General Authorities, Transfers, and Hijacked Conversations!

March 20, 2017

What a crazy week. I'll do my best to remember some details!

Monday...in the OFFICE for more than emails.

Meeting....

Elders King, Taele, and Moser

Preparing for Transfers.

Writing home.

I am now officially with my new companion, Elder King! He is from Dallas Texas and is SO COOL. I LOVE ELDER KING. He is super good with people and we teach very well together. We also both have a vision for what we know can happen in our area and get pretty excited about it. We are having sooo much fun together. Fun fact about Elder King: He played Quidditch professionally in college. This transfer will be one of my favorites, I can tell! And for those of you who have taken the 16 personalities test, we are rocking the ENFP/INTJ combo.

Our week was crazy, but I'll give you a rundown:

MONDAY

On Monday, we said goodbye to the departing missionaries. It was pretty weird seeing them leave because they were all sisters that came out one transfer before me, and I am pretty close to them all. So that was sad. 

Preparing to write their names on the missionary wall.

But we had a great time playing some games (Like group Rock, Paper,
Scissors) and had a super cool testimony meeting with President and Sister Lewis
 at the end. They will be missed! 

 TUESDAY 

We welcomed three new missionaries to the field! All of them are sisters in an attempt to
replace the 10 that left. They are all super solid missionaries and we are excited to have them!

Lunch time!

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday was crazy. I don't remember everything that happened, but Elder King
 and I helped with transfers and driving people around the mission to their new areas. It was fun!

THURSDAY

On Thursday, We had a special Zone Conference with Juan A Uceda
 of the Seventy (the one who gave a talk about almost falling off
Machu Pichu last conference). 

 

Elder King and I were in charge of setting up the sound and everything for the Lower
conference here in Yakima, and we didn't really know what we were doing since we are
 both pretty new. We got things figured out, and everything went smoothly during the meeting--

About halfway through Elder Uceda's training, the sound started popping super loudly
and the speakers were picking up the frequency to some radio station. We had no idea
what to do and felt totally helpless. It probs took 10 years off our life expectancy.
But we got everything figured out, and it was a great meeting.

Meeting Elder Uceda and wife...and greeting President & Sister Lewis.

President also asked me to play and sing "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul,"
 so that was pretty fun but also extra stress. Good times.

Yakima Zone

FRIDAY

We had a special Northern Zone conference with the other half of the mission in Quincy.
That one went way more smoothly, which was good news because I was conducting that time.
It was sweet sitting next to a general authority and hearing the conviction in his voice.
That man knows that God lives. He knows that this is the church. And you can feel the love
 of God when he speaks to you. I hope we all can be a little bit like that :) Elder Uceda
focused on learning how to truly study and love the scriptures,
and I learned a ton (especially since I got to listen to it twice).

Yakima 3rd ward is so cool. It is right in the heart of Yakima, and there are TONS of people to talk to, unlike most of my other areas. It's pretty ghetto in parts, but it is super fun and we are teaching the coolest people. Right now, we are focusing on a 12 year old girl named Evelyn who was tracted into a few months ago. Her family is supportive of her meeting with us, but they aren't too interested. Evelyn is an inspiration! Even though she's only 12, she has the maturity of a 20 year old and really wants a "perfect family" like she sees when she goes to church. She has been coming to church every week for several weeks now, and is praying about being baptized on April 8th.

We are also teaching a lady named Kelly. Kelly is super interesting but a great person :) She wants to get baptized, but has been having troubles quitting smoking. She told us in her last lesson that she only had one pack left though, so we are praying for her :)

Overall, I am loving being back in Yakima! The people in downtown Yakima are sooo diverse in every way, and Elder King and I have loved talking to them. Funny story from yesterday: We buzzed into an old kinda trashy apartment complex to see if the resident living there (a less-active member) would come down and let us in. We hit the call button and he answered, and we were making some small talk and told him that we were the missionaries. We could tell that he immediately wasn't a fan. Right then, a drunk black guy falls up the stairs (somehow) and starts talking to the guy for us:

"Look man, let these guys in so I can talk to my son!"

"Uhh, I'm not going to do that."

"Well I think that you need to shut up and let 'em in!"

And that's when things went downhill. At that very moment, they started yelling long strings of obscenities at each other, back and forth. The best part is, the less-active probably thinks that he was with us. Hopefully we doesn't actually think that, but either way.. So. Funny. And I can tell that there are so many more stories on the way! :)

I love being an assistant. It's stressful at times and we have a ton of things to do, but we still get to spend time in our area and we both feel like it gives us so many opportunities to love all of the missionaries. That is my favorite part. We get to associate with every missionary, and I've already made several new friends. I just love it. We also drive a truck, so that is a pretty sweet upgrade from a minivan. Haha. Our apartment is pretty normal. When we drive through Yakima some day I'll have to show you :)

I love you all!

Peace and Blessin's, 

Elder Moser

​The Sisters going home :(

​Elder Taele Dubbing me to take his place. Haha

​Elder King. Professional Quidditch Player.​

​I lost my name tag 4 1/2 months ago in a snow storm, and one of the missionaries
 found it in a gutter in the middle of town.

Found a free selfie stick in the mission office.

Before Moses Lake Comes to an End-Pics!

March 13 (Cont.)
Haha I figured Uncle Eric was an AP. And I love all the members from ML! They really appreciated us, and it motivated us to work harder and harder. They were all freaking out about the AP thing though. I don't even know how they heard... But being an assistant means that we make President's life as easy as possible, and Sister Call's life as hard as possible. Sister call is the main office lady. She is hilarious; in this mornings meeting, she was shooting Elder Taele with a rubber band from across the table during a discussion. The assistants are always pranking her, so I'm excited to tag along! And we don't live in the mission home, we have an apartment like 20 blocks away from the office.

This is Wyatt, the YSA ward mission leader. We get along pretty well.

​That is "YSA" in sign language. Please forgive E. Poloncic.

The 11th Ward Youth! Front Left is Lawrence (AKA Lil' Prince), and the one to the right
 of him is Jay, the PMF that we taught for a long time. He still isn't baptized, but he will be someday :)

​The Madrishins. One of the funniest families I have ever met.

The Osborne Fam! These guys do missionary work like nobody's business!

Varinder Singh and Kultar Singh. We caught him pretty early, so he actually
put a shirt on over his bathrobe for the picture haha.

Doubled Out of Moses Lake

March 13, 2017

I don't have a ton of time to write this week, and for the first time ever, I think I actually mean it. 

It has been a crazy week! Moses Lake 11th Ward and the YSA is on fire! 

Singh is still on for his baptism this Saturday, and Chloe and Travis were on for their baptism on the 25th, but they didn't come to church yesterday, so we'll have to push it back a little bit. 

My brain is seriously empty right now. Transfers are this week, and on Saturday, President Lewis called us and we are both out of Moses Lake. Elder Poloncic is being transferred to Hood River, Oregon, and I am serving in the office. I am pretty jealous of Elder Poloncic. He is serving in one of the prettiest places in the mission, and it's the wind surfing capitol of the world. Pretty legit. As for me, President Lewis told me to be at the mission office yesterday instead of on Wednesday so that I can witness the madness that is transfers. It has been a whirlwind of packing and saying goodbye to the members and investigators in Moses Lake. Right now, I am in a tri-pan with Elder Taele and Elder King, who are both stellar missionaries. We are going to have a blast for these next few days we are together! On Wednesday, Elder Taele will be moving to Moses Lake and I will serve with Elder King. 

I love Moses Lake. Elder Poloncic and I could not believe that we were being doubled out. We have seen so much growth in our area, and we feel so blessed to have made the relationships we have. It's also a bummer that we have to leave the week of Singh's baptism, but we left detailed notes about everything in our area (hopefully) so that the Elders coming in will have something to work with. We also hope to reunite on Saturday at the baptism :)

The gospel is true, everyone. I hope that in a world of craziness and stress that all of you take time to make the gospel the center of your life, because it makes all the difference. 

Peace and Blessin's,

Elder Moser

"Did that mailbox just say 'Moser?!' Elderwehavetogoback!"

​Behind the Moser ranch is a giant water ski run thingy. It's pretty sweet.
Too bad they didn't answer :(

Jalapenos, Floods and Miracles!

March 6, 2017

Hey.

Everything is melting. My heart is singing with joy. The sun is out, and the days are getting longer! We also got to drive through some wicked lake-sized puddles so that was cool too. 

Our investigators are doing well! Singh is on-date now for the 18th since we didn't have time to teach him about the word of wisdom before his 2-week mark. But he has totally committed to stop drinking his Indian tea, and actually felt pretty bad about it. We told him that it was ok that he didn't know before hand :) It's pretty cool seeing people repent in even the smallest ways! Singh's parents are still totally on board with it all, and even though they aren't taking the lessons, his dad almost always sits in for our lessons and even came to church with him again yesterday. Hopefully we can get him into the Daily Dose program, which is a church-run English class. We think they have some potential for the few months that they will be in Moses Lake! 

Jessie, our other YSA investigator, told us that he is starting to work nights at his factory job, even though he doesn't want to. I guess that's just what happens sometimes when you are at the bottom of the food chain. He still hasn't made it to church, and his schedule definitely isn't helping. But we are doing everything we can to help him out!

Cool sidenote: A YSA girl named Becca that we tracted into and referred to the sisters is now on-date for april 20th and is super solid! It was really cool, because those sisters were told by President Lewis that they would baptize someone together, and so they were fasting and praying that they would come across someone who was ready. They almost cried when we referred her :) President Lewis is definitely inspired.

We didn't get to meet with Travis and Chloe last week, because they were both down with some kind of stomach bug or something. But here's something cool: Travis's niece (who comes from a non-member family) was just baptized in one of the other wards here in Moses Lake! Her name is Delilah, and her uncle on the other side of the family, Damien Baker, is also a recent convert and was the one who baptized her. It is so cool seeing how the gospel is spreading to everyone in this family, all at different times and in different ways! 

Lawrence (Prince of Belair) bore his testimony again yesterday. He told that he feels good when he comes to church, and even said "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" this time! He's making some good progress. We're meeting with him every week now. He's still in the mindset that he isn't going to get baptized until he's "like 40 or something" because he wants to have fun before then... so we're still working with him on that. Haha. 

Funny story of the week: One of my missionary friends that is serving in Yakima got punched in the mouth by a meth-head last night. Elder Taele is a strong dude, and said that he almost activated the "switch" which is when he goes full Polynesian and destroys things. But he held it in and turned the other cheek. When I asked Elder King how badly Elder Taele could have injured the guy, Elder King said "so you know those Blendtech commercials, right? Yeah. Imagine butter in a Blendtech." Haha. Serving a mission teaches you a lot about patience.

So right now I'm growing some Jalapenos and Habaneros in my window sill. It's taught me some good things about faith. I had to water dirt for 2 weeks before those things sprouted. But that was the only way to make them grow, and even though it felt like sometimes I was accomplishing nothing, I kept watering dirt because I knew something better was on the way. That's how life is -- Sometimes, you just have to water dirt. You have to read your scriptures, go to church, say your prayers, and it feels like you are getting no where. But eventually, you will find yourself studying the scriptures, making the Sabbath a delight, and truly praying. If our actions are in the right place, our hearts will follow. And if the seed is good, there is no way to keep it from growing. (Alma 32)

Have a good week everyone!

Peace and Blessin's, 

Elder Moser

The breakfast tostada, it is wonderful!

​That awkward moment when you find out the road is actually a river

Window Peppers!