The Proposal

Elders Privado, Nelson, Potter, Moe and Shaffer

Dear Family,

Preston! Way to be stud! You are killing it at pole vaulting. I have a ton of brotherly pride right now. I showed Elder Bailey and Manning and Elder Nelson. The surprise on your face is priceless. Your form up top on that jump looked pretty perfect.

Becca! You are going to end up breaking Preston’s PR by the time you are a Junior. ;) You've gotta complete that pull up though. Your handshake with GreatGrandpa is flipping awesome! Be his best friend. He could teach you a ton. Now that I think of it, I think your wittiness comes from him!!

     

Mom! Sorry I didn't get to the package sooner... I think they just pushed the talent show off until next week but we will definitely record it. We will also send the video of the boxing match when it happens. Latin Brinton looks great.. haha

Elder Moe & Nelson - Olympus Zone Leaders

Dad! I have run into that on my mission and it is like night and day. I have had the opportunity to work with bishops and stake presidents that have been converted to the work and those that weren't. It doesn't stop the work, but it slows it down and makes it harder. I had a quote from a general authority before I reset my I pad that said that if missionary work is put first in a calling, every aspect of the calling will go better and smoother and will be guided by God. It is interesting to see that there are bishops that drag their feet when they receive council. I have seen the same thing with missionaries. This truly is a pattern for the rest of our lives.

       

"Jonathan's Baptism!"

So, this week for me has been awesome! So to explain the proposal video, our investigator at the end of the lesson, after being asked if he had anything he had been thinking about or had questions on said, "Should I propose to Marisa today or tomorrow?" (Today was Friday and tomorrow was his baptism) He decided to do it that day and so it happened! We had taken him on the roof of the conference center earlier in his teaching for a lesson, and he said "I am going to propose to Marisa up here." It was super cool! The girl in the video is Carlie! She has been helping with his lessons because she experienced a ton of opposition from her family like he did. 

   

In our lesson on Thursday, we had Jonathan and Carlie teach and Jonathan started out with a powerful testimony that the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon were directly from him. It was cool to see him stay strong in the face of so much opposition. 

   

"Me touching Angel Moroni..(with a glove on my finger of course)"

I have a few minutes and I don't know what to say. It probably means I need to ask a question because that’s what I have found it means when I am teaching lessons. What have you done TODAY to come closer to God? Not the things you may have done out of routine but the things you poured your heart and soul into.  This is a question that helps me in my missionary work.

Love, 

Elder Moe

"This was us trying to role play..."

"He Accepted On The Condition That He Gets to Box With Us After...Pray For Me"

"It's supposed to be getting warm..."

Dear Family!

What a week! I love this mission. I feel like God is training and teaching me lessons about myself, what he wants me to be, how I can be more Christlike and how I can come closer to Him. I am learning about Him and more about myself that I ever could imagine. He wants me to teach it to the world. All that he has taught, and is teaching me, I need to show, say and be. That is what I feel this work is all about.

We have seen a ton of great miracles this week. Our investigator is doing soooo good! He did his first fast on Sunday and it was so good. He had fasted before, the longest for like 3 days. BUT he would drink juice to keep his blood sugar up. It was a new experience for him but he said that during it he felt more power in his prayers. It was more fulfilling. We are still meeting with him every week and he is getting so exited for his baptism this week. He even printed up invitations and was handing them out at church. We got a new WML (ward mission leader) for the Canyon Rim ward and he is a beast! Jonathan came over to their house for a lesson pretty last minute yesterday and I guess they had him stay for a movie night because we got a text from the new WML at like 9:20 (he went over at like 6) saying that he was still over there and they were going to have a movie night. It was so cool to see them welcome him so warmly. That’s what investigators need to feel.

Going back to fasting, we had a fast for the area this last week and towards the end of the fast we got another call from and member dating a nonmember that accepted the invitation to meet with us. Right after the fast we got a call from a member that has been trying to work up the courage to invite his friend, that has been going through a lot lately, to meet with us. He accepted on the condition that he gets to Box with us after. (Pray for me) We also got a text minutes later about someone in our area who had requested a Book of Mormon from mormon.org - God hears and answers prayers and fasting is powerful.

Following up from last week, the phone call with Carlie's friend went pretty good. When we talked to Carlie about it, she was surprised how great it went because he didn't swear and was pretty polite. We are gonna call him again today.

Here is some of my journal stuff:

April 12, 2016 6:57 AM Tuesday

Yesterday was p day. We are preforming in a talent show for FHE and we are doing it with Ian. He is the less active kid that is SUPER good at guitar. He is a genius. We are doing "How Deep the Fathers Love for Us" and it sounds super good. We thought the talent show was going to be yesterday but it got rescheduled sadly... So we were like trying to practice last minute but it's not until the 25th. We had an awesome dodgeball FHE activity though! It was super sweet. There was this girl there that was bugging me about talking in a southern accent. EVERYONE expects me to have an accent being from Oklahoma. We talk pretty normal there. I've decided that one of my areas I am just gonna talk like that from the get go because everyone expects me to already ;)

April 10, 2016 9:47 PM Sunday

Wow, so today we had four lessons with Jonathan. He used to work for a company that did wilderness rehab and he is a big primitive survival buff. He taught me today that you can eat dandelions. It was awesome! I probably ate like 17 of them. He has amazing comprehension skills and he says we are really just filling in holes. We are still planning on the 23 but there is stake conference so we are going to have to call the stake president.  Our first lesson we had today was after sacrament meeting and this bearded guy (he has a legit beard) came with us and he is gonna be the perfect fellowshipper. The second lesson was at his house with his roommates. We had lunch and then a lesson. They are super cool by the way. One of them is our ward mission leader and he has kind of been slacking... He didn't even give him a copy of the Book of Mormon. His girlfriend did. He lives with three roommates that are LDS. The third lesson was at the Stephen's. When he found out that Stephen owned a gun and had his concealed carry they really hit it off. He works at a gun shop and LOVES guns. The fourth one was at his house again.

I love all of you. Whatever you are going through right now God knows. Look into your life and find a commandment you can live more fully so your Heavenly Father Can bless you more. He loves you.

Love,

Elder Moe

"Huge Dog"

"Orange Cat Looked Like the Adversary"

"We thought it was going to be nice today...but it doesn't...or it isn't...I told you I was tired."

EAGLE POWERS

"Hikeeeeee!"

Woah...

Dear family,

This week has been absolutely amazing... So we got a call on Tuesday from this girl in Rexburg going to BYU Idaho. She told us about her boyfriend who lives in our area and has agreed to meet with us. She is an RM (returned missionary) and had already taught him the first discussion. Those calls are the best!!! We talked to him and met him at temple square the next day. The only time he has off work is at twelve and he works downtown, so we have met with him every day except for Friday this week.  Saturday we met with him twice and then on Sunday he had the day off work so he wanted to meet four times... We have had eight lessons with him this week and he has been so prepared! Through the lessons he says that he is having holes that are being filled and things answered he has been wondering and asking his whole life. He just completely dropped his e cig and drinking and he is so happy. We had our first lesson with him Wednesday and invited him to prepare for baptism on the 23 and he said that he would get baptized, but the 23rd seemed really soon. We didn't have enough time to resolve his concern, but we got a call two nights later after another lesson and he said that he has felt the spirit in his life and he wants to be baptized on the 23rd.

He is 20 years old and moved out here to work for this company that does wilderness rehab (he is a big survival guy and Eagle Scout. (EAGLE POWERS!)  He worked there for a bit, but then got laid off because the company has going through some struggles and he was one of the "new guys." He now works at a gun shop downtown. He needs to meet Christian! I feel like they would bond over trying to grow beards and guns. (He is taking folic acid to try to grow his beard out...) He is super funny and awesome! We have been going to Temple Square a TON lately.

 

"Awkward missionary picture"

We got another awesome call this morning! I got up at 5:37 on accident when Elder Nelson went to the bathroom. I jumped out of bed because I though I had slept in seven minutes... Not the first time this has happened to me on my mission... Things don't make sense in the morning... I got up and checked the phone right after it registered that I was up an hour early and our recent convert had texted us at 12:34 AM and said CALL ME ASAP! I went back to bed and we called her at 6:30 when we got up.  She said that she had a friend that was atheist that told her that he wanted to believe in God and find out if he was really there, but she said he is like the most hard hearted person she had ever met. After she used her powers of persuasion, led by the spirit for sure, he finally agreed to call and talk to us!  We are waiting on a call from him today! That was awesome and another example why she is a stud.

We have had just a super good week and we know that everything that has been happening is from our amazing Heavenly Father. He is amazing and perfect and loving and kind. All the trials, all the challenges are for my good and I am grateful for, but times like these are great!

This week we had a zone meeting and we went around and had the question asked, “what are some things that hold back our investigators from progressing?”  We all said things like pride, fear, disobedience to Gods commandments. He had a bunch of other things and the board was full. The words "our investigators" was erased and it was replaced with "missionaries." We know what is in store for our investigators.  We know the joy and peace they will feel as they live this gospel. Isn't that how our Heavenly Father feels about us. All of those things hold us back too, and until we strip ourselves of those things, we can't progress either.

God knows everything and he absolutely adores you. -Elder Pingree

Love,

Elder Moe

"Painting of Elder Holland in the
Conference Center.  I love how
he is smiling!"

Conference Was Amazing As Always!

Reunited and it feels so good!
Cousins Elder Moe & Biorn

Dear Family,

The hardest part of writing home most times is knowing how to start your letter. I guess this works... I'm glad everyone in Owasso is safe! That Indian blessing must be wearing off ;) It was super funny to see the difference in the reaction between Baird and you guys to seeing the tornado.

Preston and Dad: Let's take a selfi!

Baird: That's a tornado... *proceeds to deuce his pants and hide in the closet*

I love it! Speaking of the Bairds!... I made a connection with one of Zach's mission companions the other day. His name is James Pike and he is a stud! 

This week was Trent's baptism! I didn't have to give a last second Holy Ghost talk, which was good. He was wanting to get baptized up in a lake in Park City. Some people were pretty glad it snowed that day, so he decided against it. 

"It was good to see everyone again."

Conference was amazing as always! Henry B. Eyring started out super strong with his talk. To me, it was an example of what it means to bear down in pure testimony.  David L. Hallstrom’s talk, directed to the youth, was cool because I truly have seen those things that he talked about prepare me and carry me through that time in my life. He quoted Jeffery R. Holland and said, "You can have what you want or you can have something better." I know that is so true. We think we know what is best for us, especially as teenagers and young adults, but God has something better in store for us. We have to trust God to have what is best in this life.  

Kevin R. Duncan had a great story about a splinter that had skin grow over and caused a lump. It made me think of Dad and his little piece of glass in his toe. You should try what he did.  Mervin B. Arnold gave an awesome talk about not delaying going to the rescue. It made me think of times in Priest and Teachers quorum that we talked about kids that used to come and didn't. Sadly, it was very rare that things were actually done to invite them to come back. Don't have that regret. DO NOT DELAY. Work in your Quorums and even groups of friends (even if it's people in BA and Jenks), invite people to your get together and bonfires and make them feel loved and wanted. Preston and Becca, this is the talk that you could really take and build yourselves on a rock from. 

Garret W. Gong confirmed an investigator for the Chinese Elders this week!

I love all of you.

Love,

Elder Moe

"This was on exchanges sort of.  It was a ward basketball
banquet thing."

"We went to temple square with Carlie.  She was probably the most
prepared investigator and the studliest recent convert ever."

"This was Williamson's mission president that he wanted
us to take a picture with.  Kinda random, but it was
super cooll!"

Pres. & Sis. Southward - "It was sooo great to hear their
southern accents!!  Oklahoma people are the best!!"

"I wrecked my shins trying to jump up on the stage. Enjoy
this delightful picture."

This cousin reunion was interrupted by "anti stuff."