Fancy Haircuts and Lots of Tracting

We tracted this neighborhood for 3 solid hours and then decided to take a quick hike

My personal space

Collages courtesy of the Brentwood Ward Beehives :)

The epic card Guilian sent me

Fancy schmancy salon where we got our amazing haircuts

My man, Hermano Ramirez

Lookin' more stylish than missionaries have a right to ;)

October 27, 2014

So, unfortunately, there’s not too much to report from the week because we had a lot of lessons cancel and we just did a lot of tracting. I love tracting, though, because we get to be outside in the fresh air and enjoy the sunshine! The highlights from the week were that last night we got to go to another one of the musical firesides that our mission puts on and who did I see there... Tanner Vance!! This kid was my roommate for the last EFY I went to in the summer of 2013! We became best buds during that week and kept in touch. When he heard where I was going for my mission he freaked because it’s where he lives! In fact, one of the Spanish wards that I am very likely to serve in at some point, shares the building with his home ward, so who knows? In the future I may get to see him quite often! But last night was a nice reunion to have with an old friend! His mom took a pic of us. When I get it I’ll pass it on. 

Today for Pday the three greenies (me, Shearer, and Smiley) all went to get our haircut. This lady that works at this salon is a member and gives haircuts to missionaries for free! The salon is like way, way nice, too. It was by far the nicest....anything…I have been in since I started my mission. haha. What was awesome, too, was that it was out of our zone so we needed to have a member drive us over there. Hermano Hector Ramirez said he would. This man, ahhh I just love him and his family so much. They are recent converts so we teach them lessons every week. But they are all just so nice and fun to be around. I truly think the Ramirez family will be one of those families I come back to visit after my mission. I just love them that much. So I basically got to hang out with Hector for a couple hours and that was sweet. He speaks English fluently and, in fact, we are co-teachers for the English class that our church puts on Thursday nights. I love every minute I spend with him. 

So I have come to realize what some of the source of my stress is and I realize that I am to blame. I have felt my trainer has been pushing me to do things that I don't feel I am capable of doing. I still feel very green and inadequate out here, but he puts all this pressure on me to act, in reality, like a missionary who has much, much more experience. His faith is so strong that this is the Lord's work and that we can do anything, that it pushes me to my absolute limit. The problem is I still feel weak. My faith needs strengthening. I feel so overwhelmed sometimes by all that I have to do, and in Spanish.

For example, I am freaking out a little bit, because not this week, but next week is week 11 of my 12 week training program and it is known as "Senior Week." That means that next week I am in charge of…everything: setting up lessons, teaching the lessons, calling everyone, deciding where to go and when and what to do. Every time I think about it I get this wrench in my gut because I am truly just frightened by the thought of it. I am scared that I am going to mess something up. What it really just boils down to is my faith is not as strong as it needs to be. This is the Lord's work and I know he is going to help me do it, but I just don't feel that strength all the time. I ask for your prayers this week as I go into this challenge. It's going to be rough, but it'll help me in the long run.

I feel like that is how my whole experience of training has been. I can truly say that it is hard being trained and I don't think I will be too devastated when this training ends, but I know that I will look back on it in the future and know that I learned a lot of what I needed to. Kind of like the mission, it's hard, but I know when I climb this mountain I will look back at the valley that I was in and know that I needed these trials. It doesn't make them any less hard right now, but it gives me more determination to get through them.

Anyways, that’s about it for this week. Not much happened in terms of the progress of our investigators, but I think the Lord really showed me this past week that I have been blessed to have some amazing people put in my life here in this first area. 

Welp, another email is over haha. I really don't think about these beforehand. I kind of just start typing and whatever comes out, comes out so if it doesn’t make total sense, I apologize. Anyways, only 3 more weeks until my training is complete! Love you guys! You are all in my thoughts and prayers! 

Con amor,

Elder Alley