Notas de la madre de Tanner

Editors Note: Tanner had an epic soccer game with the community team and a big leadership luncheon with his mission president so he just gave us a couple of bullet points from the week.

• No water in his apartment all this week so thankfully it rained again so they could "shower" under the alley gutters.

• Don Paco (age 84) was baptized this week and when they arrived to pick him up he was already in his baptismal whites. 
• Tanner was able to fulfill his lifelong dream of wearing the white jumper to baptize someone because they finally found the missing jumper.

• Amazing ward Noche de Jogar (Family Home Evening) this week including cake and 20 investigators came and Eva gave an amazing lesson about how to recognize you are a child of God.

 

Saluuuuuud

• Elder Moulton

Cuando Su Uber Llega Tarde

Another week in Paradise. These past couple days have flown by, feel like I was just writing another one of these. But I gotta say this week was one I will never ever forget. 

We had quite a few crazy run ins, with horses, drunk men, and old friends but the best news is that we finally had rain! So we weren't too sweaty this week. Which was good because we didn't have water in our colony and passed 3 days with out showering. That was rough. But it rained a lot so we were cleanish.

I'm going to get right to the good part tho, this Saturday we had what us Salvadoreaños call a ´´Tarde Blanca´´ where Dennis, Henry, Karla, Marjorie, Miguel Angel, and Rosaura all were baptized on the same day. And even tho we had a slip and slide sort of accident outside the baptismal font and a wedding with an over the top balloon arch (that your favorite central American missionaries put together) it was one of the most special nights of my mission. But I would like to explain my title. After 5 of the 6 people were baptized, including Henry who is one of my best friends forever and a future stud of a missionary, we realized that Dennis had disappeared. And I was stuck in the water, in the baptismal font. Long story short Dennis is an Uber driver and he left his wedding early and missed the baptismal service because he had to do an Uber run. And we didn't know so after an hour waiting in the water he showed up and was baptized but wow. Never thought I'd be stuck in a baptismal font for an Uber run. Gotta love this life. 

Anyways I wanted to share something with you all that I read this week that really hit me hard from a talk called DO NOT PROCRASTINATE by Eldred G Scott:

The story is told that Satan called a council of his agents and asked how they would combat the forces of righteousness. One said, “I’ll go and tell them it isn’t true.” Satan said, “No, that wouldn’t do.” The second said, “I’ll tell them it’s only half true.” “No,” Satan said, “that’s not enough.” The third said, “I’ll go and tell them it’s all true, but there is no need to hurry.” “Go,” Satan said. “That will get them every time.” Lucifer cannot win.  

If there is something you know you should do but aren't doing it, DO IT. Don't wait because if we put things off it doesn't happen.

Have a great week! 

saluuu

Elder Moulton

!Hola Chelito, Hola Negrito!

Well I can now officially say, I have hit one full year here in paradise. Its been a crazy ride, Ive seen things I would have never imagined seeing, met people who have absolutely changed my life, learned more about my Savior and his love for us, and eaten things that would have made me vomit all over myself a year ago. Its a little crazy to think that this awesome adventure is halfway over but we still gotta lot of work to do and I am so pumped to be here on the grind. 

This week was one of the absolutely weirdest of my mission. We got to travel across the country for a meeting with Elder Taylor, a church leader, who flew down from the USA. It was incredible and just being there we felt the Spirit so strong. We got the chance to have a couple of training meetings with him too and then we spent the day working with ELDER FELIPE!! It was so cool to be able to see him again. What's even cooler is when a missionary first enters the mission, his first companion is called his "dad" and Elder Felipe now has a "son" in the mission, so we got to work with my "grandson" too. It was way cool and even tho we had to  take an 8 hour round trip in bus it was a great couple of days. 

Here in Apopa things are still kickin. When there is someone with a lighter skin tone, they use the word chele or chelito, and a lot of people call me that. My companion and I have gotten to know the community a little bit and one day as we were waiting outside of someone's house some little kids ran by and yelled, "Hola chelito, hola negro!" and that's us. I'm sure there was no racism intended but its just funny to know that we have friends here in Apopa. We kind of stick out. 

But it really was an amazing week and just walking through the market this morning, it kind of hit me that I have been out here for a year now. And wow. I may be forgetting English and its true that eating a meal without tortillas and beans sounds weird to me now, but this is without a doubt the best place in the world to be for me right now, and the mission has taught me so much about  life and more importantly, about my Savior. So, from your favorite chelito and negrito, hope everyone has a great week!

SALUUU

Elder Moulton

?Donde Esta Mi Carro?

Well another week in paradise. Gotta be real this week had its ups and downs but I really cant complain when I got the chance to live in the one, the only APOPA CITY. Its been a blast here and even tho we ended up running back and forth in mototaxi for hours to bring Don Paco to church, and we were gifted so many pupusas that my comp hid some in his backpack when they weren't looking. Also I played piano in our ward for a couple of songs and it went absolutely horribly, but it was an experience. And experiences are something that we never run short of here. Highlight of the week was probably when we had what the Salvadoreans call a pupuseada. Basically my dreams came true. The entire city was invited and we cooked up some mean pupusas here in the church, and yes we ran out of salsa but it was a day I will never forget. Also got the chance to go and visit some other areas with my companion and we had a good time pretending we knew the area and talking with people as if we were locals. Been keeping it real and playing a lot of soccer on Mondays too so we're keeping Gringo Messi alive. On the real tho we had a couple lessons this week that really taught me an important lesson.

We were teaching someone and they just really didn't want to pray. So I said look whats your favorite food? and she said Fish. So I say alright here's the deal, on the other side of that door (as we pointed at a door) there's a bunch of fish. You want some? And she goes, yes. So I say great.  Now we are just going to wait for the fish to open the door. The point of the example is that the blessings or the results that we want don't come to us. We don't wait for God, God waits for us. I think too many times we put off what we have to do, or justify our lack of action saying that we are waiting for a sign, or waiting for God to do something. But we shouldn't wait for God to do our part for us, he is the one waiting for us. Another friend asked us if he was doing everything right, where were the blessings? (He wanted a car more than anything to explain my title.) But It really made me think. As we grind and do our part, we have the habit of looking at what others have, or we look at what we lack instead of recognizing all God does for us. In the end, don't wait for God, don't look at what you lack. Just do all you can do and in the end it all works out. Not saying we are all gonna get cars, and I definitely didn't promise that to this friend, but it all works out at the end of the day. We just gotta do our part.

Hope everyone has a great week!

SALUUUU, 

Elder Moulton

Buenas Tardes

 Another week in Paradise, your boys are down here grinding. I have been sweating through my suit coat but we are loving life. We had a baptismal service almost get cancelled because a cow attacked a neighbor and we sent out a fleet of mototaxis to bring my new best friend, DON PACO, to church. He's 84 and a complete baller. But we saw some real miracles this week too. No vegetables for lunch, not a whole bunch of rain, and a bunch of trips to other areas. All in all it was a good time. We led some goats through the streets, we were gifted bananas by sweet old ladies, and I gave a talk in church because no one showed up. But it was a good time and we are getting hyped for this next month.

Funniest experience of this week would just be the way people pray here. A lot of times they start with, ´´Buenas Tardes Dios´´ or use different nicknames they have for God. It's quite the experience to hear the different ways to pray. I get asked a lot to pray in English and that's pretty fun too. Although I always end up slipping into Spanish because I've been here for a minute now and I'm forgetting English. We had a lot of prayers answered this week tho and really got a testimony of the power of prayer.

Hope everyone has a great week
SaluuuElder Moulton

No Pierda La Fe

Well another week in paradise, everything is cooking here in Apopa. You know its a good week when you don't eat soap not even once. Probably the first time in the mission that's happened. On the real tho, pretty good times here. Rosa was baptized this Tuesday and it was just an amazing experience. She was so happy and animated and the coolest part was that after seeing the change in his mom, her son Erick has decided to start talking to us and learning more. 

As we say here everything is poco a poco but its awesome to see these miracles. We also had a crazy big activity in the ward where I struggled mightily to explain the game ¨signs¨ to 60 people in Spanish. It ended up working out alright and we had a good time. And while these were all great times, I would have to say that what went down this Saturday will probably stand as my highlight for quite sometime. 

A long time ago, when I was in a little town called Cojutepeque, your favorite missionary Elder Moulton, being the Elder Moulton you all know and love, lost the keys to the house in a bus. Long story short, after months of using sticks, wire, and whatever else on hand to get in, they finally had the chance to change the locks. And I got to pay for it. Usually in the mission, we can't go back to other areas to baptize old friends or visit anyone. But because of the key situation, we found ourselves in Cojutepeque this weekend, which was timed perfectly with the baptism of Carmen Beltran. I don't know if anyone remember the Beltran family but they were a family we were teaching back in the day that mean a lot to me. Its a big family and while I was in Cojutepeque we were able to see a lot of them get baptized but Carmen never decided to make the choice. And to be honest it would've been easy to say that she wouldn't make the choice in the near future. But this weekend I had the chance to go back for the baptism of her and her husband. We spent hours and days, riding in the back of a pickup through the jungle to teach these people and when I left I thought I would never see them again. I didn't know if the rest of the family would ever come to Christ.
 



The point is DON'T LOSE THE FAITH. Going back and seeing the Beltran family, almost 100% complete and happy, it made me realize that God really does have His plans. And he puts them in action. so DON'T LOSE THE FAITH. Rosa told us her son would never like to come to church or talk about God, but God touched his heart and she didn't lose the faith. Carmen was baptized months after her family, when all of us thought there was no hope but we didn't lose the faith. All of this is just my fancy way of saying, don't stop grinding. Because God is going to make the good things happen, we just gotta trust and work to do our part.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Saluuu

Elder Moulton

La Vida Es Una Carretera

Well another week in paradise, although the time is short today so Ima give you the low down in bullet points:

-We had transfers and I stayed here in Apopa.

-My companion, the wonderful Elder Herrera, left for a new area but also bought me a hammock before he left (bless his heart).

-My new companion, Elder Jimenez, is a friend from the mission who is a complete stud. He is from Honduras.

-We had a multitude of amazing experiences this week but the best was when Rosa told us she wanted to get baptized Tuesday at 4. And even tho it was weirdly specific we were cool with it and its awesome that we are gonna get the chance to see her take this step.

-DENNIS AND CAROLINA ARE GETTING MARRIED!!! And they told me I couldn't tell anyone but I don't think anyone there knows them so there ya go.

-Really just an awesome week, saw a lot of miracles and excited to grind here with Elder Jimenez.

Just to close out, I was reading this week in the Book of Mormon and at one part is says that the people didn't recognize Jesus when he was there with them. And I started to wonder if I too would recognize Jesus if he was here in front of me. In Alma chapter 5 it says that Christ is calling us but the question is if we will recognize the call.

As I went throughout the week, I focused on learning to recognize my Savior and it really changed the way I saw things. Look for the good and you'll find it as my mom always says. Look and listen for Christ and you'll find Him.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Saluuuu

Elder Moulton

"Deja Que el Espiritu"

Well another week flew bye in paradise, things are still cooking down here. We only got stuck in a rainstorm once but we covered our backpacks with trash bags and hit the streets. I'm going to have to keep it short this week because we don't have a whole lotta time, but this week was FULL of miracles. First off, and prolly the biggest, EDWIN WAS BAPTIZED!!! 

A few weeks back, my companion and I decided to go visit a member who hadn't come to church in years in a new area where we'd never been before. After wandering around lost for an hour and a half we found out that she had passed away but we ended up finding her daughter who told us to visit her nephew and long story short, within a week we met Edwin. He's 19 and just a complete stud. But when we found him he was really struggling with some bad influences in his life. Edwin left everything behind and in less than a month has changed basically 100%. After his baptism he went with us to meet people in the park and shared his testimony with a man who was struggling to express his pain and grief. With awe we watched as he testified of the truth of the Book of Mormon and invited this man to change his life. Seeing the change in Edwin and the power in his words just about brought tears to my eyes. 

The Spirit really hit us hard this week. There were 4 different times when we were walking down a street and suddenly we just had the thought pop into our head to visit a person or head down a certain area where we weren't planning on going. In the end, we found a mom and son who hadn't let us in for almost 2 months who invited us in with tears in their eyes, the sister of Eva (who was baptized just a couple months ago) who needed an answer from God, and a family that hadn't been to church in years, looking for the the way back. The point is the Spirit guides and we really felt it this week. Also we had a really fun zone activity where every companionship drew a part of the plan of salvation and we had a huge map in the central park.



 It was way fun and we met a bunch of people (shout out to the missionary who gave us the idea, you know who you are). Hope everyone has a killer week, thanks for all the love!

Saluuuuu

Elder Moulton

Una Semana Mas

Hey! Hope everyone had a great week. Everything is going well down here in paradise. Started off the week carrying an elder with a broken foot through the streets of Apopa through the pouring rain. Had to leave a lesson we were teaching because a dude came into the house and started spraying smoke all over to kill the mosquitoes. I finally installed the mosquito net over my bed. We discovered tamalpusas (½ tamale ½ pupusa). All in all it was a good solid week. A friend of mine in our ward got his mission call and he is going to Ecuador. I am super pumped for him because he has been trying to serve a mission for years. 

The highlights of the week would definitely be Kevin and Laura. Kevin is a little boy we have been teaching for awhile. He recently turned 8 and decided to be baptized. He is an awesome little kid and a great example for his family. 

Sunday before church Laura was finally able to be baptized. We had to postpone it because of some deaths in her family and some crazy stuff,  so it was awesome to finally be able to share that moment with her. 

We have a friend here that we have been teaching for a long time. He has never been able to be baptized because he isn’t married to the person he is living with. But the person he is living with is a member of the church that hasn’t gone to church in a long time. A lot happened with this little family. A long story short, she decided to leave her job, her house, and him to be able to go back to church. She is changing all of her life to come back to what she knows is true. Just thinking about her and Laura and a lot of these people we are teaching, there are people who sacrifice so much to be able to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not always easy to do the right thing no matter where you live or what your life is like. But seeing the example of these people, who are willing to change everything can really put things in perspective. 

Hope everyone has a great week. 

Salud

Elder Moulton

?Pero Vamos a Ir Donde Queremos Ir?

I hope everyone had a steller past 7 days. Just for everyone to know, things are good down here in paradise. Among the highlights of the week, yesterday our bus broke down in the middle of the highway so my companion and I decided to use it as an opportunity and invited 50 people to church with us. It ended up like one of my old track pep talks. At one point I asked, “Did our bus break down?” and like 2 confused people were like, "YEAH" with a little too much enthusiasm. So I go, “ But are we going to get to where we need to go?” and this time like 5 people, "YEAH." And I said, "That's great, but what about after this life? Are we going to get to where we need to go?" I said that's the real question but don't worry to help you out we have a meeting next Sunday at the church and you have 2 muchachos here to help you find the answer. So that was a fun experience. Couple more chicken feet, although I ended up getting out of another chicken foot soup so we can count that as a win. 

But the real highlight of this week was when my mission president called me out of the blue on Friday and told me I had to be at the temple at 9 the next day. And the whole story is a little crazy so i will just try my best to sum it up. For those of you who don't know, I am not the first missionary in my family. I have had a lot of great examples stretching back through the years. But ever since I heard I would be serving in El Salvador, one of these examples has stood out for me. 50 years ago, Elder Moulton was here in El Salvador too. My grandpa served a mission here and I always thought it would be cool to meet some of the people who he talked to. Long story short, at the temple I was asked to be a translator for a group of Americans who were there to donate luggage and clothes to future missionaries here in El Salvador. So that was probably the coolest thing I have ever done. Got to have a little headset and everything. 

But during the meeting, the founder of the foundation stood up and asked me to present myself to about 50 or 60 of these future missionaries (many of whom were kids from my old areas which was awesome to see). 

And he started to share his story. 30 years ago he was a little kid here in El Salvador, and his family were good friends with another family. This other family invited them to church and years later this man is now and ex-missionary lives in California (actually in the same area where my Aunt and Uncle live - Shout out to the Sibbetts!) and is helping other kids prepare to go on missions. What makes this story so cool is that the family that helped this little boy get baptized was a family that my grandpa taught when he was here 50 years ago. Basically, because of my grandpa 50 years ago, I was able to be a part of this wonderful experience. But what really was crazy was afterward as we were leaving there was a couple who had just finished spending some time in the temple. And as we started talking to him we found out that HE WAS PART OF THE VERY SAME FAMILY THAT MY GRANDPA FOUND AND BAPTIZED! 

Really hard to explain exactly how neat of an experience this all was, how special. But it taught me something as well. I doubt my grandpa thought, 50 years ago when he first met this family, that his efforts would lead to helping 50 more young missionaries leave on missions. I doubt he thought that this family would find another family, or even that the work he did would extend much more than what he could see. But my point is this. The little things we do today are what are going to lead to great things tomorrow. And we can't always see that. Its easy to be sad or disappointed even. Sometimes your bus breaks down and you end up just asking why and feeling like you'll never get to the place you need to go. But in the end, the buses break down for a reason, in the end, talking to one little family here in El Salvador will end up touching the lives of thousands of other families that these future missionaries will teach. 

So if the grind gets tough or it doesn't seem to be worth the pain, remember that only God knows where the finish line is sometimes and only He knows the things that will come down the road. We taught a lesson this week about dominoes. I set up a bunch of dominoes and at the end a little action figure. Throughout the lesson, we focused on and just established one truth. And we talked about how if one thing happens it leads to another. In the end, after the family told us they believed that first point we knocked over the first domino. And we watched as the rest of the blocks started falling too. The last block knocked our little action figure off the table and into a perfectly placed glass of water. For those of you who don't get the analogy, they agreed to be baptized next week. 

Sometimes it just takes one little thing to put Gods plans in motion, like my grandpa did 50 years ago. But I know its the little things that God calls us to do. On that note, have an awesometastic week, we will catch you all on the flippity flip

SALUUUU

(Elder Moulton #2 in El Salvador)

No Mira Hacia Atras

Hey everyone, hope everyone is doing great. This week was a pretty solid one, even when we got stuck outside in a torrential rain storm and nobody let us inside, or when we spent a night killing cockroaches left and right and even in the air, don't know why they have wings, its really not fair. But yeah we had a solid time. I got to work with 3 other missionaries this week, which was sad cuz I didn't get to spend a lotta time with Elder Herrera but we had a good time and managed to fit some pupusas in almost every day. And then today the rain cleared up and we were able to play futbol with a bunch of friends in the community so the little miracles are always fun to see. Also we got to go work and build a house for some members of the church down here and even though we got covered in cement it was fun and took me back to the old days working on houses (shout out to Brian, Ben, and Nacho). Lots of miracles this week but a lot of sad times too, a friend of ours, who was going to get baptized this Saturday, lost her brother and spent this weekend with family at the funeral. Which was really tough to hear but just makes me think of how blessed I am to have my family, God watches out. Also this week, we were teaching about the Book of Mormon to a lady and she wanted nothing to do with it. So we tried explaining, for like 10 minutes and nothing. At that point I decided that there wasn't any more we could do so I just said stop. And I told her that I knew this book was the word of God. And I told her if she could read just one verse of this book and tell me that its not the truth, that I would never read it with her again. I said open to whatever page and God will show you that this book is the truth. She paused for a minute and then opened up to Mormon 3:12. 

Behold, I had led them, notwithstanding their wickedness I had led them many times to battle, and had loved them, according to the ^alove of God which was in me, with all my heart; and my soul had been poured out in prayer unto my God all the day long for them; nevertheless, it was ^bwithout faith, because of the ^chardness of their hearts. 

And after that she told us she accepted. She told us God was speaking to her. God is real, the Book is true and if there is anyone reading this email that doesn't know that, find a Book of Mormon and open to a random page, read just one verse. And you'll know too.

But to explain my title, just something I was thinking a lot about this week, and something we shared with some members is that whats in the past, is in the past. Leave it there and grind. One of my favorite scriptures is Mosiah 27:8 and verse 29

Now the sons of Mosiah were numbered among the ^aunbelievers; and also one of the sons of Alma was numbered among them, he being called Alma, after his father; nevertheless, he became a very wicked and an ^bidolatrous man. And he was a man of many words, and did speak much ^cflattery to the people; therefore he ^dled many of the people to do after the manner of his ^einiquities.

29 My soul hath been ^aredeemed from the gall of bitterness and ^bbonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was ^cracked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is ^dpained no more.

My point is that wherever you are in life, especially spiritually, the time is now to use what you got and trust the Lord. Don't look back. The past hurts sometimes and we can't always just outrun it. But we don't have to. Because God watches out. Have a great week everyone!!

SALUUUD

Elder Moulton