MTC week 5

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Moffitt
I asked for ties and I got ties!

MTC week 4

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Coats for the matching goodie bags! So cute!

I'll be getting plenty of this soon in Texas!

Weekly service....spraying down the showers with a super power hose!

Just a little bit of a line for our devotional. With like 4 thousand missionaries that 
need to get packed into the gym it's going to be a looooong line.

Getting trained to be a HOST for new missionaries.  Dad, remember that missionary that picked me up from the curb? He then took me around to get my books, name tag, dropped my bags off at the living quarters, them took me to the classroom.  Well, that's what I got to do this week on Wednesday.  Although unlike my host who was a complete dork and spoke Portuguese to me the whole time I actually told my missionaries what was going on.  I was like dude? What are you doing? I am a new missionary, not even going Portuguese speaking? Do you want to leave the missionary with no idea what is going on?

We both got to host 4 different missionaries in.  By the way, we just ushered in a record setting group of missionaries.  We were told by the man in charge that 917 missionaries came into the Provo MTC on Wednesday.  Can you believe that? The previous record was like 100 less than that.  And all the subsequent weeks this summer they said will be in the 800's, or 700's.  it's just that huge rush of Utah 18 year old boys who all graduated last week that are starting to show up.

Waiting in line with one my new missionaries luggage, 
can't believe that it was me just 4 short weeks ago!

 As I'm sure you got a little sense  from the pictures, this was a crazy week. Our zone lost another district. We had known these missionaries for 4 weeks, so yeah they were pretty awesome. Only 2 Elders and 5 Sisters in their district. Pretty interesting dynamic. But then a couple days later  we got another district. This one has 6 Elders and 6 Sisters. That's a biiiig district, just as big as mine. All I can say about their district is I'm glad 2 of those hermanas aren't in my district. Attractive women are only a curse at the MTC. Fact. And unfortunately, the MTC seems to have the highest concentration of attractive women I have yet found anywhere in my life. That new announcement by President Monson is doing work.

This week Elder Powell and I got a boatload of new investigators. So you already know about Ian, Sebastiana, and Antonio. Btw, our last lesson with Antonio went so well. We ended up talking about church for half the lesson, which we weren't planning on doing, but it worked our perfectly. The Spirit was guiding. He hates his job, but he told us he needs the money- especially since he's supporting his whole family in Mexico. Last lesson we instilled in him a desire to go to church. The only problem is, it wasn't a big enough desire to skip work to go. He told us if he skipped on Sunday he would be fired. We told him about the guy in the ward who helps people find better jobs, and how God will take care of his children especially if they're making sacrifices to come unto him. He asked us if he was guaranteed to get a new better job, because he would be risking it all if he went to church. I said I don't know. I told him we could pray about it. And we did. Right there. He said the prayer. Then afterward we sat there for a minute. Then he looked up at us and said I want to go to church this Sunday. He is so psyched for those blessings, and I know he'll get them.

Anyway, our new investigators are Viviana, Amanda, and Jacqueline. This week we started teaching other missionaries who are  acting as investigators (just people they know well from home). Amanda and Jacqueline and both portrayed by a couple Hermanas from our district. Jacqueline is an inactive member. I felt the Spirit so strongly during our lesson. Everything was going so well. We shared personal stories, testimonies and scriptures. She told us what she wanted in life, and we told her EXACTLY how she could get all of those things through different gospel principles. But in the end she wouldn't commit to anything , and I feel like we didn't make much progress at all. It's sad, but she has no desire to change her life. She has the tools right in front of her. We laid them all out. Why wouldn't someone want to change their life from a mediocre, or even sad life, to a happy joyful existence in just a few simple steps, especially after I KNOW they felt the Spirit so strongly telling them to do those things.

Speaking of people who don't seem to understand what's going on in their life I have been able to see quite a few missionaries like that this week. I feel like it's more obvious with the sisters. There are a few sisters who just always insist on wearing the most border line clothes possible here. Especially the yoga pants. It's against the rules, and who are you trying to impress? Oh, and this one Elder this week I just got so peeved at. He was wearing slacks that were like skinny pants slacks. I don't even know how to describe them. Then he was wearing a white dress t-shirt like 3 sizes too small. I was like dude, did you come here to be a missionary or an Abercrombie model? because  I'm not sure right now. Other Elders without purpose are easy to spot by their cocky attitudes and disrespect for their calling. Like last week Elder Powell and I saw 2 Elders waiting to trip their companion when he came out of the bathroom. Come on. Would a representative of Jesus Christ (You have his name on your chest 24-7 just so you know buddies) be doing that?

And I just went to go and try and put my laundry in. And they were all full. I have already been in the Laundry room 40 minutes, but I didn't put my laundry in because I was waiting until 7:00 our designated time to do laundry. Now they're all full. Sometimes exact obedience can be a little frustrating, especially when hardly anyone else is doing it except me and my companion. Many are called, but few are chosen right? Interesting. I just thought of that phrase in a different way. I always thought chosen as in a few were picked out of the many that were called. Now i'm thinking chosen as in unique, special, chosen as in they're high above the rest. Like the chosen one type thing if that makes sense?

This week in TRC I was split up from my companion. I went to teach in a trifecta with Elder Romero and Elder Leonard. It was supposed to be a 40 minute lesson on how you can better receive revelation through the Book of Mormon. This was their plan: let's all share are favorite scripture! Well, then what? Oh, we'll just see where it goes from there. Ok, that should get us five minutes into the lesson before things get really awkward. Seriously, I think Elder Powell and I (Trying not to be prideful here) are pretty good at using our planning time. We get 30 minutes every night to plan. Some missionaries finish after 15 minutes, and we often go a little over. If the Lord give you 30 minutes to plan, you better use 30 minutes to plan. So anyway, back to our lesson with a person from the outside world in TRC. Elder Powell and I taught her last week by chance, so I got to catch up with our commitment we gave her to pray kneeling at least twice a day. Morning and Night. She said that the kneeling down has helped her prayers to become more focused and meaningful. This time I wanted to extend another challenge and I was inspired with exactly what to say. I asked her how her scripture reading was going. She said she read every day and usually prayed before she started her study. I asked her if she ever prayed DURING her study. She said no. Then I reminded her that prayer is a TWO WAY communication with God right? Well, yeah. So then I asked her what she thought she should do to receive more revelation and those answers she wanted (because earlier she had told us how she thinks God usually answers prayers, but she still has some questions she wants answers to)? She smiled, and said pray during scripture study. If you can get the investigator to teach themselves the lessons and the doctrine then you win. If the Spirit and your testimony are there after they answer their own questions, the desire is their own. They want to do what you're telling them. It's amazing.

Well, Time is up for me today. I love you family! Oh, and if you want to send me something. Then you should take like 50 of my dollars and go to Unique or something and buy as many cheap ties as possible. I don't have paisley ties, and ugly ties are now like the fashion too. I'm sure you can find plenty of cheap ugly ties at a thrift store. I love ties. I need them. It's all I can change about my attire ya know? Anyway, whatever you do don't spend lots of money on me. Love You Dad. Love you Mom. Love you Meagan. Love you Courtney.

Love, Elder Moffitt

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

MTC week 3

Wow, what a handsome......companionship!

MTC week 2

Finally, I found the infamous MTC map

Elder Moffitt & Elder Powell

He's got the whole world in his hands....or at least the Provo temple!

So my last investigator Jorge... the investigator of my first week at the mtc. So our investigators are actually MTC teachers who are portraying people they knew from their missions. So they're all real people being real people, but we're not actually talking to non-members, see what I'm saying? So we had to drop Jorge because Hermano Snyder (who was being Jorge) became our teacher and told us what we were doing good and bad. He's a super good teacher. So we have 2 teachers I think I already told you. Our other maestra is Hermana Jensen. They are both our investigators now. Their names are Antonio and Sebastiana. You only have to teach 2 investigators the rest of the time at the mtc. But you also have the option of trying to pick up more if you want... so we did.

The Elders in Elder Moffitt's district

Most MTC districts only have about 6-8, Elder Moffitt's has 12

Yesterday when we found that out, Elder Powell and I both said we wanted to try and get another investigator. It's a little more tricky with a third one, because he doesn't have to let you in his door at all. We made it in though. The first lesson is usually short, around 15 minutes or so. It is so important to get to know people, so we spent almost the whole time just connecting with him and really showing him how much we cared for him and how much the Lord cares for him. Oh woops, his name is Ian. Ian is 38, is married and has 3 kids. He moved here from Chile 3 years ago and is trying to get this medical license here like he had in Chile. He doesn't seem to have any big problems and he doesn't want much to do with any religion. That's the problem. We didn't know how to mold a lesson around his needs at all. At the end he told us how we are really nice guys and how the he thinks highly of Mormons, buuuuuuut the church isn't for him. He isn't interested, and he didn't want us to come back. Then Elder Powell bore a super strong testimony to him. Ian said, ok you can come back one more time. We got another chance, so we'll have to bring the super spirit on Saturday.

Yesterday we was busy. Besides teaching Ian and Antonio (and our progress with Antonio is going so great. We have only taught him 2 lessons. I'll tell you about him in a sec) we did something called TRC. That is some crazy stuff. So, what is TRC you are dying to know? We go have two 20 minute lessons/talks with people from the outside world. No more people portraying investigators (who definitely feel real anyway, because they are... somewhere out there). The people we meet in TRC are mostly all members. Some strong. Some inactive. Some non-members though. They are all volunteers who want to come in and feel the spirit by talking to the missionaries... in Spanish. The first man we met was actually the head of the TRC department for like 5 different lanuages including Spanish. After talking to him for 20 minutes we felt really good because he was easy to understand and we felt the spirit in the room for sure. Out next TRC volunteer had served a mission in Argentina. I'll tell you what, they've got some weird accents down there. Argentinians I thin even boast that they don't speak Spanish. They've got their own special dialect of it. So he talked really fast and with his unusual way of pronouncing words Elder Powell and I only caught half of what he said. It was enough though. We still almost always knew WHAT he was talking about, although we missed some of the details. Humbling to go in and be completely out of the loop after understanding out investigators that we've been working with this week.

Elder Powell trying to snag some extra breakfast items!

Study time

Mail time....happy time!

He did always want to be a "Ghost buster"

Fresh Cinnamon Roll.....Thanks Bishop Family!

What missionaries do on "P" day, hope the guy on top doesn't fall!

They must have quite the store and barbershop at the MTC...new suspenders and a comb-over....????

Is that Clark Kent at the MTC?

Elder Kenney, Elder Moffitt, Elder May (zone leaders)

Elder Moffitt left  his room and came back to find this beautiful little Christmas tree at his door.  I wonder how many months  it

has been making the rounds at the MTC,  at least 6 probably!

I have quite a few pictures for you all. Two weeks worth right? ok, I'll try to get them going, if not then I'll just write you some more stuff and try again next time. Love you!

Well, it took me half an hour to get all those pictures, so I'm out of time again already. But I think the time is well spent. The pictures are fun to look at I'm sure, and they help to give you a good idea of what I'm doing here. I skipped like half the pictures I took in total too! It's ok. The ones I skipped are similar to the ones I sent, or just less exciting. So, until next Friday...