May 23rd-May 29th, 2017--God knows what's BEST.

Hellooooooo. Well, it's been another full week around here. Full of paella, pancakes and contacting miracles.  And today I'm writing you from Málaga. I'm here to renew my Spanish residency card because I've been here for a year!! Ive gotten to spent time with Hermana Lopez, Hermana George, and Hermana Mercado who all got here the same time as me! I left on Sunday and I'll get home to Alicante on Tuesday afternoon.

Here's what happened this week!

On Tuesday, I got to go to the motherland (a.k.a. Palm tree-y Elcheeeee!) for a district meeting. The zone leaders and Hermana Simpson and I went. Elche is a little bit secluded from the Alicante zone so it was nice to see everyone over there. We had a really nice meeting about teaching by the Spirit and teaching to the needs of
people. Then we had a taco party! 🌮 It's been a while since I had tacos and it was fun to eat with the 12 missionaries in Elche. After lunch we got ok the train to go back to Alicante. Hermana Grover and Hermana Clark came with us and we had exchanges with them! I worked with Hermana Grover for the afternoon and it was fun getting to know her. This is her first transfer in the mission and her very finest exchange! We contacted a bit, taught English class, and went to the ward family home evening. At night we all made s'mores together.

On Wednesday morning we made pancakes and celebrated Hermana Clark's birthday! Then she and I went out to have a lesson with Gregorio. He is from Colombia and he was baptized 10 months ago. He is by far the sweetest man I have ever met! He was so incredibly prepared to receive the restored gospel in his life and he loves the church and missionaries so much. He always calls us his girls. (Ehhh! Mis niñas! Qué pasa mis niñas!?) We had a nice lesson with him. For lunch we continued celebrating Hermana Clark's birthday with paella!


Wednesday afternoon Hermana Simpson and I were back together to have a lesson with Argenis. She and her husband (Edison) and her teenage son (JohnJarvis) are from Colombia as well and they are so good! They have
been kind of all over the board with their feelings about baptism lately. But JohnJarvis has decided that he's sick of waiting for Argenis and Edison to make up their minds and that he is going to get baptized in the middle of June!! We are so excited for him!! And I'm sure that Argenis and Edison will be close behind. This gospel changes
livessssss.

Hermana Wood and Hermana Solórzano from Crevillente (a town near Elche) came for exchanges on Wednesday night and they stayed with us all day Thursday. We had a blast together and got some good work done.

On Friday we had our district meeting here in Alicante. Friday afternoon we had a few lessons but nothing too exciting. Hermana Simpson and I are still at the zone conference next weekend and so on Friday afternoon we were debating going home 45 minutes early to work on it. As we were almost home, Hermana Simpson said, "I don't think we should go home. We need to contact for at least 10 minutes first. There's someone we need to find." And so we did. Two minutes later we met a lady named Yadia. She was in a rush but when we asked if we
could call her and meet next week she said "Yes! I'd love to!" We talked to a few other people and we decided once again that (now with 25 minutes left) it would be an efficient time use of time. We made our way back towards our house and once again, when we were a few streets away from home, we got the impression that we needed to keep contacting. So we did. We contacted and for the next 20 minutes all we got were rejections. But we kept going down at 10:10 (5 minutes before going home) we found a man named Oscar (not the one who wants to marry
me! 😂). He's from Alicante and didn't have a lot of time but he insisted that we write down his number so we can meet next week. It was so cool to see how God needed us to be in those two places to meet Yadia and Oscar. If we would've gone home early to work on the talk, it would've been a good thing and we would have been productive. But, we would not have met Yadia and Oscar. That taught me that not only does God know what's good for us, but He knows what's BEST for us. I am a witness of the perfect love of our loving Heavenly Father.

Saturday afternoon one of our lessons fell through, as well as our backups, and so we decided we would contact for the hour. As soon as we decided that, we turned onto a street that was empty. Well, empty except for one lady two blocks away. We walked towards her and started talking with her. Her name was Macarena and we set up a lesson for Sunday! It was a cool experience because God just cleared everyone out of the way just so we made sure to contact her!

Hermana Simpson is such a fun companion. She is so good at following impressions of the Holy Ghost without delay. I am learning a lot with her and I am really LOVING every second of my time here in Alicante. I
sure love being a missionary. Have a good week!

Love, Hermana Moore

 Paella for Hermana Clark's birthday!

Fun with Hermana Clark and Hermana Grover!


















Pancakes. 🥞 🍓 🍫 





















This is Málaga. ❤️ 





















Hermana Wood and Hermana Solórzano!

Love, Hermana Moore

May 16th-May 22nd, 2017

Hola friolas.  👋🏻

This week was full of lessons, miracles, a proposal, exchanges in
Málaga and kebab. A pretty good week if you ask me.

On Tuesday Hermana Simpson and I went to a meeting with all the
district leaders and the zone leaders of the Alicante zone. It was
kind of like a district meeting focused on the needs of our zone. Then
we all went and ate kebab together. On Tuesday night we had a few
lessons and then went to the church to teach English class and have a
ward family home evening.

On Wednesday morning at 1 am we got a call and then a text from our
investigator Mustafa (every time I say his name, my mind flashes to
the Lion King "Mufasaaaaaaaa!"). He is from Africa and the last lesson
with him we gave him a Book of Mormon in Arabic and invited him to
read it. He texts us, "honestly I read little from the book but I have
strong feeling that this boock is from God." ***ahhhhhhh!!!!*** We got
to meet with him today and he repeated over and over again "this book
wasn't written by a normal man. It has to be from God" So, in other
terms, he loved it! He's reading in Alma now. We had a cool lesson
with him and just talked about the desire he has to change his life
and follow God.

Also on Wednesday we met Alicia at her house and walked with her to
the church. There, we sang a hymn and shared a message and then the
elders gave her the Sacrament. She had anxiety problems and isn't able
to come to church a lot. It was such a tender experience to be able to
see her partake of the bread and water and renew her baptismal
covenants. It was a testimony to me that the Atonement of Jesus Christ
really is individual.

On Thursday Hermana Simpson and I headed off to Málagaaaa! And 8 hours
later we got there for exchanges with Hermana Taggart and Hermana
Cole. I worked the night with Hermana Cole and it was nice. She's a
sweetheart and we had a nice chat and taught a few lessons. On Friday
morning the four of us volunteered at a soup kitchen near their
apartment and it was nice to serve. After that they made us some
sandwiches and we got on the bus again. It was a short trip but it was
nice!

We got back into Alicante at about 9:45 so we dropped our bags off at
home and left again to go contacting. One of the people we talked to
was named Oscar from Algeria. He was in a rush so we got his number
and let him go. Flash forward to Saturday afternoon as we were
contacting again: we run into Oscar and he says "hi! Do you have some
time to grab a coffee?" We respond that yes we have time but for some
orange juice or water. :) He has a specific cafe in mind and for the
next 15 minutes walking we passed roughly 75 cafes. But we finally got
there and sat down. We just talked with him and got to know him a bit
and his beliefs. He asked for our names and then we kept moving. Oscar
is sitting in the middle of the two of us and slowly through the
conversation he rotates and 15 minutes later he's got his chair
pointed straight at me. He keeps referring to me as Christy instead of
Hermana Moore and calls Hermana Simpson a different name every time.
(Jennifer? It's Rylli. Kathy? It's Rylli. Jen? R-Y-L-L-I. Okay, I'll
just call you "coffee".) I do my best to include Hermana Simpson in
the conversation and make it very clear of our purpose (a.k.a. THIS IS
NOT A DATE). Well in between questions about his faith he asks me for
my Facebook (which I turn down) then he pops THE question! He says,
speaking in english with a heavy French accent, "So, Christy, you
don't want to marry yourself with me?" Uhh 🙄. No, no I don't. I want
you to have more faith in Christ. So we invited him to English class
and got right out of there. Hahaha. As we were leaving he says, "good
bye Christy and Coffee!"

On Sunday afternoon we met with Mustafa and gave him a tour of the
church since he wasn't able to go that morning. He really liked it and
said he felt a lot of peace.

P-day today has been great! It's been an exciting, productive day. We
read our emails at a bakery, went souvenir shopping, ate lunch,
annndddd then I got my ears pierced at the Claire's here! Pretty
exciting. The lady doing it was confused that I was a 20 year old who
didn't have her ears pierced! And now we're just relaxing in our
apartment with AC writing all of you lovely people. So all in all a
really great week.

I love being a missionary and I'm so grateful for this time to grow
closer to my Father in Heaven and get to know my Savior better.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Hermana Moore

Kebab!


















Exchanges with Hermana Cole and Taggart!

Sunday morning pancakes!

May 9th-May 15th, 2017

Helloooooooo friends!

Well, time is just going by way too, too fast. It was a pretty full week.

Here's the highlights!

On Tuesday we got back to Alicante from Málaga. It was a lonnnnggg bus
ride and we even got to drive though palm tree-y 🌴 Elche.

On Wednesday I hit a YEAR out on the mission! Pretty crazy! We planned
on getting ice cream during our dinner break time but we had to run
from lesson to lesson and then to help to play the piano for choir
practice and then to more lessons. We only ended up having time to buy
pringles to celebrate but that's okay. What better way to celebrate a
year in the mission than a busy missionary day?

One of my favorite lessons this week was with Alicia. She's a member
here who has a hard time coming to church because of anxiety problems.
I love to visit her because she is just always so happy and loves
hugs. We visit her every week and read out of the Book of Mormon with
her. This week we read about when Christ visited the Americas (3 Nefi
11) and talked about Jesus Christ. The Spirit was so strong and she
just looked at me and said with tears in her eyes, "Hermanas, Cristo
vendrá y me sanará." (Sisters, Christ WILL come and he WILL heal me).
I had a big smile on my face and said "Si, Alicia, nos sanará a todos"
(He will heal us all). I love my Savior Jesus Christ so much. I know
that when He comes again we will all be healed of every sickness,
disability, weakness we have.

On Friday and Saturday we had Hermana Pickett and Hermana Hargis over
for exchanges! We had such a good time with those awesome hermanas! We
worked hard, found 3 new investigators and then at night we made
s'mores by roasting marshmallows in our oven with unbent hangers. :)

Sunday was a nice day. I gave a talk about being a good example and
following the promptings of the Spirit to share the gospel. Then
Hermana Simpson and I got to help with music time with the little
primary kids.

Sunday night I got to skype my family for the last time! The time went
by really quickly and it was weird hanging up, looking at my name tag,
and going back to the room full of missionaries.

Today for p-day a bunch of missionaries and I hiked the castle here in
Alicante and it was really fun!

I think that's about all for this week. I love you all. I love being a
missionary and I love the gospel of Jesus Christ with all my heart.

Enjoy some pictures!

Flashback to Granada with Hermana Gentry. She finally gave me some of
the pics we took together on her fancy dancy camera. :) love her.


The Alicante crew! Elder Pincock; Elder Hirst and Hermana Simpson and I.















Hermana Gentryyyyy! ❤️ 






















Exchanges with Hermana Pickett and Hermana Hargis!

















S'mores!






















At the castle today with Hermana Simpson. 😊

Love, Hermana Moore

May 2nd-May 8th, 2017

Hello all of you!

Today I'm writing you from a bus on the way to Málaga! Today and
tomorrow we'll have mission council and then head back.

This week has been wonderful. On Tuesday I said a lot of goodbyes and
got all packed up and ready to go. On Wednesday morning I said goodbye
to Hermana George and got on a bus headed to Alicante!

Alicante is beautiful and we've got a good pool of people we're
teaching, with room for more. The ward is nice and I'm excited to get
to know them more. This week we've had some lessons with a few
investigators, and less active members, but nothing too out of the
ordinary.

Hermana Simpson is from Utah and she's been out on the mission for
about 15 months. We're pretty similar people and we get along well.
She is good at following the impressions of the Spirit and making
everything fun. We've been busy but I haven't been stressing. I'm
really excited to serve with her for the next two transfers!

God has been teaching me that this work is about others and it's not
about me. I'm here to become a better person so I can be a better tool
in the hands of the Lord in His work. If we want to be happier, we
just need to turn out and serve others. The Lord blesses us as we
forget about ourselves and serve others!

This is a short one, but it's about all I've got for today. I love you
all lots! Enjoy a few pictures from the week.

Hermana George and I on our last Sunday.





















Alberto, Jahoska, y Jair. We've been helping them get active again so they can raise their family with the gospel. :) I'm going to miss them so much!

Hermana Simpson and I! This is the only picture we have but we'll work on that. 

Love, Hermana Moore