Merry Christmas!

My Filipino Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone! That may be a little late, but in the famous words of my favorite elf, "Treat every day like Christmas!"

So we had a pretty good week! We had a lesson with Achmed, he's a Muslim guy that we tracted into. He was really nice, and willing to talk to us. We gave him a Book of Mormon, and we're going to go by sometime this week to see if he's been reading it! We also had a lesson with Brother Ho. He's a nonmember, and his daughter has been coming to church with one of her friends for a while now. He saw what a good influence the gospel is on his daughter, and decided that he wanted to start coming! He's come to church twice now, and already has asked to be baptized! The thing is, he doesn't live in our ward boundaries, so we're going to try and pass him off to the other missionaries who really should be teaching him.

Our Christmas was great! Skyping home was definitely the best Christmas gift ever! After talking with our families, we had a real Filipino Christmas with the Hernandez family! Man they love to eat. They had quite the spread of food, and really didn't like our plates to be empty haha. After our lunch with them, we went over to Shannon and Mack's. They're recently reactivated members of our ward, and they invited us over for Christmas dinner. It was great! Shannon invited her uncle, who was basically Steven Tyler, it was awesome.

This was a great Christmas, but definitely different from the ones I'm used to. I feel like I had more time to focus on the true meaning of Christmas, and ponder the birth of our Savior. I have felt my testimony of Him grow tremendously in the past couple of weeks. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and for what he did for us. In Isaiah 9:6 it states:

6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Christ truly is the Prince of Peace. If we turn to Him and focus on Him, we will be able to find peace in this life. I can testify of that.

Love you all! I hope that everyone has a very happy New Year!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

Our Mission Christmas Party!

Transfers

The mission family!

Hey Everyone!

So this was a really long and weird week. I got transferred, so the beginning of the week was mostly filled with goodbyes. That was so hard for me. I've grown to love Claresholm so much, and leaving all of the people there broke my heart. I took a slew of pictures this week (close to 100 I think), so we'll see how many I actually get to send.

On Wednesday we drove up to Calgary to pick up Elder Ajeman's new companion. All three of us got to stay the night in Claresholm. We got to eat my last supper with the Hamons, then we went caroling with some families from the ward! It was a fun time!

Thursday morning we had breakfast with our ward mission leaders family, then went and said some more goodbyes. We drove down to Lethbridge for transfers where I got to see my main man Elder Todd, said goodbye to my boy Ajeman, and then all of us missionaries going north hopped in a van and started the long trip to Calgary. We had to drive through Claresholm on our way up which was just awful, talk about salt in the wound. 

So my new companion is Elder Coe, and I'm serving the the Sunridge ward in North East Calgary. I'm in the suburbs, and cover a few neighborhoods. It's definitely a big change from Claresholm and all of the small farming communities I've been around for the past 6 months. Everything is a lot faster paced and busy. And there's so many people here it's weird. I've gotten to meet some of the people that we're working with already, they're awesome. We don't have any investigators right now, but there are a lot of less actives that we're working with. The ward is really nice, and gave us two huge laundry baskets full of food on Sunday. I probably won't need to buy groceries this whole transfer haha. 

Changing areas is really hard, but I know that I'll grow to love this place and the people here.

For my spiritual though this week, I'm going to steal a quote that our President sent out today.

Elder Christofferson recently said ‘I think it’s appropriate this time of the year to just think about that baby in the manger.  Don’t be too overwhelmed or occupied with what is to come; just think about that little baby.  Take a quiet, peaceful moment to ponder the beginning of His life--the culmination of heavenly prophecy but the early beginning for Him.  Take time to relax, be at peace, and see this little child in your mind.  Do not be too concerned or overwhelmed with what is coming in His life or yours.   Instead, take a peaceful moment to contemplate perhaps the most serene moment in the history of the world—when all of heaven rejoiced with the message “Glory to God in the highest, and of earth peace, good will toward men”.’

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful week as we celebrate the birth of our savior Jesus Christ!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

Grant and Sister St. Onge!

Bary!

Cassie!

Sister Carlson!

The Perrys!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. . .just not in Claresholm. . .

Elder Stone and I about to do the wing challenge! I wasn't smiling so much afterwards

Hey guys! We had a pretty packed week, and I'm really short on time, so I'm going to try and just share the big things. 

So the people we're teaching are really progressing! We had a lesson with Grant, and he really wants to develop his faith. He's been reading the Book of Mormon, and accepts everything we teach, he just needs to receive and recognize his answer from the Holy Ghost. He's been coming to church, and he is working towards baptism. Our lesson with Sister Carlson went really well again! She is totally willing to come to church, something just always seems to come up. So we're not officially teaching Melissa, but she's doing great! She's been reading the Book of Mormon with sister Gilmour, and I think she's really felt the spirit at church. 

We had a Christmas Cantata in our ward yesterday, which is just a fancy way of saying musical program I think. It was great! A lot of people from the community came. I love how music can invite the spirit!

So Elder Ajeman found out that he's training this next transfer! We got to go up to Calgary on Friday to attend a trainers meeting for him. We went to lunch at buffalo wild wings after, and somehow Elder Stone talked me in to doing the blazing challenge where you eat 10 traditional wings in under 5 minutes. The were habanero wings with Ghost pepper sauce on them. They were really hot. I somehow managed to finish all of them. Everything hurt. Our waiter could tell I really didn't want to do it, and he was so impressed that I actually finished that he bought my meal for me! He was awesome. I even got a free t-shirt! They only had XL though so I'll have to grow into it. 

Well that's about all I've got time for today, I'll have to attach some pictures for you guys too. 

Oh and for my spiritual thought, go to https://www.mormon.org/christmas and watch the video! It's important to remember the true meaning behind christmas this time of year!

Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

The awesome Claresholm youth!

We decided to stop at this bridge for a nice photo-op

Me and my cat friend who refused to pose for the picture

Our fancy little Christmas tree and Kinder advent calendars!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Brother Gilmour is really into photography, and took this sweet picture of us! #TheFieldIsWhite

Hey everyone!

So in regards to the subject line on this email, Alberta is having an abnormally warm winter. It's been above freezing all week, and we haven't seen any snow for a while. I think it's actually in the 50s right now. I've been able to wear short sleeves! Now this weather is great and all, but I'm going to feel really cheated if I don't get to see a white Christmas in Canada, that's all I'm saying. 

Anyways, we had an awesome week! Lets start out with the spiritual stuff. Our lesson with Sister Carlson was great. We shared both personal and scriptural experiences on prayer and why it's so important. It was neat to hear her share her own experiences with prayer and see her testimony of it. It was also a good reminder to me of the power that prayer can have. That's something I'm continuing to learn on my mission. 

On Thursday, we were leaving a neighborhood after stopping by someone, and we passed two of the youth. We asked them what they were up to, and they told us they were heading to a friends house and that we should come share a message with him. We thought they were joking, but apparently they weren't! So we went up to the door with them, and one of the youth was like, "Hey Richie, do you want to hear a message about the gospel?" and he said yes, so we went in and taught him about Jesus Christ and about the Book of Mormon! He seemed interested, and said he'd read the Book of Mormon and pray about it! That was an awesome experience. The Claresholm youth are seriously the best youth in the mission, maybe the world. 

We finally had a lesson with Grant! We've been trying to schedule something with him for the past 3 months. He's already been coming to church and has really enjoyed it. The lesson was fantastic! We had it with Brother Butler, who is an awesome teacher. We shared the message of the restoration, and really focused on receiving answers to our prayers. We challenged him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and he said that he would. When we invited him to be baptized, he said that when he found for himself that the things we've taught him are true, he would definitely be baptized! 

On Saturday, the Gilmours had us over for dinner, and they invited one of their friends! Her name is Melissa. We got to share a message with her about Jesus Christ and his Atonement. I think she's been feeling a little lost recently, and was really open to everything we had to say. The Gilmours invited her to church and she came! She even came to the Christmas devotional yesterday! The members here have been doing an awesome job inviting people! They've really seen the work pick up in the last few months, and I think it's gotten them a lot more excited about doing missionary work!

Alright, now for the not as spiritual stuff. This email is already getting pretty long, so I'll be brief. Sister Toone made us authentic Mexican food the other day for lunch. Guys, I almost cried with pure joy. Words can't explain the joy that filled my soul as I partook of the beauty that is Mexican food. We also got to sing in two concerts with the community choir! Everyone was in black shirts with red ties, but they let us wear our white shirts and name tags. Needless to say, we really stood out. We had our ward Christmas party this week too! It was a family dance. Probably the only dance I'll get to go to on my mission haha. It was great, I got to show off all of my killer dance moves. I got a lot of compliments on my Christmas sweater too!

Well guys, that's about all I've got for this week. How about we wrap it all up with a spiritual thought?

This week there seemed to be a lot of focus on the idea that we have a loving Heavenly Father. We are his children, and he knows all of us personally. We can turn to Him at any time. If any of you feel as though you can't feel of that love, just turn to Him in prayer and ask, and I know that he'll answer you. 

Love you guys and hope everyone has an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

My awesome zone!

Our district family photo!

Our district family photo!

Us chilling at the dance with the Clareshommies 

Food Coma

Captain's chair in the Vulcan town information center!

Morning everyone! Hope everybody's food comas were as good as mine this week, that's how you know you had a successful thanksgiving!

We had a pretty busy week which was awesome! We stopped by and got to talk to a lot of people. I'll try to keep this email short and just cover the high points. 

On Tuesday we stopped by the youth activity again, and they were having another self defense night. Only this time, no young men showed up, so I got to be the practice dummy for Brother Vosburgh who was teaching. I got thrown to the ground a few times, put in an armbar, smashed in the face, kicked in the head, and all sorts of other fun things. All in dress clothes too!

We got to do some service shoveling snow this week, it was one of my first times doing that! Perks of growing up in Texas haha. It hasn't snowed in a while, but there is still a good amount on the ground. It actually hasn't been that cold here for a Canadian winter, it's really weird. I've even worn short sleeves a few times this week! 

We taught a lot of less active members this week. The highlight, as always, was our lesson with Sister Carlson. She's so sweet, and you can tell that she has a strong testimony of our Savior. The spirit was so strong in that lesson, and I was able to feel it guiding me on what to say, which was a very neat experience. We invited her to come to church, but she had a wedding reception in Cardston to go to, so we're hoping for next Sunday. 

We had another lesson with Cassie this week, and it went really well! We taught her about the plan of salvation. She seemed to understand and accept everything we shared with her! And she's been reading the Book of Mormon, and can definitely feel the spirit when she does that. We asked her about baptism again, and it's still something that she wants to do, she just has concerns about going to church every Sunday and keeping other commitments. The member that we brought with us shared with her the importance of taking it one step at a time. The Lord doesn't expect us to become perfect all at once, it's a lifelong pursuit. We asked her to just keep reading the scriptures and to keep praying and asking for a witness that this gospel is true. We told her that as she focuses on that, and builds her faith in Jesus Christ, then the other things will come. They won't always be easy, but they will be possible. 

Some other things happened this week, but those were the most important. Plus I only have about 8 minutes left on this computer and I don't know if I can get more time or not. So lets get right into that spiritual thought!

I wanted to talk a little about repentance today. We got to go over this in one of our lessons this week, and it really stuck out to me. The purpose of repentance is change. Our goal in this life is to continually strive to become better and live worthily so we can return to live with our Father in Heaven. As we repent, we turn away from our sins, and turn toward Christ. It's the process by which we allow ourselves to change into the person that our Heavenly Father wants us to become. 

I love you guys and hope that you all have a fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

Picture with the Enterprise in Vulcan! What a strange town haha

This is my zone at our zone Pday. They're basically the best ever

One of the members we ate with shot some coyotes the other day, and my comp loves hunting and had to get a pic with them, so I decided that I had to as well

Happy (American) Thanksgiving!

Well hello again everyone!

I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving week even though Thanksgiving was really over a month ago! We sure had a pleasant week!

Tuesday was quite busy for us. Elder Ajeman and I baked cookies for our district meeting because we're tired of the sisters always bringing treats and showing up us elders. So with some help from the Hamons (they made the cookies, we just put them in the oven) we pulled it off! Our chocolate chip rolo cookies were a hit! We have elders just begging to come to Claresholm now so that they can get more of those delicious treats haha. 

We had a lesson with Sister Carlson again that night, a less active. She's wonderful! Our lesson went so well! The spirit was so strong, and she agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it this week! We're so excited to be working with her!

We stopped by mutual after our lesson. The youth had a self defense night, and so I kept getting attacked by their new found ninja skills. It hurt. 

We had Zone conference this week as well. That was an awesome meeting. We learned a lot about missionary work, and really focused on Jesus Christ, and developing faith in Him. We had a testimony meeting at the end, and the spirit was so strong. As some of you may know, I'm not always the most eager to get up in testimony meetings, something about speaking in front of crowds just really doesn't appeal to me. However, the spirit was so strong in this meeting that I knew that I couldn't stay seated. As I bore testimony about my Savior, I really felt it grow. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and for what he did for me, and I'm so excited for these two years that I have to dedicate fully to Him and to sharing His gospel!

We had a ward dinner this week, and a lot of people came! Ken and Linda were there, and so was Sister Carlson! We had a great time there, and I think they did too. We stopped by Ken and Linda the next day, and had a good discussion with them. They accepted to have us over to share the lessons with them! It might be a while until we can get something scheduled with them, but we're so excited to start teaching them!

On Sunday we got to watch the re-dedication of the Montreal Quebec temple, that was a really neat experience! They broadcasted it to all of the churches in Canada I believe. Oh and funny story from Sunday. We got a phone call from an unknown number, and it turned out to be some guy that was really into conspiracy theories haha. He talked to us for like 45 minutes on the phone about all sorts of things, oh man it was awesome!

This email is getting a little long, so I think it's about time to wrap it up. So for the spiritual thought, I want to share something that hit me as I was sitting in our Zone testimony meeting. I was thinking about the parable of the talents in the New Testament, and found that it really related to testimonies. All of our testimonies are at different points. Some are stronger than others. If we hide our testimonies like the guy who hid his talent, it will never grow, and may in fact be taken away from us. If we use our testimonies and share them with others, they will grow and become stronger. This doesn't just have to be in a testimony meeting, we can share them with our friends and with our family, but we must share them. 

I love you guys so much! Hope you all have glorious weeks!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

Five Months

Celebrating our five month birthday at Zone Training Meeting!

Good afternoon everyone!

We had a pretty great week!

It all started on Tuesday when we made the drive down to Cardston in the thick fog and snow with no accidents! Now I'm not going to lie, we came close a couple of times, but that's to be expected when you put a native Texan behind the wheel. Thankfully it's been a really warm winter (really unusual for Canada) so I haven't had to drive in too much snow yet.

That night we had another lesson with Marion, a less active member we've been teaching. We took one of the priests along with us, and man it was a great experience. The spirit was definitely there with us. We taught the message of the restoration, and focused a lot on Jesus Christ and his atonement, and on the Book of Mormon. She was really accepting of everything that was being said, and started to open up to us a little more. As I shared with her my testimony of Jesus Christ and his atonement, I really felt that testimony grow. I'm so thankful for Christ and for what he did for me, and I know that without the enabling power of his atonement, I wouldn't be able to do what I've been asked to do as a missionary.

On Thursday we were finally able to have our second lesson with Cassie. We took Christian, another priest, with us. The poor kid was really nervous about coming, but was a champ and agreed to come anyway. The lesson went so well! She had read and prayed about the Book of Mormon, and said that she definitely felt greater peace as she was reading it! We were able to explain to her that that was the spirit telling her the book was true. As we talked with her about the restoration and about modern day prophets, she seemed to totally agree, and understand the importance of it. We were bearing our testimonies at the end, and as I listened to Christian bear his, I really felt impressed to invite Cassie to be baptised. She said that baptism was something that she would definitely consider as she learned more and felt prepared to make that commitment! She asked a lot more questions after that about Sabbath day observance and some of the other concerns that she had, but it sounds like she really knows that the gospel is something that will bless her life! We're so excited to keep working with her!

On Sunday Grant came to church again! So did Brother Madsen! We talked to Grant and are going to try and set something up with him for this week. He seems so ready, it's just working around his schedule so that we can meet with him.

In my studies this morning I came across a verse that I want to share with you guys for my spiritual thought. It's Mark 8:36-37

36. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

37. Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

I think what Mark is talking about here is the importance of the gospel. It's worth more than the whole world. If we obtained all of the worldly possessions we could ever dream of, it still wouldn't amount to the worth of our souls or our salvation. It's more important for us to be on the path back towards our Heavenly Father than it is for us to be on the path to riches.

Love you guys and hope this week goes well for everyone!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

We got to see some horses at a members house yesterday!

Let it snow!

Here's me in the middle of a blizzard (By Texas standards)

Well folks, it's snowing here in Canada! These Canadians keep trying to tell me that these are just flurries, but they can't fool this Texan, it's a straight up blizzard out there.

So this week went pretty well! We stopped by a few less actives, and had the opportunity to share a message with one and get a return appointment. We're super excited about that! We also got to give some service to Connie and Bary. We went out one morning to help them shovel some topsoil into their front yard. I think it was around -6°C that morning. I don't know exactly what that is in Fahrenheit, but I think we can all agree that it's cold.

We went on exchanges this week, so I spent the night in Pincher Creek. While there we had a lesson with a member, and when he heard how new I was, he made me share the message of the Restoration with him to test me. I passed! Well at least I think I did haha. We also got to go tracting for a little bit, but it was super cold and windy so we weren't out for very long. The area we were in was beautiful though, really close to the mountains, and we even got to see a waterfall that was right off of the side of the main road!

We helped a member hang up some Christmas lights in his yard, and while we were there we got to meet his neighbor and he asked us to help him with his yard sometime, so we'll stop by him this week and see if we can share a message with him too!

One big miracle this week, Grant accepted to hear the discussions! He's already been to church a few times, and really enjoys it, he just didn't feel ready to meet with missionaries. But apparently he feels ready now! We won't be able to have a lesson with him this week, but next week we will. We're super excited to start meeting with him. He seems so ready to accept the gospel, I think he just needs to be invited!

That was basically it for this week. We've got some really awesome stuff lined up for the next few weeks so I'll keep you all posted on that!

So I've been reading a lot in the New Testament recently, and I wanted to share a few verses out of Mark for the spiritual thought this week. This is Chapter 5 verses 25-29.

25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,

26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,

27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.

28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.

29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

I love how this story can relate to us. We all have trials in our lives, just as this woman was being tried with her sickness. If we try to seek for help from the world to get through our trials, just as she did by visiting many physicians and spending all of her money, we often times will be no better off. However, as soon as she sought for help from our Savior and expressed her faith, she was healed, and her burden was lifted. We must have faith like this woman did to turn to our Savior in times of need, and seek help from him, rather than from the world.

Love you guys and hope everyone has a fantastic week! Stay warm!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

The waterfall we found! That's not me in the picture, I just used another elder for size comparison.

Candy Coma!

Hey everyone! Hope you guys had a great Halloween!

So we had a couple really neat experiences this week. We were walking over to a lesson with Connie and Bary, and Linda stopped us and talked with us for a bit. She was telling us about how she wants to come back to church, but she doesn't really know what to do. We offered to give her a blessing and she accepted. It was a really neat and spiritual experience. She was very appreciative, and it was the first blessing she had received in a while. She came to sacrament this Sunday too! We've gotten to know her husband Ken a lot better, and I think this is the most he's ever talked with missionaries which is a really good sign!

We've also been getting to know the Jensen's really well. They're a less active family, but they are super nice and really willing to have us over. We helped them move some couches this week and they seemed really grateful for that. They even gave us some homemade salsa! That was a blessing for sure, Elder Ajeman and I sure do miss Mexican food.

Halloween was fun! We raked some leaves for Linda in the morning, and we stopped by John, he's the director for the community choir here. John just had surgery so we wanted to stop by him and see how he was doing. He had an organ set up in his home to play phantom of the opera as kids came trick-or-treating, it was awesome! We had to be back in our home by 6, but the Hamons let us hand out candy, so that was fun!

Some of our other appointments fell through or got pushed back this week, but we still had an awesome week full of miracles!

Spiritual thought for the week. We got to teach a lesson in church this Sunday about the Atonement, which is one of my favorite things to talk about. We read a passage from Doctrine and Covenants 19 that I loved:

16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;

17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;

18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.

When we sin, it brings suffering, but Christ suffered through all of that so that we wouldn't have to. If we turn to him and use that Atonement in our lives, we can become free from sin, and from the suffering that comes along with that. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and for what he did for us!

Hope you guys all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

Happy Halloween!!

Top of the morning!

So we've had a great couple of weeks recently! Last week I mentioned that we picked up a new investigator, and we have another lesson with her on Sunday, we're really looking forward to that! We got another new investigator this week! His name is Mike Madsen, and his wife is an active member of the church. We had dinner with them the other night, and after we shared our message on eternal families, we asked if we could set up a time to have an official lesson with him and he accepted! He's been taught by missionaries before, but we're hoping that we can find our whats holding him back from making his baptismal covenants. He attends sacrament meeting fairly regularly, and knows a lot of the member in the ward, so we're really optimistic about teaching him!

We have also been doing a lot of walking around town (and even rode bikes once, I felt like such a classic missionary it was great!) and have had some great opportunities to talk with people that we pass. It's so neat to be able to learn about different people and their stories. If the weather continues to hold out for us, we'll keep walking around and hopefully continue to see tender mercies come out of it!

So last week I was short on email time because we were going on a hike with our district leader and his companion in Crowsnest pass. It was so much fun! It was nice to be up in the mountains and see that part of Canada. We hiked up to a plane crash site from WWII. The tail of the plane is still up there. It was a tough hike, but we made it!

We also got to carve jack-o-lanterns at district meeting! One of the sisters in our district really wanted to so she made it into an object lesson for part of her training. It was tons of fun!

So for the spiritual thought I'd like to leave with you this week, I want to simply express my gratitude for the knowledge I have of eternal families. The Family: A Proclamation to the World states:

IN THE PREMORTAL REALM, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.

I'm so grateful to know that I'll have the opportunity to be with my family forever. I love them and miss them like crazy, and to know that I'll be able to be with them after this life is over fills me with such joy!

Hope everyone has a great Halloween!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

Me gettin' prepped for winter!

MTC friends!

#BasicMissionary

Crownsnest Pass!

Plane wreck!

New Investigator!

Hey everyone!

I don't have much time to email today, so I'm going to give the super condensed version of my week.

We had retrainers meeting in Calgary this week, which was great! We also took that opportunity to go shopping for winter clothes so we hopefully don't freeze this winter. (pictures to come next week)

We also picked up a new investigator! Her name is Cassie and she was a member referral. We had our first lesson with her, and she accepted our invitation to read from the Book of Mormon and to pray to see if it was true! We have another lesson with her in a couple weeks. We're excited to see how she progresses!

There's a lot more potential in this area. We have a couple people we want to begin teaching, and a whole list of less active members that we want to start working with. The work is really moving forward!

Spiritual thought! So this week in church we learned about scripture study. We related it to the Children of Israel and how they received manna from heaven for food each day. The Lord made it so that they had to go out each day and collect the manna to get the nourishment they needed. Scripture study is the same way. We must feast on the scriptures daily to receive our spiritual food. I encourage all of you to get into the habit of daily scripture study. I know that as we do this, we will be able to receive the spiritual nourishment each day, and we will grow closer to our Heavenly Father.

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Cardston Temple

Afternoon everyone!

So Canadian Thanksgiving is today, celebrate accordingly!

Well let's get to it shall we?

So we spent a lot of time in Cardston this week. We had Zone Pday there on Monday, then interviews with president there on Tuesday, and then Zone Training Meeting there on Wednesday. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time driving this week.

We had our final official lesson with the Lenzs this week. I've loved getting to teach them, and It'll be sad to not get to teach them each week. We have, however, found a good number of people to start working with.

So to start it off, we stopped by a less active family's house this week, and they accepted a return appointment, so we'll get to start teaching them this week or the next! We set up an appointment with Cassie and Billy, a member referral that we recieved, and will be teaching them this Saturday! We got back together with the Vosburghs, recent members in the ward, to teach them the new member lessons, and will be seeing them each week now! We attended a funeral a couple weeks ago for a member of the community here, and we stopped by Fran, the wife of the deceased to check up on her and see how she is doing, and got a return appointment to go back and see her. So the work is really moving forward here!

We also had a lot of service opportunities this week! I got to dig potatoes for the first time in my life, we got to move a gigantic doghouse, and a big tin shed, and, probably the most random of all, we got to take some family photos for people this morning haha. I was the designated dancer that had to get the kids to smile, that's a tough job.

So for the spiritual thought this week, may I direct you to Matthew chapter 6 verses 19-20.

19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

So I've been learning a lot about service lately, and I think that these verses can apply to that really well. So many people seek after riches, thinking that they will bring happiness. Though it may provide temporary happiness, it does not provide us with everlasting joy. Instead of thinking so much about ourselves and stuff that we can do or get for us, we should instead think about what we can do for others. As we strive to be more like Christ by serving others, we will be able to find true happiness.

Love you all, and hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

Me celebrating my four month birthday at DQ! If you haven't tried the pumpkin pie blizzard yet, I highly recommend it. 

The True North Strong and Free

A picture of what most of my area looks like

Hello my beautiful friends and family!

So this weeks email will be short on account of our Zone Pday today, and the fact that it takes an hour to drive down to where the rest of the zone actually is.

Great week! Lots of miracles! We got to visit some members and got to know them better, and we saw a less active family that actually let us in and talked with us for a while! We found one person who has accepted to hear our message, and another who wants to, but doesn't feel quite ready. We will keep working with him and helping him through his current struggles for the time being.

General Conference was great! I love having the opportunity to hear from our Prophet, Apostles, and General Authorities of the church! There were many beautiful messages shared, and I encourage all of you to watch all the sessions if you haven't, and if you have, to re-watch or listen too the talks that were shared. I know that as we do this, we will be able to find answers to questions that we seek, and feel the spirit testify of the truthfulness of the words that were shared. Linda came to both sessions of Conference on Saturday which was great! And Grant (The other guy we're working with) came to the Sunday Morning session! The work is progressing, and the gospel is touching lives here in Claresholm!

Spiritual though. A big focus in this general conference was self-improvement. Our ultimate goal is perfection, but we know that we can't achieve that in this life. We can, however, progress on the road to perfection. We all need to ask the Lord, "What lack I yet?" and honestly listen for an answer with intent to act on it when it comes. I know that as we strive to improve, and use the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives to heal and strengthen us, we can become better people, and better disciples of Jesus Christ.

I love all you guys, and hope that you have simply glorious weeks!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

This is me with our oven that I love. The bottom is the oven and the microwave. I'm not sure what the top thing is but I think it's another oven. Sadly we got rid of it for a new and more modern oven. Saying goodbye to it almost brought me to tears. May it rest in peace.

This is me making time for fun at a local park.

New Comp!

My new comp, Elder Ajeman is on my right.  Elder Stone is on my left, and his new boy Elder Linford on the far right.  

Salutations!

I hope that everyone's week went swimmingly! So as you probably could have guessed from my subject line, I got a new companion this week! More on that little later.

So after I left from emailing all of you beautiful people last week, Elder Stone and I went to visit the Hirsches. For those of you that don't remember, Sister Hirsche is the small austrian woman in our ward that resembles Edna Mode from the Incredibles. As we were pulling onto their street, we see little sister Hirsche briskly walking our way. So naturally we stopped to see what she was up to. When she saw us she got really excited and took us visit her friend Norma. So we got to meet Norma and her husband and have a nice chat with them. They're a very kind couple, and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of them. Oh and side note, I loved Norma's husband. He was awesome. He's an older British gentleman who served as a Major in the British Army and he has a moustache, watches football (soccer) all day, and wears short shorts around the house. It's fantastic.

The next day we had a lesson in the morning with the Lenz's, who as I've said before are amazing, and then headed up to Calgary to pick up our new companions. My new companion is, drum roll please, Elder Ajeman! And for those of you trying to figure out how to pronounce that, just say it like a white person. The j is not silent. He's from Thatcher Arizona (Another Arizonian, what's the Lord trying to tell me here?) and is a fantastic kid! He's full of greenie fire and ready to work! He has very different interests from me, sports, hunting, and roping, but I'm sure that we are going to get along just fine! Elder Stone is actually training his MTC companion, Elder Linford, and they are now stationed in down town Calgary.

On Thursday, we had two lessons, one with Connie and Bary, and the other with the Seguins, a family in the ward. They both went really well! I love teaching and having the opportunity to bear my testimony about the gospel. On Friday we attended a funeral for a nonmember. We were invited to attend by Bishop Toone, who was officiating. We got to say the opening and closing prayers so that was fun! Bishop Toone's father, Bill Toone, was asked to say a few words, and he basically taught the plan of salvation, it was fantastic! He talked about resurrection and even did the whole object lesson with the glove representing the body haha. I love that guy.

We got to see Norma and her husband again on Saturday. We were invited to join them and the Hirsches for dessert. We had a smashing time, and got to see a lot of sister Hirsche's art. She is an incredible painter. Sadly she said she won't do any more portraits of Missionaries, so there goes all of my plans haha.

Spiritual thought! Sister Fortenberry I'm actually going to steal yours this week if that's okay with you.

Commandments! Why do we have them? Probably just to tell us what we can and can't do and suck all of the fun and joy out of life right? Wrong! One of the first things we teach as missionaries is that God is our loving Heavenly Father. He loves us, and because he loves us, he wants us to be happy. In order to help us achieve joy in this life, He has given us many things, commandments being one of them. The commandments we are given are to keep us from sorrow, and help us find joy and fulfilment. As my Dad often explained it to me, the commandments aren't a fence, but a guardrail. A fence is built to keep people away from something, sometimes to take away their freedom and contain them. A guardrail on the other hand is built to protect people. They keep you from going off the side of the road, or off of a cliff, and keep you safe from harm. The commandments are the same way. They keep us safe and happy, and they are what bring us true freedom in this life.

Love all y'all!

-Elder Moffitt

Me and a nice bowl of poutine

The guy in the white shirt is Christian, an awesome young man in the ward, and the European looking gent is Brandon, he just got back from his mission in London.

Elder Lusk is on the left, and that is a tie he knitted himself (one of many).  Elder Stone is on the right.