Bikes, Barbeques, and Finding!

Today in the office.

July 10, 2017

I swear I was sitting at this computer emailing yesterday. The hotter it gets, the faster time flies! 

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! Ours was pretty simple. We had our MLC that day, so most of our day was spent in the mission home. It was a great MLC, and a sad one. A lot of my mission friends are leaving this transfer, and so watching them give their departing testimonies gave me a wee bit of anxiety -- Both because they are irreplaceable and because I might be up there someday. After MLC, we had a barbecue with some of the members from our ward, and then we had to be in at 6. Pros: Elder King and I spent the rest of the night cleaning our apartment and now it is sparkling. We also had some pretty deep conversations about everything, including Elder King showing me a mathematical proof that proves that 1+2+3+4... Forever equals -1/12. Cons: We didn't see a single firework this year. I love explosions. But I can wait.

Our week was spent deep in the streets of our area. We even chose to ride bikes all day on one of the days (even though we have a vehicle) because we knew we could talk to more people and because we knew that it would feel delightful to work some of those fried Oreos off. We had to ride a long way to get to our area, but we saw the hand of the Lord in our work almost instantly! We were riding through down-town Yakima on our way home for lunch when a man walked out of an apartment complex and said "Elders! Would you like to meet a member in your ward who isn't on the records?" We jumped off our bikes, and this man (a member from a neighboring ward) told us that he had just been talking to an older man named Charles who wants to start coming back to church. The member asked if he would like to meet with missionaries, and he said yes. When he left the complex, he saw us riding home and so he stopped us and brought us to him right there! Charles looked like he was about to fall over. It is incredible how God sets everything up! It's kinda like one big choreographed dance that everyone knows, but they don't know that they know. Like High School Musical maybe? I'm rambling. Basically, missionary work is High School Musical.

On another day, we were stopped three times as we were just walking back to our truck by people that wanted to talk to us. Two of them were people that have met with missionaries before, so we referred them to the missionaries that cover their area. The other was Carolina, a woman that we taught a few months ago. Her family is doing well, and they still have SOO much potential, but they have been really busy and her husband, Hector, works nights. But I got to see my little buddy Milo again (their 2 year old) and he showed me his toys, so everything is good. 

Matt and Sarah gave us a wedding invitation this week! They are doing really well, and are currently working on the Word of Wisdom. They are committed, though. They will have no problem. Laurette still loves us coming over to show us family history, but she is a little hesitant when it comes to coming to church. We are going to introduce her to a recent convert in our ward, Sister Ferris, who was baptized after being introduced to family history and we think it will make things easier for her. 

It's been a great week of missionary work. We are finding and teaching, and loving every second of it! This is definitely the Lord's work. I know that it wouldn't work the way it does -- and that we wouldn't feel the way we feel -- if it wasn't.

Love you all!

Peace and blessings,

Elder Moser

Fried Oreos...we only ate one this time.

The sisters showed up with some left over food from a wedding....

At Matt's house reppin' the bikes (ft. half-naked Curtis)

Our Mission Turned 2 and Evelyn got Baptized!

July 3, 2017

Washington Yakima Mission Home

Last week, we had two zone conferences- one for the northern half of the mission, and one for the southern half. So, that pretty much blew up half of our week with travel time and setting up and a lot of fun technical nonsense.  

History of WYM AP's

Thanking our meal providers.

So our week really started on Thursday. I got to go with Elder Hughes from Nevada back to the ol' Cottonwood Canyon! We spent the morning doing some service for the Stevens, a recent convert family, spraying a bunch of weeds out in their horse pasture. We also ate ribs with Bro. Diaz, my old ward mission leader, so it was a great day. I just love being a missionary out in the countryside! Even though it is the same work, you learn to go about it differently when you have to drive house to house.

The Stevens

​I look like a poser in this picture, but I swear that horse lips just tickle. I swear.

The Diaz family.

Friday was a simple day. We had exactly one million things to do, and then we headed over to Selah to get ready for Evelyn's baptism! Her whole family was there to support her (even though none of them are members) and they definitely felt something at the service. I did see Evelyn's mom wipe away a few tears when she went under the water, which is a big deal since she was against her getting baptized for a long time. We had a great turnout from the ward, in it was honestly just one of the best baptisms I've ever been to. Evelyn even bore her testimony at the end of the meeting. She is so converted. John 15:16 (our mission scripture) says: "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." Even though it has been a long process with Evelyn and with her family, we are so grateful that she has made it, and we are confident that this fruit will remain.

Filling the font song...

Evelyn's family

"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you,
that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain:
that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."
John 15:16

Saturday was exchanges with the Ephrata Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Black from Erda Utah who is a complete cowboy. Watching him do missionary work in Ephrata was seriously like watching a Lion in the Serengeti. It is just his element! He knows exactly how to spark up a conversation about livestock, crop rotations, everything. It was great! I have been on more exchanges with Elder Black during my mission than almost any other missionary, and our exchanges together have always been some of my favorite.  It was also the two year anniversary of our mission. So, obviously, we celebrated with fried Oreos. :)

Sunday was Evelyn's confirmation, which was also very special. She asked me to confirm her, and her entire family was at church together, for the first time! It's pretty neat looking out into the congregation to see a new family sitting together who have probably never experiences peace like that before. It might take a while for the rest of the family to jump aboard, but Evelyn is seriously the best possible example they could have- so it's only a matter of time. :)

Hope you all have a great week!

Peace and blessings,

Elder Moser

Pepper update!

​Look at this wild herd we found running through the Columbia River Gorge!

Moses Lake, Omak, and Sushi

June 26, 2017

We did SOO much last week. 

First off, everyone is doing great! Especially Evelyn, who will be getting baptized this Friday. Matt and Sarah also got their wedding rings engraved with the date of August 12th, so they are obviously committed to it. And lastly, Laurette is still a family history fool. She seriously loves it. We plan on starting to focus a little bit more on church and hope to see her out next Sunday!

It seriously feels like months have passed since last Monday, just because we have done a bajillion things. On Tuesday, we were on exchanges with Moses Lake all day. It's always great to be back in the old area! Especially great, because the whole zone was together doing a crazy demolition service project for a guy who's house got destroyed by a bunch of squatters while he was on an extended vacation. 22 missionaries spent the whole morning ripping everything off the walls, clearing out the whole house of waste-high garbage, and ripping up the carpet and paneling. It was insane. And super fun. We finished our exchange at Tsunami Sushi (with Elder Bawden ordering teriyaki because he hates Sushi) and loved it. At one point, a slightly drunk man came over to us and offered us all some raw salmon. The 3 of us gladly accepted, but Elder Bawden declined. He kept pushing him to try it, though, and so Elder Bawden ended up eating a giant slab of raw salmon... and then chewed it with his eyes closed for like 20 minutes. So funny. He's a good sport and doesn't want to disappoint anyone, but I guess you could say our exchange left a bad taste in his mouth. Ha. Haha. Ha

We left Moses Lake on Tuesday night and went straight to Omak to exchange there. I LOVE Omak! The people there are so friendly, so open, and so weird. I love it. I straight up feel like I am in a different country when we proselyte there! I was with Elder Miles (who played soccer for BYU Hawaii), and we only met kind people. I also just love Elder Miles and Elder Allsop, so exchanges with them are always the best.

Last week we got a referral for a lady named Sandra. She is really interested in coming to church, and said that she has a bunch of friends that also want to go with her. We're excited to start teaching her! She might end up going to the YSA, but she works when the Branch's service is, so it may not work out. We'll see!

I seriously love my mission. I love all of the different people that I have met in the past 20 months, and I have gotten so close to so many of them- Missionaries, members, investigators, everyone. The spirit definitely welds hearts together!

Peace and Blessings,

Elder Moser

Zone hike to Boulder Cave

​Bridgeport, WA- So pretty. Orchards and mountains for days

Summertime in Omak!​

This picture sums up Omak perfectly.
 Everyone is doing the weirdest things but they are all so happy!
This is a picture of Lydia, who was baptized with her family on Saturday :)​

Ah. Coulee Dam.

​Ellensburg​

Exchange, Family Search, and Evelyn is Getting Baptized!

June 19, 2017

Howdy!

"This last week was a good one." -Elder Moser

Yesterday especially was a great day for us! Matt and his family came to church, Evelyn and her mom came to church (for all three hours!), and Pamela and Chloe came to church for the first time, and even brought a friend with them! We had a church tour with Pamela and Chloe a few days before, and it helped them out a lot. They were really comfortable at church, and especially loved the gospel principles class because Brother Prescott is the best teacher ever and can literally demand your fascination. Also, because Evelyn's mom came with her to all three hours of church, Evelyn is set to get baptized next week! We had it scheduled for this weekend, but her main fellowshipping family wouldn't be able to go so we moved it back one week. 

For about a week, we've also been teaching this sweet old lady that we tracted into named Laurette. She's from the south, and she talks like it. She's also discovered a love for family history. Even though it's kinda like watching a dog try to make a phone call, she gets around online- she's just super slow. When we knocked on her door, we just felt like we should introduce her to Family Search, and we have had 3 lessons in just a week, and half of her family tree is filled out. It is so fun to help someone start their family history. We feel like detectives, and it's way more fun than we thought it would be. It's also been cool to see how it's over taken her other interests. When we show up for a lesson, she has it pulled up with a bunch of questions about what to do. Usually, the answer involves just clicking and dragging to see the rest of her family tree. "Now, how do I see my grandparents?!" "Just click and drag, Laurette." She gave us ice cream yesterday, so she's pretty much our adopted grandmother.

We went on three exchanges this week, and they all came down to Yakima for each. Moment from each exchange:

Elder Aguilar: Taught Laurette for the first time and almost got destroyed by a boiling hot hashbrown casserole that an old member of our ward dropped on the table. It almost flipped onto our laps, but the angels were with us.

Elder Cannon: We found SO many people to teach, had a blast talking about how we're going to bike from Washington to California after the mission, and made some of the best pulled pork on the planet with our new slow-cooker. Seriously changed my life. 

Elder Poloncic: Reunited with my last companion! Taught a less-active and his GF for the first time, both of them loved it. We also just loved the warm sun and different people we talked to.

That was the week! New people are coming from every direction. I seriously know that God is preparing people everywhere, he just needs us to find them. 

Watering dirt is going to be so worth it.

Peace and blessings,

Elder Moser

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Tuesday, June 13, Mission Leadership Conference Pics courtesy of Sister Lewis:

Sunday Transfer "initial" planning.

President and Sister Lewis