E-mail

Hola!!  Thanks for the weather forecast Dad - it has been getting stinking hot down here!  And the truck's AC is broken, so it gets pretty tough to drive around!  Think I will have to go get that fixed pretty soon here!  It got up to about 98 two days ago and this is stilll just spring time - hopefully it does not get too much hotter though!  Well, this week was just a pretty good normal week for a pensionist, haha.  Just lots of driving around!  One of the Senior Missionaries has been going around with me a little bit more though, so that has been fun.  He is kinda like my grandpa on the mission.  I have gotten to know him pretty good over the last couple of weeks.  He always sneaks me out of the office and takes me to lunch, haha.

   We had changes this last weekend so it got pretty crazy again, but we were a lot more prepared this time so it wasn't as bad.  And the day after President saw that we were all pretty tired so he invited us all over and he cooked hamburgers and we just relaxed at his house a while - that was pretty fun!  He has been awesome to have as a president. He really does love and care for all his missionaries a lot!  This week should be pretty fun too.  Thursday is actually gonna be our p-day, so that is when I will be writing.  And then Thursday in the evening everybody from the office is gonna head up to President's house to have a big Thanksgiving dinner, so that should be pretty sweet!  I definitely get a little bit of special treatment being here in the office! haha.  I hope you guys have fun going over to Carrie's for Thanksgiving!  Don't get stuck in a big snow storm going across Wyoming!!

   Yup, it was President Gonzalez that came to speak to us - he is a pretty funny guy.  I think he has given a talk in conference recently hasn't he??  Pretty crazy that Josh is already home from his mission!  That went by pretty stinking fast!  It is crazy to think that Cameron and Blake only have 5 and 6 months left!  Crazy how fast that has gone!

   My comp is gonna start driving lessons with a place this week so that should be pretty interesting!  President wants him to be driving before I leave the office, so I hope he is a fast learner!  I am kinda scared to drive in downtown Santiago with someone that is recently learning how to drive, haha.  Anyways, you guys better say lots of prayers for me when that starts!!

   And for Christmas, well the only thing I can really think of that would be sweet would be some of those blue diamond flavored almonds!  One of the senior couples brought them from the states and man they tasted good!!  Oh, and a United States soccer jersey would be pretty sweet!  I have no idea which one or how much they cost, but that would be pretty cool if you could find anything like that.  And about the CD - we can play CD's. I can put them on the computer here in the office and put them on my ipod and stuff.  And musical instruments.  Well I guess we could!  There are some people that have them here.  Hey, how hard is the harmonica??  To play like some hymns or something??  Elder Harman has a violin and we heard a sweet harmonica -viloin duet.  Does it take a while to get kinda good? 

   Well, everything is going pretty good here - still happy and just chugging along here in the office!  I hope everyone is doing good back home!  It is great to hear from ya!!  Have a great week this week!!

Elder Moser

E-mail

Hola!  Well Dad, those were some pretty sweet pictures you had from California!  Got a little jealous about the Mustang though, haha.  Looks like way too much fun!!  And those are some pretty pictures of the coast.  It is crazy how much some of the coast looks like Chile!  Looks like you guys just drove down the coast of Chile!  But the boats in the harbor are waaay nicer than the ones here, haha.  I am glad that you guys were able to have a good trip though - looked like a lot of fun!  This week has probably been one of the coolest weeks of my mission!  Some pretty cool stuff happened.  It started on Sunday when we had the Area President come to a Stake Conference with the Temple President here in Maipu.  Elder Harman and I were in charge of welcoming him in and walking him in so that was pretty cool.  He is a super good speaker, and I learned a lot from him.  Then two days later on Tuesday we attended a 4-mission Mission Conference with guest speaker Elder Jeffery R Holland!  That was pretty sweet!  He mainly talked  about how missionaries need to stay strong after the mission and if we don't, the whole two years was a waste.  He used a pretty sweet scripture that I had never seen used like this before. He said everything pretty straight forward, and he talked about the scripture in Joseph Smith History where it says "they draw near to him with their lips but their hearts are far from him" and he said this was first said for people in the time of Joseph Smith when all the churches were preaching different stuff, but then he also refers to many things, and one of them is the missionaries in our time.  He said for two years young men draw near to him with their lips and they say what they need to say, but really their hearts are far from him, and they never do become converted, and fall away and become a burden to the Church.  It was a very powerful talk.  Every missionary in the place had their eyes wide open, that is for sure - pretty cool experience!  It was held in a chapel over on the east side of the city and there were over 900 missionaries there!  It was a great talk.  That was the first time I have seen him live I think and man he talks with a lot of power.  It is a pretty cool feeling with that many missionaries in the room and with the spirit so strong and stuff.  Definitely an experience I will never forget!  I was able to see my old roommate, Daniel Gleave, there too - he is over in the east mission so that was pretty sweet to see him.  So that was a pretty good start to the week, then we just had some really interesting things happen later on in the week.  My testimony grew a ton of the power of the Priesthood and that it really is a real thing.  I wanted to write a letter about the experience I had, but I would feel kinda weird writing an e-mail about it, so you should get that there in a few weeks. 

     Wow, I thought the pictures of Cayden were pretty crazy!  That kid is growing up!  He looks bigger and bigger every time you send a picture - he is gonna be able to beat me up when I get back!  Payback for all the picking on him I did, haha.  I better watch out!

     Today one of the senior couples invited us to go eat with them so we are pretty excited for that!  She said that we are gonna eat funeral potatoes and pulled pork sandwiches with carrot cake for dessert!  Sounds pretty good to me!!  Hope it tastes like the real stuff!!! :)  But they just called and said that they are waiting for us, so it looks like we've got to get goin!  But I hope everyone is doing great!!  I love and miss you all! Have a great week this week!!

Elder Moser

E-mail and photos

November 9, 2013

Hola!  Wow, Dad, sounds like you and Mom are having a pretty good week!  And a convertible Mustang!?  Dang!  Sounds like the best part, haha.  I bet it is nice getting out and enjoying some of the nice weather down there!  You guys should come pick me up when I am done and rent a convertible Mustang so we can drive down the coast of Chile ;) haha.  It is not as fun when you have to do it in a Ford Ranger like I do right now!  But I definitely enjoy the driving a lot!  My comp does not have a license yet, so I am still driving everywhere we go.  I am liking that part a lot!  Downtown Santiago has been pretty crazy, but I feel like I will be able to drive anywhere after that! 

     Well the week has been pretty good.  It was pretty stressful because an apartment that we had for the senior couple that is coming in on Tuesday fell through, and it is super tough to find apartments there.  But we were able to do it with some miracles from the Lord!  Not sure how we were able to get it.  Usually takes a couple weeks, but we were able to find an apartment and sign the contract and finalize everything in three days - pretty sweet stuff!  That apartment has been what I have pretty much been working on all week so not too much else too exciting happened, haha.  We were able to teach the owners lesson 1 though, so that was pretty fun.  It is always really good when we have the opportunity to do that.  People just think it is so weird that a twenty year old kid is here in Chile not getting paid by the Church doing what I am doing - like taking care of all the houses and stuff.  They always ask why we would do something like this so that leads perfectly into teaching them lesson one, haha. 

     The realtor for the owners was talking to us after and starting showing us pictures of her daughter and told us she wanted us to meet her so that she could go home with us when we went home, haha.  That was kinda weird!  Definitely gonna stay away from that realtor from now on!

     It has been pretty sweet being able to learn everything I have learned from doing all this housing stuff.  I had no idea about a lot of this stuff before and it is helping me a lot to understand a lot more about the business world and stuff.  It really has turned out to be a good way to share the gospel too.  I never teach in my sector, but I am always teaching people from all over Santiago.  At least helping people get a lot better idea of what the Church is.  A lot of people have no idea and have some really strange views on the Church.  That has been something pretty interesting to see after coming out of Star Valley and Rexburg.  I can definitely understand people's views on the Church now. Helps me a lot in becoming a better missionary! 

     Anyways I hope everyone is doing good!  Have a great week this week!  It is always good to hear from ya!

Elder Moser

E-mail and letter from President

Hola!  Wow, the weather is looking pretty good for this week!  It has been starting to get pretty warm here.  Makes me want to get outside out of the office some more!  This next change we are only going up 2 missionaries, so it looks like we are gonna be able to get out and teach some lessons finally!  Should be pretty good!  I think I have forgotten how a little bit!  Hopefully I will be able to learn how pretty quick again!

   Hey thanks for sending the package Dad.  I will be sure to let you know when it gets here.  And man, chocolate sounds like pretty good packing material to me!  I've got no problem with that!  Speaking of packages, this week I should be sending something home for you and Mom for Christmas,  so let me know when that gets there.  I think you'll like it.  Chileans can do some stuff pretty good!!  You will see what I mean when you get it.  Hadn't seen anything very similar to it before, and I might end up having to get me some too!  Just hope I can get it out of the country!  All of the government offices have been having a ton of strikes down here lately.  The place where we get our visas and stuff and the post office was shut down for a long time, so it was pretty tough for us missionaries, and some people almost had to go home early because of it.  And now everyone else in Chile is starting to go on strikes, and even the store where I buy all my housing supplies shut down for a while.  Just kinda like a chain reaction I guess! 

   Well everything is going pretty good here!  Nothing too crazy happened this week, just kinda the same old office life, haha.  We did find a juicer in our pension so we went to the street market and bought a ton of carrots and apples and lemons and we have been juicing every morning for breakfast!  Thought Mom would be pretty proud of me for that one, haha.  Here you can buy a kilo or a little over two pounds of apples for about 80 cents, and carrots are like 60 cents a kilo and lemons you can buy for 150 pesos a kilo, or about 30 cents.  Pretty cheap stuff!  So that makes it nice to do the whole juicing thing.  Definitely makes me feel better throughout the day.  It is pretty funny how cheap some of the fruit can be but then any other food here is at least double than what it is in the states.  A hamburger at McDonalds is 8-10 bucks for a combo.  And milk is about 6 bucks a gallon and stuff like that.  Crazy how people can pay that much for food.  The minimum wage here is less than a buck an hour.  Not sure how people do it, guess that is why people are never home, just constantly working!  Sure are blessed to live where we do I guess!

   It looks like everyone had a pretty good Halloween this year!  Pretty sweet costumes!  I forgot it was Halloween till we went out that night and everybody was dressed up funny.  I was kinda weirded out for a minute before I realized what day it was, haha. Sure do miss the pumpkin seeds though!

Well we got to get going, but I hope you all have a pretty good week this week!  I love and miss you all!

Elder Moser

E-mail

     Hola!  Coma estan todos por allá?  Well, it was another good week in the office, haha.  Just a bunch of the same stuff that I have always been doing!  Looking for houses and cleaning out drains and fixing toilets and stuff, haha.  Yesterday I had to clean out a drain in a bathroom that is from a house that has had sister missionaries living in it for the past thirteen years.  Pretty sure it was the first time that thing had ever been cleaned out too!  I could have made a full wig for a lady out of all the hair that was in that thing, haha.  Pretty gnarly stuff!  The work has been good though.  We have been receiving lots of blessings and have been finding some pretty sweet new houses for the next change.  It is crazy how the Lord makes some stuff so easy when it comes to figuring out stuff for the missionaries!  We still do have to put in a lot of work but he sure does do his part.  A couple days ago me and my companion just got to go walk around the nice part of Santiago where the colleges are cause we are looking for a house there for the new senior couple that is coming in.  We heard it was super tough to find apartments there, especially this time of year cause all the college students.  But anyways, we just walked around looking for a good 7 or 8 hours and in that time we found a couple great ones that had just been opened up that day.  Just happened to be in the right place in the right time.  So we were pretty happy with that.  And when we were walking back towards the car to go home, a guy stopped us and asked us if we knew of any houses to rent cause he knows missionaries are always walking around our sectors.  He said he has been looking for months for an apartment there and there just had not been anything.  So I just thought it was pretty sweet we were able to go and find the perfect apartment right next to the church in just a couple hours.  The Lord definitely helps us out a ton!

     Sounds like you and Mom have been pretty busy running around the last few weeks doing a bunch of stuff!  Crazy that you are already planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas and that those are just right around the corner.  Can't believe how fast this year has gone - for sure the fastest year of my life!  Must be having fun :)

     Thanks for taking care of the debit card and the shoes and stuff Dad, it is a big help! Don't know what I would do without you guys there!

     How has Kaden been doing?  Is he healing up and stuff good? 

Well there is not too much new stuff goin on!  Just getting ready for the changes again! 

I hope everyone is doing great!  Thanks for all the support I have received since I have been out here from everyone!  Have a great week this week!

Elder Moser

E-mail and Photos

Hola!  Wow, that bush in the front yard looks pretty sweet!  I don't ever remember it being that bright before!  And the bears in the park!  Pretty lucky to see those!  That doesn't happen every day!  The weather has been great over here.  It hasn't gotten too hot yet, just nice and sunny and warm, perfect :)  Thanks for sending the package dad!  I got it about a week ago and it was awesome :)  Some good old homemade jerky - that is what I had been missing for the last couple of months!  I did get a nice rack of American ribs in though.  Last week for p-day we went over to the nice side of Santiago into a big new mall and we found an Applebees!  So we all got a full rack of ribs, and man they were expensive!  But they were super good!  Don't know if it is cause I have not eaten good meat in a year or what, but they sure made me happy!  So that was a pretty good start to the week that helped me make it through!  This week was not quite as crazy, but it was still super crazy.  We had another house get broken into last night. That has been happening a lot - not sure what is going on!  So that has been fun trying to figure all that stuff out!  And also President told me he wants to move the mission office to another nicer part of the city as soon as we can, so I have to find an office to buy and 6 apartments for all office missionaries and the senior couples and stuff, so that is gonna be quite the project figuring all that out!  But it should be fun.  Last night I had a meeting with some big shot guy named Jose Gurruchaga up in his penthouse to figure out the new office stuff.  It was the same one I had been to a few weeks ago.  But this time he had recently returned from New York and he brought some baked goods and root beer for us from the States, haha.  Pretty good stuff!  I definitely am getting spoiled when it comes to the food, while being in the office.  When I was in the field, I never dreamed I would be eating some of the stuff I have like ribs and stuff, haha... blessings of being in the office!  But anyway, it was pretty cool when we were up in the meeting with the guy because we started talking about the church and the whole reason we were looking for apartments and just about the missionary work.  We were able to teach all of lesson 1 and stuff, and he told us he had always been really interested in our church. He said it is crazy how many people flock to your church and they become such good people when they are in it.  He said he has been in many different churches and has never seen nothing like that before, and he said there must be something to it.  And that he would love to be part of something like that.  He said he wanted us to come back after he got back from New York again and talk more about it, with some cheesecake from the States!  So I am pretty excited for when that happens, haha.  It has been really good to share the gospel with people who I am doing business with and stuff.  I think it is preparing me a lot by teaching me how to be able  to share the gospel with people when I am back in the real world and not wearing a badge.

    Yesterday we just got news that Elder Holland will be coming to our mission in November, so that should be pretty sweet!  We are all looking forward to that one! 

    Well, I hope everyone is doing good!  I really am doing great and lovin what I am doing!

Have a great week this week!

Les quiro mucho,

Elder Moser

 Me and Maria

 Me and Elder Harman (MTC Companion)

 Me and Santiago

 Me and Elder Caballero

 Me and my shoes

E-mail and Photos

Hola!  Come esta mi familia!?  Sorry about not writing more last week, we just really never had the time.  Thanks for sending the pictures and stuff again - it is always good to see what you guys are up to!  It looks super pretty over there with the leaves changing and the snow on the mountains and stuff.  I definitely miss Wyoming!  This week I had to go way out into the country to a couple of houses that are out there - it is about an hour from the nearest big town and everything reminds me a ton of Star Valley - it is pretty crazy.  It is the same place where I sent the pic of the mountain I said that looked like Star Valley.  I always like driving out there - makes me feel at home again! Man, I can't believe the pictures of Cayden!  He looks so much older now!  Crazy stuff! Man, he is gonna be heading off for his mission before we know it! 

     Well it has been one crazy week for me here in the office.  It was lots of fun but it was pretty tough too.  I had to take a lot of people to their areas that were white washing, or opening a new sector, and I had to finish filling all the houses that we have gotten recently.  And then two nights this week, in the middle of the night, President made some special changes and I didn't get home until 3:30 in the morning from those and we had to be up by 5:30 to get to some meetings and stuff.  So that has been the hardest part this week.  I have just been super tired!  It has been kinda weird lately.  There have been a lot of people robbing the missionaries and trying to break into houses and stuff, so President just wanted out of the areas. 

     My new companion in the office is Elder Caballero.  He is from Paraguay.  That was a huge surprise cause he is the first Latin we have ever had in the office.  So it has been interesting with him, because we only speak English in the office cause the senior couples, and he doesn't speak any English, so that has been kinda tough for him, but I am sure he will learn it though!!  He also can't drive so that is gonna be interesting, cause that is kinda all we do as a pensionist, haha.  So I am not exactly sure how that is gonna work out!  But he is a great kid!  He is really nice and a hard worker.  He has already been to a couple years of law school so he does know a lot about contracts and stuff which is good!  It is kinda funny though, he is like a Latin Travis Clark, looks a lot like him and acts just like him, haha.  He is always going around singing and stuff.  Just feels like I got Travis as my comp!  It will be good to practice my Spanish and keep that up a little bit - last change I barely spoke any Spanish and it was already goin down hill a little bit. So I am excited to improve that a little bit! 

    But everything else is goin pretty good!  Gettin used to drivin in Santiago a little bit more, it is crazy, but lots of fun.

    It is kinda interesting cause one of my jobs is deciding which sectors to open for the next change - kinda thought that was President's job, haha - but that has been good.  One thing that I have learned in the office a lot that I didn't really think I would be learning is how to recognize and follow the Spirit.  Over the last 7 weeks, I think I have improved more in that than I have in my whole life, I think. President completely trusts me on which houses to get and which sectors to open and stuff.  I don't even show him pictures of the house or tell him anything about it.  He just tells me to do what I think is best, so that has helped me a lot with following the Spirit.  It sounds weird, but I guess that is the way I needed to learn how to be able to recognize the Spirit and stuff.  The Lord definitely helps out and is guiding his mission work!

     Well I hope everything is going good for everyone back home!  Have a great week this week! 

Les quiro mucho,

Elder  Moser

 SNOW!!!!!!!

Tallest building in South America. 

 Driving in the coast.