Dearest Mommy,
Okay, just so you don't freak about the title of this email, I AM NOT THE ONE IN THE HOSPITAL. I AM FINE. This is the excitement that we had this week though: Elder Rivera has been WAY sick all week. I feel like I kinda already ruined my story because I already mentioned the word Hospital twice, now three times in my email, but I'll explain from the start of the week what went down.
So Monday night we went to dinner with some members from Silverton (the Ellingsons) who are way awesome. Elder Page got super spoiled on his first day because they took us out to Olive Garden. The whole day, elder Rivera had been complaining of being cold even though it was in the 60's and 70's. That was the first sign of trouble. After that, we took our P-day on Tuesday, taught a lesson like I explained in my last letter, and then did E-mails. By this point, elder Rivera had not been feeling good, slept in, was experiencing flu-like symptoms, etc.. That night, actually, he ended up staying with the people we had dinner with and sleeping on their couch while we (elder Page and myself) went to do divisions. We then returned back to the apartment with Rivera afterwards, where he proceeded to crash and not wake up until about 11 the following day. Now, one key thing that he was not saying anything about is that he was experiencing... well... never mind. Suffice it to say, we were advised to go buy him some Immodium. Ooh this reminds me of a really funny story related to that. So after a doctor visit we had on friday with Rivera, he advised us to go pick up some Immodium, and so we took a trip to Wally-World to buy some. While we were there waiting in the checkout line with the afore-mentioned product, I saw some incense in the compulsory buys section right next to the register and had one of those stupid urges to grab it, which I did. We usually use incense to kind of make the apartment smell a little bit more... how would I say... homey? Anyways, there we are in the checkout line buying Immodium and then I place the two on the counter. As soon as I did this, I realized I had just made a big mistake... Incense and Immodium... strange looks from the clerk... yeah went bright red in the face trying to explain myself by saying "have you ever been in one of those situations where your friend needs you to..." Yeah she was just shaking her head and chuckling mercilessly when this all happened. At least it makes for a good story...right?
Anyways, that was the funny part of the week. Aside from that, we've been super busy trying to keep lessons balanced with a sickie in the trio. Passing him off to members some days or asking one of the english elders to "jump the grenade" sometimes so that we could go out and get some work done. I was really frustrated because we have a lot of people to teach right now and need to be on top of things, and this has been a major load that got dumped on us this week. The one perk is that I've been able to focus attention on elder Page to help him progress as a missionary with the time we have together.
Sunday was pretty sweet because we had Luis & Liset, Adan & Rahab (I finally found out her name is spelled like this and not just "Rab"... dang silent H's!), and Laura showed up to church! Not only that, but Juan was able to baptize his daughter, whic was a really spiritual and awesome experience... I do feel kind of bad though... I had to leave elder Page in the apartment for like six hours because I had to do visits and the baptism, but couldn't put Rivera with a member because they were all at the baptism! Anyways, we had a second doctor's appointment set for Rivera at 8:00 Monday morning, so we went. The results of the test were that he was severely dehydrated and had no idea what was wrong with him, so we jogged on over to the hospital and got him all filled up with fluids. After that, they still had no idea what he had, so they kept him overnight instead of just in the emergency room. We talked to Pres. Dyches and everything, and we got permission to stay the night with him up in his room. When we got up to his floor and looked in his room, I almost though it was a hotel! a flatscreen TV, nice recliner, nice couch, sweet matching interior touches, and even "hardwood" floors... take out the hospital bed, and you've got yourself a nice little place! I came to realize " wait a second... Dad does business with this hospital, and this is a relatively new wing... he probably negotiated all of this!" So if not, then oh well, but if you did help, thanks dad for a comfortable stay at the Salem Hote-, I mean Hospital.
Other than that, we found out this morning when we woke up in the hospital that one of his blood cultures came back positive for some type of bacteria, so that means he has sepsis...what the crap? I don't understand how he got it, but it's a dang good thing we found it when we did or he might have been toast. Luckily he's doing better now that he's pumped full of fluids and anti-biotics, and should be out of the hospital in the next couple of days.
That's about the excitement for the week (haha), but I hope everything is going awesome over there. It's looking like we'll have a baptism in the next couple of weeks of Ivelisse Cruz if all goes according to plan. If you can, please keep our investigators in your prayers, as well as elder Rivera. I'm doing okay, but these guys are the ones that deserve the blessings more right now. I'll talk to you guys next week.
All my lovin',
-Elder Kurt Mooney
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Congratulations, it's twins!
Dearest Mommy,
Well, your calculations are correct! We had transfers yesterday, and...... I'm staying in Woodburn for another transfer!!!! There's one hitch though... They gave me another greenie to train!!! What the heck!? I'm pretty sure this has NEVER happened in the OPM (Oregon Portland Mission) before, but oh well it's kind of interesting. His name is Elder Paige, from West Point, Utah. He's a nice kid... still getting to know him since we've only had him for about 24 hours now haha, but he really does seem pretty sweet. We're speaking in only spanish to try to help him to grab the language a little better... we had our first appointment this morning with Hno. Perez, and he got pretty lost haha. It's gonna take some time, but I bet with a little effort, he'll be a good elder. Oh I forgot to mention one fact: He's a foster child!!! He's not really an OPM missionary, he's supposed to be headed to Mexico City, Mexico West mission, but there was a hiccup with the visas for a couple missionaries, so we're holding on to him anywhere between 24 hours and 24 months... they said they'll know in the next transfer anyways. I'm pretty stoked to cover some new ground and have two greenies at the same time though haha.
It's interesting here in the mission... your "posterity" is kind of a big deal, and all of the terminology of a family is used. The kid you train is your "son", the elder you follow up train is your "step-son", the second elder trained by someone makes him "brothers" with the first, etc.. The other day I was poking fun at an english elder here in Woodburn because his companion right now is an elder that is supposed to be in Brasil, but is stuck here with visa problems as well. We were trying to find out what kind of terminology we could use for him, when I realized it's like a foster child! He can't be with his real daddy right now because of some legal stipulations, so we have to be the temporary parents haha. I thought it was funny until I got one myself. Not only that, but I have two at the same time, so they're telling me that I have "twins", but that they switched one of the babies in the hospital! haha oh goodness I love the culture of the mission.
So aside from that little excitement, Juan Velasquez got baptized this last sunday!!!! Ah man I was so stoked! Seriously, it was probably the most spiritual baptisms I have ever attended. Juan was baptized by his adoptive dad of the branch Hno. Ruybal, Pres. Pister's former president of the mission was the intermediate speaker and blew us away with his testimony, Jeive's whole family was there, both members and non-members, and both Juan and Jeive were so happy... gosh it was just such an amazing day.. I'll attach some photos on here so you can see them.
Aside from that, it's looking like Adan and Rab are fixing to get married here pretty soon, so they'll be locked and loaded for baptism in two weeks...sweet! Laura Gutierrez is reading and praying, and actually came to church as well this last sunday! She'll be getting a baptismal date this week or next depending on what the Spirit says. Turns out Felipe still wants us to teach him and help him get ready for baptism, so we're gonna see what we can do for him in the next couple of weeks... The Cruz family daughters are showing some good interest. Turns out the oldest daugter also wants to learn more about the church, so we taught her the Doctrine of Crist, and it went really really well. We're gonna see how things pan out in the next couple of weeks with her as well. More than that, we're trying to work with some of the other people from Lupe-G's family, as well as some other people that we've met.. nobody specifically is calling my attention right now, but we'll see how it goes in the next week here.
Thank you guys so much for the sweet package that you sent to me... it really means a lot to get things like that. The pictures are awesome, and a couple ladies got in an argument whether I look more like you or dad haha. I love you guys so much.. and I'm starting to get a sweet collection of postcards above my desk :-) Have a great week and I'll talk to you later.
Love always,
Elder Kurt Mooney
Monday, September 13, 2010
Elder Bednar
Dearest Fandamily,
Well, we didn't have a baptism this last Sunday... turns out Felipe got cold feet and might be headed to Mexico... I don't wanna say anything rude that might get back to me, so I'll keep my mouth shut :-P. Suffice it to say it's a bummer that he's not getting baptized... at least not right now. Things here are going really well though. This week we got to be at the confirmation of Rosario Silva, and that was pretty dang sweet.
This week as been kind of a topsy-turvy week all around though. First off, one of my favorite hermanas in the branch had her mom die this week in a freak accident where she was struck by a vehicle getting on a bus in Colombia, so we spent some time talking to her on Tuesday after we got done with emails... she was a wreck. I mean, she has every right to be, but man can you imagine having that happen? I mean, I'm so glad we know about the plan of salvation and everything but still... ah I felt so bad for her. If you could, would you put her name in the temple?
Aside from that little gem, we've been playing marriage counselors with a few different people.... ah I am friggin' 20 years old what the heck do I know about marriage!? I feel bad, but I kinda lost patience with a couple of them because basically they're just being pridefully stubborn and I called them on it, then layed down the law. I leave them all with the same thing to read because it's the only thing I can think of. If you want to know how you should treat your spouse, read Ephesians 5:22-33. Other than that, be humble :-). As if it's so easy right? I love being young and inexperienced haha.
Okay enough of this depressing nonsense and off to more exciting things! Tuesday we had a good visit with Adan and Rab... they're gonna get baptized! It was super interesting, and exactly the opposite of every other investigator I've had before. We were talking and suddenly he says, "you know, I feel that I need to commit myself to God, like to do what he wants me to, ya know? I mean, I stopped drinking and smoking, and I know it was no thanks to me, and I know that what I'm doing right now reading, praying, and going to church are good, but I need to do more.".......PLOP! I love little gifts from heaven haha. THAT is the reward for righteous living haha. We set a date with him for the 3rd of October. Aside from that, I already mentioned above that Felipe was a no go because of some problemitas.... yeah... but it's okay because after a lesson we had on Friday with the Cruz, Ivelisse is going to be getting baptized! I don't know if I ever wrote down the names of the Cruz family's daughters for ya, but here they are: Ivelisse, Iyali, Italivi, and Iadani... good luck with those haha. But yeah, the youngest one has been reading, praying, and going to church, so we're gonna get her baptized! Sweet! She'll be baptized the 9th of October coming up. Aside from her, her sister Iyali is doing well and actually helped us teach her uncle the first lesson even though she's not a baptized member yet... she will be a great convert when she can be baptized. Oh and Juan Velazquez is getting baptized this sunday :-).
Hmmm... what else what else... Oh! We had a party on Saturday for Mexican independence day! Oh man it was such a blast haha there was a TON of food and quite a few people. Not only that, but I got talking to Lupe's cousin Chela, and it looks like we're gonna be having a lesson with her tonight at 6... sweet!
Oh and I forgot the most exciting thing about this week... David A. Bednar came and spoke to us on Friday!!!! Holy cow that was so cool! Pointer for all of you who have doubts about the church: Talk to an apostle of the Lord and ask him to bear his testimony... uhh.... yeah I pretty much fell over because the spirit knocked my socks off! Even as missionaries sometimes we have our doubts (maybe I shouldn't say "we", but I have had doubts), but being in the Lake Oswego stake center and having the opportunity to talk to him and hear what he had to say as well as feel of the spirit that came into the room when he talked... unbelievable. Wait, that's a terrible word choice. This situation is like when Stephen is teaching in the new testament and it says that it was impossible to disbelieve his words. That's really how it felt! I hope one day to be able to meet him again and shake his hand. They're supposed to be giving us photos of us with him that we took pretty soon, so I'll email you a copy when it comes.
He talked to us mainly about two talks he had given a while back, and it was very interesting. The jist of it is that he was talking about faith and how it relates to agency... very very interesting. Agency, as he taught us, is not the ability to choose. He says that is a false tradition of the church to say it as such. He explained to us that agency is the ability to act. From there we talked about how faith relates, and I would recommend to you all that read this to read these two talks so that you can understand how to exercise and gain faith. The first talk is entitled "Going forth in the Strength of the Lord", and the second one is called "Seek Learning by Faith". I promise if you read these and really study them, you'll be able to understand what faith is and how to really procure it.... sweet stuff to be sure.
All right I'm all pooped out on writing now, but I hope you guys are doing great... those pictures that I was finally able to see on my camera when I went to wally world to print some off are awesome! I want the Unimog that had the "called to surf" decals on it... I'm gonna buy one :-). Naw, but it was amazing to see that you're all doing so well. I love you guys so much and I hope you have a great week!
Love always,
Elder Kurt Mooney
Well, we didn't have a baptism this last Sunday... turns out Felipe got cold feet and might be headed to Mexico... I don't wanna say anything rude that might get back to me, so I'll keep my mouth shut :-P. Suffice it to say it's a bummer that he's not getting baptized... at least not right now. Things here are going really well though. This week we got to be at the confirmation of Rosario Silva, and that was pretty dang sweet.
This week as been kind of a topsy-turvy week all around though. First off, one of my favorite hermanas in the branch had her mom die this week in a freak accident where she was struck by a vehicle getting on a bus in Colombia, so we spent some time talking to her on Tuesday after we got done with emails... she was a wreck. I mean, she has every right to be, but man can you imagine having that happen? I mean, I'm so glad we know about the plan of salvation and everything but still... ah I felt so bad for her. If you could, would you put her name in the temple?
Aside from that little gem, we've been playing marriage counselors with a few different people.... ah I am friggin' 20 years old what the heck do I know about marriage!? I feel bad, but I kinda lost patience with a couple of them because basically they're just being pridefully stubborn and I called them on it, then layed down the law. I leave them all with the same thing to read because it's the only thing I can think of. If you want to know how you should treat your spouse, read Ephesians 5:22-33. Other than that, be humble :-). As if it's so easy right? I love being young and inexperienced haha.
Okay enough of this depressing nonsense and off to more exciting things! Tuesday we had a good visit with Adan and Rab... they're gonna get baptized! It was super interesting, and exactly the opposite of every other investigator I've had before. We were talking and suddenly he says, "you know, I feel that I need to commit myself to God, like to do what he wants me to, ya know? I mean, I stopped drinking and smoking, and I know it was no thanks to me, and I know that what I'm doing right now reading, praying, and going to church are good, but I need to do more.".......PLOP! I love little gifts from heaven haha. THAT is the reward for righteous living haha. We set a date with him for the 3rd of October. Aside from that, I already mentioned above that Felipe was a no go because of some problemitas.... yeah... but it's okay because after a lesson we had on Friday with the Cruz, Ivelisse is going to be getting baptized! I don't know if I ever wrote down the names of the Cruz family's daughters for ya, but here they are: Ivelisse, Iyali, Italivi, and Iadani... good luck with those haha. But yeah, the youngest one has been reading, praying, and going to church, so we're gonna get her baptized! Sweet! She'll be baptized the 9th of October coming up. Aside from her, her sister Iyali is doing well and actually helped us teach her uncle the first lesson even though she's not a baptized member yet... she will be a great convert when she can be baptized. Oh and Juan Velazquez is getting baptized this sunday :-).
Hmmm... what else what else... Oh! We had a party on Saturday for Mexican independence day! Oh man it was such a blast haha there was a TON of food and quite a few people. Not only that, but I got talking to Lupe's cousin Chela, and it looks like we're gonna be having a lesson with her tonight at 6... sweet!
Oh and I forgot the most exciting thing about this week... David A. Bednar came and spoke to us on Friday!!!! Holy cow that was so cool! Pointer for all of you who have doubts about the church: Talk to an apostle of the Lord and ask him to bear his testimony... uhh.... yeah I pretty much fell over because the spirit knocked my socks off! Even as missionaries sometimes we have our doubts (maybe I shouldn't say "we", but I have had doubts), but being in the Lake Oswego stake center and having the opportunity to talk to him and hear what he had to say as well as feel of the spirit that came into the room when he talked... unbelievable. Wait, that's a terrible word choice. This situation is like when Stephen is teaching in the new testament and it says that it was impossible to disbelieve his words. That's really how it felt! I hope one day to be able to meet him again and shake his hand. They're supposed to be giving us photos of us with him that we took pretty soon, so I'll email you a copy when it comes.
He talked to us mainly about two talks he had given a while back, and it was very interesting. The jist of it is that he was talking about faith and how it relates to agency... very very interesting. Agency, as he taught us, is not the ability to choose. He says that is a false tradition of the church to say it as such. He explained to us that agency is the ability to act. From there we talked about how faith relates, and I would recommend to you all that read this to read these two talks so that you can understand how to exercise and gain faith. The first talk is entitled "Going forth in the Strength of the Lord", and the second one is called "Seek Learning by Faith". I promise if you read these and really study them, you'll be able to understand what faith is and how to really procure it.... sweet stuff to be sure.
All right I'm all pooped out on writing now, but I hope you guys are doing great... those pictures that I was finally able to see on my camera when I went to wally world to print some off are awesome! I want the Unimog that had the "called to surf" decals on it... I'm gonna buy one :-). Naw, but it was amazing to see that you're all doing so well. I love you guys so much and I hope you have a great week!
Love always,
Elder Kurt Mooney
Friday, September 10, 2010
To learn Spanish, eat spicy Mexican food...!
September 6, 2010
Hey Mommy!
That's sweet to hear that BYU did well in their first game of the season... I'm always a little worried about them haha they tend to be terrible when they first start off. I'm also not very surprised that poor OHS is choking in the beginning of their season... we always started off that way too haha. Ah man football.... here in Gudburn football is something completely different haha. Woodburn high won their first few games out of the last nine years surprisingly enough in american football. In soccer however, they're almost state champs every year! You might not believe it, butr I'm starting to get into get into it myself!
Actually, on the subject of soccer, that's what we did yesterday for Labor day! We did a combined zone activity in Sherwood and played soccer again, but this time it was a little brutal. Elder Rangel, within the first five minutes, slid for a ball on the turf field, but his cleat caught hold, and POP! He dislocated/totally destroyed his ankle! I haven't seen swelling on an ankle like that since... well... when I fell rock climbing that one time haha don't worry about it. From what I heard yesterday, he is now doing okay and in a boot... just like I was... hopefully he can still knock doors! Who knows? Maybe it'll help them get a little more success in Tigard haha. Aside from elder Rangel maiming himself, we had a game of epic proportions with sufficient players to have two complete teams. We ended up playing for about four hours and afterwards we were pretty much trashed haha.
Afterwards, we were invited to eat at the Pisters, so we ran home, showered off as fast as we could, and cruised over to their house where we enjoyed some nice tasty burgers. Before I go any further, I have to reveal a funny saying I heard the other day from Lupe-G's brother. he said if you want to learn to speak spanish well, you should eat spicy Mexican food, and if you want to learn english, you should eat lots of hamburgers haha. He's always got a good joke up his sleeve. For example, he said he had a joke about Jehova's Witnesses, and it goes a little something like this: Once there were two Jehova's Witnesses that were very faithful their whole lives knocking doors, preaching, going to church, etc.. One day, they both died and found themselves before the gate that leads into heaven. One of them went up and knocked on it to see if anybody was there. St. Peter peeked out and saw them, then turned to everybody inside and said, "SHHHHH! Don't answer it's the Jehova's Witnesses!"
Maybe not so funny for people who have lived in Utah their whole lives, but for everybody else, you've gotta admit that's pretty dang funny haha.
Okay, enough playful banter with the Jehova's Whitnesses. Aside from that, We had a baptism this week! SWEET!!!!!! Rosario Reyes Silva is now the newest baptized person in the Woodburn branch. The one hitch is that she doesn't want to go to our branch very badly right now because she investigated with the Mollalla (sp?) branch for more than two months, and suddenly had to move to Hubbard two weeks before her baptism. The one really good thing was that although her baptism was in Mollalla, more than half of the Woodburn branch was there. Out of her own branch, there were only about 15 people there, but from Woodburn, there were more than 40. I love this branch. I've decided I'm just never gonna leave until my last six months, then I'll go up where elder Jackson is serving with the Tongans in St. John's haha.
Aside from Rosario getting baptized, we're doing some good work with our investigators right now. This coming Sunday Felipe will be getting baptized, and the week after that Juan Velazquez will be getting baptized as well... both to make complete member families! Woohoo!!! After that, we've gotta get Adan & Rab's butts in gear on marriage so they can get baptized, Laura needs to come to church, and Leticia is going to get married, so she needs to come to church too haha. Aside from that, we're teaching a lady named Norma Pacheco that lives in Felipe and Maria's house, and she's sweet! We were re-passing the restoration with Felipe and she was there and listening very intently, so we decided to direct the lesson a little more to her. At the end of the lesson we invited her to pray and at first she was really scared, but at last accepted to do it. It was a really cool thing because that was the first prayer of her entire life, and she started to cry afterwards... it was a pretty powerful spiritual experience. I love seeing the power of change the spirit brings to people when they open their hearts to it... it's something that you can't describe, but it's almost tangible in the room when it's present... We'll see where things lead with her as she continues to pray and learn. We found a new family last night, and they seem pretty sweet. They were a referral from the english elders, and usually, I have my doubts when they give us someone to go visit because... well... they're english elders haha no offense to them. No but this family was absolutely wonderful. They moved here from Tijuana about four or five years ago, and the mom is a total sweetheart. Her name is Arcelia and her son's name is Jose. We were originally coming to visit with her older son Jesus, but since he wasn't there, we took the opportunity to teach those two instead. They're super humble, and they accepted the doctrine of Christ right away. I love teaching prepared people! We'll see how things go with them this week when we visit again.
The only other excitement aside from that this week is that we did leadership training again for four days from 9-5... it kicked by butt, but we still somehow managed to have 14 member-present lessons and crank out a baptismal interview/baptism. Hooray for time management skills... Heaven knows I didn't have them before the mission haha.
Anyways, we've gotta get going so we can visit the Ruybal's today, so I'll write you guys later. I love you all so much and I hope that everything is going really well now that school is started up again and you've got Shane and Zandy living with you. Be safe and remember I love you guys.
Love always,
-Elder Kurt Kay Mooney
Hey Mommy!
That's sweet to hear that BYU did well in their first game of the season... I'm always a little worried about them haha they tend to be terrible when they first start off. I'm also not very surprised that poor OHS is choking in the beginning of their season... we always started off that way too haha. Ah man football.... here in Gudburn football is something completely different haha. Woodburn high won their first few games out of the last nine years surprisingly enough in american football. In soccer however, they're almost state champs every year! You might not believe it, butr I'm starting to get into get into it myself!
Actually, on the subject of soccer, that's what we did yesterday for Labor day! We did a combined zone activity in Sherwood and played soccer again, but this time it was a little brutal. Elder Rangel, within the first five minutes, slid for a ball on the turf field, but his cleat caught hold, and POP! He dislocated/totally destroyed his ankle! I haven't seen swelling on an ankle like that since... well... when I fell rock climbing that one time haha don't worry about it. From what I heard yesterday, he is now doing okay and in a boot... just like I was... hopefully he can still knock doors! Who knows? Maybe it'll help them get a little more success in Tigard haha. Aside from elder Rangel maiming himself, we had a game of epic proportions with sufficient players to have two complete teams. We ended up playing for about four hours and afterwards we were pretty much trashed haha.
Afterwards, we were invited to eat at the Pisters, so we ran home, showered off as fast as we could, and cruised over to their house where we enjoyed some nice tasty burgers. Before I go any further, I have to reveal a funny saying I heard the other day from Lupe-G's brother. he said if you want to learn to speak spanish well, you should eat spicy Mexican food, and if you want to learn english, you should eat lots of hamburgers haha. He's always got a good joke up his sleeve. For example, he said he had a joke about Jehova's Witnesses, and it goes a little something like this: Once there were two Jehova's Witnesses that were very faithful their whole lives knocking doors, preaching, going to church, etc.. One day, they both died and found themselves before the gate that leads into heaven. One of them went up and knocked on it to see if anybody was there. St. Peter peeked out and saw them, then turned to everybody inside and said, "SHHHHH! Don't answer it's the Jehova's Witnesses!"
Maybe not so funny for people who have lived in Utah their whole lives, but for everybody else, you've gotta admit that's pretty dang funny haha.
Okay, enough playful banter with the Jehova's Whitnesses. Aside from that, We had a baptism this week! SWEET!!!!!! Rosario Reyes Silva is now the newest baptized person in the Woodburn branch. The one hitch is that she doesn't want to go to our branch very badly right now because she investigated with the Mollalla (sp?) branch for more than two months, and suddenly had to move to Hubbard two weeks before her baptism. The one really good thing was that although her baptism was in Mollalla, more than half of the Woodburn branch was there. Out of her own branch, there were only about 15 people there, but from Woodburn, there were more than 40. I love this branch. I've decided I'm just never gonna leave until my last six months, then I'll go up where elder Jackson is serving with the Tongans in St. John's haha.
Aside from Rosario getting baptized, we're doing some good work with our investigators right now. This coming Sunday Felipe will be getting baptized, and the week after that Juan Velazquez will be getting baptized as well... both to make complete member families! Woohoo!!! After that, we've gotta get Adan & Rab's butts in gear on marriage so they can get baptized, Laura needs to come to church, and Leticia is going to get married, so she needs to come to church too haha. Aside from that, we're teaching a lady named Norma Pacheco that lives in Felipe and Maria's house, and she's sweet! We were re-passing the restoration with Felipe and she was there and listening very intently, so we decided to direct the lesson a little more to her. At the end of the lesson we invited her to pray and at first she was really scared, but at last accepted to do it. It was a really cool thing because that was the first prayer of her entire life, and she started to cry afterwards... it was a pretty powerful spiritual experience. I love seeing the power of change the spirit brings to people when they open their hearts to it... it's something that you can't describe, but it's almost tangible in the room when it's present... We'll see where things lead with her as she continues to pray and learn. We found a new family last night, and they seem pretty sweet. They were a referral from the english elders, and usually, I have my doubts when they give us someone to go visit because... well... they're english elders haha no offense to them. No but this family was absolutely wonderful. They moved here from Tijuana about four or five years ago, and the mom is a total sweetheart. Her name is Arcelia and her son's name is Jose. We were originally coming to visit with her older son Jesus, but since he wasn't there, we took the opportunity to teach those two instead. They're super humble, and they accepted the doctrine of Christ right away. I love teaching prepared people! We'll see how things go with them this week when we visit again.
The only other excitement aside from that this week is that we did leadership training again for four days from 9-5... it kicked by butt, but we still somehow managed to have 14 member-present lessons and crank out a baptismal interview/baptism. Hooray for time management skills... Heaven knows I didn't have them before the mission haha.
Anyways, we've gotta get going so we can visit the Ruybal's today, so I'll write you guys later. I love you all so much and I hope that everything is going really well now that school is started up again and you've got Shane and Zandy living with you. Be safe and remember I love you guys.
Love always,
-Elder Kurt Kay Mooney
Monday, August 30, 2010
Time's flying!
Dearest Mommy,
Well, it's Monday... again... haha. I really don't understand how the time can fly so fast. Today I hit 11 months in the mission... holy cow! I'm kinda freaking out! I realized that my "daddy" in the mission is going home in three weeks... All of the old missionaries are dying out, and now it's just going to be....well... different! It's not a bad thing, but it's still just weird.. ya know? Ah well that's just part of mission life... and it's sweet. That's one thing I've noticed about the mission is that things change really fast, and they require you to not only grow up quickly, but more importantly to rely on the Lord. I love everything about the mission :-).
So last monday was nothing exciting we just went and played soccer in the church for a couple hours and then had a home evening with Lupe G. We were supposed to be having it with her and her brother Adan whom we are teaching, but it turns out that his girlfriend Rab and Lupe don't get along very well, so we ended up just watching a Joseph Smith historical movie with her and her sons.
Tuesday, however, was a little more exciting. We got to go to the temple!!! Ah it was so nice to get that spiritual boost after not going for a while. Afterwards, we went to Deseret Book where I was tempted to blow $100 worth of money I don't have on some very interesting books haha. Luckily I showed some self-control and didn't buy anything, but we did go to Burgerville afterwards and I used my home card to pay for it... sorry you guys :-P.
Okay, now I'll talk about what all went down with our investigators this week... we picked up a ton of new ones! So we have some fantastic news and some not so good news. The fantastic news is that we picked up a new investigator that elder Jackson (my MTC companion) was teaching who moved to Hubbard, and she's going to be baptized this coming Sunday!..... PLOP! Another one of those gifts from heaven haha. Her name is Rosario Silva and she's super sweet... and she's actually the daughter of one of our former investigators haha. The not so good news is that instead of baptizing Felipe Vazquez yesterday like we had planned, after his interview, our district leader told us he needs two more weeks... dangit haha. Oh well it'll be a good thing to make sure he understands everything more solidly. In the meantime he continues coming to church. Next we have Juan Velazquez. He's going to be baptized the 19th, and then the following sunday he will be confirmed, receive the priesthood, and baptize his eight year old daughter! Sweet right? It's a big blessing after almost ten years of missionaries.. I'm just glad I was able to help :-). After that, we have Laura Gutierrez who was a punk this week because we couldn't get in contact with her, Leticia who blew us off on a wednesday meeting at her own church (I'll explain that later) and also our church on Sunday. Aside from that... Rab and Junior Gutierrez came to church and are reading/praying. Okay, now for the list of new investigators that accepted "soft" baptismal dates: Ivelisse Cruz, Lydia (some girl who live's at Lupe-G's house), Leonel & Cristina Francisco, Luis & Liset Gutierrez, and two people from the family that live in the same house as Maria and Felipe Vazquez whose names are Lupita and Jaime Pacheco... yeah... pretty sweet week if I do say so myself. We taught 11 member-present lessons and just as many other lessons. We're fixing up to have a lot of people to baptize pretty soon!
Okay, so aside from a ton of new 'gators and working hard like we're supposed to, we're also finding time to do some pretty interesting stuff. Case and point: what we did on Thursday night. We were talking to Leticia Rivera in one of our lessons, and she said that she would go to our church if we would go to hers. I was all for it haha. So, she invited us to hear their Superintendant (which is like the equivalent of a stake president) speak to their group here in Woodburn. It was in spanish, and it was really funny to see the look on peoples faces when we walked in... I think I finally understand how a black person feels when they enter a room full of all white people (you can edit that part out if you want haha) Basically we stuck out like sore thumbs. I think that Jehova's Witnesses wear colored shirts just to make sure they differentiate from us haha. They all were dressed really nicely in suits of all colors except for dark/conservative like ourselves, and they all bring their little "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures". This was fine with me, but the thing that bothered me was that when we showed up, LETICIA WASN'T EVEN THERE!!!! What's even funnier, is that afterwards when people came up to us and shook our hands/introduced themselves (LDS members should take a lesson from them on that), that nobody knew who she was haha. Overall, the experience was...well... interesting we could say. To me it was more like a community college lecture than it was a church meeting... it's interesting that you can feel a difference in the spirit of a group of people as well as individually. Not to speak badly of the Jehova's Witnesses, its just different and kind of sad that they don't have the truth... wow that sounds cocky I'll shut up now haha.
Friday was quite an adventure also haha. We started an exchange after district meeting around one o'clock, and for the day I had planned four member-present lessons in a row, but the problem is that they were all females, so we needed a male member to be there. The only one I could get a hold of was Angel, Lupe's son, and he was up in Wilsonville getting off work, so we went up to pick him up to take him to our lessons because we had (emphasis on HAD) enough miles to do it. So we start driving up the I-5 towards Wilsonville when all of a sudden we hit a huge wall of stop and go traffic... dangit haha. To make a long story short, we ended up taking half an hour longer than expected to get to wilsonville because of a huge crash as well as construction that was going on. Once we got off the freeway, we accidentally turned the wrong way on a road to pick him up and got stuck in traffic again. We finally picked him up and decided to be smarty-pants missionaries and take the backroad to Newberg and then from there take the 99 to Woodburn... yeah it was a smart idea... except that HALF OF THE WORLD WAS ON THAT STUPID HIGHWAY! We hit traffic at a dead stop after about ten or fifteen miles, stuck with it for about three miles, then decided to axe it and head back to the I-5. We missed all of our appointments haha. We had time for dinner and our interview... that was it haha. Sometimes the Lord tries your patience and then rewards you with a whole bunch of awesome stuff afterwards (investigators/baptismal dates). I love the mission!
So yeah that was about the excitement for this week.. lots of lessons, lots of awesome investigators, lots of learning lessons, and lots of spiritual enlightenment. Like I said in the Paragraph above, I really do love the mission. It's been the hardest yet most rewarding time I've had in my life... I think it's been rewarding BECAUSE it's been hard, and that's why I love it so much... it's kind of like Fooball, but better because you don't break bones or have to deal with Timpview :-).
I love you guys so much... Thank you mom and dad so much for everything you guys do for me while I'm out here. I want you to know that I love each and every one of you and that I pray for you every night. Please be safe and be good.
Love always,
-Elder Kurt Mooney
Well, it's Monday... again... haha. I really don't understand how the time can fly so fast. Today I hit 11 months in the mission... holy cow! I'm kinda freaking out! I realized that my "daddy" in the mission is going home in three weeks... All of the old missionaries are dying out, and now it's just going to be....well... different! It's not a bad thing, but it's still just weird.. ya know? Ah well that's just part of mission life... and it's sweet. That's one thing I've noticed about the mission is that things change really fast, and they require you to not only grow up quickly, but more importantly to rely on the Lord. I love everything about the mission :-).
So last monday was nothing exciting we just went and played soccer in the church for a couple hours and then had a home evening with Lupe G. We were supposed to be having it with her and her brother Adan whom we are teaching, but it turns out that his girlfriend Rab and Lupe don't get along very well, so we ended up just watching a Joseph Smith historical movie with her and her sons.
Tuesday, however, was a little more exciting. We got to go to the temple!!! Ah it was so nice to get that spiritual boost after not going for a while. Afterwards, we went to Deseret Book where I was tempted to blow $100 worth of money I don't have on some very interesting books haha. Luckily I showed some self-control and didn't buy anything, but we did go to Burgerville afterwards and I used my home card to pay for it... sorry you guys :-P.
Okay, now I'll talk about what all went down with our investigators this week... we picked up a ton of new ones! So we have some fantastic news and some not so good news. The fantastic news is that we picked up a new investigator that elder Jackson (my MTC companion) was teaching who moved to Hubbard, and she's going to be baptized this coming Sunday!..... PLOP! Another one of those gifts from heaven haha. Her name is Rosario Silva and she's super sweet... and she's actually the daughter of one of our former investigators haha. The not so good news is that instead of baptizing Felipe Vazquez yesterday like we had planned, after his interview, our district leader told us he needs two more weeks... dangit haha. Oh well it'll be a good thing to make sure he understands everything more solidly. In the meantime he continues coming to church. Next we have Juan Velazquez. He's going to be baptized the 19th, and then the following sunday he will be confirmed, receive the priesthood, and baptize his eight year old daughter! Sweet right? It's a big blessing after almost ten years of missionaries.. I'm just glad I was able to help :-). After that, we have Laura Gutierrez who was a punk this week because we couldn't get in contact with her, Leticia who blew us off on a wednesday meeting at her own church (I'll explain that later) and also our church on Sunday. Aside from that... Rab and Junior Gutierrez came to church and are reading/praying. Okay, now for the list of new investigators that accepted "soft" baptismal dates: Ivelisse Cruz, Lydia (some girl who live's at Lupe-G's house), Leonel & Cristina Francisco, Luis & Liset Gutierrez, and two people from the family that live in the same house as Maria and Felipe Vazquez whose names are Lupita and Jaime Pacheco... yeah... pretty sweet week if I do say so myself. We taught 11 member-present lessons and just as many other lessons. We're fixing up to have a lot of people to baptize pretty soon!
Okay, so aside from a ton of new 'gators and working hard like we're supposed to, we're also finding time to do some pretty interesting stuff. Case and point: what we did on Thursday night. We were talking to Leticia Rivera in one of our lessons, and she said that she would go to our church if we would go to hers. I was all for it haha. So, she invited us to hear their Superintendant (which is like the equivalent of a stake president) speak to their group here in Woodburn. It was in spanish, and it was really funny to see the look on peoples faces when we walked in... I think I finally understand how a black person feels when they enter a room full of all white people (you can edit that part out if you want haha) Basically we stuck out like sore thumbs. I think that Jehova's Witnesses wear colored shirts just to make sure they differentiate from us haha. They all were dressed really nicely in suits of all colors except for dark/conservative like ourselves, and they all bring their little "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures". This was fine with me, but the thing that bothered me was that when we showed up, LETICIA WASN'T EVEN THERE!!!! What's even funnier, is that afterwards when people came up to us and shook our hands/introduced themselves (LDS members should take a lesson from them on that), that nobody knew who she was haha. Overall, the experience was...well... interesting we could say. To me it was more like a community college lecture than it was a church meeting... it's interesting that you can feel a difference in the spirit of a group of people as well as individually. Not to speak badly of the Jehova's Witnesses, its just different and kind of sad that they don't have the truth... wow that sounds cocky I'll shut up now haha.
Friday was quite an adventure also haha. We started an exchange after district meeting around one o'clock, and for the day I had planned four member-present lessons in a row, but the problem is that they were all females, so we needed a male member to be there. The only one I could get a hold of was Angel, Lupe's son, and he was up in Wilsonville getting off work, so we went up to pick him up to take him to our lessons because we had (emphasis on HAD) enough miles to do it. So we start driving up the I-5 towards Wilsonville when all of a sudden we hit a huge wall of stop and go traffic... dangit haha. To make a long story short, we ended up taking half an hour longer than expected to get to wilsonville because of a huge crash as well as construction that was going on. Once we got off the freeway, we accidentally turned the wrong way on a road to pick him up and got stuck in traffic again. We finally picked him up and decided to be smarty-pants missionaries and take the backroad to Newberg and then from there take the 99 to Woodburn... yeah it was a smart idea... except that HALF OF THE WORLD WAS ON THAT STUPID HIGHWAY! We hit traffic at a dead stop after about ten or fifteen miles, stuck with it for about three miles, then decided to axe it and head back to the I-5. We missed all of our appointments haha. We had time for dinner and our interview... that was it haha. Sometimes the Lord tries your patience and then rewards you with a whole bunch of awesome stuff afterwards (investigators/baptismal dates). I love the mission!
So yeah that was about the excitement for this week.. lots of lessons, lots of awesome investigators, lots of learning lessons, and lots of spiritual enlightenment. Like I said in the Paragraph above, I really do love the mission. It's been the hardest yet most rewarding time I've had in my life... I think it's been rewarding BECAUSE it's been hard, and that's why I love it so much... it's kind of like Fooball, but better because you don't break bones or have to deal with Timpview :-).
I love you guys so much... Thank you mom and dad so much for everything you guys do for me while I'm out here. I want you to know that I love each and every one of you and that I pray for you every night. Please be safe and be good.
Love always,
-Elder Kurt Mooney
Monday, August 23, 2010
Another busy week
Dear family,
All right it's been a busy busy week this week, but I'll try to fill ya in as much as I can, okay?
So Monday we had a total blast for P-day. After we got done emailing, we did our shopping, and then headed over to the church to play some sports with a few less actives and a potential investigator... it was sweet! We played soccer in the gym and got totally smoked haha. I'm pretty sure that white people shouldn't be allowed to play soccer, because we just plain suck at it by comparison. After that humbling experience, we ate dinner, then had another family home evening with the Pisters. This time, however, we were prepared and made sure we knew what was going on beforehand. We invited over the Perez and another recent convert, and started family history profiles for them so that they could do baptisms for them on the following Friday. It was smooth sailing-ish until I tried to create an account for sister Perez, and she gave me a faulty email address that we couldn't open haha. Because of that little point, we had to call church headquarters and talk to them and explain that we'd accidentally put in the wrong email account and long story short after about an hour of talking to them and trying to figure it out, we got it fixed up how we wanted it hahaha. Oh man the Pisters gave me so much crap for it because I was getting a little stressed out... I notice that I do that more now... maybe it helps me be a more responsible person now though haha. Okay, so that was about the excitement for Monday.
Now here's the update on the people we're teaching right now:
We have Adan (no, not Adam) Gutierrez and his girlfriend Rab (sp?), Laura Gutierrez (not related to Junior), Teresa Madonado, Laticia Rivera (not related to my son), Iyali Cruz, and Felipe Vazquez. Now, aside from them we also have the recent converts/less actives that we are getting on "temple track". Their names are the Perez family, the Mendoza family, Elisa Zirangua, The Cruz family, and one more family whose name escapes me right now. Throw on top of that a mountain of new investigators, and that's about where we stand haha.
With Adan and Rab things are going really well. He reminds me a lot of Josh, but with a lot of kids haha. His sister is Lupe G, and she makes fun of him by calling him "el conejo" or "bunny rabbit" in english because... well... he's got a lot of kids haha :-P. Anyways, he is a super sweet guy and is making a lot of changes. When I first got here to Woodburn, the missionaries had started teaching him, but he was having problems with drinking and smoking as well as the law of chastity (go figure right?), so we dropped him while I was with Rangel. However, recently, he has been showing a lot of interest, especially because he and Rab want to get married and start going to church. We talked to them the other day about the doctrine of Christ as well as taught them a little more in-depth about forgiveness/repentance... it went really well, and they came to church! It was awesome! They really got into it and even sang the hymns and read scriptures.
Then there's Laura. She's a referral from the english elders who started teaching her, but she speaks a little more Spanish than English, so they gave her to us. Right now, she has a lot of questions about why there is so much suffering in the world, so we taught her about there being an opposition in all things, as well as trying to pull her nose out of the here and now and get her to look at the big picture... she also came to church, although she accidentally went to the english ward haha.
We finally got back in contact with Iyali who has to wait for a while to get baptized, and it went really well! she is reading her scriptures and we are just making sure she stays "active" (although she's not a member) until she can get baptized.
Felipe is going to be getting baptized on the 29th and everything is going well for him... nothing to report on him haha. The same with Juan Velazquez who will get baptized on the 19th of September.
Who else who else... Oh! We had an interesting chat with Laticia Rivera this week where she found out that we believe that Jesus Christ is Jehova. She kinda flipped a little bit and said "show me where it says that in the bible." I told her I wasn't going to do it, so what i did is left her a post-it with about five scriptures that correlate with christ from old to new testaments, and then I told her to pray about it. I don't know if she did on friday, but she came to the branch activity on saturday, so we'll see what happens this week when we pass by.
Oh! Branch activity! It was the sweetest thing ever! We went to a place called Scotts Mills and had a total blast! There is a park right by a little river that runs through some rock that looks like the same kind of rock you would find in Maupin or at lake Billy Chinook... man it was a sweet place and i was super jealous they all got to go cliff jump from about 20 or so feet into a big pool below a little cascade. It's okay though because there was a ton of food, three-way tug of war, and I ended up starting a brutal waterfight with water balloons... oh man Pres. Pister totally trucked me haha. I ran out of ammo and he chased me down and in spite of my best high-stepping efforts, he planted a water balloon directly on my left butt-cheek and then another one right on my shirt below my arm haha.
Other than that excitement this week, we had fourteen non-members in sacrament meeting. Booyeah. I have nothing more to say about that haha.
Oh one thing though that I do want haha well, two things. Everybody wants to see a picture of us as a family, so could I get a picture of us pretty please? :-) Also, I realized I don't have my line of authority out here... I need something to show to all the pastors I bash haha just kidding I don't bash.. :-)
Well I'm super jealous you went to Fish Lake without me... again... but it's good to hear you guys are all having a blast down there. Tell Katie Jo I'm a slacker, but I'll have a letter for her in the mail soon, and that I hope she gets pumped about starting her last year of high school... it's a blast!
I love you guys,
-Elder Kurt Mooney
All right it's been a busy busy week this week, but I'll try to fill ya in as much as I can, okay?
So Monday we had a total blast for P-day. After we got done emailing, we did our shopping, and then headed over to the church to play some sports with a few less actives and a potential investigator... it was sweet! We played soccer in the gym and got totally smoked haha. I'm pretty sure that white people shouldn't be allowed to play soccer, because we just plain suck at it by comparison. After that humbling experience, we ate dinner, then had another family home evening with the Pisters. This time, however, we were prepared and made sure we knew what was going on beforehand. We invited over the Perez and another recent convert, and started family history profiles for them so that they could do baptisms for them on the following Friday. It was smooth sailing-ish until I tried to create an account for sister Perez, and she gave me a faulty email address that we couldn't open haha. Because of that little point, we had to call church headquarters and talk to them and explain that we'd accidentally put in the wrong email account and long story short after about an hour of talking to them and trying to figure it out, we got it fixed up how we wanted it hahaha. Oh man the Pisters gave me so much crap for it because I was getting a little stressed out... I notice that I do that more now... maybe it helps me be a more responsible person now though haha. Okay, so that was about the excitement for Monday.
Now here's the update on the people we're teaching right now:
We have Adan (no, not Adam) Gutierrez and his girlfriend Rab (sp?), Laura Gutierrez (not related to Junior), Teresa Madonado, Laticia Rivera (not related to my son), Iyali Cruz, and Felipe Vazquez. Now, aside from them we also have the recent converts/less actives that we are getting on "temple track". Their names are the Perez family, the Mendoza family, Elisa Zirangua, The Cruz family, and one more family whose name escapes me right now. Throw on top of that a mountain of new investigators, and that's about where we stand haha.
With Adan and Rab things are going really well. He reminds me a lot of Josh, but with a lot of kids haha. His sister is Lupe G, and she makes fun of him by calling him "el conejo" or "bunny rabbit" in english because... well... he's got a lot of kids haha :-P. Anyways, he is a super sweet guy and is making a lot of changes. When I first got here to Woodburn, the missionaries had started teaching him, but he was having problems with drinking and smoking as well as the law of chastity (go figure right?), so we dropped him while I was with Rangel. However, recently, he has been showing a lot of interest, especially because he and Rab want to get married and start going to church. We talked to them the other day about the doctrine of Christ as well as taught them a little more in-depth about forgiveness/repentance... it went really well, and they came to church! It was awesome! They really got into it and even sang the hymns and read scriptures.
Then there's Laura. She's a referral from the english elders who started teaching her, but she speaks a little more Spanish than English, so they gave her to us. Right now, she has a lot of questions about why there is so much suffering in the world, so we taught her about there being an opposition in all things, as well as trying to pull her nose out of the here and now and get her to look at the big picture... she also came to church, although she accidentally went to the english ward haha.
We finally got back in contact with Iyali who has to wait for a while to get baptized, and it went really well! she is reading her scriptures and we are just making sure she stays "active" (although she's not a member) until she can get baptized.
Felipe is going to be getting baptized on the 29th and everything is going well for him... nothing to report on him haha. The same with Juan Velazquez who will get baptized on the 19th of September.
Who else who else... Oh! We had an interesting chat with Laticia Rivera this week where she found out that we believe that Jesus Christ is Jehova. She kinda flipped a little bit and said "show me where it says that in the bible." I told her I wasn't going to do it, so what i did is left her a post-it with about five scriptures that correlate with christ from old to new testaments, and then I told her to pray about it. I don't know if she did on friday, but she came to the branch activity on saturday, so we'll see what happens this week when we pass by.
Oh! Branch activity! It was the sweetest thing ever! We went to a place called Scotts Mills and had a total blast! There is a park right by a little river that runs through some rock that looks like the same kind of rock you would find in Maupin or at lake Billy Chinook... man it was a sweet place and i was super jealous they all got to go cliff jump from about 20 or so feet into a big pool below a little cascade. It's okay though because there was a ton of food, three-way tug of war, and I ended up starting a brutal waterfight with water balloons... oh man Pres. Pister totally trucked me haha. I ran out of ammo and he chased me down and in spite of my best high-stepping efforts, he planted a water balloon directly on my left butt-cheek and then another one right on my shirt below my arm haha.
Other than that excitement this week, we had fourteen non-members in sacrament meeting. Booyeah. I have nothing more to say about that haha.
Oh one thing though that I do want haha well, two things. Everybody wants to see a picture of us as a family, so could I get a picture of us pretty please? :-) Also, I realized I don't have my line of authority out here... I need something to show to all the pastors I bash haha just kidding I don't bash.. :-)
Well I'm super jealous you went to Fish Lake without me... again... but it's good to hear you guys are all having a blast down there. Tell Katie Jo I'm a slacker, but I'll have a letter for her in the mail soon, and that I hope she gets pumped about starting her last year of high school... it's a blast!
I love you guys,
-Elder Kurt Mooney
Monday, August 16, 2010
A Great Week
Dearest Mommy and the rest of the family,
Ah man... I always get started on these emails, and I don't even know what to start typing... I guess we'll start with last Monday as always haha. So we talked to president Pister the week before, and we decided to hook up a family home evening at his house with a few recent converts as well as some of our investigators. I don't remember him saying it, but he asked if we could provide the lesson and me being the space cadet that I am, didn't write it down in my planner... if I don't write it down, it never happened out here in the mission field haha. Basically, president called us an hour before we're going to start the home evening, and he asks "so what are you guys going to teach about?" I laughed it off and said "oh president that's not a funny joke you can't scare me like that!" Then he says, "I'm not joking... you said you'd do it last Sunday...remember?" I think my answer mainly consisted of "CRAP!!!!" Luckily president Pister loves me in spite of leaving my brain at the apartment most of the time, so everything turned out okay haha. It ended up being a really good home evening where one of the recent converts even ended up crying over the lesson.... the spirit was sweet :-).
Okay, moving on from Monday night, let's move to Tuesday. Tuesday day we just visited some potentials and knocked for a while, nothing exciting, but that night was awesome. We went on divisions with some people in the branch, and got a lot done it was sweet! I went with a guy named Manuel Hernandez, and Rivera went with Hno. Pacheco and a guy named Angel Estrada (son of Lupe-G). Manuel and I went and taught a couple of lessons. The first of which was to Felipe who just got married a little while back and we talked about tithing and fast offerings. It went really well, but the coolest thing about it is that Manuel was really involved in the lesson. Normally when we take people to lessons from the branch, it's like they're just doing their time, but Manuel really has a testimony. He got baptized a little over a year and a half ago, and just went through the temple about six months ago... he's awesome! He, his wife, and his two little terrors-for-children are so so so so sweet. Anyways, I digress. The main point is that he has a strong testimony of the things he's changed in his own life, and he's not afraid to share it with people when we go out on visits. Jumping back to Felipe, he's just about ready to get baptized! We'll see how things go this week, and if all goes smoothly, he should be baptized this coming Sunday or the one after. SWEET!
Okay, so aside from that... hmmm.... what else happened. Oh! We had a sweet lesson with a lady that Rivera found while we were blitzing one day. We went back to visit and see if we could just set up an appointment for another day, and this lady named Teresa let us in and talk to her. We ended up talking to her about the doctrine of Christ and following the stuff they've been teaching us, and push came to shove, and well, she accepted a baptismal invitation... it's always a little awkward when people ask you something like this: "so, you're telling me that my baptism wasn't valid, and that yours is the only one that will count?"... good luck trying to tell someone that without making them feel like crap haha. Somehow though, we did it, and we have another lesson with her this wednesday that's coming up!
Speaking of sweet things that are coming up, we have a golden opportunity here in Woodburn. There's a little radio station that all of the paisas listen to here called PCUN, which is... ah crap I don't remember the full abbreviation, but it's a radio station that is specifically for the "campesinos" or people that work in the fields. Anyways, they have one hour a week that is open for different religions to come in and give a little "doctrinal discourse" and then answer questions if people call in... I think we might be doing it in the next couple of weeks.... muahahaha I'm so excited! Sorry about the evil laugh, I can just see myself getting into trouble for talking about the virgin mary or about all of the other blasphemous doctrines that people believe... I'll probably just teach the restoration and see how people react. Interesting though, right? Never thought I'd have an opportunity to be a radio host... especially not on my mission... in Spanish :-P.
So some of the cool things I've been able to do out here is read some really good books. I already finished the missionary library about three months ago, so I decided to read some other stuff. I found a couple of books that are super legit... I love them! The first one is called "Day of Defense" which is basically a courtroom setting attack on a pair of missionaries from all the other christian denominations in the which they all get completely smoked and the LDS religion comes out completely unscathed... if you've ever had doubts about the LDS religion, I would recommend that book. Also, another wonderful book which has helped me gain a greater testimony of the Book of Mormon as well as the Pearl of Great Price, is a book by Hugh Nibley, which is a collection of three books called "Lehi in the Desert", "The World of the Jaredites", and "There were Jaredites". It's basically the coolest thing that really explains what's significant and correct that correlates with ancient culture in the middle and far east... I promise it'll absolve the doubts you've got :-P. Read them!
Okay now that I've done my schpeal for those books, I've gotta try to remember what else happened this week. Oh! I had the opportunity to go back to Salem for a day on exchanges with elder Dawson. While we were there, we had a pretty good day. Not to say that we had appointments, because they ALL fell through, but that we had some good experiences. After having a bunch of appointments fall through, we knocked into a member by accident who directed us to a complex that I had been thinking about earlier in the day, so we decided to take that little bit of inspired advice and go knock there. Turns out we were following the spirit. Within three doors, we had found two families whom we were able to teach and the third one was a less active from the YSA ward, whom we ended up convincing to read, pray, and go to church the following sunday... I love batting 1000! It never happens, but that was the most amazing thing ever. Then afterwards, we took a trip to Del Taco because our dinner appointment canceled on us, and we both ate 12 tacos... oh man I thought I was gonna die haha.
On Sunday, we were pumped because we had a bunch of people that told us that they were gonna come to church. When 9:20 rolled around, NOBODY showed up! LAME! Oh well that's life for ya. Not only that, but then for Sacrament, instead of being able to sit with our investigators, we had to go translate! Ah I was so mad! Not only that, but after translating Spanish to English like I always do, I had to translate for a high counselor who did nothing but read his talk, which consisted of nothing but endless Neal A. Maxwell quotes sprinkled with scriptures with no references so we could find them, and a whole mess of English sayings and idioms that don't translate to spanish! Throw that all together with more quotes with C.S. Lewis, and that's what I had to deal with. Don't get me wrong. I love Neal A. Maxwell... he's my favorite apostle actually, and I love the scriptures, and even C.S. Lewis, but THEY ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO TRANSLATE INTO SPANISH!!!! It wouldn't have been so bad, but Luis Franco (the branch mission leader) usually translates english to spanish, after about a two minute pause during the talk unplugged the microphone and then said "here, you can do it". Bleh! President Pisters daughters and his wife were listening in on the headphones for kicks and giggles during his talk, and were dying laughing on the stand while they heard him talking and me trying to put it into Lamans terms haha... Translating is okay when you have the quotes and scriptures in front of you, but trying to do it by the seat of your pants like we had to do it, it just plain sucks haha.
Anyways, to make us feel better after church, we got to take a trip to a hospital to give a blessing to the son of a less active (wow that sounds like a bad word haha) who is about to have surgery. It was really interesting to go up there to where he was at, because I remember going up to Schriner's hospital with dad a few times, and Doernbecher is just right around the corner from there. I couldn't believe all the growth that's happened up there even since I was last there... holy crap! It's a beautiful campus... not gonna lie, makes me want to be a doctor even more just being there in the hospital :-).
Well, that's about the excitement for this week, but holy crap it sounds like you guys are having a blast there without me. I hope you have a great week I love you guys!
Love,
Elder Kurt Mooney
Ah man... I always get started on these emails, and I don't even know what to start typing... I guess we'll start with last Monday as always haha. So we talked to president Pister the week before, and we decided to hook up a family home evening at his house with a few recent converts as well as some of our investigators. I don't remember him saying it, but he asked if we could provide the lesson and me being the space cadet that I am, didn't write it down in my planner... if I don't write it down, it never happened out here in the mission field haha. Basically, president called us an hour before we're going to start the home evening, and he asks "so what are you guys going to teach about?" I laughed it off and said "oh president that's not a funny joke you can't scare me like that!" Then he says, "I'm not joking... you said you'd do it last Sunday...remember?" I think my answer mainly consisted of "CRAP!!!!" Luckily president Pister loves me in spite of leaving my brain at the apartment most of the time, so everything turned out okay haha. It ended up being a really good home evening where one of the recent converts even ended up crying over the lesson.... the spirit was sweet :-).
Okay, moving on from Monday night, let's move to Tuesday. Tuesday day we just visited some potentials and knocked for a while, nothing exciting, but that night was awesome. We went on divisions with some people in the branch, and got a lot done it was sweet! I went with a guy named Manuel Hernandez, and Rivera went with Hno. Pacheco and a guy named Angel Estrada (son of Lupe-G). Manuel and I went and taught a couple of lessons. The first of which was to Felipe who just got married a little while back and we talked about tithing and fast offerings. It went really well, but the coolest thing about it is that Manuel was really involved in the lesson. Normally when we take people to lessons from the branch, it's like they're just doing their time, but Manuel really has a testimony. He got baptized a little over a year and a half ago, and just went through the temple about six months ago... he's awesome! He, his wife, and his two little terrors-for-children are so so so so sweet. Anyways, I digress. The main point is that he has a strong testimony of the things he's changed in his own life, and he's not afraid to share it with people when we go out on visits. Jumping back to Felipe, he's just about ready to get baptized! We'll see how things go this week, and if all goes smoothly, he should be baptized this coming Sunday or the one after. SWEET!
Okay, so aside from that... hmmm.... what else happened. Oh! We had a sweet lesson with a lady that Rivera found while we were blitzing one day. We went back to visit and see if we could just set up an appointment for another day, and this lady named Teresa let us in and talk to her. We ended up talking to her about the doctrine of Christ and following the stuff they've been teaching us, and push came to shove, and well, she accepted a baptismal invitation... it's always a little awkward when people ask you something like this: "so, you're telling me that my baptism wasn't valid, and that yours is the only one that will count?"... good luck trying to tell someone that without making them feel like crap haha. Somehow though, we did it, and we have another lesson with her this wednesday that's coming up!
Speaking of sweet things that are coming up, we have a golden opportunity here in Woodburn. There's a little radio station that all of the paisas listen to here called PCUN, which is... ah crap I don't remember the full abbreviation, but it's a radio station that is specifically for the "campesinos" or people that work in the fields. Anyways, they have one hour a week that is open for different religions to come in and give a little "doctrinal discourse" and then answer questions if people call in... I think we might be doing it in the next couple of weeks.... muahahaha I'm so excited! Sorry about the evil laugh, I can just see myself getting into trouble for talking about the virgin mary or about all of the other blasphemous doctrines that people believe... I'll probably just teach the restoration and see how people react. Interesting though, right? Never thought I'd have an opportunity to be a radio host... especially not on my mission... in Spanish :-P.
So some of the cool things I've been able to do out here is read some really good books. I already finished the missionary library about three months ago, so I decided to read some other stuff. I found a couple of books that are super legit... I love them! The first one is called "Day of Defense" which is basically a courtroom setting attack on a pair of missionaries from all the other christian denominations in the which they all get completely smoked and the LDS religion comes out completely unscathed... if you've ever had doubts about the LDS religion, I would recommend that book. Also, another wonderful book which has helped me gain a greater testimony of the Book of Mormon as well as the Pearl of Great Price, is a book by Hugh Nibley, which is a collection of three books called "Lehi in the Desert", "The World of the Jaredites", and "There were Jaredites". It's basically the coolest thing that really explains what's significant and correct that correlates with ancient culture in the middle and far east... I promise it'll absolve the doubts you've got :-P. Read them!
Okay now that I've done my schpeal for those books, I've gotta try to remember what else happened this week. Oh! I had the opportunity to go back to Salem for a day on exchanges with elder Dawson. While we were there, we had a pretty good day. Not to say that we had appointments, because they ALL fell through, but that we had some good experiences. After having a bunch of appointments fall through, we knocked into a member by accident who directed us to a complex that I had been thinking about earlier in the day, so we decided to take that little bit of inspired advice and go knock there. Turns out we were following the spirit. Within three doors, we had found two families whom we were able to teach and the third one was a less active from the YSA ward, whom we ended up convincing to read, pray, and go to church the following sunday... I love batting 1000! It never happens, but that was the most amazing thing ever. Then afterwards, we took a trip to Del Taco because our dinner appointment canceled on us, and we both ate 12 tacos... oh man I thought I was gonna die haha.
On Sunday, we were pumped because we had a bunch of people that told us that they were gonna come to church. When 9:20 rolled around, NOBODY showed up! LAME! Oh well that's life for ya. Not only that, but then for Sacrament, instead of being able to sit with our investigators, we had to go translate! Ah I was so mad! Not only that, but after translating Spanish to English like I always do, I had to translate for a high counselor who did nothing but read his talk, which consisted of nothing but endless Neal A. Maxwell quotes sprinkled with scriptures with no references so we could find them, and a whole mess of English sayings and idioms that don't translate to spanish! Throw that all together with more quotes with C.S. Lewis, and that's what I had to deal with. Don't get me wrong. I love Neal A. Maxwell... he's my favorite apostle actually, and I love the scriptures, and even C.S. Lewis, but THEY ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO TRANSLATE INTO SPANISH!!!! It wouldn't have been so bad, but Luis Franco (the branch mission leader) usually translates english to spanish, after about a two minute pause during the talk unplugged the microphone and then said "here, you can do it". Bleh! President Pisters daughters and his wife were listening in on the headphones for kicks and giggles during his talk, and were dying laughing on the stand while they heard him talking and me trying to put it into Lamans terms haha... Translating is okay when you have the quotes and scriptures in front of you, but trying to do it by the seat of your pants like we had to do it, it just plain sucks haha.
Anyways, to make us feel better after church, we got to take a trip to a hospital to give a blessing to the son of a less active (wow that sounds like a bad word haha) who is about to have surgery. It was really interesting to go up there to where he was at, because I remember going up to Schriner's hospital with dad a few times, and Doernbecher is just right around the corner from there. I couldn't believe all the growth that's happened up there even since I was last there... holy crap! It's a beautiful campus... not gonna lie, makes me want to be a doctor even more just being there in the hospital :-).
Well, that's about the excitement for this week, but holy crap it sounds like you guys are having a blast there without me. I hope you have a great week I love you guys!
Love,
Elder Kurt Mooney
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