Last week MTC, 1st week Abilene

Elder Moffitt and Elder Bourne

Elder Moffitt went out to Utah to BYU with his 3 best friends from high school.  Elder Moffitt was the first of the 4 to enter the MTC, Elder Bourne was the 2nd.  They crossed paths for about 4 days in the MTC  but actually ran into each other several times and got to have a quick catch up.

Last night in the MTC

This is our last night at the MTC where our whole zone sang "God be with you 'till we meet again" in Spanish of course.

Me sitting on my bed at a nice and early 3am on the day of 
departure for the mission field 6-17-2013

That Monday was one loooooong day I'll tell you that. Our flight out of Salt Lake City got delayed for an hour and a half. Elder Powell and I said it must be for a reason, so we went ahead and started talking to people in the airport. We found two people, Linda and Steve who we ended up talking to for like 20 minutes. We kind of did a mini Plan of Salvation lesson. They were on their way home to London, Just southeast of it actually, where I think Matt's mission should cover. If so, wouldn't it be awesome if he baptized Steve? Steve was really interested in what we told him. He said that he was not a religious person, but after we had talked he said he could see himself being one. We got his information, and hopefully the missionaries there will be in contact with him soon.

Elder Powell and Elder Moffitt outside the Lubbock, TX airport

Flying into Lubbock was crazy. I was a little frightened. You can see nothing but farms, and farms, and then some more farms. I was thinking the whole time, "Oh my gosh, I am seriously going to the middle of nowhere?." Once we got off the plane and drove to the city it turned out to be pretty big. Also, where I am right now is one of the "big" cities in our mission. I sent you a map of the mission. It is divided into zones and areas as you can see. I am in the Abilene (dark green) zone. I am in the Abilene 2nd area. Elder King and I cover the Abilene 2nd ward, and the Spanish branch in the city also.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were all super long days. Monday we didn't get to the church in Lubbock until 6. Tuesday, the people heading North took the transfer bus to their areas, so that's when I said goodbye to Elder Powell. The rest of us stayed in Lubbock for the day and did some good ol' door knocking. When we were knocking we actually found a really cool lady. Her name was Andrea. She said she had met with the missionaries a few years before (only one visit) when she was going through a really hard time. They prayed with her and she said she really felt the spirit and received the comfort she needed. She said she hadn't seen them again until we knocked into her that night. She said that she probably wouldn't have been able meet with them during the intermission because of problems with her daughter. But those were over, and she said, her exact words "that you coming right now is like a sign from God." We definitely got here name and number, and the missionaries in Lubbock are going back to see her. Knocking doors in Lubbock was quite interesting. 99% of the doors I knocked on either had a cross, picture of Jesus, or some Christian statue in the window. Ok, I don't think that that was completely accurate. It was probably 100%. Seriously, everyone there is Christian. Here in Abilene it's not quite that religious, but still very  very  religious. Much different than Virginia where so many people didn't care about God at all.

The second picture is me putting my bike together. I did it all by myself. There is only one problem. During shipping, one of the brakes broke. The other one is super loose, and I'm not sure how to fix that yet.

It's nice to not be sleeping with 3 other people anymore, especially when one of them snores so loud there is absolutely no way to go to sleep unless you had earplugs. 

I almost forgot! Elder Powell is getting sent up into the Panhandle region of the mission. It's the gray area on the map; it's the really big one that starts with a D. I don't remember the name exactly. A little bit about Abilene. It's pretty decent sized. As you can probably tell since it's one of the smaller areas in the mission. However, Elder King and I still have a car. It is especially useful since we are authorized to drive out of our area (and need to often) to meet with all the Spanish speakers. The Spanish area is on the other side of town, so we spend a good couple hours up there ever day. But it is really hard to run into Spanish people. Basically the only really good way to do it is through other Spanish speakers. There is an interesting law in Abilene about proselyting... We can't do it after 7. So we try to schedule our appointments for later in the day, because if you don't have a set appointment, you can't knock on anyone's door. We have also done some service during this time. 

On Wednesday, I took the bus from Lubbock (we left and 9 and arrived and 5) down to Abilene. It would have only been about a 2 and a half or so hour drive if we had driven straight there. But the transfer bus does kind of a little loop to drop everyone off in all their respective zones, so it was a long trip. On the way I was able to see some pretty neat country side. I don't know if you can tell in the first picture, but there was literally a line in the air where you could see the beginning of the dust storm. And the second picture is just a join load of windmills. 

Elder Moffitt and Elder King

Meet Elder King! He is from Lindon, Utah, and actually knew Braden! Pretty small world huh? He's only 18, but his birthday is this coming Sunday. He has only been out in the field for 3 months. It takes 3 months for a missionary to officially be done with his training. He went straight from being trained to being a trainer. Pretty crazy for him. But we're doing ok. He's a great missionary. Our Spanish is a little fun at times, since we're both still learning, but he is much better than I am. Also, most of our lessons are in English right now since we are covering an English ward too. The Spanish branch only had 4 people last Sunday 9, yesterday.  I guess 2 of them were less actives, 1 was an investigator, and 1 was baptized less than a month ago, 1 that can only speak Spanish. All the other 20 or so people in the branch speak English fluently, and are just there to help the branch start out. Yeah, the branch was started like 3 weeks ago. So exciting times here in Abilene. 

My first full day here in Abilene was Thursday  On Thursday I found out that contrary to my belief in the MTC, I know exactly no Spanish at all. We had one Spanish lesson that night, and my mind was blown. Both the parents, Martha and Nicolas don't speak English at all. But their kids Trine, Jackie, and Nadia are fluent in both. When Nicolas started talking to me super  fast every word of Spanish I had ever learned I forgot and I understood nothing. Saturday, we visited with Jovita, a less active hispanic woman (who came to church this Sunday!). She spoke much slower and after much prayer for the gift of tongues I was able to understand most of what she said. Either way, the language is going to take a while, but that is ok. Somehow, it's already been almost an hour, and I still need to e-mail the mission president.

I love you family!

MTC week 5

The BYU pen Ryan Smith gave me my senior year in High School finally died. 
But it did well, along with a final note it penned.

Just hangin' around, with nothin' to do!

District Picture

All the Elders from my district

Separated from my companion....bad, bad, bad!

Last day of gym at the MTC.  We had to play volleyball!

I can hardly believe it. 3 more days. That's it. I did indeed receive my travel plans this week. I report to the travel office at 4:30 on Monday morning.  Can't wait. big day. huge.

Our Tuesday devotional was given by Melvyn B Arnold from the presidency of the 70. It was good. One of my favorite things he talked about was all of us having a big book of life. Everything we do is recorded in it. Wow, pretty heavy. Lots of bad stuff in that book right? Well, then he said through the atonement, all those sinful pages can be deleted, ripped out. It was just really powerful to me. Before the devotional started I was looking around the Marriott center and saw right behind us some Hispanic Hermanas who had Spanish nametags on. I started talking to them in Spanish. They were fluent, only here for 2 weeks. Elder Powell, Elder Streadbeck and I ended up talking to them for like half an hour or more before the devotional started. 90% in Spanish. It was pretty exciting. One of them (ironically the white one) talked to us super super fast. I had a really hard time understanding what she was saying. But one of the other Hermanas told us (She was from Texas btw) that most Mexicans like to talk slower than other Spanish countries. From what she said, there should be no problems finding Spanish speakers in Texas. She said usually lots of the Hispanics speak English, but many feel uncomfortable speaking English if they do. Interesting.

If you ever want your mind blown, please watch Elder Bednar's "Character of Christ." It was a devotional given at the MTC a couple years ago, and it was fantastic. It outlined any missionaries purpose, and really the purpose on anyone who isn't a full time missionary too. It was very humbling, funny, powerful, and heart-changing for me. One of the things that he said that stood out to me was when he told the missionaries, "Who cares what you want? Get over yourself." He went on to say how the mission isn't for ourselves in any way. It is all the Lord's time in the service of others. He said that a missionary should be their own strongest convert after their mission, but if that is their goal, then they can NEVER accomplish it. NEVER. Just watch it. It's too good. Also, I never got to see this whole talk by Elder Holland, but if you get the chance to watch "The Miracle of a Mission" (I think?) definitely do, because from what I saw it is so so good.

Well, Yesterday was our last lesson with Antonio. Our lesson on Saturday was my favorite yet. We decided to go and do a church tour. We took him to the rooms for Sunday school and priesthood, telling him how there were so many people of his age there to help him. I told him how I thought of priesthood groups as a brotherhood. It's all just a big support group with people who've gone through similar problems. We asked him what he thought Sunday school was. He's a smart guy. He told us probably some place where you do lots of learning. Yeah, good job Antonio. What do you do in school? Well... you ask questions. You come prepared. etc etc. Then he said is there homework. I said kind of. We challenged him to bring a question he had and ask it during Sunday School. Then we went to the Sacrament room. We had talked about baptism a couple lessons earlier. Then we explained that the Santa Cena was just a renewal of your promised made during baptism and confirmation. He said, so it's like getting baptized every week? Exacto. Pretty cool huh Antonio? You can come and feel the cleanness of baptism and receive renewed guidance and comfort from the Holy Ghost every week. He really was excited about that. Then we ended with Elder Powell and I singing a couple verses of "Mas Cerca Dios a Ti" and the spirit was burning. It was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. We had him say a closing prayer right there in the chapel, then we sat for a couple minutes to just feel the spirit and listen. It was great. Then when he went to church he was ready. He understood what was going on. It's so essential to get that understanding and preparedness. Without out it, church could be a scary, or much less meaningful experience. He loved church though.

After we finished Hermano Snyder (our teacher who was portraying Antonio) came up to us and said, "see the difference between teaching the doctrine and having him experience it?" Every doctrine in the church is meant to be easy. It's meant to be helpful. This last week we learned that if teaching a poor family, don't save the Law of tithing for last. To a couple living together not married, the law of chastity shouldn't be a last minute lesson at the end hoping they can get past it. It's all a blessing. It's just how it is presented and if the Spirit is there. Then they can truly understand that all of these laws are blessings for us. 

Well, I gotta go. I Love you so much family! Be strong. Pray for missionary opportunities, and I promise you they will immediately arise :) Good luck. I expect baptisms from you too. And that's not a joke. Love you.

Love, Elder Moffitt