HE'S HOME!!!

We are happy to have Elder Moss back on American soil.  Enjoy the reunion photos!

The Final Email - Yippee

Hey family,

Things here are going great. I am pretty excited that this is my last email. Actually, I am more excited that I don’t have to use this internet café again!

The work is going great - transfers changed since I sent my last email. I didn't go to Elder Ngerem in Freetown. I am with Elder Despain on Sewa road which is still in Bo. So that means that I will be taking a bus back to Freetown at like 5 in the morning on Saturday. That should be fun! Elder Despain is awesome. It is too bad that I only get to spend one week with him. Maybe I will extend so that I can finish out with him. What do you think? Ha ha Just kidding. It is bittersweet - yeah - I am going home.

So I heard a sweet quote this week. It is really an awesome idea and really true. It goes like this:

 

I went outside to find a friend
But could not find one there;
I went outside to be a friend,
And friends were everywhere! —Payne

This is awesome. It makes me think that people need to stop waiting for blessings and go and be the blessing. I believe charity is what it is all about. If you want to make yourself happy then go and make others happy. I think that is one of the things that I really want to focus on when I get home. Serving others.

As for the work, it is great. I just heard an amazing story, about a man that I baptized named Emanuel Tarpeh and his whole family. I love him. He is great! I was just told that he and his family went to the temple, that one I knew for awhile, but the big news is that he brought 23 people to the temple with him!!!!! I can't even begin to tell you how happy that makes me feel to know that the gospel is finally sinking in. I love this work and I can't wait to do it at home.

So for my final week I have been transferred into the shlums. The apartment name is the dungeon or hell. It is rough, so rough that a general authority saw it and told us to get out now, ha ha. Anyway, I don’t think it is worse than the Kissy apartment that I stayed in for 5 months. So today my task was to celestialize the apartment. Wow - that was a project and a half. I cleaned years of scum out of the bathroom and threw away pounds of garbage. The elders are amazed that the place can look so nice. That is a trait I picked up on mission. I love to be very clean and organized. I have learned something about suffering in hell. It is in accordance to what you do in life that makes you suffer. So it makes me laugh when people call the apartment hell, it is because they are too lazy to clean it and that’s why it sucks. I understand that the apartment sucks and you can.t fix that but you don’t have to live in the dirt. Anyway, maybe some day they will learn to take some initiative and just do what needs to be done.

That’s about it. I love you guys so much. Thanks so much for all the love and support over the last two years. Take care of yourselves and I will see you in a few short days. Love you so much!

Love your son and missionary,

Elder Kevin Moss

 

PS keep the faith, never give up or let up!

Hey family,

So it's been another week! I guess that means I only have one more email after this one. Kinda crazy to think that I am actually going to come home. The work here is the same as normal. Honestly, I wish that I had something super exciting to talk about but nothing is coming to me. We didn’t have any baptisms this last Saturday but we did have an awesome meeting with the district councilman over missionary work. He had lots of great ideas that we can try to get the branches more involved in missionary work. Members here kind of forget the importance of helping missionaries. But we will try to rekindle the spirit of conversions in the branches. Well, others will because I am being transferred to Freetown so I can have a slow death in the apartment next to the mission office. Which might be nice because I think I will have water finally for my last one week. Maybe that will help my transition back to American standards. Honestly, I am going to be sick when I get home if I am not careful. You sent that package and the candy in it virtually put me into cardiac arrest. I was not feeling good after eating some few sweets. So if you plan on feeding me sweets and candy and stuff when I get home, you can take it easy for a bit so I can get readjusted so I don’t eat to much and pass out. Thank you so much for the package by the way. It is awesome to feel the love that I get form home. It is great to know that I have so much support. I just hope that I don’t disappoint anyone when I get home. I have changed but we will see how much people like me now.

So I guess the excitement for the week is that I got stung by a wasp. Ya, we had a wasp nest in our house in the hallway. Just one of the things you learn to deal with here. As you can imagine, everyone is too scared to kill them. So they multiplied until I found one in my bed and it stung me. I got vexed and went and grabbed a can of bug spray and matches and went redneck style on it. Yep, we torched them! Let me tell you, that is the best way to kill bees but they can get angry when you burn there wings off.

Wow - this week I almost lost it. I almost got into a brawl with 4-8 people because I was so vexed. And I am sure that I could have beaten the tar out of all 8 of them. You would not believe what happened. Here I am, sitting at the church, my companion is doing an interview and I look out the window and see people are gathering and watching something. I see this man with a whip, beating someone like he wanted to kill them. So I grabbed another missionary and ran out there to see what we could do. When I get there, there is a maybe 7 year old boy, hog tied and they are beating him like you wouldn’t believe. He was laying on the ground bleeding and looking half dead. Anyone who knows me can imagine where it went from there. I am not sure if I turned green or not but I am sure that I looked like hulk. I definitely acted like him. I started to untie him when someone tried to stop me, notice I said “tried” to stop me . . . I am telling you, I would have beat up all 8 of them if I was not a missionary. After I untied this boy and helped him to get up and go, we had a nice talk with the parents and the people there. Well, it wasn’t that nice but it was the truth. I couldn’t believe what was happening. I don’t know exactly what he did, but I know that he didn't deserve a beating like that. I guess the people there are lucky I showed compassion. Afterward, I went back to the church and cooled down. These people are lucky that there is not really anything like calling the police or they would have found themselves in a heap of trouble. Moving on . . . .

So since I am being transferred, I am going to miss the next baptism. Which is sad. We put lots of work into finding these investigators that are going to be baptized and my companion and I helped our zone to have around 20 so that will be great. We are hoping for about 60 baptisms for our zone this month. We have been working hard and they are doing great. I think the biggest thing is that we are doing what we are asked to do. Even president has recognized that because he is leaving the whole zone the same this next transfer except for me because I am going home. Like dad says, "don’t change something that works".

Anyway, things are great - thanks for the gifts and most of all, the love. I don’t have much else to say except I think I am going to miss this place. As much suffering as I have endured, I love the people here. I love this mission. I love you guys Talk to you next week.

Love Elder Kev

Bo West Zone
The Mission President and his wife on the left
The two Americans behind them are the APs
The couple on the right is the senior couple in Bo
And that cute American in the middle is Elder Moss
 ZL to all those African missionaries
The Lone American Missionary

Hey family,

So as you know Mother's day was SWEET!  It is always so awesome to talk with you guys.  I am sure people laugh at me after my phone call (even while I am calling) because I always have this stupid huge, cheesy smile that I can't hide.  It makes me so happy to talk with all of you.  I love it!  I can’t wait to be able to do it every day. I am what you would call trunky.  On the flip side,  I am still working my tail off. This week was full of business - mission politics kind of stuff.  We had meetings all week.  We had leadership training and zone council and the next day we had zone conference, my last one, might I add.  It was good, just a lot of stuff going on.  Something that I gathered from president was cool. It is a quote from president Packer. President Packer said "better to be one mile from hell heading away from it then 100 miles from hell heading towards it".  I think this is true.   if we are trying to find our way to heaven then it doesn’t really matter where hell is.  Lots of times people want to be that super hero, that one person that can have that fame. People always have that dream to save the world. The problem is people always go about doing it the wrong way. If you want to change the world, the best place to start is with yourself.  It bugs me when people forget about little things.  These little things are the things that make the big things.  I loved how coach Hos would always stress the importance of small and simple things. If you cannot do the small things then how can you ever do the big things

I am grateful for this mission.  It has done a lot of me.  It hasn’t helped my English at all but it has really opened my eyes to becoming the person that I want and know I can be. I don’t know of another place that I could have served that would been so refining.  Mission is something that you can pass through or it can pass through you.  The decision is yours, no one can make it for you and no one will force it on you. But I am glad that my mission is passing through me and making me a man.

So the week was good like I said.  We had a baptism.. which was a challenge all in itself, but worth it when all the headaches are over.  We had an awesome baptism.  In our zone alone, we had 30 baptized.  It was a good day, lots of conversions.  Even though we are always having baptisms, for some reason I am never satisfied.  I think it Is because I want to see more souls come unto Christ. I can't even imagine how Christ and Heavenly Father are feeling.  I KNOW that God is not satisfied with 50 percent of his children returning to him.  He can't be.  He loves us all and he wants all us to accept the gospel.  He loves baptisms but he wants more conversions.  He will only be satisfied if all return to Him.  That’s why I wish I could do more sometimes. I want to walk away knowing that I have done all that I could do.

Well I really don’t have much to say except that I feel sorry for the family.  I know Caden is coming home tomorrow and I know that is going to make mom so trunky!  She is going to make you guys nuts!  I love you guys so much and thank you for the love and support that you give me. Let the Lord always be your light.

Love Elder Kev

PS I don’t sound like an African.  I blame it on the phone :)

Hey Family,

Bo is good - mission is good.  How is life over in the states?  I bet you are getting excited for me to come home :) because I am definitely getting excited for me to come home! So I don’t have much to say.  We had a great baptism this week.  It was a zone baptism and it was small but spirit filled.   It was 11 people. The baptism was great but I tell you this drought is kicking my butt left and right. We suffered to fill the font and when we finally got it filled, it was really dirty, like too dirty to see the bottom.  But it is ok.  The people were very happy to be able to make sacred covenants with God. Next week will be a big baptism.  I think we are having like 26 people or something so we really need to pray that everything goes well.  We are praying for rain.  Speaking of rain,  I swear every time it rains outside, it rains in my bed as well.  It really sucks!   Two nights last week I was driven from my bed on because I was soaking wet from the rain. The dilemma is if I close the window, then it is too hot and if I open them, then I risk getting rained on.  Rain is good.  It is the means by which we fill our buckets to drink water, take showers and even to wash our clothes. So I guess it Is bittersweet when it rains.  Soon I won’t have to worry about these crazy weather patterns.

This week I have learned that my competitive spirit is still very much a part of me. We played some football, well soccer, and it got a little heated. Sometimes Africans can make me crazy but whatever, I just let it go. So I have been thinking that when I get home I want to train for a triathlon. I know I am still fat but I would love to get fit enough to do one.

The week was filled with lots of business.  I went on exchanges back to one of my old areas and that was fun.  They seemed to really miss me over there.  Had food in surplus. Everyone wanted to feed me. It was a nice reunion. Also this week we had the opportunity to watch conference, which was good.  People here just don’t understand the magnitude of watching a living prophet.  They need to realize that we have a living oracle of God on the earth.  They need to understand that the purpose of prayer is for seeking help  I am glad that I have the Lord in my life.  It is so much different when you use His help.  It doesn’t mean that we have to be super weird or different or change our personality to be Christlike but it does mean that we need to do what's right. Always - no compromising.  Prayer is something we need to always remember to do it. I can't wait to start it in my own home and always pray morning and night.

Do what is right, the day dawn is breaking.  I was thinking today about soccer.  Many times people stand around and wait for the ball but the good players are the ones that go and get the ball.  Don’t wait for blessings to come but go and be the blessing for someone and then the blessings come your way.  I think dad, you are a great example of that. Thank you.  Dad you remind me of yes man.  Whenever someone asks for help, dad says Yes! Yes! Yes!   Thanks for you example.

Love all you guys.  Sorry this is scattered and crazy but love ya!  See you soon!  Talk to you Sunday -  woot woot!

Love Elder Kev

Hey family,

How are things over there in America the beautiful? Things in salone are just dandy I guess you could say. The  Lord really wants me to grow the last few weeks that I am serving.  It seems as if there is zero of the basic facilities that missionaries need.  So far our generator is down and our well is dry.  This week we had a few hurdles we were faced with.  Lately we are the only place that has had water in our little community so the children love to come and fetch water.  Unfortunately, in the process our hand pump could not handle the excessive pumping that it and it broke.  It is interesting how the thing was built (you know me I have dad’s genes so I had to take it apart and see what I could do).  In the process of dismantling the pump, I found the problem.  It was a broken chain link.  The pump works much the same as a jack pump.  Like the ones they use to pump oil.  But this one is man powered.  Anyway, luckily I had my leatherman and a crescent wrench and a "can do attitude" to get the job done.  So we got the chain out, after many years of rusting, might I add.  So now it was off to find the part.  To my surprise, it was very hard to find.   It is amazing that I could not find it considering that these pumps are everywhere here.  So we finally found one and now the next problem came.  The price.  Because the church did so much well work here people think that we had money so up the price went.  I did my best to talk him down.  When I finally got him to a reasonable price, the next step was to get president to approve.   That, my friends, is a task all in itself.  After about 2 hours of waiting for approval, we went home and we got the pump fixed. So finally we had water again!  Nope - shortly after the pump was fixed our well ran dry - that's our luck!   So needless to say, I am sitting here with somewhat of a beard and I am smelling mighty fine. But I guess that’s what happens when there is no water. What can you do…. Towa! Or endure! All these things give you experience. This water issue is a problem throughout Bo and I believe, throughout the mission, but the worst here.  It is even the reason that we had to cancel a baptism of about 20 people.  What a headache that was.  I can say that I did everything that I could possibly do to put on this baptism but nothing was working for us. Our well at the church was torn up and they were having a wedding at the church that night plus it was a holiday weekend so no one wanted to lift a finger to help.  I wish I would have had more personal money.   I would have shipped us all to the river outside of town but I didn’t have the means of changing it on such short notice.  Our only option was to cancel the baptism and pray that this weekend works out better.  It is crazy the type of things that we have to deal with as missionaries here. I never thought in my life that I would have to organize a truck to pump water from a river from another city to come and put it in our font.  I never thought I would have to shower with a bucket, that’s when I have water.   Even though I have to do all these things, I have learned that it is not have to anymore, it is I get to do these wonderful things.  I get to help change the lives of people for ever.  I get to be refined and perfected.  What a great opportunity it is to be a part of this mission.  The only time success comes before work, is in the dictionary.  No matter how much we pray for better lives or pray for things to happen, nothing will happen until you put in your dues.  Sierra Leone has done a great and marvelous work in my life.  Forever I am grateful! So I guess mission, all in all, is good. Don’t get me wrong. I am stoked to come home but mission has been good.

I hope that all is well at home.  Thanks for all that you do.  I guess my thought for the week is work. If you want anything in life, work for it.  Family, as you know, is important for me.   I am glad that my parents worked to make the family that we have.  I hope and pray that I will be able to do the same one day.  Family is the most essential and important thing on this earth.  What a blessing it is to have one.  I love you guys so much.

Love Elder Kev

Hey family!!

Well it is another week gone. Things here are the norm I guess you could say. I am not too sure what I need to say or what I should say, except that I am an old man - 6 weeks until I can kiss the promised land.

I guess the first thing is HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY AWESOME FATHER!!!!Sorry I can't give you a hug or anything but just imagine it. And Caden, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU TOO. Love ya man - see ya soon.

So for my week hmmmm, as a person I have learned an important something about the way you treat people. Most especially I have learned the type of father I need to be and it is a proverb. It goes something like this: if you treat a man how he ought to be, he becomes what he ought to be, if you treat a man how he is, that’s how he is. Sometimes you have to treat people in a way they don’t understand because they don’t know what is best for them. And because you love them you are willing to do what's right, regardless of the consequence. If you expect someone to fail, and you don’t give them a chance then they lived up to your expectations. You can't be scared to lift someone because you think they are going to bite you when they get to the top. Charity is an awesome thing. I wish that everyone had charity in this world - imagine what it would be like.

The work is going. It was nice this week to experience investigators running to us instead of away from us. I love to see people asking us and wanting us to come rather than when we feel like we force lessons on them. For me, one of the things I love is learning about the scriptures and doctrine. One of the things that you can learn is that the original church of Jesus Christ was known as “the way”. Obviously, it has it's different symbolic meanings. The obvious meaning for it is "the way to go". The less obvious one is that you "can search and see". For example, dad knows that in machines, they have guide ways, which direct in the way the table of the machine moves. It does it precisely. Look and seek revelation for yourself but see how Christ is "the way." It is interesting to look in the scriptures to see the different times that Christ uses it and also the apostles. Christianity was later given as more of a nickname to the church and the later accepted. Now Christianity really doesn’t mean a whole lot any more because every one and their dog calls themselves Christians but to be a Christian, a true Christian, means you are following Christ. How can you follow Christ if you are not fully living his teachings? So don’t be LDS and not a Christian. Anyway, I am getting off of my soap box. I don’t care if someone calls me non-christian or anything as long as they know that I am on the path back to my Father in Heaven. I love the symbols in the scriptures. It really brings new meaning to things.

This last Sunday I was in charge of sacrament again and that stunk. I never like doing that. I gave a talk and it was good I guess. I love to talk about Christ like attributes and my family, the two greatest things in the world. I also received a phone call from president telling me that he is sending off one of the people that I baptized on a mission. So it is cool. I think that makes two people now that I have baptized that are going to the field.

So for living conditions, it’s the same - my bed or my foam mat is on the floor (what I would give for one of those Costco foam mats, you know, the red and blue ones.) We don’t have power again - our generator is broken and our well keeps going dry but its OK. I am happy. Worldly things don’t so much give me pleasure any more. If I have my family, I have the world. I have heaven, I have everything. It's what it is all about. I will continue to say it until I cant anymore. Family is number one no matter what. Even family came before church. But because God loved the family so much that he gave us something to help them and that is church. How blessed we truly are to live in a dispensation where families can be eternal, and how we have living prophets to direct us. I can't tell you how much I love you guys. Keep the faith. Enjoy the journey, and LOVE YOUR FAMILY!!!!!

Love Elder Kev