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.

Feliz Navidad!

FELIZ NAVIDAD EVERYONE!!

On Christmas Eve I will have completed 6 months in the mission. Pretty crazy. Almost know what I am doing here. 

Looking back, it has been a blur. I honestly don't know how I have made it this far. Well, yeah I do. All with the Lord's help. I like that poem called Footprints where a man is walking on the beach with the Lord and across the sky are flashing scenes of his life. Turning around and looking back, the man realized that during the hardest times of his life, when he needed the Lord the most, there was only one set of footprints. Turning to the Lord he asked why it was so, why he was left to walk alone during the most trying times of his life, to which the Lord responded, "Child, it was during those times that I carried you." Honestly I have been carried so much during these 6 months it is insane. I can speak Spanish now. What? I can eat sopa de mondonga (cow stomach soup) and only throw up 4 times while I am eating it. I am living in the murder capitol of the world following the call to serve from a living prophet of God, and it is not at all easy, most of all it is just spiritually and emotionally and mentally draining. But what I have learned is that when we are doing the Lord's work, we are entitled to His help. Pretty sure that God has gotten way buffer from carrying me through the sand all this time but I have needed it.

Everyone here is super pumped for Navidad. You can tell because at night you feel like you are walking through Iraq. It sounds like a legitimate warzone. There are explosions and fireworks everywhere. There have been a few times when a firework has rolled in front of us as we have been walking and we have had to do epic dives to save ourselves and when we get up our ears are ringing. We pretty much look like this all the time, except with shirts and ties...

We had good week and a ton happened. We went and visited a part of our area we had never visited to try and find new people to teach and found some really sweet new people to teach. 

And Claudia got baptized! I don't remember how much I have written about her but she is a super smart and dedicated single mom that we totally found miraculously about one month ago. Even though she has had people from pretty much every single religion come and just attack the church with every lie/misconception/whatever-they-can-think-of from the moment we first visited her, she dedicated herself to finding the answer for herself by reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it with an honest desire to know, and she received an answer that it was true. That really is the only way anyone can know if what we say is true, And the reason I am here is because I did the same thing and got an answer through the power of the Holy Ghost. Anyways, we went to walk with her to the church to be baptized on Saturday and she was going to leave her baby with her mom. Apparently, someone had left the stove on and so the oven filled with gas and just as we were about to leave, Claudia's mom opened the oven and all the gas exploded out, but miraculously didn't ignite. Everyone was pretty shaken up, and we thought that Claudia would be way too upset to still want to be baptized that day but, being as super awesome as she is, she still wanted to go so we went and baptized her. The thing is, that morning we had passed by their house and felt pretty nervous about the baptism, like Satan was going to try again to pull something and stop her from following through with her decision. We said a quick but fervent prayer to ask that she would be protected and that everything would go as planned, and it did. One more miracle for the count.

Other than that, just prepping for a Christmas filled week! We are going to focus on just visiting families and sharing a Christmas message this week. Sometimes people get so focused on calling us "Mormons" and the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith that they forget that we are members of the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints, and that He, Jesus Christ, who was born in a stable as the son of a humble carpenter, is the center of literally everything we say and do. We talk about J. Smith and Book of Mormon a lot because it is what people don't know about or don't understand and want to know about, but we are really just Christian missionaries, doing the same thing that the Apostles and the early Elders of the church that Christ established 2000 years ago did, traveling from home to home sharing the good news that God speaks to us, that He has sent a Savior to succor his people and to give them hope, and that this same Savior taught us how to have true happiness and return to live with Him forever after this life. I know that the story of Christmas is real, that the spirit of Christmas is really just the spirit of Christ, and although I won't hear the words "You'll shoot your eye out" or watch "Elf" or have a white elephant gift exchange Moff Christmas party this year, it'll still be a great Christmas. Even in Spanish. 

Iguana!

Thanks to everyone who wrote me a short little blurb thingy. Made me remember how blessed I am to have so many amazing friends and to know so many awesome people. Have an amazing Christmas and God bless you, Everyone! 

With love,

Elder Moffitt

A Zone of Men--San Pedro Sula

Satelite Zone, San Pedro Sula, Honduras

We call ourselves the Zone of Men.  (Our area is too dangerous for sister missionaries.)

Sometimes we are very serious and thoughtful.

Sometimes we are not.

Our District (a district includes about 8 missionaries and a zone includes several districts)

Soccer game on our zone's p-day (our weekly prep day when we do our laundry, 

grocery shopping, write home, and, if we're' lucky, play some soccer)!

Welcome to My Home in San Pedro Sula!

"On the street where I live"
My home is the caged green beauty on the far right!

From the days of my sweater adventures in the frigid 80 degree week long ice age 

we had here in HONDURAS.

Elder Curichimba and me.

Elder Rodas from Guatemala rocking the sweater with me.Notice the green garden view across the street from our patio.

   

 

Us Men in White have some serious swagger.

Here is our apartment. 

My "closet" and room.

Well ... it's colorful.

And there's running water.

Our desk where we study scripture each day.  

Just added the triumphant USC pic. :) 

Sounds like that was a good game.

Just Love Your Washing Machine

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy December!

So I first want to apologize for not having written you all for the past 2 weeks! It's been below 95 degrees so we were afraid to go outside. No just kidding, but it actually has been surprisingly fresh outside this past week. I even got to wear my sweater!!!!!!!! It was really funny because it was like 75 degrees maybe and everyone was walking around in like Artic exploration gear. It was like that "Day after Tomorrow" video except without it being cold. But I slept without my fan for 4 days so there is great cause to rejoice here.

Well, lots of things have happened in these past few weeks. One, we were stuck in our house

for 3 days without being able to leave because Honduras had their national election for the president, mayors, etc. this last week and everyone was afraid that Honduras would break into civil war or that El Salvador would invade, so we barricaded ourselves in our house with rice and cookies to wait out the incoming political tempest. Unfortunately, I didn't get a Tianemen Square picture facing down a tank, but it is good that Honduras didn't dissolve into civil war. There is still a chance though, so you can all still think I am really cool and brave for being in a dangerous country. Speaking of dangerous country, we watched "Tangled" in Spanish while we were stuck in our house (we are allowed to watch Disney movies in the mission on a rare occasion) and it's a great movie, even in Spanish. 

I have a satchel now so I kind of feel like Flynn Rider preaching the gospel. 

Still working on the smolder, ladies. Prepare yourselves.

Pues... We have had a difficult couple of weeks trying to get people to take the steps necessary to progress and to enjoy the plethora of blessings God has waiting for them. There were a few days that I went to bed feeling really alone and like I was just spinning my wheels without any heavenly traction (thats a good one too someone copyright it). Anyways, the lesson I have really learned these past few weeks is that the majority of the time, it isn't until we are in the fire of affliction or difficulty that the miracles come. My dad sent me an email about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the book of Daniel in the Bible, and I spent a lot of time thinking about that story the past few days. Besides having extremely awkward names, these three guys were about to be thrown into the furnace for refusing to deny their faith and their God. Talking to the King with great courage, they basically said, "Look buddy, we know that our God can save us from this fire, but if he doesn't, we are still going to believe in him as we turn into carne asada." The key word here is CAN. God is a God of miracles (see Mormon chapter 7 in the Book of Mormon), always has been, and always will be, but sometimes it just isn't part of His plan to divide the Red Sea at the moment that we think it would be reaaaaaaally convenient. Sometimes we are just sitting there in the furnace and it is getting really hot and we are praying and it keeps getting hotter and we feel deserted and alone. But is it then that we give up our faith? Better not because really at those moments is when your faith is all you have!

There is a scripture in Ether 12:6 that says we won't receive a witness until after the trial of our faith. What I have seen and learned these past few weeks is that that is really true, and that when the floor starts heating up we need to be firm in our trust that God CAN save us, that He has the power to do it, but also the trust that He knows what's going on much better than we do, and that he will show His hand when the moment is right, as long as we continue doing the right things and keep ourselves clean and worthy of His help. Miracles happen and they will come. 

The past few weeks we have only had 0 or 1 person come to church with us. We have worked and worked and taught and served and sweated and prayed and wept and gotten our pants really muddy ... and have only had 2 people come to church with us to see what we are talking about in 4 weeks. Despite our efforts, the attendance at church has been dropping consistently from 85 to 60ish.

Yesterday, at church, despite it raining, we had 12 investigators at church with us, and an attendance of 114. It was a powerful meeting, and I know the people that came with us felt the spirit of God. I got up and bore my testimony about what I have been saying in this email and started crying, and it is really hard to talk in Spanish when you are crying, but I really saw and felt the Lord's hand (after weeks of feeling the flames of adversity) that Sunday and His confirmation that although I'm not perfect, although I haven't mastered the legendary Flynn Rider smolder (see example below), He is conscious of me and will do His work in His own time.

Well, I made myself a turkey lunch meat sandwich on Thanksgiving for dinner to be festive but it tasted terrible despite all my good cheer. Don't worry, I'll celebrate Christmas better.  I was going to send you all pictures of me mish-ing it up in my sweater but I loaned my camera to a member for her son's graduation. Here they have summer break in winter. It's awkward, but we deal.

Love you all and I hope you all get your Christmas lights put up fast because people here have had them up since the first week of November, and even if they houses made of aluminum and rotting wood, they have some pretty hip Christmas lights. Props to Hondurans.

Oh yeah, about the title, just .... love your washing machine, because here we get buff slamming our clothes and our faces against bumpy metal with soap, repeatedly, to wash our clothes. It takes a long time. But I'm a jungle man so I can handle it.

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Moffitt

Counting Blessings on Thanksgiving

Hey Moffitt family! 

First I want to say that we have a really awesome family. As a missionary you deal with a lot of people, and a lot of dysfunctional families. If you think Jessica in the morning is bad, you have no idea. Love you Jessica. We have a great Dad who works really stinking hard and who recognizes that he has a responsibility to raise his family with LOVE and as a good example. We have a dad who honors his priesthood and is worthy to use it to bless us. There are a lot of fathers here that have the attitude "Well if my son is messing up it is his fault because I am perfect and I do my thing so he should do his thing. No, I am not going to bring him to church or pray as a family or anything; he needs to figure it out alone". I have really come to realize how great of a dad we have although he regrettably has no hair and makes us listen to Enders Game every roadtrip. The little things you do really do add up, like doing the dishes or packing up all the stuff at the beachhouse in that nasty little closet by yourself so we could have more time playing.

We also have a great mom, who is a great example and a great motivator. She always loves us (except for 23 hours before an imminent vacation) and does so much for us. Thanks for working so hard to get us to school and to church and even to swim team. I know we give you a hard time a lot, mom, but thanks for sacrificing so much for us, sacrifices that we see and don't see. Thanks for supporting us in the activities we want to do and always pushing us to succeed in everything. You have taught us spiritual lessons and have helped us gain our own testimonies.

How cool is it to have an older sister that is serving a mission dressed as a booba and speaking a language with the same letters that the transformers use? A sister that is so talented that she got into Stanford and is a super good singer and knows like 40 languages. To this day she has given me the best Christmas present I have ever received: my fire blankie. She loves to laugh at the little, usually pretty stupid things, but has helped me to recognize the little funny moments that are always passing. She is going to be an awesome missionary in Ukraine.

Christopher is kinda like the butt of the family but he is a really nice butt. Very nice to sit on. Oh man I am so mean to you Christopher. I am sorry. You are a great kid and are really talented and smart. Thanks for always being my lego table buddy and videogame buddy. I know how much potential you have if you stay involved in the church and school and don't let the world get to you. EVER.  

Clara is like the cutest thing ever and she is my epic slug laughing buddy. She is already smarter than Dad and is even cool with her new glasses. She always helps resolve contentions and has always been the one with a smile when no one else has one. Thanks for being an example of Christ and always being so loving, Clara. You are my favorite little sister.

I just want you all to know how grateful I am to be a part of this family. We aren't perfect, but we are trying and that is all that matters. They say that you don't realize what you have until it's gone, and maybe stepping away from the family to look at it from the outside has helped me realize how inspired and blessed we are to be together in this family. 

The mission is pretty hard but it is a place of a lot of personal growth. Some cool/ funny stories from this week- I was feeling super tired and disanimated so to pump myself up I started shouting "bring it Satan, lets go, you and I bring it!" and I took three steps, stepped in a puddle, and my feet flew out from under me and I fell flat on my butt. Luckily I am spiderman so I didn't get super dirty, but it was still a lesson that Satan is a real being and we shouldn't taunt him cause he will mess with us. 

The kids here always ask us for one lempira, they say, "regaleme un lempira." So one time a kid asked me for one lempira and I told him if he gives me two lempiras I will give him one. So he took out 2 lempiras and handed them to me. Luckily I felt bad for the Honduras system of education so I didn't go through...

The wildest news though is that we can't go out of our apartments at all, for anything, not even one step outside, all day Saturday, all day Sunday (except for sacrament meeting), and Monday and Tuesday. The elections are this next weekend, and the church leadership is worried that Honduras might very well break into civil war and or be attacked by El Salvador. It is pretty crazy. Kinda stinks that we will lose 4 days of work, but the church isn't about to put its missionaries in danger. Spend the week thinking about how cool I am because I am in a dangerous country.

I love you all a ton and just wanted to say thanks for being an awesome family. 

Fight On in the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Elder Adam Moffitt 

Salvation is Not a Cheap Experience

Somehow made it through my first week here in San Pedro. Honestly, could not tell you how, but we made it!

Our first few days were super slow and depressing. We went two days in a row with only 3 lessons each day. Basically in 10 hours that we have to work, we could only find three people to teach. 2 days in a row. All of the appointments we had set up fell through, and by the end of the day we were just sliding slowly face first in the mud toward our house. But I decided to hit Thursday running and be happy and excited no matter what. So when everything fell through on Thursday, I just smiled and went looking for someone to contact, and I had a super good day. I felt the Spirit of God so much more. We were guided to people to talk to, we taught powerful lessons, and we had a successful day despite our difficulties. The thing I learned is that our happiness really doesn't depend on other people or everything going our way. If we want to be happy, we need to obey the commandments, know that God is guiding us and taking care of us, and then suck it up and be happy. Laugh when Satan throws a bad day at your face and you’ll be able to shake it off a lot faster.  

Eating choco bananas on p-day. They are frozen bananas covered in chocolate on a stick.
Pretty much the best idea ever. 

I've always wondered why missionary work is so hard. If this really is the Church of Jesus Christ, led by living prophets and apostles, the very same church with the very same power and authority that Christ established on the earth during his earthly ministry--and I testify with all that I am that it is--then why don't we just baptize people all day long? The apostle Jeffrey R. Holland gave a talk about that in the MTC that really hit me hard and I have thought about a lot this week. He posed the same question, asking why isn’t the only danger in the mission field getting pneumonia from standing in the baptismal font all day long. The answer is that salvacion is not a cheap experience. 

Pause for dramatic effect.

SALVATION IS NOT A CHEAP EXPERIENCE!

If it was, it wouldn’t be worth it. We know that when we labor to bring people to Christ, we are taking upon ourselves the same purpose that drives everything that God does, even to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Christ came to earth with this sole focus and purpose, and if it was hard for him, why should it be easy? If he sweat drops of blood to give us the ability to return to live with him, why would we think it would be a breeze to take part in the same work? Everyone's road to salvation must follow the steps of our Savior, which eventually lead to Golgotha and Calvary. Salvation is not a cheap experience, but it is worth fighting and sweating and being in Honduras for.

To be honest, the only really hard thing about missionary work for me is that I can’t make these decisions for people. I can teach and I can pray and I can invite these people to make changes in their lives that I KNOW, I KNOW will make them so much more happier, but I can't change their lives for them. I can't make those sacrifices for them. I wish wish wish wish that I could, but I can’t. If they don’t want to read, ponder, and pray, I can't do it for them, and they won’t receive an answer. If walking and working all day and night could help them in some way to understand the importance of what we are saying and to help them make those choices, I would totes do it. But I can’t. So the hardest part of missionary work, for me and I am sure for our Padre Celestial, is to teach and to invite, and to watch someone refuse. To pray, to stop drinking, to go to church, to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if all this stuff is actually legit, I can’t do it for anyone. But I can invite so that’s what I’ll do, because to work all day and find someone who wants these changes in their life, that wants an answer and is humble enough to look for it, is more than worth it. I don’t think we will actually realize how worth it everything is until after we die and get a look at the whole picture, and then we will realize that every little sacrifice really was so so so so so so worth it.

Anyways, it always seems like I start writing and thinking about the week and then up writing a little spiritual sermon about something to bore you all to death and then my time is up to write. I’ll try and work on telling you all some cool stuff that I am doing and that is happening to me the next week.

Hugs and kisses, 

Elder Moffitt

Some Testigos, or Jehovahs Witness stopped by during our personal study time and gave me some sweet pamphlets, including their famous magazine.
I gave them a pamphlet on the restoration of the gospel, to be fair. :) 

I. AM. YOUR. STEPFATHER!

Hello everyone,

I am no longer in my lovely La Ceiba anymore! I got changed (transferred) and am now in a part of San Pedro Sula, the one, the only, murder capital of the world! I am not even going to try and pretend like saying that doesn't make me feel super cool, because it does. So I have officially survived four days as a gringo with a backpack in San Pedro.

So. Much. Street cred.

Anyways, my departure was pretty sad. What everyone does when they hear they are getting changed on Monday is go around on Tuesday visiting their favorite investigators and members and saying goodbye and bearing some epic final parting words and testimonies. At least that is the idea. So Tuesday I went around visiting everyone and it was super sad because I probs won't see these people for a long time but it was also so cool to see that I had made some sort of an impact on these people's lives.

I headed out of La Ceiba with my clothes wet because we had a baptism that night for the two kids of one of the best families ever. The mom was baptized when she was 14 but pretty much went inactive right after. We found her in an internet store about 2 months ago when she asked us if we were Mormons. We were like yeah! And she said she used to be part of the church. We asked her what happened and she told us that she really liked coffee and we were like, Sister, coffee isn't going to send you to Hell haha. But anyways, super long story short, we helped her reactivate in the church, and she is now super dedicated and has a super strong testimony. And she gave up coffee (atta girl). She wants to convert everyone, especially her husband, and to go to the temple one day and be sealed to her family for eternity. Her kids are the best ever. I wish I could write everything about them but I can't. That night was super bittersweet because a lot of my fav members were there so I was able to say goodbye. One of the children and his mom totally started crying and it was super touching--a little uncomfortable but it meant a lot to me to know that I had helped someone, and to feel that even if I had worked for 3 months and sweated my face off just to find this family and help bring them closer to Christ, it would have been worth it. Families can be together forever, and it is such a blessing to know how they can be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. I hope they wait until I finish my mission so I can go with them! Despite my protests, she brought lobster on a plate to the baptism for my companion and me. So to celebrate our final night together, Elder Sweat and I went to Wendy's and bought large frostys and ate lobster and frostys. Best night ever.

Our last night in La Ceiba. Frosty's and Lobster at Wendy's with Elder Sweat!

Anyways, so I ended up getting assigned to a branch of the church in San Pedro Sula called San Juan. And I got assigned as a senior companion, training an awesome new missionary from Peru, Elder Curichimba! Definitely took me a few days to get his name down. At first I kept saying Elder Cuchiramba, Elder Chicirumba, Elder Ruchichichibumba, Elder Timon and Pumba, etc. but I finally got it down. In the mission, the missionary who trains you for your first 6 weeks is your padre, and if you get a different companion for your second 6 seeks, he is your padrasto, or stepfather. So I am officially a stepfather! It is a ton of responsibility because I have only been out for 3 months and I am still trying to figure things out, not to mention that little obstacle of everyone-speaks-a-different-language, but I know that God doesn't give us commandments or assignments that we can't handle. We have basically no investigators because we are opening an area, but it is all good. With prayer and with hard work we can do whatever challenge God gives us.

My new companion, Elder Curichimba (next to me) from Peru, and our new roommates from Equador and Guatemala. No English spoken in this home!

Tree of Life in San Pedro

I know this is God's work and that we are here to change lives. I am so grateful I was able to help some people these last 3 months and now its TIME TO GET TO WORK in the infamous murder capitol. BRING IT, SAN PEDRO!!!!

Love you all,

Elder Moffitt