"Book of Mormon and Bible to Testify of Each Other"

"I got Grandma's stuff!"

Feb. 27, 2017

This week has been a really good one. Definitely an improvement from last week! We were able to find that Vietnamese couple that we told you about. They were super prepared. We taught them the Doctrine of Christ when we first contacted them. They understood the simplicity of Christ’s gospel and accepted a baptismal date. We were able to go back by that night with a Vietnamese recent convert and taught the Restoration. They recognized on their own that the path to finding out if all of this is true was to read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and come to church. They offered their first prayers in our two lessons and it was amazing! Their name is pronounced like "cow," so when we prayed before the lesson, I prayed to bless us that we will be able to have the spirit with us to know what to teach the "Cows"… I cracked up at the end. It was a struggle, but I think God was probably laughing too…Hopefully.

We also have started teaching another family from Africa. The mother has been coming to church for a pretty long while with another African family in the ward. The kids have come on and off, but the family has always rejected joining because they go to another church and are confused about priesthood authority and baptism. We had a great lesson with them last night where we were able to use the Book of Mormon and the Bible to testify of each other. They accepted the invitation to be baptized if they receive an answer from God that the Book of Mormon is true! It was amazing because the first lesson we had with them on Friday didn't go so well. We started out with some good questions when they brought up the concern that they had already been baptized. Actually, it started out something like this...

Elder Moe: Have you guys thought about being missionaries one day?

The Daughters: Yea! Yeah! That'd be cool!

Elder Moe: Have you ever gone out and translated for the Swahili Sister missionaries before?

Elder Jensen: turns and whispers to Elder Moe They are all non members...

Elder Moe: Quietly replies Ohhhhh...

Brief silence

Elder Moe: Well, have you guys thought about joining the church and getting baptized?? (:

Lesson proceeds

One of the daughters was trying to roast us because we worship on Sunday and not Saturday, so that ending part of the lesson didn't go that great just because we were facing a lot of stubbornness. Our next lesson went a ton better! They are going to have us over on Friday and make foo foo and a bunch of African food. We are going to bring a Lingala translator and maybe the Swahili missionaries.

We had investigators at church as well and were able to see a ton of miracles!

We met this awesome guy named M this week as well. How we ended up meeting him is kinda a long story, but we were able to talk to him one night when he had his brother over. Missionaries worked with him a ton in the past. They drug him to church quite a bit because he never came. He has been in Samoa for a few months and just got back a bit ago. We shared a message from the Book of Mormon when Alma found Amulek and they worked together and were given power from God. We had a fellowshipper leave us high and dry later this week for a lesson with a family where the husband was at work so we couldn't come in, and so we grabbed M to come with us. He said yes he would help us out, but he wasn’t going to say anything. He ended up bearing a powerful testimony and said that he had been praying that we would come by that night (that we came the first time) and he is trying to get active again.

We had an awesome week. I know this is God’s work and that D&C 33:6-10 is so true: "For lo, I am with you." He is with each of us and will deliver us from anything we are captive by if we trust in Him and turn to Him. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.

Love,

Elder Moe

"This is some leftover Bengali food from the Gonsalvases we are teaching.  This is how we ate it at their house.  No utensils!!  Mmmmmmmm"

"These are the missionaries from the Mexico MTC.  They came in the night before, so they stayed with us.  It was super fun!"

"We took a bunch of chairs to the mission office because our apartment is already small enough without 4 chairs! I am using the ball as my chair and it works great!"

"This was picking up the new missionaries at the Front Runner.  All the departing missionaries had already left that morning, but Elder Baldry's flight wasn't leaving until 3 so he came!"

"Yes"...I am a dingus

"When I Got the Middle Finger in My Face..."

"I cut Elder Jensen's hair this morning!"

Family,

Hey! I love you lots! Happy Valentine's Day! I cut Elder Jensen's hair this morning... hahah

Here is a journal entry from the week:

2-12-17

So I just got flipped off in sacrament meeting and we scared the crud out of every member in the Midvale second ward.

On Thursday morning we went on exchanges and Elder Shaffer and Elder Jensen went to teach someone they met the day before, and Elder Meyers and I knocked around and met D.  He walked into the building while we were at a door and then invited us into his apartment. He seemed like a cool guy, but he was going through a lot and was pretty high strung. He told us that he had seven days to leave and at times he was emotional about it.  Our conversations didn't really seem to go anywhere, and he tended to dominate the conversation, but he was super nice and he gave us some of his clothes he wasn't gonna wear because he was packing all of his possessions in a back pack and told us he was going to New York where he used to live.

"Hiked Granger Peak again! Preston and Becca, we are
going to hike this someday!"

On Sunday morning he called and asked where church was and what time it met. We were like, "Sweet! He survived and he is coming!" When he showed up, we knew something was a little wrong. He seemed pretty worked up about something and walked past us down the hall and we were like, "Hey!" and he just jetted past us for the bathroom.  Later, before the meeting, someone came up to us and asked if we could sit with D because he wouldn’t talk to anyone. He was sitting on the front bench right in the middle and he had his eyes closed. A few people tried to introduce themselves to no avail. The bishopric seemed unsettled and they kept going in and out of the hall. He was acting kinda strange and as I looked to the left, I saw that there were police officers in the hallway... "Are you kidding me?," I thought, "we just brought a convict to church..." Someone came over and whispered something in Elder Jensen's ear and then he whispered in mine telling me that D had been very aggressive in the parking lot and asked if we could ask him to come in the hall with us. I was sitting right next to him, and was super nervous, but I tapped him and said, "Hey, D."  That's when I got the middle finger in my face in front of the whole congregation.  Elder Jensen said he looked back, at that point, to a few faces of unbelief and shock. You have to understand; at this point he hadn't said A WORD TO ANYONE.  He had been totally silent with his eyes closed, but obviously awake.

I was super bummed and pretty nervous at this point. During the sacrament prayer he started doing these weird stretches and then walked out of the meeting. The police asked him to leave and he did.  He actually called us later and things were fine; we may have overreacted a bit.

I am kind of out of time but I have had some amazing times testifying of Jesus Christ this week. Sorry I spent so much time telling that story...

Love,

Elder Moe

"At InstaCare because we have had diarrhea since Easters."

"Tag Teaming the Bathroom""

"Exchange breakfast of biscuits and gravy and French toast!"
Elders Owen, Jensen, Moe and Baldry

Feb. 6, 2017

Dear Family,

This week has been a crazy one. Monday night we went to this BBQ place that our Branch President took us to. Afterwards, Elder Jensen had an upset stomach, but we worked the rest of the night. At about 2 am I woke up and felt like garbage. When you’re sick you have this alone feeling at night like your engulfed in darkness; that was it. I was sitting in the bathroom with a bowl when Elder Jensen walked in on me; luckily I had the bowl. What followed was three days of tag teaming the bathroom and consuming nothing but lemon lime Gatorade that I never want to drink again. We came out of it slowly on Thursday, but I am still experiencing side effects of the Imodium; I lost 15 pounds though.  I am back to my weight from sophomore year.  I came away a better man.  Many prayers were said in our bathtub and I feel like I came away stronger.

Sick tender mercies...

• Elder Jensen gave me a blessing and he said that sometimes as the body weakens the spirit is strengthened.
• Elder Flaminano (a new missionary from the Philippines) gave me a blessing in Tagalog because his English isn't very fluent. I didn't understand what he said, but I felt an overwhelming sense of God's love.
• I was able to sympathize better with all the sick people who we have met this week
• We felt good enough to go to Winco, and the 32 L Powerade Zero was on sale for 67 cents. YES! NO MORE GATORADE!
• The Midvale Elders got us a whole package of new toilet paper

This week we had a miracle on exchanges! This family moved here from California and we were finally able to have a lesson at their house. We came in and sat down with the parents and they called their son in to join as well. We were about to start, but then Elder Baldry saw that there was another boy that was about 14 years old listening from across the room in the hall. We asked him if he wanted to join us and he said, “yeah” and came over. We asked some questions at the beginning and he was looking really intently at the Book of Mormon that we gave him on the table in front of him. We asked him what his thoughts were and he said quietly, "I just want to learn about this book." We had an awesome lesson.  There is power in the book and it is a voice speaking out of the dust for those who are humble seekers of Jesus Christ.

Love, Elder Moe

(If the video doesn't 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.)

"How to deflect a missionary knock"

"Mommy V's Baptism!"

Jan. 30, 2017

Dear Family,

This has been a super crazy and good week!

This weeks happenings:

Monday

• It snowed while we were balling it up. Lol. We had a snowball fight.

Tuesday

• Met with President at his house for the first time about a ton of stuff.
• Went to taco time to eat and see Josh Landa and this lady from Argentina needed to borrow our phone. We tried to talk to her. Lol

Wednesday

• The World Wide Missionary Broadcast, we were in the council, the schedule change and key indicators
• We taught Albert Fajardo and I thought he was less active. He is a non member Lol

Thursday

• Weekly planning and we gave a training at zone conference
• WENT TO BED AT 9!!

Friday

• We drove to Wyoming for another zone conference.
• The snow was sooooo high. There wasn't cement, just packed snow.
• I saw Debbie! She was serving food. Introduced her to President Hillier. She bore her testimony.
• Saw Allison Smith and President and Sister Lester.
• President came in, “we are ready for you”, Us: “oh crud..”
• Lost the keys like four times and prayed and found them. Elder Walker lost his glasses on his face.
• Actually lost the Subaru keys so we were stuck there.
• Got back to dinner at 6 and it was an awesome dinner! Brother and Sister Swapp. Camp food!
• I finally met our on date investigator!
• Met a guy named Mo

Saturday

• Finished weekly planning
• Had a lesson with Brother Hartman!

Sunday

• Ton o church!
• Planned as soon as we got up. (The schedule is still way cool)
• We went to the combined meeting on religious freedom and I learned a ton!
• Mommy Vs baptism! (So good)
• The Gonsalvases came to the baptism!
• We sang I Am A Child of God in Thai
• Went and ate a ton of Thai food!
• Gonsalves miracle fellowshipper!
• Tracked into Monisa (NM) and Taylor (LA) super prepared!

This week I met someone else that knew uncle John. Hahah. We brought him to a lesson and he served his mission in Manhattan. He was like, “Bishop Moe??" "To bad you don't get to see him in the temple anymore." Lol   There was a bishop in my last area that had also met him.

In the missionary Broadcast they did the video as if they were bringing us into meet with the missionary counsel. There's so many things about missionary work in the mission that you don't realize apostles of God have sat and counseled together to make decisions on the way things are. It was just a really cool opportunity to see that they meet weekly and talk about us. They really are our companions!

So, our training after the “oh crud” moment wasn't as bad as it could've been, also wasn't as great as it could've been. We were in the Relief Society room planning while zone conference was going on and we weren't really sure when we were going to have to train. We had given the training four other times, so we pretty much knew what we were gonna say, we just felt a little bit less prepared not having reviewed it before. It actually turned out, by the end, to be one of the more spiritual ones though!

Seeing Debbie was so amazing. When people get baptize sometimes you wonder if they will stay active in the church. She had called in and volunteered to help feed us. She got to meet President and she seemed like she was doing great!

There were a ton of people at the baptism; all of Momma V’s family from out of town came. The best part was she got up and bore testimony. She talked about when her mom left her and when she came back over 30 years later, she didn't seem like the same person. She had been through a lot and their relationship was not great. She said in these last few weeks she's found the woman she was looking for; she found her mom.

Love, Elder Moe

"We went to visit this sick guy whose wife asked us to give him a blessing.  They were nonmembers."

Elders Moe and Jensen treated to dinner by some awesome members :)

If the video doesn't 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.

                                         We sang "I Am A Child of God" in Thai!!