September 19th-September 26th, 2016

Hello! 

Thanks for all the postcards I got from the camping trip with the little kids!

Well we changed our preparation day to today because we are going to Alicante to go to a museum. I'll write more about that next week. :) It's been a good week this week and we've done a lot of contacting in hopes of finding more people to share the Gospel of Christ with.

Last Monday we played volleyball and basketball at the church in the courts they have outside. Then we celebrated the 18th of September (Chilean's independence day!!) by making completos. Then we went shopping downtown and topped off the day with frozen yogurt.








Monday night after nightly planning we had a jello slurping contest. I won. :) I know, I know I lead a wild life. 

Tuesday was a great day! We did an English fast and didn't speak any english the whole day! Sometimes my Spanish surprises me. Sometimes I'm sitting in a lesson and I realize 20 minutes in that I've been understanding every word. We had a missionary activity in the other hermana's area. 






On Wednesday we contacted SO MUCH. We talked, liked really talked to at least 40 people and invited them to hear more about what we believe. Out of the forty, 4 people accepted to hear from us again. So that's about the ratio... 10:1. Oh! I finished the New Testament and I've started in on the Old Testament. And I finished the Book of Mormon too. Scriptures are great!

On Thursday we went to go see a member who lives in the nursing home. She wasn't quite there and she thought we were her grandchildren so she was really happy. :) it works.

When I say we've been contacting a lot, I really mean it. Haha. I don't have much to say because we haven't had a lot of lessons, we spend most of the day walking and contacting. On Friday we had another successful contacting day and found a few people. In English class on we had 10 people in my class which is the most I've seen! 

We've been trying to take a picture every day and sometimes we just need to take one with a cat on a car.

On Saturday we knocked a lot of doors and only got yelled at once. :) On Sunday we had choir practice and then we sang at a baptism of an eight year old.


Hermana Højholdt, Hermana Gibson, Patricia and I. Patricia is the sweetest member and she is moving to England. Her English is perfect and we have had a lot of fun with her and her family.










My last time eating with Fina and Jaime. They are the most charitable people I have ever met!

I love you all so much! This week is my last one in Elche! Transfer calls are on Saturday and I'll see where I'm going not serve next!

GENERAL CONFERENCE IS COMING! We have the opportunity to hear from our latter day prophet Thomas S. Monson! Go listen to him!

Love, Hermana Moore

September 12th-September 18th, 2016

While I was studying at BYU one of my friends would always look at me and say, "wow. It's just a great day to be a Cougar." I often find myself thinking, "wow! It's just a great day to be a missionary!" It has been such a fabulous week and it truly has been a great week to be a missionary of the Lord here in Spain.

It's preparation dayyy! I hope you are all doing great and enjoying having your kids back at school again. It's been a long week but short at the same time. I don't have a whole lot to say since we're finally getting into a routine as a trio.

Ohhhh. And before I forget, I won't be writing until Tuesday next week. We got permission to change our preparation day to Tuesday so we can go to a Vikings museum in Alicante. It should be pretty cool. Also Hermana Højholdt is from Denmark so they're her ancestors. Haha.

On Tuesday we woke up at 5:30 am and traveled to Murcia for a zone conference. Every 3 months we have a meeting with 80-100 missionaries and listen to different people speak. This conference, we were blessed to hear from Elder Craig W. Zwick of the 70, a leader of our church.

We listened to him speak, along with President Andersen and his wife, and a few others from 10am to 4.

We got an extra bolt of excitement to be doing this work. I cannot even begin to write the things I learned form zone conference so I will just share a few bits of revelation I received. Something cool about revelation is that most of the time, you don't realize it is revelation when you receive it! I thought that the different speakers said most of the things I wrote down in my journal but at the end of the conference when I commented to my companions what I liked they said, uhhh I don't remember hearing anyone say that. What a blessing to have those few hours to hear from inspired servants of the Lord. I think the biggest thing I took from the conference is that I need to change NOW. My mission is the time the Lord has given me to strengthen myself and prepare myself for the trials that will surely come.


After, all 100 of us ate paella together!


















On Friday we had exchanges with the sister training leaders. We all went to Alicante and traded companions and worked in their area. As you can see, we were pretty tired even on the ride there. 

You sleep while you can. 













On Friday night Hermana Portas, Hermana Gibson and I were a trio and we had a couple of lessons. One of them was with an investigator named Alex. After we taught him, we went and ate empanadas at a Colombian restaurant.












We're still working hard and we're still a happy trio!

Our investigator Eddy from Nigeria is coming along and we're having a nice time teaching him. 

We're getting better at teaching clearly and with unity which is hard to do with three people!

On Sunday while we were saying hi to people before the meetings started, we met 4 Germans on vacation here. They didn't speak much Spanish but they spoke perfect English. We talked with them for a little bit and then they asked us if someone could translate the meeting from Spanish to English for them. Everyone kind of laughed and then pointed at me and said I could! So.... I did it! I sat by them and translated the entire hour long meeting. It wasn't perfect but I could do it without thinking too much. I want to practice translating and become good at it! I don't think I could handle English to Spanish yet but going from Spanish to English is easier. Yay I'm almost bilingual!

On Wednesday we had district meeting and we all wore matching dresses just to the meeting.  Hna. Gibson had two and Hna. Højholdt had one. I realize how much I despise being matching with people and we got SOOO many extra stares in the five minute bus ride. Hahaha. We changed later so not too many people saw us like this. I love these girls.

Sorry there's not much this week.

I love you all! And I love being a missionary.
Love, Hermana Moore

September 5th-September 11th 2916--Cumplemes miracles!

I love being a missionary. :)

Ahhhh this week was such a good one. Buckle up because this will probably be a long one. Here's what happened:

Last Monday Hermana Gibson, Hermana Højholdt and I went and ate at a Mexican restaurant we have been passing a lot. It was pretty good and nice to just relax like normal people for a bit.

After lunch we went and met up with two sets of elders and a set of hermanas and went to St. Mary's Basilica in Elche. We climbed to the top and this was the view. :)

Trio life is still great, don't worry! Hermana Gibson and Hermana Højholdt. 

All of the missionaries in Elche and Elda (a town nearby)

After pday ended we set up a cita with Sergio but we ended up meeting him at his grandma's house instead of in a park by his house. Well, we couldn't go into his house because there wasn't another woman there. So we had a lesson in the stairwell and it got pretty hot. But that was fun. 

Last pday Dad wrote me and said how he went out for Chinese food and I emailed back and said how that sounded really good. Well, the member we ate with on Tuesday didn't have time to cook so she just got Chinese take out to eat. Prayers get answered. Hahaha.

On Wednesday I encountered the first real verbal opposition from a stranger. While we were passing by for a future at their house and ringing their buzzer, a lady passed and started yelling at us. She asked us what our parents taught us and if we had any shame for going around preaching the Gospel. President, that lit a fire in me and I realized what my sweet, dedicated parents have taught me! They have taught me to share the Gospel! I don't have shame because sharing the gospel doesn't have any shame in it! I thought about how proud Dad is in the emails he writes me and how proud my Mom is to be walking here in Spain with me. For the rest of this week I have been gleeful to share this Gospel! I have been proud to declare the Lord's words and share what my parents taught me. Even though the opposition I faced was nothing compared to that of Joseph Smith's trials of opposition, I have been thinking a lot about his sacrifices for the bringing forth of the Gospel. There is opposition in all things!

So, once again, God showed me that He has a plan for all of His children and how H's uses missionaries as tools to help His children. Every night we have to be in our apartment at 10:15 unless we are teaching a lesson (then it's 10:45). On Thursday night we were far away from our apartment and we were contacting. We were walking down the street when I felt the impression I needed to turn around. I'm getting better at listening the promptings of the Spirit so I turned around to find an older guy looking at me. He stopped us and said he took the discussions a long time ago. He is a Catholic person and we talked to him for a while. I glanced at my watch and it was 10:10 and we were about 15 minutes away from home. We wrapped up the conversation and took of speed walking, not talking to anyone. There was a 20 year old looking guy that kept looking at us and was pretty obviously (or so I thought) checking us out. That's not a weird things since we're here blondes in Spain so we kept walking. We mumbled hola to him and passed him. He stopped us (oh great, a guy who wants to talk to us at 10 at night on an abandoned street!) and asked us if we were Mormon missionaries. We said of course! Get this--his name is Elbert and he's a 23 year old Brazillian guy who GOT BAPTIZED 7 years ago in Brazil. He moved to Spain a year ago and couldn't find the church here. He's been inactive for about 4 years. We got his number and we set up a cita and invited him to come to church with us! Also, upon finding out he was from Brazil, I excitedly told him that Addie is serving in Cuiaba and he has family there! And that Michael served in Brazil. :) If I wouldn't have followed to spirit and turned around, we wouldn't have talked to the old guy who talked our ear off and made us late we wouldn't have run into Elbert and he wouldn't have known there was a ward in Elche! Miracles. 

On Friday we had district meeting I had a taller about diligence and I talked about "greenie Fire" (new missionaries who are so excited to teach the Gospel) and how all missionaries should have that greenie Fire. On Friday night we finally taught Eddy. We lost contact with him for awhile since he's been busy with work. We talked about repentance and the Atonement and the spirit was so strong in that lesson. It was what Eddy needed to hear and when we asked him if he had any questions he fell silent and said, "no, it is all so simple!" That was the first lesson we, as our trio, felt really unified.

Saturday was SUCH A GOOD DAY. Saturday was the 10th and so that means it was my cumplemes! (Cumple=celebrate and mes=month) I've officially been in Spain for 4 months! We started the day off by running (yes, running) to the bridge that separates our area from Elder Pesce and Elder Stark's area. We met them, shook hands and then ran back. :) hahaha. They called us later and said they thought of us every flight of stairs they went up because they were so sore. Haha.

Because it was my fourth cumplemes, we saw four big miracles!

#1 we were on our way to an appointment and for some reason (that some reason being the Spirit) I took a different route than usual. As soon as we turned down that different street, a guy looked up and said hey! Sissters! You are missionaries! It turns out he took the lessons for a whole and almost got baptized. He said he wants us to teach him again! 

#2 We spent some time calling people and when we were about to out the phone away I thought about a less active who I haven't seen in a while and he picked up and we set up a cita!

#3 We had set up a cita with an old investigator with an 80 year old man who lives alone. We had the lesson, he got distracted a lot but when we mentioned church and invited him HE SAID YES!

#4 We met with Elbert, the Brazilian and got to know him. Addie, my friend serving in Brazil has told me a lot that Brazilians are the nicest people and now I really understand! I think I smiled the whole lesson because he was just so nice and sincere! We talked about reading the scriptures, going to church and praying. And we set up for him to come to church with us!

And to top off that wonderful day of miracles, we had ice cream and celebrated my cumplemes by sitting around with my two incredible companions and talking about our miracles we've seen.

Church was wonderful and Vicente (the 80 year old) and Elbert AND two less actives who never come CAME! It was such a happy day!

To end my email I want to testify of 4 things.

1. God is our loving Heavenly Father and He has a plan for each one of us. 

2. The Atonement brings healing, power, joy and hope.

3. The Book of Mormon is the truest book on this earth and it truly contains the fullness of the Gospel of Christ.

4. Families can, AND WILL BE, eternal.

I love you all!

Me encanta mi misión. 

Love, Hermana Moore

August 29th- September 4th, 2016

Hello friends! 

The weeks are getting shorter and shorter and it's been pretty warm here. Right now it's a cool 100 degrees and we're sitting in the shade waiting for the elders to come so we can go to a castle museum. This week has been a wonderful week and my two wonderful companions and I are working harder than I've ever worked before.


We've seen a lot of little miracles this week. On Wednesday afternoon we passed by a few people and tried to see if they actually lived there. One teaching record said Gertrudis but we couldn't figure out which apartment was hers. We got into the building and went to the floor we thought it was. It didn't end up being hers. We started walking out and Hermana Gibson turned around and looked at me and we both said at the same time that we should knock doors. The first door we knocked we found a lady named.... GERTRUDIS. God is so cool. She pretended to not know who we were and said she didn't want anything to do with the church... So that was weird. But it just showed us that God is aware of what we are doing. Another time this week we weren't having any luck passing by people so we de died to knock doors. It easier to knock doors when we can get into an apartment building and talk to people over their doorstep rather than their intercom. None of the doors we were passing were open and so Hermana Gibson says, you just have to have faith and pushed on a door and IT OPENED. We went in and talked to a family and on the way out of the building we checked to see how solid the doors was and it was a heavy metal door and it didn't budge when I pushed on it. Again, God is so cool.

Our investigator Eddy has a baptismal date for September 17th! So that the goal we're working towards with him. He had a lot of questions and I love answering them because they make me think and build my own testimony.

I've been leading the area which basically means I'm the only one out of the three of us who knows where to go. It's been good for me and I'm getting better at directions and God has definitely been helping me out with feeling more confident and sure about myself.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, we are having what is called a "cosecha". Cosecha means harvest and it's going to be a "harvest" of people who are ready to listen to the Gospel! We have 9 missionaries in Elche now and we are going to get all of them together for this activity in our area.  Each missionary will go on splits with a member from our ward to go out to contact and knock doors. Working with members is so important. We have been doing some planning for it and are really excited. We are hoping (trusting in the Lord!) to get a lot of future investigators. We prayed to know where to send each missionary and their companion and let me tell you, revelation is REAL. We prayed separately and then discussed our findings as a companionship and many of the streets were in the same area, if not the same exact street.

Church yesterday was just wonderful and Hermana Gibson and Hermana Højholdt got to meet our wonderful ward members. As I looked around in Sacrament meeting I realized how much I've come to love the people I get to serve here in Elche. I've been here for more than 3 months already. During Relief Society we stood up and testified of missionary work and invited the sisters to come and work with us for the cosecha and they got excited about it! So we have enough people for the hermanas in Elche to have a member companion! We also sent around a calendar for having us over for lunch and we're excited for all of our citas this week to get to know the members better.

I have such high hopes for this transfer with my lovely companions. We have already contacted more than I have in the last three and half months and I'm getting a lot more comfortable with just putting myself out there. We are going to to see so many miracles and I just can't wait. :)


Hermana Matsu and Hermana Giraldo just got put into the second ward of Elche and so now there's 5 of us in the same city! Our districts got jumbled around too so now in my district there are 5 hermanas and 2 elders!

Last Monday I had a nice relaxing pday and we sat around and emailed, ate frozen pizza and played charades. Elder Pesce and I won (CLARO.) Tuesday was our greatly awaited cosecha! Like I explained past week, all 9 missionaries in Elche went out and contacted with a member for two hours in our area. My member companion was Teresa Juarez (I forgot to take a picture with her so I'll need to do that before I leave Elche...) She was READY and I think she was better at contacting than
I am. We talked to EVERY SINGLE PERSON in our path and handed out two Books of Mormon, lots of pamphlets and lots of pass along cards. We walked 3.5 miles in two hours! From all 9 pairs of missionaries we ended up with 14 futures in all! It was so awesome to work so closely with the members. They are so vital in missionary work and they got so excited about helping us.


Every night I am so utterly exhausted and it takes me 1.7 seconds to fall asleep but I know that every minute of my day was given to the Lord. With the three of us, we are always following the missionary schedule exactly. There are two ways a companionship gets along: 1. If you are being disobedient together. 2. If you are being exactly obedient. There's no middle and there's no wiggle room. So here's what I did this week.

Even after the cosecha, the miracles didn't stop. We had an hour left so we starting contacting on a street when we got to building number 17 and Hermana Højholdt pushed on the doors and said 17 Miracles!! And of course, since God is so good to us, the solid metal door opened without a problem. We knocked every door in that building and got 4 futures! Tuesday was such a good day. And we even went running in the morning! We go running every Tuesday and Thursday and that's been good for us!

On Wednesday I made a mistake. When I got to Elche Hermana DeBoard pointed to a big white building complex and said, "now Hermana Moore. That is San Anton. We don't go there because it's too dangerous. Don't go there ever." WELL. On Tuesday afternoon we passed by a few futures we had in our maps and one of them was Francisco. He lived in a sketchy looking part of town and we didn't quite feel safe there. But we carried on and knocked the whole building to find him. He answered and we set up a cita for Wednesday. Fast forward to Wednesday afternoon and we are on the way to Fransisco's house and we felt a little freaked out walking through the alleyways but we'll do anything for God so we continued. I got a weird feeling and I looked up and said a sign that said "San Anton Bakery" and I realized where we were. Bahahaha. So we got out of there pretty quickly and gave the elders Francisco's address. Now Hermana Højholdt and Hermana Gibson call me Simba from the Lion King when he is warned about the dangerous elephant graveyard. Hahaha. Whoops.

On Friday we had zone meeting and the power trio spoke. We gave a powerful short taller about our calling as missionaries and how we are set apart on a high plane of obedience. We gave them candy too so it went well.

Here's the Alicante Zone.

On Saturday we had the most interesting lesson I've had on my mission. We taught a reference from Hermana Moreno and we taught him the Restoration lesson. He doesn't really believe that Christ established His church on the earth which made it difficult to say that our church is Christ's church restored... He also believes he fought in Christian wars in 1290... So that was a fun time. 

Church was awesome and a lot of people bore their testimonies about missionary work!

We are on the bus together a lot. :) Here we are on the way to churchy church. 

I know without a shadow of a doubt that this church is true. I've taught the lesson about the Restoration so many times this week and I know that God restored His church though His prophet Joseph Smith. I know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. Being on a mission isn't hard and I'm grateful for this opportunity to feel a fraction, yes a tiny tiny fraction, of what my Savior felt as He suffered for me.

I love you all! Be safe! Pray lots and remember that you have a Father that loves you!

Love, Hermana Moore