Ask with Faith, and get out of your comfort zone, and things happen!

So this was a great week in Floripa! Kind of chaotic and hectic at times, but overall a very successful week. It is finally getting cold here in Floripa. I am loving the weather right now! We are still getting the house together, furniture is being delivered and installed. Everything is getting into place, today should be the last day to put together everything and organize the place, certinho. It is a nice place and super close to the office.

Tuesday was the Chaotic crazy day with Elders and Sisters heading home. One flight was canceled, so we had to switch flights at the last minute. Another Elder had a few issues with connecting flights but it was find in the end. Then another Elder heading to El Salvador got “lost” in the Sao Paulo airport, so we worked with his family and our travel agency there in Sao Paulo to make changes to his flight and find him in the airport. It was a crazy morning, lots of phone calls, lots of changes to flights, but in the end everything worked out and everybody got home.

So Elder Stahn is awesome and we are getting along super well and totally killing it in the office and doing the work outside the office. He is from Idaho Falls, Idaho, he played football and did dance. He is learning the office job quickly and allowing us to get out to do work. We have been finding some great investigators with loads of potential and are doing great with that. Also the people we already are teaching are progressing very well! It is awesome! Faith is the key to get anything! That is what I have been learning a ton we need to have faith and just run behind it and the Lord will help us get it. It’s super simple!
1. Ask with Faith to God
2. Run behind what you asked for and get out of your comfort zone
3. It Happens!!!!!!!!!
The work is going awesome, in fact we have a ton of appointments today so we are going to cut Pday short to be able to visit everyone. We have been also trying to get out of our comfort zone this week and we walked "7 steps" out of our comfort zone and found this huge family that all accepted to be baptized. Also Urallen and Rosi said they will get baptized (just have to get married first). Also Marcellus said he wants to get baptized. It was an awesome week!

So the new word I learned this week was altruista = selfless. Still learning every week. So the funny thing that happened this week happened on Friday. Good thing I learned and got in the habit to take showers in the night time, because this didn’t happen to me, but everybody else in the house. So on Friday morning before the district meeting the power went out and Elder Keller, Salomão and Stahn had to take showers with cold water. They were all working out before hand so they would be all hot and sweaty before they jumped in the cold shower. Elder Stahn was singing “Eye of the Tiger” before he turned on the water and when he turned on the water he stopped singing immediately, it was super funny we all died laughing.

Dile a tía Mari Fe Feliz Cumpleaños de mi parte! Dile que la amo y echo de menos a todas ellos.

I can’t wait to talk and see all of you in a week. Let’s plan on doing hangouts at 3 pm Floripa time. I am so excited!

So, I honestly don't know how life is on a day to day basis at home, but during these two years here the weekly emails are always interesting. It is kinda like reading the Book of Mormon, with a family that has its high and lows. I can imagine it being close to the end of the school year, work, sports, and the business of things day to day can be stressful. But if there is one thing I have learned during my time on the mission that I truly want to apply when I get home is the importance of doing the little things. I wrote a talk that I used on the importance of doing the little things. When you study the Book of Mormon it totally shows the importance of doing the little things and how when the people did the little things that they were blessed! Keeping the commandments, praying, scripture study, church, temple, hard work, charity, patience, those were the things that made the Nephites flourish at the beginning of the BOM and that is what can make our family flourish. I can see on the mission when I am paying attention to the small details my days run a lot smoother, without so much turbulence. I love Pres. Uchtdorf's talk on the importance of keeping and living the Gospel in a simple way. Remember to always smile because 2 Nephi 39:9 (The scripture I have been pondering this week. Spiritually Minded Is Life Eternal, while physically minded is death.

Always smile and remember how many blessings the Lord has given us and that we live in an amazing country where the church is strong and we live very comfortable lives. We have the true gospel of Jesus Christ, with the knowledge and certainty of many questions that others fear or do not even want to take the time to think about. We have a family that is sealed in the temple. We have a Savior who loves us very much, who suffered all the pains we will ever face and is there to help us every step of the way. We have a Heavenly Father who really does loves us and gives us so much.

I am so grateful for my awesome family, remember to always do the little things!

Love you tchau!

Elder Moore

Urallen and Rosi at church

Everton and Cleide

Irmao Arsene

Lunch at Irma Roseli, Lizzy and Amanda

Last lesson with Elder Cardenas, Paulo, Suellen, Ana Victoria

One of the soccer teams in Floripa

One of their rivals

A little fruit called acerola, so good and grows a lot her

Elder Dos Anjos heading home

Elder Funes heading home

Sister Silva getting things ready for the missionaries heading home

My new companion Elder Stahn

Happy Birthday to the Best Mom a son could every ask for!

First Happy Birthday Mom!!! I love you sooooo much! Thank you for everything you have taught me. I hope and pray that I am blessed with a wife as good as you are! Thank you so much for your example and all the advice you have given me before and out here on the mission. Thank you for always teaching me the importance of loving people and focusing on people not just numbers. You are the best, I love you!

So this week was going great with missionary work, until we had to take a couple of days (Thursday and Friday) to move into our new home. We are now in a house that is literally 1 minute walking on your hands to the office. We are on the same street just 5 houses down. We are pretty much moved in but we are still ironing out the wrinkles, but it is good. There will be eight of us living there, I am excited that the E. Keller and Salomão will be living with us. It should really help spark the ward and missionary work.

So Urallen, Rosi, Samele and Alice are doing great! They came to church on Sunday and loved it. We visited them with members this week and it was really good. Rosi reads everything we leave with her. Urallen it's a little harder for him to read, but he has a memory that is ridiculous he completely understood the Restoration of the Priesthood, Joseph Smith, and the importance of prophets. They are awesome! He is a security guard at an apartment and works from 7pm to 7 am and it’s every other day. He still made it to sure even though he worked all night. Is works again today, but said he is going to work hard to be at church again! They are great. Paulo and Suellen and Anna Vitoria are doing good, we talked this week about the importance of having goals and temple marriage. They are doing good. We are going to try and have a FHE with Daniel and Leilane tomorrow. Magno, Niza,Enzo, Nadia, Nida, and Luis are doing great. We are going to work hard to get them to church tomorrow. We have a lot of other families we are teaching and we have worked hard to find a new investigator per day. It has been a great experience! The Lord has definitely blessed us with finding great families.

Yesterday at the District meeting I dressed up as a "Gator", because E. Betts told me in the states the missionaries give investigators the term gators. We talked about how a gator doesn't move unless it has a motive and if we are like the crocodile hunter and find them and poke them (invite them) then they will move and progress. It was super embarrassing but YOLO, all the missionaries liked it and it got the point across, so that's what is important.

Mom please tell Yayo and Yaya how much I love them and how grateful I am que ellos me ayudaron estar aquí en el mission. Yo soy muy agradecido por estar aquí. Yo sólo gustaría pedir una cosas de ellos. Que ellos piden a los missionarios y escuchan a el mensaje de ellos sobre el Plan de Salvación y cómo ellos pueden tener con certeza sobre una familia eterna que nos tenemos. Yo amo mucho a ellos, diles gracias por criar una hija y mama maravillosa que tengo para siempre. I love them sooo much!

So transfers are on Monday, and President is sending me out to Prato Branco. Haha just kidding, So I am staying here and I am going to train Elder Stahn! He is from Idaho super cool guy. E. Keller knew him in Chapecó at the beginning of the mission and said he is a cool so that will be awesome! I am sad Elder Cárdenas is leaving, however he is going to be my ZL in Jardim Atlantico, so he is close by and I will still see him a ton. It's crazy I have been living/serving with him for more than 1 year! Crazy stuff! He is such a an awesome Elder and I am going to miss him. Elder Sierras and Elder Mendes are going to be companions, Elder Sáenz is going to train Elder Machin an Elder from Uruguay. Elder Keller and Elder Salomão will stay together! It's going to be 8 in the house! Super crazy and lots of fun!

I am excited to work with Elder Stahn, we are going to work super hard, he seems super cool so I am stoked! I don't know if I will stay here for the 2 transfers that I have left or go somewhere near on the last one. We will see?

So one thing I really enjoyed studying this week was that our principal 2 purposes as missionaries is prepare to have the spirit present in teaching and invite the investigator to follow commitments! So that was really good and it makes it a lot simpler.

The new word I learned this week was Broca = Drill!

Dad thanks for sending me the info on the NFL draft. I feel so out of it, but it feels great! Oh and when did this Los Angeles Rams thing happen, what happened to St. Louis????

Well got to go, busy day today, since we didn’t get much missionary work done the last two days because of moving.

Do the little things to improve each day!
Families are forever!

Love you all,
Tchao,
Elder JT Moore

Last night in our Apartment with the great views

Last night in our Apartment with the great views

Office get together

Our new home by the mission office

First lunch in the new crib

The key to missionary work - "Always find new families to teach"

So it’s been a busy week, transfers are a week early this month because of visa issues, so it will only be a 5 week transfers. There are 12 missionaries leaving this transfer (10 Elders and 2 Sisters) and only 2 sisters coming. So that means 5 areas where missionaries are will be closing or become part of another companionship's area. I am a little sad, because Elder Cardenas might be leaving, I have loved being his companion for so long.

We are still going to the LAN house on P-Days to email you, since they are doing work in the office on Saturdays. We are doing a good job of getting stuff done in the office so we can get out and work. I have the visa stuff down now, and I get all of my stuff done quickly so I can help out the other Elders in the office so we can get out sooner.

We are also finishing up looking for a place to move to so the APs can move in with us and we will have room for Elders that are coming to Floripa. It looks like we are going to move to a house like just down the road from the office. We are going to move sometime between Tuesday and Thursday. I really like the place we are at, it is really nice amazing views of the bridge and the ocean, but in the new house we will have a lot more space and it is closer to the office. We will lose the amazing views, but it's all good. I'm also excited to move into the new house and have E. Keller and E. Salomão with us, it's going to be fun for sure!

So this week we have been working hard to find new families, and it is super awesome. Last week we found 8 new families to teach and this week 6 so far. We are teaching Urellen and Rosi with Sameli and Alice. They are doing great they are going to church this week and Rosi said she read and felt the peace and happiness! Magno and Neuza with Enzo, we are going to teach them today! They researched a little and have a lot of potential with great questions. Neuza talked about after we had left her and her mom, she felt a calmness and happiness so that was awesome for them to recognize the spirit! We keep working to find new families and every time we ask in our prayers the Lord truly answers them! We had a mini division yesterday and Elder Cárdenas and Elder Mendes found this super cool family from Rio Grande do Sul and they have a little son too and were super receptive and nice! So we just gotta keep praying and searching and knocking (Matthew 7:7-8). Justin here is a math problem for you with the answer and the key thing I have learned here on the mission is that you need to be constantly trying to find new families to teach. The more you find, the more probability you have to teach, the more you teach the more probability you have to baptize.

I have been trying to come up with modern parables, I love it, it is awesome way to teach. I have been reading The Parables by James E. Talmage, they are awesome. Please read them.

The mission is such an awesome time. It is such a blessing to have our mission president so close and get to talk to him almost every day about anything, it is pretty cool and a big time blessing! It is amazing how true it is that when we ask for something that is in line with the will of God how he will ALWAYS give it to us. Also how true this church is. One thing I was talking about with President is that sometimes we have to look at the difference in things to see which one is better and the difference that our church has like Eternal Families, Book of Mormon, Temple Baptism, Plan of Salvation, our view on the Fall, Prophets and Apostles are so amazing and help us know which is the Christ's church on the earth!

I know I have a lot of work still to do here, but thanks for sending me the quote dad.
"You will shed more tears when you leave to go home than you shed when you left home to come here." - Gordon B. Hinckley

I look at it and I feel I am being pulled, on one side I am so excited to see you guys, but at the same time the Mission is such an awesome time and I don’t want it to ever end!

Keep praying for us to find families and for you guys to have missionary opportunities!
Remember to do the little things, go to the Temple this week! Read the Book of Mormon Daily!

Families are Eternal!!

Tchau,
Elder JT Moore