Dear loved ones,
Another week has come and gone. Phew... October is almost over as well. It is amazing how time flies when you are working like crazy!
I received my package this week. THANK YOU SO MUCH! I love the tie (I've already worn it twice). I love the cookies. I loved everything! And I especially love the Warheads. We have been having some fun with warheads down here. We have shared them with our investigators, with members, with the Bishop, with everyone. We have also managed to capture a few quality videos of people freaking out after eating them. Two people have actually cried haha.. They have all enjoyed it though and most people ask for more.
This week something incredible happened. We have been working with a less active woman named Ana María for about 3 months now. She lives with her adult son and they own a little grocery corner store connected to their house. She has been active, inactive, active, inactive for a long time. We have been working with her and she has been attending church every week for the last two months about. Her only problem was that she has a lot of debt and didn't think she would be able to close her store on Sundays. She says she tried it for about two months and it went really bad. We kept working with her and just kinda taught everything but that because she knew what she had to do. She reactivated completely, but then had doubts about the temple and said she didn't want to go there. We left her with the video "Between Heaven and Earth" that talks about Temples and that cleared up all of her doubts, but she still didn't want to commit herself. We committed her to reading the entire Book of Mormon and she has been reading every day since. Then on Thursday we were reading with her in the Book of Mormon and after finishing the chapter she told us that she was ready to change everything. She told us she wanted her Patriarchal blessing, she wants to go to the temple, she even want to do all of her genealogy! Then she started crying because she was so happy. It was amazing how happy I was as well. I felt this complete joy come over me and I knew that the Holy Ghost combined with the Book of Mormon convinced her. She even said that she had a spiritual thirst or hunger. It was a powerful experience. She has an interview with the 1st counselor on Tuesday night.
It has been a good week though. Kevin and Jaqueline have baptismal dates, but we are not sure when they are going to do it anymore because Kevin is having an operation today. We are hoping that in a week or two he will be all better. Matías went to church again as well but still doesn't want to be baptized. We are going to fast and pray with the Bishop for him.
Thank you all for the love and support. You are amazing!
Love,
Elder Matthew D. Mooney
Monday, October 25, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Nothing to do but keep working.
Dear Family,
Well we received our changes last night and....I´m staying in my sector! as well as my companion! And to our surprise our whole zone pretty much stayed the exact same. Three people left, one of them because he finished the mission and one new guy came into the zone. My district stayed the exact same which kinda shocked us. Especially in one sector where they only have had like five lessons the entire change?? ANyways, there is nothing to do but keep working.
The work here has still been pretty crazy. We find lots of investigators, but to find them again and keep teaching them has been difficult. We did find an awesome less active man named Carlos and his three kids Kevin, Jaqueline, and Neffi. They are a really cool family and Kevin and Jaqueline accepted baptismal dates. They went to church with us on Sunday and everyone already knew them because they used to attend church. We have high hopes with them.
A sad thing also happened this week with an investigator named Marcos. He was a really cool, sincere guy. We gave him the Book of Mormon and he said that if it filled him, he would get baptized. We had some trouble finding him for a while and when we finally found him he was drunk. He talked to us outside his house and told us that our book didn't help him at all and that he wasn't interested. He said all it talked about was Joseph Smith. That made us a little upset, but mostly disappointed because anyone who actually reads the book realizes that the Book of Mormon doesn't even talk about Joseph Smith. We will have to see if we can find him sober. I just hate how alcohol messes people up. It ruins people and it ruins their lives. It takes away all intelligence and spirituality a person has and turns them into something they are not. I am glad that alcohol has never had an influence over me and I am positive that I will never let it into my life.
We also had two really nice Family Home Evenings this week with ward members and investigating families and less active families. We taught about Temples and they loved it. We gave them copies of the new Liahona on temples and they enjoyed that. We finished the Family Nights playing funny games like "Black Magic" and a memorization game "I'm going on a trip and I'm going to bring a (something that starts with A, then B, etc.). Family Nights or Noches de Hogar are the key to making people comfortable in the ward and the church here.
Mom, Dad, and Diana I am quite jealous of your San Francisco trip. I wanna go to China Town so bad! I miss chinese food. Chinese food and Mexican food. That is what I want to eat when I first get home haha. I am proud of you Mom for doing such a good job helping out those organizations.
Well Halloween is coming up! Then Thanksgiving! Then Christmas! These next few months should fly by! Thank you for everything and I love you all very much.
Love,
Elder Matthew D. Mooney
Well we received our changes last night and....I´m staying in my sector! as well as my companion! And to our surprise our whole zone pretty much stayed the exact same. Three people left, one of them because he finished the mission and one new guy came into the zone. My district stayed the exact same which kinda shocked us. Especially in one sector where they only have had like five lessons the entire change?? ANyways, there is nothing to do but keep working.
The work here has still been pretty crazy. We find lots of investigators, but to find them again and keep teaching them has been difficult. We did find an awesome less active man named Carlos and his three kids Kevin, Jaqueline, and Neffi. They are a really cool family and Kevin and Jaqueline accepted baptismal dates. They went to church with us on Sunday and everyone already knew them because they used to attend church. We have high hopes with them.
A sad thing also happened this week with an investigator named Marcos. He was a really cool, sincere guy. We gave him the Book of Mormon and he said that if it filled him, he would get baptized. We had some trouble finding him for a while and when we finally found him he was drunk. He talked to us outside his house and told us that our book didn't help him at all and that he wasn't interested. He said all it talked about was Joseph Smith. That made us a little upset, but mostly disappointed because anyone who actually reads the book realizes that the Book of Mormon doesn't even talk about Joseph Smith. We will have to see if we can find him sober. I just hate how alcohol messes people up. It ruins people and it ruins their lives. It takes away all intelligence and spirituality a person has and turns them into something they are not. I am glad that alcohol has never had an influence over me and I am positive that I will never let it into my life.
We also had two really nice Family Home Evenings this week with ward members and investigating families and less active families. We taught about Temples and they loved it. We gave them copies of the new Liahona on temples and they enjoyed that. We finished the Family Nights playing funny games like "Black Magic" and a memorization game "I'm going on a trip and I'm going to bring a (something that starts with A, then B, etc.). Family Nights or Noches de Hogar are the key to making people comfortable in the ward and the church here.
Mom, Dad, and Diana I am quite jealous of your San Francisco trip. I wanna go to China Town so bad! I miss chinese food. Chinese food and Mexican food. That is what I want to eat when I first get home haha. I am proud of you Mom for doing such a good job helping out those organizations.
Well Halloween is coming up! Then Thanksgiving! Then Christmas! These next few months should fly by! Thank you for everything and I love you all very much.
Love,
Elder Matthew D. Mooney
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
I am grateful to be serving here in Chile.
Dear family,
This has been quite the average week. We taught plenty, found a bunch of new investigators, and are praying that some of them will progress. The problem is, a lot of our investigators like learning, but don´t really want to act in any way. With those people we just teach and testify as strongly as we can, but that is about all we can do. We have been trying to work with ward members a lot. Speaking of ward members, one of our friends here who always accompanies us to lessons, Fabian Gonzalez (Xavi), just got his mission call to Argentina! It was funny because he was praying not to go there. On Sunday he testified that he knows that Heavenly Father hears our prayers. Ha ha
News about Marilyn! I went and visited her with the bishop on Wednesday and she explained that she has received two answers - that the church is true and that she should get baptized. Unfortunately she is using her family and hectic work schedule as an excuse. We will see what happens with her.
We also brought one of our new investigators to church. His name is Matías and he is 15 years old. His family is catholic, but likes talking and sharing with us and he has relatives that are members of the church. At first he wanted to get out of church right after sacrament meeting. Then we introduced him to the bishop and the bishop rushed him off to the young men. He ended up staying 30 minutes after church and walking home with a family from our ward. The ward secretary thinks he stayed because of the girls ;)
Today we spent a lot of our Preparation day painting a room with the Hermana Maria Eugenia and her son Hernan. When we finished, I was a little uneasy because it needed another coat of paint or two, but she liked it. We then ate lunch with them. Afterward, I got my haircut for 3 thousand pesos. It was a little more expensive then I normally pay. The funny thing is, 3 thousand pesos is only 6 dollars?? And what´s even crazier is that McDonalds costs like 5 thousand pesos, or about 10 dollars?? The money here is wacky!
Well I love you all very much. Thank you for your emails, letters, and prayers of support. You don´t know how much they really help. I am grateful to be serving here in Chile. Thank you for everything.
Love,
Elder Matt Mooney
This has been quite the average week. We taught plenty, found a bunch of new investigators, and are praying that some of them will progress. The problem is, a lot of our investigators like learning, but don´t really want to act in any way. With those people we just teach and testify as strongly as we can, but that is about all we can do. We have been trying to work with ward members a lot. Speaking of ward members, one of our friends here who always accompanies us to lessons, Fabian Gonzalez (Xavi), just got his mission call to Argentina! It was funny because he was praying not to go there. On Sunday he testified that he knows that Heavenly Father hears our prayers. Ha ha
News about Marilyn! I went and visited her with the bishop on Wednesday and she explained that she has received two answers - that the church is true and that she should get baptized. Unfortunately she is using her family and hectic work schedule as an excuse. We will see what happens with her.
We also brought one of our new investigators to church. His name is Matías and he is 15 years old. His family is catholic, but likes talking and sharing with us and he has relatives that are members of the church. At first he wanted to get out of church right after sacrament meeting. Then we introduced him to the bishop and the bishop rushed him off to the young men. He ended up staying 30 minutes after church and walking home with a family from our ward. The ward secretary thinks he stayed because of the girls ;)
Today we spent a lot of our Preparation day painting a room with the Hermana Maria Eugenia and her son Hernan. When we finished, I was a little uneasy because it needed another coat of paint or two, but she liked it. We then ate lunch with them. Afterward, I got my haircut for 3 thousand pesos. It was a little more expensive then I normally pay. The funny thing is, 3 thousand pesos is only 6 dollars?? And what´s even crazier is that McDonalds costs like 5 thousand pesos, or about 10 dollars?? The money here is wacky!
Well I love you all very much. Thank you for your emails, letters, and prayers of support. You don´t know how much they really help. I am grateful to be serving here in Chile. Thank you for everything.
Love,
Elder Matt Mooney
Monday, October 4, 2010
Wasn't conference just incredible?
Dear Loved Ones,
Wasn´t conference just incredible? I find it so ridiculously amazing how much I really do enjoy listening to a bunch of "old men" talk for TEN HOURS. I know that those "old men" are prophets of God and they deliver His message to all the world. I feel so greatful to be able to listen to them every six months in conference. I also feel grateful because we were able to watch it all in english. I feel like that is a great blessing. I´ve tried listening to it in spanish, but it´s not just the same (that´s why the Lord speaks to us all in our own language). I also found it interesting how the themes seemed to be The Plan of Salvation - Agency and Follow Priesthood Authority - Prophets. Of course they talked about alot of subjects, but those were two large themes that we noticed as missionaries.
Oh and mom you mentioned that Sobe had a new Chirimoya drink right? I just ate a Chirimoya the other day. What a coincidence?! We´ve been eating really good lately. Too good, at times. We´ll have to work on that.
So we had about ten people who agreed to come to conference with us this weekend, but when it actually came time for the conference all ten of them backed out or cancelled. That was fairly discouraging. Well, life goes on and the work continues forward.
Conference also made me think of how grateful I really am to have such an amazing and supportive family. Thank you Mom and Dad for absolutley everything you are doing for me. You do so much and continue to do so much. Thank you Diana, Melissa, and Becky for being such great sisters. Thank you for writing me and sending me your love always. Thank you to all my friends and family who are reading this and have helped me to be where I am today. I love you all very much and pray for you often. Thanks all around!
Well I want you to know that I´m well. There are always difficulties here in the mission, but I´m where I need to be and I´m learning every day. Thanks for the concern.
Love,
Elder Matthew D. Mooney
Wasn´t conference just incredible? I find it so ridiculously amazing how much I really do enjoy listening to a bunch of "old men" talk for TEN HOURS. I know that those "old men" are prophets of God and they deliver His message to all the world. I feel so greatful to be able to listen to them every six months in conference. I also feel grateful because we were able to watch it all in english. I feel like that is a great blessing. I´ve tried listening to it in spanish, but it´s not just the same (that´s why the Lord speaks to us all in our own language). I also found it interesting how the themes seemed to be The Plan of Salvation - Agency and Follow Priesthood Authority - Prophets. Of course they talked about alot of subjects, but those were two large themes that we noticed as missionaries.
Oh and mom you mentioned that Sobe had a new Chirimoya drink right? I just ate a Chirimoya the other day. What a coincidence?! We´ve been eating really good lately. Too good, at times. We´ll have to work on that.
So we had about ten people who agreed to come to conference with us this weekend, but when it actually came time for the conference all ten of them backed out or cancelled. That was fairly discouraging. Well, life goes on and the work continues forward.
Conference also made me think of how grateful I really am to have such an amazing and supportive family. Thank you Mom and Dad for absolutley everything you are doing for me. You do so much and continue to do so much. Thank you Diana, Melissa, and Becky for being such great sisters. Thank you for writing me and sending me your love always. Thank you to all my friends and family who are reading this and have helped me to be where I am today. I love you all very much and pray for you often. Thanks all around!
Well I want you to know that I´m well. There are always difficulties here in the mission, but I´m where I need to be and I´m learning every day. Thanks for the concern.
Love,
Elder Matthew D. Mooney
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