tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2735244860009493702024-03-21T19:11:36.915-06:00Elder Kurt K. Mooney Oregon Portland MissionRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.comBlogger146125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-44067815177629576162011-10-16T20:43:00.021-06:002011-10-16T20:58:16.429-06:00The Grand Finale!We picked up Elder Mooney from the Oregon Portland Mission on Tuesday October 4th, had a chance to visit some of the families and missionaries he worked with, and had a wonderful visit. We arrived home Friday Oct. 7 where he was released as a full-time missionary. He reported in Sacrament meeting on Sunday Oct. 9th. It is bitter-sweet to have him home - so awesome to see him and feel his sweet and strong spirit, but a little sad that his missionary adventure is over.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguZPjQTiHBPbcFCpLz8w93qfeQKZznhG_LImDdfgHnJPc3eYrTLHAGgwYaQ2IdxaKZXpq9BGg5EbOxy_spsUnd3zWiZSMFiRWcoLwrr6S2lfIcESg5dlX531pCmtAwVmxJpCHjSd5lN_U/s1600/PA030142.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguZPjQTiHBPbcFCpLz8w93qfeQKZznhG_LImDdfgHnJPc3eYrTLHAGgwYaQ2IdxaKZXpq9BGg5EbOxy_spsUnd3zWiZSMFiRWcoLwrr6S2lfIcESg5dlX531pCmtAwVmxJpCHjSd5lN_U/s400/PA030142.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664289490767934162" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih_NUxH7EFJ6B9EWBS9LMtY1pGzuN5HrizBNuULM8qdQbm2Bc4T_FMs_7RM50-bLU3moKEq4shaoGsMYw26YBwiuF8gBoKBKpnsjc3RdLzkWFDjVvF_gnR7aVSSO6ULmUiB_XIOoLZ3G4/s1600/PA030140.JPG"><img style="display:block; 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margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXdgV7KO4hsoiKwnrp8zLYVkz9xmMzymEFPe4duqXOdTOl36JKFqDlAH7-2Q-cpeT5lFtAQxOKJwcBi52It4dGaFQA9YHgZAO76XkSaLq6MtEhriSyviA_D2k0qz_kdB6Mqwv5An1G2l4/s400/PA060171.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664287840974055026" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNWq4mrg61gQY-JRhTgA2pf12PYe0YpXn6YvhI1FAD1ODWmyvYoU0AUhg-vnx5VY2t4G8mSDmGnp4uci4G_UHcy7BONmmMXaXd6i7qUgC8FsL_OReUQIhvtw2sXlQFfuIECu9J28tMHl4/s1600/PA060175.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNWq4mrg61gQY-JRhTgA2pf12PYe0YpXn6YvhI1FAD1ODWmyvYoU0AUhg-vnx5VY2t4G8mSDmGnp4uci4G_UHcy7BONmmMXaXd6i7qUgC8FsL_OReUQIhvtw2sXlQFfuIECu9J28tMHl4/s400/PA060175.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664287725444296482" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnWDF83ia3k40OL645-OcfBgDFUHXPq9yWAPRCGk8CKt39MT6wimRdBhM8BOhKBvJO4FEsI-2uD7enYxRlRvrL84UpFPB-88aoM5aKDqJ_4M5czYlHGO1Os7Pzko-5a09HpepB7GlTe9M/s1600/PA030141.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnWDF83ia3k40OL645-OcfBgDFUHXPq9yWAPRCGk8CKt39MT6wimRdBhM8BOhKBvJO4FEsI-2uD7enYxRlRvrL84UpFPB-88aoM5aKDqJ_4M5czYlHGO1Os7Pzko-5a09HpepB7GlTe9M/s400/PA030141.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664287505904670050" /></a>Ruth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-91357720330080267742011-09-27T08:02:00.002-06:002011-09-27T08:09:14.790-06:00Time flies when you're having fun...even more so when it's with those you love2011 September 26<br /><br />Yikes! Last letter? How the heck did that happen!? Oh well... guess that means we better make it count then, right? With the amount of entertaining stuff that happened this week, that shouldn't be a difficult task (aside from the typing part :-P).<br /> <br />Monday, I'm not even gonna bother writing about because it was pretty worthless/frustrating haha. We were supposed to have a few appointments during the day that fell through, but still pulled time out of our P-day, so that night after (a failed dinner appointment), we decided to take advantage of our p-day time and catch up on some much needed R&R to get the batteries charged up for the week.<br /> <br />Tuesday proved to be an eventful day haha. We decided to spend the majority of the day in Canby and try to contact a couple of potential investigators as well as knock for a few hours. One of the places we stopped at was the house of a kid named Danny that we had met a week or two ago. Unfortunately, he wasn't there, and there was some super paisa guy who was too lazy to even get off the couch to say hello to us. In spite of this though, we talked to him and tried to get him to open up. We were a little worried about talking to him because the rest of his family belongs to the "Luz del Mundo" church (an apostate branch of OUR church that got its start in Mexico), and they're not exactly friendly with the Mormon missionaries at times haha. The sweet thing that happened though was that he ended up being completely golden! We told him we were missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints, and he said "another church? There are so many nowadays, and I don't understand why. From what I've studied, I know that there has to be one true one, but I don't know how I'll ever end up finding it. I know it can't be the Luz del Mundo because of the things they do, and it's DEFINITEY not the Catholics... I just wish I knew how to find it." Like I said earlier: golden. We told him we knew which one he was looking for and how he could find it. We had a really good lesson with him about the great apostasy and restoration of the one true gospel. A couple of times he tried to bring up some "money" questions to get bashy with us, but the spirit was so strong as we taught and testified to him that he couldn't cause any contention... it was cool! Oh, so that you know, "money" questions are the ones you hear from different churches: for the Catholics, it's "do you believe in the virgin Mary?" With the non-denominational Christians, it's "are you saved?" With the Jehovah's Witnesses, it's "what is the name of God?" and with the Baptists, it's "in what name do you baptize?" Yeah. Money questions to start contention haha. Like I said though, with the spirit that was there, it wasn't possible to get bashy, and he ended up accepting to let us come back. He even committed to read and pray about the book of Mormon!<br />Later that night, we had a little lesson with Jorge where we just hashed out what it was that we were gonna need to cover for his interview, and it turned out well. He's a typical nine year-old as far as attention span goes, but we've found some ways to keep him interested haha... you'll see how later on in the email :-)<br /> <br />Wednesday, we had a completely wide open day after district meeting in Woodburn, so we decided to take a trip out to Oregon City and try to find some Hispanics because up to this point, we've had no investigators out there, or even people to visit really. The thing that made me want to was the fact that our strongest members live out there haha. Anyway, it was fun! We drove all over while doing some racial profiling, looking for Dish 500, shoes outside the doors, spider-man bikes, curtains in the windows, more cars than occupants in the houses, F-150's with lots of chrome, bright yellow, pink, and blue houses, etc.. We ended up finding some pretty promising places, and decided to knock in one of them. It was kind of interesting how we found it, and even more interesting the prompting that came to knock it when we did, because we were supposed to be heading to dinner within ten minutes so we could arrive on time. There was a row of townhouses that looked potentially paisa, but after four doors of angry white people, we were about to call it quits, but I decided that there was one more door we should knock. Across the street, kitty-corner to where we were, there was a house that I felt we should knock. All things considered, it looked like a VERY white house. Newspaper on the driveway (Hispanics do NOT get the newspaper), Chevy truck, Nissan altima (not chromed/riced out), No curtains (slat-blinds actually), and a plain-Jane earthy green and tan color combo on the house. Nevertheless, we knocked it, and lo and behold! A Hispanic lady took one look through the screen door at us and said "come in!" We were a little confused because we hadn't even said anything yet, so we said "are you sure?" and she said yes, yes come on in! Sit down!" Turns out that this lady was a member who had been baptized in Mexico more than 15 years ago, and when she had come to the states with her non-member hubby, had lost contact with the church. She lived with her husband on a piece of land out in the boonies east of Gresham, and he was a total jerk who never let her leave the place I guess, so she had no contact with anyone who was LDS. Anyway, long story short, she ended up divorcing from him because he was abusive and moving in with her son and daughter in-law a year ago. Recently, she had been thinking about her church days and how she wished she had given her son an opportunity to learn the gospel.... then we knocked her door. Hooray for direction from the Spirit! We're set up to go back over and talk with her and her son this coming week, so hopefully it'll bode well for baptisms in the future.<br /> <br />Thursday was a freaking sweet day! So, the first thing that happened: I finished the book of Mormon again... absolutely awesome as always. The thing that made it better was that we were going to the temple that day, so I decided to try something. Instead of just saying a prayer and asking if the book was true, I could do it in the temple! I must say, it was definitely a good call. If you get good reception to hear answers to prayers by living the commandments, it must be like standing next to the cell tower when you go to the temple, because holy cow! I definitely got my answer. The book of Mormon is true. Jesus is the Christ. Joseph Smith was called to translate it by God. The church is true. I love this church!<br />To top it all off? We decided to go to Quizno's after our session, and someone paid for our lunch! It's like the cherry on top, right? haha<br /> <br />Friday turned out to be quite epic as well. We went out knocking in those streets we discovered in Oregon City on Wednesday, and it turned out to be a very good call, because we had some sweet lessons! The first one that we knocked into that was awesome was actually a Muslim guy named Ali (go figure, right?) To preface this a little bit, I've gotta backtrack a couple of weeks. So remember how I said I bought a Qur'an at the DI that one P-day? Well to entertain myself sometimes during lunches or at night after planning, I started reading a little bit just to kind of see what the big differences are and where we coincide, and it's pretty dang interesting. Fun facts for the day: Did you know that in the Muslim religion, they believe in a pre-mortal life, a code of health similar to the Word of Wisdom, that God the Father and Jesus Christ are two separate people, in degrees of heaven, and that scripture AND prophets are both important keys to guidance back to God's presence? They even believe in repentance and having what you do in this life "restored to you in the resurrection" when you're judged by God. Yeah... we're definitely a lot closer in beliefs than people think.<br />Anyway, when we knocked into this Ali guy and got to talking, he asked if we were Christians. I responded that yes, but not what most would consider "traditional Christians" which sparked him to ask what made us non-traditional. I responded that we were different in that we actually believed that God and Jesus Christ were separate individuals, that Christianity as most people practice it today is not the kind that Christ himself established, and that we believed in a pre-mortal life, degrees of heaven, and in modern-day prophets that go in accordance with the scriptures. He was kind of taken aback when I spouted all of this to him, and he said "please, come in and tell me about this." We went in and ended up having an hour-long conversation with the guy about how we were close in what we believed, and how we recognized that prophets are extremely important. Now, the Muslims believe that Jesus was just a prophet-- not the son of God, and I think even that he didn't pay for our sins. They also believe that Muhammad was the last prophet and that there aren't any more. We talked about how it's difficult to know that Jesus Christ was really the son of God with only the bible as a witness of his divinity, but that the book of Mormon was an additional evidence that he really was the Christ. Talk about a sweet lesson! Holy crap! That morning in my personal study, I had read a couple of verses in 3Nephi 10 that I was able to share with him (divine guidance on this stuff, I'm telling ya!) but here's the background, this is the chapter that talks about all the great disasters that happen as a sign of the death of Jesus Christ, and how it fulfills a lot of prophecies "of all the holy prophets":<br /> <br />"11 And thus far were the scriptures fulfilled which had been spoken by the prophets.<br /> <br />"12 And it was the more righteous part of the people who were saved, and it was they who received the prophets and stoned them not; and it was they who had not shed the blood of the saints, who were spared—<br /> <br />"13 And they were spared and were not sunk and buried up in the earth; and they were not drowned in the depths of the sea; and they were not burned by fire, neither were they fallen upon and crushed to death; and they were not carried away in the whirlwind; neither were they overpowered by the vapor of smoke and of darkness.<br /> <br />"14 And now, whoso readeth, let him understand; he that hath the scriptures, let him search them, and see and behold if all these deaths and destructions by fire, and by smoke, and by tempests, and by whirlwinds, and by the opening of the earth to receive them, and all these things are not unto the fulfilling of the prophecies of many of the holy prophets.<br /> <br />"15 Behold, I say unto you...many have testified of these things at the coming of Christ..."<br /> <br /> <br />After sharing this with him, We talked about the divine law of witnesses-- how that "out of the mouth of two or three witnesses shall the truth be established." #1: the Bible. #2: the Book of Mormon. #3: Thomas S. Monson. He was actually pretty pumped to hear about all of this, especially coming from the faction of Islam that he belongs to. There are two main divisions in the Muslim religion (didn't know you were in a religions of the world class did ya?): The Sunni and the Shia. The Sunni are kind of what you could compare "old school" Christian bible thumpers that believe that the bible (or Qur'an in their case) is it, whereas the Shia are almost like us, in that they believe in inspired modern-day guidance. Well, sort of. Anyway, because he's a Shiite (that's really what they're called haha) he's more open to the thought of modern-day prophets. We're procuring a copy of the book of Mormon in Arabic this week so that we can give it to him and hopefully have one more lesson with him before I take off... talk about a crazy lesson right?<br /><br />That night we had another lesson that maybe wasn't as doctrinally exciting, but it was pretty freakin' fun! We taught Jorge the restoration, but we did it in a little bit different fashion than we normally would. We came to the conclusion that we needed to do something fun to make it more attention-getting for him, and at first we weren't quite sure how to, but then it dawned on us... we could teach the great apostasy by using some little cups set up in a pyramid to represent the teachings/organization of the original church of Christ. We soon came to the realization, however, that we had NO cups to build our little pyramid with. What we did have though was a montage of Diet Coke cans in the window that were already stacked up in pyramid form, so what did we do? Oh yes. We did... we labeled Diet Coke cans to create our pre-apostasy original church! :-) haha. Never did I think that Diet Coke could be useful in teaching the restoration, but little Jorge understood PERFECTLY after we showed him how it worked haha. Pretty sweet right? It was a good way to end the night for sure<br /><br />Saturday turned out to be an all-day service extravaganza with president Martinez. We spent the entire day helping him out at the house and talking about who we were teaching, as well as starting a revolution in the branch to get the members excited and progressing. We started off by helping him haul off a cinder block wall and throw it into the hole of some random farm that was looking for fill. That wasn't too big of a job, but then the real work began. We got back to his house and came to find out he wanted us to help him put together a shed in his backyard. It had originally been owned by another member of the branch who recently moved out, and so they disassembled it into the four walls and two sections for the roof, but president had to build the foundation and floor for it at his house. It was an adventure putting it together-- lemme tell ya haha. It wasn't exactly square, and the walls weren't exactly plumb either, so it made putting the roof on a major adventure... especially since it wasn't a tin roof. This was a legitimate roof with asphalt shingles already installed on it, so each of the two sections weighed probably 250 or 300 pounds apiece. What we would do is all three of us would lift up a section from one side, lean it against the rickety wall (held to the other two walls by three wood screws...yikes!) until it was about to tip to the other side, then while one person held the piece from the outside, the other two would run to the inside and catch it and pull it up towards the center of the peak of the roof. This wouldn't be so sketchy, but seriously, there was NOTHING holding up that frickin' roof aside from a couple of wood screws and some 2x4's haha. Long story short: We got it up and screwed in place, but it's what elder Hernandez has termed a "Mexicanada" which translated to English would be the equivalent of grandpa Mooney's endearing term of "you-know-what" -rigged haha. <br />Luckily, we were able to make it out of there without having the dang thing fall on us/kill us, and only received some scrapes and bumps... oh, and a nail that stuck through the bottom of my sandal and into my foot...youch! It looked pretty funny, but it sure didn't feel that way! Oh well haha stupid is as stupid does right?<br />The cool thing about finishing off that day was the lesson we had with Elisa. We were finally able to sit down and talk to her after almost a week of total silence from her. She has been praying, and trying to be better about doing what she's supposed to, and we were able to talk a little bit more in-depth about baptism. She asked us what the requirements were for it (like if she needed to study the bible or take a test or something), so we talked to her about us teaching her and getting interviewed and she said, "oh, well if that's all I need to do, I'd be okay with that." She was feeling a little leery about getting baptized next week, and in all honesty, she won't be ready, so we pushed back the baptismal date for the 16th of October where I'll just happen to be to baptize her :-) Sweet right? I really hope it goes through because she's really a great lady and would be so happy if she just "gets" it.<br /><br />Sunday, we had quite a few people show up to the branch... more than I've seen in five weeks here, and the family that I laid the law down on last week ended up showing up for church! Other than that, I played the piano again, and it made me kind of sad to know that was my last normal Sunday as a missionary. It's okay though, because we ended up having like a five hour block haha. What they did was the normal three hour block, a mix and mingle to eat and talk for an hour, then they called a special branch meeting where we were able to hash out the revolution :-) Remember how I said we discussed the revolution during our Saturday service extravaganza a little bit? Yeah... it's happening now! During that meeting, Presidente Martinez talked about how the branch has been stagnating and how he is worried that they'll dissolve it if they don't get more done and start growing soon. He was open to suggestions, so everyone started giving their opinions about how home teaching needed to get done, how families needed to read their scriptures, how people needed to come to church, help each other, blah blah blah. While all this was going on, a thought came to me (like I said, CAME to me-- this was not something my little noggin is capable of coming up with on its own) and I raised my hand. At this point in time, they were complaining about how it was so difficult to set up to do home/visiting teaching because their companions could never find time and the families they were assigned to could never set up a time to do it either. President Martinez called on me and out came the rebuking :-P. I said "it's understandable, and yes, it's difficult to set up to get your visits done, but let me ask you a question: if a close friend called you right now and asked if they could stop by and talk for 15 minutes sometime in the next week, would you make time for them to come by? Absolutely." I then said "would you like to know the real reason why getting your visits done and getting people to come back to church is so difficult? It's because you don't really care that much about the other members of the branch. You aren't really friends with each other, and that's what kills it. Yes, those of you that come to church have testimonies that the gospel is true, but you look at the branch members that surround you as your co-workers instead of as friends-- or maybe better said-- your brothers and sisters. The moment that you really come to love and care about each other instead of criticizing or just 'doing your duty' is when this branch will begin to truly thrive and grow." <br />Talk about a rebuking, right? I felt really bad saying it, and honestly, I don't know everything that's going on in the branch, but from what I've seen and what I've felt from different members in their interactions, that's exactly the vibe I get. The reaction of the branch was pretty interesting when I said it, because up until this point, hands were going up, comments being made, points, counter-points, etc.. Once that was said though, it went really quiet. Presidente Martinez said "you know, he's absolutely right. Elder, thank you for pointing it out, because it's something that none of us have been willing to acknowledge. What do we do to change that?" <br />The revolutionary idea that they're going to implement is a branch family home-evening every Tuesday night from 7:00-9:00 where there will be a potluck dinner and spiritual thought by the missionaries, followed by games so that we can get them to be closer friends with them. We're just going to open that night having three families assigned to bring a dish (so at least three families show up) and then inviting friends and other families to come and join the fun... Revolution!<br /><br />Coming to the close of my mission, there is one last thought that I wanted to share that came from a scripture I read. Doctrine and Covenants 30:11 Here, the Lord is giving a commandment to Peter Whitmer as to what he should do. Up to this point, he has been faithful to the commandments that he's received, and is coming to the close of one mission, but is now sent out to another one, and it seems like it applies pretty well to where I find myself right now, so I took it to heart.<br /><br />"11 And your whole labor shall be in Zion, with all your soul, from henceforth; yea, you shall ever open your mouth in my cause, not fearing what man can do, for I am with you. Amen."<br /><br />From what I've put into it, who I've met, what I've learned, and who I've been able to help change and grow, I realize now that this simple commandment to Peter Whitmer applies to me perfectly. For these past two years, I've been trying to be obedient, love those around me, share the gospel, set a good example, serve the church with the time and talents that the Lord has given me. Because of this, I know that even though the stake president take my missionary tag off (and I'll probably cry like a baby), it doesn't change much. Being a full time missionary? Yes, that's a rare opportunity that I'm glad I took advantage of. However, being a missionary is part of your baptismal covenant, and unfortunately, I didn't realize that before the mission. Knowing what I know now though, I know that even if I don't have the mantle of being a full-timer, I still have the opportunity (and duty, actually) to share the gospel and build up the Lord's kingdom on earth after the mission. This is one thing that actually makes me look forward to go home. I know that with the distractions of life, it will be more difficult to find opportunities to do so, but I'm just glad I have the rest of my life to enjoy the gospel, share it with those I can, and someday build up my own family on the foundation that the gospel provides.<br /><br />One of the last things I wanted to include here (like parting words of a dying person--or missionary for that matter) is something that I've come to realize in serving for these past two years. Going on a mission isn't a time of hiding the "real you" to put on the "missionary mask" and planning on going back to "normal life" and the "real you" afterward. You can't do that. It's impossible. Well, you may think you can (and try to), but if you do, you're an idiot and will soon find out you can't. Life will never be the same after going on a mission-- whether you come home early or return with honor, you're forever changed. Whether that's for the good or bad is up to you. If you do it right, you can be the "real you" as a missionary and avoid putting on the mask. As you serve as an obedient, diligent missionary and strive to follow Christ's example, you go through a refinement process where you continue being "you," but discarding the parts of you that aren't Christ-like. As this happens, you become the best version of yourself-- all the good without the bad. <br /><br />I'm excited to be able to apply the things I've learned in these two priceless years to the rest of my life. To be like every other cliché mission-serving member of this church, these really have been "the best two years" so far. There are a lot more things to look forward to in life, but I'm grateful to have this as a source of strength, experience, and happiness to draw from for years to come. One thing that I should probably put on here with a little asterisk next to it is the "best version of yourself" part. I say that because I'm still working on that version of me, and there's a LONG way to go! Please forgive me if I'm not perfect when I get home... just like everyone else, I make mistakes. I'm not saying this as an excuse to fall off the deep end, but I don't want people thinking that I'm one of those who says the word "darn" once a week so that they don't immediately get translated into the celestial realm haha. <br /><br />Anyway, Mom, Dad, Katie Jo, and everyone else who might chance to read this, I am so grateful for all of your love and support during this wonderful mission, and I am SO EXCITED TO SEE YOU! See you next Monday! :-)<br /><br />All my love,<br /><br />Elder Kurt Kay MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-12545789908395595102011-09-19T15:06:00.010-06:002011-09-19T15:14:19.466-06:00Two weeks and counting......<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbwUxw0-k0RSy2sfu1ucDo9SzqeTtEvGSELmxagpUWWcjkXPH8PPgs6ax9TGTSQV5FfvbBEo1tciCS7ZO1yQA8m-saYiCZ42KMIONCF5_-jWVQoCD-MCDWvskkRLM2Zqjfai32fTfQQtY/s1600/IMG_1100%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbwUxw0-k0RSy2sfu1ucDo9SzqeTtEvGSELmxagpUWWcjkXPH8PPgs6ax9TGTSQV5FfvbBEo1tciCS7ZO1yQA8m-saYiCZ42KMIONCF5_-jWVQoCD-MCDWvskkRLM2Zqjfai32fTfQQtY/s400/IMG_1100%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654181976973070594" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRaDwIu15PxRIv118nR1rHpsZ1FGJOPDXc3F_XcggvYZ4aIB-d_L38p8FJqPLOxjSUjK3vi1oxarwZDiGeXwdpQp_SQ64Oc79xf6ATK05R9Wrk7yOqPOOBGj_kPkoOP5KuQYayPUTOXO8/s1600/IMG_1104%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRaDwIu15PxRIv118nR1rHpsZ1FGJOPDXc3F_XcggvYZ4aIB-d_L38p8FJqPLOxjSUjK3vi1oxarwZDiGeXwdpQp_SQ64Oc79xf6ATK05R9Wrk7yOqPOOBGj_kPkoOP5KuQYayPUTOXO8/s400/IMG_1104%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654181898946720674" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlXdfcGaaPhyphenhyphen8Bh4zw-t4YUISTZFVSFuxU2mBPiuyqBQUthkaH_yDSh3JyMAbm_JM7b7GSCJ7zT4wlD3XZV5XhBN-F1lPIjCzeH5CxzowU_E-Io03yeW6PCNefi58UIspUf7-zLFoY4c4/s1600/IMG_1109%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlXdfcGaaPhyphenhyphen8Bh4zw-t4YUISTZFVSFuxU2mBPiuyqBQUthkaH_yDSh3JyMAbm_JM7b7GSCJ7zT4wlD3XZV5XhBN-F1lPIjCzeH5CxzowU_E-Io03yeW6PCNefi58UIspUf7-zLFoY4c4/s400/IMG_1109%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654181820457323106" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmLBAWywqGH9V4bYUQ8bXqBe8cyAzwrjmywOcaMw65IZ6hO6atPLRBcE3XqpMqMJkI8hn3gya9Z2Qd7A6p0t-kXyO4XP3TtfgePTRCFgSRyPT02mHjGGPXf40U5z6BPpKjifOfL1ek0Rk/s1600/IMG_1119%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmLBAWywqGH9V4bYUQ8bXqBe8cyAzwrjmywOcaMw65IZ6hO6atPLRBcE3XqpMqMJkI8hn3gya9Z2Qd7A6p0t-kXyO4XP3TtfgePTRCFgSRyPT02mHjGGPXf40U5z6BPpKjifOfL1ek0Rk/s400/IMG_1119%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654181722814999634" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCc2yxhlqGKHLcKPRIZRlUjTXjw10B9xlzE69n08QUP4PrOaKBc9gk6UAe3RqoNVS3O7p2-Bu4jZbKt2DMksypZBsWPnCCPAohdHVZuAAIVLa8eVMVhmto1v9OjuWs3GnyVvW8ycqTCnU/s1600/IMG_6057%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCc2yxhlqGKHLcKPRIZRlUjTXjw10B9xlzE69n08QUP4PrOaKBc9gk6UAe3RqoNVS3O7p2-Bu4jZbKt2DMksypZBsWPnCCPAohdHVZuAAIVLa8eVMVhmto1v9OjuWs3GnyVvW8ycqTCnU/s400/IMG_6057%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654181637879268594" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr6O620VgzEuPjt4oi3mWAJY6YjKqrHnLfIJ9ZX-jY8pwMpi3W3Dm3wklH2fC7D9KHNuGviN9-1_nURfAoXzG-s-3ynPdGyAALq71wi_yGxC3IVDsIv9cPclB2sY9Jb4KeiaX9ifLpY8g/s1600/IMG_6078%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr6O620VgzEuPjt4oi3mWAJY6YjKqrHnLfIJ9ZX-jY8pwMpi3W3Dm3wklH2fC7D9KHNuGviN9-1_nURfAoXzG-s-3ynPdGyAALq71wi_yGxC3IVDsIv9cPclB2sY9Jb4KeiaX9ifLpY8g/s400/IMG_6078%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654181552990417442" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNc8FrF5JOdWMziNrDNFmsngJcGb42owTzPaoGYszRn5gYFayk1IIjelrTKzPZEK7wTbJWlBNjOLn8_erVwf-NottHGJXRgoofjPUGvrm5BLquoqonCNruLGDkXLVHe4ZJ9wRplFQ_FU/s1600/IMG_6080%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNc8FrF5JOdWMziNrDNFmsngJcGb42owTzPaoGYszRn5gYFayk1IIjelrTKzPZEK7wTbJWlBNjOLn8_erVwf-NottHGJXRgoofjPUGvrm5BLquoqonCNruLGDkXLVHe4ZJ9wRplFQ_FU/s400/IMG_6080%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654181432242346978" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfhdLhMnQ6s-sEUPaZ4jyRBHZILd8OUjVw-xXzIDhnVP5XInQtT-yWLb1BZSKdUSZloXo1vL90-dXltv0ariOruqkZMflxv8lMRBY6Wh908tp8VCtv14pU0fDzwiJ624jVIQqUMyfhEhA/s1600/IMG_6083%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfhdLhMnQ6s-sEUPaZ4jyRBHZILd8OUjVw-xXzIDhnVP5XInQtT-yWLb1BZSKdUSZloXo1vL90-dXltv0ariOruqkZMflxv8lMRBY6Wh908tp8VCtv14pU0fDzwiJ624jVIQqUMyfhEhA/s400/IMG_6083%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654181344907248706" /></a><br />Dearest Mommy,<br /><br />All right, let's get into the events of the week... I'd like to<br />respond to your whole email, but also give you the blog material so<br />you can enjoy these last couple of emails... it's been a pretty good<br />week, so here's the update:<br /><br />Monday: We had a blastie on P-day as we spent it with the Gresham<br />English zone ... elder Anderson and my son Rivera are both there, so<br />it made playing dodge ball with them super fun! The one problem is<br />that I totally threw out my arm playing, so I couldn't sleep on my<br />left side that night or the following haha. Such is life with a torn<br />rotator cuff :-P Aside from playing dodge ball and laughing it up with<br />the boys, we also decided to scoot down 82nd avenue and pick up some<br />books from the DI and then do some blous-- browsing around the<br />Salvation Army monstrosity of a store that they have right down the<br />street. At the DI, I ended up picking up an apocryphal new testament<br />along with a copy of the Qu'ran and... ah crap there was one other<br />that was really cheap that I couldn't pass up. From there, at the<br />Salvation Army, I found some SAWEET deals on a pair of Express slacks<br />($10.00), a never worn Nordstrom tailored dress shirt ($7.00), as well<br />as an Izod oxford shirt ($free.99).<br />The really exciting thing about Monday, however, happened that night.<br />So there's a family here in the Molalla branch that is super strong--<br />the Garcia family. The whole family is baptized minus the grandpa<br />(he's a super paisa catholico) and the sister-in-law of the branch<br />president. She's a pretty tough egg to crack... other elders have<br />tried in the past to get her baptized, but she ends up shutting down<br />because she feels pressured by the missionaries and the family at the<br />same time. As president Martinez said, "she's a stone." However,<br />what I've come to realize in my lifetime is that stones sink pretty<br />well when you throw them in the water. :-) Anyway, back to the story.<br /> So we went over there to try to catch her home after work and talk to<br />her a little bit. Turns out that we found her in the house, and she<br />even let us teach her after talking for a bit! She's facing a lot of<br />difficulties in life right now... her kids are a mess (one just went<br />to Juvie(sp?), another sells drugs, and the other one is a heavy<br />drinker), and she's dealt with a lot of crap from her ex...ummm....<br />partners? She was never married, so partners is what we'll go with<br />here. Anyway, because of her difficulties, she said she didn't feel<br />like she even knew if God existed or not, so how was she going to be<br />baptized into a church. Because of this, we took it all the way back<br />to basics and talked about the story of king Lamoni and how Ammon<br />taught him about the concept of God and how to come to know he exists.<br /> We shared from Alma 18 his little experience, and she seemed pretty<br />stoked on finding out about it... she was also excited about asking<br />God if He had forgiven her instead of just saying that she was sorry<br />in prayer. We set up another lesson with her for Wednesday, and I'll<br />tell ya how it went.<br /><br />Tuesday was a day full of door-knocking and contacting in Canby. we<br />found some good potential investigators, but didn't really have any<br />awesome lessons until later that night. We went to dinner with a<br />less-active family, and it was weird because when we got there, there<br />was a guy who I knew looked familiar, and we got to talking... come to<br />find out that he's the brother-in-law of Laura Gutierrez, one of my<br />old investigators from Woodburn! It's just funny because I was<br />looking through my journal the other day, and I found an entry where<br />we were teaching Laura, and he was there. The thing that was sweet is<br />that he bore testimony of how he knew he wasn't living up to the<br />standards, but that the church was true, and that Laura could find out<br />by reading and praying about the book of Mormon. Anyway, it was cool<br />because in the dinner we got to give his family a kick in the butt for<br />not coming to church and not reading their scriptures... hopefully<br />it helps and they can get active (although they didn't come on<br />Sunday... GRRR!).<br /><br />Wednesday we had a leadership training meeting... nothing too exciting<br />there haha. However, that night was sweet because we had an epic<br />lesson with Elisa! So, remember how she had a bunch of problems that<br />she was facing in life? Well, she decided to give Dr. Feelgood a call<br />and hash out ALL of her problems and pull ALL of the skeletons out of<br />her monstrous walk-in-sized closet... hoo buddy this woman has had an<br />interesting life. To be honest, she's brought most of it on herself,<br />but the basic gist was that she didn't understand why all these bad<br />things happened to her, and what her purpose here on earth was. We<br />ended up turning it into an epic lesson/counseling session talking<br />about the plan of salvation, agency, and baptism. The short version<br />is that the Spirit was really strong and she now has a baptismal date<br />for the 2nd of October. Booyeah! :-)<br /><br />Thursday we shot the ENTIRE day with studies, planning, and going out<br />to the Toyota dealership in Beaverton to get the 20,000 mile check-up<br />on our little Corolla... we even overlapped our driving/sitting time<br />with planning and were still there til about 5:00...ridiculous! It's<br />okay though. We still managed to get in a little bit of knocking<br />before heading to dinner with president Martinez that night. We did a<br />sort of family home evening with them, and it was pretty fun.<br /><br />Friday, we did some service that at first I thought was going to suck<br />royally, but turned out to be pretty sweet. So the elders here<br />volunteer one Friday a month at the Canby senior center to help<br />prepare, serve, and clean up a lunch that they put on, and it is<br />awesome! The people who do service there were so down-to-earth and<br />kind-hearted... it makes me want to find somewhere that I can do that<br />once in a while when I get home... it's a good experience for sure!<br />There's something to be said about giving of yourself freely that<br />sparks something in those you come in contact with... it's almost<br />contagious in that it makes you want to pass it on to someone else.<br />It kind of set the tone for the rest of the day for us. Afterward, we<br />went out knocking and found some sweet potential investigators, and we<br />even gave out a couple copies of the book of Mormon to some promising<br />ones.<br /><br />Saturday we had a branch party for Mexican independence day, and it<br />turned out to be quite a riot. We started it off with a prayer, then<br />decided that we were gonna sing the Mexican national anthem... there<br />was one problem though: NOBODY IN THE BRANCH KNEW THE SONG!!!<br />How sad is that!? A bunch of Mexicans that don't know their own<br />national anthem haha. Luckily, we had a computer in the church were<br />we could print off the lyrics... from there, we found ONE person who<br />knew the tune-- an 84 year-old man that everyone calls "abuelito".<br />honestly, I don't understand a dang word he says, so hearing him sing<br />out the national anthem along with the rest of us sounded quite<br />comical haha. We finally got through it and got to chowing down on a<br />BOATLOAD of Mexican food. It. Was. Awesome. I love this branch.<br /><br />Sunday was pretty sweet as well. So, of all subjects in the church,<br />the gathering of Israel seems to be the one that makes everyone get<br />this look on their face that says "I'm in a stupor of though" and<br />their eyes sort of glaze over. However, talking about it this Sunday<br />was pretty frickin' sweet because of a verse that we read. The basic<br />gist of the gathering of Israel is that those who are "of the house of<br />Israel" (a.k.a. you and I as members of the church) are supposed to<br />help EVERYONE else recognize that they are a part of, or should become<br />a part of that club-- I mean, house. Anyway, the thing that made it<br />interesting was a verse in the bible from James chapter one. Okay,<br />almost every latter-day saint knows that James 1:5 is the "if any of<br />you lack wisdom, let him ask of God" scripture, because that's what<br />separates us from every other church. You might even say it's our<br />"money" scripture. Instead of proving ourselves with verses from the<br />bible, prayer is the key to revelation so you can know the church is<br />true. What struck me was who James directed this little piece of<br />counsel to... here's what the verse says:<br />"1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the<br />twelve tribes which are scattered abroad..."<br />It's just kinda cool that as the only church who really focuses on<br />this verse, it's all geared toward helping to gather the 12 tribes of<br />Israel... anyway... shake off that stupor of thought and rub your eyes<br />so you're not all glazed over, I'm done haha.<br />Aside from that on Sunday, I was called on to play the piano again,<br />and oh my gosh it's so stressful! I didn't make any major mistakes<br />(thank goodness), but I really thing I'm gonna need some therapy to<br />get over the anxiety that comes from playing the piano haha. Talking<br />to our chorister about it, she said "you know, I can tell that you<br />hate playing the piano in public just by the way you played that last<br />hymn. Even if you hate it though, you've got to get over it so you<br />can bless other peoples' lives with your talent." I told her I might<br />need some counseling to get over the stress and anxiety, and she<br />directed me heavenward saying "well, you've got all the counsel you<br />need right up there." Kind of a slap in the face, but it's funny how<br />you can tell that the Lord is talking to you sometimes. I just hate to<br />think that it means more practicing, more stressing, and a lot of<br />counseling haha. Thank you for teaching me how to play the piano<br />mommy! :-)<br />The only other exciting thing that happened after that was that we<br />helped get someone's ox out of the mire... the former president of the<br />branch is moving into his new house, but needs to finish painting and<br />putting the floors in... and they barely got the drywall finished, so<br />it's been an adventure since they've gotta be there soon. Anyway, we<br />got to doing some crazy frantic painting, which seemed a lot like<br />having too many cooks in the kitchen since there were probably 20 of<br />us in there painting like mad... paint flying everywhere, brushes,<br />rollers, and bright Mexican reds, yellows, and blues haha. That house<br />is looking pretty legit now!<br />The best part of all of it? There's a kid, the son of a member, who<br />isn't baptized, and he just came up to us while we were there and<br />said, you have to teach me stuff so I can be baptized, right? We said<br />yes, and he said "ok cause I want to start tomorrow. Can you guys<br />come over?" *PLOP!* two week kiddy DUNK! haha. He's a little stud,<br />and his family is sweet... they just need to get a little bit more<br />active. it's just funny because we've been trying to set something up<br />with them for the entire time I've been here, but to no avail.. ah<br />well at least we know now haha. Chalk up one more :-)<br /><br />Okay, so I'm all sorts of fried on typing now, and it's time to go<br />enjoy the day now that the sun is trying to come out. I love you guys<br />so much, and I'm way excited to see you soon :-)<br /><br />All my love,<br /><br />Elder Kurt Kay MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-87139962907177551732011-09-12T14:18:00.004-06:002011-09-12T14:22:36.315-06:00"Make some good waves in the pool before you get out..."Dearest Mommy,<br /><br />Holy cow it has been HOT this week! It's seriously been the weirdest<br />thing ever... every single day has been over 90 except for today. The<br />clouds finally rolled in and we're enjoying some cooler Oregon weather<br />finally... kinda weird to hear that from me eh? It sounds like you<br />guys had a real blast down there at the beach... that's awesome! The<br />nightly jam session sounds like it would have been the funnest part<br />for sure... we might have to make that a tradition along with the<br />morning devotionals when I get back... it'd be fun :-)<br /><br />So this week has been a little bit crazy with all that has happened,<br />but it's nothing unusual when you're working in a Spanish branch haha.<br />You already heard about Monday in last week's email, so let's start<br />with Tuesday. It was a wide open day with no set appointments, so we<br />decided to knock the heck out of Canby because there is a boat-load of<br />Hispanics all over the place. The only downside was that it was HOT!<br />Holy cow it was blazing to the point where there was nobody in the<br />street to talk to, so we just knocked, knocked, knocked all day long.<br />The funny part was that we really didn't get sick of it... we made it<br />fun! Ya know, when you're doing everything in your power to help<br />others come to Christ, and you show love toward those you come in<br />contact with, it doesn't matter what they say to you or how they<br />react. You know the Lord is happy with what you're doing, and that<br />you're being guided by Him to touch their lives and try to brighten<br />their day. We ended up finding a couple of great potentials that we<br />set up appointments with, but didn't have any lessons... the whole<br />day!<br />Because of that, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice carne asada<br />with some home-made green salsa with avocado. Oh yeah, our dinner<br />canceled on us haha. So anyway, in spite of the adversary's best<br />efforts to make our day miserable, we had a total blast and were able<br />to keep our spirits high.<br /><br />Wednesday, we had our district meeting out in Newberg again, which<br />went well... although driving out there is a total day killer for the<br />most part. After getting back at around 3:00 in the afternoon or so,<br />we did some knocking and found a sweet guy named Rodolfo. He's met<br />missionaries before, and even had a book of Mormon, but has never<br />actually read the thing or understood the purpose of it, so we had a<br />nice little restoration lesson and topped it off with personal<br />revelation. Long of the short of it: he's gonna read the book and<br />pray about it :-).<br />After that, to finish off the night we had a lesson with a lady named<br />Jessica, and wouldn't ya know it... we got on the subject of all the<br />CRAZY stuff that people tell us as missionaries and the amount of<br />counseling that we end up doing, and then she said, "well let me talk<br />to you about a situation that I'm having." Oh. My. Goodness... Dr.<br />Feelgood strikes again! I don't wanna get into the details of it and<br />publish it here on the internet, but my oh my it makes for a good<br />story when I get home.<br /><br />Thursday, Elder Hernandez was scheduled for an interview with<br />president Morby, so we had the opportunity to go to the Woodburn<br />district meeting with those elders... and ended up being there almost<br />all day haha. It was such a sweet experience to be able to talk with<br />those elders while they were there, and then to sit down with sister<br />Morby and chat with her for almost an hour... she is freakin' awesome!<br />She's actually good friends with the Travellers from St. George Mom,<br />so maybe you'd know her? I don't know... it's a stretch, but ya never<br />know :-P<br />Anyway, after talking to sister Morby for a while, I also had a little<br />chat with president Morby in an informal kind of interview, and it was<br />sweet. He's looking to make elder Hernandez the district leader after<br />I leave, and he also wants me to do some training with the elders in<br />this district so that they can be better trainers... kind of apply my<br />old fogey missionary wisdom to them I guess... not sure how wise that<br />wisdom really is, but hopefully it helps. The biggest thing they need<br />is help learning Spanish haha.<br />One thing that was cool at the end of that meeting though, happened as<br />we were walking to our cars. President Morby said "Elder Mooney, you<br />have four weeks left as a full-time missionary. They always say that<br />a baptism is the crowning achievement of an elder's mission... see if<br />you can get one right as you go home, so you can go out with a bang?"<br />We're doing our darndest to make that one happen now :-)<br />As far as doing our darndest, we had a sweet experience later that day<br />that might be related. we prayed before going out knocking doors to<br />be able to find the elect and help them to find the truth in our<br />message. Nothing amazing or out of the ordinary in a prayer, but<br />maybe with a little bit more "oomph" behind it with four weeks to go.<br />Anyway, we went to this complex, knocked the first door and met a lady<br />who was a less-active member... who was now a baptized Jehovah's<br />Witness! NOOOOOOO!!!!! Talk about turning away from the light!<br />However, the second door we knocked happened to be answered by her 45<br />year-old daughter who lives next door. Now, she's kind of a disaster<br />and has definitely lived a pretty hard life, but the thing that was<br />sweet was that we came to find out that she was trying to find THE<br />church. Not just A church, but the right one. She recognized that<br />there are a lot of them, they all say they're right, and that there<br />has to be a right answer-- none of that "all churches are good" crap.<br />The best part about it was that she said that the JW's probably<br />weren't right haha. She really wants to get to know God and live her<br />life in accordance to His will, so teaching her the restoration was<br />absolutely MONEY! We're way excited to keep teaching her and<br />hopefully she can be "the one." The best part about that lesson?<br />She's living with a less-active member who wants to come back to<br />church and just happened to pray about it that week. Coincidence? I<br />think not! I'll keep you guys posted on what happens.<br /><br />Friday was a full day of knocking once again, and it was sweet! There<br />were some decent appointments set up for next week, but the best part<br />about it were the two funny things that happened:<br />1: so there we were, out knocking doors at this super ghetto<br />apartment complex. We knocked this one door, no answer. We knocked<br />it again, and didn't get a response, so we decided to ring the<br />doorbell. Now, it's not one of those that's wired to the house...<br />it's one that you buy at Wal-Mart for ten bucks that has a remote<br />control doorbell that you stick on your front porch with double-sided<br />tape and then put the doorbell inside the house. anyway, this<br />particular doorbell was kind of falling off, and I, being the genius<br />that I am, decided to tug at it a little bit. It came right off in my<br />hand, and so after muttering "oh crap!" I then proceeded to press it<br />firmly back into place with the tape. It stayed there... for about<br />five seconds. Suddenly, this little dinger decided it had had enough,<br />and took a flying suicide leap off the side of the house as if<br />screaming "so long, cruel world!" as it plummeted toward the sidewalk.<br />I kinda felt like Ralphie off of 'A Christmas Story' when he drops<br />the hubcap full of lug-nuts and says "oooooohhhhh ffffffuuuuuudge!"<br />because it seemed to fall in slow motion, and when it hit the ground,<br />it didn't just hit and bounce--oh no... it exploded on impact! There<br />was a spring, the button popped off, the battery cover broke, and the<br />battery shot out as well. As soon as it happened, Hernandez and I<br />looked at each other for a split second, then we bailed to the next<br />door! Luckily there were privacy fences separating them, but gosh we<br />felt like such dorks afterward haha. The exciting life of a<br />missionary right?<br /><br />2: The other funny story was while we were driving trying to scope<br />out a good pocket of paisa where we could knock off this country road<br />just outside of Canby. we saw this really long, really straight road<br />with houses on either side of it just randomly, and decided to<br />investigate a little bit and see if some of the houses were paisa.<br />Upon driving in, though, we came to realize something... IT WAS A<br />FRIGGIN' AIRSTRIP! Holy crap! Not only that, but ALL the residents<br />in this cute little suburban (except not) neighborhood had huge<br />garages attached to their houses WITH PLANES IN THEM!!! There was a<br />pretty funny sign at the entrance that said "residents and guests<br />only... please yield to airplanes" Well der... what else are ya gonna<br />do? You'll have to see the picture cause it was kinda comical :-)<br /><br />Okay, so Saturday. We had a stake presidents breakfast out in Oregon<br />city, and it kinda made me sad... it was the last one of my mission!<br />Missions are full of "firsts" and "lasts," but for some reason, all<br />the lasts seem to be really, really depressing. This was a good one,<br />though. In every one of these meetings, a member of the mission<br />presidency comes, and in this area, president Stone is the<br />counselor-- the same one who did it while I was in Beaverton, and we<br />have a pretty good relationship. He was excited to see that I'd gone<br />back to Spanish, and more specifically in this area. The reason why<br />is that this area has kinda died off in the last year because of some<br />elders that were...well... less than obedient and less than skillful.<br />So, president Stone said, "I'm sad that you've only got a few weeks<br />left and a lot of work ahead of you...see if you can make some good<br />waves in the pool before you get out!" Does that mean do some repair<br />work?<br />Anyway, the only other exciting things that happened that day were<br />that we stole an organ from the English elders apartment, which was<br />definitely a good idea... I've missed playing music at nights after<br />planning, etc... like I said, we'll have to make it a tradition when I<br />get back :-)<br />I think by doing that, however, I shot myself in the foot, because<br />Sunday rolled around, and all of a sudden, EVERYONE knew that I play<br />the piano and can sing! Ridiculous! I had to play the piano for<br />Sunday school, teach the priesthood how to sing a hymn on pitch and in<br />rhythm, then play the intermediate and closing hymns in Sacrament<br />meeting! I guess I'll just have to start practicing now... do some<br />deathbed repentance on not utilizing my talents earlier on in the<br />mission haha.<br />So jumping back to the stake presidency breakfast comment from<br />president Stone, I've kinda come to the conclusion that on the mission<br />there are several different types of work: there's the work of<br />reaping, the work of sowing, the work of watering/weeding, and the<br />work of clearing the fields... Woodburn was a time of reaping, sowing<br />and watering, Beaverton of clearing the fields, Sherwood of reaping,<br />sowing, and watering. As for Molalla, I feel like there's a lot of<br />field clearing to be done... as well as sowing... and hopefully we can<br />make reaping a part of that process as well :-) But yeah, sometimes<br />you're planting and caring for seeds that will pay dividends in the<br />future, sometimes you're reaping the rewards of other elders' work,<br />and sometimes you're chopping down trees and digging out the stumps<br />that were left to grow by previous elders so that you can plow<br />straight furrows for the next ones who come along to plant. Looking<br />over the course of the mission, about a quarter of it has been<br />dedicated to doing the "clearing," and now that I'm here in Molalla, I<br />feel that maybe that's what I've been called to do. To be honest,<br />you'll hear no complaints about it. This place is awesome. The thing<br />that made it really interesting was that during Sunday school as I was<br />thinking about this to myself, we read a scripture that HAD to have<br />been the Lord trying to speak to me. it's in 1Corinthians 3:5-9<br />Sometimes you boo-hoo a little bit because you don't feel that you're<br />being effective as a missionary because you're not knocking 'em dead<br />with baptisms, but reading this gave me some comfort because it helps<br />you to recognize your role and who is really important in all of this:<br /><br />"5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye<br />believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?<br /><br />"6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.<br /><br />"7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that<br />watereth; but God that giveth the increase.<br /><br />"8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man<br />shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.<br /><br />"9 For we are labourers together with God..."<br /><br /><br /><br />The other one that kind makes me feel good is found in chapter one of<br />the same book :-)<br /><br />"17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not<br />with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none<br />effect.<br /><br />18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;<br />but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."<br /><br />To finish it off, it makes me think of our mission scripture as well as my own:<br /><br />3Nephi 5:13:<br />"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the son of God. I have been<br />called of Him to declare His word among His people, that they might<br />have everlasting life.<br /><br />Moroni 9:6<br />"And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor<br />diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought<br />under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this<br />tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all<br />righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God."<br /><br />I know to what I have been called and what I am to do. My only lament<br />is that I have so little time left to do it. I pray that the Lord<br />will continue to strengthen me as I come to the close of this<br />wonderful mission so that I can finish strong and continue to labor<br />diligently and help those around me obtain that everlasting life.<br /><br />I love you guys so much, and I'm so thankful for the love and support<br />that I feel... even if it makes me excited to get home sometimes haha.<br />Be safe, stay strong in the gospel, and I'll talk to you next week!<br /><br />Con carino siempre,<br /><br />-Elder MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-34380515067354349652011-09-10T09:48:00.003-06:002011-09-10T09:56:57.225-06:002011 September 6Dearest Mommy,<br /><br />Okay, are you ready for an epic email? Cause I'm not! Gah!!<br /> I love checking emails, but it's frustrating here at the end<br /> because it's all about stuff like this: "what do you want<br /> to do when you get back?", "can't wait to see you!",<br /> "I'd write about ___, but I'll just tell you<br />when you get home!", "you only have ___ weeks left...can you believe<br />it!?", etc. Basically, I feel like emails are "let's check out and<br />think about home" time haha. Unfortunately, it's a necessary evil,<br />but the upside is that I only have to do it three more times and then<br />it's all OVER! Woo! No more trunky emails! Except that totally<br />sucks... because then the mission will be over and then it's back to<br />normal life...dangit!<br /><br />Okay, I'll quit ranting and complaining about it and get on with<br />what's been exciting this week. First and foremost, you already heard<br />all about it from Dad... we bumped into each other by some crazy act<br />of God down there in Woodburn... ridiculous! That's the only word I<br />can say to describe it: ridiculous! Well, maybe that and awesome...<br />or sweet... or wonderful... or something of the like. It's funny<br />because at the Pisters yesterday (crap, spoiling my timeline already!)<br />they were poking fun at the uncanny likeness between Dad and I... it<br />is kinda weird... and it didn't really register just how much alike we<br />are until that fateful meeting. the funny thing is that it didn't<br />make me trunky at all! The only thing about it that it did was make<br />me want to work as hard as I can for these last couple weeks so we can<br />talk all about it once I get back... still, it's kinda funny that<br />we've been trying to avoid each other for the last 23 months, and then<br />out of the blue, we run into each other in WOODBURN of all places!<br /><br />Okay, so aside from that, things have been pretty exciting here in<br />Mollala if you can believe that. So Tuesday, we had an absolutely<br />open day, so we decided to do some knocking out in Canby (where most<br />of our area's Hispanics/meth-heads are), and we had some good success!<br /> We actually were able to find some good people just knocking around,<br />and it was such a joy to see that... especially after being in English<br />for so long! People that were willing to listen to us and set up<br />appointments for later! What a novel concept right?<br /><br />Wednesday was the day of district meeting, and holy moses! We had an<br />hour drive to get there! We meet all the way in Newberg because our<br />district consists of Mcminnville, the zone leaders, and ourselves, so<br />Newberg and Wilsonville are the two "midway points" except not<br />really.. it's a long haul to get out there! It's all good though,<br />because this district rocks, and has an awesome district leader...oh<br />wait, that's me! Haha I'm just kidding about that part, so please<br />don't think I'm a super prideful sucker... it's funny though... I've<br />gone through my whole mission without being the District leader, and<br />now for my last transfer I get to do it... funny huh?<br />So that night, we had dinner with a family that was baptized about two<br />years ago, and they're pretty dang sweet. They were flabbergasted and<br />excited that I was able to come back to Spanish, and they asked about<br />the story of why, so I told them. It was funny because by the end of<br />it, the hermana asked if I had an apodo (nickname) and I told her that<br />I didn't really. She then said "well I have one for you then. we're<br />gonna call you 'el Protestante!'" So there it is folks. The new<br />nicname is "el Protestante"- or the protestor because she said with<br />all my protesting, it's gotten me places as a missionary haha. I<br />think maybe Quejon would be a more fitting name sometimes, although<br />it's almost the same :-)<br /><br />Thursday we did some service for a lady that was a former<br />investigator... we actually ended up pulling out a stump for her,<br />which was not too terribly exciting. The nice part was that the roots<br />were already cut up, so all we had to do was get Catalino (an hermano<br />from the church) to come over with his truck, hook it up, and yank it<br />up and out of the four foot hole that it occupied :-P After that we<br />spent a good chunk of time filling in the hole with dirt and planing<br />it off so it would be smooth. It led us to setting a lesson with her<br />for Friday, so it all worked to our benefit :-)<br />One cool thing that caught my attention Thursday morning before<br />heading out was a quote that I found as I was cleaning up a few things<br />in the closet, and this is what it said:<br /><br />"I slept and dreamt that life was joy<br />I awoke and saw that life was duty<br />I acted, and behold--<br />Duty was joy."<br />-Rabinath Tagore<br />I know it sounds kind of dumb, but it caught my attention simply<br />because in this process of change and seeing that there are some MAJOR<br />changes coming up soon, I feel like life won't be "joy" when they come<br />about, because there are going to be some "duties," but what I<br />realized is that as I act, do, and continue dreaming, it'll make it<br />possible to be able to feel of that joy.<br />The other one that caught my attention was a poem called "The<br />Fellowship of the Unashamed" and here it is:<br /><br />"I am a part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit<br />Power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has<br />been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow<br />down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense,<br />and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight<br />walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions,<br />mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.<br /><br />I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or<br />popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised,<br />regarded, or rewarded. I now live by presence, learn by faith, love by<br />patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.<br /><br />My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my<br />way is rough, my companions few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear.<br />I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted,<br />or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the<br />presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the<br />pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of<br />mediocrity.<br /><br />I won't give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I've preached up, prayed<br />up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I am a<br />disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop,<br />preach until all know, and work until He comes.<br /><br />And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My<br />colors will be clear for "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the<br />power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.." (Romans 1:16)"<br /><br />-Bob Moorehead<br /><br />Pretty cool, right? It makes you want to be a little bit more<br />committed to what ya do as a member of the church... that's for dang<br />sure!<br /><br />Other than that, Friday we had some good lessons with a couple of<br />investigators... nothing too exciting to report there.<br /><br />Saturday, we did some plainclothes tracting in between service<br />projects, and we were able to hook a new investigator because of it<br />haha.<br /><br />Sunday, we had VERY few people show up for church... like only 15 or<br />so, but it was awesome... the spirit in that meeting was so awesome.<br />It was sad, because it's the last fast Sunday I'll have on the<br />mission, but the spirit was so strong, and the members were so<br />awesome. I found out that ALL of them are converts. Not most of<br />them, but every single one... and most of them for only ten years or<br />less... they bring such a special spirit to the branch every time we<br />get together as a group. Their testimonies aren't the cozy<br />comfortable flame you find in a living room fireplace, but the<br />consuming, light bringing warmth you'd find around a bonfire on a late<br />summer night... it's something totally different, and you can't help<br />but catch a little bit of the spirit of it while you're here with<br />them. Only spending this past week or so with them has already<br />brought me as close to them as in any other area--- including<br />Woodburn.<br /><br />So Monday... well, it was Labor day, and that's why we didn't write<br />our emails haha. We instead took a trip with the zone down to Silver<br />falls to take a little bit of a hike. It's weird to think that a year<br />ago we took the same trip while I was serving in Woodburn... that<br />seems like it was only a few short months ago! A year! Holy crap! It<br />was super fun though, we took some good pictures, but I'll have to<br />steal them from elder Hernandez because they're on his camera.<br />After that though, we had lunch with Lupe G and the fam, then went to<br />the Pisters for yet ANOTHER meal! Bleh it was too much food in one<br />day, but it was delicious, and we had such a blast talking with<br />them... gosh I miss that place and love those people.<br /><br />Anyway, yeah, I'm burned out on the email thing for now. I'll talk to<br />you all next week okay? I love ya!<br /><br />-Elder MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-35027899862259085402011-08-29T20:54:00.002-06:002011-08-29T20:55:45.821-06:00Quise ser soldado fiel, y el Senor me lo concedio!2011 August 29
<br />Dearest Mom and Dad,
<br />
<br />So, I have some really big news... I've been transferred to Spanish to finish the mission! Holy crap talk about the most ridiculously awesome/out of the blue change EVER!!!! Oh my goodness. When I talked to president Morby about finishing in Spanish, I figured it would be a waste of breath, but I guess not haha. I got a call on Tuesday morning asking if president Morby could come over to talk to me about a special assignment. I agreed, and he came over around five in the afternoon. We chatted for about 45 minutes about how things were going, and about an opportunity that had arisen to be placed on special assignment to finish out the mission. As part of a five companionship move, he asked if I'd like to go back to Spanish, and I whole-heartedly accepted! He said he couldn't tell me where because he wasn't 100% sure how it was going to work out, but he told me it would be a great way to finish the mission. He said that within the next couple of days he'd let me know when to have my bags packed and where I was being moved to... he also told me to get elder Yack completely updated on the area, help him meet everyone, and get locked and loaded to pull this mantle off my shoulders... I must say, that thing is pretty dang heavy in the Tualatin zone! haha.
<br />
<br />Anyway, I spent the week saying "hi, this is elder Yack. He's your new elder and I'm peacin' out!" to just about everyone we could. I was kinda sad in certain respects, because the elders in the zone that came in this transfer absolutely rock! The McMinnville district, which used to be kind of a cesspool of iniquity has entirely cleaned up, and now there are five training companionships... it's awesome! All obedient, all spiritual, and all working hard. It's so amazing to see the spirit that they bring as new missionaries, and the desire they have to serve the Lord with all their heart, might, mind, and strength. I feel like an old fogy of a missionary, but being around them kinda helps you catch the fire and want to be just as awesome as they are... except be more experienced and good at it haha. wow that sounded prideful. Anyway, Wednesday after district meeting, we ate at a cool little place I'll have to take you guys too in Lafayette called... ummm... on the way or by the way diner. Anyway, I'll take you guys there. It's delicious, and the owner actually knows Colin Cornett from the Bend days. Random, right?
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<br />Thursday turned out to be a good day to start packing all my crap and consolidating. I actually ended up completely packing this HUGE tote full of stuff, and leaving it there in the garage for pickup once the mission is over... I hope you guys are gonna have space to pack it, cause it's pretty dang big haha. During all of this packing, I helped elder Yack get as up to speed on what's going on as possible. I wrote down the entire schedule as far as monthly meetings and events go, wrote down a list of all of our investigators and where they're at, important Sherwood facts, etc.. Kind of a whitewash status change, but with a five day overlap, so he was introduced to everything by the original missionary in the area... made it a little bit smoother I think :-P
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<br />That night, we said some goodbyes to Scott and Heidi, the Hamms, Nikki, Joe, and some others... gosh I'm gonna miss this place a lot. It was good though. We did basically the same thing Friday, but ALL DAY this time. We were seriously all over the place trying to catch people home so that elder Yack could get to know the presidencies and bishoprics for both wards, along with the families we're working with.
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<br />The hardest goodbye of all was Ella Rose... it was really sad to say goodbye to her... I spent a good chunk of the night talking with her on Friday after I found out I was gonzo on Saturday morning. We just chatted and laughed about the good times, and made plans for visits in the future, as well as phone calls periodically to keep updated on what's going on. It's really sad in a way... I feel like I'm losing my best friend in a lot of ways... at the very least I'm losing my prophetess and counselor! I'm just glad the separation is temporary so I can come back in five weeks haha.
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<br />Saturday morning came, and I was picked up by a new couple that's working in the office named the Bettridges. They're awesome! We chatted and laughed as we drove off, and I found out that I was going to the Mollala Spanish area, which covers Canby, Mollalla, and Oregon City. The trick is that we live in Mollalla, so it's a LONG haul to get to any of the areas we actually work in, because Canby and Oregon city are where most of the work is haha. Oh well I guess... it'll be an adventure with miles :-P. The best thing about being here however, is that I know some people, and I'm really close to Woodburn! I really love this place, and it's fast becoming my fav. area.
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<br />I apologize it's a short email, but really, this area freakin' rocks, and what better way to finish off the mission than in SPANISH! I miss my Sherwood friends,, but this place rocks. The presidency is sweet I'll write more next week gaaah!@ Oh, my comp is elder Hernandez, trained by elder Rangel :-0)
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<br />Love you@!
<br />
<br />Elder Mooney
<br />Ruth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-576400875244570082011-08-22T17:08:00.003-06:002011-08-22T17:19:11.926-06:00It isn't the Hokey Pokey, but it IS what it's all about!2011 August 22
<br />Dearest Mommy,
<br />
<br />Well, it's definitely been an eventful week... turns out that I'm staying... but Elder Anderson got the boot! Holy Moses this has been a crazy turn of events to have him leaving. My new companion is Elder Yack , and from what I can tell, he's a stud... I really am excited to have him as my companion here now... we're gonna keep on truckin' and hopefully get a few more baptisms in before I go home... I also kinda talked to president Morby about it, and how, like you, I would have loved to finish off the mission in Woodburn. He said he'd see what he could do. I don't know if that means he thinks I have one transfer left after this one, or if something crazy will happen and by some miracle I'll finish in Woodburn... guess we'll see!
<br />
<br />Okay, backtracking to last Monday:
<br />Honestly, nothing exciting happened, so I'm not gonna bother writing about it... it was p-day and we played some basketball and dodge ball over at the stake center with the other elders in the zone.
<br />
<br />Tuesday:
<br />We had an awesome/funny district meeting to close out the transfer, and it was quite hilarious how it all went down. So during the "business" portion of our meeting before the spiritual thought and such, we gave out awards for different funny things. One of them was an award for most hours tracting, which ended up being this huge trophy with a tractor on it that said "tractin' champs" underneath it... quite sweet. The other ones were for baptisms, which I got a 6-pack of diet coke for (go figure, right?) and although you probably don't like to hear that, at least they weren't full-sized 12 oz. cans.... they were the diet sized diet cokes weighing in at 7.5 oz a pop (literally). .. they were gone pretty dang quickly haha. Aside from that, I feel bad, but I can't remember all the other awards they gave out, but they were pretty dang funny.
<br />After that was over, we helped sister Barker put together a basketball hoop, and holy cow... you would think those things should be pretty straight-forward to put together, but that was DEFINITELY not the case! I felt like I was trying to construct a V-2 rocket as I sat there trying to get the pipes together for the stand, ratchet them into place, and make sure that everything was lined up how it was supposed to be... it took us like three hours! Anyway, we got the job done with some patience, hard work, and a little diet Coke :-)
<br />
<br />Wednesday:
<br />We had interviews with president Morby, and they went really well! It was really sweet to be able to sit down with him and chat for a little bit and feel of the spirit that he brings to the mission. I actually had two opportunities for interviews, so I took them. My temple recommend expires at the end of this month, so he wrote me a temporary extension on mine so I could get one when I get home...from our new stake president... crazy!
<br />One thing that kinda made me scared/excited about ending the mission was what I read in Alma 26 that day... throughout the whole thing it talks about the sons of Mosiah and what they felt and saw at the end of their mission... if you wanna read what it should be like for a missionary when he gets home, that's the chapter for sure! Being able to look back, recognize the kind of person you were before, and knowing that through your hard work and love for the Lord, he has made you an instrument in his hands to help bless the lives of other people. Read it. You'll love it. It definitely makes me want to finish strong!
<br />To finish off Wednesday night, we had another sweet new-member lesson with Allie over at the DeMaris home where we talked about missionary work. It went really well.
<br />
<br />Thursday, nothing too terribly exciting happened aside from a little bit of weekly planning and good reading in Alma 30. I came to the realization that Korihor is the epitome of an anti-Mormon personality. Check it out and see what he talks about!
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<br />Friday, I was super excited because I got to go on exchange with elder Gardner! My best buddy AP in the whole wide world. We really had a good time out here in Sherwood. We stayed up chatting with sister DeLong as always, did some good service in the morning for Scott and Heidi, then taught some lessons. The first stop on our list was Nick, and it was really funny that we decided to visit when we did, because no sooner were we about to say the opening prayer, then his best friend who happens to be a member showed up! We were just planning on relating the word of wisdom to the restoration, so we taught about that and he accepted it, and then his buddy Brandon piped up and said "so have you considered baptism yet? Just so you know, I'm a viable option... I've got that priesthood you need to do it." We both sat there with our mouths agape as Nick replied by saying "well, the Elders here had a date set for me to be baptized on the 27th, but they said I'll need to move it back 'cause I need to go to church first... how many times do I need to go again?" We told him three, and then every Sunday thereafter, and he said it should be no problem. Brandon again chimed in and said "all right I'll pick you up on Sunday around 8:45 and you can go to my ward. We can sit together and I'll introduce you, okay? Oh, and seminary starts up in a couple weeks, so if you want, you should totally come with me." The best part about all of this is that Nick accepted EVERYTHING his friend said! This is why it's important to have members at your lessons.... even if you weren't planning on it originally haha.
<br />After that lesson, we taught Nikki over at the Hamm's along with Nick and Brandon because they came over. We just read 2 Nephi 2 with them and discussed the importance of the fall and the atonement with them... it went really well. Nikki is gonna take some time though I think.
<br />The other lesson we taught that night was with the Allen's, who we set expectations with last week. It went pretty well. We talked about helping establish his relationship with God and how to do it through prayer... we had a good long talk about it, but unfortunately, we didn't get him to pray there with us... He committed to pray every day, so hopefully he can do it and feel the Spirit.
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<br />Saturday:
<br />Seriously, the crowning day of my mission. If not another thing goes right while I'm out here, I can go home knowing that I fulfilled my purpose by helping the Perez family go to the temple and be sealed for time and all eternity. It's ridiculous how powerful the spirit is in that ceremony... it reminded me a lot of the day that Michelle and Ryan were sealed. It's an undeniable feeling of knowing that you're participating in God's work and glory: to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man... as a family :-) It isn't the Hokie-Pokie, but it IS what it's all about.
<br />After an awesome trip to the temple, we talked about old times, how the Pisters were going down to stay with you guys and say hello, and how they wish I could spend my last transfer in Woodburn... I can't lie, in a lot of ways I wish I could too...it's interesting being on the mission... you feel like you leave pieces of your heart in every area. Every time you're called to go, it tears you apart a little bit, and you leave some behind. The thing is though, that in the healing process of meeting new people and showing them as much Christ-like love as you can, your heart grows even larger, with an even greater capacity to love. We could say that my heart is in Sherwood right now, and I still absolutely LOVE all my other areas as well :-P.
<br />One thing that was kind of a big bummer about getting out of the temple was that we were jolted back to reality by transfer calls. I was hoping to keep the same companion to the end of my mission, but much to our surprise, Anderson was called up to leave. We were frustrated, but what can ya do? We spent the rest of the day making some visits and then got home and crashed early so we could get up early to pack, because we didn't want sister DeLong to be up and stressing while he packed... she doesn't deal well with elders leaving.
<br />Anyway, onward we go.
<br />
<br />Sunday:
<br />Sunday was a decent day... nothing too terribly exciting. Lots of packing before church, goodbyes at church, and temple tours after church, then more goodbyes to finish off the night. I don't wanna spend too much time on it, because what happened today was AWESOME!
<br />
<br />Monday:
<br />L. Tom Perry came to visit the mission! Holy cow it was awesome to hear his wonderful words of wisdom and love that seemed directed specifically at me and my situations in life. I realize that I truly do want to excel to the end-- not just endure it. Six weeks is still plenty of time to accomplish a lot of missionary work. I just hope that I can help plant some good seeds for the elders that follow me. There's not really anything specific to discuss about it, but yeah.... I'm about out of time, and I gotta go introduce the noob to everyone around Sherwood :-P
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<br />I love you guys so much, and I hope things are going so, so, so well... let me know if you end up finding a house down there in St. George... I'd love to live there haha.
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<br />I love you guys lots, and I'll talk to ya soon!
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<br />All my lovin',
<br />
<br />Elder Kurt Mooney
<br />Ruth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-22203891712119748222011-08-15T14:02:00.003-06:002011-08-15T14:30:37.145-06:00August 15, 2011Dearest Mommy,
<br /> It's interesting that you mention how Katie going off to school will be the best thing for her at this point in her life, so that she can think and act for herself without being under you constant vigilance. If I read correctly, you said that it will allow her to become who she really is without you telling her what to do... As I read that, I couldn't help but think that Heavenly Father probably thought the EXACT same thing when he sent you and I down here to earth... we reached a point where we weren't going to grow any more until we were given the opportunity to act and do things of our own free will and choice... I don't wanna say that God is an empty-nester, but I'm sure he had similar feelings sending his kids out into the world knowing they could potentially make some big boo-boo's, but recognizing, like you and dad do, that this is her opportunity to make some major growth happen in her life that she otherwise wouldn't gain... anyway, kind of a cool thought that came to mind :-)
<br />
<br />This week has been...well... semi-eventful. Like always, let's start with last Monday, shall we? We ended up spending quite a bit of our monthly stipend for kicks and giggles haha... Don't worry, I won't be dipping into the "mommy and daddy fund" anytime soon, but it was kinda fun to get some new clothes from Marshalls for pretty cheap. One interesting thing that night happened during dinner though. We ate with the Dahl family, and good grief their kids are smart! Almost the entire dinner, they were scheming the various ways they could make money when they were older... almost to the point of obsessing over it. One of the kids asked his mom that if she had as much money as Bill Gates if she'd give him a million dollars. She said no, and the kid seemed quite upset about it. This gave me an idea of what we could share for the spiritual thought, so we took them to the book of Mormon after we finished eating. In the first chapter of Alma, there's kind of a cool story that happens. As the story goes, this is where Nehor starts preaching false doctrine, gets owned by Gideon, kills him because he was so mad, and in turn is executed. This causes a stir in the church, where some people leave, and others become stronger. The cool part starts in verse 27:
<br />
<br />"26 And when the priests left their labor to impart the word of God unto the people, the people also left their labors to hear the word of God. And when the priest had imparted unto them the word of God they all returned again diligently unto their labors; and the priest, not esteeming himself above his hearers, for the preacher was no better than the hearer, neither was the teacher any better than the learner; and thus they were all equal, and they did all labor, every man according to his strength.
<br />"27 And they did impart of their substance, every man according to that which he had, to the poor, and the needy, and the sick, and the afflicted; and they did not wear costly apparel, yet they were neat and comely.
<br />28 And thus they did establish the affairs of the church; and thus they began to have continual peace again, notwithstanding all their persecutions.
<br />29 And now, because of the steadiness of the church they began to be exceedingly rich, having abundance of all things whatsoever they stood in need—an abundance of flocks and herds, and fatlings of every kind, and also abundance of grain, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious things, and abundance of silk and fine-twined linen, and all manner of good homely cloth.
<br />30 And thus, in their prosperous circumstances, they did not send away any who were naked, or that were hungry, or that were athirst, or that were sick, or that had not been nourished; and they did not set their hearts upon riches; therefore they were liberal to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, whether out of the church or in the church, having no respect to persons as to those who stood in need.
<br />31 And thus they did prosper and become far more wealthy than those who did not belong to their church.
<br />32 For those who did not belong to their church did indulge themselves in sorceries, and in idolatry or idleness, and in babblings, and in envying and strife; wearing costly apparel; being lifted up in the pride of their own eyes; persecuting, lying, thieving, robbing, committing whoredoms, and murdering, and all manner of wickedness; nevertheless, the law was put in force upon all those who did transgress it, inasmuch as it was possible.
<br />Never once does it say that having lots and lots of money is a bad thing in there... it's all a matter of what ya do with it. If you handle it the right way, the Lord will bless you with more, because he knows he can trust you with it. The words from D&C section four come to mind "...with an eye single to the glory of God" seems to fit pretty well. If you have the right intentions and desires with it, you'll get it. Like it talks about in Jacob 2:18-19, if you seek first the kingdom of God, you will seek for riches with the intent to do good with them... kinda cool... and probably words of advice for myself as well since I go through cash like water haha.
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<br />Okay, aside from that, one funny thing we did this week for the Steers since they're out of town is that we babysat their dog Belle... I used to hate that stupid dog because every time we go over to the house, they open the door, and that little miniature poodle comes running through the doorway, barking, and biting my pant leg. Anyway, we ended up babysitting the little mutt, and because of it, now the dang dog won't leave me alone... she loves me! It's okay though, I've come to like her too haha.
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<br />Anyway, moving on. Tuesday, we had a sweet district meeting. Seriously, it was probably the best one I've had in English... ever! We talked about obedience for the spiritual thought, and it was cool to see how some of the elders have had struggles with obedience, but have all overcome that and are desiring to do what's right as cool kids and not as sticklers so that they can be themselves and still serve and work hard. For the training, we discussed how to begin teaching various types of investigators and members to help the more effectively come unto Christ. It turned out to be a really good thing where we learned a lot and were able to apply it to the family we taught that night... we've re-established expectations and are starting the lessons with them from the beginning to help him learn the gospel...sweet! Oh, and it's the Allen family :-)
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<br />Wednesday wasn't too terribly exciting... we visited Nikki and decided to pull back on the baptismal date we'd extended her because it's gonna take time to get her ready. Aside from that, we had a good visit with Joe (the jeep kid) where we helped him weld some new shock mounts on his rear axle because they both snapped off... lemme tell ya, Jeeps are REALLY high quality... especially the 1995 Wrangler SE model :-)
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<br />Thursday was really kind of a sad day for me... The reason being that elder Cox went home. Let me rephrase that so it doesn't sound like he's a sinner haha. Elder Cox finished his mission and went back to start school this coming week. I really feel like I lost a brother out here in the mission with him going home, and elder Van Hook too. It's interesting to see how as you go along in the mission, at first you build up a lot of ties with a lot of different people (missionaries especially). the further you get into your mission, however, those ties start to break. Not because you don't care about the people, but because they start leaving--disappearing. As you near the end of your mission, you see all of your close friends and examples going home, and not that you want to leave the mission early, but you miss all of them and feel that there's a void because of it... it's not something you can simply fill with a new elder, because the new elders don't share the experiences that you did with your close friends who have departed. I know this is a downer paragraph, but gosh it's an interesting phase of missionary life that I think happens to everyone.
<br />Friday, we had a day of tracting, and I was really frustrated. I felt we didn't have any real success, and I kept asking myself "am I really being effective right now?" That kinda put me in a glum state of mind for a bit until we went to dinner. The DeMaris' had us over and invited Allie so that we could start the new member lessons with her afterward. Dinner was sweet, and Clint still makes me want to be a chiropractor (and I'm gonna do it!) when I finish my undergrad haha. Anyway, after dinner was what made the day sweet. The lesson we had with Allie was about the temple, and it totally ROCKED! Seriously, the Spirit was super strong, and the discussion we had was just awesome talking about the different aspects and blessing associated with it. Allie is gonna love it when she can go. Speaking of which, she's locked and loaded for baptisms on the 23rd of this month :-) After having that lesson, though, looking back on the day, I knew that the Lord had made that lesson possible as a way of saying "yes, that crappy contacting you did in the park today was worth it... now quit whining!"
<br />Saturday, we had our SPC breakfast in McMinnville, came back, mowed the Steers lawn (and I spelled out "Mooney" in the back... pretty sweet haha), and had a picnic for dinner! It was awesome! Nikki (not the one we're teaching... she's a ward member haha) Davis' husband was going to be gone, so we had either the option of dropping off the dinner or doing a picnic, so we took advantage to have an awesome picnic in the park... it rocked! She and my DCBFF put together some awesome wraps, an Asian chicken salad (no, not the kind with ramen noodles in it), and some killer peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (which we have in the car and are still enjoying, might I add).
<br />The only thing more sweet was Sunday. We had some sweet spiritual guidance given.. interestingly enough, both sacrament meetings were about service (guess this bodes well for the homecoming talk, eh?), and the talks were awesome! There was one given (actually by Nikki's husband Ben) that compared being selfish vs. being selfless... it was kind of an interesting talk in that it helped me recognize that sometimes what we see as selfless sacrifice is truly something very self-centered. I don't know, I really liked it though... it was pretty sweet.
<br />After that, we had a rip-roarin' time down at the temple because we started doing temple tours! In all honesty, it wasn't anything terribly exciting, but it was cool because Allie had the opportunity to go to the temple for the first time and really feel of the Spirit that is there on the grounds... now that they finished remodeling it anyway :-P
<br />Well, that's about the excitement for the week here. I'm looking forward to a full transfer of hard work to finish out the mission and seeing you guys afterward... it's gonna be awesome! I love you guys so much, and I hope that everything goes well with Katie Jo heading off to school... you'll have to forward me her address so I can write her when she gets down there... although it'll only be for a month or so haha. Transfer calls are coming this next Saturday, so we'll see how things pan out... who knows? The most logical would be to let me finish in Sherwood, but there's always the possibility that they pull me to finish my training in Spanish... Guess only time will tell! Ooh! L. Tom Perry is gonna be speaking that day!
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<br />love you all,
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<br />-Elder Mooney
<br />Ruth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-67004597116411640142011-08-08T13:02:00.002-06:002011-08-08T13:35:10.691-06:00Hard work and serviceDearest Mommy,
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<br />Well, this week was pretty dang exciting in some ways... lemme tell ya about it! This past Monday, we had one heck of a p-day cause guess what... Kyle came over from Bend to visit! We took him bowling with the Steers and Allie, and it was a total blast! We had a good time as we talked and joked about life and how badly we suck at bowling... I really miss hanging out with that kid on a regular basis. One thing that's funny is that holy crap he is so dang skinny! He has seriously lost a lot of weight! He said that he's running every day now, so I guess that definitely helps. Anyway, it made for a good p-day, although we've still got to find a way to throw him into the baptismal font haha. Someday it'll happen I'm sure.
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<br />Tuesday we didn't have any district meetings (thank goodness!) because we had zone conference the following day, but we got called in for a sudden move of the Forkner family... we were a little confused because just a week before we had talked to them about him helping us out with splits the next week, but I guess they're taking off, so whatever. Anyway, it turned out to be a good time talking and laughing with brother Forkner along with the two guys he hired to help them get everything moved into the truck. I have to say, it makes life about a thousand times easier when people actually take the time to box up stuff before calling in the moving crew... we were able to get the entire house moved into the truck within three hours... awesome right? I thought so anyway. The guys he hired to move were non-members, so we had some good chats about the gospel as we packed things into the truck and talked about their lives. One of them was named Taylor Bacon, and he was a pretty cool guy... he seemed pretty dang interested in why we served missions, how we are called, etc... Anyway, we ended up leaving him with a card with our number on it, so hopefully down the road it'll help him move toward investigating :-)
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<br />Wednesday we had zone conference, and I don't mean to be negative, but it was kind of a let-down. I usually absolutely adore them because of the spiritual boost you receive and the energy you get from them to help you get motivated to hit the ground running afterward. This one was different because instead of getting that usual boost of inspiring messages and spiritually packed time, we found that president Morby simply wanted us to teach him what he needed to do, and he was recognizing to the entire group that he's a greenie and that he doesn't have any real missionary experience aside from what he had over 40 years ago... for me, it was kind of demoralizing. I'm not saying he's a bad guy by any stretch of the imagination, it was just kind of... I dunno... it didn't give me the boost I was looking forward to. Actually, we (elder Anderson and I) were picked to help President Morby with the training. I guess it's not necessarily his job to ensure that spiritual boost... maybe instead of expecting to just take things away from it, it's our job to contribute for the other missionaries now that we're old farts :-P
<br />The rest of the day wasn't all bad because we had dinner with the Steers, so we were able to vent our frustrations to them over some tasty beef ribs with baked potatoes and then head to splits with the Cedar Creek ward. It turned out to be a pretty fun time :-) Brother DeMaris and I headed to the McHugh's (a recent move-in part member family) and just shot the breeze with them. It was actually pretty fun because we were able to work in the word of wisdom and how it related to brother DeMaris' witch-doctor practices of chiropractics :-P It was a fun time, and he makes me want to be a chiropractor for sure haha.
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<br />Thursday we decided to drop in on a companionship that's been having some...ahem... struggles with getting up on time, so as an incentive , we bought some sausage mcmuffins from mickey D's and took them over at around 8:00... Unfortunately, they didn't answer the door, so we ripped off the big "M" from the bag and stuck it through the door with a note on a mormon.org card about being up next time to enjoy the tasty artery-clogging goodness, then headed to the Hedges Creek elders' apartment. Luckily these two were awake and we enjoyed some nice breakfast and personal study with them :-P.
<br />The rest of the day was quite a party... we had a picnic in the park, and afterward we helped Allie to clean out/paint her apartment because she's looking to leave it. Now, Allie is a pretty clean person, but Jared and Mia (no offense to them, of course) were absolute pigs! Oh my gosh! So since they took off at the drop of a hat, they basically took nothing but the clothes on their backs, and left everything else. Unfortunately, that meant that we were left to clean it up. Wrappers, a dirty diaper, kitty poop, spoiled milk, a half-eaten apple, clothes EVERYWHERE, papers, no sheets on the bed... ugh. I won't even mention the rest of the stuff we found in there... it'll make for a good post-mission story for sure haha. Anyway, we got all that cleaned up and started painting. The rest of the apartment was fine, but Jared and Mia got the wild idea of painting their room...a nice turquoise blue! Bleh! Not only that, but they decided to get that paint on a few parts of the ceiling, as well as on the door frame and ONE panel on the closet doors, so we had to paint the entire closet because of it... frustrating! We primed it, waited half an hour, then painted it. After that, we had to head out for dinner, etc, but it was all good.
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<br />Friday I went on exchange with elder Cox so that he could say goodbye to Ella Rose and a few other folks, and it was really kinda sad... He goes home this week for school! Depressing right? Hopefully he can come visit you guys, or if you take a trip down to St. George you can meet him, cause he's an absolute stud I love him. Things that day weren't too terribly exciting, just service for my DCBFF as well as for Cher (Cox had to say goodbye to her and have one last "sparkle with Jesus" haha) before going to lunch with Mark Cottle one last time. The one productive thing we were able to accomplish was stake reports... thank goodness they're done, cause I HATE doing them haha. They're time consuming, and they only get looked at one time, but if anything isn't accurate, it's a big deal.
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<br />Saturday we had our stake reports breakfast, which was a good time with President Campbell at his house pounding down the food and talking about how the stake is doing. They have a goal of 120 baptisms... and so far we're at 24 haha.. We got the 20, so now we just need "an hundred" more as sister DeLong would say :-) Aside from that, we had a sweet lesson with a lady named Nikki. She's the recently made friend of a less-active lady who we invited to learn, and she accepted... it turned out to be a good plan, cause in this lesson that we taught her on Saturday, she accepted a baptismal date for the 27th of August! Sweet Now we just gotta make sure we can get her prepped for that day... although we're gonna have to help her quit smoking to do it haha.
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<br />Sunday was a pretty cool day except I completely forgot that it was fast Sunday until I had already eaten and was in the shower... that's what happens when you're butt-tired in the mornings I guess haha. I was sitting there waking up in the hot water when I got thinking about it... it went something like this: "man I'm tired... Oh well at least it's a Sunday cause they're usually pretty relaxing days... hmm... Sunday... what day is it again? The seventh? Hmmm the seventh... first sunday of the month. Wait a second, FIRST Sunday of the month!? Crap! It's fast Sunday! I got out of the shower and burst into the living room where Anderson was sitting quietly in the recliner and I exclaimed "It's FAST SUNDAY!" he told me "yeah... I was gonna tell you not to eat, but I thought you were just washing dishes... did you have breakfast already?" Gosh I have a geezer memory early in the morning sometimes. It's comical, but kinda scary I think haha.
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<br />Anyway, aside from my "D'oh!" moment in the morning, the rest of the day was power packed... especially in the Cedar Creek ward. this past week has been absolutely crazy. There have been two deaths, two births, a suicide, a baby blessing, a convert baptism, a child of record baptism, lots of service performed, and a lot of priesthood blessings. I don't want to say that this ward is so spiritual because of all of these hard experiences, but I would argue that the missionary work is rolling forward so well because of them... When people turn to the Lord in times like these, it allows the Spirit to manifest itself so much more plainly in their lives to the point where other people that don't have the gospel in their lives can see it. I know that it's helped Allie in her coversion process, I know that it helps us find new people to teach, and I know that's why this ward is thriving. Christ-like love and service are the recipe for success in any ward and in any aspect of the gospel... we've definitely seen the fruits of that in the past couple of weeks, and we're hoping to be able to enjoy more of it as time moves along here.
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<br />The only other thing to report from this week is that we spent some good time with Scott and Heidi last night and did a sort of family home evening with them... they don't spend much time together as an entire family, so this was awesome to have all of them sit down and be able to talk and laugh instead of just having the tube on. Gosh I love the gospel and I love missionary work. I really am sad that the mission is winding down... I'm going to miss it a lot. Granted, I won't miss a few things, but in almost every aspect, the mission has come to mean everything to me... it's helped me become someone completely different from who I was, and I will forever be appreciative to the Lord for that. Don't worry, I'm not checked out yet.. there's too much to accomplish before that time comes to start slacking now. I love you guys, and I'll talk to ya next week.
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<br />All my love,
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<br />-Elder Kurt Mooney
<br />Ruth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-70784367823604952722011-08-01T18:23:00.003-06:002011-08-01T18:28:07.125-06:00Allie and friends & baptism pics<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtNOkF9BySyaCwOk2giyddS3BjQ_ohhovBbfQyOZ19e4RPO0RtknLm5suobnQrWG8qUponFa5D-UbWVPFKmiTP_K3vWXiqG6C3CI6xiU5JYdhQJbMSuH2jWXwYdOszUOHJZnRJPybDvxs/s1600/IMG_3906.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtNOkF9BySyaCwOk2giyddS3BjQ_ohhovBbfQyOZ19e4RPO0RtknLm5suobnQrWG8qUponFa5D-UbWVPFKmiTP_K3vWXiqG6C3CI6xiU5JYdhQJbMSuH2jWXwYdOszUOHJZnRJPybDvxs/s400/IMG_3906.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5636048823064970754" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgggIoXNRzMyciox-UPxkDBUzmhCbNQNgJj56wGKKy-u2HSVpWHHq7wEe1hnjZUke3oGAqqkHWyjyUAoTo0F-k01ffeZYj1jz6tdlVwX8Zmd_injoIGbcjaivwo8kqAJVaTJe3sqB8x_ho/s1600/mail.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 221px; height: 166px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgggIoXNRzMyciox-UPxkDBUzmhCbNQNgJj56wGKKy-u2HSVpWHHq7wEe1hnjZUke3oGAqqkHWyjyUAoTo0F-k01ffeZYj1jz6tdlVwX8Zmd_injoIGbcjaivwo8kqAJVaTJe3sqB8x_ho/s400/mail.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5636048182636461826" /></a>Ruth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-63798189780111461422011-08-01T18:14:00.003-06:002011-08-01T18:17:34.094-06:00Busy week + baptism2011 August 1<br />Dearest Mommy,<br /> <br />Well, if your week was eventful, that makes two of us, cause this week has been pretty nuts! Like always, we'll start with last Monday after emails... In all honesty, it wasn't anything too terribly exciting during the day, but that night was freakin' sweet! We had another family home evening at the house with sister DeLong, and it was a super awesome spiritual experience because this time, instead of just getting to know Allie, she was able to tell her a little about the modern day prophets that she knows... it was the best "follow the prophet" lesson EVER. We also went over the baptismal interview questions with her, and she totally aced it... it was awesome. Seriously, this girl has the brightest burning testimony of any person I know right now-- life-long member or recent-convert. The funny thing was that we ended up chatting with sister DeLong and the Steers+Allie family 'til... well... maybe I shouldn't say so we don't incriminate ourselves haha. Anyway, suffice to say we were up late as usual. :-)<br /> <br />Now, for the next couple days, I'll apologize in advance, because I'm going to be ranting and raving about how missionaries are sometimes quite retarded and also quite pharasaic. I won't name any names, but yeah... the stories speak for themselves. <br /> <br />Tuesday we had district meeting in Tualatin, and it was quite comical. In that district, the district leader always sends out a text the night before letting everyone know the subject of the spiritual thought for the next day so that everyone can prepare something because somebody is always called at random to give their thought. Anyway, the subject was diligence, and this elder was called on to give the thought. He said "I knew this was gonna happen to me today!" and I asked if it was because he hadn't prepared like he was supposed to. He retorted by saying "no, it's because I've been studying it a lot and my head is full of scriptures about it!" The funny thing is that he ended up pulling out Galatians 5:22-23. For those of you that don't know, those are the "fruits of the spirit", and they have nothing to do with diligence basically... he said, "well, longsuffering and goodness are kind of related in this scripture... but I really like what it says about diligence in the bible dictionary." So he flipped... and flipped... and flipped... and flipped... and then muttered "huh... I guess it isn't in here." Quite comical. The best part was that his companion, the district leader, got up afterward to continue on the agenda, and said "make sure that you're really putting some thought into your preparation with these, because they're not just for you. You're here to help the whole group feel the Spirit, and if your spiritual thought sucks, nobody is going to be edified or get anything out of it." Kind of a gentle smack-down :-P<br /> <br />Later that day, the same district leader (who is a total champ and whose name is elder Avey) conducted Allie's baptismal interview, which went wonderfully. She came out locked and loaded (and excited) for baptism. <br /> <br />Wednesday, there was another derty-der moment with a missionary unfortunately. We had our Wednesday district meeting in McMinnville, and when we got there, we found out that there was a companionship that didn't show up because one of the elders was "sick." I put it in quotations, because when we went to go see how he was doing, we found him asleep, and not sick at all haha. His companion had a look of "oh crap" on his face when he answered the door at 11:00, and his companion (the sick one) had an even bigger look of "oh crap" when I took about 50 very, very unapproved CD's away from him along with a pair of headphones. I didn't do it to be a friggin' Nazi, but this is the same kid who caught with an iPod touch and a Nintendo DS away from! Some people just never learn... ya know? I love the kid to death, but man he needs to stop being dumb as a box of rocks! In all honesty, I don't even mind if the elders aren't the most obedient as long as they're getting the work done that they're supposed to, but when they're disobedient AND don't get any work done, there's a major problem. Anyway, I'll have to tell you guys some fun stories about this whole situation when I get home haha... it's more fun that way :-P<br /> <br />Another thing that happened that day was with our investigator Nick. We went over to a member's home for our scheduled lesson with him, and we saw him walking past the driveway from the porch, and wondered why he wasn't coming up the driveway. We called to him, and again, we saw this look of "oh crap" on his face (we kinda seem to get a lot of that lately). He came over and said we were ready to start the lesson, and he said "oh yeah! Sorry I was spacin' man." He didn't have his book of Mormon with him, so we sent him to retrieve it from his house which is a whopping 300 feet from this member. He went to get it, and NEVER CAME BACK! We just kinda sat there and laughed about it with the Hamm's... unfortunately, we might have to drop him soon because of it. Oh well haha it was kinda comical.<br /> <br />That night we had splits with the Cedar Creek ward and taught Allie how to pay her tithing and about the law of the fast... it went pretty well. <br /> <br />Thursday, we did some epic service for Scott & Heidi again, and had a sweet talk with Sam. We got talking about her family and how her dad's opinion of the church has turned a complete 180 because of the example of the Steers family as well as from having us around... he's an awesome guy... I just wish we could teach him more often haha. One satisfying thing about all that dang service for them is that the house is looking way, way better too. :-)<br /> <br />Friday we had zone leader council, and it was another one of those "stupid missionaries!" moments. We spent more than 45 minutes talking about how the music policy had NOT CHANGED! It was friggin' ridiculous. When I talk about missionaries being pharisaic, this is where that came from, because it was a total joke. We had a missionary saying "well it doesn't say hymns as part of the approved music list. Does that mean that we can't listen to them? The Singles Ward soundtrack is all hymns, does that still qualify as approved?" Another person asked "what exactly is considered classical music? If I have a remastered rock album that is re-done by an orchestra, does that count as approved?" When we went to ZLC, I didn't know we were going to be re-writing the law of Moses... bunch of dang Pharisees. I know my attitude about all of this is super, super negative, but it's just so frustrating to have people so wrapped around the axle with this nit-picky nonsense instead of focusing on their purpose as a missionary... it's idiotic. Okay, I'm done venting, I promise!<br /> <br />After the Pharisee fest, we had dinner with the Rey family in the Woodhaven ward. I love that family because they give me an excuse to speak Spanish for an hour or so :-) Oh and yes mom, I do have time to speak it still... actually like every day, so I'm not losing it... thank goodness haha. Anyway it was fun because they invited a non-member family from Tacoma (dangit) that we talked to and became friends with. We were able to sneak the gospel in a little bit by talking about piercings and tattoos (their sons had quite a few) and relate it to the plan of salvation. It went pretty well... I just wish they didn't live far away so we could continue talking to them... too bad Anderson was sitting in the corner unable to understand... I felt bad! Luckily the kids spoke English though, so it was cool.<br /> <br />After dinner, we went and visited with Joe for a little bit. Gosh that kid is freakin' funny, and so is his member friend Kyle! We found them outside Joe's house trying to pick the lock on a "project car" they had just purchased for $300.00. I would have to say, it's worth about that. No keys, no title, no intake, swapped motor, and no exhaust. Awesome. Oh and it's a lowered Honda CRX. Pretty nice rice- I mean, ride for sure haha. Anyway, we talked with them for about an hour, and we're hoping for a lesson this coming week cause he's busy for the weekend working.<br /> <br />Saturday, we had an epic fail of a service extravaganza we were hoping for haha. We started with service for my DCBFF Christy Barker, where we tried to fix (and might I emphasize TRIED) her lawnmower. No offense to it, but it's kind of a P.O.S. haha. It's been sitting outside for quite some time, so trying to get it cranked up, I snapped off the crank rope... twice haha. Anyway, we got that all jimmied up, then went to work on the clutch assembly and got everything taken care of. Actually, it worked like a charm for a while and I was able to mow the front lawn! However, after killing it to roll it to the back yard, As I cranked it up and mowed for a good two or three minutes, all of a sudden it decided to quit. No explosions, no fires, no dramatic finishes, it just plain quit. Another project for another day, cause we had to leave for our next service haha.<br /> <br />The second one was to clear out weeds at the Steers in their backyard, but as we were doing that for about five minutes, we got a call from Classy herself (Ella Rose DeLong) asking if we could do her a huge favor and get her some salad because she'd run out. We bailed and got her the salad just in time to go to a barbecue with a part-member family that the stake was hosting... unfortunately, they weren't even there by the time we had to leave for our next service appointment... dangit! haha. We bailed out and headed to that one, which consisted of helping out the Ross family to move into their home again. Unfortunately, they weren't there when we showed up, so we called them. They told us to sit tight and play with the puppies for about 20 minutes so and they'd be there. Well, we did as we were told and played with some puppies... and some baby goats... and some duckies haha. Their house sits on quite a bit of property, and they have a bunch of animals, so it was a blastie playing with all of them... especially when the ducks and the dogs got into a turf war over the shade under some fruit trees. Comical, but we had to leave before they got there. Murphy's law though, they showed up just as we got in the car to leave haha. We talked to them for about five minutes, then took off to prep for the most exciting part of this whole long friggin' email... Allie's baptism!!!!!! <br /> <br />We showered, changed, and high-tailed it to the stake center. Once there, we set everything up, and had the best baptism of our entire missions. Seriously, it went so well, and the spirit was so strong. The coolest part of all of it was that instead of testimonies or some dorky movie during the time that she and elder Anderson were changing, we had everyone who showed up to the baptism write some words of love and support to Allie on a 3x5 note card to put into a photo album that she can keep with her... pretty cool right? That was sister DeLong's idea. We call her a prophetess for a reason haha.<br /> <br />Sunday was awesome and nerve racking... I was asked to confirm Allie, and the blessings promised in it made me kinda think "I said WHAT!?" Super cool though... she's going to end up being a leader in the church, her example is going to influence many and bring a lot of people into the gospel, and she's going to serve a mission with her hubby someday... pretty freaking awesome. Right after that, we blessed her little baby Carly. Adorable right?<br /> <br />Aside from that, I don't really know what else to write... I'm feeling frazzled and super pumped at the same time... it's been a really awesome week. Crazy, busy, stressful, boring, exciting, frustrating, joyful. I love being a missionary.<br /> <br />I'm so stoked that you got to have Ivan at the house... he's a sweet kid. He reminds me a lot of myself at that age, and it sounds like you guys had a huge impact on him for the good... way to be missionaries! :-) <br /> <br />My list of scriptures that I want you all to look at are as follows:<br /> <br />Mosiah 27:32-37 (come to Jesus, be a tool :-))<br />Alma 1:27-32 (Come to Jesus, you'll make more money :-))<br />Alma 3 (the curse is not on the skin)<br />Alma 4: 8-11 (your example as a member can help or hurt)<br />Alma 6:6 (how to help the missionaries from home :-))<br /> <br />I love you guys so much, and I hope that things are going really, really well at home now that you're getting all geared up for fish lake after having the whirlwind gang come through haha. I'll talk to ya next week!<br /> <br />Con carino,<br /> <br />Elder Kurt MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-80673753891271040212011-07-25T14:32:00.003-06:002011-07-25T14:39:43.491-06:00abbrev.So, I came to the conclusion that in the LDS (Latter-day Saints) church, we have WAY too many abbreviations... speaking of which, why is the word abbreviate so dang long... shouldn't they make it a little more simple to de-complexify a word that means to make shorter? Anyway, here's what happened that was exciting this week:<br /> <br />Monday's abbreviation will be FHE (Family Home Evening). We had an oh so wonderful p-day doing some babysitting and mediating for a companionship that is near (a little too near in my opinion) and dear to my heart. It kinda put a bullet in any of the original plans we had of relaxing, so yeah... it was kind of a bummer. Luckily, the FHE that we had that night made it all worth it. Allie came over to sister DeLong's house, and we did an FHE on the gospel of Jesus Christ after she got to know the classiest lady on the planet for a little while. <br />-<br />Tuesday's abbreviations will be DM (District Meeting), BWW (Buffalo Wild Wings), and Pumpkin (Pumpkin Ridge). So, it was planned out to be the most epic day EVER to make up for our super sucky lack of a p-day the day before, but it turned out to be a total bust... well, for the most part anyway. We had our usual district meeting with Tualatin, which was totally fine, and we even went to Buffalo Wild Wings afterward for lunch. Unfortunately, it ran long because they were slow getting food to us, and slower getting the checks out, so we lost some time there that should have been used for what we had planned afterward. We had blocked out some time (with the approval of the AP's of course) to take them out for elder Gardner's birthday (because he's one of the AP's) and treat him to some golf at Pumpkin Ridge golf course courtesy of Mark Schloo :-). Unfortunately, we got a phone call that morning from him informing us that he wasn't going to be able to make it because some idiot elder ran away on the coast, so he was going to have to do some babysitting... sounds like a familiar situation eh? haha I thought it was comical at least. Anyway, Gardner, being the champ that he is, told us to go have twice as much fun to make up for he and elder Blanchard not being able to make it, so we tried. We arrived around 3:00 hoping to get directly onto the course with Mark, but unfortunately we ended up waiting around for an hour and a half before we could get on... that kinda threw a wrench in the works because we were left with only 30 minutes to try to golf in... we got in two holes then turned for home haha. It was sunny this time at least! Hopefully next time we can get it worked out to go when it's sunny AND stay for the full 18 holes haha.<br /> <br />Wednesday's abbreviations are related with what we talked about with a kid named Joe. The abbreviations if put into a sentence would be "CJ's, YJ's, and FJ's leading to a lesson with a LA (less-active) MP (member-present)." haha because talking about Jeeps is what led us to picking him up as one of our best investigators so far. We went to contact a referral that wasn't home, and we saw his Jeep in the driveway, so we knocked the door and talked to him for a while. After about 15 minutes, his buddy Kyle pulls up, and it turns out that he's a member from a neighboring ward in Tigard! He's a super sweet kid, and contemplating a mission at age 19, so hopefully we can help him get there as well as baptize his friend before he goes. Seriously, super uncanny the resemblance between this Joe kid and myself. Has a Jeep (a 1994 white wrangler with a 4-banger just like mine), total pile of junk, loves working on it and crawling with it, he graduated 2008, loves reggae music, and yeah... to make a long story short, we're totally gonna baptize him. We talked shop for quite a while, but then he invited us in, and while there, we were able to start talking about religion, and eventually taught him about the restoration, and it was awesome! It really touched him, and he's stoked to meet with us again this week, so I'll keep ya posted on what happens there.<br /> <br />Thursday's abbreviations would be... ah forget it there really aren't any for this day haha. We did some intense service for Scott and Heidi by tearing out all the weeds along the side of their house, uncovering the few stepping stones that were there, and then replacing the dirt around them with river rocks... it looks pretty flippin' sweet if I do say so myself. Other than that, we had an awesome lesson that night with Nick Larsen where we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ as relating to the restoration, and he liked it. He said that he felt the Spirit as he read the book of Mormon, so I invited him to be baptized on the 20th of August, and he accepted it... awesome, right? We've just gotta make sure we help him to get locked and loaded for it now so that he can be ready when the day comes.<br /> <br />Friday, the abbreviation would be, again, DCBFF (Diet Coke Best Friend Forever) SVC (service) with some B-fast (breakfast...der...) afterward. It was a pretty good time, and it's fun to have the interaction with the kids. One funny thing about doing that was when it came time to eat. Mom, I tried to copy that apple spice syrup that you always make for those pumpkin pancakes, and it turned out looking WAY different haha. It was still tasty, but what sister Barker's kids said about it was hilarious. We brought it out to pour over our apple-cinnamon french toast, and Kylie said "what is that!? It looks like throw-up!" I started laughing because she was totally right, it kinda did, but then the thought came to me that it looked more like poop than vomit, and just as I was thinking that, sister Barker chimed in and said "no, it doesn't really look like vomit... if anything, it looks like baby poop." haha I was about dying I was laughing so hard. It really was good in spite of how it looked haha... you'll have to send me the recipe or something so I don't screw it up next time haha.<br /> <br />Anyway, other than that on Friday, we had a lesson with Allie where we reviewed a few things from the gospel of Jesus Christ and talked about the sacrament, then I gave her brother a haircut... I have to say, I'm getting pretty pro at hacking hair with a pair of buzzers... I even do it to myself haha. It probably looks terrible, but such is life as a missionary... $12 bucks sounds like a lot of money, ya know? haha.<br /> <br />Saturday doesn't really have any abbreviations aside from MSH (Mosiah), cause that's all I really wanted to talk about. That book freakin' rocks! To be brief because I have three minutes left, chapter 20 is a good one to study as relating to passing quick judgment and acting when you're angry. 23 is sweet because it talks about being caught up in wickedness and changing. How to do it, and how to maintain it more importantly. The coolest part talks about trials and the big reason we have them. Check it out sometime... it'll change the way you look at your life. Note the attitude of the people who are experiencing those trials and how they reacted during as well as afterward toward God.<br /> <br />Sunday, we were in church for eight hours. Blah. That was a long day. Other than that, we had a sweet lesson with Allie where we set up her baptismal program and taught her the ten commandments... she's so set for her baptism. Her testimony is growing, and seriously, she's gonna be a relief society president someday.<br /> <br />I'm outta time, but I love you guys!<br /> <br />-Elder MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-62886178134147564222011-07-18T15:22:00.003-06:002011-07-18T15:31:27.114-06:00Busy!Dearest Mommy,<br /><br />This week has been pretty dang eventful. I already told you about transfers and all that, but here's what happened from Tuesday on. We started off the day with double-duty district meetings where we got to know all of the elders in the Tualatin and Tigard districts. It was fun, and it's looking like we're gonna be kicking trash... especially now that we have two more sets of elders packed into our zone. That night, we didn't have too many exciting things happen... we went to a lesson with some active members and basically sang praises to Ella Rose the whole time because she's a prophetess, she's kind, almost like another intercessory because she's so righteous, and is down to earth enough to talk to anyone albeit a sinner or another fellow saint... pretty cool haha.<br /><br />Later that night, we went and visited Allie over at the Steers' home and she asked if we could copy the files from her work laptop onto a different computer so that she can use it when she prosecutes her boss... it's a long story. I don't wanna get into it haha. Anyway, so we took this laptop hard drive over to sister DeLong's house feeling like we were secret agents, and tried to figure out how to do the transfer, cause we most definitely didn't have anything to hook it up to wire-wise into sister DeLong's computer. We end up taking apart her tower and hooking up the hard drive into the secondary hard drive cables and trying to transfer the info over, but unfortunately, it didn't recognize the computer and totally shut down. It locked us out of opening the files and denied all copying or transferring... epic fail. Guess I don't have computer hacking skills huh? It made for an adventurous late night though, that's for sure haha.<br /><br />Wednesday was nothing special. We had district meeting in Mac, then shot the rest of the day getting the oil changed and the tires rotated... bleh. That night was sweet though because it was my turn to go teach Allie on splits, and it went really well! I was assigned to go with Colin Hales, a guy in the ward who I'm finally getting to know. Good thing I am, cause he's a freakin' stud! He grew up in SLC and was recently reactivated up here a couple years back. He's super laid back, but has an awesome testimony and seems to be able to talk to anyone. Fun fact for the day about Colin: we have three things in common: (do you like how there was a colon inside another colon in this sentence?) 1: (okay that was just for kicks and giggles) we drink diet Coke. 2: we love Jeeps. 3: we both spent a lot of time in Daybreak back in Utah... turns out that one of the sweet colonial style houses that I used to drive by every day working up there was his! Kind of a small world amongst the Mormons eh? He's a way sweet guy and his family matches him perfectly... he's one of those people I wanna keep friends with after the mission for sure.<br /><br />Anyway, jumping into what happened that night, we ended up teaching Allie a little bit about the plan of salvation and just talking about how she was feeling about her baptismal date, etc., and she decided that she wants to move it up to the 30th so that the Steers can be there for the baptism as well as the confirmation (they're headed out of town the following Sunday morning). On top of that, she wants to get her baby blessed after her confirmation... kinda cool, huh? This girl is making all the right decisions, and the Lord is definitely preparing the way to help her get there... it's awesome!<br /><br />Thursday... it was an interesting day. We had our normal service over at Scott and Heidi's, although they weren't there, so we just did what we usually do. We mowed the lawn and bought some weed-n-feed for it, and it laid down quite nicely. After that, we got back to the house and did some cleaning in the garage. It was kinda therapeutic in a way, considering the stress load that was tacked on. It's funny how things change in your life... I used to hate washing dishes, organizing/cleaning and doing yard work, but now that's how I keep my sanity.<br /><br />That night, we had another lesson with Allie where she made us some dessert and we taught her the rest of the plan of salvation by drawing on a whiteboard... it was pretty dang fun. The coolest part of it was that her kid brother was there, and he liked it as well... unfortunately, he lives kinda far away, so we're not sure how we can swing it without handing him over... driving to Eugene to teach him might be a stretch haha.<br /><br />Friday, we did some service for my DCBFF, and it rocked! We took some time to clear out her garage that was full of Tupperware bins and schtuff that needed to be junked, and we made it look nice and pretty. In all honesty, we were just the brawn and she did most of the "braining" to figure out where she wanted it put and how she wanted it organized... I have to say though... it looks pretty dang good :-) The sweetest part about it is that she was so sweet and cooked us an amazing brunch complete with breakfast burritos and sticky buns... she even topped it all off with some good ol' diet Coke with lime :-) All bribes and favors aside, she's one of the people that I wanna stay in close contact with after the mission... she's a way awesome person. Convert to the church, spiritual giant, and still finds room to drink diet Coke haha.<br /><br />Anyway, that night, we had another good lesson with Allie at the Steers where we were talking about her group of friends and what her role is with them. It's kinda funny cause everyone calls her "mommy" because she takes care of them and gives them advice on life... she realized that with the influence that she has with them, she could majorly bless their lives by showing them the way that she herself was able to change... I just hope it works and we can help out her friends as well!<br /><br />Saturday, we decided to JW it by doing some door knocking, and it kinda paid off... well, on two doors at least. Most of the people didn't want to answer the door, but the ones who did were pretty cool. Well, minus one guy who was a Presbyterian minister anyway. We bumped into a lady who has been less active for like ten years, but said she'd be cool with us coming over to talk with her and teach her, so hopefully we can get her records transferred into the ward and we can get her going to church again... as the saying goes: we'll see what happens. One other person we knocked into was a lady who's actually the mom of a kid who plays soccer with Nathan Steers (momma steers' boy), and it sparked a great conversation with her... she doesn't really know anything about the church, but after talking to her there, she seemed pretty stoked about talking to momma steers and setting up a time to come over for dinner with her. We kinda had to finagle it that way because her husband is a big time Delta-Bravo. It's funny because I had already talked to his wife about knowing Spanish, and he was talking smack in Spanish behind the door while we talked to his wife, and obviously didn't know that I speak it... the look on his wife's face was pretty priceless. Anyway, it was a good conversation.<br /><br />Aside from that, on Sunday we had a couple of people to church, which was sweet. Allie was there and so was the Steers' neighbor friend named Sage. We need more Steers families in our wards! They're totally rockin' it right now! Church was good, we didn't have anything too eventful happen... oh except for during the last hour of church (we were there for eight hours on Sunday haha) we got a text from Mia (the girl who was Allie's roommate) asking if it was normal to have scary experiences before you get baptized. I was a little sketched out by that, so I stepped out and talked to her. Turns out that the day she announced her baptism, that night she went to bed and had a scary, scary dream where she woke up terrified and wondered if maybe it was a sign. We talked and I explained that it's normal for people who are trying to change their lives for the better to have Satan try to step in and muddle things up, then showed her Alma 37:37 that talks about the Lord watching over you as you sleep if you pray to him to do so... she'll be okay though, and she's super excited for her baptism... she says that one of us should be allowed to perform her baptism and the other could do Allie's... sounds like a good excuse for a trip to Colorado right? haha<br /><br />Anyway, that was the excitement for Sunday aside from one more lesson with Allie to cover the word of wisdom.<br /><br />The only other fun thing that happened was that this morning we got a text from momma Steers asking if we could help her with her garage. When we got there, we found out why... somehow, the opener had totally trashed the top section of the door... the first row on it has glass panes, and the force of the door had shattered ALL of them somehow, so we spent some time fixing it with some deck screws and carpenter nails after cleaning up all the glass... it seriously bent the top panel in half it had so much force behind it! Anyway, it's fixed now, and at least it'll open and close without doing what it did before haha. <br /><br />Well, I'm off to enjoy a nice relaxing p-day, so I hope all is well on the home front and that you're all doing what you're supposed to. I love you all and will talk to ya later!<br /><br />Loves,<br /><br />Elder Kurt MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-34237019357214647602011-07-12T17:58:00.003-06:002011-07-12T18:02:41.926-06:00Praise the Lord - I'm dyin' in Sherwood!2011 July 11<br />Dearest Mommy,<br /> <br />Holy cow this has been an eventful week, so brace yourself, okay?<br /> <br />So, to start off this whole shebang, let's begin with last Tuesday after we finished emails. Just as we were about to finish up and log off, we got an email from the mission office saying that they needed stake reports info emailed in for both the tualatin and mcminnville stakes by 5:00, so we were sent scrambling trying to find the numbers, get them punched in, and get them off in time... holy stressful mess! It wouldn't have been so bad, but we found out that there's a limit to how much time you can spend on the computers in the library, so we ended up not being able to use those, frantically searching for a key, and running to the clerk's office in the church to get them done on time. Luckily, we got it done under the gun with like 20 minutes to spare haha.<br /> <br />Wednesday was the day for zone conference with our new mission president Morby so that he could go through and interview every single missionary... basically it ended up being the AP's and ourselves (elder Anderson and I) babysitting four zones by giving them extensive training on how to use the new DVD players and focus on the fundamentals of preach my gospel. It really wasn't too bad, but I'm a little disappointed that we forgot to bring the DVD player that president Dyches had assigned to us, because we had a perfect plan of how we were going to do a "demonstration." We were planning on having one of us fake watching an unapproved movie on it and have the other companion come in with a hammer to smash it to pieces, and then tell the rest of the missionaries that's what we'll do if they watch unapproved material on them. We didn't, however, so we gave a more grown-up training where we showed them "how to use the pause button effectively during companionship study to improve teaching skills".... sounds idiotic, but hey, it's what they asked us to do for the training. We made sure to make pauses to point out how one dude had really short arms in proportion to his body, the funny faces some of the people made, and to hear some comments from the peanut gallery about their teaching techniques... it was actually kinda fun :-)<br /> <br />That night, we had the most crazy awesome splits ever. So you remember how we talked about Jared, Mia, and Allie right? Well, I think that fateful fourth of July night after we left put that awesome trio into some deep thinking after we'd shared our experiences of life before the mission and how we were able to change to come out. To make a long story short, elder Anderson went to the lesson on splits Wednesday night with Clint Demaris (WML) and I went to some visit some other people, and it turns out that during the lesson, Jared said that he was going to separate from Mia and move back to Texas to prepare for his mission while she moves back to Colorado to live with her family and continue learning from the missionaries there to get ready for baptism! Boom! At the drop of a hat! It's amazing how if someone is willing to act they can have that much spiritual influence exercised in their life. Allie decided to stay and continue going to church here and keep learning about the gospel. Pretty sweet, eh? We're continuing to teach Allie who already has such a solid testimony it's awesome, and we're planning on keeping in close contact with the other two so that we can make sure that they stay strong and don't get lost in the process... they're all such freakin' awesome kids I love them! There's more to the story with these three as the week goes along, and it's a lot more in-depth than I'm describing it, you guys at least have to hear this part of it.<br /> <br />On Thursday, we did some service for Scott and Heidi at the house where we seriously tore the crap out of their lawn by digging out all the weeds growing in it and trying to make it look really good. We're planning on coming back next week to weed-n-feed the whole thing and fill in the holes with some potting soil and grass seed so it'll grow in nice and thick... it's a major project, but Scott deserves it along with his two daughters... they're sweet. Actually, one of the cool things that happened this last time is we had the opportunity to talk with Scott's oldest daughter Sam while she was out picking cherries out of the tree and we were digging weeds. She's been super distanced the whole time I've known her because I think her church talks a little smack on the Mormons, but she warmed up and was chatting it up about her job, the truck she drives, and just life in general... we even convinced her to come out to Keltapalooza (a party for Kelton, the former elder Wilde... I'm getting there don't worry) at the Steers on Sunday night. Anyway, hopefully we can start teaching her and get her going to church or something, cause she's a super sweet kid... has the exact same personality as her dad, it's way cool.<br /> <br />After doing that, we headed back to the house and got changed so we could go say goodbye to Jared and Mia before they took off for their respective homes (like I said, at the drop of a hat!) and talk for a little bit... it just blows my mind the amount of faith that these three have shown to be willing to act just like that. We made sure to jot down their numbers and email addresses, and get Mia's address so the missionaries could visit her... I think they even got us added on facebook I'm not sure haha. Anyway, that was way cool.<br /> <br />Friday, we were on exchange, so elder Anderson took a trip to Tigard to work with elder Shupe, and I was here in Sherwood with his companion elder Bowthorpe. It's funny how you have a predetermined mindset about a person before you get to know them... I thought the kid was a jerk to be honest when I first met him, but now I realize that he's way sweet and just super shy and humble. We spent the morning doing some service for my DCBFF (diet coke best friend forever) in the cedar creek ward, sister Barker. It was pretty funny how much coke she has in her food storage... like she probably has more of that than any other commodity haha. I think it's because in all reality, you can survive off of just diet coke for quite a while :-)<br /> <br /> <br />Anyway, we did about the same thing with sister Barker as we did with Scott's lawn, but to a more extreme level. We were digging out entire patches of lawn where moss had killed off the grass and re-planting with grass seed mix... hopefully with some watering, weed-n-feed, and time, we can get it in working order again.... gosh maybe I should be a landscaping major or something, cause I'm seriously loving yard work right now haha. I have another story about it on Saturday for sister DeLong that I'll tell ya.<br /> <br />Oh, one more funny thing about Friday was that we helped Mark and Alex move out of their townhouse to be closer to Mark's work. While cleaning out their freezer, we found another gallon zip-loc baggie chock-full of weed haha. His wifey said when I showed it to her "uh.. it's just green beans" but it was pretty funny... goodness she was very adamant about keeping a hold of those green beans after I pulled them out of the freezer :-P<br /> <br />So Saturday morning we were supposed to get to McMinnville's SPC breakfast, and we got totally lost and didn't find it till the last 20 minutes of it haha. It's a terrible thing when your GPS dies and you have no phone signal on the back roads of Mac... goodness it made for some good rallying in that Malibu though :-)<br /> <br />After the breakfast, we did another exchange with Cox and Wohlleben to keep them from killing each other, and because we found out that Kelton (elder Wilde) was up visiting. Before seeing him, we did some work in sister DeLong's yard, and holy moses we found out something interesting. Where we thought there was a bush in the front right by the walkway turned out to be a tree that should have covered a patio! We hacked the crap out of the bush and were able to make enough space to park two nice patio chairs underneath it and have room to stand up straight... pretty ridiculous, but it looks awesome. I'll take pictures for ya.<br /> <br />After that, we went to a dinner at the park, which was a barbecue put on for elder Wilde, and it was pretty sweet... he brought his girlfriend Erica with him as well as his mommy Kim. They're a pretty cute couple together... I don't really have much else to say about that haha. Other than that, his mom is absolutely awesome. Seriously, I talked with her more than with Kelton because he was...ahem... occupied with his girly haha. Kim and I are gonna be good friends after the mission though cause we both get along really, really well. Kinda funny eh? Maybe a little strange, but whatevs. You'll have to meet her... she's only like 20 min away in Draper.<br /> <br />Sunday, Allie came to church with the Steers, and it's so adorable. She might be horribly embarrassed if she read this, but it's been so cool to see the change that has come over her even in the last three weeks. The first time she came to church with Jared and Mia, both of the girls were dressed...well, not overly modest we'll put it that way haha. However, in the following two weeks, their dress became more and more modest (and not just on Sundays!) and it's so cool to see how their countenances have changed, especially Allie's. She's a kid who definitely has her head screwed on straight and is looking to do what her Heavenly Father has planned for her. The gospel changes lives as long as the people living them are willing to follow it. She's one of those people.<br /> <br />That night was the big Keltapalooza over at the Steers home where we ate a boatload, talked a ton, and laughed even more. It was really so much fun to be with those guys for the night. Kelton, gf, and mommy were there, the Steers minus her hubby who's working in California, and even Scott's crew and Allie were there! Holy mess it was fun!<br /> <br />Now for the fun part of this whole week-long experience that I forgot to tell you until now: We got transfer calls on Saturday night, and it turns out that I'm staying here in Sherwood till the end of the mish! Gardner called and said "elder Mooney, I'm so sorry... I tried. I was really pullin hard for ya. I fought tooth and nail, and well... YOU'RE STAYING IN SHERWOOD!!!!" Ah man I was so mad at him for like five seconds haha.. I was so scared of leaving this place, and it just makes me really happy to know that I'll be here to finish the mission, so I can not have to worry about getting the boot or seeing another area... just me, Anderson, and Sherwood... with Ella Rose DeLong, of course :-)<br /> <br />Now for the funny part. Transfers were yesterday, right? So as I'm doing my studies in the morning before we headed over, I got a call from some random area in the mission, and it turns out it's Rivera, and guess what... I'm a grandpa! A friggin' grandpa! Rivera is training a kid in English, so it's official: My posterity continues onward, thank goodness haha. Kinda funny though, right? The poor kid is training on a bike in Gresham... I gave him a knife as a father's day present so he can fight off the hobos out there where he's at haha.<br /> <br />After transfer meeting, we did some shopping, dropped off elder Cox and his companion the Nazi, and headed to dinner at the house. Turned out that our dinner canceled on us, but sister DeLong's granddaughter was nice enough to make us a super killer dinner complete with steak, green beans, baked potatoes, and even angel food cake (Twinkies haha) with homemade whipped cream and strawberries over the top... delicious! <br /> <br />Anyway, after the super sweet & thoughtful dinner, we had a lesson over at the Steers house with Allie, and it went really well. Actually, we didn't even end up talking about what we wanted to... most of the time was honestly spent hearing about how Kelton's girlfriend was like the Yoko Ono for his Beatles and how he should do better, blah, blah, blah until we were able to change the subject. To make a long story much, much shorter, we got talking about the church, her reading, and how her prayers have been going. She had a confirmation this last Sunday that this is the true church through a cool experience that she had where the Spirit kinda spoke to her, so we asked if she wanted to be baptized. She's set up to have her baptism on the 5th of August :-) the crazy thing about it? five is her lucky number and it's also her half-birthday mark... cool eh? I freakin' love being a missionary!<br /> <br />Okay, I apologize that this letter is so dang long, but I just want you to know that I love you so much Mom and I appreciate so much the sacrifices you guys are willing to make to let me be out here and serve the Lord... it truly has and continues to change me as a person every day... I just hope that you guys see the blessings of it as much as I do.... even if the only blessing is that it makes being around me a little more bearable haha. Have a great week and I'll talk to ya later, okay? <br /> <br />All my love,<br /> <br />-Elder Kurt MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-90009349610902515892011-07-05T14:02:00.007-06:002011-07-06T06:32:08.389-06:004th of JulyDearest Mommy,<br /> <br />Well, it's been an eventful week, so hopefully I have the time to get all of this crammed into one email... we'll see!<br /> <br />Monday (the 27th) was a pretty sweet day. We actually ended up shooting part of our p-day to go teach a lesson to those two non-members that showed up to church with the less active guy. Turns out that it went really well! Their names are Allie and Mya (pronounced) me-uh, not maya), and they are, to put it into one word, prepared! We got to know them a little bit, and taught them about the restoration, and they both totally accepted it! Mya is Jared's (the less active guy) girlfriend, so it's cool to see that they're looking to get their lives aligned with the gospel. Allie is a single mom, and she recognizes that she isn't in the ideal situation, but wants to make sure that her kids are when they get to that point, so she wants them to grow up in the gospel. When we taught them about Joseph Smith, they recognized that it totally makes sense and said that it had to have happened and that there must be prophets today... pretty sweet right? They even said when they knew it was true, they're gonna be baptized... Yay!<br /> <br />Tuesday we had a patriotic district meeting where we sang The Star-Spangled Banner and My Country 'Tis of Thee, which ended up offending Cox's German companion, but oh well that's what he gets for serving in the greatest country in the world haha. After that, we went to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch, and it was awesome! Oh man I hadn't been there since before the mission, so it was fun to do that for my b-day with the district. Elder Cox was super thoughtful and not only paid for my meal, but got me a super cool card and a couple of goodies... I love that kid!<br /> <br />Wednesday was a sweet day. In the morning it was basically a party with sister DeLong where she totally took one for the team. Okay, I need to backtrack to Anderson's birthday... we bought him a remote-controlled helicopter, and sister DeLong HATES it! Well, she secretly loves it, but she's just afraid it's gonna get twirled up in her hair, but anyway, getting back to the point, she took one for the team and bought me one for my birthday! Oh man elder Anderson and I have limitless entertainment flying our helicopters and crashing them into each other haha. <br /> <br />The package that you guys sent, by the way, was put to VERY good use... especially the whoopee cushions haha. Sister DeLong is very prim and proper when it comes to *ahem* lavatory vernacular, so instead of saying "I'm gonna go take a pee" you would say "I'm going to go spend a penny". The best one is that instead of saying "fart", you would say "make a smell" (which sounds worse in my opinion) Anyway, the thing that makes it comical is that we hid a few of the whoopee cushions under the chairs that she sits on regularly (terrible hiding them from a blind lady, right?) and when she would sit down on them, we would question her saying "hermana, did you make a SMELL!?" She, of course, was a great sport about it all, but was mortified the first time we did it haha. Oh good times with sister DeLong :-)<br /> <br />Anywho, later in the day, we had a bash on my birthday.. that was lame. I find that I just get fuming when people read anti material because it's not even that they have a doctrinal difference, it's just that they poison their minds toward everything that we believe... even the things that we have in common. The nice thing was that we had a member with us who took us back to his house and gave us a drink and a piece of cake to cool the iron a little bit haha.<br /> <br />That night was one of the most entertaining nights of my mission, and probably of any birthday I've had. We got a call from momma Steers asking if we had dinner plans, which we didn't, and she said, "well Scott and Heidi (Scott's the guy we're teaching) wanna take you out, so where do ya wanna go?" He ended up taking us out to Chang's Mongolian which was super fun and where he shelled out some major cash... that guys is the freakin' man! Not only that, but we were able to spend some good time just talking and laughing with them the whole night which made it awesome. I really look forward to the day that he gets baptized. I was thinking that this might be a good opportunity for dad to talk to him... I don't have his number on me right now, but next week I'll email it to ya cause saying thanks for what he did could be a good segue into talking about the whole situation with what he's going through. Not sure if you'd be comfortable with that dad, but lemme know.<br /> <br />Oh, one other interesting thought about what happened while we were at dinner. So as we were taking off, I picked up a fortune cookie, and no joke, this is what it said: "remember this day three months from now. Great things are in store for you." Crazy huh!? Oh my goodness I was a little freaked out when I read that... T-minus three months and counting!<br /> <br />Okay, on to Thursday. Nothing too exciting happened... Scott was working, but we went over and did some service for him anyway. You know, it's funny how your attitude changes when you get older. The thing that's sick is that now I totally enjoy doing yard work... like I love it! I also like washing dishes, straightening picture frames, dusting blinds, making my bed every morning... I don't know what's wrong with me... maybe I'll snap out of it eventually or something haha. No but really, there's something so nice about being able to do those things and see the immediate results of what you're involved with. it's satisfying for sure.<br /> <br />Friday was the big day that we met president Morby... I'm a little scared haha. Not because he's uber strict, in fact, quite the opposite. I was a little worried when I found out what his policy was for the fourth of July... He said that between six and nine p.m. he didn't want us proselyting, but that we should spend that time with members, and that if we were going to watch fireworks, we needed to be home no later than 12... I know that sounds kinda reasonable, but holy moses that's a big deal as far as missionaries are concerned! Mind you, this is the same day that we had DVD players handed out to every single companionship in the mission, so we were all a little stressed out. The nice thing about the DVD players though? We found out that we can put a parental lock on them so the only rating they can see on them is G. All of the DVD players in our zone now have that set on them, and only elder Anderson and myself know the code. Muahaha. :-)<br /> <br />Saturday turned out to be a super service Saturday... and it was freakin' fun! We went to momma Steer's place and hacked down some MONSTER blackberry bushes that were plaguing the hill on the back of their property, and man it was a task lemme tell ya. We spent a good two or three hours just hacking the thing down and raking it into piles. After we finished with that, we took a "break" by heading back home to do some service for hermana DeLong. Turns out I'm pretty handy for learning how to wind and calibrate antique black forest clocks (real ones like the one we have...haha). Anyway, sister DeLong has like five of them in the house, and we have two of them working right now, and the other ones we're working on... hopefully they start working soon haha.<br /> <br />Once we finished dinking around with the clocks, we took a little trip back to the Steers to help her load up all the blackberries to throw them on the burn pile of one of the Sherwood elders' investigators. Turns out that the guy whose truck we were borrowing is a non-member married to an active lady, so it gave us a great opportunity to talk to him about the gospel and his story... turns out he's the strength and conditioning coach for the Blazers and a really cool guy! The thing I don't get is that he grew up in Sandy, Utah, went to CEU for his undergrad, and was never baptized... we wanna find out more, but anyway, back to the story. He was super nice and friendly the whole time, and actually ended up hooking us up with NBA shorts that the players wear and taking us out to dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ. He is such a cool guy! Hopefully we can work with him more, especially since there's a lockout going on right now. We'll see I guess. Oh, and his name is Bobby Medina.<br /> <br />Sunday we had another exciting Sunday where we got to teach Sunday school. Allie and Mya showed up for church, and we even had a lady we're teaching in Woodhaven ward show up for sacrament! Pretty cool!<br /> <br />Monday was the bomb.com. We woke up in the morning, studied, then went to a ward breakfast down in Stella-Olson park. We had a blast talking to the members, and even Jared, Allie, and Mia showed up! We talked to them, and they invited us over for dinner and offered that they would do everything if we made a dessert, so we did. We spent part of the day mediating between Wohlleben and Coxey, bought our ingredients, and made some blueberry cupcake/muffins with a blueberry lemon vanilla glaze topped with whipped cream and sliced strawberries... oh my goodness they were heavenly! Anyway, long story short, we ate with them and became really good friends with them quickly and spent the night shooting off fireworks with them after dinner. We have another appointment set up with them for Wednesday, so hopefully we'll be able to give them a solid baptismal date, but that means a marriage/breakup date for Jared and Mya, so we're gonna have to do some planning for that.<br /> <br />The one thing I love about the fourth of July is the nostalgia of it all. The sun, the heat, the breakfast, the songs, the barbecues, the smell of fireworks, the cool night, and the way people slow down and really recognize how wonderful of a day it really is. I came to the realization of how much of an impact the fourth has had on us as a religion. I know it sounds hokey, but it's true. Mom, you said that nobody celebrates the fourth like they do along the Wasatch front, and I would argue that's because we have a deeper understanding and appreciation of it because of the gospel truths that we enjoy. The Book of Mormon speaks of it, and there's also a great talk given by Dallin H. Oaks given about it. If ya have time, look up his talk. Here's the link for it:<br /><br />http://newsroom.lds.org/article/fundamentals-of-our-constitutions-elder-dallin-h-oaks<br /><br />Anyway, I love this work, I love this country, and I love the 4th of July! Oh, and I love you guys too, of course. :-)<br /> <br />All my love,<br /> <br />-Elder MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-52451863130941713112011-06-27T15:13:00.002-06:002011-06-27T15:16:48.294-06:00Busy, busy2011 June 27<br />Dearest Mommy,<br /><br />Okay, so there's not a ton of time to write this email because we have a lesson set up to teach a couple of investigators that showed up with a less-active member yesterday to church in about half an hour, so I'll try to get it all packed in here what went down.<br /><br />So Monday Elders Cox and Wohlleben were about to kill each other, so we split them up, putting Wohlleben with the elders from Bull Mountain and we took elder Cox to the mall because he was looking at getting a new suit. We took a trip to Washington Square, and I spent some money... I spent $20 on a pair of jeans and $8 on a shirt I'm sorry! Then to make it worse we took elder Cox to Cheesecake factory the following day for his birthday where supposedly a salad would only be eight bucks and with a drink would be ten, so 20 to pay for Cox and myself, but it turned out to be more expensive. Add to that fact that elder Anderson forgot his wallet and what you get is $50.00 which I did NOT have on my chase card. instead of the $20 I was going to pay... sucky day. IOU $$$$$$$!!! <br /><br />So, back to the excitement for the week. At the Mall, elder Cox introduced me to my new favorite store (well, kinda) which is called H&M. Pretty rad place. That night, we had an FHE with an active family discussing how they could answer questions about their church. We had put together what we thought were simple answers for all of them, but when we asked them the questions and asked them to try to answer, they totally roushed us! Instead of explaining how people "know" that God exists, this six year old kid said "I'm not exactly sure how to explain it, but I know some missionaries that can tell you. How bout you come to my house sometime and they can answer your question?" GENIUS! Oh my goodness I never felt so dumb in my whole life. That would be about 1000 times easier than how we were trying to do it haha.<br /><br />Tuesday, we had a blitz with some elders that are struggling, and it went really well. We just went knocking, and had a total blast. I went with this elder named elder Young, and it was a good thing for him because he's stuck with a companion right now that has him (elder Young) pulling all the weight for the area. The good thing is that we picked up a couple of new investigators for them, so they should be in good shape for at least the next couple of weeks... goodness I love knocking doors sometimes. We knocked for three hours, and in that three hours, we only talked to probably ten people. The thing is though, that was in a total of maybe 12 doors haha. It was really fun!<br /><br />Wednesday, we started an exchange with some elders in McMinnville that went really well. We went knocking and bumped into a kid that reminded me entirely too much of myself. He's a 2008 graduate, loves reggae, and get this: we found him outside wrenching on his white 1991 Jeep Wrangler SE with the 4 cylinder 2.5. Perfect segue into a conversation, right? We ended up talking shop for a good while and found out that he has a lot of Mormon friends... it was a blastie haha. We're hopefully gonna get him hooked up for some lessons... if nothing else, he's gonna come down and do a Moab trip with me sometime after the mission haha. <br /><br />Thursday morning we went over and did service for Scott Cunningham, and it went great. He is seriously the coolest guy I've ever met... He's gonna be an amazing member of the church when it finally happens. the cool thing is that he really opened up to me to where we really are friends now. Turns out he finds himself in a situation almost identical to where dad was with Denise. She had already had a kid, he adopted her when they got married, they had another kid, and then, well, you know the rest of the story. Anyway, I know it might sound weird, but I'm gonna see if I can get dad hooked up to talk to him so that he can see the light at the end of the tunnel with what's going on. This could end up being the ultimate opportunity to change someone's life, because when Scott talked to me about this, he didn't know how to deal with what he was going through, and all he wants is so badly for things to work out so that he can have a happy family. That's really his only hope and dream.<br /><br />After that, later in the day, I interviewed one of Elder Cox's baptismal Candidates named Judy Hope, and she was awesome. We ended up having an hour and a half interview just because we talked so much about, well, everything. It's a bad thing when you have two people in a conversation that can't shut up haha. It was interesting though. I taught her how to pray in a group, because she's never felt comfortable, and when I asked he to do it, she gave the most heartfelt, sincere prayer I think I've ever hear... it put me to tears it was awesome!<br /><br />Friday, we did a blitz with the Sherwood elders to get them excited about life, and it went really well. It was during the Sherwood garage sale extravaganza, so we put two elders to walk around in the parks to contact, and two others to peruse the yard sales. It actually turned out to be quite effective, and we met some nice folks that all love their neighbor members... hopefully that spells dinners with the families that have those neighbors :-)<br /><br />Saturday, we did some super service haha. In the morning after studies, Ella Rose's son Matt and his family arrived and we decided to tear apart the entire garage and put it back together again, and it turned out to be a wonderful idea. The place looks spic and span, just like it should :-) After they took off, I did a run-through with the sprinklers and got them turned on for the summer so that the yard won't be burned up... the house is actually really looking good so we're excited to see how it'll be during the summer with a little extra help.<br /><br />After that, we had a fun little service opportunity with a propane torch burning weeds... holy awesomeness it was fun :-)<br /><br />Sunday, we had a sweet little revolution meeting with both ward mission leaders where we organized ourselves into what we're going to accomplish with the ward members, which should be good. Then, Scott showed up to church! Plop! After that, we had two non-members show up to church with a less-active member! Awesome! Blessings for righteous living! <br /><br />I gotta go I love you guys!<br /><br />-Elder MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-81428966126957199042011-06-20T13:44:00.004-06:002011-06-20T13:45:51.888-06:00Sister DeLong with Elder Mooney<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFt4Q18p7ArH4w7HIfHkGwHPqzsf9Bc_i3uzLKJPPgSiW1uIImBSW16kVWGl2XbBl7fuqG7com-5oHvOg7lIChCJ-OvS6uvlbpEqsaJH3pxsBKwQG0zaDii_KRmIF4svWiDPRl2j2lY2U/s1600/IMG_0889%255B2%255D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFt4Q18p7ArH4w7HIfHkGwHPqzsf9Bc_i3uzLKJPPgSiW1uIImBSW16kVWGl2XbBl7fuqG7com-5oHvOg7lIChCJ-OvS6uvlbpEqsaJH3pxsBKwQG0zaDii_KRmIF4svWiDPRl2j2lY2U/s400/IMG_0889%255B2%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5620390156854286338" /></a><br /><br /> Elder Mooney, Sis. DeLong, & Yolanda, the maid<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi60M4na7aWkTt796nIp2DXMP-z5Vjnmx1RNg-0ErvyQ0fBxt_faUrX9Wr-2wxSE6vYncv-DWFFWiHFsdyHy2kuLAgIZiPJRFCXLzjpztACPY1-ev9eHeUVDFkpSPazK16F_T9BqRoIucc/s1600/IMG_0907%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi60M4na7aWkTt796nIp2DXMP-z5Vjnmx1RNg-0ErvyQ0fBxt_faUrX9Wr-2wxSE6vYncv-DWFFWiHFsdyHy2kuLAgIZiPJRFCXLzjpztACPY1-ev9eHeUVDFkpSPazK16F_T9BqRoIucc/s400/IMG_0907%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5620390347654336946" /></a>Ruth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-31177197714049724092011-06-20T13:30:00.000-06:002011-06-20T13:31:19.686-06:00Spiritual feast2011 June 20<br />Dearest Mommy,<br /> <br />Happy birthday!!! I hope you have an awesome day... your *ahem* present is in the mail... the other part I'll attach on here so that you can see Ella Rose, the classiest lady on the planet. She really is like the sweetest lady ever! There's also the one with Yolanda our maid in it so that you can get a feel for how spoiled we really are here... I love it!<br /> <br />This week has been kinda hectic, but I wanna be brief in what I write on here, because the spiritual stuff is what was cool about this week. Monday we had sort of a "meh" p day with nothing too exciting going on during the day... we wandered around Ross, but that was about the extent of our excitement. However, we did have a couple of awesome appointments that night. First was with a family that we ate with where we were able to teach a sort of short lesson with them, and I apologize if I repeat myself on what was cool about it. <br /> <br />So to start off, I have to say that it all ties in with the "revolution" that elder Van Hook and I started in Beaverton. We spoke to them about the importance of sharing the gospel, but how it's hard in American culture to do so sometimes because white people are prideful and also don't like to talk about religion openly. Anyway, we told them about Eduardo the Brazilian guy from the Beaverton ward that was always hooking us up with people that he'd met and talked to about the gospel. The scripture that relates to Eduardo's attitude is found in Helaman 15:5-7 it starts out where Samuel the lamanite is preaching to the Nephites from the wall, and here he's talking about how the Lamanites have been able to have such great success as members as well as missionaries, and here's what he says (with a little editing):<br /> <br />" 5And I would that ye should behold that the amore part of them are in the path of their duty, and they do walk circumspectly before God, and they do observe to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments.....<br /> "6Yea, I say unto you, that the more part of them are doing this, and they are striving with unwearied diligence that they may bring the remainder of their brethren to the knowledge of the truth; therefore there are many who do add to their numbers daily.<br /> "7And...as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth... are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them—<br /> 8Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are affirm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free.<br />Kind of the trick I suppose is coming to know that the holy scriptures are true, and most importantly the book of Mormon. If you have a solid knowledge and testimony of the book, you're gonna be rock solid in all the other aspects of the gospel... it brings about the "change of heart." Now, the thing about this is, how do you get that answer to really know? It's a fallacy amongst the members of the church that you read the whole flippin' book of Mormon, and once you read Moroni 10:3-5, THEN you ask God if the book is true. Well, you can do it that way, but it's about 100 times easier to read a little bit every day and pray about that little piece. You can't just expect your flash in a pan one lousy time to last you for a lifetime. The question I would ask is this: When is the last time you prayed to know that the book of Mormon is true? If you're like me the first time I was asked that, it had been almost a year... sad, right? I found one of the magical answers to keeping a strong testimony is to simply read every day, and talk to God about what you read... he'll give you calm, steady assurance that what you're reading is right. Every. Single. Day. Do that, and I promise you that you'll get that change of heart you're looking for, and be more inclined to share the gospel.<br />Okay, off the soapbox. Tuesday, there was "pandelirium" with elders Cox and Wohleben (new greenie), where elder Cox was about ready to kill him for not believing the rules he was telling him about and wanting to do things "the German way", so we had a little sit-down therapy session during district meeting... Dr. Feelgood strikes again! I tell ya, it could be an interesting show haha. After that, we went on an exchange with them to help both of them cool their jets, and I ended up with elder Cox in Tigard... it was a blast! After venting about Wohleben for a good hour or two, I helped get him focused on other things, and it turned out to be a blast... gosh I love elder Cox. We really have become best friends while we've been out here... actually, we're gonna have to take a trip up here for the wedding of that missionary who changed my life and his girlfriend who elder Cox baptized like two weeks after I get off the mission haha... it'll be a double-duty! Hopefully Coxey and I can ride together in his car and stay at Ella Rose's place for it... to kinda cut down the cost, ya know? Anyway, we kicked butt and took names... he's a great missionary and knows how to get stuff done!<br />Wednesday, I read a really cool scripture. Right now I'm in the middle of Mosiah, and what I read that morning is in Mosiah 4:5-15 King Benjamin is fixing to end his talk, and this is what he says to the people after they've believed the words he's spoken and received "a knowledge of their surety by the power of the Holy Ghost:"<br />4And king Benjamin again opened his mouth and began to speak unto them, saying: My friends and my brethren, my kindred and my people, I would again call your attention, that ye may hear and understand the remainder of my words which I shall speak unto you.<br /> 5For behold, if the knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness, and your worthless and fallen state—<br /> 6I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life, I mean the life of the mortal body—<br /> 7I say, that this is the man who receiveth salvation, through the atonement which was prepared from the foundation of the world for all mankind, which ever were since the fall of Adam, or who are, or who ever shall be, even unto the end of the world.<br /> 8And this is the means whereby salvation cometh. And there is none other salvation save this which hath been spoken of; neither are there any conditions whereby man can be saved except the conditions which I have told you.<br /> 9Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.<br /> 10And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.<br /> 11And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.<br /> 12And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.<br /> 13And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due.<br /> 14And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the devil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.<br /> 15But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.<br />Holy Moses that was a lot of scripture to throw on here and highlight, but it's AWESOME!!! If you're looking to be a good parent, be worthy, and not have a crappy life, this is the way to do it. The four main points in here are to 1: obtain knowledge (believe, know, etc.), 2: remember/retain that knowledge, 3: act on the knowledge you've received ("see that ye do these things") and 4: teach it to others. <br />What an awesome formula for spiritual success not only for yourself, but for all those around you. King Benjamin is officially my favorite.. again haha.<br />Okay, moving on because time is short. Thursday we had a lesson with the kid Nick that we knocked into the other day, and it turns out that he's sweet! We had him over at the neighbor member's house and we talked about the restoration and priesthood authority. We extended a soft baptismal invitation, and he accepted it and said that he'd love to come to church! Sweet right??! Things are finally starting to happen here and I'm stoked!<br />Friday, we had one hour to kill before an appointment, so we decided to do some contacting in the big park here in town, and it was kinda comical. I tell ya man, I can't shut up. We had one contact the entire time... we talked to him for the full hour before we had to go haha. We didn't set up a return-appointment, but he's golden. His stepdad was LDS, so he got hooked into it when he was like eight, is baptized, but after his parents' divorce at age 12, he went inactive. The nice thing? He's looking to go back to church, and is trying to get his fiancée interested.. we're gonna drop by and start teaching them hopefully. He told us where he lives and we'll see what happens this week.<br />Saturday we had the Mormon Portland choir concert that turned out to be absolutely grand. We helped set it up in the morning, and still had a bushel of extra tickets, so we asked Hna. DeLong if she wanted to go, and she said absolutely and that she'd invite friends. She ended up inviting two non-members to come, and it was awesome! She is such a sweet little member missionary, I love her. Unfortunately we didn't get to introduce ourselves because we were ushering the event, but hopefully we'll meet them this week or next.<br />Sunday, I read another interesting scripture in Mosiah 7:29-33, and it reminded me a lot of what we see when we visit people that are less-active or part-member families. Usually the houses are in disarray, family life isn't good, and there is a lot of financial and social stress that goes on. I finally realized why when I read this:<br /> 29For behold, the Lord hath said: I will not succor my people in the day of their transgression; but I will hedge up their ways that they prosper not; and their doings shall be as a stumbling block before them.<br /> 30And again, he saith: If my people shall sow filthiness they shall reap the chaff thereof in the whirlwind; and the effect thereof is poison.<br /> 31And again he saith: If my people shall sow filthiness they shall reap the east wind, which bringeth immediate destruction.<br /> 32And now, behold, the promise of the Lord is fulfilled, and ye are smitten and afflicted.<br /> 33But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.<br />Speaking of the East wind, I was a little confused when I first read that, because I didn't understand, so I did a little investigation, and found something interesting... this is what it means. In every instance where the East wind is mentioned, it is speaking of the chosen people of the Lord (those who have made covenants with him) turning away from him and being disobedient to what they know is right and have promised to do... actually in one of the cross-references, the Lord says "I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity." speaking, of course, of himself. When we don't want the Lord in our life anymore, he lets us make that decision, but like the scripture says, it brings immediate destruction (or distress) to our lives. Just food for thought... I thought it was interesting anyway.<br />The thing that's comforting though is the "but" that comes in that last verse. God is always willing to help us if we trust in him and serve him... all we have to do is turn back to him and there he will be.<br />Okay, the last one that I wanna talk about before I go is another scripture that spoke to me as I was reading in the D&C. It's actually an Ephesians scripture, and it's oh so popular amongst the Mormons... it's the "armour of God" found in Ephesians 6. We all know about the breastplate of righteousness, the loins girt about with truth, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, and the helmet of salvation, but the one part I have NEVER understood is the part about having your feet "shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." It never made sense to me, but I had a revelation. I was sitting there thinking about it and trying to decipher what the heck Paul was talking about when he spoke of that, and I read an interesting quote from someone whose name escapes me that actually talked about it! It was a devotional given at BYU eons ago, but he said in essence that our feet are what take us places, they could be likened unto our direction in life, our goals, etc.. The thing that struck me is that when your direction and goals are properly "prepared", you will find the success that the gospel of peace proffers you. Then it clicked. That's exactly what a mission is! The mission is the "preparation of the gospel of peace" that is going to point me in the right direction and aim me toward the right goals in life! That's what it's talking about... and it's interesting the effect that it can have on you. I dunno, it seemed like a huge epiphany at the time, and it made me think even more when a girl in sacrament meeting right after that spoke about making spiritual goals a part of our life along with college, career, family, etc.. It makes me realize that I have a lot of preparation to do in my life to not be an utter failure!<br />Well folks, I'm officially getting off of this soap box, but I hope that you received some insight from some of the direction that the Lord has pointed out to me this week... I know I definitely need it so I'm not a screw-up, and I just hope it helps you feel the Spirit and gain a little stronger conviction that Jesus is the Christ. I love you guys so much and I hope that you have a great week.<br />All my love,<br />-Elder Kurt MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-73726978767167992612011-06-17T12:18:00.000-06:002011-06-17T12:19:46.125-06:00Beginnnings and EndingsDearest Mommy, <br /> <br />Well, I know you're not gonna get this for another couple of days, but I imagine that Katie or Michelle or Dad will, so hi guys! It sounds like you've got it all ironed out for girls camp and that you'll have a heck of a time up there... lets just hope that the rain holds off! Here we thought that summer had finally come with like five days of solid sunshine, but it turns out that we're still holding onto winter with a death grip for some stupid reason... yesterday afternoon into this morning we've had solid rain. Finally the sun is out now, though, so it's all good haha. <br /> <br />So did you really get a letter telling you about my release date? Yikes that's scary... I'm not ready for it yet! I honestly don't have time to be trunky... there's too much to do in this area and with our zone! I'm not trying to say this in bad taste, so don't think I'm a terrible person, okay? I feel like winding down your mission is a lot like getting diagnosed with something terrible and you know when you're scheduled to die from it. When you first start thinking about it, you're frustrated, then you're sad, but then you kinda come to a point where you just want to live it up and take full advantage of the time allotted to you. That's kinda what I've come to feel in the past couple of weeks. Well, not likt terribly frustrated, but sad definitely, but resolute on the fact that I want to work hard up until the day I die! This place is too awesome to let go to pot.<br /> <br />In all honesty, I would LOVE for you guys to come up here... it's funny, I was just talking to Dad about this in the letter I sent him this morning. I think it would be great for you guys to come up here to get me, but will that work out for you guys? I just found out that the mini-mission thing has gotten shot out of the sky and that it won't be happening anymore, so we can scratch that off. However, I definitely agree with you in that I want you guys to meet the people that I've taught as well as the people that have greatly influenced me while I've been here. My vote is that you come pick me up haha. That way I don't have to stay in the mission home with a bunch of rambunctious 21 year old just about to go home and are way too excited about it missionaries haha. That way we can kinda take time to do a mission tour... you might wanna drive up here with something that has cargo space though because I acquired a BIG tote along side my three suitcases. They're mostly books, don't worry haha.<br /> <br />Okay, now that we're done talking about getting things situated for my death here, I'll tell you a little bit about the past week. It's been awesome!<br /> <br />Last Monday, we took a little trip after emails to Burlington coat factory... yeah, I used to think it was a super ghetto store, but I realized that there is actually a lot of stuff there that is really sweet! I went originally simply because I needed a new belt, and ended up getting a sweet one... the only trick is that I also got a new skinny, black, DKNY tie. After making the decision on those two, we were wandering around looking at the shirts, and we got the bright idea to all get plaid shirts. It turned out to be pretty comical. I really like the one that I got, and we all ended up with blue ones for some strange reason haha. I have a picture of us all... I'll send it next week with a picture of sis. DeLong haha.<br /> <br />After that, we were perusing the ward list, and decided on a family that was close to where we found ourselves at, and it turned out to be pretty sweet. They're more or less active members that hadn't been friends with the missionaries for a while, but after schmoozing with him for a while, we took off with the promise of a dinner/get-together with he and his neighbors. Sweet right? After that, we went to Bishop Eddington's house for our weekly meeting. He is the man! He served his mission in Guatemala and was just put in as bishop at the age of less than 40. I say it that way, because i don't know how old he is haha. He's awesome though and is really fired up about missionary work, so the ward is starting to take off.<br /> <br />Tuesday, we had one sweet lesson on the day with that guy Jon. You know, the gift from heaven one that I met originally in Beaverton serving spanish? Well, he read from the book of Mormon, a lot actually (like through 2Nephi), but the unfortunate thing is that he read a bunch of anti crap beforehand, so it didn't have the impact on him that we were looking for. He brought up some things that we had address before even talking about the book of Mormon. When we got there, however, it was interesting to see how his perspective changed. As I told him how it was that I'd gained my own testimony, he started to tear up... he'd never admit it, not in a thousand years, but he definitely felt the spirit. He wants to keep meeting with us, so hopefully we can get that anti garbage out of his head, but man I have to have run into him on numerous occasions for a reason. Hopefully we can change his mind.<br /> <br />Wednesday, we had zone conference, and something interesting that president Dyches told me really struck me. He was talking about beginnings and endings, seeing as he goes home here pretty quickly. He was talking about a line from a movie called Hope Floats, and this is what it says: "Beginnings are scary, endings are sad, and in the middle, hope floats." As far as the hope floating thing, I don't really get it, but there's a lot of truth in the beginnings and engings thing. I honestly think that's a big part of why we come to this earth is because mortality is chuck-full of them, and every time they come, they make you change and grow physically, mentally, and most importanly spiritually. It helps us to progress. The other thing that I came to the conclusion on is the fact that that is why eternity is such a beautiful concept. Mosiah 2:41 comes to mind where it talks about the righteous entering into a state of never ending happiness. It also puts a whole new spin on the name "the beginning and the end" (alpha & Omega) for The Lord. <br /> <br />Thursday, we planned. blah. Then when we found hna. DeLong, she was feeling a little down in the dumps, so we talked to her for a bit and found out that she was REALLY bummed out, so we decided to surprise her a little bit. We found out that she loves steak, but never eats it, so we went out and bought some along with some potatoes and sparagus spears, then after we got home that night, we cooked them up for her, and it was awesome :-) She cheered up.<br />Oh, one other thing that happened that day that was sweet was that we had like ten minutes before an appointment, so we decided to be valiant and knock some doors. We got out of the car, knocked the first door, and bam! restoration, book of mormon placed, and an appointment for this thursday at 7 :-) yay diligence!<br /> <br />Friday, we did service with Cher (or Der) as I like to call her sometimes. I know it's rude, but ah well... that's why we try to repent I guess. That night, we had a sweet visit with someone super awesome! His name is brother Lampros, and he's the man. We knocked the door, and the first thing that we saw as he opened it was a $10,000 road bike. We got talking to him, and this guy is a champ! He rides like 30-40 miles a day to and from work at OHSU. Oh, and did I mention that he's 60?!?!? Crazy, right? Oh my goodness this guy is an absolute champ, and he's super smart too. He graduated with a masters from Yale... yeah... this guy is kinda my hero a little bit. Anyway, we were tlaking, and he has officially convinced me that I need to get a Specialized road bike when I get back, so I think I probably will... I know it's weird, but I really love biking.<br /> <br />Saturday was sweet because we volunteered for Cruisin' Sherwood and had an absolute blast! It's a carshow that they do here in Sherwood and they had over 500 entries... it was nuts! The reason that we did it is because one of our sweet investigators (Scott) is one of the head haunchos (sp?) for the thing, and also the owner of a 1967 Chevy Camaro... holy cow that thing is gorgeous. He's had it since high school, and it's seriously the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Anyway, we spent the day working one of the gates to the show letting cars in and out, drooling over them, and getting nice and sunburned... it was entertaining to say the least haha.<br /> <br />Sunday, I don't have too much to say about it aside from the fact that we're gonna start rockin' it this week. The bishops in both wards are doing a push to really reach out to all of the part members, less actives, and friends to get a boatload of people to teach for reactivation and baptism... we're gonna be doing splits three or four times a week with the wards, so we're gonna be busy busy busy!<br /> <br />Other than that, and this is for Mom, I'm playing the piano again haha. I'm rusty on sight reading, so I'm trying to get better at it. Lay down a chord progression in front of me and I can do it, but reading off of the staff absolutely kills me unfortunately haha. I'll get better though, I promise!<br /> <br />Anyway, that's the excitement for the week. I love you guys so much and I hope you're having a great week! <br /> <br />Love,<br /> <br />Elder Kurt MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-57000689973994542202011-06-07T16:44:00.015-06:002011-06-07T17:21:29.814-06:00At last - We got pictures!!These pictures are from January to now: <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHY7xeL7o73twerNZZyeT5XQ7EnZpRvvKWnVzUIaIFtoagGRvILvZH5rTxbwdIYfH-ypQGWmavMXjZtbpZaOj4adxusYDJMDvXqpQlyq7fIWdgL_hMPqz92DIGzQX9mdscPpEUy__b0Dg/s1600/IMG_0234.JPG"><IMG style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615618091814257026 border=0 alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHY7xeL7o73twerNZZyeT5XQ7EnZpRvvKWnVzUIaIFtoagGRvILvZH5rTxbwdIYfH-ypQGWmavMXjZtbpZaOj4adxusYDJMDvXqpQlyq7fIWdgL_hMPqz92DIGzQX9mdscPpEUy__b0Dg/s400/IMG_0234.JPG"></A> Our good friends from Bend, the Nettletons <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizZu0RsNXRNdfosb7ekwjk9J7Uc8anZUiXnQeNsW_LSt0VhU3R5LREPEg_azom5A5EN5obunx8HAFwjsCDJK7xVTcKXgawsntkmxLayg4mk7DAGoWOXAsVnTwaECititpdS2oj-n5uILU/s1600/IMG_0156+%25282%2529.JPG"><IMG style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615619921347887602 border=0 alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizZu0RsNXRNdfosb7ekwjk9J7Uc8anZUiXnQeNsW_LSt0VhU3R5LREPEg_azom5A5EN5obunx8HAFwjsCDJK7xVTcKXgawsntkmxLayg4mk7DAGoWOXAsVnTwaECititpdS2oj-n5uILU/s400/IMG_0156+%25282%2529.JPG"></A> <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg_sHbxL00qW_H42sqH43g33BGipK_jclEMbOw7kdjHCmFCe3_FxMGaDv8gbQjLHppMutZIreVOlGXOl1Rya6HAqWUHq0GIwRToH949DLLnmvso24brOaTGSnf0-DqZqm-sO2RnWtzRGY/s1600/IMG_0159.JPG"><IMG style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615616316634111602 border=0 alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg_sHbxL00qW_H42sqH43g33BGipK_jclEMbOw7kdjHCmFCe3_FxMGaDv8gbQjLHppMutZIreVOlGXOl1Rya6HAqWUHq0GIwRToH949DLLnmvso24brOaTGSnf0-DqZqm-sO2RnWtzRGY/s400/IMG_0159.JPG"></A> <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVzMk8sJ-3CxsCq2Sg2ysz4NW9SpGItRwLlgwPlvKfZbbDitJvNH4F-W4npLiOm-wQuA-hpKJPhcweUbQTdGzrStxW8wPU1HVAa1wR-RJZkXrPjQbm_AnWg2EdDFlFf7_77vdu-dHSt7g/s1600/IMG_0169.JPG"><IMG style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615614836734375202 border=0 alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVzMk8sJ-3CxsCq2Sg2ysz4NW9SpGItRwLlgwPlvKfZbbDitJvNH4F-W4npLiOm-wQuA-hpKJPhcweUbQTdGzrStxW8wPU1HVAa1wR-RJZkXrPjQbm_AnWg2EdDFlFf7_77vdu-dHSt7g/s400/IMG_0169.JPG"></A> <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBMV1wHbNKiCqEyIZS1GTBxg_W0kQpSs_omOzm71eU3UHzyjzdX-JBxUk1Es2Lb01nrG1AFAexoLPcdhUJlUQKGxzD8nw6l1_ANkJ173kO1Ejg7yk0UgqExP-Ww1UsKKvK4obtGia9z0M/s1600/IMG_0171.JPG"><IMG style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615614569350560754 border=0 alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBMV1wHbNKiCqEyIZS1GTBxg_W0kQpSs_omOzm71eU3UHzyjzdX-JBxUk1Es2Lb01nrG1AFAexoLPcdhUJlUQKGxzD8nw6l1_ANkJ173kO1Ejg7yk0UgqExP-Ww1UsKKvK4obtGia9z0M/s400/IMG_0171.JPG"></A> 18 months in the mission! <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3mBaFqM4OxT0WFeSHBKg3oENnJc6NqThoL_g6kvjguIWhkNFxFEFSmLXom4JR5NV-K5xKAEeGO6MjvVI59SzpSX9L1ybkp8lAPxom1bzU3Z5Ndhr_hC5EltQHALD0u9A4ZUvCNStFg6s/s1600/IMG_0198.JPG"><IMG style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615614308059692914 border=0 alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3mBaFqM4OxT0WFeSHBKg3oENnJc6NqThoL_g6kvjguIWhkNFxFEFSmLXom4JR5NV-K5xKAEeGO6MjvVI59SzpSX9L1ybkp8lAPxom1bzU3Z5Ndhr_hC5EltQHALD0u9A4ZUvCNStFg6s/s400/IMG_0198.JPG"></A> Missionaries? <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiACAkZJdlQ-PbkEtWKVE9NwZRV-8GnnTA_AeqBLxwjkS1haE7UWADLClAH54J-cH-rtOfar1pU_rafOq70wHplTOEYKHSt2bmEMLlVNHHAhPc_151IgJxlYNveWjAXL8r404K9tHLubw0/s1600/IMG_0221.JPG"><IMG style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615614101443092306 border=0 alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiACAkZJdlQ-PbkEtWKVE9NwZRV-8GnnTA_AeqBLxwjkS1haE7UWADLClAH54J-cH-rtOfar1pU_rafOq70wHplTOEYKHSt2bmEMLlVNHHAhPc_151IgJxlYNveWjAXL8r404K9tHLubw0/s400/IMG_0221.JPG"></A> <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8sTngyGvX0LBez-Qz7pOuGy0aiNDdW7lV7iBTthLzOwSI_frPRiAFJzXN8Dl4qH86Qz-FFh8S3iMAq3ge2TwMbHRt8xMgzHj6eEnYCkI-7B4fFIjtDY8x4bFvzyIVOQQXV4GwHhPUVsg/s1600/IMG_0307.JPG"><IMG style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615613785733884098 border=0 alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8sTngyGvX0LBez-Qz7pOuGy0aiNDdW7lV7iBTthLzOwSI_frPRiAFJzXN8Dl4qH86Qz-FFh8S3iMAq3ge2TwMbHRt8xMgzHj6eEnYCkI-7B4fFIjtDY8x4bFvzyIVOQQXV4GwHhPUVsg/s400/IMG_0307.JPG"></A> Elder Wilde ready to fly home! <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOH3_H_tvtXw7otrl35tbJMogJzrvODhPuVudkl54b6IH5tif3bCq4-Aa827gRhIbz0KyqgSSBiflHJcqDft_yVCoy1nyBN_ySUacCmaz_vAkzXE6FF9LymYb4DPWQxqplvQcL_0emZwU/s1600/IMG_0283.JPG"><IMG style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615613593798441378 border=0 alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOH3_H_tvtXw7otrl35tbJMogJzrvODhPuVudkl54b6IH5tif3bCq4-Aa827gRhIbz0KyqgSSBiflHJcqDft_yVCoy1nyBN_ySUacCmaz_vAkzXE6FF9LymYb4DPWQxqplvQcL_0emZwU/s400/IMG_0283.JPG"></A> <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRNqIzJwhZ-_gRy3VjWx7Z3WaDS1lLNVJjCR7i19JDZexHhFFP-cpSxFnIRU0DmX6pxjE7Kj3851VuWqB62yLiBRkCfGqvXFg5uYlAUajKcNvq99EVbsNyzylTYhoyj2LOfMo8DqpiJA0/s1600/IMG_0292.JPG"><IMG style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615613370633554418 border=0 alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRNqIzJwhZ-_gRy3VjWx7Z3WaDS1lLNVJjCR7i19JDZexHhFFP-cpSxFnIRU0DmX6pxjE7Kj3851VuWqB62yLiBRkCfGqvXFg5uYlAUajKcNvq99EVbsNyzylTYhoyj2LOfMo8DqpiJA0/s400/IMG_0292.JPG"></A> <A href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTqKxAtysBqxRieJAGQMPc8-nAAFHKBVUF8qGKUZHIdYzA_LeS_L79kgkkg52bgL6WN1V6tMGpD5cx0lbV_jzVJ5KpIGVy3eNDR9mSCTz9fUBv4klzVnLrrk_wDVP8tgS2eEWAKBODyns/s1600/IMG_0303.JPG"><IMG style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615612974853965810 border=0 alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTqKxAtysBqxRieJAGQMPc8-nAAFHKBVUF8qGKUZHIdYzA_LeS_L79kgkkg52bgL6WN1V6tMGpD5cx0lbV_jzVJ5KpIGVy3eNDR9mSCTz9fUBv4klzVnLrrk_wDVP8tgS2eEWAKBODyns/s400/IMG_0303.JPG"></A> Elder Mooney and Elder Wilde<br /><OBJECT id=BLOG_video-609d5a1443e6a277 class=BLOG_video_class width=320 height=266 contentId="609d5a1443e6a277"></OBJECT><br /><OBJECT id=BLOG_video-db199373c4f6ee43 class=BLOG_video_class width=320 height=266 contentId="db199373c4f6ee43"></OBJECT><br /><OBJECT id=BLOG_video-3ddfdc2ee08f8f6d class=BLOG_video_class width=320 height=266 contentId="3ddfdc2ee08f8f6d"></OBJECT>Ruth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-70020729671722413672011-06-06T22:29:00.003-06:002011-06-06T22:37:29.534-06:00June 6, 2011Dearest Mom, Dad, and graduate,<br /> <br />Holy Crap!!!!! My little sister is all grown up! I'm kind of at a loss for words on that one... I'm so proud of her though, that's awesome! I'll be writing her a letter this week on my handy dandy typewriter, so don't worry... I'm a little slow, but I'll get it done haha.<br /> <br />This week has been quite an eventful one for me as well, so I'll clue you in on the excitement:<br /> <br />Monday we had transfers (obviously because I already told you about them)<br /> <br />Tuesday turned out to be quite an eventful day. In the morning (around the butt-crack of dawn) we accompanied sister DeLong to seminary... at 6:00 a.m.! Gosh it was ridiculously early even for missionaries haha. They wanted her to come so that she could speak a little bit about the prophets and church leaders that she's known over the years, and man it was a hit with the kids! Instead of a class full of kids laying their heads on their desks half asleep and miserable, every single person was riveted on this sweet little old lady telling stories about how she played hop-scotch with president George Albert Smith as a kid and how Harold B. Lee was the person who sealed her and her husband for their marriage... she is truly an incredible woman.<br /> <br />Later that day, and actually as I was writing my last email, I was thinking a lot about how I could make some changes to find more success in this area, and as I said that I would be willing to change some things, in walked a man named Jon that I've talked about previously. He walked over to me and said that he wanted to meet with us.... plop! a little gift from heaven! haha. We set up an appointment right then and there for Wednesday and it went really well.<br /> <br />That night was what really rocked my world though. So remember how deciding to actually serve here in Oregon was a bit of a struggle at first because I wanted to know that it was the right place and that it wasn't a mistake? Remember how I went on that visit with the missionaries and what one of them told me gave me the spiritual slap in the face that made me realize this was the right mission for me? To make a long story extremely short, I met him. Post mission. Dating a member in Sherwood. That was a HUGE confirmation to me that this really is the place that The Lord picked for me to serve my mission... kinda crazy huh?<br /> <br />Wednesday we got super pumped about going knocking, so we did it, and it turned out to be pretty entertaining. We knocked in this complex close to old town Sherwood, thinking that we'd baptize the world and guess what... it was a complex for retirees over 55 haha. We set up about five return-appointments with some old ladies, so we'll see what happens this week with those haha... hopefully they're not just looking for someone to talk to for hours on end.<br /> <br />That night, we went to brother Demaris' place to start splits with the Cedar Creek ward, and found out that we were going to be helping this guy named Frank pack his stuff so that he could move out of his house because he was getting evicted. I soon found out why. We got to the house, and I about threw up... there was so much trash, garbage, and general filth that I was sure that I was gonna catch something just by being in the house! Yikes! I remember elder Wilde telling me a story about this dude and how he didn't wash dishes at his house for more than four months and how the dishes were MOLDY they'd been sitting there for so long... yeah, the rest of his house matched that pretty much. I never knew that a cola drink could grow mold on the top of it... turns out it can haha. There were mice droppings in the dirty laundry that had been left out, and geh.... it was just really gross. One nice thing, however, is that I got a free camera out of it that is WAY nicer than any that I could afford.. it's like a brand new Canon, and it was free! Sweet right? I found it buried in a basket that I was packing into a box. I asked when the last time it had been used was, and they told me that they liked using their phones better. I asked if I could trade them for my old camera, and they said just have it, so I took it :-)<br /> <br />Thursday we did our weekly planning and started a revolution: we're using the typewriter to do our weekly planning and to fill out teaching records... it works pretty dang well I have to say haha. It makes me feel more productive anyway. One thing that I was super bummed about was finding that the area books were in serious neglect... the last time a teaching record had been updated was in NOVEMBER! So, we decided that as part of our revolution, we're gonna make sure that the area book does not suck.<br /> <br />Other than that, we knocked doors and I bumped into the first Argentines that I'd ever met just knocking doors. Go figure that I'd have to go to English to finally meet one knocking doors haha.<br /> <br />Speaking of going English, I found out at zone leader council on Friday that I am an experiment to see if I can start a revolution amongst the English chuchos. To be honest, I think it's working because this last month as well as this first week of June, we're leading the mission. Revolution! We also found out that the mission might be trading in area books and such for ipads here pretty soon... nuts right? Well, not terribly soon, but within like three to five years or so.<br /> <br />Saturday wasn't too exciting.. we did service for the Steers family, finally finished sanding their deck, and had a bunch of failed appointments and knocked doors.<br /> <br />Sunday wasn't anything too bad either... we had a sweet dinner and lesson at the Steers with Scott Cunningham, and he's becoming our friend really quickly... I love sherwood :-)<br /> <br />All right, I'm tired of writing, but you asked if I'm taking pictures, and yes I am... I just sent my last memory card (after copying the pictures, so you should have a boatload either today or tomorrow. I love you guys a lot and congratulations to Katie Jo!<br /> <br />Love,<br /> <br />-Elder MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-81315331711216536702011-05-31T13:40:00.003-06:002011-05-31T13:45:31.841-06:00Photos at last!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcNXojF1s8OtVvN21qvTNPIDepkDAEUq4_MMHZSeHZhrQSPgqQ2DBzML2cgZImcctWTpf2vRbrt5zrFxyR2ZjX5b4BW2KSUl6KXg8heY9A4Zn8LHKQc_QBybkwMcggb93Zi8KUo9l-IK8/s1600/IMG_0312%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcNXojF1s8OtVvN21qvTNPIDepkDAEUq4_MMHZSeHZhrQSPgqQ2DBzML2cgZImcctWTpf2vRbrt5zrFxyR2ZjX5b4BW2KSUl6KXg8heY9A4Zn8LHKQc_QBybkwMcggb93Zi8KUo9l-IK8/s400/IMG_0312%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612968686769711810" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMT0Ft8A5UsHYlj-tHaeFvEXEorOzuR-IPUaFElYHZaSYPRDKzceovEow90bPZebFyZWLIefbn1hVoZboCGLZxwaD8ae1nqeoLgSvxsTMJrXVMEYZYoHbj5hTixlf4QQgojG4tln8_cI/s1600/IMG_0313%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMT0Ft8A5UsHYlj-tHaeFvEXEorOzuR-IPUaFElYHZaSYPRDKzceovEow90bPZebFyZWLIefbn1hVoZboCGLZxwaD8ae1nqeoLgSvxsTMJrXVMEYZYoHbj5hTixlf4QQgojG4tln8_cI/s400/IMG_0313%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612968115980206690" /></a><br />Elder Mooney with Elder Anderson, his new companionRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-62517426458989623632011-05-31T13:20:00.003-06:002011-05-31T13:33:03.991-06:002 Weeks' WorthDearest family,<br /> <br />Okay, buckle up, cause this is gonna be an email of epic proportions to try to make up for the lack of time spent last week, as well as to try to recount all of the last two week’s activities in a somewhat intelligible manner. Let’s start with the Monday before last shall we? I feel that it makes it seem more enjoyable to read if I pose it as a question instead of taking away your agency and just diving into what I wanna talk about, so if you don’t feel like reading what I have to write, that’s your choice I guess.<br /> <br />Okay, I’ll stop acting like a dork and get this letter going. The Monday before last was pretty dang sweet. We went to the driving range in the morning and smacked the crap out of the ball again… I’m afraid my slice is gettting worse though… I need some lessons or something haha. The only other excitement on the day was the trip to visit sister McBurnett (or as she’s better known, the Mad Hatter Seamstress) to get a couple of things altered. I took her my black pinstriped suit and one pair of slacks that I bought a while ago, and holy cow man. She ended up taking about five inches out of the jacket and more than three out of my suit pants… I’m excited not to look like a flippin’ gangster anymore in my suits haha they’ve been fitting a little baggy for the last couple of months.<br /> <br />Tuesday the 17th we had interviews with president Dyches which went really well. Mine lasted all of five minutes. That was enough time to tell me that I will be training a new zone leader and to discuss a couple of the problem children in our zone. I’ll talk more about my new companion later on seeing as we’re in process of two weeks ago right now in this letter. The only other exciting event from Tuesday was the fact that I’m fed up with Mark and Alex. Remember how we put all of their crap in a box including a gallon sized zip-loc baggy full of weed? Well, turns out that Mark still had more that he smoked every day between that appointment and when we had one the following week. I’m gonna kick his butt!<br /> <br />Wednesday was a more entertaining day. We had to take a trip to the mission office to drop off some old phones from our zone, and we got a little lost along the way. We took a road that we thought would be a shortcut and we ended up halfway between Newberg and Hillsboro in some of the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen. The sunshine made it even better J It was just such an awesome happy day for us. To top it all off, we were invited to dinner by elder Wilde’s old boss and he took us to a little place called Ringside Steakhouse. That doesn’t mean a whole lot to anyone reading this email aside from maybe dad, but to get you clued in, this place is in the top 10 steakhouses in the U.S. and is super posh. The food was AMAZING! We ate and talked shop a little bit about what Wilde is gonna do when he gets back. He worked for Invisible Shield and actually might be opening up a few new locations in Arizona. Wilde’s boss paid for everything (over $200 for three people!) on a business card and Wilde said “as part of coming back, I demand that you let me have one of those cards.” I told him that him getting one of those cards was about as likely as me opening up Invisible shield for his boss in California. His boss then said “the card’s not gonna happen, but you opening up California might." Prophecy to put me through school? We’ll see what happens.<br /> <br />Thursday we went to the temple. Gosh I love going to that place. Especially the Portland temple because its so beautiful! That was about the only excitement aside from splits with the Woodhaven ward where we found like five part member families that we’re gonna start teaching.<br /> <br />Friday, I went on exchange with elder Falslev here in Sherwood and it went really well. A lot of service and tracting before switching back with Wilde a little early because we forgot that he was having a goodbye dinner with the Jarmin family. Holy cow we ate a ton of food! I tell ya, I definitely can’t pack it away like I used to. <br /> <br />Saturday turned into a service extravaganza where we borrowed the stake president’s power washer and helped the Steers family strip the paint off of their deck so that they can refinish it. One other funny thing from that day was that we got bikes! Elder Wilde and I realized that it would be a good idea to use them to save miles as well as stay in shape. We only took two trips of less than two miles a piece, but holy cow we were dying! I guess I need to ride more haha.<br /> <br />Sunday was, well, Sunday. Nothing too exciting to report there aside from the fact that Mark and Alex didn’t show up to church and neither did Scott Cunningham.<br /> <br />Now for the news on the week before Elder Wilde took off for home:<br /> <br />Monday, I made a stupid purchase... I got kinda pressured into something that I didn't want to buy, but to be honest really love haha. I bought myself a pair of jeans, so I'll be sending you the money in the mail this week to reimburse for my idiotic splurging :-P<br /> <br />Tuesday, we had a "last grand hurrah" lunch with Brother Demaris (ward mission leader in Cedar Creek ward). It was pretty sweet because he speaks Spanish too and we went to this place called Mazatlan here in Sherwood and it was legit! I had mole for the first time in like three months and it was amazing! Oh my goodness I had a food coma afterward though because I'm not used to eating that kind of food anymore haha. It was fun to talk with people in Spanish, and I'm pretty sure they hooked me up with some better food because I spoke to them :-). Other than that, sister Delong has gotten me in the habit of playing the piano again (no, not practicing... that's different haha) and I'm liking it a lot! She loves the old classic songs as well as the great musicals that she directed while she was teaching theatre at the U (holy cow this woman is amazing!), so we spend a good chunk of time when we get home until about midnight playing pieces from Les Miserables, Phantom, even stuff like "Georgia on My Mind", "At Last", "You Don't Know Me", and a couple of other classy songs like "La Vie en Rose". I still don't sight read very well, but I sure am learning to play chords like nobody's business haha. It's really fun!<br /> <br />Wednesday, I went on exchange with Elder Cox, one of my good buddies from Salem, and it was a blast! We had to do it because Wilde and Elder Cox's companion were having their exit interviews, so we spent the day teaching, talking, and laughing (in order of importance/time dedicated). We've both seen a real transformation here in the mission field to the point where we really are two completely different individuals from who we were when we first started the mission, and it's awesome. Because of it, we've both grown really close and become like best friends. I'm pretty excited to hang out with him after the mission. He almost had me convinced to move in with him at his grandparents house and go to Dixie with him, but I found out that the block classes that they're offering won't do anything for me, so I'm not gonna do it. Well, we'll see, but I doubt it unless I get a full ride. However, if I worked for Elder Wilde's boss, I could manage Invisible Shield down there (make bank) and live for free while going to school, so that would be sweet.<br /> <br />Thursday, we had another exchange together, and decided to do our mormon.org time at the library here in Sherwood. Elder Wilde had taken the car, so we decided to ride bikes down there. It was a pleasant ride on the way down, but on the way back, we had a not so pleasant surprise that I've heard called the "juneuary effect" where it looks like it's June for a minute, but then you find out that it's a mixture of January and June in that you suddenly have spurts of January rain. We. Got. Soaked! Just as we started to ride back to the house, the rain kicked up and we got absolutely soaked! Not just kinda, but seriously like competely DRENCHED! I now can say that I've gotten soaked and ridden a bike, so those dang English elders got nothin' on me :-P<br /> <br />That night turned out to be pretty sweet once we got home and started talking to sister Delong. We had one of those meaning of life talks where we just discussed all of the fears of post-mission life and what it is that we need to do. Elder Wilde wasn't feeling well, so he crashed early and I was able to talk to her until about 11:30 by myself. Gosh I love that lady a lot. I've gotta find a way to be related to her haha.<br /> <br />Friday we did some service with that lady Cher and finally found out what it meant to "have a sparkle with Jesus"! It means to have a toast to him (with something bubbly... not alcoholic I'm sure haha) and all of the things that he's given you. We were toasting to modern-day revelation, the restoration, the pearl of great price, the inspired translation of the bible, etc.. All things that were well over Cher's head, but quite amusing to throw out there haha.<br /> <br />For lunch that day, we went with Mark, Brent, and Ken, and I got to talk to Brent about the time he spent living in Spain, and I have to say, he's got me more than halfway convinced that I need to go over there and either do a semester abroad or just plain live there for six months or so. He was telling me all about Valencia... I really wanna go there! Gosh I'm being pulled in a lot of different directions haha. There's the pull to stay home, to go to California with Kyle, to go to St. George with Coxie, to go to Spain for myself, to go to Mexico with Rangel, and a whole mess of other stuff... guess I'll figure it out eventually.<br /> <br />Dinner that night we ate with Ken and his wife at a place called Buggatti's, and it was scrumptious. Gosh I love italian food and hanging out with super sweet members. I think we're covertly going to take over the ward he's in and get some baptisms haha. He's in the Sherwood ward, and Elder Wilde knows a bunch of people from there.<br /> <br />Saturday we went to the farmers market and met up with one of Wilde's recent converts and talked for a bit... nothing too exciting, but her mom is an ex-member who is supportive of her daughter being a member. Strange eh? Turns out she got her name removed because she "didn't want to be a burden to the ward" because she'd been inactive for 15 years... I'm gonna get her back to church.<br /> <br />That night we had goodbye party number who knows what at the Hales home where we ate killer BBQ salads, a mountain of desserts, and played Mafia til it was time to go home.. it was a good time.<br /> <br />Sunday was just a mess of goodbyes and parties haha. We went to all three Sherwood wards and said goodbye, had dinner at the Steers house and then partied after. At the Steers, they fed us the most GIGANTIC potatoes EVER! I've seriously never eaten a bigger potato in my life! The thing had to weigh at least three or four pounds. They told me I had to finish it to be accepted as the awesome elder after Wilde left or I'd be shunned. I finished it. Not the skin, but everything else. I thought I was going to die haha. Mission accomplished though haha. After that, we went to a party at the Dowdle's home (yeah, like the owners of Dowdle folk art) and had a party with more than 150 people there. Ridiculous right? Elder Wilde is such a freaking stud that everyone loves him. <br /> <br />Yesterday was transfers, and I'm sad that elder Wilde is gone... we're gonna be good buddies after the mission. You know something funny though? I don't envy him at all and I'm not trunky in the slightest degree. I'm more scared than anything. The jokes are always fun, but as far as actually being having to go home, I'm scared to death. I don't want to yet, and thank goodness I still have a few months left in me. My new companion's name is elder Anderson. I don't know him super well, but he's from Kaysville, and seems to be a good kid. I'll attach a picture or two so you can see him... oh and elder Wilde too haha<br /> <br />I love ya guys. Have a great week.<br /> <br />-Elder MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-43832810141762339022011-05-23T12:26:00.001-06:002011-05-23T12:27:15.538-06:00Short and SweetHey mom! <br /><br />Okay, so elder Wilde doesn't wanna waste his last P-day emailing, so I'm just gonna email next week and fill in the fun details, okay?<br /> <br />Love ya!<br /> <br />Elder MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273524486000949370.post-37268396734880832602011-05-16T14:57:00.003-06:002011-05-16T15:04:52.407-06:00"Sky High"2011 May 16<br />Dearest Mom,<br /> <br />Well, it's been an interesting week to say the least haha. The highest of highs and the sickest of sicks (not myself though, don't worry!). Monday was a total party it was sweet! We went to the driving range in the morning to do a little golfing and chipping work... I'm getting rid of my slice which is nice for my golf game I guess, but man I think I threw out my back or something for a day or two. However, it might be a combination of what we did after the driving range... we went to a place called "Sky High" which is almost exactly like "Jump on It" in Utah. It was nuts! There were 39 missionaries there which definitely spelled trouble. We had taken ourselves and 10 other elders from our zone to play around, but realized that we had made a big boo-boo in that when we got there, the Spanish south zone was having their zone activity at the same time, so that brought us up to a total of 26 missionaries (that in and of itself would have been too many). On top of that, there was a group of what I would entitle "idiot elders" that had commandeered the mission van from the mission home, and picked up ten or so other elders from various outlying areas in the mission such as Scappoose, St. Helens, and Astoria... They. Are. Idiots. The funny thing is that they got what was coming to them. One of the R-tards from Astoria ended up breaking his ankle. I would venture to say that's because the Lord can't protect you when you aren't being obedient. Anyway, it turned into a big fiasco where we ended up attending a 9:00 at night meeting with pres. Dyches and got Sky High banned from missionary entertainment forever. It's kinda sad too because I learned how to do a back flip (now I can actually do it whenever I want) and I also learned how to do a gainer... guess I'll just have to wait to utilize those skills 'til after the mission haha.<br /> <br />Tuesday was kind of a fun day. We had a really good district meeting where we had a funny getting to know you game. Elder Gossett was in charge of it, and here's what we did: he had a big bowl covered with a bandana. What we had to do was pick out an object (without seeing it) from it, and then you had to describe your companion by likening him unto that object. There were such items as a magnetic fridge clip, a zipper, a pregnancy test, and I don't even remember what else. Anyway, it was just really funny and kind of a creative way to get the elders of our district to know each other.<br />After the district meeting was over, we headed back to Sis. DeLong's house and did a little bit of service. We noticed the other day that when it rained, her gutters overflowed along the front of the house, so we figured we'd clean them out. Holy Moses it was a good idea that we did... those things were chock-full of filth! We ended up cleaning out not only along the front, but also along the sides and back of the house because ALL of the gutters were full of probably 5-10 year old plant litter, moss, and sand from the shingles that had eroded off. Ridiculous. That's all I can say to describe it is ridiculous. The good part is that now they work like a charm haha.<br />After we had entertained ourselves sufficiently with that, we helped one of our investigators (Mark) to empty out his old apartment in McMinnville which took a good chunk of time. It gave us a great opportunity to talk to him for a long time as the drive from Sherwood to Mac is about half an hour. That night, we had a lesson with him and his (hopefully) soon-to-be wifey Alex where we helped them make a list of things that they wanted to put in a box so that the spirit would be unrestrained in their lives. We did so, and holy cow it was really funny how much stuff they put in there. We had originally planned to take the box with us so that they couldn't be tempted by it, but then we realized that we couldn't. I'll tell ya why. Turns out that Mark smokes weed... A LOT of weed. We ended up putting about an ounce of weed in a zip-loc gallon bag inside the box along with a coffee maker and a plethora of other random objects haha. Long story short, they're in for one heck of a week! <br /><br />Wednesday, I had to roll my eyes as for the first time in English, someone pulled out Revelations 22 on me to tell me that we add to the bible, so I proceeded to give her a history lesson on the bible. She's reading the Book of Mormon now haha. Her name is Tia, and she's the sweetest old lady ever... it's not her fault that she grew up in a Christian church.<br /> <br />Thursday, we studied, planned, then tracted for a couple of hours before dinner. We ended up only talking to two people... each of them for about 45 minutes haha. The thing that's sweet is that at first, they wanted nothing to do with us, and then we ended up talking to them for a good while, and found out that they both have good friends that are LDS in the area, and that they even eat dinner with them once in a while. Golden contacts. I'm excited to see if we can teach them in the future :-)<br /> <br />Friday, I went on an exchange with a greenie in a bike area for the first time, and I have to admit, it was pretty exciting! I actually really like riding a bike haha. I know you're all gonna think I'm a dork, but I plan on getting a road bike when I get back because 1: I really do enjoy riding a bike (and I miss it a lot) and 2: because I've got more of a biker build now... I'm down to 185 as of this morning :-) The one sad thing is that we had to end the exchange early because we found out around 6:00 that elder Wilde was sick, so I cruised back to the house and that's where I've been for the past few days. We couldn't leave to go anywhere because it turns out that Wilde got the flu bug. I passed the time catching up in my journal, studying my scriptures, and writing letters. Oh and I picked up a new "for kicks and giggles" hobby... sewing haha. I spent a good chunk of time tailoring up my shirts (not destroying them, don't worry) and dinking around experimenting with different cuts and seams... I'll have to take some pictures of it or something. anyway, that was about all of the excitement for the weekend. That and lots and lots of talking with Sister DeLong as well as flying a toy helicopter that elder Wilde bought last P-day haha.<br /> <br />Anyway, I love you guys a lot and I hope that you have a great week. Say hi to Jess and wish her the best of luck for me.. I hope that things turn out well for her wedding.<br /> <br />Talk to ya next week!<br /> <br />-Elder Kurt MooneyRuth Mooneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06427672339210114846noreply@blogger.com0