"The New Area is Sick"

Elders Rawcliffe and Moe eating a Habanero pepper

May 21, 2017

The new area is sick, my companion is sick, and after I ate that habanero pepper, I was sick... JK it wasn't too bad.

First of all, the area (Holladay) is awesome. Busy out of our minds. The hardest part so far has been trying to prioritize because there is so much stuff going on. There are actually a ton of apartments here and the stake is pretty missionary focused.  We have a ton of cool investigators that I got to teach this week and I am exited for all the miracles. We have already had a ton of miracles and hopefully more are coming soon!

There is this awesome investigator named Liz whose dad is getting ready to baptize her soon. It should be in the next few weeks. We got to go to Temple Square with them and it was super good! I will send pictures.

Elder Rawcliffe is awesome. He is super diligent and is really musically talented. He plays violin and is amazing. We get along super well and have had a way fun week together. He knows the scriptures so well!

We got to give two talks this Sunday, and teach a lesson in Elders quorum. I felt bad because I wrote my first talk in the 30 min before church, and then I ended up writing my second one while I was on the stand. Luckily, I felt supported and was able to do alright! I definitely don't want to do it again though because I could have done a lot better! Preparation is key.

I love you guys and I know that the Doctrine of Christ is the only way back to live with our Heavenly Father again. Only through Faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. I know that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet of God and that God’s kingdom is on the Earth today.

Love,

Elder Moe

"Habanero pepper...it was a lot hotter than I remembered.  Maybe I am just getting soft."

"Don't Do This"


"Yeah..."


Elders Moe & Bailey

"I ran into KJ Mills!! He was at our building on Sunday!"

"Midvale North...One of The Best Stakes I've Ever Served In"

May 15, 2017

I just saw you!

Preston we talked to this guy and I took your advice and it was awesome! We testified of the Book of Mormon and had an awesome lesson. We were talking to him and the spirit brought your words to my remembrance. It was looking like we weren't going to have a lesson and then we brought it up and it went awesome! He still had his copy we gave him and we read some. He doesn’t like reading, but he had read some, and was stoked to find out that there was a Book of Mormon app! He is our ward mission leader’s next door neighbor, and we ran into him when we were going over for dinner one day.

I realized I didn't take very many pictures as I was leaving this time... oops

The lesson with Nurra, Payton and Jeremiah went great! Jeremiah and Payton are on date for Saturday the 25th! I am so exited for them!

The Cs are still good for their baptism and haven't drank coffee. We talked to them this morning.

Jonathan is good! We finally got a hold of him today and I was able to say goodbye!

We had an awesome visit with the Lawrence family! I am going to have to tell you all about them when I get home! They are so cool. Sister Lawrence made us countless dinners and literally somehow knew every time we didn't have dinner. Her husband came out with us and is an amazing missionary. They we awesome examples to me and helped us so much!

I'm gonna miss this area a ton! Our ward mission leaders, Brother Packard, Brother Thomas, and Brother Wallace, are the absolute best, and all the leaders that I have worked with in this Stake have been amazing. Midvale North is one of the best stakes I have ever served in. I love this place!

Love you Mom and Dad and tell Lauren congrats on graduating again. What are her plans?

I love you guys!

Midvale Zone Activity

"They Understand the Word of Wisdom"

May 8, 2017

Dear Family,

Jonathan got baptized and it was super awesome! Sadly there weren't a ton of people from the ward there and they missed out because it was an amazing service. The Spanish Elders were having a baptism before at 4:00 and then Jonathan's was at 7:00.  It was a part member family and the dad was baptizing his son who was 9 years old. This kid would not get in the water; it was the craziest thing. They just barely wrapped up the baptism 45 minutes before Jonathan's at 7. When we got to Jonathan's baptism, the water was nice and cold...

During his interview, we were going to be planning the baptism with Laura, but she could not stay awake. She hadn't been able to sleep the night before, and she helped Jonathan at this remodeling project. She was so tired. It was like Brother Potter at sacrament meeting times 10!

He had a lot of support from his family and one of his aunts brought all this awesome food for after! Sadly, we found out last night that his brother is in jail, and that if he would have come to the baptism, it wouldn't have happened.

Jonathan is one of those guys that is always lifting people. I don't know what it is, but he just makes people all around him feel so good. Hope to learn a ton from him, and I know that in the gospel, he is going to be a light for a lot of people. He is going to talk to the bishop this week and we will go to the temple with him soon to do baptisms!

On another Jonathan note... Jonathan and Marissa Wessel are getting sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple on Saturday and I will be able to go!!! I am so stoked!!

The C family is getting baptized this Saturday! We are so exited for them! As we have taught them, I have realized how incredible and smart and prepared they are. When we talked about what we promise at baptism, Sister C laughed and talked excitedly to her husband. He explained that they have already been standing as witnesses of God. They have been talking to their friends and family in Vietnam and encouraging them to learn to follow God like they have.  They understand the Word of Wisdom and know it is true. Brother C explained that all of those things push our mind and our body to do more than they would. Coffee is a huge deal in Vietnam and it is one of their leading industries and he cut back and then this last week has quit drinking it all together. They have been praying, and we can tell they are having real conversations with God. There are great things in store for the C family.

MLC (mission leadership conference) this week was sweet! We decided on some things we were going to start doing, and I think we are going to see a lot of great things come from this. We are going to be having a mission baptism goal again and will be getting weekly updates and focusing a lot more on the SOE (standard of excellence). We missed it by one new investigator this week. We will get it this next week! President wants our groups that are finishing this summer to really finish strong, and have asked us to think about what we could do to get everyone excited. That is when 750 and 1,050 are born. In our group, not everyone is on board yet, but we are trying to contact 1,050 new people before we finish which should average out to about 7 baptisms from those contacts. It’s helped me so much to be motivated to talk to everyone! It’s been the best thing ever. Striving for this goal has changed my mission! We are at 112 right now.  750 is Elder Douglass's group. We have been contacting about 20 new people every day, and are striving for 30, so we will probably blow the goal out of the water.

Goals are amazing and really help anyone work more effectively. Becca and Preston, set goals for yourself for anything.  Write them down and I would love to hear about them next week.

God has set goals as well for each and every one of us.

Moses 1:39

Love you all,

Elder Moe

Elders Moe & Alkema helping with a youth service project.

"Following Promptings From God"

May 1, 2017

Dear Family,

The week was very full of miracles.

The C family is the Vietnamese family that wants their grandson to grow up to be a missionary. They are so amazing and so prepared by God. They talked to some of their kids about being baptized May 13 and they are very supportive. Some of their family actually have been investigating the church as well and love it. It’s becoming tradition for me to make a paper airplane for their grandson Justin after the lesson.

Jonathan is getting baptized this Saturday. Their lives are not calm and have not been steady, but Jonathan has really been learning and growing a ton spiritually. His wife Laura has already taught him so much about the church and he has now been applying more and more things into his life. He has made it to church quite a bit and these last two weeks he has been coming for all three hours.

We had an awesome opportunity to teach him and his brother Jason last week at Temple Square. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and used the interactive Book of Mormon presentation downtown at Temple Square to help us teach. It was super cool because they had just made amends after a big falling out that they had, and the presentation used an example of two people making amends and compared it to repentance. We were able to testify that making amends by talking it out and trying to change and be better, was just like repenting for breaking Gods commandments.

We had a super spiritual lesson with the G family (the Family from Bangladesh). We brought along this awesome family in the ward that was perfect for them. They are a young couple in the ward (they actually got married in the first few weeks I got here) and Linda has developed a really good connection and respect for her. Linda says she gives great answers and insights in class.

There have been things that we have tried to tell Linda that weren't really making sense or sinking in with her, but when Sister N says THE SAME THINGS, Linda is like "Yes, that’s true!" I was like Holy Cow Brother and Sister N are like miracle workers...

We fasted for their family and have been praying that Linda’s husband softens his heart and opens it to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that Linda will not have fear in being baptized with her children before her husband decides to, so she can be an example.

Nurra is someone we talked to when walking around the apartments one day and we just started teaching her a few weeks ago. She has been taught many times in the past, but it seems like things are aligning in her life and that God has been helping her see this is the time for her. Her mom, Angel, started coming to church. She said that in her first time back to church this month, she really felt like she was at peace and at home.

Last night Nurra said the closing prayer and her mom said that was the first time she had ever said a prayer out loud, even when they were very involved in other faiths.

We spoke in the second ward and it was a super cool experience. I will send you my outline.

The morning of the talk, I bumped my head as I was getting ready. I wanted to hit something, but I prayed instead. The spirit told me that Jesus Christ felt the pain of me hitting my head so that he could judge me perfectly on how I responded. For someone to make a perfect judgment, the judge has to have walked every step in the shoes of he who is being judged so he can know how heavy those shoes have been.

Today we were walking out of the store and I saw this young guy posted up right outside with his longboard. As we walked away and got in the car, I had this recurring experience happen again.  I feel like for most of by teenage life I have been on a journey trying to receive and understand promptings. I remember my Sunday School teacher, Brother Case, telling about a prompting that he received when walking out of Walmart, to share the gospel with a family he saw. He justified thinking that there was no way that God wanted him to share the gospel. The prompting came to him, "If not you than who?" The stories of the Prophet Thomas S. Monson responding to spiritual promptings and his call to "never ignore a prompting" have really made an impression on me as well.

As we were pulling away, just like hundreds of times before, he was in my mind and I couldn't honestly push it aside. We turned around, went back, pulled up, and rolled down our window. In talking to him, he said he was "maybe" getting baptized on Saturday. I told him our experience, and that God sent us back to tell him that he needed to get baptized.

We can come up with so many excuses about following promptings from God. We could be on our way to an important appointment, it could be an "awkward situation," it might not make sense. Although I may not be perfect at responding to every prompting, I testify that if the God of Heaven and Earth, The Creator of the Universe and everything in it calls us to be on his errand and to reach out to one of his sons and daughters and our brother and sisters, HE WILL NOT FAIL TO AMAZE US. His plan for us is perfect, and we may play a part in his plan for others, if we are willing, humble, fearless and ready to listen to the still small voice that our perfect Father speaks to us by.

I know my Savior lives. He loves us. He died for us. He is the only one that will forever know how hard this life can be for you and me. Don't ever give up. He finished so that we could find the strength to finish, especially when the world seems like it is about to swallow us up.

Love,

Elder Moe

 

Picture 1)  Becca I promise that is an Alaska license plate... I just couldn't get my iPad out fast enough and they were speeding. (Don’t worry mom, I wasn't driving)

Picture 2)  The Restoration cup lesson. This came up twice last Sunday and it wasn't something in the prepared lesson. Sister Wallace (young women's teacher and ward mission leader's wife gave us the set!) Brother Wallace said cup sets were a big deal in his mission in Hawaii and they would be passed on.  Brother and Sister Lawrence used a similar lesson in their class too.

Oh yeah my favorite quote this week in Tupu and Nia Lawrence's Sunday school class:

In talking about sharing the gospel when your friends ask questions, Anthony, a member of the class, is by far the most involved.

Us: How many of you have had opportunities to share the gospel with friends who aren't members of the church?

Anthony: I have, but I am not actually a part of any church, I haven't been baptized yet.

Us: Oh cool!

Us inside: whaaaaaaatttt? NOOOO WAYYYY! (Party music)