Halfway...through the MTC

"Mismo Martes" 

 Alright! Halfway through the MTC already.  Time is flying. Elder Powell and I decided to get matching ties this week.  Pretty awesome I know.  We do what's called "Mismo Martes."  We made it up.  In English it means same Tuesdays, or matching Tuesdays.  doesn't really have the same ring to it in English, but it was legit.

 Elder Powell signing the back of my tie.  I signed his too.  Now our matching ties will always be super special and a cool memory. Whaddup!

 Goodie box to celebrate half way through the MTC.  Thanks family!

Celebrating MTC style.  Doesn't get much better than this!

"Till We Meet Again"

 We lost another district this week. It included Elder Kenney and Elder May, our first Zone leaders.  It's tradition when a district in our zone leaves to sing a stirring rendition of "Para Siempre Dios Este Con Vos:, or "Till We Meet Again".  All of the Elders in the circle are in the district leaving.  Less than 3 weeks now and that will be me....

Lost and Found

 As people leave, they often leave little trinkets behind.  Elder Powell and I have been good at collecting the coolest ones...pictures. And now our wall is completely decorated. It's awesome and I think I am going to take some of those pictures with me when I leave.

 This week was so fast. I don't even remember what happened. It's like Elder May told us, they all start molding together and turning into a blur. That was so hard to imagine when he told me that my first day here. And every single I did was so seared into my mind.

Good news with Ian this week. We have taught him 2 additional times since he last said he didn't really want to hear from us anymore. When we go in there we usually have a completely different lesson plan than we end up teaching. Well, not completely different, but still different enough that we would not have said the things we did unless the Spirit had told us too. Like this week I felt I needed to ask him a question that is a hard one to ask. If I hadn't been prompted to, I don't think I could have ever asked him, "are you feeling overwhelmed as a father?" That is a pretty awkward question, but the Spirit is always right and that is exactly what he needed to hear. All of our visits with him have been 10-15 minutes, so we have had a really hard time making too much progress with him. However, he's starting to get fired up. He has kept out first commitment of reading 2Nephi2 (which we hadn't planned on telling him to read, bu we felt he should read it). And he read it because he wanted to, not because we told him too. That's what it's all about, getting the investigator to WANT to do all of these things. They have to have the desire to read the BOM every day. They have to have the desire to go to church 3 hours every Sunday. All of these things bring so many blessings and so much happiness to all of our lives. I think sometimes as life long members we forget that. Sometimes we're like "ugh, 2 more hours of church. I really don't want to be here today," or "I guess I should read my scriptures today." Even doing it because you SHOULD do it makes you miss out on lots of blessings. We SHOULD be pumped up because of these opportunities. If we're not psyched out about doing these things, how are we going to get investigators psyched out?

Antonio our other investigator, he's loving the gospel. He is only 19 years old and he is already supporting his whole family of 7, who are all in Mexico. He is super stressed out. He told us in our very first lesson how sad and tired he always is. I can already see how what the Spirit is teaching him is improving his life. We helped him to realize that prayer is a two way communication between him and God. He really liked that God can talk back to him. I know he has already received lots of answers to his prayers, and his prayers are now so much more sincere. When we taught him about baptism he told us he was already baptized when he was a baby in the Catholic church. We read the scripture from Moroni8:8 and 8:11. He just sat there for a minute. Then he's like, "yeah... that totally makes sense. Babies have no sins. They can't do anything wrong." Then he asked if we were sure it's ok if he gets baptized again. We said of course! We have a date for his baptism set for the 1st of July. I didn't remember how to say June in Spanish, so July was the earliest we could get him in the agua.

Sebastiana is our 3rd investigator. We challenged her to be baptized for a second time on Wednesday. The first time she didn't give us a yes, but this time she really wanted to. She's only 15 years old, so she has to get permission from her mom first. When we met her, she had no purpose in her life. She had few friends, and seemed bored and sad in our lessons. We finally got her to pray in our 3rd lesson with here this week, and she went to church last weekend! Last visit we challenged her to go to a YW activity. She said she liked the kids her age at church, and we think some ward fellowshipping will really make her even more excited about joining. Plus, she really needs some friends, she's a lonely person and she needs that.

I don't know if I told you, but our first week here we had Russell M Nelson come talk to us. Whoops, sorry if that slipped my mind. No more quorum of the 12 yet, but the 70 are always so good. People complain, but they always still bring tears to my eyes. The Spirit is always so strong here; it's amazing. Last Sunday (Sundays are the bomb btw) after our devotional (after devotionals on Sundays we get to watch a movie for an hour. Love it. On Tuesdays after devotionals we have a district testimony meeting) we watched The Testament en espanol. I think that's what it's called? The one in the Americas where Jesus comes at the end and Joseph Smith's dad plays one of the guys? We watched it in Spanish. The Spirit is the universal language for real. We were all bawling. so good. Yesterday we had TRC for the second time. The spirit was so strong there too. We gave commitments to both of the members we talked with. It sounds funny, but members need commitments too. We'll probably never see them again, but I felt that they both really wanted to do what we asked them to. One of the ladies we talked with was 54. Elder Powell and I were able to share 2 scriptures with her we weren't planning on talking about at all. But they were perfect for her. The spirit was so strong in our only 20 minute long visit she started crying. I know she heard from us exactly what she needed to hear that day.

 I love the letters. Keep them coming. So this week and last I also got letters from lots of my friends: Garrett, Matt, Mike, (last of the goon squad), Graham, Emily, Lauren, and Naomi sent me a letter and postcard with some cool pictures all the way from Costa Rica. She wrote all in Spanish of course. It was great. Tell everyone thanks for the letters, and that they can use dear elder anytime. It's free, fast, and easy. Les quiero!

Con amor, Elder Moffitt