Blessed Chinooks

Howdy!

So this week has been a lot warmer thanks to the Chinooks! They are truly heaven sent. It got up to 10 Celsius this week! Much better than -20 in my opinion. 

Some cool things happened this week!

We had a world wide missionary broadcast from Salt Lake. It was the first one they've had in a really long time from the sounds of it. It was awesome! We received training from members of the quorum of the 12 and other general authorities of the church. It was really instructive, and got us all pumped for missionary work!

We spent a lot of time this week working with our less active members. One lesson in particular sticks out. We were meeting with a sister who has been struggling with smoking for a very long time. While we were there, the member that we brought with us challenged her to quit. She declined at first because she really didn't think she could, but as we kept talking with her, she realized that she wanted to be able to feel the spirit more strongly in her life, and she wanted to be able to go to the temple. She understood that this is something Heavenly Father wanted her to do, and that he would help her overcome her addiction. She agreed to quit, and we're going to do all we can to help her! We're very excited for her!

Since I'm running out of time, that's going to have to be all for today. For my spiritual thought I just want to leave you with an invitation. This is something I'm sure I've talked about before. Learn how to better recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost. This is something that I've struggled a lot with, but I'm starting to get better, and it's really neat. In the Book of Mormon we're promised that "by the power of the Holy Ghost, you may know the truth of all things". The only way to really gain a knowledge of the truthfulness of the restored gospel is through the spirit. Because of this, it's vital that we learn how it speaks to us, and how we can recognize it. 

Hope you guys all have a wonderful week full of missionary opportunities!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

Tender Mercies

Hey everyone!

So instead of doing a spiritual thought at the end of this email, the whole thing is going to be one big spiritual thought. At least that's the idea, we'll see how it turns out. 

So this week was a little bit rough. For those of you that follow Canadian weather, it's been cold. I knew I couldn't escape the winter forever. The beginning of the week wasn't bad at all, but then it got cold. Really cold. For the past few days it's been hanging out around -10 to -20 Celsius. That's about 14 to -4 Fahrenheit, and it felt a little bit colder with the wind chill. We didn't have the car this week, so we've been putting in some solid miles on foot. One day in particular, we were on exchanges, so one of my zone leaders, Elder Condie, was with me, and things just did not go according to plan. We had a pretty good day planned out with about 3 appointments with less actives set up. We head out to our first appointment which is about an hour walk from our apartment, and when the guy answered the door, he basically cancelled our appointment with him right there, and told us maybe we could come back another time. So there went one appointment. We walked over to our next one which was about 30 minutes away, and worked in that area for a little bit before our next lesson. We we knocked on the door for our next lesson, and nobody answered. We ended up calling the guy and he still didn't answer, so we just walked back to the apartment for lunch. There went our second appointment. While we're eating lunch, our appointment for later in the afternoon called us and cancelled. And there went our only other appointment for the day. So here we are with no appointments left for the day besides dinner. 

So there was the depressing portion of the day. Now before I keep going, I want to take a look at the story of Nephi in the Book of Mormon. Nephi and his family struggled a lot as they were wandering through the wilderness after leaving Jerusalem. They suffered many things, "Even so much that [they] cannot write them all" (1 Nephi 17:6). But before Nephi even really begins to make his record, he says, "But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance." (1 Nephi 1:20). Because of Nephi's faith in the Lord, he was able to see past all of the hardships, accept that they were for his growth and benefit, and focus on all of the blessings that the Lord gave unto them. He is constantly talking about how blessed he and his family were. 

So with that story in mind, I was able to reflect on our day and focus on the good things. While working in the area before our second appointment, we were able to talk with a part member family and hopefully we'll be able to see them again soon. We tracted into Mona. She's muslim, but we were able to have a really good conversation with her and talk about the calling of modern day prophets and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and it's purpose in our lives. She accepted a copy and said she'd read some of it! During lunch, a member family called and said they were free that night for us to come over and share a discussion with them! We were also able to meet another less active lady in the ward and we have an appointment for next week! So if I wanted to, I could focus on all of the negative things that happened that day, but if I really took a good look I could see how the Lord had blessed us. So that's the invitation I want to leave with you guys. Focus on the blessings, not the things that go wrong in life. If we do this, we'll be able to grow closer to our father in heaven and begin to feel his love stronger in our lives. 

So now for some funnier and more lighthearted moments of the week!

So I told Elder Coe that he should only use chopsticks for meals this week. He's actually doing it! He got a set of chopsticks and he's been using them at our dinners! I'll have to send some pictures next week, I'm excited haha. My eyebrows and eyelashes froze while we were walking around! It was pretty cool. We went to a Filipino birthday party, and they had a whole roasted pig on the table! That one I do have a picture of. Emmi I thought of you the whole time, it was like your dream come true!

Welp, that's all I've got for this week. Love you guys!

-Elder Moffitt

Time to hibernate. . .

Me and Elder Coe in the snow!

Hey everyone!

So it's been really cold in Canada lately. Crazy right? Needless to say, I've been freezing my sweet cinnabons off. Take that and couple with the fact that this ward stuffs the elders with food like a thanksgiving turkey (delicious food I might add), I'm beginning to feel like a bear gearing up for hibernation. One of these days I'm just going to slip into a food coma and not wake up until spring.

Our week went really well! We have been visiting with a lot of less actives. We took bishop to visit a part member less active family, and he really threw down. He basically told them that they would be a church on Sunday, and it was time for them to start taking things seriously. It was great.

We picked up a new investigator this week! His name is Dyllon, and he seems solid. He's 15, and he's expressed a lot of interest in learning more about the church. One of his friends from school was just baptized, and gave him a Book of Mormon. Our first lesson with him went really well, and we're excited to meet with him again!

The sisters in our district had another baptism this week! His name is Rod, and he's awesome! His baptism went super well, President was even able to attend!

Spiritual thought!
I just want to share one of my favorite verses this week. Joshua 1:9. I encourage all of you to read it and ponder its meaning in your life. The lord is always with us, and is there to help us throughout our lives so long as we let him.

Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

My real feelings about the snow

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year guys!

We had some cool experiences this week! We had a lesson with Ty Ho again this week. He and his daughter Kathrine really want to be baptized! They love learning about the gospel, and feel that it just makes so much sense, probably because it does! Brother Ho even got up in sacrament this Sunday to bear his testimony, it was awesome! He said that he's been searching for eternal happiness, and that he finally found it! He and his daughter have a baptismal date set for February! Sadly, because he's not in our area (or our zone), we don't get to teach them the lessons, and had to pass them on to the missionaries in their area. But we're super excited for them to get baptized!

We spent a lot of time this week stopping by less active members of the ward. We've been working with a lot of them, and a couple came to church this Sunday! In our gospel principles class, we were talking about Heavenly Father, and they shared their experiences of when they've felt their Heavenly Father's love! It was so cool to hear their testimonies and see how knowing that they have a loving Heavenly Father has affected their lives.

For New Years, our mission president invited our zone to come over to his home to meet some of his family and have a dinner with them. It was really cool! It was a fun way to celebrate the New Year, and feel a little bit more at home.

Spiritual Thought of the week!

During our first lesson with Brother Ho, he asked a question something along the lines of, "So you believe that if we pray in faith we can get whatever we ask for?". I had to ponder that question a lot. I know that many people with great faith pray and ask for things that they don't get. I know that I haven't gotten everything that I've asked my Heavenly Father for. During one of our gospel principle lessons, we read that we must pray in faith, willing to accept the answer we receive, even if that answer is no. As I thought more about this, I thought of the Savior. When Jesus Christ was suffering for the sins and pains of the world in Gethsemane, he prayed and asked the Father to let that cup pass from him so that he would not have to suffer, but added, "nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." The answer was no for him. He still had to perform the Atonement, but he trusted in his Father in Heaven, just as we should.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Moffitt