"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 

Mango Season and Baptizing Pastors

Hello everybody!

This week was an incredible week. It was so full of great moments that missionaries live for. I don't have much time so I will write kinda a brief summary.

I was asked to perform the baptizm of an ex pastor of an evangelical church, and her husband. Maria had her own church for many years and never had heard about The Church of Jesus Christ. Us missionaries arrived and started to teach her and it is crazy how awesome her change has been to really come and know the truth of the scriptures for herself. She did something that people rarely do and humbled herself enough to listen, read, meditate, and pray to ask God the truth, and she has such a strong testimony about how God answered. She bore her testimony after her baptism about how she is so grateful to have found the truth after living for so many years just based on her interpretation of the scriptures. In 2 Peter 1:21-22 it says: 

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scriptures is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Maria is super firm in her belief that God has restored his church to the earth today with the correct and necessary authority, and with prophets and apostles at the head who receive continued revelation. She now understands that prophets and apostles are necessary and are on the earth again. She came to know that the Book of Mormon was true because she READ IT and prayed about it. All who do the same will receive the same answer, be them pastor or humble farmer. I taught her and her family several times and she asked that I baptize her and her husband. So cool.

I was walking down a path and heard someone shout,"Hermanos, come! Hermanos, come!" So I turned around and asked if my companion had heard it. He said, No, but we walked back a bit to a house we had passed and asked if they had called us. A lady came out and said No, but that we could come in and teach her. We came in and she said that she had always wanted to talk to the missionaries and they always passed by her house but she was always too afraid or nervous to call them over. She said that she wanted to change her life and wanted to be clean again and so we challenged her to be baptized. She accepted. Wild. That was totally led by the Spirit.

Found a church called the Church of Eagles. Haha. Thought it was funny because in The Church of Jesus Christ we worship Jesus Christ, so what do they worship in the church of eagles?...

It is mango season!!!! Vaughn Akiu, you would be so jealous of all the super delicious fresh mangos I am eating right now. 

We were walking around and randomly it started to rain a little nice cool rain. I was loving it and then looked down and I was covered in little black spots. Apparently they were burning sugar cane in the distance and the soot mixed with the rain and came down on us. I thought it was funny... nasty rain...

It was my companion's birthday today. So I made him a happy face breakfast of eggs and beans. :)  Then, while he was eating it, we splattered nine eggs on his head and covered him in flour. That is the tradition here. It is an act of love. I promise.

Other than that, we had a ton of amazing spiritual experiences and found a ton of awesome new investigators, two of which we found contacting and they literally asked us how they could get baptized in their first lessons with us. The Lord is blessing us so much for our obedience this past transfer and I know we are going to have a ton more miracles according to our faith. 

But, now it is time to play soccer for the last hour of p-day! Adios!

Love ya'll,

Elder Moffitt

Avacado Shampoo

Yes. My hair does smell like avocado. Thanks for asking.

My name is Adam Moffitt and I am wearing a pink tie in an internet cafe in an obscure town in the northern part of Honduras. With avocado smelling hair. And I'm a Mormon. And a missionary.

Describing Honduras -- I walk along dusty roads in the heat all day to visit people and teach them about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. There are cows. And people. And cars. Sometimes the cars are nice new pickup trucks. I wonder how they have bought them.
We have perfected the way to cook rice in our house. We eat a lot of rice.

Beans are very popular here. Beans with coke. Chemically speaking, this produces high levels of gas. This can be uncomfortable and distracting in the middle of lessons.

There are your descriptions mommy. More will come next week :) We have a lot of sweet people we are teaching. We contacted and are preparing two whole families for baptism. I love sweat running down my face. Well, it use to annoy me but now I just let it flow. "Let it flow. Let it flow. Sweat falls like the economyyyyyy." (Yep, to the tone of Let it Go).

Thanks for the banana bread recipe. There arent any bananas here. OH WAIT. YES, THEY ARE EVERYWHERE THAT I LOOK.
Baaaaaanaaaaaaanaaaaaaas.

Elder Brimley reports: "In funny news, the water has been out for two days now..... How have we showered, you ask? Hahahaha. From the absolutely revolting, putrid water from the pila where we wash our clothes, which is outside. It was really funny because I was in the middle of showering in the morning, when all of a sudden, the water all stopped. I had shampoo in my hair and I had to go outside with a towel over myself and wash the shampoo out of my hair. That was fun... I guess... Haha, but it made for good memories of my mission. I hope the water comes back tomorrow." 

Straining my mind to think of great stories from this week but all that comes to my mind is rice. So I will leave it with that. 

Honduras + Missionary = Rice

Hurrah for Israel!
Elder Moffitt

This is Brother Zapata. He is really buff and a great cook. Yes that is the color of my shirt, or skin, or wait... 

Drop Kicking Drugs

Dear Family,

Super fun to talk to you all yesterday for Mother's Day! It was weird skyping with you and seeing the living room and stuff because it was super normal and seems like I haven't even been away that long--but at the same time I have. 

Elder Moffitt sings "Let It Go" on Mother's Day skype call from Honduras 
with the family in Arizona and his sister, Sister Moffitt serving as a missionary in Ukraine!

This week went well. Found some great new investigators, and we continue battling to help the ward progress and see miracles and conversions here in Sarrosa.

Had a great day on Saturday laying down the law of the Word of Wisdom. We contacted a man in the pulperia who really wanted to change his life but had problems smoking and drinking. He had a cigarette behind his ear. We taught him about the power of the atonement and forgiveness and how we can change. And we challenged him to throw away his cigarette. He protested, saying that he would change starting tomorrow, blah blah blah, but we continued challenging him, saying if you are going to change you need to start now, or you never will. He thought and then said, "Take it". With pleasure I took the cigarette and hulk stomped it into the dust. 

30 minutes later, walking to a different appointment, we encountered a drunk man that had also expressed his desire to escape his alcohol addiction and his desire for us to teach him. We challenged him as well to throw out the alcohol bottle he had in his pocket. He protested, of course, saying how he wanted to change but didn't want to give up his alcohol (hmmm) and so we said, "If you really want to change, and really want us to help you, give us your alcohol and let us help you." He slowly handed me his bottle of alcohol and I poured it onto the dirt and then punted that plastic bottle into the stratosphere. 

It was one cigarette and one little bottle of Plata, but it meant a lot and it was a great decision for them. 

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Moffitt

Notha Hot Week Saving Souls

Hey all,

Just anotha week in the hot business of saving souls. Things are going good. We are seeing a lot of miracles here. Fun events and breaking news of the week:

Tried to get this dog that belonged to one our our investigators to love me and went to pet it with my best coo's but it didn't buy it and bit my hand. Sweet thing...

It's funny how everyone here feels a very urgent need to practice their English when they are drunk so when walking past a drunk guy on the street I am guaranteed to hear, "How are ju my freend, my bruder?" I like to respond with a very rapid return phrase in complicated Old English mixed with Brooklyn street drawl and leave them to meditate on what I said.

We had this one lesson this week that really taught me a lot about sacrifice versus excuses. We have this family that believes every thing that we have taught but that lives kinda far away from the church. Also, they aren't married. They want to get baptized, but they just seem to make excuses for why they can't go to church or pay to get married. For like an hour we sat with them trying to get them to understand that salvation isn't cheap; it is really, really hard but when we make sacrifices, the Lord will repay us, even 100 times more! I am so grateful I can sacrifice two years of my life to serve the Lord. God will NOT ask us for excuses on the day of judgement, he will ask us for results. He, who had the most reasons to make excuses never murmured nor hesitated to take the hard road, and he did it for the rest of us. If we want to be saved we must repent and it is NEVER easy to repent. Let us be as Nefi who said I will go and do, not "but...."

My shirts are starting to get super worn! I feel so pro. In just one month I will complete a full year in the mission. I will hit my halfway mark. How wild is that? I'm halfway done! NOOOOOO!!!!! I still have way too much to learn, way too much to do. I don't want my mission to end. It's crazy, but really dedicating yourself full time to the Lord is super difficult but super rewarding. I hope I can have great faith and great courage in these months to come. 

Thank you for all of your prayers.

Elder Moffitt

P.S. If you are one of my friends, and you are not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ and would like to learn more, just go to www.mormon.org and invite the missionaries (like me) to come visit you and share a message. Be a man (or a woman) and just Do It. You'll thank me later. :)

This is a beautiful convert family that is super poor but never once asked us for anything. We helped them upgrade their house a little with new materials and everything. They have grown so much spiritually...

Running in the Dark

P-day hiking and repping my school with a sweet bullhorn trumpet. #Only in Honduras

Dear Family and Friends, 

This was a great week here in my new home in Santa Rita! We have some great families that we are teaching that are interested and progressing really well. I love teaching entire families!

One of our adventures for the week: Friday night were walking home from the outskirts of our area at about 8:30 pm when two men started following us.  The highway road is dark and deserted for about a 30 minute stretch so we sped up our walk hoping to avoid an ugly encounter.  Looking back, we didn't see the men anymore, so we relaxed a bit and continued discussing plans for our investigators. About five minutes later, I looked back and saw the two men rapidly approaching us. My companion, Elder Lopez, suggested that we run but I said, No, not wanting them to think we had something of value (since I just had my books and 10 lempiras). “1,2,3, corramos!” said my companion, and again I declined, feeling calm and decisive. Then he said again, “Corramos, 1, 2, 3!” and I felt a strong feeling of fear, like if someone had dumped cold water on me. “Vamos!” I said. So we took off running on this dark highway, and the men started running after us. We ran and ran, and they ran after us as car after car passed us. I felt no fear, but said a quick mental prayer while running and honestly felt such a strong trust in the Lord—that we were servants of His and He would protest us. S we kept running for like 10 agonizing minutes and, just when they were gaining on us and I was ready to quit running, a small white car pulled up and shouted, “Elderes, get in!” Needing no further encouragement, we quite literally dived in the car, and were whisked away to the safety of our house by a visiting bishop from Palermo Ward who saw the situation. I know that wasn't a coincidence, and the more time I spend in the mission, the more time I understand what it means to trust in the Lord, to really trust in Him that everything will be okay if I am doing the best I can and honoring my covenants. 


As it says in the scriptures, “And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” D&C 84:88

I know that we were guided by the Holy Ghost to run when we started to run. I know the Lord sent that bishop to see us and save us.  And I think that the Lord also wanted to remind us to do our running exercises in the morning. :)

Javier Mauricio quit his great Sunday job to be able to go to church.
THAT IS FAITH, PEOPLE!

Hurrah for Israel!
Elder Moffitt

Posing with my new companion, Elder Lopez