Elder Nathan S Moser: Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2016

This past week has been one of some incredible experiences and tender mercies that I will never forget. It has been a week of reminders of how amazing the calling to be a missionary is!

So we have this investigator named Max. We haven't been able to get a hold of him for over a month and he stopped coming to church and to the YSA activities, so we just moved on. At FHE last week, he surprised us by coming to the activity! We were happy to see him! apparently he's been looking for a job and has been staying here in Yakima. We're glad that he decided to come back, and before he left, President Finch invited him to our house for a special YSA dinner this Tuesday. Some amazing things are happening in the YSA branch. President Finch is making some big changes. He's been offering (and sometimes pushing) free haircuts and white shirts for all the guys in the branch, and lately I haven't even recognized some of them at church! Everyone is cleaning up! The size of the Branch is also growing, too. President Finch does an incredible job.

Elder Bird and I joined Coby Johnson, my old companion down in Sunnyside, for a last meal with his family before he headed down to the MTC on Wednesday. Other than the fact that my steak was definitely rarer than I wanted and I will never do that again, it was fun. We have had a great time together. I am lucky to have gotten the chance to serve with him and know that he will help change a lot of people's lives! Friendships made on a mission is a very special thing. Everything you do is a team effort. Both of you strive to follow the spirit. Both of you feel the same joy or disappointment that comes from another's agency. But you become best friends. As one missionary puts it, "the spirit welds hearts together."

Jerald was baptized on Thursday last week!Sunday, we received a referral for a guy in his 20's named J.C. He moved from the Philippines with his family when he was 13, and said that he is looking for some direction in life. We had an awesome first lesson about the Book of Mormon and he's already read the first few chapters and understands pretty well. He committed to prepare for baptism on the 26th of November, so yeah. We're pretty excited. The crazy thing is that we first met Jerald the day of Maseo's confirmation, so hopefully there's a pattern here :) The Lord doth provide!

I got to do the confirmation. It was awesome, because Jerald is really in tune with the spirit and we could all feel it very strongly. Maseo also passed the sacrament for the first time that day, so I was just.. like... Giddy. Or something. It just made me super happy to see my friends growing in the gospel. And both Maseo and Jerald are so solid. Jerald even talks alot about how he's preparing to serve a mission in a year! :) That same

Sunday

It was an awesome service, and one of the most stressful, too, because the person who we asked to give the talk on baptism was MIA. So I had the privilege of giving an impromptu talk on baptism. luckily, I got rid of my butterflies by the time I was up to sing "I Know That My Redeemer Lives," so I guess it was a blessing. After the actual ordinance, Jerald was glowing. He said that for the first time in his life, he felt completely at peace. That

This week I learned that:

1. Trying to testify when the outside of a person's house smells like rank chicken poop is hard.

2. Trying to testify to a guy that is chewing and keeps spitting into a liter of tobacco-spit is equally as hard.

Cottonwood Canyon is still going forward. We are still working with Tim and trying to help him towards baptism. We are doing a lot of finding, and are seeing some cool miracles come as we act on our faith to find.

I hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather! Love you all!

Peace and blessin's,

Elder Moser