"Oh-oh we're halfway there, oh-oh living on a prayer!"

COMPLETED ONE YEAR IN THE MISSION!!!!!! 

Such a crazy day. You only complete one year in the mission once in ya life, you know, so Elder Brimley and I decided to make it a day to remember. Here is how the day went:

On the hike to the mountain, I saw a pillar of light, directly over my head, 

above the brightness of the sun which descended gradually until it fell upon me...

5 am - We woke up and got changed into white shirts and ties, full mission super-suit. Threw some peanut butter and bread, scriptures, and cameras in our bags, strapped on our machetes, and headed out to climb the mountain that is in our area. Not sure what the name is but we call it the Hill Cumorah. 

Climbed up for an hour and a half, ate a lovely breakfast by a stream and then, dodging big spiders and cows, we machete'd our way up to a sweet plateau and studied the scriptures, prayed, reflected, and pondered on our missions and what we want to improve and accomplish this next year in the mission while gazing out over the Honduran countryside of Yoro. 

How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet (and machetes?) of those that proclaim the gospel of peace.

10 am - Headed back down the mountain, helping a family carry their firewood on the way down. SERVICE!!

12 pm - Ate a delicious lunch of carne asada.

2 pm - Did divisions with Elder Brimley and went to teach. I love teaching. It is funny to think how much I dreaded going to do home teaching with Dad for just a few hours on Sunday afternoon and here I am loving to spend my entire day all day every day for two years visiting and teaching people about Christ.

8 pm - Came home for dinner. Cooked sloppy joes using a seasoning mix-recipe that my mom sent me for my birthday. So. Good. Also washed it down with an entire bottle of Welch's red grape cider. SO. GOOD.

9 pm - Planned for the next day, and then took out the PINATAS. Yes, you heard me, missionary PINATAS in the form of Elder Brimley and I (the one that was supposed to be me actually looked a lot more like a Frodo missionary, or Elijah Wood as an missionary, but hey, I'm kinda a hobbit too). We took some photos with our celebratory pinatas, and then hung our shirts on them and lit them on fire.

...

no, but seriously we lit them on fire. And then beat them repeatedly with our machetes. IT WAS AWESOME! Flaming machete pinata beating. It was so fun.

(It is a missionary tradition to burn your tie when you complete 6 months, and burn a shirt when you complete a full year. That is why we burned the shirts.)

Yep, it has been an incredible year in the mission. I have learned so much. I have changed so much. I wish I had the time to just explain everything that has happened to me on the mission but it would fill up the internet. I know that Christ is our Savior. I have gotten to know Him on an entirely new level. I know that this is His church, that He literally is at the head of it and directs it through living prophets. I am so grateful for the scriptures and the messages of peace and love that they bring to my soul when I am tired and lonely. I know that afflicions (afflictions) are only for a moment. I know that we can repent and be forgiven. I know that baptism is a step absolutely necessary for all men to enter into the kingdom of God. That is where I want to go, and I want to bring all my friends and family and all of Honduras with me.

See you all in one year! Start working on that welcome home banner now!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Moffitt

Photo from Elder Brimley from Arizona: On the top of the mountain looking down at our area. For the one year in the mission mark, Elder Moffitt and I hiked up to the top of the giant mountain that overlooks our areas to do our personal study and companionship study. It took about three hours to hike it, which is considerably fast for how high it goes and for how long the trail was. but of course our Eagle Scout blood that runs in our veins made hiking it a synch. Well it was awesome. 

Baptizin' in the Dark

Dear family and loved ones,

This week has been so great. I learned much about the process of repentance. 

Our mission  president gave us permission to baptize the family that was going to leave for the U.S., as baptism is the way we gain the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide us in making future decisions.The baptisms of this beautiful family (Suyapa, Hector David, and Isai) and another of our investigators (Javier, who looks like Christian Ronaldo and, more importantly, wants to serve a mission!) were so powerful. The baptisms started at 7 pm and the power and lights went out literally right when I stepped in the water to perform the first of our 4 baptisms. By light of cellphones, we performed the baptisms and the spirit of God was so strong. Everyone was completely quiet and the words of the baptismal prayers rang out through the dark air. The lights turned on for the last baptism. I will never forget such a cool night. 

We received many blessings this week for the tribulations of last week. We found a family with a dad and a mom who had dreamed the night before that we were going to arrive at her house. The family accepted to be married and baptized. So ready to start my second year as a missionary running!

So cool to see the atonement work in the lives of these people I am teaching. There is this one sister we are teaching that is literally turning her whole life around. She has had so many problems with the law of chastity, like SOO many problems but she is finally walking that road of repentance, and it is not easy. Actually, like Elder Holland says, it runs through Gethsemane and Calvary, but I believe she can do it. She is preparing to be baptized soon. . I love that scripture in Doctrine and Covenants chapter 58 that says that the Lord will forget our sins if we repent. Like literally -- he will not remember them any more! We will be clean in his eyes if we repent and are baptized by the proper authority! So cool.

Crazy that I am at my one year mark now. We will see what celebrations follow. Only one year left to dedicate all that I am to the Lord. I am ready to be even more obedient and have even more faith to see even more miracles and success this next year!

Want to be happier? Talk with missionaries if you never have! (Go to www.mormon.org.)

Love you all!!Elder Moffitt

Men's Hearts Shall Fail Them

Elder Russell M. Nelson shares a personal story to give encouragement for when we feel "weak in the heart."
Download this video at http://mormonchannel.org/mormonmessages

FOOD!!  Mom's birthday package finally arrived (took about 8 weeks)!

Elder Jarvis was my Zone Leader here and just "died in the mission,"
meaning he has completed his two years and went back home to Arizona!

Trials of Faith and Patience

Hey yall! 

Well this week has been a big trial of faith and patience. Two of my three housemates have gotten sick with Dengue fever, including my companion, so he has been in the house all week. Sometimes I have gone out with youth of our congregation to teach, which is pretty much just me teaching and them looking really lost and not knowing what to say, but it's all good and that's how they'll learn. I work with them. 

We had 6 solid baptisms that were for this Saturday cancel this week because they randomly got offers to go to the United States illegally and are planning to go this week. But it's all good. Patience through trials brings the blessings. I know that my companion will heal and that we will find new people to baptize. Just gotta keep fighting!

Love you all and Happy Fathers Day to the best dad ever!!!

Elder Moffitt

Check out this great short video on Dads! 

Earthly Father, Heavenly Father: Men on Earth have the opportunity to become fathers and experience some of the same joys that our Heavenly Father feels for us. Fatherhood is a divine responsibility to be cherished.

Birthday Bagels!

Hello everyone!

Biggest news of this week is that last Monday we got to go into the city to the SUPERMARKET and buy food for the week! It was so cool!  It was like a real American supermarket--almost. I got some sweeeeeeeet food.

List of things I ate this week that I haven't eaten in a year:

- BAGELS AND CREAM CHEESE. I have honestly craved bagels since I left the MTC but they do not exist here. I didn't think the concept of yummy bread with a hole in it was so foreign but it hasn't occurred to anyone here yet.

- BACON!!!!!! I made an egg bacon potato tomato cheese bagel breakfast sandwich the other day... :)

- Canned pork and beans. Oh yeah, dad.

And much more. Best birthday present ever. 

I also got kinda adventurous and tried to make homemade alfredo sauce to make chicken alfredo pasta. I think I made it too good cause I got really sick the next day and was dying the whole day walking around spreading the gospel. But no rotten alfredo in my stomach is going to keep me from SAVING SOULS!

Funny story of the week. We were teaching this kid and his dad comes up and sits down and is like "You're missionaries right? Teach me!" So we start to teach him, and he is kinda drunk, and he starts going off about how we worship Joseph Smith and Moroni and etc, etc and we are like, "Whoa buddy calm down well explain it to you." So we explain who Joseph Smith was, just a prophet we don't worship him, and he wants to fight us about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon ... and coffee ... and we just told him look you are living in fornication and you are a drunk. Coffee is not going to send you to hell and right now, knowing about Joseph Smith isn't going to save you. You need to stop drinking and smoking and get married and then we will talk about that other stuff, because drunks and fornicators cannot enter into the kingdom of God until they repent and change their ways. (1 Corinthians 6.9-11 bro.) Milk before meat. So he calmed down and was like, "You're right" and invited us to come back to help him overcome his addictions and then offered to give me his shirt and hugged me like 3 times. Sweet little drunken man.

Other than that, the work is going super well. If I had the time I would write about every little miracle we have and every great lesson and every time the spirit guides us to someone super prepared for the gospel, but I don't. I would write about all the challenges that always enfront us and how time after time God overcomes those obstacles for us, but so much happens every day in the mission that it is impossible to communicate all. I love this work and I love the Lord.

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Moffitt

Addiction: You Will Be Freed

Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all can be transformed, cleansed, and freed from addiction. 

Read the entire address from Elder M. Russell Ballard: http://bit.ly/hN5Svf

Hiking to the top of "Coca Cola mountain" (it has a big Coca Cola sign on it).

20th Birthday in Honduras!

Hello everyone!

I am no longer a child. My teenage years have faded into a distant memory of homework and joy. I have striden (striden? English word?) into a new chapter of the great and tear-jerking novel of the life of Adam Moffitt and I am only looking back occasionally to remember my great life that I have had up to this point.

Ladies and gentlemen, moment of silence for the death of teenage Moff.

But anyways, that great literary moment aside, I had a great week this week and celebrated with great celebrations my birthday. Well, my birthday was on Sunday so I actually didn't do anything special but we got absolutely SOAKED because we got hit by a massive rainstorm and all the power went out so we were just literally striding upstream through rivers (the streets cease to be streets when it rains cause they are all just dirt streets and flood so fast) in the pitch black night shouting missionary songs and it was a great moment. I enjoyed a little Honduran Hoho cupcake thing I bought the day before by candlelight to celebrate. Party.

Today got the traditional eggs cracked on my head and covered in flour to start the new year off right Honduran-style!

Fancy p-day breakfast at Burger King to celebrate my birthday!

And then we went to play some soccer and then bought my birthday present -- a machete with a cardinal and gold leather machete sheath! It is so sweet! You all have no idea how I want to proselytize so much with this bad boy. Haha! It's also USC AND Gryffindor colors so... 

What else.... can't remember. ANYTHING... umm it was a sweet week we worked hard. I know that a lot of pics I send back make it look like I am just on vacation here, but that is just because I only use my camera on my Monday preperacion day when I am doing non-missionary things, but literally every other moment I am in shirt and tie in the streets savin' souls like a boss.

Pretty crazy that I am 20 now. I am really excited for this year because I can dedicate it completely to the Lord. From yesterday to June 1, 2015 I will be every moment 24/7 serving the Lord. The mission is kinda like tithing of your life, God has given me 20 years, so I want to give him 2 years in return. The 10th part, if you get me.

I have such a strong desire that everyone can get to know this gospel and pray to ask God if it is true. It's true. I know it.

Honduras is about to start in the World Cup. This will be interesting.

Love you all and thanks for all the great letters and love that emanates from the few, the happy few, that really love me! :)

Elder Moffitt