Transfers!

Friends and family,

This past week made up for all of the slow weeks we've had to go through recently for a few reasons: 1) I beat my sand pile climb time by 30 seconds, 2) Exchanges with the zone leaders are the BEST, 3) our A/C unit was replaced with a brand new one that looks like it came straight out of a spaceship, and 4) TRANSFEEEEEEEEERRRRSS!!

First of all, I have a testimony that working out in the morning makes one's day 200% better. I wouldn't have thought that it would make that big of a difference, but working out in the morning relieves stress, wakes you up, and helps you think more clearly throughout the day. This past week we have been focusing on climbing a 300 ft. pile of aggregate that was going to be used for the dam back in the 40's. My legs. Fire. 

Exchanges with the Zone Leaders were last week. It was the best. We only had a few hours to do some tracting, but it was fun -- even though it was pouring rain like Washington. Elder Oliver and I were out there like nothing could keep us from spreading the gospel! When we were done tracting in a little place we now call "retirementville," we decided to knock "one more door" because that is where all of the cool stories come from. So we did. The guy wasn't that interested, but we had a conversation for a while. We were late getting home because of that one door, and because of that, Elder Folkman and Woodward (who were also here in Coulee) decided to go out and find someone outside near the apartment that they could talk to. In that short amount of time, they found a 20 year old guy, Eli, that is interested in learning more! He also lives right across from us. We see his house every day when we open up the blinds, but we never thought much about it. Because we knocked one more door, the other Elders found someone that we can teach. God's timing works in interesting ways sometimes :) When we got back, they had climbed in the apartment through the window because the door was locked and I had the key. Good times.

Elder Folkman and I taught a fair amount of lessons this week. We decided to focus on finding people in the farther out towns, especially Wilbur, with good success. We met some awesome people! That area hasn't really been tracted at all, so people are a lot more willing to listen to us. Tracting there is more than just a "Hi! I'm Elder Mo-SLAM." It was also a blistering 50 degrees, so we were soaking it in. We also ran into an investigator that we haven't seen for a while, Bill. He had to go somewhere, so we gave him a quick lesson through his truck window. No time is a bad time to share the gospel! We also met a middle aged guy named Eric, and a young guy named Trent. They are both very open to learning more!

On Saturday we had a church tour with Dean. It went pretty well. When we opened up the font to show him, the spirit was definitely there. He told us that he still wanted to be baptized, and that he would definitely start coming to church. We were stoked! We tried super hard to get everyone else to church that week. Selena's been reading the BOM and said that she would come, Slouch said that she would bring her kids, everyone. Nobody showed up. It was so frustrating. There isn't much more that we can do, so we definitely need to push the members to fellowship them. 

Transfers really changed things this time. The southern districts of the Ephrata Zone have been absorbed into the Wenatchee Zone, and all of the Northern Districts starting with Coulee Dam have been absorbed into a new "Omak Zone." That means that we have 2 new zone leaders, and an entirely new district. I have also now officially been in the zone longer than anyone else. Weird. 

I am excited for this transfer! Thanks for all of your support! Love you all!

Elder Moser

Always look to the light!

The view from Vermont's house is killer!

The Coulee Crud and Pretty Views!

February 15, 2016
Friends and family!

Quick side note: The world is tiny! Elder Folkman's Brother is on a mission in Arizona, and he's companions with Elder Clark from Blackfoot. We were in Acapella choir together one year. Ha.

This week basically consisted of tracting, finding, and trying to get out of bed at 5:30 so that we can go to the church to play basketball. But there was good with the boring:

The highlight of the week was the lesson we had with Karen. Karen is a lady that we met on my first day with Elder Folkman. You might not remember the story, but we were out tracting and when we knocked on the door she came out and started talking to us as if she had been expecting it. Yeah, that lady. Anyway, we asked a member to come with us that has a very good understanding of the scriptures and church history, and for good reason. When she let us into her house Wednesday night, she had places for all of us set up around a table, and at her place she had her Bible, the Book of Mormon, and a notebook with highlighters and pens. She was ready to learn. She basically ran the lesson, and I was totally ok with that. She had SOOO many questions about the Book of Mormon's purpose, the priesthood, prophets, just perfect questions. It was amazing. Every time I wanted to tie in one subject to another, she would start talking about that subject. She had some questions where we didn't even have to answer, because as soon as she asked it, she would start thinking, and then she would just sit back and tell US the "why". The spirit was definitely teaching her, and it was pretty cool seeing it in action. She ended the discussion by saying, "sooo... baptism..." we talked about baptism for a few minutes and then the member we brought said that we had a challenge for her. She took out her pen and started writing "CHALLENGE:" on her notebook. We asked her if she would be baptized when she knew that it was true, and she said, "yeah! So what's the challenge?" She is just the best. I have never met anyone more prepared than her!

One of our investigators, Mike, was at church last Sunday! He's married to a less-active, and we are really going to work hard this week to get him progressing. He works odd hours, so it might be tough. But we had a pretty good lesson with him last week on exchanges, so I know it's possible!

A lot of our other investigators are sick with the "Coulee Crud" (the flu), so it was kind of slow this week. Even Elder Folkman was sick yesterday, so we were in by 3:00. It was awful. It was so boring. I was praying that I would get sick too, because being in a missionary apartment when you want to be out working is the worst hing on the planet. 

Sorry for the semi-boring email. Hopefully we meet some cool people this week so that I have more to talk about next p-day!

Peace and blessin's.

Elder Moser

Here's a view from one area we were tracting in last week.
 It kind of gives you an idea of how in the middle of nowhere we are!

I Hate The Super Bowl.

February 8, 2016

I hate the Super Bowl. 

Seriously. Church here ends at 1:30 and the Super Bowl started at 3:00, so we had an hour and a half window of time to visit our investigators before everyone shut down. We made sure that we visited Vermont, though, because it had been a while and he loves football the most. Yesterday was also the start of our 40 day fast, so we were pretty worn out. Our lesson with Vermont was still great. We finished teaching him about the restoration and why the Book of Mormon is important, but he still doesn't quite get it. So many people around here just accept whatever you tell them, without thinking of the implications it might have on their life. For example: Some of our investigators say the Book of Mormon is the word of God, yet aren't sure if we have a living prophet, if the priesthood is restored, etc. We also challenged Vermont to be baptized, but he told us that he already had as a child. We could have talked for ever about priesthood authority, but we had to save it for another day. No worries. He'll get there. :)

I should mention that the sun has been shining for a week now, something that I have not seen for 3 months. I've missed it so much. It feels like spring up in here!

We had an awesome lesson with Selena last week. Elder Folkman and I have been looking forward to it for a long time. We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the spirit was strong. She also told us that she wanted to move her date up, but before we could propose the date we had been praying about, the member we brought with us hijacked the lesson and asked her to say a closing prayer. It was our fault, though. We should have told him what the plan was. He is still awesome. He showed up outside of Selena's house with a stack of Book of Mormons with his testimony in each one, telling us to give them out to whoever needs it. (Insert joke about having the best "dam" members in Washington here).

Last Tuesday, Elder Folkman and I roadtripped up to Keller and tracted the entire town/village with time to spare before dinner. It was sweet. Keller is the other reservation town, but it is way cooler than Nespelem. It's a beautiful area, and the people there are so nice. We OYM'd a lot of people, but we weren't getting into any houses. We were on the last house in town, and do you know what we got? Nothin'. So we decided to head back to our car, when a girl comes out and apologizes for not hearing us knock. Her name was Sequoia, and we taught her about the restoration. She was open to it all, and said that she would read and pray about the Book of Mormon. It was a testimony builder to me that sometimes you have to go until you literally cannot go any further, and then the Lord will bless you. He knows where the prepared are, and as long as we are trying our hardest, he will put them in our way. 

I've been thinking a lot about God's timing this week. Probably because it was another off week for us. I have come to realize that Heavenly Father is the ultimate referral giver. Just like members are reluctant to give referrals to missionaries they don't trust, the Lord won't put people in our path if we aren't being the kinds of missionaries He can trust. That was the purpose of our 40 day fast, which is basically a period of 40 days where we give up things that we have been holding on to or things that may be distractions to us in order to become more consecrated, trustworthy missionaries. We started off with an actual fast on Saturday, and that is why my stomach was growling all throughout those lessons. 

Today, Elder Folkman and I are headed over to Slouch's house to attempt lumpia, a type of Filipino/Polynesian egg roll. Dean gave both us and Slouch a package of rice paper and told us how to do it. Dean was originally going to help, but he is going into surgery today for his cancer, so we have to find another male to come with us. We are praying that all will go well and that he will recover quickly. 

Keep praying for our investigators, and make sure to give thanks that football season is over! :)

From the best Coulee Dam Elder in Washington, 

Elder Moser

My Zone, February 2016

Keeping our Line in the Water!

This email might be a little short, but thats ok. I hope.

This week was pretty slow. There isn't much going on, but Elder Folkman and I are doing our best to get out and talk to people. Doing so, we've noticed a few things. If there is a truck parked in the driveway, there is a 75% chance you are getting a door slammed in your face. If it's a minivan, you are going to get a nice soccer mom that says "were actually catholic, so.." and if it's a beat up rust box, you're about to meet someone that is high out of their mind. Washington is funny.

Elder Folkman and I roadtripped down to Wenatchee on Wednesday for Zone Conference. All of the northern zones were there. It was awesome. I'm actually starting to know alot of the missionaries in our mission, which is hard when you are in a place like Coulee Dam. I really liked the conference though. The assistants gave an awesome training about "keeping our line in the water." They talked about how just being out until nine doesn't nessesarily mean you will have success. It is like a fisherman that spends all day fishing, but really spends most of his time messing with equipment, trying to find a good place to fish, and trying to get snags out of trees. As missionaries, we can't just be outside of the apartment. We have to keep our lines in the water! That is how we have success. Elder Folkman and I have really been trying to live this the past week. President Lewis also gave a training on how we are blessed for our labors and not nessesarily from them. That really motivates me to be the kind of missionary that the Lord can trust.

It's interesting seeing all of my friends on their missions and seeing all the variance in success. I have some friends that are in very hard, slow areas, and some that are literally teaching all. The. Time. We are in a hard area, but we would do anything to teach people, and we are doing anything and everything we can. I'm getting way more comfortable with talking to people as they get out of their cars, talk with their friends, or do whatever else. I don't really have that fear of man anymore, and I love it! And since doing this, we have had more poeple to teach. We are praying that we will be blessed for our efforts, and we honestly have seen the blessings. The other day during a member dinner, members actually referred us to two of their friends without us asking, something that has not happened before. We have also seen a HUGE difference in ward council and PEC in working with the members. I feel like they are starting to catch the vision for what the Coulee Dam Ward could be if they stepped in. After all, they are the real missionaries. We are just the "hired help." It is awesome. We have been taking Sister Lewis's advice during her training at zone conference about gaining member trust. She said that we should be like Ammon. Even though we are in a hard area, we should love the ward members as if we wished to "dwell with them for the remainder of our days." So that's what we have decided to do. Who cares if I'm in Coulee Dam? I'm going to love and serve these people till the day I die. Or get transferred. One of the two :)

Peace and blessin's, 

Elder Moser