San Jose Week 11

This week we had some great experiences, and i am soo excited i actuallly have time to write some of them...ok, well the most interesting thing that happened was just a few days ago...we had a really great teaching experience with one of the investigators that we have seen for a long time...gloria is an older lady who taught catechism for years...and she has been listening for the missionies for quite a while...anyways, the lesson that we had with her was very powerful, and it is amazing how people even after being so deeply involved in catholisim, are led to the truth and are able to change their lives...for quite some time we have been inviting her to pray about the book of mormon, because she always read it faithfully and she loves its teaching, but she still wasnt able to understand the importance of knowing that joseph smith was a prophet and that he translated this book...so we explained in a simple way how simple and clear the evidence is that this book proves to us that the church of jesus christ is here upon the earth directed by a living prophet..and by simply reading this book and sincerly asking our heavenly father to know if it is true, we WILL know.. it was a simple lesson, but being able to feel her conversion slowly come thru the power of the book of mormon has been a great experience...it has been such a blessing to be able to teach people with 100 percent confidence that when we do what the lord commands us, he will provide us with the promised blessings....everyday , we are instructed in ways to be able to teach more effectively, and i have learned so much from listening to the spirit...being able to put my trust in the lord and learning how to really listen to peoples problems and concerns and try and put myself in their shoes, i have been able to speak what heavenly father wants them to hear...its not always easy to teach the people when we are in the habit of just teaching the same things in the same order, but the greatest moments we have are when we forget the order, we look at the people who accept us into there homes and we LISTEN...then with the spirit we respond...and teach the doctrine....the spirit always directs us to ask inspired questions, which help the people share with us there religious beliefs, and the lesson isnt a structured thing, but a converation in which is led by the spirit and which i know that we are helping these people increase there faith in God, and live better lives....i know that when we really try and look at these people as our own brothers and sisters and we love them sincerely, we have a more developed desire to ask them simple inspired questions, and with the inspried questions we recieve inspired answers....this process of asking our Heavenly Father for HIS guidance has been the most effective thing, and really, the ONLY way that the gospel of Jesus Christ can be taught...when we listen, and want to know how to help these people, He always lets us know how.

 

 

anyways, this is the last week of the change...we`ll see if i stay or go.. at least there is a 95 percent chance that i am going to have a new companion....i cant decide which i would like more ..being in san jose longer or getting to know a knew area....either is great...but finally! spring is starting to manifest itself here!! and the insane amoung of rain has gone, at least for now...but i know that this summer is gonna be tough, because when it is hot, its unbearable...but i still love it!!

i finally mailed a ton of letters to savannah, so they should get there soon and she can give them to you all!! tell the family its always better to email me here...and if they use the urumontemission email they need to include my full name in the subject line so that the leaders know who it is for...but i prefer u email me here...i love and miss you all!! dont forget to email me, even if its just a pic and one line i love to know how you are all doing!!

love, gioia

New PDay

time is passing way too fast!!! well, they changed our pday to wednesday and we dont have much time, but just want to write a few lines!! i am so excited for conference that is coming up!!! i can wait to hear our prophet speak to us....being here i have come to appreciate so much the power that the book of mormon has in our lives, when we read, meditate, and pray about the stories it contains we recieve the stregnth and power that we need to do all things! i love and miss you all, and i have about a million letters that i have written over the past few months that i am going to finall send off soon!!!

 

love, gioia

San Jose Week 10

how have u alll been? send me pics of the wedding! i am so excited for erin!! and miss and love you all!!

 

one of the talks that i read recently by elder holland really left an impact on me...i think it is called....However long and hard the road....anyways, elder holland talks a lot about the history of the process and the sacrifice that the early saints took in building the salt lake temple..and he talks about details that i never knew! anyways, i loved the part most when he mentions the 1st general conference that the saints held...in one room there were gathered maybe 30 saints, and they had much persecution ahead, they were proposing to fight the very forces of satan and establish the very kingdom of God on earth...and how elder holland says how persumptuous and crasy that would seem that 30 humble, land tilling saints, had a purpose so vast and noble...and so much opposition...but they had seen visions!! and they knew the truth! and as insane as it all seemed or as impossible as the task ahead seemed..they moved forward with strenght and firm testimonies to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to all. and what a blessing it is today to see the church growing and people learning the truth that had been lost for so many ages...reading all the family history stories i brought with me has been such a blessing...

 

sometimes it feels like our work here on earth is so hard so unattainable, but when we look toward the future we keep working! sometimes the work here feels impossible...we have the entire city of san jose to conquer! to help convince the people here of the truth! and our area leaders..and apostles have seen visions of these countries being filled with temples!! and i know that it is possible that every person we teach every person we find that moves closer to the truth is part of that grand vision...and we all have so much in store!!! thank you for helping me be a part of this great work.

love, gioia

San Jose Week 8

guess what we had our first baptism!! it was great ;) we had been teaching a young girl of 14 yrs named yescica. she is so great and such a strong example for her family, i really feel blessed to have met her, and shared the gospel with her! ...anyways...i hope everything is going great at home!

so, i know your all busy with the wedding haha, but what in the world is going on!! haha, i dont even know what day erin is getting married :) fill me in please and send pics!!! of her engagement and everything...erin and stace can help attach them to one of your emails. i love and miss you all ;) and remember that i need addresses for everyone...savannah is the only one who emailed me her address so for now i am going to send her all the letters i,ve written to stacey and erin and everyone so that she can get them to you all, until i know where to send them.

tell erin i am so excited for her! and that i miss madi and niki! i miss you all! but i am so grateful to be here...haha i was just realizing the other day that when i get back i will be 23 haha, that makes me feel old.

..also, something everyone should know just in case....dont worry about sending packages amd paying more so they come sooner...send them the cheapest way possible, because even when they say it will come in 2 weeks or 2 days...it will not come in that time...once it leaves the country, and enters uruguay they hold it at customs and inspect it...so just know that i prob wont get any of the birthday packages for another month or so,,,,it takes almost 2 months to get them...so just know that when they say it will get to me in 2 weeks it wont, so dont pay extra to send it....

anyways, i love you all, and am so excited to continue working here....

love, hermana moyes

San Jose Week 7

Where have you guys all been?? haha, i know it must be super busy with erins WEDDING!!! what is the day she is actually getting married? and i want to see her engagement pics!!! someone should email me them!! hmm...well, i am staying in this area for another 6 weeks at least, but i was glad i didnt change areas, beacause finally we are getting closer to seeing some results!! wow, last week we had zone conference with Elder Arnold, the area 70, and it was amazing these leaders are truly servants of the Lord, i have never learned so much in one afternoon all at once! whats been going on with you all? how are chris and james and stace and shad and erin? it def stinks that i cant email them, but i still want to hear from them :) what else is going on back at home...today, can you believe it is my 2 months in the mission!! 16 more to go, it honestly feels like i have always been here! this week we had some really great experiences!!! this entire time on the mision we hadnt had a single investigator come to church, it has been so hard to get them to come!! and the ward here is very weak, there are a lot of problems between the members that we are trying to fix to help strengthen them abd build the area, but me and my companion decided to fast and pray even harder to help the people have a desire to come to church, and i couldnt believe it this week!! we had 4 people show up!! me and my companion were so happy i can not even describe it! it has been the biggest battle here! that was one of the most important lessons i learned this week, to trust in the Lord and be patient, because the results will come! and they always come when we least expect it!!! i have learned to expect these miracles when we least expect them to come!! but they always come in due time, when we maintain our faith...it reminds me of a story someone told us in one of our meetings...about a worker who was put out in a field..God had set giant boulder in the middle of the field and told the man that his work was going to be to push the boulder...so day after day the man worked, with every piece of strenghth that he had, pushing pulling, sweating trying to make the boulder move, but after months and months, it still hadnt budged even an inch...so later after wanting to give up and feeling useless, he asks God, why isn´t this rock moving? i am working as hard as i can, i dont know what else to do? then God responds...¨"i didnt tell you to move the rock, i asked you only to push it.¨" 

and the entire time the man had been pushing it, he had gained muscle and strenthg that he had never before know, not realizing that the change and the work that took effect wasnt in moving the rock, but strenghting him.

i know that that is how life is, sometimes we feel like we are up against a giant boulder not making a difference in the lives of anybody, but we are making a differnce! and we are growing stronger as we do it! i love this story, because it teaches us to never give up or think that the good we do is in vain...if we trust in God and do exactly what he commands us to do, we are going to be blessed and strengthened..even when we dont understand or think it will at first...we must put our faith in him, and miracles will happen, when we least expect them to!

 i love you and miss you all, i wish i had more time to describe the people we are meeting here and to write more experiences we are having...the rest of this pday i am going to actually write you all more letters!! but still...please have somebody email addresses! i dont really have anybodys!!!

love, hermana moyes 

San Jose Week 6

 cant believ this will be my last week of this change...i dont have time to write today this pday we woke up at 3:45 am an took a train to our district mtg and then sone activity...and we just got back, so its late and our pday is almost over! next week will be as normal and i can fill u in on more details and send pics :)

 

love, gioia

San Jose Week 5

wow,

i cant believe how fast time is passing here! thank you all for writing me!!! i promise you will be receiving letters sometime soon! ok first i need you guys to ask everyone to email me there addresses, i dont have a single address! so if you could email them to me that would be great...but until i get them, i am going to have to maybe just send an envelope with multiple letters for all you guys and you can send them or give them to everyone else for me...i have letters, but i dont know where to send them ;) and also if u could email me some simple recipes...banana bread, bread dough, choc chip cookies, brownies etc....i dont know how to make anything off the top of my head, and i dont have any recipes with me :)

alright, this week has been great! yesterday we had a great experience, we have been working with a youg married family and we hadnt been able to contact them in a while, and we thought that they were avoiding us, but yesterday, they said we could come over and teach them, so we finished up the planning that we were doing and were so excited that they wanted to hear from us that we ran to there house! we ended up watching a dvd of the restauration with them, and they thought the dvd and the story of joseph smith was beatiful, and they are really progressing! i have realized more and more each day, the importance of being obedient to the Lord. he really does put people in our path for a reason, but if we are not following and listening to the spirit, we will miss these opportunites! i know that this church is true, and that joseph smith was a prophet! we are so blessed to have this knowlede, and everyday i have the opportunity to testify of Jesus Christ, i have realized more than ever that we really are in the latter days, and that the only way to be happy and to feel peace in our homes and for ourselves is by following the will of the Saviour, and learning about Him.

i love you and miss you all!

you can send me packages and letters to the mission home anytime throughout the mission, always send it to the mission home at this address!

Mision Uruguay Montevideo
Dalmiro Costa 4635 Bis
C.P. 11400
Montevideo, Uruguay

last preparation day we went to the zoo here...haha it was more just  like a park with a few cages, but it was fun!! hope u enjoy the pics! :)

love, hermana moyes