Fast and Furious

Elder Ernst and I

Teaching at Zone Conference

Check out the sweet new name tag Sister Mohler ordered for me :)
(Callejón is Spanish for "alley")

March 28, 2016

Fast and furious. That's how this week felt! I can't believe it's already P-Day again. I promise I will write a little bit more this week. haha I didn't last week because we were in an intense volleyball game for P-Day and I had made a bet with the other team that if they won, I would buy them all Yogurtland. Needless to say, I learned a lesson about why the Lord doesn't want us to participate in betting haha!

We had a JAM PACKED week this past week. It started on Tuesday where we experienced "The Circle of Life" of missionary work. Namely, we had to drop one of our investigators, but we also found a new guy that day that wants to be baptized, and thus goes on the work.

Then on Wednesday Elder Ernst and I had to spend some time prepping our training that we would give at Zone Conference the next day and we made a beastly PowerPoint that dripped with spiritual enlightenment.  ;)

Thursday was Zone Conference, and it was one of the most spiritual ones of my mission! Mostly thanks to the wonderful Sister Ahlander. Neal A Maxwell's spirituality continues on in her! (She's Elder Maxwell's daughter.) Sister Ahlander focused a lot on how we are going to need to make sure we are deeply converted because it's only going to get harder and harder to be a member of this church. She talked about how we need to keep our eyes on that moment when we will see the Savior again, and that if we will do all we can to make that moment a glorious reunion, and not a shameful moment for us, that we will be able to withstand the fiery darts of Satan. Elder Ernst and I gave a training on how to best follow-up with members on the referrals that they give us.

Friday we weekly planned and then Saturday Elder Palmer (one of the AP's and my favorite Canadian) joined us for exchanges. I had to leave for part of the day, however, to return to the Bonanza Ward because D (a little girl Elder Walker and I had worked with a lot) was finally going to be baptized. The baptism was very nice and it was cool to come back for a moment to the ward where I've spent so much of my mission.

Then, Easter Sunday! It was a very spiritual day at Church. Elder Ernst and I had been trying extra hard this past week to focus on the Savior in everything that we do. I had several very powerful, personal experiences with the Spirit testifying to me of the reality, and the divinity of Jesus Christ. I want everyone to know, that I know, that He lives! Jesus Christ truly is our Savior and our Redeemer. He has helped me through so much. He has changed my life. The best part of a mission is all the people you get to meet, but the most important person I've come to know on my mission has been the Savior of the World. And I know that He leads and guides this church today! I know Thomas S. Monson is His spokesperson on the Earth today, and that we need to pay close attention to the messages that will be given us this next week at General Conference. We need to remember what we are telling God when we raise our hand to sustain those 15 men as Prophets, Seers, and Revelators. I love this a church, I love this gospel, and I love Jesus Christ. I hope to spend the rest of my time here on earth wasting and wearing out my life in the service of the Savior in His established kingdom on the earth.

Other than that, I've discovered that I might actually have allergies now, because there recently has been a lot of pollen on the ground and I've been sneezing and coughing uncontrollably for the past week. Here's hoping it goes away soon.

Elder Ernst and I have been getting along fantastically by the way. We have a BLAST together, and I definitely think he will be one of my favorite companions from my mission.

I hope everyone has a great week, and be sure to be spiritually preparing yourself for General Conference this upcoming weekend! You'll get out of it whatever you're willing to put into it!

Love ya!

-Elder Alley

Good Week

Our English District

Sis. Ross (who got baptized finally when I was in Elkhorn Springs with Elder Adamson) called me up and said she missed me and wanted to take me and Elder Ernst out to lunch! She brought her friend from Panama, and I got to speak Spanish with her. (My Spanish is obviously not what it was, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Elder Ernst bore his testimony with the high school Spanish he knew. haha) Her friend said she wanted a Spanish Book of Mormon. One phone call and 10 minutes later the Spanish missionaries show up at the restaurant and we end up teaching her the first discussion right there! She is now taking the lessons back in Panama from the missionaries! 

Another awesome temple trip 

At MLC (Mission Leadership Council)

We really are spoiled here in the mission. The church bought a bunch of new 2016 Corolla's and sent them to our mission to use, so Elder Ernst and I are driving around in one now. 

March 2, 2016

It was a good week. Elder Ernst and I are getting along great. The area is picking up. We took a trip to the temple this week with some recent converts and one of them got baptized for her mom, and it was super spiritual.

We have zone conference this week and we are giving a training.

Life is good, mission as are great, love y'all!

-Elder Alley

Ucegjgeoh gicevyvey

Note from Elder Alley's mom: I have no idea about that subject line. I'm guessing he was in a hurry tp get to his hike and didn't want to have to think of one.

March 14, 2016

Hey we are headed up to hike at Red Rock again today. I promise that I won't do any more cliff-hanging! Haha Sorry to scare ya a little with that. The picture doesn't show, but it wasn't as far of a drop as you think, and also there is a ledge there that made it easy to get back up. I know that doesn't help a ton to know haha but yeah I won't do that again. (Another note from Elder Alley's mom: His dad just sent him the scripture reference Jacob 6:12 in response to the cliff hanging pic.)

We had a good week, and we were able to help a lot of people. I went on exchanges with a guy from Washington and the weather we had that day was total WA weather (cloudy, windy, and rainy) so it was fitting. And we had a meeting with one of the members of the stake presidency. He absolutely blew our mind teaching us about the endowment and temples and other cool stuff. Let me just say, that I have come to understand a little bit better why consecration is so important. Simply put it is
the law of the Celestial Kingdom. If you cannot live the law of consecration, you cannot live in the Celestial Kingdom. If listening to the news is more important than home teaching, you're not ready to inherit the Celestial Kingdom.

Some food for thought! Talk to ya later!

-Elder Alley

20

This is me saying goodbye to my teenage-hood. It's been quite the ride.

March 7, 2016

Thank you all for the many happy birthday wishes I received this past week! That was so kind of you all to remember me. It was a fun week and we saw the Lord's hand working in the details of the work. I had kind of a self challenge to try and look back at every day and see if there was something that happened that I felt God had influenced, and let me tell you what, when you just take a moment to step back and look at it all, you will be blown away at how many things you see that His hand has touched!

For example there was this one day when it was late at night and Elder Ernst and I felt we needed to go see this one guy named T. We drove to his house and as we were walking to his door we walked by another house where there were some people up in the balcony listening to music. I didn't think much about it at the moment. We knocked on the door, but T didn’t answer. As we were walking back I felt like we needed to talk to the guys in the balcony and so I took the ever so classic missionary approach and asked them, "Hey, what you bumpin' to up there?" I think I remember missionaries in the Bible using that same line to talk to some people. It's in Isaiah, look it up. ;)

Anyway, that turned into like a 5 minute conversation, and towards the end of it these two members we know pulled up in their car and said, "Elders, isn't it past your bedtime?” We laughed and asked quickly if we could stop by their house and chat after talking to the balcony people. So we did exactly that and had a lovely conversation with the members in their home. At church yesterday the sister actually raised her hand in a class and shared about how her and her husband had been having a really rough week and feeling down, but that the little encounter they had with us on the street corner that turned into a meeting at their house and us leaving a blessing on the home completely changed their moods and they had a wonderful rest of the week. It was so touching to hear that.

And it made me realize how the Lord is in the details because if we hadn't felt prompted to visit T, and then felt prompted to talk to those guys for a little bit instead of just getting back in the car, we wouldn't have been in that exact place at that exact time to run into those members who needed to feel the Lord's love that night. When we just let ourselves be tools in His hands, it's amazing what happens.

But yeah, back to birthday stuff I guess. I ended up going more of a March 3rd celebration to commemorate the ending of my teenage years haha. It was good, and a lot of people wished me a happy birthday and Elder Walker even called me up and shared with me a rap he had written just for my birthday, so that was cool:)

We also had MLC (Mission Leadership Council) this week, and it was my 12th one so that marked my one year of being a zone leader. Gosh, it's been forever. I would love to just drop and train some new Greenie somewhere. But alas, I'll go where the Lord needs me.

Can't think of too much else to report. Life is good, I'm no longer a teenager, and God is in the details of our lives, you just have to look out for it! Have an awesome week!

-Elder Alley