"Cutting the Grass" & "Taught Him the Steps of Prayer"

I saw Elder Armstrong, my CCM companion, at Zone Conference!

April 29, 2019

Well, we started trying to work with the couple I talked about last week some more, but they still say no to baptism.  He is reading!! But, they didn’t come to church today.  Last week we went over to his house for an hour and helped him literally “cut the grass” in a little plot of land he has behind his house. I put it in quotations because we literally had a machete and chopped the weeds and grass.  It was so much fun.

We contacted a woman that evening right before we were gonna head back to the pension (apartment). We went to her house a couple days later and talked to her and her husband. They have a very Catholic background. I think they have about 65ish years.  We had a pretty good lesson.  Then we went back with Ema a couple days later. They had read 3 Nephi 11! But, he was kinda like, “hey, all churches are good,” and honestly I kinda wasn’t sure what to do/say. I looked at Ema and he kinda sat there for second then took over. After a couple of very good questions, they started opening up a little more.  At the end of the lesson we asked the husband to say the oration (prayer) and we taught him the steps. In his prayer he was literally just talking to his Heavenly Father, and he said something to the affect of, “Father if this is your path and you want us to get baptized again, we are open to your will.” It was so cool!

The pics I’m sending are from Zone Conference. Gotta go family! Love you all!

Elder Moe

Alanoca

Vickery

Galvez

Pipa

"Kids..., Lean to Cook Before the Mission"

Wallace, Vickery, Ema, Alanoca and Moe

April 22, 2019

That looks so fun!!!!! I love the pics with you guys and Adam, that made me so happy!

HOLY SMOKES HUNTER!!!! 

To Hunter: Holy smokes dude nice work with the pole vaulting!!!!!!!! You are keeping the family legacy going strong!! 10’6” was my PR my freshman year and you are only in the 8th grade! That is sweet dude! Keep working at it, pole vaulting is so nice because it is super fun and it’s chill. All the kids that play basketball and football and stuff waste SO SO much time practicing, but pole vaulting is a lot more chill and fun. Keep up the good work man! I want to see some more videos.

I have reached the point in my mission when I am really learning how to cook haha. Kids…, learn how to cook stuff before you leave on your mission. I have done some experiments with pasta that usually turns out pretty good, rice is putting me through the ringer though. I’m still learning how to get some good rice. One of our adventures this week was oven vegetables. Today for lunch we had oven potatoes, onions, carrots and sausage. It was pretty good, Elder Vickery put in some spicy seasoning that had no flavor but was super spicy. So I was hiccupping pretty good and my mouth burned a little but it was good! I also tried to make arroz con leche, it could have been better, but it was alright for my first time!

Elder Wallace left with transfers! We now have Elder Harrup from... Utah. He is a cool guy; I like him. He is actually on his last transfer in the mission! He bought a waffle maker from another missionary and has maple extract from the US so we made WAFFLES!!!! The syrup is the key and mmmmmm it is good. If I were at home it wouldn’t be a big deal at all, but for the mission they are nice. 

We had Easter lunch with a family from the ward and it was awesome! Their son is a return missionary of a few months and he has a younger sister who is 16 and they were arguing and messing with each other so much, it reminded me of Becca and I. It was super fun being there. 

Right now we are teaching a family and they have been to church twice!! They haven’t accepted a baptismal date yet despite our invitations, but they are reading the Book of Mormon and I know they are going to accept the gospel. He left school and started working when he was 10 to help provide for his family, so he can’t read very well, but he is practicing with the Book of Mormon. It was such an awesome experience being able to read the Book of Mormon with them as a family! Pray that they will have desires to get baptized!!! 

Love you family!!!

We got caught in the rain

My arroz con leche

Tub before and after I scrubbed it

If you want to see Preston's video and you are getting his emil from the blog subscription, you need to click on the blue link down there that says, "Elder Preston Moe in the Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission." It will take you to the web version of his blog where you can watch the videos.

VIDEO: Oven Fries

Watching Conference in Minecraft Mode

April 8, 2019

The O family is a family that Elder Wallace and Vickery found in their first week here in JCP. Actually, Elder Albrechtsen and his last companion had knocked their door but they said no to them. They are such an amazing family! They always make us such good food and have all four of us over to their house. They have fed us more times than any one member here in the ward, and they brought us brownies to eat during conference! This Friday they got married, and Sunday, in between sessions, they got baptized! It was so amazing, I love them so much. Hermano O speaks almost perfect English so we always joke in English with him. I spoke on the Holy Ghost at the baptism. 

We have been so excited for conference, we watched it in minecraft mode because the connection was really bad and it cut out frequently. As everyone knows there were plenty of rumors going around about changes that were going to be made, especially changes to missionary service. (A few of those rumors being shared by very credible sources)  So all of us missionaries were very much on edge for conference. We gringos had a smart TV set up in a separate room in the church and were watching the conference in English by a YouTube stream. I sent a picture of us watching in one of the classrooms. Well, the connection isn’t always the best so the conference periodically cut out or stalled for short periods of time... Very stressful periods of time.

Saturday passed, no changes.

Sunday morning, no changes.

The Sunday afternoon session arrived and we all anxiously awaited the Prophet’s turn to speak. President Eyring announced that the prophet would be the concluding speaker and a spine tingling chill went through everyone in the room. During Elder Rasband’s talk, the connection was buffering a lot and we were all super nervous it was going to stop working. The connection smoothed out a little bit and the prophet got up to speak and all of us were sitting on the edge of our seats. After one minute of the prophet speaking, boom! "connection lost" The TV screen went black. We were all flipping out, "NO NO NOOOOOOO" "Get it back, get it back!!!!!!" 

Obviously nothing crazy happened, but we were all quite on edge. What I learned from this is that maybe we should focus a little less on the "changes" going on in the church, and more on the beautiful doctrine and messages that were shared in the conference. We need to focus on doing the simple things in the home to convert ourselves to our Savior Jesus Christ. I loved Homer´s, Holland´s, Renlund, and Uchdorf’s talks. Truthfully, I loved all of conference!!! 

To answer your question about retrieving my drying garments that blew off our porch last week to the canopy of the porch below us… I taped the broom and mop together and stuck half my body out the kitchen window and was barely able to reach it hahaha, that was a crazy morning. I also dropped a banana covered in dulce de leche on the floor that morning, that sucked.

I love you family!!!

"Don't Be Afraid to Offend"

April 1, 2019

Hola family and friends! This week we visited a couple that Elder Albrechtsen and I had taught a few times, back when we were companions, but then kinda dropped them because they didn’t come to church.  I felt like we should visit them again and so did Hermano Santander.  Well, the Lord put the husband in our path on Saturday and we were able to go visit them that night.  They came to church today!!

Flipping Sebastian went fishing with his friend again and didn’t come to church… :-/

I am so overly excited for conference! We have been listening to the tabernacle choir in the pension and I absolutely love it.

My testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown more in these past two months than in my entire life. A regular daily study of the Book of Mormon is essential and is by far my favorite hour of the day.  

In my interview with President last transfer, he asked me about the difference between having a testimony and being converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He asked me if I was converted to Jesus Christ.  I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently, and with my efforts in preaching the gospel and my study of the Book of Mormon, I have been coming to the conclusion that yes, I am converted.

We had an experience this week that confirmed my feelings and thoughts, and now I can say yes.  The R family are inactive members of the church that were sealed in the temple and everything.  We had lunch with them once at the beginning of the transfer.  We have been trying to work a lot with less actives recently.  So we visited them with Ema Santander.

One thing I have come to realize in my recent study of the Book of Mormon is that the missionaries/prophets were cast into prison and thrown out of cities and even killed because they did not fear offending people with the gospel and commandments of Jesus Christ.  So, I took a look at myself and realized that I have a lot of fear in offending people. I often use “nicer” words or “softer phrases” to say what should be said bluntly and truthfully.  I have been praying for help in changing that.

We went into their house and sat down, the sister gave us some leftover cake they had, we talked tranquilo for a few minutes and then I started talking and testified of modern day prophets and invited them to make it out to conference.  The brother then asked why was the Prophet meeting with the Pope and whatever.  It was evident he had let some doubts take root.  Ema spoke up about the topic and then re-extended the invitation to conference that the brother had avoided.  “No!” he exclaimed, “Honestly no. I’m lost right now to tell you the truth. I’m lost.”

I can’t remember exactly what he said, but he ended up saying something about how the Book of Mormon has a lot of errors.  At this point, he and Ema had engaged in what was becoming an intense argument. Ema responded, “There may be errors and if there are they are the errors of man.” Then they continued.  But that was it, I basically had to shout over both of them to get their attention. After a mandate from his wife, the brother finally shut his mouth and looked at me.  I heard a voice in my head that said, “Don’t be afraid to offend.”

I looked him in the eyes and said, “No hay errors in este libro” (There are no errors in this book). “No hay” I said again.  “If you don’t want to be lost brother, stop searching stuff on the internet and read this book.”

He started to shout something to contradict me but was hushed by his wife.  “Don’t be afraid to offend,” I heard again.  “You have these doubts in your head because you have been staying at home on Sunday and not coming to church and you have given room for Satan to plant these ideas in your head.” 

In that moment of his anger and arguments, I was able to feel the spirit testify to me that the things I had said were true.  The spirit was there in that moment, but this poor man had let Satan get such a gold of his heart that when he felt it, and I know he did, it made him mad.

Brothers, Sisters and Family, Satan wants to have hold on you.  He will try and place doubts in your head to deter you.  Root your faith in the Book of Mormon, a book without error that teaches us of our Savior Jesus Christ. Strengthen that faith by going to church and taking the sacrament. Jesus was only in America for a few short days and in those days he did “break bread oft, and bless[ed] it…” 3 Nephi 26:13

In only a few short days they took the sacrament often. We only get the opportunity once a week, and that is an opportunity that can not be missed. Don’t miss even a single week.

The Book of Mormon is the most correct book on earth and you can grow nearer to God by reading this book than by any other book.  I know that Christ lives and that this is His church. He loves you. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

My clean shirt hanging outside to dry got bird pooped on...