October Updates

OCT. 3

So my mission presidents wife has a facebook page for the mission and its Iowa Des Moines Mission Badger 2016-2019 if you to check it out. So this last week went by so fast and we met lots of people and the were all pretty nice this week. We think its because the weather is so nice out right now. It gets kinda chilly at night but its not to bad, but we'll see how I feel when winter hits :) But last week ended so great with conference, I loved it so much. It was super humbling and powerful to be a missionary and hear about missionary work so much and how we can improve. A lot of the talks focused on the more "simple" things of the gospel like prayer, reading the Book of Mormon, and the restoration but how we really need to know them and have a firm foundation. I feel they also emphasized the last days too and it really made me think if I am prepared for it and if I am preparing others for it. But I hope you all look back over the talks and pray about them. So this week is going to be pretty exciting. That Guatemalan family I told you about, the daughter, Nereyda, is going to be baptized this Saturday! She is slowly getting more and more excited and its amazing how much of what we teach her she retains. She is one of the smartest and sassiest 10 year olds I have ever met, but she is great! So she has been reading the Book of Mormon for about 4 weeks now and is in Mosiah 23....thats almost 200 pages in....she's great! Well hope you all have a great week!!!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

OCT. 10

That's so awesome that Sebas got to go to Conference and spend time with Nellie! Tell Bro B I love and miss him too! I'm so glad you were able to have a great Conference experience! That talk you liked was by Juan A Uceda and he actually came and spoke when I was in the MTC, but he is such a powerful speaker and I loved his talk too :) Well Nereyda's baptism went great and she was so happy after that she couldn't stop smiling. She did almost give me and Sister Hilliard a heart attack though, she came about 15 min late to her baptism on Sat and on Sun when she got confirmed, but it all worked out! We also met this really cool guy who can't read or write but definitely wants to learn more and he actually came to church on Sunday. We are also working with a small family but the parents aren't married so we have to get them married before they can be baptized so we will see how that goes. But this week was great and after church on Sunday we both got super tired like the whole week just hit us like a truck. We were able to finish our day off going knocking in a smaller town and when we got home we just about passed out! Haha but this week should be another great week and I hope your week goes great too!

And yes Iowa is starting to get a bit colder I keep making the joke that its like winter in Arizona right now and I just get looks of concern in reply and that winter will be hard for me. I just laugh and say it will be fun :) But Iv'e been able to find some warmer clothes left behind by other sisters but I'm about to start getting winter clothes pretty soon so thanks ill be sure to let you know if I need more but I shouldnt. We just have to plan a trip to a bigger city to get that stuff because Washington doesn't have very much.

We were super anxious before the baptism and I had been wanting to go in a cornfield so we went in one right outside the church building....cornfields are scary.

Sis Hilliard, Eluvia, Nereyda, ME, Sister Lane (Hilliard's comp when they first met them)

OCT. 17

Hey so this week calmed down a bit but it was still a great week! We found a couple more people to try to teach and they seem really cool. We got to go to an amish home this Saturday with a bunch of the senior missionaries and got fed a meal. And it was sooooo good! We ate so much we couldnt move after! Ill send pics of it next week so sorry I ran out of time. But I hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Less is more!

So this has been a crazy week. We had exchanges and zone conference and Women's Conference plus other things that came up so we didnt have as much time as we wanted to go out and try to find new investigators. But it's so cool how, even with less time out finding, we were able to find five new investigators. Thats more that we have found in the past three weeks combined. And this week is going to be just as crazy if not more so. We have a meeting in Iowa City to go to on Wednesday, District meeting on Thursday, and then General Conference. But I am so excited for General Conference this  weekend, I'm pretty sure this is the most excited I've ever been for it. It basically like the super bowl for missionaries. One of the members invited us to come watch the Saturday morning session with them and they always make tamales for the first session of conference. So Im sure you can try to guess how much more excited I am for conference. I don't know if their tamales will be as good as ours but i'll let you know ;) Anyways I hope you all have a great week! LOVE YOU!

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Sister Mora

Busy busy busy!

Hey! I'm glad to hear that you guys have been busy and trust me I have been too. We have been talking to lots of people and have had lots of meetings. This week we have zone conference, exchanges, and woman's conference this weekend so we will be running around quite a bit but I'm excited. The people here are very firm in their beliefs but most are willing to hear us out. We actually got two new investigators this week and they are both pretty cool. We met Edgar at the beginning of this week and he is pretty awesome. He is a correctional officer at the jail here (which me and my companion didn't know they even had one) but he had so many good questions and we could tell he just really wanted to find the truth. He was super open to what we had to say and wants to learn more so we are excited to go back and talk to him more. Then we met Brittany later in the week and she and her husband have been looking for a church and she has family members who are members so she is very interested to learn more. But it has been cool to see how the Lord has prepared the people we meet and I'm glad we were able to find them.

I dont think I need anything special from home right now but I'll look forward to getting the package :) I hope Sebas has fun at homecoming! And I think I know who Brinley is. Thats cool to hear what everyone else is doing too and tell Sebas he better be nice to my baby! ;) Love you all!

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Sister Mora

Thats the view out our window. 

That was what my desk normally looks like when I study. 

And me and my companion did a face mask after a long day :)

Mission Call Opening

Mission Photoshoot!

Fake Addresses and the Gospel

HEY! 

This week has been kinda crazy and weird. We mainly tract all day and this week people were just mean but it didn't bother us. We haven't been able to meet with any of our investigators and we are pretty sure one guy gave us a fake address. But we were also able to knock and talk to about 63 people this week. One of the recent converts (the Helmicks) we have been meeting with were baptized before me and Sister Hilliard got here. They have been struggling with stopping smoking and a few other things which should have been dealt with before they were baptized and we feel they don't really have a good understanding of the gospel to begin with. To add to it the dad (James) had been having medical problems. So we have been meeting with them a bit and its hard to teach them sometimes but the last lesson we had yesterday with them went actually really well. We read 2 Nephi 31 with them which is a very straight forward and kinda bold chapter and they seemed to understand it. We asked before we left what they had questions about or what they wanted to learn more about and they said they want to learn more about Joseph Smith. They said they dont doubt he is a prophet, but they just want to learn more. Hearing them want that makes me feel like we are doing something right as missionaries and we are helping them to understand the gospel better. So that was a good end to our week. I hope you have a great week! LOVE YOU!

And do you think you can send me some pictures of our family or any other pictures you want to send :)  here is some pictures of me and my mission president and his wife and some of me and my companion
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Sister Mora

Washington

Hey!!

So my first area of my mission is a small town called Washington. And I mean a small town. We live in an apartment in the town square and its pretty cool. The area we cover is quite large but it is full even smaller towns. There is one called Kalona and it is surrounded by an Amish community. We went to an Amish bakery my second day here and I had some of the best bread I have ever eaten. The people here are different but in a good way. A lot of them are quite religious and not too open to hear our message but we have found a few willing people to listen to us. We knock on doors a lot and I had my first door closed on me just the other day and me and my companion just laughed. Oh ya and her name is Sister Hilliard. She is pretty cool and down to earth so we get along very well. We are the only sisters in our zone and there are three other companionships in our zone. They all seem super nice so I'm excited to serve with them. Our church building is the smallest church building I have ever been in but its very nice. We have a branch and not a ward and the people are very nice and welcoming. Right before transfers, Sister Hilliard and her previous companion found a  sister from Guatemala who has lived in Washington for about a month or two and has been looking for the church because she is a member. She can only speak Spanish though and she has two kid, one who is ten and wants to be baptized, who do speak English. So I have been able to help a bit with that but it has been difficult because I do not speak Spanish very well. The Spanish elders helped us out one day but I have been working on my Spanish as well. I thought that was something neat that you all would want to know. But all is going well and I hope you guys are doing well too. Love you all!!!

Almost done at the MTC!

Hey! Everything has been going great. It's crazy how much Ive been able to see myself learn and grow in just a couple weeks. So we got out flight plans this week and we leave for Iowa on Wednesday the 31st. We have to leave the MTC at 2:30 in the morning so that will be fun. But our flight leaves Salt Lake at 6:01 and we land in Minneapolis at 9:25 and hop back on another flight that leaves at 10:11am. We land in Des Moines at 11:25am and im super excited. So we finished our lessons with Linda and Jaqui and were able to commit them to baptism :) My companion and I have gotten a lot better at switching back and forth and trying to let the Spirit teach rather than us and it has gone really well. We had an amazing devotional last night from Juan A Uceda of the seventy and he spoke with so much power. He was a convert so he talked to us from the perspective of an investigator and it was really cool. He said how when he first read the Book of Mormon "I found the book had something strange" and he described it as magic. He also said he experienced three things; a strange and different peace he had never felt before, true joy, and an understanding that was like a light had been turned on his mind. He explained how all investigators deserve to experience these same things. I feel honored that I have been called to help people feel this and I just hope i dont let them or the Lord down.I hope I do all I can with all my heart, might, mind, and strength to fulfill the missionary purpose to help others come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. I love you all!

Sister Mora

1st full week

It has been so amazing here and im pretty sure I got put in the best district. I actually saw Grant Porter and Drake Heywood plus LJs old companion actually helped teach my class one day. He said Lj was awesome except that he wanted to run so much :'D But ya i know the boys are constantly hungry so good luck with that. Oh ya and I forgot to send the ward the stuff for my plaque but the scripture i want on it is D&C 43:15-16 and you can just pick a good picture from the ones olivia took. But all the lessons have been super good and the devotionals have been really good and we had Brother David Judd talk to us on Sunday and Sister Oscarson, the young womans president of the church. I felt the spirit so strongly and in both i was reminded that the Lord has a very specific mission planned for me. Me and my companion have started teaching two people here, Jaqui and Linda. Jaqui is the sweetest old lady and she knew all she needed was the church and she wants to be baptized so we are so excited for her. Linda is a harder nut to crack but we love her just the same and we are trying to warm up to her better. Also we got called to be Sister Training Leaders but wont actually actually be doing anything until the last week we are here. But tell everyone I love them tons! And sorry ill send pictures next week I accidently left my stuff in our room :)

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Sister Mora

HEY!!!

Hey Mom my first day was pretty cool and not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. So I came into the MTC with 800 other missionaries so it was kinda crazy. My companions name is Sis Clark and she is super nice and we get along well. Sorry I cant say more but I only had a few minutes and I type slow :) Love you and tell everyone else i Love them too!!

Sister Mora