October 28, 2013

This week was awesome!  It suddenly got a lot colder, so a lot of people are getting sick around here and are at home for us to teach!  I did get to play piano yesterday in church!!  My prayer was that it would touch at least some one person and that they would feel the spirit and a bunch of members came up to me and told me they loved it and I looked over and Sister Morgan was tearing up :)  Haha it would have been nice if I had time to practice a little bit more, but I've found that the Lord helps you out when you ask him.  Hannah - it was the arrangement of Praise to the Man that you gave to me and one of the youth asked me for a copy of it so that he can learn it!  You're the cause of a never ending chain of music!  I didn't play as well as you do, but I think that it still invited the spirit.  It was a little bit sad that none of our investigators made it to church this week, but we did get to go over to Luis' house and we met his mom at the trunk or treat on Thursday.  She is one of the nicest people!  I don't really know what I was expecting from what everyone was saying about her being WAY Catholic, but it really wasn't any different from what I could tell than any other person that has been raised Catholic...  She just raises her son as best as she can with the knowledge and light she has of who Jesus is and what he expects of us.  I hope that this week we'll be able to sit down with the whole family and explain the restoration!  They're an awesome family :)  She also told us that she's happy with Luis wherever he is as long as he's behaving.  It's so fun - we've been working a lot with the Youth lately because everyone is so excited to get out and serve missions.  There are a few missionaries out in the ward here right now and you can see the difference and desire in those families to share the gospel!  It's such a blessing!!  I hope that when I come back that spirit will stay with me and the family forever.  

It looks like you've been having a lot of fun on all of these vacations!  Are you ever going to be home again??  Haha it just seems like you've been away from home this whole time I've been out here.  I loved the pictures that dad sent from Italy and the ones of you on Facebook and the ones in the e-mail you sent. 

This week we have been talking a lot about the importance of receiving answers to our prayers and I have been very grateful and realized a lot more and more lately that serving a mission has helped me to recognize the hand of the Lord in my life.  Whenever I ask him for things that I NEED or that other people I know need, He answers!  It's been such a blessing to learn about this and also to teach Elder Wright about what I know to be true.  Elder Wright has had some amazing answers to prayer as well that have helped him to see why it's important to be a missionary.  We've both had dreams where we just wake up and are SO grateful to be serving missions right now!  I can't remember if I told you the details about the one that I had a couple of weeks ago..  If not I'm sure I'll remember to tell you someday :)  I can relate to that one person in the scriptures that talks about how he is led and comforted by the spirit in the day and visited in the night in his dreams...  Nephi??  I can't remember, but it's been like that.

I just want to share with you something that I read this week that really stuck with me.  It said something like: pray like everything depends on the Lord and work like everything depends on you.  Don't you love that?  And then, of course, the credit goes to the Lord!  

I have felt again lately the desire to stay here forever and be a missionary until the end of time!  I'm so happy to be here and hope that good things are ahead :)  Chris and Luis are both progressing toward baptism.  More than anything I think that what they need is to just sit down and sincerely pray to know if what we are teaching is the truth.  The second that the spirit enters their hearts they will recognize that it's what they want more than anything else to be a part of the restored gospel.  I know it's true because that is what happened to me!  It would probably also help if they would read the Book of Mormon every day.  We've been helping them to remember.  I love Beaufort and I love the members of the ward here!  It's paradise!  I'll send you some pictures over Facebook.  I haven't been taking many this transfer, but I'll try to remember to take more.  

Love,

Elder Moore