Cafe Rio and the Temple

Hey everyone!

It's been a really great week as far as the work goes. 

We had been in Winchester quite a bit recently (it's just a little town west of Hemet), and every time we would go, nobody we wanted to see would be home. It was worth it though when we got in with Francisco and his two sons, Michael and Carlos. They were former investigators, but now after teaching them again, they have a baptismal date for April 8th. The Lord will keep on putting us in the right places if we are patient enough!  The greatest event this week was baptizing Raquel. I remember feeling the Spirit the strongest whenever we had just changed into our Baptismal whites and I saw Raquel all happy to be getting baptized in the next few minutes. Little did we know that the font probably needs repairs because it took close to 90 minutes to fill it up only 2.5 feet, so we waited a little bit longer to get into the water. But it was still really shallow by the time we had to start the service. Everyone had the biggest smiles after the service because we had just baptized an 87 year old woman! She had waited her whole life to enter through the gate of baptism and now she is one of the happiest people. We are all excited for her to be confirmed next week and the ward is really been a great support already. After the baptism, we were a little stressed out because of how the service didn't go as planned, but we had the chance to go out and teach. We had a potential to go by, but her son, Adolfo, answered the door. He was the only one there to teach, so we just taught him on his porch. After hearing our message, he wanted to change, so he accepted a baptismal date for April 22nd! It has just been so much fun finding new people and having them actually want to hear more and progress.

We also were able to go to the temple this last week in Redlands! It was a lot closer than I thought it would be...only about 30 minutes, but we can only every 6 months, since it's outside the Riverside mission boundary. It was a very peaceful session and it just reminded how much I wish we were able to go back more often! We'll be going back soon to go with Raquel for baptisms, so it won't quite be another 6 months! After the session, we ate lunch at Cafe Rio, which made the day even better.

Other highlights of the week... Candy (the investigator we had from Idylwild) is being taught by a Spanish sister missionary and her comp, who is English speaking. But they have been doing so well with Candy and her fam ever since we passed them off. Candy has a baptismal date in April, so hopefully Elder Royce and I will be going to Idyllwild soon for a Baptism!

We also had a multi-zone activity in Menifee yesterday. It was my first time playing trash ball, which is kind of like hand-ball, but the trash can is the goal. That was pretty tight. And then we played some basketball, and it's pretty much the NBA of mission ball, when we have elders from 4-5 different zones playing. Pretty intense.

Favorite scripture from this week is Alma 22:18. If we have the attitude of King Lamoni's father, then we can be converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and never fall away.

Hasta la proxima vez,

Elder Moon

Elder Royce, me and Raquel after a lesson at her home

Raquel at her baptism

3 generations in the mission (Elder Royce's trainer was at the baptism)

Redlands California Temple

Milagros

Hola friends and fam!

This week has been really interesting with the work...We have been working in 2 different areas. We are doing this because Elder Baum has gotten to the point where he can't go out and work with his stomach sickness. So we have been either dropping Elder Baum off at a member's house and working in a trio. Or either me, Elder Castro, or Elder Royce will stay at home with Elder Baum while the other 2 work. These logistics have been a bit stressful. 

But despite that, we have witnessed milagros (miracles). Raquel has grown so much in her testimony. Saturday afternoon, Elder Castro and I were teaching Raquel and it was one of the best lessons of my mission. We read President Russell M. Nelson's talk about the Book of Mormon, and Raquel was loving it. She was talking about how much she feels she has changed through her reading and how reading the Book of Mormon is teaching her so much more about the Plan of Salvation and how to be happy. It really is something to hear someone who is 86 years old ask.. "Where has this Book been all my life?" The coolest thing she told us though was that before we started teaching her, "She was sooo afraid of death, but now, that fear is gone because of her new found knowledge of the Plan that God has for her.  Stay tuned next week for more info about her Baptism!!

Another fun thing this week was having Elder De Mare (ASL elder) come with us to a lesson and try to teach Raquel's son, Oscar,  who is deaf and blind. Elder De Mare stayed with us for the rest of the day. We had 2 appointments set for 6:00, so me and him were able to teach another one of our investigators, Hermana Police. At the end of the lesson, I asked her to pray, and Elder De Mare chimed in, "Yeah, and pray for strength to go to church!" At the end of her prayer, she told us that she felt engulfed with something that made her feel good. She said she had never felt anything like that before. God wanted her to be at church that Sunday, and we told her that was his way of motivating her through sending his Spirit to testify to her.   Well, she called us 2 days later saying she had joined a different church yesterday and she didn't want us to come by anymore. I felt like she just knocked us out with one of the meanest blind-sided hits of all time. Everyone has their agency.

Some fun happenings during the week were:  Saturday morning. Elder Castro wanted to run, so I said let's run to the donut shop. We ran a few miles then picked up some donuts. Sounds a little ironic, but we handed out most of them to some homeless people on the way back.  We picked up some cool stuff (vintage MLS soccer jerseys) from an estate sale while contacting people. Had a great lesson with Raquel. Prepared a dinner at the Valley Restart Center for the people there and then went and supported the ZL's as they baptized a family.

We have been receiving some divine support big time this week. We ended up getting another 4 new investigators to teach, one of which is the son of a recent convert. We were having dinner at a member's house and the son, Luis, felt like coming downstairs and having dinner with us. He just wants more guidance and he was digging our message of the Book of Mormon. We'll be teaching him more next week. Then the Spanish Hermanas in our ward found a family from our area, so we will be taking over with the teaching soon. Also a less active member brought his wife to church, and she's not a member, but they both have a desire be taught. Bishop talked to us and pretty much the wife (non-member) told him that she wants to be baptized, so we are excited to start teaching her as well! It's amazing how God works these miracles. He is softening the hearts of these people, so that we can step in and teach them and help them come unto Christ. 

Disfruten su semana!

Elder Moon

The fog in the mountains reminds me of Utah!

Elder Castro and I supporting the local girl scouts

Cute little pup

The view from our Bishop's backyard

Elder Royce's Birthday today - HBD!

Bendeciones

Hey everyone, hope you all had a great week!

On Tuesday Morning, I woke up and my back didn't feel too great...it had been hurting for a week or so, but wasn't really getting any better. Elder Royce and Elder Castro gave me a blessing that morning, and luckily that day, I was able to see a chiropractor who gave me an adjustment, which helped a lot! The chiropractor was a really funny guy who is a member; he even gave us a referral for the secretary of his office, so we contacted her on our way out haha. But I'll be seeing him again this week to make sure I'm all good. 

Elder Royce and I started teaching a man named Augustine this week and his mother Juanita. Augustine was a referral that we had passed by many times, but the gate to get to the front door has always been locked. We felt prompted to be at his house early Wednesday morning when we would usually be studying. We got there and the gate was unlocked!! We knocked and Augustine answered and he started sharing all the struggles he has been going through. A lot of his family members have passed away in just this last year and he was seeking for happiness and a miracle. Us being there to teach a mother and son who have been devastated by the challenges and trials of this mortal life was a divinely orchestrated miracle. We had even planned to teach the Plan of Salvation despite not even knowing their situation. It was a great lesson; they expressed their concerns, but seemed appreciative and recognized how important our visit was.

After the trials of last week and having our investigator pool get smaller and smaller, it was a blessing from the Lord to be able to receive more referrals this week than any other week I've been here. Also, having some less active members give us two more referrals, and then, being able to teach them all together. 

We have also been teaching Raquel pretty frequently. We only have a few more things to teach her, so we are stopping by sometimes to just read the Book of Mormon with her and answering her questions, so that she can feel as prepared as possible before she enters the waters of Baptism in 2 weeks. 

Unfortunately, Elder Baum has been pretty sick (see picture below) so Elder Royce and I took turns this week going on exchanges with Elder Castro, while the other would stay at home with Elder Baum and take care of him. I went out to work with Elder Castro on Thursday morning. We taught 4 lessons that day: 3 in his area and 1 in my area. It was so much fun being able to go from appointment to appointment and being able to help the investigators in both of our areas. Our last lesson that day was with a man named Procuro, who is someone that Elder Baum and I found on my first exchange in his area. Procuro is special to me because I was really able to relate with him and feel the Spirit in our lessons with him. He's the man!! Really humble and ready to receive the blessings of living the Gospel if he starts making more time for it. 

We planned a service project Saturday morning for a new investigator. Our companionship, as well as, Elder Baum and Castro were all there to help this man move, but he wasn't even home. We called off that service project and told everyone else that was going to come that we would try another day. We started to drive back to the apartment, but we all had our eyes peeled for another service opportunity. We had planned for 2 hours, so just a few seconds later, we pulled over and asked this old, married couple if they needed help doing yard work. Some how, some way, they actually accepted our offer of service! We pulled weeds, raked, dug up all the nasty growth, raked some more, and 2 hours later, their garden was looking good!  It's nice to just to be able to give service and show the good people of Hemet and San Jacinto, California what the missionaries are all about.

One of my favorite quotes from a Conference Talk by Elder David Evans states, "Patient covenant keeping brings the blessings of heaven into our lives."  When facing a tough day, week, or month, be patient and remember what will bring you everlasting happiness.

Good luck to everyone this week!

Hasta Pronto,

Elder Moon