July 5, 2010
Dear Mom and Dad,
Okay, so this week has blown by, and there have been some pretty sweet things happen! We've been teaching a ton, and now I'm trying to gather my thoughts so I can try to spit it all out in this email. I guess we'll start with our investigators.
First up, we have Juan Velasquez. He's the husband of a member, and we've been working with him the whole time I've been here, and like I said previously, we have a date set with him... he's the man I love him. We're finishing up teaching the commandments this week, and then he'll be set. There's one hitch though... he wants to get baptized on his birthday, which is in September on the 22nd! AAAAH I don't want to wait! Oh well... good things come to those who wait, right?
Then there's Patricia... Oh Pattie. She's a total mess! She was progressing really well until her daughter-in-law moved in with her, and now we hardly have time to teach her because she's "gone" or "busy". In my honest, blunt opinion, I think now that she has money coming in from her daughter-in-law, she doesn't feel as obligated to the church as before, so we'll see what happens with her... she hasn't been coming to church though, so we might drop her.
Aside from Patricia, we have a new investigator with a baptismal date whose name is Flor. She's the sister of a member here, and actually lives with her and her sister, who are taking care of her dad because he's old and pretty sick. We were actually planning on teaching a lesson to Luz, her sister, but instead of finding her there, we met her sister, who just returned from Arkansas not too long ago. We ended up teaching her about the power of prayer, and set up another appointment. We checked her teaching record from before, and she'd never been taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, so we decided to teach her that... Long story short, she has a baptismal date :-). We're gonna keep working with her, stopping by at least twice a week to finish off teaching what she needs to know, and get her ready to get in the water on the 25th.
Speaking of the 25th, we also have another baptismal date for that day. There is a recent convert who just moved up here from California to be with her "husband" We went over and visited her to invite her out to church and let her meet Pres. Pister along with some other people, and the hubby was there. We got talking to him,and it turns out they're not married, but they want to do it right away so that they're not breaking the law of chastity so he can get baptized....sweet! He's a super humble guy, and really willing to learn, so we talked about settting up a wedding for the 24th and a baptism the 25th...SI!
Aside from those, we're working with a few other families, but nothing too terribly exciting yet, so I'll keep ya posted on the rest if something happens.
I feel like I'm taking a Nephi approach to this where I have my big and small plates. I just gave you the spiritual record, now let me give you the secular record. First of all, I am so stoked on this greenie that I have. He's the man! He isn't afraid to teach, he's not bashful when we knock doors, he's learning to love the members already, and I don't have to teach him spanish. I love it haha. We're working really hard together, but also finding opportunities to have fun.
For example: This last friday, we had three or four appointments fixed, and they ALL canceled on us! Ever one of them! That's okay though, because we usually ahve backup plans. We went to visit a list of potentials that I had noted, and of those that we visited, NONE of them were there! Ah I was so frustrated! Even if they were there, they'd look through the curtains really quick, and then we could hear the click as they locked the door haha. We finally got tired of it and decided to knock a little bit of a complex we've been looking at. When we arrived, we were spotted by a family through their window. As soon as they saw us, WOOSH the curtains went closed and the door locked, so elder Rivera and I decided to run up and knock their door first just for kicks and giggles haha it was entertaining. Although they didn't open up the door to us, an ice cream truck drove through, and she was hispanic, so we decided to get an ice cream and talk to her. Turns out, she's one of the sweetest people ever, and now we can say we ITL'd a paletera (ice cream truck driver).
Oh another sweet thing we did this week was take a little trip out to St. Paul for a 4th of july rodeo celebration (it was approved, don't freak out), and it was sweet! The show was an absolute blast, and it turns out there is an act that they do with a rodeo clown who is actually from Utah and is a member of the church. He always makes it a point to talk about the church while he's out doing his act, and I just thought that was really cool. The day of the 4th, we had church, a few lessons, and then we went to a dinner with President Pister and his family. Afterwards, we headed back to his house and had angel foodcake with raspberries and whipped cream, and then watched their neighbors shoot off a whole bunch of illegal fireworks haha. It really made me stop and think how fast this last year went though... kind of freaks me out! I remember exactly what we did last 4th, like minute for minute, and it seems like it just happened yesterday!
Anywho, we're about to head out and go on a little excursion with our district to silver falls to show our greenies whats up, and yeah... I'm running out of stuff to talk about aside from the fact that I love you guys and I miss you. I'll talk to you next week, and I hope you're having a great time celebrating the 4th! I love you!
Love,
Elder Kurt Kay Mooney
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
New Trainer!
June 29, 2010
Hey mom and dad!
Oh man, so I'm gonna start off by telling you the exciting things we didn this week: We went fishing on monday night with the english elders at the Doman's property (yes, they have a pond and live out in the boonies and they're also related to Pres. Doman in our stake), and caught nine little rainbow trout. Elder Rangel caught his first fish, and it was super sweet! Aside from fishing, we also got to explore their "barn" which is actually a workshop that they have to rebuild/put together sweet cars. When they showed me the cars they had, I about had a spaz attack! He has a Ford Javellin that he's turned into a racer for kicks and giggles, a Dodge dart convertible with 15,000 original miles on it, a '52 Chevy flatbed truck with the round windshield that is completely restored, and a near mint 1950something Porsche convertible that's worth about $150,000... oh my gosh it was amazing! They're also almost done restoring a sunbeam convertible, an MG midget, and a whole mess of other projects like a '42 coupe made by ford... ah so sweet.
Anyways, after drooling over the cars that night, it was off to the races to make sure we had everything prepped for the baptism of the Perez family on Saturday. I don't know why, but for some reason, this baptism was a lot more stressful than ones in the past. On friday I went on exchange with elder Roush here in Woodburn, and for lunch, we decided to hunt down this little diner in the middle of nowhere that supposedly has the best burgers in Oregon... After burning almost 50 miles and feeling a little lost in Oregon wine country, we found it! It's in a little town called Markum, if you can even call it that. it's the intersection of the Canby/Mollalla highway and the road that leads into Silverton clear in the freak out there. All I have to say, is that those burgers were FREAKING GOOD! Oh my gosh I thought I was going to die though haha I couldn't even finish it!
After that, we had the interviews and everything went really well... Saturday was the day of the baptism, and we made sure they were all prepped, got everything set up for them, and had the baptism. One thing that's funny about baptisms here, is the food! Oh my gosh the hermanas go over the top to make sure that you're getting spiritually fed and physically killed by how much food they make haha. President Pister baptized the parents and the daughter, and one of the members who is friends with Ivan baptized him, and it was super cool... they're gonna make great members.
After the baptism, we headed back to the apartment to take our studies which we couldn't do in the morning, and we got a phone call. It was for transfers. They told elder Rangel to pack his things and be at transfer meeting. Then I thought well that's a bummer, but ah well it was bound to happen sooner or later. Then, we got another call. Elder Larsen, one of the AP's called and asked to talk to me. We chit-chatted for a minute, and then he said, "so elder Mooney... how do you feel about training?" Oh my gosh I about fell out of my chair! I was super surprised because...well... I'm young in the mission and don't feel prepared, but I remembered a quote from Joseph Smith that says, "when the Lord commands, DO IT", so I accepted. I showed up to transfers sweating bullets, and received my new greenie, Elder Rivera, and it turns out that he's the MAN! He's a Puerto-Rican who moved to Utah about four years ago with his mom and siblings. I've only known him for a few days, but I can already tell that he's going to be a great missionary. I'm so stoked to teach him! He will become a great missionary in not too long. I've included a picture in the email so you can see what he's like. We're gonna tear it up here in Woodburn!
I don't have much time left, but I just wanna say thank you so much again for the thoughtful packages... they really meant a lot to me, and I'm not gonna lie, having new white shirts is kind of exciting as a missionary haha. Mom, I'll be writing you a real letter today, and Katie, you too, so I'll talk more to you in those okay?
I love you all so much,
-elder Kurt Mooney
PS: HOLY COW I'M 20 YEARS OLD!!!!! AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!
Hey mom and dad!
Oh man, so I'm gonna start off by telling you the exciting things we didn this week: We went fishing on monday night with the english elders at the Doman's property (yes, they have a pond and live out in the boonies and they're also related to Pres. Doman in our stake), and caught nine little rainbow trout. Elder Rangel caught his first fish, and it was super sweet! Aside from fishing, we also got to explore their "barn" which is actually a workshop that they have to rebuild/put together sweet cars. When they showed me the cars they had, I about had a spaz attack! He has a Ford Javellin that he's turned into a racer for kicks and giggles, a Dodge dart convertible with 15,000 original miles on it, a '52 Chevy flatbed truck with the round windshield that is completely restored, and a near mint 1950something Porsche convertible that's worth about $150,000... oh my gosh it was amazing! They're also almost done restoring a sunbeam convertible, an MG midget, and a whole mess of other projects like a '42 coupe made by ford... ah so sweet.
Anyways, after drooling over the cars that night, it was off to the races to make sure we had everything prepped for the baptism of the Perez family on Saturday. I don't know why, but for some reason, this baptism was a lot more stressful than ones in the past. On friday I went on exchange with elder Roush here in Woodburn, and for lunch, we decided to hunt down this little diner in the middle of nowhere that supposedly has the best burgers in Oregon... After burning almost 50 miles and feeling a little lost in Oregon wine country, we found it! It's in a little town called Markum, if you can even call it that. it's the intersection of the Canby/Mollalla highway and the road that leads into Silverton clear in the freak out there. All I have to say, is that those burgers were FREAKING GOOD! Oh my gosh I thought I was going to die though haha I couldn't even finish it!
After that, we had the interviews and everything went really well... Saturday was the day of the baptism, and we made sure they were all prepped, got everything set up for them, and had the baptism. One thing that's funny about baptisms here, is the food! Oh my gosh the hermanas go over the top to make sure that you're getting spiritually fed and physically killed by how much food they make haha. President Pister baptized the parents and the daughter, and one of the members who is friends with Ivan baptized him, and it was super cool... they're gonna make great members.
After the baptism, we headed back to the apartment to take our studies which we couldn't do in the morning, and we got a phone call. It was for transfers. They told elder Rangel to pack his things and be at transfer meeting. Then I thought well that's a bummer, but ah well it was bound to happen sooner or later. Then, we got another call. Elder Larsen, one of the AP's called and asked to talk to me. We chit-chatted for a minute, and then he said, "so elder Mooney... how do you feel about training?" Oh my gosh I about fell out of my chair! I was super surprised because...well... I'm young in the mission and don't feel prepared, but I remembered a quote from Joseph Smith that says, "when the Lord commands, DO IT", so I accepted. I showed up to transfers sweating bullets, and received my new greenie, Elder Rivera, and it turns out that he's the MAN! He's a Puerto-Rican who moved to Utah about four years ago with his mom and siblings. I've only known him for a few days, but I can already tell that he's going to be a great missionary. I'm so stoked to teach him! He will become a great missionary in not too long. I've included a picture in the email so you can see what he's like. We're gonna tear it up here in Woodburn!
I don't have much time left, but I just wanna say thank you so much again for the thoughtful packages... they really meant a lot to me, and I'm not gonna lie, having new white shirts is kind of exciting as a missionary haha. Mom, I'll be writing you a real letter today, and Katie, you too, so I'll talk more to you in those okay?
I love you all so much,
-elder Kurt Mooney
PS: HOLY COW I'M 20 YEARS OLD!!!!! AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!
Monday, June 21, 2010
June Baptisms
Dear Mom and Dad,
First of all in this email, I have to say that i absolutely SUCK! Ah I feel so bad I didn't get you guys anything there before your birthday and for fathers day! I have a terrible excuse, and that is that this week has been insanely busy, so i'll fill you in on the details while I'm on here. By the way, your respective gifts are in the mail :-)
Okay, so the first thing to inform you on was on Monday after we finished emails. We were trying to decide what to do for our p-day so that we would have a good time and not just play sports like we always do, so we talked to the english elders in our area, and we decided to take a little road trip up to silver falls for kicks and giggles... it was sweet! Ah man I've forgotten how beautiful it is up there at the falls. We were too cheap to actually pay to park, so we just went to one of the pull-offs and took pictures of it and hiked around for a little bit, but man that area is really beautiful.
That night we started an exchange with our zone leaders, and it turns out elder McVey and myself were going to work in Woodburn and try to get some good work done. The first thing we had was an appointment with Patricia who had a baptismal date for yesterday... Now comes the shocking news: she didn't get baptized. In our lesson with her, she said she didn't feel ready yet and needed some more time to think about it, so we shared some scriptures with her explaining what she needed to be ready, as well as the fact that you don't need to know everything to be baptized, etc, and then reset her date for the 27th which she accepted, so things with her are going okay. After that appointment, we had a meeting with the Perez family who are going through some big struggles right now. The long of the short of it is that we talked with them and McVey ended up extending an invitation to pray about when they should be baptized, which I will address a little later in this email. Anyways, that exchange went pretty well.
The day after our exchange, I came out to my desk that morning with a poptarts box that said "happy early birthday elder Mooney" on it, so I popped it open. Turns out that while they were on exchange, elder Rangel and elder Nimmer (other zone leader) bought me a Mate. Okay, now I've got to explain what that is. In Argentina, they drink something that is called Yerba Mate, which is a really healthy herb that is chock-full of anti-oxidants, B-vitamins, and alkaloids, which are all extremely good for your body, and they drink it out a thing called a mate through a special straw called a bombilla, which if you ask me, looks like a crack-pipe haha. Anyways, I've come to like Mate since coming out here, and so it was just really cool that elder Rangel got that for me, I love it! I'll send pictures of it later for ya :-)
One sweet thing that happened this week is that the Ruybal family returned from California! Okay, I've gotta explain who the Ruybals are now. They're a retired couple that are pretty much my favorite people in the world, and someday I want you to meet them. Brother Ruybal comes from Menasseh Colorado. He's part-hispanic, part-native american, part-white, and I swear he has that indian wisdom... he's the MAN! Then there's sister Ruybal. She's this sweet little old lady who calls us "her boys" and insists that we call her mom. They invited us over for lunch the other day so that I could get to know them better because they already knew elder Rangel from before their trip, but yeah so we headed over to their house. When we got there, I knocked on the door, and she came to the door, and said "Hey! This is your house, ya know? And when you're at home, you don't need to knock on the door, you just come in! If ya knock on the door when ya come over again, I'll kick your butt! Goodness I love you, but sometimes you're a little bit slow to learn these things!" She said that with such loving motherly affection that I couldn't help but just laugh. They are seriously the most adorable old couple ever... someday I hope I'm like that haha. They've been together for 52 years now, and they are still completely in love.
They help us out a lot too. Because they're retired, they're always down for going to visits with us, and they help a ton! Brother Ruybal is actually a convert to the church, and has been a branch president twice, so he's a total spiritual giant, and isn't afraid to impart his indian wisdom or lay down the law on the people we're teaching. Speaking of which, we had another lesson with the Perez, and they came with us for the first time... oh my gosh it was amazing! We started talking about baptism with them and what they thought. He used such a great example that I have to put it in here. He said "Brother Perez, do ya like soccer?" he said yes, so brother Ruybal asked him, "well what's your favorite team?" He responded that Mexico was his favorite. Then bro. Ruybal said "okay, well think about being a fan of that team. you're always there for every game, you cheer for them, you celebrate when they win, you cry when they lose, and you make sure you never miss anything that has to do with that team. Now what do you get when they win?" Brother Perez hesitated, and said... oh well I guess I don't get anything.... Bro. Ruybal responded and said "exactly! You get NOTHING! That's exactly how it is whith this church! You can be a good person and obey the commandments and try to teach your children well, but if you aren't a part of the team by getting baptized, YOU GET NOTHING. So when can we get you on the team?" Thanks to bro Ruybal and his wonderful spirit, the ENTIRE Perez family is getting baptized on the 26th before the Ruybals go out of town...SWEET!!!!!!!!!
Okay not only that, but get this: There's Juan, the husband of Jeive who's been investigating the church for like five years and has always said there is no way he will get baptized. Bro. Ruybal comes in, and he's known Juan for about the whole time, and in our lesson on with him Sunday, he says "Juan, you know you need to get baptized. You've procrastinated this day long enough, and you know you need to do it to be with your family forever, to have true happiness between you and Jeive. Josie (his wife) and I are headed out of town, and we'll be back on the 16th, and when I get back, I want to be the one to baptize you, so will you get ready for that day?" Juan accepted!!!! Oh my gosh this has been a sweet week! That means we have six people that are scheduled for baptisms within the next three weeks!
There's one sad note though... transfers are this week, so elder Rangel might be leaving to go zone leader, and I'll stay here. Oh, speaking of that situation, after talking to president Dyches at interviews, it looks like I'm training this transfer, and if not this transfer, then the one after because there are going to be EIGHT new spanish elders coming in! Holy Crap! I'm scared out of my mind.. hope I'm ready to train someone! If Rangel goes though, he'll still be able to come back for the baptisms. Oh and on a special note, President Dyches is going to be speaking at the Perez' baptismal service!
Gosh I've got four minutes left, so I've gotta get the rest of this in this email. On Saturday we went to the temple to see three members go through the temple for the first time, one of them being Hermana Lupe-G, so we got some photos so you can see her punk-rocker haircut, although it looks a little bit more temple-worthy because it's curled... you'll be able to pick her out though haha. Speaking of pictures, i need my memory card so I can swap ya!
Anyways, back to the temple, it was super sweet to see John simpson there... gosh it brought back a flood of memories of when I was first thinking about a mission as a deacon... NUTS! Never thought I'd be talking to him in the Portland temple as a missionary... He helped me a lot when i was a deacon and a teacher.
Okay, my time is about up, but I love you guys so much and I hope you all have a great week.. Send my love to the rest of the family, okay?
All my love,
-Elder Mooney
First of all in this email, I have to say that i absolutely SUCK! Ah I feel so bad I didn't get you guys anything there before your birthday and for fathers day! I have a terrible excuse, and that is that this week has been insanely busy, so i'll fill you in on the details while I'm on here. By the way, your respective gifts are in the mail :-)
Okay, so the first thing to inform you on was on Monday after we finished emails. We were trying to decide what to do for our p-day so that we would have a good time and not just play sports like we always do, so we talked to the english elders in our area, and we decided to take a little road trip up to silver falls for kicks and giggles... it was sweet! Ah man I've forgotten how beautiful it is up there at the falls. We were too cheap to actually pay to park, so we just went to one of the pull-offs and took pictures of it and hiked around for a little bit, but man that area is really beautiful.
That night we started an exchange with our zone leaders, and it turns out elder McVey and myself were going to work in Woodburn and try to get some good work done. The first thing we had was an appointment with Patricia who had a baptismal date for yesterday... Now comes the shocking news: she didn't get baptized. In our lesson with her, she said she didn't feel ready yet and needed some more time to think about it, so we shared some scriptures with her explaining what she needed to be ready, as well as the fact that you don't need to know everything to be baptized, etc, and then reset her date for the 27th which she accepted, so things with her are going okay. After that appointment, we had a meeting with the Perez family who are going through some big struggles right now. The long of the short of it is that we talked with them and McVey ended up extending an invitation to pray about when they should be baptized, which I will address a little later in this email. Anyways, that exchange went pretty well.
The day after our exchange, I came out to my desk that morning with a poptarts box that said "happy early birthday elder Mooney" on it, so I popped it open. Turns out that while they were on exchange, elder Rangel and elder Nimmer (other zone leader) bought me a Mate. Okay, now I've got to explain what that is. In Argentina, they drink something that is called Yerba Mate, which is a really healthy herb that is chock-full of anti-oxidants, B-vitamins, and alkaloids, which are all extremely good for your body, and they drink it out a thing called a mate through a special straw called a bombilla, which if you ask me, looks like a crack-pipe haha. Anyways, I've come to like Mate since coming out here, and so it was just really cool that elder Rangel got that for me, I love it! I'll send pictures of it later for ya :-)
One sweet thing that happened this week is that the Ruybal family returned from California! Okay, I've gotta explain who the Ruybals are now. They're a retired couple that are pretty much my favorite people in the world, and someday I want you to meet them. Brother Ruybal comes from Menasseh Colorado. He's part-hispanic, part-native american, part-white, and I swear he has that indian wisdom... he's the MAN! Then there's sister Ruybal. She's this sweet little old lady who calls us "her boys" and insists that we call her mom. They invited us over for lunch the other day so that I could get to know them better because they already knew elder Rangel from before their trip, but yeah so we headed over to their house. When we got there, I knocked on the door, and she came to the door, and said "Hey! This is your house, ya know? And when you're at home, you don't need to knock on the door, you just come in! If ya knock on the door when ya come over again, I'll kick your butt! Goodness I love you, but sometimes you're a little bit slow to learn these things!" She said that with such loving motherly affection that I couldn't help but just laugh. They are seriously the most adorable old couple ever... someday I hope I'm like that haha. They've been together for 52 years now, and they are still completely in love.
They help us out a lot too. Because they're retired, they're always down for going to visits with us, and they help a ton! Brother Ruybal is actually a convert to the church, and has been a branch president twice, so he's a total spiritual giant, and isn't afraid to impart his indian wisdom or lay down the law on the people we're teaching. Speaking of which, we had another lesson with the Perez, and they came with us for the first time... oh my gosh it was amazing! We started talking about baptism with them and what they thought. He used such a great example that I have to put it in here. He said "Brother Perez, do ya like soccer?" he said yes, so brother Ruybal asked him, "well what's your favorite team?" He responded that Mexico was his favorite. Then bro. Ruybal said "okay, well think about being a fan of that team. you're always there for every game, you cheer for them, you celebrate when they win, you cry when they lose, and you make sure you never miss anything that has to do with that team. Now what do you get when they win?" Brother Perez hesitated, and said... oh well I guess I don't get anything.... Bro. Ruybal responded and said "exactly! You get NOTHING! That's exactly how it is whith this church! You can be a good person and obey the commandments and try to teach your children well, but if you aren't a part of the team by getting baptized, YOU GET NOTHING. So when can we get you on the team?" Thanks to bro Ruybal and his wonderful spirit, the ENTIRE Perez family is getting baptized on the 26th before the Ruybals go out of town...SWEET!!!!!!!!!
Okay not only that, but get this: There's Juan, the husband of Jeive who's been investigating the church for like five years and has always said there is no way he will get baptized. Bro. Ruybal comes in, and he's known Juan for about the whole time, and in our lesson on with him Sunday, he says "Juan, you know you need to get baptized. You've procrastinated this day long enough, and you know you need to do it to be with your family forever, to have true happiness between you and Jeive. Josie (his wife) and I are headed out of town, and we'll be back on the 16th, and when I get back, I want to be the one to baptize you, so will you get ready for that day?" Juan accepted!!!! Oh my gosh this has been a sweet week! That means we have six people that are scheduled for baptisms within the next three weeks!
There's one sad note though... transfers are this week, so elder Rangel might be leaving to go zone leader, and I'll stay here. Oh, speaking of that situation, after talking to president Dyches at interviews, it looks like I'm training this transfer, and if not this transfer, then the one after because there are going to be EIGHT new spanish elders coming in! Holy Crap! I'm scared out of my mind.. hope I'm ready to train someone! If Rangel goes though, he'll still be able to come back for the baptisms. Oh and on a special note, President Dyches is going to be speaking at the Perez' baptismal service!
Gosh I've got four minutes left, so I've gotta get the rest of this in this email. On Saturday we went to the temple to see three members go through the temple for the first time, one of them being Hermana Lupe-G, so we got some photos so you can see her punk-rocker haircut, although it looks a little bit more temple-worthy because it's curled... you'll be able to pick her out though haha. Speaking of pictures, i need my memory card so I can swap ya!
Anyways, back to the temple, it was super sweet to see John simpson there... gosh it brought back a flood of memories of when I was first thinking about a mission as a deacon... NUTS! Never thought I'd be talking to him in the Portland temple as a missionary... He helped me a lot when i was a deacon and a teacher.
Okay, my time is about up, but I love you guys so much and I hope you all have a great week.. Send my love to the rest of the family, okay?
All my love,
-Elder Mooney
Friday, June 18, 2010
Lettr from Brother Wetzel
Hello,
I am brother Wetzel from Silverton, Oregon.
My wife and I were recently called to served in the Spanish Branch in Woodburn, 15 miles away. Your sons are serving there. We had them over for dinner last night and I took this picture.
You ought to know that these two Elders are very happy in their work, and they work hard. The branch is blessed to have them.
~ray wetzel
Busy week
Dearest mommy,
Okay, so this week has been pretty freaking saweet, so let me gather myself to try to think where to start haha. I'll start with tuesday of this week. We went to the zoo!....well, we were planning on it until we got about three miles away from the exit to go to the parking lot, and traffic was at a dead stop! We knew it was going to be busy, but holy moses we picked a bad day to go... it was two-dollar tuesday, AND it was the day after school got out... super super bad idea haha. So anyways, we saw a sign that said overflow parking, so we followed it two exits past the zoo and parked in a church parking lot of probably 500 cars or more. They had busses coming in to pick people up and take them to the zoo, and it was INSANE! There must have been over 1000 mothers with their young children there. We decided to axe that idea and go explore Portland a little more and hit up Chinatown. Turned out not to be such a bad idea! We went and wandered around (8 of us) in full missionary attire, and saw some pretty rad stuff! I took some pictures, so I'll send them home in a little while, but yeah.... super saweet. We went and checked out a couple trinkets 'n' trash shops and got bored, so we wandered down Burnside ave.... oh man what a super sketch/absolutely rad part of town! We found out that their was a Catholic church which was super modernized and right in the middle of downtown in a sky-scraper, so we went and visited it. Turns out they were just finishing up mass, and the Father looked scared out of his mind to see 8 missionaries filing into his sanctuary haha. Long story short he gave us a tour of the whole building and talked about the stuff they do there. Turns out they have a HUGE problem with homeless people, drug addicts, prostitutes, and the like in that area, so they mainly focus on providing services for them... he total tip-toed around doctrine the whole time, and we ended up getting roped into about a 40 minute tour after he told us he'd talk to us for about 5 minutes haha. It was all right though... it's interesting to see what they believe. One thing I've noticed is they don't make a peep about the resurrection of Christ. Everything in their church is centered on the crucifixion and it just ends with Jesus being dead... like they had a mural painting depicting everything from the conviction of Christ by Pilate up until the "descension" from the cross......then it just ends! What the crap people! I wish I could teach people in a mass about what happens AFTER he was crucified. I bet they'd come to mass more often :-P.
Anyways, enough ranting about the Catholics... I really love them... they're easy to teach because they don't know what they believe in :-). After we finished our tour, we were all really hungry and decided to find somewhere to eat. We were thinking Voo Doo Doughnuts, but decided against it after we saw how ridiculous the line was, so we went to a place called Ninja Plate, which is just a little stand about a block from Voo Doo, and it was AWESOME! Oh my gosh i thought I'd died and gone to Utah haha. Turns out their specialty was Hawaiian barbecue, so I ended up eating Matiki's-status poly food for the first time since leaving which about made me cry tears of joy haha.
Another sweet thing that happened this week was on wednesday. We went and taught the Perez, hoping to just talk to them about the importance of prayer so that they could receive an answer to their prayers and become baptized, and if they weren't willing to do it, we were going to drop them. Well, as we were teaching them, the hermano said that he knows that he needs to get baptized into this church, he just needs more time. Then we asked the hermana what she thought. She instantly said that she said she wants to get baptized... we sat there for a second, and then I told her we were going to be having a baptismal service on the 27th, so we asked her if she would prepare herself for that date. She accepted! Oh my gosh I about fell out of my chair! Not only that, but the hermano was totally cool with it! Ah its so sweet that she's finally taking this step! Not only that, but their younger daughter Gabby will be getting baptized as well.
On Friday, we had interviews with President Dyches. Ah I love that guy he's the MAN! I was kinda feeling a little down because we don't have tons of investigators right now and the work load we have is still huge because we're covering so much dang area. In my interview howerver, he encouraged me and said he was very pleased with what we're doing. I hope I can be like him one day. He's the most knowledgable (sp?) kind, loving, and spiritual guy, and on top of that he's a doctor! Oh man haha we've had some good chats about the medical world... he really wants me to become one and the more I think about it, the more I want to become an orthopedic surgeon... I'm gonna be in school forever, but oh my goodness it just sounds like the sweetest job ever!
Anyways, back to Friday, after we had interviews and taught a couple lessons, we went to a bishops social that night with an english ward because they invited us since we didn't have a dinner set up... haha I feel like a total redneck because they taught us how to rope, and I liked it! Ah man and the food was good! Random, I know, but it was just entertaining to see one of the english elders here who's from Wallsburg all dressed up like a cowboy haha. it's really different from what we experience as Spanish elders.
That night, we also started an exchange with the elders in Keizer, so I went with elder Van Hook down there. It was a pretty sweet day where we got to visit some of the people i've taught as well as see some families that I've missed. Oh first I've gotta tell you about what happened that night! So we're sitting there konked out at two in the morning, when all of a sudden, the whole apartment starts to shake! We were kinda freaking out and wondering what was going on. Turns out that they were paving the road RIGHT outside our window, and they were using this GINORMOUS machine to do it that literlally shook the whole apartment building! Yeah it was lovely listening to that for two hours outside our window lemme tell ya haha. Anyways, back to the day. We went and visited the Martinez family, because Silvia has stopped going to church, and Guadalupe is being a lazy piece of trash and not getting ready to get baptized, so I went and layed down un santo regano on them (holy scolding) to get their butts in gear.... needless to say, they went to church on sunday haha. Aside from that, they were stoked to see us and visit for a little while. After that, Van Hook and I went knocking around in a neighborhood where a member lives. Within five doors, we knocked into a mom and her kids. We taught them for about five minutes inside whe the dad showed up... this guy is HUGE. I'm talking uncle troy 6'5" and weighs 250 pounds. I was thinking "oh crap now we're screwed. This guy's gonna kick us out of his house!" but it turns out, he's one of the nicest guys I've ever met! We taught them how to pray, and as we said a prayer before we left, we said 'amen' and looked up... the dad was crying... the spirit was so strong with them, it was just an amazing experience. They are going to be getting baptized within the next month I guarantee it.
After visiting with them, we went to say hello to my abuelita Miriam the cuban. Ah she's the most adorable little old lady ever I love her! Her boyfriend charlie is investigating the church, but has never gotten baptized because he refuses to get married, but in that lesson, he told us he realizes he has to get married because he knows the church is true....SWEET!
After that, I bought a $30 pen... don't ask, I just needed a really nice pen haha.
Oh man then there was Sunday... oh goodness what a good day. The whole Perez family was there, and in total we had 10 investigators, and we also had to give talks. I was sweating bullets about it, but it turned out to be awesome! I talked about the importance of missionary work in the branch, and after we finished sacrament, President Pister said "elder, I want to talk to you for a moment." I was scared out of my mind! I was afraid I'd said something wrong and he was about to lay down the law on me! He pulled me into his office and sat me down and said, "Elder Mooney, that talk was absolutely inspired. Not only that, but your spanish was almost flawless. You have such a grasp of the grammar in spanish, and you only made a few errors in that whole talk, not that i was looking for them, but you speak magnificently for only having eight months in the mission. I have an assignment for you, and that is to read out loud with elder Rangel every day, and have him critique your accent, because I want you to have what I didn't gain on my mission, and that is the accent of a native. If you start working now with elder Rangel, you will be speaking at a nearly native level." I just kind of sat there flabbergasted... what do you say to something like that!? I just said thank you and that I was flattered and I will be doing my best do do that from now on... what a freaking awesome guy. I hope you guys can get to know him.
All right I'm about pooped out on ideas for what else to write about, but I love you all and Congrats Katie on kicking butt on singing in Orem City Days! You're the man! Okay not literally, but you know what I mean haha I love you. Mom, I hope you don't freeze your butt off at camp this week haha. Dad, I love you and I'll be sending ya something for father's day. Mom, I'm sending you something for your birthday too dont worry :-).
Much love,
Elder Kurt Mooney
Okay, so this week has been pretty freaking saweet, so let me gather myself to try to think where to start haha. I'll start with tuesday of this week. We went to the zoo!....well, we were planning on it until we got about three miles away from the exit to go to the parking lot, and traffic was at a dead stop! We knew it was going to be busy, but holy moses we picked a bad day to go... it was two-dollar tuesday, AND it was the day after school got out... super super bad idea haha. So anyways, we saw a sign that said overflow parking, so we followed it two exits past the zoo and parked in a church parking lot of probably 500 cars or more. They had busses coming in to pick people up and take them to the zoo, and it was INSANE! There must have been over 1000 mothers with their young children there. We decided to axe that idea and go explore Portland a little more and hit up Chinatown. Turned out not to be such a bad idea! We went and wandered around (8 of us) in full missionary attire, and saw some pretty rad stuff! I took some pictures, so I'll send them home in a little while, but yeah.... super saweet. We went and checked out a couple trinkets 'n' trash shops and got bored, so we wandered down Burnside ave.... oh man what a super sketch/absolutely rad part of town! We found out that their was a Catholic church which was super modernized and right in the middle of downtown in a sky-scraper, so we went and visited it. Turns out they were just finishing up mass, and the Father looked scared out of his mind to see 8 missionaries filing into his sanctuary haha. Long story short he gave us a tour of the whole building and talked about the stuff they do there. Turns out they have a HUGE problem with homeless people, drug addicts, prostitutes, and the like in that area, so they mainly focus on providing services for them... he total tip-toed around doctrine the whole time, and we ended up getting roped into about a 40 minute tour after he told us he'd talk to us for about 5 minutes haha. It was all right though... it's interesting to see what they believe. One thing I've noticed is they don't make a peep about the resurrection of Christ. Everything in their church is centered on the crucifixion and it just ends with Jesus being dead... like they had a mural painting depicting everything from the conviction of Christ by Pilate up until the "descension" from the cross......then it just ends! What the crap people! I wish I could teach people in a mass about what happens AFTER he was crucified. I bet they'd come to mass more often :-P.
Anyways, enough ranting about the Catholics... I really love them... they're easy to teach because they don't know what they believe in :-). After we finished our tour, we were all really hungry and decided to find somewhere to eat. We were thinking Voo Doo Doughnuts, but decided against it after we saw how ridiculous the line was, so we went to a place called Ninja Plate, which is just a little stand about a block from Voo Doo, and it was AWESOME! Oh my gosh i thought I'd died and gone to Utah haha. Turns out their specialty was Hawaiian barbecue, so I ended up eating Matiki's-status poly food for the first time since leaving which about made me cry tears of joy haha.
Another sweet thing that happened this week was on wednesday. We went and taught the Perez, hoping to just talk to them about the importance of prayer so that they could receive an answer to their prayers and become baptized, and if they weren't willing to do it, we were going to drop them. Well, as we were teaching them, the hermano said that he knows that he needs to get baptized into this church, he just needs more time. Then we asked the hermana what she thought. She instantly said that she said she wants to get baptized... we sat there for a second, and then I told her we were going to be having a baptismal service on the 27th, so we asked her if she would prepare herself for that date. She accepted! Oh my gosh I about fell out of my chair! Not only that, but the hermano was totally cool with it! Ah its so sweet that she's finally taking this step! Not only that, but their younger daughter Gabby will be getting baptized as well.
On Friday, we had interviews with President Dyches. Ah I love that guy he's the MAN! I was kinda feeling a little down because we don't have tons of investigators right now and the work load we have is still huge because we're covering so much dang area. In my interview howerver, he encouraged me and said he was very pleased with what we're doing. I hope I can be like him one day. He's the most knowledgable (sp?) kind, loving, and spiritual guy, and on top of that he's a doctor! Oh man haha we've had some good chats about the medical world... he really wants me to become one and the more I think about it, the more I want to become an orthopedic surgeon... I'm gonna be in school forever, but oh my goodness it just sounds like the sweetest job ever!
Anyways, back to Friday, after we had interviews and taught a couple lessons, we went to a bishops social that night with an english ward because they invited us since we didn't have a dinner set up... haha I feel like a total redneck because they taught us how to rope, and I liked it! Ah man and the food was good! Random, I know, but it was just entertaining to see one of the english elders here who's from Wallsburg all dressed up like a cowboy haha. it's really different from what we experience as Spanish elders.
That night, we also started an exchange with the elders in Keizer, so I went with elder Van Hook down there. It was a pretty sweet day where we got to visit some of the people i've taught as well as see some families that I've missed. Oh first I've gotta tell you about what happened that night! So we're sitting there konked out at two in the morning, when all of a sudden, the whole apartment starts to shake! We were kinda freaking out and wondering what was going on. Turns out that they were paving the road RIGHT outside our window, and they were using this GINORMOUS machine to do it that literlally shook the whole apartment building! Yeah it was lovely listening to that for two hours outside our window lemme tell ya haha. Anyways, back to the day. We went and visited the Martinez family, because Silvia has stopped going to church, and Guadalupe is being a lazy piece of trash and not getting ready to get baptized, so I went and layed down un santo regano on them (holy scolding) to get their butts in gear.... needless to say, they went to church on sunday haha. Aside from that, they were stoked to see us and visit for a little while. After that, Van Hook and I went knocking around in a neighborhood where a member lives. Within five doors, we knocked into a mom and her kids. We taught them for about five minutes inside whe the dad showed up... this guy is HUGE. I'm talking uncle troy 6'5" and weighs 250 pounds. I was thinking "oh crap now we're screwed. This guy's gonna kick us out of his house!" but it turns out, he's one of the nicest guys I've ever met! We taught them how to pray, and as we said a prayer before we left, we said 'amen' and looked up... the dad was crying... the spirit was so strong with them, it was just an amazing experience. They are going to be getting baptized within the next month I guarantee it.
After visiting with them, we went to say hello to my abuelita Miriam the cuban. Ah she's the most adorable little old lady ever I love her! Her boyfriend charlie is investigating the church, but has never gotten baptized because he refuses to get married, but in that lesson, he told us he realizes he has to get married because he knows the church is true....SWEET!
After that, I bought a $30 pen... don't ask, I just needed a really nice pen haha.
Oh man then there was Sunday... oh goodness what a good day. The whole Perez family was there, and in total we had 10 investigators, and we also had to give talks. I was sweating bullets about it, but it turned out to be awesome! I talked about the importance of missionary work in the branch, and after we finished sacrament, President Pister said "elder, I want to talk to you for a moment." I was scared out of my mind! I was afraid I'd said something wrong and he was about to lay down the law on me! He pulled me into his office and sat me down and said, "Elder Mooney, that talk was absolutely inspired. Not only that, but your spanish was almost flawless. You have such a grasp of the grammar in spanish, and you only made a few errors in that whole talk, not that i was looking for them, but you speak magnificently for only having eight months in the mission. I have an assignment for you, and that is to read out loud with elder Rangel every day, and have him critique your accent, because I want you to have what I didn't gain on my mission, and that is the accent of a native. If you start working now with elder Rangel, you will be speaking at a nearly native level." I just kind of sat there flabbergasted... what do you say to something like that!? I just said thank you and that I was flattered and I will be doing my best do do that from now on... what a freaking awesome guy. I hope you guys can get to know him.
All right I'm about pooped out on ideas for what else to write about, but I love you all and Congrats Katie on kicking butt on singing in Orem City Days! You're the man! Okay not literally, but you know what I mean haha I love you. Mom, I hope you don't freeze your butt off at camp this week haha. Dad, I love you and I'll be sending ya something for father's day. Mom, I'm sending you something for your birthday too dont worry :-).
Much love,
Elder Kurt Mooney
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Rose Parade float decorating
Hey mom and dad! Okay, so I've been super busy this week, and now I'm trying to put all my thoughts into an email that I've gotta write in 20 minutes.
I'm going to be brief and write about our investigators. Right now, Patricia is keeping on strong with her baptismal date for the 20th of June. Hilda, one of our old investigators has now come to church two weeks in a row and is keeping her commitments, so her baptismal date is set for the 27th of June, and if the Perez get their crap together this week, they'll also have a baptismal date set for the 27th of June, but they're having some marital/family problems that I'm not gonna discuss on here. Aside from that, it's been a lot of first lessons, knocking, and trying to find new people.
Oh! I also had the opportunity to go back to Salem on an exchange with elder Jimenez for a day, and it was a good time! Ah I love that area. Not saying that I don't love Woodburn, because I actually love it more, but Salem will always hold a special place in my heart because it's where I started.... Man that's crazy I arrived there more than six months ago!
Anyways, things are good here, and I wanted to tell you about the things that happened today! So, today is actually not technically our P-day because we're taking it tomorrow to go to the zoo with our entire zone, but today as a zone we went and helped decorate floats for the Rose Parade, which was sweet! Oh my goodness there are some SAWEET houses on the way into portland! We came in from Newberg and cut over through tigard/beaverton area into the hills there, and oh my gosh... I want to have a house there someday! Absolutely beautiful. Then we got to the float decorating place, and I had to laugh... theyr'e trying to use as many "green" materials as possible, so we were plasting corn meal, coconut, parsley, and all sorts of other stuff to these floats to give them color, and it looked saweet! One thing that was kind of Ironic though... we were doing it for the salvation army.... go figure... LDS missionaries working for the Salvation Army. A couple of the other missionaries were giving us crap and saying that we had "apostatized" from the true church. The funny thing was that they happened to be working on a float for the Spirit Mountain Casino.... at least we were working for a church and not a casino...right?
That was super fun though. We took our lunch and decided to head downtown and eat at one of the many trendy little stands that you find, and it was fuhreaking good! Oh man we stuck out like nothing else it seemed like though haha. Eight spanish-speaking not hipster-vested happy laughing people wandering around and eating food. After that we went back to decorating for a little while, but then had to head out. After we headed out, we decided to stop at Powell's book store because supposedly it's one of the best bookstores ever.... turns out they were RIGHT! Holy crap that place is way sweet! I'm pretty sure I'll be headed back there to buy some books sometime soon. After that though, we went to a sweet store where I've decided i'm going to be buying a lot of clothes... haha you're all going to laugh, but Urban Outfitters. They've got some pretty rad stuff there! I think the Portland culture is starting to get to me because I really like the way the people dress here. Granted, there are the large share of "non-conformist" hipsters who ride fixies, have mustaches, sport satchel bags, and have horn-rimmed glasses, but aside from them, there are a ton of things I like... especially in that store. Anyways, I'm just really starting to love this place, and pretty much falling in love with Portland... Still don't know if I'd wanna live here because it rains so dang much, but it's a freakin' sweet place.
All right I've gotta bail, but I love you guys and I hope everything is going super well for you. Mom, don't stress about camp. Just have a blast, okay?
Love,
Elder Kurt Kay Mooney
I'm going to be brief and write about our investigators. Right now, Patricia is keeping on strong with her baptismal date for the 20th of June. Hilda, one of our old investigators has now come to church two weeks in a row and is keeping her commitments, so her baptismal date is set for the 27th of June, and if the Perez get their crap together this week, they'll also have a baptismal date set for the 27th of June, but they're having some marital/family problems that I'm not gonna discuss on here. Aside from that, it's been a lot of first lessons, knocking, and trying to find new people.
Oh! I also had the opportunity to go back to Salem on an exchange with elder Jimenez for a day, and it was a good time! Ah I love that area. Not saying that I don't love Woodburn, because I actually love it more, but Salem will always hold a special place in my heart because it's where I started.... Man that's crazy I arrived there more than six months ago!
Anyways, things are good here, and I wanted to tell you about the things that happened today! So, today is actually not technically our P-day because we're taking it tomorrow to go to the zoo with our entire zone, but today as a zone we went and helped decorate floats for the Rose Parade, which was sweet! Oh my goodness there are some SAWEET houses on the way into portland! We came in from Newberg and cut over through tigard/beaverton area into the hills there, and oh my gosh... I want to have a house there someday! Absolutely beautiful. Then we got to the float decorating place, and I had to laugh... theyr'e trying to use as many "green" materials as possible, so we were plasting corn meal, coconut, parsley, and all sorts of other stuff to these floats to give them color, and it looked saweet! One thing that was kind of Ironic though... we were doing it for the salvation army.... go figure... LDS missionaries working for the Salvation Army. A couple of the other missionaries were giving us crap and saying that we had "apostatized" from the true church. The funny thing was that they happened to be working on a float for the Spirit Mountain Casino.... at least we were working for a church and not a casino...right?
That was super fun though. We took our lunch and decided to head downtown and eat at one of the many trendy little stands that you find, and it was fuhreaking good! Oh man we stuck out like nothing else it seemed like though haha. Eight spanish-speaking not hipster-vested happy laughing people wandering around and eating food. After that we went back to decorating for a little while, but then had to head out. After we headed out, we decided to stop at Powell's book store because supposedly it's one of the best bookstores ever.... turns out they were RIGHT! Holy crap that place is way sweet! I'm pretty sure I'll be headed back there to buy some books sometime soon. After that though, we went to a sweet store where I've decided i'm going to be buying a lot of clothes... haha you're all going to laugh, but Urban Outfitters. They've got some pretty rad stuff there! I think the Portland culture is starting to get to me because I really like the way the people dress here. Granted, there are the large share of "non-conformist" hipsters who ride fixies, have mustaches, sport satchel bags, and have horn-rimmed glasses, but aside from them, there are a ton of things I like... especially in that store. Anyways, I'm just really starting to love this place, and pretty much falling in love with Portland... Still don't know if I'd wanna live here because it rains so dang much, but it's a freakin' sweet place.
All right I've gotta bail, but I love you guys and I hope everything is going super well for you. Mom, don't stress about camp. Just have a blast, okay?
Love,
Elder Kurt Kay Mooney
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