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