Hola Familia! August 25, 2011

A few items of business:  Thanks for the letters, family, Kenz, and Brooke!  I want to write people, but I have no addresses!  So write me so I can get your address and write you.  Also, mom, I factory reset my phone, so you won't be able to text anyone from it, but all the numbers are on my gmail account (cole.moffat@gmail.com).  Also, if you have any thoughts throughout the week, just send me short little things on dearelder! I love getting mail!!

So cool to hear about home!  Good luck on your talk, Spencer!  I'm sure you'll do great, and I bet you won't pass out either :P  And the treats were amazing, mom!  my district loved them!  Also, the big thing at the MTC is tie trading, and I've gotten some pretty nice ties!  If you guys wouldn't mind sending me some paisley ties, kind of like the red one i have, that would be great!  I'm kind of lacking on the paisley.  I trust your taste, mom :)

So, We've gotten new "investigators" this week.  Sonya and Francy (Hermana Vance y Hermano Heap), and it's been going pretty well.  Yesterday we (I) really tanked the lesson with Francy, though.  Definitely a learning experience.  But other than that, Elder Gehring and I have been teaching pretty well.  We know enough spanish to get by and attempt to answer their questions, but we still have so far to go to really be able to express our thoughts as clearly as we'd like. 

I did get a ladder for my bunk bed so I wouldn't have to try and climb up, and more dangerously, down the side with almost no steps and up against the closet, next to Elder Gehring's head.  so the ladder is good.  Stephen left already, too!  Monday!  He left a few weeks earlier than planned because I guess the Leeds mission needed a missionary sooner, and STephen was there adn ready!

This week I also taught "Sunday School," aka district meeting on the Nature of God and the Atonement-- talk about deep stuff!  But since I found out at 10:15  the night before, I had to pretty much wing it.  Good thing I was gospel doctrine teacher at school!

It's interesting having 2 weeks under my belt already, and noticing how this wed-sunday moves soooo much faster than my first wed-sunday.  Time is definitely speeding up, and I'm thinking it will only get faster!  Also, I got to witness something that happens very very rarely at the MTC-- opening a mission call!!  Elder Wright has been here for 9ish weeks and is going to Columbia, but his visa hasn't been processed yet.  So, he opened his temporary reassignment last night-- Washington DC South, which happens to be where a few other elders in our zone are going in a few weeks as well!  So exciting, and we had a little fiesta for him, pie, chips, salsa, brownies, cookies, the works.  Pretty fun stuff!

Literally less than an hour ago, I auditioned for a musical number for one of the Firesides/ meetings at the MTC.  I auditioned accompanying this new guy in our district singing "I Know that My Redeemer Lives."  He has a pretty good voice, and I like the arrangement.  I also auditioned for the "I Am a Child of God" piano solo from memory, and at the end of both pieces, the lady we auditioned for told us that we definitely will perform sometime, that we're definite "yes"es.  It was cool!  I want to find a piece to sing as a vocal solo... Dad, can you dearelder me the lyrics to "I heard the voice of Jesus Say..."?  I might try and do that one.  So pretty!

My Spanish is coming along well, and I'm learning so much about how to teach the Gospel!  I love it here, but I can't wait to get to Chile!

Sorry there's not a whole lot to write this week.  after the newness of the MTC wears off, it's pretty much the same thing day by day, week by week.

Le Amo a Ustedes,

Elder Moffat

First Full P-Day! August 18, 2011

Hola Familia!

 

Thanks Mom, Dad, and Spence for the letters!  It's just about the best part of the day when we get letters, so keep 'em coming!

 

The MTC is going great!  Just the past few days, even, have been so busy!  I feel like I've been here so much longer than a week, but I love it.  We kept teaching Diego, our "investigator," and it was all in spanish.  We taught him 4 lessons, and he had a lot of really really good questions, like how to recieve and answer to prayer.  We helped him recognize what it feels like and all that.  We spent the first 15 minutes of yesterday's lesson on that, trying to help him understand with our limited spanish, and he totally got it and realized he wanted to be baptized!  It was such a cool feeling.  I can't wait to actually have a real investigator find the joy that the gospel will bring to their lives.

 

Apparently my companion Elder Gehring's dad knew you, or at least of you, dad!  Rob Gehring from Mesa, AZ?  He's a few years younger than you, I think, but he at least recognized the name Moffat and asked if my dad was from mesa!  let me know.  Also, Elder Gehring has a brother named HAYDEN!  He's going to be a freshman this year.  speaking of which, congrats on JV, Hayden!  and moving the Sunday game schedules for Spence and Luke!  Looks like things are working out over in VH.

 

Most of my district is going to one of the Sanitago Missions, and 3 are going to Guatemala.  However, the rest of our zone is all over, mostly stateside, spanish speaking.  a few are going to LA Spanish-speaking!  If someone could send me (via dearelder.com) could give me some of Will's letters, I think they would like that.  And I'm so glad his homecoming went so well!  too bad about the cockroaches, though.... I can't wait....

 

Mom, I really appreciate the spiritual quote you went me.  Keep sending those!  I love reading them.  and for the ward missionary plaque, put Omni 1:26.  I ramdomly flipped open to it a little bit ago, and I think it's my new favorite scripture.

 

Spanish is coming pretty well.  I mean, on average, our district is speaking as well as some of the 6-8 week veterans here!  We can all pray in spanish, and I try and say all my personal prayers in spanish.  I can pretty much say anything I want to say in my prayers in spanish!  it's so cool!  We also love singing himnos en espanol as a district.  nothing calms us down while pumping us up for spanish like singing hymns!

 

We had 2 awesome firesides this week.  one was on the definition of sucess as a missionary, and how we need to have both definitions.  I'll send you a handwritten letter with some notes on that, as well as my notes on the other fireside, given by Bro. Evans of the 1st quorum of the Seventy.  He talked about how we need to recognize the role of God the Father in our lives and in the work.  While we as missionaries are representatives of Jesus Chirst, we are really about the Father's work, because Christ said that his work was really the work and will of the Father.  Pretty neat stuff.  Afther that, I recognized how much we gloss over the Father's central role sometimes.

 

Also, go watch the Mormon messages on lds.org.  Two of my Favorites are "Child of God" and Elder Holland bearing his testimony of the Book of Mormon.  I remember when Elder Holland gave that in General Conference a few years ago, too.  Mom, if you can find those and post the links, that would be awesome.  We also watched a few of Holland's talks to the MTC from a while ago.  I'll send those quotes in a handwritten letter as well.

 

I'm about to run out of time, sorry.  Just know that I love it here and I really know this is where I'm supposed to be right now.  I love you all and miss you a lot.  Keep writing me!

 

Love, Elder Moffat

Elder Cole Moffat August 2011

Here at the MTC! Aug. 13, 2011

Hola del MTC!

Thanks for the letters, Bros, Mom, Dad, BG1 YW, and Eyres!  Its really nice to get mail.

Hayden drove a little bit?  Sounds a little scary!  haha Hayden, of course I want to hear about everyday stuff!  Dad, go ahead and invite CG to the blog.  no problem.

The first day we came, they immediately whipped us into full-fledged MTC scheduling.  We went to an orientation, met our teacher, Hermana Vance, the whole thing.  Hermana Vance is our Spanish teacher, and she speaks 100% in spanish.  the whole time.  Yesterday, she only spoke English when she talked with each companionship and missionary about planning and goals and stuff like that.  She's such a great teacher, and everyone is really motivated to learn to speak the language because of it.  Most of the people in the class (our district) didn't come in speaking spanish at all, so I've been the translator for the class the past few days.  Everyone is progressing pretty fast, considering it's our 3rd full day. 

My companion is Elder Gehring.  He's pretty cool, and we get along pretty well.  I tried sending pictures of us and our district, but these computers won't let me.  So you'll have to wait.  Elder Gehring is from South Orange County and played football and golf in highschool  He speaks a little spanish from school and from the streets of SoCal.  His dad is really high up in Coca-Cola, and appartently while he was at UVU his family moved to Toronto, Canada.

You know how you were talking about near-death stories before the mission, dad?  Well I've heard some wayyy better than my brakes-going-out-on-the-highway story.  Elder Jones fell 10 feet and landed straight on his back on jagged rocks on a river and just bounced back to his feet without a scratch, and Elder Gehring was working in a jewelry store during an armed robbery with 3 huge black guys and had a gun pointed straight at his face, he ducked, and in the end, 2 of them were severely injured and the biggest one that pointed the gun at Elder Gehring was shot 3 times in the chest with a huge gun and died.  Crazy stuff before the mission.....

Yesterday, Elder Gehring were able to teach our first "investigator," Diego.  It had to be all in spanish, too.  we started to read straight out of PMG, but then 15 minutes into it, he asked a question, so we (I) had to explain our purpose and answer his questions and stuff off the top of our heads.  I was surprised at how much I could get accross, but I also realized how much I still need to learn, especially Gospel-Spanish.  It was cool tho.

First day I ran into Elder Stephen Patterson, Elder Peter MacArthur, and I've also seen Elder Pugh, Elder Carlson (FHE dad), elder Fitzpatrick (eqp), and a few others from BYU while in the cafeteria (the food is kind of like the cannon center, but a little worse).  Strangely, I don't have as much of an appetite, but don't worry mom, I"m not sick.  It's been really fun here!  I now know what they mean by "days feel like weeks, but the weeks only feel like days."  On Thursday night, I was like, "wait, did we do that this morning or yesterday?"  and Elder Gehring, after much thought, said, "I think that was this afternoon...."  haha.

We met our branch presidency the other night.  Our branch president served under monson's mission presidency, and one of the counselors is pres. Monson't nephew!  pretty cool, eh?

Well, I have no time left to write on the computer.  Love you all and miss you!

Hasta Jueves,

Elder Moffat

"Si vas para Chile..."

My weekly emails to my family will be posted here on this blog.  I will not have access to the blog while on my mission, so my parents will post them and maintain the blog.  All info for sending things is on the "Contact Info" page.  I'd love to get letters!
Hasta dos años,
Elder Moffat