"Rundown of the Christmas Weekend..."

Dec. 26, 2016

Dear Family,

So something I didn't do enough of yesterday while face timing was thank you for all the wonderful presents! I love the ties and the exercise ball. Elder Nelson used one for his normal chair while we were together and it was awesome. I am stoked to try the recipes. We have a ton of leftovers we are gonna have to finish first, but I cant wait! There are so many other things as well! The Kan Jam will be awesome today for p-day! I haven't had any of the snacks yet but they all look great. 

So for the rundown of the Christmas weekend...

Christmas Eve morning was cool because we got to help someone move. It was kinda a sad situation, and they had to move over Christmas, but it was super neat to help!  We were blessed with a lot of opportunities to serve, which was super cool! It's always a worry that no one will want to see you or you will feel like nobody wants to see you during holidays, but no, it was awesome. After the move, we changed and then went and taught Jonathan. It was super good to see them after his baptism! They had this big bamboo thing behind their Christmas tree and I asked what it was and they said sugar cane and then Grace pulled out this cleaver and chopped off a piece and cut it up. You just chew all the juice out and spit the actual piece out. It's pretty good and they gave us a piece to take home! They are awesome! He is learning so much!

We delivered some candy bags and treats to people. We drew a picture for Maddie and her sister. They are 10 and 8 and we are teaching Maddie. We were able to see them and share a quick message. That night after our Thai dinner, we went with a family that we were working with to the rougher parts of Salt Lake and gave out hygiene kits that they had put together to the homeless. It was super cool. They do it every Christmas Eve night and I think it is an awesome tradition! We would like run out and hand it to them. The last stop of the night was this awesome Spanish family. They read the story out of Luke 2 and had a quick devotional - everyone was speaking Spanish, it was so cool. There was a lot of food that night and we sang some Spanish hymns- "Noche de luz, Noche de paz." At the end they gave us a ton of gifts that they got from the stake and family members of the Vials. It was so cool, we had a trash bag full of gifts. They sang to us and I almost cried it was so nice. 

Christmas Day was sick! A lot of church. We saw a guy in our area that we have been trying to get ahold of. We just sang at his door until he opened. It was funny! After dinner, we went over to the Walkers. Bishop’s son knows Neal Soelberg and Baret Thompson because he hangs out with them at BYU Hawaii a ton. We stopped by quick and they had us share a message and stuff. We also ate with the Mears and did the Mannequin Challenge. We also had Christmas nachos with another family. 

I am super short on time. I have a bunch of other things to tell you about. Next week! 

Preston and Becca I love your emails! Don't kill yourself Preston... that looked like a hard wreck! Lol Becca your dab is hilarious. 

I love you so much and know that HE LIVES! 

Love,

Elder Moe

If the videos don't not show up, then click on the Elder Brinton Moe in the Salt Lake City East Mission link at the bottom of the page or, if it shows as an error, click on the youtube link in the black video box.

                                                        Mannequin challenge

                                                        Sugar Cane Time-lapse

"Like Cheese Radiation" and "FHOOOSHHHHH"

Dec. 19, 2016

This week was awesome!

This morning we went over to Bishop Walker's to work out. He took us out to eat the other night at his pizza place called "the blaze." The guy serving us I am pretty sure was blazed and he kept talking about putting so much cheese on that it was going to be a cheese nuke. "Like cheese radiation," and he was telling this to the owner of the restaurant. lol  But anyway, we were asking him some tips for working out and he told us all this stuff and so he showed us this morning and Elder Frogley and I were dying. His sons were about to go skiing and I was talking to one and he was like best friends with Barret Thompson and Neil Soelberg. It was so funny. He called Soelberg. They fed us French toast for breakfast.

To answer your questions about what I will be doing on Christmas - Preaching the gospel! We have dinner and stuff, Hitting the streets, Finding teaching and baptizing! Jonathan's confirmation will be on Sunday. Church will be a shorter ordeal because they are combining wards. We will visit Thai people probably! Not totally sure yet. It'll be a good day though!

I have gotten a ton of packages. A lot from Sams club and I got Grandmas Dora's stuff too! Jalapeño Jelly and Cream Cheese! Mmmmmm Tell her I said thank you and I will send her a letter! Could you get her mailing address?

"Elder Archer and I got to be together again
on exchanges!"

Jonathan's baptism was so great! He actually went to the wrong building at first and so someone had to go get him. It was hectic. The hot water in that building is awful so we filled part of it with coolers of hot water that we walked down the hall with. They were having a relief society class in that room and all they hear is a "FHOOOSHHHHH" as we pour the water in from behind the dividers. It was awesome, they were cracking up laughing when one of the ladies told them what we were doing! There were Caucasian, Thai, and Korean people there. The man who gave his talk gave it in Thai and English which was cool. We had Kat (a RM in the ward) translate our testimonies. We asked her last minute and she was super scared at first. There were some times that she would forget what one of us would say and she would just kinda slowly turn and look at us and everyone would laugh. They kept her up there to translate from Thai to English and English to Thai.  Jonathan gave his testimony at the end and it was so powerful. He is such a prepared individual and it has been such an honor to work with him. I love what he said in his testimony about his sins being washed away. That is the beauty or "plainness" of the doctrine of Christ that I love so much. I know that Christ paid for our sins so that justice could be met and mercy could be given. All we have to do is agree and live the terms set by our Mediator.  I love the simplicity of Christ's gospel. 

We are teaching a ton in the Thai Ward now and the work is rolling forward. We taught a girl named Lek for the first time this week and it was cool. It was my first "real" Thai lesson because she came here a month ago and speaks no English. She is Kat's friend. I will talk to you Sunday! Think of some good questions and I will too! 

Love you!

Elder Moe

Elder Frogley & Moe

"I Ate Some Unidentified Meat" & "Our WML Used To Be A Buddhist Monk"

"Christmas dinner!"

Dear Family,

This week has been so insane. Tuesday temple trip! Wednesday zone conference! Friday Devotional with Elder and Sister Craig C. Christensen (he spoke at the First Presidency's Christmas devotional). After that, we split up in groups and went caroling to nursing homes and then had a big dinner at the mission office. Saturday, The Thai ward party! I learned how to eat with sticky rice (its pretty much just Asian version of the African stuff Jacob Johnson made), we read the nativity up on stage, I ate some unidentified meat, but I did not go for the cooked baby birds, so I was playing it safe. There was a ton of food and there was literally a pan full of these birds that I don’t even think were plucked that were cooked with bay leaves. Elder Frogley and I ate a pinch each of dried Thai chilies; they were Kinda hot. Lol. And, of course Sundays are always crazy.

Another cool thing real quick is that our WML (ward mission leader) used to be a Buddhist Monk and he is a huge contact for people coming here from Thailand.

To answer some of your questions, we don't know our exact address but we live with some members; maybe I can get an approximate one.  Yes, we have a car! It’s a Chevy Cruze. I have been blessed with a car almost my entire mission. You have to be super efficient and diligent with a car because you can easily find your self just driving from place to place - D&C 61:3.  And yes, we have a washer and dryer! We live in a basement apartment and the members let us use theirs; it’s pretty nice. 

I think I will only be here for a short time - we will see though. Sometimes people stay longer than normal, but generally, it’s like a normal area. Hopefully by the end of this transfer I will be able to bear my testimony, pray, and read in Thai, but for the most part we use translators. It’s all about working with members. That really is the best way to have success. If two American Elders show up on a Lao or Thai person's door, they probably won’t get very far at all. Our ward mission leader showed up with a new investigator this week and that’s how it goes mostly. We are trying to find people who are free to come with us when we are working in the Thai and Lao area. We have a referral in West Valley and one in Kaseville right now so we will contact them with ward members. From what I have seen and heard many times, the people found are super prepared. Like have dreams of the Book of Mormon before even hearing about the church. We have a baptism or maybe 2 this weekend in the Thai ward. There is a lady in the ward that is super old and has been taught by missionaries forever, been to church quite a bit, and has received all the lessons. She just finished a rehabilitation program to quit smoking and said she is ready to get baptized, "I am ready to come and stay. Never go back." That is really what it is like when we become disciples of Jesus Christ. We are going to go see her today and go over the baptismal interview questions and she may be ready to be baptized this week with Jonathan.

I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for his unyielding blessings that come as we have faith and are obedient. I have learned on my mission that sometimes faith means do all you can to make it happen, even when everyone and everything is telling you you can’t.  As we work and pour our whole soul into all the things we can control, our Heavenly Father works wonders with all the things we can't control.  I know through exercising our faith, we can as it says in Jacob 4:6, obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea.

Preston and Becca I love you! Sorry for not replying personally! The rope swing looked sick! Elder Frogley and I were wondering if you could send the Christmas shirt! That is so sweet!

Love,

Elder Moe

"Lol...Sister McKendrick and Elder Bailey.  We all came out together.  This was for her transfer journal because we haven't served around each other a lot and don't have pictures together."