The Importance of the Atonement

Well, Christmas happened. I got some cards to play with. I made a Pyramid thing. 

I'm basically a card stacking champion now.

We found a sword, so we took a picture of it.  

And then we saw this sign that was not being followed. 

It has also been so hot that this pond dried up.

But enough about pictures, let's talk news. On Friday, the 18th, some Senior Missionaries moved in here in San Benito. The Clark's moved in during our weekly planning, so we may have gotten a little less planning done, but I had fun!

On Tuesday, we had our Christmas conference. Everyone in the mission met in McAllen for an awesome Christmas meeting. We had a cool slideshow of the whole year, and a couple cool music presentations and a lot of "dying" testimonies (missionaries going home). A lot of them talked about the importance of the Atonement, so it is obviously important. 

Always remember that you need the Atonement. Even if you are doing well, we still need Him. On Sunday, in the third hour of church, we talked about What Lack I Yet? by Larry R. Lawrence. Always be changing, and always be trusting God. 

I also had a cool prayer experience yesterday. If you don't know, as missionaries we set and track goals of "members present", meaning lessons taught with a member present. You can read Alma 10:10-12 for an idea of why a member testimony is important. Yesterday, we needed 3 more to hit our weekly goal of 8. If you do the math, 3 is a lot more than 8/7ths, so it would be difficult for 3 in one day. We had the Perez's commit to work with us for a couple hours (they are boss ) so I said a simple prayer saying we have the members, provide us with the lessons. And by the end of the night, we had hit our goals. Yay! 

So that is the latest of Elder Moss, bye!

A Christmas Miracle!

Good tidings to all!

This week was wonderful. It was Week 6 of the Transfer, so later today I will find out if I will stay in San Benito or go elsewhere. I have already been here for 5.5 months (4 Transfers) so it's basically home to me now. I'll let you know where God sends me next! [We found out yesterday that he's staying in San Benito for another transfer! ps- he's very happy!]

We had a miracle at church yesterday! Our investigators didn't show up so we were sad, but halfway through sacrament meeting the Olvera family, former investigators I taught 4 months ago, randomly showed up. So we had people at church! It was a Christmas miracle!

I had my first real bike day for a long while this last Wednesday. In our mission, car areas are required to take two bike days every week, and in this area we share the car so we have three bike days. However, in this area, we have such great members that they give us rides everywhere. We usually bike to our area to a member's house and then we don't see our bikes until the next day when we take the car to go pick them up. I'ts pretty fun. What it comes down to is that we are working so well with the members that more than 50% of our time is bringing members to visit non-members (investigators). For the rest of that time, we are usually in Bent Tree which is only 2 streets wide, 8 streets long, so we walk. We get a ride to Bent Tree and a ride back. It is the best. 

This is a picture of my companion with a bush. It's a fancy bush though. 

This picture is of some cool clouds we saw.  I included a little trailer that we see all the time in our area. Specifically in Bent Tree (the neighborhood nicknamed Little Mexico) there are six or seven blocks of trailers like the one in the picture. Although, usually people's yards are much messier. 

For now, I will see where the wind takes me! Bye!

Elder Larkin Moss

Half Way Through!!

I had my birthday this week! I'm one year old! On the 3rd, I passed 1 year away from home. It's kind of crazy.

We set up a Christmas tree a week ago! It's lovely. Paired with the Wax warmer I bought a week ago, there is a great Christmas ambiance in our apartment. 

This week we had some great miracles, some fun stories and a lot of work done. One story, my companion got hit by a car while riding his bike! He didn't get hurt, don't worry! His bike got a little hurt though. 

We were actually on an exchange, so I was with Elder Chamberlain elsewhere with the car, so we had to pick up the other guys. In the end, the guys got a return appointment with the lady in the car, so it was worth it!

​Another funny thing: I don't know how well you can see, but in the picture below, is a three legged dog on the roof. No explanation needed.

​This week, we found José Luis Hernandez and he came to church! It is pretty cool how it worked out too. The previous week, while knocking doors looking for people we found Hugo Martinez, who is the brother of Carlos Martinez, a member that is currently reactivating. One day when an appointment fell through, while we had the Lerma's with us, we went to look for Hugo, but found José Luis instead, and he is the brother of Margarita Martinez, wife of Carlos. It's a bit complicated, but really cool. Sister Lerma and José Luis both love plants and gardening stuff so they hit it off pretty well. We also had a really cool miracle lesson with Hugo and José Luis friday night with Carlos. In the end he came to church and loved it. 

I'm sure I could go on for hours about what we did this week, but I don't have that kind of time. So this will have to do. 

Elder Larkin Moss