The Tales of Elder Moore's LDS Armenian Mission: Hey!

Dear Family and Friends,

Hey! I love all you guys. Lots.

Not a ton to report this week. We ended up doing a lot of service for members. We're working hard to get hometeaching organized, thats non existent right now in Armenia. The stake president asked us to get it organized so that when we go to visit a member we can take the hometeachers with us and show em how to do it effectively.

Other news in the church here is this weeek I realized most of our priesthood holders, as great as they are, are super old. Like we're talking Papa Bleyl old (sorry just couldnt resist the shot) no really though Brother Bleyl is young and fit but these guys are old. Like discussing whether they were born in the 30s or the 40s haha. Okay theyre not just strutting around in walkers, they're all healthy for theyre age and arent thatt old. But this week we were given the records of all the young single adults on record in our ward and asked to invite them all to institute and an activity. Of the 121 YSA on our records, maybe 6 were active. Half had married and no one knew, the other half havent been to church in years. Apparenlty when the church first started here they were paying for kids books and tuition, so people just got baptized for that. thats a whole nother topic that really frustrates me, but the fact is the church does not have a foundation here, between people moving to russia and america and there just not being many young people in the church. so thats a problem. but it just makes me that much more grateful for the families like the one we baptized in Char, and reminds me to stay focused on that goal.

other news this week, I got to serve with elder marco again on tuesday. super good to get back with a good friend and old companion. we had a good time but he also set me straight. no surprise i was feeling super negative about the work and my companionship. he accepted things werent great, but helped me realize i had been super ungrateful and focusing on all the wrong things. Ironic, cause thats what i was wanting my companion not to do, be so negative. so this week has been better, from me but also from him. we're having a better time. the work itself continues to move slowly, we do have one man who likes the church. hes just not really focused and doesnt quite understand what he's supposed to do. he fell asleep while we watched the joseph smith movie haha it was noon! inch anenck (whatre ya gunna do?) but we have some decent potential here and there.

only other news from this week was jermuk! monday was super awesome. it took a long time to get there and back, but it was awesome. we left around 11, drove 1 1/2 hours to noravank, which is super pretty. the steps in the picture were actually scary, super skinny and tall. but way cool. from there we went to yeheknadzor (when we skype for christmas ill explain how to pronouce what youre reading) and had dinner with our crazy strong member. she tried to invite people over, and when they bailed she kept telling them crazy stuff (one day you'll regret this at judgment, sorry, I thought you wanted salvation for you and your loved ones, etc etc) shes a slight bit crazy, if she wasnt she wouldnt sit a van for 2 hours to church and 2 back. from there we went together to jermuk, which is absolutely beautiful. its a giant lake and waterfall, and it has a factory where they make the product (theyre famous for bubbly water- i hate it) and then they had these pipes coming out of the ground where the water is naturally hot, and they have it in different degrees- the hottest said it was 130 degrees farenheit. idk if that was true, but it did burn me haha. but people think it has healing powers, so they buy mugs and just drink like 95 degree water like its nothing. it was kinda gross, hot and metally. anyway it was a super fun adventure day.

i love you all and hope you have a great week! this transfer has about 2 weeks left, who knows where ill go/stay, but we'll see if i cant get something good going this week.