Elder Mason Moon: This was not all

A big change happened this week. Elder Castro, Elder Royce and I are now in a trio! Elder Baum is getting fixed up in Utah now with his stomach problems that he had been having for a while, so our trio now has 2 areas to work until transfers in a week.

We found some awesome investigators just last night while following up on a potential. The potential's name is Adan and Elder Jensen and I had talked to him last transfer while on exchanges. We were actually knocking on the door whenever Adan and his wife pulled up to the house. He let us in, but his wife was a little more hesitant to listen as she stood a little far off, but I invited her to be a part of the lesson. Our trio was in sync teaching the Restoration of the Gospel, and we invited them to be baptized and they accepted! Once we explained how baptism needed to be performed by someone holding the proper authority from God, Sandra (Adan's wife) started to help us teach Adan how she thinks it is important to be baptized again. They were both baptized as infants, but Sandra was really understanding the doctrine. After sharing the Book of Mormon and Moroni's promise, Adan still had some more concerns, but Sandra told Adan, "You're going to study!!" With transfers looming, I don't know how much I'll get to help teach this family, but it was a great way to cap off the week with a powerful and spiritual lesson.

We are still teaching Raquel's younger sister, Rosa. It has been really awesome to have Raquel in those lessons with us now as a recent convert! Last week, I was prayerfully studying what we should teach Rosa and Alma 32 was the chapter to share with her. She was able to understand how she needs to try the experiment with planting the seed (word of God) in her heart and letting it grow as she acts in her faith. It was the most spiritual lesson that we had with her. The best thing about Raquel and Rosa is that they know how much we care about them and their family and they feel the same way about us. These are going to be the people that I will never forget from my mission.

We had Stake Conference here in Hemet as well because the Stake Presidency was being reorganized. Elder Wakolo from the Quorum of the Seventy delivered some awesome talks! He's from Fiji and had recently been a mission president in Little Rock, Arkansas. One of his funniest quotes from the weekend was "I'm from Fiji and they wanted me to serve in Little Rock, how does that happen?" Saturday afternoon, we had the first session, which was for the Priesthood holders. Our bishop wanted us to translate for this meeting, so that was something a little challenging, but a fun experience to look back on. Simultaneous translating is something I could for sure work on haha. That night, we had the adult session of stake conference. Elder Wakolo gave the ultimate talk on the Atonement and how true conversion comes when we understand the Atonement. He gave us 36 chapters in the Book of Mormon that testify of the Atonement. We were sitting next to Raquel during this meeting, and as we were scrambling to write all the chapters down, Raquel was telling us to "Hurry up, finish!" Personal study just got a lot more intense with all these new chapters to go back over!

During the Sunday General session and about halfway through Elder Wakolo's talk, the building's power just shut off! Elder Wakolo did his best King Benjamin impression though and kept on talking to everyone without a mic. He shared his conversion story and how the Book of Mormon changed his life.

Studying and gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon is life changing. Once you know of its truths, your life will never be the same. Our desires and long-term goals will be altered to match those that will bring us eternal life.

Favorite scriptures from this week are D&C 64:33-34 and Alma 53:20. In D&C we read, "...out of small things proceedeth that which is great...and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days." Have that willing and obedient attitude, and you will make a difference.

The BYU lacrosse team had Alma 53:20 printed on our helmets last year. It's a powerful scripture about the Stripling Warrior's and it says "...this was not all--they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted." It was a constant reminder to me last year that I had a divine potential to reach as I have been entrusted with a lot. I'm so glad to be serving a mission right now and to be on the Lord's team.

Have a good week everyone!

Elder Moon