Sacrifice Saturday Pt 2

At the Las Vegas Temple with Elder Ernst

From Elder Alley's mom: This was the caption he sent with this photo: "Don't tell Mom..."
I don't even want to know. Sigh.

February 29, 2016

First week of the transfer gone. Just like that. Man, they seem to go faster and faster. We have a pretty different zone now, and there's a new feel to it. But, the mission has taught me that change is good because it brings new lessons to learn and opportunities to grow.

So I think I completely forgot to mention that we were even doing another Sacrifice Saturday event last week in my email home, so I apologize! But, FYI we did another one two days ago! If you remember from before, Sacrifice Saturday is when all the missionaries skip their meals and fast for a day and spend 10 hours non stop (from 10am - 8pm) doing missionary work. Last time we did this we focused on simply tracting and street contacting all day, however, this time was a little different. We had set up appointments with a ton of different members leading up to the event, so we spent the whole day bouncing around from member home to member home teaching them how they can be member missionaries and asking them for info about anyone they think might be receptive to the Gospel.

We ended up being in about 10 different members homes throughout the day and when we didn't have an appointment, we tracted. It was a really cool experience. Something about fasting really gets you focused on the task at hand. I felt close to the Lord as I truly tried to show him through fasting and dedication that I am one of His consecrated servants in His vineyard. We saw many miracles throughout the day, and I'm grateful to have been able to have the chance to get to do two different Sacrifice Saturday's in my mission.

The other cool experience we had this week was being able to go to the temple on Thursday. I went really wanting to have a revelatory experience so that I could know which date I should go home on. I wanted it to be a true D&C 9 kind of experience, not so much because it means a whole lot whether I go home two weeks early or not, but because I have never really felt like I had a "burning in the bosom” type revelation before, and I was hungry to have one.

It's funny how the Lord will teach you things. I got into the celestial room and found a cozy corner to pray. I told God all the reasons why I felt like June 17th should be when I go home: more time to work, see family, I’d get to go home with President Ahlander, all that good stuff, and then I asked Him to confirm it. And, nothing. But not like a "stupor of thought" kind of nothing. I just felt completely the same as it were. So I thought, ok, what about July 5th? And, I got just the slightest, most subtle kind of a burning (maybe more a luke warming) by my heart. And that sounds real specific, but it wasn't. And that's what got me. It like very well might have been the answer, but it was so small and almost unnoticeable that it could have been my mind making it up. So I kept playing around with the idea in my head, and asking and such, and I just never really got this definitive moment.

I think it may have been in part because I didn't want to accept July as the answer because I wanted to go home early, and that might have made me discredit it. But, I think it just went back to being a lesson in faith. That no matter how small and subtle it might be, the Lord will give us something. Because I always knew I wasn't going to see an angel in that room and hear the answer from him, but sometimes I think we even expect too much when we're still not expecting that. I was hoping for an unmistakable flame burning in my chest to be the confirmation, because that's what I picture when I read D&C 9. But, instead I got just the tiniest little warm spot and I need to be happy with the Lord for even getting that. Chalk it up as yet another lesson on the mission of understanding the phrase, "Thy will be done."

So, in short, a lesson was learned this week, and I won't be coming home until July 5th. The cool part, though, was that I was able to talk to President Ahlander afterwards and he said that I can almost certainly still do all my "going home" stuff with him even though I want to stay. So, that was a tender mercy, too! Plus, I figured as I thought about it that I literally only get one chance in my lifetime to do this whole full-time missionary thing, so why not get every second I can out of it?

Another thing, remember how I got to do service for the "Meet the Mormons” lady? The Italian sister who is from Vegas and runs a charity thing and is a painter and was the last story to not make the cut of the movie so they put her in the bonus features. Well, it turns out she lives in the Hillpointe Ward boundaries, and we had dinner with her this week! It was soooooo good. It was a true Italian dinner. We are going back to do service for her on Tuesday!

So that's the report for this week! Last but not least, I want to give a Birthday Shout Out to my wonderful mother! You're the best mom an elder can ask for. I'm even lucky just to be able to celebrate my birthday so close to yours! Even though we are both another year older, I will still always cherish the memories of cuddling on the couch in our house on Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, TX and watching HGTV together and predicting which house the couple was going to buy on House Hunters:) Ahh, those were the days. Te amo muchísimo mamá y estoy tan agradecido que Dios me ha dado una mamá tan chistosa y divertida como tú;) I hope your birthday is everything you could ever wish for and I'll try and be home for the next one.

-Elder Alley

PS Please tell everyone who sent a pic or wished me a happy birthday that I'm super grateful and that it made my day to see all of the people who care :)

Spiritual Thought:

Christ as the Ultimate Physician

In Elders Quorum we studied about Christ's Atonement from Elder Oaks October general conference talk, and as we were discussing it, the Spirit put into my mind a new way to look at it that I really liked.

So, if you had a loved one that was recently diagnosed with a disease you would want to find the best medical help possible for him or her. Well, what if upon researching you found that there was a doctor nearby, who had dedicated the last 50 years of his life to doing nothing but studying that specific disease and how to treat it properly? How bad would you seek his help and council? More than anything right? Because you know that from all that time he has spent dedicated to studying that disease that he is going to know all the ins and outs of it. He will know exactly what to do to get your loved one feeling better.

Well, Christ is the ultimate physician. He can heal ANYTHING He touches. And it comes from the experience he had as he performed the Atonement. The Atonement was an infinite experience that gave Him infinite knowledge. Because He felt every pain, sin, ailment, sickness, infirmity, etc. that you can feel in every type, style, and intensity that you can feel it, He knows exactly how to fix it. (See Alma 7:11-13)

For example, He can heal depression because the Atonement gave Him an experience that would essentially be equivalent to a doctor studying an infinite number of cases of depression for 10000000000 years. That doctor would know absolutely everything there is to know about being depressed, and what causes it, and how to heal it and prevent it. And that is what Christ is, for EVERYTHING. He knows the ins and outs of losing family members, feeling isolated from the world, being rejected by friends, being bullied, breaking a bone, having diabetes, raising kids with mental handicaps, you name it. He has studied it and experienced it as throughly as it can be studied and experienced and therefore can help you overcome it.

He knows every infirmity there is in this life, be it physical, spiritual, social, emotional, or mental, as if He had dedicated a thousand lifetimes to solely studying that specific one.

Maybe that's why one of His most repeated invitations is simply, "Come." Because as we come unto Him, He can heal us in ways that only He knows how.

Another Transfer Gone

"G" (the lady in the middle) is a sister Elder Walker taught and baptized at the same time that I taught and baptized "M" back in Bonanza! Since its been over a year, G received her endowment this past Saturday and Elder Walker and I got to go. I got to work with her a little bit since we were together in a trio in Bonanza. Elder Aldrich, who was Elder Walker’s comp when she actually got baptized, is out of the valley in a little town in Logandale, so I got to be Elder Walker’s comp for the temple trip. It was an awesome experience and now I’m trying to work with the Las Vegas Zone Leaders to get M prepped to receive her own endowment! Here's hoping it can happen soon!

February 22, 2016

Hey first off, I'm just curious if the Alley boy cousins got their Elder Alley name tags or not, I hadn't heard.

Second, transfers are today and Elder Ernst and I are going for round 2 together here in the Red Rock Zone. However, now instead of just covering the Hillpointe Ward, we will also be in the Red Rock YSA Ward. I never thought when I got my mission call that YSA wards would be even a part of my future as a missionary, let alone that I'd end up serving in two different ones haha! But we actually went yesterday to their church services and checked it out and there's a lot of good people there so it should be a lot of fun.

We also got to go on splits with the AP's for a little bit this week because they found a guy who is interested and was YSA age. They actually called us on Tuesday to tell us our transfer call (so we knew like 5 days before anyone else knew theirs haha) so then I got to go with Elder Palmer to teach a guy who is a stud and super interested. So before we even were really in the ward we have a YSA Investigator!

The other highlight of this week was our car breaking down again. That Jeep we've been driving is nothing but trouble so it's sitting in the shop and Elder Ernst and I spent the week on bike:) LOVED IT! Being on bike is so much fun. We got to talk to so many more people and hand out more pass-along cards. Plus my arms are getting tan and my legs are getting toned ;D

There was one cool moment when we were biking up this super big, long hill up our area and my legs were absolutely on fire. They were burning so bad because we were trying to go quick to make an appointment. For some reason, the thought kind of hit me in that moment, that that was probably a little bit what it must have felt like for the Savior as he carried the cross. Obviously, it had to be so much worse, but as my legs burned going up the hill, I pictured him carrying that massive cross up to the summit of Calvary. It was a little thing, but it just made me appreciate what the Savior has done for me that much more.

So even though we might be getting our car back soon, we're going to try and ride bikes as much as possible:)

It was a good week and I'm excited for this next transfer. There were a couple moments this past week, especially when I got the email saying I could be home by *mid-June, that just really hit me and made me realize that I don't have a whole lot of time left to be a missionary. Potentially, I have less than 4 months. I'm not ready to stop. I love this work to much. It's too much fun and it's such a unique experience that I almost wince at the thought of going back home. I've just got to give it all I've got these last months! 

Anyways, I love you guys and appreciate all you do for me! Hope you have a great week!

Spiritual Thought:

Nice, But Not Necessary

We need to make sure that our lives are maintained in such a way that worldly entertainment and such are nice, but not necessary in our lives. We need to be able to say "Social Media is nice, it allows me to keep in touch with old friends, it helps me stay updated on my relative's lives, but it's not necessary. I don't NEED to be on there all the time constantly updating my feed and trying to get people to "like" my posts." "TV is nice, we love sitting down as a family to watch a good TV show and laugh and bond, but it's not necessary, we don't HAVE to be watching tv together to be close as a family or to get through a day." Same with movies, or music, or any other sort of worldly thing. There nice to have, they bring some joy into our lives, but we are not completely dependent on them for our happiness and they do not control us.

Not Just Nice, But Necessary

On the other hand, with the principles of the Gospel, they need to not just be nice things in our lives, but necessary! Our attitude shouldn't be, "The Book of Mormon is nice, it's a good read, I like the stories in there." It should be, "I NEED to read the Book of Mormon everyday. I can't go a day without feasting upon the words of Christ otherwise my spirit will starve." Likewise we ought not to say, "Church is nice. There's a lot of good people there and the lessons make me feel good." But we should have more of a mindset of, "Church is vital. If I don't partake of the sacrament I won't be cleansed from my sins of the past week, I won't have the spirit with me. I need to have people around me to lift me up and who I can serve back. We MUST be there every week." 

In short, the things of the world should be nice, but not necessary to us, while the things of the Gospel should not just be nice, but absolutely necessary to us.

With Love from Las Vegas,

Elder Alley

* Max got an email from the mission office saying: Since a new Mission President will  be arriving shortly before your release date, you are being given the option of departing your mission on Friday, June 17, 2016 instead of July 5, 2016. If you have already arranged an earlier release date, it will be moved to June 17, 2016.

So Max has the option to move his return date from July 5 to June 17. (Guess which option his mom is rooting for?) ;) He hasn't made a decision yet. He wants to think and pray about it first, but the mission would actually prefer the missionaries to depart June 17th because it would put less stress on the incoming mission president. This way the new president wouldn't have to to do departing interviews with a large group of missionaries who he doesn't even know and deal with their exiting process all while trying to take over the reins of the mission. 

Max's one comment about this dilemma in a separate email to us was pretty funny:  "It would mean I truly only served 23 months since I left on July 16th. I was always going to be a couple weeks short of two years just because of the logistics of me having to be in the Mexico MTC for 6 weeks, but this would put me a whole month short. I don't know if that would weigh on me or not. I mean a won't serve 2 years either way, but if I only go 23 months I might as well order my 'Sister Alley' name tag right now haha jkjk."

Out Here Preachin'

The most glorious part of serving a mission is when you get to see some of the fruits of your labors! These kids just got baptized. Their mom (in the back) and their youngest brother got baptized while Elder Anderson and I were still companions back in the Springs Zone. The other siblings started taking the lessons and this past Saturday I got to go back for their baptisms! It was a cool moment to see the rest of the kids join the church and now they are just one big, happy, Mormon family. :)

If I needed to sum up my mission in a picture, this would be it. Just a nice, sunny day out in a middle-class neighborhood walking around with a Book of Mormon and some Restoration pamphlets knocking on doors and talking to everyone we see. It doesn't get more NLVW (Nevada Las Vegas West) Missionary than this. 

February 15, 2016

Another week down. A doctor in our ward gave me some antibiotics that I think really helped and so we were able to get back onto our feet again. We had a lady finally come to church yesterday that we've been working with for a while so we were pretty stoked about that!

We are going into the last week of the transfer now. I requested to stay another with Elder Ernst, but I talked with President about maybe getting to do something special for my last two transfers. I really am kind of worn out from being a Zone Leader for so long, and I wouldn't mind dropping and not having to be in leadership any more. I asked President if for my last 3 months I could go back to the Flamingo Ward where I started my mission. I think it would be super cool to finish where I started! Here's hoping hints can work out. ;)

The kind of crazy thing that happened this week was the alternator in our jeep died and our car stalled out in the middle of a super busy intersection. The car got locked in park so we couldn't push it out of the way of oncoming traffic. So needless to say a lot of people got angry at us as we waited for another set of missionaries to come and jump our car. Then, as we were driving it to the dealership, it died on us again and we had to push it off of a busy intersection to a neighboring parking lot so it could get jumped again. 'Twas a pretty hectic day.

We also had one of those classic two hour discussions in someone's home. We were visiting a less active family, and the wife just started debating with us hard core. It was honestly a very sad sight to see, because the husband and wife were arguing with each other and raising their voices at times right in front of us and their kids. The Spirit was not there at all and it was an unpleasant atmosphere. It makes me so sad to see that. If the family would just try to live the gospel of Jesus Christ and have faith in God, the atmosphere would be completely different in their home.

Simply put, my thought for this week is this: It's important to know the gospel is true, but it's more important to be true to what you know. I have met a ton of less actives here who all claim they know the church to be true, yet they don't live its standards. If the knowledge you have doesn't change your behavior, then that knowledge is wasted.

Have a wonderful week!

-Elder Alley

SICK

This is Elder Evanson, my favorite Canadian. What a stud! I was
there when he was born into the Vegas Zone and now he's a big,
bad zone leader. *Sniff. They grow up so fast.

February 8, 2016

There’s my week for ya. Sick. I got hit with something hard on Wednesday after we had MLC and I spent Thursday and Friday in bed with a horrible cold. I was able to get out on Saturday but my voice was super scratchy and it made it hard to talk to people. I spent the evening back in the Tule Springs Zone because a lady Elder Anderson and I had taught finally entered the waters of baptism. Her name is “J” :) (Shouts out to my Aunt! My birthday gift for you was to help another J get baptized;)

The story with J is super cool. She and her husband have completely turned their life around. They used to go to this kind of mega church here in Vegas. Her husband was actually a less-active member of the church. The husband’s dad passed away and they traveled back to Wyoming for the funeral. J was just so impressed at how the ward completely supported the family in their time of need. Upon returning to Vegas and attending services at this mega church, they realized that there really was no family unity there. If one of them were to pass away, no one would even know. Despite how big and popular it was, it would provide no support when they really needed it. So the husband said, "Well, let's find the nearest Mormon church and go there for a week or two and see if there's a difference." That nearest Mormon church just so happened to be the Silverstone Ward when Elder Anderson and I were serving there together! They instantly fell in love with the ward. She couldn't believe how many people came up to her and said, “We haven’t seen you before, are you new? Are you visiting? What's your name how can we get to know you better?" She never missed a Sunday after that. Then we started teaching the lessons and Saturday she got baptized :)

So that's probably the highlight from the week amidst all the illness. Sunday I woke up feeling the worst and couldn't even make it to church. Soon, the ward is going to have to start making a rescue plan to bring back their less-active full time missionaries. ;) I’m getting cabin fever from being in this apartment so much, but I literally don't have the energy or health to go outside. When the Monty Python guy comes around the corner with his wheelbarrow yelling, "Bring out your dead!" I may just be getting tossed on the pile. Oh my Lanta. I hate being sick.

I'm currently laying on our couch typing this out as I'm pretty drugged out on NyQuil Severe and other medicines. No me gusta.

So yeah, there's the week. Sickness and a baptism. Hopefully next week's report is more lively.

-Elder Alley

P.S. I thought it was funny that both you and Dad started your emails by essentially saying, “Not much happened this week, sorry to bore you." And I'm here like, "Son, I've been practically in a coma for the past 3 days, I think you guys are doing plenty." Haha

"Salvation is Not a Cheap Experience"

Interviews with President Ahlander for the Red Rock Zone!

This is one of the original copies of the Book of Mormon. 

When Joseph Smith first put in an order to get the manuscript he had translated
from the gold plates published, the order was for 5000 copies. 

This is one of those first 5,000.

A member in the ward has it and let us hold it, read from it, and then we even
taught him a lesson out of it, reading fro, the 7th chapter of Alma. It was so cool! 

You could literally feel the spirit behind that book. 

Joseph a Smith himself might have held it. We don't know,
but I like to believe he did. :)

Pics from a hike Elder Anderson and I took on Christmas Day morning
that I forgot to send you. 

Me and the Piet family, one of my favorite families from my last area!

February 1, 2016

One of the most powerful talks I've encountered on my mission is "Missionary Work and the Atonement" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. His message in that talk has been stirring in my soul all this past week.

"Why can this work be so difficult? Why don't people just flock to the font? Why isn't the only worry in the mission field, that of pneumonia from being soaking wet, all day and all night in the baptismal font."

I've wondered that myself, especially this past week. If this is the truth, if it really is the path to salvation that we are offering here as missionaries, why are we rejected 99% of the time? Why are there people who not only say they're not interested, but actual contend with us, confront us and use all the 4 letter words in their vocabulary to verbally assault us? That happened more this past week than I've been used to during my time here in Vegas. We got swore at, threatened, I even had a gun waved in my face at one point. It was an intense week.

But on top of the rejection, the people we are working with aren’t following through either. Unanswered phone calls and door knockings, dropped appointments, commitments unkept. It was a bit of a tougher week. And so it left me thinking, Why? Why is it so difficult?

My thoughts echo those of Elder Holland when he simply said, “By necessity, the path to eternal life leads through Gethsemane. How can it possibly be easy for us, when it was never, ever easy for Him?" It is a simple truth. Salvation is not a cheap experience. We need to remember what we're fighting for here. What's at stake. That kind of prize, the kind of life Heavenly Father promises those who endure to the end, is uncomprehendingly glorious. Ming-bogglingly grand. How could we ever think a walk in the park would be all that's required to prepare ourselves for what He has in store? Especially looking at what the Savior had to go through. 

If we are to call ourselves His disciples then we need to be ready to accept all that entails! If we want to follow Him, then we are going to need to walk the paths he walked, and live the way He lived, and experience what He experienced. And that is not to say that we will ever, ever understand what His atoning experience was like. It was far too infinite and powerful for us to even grasp and we could not ever experience anything on that same level. But, again as Elder Holland states, "To come to the truth, to come salvation, we will have to pay some small token of that same price. Make some small gesture. Take a few steps, at least, towards the summit of Calvary."

And thus is goes. Missionary work is hard, but no one ever said it’d be easy. And it's what I signed up to do because I love Jesus Christ and desire nothing more than to serve Him.

That's a lot of heavy talk haha! My apologies, Life is hard, but our purpose is to have joy! This is the gospel of joy and happiness here! We are not at all expected to be perfectly cheerful all day every day, but if we'll just keep our chins up we'll be able to see over the clouds and spot the sunshine up ahead. Our perspective and our knowledge of the plan of salvation and of our Savior will carry us onward!

I think this was more of a pep-talk to myself haha!

Life really is good, though! Some weeks are just a little rougher than others. There were highlights this week as well. First was having interviews with President Ahlander. The interview was 90% him asking me questions about post-mission life haha so that was weird. He seemed like he was more excited for me to go to BYU than I was! I love the Ahlanders and I'm so grateful to serve under them. The group that goes home with me will go home with them, making us the last group of Ahlander-only missionaries:)

The other highlight was getting an unexpected email from Mireya! She emailed me saying she couldn't believe that she got baptized over a year ago now and that it’s been one of the best years of her life. So that made me feel old in the mission, but also all warm and fuzzy inside!

That's a lot of writing haha I think I'll call it good here. Hope you all have a wonderful week!

-Elder Alley

P.S. Shout out to my older bro Elder Michael Alley! Happy birthday big guy! I'll be sending you an email here soon!