E-mail

25 September 20012

Hello everyone!  I hope everyone is doing well!!  Mom and Dad it looks like you guys had a pretty good week from the pictures!  Those fall colors are awesome!!  The colors have been pretty good up on the mountains here too!  On Sundays we are able to go for a temple walk and just go sit up by the temple for awhile so it's great to go out and enjoy the fall air and see the colors!  I'm glad you were able to go to your high school reunion and see all your old friends Mom!  Sounds fun :) and good job being a good sport Dad!  It sounds like a lot of you were able to watch the temple dedication this Sunday!  I also was able to attend!  Half of the MTC met Sunday at 9 and that is when I went to it.  It was awesome because there were probably about 1500 Elders and Sisters in there and when we sang “The Spirit of God” it was really powerful and the spirit was really strong.  Elder Packer gave the dedicatory prayer and that was great to be able to listen to.  It got me super excited for the Star Valley Temple to get done!  I hope they are close by the time I get back!  That would be great :)  Thanks for the letters I received this week and thanks a whole bunch Carrie and Elaina for the cookies, they were great!!  My companions and I loved them!!  And thanks for all the snacks Dad!!  It has been great to have something to munch on at nights, and for some reason I have suddenly become the favorite Elder in the district.... huh... haha :)  This morning we got up early and headed over to the temple at about 6:15 and we were able to do another Sealing session because the line for Initiatory was about an hour long, but it was a really good opportunity to do sealings again and it's fun meeting all of the sealers.  They are all really great guys and have a really good spirit about them.  And we were able to eat at the cafeteria in the temple again!!  yay!  It was great like usual!  We definitely look forward to p-days now with the opportunity to serve at the temple and the great food!  It has been good teaching the "investigators" this week again, one is still super difficult and isn't progressing a whole lot but the other is progressing a bunch and it is great because even though it is a fake investigator, the spirit is still super strong and it is a great opportunity to learn and grow.  Travis Clark and Andrew Heiner came into the MTC this week and it was great seeing and talking to them.  It's crazy because they got here a month after me but still leave before me!!  Those lucky guys :)  No, I really am enjoying it here and how much I have learned and progressed, but I am very excited to head off to Chile in a month!  It has been crazy how fast the last few weeks have been going!  I feel like it was just yesterday I was sitting here writing a letter!  On Fridays we are able to teach a couple lessons to members who just come and volunteer, and they just act as themselves, and I think that is about everyones favorite part of the week.  It is fun to just talk to them and get to know them and it is a big help with Spanish!  I'm very grateful for the opportunity we have to do that. My Spanish keeps continuing to progress and I am getting better and better at teaching in Spanish and I’m enjoying teaching a lot more cause I can actually say a lot of what I want to.  My companions and I are still having a lot of fun times and it has been great gettiing to know them more.  I might have said this last week, but I have been reading a lot out of the New Testament lately, I started at the beginning and am just reading through it.  I have never done that before and I never realized how much I loved the New Testament!  I have learned tons from it and I’ve gained a better understanding of how the Bible and Book of Mormon can go hand in hand. Thanks for all the prayers!  I really can feel them helping!!  I hope everyone has a great week!!

Elder Moser

PS:  Dad, so it turns out three out of my four pants I have worn all lost a hem so yesterday I sent all three pairs to get fixed.  They sure didn't do a very good job the first time!  Thanks for all the snacks!  and you can always send more jerky anytime :) that’s my favorite :)  And dad could you do a big favor for me?  There is an Elder in my zone that has a really poor family and he never really hears from them and never gets anything from them, so I think it would mean a lot if he got something, could you send something from Amazon to him?  I know he likes jerky a lot so could you send him a couple bags of jerky?  You can just put my exact same address but instead of Elder Moser put Elder Evans, and it doesn't say who it is from when it is from Amazon so that would work out great,  That would be awesome, thanks!!!  I still don't have my coat and sweater.

E-mail 18 September 2012

Hello everyone!  How is everybody doing?  That looks like a pretty fun fishing trip Mom and Dad and Grandpa!  They must have not been biting too much cause I wasn't there I guess!  You will just have to wait a couple years before they start biting again!  Just to let you know Sarah and Megan, I did get your letters from the dearelder site and that site works great!  I appreciated hearing from you and I'm looking forward to hearing from the rest of you!  It is another great p-day here at the MTC.  This morning we got up at 6 and headed over to the temple. The Provo temple is so busy!  At 6:30 there was an hour and a half wait to do initiatory so we ended up doing another sealing session but that was really good to hear all that and the sealer talked about the importance of sealings and that was really good to hear all that.  We would have missed breakfast at the MTC so we decided to eat at the temple, and man!  I never was a big fan of temple food, but it sure did taste real good today!  To have real eggs and real bacon, it was pretty nice :)  I had a really good week this week.  My companions and I are becoming great friends and also with all the other elders in my zone.  It's been really great to serve all those elders and get to know each one of them. There are a lot of awesome guys here!  I'm continuing to improve on my Spanish and teaching the investigators is getting better and better.  One of them has been super tough and we have taught her 4 times and she hasn't let us in the door yet.  But I think it is a really good challenge for us and will be great preparation for when we are in the field. It's been fun reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish and English together because I go word by word and super slow and it makes me really think about each and every word that are in the scriptures and the importance of them. On Sunday we had a really good speaker for our fireside. He was the director of proselyting for missionaries in the church and he gave a great talk about the Book of Mormon and he talked a lot about how the negative things that are going on in the country about the Book of Mormon like the play in New York and stuff has become a good thing for the church and the Book of Mormon because the church has made new ad campaigns and such and lots of people are getting more interested about the church and so they read the actual Book of Mormon. I think it's awesome how when people try to bash on the church and Book of Mormon and stuff how the Lord knows what's going on and can turn it into such a good thing for the church. Reading the Book of Mormon everyday does really give me a lot of strength through the day and makes all the challenges I have to face a lot easier.  I challenge you all if you are not, to read at least a little bit in the Book of Mormon every day.  I really know how much power and strength that can bring into your lives!  Well my time is about up!  I hope everyone has a great week!  Thanks for all the prayers and support!!

Elder Moser

Photos 11 September 2012

Provo Temple

Elder Moser, Elder Taylor, Elder Harman 

Elder Harman and Elder Moser 

Elder Moser 

Elder Moser, Elder Taylor, Elder Harman

MTC Companions

E-mail 11 September 2012

3rd Week

Hello everyone!  How is everyone doing?  Mom and dad, that sounds like a pretty intense hike that you guys went on!  Sounds fun!  And that's pretty crazy about the fire by Jackson!  Those are some pretty intense pictures!  A good hike sounds pretty amazing right now, but I think I will get plenty of walking here soon enough!!  Mom and Megan that's awesome that you guys are going to Columbia!!  That sounds pretty stinkin awesome!  I'm sure you will have a great time there!  This week has been pretty good!  One of my companions got pretty sick so we spent a lot of time in our room studying but it wasn´t too bad.  I was able to read the Spanish Book of Mormon a lot and I learned a lot from that!!  It's crazy how much I am able to understand when I read the Book of Mormon in Spanish!  I'm finally getting to where I know enough words where I can teach the lessons alright with my companions, but I still have a tough time understanding what they are saying back!  But I'm sure it will come soon enough!!  We were talking to a teacher that went to our mission and he said the language is totally different when you get down there and it takes a while to get used to how they speak, but it should be fun!!  It has been pretty fun teaching our investigators in Spanish, and it's great to see the improvements we are making with Spanish and teaching!  We were able to go to the temple and do a session today and that was great and the spirit was super strong!  Going to the temple is something all the missionaries really look forward to and I have gained a whole new appreciation for it here!  We are getting a couple new Elders in our zone from Australia tonight and my companion and I get to orient them and show them around so that should be pretty fun!  My new favorite scripture for the time being is Alma 37: 36-37..  It talks about how we should counsel with the Lord in everything we do and it has been a great help to me this week!  I challenge you all to read that scripture and try to live that in your lives the best you can!  I'm gonna try attaching some pictures that I've taken while I was here.  Elder Taylor from Utah is the tall one and Elder Harman from Idaho is the other one. I hope everyone has a great week!  Thanks for the letters that have been sent to me! I appreciate them!  

E-mail 4 September 2012

2nd week

Hello everybody!  How are you all doing??  Thanks for the letters and the dearelder.com's I have received so far!  They help make a long day a little bit more enjoyable!!  It's crazy, I always heard missionaries say that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days, but I never believed that is true!  But here it is already p-day again and last Tuesday felt like it was yesterday, and every day in between has felt like a week!  I've been learning all sorts of great stuff and the spirit is super strong!  I forgot to bring my computer to the computer lab this week so I will have to send some pictures of me and my companions next week!  One of the main things we do here is we have some investigators, (just our teachers playing the role of the investigators) and we have to prepare and teach them in Spanish!  My companion Elder Harmen is super good at Spanish already so he kind of holds us together, but me, I'm not too advanced yet!  It gets pretty frustrating not being able to say what you want to say and the investigators play it pretty hard!  But I know that will be the best way I learn!  I'm excited for the day when I can really communicate with the people and say what I want to say:)  Every day besides Sundays and Tuesdays we sit in class for about 6 hours a day and study for the rest, with some gym time and sleep time in there, so Tuesdays and Sundays are a pretty good break for me!  Sundays we get to go walk up by the temple, and we have Sacrament Meeting, Priesthood Meeting and District Meeting or Sunday School.  Then we have a fireside at night, and usually the rest of the day is for studying, but me and my companions get to sit in leadership training meetings and counsel meetings and hold interviews with the district leaders and such.  On Tuesdays we are able to go to the temple. Last week we did initiatory and this morning we were able to do about an hour and a half long sealing session, it was great!  It looks like you guys had a great hike Mom and Dad!  Thanks for all the prayers!  I can really feel them help me while I'm out here!  Maybe try praying for my Spanish a little harder :) haha..  I've really been able to learn a lot more about the Atonement while I've been out here.  It seems like every meeting I have and every fireside I have they are always talking about the Atonement and it's been a great blessing in my life to learn so much more about it and how it can help us out so much in every aspect of our lives!  I know this Gospel is true and I know being out here serving the Lord is the thing I'm supposed to be doing and nothing else at this point in my life could help me more!  Have a great week everybody!!

Elder Moser

Sacrament Meeting Talk

For those of you who could not be there, this is a copy of the talk Jared gave in Sacrament Meeting in the Bedford Ward prior to his mission on August 12, 2012.

Time and Season

          Bishop asked me to talk about the first verse of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3.  It says,  "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:"

          I am very excited to be at the time in my life where I am able to go and serve the Lord on a mission.  All my life, along with all young men in the Church, I have been told by parents, teachers, leaders, and prophets that when we reach age 19 we need to be in a position in our lives where we can go on a mission and serve the Lord.  It is the time and season in our lives we need to set aside all other things and serve with all of our strength.  A great story about this was told by Elder Neil L Anderson: 

          "Those who follow the game of rugby know that the New Zealand All Blacks, a name given because of the color of their uniform, is the most celebrated rugby team ever.   To be selected for the All Blacks in New Zealand would be comparable to playing for a football Super Bowl team or a World Cup soccer team."

           "In 1961, at age 18 and holding the Aaronic Priesthood, Sidney Going was becoming a star in New Zealand rugby.  Because of his remarkable abilities, many thought he would be chosen the very next year for the national All Blacks rugby team."

          "At age 19, in this critical moment of his ascending rugby career, Sid declared that he would forgo rugby to serve a mission.  Some called him crazy.  Others called him foolish.   They protested that his opportunity in rugby might never come again."

          "For Sid it was not what he was leaving behind—it was the opportunity and responsibility ahead.  He had a priesthood duty to offer two years of his life to declare the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ and His restored gospel.  Nothing—not even a chance to play on the national team, with all the acclaim it would bring—would deter him from that duty." 

          "He was called by a prophet of God to serve in the Western Canadian Mission.  Forty-eight years ago this month, 19-year-old Elder Sidney Going left New Zealand to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

          Sid told Elder Anderson of an experience he had on his mission,  "It was evening, and he and his companion were just about to return to their apartment.  They decided to visit one more family.  The father let them in.  Elder Going and his companion testified of the Savior.  The family accepted a Book of Mormon. The father read all night.  In the next week and a half he read the entire Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.  A few weeks later the family was baptized.   

A mission instead of a place on the New Zealand All Blacks team?  Sid responded, “The blessing of bringing others into the gospel far outweighs anything you will ever sacrifice.”

          "You’re probably wondering what happened to Sid Going following his mission. Most important: an eternal marriage to his sweetheart, Colleen;  five noble children;  and a generation of grandchildren.  He has lived his life trusting in his Father in Heaven, keeping the commandments, and serving others.  And rugby?  After his mission Sid Going became one of the greatest halfbacks in All Blacks history, playing for 11 seasons and serving for many years as captain of the team." 

          "How good was Sid Going?  He was so good that training and game schedules were changed because he would not play on Sunday.  Sid was so good the Queen of England acknowledged his contribution to rugby.   He was so good a book was written about him titled Super Sid."

          "What if those honors had not come to Sid after his mission?  One of the great miracles of missionary service in this Church is that Sid Going and thousands just like him have not asked,  “What will I get from my mission?” but rather, “What can I give?”

          Sid is a great example to all of us young men working towards a mission and also all of you not so young couples who have a goal of going on a mission.  We need to make missions and serving the lord as one of our top priorities.  Elder Bruce R. McConkie said:  “The Lord wants more missionaries. Every able young man in the Church should serve a mission.  Missionary service blesses the life of a young man more than any other thing could during the time and season involved.”  That means a lot to me personally to know that serving a mission is the best possible thing I could be doing with my life at this time and makes it easier to put my life on hold and serve the  Lord for two years.

          Throughout different times in my life I have taken steps and made decisions;  such as attending primary classes, being baptized when I was 8, receiving the Aaronic Priesthood when I turned twelve, Sunday school and priesthood classes when I was a teenager, being enrolled in seminary in high school, attending Mutual on Tuesday nights, receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood, and going to the temple. These things have brought me to where I am now and are preparing me for the big decisions I will have to make.  Without all of these things I wouldn’t be even close to being ready to serve on my mission.  All of these events came pretty early in my life but the decision to do them and how I did them will have a lasting effect on me for the rest of my life and have prepared me to make more and bigger decisions in the future.  Each step we take and decision we make has to come in the proper order.  I couldn’t have received the priesthood before I was baptized, or gone on a mission when I was 12 - these things have to come in the time that the lord has taught and expects from us.  The decisions we make when we are young such as the friends we chose can have a major impact on us for the rest of our lives.  President Monson said instead of the common phrase terrible teens, he prefers the phrase “terrific teens” -  a period when young people have “a time of opportunity, a season of growth, a semester of development—marked by the acquisition of knowledge and the quest for truth.”

          We have to understand how important early years can be in deciding our life and that the time to start making good decisions is right now.  In one of his conference talks, Robert D. Hales stated: "The Aaronic Priesthood is the preparatory priesthood, given for this preparatory time in your life. How you bear that priesthood now will prepare you to make the most important decisions in the future.  These decisions include receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood, going to the temple, serving a mission, getting an education, selecting an occupation, and choosing a companion and being sealed for time and for all eternity in the holy temple.  There is a time and season for all of our decisions.  Make sure you make decisions in the proper time and season."

           He also told a story of the importance of preparing at the right time. He said, "While training to be a jet fighter pilot, I prepared to make such vital decisions in a flight simulator.  For example, I practiced deciding when to bail out of an airplane if the fire warning light came on and I began to spin out of control.  I remember one dear friend who didn’t make these preparations.  He would find a way out of simulator training and then go to play golf or swim.  He never learned his emergency procedures!  A few months later, fire erupted in his plane, and it spun toward the ground in flames.  Noting the fire warning light, his younger companion, having developed a preconditioned response, knew when to bail out of the plane and parachuted to safety.  But my friend who had not prepared to make that decision stayed with the plane and died in the crash.  Without being in the places where we need to be when we are younger, and doing what we are taught to be doing in that time of our lives, we may not have the spiritual strength to stay on the straight and narrow when times get tough and we could be led away from Christ and lose our way spiritually."

           Elder David B. Haight said,  "Live so your memories can bless the full length of your life. Live for that glorious day when you will go to the holy temple for eternal blessings and joy.  Develop the strength to defer gratification—to understand there is a time and season for everything and a maturing process that is part of God’s plan.  Remember that the values and truths of the gospel are ageless and eternal. "

          Sometimes it can be difficult and we have to make big sacrifices to make decisions we need to in the proper time and order, and we may think that our timeline doesn’t fit with the Lords, but I know that if we trust in the Lord and do everything he has taught us to do in his proper time and season, we will be blessed and things will work out for us better in the end, and it will always be worth it for us.

Testimony…