"Crazy-tastic Week"

Mission swag

 Family,

Woah this week is crazy and awesome. I love how Sister Baird came up with the word "crap-tastic" - crappy but fantastic. Our week wasn't super crappy but it was super crazy; we had a "crazy-tastic" week. It was fun memorizing my missionary commission. I hadn't memorized it before just because we don't focus on memorized stuff a lot in this mission. I guess that was me being a creature of circumstance and not a creator of one. While I was memorizing it, I took a video of me saying it over and over again and during that time I received a powerful spiritual witness that it is so true. I wouldn't have had that if you wouldn’t have asked me to do that, so thank you so much.  

Thursday temple trip!

This week we got to go to the temple on Thursday. It was amazing as always! I remember about how awesome it was to go to the temple before the mission and see Grandma and Grandpa. I remember that time when Grandpa had that prompting to walk around the temple and found us at the fountain and I was able to see him. It feels like memories of heaven because of the peace and calm that is there. After our temple trip, Sis. Eberhardt wanted us to help her with the shirts.  We went to the end of the first zone conference (they do half the mission at a time, one on Thursday and one on Friday). She told us to come at 12:30 so we could eat lunch and then we got all the shirts and handed them out. We had to upsize some of the Elders because they were asking for like mediums so they could look buff. We did the same thing the next day at our zone conference. It was so good.

Last Zone Conference with Pres. & Sis. Eberhardt

President shared his story at the conference. He was a convert to the church. He grew up going to the Methodist church and the LDS church - Methodist with his dad one week and LDS with his mom the other week. He said that in the Methodist church there was the Eberhardt pew and he remembers walking down the aside with his dad and sitting down for church. He also remembers going to primary with his mom. As he got older his parents realized they were pulling him in two different directions and so they decided to give him the time to study and pray and choose one or the other. He had already been baptized in the Methodist church when he was younger, but after praying and receiving an answer, he decided that he was going to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder Day Saints. His dad was so supportive  and told him that he would do all that he could to help him live up to the promises that he had made. President had four sons that served missions and all of them invited and encouraged their grandpa to meet with the missionaries and get baptized but he wouldn't budge. He said, one day later when his Dad was 79, he (Pres. Eberhardt) got a call during work. He said that his dad never called him at work and so he answered. His dad said that he was “visited by two angels that invited him to "follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authority from God"” and he said yes. Those angels were sister missionaries.  President said that he was baptized and because of his deteriorating health, Grandpa Eberhardt got permission to go through the temple early. On his 80th birthday, he took his father by the hand like his dad would do for him, walking to the pew on Sunday, into the House of the Lord.

Love,

Elder Moe

Olympus Zone Conference

"This guy flew into our FHE activity. We
invited him to meet with us but he wasn't
interested. Nice guy though!"

Zarahemla Dr.

"Abinidi did have a dead end..."

My Missionary Commission

Front of our mission shirts

back

Recurring Dreams

"And it came to pass they have so much swag." Elders Moe & Soelberg

Dear Family,

Some cool things lately! 

We have been working with a missionary that served here in this area that is living with his old Ward mission leader! He has been helping us find and has had us follow up on people that he taught while he was here. He is from Canada and his name is Bryce! When we were meeting with him, his roommate took us to get snow cones and when he was giving us some Philippine mangos from Costco, I accidentally spilled the shaved ice all down his car. We died laughing for a good minute.

Moe & Manning

We ate dinner with a High Councilor in one of the wards and his wife told us this hilarious story from her mission. She was in Japan with a Japanese companion and couldn't speak the language at all. She was trying to be really healthy and she loved cracked wheat so that is what she started eating everyday for meals. She would just boil cracked wheat and eat it like oatmeal. Well, she started gaining weight like crazy and growing black hairs on her upper lip. Come to find out, the cracked wheat that she found was for cows and was treated with hormones. She gained 30 pounds that she kept her entire mission. Looking back, she realized that it computed to about a pound a day that she was gaining... It was cool to see her perspective though. She said it was her humble stick and that she really needed it at that time in her life. She is totally in shape now, doesn't have a mustache and is living a great life! When she told the story we were all dying laughing! 

Some of the lessons learned that I was talking about in last weeks letter were just working hard and putting in your all. I have gained a testimony that if your not even trying to put your 100% in, you are wasting a lot of time. My Heavenly Father has been preparing me to learn this lesson and he is such a great teacher. A few weeks ago I started having really recurring dreams that I was home (sorry Mom, I love you, but that's scary). It's not the fact that in the dreams I was home that was scary, but the overwhelming feeling that accompanies those dreams; It's a feeling of no satisfaction, a feeling like I didn't give it everything, that I was home before I was supposed to be. It was a feeling like I didn’t learn what I was supposed to learn or find who I was supposed to find. I saw within the last few weeks, what makes that difference in feeling that, and feeling all the good things in this work. Since I have been able to identify it, I can work on it! We worked way hard this week and tried not to waste a single minute and although we didn’t find through our own efforts, we had miracles at church! We received a few really solid referrals from a member we just met that is on the ball! He is going to be setting up a lesson with one of his friends for next week. We also got a call from Sisters in the San Antonio mission about an investigator that just moved here that wants to be baptized. We also had a new nonmember at church; hopefully soon he can become an investigator!  As we gain the Lords trust and we show him that we want it, he blesses us tremendously.

 

Tell Great Grandpa that I love him a TON! I am one of the TON brothers ya know. That's what it means! I also can't wait to be able to pick pecans from off that tree when I get home!

Love,

Elder Moe

Got to spend some more time with Zach Baird!

"This is one of Anne and Meghan's friends from
IllinoiS (don't forget to pronounce the S).  She
came up to me and asked, "Is your name Brinton?""

More of "Javi's last days pictures."

Last MLC With the Eberhardts

"Hike with President, but I didn't get one with him in it :-/"

Dear Family,   

Hey, so we need to buy a van like the one you took to Dallas. That would be sweet. There is a family out here that has one that is in our area and it is the best! It was good to hear that you had so much fun in Dallas! Preston, watch out, Becca is coming up... Your sister is about to be able to stuff you. Speaking of dunking, Elder Soelberg and I are doing Air Alert for morning workouts (Preston should know what that is!) and we get to stay together for another transfer!

Last MLC with Pres. & Sis. Eberhardt

This week was awesome! We had a great MLC (Mission Leadership Conference). It was the last one with the Eberhardts. We talked about sustaining the Hilliards with our hearts, concerns we might see in the mission and just preparing for the time of change ahead. I am really sad to see the Eberhardts go. I am going to miss joking with Sister Eberhardt and her sassy self and President’s pure white hair of wisdom. They have brought this mission so far and are examples of so many Christlike attributes. The change might be hard, but I know it will be so good because it is from God. The Hilliards will be able to take this mission to better and better as we all progress! I can't wait to meet them!

I saw Zach Baird!

It seemed pretty normal seeing Zack! I think it's because it happens so often. The world is tiny as a Mormon in Salt Lake. It was at the Stake play Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. 

This week we went on exchanges with Elder Long and it was awesome! I learned some great lessons from him and we learned some great lessons together! We found 2 investigators and one was a rodeo cowboy! He had a big chew in and it reminded Elder Long and I of home a lot! He is from West Virginia! It was so funny, he is the nicest guy and his name is Nick. We haven't had a full lesson with him but we shared a message and said a prayer on his porch. It's so easy to just "do" things and we both saw so clearly the difference between just doing and then putting our heart in.

Love, Elder Moe

Saying goodby to Javi

Elder Moe, Soelberg & Javi

Moe & Privado

More hiking

Hike with Pres. Eberhardt

"THERE IS SOMETHING GOING ON!"

"We went on a sick hike!!"

Hey Family,

This week has been awesome! Here are some of the things that happened! 

June 3, 2016 9:40 PM Friday

So I am still with Elder Manning! Hahah we didn't have time to switch back because I took so dang long on the exchange report... There was a party going on at the church with a ton of crazy music that was pretty questionable. We had a great day though! It was awesome to get on bikes again. We street contacted this kid named Jimmy from China and picked him up as a new investigator. He was atheist but SUPER nice! We had dinner at the Landvatter's house. They are a super cool family! Their son Braxton came out on splits with us and he rode his longboard along side us on bikes. It was sweet.

June 2, 2016 9:38 PM Thursday

So today was a great day! We had a lesson with Brooke at temple square and it went good. We had Jessie Mahas there helping teach and Ben was there as well. We used the kiosk down in the North visitors center to teach the Doctrine of Christ and it was great!  We also went on splits this evening with Jonathan and Morgan. Jonathan has been baptized for only a few months and he was SUCH A GOOD MISSIONARY. As a Boy Scout, he did a lot of door knocking and he is so friendly and good at talking to people! It was awesome. Right now I am on exchanges with Elder Manning and he is awesome.

May 29, 2016 10:17 PM Sunday

We met this guy named Barclay! We met him on Friday and invited him to church. He reminds me of a boy version of Jessie Moe. He loves football and has had a few concussions over the years. His family is super awesome and moved here from San Clemente like 12 years ago. He is less active. Fell away in high school. We called him yesterday and asked what tie he wanted us to bring him for church and he said a skinny one! We went by his house about two hours before church and everyone in his house was asleep we are pretty sure. His mom got up and let us in and she said "help yourself" and went back to her bed. (Remember we met this family only two days before) We fought off the dogs upstairs and then didn't know which room was Barclays so we just left the shirt and tie on the couch and walked out the front door... He texted us thirty minutes later and asked what time church was! He showed up and had a good time! He knew quite a few people and stayed all three hours. It's been amazing seeing my patriarchal blessing come true and I felt like I was truly fulfilling a calling. 

"Exchanges with Elder Manning!"

I have been doing A LOT better at writing in my journal as you can tell!  Nathan Nadal emailed me yesterday and I emailed him back. I AM SO STOKED! I can't believe there have been eight people from our stake that have been called/serving/served to Salt Lake Missions. THERE IS SOMETHING GOING ON! It's so cool to know that the Lord is sending us here and he has great purposes in mind. 

Dad, I told Sister Eberhardt that I really wasn't really sure how old you were... Can you guys put together all of our family birthdays and stuff. I haven't really tried to remember things like that but it is something I want to improve about myself. Include ages.

Tres Fronteras! You should have sent a picture. I am jealous anyway. I love the insight from your Stake Conference. Mom I am glad to hear that girl's camp went good! It seemed like you had a great time! I loved the picture of you and Becca in the Hammock! You are still a kid at heart! I told Nathan to ask me any questions as he is preparing! Becca I love you Punk!!! All the pictures were great! You are a great leader of good attitudes at girl’s camp. I used to hate hearing girls complaining about camp. Preston keep working hard and helping Dad. He is getting old ;)

Love,

Elder Moe!!!

More of the "sick hike"

"Elder Manning is a Punk!"

Taking a break while doing some service.

"This guy served in Elder Dubbeld's home ward in Holland!"

"Lovest Thou Me?"

"We called 911! A water line broke and it was pouring out of the road
right by where we had the car parked at the time. I thought it was time
for the second coming (Visions of Glory).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Dear Family,

This week was a great week! Sorry for not sending pictures last week! I spaced it. I haven't taken very many pictures this week. I'll do better I promise! Right now I am in the mission office helping Sister Eberhart with the shirt sizes. She will probably call you soon this morning. We gave sister Eberhardt the completed sheet of all the sizes. (I had our STL do the sister shirt sizes, I didn't want to get into trouble!)  Then she lost the sheet... Luckily I took pictures so she did the sisters. 

This week I am working on the attributes of Virtue and Diligence. I taped a piece of paper in our car that said "Lovest thou me?" When I am tired of feeling sluggish or just go along with the motions, I look at it and respond "Yeah Lord, thou knowest that I love thee" to which the Savior responds "Feed my sheep." I am really starting to see what it means to put your heart, might, mind and strength into something. We can go knock a door OR we can pray before getting out of the car, walk to the door with a prayer in our hearts, picture a child of God that needs the gospel on the other side and have the faith that you can help them.

The miracle this week came in unplanned acts of service that honestly made us feel pretty heroic. We got to call 911 to save a guys house from potentially flooding, we ran to help a guy push his car to the gas station and we helped an old couple that drove off the road and hit a light pole.  Our Father had need of us and we were able to be at the right place doing the right thing at the right time!

Love,

Elder Moe

Hopefully Sister Eberhart calling can make up for my awful letter this week! So sorry it's been super distracting here in the office and she has needed my help.  I am glad to hear your birthday was awesome. I love you so much.