3x

So I'll be staying in the Moreno Valley zone for a third transfer and this is my third transfer with Elder Dundon as well! We were pretty excited about it because we have a lot of momentum going in the work. 

This week we taught the Martinez-Mendoza family twice and are preparing for a few baptisms in April with them. 

We taught a new family on Tuesday night, the Ambriz family, and they were super interested in all coming to church. They were out of town this weekend, but we will get them the next one. 

Margarita has been a little flaky, so we have some more work to do with her, but most of the people we are finding are for the Spanish ward. The YSA branch still has a ton of potential and the leaders of the branch are fired up, so I'm glad I get another transfer here in order to keep on helping the branch grow.

We did exchanges on Thursday with the other Spanish elders that live in our apartment and I was able to take Elder Larsen in my area for the day. We made the most of our time and we taught a part member family. The father is a member, but his son, Arturo, is not. We invited him to be baptized and the Spirit worked through our testimonies and the testimony of his father, which helped him want to have the goal to be baptized. 

On Saturday we got our transfer calls and found out that our zone is relatively staying the same, which made us really happy.

Only 2 more weeks until General Conference!

Here is a little quote from Howard W. Hunter:

“Please remember this one thing. If our lives and our faith are centered upon Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong. On the other hand, if our lives are not centered on the Savior and his teachings, no other success can ever be permanently right."  

Elder Moon

 Elder Lawlor is gone to Lake Elsinore

Staying together for one more transfer

21

Thanks for all the birthday wishes; this birthday definitely beats the last one because Sunday was an awesome day. After we got done with ward council, I found out that 2 of the people that I taught with Elder Moloney in Corona were baptized. The Jaldin family moved to Virginia after we taught them for about 6 weeks, so we passed them off to the sisters in Virginia. I was able to do a Skype lesson with them after that, and since then, they have been taught more, gone to church a lot, and Lisset and her son, Angel, were baptized this month! We also had the confirmation for Nathan this week. We had gotten a text about an hour before saying that they wouldn't be able to make it because everyone in the house was sick. Then, Nathan's mom put the team on her back and took him to church so he could get the gift of the Holy Ghost. After church, we went to eat dinner with the Vargas family and they made us ribs and we had tres leches cake after that. But not before I got my face shoved into the cake haha I'll send some pictures next week since I don't have any right now.

Other than that, we started teaching another part member family. There is a 15 year old girl who's grandma is a member. Her name is Chata and she doesn't really know almost anything about God, so it'll be fun!

We went by about 30 less active YSA members this week and almost none of them were there, but we will keep on trying to build up the branch we have!

 

A little scripture for thought: D&C 59:21

"And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments”

Prayers of gratitude even when everything isn't working out perfectly is something that will reward us in the long run.

Elder Moon

Prospering in the land of MoVal

The woman we taught a few weeks ago named Margarita came to church this week! We had the Relief Society second counselor take her to church and then at church, she met a lot of the hermanas and made a lot of great friends. She has been busy with a lot of family things and work, so we are going to catch up on teaching her and help her work towards baptism later this month. 

Fernando, Yesenia and Chris also came to church this Sunday and they are loving it. Briana and Natalie were gone this weekend in Mexico, but Briana wants to be baptized and Natalie is right there with her, so we set a date for next month.

We scrapped together a white shirt, pants, shoes and a tie for one of the YSAs we are teaching because his excuse for not coming to church was because he didn't have the right clothes. He still didn't come to church, but we were able to get his less active roommate to come to church which was a miracle!

Something incredible that happened this week was the baptism of Robert Steele. Last transfer, Elder Davis and I were talking with a couple from the English ward and they mentioned that their son-in-law isn't a member and that he has come to church a few times. We referred him to the missionaries that were there, but the next week, both those missionaries left and two new missionaries came into the zone. I caught them up with what was going on, they went over, taught him and he progressed really fast and was baptized this Saturday. 

Elder Dundon and I also executed our first "Beat to teach" game where we played 2 on 2 basketball at the park, beat our friends Alex and Johnny, then taught them and their friend Omar. After that, we taught another YSA at the park named Ryan. Ryan was the one who told us to meet him at the park for the lesson but showed up late, so we had the extra time to find some more people. Ryan was really cool though and he accepted a baptismal date for April 20th. We were able to teach him another time as well before the week was up.

We also had Multi zone conferences this week and then a Missionary correlation meeting with the stake. That pretty much filled our whole Thursday. 

My favorite thing I learned this week was in Alma 48:15-16. 
And this was their faith, that by so doing God would prosper them in the land, or in other words, if they were faithful in keeping the commandments of God that he would prosper them in the land; yea, warn them to flee, or to prepare for war, according to their danger; And also, that God would make it known unto them whither they should go to defend themselves against their enemies, and by so doing, the Lord would deliver them; and this was the faith of Moroni, and his heart did glory in it...

I feel like what I learned is that "being prospered in the land" really just means having increased revelation from God and a constant sense of protection that comes from the Gift of the Holy Ghost. These things dont take away any of the trials, just like how the Nephites in this example still had to defend themselves from the Lamanite attacks, but it will definitely help us and save our spirituality. The way to be prospered is simply through our personal faith and obedience. 

Elder Moon

 Traditional birthday face smash into the cake

Nice "21" birthday cake they made me - tastes different through the nose though

exchange with Elder Mcintire

Samoan or Mexican?

It was a little shorter of a week since we had our pday just last Wednesday. We were able to visit Nathan and his family to make sure the baptism was still good for this Sunday. They were super busy, but it all worked out and we had the baptism after church on Sunday! They brought all their friends and family, so a lot of less actives and non members were there. The ward came out and supported, which I could tell the family really appreciated and we will keep on working with them to make sure they stay strong in the Gospel. 

Another miracle this week was that Fernando came to church for the first time. He came with his son Chris and his wife and little daughter. He enjoyed it and a lot of the hermanos were getting to know him.

We also put some work in the YSA branch and taught Brandon and Shawn. They are two friends who are really open to hearing the gospel. Brandon has come to FHE before to play basketball, but he came to church for the first time this Sunday and we will try to get Shawn to tag along this next week. We had a really good discussion about 2 Nephi 2 and the Plan of Salvation with them and they gave some good feedback.

I'm loving our Spanish ward and all the members and missionaries are putting in work here. We brought 12 people to church between our 3 companionships and the members are giving us referrals every week. Nathan was a miracle referral from just 6 weeks ago and now we are working with another referral that actually came from Newport beach. 


This referral actually was sent to the Samoan elders in our zone about 4 months ago, but she was Spanish speaking and it was just sent to the wrong missionaries. The Samoan elders tried stopping by and calling her a few times for the last few months. When they called, it would go to the voicemail in Spanish and her name is Margarita, but they never sent over the referral because maybe they thought she was still Samoan? When I was on exchanges with them this last Monday, I found this all out, so I gave her a call and we set up an appointment. We taught her this week and she is golden. She has already been to church before in a different city and has been reading the Book of Mormon. She has grandkids she wants to bring to church and we put Margarita on baptismal date for the 23rd of March. We will try to teach the little kids this week as well and get them all to church.

I've been reading in the middle of Alma and just wanted to include a part of it.
In Alma 29:1-2, Alma said
"O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!
Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth."

If only it were that easy, then the world would be a lot happier. The opposition in all things makes this life a probation for us all, but my mission has been absolutely worth it. There are still a lot of people who haven't wanted to change, but it's worth seeing the people who do want to change to become more like Jesus Christ. 

Elder Moon

Temple Day

Today I won't have as much time to write because we will be going to the temple in Redlands!  

Just a quick update on the week...

Last Tuesday, I went on exchanges with Elder Moloney in our area in Moreno Valley. We taught the Martinez-Mendoza family and brought a team up for the daughters. 

On Wednesday, I went on exchanges with Elder Sato in his area. He was in my zone in Corona, but got moved to Moreno Valley and is a new district leader here. He is doing a really good job and it was a successful exchange.

Nathan passed his baptismal interview on Friday and will be getting baptized and confirmed this coming weekend.

We are really nice on the weekend. We found a family that gave us ribs and steak on Sunday night and we will be going back and teaching them more this week!

Since we didn't have pday this Monday, I went on an exchange with Elder Mills in his area. They cover the Samoan ward and split an English ward. We taught 2 new people in their area and found a samoan family for them to start teaching.

Yesterday, we had our zone accountability because we will be having MLC this Friday in Riverside!

Don't have much more time, but if you want to study a good chapter on conversion in the Book of Mormon, then read Alma 24!

Elder Moon