Enchiladas, pastelitos, cookies, and weddings!

This week was excellent! We saw so many miracles and received so many blessings. I shall begin to count them. 

We found an AWESOME family where the mom and two children are church members but the dad and other son are not. They told us they really liked the family nights that they used to have, so we had a family night with them on Monday. My mom, for my birthday, being the sweet little woman that she is, sent my a cookie mix across thousands of miles. Ovens don't really exist here, so when I saw that this family had an oven, I was like family night.... cookie mix... oven.... LET'S MAKE COOKIES!!!! So we went to their home with glorious plans to make cookies (believe it or not they don't have cookies here) but turns out they were out of gas....  But I'm not a guy that gives up easily and the lack of an oven wasn't gonna deter my cookie ambitions. So we made the cookies ... on a frying pan stuck in a mud oven with the heat from burning cardboard. SO GHETTO. Not gonna lie and say that the cookies came out perfectly well. They actually all melted together into one giant cookie blob and half of it got really burned and the other half didn't even get cooked, but there was just enough sugar in the mix to make it taste good no matter what. We taught a lesson about the plan of salvation, and the Dad asked the BEST question ever. He asked if we would recognize each other after we die and if we would be able to be together as families? We told him we weren't sure; we had never really figured out or been told the answer to that question by modern day prophets. 

PSYCHE! No, we told him OF COURSE! Families are engineered by a loving God with the point of being eternal! How terrible would heaven be without your brothers and sisters and parents and children? We testified that families can be eternal, but there is a catch. We seperated the family and sent the dad and brother outside of the house, staring in. We then gave the rest of the family the delicious semi-burned ubercookie. We asked the dad and brother how they felt outside in the darkness without cookies while the rest of their family was inside happy. Bad, and alone they said. We explained that that is how we will feel in the day of judgement if we don't take the necessary steps in this life (such as baptism)  to return to live with God in his kingdom. We challenged the dad and brother to be baptized, and they accepted. 

Other cool experiences... We helped a family we are teaching to earn the money necessary to get married by selling enchiladas and pastelitos de leche to the community and the church members. By the end of the activity, I was pretty bummed, thinking there was no way we had earned enough to cover the legal expenses of the wedding after paying for the ingredientes and everything, but when we counted the money we had earned, it was exactly what we needed to pay for the papers so they could get married and then baptized. It was truly a miracle and an answer to prayers. 

Our sign to sell enchiladas and pastelitos to help a family get married

Sunday night we were pretty tired because we had been walking for a while without finding anyone to teach. We had wandered pretty far up the mountain to try and teach a new investigator but she never came to the door. So we said a prayer to be guided to someone to teach. Not really feeling any obvious prompting, we decided we should walk a little bit more up the mountain, but no one let us in to teach. Feeling kinda foolish, we headed back down and I thought about that great mormon message with Elder Holland about taking the wrong road:

https://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#wrong-roads

Keeping my faith that God would guide us to where we needed to go, we ended up at a new investigator's house that we had challenged, like everyone else, to read and pray about our message to know if it was true or not. He welcomed us in and the first thing he told us was "How did you know?" 

"Know what?" 

"That I would get an answer to my prayer!" 

He told us that he hasn't had a dream in 3 years, but the night that he asked to know if the church was true he had a dream where his brother told him to go to the church. His brother died a few years back. Long story short: we taught him the plan of salvation and talked about the spirit world, where we go between death and the resurrection, and we talked about how the savior, in his infinite misery, has told us that the spirit world is a place of learning and waiting, and read with him 1 Peter 3:17-18 and 1 Peter 4:6. 

We told him that there was a chance for his brother, that the gospel is being preached to the spirits in prison so that they may have the chance to be saved. Being a man's man and actually having a loaded pistol in his hand during the whole lesson, he didn't break into tears, but his eyes definitely moistened when we testified of that and thanked us for showing him those scriptures because for a long time he has worried and prayed that God would be merciful with his brother and give him a second chance. It was super cool. He accepted to get married to his wife and then be baptized by the correct priesthood authority afterwards.

I know we were guided to that house.

So those were some of the cool moments of this week.

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Moffitt

 Elder Brimley and I enjoying our killer guacamole on our P-day. Avocados are in season--only 25 cents!

Be Prepared!

Hi there! Okay, interesting stories of the week...

1. A man walked up to us in the night and tried to give us his baby. Usually they ask us for money so that was kinda new. Unfortunately, we didn't have any baby food so we couldn't take her. Heartbreaking.

2. The other day we walked by right as some guy who was picking fruit way up high in a tree got electrocuted. The branch dipped and hit the primary line of the electric wires and the current hit him through the tree. Despite attempts to get him out of the tree and to the hospital, he died. 

It reminded me of the utmost importance of always being prepared and worthy to meet God because we never know when our time on this earth is up. It is like taking the most important placement test EVER (like the SAT for college admissions, but this is a test that will determine your ETERNAL HAPPINESS) and not knowing when the time will be up and they will call, "Put down your pencils!"  Would we spend our time drawing butterflies on the margins of the page or would we race to answer all of the questions and then sit back confidently to wait for the "times up" call?

This life is not all there is. It is just a drop in the ocean of eternity. How could we afford to--and why would we--waste a single second? Literally, eternal life depends on us being prepared. The scriptures tell us how. If you want to know how, talk to a missionary. But don't be caught unaware. Like the cub scout slogan: Be Prepared.

3. Made some killer guacamole with Elder Brimley. So good.

4. My favorite scripture now is DC 123:17:  

Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

If we do all that is within our power, we don't need to be sad or stressed or anything; we can just trust in God and wait to see his miracles. I am so grateful that I don't need to worry about everything. I just need to obey the commandments of God and magnify my office and my service to the Lord.

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Moffitt

This is our front yard and the bar bells that we exercise with each morning (concrete in cans)!

My awesome new companion, Elder Navas from Costa Rica.

Your Potential, Your Privileges:

We can partake of an abundant feast of spiritual opportunity 

and universal blessings!

Happy!

Well folks, I officially am the happiest missionary ever! I am once again a "father" here in the mission (or in other words I am training a new missionary) and I have the greatest companion ever!!! He is from Costa Rica and is so powerful, dedicated, and hard working. I feel like the Lord is just going to pour down a ton of obstacles and challenges but also a ton of blessings and miracles and success on us as we obey and pray with all our might and sweat our faces off out here!

One of our beautiful families we are helping to get married!

We are working with a lot of families to get married this upcoming month of August because legal weddings are free! They just need to pay for the necessary papers. (Well, kinda free.)

Just to give you all a glimpse into the missionary life in Honduras, we don't actually have a running water shower 90% of the time. Normally we just end up dumping buckets of freezing cold water on our heads, scrubbing ourselves as fast as possible with all soap within reach, and then dumping more freezing cold water on our head with a tiny plastic bucket to wash it all off. Overall a pretty miserable experience but hey, Honduras! Naw its a blast I promise. Definitely gonna keep up the tradition when I get back to the States. 

But even showering every day like that, I am super happy because I am doing the work of the Lord and, even though it's hard, if you focus on the good things you will be happy. You can only be happy on the mission if you serve and obey with all that you have.

Shout-out to my brother playing League of Legends in China right now!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Moffitt

Great times with my companion, Elder Lopez.

Training my new companion, Elder Navas from Costa Rica.

Moto-taxi to Salvacion!

This week was super awesome. For a while now we have been working with a sister who has lived, well, a super wayward life. We started teaching her and really struggled to help her because she wanted to change but didn't believe that she could. It was hard for her to read the pamphlets and scriptures we left her. She didn't have much hope. It came to the point that she told us that she didn't want us to come back because we were wasting our time and she couldn't change. I tried to listen really hard to the spirit because it was a critical moment. I asked her to hold on for just a little longer. To just go to church once more ... before she made that decision. I also asked if we could give her a priesthood blessing the next day of comfort and counsel. She agreed and after that blessing, literally everything changed. She found that part of faith that she lacked, HOPE. 

In Moroni 7 in the Book of Mormon it says:

"And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope? And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise. Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope. And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart." Moroni 7:40-43

She started to believe that she could change, and started to work to make it happen. She started to read, slowly and not understanding much at first, and writing notes in her journal to understand better. She went to church each Sunday. She prayed and bore her soul to God. She, who before almost didn't talk to us, went in a taxi and talked to the mission president to resolve a worthiness issue. She is now a completely different person. 180 degrees different. And on Saturday, she entered the waters of baptism and was born again. Cleansed of all her past mistakes. Afterward I asked her how she felt. Peace, she said. I feel peace. I didn't feel like this before, but now I am happy and I feel peace.

The doctrine of Christ is that we can lay off the natural man and become children of God. We can become new creatures in him. Anyone who says that is "just who I am" or declares that they cannot change denies the power and gospel and central message of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice. 

We. Can. Change.

I hope you all see me as a changed person as well when I get back.

Elder Moffitt

The missionary moto-taxi to salvation (with my companion, Elder Lopez, from Guatemala)!

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, shares how hope encourages and inspires us 

to place our trust in the loving care of our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

"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