MY NEW NAME IS BUDDY HOLLY

 June 24, 2013

Hi Mommy,

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! It makes me laugh every time that on that calendar you gave me, you put your birthday on the last day and had to correct yourself haha. I love you lots and I hope you have a great day on your birthday! Well everyday, but especially on your birthday.

That broadcast yesterday was the bomb! I sure loved it a lot. Those prophets are the greatest, I'm so very grateful that we have the knowledge that we do and we have a prophet to guide us on this earth today! To answer some of your questions, I'm pretty positive that I will be in the Mesa mission. Unless there is some sort of fall out. It depends on where you are serving, currently I'm serving in the Mesa mission. The split takes place next Monday! So we'll see, but I think we can be pretty confident in saying that I'll be in the Mesa mission. Which means that my address will be changing! So stay posted for that. Me and Elder Salesulu are still going strong, he's stuck in good ol Mesa for now. But it could be literally any day now. He's excited to leave... Haha. But he's a good missionary.

I'm sure soon enough that I will get a picture with the new President! He'll be here in 4 days, so crazy. The time has come. I have a feeling that I'm going to head out to Globe whenever I end up getting transferred. I feel it in my bones.

I gave a talk in sacrament and taught Gospel principles class, about putting our trust in Jesus Christ while we do missionary work. About how we can have trust in Him that as we do what He has asked that we need not fear because He will lift us up. It went pretty well and I learned a lot. In John 16:33 Christ tells us yeah you're going to have struggles but don't worry about it I've overcome them. Just rely on Me and you can get some peace. (Obviously not how he said it but you get the point.)

Sorry I haven't been doing day by day explanations, but the last couple weeks haven't been as eventful. We're trying to find more people and not having as much luck as we were. A lot of our people have stopped meeting with us, they just weren't ready. It's so sad because of course I know this is true. It's going to bless their life. Way more than work, or beer, or smoking. But they can't see that. It's really unfortunate. But I'm grateful for the opportunity to bear my testimony to so many different people. It's amazing to feel my testimony grow as it is born.
As you said it's always great when your'e serving the Lord! We're having a hard time finding but I hope our members will have the desire to fellowship they're neighbors after yesterday.

 It's so amazing how the Lord is hastening the work. It's incredible! We have so much to do! I'm so excited to be serving at this time, I know there are so many that are prepared. A lot of people aren't ready as well but I know if we do all we can the ones that are ready will surface. It's just a matter of time.

I read Helaman 10 this morning. Amazing. I just want Heavenly Father to be able to trust me in the way that He trusted Nephi. I'm trying, but I love Him and I know He recognizes.

The enabling power of the Atonement is incredible. I know that because of what Christ did I can have eternal life and I am so grateful for that but I am even more grateful for the fact that because of what He did for me personally I can be better. I can improve and I don't have to stop moving forward. No matter what, if I put my full faith and trust in Him I can achieve incredible things. I love Him for that.

We have an investigator and a member that call me Buddy (Buddy Holly) haha. I love it, they're awesome guys. Hermano and Mike. Mike is Denise's husband (she's a member) and he's reading the Book of Mormon. He told us he's not in it to be converted, but we'll see about that haha.

Thank you so much for the support and I'm not sure if I'm really in need of anything else. I'm pretty well taken care of down here! I'm excited for that water tube to get here though! DOn't worry I'm staying as hydrated as possible and I haven't gotten sunburned yet. Sunscreen all day every day. Thank you thank you! Tell Elyse and Dal I love em and tell Adam that one email for 2 years of service doesn't cut it, and I want to hear from him. Tell Jayce that Georgie loves him.

Love you!

Love Elder Alexander

               My last picture with President and Sister Ellsworth :'(

 This is Elder Bowerman. He was my Zone Leader when I first came out. I saw him on Thursday at the temple, he's going to be in the Mesa mission as well! 

        This is my good friend Elder Stockdale. He is going to be in the Scottsdale mission and I had the            opportunity to see him one last time before the mission split.

  This is the man, the legend, Elder Quiner. He is an ASL Elder and he will be in the Scottsdale mission. He was in my Zone for my first two transfers. Oh boy, I love him. That dang mission split.

I LEARNED A VALUABLE LESSON

JUNE 17, 2013

I got a giant brownie in one ward and some cake in another. I wasn't gonna tell em I'm not a father if they're offering that! I'm gaining a little weight, but I'm over it. 

This week is one of those weeks where I don't do a day by day report, because we had cancellations and cancellations. It was definitely Heavenly Father flicking me in the nose and getting me back on track which I appreciate.This week was not as easy as the rest but that's the point, right? Heavenly Father knows me so well, He knows when I'm getting prideful even when I can't tell. But He taught me so much this week. Because we had a lot of cancellations, dropped investigators, and stopped by a bunch of member referrals of people who weren't interested, I learned a valuable lesson. We taught the Plan of Salvation looooooads this week. It was the bomb.We taught simply too which was cool, people actually accepted it!  I am so grateful for it, and for the power it has. IT's so simple, and so amazing. I love being able to share that incredible message with everyone I meet.

 Me and Elder Salesulu are still together, he was thinking he'd get his visa this week but he's still stuck with me! We're having fun though and learning a lot. I got the packages and I really appreciate them!

It's getting pretty hot, and there is no such thing as a breeze in Arizona. It's just heat, and more heat. Apparently this is one of the hottest summers ever for this time of year, it's basically been consistently over 110 every day and I love it! The sun is so bright though. Those clip on shades that you sent me are a dream. If it wasn't dishonest we talked about me pretending to be blind in order to help people listen to us. But I don't think that's appropriate.

We stopped by a lot of member referrals this week. Not interested. One guy named Mark was pretty weird. He looked at me and said, "You're 19 right?" I said yes, how'd you know? And he told me the Lord told him. Then Elder Salesulu said, "How old am I?" And Mark said 20. Elder Salesulu asked him how he knew and he said the Lord told him. That's when Elder Salesulu told him he's 24 and Mark told us he's Lutheran and closed the door. People, people, people.

Remember Jerry? The one that had been in prison? I don't know if I told you but we found his records and he moved out of the ward, but he came back this week and I got to see him again! He's doing awesome, he always says, "Ya see?" It's pretty old school. Like, "I read the Book of Mormon ya see?" I don't know if this is making sense, but I love him. He's so much happier than when he first got out.

I got the emails from all of my friends and that was pretty awesome. They all sound so good and it's amazing to be serving with them at the same time. Tanner's hilarious, I don't know how he does it. I have lost my ability to be funny. I am purely old man church humor now. Nothing but, all day every day.

Today we're going over to Phoenix as a Zone and going to the Arizona Science Center, the mission splits in 2 weeks! So we're going to hurry and do it before we can't go there anymore. President is on his way out, he wrote me a letter today. It was really nice. Just a couple sentences but it was awesome. I love him a lot, and I'll miss him. But I know President Jenkins has been called by God and I can't wait to serve with him too!

Not that I'm counting but I hit my 5 month mark yesterday and I just thought of how much I have learned. I am far from a scriptorian, I honestly have no clue what is in most of the Old Testament but I have learned so much about who My Savior truly is. I finished Jesus the Christ by James E Talmage this week and I almost dies. Jesus Christ is so much realer to me than He ever has been before. I still have so much to learn and can do so much more to draw closer to Him but I know He's there for me and I'm so grateful.

I'm trying to do all I can! And I love this work, the heat rules, sweating rules, getting turned away rules, because the gospel rules and I know Heavenly Father will be there to lift me up through it all.

I have also been trying to hand myself completely over to the Lord. I want to be everything He wants, and I've been trying to figure out what I can do to fully give Him everything. I came across a scripture in Heleman 3:35. Blew me away. I want to be sanctified by the Lord and the only way to really do that is to give Him your heart. He can't do anything with until it's in His hands and it's amazing how He makes us work for it. He loves us and He knows what is going to make us grow. We are the ones who have to figure it all out.

Still teaching and learning. Loving the heat down here! (Thank you for the world update, I like those.)              Love you lots,

Elder Alexander
 

JUNE 10, 2013

Alot happened this week. I am exhausted

Thank you for sending that package so soon, you are just the best! I love hearing about the pointless things the family is up to! I saw that I got an email from Jen and I'm pretty excited to read it, tell everyone I love them a lot! I try not to miss them, but sometimes I do. Then I get to work and get over it. But I still love them! Well this week was crazy. A lot happened. I have been exhausted. All week. I guess that's good though. There are loads of new missionaries coming in, we're up to 235 missionaries in the mission! Plenty of visa waiters. But I'll talk about that later, and Here. We. Go.

Monday-
After emails we headed to Wendy's for lunch. A nice Sister purchased it for us which is always nice. Some teenagers were in there and they all had shirts that said, "Jesus made us friends with God." I love everybody, but really? Anyways, afterwards we headed over to the 99 cent Store. That place is a dream. It's like the dollar store, but they have actually good things. I was in heaven. I got loads of supplies like highlighters, and white out. It was great. Then we hit up Goodwill, got me a tie for 2 dollars and a toaster for 3. Pretty good trip. That night we ate with the Star's, an old couple. They were very kind. We stopped by Sarah and Hector and talked to them for a little while, read some scriptures. I love them so much. Sarah has changed so much and Hector is the best.

Tuesday-
Tuesday morning we stopped by Debbie and just followed up on her reading. She's been reading and coming to church a lot which is very exciting. After lunch (We went to Moki's (A Hawaiian restaurant) and a guy walked up to us as we went to pay and said it's on me, gave us $25. And then the cashier was a recently returned missionary and he said don't worry about paying. So we made $25 for going to lunch) we had a lesson with Lisa. All three of her kids were baptized, two have already been married in the temple to return missionaries. We had a sort of break through lesson where she admitted that she is teetering between Mormon and Seventh Day Adventist but she's leaning towards Mormon because she's starting to agree with everything, before that all of her comments had been very doubtful. After finishing up Elder Kiene's packing we went to dinner at Sonic and talked to Nicole. After as we were riding to our next appointment a lady pulled over and gave us $15. Everybody loved us this week. It was ridiculous.

Wednesday-
Transfer Day!! Basically half the mission was there, last transfer before the split. I saw Elder Weston he's doing great, staying over in Phoenix. Everyone from my MTC District was there too. We're being split right in the middle. 3 in the Scottsdale mission, 3 in the Mesa mission. (For now at least). My MTC companion Elder Keeler is already a Zone Leader! Whaaaaat? He's a good missionary that's for sure. I'm glad I got to be at this last Transfer meeting, it was cool to see President for that last time. So. My new companion. His name is Elder Salelulu (Saw Lay Soo Loo). He is from Compton, California. He is headed to Sydney, Australia on his mission. Speaking Samoan! He rules. His parents are converts from Samoa and he was born and raised in Compton. Needless to say he's pretty hard core. He's been on his mission since April 24th. In the MTC for 2 weeks (already knows Samoan) and has been in Mesa for a bit. SO his Visa could be here anytime now but I'm happy to have him! So we're learning together! It's been a great experience to have to talk so much haha. I've learned a ton because I have to teach Elder Salesulu things that I haven't even mastered but it's been the best thing for me! Heavenly Father sure knows what he's doing. We taught a tough lesson to a guy named Eric. It was exhausting. We also taught Jesus and Sarah. It was a good one.

Thursday-
Pretty uneventful. Got a flat tire. Did service for 3 hours for Bear and taught Kace a lesson. He should be getting baptized on the 22nd.

Friday-
Taught Jay. He's close. He just needs to act and then he will get his answer. Weeeekly Plannnning. That's always fun. Then we taught Debbie and Jesus. Loads of lessons this week.

Saturday-
We had two miracles. We received a referral. For a man named Dalton. We called his friend Taylor and now he's a new investigator. Really good guy. Mid 20's, scared we'll have to pass him off to the Single's Ward. But we'll see! Then we went to dinner with the Poormon's. The husband isn't a member. Usually we are told not to bring up the church at all. All of a sudden he's asking us questions and we're laughing and having a great discussion. He agreed to read the Book of Mormon and told us we can stop by again and talk. He's awesome. We had an investigator named Brittany ask us for a bird cage because a wild bird flew into her apartment and she wants to keep it. So we found one. Service for days.

Sunday-
The Sabbath. Another miracle or two. A family brought a friend to church. By the end of the day, Carlos was a new investigator. Had a couple of lessons and ate dinner with the Thatcher's. So his name is Ziggy not Izzy. My mistake. But it was cool talking to Brother Thatcher about what it was like teaching him. He was brand new at the time and at first they would just play basketball with him on P Days and all of a sudden he was baptized. Brother Thatcher obviously had a Detroit Lions hat already haha.

We dropped a lot of those investigators that were part of the rush but we also got 4 new ones so I'm ok with that! The members are getting excited and I love that. I love that they recognize me now, except for I got called Elder Anderson twice yesterday. Not ok.

We had a lot of miracles this week. It's been crazy to see how much the area has grown since I got here. I remember my first night in the area we had no set appointments and I think we had like 6 member present lessons that week. But for Elder Salesulu's first night we had 3 member present lessons in 3 hours and ended with 15 member presents for the week. Heavenly Father has been blessing us a lot. It's funny how sometimes we'll be working really hard and not seeing much come from it and then all of a sudden we get a random referral that makes everything better. It's completely unrelated but it's totally related. Heavenly Father blesses us for diligence and obedience, when we do what He wants we let Him bless us. He wants to we just have to let Him. 

 I'm grateful for your testimony and all you do for our family. I pray for you guys erry night and I give thanks to Heavenly Father that I can be with you forever. Keep up the hard work. I know that the church has been reestablished. Christ's church. Not a man's church, but the only true church of the Son of God. Thank you for helping me gain that testimony.
Great week. Super busy. I'm exhausted. I love my new companion. Life is good. Thank you for everything. I love you so so much.

Until we meet again,

Love, Elder ALexander

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential a

TRANSFERS

June 3, 2013
Great to hear from you as always. Glad those missionaries were able to come and share a message with you! Are they doing their job, didn't they strengthen your faith?? It is super true that everything is so simple, that's my favorite thing about the gospel. Tell Adam I love him a lot, he's definitely an example of hard work. Love that guy. Heard from Elyse today which was really nice. No Adam though. I'm going to kick him in the head. Good to hear about Micah and Coach, I did get to write him a letter a bit ago. It was awesome to hear from him. I do have some great friends, I was hearing about Tanner and Jordan on a pretty regular basis but I'd like an update on some of the other kids out there! maybe you can round up some stuff from those missionary Moms. That's too bad about Uncle Lamar I will keep him in my prayers. He's a great man. 

Well this was an exciting week full of 13 Member Present Lessons, dropping people, bike crashes, and some pretty exciting/surprising news. Let's do it.

Monday-
Good old P Day as always, we ate dinner with the T___ kind of a crazy old couple but we love em none the less. Afterwards we headed over to the A apartments where most of the work is. We met with Jenella and Alyssa. They were the people that were drunk when we first met. We taught them the first lesson. Outside. People were walking all around. Dogs coming buy. A guy drinking a good ol dos eques beer close by. But the Spirit was so strong. Alyssa was kind of out of it.. She was smoking something. But Jenella said that it made sense. She said that a couple of weeks ago she had felt that she needed to go to church... And what do you know we showed up. We helped her recognize God's hand in her life and it was awesome to see her recognize the Spirit so well. Good lesson. Afterwards we stopped by Jesus with Bro Gurr. It was a decent lesson. And thus ended the Day of Preparation.

Tuesday-
One of those great days where everyone cancels and you feel like nothings working out. And then you go home and you had 5 member present lessons, just because you worked hard and Heavenly Father blessed you for that. The day started out tough, we took off at about 11 after getting some members for lessons that day and preparing. Stopped by and set up some appointments, stopped by this lady named Jennifer that was part of that influx of investigators and had to drop her because we haven't seen her since that first time. On the way back for lunch we're just riding a long. When suddenly Elder Kiene is awfully close. So I jokingly kind of put our handlebars close together. Next thing I know my bike is gone and I skid across the asphalt. Actually didn't hurt too bad, my shirt was all black and I hurt my elbow but that's about it. I'll send you a picture of it. It was a good one. Heavenly Father knew I needed some humbling. I spent the beginning of lunch wallowing in my self pity in the confines of my closet. We were able to stop by Laurie and basically she said she's going to read the whole Book of Mormon and pray about it but she doesn't want to meet... It's whatever, we'll stop by in a couple weeks and baptize her.

Wednesday-
Had a good District Meeting. Training for life. And then we stopped by and saw Jesus. And got a hair cut while we taught him a lesson. Jesus had a roommate (Moved on Thursday) named Vince. He was an investigator of ours, part of that influx. We're going to send a referral to his new place but he's kind of crazy... He tells everyone we bring over that he's bipolar. Basically it's like "Hi my name's bipolar, and I'm Vince." The gospel will definitely help him but he has some stuff to take care of first. Jesus really didn't like him though haha.

Thursday-
Elder Kiene and I were a little sick for most of the day. Stupid stomach problems, I hate the toilet a lot. So we were in most the day but I got to read a lot of the war chapters of the Book of Mormon which was awesome. Then we went to ward correlation for Edgewood and it was pretty alright... We're just trying to keep Edgewood going, they've had all three of the baptisms since I got in the area. But we have to keep working! Then we went to a member family's house, the Anglins, and taught them the Restoration. It was an awesome experience. The Spirit was so strong as we asked them to bear their testimonies of the Restoration. I got choked up for the first time while teaching and bearing testimony. Loooved it. Then they fed us pizza because we didn't get dinner which was nice too.

Friday-
Elder Kiene was still down, I felt a little better though so I was able to study more and I really loved it. We had three lessons set up but 2 canceled. But we taught Debbie, we taught her about prayer and fasting and how it will help her build her faith. We're going to talk about the Atonement next time and help her with that. We stopped by and talked to Jenella again because Chloe canceled and we had a member with us. She's discouraged because her fiance told her that she can't investigate, but she wants to. We told her to pray and the Lord will provide a way. We also talked to Kace and set a baptismal date for June 22nd! Same as Jesus.

Saturday-
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday... We ate lunch with a part member family. Chad and Lisa. Lisa is a member and Chad is the coolest guy but no interest in the church. I've just been trying to break down the walls he has up, and we actually got to talk a little bit about the church which was awesome. But we were talking and he's a big Kansas Jayhawks fan. So we talked about Jake Heaps because he's excited for him to start playing for them this year. And then we started talking about Izzy the big black guy that just got drafted from BYU. And guess what. The missionary that baptized him in Africa is in my ward! Brother Thatcher, and we're eating with them next Sunday! So I'm excited about that. But we talked a bit about his concerns, like tithing. We'll get him eventually. We taught a lesson to a less active sister, Sister Forbes. It was cool to help her strengthen her testimony. We ate dinner with Sister Anderson, recent convert, and her husband. We went to a barbeque house called Waldo's, it was really good. That night we had a lesson with a new investigator named Eric, big and black. He was sooooooo tough.And it didn't help that at the beginning of the lesson we got a call from the Mission Office. We didn't answer but when you get a call from President the Saturday before transfers that means somethings changin. So I had to pray lots to keep my mind in the lesson!!! Eric will be hard, he needs proof from the Bible. But we'll get around that soon enough.

So. After the lesson we give President a call. Here's the news. It's quite the surprise. After only 6 weeks here Elder Kiene is leaving me. He's going back to the same Zone he came from so he'll be in the Mesa mission. He's training, white washing, and he'll be a District Leader. That'll be fun! As for me..... I'm getting a Visa Waiter. Which means he's in the same situation as when Tanner served in California for a little before he headed to Brazil. I'm not positive if he's coming straight from the MTC but I do know that I've been out longer. So here we go! No more letting my senior companions take the hard stuff haha, I didn't do that too much. I'm going to need some prayers, I feel like I'm getting a lot of trust from the Lord. I'm excited though, it is going to be so good for me. My new companion could only be here for 3 days or 3 months. We'll just have to see! As for now Windsor, Greenfield Park, and Edgewood are stuck with me!

Sunday-
I'm tired of typing. But it was ok. We were supposed to have like 8 people at church. But nope, 2. But that's ok. We taught 3 lessons to member families. The Whiteheads, the Allens, and the De Chesares. Then we stopped by Sarah and Hector and Jesus. We were so tired because neither of us could sleep Saturday night. My mind was all over the place!

Got another letter which I appreciated this week!  I love you a lot Dad and I'm so grateful for you and your example.Things are going great and my testimony of the Savior and His reality grows everyday. As well as the Restoration. Thank you for what you share with me it is awesome. Here's a fun fact for you. There's a church called the Church of Jesus Christ in my area. But it's not us. We were interested so we asked a member to look up the information. It is the church that split off with Sidney Rigdon. It's so crazy how people can stray by the simplest things. It is so evident they don't have the authority,or power of the Priesthood. It's sad actually. They don't believe in the D&C which makes no sense to me... At all

Another good week in the service of the Lord. I love the gospel and I love how happy it makes me. Things aren't always easy but they don't have to be hard if we turn to the gospel and rely on Heavenly Father. I know that there is a transforming power of the Atonement and it's open to all. 

I know that Heavenly Father wants me to grow. I pray everyday that I will do everything I can because I know He's doing everything He can. Which is amazing to me. He knows me. And I love it.

I love you all a lot!

Love, Elder Alexander

This is the District

This is a picture that is in the April General conference Ensign of Elder McCaffery

This is where we write the quotes we hear. Feel free to ask for any back stories on them as you wish. they are mostly pretty good  

This is the effects of the fall.....off of my bike. Not too bad

You can tell how black my shirt is better here

 

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

May 27, 2013
As always it is great to hear from you, I'm excited to tell you all about this week seeing is it was probably one of the busiest/successful/fulfilling I have had as a servant of the Lord. Let's get right down to it.

Monday-
After emails me and Elder Kiene returned home. With nothing to do. So we borrowed 17 Miracles from a member and headed over to the church building. Clad with terrible quality gummie bears from a terrible gas station we settled in. I had never seen 17 Miracles and it really hit me how much those people went through. Their faith really made me think about my own and how much trust I really put in the Savior. It was a great experience. That night we had a meeting with Debbie who has investigated the church before but has a problem with smoking. She wants to be baptized and knows she needs to go to the temple but she just can't quit smoking. As we looked at her old teaching record it is always the same thing. "Tried quit smoking program" same results everytime. As we looked it over we noticed there was no focus on the little things. She had been going to church but there was no mention regarding her Book of Mormon reading and her prayer. So that's where we started, she agreed to start reading the Book of Mormon everyday. We hardly even talked about smoking. We're just going to let the Spirit take care of her! Just as long as she is doing everything she can to have the Spirit I know that one day she will have a greater desire to quit. I'm excited for her.

Tuesday-
We met with Jay again. He is so awesome. We taught him the first lesson because it ends up that it was never taught. He just needs to read the Book of Mormon and come to church, hopefully he'll progress! He asked us about speaking in tongues and all this stuff at the end and told us sometimes he just says weird things (jibberish) that the 'Spirit" tells him to say. Elder Kiene did a good job explaining what we know about the gift of tongues though. That night we ate with a Part Member family the E___. Bro E___ is not baptized but he acts like a member. He's so funny. That night we stopped by good old Laurie. She's really a fanatic about her own church but we got her reading the Book of Mormon! She still thinks it's just a Bible help but we'll get that out of her soon enough. We weren't able to really go in but we talked to her for quite a bit. She told us about her retarded cat. She says it is literally retarded. She tells us about this retarded cat everytime we stop by. She's hilarious, we're meeting with her again tomorrow.

Wednesday-
Wednesday was good ol Zone Conference so we had to go over to Apache Junction, which was fun. A member drove us out and we left our Area Books in his car so he had to drive alllll the way back out and give them to us. Luckily Brother B____is a nice guy though. Another Zone (The Superstition Zone) went before us and guess who I saw. Elder Ault! That was pretty fun, he's doing awesome it was cool to talk to him for a minute. We had a good Zone Conference, found out that we got unlimited texting. It's whatever. After that we were supposed to stop by Jesus but he canceled so we just went around the Argenta apartments contacting. We found 4 new investigators. One is a former, and the last two were kind of drunk but we stopped by the next day and they weren't home and we're going back tonight! While we were talking to people a black guy came out and was smoking. He overheard me give these two drunk people I previously spoke about a Book of Mormon. After hearing this he piped in and said, "You Mormons?" I replied, "Yes we are!" smoking black man, "Mormon's are cool." Obviously this got me very excited. "Why do you say that?" I inquired. And this was his reply. "I've been drinking." And then he goes inside and as we ride away I see him in his room flailing his limbs all around. For I don't know what reason.

Thursday-
Thursday was the slow day of the week but it was still successful. We started this thing where we're teaching completely active member families lessons. For three reasons. 

1. Practice our teaching

2. Get to know the members and gain their trust.

3. Get referrals.

We met with a young couple named the R___ which was nice and he's a return missionary. He hangs his mustaches on the wall. I'll take a picture sometime if I get the chance. Taught me to own the awkward. Because things are awkward ALOT. But you have to roll with it.

Friday-

I will focus on Friday night. We took Hermano P out with us. He converted to the church about 5 years ago. We had member present lessons in 2 hours. It was crazy.

Saturday-
We went to Olive Garden which was fun. We also contacted a referral named Eric. Or at least tried. He's big and black, or so we hear. We took our ward mission leader, Brother Olson, and knocked on the door. A little girl screams for her Dad. We see a woman standing in the kitchen. We stand there. Knock again. Daughter screams again, but Eric didn't come. All of a sudden the mother and the daughter go into the backyard to hide from us. As we look into the house we see a little black baby, probably about 2, alone with nothing but a ketchup bottle as a companion. But he was content. We'll try Eric again tomorrow. During correlation Brother Olson searched and dug about dirt on me. He ended up finding that blog you prepared! So I saw a glimpse of it, looking pretty good. Proud of you Madre. Brother Olson will probably read this. And proceed to make some snide remark. But I'm used to him, he's a good guy. 

Sunday-
Kace came to church. We made sure of it. We had Hermano P take us to his house a half an hour before church and we picked him up! He didn't have a shirt on but he grabbed one and we got him to church. He should get baptized at the end of this month. We had two more active member lessons with the Brenchley's and the Mason's. They threw some questions that I really didn't know how to answer. So I just started talking and the Spirit was able to teach me a lot. It was a cool experience.  Sunday night we taught a couple lessons and helped Jesus' roommate decide to continue to live. It was a pretty good night.

 I was reading in Alma 37 when Alma is talking with Helaman. He talks at the end how we can become slothful. Like Lehi and his family in the wilderness. They got comfortable so they had to get kicked in the but. They had trials that caused their faith to turn back to the Lord. It was really like the Spirit punching me in the face and saying yeah things are going good, you have triple the amount of investigators you had a month ago, but you BETTER keep working. It was another answer to my prayers. I wanted to be taught and that's what I needed to learn. We can never coast, we can never relax. We have to be progressing or else we are falling. It's that simple.

 All and all a great week. It flew by. We taught 15 member present lessons which was awesome, We have seen a lot of success. We get transfer news on Saturday, I really hope me and Elder Kiene get another transfer in this area. We're really hitting our flow. But hey, whatever the Lord wants. I'm down.

I love you a lot Adagio, I bet the service for Jackie was absolutely incredible. The Spirit is such a comforting thing and can be if we just let it in.

I have gained a testimony that the Restoration happened. Joseph Smith literally saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. They stood before him and he restored the fullness. I'm grateful for that testimony. People through darts as I teach and every day. They think they can break it. But they can't, only if I let them. And I won't

I hope all is well and you guys have a great Memorial Day. Tell Jayce I love him. And Adam and Jen, and Elyse and Dallas. And just about everyone I guess!

Love Elder Alexander