Elder Brinton Moe in the Salt Lake City East Mission: Halloween Sriracha Style

So this week was crazy... We had this young lady's baptism! It's been a long time coming. She is such a smart girl and she is leading the way for her whole family. Her dad is less active and her mom was raised Catholic. Her mom has said that she has seen a difference in her since we have been in the home teaching compared to before. She and her other 9 year old son will probably get baptized soon! She had like 40 of her family members attend the baptism and there were a bunch of people from the ward that were there as well. Her mom wanted to do a lunch thing after so we were setting up tables and chairs all morning. It went great though. I only made 2 mistakes on the program. I spelled her uncle’s name that was baptizing her wrong and I put that her confirmation was on the 32nd..... Yep. But other than that, Elder Thomas had to give a last second talk on the Holy Ghost and I had to conduct because our ward mission leader didn't show up. It was really fun and super cool though.

"Elder Moe and Elder Taylor (MTC companion) are back! (for a day)"

Sunday was her confirmation and it was awesome because her whole family was at church. I peer pressured (in a good way) her nine year old brother into going up and bearing his testimony! He isn't even a member of the church and he bore an amazing testimony and told the whole congregation that he was going to be baptized soon. It was so brave of him to get in front of all of those people and I couldn't help but smile the whole time we were up there. After he got off the stand he started going around to his entire family and trying to get them to do it. He would say, "come on I am nine if I can do it you can do it." He was pretty successful and half of the testimony meeting was his family. Her mother, after the meeting, was joking with brother H. and saying that I was "trouble" because I got her son to bear his testimony. She said, "that missionary is trouble."

"Observe as Elder Moe delicately guts his pumpkin."

This Saturday was Halloween and the rules about Halloween are pretty interesting out here just because we are a Salt Lake mission. So for all the other Salt Lake missionaries that are actually in the valley, they go to the temple and then have a party and a talent show with the rest of the missionaries. They do it to get the missionaries off the streets because people in Salt Lake will dress up as missionaries and do stupid things. It's really a liability thing so the church can say that none of the missionaries were out. Out in Wyoming, we just have to be in our apartment or at a ward building by six... And you have to have a member at the building if you want to do something with the other missionaries in our area. That is why I had the time to make those videos and stuff. We went to bed early that night and it was a good Halloween!

"Sriracha costume featuring Elder Freebairn with a Twinky."

I had a really cool experience with the sacrament this week. It may be kind of a small thing but it meant so much to me. On Friday and Saturday, because of all the craziness going on with exchanges, the baptism and Halloween, we had a lot of empty space in our schedule and no matter how hard we tried we didn't have very many lessons at all. I had a resolve to not have a week(end) like that again. I prayed so hard for help to be a better missionary, to have increased diligence, and to start fresh this new week coming up. I prayed and prayed Saturday night and Sunday. I was so exited to take the sacrament because I knew that that is the only way I could improve; through the power of Christ's Atonement. I held every word of that prayer in my heart as the priests blessed the sacrament. As I took the bread and water, I felt peace. I felt all the things from the past week fall away, I had a new resolve to become better and I felt Christ helping me. It taught me something that I knew in my head but hadn't really felt in my heart yet. Christ’s atonement isn't just for the things we do wrong; it is for the things we want to do better. None of us ever achieve perfection in this life; we always have room for improvement and progression. The repentance process applies for anytime we want to take a step closer to becoming like Jesus Christ. That is the enabling power of the atonement; helping us reach farther than we could on our own.

I am so grateful for Christ and his ultimate sacrifice for all of us. He is the Beginning and the End. Neither one would matter without him and his sacrifice for us. He bore our sins, He bore our struggles, He bore our doubts and countless more things. I am grateful for the sacred opportunity I have been given to bear His message to all that are willing to hear. He lives.