Brownies and Ice Cream and Hot Showers, Oh My!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week went very well. Elder Duncan, the Area President from the first Quorum of the 70, came and we enjoyed a multi-zone confernce on Thursday. And then on Friday, my companion and I went to San Pedro Sula to stay the night in the AP house with the other zone leaders before our meeting the next morning. Elder Brimly, Elder Clouse, and I, all three from Arizona (!), decided to take advantage of the OVEN that is in the misison house and make BROWNIES. Like no one here in Honduras has an oven (and if someone does have an oven, it is always broken or they don't have gas for it). So we made like 5 tons of brownies and bought ice cream and ate hot brownies with ice cream until we puked! Then I took the first actually HOT SHOWER that I have had for almost 600 days in which there was warm water falling from the wall onto my body. For 600 days I have either dragged a bucket of freezing cold water into my house and repeadedly dumped bowlfuls on my head while scrubbing myself (yes mom, I use shampoo) and weeping profusely -- or stood and cried under a freezing cold stream of water pouring from an open PVC pipe in the wall. Both ways are far from ideal. But actually, my hot shower surprisingly wasn't all that satifying. All this time I have been dreaming of a nice warm shower, and when I actually took one again, it was like, yeah? that was it? The thing I learned is that the work that I am doing is a lot more important than hot showers, and so, yeah, cold water stinks for an Arizona boy, but it is worth it for the Lord. 

The next morning we had a leadership meeting with Elder Duncan in which he called us all to repentance and taught us about how we have to know our sheep, like Christ knows his sheep. Our sheep are not just our investigadors, but also the investigators of our missionaries in our zone, and also the missionaries themselves. Lots of people to be thinking about!!!!  We need to know if our missionaries are progressing or not. Also, one thing that the spirit taught me in the conference was the difference between our baptismal date as missionaries and their baptismal date as investigators. Sometimes we try and force baptisms to achieve monthly goals. We give dates based on our own desires. This week, we felt that we should explain to one of our investigators that she could choose her own date. The lesson started with her telling us that when we first met with her, she was not living the law of chastity, but when we mentioned it in the first lesson, not teaching it but just mentioning the importance of not comitting fornication, she stated that she felt something that she had never felt in all her years of hearing other churches preach against fornication. She talked to her boyfriend, ended the relationship, and said that she felt peace and she felt free now that she had left that behind.  We were very impressed and felt that her repentance was sincere and told her that she was ready to be baptized this next week, which was the date we had set with her, or choose her own date. She looked at the calender, thought about is, and decided she would like to be baptized on the 28th of March. The spirit flooded the room in the church (we were teaching the lesson in the chapel). It was tangible. We asked her if she felt it and she smiled and nodded and said that she felt it. It was a lesson and testimony to me of that principle, of the importance of letting the investigator DESIRE to be baptized, like the people that heard Samuel the Lamanite  DESIRED to be baptized and went to look for him to be baptized (Heleman . I would love to just sit outside my apartment and wait for people to come to us to be baptized, but it is not always that easy; we have to look for people and help them gain that desire, but when they have that testimony and that desire, we need to let it work in them and let them use their agency to work their own salvation.

Yesterday we taught a sweet quick lesson with a great college kid named Hector. We taught about the Book of Mormon and I felt the impression that we should watch the Mormon Message about the Book of Mormon with the black bishop in England. Being the high tech missionary that I am, I whipped out my handy dandy usb that my awesome mom sent me, and him being the awesome college kid that he is, whipped out his laptop and we watched it. It was super cool because he liked it a ton and gained practically an instant testimony of the Book of Mormon and said that he was going to share that video on his facebook wall.  He commited himself to really study the book today and tomorrow and we will visit him on Tuesday to talk about what he has learned and felt. Really, the Book of Mormon has so much power.

Check out this sweet video about the story of Alma and Korihor in the Book of Mormon that is super aplicable to our society today: 

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-08-2257-all-things-denote-there-is-a-god?lang=eng

We have a lot to do in our area and in our zone. We will be working with our district leaders this next week to devise a plan de zona and put it in practice.

Hurrah for Israel! 

Elder Moffitt

This is Elder Castillo de Nicaragua, my companion, and me taking a photo op in La Ceiba on the way to our conference. I have had companeros de Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Guatamala. I just need a companion from Honduras and one from Panama to cover all of Central America!

Miracles!

MY FAMILY!!! AND FRIENDS!!!!!!

Everything is good here in Honduras. What happened this week .... 

Just spent the whole week teaching the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! What could be better? We had several awesome lessons this week, one with this black college student that we taught the restoration and after was like, yeah, I believe it, and I was like, umm well how much do you believe it, from 1 to 10? And he said, 8. So I said, well, do you believe it enough to be baptized by someone holding that priesthood authority? And he was like, yeah, yeah I do, I'll do it. The only problem is that he studies in the university on sunday mornings when church is. Darn..

Pretty much the routine of missionary work is, first, testimony, then afterward, desire, then afterward overcoming all of the obstacles that stand in the way of someone being baptized. First, someone needs to believe that it is true, then they need to have the desire to change and act upon that message and then we just go 1-on-1 with Satan to try and get them ready to be baptized. Many are lost in that battle, because they don't have the strength or faith to do all they need to do to be ready to be baptzed, but the saddest is when people just don't have the desire. 

I love being a missionary and we are working super hard to keep our zone together. Miracles always accompany us. This is the work of God and he leads it. 

The weeks just go faster and faster. Honestly. Sorry for writing such lame emails but everything just blends into this blur of salvation and apostasy. 

Prayers!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Moffit

The gospel of Jesus Christ:

1. Faith in Jesus Christ

1. Repentance

3. Baptism by immersion

4. Recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands

5. FIGHT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monkey in my hair!

Well, this week in Tocoa was pretty sweet, got a mystery package with some awesome CDs of Vocal Point and Mormon Tab so that was really nice. Not sure who they are from but THANK YOU to whoever sent them to me! 

Elder Moffin. My name is since Moffitt is hard to say here.

One day this week we were in this lesson reading the pamphlet of the restoration and the youth we were teaching was reading the pamphlet and instead of saying Aaronic Priesthood, he read, Aerodynamic Priesthood. It was really funny. Trust me I was crying laughing. 

Other good story was this week:  

We went to lend service for a big local woman by fixing up a food cart thing, like one of those street vendor stands with wheels, and then bring it about 2 miles to her house. So we followed her directions and found a blue food cart with a destroyed wheel, so we thought, "Well, let's be nice and fix it. So we take off the tire, go and get it patched and all fixed up, we repair the steering wheel and steering system, and we start to haul it to the house of the lady. All this was took 1 and a half hours of us working on that cart. So we start walking and we think, "Hey, maybe we should call this woman to make sure this is the right cart." We call her, and right then three guys in motorcycles, like the Honduran version of Hell's Angels, pull up and surround us. We are like, "Uhh, what's up?" They asked, "Where are you taking this cart?" We replied, "Well, to this lady that asked us to bring it for her." Turns out the cart was theirs, and that the blue cart we were supposed to bring was one more block away, so we were pretty much stealing someone's food cart. It was kinda an awkward moment but we explained it all and laughed a little nervously and then helped them haul it back to where it was. It was a pretty hilarious experience and I kinda wanted to be in the paper headlines as Mormon Robbers Steal Food Cart. We were lucky that we didn't take it any farther because in Honduras you don't really call the police when people rob you; you just grab your gun and go get it. 

Here is a picture of a monkey examining my hair. Nice guy. Monkeys are super cool you have to play with one someday. This one was just the pet of an investigator we contacted.

Sorry for the short letter. Everything is good over here. The work will always go forward. Love you all! 

Happy Birthday Dad and Jessica! Congrats on finishing your mission Sis, even though I don't know when you go home no one has told me yet, but have a great last few weeks. It is crazy to think that I started before you and wil finish after you, but thats how it is. Love you so much!

Elder Moffitt

P.S. I owe you both Birthday presents. Don't forget!

Weddings in Honduras!

This week was super great. The whole week we were frantically planning and preparing for... 

A WEDDING!!!!!! 

The parents of a family we have been teaching for a while got married this week, making it my first wedding here in Honduras that I have been able to experience. Two other families that I have taught have gotten married but both after I have left the area, because it is very difficult to get the money and the papers and organize the whole process in the short time that we find, teach, and they decide to take to repent and be baptized. It was an awesome experience. As often happens with me I feel, for lack of other volunteers, I ended up directing the wedding, even though I barely even know what goes on in American weddings, let alone Honduran wedding culture. But, I did my best, even though I forgot the names of our investigators that we were getting married in front of everyone for a split second. Awkward. We invited the district president to come and give a talk and he did and it was really good about the importance of marriage in a world that teaches that it is unnecesary. Honestly, looking back, the fact that everything went so well and it was such a legit wedding in the middle of impoverished Honduras is a big miracle! It was a tender mercy for me to finally get to see a wedding after 19 months of teaching the importance of the marriage covenant. This family was totally prepared. They killed one of their lambs for food for the wedding. Awesome. Also, the district president liked the wedding so much and the family that he told us he would pay the expensive 8 hour trip each way to Tegucigalpa so that they can got to the temple at the end of this month! I WANT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE!!!!

Baptism of Ernesto y Marta. Their daughters were baptized two weeks ago. Despite the happy day, it is the tradition here in Honduras to take pictures like a serious mug shot. Not sure why no one smiles in photos, even when we tell them, come on and smile!  

Wedding of Ernesto y Maria!

Now we got them to smile!

I also gave a talk this week on the concept of Grace. I love the idea of grace. Are we saved by grace? Yes. Everyone? Yes. 

Everyone will overcome death and be resurrected thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In that aspect, we are all saved by grace. But grace is more than that. Grace is the ennobling and divine power that lets us to only be saved, but changed. It helps us to become more than we can alone, and to overcome weaknesses and temptations that otherwise would be unovercomable. It saves us after all we can do. It is not that we have to earn our way to heaven, but we do have to learn our way to heaven. We need to be different, better, even one day perfect (matt 5:48) to enjoy an eternal existence with God. Grace is not the back up generator that turns on after the primary fails, but is the constant source of energy that lets us overcome sin and come unto Christ. I spoke in my talk about my caving trip with Chris and the darkness that we felt turning off the lights in the cave and that the grace of God and the atonement of Jesus Christ give us the light to find our way out of the cave of spiritual darkness. It was cool. 

Love you all! 

Much to say but little time. 

Elder Moffitt

This picture is not for the faint in heart. What is it? Glad that you asked. It is Mondongo. It is, frankly, cow stomach. Well, this is actually lamb stomach but normal mondongo is cow stomach. You clean it, then make soup out of it. Not going to lie, it is disgusting. Yes, I have had to eat it several times here.
Pray for the missionaries here in Honduras. It isn't just bullets that can kill people. :)

Accosted this kinda oblivious guy with his USC shirt and explained to him why he was wearing the best shirt ever and then taught him the Fight On fingers. V for Victory all day every day!

Happy New Year from Honduras!

Happy New Year Everyone!

So much to write. To make up for the lost work time in Christmas week, we taught a grand total of 64 lessons this week! We were so blessed this week in so many forms. We pretty much contacted for this whole week. Contacting is fun but you run into a loooooot of apostasy.

Welcome 2-0-1-5!

To celebrate New Years Day, after a hard day's work and teaching 10 (!) lessons, we pulled a grill in front of our apartment and cooked Honduran steak and some sausages and made hot Mexican salsa, kettle corn, and cooked s'mores. It was a bittersweet moment, as I said goodbye to my only full year of 100% dedicated service as a full time single missionary in my life. 

Some great blessings of this week were that we gave the priesthood to 2 recent converts, and went to visit on divisions with 3 of our recent converts. It is so cool to watch someone who weeks and months ago didn't feel comfortable offering a public prayer to then testify that our message is true, and testify of the power of the gospel in their lives to others. 

On Sunday, we had such a powerful sacrament meeting! So many people attended, we had over 15 investigators at church, and the spirit was so strong. The thing I love so much about Honduras is that there is NEVER one minute of silence in testimony meetings. From the second the bishop turns the time over for testimony meeting, a line of 5 people forms, and from then on there is always 2 or 3 or 8 people waiting to share their testimonies. Wow. I am always blown away by that desire that they have here to share their testimonies. Of course, it is a challenge getting people to share that powerful testimony outside of the church. If you have a testimony, share it!

One day we were walking and we passed by these super sketchy guys and one of them shouted at me in English, like all the people here that are deported from the U.S. always do. They are always so proud that they know how to say "hey how ya doing bro? I live in the States five year!!" that they lose no opportunity to accost every Elder Moffitt they can find to tell him. Anyways, this guy comes up and he is covered, like covered, in tatoos. There was no unmarked part of his body. And he starts to tell us that he loves Jesus and shows us this big tatoo of Jesus on his left arm on the cross, and some angels, and other bible stuff, and we are like wow man that is so great! And what is this on your right arm, ohhhhh wow that is a big satan face! hahaha his whole right arm is just covered in pure death satan stuff. And he tells us proudly that he is a local leader of the Mara Salvatrucha, one of the 2 biggest Central American gangs, and lifts up his shirt and he has MARA SALVATRUCHA tatooed all over his chest. So we are like well, that's really great! But not so much. Have you ever killed anyone? Oh no, I don't kill people; I just smoke and drink and stuff. And tatoo myself. Well, that's good. But it was a really clear Matthew 6:24 moment, like we can't just say we love Jesus and then have Satan tatooed all over our right arm. We have to have Christ more than marked on our arm, he must be marked on our heart and his image must reflect on our very counterance. Our actions will convey that we are Christians far more than the darkest ink. We talked to him of the gospel and gave him a pamphlet. We are going to get him to gather all his phonies and preach them the gospel some day.

I just love finding the chosen people of the Lord, those that the Lord has really prepared to recieve the restored gospel and who long to make those changes in their lives. If someone is so deep in  the apostasy and they don't want anything, well let them stay there. The field is white and ready to harvest. 

Wierd thing about Honduras: they eat cough drops for candy.

I think that the greatest thing that I have learned in the mission is to love. I feel such love for my family and my friends and the people here in Honduras it is wierd. I have never been really good in communicating that I love people so that will be my next step. 

Love you all! 

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Moffitt

Baptism of Leonardo, a really bright young man that is one of the most intelligent and quick thinking 15 yr olds that I know. He really wanted to get baptized since we started teaching him. He will be a great future misionary.

Merry Christmasizo and a Happy New Year!

"Macizo" in Honduran means "cool". Thus, Merry Christmasizo. Because Chrismas is Cool. Yeah. 

So my second Christmas here in Honduras flew by like Christmas usually does--a lot of build up and then poof! it's gone. But it leaves everyone feeling awfully full of the Christmas spirit and more grateful for our Savior and ready for another new year. I hope you all could think of what Christmas gift you are going to gift to Christ this year, because he has given to us all that we have. 

We celebrated Christmas Eve by buying a lot of tamales, and then going to a poor neighborhood and singing Christmas hymns and giving out tamales. It started out pretty lame because we wanted to go with a lot of members and friends and do a big shabang. I always like to do big shabangs and make things nice.  But no one was home or able to go with us, just one recent convert named Luis, a really humble and nice 20 yr old with a tatted up arm that was just baptized in November. 

First house? They slammed the door on our Christmas caroling hahahaha. Oh man. After that, we decided to leave the rich to their celebracions and we lugged our pot of tamales the mile over to the poor colony and started singing and giving. The Christmas spirit is quiet. It is soft. But it is real. We sang to families in houses made out of aluminum and cardboard--without electricity--that were celebrating Christmas with 1 candle. We sang, and it was really off key (not going to lie) but it was sincere. And it was Christmasy.

The next day, I talked to my family! It is wierd how nervous talking to you all makes me. Don't know why but it makes every missionary nervous. So sorry for being nervous and awkward. But I love you all! I am so lucky to have a great family.

Other highlights include eating a lot of chicken sandwitches and tamales, which are the Christmas highlights, along with like 3 liters of pepsi in 1 day because everyone gave us pepsi. Saw my first Honduran racoon. Opened presents from my awesome family and incredible grandparents that made me feel so loved. Shared my christmas gifts with my companion and we were happy. We enjoyed a Welch's red grape fancy juice, like Martinellis, to celebrate. 

Oh yeah!!!! 

On the 23rd we had a multizone conference about 2 hours away so we rented a bus for the zone and on the way back we all gave anonymous gifts to a previously assigned person, kinda like secret santa, and had a great time. Some missionaries dontt recieve anything from their family so it was good that everyone got something, I got a Bilbo lego man and a Honduran shirt :) Elder Wilks got a broken brick and permethrin haha.

Love you all and hope you have a Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year. Change something for the better this year!

Love,

Elder Moffitt

Navidad

Christmas. It's a funny time really. I love that Jim Gaffigan skit about how Christmas was probably made up by a drunk guy. "Well take the tree and put it in here, and well take the lights, and put them out there... and then ima hang my dirty socks over the fire place and fill them with candy. Merry Christmas. I'm going to sleep on the floor." Haha. 

Here everyone just decides to blow up everything in sight. It's what Jesus would want. Right?

I have a banana tree in my house decorated with Made in Honduras Christmas lights. They come with a guarantee that half of them won't work. I am pretty sure they light up with pure holiday spirit because our electricity doesn't work to well. Holiday spirit and Josh Groban are what keep the world spinning in December.

My lovely banana tree christmas tree. chopped it down my self :).
Merry Christmas from the banana capitol of the world!

This month has been pretty crazy because I have rarely thought of myself. That is why the mission goes so fast--because one learns to forget about himself and serve others. We have been organizing conferences, service activities, branch activities, and everything in between. But service is the spirit of Christmas.

The moments are rare when I really comprehend the Christmas story but, when it all clicks, we come to learn of the King of Kings--that literally created worlds without number--coming to be born in the earth in a stable. I never really like barns because animals smell pretty nasty. Imagine being born in a barn without 2000 years of scent and cleanliness technology. That has to be messy and stinky. And think that the first ones to know were some other stinkies that were watching their sheep far away, lowly shepherds. What a crazy and beautiful story. Christ never had great wordly possesions. never had even an ipod. Was born humble, and died rejected and hated by the very ones he came to save. What an incredible gift we received from our loving Heavenly Father, who sent us his only begotten son so that all those who believe in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. He is the gift of Christmas.

And how ungrateful are we!!!!! I remember one Christmas opening a present from my sweet Aunt Lee Ann and saying in absolute disgust, "Yahzee??" I didnt even know what yahtzee was but it wasn't what I "wanted", and I am still embaresed today for that reaction, although it was pretty funny not going to lie. I imagine most of us replying to Jesus Christ and his gift  in that same tone, "Repent? Be baptized? Come unto thee?" How sad that is. I am so imperfect. It breaks my heart. In Sunday School someone asked the question, why do we continue to make the same sins and mistakes even when we know they are wrong and won't make us happy? That question broke my heart. I don't know why I keep messing up. I am determined to be a better person, as perfect as I can and as he asks me to be, to show a little bit of gratitude for his unmatchable gift.

This Sunday, I saw a Christmas miracle. We went to go with Luis and Elvis to church. they haven't come in 3 Sundays, and were recently baptized. The last lessons we had had with them were without the spirit, and they seemed apathetic to all we said and implored them. We went in the morning and they didn't want to go to church. Like flat out no. The spirit of apostasy was so strong and satan had totally been working on them. They said they weren't sure if they ever wanted to go again and that they weren't sure if they wanted us to return and visit them. We were super sad and pleaded with them and bore them our testimonies but nada. I kinda gave up, and decided we would let them walk the path they wanted and then return in a bit to see if they were ready to recieve us again, but Elder Garcia kept persisting, and finally convinced them to go. They got dressed, and we ran over to church to get there right before they passed the sacrament. Sacrament meeting was okay, and then we went to the gospel principles class, our teacher wasn't there so we spontaneously decided to teach about Agency and the ability to choose for ourselves. It was super inspired. The spirit was there in the lesson. And afterwards, Luis and Elvis were completely different. They were like they were right after their baptism! Elvis said "That's it. We are coming back to church!" And asked us if he could go Christmas caroling with us. Luis also asked us when we would be passing by that day. We did pass by that day and, sent by the branch president, gave them the Aaronic Priesthood! From almost apostasy to recieving the priesthood of God. Imagine that. God touched them yesterday and softened their hearts once more. I am still amazed by the complete change of heart. I learned something from my companion that day. Never give up on someone even if they don't want it because they just don't know what they are missing, and we don't know when God will work miracles.

Everyone should read the short story, The Gift of the Magi. It is my favorite Christmas story that we would always read as a family by the fire every Christmas. 

Watch - short video! "He is the Gift"

Love you all and Merry Christmas!

Elder Moffitt

We found a clean christian pool place and they let us play for free this morning for pday.
I was the champion! I have never won a game of pool so that was kinda wild that I beat everyone.
4 times in a row.

Countdown to Christmas!

Officially 10 more days to Christmas! 

This last week was wild. On Tuesday, we had our last zone meeting of this transfer/change. It is always nice to hear the testimonies of the missionaries that have changes and whom we have worked with for months. 

Tuesday night, we stayed up with another Elder from Ecuador (who was being transferred) cutting our hair and getting all prettied up for our change meeting, and then at 1 am headed for the bus stop (definition of sketchy: walking abandoned honduran streets at 1 am in a full suit) and heading out on the bus at 2 am.  After a wonderful 7 hour bus ride, we disembarked and enjoyed listening to our mission president and the stressful waiting of finding out who your new companion and new area will be, and the Elder Garcia and I headed back to the bus stop and another 7 hour trip with the new missionaries in our zone. Pretty much a lovely 14 hours of our pday spent in buses. But, of course, we took advantage of the time to preach to the buses about the real meaning of Christmas, the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Book of Mormon. It is cool to teach about the Book of Mormon to the descendants of the authors themselfves, even though no one here really understands just how cool that is when we say that this is a book written by prophets here in Ancient America. They usually just stare at us blankly and nod. But one day they will get it. 

On Friday, we had a rare treat of a mission leadership pday with our mission president, President Klein, in La Ceiba, the zone where I was "born" (where I first arrived), and heading to Pico Bonito (beautiful point), a pretty waterfall in the mountains. It was super cool and we took some sweet pics. And then we sat down and discussed with President Klein how to improve as a mission and how to help our missionaries to complete their objective of bringing others to Christ. President Klein is so inspired. I always receive my own revelation when I hear him speak.

Well, we are working to spread holiday cheer over here and helping to remind people of the real meaning of Christmas, which is the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and the incredible gift that our Heavenly Father gave us by sending us His only begotten son so that we may be saved.

I love Jesus Christ. I love repentance.

Feliz Navidad!

Elder Moffitt

"My Son": A Christmas Message

Dear Family and Friends,

17 months in the mission now. Time sure flies. I haven't been very good with sending emails lately so I would like to repent and send a good spiritual missionary email to you all.

A quick spiritual experience (entry from my missionary diary):

"Yesterday, I was sick with a fever and sick to the stomach, but we went to work anyways, because there is no time to be sick in the mission.  :) I felt pretty bad and, walking away from an okay lesson, it was raining and cold and grey and I was sick--and the thought came to my mind, "Oh God, where art thou?" 

It wasn't so much that I was sooo miserable as to think that God had abandoned me but the Spirit brought the thought and scripture to my mind. I remembered Section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants when the prophet Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail (how ironic the name, Liberty Jail) and fervently prayed with those very words. 

I remembered the divine response, "My son, peace be unto thy soul." And there, cold and wet in Honduras, that scripture hit me with an intensity and profundity that beforehand I never realized. The words "my son" ran through my head over and over. My son. My son. MY son. My SON. Walking a bit behind me companion, I repeated those two words over and over, thinking and feeling the spirit super strongly. What sermon more powerful! I imagined God standing as an all-powerful witness to the persecutions heaped on His chosen prophet and servant by wicked, apostate men. I imagined him withholding his mighty hand and weeping along with Joseph. And I imagined the tenderness with which he spoke those two words to the soul itself. My son. Earthly parents fail, disappear, pass away, but even when a mother forgets her child the Lord will not.

In 1 Nefi 21:14-16 we read:

14 But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not. 15 For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the 
son  of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.
 16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

In answer to Joeseph's distraught prayer, the first truth that our Heavenly Father reminded him to comfort him is that he was HIS son.

Joseph--and I--belong to God, no one else.

What is more, put the emphasis on SON. My SON. What relationship more powerful than that, between Father and son. It is unlike any other. It is bold and valient and manly (huh!) but beneath it all there is a tenderness so deep. What self worth, what confidence comes from a divine assurance that you are His SON. Think the antithesis of the Darth Vader "I am your father" moment. Here God's gentle reminder that He is the Father and Joseph and I are the sons is so poignant. I dont know how to describe it really but the spirit opened my heart and mind to understand at a deeper level. And the more I thought about it the more I understood and felt that same love that the lonely prophet felt in that cold jail.

Feeling warm and grateful, and with damp eyes, I walked and walked, and when we arrived at our next appointment I shared how I was feeling and my testimony of a loving heavenly father and wept really hard. It was a super powerful moment and one of the few sustaining moments that help a missionary get through all of the constant challenges and sustain the spirit through the next months of spiritual combat with the darkness of sin and apostasy. So grateful for the answers to the soul's unsaid prayers.

Passed Thanksgiving without me even really realizing that it was Thanksgiving. We worked until 8:45 pm and then ran home and I had some left over mashed potatoes and stuffing seasoning packets from my birthday package (haha) along with some new mashed potatoes packages that had just arrived from you Mom in my christmas package (don't worry I didn't open all of them I just knew that some of them were mashed potates from the feel of them and opened them to take advangtage of them for Thanksgiving!) and cooked them super fast in the house of a super member here in Tocoa (that helps in the missionary work a ton) since we don't even have a stove in our apartment. Cooked it, stuffed in down our throats, and then ran back to the house to be home on time and got back to our apartment 1 minute before the curfew time.

Driving home, that member said, " Look at that moon, Elder Moffitt. Your family in Arizona is watching that very some moon right now."  Awwwwww, it was pretty sweet. No, I didn't cry.

Also, yesterday we had a service Christmas activity with the Zone and with a group of really poor kids from here in Tocoa. We were originally planning to do it with orphans but the director of the orphanage in the states didn't give us permission to do it, so we went to the poorest part of Tocoa where families live in houses of cardboard and aluminum and wood and organized an activity with them. We worked really hard to plan it and thanks to miracle after miracle everything happened well.

About an hour before the activity started, the bus we had gotten to take the kids to the church building was nowhere to be found. Dark clouds loomed and then covered the sky in minutes and started to rain hard. There was no way that the kids were going to walk the 30 minutes to the church in that weather, nor that we could bring them in the back of the one truck low on gas that we had. I knelt, desperate, to pray and ask for a miracle so that the activity would pass, which we had planned so diligently and spent so much time and effort and money to bring to pass. And a few minutes later, Wilmer, the best member in Honduras, called and said he had found another bus that was in route to go with us to bring the kids. It was a miracle.

With played outside games with them, we played Christmas trivia with them and decorated christmas cookies and taught them the christmas story and then watched the 5 minute version of the christmas movie, "Joy to the World" made by the church, and then made our own video acting out the nativity scene with the missionaries and the children. It was super fun and was full of cookies and candy and dinner and dessert and pinatas and everything. I never had a birthday party or christmas party as intense as what these kids enjoyed (haha) but we really felt the sincere joy of these children that are so poor that one of the little girls asked if she could save a bag of water we gave her to drink to bring it home with her, probably because they have no clean water to drink at her home.

 

 

So many more miracles have passed and I know that one day I will have time to tell them all. But know that God is a God of miracles and hears and answers prayers.

Hurrah for Israel!
Elder Moffitt

On the coast in Trujillo

Dear Family and Friends,

This week we went to Trujillo to do divisions with the missionaries there. Trujillo is a beautiful coast town about an hour from us in our new town of Tocoa. The missionaries in Trujillo have a house from which you can see the ocean! 

Super cool story: We went to go eat dinner with the branch president of Trujillo, a super nice smart black guy, and I was looking at the photos on his fridge, and recognized one of the converts I taught in La Ceiba when I started my mission! She had gotten married to the son of this branch president! I was super excited. They are going to get married in the Temple next June. I hope I can go with them! 

That Wednesday morning, as we were heading to leave Trujillo, a cruise ship showed up and all the tourists started streaming out to spend the day in Trujillo. As we were walking through town, I kept passing a ton of gringos and it was super weird because I felt really awkward talking to them in English. It is weird to talk to people in English now.... But anyways, we heard someone shout "Missionaries!" We turned to see a tourist mom from Utah running up to us. She said she just wanted us to know that they were praying for us and to thank us for our missionary service. It was super powerful to me. In the bus on the ride home, I was really overwhelmed by the implications of that tiny message of thanks and motivation -- to be reminded that this work is worldwide, and that we are all united in this work of salvation. Tears came to my eyes in that broken down Honduran bus as I felt the support of not only one Utah mom on a cruise, but also of 15 million members and of a loving Heavenly Father and Savior that will never forget me. I love 1 Nefi 21: 14-16:

14 But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not.

 15 For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.

 16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

This week, two of our investigators, Luis and Elvis were baptized. Luis is all tattooed on his arm but really has taken a dramatic change in his life. It was cool watching him leave behind a life full of a lot of errors and start a new life. The best investigators here are the youth. The youth are the future of this country, and they need more than anything the influence of the gospel. They will be future missionaries and mothers and fathers. They are looking for answers and have more faith than many others. Why do you think Jose Smith was only 14 years old when he saw the Father and the Son? The same reason. God loves the youth.

Baptism of Luis and Elvis

What else...? We had a lot of experiences this week that were super inspired by the spirit. I wish I could write them all but one day I will tell you all of them. I love my companion and I love all of you! I am already getting ready to have a great Christmas in the mission! 

Oh yeah, I saw a guy with a USC hat and tried to buy it off him but he wouldn't sell it to me for anything. At first I was kinda miffed but I guess he is a Trojan at heart too, so props for him. He knows quality when he sees it :) I have never seen any Stanford apparel over here.....

Two cool things about his picture: a Honduran that is taller than me, and his shirt.

Love you all!

Elder Moffitt