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