Week 43 - May 21, 2018 (Planeta Rica - Week 13)

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.

What an awesome week,
Love you all,

Elder Moore

I am a Pro pancake maker

A little fish for lunch

Nicklaus' Baptism

Baptism of Nicklaus

Week 42 - May 14, 2018 (Planeta Rica - Week 12)

Happy Mothers Day! XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

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.

Love you all, especially you Mom!!

Elder Moore

Talking with Elder Moore for Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, I love you Mom!

Week 39 - April 23, 2018 (Planeta Rica - Week 9)

Feliz cumpleaños mama! Happy Birthday Mom!

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.

I love you all,

Love Elder Moore

I love you MOM!!!!

The Monopoly game I bought

Pancakes that we made

My companion E. Acero

E. Acero enjoying the pancakes

Week 35 - Mar 26, 2018 (Planeta Rica - Week 5)

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.


Love all of you,

Ciao,

Elder Moore

E. Harbertson's incision 

It was a little infected

Week 34 - Mar 19, 2018 - Planeta Rica - Week 4

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.