AAAAHHHH!!!

WHAT A WEEK!!! Holy cow! I don't know how I survived it! We had TWO exchanges with our sisters, my last zone conference which included my departing testimony, girls camp (the stake leaders asked Sister Petersen and I to speak...SO FUN! :) ), stake conference (which I was asked to put together a missionary musical number 2 days before we had it...of course haha), AND it's been in the 100s, complete with humidity high enough to swim in! PHEW.....it was great haha. Seriously, this week was one of those testimony building weeks. President and Sister Shumway gave their departing testimonies as well. I'm SO grateful to see how they close this chapter of their life so that I can follow their example! For the past few well...months really I have been worried that I'd get to the end of my mission and not feel confident that the Lord was proud of my efforts. I was worried that I'd feel like I hadn't done enough. I tried my best every day and I keep trying my best every day to make the Lord proud and to follow his promptings but sometimes I just fell short and I was so worried about having regrets but literally as we were walking off the stage from saying our testimonies president Shumway looks right into my eyes and grabs my arm and sys "I am SO proud of you. You did it." And then because it was their last zone conference president gave himself and sister Shumway permission to hug everyone! It was the best. But once again, as I'm giving him a hug I go to turn and leave and he pulls me back and he says "Really Sister Moreno, I couldn't be more proud of you. I love you.".......:') It made me sob AGAIN! I was crying the rest of the day because I knew, and I KNOW now that truly the Lord has accepted my mission. He has taken my offering and it is good. I want you to know that I have loved my mission with all my heart. There's never been anything so challenging and uncomfortable and lonely in my life that I've ever had to go through, but as I said in my departing testimony, I'd do it all over again and I wouldn't change a thing. Never in a BILLION years did I think I'd have to do so many hard things. For 15 out of 18 months I have served in TINY branches in the middle of NOWHERE and I learned SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much! These last two transfers have been so rewarding. I've seen how ALL wards and branches can be as members and missionaries unite their efforts. I've learned how I want to be and who I want to be like. I've taken note of the blessings that come into lives as they read the Book of Mormon and keep the commandments. There's been countless times I've felt and witnessed the spirit touch the hearts of God's children when they read and hear the truths their spirits are already familiar with, and most importantly I've learned how to keep going. I've learned that there's nothing that can stop the work of the Lord from progressing and we're either going to be a part of it, or we're going to get left behind. I'm SO thankful for the many times I've felt the Savior carry me through my trials, fill my mouth with the words needed, and strengthen my weak efforts as I attempted to be as he is. I have SO SOOOOOOOO much to learn. This is FAR from my stopping point, but I am confident in whom I've become and I know that if I were to stand before the Lord tomorrow I would be recognized as one who has accepted his atonement. He's the only way I've been able to do this work day in and day out for a year and a half. Now the key is to keep going again! May we all strive to make our Sabbaths more meaningful so as to strengthen our resolve to BE like the Savior every day, and to continue to progress and share the gospel with all those around us. I LOVE the Lord with all my heart. I know Heavenly Father is directing my path as he has my whole mission. There's not been one place he's accidently put me, and I know that will be the case with the rest of my life. Thank you for teaching me to pray Mom. :) You started all of this and I'm SO grateful to you. Your testimony was what I needed to find my own. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH and I'll see you soon.

Love

Sister Moreno

 

6/1/15

I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad Grandpa is ok. Tell him I LOVE HIM SO MUCH AND I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HIM IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS!!! Keep me posted on his health. But hey this week has been incredible mom. I'm seriously seeing exactly what the Lord promised me over a year ago. This last transfer really is FULL of miracles. It's really making all difficult 16 months of my mission worth it. :) You see we received 4 new investigators this week!! One is a 16 year old girl who's best friend invited her to meet with us. Her name is Keke and she's incredible! We taught her the restoration and she just soaked it all up, and yesterday we had a review of the restoration and she accepted a date to be baptized! She's been reading and praying every day and she's even made personal goals for herself each week. This week she's setting aside 30 minutes every day for a reflection on her relationship with God and Jesus Christ. We encouraged her to read and pray during that time as well and she said she was already planning on it! :) It's just been so sweet to hear her testify of the love she feels at church and when she meets with us. She doesn't have those feelings at home so this has been HUGE for her. Then the other 3 new investigators came from the Orphins. They're the family that Burk Hansen was visiting and got into the accident at their house. Oh. My. Goodness. That lesson was incredible! It's been a long time coming. We were supposed to meet with them my first Saturday here but something came up and we haven't been able to meet with them since. However, we asked Bishop Hansen about them last week and he texted Sister Orphin to see when they'd be able to meet. Well, just as he's texting her she was mowing the lawn around the spot of the accident and praying for a way their family could have more peace and she answered back with a resolute YES! And last night was a fantastic experience. They soaked up the Plan of Salvation and we gave them each a Book of Mormon and they're so ready it's crazy. We now have a standing Sunday night lesson and dinner at the Hansen’s. :) Heavenly Father has been so good to me and I'm so grateful for the blessings I'm seeing. :) PLUS! We set another baptismal date with our investigator Cheryl. She was the one that just showed up at church one Sunday and said she wanted to know more. I'm blown away by her honest desire to know truth. She's incredible. She searches and studies so hard and all she wants to do is follow God's plan for her. All of these people are just amazing. I hope to be like them someday. Even though ALL of them have their own personal struggles, they've all trusted in God and gotten themselves to a point where they can learn and follow him fully with trust that He knows them and that he knows what's best. This morning I was reading in Alma 44 and gosh. Zarahemna totally had a chance to walk away from battle and save his biddies but his pride got in the way and they kept fighting until half way through he decides he doesn't like losing all of his friends and he doesn't want to die. Imagine! I couldn't help but ask myself if I do dumb things like that too, especially with all these mixed feelings about coming home. I really have to trust God and put away "my plan" aka my pride and follow his plan for me or else I'll regret it half way through and lose things that are important to me. I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!! Have a great week! OH! Also, I'm giving my departing testimony on Wednesday at my last zone conference...PUKE! Wish me luck.

 Love

Sister Moreno

ALSO! WE GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE WITH OUR RECENT CONVERT RICHARD AND HIS WIFE EMMA AND THEIR ADORABLE BABIES FREDA AND TONY!!! :)

5/25/15

Well guys! How did handing out your Book of Mormon go this week???? I want you to know that I've done it EVERYDAY! I have some really interesting stories that go along with how and who I handed them out with which are in my journal haha but I'll share some miracle stories with you from this week. :) So! I already told Kent about this...in fact I just copied and pasted part of his email on here haha I'm too tired of typing buy yes passing out the Book of Mormon has been great! I've given out a Book of Mormon with my testimony in it to someone new every day. One of the most hilarious ones was to a lady I started talking to at a garage sale. She calls herself "Alabama Gamma" :) Haha she was hilarious! She's very religious as most people are around here and she was talking about how she knows God works through her to help others and I started agreeing with her and telling her of Helaman 5 and how Nephi and Lehi were just everyday people who gave up everything to serve the Lord and she accepted the Book of Mormon and was so grateful! She also said she wanted to look up our church when she gets home! Then! Another one that I gave out was to a father and a son. So, I don't know how much you remember me talking about our 3rd ward Bishop, Bishop Hansen, but his 13 year old son was just killed in a 4wheeling accident just over a month ago...it's been hard on the family but it's also given them SO many missionary opportunities. It's been amazing to see the influence this little boy is having on the whole town. He had a study journal and one of the last things he wrote in it was that he was going to try every day to be like Nephi and he was going to serve. Well, we ended up being given his best friend as a referral. We went over there to meet him and his dad this week and boy, let me tell you. I was crying. The dad has just gone through a divorce and Cody (his son) has been having a really hard time losing his best friend, but Cody just responded to us while his dad cried. We told them of the things Burk (the boy who died) believed and we read with them his favorite scripture and Cody, only 13 himself told us that he wants to be like Burk and that if The Book of Mormon was something important to him, than it must be pretty important. He took it and promised to read of Nephi's story. It's just so powerful to give away the Book of Mormon. There's a special spirit that comes with it that's unlike anything else. I know that as you pray for those opportunities and take them to pass out the Book of Mormon, your testimony of its power will be strengthened and you will see it shape and bless others’ lives. ALSO! Another miracle story! We have been working super hard this week to try to get new investigators! Our mission's goal this week was to get 3 new investigators so all week long we've been contacting all the referrals we've been given and we just barely missed the cut! We got 2 new investigators because we were short one prayer with like 7 different people. HOWEVER! It's not about numbers :) One day this week we had been working super hard all day and jut had 30 minutes left before 9pm so we were trying to figure out what we could do. While were driving by Walmart I just got this feeling to go look at sunglasses and at first I was like "Oh sister Moreno, come on now, you can stay focused" but then it just came back like "Go look at sunglasses!" So haha I told sister Petersen at the very last second just as we were about to pass the entrance "Turn here sister! Let's go look at sunglasses!" and sure enough not 3 seconds after we got to the jewelry section a lady comes up to us and starts asking us about who we are and telling us of all the Mormons she works with at Philips. In fact she even said herself that she's sure God sent us to her. Long story short! She gave us her name and phone number and we have a return appointment with her to teach her! :) The Lord works in mysterious ways. I know he's SO mindful of each of us and he uses our personalities to bless others’ lives. Be aware of those around you. Heavenly Father is so proud of every effort you make to do his will. I love you all! Have a great week! And give out your Book of Mormon! :)

 

Love

Sister Moreno

 

PS. The Vendels came up to spend the day with us and to say goodbye. They drove 3 hours and spent the night in a hotel just for us! :') They're the BEST...all I could do was sob my eyes out when they got in the car to leave. :'( I ran after them just to say goodbye again. I'm keeping them forever. It's so crazy. Heavenly Father knew I would need them for my whole mission and really for my whole life! If for nothing else! I would come on my mission and do it all over again just to have the Vendels as my other parents. I LOVE THEM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!

 

5/18/15

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN INCREDIBLE!!! I can't believe just how many miracles are happening here. It makes me want to bawl my eyes out in gratitude. SO! At MLC(the 2 day leadership meeting we had Monday and Tuesday) we received some BIG news. As of July 1st, the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission will cease to exist. Yes this is AFTER I leave so I'll always be an OTMer which makes me VERY happy :) BUT the mission is none the less changing. At first we were all super sad and shocked! We did NOT see this one coming but apparently President Shumway has been trying to change it since he got here because our mission is HUGE and Bentonville is way more central than Tulsa SO! Although it was hard to hear at first, now we're super excited and glad this is happening. Our boundaries will be staying the same. We'll just be moving our mission home and changing the mission name. Something that Sister Shumway pointed out to Sister Petersen and I was that this is truly a test of loyalty to the Lord. Some of our sisters were having a hard time dealing with this new change and we've had to point out to them that we're not Oklahoma Tulsa missionaries, we're the LORD'S missionaries. A name is a name is a name but when it comes down to it, we are the LORD'S and this is HIS mission and this is HIS work. :) SO! We're pressing forward and when the Lord says jump, we'll jump! And when he says stop we'll stop. As the final signature of The Shumways,mine, and The Oklahoma Tulsa Mission's last few weeks in service we are raising the bar. We're breaking records and we're going out with a bang! We've set goals to make us stretch and we're hitting them! As a mission, our goal this past week was to have 1 active member lesson a day and to receive 2 referrals a day...by the end of the day yesterday, Sister Petersen and I had had 8 active member lessons AND..........WE RECEIVED TWENTY EIGHT REFERRALS!!!! TWENTY-EIGHT! :D It was INCREDIBLE!! Each from a member! We were blown away. In fact, yesterday at church we had a line of Members waiting with referrals to give us after sacrament meeting. A LINE....Who are these people?! :D It has been the best week ever and I know that the Lord has been blessing us because of our efforts both Member and Missionary to find and bring people into the gospel. And this week our mission's goal is to get 3 new investigators, well, Sister Petersen and I have a goal for 6 new investigators this week. :) The thing is, I  KNOW that the Lord can and WILL bless us in our righteous desires.  Never underestimate the power of goal setting and prayer. Heavenly Father is SO aware of each one of us and he will bless us if we do ALL we can to do his will. I love love LOVE this work and I'm so grateful for the power of the Atonement in my life. Have a great week! Let's go make some miracles happen! :)

Love

Sister Moreno

P.S. Family, today marks my 17th month, which means I have ONE month left in the field. SO! Something I've set as a goal and something I want us to do as a family is...Everyday, starting today, I'm writing my testimony in a Book of Mormon and giving it to someone with an invitation to learn more. Each one of you guys individually can either do it everyday with me or I was thinking one of you a day gives one away or each one of you give one away a week...so! You decide, but will you please join in with me on this? You can use me as an excuse to give it away if you want! Go for it! It'll open the door to more questions! But I was thinking option number three would be best, each one of you give out one Book of Mormon a week with your testimony in it and an invitation to read it or learn more. I KNOW that Heavenly Father will bless each one of us individually in addition to us as a whole family and most importantly, we'll be able to be apart of helping people come unto Christ. PLUS! What a great example to our ward my dear missionary parents! You can let them in on it to or use it to motivate them! What do you think? FHE tonight can be the kick off to placing at least one or you could get all three done in one shot :) I really feel like this was inspiration and that God has something in store for us as we do this so PLEASE accept the invitation and pray for the Lord's direction as you go out each day with a Book of Mormon. I LOVE YOU!!!! Also my new address is :

426 Shawnee

Bartlesville, OK 74003

all my companions that were at zone conference

the bretts

Gabe Jones who is in the YSA that served in JEROME 7TH WARD ON HIS MISSION!!! WHAT?? YA, like 3 years ago :)

me adn Kristina Hughes

me and sister booms as she meets her trainee

me and chris

5/4/15

I've heard it said that there's no growth in the comfort zone....but I'd sure like to find that out for myself......DAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. MY VERY LAST TRANSFER CALL CAME THIS PAST SATURDAY AND BROUGHT ME THE WORST NEWS OF MY LIFE!!!!! Just kidding. I'm grateful that President Shumway receives revelation and that I know that he is sending me where God needs me. HOWEVER! I LOVE BRANSON SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!! I seriously have come to love this place faster than any other area and that's probably a large reason of why I'm being transferred because it would be ridiculously hard to come home from here. I'm going to miss the YSA SOOOOOOOOOOO much! :( They're really all like my best friends and I want to move down here. I know I've said that about almost all of my areas but this one is for real. I already have job and schooling options. BUT! I did promise you a year at BYU mom so that's still gonna happen but I honestly think I might come back here for the summer next year and love life!:) I'm so excited to take you all on a tour of my mission so you can see what I'm talking about! It's the best! I LOVE BRANSON!!! Anyway, I'm going to be transferred this Thursday morning to Bartlesville 1st and 3rd wards. I will be staying in a two area assignment..yay! I like being busy! That'll help me work extra hard my last transfer...PLUS I was also called to be a Sister Training Leader...which they've (my past sister training leaders) have told me is like being a girl zone leader. A.k.a someone to provide emotional support haha. Oh goodness. Anyway, my companion is going to be SIster Peterson. I'm really nervous. SO ya... I just am really scared but also very grateful because I've always known that my last month on the mission is going to be one of the most defining and rewarding times of my life. I wish that would come easily but I'm sure it won't. :) HOWEVER! I'm trying my best to be positive and to CHOOSE to be happy. Ok love you all!!

Sister Moreno

Yes, the car is in the ditch....it was a hard night!

FHE with the YSA group

Today with me and sis crier at the top is at our zone outing

WEEK 5 ALREADY!!!

Well I cannot believe it's already week 5 of this transfer!!! We have transfer calls this Saturday and I'm praying really REALLY hard that I'll get to stay here in Branson with Sister Cryer!!! I love them both! However, I have known since before I came out that my last transfer was going to be a really special one. I know in particular my 18th month will be something to look out for. I just have been thinking about all the things I've experienced out here and I'm blown away. I'm SO scared to leave this place and to not be a missionary anymore but I know that Heavenly Father won't abandon me once I lose my nametag. Anyway, this week was GREAT! We had a bunch of fun stuff happen. First of all we had a mini zone conference where we got some council from President Shumway and we have a bunch of weekly goals that are going to stretch us for the next 10 weeks...the rest of their time here...I'll participate in 8 of those...eek! Also Sister Cryer and I had our musical devotional fireside this week with the YSA. We've been planning it since our first day here and it went SOOOOOOO good! We had 2 non-members and an inactive come and we showed "Because He Lives” after it, it was SO powerful! I LOVE MUSIC!!!!! We really had a great time. I'll try to send pictures next week. We ran outta time today cause we just vegged and wrote letters haha I LOVE days like that :)....please pray that well never mind just pray that I'll enjoy my last transfer :) I LOVE YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!

SISTER MORENO

4/13/15

Well it's been quite the week! I'm still LOVING Branson and we're making progress with both our wards so that's good. :) We actually almost have a progressing investigator!! She just needs to come to church and then we'll be good haha. We went on exchanges with our sister training leaders this week and I went with a sister I came out with...Sister Ma'alona!! :) CRAZY!! We really haven't seen each other since like 3 months into our missions...mostly because I haven't really seen ANYONE my whole mission cause I've been in the boonies haha BUT it was really good to see her. We were reminiscing about the good ol' days in the MTC haha I remember being SO scared to go to the MTC and then I ended up LOVING it and making like a trillion lifelong friends so anyone who's worried, Sue?? ;) DON'T BE! I was also able to go on another exchange this week with...SISTER SHUMWAY!!! :) Sister Cryer had a baptism to go back to in her last area and Sister Shumway asked me if she could come on exchanges with me and so it worked out perfectly! We had a good time. We were focusing all week on having active member lessons because as a mission we struggle with 'finding' statistically that is. WHICH! That role happens to be the member's role... SO we've been working as a whole mission to improve our work with members. It's so simple really. When we were baptized actually LONG before that! Before we came to earth when we found out that we were going to have the gospel, we PROMISED our Heavenly Father and our friends and our families that we would share the gospel. ALL God's asked us, YOU to do is INVITE. THAT'S IT! Our job is to open up our eyeballs and see those people around us who don't have the gospel and say "hey! We’re having a dinner at my church this Wednesday. Would you like to come?" or "You look like you might be interested in indexing. I've had a great experience with it. Can I show you how to get started?" or "Ya know we've been friends for a long time and I don't know that I've ever really shared with you what my church believes but I'd like to have some of the missionaries from my church explain the basics to you. Would that be ok?" THAT'S IT! You have SO much to give and all you have to do is invite people. You're not called to teach, you're not called to entertain, none of that, JUST INVITE! I can testify that the work will NOT be stopped by any of our lack of effort but our progression and our opportunity to be trusted by the Lord will be directly influenced by the seriousness we have toward our covenant to share the gospel. I want to share an experience that Sister Shumway had the other day. She was at Sam's club and she was running late for her son's concert and she was literally running out the door and a man came to help her load her groceries in. She felt the spirit tell her that she needed to talk to this man but she had seconds before she had to leave. As she's chucking groceries in her car with the help of this man she asks" SO area you a religious man?" "Yes I am." "Do you have a church you go to?" "Yes I do" "Well hey! You should come to ours!" "I might just do that." "If you give me your name and number I'll send some missionaries your way to tell you more about it." "Ok.".....That man met up with the missionaries that night. He's getting baptized in 3 weeks. We do not have to worry about sounding eloquent or offending people or ANYTHING! The Lord can and will do his own work. You just open your mouth and invite and watch the miracles happen. There’s a family here in our mission who has helped with 100 baptisms...because they invited that's all they do. They have people over for dinner! It's simple and it's what the Lord expects from us. Please don't miss out on the miracles that the Lord wants you to be a part of. Remember who you are and what you promised and remember who those around you REALLY are. The prepared are IN YOUR LIFE. Maybe they're not your best friends! Maybe they're a guy at the grocery store but we can ALL do this work. Try carrying some "I'm a Mormon” cards with you or make it a goal to invite someone you know to dinner and allow the gospel to come up in your conversations. You just invite and the Lord will take care of it all. I love you! I want to be like this too! We can work together and as members and missionaries combine efforts, the hastening will happen in more than just our hometowns but they'll happen in our hearts. I challenge you all to pray for an easy missionary opportunity this week and then to open your mouth and invite! :)

 

Love you forever,

Sister Moreno