Eating Pasole and Teaching Hippies!

December 21, 2015

I'm just going to start off by saying that I am pumped about Christmas this year! As a child, I never thought that I would like Christmas as a missionary, but I am so excited to talk to my family, spend time with the ward, and deliver treats to our investigators. Elder Coy and I got like 10 pounds of brownie mix from the food bank, so we will probably be spending Christmas eve baking like a bunch of Keebler elves!

Trying the Keebler Elf look?

It has been snowing non-stop for the past couple of days. Coulee Dam looks so peaceful and pretty in the winter time. That silence and peace is destroyed every time we get out of the car and Elder Coy starts a snowball fight, but if you aren't having fun while doing missionary work, you aren't doing it right. The snow is also our worst enemy, though. My companion, being from Vegas, drives in the snow as well as... someone who has never driven in the snow. Combine that with the fact that our area is all hills, and that's a perfect recipe for getting stuck in the snow. A lot. We got stuck twice in two days, and I had to get out and push for like 20 minutes each time. It's OK, though, I've heard that this is how memories are made.

With all of the snow, we have been doing a lot of "service tracting," where we shovel people's driveways and walks. They usually come outside to either invite us in for some cocoa, or tell us off, but either way they are talking to us. That is a win in my book!

We went to Sister Bashor's for dinner this week, and she fed us pasole. It was heavenly. Afterwards, her grandson, Shayden, showed me his guitar and I taught him how to play a few chords. I started playing a few songs, and little Lina was dancing around the living room. It was adorable!

We had an awesome lesson with Selena this week. It was originally canceled because she was leaving town for the weekend, but she got snowed in and said that we could come over. We taught her about the plan of salvation, and the spirit was so strong. She said that we answered some of her deepest questions. At the end of the lesson, I invited her to be baptized, and she said yes! She wants to be baptized a year from the day her mother passed away, but that's like 9 months down the road... so we will propose a reasonable date to her in our lesson with her this week. I am just so excited for her and her kids!

We have met quite a few new investigators this week! We were cleaning out the area book and visiting previous investigators, and one of them lives right across the street from us. We see her kids out playing every day, but for some reason, I thought that they were not interested. She's a really nice lady, and it will be nice being able to walk to her house straight from our apartment. Last night, we were walking past some apartments, and there was a big group of people gathered around the door smoking weed. We were trying to get passed the "party house" as fast as we could, when one of them said "LOOK! MORMONS!" so we gave them a friendly wave. Then they invited us over. We thought that we were about to be made fun of, but the owner of the apartment, a 6'5 hippie dude, started talking to us about how much he loves the Mormons and that he wants us to come over some time and teach his son. He was really chill and we talked for a while. It was pretty funny, when the rest of his friends found out that he was serious about talking to us, they scattered and went back inside. By the time we were done talking, it was just him and a few of his friends. They asked us a lot of questions, like how long it takes to become an Elder, how much we get paid, what we think of the Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. It was a good time. 

I'm going to stop here because I have some letters to write, but I hope you all have a good week! Merry Christmas! 

Elder Moser

We sang in the ward choir this week, "Angels we have Heard on High."  Nothing to do with this picture.... 

We see deer every day. Every HOUR. They are more of a pest around here because they are always in the road.

Hawaiian Egg Rolls and Tracting in the Ghetto!

Monday, December 14, 2015

Training meeting in Quincy

It's amazing to me how well missionary work is going up here. Of course, I don't have anything to compare it to, but you would think that because it is such a small town and missionaries have been here on and off for the past 30 years that this area would be pretty much dead, but we are constantly finding people that have been prepared to hear our message.

Last P-Day, Elder Coy and I finally exhausted our last means of entertainment. The Coulee Dam Visitor's Center. It was actually really cool. They had a bunch of interactive exhibits and a movie about how the dam was built. It was really impressive, but now we don't have anything else to do but bake. That, and Elder Coy taught me how to crochet this week. Good thing we only have to look for something to entertain us on p-days! 

On way to visitors center.

On Tuesday, we decided to go finding in Keller. Keller is a village sized group of houses in the middle of the forest. I don't think it has over 150 people living there. Tracting there was pretty interesting, because its on a reservation and everyone we talked to was a Native. One man we talked to, Golden Eagle, told us a lot about his culture. When we first started talking to him, we got on the subject of prayer, and he showed us how he prayed to the Creator every morning by stomping and dancing around  while singing. When his wife heard him, she came out and started dancing around too. It was pretty interesting. He was very intrigued by the Book of Mormon, though, and said that he would read it. If Keller wasn't a 56 mile round trip, we'd probably go up there more often!

We had some crazy wind storms this week in Coulee Dam. After our Doctrine of Christ training in Quincy, we decided to tract in Grand Coulee, but it was cut short because the wind was blowing shingles off of roofs and stuff. Not to mention it was messing up Elder Coy's hair.

Speaking of tracting, we did a lot of that this week. We decided to target the sketchiest neighborhoods because they are always more humble and willing to have us over again, unlike the rich people that are just fine the way they are. And I don't know what it is about this place, but there are more burned down and boarded up houses here than anywhere else I've ever been. I think it's because it isn't worth the investment to clean up a house after it burns to the ground. 

I sure hope no one lives here...

We had really good lessons with Selena and Dean this week. Selena even asked if we could baptize Kaysic! Too bad he's only 3! We had a good lesson with her about priesthood authority and the age of accountability. I really wanted to commit Selena to be baptized, but Elder Coy said it wasn't the right time. Personally, I thought it was the perfect time, but I guess we will just have to wait to do that. Our lesson with Dean was awesome, mainly because he showed us how to make Lumpia and fried rice and then fed us for dinner. He's told us that he is a slow learner though, so it will take a few more lessons before he totally understands the restoration. We haven't been able to get in with Vicky yet. Ever since our run in with her husband, the situation has been a little tense and we don't want to bother him too much. We are praying that he will continue to let us teach her though. 

We met an awesome investigator named John this week! We were out tracting one evening and we saw this guy wandering around his yard. We introduced ourselves, and he kind of gave us a dear-in-the-headlights look at first, but he warmed up to us quickly. We stopped and talked to him about the restoration and he seemed pretty interested. He didn't take a copy of the Book of Mormon, but we decided to commit him to baptism right then and there. He didn't say no, so we will definitely follow up with him. We got to know him pretty well in our conversation, so I'll attach a picture of him.

Thanks for all of the support! I love you all!

Peace and blessin's,

Elder Moser

John, the investigator.

Sorting through packages.  I opened all my gifts but one because I knew what everything was.  Besides, Christmas is different as a missionary.  I just need to spend Christmas loving these people as much as I can.

This one is for Amanda!

The Spirit like a Fire is Burning! (literally)

Hello everyone!

The weeks are flying by! It's already been two months for me as a missionary. I'm starting to wonder if this is how the rest of my mission will feel!

The temperature has really gone up here in Coulee Dam. It didn't drop below 40 degrees all week and rained almost the whole time. The spirit of Christmas is still in the air, though, so if anyone would like to put together a Christmas CD and send it to us, we wouldn't complain. :)

This week, Elder Coy taught me how to make a Polynesian dish called musubi. It's kind of like sushi, only it uses Spam instead of raw fish. On our P-day last week, we had a member drive us down to Ephrata so that we could buy the stuff to make it. I think it tastes really good, so we've been a musubi factory in our apartment for the past few days. We've been taking some to investigators and even made some for our Christmas party on friday. It was a hit!

MUSUBI!  It looks better when we cut the ends off.

Dec. 2nd was Elder Coy's birthday, so I guess you could say that it was my birthday as well! When Sister Bashor heard that it was his birthday, she invited us over for lunch. She is just the sweetest old lady. She made us a big pan of chicken with rice and some purple onion dressing. She even brought out a huge cheescake afterwards. We sat and talked to her about what it was like living in Ecuador and about her conversion story. She is the best. 

Crazy story for the week: On Thursday, we got a call from a former investigator that we have been trying to contact for a while. He asked us if we knew an electrician that could help them with the power to their (trailer) house because it was not working in half of it. We had Brother Bond go with us to look at it. Brother Bond was working on the breaker panel, when all of the sudden, all of the power went out and the hum of electricity and smoke started coming from the back room. The fire alarms went off. Fire was coming off of a roll of extension cord in the hallway. The fire was put out and he got it turned off, but when we got outside he told us that the wiring in that trailer was just waiting to burn the house down. The circuit was running in a loop and wasn't connected to anything, so that is why when he turned it on it exploded. The house was a mess, too, so it could have gone up like a tinder box. I think I'm done with playing with electricity for a while.    

Our investigators our doing well. Becky dropped us, but we saw that coming. She just doesn't want to change her ways. It was kind of frustrating, but she still likes the missionaries. I just wish that everyone could see how close they came to knowing the truth before dumping the missionaries. We met a new investigator while tracting named Brian. He recently retired from the Boeing Factory in Seattle and moved to Electric City to settle down. He's a really nice guy, but we haven't been able to catch him at home the past few days. We drove past Vicki's house on Tuesday and saw her husband out moving wood. We offered to help, but before we could even say anything, he basically told us to get lost. When we went to visit Vicki with a member later that night, jolly ol' Jerry answered the door. We just stood there thinking "welp, this is great". He then proceeded to chew us out and told us to not come back for a while. I hope a week is a while, because we're stopping by tomorrow! He's not the most hospitable guy, but hopefully this doesn't ruin our chances with Vicki.

We went to visit Selena on Wednesday to see if our appointment for Friday would still work. She said it would, but after talking for a few minutes she said "actually, can you come around 4 today?" We jumped on the opportunity, but that meant that we only had an hour and a half to find a member to go with us because her grandpa wasn't home. Elder Coy and I tried calling everyone, but no one would answer or they just couldn't go. So we parked our car and said a prayer asking that everything would work out. We then stared at the phone waiting for someone to call back. A few seconds later, Brother Foster called us! Unfortunately, it was to say that he couldn't go. But then we both had the impression to try Brother Barry. He gladly accepted and met us at her house at 4. That lesson with Selena was probably the best lesson that I have been apart of since starting my mission. She was asking perfect questions like where we go after this life and what our purpose is. Amia, the 8 year old, was asking perfect questions too, like how we knew that this religion was the right one. We then taught them about how Joseph Smith had that same question and about the restoration. Even though Kaysic was running around the house like a madman showing off all of his toys, the spirit was so strong. Selena could feel it, too. We asked her why she had been willing to talk to us a few weeks ago when we knocked on her door, and she said that after the death of her brother and Grandma, she just had a feeling that it was just time to let us in. Selena is really excited about having us teach  her more. She has definitely been prepared. 

It's been a fun and productive week. From having a snowball fight with the primary kids after the Christmas Party to almost burning down trailers, we've made a lot of new memories! Please keep our investigators in your prayers. Thank you for all of your support!

Peace and blessin's,

Elder Moser

Oh deer!

Moving some rocks off of the highway with brother Bond. When water freezes and melts, this happens a lot.

When our investigators won't open the door...

long story short: Elder Coy got all of this yarn from the  Senior Center in Grand
Coulee for FREE. Got out like bandits with like 40 spools. Now we are knitting
hats for our investigators kids :)

Thanksgiving Week

Nov. 30, 2015

Friends and family!

Another great week has gone by. We met some new people and picked up a new investigator by the name of Mason. It was kind of funny. We stopped by two previous investigators, S. and C., and when we knocked on the door some 20 year old guy answers it. We shared our message with him anyways and when we got to the first vision and explained that Joseph Smith was only 14 years old, he smiled and said, "That's how old I am!" what. Something is in the water here in Washington, because some 60 year olds look 40 and some 14 year olds look 20. It gets confusing sometimes, especially when you don't know if you should ask if a parent is home or not.

First off, V. dropped us. Like a hot plate out of the microwave. But she said that we can still visit her because she still likes us. She just feels like she needs to go down with the Presbyterian church that is going out of business here. Meanwhile, we are asking for referrals from members of the Presbyterian church that will soon be church-less. It is a good opportunity to find and get people to come to sacrament meeting!

Brother Land was released as ward mission leader last week, and an older gentleman, Brother Churchill, took his place. He was pretty nervous, because he is a convert and he never served a mission. He was also called 5 minutes before sacrament meeting started, and apparently that can throw someone off. He is excited about missionary work and has some good new ideas, though. He also lives in an old granary in the middle of no where that has been remodeled inside, so that's pretty neat.

On the way to Bro. Churchill's home in the middle of nowhere.

We bought a loom last p-day and we knitted some sweet hats. I will definitely post some pictures. 

We spent P-day knitting hats.

Thanksgiving treated us well. We only had two thanksgivings, though, because Elder Coy warned me about how everyone wants the missionaries to come over on holidays. We were at the Bonds house first, and they made a nice dinner and invited a less active member and an inactive member. We talked with them and made some new friends, so we are hoping that we will get them to church. After that, we went to M and T's house to try the orange glazed duck that M. made. Needless to say, it was perfect. We were at their house for a while, and then had to leave to stop by some other people. She is a member, but he isn't and we are still working on him. He loves the missionaries, but works too often to talk with us, so Thanksgiving was a good opportunity. 

On Friday, we tried to spend our extra miles up in Wilbur. We met with a potential investigator, T., and his 4 kids that were outside burning wood with him. We had a mini-lesson, and then got his phone number so that we could call him to set up a time to meet. He's a really nice guy, and he's got 4 kids so I'm pretty excited to teach them more. We also stopped by D., a recent convert, and he gave us some ridiculous battery powered socks that heat up. They look ridiculous, but I might wear them if it gets cold enough!

I don't have any weird stories from this week, but Elder Coy and I decided to take out S's cans, 98 lbs of aluminum, to the recycling place for her as an act of service. We took all 7 giant 50 gallon bags and somehow fit them into our Jeep. I had to hold one on my lap for them all to fit. It was pretty interesting. When we took the money back to her, she gave us a few dollars to put in the basket at church. What a nice lady. She said that we could stop by on Tuesday, too, so hopefully that doesn't fall through. 

Elder Coy modeling his hat and our mission Jeep.

We visited B. yesterday after church. She is one of the nicest ladies I have ever met. Every time we leave her house, she gives us something to take home. On Tuesday it was huckleberry jam, and yesterday she gave us each a dozen of those cookies with a kiss in the middle. She's a promising investigator, and recently we learned that her son in the military joined the church before he left, so hopefully that will help.  

It has been a beautiful week here in Coulee Dam. The fog has been heavy all week, so I'll post some pictures. Love you all!

Peace and blessins,

Elder Moser

A super photogenic picture of the District + the Zone Leaders. The senior missionaries, the Chandlers, are also from Idaho. I love their enthusiasm!

We climbed a giant pile of sand that was excavated for construction of the Dam. It's right behind our apartment. If you look at the houses down below, you can see how big this pile really is. I usually don't take selfies, but I felt really accomplished because I was tired after that!

Miracles Everywhere!

Friends and family! 

This week has been full of miracles. I mentioned last week that the work here in Coulee Dam has been a little slow, but in just one week, after praying for miracles, we have managed to pick up three new investigators and several potentials. 

Miracle #1: Last Monday was, as usual, p-day. P-day lasts until 6:00, and then we are expected to proselyte until 9:00. We usually have a hard time getting into doors, though, because the people around here love their Sunday and Monday night football. We decided to look through a list of potential investigators left by some missionaries a few years ago to see if any of them would be interested. Elder Coy and I felt that we should visit one person in particular named Vicki. We had never met her before, but we went anyways. When we knocked on the door, it took a few minutes for her to answer; but when she did, she immediately came out and started crying. Apparently, she has been going through some really rough times lately and had been praying all day that God would send someone to help her. When she saw "people of God" on her front step, she was amazed at how quickly and how directly her prayer was answered. Vicki is a strong believer in God, but the rest of her family is not. She said through tears that this is something she and her family needs. She even said that though we couldn't come in to talk to her right then, that we had to come back later and tell her everything we know. Vicki is more than a golden investigator; she's straight up platinum! On our way back to the car, Elder Coy reminded me that visits like that don't happen very often. When we came back to visit her on Thursday, she had read  the Introduction to the Book of Mormon and 3 Nephi 11, just like we had asked her to. She had loads of questions as well, and we did our best to answer them. We will meet with Vicki again later this week, so Elder Coy and I are doing our best to prepare ourselves to teach her. It is amazing how Heavenly Father had been preparing Vicki to receive the gospel. Elder Coy and I didn't receive some grand revelation, either, just a small prompting to visit a particular person. That is the best part about being a missionary. Because of our calling and obedience to the rules, God has promised us that we can expect miracles like our visit with Vicki. 

Miracle #2: On Wednesday, we were looking through our area book and came across a teaching record for a man named Dean that had been taught in Ephrata but had then moved to Grand Coulee. It was from a few years ago, too. The missionaries hadn't been able to find this "Dean" person. It had a sticky note on it that said "no address or phone number, good luck!" So Elder Coy and I, being the geniuses we are, decided to look it up in the phone book and by so doing found him immediately. We drove to his address and gave his door a knock, when out stepped a Hispanic guy that we see every week at the food bank. Turns out that the guy that we see at the food bank every week is Dean! We didn't know that his name was Dean, and we had no clue that we was so interested in the church. We visited him a few times over the course of the week and he told us that he knows that God wants him to join the church. He has narrowly escaped death and serious injury so many times in his life, and he gives credit for that to God. He also explained that every time he feels like he no longer needs God in his life, he runs into the Mormon Missionaries, whether he's in Everette, Ephrata, or Grand Coulee. It's like God has been saving him and really wants him to listen to us. He had been taught all of the lessons by the missionaries in Ephrata a few years ago, and so I asked him if baptism was still something he was interested in, and before I even finished the question, he said  "oh yeah, I still want to get baptized." Dean is an awesome guy, and he said that he will work towards baptism after Dec. 1st because he's really busy. We are so excited for Dean!

Miracle #3: Last Thursday we were on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Both of the companionships stayed here in Coulee Dam. I was with Elder Oliver, and lets just say that if being a missionary was a sport, he would be playing for the pros. He never let anyone get away without sharing the gospel. If someone was a block away and headed the opposite direction on the other side of the street, he would catch up to them and ask if we could introduce ourselves. Elder Oliver and I got along super well. We also taught really well with each other. For some reason, everyone in town was outside and walking around on a Thursday morning, so we managed to pick up 5 new potential investigators and placed 2 Book of Mormons in 4 hours. Elder Oliver taught me so much about missionary work, and that the only reason we should be out here is because of the love we have for the savior and our brothers and sisters. Elder Oliver is a Spanish missionary, though, so I don't know if we'll ever be companions. Bummer.

Yesterday we visited with one of those potential investigators, an older lady named Becky. She was really nice. She invited us in and made us hot chocolate, and was open with us about her feelings of what we were teaching her. She also had two little neighborhood native girls running around the house that thought it was funny that we were both named "Elder." We gave her a Book of Mormon and she invited us back on Thursday.

Unfortunately I don't have any really funny stories this week, other than that Elder Coy and I helped our ward mission leader slaughter his Geese on Saturday. So that was fun. I don't have any pictures though, sorry! :)

Thank you all for your support and prayers! They are really making a difference here! It's amazing how even in a small place like Coulee Dam there are still people that are willing to hear the gospel. Above all, please keep praying for our investigators!

Until next week,

Elder Moser

Temple Trip and Craziness

Friends! Family! Other people!

The work is slowly progressing here in Washington! Getting new investigators is not easy in small secluded towns, but we have managed to meet a few new people within the last week. Also, I always notice the stupid grammatical errors in my letters after I send them, but ain't no one got time for spellcheck. So please forgive me.

Last Tuesday, I were on exchanges with the Omak Elders again. But this time, I was with Elder Colunga. So far, I've gotten along really well with every missionary I have had to work with, and Elder Colunga was no different. Most of our day was spent tracting, trying to follow up with investigators that weren't home, and trying to stay warm in the freezing weather. There isn't any snow yet, but the wind will kill you. Anyways, our day was extremely average until our dinner appointment came. We were scheduled to eat with a young couple with two kids, and they totally forgot until we knocked on their door. They were also in the process of putting up a Christmas tree and all that jazz, so we caught them at a bad time. I felt bad, but we helped them get set up and they made us some spaghetti anyways. I spent the rest of the time talking with the family and making pretend soups with their 3 year old son, Owen. It was a blast. 

When I was back in Coulee Dam that night, I needed to do laundry but didn't have any quarters, so Elder Coy and I ran back to the store to get some. While we were standing in line, I noticed a man with a bag full of liquor shots staring at our tags. He came up to us and explained how he had taken a tour of temple square the previous week with his family and was very impressed by the Mormon Church. He said that he was especially interested in missionary work, and while he was there he learned how we are called, what we do, etc. He finished by saying that we are doing a "dang" good job and that he hopes to see us around town. Heavenly Father prepares everyone in different ways and it is so cool to see how he gets you to cross paths with those that are willing to hear your message.

Elder Coy had an ear infection Wednesday night, which was not fun for either of us. We were in by 5:00 because he had a really bad headache, so I basically just sat around and watched some church videos. Missionary apartments are not designed for entertainment. They are only for studying, sleeping, and eating. And in our case, we don't even have a trash can. So trying to keep your mind from turning into mush when you have to stay inside is rough. That is why missionaries have to stay engaged in the work. If you don't get out and teach, things will get boring quickly. 

Friday was our zone temple trip! We had a member, Brother Bond, drive us all the way down to the Columbia River Temple in Kennewick. Going to the temple as a mission zone is a special experience. The spirit is extra strong. It's also nice to have the opportunity to interact with the other missionaries, because being a missionary in Coulee Dam means that the nearest companionship is an hour away. Going to the Temple is something that we only get to do every 6 months, so I was grateful for the opportunity. 

That night, we met with a man  who Elder Coy had met while knocking doors before I came here. This was only Elder Coy's second time seeing him, because he works odd hours. He is an amazing guy. He told us about how a little while ago, he and his girlfriend used to drink, smoke, and do every drug imaginable; but one morning, he woke up and told his girlfriend that he didn't want to live like that anymore. So that day, he drained all of his alcohol and threw away all of the drugs and paraphernalia. He also tacked a sign to a tree that says, "there is always hope", and its been there ever since. He said that it was that easy for him to quit abusing drugs and alcohol, and that he is now devoting his time to helping others in the community to do the same. He is the perfect example of action. If we all acted on our promptings the way he did with his to change his life, imagine how much better our lives would be! God has already shown miracles in his life, and I can't wait to teach him tomorrow about the plan our Heavenly Father has for him.

On Saturday, Brother Bond went with us to help move a family in town. It took a few hours of heavy lifting, and by the end of the first load, Elder Coy's elbows were toast. So in order to make it to our dinner appointment on time, Brother Bond and I summoned the strength of 1,000 oxen and moved 2 washers, 2 dryers, a canoe, and all manner of miscellaneous heavy things in record time.  After that, we had to rush to Sister Bashor's house to make it on time. Sister Bashor is a sweet old lady with a thick Ecuadorian accent that the missionaries found a few years ago. She made us some delicious chicken and rice stuff. She said that next time she will make pasole, and I'm pretty amped about that. 

We met some strange people this week, including one lady that was drunk and wanted us for something other than the gospel, and a man that is a recent convert but won't come back to church because the bishop stole 375 million dollars from him. Yep. 

Road to Omak looks like the Washington most
people envision.

Thank you all for your support and prayers! Please keep our investigators in your prayers as well!

Road to Omak.

Elder Moser

Zone Temple Trip.  I got moved to the back...the joys of
being above average height.

One Month Down

November 9, 2015

Friends and family!

The weeks are flying by here in Coulee Dam! I can't believe it is already p-day again. And also, I just wanted to give a shout out one time to my awesome mother for sending me a sweet sweet package. Literally, soo much candy. So just like Elder Groberg, promise you will still love me if I come back looking like an elephant.

Last Tuesday, I had my first exchange. I stayed with Elder Mendoza up in Omak, and It went pretty well. Except for the fact that Elder Coy didn't tell me to bring sheets. That Monday night I slept on a bed with no sheets or pillow, so I unzipped the liner out of my jacket to use as a blanket that would cover both halves of my body in their frigid apartment, McGyver style. It was great. The next day, it was on the schedule to help a family move out of their house. Since Elder Coy didn't tell me I needed service clothes, either, I was trying to avoid scratching up my church shoes too badly. The family did pay us in giant burgers from a restaurant in town, though, so that was great too. But when we finally got out tracting and teaching, I learned a lot from Elder Mendoza. He talked to everyone he saw and always made sure he left them with some spiritual message or card. We even got a few potential investigators! To bad I won't be in Omak to follow up with them.

The next day, Wednesday, we saw somewhat of a miracle happen. Elder Coy and I were at Safeway so that we could meet with a guy that works there, Mike, and set up an appointment. I left to go to the bathroom, and when I came out, Elder Coy told me that a lady went to Mike's register to buy a huge bottle of Spiced Gin, and that he had said a silent prayer for her to drop it on her way out. On our way back out, guess what we saw in front of the car? A bunch of glass shards and a stream of Spiced Gin running down the pavement. God is awesome.

Thursday was spent tracting in the town that I live in, Coulee Dam. It went very well! We always count the the number of quality gospel conversations that we have (or OYM's for Open Your Mouth) each day with the goal of at least 10 per day, and we had 7 before lunch. The people were home and willing to talk! Unfortunately, they were all happy with their religion, have already been "churched", etc. But at least we are sowing seeds! One family did seem interested, though, and we gave them a Book of Mormon and they invited us back for a day this week. I love it when people except us, especially when they have kids, because I know that the gospel can make their lives so much better! We also tracted in Wilbur and contacted 2 more families that invited us back! I really hope that these families progress, because the hard part of the mission field isn't knowing what to teach, it's finding people to teach.

Friday was interesting. We went to Electric City to visit some inactive members, the Fields, and invite them back to church. They were probably in their 80's. Apparently, the wife hasn't been active for 60 years. Wow. But they were very kind and invited us in to talk to them. They weren't interested in coming back, but Brother Fields, in the middle of the conversation, asked us, "Do you believe in Sasquatches?" To which Elder Coy said that he had actually felt a Sasquatch pelt at a guys house in Naches, and that the man that owned it had shot it himself. Brother Fields continued to talk about all of the times that he had seen Sasquatches when he worked in Alaska, with sister fields confirming that she had seen them too. Pretty weird, right? It got weirder. He then told us about all of the space ships that he had seen in his life right there in Washington, and even showed us some diagrams of a spaceship and different species of aliens that a friend of his who was abducted drew for him. When we finally got out of their, Elder Coy and I looked at each other thinking, "what just happened?" 

We ended the day with a visit to V's house, an investigator that is a lot like Jynx from the District videos. As soon as we walked through the door, she said that she wanted us to know that she wouldn't join the church, but that we were welcome to visit any day of the week. I was kind of bummed, but she is still reading the Book of Mormon, and she changes her mind every week... so I guess we just have to give her time.

On Saturday, we visited the "Undunkables", an older couple living in a trailer by the Columbia River. They have been talking to missionaries from all different religions for decades, but have still not made up their mind. We decided to talk about the holy ghost this time, and for the first time, they seemed genuinely interested. Even Hubert, the man who looks for every opportunity to change the subject to politics, participated and even testified about the Book of Mormon. Who knows, maybe they will be the next to be baptized.

Yesterday, we had interviews with President Lewis, and he told me that after talking to some of the members in the ward, they would have thought that I have been out for 6 months. Little do they know, I'm just faking it until I make it. But genuinely :) President and Sister Lewis are awesome. They are the nicest people, and they are starting to feel like family.

One last thing: Elder coy and I listened to a talk by Bill Carpenter about his conversion story. See if you can find it on Youtube and listen to it. It is amazing!

Until next week!

Elder Moser

Coulee Dam Chapel.

Outside our apartment.

See our warming blankets.

My study area.

Monday, Nov 2, 2015

Friends and family!

It has been a cold, rainy week here in Coulee Dam, but the spirit is keeping us warm!

To be honest, things have been kinda slow here. Most of our week has been spent visiting less actives and recent converts and tracting. Tracting here is very interesting, because there are such varied beliefs. Some people are hardcore atheist that tell us to go away, others are devout catholic, some are Native American and just don't give a rip, and the list goes on and on. Most of the people that we have come across are really friendly as well. Some let us into their homes even if they don't want to hear our message.

I have met some really great people, though. One recent convert that we frequently visit, V., is an older black lady that lives with her little dog, Earl. Her relationship with Earl is funny. Every time we visit her, her dog starts yapping away and she spends most of the lesson threatening the dog, like "ooohh, Earl, Imma slap you!" I love teaching her, because the work is a little slow right now, and she is one of the few people that we get to teach regularly.

To be honest, I don't really know what to talk about next, because so much happens every week that it isn't fair that we have to cram it all into one weekly letter. I guess I'll start with last P-Day!

Last Monday, Elder Coy and I took a tour of the dam. It was pretty cool. There were about 8 of us in the tour, and they put us all in a van that was being followed by a vehicle with some armed guards.

We saw a bit of the inside of the dam, which contains who knows how many miles of tunnels, and 15 or so pumps that each pump about about one billion gallons of water per day.  The tour guide said that the dam is the Largest in North America, the 2nd biggest concrete structure in the world, and contains enough concrete to build an interstate from Seattle to Miami, or a sidewalk that wraps around the equator twice. Its so big that the engineers and workers ride bikes everywhere! Other than the tour, the rest of Our P-Day was pretty chill. We are the only missionaries in the area, so we spent most of our day by ourselves relaxing and cleaning our apartment. And eating some overpriced tacos from a taco truck in town.

We actually got to travel quite a bit last week! We had about 200 miles left for the month, so we used them as much as we could to visit the smaller less-traveled towns. We hit up some of the smaller towns like Wilbur, Coulee City, and Nespelem.

Long road to nowhere....or .

We even picked up a few potential investigators along the way that invited us back, something that I hadn't seen yet in the mission field. I am most hopeful for someone that we met while tracting in Grand Coulee (confused by all of the town names yet?). She said that we could teach her because she is actually in the process of looking for a new church. She has been doing an "online church thing" for the past few weeks and says that it just isn't doing it for her, so we need to get over there before the Jehovah Witnesses snatch her up.

Nespelem Town Hall

I met a lot of cool people this week and I probably don't have enough time to talk about them all. But I have to tell you about one guy we met, an inactive guy name Brother C. We decided to meet him and invite him back to church. Brother C. is a big guy with a Harley, beard, and tattoos everywhere. But when he invited us into his house, we saw his ENORMOUS Beanie Baby collection. So. Many. They were actually his wife's, but they were displayed in the living room for all to behold. We talked with him for about an hour and a half on everything, from his time spent in the Air Force to the gospel of Christ. He is still a believer, but he doesn't want to travel all the way to Coulee Dam for church. That is the way it is for most of the inactives up here, unfortunately.

I have seen and smelled a lot of marijuana in the past few days. One lady we tracted was growing it right in her flowerbed in front of her house. Some places you can just smell it. It smells pretty nasty, like skunk sagebrush. Blehg. We were out tracting last night and we asked one guy that was outside if he had ever talked to the missionaries before, to which he replied, "No... I'm blazin! Hahaha" so that was pretty much a quality conversation. 

I fasted yesterday that Elder Coy and I would get into someones house to talk to them about the Gospel. Yesterday was also the day that we went up to Naspelem, a really small/ghetto reservation town, so I really didn't think that we would make it into anyone's house tracting. But the first door we knocked on let us in without hesitation! It turns out that the man that answered the door was a missionary from Wenatchee that had moved to the reservation to start a christian church there. Being a missionary, he was pretty set in his ways, and we could tell that he wanted to bash - but we just testified to him what we know to be true, and that is something that you can't argue. It is cool to see how heavenly father answers prayers. He answered my prayer pretty much instantly, but in a way that he knew I needed. We didn't really get to teach that missionary, but now I know what to study for the future, some of those being things that I have never even thought of before. 

I wish I had time to write about everything, but I don't. So here is a summary:

Some of the cutest kids I have ever seen are here and they love the missionaries.

Coulee Dam is full of great people.

The church is true.

The book is blue. 

I love you all!

There were no humans in this weeks photos so this is
 me being cheesy.

Elder Moser

Coulee Dam

I'm finally in my first area with my new companion!

This is the only picture I have of Elder Coy presently.

My new companion is Elder Coy and we have been assigned  to the Coulee Dam area. It is a 3 hour drive north of Yakima, and is a pretty cool place. Our area is the biggest in the Yakima mission. We cover 10 small towns north of Coulee Dam on the way to Omak, about an hour drive. Because our area is a lot of back country, we even get to drive a Jeep! Unfortunately, its a soccer mom Jeep Compass. Pssh. Anyways, we get 1600 miles a month. We are almost out of miles for this month, which means that we have had to stick to tracting the areas closest to us. These areas get tracted alot, though, so we haven't had a lot of success. I cant wait until our miles renew so that we can finally go up north. 

  

It is really interesting to be a missionary in a tiny community like Coulee Dam.

Coulee Dam from city.

Firstly, the Coulee dam is the biggest dam in the world (or America, I'm not sure). It blocks the Columbia River and is a mile long and 550 feet high, and our apartment is only a mile from it.

Secondly, we live on an Indian Reservation, so on my first day here we were proselyting to a lot of Native Americans.

Elder Coy taught me how to make balloon poodle! 

Thirdly, there are dear everywhere up here. They aren't afraid of people, either. They are almost domesticated.

The deer listen better than the people when I proselyte.

We came upon this place while tracting.

And lastly, the ward here is tiny! The chapel is only 2 columns of six rows, and there are probably only 20 active members. The ward members here have to drive quite a ways to go to church, so that explains some of it, but it is still weird.

Thank you all for writing me and praying for the missionaries! We all thank you for your support!

Tote zins to ya

Elder Moser

Mission Home

Hello, everyone!

I have gone through so many changes in the past week. I feel like every time I get used to one thing, it changes. But that's ok, change is what the mission is all about!

Elder Quast and I woke up at 3:00 am Tuesday morning to check out of the MTC.

MTC district Sister Training Leaders and District Leaders

We were up packing until 2:00 that morning, so as anyone would guess, I was really looking my best. Something about wearing a suit that early in the morning is just unholy. Anyways, we got onto a bus, which took us to a train, which took us to the airport. I was really looking forward to calling my family, but there were 21 missionaries flying into Yakima that day, so all of the phones were being used.

Loading the train.  Look at all those missionaries!

I wanted to call my family in Seattle, but unfortunately, our plane was late getting there so we didn't have time. Bummer. Well, there's always Christmas, right?

 

To get to Yakima I rode a bus, then a train, then a plane, then another plane, then a tuck!  

Our plane into Yakima was a tiny twin prop plane that was full of almost just the missionaries. When we landed at the glorious Yakima Airport, President Lewis, his wife, and several other people from the mission office were there to greet us with hugs (just the men, of course).

That is one thing that I have noticed while being here. Everyone - the AP's, the President, missionaries that you just met - gives you hugs. I really felt welcome, it was like I was just adopted into a new family. And in several ways, I was! President Lewis drove us back to the mission home where we put away our stuff, had a much needed lunch, and then sent us off on exchanges to do some good ol' tracting.

Food!  Glorious, tasty food!

Tracting honestly wasn't that bad! I really enjoyed it. Nobody was answering their doors, so Elder Taele and I helped a guy that was outside stacking wood in his backyard. He invited us to sit and talk with him, so we did. we were there for probably 45 minutes just talked about Jesus and a little bit about our religion. He really appreciated all that we missionaries do, but he wasn't interested in our religion because he already has his own.

Green x 23

After that, Elder Taele let me introduce ourselves to an older guy outside doing some yard work. We started talking right away about religion when he noticed our tags, and so I asked him' "are you religious at all?" He just stared at me for a few seconds and then said,"Well, yes! I'm in your ward!" Elder Taele totally set me up. He said I did a good job, but he got a good laugh out of it.

Writing letters home

Parting with my first companion, Elder Quast.