Elder Nathan S Moser: Preaching and Teaching Like It's My Birthday!

January 11, 2016

Hello everyone! It's been a good week!

Last Tuesday, Elder Coy was scheduled to have a Leadership Training Meeting in Yakima. They cancelled the meeting last minute because of garbage weather, however, and so Elder Coy called for an emergency exchange that night with the Omak Elders since the meeting was rescheduled to when we were going to do it. It wasn't until we were halfway up Disautel pass that we realized that it was a bad idea. Missionaries aren't really kept in the loop as far as worldly things go, and weather is one of those things, so we didn't know about the freezing rain. When we made it up the treacherous roads, we waited at the pass for at least 45 minutes and they still weren't there. Then the thought came to us that two Texans were driving in this weather. Oh no. We decided to head down the other side of the pass until we got cell service back, and then we called them. No answer. We called the senior missionaries, the Chandlers, and asked if they could check on them. They weren't home. It was past curfew, and they still weren't at the pass. But then we got a call from them saying that they got stuck in a lesson and had a member take them up, which is why we didn't notice their car coming down. Phew. Exchanges were a good experience, but the drive back up to the pass the next night had dense fog and more freezing rain. The weather here is killer.

While Elder Coy was at his training, I was on exchanges with Elder Quast and Kneip in Ephrata. It was awesome seeing how much we had all grown from the MTC! Elder Quast's area is a walking one, though, so that was interesting. I was so tired of walking in slush by the end of the day.

We spent Friday night at the Zone Leader's apartment, and then headed back to Coulee the next day for a Zone Training Meeting. These meetings are always awesome, but the spirit was felt so strongly at this one. We could all feel it. Elder Bonzo did a training about charity and why we MUST have it in missionary work. He told us to imagine ourselves being President Lewis and having the option to pick from 4 different missionaries: Persuasive, knowledgeable, faithful, or consecrated. In 1 cor 13:1-3, it talk about these kinds of missionaries, and explains that unless we teach like Christ did, full of love and compassion, we are nothing. It was so good that I used some of it in my talk on "member missionary work" in church on Sunday.

Funny story of the week: Saturday (my birthday!) was transfer calls, and so while we were setting up for the training we got a call from president Lewis. I finished my training this past week, and so Elder Coy is being transferred to Ellensburg, and I was called to train one of the 12 new missionaries coming in on Wednesday. President said that "If a missionary can be trained in Coulee Dam, they can be a good missionary anywhere." Looks like I'll be staying in Coulee Dam for 12 more weeks! I'm excited to train this new Elder. I won't know who he is until Wednesday, but I know that we can make things happen here in Coulee Dam! Hopefully our ENORMOUS collection of yarn, knitting looms, and brownie mix won't make him think that we're part time grandmas- but hey, there's not much to do here in Coulee.

The week has been relatively slow because of all of our traveling and lack of time spent in our own area, but we managed to find a new investigator, Jaime. I have no idea how people like Jaime find their way to Coulee Dam, but he's from Cuba and very interested in God. He has a lot of health problems, and he finds comfort in learning about Christ. There is somewhat of a language barrier, but we have copies of everything in Spanish for people like him. I'm excited to see where the gospel will take him! He's a super nice guy, and while we were there he made us eat a giant plate of "Cuban Style Spaghetti" which was basically an incredibly tasty monstrosity with every type of meat in it. It was funny, because we had a dinner appointment right afterwards at Sister Bashors house, and she made us Ecuadorian Spaghetti. I'm getting so cultured up in here.

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes everyone! Have a good week!