Third Weeks the Charm

We had a weird week where we had pday on Thanksgiving (the reason I dont know why), so thats why I'm writing now😁

November 18

I believe I already talked about who Moose is. Hes a 6 foot something redneck veteran who's in a giant wheelchair with his tiny dog named tuffy in the front basket. He is apparently the church buildings security which is I guess why hes always around the building in the middle of the day. 

We had an appointment set up by the missionaries before us to have a lesson with fang (pronounced fong), Moose's wife, she has had 0 interest in the church but for some reason the previous missionaries wanted to meet with her I guess so we went anyways. The following is what I wrote down in my journal after the experience:

So fang is Moose's mail order Chinese wife (literally). She works most days and on the weekends running tests at the hospital for various things. Anywho, so we got over and Moose isn't there but we make the best of it and go in anyways. She happily invites us inside and we talk about the cold for a bit then I mention that I heard she plays ping pong! She got excited and had us come up to play. We play and talk about ping pong while I'm the one playing then we switch. Now was my time to talk about the bom (Book of Mormon). I asked if she's read it and she said no so I told her about how the bible and bom dont have to be read in order cuz (because) that was her excuse. I ended up explaining that the history of the native Americans is what the book of Mormon is literally about. That piqued her interest and we asked to see her Chinese bom downstairs to show her where she can read about their travel from Jerusalem to the Americas.

I asked sister graham afterwards if she thought fang was just acting interested and she said a little bit of both so ill take it! We are going to drop her (stop teaching her) though because her pmg (preach my gospel, an app we use to keep track of people we teach) records date back to 2019 and trying to teach her when she's not ready would be a waste of the Lords time we gave to Him by going on missions.

Another funny thing was when we showed her the bom and I asked her to commit to reading it, she grabbed my by the shoulders and smiled while she said that I should stop being so pushy. I thought it was funny because the other day my dad said he got called that on his mission and the companion he was with on an exchange said that its better to be called that than a pushover. So I think I did the right thing.

I also contacted Moose about what commitment we asked her to keep so he can try to get her to read it too.

Update on that: I talked to Moose and she has not read it lol

November 19

So senior missionaries are retired couples who choose to serve missions after their career and kids. A senior mission can look like a lot of things but there's a senior missionary couple in our area who's job is basically to be grandparents to us missionaries while we are in the area they are assigned to. They can help us by joining us for lessons, and also they help us keep new members after they get baptized (its a thing that sometimes after people get baptized, they stop going to church because they don't have any friends after the missionaries leave that area).

They asked to meet with all of us missionaries for lunch to get to know us but the way they did it was weird haha

They had printed out papers with questions to ask us and space to write down what we said. So they essentially interviewed us, they asked us about our parents, our hobbies, and other things like that. When we answered they wrote down everything we said. It was odd that that's the way they chose to get to know us but I sorta still liked it tho bcuz I think I'm cool and interesting to talk to.

Then we had a lesson with sandra! 

I think maybe I talked about her in my last email but we started teaching her because she went up to some elders at a taco bell and wanted to learn about Jesus! The elders referred her to us because she lives in our area so we taught her the lesson about the plan of salvation! This week we taught her about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was quick because we were late to meet her and had a zoom meeting to get to soon but it worked out because our mission president the day prior emphasized teaching quick short lessons so we practiced them that day and were able to put our new skills to good use! 

When we teach her, everything seems to make sense to her and its so cool to see that. Like I know the church is true and I have my own testimony of the gospel but in the back of my head I'm like “how can I convince them its true?”. Idk (I don't know) why that is something that happens to me but seeing sandra accept the truth of it all is so cool and helps my testimony too.

Then we had a lesson with Stanley!! 

We met him early in our transfer and he came to church last week then we were able to teach him!

IT WAS SO COOL. We walk into his apartment and see that he has an electric and acoustic guitar both hanging up on the wall. I asked if he plays them and he said yes. That led to us finding out he loves Metallica and was in a cover band when he lived in El Salvador. Then she played us some songs!!!!! It was so cool!! He said he was nervous but I couldn't tell / didnt care. It was so nice to hear real music again and also have Stanley show us a little about him! I have the videos on my Google photos

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JrEqDqyd92L5Vu4z9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zxUmnxBNmnkwqhLn9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DXT52N6N9wfp83WN8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fWH8vvBs7sHER9857

After our lesson with Stanley, I had my first member dinner! The Smiths are an old retired couple who have been married for 11 years and love to help us out with lessons. I don't know about their lives before each other besides the fact that they each had kids before meeting each other, but they met at a bingo night when brother Smith had recently moved to Colorado. Then he went to his new ward that Sunday and saw sister Smith and their friendship solidified from there. Then 7 years later, they date and get married😂

I asked about how they met because I could tell by the way they talked to each other, they truly loved one another. So it was cool to find out they had not been married for that long.

It's very fun for me to get to know the members who invite us over. I like seeing how they live, what they do for work and just all the basic get to know you stuff. So far, its helping me see what kind of life I want to live more clearly.

November 20

Zone conference was today! 

My first one too! Zone conference is when a chunk of the missionaries in a mission get together and are taught by our head honcho, President Clawson. It's an all day thing from 8:45am-4:30pm.

The theme was “Reps for Jesus Christ” like going to the gym to do reps. President Clawson explained what reps are, why they're important and then we did a bunch of reps by doing role plays and practicing talking out different scenarios like inviting someone to church or teaching a lesson in 1 minute. It was so tiring but in the best way because it forced me to form new neural pathways or whatever to do better.

Also I got a driving card!! And early too! 

In mission cars, there's a software built into the car that monitors your speed, how aggressive you drive, and if your seat belt is on or not. One must have a card to sign into this software otherwise it will alert our mission that someone is stealing the car lol.

In addition, its typically protocol that a missionary during the first 6 weeks of being in their mission cannot drive, the reason I do not know.

I was able to get a driving card early though because I explained to the senior missionary over all the cars in the mission field that sister graham (my companion) gets stressed in traffic (because she learned to drive in a tiny town) so I wanted to help her out. Plus I was tired of being the one that was texting people all the time. 

It was only a little while that I couldn't drive but I am so happy to drive here! It's “in my blood” as my dad would say, and I think he might be right haha. It is just so fun to drive everywhere whether there's traffic or not, long distance or not its all enjoyable to me.

Also the cityscape with the mountains in the background is so pretty to look at whenever we drive into Denver.

I think I also mentioned Rocky previously but I will tell you all about him again.

He was baptized 3 weeks ago and very quickly I might add. He said he was called by God to go inside a temple and we were the only church that has ‘em so he agreed to get baptized, get a temple recomend, and did baptisms for the dead all super quickly. That's great and all but he has no testimony.

We visited him to try and teach him post baptism lessons but you can tell he doesn't view them as such. I think in his mind, were just fellow spiritual people to talk to. We ended up learning that he still goes to the church he was at before he got baptized into our church and sees no reason to come to ours. He doesn't view any church as being the one true church, only that certain churches are truer than others. While we were at his house I also noticed the spirit was not there at all like when we taught Sandra and Stanley. They have a desire for truth while Stanley thinks he's already got it. This was a weird experience being at his house but a very valuable experience as well. I was able to see what the spirit not being there feels like and now I can compare that to teaching in the future to ensure I am in the right place, teaching the right people.

We ended up talking to someone missionaries who are above us and they said we don't have to teach him anymore which is a relief.

November 21

Eboni!

We stopped by her house to get to know her and her family because she is baptized but her daughter is not. Shes so nice and pleasant to talk to 😭 her daughter is 11 and her son is 7. We talked to her for over an hour but it was also good because I think she's much more comfortable with us now after hearing our humor and being able to share about her life so I think we can get her daughter baptized this transfer! It's also nice paying attention to the spirit because I felt edified and where I was supposed to be yk.

Yap sesh w the island sisters

We did one more stop by to someone who said they were interested in coming to church then headed home and the island sisters (the tongan and marshallese sisters we share an apartment with) quickly came home after us. We talked about what we each did that day and we were just laughing and enjoying each other's company. I am also quite proud because I made sister naa laugh a lot and she said that I'm basically Polynesian because of the jokes I make so I feel like I've officially made it in life haha. She also taught me the word palangi (idk if I'm spelling that right), its a mean word for a white person and she said I'm not that and she dubs me Polynesian because of my humor so I can officially be taken to heaven now 😇

November 22

We had a stoic lunch😱

So the stoic lunch is this big deal thing in my mission where President Clawson takes like 10 missionaries out to lunch and talks about stoicism. He gave this big warning that it was gonna hurt your feelings or something but it didnt lol. Basically, he got our orders for lunch (he paid for all of us), and then when the food came out it none of us got what we ordered. Stoicism is about focusing on the things you can control and not focusing on the things you cannot. So his object lesson was forcing us to deal with the fact that we couldn't control what food we ate. It worked out literally perfect for me though because I ordered a hamburger and then ended up getting a Ruben sandwich which I've never had but it was super good haha. So yea it wasn't new information for me personally but I see the value in teaching it to missionaries bcuz it can help in all aspects of life if you only focus on the things you can control.

Another example he gave was if a girl went on a date with a guy and afterwards she asks herself “I wonder if he likes me”. A stoic would say that the only thing you can control is looking nice, having breath mints and whatnot. You can control your effort to be likeable but you cannot control whether a boy likes you or not.

Anywho yea it was chill but made me so tired for some reason

Also now that I did that lunch, I get to go on a miserable lunch!😂 sounds weird to be excited about but it sounded like to me that its what stoics ate back in the day. So it'll either be disgusting or chill idk but I hope to find out.

CHRISTMAS TREE

I got packages!! My mom got me a foldable Christmas tree and it was so nice of her. Like I could not stop smiling after I received it cuz it made me so happy to have a Christmas tree when I thought I wouldn't have one.

Also the tree she sent genius! It's like a slinky but with white plastic fur to look like a Christmas tree then you put a pole and a stand under it so it stays up! Genius!! I think its one of the best gifts I've ever gotten so far.

This is what it looks like in our apartment right now

November 23

Got bashed

We got bashed!! 🌟 Honestly it was so fun but I wasn't paying attention to the spirit and it had left the room sister graham said so I need to work on that.

The fun part tho was that when he stepped outside he just got right into it. He asked whats so good about being a Mormon then asked if Jesus was a god then bashed us about that and bashed us that revelations said we can't add scripture to the Bible, and that we are being hid from the truth because we are told what to think and only specific information is given to us as a church so it was just dumb. He never made one logical point that actually made sense that I couldn't counter. My dad taught me pretty well imo (in my opinion) so I truly was set. I got excited because its what my dad had trained me for but after the experience and talking about it with sister graham I should've known better and walked away a lot quicker lol.

Sister graham ended up telling a white lie saying we had to go because of curfew but yea it was fun while it lasted. I won't be doing it again though, it doesn't align with my missionary purpose.

But yea I'm glad I'm getting more fun experiences like bashing and weirdos like Rocky because it can influence how I notice the holy ghost and will help me recognize it even better when I'm teaching the right people or I can leave faster when I dont feel the spirit.

November 25

AHHH WE PUT SANDRA ON DATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God is so good😭 I am so proud of myself bro (with the help of God). It's crazy I thought id get no baptisms this transfer but the Lord provides! 

Man, Sandra truly has been easy. All the concepts make sense to her and shes even chill with being baptized again after being previously catholic. Im so grateful for sandra and this experience. My dad was totally right about baptisms being easy. 

It's a trend in my mission that we send in a photo when we get someone on date and add a bunch of fun hashtags and whatnot so this us what we posted to our mission groupchat

We did a lot of texts after that at a quik trip (Colorado RaceTrac), and I was reading more about Genesis and Moses and Abraham which was super fun. Idk why I have felt called to read that recently but it has been cool. During personal study I just felt Gods love for me and all humans so much. I think Joseph Smith described a similar feeling and it was cool to have another experience Joseph Smith has described lol.

November 26

We had a lesson that fell thru but we taught that guys roomate because he was there so we twyffwyt'ed (pronounced twifwit, it means teach when you find, find when you teach) the situation. This lead to us teaching most of the lesson about the restoration, we gave him a book of Mormon, got his number, and invited him to church! So a possible negative turned into a posititve!

In the area of Colorado I'm in, I've noticed there's a lot of taco trucks and ive wanted to go and try them but its against mission standards to eat there because they're not properly regulated on food quality so its a risk for missionaries that we are not allowed to take. 

There's a restaurant we kept passing though that showed off their 99 cent tacos so we were able to go there and try their food! We were the only English speakers there lol and we stuck out like a sore thumb but it didn't bother me lol

November 27

Thanksgiving day!

We woke up and left super early to help out at a turkey trot that our mission president signed all the missionaries up for. Sister graham, the island sisters, and I helped out at the water station and it was hectic. So many people coming and we were the last table so we jokingly begged people to take our water because the first two tables in front of us were the ones that the most water cups were taken from.

It was also SO COLD. It was like in the 20s and 30s while we were outside. I wore thermals under my clothes but I forgot gloves so my hands went numb if they were outside of my pockets for more than 5 minutes. I will definitely remember my gloves next time.

Here's a photo of sister naa, me, sister graham, and sister kooteti being brought to the water station on golf cart because we were late haha

After that was had free time since our pday was moved to today and I spent it napping, talking to my family, and getting ready for the evening.

We had dinner at a members house for Thanksgiving and it was a mixed batch of people that were there which was cool. We talked to some Samoan the whole time and they were quite nice and fun to talk to.

After that we did Facebook finding which is just texting people on Facebook and inviting them to church with us. I looked up the name Isaac then texted every Isaac I could find in aurora for like 30 minutes lol then we went home! It was a chill night.

Okay! That was definitely a lot but good job if you made it 🙏 

-Here's my address in case you wanna send me packages:

1250 main street, Broomfield, CO

-And this is my mission email if you wanna contact me:

Addyson.moghimi@missionary.org

-If you're curious about specific details about being a missionary or anything, just ask! It makes my day to receive emails from my friends and family. 

Happy Thanksgiving,

Sister Moghimi