May 10, 2014

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.