November 22nd-November 28th, 2016

It has been such a wonderful week! It has been full of turkey,

miracles, and open doors. What more could a missionary ask for?

The week started out by me figuring out more things I need to improve
on. I want to focus more on the basics so I can be a better teacher.
As a missionary, I set a lot of goals which is great because I get to
constantly improve and adjust.

We had a few main miracles this week and I want to focus on them
instead of just my day to day life.

After a lot of work, God has decided to give His two little
missionaries in Granada a whole bunch of blessings all at once! Kathi
is one of our investigators and she is just awesome. She is coming out
of a really big trial in her life and it has changed her from being a
defensive investigator who asked questions to trip us up, to an
investigator who keeps her commitments! She is reading in the Book of
Mormon and praying and coming to church! We had a good lesson about
baptism a few days ago and we talked about why it is necessary. We
asked her if she wanted to follow Christ's example and be baptized and
she said yes! We extended a date and she thought it was too soon so we
invited her to pray to know when she should be baptized! So we're
hoping she'll be able to be baptized in December! The Gospel of Christ
is truly changing her life! I realize now that this paragraph has a
lot of exclamation marks but I'm just so excited!!!

Next miracle: Once upon a time a wonderful member from our ward
invited a friend to church. Her name is Karen and she has come to
church two times already. She has started reading in the Book of
Mormon and has a real thirst for the word of God! She LOVES church and
she is just a ray of sunshine. She participates in the classes and she
is so eager to learn. The elders taught her once and two days ago we
re-drew the lines for our areas and so Karen now lives in our area! So
we get to teach her! I am so excited to get to know her more and teach
the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to her!

Next miracle: Thanksgiving. It's obviously an American holiday but us
missionaries just had to celebrate. One problem is that we are in
Spain and they don't sell turkeys. Or so we thought... On Wednesday
night the elders called us and said "Hermanas. We are here in this
store staring a big 18 pound, saran wrapped turkey in the face, are
you in?" YES. So on Thursday we all went to the church and cooked a
big turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy! The elders did a really good
job cooking and seasons that turkey! So we had a good time! I did miss
pie and cranberry sauce and rolls though.

Next miracle: *Full disclosure: this is a real live mission
experience. Don't be surprised or offended. This is my real life.* We
were contacting on Saturday in the pouring rain and were feeling kind
of useless. I prayed and asked for God to use me to answer someone
else's prayer. We decided to knock a building. The door was locked so
I picked a random buzzer but no one answered. I tried a few others and
still didn't get a response. Then one answered! A little girl answered
and I said that we were missionaries and wanted to share a scripture
about prayer. She said "uhhh okay!" And buzzed us up! We scrambled up
those stairs so fast! Except for I thought they lived in 2°6 instead
of 2°8. A man in his bathrobe answered and said "You can't come in.
I'm naked." We were pretty flabbergasted... so we rang 2°8 and that
was the right door! We knocked on the door and a mom (Mari Luz) of two
girls answered. I introduced ourselves and asked if it'd be okay if we
shared a scripture with them. I shared one from the Book of a Mormon
and testified that God loves us. I felt the Spirit and the three of
them were listening intently! They said we could come back a different
day to share more! God prepared them to listen to us! It was so cool
and a real answer to my prayer. We will try to visit them this next
week and see if it's their time to accept the Gospel into their lives.

God is real and He answers prayers. :) have a wonderful week! Look for
the small miracles in your everyday life. They are there.

Love, Hermana Moore

Enjoy some pictures!

My first mission Thanksgiving! L to R: Elders Boston, Köhler, Kroff, Hermana Twede and I, and Elder Egbert. 

How many missionaries does it take to cook a turkey? 🦃 

Sometimes our phone calls with our district leader get a little monotonous.

Love, Hermana Moore

November 15th-November 21st, 2016

Hola friolas!

Another week has come and gone and I'm not really sure where it went!

On Tuesday we got up early and headed to the bus station because it
was transfer week. Granada is a city a lot of missionaries pass
through to get to their new areas. We were in a temporary trio with a
Hermana Hooper who passed through on the way to Cartagena. We did a
lot of contacting and found a promising woman named Marcela. Then we
had a few lessons that night.

On Wednesday we taught Kathi, our investigator again. :) We talked
about the Atonement and the peace we can feel when we apply it to our
lives. :) We had two failed lessons Wednesday night and that left both
of us frustrated so we decided we needed to contact. We said a prayer
to know where to go. We received different revelation on the direction
and so we made a route that incorporated both of them. As I was saying
the prayer I felt we'd be able to get two futures (future=a person we
talk to who agree to give us their phone number for future contact)
that night if we worked hard. We talked with tons of people and sure
enough, we got two futures! We found one on the street I had chosen
and the other on the street Hermana Twede had chosen! So that was
cool.
Wednesday night we made pazooki and made goals for the transfer. I
want to work on being more diligent so I'll have a focus every week
and hopefully I'll be able to be even more diligent in this work!

On Friday morning we went to go do service at the clothing place
again. We got two new elders this transfer! Elder Egbert from Utah and
Elder Kroff from CHILE! We'll have a good time this transfer! On
Friday night after English and meeting with our ward mission leader,
Jonathan opened his mission call! He's going to Barcelona and I
couldn't be more excited to him! He was only baptized last December
but he is such a strong member! He'll leave in January so I'll be here
for his farewell. He's going to do incredible things.

On Saturday my ward had a talent show. The 6 missionaries sang the
hymn Oh, My Father to the tune of Come Thou Fount and it turned out
well. One of the members did a comedy bit and so he was speaking
really fast but I understood everything! So that was a good pat on the
back for my Spanish. The ward had an impromptu dance part once the
show was over and the six of us just sat there trying not to dance! It
was torture!

On Sunday all of the talks during Sacrament were focused on missionary
work. All the missionaries sang the mission hymn and I gave a talk! I
talked about what a good missionary Mom was and how important it was
for my Dad's conversion for her to keep living the principles of the
Gospel after her mission. I think it turned out pretty well.

Today is p-day and we went and bought tickets to tour the Alhambra on
December 12th. We are all super excited for that!

I think that's about it for this week. Here's a few pictures. Love you
all! Enjoy your turkey!

Grass doesn't exist here in Spain but we found some!

























Our temporary trio. Hermana Hooper, Hermana Twede and I.






















Jonathan's mission call!

Love, Hermana Moore

November 8th-November 14th, 2016--TRANSFERS

Hola amigos. :) Wellllll we got transfer calls this morning
anddddddd...... Hermana Twede and I are staying together! Yay! So we
have another awesome transfer ahead of us here in Granada. We are
especially excited because the next 6 weeks contains THANKSGIVING AND
CHRISTMAS!

It's been qUiTe the exciting week around here. Blessings. Transfers.
Cumplemeses. Not getting sick. Pancakes. The list could just keep
going. It was such a wonderful week to be a missionary.

Tuesday we worked really extra hard and the Lord blessed us for that!
We still had 3 out of our 4 lessons fail us, but I know we were where
the Lord put us where He needed us to be to bless others. We contacted
in the morning and didn't see too much happen. But we had pancakes for
lunch, so it made it all better. That afternoon we had set up a lesson
with a less active member. Before that, we had been walking and
contacting in the COLD and were ready to have someone let us into
their home. Well, we went to said less active member's house and
someone let us in. We went and knocked on her door and her sister came
out and said she wasn't home. We called her and she had forgotten
about us meeting and cancelled on us. We were a little disappointed
but mostly because that meant we had another hour and a half of
contacting ahead of us. On our way down the stairs and we met a lady.
She spoke to us in decent English and asked if we were Mormons. If you
are waiting for me to say that she told us she wanted to get baptized
and that she is a golden investigator then you'd better keep
waiting.... She told us her aunt and uncle are members and when she
didn't look particularly pleased she continued to say that them
joining the church tore their family apart. She told us she hated
Mormons and that she always avoids us and has even spit at
missionaries. At that point we were wondering what on earth she was
talking to us for. We expressed our sorrow for what had happened and
something changed. She started to cry and told us that after many,
many years of hatred, she looked inside herself and began to ask God
for forgiveness. She repented and felt the love of God again in her
life. She let God heal her and slowly that hatred and resentment
drained out of her. And that took her to the stairwell of that broken
down apartment building in Spain where she happily greeted two Mormon
missionaries. We didn't say much and we didn't need to. We were just
placed there to let her feel of God's love for her. To let her know
how far she has come. She then went on to tell us of her extreme
trials she has experienced and the ones she is still facing. She told
us things she had never told anyone else. She told us through her
tears, I don't know why I'm telling you this, but I feel as though I
can trust you. It is not her time to join the church or even meet with
us again. We were placed there to help her with her repentance process
and to be people she could trust in.

After that incredible time with the lady, we went to Rosario's house.
She is an old woman and we went to share a scripture about the
doctrine of Christ (2 Nefi 31:17-21) and as we finished reading it,
she just said "hermanas. I prayed this morning that someone would come
to remind me of Christ's love". Tuesday was just a day full of being
where the Lord needed us. :)

On Wednesday we finally got to meet with our investigator Kathi who we
haven't been able to meet with in a while and it was so nice to catch
up with her and figure out how we can help her.

Thursday marked SIX MONTHS over here in Spain! 1/3 of the way done
folks. To celebrate, Hermana Twede and I made a homemade chicken pot
pie. :) We didn't have a recipe but we did have a biscuit recipe so we
made biscuit dough and rolled it out as the pie crust and then just
winged it for the filling. And it turned out really well! And we stuck
a 6 candle in it too.
During weekly planning we both realized we need to be more positive
about Granada and not get down when the work gets slow. That has been
a blessing and we've been a lot happier this week.

Friday was an average day and we had zone meeting in the morning and
we ate left over chicken pot pie for lunch.

On Saturday morning we didn't have anything else to do so we went and
contacted our hearts out for an hour and a half. We talked with 30 ish
people and none of them wanted anything... sometimes it's easy to let
the rejections roll off our shoulders. God had a plan for this work
and His will will be accomplished. We're just putting in the work and
the blessings will come. But on the way home we stopped at a bakery
and got macaroons and a box of chocolates to celebrated Hermana
Twede's 4 month mark!

On Saturday night we chopped up some veggies and made rice for fried
rice for Sunday. While we were doing that, our district leader (an
elder) called us and asked us about our week. He was very pleased with
himself as he told us he had made rice. We heard his companion in the
background say, "he tried to make fried rice!" We said ohhh really?!
And he said yeah...it didn't turn out though.io I took a pan with oil
and fried fry rice and then I added water and cooked it. Hahahha oh
dear elder.... that's not how you make fried rice.

The exciting thing about Sunday is that Hermana Twede finished
training! I filled a balloon with confetti and had her pop it and we
shared a pop tart I had floating around my suitcase. I'm a fun
trainer. :) Haha. So now we are both just regular missionaries!

I just have to take a second to talk about Hermana Twede. She is just
great and our personalities work really well together. We're getting
better at contacting together, we have weekly shopping and meals down
to a science where we only spend 12-15 euros each per week, and we are
always laughing. She is the best at testifying of gospel truths and we
keep each other happy doing this work. We are excited to have another
6 weeks together and to be able to the holidays together!

If you're wondering if I know about our new president the answer is
yes. Basically everyone we visit asks us about it. The elders got a
text from a lady telling them she doesn't agree with Trump and that
all the Americans in Spain should be deported. We're just poor little
missionaries!

Well, I think I've jabbered on enough for this week. Enjoy some pictures!

I love you all!
Love, Hermana Moore

Hermana Twede with one of her cumplemes chocolates.






















Hermana Twede and I with my 6th month chicken pot pie!
















We looked outside and there was a giant flock of birds circling but the horizon is pretty. :)





















We tried to find number 23... thanks Spain. 

















The Granada zone.

November 1st-November 7th, 2016

Hello November! And friends. :) How has your week been? Are you
enjoying the fall and the changing colors?

It's been in the 50's here and so it's getting chilly. Granada only
gets snow in the mountain so I'll just have a cold winter without the
snow! The cold is different when you walk around outside for hours on
end. Luckiky, Dad sent me a package with some fun mittens.

Our work this week has been mostly with less active members of the
church. As missionaries, we are here to find new people and teach them
about our church, but also strengthen the members we already do have!
Every person would be close to God if they did did three things:

1. Pray. But really prayed to their Heavenly Father. I'm talking
having a real conversation with God and taking the time to listen for
His response. I'm taking taking the time to thank him for the
blessings He has given you. He is our literal Father and He wants to
hear from us.
2. Read the scriptures. The Bible and the Book for Mormon contain the
words of God. They are their to guide us and direct us through the
trials in our lives. We can find solace in these words and we can heal
from heartache.
3. Go to church. One of the reasons we go to church is to hear how the
church and the gospel of Christ helps other people. We gain insight
into how we can better apply the Gospel into our lives. When we apply
the principles we learn, we are HAPPY! And don't we all just want to
be happy?

Weird moment of the week: Hermana Twede and I were waking and we
passed a mechanics shop and there were two of the workers staring at
us with dropped jaws. Normal. I smiled at them and said hola and one
of them sputters and says, "hola pescado!" Hello fish! So that was a
first. We're not sure if he just got nervous or if he's just not good
at talking with girls or what happened. Hahaha. Oh Spaniards.

On Friday morning we went to a clothing store that collects clothes
and then gives them to homeless families and people. We helped them
organize the clothes and it was nice to serve and it was a nice
reminder to be thankful for what I have.

On Sunday Granada had stake conference and it seemed like a missionary
conference because there were so many of us there! President and
Hermana Andersen were there too. :)

Well. That's it for this week I think. This Thursday I hit 6 months
here in Spain. Also, this is the 6th week of the transfers so Hermana
Twede and I will get a call this week to see what will be happening
this next transfer!

Love you all! If you aren't happy, go dig a little deeper into the
Gospel of Christ. Happiness is found there. I promise!

Enjoy some pictures!

On a bridge near our house. :)
























I saw Hermana DeBoard again at Stake conference!

































































This week I'll leave you with pictures of your favorite missionary in Spain with mittens. Mittens. Not kittens. I'm from Michigan. :)

Love, Hemana Moore