Miracle Story

The time I spent in the Ramona ward in Hemet has been full of miracles and happiness as I have served the Lord. I was able to spend my first 3 transfers and my last 3 transfers in Hemet, which has really helped me come closer to converts, companions, and other members as we helped each other along the covenant path.

In my first week of the mission with Elder Royce, we met Raquel Rios and Rosa Rodriguez. Raquel is in her late 80's and Rosa is in her 70's and they are two amazing sisters. As we started teaching them both, the Spirit was always present in the lessons and it was easily our favorite part of the week whenever we could teach them. Raquel progressed rapidly as she attended church every Sunday, read through the entire Book of Mormon, and ultimately, gained a testimony of the Restoration. It wasn't long before she entered the waters of baptism on February 18th, 2018 and made her first covenant in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We worked hard to help Rosa get baptized, but her back and forth travel between Corona and Hemet in order to battle her cancer made it hard for her to be baptized at that time. Throughout the next year, she experienced a general lack of support from her family, but the ward members and missionaries really become her greatest support as she pressed forward. Elder McInnes and Abraham gave me one of the greatest and unexpected phone calls whenever they told me that Rosa was ready to be baptized. I was overjoyed as I was able to go back and baptize Rosa on April 27th, 2019.

In June of 2019, I was assigned to serve in Hemet again and the first thing on my mind was getting these recent converts to the temple. By the beginning of July, we had found over a dozen family names for Raquel and Rosa to take to the temple. On July 6th, we went to the Redlands Temple to perform baptisms and confirmations on behalf of their beloved ancestors.

Around that same time, Elder Abraham and I were teaching a golden investigator named Jose Padilla. Jose was dating a member of a ward and ever since we started teaching him, he had his eyes set on the temple and having an eternal family. We were lucky enough to really just guide him along the covenant path and within a few months, he was baptized, confirmed, received the Aaronic Priesthood, and prepared family names to take to the temple. On October 4th, we were able to have the incredible experience of being baptized by Jose and baptizing him on behalf of many ancestors. He is now preparing to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and further temple ordinances.

When I only had 2 transfers left, I received a training call and became companions with Elder Crichfield. We have seen many miracles together as converts have been baptized and more people have prepared to go to the temple. We were able to get temple prep classes started up in our ward, so that Raquel and other members could prepare for their endowment. As Raquel approaches 90 years of age, I know for a fact that the Lord has given her much physical and spiritual strength in order to be able to receive these blessings at this point in her life. On October 12th, she entered into the temple and was endowed. It truly was a miracle to see Raquel, now "thrice in white," in the temple just 10 days before I go home.

These people and my mission mean everything to me. I know the Savior's Atonement has changed my life and the lives of many others. I have felt true joy serving in the California Riverside Mission. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.  

Raquel's Endowment

It doesn't feel real yet that this will be my last week on the mission! We still have a pretty good chance of seeing one more baptism before I go home and then hopefully a lot more after. 

This week was highlighted by being able to go to the temple with Raquel to see her get her endowment. It was a beautiful experience and I am just really grateful that we had some great members to support her throughout the way. I was able to receive the endowment on behalf of her husband who has passed away, so whenever the temple opens up again in a few weeks, she will return and be sealed to her husband!

Miguel, one of our recent converts from August, was able to receive the Priesthood on Sunday as well! It has been a little bit of a struggle recently to teach him frequently, but every time we went over, we talked about the blessings of holding the priesthood. He prepared himself and I was able to ordain him a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. One of our other recent converts, Jose, was able to be a part of the ordination, which was a special moment as well.

We started teaching a couple named Veronica and Orlando about 2 weeks ago and this week, we invited them to be baptized for November 2nd, and they accepted that date. Veronica has a brother who is a member in Moreno Valley, so she has had some positive experiences with the church already. She really wants to get baptized, so it'll be our goal to get them to church every Sunday leading up to their baptism. They also have a few kids in their family, so hopefully we can start teaching the family as a whole soon.

Last Sunday, we found a younger adult named Jacob and we were able to meet with him a few more times this week. We invited him to be baptized on November 9th and he accepted. He has been watching all the new Book of Mormon videos, but we are trying to get him to read the actual book as well, so we'll see.

Our baptism that we have planned for this weekend is with Reynaldo. There is one more smaller, legal thing that we are figuring out still. Other than that, he passed his interview with President Hammon and we will be praying that everything goes well, so that he will be baptized on the 19th.

One of the greatest learning opportunities came this Friday when Elder Bowen of the Quorum of the 70 visited our mission. We learned a lot about the Abrahamic Covenant and the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood. He taught us about our divine identity and potential. He said that if we learn and understand our divine identity, then we will act accordingly. He pointed out all the blessings that are promised to us if we are obedient, so it got everyone really excited for the work. He gave the example of how everyone thought that the 4 minute mile couldn't be broken, until someone decided not to be limited. He mentioned how there are false limitations all around us and as a result, we set some higher expectations as a mission. Overall, the Spirit was really strong and it was one of my favorite zone conferences.

Elder Moon

Elder Royce and I started teaching Raquel nearly two years ago

Elder Critchfield trained by Elder Moon trained by Elder Royce

Final P-Day activity - zone trip to Idyllwild

This is what it is all about.  I'll see ya'll soon!

Week 100

Week 100 and still a few more to go! This past Friday, we had our temple trip with the outgoing missionaries. We had also planned with Jose to have him bring some family names to the temple in order to do baptisms. He showed up after our session was done and we were able to teach him how to baptize and he baptized us a few times and then he was able to get baptized on behalf of his grandpa!
Other than that, our ward was able to see a baptism this weekend. Roberto got baptized on Sunday and he will be getting confirmed next Sunday!
General conference was awesome as usual and I think everyone should be pretty excited for the next one!
This week, I'll be going to the temple with Raquel because she will be getting her endowment. That'll definitely be one of the highlights of my mission.
The other great thing that happened this week was teaching Ana again. She was found by the missionaries before us, but never accepted a baptismal date. We did a pretty in depth lesson on the Restoration of the Gospel and she accepted a baptismal date for October 26th!

Missionaries in our final transfer 

 With Jose at the temple

Spanish speaking Elders going home

Becoming as a child

This week has been a bit of a rollercoaster, but there were also some really memorable things that have happened. Some of the highlights are:

• Jose passed the sacrament for the first time!
• Miguel got interviewed for the priesthood and will be getting the priesthood the week after general conference!
• Our District leader and his companion have been teaching this awesome guy named Roberto and they needed to get him interviewed. Our ZLs are English speaking, so I was able to interview him (which will probably be the last one I give), and he passed. He has read through the whole Book of Mormon in a few weeks and has overcame a lot of problems, so if all stays well, then he will be baptized this Saturday.
• We went on exchanges on Wednesday and I was able to work with Elder Jensen. He is from Washington and is the only missionary I've ever met on my mission that I can talk NHL Hockey with. We worked hard that day and it was fun showing him some of the good parts of my old area and his current area.
• We also figured out more about Reynaldo's situation and he will be completely off probation on the 10th of October, so we set a goal for the 19th of October, which will be my last weekend. He is the one of the greatest examples to me of what King Benjamin meant when he said we must "[become] as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."
• The last highlight is that Raquel has a ton of members going to support her at her endowment, so October 12th will be a day she will never forget. She has her interview tomorrow with the Stake President and she is so excited!

I love this quote from Elder Robert D Hales,
"Retaining that companionship requires an earnest effort on the part of Church members. If we are not obedient to the laws, principles, and ordinances of the gospel, the Holy Ghost will withdraw. He cannot be with us if we are angry in our hearts, contentious with our companions, or critical of the Lord’s anointed. He departs whenever we are rebellious, are immoral, dress or act immodestly, are unclean or profane in mind or body, are slothful in priesthood callings and duties, or commit other sins, for “the Spirit of the Lord doth not dwell in unholy temples.”

With all the bad news and circumstances that can be thrown at us in this life, there is nothing more powerful than the comfort that the Holy Ghost can bring into our lives. Overcoming the natural man and submitting to the Father's will is completely necessary in order to have that comfort.

Elder Moon

Bacon wrapped hot dogs

I dont know if any of y'all have ate bacon wrapped hot dogs, but I've only had them a few times on my mission and they are pretty legit. The Rojas family is an awesome family that fed us a lot when I was in Hemet last year, but they fed us on Sunday and didnt disappoint with all the bacon wrapped hot dogs they made for the 6 of us!

Also our friend Rey took us to get some Philly Cheese Steaks on Saturday, so this may have been the first weekend on my mission without Mexican Food!

We were able to see our recent convert, Jose, receive the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. We were able to also plan a time to go to the temple with him and some other members. 

Raquel finished up her temple prep classes, so she just has a few interviews before we can go to the temple on October 12th for her endowment!

Reynaldo still is trying to figure out his legal situation, but if all goes well, then he will still be baptized before I go home.

President Nelson's BYU devotional was great and the Book of Mormon videos are pretty awesome as well. Go check them both out if you haven't!

Elder Moon

Having fun in Hemet

This week, Elder Crichfield and I worked a lot with the recent converts in the ward. We set goals with them to receive the priesthood, callings and to go to the temple. One of our converts, Miguel, said he had a lot of free time, so we set the goal to go out and have him visit people with us 2 times a week. Diego and his family are committed to come to church every week and to have all the young kids go to their activities on Tuesdays. Christian and Brenda are in a better spot with their temporal welfare and we have the Relief Society working a lot with Brenda now. Jose will be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood this Sunday and hopefully a calling as well! We went and taught Jose on Saturday night, got some Sushi after and then went to go visit some of the people we are teaching with him. 


Raquel is preparing for her temple endowment still and we got the ward more involved with helping her. 

One more miracle this week was that we had Julio (a recent convert from June) come back to church for the first time and a while and he brought his sister who isn't a member. Or it could have been that his sister brought him because honestly, his sister, Diana, has picked up a lot of interest of recent and really wanted to come to church. We have been visiting them every week for the past transfer and they are making some good progress now. 
We will be able to find out this week if Reynaldo can get baptized on the 28th. There is just some legal stuff that needs to get figured out, so pray for him!

This week we also did a ton of community service. We helped out at all of our normal places, but there is an amphitheater here called the Ramona Bowl and we helped out for a few hours on Friday and Saturday. They had a ton of Kim Kardashian shoes that were donated to them and we were just moving boxes and boxes of these shoes and putting them on display, so that they could sell them for huge discounts. Definitely one of the more interesting services that we have done, but the Ramona Bowl is a really cool place and they have outdoor plays there during the summer that are pretty well known!

Other than that, we were able to watch the face to face last night where Elder Soares talked to the young adults and I would just like to mention something he said 
He told us, "we cannot condition our faithfulness to the immediate answers of our desires."
If we put the Savior first in our lives, then we will have enduring joy.

Elder Moon

Reynaldo next to Elder Crichfield 

Working with Jose

Last Transfer

Transfers occurred this weekend and.....

I have 6 weeks left on my mission and I'll be finishing up in Hemet with Elder Crichfield!! 


We baptized and confirmed Diego this week! We had his baptismal service on Sunday after stake conference and it was one of the most spiritual services that we had. This was mainly due to the fact that Diego just has so much faith and we were able to form a great relationship with him and his family. I met his family when I was trained in Hemet nearly 2 years ago. When we were visiting them, I felt that we were not progressing with them. They were less active when we started visiting them, people would leave in the middle of lessons, and by the time I left, they were still less active and never came to church. Diego, his mom and his sister moved to Hemet after I had left the area for the first time. When I came back, Diego's mom (who is a member) randomly showed up to church with her kids and her nieces and I was able to recognize the nieces (who were there the first time around) and set up a time with Diego's mom in order to go over. We went over on Elder Crichfield's first day in the field, we set a baptismal date with Diego, taught all the lessons, changed his date one time, and got him baptized and confirmed yesterday.


Elder Crichfield was able to baptize him and I was able to confirm him, which is always a special experience. Elder Crichfield sang a really awesome song at the service that he wrote before the mission and it was a great way to end the transfer. 


At stake conference, we had a lot of our converts show up and we were able to sit with them all. The goal is to get all of them to the temple this transfer, whether it is for baptisms or in Raquel's case, to receive her endowment!

P day flew by today but President Hinckley has some pretty awesome quotes, so here is one that I found this week,
"When we look for the worst in anyone, we will find it. But if we will concentrate on the best, that element will grow until it sparkles."

Elder Moon

Bautismo de Jose

Diego got interviewed for baptism on Thursday and passed pretty easily. He is the 9 year old we are teaching and he is just such a funny kid. Everytime we go over, he is already waiting outside and wants to give us chips, cookies, and something to drink. We taught the Plan of Salvation one last time and we brought a white board over to draw out all the different parts. It helped him out a lot to visualize it and he honestly just has a strong desire to do what is right. He doesn't want to fight kids anymore, say bad words and he always tells us that "Satan sucks" haha. He just really wants to be on God's side and he should be getting baptized on Sunday night!
The weekend was pretty awesome with Jose getting baptized and confirmed. Jose has been on fire from the time he met us and has a really bright future! He invited a lot of family and friends to his baptism and the majority of the people at the baptism weren't members. The service was well-attended and we had a little lunch afterwards with everyone that came! Jose felt really great about the covenant he made and was so pumped that he even ripped his jumpsuit whenever we were changing back into our dry clothes! He will be getting the priesthood really soon and hopefully we will be able to plan a temple trip for later this month.  Reynaldo, our 80 year old-soon to be 81 year old friend, is doing great as well! He even came to the baptismal service to see what it is like because he has a baptismal date for the 21st.

We had exchanges with our zone leaders this week and I went to their area again. We went to this neighborhood full of part member families and we met this really cool guy named Brother Taylor. He is in the Army and is launching a new eSports program in the Army, so he will be moving soon. It was really cool to talk about his hobbies and interests and then help him see how much his family needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives right now.

We had service this week at this "mini horse sanctuary" and these older ladies made us feel like body builders because we were just lifting stuff out of this barn and putting it in a different shed. I guess they are doing some remodeling on the shed and they just needed us to clear it out. It wasn't honestly that heavy, but just funny that they were hyping up our pretty average strength like it was something else haha.

We have some appointments set up for this week with some people with a lot of potential to be baptized soon as well. One of them is named Ana and she is great friends with a member and she even has a sister who is a member. It has been challenging to meet with her because she was trying to pass some sort of test at work, but she finally gave us an actual time to come by so we are stoked.

One last miracle was seeing our friend Christian get a job. His wife, Brenda, was recently baptized, but he still needed help with work. When we were talking with a member the other week, he mentioned that there was an opening at a construction company, so we helped Christian to start working with them, which should help them start a family soon! This guy almost died a few weeks ago, but now he is married, his wife got baptized, and he has stable work! The Lord has been blessing them so much recently.

I read a talk this week that explained how the gift of the Holy Ghost will help calm fears. It says,
"In these perilous times, we need this unspeakable gift in our lives. President Boyd K. Packer reminds us: “We need not live in fear of the future. We have every reason to rejoice and little reason to fear. If we follow the promptings of the Spirit, we will be safe, whatever the future holds. We will be shown what to do.”"
I think we sometimes take for granted this special gift and we let ourselves get overwhelmed with fear, but if we learn how to listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost in the present, then future events won't be so scary.

Elder Moon

Another week in the books

We are really looking forward to this coming Saturday because Jose will be getting baptized! He passed his interview yesterday and is pumped for his baptism/confirmation/receiving the priesthood this weekend. 
We will still have the 2 baptisms we had planned for this last weekend, but they will just be at different times in September, if all goes well. Reynaldo is figuring out a few legal things and should be good to go by the end of September and Diego and his family have just been going to Mexico so much on the weekends that we are pushing his baptism to September 8th.

We have a lot of goals to go by the people we are teaching every single day or have members be contacting them every day. This is taking up a lot of our time, but it's awesome being able to tell these people that we are willing to see how they are doing every day because we love them and want to keep on helping them learn the gospel of Jesus Christ. It really means a lot to some of these lonelier people who feel somewhat rejected by their family/dont have too many friends. I can definitely see the gospel of Jesus Christ healing their broken hearts and we are just praying to see all these people get baptized, so that they can receive a remission of their sins.
This pday was pretty packed because we went on a hike this morning with our district and then hit the golf course later in the afternoon! Just trying to enjoy the all of the 2 or 3 fun attractions that Hemet, CA has to offer!

I loved reading this quote from President Hinckley's talk,

"Every man, woman, or child worthy of baptism is worthy of a secure and friendly situation in which to grow in the Church and its many activities."

Just look to see who might be some of the newer members in your ward and love them! 

Elder Moon

P-day round of golf 

 P-day meal

P-day Hike

 Trainer Trainee Conference

 Exchange with Elder Wise

With Hno Ganuza 

With Elders Parata and Potter

Wedding, then Baptism

The coolest thing this week was seeing our two friends, Christian and Brenda take some big steps in their spiritual journey! For the last 3 weeks, we have been having daily contact with them and pushing them to hit their goals. Christian is already a member, but we were teaching Brenda all the lessons and we set a date with them to get married and baptized. They got married on Friday and Brenda got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! It was a great weekend for them and they have plans to get their patriarchal blessings and go to the temple. 

We have been working a lot finishing up teaching Reynaldo (our 80 year old friend) and then Diego (our 9 year old friend). Diego's family is recently coming back to church and Diego is begging for his mom to take him to church every weekend and he will be getting baptized this weekend. We have been showing Reynaldo a lot of love and he is learning more and should be getting baptized this weekend as well.

We started teaching a new part member family this week. The wife is a member, but hasn't been to church for almost 25 years. Her husband is named Donald and he has never been baptized, but we have plans to have the ward help minister to them and to teach them again this week.

There is a super, awesome member referral named Ana that came to church this week. We have been trying to set a time to teach her, but she has been working a lot. She showed up with her member friend on Sunday and really enjoyed it. We are hoping to teach her and invite her to be baptized sometime in early September! 

Elder Crichfield is doing such a great job and I'm really proud to be his companion. He has only been out here a few weeks, but he has been able to get a lot of great experience and was able to get in the water for the first time on his mission to baptize Brenda!

One of my favorite quotes this week is from President Hinckley, he said, 
"We declare without equivocation that God the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, appeared in person to the boy Joseph Smith...
Our whole strength rests on the validity of that vision. It either occurred or it did not occur. If it did not, then this work is a fraud. If it did, then it is the most important and wonderful work under the heavens."

I have not been out for this long just to be able to spread lies, rather, I've seen the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ change many lives, including my own.

Elder Moon

Cansados

Miguel got baptized this week!! It was awesome being there with my boys Elder Abraham and Crichfield. Elder Abraham and I found Miguel about a month ago and Miguel has been awesome with making changes in his life that lead him to the covenant path.  I was able to baptize him and Elder Crichfield confirmed him on Sunday. It was Elder Crichfield's first time confirming someone and he did a really awesome job!


This Saturday we have a baptism planned for Brenda. If all goes well, then she will be married to Christian tomorrow morning and then we will be able to have her baptismal interview before Saturday. She is ready and it is awesome to see her and Christian taking some big steps by coming back to church and wanting to start an eternal family.


We had a church tour with Diego and his family last night. Diego is a 9 year old that we will be baptizing on the 24th and he has so much energy! He was asking us if we could fill the font up to be about 8 feet deep whenever he is baptized haha but he is really understanding it all and learns really fast.


We are teaching an older man named Reynaldo and he has a baptismal date for the 24th. He still comes to church every week and has a desire to learn, so we are going to make a big push to get him ready by that date. 


Jose is just so steady and is going to be a golden convert to the church. He is almost reading in Mosiah of the Book of Mormon and already looks like a returned missionary when he comes to church and even enjoys Elders Quorum.   His baptismal date is for the 31st of August and the other elders in our ward should be baptizing one of the referrals (Maria) that we gave them on the 31st as well.

We went to the temple today (Tuesday) with the zone and it was really peaceful and a great way to start a new week!  I think one of my favorite General Conference speakers now is President Eyring, so I'll throw in one of his quotes this week that I loved. We are all looking for clear answers to the many decisions we have to make in life and he gives some great advice. He said

"The answer comes by the Holy Spirit. You will need that guidance often. To have the Holy Ghost as your companion you must be worthy, cleansed by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. So, your obedience to the commandments, your desire to do His will, and your asking in faith will determine how clearly the Master can guide you by answers to your prayers.  Often the answers will come as you study the scriptures. They contain accounts of what the Lord did in His mortal ministry and the guidance He has given His servants. They have doctrine in them which will apply in every time and every situation. Pondering the scriptures will lead you to ask the right questions in prayer. And just as surely as the heavens were opened to Joseph Smith after he pondered the scriptures in faith, God will answer your prayers and He will lead you by the hand."

Elder Moon