November 17, 2015- You Can Do It!

WOW this week was amazing.

So Monday was full of amazing things, we got to see Kristin again and talk to her about the Book of Mormon. The first thing she said when we handed it to her was, "wow, I'm going to read this!"

Yay! Kristin is amazing. :)

We also got to go meet Patricia. She has been meeting with missionaries for 8+ years. She knows the Book of Mormon is true and wants to be a member of the church, but says she just doesn't know if she can commit to coming every Sunday because of her schedule. Patricia! We invited her to be baptized, and there are a few other things that are concerns for her, but we feel so much hope for her to have this blessing in her life sometime soon! :)

Tuesday we had a sisters conference in Portsmouth. All the sisters in our mission in Virginia came, and I got to see *almost* all of my previous companions who are still out! (Sister Allred is still in NC) That made me so happy. :) At one point in the conference, President Baker addressed us, and he spoke about the concept of just having a little humor. To laugh and to see the humor in every day life. It was amazing. :) He told us some jokes and everything. To laugh instead of getting mad, or feeling bitter. To laugh if we mess up. It's okay! Life goes on. :)

That night we met with a less-active family (M's) who are so amazing! Their son turned 8 this summer and we committed him to be baptized on December 19th. His family is so excited! They are wonderful people and we are so excited for them to return to church again and have all the blessings that comes from church attendance. There is an amazing Mormon message on mormonchannel.org that talks about how consistent light (aka church, praying, reading) doesn't seem to make much of a difference on sapling's growth day-to-day, but over time shows a discernible difference in size between a tree that had consistent light and one that did not. It is the same with church! It is the same with us! Our faith and hope and trust in Christ, our testimonies, and our joy is like that tree. I know it! I love it. :)

Wednesday was wonderful too. We met the W's and got to chat with them and get to know them. He has two kids, Tiffany and Shane, who have not been baptized. They are in their 20's. We shared the Book of Mormon with them and they were interested and wanted to know more!

Thursday was silly. :) We had a return appointment with a lady who refused to tell us her name. We didn't think she would actually be there...We for some reason went two hours early. She answered the door and said, "It's not three!" and closed it again. Hahaha. So we went back and shared the Restoration with her.

 Her name is Gail and she is super funny. She said she knew everything we shared was true, but wasn't willing to pray about it, meet with us again, or "commit to anything." Interesting. She knows the choice she needs to make, but she just wants to think about it. We invited her to be baptized, but again she said she didn't want to commit.

Friday was district meeting, which is always great. And then we saw the F's like we do every Friday. :) Brother F is loving his new job. We talked with them about the example of Ammon.

That night, we had exchanges, and Sister Kunzler came here to be with me! Wow! It was so fun. :) While walking in to the apartment we saw a guy working on his motorcycle so we stopped to talk with him. We said "hi, how are you doing?" and the first thing he said was "All right, all right already, I will go get my phone right now and watch the video!"

His name is Mike and we've actually met and talked with him multiple times, haha. To our credit, he had a motorcycle helmet on, and I remembered his name after we started talking with him. So we watched "Because He Lives" right there on his phone outside in the cold. He liked it. He had lots of questions for us. He said if he was around he'd actually like to talk with us. Wow! The miracles of following up!!

Saturday, Sister Stoecker invited us to come to the Farmer's Market. So Sister Kunzler and I went and there were so many people to talk to we didn't know what to do with ourselves! We walked around, talking with people, and inviting them to hear our message. It was fun, because we had lots of meaningful, good conversations with people. We met two guys named Ronny and Will who had come down for the antique farmer's market from New York. We also met two gals in one of the shops who were visiting from Virginia Beach, and they said they'd love to watch the video we left with them. It was a fun, yet tiring day! Sister Kunzler and I had to sample the Dill Pickle Peanuts because, after all, we served in the pickle capital of NC together. :D

They weren't half bad, just a little spicy.

That night, we exchanged back (after eating a ridiculous amount of Bojangles chicken...) and Sister Lundquist and I went and saw the Evers. So we didn't have an appointment for the nighttime so we called them and asked if we could come see them. At first she said it wouldn't work out, maybe another night. Then later she called us back and said actually, yes, we could come. So we went. As we were pulling up, Elder Hatfield literally had his hand in the air to knock on their door. "WAIT!" We shouted. "We have an appointment!"

We felt kinda bad...but what are you gonna do, you know?

we love the Evers! We shared a message on the Book of Mormon, and Tyler said, "actually, on Friday I was talking to my friends on the bus about what we believe and my friend Daily seemed interested so I said I would get her a Book of Mormon."

...WOW!

So we gave him one to give away and it was so cool. Sister Evers was like "Heavenly Father definitely knew we needed a message tonight because I felt prompted to call you back. Perhaps it was just so Tyler could have a copy to give away!"

Heavenly Father is amazing! I love Him. :)

Yesterday was really neat, one of the general authorities came and visited our mission. We had a huge conference in Virginia Beach. We met in the Kempsville chapel, my first building! Ah, the memories! I was so excited and happy as we drove into town. "So-and-so lives down this road!" I kept saying to Sister Lundquist. "That's nice...?" she would say. Hahaha :) It was so fun.

Well I love ya'll so much!!! Have a wonderful week!

Keep on keeping on!

Oh, and so the title of my email. We went to shake Elder Arnold's hand at the end of the conference and he looked me right in the eyes and said "You can do it." These men truly are called of God, I know it! I love this work, it is the Lord's work. I hope ya'll see the hand of the Lord in your lives today and look for opportunities to share this gospel, that makes us so happy, with others!

Sister Moore