For two years I will be preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and serving the people in the area of the Salt Lake City East Mission! My mother has volunteered to post my letters and pictures on this blog so you can follow me. I have been preparing for my mission for 18 years by exercising faith and building a testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ and His amazing Gospel. Please email or write me if you have any questions or just want to talk!
I love you guys so much! It was awesome
being able to see you on Christmas. I was kind of scared that it was going to
be weird seeing and talking to you guys but it was really awesome and motivated
me to be better!
Please tell grandma Dora thank you so
much for the jalapeño jelly and the bran muffins! We ate it with cream cheese
and crackers this morning. (Jake cracked me up in the Herman family Christmas
card! Good work Jake.)
Thank you family for all the awesome gifts and
letters! I love all of you! I am super sorry for not doing that great about
writing a lot. I think it would work awesome if you asked me like one or two
things specifically to write about because I have a hard time thinking of
things. We can try it out for next week!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have
reflected on all that your savior has done for you. I got some insight
during our zone conference that I wanted to share.
After the angel appears to the shepherds the host
of angels appear and it says...
Luke 2
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
good will toward men.
All of us were in this heavenly host; all of us
were there on this first Christmas. All of us were looking down at the Savior’s
birth and singing praises Him. I am sure there was more celebration and joy at
the beginning of our Savior’s mortal life than any of us can imagine. He was
starting the greatest feat that any of us have ever done. He was going to atone
for all of us and open the gates of heaven for all those that are willing to
follow him. It must have been a bittersweet moment for our Father, but all of
us were there.
I love you guys,
Love Elder Moe
"They need to still make copies of the
Book of Mormon like this!"
"Elder Dubbeld loves Root Beer. He bought
six 2 liter bottles last Monday, not to mention
a ridiculous amount of cereal."
"When your foreign companion
discovers junkfood..."
Hey guys I'm super short on time today I apologize.
Luckily we will be able to talk a lot on Christmas. I got the package! I
really appreciate all of the gifts professionally wrapped by Becca. So I kind
of cheated and opened up my Nerf gun early. We are having a huge nerf war in a
three-story ward building today and I couldn't resist.
Dad you're going to have to put that Rotel in a
Tupperware and send it over. I honestly can't believe Christmas is here
already. Time flies especially on the mission. The biggest change this week has
been our new companion Elder Dubbeld. He had oatmeal for the first time with me
the other morning; things are pretty different in Holland I guess. From what
he's told us, he is going to go crazy when we go to Walmart today. He says when
his dad goes to America, he brings back a whole suitcase full of Lucky Charms
and A&W rootbeer.
This is my journal entry from when he came!:
Nice snow boots Elder Gill and Moe :D
Wow so we have a new companion! We are training in
a trio!!! His name is Elder Dubbeld, pronounced just like doubled. He’s from
Holland and got called to Elder Hagoods mission in the Trinidad Port of Spain!
He is waiting here for probably six weeks or so. Until then, Elder Gill and I
are training him! He is really quiet and soft spoken but we are going to have
to help him with that. He ate oatmeal for the first time with me this morning.
He said he really liked it! I would think they would have oatmeal there. I’ve
never thought of it as an American thing. His second language is English and
his first is Dutch. He’s not a very confident English speaker but we will help
him out of his comfort zone for sure. There is no growth in a comfort zone and
not a lot of comfort in a growth zone. I just realized we are going to have
posterity ties handed down in Trinidad Port of Spain. That's sick!
This week was super awesome!On Thursday we went to the Salt Lake
Temple and then Friday was crazy:We had zone meeting, Christmas Dinner, talent show and a General Authority
speaker. The food was awesome and President and Sister Eberhardt got us
microwavable rice bags and shorts with the mission name printed on them. The
General Authority speaker was amazing! It was Elder and Sister Gay. I will tell
you all about everything on Friday!
I love you guys so much and will see you on Friday.
I apologize for the short lame email. We had to walk here and so we were late
and then Elder Guapo had to come by and talk to us.
I love you guys so much and we have had a crazy
week. A lot of things happened and I took videos of most of them.
First thing that happened was Zoe and Jason are getting married!!!!! There is this senior Missionary named Elder Guapo and
he specializes in marrying people. We had heard some crazy stories about him
but we brought him over to the lesson anyway. We told them why he was coming
and what he was going to talk about but he didn't know that... He told us
"you never say marriage in a lesson!" And so his method (Bishop
Stoddard told me this) is to read the Family Proclamation with them and then
ask what God wants them to do. If they don't get it right, they read it again
until they get it right. So after the first time through, he asked Zoe and
she didn't know how to put it or what specifically he was looking for, so I
leaned out from behind him and mouthed "marriage" and she understood
and said marriage! Guapo jumped up, yelled and was congratulating her and
giving high fives for getting it on the first try. So we filled out the
marriage license application and then he told them to put their shoes on.
Twenty minutes later we were at the marriage office getting the marriage
license. It was pretty exiting! They had already planned on getting
married, they just needed a push and Guapo gave them a shove! It is all good
though - they are getting married this week on Saturday and they are exited.
The Relief Society is helping out a lot.
The next thing that happened was Elder Gill ate
it on his bike. Friday morning we took a trip to Instacare to stitch
up Elder Gills face. We were riding into the Willows Apartments and on the
first speed bump Elder Gill ate it hard.. Like super hard. He landed like
directly on his face. He tried to grab a hold of the handle bars to regain
control and so the first thing that hit the ground was his face. Typically when
people fall, because of instinct, they put out their hands to catch themselves
and so they scrape up their palms. He had road rash on the BACK of his hand and
a sick gash in his chin. Nothing else got scraped because he was wearing a
pretty thick wool jacket and he slid on his arm for a bit. I was riding right
behind him so I saw the whole thing and it just replays in my head every time I
think about it. Typically it splits me up because it was so flipping funny, but
awful, so I have just been cracking up randomly ever since it happened. This is
pretty hard typing this up honestly. He bled a lot and then eventually it
clotted and he had this weird clot thing hanging off. It was pretty gnarly.
Elder Astorga and Elder Baumbach came and took us to Instacare and he got two
stitches inside the wound and 6 on the outside. It was super cool; I have never
seen anyone get stitches before. Elder Gill was pretty lighthearted about it. I
will attach a video of the after math. He gave me permission to take the video,
but I think he got a little nauseous when he saw the injury. You can tell when
he starts feeling sick because his face turns yellow.
I felt a little bad and shouldn't have done a
selfi video, but hey, you live and learn right. I should have taken a picture
after the blood clot came off because it was super deep and super gross.
The next thing I sent was a video of the
transfer phone call. We knew Sunday night that we were both going to be
training but we had no idea we were going to be training in a trio. We thought
that Elder Gill was going to leave. This next week will be exciting because on
Tuesday we have transfers, Thursday we go to the temple, and Friday we have
zone conference.
Ok, so to answer some questions. Yes I have
gotten my boots from the office but I had to ask for special permission and we
had to get a ride there. I would like it a lot better if you sent stuff to our
house. With Sister Lafferty, we were walking into Mickey d's and I saw her on
the front of the line in the drive through. It was super weird seeing a face I
recognized! But it was awesome! I had no clue she lived here!
Oh yeah, we went to temple square with Zoe and Jason to see the lights and it was awesome. Jason was super sick when we
were driving there but we said a prayer that he would feel better while we were
there and he did. He was like completely recovered after having his head half
way out the window for the drive there. Zoe really loved it and they both
said they were exited to go through the temple to be sealed a year after Zoe is baptized. After we left and got in the car, Jason almost instantly felt
super sick again. It was definitely a miracle. I know that this is a work of
miracles. It is a work of mighty changes of heart. It is a work of
relationships, change, growth and tender mercies.
I love this scripture written by Isaiah in
Isaiah 9:6 -
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is
given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace.
This was written hundreds of years before
Christ was born. Historians would look at Christianity starting after Christ's
ministry and crucifixion. They would look at it as a widely spread religion
brought about by many followers and friends that traveled and spread the word.
They would look at it as a well recorded ministry of an inspiring leader. I
testify that this is not true. I know that Christianity was not formed by the
words or writing of man. I know that Christ is the center of all things. We
even count our time from His birth. I know that His atonement was the greatest
event in the history of this world. I know that the prophets starting with Adam
have always testified of Christ and they always will. I know He is the Mighty
God. I know He is the Prince of Peace. I know He is a gift to the world. He is
The Love of God manifested to all mankind.
This season we are celebrating our Savior and His
birth. A Savior is born for you.
Love,
Elder Moe
"Yes it is a mirror selfie, but it's awesome...
"This cat was hard to take a selfie with."
"District awesome continued. Elder Asker is the guy next to me. He is part of the senior couple in Murray."
Alright, so because of popular demand I will be
sharing things about the district living arrangements and stuff like
that! I will start with the district:
So starting on the top row from left to right:
1. You have President of course.
2. Elder Pittman- he is a brand new missionary and
he is a convert of about 2 years. He is super cool!
3. Elder Moe- he is pretty cool but sometimes he
gets on my nerves especially when he tears up the bathroom right before I
shower ;D
4. Elder Gill- He is really awesome! He has been to
a year of BYU I before he came out. His Dad was in the Air Force so he lived in
Germany for a while and he has India Indian background. He has a ton of faith,
is really spiritual, humble and doesn’t get annoyed when I want to pray a lot
(which is super nice). We get along great!
5. Sister Uelese- She is Polynesian, which says a
lot already! She is super fun, speaks Spanish (which can be bad for the Spanish Elders sometimes) hahaha, and left for her mission as a teacher in Alaska. She
has a favorite question that she loves to ask people that is very thought
provoking... "Have you ever been slapped by a poly??" All joking
aside, she is actually really nice, a stud missionary and the best English
speaker out of the trio.
6. Sister Pauni- a lot of the things said about
sister Uelese can be said here. Sister Pauni is super funny! She sometimes
wears this hat that is white and furry and looks amazingly funny but she rocks
it! She is very good at popping her knuckles in a way that Instills fear into
those she is looking upon. She hails from the kingdom of Tonga and taught the
zone some togan words including "Namuseku" which she assured us meant
handsome man. (We asked brother Wolfgram, a Tongan in one of our wards, and it
means ....). I promised the
sisters I wouldn't tell anyone in the zone what it means so keep it on the DL.
7. Sister Masih- she was born in Samoa but moved to
Australia when she was really young. She is like the mom of the group and does
her best! She was in my zone in Wyoming so I already kind of knew her. She is
pretty hard to understand sometimes but she is hilarious too! I gave her a
blessing one time when she was sick and her middle name is Sunshine - that
describes her really well!
8. Elder Sales- he is from California and came out
with me. He is super cool! I am going to be going on exchanges with him soon
and getting to know him a lot better!
9. Elder Kupaka'a- he is from Hawaii (the big
island) he is like the biggest goofball I have ever met. He said he doesn’t
speak native Hawaiian but he spoke fluent Pigeon which is like a mix of a bunch
of other languages. He is a really hard worker and is super good at drawing and
stuff. He loves to teach using little hand motions and visuals.
Front row left to right
1. Elder Alvarado- he is from Arizona and is
totally a redneck! It is super awesome. He loves to say super apostate things
and see people's reactions. He served in Lyman, Wyoming before this and was
somewhat legendary for drinking goats milk straight from the goat.I am running out of time but that is
all the young missionaries in my district.
"Our sweet Christmas setup" All donated by
some awesome members! Notice the warm fire.
A miracle I wanted to share
this week is a stellar example of member missionary work. There is this bomb
family in the ward. Their youngest daughter is an awesome member
missionary. She made a bet with one of her friends at school (she is thirteen
years old) that if her friend lost she had to take a missionary lesson. So she
came up and told us one day and was like, "hey I have a friend who owes me
two missionary lessons." We were like, "what do you mean??" Then
she explained it to us. We ended up meeting with her friend thinking it was kind of going to be a joke, but she made the bet because she
really cared and loved this friend and knew she needed the gospel. After a
spiritual lesson on the Restoration, she accepted the invitation to be baptized
and is getting baptized on the 9th of January!!
Sorry not a great letter today. I love you guys so much and I love my Savior, Jesus
Christ.
Love,
Elder Moe
PS I met one of Marlin Moes nieces or something the
other day. She has been to Bob’s place on the lake.
PSS look at family tree. There are a lot of things
that need to be fixed
This stud Truman helps out with driving sometimes.
He will be serving a mission in January to the TEXAS FORT WORTH
Mission in the language of Marshallese!
