Monday, February 3, 2014

The most stressful two days ever

Dear Family and Friends, 
  ... are the days before transfers. I can stay pretty focused most of the time. Even as you do your last weekly planning session (and your companions confident he's going to leave after 9 months in Gyumri) theres still too much to do and too much time to be distracted by possibly leaving. but then pday you get a letter from pres carlson, the same he always gives, reminding everyone that some people will not change at all (Which is kinda a scary thought when you only do transfers every 12 weeks) and also NOT to talk about transfers- he hates nothing more than missionaries who know exactly where theyre going before he calls them. anyway calls come tuesday night and we have a zone meeting and the sisters have a baptism so that should keep us from getting distracted. as for what the future holds, i honestly have no clue. but i trust pres. 
  everyone made me laugh a ton today, especially chases letter about convincing the kid he doesnt know english- last week when a guy came to the sisters baptism the sisters were talking and he leans over and goes "theyre not from Armenia, are they?" I said no, theyre American. He goes "yeah its totally obvious" and then gives me this look like I'm in the in crowd. Sir, you realize you're talking to a fat kid thats as american as they get right? we go way back, and before that we're from england anyway. IM FROM AMURICA. anyway i decided to let it slide and see how far i could take it. he stopped investigating though. bummer. but this week i got told i spoke armenian better than they themselves haha. which isn't always a good thing, but i'll take it. 
  this week our efforts in reactivation continue to do good things. a neighbor of a less active came to an activity and then to church. hes cool, he's 12 years old. he calls me "elder beautiful" (for real, don't laugh) the one thing i have that armenians dig is great hair. they LOVE the color of it, and i've found a good classy missionary look. but they love how thick it is (they can have it, i got a haircut 2 weeks ago and already need another. i miss buzz cuts and long hair) anyway hes a good kid but he is a 12 year old with only his mom, who happens to be a Jehovahs Witness, and then his less active neighbor who could go back to living 2 hours away at any time. so we'll see. but then last night Branch Pres took us with him to give a blessing to a less active- Armenians LOVE blessings. The only problem is their convinced the power is in the oil (theyll make up fake illnesses when you tell them if they arent sick we dont use oil, and they'll ask you to put more and more on) anywayy this girl was normal, she knew it was all dependent on her faith, but her non member sister in law also asked for one and she loved it and was super interested. she looks like great potential, after a few min of explanation she really wants to get a patriarchal blessing and go to the temple with her husband. so that was awesome. our branch presidents legit, he's only 28 (this is his 4th year as BP) so he's still basically just a missionary. we walked out and he was like ELDERS NEW INVESTIGATOR WHOO! 
  not too much else this week. i've been meditating a lot (pres told us to make time in our nightly schedule for it) and my thoughts kept going back to Char- not for nostalgias sake, I've been learning a ton from it. When i first left i thought "well that was a training ground", which was completely wrong because in my training 5 people got baptized, and after i left 8 people we taught got baptized, and theyre working on a family of 6 we found too. i just had to realize that the timing is the Lords and whether or not i record the baptisms is of no importance, and also doesnt affect if i was successful or not. then i started feeling "well we did our best, but we couldve worked a lot smarter. things worked out in the end, basically because of Armen BP" and its true, i wish i had done less active work in Char, it wouldve been a lot easier there than here (the citys small and the addresses are way easy) but no one taught me to/how, i kinda had to learn it myself actually. anyway then one day i was talking to elder marco on the phone and just out of our heads we had a list of 11 good men that could be priesthood potential we had tried to work with. of them only 3 didnt have families, 2 of them being fairly young. if even just half of them had made it it would do wonders for that branch. and I finally realized "we did our best, AND it was good enough. we were good teachers even back then, because we practiced every day. we did all work through Armen, because thats how its supposed to be anyway" it just simply wasnt those men's time. but the best part is in all of this i never came to some conclusion of  leaving Char behind as a failed project that simply wasnt my fault. my appreciation grew of it all. my love for those people grew. and my testimony grew that training grounds dont exist. The Lord intends for no one to fail, we just have to respect the greatest gift of all, free agency. 
  i love you all, i love this work! i hope you have a great one
love elder moore

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