Living the Life "Sunyside Up!"

April 25, 2016

Sunnyside is the best. It's hot, it smells like cows, and we always practice our Spanish on the little Mexican kids running around. The work here is absolutely crazy. There is so much going on and we always have lots to do. I've only been a District Leader for a week, and I've already had a baptism interview! It's so exciting! The district is absolutely on fire as well. Between the 4 companionships, we have 12 on-dates for the near future. 

This week has been the craziest/best week of my mission thus far. I'm with my new companion, Elder Johnson, a member of the Sunnyside Ward.

He got a call on Monday asking if he would be ready to serve by Wednesday and serve for 5 weeks. He's been set apart and everything as a full time missionary, an let me tell you. He doesn't need an MTC. Elder Johnson is the best. There is so much going on in this area that we can barely keep up, and we are going hard until the end of the day because we know that God is preparing people for us. The other Elders before us didn't leave very good records of the area either, so we are working super hard to figure everything out. Elder Johnson has been going out with the missionaries for about a year now, and is waiting on his own mission call. I swear, he's training me. But this is probably the best pre-mission training anyone could have. It's pretty unique being companions with somebody who's family lives in the ward you are serving in. I feel like I'm going to get to know them pretty well. Haha. :)

We have seen sooo many miracles in the few short days that we have been together, it has been crazy. I guess I'll start with some of the awesome people that we are teaching!

Right now we have 4 people on date for baptism in May, all of them being super solid. We have been teaching a younger lady named Rosa, and she is just the best. When we teach her, she teaches us. She tells us things that she has learned from her own scripture study and prayers, and then just spews gospel doctrine. She's also super loud and hilarious. She says a lot of things that are so funny that we are going to start a book full of Rosa quotes. Anyway, she's done it all from the Air Force to being a travel agent, but she hasn't been baptized yet. She did come the baptism for one of the sister's investigators on Saturday, though, and she really liked it. She also came to church for the first time yesterday, so we are pretty pumped.

We also have a couple on date named Ricardo and Tanya, and they are very nice yet quiet people. We haven't been able to see them for a few days, but they are on date for May 14th. We have to get them married, but they are willing. They also have 2 kids, so we are excited to help there family grow in the gospel!

The last on date has a story behind it. On Friday, we had a dinner at a family's house that we all really like. For some reason, they were lagging behind, even though they are usually right on. The dinner appointment ended up being a lot longer than we first expected, and we were kind of panicked about missing our appointments. We were really late to our first one, and ended up staying so late that we didn't have time for the people that we were going to try by afterwards. So we went straight to our 3rd appointment, when we had the feeling that we should stop by a recent converts house to see if her daughter was interested in talking with us. When we went to their house, they let us right in and sat us right down, and the daughter, Michele came over and talked with us. We talked to her for a bit, and then I just felt like I should ask her if she had talked with the missionaries before. She told us that she had, but then had stopped because of some complicated circumstances. Then she told us that she had been praying just a few hours before asking God which way we should go. We shared our testimonies with her and told her to listen to the spirit, because it is from that gentle influence that we learn life's greatest lessons. We stayed for probably 30 minutes and the spirit was the strongest I have felt for a long time.  Anyway, by the time we left, Elder Johnson and I were so pumped, we felt like sprinting around the entire city. It was just an awesome night. 

Too much is going on in this area to have time to explain it all. But I know that the work is truly being hastened. So many of God's children have been prepared for us to teach, and it is just the best being part of the greatest work on earth. It's those moments when I find myself testifying to a person that I just met and then feel the incredible amount of love that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for them that make the mission worth it. I could stay out here forever.

I love you all!

Elder Moser

(Pictures from Training Meeting 4-19-16 taken from  Mission Mom's blog.)