August 26, 2013

It was a great week.  I love this District SOOOOOOOO much!  It's going to be hard to see any part of it change, but we're blessed with what we have right now :)  It's been an amazing transfer as far as getting to know that other Elders and Sisters and encouraging them with phone calls and district meetings and district P days.  This week I went on trade off with the Okatie Spanish elders and feel like I helped them to somewhat build their faith in finding and teaching and being obedient.  I think if nothing else, I have realized that the most important thing you can do for another person is love them!  That's what we talked about in District meeting and that's what I've really been praying to be able to do this week!  Hannah wrote me about how she knows that praying for charity works, and I completely agree.  It's really too hard to develop on your own!

Yovana and her son, Antonio came to church this week, but Carlos had to work.  BUT it was still so nice seeing them there!  I felt pure joy in the chapel when I walked in after Parris Island and saw them sitting there in the congregation.  Yovana has a great desire to get going back to church and live her life the right way.  She talks about how she's screwed up and just wants to make things right.  It's so nice seeing her and Carlos talk about praying together and coming to church.  On Friday, we taught them about the word of wisdom and Yovana at first told us that she would live it after she finished her last can of iced tea, but we told her that she could start now if she would just give the tea to us, so she did!!  She gave us these two HUGE cans of iced tea concentrate and we chucked them in the trash SO hard (after taking pictures with it).  Carlos hasn't agreed to give us his alcohol yet, but those will be even better pictures when he does :)  Haha.  It's been a blessing to have them to teach these past few weeks.  I'm excited to see what their lives will be like twenty or thirty years down the road if they really follow through with this.  

Although the mission doesn't feel completely unified right now, I feel like our district is really tight knit.  I couldn't ask for anything more.  If I can continue to learn to love Elder Johnson as much or more than everyone else, things will be perfect.  We have been discussing how we can work more effectively with members and trying to really strengthen the faith of the members of the ward :)  It's inspiring to hear stories about other things that are working in our home ward and from other Elders and Sisters.  There's still a lot to be done!  Next on the list, Chelsey O'Hare. haha I hope she reads that.  

I love you so much!  Thanks for your encouragement!  I'll know what's happening next week with transfers.  I have a hunch that things might change because there are 4 new Spanish Elders coming out.  I don't even know if there are really enough Elders to train!  We'll see what happens :)  

Love,

Elder Moore

The Georgia Macon Mission

August 19, 2013

It's been an amazing weekend.  I can't believe how blessed we were!  On Thursday we were told that we would be heading down to Columbus, GA to hear Elder Neil L. Andersen at a mission conference!!  That was the last thing that we were expecting.  We drove 4 1/2 hours on Saturday morning to make it down to Columbus by 11:00 and there we met up with the rest of the Elders and Sisters in our mission and the President and his wife and several others.  Elder Andersen came in the room about 30 minutes after we got there and the room was just immediately filled with a different type of spirit.  He was just so confident and pleasant to be with.  I don't really know how to describe it, but he just laughed and talked to us as if we were all best friends.  When he got up to speak, I honestly wanted to ask him how sure he is that he is an actual, living Apostle of Jesus Christ, but I never got the chance so I just said a prayer in my heart towards the end of the training he gave that I would know and sure enough, about a minute later he bore the most powerful witness I've ever heard of how Christ is a resurrected, perfect being of flesh and bones.  I wrote a lot about it in my journal, but I thought you'd like to hear some of the impressions that he had.  He told us to never give up and to be patient with ourselves and our calling.  No matter where you are called to serve a mission in the world, it's a hard experience.  I honestly wish that every day could just be like that one haha.  

This week, one of the Elders in our district will be heading home a few weeks before the transfer ends to get into school for the fall semester, so we'll be in a trio for most likely the next two weeks.  I'm excited to have more than two people in our apartment :)  It's going to be a lot of fun.  

We're still teaching Carlos and Yovana.  It feels like it's been a while since we've had an actual full-blown lesson with them instead of just a principle here or there, but we'll be teaching the Plan of Salvation tonight if they're both home.  This week they met some members that live in their neighborhood that will be giving them rides to church for the next two weeks and they get along very well.  They have been praying at meals and still seem like they're doing great.  It's frustrating to not be able to know exactly what they're feeling or believing, but from what I can tell things are going pretty good. :)  

Love you lots!

Elder Moore

Eric's District in Beaufort, SC

Eric with Elder Quintana

Elder Johnson, Parris Island Recruit and Elder Moore

Elder Johnson, Parris Island Recruit, Elder Moore

Key Lime Pie from the Ingrams

Zone Conference

August 12, 2013

Dear Mummy and Deddy,

Carlos and Yovana fed us and the Zone Leaders some of the best food that I've had since coming up to South Carolina.  She made us tacos and kind of tried to explain to me all it takes to make them.  I'm going to have to try a lot before I can get them to taste anything like the ones that actual Hispanics make :)  You're right by the way!  they are DEFINITELY an answer to prayer.  They told us that they would come to church this week after we introduce them to some members that live in their same neighborhood.  They'll have their own car soon, but they seemed legitimately excited to meet some new friends and members of the church that live so close :)  

That is one of the saddest pictures I've ever seen in my whole life of you waving goodbye to Hannah as she goes down the escalator.  It's probably a way different experience not only letting the last kid go, but the little girl.  Haha I don't mean to make you sad.  It's a sweet picture :)  Sounds like you've been having a lot of fun with the rest of the family.  Remind me again why Ryan was with Hannah at the airport...  I can't remember.  Do you have plans for the holidays or anything?  

We interviewed another Recruit yesterday at Parris Island that has been learning for the past couple of months.  He has a very strong testimony already and there was no worry at all after his interview.  Boleware shared some of his knowledge of the Restoration with another recruit in his Platoon and he came to class and understood the message of the restoration.  As weird as it sounds, it's really harder than I would have thought to help people grasp the concept of a need for a restoration.  If they understand what the church really is and read from the Book of Mormon, they're likely to want more.  

This week we'll be looking for even more people to teach as usual, I'll let you know how it goes :)  We'll also be having the first district meeting of the transfer and we're already 3 weeks in.  It's gone by pretty fast honestly.  Hard to believe I'm a fourth of the way through training Elder Johnson. 

You help me out so much and I love you more and more the longer I'm away from home!  

I hope you have a wonderful week!  I'm trying to remember to take pictures, but it's hard because Elder Johnson doesn't have a camera.  Most of the pictures we've taken lately have been at Emalie's because we go over there sometimes on P Day to go fishing with her and her family.  It's been a blessing having her family so close.  They're not in our Ward, even though they only live ten minutes from the building.  Our Ward is completely in English.  We have several bilingual members and one Sister that only speaks Spanish, but she's trying to learn English.  

Love,

Elder Moore

August 5, 2013

 Dear Family:

I got the cookies and they were delicious, but I think next time your should send them in a plastic bag as well :)  Everyone that tried them thought they were way good!  It made me feel right at home!!  Thank you so much for sending those!  

I'm glad you're in Boise still visiting with other family members.  Are you going to be spending a lot of time away from home now that it's just you two??  It's probably a good thing at least at first to keep yourselves busy and your minds occupied.  I hope you're both having a fun and happy time together!  

This week we had some pretty great experiences.  I don't know if I told you about Carlos and Yovana, but I met Yovana in the Food Lion just outside of her neighborhood and talked to her while Elder Johnson was in the bathroom because she walked by and I overheard her talking to the people she was with about how she used to be a Mormon, so I walked up to her and asked what she meant and set up a time to go over and visit them.  Come to find out her husband isn't a member yet and she's been thinking about coming back to church.  That happened about two weeks ago and ever since we've been over there teaching them, they say that they can feel a difference in their relationship and apparently Carlos has been a lot more open and interested with us than he usually is with other people.  We committed him on Tuesday to be baptized, and then on Thursday we set him up to prepare to be baptized on the 14th of September.  It'll give him enough time to come to church and get to know the members a little bit better and they will have their own mode of transportation by then :)  I'm so excited for them!  We have been teaching them for only these last two weeks and I can already feel this profound love for them.  It gives me hope that there are a lot of sincere people out there that really want to live Christlike lives and truly follow him.  The gospel is amazing!  We can ALREADY see a difference in their lives.  Pray for them :)  We were invited to their son's 1st birthday party on the 9th of September as well!!  We get to see him destroy his own cake.  He's adorable!

This ward is a blessing :)  I'm so happy to be a part of it.  It honestly feels more and more like home each week.  We are going to be fed by members every day of this week :D  We also found another less active member with a non-member wife at the same Food Lion and he invited us to come and eat dinner with his family at their house tomorrow night.  There are a lot of things to look forward to this week - Zone Conference, trade-offs and a lot of dinner appointments :)  It's amazing how much the things other people do for us mean to me :)  I hope that President Cottle gives us a lot of good advice on becoming unified in our mission as well as in our individual companionships.  Well, I feel like I wrote a lot this week.  Keep praying for us!  We baptized another recruit yesterday at Parris Island named Justin Boleware and then we just set another date for someone to be baptized on the 18th.  His name's Cody Wolferz and he is really amazing!  He was taught by missionaries before and brings his own quad to church service.  He bore his testimony in Sacrament meeting yesterday and was more than happy to set the goal to be baptized in two weeks :)  Boleware told me after the baptism that he was just incredibly happy and feels the weight of boot camp already lighter because of his decision.  He's the one that I told you couldn't get permission from his parents to join the church, so he just waited until he was 18.  He also bore his testimony.  It's such a happy sight to see all of them and an honor to perform the ordinances of Salvation for them.  

I love you all so much and I hope that you continue to have a great time with the family!  Let them all know that I love them!  Have another great week! :)

Love,

Elder Moore

Elder Moore and Elder Beazer with their catch of the day!  How appropriate that it is "shark week!"

Eric with his friend Emalie Ingram from BYU.  Her family lives in his area and they feed the missionaries and help them out.  Her FB caption for this picture is, "missionary friends photo, no hugs." :)