July 25th-July 31st, 2017

These weeks are flying by much too quickly! Here I am again, writing
you a weekly email, sitting in a bus on the way to Málaga for mission
council. I've been in Alicante for almost three months and now I have
a new companion!

Last Monday night Hermana Simpson, Hermana Stilson and I celebrated
Christmas in July! We blasted Christmas music and made Christmas
cookies! They turned our really well and it was a perfect last night
together.

Tuesday was a whirlwind of a day and it was the day I said goodbye to
Hermana Simpson! Now she's home, holding babies and wearing pants. It
wasn't too hard of a goodbye because we'll party it up in Utah soon.
One of the biggest things I've learned from her is to not stress and
just love the mission. Love the crazy times, the hard times, and just
be guided by the Spirit to what He needs me to do. Tuesday afternoon I
was with Hermana Stilson and we went to correlation, English classes
and the ward family home evening. I really, really love this ward.

Wednesday was transfer day! Hermana Stilson left in the morning and
Hermana BAILEY came! She unpacked and we studied and for the afternoon
we went to one of our new towns, Muchamiel. We visited a family of
members there and we had such a nice with them. Geronimo and Raquel
are a cute couple with a new baby. We showed them a video of the
Restoration and then testified. We had a good discussion and set goals
with them to strengthen them as a family. Geronimo served a mission
and he shared with us some good mission stories and when we left he
gave us two big boxes of cereal (the fancy kind chocolate in it we
never buy!) and a bunch of cookies. :) If you want to make a
missionary happy, give them free food. (And invite them to teach your
friends.)

On Thursday Hermana Bailey and I had weekly planning and we got on our
knees a lot and searched for revelation for this area. In the
afternoon we had a lesson with Mustapha. He is doing a lot better now.
We got him new glasses and so now he can start working again next
week! Also, he's a lot more stable. :) Then we taught Ken the Jamaican
and finally taught him the Restoration. We also met with Brian and had
a powerful lesson about the Book of Mormon with him. We also found a
couple future investigators that night. Hermana Bailey is already
incredible and we get along really well. She is really direct and
firm, which makes her a missionary who has no fear to do God's will.

The highlight from Friday was meeting with Elder Wilson and Elder
Larsen to talk about the needs of the ward. We came to a few
conclusiojs and made some plans. We are going to teach all the members
in the ward the first three missionary lessons (The Restoration, The
Plan of Salvation and The Gospel of Jesus Christ) and focus on
strengthening them. Then, we are also going to do a 40 day fast with
the ward. On Sunday we passed around a sign up sheet and we will have
one person from the ward fast every day for 40 days! And the focus
with this fast will be for them to have personal experiences with
missionary work.

Oh! On Friday night we also found... SANTIAGO! Friday morning I said
hi to a man but didn't contact him. On Friday night I saw him again
and he smiled at us and kept walking. We turned on the spot and
shouted after him. We walked to a park with him and taught him most of
the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon! He loves to read and he
was so excited hat he had us write our testimonies in it! He promised
us he would come to church on Sunday and he did!

On Saturday morning we taught Brian the Plan of Salvation and then we
played fútbol! It was about 90 degrees and very sunny so needless to
say, I got a little sweaty. I still can't play fútbol but I'm getting
increasingly better at defense.

Sunday was a good day. Hermana Bailey is a máquina learning names so
she already knows most of the ward members' names. Santiago loved
church and is going to come to a few activities this week. We taught
gospel principles class and talked about prayer.  Hermana Bailey made
banana bread while I made lunch and I can just tell we're going to
make an awesome duo.

Have a fantastic week. Be smart, read your scriptures, say your prayers.

Here's a quote from Elder Uceda from the October conference that we
shared in the class:

At the very moment we say, “Father in Heaven,” He hears our prayers
and is sensitive to us and our needs. And so His eyes and His ears are
now connected to you. He reads our minds, and He feels our hearts. You
cannot hide anything from Him. Now, the wonderful thing is that He
will see you with eyes of love and mercy--love and mercy that we
cannot fully understand. But love and mercy are with Him the very
moment you say, “Father in Heaven.”

Prayer is real. It is our direct line to our Father in Heaven. I
testify that He is eager to hear from us. We are His children and He
wants to succor us in our trials and celebrate with us in our
triumphs.

I love you all!

Love, Hermana Moore


Christmas in July! 🎄

 Gerónimo, Hermana Bailey and Raquel.

 Hermana Bailey and I on the bus!

Our last picture together in the mission!
Love, Hermana Moore

July 18th-July 24th, 2017

Hola amigos y familia!

This week has been on crazyyyy week! A lot of running around and a lot of God canceling lessons for us so we could be where He needed us to be. Here's a quick run down of the week. 

Tuesday. We had the last district meeting of the transfer and Hermana Simpson, Elder Sant and Elder Hirst all talked about he biggest things they've learned on the mission since they're all headed HOME this transfer! Afterwards we all went and ate kebab together. It's been a good couple of transfers with these people! After lunch, Hermana Pickett and Hermana Hargis came up from Elche (my old area!) to do exchanges with us. We had. A great time with those two. They have an incredible amount of excitement for the work. When both of our evening plans fell through and we had an extra two hours to contact, Hermana Hargis' reaction was "well that's so lucky!". And then we had a great time contacting our hearts out. 

 

On Wednesday afternoon we had a really good lesson with Brian. He's a 25-ish year old Colombian and he's really excited to learn more. The elders had a couple towns in their area that they never had time to work in, so they passed them over to us. On Wednesday night we headed out there and the coolest thing happened! We passed by for a family of old investigators. As we were knocking on their gate, a man drove by in his car and yelled to us and asked us who we were looking for. He was the man and so we watched him park his car and he came and was really excited to talk to us. He invited us to come back to eat with his family next week! The coolest part of all of this is that on the teaching record, it explains that the family is a reference from a member in Idaho. She was promised by a member of the quorum of the seventy that if she sent the reference, the family would be baptized! So it might be their time!!

On Thursday Hermana Simpson made it through her last weekly planning session! We got a pizza for lunch and had a nice time talking. The end of the week was kind of a blur. God canceled our lessons a couple nights to have us be where we needed to be to help Mustapha out. Also, in the midst of everything, we made peanut butter kiss cookies.

Sunday was Hermana Simpson's last Sunday and today is her last pday. I'm going to miss her so, so much but these two transfers have been a good run. I'll write more about that next week. I've still got her for a day. :) Oohh. On Saturday night we found out about transfers annddddd HERMANA BAILEY is my new companion!! She's from California and she's super fun. She's in the last picture. At zone conference a week ago we took the picture and then sat next to each other so President could envision us together. And it worked! Haha.

Have a happy week!

Love, Hermana Moore

 Hermana Bailey!

 Hermanas Simpson, Swartzberg, and Lopez at the nature park we went to today.

The mission is hard. 

 The district. Elders Wilson, Kärn, Hirst and Sant and Hermanas Simpson, Stilson Dos Santos, Lopez and Swartzberg. 

July 11th-July 17th, 2017--"That was really special."

Holaaa!

This week has been pretty stressful and crazy but everything turned
out! Here's what happened!

On Tuesday morning Hermana Simpson and I hit the ground running and
contacting. We met a really cool guy from Algeria who we had a good
conversation with but he was only here on vacation. He spoke 5
languages and was just trying to "find himself". That's one of the
coolest parts of the mission for me: getting to know people I wouldn't
have gotten to know. Tuesday night we had correlation, English classes
and the ward family home evening and Elder Hansen came back to visit
with his family and brought us all peanut butter! So that was fun!
This week we're going to make peanut butter kiss cookies. :)

Wednesday morning we planned for the last full week of the transfer!
We had a pretty normal day and got to help out with choir practice and
Hermana Dos Santos and Hermana Stilson came at night for exchanges.

Thursday morning Hermana Dos Santos and I taught a new investigator
named Brian. He's about 25 and he's got a lot of interest in learning
more! He has a lot of sincere questions and I'm excited to keep
teaching him! Hermana Stilson and I had kind of a crazy afternoon. A
few lessons fell through and so we contacted for a bit. We contacted a
guy and he said, "oh! I want to talk to you! I just need to run this
bag of groceries home and then I'll be right back! Then he took of in
a dead sprint down the street." We waited for 10 minutes and he never
came back! It was he weirdest thing! And while we were waiting, a
Jehovah's Witness came and talked to us for half and hour. I've never
had a person literally run away from talking to us. Ha! After that WE
took of running for another lesson.

On Friday we had tri- zone conference with the zones of Alicante,
Murcia and Cartagena. Elder Kärn, Elder Hirst, Hermana Simpson and I
gave a spoke about working with members. We had some crowd
participation and had a few missionaries come up and try to draw what
Elder Kärn was describing. But, he was speaking in Swedish and so then
we talked about how we need to be on the same page as members to work
well. :) The rest of conference was great and I've got some more
things to work on to improve. Always getting better.

Saturday was the DAY! And by day I mean the day Mustapha got
baptized!!  Hermana Simpson and I ran around like crazy printing out
the programs, cleaning, setting up, making brownies, etc. to get
everything ready. At 7 o'clock Mustapha, Hermana Simpson and I, the
other missionaries and a few members were sitting in the chapel
singing the hymn "I Believe in Christ". We asked a few members to
prepare talks and they did them in English so Mustapha could
understand better. Mustapha was baptized and has been confirmed a
member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! As he came
out of the baptismal font he said, "That was really special."  I am so
grateful to know him and help him on his way back to His loving
Heavenly Father.

I love being a missionary. :) I love introducing people to this
restored gospel of Jesus Christ. As we apply His teachings and make
changes to put our lives in harmony with God's will, He pours down
blessings upon us.

I love you all! Have a fantastic week!




 Mustapha!

 Uh oh. She's down a week an a half as a missionary! My dear Hermana Simpson.

Yes, yes. For those who are wondering, Hermana Simpson was indeed wearing my skirt for the baptism.

July 4th-July 10th, 2017

Hello all of you! Well, I feel like I always tell you I've had such a
good week, but it's true! It has been a miracle-filled week so I'll
just get right into it. Rebajas (Spain wide sales!) have started and
so we aren't going to email much today. :)

I mostly just want to talk about a few main miracles that happened this week.

Mustapha. Mustapha is just the coolest. We started teaching him in May
and we have seen SUCH a remarkable change in him. He has quit a lot of
bad habits and he is really giving all for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Last week, he quit his job because his co-worker was harassing him for
meeting with us. When we met with him last week on Saturday, I felt
impressed to promise him that God would help him find a new job if he
would pray and read the scriptures every day. Well, we met with him
this Tuesday and HE FOUND A NEW JOB!!! On Thursday we met with him and
he FINISHED THE BOOK OF MORMON. He started it on May 16th and finished
it on July 6th; so less than 2 months! He has the strongest testimony
of the Book of Mormon! On Sunday he had his baptismal interview and
HE'S GETTING BAPTIZED this next Saturday!

On Saturday we played fútbol in the morning and then in the afternoon
we went to the church for Antonio's baptism. Antonio is Elder Wilson
and Elder Sant's investigator who is from Holland. He speaks 5
languages and he's the happiest man ever. It was nice being able to be
there for him on his special day. He speaks English and so he has been
able to come to a few lessons with Mustapha!

Sunday was a wonderful day. A woman named Rosa came to church and
apparently we had contacted her a couple weeks ago. She came to
English class twice and a few days ago she got a strong feeling she
needed to go to church. So she did, quite reluctantly and she LOVED
IT! She walked into the church and said "hi! It's my first time here,
what do I do?" And every time she commented in class she said, "oh hi,
it's my first time here. I just want to know how long I need to wait
to be baptized. I just feel SO good here!" Sooo needless to say, we
are verrrryy excited to teach her. She's so confident and excited to
get closer to God.

After church Mustapha had his interview with President Andersen and
Hermana Simpson and I made paella to eat lunch with them afterwards.

I am so happy to be here as a missionary. Today marks a grand 14
months on the mission and I couldn't be happier to be dedicating this
time to serve the Lord.

I love you so much!

We got to have exchanges with Hermana Solórzano and Hermana Woods!

 The district!

 We made brigaderos (don't know how to spell it). Vick knows what I mean to say.

Mustapha and Antonio  :) 

Love, Hermana Moore

June 27th-July 3rd, 2017 🇺🇸🎉🎆🎇

 Well you might all be wondering... what do six Americans, a Canadian
and a Swede do to celebrate the 4th of July in Spain? You buy a bunch
of food and have a water balloon fight! So that's what we've been up
to today. Hermana Simpson and I made a budget, had everyone pitch in,
planned games, planned out the food and went shopping to have a fun
pday today! It's been a good day. :)

It was also a good week here in Alicante, Spain! Here's what happened!

On Tuesday we had district meeting in the morning and then in the
afternoon we had exchanges with Hermana Lopez and Hermana Swartzberg.
I got to work with Herman Swartzberg for the afternoon and she is the
cutest! She's from western Canada and we got to contact a bit, teach
English class and go tot he ward family home evening. I love the
Alicante ward so much.

On Wednesday morning we had a meeting with the zone leaders and the
all our zone's district leaders. We set some goals for baptisms this
month and we discussed how we can work with the members better. After
lunch on Wednesday I got on a bus with Hermana Lopez and we headed to
Málaga for residency. I was there in Malaga to pick up my new ID card
and I got to hang out with Hermana George (shoutoutttt), Hermana Lopez
and Hermana Mercado. I got back to Alicante on Friday and I was so
happy to be back in my own area and sleeping in my own bed. :)

Saturday turned out to be a very eventful day! We went to the church
in the morning and played fútbol with the elders and some members and
non-members. Sandra (the lady who has been coming to English class
with her two kids) also came and her son played too. I'm still pretty
awful at soccer and I regret not playing in high school. But it was
nice to run around. Right as we were about to leave, big storm clouds
set in and it started pouring! We couldn't just wait it out so we just
walked home in the rain. :) The streets started to flood and everyone
was staring at us like we were crazy.

Saturday afternoon we had a lesson with Rocio. She's a 50 year old
woman and a member invited her to church a few weeks ago. We taught
her the Restoration and it was such a good lesson! The Spirit guided
the lesson and she loved every second. When we gave her a Book of
Mormon and invited her to read the introduction at home, she picked it
up, opened it eagerly and began to read out loud the entire page. It
was awesome. :) She's excited to continue meeting with us.

On Saturday night we were contacted by a parrot.

Well, I suppose I should explain. Hermana Simpson and I were just
making our way down town and contacting when we walked by an open
garage door where a family was having a cookout. They had their pet
parrot in its cage out on the sidewalk and as we passed by it says
"holaaaa" and blew us kisses! We looked at each other and went back to
talk to him. The parrot was named Martin and we talked to his owner
too. It's too bad his owner wasn't interested.

This Sunday was fast Sunday and we fasted as a mission so that we can
achieve our goal of 22 baptisms as a mission in the month of July. The
Lord has a lot of miracles planned and is more than happy to bless us
as we sacrifice to do His will. It was a hard and long 24 hours to
fast but I know it'll bring blessings and miracles.

Oh oh ohhhh! I have the most exciting news! ELDER HOLLAND IS COMING TO
SPEAK TO MY MISSIONNNNNN!!! On September 16th, the entire mission is
going to meet in Málaga and we get to listen to him for 3 hours!! I am
beyond excited!

I think that's about all I have to share with you for this week. I'll
talk to you all next week! Love you all!

Love, Hermana Moore

Americannnnss. :) Hot dogs, watermelon, chips and brownies. 

 Before our water fight!

Back home after our rainy adventure.

 Hermanas Swartzberg and Lopez, Elders Wilson, Sant, Hirst and Kärn, and Hermana Simpson and I.

Hermana Simpson and I. ❤️