Call us butter; we're on a roll!

Hello everyone! Greetings from the land of beautiful winter weather! Anyone want some 70 degree cloudy-but-not-raining weather to do missionary work in? Come to San Pedro, Honduras! 

This week has been so nice; it has been a real blessing. The only bad thing is that in the mornings it is only 60 degrees and so showering is super difficult. (The water is not heated.) My sister Jessica, who is serving in Ukraine, probably doesn't believe me, but it's a rough few minutes for me at 6:30 am. 

Our house in San Pedro Sula

Other than that, this week we had success up the wall! Not sure if that is even an expression, but it is the best way to describe our week. We had almost 50 lessons with investigators, 32 of them included church member neighbors, and we got references and contacted new people like crazy. Elder Curichimba and I did divisions 3 days in a row in order to get around and visit all the people we had to teach and also to be able to find more people, and we were so blessed! We found some super awesome new investigators and we are flying now! 

On Friday, I had one of my best lessons of my mission. We had our first appointment with an 18 yr old named Elmer, who I am actually staring at right now because he works in this internet cafe. We started the lesson by teaching about the restoration of the gospel, how Christ established a church with prophets and apostles with revelation and authority, but this church fell and the authority was lost after the apostles were killed. We talked about how God had once again called living prophets today, starting with Joseph Smith who was called to restore that same church of Jesus Christ. Elmer was really engaged and interested. Then I asked him if he believes that God answers prayers, in order to later invite him to pray about what we had just taught him and ask God if it was true. Elmer said yes, because sometimes people do bad things and want to change and they can pray and God will help them. In that instant, everything changed. there was a literal change in the spirit that was so strong. Elmer was talking about himself, and the lesson was no longer about the restoration, but about repentance. We asked him if he felt like he wanted to change, he said yes, and, even though it was the first time we had ever talked with him, we challenged him to be baptized, and he accepted. The spirit was so strong. I learned a lot about teaching people (and not simply lessons) in that moment, and also about how important the spirit is in conversion. Even though he didn't understand all the lesson, we hadn't explained the book of Mormon, he hadn't studied and prayed, it didn't matter, because he felt the spirit of God. And that overwhelming feeling of peace, of love, of warm and gentle joy, was enough to make a punk, skater 18 yr old want to change and commit to it.

That is just one example of how awesome our week was. We had a ton of great experiences and were led like never before to people that need the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. God has given us all the success we have had and we are so grateful for all that he has given us. We even helped one father, who has walked down every wrong path there is, to say the first prayer of his life, and to believe that he really can change his life. 

Changes (transfers to new assignments) are this Wednesday and I really hope I don't get changed, because finally this area is getting going and God is doing a great and marvelous work here.

IMPORTANT NOTICE! 

To all my ARIZONA friends -- The new Gilbert Temple is now OPEN for EVERYONE to go INSIDE before it is dedicated as a House of the Lord. 

If you have ever wondered what is inside a Mormon Temple, make a reservation and go for the Open House from now until February 15. Like the ancient temples of the Old Testament, the temple is not secret, it is sacred. And so before it is dedicated as a House of the Lord, all can enter and visit. Get over there! You can go and wait in line, or get a reservation and not wait in line. 

Here is the website: http://mormontemples.org/gilbert

Send me a note after you tour the temple: adam.moffitt@myldsnet.org

Elder Moffitt

ABC15 Inside the Gilbert Arizona Temple

(My brother, Chris, is on this video. He is a featured singer, playing the role of Old Testament Meshach in the huge youth Cultural Celebration that is being held as part of the dedication of the temple!)

So it Begins - 2014!

Well, not to start my letter with a cheesy Lord of the Rings quote about the New Year but ... as King Theoden says on the walls of Helms Deep:

"So it begins."

P-day begins with doing laundry. Yep, this is my washing machine. Really.

This week was really awesome and I had a lot of super sweet experiences. Remember how last week I had that experience reading from Doctrine & Covenants 31 about how if we work with all our might we will be laden with many sheaves? So last week we went to a lesson with a youth from the rama and as we were walking back, we passed by another youth riding on a kiddie motorcycle. Jeffrey, the member we were with, laughed and said, "Hey, I know that guy." So we dragged him over to the other guy and started talking. We started talking with Kiddie motorcycle man, a 19 yr old kid named Javier who taught himself English and works in receiving customer service calls (which is impressive because he has a real job), and put an appointment for the next Thursday and gave him a pamphlet about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The next week we came back and started teaching. He had read the whole pamphlet and even filled out the little "Extra study questions" page with answers, which kinda shocked us. But we taught the lesson; he was super smart and interested and knew all the answers, so we asked him if he had any questions, cause he pretty much had the pamphlet memorized. He paused, and asked if it needed to be about the pamphlet. We said, No, whatever question, and he said "What is the process to be baptized and when can I be baptized?" 

A few seconds later, after I swept up my jaw from the floor and taped it back on, I asked him why he wanted to be baptized. He said, "Well I read the pamphlet and I have read parts of the Libro de Mormon before and so I said a prayer and asked if this was the true church and I felt really different and it felt really good and warm and I think that was the spirit of Christ so I want to be baptized and one day serve a mission." Remember that this was the first lesson. So  we put a date for him to be baptized on the 26th of January, because he has to go to church at least 3 times before getting baptized. We asked him if he worked on Sunday, and he said, yes, but he would talk with his boss and pray to get the day off. He did and went to church this Sunday. He is sooooo prepared to receive the gospel it is incredible. After that first lesson, as we left with Jeffrey, the member, he said, "Wow why haven't I talked with him about the gospel before? Why didn't I invite him to meet with the missionaries before?"

It is so true. There are friends of ours that are just waiting for the missionaries to show up. Help them find the gospel before that!

The thing is, I am realizing more and more that this isn't our work, that in order to be successful we need to let God do the work. There are people that are willing to read, are willing to pray with an open heart and real intent, and are willing and desirous to follow God in his way. These are the people that we are looking for, because our message is real and those people are going to be able to gain that same testimony. When we focus the teaching on our charm or charisma instead of on the spirit, we are essentially practicing priestcraft. And that's not good. If we are working and trying our best, God is going to "laden us with the many sheaves" we want, but only after alot of faith, patience, and desires.

But anyways, crazy awesome week. We challenged 22 people to be baptized, some of which accepted and are now preparing to take that step, and others that aren't as excited to try and find out for themselves if these things are true. Its a great work and a true work and things are starting to get rolling here in our Rama finally. One of my goals this year is to read all the scriptures, Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants (essentially revelations that were given to modern day prophets by God) and the Pearl of Great Price, all in SPANISH!!! Gonna be a crazy goal but we study a lot here so I can get it. 

Today we went to play soccer as a missionary zone in the Olympic Stadium, where the national teams play, for 2 hours and it was pretty awesome. 

Love you all. Do what Javier did if you haven't already. Read and meditate and ask God in humble prayer.

Elder Moffitt

Happy New Year from Honduras!

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy New Year!

Elder Curichimba and I had an incredible week and an awesome Christmas! 

Our sweet Christmas Tree.
Yes it is 2 dimensional but, hey, its the thought that counts.

To celebrate Christmas, we bought rice, beans, and tamales and went to a very poor part of our area, a sector we had never visited before. 

On the 23rd, Elder Curichimba and I went from house to house of our ward members and neighbors singing Christmas carols and giving Christmas cookies to people, and then inviting them to come sing with us at different houses. Christmas caroling definitely isn't a thing here so we had a lot of people that were really surprised and pleased that someone thought to come visit them and sing a Christmas hymn and give them a Christmas cookie. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day sharing Christmas messages with families in our area and reminding people of the true meaning of Christmas. 

Start of our Caroling mission... Just 2 Elders, some cookies, and lots of Christmas cheer.

Our lights on our house. We are never there,
but that doesn't mean we can't brighten up someone's night!

On Christmas Eve we ate at 3 members houses and dodged as many explosions as we could. At 12 pm, it was like the world literally was just exploding. Everyone blew up everything they could get their hands on. How else would you celebrate Christmas?! 

Christmas Morning in Honduras!
Thanks to family and friends from home that sent great notes--
and a personalized stocking from the awesome Relief Society sisters!

My Breakfast on Christmas Morning,
with all 5 food groups except for candy corn and syrup. 

I also got to TALK WITH MY FAMILY!!!!!!!!! 

I have a pretty awesome family and it was super nice to get to talk to them for a bit. If you haven't tried talking to my family, you should definitely try it sometime! 

It definitely is a sacrifice to be here and not building Legos from the new Lord of the Rings Lego with my little brother in our PJs but it is worth it to spend a Christmas dedicating all that I have to the Lord and feeling of that special spirit that comes from giving to others.

Miracle of the week: Saturday was a pretty difficult day. Three of our investigators with baptismal dates changed their mind, and pretty much all of our citas (appointments/lessons) for that day fell through. At 7pm, we went to a member's house to go with her to a cita with a neighbor family that we had contacted a few days before. The family, however, wasn't there. We returned to the member's house, and decided we could go contacting together to visit some of her other neighbors. As she got ready to go, I noticed her Book of Mormon open on the table and started reading in Doctrine & Covenants 31, where the book was open. The chapter is a revelation that Joseph Smith received directed to a man named Thomas B. Marsh that was about to go and serve his mission, leaving behind family, friends, and everything else, to consecrate a bit of time to the building of God's Kingdom. It was like reading a message directly from the Lord to me, especially being away from my family for Christmas and having all the difficulties I was having. My heart was really touched, and as I offered the prayer before we left the house, I felt the spirit sooooooo strong and couldn't even say anything. With tears in my eyes I just expressed my gratitude for the challenges we had had that day and asked that we would be led to people that were prepared to hear this message and needed it in their lives. We headed out the door, and this member sister just went reference crazy. She practically dragged us from house to house to house presenting us as missionaries of Jesus Christ and bearing her testimony about the importance of our message. We put appointments left and right and this week will visit these new families with the faith that our humble prayer in a time of trial was answered, that these people really need to hear what we have to say, and that they will have desires to find out for themselves the truth of our message. I went to bed that night so, so grateful for yet another gentle reminder from a loving Heavenly Father that I am not alone in this work. I know that I am not a perfect missionary, but that God has put me here for a reason. 

These three verses in the Doctrine & Covenants 31 really moved me:

3 Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation.

 4 You shall declare the things which have been revealed to my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun. You shall begin to preach from this time forth, yea, to reap in the field which is white already to be burned.

 5 Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire.

I am so blessed to be a missionary of the Lord and to declare the things that have been revealed to prophets in these latter days. I will wait patiently for my sheaves to come, and will try to labor with all my soul in this work, for while I am not a perfect missionary, I am worthy of my hire and I can do this work with his help. As the chapter ends,  Be faithful unto the end, and lo, I am with you. These words are not of man nor of men, but of me, even Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, by the will of the Father. Amen.

The message that we are sharing is not of man or of men, but of Christ, who is with me as long as I am faithful. I know that those who sincerely ask in prayer to know if this message is of men or is of God will receive an answer. I am so grateful for my Savior who came to earth to suffer for me and am so grateful for this experience and this Christmas message that I received from up above.

Have a happy New Year! Don't forget to set goals! 

Love,

Elder Moffitt

The day after Christmas, on my 6 month mission anniversary, I got called to go downtown to Immigration and get my residency officialized (along with the other awesome American missionaries that came in my group to Honduras)! Now I am a legit temporary citizen of Honduras!!!

Stopped by the cathedral in downtown San Pedro.