Sunday, August 3, 2014

Charity, Study, Courage

I'm a little behind in posting so here is a little catch up....

Buenas!! 7-9-14

It's always so great to hear about your week. I'm sorry that EFY didn't really go as planned. :/ but I am glad that Em and T were able to still have a great time at the property. :) I can't wait to see it with all the new changes! It looks great! (Grandma sent me some pictures)

I would go through and comment on everything, but I don't have as much time today. We just barely got to the church. So here is the deal with transfers: president completely changed everything so now we get an email on Sunday mornings telling us if we are leaving, staying, or training. Also, departing missionaries go to Tampa on Monday, have dinner and leave home on Tuesdays. New missionaries come in on Tuesdays and have training all day Wednesdays. Then transfer meeting is on Thursday. Super weird, but it'll be fun. So we got an email yesterday morning with everybody's info on it. It said that Elder Snell, Elder Laguna and I will all be leaving... So we told the whole ward on Sunday and we started packing and cleaning and everything. Then today we got a couple phone calls. Elder Laguna found out he will be in a full bike area, but that's all that he knows. And I found out that I am staying... Haha random, right? So now I am staying and receiving a new companion. So that will be fun. :) haha I'm just glad I don't have to pack. :P so that is the deal with transfers.

Alright, so Fourth of July was pretty fun. We didn't do much, but our ward had a huge BBQ and fireworks show on Thursday night. They have it every year and this year was the most people ever. Everybody invites anybody they can. Haha it was super awesome. It was exhausting going around and talking to everybody we didn't know, but it was good. :) then on Friday we had another BBQ with the ward mission leader and his entire family. It was good. Haha was still a normal day, we just got fed. :P haha

Alright, so, as usual, the scripture and spiritual experience are going to be combined. The scripture is Moroni 7: 45- 48. Yes, 45 is scripture mastery. Okay, so yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and this one guy got up and talked about while he was at the MTC they had a Q&A with an apostle (I don't remember which one). Anyways, one of the missionaries asked something along the lines of, "after all of the ordinances and everything we have to do, what basically is the key to get into the celestial kingdom?" Pretty good question right? Well, here is the answer: "Oh, that's an easy question. Charity. That is what you will need." I thought that was an interesting answer. Why charity? What is charity? Well, we know it is the pure love of Christ. But what does that mean? It is pure. Unshaken. Unbroken. Undying. What do you think of when you think of charity? Probably something along the lines of service or helping someone in need? Maybe just listening to someone or showing someone that you care. I think those are definitely charitable things, but charity is much deeper than that. It is more than just acting and doing something for someone. It is a part of who you are. You stop focusing on what people need right now and you start focusing on what they need eternally. You have a sincere desire to help them find out who they really are. You see them as they are, children of God. You see their potential and you have a desire to left them to that potential. Charity does not always focus on other people. We need to have charity with ourselves as well. We cannot belittle or degrade ourselves when we make mistakes. Sometimes it is hard. We know what God wants of us and when we mess up, we bring ourselves down. But we need to see ourselves as God sees us. Do you know that you are a child of God? Do you feel it? If not, then find out. Go ask. You will receive an answer. And once you know who you truly are, then go help someone find out who they are. Does your family know who they are? Do your friends know? Do the people around you know that they are each a child of a glorious and all powerful God who loves them? If not, help them find out. Charity is something we all need and we can only obtain it from God. Do as verse 48 says and pray with all the energy of heart. He will give it to you! 

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week! Stay safe and be happy!! Read your scriptures and pray! I love you!

Love,

Elder Moyes

7-14-14
Sounds like missionary work over there is really starting to pick up. :) I'm glad that President Hutchison is so on top of that. That's a super cool story about what the mission president did. President Cusick did a similar thing too. Haha that's awesome. 

Well, it's been a long week. I got a new companion and we are the only missionaries in the whole ward, and we are no longer full car, so that makes no sense. Haha we get more work and a bigger area and they put us on bikes. So now we won't get to see most of our area, but that's okay, I suppose. I don't mind biking, it just upsets me that we can't go see anybody down south. Also, they made us move back to Miami Blvd. So here is my new address:
19124 Miami Blvd
Fort Meyers, Florida, 33967
It's the same one I used to live in when I first got to Bonita.

My new comp is Elder Clark. He came out at the same time as me. Yeah, we are just one area now. We teach both Spanish and English still. 

Okay, so along with the scripture this week I am including a quote. The scripture is in the quote. So here it is:
“When I say ‘study,’ I mean something more than reading. It is a good thing sometimes to read a book of scripture within a set period of time to get an overall sense of its message, but for conversion, you should care more about the amount of time you spend in the scriptures than about the amount you read in that time. I see you sometimes reading a few verses, stopping to ponder them, carefully reading the verses again, and as you think about what they mean, praying for understanding, asking questions in your mind, waiting for spiritual impressions, and writing down the impressions and insights that come so you can remember and learn more. Studying in this way, you may not read a lot of chapters or verses in a half hour, but you will be giving place in your heart for the word of God, and He will be speaking to you. Remember Alma’s description of what it feels like: ‘It beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me’ [Alma 32:28]” (“When Thou Art Converted,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2004, 11–12). - Elder D. Todd Christofferson. I really like that quote. It puts studying into perspective and shows us that reading isn't the only thing that we need to do. It is a lot harder for people to study than to just read, but we get so much more out of it when we sit down and truly study the scriptures. We can receive answers to all of our questions because when we study, we not only get what the words are saying, but we open ourselves to feeling the guidance and promptings of the Holy Ghost. That is where we receive our answers.

I love you all!! I hope that you all have a wonderful week!! Stay safe and have fun!!

Love,
Elder Moyes

7-21-14
Buenas!!

I am very glad that you are able to get to girls camp, Mom! But I hope that things start getting better with your leg. Hopefully it heals faster. :) haha just stay safe and don't try to over exert yourself like you usually do when you are hurt. :) just be careful and have fun. :) 

It seems like everybody has been having a pretty busy week with soccer and training and getting ready for girls camp. It's always weird going from one super busy week to one that's not so busy. But it's good. :) I hope you all have a great week. 

I really love all the quotes. :) I will save those. Haha thank you. :) quotes are always amazing. :) and we are on car share now, so we get the car every other week. So that's nice at least. We can actually get down south some of the time, but even still we barely go down there. It kinda sucks to be honest. But it's okay. We are working hard, things are just kind of going slow. And yeah, I have FB back now so I can use it. I don't get on much, but I am allowed to now.

Alright, so as far as the spiritual experience goes, we took one of the recent converts out to help us with some lessons. His name is Frank and he is 17. He is the only member in his family. Well, all of the lessons that we had planned fell through... He was with us for just over 2 hours when we finally just took him back home. We got there and he brought us in and turned the tv off and told his siblings that we were having a lesson. He just basically taught the whole thing. He testified of the Book of Mormon and how much he loves them and how he wants them to be a happy family. It was awesome!! His sister is going to come to church next week. It was pretty cool. He has been a member for about 7 months now, so that was awesome! Hopefully we will be able to continue to teach them.

The scripture this week is going to be Acts 5: 41-42. The background is that Peter and John were preaching in the name of Jesus Christ and this council did not want them to do that, so they threatened them, imprisoned them, and now they have beaten them and warned them to not preach anymore. I love verse 41. Peter and John were REJOICING that they had the opportunity to be beaten on behalf of The Lord. They had the courage to stand up for what they believed in. They were literally beaten, and yet, sometimes we are afraid to declare our beliefs because we might have a friend who thinks a little less of us. Really? Are we not taught that we must fear God and not men? Wouldn't you rather offend some random person here, than offend God? After this life that person will understand anyways! So open your mouth! There are people everywhere who need to hear the gospel. We are not here to maintain this work, we are here to hasten it. This work is the single most important work on the face of this planet. There is absolutely nothing, I repeat nothing, that is more important than this work. I hope that all of you see that. You are right in the middle of all of this and I don't want you to miss out! I love each of you and want you to receive and see the wonderful blessings and miracles that come with being a part of this amazing work!

I hope that you each have a wonderful and safe week!! Keep smiling and have fun!! I love you all!!

Love,
Elder Moyes


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