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!