Moore on a Mission in Florianopolis, Brazil: Discovering Diamonds and Rubies

The work is going great here in Joaçaba, we are teaching a ton of lessons and have a bunch of investigators that are progressing. We honestly are working our butts off and it's paying off. My companion and I get along really well, we mess around and joke, but we also know when to work and both duplas (companionships) had great weeks this week! We work super hard all day teaching lessons and climbing hills, I am literally exhausted both physically and mentally at the end of the day. When we come home at night it doesn’t take long for me to crash, as soon as my head hits the pillow I am out!

We had 4 investigators at church last week. Next week I am really excited to see what happens with people in church.

I have been studying Alma 10 and 11. In our recent zone conference President trained us on studying the scriptures. He likened it to digging or excavating. When someone is digging you can find some pretty cool things, and just like the scriptures when we are reading the scriptures quickly we are going to find a couple of really cool "rocks" maybe a piece of gold here and there. But when we focus on one area maybe just a "verse” and dig very deep there! Like super deep (Truly study the scriptures)! We can find the diamonds and rubies that are hidden in each verse. The scriptures are like a ground filled with precious rocks "Doctrine and principles". The more we dig in a specific area, we will find those diamonds and rubies and not so much the simpler ones. Granted at times some verse have a diamond on the top of the ground, but that just means the more we dig in that area that we will find that much more! The president has truly shown me how to study the scriptures. You need to learn patience with it too, because when we were doing companion study one time it took 30 minutes to read 2 verses. The more effort we put in the more we get out. Also take advantage of the footnotes. We don’t have them in other languages, but we do in english, so use them. You will increase your understanding a whole lot more!

I have been studying this talk it is super awesome! It is "The challenge to become" by Elder Oaks. Listen to it!

I had a personal experience this week with the power of pray, it definitely showed me the power of pray and how God answers our prayers. We had been traveling by bus and I had fallen asleep on the bus, when it was time for us to get off I hurried up and gathered my things and got off. We went to some lessons and went home for the night. The next morning I realized that my white book with my money, paper visa, and bank card was missing. I immediately started praying, I prayed really hard and with real sincerity. We looked all around the apartment, then I had this feeling to call the bus station, thinking that maybe it slid out of my pocket on the bus while I was asleep. I prayed a lot, very humble prayers, I am not sure where that bus had gone to, but a half an hour after I called they had found my white book it was in another city at the end of the bus route. I prayed and I prayed that everything would be in it. Later that day we headed to the bus station to pick my white book, and it had all of the money and cards in it. Heavenly Father really strengthened my testimony of the power of prayer.

Love you all,

Elder Moore