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. :)