I got to Baptize them Both

So as I have little time, I´ll get right to it.  We had the baptisms last week!  They were a mom - Mari - and her 11 year old daughter Evelin.  They are such a good family, I love them.  And even cooler, I got to baptize them both!  First baptisms in the mission - woohoo!!  It only took me 10 months to do it :) haha.  Really, it feels so incredible to have a baptism.  Seeing the change in the people, being able to be the one to do the baptizing, it´s an uncomparable feeling.  They were confirmed on Sunday by the branch president, and they seem like they´ll be full active members very easily thanks to some good members who have befriended them.  I´m way excited, and will let you know what develops with future baptisms!

So I was thinking about what I could share in my weekly emails to have a continuous thing going, and I thought that the perfect way to share something with everyone would be to go over an Article of Faith every week in my emails.  For those of you who aren´t members of the church, the 13 Articles of Faith are 13 basic principle beliefs of our church that explain our doctrines.  So, that being said, this week I start with Article of Faith number 1.

"We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost."
 

I Have Come to Love my Plack

So picture this.  We were walking home from teaching somebody to go eat lunch like we always do.  I have Dr. Scholl´s things in my shoes that my parents sent me.  We were just walking along, and all of the sudden I feel my Dr. Scholl´s pads fall out of my shoe - from the bottom.  How does that happen?  The shoe pads that are UNDER my feet fall out the BOTTOM of my shoe while I´m walking on them.  I look at my shoe and it had completely split in half along the bottom and my Dr. Scholl´s just fell right out.  That´s Paraguayan shoes for ya!  Needless to say, I bought new shoes on Saturday lol.

So this week, we´re having a baptism!  It´s scheduled for Saturday, and it´s a single mother and her daughter.  Her name is Mari Miranda and her 11 year old daughter is Evely.  They´re fantastic.  Yesterday they came to church by themselves without anyone having to go get them beforehand, they stayed the whole time, and they´re exited for their baptisms!  I´ll let you know how it goes in the next email!  Way excited.

I have come to love my plack.  It´s dirty and scratched, but it is such a strong symbol to me.  It has my name on it.  Elder Moore it says.  I share the title of Elder with every one of the 12 Apostles.  That is a serious thing.  But my name is not the only name on my plack.  I also bear the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I am His

House struck by Lightning - Killed the Rat!

Hello hello everybody!  Sorry last week I couldn´t get an email to send out.  I have lots to do and just ran out of time.  So this week I´m back on track!

So Guarambaré is great so far!  Elder Alexander and I get along really well.  For being relatively new in the mission, he is great.  He teaches well and he is very obedient to the mission rules, so it´s awesome.  I´ll try to send pics the next time, but I don´t know if I can from this cyber.  We have 15 people with baptismal dates, and are pretty sure most of them will follow through.  We have 1 kid who is going to be baptized this Saturday, but he is just in a member family and turned 8 so it´s not anything we did.  Then next week on the 26th we have 4 people who are planning to be baptized!  They all came to church yesterday too, so it´s pretty promising as of right now.  I´ll let you know next week for sure if it´s going to happen or not!  And then another guy named Pedro is supposed to be baptized on Sunday the 27th, but his wife pretty much controls him and is reeeeeally evangelical, so I´m not so sure it´s going to happen that day.  He is great though and we´ll keep working with him to get him in the water.  We have a few potentials for July 3rd and 10th as well that I´ll keep everyone posted on.  I´m excited!

District Leader..Oh Boy! Guarambare

Ok so Mom sent me some pictures of Chris´s wedding, and I have to say...I have the coolest (and best looking) family in the entire world haha.  Oh man, it was so good to see the whole family in a picture.  Mom, Dad, and my 3 Moore boy brothers.  That´s the way the Moores do things ;).

Chris and Christy - congratulations!  I wish you the absolute best.  Be happy!  I am :)

Ok so what you´ve all been waiting for: changes.  Yes, I´ve been sent to a new area.  It´s called Guarambaré.  I´m in zone 6A now (this zone has 6A and 6B - I have no idea why it´s split haha).  Yes (obviously) I have a new companion.  His name is Elder Alexander.  He´s been in this area for 2 changes, so he knows it well.  But that is not all...I got bumped up to senior companion.  BUT!  That is not all...I´m also now a district leader!  Holy cow, I never even THOUGHT that was going to happen.  I still feel new!!  I´ll explain more about each new thing.

Guarambaré.  It´s a big area.  We live in the city-ish part right in the middle of the area.  It reminds me of a mix between an old western town and one of those little towns you drive through and stop for gas on a road trip haha.  I wouldn´t really call it campo yet (open empty field).  But once you reach the city limits, it is literally on one side of the road is houses and stuff and the other side is HUUUGE wide open field that is also part of our

Jar of Flee's

Hey everyone - sorry I didn´t write yesterday.  We had zone conference, so our P-day moved to today.  Zone conference was INCREDIBLE, which I´ll talk about in a minute.  Reminder - next week is changes, so email will be on Thursday.  Oh, the suspense kills me!

Julie´s package.  Juliebear, I got your package with the letters, pictures, and candy.  Thank you so much!  My face just lit up to see my awesome aunt Julie and uncle Cliff.  Madisen looks way older now...kinda freaked me out.  Haha.  And Jabba is a monster, holy cow!  He´s big now!  (Well, he was always a tank, but you get the point.)  He has teeth and some more hair and everything.  I bet the little guy just runs around all day and will be jabbering up a storm in no time.  Thanks so much for sending that :)

Cindy - Haha, I´m sorry time isn´t flying yet.  I can tell you that the end definitely goes faster than the beginning.  I felt like I was in my first area for a year when really it was 4 months.  Now I have the same amount of time in this area that I´m in now, and it feels like 2 weeks.  Time goes much faster the farther into the mission you are.  Stick it out, keep those prayers going :).  I can relate to Elder Teshima at the moment haha.  Things are slow here the past few weeks.  Picking up very slowly and with a lot of hard work.  Wew just keep chugging along.  And thank you for finding out that information for me!  Next week when I find out if I stay or go to a new area, I´ll get his scripture cases ordered.  It seems from his emails like he is doing

A Mouse in the House!

Wow, we´re halfway through May already.  I feel like I start out every email talking about the time haha.  It sure goes quick.  I got to my current area in February, and already it´s almost been 3 months.  Sure doesn´t feel like it.

Today we had a Zone Activity.  It was a lot of fun.  We all met in the stake center at 8am (there´s about 20 missionaries in this zone).  We studied for an hour and then we did 2 activities.  The first one was a lot of fun.  During last week, everyone had to call the zone leaders and tell them one interesting fact about themselves.  Mine was my high school swimming record.  Today they read all the interesting facts one by one and we had to guess who had which fact.  It was fun, and some were funny.  One of the Elders had his first kiss when he was 14 - the girl he kissed was 26 hahah.  One Elder slept with a night-light until the day before his mission haha.  Funny stuff like that, it was fun.  Then we were going to watch a video, but the DVD player wasn´t working, so they had planned a Jeopardy game ready in case that happened, so we played that.  Our district won!  It was fun as well.  Then the zone leaders shared a spiritual thought and we all left.  We were going to play soccer, but it´s raining, so we scratched that idea.

I'm Just Waiting for the Prophet to Come!

Happy birthday shoutouts from Paraguay to my May birthday people: Jeff (recently promoted to "Mister" haha), Jordan, Justin, Nana, and Ben!!  Enjoy another year closer to death!  Hahaha love you all.

Ok mom, my shirt size is 16 1/2.  A few white shirts would be nice for the next package.  Now, no need to zip off to the store and hurry and get me a package together haha.  Just wait until you´re ready to send the next one and throw a few white shirts in there.  It´s expensive to send a package from there to here, and there´s better things you can spend your money on.  Put it in my car or school savings, even if its only like $50 or something.  I´d be willing to sacrifice receiving packages here in order to have some money saved up for a car or schooling when I get home.

Yesterday (for those of you who don´t know) I got to call home again!  The second of 4 phone calls I get on my mission.  Crazy, I´ve done half of them already.  Next time I call home, I´ll have a year and almost 4 months in my mission!  That is insane, I can´t believe it.  Time really goes so quickly here.  I still feel new.  My companion who has only 8 months to go still feels new.  It´s just how the mission goes I guess.  But yeah, it was good to talk to home and the family again.  I´m doing well, working hard, and happy!