioneras this world has ever seen.  

District Bilbao!  Our District Leader, Elder Tenney went home this week and now Elder Calero,
the other elder, is our DL. Our cute district!!!

So we decided that on Thursday morning when we were planning and we just felt so happy like this was the right choice and suddenly all the feelings of anxiousness for changes or the jealousy of other people that were going up the leadership ladder were gone!  Then, we saw a MIRACLE!  Thursday night we brought an investigator to the sports night and we wanted to show her the font. so we brought her new found friend, a member girl who is the granddaughter of a recent convert, and went inside the church.  We were at the font and talking and I asked the little member girl, tell us how you felt at your baptism, and she goes, well I haven't been baptized yet, hermana!  WHAT?   How old are you?  And she is like I turned 8 in January! AKA the perfect age for a convert baptism.  So then I just asked her, "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized on Saturday?"  And she was like, YEAH!!!  So we went and talked to her grandma, had her interview the next day and her baptism on Saturday.  I can't even believe it!  She is so sweet.  She was ready to be baptized, obviously, she's had a lot of time going to church.  We really just felt like that was the Lord saying,  "Good job.  Thank you for your work and keep working!"  I know that there are even more unbaptized members of families out there that I have to find!  I feel like I have a baptism radar now.  That's how we had all THREE of our baptisms this week.  Kids of less actives or just people that didn't know to get baptized!  It's amazing. 

On top of all of that, Rolando, my sweet used-to-be-homeless convert, blessed the sacrament yesterday. Have I mentioned that my ward is AWESOME!!!!  The sweet man no longer lives in the streets, he has a house and a bed and food and a semi job for his abilities!  We are so blessed to be in this amazing area. I LOVE SAN FRANCISCO.  I want to stay here the rest of my mission.  I would legitimately live here.  I love it that much! :)

Welcome to rainy season round two!

I just feel so blessed to be a missionary.  I KNOW that the Lord has a purpose for me here and I'm ready to do amazing things for Him!  If ANY of you feel inadequate, just remember, the Lord made YOU because He needed YOU on the earth.  He has a work just for you and you need to find it!  I feel like this week was a lot of finding myself and I have never felt so confident and happy to be who I am! Right now I am Hermana Moore!  The best one I can be! :) 

love love love,

hermana moore

p.s. we went rope swinging today. enjoy...

What A Wet Week!

Okay if I'm being honest, I'm not feeling the whole email writing thing right now.  So instead I'll just send a bunch of pics and write a super good email next week :) SOUND GOOD?

Good.

Peace out!

love love love, 

hermana moore

p.s.  This is a pic with the whole obra misional in my ward!  Love these people!  We will baptize all of San Francisco! :) 

It was cold one day so we pulled out all the scarves and cardigans I got in San Marcos.  By noon we were sweating again.  Had to take a pic for proof!" :) 

The Hermanas of San Fran!

Me and my comp:)

How to survive a hurricane in Guatemala!  Don't worry, only my black mold feet are suffering, ha!

The Broom I made for Hermano Rolando!  I'm basically a boy scout!

editor's note: In the background is the house they found (?) for their sweet homeless new convert.  The ward has really taken him in and helped him with this shelter and a mattress and kitchen necessities.  Erica reports that this man's testimony is so strong and  he is very happy!

Cleaning the pila with a broom I found in the dirt and some soap we found there too! yay!!!

Erica helping get Hermano Rolando settled in

Editor's note:  What would an email from Erica be without foodie pics????

Granizadas!

healthy breakfast stilo: dadi!

Blessings and other things falling down on me!

what. an. incredible. week. 

pretty flower and my face isn't even in it, haha!

I seriously don't even know where to start or how I'm going to write about it all in 20 minutes.  Let me just start by saying...

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. 

We had breakfast for lunch one day!

So this week was one of the most incredible weeks of my mission, sorry have I said that before?  It's because every week it somehow gets better and I don't know how!  So one of my friends wrote me this week and told me to challenge EVERY PERSON I SEE to be baptized and that it will bless me a lot. So I decided to try it out!  Why not?  So I was telling my comp about it and she got me even more excited to do it!  We decided, hey why not push ourselves, let's challenge 1000 people to be baptized in between now and the end of May?  Sounds nuts, I know!  So we left the house and BAM!  First man we saw, "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be BAPTIZED by someone holding the Priesthood authority of God?"  Yeah. this is real.  SO we challenged everyone we saw on the way to district meeting.  Then while there, we got our whole district on board!  Then 2 days later at zone meeting, we got our whole zone on board!  Then while I was on divisions with Hermana Merrill in the other zone this week, we did it there in her area too!  I have never felt so excited to challenge people to be baptized!!!  All in all we saw MIRACLES.  This week, actually just from May 1st till today, my comp and I challenged a total of 56 people to be baptized.  From doing that we TRIPLED the amount of new investigators we found this week!  The Lord is blessing us!  Those are just the numbers, the experiences I had with these people, most random strangers, were incredible!  We had so many opportunities to meet amazing people. I truly believe that the Lord puts each person in our path for a reason!! When we challenge them to be baptized, we find that reason right away! :)

So like I said, I went on divisions with Hermana Merrill this week.  She is one of my favorite people so it was a treat :)  

We challenged EVERYONE! even the people we would normally ignore, like the men who catcall at us in English.  But I was just thinking... you know what, he wants to talk to us, when a man was like "Hey baby!" we went to his house!  We ended up meeting his wife and kids and they are an amazing family!  They told us they had questions about Jose Smith and we said, we have answers! We connected with them really fast, especially with his wife.  She is incredible.  I love being a missionary because we get to hear the most spiritual stories that people have all the time.  It's like they see us as servantas of God and want to share their most prized memories with Him.   So the hermana left for a minute and came back with a foto in her hand.  she gave it to me and was like this is a foto of my baptism 3 years ago.  It was her in a pool getting baptized by two men in black.  In that moment I just felt so.... I don't know how to express it, I felt a desire for her salvation!  I could just see how wrong this picture was, but how she was so convinced that this was good but that it really wasn't.  I knew I had to tell her that her baptism wasn't valid in God's eyes, but at the same time, how could I tell her that with her most prized possession, everything that she lives fore, her relationship with Jesus Christ, in my hands!  I'm telling you, that picture felt like a thousand pounds in my hand.  But as the himno says.... Dios Da Valor!  God gave me courage.  I was able to explain to her about the restoration and authority and challenge her to be baptized and she understood!  I love that woman, seriously, and I can see that her future has a lot of white in it :) 

trying to eat healthy, haha.  The Mission President always treats us to Subway!

This Sunday was amazing.  It was fast Sunday and we fast a lot as missionaries so it has kinda just become routine; but I wanted to make it special again so I started a fasting journal!  It's like you write down your purpose for fasting and any spiritual impressions you get during your fast.  Well it helped me to see a lot of miracles!  This Sunday we were helping a lot of people come to church or so we thought!  EVERYONE said no. and they were really rude about it!  But we did have a less active family we were going to help and their son isn't baptized so he is an investigator!  So we go and we felt all happy and calm and patient, really rare for Sundays... we went on to church, instead of crossing the river as normal, we went through the jungle......

and through the field........

Then we get to the street and it's already LATE and there are no tuk tuks to be found... like ZERO. And we are far!  I just prayed really quick and not lying as I said amen I heard a tuk tuk and one came down the hill!  Blessings!  So we get in and I said, "Hermano, you are an answer to our prayers!" Then I'm just all happy and ready to go to church but he had to drop someone else off before.  Tuk tuks are basically like buses hahaha, but tiny.  I had to get out.  Right when I got out I looked down and saw bird poop hit the ground right next to me!  I literally don't know how it didn't hit me!  So I look up and I'm like WOW how many miracles am I going to see today!!!  So blessed! Then I  look down and then 

SPLATTTTT. 

bird poop. on my head. in my hair. 

humility check.

Luckily we were almost to the church so I just went to the bathroom and got it out.  But it was pretty flipping hilarious. :)  Gotta stay humble right? 

Basically I'm walking on sunshine again, I love it :)  Someone told us today that in Lehi´s dream, there is a special spot for the missionaries.  We aren't where the members are.  In the morning we are on the iron rod eating of the fruit of the tree of life but in the day time, we descend to the part where it is the mist of darkness to help people find the rod and partake of eternal life!  That's why it's so hard!  But it's so worth it! (1 nefi 8 and 13)

I love my mission.  It's flying by way too fast and I don't know what to do!  I feel like I'm in my stride, nothing can stop me!

teaching another ward how to make cinnamon rolls

Haha so I was in the war chapters of Alma this week and couldn't help but imagine Lord of the Rings the whole time.  Aragon is basically Moroni.  Nerd moment, sorry.  Hahahaha! 

Also fun scripture, read Helaman 3:7, if you have ever been to Central America you'll understand, AKA the country made of cement!  Now I know when it all started! :)

With that, I'm out of time!  Only one last thing..... look up the video on youtube that has the words like this, Jesus, Jesus quiero contarle algo. a ver que es, digame niña preciosa!  It's a cute video about prayer that someone in Guatemala made and some members showed us!  That song has been in my head ALL week.  So cute :)

Oh and also go watch the video by mormon.org called gracias a el or whatever it is in English!  I don't know what it is in English but OH MY INCREDIBLE. I get chills and cry every time.  If I had a facebook, I'd post it there. :)

Well loved ones, I ADORE you all.  Excited to see your cute faces this weekend :)

love love love,

hermana moore

p.s.  Oh today for p-day the hermanas of the 2 mazate zones had a big sleepover

and then we went to learn to make lasagna at home with a hermana!  So fun!  This guy from the newspaper showed up and said we will be on the news at 6 pm channel 13 in Guatemala!  Hahaha, his name is Eddy Morales or try Temerario Morales if you want to see his story of us on Facebook. Surprise!  We are famous! :) 

So cute!  She gave me so much and I said,  "No hermana please just a tiny bit.  I'm trying to lose weight."  And she goes, no! and gave me HALF THE PAN!!!!  So I gave some to the other hermanas.  I love her!

Work Work Work

Wow these weeks are passing by MUCH too fast.  I know I say this every week, but I feel like I was just here!  But here I am, and I only have like 10 minutes left, so let's see how fast I can type! 

This week was a whole lot of WORKING!!!  Running everywhere, riding in over 50 tuk tuks and teaching, everyone!  My companion is amazing, she loves everyone just so much!  She always wants to help everyone... especially men that are carrying huge stacks of firewood from the campo!  They carry it using a leather strap on their forehead and she is always like, hey let me carry that!  Let me help you! She is a persistent little thing too so its pretty funny.   Lately I have been praying to be full of love with all the energy of my soul, like it says in Moroni 7:48.  Let me just testify that the Lord answers prayers! I have been filled with so much love that every single day there was a point where I just felt the spirit so strong that tears just filled my eyes!  

With some kids from a family we are teaching :)  We got invited to the birthday party!  Cake and piñata!

It's kinda interesting though, being filled with love also means being filled with so much sorrow and disappointment when they don't want the truth!   It has been one rollercoaster week because of that.   The highest of highs and the lowest of lows!  Welcome to the mission!  Remember that rollercoaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain called the X3, it's spinning while doing an insane rollercoaster, yeah thats the mission!  Don't know which way is up and you can't do anything about it!  But I wouldn't have it any other way!! :)  I'm learning that as I love more, I love my work more and like Presidente David O. Mckay said, "El amor por el trabajo es un triunfo!"  I definitely agree with that!  Haha. 

So at one point this week we were teaching this less active lady and her sister, who is an active member of the church.  We asked the active hermana to share her testimony about how the church has blessed her life.  She said something that has really stuck with me.  She said that going to church and to the temple regularly helps her stay constant.  She said, "I have peace.  I maintain peace."  I love that!  How important is it for us to maintain the wonderful feeling that we have at church the whole week, or to maintain the feeling we had when we were baptized our whole lives!  That's what makes all the hard turns of life easier. 

Another moment of this week that I loved was in sacrament meeting when the old mens club, los viejitos, served the sacrament.  Literally this ward has more elderly eligible bachelors than I can count. I'm talking about like 75 and up!  It was so cute to see them all with huge smiles on their faces and their white shirts and ties serving the sacrament.  They looked like the deacons but just a little more... wrinkled?  I'm so impressed with the faith of these old men!  They tell us all the time, I led a life in the dark for 70 years, and now, I've found the light!  

A birthday cake we made for some of the members of the "tropa loca" or the retired men that love missionary work in the ward and accompany us to lessons everyday!  They are the best!!!!

It's incredible to see how much these humble people embrace the Gospel! :)  I am absolutely in love with this work.  I feel like I have more energy than before and now I'm just ready to work, probs because I'm running every day with one of the hermanas. :)  But I love my life. 

In other, more important, news, this week I perfected my ability to make tortillas by hand.  In Guatemala that means you're ready to keep your own house.  Proud of me?  You better be!  My tortillas INFLATE!  They are that good.  That thin and circular!  If only any of you knew what I was actually talking about.  Ah well, when I get home you'll all have to eat tortillas at every meal!  Sandwiches, with tortillas, cereal with tortillas!  Prepárense:)  Ha yesterday for lunch after church the hermanas were all making tortillas and it makes a sorta clapping noise because you make them with your hands.  The dueña of our house came upstairs, (we live on the third floor of a members house), and she said,  "I thought I heard tortillando and I just had to witness for myself 4 gringas tortillando!"  Hahahahaha.  I love this country :)

Action shots, haha!

Games with the zone!  Hahaha we played ultimate frisbee, this balloon popping game and nunja.  Whoever lost had to surrender and get hit by water balloons, oh elders.  We played though and it was so fun!  I got soaked!

The losers

So I was going to write about something else but I forgot.... haha!  So I'm gonna sign off. 

I love all of you so much:)  All you love birds getting married make me excited for the next stage in life (hashtag baggy) 

love love love,

hermana moore

The Cost and Blessings of Discipleship

• Well, I survived Semana Santa! :) 

Yesterday I was reading the talk Elder Holland gave in this past conference called, "The Cost -- and Blessings-- of Discipleship".  Lately I have been feeling a lot like the hermana that he talks about.  We aren´t really sure why but lately everyone has been running from us, literally.  Hiding, running, lying, the works.  And on top of that, we have met some pretty mean people this week.  This week was Semana Santa and everyday and night there was a different Catholic procession.  For some, this week is a week of religious devotion, for others, it's a national holiday where no one is in school, no one works, so EVERYONE goes to the cantina.  I have truly never seen more drunks in my life than I did this week.  It's such a sad part of the alleged "Holy Week" here in Guatemala.  It seems like the meanest and most lost people came out to meet us this week.  So when I read this talk I just thought to myself, you know what... missionary work is HARD.  WHY is it so hard sometimes??  Elder Holland talked about a few scriptures in Hebrews where it talks about some apostles doing miracles and seeing great success while others were tortured, mocked, scourged, imprisoned, afflicted and tormented.  He said they were "those of whom the world was not worthy".   Too good to be a part of the world.  We don't go through nearly what the apostles did; but we do have to suffer a large cost in discipleship. Rejection is just one part.

Happy Easter!  Love, the Hermanas of San Francisco

This week someone asked me how I knew that this was the true church.  She asked me in a mocking way, "How do YOU know? Did God tell you??".  I told her Yes He did, in my heart and He continues to tell me everyday.  She then looked me square in the eyes and told me, "No te creo." or I don´t believe you.  Sometimes it hurts, as Elder Holland put it, to have your most cherished beliefs reviled. My heart hurts for this woman, so lost and so confused.  Something I am learning right now is that the road to the promised land isn't all rainbows and daisies, it's hard.  People don't flock to the baptismal fonts just because I say God told me it's true.  People have distorted their image of God into that of their own. 

On the other hand, being a disciple of Jesus Christ has been the BIGGEST blessing in my life.  Amidst all of the rejection and emberassment, there are miracles.  Just yesterday we were in a lesson with a husband and wife who were not at all wanting to listen to us.  The lesson was kind of scattered and I wondered what to do.  I thought to pull out a picture of Jesus Christ that I have in my Scriptures.  I asked the husband, "How do you feel when you look at Him?"   He paused for a while and then said quite simply, I will go back to Him one day.  I felt really impressed to cover up one side of the painting and tell them about how Christ is all just and all merciful, just like in the painting where one side of his face is hard and darker which represents the law, the other side of his face is soft and full of light.  I explained to them that He LOVES us.  He wants us to return to Him to the point where He DIED so that we could.  In that moment the kids were really quiet, the pigs stopped making noise and a big breeze came by.  As tears welled up in my eyes I KNEW in that moment that Jesus Christ loved them. He loves all of them!  All of these people that run and hide from us because they find the truth to be hard.  He loves them and He sent my companion and me to them to bring them back to Him.  God loves us.  He loved me enough to send me here. not so I can teach, but so I can learn, so I can be His mouthpiece in bringing many to repentance.  I hope that I can become a better disciple of Jesus Christ everyday.  During one day this week we didn't work because of processions that involved Judas scarecrows being toured around the city with loud kids begging for bread, (more about that when I get home), and I read all of the mission of Alma , like Alma 14-27.  I hope that one day I can have that faith to bring so many souls to repentance.  I know that of myself I am nothing, but with my Savior, all is possible.  I know He lives and that He is risen!  What a glorious blessing it is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.  I will never get tired of saying that. 

The cost of discipleship for some was their own lives, for me all it has been is some tears and sadness. But one thing I know to be true is that God LIVES.  How do I know?  He told Me. 

Be strong. Take Heart.

love love love,

Hermana Moore

Pictures from our Hermana Sleepover during Semana Santa.

Eight Hermanas in one place with four beds.  It was nuts!

Cute Latina friends

These pics go together.  Hermana Natividad is from El Salvador and she is nuts! hahaha. She threatened that whoever went to sleep she would draw on their face with a marker.  Well Hermana Phillips fell asleep first!

 Haha!  These Latinas are nuts. 

Proof she's nuts!  Oh and we did corn rows in Hermana Phillips' hair.  Sleepovers gone crazy!  Hahahahaha!

p.s.  On a less serious note, I lost my voice this week and the elders have now dubbed me, Elder Moore.  Thanks parents for giving me a deep voice and thanks sickness for making it even deeper.  The ward members are so excited that the quartet of hermanas that we have for special musical numbers for baptisms now has a tenor.  Hahahahahahahaha.  Life is funny. 

Me and my boyfriend!!!

ME AND MY BOYFRIEND!

10 months as a soltera mamasita and I still got game. 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA DO YOU GET IT???????

This is me kissing an armadillo. 

Tattoo!!! Guatemalan style! Hahaha ignore my wretched hair.  It's hot here. 

A better view.  It's the dust on the back of a plant.  Our friend came up to me and slapped this plant on my arm
and goes, "TATUAJE!"   Haha, it's just dust.  But they did play a joke on me that it would last 2-3 weeks!  Haha.

Subject: QUE BENDICION!!

Wowzaaaaaaa!  What a week!  I am physically and emotionally exhausted; but I'm on a spiritual high! Goodness gracious, we are so blessed here in San Pancho!! (that's the nickname of our area, or what everyone calls it!) 

So this was definitely a week of running around like crazy people, but it all played out in the end. :) Every day this week we had to run on down to Mazate to teach this man named Rolando.  Rolando is our little miracle.  He is a homeless man that my comp invited to church like a month ago and he came, then came to every single session of conference!  And he wanted to get baptized!  So heck yeah we taught him everything!  We had to come down to Mazate because it was easier for him; but he is going to start working in San Pancho next week.  He is a little man that has led such a sad life starting out in an orphanage and having ZERO family his whole life, but has SO MUCH faith!  He is a miracle, as I said.  After we taught him the Plan of Salvation and we answered a bunch of his questions about the Spirit World he looks at us with tears in his eyes and says, "Ya no voy a estar solo".  Which means, Now I won't be alone!  That's right Rolando, from here on out, you'll never be alone!  It was so beautiful to see this ward welcome him in with open arms yesterday.  All of them are looking for jobs for him and houses and doing so much to help him!  I will never forget the look on Rolando's face as he came out of the water!  The man that baptized him did it kind of.... forcefully, so he came out of the water wide-eyed and shocked, but with the biggest smile on his face! 

Rolando!

Also this week we were able to teach little Jordin and bring him to the waters of baptism! :) He is the nieto of a family of recent converts and from the first time we met him he was like, sisters, I want to get baptized!!  Oh my friend, your wish is our command!  So we taught him everything, including the law of chastity which was more like, "no girlfriend until you get back from your mission at age 20!", and before we knew it he was baptized.  Again the person that baptized him did it with the force of like 10 oxen because Jordin like jumped out of the water!  Hahaha, he was so happy :) 

the recent convert family and their nieto for the baptism!!! love this pic. 

As for the title of this email... this week was testimony meeting and a woman went up and explained how this was the first time she was able to get up to bear her testimony in a few months for health reasons due to old age, but she said with tears in her eyes, what a blessing it is for us to have the truth! What a blessing it is, despite sickness and trial, to have the true word of God!!!  I was so touched, how can I have time to be sad or tired when I have the calling of sharing the TRUTH with the world!  We have such a reason to rejoice as missionaries, all of us have reason to rejoice because we are children of God!!  I am so overwhelmed by the blessings lately, other than my head cold,  I feel like I'm constantly under a little ray of sunshine. :) 

LET THIS BE PUT DOWN IN HISTORY TODAY THAT I MADE TORTILLAS THIS WEEK THAT INFLATED!!!!!! That's like the sign that you can officially tortillar like the chapines!  I cried and took a video.

Mi lema ... Doctrina y Convenios 15:6

Sorry this email is short, my head is honestly pretty cloudy and I think I'll go home and take a nap! This week is bouts to be nuts!  Semana Santa in Central America!  Should be a week I'll never forget! :) 

The beginning of LOTS of gifted pan during Semana Santa! :) 

p.s. In this house there is one of the stoves that Riley and Conner built when they came down to Guatemala, obviously not the exact ones, but she told me that a group built them for her from the states!  Yay for service and charity! 

Good luck on finals everyone!  Thanks for the love, especially from you, Aunt Nancy!  Most faithful write of my mission! :) 

Subject: Happy wedding this week :)

This is something we found on the ground this week, it says Feliz cazamiento. that means happy wedding!

Love you Chai, hope your wedding this week, or next, I'm not really sure when it is, is everything you dreamed about and more!!1

love you!

hermana moore

love love love,

hermana moore