Pioneer Day in Zion!!!

There is nothing cooler than celebrating Pioneer Day in Zion!!! (Not temperature wise...because it was sooooo hot) But the Independence stake had a stake activity on the pageant grounds on Saturday and we took a whole picture together as a stake. It was legit, like KBYU or something took the picture. Pretty sweet. But they did it because next summer, the stake is going to start the pageant again to try and get the church's support to run it again! I didn't even know there used to be a pageant here a while ago. The activity was so fun but it was SO hot. Literally, the hottest I have ever been in my life.

I had my first VC miracle!!! On Wednesday, a group came in and it was a family and then a couple who were together. The couple introduced themselves as Brother and Sister Robbins, and they told me the family weren't members. I met the Ham family and immediately took them to God's Plan :) They were so touched by the presentation. The mom of the family was crying so hard, she was hiding her face from me behind Sister Robbins' shoulder. I told them the story "No Empty Chairs" and how Heavenly Father wants everyone to be able to fill their chairs in heaven so we can all be reunited again. They were so moved by that. Brother Robbins shared his story..he is a convert and he bore powerful testimony to their friends, the Hams. I asked for their information to be able to teach them through teaching center and they gave it to me! I am so excited to teach them! They went into the prophet's room and I ran and grabbed a Book of Mormon and wrote my testimony in it and marked some of my favorite verses- Mosiah 14:3-7. I took them to the Christus and after, sang, I Believe in Christ. This family is so prepared by the Lord! I gave them the Book of Mormon and they said they would read it! I can't wait to be able to talk to them online and to hear about their experiences and hopefully be able to send them the missionaries!!! The Visitor's Center is a place of MIRACLES! 

Wednesday, I had a little tender mercy...Brother and Sister Ross came into the Visitor's Center! (Brother and Sister Ross and I have been in the same ward FOREVER..they were my sunbeams teachers!) You know me...I started crying the moment I saw them! I got to take them through the presentations and it was so wonderful :) 

On Friday, we taught John and Brea was in our lesson too! It was so awesome to be able to teach them both! They both came to the activity on Saturday, too, so it was so awesome to see them both two days in a row! John is so solid on getting baptized!! He is getting baptized August 8! The only reason he can't baptized this Saturday is because he will be out of town! But I have LOVED watching his journey. I have a special place in my heart for John because he was the first lesson I taught out here and now he is getting baptized! He is going to be a leader in the church one day, I just know it! 

Dennis is also making HUGE improvements! He now hasn't smoked for two weeks! We are so impressed with him. And he is a testimony to me that the Book of Mormon is so powerful. He is reading that book so much and I know it's because of that that he has been able to change so much! 

Last P-day, we met this girl working at the grocery store and asked her if she has read the Book of Mormon and she said she is actually reading it right now! She said her best friend is a member and we later found out that her best friend is the niece of our ward's young women's president! We set up an appointment to teach her and I'm way excited!

We also met this family that I fell in love with. The husband and wife is Leroy and Dani and they have 6 kids all under the age of about 9! But we stopped by their house and Leroy said they need something...and we have it :) THE GOSPEL! We are going over to teach them on Friday and I can't wait! I love this family and I know the gospel is what they are looking for! I love finding these people who the Lord is preparing for us. 

We are praying for Randy a lot right now. He set a date to be baptized this weekend but he is so uncertain about it and now won't call us back... We don't know what to do or whether or not this baptism is actually going to happen. I hope it does! Randy is so ready. We just don't know what is holding him back! 

On Sunday, something pretty cool happened to me! I got to take JOHN BYTHEWAY through the Visitor's Center! It was so awesome! At the end he came up and shook my hand and asked how long I have left... I said "17 months" and he didn't believe me! It was so funny! But he is a way awesome and humble man. We actually gave John, our investigator, some of his CD's and I told him that and he loved hearing that! It was a really neat opportunity! 

I'm learning so much, but if I were to say there was one thing I'm learning the most, it's how to love with pure Christlike love. I feel Heavenly Father's love for each and every person that I talk to, and I get to see them as children of God. 

Here are some pictures from the stake activity! Again, I have never been so hot before in my life... or as sweaty..:) enjoy! 

Sister Taula (she's basically my mom in the Independence 1st Ward- LOVE HER! ) and John

Sister Christiansen and I; we may look put together, but really we were drowning in our sweat.  :)

              

Love you all so much!!!!

Hello! Week 7!!!!

Hello!! This morning I got to go to the temple, and it was such a wonderful experience. I love the temple so much! And the Kansas City temple is beautiful! We got to go with one of the senior couples here and it was so much fun. And it was so wonderful to just spend some time at peace in that special place. 

Last Tuesday after we were emailing, we went to this cute little outdoor mall in Kansas City with some other sisters that have Tuesday P-day. It was super cute and fun and we found a cute random piano that I had to take a picture with ;) 

I also went to my first addiction recovery class ever! Always a first for everything right? We went with our investigator, Dennis. He told us he smokes at least 2 packs a day, so we asked him to slowly decrease the number each day, and he was like "I can go down to 1 pack a day!" And we were like OKAY YEAH DO IT! Obviously. But then after the addiction recovery class, he went home and threw EVERYTHING away!!! He hasn't smoked since then! He cut cold turkey, and I am STILL amazed with him! He is making so much progress. We passed him off to the elders to finish teaching him, but we call him a lot to check in on how he is doing and he is so awesome. He is making so much progress and will probably be able to be baptized before any of us thought he would be able to! MIRACLES! 

Also last Tuesday, John texted us and said that he was pretty sure he received his answer and he was going to tell his family that he is going to be baptized!!! Seriously, so much good news! John is such a rock star, he texts us everyday asking more and more questions and telling us about his journey. We set a baptism date for him on August 15, but after priesthood on Sunday, he said they talked about the temple and he wants to get baptized even sooner so he can go to the temple even sooner! It's amazing how fast he is progressing and how blessed he is for all of his faith. Again...MIRACLES! 

On Wednesday night, at our key exchange meeting (all of the VC sisters meet there every night to sing hymns around the Christus and say a prayer together) Elder and Sister Glende told us that word around the street is that Elder Holland would be in town on Thursday and that he might come into the Visitors Center. So, OBVIOUSLY, all the sisters were freaking out!!! Sister Christiansen and I were on shift Thursday morning, and Elder and Sister Toronto (the Visitors Center directors) came in and told us that THEY WERE WITH ELDER HOLLAND AT LIBERTY JAIL! But that he wouldn't be coming here. Those Liberty sisters are SO lucky, they all got to meet Elder Holland! The Torontos said that they were across the street at the temple lot, so we all ran to the window and we all looked for him haha it was hilarious. He is like a celebrity. We got to see all of his family! Just not him haha. Bummer. But he was across the street from us ;) 

Dennis got a blessing from one of the senior elders here and there was one line in it that has been on my mind a lot this week. He said "Satan knows and understands Heavenly Father's plan". I have been thinking about that, because it is so true and it's why Satan is so successful and harming us. It's because he knows AND understands the plan of happiness, so he is going to do everything he can to stop that happiness from coming to us. 

COOL STORY! After I opened my mission call, my grandma send me a story about my great great great great grandpa, Richard Preator, who was the first branch president here in Independence. Sister Christiansen and I were looking at our ward directory, seeing who we should go visit, and I noticed a Preator. I asked my grandma if I am related to her, and she told me any Preators in Independence, I am related to! Her name is Peggy and she is less active so I knew we had to go over there! On Sunday we went and I prayed that this story of Richard Preator, one of our common ancestors, would touch her heart. As I prayed, I literally felt all of our ancestors around me. I love family history so much and there is so much power in it! The veil was so thin during that lesson. I could feel angels all around us! 

Yesterday, I had my true first tracting experience! What an experience that was. Especially in humidity! I was standing on a porch and I could feel sweat just drip down my back and I was so disgusted by it (You're welcome...I'm sure you wanted to picture that :) )... We got a new investigator though so that's awesome! Her name is Ciara and she is 14. We left her a Book of Mormon and I am excited to meet with her again. We also went to see these people that a family in our ward told us about - Brandy and Ray. They are part of a remnant branch... It's so confusing, but the remnant branch is a break off of the RLDS (now, the Community of Christ) church. There are so many break offs, it's crazy. They are a super sweet couple, but it's so hard to teach people that are Community of Christ or any restoration/remnant branches, because they basically believe all the same stuff! They read the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants and they know Joseph Smith is a prophet...It's super hard. But they are coming into the Visitor's Center so I am excited to see them again. 

Yesterday, a member of the Seventy came into the Visitors Center! Elder and Sister Echo Hawk. They were super sweet to all of us sisters, and genuinely got to know all of us. They told me all of their kids graduated from Centennial high so it was super cool to talk about home with them. Sister Christiansen got to take them on their tour, but we all sang to them at the Christus and it was so awesome. We sang How Great Thou Art (which so happens to be my favorite hymn) and the spirit was so strong, you could feel it. There is something about the general authorities that brings the spirit so much and I am so grateful I got to experience that! 

Thank you all for your never ending love and support!  I love you all so much!

Sister Mallory Moss

The VC sisters with Elder Echohawk and his wife

                                                         

The cute piano at the outdoor mall in Kansas City

                                                           

Kansas City Temple

One Month Down!

I am torn about being out for a month. I feel like it's been like 5 months, not just one... But I'm also freaking out because now I only have 17 months left instead of 18! Wow...I just don't know how to feel about it!

This week was yet another miraculous week. The first miracle...I am surviving the humidity. The past two days were my first days of experiencing actual humidity. And boy...it is HOT. It was 95 degrees, but with the humidity, it was about 110... And it's only getting worse this week. Thank goodness for the visitor's center with some nice air conditioning!!!

This week we got two investigators on date!!! They are both investigators that I hadn't ever met, either. The first guy's name is Dennis. Sister Christiansen met him a couple months ago with her old companion and they gave him a Book of Mormon, but he wasn't very interested. But last week, he called us and said he has been reading and wanted to meet with us! Obviously we were like YES!! So, we met with him and he was in the middle of 2 Nephi and he said he LOVES the book. And he is so prepared to hear the gospel right now. We have a long ways to go with him, but he is on date for August 8. We have met with him twice since that and he is now in Alma and can't put it down. And he came to church for all 3 hours. Seriously, such a rock star. The other is a woman named Jill. I hadn't heard much about her, but it was a miracle meeting with her. We had just finished our first lesson with Dennis, when we put him on date, and we ran home and called our elders to tell them the good news. The VC called us and told us Jill was there, ready for our appointment. We were so confused because we didn't have an appointment with her scheduled. But we drove over there and we watched the Joseph Smith movie with her. She was so moved by that movie. She was crying and she felt the spirit so strongly. We committed her to August 8 as well! We are so excited for these two.

John is the most solid investigator ever! He downloaded the gospel library app and has read basically everything on it. He even read the missionary handbook so he knows all of our rules and stuff! He is so interested in the gospel and I know that his testimony is building little by little each time we meet with him. His faith and testimony strengthens mine so much. It's really neat to watch him take these steps of faith and see the blessings that come from it. He came to church and stayed all 3 hours, which was so awesome.

There's a recent convert that was baptized in March named Karl. Sister Christiansen taught him. He received his patriarchal blessing on Sunday so we went with him. It was one of the neatest things. And during that blessing, I realized how powerful missionary work is. Because not only are we baptizing people here on the earth, but these converts can do family history and go to the temple to save all of their ancestors. And they have the opportunity to change their future generations. So when we baptize one person, we have the affect on generations. It was such a neat experience.

This past week, Sister Christiansen and I have watched the Joseph Smith movie 4 times with 4 different investigators. That movie is powerful every single time. As I was watching it one time, I was thinking about their sacrifice. Joseph Smith would not have given his life, had this gospel not been true. The saints and pioneers would not have put everything on line, including their lives, had this gospel not been true. They could not have gone through all of that, had Joseph Smith not been a true prophet. There is no way! As I was thinking about that I realized we are so blessed that we don't have to suffer those same trials. But, we do have hard times as part of the plan, and if it were not for the gospel of Jesus Christ, it would be so hard to have hope through these times. I am so grateful for the fullness of the restored gospel.

One night, a few sisters and I were talking to one of the senior couples in the VC and talking about the world. With the whole same-sex  marriage supreme court thing, we were talking about how the world is becoming more and more wicked. And I just asked, why can't the Second Coming happen? Why do we have to wait, isn't the world wicked enough? Elder Phillips said that Elder Christofferson said that the world is plenty wicked for the Second Coming, but we are not righteous enough. That changed my perspective SO much. We have to be more righteous right now because we are literally paving the path of Christ to come reign on the earth. And we aren't righteous enough for that to happen. Elder Phillips said that President Vest told them we have to "crank our testimonies up". We got a lot of work ahead of us, people.

There was a service project on Saturday, called project shine. We painted a school and brought Randy and Dennis, two of our investigators, with us. It was an awesome experience! The Independence 1st ward is the best- there was like half of the ward there! Here is a picture with just a few people in it. The guy on the far left is Brother Faletau-our ward mission leader. He is the best!!! The guy next to Sister Christiansen is Randy! He's the man. And the guy crouching in front is Dennis! Obviously the two boys with nametags are our elders :) They are the best to work with! The guy in between the elders is our Bishop- Bishop Tui'one. Then some ward members :)

Missouri is awesome. I love it here!

The Week of Miracles and Tornados!

Well it was definitely an interesting week! We had the opportunity to fast twice this week. We had a mission wide fast on Wednesday and then our ward did a special ward council fast on Sunday. We definitely saw the miracles come from it!

Miracle #1-

On Wednesday I went on exchanges! I went to a place called Lee's Summit with Sister Jex. She is so sweet and such a good missionary. She goes home this next transfer so it was really neat to work with a missionary who was almost done and I'm brand new! Like I said, we were fasting all day and when we were pulling up to dinner, this guy walks up to us and starts talking to us. He tells us that he is interested to learn about the church. We were SO shocked but SO happy! He seriously walked right up to us and told us to come over! He said he had met with the missionaries a while back, but wants to start the lessons again, and saw us, and didn't want to wait any longer!

Miracle #2/Tornado #1-

After Sister Jex and I ate dinner in Lee's Summit, we drove out to a place called Pleasant Hill to teach a lesson. We were teaching a recent convert named Anthony, and since he was home alone, we were teaching him outside. While we were reading the Book of Mormon, we heard REALLY loud thunder, but didn't think much of it. A few minutes later, Anthony's neighbors came running up and asked us, all panicked, if we knew what was going on. Obviously we didn't, so we asked, and apparently we were under tornado watch! Sister Jex and I started panicking, so we said a prayer with Anthony and ran to our car. We checked our phone in the car and there was 5 voicemails, and about 20 texts all saying to take shelter. Sister Jex is in an area where she lives with members in Lee's Summit, which is about 30 minutes away from Pleasant Hill. So, knowing very little about tornados, we started driving, and it started POURING rain. Like, I have never seen it like this before. I don't even know how to explain it! I felt so bad for Sister Jex driving, because we seriously couldn't see a thing out of the window. But we wanted to get home so badly so we kept driving! We got a text that said the tornado touched down in Lee's Summit (right where we were driving to!!!) and asked if we were okay. We started really freaking out. Many prayers were said in the car. The wind and rain were crazy. There aren't words to describe how scary it was. We made it home safely, and as soon as we walked in, we got another text saying that the tornado touched down in Pleasant Hill, where we were JUST teaching! So, we literally drove THROUGH  a tornado.... My first experience with a tornado and we ended up driving through it. It was a MIRACLE we were okay. There was some damages to high schools and some semis on the freeway, but they say that's nothing major. We were definitely protected that day!

Miracle #3-

The next day, Sister Jex and I had a list of 6 people to go see. So we went to these houses, and not a single person was there. We were so bummed. After the last one, we decided to go tracting. We stopped by this one house and this woman answered the door and was speaking French. We asked if she spoke English and she could thank goodness. She had moved here from Africa. And she LOVES Jesus. We started talking to her and then honestly she started teaching us. It was a really neat experience. She has a testimony in EVERYTHING that we believe. We told her she already knows what we know and she was so happy. We gave her the Book of Mormon and she was so excited to read it. She even set up a follow up appointment! I am so sad I didn't get to meet with her again. But she truly is a miracle because she taught me so much about faith and after a long day of not being able to talk to anyone, she invites us in and absolutely loves everything we say.

Miracle #4-

John and Brea.  We have seen so many miracles with this couple!  It's been awesome to see their blessings as they have made so many steps in faith.  John even came to church!  I've loved teaching them about this gospel and watching them gain faith little by little.

Miracle #5/Tornado #2-

Yesterday, Sister C and I were on shift at the VC and it was super busy. All 6 sisters had presentations! But the tornado sirens started going off. So in the middle of all of our presentations, the Toronto's came and gathered everyone together in one of the theaters. There were some really young children so we started singing some primary songs and then Sister Toronto turned on the Joseph Smith movie for them to watch. Us sisters were having so much fun out in the rain, haha (when we definitely should have been safe inside). It was so crazy to see the clouds and to see them spiraling, forming a tornado! It was the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my life. So, obviously eventually we went back inside. We were on lock down for about an hour. I felt bad for all the kids though, who didn't know what was going on. But we were protected and I'm so grateful for the safety in the Visitors Center. Not even a week, I was in two tornados!

About our other investigators... Randy is a stubborn one. He is seriously the best but he won't set a baptism date! He already does everything members do, including paying fast offerings! For some reason though, he has a hard time deciding on a date to be baptized. I think we have it narrowed down to next week though, so let's hope that happens. We had an appointment with Michelle. We watched the Joseph Smith movie with her and then we were talking about baptism with her. (She had been on date previously, but she was living with her boyfriend so she stopped meeting with the missionaries after she learned the law of Chastity. But now she is interested again). We were talking about all the blessings that would come from baptism just like how the Saints were blessed so much for being faithful to the commandments. And then I asked her to be baptized! She said she would get back to us with an answer... I hope she knows how blessed she will be!

Missouri is awesome. I love it here so much. And the people are INCREDIBLE. It opens my eyes to what all is outside of Eagle, Idaho. Thank you all so much for all of your emails and support! It honestly helps me make it through the rough days! I love you all so much!

This painting hangs in the Visitor's Center-Mallory feels so much strength from it!

                             

Mallory did exchanges with Sister Jex

                                                                   

Sister Moss and Sister Christiansen in their KC Royals gear

                                                   

She's a baseball fan now?!!!!

                                                                               

Some of the beautiful sisters that serve in the Visitor's Center