Una Semana Mas

Goodsprings, NV 

Population: 229 (More than Max thought. Lol)

September 29, 2014

So it is actually starting to feel weird how quickly P-days get here. So much happens in every week but next thing I know it seems like I am emailing home again! This past week had some big highlights. On Saturday I got to go with Elder Baldwin to do a service project in Goodsprings, NV. Look it up people. It's a town with a population of maybe 400 people out in the middle of the desert nestled in some hills. It was crazy! It is just these hills that have random houses and trailers around, but it's a town and its got a community center in the middle of it and a park and I probably got the chance to meet everyone that lives there as we went around doing service for people. It was super fun! I absolutely love doing service! Gives me a chance to work up a sweat and help some people. But yeah I took some pictures of the area and hopefully at some point I will get all the pictures I've taken sent home so you can show everyone! 

Another cool thing that happened this week was I got to go to a Missionary Musical Fireside last night. Our mission puts one on every month and any missionary can audition to perform. There were a ton of people that came to watch: members, missionaries, investigators, even some bums off the street! It was very spiritual and I loved it! Afterwards though, one missionary came up to me and Elder Maldonado and asked if he could record us saying our thoughts of the fireside in Spanish so he could post it on the Facebook page for the event. Long story short, I basically choked when it came to my part and I'm sure I butchered my Spanish and I think I said "fuerte" (strong) like 6 times and the guy was just like "alright that's good!" and walked away. So if you guys can find the Facebook page for this you might be able to see a video of me butchering the Spanish language on there soon. I laugh every time I think of that. Oh wow. I'm sure that might come back to haunt me some day! Oh, by the way, I can't remember the exact name of the Facebook page but it starts with "He is" and it's the page for all the musical firesides that the NLVW mission puts on. 

Other than that we have just been doing our best to find new investigators and progress the ones we have. We have some interesting situations with our current investigators. 

Oh, before I forget, because this last Sunday was Fast Sunday we taught our investigators about fasting this past week. In each of the lessons, I shared the experience in our family of how we fasted for Andrew when he was going through his chemo and his treatments for his tumor and how he overcame that challenge like a champ and is now healthy and making music on Youtube (everybody just calm down), but one of the hermanas I told the story to was very touched by it and said she was going to fast this Sunday. So thank you, Andrew, for helping me progress one of my investigators! You're the man! 

Well, that's it for the highlights for this week. I will talk to you guys again later! Bye love ya!

Elder Alley

PS I got packages this week from you, MomMom, the Beehives and Nick & Marissa so it was a great week! Tell them all thanks! Tell Aubrey I saw the picture of her doing the splits. She looks so much older already and she's sure talented!

Una Semana Más en Vegas (One More Week in Vegas)

Note from Max's Mom: Sorry, but no pictures again this week. They are just so busy, he doesn't have time to download them onto the computer at the library. I think the solution is we'll be sending him another SD card and then he can send us the one from his camera and we'll keep doing that every month or so. For now, here's his latest email...

September 22, 2014

Crazy week this week! We got to do a lot of service for people this week and one of the projects was to help this lady clean her house. I have found a real love for doing service! I seriously don't feel better than when I am serving the people here! We also had an All Greenie Day this week. My district is three companionships of trainers and greenies and there was a training meeting this week that all the trainers had to go to so the whole day we had to figure out what to do for ourselves. It was tough, but we did some tracting and one guy invited us into his house. He spoke English, which was nice, and we taught him the first lesson and he said he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Not bad for a bunch of newbies! I also contacted a lady in Spanish and was able to get across our message and give her a pamphlet and she seemed like she understood what I said so yippee! 

Our ward has really started to be super friendly and nice with the missionaries. We are eating dinner with a family just about every night now and I've become good friends with some of the youth in the ward. On Saturday they had a soccer tournament in their gym. It was so weird waching because I felt like I was back in my home ward again, except instead of everyone being white and playing basketball, everyone was Mexican and playing soccer and we ate tacos afterwards haha.

So much happens every week here it is hard to fit it into an email. My Spanish is slowly improving and each day I'm here is another 24 hours of experience, another 24 hours away from the past, and another 24 hours into the future! The work is starting to pick up a little bit and Elder Maldonado and I have a whole family of three brothers and their wives that we are working with. We are praying very hard that they will feel the spirit of our message together and that we can make progress with all of them! 

This work is hard, but I know its true! I love and miss you guys! 

Con Amor,

Elder Alley

Week 3 in Vegas

. 
September 16, 2014

So this week was pretty long, not gonna lie haha, but we got to do some cool stuff. We helped a family pack up all of their belongings into a moving truck so they could move to El Paso, I tried some more new (some delicious, some disgusting) foods and we helped put on a fireside activity for our ward. 

The activity was that groups of people went into different rooms and in each room there was a teacher and and an object on the table that had to do with one of Jesus' parables. The groups had to guess what it was about and then we'd have a discussion about it. Me and Elder Smiley helped with the parable about the wise man building his house on the rock and the foolish man who built his house on the sand. We got to dress up and I wore a worker type outfit and was holding a hammer and had a little house on some rocks in front of me and then Elder Smiley had a house in a sandbox in front of him. When we banged the table my house would stay firm and his would topple over and then we'd teach about how we need to have our lives firmly built on the rock of our Savior Jesus Christ so that when trials come we don't topple over. It was pretty fun!

Our area is pretty rough because it is on the outskirts of the Las Vegas valley and not a lot of Hispanics live out here so we don't have a ton of work, but we are trying our best. Some days are better than others, but overall each week is another 7 days of experience and I'm feeling a little bit more comfortable each day. Thanks for all your love and support! I'll update again in another week!

Note from Max's Mom: He's pretty frustrated because, once again, they were rushed in their computer time on P-day, so he wasn't able to read most of his emails (let alone answer them) or upload any photos. He wants you to know he appreciates the emails and hopes you understand when he can't reply to them. Here's some photos from when he first arrived that I forgot to post.

Max with Sister Ahlander and  his mission president, Pres. Ahlander
He says he LOVES his mission president. :)

Max and his trainer, Elder Moldonado

The Big 100

Again, no captions were sent with photos. There are 4 missionaries in his apartment, so I'm assuming this is all of them sharing a meal together. I recognize his companion, Elder Maldonado, sitting across from him and I'm guessing that is Elder Smiley on the left of the picture (or Max's right) and Elder Martinez on the right of the picture (or Max's left). (Does that make sense?!)

I keep looking at this photo trying to see what my son is eating while he's away from home. I think I spot orange juice and various leftovers. I'm still not sure what that big bottle of red stuff down at the end is. Any guesses?

Note from Max's mom: We didn't get any emails from him on Monday, so I was kind of worried. He'd written us and said he was feeling pretty overwhelmed by everything when he first got there (apparently, his Spanish wasn't as good as he thought it was and he couldn't understand what anyone was saying to him or about him), so I was anxiously awaiting this week's email to see how he was doing. When nothing came, I was kind of worried. So it was nice to finally get at least a quick email from him today with an explanation of why he hadn't been able to email. (I knew there had been flooding in Arizona, but I hadn't really been looking at the weather reports or thinking that Vegas might be affected.) I'm glad to know he's ok and feeling better every day. Thanks to everyone who's been writing him!!

Max's Email (Sept.9th)

Well, I made it through two whole weeks in the field now. Things are still hard, but each week, each day, is a little bit better than the one before and so hopefully that pattern continues. I want to send big shout outs to all the people that sent me letters this week because they were awesome! Guilian, Rachel Horner, Sarah Sok, Aubrey, Michael, Mom, Chrisha Harris you guys are all the best! It is so cool to know that my friends are still thinking about me. I LOVE writing letters and because I don't get a lot of time on the computer it's the best way to communicate. I would love it if everyone who wanted sent me a letter or send me their mailing address so I could send them a letter!

Anyway, we did a lot of work this week. Some days it was blazing hot and others it dumped rain and the streets all flooded. I have eaten a lot of different foods this past week including sopas, chicharon, pupusas, all sorts of chilies and more. I have taken my Dad's challenge of doing 100 push ups and 100 sit ups every morning and night so right now I'm over 1000 for both in the mission. I need to work out so I don't get fat! I bore my testimony this past sacrament meeting and I introduced myself as the new gringo in the ward and that got a solid laugh from everyone. We teach and contact as much as we can, but at this point I think Ashley has more baptisms than I have lessons. lol. 

I am trying to change my mindset now and focus on the now and the future. While I still miss my old life greatly, I am trying to focus on the person I want to become and the blessings I can have in the future from this. A mission is right around 100 weeks I've figured. So each week is a percent. By the time I have hit 100% I want to have accomplished many different things that will prepare me for the future. I am 8% through right now. I've got a lot of time, but I need to put in the effort if I want to see myself change. It's hard and it's going to be a challenge, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am trying to make the most of it! 

Thank you all for your love and support! Feel free to write me!

Elder Alley