Hermana Kelly Moberly...Washington DC South: Thanksgiving

My first day in the field here, right after I got off the plane, I went to a member home with the Sister Training Leaders. It was the home of the Castaneda's. I saw Hna Castaneda on Sunday at a fireside and she remembered my name and where I am from and everything! It was incredible and it made me so happy :)

Last Monday we went to a Zone Activity and ended up playing volleyball for 3 hours with President and Sister Riggs, which was super fun! Who knew they could play so well?! Haha, that's one of the few things I miss, being able to go out and play sports whenever. But there are better things to do!

It got pretty cold this week. One day when we ran to the gym, we checked and it was 26 degrees...that's kind of cold. But today is 70 and really nice. There is a rumor that it is supposed to snow on Wednesday though, so that is kind of scary!

We got some serious revelation on Tuesday at our district meeting. We were practice teaching about prayer, but I felt like I should start talking about fasting and I used some scriptures. Afterwards Elder Erickson said that it was exactly what he was thinking and that they were going to use that the next time they saw an investigator, which they haven't yet, but hopefully it all works out! It was a pretty neat experience :)

I remember at ward and youth activities we would always have the missionaries be our judges for things. That's what we did this week. It turns out that a piñata represents all of the evil things in the world that we fight every day. And when we overcome them, good things happen and we get candy. Pretty cool, so all of the youth made their own cereal piñatas and we got to pick our favorite, which naturally was the unicorn :) haha Sometimes it’s still strange to me that I am a missionary, even though it’s not weird at the same time. I don't know how to explain it, sorry! haha

I met a man from Puerto Rico this week and I've never heard so much Spanglish in my life! It was so hard for me to be switching from Spanish to English and I got a headache.

Peruvian chocolate is at least 20 times better than the chocolate we have here. The Deza family went to Peru for a few weeks and brought us back purses and chocolate :) They are the sweetest!

Every time people would say goodbye to Hermana Haubner they would cry and I would almost start crying...every time! Sometimes I'm just a baby :)

Wednesday night we had a miracle. So we got a referral from Hna Memmot in our ward, so we called. We set up an appointment to visit them that night. We went over and found Pia, Brandon and Jordan. Pia is a less active member, Brandon is her boyfriend and Jordan is their 4 month old son. She wants to get to the temple and he is super interested in the message. He told us how he wanted to be baptized when he was younger, but his mom didn't let him and that he hadn't thought about it again until now. He said we rekindled that desire in his heart. We asked him to pray before we left and he said, "I met 2 people today. I feel something different when I am with them and I know that after today, things are going to change." It was incredible and we are so excited for him! I'll have to keep you posted on this one.

Thursday morning I got a new companion :) Drumroll please.....Hermana Pettit from Highland, Utah! Same ward as the Cuillard's! How cool is that?! She is super cute and sweet and I love her already! We have already seen some miracles! We knocked on her first door on Friday and found a whole family from Honduras. They invited us in and we spent some time with Iris and we are going to go back on Thursday. We left them with a Book of Mormon and a little girl picked it up to ask what it was to Iris and she just said, "We are going to read that". So far, they are golden and can't wait until Thursday! Hna Pettit’s Spanish is so much better than mine was when I first got out here, which means she's really good! She already understands almost everything and isn't afraid to jump in and start talking. And if she messes up, whatever, we just help her. I wish I had been more like that! My Spanish recently has been on spot, which is a great blessing!

We had a Thanksgiving dinner for a ward activity on Friday, so we went early to help. It was supposed to start at 7, but didn't start until 7:45...Mormon standard time plus Hispanic standard time is not a very good combination, obviously, haha.

Saturday we had 2 baptisms! Two little 8 year olds and one investigator. We did a "Restoration Presentation" and used a bunch of candy to explain the apostasy and then the restoration and importance of the Priesthood and it went really well! We were popular with the kids because they all really wanted the candy that we had. We had invited a bunch of investigators that said they were going to come, but they didn't. Unfortunately it happens a lot. But we had another amazing lesson that day. We went to visit Some of the recent converts and they had all of their family over. I talked to a couple of them and shared some scriptures and invited them to the baptism. One of the ones I was talking to started telling me all about his life and how he got to where he is now. He said at one point that he had never told anyone this story before, but for some reason he felt like he could trust me. So I shared a few more scriptures with them and a couple of them thanked me a few times and said that was what they needed then. It was so cool and the Spirit was so strong. I'm grateful we went against what we had planned and followed the Spirit to find them and help them.

Church was really good yesterday. Dad, I got to help out with your dream calling! During third hour yesterday I played (or at least attempted to) the piano in Primary. It was just kind of hard because we only had one investigator there and it was Byron, who told us that he was going to London, but he is still here...Bishop talked to us about it and says that he wants the Elders to start teaching him. We agree that it is probably for the best, except we have no idea where he is living and he avoided us the whole time at church. He can get away pretty fast. I received some revelation on Sunday at church for a way that we can start to get more referrals from members, so we will put it into practice this week and see how well it works!

Everything else is going pretty well! We have a busy week ahead of us and it is going to be great! I'm so grateful for all of the things that I have. I'm grateful for a wonderful companion who is ready to get to work. I'm grateful for my weaknesses. I know that through Christ I can continue to make them my strengths now. I am grateful for the people here and all of the lessons they teach me, which is ironic because I'm here to teach them as well. I'm grateful that my family is supporting me in everything that I am doing and I want to thank you all for helping me become who I am. I love you and miss you and I'll be thinking about you this week.

Lots of Love,

Hermana Moberly <3