WEEKLY LETTER
Alright Family and Friends, this is Elder Moss I'm just making my voice recordings for the week and HOLY COW I just got a letter from Allen and Janet Moss. It's a letter about "drum roll" McKaylee's wedding - What the heck she is getting married in three days! - Oh, by the way it is May 10th and in three days she is getting married, oh my heck... what is going on back at home! That is sooo crazy..... yeah that is so crazy that I just got that, but good for her that is awesome I hope she will have a blast and everything.
I'm just reporting for this week, this week has been amazing! Our members are just kicking it off with us this week with being able to help us and the Lord is truly blessing us. So um, Mom I haven't got the package yet with my stuff in it, I hope it will be coming soon. On Monday we taught two investigators at members homes one thing you should know is his name is Thomas he had a baptismal date set for the 18th but it got dropped. He wasn't very solid for it because he believes in the pluralities of Gods and all of this nonsense, it's super frustrating but we'll get him no worries he still wants to be baptized he just doesn't know yet what day he wants to be baptized. We also taught Sarah, now Sarah we have seen grow sooo much! Sarah is a Lutheran and we met her at FHE and the first night I talked to her about the gospel, one of the members brought her and she didn't want anything to do with us, she said, "I've got my bible, I'm totally fine". She's a super nice girl. Well we taught her for the first time on Monday there has been a total change in her. She has wanted to learn about the Book of Mormon and since then she has read the Book of Mormon - not all of it, but just some of it - and she has the desire to be baptised. Today Saturday,(I'm skipping ahead) we watched the Restoration video with her and she said that she knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet, the Spirit was super strong, she said her first closing prayer with us, and it is amazing to see the growth in her. It is amazing what the Book of Mormon can do. The Book of Mormon truly changes hearts! It changes hearts in being able to allow the Spirit of the Lord to duel with in them and be able to give away to a whole new light. She knows she needs to be baptized, she has the desire, she kept saying after the Joseph Smith movie,"let's go fill the font right now, lets go fill it", but we told her that we have to go through everything before she can get baptized. She isn't sure about the date of when she will be baptized but she has the desire to be baptized and she will be baptized. Another investigator we taught was Courtney. Courtney is one of the girlfriends of one of the members. She has never been taught by missionaries. It was a pretty cool story, we felt inspired in one our weekly planning sessions to ask for her number and give her a call. We did end up calling her, she is super nice and everything. We set up a time to go meet with her at her home and we did. We gave her the lesson about the restoration and she loved it. Right then we set up a baptismal date for the 25th of this month. Later on Tuesday we went to go see the Restoration movie with her and she loved it, absolutely loved it. We then asked her to text us her thought and impressions after she got done watching the movie. We weren't able to stay with her because it was getting late and we needed to get back to our apartment by 9:30pm and she did. She knows that Joseph Smith is a Prophet, she has prayed about the Book of Mormon and she knows it is true. She is looking forward toward her baptism and she is super solid. We taught her about the plan of salvation, we sent her all of the scriptures to read and she did, she was well prepared when we went over it with her. She is looking so ready, it is so amazing how much she has changed. It isn't the normal change that most people say that someone has changed from bad to good - no not at all she has changed from good to better. This is the change that usually takes place in people who are kept from the truth because they knew not where to find it. It is a change from good to better and that change comes as the members invite their friends to come unto the gospel and to hear from the missionaries. It truly was a marvelous time, an excited time. I know the Book of Mormon changes lives especially the message of the restoration and the prophet Joseph Smith, such power and such a great spirit that always comes. I advise you to review Joseph Smith's story, his own account in Joseph Smith History. Review it, go over it, and know it.
We also taught another investigator we took him on a church tour. His name is Leo, Leo is really hard. He is probably one of the hardest investigators I have taught, he is super science oriented taught - which isn't a bad thing, all science leads back to there is a God. He knows that there is some form of higher power. We took him on a church tour, pointed out the spirit, invited him to get baptized, and the cool thing about Leo is at the very end when we asked him to get baptized he wasn't sure he wanted to, he said, "I pretty sure I'm not going to get baptized, unless I get answered one of my questions." I asked him, "Hey Leo, what is your question?" He said he had a lot of them, they are very long and sophisticated and full of jumbledness. So we begin to talk and I asked him what is the simplest question you have for us? So he said the simplest question I have is only three words... Who am I? As I heard that my spirit lifted and I said that we have a beautiful message to share with you.We are planning to teach Leo next week about the plan of salvation, Gods plan for all of his children and how they can be happy and feel his love, so we are really excited about that. The church tour was awesome - great spirit at the house of the Lord.
We also taught another member referral. Her name is Cecilia, she is awesome, a great girl, she is a very strong Catholic. We invited her to read the introduction and the testimonies in the Book of Mormon - she loved it and had a lot of questions, she had highlighted a lot of stuff and she is just eating it up. She is going to be a little longer along the path, but she will definitely get baptized probably by next month. Yum, she is doing awesome!
We also had a dinner at a members house... (he laughs on his voice mail) there was a dead bunny rabbit. I know that was totally random. We were eating pizza, which I requested a meat lovers pizza like always... and there was a dead bunny rabbit there. (lol) I got the chance to throw it away, ya and I thought I would though in that random piece of information.
Okay so, President Gelwix goes home, this is his last transfer and he is going to be heading home. So yesterday, (Friday) I had my last presidents interview with President Gelwix. I know I will see him again at other leadership training's like zone conference all these other meetings , but it was my last real interview with him. I sat down with him and he asked me a question, "Elder Moss I love you so much, how are you doing?" I sat there for a moment, the spirit was so strong, and I returned the question back to him. I said "President right know I just want to talk about you, how are you doing?" It was a very tender moment in which the President and myself started to cry and not that he will miss his mission - he will miss his mission, but he expressed how much he loves me and being a missionary and it made me realize how important these two years are, how important it is to be a missionary every single day, and being able to help all of Gods children. It was truly a testimony builder to me. Then President Gelwix asked if I requested one thing what would it be. I said, "President if you have any time tonight then try to come over tonight, to say hi and spend a little bit of time with us at our apartment before you have to go back." President Gelwix was planing on going out after interviews to go teach with our Zone leaders. I had asked him to come over after he was done teaching with the Zone leaders. President Gelwix said, "I will try my best." So, I wasn't to worried it cause I knew I would be able to see him at the leadership training, but there was hope there that he might show up.
Friday night President Gelwix shows up to our apartment, maybe around 10PM he showed up after we had done our planning. President Gelwix decides that he wants to stay the night, now we've had President Gelwix come over many times and we have even stayed up late, but it was truly an experience to sleepover with President Gelwix in our apartment. We stayed up a pretty long time - if you keep this part confidential - President Gelwix and I stayed up tell 2AM in the morning, Elder King fell asleep. We stayed up and talked and a funny thing while we were talking President Gelwix needed to use the restroom and I went to get a drink. While I was waiting for him to get out of the bathroom I went into my bedroom and doing something with my pill and I think I was messing with Elder King (while he was sleeping), President opens the door my back is turned to him (I didn't think anything about it) and President tackles me. He flat out drill lines me into the bed and then he starts wrestling me. Now take it he first tackled me, then grabs me, grabs my arm and does all of these weird wrestling moves and he is KICKING my but!! Oh my gosh we had a great time and we had a great wrestle we both went at it with each other it was a GREAT time. We talked about some doctrines of the church and about our missions we just talked about a lot of things. It was truly one of the best experiences that I will never forget. We talked about rugby - of course we can't forget it. We talked about modeling and how when President Gelwix gets back he is going to a model specifically fat people, but don't tell anyone I said that (lol). It was a lot of fun! We even had some tickling matches, played some jokes on each other, we just had a great time with each other. There was this one time were President Gelwix and I held down Elder King and tickled him to death and it was a lot of fun. President Gelwix also got up and went running with us the next morning and had breakfast with us. It was a very sweet time. So that was my week I will get to talk with you more tomorrow since it is mothers day and we will get to Skype.
I love you all so much, God bless you and all you do, keep working hard, I love you, bye bye.
So I'm sending you this last voice recording to go over all that happened over Mother's day, since it is Monday. It was great to hear from you and being able to Skype and see everyone's faces it was really cool. I really appreciate all of the time we had it was totally awesome. Umm there was something I was going to ask you about, but now it slipped my mind. Umm so yah never mind. We had a great night we set up a mission plan and today we have a sweet zone activity planned. We are going to play TRON in the gym. We are going to buy a whole bunch of glow sticks and it will be set up like the movie Tron and it will be kind of like dodge ball, I'm not sure how it will work but it seems pretty cool. We will have FHE and a couple of lessons and we will keep it up. If you would keep Sarah in your prayers she is facing the advisory from her parents that would be awesome. Courtney is still sold for the 25th of this month (May) of course you can keep her in your prayers to if you want to but everything is looking good for her. I hope your week goes great and everything is going awesome and I'm really excited for you all. Continue to strive to do better every single day. I love you sooo much and pray for you always and for everyone and in their well being and in continuing to do better. Thanks so much, love you, and have a great week.
............................ Elder David Curtis Moss, Fresno California Mission ........................... ____________________________________________________________________ This blog is written by Elder Moss and his family. When we receive a letter, a picture, an update, etc., we will post it here so his friends and family can know where he is and what he is doing (the most recent posts are at the top).
Monday, June 30, 2014
Monday, May 5, 2014
Monday, May 5, 2014
Hey, good afternoon family, this is Elder Moss. I'm super late trying to fit everything in sorry. First of all, Mother's day is coming up so Happy Mother's Day mother. I am definitely going to be able to talk to you on Mother's day. It will be awesome, super looking forward to it. So we just got to talk to the person that we're going to the family with. This last week we had a lot of fun, we uhmm, of course we baptized Dillion which was awesome we had his baptism, he did super, just great. We've been bringing back a lot of members from like school and different things and so we've been really successful at that. We also, we found a lot of new investigators - all from members. Like we've been teaching a lot of members' friends in their houses and so were just working really great. Specifically, like, our branch mission leader, he hasn't been coming for like the past three weeks and we've been really concerned so we went out and saw him and I guess he's been having some problems. He's a recent convert and so like we went through different things with him and helped him along. We also had an investigator who came and played basketball with us. Her name's Michelle and she plays basketball at MJC and we beat her, it was pretty good, it was pretty awesome. That was a lot of fun though. Let me think, besides that, just the baptism which was awesome and we're setting up for this month for two more baptisms and we're just working really well with all of the people in the branch. Nothing like super new or super crazy that happened but it was just an awesome week full of miracles. The church is true. That's all I can really say. I'll talk to you more about it on Mother's Day definitely but I love you all so much. I definitely know this church is true and I'm so grateful for being able to be a part of it. I've gotten to see myself change so much, it's awesome. Allright, love you all, bye bye.
“Reading, studying, and pondering are not the same. We read words and we may get ideas. We study and we may discover patterns and connections in scripture. But when we ponder, we invite revelation by the Spirit. Pondering, to me, is the thinking and the praying I do after reading and studying in the scriptures carefully.” - President Henry B. Eyring
“Reading, studying, and pondering are not the same. We read words and we may get ideas. We study and we may discover patterns and connections in scripture. But when we ponder, we invite revelation by the Spirit. Pondering, to me, is the thinking and the praying I do after reading and studying in the scriptures carefully.” - President Henry B. Eyring
Monday, April 28, 2014
MOM:
Are you still on?
yes i have 12 mins left ha
yup you still get me no worries! and ya like i haven't been able to listen to them it stinks...
We finally have put money down on a home that we will be building in Lehi. Dad has got a new 3rd part time job, he will be teaching at the Provo community college. I'm still looking for a job up north.
Chase went to Senior Ball this last Saturday and I was able to have him do all of the prep for the date with out the Mom's help. He did get and he said that everything went good!
How are you doing? Still Healthy?
thats totally fine no worries! dad has 3 jobs?! holy cow he is going to be working himself to hard! and that is awesome i hope he had fun! and i am great as always you know me mom ha and yes i am healthy!
I know you usually are always healthy and I've learned that my cute boy is also very positive. I've learned a lot from you that it is important to always be positive in everything that happens in your life. To find the good in everything.
Brayden is going to write you, he just found out that you are on.
alright sounds great but mom i have to get off now i am over time! i am so sorry i love you all and am grateful for you!
I love you too! May the Lord bless you and protect you!
DAD:
Hi Davey, I am on my way to work so I am talking on my phone. I'll be at work in a minute and converse with you for a little bit before I have to actually go to work. Haven't had a chance to listen to your voicemails yet. How was your week?
it was great a bit slow we are striving for new investigators we do see miracles everyday though and i love my mission. all i can control is how many people i invite a day and so it is great!
Glad to see such a positive attitude. This weekend is fathers and sons with the 9th ward. I'm going down and taking the boys and also parker Hayes with us again. I need to buy some bullets so that braden can shoot his new gun while we're out there. We are going to Pinto to the ence cabin. This will be the second fathers and sons you miss, can't wait till next year when you'll be with us
dang that sounds sweet have fun and i know right next year will be a blast!
Yep, and also hunting, we should hear the draw results in the next little bit. I hope the boys at least draw out.
shoot yeah it will be great, i love you dad i hope you always know that even through me being so stubborn growing up you knew this day would come when i would be so appreciative of all you did for me! thanks for butting heads with me ;)
I am proud of you son
thanks
WEEKLY LETTER:
Good evening family and friends, what's up? This is Elder Moss up here in Modesto North. So, This past week has been really good. Tonight is Saturday night and we've had a really great time this week. First off, some funny things that happened. We were having dinner with some member, we were actually having Cafe Rio, it was so stinking good. Ah, it was so much fun. So, we were doing all that and at the beginning like I've grown to love salsa, chips and salsa, all right Chase and dad. So, I'm stating to like it a lot more. So, yea, I was getting some chips and salsa and I dropped them and the salsa spattered all over me, oh my gosh. It just stunk so bad. Yea, so I cleaned myself off. The lady, or Sister Jankowsky, she went and got some of her makeup wipes, it was like moist towelettes pretty much, it was weird, cleaned me off, that was pretty embarrassing. Everyone like laughed at me well not everyone but it was like a funny laugh cause I was laughing at myself. But then we continued with the dinner, it was super good then at the end we were having strawberry shortcake and I go to take a bite of strawberry shortcake and it falls on me - I spilled on myself twice during dinner. That is like the most I have ever done on my whole mission. So, yea, oh my gosh, we were just laughing our heads off. It was the best, super funny and everything so it was really cool. So that took a lot of time to explain. But, I also...we got a new district since transfers happened and everything - actually my district stayed the same I just got one new Spanish Elder his name Pena and they're doing really awesome. That's really all the only changes. We are still up here in Modesto North I just got three companionships in my district - it's me and three others. We have one sister companionship, it's the only sisters in the whole zone and I'm the one stuck with them. No, I'm just kidding I'm not stuck with them, they're awesome, they're the best. So yea, that's just a little bit about that. OK, going back, it was really cool, one of the other district leaders...someone in his district is getting baptized this weekend and so the district leader or the zone leaders are suppose to do the baptismal interview but I guess the zone leaders have taught this person so they can't do it and Elder Martinez, who's the district leader, was going to give the interview and everything and then I guess his baptism, he's baptizing somebody, pushed up their interview and so he couldn't go anymore and so he called me to do the interview. It was up in Sonora which is the most northern part of our mission. It's up in the mountains and the trees, it's pretty much just like all trees - I can't explain it - it is so beautiful. So I got to go on an exchange up there to do a baptismal interview. It was like the best. It brought me back to like going up in the mountains hiking around and different things. There is like lakes everywhere and there is like hills and you can't see nothing besides mountains and green trees and deer were everywhere. Kinda funny story: The elder I was with, his name is Elder Boyce and he bought a slingshot and we were shooting little slingshots at the deer because literally they would come up like to our door at the house that we were staying at - they sleep with members. And so the deer would just come right up to the door and it was awesome. We had a such a great a time, it was just the best. And the kid passed his baptismal interview so he is getting baptized this weekend. So I had a great time up in Sonora, super green, I just loved it. A rainstorm started up there and it was just so beautiful. Just fresh air, up in the elevation, it was awesome. Like truly just a tender mercy from Heavenly Father. Um, we also taught Dillion who was suppose to get baptized this week, or this month, on the 13th. But he had some law of chastity problems that he came out with and he couldn't get baptized. And we met with him this week and we shared like super spiritual messages with him and we were trying to come up with a day, he was suppose to get baptized this Sunday, but he said that he wasn't ready so we were like, "Dang!" We were like, "Dillion, when do you want to get baptized?" We just like told him straight up like, "When is like the time for you?" His birthday is on Monday and so he said that he wanted to get baptized on his birthday but we can't do baptisms on Monday night because of family night, it's just church policy. So we're like, "Yea, you can't get baptized on Monday night." And he's like, "OK." And this whole time while he's talking - this is probably a confusing story - but the whole time since he said he couldn't get baptized I was like, "Heavenly Father, we need to baptize this month, like we need to, like it's a must, like please help us, who are we going to baptize?" Cause Dillion, we thought he was going to push back his date till next month but he was just like, "I think the very last day of this month I want to get baptized." And so we're like, "No way, all right, sweet." So, on the 30th of this month Dillion is getting baptized. That's when his date is, he's solid for it. And so just keep praying for him and everything. He has to get re-interviewed since it's been awhile. He's going to get re-interviewed so just keep praying for him and everything so it will go all well. We also saw another miracle. We have really been trying to find new investigators and everything cause all of our investigators are like slowly dropping off. So, we've been meeting with our members a lot and they've referred us to a lot people but every time we go by to see them and every thing they're never there. So we're like, "What the heck, we need to find new investigators." So like we were praying and everything and we felt impressed to go - we had already considered this person contacted because we had just tried so many times they were never there - and so we were like, "We need to go by and see her again." Her name is Cecilia. We caught her at home cause I guess she has been like really busy with finals and she was like, "Yea, Liz, she told me about you." Liz is the member. And we shared a super spiritual message just right outside with her and invited her to say the closing prayer - she's never said like a normal prayer cause she's Catholic so she has set prayers - and so we invited her to say the prayer and she said it beautifully and she's really excited to meet with us more and she's going to read the Book of Mormon, she understands it, and we're just going to meet with her next time and it's going to be really awesome. That was like a miracle to us, it was a tender mercy that Heavenly Father granted unto us so all praise and everything goes to him cause he did it. And then we also met with another investigator who we had dropped because we just hadn't been able to contact him and he met back up with us, we felt impressed to go and see him, went by his house and he was there, and he's like, "Hey, I got back with my Mormon girlfriend and I want to get baptized." So we're setting everything up with Tosh, so keep him in your prayers too that he can be able to meet with us and get baptized. While we were out in Oakdale contacting Cecilia, who was that other miracle I was telling you about, we were just trying to visit some other formers and other things and we were kinda confused, like we were just wrapping everything up and then we got a phone call from a member, it was actually a members father, he called us and he was like, "Hey, I need a blessing, I got really hurt, I got in an accident, I've been trying to call everyone but you're the last Elders which I called, could you please come over and give me a blessing?" We happened to be like three minutes away from his home so definitely the Lord's hand was in that. It was really cool. So, I gave the blessing and he felt super good after. So, definitely priesthood blessings are amazing. We also met one of the sisters, our members sister, who is married to a non-member. I guess he's met with missionaries before and he says it's not for him right now and so I challenged him to a game of basketball and so he's going to come play basketball with us on Monday. Hopefully we can be able to fellowship him through that and different things. So, yea, that was a lot of fun. The biggest thing, which was the most fun of the week, set aside from all those wonderful miracles, was the Roadshow. So our YSAs put on this like regional Roadshow and it happened tonight, it was like with a bunch of YSAs around about the whole California region. They do like these little skits and everything and they were so funny. The funniest one was a bunch of Tongans who I connected with really well because they all played rugby growing up in Tonga and everything. It was just so funny, that was this Saturday night and it was just like movie themed and different things and so it's like kinda different cause I'm like a missionary and everything and Elder King was just like, "This is so weird." But it was super fun. A lot of the other YSA Elders were there. Like never on your mission will you be able to have an experience like that unless you're serving in the YSA cause like family wards just don't do that. It was just a lot of fun I can't really explain it to you. We had like a sweet devotional speaker and then the Roadshow and then dinner and it was just a bunch of fun skits and everything so...That was my week so far. You'll probably hear one more about tomorrow if anything happens. But, super great week, saw a lot of miracles, went through a lot of trials of faith and just doing really well. Elder King's awesome. He's doing so extremely well as a missionary. So, yep, I love you all, have a great week, and God bless you all, and keep giving the praise to the Lord. I love you, bye, bye.
Are you still on?
yes i have 12 mins left ha
I am so glad I didn't miss you! I would have been really sad if I did.
So, you weren't able to get my voice mails?yup you still get me no worries! and ya like i haven't been able to listen to them it stinks...
I will have to see if dad has an answer. We got your package last Friday. It was full of all of your letters/journals. I had fun going through them
I won't be sending you your package (toothbrushes, ect) until next week. thats totally fine no worries! dad has 3 jobs?! holy cow he is going to be working himself to hard! and that is awesome i hope he had fun! and i am great as always you know me mom ha and yes i am healthy!
I know you usually are always healthy and I've learned that my cute boy is also very positive. I've learned a lot from you that it is important to always be positive in everything that happens in your life. To find the good in everything.
Brayden is going to write you, he just found out that you are on.
alright sounds great but mom i have to get off now i am over time! i am so sorry i love you all and am grateful for you!
I love you too! May the Lord bless you and protect you!
DAD:
Hi Davey, I am on my way to work so I am talking on my phone. I'll be at work in a minute and converse with you for a little bit before I have to actually go to work. Haven't had a chance to listen to your voicemails yet. How was your week?
it was great a bit slow we are striving for new investigators we do see miracles everyday though and i love my mission. all i can control is how many people i invite a day and so it is great!
Glad to see such a positive attitude. This weekend is fathers and sons with the 9th ward. I'm going down and taking the boys and also parker Hayes with us again. I need to buy some bullets so that braden can shoot his new gun while we're out there. We are going to Pinto to the ence cabin. This will be the second fathers and sons you miss, can't wait till next year when you'll be with us
dang that sounds sweet have fun and i know right next year will be a blast!
Yep, and also hunting, we should hear the draw results in the next little bit. I hope the boys at least draw out.
shoot yeah it will be great, i love you dad i hope you always know that even through me being so stubborn growing up you knew this day would come when i would be so appreciative of all you did for me! thanks for butting heads with me ;)
I am proud of you son
thanks
 |
| Modesto North Zone |
WEEKLY LETTER:
Good evening family and friends, what's up? This is Elder Moss up here in Modesto North. So, This past week has been really good. Tonight is Saturday night and we've had a really great time this week. First off, some funny things that happened. We were having dinner with some member, we were actually having Cafe Rio, it was so stinking good. Ah, it was so much fun. So, we were doing all that and at the beginning like I've grown to love salsa, chips and salsa, all right Chase and dad. So, I'm stating to like it a lot more. So, yea, I was getting some chips and salsa and I dropped them and the salsa spattered all over me, oh my gosh. It just stunk so bad. Yea, so I cleaned myself off. The lady, or Sister Jankowsky, she went and got some of her makeup wipes, it was like moist towelettes pretty much, it was weird, cleaned me off, that was pretty embarrassing. Everyone like laughed at me well not everyone but it was like a funny laugh cause I was laughing at myself. But then we continued with the dinner, it was super good then at the end we were having strawberry shortcake and I go to take a bite of strawberry shortcake and it falls on me - I spilled on myself twice during dinner. That is like the most I have ever done on my whole mission. So, yea, oh my gosh, we were just laughing our heads off. It was the best, super funny and everything so it was really cool. So that took a lot of time to explain. But, I also...we got a new district since transfers happened and everything - actually my district stayed the same I just got one new Spanish Elder his name Pena and they're doing really awesome. That's really all the only changes. We are still up here in Modesto North I just got three companionships in my district - it's me and three others. We have one sister companionship, it's the only sisters in the whole zone and I'm the one stuck with them. No, I'm just kidding I'm not stuck with them, they're awesome, they're the best. So yea, that's just a little bit about that. OK, going back, it was really cool, one of the other district leaders...someone in his district is getting baptized this weekend and so the district leader or the zone leaders are suppose to do the baptismal interview but I guess the zone leaders have taught this person so they can't do it and Elder Martinez, who's the district leader, was going to give the interview and everything and then I guess his baptism, he's baptizing somebody, pushed up their interview and so he couldn't go anymore and so he called me to do the interview. It was up in Sonora which is the most northern part of our mission. It's up in the mountains and the trees, it's pretty much just like all trees - I can't explain it - it is so beautiful. So I got to go on an exchange up there to do a baptismal interview. It was like the best. It brought me back to like going up in the mountains hiking around and different things. There is like lakes everywhere and there is like hills and you can't see nothing besides mountains and green trees and deer were everywhere. Kinda funny story: The elder I was with, his name is Elder Boyce and he bought a slingshot and we were shooting little slingshots at the deer because literally they would come up like to our door at the house that we were staying at - they sleep with members. And so the deer would just come right up to the door and it was awesome. We had a such a great a time, it was just the best. And the kid passed his baptismal interview so he is getting baptized this weekend. So I had a great time up in Sonora, super green, I just loved it. A rainstorm started up there and it was just so beautiful. Just fresh air, up in the elevation, it was awesome. Like truly just a tender mercy from Heavenly Father. Um, we also taught Dillion who was suppose to get baptized this week, or this month, on the 13th. But he had some law of chastity problems that he came out with and he couldn't get baptized. And we met with him this week and we shared like super spiritual messages with him and we were trying to come up with a day, he was suppose to get baptized this Sunday, but he said that he wasn't ready so we were like, "Dang!" We were like, "Dillion, when do you want to get baptized?" We just like told him straight up like, "When is like the time for you?" His birthday is on Monday and so he said that he wanted to get baptized on his birthday but we can't do baptisms on Monday night because of family night, it's just church policy. So we're like, "Yea, you can't get baptized on Monday night." And he's like, "OK." And this whole time while he's talking - this is probably a confusing story - but the whole time since he said he couldn't get baptized I was like, "Heavenly Father, we need to baptize this month, like we need to, like it's a must, like please help us, who are we going to baptize?" Cause Dillion, we thought he was going to push back his date till next month but he was just like, "I think the very last day of this month I want to get baptized." And so we're like, "No way, all right, sweet." So, on the 30th of this month Dillion is getting baptized. That's when his date is, he's solid for it. And so just keep praying for him and everything. He has to get re-interviewed since it's been awhile. He's going to get re-interviewed so just keep praying for him and everything so it will go all well. We also saw another miracle. We have really been trying to find new investigators and everything cause all of our investigators are like slowly dropping off. So, we've been meeting with our members a lot and they've referred us to a lot people but every time we go by to see them and every thing they're never there. So we're like, "What the heck, we need to find new investigators." So like we were praying and everything and we felt impressed to go - we had already considered this person contacted because we had just tried so many times they were never there - and so we were like, "We need to go by and see her again." Her name is Cecilia. We caught her at home cause I guess she has been like really busy with finals and she was like, "Yea, Liz, she told me about you." Liz is the member. And we shared a super spiritual message just right outside with her and invited her to say the closing prayer - she's never said like a normal prayer cause she's Catholic so she has set prayers - and so we invited her to say the prayer and she said it beautifully and she's really excited to meet with us more and she's going to read the Book of Mormon, she understands it, and we're just going to meet with her next time and it's going to be really awesome. That was like a miracle to us, it was a tender mercy that Heavenly Father granted unto us so all praise and everything goes to him cause he did it. And then we also met with another investigator who we had dropped because we just hadn't been able to contact him and he met back up with us, we felt impressed to go and see him, went by his house and he was there, and he's like, "Hey, I got back with my Mormon girlfriend and I want to get baptized." So we're setting everything up with Tosh, so keep him in your prayers too that he can be able to meet with us and get baptized. While we were out in Oakdale contacting Cecilia, who was that other miracle I was telling you about, we were just trying to visit some other formers and other things and we were kinda confused, like we were just wrapping everything up and then we got a phone call from a member, it was actually a members father, he called us and he was like, "Hey, I need a blessing, I got really hurt, I got in an accident, I've been trying to call everyone but you're the last Elders which I called, could you please come over and give me a blessing?" We happened to be like three minutes away from his home so definitely the Lord's hand was in that. It was really cool. So, I gave the blessing and he felt super good after. So, definitely priesthood blessings are amazing. We also met one of the sisters, our members sister, who is married to a non-member. I guess he's met with missionaries before and he says it's not for him right now and so I challenged him to a game of basketball and so he's going to come play basketball with us on Monday. Hopefully we can be able to fellowship him through that and different things. So, yea, that was a lot of fun. The biggest thing, which was the most fun of the week, set aside from all those wonderful miracles, was the Roadshow. So our YSAs put on this like regional Roadshow and it happened tonight, it was like with a bunch of YSAs around about the whole California region. They do like these little skits and everything and they were so funny. The funniest one was a bunch of Tongans who I connected with really well because they all played rugby growing up in Tonga and everything. It was just so funny, that was this Saturday night and it was just like movie themed and different things and so it's like kinda different cause I'm like a missionary and everything and Elder King was just like, "This is so weird." But it was super fun. A lot of the other YSA Elders were there. Like never on your mission will you be able to have an experience like that unless you're serving in the YSA cause like family wards just don't do that. It was just a lot of fun I can't really explain it to you. We had like a sweet devotional speaker and then the Roadshow and then dinner and it was just a bunch of fun skits and everything so...That was my week so far. You'll probably hear one more about tomorrow if anything happens. But, super great week, saw a lot of miracles, went through a lot of trials of faith and just doing really well. Elder King's awesome. He's doing so extremely well as a missionary. So, yep, I love you all, have a great week, and God bless you all, and keep giving the praise to the Lord. I love you, bye, bye.
Monday, April 21, 2014
Monday, April 21, 2014
MOM:
Mom, did you get my package?
No we haven't. The last time I went to the mail was on Saturday. Do you know when she sent it? and how she sent it?
no clue but i hope you get it soon! ha
I will text her and see how she sent it and mailed it to us. Do I need to help pay for the postage?
Chase just got done with his Eagle project about 1 1/2 hours ago. I think he is writing it up know at home. He had a great show, I think there were about 12 to 14 people that showed. And the best thing is that the boys acted like they had fun painting!
How are you doing? You staying health?
no you don't need to you can see if you do but they will say it is alright you don't need to ha no way chase did his eagle project that sounds like a lot of fun! and i am doing great mom i do need a copy of my home insurance card and also i need more toothbrush heads haha i am on my last one! how are you mom and what has been going on?
I'm doing good - I was under the weather for a little bit, but I'm doing good. I still am working at Tuacahn and seem to get in the middle of every little argument that goes on, but I still love my job and feel very blessed with having it. I love being a mom and watching my boys grow up and stay true the Lord.
What do you need? Home insurance card or did you mean a Health card? What is it for?
I will definitely get you some toothbrush heads! But you know I can't just send you toothbrush heads, I will have to send you some fun stuff too ;)
just an insurance one i don't know i just need a copy of mine from home! and mom you just send me toothbrush heads i don't need candy! protien bars or protien mix is all i want haha
Okay... I will send you the protein bars and toothbrushes. You are so easy to please :)
Do you have any information about calling on Mothers Day yet?
I know you said an insurance one - I can get you a copy of our health insurance but I'll have to ask dad about the home owners insurance. Do you know why you need it? Is your president asking for it?
ya i know i am haha your the best mom and i haven't heard anything yet it isn't for awhile! haha ;) and i guess we are supposed to have a copy of our heath insurance card
I just sent you a picture of the card. Do you have the ability of printing it off. Do you need the medical credit card to pay for something?
no i got it printed off and that is it it just has to go into a folder for all the missionaries i think
I don't know what kind of time you still have online so I went ahead and sent you the medical credit card. If you don't need it then just delete it.
I've heard that a lot of missionaries get antsy when they are their year, just remember to stay true to the end and work hard clear to the end. You will be blessed for your efforts in all that you do to further the gospel.
Mom
love you also and i will work hard till the end! love you so much!
DAD:
I just got an interview for next monday at Provo College to be an adjunct professor there. I am getting too much going on it is going to drive me crazy. I haven't listened to your voicemails yet, is everything going well?
everything is great i love being a missionary and go onto LDS.org and watch two mormon messages the first is called "moments the matter most" by elder uchtdorf and the second is by thomas s monson "what matters most"
OK, grandma just came down and said she just got a nice letter from you. Thank you.
BRAYDEN:
Hey Davey I had the best birthday ever I got a rifle 7mm 8mm it has a 11 kick back it has an awesome scope on it. It is called ruger. I will take a picture of it and send it to you if I can. Thank you for the birthday song I loved it it was the best I started to cry because I miss you. Davey I love you. I am going to tell you about my hangout party. Well my best friends came over and we played call of duty 2 and it was so fun we had pizza . We played basketball, speed, and poison. We played zombies it was so fun. I got $ 55.00 all my money came to a total of $93.51 I am so rich now. All I need to go on a mission know is $9,900 about so ya. We are having a family party today on Sunday so after that I will email you again so ya. I miss you. I love you most of all.
no way dang you are way rich! and you got so much cool stuff dang that sounds like a blast your party would have been way fun!
Hey Davey,
Did you get my email that I sent on Sunday? I was going to tell you about my party on Sunday. My ordination went really good. I really had a fun time. The bishop talked about stuff I needed to know about like how to be a good husband. At the party dad made some really amazing chicken. A lot of people came to my party. Today, Monday, I helped Chase with his eagle scout project. Read that other email that I sent on Sunday and we will be all good.
Brayden
sweet i am about to read it but it sounds like you are having fun! you keep working hard and read your scriptures! i love you and i am glad you had a good birthday
i am sending you pic about my presents.
no way that is so cool!
Yea, it was really cool. I got really happy when I saw it. It is a 7mm-08 caliber. It has a little more kick than Chases. Chase has a 10 kick and mine is an 11. It is the same size as yours though just not as much kick as you have. Yea, I had a really good birthday. Love ya.
no way that is sweet it will get you stronger keep shooting straight!
Ok, will do that. Love you, bye.
WEEKLY LETTER:
Good afternoon family and friends. This is Elder Moss. This is Monday, our preparation day and just going over this past week. Easter Sunday was awesome. We didn't actually have any investigators at church they were all gone and just couldn't make, they were working or, I don't know, just couldn't make it, Satan was working hard on them. But we did go by...we had an amazing dinner out in Oakdale with some members and it was just a really nice dinner. We just went by and visited members and shared spiritual messages and it was just really great. And so the focus of this last week was we were just trying to get every one of our members with a mission plan, follow up with them, and just do different things. We also had a zone meeting. Elder King and I did a training on Pride. Which was awesome, it was really cool what we did. Just talked about different forms of pride, how we can get rid of it, and just not have it in our lives. We did an activity with it, we played heads up seven up and just did different forms of the pride. It was fun, just a fun little game to go along with pride. Our investigator Dillion. He has a date for this week. He had some law of chastity problems but he should get baptized this weekend, keep him in your prayers definitely. We had zone conference on Thursday which is awesome, it was down in Merced. We received some great trainings and just a bunch of other things along with that. So that lasted pretty much all day but we got out with a member that night trying to find some people. Also, this last Sunday, one of the members gave me a rugby ball. So, I've been playing with a rugby ball a lot - and basketball. It was super funny too, we went and visited one of our investigators, her name is Amy. Her dad is just anti...pretty much religion. He was talking to us, trying to throw down on us, and we totally confounded him. It was awesome, like he...it was just one of those teaching with power and authority and just confounding people. He went from being totally against us to trying to be our friend in the end. He's still not very nice to us but it got better. He like came up to us and was like, "So what did you do before your mission?" I was just like, "I was a basketball player and played rugby," And he was like, "I can tell, you were a good shooter." And I was like, "Uh, how did you know?" So it was kinda funny. We also had a brunch with one of our less active members. Her name is Ariel and she's super nice and everything but she needs to come back to church, so we had brunch with her. We also met another less active member, his name is Mack. He plays football from MJC - Modesto Junior College. He's really awesome, we're going to be working with him more to bring him back into the church. With Summer coming along the immorality and immodesty is just going down the drain, it's crazy. This world is just horrible and just like everything that goes on, the world is in such chaos. The gospel will keep you safe. I love you so much, have a great week, do the very best that you can - that is my advice - live the gospel, don't only say you just a member but live it every single day of your life. All right, love you all, bye bye.
Jesus said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." (John 14:15). There are three types of obedience. 1) Obedience because of fear or obligation, 2) Robot obedience, and 3) Obedience by choice. There is no commitment to moral principle in the first two. They do not help us develop the character of Christ. Obedience by choice and because we love Jesus Christ is selfless. We are motivated by love of our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ.
The purpose of God’s commandments are not to be restrictive, but to enable us greater freedom. (John 8:32). A righteous (not self-righteous) man or woman with a testimony of Jesus Christ and a desire to serve Him and to love, serve, rescue, and nurture family, friends, and strangers is the most free person I know and will experience a great and mighty change in their life. I know this is true.
"A mighty change was wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the end; therefore they were saved. And now behold, I ask of you, have ye been spiritually born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? ... Do ye exercise faith?...Can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, Come unto me?" (Alma 5:13-16).
My Easter testimony is that Jesus Christ lives. He is our Savior. Greater joy and happiness will come into your life and mine as we keep His commandments and experience a great and mighty change in our hearts.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
DAD:
Hi son. I finally got caught up with your blog yesterday - I was three weeks behind and it took a lot of time to get everything posted. I emailed an excerpt from one of your emails to President Robinson and Bishop Hurt. President Robinson emailed back and thanked me and said he appreciated me sharing your experiences with him.
thats awesome i am still impressed you are doing a blog for me thanks so much dad your the best!
Well, it's for everyone. We are almost to 6000 page views. I know I haven't been on it that much, I only get on once a week. When you google elder davey moss it comes up with that blog as number one, if you just google davey moss it is down further like 5 or 6, so people don't even need to know the address, they can just google you.
dang no way haha that is sweet!
Mom said Sister Burnett asked for our address to ship a package when you got transfered but we have never got one. Did you end up not sending a package home?
no i gave it to her to send home i hope you get it it has a lot of memories in it!
Well mom will have to get with her and found out what is going on. Did you send home the book I made from the blog?
no not yet it is other stuff
Well, I would like to see it. Unless you want to keep it to show your companions and reminisce about your first year.
ya i will send it home!
I told you I was doing your taxes...I called the IRS and they said I needed to send them to you and have you sign them or have you sign a power of attorney and get it notorized. I just signed them electronically as if I was you and sent them in. I don't think I told you that you got $150 back from the feds and $50 back from the state. To do them electronically it cost me like $10 each so I figured it was worth it.
ya that sounds great thanks so much dad!
Your welcome. Love you. Have a great week.
you as well love you all so much!
MOM:
How are you doing? 4 Voice mails, Yeah!!!!! I can't wait to get home to listen to them.
hahaha your the best mom!
Brayden will be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. He is so cute trying to plan this big party.
I heard that Brady Lindy came home sick from his mission a bit ago and decided not to go back out when he got better. He is going to school up north.
yup i am listening to it right now! and no way that is crazy about brayden linde! dang..
KATELYNN:
Hi Davey, I am home from school early today. I left early because I had an awful pain in my back. I went to the doctor thinking I had a kidney stone but it was just an infection. He gave me some pain killer and antibiotic and sent me home. Hope all is going well for you. Love you.
no way i hope you get well soon! how is the married life?
Married life is great. Jeff and I went to St. George and then Las Vegas for spring Break. We saw 3 shows and ate out and hung out together and it was a blast. We bought guitar drinks, I attached photos. You can see the straw coming out of the top and the rest of the guitar was filled with a peach daquiri and strawberry daquiri
hahahaha you are so silly but i like it!
We love you!
well duhh ;)
WEEKLY LETTER:
Allright, good evening. This is, of course, Elder Moss reporting from Modesto, Ca. It's been really cool. We've had a really busy week this past week. Some of the things which we did, I'll just quickly go over it. Monday we had preparation day and I got a haircut, finally. She actually also, she did an eyebrow wax on all of the elders there. It wasn't like a full eyebrow wax but it was really weird and it really hurt. So yea, you can say that I got a wax done on some of my eyebrows and it was really weird but I wasn't alone so don't think I was like feminine or something - she just did it - but hey, it's the experience that counts. So, of course I was emailing you all and just doing all of that. And then Tuesday we went and taught Dillion and he's doing really good. We actually had his baptismal interview and he's struggling with different things of the law of chastity. The law of chastity doesn't have a time limit like the word of wisdom - you have to live it for two weeks before your baptized - but the law of chastity you don't have to, there's like no set time limit. But we want to make sure that he is truly repentant and that we are not just baptizing him like to his damnation or something. So, just pray for him so that he can overcome that. He's going to meet with our branch president tomorrow to see if he can still get baptized this Sunday. So, we met with him and we also met with some of our members. We've been setting up mission plans and everything with them. One was with Tatum, she's really awesome, she's one of out branch missionaries and we've just been setting things up with her and helping her do missionary work more. She wants to serve a mission and so that's really cool. We had a leadership training Wednesday and that was so much fun. Tuesday night all of the leaders...since we live up in Modesto it's like an hour and forty to two hour drive down to Fresno where our leadership training was, so it's a long drive and we have three district leaders and two zone leaders and so we all just drove in one car together... and so we all met Tuesday night and all of the leaders slept together but it was super...it was a lot of fun. At 10:30 lights go off but we all like - the family will get a kick out of this - we all like circled up and did a wresting tournament - king of the house, or king of the apartment. Elder King stayed with the other other elders in the other apartment but this was all the leaders and we all did wrestling matches so it would like be one on one - like everyone was in a big circle and two people would step forward and they would wrestle each other then the winner would step back and he would then wrestle someone else. Safe to say, I was the king of the apartment. It was really cool except for I beat everyone and then the very last one Elder Ervin, I beat him once already but then he beat the other person so he was like in the loser bracket and then he moved up and was facing me again and he beat me the second time. It was hard cause I was super tired. But that was such a fun night, we were so tired. And then we drove down to Fresno the next morning and had our leadership training which was super awesome and inspired. We went to uh, after leadership training, we went to a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant - stinking been having so much Mexican food on my mission it's crazy, I'm going to be able to bear dad's Mexican food when I get home - It was good. And then because of the long drive back up we had to stay at the zone leader's apartment again and my back's just been killing me cause we had to sleep on the floor. But it's all good cause like I stretch in the morning and everything so it's totally good like no worries there at all. We stayed at the zone leaders apartment again and we just had a blast talking and getting to know each other better. Elder King took over the area and has just been doing awesome with that just really stepping up to the plate. So, before I get to the bible study and what happened, the next day we actually went on an exchange with the zone leaders, they're in my district so I got to go on another exchange with them. And so I went with Elder Crawford in his area. He's doing really awesome, we saw a lot of miracles and grabbed some new investigators. I went with them in the Spanish area and we didn't really teach that Spanish. Oh, it was so weird, we uh, we met this kid, his name in Daniel, he's actually a YSA but he goes to the Spanish ward with his family so we thought it would better for him to go to the Spanish ward. But it was so weird, in the lesson, every time I spoke or said something he would always giggle and then say like I'm cute or something. We found out very quickly...yes, he was gay. It was so funny. He was like super into Holister and the very first thing when he saw me was like, "Were you a Holister model?" And I was like, "What the heck, how did you know?" It was super funny. Yea, he was gay, and he liked me, and it was really weird. But we taught a very good lesson and I'm glad that the Spanish Elders are going to be teaching him and not me. So on that one it was really weird. But hopefully he can be able to repent and get baptized also. We just finished up the exchange and got back together with Elder King and just had a great time. But the cool thing was we met this girl at our apartment and we were like. "If you ever need anything we want to help out, we want to be able to be there for you." She was like, "I'm going to take you up on that." And tonight she um, while we were weekly planning, she came and knocked on the door. We were surprised, like it was pretty cool. She invited us to a bible study. We were like, "Allright, yea, we'll go." And so we got permission and everything and we go over there and it's a huge Seven Day Adventist Church. It's like their youth group and it's there bible study and we had dinner with them and we actually didn't get to do the bible study with them cause we had to get going, we were about over on time so we just ate dinner with them but it was a really good impression that they had from us. It was one of those things like "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words" so we were very good examples and showed them who Mormons are, who the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints really are and it was a really great experience. We found out, like I said, that it was a youth bible study group and so all the people were in YSA age and so they invited us back next week and so we're going to start going with other Elders to teach them to see if we could get with any of them. One of the kids there actually, we talked to him, and he used to study with Mormon Missionaries. So, hopefully we can get with him and be able to teach him again. It just goes to show that no matter what we do we respect other people for what they believe because evidently every single church, or every single religion, they all have truth in them. The point of the fact is that we have the fullness of the gospel and they need to know that and by us respecting them for what they believe they need to have the fullness of the gospel in the life and so we gotta talk to them, we gotta tell them some things. I actually gotta...I talked about Katelynn, my dear sister, getting married to her husband in a temple and I got to show them a picture of a temple and they really loved it. They said, "Wow, that makes things worth it." It was really cool and they really appreciated it. Hopefully they are going to warm up to us more and hopefully we will be able to see a lot of good come from it. The biggest thing we are doing right now is that we are just trying to find new investigators and be able to find those who are prepared. I mean we have a lot of people we have found over the past few days, like a lot, and we just need to keep finding more prepared ones. That's really all that's going on the Modesto 2nd YSA branch. It's the best, I love it up here so much. I just love being a missionary and I just know with all my heart that this church is true and just what a blessing it is to be a part of it and to know for yourself, to gain that testimony, and especially being able to apply the atonement every single day and that's the greatest part. I don't know what I'd do either without my personal study. I was such a dillweep before my mission, just like not studying my scriptures or anything, ah dang, I also wish I would have studied Preach my Gospel more cause that's like everything to do with missionary work. Those things just like strengthen my testimony so much, my personal shield for the day. I know it's true. I love it and live it with all my heart and might and I won't ever go back again to the way I was. Keep progressing and keep changing and becoming even more Christlike and better. I love you all and I hope you have a great and miracle filled week. And you'll hear from me soon, of course, allright, love you, goodnight, bye.
Hi son. I finally got caught up with your blog yesterday - I was three weeks behind and it took a lot of time to get everything posted. I emailed an excerpt from one of your emails to President Robinson and Bishop Hurt. President Robinson emailed back and thanked me and said he appreciated me sharing your experiences with him.
thats awesome i am still impressed you are doing a blog for me thanks so much dad your the best!
Well, it's for everyone. We are almost to 6000 page views. I know I haven't been on it that much, I only get on once a week. When you google elder davey moss it comes up with that blog as number one, if you just google davey moss it is down further like 5 or 6, so people don't even need to know the address, they can just google you.
dang no way haha that is sweet!
Mom said Sister Burnett asked for our address to ship a package when you got transfered but we have never got one. Did you end up not sending a package home?
no i gave it to her to send home i hope you get it it has a lot of memories in it!
Well mom will have to get with her and found out what is going on. Did you send home the book I made from the blog?
no not yet it is other stuff
Well, I would like to see it. Unless you want to keep it to show your companions and reminisce about your first year.
ya i will send it home!
I told you I was doing your taxes...I called the IRS and they said I needed to send them to you and have you sign them or have you sign a power of attorney and get it notorized. I just signed them electronically as if I was you and sent them in. I don't think I told you that you got $150 back from the feds and $50 back from the state. To do them electronically it cost me like $10 each so I figured it was worth it.
ya that sounds great thanks so much dad!
Your welcome. Love you. Have a great week.
you as well love you all so much!
MOM:
How are you doing? 4 Voice mails, Yeah!!!!! I can't wait to get home to listen to them.
hahaha your the best mom!
Did you get my voicemail?
We are doing really good and are staying busy with work, being a mom and everything else. yup i am listening to it right now! and no way that is crazy about brayden linde! dang..
KATELYNN:
Hi Davey, I am home from school early today. I left early because I had an awful pain in my back. I went to the doctor thinking I had a kidney stone but it was just an infection. He gave me some pain killer and antibiotic and sent me home. Hope all is going well for you. Love you.
no way i hope you get well soon! how is the married life?
Married life is great. Jeff and I went to St. George and then Las Vegas for spring Break. We saw 3 shows and ate out and hung out together and it was a blast. We bought guitar drinks, I attached photos. You can see the straw coming out of the top and the rest of the guitar was filled with a peach daquiri and strawberry daquiri
hahahaha you are so silly but i like it!
We love you!
well duhh ;)
WEEKLY LETTER:
Allright, good evening. This is, of course, Elder Moss reporting from Modesto, Ca. It's been really cool. We've had a really busy week this past week. Some of the things which we did, I'll just quickly go over it. Monday we had preparation day and I got a haircut, finally. She actually also, she did an eyebrow wax on all of the elders there. It wasn't like a full eyebrow wax but it was really weird and it really hurt. So yea, you can say that I got a wax done on some of my eyebrows and it was really weird but I wasn't alone so don't think I was like feminine or something - she just did it - but hey, it's the experience that counts. So, of course I was emailing you all and just doing all of that. And then Tuesday we went and taught Dillion and he's doing really good. We actually had his baptismal interview and he's struggling with different things of the law of chastity. The law of chastity doesn't have a time limit like the word of wisdom - you have to live it for two weeks before your baptized - but the law of chastity you don't have to, there's like no set time limit. But we want to make sure that he is truly repentant and that we are not just baptizing him like to his damnation or something. So, just pray for him so that he can overcome that. He's going to meet with our branch president tomorrow to see if he can still get baptized this Sunday. So, we met with him and we also met with some of our members. We've been setting up mission plans and everything with them. One was with Tatum, she's really awesome, she's one of out branch missionaries and we've just been setting things up with her and helping her do missionary work more. She wants to serve a mission and so that's really cool. We had a leadership training Wednesday and that was so much fun. Tuesday night all of the leaders...since we live up in Modesto it's like an hour and forty to two hour drive down to Fresno where our leadership training was, so it's a long drive and we have three district leaders and two zone leaders and so we all just drove in one car together... and so we all met Tuesday night and all of the leaders slept together but it was super...it was a lot of fun. At 10:30 lights go off but we all like - the family will get a kick out of this - we all like circled up and did a wresting tournament - king of the house, or king of the apartment. Elder King stayed with the other other elders in the other apartment but this was all the leaders and we all did wrestling matches so it would like be one on one - like everyone was in a big circle and two people would step forward and they would wrestle each other then the winner would step back and he would then wrestle someone else. Safe to say, I was the king of the apartment. It was really cool except for I beat everyone and then the very last one Elder Ervin, I beat him once already but then he beat the other person so he was like in the loser bracket and then he moved up and was facing me again and he beat me the second time. It was hard cause I was super tired. But that was such a fun night, we were so tired. And then we drove down to Fresno the next morning and had our leadership training which was super awesome and inspired. We went to uh, after leadership training, we went to a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant - stinking been having so much Mexican food on my mission it's crazy, I'm going to be able to bear dad's Mexican food when I get home - It was good. And then because of the long drive back up we had to stay at the zone leader's apartment again and my back's just been killing me cause we had to sleep on the floor. But it's all good cause like I stretch in the morning and everything so it's totally good like no worries there at all. We stayed at the zone leaders apartment again and we just had a blast talking and getting to know each other better. Elder King took over the area and has just been doing awesome with that just really stepping up to the plate. So, before I get to the bible study and what happened, the next day we actually went on an exchange with the zone leaders, they're in my district so I got to go on another exchange with them. And so I went with Elder Crawford in his area. He's doing really awesome, we saw a lot of miracles and grabbed some new investigators. I went with them in the Spanish area and we didn't really teach that Spanish. Oh, it was so weird, we uh, we met this kid, his name in Daniel, he's actually a YSA but he goes to the Spanish ward with his family so we thought it would better for him to go to the Spanish ward. But it was so weird, in the lesson, every time I spoke or said something he would always giggle and then say like I'm cute or something. We found out very quickly...yes, he was gay. It was so funny. He was like super into Holister and the very first thing when he saw me was like, "Were you a Holister model?" And I was like, "What the heck, how did you know?" It was super funny. Yea, he was gay, and he liked me, and it was really weird. But we taught a very good lesson and I'm glad that the Spanish Elders are going to be teaching him and not me. So on that one it was really weird. But hopefully he can be able to repent and get baptized also. We just finished up the exchange and got back together with Elder King and just had a great time. But the cool thing was we met this girl at our apartment and we were like. "If you ever need anything we want to help out, we want to be able to be there for you." She was like, "I'm going to take you up on that." And tonight she um, while we were weekly planning, she came and knocked on the door. We were surprised, like it was pretty cool. She invited us to a bible study. We were like, "Allright, yea, we'll go." And so we got permission and everything and we go over there and it's a huge Seven Day Adventist Church. It's like their youth group and it's there bible study and we had dinner with them and we actually didn't get to do the bible study with them cause we had to get going, we were about over on time so we just ate dinner with them but it was a really good impression that they had from us. It was one of those things like "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words" so we were very good examples and showed them who Mormons are, who the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints really are and it was a really great experience. We found out, like I said, that it was a youth bible study group and so all the people were in YSA age and so they invited us back next week and so we're going to start going with other Elders to teach them to see if we could get with any of them. One of the kids there actually, we talked to him, and he used to study with Mormon Missionaries. So, hopefully we can get with him and be able to teach him again. It just goes to show that no matter what we do we respect other people for what they believe because evidently every single church, or every single religion, they all have truth in them. The point of the fact is that we have the fullness of the gospel and they need to know that and by us respecting them for what they believe they need to have the fullness of the gospel in the life and so we gotta talk to them, we gotta tell them some things. I actually gotta...I talked about Katelynn, my dear sister, getting married to her husband in a temple and I got to show them a picture of a temple and they really loved it. They said, "Wow, that makes things worth it." It was really cool and they really appreciated it. Hopefully they are going to warm up to us more and hopefully we will be able to see a lot of good come from it. The biggest thing we are doing right now is that we are just trying to find new investigators and be able to find those who are prepared. I mean we have a lot of people we have found over the past few days, like a lot, and we just need to keep finding more prepared ones. That's really all that's going on the Modesto 2nd YSA branch. It's the best, I love it up here so much. I just love being a missionary and I just know with all my heart that this church is true and just what a blessing it is to be a part of it and to know for yourself, to gain that testimony, and especially being able to apply the atonement every single day and that's the greatest part. I don't know what I'd do either without my personal study. I was such a dillweep before my mission, just like not studying my scriptures or anything, ah dang, I also wish I would have studied Preach my Gospel more cause that's like everything to do with missionary work. Those things just like strengthen my testimony so much, my personal shield for the day. I know it's true. I love it and live it with all my heart and might and I won't ever go back again to the way I was. Keep progressing and keep changing and becoming even more Christlike and better. I love you all and I hope you have a great and miracle filled week. And you'll hear from me soon, of course, allright, love you, goodnight, bye.
“Now, my dear young friends, missionary work is not easy. In fact, it is often quite difficult, but the Lord is the greatest paymaster in the world. Dedicated missionary service is one of life’s most fulfilling experiences. This is in large measure because of the divine agency which flows so richly from the Lord to His humble and obedient servants to bless the lives of others. I know this because I have seen it manifested in the lives of thousands and have felt it in my own life.” - President James E. Faust
President Eyring said, “Whoever you are and wherever you may be, you hold in your hands the happiness of more people than you can now imagine. Every day and every hour you can choose to make or keep a covenant with God. When you choose whether to make or keep a covenant with God, you choose whether you will leave an inheritance of hope to those who might follow your example.”
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Monday, April 7, 2014
DAlD:
(The first part of the thread from Dad was sent last week and responded to by Davey this week)
[3/31] I been waiting all day to hear from you. I was just in to Cabella's picking out Brayden's birthday present and I missed you.
[4//7] i miss cabella's haha that is sweet though tell him i love him and a happy birthday i won't be able to send him anything though...
Don't worry about sending him anything just an email will be good his birthday is not till the 17th and I'll be back down here that weekend and ordain him on the 20th
that is so sweet ya remind me next week to do that and i will!
Hello son,
i am pretty sure i did file it i don't remember not doing it. i am glad you are all together!
Coley is out here and we are getting together (well I'll be gone) with the coombs' tomorrow.
no way that is so crazy he is home haha dang it goes by so quick!
Yes it does, but only when it's another person son. I am picking up the truck from Larry riders place right now. We had to get it fixed. Moms going to be off work in a minute. So anyway I haven't had time to listen to your voicemail.
no worries at all did you like conference?
I didn't get to see any of it on Saturday. I was going to go with the boys to the priesthood session but Chase had that Miss ivins pageant thing he was doing so we supported him in that instead. But Sunday was really good I really liked elder uchtdorfs talk, it really seem to apply to our family and our circumstances right now
oh i loved that talk! it was super awesome now i cant wait till the ensign comes out to read it again!
Neither can I...so I can read Saturday's talks.
well you can see them you have a smart phone and computer silly!
Yea, I'll probably do that instead of waiting. Mom and I are off to meet with the renters and sign the contract.
alright i love you so much have a great week!
MOM:
Hey Davey,
hey hey! and yes i can get your voice mails now
i just scare my companion all the time mom haha it is awesome but no i didn't do any jokes...i should have!
Did you see the picture that I sent you about the practical joke that Chase did?
YES! ahh that was so funny i was laughing i miss being with you all! i am so glad though i am on a mission i wouldn't trade this for anything!
hahahaha oh my gosh that is so awesome haha i love that ha dang that is funny!
I am heading home and hope we can keep visiting. If not love you so much and can't wait to visit with you on Mothers day!!
when is mothers day?
In may
oh ok no worries we got some time! ha
Good evening family and those others of my friends. This is Elder Moss. It is Sunday night tonight, the end of the week. It's been a really great week. A lot of things have happened. We've been on exchanges and also we had a great meeting. So, I'll just go though it tonight. So, we've been teaching a lot of different people. We only found three new investigators - that's one of the things we are working on is finding new investigators. We are really striving to work more with our members. We are seeing - it takes a little bit longer because it takes more energy and more time to work with the members rather than going out and talking to everyone but we are seeing that it is really helping us. So we are still teaching a lot of people. Dillon is still on track to get baptized this week. We are doing a lot of what we call ATMs or Awake The Members to help them get active in missionary work. Wednesday we had trainer/trainee meeting down at Fresno so we woke up super early, like five in the morning to get ready to drive down to Fresno cause it's like a two hour drive. But that was really fun. Received a lot of inspiration and it was just a great time. It was just weird being back in my area but it was really good, I loved it. The next day we had exchanges that we went on with the Spanish Elders. I took one to my area and we taught a lot of lessons. We have these three black girls that are going to get baptized. One has a date and we are just working with them. One came to conference this week which was so good. We went to Fudrucker's with one of our members who went and took us out which is super good. I think I have been to it before, I can't remember though, I think I remember when we went in New York or something but I could be totally wrong. But, yea, General Conference was super sweet and I'll talk about that in my next voice mail. But yea, we've been teaching a lot and seeing miracles. We are seeing a lot of blessing, we are just really excited for all that we got going on. Conference was so amazing. I love Conference so much. The Saturday morning session was just great. Some of my favorite talks were the Gratitude one by President Uchtdorf and...well I can't just list them off cause like Elder Holland, Elder Oaks on the Priesthood...just so many of them were super good. For conference Saturday morning we woke up early to go with the YSA. And so we went with them, ate some breakfast, watched the first session of General Conference and then cleaned the church and then we had lunch and then we watched the second session. The Priesthood session was also super great. I just have super big testimony...I wrote down like eight questions in which I came to conference with and they were all answered and so I know if you prayerfully wrote down questions and applied that principle then you would have received a lot more and you would have prepared yourself better. I hope during the conference you were all attentive and just super awake. I know before my mission it was the hardest thing to do that but conference is so amazing. And just like always, the most important part of conference is the application and follow up; making sure we are doing what we need to be doing a apply in our lives and become changed. One of my favorite talks was Elder Ballard's also. He was talking about missionary work and how we need to read Preach My Gospel. And that is my invitation to you, that you take that literally: Read Preach My Gospel, set goals for yourself to invite others to come unto Christ and to receive this gospel, to come back into the fold. I love this work so much, it's the best. I couldn't be thinking of a better thing to be doing with my life than what I am doing right now. I've grown so much and I continue to grow. Thank you for your love and support. I really do appreciate it and all that you do. This week was just amazing. After the Priesthood session we went back home and then went out and taught and then had Sunday session which we had an investigator at and then we had dinner with our Branch President and set up another ATM. We are just looking forward to everything that's in the future. I love you all and I hope that your week is great and full of miracles. Love you, goodnight.
“There has been a long history of rejection and a painfully high price paid by prophets and apostles, missionaries and members in every generation all those who have tried to honor God’s call to lift the human family to ‘a more excellent way.’ Sadly enough, my young friends, it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods and smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat but don’t even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigolds. Talk about man creating God in his own image! Sometimes — and this seems the greatest irony of all — these folks invoke the name of Jesus as one who was this kind of ‘comfortable’ God. Really? … Now be strong. Live the gospel faithfully even if others around you don’t have it at all. Defend your beliefs with courtesy and with compassion, but defend them. A long history of inspired voices, including…Thomas S. Monson, point you toward the path of Christian discipleship.” -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
(The first part of the thread from Dad was sent last week and responded to by Davey this week)
[3/31] I been waiting all day to hear from you. I was just in to Cabella's picking out Brayden's birthday present and I missed you.
[4//7] i miss cabella's haha that is sweet though tell him i love him and a happy birthday i won't be able to send him anything though...
Don't worry about sending him anything just an email will be good his birthday is not till the 17th and I'll be back down here that weekend and ordain him on the 20th
that is so sweet ya remind me next week to do that and i will!
Hello son,
I am down with the family today. Katelynn and Chase are doing something with an Ipad on the couch; Brayden and Jeff are playing Black Ops 2 on the XBox 360.
I did my taxes yesterday and I did your's today but I can't file unless I can convince them I am you. To do that I need to tell them what your adjusted gross income was last year and I can't find your tax return to find that amount. Mom is not home yet so I will ask her. Maybe you didn't file before you left...do you remember if you did?
I am behind on your blog. This will be the third week I haven't typed you voice mails up.
We are going Olive Garden for Brayden's early birthday since Katelynn is down for her spring break.
What else? I don't know. Hope all is going well, I will listen to your voicemails now.
Dad.
PS, Everyone says Hi
i am pretty sure i did file it i don't remember not doing it. i am glad you are all together!
Coley is out here and we are getting together (well I'll be gone) with the coombs' tomorrow.
no way that is so crazy he is home haha dang it goes by so quick!
Yes it does, but only when it's another person son. I am picking up the truck from Larry riders place right now. We had to get it fixed. Moms going to be off work in a minute. So anyway I haven't had time to listen to your voicemail.
no worries at all did you like conference?
I didn't get to see any of it on Saturday. I was going to go with the boys to the priesthood session but Chase had that Miss ivins pageant thing he was doing so we supported him in that instead. But Sunday was really good I really liked elder uchtdorfs talk, it really seem to apply to our family and our circumstances right now
oh i loved that talk! it was super awesome now i cant wait till the ensign comes out to read it again!
Neither can I...so I can read Saturday's talks.
well you can see them you have a smart phone and computer silly!
Yea, I'll probably do that instead of waiting. Mom and I are off to meet with the renters and sign the contract.
alright i love you so much have a great week!
MOM:
Hey Davey,
I thought I would write to you this morning instead of sending a voicemail (it looks like you aren't able to get my voicemail.
Since the Tuacahn season has officially started it is very difficult to get on and visit with you on email, plus it seems like you email at different times and it makes it hard to know when you will be on.
My past week...
On April 1 we had a fun April Fools day... Brayden started with pulling some jokes on Chase, but each one didn't work. Then that night I was getting ready for bed and went to use the bathroom, when I lifted the lid the scariest face was looking up at me and boy did I scream!!!! Outside of the bathroom door I could hear both Chase and Brayden laughing hard. To say the least I didn't need to go the bathroom for awhile. Dad pulled some jokes on Katelynn and Jeff. I guess Jeff hasn't ever been pranked on April Fools day and wasn't to happy with dads jokes. He put Jello in their juice so it came out like jello, he taped their remote, and he put cool-aid in Jeff's Mountain Dew. It was a fun day!!!
I have had the opportunity to be the head office manager to work the concerts at Tuacahn. We have had Willie Nelson, ABBA, Blues Traveler, and this Friday we will be having Amy Grant and Vince Gill. I have had fun working the concerts and feel great when everything goes good every night.
Chase was able to be in the Ivins Princess Pageant as an escort. They don't do Mr. Ivins, but if they had Chase would have totally have done it. Chase got a cat call from a girl from the audience and the funny thing is that when they announced who Chase was they said his name wrong they got his name mixed up with another boys. I was really funny!!!
I really enjoyed the general womens meeting. The strength of all the women in the church being gathered together on one day is just a wonderful feeling, knowing that you aren't going through things alone that there are other women who go though the same troubles as you and to have the cute little girls come join us was such an amazing feeling. You can truly feel their sweet spirits.
Conference was amazing!!! I was finally able to watch Saturday's conference (I haven't been able to do this for the last few times). I was loving each speaker and their message they gave.
We had our renters after 2 years move out and we have hired a contractor to finish the basement in that home. At the same time we had a friend of mine Diana Moore call me and say that their is a family friend that would like to rent our home. I gave her all of the details and told her that it would be available to rent the first of May. The family came by and like our home and want to rent it. They are the Obray's, they have a daughter Hope Obray that I met and she says that she knows you, she is a senior at the High School.
Chase has decided to run for student body again. I told him that I didn't know where we would be and tto do live as if we will be here. I am trying for a job at the Santa Clara Elem. as a Secretary and if I get it we will stay here and live in the Santa Clara home.
Dad is moving forward with building a home up in Lehi, so if I don't get a job here I will move up when the house is done.
We love you so much and pray for you daily. I will try to get on today, but if not know that you are always in my thoughts. I miss you and can't wait for our visit on Mothers day.
Mom
PS - are you able to get my voicemails?
Hi mom
You are on! Yeah!!!! I finally get to email you :)
How are you doing?hey hey! and yes i can get your voice mails now
Awesome!! I love to get your voice mails and I like to send them to you.
Did you do any April Fools Jokes?i just scare my companion all the time mom haha it is awesome but no i didn't do any jokes...i should have!
Did you see the picture that I sent you about the practical joke that Chase did?
YES! ahh that was so funny i was laughing i miss being with you all! i am so glad though i am on a mission i wouldn't trade this for anything!
So a funny about dad...
Dad was in a hurry to get Brayden from school and he had left Lin's. While walking to the car he was reading his receipt he got in the car. As he went in and sat down he looked over to his left and saw a man sitting in the passenger seat, then as he was turned a dog licked him (which was in the back seat). Dad said, "Oh... I must have the wrong car" the guy said, "oh... I think you do". I laughed sooooo hard!!!! It was so funny!!!hahahaha oh my gosh that is so awesome haha i love that ha dang that is funny!
I am heading home and hope we can keep visiting. If not love you so much and can't wait to visit with you on Mothers day!!
when is mothers day?
In may
oh ok no worries we got some time! ha
Good evening family and those others of my friends. This is Elder Moss. It is Sunday night tonight, the end of the week. It's been a really great week. A lot of things have happened. We've been on exchanges and also we had a great meeting. So, I'll just go though it tonight. So, we've been teaching a lot of different people. We only found three new investigators - that's one of the things we are working on is finding new investigators. We are really striving to work more with our members. We are seeing - it takes a little bit longer because it takes more energy and more time to work with the members rather than going out and talking to everyone but we are seeing that it is really helping us. So we are still teaching a lot of people. Dillon is still on track to get baptized this week. We are doing a lot of what we call ATMs or Awake The Members to help them get active in missionary work. Wednesday we had trainer/trainee meeting down at Fresno so we woke up super early, like five in the morning to get ready to drive down to Fresno cause it's like a two hour drive. But that was really fun. Received a lot of inspiration and it was just a great time. It was just weird being back in my area but it was really good, I loved it. The next day we had exchanges that we went on with the Spanish Elders. I took one to my area and we taught a lot of lessons. We have these three black girls that are going to get baptized. One has a date and we are just working with them. One came to conference this week which was so good. We went to Fudrucker's with one of our members who went and took us out which is super good. I think I have been to it before, I can't remember though, I think I remember when we went in New York or something but I could be totally wrong. But, yea, General Conference was super sweet and I'll talk about that in my next voice mail. But yea, we've been teaching a lot and seeing miracles. We are seeing a lot of blessing, we are just really excited for all that we got going on. Conference was so amazing. I love Conference so much. The Saturday morning session was just great. Some of my favorite talks were the Gratitude one by President Uchtdorf and...well I can't just list them off cause like Elder Holland, Elder Oaks on the Priesthood...just so many of them were super good. For conference Saturday morning we woke up early to go with the YSA. And so we went with them, ate some breakfast, watched the first session of General Conference and then cleaned the church and then we had lunch and then we watched the second session. The Priesthood session was also super great. I just have super big testimony...I wrote down like eight questions in which I came to conference with and they were all answered and so I know if you prayerfully wrote down questions and applied that principle then you would have received a lot more and you would have prepared yourself better. I hope during the conference you were all attentive and just super awake. I know before my mission it was the hardest thing to do that but conference is so amazing. And just like always, the most important part of conference is the application and follow up; making sure we are doing what we need to be doing a apply in our lives and become changed. One of my favorite talks was Elder Ballard's also. He was talking about missionary work and how we need to read Preach My Gospel. And that is my invitation to you, that you take that literally: Read Preach My Gospel, set goals for yourself to invite others to come unto Christ and to receive this gospel, to come back into the fold. I love this work so much, it's the best. I couldn't be thinking of a better thing to be doing with my life than what I am doing right now. I've grown so much and I continue to grow. Thank you for your love and support. I really do appreciate it and all that you do. This week was just amazing. After the Priesthood session we went back home and then went out and taught and then had Sunday session which we had an investigator at and then we had dinner with our Branch President and set up another ATM. We are just looking forward to everything that's in the future. I love you all and I hope that your week is great and full of miracles. Love you, goodnight.
“There has been a long history of rejection and a painfully high price paid by prophets and apostles, missionaries and members in every generation all those who have tried to honor God’s call to lift the human family to ‘a more excellent way.’ Sadly enough, my young friends, it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods and smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat but don’t even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigolds. Talk about man creating God in his own image! Sometimes — and this seems the greatest irony of all — these folks invoke the name of Jesus as one who was this kind of ‘comfortable’ God. Really? … Now be strong. Live the gospel faithfully even if others around you don’t have it at all. Defend your beliefs with courtesy and with compassion, but defend them. A long history of inspired voices, including…Thomas S. Monson, point you toward the path of Christian discipleship.” -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)