Dearest Mommy,
Well, it's Monday... again... haha. I really don't understand how the time can fly so fast. Today I hit 11 months in the mission... holy cow! I'm kinda freaking out! I realized that my "daddy" in the mission is going home in three weeks... All of the old missionaries are dying out, and now it's just going to be....well... different! It's not a bad thing, but it's still just weird.. ya know? Ah well that's just part of mission life... and it's sweet. That's one thing I've noticed about the mission is that things change really fast, and they require you to not only grow up quickly, but more importantly to rely on the Lord. I love everything about the mission :-).
So last monday was nothing exciting we just went and played soccer in the church for a couple hours and then had a home evening with Lupe G. We were supposed to be having it with her and her brother Adan whom we are teaching, but it turns out that his girlfriend Rab and Lupe don't get along very well, so we ended up just watching a Joseph Smith historical movie with her and her sons.
Tuesday, however, was a little more exciting. We got to go to the temple!!! Ah it was so nice to get that spiritual boost after not going for a while. Afterwards, we went to Deseret Book where I was tempted to blow $100 worth of money I don't have on some very interesting books haha. Luckily I showed some self-control and didn't buy anything, but we did go to Burgerville afterwards and I used my home card to pay for it... sorry you guys :-P.
Okay, now I'll talk about what all went down with our investigators this week... we picked up a ton of new ones! So we have some fantastic news and some not so good news. The fantastic news is that we picked up a new investigator that elder Jackson (my MTC companion) was teaching who moved to Hubbard, and she's going to be baptized this coming Sunday!..... PLOP! Another one of those gifts from heaven haha. Her name is Rosario Silva and she's super sweet... and she's actually the daughter of one of our former investigators haha. The not so good news is that instead of baptizing Felipe Vazquez yesterday like we had planned, after his interview, our district leader told us he needs two more weeks... dangit haha. Oh well it'll be a good thing to make sure he understands everything more solidly. In the meantime he continues coming to church. Next we have Juan Velazquez. He's going to be baptized the 19th, and then the following sunday he will be confirmed, receive the priesthood, and baptize his eight year old daughter! Sweet right? It's a big blessing after almost ten years of missionaries.. I'm just glad I was able to help :-). After that, we have Laura Gutierrez who was a punk this week because we couldn't get in contact with her, Leticia who blew us off on a wednesday meeting at her own church (I'll explain that later) and also our church on Sunday. Aside from that... Rab and Junior Gutierrez came to church and are reading/praying. Okay, now for the list of new investigators that accepted "soft" baptismal dates: Ivelisse Cruz, Lydia (some girl who live's at Lupe-G's house), Leonel & Cristina Francisco, Luis & Liset Gutierrez, and two people from the family that live in the same house as Maria and Felipe Vazquez whose names are Lupita and Jaime Pacheco... yeah... pretty sweet week if I do say so myself. We taught 11 member-present lessons and just as many other lessons. We're fixing up to have a lot of people to baptize pretty soon!
Okay, so aside from a ton of new 'gators and working hard like we're supposed to, we're also finding time to do some pretty interesting stuff. Case and point: what we did on Thursday night. We were talking to Leticia Rivera in one of our lessons, and she said that she would go to our church if we would go to hers. I was all for it haha. So, she invited us to hear their Superintendant (which is like the equivalent of a stake president) speak to their group here in Woodburn. It was in spanish, and it was really funny to see the look on peoples faces when we walked in... I think I finally understand how a black person feels when they enter a room full of all white people (you can edit that part out if you want haha) Basically we stuck out like sore thumbs. I think that Jehova's Witnesses wear colored shirts just to make sure they differentiate from us haha. They all were dressed really nicely in suits of all colors except for dark/conservative like ourselves, and they all bring their little "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures". This was fine with me, but the thing that bothered me was that when we showed up, LETICIA WASN'T EVEN THERE!!!! What's even funnier, is that afterwards when people came up to us and shook our hands/introduced themselves (LDS members should take a lesson from them on that), that nobody knew who she was haha. Overall, the experience was...well... interesting we could say. To me it was more like a community college lecture than it was a church meeting... it's interesting that you can feel a difference in the spirit of a group of people as well as individually. Not to speak badly of the Jehova's Witnesses, its just different and kind of sad that they don't have the truth... wow that sounds cocky I'll shut up now haha.
Friday was quite an adventure also haha. We started an exchange after district meeting around one o'clock, and for the day I had planned four member-present lessons in a row, but the problem is that they were all females, so we needed a male member to be there. The only one I could get a hold of was Angel, Lupe's son, and he was up in Wilsonville getting off work, so we went up to pick him up to take him to our lessons because we had (emphasis on HAD) enough miles to do it. So we start driving up the I-5 towards Wilsonville when all of a sudden we hit a huge wall of stop and go traffic... dangit haha. To make a long story short, we ended up taking half an hour longer than expected to get to wilsonville because of a huge crash as well as construction that was going on. Once we got off the freeway, we accidentally turned the wrong way on a road to pick him up and got stuck in traffic again. We finally picked him up and decided to be smarty-pants missionaries and take the backroad to Newberg and then from there take the 99 to Woodburn... yeah it was a smart idea... except that HALF OF THE WORLD WAS ON THAT STUPID HIGHWAY! We hit traffic at a dead stop after about ten or fifteen miles, stuck with it for about three miles, then decided to axe it and head back to the I-5. We missed all of our appointments haha. We had time for dinner and our interview... that was it haha. Sometimes the Lord tries your patience and then rewards you with a whole bunch of awesome stuff afterwards (investigators/baptismal dates). I love the mission!
So yeah that was about the excitement for this week.. lots of lessons, lots of awesome investigators, lots of learning lessons, and lots of spiritual enlightenment. Like I said in the Paragraph above, I really do love the mission. It's been the hardest yet most rewarding time I've had in my life... I think it's been rewarding BECAUSE it's been hard, and that's why I love it so much... it's kind of like Fooball, but better because you don't break bones or have to deal with Timpview :-).
I love you guys so much... Thank you mom and dad so much for everything you guys do for me while I'm out here. I want you to know that I love each and every one of you and that I pray for you every night. Please be safe and be good.
Love always,
-Elder Kurt Mooney
Monday, August 30, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Another busy week
Dear family,
All right it's been a busy busy week this week, but I'll try to fill ya in as much as I can, okay?
So Monday we had a total blast for P-day. After we got done emailing, we did our shopping, and then headed over to the church to play some sports with a few less actives and a potential investigator... it was sweet! We played soccer in the gym and got totally smoked haha. I'm pretty sure that white people shouldn't be allowed to play soccer, because we just plain suck at it by comparison. After that humbling experience, we ate dinner, then had another family home evening with the Pisters. This time, however, we were prepared and made sure we knew what was going on beforehand. We invited over the Perez and another recent convert, and started family history profiles for them so that they could do baptisms for them on the following Friday. It was smooth sailing-ish until I tried to create an account for sister Perez, and she gave me a faulty email address that we couldn't open haha. Because of that little point, we had to call church headquarters and talk to them and explain that we'd accidentally put in the wrong email account and long story short after about an hour of talking to them and trying to figure it out, we got it fixed up how we wanted it hahaha. Oh man the Pisters gave me so much crap for it because I was getting a little stressed out... I notice that I do that more now... maybe it helps me be a more responsible person now though haha. Okay, so that was about the excitement for Monday.
Now here's the update on the people we're teaching right now:
We have Adan (no, not Adam) Gutierrez and his girlfriend Rab (sp?), Laura Gutierrez (not related to Junior), Teresa Madonado, Laticia Rivera (not related to my son), Iyali Cruz, and Felipe Vazquez. Now, aside from them we also have the recent converts/less actives that we are getting on "temple track". Their names are the Perez family, the Mendoza family, Elisa Zirangua, The Cruz family, and one more family whose name escapes me right now. Throw on top of that a mountain of new investigators, and that's about where we stand haha.
With Adan and Rab things are going really well. He reminds me a lot of Josh, but with a lot of kids haha. His sister is Lupe G, and she makes fun of him by calling him "el conejo" or "bunny rabbit" in english because... well... he's got a lot of kids haha :-P. Anyways, he is a super sweet guy and is making a lot of changes. When I first got here to Woodburn, the missionaries had started teaching him, but he was having problems with drinking and smoking as well as the law of chastity (go figure right?), so we dropped him while I was with Rangel. However, recently, he has been showing a lot of interest, especially because he and Rab want to get married and start going to church. We talked to them the other day about the doctrine of Christ as well as taught them a little more in-depth about forgiveness/repentance... it went really well, and they came to church! It was awesome! They really got into it and even sang the hymns and read scriptures.
Then there's Laura. She's a referral from the english elders who started teaching her, but she speaks a little more Spanish than English, so they gave her to us. Right now, she has a lot of questions about why there is so much suffering in the world, so we taught her about there being an opposition in all things, as well as trying to pull her nose out of the here and now and get her to look at the big picture... she also came to church, although she accidentally went to the english ward haha.
We finally got back in contact with Iyali who has to wait for a while to get baptized, and it went really well! she is reading her scriptures and we are just making sure she stays "active" (although she's not a member) until she can get baptized.
Felipe is going to be getting baptized on the 29th and everything is going well for him... nothing to report on him haha. The same with Juan Velazquez who will get baptized on the 19th of September.
Who else who else... Oh! We had an interesting chat with Laticia Rivera this week where she found out that we believe that Jesus Christ is Jehova. She kinda flipped a little bit and said "show me where it says that in the bible." I told her I wasn't going to do it, so what i did is left her a post-it with about five scriptures that correlate with christ from old to new testaments, and then I told her to pray about it. I don't know if she did on friday, but she came to the branch activity on saturday, so we'll see what happens this week when we pass by.
Oh! Branch activity! It was the sweetest thing ever! We went to a place called Scotts Mills and had a total blast! There is a park right by a little river that runs through some rock that looks like the same kind of rock you would find in Maupin or at lake Billy Chinook... man it was a sweet place and i was super jealous they all got to go cliff jump from about 20 or so feet into a big pool below a little cascade. It's okay though because there was a ton of food, three-way tug of war, and I ended up starting a brutal waterfight with water balloons... oh man Pres. Pister totally trucked me haha. I ran out of ammo and he chased me down and in spite of my best high-stepping efforts, he planted a water balloon directly on my left butt-cheek and then another one right on my shirt below my arm haha.
Other than that excitement this week, we had fourteen non-members in sacrament meeting. Booyeah. I have nothing more to say about that haha.
Oh one thing though that I do want haha well, two things. Everybody wants to see a picture of us as a family, so could I get a picture of us pretty please? :-) Also, I realized I don't have my line of authority out here... I need something to show to all the pastors I bash haha just kidding I don't bash.. :-)
Well I'm super jealous you went to Fish Lake without me... again... but it's good to hear you guys are all having a blast down there. Tell Katie Jo I'm a slacker, but I'll have a letter for her in the mail soon, and that I hope she gets pumped about starting her last year of high school... it's a blast!
I love you guys,
-Elder Kurt Mooney
All right it's been a busy busy week this week, but I'll try to fill ya in as much as I can, okay?
So Monday we had a total blast for P-day. After we got done emailing, we did our shopping, and then headed over to the church to play some sports with a few less actives and a potential investigator... it was sweet! We played soccer in the gym and got totally smoked haha. I'm pretty sure that white people shouldn't be allowed to play soccer, because we just plain suck at it by comparison. After that humbling experience, we ate dinner, then had another family home evening with the Pisters. This time, however, we were prepared and made sure we knew what was going on beforehand. We invited over the Perez and another recent convert, and started family history profiles for them so that they could do baptisms for them on the following Friday. It was smooth sailing-ish until I tried to create an account for sister Perez, and she gave me a faulty email address that we couldn't open haha. Because of that little point, we had to call church headquarters and talk to them and explain that we'd accidentally put in the wrong email account and long story short after about an hour of talking to them and trying to figure it out, we got it fixed up how we wanted it hahaha. Oh man the Pisters gave me so much crap for it because I was getting a little stressed out... I notice that I do that more now... maybe it helps me be a more responsible person now though haha. Okay, so that was about the excitement for Monday.
Now here's the update on the people we're teaching right now:
We have Adan (no, not Adam) Gutierrez and his girlfriend Rab (sp?), Laura Gutierrez (not related to Junior), Teresa Madonado, Laticia Rivera (not related to my son), Iyali Cruz, and Felipe Vazquez. Now, aside from them we also have the recent converts/less actives that we are getting on "temple track". Their names are the Perez family, the Mendoza family, Elisa Zirangua, The Cruz family, and one more family whose name escapes me right now. Throw on top of that a mountain of new investigators, and that's about where we stand haha.
With Adan and Rab things are going really well. He reminds me a lot of Josh, but with a lot of kids haha. His sister is Lupe G, and she makes fun of him by calling him "el conejo" or "bunny rabbit" in english because... well... he's got a lot of kids haha :-P. Anyways, he is a super sweet guy and is making a lot of changes. When I first got here to Woodburn, the missionaries had started teaching him, but he was having problems with drinking and smoking as well as the law of chastity (go figure right?), so we dropped him while I was with Rangel. However, recently, he has been showing a lot of interest, especially because he and Rab want to get married and start going to church. We talked to them the other day about the doctrine of Christ as well as taught them a little more in-depth about forgiveness/repentance... it went really well, and they came to church! It was awesome! They really got into it and even sang the hymns and read scriptures.
Then there's Laura. She's a referral from the english elders who started teaching her, but she speaks a little more Spanish than English, so they gave her to us. Right now, she has a lot of questions about why there is so much suffering in the world, so we taught her about there being an opposition in all things, as well as trying to pull her nose out of the here and now and get her to look at the big picture... she also came to church, although she accidentally went to the english ward haha.
We finally got back in contact with Iyali who has to wait for a while to get baptized, and it went really well! she is reading her scriptures and we are just making sure she stays "active" (although she's not a member) until she can get baptized.
Felipe is going to be getting baptized on the 29th and everything is going well for him... nothing to report on him haha. The same with Juan Velazquez who will get baptized on the 19th of September.
Who else who else... Oh! We had an interesting chat with Laticia Rivera this week where she found out that we believe that Jesus Christ is Jehova. She kinda flipped a little bit and said "show me where it says that in the bible." I told her I wasn't going to do it, so what i did is left her a post-it with about five scriptures that correlate with christ from old to new testaments, and then I told her to pray about it. I don't know if she did on friday, but she came to the branch activity on saturday, so we'll see what happens this week when we pass by.
Oh! Branch activity! It was the sweetest thing ever! We went to a place called Scotts Mills and had a total blast! There is a park right by a little river that runs through some rock that looks like the same kind of rock you would find in Maupin or at lake Billy Chinook... man it was a sweet place and i was super jealous they all got to go cliff jump from about 20 or so feet into a big pool below a little cascade. It's okay though because there was a ton of food, three-way tug of war, and I ended up starting a brutal waterfight with water balloons... oh man Pres. Pister totally trucked me haha. I ran out of ammo and he chased me down and in spite of my best high-stepping efforts, he planted a water balloon directly on my left butt-cheek and then another one right on my shirt below my arm haha.
Other than that excitement this week, we had fourteen non-members in sacrament meeting. Booyeah. I have nothing more to say about that haha.
Oh one thing though that I do want haha well, two things. Everybody wants to see a picture of us as a family, so could I get a picture of us pretty please? :-) Also, I realized I don't have my line of authority out here... I need something to show to all the pastors I bash haha just kidding I don't bash.. :-)
Well I'm super jealous you went to Fish Lake without me... again... but it's good to hear you guys are all having a blast down there. Tell Katie Jo I'm a slacker, but I'll have a letter for her in the mail soon, and that I hope she gets pumped about starting her last year of high school... it's a blast!
I love you guys,
-Elder Kurt Mooney
Monday, August 16, 2010
A Great Week
Dearest Mommy and the rest of the family,
Ah man... I always get started on these emails, and I don't even know what to start typing... I guess we'll start with last Monday as always haha. So we talked to president Pister the week before, and we decided to hook up a family home evening at his house with a few recent converts as well as some of our investigators. I don't remember him saying it, but he asked if we could provide the lesson and me being the space cadet that I am, didn't write it down in my planner... if I don't write it down, it never happened out here in the mission field haha. Basically, president called us an hour before we're going to start the home evening, and he asks "so what are you guys going to teach about?" I laughed it off and said "oh president that's not a funny joke you can't scare me like that!" Then he says, "I'm not joking... you said you'd do it last Sunday...remember?" I think my answer mainly consisted of "CRAP!!!!" Luckily president Pister loves me in spite of leaving my brain at the apartment most of the time, so everything turned out okay haha. It ended up being a really good home evening where one of the recent converts even ended up crying over the lesson.... the spirit was sweet :-).
Okay, moving on from Monday night, let's move to Tuesday. Tuesday day we just visited some potentials and knocked for a while, nothing exciting, but that night was awesome. We went on divisions with some people in the branch, and got a lot done it was sweet! I went with a guy named Manuel Hernandez, and Rivera went with Hno. Pacheco and a guy named Angel Estrada (son of Lupe-G). Manuel and I went and taught a couple of lessons. The first of which was to Felipe who just got married a little while back and we talked about tithing and fast offerings. It went really well, but the coolest thing about it is that Manuel was really involved in the lesson. Normally when we take people to lessons from the branch, it's like they're just doing their time, but Manuel really has a testimony. He got baptized a little over a year and a half ago, and just went through the temple about six months ago... he's awesome! He, his wife, and his two little terrors-for-children are so so so so sweet. Anyways, I digress. The main point is that he has a strong testimony of the things he's changed in his own life, and he's not afraid to share it with people when we go out on visits. Jumping back to Felipe, he's just about ready to get baptized! We'll see how things go this week, and if all goes smoothly, he should be baptized this coming Sunday or the one after. SWEET!
Okay, so aside from that... hmmm.... what else happened. Oh! We had a sweet lesson with a lady that Rivera found while we were blitzing one day. We went back to visit and see if we could just set up an appointment for another day, and this lady named Teresa let us in and talk to her. We ended up talking to her about the doctrine of Christ and following the stuff they've been teaching us, and push came to shove, and well, she accepted a baptismal invitation... it's always a little awkward when people ask you something like this: "so, you're telling me that my baptism wasn't valid, and that yours is the only one that will count?"... good luck trying to tell someone that without making them feel like crap haha. Somehow though, we did it, and we have another lesson with her this wednesday that's coming up!
Speaking of sweet things that are coming up, we have a golden opportunity here in Woodburn. There's a little radio station that all of the paisas listen to here called PCUN, which is... ah crap I don't remember the full abbreviation, but it's a radio station that is specifically for the "campesinos" or people that work in the fields. Anyways, they have one hour a week that is open for different religions to come in and give a little "doctrinal discourse" and then answer questions if people call in... I think we might be doing it in the next couple of weeks.... muahahaha I'm so excited! Sorry about the evil laugh, I can just see myself getting into trouble for talking about the virgin mary or about all of the other blasphemous doctrines that people believe... I'll probably just teach the restoration and see how people react. Interesting though, right? Never thought I'd have an opportunity to be a radio host... especially not on my mission... in Spanish :-P.
So some of the cool things I've been able to do out here is read some really good books. I already finished the missionary library about three months ago, so I decided to read some other stuff. I found a couple of books that are super legit... I love them! The first one is called "Day of Defense" which is basically a courtroom setting attack on a pair of missionaries from all the other christian denominations in the which they all get completely smoked and the LDS religion comes out completely unscathed... if you've ever had doubts about the LDS religion, I would recommend that book. Also, another wonderful book which has helped me gain a greater testimony of the Book of Mormon as well as the Pearl of Great Price, is a book by Hugh Nibley, which is a collection of three books called "Lehi in the Desert", "The World of the Jaredites", and "There were Jaredites". It's basically the coolest thing that really explains what's significant and correct that correlates with ancient culture in the middle and far east... I promise it'll absolve the doubts you've got :-P. Read them!
Okay now that I've done my schpeal for those books, I've gotta try to remember what else happened this week. Oh! I had the opportunity to go back to Salem for a day on exchanges with elder Dawson. While we were there, we had a pretty good day. Not to say that we had appointments, because they ALL fell through, but that we had some good experiences. After having a bunch of appointments fall through, we knocked into a member by accident who directed us to a complex that I had been thinking about earlier in the day, so we decided to take that little bit of inspired advice and go knock there. Turns out we were following the spirit. Within three doors, we had found two families whom we were able to teach and the third one was a less active from the YSA ward, whom we ended up convincing to read, pray, and go to church the following sunday... I love batting 1000! It never happens, but that was the most amazing thing ever. Then afterwards, we took a trip to Del Taco because our dinner appointment canceled on us, and we both ate 12 tacos... oh man I thought I was gonna die haha.
On Sunday, we were pumped because we had a bunch of people that told us that they were gonna come to church. When 9:20 rolled around, NOBODY showed up! LAME! Oh well that's life for ya. Not only that, but then for Sacrament, instead of being able to sit with our investigators, we had to go translate! Ah I was so mad! Not only that, but after translating Spanish to English like I always do, I had to translate for a high counselor who did nothing but read his talk, which consisted of nothing but endless Neal A. Maxwell quotes sprinkled with scriptures with no references so we could find them, and a whole mess of English sayings and idioms that don't translate to spanish! Throw that all together with more quotes with C.S. Lewis, and that's what I had to deal with. Don't get me wrong. I love Neal A. Maxwell... he's my favorite apostle actually, and I love the scriptures, and even C.S. Lewis, but THEY ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO TRANSLATE INTO SPANISH!!!! It wouldn't have been so bad, but Luis Franco (the branch mission leader) usually translates english to spanish, after about a two minute pause during the talk unplugged the microphone and then said "here, you can do it". Bleh! President Pisters daughters and his wife were listening in on the headphones for kicks and giggles during his talk, and were dying laughing on the stand while they heard him talking and me trying to put it into Lamans terms haha... Translating is okay when you have the quotes and scriptures in front of you, but trying to do it by the seat of your pants like we had to do it, it just plain sucks haha.
Anyways, to make us feel better after church, we got to take a trip to a hospital to give a blessing to the son of a less active (wow that sounds like a bad word haha) who is about to have surgery. It was really interesting to go up there to where he was at, because I remember going up to Schriner's hospital with dad a few times, and Doernbecher is just right around the corner from there. I couldn't believe all the growth that's happened up there even since I was last there... holy crap! It's a beautiful campus... not gonna lie, makes me want to be a doctor even more just being there in the hospital :-).
Well, that's about the excitement for this week, but holy crap it sounds like you guys are having a blast there without me. I hope you have a great week I love you guys!
Love,
Elder Kurt Mooney
Ah man... I always get started on these emails, and I don't even know what to start typing... I guess we'll start with last Monday as always haha. So we talked to president Pister the week before, and we decided to hook up a family home evening at his house with a few recent converts as well as some of our investigators. I don't remember him saying it, but he asked if we could provide the lesson and me being the space cadet that I am, didn't write it down in my planner... if I don't write it down, it never happened out here in the mission field haha. Basically, president called us an hour before we're going to start the home evening, and he asks "so what are you guys going to teach about?" I laughed it off and said "oh president that's not a funny joke you can't scare me like that!" Then he says, "I'm not joking... you said you'd do it last Sunday...remember?" I think my answer mainly consisted of "CRAP!!!!" Luckily president Pister loves me in spite of leaving my brain at the apartment most of the time, so everything turned out okay haha. It ended up being a really good home evening where one of the recent converts even ended up crying over the lesson.... the spirit was sweet :-).
Okay, moving on from Monday night, let's move to Tuesday. Tuesday day we just visited some potentials and knocked for a while, nothing exciting, but that night was awesome. We went on divisions with some people in the branch, and got a lot done it was sweet! I went with a guy named Manuel Hernandez, and Rivera went with Hno. Pacheco and a guy named Angel Estrada (son of Lupe-G). Manuel and I went and taught a couple of lessons. The first of which was to Felipe who just got married a little while back and we talked about tithing and fast offerings. It went really well, but the coolest thing about it is that Manuel was really involved in the lesson. Normally when we take people to lessons from the branch, it's like they're just doing their time, but Manuel really has a testimony. He got baptized a little over a year and a half ago, and just went through the temple about six months ago... he's awesome! He, his wife, and his two little terrors-for-children are so so so so sweet. Anyways, I digress. The main point is that he has a strong testimony of the things he's changed in his own life, and he's not afraid to share it with people when we go out on visits. Jumping back to Felipe, he's just about ready to get baptized! We'll see how things go this week, and if all goes smoothly, he should be baptized this coming Sunday or the one after. SWEET!
Okay, so aside from that... hmmm.... what else happened. Oh! We had a sweet lesson with a lady that Rivera found while we were blitzing one day. We went back to visit and see if we could just set up an appointment for another day, and this lady named Teresa let us in and talk to her. We ended up talking to her about the doctrine of Christ and following the stuff they've been teaching us, and push came to shove, and well, she accepted a baptismal invitation... it's always a little awkward when people ask you something like this: "so, you're telling me that my baptism wasn't valid, and that yours is the only one that will count?"... good luck trying to tell someone that without making them feel like crap haha. Somehow though, we did it, and we have another lesson with her this wednesday that's coming up!
Speaking of sweet things that are coming up, we have a golden opportunity here in Woodburn. There's a little radio station that all of the paisas listen to here called PCUN, which is... ah crap I don't remember the full abbreviation, but it's a radio station that is specifically for the "campesinos" or people that work in the fields. Anyways, they have one hour a week that is open for different religions to come in and give a little "doctrinal discourse" and then answer questions if people call in... I think we might be doing it in the next couple of weeks.... muahahaha I'm so excited! Sorry about the evil laugh, I can just see myself getting into trouble for talking about the virgin mary or about all of the other blasphemous doctrines that people believe... I'll probably just teach the restoration and see how people react. Interesting though, right? Never thought I'd have an opportunity to be a radio host... especially not on my mission... in Spanish :-P.
So some of the cool things I've been able to do out here is read some really good books. I already finished the missionary library about three months ago, so I decided to read some other stuff. I found a couple of books that are super legit... I love them! The first one is called "Day of Defense" which is basically a courtroom setting attack on a pair of missionaries from all the other christian denominations in the which they all get completely smoked and the LDS religion comes out completely unscathed... if you've ever had doubts about the LDS religion, I would recommend that book. Also, another wonderful book which has helped me gain a greater testimony of the Book of Mormon as well as the Pearl of Great Price, is a book by Hugh Nibley, which is a collection of three books called "Lehi in the Desert", "The World of the Jaredites", and "There were Jaredites". It's basically the coolest thing that really explains what's significant and correct that correlates with ancient culture in the middle and far east... I promise it'll absolve the doubts you've got :-P. Read them!
Okay now that I've done my schpeal for those books, I've gotta try to remember what else happened this week. Oh! I had the opportunity to go back to Salem for a day on exchanges with elder Dawson. While we were there, we had a pretty good day. Not to say that we had appointments, because they ALL fell through, but that we had some good experiences. After having a bunch of appointments fall through, we knocked into a member by accident who directed us to a complex that I had been thinking about earlier in the day, so we decided to take that little bit of inspired advice and go knock there. Turns out we were following the spirit. Within three doors, we had found two families whom we were able to teach and the third one was a less active from the YSA ward, whom we ended up convincing to read, pray, and go to church the following sunday... I love batting 1000! It never happens, but that was the most amazing thing ever. Then afterwards, we took a trip to Del Taco because our dinner appointment canceled on us, and we both ate 12 tacos... oh man I thought I was gonna die haha.
On Sunday, we were pumped because we had a bunch of people that told us that they were gonna come to church. When 9:20 rolled around, NOBODY showed up! LAME! Oh well that's life for ya. Not only that, but then for Sacrament, instead of being able to sit with our investigators, we had to go translate! Ah I was so mad! Not only that, but after translating Spanish to English like I always do, I had to translate for a high counselor who did nothing but read his talk, which consisted of nothing but endless Neal A. Maxwell quotes sprinkled with scriptures with no references so we could find them, and a whole mess of English sayings and idioms that don't translate to spanish! Throw that all together with more quotes with C.S. Lewis, and that's what I had to deal with. Don't get me wrong. I love Neal A. Maxwell... he's my favorite apostle actually, and I love the scriptures, and even C.S. Lewis, but THEY ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO TRANSLATE INTO SPANISH!!!! It wouldn't have been so bad, but Luis Franco (the branch mission leader) usually translates english to spanish, after about a two minute pause during the talk unplugged the microphone and then said "here, you can do it". Bleh! President Pisters daughters and his wife were listening in on the headphones for kicks and giggles during his talk, and were dying laughing on the stand while they heard him talking and me trying to put it into Lamans terms haha... Translating is okay when you have the quotes and scriptures in front of you, but trying to do it by the seat of your pants like we had to do it, it just plain sucks haha.
Anyways, to make us feel better after church, we got to take a trip to a hospital to give a blessing to the son of a less active (wow that sounds like a bad word haha) who is about to have surgery. It was really interesting to go up there to where he was at, because I remember going up to Schriner's hospital with dad a few times, and Doernbecher is just right around the corner from there. I couldn't believe all the growth that's happened up there even since I was last there... holy crap! It's a beautiful campus... not gonna lie, makes me want to be a doctor even more just being there in the hospital :-).
Well, that's about the excitement for this week, but holy crap it sounds like you guys are having a blast there without me. I hope you have a great week I love you guys!
Love,
Elder Kurt Mooney
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Transfers and 8 points
August 9, 2010
Dearest Family,
Okay, so I'm feeling a little lazy right now, so bear with me if my writing reflects it. We got transfer calls this last Saturday, and I'm staying with elder Rivera for another transfer! Woot woot! I was seriously stressing about it thinking I was going to get hosed and not end up being able to stay in Woodburn for much longer, but we had a set of meetings this week where president Dyches got some counsel from good ol' Tommy Monson that missionaries should be staying in their areas for at least 6 months or more. It also turns out that L. Tom Perry said that they should stay for half their mission! I hope I'm here for six months more then haha.
Okay, on the subject of those meetings, they totally killed our work this week! We had leadership meeting for the new 8 points that they're focusing on to train missionaries to be better at helping people really be converted. It's a rad program, it's just annoying that we were in meetings Tuesday through Friday from 9 in the morning 'til 4 in the afternoon, not to mention the 45min-hour drive that we had to take to get there. This means that I was leaving my son (Rivera) with english elders all week, and our work totally went down the toilet for four days. We still did all right, but man I HATE feeling worthless! I'm going to try to remember what the eight new points are so you guys can know what I'm talking about. The first is the doctrine of Christ which centers around love. The second is understanding the role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion. The third is revelation through prayer. The Fourth is revelation through reading the Book of Mormon. The fifth is revelation through church attendance. The sixth is making and keeping commitments. The seventh is something I can't remember, and the eighth is beginning to teach. Whew! That was a lot of training and practice with those eight!
Anyways, now we're trying to take a doctor's approach to these steps like they do in surgery, which is see one, do one, teach one haha. After seeing an example, we try it, then we are supposed to teach our companions so they can do it too... we'll see how it all goes I guess this coming week. Rivera seems to be catching on pretty well.
So aside from that, about the only excitement we have is that Felipe came to church for the first time, and he liked it... two more times and he's jumping in that font! Woohoo!
Other than that, I've felt a little bit bummed out this week because we've been freaking ineffective missionaries with so much time wasted in meetings, so I was feeling down in the dumps, but Sunday night, we went out to visit a few referrals, and none of them were home, so I was a little frustrated, and we decided to knock a few doors. The first door we knocked, we ran into a man named Onorato... I'm not sure if I spelled his name right, but he's sweet! He's super humble ,and he's a really really prepared guy... he's even best friends with one of the members we're prepping to enter the temple!.... PLOP! Sometimes when you're feeling bogged down, if you just keep hustling, the Lord will throw you a bone so you can be a little bit happier with what's going on. Hooray for missionary work!
Okay, I'm gonna get outta here cause I've got other stuff to do, but I hope you guys have a great week and that you know that I miss and love you.
Love,
Dearest Family,
Okay, so I'm feeling a little lazy right now, so bear with me if my writing reflects it. We got transfer calls this last Saturday, and I'm staying with elder Rivera for another transfer! Woot woot! I was seriously stressing about it thinking I was going to get hosed and not end up being able to stay in Woodburn for much longer, but we had a set of meetings this week where president Dyches got some counsel from good ol' Tommy Monson that missionaries should be staying in their areas for at least 6 months or more. It also turns out that L. Tom Perry said that they should stay for half their mission! I hope I'm here for six months more then haha.
Okay, on the subject of those meetings, they totally killed our work this week! We had leadership meeting for the new 8 points that they're focusing on to train missionaries to be better at helping people really be converted. It's a rad program, it's just annoying that we were in meetings Tuesday through Friday from 9 in the morning 'til 4 in the afternoon, not to mention the 45min-hour drive that we had to take to get there. This means that I was leaving my son (Rivera) with english elders all week, and our work totally went down the toilet for four days. We still did all right, but man I HATE feeling worthless! I'm going to try to remember what the eight new points are so you guys can know what I'm talking about. The first is the doctrine of Christ which centers around love. The second is understanding the role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion. The third is revelation through prayer. The Fourth is revelation through reading the Book of Mormon. The fifth is revelation through church attendance. The sixth is making and keeping commitments. The seventh is something I can't remember, and the eighth is beginning to teach. Whew! That was a lot of training and practice with those eight!
Anyways, now we're trying to take a doctor's approach to these steps like they do in surgery, which is see one, do one, teach one haha. After seeing an example, we try it, then we are supposed to teach our companions so they can do it too... we'll see how it all goes I guess this coming week. Rivera seems to be catching on pretty well.
So aside from that, about the only excitement we have is that Felipe came to church for the first time, and he liked it... two more times and he's jumping in that font! Woohoo!
Other than that, I've felt a little bit bummed out this week because we've been freaking ineffective missionaries with so much time wasted in meetings, so I was feeling down in the dumps, but Sunday night, we went out to visit a few referrals, and none of them were home, so I was a little frustrated, and we decided to knock a few doors. The first door we knocked, we ran into a man named Onorato... I'm not sure if I spelled his name right, but he's sweet! He's super humble ,and he's a really really prepared guy... he's even best friends with one of the members we're prepping to enter the temple!.... PLOP! Sometimes when you're feeling bogged down, if you just keep hustling, the Lord will throw you a bone so you can be a little bit happier with what's going on. Hooray for missionary work!
Okay, I'm gonna get outta here cause I've got other stuff to do, but I hope you guys have a great week and that you know that I miss and love you.
Love,
Just say NO!
August 2, 2010
Dearest Fandamily,
Okay, so I've gotta clue you in on the exciting week we've had here in Woodburn. I already told you about the fun P-day we had last week with the soccer game and all for zone activity, so I'll leave that out of this email. What else happened this week though... Oh!
So this week we've been working hard with all the people we're teaching and to make a long story short, we now have three baptismal dates. One Juan Velasquez for the 19th of September, one Felipe Vazquez for the 22nd of August, and one Iyali Cruz for the 15th of August! Ah I'm so super stoked for them!!!! Especially because they all have members of their families that are already members. Juan's wife is a member, Felipe's wife is a member, and Iyali's parents are both members. I came to the realization out here that it's not about just trying to baptize the crap out of every person we see here, but the ultimate goal is to bring the family together so that they can be together forever... gosh I love this church.
OH! So i totally committed a transgression this week it was hilarious although I feel a little bit bad haha. I say transgression because I had no idea that I was sinning... you'll see what I mean I'll explain haha. So tuesday we had dinner with the Pacheco family, and so that you know, the hermana is just learning how to read... yeah it's a little different working with hispanic people. Anyways, she gave us this freaking tasty peach drink, and I basically ended up drinking the entire pitcher! After we finished, I asked her where she had got it from so that I could go buy some. Then she whipped out the canister and showed me it was from Walmart, which is good because it's cheap, but bad in that it was freaking iced tea! Dangit! haha oh well right? Anyways, I thought it was pretty funny.
The other exciting thing that happened on Tuesday morning was the fact that Jorge headed off for the MTC. Well... actually he headed off to our house first, and then over to the MTC. So you said he was a little overwhelmed? Good haha it'll help him grow up faster! He's a super sweet kid, and it'll be a good thing for him to be away from his mommy for a while... man you're right though mom... it's gonna be hard for him. One question... did he sleep in my room or the guest bedroom? Just curious haha.
That's funny he brought up the car and the phone. Yeah we're super spoiled in this mission and drive a 2009 Corrola and have a phone with a qwerty keyboard... it's the most idiotic thing ever that we have that phone... we can't text on it, and the number pad is dinky so you can barely push the right numbers... let alone with my fat fingers! Ah well we use what they give us haha. Oh! Speaking of fat, I'm losing weight! All this running is paying off! Today I got on the scale and I'm down below the 210 mark... booyeah! one more month and I'll drop below 200... I'm excited :-) I've learned the magic word when we're eating with members: no. I use it all the time now it's fabulous! "elder, quieres mas?" "nnnno." "Elder, mas tortillas?" "nnnno." "Quieres postre?" "NO!" Okay, I don't ever yell it, but since I took the advice of one of our zone leaders of two tortillas and one plate (along with exercise), I'm getting less fat haha woohoo!
One day where we epic failed with the eating thing was Thursday. We went to get Rivera's crown put in, and this dentist is sweet! After fixing his tooth for free, she came out and said here's $30 bucks, go have some fun there's a sweet chinese place just a block away, so go enjoy yourselves! I was flabbergasted! I don't think I've ever used that word before, but it describes exactly how I felt! What a sweet lady right!?
Okay aside from that, we also had a really cool lesson this week that kind of blew me away spiritually this week. We've started teaching a lady named Laticia and her sister Veronica. So we had a lesson with her on Wednesday with them, and it went really well, although she's going through a really rough time right now. Her son Christian (It makes me giggle because she's a JW) went into liver failure of an unknown cause about three months ago, so he had a liver transplant. He's only a year old. Not only that, but as they thought he was doing better, his body suddenly started rejecting the new liver, so the doctors weren't sure what they were going to do to keep him alive. Laticia was completely distraught when we came over, so we ended up teaching her about the importance of faith, why God allows bad things to happen, how to overcome it, etc. Ultimately we ended up talking to her about blessing of the sick, and we gave a blessing to her son. During the blessing I felt impressed to say that he would be healed according to the faith that her mother has. After giving that blessing, I begged and pleaded with her that she would pray. She said she didn't feel worthy to, so we taught her about prayer and how vital it is in not only creating a better relationship with the Lord, but also putting her faith in action. Long story short, her son is now on the mend and the doctors can't explain it.... I love this church!
The last thing I'm gonna tack on this email is the story of what happened on Friday... we had a WEDDING! Woohoo Felipe Vazquez is now legally and lawfully married to Maria his member wife! WOOT WOOT!! We're now going to keep teaching him and get him ready to be baptized. At the wedding, we passed by their table, and he said, so now when can I get baptized? We told him the 22nd of August, and he accepted it! He's the man! He's super stoked about it which is the best part.
Ok crap I forgot one more thing that happened that was sweet. Sunday, Hno. Perez and his son Ivan blessed the sacrament for the first time... both in white shirts and ties! AWESOME!!!! I really hope that Pres. Dyches just loses my picture on the transfer board and I can just stay in Woodburn for the rest of my mission haha.
I love you all and I hope you guys are having a blast in Maryland without me! Take lots of pictures!
Love,
Elder Kurt Mooney
Dearest Fandamily,
Okay, so I've gotta clue you in on the exciting week we've had here in Woodburn. I already told you about the fun P-day we had last week with the soccer game and all for zone activity, so I'll leave that out of this email. What else happened this week though... Oh!
So this week we've been working hard with all the people we're teaching and to make a long story short, we now have three baptismal dates. One Juan Velasquez for the 19th of September, one Felipe Vazquez for the 22nd of August, and one Iyali Cruz for the 15th of August! Ah I'm so super stoked for them!!!! Especially because they all have members of their families that are already members. Juan's wife is a member, Felipe's wife is a member, and Iyali's parents are both members. I came to the realization out here that it's not about just trying to baptize the crap out of every person we see here, but the ultimate goal is to bring the family together so that they can be together forever... gosh I love this church.
OH! So i totally committed a transgression this week it was hilarious although I feel a little bit bad haha. I say transgression because I had no idea that I was sinning... you'll see what I mean I'll explain haha. So tuesday we had dinner with the Pacheco family, and so that you know, the hermana is just learning how to read... yeah it's a little different working with hispanic people. Anyways, she gave us this freaking tasty peach drink, and I basically ended up drinking the entire pitcher! After we finished, I asked her where she had got it from so that I could go buy some. Then she whipped out the canister and showed me it was from Walmart, which is good because it's cheap, but bad in that it was freaking iced tea! Dangit! haha oh well right? Anyways, I thought it was pretty funny.
The other exciting thing that happened on Tuesday morning was the fact that Jorge headed off for the MTC. Well... actually he headed off to our house first, and then over to the MTC. So you said he was a little overwhelmed? Good haha it'll help him grow up faster! He's a super sweet kid, and it'll be a good thing for him to be away from his mommy for a while... man you're right though mom... it's gonna be hard for him. One question... did he sleep in my room or the guest bedroom? Just curious haha.
That's funny he brought up the car and the phone. Yeah we're super spoiled in this mission and drive a 2009 Corrola and have a phone with a qwerty keyboard... it's the most idiotic thing ever that we have that phone... we can't text on it, and the number pad is dinky so you can barely push the right numbers... let alone with my fat fingers! Ah well we use what they give us haha. Oh! Speaking of fat, I'm losing weight! All this running is paying off! Today I got on the scale and I'm down below the 210 mark... booyeah! one more month and I'll drop below 200... I'm excited :-) I've learned the magic word when we're eating with members: no. I use it all the time now it's fabulous! "elder, quieres mas?" "nnnno." "Elder, mas tortillas?" "nnnno." "Quieres postre?" "NO!" Okay, I don't ever yell it, but since I took the advice of one of our zone leaders of two tortillas and one plate (along with exercise), I'm getting less fat haha woohoo!
One day where we epic failed with the eating thing was Thursday. We went to get Rivera's crown put in, and this dentist is sweet! After fixing his tooth for free, she came out and said here's $30 bucks, go have some fun there's a sweet chinese place just a block away, so go enjoy yourselves! I was flabbergasted! I don't think I've ever used that word before, but it describes exactly how I felt! What a sweet lady right!?
Okay aside from that, we also had a really cool lesson this week that kind of blew me away spiritually this week. We've started teaching a lady named Laticia and her sister Veronica. So we had a lesson with her on Wednesday with them, and it went really well, although she's going through a really rough time right now. Her son Christian (It makes me giggle because she's a JW) went into liver failure of an unknown cause about three months ago, so he had a liver transplant. He's only a year old. Not only that, but as they thought he was doing better, his body suddenly started rejecting the new liver, so the doctors weren't sure what they were going to do to keep him alive. Laticia was completely distraught when we came over, so we ended up teaching her about the importance of faith, why God allows bad things to happen, how to overcome it, etc. Ultimately we ended up talking to her about blessing of the sick, and we gave a blessing to her son. During the blessing I felt impressed to say that he would be healed according to the faith that her mother has. After giving that blessing, I begged and pleaded with her that she would pray. She said she didn't feel worthy to, so we taught her about prayer and how vital it is in not only creating a better relationship with the Lord, but also putting her faith in action. Long story short, her son is now on the mend and the doctors can't explain it.... I love this church!
The last thing I'm gonna tack on this email is the story of what happened on Friday... we had a WEDDING! Woohoo Felipe Vazquez is now legally and lawfully married to Maria his member wife! WOOT WOOT!! We're now going to keep teaching him and get him ready to be baptized. At the wedding, we passed by their table, and he said, so now when can I get baptized? We told him the 22nd of August, and he accepted it! He's the man! He's super stoked about it which is the best part.
Ok crap I forgot one more thing that happened that was sweet. Sunday, Hno. Perez and his son Ivan blessed the sacrament for the first time... both in white shirts and ties! AWESOME!!!! I really hope that Pres. Dyches just loses my picture on the transfer board and I can just stay in Woodburn for the rest of my mission haha.
I love you all and I hope you guys are having a blast in Maryland without me! Take lots of pictures!
Love,
Elder Kurt Mooney
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