January 24th-January 30th, 2017

Hello friends!

This will be a long one but this week has been a crazy one! 

It all started last week ago right after I got done emailing. Hermana Gentry and I got on a bus to teach a normal lesson to our incredible investigator Karen. When we got there and we're just talking, Karen looked worried about something. When we asked her about how she was doing she said, "well, I have some good news but I also have bad news.' She then went on to say that she talked to bishop on Sunday and she has decided to wants to be BAPTIZED! However, the bad news is that she's moving to Málaga. Her papers to work are coming though this week and she has a contract to work in Málaga. This is what she was worried about. I thinks she was surprised when we exclaimed how exited we were that her papers finally came through and that she has a job! In that moment i think she really felt our love for her as our dear friend, not just an investigator. We're obviously sad she's moving, but it is an answer to my prayers. I've been worried about transfers and what'll happen to me. I love Hermana Gentry and want another transfer with her and I love Granada so much. One of the huge reasons I've been wanting to stay is because I want with all my heart to see Karen enter the waters of baptism. Just a couple of days ago, I realigned my heart and desires to God's will. I resigned to go where He needs me to go happily. Once I accepted that I might not be here for Karen's baptism, God in all his mercy and love, touched her hear and prepared her for baptism!

Karen said that the possible earliest she would have to move would be the 9th-ish of february. But she said she lives the Granada ward so much and she loves us so much that she wants to get baptized here before she leaves. We pulled out a calendar and she asked if she could get baptized she on February 3rd or 4th! We settled on Saturday February 4th, the last weekend of the transfer! We were bursting with joy! God is such a good, perfectly loving and merciful Heavenly Father! When we left, I hugged Hermana Gentry so tight and just said "we're her missionaries!" I love being a missionary. All the rejection all the exhaustion and everything hard about being a missionary is swept away by moments like this. Karen is getting baptized on Saturday! 

We taught another lesson the tonight and then got home at 10 pm. And that's when our day really began! Hermana Gentry put our key in the door and it wouldn't open. I tried it too and when we took the key out, we saw that the tip of the key had broken off in the lock! We called Elder Egbert and a few other people and finally our land lord. I learned some new vocab (useful words like: locksmith, lock, bolt, we're locked out, etc.) and explained the problem seven times. Eventually we persuaded him to call a locksmith (un cerrajero!) and at 11:30 pm he finally came. He fiddled around with the door for half an hour, handed us our keys back and said it was impossible to open. Thanks. We called the land lord again and he said that his sister in law had a key for our apartment (what?) and that she would come the next day at 9:30 am to see if it could be opened with another key.

So there we were, Hermana Gentry and I, sitting in the stairwell at midnight, locked outside our apartment with the promise of help coming in nine and a half hours. So at that point, we called Elder Egbert and asked him what to do. Luckily, he had already called President Andersen and made a plan just in case we weren't able to get in that night. So at midnight, Elder Egbert and Elder Köhler (who just so happens to have strep throat) came to our rescue and picked us up in their car in their pijamas and drove us to a member's house to sleep for the night. We eventually fell asleep in our skirts at 2 or 3 am. 

The next morning we woke up at 8:30 and had cookies and hot chocolate for breakfast ( a breakfast of champions!). The elders, who got permission to drive us around during this ordeal, picked us up at 9:30. We went back to our apartment to meet our land lord's sister in law. We tried her key and it didn't work. I didn't think it would because there is still a part of our key in the door! They called a locksmith and they said they could come at 5 ish.

So, without having taken a shower, brushed our teeth, or put on make up since 10 am Monday morning we grudgingly headed to the church for district meeting. We ate lunch afterwards and then went to meet with Karen, in the same clothes as yesterday! We talked about teaching and learning in the church so it was a pretty informational lesson. She was sweet and just so happened to being us apples. She did know what had happened in the last 15 hours so it meant a lot! I am completely convinced it was the Spirit telling her. :)

At 5:30 we met the locksmith at our apartment an he tried everything in the Book to get it open. He ended up having to take a giant drill and drill through the door. They got the door open finally at 7 (after an hour and half!) and by 8 or 8:15 we had a new lock on our door and new indestructible keys in our hands. Once the locksmiths left, we almost cried a bit from exhaustion, laughed, brushed our teeth, showered and got into our beds to sleep an incredible 10 hours of sleep! It was a fun mission story. And honestly, Hermana Gentry was the only person I would have wanted to go through that with! We just kept positive and kept each other laughing. Ohhhh what a day. It was good to be home after 30 hours! 

The rest of the week didn't go quite as planned because Hermana Gentry got sick... but we celebrated her birthday with brownies and a missionary conference with some banana bread. We stayed in a lot of mornings so she could rest up but we still taught some lessons and taught Karen everything else she needs to know. Everything is all set to go and she is so very happy!

One night we taught a less active member, Rosario. After we had a nice lesson about the love of God, she was going to give us a few things to take home. She put two cartons of milk, a package of crackers, oranges and yogurt in a bag and handed it to me. We thanked her a lot and then said "Rosario! We just ran out of milk this morning and we didn't have any for tomorrow morning. How did you know?!" We felt a rush of the spirit and she felt it to because she just hugged us and told us how much she loves us. It was a really tender moment. I really do love her a lot.

I feel so incredibly blessed to be serving a mission. I have an awesome ward, perfect investigators, people who love us, an amazing, hardworking companionship, and elders in our district that are our best friends.

I know that God is real and that He loves to bless His children!

Enjoy some pictures!

Hermana Gentry and I sitting in our stairwell laughing with our broken key at 11:30 pm. :)

In the process...

Hermana Gentry's birthday!

Fruity pebbles she got from home!

I love her to pieces. ️ 

Love, Hermana Moore

January 17th-January 23rd, 2017

This week has been another wonderfully happy week. Filled with ups and downs like them all, but the ultimate direction is forward and upward. Hermana Gentry hit 9 months, we ate a lot of paella, and our investigators are still doing great. What more could I ask for??

As a result of zone conference, Hermana Gentry and I have been putting a huge focus on not limiting heaven's miracles. We set sky-high contacting goals to is past week to leave plenty of room for the blessings and miracles He has prepared for us. This had an effect that I hadn't expected. Because of exchanges we had a day and a half less of work in our area so we lost a little bit of time but when we got back to our area we were ready and excited to contact a whole bunch to meet our goal. Before we could even get to that, the rest of our week filled with lessons and service opportunities! I know God isn't limiting the miracles because He didn't help us fulfill our contacting goal but it was only because He had other plans in mind for this area!

We had a busy, packed week and the lessons aren't stopping. We have almost the entire week planned out with only a few mornings and a few other hours open. We called all the less active members that we don't normally meet with and God softened three of their hearts to meet with us again. Also, all 4 of our investigators are especially eager to meet with us. Everything is falling into place and Hermana Gentry and I I feel so very blessed God truly had His hand in the work here in Granada. He is blessing us in ways we didn't expect.

We had an awesome lessons with Karen and Vicente this week about the Restoration and it just makes so much sense to them. They both feel really loved at church and the Granada ward is doing a good job helping them feel God's love. We also had a lesson with Kathy finally! We hadn't been able to meet with her for a few weeks. We're still working with her to help her feel God's love. 

Thursday was Hermana Gentry's halfway mark so I made paella and we bought a baguette of delicious Spanish bread to celebrate! We had some good lessons and worked hard and then finished off the day by singing "Living on a Prayer" because you knows, she's halfway there!

Vicente, Karen and Jorge all came to church and we will be meeting with them separately this week and then one day all together. Yay!

Have a wonderful week! Make good choices! Be happy! Read your scriptures!

Love, Hermana Moore

My crazy district and Elder Cantos  

True Spaniards! Paella and bread. 

When Spaniards can't think of a good street name so they named it "children fighting".

January 10th-January 16th, 2017

Hello friends!! Well it was such a good week but I don't have too much to say. Here's a few highlights. :)

On Tuesday I hit 8 months! We headed to Málaga and we're there for Tuesday and Wednesday. We had interviews with President Andersen which were wonderful and then we had zone conference. In preparation for conference we were all asked to prepare a 5 minute talk about charity and then one person from each zone would be asked to give it. Well, during the conference President and his assistants were discussing who they felt needed to speak. One of the elders looked at me and so I smiled and laughed. Then they stopped speaking, he got up and asked me and two elders to speak! So I gave a talk about charity and it all went well. :) One things they talked a lot about during the conference was having the faith necessary to see miracles happen in our missions. That'll be a focus for me. :)

Teaching has been great lately investigator-wise. We've been teaching a lady named Karen, she's from Columbia and moved to Spain only a few months ago. We've been teaching her for the last month and she's been coming to church every week. This week she told us she received her answer, that now she knows what people mean when they say they've asked God "Why?" and He responds. She told us she found her "Porque." We taught her and Jorge, our other investigator from Venezuela, on Monday about the Atonement. They both have such great faith in Christ. We met again with them on Thursday and they invited their friend Vicente, also from Venezuela. We taught them about the The Plan of Salvation, which answers the questions: Where did we come from? Why are we here? And where are we going? But all three of them came to church on Sunday!!

I love you all! Have a great week! Enjoy some pictures!

Hermana Stephens, Hermana Gentry and I. 

Pazookie night!

Picture from last Monday at the Alhambra lookout. 

Love, Hermana Moore

January 3rd- January 9th, 2017

Hello! Well if you read last week's email, you'll remember that I got sick on Sunday. So that sums up this whole past week! But really it turned into just a regular cold by Sunday night. It certainly wasn't going to stop the Lord's work or the adventures! On Monday we went with Elder Egbert and Elder Köhler and Jonathan (almost missionary!) and drove up the Sierra Nevada again and climbed a mountain. Pictures to come. :) The lovely Hermana Gentry has a nice camera and just so happens to love taking pictures! So that makes me a lucky girl with lots of pictures of me in pretty places. The snow just makes me feel like I'm back in Ironwood. Here's how the rest of the week went:

On Tuesday we had district meeting where we all talked for a few minutes about Christlike attributes. I talked about obedience and talked about the blessings that God has for us as we are obedient because it's something we WANT to do, not because it's something expected of us. Think about it: would you be happier if your child cleaned the whole house and made dinner for you because you sat there and made him or if he did it because he really loves you and wanted to help you? On Tuesday night most of our plans fell through and so we were doing some contacting. And that's when I had a humbling experience. We weren't finding much success and it was cold, dark and late. The medicine I had taken was wearing off and my throat was sore. I simply didn't want to talk to anyone. I was feeling sorry for myself and I knew that I needed to get over myself so I just tried to think about Christ. I stumbled through the hour and a half we contacted and finally made it to 8:30. We had a lesson with a family of less active members and it ended up being my saving grace. We showed them a video about Christ, one I had seen several times. The video finished and my body started to thaw and relax. I felt a love for Christ that filled my heart and my entire being. I testified that while Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane there was a moment where Heavenly Father had to let His Only Begotten Son to suffer completely alone. I talked about how hard it must have been for God to do this. To watch His son suffer and or reach out and give Him relief. But then how important and vital these moments were in Christ's Atonement. Because of these moments, Christ knows how to succor us. He knows how to give us relief when we feel abandoned in our sufferings. This might sound silly, but it was what I needed. :) I know that Christ is my Savior and my Redeemer. I testify that He is there in the darkest moments of our lives.

I woke up on Wednesday without a voice and so I drank an infusion and whispered all throughout studies. We realized pretty quickly that I wasn't getting it back before we'd have to leave for our lessons so we had to cancel all of them for the day... turns out you can't do much as a missionary without a voice! But we were still productive and did planning during the afternoon instead of Thursday morning. All that extra time at home left Hermana Gentry and I with a lot of BONDING time! So we talked a whole bunch, well she talked, I whispered. Haha. We're already such good friends. I've been extremely blessed with companions!

On Thursday we went with the elders and a few ward members and sang (luckily I was playing the piano) at a residency home for disabled people and then the members had us all over to eat. Also, the zone leaders just got back from Málaga and they brought me some surprises from the mission office! The Pease's Christmas card got to me and a letter from Addie in Brazil finally got to me! And a packet from the Duluth stake with cards. :) And a present from Abbey! So that made for a happy Hermana Moore! Thanks all of you!

Friday was the Día de Reyes (Day of Kings). It's a celebration that's the equivalent to how big Christmas is in the States. Basically they celebrate that the three wise men bring presents to everyone. So it's like Santa Claus, but there are three of them! The Reyes didn't bring us any presents though... We have been eating a lot of Roscón. Roscón is a typical Spanish cake that they eat for Día de Reyes. It's in the shape of a big donut and it has cream in the middle. Hidden in the cream is a plastic king figurine and a bird figurine. Whoever gets the king gets to wear a crown and whoever gets the bird is supposed to pay for the Roscón.

On Saturday morning we had a lesson with José, a man we met in the park a few weeks ago. We planned for a lesson 0 ad to talk about the Book of Mormon. It turned out to be a different lesson than we planned... He returned the Book of Mormon I had give him and said he wanted to learn just about the "culture" of the Mormons. He said he didn't want to learn about the religious side because he's an atheist. So that was interesting. That made me realize how big of a testimony I have of this gospel. We, as a church, act like we do BECAUSE of the gospel. We are good, charitable people because we want to be Christlike. We live in a manner different then they of the world because we are doing our best to follow God's commandments and His path for us. So we talked with him for awhile and found some middle ground with families but not too much more then that. 

Sunday was such a good day! I had been fasting for us to find new investigators so we could know that we are working. Well, our investigator Karen is a reference from a family in our ward. On the way to church, the bus stopped at a stop and Karen and the family got on with a man named Jorge. He has recently arrived from Argentina and is open to talk about God and learn about different churches. We are going to teach him today! God is good. :)

Well, this is getting pretty lengthy but his week has really been filled with blessings even though I've been sick.

One more thing and then I'll get to pictures. Today Hermana Gentry and I went on a fun excursion up some Spanish side streets to overlookinh the Alhambra. Pictures from that next week hopefully. :) 

In love you all! Have a wonderful week!

On the mountain. :)

Elders Köhler and Egbert and Hermana Gentry and I. Johnathan is taking the picture. 

Hermana Gentry is cute. :)

December 27th, 2016- January 2nd, 2017-- Grapes, el gripe and the New Year

Feliz Anño Nuevo! What an exciting week it has been! Our investigator
is progressing incredibly well, transfers happened, I was alone with 4
elders for 11 hours, and I was sick for the first day of 2017! Here's
what happened!

Tuesday was a very busy day because it was Hermana Twede's last full
day in Granada. We had district meeting and then had a lesson with
Karen. We talked about the importance of praying, reading the
scriptures and going to church. While we were talking about prayer,
she told us about a really cool spiritual experience she had on
Sunday. She has been many times but she has never felt comfortable
taking the Sacrament. Well, this week she felt prompted to take it and
she said that as she ate the bread, she felt a big rush of peace and
happiness and she knew this church was true and it is something God
wants her to have in her life!! Just the lesson before we had talked
about the Holy Ghost and she hadn't really been able to understand it
because she hadn't experienced it. We explained that these were
feelings brought on by the Holy Ghost! Then we had lessons with
Carmela, Mak and Jonathan, Windy and Kaomy and Sheila, and Kathi. It
was a packed evening and we ended up having to run to make it to a few
of them! But it all worked out and Hermana Twede was able to say
goodbye to a lot of people. She'll be missed! Tuesday night was very
long but Hermana Twede got all packed up and I wrote in her transfer
journal.

Wednesday morning we got up at 6 am and at 9 am I watched one of my
best friends get on a bus on her way to Elche. I'll miss her a ton but
she's not done with me yet. ;) She'll be stuck for life. Since there
aren't any other hermanas in Granada, I was companions with 4 elders
for the rest of the day! We spent it mostly at the bus station waiting
for people to pass through. And boy was that interesting! But we
learned new things about each other and I helped Elder Kroff with his
English a bit. It was a very long day but it was fun! My new
companion, Hermana Gentry, came in at 8pm and Hermana Sigcha who was
passing through ended up having to sleep the night in our apartment.

On Thursday we had planning and then headed to the bus station to drop
Hermana Sigcha off for her to go to Córdoba. After we dropped her off
we had a few lessons and Hermana Gentry got to see a bit of her new
area!

On Friday morning we went and sang at a nursing home and I played
piano because the amazing pianist Hermana Twede wasn't there. Then we
had another awesome lesson with Karen. We had English class and
correlation and got some contacting in.

Saturday, New Year's Eve, ended up being a really good day! We met
with Sandra and Dillan (less actives) and did a lot of contacting. We
found a few futures which hopefully we can turn into investigators. In
the afternoon we contacted again and met with Carmela (the member we
help read). We stopped proselyting at around 8. We planned to meet up
with the elders and go get Domino's pizza but we figured out pretty
quickly that EVERYTHING was closed! Everything! Even the little cafes.
So the six of us took the brownies we had made for Elder Jones'
birthday ( a few days late) and went and sat on a bench together and
ate brownies. We went on a little adventure hike up some cobblestone
streets to see an overlook of Granada and sat up there for awhile. And
then we got back home at around 10. And that left Hermana Gentry and I
about 2 hours to talk and listen to music!

Let me tell you about Hermana Gentry. She is from California and she
got to the MTC 3 weeks before me. She is such a good missionary, she
is charitable and her Spanish is killer. I am so excited for the work
we are going to get done together here in Granada.

Back to our New Year's Eve celebrations. Here in Spain they have a
tradition that during the last 12 stokes of the clock of the year you
have to eat 12 grapes. I think you're supposed to make wishes too.
Well, we tried to do it but we couldn't eat those darn grapes fast
enough! But we gave it our best and welcomed in the new year with a
lot of excitement. Yay for 2017!

2016 has been such a wonderful year for me. This year I studied at
BYU, I got my mission call, and said good bye to the people I love.
And now I am in the place where I want to be, strengthening my
testimony of my Savior in the same country where Mom served. :) I have
so many unforgettable experiences and I cannot wait to have most of
this next year here in Spain! (I can now say that I'll be home for
Christmas and that's weird!)

My only complaint about Hermana Gentry is she brought a cold with her!
(El gripe=the flu) Except it turned out to be more than just a cold
for me. I woke up at 3 am on New Year's Day nauseous and spent the
rest of the night switching between my bed, the couch, and the
bathroom floor. Ack. I woke up for church feeling awful so we opted
not to go. And it takes a lot to stop missionaries from going to
church! I slept for most of the day. I drank a lot of infusion and ate
the chicken noodle soup that I had miraculously made a few days ago to
freeze. Now it has just turned into a regular cold so I'm getting
better now. Apparently the ward had a panic attack when the hermanas
didn't show up though because I had five members call me offering to
bring me food, medicine and even to take me to the hospital. The
bishop's wife said, "well if we don't take care of you, who will?!"
For the record, I do have a loving companion who took good care of me.
I'm very loved here. :)

Well all of you, I hope you are enjoying your winter breaks and that
you have enjoyed your holidays as much as I have. Happy New Year!

Enjoy some pictures. ❤️

Hermana Twede and I with our lovely investigator Karen.
























The Chuta family. :)

















Happy 20th Elder Jones!






















Hermana Gentry and I with Elders Egbert, Jones, Kroff and Köhler.

Love, Hermana Moore

Oh my goodness. How could I forget! The most exciting news about our
Sunday. The elders called us and told as that Karen went to church and
she was fasting to see if the Book of Mormon is true! The crazy part
is that we only talked about fasting for 15 seconds in passing because
we planned to teach it more in depth another lesson. Well, she took
the initiative and did it! Also, she asked the bishop if she could get
baptized! We are meeting with her tomorrow and hopefully she'll be
getting baptized in a couple of weeks! Karen has prepared her so much!
God is so good.

Alrighty. :) have a happy week!

Love, Hermana Moore