¡Ya viene la semana loca! (Now Comes the Crazy Week!)

At Zone Conference

The "NBA Edition" of the Book of Mormon 

At the baptism of a former investigator. I'd taught her with Elder Maldonado and
Elder Labriola in my first area. 

September 28, 2015

This last week was pretty swell. We had one of our investigators call us to tell us that he loves the heck out of us and he feels like he's known us forever even though it's only been a couple weeks now! So that made me feel good:) I also went on exchanges with one Elder Fotheringham from Virginia this week, too. He's a super good guy and reminds me a lot of Michael, so I really enjoyed getting to be with him all day. During that exchange we had a cool moment too where a family we are teaching all came with us to the church building Wednesday night to check out a mutual activity. There are like 9 people in this family, too! Two parents and 7 kids all under 13 years old. It was fun running around the building with them and introducing them to the youth and also the YW President came out and talked with the parents for a while and they seemed like the happiest family in the world! It was definitely a high for me getting to help others see just how much the gospel blesses families. I for sure got a soft spot for families because mine is pretty awesome. :)

There was a sad moment this week, too, though. We had to say goodbye to an investigator for a while. His name is V and he has to leave under sad circumstances. He truly is a solid guy and I saw him change a lot in the 7 months I've spent seeing him but this week he had to leave, so we said goodbye...but not without giving him a gift! A homemade NBA Edition Book of Mormon from yours truly and Elder Walker. ;) 

Every time we went we taught him about some person in the Book of Mormon by comparing them to an NBA player today. It was super fun coming up with those lessons. It just showed how the Lord knows what he's doing because he loved how Elder Walker and I taught him like that and we just happened to be his last two Elders before he went off. So it all ended on a good note!

And then to end the week we had our Mission Wide Musical Devotional where all the missionaries sing and play guitar for members and investigators alike to be able to enjoy some good music and feel the spirit. It was a big success and our investigator M came with his kids and they had a good time so that was a good way to end the week.

This next week is going to be a pretty hectic one. I've been waiting for it for a while now. Starting tonight and then all day tomorrow we are going to be on exchanges with the AP's, then Wednesday we have to put our finishing touches on a training that Elder Walker and I will be giving at the Mission-Wide leadership training that will be on Thursday. It'll be a training for probably almost 100 missionaries or so, so we are excited for that, and then we are going to try and set our boy M with a baptismal date this week as well. It should be a busy one, but I'm really looking forward to it! I hope all continues well back home! Know that I love you all, and I love the work I'm a part of right now. ¡Cuídense mucho y que tengan una semana buenísima! (Take care and have a very good week.)

-Elder Alley

A Testimony of Sacrifice

September 21, 2015

So last week the theme of the email was consecration so for this week I guess it shall be sacrifice.

As I mentioned at the end of last week's email we had our zone training meeting this week. Elder Walker and I did a training on how we can reach more simply. Oftentimes as missionaries we talk WAY too much and we go into unnecessary detail about what ever topic we are trying to cover. So we talked about how we have to "Fight the Fluff!" and cut down our lessons so that we are really just teaching basic gospel truths and then we let the Spirit do the teaching. It was a fun training. We gave a role play where Elder Walker and I were teaching a different missionary the restoration. We gave everyone else a hand full of mini marshmallows and told them that whenever we got to be too "fluffy" with our teaching then they could pelt us with them. Needless to say they enjoyed that. I've noticed my zone tends to get excited when we tell them they can throw things at us. haha.

At the end of the meeting we talked about the goals we had set as a zone. We talked about how they were the most ambitious goals this zone has seen yet, and therefore, we need to be willing to work harder than the Las Vegas Zone ever has before! We need to be able to call down more blessings and divine power from heaven. And what brings forth the blessings of heaven? Sacrifice! So I'm super proud of all the missionaries here because they were all so willing to give up things that are very hard in order to show the Lord we are serious about this work. For example, normally we are given an hour for lunch, but we decided that we are going to just eat quicker and take only a 1/2 hour and then get right back to work. Also, we are going to end P-days an hour earlier to return to the field sooner, and we are trying to always schedule lessons later because the white handbook says we can stay out until 9:30 if we are teaching a lesson. On top of all that we will be doing a Zone Fast once a week for the rest of the transfer.

So like the title says, I am in the process of seeing a grand testimony of sacrifice being forged.... at least I hope! Haha

Other than that I had a good experience going on exchanges with Elder Evanson from Canada! I went English for the day in the Rancho Ward and had a lot of fun! It was another one of those exchange miracles where I happen to be in an English area for the day but the member we had dinner with happened to invite her neighbor who is from Costa Rica over and she doesn't speak super good English and so I talked with her and now we are going to visit her!

Another cool moment was when we had brought a member to a lesson with us and the person wasn't there (which got us really bummed because we had double-confirmed with this person.) We called a less active lady who lived near by and she said we could come over. When we got there she expressed to us that she had been feeling really sad and alone and had prayed to God asking for comfort and then like 3 minutes later she got the call from us and she knew that we were the answer to her prayer! Being a missionary is so cool! You get to spend all this time just being the answer to people's prayers!

Anyways, that's the update from this week. Hope y'all have a good week!

-Elder Alley

It All Leads to Consecration

Las Vegas Zone Brunch

Me and the newly arrived Elder Loveland. He was with me when I got an email from Mom asking if I'd met an Elder Loveland yet. (They are Facebook friends thru the mission moms group.) Why, yes, Mom, I have met him. In fact, here he is. 

September 14, 2015

Lots of thoughts in the ol' noggin right now, and not quite sure how to organize them, so I'm just going to start writing things and see what happens.

The Lord has been kind enough to give me one more transfer here in the Bonanza East area of the Las Vegas Zone, and it's been on my mind a lot just how much time I've spent here, and how very little progress I've seen in any one that I've taught here towards baptism. It kind of gets me thinking, "Is it me or is it the area? Am I not working hard enough or are the people just not ready? Am I not consecrated enough or is it just no one's time right now? And then I just lay awake at night, wondering if I will really go almost 8 months in one area and not see a single person get baptized.

I sure hope not! I don't want that to happen, and as a missionary one of the biggest lessons you learn is this: Regardless of what the cause of the problem is, the ONLY thing you actual have control over, is yourself. So what, maybe people aren't ready and this area is harder to get baptisms in, but I can't change that. I have no control over that. But, what I can control, is my own personal efforts, my own personal consecration.

So I guess that's where we go from here. I guess consecration has been on my mind a lot because of some conversations I had with some missionaries this week. Elder Walker and I have a tradition of starting every new transfer with having interviews with all the missionaries in our zone so that we can get to know them more and so they can have more trust in us as their leaders. All were super good and something that was consistent throughout all is that all these brand new missionaries in our zone are here to work and are super excited to be out in the field.

One conversation in particular stuck out to me. I was talking to one Elder who has been really frustrated with all the rules of the mission. He said he felt like the mission was taking away each and every single "outlet" that he had to relieve stress and now he has no outlet and it's driving him insane. We talked for a good while and it really made me reflect on that whole concept of "outlets" and how I've changed during the mission. Obviously before my mission and for 90% of my age group outlets are: Netflix, movies, parties, music, all that jazz. But here in the mission that is all taken away and your outlets have to become: the scriptures, service, sharing the gospel, prayer, and all that spiritual jazz. It just made me truly realize that that is one of the greatest lessons of the mission, becoming more spiritually minded. And it's because it all points towards the end vision: consecration.

We talked about consecration and how it is the ultimate goal. Consecration is the end goal. It is what we are all striving for. It's one of the greatest (and last) covenants we make. But the thing is, "consecration" by definition is EVERYTHING. For the Lord, the only number that will do, the only number that suffices for consecration is 100%. And so there comes a point where we, as Latter Day Saints, all have to ask ourselves. "Is 100% even an option for me? Am I actually willing to give ALL I have to the building of the kingdom?" If the answer is no, then you're never going to reach all your potential.

We can't say to the Lord, "You can have 99% of me, but this one little bit, that's mine, I got to keep that." It's all or nothing.

So yeah.... Some thoughts for ya from a young missionary just trying to figure out...everything.

We have some lofty goals we want to reach so tomorrow we are having a big talk with our zone about what sacrifices we are willing to make to reach them. News on that next week.

We have interviews with President Ahlander this week so I am excited for that!

The AP's called us and we will be doing exchanges with them soon, so I'm mentally preparing for that.

And... Yupp. Scattered thoughts this week. Enjoy! Love ya!

-Elder Alley

And I will be.......STAYING ONE MORE!

Part of the Las Vegas Zone

This amazing couple got baptized last week

Blurry photo of me and our fave recent RM, Bro. Barnes. I met him when an English family had us over for dinner. I soon learned that they all had lived in Spokane before and that he was recently returned from Mexico. We took him out to lots of lessons and he took us out to lots of dinners. It was a good trade.

September 7, 2015

Haha Yupp, we got calls and Elder Walker and I will be staying right where we are for 6 weeks more! I am actually really excited. I really felt a confirmation that this is what needed to happen. I personally already feel like this will be one of the best transfers yet, and I'm going to work as hard as I can. This area hasn't produced a baptism in a while and I am determined to change that this last chance I get here.

So with that call it officially makes: 3 transfers with Elder Walker (and some time from when we were together in a trio), 5 in this area, and 7 straight in the Las Vegas Zone and the Bonanza Ward. I will be staying here until October 11 and then I'll for sure be headed somewhere else. With that, though, that means I will end up going 10 months straight in the Bonanza Ward in the Las Vegas Zone. I came over here Dec 17th of 2014 and it'll almost be Halloween when I end up leaving! haha

So, yupp, it'll be good. It's also super cool because the zone is going to be changing a lot. We had 7 different missionaries get training calls. So that means for 7 young greenies the Las Vegas Zone will be their first ever taste of missionary work and Elder Walker and I will be all of theirs first zone leaders. We feel a lot of good pressure to do all we can these next weeks to ensure that every one of these new Elders and Sisters has the best start to their mission as possible. I'm stoked to see a bunch of new, excited, but completely frightened faces here because I really do feel like it was just yesterday that I was in their still new, and shiny shoes.

Another cool thing to mention: Mom got a shout out from President Ahlander in our MLC this last week!!!

I'll explain. So ever since you (Mother Dear) sent me that email talking about President Packer and how he always ended his meetings with, "Therefore, what?" I started applying that to the Las Vegas Zone! At the end of every District Meeting, Zone Training, ZAT (Zone Additional Training, we do lots of trainings here) we would have our "Therefore, what?" Section. Everyone would pull out their iPads and open their notes app and then write 1 or 2 specific actions they were going to take that week as a result of what they had learned or felt during the meeting. It literally become Zone Culture! All the missionaries knew that at the end of a meeting, whoever was conducting would pause and then just say, "Okay Elders and Sisters, it's been a great meeting, we've felt the Spirit, we have truly been edified. But the ultimate question is this: Therefore, what?" And then everyone just goes right into doing it because they all know :D even in Spanish it translates "¿Entonces, qué?"

And then of course the next week (or whenever we follow up with people) we ask them if they did their TW? from our last meeting and yeah it's helped the zone a lot.

So the shout out was this. At MLC we always have a section called "Zone Concerns" when all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders bring up concerns they have with the mission and missionaries and then we all put our heads together as a council to try and receive revelation to solve the problem. So basically, one set of ZL's said, "So in our zone we are always working super hard to prepare these trainings for our missionaries and they go well but then we visit with them a week later and they have completely forgotten everything from the training. How can we help our missionaries to better apply the trainings we give to them?" And so instantly I knew that Mom had once again prepared me for some future endeavor with wise counsel she had given me earlier. So I shared with the council this whole experience about you sending me that email and talking about President Packer and how you were going to apply his thing to your seminary class and so then I applied it to our zone and how it's been super effective. The other ZL's loved the idea and so did many others. The best part though, was that right at the end of our MLC meeting, President Ahlander gets up and says, "It's been a greeeeeeeat meeting today Elders and Sisters, but really, it's just like how Elder Alley's mom says, 'Therefore, what?'" And then he went on to talk about taking what we had learned back to our zones and all that jazz.

So, Mom, you got a shout out from President Ahlander in our MLC!

So that, and the fact that Moroni and his friends all came to church yesterday make up the highlights of the week! I'm excited for one more here, and then it'll be on to the next adventure!

In the meantime you all take care, les amo mucho!

-Elder Alley

Drunkards and Temples and Bikes, Oh My!

The Las Vegas Temple

Elder Beltré photo bomb

I love to see the temple!

Elder Alley and Elder Walker

Van Ride Selfies

August 31, 2015

This week was an interesting one. Some real good moments and some not so cool moments. I guess I'll start with the not so cool. Basically, we contacted an aggressive drunk man and he just proved to me yet again how much I dislike seeing people drunk. Well, I mean I've contacted people who were drunk before but they were a happy drunk. This guy was just all mean. He kept telling us to tell him what we were all about, but every time we tried talking he would talk over us, and then would get mad that we weren't answering any of his questions. At one point he got right up in our faces and said, "Tú no sabes nada!" (which is "You don't know anything!") And then he went off about the Bible, and I refrained this time from trying to prove him wrong. We ended up admitting that we're just 2 uneducated white "sons of Donald Trump" (as he called us) and that we would go home and study up the Bible more and then come back and chat. We ended up just laughing at the whole situation, but it is definitely a test of pride and patience to not start up something with people like that. Just sad really to see someone whose entire life consists of working 12 hour days, coming home to drink beer and then sleep to do it all over again the next day. There's so much more to life!

Kind of a rant I guess. Moral of the story: I don't like angry drunk people.

On a brighter note! Elder Walker and I were talking about how we could better get our investigators to be more interested to come to church on Sundays, so we decided to try giving a couple tours of our chapel to some families we are teaching to see if that would help. We ended up having 2 very solid tours! We walked them through the building and talked about the classes and then sat in the chapel and talked about the sacrament and then had a TV there to show the First Vision video and then we walked them to he baptismal font and showed the Bible video of Jesus Christ being baptized and invited them to follow his example and do the same, and both the families that did it said yes! One of them was the family who Moroni (from last weeks email) is living with so we are super excited about them.

We also got to go to the Las Vegas Temple this week as well! I LOVE the temple here. It's my favorite one:) We have all got to take a trip here as a family so I can take ya through it! Always an incredibly spiritual experience when we get to go. 

The other fun thing from this week was that we got to spend a whole day on bike! Our Ford Fusion got recalled because the passenger door refuses to shut (kind of a problem) so we spent a day on bike. Super fun! I would love to be on bike all the time! It was actually the day we were giving the church
tour to a family and we live decently far from the chapel, and we had lost track of time and had to book it there to be able to prep everything, oh yeah, and it was all uphill! With our thighs burning as strong as our testimonies we were able to set an Olympic record, I believe, for fastest bike sprint to a Mormon chapel.

Well, this is the last week of the transfer we are headed into, so you will hear later what is happening with me. I hope to be able to stay one more transfer, but not my will but the Lord's be done. We also have MLC going into all the transfer craziness so it should be a jam packed week. I'll leave with this spiritual thought from the end of 2 Nephi. I have noticed so much on my mission the importance of the scriptures. I love being able to read them and mark them up and make all sorts of connections and more importantly receive revelation as I study the pages of those holy books. I love, as well, how it says in 2 Nephi 29:11 that, "for out of the books which shall be written I will judge the world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written."

We will be judged one day, and the basis, the backbone for the judgment that will make it fair to everyone, will be the scriptures! Most of us have access to them, but not all of us read them! We cannot at the last day look up at God and say, "I just didn't know what you wanted me to do!" because it has all been laid out for us in the holy scriptures. We have to got to be so familiar with the words on those pages because they are the words of Christ, the words of eternal life. And then even later in Jacob it says that people were being wicked because "they understand not the scriptures." If we read them, study them, and live them, we will be ready for that day when we stand in front of our maker again to be judged!

Love y'all!

-Elder Alley