Elder Mooney's Safe Arrival at the Dominican Republic CCM (MTC)

From: Cade Mooney 
Date: Sat, Apr 28, 2012 at 8:54 AM

We're here in the Dominican Republic CCM! We´re safe and happy! 

It was a way long trip. Definitely a different country; no one speaks English. Ha. 

Our District is made up of 7 Elders and 3 Sisters, there is one other district of 5 Haitian Elders. Ha. There are literally 15 missionaries in the whole MTC. But I guess we're supposed to get 40 Latino missionaries for my last 3 weeks in the MTC. So I'll let you know when they're here.

They fed us when we got here. The food is gonna rock. The bananas are from heaven. And the juice is unreal.

We flew all day long yesterday, I dunno what else to say. It was awesome to talk to everyone. I've got a pretty hard core, detailed letter that I'm gonna send to my district in Provo. So I'll have them make a copy and forward it you.

Our Address here is:

Centro de Capacitación Misional

Avenida Bolivar No. 825, Esq. Calle Ricardo Robles

Los Robles, Santo Domingo, República Dominicana

Our Prep Day is on Thursday here. So you will hear more from me next week.

Love and miss you all.

Love,


Elder Cade Mooney

Elder Mooney's Last Letter from the Provo MTC - April 26, 2012

Elder Cade Mooney is en route to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic today where he will spend six weeks at the MTC training to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He called home during a layover in Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. He is happy! There are a few things he told us during the conversations that we thought you might enjoy:


Chandler explained to Cade her frustration with a new hitting position for her upcoming volleyball tournament; she was finally hitting in her old position they way she'd like to be. Cade assured her that her coach was doing the right thing by changing her position. He said he has learned from inspired teachers at the MTC that if you are comfortable, you are in the wrong place. Challenges cause improvement.


Also, Elder Mooney was explaining his ability to speak Spanish and said he, Elder Josh Freeman and Elder TJ Murphy have agreed that they owe tons to their Jr High teacher, Mr. Arteta. All that Mr. Arteta taught them is quickly coming back. Their studying is intense but the MTC teachers tell them not to stress about retention, but to focus on learning the information because later the Holy Ghost can "bring all things to [their] remembrance." (John 14:26)


Cade, his companion and the other five elders in their district put their mattresses on the floor and slept in the same room the night before he left. All of his district, both Elders and Hermanas, were up at 4:00 a.m. to see Elder Mooney and Elder Fassett off this morning.


~ Tracy


From: Cade Mooney 
Date: 2012/4/26

¡Hola Familia!

This week has been a bit of a roller coaster! We got our itinerary for flights leaving today, and then our visas were lost in the mail, and then they called us today in to give us some new travel plans. Now we have to be ready to leave by 3 a.m. tomorrow morning.... Luckily they´re letting us skip class tonight, cuz we´ve got a TON of packing and cleaning to do!

This week has been great! Our progressing investigators are doing really well. Edmundo committed to be baptized during our last lesson, and Gilberto was about to. Our teachers got to give us some feedback because it was our last week teaching; they said we did well! They were super complimentative, but also gave us a bunch of tips and suggestions to be better teachers.

Our days still just consist of study, eating, learning, and more study. But it´s awesome! My district is still amazing. I am really gonna miss our Elders and Hermanas. I feel so blessed that we got an extra 24 hours to spend with them!

Last night I used the clippers you sent me to cut Elder Wingers hair. He was super trusting! And it actually doesn´t look to bad either! He´s happy with it, so I felt pretty proud. Also, the Hermanas complimented him on it all day, and we didn´t even tell them to. Ha.

I can´t believe I have to leave this place. When we first got our travel plans I was super bummed because I didn´t want to leave. I couldn´t understand why God would put me here, give me an incredible district filled with life long friend material, and then take me away three weeks later. But honestly I can count about a hundred reasons that the Lord wanted me here at the Provo MTC for 3 weeks. Without this three weeks I wouldn´t know any of these people, let alone have the opportunity to stay in touch with them and strengthen each other throughout our missions.

Looking back, these three weeks have been some of the best in my life. God lives. He knows exactly what I need and when I need it. Even though he didn't have to, He gave me a whole extra day to wrap my head around the idea of leaving. Now I´m pumped!

I hate this time limit thing. I feel like I write like a 5th grader in these emails. I apologize... But I´m out of time again.

I miss and love you all.

Love,

Elder Cade Mooney

Letter from the Provo MTC - Friday, April 20, 2012

The beginning of Cade's letter was in response to my letter to him. I thought his answers were worth posting as well.  I've spliced in my remarks to clarify some of his comments. ~ Tracy


from: Cade Mooney
date: Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 4:23 PM
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I apologize for not sending more letters. Even if your friends are writing more than your mom, I still love you most!!!
Mom! It's no big deal, I get enough letters, but tell the kids that I loved their letters! I wouldn't mind a few more pictures from the boys, and some scriptures from Cole. :) I just put letters to the kids in the mail, so they should be there soon.
I love getting updates from friends. Michael posted this to my FB wall the day you saw him:
"Just saw your wonderful son doing service at the MTC! He have me a bear hug and he looks like the happiest missionary in the world!"
Also, Mike mentioned you were doing service? What kinds of projects to they assign an army of missionaries to do? I'd love details. ;)
I did see Mike! I see him pretty often now actually. He is only a floor above me in our classroom building. Missionary service in the MTC consists of emptying trash cans (which I was doing when I saw Michael), cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming hallways, scrubbing floors, etc. They basically just use us to make this place perfectly clean in every way -- in and out doors. 
What do you need/want? I'll send it. ;)
I honestly don't need or want anything at the moment. I get a lot of food from my rockin' aunts. And they definitely over feed us here. ha. Although, I think I've lost weight... But we only have a luggage scale, so we're trying to figure out how to hang ourselves from it to find out how much we weigh. But out attempts haven't gone so well. Lol.

I miss you all. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

This week has been great! We've already had two apostles visit -- M. Russell Ballard and Boyd K. Packer. President Packer was the first week we were here and Elder Ballard was last Sunday. Plus, every single devotional (Sunday and Tuesday nights), plus all our classes, and our meetings are always phenomenal! I used to laugh at my friends that would write me and be all spiritual and I always wondered if they had ever even felt the Spirit before they went on a mission. But now I GET IT. I have never felt the Spirit in the way a do now. Missionaries literally carry the mantle of the Lord. The Spirit is with us ALL THE TIME, and it is in everything we do. It's SO strong all the time. I never want to leave because of how I always feel.

District 35C is still doing great, I love them all. All the Elders and Hermanas are fantastic. We all get along really, really well! I'm really gonna miss these kids.

We still study all day everyday. I usually eat grits for breakfast, and a wrap for lunch and dinner, plus a ton of fruit! Lol. I didn't think I was all that picky, but everything here is a little sketchy. I miss my mom's food. And I SUPER miss my aunt Wendy's food!! But it's all right. I can't complain! I'd eat dirt for every meal if I could stay here forever and just learn every language and hang out with the Spirit all day. Ha.

I'm definitely out of time. I love you all!

Love, Elder Cade Mooney

Letter from the Provo MTC Friday, April 13, 2012

From: Cade Mooney <cade.mooney@myldsmail.net>
Date: Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 4:09 PM

Subject: Hola Familia!

Hey guys!! One official week down! I'm still loving my district! All the Elders and Hermanas are awesome. I don't want to leave!

Speaking of leaving, Elder Fassett and I got our travel plans yesterday... We ship out on April 26th. Our flight leaves at 6 a.m. so we have to leave here at 3 in the morning! For mom: I will mail you a copy of the flight itinerary.

This last week went really well! Our district and companionships keep growing stronger. We as companionships have been teaching "Carlos," our investigator, almost everyday. We are actually doing really well with Spanish. I'm in awe at the amount of Spanish we're all able to learn and retain so quickly. All of us can pray, bear our testimonies, and teach a 25 ish minute lesson in Spanish already. Yesterday was our last day teaching Carlos and he committed to come to church, he's been reading and praying every night, and he has a desire to be baptized. We feel pretty good about it!

I don't really know what else to include... The food is alright. There are quite a few things that most of us won't touch, but Elder Fassett loves it; so anything we don't wanna eat we just feed to him. Haha.

I see now why Taylor's back was killing him by the end of his 12 week stay. Sitting in class for 10 hours a day is pretty rough.

Everyday is mostly the same. We get up at 6:30, shower, study, breakfast at 8, class 'til lunch, lunch at 12:45, language study, more class til' dinner at 5:45, and then a devotional or meetings or more class 'til quiet time at 9:30.

It sounds way tougher than it really is. We have a blast doing everything we do, and having the spirit with us constantly makes it super easy to do hard things.

I'm still doing really well! I love being a missionary!

Love and miss you all.

Love, Cade

First Letter from the MTC - April 7, 2012

From: Cade Mooney
Date: Sat, Apr 7, 2012 at 11:47 AM

Hi guys!!!

We have been here for just about 72 hours now, but it feels like we've been gone for months! We have been super busy.

We've been studying and in class or teaching investigators for about 10 hours a day! So we're all tired, but super pumped at the same time. The Spirit here is amazing; you can't get away from it! Everyone is super happy and friendly.

My district is awesome. We all get along really well. We have 6 Elders and 3 Hermanas in our district. Elder Fasset and I are the only two that are going to the DR in our district, so we will split off in three weeks and the rest of our district will stay here for the rest of thier nine weeks and then head off to Argentina, IF they get thier visas.

Elder Fassett (my companion) is way cool! I like him a lot. He is super easy to get along with and way funny! He's a 21 year-old body building dairy farmer from Rupert, Idaho. He's an only child, and he's like 50-60% deaf; so he has a light deaf accent. He's way cool! I wish you all could meet my whole district. The three Hermanas are super on task, but way nice and fun to be around. They easily have 6 years of maturity on all of us Elders, and I think we bug them a bit, but what's work without a little fun, right?? 

Anyway, the Branch Pres called me to be the District Leader on Thursday night which was cool. I'll be DL until we leave in 3 weeks, and then he'll call another Elder to finish out the last 6 weeks. It's an interesting situation because I really don't have any more authority, I just have more responsibility. The other Elders were a little weird about it at first, but I think they're understanding that I haven't changed as a person at all. And Elder Fasset is being way supportive about it all.

Last night we taught our "investigator" (he's really one of our teachers) for the first time, and we had to teach him entirely in spanish. We prayed a lot for it to go well, and honestly miricles happen. We went in and had a solid half hour discussion is spanish. We taught him that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father live, and that we can pray to them for help and that they truly answer prayers. We taught him to pray and shared a few scriptures with him. Then we testified of the power of prayer and the strength we can recive from Christ, then closed with a prayer. It was amazing! When Elder Fassett offered the first "example" prayer when we were showing him how to pray, the spirit was SO strong! What an awesome experience.

I'm loving this place. I couldn't be happier with my companion or district! I definitely know this is where I'm supposed to be! I know this church is true.

I love you all! Thanks for the letters and the packages! They are such a comfort and support!

Love, Elder Mooney.