Week 49 - July 2, 2018 (Rionegro - Week 1)

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.

Love you all,
Tchao,

Elder Moore

Baptism of Santiago

Traveling to "El Penol"

On top of "The Rock"

Week 46 - June 11, 2018 (Planeta Rica - Week 16)

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.

Love you all,

Elder Moore

Week 45 - June 4, 2018 (Planeta Rica - Week 15)

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.

Love you all, Elder Moore

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!