"THOU CANST DO THIS!"

Jasmine! President's daughter

Lewis and I got pulled over this week. hahaha going 16 over. Just before this we were coming from an appointment where 2 of our dates set dropped us, so we were already way sad and then Satan pulls up behind us and turns his lights on! Oh man we were so scared. So he got all the information he needed and asked us a bunch of questions about how long we are here for and what not. Then he goes back to his car for a minute, comes back to the window and asks us what church we belong to. We said "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." Then he said "alright well ladies have a nice day, I'll let you off with a warning." #TeamJesusForTheWin wooohooo. Big man was looking out for us. It really was not funny at the time, but it is now.

We also have a "BIE" (best investigator ever). Richard. He has been out of town all week but we send him Book of Mormon chapters to read and he totally is reading and writing down questions for us and everything! He gets home tomorrow so we are going to go back over and answer all of his questions. His baptism date is for July 18! Hopefully all goes well. Gators that will willingly read the Book of Mormon like that are rare. He is super open and incredibly interested. Super stoked about him.

We have a new baby in Russellville! Elder Niko is out and now we have Elder Lindstrom from Wyoming. He is fresh out of the MTC. Hermana Moore is no longer the baby! woot woot

Okay so the 4th-First off Lewis and I had SWEET matching t-shirts.  The ward breakfast got canceled because it was supposed to rain, which was a bummer. So we went to Buffalo Wild Wings with the district for lunch instead. Lucky for us the National Hot Dog eating contest was on all the TV's so we had no appetite and almost lost our lunch a few times. Gross. We tried teaching in the afternoon, and ended up knocking on 20 empty homes. Fun. That evening we hung out at the park with the Spanish ward, and then...we got into the GATSBY party AKA Stokes firework show. This family in the ward spends a few grand on fireworks and then invites the ward over for treats and fireworks every 4th. They were lighting them off right in front of us and it was 30 minutes worth of fireworks! It completely exceeded my expectations! We had tons of fun, and man I love the wards here so much! They take good care of us.

 #'Merica : Mosiah29:32 

(Bishop Stokes)

(BDubs of the 4th. Hahaha GLUED to the TV #mishprobs)

So I usually don't write about the hard times out here, because I don't want to remember them and because honestly the good times completely outweigh the bad. But we had some disappointments this week, some bad news, it was hard being away from home on a big holiday when both of us had families doing all the usual traditions, and we also really struggled meeting our goals this week, on top of being STL's- which we honestly don't know what we are doing right now. It's just been a lot all at once this week. We were in a funk. But we need to see miracles and that requires us to have a lot of FAITH despite all the other dumb stuff that is going on. So the question that I had was how do I obtain more faith? Well obviously one of the bomb examples of faith in the Book of Mormon  is Ether 3! So I went there to look for answers. And here is what I found:

The Brother of Jared obviously had to have gone through some cool experiences to get the point of being able to say with full confidence "thou canst do this." The Brother of Jared knew without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord "hast all power" and could accomplish the things that the brother of Jared needed and to light the stones for him. Well how did the brother of Jared have that great of faith to be able to actually see the finger of Christ? 

Well I backtracked a little to the chapters ahead... and in Ether chapters 1 and 2.. I counted at least 8 versus that talk about the brother of Jared going to the lord in prayer. Calling on Him, crying to Him, and inquired of Him. The Brother of Jared went to the Lord for everything. And during the time that he didn't the Lord "chastened him" for 3 hours (#yikes). Which I'm sure was an experience that helped him draw closer to Christ the same way our hard times and sins do.  So the more I read the more I understood that the Brother of Jared had an incredible relationship with God and Christ, through the most basic principal that we teach the littles the second they can talk =prayer. This relationship he had built with Heavenly Father all boiled down to his personal prayers and inquiring of the Lord for everything. Christ and Heavenly Father were real to him! They were a part of his day! When he needed anything he went to Them! And because of this-He had strong and unwavering faith. 

So I concluded that: If I make my prayers sincere and I make my Savior and Heavenly Father a part of my day through consistent prayer; I will feel closer to Them. I will SEE Them in my life, I will feel of their presence. And I will have greater faith that they really can do all things and provide the miracles that we need to see this month. I obtain this faith by treating them not like some fictional characters in a book or some higher power that hopefully is listening to me talk to the walls, but going to them as my father and big brother. When I have that relationship with Them and truly KNOW Them, I will have no doubt that they are right there next to me and that through their power I can do anything. 

Love y’all

Hermana Moore

July 1 was ALRM 40th Birthday So we got to celebrate a little :)

More of Amber's Baptism!

Billie, Millie and Janie!

Carl the Cockroach!

(Neither of us dare ti touch him..we feel safer knwing he just chills there. If ever he disappears then we are going to have a problem...but for now Carl just hangs out there.)

Ha Ha! Whoever put JT as the author of this song gave us a real good laugh!

Learning how to play poker on P-Day!

The young women presidency..hahahah  getting the YW pumped for personal progress