My Last Email As A Full-Time Missionary

So, this is it.  I can´t believe it came.  They all say that, but it´s true.  I don´t even know where to begin.  There is no way I could sum up these past 2 years - and my unbelieveable appreciation and love for this experience - in just this email.  There have been so many little, seemingly insignificant moments that have made this such an amazing experience.  Looking back, I am surprised that I even made it on a mission.  But I did, thanks to my Heavenly Father, my incredibly loving and supportive parents who allowed me to make my own mistakes while never - ever - giving up on me, and to a humble servant of the Lord bishop Tim Hunt who really is responsible for getting me out here. Not to even start to mention all of the priceless positive influences I´ve been so fortunate to have growing up, both within the Church and without.  I honestly have no way to ever thank or repay you for all you´ve done for me.  For the rest of my life, I´ll do my absolute best to make you proud and see you all in the Celestial Kingdom.

My Last Zone Conference

Hello everyone!

Last week was incredible.  I participated in my last zone conference.  Want to know who came?  Elder Arnold, the president of Sudamérica Sur area and his wife, Sister Arnold.  They...were...incredible.  Last Wednesday night, the assistants came and slept in our pension with us (because the conference was held in our chapel).  The 4 of us woke up at 4:45 Thursday morning to go to the church and set up tables and chairs, clean up one more time, and just get everything ready.  Then while our companions were in another room, President Arnold had a meeting with the 4 zone leaders, us 5 district leaders, and us 2 trainers - 9 people in total in a meeting with a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy.  He actually gave a talk either last General Conference or the one before where he told a story about cows in the field and one of them broke through the fence and died, and related it to how the commandments help us to be safe (look it up, it´s a good talk).  Elder Mervyn B. Arnold.  I´m not kidding, this man is inspired.  There were about 4 times just in that first 55 minute meeting where he said that he had something else planned but the Spirit was telling him to go another

Will Ye Also Go Away?

Man, something funny always happens to me.  There are a lot of people here who don´t know about missionary work or who have very misguided ideas of what we do.  But there is one thing that people who don´t know anything about the church usually ask me:  "When you go home, are you going to continue in this church and still be Mormon?"  Uhh....duh!  Haha.  It´s like when Christ asked His apostles, "Will ye also go away?" and good old Peter says something along the lines of "Where would we go?  For thou hast the words of eternal life."  This isn´t a "job" that I´m doing here or just a gig that I´ll come here, complete the task, and go home and be "normal" again.  I´ll never be normal again.  (I don´t know if I was ever really "normal", but you know what I mean haha).  Nothing in life nor death could ever separate me from this Gospel and this Church.

This week I have more pictures, and I took some time giving some tips and instructions to my dad in another email for when he gets here, so my time is short.  But I´ll attach the pictures to this email and promise to write

And Besides, We're Canadian!

Hello family!

This week has been craaaaazy.  Haha.  Oh boy.  To say the very least.  Ups, downs, funny stuff, extremely difficult stuff...all kinds of "stuff"!  But the work goes on.  The branch here is really kicking it into gear in terms of the leaders getting things organized and moving.  We have an excellent, hard-working branch president and an incredible 1st councelor in the district (stake) presidency who is really helping us out.  We have people coming to church - both less active members and investigators - who haven´t come in a long time.  This branch has incredible potential.  The leaders are in place, the missionaries are in place (oh you betcha haha), and we´re ready to get this thing rolling.  It´s about time Rama 1 had some success down here.

Quick funny story to leave you with.  We were walking down the road by the plaza last Friday, and I see this drunk guy across the street just making a B-line right for us.  "Oh this should be interesting" I thought haha.  It

1 Fast Sunday Left. Boo:(

Weird realization last week:  I only have 1 fast Sunday left in my mission.  Boo :(

Thank you Nana for sending me those recipes and copies of those talks.  They were great!  I love you and will see you soon.  Tell Great-grandpa to stick it out for another month and a half until I can get down there and that I love him too.

So this week has been good.  Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Austin Hunt!  And welcome back Tyler!  Looking forward to seeing you guys again.  Sorry there´s not much to write this week, but I´ve run out of time.  It just so happens that when I FINALLY figure out how to send pictures from this cyber after playing with it for a while, I don´t even have my camera.  Blah!  But I do have my companion´s camera, so I´ll send you some from his camera just so you have a few and I´ll bring mine again next week.  Love and miss you all!  Have a great week!

-Élder Moore

Temptation And The Adversary

This week has been a good week.  We found a golden investigator and will soon meet his family.  His name is Julio Espardella.  Julio´s dad actually obtained the land for the chapel back years ago when it was built, and he remembers the missionaries coming over to his house when he was a little boy.  He´s now 40 or so with a wife of 18 years and 3 kids.  He was a reference from missionaries from another branch, and we´ve gone by his house twice and haven´t found him.  We just happened to be looking for people on our list of inactive members and saw his house nearby so we felt we should stop by.  He came out and was like "Hey Mormons".  So we were like aw dang this guy is going to be a heckler.  But he was way nice.  He asked us to come in without even asking our names or anything, just opened the door and said "come on in, good to see you".  We had a great lesson with him, found out a little more about his life, and taught him the message of the Restoration.  At the end, we presented the Book of Mormon to him, and he said "Yeah, I´m going to read this tonight".  Gold.  And then we said that after he reads it, he´s got to pray and ask the Lord if it´s true.  He was like "No, I don´t need to do that, I already believe it´s true."  Who says that?  Haha.  Great man, and I hope his family is the same.

Drink Up Of The Waters While I'm Standing At The Fountain

This is weird.  In 2 days, I will have 6 weeks left on my mission.  My group will be the oldest missionaries in Paraguay (besides President and Hermana Callan).  We´re on deck for going home.  Freaks me out.  Don´t like to think about it.

Hermana Callan is actually going home this week for 2 weeks.  Their youngest 2 daughters are getting married both within those 2 weeks, and they´re the last two of the Callan children to get married, so she gets to go home for that.  There are also 5 birthdays in those two weeks, 2 grandchildren to meet that they haven´t met before, and one of those little ones is getting blessed in church one of the 2 Sundays.  So she´ll be busy!  She told me that there are some missionaries who have already gone home that are going to be there too, so that will be neat.  I don´t know how it works, if she´s on an authorized 2 week release, or she´s still on missionary duties or what, but she gets to go home.  She´s really excited, so that will be good for her.

We had a really good lesson with the family - Pedro and Sonia - who we are trying to get baptized and married.  We had planned on going there to watch the Restoration video with them, but we got there and they had

God Has Called A Prophet

Hello family!

Just a quick thank you, it is always so nice to get letters from people, so thank you to everyone who writes me whether it be every week or every few months.  I apologize if any of you haven´t heard from me in a while - I´ve been really busy, but last week I sent out a pack of 5 or 6 letters.  I´m sending out my last ones this and next week.  If anyone gets one from me from here on out, unless there´s a way to get it to me before September 8th, send me a message on www.DearElder.com <http://www.DearElder.com> .  Put in "Elder Timothy Moore" for the missionary, and "Paraguay Asunción Mission" for mission, and it will get to me in about 2 weeks.  Thanks!

First of all, I would like to send a special message to Boyd Erickson and Brett Jenkins and their families.  Know that you are in my prayers and I´m praying for the quick and complete recovery of these two great men who I rather love, and for the comfort and consolation of their families through their prayers and through the ward

Just Doing Our Paraguay Thing

Hello my family!

Not much to report on this week.  We´re moving right along.  Mostly we´re working with a new member in our ward who moved here from Asunción - Hermano Nappa.  He´s a champ, he helps us so much.  We´re teaching his employee named Lili, and it´s going just great.  She should be getting baptized here in 2 weeks or so.  She came to church yesterday, so it was a great start.

Really short on time this week, sorry to disappoint!  President Callan is coming here to Encarnación to do interviews with some other missionaries today, and they´re doing it here in our chapel so we have to go open it up for him.  My comp is well, I´m well, and we´re just doing our Paraguay thing.  Love and miss you all!

-Élder Moore

Pride and A Bike Ride

Shoot off some fireworks for me!  God bless America!

So, this week has been one of the worst of my mission in terms of success.  Haha.  Man, sometimes when you´re on the floor, life has no mercy for ya and keeps pushing you down when you try to get up haha.  It was kind of funny the amount of unfortunate events that have happened this week.  But, the work goes on and I´m not sad or discouraged.  I´ve learned that from my mission and from President Hinckley.  Even in the worst of circumstances, he never got discouraged.  When people asked him about a tough situation, his replies were often (with a smile): "things will work out" and "oh, the Lord will know what to do with that".  That is great faith to me, and I´m trying to develop it likewise.  Two people together can do anything, as long as one of them is God.  There´s no jam I can´t get out of or no problem I can´t fix when I have the Lord´s help.  I´ve personally experienced that on my mission, and I know it will be the same this time.  It all depends on me.

The Priesthood Of God

Hello all my friends and family!  I love you all.

So I´m short on time this week, and the only real news this week is that the temple last week was beyond amazing.  You have no idea how good it felt to be back there after 8 months.  I felt really special to be able to complete the work for the ancestor that Dad sent me to do.  I felt that he was very thankful for what has been done for him on the part of my dad and me, and that he gratefully accepted the work done on his behalf.  He´ll be waiting for us on the other side of the veil I´m sure, and I´m excited to meet him.

Yesterday in Priesthood meeting, we were going over the talk from the last General Conference Priesthood Session given by President Monson about (of course) the Priesthood.  I had read over it before the class, and I really came to understand a lot better what the Priesthood is.  I´ll try to explain it so that those who are not

My First Time Teaching Sunday School

Hello all!

So, this week there are some good things to report.  Let´s get down to business.

Last Tuesday, Alcides got baptized!  It was a great service with a lot of people there.  His brother baptized him.  They moved to a different branch the next day (which we knew was going to happen beforehand), but I talked to the Elders of Rama 2 (one of which is Elder Alexander, my old companion from Guarambaré) and they said he got confirmed on Sunday and he´s just happy as a clam.  I´ll write him a little note today.

My new comanion is Elder Salinas.  He is awesome!  He is from Idaho, and is the oldest child in his family.  Despite his Latin last name, he is as white as can be haha.  Actually, he is a redhead (shoutouts to Elder Pierce!  Love you Elder!)  His grandpa is from Mexico, hence the last name.  But his mom was Miss Idaho, so he´s pretty darn American haha.  He´s just a great friend already.  He wrestled since he was 4 years old, so we talked about that for a bit too.  We clicked pretty fast, and we´re working harder than ever.  I´ve never worked so hard or been so focused on my mission, and I´m glad I get to help him start out his mission on a good note.

Training Again! Hot Dog!

Another week down.  Goes by quicker and quicker every time!

Ok, so I think I wrote last week about a family who was going to get married and baptized last Saturday.  The girl was a bit nervous about getting married, and we were praying for them to accept the challenge and make the right decision.  Well, we went to visit them, and they had talked and prayed (together...cool, huh?), and fully accepted the committment of getting married.  She said "I´m going to sacrifice myself and get married" hahah.  Perfect.  The only problem was they want a fancy wedding with dinner, a dress, and all the bells and whistles.  This will cost them money that they don´t have, so they told us they are going to start saving and then get married (and baptized)...in a few months.  Quack.  So what I was worried about turned out not to be a problem, she accepted the marriage idea, but just a little too much hahah.  We´re working with them talking about the importance of getting baptized and not waiting, and that the real marriage worth celebrating formally will be in 1 year when the enter in the temple and get sealed as a family for time and all eternity.  We´ll see how they take that.  But they are so great, I just love them.

So this week my companion finishes his mission (side note: even though this week is changes, P-days are now

Why Is God Invisible?

This week has been so great.  I´m really enjoying these last few months of my mission.  Last night and this morning, I was doing some thinking and praying about my mission, and I just had an incredibly overwhelming feeling of gratitude for all that I´ve been given in my mission and in my life.  It humbles me, because I know all the mistakes I´ve made, and yet the Lord continues to bless me even when I feel like I don´t deserve it.  I´ve begun to notice (and express gratitude for in my prayers) even the small things, like allowing me to feel the Spirit so strongly in Sacrament meeting.  It is such a peaceful, happy thing to feel the Spirit.  I´ve really come to appreciate it.  I have been so blessed in my life with so many things - and more importantly so many great people - and it overwhelms me.  I owe all this to my mission, because it has definitely changed me for the better.

We have a possible baptism this Saturday.  They´re Pedro and Sonia Coronel.  They have all the lessons except tithing, and they came to church yesterday.  We just need to be sure that she´s ready to get married this weekend, and if she says yes, they can get baptized this week.  They´re just a great family.  Keep them in your

Tender Mercy From The Lord

So this week has been pretty good actually.   We had 4 investigators at church, and one of the families that is progressing couldn´t come but they let us know beforehand so we wouldn´t think they were ditching us haha.  We have prospects for baptism in these upcoming 3 weeks: Gloria (the most adorable 9 year old girl whose mother is a member), Alcides (a 15 year old kid who lives with his brother and sister-in-law who both are active members), and a couple named Pedro and Sonia Coronel.  All 4 of them I suspect will be baptized in the month of June.  They are all incredible people who have come to church already and who are progressing well in the gospel.  Gloria will be baptized first, and then probably Pedro and Sonia (if the Spirit can convince her to get married), and then Alcides.  It was so great to see the kindness and Christlike charity of the members here in Rama 1.  Pedro and Sonia are a young couple (she´s 21, he´s 24).  They had their first child less than a month ago: a sweet baby girl named Ashley.  They were a reference from a member in another branch, so we went to visit them.  Pedro had investigated the Church before, but it was years ago before he met Sonia, so she has never been exposed to the Church.  We met with them on Thursday and Saturday the week before last, and they came to church that Sunday.  They got there just after Sacrament started, so we were elated because we

How I Love My 3 Hermanas

Grr.  So I finally got to a cyber where they allow me to upload photos onto the computer so I can send them to you.  But before I attach them in an email, I have to make them smaller so they actually get to you.  Or else I´d have to send them 4 at a time because the files are too big.  Well, turns out these computers don´t have the program I need to change the image size.  Ugh!  The guy who works here was messing with it for like half an hour and wasted my time!  Gah.  And now I have 10 minutes to write again - without pictures!  Bleh.

The only real news is that I got a reeeeally cool letter today!  Hermana Sargent, Hermana Green, and Hermana Denker (the 3 Sisters from my MTC district) wrote me today!  They wrote all the Elders from our MTC district.  This past week, Hermana Sargent came back to Paraguay with her family to visit for a few days.  Cool, huh?  She´s awesome.  Apparently she brought the letters from each of them to the mission office, and they sent them out.  It was an incredible spirit-lifter happy-maker to hear from them haha.  How I love my 3 Hermanas :).  It is

I've Got A Legacy To Uphold

Hello everyone!

This week has been good.  Started off kind of rough though, because I had to travel to Asunción on Tuesday to sign my immigration papers to maintain temporary residence here (now they CAN´T kick me out...haha), so that took the whole day and we lost that day of proselyting.  We had some good experiences this week in terms of lessons and such.  There is Gloria (the daughter of a recently re-activated member) who has a baptism date for next week, so I´m way excited about that.  She turns 9 that week, and she is just the cutest little girl.  Very smart, likes to draw, and loves Primary (even though there are only like 4 Primary-aged kids in this branch haha).  So that should happen next week.  Then we came in contact with a member who got baptized with his wife about a year and a half ago who just moved into our area, so we´re helping them get situated and into the habit of coming back to church.  There are some great things that can happen here in the next few weeks.  The only difficulty is that we´re a little nervous about inviting investigators to church here haha.  We have church from 8:30-11:30, and Sacrament meeting is the last hour.  We only invite investigators to Sacrament meeting so they show up at 10 haha.  The problem is that there are so few active members here (about 20) and they almost all come late.  When 8:30 came yesterday, there were 2 members who had

Last Round of Letters

Wow, it was so great to see and talk to everyone yesterday on Skype.  A nice little motivation to hold me over until the my end of my mission!  To those I didn´t get to talk to, I love and miss you all too haha.  I´m sending out my last round of letters this change (besides letters I´ll respond to if someone writes me), because if I wait too much longer, chances are you won´t have time to write me back haha.  So if you want to write me and want a response from me, better do it now!

This area is probably my hardest in terms of challenges and things we have to do.  But still my favorite =P I´m glad I have a lot to do.  The members here seem good, but the normal church attendence is about 20 people.  Yikes!  Lots of work to do, I'm really glad I´ll be busy until the end of my mission.  Elder Alvarez and I came up with some really good, solid plans to help out the members here and start generating some activity.  We´re first going to

Encarnacion - Nauvoo Paraguay

Alright, I can´t lie.  I am beyond excited to see you guys on SKYPE this Sunday!  I mean, phone calls are awesome, but SKYPE is just taking it to a whole other level.  Taking it up a notch, thanks for the quote Chef Emril.  Yes, we have permission again to use Skype.  This will be my last phone call home.  I know I say this every time, but it really is weird.  I´ve had my last General Conference on my mission, I´ll be having my last phone call on the mission this Sunday, and next month will be my last temple trip on the mission.  But let´s not talk about the end of my mission, I don´t like that subject.  Changing to happier things :)

So this week were changes, and I got changed.  I left Obrero after 6 months (holy cow, I do not miss packing and unpacking my life in a suitcase...), and I´m now in what I imagine will be my last area.  It is a city called Encarnación, and I´m absolutely in love with it.  It´s like when I went to Reno and fell in love with it from day 1, it´s the same thing.  This city is amazing.  It is similar to Obrero, but a little bit more city-ish.  I am on the banks of the river that separates Paraguay from Argentina, so you can call it Nauvoo Paraguay haha.  My companion

Baptism Of Osvaldo

Where oh where is 2011 going?  Slow it down, speed racer!

Osvaldo was baptized last Saturday!  Oh, it was excellent.  It was raining, and I´m sure I´ve said in the past that when it rains here, the people act like it´s raining fire.  They don´t leave their houses and almost all the businesses shut down.  So I thought nobody was going to come, and I was freaking out.  The two people we had assigned to give short talks called us and bailed out 3 hours before the baptism.  2 hours before, the person who was going to offer the last prayer called to say he wasn´t going to come.  More freaking out.  But, luckily enough, a lot of people ended up coming.  Just not the people who had responsabilities haha.  He, being a bit older and kind of fragile, couldn´t be baptized standing up and being dunked towards his back.  So we brought him a chair, and he was dunked forward sitting down instead of backward.  His head wouldn´t go all the way down, so they ended up doing it a second time sitting down but backward, and he went under.  Took a bit of effort, but he got baptized haha.  And then after that, he got up and gave a beautiful testimony