La Vida de Un Tripanionship

New Trio Companionship

Elder Walker, Elder Aldrich and Elder Alley

Looks like Elder Alley is eating pretty good. Yum.

Multipurpose Room Panorama
(Elder Alley looks like a chunk of his head is missing. He must have
moved while the pic was being taken. haha)

Having fun with the rocket balloons he got in his Valentine Pkg from us
(I highly recommend rocket balloons from the Dollar Store for hours of
quality entertainment.) ;) 

Celebrating one of the hermanas birthdays

Having fun after doing service at the Community Garden

With Grisel and Mireya: the Golden Converts :)

February 16, 2015

So, I don't have a whole lot of time today to email, but for those who don't know, some things have happened and as of right now I am in a 3-man companionship with Elder Walker and Elder Aldrich and we are covering two Spanish areas together (which is like the size of a whole stake pretty much) and after the first week of doing so... I am having a blast! :) Seriously, it has been super fun. I have been wanting to be companions with Elder Walker since I met him and in this crazy set of circumstances I am getting the opportunity!

Teaching has been picking up, and we are seeing some progression in people. There is a couple named Edgar and Yanet who we had knocked their door like 3 months ago and we have been meeting with them ever since. They were progressing until they found out they needed to get married before they could get baptized. Our ward actually had a wedding this last Sunday in it for some of the investigators of Elder Martinez and Osorio, and we invited them to come watch the wedding and they did and now they have a desire to do the same themselves! One more step closer to baptism!

The other highlight of the week is that between our two areas, we have two recent converts. One is Mireya (who I baptized about 3 weeks ago) and the other is Grisel (who Elder Walker baptized about two weeks ago). They are literally the two most golden people on the earth. It has been the highlight of my mission working with Mireya and now being able to work with Grisel. The two of them are just so receptive to everything and so in tune with the spirit.

We had been thinking about what we could do to help them stay active. We had been looking for hermanas in the ward who could be their friends in the church, but not many of them have been available to come out with us. Our solution: just make Grisel and Mireya be each other's friend in the church! It is working swimmingly, too! Last night we took the two of them to a Family History Center to search for their ancestry so they can take some names to the temple for their first trip this next Tuesday. The internet ended up being down, so the guy just gave us some paper pedigree charts to fill out with them. The three of us and then Mireya and Grisel were all there in the room and we were helping them to fill them out and then we all just started talking and then joking around and then laughing and we were all so happy!

In that moment, it just kind of hit me: how lucky I was to have been in that place, in that moment. There I was, sitting in a room with two ladies who I had been able to help come to know the gospel, to know Jesus Christ and to find out the purpose of this life. I was joking around with them and I truly felt I had made two new life long friends (and all this was in SPANISH, TOO!) When you make a joke in Spanish and a Peruvian and a Mexican start laughing, you know you've made it ;) That plus the fact that I knew I had made a life long friend in Elder Walker, too. We have already gotten so close and plan on staying in each other's lives well after the mission, so last night it all just hit me and I was just really, really grateful.

And look at that. I start off saying I don't have too much time and I just typed out a whole novel :) haha Well, that is it for this week with the report from Sin City! Love y'all!

Con Amor,

Elder Alley

PS Tell Uncle Marc and his fam thanks for the Valentine's package they sent! I love it!