Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Cody's News 3/28/2011

Hey there everyone!
So this week went pretty good!! We finally have a ward mission leader and he is really excited to get to work. We received a reference from the sisters here in Curico and when we contacted it we found Malva, she is really awesome and loves The Book of Mormon already because we gave one to her on our first visit. She is a widow and since she felt lonely she smoked 4 packs of cigarettes a day. And by Saturday night she was down to 4 a day so she has made a really big improvement, she didn't come to church this week because some friends invited her out to some place that is pretty cool to visit. She is coming back Sunday morning so we are going to try and wrap her into the last session of General Conference. We still don't have anyone to teach from the members, but the zone of missionaries came on Saturday and did a bunch of contacts with us. So hopefully we have some good results from that. Oh and so Malva we gave her a Book of Mormon the first night and since she is old and blind in one eye I asked her if she could read it, and she lied and told me that she could read small print, well when we went back the next day she told us that she had lied but the fact was she was able to read the size of the print in the book of mormon for some reason. And what she had read she absolutely loved so she is pretty excited to get baptized now. So that is fantastic!! yay!!
love
--
Elder Cody Moss

Amber's News 3/28/2011

Ahola,
My hair is doing well. You can't even tell that anything happened. It's growing. Actually it is getting pretty long! Yesterday we had Manuel and Faviola in church. We started teaching Manuel english like two months ago. Then they started asking us questions about the church and now we are teaching them. This last week they surprised us because I asked Manuel in english what he was going to do Saturday and he told me and then I asked him what he was going to do Sunday and he said go to church and I said where are u going to go to church and he said in lo ovalle (that is where our church is) I said in our church and he said yes!!! It was awesome. So we haven't taught them very much yet but they came to church. So we haven't taught them the word of wisdom and they are chimneys. They are always smoking. After sacrament they had to smoke so they went out to smoke but I didn't want them to be away from us because sometimes the members say offensive things to people. So I talked with them about sacrament meeting while they smoked they liked it a lot. Then we went back in and we had our other class. But then I smelled like smoke it probably wasn't a good idea to talk with them when they were doing that. But then they didn't notice all of the people looking at them weirdly cuz I was talking to them. But 1st we hadn't taught the word of wisdom yet and it was their first time going to church. So the next time they come to church they will know and they will have been once so we can wait inside. But they loved church they thought it was really great. We have a lesson with them today. We are going to finish teaching the plan of salvation. They have a ton of good question it is awesome. We are also going to invite them to be baptized on the 24 of April. I'm really, really excited for them. Then we found another couple that are named Juan and Jazmin. They are awesome we have only taught them once but it was a really great lesson. We also have a appointment with them tonight. I'm pretty excited.

We found an old folks home in our sector there are like a million old ladies and 3 people that help them. It is really sad. So we visited them and sang a few songs. We have four little grandma friends there. I feel so bad for them because they live in horrible conditions.

This morning I was studying about how to teach people and not lessons. So we are trying to focus on the needs of our investigators and not just what we want to teach them. It was really interesting. It talked about following the spirit it talked about asking questions listening, discerning their needs and then teaching them according to that. Lately I have been learning how to do that correctly. It is really interesting. Lately by asking these
questions I can see their doubts and what they don't believe then I can focus on that and help them understand it.

A mission sure isn't easy but I'm working to help these people choose to follow Christ.
One thing I have learned lately is how important when u are married it is to have someone that also believes
the same things as you that also has the same desires that you have and that loves the church just as much
as you do. If your not married to someone that has the same desires as you it makes it pretty hard. You have to do
everything alone. I have been grateful for all of the experiences I have been having and all of the things that
I have been able to learn.
Have a great week. Love,
Hrnm Moss

Monday, March 21, 2011

Cody's News 3/21/2011


Hola,
Well nothing much happened this week, we talked with a lot of people and then ...... in the end we found no one. The mission has a goal of 140 contacts for every companionship but Elder Thomas and I have made that for the past 2 weeks and we pretty much have nothing to show for it but a bunch of people that told us to go to their house. When we go they don't want to hear anything. We are probably going to have to go up and beyond that.
We are just going to have to put our "shoulders to the wheel and push along" so things get moving. We have the ward behind us which was something that we didn't have before. Now we just need people to teach.
Pray for us. So we can find people who are ready for the gospel.
Oh hey a sister in our ward is a baker so I gave her the brownie recipe, (A while ago I had sent Cody our families favorite brownie recipe.) because I told her that I had a really good one, and then I told her that I will be expecting brownies every time I eat lunch at her house. (The ingredients are expensive in Chile but Cody said that she was going to make and sale them. We will see how brownies turn out in Chile=)

Love,
Elder Moss

Amber's News 3/21/2011

Hola!

Brian received the Holy Ghost this week!!!! We were pretty excited for him. He said that he felt really good to recieve it.
This week we have a lot of great plans to find people to teach. We have one lady that we are teaching named Paola.
It has been kind of hard with her. I'm not exactly sure what she is looking for or wants. She says she is looking.
But she doesn't really act like it. She is kinda of cold to us but will sit and listen to everything and when we ask her
questions she answers. So we are working on finding out what her doubts are.

Wow that tremor was pretty strong this last week. It was so weird cuz the house that we were in started moving. It is a really crazy feeling. So everything started moving back and forth in a circle it lasted almost a minute. But after I felt sick. It made me all dizzy and my head hurt. After a few minutes I felt ok again. We had talked with a few people about the other earthquake and they talked about how it just throws you around and you can't even walk around. A lot of them said the best thing to do was to sit on the ground. We are doing good now there was one other tremor the next morning it wasn't as strong actually I didn't feel it cuz I was getting dress. I only knew that it was happening cuz Hna Dinsdale started yelling at me.

We had an awesome contact this week. We were walking along and I felt like I should talk to this girl. So I started talking to her and she said oh I'm busy and was going to keep on walking but I gave her one of our church cards that has a picture of Christ coming down from Heaven with all of the angels on the front. She looked at it and said can I ask U a question I said yes. She said what does this picture mean for you. So I explained that it was Christ's second coming. She asked us when it would be and we said that we didn't know but we just have to prepare ourselves for when he comes. She told us that she wanted to prepare for it and the Jehovah Witnesses were teaching her but she wanted to learn more about our church too. She said that she went to visit a friend but she wasn't there so she was walking back to her house and had the thought that God wasn't very happy with her. Then we started talking to her. She expressed that she was looking for the truth and that she had already changed a lot. We talked about how she could know what the truth was and that was through prayer. I gave her a pamphlet of the restoration and talked about the importance of having a prophet today. How important it is to get guidance from God today. How much this could bless her life. Then Hna Dinsdale pulled out a Book of Mormon and wrote her testimony in it and gave it to
her and told her that she could read this book, pray and ask God if it was true and that she would know that what we were saying was true. The spirit was really strong in this contact and she said that talking about this gave her goosebumps and that it made her really excited. So we testified of the Holy Ghost and how it was telling her that what we said was true. That was one of the best contacts. She lives in another sector and didn't want to give us her address. But I know that she will read and that one day she will be baptized!
So today I was studying about prayer. I learned that we are commanded to ask for the things that we need.
3 Ne 18:19-20, Matthew 7:7-11. When Elder Corbrige came here and taught us he talked about how a lot of people
don't know that we can ask questions in our prayers. Ever since then I have thought a lot about asking and asking questions. That is exactly what Joseph Smith did he asked questions. He asked a very specific question. Which
church is true. So on the mission we watch the restoration many times. The last few times that I was watching it I noticed that Joseph asked both of his parents how we can know what is true. They both talk about Revelation. How we can confide in God and ask him and he will give us what we need to know. I thought it was really interesting that they were teaching him about revelation and that it needs to come from God. In another part of the movie their is a preacher that says that God has given us the ability to think so we need to think for ourselves and decide what is true. Joseph finds out that you have to put forth the effort to learn you need to meditate but you have to ask God what is true. He knows what is true or not and he will guide us. Just with our own thinking we can be deceived but God will never tell us wrong. We all need revelation in our lives. We can receive this guidance daily as we pray sincerely and with real intent (meaning that we will really follow the answer) God will answer and guide us. We will be able to see his influence in our daily life. I know that we can receive this guidance through the Holy Ghost and that he is always willing to help us. It depends on us if we have his help or not. If we are praying, reading and going to church.
God does love and guide us. This last week I received an answer to my prayers through asking a question,
praying and reading in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon can answer any question, doubt or problem that
we have. There is power in the Book of Mormon and just like it says on the title page it is a history of the communications of God with his children. I know that he is has communication with his children today.

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Love Hna Moss


--

Hermana Moss

Chile Santiago North Mission
Forestal 2680
Pisc 3, Oficina 32, Casilla #18
Conchali, Region Metropolitana
CHILE


Monday, March 14, 2011

Cody's News 3/14/2011

Hello,
So things are good here, we have been working hard to find people to teach. Talking to as many people as possible and so far it has resulted in almost nothing. But I do have some sweet blisters. We are going to have to keep it up for a few weeks. Pray for us so we can find the people that are really prepared to receive the gospel.
Other than that things are good just working away. Some exciting news is that the ward called a new ward missionary. This week we should be having a ward mission leader. Hopefully. Other than that I don't have much to report to you about investigators because we don't have any. Ya that earthquake in Japan is pretty bad but it is upsetting for me because it is stealing all my thunder. and when I get back people are not going to ask about the earthquake in Chile. Oh well. Well time to get back to work.
Love, Elder Moss

Amber's News 3/14/2011

Hey hows it going everyone? I'm doing great. We had changes last night and I'm with Hna Dinsdale again. This is Hna Dins last change she will be going home in the end of april. Im still in Quilicura. So that means that I will probably go to my last sector my next change and I will have 3 months there and then come home. It is so crazy how fast time has been flying. Awwww man church is at 9:00.:( I think I have been spoiled here with 10:30 church. But it's not like we can sleep in or anything. But it is kind of nice to have the morning and that we have time to go get investigators and bring them to church. Well this week Brain had problem so he didn't make it to church to get the Holy Ghost but we talked to him last night and he is good to go for this next Sunday. We heard about the thing in Japan that's pretty crazy. I heard that they all handled it differently though. That they were not all fighting or stealing. Here in chile they all fought and robbed. We heard in Japan that they all waited patiently in line for food and everything.
I told Amber about some sanitation items I was gathering.
Thats great now every time I got to the bathroom I'm going to be worryed about the snakes and rats cummin up. When I was in Lampa we had slugs come out of the drain in the tub. It was really funny cuz Hna Papenfus would always freak out and then kill them with salt. One time there was one in there and I showered and Hna Papenfus got mad cuz I didn't kill it but I told her I didn't mind them.
My hair is doing good. I think I will just trim the ends that are burnt and then when I get home I can have someone real, someone that has studied hair cut it. People here will say that they know how to cut hair even if they have never studied how in their life.
Ricardo didn't come to church this week I was pretty sad cuz he's the one that gave me his word that he would be there.
A few weeks ago we sat in on the Young Womens lesson and they were getting ready for girls camp. The leaders where all telling them not to bring their phones and other electronics and all that crap. But the leaders weren't doing it very nicely they were just saying don't do this and that.
So i raised my hand and told them that when I went to camp and we didn't bring those things our camp was so spiritual and we didn't have the worldly distractions and we could be so much closer to God. The spirit was really strong when I said it. Yesterday I had one of the young women tell me that when she heard that she wanted that in her girls camp and wondered if she could really have it with out all those things. They went to girls camp and I heard it was awesome. But this girl Fernanda told me that she remembered me telling them that and how it was all loving and nice. And she told me that she wants to be a leader like that when she is one. That was a pretty neat experience that I had.
We are looking again for people to teach. Recently we had a few but they dropped us. One was kind of athiest he kinda believed in God but and the same time didn't. So I'm glad I gave him the story of Korihor to read. When we asking him about it he told me he was going to be mute and people were going to trample over him I was like ok. I gave it to him for the part to read that we have everything in this world that testifies of God and Jesus Christ. The world and it's motion the planets and their motion. Even our lives the plants the trees the fishes. Everything. So we talked about that but when the Elders when by he said he didn't want to hear anything. We are not exactly sure if he just didn't want to talk to the elders or if he doesn't want to talk to us. We will see.
This week we found a woman named Paola she is really great. She told us that she didn't believe that their was only one way that we could be saved. That everyone is the same. It is just important that you believe in something. Actually this is something that a lot of people here believe. So we talked about Christ and how he was baptized and so he showed us that their is one way and that we all need to be baptized and we need to find which church is true. In the end she said that now she did believe that there was only one way. So now we are working with her to help her know that this is the truth and that the gospel of Jesu Cristo is the only way. We have another lesson with her today so we are pretty excited.
Love, Sister Moss

Friday, March 11, 2011

Cody's News 3/7/2011

Hello everyone,
Cody did not have much to say this week.
So it is still hot. We had conference this week it was decent... We went around with the bishop and saw some people yesterday, and I received a reference for my sector that turned out to be active members.
Love,
Elder Moss

Amber's News 3/7/2011


Hello!

This week was awesome! We had a lot of lessons and we had a…BAPTISM! Yeah yesterday Hermana Dinsdale and I decided that we were going to do our hair all pretty for Brian's baptism so in the morning I pull out my curling hair which I have never used here in Chile. I plug it in and am curling my hair I had put half of it up. So I curl one side and then I'm curling the next side and I start smelling something. I'm like man this curling iron reeks what is its problem so I bring it down from my head to look it and there is a chunk of my hair melted to the curling iron. I'm like in shock and thinking what in the world. Then I go to lay the curling down and I start scraping the hair off and my iron starts to bend in half. Right where the metal connects to the plastic and the plastic is like taffy. It was so crazy. So I touched one of the curls and the end of it just crumbled into my hand I was freaking out. So much for growing my hair out. Anyway I didn't have much time to look at the rest or anything so I used Hna Disndales curling iron from Chile and it finished the top half of my hair beautifully. So we go to church do the baptism then the rest of the day we come home and I start checking out the damage to my hair oh man. So it only burned one side of my hair and it was the bottom part so lucky you can't tell too much....so tells me Hna Dinsdale. I had about 4 or five locks that the ends were just burned to death. When I touched them they just slide off and crumbled. I lost about 1 inch to 1 and a half in the length of my hair. And that only on one side of my head. Thats a pretty sweet hair cut right. But my top hair covers it up so it's not to bad. We told the Elders when they called at night and they were soooo sad for me. I think they were closer to tears than I was. I think I was just more in shock and upset cuz now I have to start growing my hair out again. Plus I don't know if I should get a hair cut or not cuz the people here seriously don't know how to cut hair. Usually they give the girls hair cuts that are a lot shorter then they want and it looks like a mulet. Honesty I think it would look better to keep my hair half burned off then to get a hair cut from one of them. So their is a sister in our mission that studied cutting hair so I'm praying that I get put with her or I'm in her zone next change. lol Hna Dinsdale is going to help me get some anti shock hair stuff to help my hair out so... Don't worry I'm not bald and its not horrible it is just bad.

Despite my bad hair day, Brian was baptized and he was so happy and excited about it. It was really really good. His mom and brother came. They are both inactive and Brians brother came to all of the classes in church and then for his baptism his mom came. We had to wait a Little bit for Brians grandma to come because they had a family emergency and his cousin I think it was or had been drowning or something and was in the hospital so the grandma was there but then she came for the baptism. The family Contrerez had been bringing Brian to church so their son Thomas is now friends with Brian. And Brian is super humble and spiritual and just thinks the world of Thomas. Brian asked Thomas to give a talk at his baptism so Thomas did and it was really neat to see. Then Thomas' dad baptized Brian. Brian is basically part of the family Contrerez now it is so great to see how much they love him and how much he loves them. He has his own family but they are always doing their own things and I don't think Brian gets very much attention but this family is really great and they are always helping him now. It is pretty crazy to see how people fall away from the church here. Brians mom was the president of the Relief Society and now is super inactive. The spirit was really, really strong at his baptism and his mom really liked it. Brian even gave his testimony it was so cute. We still have to teach him how to give a testimony cuz he went up and folded his arms and closed his eyes and gave his testimony. He was saying I thank thee for. He said for the missionaries and everyone that help. Brian seriously has the most powerful prayers that I have ever Heard. He is very special and so was his baptism.

One of my converts here was trying to share the gospel with his x wife and kids and the mom started to listen but then didn't want anything to do with it and then wouldn't give the kids permission to be baptized and then she was doing some really bad things so Ricardo was really really sad and started to drink and smoke again. It made me really sad because he was the person that I saw change the most in the mission and now he says he doesn't know what to believe and he doesn't feel like he can change. We are working with him and I always try to remind him of what he asked us when we were teaching him. Richardo asked what happens if I don't feel the same after my baptism. And we told him that he wouldn't feel the same if he wasn't doing what he need to do to have the spirit. Keep the commandments, Read, Pray and go to church. I asked Ricardo which of these he was doing and he said none of them. That is why he has fallen and that is the importance of keeping the commandments. They protect us they don't prohibit us. After he was baptized he was so different he was the happiest person that I had ever seen. So I saw him the other day after a long time and I couldn't believe how he looked. Just looking at him at his face you could see that he was different that he wasn't the same that he wasn't living the gospel and the hardest things for me to see was that now he wasn't happy. Before he was so happy he was just walking on clouds when we talked to him and now you can see in his face that he doesn't have that like he did when he was living the gospel. We are going to continue working with him and help him over come this.

This morning I finished translating the story that dad gave about Rusty. Their are like a million inactive in Chile. Every week we have to visit 10 people that are inactive. There are a ton. The people here hardly ever do their home teaching or visiting teaching and from that I have seen first hand how important it is for people to have home teachers and visiting teachers. If people don't have this support they will fall away they won't feel loved. So I'm planning on sharing this talk with people to help them see the importance of visiting and helping others. And that even if it takes years to help them it is worth it.

This week we did the coolest things with the Elders. We changed sectors for a day with Elder Mudgett and Elder Elder. Everyone else thought we were crazy for doing it but it was awesome. It was so great to work in their sector and help them out. The reason that they wanted us to go there was to teach Cindy, one of their investigators. So Cindy has a problem with modesty so our job was to teach her how to dress modesty. The Elders felt a little awkward thinking about teaching it to her. So Hermana Dinsdale and I prepared one of the best law of chastity lessons. It was seriously awesome. Now after we had taught it the Elders are even saying that it has changed their lives. (We told them cuz the lesson went so well they wanted to know everything we said.) So the title was A Virtuous Woman and we talked about how precious we are as women and that we should dress and take care of our bodies because it is sacred and it is a gift from God. We also talked about the way that we dress influences the way that we act. We talked about how we help the men that have the priesthood when we dress modestly. We talked about tattoos, earrings and marriage. It was awesome I have never felt the spirit so strongly in a law of chastity lesson. It was so good. I really have to say it has been one of my favorite lessons. Cuz then we even showed pictures from the ensign of virtuous women and Cindy had a lot of questions and loved it too. To top it all off Hna Dinsdale and I gave awesome testimonies of why we should follow this law. At end of the lesson Cindy said that she loved it and then she committed her self to reading the law of chastity pamplet it was really funny she said I like this pamphlet I'm going to read it tonight.


-- Love

Hermana Moss

Chile Santiago North Mission
Forestal 2680
Pisc 3, Oficina 32, Casilla #18
Conchali, Region Metropolitana
CHILE

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Amber's News 2/28/2011

So this week Brian wasn't home but he came to church yesterday and loved it. He now has 3 times of going to church so he can be baptized but there are still a few things we have to teach him so we have to see him everyday to teach him what he needs to know. But he is so excited to be baptized. Oh also we have to help him pick someone to baptize him. When we asked him to be baptized that was the only thing that he was worried about. Who was going to baptize him. His brother is inactive and can't baptize him so he was really worried about that. But we told him that in church there where a lot of people that could do it. So then he was really excited.

We found two other people and are working with them but both left for the weekend so they did not come to church. Hna Dinsdale and I doing good. We are really trying to focus on Brian and making sure that every thing goes well for his baptism.

I think I have not said much about our last change cuz I am still in the same sector I just have a different comp. Hna Disndale. She is from Ogden and she is really funny. She loves the people and has a great testimony. She loves Disney World. She loves everything to do with it. When she goes home she wants to work for them again.

Well I'm doing really good. Elder Elder and Elder Mudgett are doing well too. They are our good friends we are all in the same district and it is really fun. The other week we climbed another smaller hill with them it was so much fun. Elder Mugett had to carry up another elder that is really little - like a midget. It was really funny to see cuz Elder Mudgett is a little bigger but really tall and Elder Elder is skinny and really tall. But I was thinking that maybe they are normal sized in the Untied States cuz here everyone is so short. So right now they seem like giants to me. It is probably cuz a lot of the Chileans are my height including the men.
Lots of Love,
Sister Moss

Cody's News 2/28/2011


OK, lets say that I started traveling at 9:30 last week and I got to Curico at 6 or so. It was a nice day in a bus. But other than that, there are about 60 or 70 people that go to church and we have only 2 investigators and each one needs to get married so it is going to take some time before they can progress any farther. We are looking for some good people to teach. I thought that summer was ending here in Chile until I moved up north and it is still crazy warm. But Amber has it worse for sure. Yes Curico is a city and it is pretty big and so I have my own chunk it's not as nice as having an entire city to myself but it's what I got. My comp is Elder Thomas from Murray, Utah and he has a year and 8 months in the mission. We get along well.
Love, Elder Moss