I will be serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for two years in the Medellin, Colombia starting July, 26, 2017. If you want to know what I am doing, then follow my blog.
So I have been in Sincelejo for two hot weeks. The good news I got was that Marcela and her two daughters were baptized this week in my last area, so I am so excited that happened. We have been working really hard here in Sincelejo, we found 23 new people to teach, we committed 10 more people to baptism this week, and we had 10 people come to church on Sunday. The funny story for the week was we contacted a guy that was drunk, or should I say he contacted us. He is actually a good guy that wants to change his life for him and his family. Another cool story is we started to teach this one girl that has been coming to church for a while, and we found out that she was not a member, and that she wants to be baptized. She is only 10 years old so we will have to get her parents permission. We have been teaching another lady, Johannes, and her two daughters, Daisy and Maria. They all came to church on Sunday, and we have taught them a couple of lessons. We started off teaching a lesson with 6 people and then ended up with 25 people in the lesson. We have been teaching some really good families and we have had some good lessons with them, we watched the restoration video with them also, and it was awesome. We also are teaching Ivan, he is the half-brother of a missionary that just came home for a little while that is serving in Buenos Aires. He brought him to church and then we started teaching him and set a date with him. We also taught a young man named Brian, who actually came to church all by himself. It took us a while to find his house, but we are teaching him and his mother, it is great. We also taught this couple from Venezuela, and she wants to be baptized, only problem is that they are not married, and they would have to go back to Venezuela to get the documents, and they don't have the money. I finally met Jennifer and we taught her and she accepted a baptismal date. It has been a very busy hard working week, with lots of success.
This week I also had a little issue in our house. I was sleeping and it was raining a lot outside, and then I started to feel wetness on my bed and something dripping on me. I realized that our roof was leaking, so I got up and moved my bed. Then it started dripping on the floor, so I got a bucket to catch the water. Then I was trying to feel where the water was coming from and the ceiling fan cut open my arm. I cleaned it up and then went back to sleep in my wet bed. We also went to the police station to do my immigration paperwork, we have to do it every few months. One little cool experience this week was that I lost my agenda book in a cab. The next day the cab driver found us and he had my agenda book and gave it to me.
So I am back on the coast in a city called Sincelejo, we are in the San Carlos Branch. My new companion is E. Gonzales from La Paz, Bolivia, he has only been out a short time. He is a good guy and he speaks really good English. He has three brothers and 2 sisters. The weather here is super hot and super humidity. My "coast" rash has returned to my body with red patches all over. My body doesn't do to good with the heat and humidity. It is so hot that I have had trouble sleeping. I did find some fans under the beds, so we got a member, Jason, in the branch to come and install them. It helps a little, but it still is super hot at night. Thank goodness I have all the ant and bug stuff you sent when I was on the coast the last time. This place has bug and ant problems also. I put down the sticky paper and it caught two mice. So anyways we are looking for a new house and we have found one that is just up the street, so hopefully we can move to it. I really do miss my last area and especially those that we were teaching and members of the ward. It was such a great area and I loved it there so much.
We did a lot of finding this week, we stop and talk to everyone, and added 23 new people to teach. One thing I like about the coast is that the people will listen to you, everybody we stop will at least listen to what we have to say, and a lot of them will let us come and teach them. It was a short week this week because Tuesday we had our district meeting, then we had a meeting with Elder Fallabella who is a General Authority Seventy, he is from Guatemala. We traveled Wednesday to Monteria, spent the night there, spent all day Thursday with him, then finally came back to Sincelejo on Friday. We have a few people that we are teaching that should be getting baptized in the next few weeks. Had some great lessons on Prophets, The Book of Mormon, and the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. We were teaching this one group in their house, and little by little, more people kept coming into the room, we started off with 3 people and by the end there was 16 people in the room listening to the lesson. I think they just like to see a Gringo speaking Spanish. We had 7 investigators at church on Sunday which was good since we weren't in our area a lot this week.
OK Family, its going to be a short email since it is transfer week. I am currently in Medellin to pick up my companion, Elder Quispia from Bolivia, and I don't have my camera or audio recorder. It was a busy week with lots of traveling. I have realized that a lot of missionary work is just opening your mouth. I have no problem opening my mouth, whether that is eating or talking to people. We do lots of contacting people as we walk from appointment to appointment or anytime we are traveling. Keeping a rough estimate, I know we contacted over a 100 people this week, 60 of them said we could come to their house, out of that 10 of them actually came to church. I know a lot of people just like to talk to me because I'm an american. So I just talk to everyone. Even when we are on the bus, I will start talking to people, I realize as we open our mouth and invite others we will find those that are wanting to know more.
The hi-light of the week was the baptism of Alejandro's family. Alejandro is a member and we have been teaching his wife and two daughters for awhile. Well Saturday the three of the them were baptized. They are an awesome family, and will be going to the temple in a year. I was asked to confirm them, so I was a little nervous since it was my first time doing the confirmation. They are awesome and always feed us on Sundays. They are a strong family, Alejandro wants to sell his business so they can move closer to the church, he is awesome and it going to have so many blessings.
We have also been teaching a young man named Mitchell. He is awesome and wants to be baptized, and event though he is like 20 years old he wants to get the OK from his mom to be baptized. He is the one that took us to "Piedra de Peñol" the first week I was here. He is awesome and will be baptized soon.
Another thing that happened that was really cool, was we saw this white guy that we could tell was a Gringo, and he was trying to get a room in this hotel. I go over to help him out since he doesn't speak Spanish and get him signed int the Hotel. Anyways we find out that his traveling around South America on his giant motorbike. He asks if we are hungry, and of course we always are, so we go across the street and he buys us some huge bandeja paisas. We find out he was a bishop, he wanted to do this trip like 6 years ago, but he was called as a bishop so he had to wait till now to travel. He is a great guy and told us about all his kids and where they served missions at.
Well that's all for this week!
Os Amo a todos,
Elder Moore
The Gringo bishop we met and he took us out to dinner
So last week I was transferred to a city about 40 minutes south of Medellin called Rionegro. We actually live in the town just outside called Marinilla, which is just 9 miles to the north. However, we are looking for a new house that is closer to the church building. The weather is awesome here with a high of around 73° and at night around 54°. It is a nice change from the heat of Planeta Rica. The people are not as open however compared to those on the coast. Our ward building is in Rionegro and it is the Porvenir Ward. My companion is E. Nelsen, he is from Utah. He actually came out in the same group as I did. He is taller than me, and so far we get along great. We also got a new mission president (President Ceballos) this week, but I haven't meet him yet.
So this was a great week for my first week in Rionegro. We did a lot of contacting and knocking doors. It is very different here than in Planeta Rica, the people are not as open to talk with us, they even slammed the door on me while we went knocking. Tuesday we went to Medellin for our district meeting, and I was able to pick up my packages!!!!! Thank you mom so much for sending me all the stuff it is awesome. I have been chowing down on all of the candy and drinking the chocolate milk. The ties are super cool and look great.
We had a baptism of a young boy named Santiago. He is here for summer break with his Uncle and Aunt (they are members). He is super smart and it was awesome to teach him, he had questions and everything. I got to teach him a few lessons this week and then he was baptized on Saturday. It was awesome teaching him, he understood things very quickly and had good questions. Definitely saw the Lords hand during the baptism, since the portable plastic baptism font broke and started leaking right before the service. We had just enough time to have the service and started to drain it before it made a mess.
We have some good investigators here that we are teaching. We don't have as many as we did in Planeta Rica, but we have some good ones to teach. A couple of the recent investigators that have family members and friends that are not members that we want to start teaching. We went and taught Alejandro, one of the recent converts. He is the only member of his family. So we are teaching the others in the house. It was one of the most spiritual lessons I have every been in. The spirit was so strong. His wife is not a member yet, and we gave her a blessing, it was also super spiritual and I definitely received revelation during the blessing, Alejandro even had tears in his eyes.
We had five investigators at church on Sunday. Santiago got confirmed a member. Then we had testimony meeting and it was very spiritual, there was some great testimonies that were shared. One of our investigators said he wanted to go with us to El Peñón de Guatapé, which is this huge rock that sticks out of the ground that has tons of steps to get to the top. It was super cool to look out at all of the water and surrounding areas.
I'm not sure what got me sick, it could of been eating too many hamburgers at McDonald's, the water that we have been drinking and showering with (it is causing my skin to have all kind of rashes), or the virus that the missionary had that was passed around when we were all together as missionaries. I think I have been dehydrated which has also caused me to not feel good. I started feeling better midweek although I haven't been eating a ton, so we will see. Thank goodness for medicine, it has helped me recover. I have been drinking Gatorade and lots of liquids to try and rehydrate myself. I love Planeta Rica, the people are awesome, but the weather and the water here are slowly killing me. Like even when it rains, the rain smells really bad. I love it here but my body, not so much. I can't wait for the package to come so I can eat food that will help my body!
One thing that I have realized is that the adversary looks for his opportunities. Since last week we were gone part of the week and then I got sick, it didn't allow us to do are normal visits and help strengthen our investigators. The adversary was able to take that small window of opportunity and was able to put doubts into some of our investigators minds. The one challenge a few of them are having is the addiction to drinking coffee. I know we are in the coffee capitol and everybody drinks it here. Anyways they don't want to break the commandment so they want to wait on their baptism until they can stop drinking coffee. It's been a hard week, we have had our trials and tribulations, but we will get through this and things will get better.
So this week we spent a lot of our time in Monteria. We went there on P-day to play soccer and practice a song that we are going to sing for the President's last mission tour. Somebody in our zone rewrote the words to the song "Until i see you again" that is in the movie Fast and Furious. Soccer was fun, I didn't do as good as I have done in the past. The missionaries from South America are pretty funny, they act like they get hit and fake it as if we have referees. Only in soccer. Then we went to the dentist and had our teeth cleaned. Then that afternoon we went home because we had appointments that we had to get to. We went by Joel and Joses house. Then we had to be in Monteria again on Tuesday. They told us last minute that the mission president was coming, which really is not good since we had our week fully planned out. Now we have to call everybody and tell them we are not going to be able to make our visits. They should at least give us a week in advance notice.
We were in Monteria on Tuesday and Wednesday for the meeting with president. Tuesday morning we came up with ideas for like a little comedy show/skit for president. We set up like he was doing an interview with missionaries and he was having flashbacks of his time he has been there as president. The conference was good, president talked a lot about tithing, repentance, and baptism. He also talked about us accepting the new president, you can tell he is worried that we won't be accepting to the new president ways of running the mission. We stayed at the Zone leaders apartment along with a bunch of other missionaries, one of them was really sick and I think he got a bunch of us in the house sick. I don't know if it was from him or from eating at McDonald's and eating to many hamburgers, but I got really sick and was throwing up and going to the bathroom a lot. On Thursday when we got back to Planeta Rica I was still sick and was running a fever and still throwing up. My companion finally made me go see the doctors at the clinic by our apartment. All they did was give me a IV and a shot, not exactly sure what it was but I don't think either one made me feel any better. We went to a few visits and I tried my best, but we had to come home so I could use the restroom. After a few of the visits we finally called it a night and went back home. I didn't get much sleep since I was getting up constantly to go the bathroom.
Still sick on Saturday and have really bad headache, I continue to not be able to keep anything down. I sure do miss my mommy right now to take care of me. We went out still and visited Joel and Jose and family Soto. We still have Joel and Jose set for baptism for next Sunday. Most of the rest of the day we stayed inside and I tried to get some sleep. My companion is super humble, he doesn't have a ton of missionary clothes, and today he took and gave a white shirt, pants, his only belt, and shoes to one of our investigators because he said he wanted to look like us when he went to church. All I was able to give him was a tie, since none of my cloth wouldn't fit him. My companion has taught me that the things of the world are not important, that the gospel is the most important.
I was still sick on Sunday, but we went to church and at the beginning we didn't have any investigators, we were a little sad. Then Jose and a bunch of his friends showed up and it was good, I think we ended up with like 12 investigators at church. We had to leave early though because I was still feeling sick, so we went home and stayed there most of the day.
So last Monday night we get a call from our district leader saying they are right outside our door, and that all 4 of the missionaries from Montelibano are there. They had just picked up a new missionary in Monteria and were heading back to Montelibano (Planeta Rica is right between the two cities). It was a dark country road that they were traveling on. The little bus/minivan they were riding in had an accident with a tree that was in the middle of the road,. They didn't crash into the tree, but it got messed up by all the branches. The missionaries were all fine and they didn't get hurt. When they got out and started to look around there were other vehicles that had already crashed into the tree. They started helping move vehicles and help a motorcyclist when two more cars came flying in and crashed into the tree. They saw a bunch of miracles, because trucks were rolled over and smashed, but the people inside were hardly hurt. The motorcycle was just in pieces but the driver wasn't in to bad of shape. They were definitely watched over and protected.
Tuesday we had a fun activity with our members and investigators. We also played a big game of soccer. No body wanted to play goalie, so I ended up playing a lot of goalie. I also made a bunch of pancakes this week. I have become a pro at making pancakes. I learned the perfect mixture, temperature, and amount to pour into pan. In the afternoon we did a lot of sitting, usually we do a lot of walking, but we ended up teaching a lot of lessons so we sat a lot. We went and taught Jose, and then he wanted to come with us to teach Nicklaus. He ended up changing his baptism from Sunday to Saturday.
Wednesday was a tough day. My companion has been sick, and it was raining really hard so we decided to stay in and wait for the rain to stop. We waited, but it didn't stop and we had some appointments we had to get to so we went out in the rain. The lessons didn't go as good as we hoped, and then we came back home all wet.
Thursday was a good day! So let me talk about Joel and Jose. We started teaching Jose, then when we were teaching him he introduced us to Joel. Now we are teaching both of them. We taught Joel and read Mosiah 18 about change, and then he wanted to go with us in the afternoon. He showed up at our apartment really early so we did scripture study with him. Then we went and taught family Soto and a few other lessons we had planned. As we were walking around Joel was like wait some of my friends live here, lets go talk to them. So we stopped and talked a little with his friends, and he setup an appointment to teach them tomorrow. He is not even a member yet, but he is awesome.
Friday we went to Monteria for a meeting, and then we had exchanges since the zone leader needed to come to do the baptismal interview with Nicklaus. We went with Joel and taught his sister, and his two friends. It was a good lesson and they had a bunch of questions. One thing we talked with Joel about is that when you are serving others it is when your testimony is strengthen the most.
Saturday was a fabulous day, just fabulous. My feet, knees, legs, pretty much everything hurt, but it felt so good. It was a great day and we again went with Joel to teach his friends. Then we had Nicklaus' baptism, and it was the most spiritual baptism that I have been at. It was awesome because we had some investigators there. Later that evening we were walking with Joel and he said he did receive and answer to his prayers. He said it was an indescribable feeling.
On Sunday we had 8 investigators at church, which made it a good day. We had 38 people at church and 8 of them were our investigators. Then we ended up having two lunches, so we sacrificed and went to both. We didn't know until we received a call that one of the members had prepared lunch for us, and we had already been invited to another members house. So we didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings and went and ate at both. Then in evening we stopped by Family Soto, and had a lesson with them. They have been meeting with the missionaries for a long time. They are the family that previous missionaries always ask about if they served here. Well, finally the mom and daughter agreed to a baptismal date. I am so excited for them!
This week I loved studying Mosiah chapter 4, what a great chapter. What a great sermon by King Benjamin which teaches us a ton about repentance, receiving a remission of our sins, and the atonement. That we need to believe in God, that he created all things, has all power, and has all wisdom.
Happy Mother's Day mom, I just wanted to first tell my mother how much I love her, and how much I really appreciate how much she does for me. I have realized now that my parents told me no that I couldn't do things because they really loved me, that the were trying to protect me and keep me safe. I am so grateful for them, and especially my mom for all that she has done for me. She is always watching out for me even now as I am on a mission, she tries to make sure I am eating well and am talking all the medicines she sent me with. It was so awesome to see and talk to you all, I miss you all a lot, but I know this is where I am supposed to be. I loved laughing and having fun on the call, time flew by and now I have to wait to Christmas to see you all again.
So this week was a tiring week, and we have been a little sick, so we slept a lot on our P-day. It also has been raining a lot here so we decided to stay in and clean and rest. My companion is on his last transfer, so we have to keep pushing ourselves. He is a super humble guy, I love him, he has taught me a lot. I need to figure out what I can do to make things super fun his last transfer here on the mission. I also need to really work with him to teach him English, so he will know a ton before he goes home.
Let me tell you about our friend Joel who we have been teaching. I love this kid, he makes me smile every time we see him. Last week when he came to church, he had cut his hair real short, and I asked him about the haircut and he said he was preparing himself to be like us and be a missionary. We had this awesome lesson, we were all hyped and his mom was all excited, she was like my favorite gringo is here. She made like this huge thing for mango for us, and she was so excited for us to teach them. We had an powerful lesson about faith, repentance and baptism. They loved it and it was a great night. Oh I forgot to mention, he had invited about 7 of his friends to listen to us. It was so cool to sit around and talk to them and hear what they felt. It made me miss hanging out with my friends before the mission. It was awesome though that he wanted to already share with his friends the things that he has been learning. Later in the week we took him and some of his friends to the branch activity, it was a really good activity. Family Soto came by themselves to the activity, so I was super happy that they are doing well. The activity was about the Armor of God, and keeping ourselves protected. We watched this old video about Nephite soldiers at the lake with some of them having their armor on and some had taken it off to get in the water (The Whole Armor of God). It was a really good activity, especially with Joel and his friends being there.
On Saturday we went out and bought a bunch of flowers and some chocolates for the women in the church for mothers day. We went and delivered them and it was great to see their expressions. It was a fun day. Then I got to talk to all of you, one of the best days of the mission.
On Sunday we had 6 investigators at church, which was good. It is cool to see them progressing and growing. We have some baptism lined up, so hopefully all continues to go and they will be ready. It was Mother's day, so it was good, the talks and lessons were good. Later we went and taught Joel and his friends, and he was like begging us to go out with us to teach people. So Tuesday he is going to spend the day with us.
So the mission has times where it feels like it is going by super fast, then other times where it feels like its going by super slow.
So last week on our P-day I bought the Colombian Monopoly game. It was a knock off version, but it is cool and it gives something for me and my companion to do on P-day here in Planeta Rica. We also bought some pancake mix and syrup, and made pancakes. It was delicious!
On Monday night we went and taught a lady that lives down the street from us. Missionaries had taught her before, and I felt we needed to stop by and begin teaching her again. She had a lot of things going on in her life that has been hard on her. We taught her about faith, and believing in our loving Heavenly Father. On Tuesday we went to Monteria for our zone meeting, it is a long drive there and back. There are a bunch of iguanas in Monteria. I went to the doctor to look at my skin rash. It is monsoon season here on the coast, the storms come in the evening and drop some good rain on us everyday. We went and had a lesson with an investigator that was coming to church everyday for like a year. He wants to get baptized but wants to wait until his girlfriend wants to get baptized. We went to another investigators house, she has a son on a mission and a daughter who is a member. She comes to church but is waiting for her son to come home to be baptized. Anyway we installed a TV antenna for her using some cable, a soda can. We walked a lot today, we had a bunch of appointments, but we only ended up having 3 since a lot of the people were not home. My companion is such a great guy, he is super humble, I learn a lot from him. My Spanish is getting good since all we do is speak Spanish, but my English is getting really bad, I do miss speaking it. One thing that I have learned out here is that I feel really good after I study, especially when I have read the Book of Mormon. It is a great feeling and helps me to know that it is True. On Wednesday we had a great Family Home evening with a bunch of members and investigators, we taught them about repentance and had a great object lesson. Thursday we had a bunch of lessons and they went great. It is super cool here to be able to teach all the time. We then went and painted a house for service. It is so hot and humid here in Planeta Rica, I come home with like a layer of nastiness on my body.
On Friday I came home and was not happy that the water was not working, I couldn't take a shower, I hate that the most. So lately we have been trying to do a really good job of updating the area book. Anyways as I was going through the book I kept seeing this guys name, Diego, appear. It really stood out. Then as we were walking down the street, this young man comes up to us and says, "Hey why haven't you guys come by to see me, I have been trying to call you but you never answer." He said he was meeting with missionaries before, but that they just stopped coming by. I asked him what his name was and he said Diego. I was in shocked and we knew we needed to go and teach him, so we set up an appointment to teach him next week. On Saturday we had a packed day, we had 7 lessons planned for the day. We had some good lessons and some that were not as good. I am starting to become a lot better teacher, I have learned to really listen to them and find out what their concerns are. We did have to change one of our lessons because we didn't have time to get to all of them.
On Sunday we went a picked up a bunch of investigators to go to church, family Soto, Jose, and some others. Church was good, we had good lesson with all of the investigators.
Today, Monday, we went to Monteria again to play soccer as a zone. They think that I am an American so they always pick the South Americans first for the teams. They don't know that I am half Spanish and that soccer is in my blood. Anyways I played really well today and scored a bunch of goals, I think I scored like 4 of our 8 goals, and the other team only had 3 goals. I am definitely out of shape, and I was cramping up a lot from running all over.
Well we were in Medellin for about a week and returned Friday night. My companion is doing better, but he still has to take it easy. The doctor told us for him to rest during the day and only to work at night. So that is what we are going to try and do. So my poor companion, we went to the hospital to go get his incision cleaned, and while we were there in the waiting room we got up to go talk to a nurse for like less than 5 minutes, when we went to sit back down, his wallet was stolen out of his backpack. The bad thing is that we had just got reimbursed for a bunch of the medical stuff and so he had more money than he normally does. We searched all over the hospital for it, but we couldn't find it. So that was the not a good thing, and so now we are back here in Planeta Rica and my companion doesn't have any money.
So my highlight of the week was going to pricesmart (Costco) with the mission credit card and restocking the kitchen in the office. Other then that I just helped out at the office, going through all of the apartment contracts and organizing and helping renew them. Went on the splits in the evenings with the office elders. Medellin is huge and has lots of hills. It has all of the American fast food places, so I had Burger King, it was so good!
One thing that I have really realized out here is how much you (my parents) truly do love me. As I have had a lot of time to read, and think, I have realized that you really do care so much for me and JT and that you both want the best for us. That you love us so much. You have always sacrificed a ton for us and have set a great example for us. I am so grateful that I was born into this family, I am very proud to have you as parents.
So we are able to go back to teaching and we taught a really good lesson to our neighbor. We went to church on Sunday and there wasn't a lot of people there. We need to get back to getting them out to church both members and investigators. We went out that night and found some really good new investigators.
So to add to all of our problems, our phones stopped working. The water hasn't worked in our house in the last few days, and it looks like the whole town is without electricity. So it is great being here in Planeta Rica, but at least the people here are super awesome and are great to teach.
So we didn't receive much from E. Moore this week. His companion continued to have pain from the surgery, so his Mission President decided it would be best to fly them into Medellin and have them go to the doctor/hospital there in Medellin. So they flew in and he didn't have any connections for his camera or audio recorder. He did say that Medellin is super big, that he has been working/helping the office Elders. They stayed at the office elders place and they ate really well. The doctors said his companion had a little infection so they opened him up and cleaned his incision. He said they will probably stay about a week so they can go to the hospital a few times to have it checked out.
Well after a few days in the hospital, they let my companion leave Wednesday afternoon. However, he is still not to do any work for at least a week. So let me tell you what has gone on. When we got to the hospital one of our members that speaks English and Spanish was there and helped us out a ton. Then Sister Calderon (Presidents wife) arrived and everything went well with the surgery. I got to stay with my companion here at the Hospital, and lets just say they didn't like us sleeping, because every 15 minutes it felt as if someone would come into our room and turn on the light, not really do anything, and then leave, leaving the light on and the door open. It wakes up my companion all the time and he needs to rest. The first few days was pretty stressful in the hospital, I slept on the couch, and was able to travel with the zone leader to the house to shower and pick up things for me and my comp and return. Also with us in the hospital was Sister Fernanda, who is like our mother here in Planeta Rica, both her and President's wife made sure they took good care of us. We also have a member in the ward that just had his appendix taken out here so he has helped us out a bunch. I love the members here so much, they are awesome and have helped us out so much! The only down side of being in the hospital was everyone was either calling or coming by to check in on us. Like literally every 15 minutes we were talking to someone. Our dueno of our apartment is such a good guy, he came by a few times and made sure we were alright, and told us to call him if we needed anything. So most of our time in the hospital we spent watching church movies, so it was OK, but we were so glad to finally be able to leave and head home. I lost track of what day it was, but we finally got home and continued to watch church movies. Thursday I went with a member while his son stayed with my comp, and I bought a lot of stuff to clean and sterilize the house. I have been cleaning everything, I didn't realize how much stuff there is to clean and sterilize. I have learned a lot. I really have learned to appreciate everything that my mom did for me. She always had the house clean, and always went above and beyond when we were sick. I sure do wish she was here now! Staying in the house is difficult because we keep losing electricity in the whole city, and occasionally the water doesn't work. After spending the last few days in the hospital and now here in the house, I really miss going out and talking to the people and teaching lessons. At first we thought it was going to be 21 days, but my companion said we can start preaching in 7 days.
We can't really leave the house for the next few days, so the members have been great and have brought us a ton of food over. We have ate really well, and have had a lot of chicken. My companion is getting better, but it still hurts for him to walk around a lot, so he stays in bed for most of the time. I got to read the Book of Mormon and that was awesome to just sit and read and study the scriptures for a long time. The one good thing about us having to stay inside is that it has been raining a lot and we were already in the apartment so we didn't get wet. So we just have been reading, studying and chilling on the balcony.
Not a lot has happened, but my companion is recovering which is the most important thing.
Love all of you,
Ciao,
Elder Moore
The baptism right before E. Harbertson went to the hospital
The baptism right before E. Harbertson went to the hospital
The scar they left on my companion, I have been cleaning it really well!
So we didn't get any emails this week from Elder Moore, however we did get to talk to him this morning briefly.
The reason why we didn't get any emails and why he called is because he was in the hospital. Here is the backstory. Saturday was a normal work day and all went well. His companion wasn't feeling that good that night. They didn't get much sleep that night because he companion wasn't feeling good, however they had a baptism the next day so his companion wanted to be at the baptism and would trudge on and worry about how he felt afterwards. They had the baptism at the pool next to the church, then went home. When they got home his companion E. Harbertson decided it was time they go to the doctor. Before they could leave his companion started to pass out. Elder Moore, said he was really scared, and was really starting to worry about his companion. He said he prayed so much and asked Heavenly Father to watch over them and to bless his companion. Luckily right near their house is a health clinic, so he was able to take his companion to the clinic. Once at the clinic, the doctors there said he needed to get his companion to the hospital as soon as possible. Again the Lord was watching over them, as soon as they stepped out of the clinic, their apartment owner was outside with his car and told them to get in and he would drive them to the hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital there was already a branch member waiting for them to arrive. He said they had to fill out a bunch of paperwork before they would even look at his companion. After they took his companion back to do tests on him, he called his mission President's wife, and she was hoping that they could make it back to Medellin to get to a larger hospital. However, the doctors at the hospital decided that they needed to remove his appendix quickly before it burst. So his companion went into surgery and they removed his appendix. The mission presidents wife caught a flight and arrived later that evening. The branch president was there as well as the zone leaders. Everything went well in surgery, and his companion and him get to spend the next few days in the hospital making sure there are no infections. So looks like he will be sleeping on the couch in the hospital room for a few days. Elder Moore did say that he saw the Lord watching over them continuously. The day was very eventful, it went from an early morning Baptism to an afternoon appendectomy. It was definitely a day that he won't ever forget. We are so thankful for his "Missionary Mom" that came and watched over them and sent us the pictures and gave us updates and let Elder Moore call us. Our missionaries are in great hands. He also said the branch is awesome and most of the members have come and have checked up on them.
Q: How are you and your companion getting along?
A: Great, we both like sports and we have very similar personalities.
Q: Do you like your new area?
A:Yes, the people are very nice and always will listen to us. It is very hot, but it's flat.
Q: Favorite scripture study that you have had?
A: I was reading in Alma about being judged for what we do during this life.
Q: How is the branch?
A: There are not a ton of members, but they are super strong!
Q: Something interesting that happened?
A: They have a lot of huge bugs down here, we caught one that was as big as my hand, it was huge.
WEEKLY RECAP
So the computers here are super slow so I won't be able to send so many audios. So I am in Planeta Rica now which is in the "Coast" area of the mission, and I love this place. The people are so nice here, we can do street contacts all the time and the people listen to us. The other day we contacted this guy on the street and he invited us to go sit down, so we were able to talk to him for a while about the church. It is so easy to find new investigators, the people here are so humble and nice. In the short time I have been here I have found that the people from Choco are some of the most humblest people. We are teaching this one family from Choco, and they are golden. They are very awesome to teach. We have set some baptismal dates with some of our investigators and will be setting more this next week. We usually teach like 3-5 lessons with investigators each night.
So this area is hot, kind of like Arizona hot, but its not bad, our apartment has a bunch of fans, so we sleep convertible at night. What I love about the area is that it is super flat, no mountains to climb! My companion is really cool, and we get along great. He is from Pleasant Grove, Utah. He speaks really good Spanish. This is his first area, and he has been out on the mission 3 months less than I have. The only bad thing is that we have to travel really far for our district and zone meetings, which is also expensive. Our apartment is really nice, it is big for the two of us. We have two bathrooms, and I like to use the one outside. The owner of the place is super awesome and funny. He took us out to eat and we made pizza. He also bought stuff so that we can hang hammocks in our apartment.
The branch is really good. They are super strong. They have like 3 missionaries out on missions right now. The branch president is super cool young guy. We only had 2 investigators at church, but we are going to change that for next week. It is super close for all the members and investigators to go to. It is cool the chapel is like this outdoor area with like palm branches as the roof to shade.
Q: New words that you have learned this week?
A: Mandar rápido paquetes
Q: Favorite food that you ate this week?
A: Turtle, JK just the normal rice and beans and meat
Q: What did you do for you P-Day
A: Transfers
WEEKLY RECAP
This whole week I was pretty positive I was going to be transferred out of here so I started packing up stuff and just getting ready for the next adventure. I kept thinking of where I would go. There is really on three major areas of our mission, South (Pereira), Center (Medellin), and Coast. So I am pretty sure I am probably going to the coast. I definitely have been here a long time, I have watched the building next to our apartment go from 3 floors all the way to 10 floors. I am kind of feeling two different ways, one I would like to stay because we have been super busy teaching some awesome people and have seen a lot of success. However, I would also like to go to a new place and just try some new things. I know everybody here and know the area really well, but either way I am excited to serve.
So a quick funny story, Wednesday was Ash Wednesday down here in Colombia, and everybody, I mean everybody had the black cross of ash on their forehead. Not sure if everybody knows why they are getting ash on their forehead but they all are doing it. Anyways as we were walking, we saw this one girl who did hers with makeup, it looked really good, but you could totally tell she had done it with her makeup. Another story was I was dreaming that I was snowboarding, then I looked down and I had no boots on just bear feet and they were freezing. When I woke up I realized that since the bed is to small for me, my feet hang of the bed and I didn't have any blankets cover them.
We had some really good lunches this week, once we went to this restaurant and had the bandeja paisa, I was stuffed afterwords. Then we had a good lunch with our mission leader, and planned the baptism for this Saturday. Two of our investigators are getting baptized, so it is pretty awesome, I'm excited for them. It has been a busy week since E. Miranda left for the office, we have been in a companionship of 3 with E. Cox. We always try to get members to go on splits with us since we still have two big areas to cover.
So on Saturday we got the phone call (we have weird ring tone for transfers) anyways I hear E. Cox say so E. Moore stays. I was like what? He was just joking, I am leaving and going to the coast to a place called Planeta Rica. My companion is E. Harbertson (gringo). So we left on a bus, and got no sleep. Traveled with E. Lopez to Medellin, we stayed in a hotel by the bus terminal, then caught the bus for our 7 hour trip to the coast. It was a long transfer. I didn't get into the apartment until after 11 pm. It is a really nice apartment with just E. Harbertson and myself.
One thing that I really like about Planeta Rica is that it is super flat. Its hot, but not that bad for this Arizona boy.
Love you all,
Elder Moore
E. Steadman and I last time together as Comps
Watched this building grow basically from the ground up
I've been her a long time to watching this being built
Bus ride to Medellin with E. Lopez
The scene from the bus, Colombia is really green and beautiful
Q: How is your health?
A: I am feeling really good.
Q: New words that you have learned this week?
A: Qué hubo? = Whats up?
Q: Favorite scripture study that you have had?
A: I was reading about Nephi and his bow breaking, and just thinking that even in bad times God is always with us and provides a way for us if we have faith.
Q: Are you happy?
A: Yes, very happy it was a great week!
Q: Favorite food that you ate this week?
A: Bandeja Paisa
Q: What did you do for you P-Day
A: The whole zone went to the river and had a picnic.
WEEKLY RECAP
Monday - We had a bunch of missionaries spend the night in our apartment. That night we were talking and one missionary jokingly called me Shrek, so I got up on the bed where he was at and started wrestling him. While wrestling him we heard a pop sound and then we were on the floor. The beds welding broke! So we all ended up sleeping on mattresses on the floor throughout our apartment.
Tuesday - We took the bed frame down the street to get the frame hinge fixed. This guy took it and welded it really quick and painted it for like $3.50. It is now better then we had it originally. It is supper strong and doesn't wobble anymore. Then we went and followed up on a street contact that we did. We ended up teaching a family of 6 and there are super awesome. They really liked listening to us explain the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they had some questions and really felt the spirit. They asked us when we could come back, and we set a date for another visit and lesson. It was a good night!
Wednesday - We were walking down the street and got contacted by this guy. He invited us to go get Ice Cream, he bought me this huge Snickers ice cream bowl (Blessings). He is a member but has been inactive for a long time but wants to start coming back to church. It was pretty cool talking to him. Then we went to teach Edison, and he asked if he could bring a friend (we told him no we can't do that, just kidding). So we met at the park and taught him and his friend, Daniella, the first lesson again (we had already taught him). He is an awesome guy and really understands the lesson and helped her understand it also. The lesson went super well and both of them really seemed to enjoy the lesson and want to learn more.
Thursday - We had lunch at the Bishop's house and his wife is an awesome cook. She made us Bandeja Paisa, which is Colombian's well known plate of food. It was super good! Then we went and visited Isabel and talked about Prophets. She had a lot of questions about President Nelson, so we will have to find a bunch of information about him to share. Her sister even came out her room and listened to us. Usually she would always go to her room. She told us that she thought we were weird, but after getting to know us that we are pretty cool and funny. I jokingly told her that I thought she was weird because she would always go to her room and didn't want to talk to us. Then we went to look for a reference family that the Family Rivera gave us. We didn't have that great of directions to their house, and as we were walking my companion says forget it lets go home. I was like if God wants us to teach them he will put them in our path. Right after I said that we crossed the street and there they were outside talking. It was awesome! We laughed, and knew that God wanted us to teach them! I have learned that investigators give really good references.
Friday - We were on exchanges and I was with E. Miranda. I like him a lot, he is like Coach Wolcott to me, he teaches by example and he is not a hypocrite. He works really hard and is obedient. It was a super awesome day with some great lessons and we made some awesome street contacts. We meet with a family that is going to be baptized in a couple weeks, they are super funny and we had a great lesson with them.
Saturday - Found out that E. Miranda is getting transferred and going to the office tomorrow. The most spiritual thing that happened this week was the baptism of Isabel. It was very spiritual, I looked over and saw Isabel's sister start to cry, I know she was feeling the spirit. Then this other guy cried in our lesson that night. It was a great day.
Sunday - The Salgado family came to church and we taught them a lesson, they are a golden family. They are so prepared to receive the gospel, it was awesome teaching them. Then we went and taught Jessica, I made real good friends with her father, at first he didn't like the missionaries but know he comes out and talks to us and listens. We went to Antonio's house and visited with them, they have become active and met with the Bishop, it is awesome to see their progress since I've been here. Antonio then gave us a reference and called him over and we taught him, and he committed to come to church next week. We visited like 5 families that night and shared a bunch of messages. Then we had to take E. Miranda to the bus terminal very late at night.
Monday - We went as a whole zone to the river and had a picnic, it was fun! Rode in the back of a truck there and back, it was very interesting.
Well its been awhile since I have updated Elder Moore's Blog, but here we go!
I will be back logging Nov, Dec, and January updates in the next few weeks.
So let me give you a quick update of where I am at and who I am with. I am still in Pereira (20 weeks) and it is still my first area, but I love it here. Everyone says that this is the best area of the mission, and it is the best apartment to live in. From our balcony I can see all over the place in the city. I love hanging out on the balcony and looking at the city. I am on my third companion here, his name is E. Steadman. We live in the apartment with E. Miranda and E. Cox and we get along super well.
My companion and I get along great, he reminds me of Noah Clark, and we are really working hard. So I now eat the food here and enjoy it and don't even mind eating rice. We eat really well, and we can get American food very easily. They have like a Costco here with all the Kirkland brands and stuff.
On Tuesday we taught this family about the "Word of Wisdom" and another family about tithing, it was a good night and they even feed us. They gave us this huge (4 liter) bottle of Coke-cola. While on they way home this man stopped us and started asking all kinds of questions. He said he used to live in New York for like 18 years, then he lived in Panama, but then he got deported to Colombia. Not sure exactly all that happened, he said his mom is from NY, and he was trying to save money to buy a plane ticket, anyways he talked with him some more, then we decided to give him the bottle of soda. We invited him to church and he said he would, so we will see.
On Wednesday we had a meeting with President. We spent a lot of time setting up and getting things ready for the meeting on Tuesday. It was a really good meeting, we discussed how to better start lessons, how to invite the spirit to be there, and how to help make and keep their commitments. Then the President and his wife came and inspected our apartment. We got in trouble for a few things, some of the things were like that before I even got to the apartment and I didn't want to clean it up. We got in trouble for having dirty dishes, but that was mainly one E. dishes, that doesn't like to do dishes. Bathroom had a few issues and President's wife showed us how to clean it better.
Every transfer I feel like I am learning to use my time more effective. This week I felt like we were very efficient with our time. We taught a lot of lessons and family home evenings (FHE) we were super busy the whole week. This means we did a lot of walking up a hill down a hill and then up another hill and down another hill. We had a FHE at Cesar's house, they are an awesome family, he is super funny and she is super nice. They remind me of Pam and Jim from the "Office". We found a few new people to teach, and we lost a couple that we were teaching. That is the life of the mission with its ups and downs. I love talking to people on the street, or in the taxi, I contact everybody. I figure the more people you contact the better your odds you will get to teach them, the better the odds they will feel the spirit and what to be baptized. We also taught Isabel this week and she is still on track to be baptized, so that is super cool.
This week we had a ward talent show, it was pretty good. We the "Los Misioneros" sang a song. At first we were going to sing Hero by Enrique Iglesias, but then we were told not to have any love song, so we changed it. It went pretty good, except we forgot to turn the mic on, but the 3 Americans sang and E. Miranda played the ukulele. It was a fun night, a couple of young men played the guitars and they were really good.
So today for P-day we played soccer with like three different zones. It was fun, they same I'm not a gringo on the soccer field, because of my moves, they say its because I have Spanish blood in me. I did okay today, I only scored like 5 goals, I had a chance to make a lot more, but I missed them either high or left or right. I wasn't on top of my game today.
Love you all,
Elder Moore
This is the building just outside our apartment, they were on the 2nd floor when I got here.
