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. 

this flower thing is a drain, when the waters high enough it falls down from all around you. apparently it feeds lake sevan

 

 

So thats the churches at Noravank

 

and this is me at the Yeheknadzor sign

the first letter is a Ye, when it starts a word

the second letter is a throat h

the Ye again, but in a word just a normal e,

then a G that sounds more like a k

then a N

then a A

the one that looks like a 2 is a dz

the arch thing is a O

and then an R

Eshuh tsehits hanum em

Dear Family and Friends, 

   eshuh tsehits hanum em means "im pulling the donkey from the mud" its how the armenians describe learning the language, they looove it when you say it. i usually follow it up with "i've pulled the donkey from the mud, i just need to clean it off" they think thats hysterical. 

  anyway thats kinda how the work feels right now. we had to drop our investigators, it was sad cause they didnt seem to upset about that. havent found too many people to teach lately. there are always people with potential but that need a lott of work. and thats fine, but they dont really want to do the work or make the time or something like that. so its tough. we've been trying to increase our efforts to strengthen the ward but they've been busy. its weird, it seems like people in armenia are all busy at once and then all free at once. maybe its just me. 

  anyway thats about it. the works been tough. i've been here two months in artashat and even though theres a good ward set up its still been a rough start brining elders back for the first time in two years. my comp and i are struggling to stay on the same page, esp with attitude. a negative attitude is killerrr to missionary work. and regardless of how close to home you are, the time will drag on until that day if you dont use it right. I love being a missionary though and love the people and i know if we work hard the Lord will bless us as we finish up this transfer. 

  today we're visiting a member who lives in Yeheknadzor, which is 2 hours away from artashat- im not really sure how she found the gospel, i know she comes here occasionally, but shes one of the strongest members in armenia, holds a stake calling, and comes 2 hours each way for church atleast twice a month. its crazy what some people will give up for what is important. we dont get to see that a ton here, but when we do see it its inpsiring. anyway we're using pday cause on the way to her house is Noravank, a sweet church, and then we're gunna go to Jermuk with her which is apparently gorgeous. and she's gunna try to set us up with a meeting or two. it seems crazy, but if we can find people who will take the trip with her to come to church, the gospel can slowly spread there and eventually itll be big enough for missionaries. here's to planting seeds. 

  anyway love and miss you all tons. love hearing from home, give everyone my love and good tidings (is that weird? i have no handle on english phrases right now)

love elder moore

meow

Dear Family and Friends,

  I haven't meowed in a while. Actually I have, there's plenty of cats out on the street, but I've found it difficult to incorporate meows into the Armenian language. I'll work more on that. Starting meow. 

  So anyway, when I said I didnt want to hear about conference that didnt mean dont write me! Ha guilt trip. No worries, good stuff this week. And I did get to watch conference. Watching 6 hours with an hour or two break is kinda rough, and then 4 the next day with no break, but it was still awesome. I personally loved the talk on meekness, the one (priesthood?cant remember) about being a better teacher, I liked Elder Bednars tithing talk, really loved Elder Scotts about the people of Ammon, and LOVED all the first presidency's talks, especially Pres Monson. So inspiring. and of course i noticed the focus on missionary work- i felt like 2 other speakers mentioned it well, and then Elder Ballard came in and crushed it. His was so good. Anyway Ill try not to preach, but the need for member work is very very real, and i love what he explained about people not understanding that their duty is to just get people to the missionaries. I wish I'd realized how much better missionaries are suited to teach the gospel to my friends that had questions. i know if we can live good examples, people will notice, and when they ask, as long as we arent super weird in introdcuing the aspect of meeting with the missionaries, they'll accept. Anyway I also noticed 2 apostles addressing the role of women, and heard there was some craziness around Priesthood session related. Its sad that has to happen. 

   Not too much else going on in Artashat, but this week my testimony grew about the Love of God, and I wanted to share a lil bit. Armenias tough, no bones about it, its tough to help people accept the gospel and missionaries face a lot of negativity. there are a number of older missionaries in our mission who havent faced that in the right way, and its weighed them down, and now theyre really negative and its sad. i caught myself being too negative lately, not loving everyone, and thinking of ways to just make them understand. but in my studies i hit verse after verse that God loves all His children, and I realized i needed to develop greater love and get back to that focus. two weeks ago I was studying and read the classic verse in Matthew that we need to love our neighbor as ourselves, and I realized something new from that verse- if we can't love ourselves, how can we possibly love others? if we look hard we realize those that are hard on others, at their cores, are harder on theirselves. i suffer that all the time. in looking for ways to love others as God loves them, i realized i needed to remove the obstacles in my own life to feeling His love more. Sometimes we just need to give ourselves a break, because we're far from perfect, and a work in progress. I love what Pres Eyring said once "we never need feel that we are alone or unloved in the Lord's service because we never are" its true, we should be able to feel loved regardless of what were doing, but we're constantly taught that if we serve others and lose ourselves we will feel that love so much more. i have a testimony of that. 

 i was doing a baptismal interview this week for a 9 year old kid, who acts like a 6 year old kid, with the terrible 2s. Basically he's one of the more char (evil) kids i've met in a while. but his mom just got baptized, and he wanted to, and the sisters told me he was doing a lot better and being a good kid. trouble is, he's kinda scared of me, and had just come from karate, so he was nuts. he refused to pray, gave me all the answers i didnt want to hear, and told me he didnt want to be baptized. i knew he did though, so with a lot of patience and some help from his mom i got the right answers out of him (he told me for a good 15 minutes that he was going to drink tea) and then they left the room for me to decide. as straining as the experience was, and my pride kept telling me just to tell the kid he couldnt get baptized, just to "win", as soon as they left I felt the love of God for this boy. (I wont type his name, but it literally means "piece of fire") and I felt the love of God for me, and that God was happy that i had sat patiently, and that PieceofFire was getting baptized, because that's what all His children need so they can come back to Him. 

  I love you all, i love this work, i love the gospel and Savior, and I love the country and people of Armenia, as well as all the great missionaries who labor here with me. Its crazy how love changes people

have a great one

Elder Moore

Oh yeah
so crazy story- our washer was messed up and wouldnt open. i pulled the door release without realizing i needed to drain the thing first, then tried to drain it and some other stuff happened, long story short there was water all over the floor. like atleast 5 gallons. after 3 towels didnt do it we didnt have anything else, and we were going to yerevan for 2 straight days the next morning and didnt want to leave it wet, so we decided we had to leave the door to the balcony open all night and let it air out. its gotten to be winter here, and i still dont have a blanket cause it was so hot notlong ago... it was a long night. 

winter time

Dear Family and Friends, 

  Its certainly not the extent of winter that it will eventually become in Armenia, but it did get cold overnight. im continuing to hold out, wearing long sleeves until its cold enough to put a suit and a winter coat on. idk how bad it will get here since we're so far south, it wont be the north with 2 constant feet of snow and zero temps. but it will get cold its looking like. anyway

   this week was a hectic one, we had zone meeting in yerevan tues, wed i was in yerevan on exchanges with our assistants, then thursday pres carlson came to artashat and did interviews. saturday we were in yerevan at that giant flea market all day. i didnt take any money on purpose, and i was glad i did cause theres awesome stuff. but im amassing a list for the end of my mish that will only cost a few thousand dollars.... 

 other than that not too much happened. the investigators we have arent progressing, they dont understand the importance so they dont show at meetings a lot, but you cant explain the importance if you cant meet. its a frustrating process. we found two new people to teach, a nice older couple, and their neighbor seems interested too, but they only want to listen, they dont want to go to church. we'll keep working with them for a bit though. thats kinda been the theme for the first half of this transfer- good people with potential to be solid members, but they just require a lot of work and you can see it from the start. and thats fine, but they're all busy. 

 Pres Carlson has started asking the missionaries to all join him in kneeling prayer at 10 every night, and especially to pray that we will find new people to teach- its been the main struggle of our mission, and while every number is a soul and child of God, it is kinda a numbers game. the more new investigators, the higher the chance some of them will make it to baptism. so as a district we're working hard to make sure we do everything to actually make those prayers happen- talking to everyone has been a struggle, and asking for referrals. PMG says it like 15 times (i counted, to prove it in district meeting) to ask EVERYONE for referrals- then when you get one, ask for another haha. but its just so clear that this work has to move through friends, members or non, because its so much easier to start off through someone you know than to meet 2 crazy americans on the street that are shivering and dont speak well. the armenians have a connection with each other that ill never be able to describe and will never see between americans. its amazing to watch it work in meetings. and sometimes it means theyre too close and get in fights. but thats exciting too. 

 anyway thats all, the works moving a little slow but im still progressing as a person and appreciating every day i get to be here. love you all

So Little Time

Dear Family and Friends, 

   Hey erreboddy. Todays a little weird, we're doing email and groceries but then going right back to work, cause this Saturday we're going to Vernasage- I might have explained with Elder Maughan, but at the end of the mission misisonaries are allowed to swap one pday for a saturday and go to vernasage, a massive flea market in yerevan.elder chojnacki is not at the end of his mission, he leaves in february, but he and the other 2 elders in his group don't have any sisters to go home with, and apparently vernasage is lame in the winter, so they got permission to go now. at the beginning of my mission i would be stoked to go somewhere all saturday and buy cool stuff and then eat at a restaraunt. but i've already been, i spent too much on stuff that i have to take with me all my mission now, and i just want to do missionary work. plus this week was a long one and i was looking forward to a few hours to sit and recharge, but itll have to wait. 

  anyway like i said it was a long one. tuesday we were in northern yerevan for district meeting for weird reasons, and we took transport (bus, subway, transport van) back instead of a taxi- we argued about that, then we got home at 6 and got nothing done, so i was annoyed. wednesday i had to go to yerevan again for another meeting, not anyones fault, but then we were late getting out of the building cause we needed to stop chatting with others and we got home late again. the rest of the week things just didnt work out, we couldnt meet with our investigator except for once- it went well though, he goes to a kinda crazy church that believes in the gift of tongues, but we got him to pray in armenian which was a big step. we met with the man who doesnt want to be rebaptized, taught the plan salvation, which he LOVED. Thought it was so interesting. hes in helaman- asked us about why he hadnt read about the day night day at Christ's birth in the Bible (its significant cause it means he's actually reading and understanding) anyway it went great, then we explained that only this church teaches the Plan and accepts the BoM because only this church is true, then the meeting blew up and went to trash. just a very prideful man that makes me sad. we're going to teach about prayer- he refuses to pray about if he needs to be rebaptized (he says that would offend God for thinking it wasnt valid, but he really just doesnt want the answer) anyway if we cant get him to pray then we wont have much left to do. our only other investigator is still harvesting grapes. the seeds were gross, the grapes were great. and yes i paid the price for eating so many. 

  anyway i say so little time because we really dont have much time to be missionaries. i saw that two days in a row and it ate me up inside, i was itching to even just get out on the streets to talk to people that would most likely not want to meet. a good friend had the same experience - they had to clean their apartment cause they're moving, then had some branch activity thing, etc etc. he said if he had done all that at home he wouldve been shocked he got so much done, but none of it was teaching investigators, so it felt like a failed day. this time really is special. the transfers almost half over (remember we do 12 week transfers) and not much has come about, and who knows how long ill stay in Artashat. but the Lord has promised our days will be enough if we try to use them right. 

  Lanes- dont assumed that I know what hsm means. Although im embarassed to say i did figure it out. 

  Zaz- Maxwells my favsies too, he loves to talk but such a great kid. the whole family is amazing though, the carlsons are just the bomb. tell em all i miss em! as for the mousetrap, dont use a fishing rod! we tried at it was illegal. dad helped (did) mine at the deadline, get advice from him and then get your group in gear. 

  Dad- the weathers cooled off and stopped raining. im back into my long sleeve shirts but still not a coat, which is my favorite (a little bite in the air, plus i look good in a long sleeve white shirt) tell abby hey. I know theres an armenian sister in temple square that comes home in october, she lives in my ward now so ill get to meet her. maybe its her. as for priesthood session- i thought theyd never do that cause only the men were supposed to watch it? was i wrong? interesting. 

  okay thats all folks. love all of you mucho mucho. oh and one final word DO NOT TALK ABOUT CONFERENCE! we dont watch it till the 12th and 13th, and i do not want to hear anything about it. write emails and save them as drafts, i know everyone forgets about conference after 2 weeks. k thanks. and dont wear my shirts. 

love elder moore

Bonus Content ... second email on Sept 23rd!

Dear Party People,
  The Dirty South has gotten lots of rain, and now its become the
Muddy South. I'm not a big fan, but inch anenk (whatr ya gunna do) I
love Artashat, but it's been difficult. We have good things going on,
but I feel they could be better. We have a great amount of worthy
priesthood holders, but almost everyone in Armenia is inexperienced on
how to lead the church. So its a constant process of being grateful
for what we do have, but ultimaltey being discontented and working
hard to improve things. It'll always be that way within myself as a
person and missionary I hope.
  Couple quick points- since Artashat is south and hot, its great
growing weather. Everyone- literally everyone, grows grapes this time
of year and the past 2 weeks they've all been harvesting. Ive never
eaten so many grapes in my life. I've eaten grapes every day for 2
weeks now. And they all have seeds, which everyone keeps telling us
are healthy and to eat them, but they're not tasty. Anyway. Grapes.
  We had 8 people come back from the Kiev temple this week, a couple
that was sealed, and 2 others with them receiving their own
endowments. They bore their testimonies in sacrament. It was nice, I
miss the temple, but what struck me was watching our 2nd counselor sit
and cry the whole time. He's been baptized since 2004 i think, got
sealed like 2 years later, and hasnt been to the temple in atleast 6
years. Its expensive, but even if he saved the money it would still be
hard because the church only has about 100 seats to send people twice
a year, and there are a lot more new members waiting to go. He's an
older man, he may never see a temple finished in Armenia. I hope he
does, but it just struck me. How special the temple is, and how much
he misses it. Armenias not the worst case, I've heard of people
sacrificing more to go for whats likely the only time they'll ever go.
But it made me realize how much i had underappreciated the temple. we
always say it, but it was personally relevant to me, and i hope i
never lose it, that we always need to have a temple reccomend and need
to go often. Ill have no excuse at BYU, and the traffic to DC is a
pain, but its not 3 days on a crappy bus like it is here. Anyway. My
preachy moment for the week.
  Not too much else going on, we had an awesome zone conference
friday. i sang with two sisters in my district that sing ten times
better than i do, but it was good. we still dont have too many
investigators- one is a man who loves the BoM and Joseph Smith, but
refuses to be baptized again, and is just prideful in a way that makes
me more sad than annoyed. we have others, but everyones busy
harvesting grapes.
  sounds like a pretty routine week. Hopefully the girls quit
complaining about school and try to live it up! as for lanes, she'll
look back on how cool she though she was and laugh, and she'll
understand eventually why i dont even want to come home now (although
i wouldnt mind if linus and livs paid me a visit) you guys are
awesome, have a great week, rock on
Love Elder Moore

Rain Rain Go Away

Dear Family and Friends,

  It's always interesting how when the mission makes you give up all these things you realize you don't really need them, atleast not for 2 years. TV, texting, facebook, etc etc are all just time wasters. Not the devil, but not needed, I actually believe that, and its easy too since theyre just not available to me. The same thing has happened with basketball, wearing clothes except the same pants and shirt and tie every day, petting dogs, and even drinking milk- the sister being trained in Artashat drinks Russian milk, I told her not to, she said "you dont understand" and I laughed at her. I do understand. But one day Ill drink milk. later. 

anyway the same thing happened during the first 5 months I was in country, in Charentsavan. Being 30 min away from Yerevan you're far enough so that you dont go and people dont come, but youre close enough so no one worries about you. theres no restaraunts or fun stuff to do, and theres only 2 other elders in your district. Elder Marco and I used to feel lonely sometimes, but now i miss being off in my own corner of armenia to just work hard with my comp and have every one else leave us alone. now its different. in our district is the heart of Yerevan, with great resaraunts and cool stuff to see. Its a little distracting to me, but mostly to the other missionaries in the district, and im just kinda tired of dealing with it. and i have 2 sets of sisters that are only allowed to call me if they need anything, so lifes a little more hectic. I dont particularly like it, but just being left to myself for 2 years would be selfish when i can serve others. but i miss super focused, literally 0 distractions, hard work. its like im a different person or something. :)

Well i was gunna send a seperate email home with a few pictures telling a special story. but we arent allowed to send pictures with other people. ill mail them, but i couldnt wait. 

 Charentsavan was a very difficult time for me, everyone's read plenty about that already. but the bright spot was M and his family. They were people who actually managed to see and focus on what was important in life and set their sights on that, leaving everything else behind. M quit smoking, and his wife and mother stopped coffee. They came to church and prayed as a family. The wife was the only one with eyes good enough to read, so they listened to her as a family. leaving Charentsavan was hard for few reasons, but those few reasons (people, M was one of them) made it very hard, especially going south where our building has a font, so we wouldnt be allowed to go to yerevan for baptisms. but this friday i was on an exchange with elder kopsa, who serves in yerevan. we got a call that even though the elders in Char didnt think it would work out that week, M had successfully quit and passed his baptismal interview. we worked it out so that we finished our exchange at the right time, and Elder Marco (Elder Kopsa's comp) got to join their baptism. M and his wife asked us to baptize them. I wish I could send you the pictures. it was easily one of the happiest days of my life, to see people I had grown to love leave everything they needed to leave, do everything they needed to do, and be baptized on the original date that Elder Marco and I extended them 6 weeks ago- they were baptized on the 14th, so they can go to th temple next year on September 15th with the group going. what a special day. 

  Other than that the week was a rough one. It wasnt till it was over that I realized we got very little done. We met with a man who loves the Book of Mormon and says he believes Joseph Smith was a true prophet, but refuses to be baptized again and accept that his church is not the complete fullness. thats been hard. it happens though. its hard to explain whats been going on though. the weeks of my mission are starting to speed up for me, but theres still not much getting done. mission wide thats the feeling coming down from the top, and i see it in my own area and district. the mission isnt reaching its potential, and Pres Carlson is trying with all his might to push us forward. it has to come from within us at the end of the day though. thats been weighing on me a lot lately. 

  i hope everyone has a great week, congratulations to bo bleyl on brazil! crazzzzyyy. Im so proud though. i know me being proud doesnt amount to too much, but im so excited for him. ive already realized why no one can explain what missions are like. calling it awesome doesnt do it, and calling it the hardest thing ever doesnt do it either. its hard to explain, but for 2 years you suffer and have joy and just give everything you have to a work that is so far beyond you, all for reasons that you wouldnt normal suffer for and have such joy over. its incredible. 

 after the baptism we were late getting out of yerevan, but managed to catch the last passenger van leaving to artashat, so we squeezed on with 30 other people. i was half on a seat sharing it with a nice lady, surrounded by people who like me were all just sweating and stinking. and i thought about how id never and will never do something like that in america. and then i thought about why im doing it. and then i smiled. 

  as for the girls- lanies got swag. too much. someone needs to beat her down. with a stick. and im actually not okay with the girls wearing my shirts. so please dont. that yellow service shirt is my favorite bball shirt. work hard in school, but enjoy the rideeee! okay ive been cliche enough this week. 

  With hugs, smiles, sweat, rainbows, tears, and love from the DIRTY SOUTH, 

ELDER MOOORE