Transfers in Bella Vista

August 10, 2015

What a week I have had! I'm sure most of you saw my pictures on my iCloud album :) So as you can see a ton of things happened! First of all, we ate Chick-fil-a two days in a row and we should be going again tonight. I think I am addicted to it! We went once with Karen and once with Angel. Speaking of Angel, HE GOT CONFIRMED SUNDAY AND IS OFFICIALLY A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH! I'm so excited and happy for him! He is going to be a great member and we're going to start using him as a member present as soon as we can :)

We had Spanish Forum on Tuesday, so me and Hermana Christensen trained on Online Proselyting, which was really cool. We found a lot more effective ways to use facebook as a proselyting tool and how to not waste time on it. We were trained by the Spanish zone leaders on finding joy in the missionary work, and by the other sister training leaders on member work. So overall it was a review of what we have been working on the last few transfers and just reminding us of how we can do it better. Since Hna Christensen and I were still getting over being sick, we got home and passed out for a while because we were so dead. I guess you can't just get back to working 100% right after being sick for a week.

Wednesday we spent the day teaching little lessons and taking Hna Christensen to say goodbye to a bunch of investigators and members that we have grown really close to. It was kind of sad and just made me realize that I don't want to leave Bella Vista ever!

Thursday was transfer day and I lost Hermana Christensen to Hermana Pettit, but my companion now is Hermana McMillan, who was also my companion in the MTC, so it’s been super fun for the last few days. One of my favorite things is being able to see how much we have really learned and grown over the last year. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize the changes that we have gone through, but being together now helps us see them so clearly and I love it. It motivates me to continue to be better for the little time I have left. I know it’s going to pass by fast and there's nothing I can do to stop it. Also, we had some more changes in the ward! So my first transfer we had 8 missionaries, two sets of elders and two of hermanas. So we set up the areas and figured out where everyone was serving. Then my second transfer here we lost a set of elders, and split the ward into 3, one for each companionship. This transfer we got that set of elders back and now we have gone back to the original set up and areas. So it has been an adventure. But there were two new elders that came in and both of them are here in Bella Vista and it’s so nice! We have some new elders who are so excited to work and baptize, so it will be refreshing for our old district. Two of the missionaries are going home at the end of this transfer.

Thursday night was a miracle night. Hna McMillan and I were so excited to be together and so unified and we had some awesome lessons. We saw a miracle because we went to this house to contact a referral and found him home at a time that he is usually never home. It was really cool because we talked a lot and he asked a bunch of questions and the spirit was so powerful and really guided the lesson. We also talked to Sindi's mom and found out what she wants in order for Sindi to be baptized, which is for us to teach all of the lessons, her to pass the baptismal interview, and to receive an answer from God that she needs to be baptized on a specific day. That is totally possible and very soon! God's plan is perfect and it will happen when it needs to, but we are going to do everything that we can to get it done soon. The blessings are so real!

We had the opportunity to go to a baptism last night, and we almost didn't go. But it was a good thing because we ended up performing a musical number. And one of our investigators showed up because he couldn't come to church. It was awesome to see how he started progressing and it was a miracle that we were able to start teaching him in the house of another investigator.

Saturday was a super busy day! We had meetings all morning until 1 o'clock. Because a woman in the ward had bed bugs, we had to help her on Friday move everything 3 feet away from the walls and put all of their things in bags and empty the closets. So Friday we spent 4 hours doing that and ran out of time for weekly planning. So on Saturday after our meetings we did weekly planning. Then we went to the Nationals game!! It was so much fun and really weird at the same time. There was so much music that I didn't know and SO many missionaries. Both of the Washington DC missions were there, so there were about 400 of us.

So this week was crazy, but I have gotten really good at finding joy in the work! I'm loving every minute and I love being busy. Life isn't easy, but it’s not supposed to be. If it was easy we would never grow. I hope all of you can go through your week and think about that. Even if things are hard, it’s better for you than if things were easy. LOVE YOU!

Love,

 Hermana Moberly

An Interesting One for Sure

August 3, 2015

So this week has not been the most eventful, so this email is going to be really short, sorry. On Sunday afternoon last week I started to feel a little sick, but went out and did stuff anyways. Monday morning was a little rough, but Monday night we got a little worse. We ended up staying home all morning on Tuesday. We tried to go out and teach a lesson to Axel, one of our recent converts, but it was really short and we went back home for the rest of the night. On Wednesday we had to stay home in the morning and afternoon, but that night we went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead with a different recent convert, Eder. It was fun, but we were still feeling pretty weak. Thursday we stayed home again. That day we tried to leave the apartment to get stuff from Safeway, but we didn't last very long at all and we went back home. Friday we stayed home again, but taught a lesson to Angel and got everything ready for his baptism. Saturday we had a correlation meeting with Bishop and it was the first day we were feeling a bit better, so we organized stuff for Angel's baptism and ate dinner with Hermana Cordoba, she gave us soup :) Then it was Sunday and we had a baptism!!! Angel finally did it! He was baptized and he will be confirmed in church next Sunday! It was adorable because he was so happy...even if it doesn't look like it in the pictures. Most Hispanics don't smile in the pictures we take with them :) haha, it was an awesome service and a ton of ward members showed up to support him!

So even though we had our challenges this week, we still saw miracles in two amazing ways! We got a recent convert to the temple and an investigator to baptism. Such a rewarding week!!! I can't even complain about being sick because I'm just so happy to see the way the gospel changes and blesses people's lives. Love you all! Have a great week :)

Love always,

 Hermana Moberly

Hna Christensen, Angel and Me

Angel's Baptism

Baptism

More of the Baptism

Long Five Days

July 27, 2015   

It feels long and short at the same time. It has been a super weird couple of days for our companionship! We have done a lot of driving and a lot of STL things that took up quite a bit of time.

Good news first! Angel is getting baptized on Sunday! He told us that he is going to ask for work off, and if he doesn't get it he is going to quit. But he's not worried about that because he is a great worker and his boss won't want to lose him. So we will have a baptism on Sunday! He is so awesome and so ready! He is going to be a great addition to the Bella Vista ward here in the McLean stake along with the family that will be getting baptized with him! We are so excited!!!

Also, we are going to do baptisms for the dead with a recent convert tomorrow, so that will be even more exciting!

I passed my year mark on Thursday and I have posted some pictures of it on my iCloud Photo Album, so if you want to see them send me an email so I can invite you to it :)

We had an awesome lesson with the Maltez family! Hna Maldonado came with us to teach them and it was really powerful. We were able to teach it in a way that Maria understood it all a lot better. Also, we got a lot of members in the ward to help invite them to activities and to church this week, so they will be coming the the noche de hogar tonight at Bishop's house and also they are going to stay for all three hours of church next week! Things are starting to happen because the members are so willing to help us :)

On Friday we had a trio day. Hna Moleli was the only one in her district that wasn't going to the temple, so we adopted her! We drove to Centerville in the morning, then drove to Herndon for a doctor’s appointment, the home for an hour in McLean. Then we met with the other STLs in Burke, then ate lunch with a member in Falls Church and then took Hna Moleli back to Centerville and drove home. It was crazy and there was a lot of traffic. We drove 114 miles and we were in the car for about four hours. Probably one of the longest days I have had on my mission. But it was fun and we got to talk to Hna Moleli about a lot of things. Fun fact, she's from LA :)

Church yesterday was amazing! I feel like I learned a lot more than usual and that everyone was really following the spirit. We had a few talks on keeping the Sabbath day holy, Gospel Principles was all about faith, and Relief Society was about defending the Family Proclamation. It was amazing and I loved that our investigators were there to hear and feel it all.

That's really all that has happened in the last few days. I hope all is well for you! Take care, love you all!

Love,

 Hermana Moberly

Companions July 2015

DC Temple Visitors Center July 2015

Nametage in front of DC Temple July 2015

The Cordoba Family

One Year

July 22, 2015 One Year

Pretty crazy, tomorrow marks one year on my mission. I don't know how that happened! My feelings are so mixed! I have loved every second of my mission up until this point, and I know I will love the next 6 months. I'm scared that the time I have left will go too fast, but I know that it is inspired that I am only a missionary for 18 months. I'm so grateful for all of the changes that I have made and the person that I am becoming. The things that I am learning now would have taken so much longer without this concentrated time as a missionary. I was reflecting back on this all today as we sat in the temple. The gospel is perfect and amazing. We will never know it all, but we will also never stop learning.

I have built so many relationships that are different from any others I have had. I meet people and within minutes I love them. The people that I get to teach with my companion, the members, the other hermanas in the mission are friends that I will have forever. I wish there was a word to describe who they are to me! But I guess it's something that is felt that cannot be described.

We had exchanges last week and I got to spend the day in Spring Lake with Hermana Peabody! She is so amazing! It's only been a transfer and a half since I was her companion and she has improved so much in her Spanish and confidence and everything! I am so amazed! That's one thing I love about being a sister training leader, because I get to see all of their improvement! It's so humbling to see how much they change and get better and knowing that if I work harder I can become better too!

Questions are so important in this world. When there aren't questions, learning is very hard. Something that I have noticed this week is that it's important to have questions as a learner, but also as a teacher. When the teacher asks questions they can know what the student needs and what level their understanding is. When the learner has and asks questions, learning increases. I love that I can be both! In the mornings I am a learner as I study for the day. In the afternoon I am both as I share what I have learned and listen to the Spirit testify through my words. It's an incredible thing to experience :) The Spirit guides the conversations and questions that we have so we can help the way they need it!

Angel passed his baptismal interview, so he is completely ready to be baptized, now we are just waiting on the day when he can actually get baptized! It should be this Sunday because he isn't supposed to be working, but his boss likes to change his mind and make him work anyways, so we will see about that. But the good news is that it will happen as soon as he picks the day!

This work is incredible and I am so grateful to be a part of it. There are so many little things that happen each day that amaze me, but since there are so many I don't know where to start. An hour and a half is not enough time to write what I want to, but it is inspired, so I guess his is all you need to know for now! I love you all! Keep working hard and sharing the gospel! Give the missionaries some work to do...they love to work ;) it is called missionary WORK after all!

Love you!

Con Amor,
Hermana Moberly

DC Temple

DC Temple Again

My compas Quince (15 months)

The Deza Family

Quince

What a week! It has been so long, but so short! I hope all is well with you wherever you are right now :)

It’s been a crazy day today, so I apologize beforehand for the sad email this will be. Also, I forgot my notes at home, so I will likely forget a lot of what I wanted to say.

Let's start with last Monday! We went to the Temple Visitor's Center with Angel. Our family that we love wasn't able to come, but it was just what Angel needed! We talked about temples and family history and he loved it. He is hilarious and made so many funny comments, the Hermanas that were there teaching him were laughing SO hard! He's a funny guy :) We also taught him the Plan of Salvation again and he loved that as well. Then the next day we ate at Chick-fil-a again and he taught us. We gave him and Dany, a member, our nametags and they taught us as Daniela and Angela :) It was hilarious and he is learning so much! If all goes well, he will be getting baptized this Sunday!

That family is doing well. The two girls are still working towards being baptized on August 1, but now their parents are worried if they will be ready or not. So we are hoping and praying that it will all work out! We know the girls are ready and that they will be blessed for all of this, we just need to help their parents see how important this is for all of them!

We went on exchanges and Hna Mugleston came to me here in Bella Vista and we saw some miracles. At the end of the night we went to check on a former investigator, but they moved and there was a new family living in their house, so we taught a quick summary of the Restoration, and it went so well. Jeny loved it all and invited us back on Saturday. So we went back on Saturday, and she totally forgot. On the bright side, she really is interested and dropped what she was doing so that we could come in and talk to her more. It was pretty amazing, we found out that she has met with missionaries before and has even gone to church with her children! She has been prepared, but now she is very strong in a Catholic church. But we are going to keep going over to help her find out from God what she should do! We are going to help her learn how to receive answers to her prayers and be spiritually strengthened so that she can accept the gospel and ultimately have eternal life. How cool is it that I get to help with that? I love it!

The rest of exchanges went really well. I am always so surprised at how much better these hermanas are than I am! I am so humbled by this calling that I have, and I never knew how much I could love so many people. I am so grateful for the friends that I have made in this mission and that we can build each other up so much! I love seeing their progress in just a few weeks and how we can enjoy every moment as we do this work.

We had MLC this week with President and it was very different from the last one. We talked a lot about the things that are most important to him, which are obedience, and happiness. I think obedience is important to every mission president because they know why. When we are obedient the miracles happen. Obedience come from our love towards the Savior. As a missionary, you have to love the savior or you will hate every minute of this year and a half or two years. With that obedience comes happiness. When missionaries aren't happy, the spirit cannot help us as much. A year and a half would be really long if I wasn't happy!

I'm sure that other things have happened this week, but I can't seem to remember them, so I will leave you with this for now and I will make up for it next week! :)

Love,

Hermana Moberly

Hermana Mugleston and Me

Dany and Angel

Giant in a Baby Chair

America!

July 6, 2015

Well, it’s been another busy week over here in McLean! Unfortunately we had to spend some extra time in the apartment because we were both sick, but when we were healthy we worked hard!

Last Monday night we had a family home evening at Bishop's, just like every other Monday, and this one was fun! We talked about Naaman, the leper and how the prophet's servant delivered the message of how he was going to be healed. We talked about how we get direction today by servants of the Lord and it can come from talks in church, seminary teachers, or even the young, poor missionaries! We can get direction for life from all kinds of sources, but we have to be humble enough to listen.

Update on our family, Maria, Sindi, and Liz! They are doing so well! We have now taught them the first three lessons and they are learning it so fast! The two girls, Sindi and Liz are going to be baptized on August 1 if their parents give them permission! They are so cute! They always ask the best questions and they really want to know it all. We met the father, Jose, for the first time this week. It was pretty cool because we felt like one of the members should come with us, but we didn't really know why, because we were just teaching two young girls. But he was there and Dany was able to talk to their dad and we taught him a little bit and he was comfortable and accepting of it all. We should be going to the Temple Visitor Center if it all works out tonight, so I will report more on them next week. Please keep them in your prayers!

On Wednesday night we went out and for an hour and a half, we couldn't make contact with anyone. No one was answering the door, and no one was out, so it was kind of rough. So we were going through all of our back up plans and we visited a less active woman in the ward. It was so amazing and we knew that that was where we needed to be. She said that she had been praying for someone to come and visit her. She struggles with depression and needed some company. So the next day we went over again and made dinner for her and the little boy that she was taking care of. It was awesome and I love seeing the little miracles that come. That's why I try not to get frustrated when good plans fall through, because we may be needed somewhere else.

There is a man we are teaching, Adan, and he is awesome! He finally figured out that the congregation is all Hispanics, except for us, when this whole time he thought it was all in English!! Haha, we told him a few times that it was Spanish, but apparently he wasn't listening completely. Now that he found that out, he has progressed a lot more. We had a really great lesson with him one night and he really opened up, so we were able to teach him what he needed in that moment. I love when that happens! The Spirit is so amazing because it helps others trust us and we can know how to help them, even if they don't say exactly what is wrong. It just gives me a stronger testimony that this is the Lord's work!

On Thursday we went to Chick-fil-a, and guess who we went with?! ROLANDO! He's finally back from Bolivia, so of course we went to Chick-fil-a :) It was so fun to see him again! He is amazing! And now, his nephew is here, so he is having him meet with the missionaries in Little River. He is the best!!

We went on exchanges this week and we saw more miracles. We just changed all of our areas this last transfer because one of the areas was closed. We used to work in Falls Church, but now the other Hermanas work there. We went on exchanges with them and it was pretty fun because that is an area that I am very familiar with and Hermana Tate is not. It was a fun night and we contacted some really cool people. There was a lesson that we had with another less active and we could see a huge difference in her from when we walked into her house and at the end of the lesson. It was really cool!

We met our new mission president, President Huntsman on Friday! I already love him :) He is amazing and pretty funny. He is letting revelation take control of this mission and it’s pretty cool. We have Mission Leadership Council this week, so I will know more about him next week!

One of the testimonies that I have gained as a missionary is that planning makes life so much easier and so much better. I wasted so much time before I was a missionary because I just waited for things to happen, or I waited to be forced to do things. Now, as a missionary, I realize that time is so important and there isn't much of it, so when you plan, that special time isn't wasted like it would otherwise.

I hope your fourth of July was awesome! Mine was! We went to Arlington cemetery and watched to fireworks over the Capital. We weren't allowed to leave our Zone, so we were really lucky to be able to go over there! I will send some pictures, but it was cool to be able to spend the 4th in the nation’s capital :)

I love you and miss you all! I hope all of you are enjoying your summer. Take care :)

Love,

 Hermana Moberly

Bella Vista District

Our Fireworks Group

Fireworks Iwo Jima

Our View Before the Fireworks

What Is Sleep?

Man, this week has been crazy. Much crazier than most weeks, let me tell you why! It started off normal, we were working hard, teaching lots of lessons and seeing lots of miracles. We have laughed a lot, which helps with everything. We found three new investigators in one day, and up until this point they are all pretty solid! We had one of them tell us that if she wasn't giving birth, she would be there for the next lesson :) She is 9 months pregnant, so we will see!

Our district meeting was a little bit sad this week because our district leader went home on Thursday, so we was giving us his final words and advice.

We went to the Temple Visitor's Center with Angel! Finally! We watched Meet the Mormons with him and he LOVED it! And he loved seeing the temple. And we are going to go to chick-fil-a tonight to get his application turned in. He will have Sundays free in a couple of weeks, so as soon as that happens he is going to get baptized :)

We continue to have some crazy storms over here, and it gets kind of sketchy to drive in them. At one point I was driving 35 on the highway, so that just shows how bad it was, because I like to drive fast!

On Thursday we had a transfer meeting, which was awesome! It was really sad because it was the last one for the Riggs family. We get our new President on Tuesday this week and we will meet him this week on Friday. My companion and I will get to know him really well really fast since we are part of the leadership of the mission. I'm really looking forward to the change and all that will come with it, but I am so sad to see President Riggs leave. I have learned so much from him, but I know that I will learn from President Huntsman as well!

Sometimes the assistants don't make all of the calls to let people know when they are getting transferred. This happened when Hermana Peabody first came in. There was a Sister who didn't know she was getting transferred and she freaked out a little bit. SO afterwards we were joking about it happening to her. And that is exactly what happened this last transfer. She wasn't told that she was going to be transferred, but during the meeting it was announced that she was going to a different area. We all felt so bad because she was so excited to stay there for another 6 weeks and then was surprised by that. Poor thing!

Saturday night around 11:30, we made an emergency trip to the hospital for Hermana Christensen. We thought she had appendicitis, so we went to the ER and were there from 11:30 PM to 5:00 AM. It wasn't appendicitis, but they couldn't figure out exactly what was going on, so they gave her pain killers and basically said that if it keeps hurting for a few days to come back. So it’s an unknown thing. Dr Kearle, our mission doctor brought me some McDonald's to eat while I was waiting for Hermana Christensen. She got a CAT scan. Ever since then we have been trying to catch up on sleep. As missionaries, you never really get enough sleep, but after this, it’s going to take a while to catch up. So today instead of playing sports like we usually do, we took a nice long nap!

Those have been our adventures so far, and hopefully we will have more, but no one will be in pain and they can all be related to missionary work! I love this work and I don't want to leave it ever! I've never grown so much so fast and I know it won't ever happen again. As we come closer to Christ he really does show us our weaknesses, but when we know what they are He helps us make them our strengths instead. I love the Atonement and I am so grateful to know what it is and share it with the people here. I love you and miss you all! Have a great week :)

Love,

 Hermana Moberly

The Spanish Hermanas

DC Temple Trip

Cool Storms!

Spanish Program Before Transfers