Life in the Hat

Hey eh!

So this week was a busy one!

On Monday we got to go on a bike ride with Gerald. He's the somewhat recent convert in our ward that's struggling a bit with his testimony. He's pretty much the nicest guy ever though. We got to ride with him and with Brother Hughes, another member of our ward, and went about 15km. It was fun! We went over by the worlds tallest teepee, and then down through the coulee. I'm a little out of shape, it's been a while since I've been on a bike haha.

That night we had dinner at our Bishop's house, with our investigators Don and Dianne. It was really fun! They're both great couples, and I think they hit it off! Elder Neulinger has spread a rumor around the ward that I don't like vegetables (which is mostly not true), so Sister Fleming (the bishop's wife) was giving me a hard time all through dinner about how I needed to eat my vegetables haha. Don and Dianne aren't super interested in joining the church, so we're just trying to help them meet some of the members of the ward that they can become friends with. They're an older couple, and I don't know how many fiends they have in Medicine Hat, so it might be nice for them to meet some more people. They're the best though, I love them!

We had a lesson with a former investigator, Kevin, this week. He's a nice guy, and he has a very extensive collection of movies and TV shows. He doesn't own a shelf, and so they're just lined all across the wall. He said that he doesn't buy shelves because then he has more money to spend on movies. I guess that makes sense. We did have an appointment with him, but I think he must have forgotten because we interrupted him and his friend Josh as they were playing Star Trek online. But we still had a short little message with them about faith. It was good! He doesn't have any real intent to know whether or not what we teach is true (which is why missionaries had stopped teaching him) buy every once in a while we'll drop by to see how he's doing. You never know when something will click in someones life and they'll be ready for the gospel.

We had a cool experience tracting this week! I was out on splits with another Elder in our area, and we got in to a couple doors! The first one answered the door, we said we were missionaries, and they let us right in! They were from Nepal, and half the family had been converted to Christianity, and half were still Buddhist. They accepted a Book of Mormon and were excited to learn more! There's a language barrier with some of the family members, but some of them speak pretty good English. We're ordering a Book of Mormon in Nepali for them (hopefully we can get one). They were awesome!

Spiritual thought for the week. I just read the first few chapters of Ether in the Book of Mormon this week, and I love the story of the Brother of Jared when he's building the Barges. It's in Ether 2:16-25 and Ether 3:1-5. The Brother of Jared is commanded to make barges to cross the sea, and he comes to the Lord with two questions; what should he do to have air in the barges, and what should he do to have light in the barges. The Lord gives him the answer to the first questions, but asks the Brother of Jared to find an answer to the second questions. He studies it out, and then takes his answer to the Lord, and as a result, he has an experience that grows his faith. Sometimes we'll have questions that the Lord will make us work to answer, and those are the times that our faith will grow the most.

Love ya'll!

-Elder Moffitt

We also got a new car!

Here's some pics of the bike ride, me and my buddy mike going into a birthday party, and me next to a picture of my favorite lunch!

Talking With Everyone!

Hello my amazing family and friends!

This week was a good one! In our past zone conference we really focused on the importance of talking with everyone. I've been trying to do better with that, and now that it's warming up a bit and people are outside more, we've been having more opportunities!

I'll share one cool experience we had with that. A couple weeks ago, we were getting in our car after visiting someone, and there was a guy checking his mail. I was just about to slip into the car and drive off, but then remember my commitment to talk with everyone. We walked over to the guy and started talking with him. His name was Ali, and we asked if we could share a message with him, testifying about how it had blessed our lives. He said that we could another time, so we grabbed his address and headed off. This past week, 8:30pm hit, and we had no appointments, so Elder Neulinger and I decided to drop by Ali. He answered the door, saw who it was, and then invited us right in! He's from Iran, and understands a lot of English, but doesn't speak super well. His wife, who is from Lebanon, speaks English very well, and so did his kids. They're Muslim, so we got to spend some time discussing our different religions, and both learned some things which is always great! Then we got to share a message with them about the Book of Mormon, and about how we believe that there are still prophets on the earth today. It was a cool impromptu lesson! We left them with the Book of Mormon and a pamphlet, and we're going to follow up to see if they're interested in learning more. That really built my testimony of talking to everyone! The Lord knows who is prepared, even when we don't. All he asks is that we open our mouths!

We had some other good lessons with investigators this week, but I'll just share one more neat one. We tracted into a lady named Lana a while ago, and I had a really good feeling about her. We were able to get an appointment set up for last night, and it went really well! Apparently one of her best friends is a convert to the church, and Lana has asked her a lot of questions about beliefs. Because of this, she's very willing to learn more! She grew up in a christian church, but had a lot a questions about the after life, and there were a lot of things that she had been taught growing up that she didn't agree with. She considers herself spiritual, but isn't practicing any specific religion because of these questions that she had. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation, and were able to answer some of these questions for her. She seemed to like what we taught, and agreed to pray and ask if it was true. She's super busy with her kids and work, but we were able to get another appointment set up in two weeks. We're excited to meet with her again! The member that we brought invited her to watch General Conference too, so we'll have to follow up with that! The Lord is really preparing the hearts of his people!

We also had a snowball fight with the Kernyangs this week. That was pretty fun haha. A member in the ward made me authentic Mexican food! That's always a tender mercy :) We also got hooked up with some bread, muffins, some home made rolls, fresh honey, and peanut butter cookies this week. The members sure take care of us!

Spiritual thought for this week! I've been reading in the book of Acts, and in chapter 11, Peter explains to the Apostles and disciples in Jerusalem that the gospel should be preached to the gentiles, as well as the Jews. I love verse 18:

18. When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles, granted repentance unto life.

God has given all of his children the opportunity to repent! What a wonderful thing! Repentance really does bring us new life as we slowly put off the natural man and turn to God and Christ.

Love ya'll!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

Us and a couple of the Kernyangs on a hill by their house

My beautiful companion on the Canadian $20

The Kernyangs and a couple friends that came to our Pday!

Selfie with the Czech!

Snow

Hey ya'll!

We've gotten a ton of snow in the past week! It's been crazy! I keep thinking that winter is over, but it just keeps coming back. It supposed to warm up again this week, but it's Alberta, so who knows.

We had a great week! Lual got baptized!!! It was great to see him take that step closer to our Heavenly Father! He's an awesome kid, and it's been a blast teaching him. There was a great turn out for the baptism, and the spirit was strong! We also got to go to the baptism of Zofia, the Hungarian investigator in another ward that Elder Neulinger has been helping teach. That was a great baptism too. The ward has really just welcomed her in, and she seemed so happy! I love the gospel!

We also had Zone Conference this week. Those are some of the most spiritual meetings in the church. We learned a lot about how to be more effective missionaries, but we also took a large portion of time to just talk about the Atonement, and to share our testimonies. There was an amazing spirit there as we talked about our Savior, and his sacrifice for us.

We started teaching a 12 year old kid named Ryder this week. His mom is an active member of our ward, and he's finally gotten permission to be baptized, so we get to go through the discussions with him. He's a bright kid, and fun to teach! He's got a sincere testimony of the gospel, and is excited about being baptized and holding the priesthood.

We had a good lesson with Gerald this week. He's a member of our ward whose been struggling with his testimony. We brought a member of the Bishopric with us to see him, and he was really able to help answer some of Gerald's questions, and teach him about the gospel using the Book of Mormon. The spirit was really strong, and you could tell that Gerald was feeling it. My own testimony of the Book of Mormon grew during that lesson. I felt the peaceful reassurance of the spirit testifying of the things that were being said.

For the spiritual thought today, I want to leave you with a video of Elder Holland's Testimony of the Book of Mormon, and with my testimony. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I'm so thankful to have it in my life, and know that it has brought me close to my Savior. It was written for our time, and in it, we can find answers to questions that we have.

Here's the video

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

MedHat Miracles!

Hey everybody!

We had a pretty good week! I don't have much time, but here are some cool things we saw!

We had an awesome lesson with a potential investigator named Jasaint. She's been going through a rough patch in life, and wants to find a little more peace. We told her about what we do as missionaries, and started teaching her about the restoration. She wasn't really feeling up to talking the discussions, but we were able to testify to her that God knows her and loves her. The spirit was definitely there. We were also able to give her a blessing, and she definitely felt the spirit during that. She was very grateful. Maybe in the future she'll be more prepared. She said that she'd have us over for dinner though, so hopefully we'll see her again soon!

We had a good lesson with Lual. He's preparing to get baptized this weekend! We taught about fasting and tithing, and he had a really good understanding of them! He's such a bright kid.

We also had a lesson with our recent converts, Paul and Wayne, about the priesthood. They both have the Aaronic Priesthood now, so we taught them about what their responsibilities are. They're both great!

Our Bishop also told us that this past week a lady who just moved in came to his office to talk with him. She and her family are not members, but were attending church in the city that they just moved from, and wanted to know when meetings were here! So we looking to start teaching them in the next week or two, and help them prepare for baptism!

Also, MARTINE GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!! Elder Stringam and I were teaching her this past summer, and she just got baptized! It was so cool to hear! She's really grown in her faith and testimony, and I'm so happy for her!!!

We had Stake Conference this week, and the speakers were all amazing! Elder Stacy of the Seventy was the visiting authority. I wanted to share one of the thoughts he had. He had us read D&C 130:20-21

20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

So with every commandment, there is a promised blessing if we keep it. So many people look at commandments as just a long list of do's and don'ts, but really each commandment is an opportunity for the Lord to bless us. He can only bless us as we keep commandments, so the more commandments he gives us, the more blessings he is able to give us! What a wonderful principle! I'm so grateful for the commandments the Lord has given us, and the blessings which he promises!

Love you guys, hope this week is fantastic!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

Here are some pictures of Alberta's Bi-Polar weather!