Time Keeps on Slippin'

July 17. 2017

Today is the Monday before transfers, so most of our time this morning was spent in a meeting talking how everything is going to go down. So what I'm saying is: I don't have a whole lot of time :(

Update: President just pulled us into his office for 30 minutes to talk about something and I just got out. So now I have negative amounts of time... Sorry!

I'll give you all some highlights from our week, because it was sweet. Transfer planning cut most of the days in half, but we still found time to do the most important things first- Like going to our buddy Curtis's birthday! We met Matt and Sarah's parents, talked about the wedding, and then had a bubble party outside with Curtis. Their home feels different. When we are with that family, there is a more peaceful feeling in their home compared to when we first started teaching them a while back. Our commitment to them to read the Book of Mormon (sometimes even in the story book) for just 5 minutes a day as a family has seriously transformed them. Matt even offered in Elder's Quorum to help an older lady in our ward after her surgery this upcoming week. He will be a great addition to the ward when he is baptized!

Last week, we found a less-active area seventy in our ward that we have started teaching! His name is Brother K'ang and he was raised and then eventually joined the church in Hawaii. Even though brother K'ang doesn't come to church, he is very spiritual- and not in a fake way. He understands the importance of the scriptures, and he taught us some interesting things about the spirit. He described the process of listening to the spirit in terms of how you would call an animal over to you. What do you do when you want an animal to come? You put your hand out, and you stay quiet; but you also are quiet on the inside. That is what it takes to have the spirit more in our lives. Not just quiet and reverent actions, but a still and quiet mindset. Then, the spirit will come to you without you having to fight for it. We are excited to help Brother K'ang find the right path again, and also are excited for the things he can teach us!

Transfers are real, my friends. Elder King and I have been trying all weekend to solve this puzzle of how everyone is going to get to where they need to go. It's especially hard because 11 missionaries are leaving in the middle of the transfer for school. But the worst part is that Elder King is leaving me. Elder King is headed to Wenatchee for his last 3 weeks and then will be headed home. Scary stuff. He will be missed. These past 4 1/2 months have been some of the greatest of my mission. Obviously, I have learned a TON. My new companion is Elder Allsop from Lindon, UT and is great. I have been on exchanges with Elder Allsop a few times in Omak (which is where he is coming from) and always love spending time with him! I am so excited for this next transfer! 

Hope you all have a great week!

Peace and blessings, 

Elder Moser

Curtis is three now (whoop whoop!)

Long story short: Elder Bown and I found and explored the crawlspace to
 our apartment on exchanges while we waited for Elder King to get back.
If you look closely, you can see fear in his eyes.

Transfer planning includes closing a few areas.

This is what happens when you eat with a Texan.

Transfer planning Day 1.

Transfer planning Day 2.

Transfer planning Day 3.

Elder Allsop has joined us here in Yakima, as a new Assistant to Pres Lewis.
Elder King will be returning home in 3 more weeks and he gets to go
 back out into the mission field these last 3 weeks in Wenatchee

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​