#ASaviorIsBorn

Our zone won the Clean Car Trophy for the cleanest cars at Zone Conference.
It's kind of a big deal. Just sayin'. ;)

October Transfer Meeting

A nice zone pic (check out that great posture)

Some of the best missionaries in the NLVW Mission ;)

It's starting to feel like the most wonderful time of the year
and these are some of the most wonderful people in the world.

Just before I "killed" Elder Adamson.
*killed=sent him home because his mission was over

November 30, 2015

Quick! Stop reading this email and go to christmas.mormon.org! I'll let you check it out for a couple minutes...




Pretty cool huh!? If you remember the "He Is The Gift" initiative from last Christmas, this is a completely similar initiative the church is doing for this Christmas Season, and we are excited as missionaries! We have special pass along cards and a video to show people all about the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ! And that will be THE focus for our mission this next transfer.

Speaking of transfers, I am super excited for this next one. There are some big changes happening. The Elkhorn Springs zone will be combining with the Tule Springs ("Tooley") Zone and making The Springs Zone. My new companion will be Elder Anderson from Sugar City, Idaho. I am STOKED to be with him, he is a huge stud and, not to mention, one of the best looking missionaries in the field, so our YSA Ward numbers will probably be improving over these next couple weeks;) haha! We came into the field together, but since I was in the MTC for 6 weeks I go home a transfer before him. Speaking of that, due to changes in MTC departure dates, I will now no longer be coming home June 28th. I will be coming home a week later, on July 5th. So, my hopes of only having to spend one 4th of July in the field will not be coming true, but I'm excited that I will be given just a little bit longer to serve the Lord:)

This last week was fun, but full of lots of preparations for Elder Adamson to go home. I'll be honest, I love Elder Adamson and I know I've found a lifelong friend in him, however, I'm very excited to be with a companion who is not going home soon. It was kind of hard having to be a bystander as he did all his preparations and everyone gave him advice on post mish life and how happy they were that he would be seeing his family soon, so....it'll be nice to not have all that anymore haha. In all seriousness I'm super excited for this next transfer, and for my new companion!

With the work, our only investigator that is progressing is C, but he is doing awesome! We fasted with him this past week so he could receive an answer as to when he wants to get baptized, and he ended up telling us that the 19th is when he wants to do it, so now we are working with him towards that. On thanksgiving we had about 4 different families sign up to have us for dinner, and we also played some football with a bunch of college kids and our missionary team held our own!

Last thing, with the changes, I'll be covering a different ward. I will continue in the Arbor View and Centennial Hills YSA wards, but instead of Elk Ridge I will now be covering the Silverstone Ward in the Tule Springs Stake. Other than that, it is just going all out for this Christmas Season and telling everyone about the good tidings of great joy of the birth of our Savior!

To end, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I would like to say that I am so incredibly grateful for this opportunity to serve as a missionary. I'm grateful for the people I've met and the experiences I've had that have changed me and helped me come to know who my Savior is. I'm grateful for the Nevada Las Vegas West Mission, for the companions I've had, for the knowledge I've gained. I'm grateful for my loving family that has supported me and are huge examples to me! I'm grateful for this Gospel and for the peace and joy it brings into my life. I know this Church is the only true and living church on the earth and that it is lead by Jesus Christ himself. I love y'all and I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Alley

Tired....so...tired

This is the former Elder White. He completed his mission in San Antonio a little over a week ago. The last ward he served in was in New Braunfels and his Bishop was Bishop Alley! And now he is in the Centennial Hills YSA Ward where I am serving :) I was at the chapel and he walked in and looks at my name tag and says, "This is a long shot, but you don’t happen to have family in San Antonio do you?” And, of course, I say “Yes, I do. My uncle is a bishop down there” and we made the connection and it was super crazy!

At the Zion's Youth Symphony

The first pic is us driving TOWARDS Vegas. 

As you can see...

We are waaaaaay out on the outskirts.

November 23, 2015

This last week was an exhausting one! But in a because-of-all-the-hard-work-we-did kind of way ya know? I was on exchanges with 5 different missionaries this past week and 3 of them were all less than 3 months out on their missions so I had to really lead the work for the day a lot. I spent most of the week just going to bed as soon as possible after daily planning due to how tired I've been recently. All the exchanges were due to sick companions and also Elder Adamson had to do some things to prepare for going home, and we have another elder in the zone going home with him, so they would go off and do their things and I would stay and work. Someday that will be me having to prepare for that, but today is not that day! Haha So needless to say I did a lot of running around and I was beat.

The two highlights though for this past week were the Mission Tour with Elder Corbridge and the Zion's Youth Symphony.

The mission tour with Elder Corbridge was awesome. I won't be able to truly share the knowledge and wisdom he gave us over email, but I will share two specific things he shared that really stuck out to me. First, in our special MLC we did I asked him to share with us things he has learned in his time as a general authority in how to best help people understand the need for consistency with gospel principles. He shared that there are two ways to get people to do things. 1) manage them 2) inspire them. He then talked about how managing is using outside forces to make people act the way we want, while inspiring them allows them to use their own internal motivation to change and become who they need to become. I thought that was awesome!

Secondly, in his actual tour he did with us he made a comment about the relationship between the Atonement and Jesus Christ that really stuck out to me. He said that we often times don't give enough focus on Jesus Christ, and that we focus too much on just the act, and not the person. To put it in other terms, think of it this way:

The Atonement doesn't forgive us of our sins.
The Atonement is what put Jesus Christ in a position so that HE could forgive us of our sins.
The Atonement doesn't comfort us.
The Atonement gave Jesus Christ the necessary knowledge and experience so that HE could comfort us.

It just makes you look at it in a different way, a more personal way. As Ive started to look at it like that I've feel that I've grown a more personal relationship with the savior. It makes Him more real for me. It makes me focus on a face and a person, rather than the vague concept of an act. It was a beautiful insight!

Then last night we got to go to the Zion's Youth Symphony again, and this time it had the group, GENTRI, as the guest artist! Yupp, the same group Mom and them saw at the Women's Conference. It was a spectacular performance, my favorite one of the three I've been too, by far. We went with Chris and the Wong family. It was a super fun night and we are so blessed as a mission to get to attend them.

This next week is the last week of the transfer, so I'll be officially killing Elder Adamson this next week. I'll find out on Saturday who my next companion will be. Our goal is to make this one of the best weeks ever so that he can finish his mission on a high. I'm excited! I love this work and I love you all! Have a muy Bueno week!

-Elder Alley

In the Grind

A picture of Elder Alley and Elder Roskelley that a kind member texted me. :)

November 16, 2015

First and foremost I would like to give a big ol BIENVENIDOS to Sis. Alley who has officially left the stray dogs and sticky rice of Bangkok and is now returned home to the thriving metropolis of Spokane, WA. I'm so über proud of you and the great missionary service you gave:) You truly were an inspiration and a motivating force to all of us fellow Alley missionaries in the field, and it's been a pleasure working in the vineyard with ya:) Have fun wearing pants and hugging boys and watching Netflix. Just don't forget to read your scriptures and pray in Thai!

As for the last week, it was pretty solid again. We have one investigator from the YSA Ward who is progressing swimmingly:) He is so solid. We taught him the plan of salvation this last week and afterwards he just sat there and was like, "This is all so new, and so deep, but...it just feels right." And we just said to him, "Well, that's because this isn't really the first time you’ve heard this, this plan was already explained to you before you were born, in the pre mortal existence!" And he thought that was just the coolest thing since chopped liver. He came to church with us yesterday, too!

We also found two new investigators yesterday! The family we had dinner with invited some non-member friends over and we were able to chit-chat during dinner and slowly break the ice and then teach principles of the gospel without them even realizing it and then after the dinner we were able to actually sit down and teach the message of the restoration and they liked it and want to keep meeting. I've seen a lot of success on my mission from having dinners with members when they invite someone not of our faith to join. It's such an easy and super effective missionary opportunity!

Other than that, this week we had zone conference and we gave a zone training meeting and went on exchanges. I went on exchanges with an Elder Roskelley this past Friday. That kid reminds me SOO much of Michael it's ridiculous. He's like a more quiet version of Michael, but some of his mannerisms were very familiar to me haha. There were parts during the day when it really just felt like I was with Michael again. It didn't make me sad, but it sure made me miss my bro! Needless to say, I've got a soft spot in my heart for Elder Roskelley now.

And despite elders reminding me of my brother, my sister finishing her mission, and running around doing a lot of "going home preparations” for Elder Adamson, I have managed to not get trunky! (So no need to ask me, Dad lol). But, it's been strange for sure. There's a different vibe to the transfer when you're killing your companion.That’s just how the mission be, though.

Tuesday we have a mission tour with Elder Corbridge of the Seventy who is coming to our mission. Today we are doing a specialized MLC with the leadership of the mission where he will give us some instruction and that will be cutting our P-Day short a couple hours today #consecration so that's why the emails are coming in early. Anyways, it was a good week, and I'm glad to hear Ashley made it home safe and sound:)

Love y'all!

-Elder Alley

My Kind of Week!

Elkhorn Springs Zone

Baptisms are my fav

Temple trips are also my fav

Our sweet mission truck.
As you can see our zone covers the outskirts of Vegas

November 9, 2015

AHHHH! ASHLEY WILL BE WITH YOU GUYS IN LIKE 5 days! That's so cool. :) You guys better enjoy her! That will officially make Jake the senior Alley Family missionary now. I only will get like 3 weeks to be the senior missionary :/ haha, but it's all good! Be sure to take videos and pictures and send them to me! I'm so happy for that reunion for you all, I get all smiley just thinking about it!

This was one of those weeks where you just wish every single week could be exactly like it:)

It started out with a surprise of really cold weather! We hit 43 degrees at one point, quite the contrast from the 120 that I was dealing with just a couple months ago. Then we had MLC, which was really good, and then I had exchanges on Thursday with Elder Rathjen, one of our district leaders from Kansas City, Kansas. He is a super nice guy and we had a peachy keen time on our exchange.

The highlight was definitely Saturday. We spent the whole day at baptisms. The first one was a girl in the YSA Ward. Elder Adamson was actually the first one to teach her when he was in a different area and then she got referred to the YSA Ward, and then he actually was the one to baptize her so I was happy for him. She is one of those cray stories where a couple months ago she didn't even really believe that there was a god, and now here she is getting baptized as a sign to God that she wants to follow Jesus Christ! Those are the best mission stories.

Then it was the baptism for Sis. Ross! So many people came for it that we ended up having to move into the chapel because the Relief Society room couldn't hold us all. President and Sister Ahlander even came! :) It all went super well and the Ross family was just beaming with joy and they've already set the goal that in exactly one year, they will be entering the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity as a family, which means.... ROAD TRIP FROM BYU IN A YEAR! I'm going to be soooooo stoked for that. That's one of the blessings of serving here. I’ll be able to come back for cool things like that. :) Elder Adamson, Elder Gee and I are already making plans for the trip. THAT is what missionary work is all about, putting families together and helping people receive ALL the blessings of the restored gospel. It just makes me so happy that I couldn't sleep that night because I was filled with child-like joy thinking about going to their sealing, and also just how blessed I am right now.

That was seriously one of the biggest themes this week for me: gratitude. I couldn't even grasp completely just how much I've been blessed. To be here, doing this, serving a mission, and to be able to see the fruits of our labors, and see the joy of the Gospel in this family, it's the sweetest experience of my life. I wouldn't trade these moments for anything.

Then, on Sunday, we had one of our investigators come with us to church with his friend who is a member's family. He enjoyed it a lot, and it was actually a bit different this week because we had a general broadcast from Salt Lake. Elder Robbins, Sister Reeves, Elder Corbridge, and Elder Oaks all spoke and their talks were awesome. Elder Corbridge (who is actually coming to visit our mission on our annual general authority mission tour in 2 weeks) dropped a spiritual bomb on all those who have wavered in their faith by the recent policy change from the Quorum on church policy regarding children of same-sex couples. As a church, we are separating our selves more and more from the world. We are going to hit a point here soon where it will be impossible to be a fence-sitter. You're either going to be 100% for God or 100% for the world. There will be no inbetweeners.

I had a very spiritual experience his week where I really just promised God that my decision has already been made. I'm on his side. No doubts, no wavering. Consecration to its fullest. If I lose friends, so be it. If I'm hated, so be it. If the rest of the world disagrees with me, so be it. I know whose side I'm on because I know what's at stake here. It's not a popularity contest. We are talking salvation. Eternal progression vs. no increase at all. Being with my family forever vs. losing them after death. The stakes are high and an unpopular opinion isn't going to make me forfeit everything I’m striving for. These are the last days people. The separation of the wheats and the tares. I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ, now and forever. I've cast my nets and I'm following him down the path to eternal life, feel free to join me.

BOOM. Spiritual rant over. Thanks for indulging me. :) Anyways, really good week, amazing baptism, I'm super happy. This week is zone conference and then next week is the mission tour and then it’s thanksgiving and then the transfers over. Time moves too fast, gotta make the most of it while I still get to wear the name Tag!

Love y'all, have an awesome week :)

-Elder Alley

PS
To answer your questions:
1) I'd like to go back to Spanish and be in the Rainbow Vista Ward in the Red Rock Zone. It would be my dream to do 2 or 3 more transfers here, and then train a new missionary in Spanish in Rainbow Vista to end my mission!

2) President has said that with the amount of time I have left I could easily go back to Spanish, but it really will just depend on the leadership of the mission. If enough new leaders rise up from the younger missionaries, I'm sure I'll drop and go back to Spanish, but if not then they'll probably keep me a zone leader.

3) We have had several families offer to feed us on Thanksgiving, and I guess our stake puts on a Turkey Bowl that we're invited, too, so that should be fun. :)

Él Día de Las Brujas

With Elder Ross, a recent RM from Brazil. He served in the same mission
as Mitch Rogers. (Elder Alley's friend from home.)

So the Ross family made this giant statue to welcome their son home from his
mission. I'm expecting something of at LEAST this caliber when I get back.
Otherwise, I'm getting in the car and driving myself back to the airport. 

This is next series of photos were taken at interviews courtesy of Sis. Ross 

This is Pres. Pratt. He was the CCM president when I was there. He lives in the
stake I'm serving in. We chatted it up in Spanish. #CCMmemories

Mission Office shenanigans

On Monday, we participated in a pumpkin carving activity at a neighborhood
pot luck. Now you may be asking, "Elder Alley, why did you just carve a giant
hole in your pumpkin?" Well, to the artistically uninclined it may look that way. But
any true artist will recognize that I made a reflective, thought provoking modern
art piece. When you look at my pumpkin you see what you want to see. You
might see the Statue of Liberty formed from the guts still inside or you might
see emptiness and hollowness that represent the lack of depth in our current
generation. You're right both times. And that's called art.

Great thing about living with members: pets! This is my buddy, Buddy.

Well I hope every one just had the most spooktacular Halloween ever! They take it pretty serious down here in Vegas. For me it's always just been another stepping stone to Christmas :), but for sure this last week was a good one!

The family we found on Sacrifice Saturday is doing well. They all really want to take their time and spend a while investigating before they make any decision. However, the 12 year old son is super into it and came to church with us. His parents said if he wants to get baptized that they're totally fine with that and he said he does! So we are going to be working with him now. 

We fasted on Sunday to find someone who is searching for the truth. The family who has us over for dinner that night invited their friend to come eat as well. We ended up teaching their friend the first lesson right after dinner and he accepted a baptismal date! It was cool because we got in the car afterwards and we were talking about how golden he was because he was actually searching for answers before he met us, and then it clicked right there: he was he answer to our fast!

Sunday was overall crazy because one of our wards starts at 8:30am and then both the other ones start at 1pm so we had to go on exchanges for all of church. It was fun, though, because there is one guy in the Elk Ridge who is preparing for a mission and we've really hit it off. He was my comp for all of church and we had a really good talk afterwards about missions and life and all that good stuff. I think that's probably been my favorite part about being English so far is that I've actually been able to connect with the youth in our wards more so than when I was in Spanish wards.

Other cool story of the week is the Ross family. Sister Ross is getting baptized this Saturday! She married a RM about 25 years ago and has been investigating the church ever since, but has never actually gotten baptized. Their two kids grew up in the church and their son just got back from his mission in Brazil (the same one that Mitch Rogers was in) and is going to be the one to baptize her! We are super excited for that!

We also have MLC this week and our temple trip on Friday. So it's going to be another jam packed week but I'm looking forward to it!

I guess the last thing that happened I should mention was that we had a fun little Halloween. We had to be in our home by 6pm, but the mission approved certain movies that we could watch. So we watched "Freetown", which was a real good story about missionaries in Liberia in the 80's during a civil war, and then we also got to watch "Finding Nemo"! Random fact, whenever I watch that I always remember a time way back when we watched it and Uncle Jon was with us and all the fish in the tank are making comments about the dentist and naming all sorts
of equipment and stuff and Uncle Jon was just dying at that part. I don't know why I always remember that, but I do :)

That's it for this week I guess! Take care and talk to ya later!

-Elder Alley


P.S. Tell Uncle Matt that Gluteus is proud of him for being called as a bishop and that I'll be visiting him after I get home to give him some pointers on how to run a "Missionary Work" minded ward. I seriously have notes. haha