Going Dark

Dear Family and Friends

   Haha okay I think it's not gunna be as bad as it sounded at first. We went to zone meeting tuesday and Elder Kopsa (maybe my favorite missionary in Armenia) read the new regulations that they had just received that morning, basically telling everyone not to share any pics or any info about anyone that wasn't us ourselves, not even other missionaries. I pictured it as when the patronus comes to the wedding  and announces "the minister is dead. the ministry is fallen. they are coming" everyone went crazy with questions, concerns, complaints, wondering if the government was gunna bust through the door at any second. We're not really sure why this is all coming out now, everyone and their uncle has had a blog their whole mission. i guess its with the whole facebook and social media stuff being announced. Anyway after a quick read through the letter they sent to everyone, it sounds like the blog just needs to be private. idk how hard that is, the letter says if its by invite only it should be fine. idk how many people are keeping up with it, but if you make it private and then just put it on my facebook that to read it they need to get an invite from you we should be able to keep all the pictures up on a private blog. Pres Carlson will come back from Russia and maybe be able to answer more in detail questions. But for now just make the blog private and we'll wait on any further news. Oh and the address that you have is already the mission office address anyway. As for pics Im still not quite sure. 

   That being said, there wasn't too much to report this week anyway. We went to Khor Virap monday which was superr cool. Its an Armenian church, and the history behind it is apparently the start of Christianity in Armenia. Look it up, Khor Virap and Grigor Lusavoritch, i dont remember it all. the church was pretty though, we got to descend into the pit (khor virap means deep pit/dungeon) where Grigor was apparently imprisoned for a while until an evil king was cursed and then accepted Christianity or something. Its an interesting story. the church was super cool though, its on a cliff overlooking Ararat, but it was pretty cloudy so i dont have amazing pictures. it was a fun time with the district though. the best is pretending like you dont know Armenian (they dont like us at their churches, so we try not to give away who we are) i have plenty of funny stories about that for later. 

  this week was a pretty slow one, we had one man listening but he was too busy this week and may have dropped us. we're not sure yet, thats never good. the higlight of the week is a man who we met with, neither elder chojnacki nor i could remember meeting him on the street, but his number was in our planner, so we called and he let us come over. taught, he liked it, said it was good, but that he didnt need to get baptized or anything. that was frustrating. but we left a pamphlet. saw him on the street a few days later and he said he'd read the pamphet and wanted a BoM "just to get acquainted with it" poor guys already ours, he just doesnt even know it yet haha. i love when it works out this way. so we went over and gave him the Book, and he was a changed man. he'd studied the pamphlet and liked it all. went over 2 days later and he'd already read the intro and up to 1Ne 18! dang it was crazy. he understood it all and remembered really well. we watched the JS movie and stuff. but we found out that he didnt want to come to church or get baptized not just because he didnt think he needs it, but because hes concerned about others judging him. thats something we've struggled with a lot. armenians are either independent and dont care at all what others think, or they're the very opposite, and its really difficult to get them to trust God. He thinks he can sit in his apartment and read and that will be enough. his understanding that he cant just do that will increase as he continues to read, but itll take a lot of work. but we're committed. 

  that was about it for this week. ive struggled a lot this week to find direction. with the change and being moved into a tiny apartment and starting from scratch, everything else kinda went downhill with it. my studies were rough, my prayers werent that great, everything just felt like going through the motions. i wasnt sure if i shouldve been doing more (having more success from the start, being a better leader, etc) but i knew that i should be better myself. idk. it still hasnt been great, the feeling of the work in general has kinda dropped, but the good news is i hate the empty feeling thats been here about two weeks, so i'll be working hard to get back up to the high mark i and my first two comps had held each other to. 

   sounds like everyone at homes doing well, good to hear the cougars did something impressive. Work hard at school! I've kinda forgotten how much school could stink some time, but work hard and enjoy the good times at every appropriate opportunity! Love all of you

Elder Moore