This Never Ending Road to Cal[g]ary . . .

My new comp, Elder Stringam

So . . . uh . . . well . . . I got transferred.

Lets talk about that.

So this week, things were just going great! Elder Hawkins and I were doing work in the Heritage and Willow Brook wards. We got a lot of lessons scheduled, and had some really strong potential investigators. We had a great lesson with Brother Harker, a less active guy. We taught about how we can use the Atonement in our lives to forgive others, and to find peace. I think we're really making progress with him. We've gotten him to pray for the first time in 15 years, and we just invited him to start opening up the scriptures again. It will be a long journey with him, but I know that if he begins walking the path that Heavenly Father wants him on, things will really start improving in his life. That was probably one of our highlight lessons of the week.

Then on Tuesday night we got the news. I was getting transferred North, and Elder Hawkins was getting a new companion (his MTC companion actually which is a little crazy). My heart broke into about a million tiny little pieces. I don't think I'd ever come to love an area this much this fast. I'm going to miss so many people here, but I'm excited to be serving in my new area. We had a couple appointments the next day, and said goodbye to some people.

So on Thursday, I hopped in a van with some other missionaries going north, and away we went! We got to stop at the Tim Hortens in Claresholm which was great! I still miss that area. And finally, we made it to Calgary. So I actually just replaced Elder Stone, my trainer, and my new companion is Elder Stringam. He's an awesome missionary, and I'm going to learn a lot from him. He came out in the same transfer as Elder Ajeman, who I trained. And speaking of Elder Ajeman, he's in my zone now, so I get to see him all the time! Sure missed that kid. I'm serving in the Queensland ward in the Fish Creek Stake in Calgary. It's south Calgary. The Chapel we meet at is my old stake center when I was in Sunridge. The ward seems really good! I'm excited to get to work here.

So Thursday evening we had a lesson with our investigator Martine. She's had a few lessons with the missionaries, and is great! We taught her in the Humphrey's home. She's really good friends with their daughters. Our lesson went really well, and she's considering baptism!

So Friday we went to contact a potential investigator, and the guy that answered the door was covered in blood, holding a knife. He started walking towards us and said, "Stringam, I messed up man!" I was pretty freaked, but I've gotten used to expecting the unexpected on a mission, so I just stood there. Plus Elder Stringam wasn't freaking out too much, so I just assumed that this was just an average Friday night for him. Turns out, this guy is just one of our investigators that wanted to pull a prank on the new guy. Well I have to give it to this man, he doesn't do things halfway haha.

We've got some other really good things going for us in this area, and we're excited to get working!

Spiritual thought of the week comes from Alma 46:15

And those who did belong to the church were faithful; yea, all those who were true believers in Christ took upon them, gladly, the name of Christ, or Christians as they were called, because of their belief in Christ who should come.

We should be like these people and GLADLY take upon us the name of Christ! We should always be willing to stand as a witness of Him!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

This is Sister MorningOwl, an elderly lady in our ward that we would go and read scriptures with every week

This is Brother Lorne and Sister Dudek, the ones from England and Germany. They were the best!

This is Brother Anderson and his family. He's the High Councilor over missionary work, and he was awesome!

Saying goodbye to Elder Hawkins :'(

Reunited with Elder Ajeman!

Meeting an Apostle of the Lord

Got to see all of my friends from the MTC this week!

A lot of wonderful and spiritual experiences were had this week. I won't be able to talk about everything, but I do want to focus on a few that really stood out.

So I'll address the subject of this email first. This week, our mission had the privilege of hearing from Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the quorum of the 12 apostles. Our entire mission met in Calgary to see him, Elder James B. Martino of the seventy, and Elder Spackman of the seventy. That was such a powerful meeting, and probably one of the only times in my mission that all of the missionaries will be together in one place. We had a question and answer session with them, and it was just incredible to watch Elder Christofferson pause after each question was asked and wait for the spirit to prompt him on what he should say. A lot of times he didn't exactly answer the question that was asked, but you could tell that he was telling you what you needed to hear. The spirit that was there as he and everyone else bore their testimonies of the Savior was tangible. I think it's safe to say that we all came away from that meeting determined to be better missionaries and disciples of Jesus Christ. Also, he was probably one of the funniest speakers ever haha. It's so different to hear an Apostle speak outside of General Conference. I can't even right down his jokes because you really just had to be there. But just know that he was cracking jokes left and right, while still speaking powerfully by the spirit. Just an amazing experience. I do want to share one quick thought that he left with us: "If you can't feel the spirit, express sincere gratitude for specific blessings. A grateful heart can better feel the spirit" and "Praying always means always being willing to receive and act on revelation or promptings" Man that meeting was just a treasure chest of wisdom.

Another great experience I had this week was to attend a High Council meeting where a missionary was reporting home. Now this is a rather ironic turning of the tables, because, Dad, you are usually the one telling me about these. To say the spirit was strong in that meeting would probably be an understatement. The spirit just filled the room, and, to steal an expression that I just read from Elder Rosenbalm, I felt like someone just popped my heart into a microwave because of the warmth I felt. To be honest, I don't even remember what the missionary reporting home said, I just know that I felt the spirit, and had a greater desire to fully dedicate these 2 years to the Lord, and give this mission my all.

Lastly, we had a lesson with a part member family in our ward. We shared with them the story of the Lamanite king and his conversion in Alma 22, and talked about turning our will over to the Lords. It was a powerful lesson. As I bore my testimony of the Savior, the spirit filled my heart, and reconfirmed to me that these things that we were teaching and bearing testimony of were true. I felt like in that moment I grew so much closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ. I think that was the first time I've cried in a lesson so far. I'm turning into a true Moffitt now haha. This past week I've been able to feel the spirit so much more, and feel of my Heavenly Fathers love for me, and for others. It's been an amazing feeling that I never want to let go of.

This is getting to be rather long, so I just want to end with one more quote from Elder Christofferson. "Never turn away from the Lord, because there is no hope anywhere else." Our focus must be on the Lord. We can search for hope or happiness by other means, but if we do, our search will be in vain.

Love you guys!

Love,


Elder Moffitt

Just another one of those things that made me love being a missionary!

I had to get a picture with my English Companion in front of the TARDIS!

Afternoon everyone!

Well I felt like we were running all over this week. We've kept busy, that's for sure.

We had a lesson with Hayden again this week. This one did not go as well as before. Seeing as he his only 10, it's hard to keep his focus during lessons with him. We're going to have to get a lot more creative I think. His little brother Allen is fantastic though. Always well behaved during our lessons, and wants to answer every question, even though his answer is always the Holy Ghost haha.

We had a lesson with Sister Coates this week, and that went really well. She's a less active that's very open to having us over. We talked with her about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and when we asked her if she'd ever felt the power of the Atonement in her life, she really opened up. She said that she had felt that strongly in her life, and knew that Christ had helped her and given her strength in times of need. It was really neat to see her bear testimony like that. We then asked her what was holding her back from being fully active and receiving all of the blessings of the gospel. She had apparently had a rougher time growing up, and not a lot of support from her family and just fell away from the church. However, recently she's really felt a desire to come back. After our first appointment with her, she had pulled out her Book of Mormon and began to read from it. It was so neat to see that desire in her. That seems to be the hardest part about being a missionary, helping people find that desire. We can teach them, we can invite them to act, we can show them the path to take, but ultimately, if they lack that desire, it becomes very difficult for us to help them. That's the heartbreaking part of missionary work. I've seen many people who could use the gospel so badly in their lives, who could use the Atonement provided by our Savior Jesus Christ, and who could benefit by coming to know and understand that they are a child of God, but that don't accept it because of one reason or another, or don't have any desire to really find out if its true or not. Thankfully Sister Coates isn't one of those people! She really seems to have a desire to draw closer to Heavenly Father, and follow Him! Having lessons like that just fill me with such joy and remind me why I'm out here serving a mission. I'm so grateful for these wonderful people that my Heavenly Father has given me the privilege to meet and to help.

Another cool experience! We were trying to contact a part member family, and as we were walking away from the door, the neighbors invited us in for cupcakes! They're members, and their son had just gotten baptized! So we got to know them, got some delicious cupcakes, and then got to leave them with a fitting object lesson that just about knocked everyone's socks off! It was just another one of those things that made me love being a missionary!

And finally, we had another wonderful lesson with Brother Lorne. This great man is 79 years old, so we have to go over things a couple times until they sink in and he can remember them. However, he seems to have made a lot of progress. He's been reading his scriptures, and studying a lot. He's also just the most kind hearted and genuine man ever. And because he's english, he loves football (soccer) and always updates Elder Hawkins on how Manchester United is doing haha. He has a little shrine to Manchester that seems to grow each week haha. At first there was a book about them, then the next week there was the book and a hat, and then the next week there was the book the had and a scarf haha. We love getting to see him each week, it's the best way to end our Sundays.

So some other fun things happened. We went on exchanges, tracted into a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses (who were quite nice), ran into the same drunk guy on the street two days in a row (who we'll probably stop by sometime soon, he needs help) got asked to join the Blackfoot religion, and found a Mexican restaurant!

Well I'd like to leave you guys with a verse from Galatians to ponder. It's Galatians 2:20:

20. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

I could tell you what I think this verse means, but instead, I want to leave you each with the invitation to ponder it and find what it means to you. The more I read it, the more meaning I find.

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

#LDSConf

Hello my wonderful family and friends!

So I hope that everyone enjoyed General Conference this week. It was just a fantastic opportunity to listen to our Prophet Thomas S. Monson, and the Apostles and other general authorities of the church. There were a lot of wonderful talks given, and I know that as we review the things which were said over the next couple of months, we'll be able to gain even more insight and direction from those inspired words.

So we had just a smashing week!

We were able to visit sister Piche, a less active lady in the ward, and her kids. We shared with them a lesson about prayer. It was really neat to hear her kids experiences with prayer, and see them bear testimony about it. They're younger, about 5 and 8 years old, but they seem to really be sensitive to the spirit which is cool. We're hoping that we'll really be able to help Sister Piche become active again.

We also had a lesson with another less active, Randy Harker. We talked to him about prayer as well, and he told us that he hasn't prayed in probably 10 or 15 years. It was a great experience to bear testimony to him about the power of prayer, and help him make that commitment to get on his knees and pray to his Heavenly Father. I'm hoping that he can keep this commitment. I know that prayer is vital to building a testimony, and a lack of prayer is instrumental in destroying one.

This week we were able to meet with Mack, the guy I talked about last week. He was hosting a birthday party at his house, but we were able to share a brief message with him about our Savior, and he invited us to come back over to teach him more! We're super excited to meet with him again and hopefully teach his family as well!

And another great thing from this week, this guy in another ward invited all of the missionaries from our district over for lunch between conference sessions. He owns a food truck called the Flyin' Hawaiian, and made us Hawaiian Haystacks, and these wonderful coconut donuts and Piña Coladas. Man it was the best!

Spiritual thought! "Given where we must go, we need the Holy Ghost as a constant companion, not just an occasional influence." -Neal A. Maxwell

We must strive to always have the spirit with us. It will direct us on the things which we must do in our lives.

Love you guys, hope everyone has just a fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Moffitt