Monday, January 12, 2014, Last Email from Brazil!

FAMÌLIA!!

I can´t believe I´m going to see you all in a week.  It just doesn´t seem right still, but I really am sooo excited to see you. 

I am such a believer in end of the mission miracles.  First the miracle of the lost keys.  So we lost our keys and we were all thinking for a minute that we´d be locked out all night and sleep in the woods.  We asked around to know where we could find a locksmith and everyone was telling us we wouldn´t be able to get anyone at that hour.  But we went over to the locksmith´s shop and the guy in the dog food shop next to it was closing up.  He told us the locksmith was closed but he knew where he lived so he went on his motorcycle to get him. They came back and while the locksmith was getting his stuff from the shop we invited the other guy, Tony, to go to church and marked to teach him the next day.  Well, we got back into our house, we have new locks and keys, and Tony brought his two brothers to church with him and they´re ALL THREE getting baptized on the 18th!  They had already been taught before and were just waiting for others to find them.  They live in a place where we never would have found them, so the disappearing keys brought a huge miracle.

Before Sunday the rest of the week was going super rough, lots of problems with less actives and just sad things.  And we never found Ronaldo that whole week who still needed to be confirmed.  I cried on Saturday when we passed by and he wasn´t there again.  It was just a rotten Saturday.  But Sunday rolled around and Tony and his brothers, Neto and Augosto were there.  Then, in the middle of Gospel Principles, RONALDO showed up!   And was confirmed :)  He is so crazy but I love him.  It was such a miracle.  

Paula yesterday asked me if I had to go back to the US and I told her yes, even if I wanted to stay, I can´t because of my visa.  So then she´s like ´´But you can marry Jonathan and stay!´´  haha.. I dunno, maybe you won´t be seeing me next week ;)  

I think she was joking... 

It´s gonna be an amazing week.  Today we´re gonna go on a hike with some of our recent converts.  I hope Sister Bunch gets to stay here, but with 18 Sisters leaving and 4 arriving, a lot´s gonna change.  A lot of wards are gonna get angry next week, everyone likes sisters more than elders :p 

I have no regrets at all about serving a mission.  I was never a perfect missionary and I´m still not, but I´ve learned so much about trusting the Lord and I´ve gained an unshakeable testimony of the Savior and the Book of Mormon.  I love this gospel so much and I´m excited to apply it to the real world.  I want to always live up to the way my converts see me now. I´ll miss Brazil so much.  Maybe someday we can all come back here.  Have an awesome week.  I love you all so much.

com todo o meu coração,

Sister Moore 

January 5, 2014

Querida família,

After this, you´ll only get one more email from me, then I can tell you everything in person.  I´m excited to be coming home but it just doesn´t even seem like a reality yet.  I feel like an old lady with hip and knee pain and I get really really cold in air conditioned buildings.  I would love to live by Eric until school starts and work at Wallaby´s, and Sister Sciammarella (I guess I have to start calling her Emily) wants to look at places to live with me as soon as I get out to Utah.  I feel like I can pretty much live in any conditions after the mission.  

Things are going so good, my companion is learning way faster than I did and is gonna do so many miracles in this mission.  Jonathan bore his testimony Sunday and it was really funny because he sings in a band and he got up and tested the microphone then just laid down the best, straight to the point testimony ever.  Like a pro.  I´m so proud.  Paula wants me to help her play Zelda Majora´s Mask and it´s probably the biggest temptation of my whole mission.  They are the coolest people ever.  Juliana isn´t showing any interest anymore in baptism and I think it has a lot to do with her 1 year old daughter, so she doesn´t want to go to church with her and she doesn´t pay attention in our lessons because of her.  Her kids are great, but they really need her to have a testimony as well.  Jonathan and Paula help a ton with them.  For now we need a new teaching group and we need referrals really badly.  Also pray for Ronaldo to get confirmed.  Things keep happening every week and he doesn´t go to church and it´s really making me crazy worried.

Today I was reading in the Book of Mormon about the people who started leaving the church only a few years after the signs of Christ´s birth and I thought about the missionaries who leave the church after being faithful missionaries.  If we don´t continue to be spiritual fed and progress, Satan can make our spiritual experiences in the past seem to us like just emotion and convince us to go astray even after seeing miracles, like the Nephites when the doctrine of Christ seemed like foolishness to them.  I just want everyone to know that the church is true, families can be together forever, God has called a prophet in our day and Christ has always been, still is and always will be our Savior and only perfect example to emulate in this life.  Sure, our bodies need rest but if we think for a second that our spirituality can be put on the shelf to save for later, we´ve entered where the enemy will have us to sift us as wheat.  

I´m so glad we can all be returned missionaries together.  I´m already thinking about the missionary work that needs to be done at home, baptizing and reactivating.  I´ll put some thought and prayer into my homecoming talk, and lot of thought and prayer about where I want to eat when I get home.  Not rice and beans.  I´m not sure what´ll make me super sick so probably not Cheesecake Factory.. haha

I love you all so much!!  So SOOO much!  The church is true. 

Com carinho,

Sister Moore 

December 29, 2014

Querida família,

I hope you all are enjoying being home and reflecting on the memories and lesson learned on the mission.  There really is a different kind of love you feel for people on the mission, and it´s because of the work and sacrifice you do for them.  When I get home we can all cry together about sucky normal person life.  Our Christmas Conference was basically all about how after the mission you have to continue to progress spiritually, bringing all you´ve learned into real life.  There´s no such thing as a break, you haven´t paid your dues to the church or the Savior.  Mission is a boot camp for the real challenges ahead.  

It was great to see you guys, even though I was in a house full of really loud Brazilians.  It was better when my companion was talking to her family.  She´s doing a great job adjusting and is really helpful.  It seems she always remembers the things I forget and always has insights about the work and lots of motivation to keep working hard.  

Jonathan was baptized Sunday and he looked sooo happy coming out of the water.  He really opened up a lot more during the week and is super funny and wants to serve a mission.  I love his sister too, Paula, who we reactivated.  She´s the only person I´ve met in Brazil who plays Zelda Majora´s Mask.  They are so cool, like I would best friends with them outside the mission.  I know they´re gonna help so much with references and teaching with us.  

Did I tell you already about Deleon and Juliana?  Well, they broke up and Deleon moved to Mamanguape, which means he won´t be there to argue with us in our lessons and we can baptize Juliana and her kids!!  It was seriously a miracle.  He took the Book of Mormon in English and Portuguese with him so hopefully he´ll read and gain a testimony someday.  Juliana is good friends with Paula and Jonathan, so they´ll help her a lot.  Right now she´s a little hesitant about baptism but she keeps the commandments and all we need is one really good spiritual lesson with her.  Pray for her and her kids, Ikaro and Isaac.  

Funny story.  We cleaned out our house and threw out a ton of books that no one will ever use and left them on the corner where they collect the trash.  So Felipe, who lives close by, saw Preach my Gospel on the ground and saw that it was from the church and took it home to start reading.  He just asked us ´´Do you guys have like a guidebook?´´ and then pulls out PMG.  We marked a part for him to read about Eternal Marriage and challenged him to ask Paula on a date because they´re perfect for each other.  I think we´re allowed to do that?  Either way he accepted our challenge.  hehehe..  We told the Branch President we´d help get everyone in the branch married.  Trunky.  

My AP´s are Elder Morais and Elder Alves. What´s the name of the missionary who knows one of them?

 Everything´s going great in the Cidade Enoque.  I don´t want to say goodbye, but I´m excited to see you all, especially Lucy. Show her pictures of me so she doesn´t forget who I am.  I love you all so much!  Have a great 2015!!

Um abraço,

Sister Moore