25%

Apartment Christmas Tree

Cool hats
(Elder Allen & Max)

Max and Elder Celestino

From Elder Alley's mom:
Aunt Angela's family made a stop in Vegas on their way home to Escondido just so they could leave a surprise package for Max.  I love that since it's a gated complex and they didn't have a code that they waited for someone to go through so they could piggy back through the gate. I love that they used the Brentwood Ward program from Adam's blessing to write the note on. I love that they worried someone might take the bag so they creeped over the back porch to leave it in an enclosed area and found one soccer cleat and a broom back there. (Sooo missionary apt. Hahaha) I love that Elder Alley came home and was super surprised. Most of all I love that we have family that would go out of their way to do this!

January 5, 2015

Now, I really have gotten better about not thinking so much about how much time I have been out, or how much I have left or things like that, but one thing I do know is this: In my "every week is like a percent analogy" I have reached the 25% mark! It was just weird for me to think of it. I am a fourth of the way done now. I hit my 6 month mark here on the 16th and then I know it will really feel weird! I'll get to partake in the tradition of burning a tie, though, and that will be fun:)

This past week was challenging, and awesome, and fun, and hard, but then again, so is every single week of the mission. We saw some miracles this week in the form of our golden investigator named M. She is awesome, every time we meet with her she tells us how much she loves being with the missionaries and how she just has felt so much more at peace in life as she has listened to our message. Well, she has been wanting to come to church for the longest time, but hasn't been able to because of her work schedule. This is the short story of the miracle. It was a fast sunday and we had invited a TON of people to come to church. I woke up in the morning nervous and trying to be ready to be doing my best to make sure all the people we thought were coming would have a good experience at church. Long story short, at 11:35 (and church starts at 11:30): no one. Not a single person we had invited showed up. I was a bit bummed out to say the least. I even spent a few moments out on the sidewalk peering down the road to see if I could see any cars I could recognize coming, but nothing happened. So as I sat in the congregation feeling sorry for myself I said a little prayer just asking that we could see some sort of a miracle happen, since we were fasting specifically to have help in getting our investigators to progress in the Gospel. Then I get a text from... M! She told us she was trying to find the church but that she had just gotten lost. I called her real quick and gave her directions and she eventually made it and we were soooo happy! She could only stay for Sacrament Meeting, but after it she said she loved coming and was going to try and get more time off so she can come to all of church in the future! It was an awesome experience:) 

Other than that, we have just been doing our best to get the ward to help us out with the missionary work. I love the hispanic culture and we are doing our best and trying to help this ward grow and become bigger and better!

Not a lot of people could have lessons this weeks as so many were gone for the holidays, so Elder Smiley and I did a LOT of walking around outside, and believe it or not it was really cold outside,too! But by doing that, man, have I met some interesting people and heard some crazy stories. From someone who went to Israel and rode a motorcycle in a tube top to the top of some holy mountain, to a guy that told us that he knew "Bruce. the guy that own's the Mormon Church" and Clarence, the black guy in the street who told us he sees demons (and sometimes he's even sober when he sees them). Too many stories, too little time to tell them. 

Anyways, thank you all for the love and support you have sent me over this holiday season. It was hard being away from family during my absolute favorite time of the year, but you all made it a little easier. 

Con todo mi amor,
Elder Alley

P.S. Shout out to Aunt Angela and the California Alley's for dropping off a care package right on my porch! (If you can even call it a porch. lol) When I got the package it was like the highlight of my life!!! That is soooo weird to me just to know that they were there. I felt like I had this connection to my family again:) I mean I always have a connection to you all, but it was just cool to think that they were there, at my apartment. Gosh, I love them! That was so thoughtful.