STUDY!!!

Hi again mommy! I'm sorry but that email/letter you sent me got corrupted, so I opened it up, and it looked kind of like this:

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It went on for about three or four pages like that haha. Sorry I couldn't read it! Other than that, things have been great this week. The Keizer elders are still living in our apartment until probably wednesday. Like I said last week, holy mess, but it's still fun. As for our baptisms that we were scheduled for the ninth, we decided to move them to the 30th of this month so that they could be completely ready for it. I'm so stoked! Silvia and Guadalupe are going to be getting baptized along with a girl named Dana that the previous missionaries were teaching. I'm so stoked!!!!!

On a higher note, we taught some great lessons this week, and for the first time since I got here, we now have 15 progressing investigators, with two or three more that will probably have baptismal dates by the end of this week! Holy cow it's so nuts how things are going here it's absolutely awesome.

One thing that really kicked my but this morning is the fact that just when you have teaching figured out, God most definitely humbles you. I'm going to preface this with the two blitzes we went on with the english elders this week. Both times, I went knocking with them, and we absolutely killed it, it was sweet! I don't want to toot my own horn, but I had a better time getting into doors and teaching effectively than the elder I knocked with who had been out for 22 months! It's an ongoing tradition here with the Spanish elders that the English elders, or "filthy english elders" just aren't up to snuff with how we teach, so I'm trying to do my best to stick with tradition... even if I'm only a little greenie... thus comes my slice of humble pie.

We went over to the house of a recently baptized member to teach her and her cousin how to teach the first lesson simply and effectively. Smithee and I split up, so he taught with Rosa (recently converted), and I taught with Araceli (cousin). To make a long story just slightly shorter, I got destroyed. We were supposed to take like 30 seconds for each point in the first lesson, and keep it simple. I simply did a terrible job, and Rosa asked me questions that I didn't know how to answer. Note to self on this one: STUDY CHAPTER THREE OF PREACH MY GOSPEL!!!! Attention anyone who is a member of the church and reads this blog: please, study chapter three of preach my gospel. Read through it, look up the scriptures, be familiar with it. Every member should know the doctrine of the church, especially you guys in utah! Freak I realize now how lazy I was about it. When I started my mission, I thought that all I had to do was bear testimony about how the gospel makes me feel, that I feel good when I read the scriptures and all that yadda yadda. That's all well and good, but where does it say that we need prophets today? What about apostles? How do you know that Jehova is Jesus Christ? Where does it say that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three separate personages? How do you know that we receive revelation from God today? Why do we need the Book of Mormon? If you can't answer these questions with the scriptures, I suggest you start studying. Chapter three in preach my gospel is a good place to start, then your topical guide. Don't just 'read' your scriptures... STUDY!!!!

Okay, enough ranting. I freaking love the gospel, but AH!! there is so much stuff to learn about, it's ridiculous. What else what else.... I honestly can't think of anything else that's been going on... Just knocking, teaching, and learning. It's the best.

Well, I love you all very much, I'm sad my chargers lost... in the playoffs.... again... gosh dangit haha. But it's okay I don't care because I'm on a mission :-P I hope everything is going awesome back home and that you're all having a good time I'll talk to ya next week!

con amor,

-Elder Mooney