Great Fun, Spiritual Week!

Happy 4th of July everyone! I can’t believe this is the third 4th of July that I haven’t been in the USA. Today started off with a phone call from another apartment with 3 American missionaries (one a Texas hick) and an Argentinean singing "The Star Spangled Banner", it was hilarious.  The mission is awesome, what a great week we had this week. I can’t believe this is like my second to the last Pday, time sure has flown by.

We started off visiting some less actives, that I found out were great members here, and at one time really worked hard in building the ward here, spent hours upon hours visiting and working and strengthening the members. We are just trying to help them come back to church and help them remember why the came to church before.

At church we were taught about the 40 day fast or personal sanctification, where you start by picking a few things in your life that you either want do better at or stop doing or just things that will help you become more Christ like. So you do a prayer at the beginning about the things you have picked and ask Heavenly Father for help. Then you focus on doing those things and each day you pray and check your progress to see how you are doing. Anyways I decided to start my 40 day fast now so that I will continue to do the things and finish up my 40 day fast after I return home. It has helped a lot and I am sure it will help me with the transition once I am home.

I really saw the importance of keeping the Word of Wisdom this week, things that I thought were no big at home I have realized are an issue and I have seen members have problems and issues with. Also this past week I saw with absolute clarity the importance of keeping the commandments so that we can be happy!

We did a lot of work and taught a lot of lessons, it was a very productive week. We helped get Kaiane, Ayane, and Amanda ready for baptism. Honestly seeing Kaiane, Ayane and Amanda get baptized was awesome they were soo happy. Also almost all of them shared their testimonies on Sunday and it was great to see them up there. Seeing that we are all children of God and that Jesus Christ really does love us a ton! It is awesome to see how the gospel is being shared, E. Cardenas and E Franca taught and baptized the moms of the girls that got baptized. We taught their daughters, and now we are teaching their sister and her nephew and they brought their friend and her son to church.

So awhile back I planned a trip for all of us that came out at the same time, (Elder Keller, Blanchard, Bergquist and I along with E. Stahn) to go and get our visas updated. It was awesome, we had a great time. We laughed a lot and it was a fun time for sure I can’t believe we are all ending! Craziness! But we all enjoyed it for sure! We realized that we are going to be some awkward RMs (returned missionaries). For example I said Moses 3:19 and not Mosiah 3:19 because I translated it wrong and all 5 of us started laughing really hard, and then we realized we were laughing at a scripture joke and started laughing even more... #Weirdos #AwkwardRMs for sure. It was such a funny moment though.

It was a good week! A lot of emotions, but it was great! I want to be constantly growing in my testimony!

So some really awesome spiritual moments this week was when President talked about D&C 58:16 during our training in Zone Conference and we also watched Missionary Work and the Atonement, it was a lot of de ja vu moment! It reminded me of the beginning of my mission. We also had a great zone conference with “Rocky” about breaking Myths, it was awesome and super funny!

There are a lot of funny moments on the mission and a lot of them happened this week, I am glad I have these audio journals so I can go back and remember all of these great times.

I Love you guys a TON HAVE A HAPPY 4th of July. Have a great week,
Tchau!

Elder JT Moore

End of the mission reunion

The four of us going to get our visas updated

Baptism of  Kaiane, Ayane and Amanda

 Kaiane, Ayane and Amanda

Elder Moore "Selfie"

Working hard ALL day EVERY day

So I am loving being able to do normal missionary work all day. I am loving this area. The members here are great they are super willing to help in the work and they are super nice. I wish I could have served here for a lot longer it is super awesome! We are teaching a lot in this area, it is way cool to always be teaching.

So on Monday we had a Family Home Evening with Daiane and Iascara they are recent converts, we are teaching their children Kiane, Ayane and Amanda. They are going to get baptized this week. We taught them about the plan of salvation. Then they taught us in another FHE, they did everything. We had some other great lessons on Tuesday and Wednesday. We also meet with Brian, and we let him teach us lessons about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he is an awesome kid that is only 14 but is preparing to go on a mission.

The Bishop here Bispo Lopes, he is a GREAT Bishop! I have learned a lot from him in the short time we have been here. The ward reminds me so much of wards back home. They really all work together and help each other out. This week we had ward conference and it was really awesome, you can tell the leaders work really hard to make sure it was amazing, the choir was awesome, the talks and lessons were really spiritual. The building is not huge and it was jammed pack with members.

One thing I have definitely learned on the mission is doing all of the little things. If we pray, read scriptures, pay tithing, go to the temple, then we will be blessed and our life will be good. I also know that we need to study the scriptures daily, which will bless us and help us keep the commandments.

I am loving it here, I am finishing strong and working hard!
I can't wait to see you guys!
Love you all have a great week!

Elder JT Moore

Pushup for Donuts

Wow another week has flown by, I am loving this area. The ward is awesome! It is definitely moving quickly into the top 3 areas of my mission. We have taught a lot of lessons. Elder França loves to teach so it has been good for me to watch him more and try to simplify and intensify my speaking at times. I am learning a lot with him. He is an awesome missionary. The other guys are way cool as well we have had some really cool conversations about things. So we have been teaching Kiane, Aiane, and Amanda, they will be getting baptized on the 27th. We have quite a few others with a lot of potential that we have also been teaching.

On Monday we had an FHE with some families in the ward, it was good. Tuesday we taught some new members some more lessons, or should I say we had them teach us what they know about different topics. We have been teaching the family members of some recent converts, so we have had some good lessons. We are working hard and having good success. We taught a lot of people this week. We taught some more lessons on Thursday and Friday. Everybody is progressing really well. I love feeling the spirit so much in a lot of our lessons. I want to make sure when I get home that I continue to do the things here on the mission so I can have the constant companionship of the spirit. On Wednesday we went out with the Bishop, counselors, and ward mission leaders. It was awesome we visited 6 people in 3 hours and taught some awesome lessons. But they were great and it just showed me how productive we can be when we plan and do the things the Lord wants us to do.

In our zone meeting I taught about consecrating all of our time and energy to the Lord. I had the missionaries do a little activity that I borrowed called “Pushup for Donuts” . It was good, and I think it helped us understand better why we are out here on the mission.

I have been studying a lot in scriptures about the sacrament and the symbolisms of the sacrament. There is a lot there that I never really understood before. How truly important it is to partake of the sacrament each week and to remember why we come to church and what our Savior truly did for us. That is the true reason we we come to church!

I love you Justin have a great time at EFY and remember to truly go to EFY searching for a spiritual experience and a question in mind and I have NO DOUBT that you WILL RECEIVE an ANSWER by the end of the week. Justin seek to have spiritual opportunities and always have something to write with to remember those moments! I love you man!

I love you so much DAD hope you had a wonderful Father's Day, and that you have an amazing BIRTHDAY! I am eternally grateful for Heavenly Father who gave me to you to be my dad and teach me and give me such a great example to follow. I love you so much! These 2 talks always remind me of you. :)

Let us be Men
Fathers

I love you guys a ton! Read the Book of Mormon article in June it’s super awesome about having 2 eyes.

Also remember to always do the little things,

Tchau,
Elder JT Moore

First week in Jardim Atlantico

I can’t believe I only have 5 weeks left on the mission. This week went by super fast. It is nice being able to just focus on the work and not have to worry about anything else. This area is awesome, it is very diverse with some really rich areas and other areas that are not as wealthy. The ward is really cool it is great it’s a big fun ward! The Bishop is awesome, he is a great man and really understands the Lord and why we are here. In the short time I have met him he has already made on impact on me here on the mission. We have been teaching the daughters of the new members that E. Cardenas and E. França baptized last week. They are doing good and have a date set for the 25th if everything goes well. They also gave us a reference to one of their sisters and her son that we are teaching as well. We also have a less active and his friend, he has been coming back to church and bringing his friend, so it is awesome. They even had us over to eat lunch the other day.

A little more on E. França, he is from Vitória da Conquista which is in the state of Bahia. He is in my group, but since he is Brazilian I didn’t really get to meet him much in the MTC. He also goes home a month later because he doesn’t have to worry about Visa. He is a great teacher and we work well together. Elder Ferriera is the DL of our house, he was trained by Elder Choate, who I trained. It has been a long time since I have been out all day proselyting and I LOVE IT! I have forgotten some of the things we did that were successful so I am trying to get back to it, what I love is this area the members help out a lot! They also feed us very well in this area! I thought I was going to lose weight this last transfer, I guess not. They are awesome about feeding us, so I am excited to be eating lunch with the members again and building those relations with them.

So yesterday at church an awesome thing happened, the first place I had lunch with a member here on the mission in Criciuma was at church, Paolo e Isidora, they were visiting her dad, who is in the stake presidency here in Florianopolis, the guy is awesome. It was so cool to see them again and talk to them, they couldn’t believe I was on my last area of the mission.

It is eye opening to be out in the field all day, I feel like I was missing a lot from being in the office. I have been just observing a lot and seeing what they are doing how the work is going. It is getting really cold here, and it is not even winter. They say it is the coldest winter they have had in awhile. It is nice though, just a long sleeve and a sweater.

Happy Fathers Day DAD! I love you!

Next Monday is your birthday you old man!

I love you guys so much!

Tchau,

Elder JT Moore

My new district E. Miranda, Me, E. Franca, and E. Ferriera

Member invited us over for a churrasco

Churrasco

With the member

Churrasco

E. Riddle you might remember this guy!

Last Transfer of the Mission

Hi All,
Well I get two Pdays this week since I am being transferred out of the office (Saturday and Monday). You guessed it right mom, I am going to Jardim Atlântico. I am going to serve with Elder França he is from Bahia, Brazil (I am taking Elder Cárdenas spot). Elder França is from my group, but he goes home one transfer after me. The other Elders in apartment are Elder Ferreira from Sao Paulo who is my grandson haha Elder Choate trained him. His companion is Elder Miranda who is also from Sao Paulo. Elder França has been practicing english and Elder Ferreira lived in the states for some time and knows english! So it should be a way fun transfer! I am really happy to get to this area, the ward is one of the best in the stake and a lot more of a family. They all like to help out with the missionary work. Elder Cárdenas did great here and worked his butt off so I am going to have big shoes to fill but I am really excited! Honestly I am excited to get out and work and truly simplify my duties on this last transfer. It stinks that Elder Cárdenas who I lived with for more then a year is going home and then I am no longer living with E. Keller who I lived with for 10 months, but I am excited though!

So Marcellus wasn’t able to go to church last week, so we moved his baptism to the 11th and Eliani is still progressing toward the 18th. Marcellus is doing great, he is living all of the commandments and doing everything he needs to do. He has great faith, we taught him to about the Sabbath day, he feels so bad that wasn’t able to go to church, but now understands how important it is to go to church. We have been teaching a bunch of other families that are progressing, that I am sad to leave. We have been working a lot with members this week, which is awesome for this area. It was a crazy week that went by really quick with getting everything ready for transfers. I am excited that Elder Aidukaitis is coming to the mission and we are having a conference with him before I leave.

So today being my last Pday in the office we ate lunch at Roseli, Amanda, and Lizzy house today because it was Elder Stahns Bday this week and because Elder Sarenz is going home and I am getting transferred. This week E. Stahn did everything in the office by himself, he dominated, so there is no need for me to be here any longer.

So from what I have heard the ward is super strong here in Jardim Atlantico and help the missionaries a ton, which makes me super happy. So Elder Cardenas and Elder França had 2 baptism on Saturday, but just baptized 2 moms for some reason. There are 3 children and a sister of one of the ladies that was baptized that they were teaching, and they also have another man who is named Marcio and I am not sure who else.

Here are some awesome talks I read this week!

Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father by Neal A. Maxwell

Desire by Dallin H. Oaks

According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts by Neal A. Maxwell

Love you guys, you are the best! Remember to do the small things!

Tchau,
Elder JT Moore

E. Cardenas going Home

E Cardenas and E Saenz

The Elders going home

My new companion E. França