Elder Kurt K. Mooney Oregon Portland Mission

Hey all!

Ah man I'm trying to gather my thoughts as I go while I'm writing this email because I have hardly any time to write... instead of getting a one-hour reservation, I drew the short straw this week and have to write my email in 15 minute increments on a 15 minute reservation computer haha.

Things have been absolutely awsome here in woodburn this week. First of all, we have been teaching Ines (E-Ness) along with her three daughters since I arrived here and they have been wanting to get baptized, but the father of the family has always said no because he doesn't want his wife and children jumping into a religion they don't know much about, and he's never present during the lessons. However, the last time we went over to visit them, we decided to teach them about the holy ghost and the gift of the holy ghost and what the differences are. The shocking thing was that this time he actually stayed in the room instead of running away to another bedroom out of earshot and eyesight. So... we taught them, showed them that when we have the gift of the holy ghost, it allows us to better direct our lives through the promptings we receive, etc.. Anyways, long story short, we told them that in order to have the gift of the holy ghost, the first step was to be baptized. Then right then and there we felt prompted to ask them when they thought they would be ready. As soon as we asked, they turned to the dad and asked him if it was okay if they did it next saturday. I about fell off of my chair when he said that he thought it would be a good idea for them to get baptized as soon as possible! OH MY GEASH@!@!!!!! PLOP! That's the sound of un regalo de los cielos (a gift from the heavens) falling into our laps! It really was such an awesome answer to prayers to not only us, but all of the people in the ward that absolutely love this family. I am so excited that they're going to be able to get baptized after all.

Aside from that... Oh my gosh life is busy here. We did some service on saturday for a lady in the ward named Guadalupe Gutierrez, better known as Lupe-G. She's a total gangster haha. She looks like a pretty rough person with tattoos and heavy makeup and a rockstar haircut, but she is one of the strongest members of the church. She is a referral machine! Even in the past week, she has given us probably five or six people that she knows, and a lot of them are really interested! If you wanna gain confidence with someone in Woodburn, just tell them that you're friends with Lupe-G haha. We actually helped her paint her house this last saturday and holy crap painting a house is a pain when you do it with brushes! haha.

Anyways, that's about the excitement here aside from the usual working hard, but yeah... lots of lessons, lots of people to talk to. I love it here!

I love you guys so much. Have a great week okay?

Con amor siempre,

-Elder Kurt Kay Mooney