June 20th-June 26th, 2017

Well, here we are on p-day again! Thanks to the select few of you who read my whole email last week. That was doozy. This week's won't be nearly as long. :p Mostly because I'm not on a bus.

This week was a little bit of a crazy week! Last Monday and Tuesday we had mission council where I learned a lot about how I can be a better, more efficient missionary and how I can help others do the same. Our focuses were working with members and always talking about the baptism in the context of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

On Tuesday night we had exchanges with Hermana Taggart and Hermana Burt. I got to work with the lovely Hermana Taggart and we had some good lessons together. We all went and did service at a soup kitchen on Wednesday morning and then Hermana Simpson and I were back on the bus headed towards Alicante. We got back late and it was nice to finally be home.

On Thursday we had weekly planning and then in the afternoon we finally got a couple of lessons in in our own area.

Because of Las Hogueras (the festival here where they build paper mache statues and burn them) we got to go home at 9pm instead of 10:15 on Friday and Saturday because Alicante transformed itself into a giant piromatic nightclub. We slept with ear plugs in and did our best to block out the music and the firecrackers. Hermana Simpson and I had some good bonding time and on Saturday we made cinnamon rolls!

We met with JeanJarbi and we decided we are going to wait a couple more weeks until his baptism so he feels more prepared. Mustapha is still progressing incredibly well!

Well, that's about all I've got for you today. I am so grateful to be a missionary of the Lord. Nothing makes me happier than sharing this restored gospel that has changed my life. There is nothing more important I could be doing with my life than what I am doing now. Both for the people I get to meet and for myself. What a blessing it is to be here becoming the person God needs me to be!

Love, Hermana Moore

The group. :)

 The Hermanas.

Denis, our incredible ward mission leader gave us fans last week!

One of the many, many statues up for Las Hogueras. 

Cinnamon rolllsss!

Isn't Hermana Simpson so cute?

June 13th-June 19th, 2017

Helloooooo friends! Today I'm on the bus on the way to Málaga for mission council! Only 5 more hours. Woah. This week has been SO COOL. (Well, actually really HOT. Like 85 degrees with a lot of humidity.) But it was a super COOL week full of big miracles. Seriously, just miracle after miracle. This is going to be a long one but I just can't help it!

On Tuesday, we had our last district meeting of the transfer and then went out to eat together. After lunch we were at the church waiting for an investigator to show up for a lesson when a stranger walked in and sat down. He said that he had been walking for the last several hours and that he was just so tired. All he had with him was a backpack and his shoes were really worn out.
He didn't have enough money to take a bus to Tarragona (up by Barcelona where he lives). We told him we didn't have anything to give and he said that he didn't really know why he even walked in the door. We kept talking to him and ended up giving him a Book of Mormon. As he flipped through it and we told it about him and how it could change his life, his face changed. He looked up at us and said, "well maybe God led me here for a reason then..." We prayed with him before he left and as he walked out with a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet in his backpack, we could see the burdens lift off his shoulders and his face was visibly younger. I don't know if he will ever meet with the missionaries when he gets home or if he will even read the book, but I know that God was aware of his situation and that God was able to use us to lift his burdens.

The investigator who was supposed to come and so after JeanCarlos walked in, Hermana Simpson and I were on the way out the door to contact for a bit before English class started. Well, as we were leaving, two more strangers walked in. At this point I was thinking "what the heck is happening?!" They were really excited to see us and shook our hands. One of them was especially excited to talk to me and when I asked his name he said, "but don't you remember me? I'm Wilson! We met a week ago!" I was convinced I had never met this guy in my life and so I just apologized that I didn't remember him! He insists that we had met and pulls out a pass along card from his bag. As he pulls it out, I'm standing there thinking "there's no way I've ever talked to this guy! That card is probably from another missionary." Nope. It was my card with my number on it. After a few minutes of just talking to this Colombian named Wilson who apparently knew me I had an ah ha moment and exclaimed WILSON! I had talked to him a week ago but I didn't think he'd actually come to English class! He and his brother Edison both came to English and they plan on coming back every week.

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Mustapha! He's our investigator from Algeria and he's the one who has a really strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. He is progressing really, really well. We taught the Plan of Salvation and he loved every second of it! At the end of the lesson, he took out a pamphlet with a picture of Jesus Christ being baptized and he said, "THIS. How far away am I from this? I need to be baptized." He's working on quitting smoking and went from smoking 20-25 cigarettes every day to only ONE in the last three days! Isn't that incredible? More on him in a bit.

On Thursday Hermana Simpson and I had the best planning session of my entire mission. We talked about the needs of our investigators for two and a half hours and received so much inspiration. We both felt so heavily the mantle and responsibility of being a missionary. We really are here to be God's instruments. We made a lot of good plans.

Thursday afternoon we had Hermana Clark and Hermana Grover over for exchanges. Hermana Clark and I taught Christian (16 year old, skater guy. He's progressing slowly, but still progressing). We taught him the Plan of Salvation and at end we were talking about his personal prayers because he said that he hasn't been getting an answer from God. I asked him why he thought he wasn't getting an answer and he said, "well, maybe it's because I pray in the elevator going up to my apartment at night and in the morning." I was kind of confused so I asked him to explain again. He says, "Well, yeah. I'm busy and I live on the 7th floor so it's just enough time to pray!" I then said something I thought I would never have to say: "Christian, If you want to receive an answer to your prayer, you shouldn't pray in an elevator." Hahaha. So hopefully that'll help him.

I had a nice time with Hermana Clark and at 10 pm, 15 minutes before we went home, we had the funniest contact I've been in. We were crossing then street and we passed two guys who quickly caught up to us. I could see them out of the corner of my eye as they got closer. One of them finally caught up and said "ehh! Chicas! Habéis visto a mi cato blanco? Lo he perdido! (Have you seen my white cat? I lost it!) We turned around and busted up laughing because we realized he was using that as a pick up line. He somehow transitioned that to insisting that he need to take us out for drinks. We established our missionary purpose with lightening speed and the conversation that followed was hilarious:

José (the guy who lost his whit cat): do you want to to get drinks?

Me: We teach English class and we teach people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We're not here to party.

José: but what about my cat?

Me: Your cat isn't lost. We know what you're trying to do!

José: okay, well... tell me about Jesus! What do you believe!

Me: I believe that I am a child of God and that He has a perfect plan for me. We are here to share a message about how this plan can help others. 

José: I have a plan too! To go get drinks!

Me: What do you believe in? 

José: I believe in whatever you believe in because I like your eyes!

Hahaha. Needless to say I don't think right now is his time to accept the gospel in his life.

On Saturday, Hermana Simpson and I decided to fast for guidance and during the fast we pleaded for two specific things: 1. For our investigator JeanJarbi to come up to us after church and tell us an exact date he wants to get baptized. 2. That our investigator Mustapha will get baptized before he leaves Alicante and to help us open the doors to make that happen.

Well, God didn't just open windows, he opened big GARAGE DOORS. On Sunday after church, our ward mission leader, Denis, pulled us aside with JeanJarbi and asked him what he thinks about baptism. JeanJarbi said that he has been thinking and he wants to get baptized on July 1st!

Then, later, we met with Mustapha and a big setback that had been in the way was completely taken away! So we set a baptism date with him for July 15th! It was such a neat experience. God has a lot of things He needs to happen this transfer but they will only happen if we are where He needs us to be.

Okay, it's probably about time I wrap this up.... but God gives us miracles. Sometimes big and sometimes small but they ARE there. He loves us and wants to bless us. I love you all! 

Exchanges with Hermana Clark and Hermana Grover!

There is a big Alicante festival next week called "Las Hogueras". The Bonfires 🔥 All over Alicante they put up big sculptures and then they go crazy with fireworks and then set all the sculptures on fire. It's going to be cRaZy and we probably will have to stay inside on Friday and a Saturday. 

We made tortilla de patata this week! 🥔 It didn't go so well... haha

Love, Hermana Moore

June 6th-June 12th, 2017

Well this week has just been all around fantastic so I'll get right to
it! Oh, and transfers are this week but HERMANA SIMPSON AND I ARE
STAYING TOGETHER! Yay! We knew it, but I'm still so happy about it.

First of all, on Monday night we were waiting for a guy to meet us for
a lesson (but he failed us). While we sat there waiting and Hermana
Simpson was calling a few people a lady walked up. I still don't know
all of the members so I assumed she was a member because she came and
sat down right next to me and started talking to me. After two seconds
I realized she wasn't a member. She said that she was very sad but
when she saw our Books of Mormon she thought she would come ask us how
to be happy. Merlene is a 40 year old woman and her mom passed away a
year ago. She told me that she's been struggling with accepting why it
had to happen. I had a really cool moment with her and just testified
to her so directly that I knew exactly what she was going through. I
testified about the Plan of Salvation and we both felt the Spirit so
strongly! We weren't able to get her number but she has our card so
hopefully we'll see her again! Then we went to a family home evening,
we have one almost every Monday night and investigators and recent
converts come and it's super fun.

Tuesday we had District meeting and then in the afternoon we had
exchanges with Hermana Smith and Hermana López! Hermana Smith and I
went to correlation, English class, and the ward family home evening.

Thursday we did weekly planning and planned for week one of the
transfer! One of the goals we made is to make a video together every
night about the miracles we've seen so we are more aware of how the
Lord is blessing us. When we went out to work in the evening we ran
into a guy named Angel I contacted a few days ago. He invited us to go
to a restaurant to get something to drink so we went! It was so cool
to run into him! And he was really excited to see us too. We also
later met with a reference from a member. Rocío is super sweet and
we're excited to see how she progresses.

On Friday morning I had an AWESOME personal study and I really studied
a lot about Christ and His life. We didn't have any plans for the
morning so we got out there and contacted our hearts out! It WAS so
fun. We talked to everyone, met some cool people and had a lot of
powerful contacts. We met a girl named Mina and we'll be meeting with
her this week. Later that day we went and met with Dana(member) , she
has a really rough family life and she's thinking about moving out and
it's just kind of a rough situation.  So we went to get ice cream with
her and our relief society president. And Dana started telling us that
she wants to go on a mission, so hopefully we'll be helping her get
ready for that! Then we had the funnest lesson with Pablo! He is also
a reference and this was the first time meeting with him. And HE IS
THE MOST NORMAL PERSON we have ever taught, he's so awesome! We had an
awesome conversation about the Restoration of the church of Jesus
Christ.

On Saturday we went and helped at a stake activity for the youth. We
had a mini MTC and we helped the youth plan a lesson and then we
taught the lessons to members. Saturday afternoon we had three lessons
in a row at the church and they all went so well! With Christian,
Mustapha and Gregorio.

On Sunday we had 5 investigadores in CHURCH! Mustapha came and told us
that he came because he had a very strong dream that he needed to come
and he dreamed about taking the Sacrament. During the Sacrament he
leaned over to me and said "this is how it was in my dream. This is
how it is supposed to be!" Pretty dang cool! We ate lunch with Rosanna
and Gabriel which was fun. We went and talked to Dagner a recent
convert that night and basically just let him vent because he's going
through a really hard time right now.

This week was so good! Hermana Simpson and I are having a blast
together and are seeing so much progression in our investigators. So
I'm a happy missionary girl. :)

Well, I think that's about all. I love you all!

Love, Hermana Moore
Pictures from the youth activity.

May 30th- June 5th, 2017

Hola friends!!

A really exciting thing happened last Monday night! After coming back
from Málaga, I got to stay the night in GRANADAAAAA! It was so fun to
be back and I even got to go to a lesson with Hermana Matsu. We went
to see Maaakkkk! He's a 23 year old less active member and I just love
him to pieces! I wish I would've recorded when we knocked on the door.
Mak opened it, saw me and closed it again. Then you could hear him
behind the door talking to himself in his Mak way: "But what is she
doing here?!? It's been so long! What's happening?!" And then he
proceeded to open it again. We had a really nice lesson with him and
it was fun to catch up. He's doing really well and he's coming back to
church. We talked about testimonios and I was think about the main
principles that make up the "nucleus" of my testimony. Throughout the
lesson, I narrowed it down to three things: 1.my knowledge that I am a
daughter per of God and that God wants the best for me. 2. That Jesus
Fhrist is my Savior and I can only return to God's presence through
exercising faith in Him. 3. That the Book of Mormon is true and
contains doctrine necessary for my salvation. Seeing Mak again was one
of the sweetest experiences on my entire mission. Knowing that I've
made a difference in someone's life. That's what it's all about. :)

On Tuesday night I finally got back to good old Alicante and we had a
few lessons and the ward family home evening. Wednesday was filled
with lessons and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Thursday was a busy day. We had planning and then I made STUFFING for
lunch! I've been craving it for the last year and so I finally just
made it with old bread and random spices. It turned out really well!
After lunch Hermana Stilson and Hermana Dos Santos came for exchanges!

On Friday morning I had my interview with President Andersen. Then for
the afternoon I got to work with Hermana Stilson. She is just an
awesome at contacting and I learned a lot from her. We found a few new
people to teach too!

Saturday we had a zone conference and Elder Gay, a member of the 70,
came to speak to us! He served in Spain in 1972 and so he was one of
the first missionaries here! He told us a lot of really cool mission
stories and it was the most spiritual conferences I've ever gone to!
We talked a lot about receiving revelation and teaching for people's
understanding.

Today has been a fun preparation day and all the Alicante missionaries
rented bikes and rode by the ocean!

Well, here's a few pictures from the week. Love you all!

MAKKKKK!

Isn't my companion cute?

Stuffing and turkey! 🦃

Livin' the dream!

Love, Hermana Moore