Week 09 - Pereira Week 3 - Baptism

Q&A

Q: How is the food, have you become used to it?
A: I am trying to, I don't think I will ever get used to eating all this rice! I usually cook some eggs and bacon for breakfast, and then I eat too much pastries and bread at the bakeries

Q: How is the language going? Do you teach a lot during the discussions?
A: Not a ton, I speak a lot before and after, I understand it though. Its on and off thing speaking Spanish, it's a process.

Q: How is the work going?
A: It has its ups and downs, it is like a roller-coaster

Q: New words that you have learned this week?
A: I don't remember, I just learn them, but I don't remember what I learned<

Q: Favorite scripture study that you have had?
A: I read a lot in Alma this week, really enjoyed it

Q: Our you enjoying and loving your mission?
A: Yes, I am really learning a lot out here and I am loving it

Q: Have you eaten at Barro's oops sorry I mean Domino's Pizza?
A: :(((((((((((( I miss Barro's so much, E. Dawson and I were talking about it, he is also from Arizona

Q: How is the weather is it cold or hot?
A: It's either nice weather or it rains on us hard, I am so glad I have the jacket you bought, thank you so much its a life saver.

Q: How are you sleeping?
A: I get cramps during the night from walking so much, but I am starting to get use to them

WEEKLY RECAP

So on Tuesday, I talked to this guy on the hill as we were heading to the Tokio neighborhood, we taught him a little and now we have a time set up to teach him tomorrow. Later that night we taught some awesome families. Then we went to Margarita neighborhood and taught Jessica and her family. JT we used the object lesson you taught me with the knives on the cups. On Wednesday we had soup and meat with one of our ward families.I bought a bunch of bananas for my leg cramps. We do a lot of walking going up and down hills and steps. Since my comp is new to the area we do a lot of walking trying to find places. We talked to the guy I met up on the hill, it was good. Then we went up another hill that missionaries haven't been to in a while. There was a few people that were like, its been a long time since missionaries have been up here, and they wanted to be taught. So we scheduled for lessons and service. We offered to paint their house, and help her friend with a roof issue. We ended up teaching a few more families that night. We were walking down the street and we say some Jehovah Witnesses (JW) on the other side, just as they saw us, a group of people stopped us and started talking to us and asking questions. It was awesome. I overheard a young boy from the JWs asked his mom, "Why isn't it that easy for us, why can't people come up and talk to us?". I almost started laughing out loud LOL. The group that stopped us setup an appointment to teach them. We taught some more lessons in Veracruz, I did most of the teaching and I think they understood me. All of this walking is making my legs hurt and cramp up at night. We had a great FHE with a family. Then on Thursday we went and taught Jessica, and thy have these really cute cat, I found out that I am allergic to cats. Then we taught this other family and I talked to the husband and joked around with him, he is not interested in the church, but I have built a good relationship with him, that he likes us coming around. On Friday we taught a bunch more lessons. We also ran into theses kids and they were playing mind craft. Anyway he was like hey I went to church and you didn't say hi to me. I was like I didn't even know you were there. A lot of the people here want to be invited to the church because they think it is really cool looking. So we ended up teaching him and his two friends. Then on Saturday we had some baptisms, it was awesome. I got to baptize Junior Andres, it was super hard because the baptismal font didn't fill all the way and the water was like only to my knees. So it was a little difficult. On Sunday we had a good amount of investigators at church and it was a good day. Then on Monday we went to go look for this huge waterfall, however after traveling we found out it was another 2 hour hike. So we just took pictures down by the river, and E. Dawson dropped his camera in the water, and we couldn't find it. We looked and looked, finally he was like its whatever, I'm leaving in a few weeks.

It was a great week,

Love you all,

Elder Moore

The Two Young Men that were Baptized

My little cat friend, who I am allergic to

Walking to Tokio Neighborhood

Living and Loving it here in Colombia

Los Gringos

Me and E. Dawson

Los Gringos in Colombia

Week 08 - Pereira Week 2 - Climbing those Hills

Q&A

1. How is the work going?

A: I am still learning and have a lot to learn, but the work is going great!

2. Are you serving in two wards or just one?

A: I am serving in solo una (just one)

3. How are you eating?

Good, I found some really good food here to buy and make, and the members feed us well, its just we always have rice, rice, rice and fried bananas at every meal.

4. What did you study this week?

I was studying and it I really learned that JESUS LOVES ME and KNOWS ME PERSONALLY!

5. New words you learned this week in Spanish?

 Lets just say we were teaching about a certain subject matter and I really didn't want to learn any of these words, but I guess you kind of have to when teaching about this subject and the investigators asks questions about this subject.

WEEKLY RECAP

We did a family home evening and taught them how to preserve to the end. We used a great object lesson with flowers and water. We had them write down their goals on this paper and made flowers out of them and put them in the water and it slowly opened up. Props to my Big Bro JT Moore for sending some great Object Lessons. I have used a bunch already to help people and kids understand gospel doctrine.

E. Dawson is leaving home in a few weeks and he said he would give me his cool "Plan of Salvation" teaching lesson. It is this wooden objects that teach the Plan of Salvation, showing where did we come from, why we are here, and where we are going. It is made out of wood and is really cool, I am super excited to get that from him. He is from Arizona and is super cool.

SIZE

So my companion is from Peru (He is a super awesome missionary and great teacher), but next to me he is super short. Also must Colombians are also short in stature. Anyways whenever we go to anybodies house they are always calling me a giant and are always talking about how big I am. They always ask how tall I am, I am not sure in the metric system they use. Then they see how big my feet are and start saying funny stuff, like did I float in my shoes here, or did I take a few steps to get here. I have lost weight though, so I am not as BIG as I used to be.

CROCS

So one cool thing is that I brought Crocs to walk around in at the apartment on the mission. What is even cooler is that Crocs are the style here, everyone wears crocs down here, so I am styling with the Crocs trend that is going on down here in Colombia.

Drugs and Danger

So dad you know how you said Pereira was a bad area of the mission from what you read on the internet. Well I was like talking to everybody and my comp and they were like no, Pereira is a very safe place. So I am like O.K., I even started carrying around a decent amount of cash in my wallet and not worrying to much. Then on Wednesday we were walking home on this road that we always walk on going home and we saw a bunch of police cars and ambulances. So we asked some people what happened and they were like, oh somebody got stabbed and killed. So what I have learned is that most people get paid this week, which increases the drug business and it has become very busy for police officer and ambulances with all the drug business. Then after a few days it all calms down.  

Transportation

So here is what I have learned about transportation. The cheapest is "Pirate" taxis. These are just your average Juan that wants to make some money but is not an official taxi. When you find one of them you agree upon a price and he takes you there as fast as he can. Next is the official taxis, they have the meter running and charge by the distance. However they are tricky and will try to drive you all over the place and take the long way there so you have to pay more. Then there is the bus, it is cheap but it some areas they don't go to, they might get you close then you have to walk a few miles but at least you don't have to walk the whole distance. Our area is pretty huge so we use a lot of transportation, and we always try to get the "Pirate" taxis because they are the cheapest and the quickest.

It has been a great week, we were able to teach a lot of lessons and we had a lot of people at church. I am excited for this week to come.

Love you all,

Elder Justin Moore

Great quote by Elder Holland

Our kitchen and laundry room

Not Arizona, JT doesn't it look like Brazil!

Week 07 - First week in the Field

Hola Familia,

Arrival Info

Well I am finally out in the field. I am in Pereira, Colombia, which is down on the bottom south of our mission. Our mission is divided mainly into three areas; The Medellin Area - which is the center of our mission and consists of Medellin and all the suburbs, The Southern Area - where I am located right now, and The Northern or Coast Area - which is on the Atlantic ocean side  (Caribbean Sea) up by Panama. My Companion is E. Castillo (Castle) from Peru and he has been out 13 months. He is always smiling and happy and is a hard worker and has been helping me out a lot, and he is training me really good. He is super nice and we get a long good. We are serving in both Los Aples Ward and Lago 1st Ward. Our area is like a gigantic backwards big letter C.

So let's rewind to the day we got here in Medellin. It was super cool, they had this music playing and a bunch of missionaries welcomed us to the Mission. Then we met President Calderon and his wife. He is super cool, they are also from Peru. We took some group pictures and had some fun. Then it was time to find out who our companions were. It was awesome! It kind of had like a game show feel to it and they had music playing and you were trying to figure out who your companion was going to be and where you were going. It was a great day and we finished it off eating Domino's Pizza and Soda. What more could an new missionary want!

Sorry for the lack of audio's this week, this internet place is really old and slow, we will try to find one next week that hopefully has faster computers and internet connection.

RECAP of the Week

So E. Castillo and his previous companion really worked hard here and this week we got to go around and set a bunch of baptismal dates. There is this one group/family that we are teaching that started with just one investigator, Jessica, and now we are teaching a bunch of her relatives and their friends. I had to draw a picture so I could understand how they are all related and connected. It has been awesome teaching all of them. One night we were running late, and so we didn't want to be late getting back to our apartment so we started jogging. Anyways after a short while running down this hill I had a bit of an accident. I tripped and rolled and went down into this muddy area, needless to say my clothes especially my white shirt was very brown. I am trying to make it white again.

We are teaching this other new investigator family, Isabella and family. We just found them and we were able to meet with them twice and teach them the Plan of Salvation. We are also teaching them today and will probably start teaching them about The Restoration.

So today, our P-day, we went to down to our zone leader's area and went bowling. Our Zone Leader is E. Dawson and he is from Queen Creek, Arizona. He is super cool (like really legit) and he helps me a ton, he tells me what i need to do, and he is a ton of help.

So let me tell you a little about my area. Like I said it is a large backward letter C. It is broken up into urbanization or barrios. The bottom of our area is Tokio (Yes there is a lot of oriental names for barrios in my area). It is probably the most humble of the areas. A little farther north is Las Margaritas and that is where we are teaching Jessica and her family.

I love my mission so much, every day is an adventure and learning experience for me. We still eat rice every day and usually large fried bananas. We did go out a couple times this week to restaurants, and of course I ordered hamburgers both times. I am still young and learning the do's and don'ts of the mission. I am glad I am learning it now, it's nothing bad just the best way to use money, buy groceries, cleaning, cloth washing etc. I am happy to be out here and I am learning and growing a ton!

Miss you all and love you,

Elder Moore

Bus ride to airport

Pictures Colombian Style

Me and My Companion E. Castillos

Pres. Calderon and His Wife

Office Elder, Me, and My Companion

View from my apartment

Yes I can cook breakfast, egg-in-a-hole, toast, bacon (its crispy not burnt)

Teaching family and their tree

My plan of salvation drawing

Working with a member

Visiting a family

Week 06 - Last week in the CCM

Well we didn't get much from Elder Moore this week, except a quick email to let us know he made it safe to the Mission Home in Medellin. We don't know who his companion is or where he is going. We also don't know how his last week in the CCM went. I am guessing it went well since he has been looking forward to finally getting out into the field and really start talking to people. It is similar to when he played sports in High School, he wasn't fond of football or wrestling practice but he loved game days or wrestling tournaments! So now that he is out in the field lets see how it goes! Thanks to an returned missionary that is in Surprise North Stake, who just came back from Medellin Mission, we were able to receive a few photos from his arrival in Medellin.

Wheres Waldo I mean Elder Moore?

New Missionaries to Colombia Medellin Mission

New Arrivals and their Trainers