Happy Halloween!

This week has been a blast! We've had so many miracles happen its amazing! 

We've taught so many lessons this week it was awesome! Were having great things happen. Our investigator James has finally quit smoking so were going to be able to baptize him on the 20th! Were so excited for that, the gospel has changed his life so much and its been so amazing to be able to witness that. He's such a cool guy and is now even having us teach his niece as well, and were going to be able to baptize her on the 20th as well im so pumped!

The highlight of my week is definitely Damishas baptism. It was so awesome to be able to be apart of that and actually get to perform the ordinance. He's such a great kid and were so happy he made this step in his life. Their family situation is horrible and I won't go into detail about it, but its so sad to see what these kids have to go through and live with. Were hoping to be able to get his siblings baptized soon as well. Im so excited for them and how the gospel will bless them and change them.

The craziest moment of this week was when had to talk to Damishas grandma about him being baptized. It was by far the most intense thing ive been through on my mission. She was not having it at all. For some reason she just kept saying that he wasn't ready. It got to the point where we were like do you think god trusts him? And she was like ya. And then we told her that she just needed to trust him and have some faith in him. And the spirit was so strong and she finally agreed to let him get baptized it was so awesome!

Im loving the work so much and im learning a lot. Its so awesome to be able to serve the lord! I hope everyone has a great week, and happy Halloween! 

Much love 

Elder Taeoalii

Training Complete

This week has been so awesome! I was really sad to say goodbye to Ashcraft it was so weird to see him go after spending all the time with him for 12 weeks. I cant believe I'm done training its so crazy. Its been awesome to try everything out for myself and really see where I am at as a missionary.

I was so nervous to get a new companion and have to start over again I could barely sleep on monday haha. I'm so relieved though Elder Mcintosh is so awesome! We get along so well and he's a really good teacher. We've been seeing amazing things happen and im so excited for our area!  Right now we have 4 people with baptismal dates and they are all looking really good! We actually have a baptism on Sunday and i am absolutely so excited for it. We've been working so hard to find people prepared and we finally found someone. Its so amazing to be a missionary and help people change their lives its the most amazing experience ever.

The lessons we've been teaching this week have been phenomenal. The spirit has been so strong in our lessons and its so powerful. We've taught more lessons this week then i ever have before! We've been having so many great miracles happen its so humbling to see. One of the miracles we've seen is one of our investigators we're teaching has a really bad smoking habit. We taught him the word of wisdom and we weren't sure how he was going to react, but he said he would live it. We gave him a blessing and the spirit was so strong when i closed the blessing he said he felt like he was floating. He talked about how amazing he felt. We told him that when he is baptized that he could feel that way all the time and he was so excited about that. Just to see how happy he was made me so happy. Seeing people change their lives is probably the coolest thing about being a mission i love it so much.

Something that i've been loving so much, is how we can promise great blessings to people. When we are in tune with the spirit and follow its guidance we've been able to promise great things for people. All we need to do is trust in God. That's the most amazing part, we have promised people things this week that we have no idea how it'll happen but if we trust God then it'll happen. We have no idea how its going to turn out, we are just going to trust god will make a way. This is gods work and we are his instruments its not our choice to question him we just do what he says and trust in him. I just think that's so amazing! I'm loving it so much here and loving the work. I miss all of you like crazy though! I hope everyone is doing good and ill keep praying for you! 

Much love,

Elder Taeoalii

moses.taeoalii@myldsmail.net

That's Kenneth he's a member of our ward and he's so awesome he's 86!

This is a dam that we went too that is by one of our investigators houses.

A cool picture Elder Clark took of me.

A picture of me and Elder McIntosh out tracking.

Miracles

This week has been so awesome! Monday through Wednesday was pretty slow and tough, but Thursday through Sunday was amazing!

Thursday we were able to have a lesson with Christian, Nativia, Demasha, and Alexis. They are the kids that I talked about the other week who live with their grandma. Anyways it was really tough to get anywhere with them because they are so crazy. We thought a good idea might be to have a church tour with them. It went so great! We invited our primary president to come and talk with them about primary and it was awesome! They were still a little bit loud until we got to the chapel, as soon as we went in they quieted down immediately. The spirit was so strong and we talked about what we do in sacrament meeting. I then asked them how they felt and they said they felt really good and I asked them if the knew what they were feeling. It was so awesome they said they were feeling the spirit, it was so amazing to see that they were able to recognize it! Then on Sunday they came to church and it was so crazy haha. They were really pretty reverent the whole time and I was super proud of them, but at the end of sacrament meeting they started to get pretty restless. I had to sit in the middle of them and I felt like I was babysitting haha. They had such a fun time in primary and young mens. I was so happy for them they were so excited I haven't ever seen them that happy before! After church we took them into the relief society room and talked to them about baptism, and when we opened the door to the font they were all like woah! It was so sweet they accepted the invitation to be baptized and we had a big group hug after. It was by far one of the best experiences of my mission, I can't wait for their baptism! 

Another great experience from this week was with our investigator James. We got to see him on Saturday and he told us how hard of a time he was having and how grateful he was for us. The lesson went so good, and he came to church also! He was super late so we weren't able to sit with him but he enjoyed it so much. He even actively participated in gospel principles and priesthood. He told us after that he was going to come every week! I don't know if that will happen but I really hope it will!

The most spiritual experience of the week was Saturday. We had a whole mission conference and Elder Stevenson and Elder Uceda were there! It was so awesome I got to shake both of their hands and talk to them! The spirit was so strong. They taught with so much power it was amazing. They are truly disciples of Christ it was such a honor to be able to hear them. They talked about making disciples not just baptizing. Elder Stevenson talked a lot about how to end a lesson and it was super good! We then got to go to the temple again for Jerrys brother Jason. It was awesome I can't believe I got to go through the temple twice already! The coolest part was our whole district was able to go because the conference was right next to the temple!

This week had so many miracles and I'm so grateful to be Heavenly Father's servant out here. To see the way the gospel changes people's life's is so humbling and powerful. I found out who my new companion is! His name is Elder McIntosh he seems like he's really cool so I'm excited! I'm just glad I'm done being trained haha it'll be nice to not be a "greenie" anymore. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

The oldest living deacon in the church!

Miracles

This week was awesome! We've been working hard and trying really hard to find people to teach.  This week is my 11 week out in the field, which means that I have to lead out in everything. I was super scared at the beginning of the week, but it was so good for me. I've gotten a lot more confident in myself as a missionary which is great. We didn't have as many lessons this week as we did last week so that was sad, but we had some awesome small miracles happen!

On Wednesday we were going around and trying tons of different people. We were close to being done and I felt like we should try this guy named James before we finished. We drove by his house and his car wasn't there and we were just going to keep going, but I felt that we needed to stop and see him. We stopped and we ended up teaching him, and it was awesome! Before we even asked him if he wanted to be baptized he asked us if he could come to our church three times and then get baptized. I was flipping out haha. It was frustrating though on Sunday we drove to his house at 8:30 and asked him if he was going to church and he said he was. He ended up never showing, which was a bummer. I was like what the heck! We talked to him thirty minutes ago and he said he was coming! It turned out though that he had to take his wife to the ER I don't know what for, but we're going to go over there tomorrow and see if everything is okay. 

Another small miracle happened yesterday. We met this guy named Evan a month ago and he's so awesome. He has quite a few friends in the ward and says he has so much for respect for us and what we do, so we thought he was a golden investigator! We taught him last week and it was going really well, but mid lesson he told us that this needed to be a decision he makes with his wife. The spirit was super strong so we were like okay sounds good, he told us that to text him and ask him how it went in a few days. We texted him and he said he wasn't able to yet, and we haven't been able to get a hold of him for the last 2 weeks. Yesterday I had an impression that we needed to go over there and talk to him. We went over there and it was the perfect timing! His kids are going out of town today so he was going to have tons of time to talk to her about it. We're following up with him tonight! So hopefully all goes well there.

Yesterday we also saw another miracle. A few weeks ago Elder Ashcraft felt like we needed to try someone on our potentials list. We went to their house and we taught them a lesson and it went super good. After the lesson we went and talked to his next door neighbor who was out in his porch. He expressed some interested and said we could come back. We haven't been able to meet with him, but yesterday we met with him and it was awesome! He was so prepared and said that he's been searching for a church and that he's excited to read the Book of Mormon. It's amazing how the lord works, and to be his instrument to help these things happen!

The highlight of my week by far has to be Friday. We were able to go through the temple with Jerry! I was his escort and it was so amazing. The spirit was so strong! The whole time I just thought about how lucky I was to be able to have the blessing of the temple in my life. The temple is by far the most amazing place in the whole world, and to be able to see Jerry go through for himself was such an amazing experience. It really hit me how much what we do matters. We're out here changing people's lives and it was so amazing to be able to witness first hand someone receiving the blessings of the temple! 

This week has been so humbling, and so awesome! I've really learned better how the spirit talks to me and it's been such a blessing. This is gods work and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to be an instrument in his hands. What I have really been noticing though is that all the times we've been having success is right when I feel like going in or right when I feel like nothing is going to work out. The lord does not give us miracles until after the trial of our faith. Whenever it gets hard and you feel like quitting or giving up remember that! The lord is just waiting to see if you will persevere and if you do he will do mighty things through you! I've been praying everyday for all of you! I love you all and miss you! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Much love,

Elder Taeoalii

Lemons

Hey everyone I hope y'all are doing great! This week was awesome! We've have 6 new investigators so that's awesome! We have taught two lessons to this super cool family. How met them was funny we were walking by there house and there wasn't anyone out so we were just walking by, but then I noticed that their door was open and I could see someone so I just walked right in and started talking to them. Their family is so funny and sad. The grandma has to take care of 4 of her grandkids who all have different parents, because their parents are in jail. I cant believe some of the things the kids here have to deal with! Anyways there are 2 boys who are and 10 and 15 and 2 girls who are 9 and 10. During our second lesson with them the girls would not stop talking. The grandma was like y'all need to stop talking we all know you have a crush on them, and they got so red it was funny. Then later the one was like she thinks you're cute and they went bright red. We are starting to teach them regularly so i have high hopes for them!

This week I've become professional using a pick axe! On Thursday we didn't have much planned, and in the morning a less active called us to do some service for him. We had to tear out his drive way and dig down a few inches. It was so hard and it took us 7 hours! I learned how to use a pick axe correctly and felt really cool so that was fun haha.  Were still not done though and going over there later tonight to finish.

So when we first get to the mission they give us this huge binder that has bunch of different stuff in it. The last thing in the binder is a 15 step program to help people quit smoking. The program is really cool because it was made by missionaries through prayer and fasting. Its been used to help 1,000s of people quit. Anyways we have a guy that wants to quit smoking so I've really been studying up on the 15 steps. Im so excited for it to see how it goes. Its such an amazing opportunity to be able to help people change their life.

The best part of this week by far conference. The talks were so good. I really loved how much they talked about the Book of Mormon and missionary work. The biggest thing I took out of conference was to be ambitious for Christ. That really stuck out to me. What does that mean to me? How can i apply it? I thought a lot about football and how hard i worked and how much dedication into it, and I thought what if I spent all that time serving Christ? I cant imagine how different I would be right now. Im not saying thats realistic, but we all have things in life that we spend to much time on. I would encourage you all to find something that you spend to much time on and spend that time on being ambitious for Christ. I promise you that the lord will bless you so much if you do! 

What i really love about conference too is how amazing it truly is that we have a living prophet and apostles on the earth today. Gods word never ceases and what an amazing blessing to know that. I love what preach my gospel says about prophets. "The teachings of living prophets provide an anchor of eternal truth in a world of shifting values and help us avoid misery and sorrow." This is powerful especially with how the world is now. I love conference so much and love reading talks from the prophet and apostles. If you didn't watch conference i would highly recommend you do! 

The only thing bad about conference was that none of our investigators showed up. I was so sad haha. I tried so hard to get them to come i called them texted them both days and no one showed. Its so hard for me when people don't follow through on what they say. Especially when we promise blessings from god to them. We have two people who are praying to know if they need to get baptized again, and we promised them that if they came and watched general conference they would receive an answer. Ya thats probably the hardest thing right now haha. I love my mission so much. I never really realized how big of a deal sharing the gospel really is. Its about peoples eternal salvation which is so crazy to me. The lord trusts me with 46,000 peoples souls! Ahh just is so crazy and so humbling. The leaves are starting to change here and Im so excited for fall, because it will cool off haha and I heard that the fall here is gorgeous! I hope everyone has a great week! Love you all!

Much Love,

Elder Taeoalii

My last district picture with Elder Ashcraft :(

This is from Kelly:  In my personal email, he mentioned a boy, named Josh, who absolutely loves Moses and says he is his best friend.  They got to watch conference together.  Here is a picture of the two of them. Being a missionary mom is one of my favorite roles!! xoxox