E-mail and Photos

Hola!  Well it was a great week here in my Ward Rinconada. Saturday our Bishop called President and got permission for us to go to the ward activity and that was pretty awesome.  It was at a big park outside of our mission so we were lucky to go!!  I am leaving for another ward tomorrow, so it was fun to spend my last weekend with all of the members. I have made some pretty good friends here, and it is sad to leave them but I am excited for the next adventure I will be having!  I do not know where I am going yet.  We find out in the changes meeting tomorrow so that will be fun.  I hear they are awesome.  We had a big barbeque, called an asado here in Chile, at the ward activity so we ate lots of good meat.  Chileans sure do like a lot of salt though!  I have never eaten that much salt at one time before.  That is the only seasoning they use and they use a lot of it! and one of the pictures is of an asado that me and my companion had last p-day.  The ribs were pretty good and I tried to make the chicken soaked in sprite.  I think I forgot a few ingredients but it was pretty good for guessing!  Our new house has been super nice, and best of all it is really quiet in the neighborhood around us now, and that is a big change from the last one!  I have been getting lots more sleep!  Dad, it is on the corner of Casas de lo Espajo and O' Higgens, just down the street from our old one. It looks like the new mission president should be pretty good.  Everyone is kind of bummed though because President King has been so awesome.  He is an awesome Mission President.  I'm sure the next one will be great too though.  Dad, I did get the pens and I gave them to Bishop and he liked them a lot - he was pretty excited about it. He has been a great bishop, I don't quite know what the ward would do without that guy! And you should probably send the jerky with something else, just to be safe.  I think it depends on how much the border patrol guy likes jerky or not if the package gets to me. One that you sent was opened but nothing was missing so I guess that one didn't like it! Well I hope everyone is doing good! Have a great week!!

Elder Moser

E-mail and Photos

Hola everyone!!  It was a great week here in Chile, probably my favorite one yet.  Everyone looks great from the pictures and it sounds like you had a really nice funeral.  I was kinda sad I could not be there, but I would lots rather be here!  This week we were able to have two baptisms.  It was a really fun experience cause they are my first ones here and it was even more awesome cause they are both really solid and have really strong testimonies. Edith Rios was baptized by her husband that recently got activated again.  It has been really fun teaching her, they are an awesome family.  She is from Mexico and he is from Chile.  She is the one that always makes awesome Mexican food for us.  It was awesome to see her gain a testimony of the gospel.  A few months ago we talked to her and she told us she would never step foot in a Mormon church, but later I promised her husband that if he kept coming his wife would follow his example and the next week she came and loved it and we started teaching her and now she is pretty solid!  And the other one was Victorhugo Urbina.  His wife has been a member of the church for over a year now and he has always come to church, just never wanted to be baptized, but a few weeks ago he said he is finally ready, so we have been teaching him a lot getting him ready, and he has a really strong testimony of the gospel and a strong family in the church so they should be really good.  It has been awesome to see the change in him since he decided he wanted to be baptized and Bishop baptized him. We moved houses this week and had the baptisms so it was a busy week but we now live in the most expensive missionary house in the mission, it is pretty nice haha, but I will probably only be here about a week longer, it has air conditioning and everything! Definitely not complaining about my house now!!  Well I don't have too much time cause we helped a guy build a shed today, so it kinda ate up our p-day, but it was good and fun to help.  I hope everyone is doing great!! Have a great week!!

Elder Moser

PS:  Dad, thanks for the pictures of when Grandpa was younger.  That night after President King called I read in the scriptures about the spirit world and stuff and that night I had a dream, and I saw a 25 to 30 year old guy dressed in white, and well I had never seen a picture of Grandpa that I remembered when he was younger but after you sent me the pictures I definitely know who I saw!  He looked a little different, but for sure the same guy!  pretty cool!  And thanks for sharing the experiences you had as well, it was interesting hearing those!!

E-mail and Photos

February 11, 2012

Hey Dad, thanks for the pictures of Grandpa - it was great being able to see those. President King called me Thursday night and told me the news, and shared with me D&C 42: 44-46.

     "And the elders of the church, two or more, shall be called, and shall pray for and lay their hands upon them in my name; and if they die they shall die unto me, and if they live they shall live unto me.  

     Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die, ...

     And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them;"

It was hard for me at first knowing I wouldn't be able to spend any more time with him in this life, but after the scripture and what President said to me I know that he is in the place where he needs to be right now doing what he needs to be doing. That night I also read Alma 40 about the spirit world and the resurrection and that helped out a lot too.  It was interesting reading it with him in mind.  I got a lot stronger testimony and better understanding of that and the plan that God has for us, and the things that Christ has done for us. This past week President challenged all the missionaries to memorize "The Living Christ".  While starting to do this, I really started to realize the importance of the things that Christ has done for us.  Without the things he has done we wouldn't be able to live in the presence of God, happy with our families. But by accepting the things he has done for us both for the spiritual and physical death we are able to live happily with our families in the presence of God.  This time right now is just a little separation for a little bit but I know that we can all be united again after this life.  Without the knowledge of the gospel that we have this life would be a lot harder to accept and understand the things that happen in life.  I am very grateful for the things I have learned about the gospel on my mission so far and especially this week.  I hope everyone is doing great there at home!!  Dad do you have a picture of Grandpa when he was like 25 or 30 or so?  If you do, you should send it to me.  I will tell you why next week, and I can listen to a CD here cause every apartment has a DVD player to watch the missionary videos so that would be great!!  I am loving every moment of the mission and am glad I am not anywhere else right now.  I am excited to keep learning and becoming a better person that I want to become.  This morning me and my comp and my district leader and his comp, the great-nephew of Blair Erickson went to climb the same hill that I did a while ago, and this time we made it for the sunrise and it was awesome to see the sun come over the mountains.  I was kinda wishin I could be up in the mountains skiin or fishin or something, but I guess that will have to wait.  I should have some pretty good pictures of some stuff that is gonna happen next week so hopefully I can send those!!  Have a great week this week.  I miss and love you all!

Elder Moser

E-mail

February 4, 2012

Well it was another awesome week on the mission in Chile!!  There have been a lot of good things going on in the mission here lately so it has been fun to see all the success the missionaries are having.  We have two super solid investigators right now so that has been fun teaching them, one is a husband of a recent convert and the other is a wife of a recently reactivated man in our ward, she is from Mexico and cooks lots of Mexican food for us so that has been really awesome!!  Yesterday we went with them to another baptism and she knows that is what she needs to be doing and she has seen a lot of blessings just from receiving the lessons and going to church so far it has been fun to watch.  We have been doing lots of contacting the last couple of weeks and it gets a little tiring sometimes in the hot sun, but we have found some new pretty good investigators so it will be fun to keep teaching them.  Dad, I got one package with the jerky and it was awesome!!  I only eat a little piece every now and then to make it last a long time, the smokey sticks are the best!  It has been nice having some good tasting food!!  Today we went with the zone to go bowling and it was kinda weird, it felt like I was in the states again!  I think there is only one bowling alley here in Santiago and it was way funny to watch the latins bowl cause it was their first time for a lot of them!  We had a competition between companionships and me and my comp dominated so that made it even more fun!!  I have been having a lot of fun with Elder Cervantes, we always make sure we are having fun whatever we doing and man the time has gone by so fast this last month!!  This last weekend we fasted and wow, that made a new meaning for fasting for me!  All of our appointments fell through so we were out contacting all afternoon and I don´t think I have ever been so thirsty in my life, but it was cool cause this time I got a lot better idea of what fasting is really for so I was thankful for being in the street all day!  Thanks for the pictures dad, the temple looks awesome in those pictures!  We have been trying to get the members more excited about the temple and to go more often and I think it has made a big difference in some of their lives as they have been going more.  That is one thing I do miss a lot!  So I am excited for when I will have the chance to go next!  I hope everything is going good with everyone!  I am lovin the mission!  Have a great week!

Elder Moser

E-mail and photos - January 28, 2012

January 28, 2012

Well it was another great week here in Chile, and it was not quite as hot this week, so that made it nice!!  Me and my comp have been together for a month now and that month went by so fast!!  It was crazy!!  The weeks are starting to really fly by now, it is crazy, it is Monday and then all of a sudden it is Sunday night and I feel like one day has gone by!  My language has improved quite a bit this last month and I can understand pretty much everything now so that makes the work a lot easier!  I still need lots of practice talking, but at least I can understand!!  This week was great, we set a baptismal date with a wife of one of the recently reactivated guys here, she knows this is the true church and needs to get baptized, just has a couple fears, but we are trying to work everything out with her so it should be pretty good!  It was awesome to watch her learn about the gospel, and the blessings it has brought to their family since they started coming to church.  And she always makes us awesome Mexican food so that is a plus!!  This week I had some really good experiences with food and some really really bad...... I tried my first humita, which is like a Mexican tamale, but is not spicy, and they are super good, we have been eating a lot of corn products the last couple weeks!  It is a good thing I like it!!  And I also had some awesome empanadas this week, those are super good too. The bad food experience: Yesterday someone made this seafood plate for us, well, I did not think it would be too bad, and then I took a bite without smelling it and as soon as I tasted and smelled it my mind went straight back to my college anatomy class, the day we worked with cadavers.  I swear the guy used the exact same stuff for a sauce on the seafood as they do to keep human bodies good in the cadaver lab.  It smelt the exactly the same and tasted just how it smelt, well, I chewed and swallowed as fast as I could and then tried to eat another bite so I did not make the guy feel bad, the second bite I could not handle it, and I started gagging and ran to the bathroom and threw up.  It was honestly the nastiest thing I have ever eaten in my life!!  Luckily after I came back from the bathroom the guy left the room and my companion took it all from me and ate it.  I was sick all night long, and I sure hope that is not a traditional Chilean recipe, cause I do not think I could handle it again!!  Now I definitely will not be complaining when someone gives me a plate of rice for lunch!  at least it does not taste like formaldehyde!!   Other than that it was a great week!!  and I am excited for all of the weeks I have left!!  I hope grandpa starts doing better!! doesn't sound too fun right now!!  I have not received the package yet dad, maybe tomorrow.  I hope everyone is doing great!!  One of my new favorite chapters in the book of Mormon is 3 Nephi 27, it is a good one!!  If you are ever bored read it!!  Have a great week!  Oh and the pictures, one is of me and Francisco, he is leaving tomorrow for his mission, we will miss him!! he has been a big help with the work here is this ward!!  And the other is cheese from the south of Chile someone gave us, that was also a bad food experience, not as bad as the seafood, but still, never buy cheese from the south of Chile!!!

Elder Moser.

E-mail and photos - January 21, 2012

January 21, 2012

Well it was another great week in chile!!  It was a little cooler this week so that was a nice break!  It was stinkin hot for a while there!!  That's great to hear I am gonna have a new nephew when I get home!  That's one, now there just needs to be three or four more by the time I get home!!  It is always funny telling people that I have 18 nieces and nephews here cause the people that live here have max one or two brothers and sisters, so 6 sisters and 18 nieces and nephews, and parents that are still together sounds crazy to them.  Thanks for being such an awesome family.  Here I have seen lots of different things and I have definitely realized how lucky I am to have the family I have!!  I musta done something right in heaven!  Thanks for all the support I have had while I have been down here, it sure makes being 5000 miles away a lot easier!  This week we had a husband of a recent convert that has been coming to church for about a year and a half or so tell us that he is ready to be baptized because he has seen how much the gospel has blessed his family.  He wants to be baptized in February, but he is gone a lot so we will try to catch him home as much as we can so he can be ready.  It is awesome to see the gospel change people's lives.  The happiest people I see down here are on Sundays in the chapel.  There are lots of hard, and bad things down here but the people always tell us the one place they feel the safest and the best is in the chapel.  It is awesome to see how much of an effect the gospel of Jesus Christ can have on people.  Dad, about the cord, I did find one in the fedia here but it looks like it is well used, so I am guessing it won´t last too long, so thank you for sending the other one.  I will let you know when I get the package.  Dad, what is the address of my missionary blog??  Richard wants to know but I don´t remember it! and thanks for the recipe!  I am excited to make it!  The only problem is they don´t sell coconut in the bags here, haha, you just have to buy the real thing, so we will see how that goes!! :)  I hope everyone has a great week!!

Elder Moser