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