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

Hey There!

Ok SO I'm so sorry it's been a while since I've sent out a big email. Life has been crazy!! So I'm now in Branson Missouri aka the "garden of Eden" haha EVERYONE in the mission calls it that. There are SO many awesome things going on here! We actually shot gunned elders outta here and they left us nothing but 6 jars of peanut butter but after this past week we have 40 new potential investigators! So now we're just going to focus this next week on weeding out those who are actually potentials and those who aren't as prepared. Plus we have this competition going between the elders and sisters in our zone to see how many people can get the most active member lessons this week and then the most referrals next week and then like the most investigators and there's only 4 sisters in our zone...including me and my companion haha BUT we're still gonna cream them! :) Sister Cryer and I have led the zone in our goals for the past few weeks and now we're just gonna keep going. I love sister Cryer! She's such a hard worker and we get along really well. :) Also we've had dinner with ALL of the Mormon famous people here except the Duttons cause they're just coming home from Arizona but! They've called us and we're coming over soon. It's just crazy! All these people are so awesome! I just want them to adopt me! :) We can go to the shows with a progressing investigator SO in addition to having progressing investigators we'll get to have a concert haha. I don't know. I'm just really loving it here. It's SO fun to serve in the YSA too because they have SO many activities and they're PERFECT for finding! Missionary work has never been easier! :) We're also focusing a lot on the new video "Because He Lives". EVERYONE SHARE IT AND GET ON THE WEBSITE!! Heavenly Father truly is making sharing the gospel SO easy. WE just need to hop on board and get busy. I also LOVED conference SO much! One of my favorite talks was by one of the guys from the 70, the one about living the gospel being like a dance. We can all fake dancing for a while but until we FEEL AND HEAR the music we're never truly performers. Take the time "every day, every day, every day" as one of the 70 said to study the Book of Mormon and apply its teachings. "Do good things to do good things not to be recognized" and stand up for and strengthen your own marriage and family. Those are some of the things that stood out to me this weekend. We ALL have a responsibility and a privilege of standing up for and sharing the gospel. SHARE IT! LIVE IT! Reach out and accept the hand God offers to us at all times. I'm so thankful to have the gospel in my life. I love and sustain the prophet and apostles and I KNOW that their words come from a loving Heavenly Father who is trying to reach out to us. There is nowhere else in the world more fulfilling and more comforting than in the arms of the Savior's atonement. We access this by living his gospel to the fullest. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! Let the message of Easter stay in your heart and mind everyday #because he lives! :)

Love you forever

Sister Moreno

Here's the first time me and sister Ratto saw each other in 9 months! We met at the exact same place as when I picked her up her first day :) Aww sentimental haha I love her!

And there's SUPER beautiful scenery here too

That's me taking a picture by the Hughes brothers car cause I didn't want to go fan girl over them and ask for a picture after dinner haha J

And THAT is a delicious chicken place we ate for dinner our first night :)

That’s me in my new Easter Dress by the beautiful red buds! I LOVE THEM!

Here's the first time me and sister Ratto saw each other in 9 months! We met at the exact same place as when I picked her up her first day :) Aww sentimental haha I love her!

Talihina week 1000 ;)

 

WHAT A GREAT WEEK!!! I am just SO SO SO SOOOOOOOO HAPPY!! Things are going SO well!! On Tuesday we had our zone conference and I swear President Shumway is the most inspired man I've ever met. He gave the BEST talk on how to use the Atonement I've ever hear and it was EXACTLY what I needed to hear. Plus! My zone leaders picked me and another elder to be the competitors for our scripture bee....thanks to Sister Barrett haha. When they asked who was good at memorizing scriptures she's like "Ooh! Sister Moreno is!" Well we get up there and my teammate got out in the first round! Ya, haha I ended up making it to the final 3 and it was hilarious because I had to sing some of my scriptures cause that's how I memorized a lot of them and even though I got out on D&C 135:3 I still won a prize cause I rapped it and President said I won the best actress award haha it was a blast :) I got a super cute red leather journal! And the rest of the week was just awesome. We've done SO much service and it's really paying off. First of all you just feel SO much better when you serve and second of all we're meeting a TON of new people through it. Friday we started at the recycling center....let me just say. I have SO much respect for the man who's worked there for 3 YEARS....PLEASE everyone. Separate you're recycling into their proper place. On the bottom of the item you're going to recycle you'll see a little recycling symbol with a number in it. Sort based on number if plastic. :) Thank you. Gross work my friends lemme tell you. HOWEVER! We do have 4 new potential priesthood holders in our midst who know how to work hard! :) Also, we had a GREAT lesson with one of our investigators and his mom. He's 14 and friends with the Greens, that's how we met him but apparently his mom took the lessons 40 years ago...ya. She sat in on our lesson with him and she's agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it too!! :) AND! Dallin (my old ward mission leader) had given me this referral way back in November to go and see a couple of his friends that had just gotten married and we finally went to go see them Monday and oh. My. Goodness. I LOVE THEM! They're SO awesome! They're like 22 and we shared the temple video and taught the restoration and they're reading the book of Mormon now! WHAT?! Ya. Plus Dallin is down from School for spring break and he's gonna come with us to teach them the plan of salvation! I'm SO EXCITED!! Things are just going really well and I have truly come to love Talihina, no matter how many ulcers it has given me. I've learned SO much from serving here and I don't know how much longer I'll be here because we have transfer calls this Saturday but I know that I am a better person because of my experiences here and I love it. I love it a lot. :) Have a great week! Also, the joys of a small branch, I was called up in sacrament meeting to speak on Scripture study cause the speaker didn’t' show up haha...ya. It was fun though :) I realize I love LOVE LOVE the scriptures SOOOOO much! I love the Bible so much and the Book of Mormon and modern revelation!!! It's just SO good! :) One more thing. In branch council this week I shared a little message by talking about Alma 49-52. I talked about how important it is fortify our cities and how Satan wants nothing more for us than all of us on the same team to turn against each other and how we may have weak spots but we can work together to make our city strong. Also in there it mentions how things started as "warm contentions" and "warm dissentions" and I thought that was such an interesting word to use, but really the little feelings of irritations and annoyance start off small and seemingly harmless but they later grow into big problems. SO! Hopefully we can all remember who the real enemy is and pull together as Christians and stand up for Christ. There’s a great talk in this month’s ensign by Dallin H. Oaks that talks about ALL believers standing strong in the faith against the real enemy. Have a great week!

Love you forever,

Sister Moreno

 

Talihina...I can't remember how long I've been here anymore.... haha

SO! I'm just gonna make this briefish but I have had a great week! :) SO! Actually it started off yucky. The weather here has been INSANE. It was like 30 degrees and snowing one day and it actually snowed like 4 inches which is UNHEARD of around here. Then the next day it rained and ice stormed...let me tell you ice chunks blowing at your face are kinda painful. Then yesterday it was back to like 65 degrees! It was beautiful...I don't understand Oklahoma sometimes haha. But other than that we just had to adjust our traveling and most of our appointments got canceled but we made do! :) I finally broke down and called President Shumway and told him about the hard time I’ve been having in Talihina and how I felt and can I just say....I KNOW I came to this mission to learn and serve with President Shumway. He is the BEST mission president ever and I love him a lot. I asked him if he had a minute and he said "For you, Sister Moreno, I've got more than a few" :) aww haha then I just poured out my soul to that guy and he just totally validated how I was feeling and at one point he shared with me this story He said that it reminded him of me. 

         God called a man over and asked him to push this HUGE boulder at the base of a mountain. The man said ok sure! So he pushed and he pushed and he pushed day after day and the boulder wasn't budging it was hundreds and hundreds of pounds. Well one day the man threw his hands up and said "I'm done! I'm not pushing this boulder anymore! It's not going anywhere and there's no point in trying to move it cause I just can't do it." And then God came over to him and said "You've done a great job! Look at how hard you've pushed! You've done everything I've asked you too. I only asked you to push the boulder not to move it and now look at the muscles you've gained"....:)

          SO! Moral of the story is, sometimes we misunderstand God's plans or expectations of us and we don't realize we're doing everything he asked. I've really wanted to make some BIG changes here in Talihina, and I have been able to do a lot of good here but perhaps the BIG changes are meant to happen to me. I honestly have changes so much since being here. I can't say exactly how but I've felt like I've been being molded my whole time here and I'm just grateful for the realization and reminder that President gave me of the power of endurance. Plus! He also gave me some ideas on what we can do here in Talihina and that it was all about service! We've tried to do service ever since I got here but it was winter and there wasn't really anything in the community to do...we asked...everyone haha but now there are! We, in one day, were able to get set up at the library to help with the upcoming Easter egg hunt, the visitor's center's open house, the Wilburton Recycling center and another thrift store in Wilburton. We talked to the chamber of commerce, the city hall, the catholic churches in both Wilburton and Talihina and it just feels good. I know that good things ARE happening here and that just because the work is slow, doesn't mean it's not going forward. There have been GREAT things happen here including getting some less actives to return, getting different members to go on exchanges with us...actually just the fact that we got members to go on exchanges with us is HUGE, getting welcomed into the Veteran's colony after them shunning us at first and even having an investigator out there! Not to mention our 3 baptisms with the greens and them getting the priesthood and me being able to stay from the beginning till now with them especially through Bella's cancer treatments. I don't know. It's just been good and my time in Talihina so far has truly shaped me into someone else, but someone I hope the lord can be proud of. Thank you for all of your prayers, letters, and support! They are GREATLY appreciated!

Love you forever

Sister Moreno

PS....I've been here about 4 months :) Math was never my strong suit

Talihina-week 14

So I'm gonna try to get it all in but I'm so lazy and I'm running outta time haha This week has been good. I'm still trying to not pull my hair out over feeling like I have no idea what to do here to help these people but luckily Sister Barrett is helping me out a ton! She's fantastic! I just ranted to her yesterday about how I feel like I don't know how to use the Atonement and how I don't have real faith in Christ and she just let me go on and on and it was great! I felt so much better after. :) It's true I feel like I'm seriously lacking faith, but! We had a wonderful Sister's conference this week! We had one a year ago so it was awesome to have another. There we were taught all about faith and how we should be allowing Christ to perform miracles with us and  AND then I got a letter in the mail from Sister Booms with a talk by Stephen E. Robinson (so SO good! Everyone needs to read it) and it really hit me that I have been lacking faith in what Christ says he can do. I know who Christ is and I believe he is the Son of God but I've been lacking confidence in his words, that he Truly can cleanse us from sin and really make us better. SO! That's my next project. :) But something that was really cool during my studies the other day: I was reading in Helaman which is officially my favorite book in the Book of Mormon. I was reading in chapter 3:7 and it's talking about how the Nephites had arrived and moved into a land that didn't have any trees so they couldn't make the houses they were used to, outta log. Well in verse seven it simply states that they became experts in cement....haha now this may seem like a random thing to feel inspired about BUT! Here I am in little ol’ Talihina, a "land without any trees" or any of the usual tools I'm familiar with like a branch mission leader who lives in our area, or things like that BUT! As the Lord did with these Nephites, he's going to make me an expert cement worker! They didn't forget how to work with wood! They just also became experts at working with cement and my cement is relying on the Lord through prayer, scripture study and faith. I will become an expert at those things because the Lord doesn't want any of us to be "homeless". Now this may not make any sense to anyone else but it helped me out haha. I'm just grateful for the gospel. I love the Book of Mormon and all of you. Thank you for your support. Also! I am so grateful for all of you organ and piano players that play in sacrament meeting. Sister Shaw was sick the other day and I ended up having to play in Sacrament, Relief Society AND primary! THANK YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE FOR YOUR TALENTS!! :) Have a great week!

Love you forever

Sister Moreno

Talihina Week 13?

Ok I'm SO sorry I have neglected writing a big email to everybody for the past few weeks. Life has honestly been a little rough but I'm doing alright now :) So! To catch you up on everything. We had transfer calls last week and my dear Sister Gee got transferred to Pawhuska Oklahoma, replacing Sister Booms. Isn't that crazy?! :) Ya Pawhuska is just a little bigger than Talihina but according to Sister Gee things are going great there! They've got a bunch of investigators and life is sweet, yay for her! So my new companion is Sister Barrett (like parrot) and she's fantastic! :) She's 25 and from Highland Utah. Randomness again, she was the one that replaced me in Henryetta and was companions with Sister Fleck! The mission world is so very very small haha. Ya she is super bubbly and kind and I’m really glad to be her companion although I do miss Sister Gee and her ukulele jam sessions :) Did I ever tell you that she and I performed a song for President Ingle’s 10th Birthday party with the ukulele (she played I sang)? If not....we did haha. I think Sister Ingle has a small clip of it that she's gonna try to send you ma. ALSO! Before Sister Gee left we went and got her ears pierced! haha it was great. We now have matching companionship earrings :) As for the work here in Talihina. I'm not gonna lie, I stress out every single day of my life because I have no idea how to help these people get going. HOWEVER, I KNOW God sent me Sister Barrett to help me out. That girl reminds me of the mom of the squishy guy on Monster's University hahah I told her that and meant it in the best way. Sister Barrett also gives me really tight hugs and I told her to quit touching me hahahah this is why I have no friends. It made me think of all the times we'd be on trips and when America tried to lean on me to fall asleep I'd push her off haha oh goodness. I need to work on that. ANYWAY! :) The greens are doing really well. We had stake conference this past weekend and they all came! :) Bella's chemo is going well and they're going to do an intense round in a few weeks where she'll have to stay in Tulsa for two weeks but other than that things are going "ok". She keeps making me pictures and I love it :) The boys and Sister Green will be going to the temple with the rest of the youth next Saturday and guess who gets to go!!!!! YAY!!!! I'm SOOOOOOO excited!! My soul has missed the spirit of the temple. I'm praying that I'll be able to go in and do some initiators or endowments but even just being there will be the BEST!!! EVERYONE GO TO THE TEMPLE!!!! If you aren't making it a priority, make it a priority. There’s eternal truths and spiritual power there that you NEED to constantly renew. Also, THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FOR ALL THE VALENTINE'S DAY STUFF!!! I LOVED IT!!!! :) It was so good to see all the pics of Grandpa and everybody! It made me cry a little :) Also, the CDs you sent were awesome mom!! Thank you SOOOO much and thank you for not sending me chocolate! My poor companion got all of my helpings of chocolate gifts haha. I don't know, I'm just grateful to still be out here. We had one of the Elders that served here come back to visit last night with his mom and it was the weirdest thing. I have been realizing that time truly is winding down and I don't like it! Even though life sucks as a missionary sometimes haha it never really REALLY does. I love being able to feel the spirit constantly and to be always recognized as a servant and representative of the Lord. My name tag is my favorite part about my outfit in the mornings :) It's the one thing that still fits...tehe …just kidding :) But really. I'm so SO grateful for the gospel and the molding I feel God is doing to me. I love you all and Happy late Valentine's day!! :) Keep praying for missionary opportunities. Something that President Shumway asked us to do is to pray for hard things....and then to pray that members see us doing those hard things...I've been too chicken to do it yet haha but I’m GOING TO! :) You can do the same. Those experiences will only make you stronger and more equipped to serve the Lord.

Love you forever,

Sister Moreno

 

 

 

Sis. Gee with her Ukulele at Pres. Ingles Surprise Birthday Party 2/7/15

 

 

Talihina-Week 9

Oh what a beautiful morning!!!! Oh what A BEAUTIFUL DAY!!! It has been so beautiful these past few days! It's about 62 degrees out right now and I’m LOVIN it! :) We have had a great week. Tuesday was a little rough. Sister Gee and I were missing the Vendels and Charleston pretty bad and we kind were in a funk all day and that was awful...longest day of my life. I've been really blessed to only have had a few of those days my whole mission, but truly they're a choice. I NEVER want to have another one of those days again! I was really feeling bad about my life cause I have had a few of those days on my mission but this morning during my personal study I really came to an understanding of exactly how the lord feels about those days. I was reading about patience haha and I read about the sons of Mosiah and how they had this really wicked past but after they repented they wanted to share the gospel with everyone and the Lord allowed them to. Then later when they had hard times the first thing he told them was to be comforted. And for the New Year’s we've been sharing D&C 6:33-37? And it's all about having faith in the lord and fearing not to do good. "Fear not little flock" is my FAVORITE part of those scriptures. The Savior and our Heavenly father don't ever want us to feel inadequate or unworthy. They LOVE us SO much! They' realize we're weak and they'll pick us up and guide us back to safety if we let them. The highlight of my studies this morning was reading the talk in January's ensign about the prodigal son. READ IT EVERYONE! It's SO good. It truly helped me realize just how much our Father in heaven loves us, even when we do mess up every once in a while. :) YAY for modern revaluation! I'm SO grateful for it. As for the rest of the week, it was great! The weekends are for sure the BEST! We get to go stay with the Cooks in the Veteran's colony and oh my goodness. Those grumpy old men are really loving us. It was the SWEETEST thing ever!! This week they sent out a message in their newsletter that said "We just wanted to recognize the Cooks' sister missionaries. They've done so much to help us lately and just so everyone knows, we've adopted them " :) ISN'T THAT SWEET??? :') Dah! Heavenly Father knows I have a soft spot for grandpas. THEN! At our colony breakfast on Saturday, George, one of the veteran's asked me if I'd still be around in the summer to help him with his garden cause I told him I can and whatnot and when I told him I was going home in June he got all teary eyed and said: "Really? I'm gonna miss you." ...wahhhh I hate loving people when I have to leave them haha!!!! He told me that we'd start the garden earlier than usual and that he'd send me some of them later :) HOW ADORABLE CAN HE GET??? Not to mention that Roger is ALWAYS taking care of us. He sends us texts to make sure we're safe and he is always trying to buy us food haha. AND! The veteran's asked us to perform some songs on the piano/violin (sis.gee plays violin) for Valentine’s Day haha! We got permission to do worldly songs :) It's gonna be a blast. ALSO! On Saturday night. There was a stake youth activity where they should "Meet the Mormons" and they were all told to invite their friends. Well we live like an hour and a half away from our stake center, Fort Smith, but we got permission to go to this because we've been working with one of our young women (who looks like case sometimes so much it freaks me out! I actually screamed at her in the car 'oh my goodness your face freaks me out" hahahah cause she looked JUST LIKE CASS!!) on teaching some of her friends and she invited one of them to go with us. We were able to talk a lot about the church and she had a bunch of questions after the movie so that was AWESOME!!! Youth are SO key! They're friends are just waiting to hear the gospel!!! And as far as our youth missionary challenge. Things are going great! The boys we just baptized are so fantastic. One of the things we challenged the youth to do this past week was to start gospel conversations using "Mormon" words. President Ingle shared a story his grandson had this past week. He was laying his head down on his desk and his teacher asked why he was so tired and he said it was cause he goes to early morning SEMINARY. His teacher asked what Seminary was and then invited him to stay after class to talk more. Well as it turns out his teacher was at a low point in his life and his 16 year old grandson asked if he'd like to learn more. His family invited him over to dinner to meet with the missionaries and after just 2 lessons he's excepted the invitation to be baptized.......WE DON'T KNOW WHO THE LORD IS PREPARING, BUT WE KNOW HE IS PREPARING THEM AND THAT WE'RE TO DO  OUR PART TO HELP HIS WORK ALONG. Just try it out. Instead of skipping over those words that are unfamiliar to people not of our faith USE them! Let a conversation form and then testify and invite. It's so simple and you'll be so blessed. Send me the experiences you have! Pray for those opportunities! :) I love LOVE this work and I can't wait to ...oh wait! I forgot! We're also teaching this fantastic lady named Connor and her sister Dolly. We've taught them twice now and they want to be baptized! They're reading the Book of Mormon and I LOVE THEM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH! They're a HUGE blessing! HUGE BLESSING! I just am blown away at those who are prepared. They're out there you guys. Just talk to them and invite them! I love you all so much! Have a great missionary week! :)

Love you forever,

Sister Moreno

Talihina-week 8

Well all is well in Tiny town USA! :) I had a whole list of stuff to talk about but of course I left it at home. The wonderful Ingles are letting us use their computers and washer and dryer so we don't have to pay like $20 to do our laundry. Plus we usually email at the church and it's currently leaking gas or something and we had to cancel the last hour of church cause kids in primary we're getting light headed haha...ya. We could've died but it's ok! :) The baptisms went SOOOOOO GREAT!!!! We had a GREAT turn out. THe whole primary room was stuffed full of people. And the boys were so nervous haha. One of them had to wear a shirt and suit pants cause we only had two suits big enough for them. It was a great though. When we went by there house the next day they each looked so different! It was AMAZING! Just like I talked about with Ila back in Berryville, how there was a physical difference in the way she looked, like brighter, the same happened with these boys. It just made me want to jump up and down for joy haha...actually I did a little and clapped my hands haha. I asked them how they felt and how they thought it went. Andrew told me: "Honestly, I feel completely different. I see everything differently and I don't know. I just feel happy." Eek! And then Georgie told me in not so many words cause he's kinda quiet that he's never been more happy in his life and that he's so excited for the temple trip we've got scheduled for next month!!!! DAHHHH!!!! THEY'RE JUST SO WONDERFUL!!!! Everett is the quietest of them all and he just said he felt happy haha but their mom told us later that they couldn't stop smiling and they loved it. :) I can't even tell you how great it feels to SEE the Lord's influence in their lives. We literally didn't do anything but witness the cleansing power of the priesthood and boy did that strengthen me and their nonmember father who has now talked about meeting with us! These kids just blow my mind. They've strengthened me so much and they're like my little brothers. I told them that too haha:) Their littlest sister Bella was trying to come home with us last night. She put on my name tag and grabbed her lunch bag, threw it over her shoulder and slipped on some high heel dress up shoes and told us she wanted to be a missionary too. :) ADORABLE! I took a picture. I'll try to connect it. But ya that was the BEST day ever. AND! Then we went to the Veteran's colony like we always do on fri/sat and they are really starting to love us haha. Those grumpy old men can't help but love us. One of them, the grumpiest of them all has taken quite a liking to me haha. I can tell this because he constantly teases me and he slipped like $60 into my purse!! I tried to give it back to him but he just told me I can't boss him around and that he wanted to donate to my cause haha. Oh goodness. We're gonna go heart attack his house or something cause we know he'll need something else to complain about ;) I love that guy. Anyway, we get to hang out with the Vendels today cause Saturday was her birthday and they're only like an hour and a half away from two of their daughters haha. SIster Gee is awesome! She's super quirky and adorable. She bought me THE CUTEST Lisa Frank stickers today cause I LOVE them and so obviously she's my favorite :) I hope all of you have a great week and you drive carefully in the snow!!! Mom! I want you to know I used every single pair of my fleece lined tights you sent me this week cause it's FREEZING!!!! It's SO cold here and so THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!! Also, what are the gas prices like up there? The lowest one we've seen was $1.79 but it's sitting comfortably at about $1.85 everywhere!!! I can live with that! Tell Grandpa I said hi and that I miss him A LOT!!!

Love you forever,

Sister Moreno

 

 

Talihina Week 7

Happy NEW YEAR!!!!!!!! Woohoo!! Yay for 2015!!! I can hardly believe that the year I'd spend in full service to the Lord is over! I am blown away. BUT! I'm also SO excited for this next year and next transfer!!! :) I've got a great new companion named Sister Gee (with a guh)! She's fresh off her training in....CHARLESTON!!!! YAY!!!! It's like having a mini me haha. She's really cute and quirky. Everyone has asked her if she's 14 cause she looks super young! But it's been really good so far. We have a big desire to get to work and I'm excited to work hard, be obedient, and watch for the miracles. That's what President Shumway tells us to do. :) As for this week, we have some exciting things lined up....like THREE BAPTISMS!!!!!! AHHH!!! SO COOL!! :) Yes the part member family we've been teaching, the Greens, the boys are all getting baptized this Wednesday!!!! Andrew, Everett, and Georgie :) I'll take pics and send them next week. It's SO exciting! Plus we have two more investigators that want to get baptized. One is named Mark he's 14 and he's the greens' friend . We jsut have to get regular lessons set up with him...but we don't want to jsut baptize him, we want his whole family so they stick! SO! We're working on that. And the other is a friend of our recent convert, Mickey, her name is Caylla. The only problem with her is she works Sundays and hasn't been to church! We've been fasting and praying for her to get work off and she just talked ot her boss yesterday about getting Sundays off...he said he'd think about it...yay!! HOPEULLY! It'l be good :) AND! Mickey may be coming to Mountain home and apparently his ex-wife lives in JEROME!!!! WHAT????!!! YA! So I'll keep you posted but you may be having him over for dinner or something?? :) He's a little crazy and blunt but he's great! You'll get a taste of Talihina!!! Wouldn't that be AWESOME???!!! Such a small world :) Anyway, that's all I got. I plan on working the hardest I've ever worked in my life for the next 6 weeks. I want to be EXHAUSTED when I get off the plane and I want the Lord to be proud of the things I did with his sacred time. :) I love you all!!! Help the Missionaries by inviting them over for FHE and invite a friend who's a nonmember or a less active!!! It'll bless ALL involved :)

Love you forever,

Sister Moreno