Elder Mason Moon: Miracle of Jesse

My first few days in Corona were really busy, but with very little success to show from our hard work. All the way up to that Sunday, we had only found 1 new investigator and we had to stop teaching a few people. After sacrament meeting, a member came up to us with their neighbor that they brought named Jesse. Jesse is a 16 year old and he was all dressed up in a suit and tie, so I was surprised to find out that he wasn't a member. He was a little shy at first, but we taught him during the second hour of church and he accepted a baptismal date for that next Sunday, the 21st. He got to know a lot of the other kids his age that day, but we still weren't 100% sure if he was going to be baptized as quick as that next Sunday. On Monday night, we stopped by and invited him to come to an activity on Tuesday night and he said he would try. On Tuesday night, we stopped by to see if he was ready to go/needed a ride to the activity, but his mom met us at the door and told us that Jesse was already walking to the church building! Everyone in the young men's and young women's program just welcomed him right in! That night, we taught him. The next night we taught him, and so on. We did a church tour with his family and is step sister is super interested now. His mom and dad are really active in their current church, but really respect us and gave us permission for Jesse to be baptized. Jesse passed his baptismal interview on Saturday and we had almost 100 people at his baptism on Sunday. When we planned the baptismal service, we made sure we had youth involved, so we had a member of the priest quorum baptize him, 2 others were the witnesses, one gave a talk, and all the prayers and music were covered by youth as well!! After the service, we had a meeting, but after that, we passed by Jesse's house and we had a few families from our ward over there and we all had a delicious dinner. We met Jesse on the 14th, he was baptized on the 21st and now we have our eyes set on him baptizing the rest of his family in November.

Jesse is so willing to live the commandments and be active in the church. He said that his parents give him $5 a month and he said he would give it all to tithing and fast offerings. If he can't get a ride on Sunday, he said he'll walk. Can't wait to see how he progresses and the people that he will bring into the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have a lot of Part Member families to work with and we are trying to reactivate the less active families who were sealed in the temple. The goal is to have another Spanish ward in Corona by the start of 2020. I have definitely seen a difference in setting goals that make us stretch. The field is white and ready to harvest.

My companion, Elder Moloney, is such a beast. He was getting his hair cut today and was teaching about eternal families as he was getting lined up. We left her with our info and a Restoration pamphlet. We aren't messing around out here!

Also one of the funniest missionaries I've ever met is being trained here in our zone and his name is Elder Emry. He had so many good stories and is just full of fire for missionary work. One funny thing is that he said he was pulled over 29 times before his mission, but that he only received 2 tickets. Apparently he drove a sketchy car back home, so cops just liked to pull him over, but you can't beat that pulled over to ticket ratio!

We worked so hard when we were on exchanges on Friday in Spanishland. We invited the only non member in this family of 4 to be baptized during the dinner thought and he is now on date for the 4th of November.

The mission has seen some crazy miracles as we are just working on inviting everyone to act on their faith.

We are working with another cool family of 5, and they are planning on coming to church next Sunday. November is looking to be a great month!

The members are helping us out big time here because of the success that this ward has had in the last few months. They definitely aren't scared to go out there and minister, so I'm loving it here!

Elder Moon

Pics below include: Jesse at his baptism, pumpkin carving with the zone, a recent convert named Michelle and her kittens, Me with my companion Elder Moloney - he is from Arlington, VA