Rebound

After last week, we have bounced back and found a lot of new families to teach. Everyone in the companionship is super pumped up to teach and the Lord has been blessing us big time. There are still some more things we want to change in order to have certain families progress. For example, we are teaching a man named Juan Vargas and he has already been to church 3 times since we got here. He just really doesn't have a fellowship in the church, so we really don't want him to fall through the cracks. We have similar investigators who will be prepared to be baptized by the end of this transfer or sometime next transfer, but they are just lacking a solid member to be their friend, so we will be looking to have these members in a lot more lessons.

We have found some part-member families to teach. The story of finding one of these families is actually pretty interesting. - So we have made a friend in our area whose name is LiL Shorty and he is all over East Riverside just lurking around on his bike. We actually set up an appointment to teach him Saturday night at 6:30. We show up and LiL shorty went to go hang with some of his boys somewhere else, but we just felt like knocking a few houses. We knocked the first one and a teenager opened up. He told us his name was Juan and we just striked up a chill conversation. After we start transitioning to the gospel, he starts explaining his doubts and he doesn't really know if God is willing to help him, etc. We keep on testifying a little bit more and he just tells us that he was baptized a year ago in Hemet with his little brother! It really threw us off guard, and he even said his mom was interested and wants to go to church!! By the end of this convo, we had Juan all hyped up to have us come back over and even come to church. Its awesome how God will put us in those spots by little small things such as setting up appointments with gangsters that are bound to fall through. 

The other big miracle this week happened on exchanges when I was with Elder Ngatuvai and Elder Staley. We had planned a good amount of time to seek with faith this day, and luckily, we were able to pick a spot where we could have a good mix of English and Spanish contacts because Elder Staley speaks Spanish para nada. We did contact an awesome lady though who was almost baptized in Mexico. Her name is Lupita and the way she told us was that the font was filled up pretty much when she decided not to be baptized. She was pressured out of it by her mom, but momma didn't follow her to the United States, so we will be teaching the whole family tonight. 

I can tell that the members have our back here and after doing a few home visits, we have been able to receive some referrals who we hope we will be able to teach. 

In other news, I played spike ball for the first time on my mission with Elder Rodriguez. Honestly I didn't see the hype whenever everyone was playing these last few years at BYU, but it is a pretty solid workout and is a good time.  The exchanges were all really good though. Elder Rodriguez went to BYU before the mission, so we have a lot in common with that and he is a solid missionary. We contacted some people who were having a garage sale and we were able to teach them real quick as they waited for people to come. A few people showed up and tried to buy our bikes, but weren't really looking at anything else, so we had to let them down a few times. We played some basketball that night with some less actives in our ward, and they were having a really good time, and are willing to make the steps to come back to church. 

Overall, an awesome week and there is just so much to build on now for the rest of the transfer. 

Have a great week

Elder Moon

p.s. for those that remember Raquel....She went to the temple with the Ramona ward in Hemet and was able to do baptisms. I saw this on Facebook, so I gave her a call Sunday night and she sounds like she is doing really well and progressing to even be ready to go to the temple for her endowments in a year or so. She wasn't able to bring family names this time, so I told her to have the members help her to find names, so that me and Elder Royce could go one time with her to do baptisms. It always gets me pretty emotional talking to her because she has been such a miracle in my mission and she loves the gospel and the missionaries so much. 

with Elder Rodriguez on exchanges

 Raquel's first trip to temple with Ramona Ward.

With Elder Ngatuvai and Staley after ending exchanges.

Humbled (June 18)

This week has been humbling. We found a lot of ways we can improve and there were a lot of frustrating moments when we weren't on the same page as a companionship, but that just comes with the territory of being in a trio. There were some investigators that let us down and cancelled multiple times on us, but once again, we all have our agency.

It is weeks like this where I just had to count every single blessing and just control everything that I can control. I had some really spiritual personal studies. Once of which, I read my patriarchal blessing and then read D&C 84. Just trying to find out what I need to do to receive those blessings. Obedience is something that I can control as well, so just making sure we get our studies in, waking up on time, exercising, etc. 

I have been so blessed on my mission, so a week like this is just a bump in the road. Our companionship is focused on baptizing the Moreno family this transfer, so we are going to help them see the importance of church and keeping commitments. We have a few individuals who are trying to make big changes in their life, so we are going to show them how the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored with power and authority that will bless their lives. There are new people who are waiting to talk with us, so we are going to hit the pavement and find them.

A great lesson that I feel like God has taught to me time after time has been to get over myself and just do what I know is true.

I have a testimony to grow and to share with others. It is just time to move on and lose myself in the work. I have some great comps who have the same goals as me, so we will find a way to have a killer week and to just go up from here!

Best moment of the week: Mexico had their first WC game against Germany on Sunday morning. It was father's day as well, so church attendance was a little lower than usual. Because of this, I was able to pass the sacrament, and when I was passing the bread and water to this young family, I was able to see how happy the little kids were from this family. In that moment, it just felt peaceful to be in that meeting. To me, all the frustration was able to pass for a moment and it was just all about remembering the Savior.

Along with that story though, Mexico did upset Germany 1-0, so it made me happy to think about every single Mexican person I have come into contact on my mission have that feeling of pride in their country! And since it was Father's day, I was just thinking of how much love my dad has for our family and how he would do anything for us to succeed! It made me feel good to know I have that support even though this week wasn't all that successful.

Thanks to everyone for the continual support! I'm looking forward to the miracles this week!

Elder Moon

 Service at Feeding America

World Cup Squad Pic

Free Hot Dogs/Lunch at Toyota of Riverside - (we drive a Toyota)

Tripled - In (June 11)

So if getting doubled in last week wasn't fun enough, Elder Dundon and I gained a new companion on Wednesday!

So a lot of you have probably heard how all the missionaries in Nicaragua have been evacuated because of the civil unrest there, so our mission was sent 3 Elders who have all been out in Nicaragua for about a year.

A quick update of the week though...
Monday: we had our transfers, normal p day stuff, dinner with the bishop here in the Mission Ward, and a Missionary Coordination Meeting.
Tuesday: we had our District meetings in the morning, so we all got fired up together for the first week of this new transfer. After that, we picked up some Chick-Fil-a (been a while), we did some service for some of the members in the stake, made a bunch of phone calls in order to set up appointments with investigators and get to know them. That night, we had an awesome lesson with a man that we found named Galileo. It was just a smooth lesson and he understood everything really well. He was hesitant to pray at the end, but we taught him, and after he prayed, the Spirit was there super strong. Elder Dundon and I were joking after the lesson because up to this point, we had only spent just a few minutes walking on the streets of Riverside because this day was full of meetings, service, and driving in between. We were lucky enough to get into the lesson with Galileo right after we stepped out of the car, so the Lord definitely guided us there for a purpose.
Wednesday: Elder Dundon and I had just finished planning, when we received a call from one of the AP's, Elder Briggs. It pretty much went like this... "Elder Briggs: Do you know where you are going to be at 1:00 today? Us: mission office? Elder Briggs: Yes, you will be having one of the Elders from Nicaragua with you in a trio."
So we show up to the mission office and find out that Elder Ngatuvai will be joining us this transfer! He is from Provo and went to Timpview, played football and basketball and even a little lacrosse! He has a lot of awesome experience from Nicaragua and he really wants to baptize this transfer. We took his stuff back to the apartment, went grocery shopping and then started working before dinner. We found two 24 year olds, Manny and Daniel, taught them the Restoration and committed them to a baptismal date on July 15th. After dinner, we talked to a man named Harrison. We were trying to contact his dad Jose, but Harrison was willing to talk with us, so we shared the Restoration with him and then he shared a lot of Bible scriptures with us about the Sabbath day. All in all, he committed to read the Book of Mormon, so we were happy with that!
Thursday: we set a lot of time to do seeking with faith. We contacted a lot of people and found a few new potential investigators to go by. I set a goal with the district that we would have 150 contacts between our 3 companionships this week, so all the contacts today helped a lot towards this goal. We also taught a man named Everardo (the other elders before us had been teaching him for a while). He committed to come to church that Sunday and has a baptismal date for July 1st, so we were pumped up for him.
Friday: In the morning, I went to the District Leader training at the mission office. We learned a lot about how "We become" and how to develop a culture of obedience, hard work, etc. within the mission. This meeting lasted until about 4, then we went to go teach a man named Menchor. We committed him to come to church again this week (he went last week) and he is progressing towards his baptismal date on the 8th of July.
Saturday: we played some good basketball in the morning. We taught Everardo again and found him a ride for church the next day. We got rejected a lot, but we also found a new investigator, Carlos. We were passing by because the missionaries before us talked to his dad once, but we ended up just talking to Carlos Jr. We are looking forward to going back and teaching the whole entire family this upcoming week.
Sunday: we had Everardo at church and he really enjoyed It! We gave him a blessing after church that he would have the strength to keep the commandments. We had 2 home visits after church as well with the Guzman and Reyes families. We are going to work with them to teach some of their neighbors and family members. Later on that night, we were about to head back home, but we were blessed with a Sunday night miracle! We had a family that cancelled on us Friday night and then they didn't come to church, but I put them in our schedule as a back up plan to our 8:00 appointment. The grandma's name is Blanca. She's in her 50s and she is taking care of all her grandkids because her daughter passed away. The elders before us were teaching Blanca and all her kids and they are accepting everything we have taught them so far. Last night, they let us in, and the smile on Blanca's face was just incredible. She has 5 grandkids who are all in between the ages of 7-11, and they love us coming over. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Blanca and 4 of her grandkids have a baptismal date for July 8th. The love was there, the Spirit was there, and I'm really pumped up for this family. We set up a church tour with them for this next Friday and we are going to try to get one of the primary teachers there to meet all the kids! It was a great way to end the week, and it feels good to have some momentum going into this next week in this new area. This is what the work is all about!!

Favorite scripture of the week: Alma 5:12-13. A mighty change of heart is what helps us remain faithful to the end!

Have an awesome week!

Elder Moon

The Tres Lagos ward with Hermano Rodriguez (bishopric member) on the last Sunday

The new Trio

Doubled - In (June 4th)

Well we just had transfers and I'll be making a quick exit out of the Tres Lagos ward in Perris! This last Saturday, we just got done playing basketball in the morning, President Hammon called me to assign me to be a district leader. He also told me that I would be getting doubled-in to an area (meaning both me and my new comp will be new to the area). He told me that I would be finding out where I would be going and who I would be with, later that night. I felt like I had just gotten to the area and we were having a lot of success in this area with finding and teaching, but Elder Dew and Lawlor will make sure to hold it down here in Perris!!
Later that night, I found out that I will be transferred to Riverside where I will serve in the Mission ward with Elder Dundon! Elder Dundon is leaving Hemet where we served around each other for a transfer earlier this year, so it will be fun to be comps this time around and we are ready to work!

As for the miracles this last week in Perris...

We started teaching Edgardo (22 year old who just moved from Guadalajara) last Sunday night after church. We went back on Tuesday and then again on Friday to teach him. He was thinking that he would be without a place to stay on Wednesday, but then a spot opened up in his cousin's apartment, which was definitely an answer to his prayers. He came to church on Sunday and stayed for all 3 hours, which just shows his desire right off the bat. For our lesson on Friday, we taught the Word of Wisdom and Edgardo accepted it all, which honestly just blew us away. That morning, we had planned on teaching him the Plan of Salvation, so I started to read through this lesson in Preach my Gospel. As I was reading, I started to think about the next spiritual step that Edgardo needs to take to prepare himself to meet God. Immediately, the impression came to me to invite him to live the Word of Wisdom. We taught the doctrine, promised the blessings, and he committed to live this commandment of God. It amazes me how he already recognizes how to feel the Spirit and is willing to sacrifice and do what is right in order to receive those blessings. He is progressing really well for his baptismal date of July 8th.

We also taught the Baltazar family (family who lives in the casitas eligidas). This was the smaller family of the 2 really big families that we were teaching last Monday night. The bigger family (family of 8) is actually moving out to Riverside. We had a good lesson with them and are now passing off the referral. The Baltazar family however, is staying in Perris and Elder Dew and Lawlor are going to work hard to get them to baptism. The little kids, Benjamin (10) and Eva (12) had already read 30 pages each in the Stories of the Book of Mormon. They were telling about all of the different Book of Mormon stories and are super smart kids. When we invited them to be baptized on July 15th, Benjamin was all pumped up and wanted to, but his mom needs some more time to think about it for their family. They are going to be a really awesome family to teach for future elders who are in the area.

Cesar came to church and he has attended 9 sacrament meetings now. He is making a lot of excuses for when we try to sit down and have a lesson with him throughout the week. For that, he is moving his way into the "enternagator" classification. Before he headed out of the chapel that day, I just told him straight up "You have a lot of potential and we are here to help you, but you need to do your part." I just bore my testimony of how true this church is, but he needs to do a true search for himself. He told me to give him some calls to stay in touch, so I'm looking forward to giving him some support even though I'll be out in Riverside. 

Our bishopric also had all 4 missionaries that were leaving the ward, bear their testimonies. The testimony meeting was awesome and I think it was just what everyone needed to hear. We had a lot of the less active families that we teach at church, so that was really good to see as well. It is awesome to see that progression in these individuals and families even in just a short 6 weeks. 

We are running out of time and this P day has been crazy with all the doubling in and trying to get people place to place. There will be some good updates next week. I just want to leave with a little something that I studied this week in 3 Nephi. In 3 Nephi 17:14-25. I love reading about how Jesus prayed to the father and how much joy that brought to everyone there in the multitude. Everyone was so full of joy and the Spirit because of their faith in Jesus Christ and God the Father. 

I loved hearing about how our Prophet challenged all the youth of the Church to focus on Gathering Israel. I can say that my spirit has been full of joy as I have trusted in my Savior and exercised the faith to be obedient and do His work. If you are looking for more joy, then evaluate your faith and take whatever steps you need to start nurturing that faith. 

Thanks for all the support and I am looking forward to a great week of finding, teaching, and testifying here in this new area!

Elder Moon

 Teather-ball match with the local shark

I didn't stand a chance on his home court

First day in Riverside

Leadership Training Meeting