"Live Life Living."

Sept 9, 2013
So I did receive my package and boy was it a treat! I appreciate it for sure. Here's a funny story. Back when Elder Bartlett first came out his mother sent him some of those dried mangoes for his birthday. They were a hit and the Spanish Elders almost killed us for them. When I opened my package (luckily we were at lunch when it arrived, I don't trust this AJ place) it was like a pack of ravenous wolverines was unleashed. We love those mangoes, and needless to say they are already gone.... 

Jayce is so cute, it's been nice hearing from Adam lately! He sent me a picture of their Beta Fish, Sam. I can't believe he's talking so much now! (By he I'm referring to Jayce and not the Beta Fish named Sam..... I hope that was apparent.) How's Jen doing is she still working at Scheels?? I heard from Elyse and Dal today. He's the ward mission leader! He's going to do awesome at that.

This week was pretty great. We got back up to teaching 20 lessons which was awesome. The members have been really great at helping us out and getting to know our investigators. We have a lot of people to teach but at times it's hard to focus on each of them individually. Sometimes I wish we could just focus on one at a time but hey, we've been called to the work and the Lord always provides a way!

 I just want a more effective way to memorize some scriptures. That's been one of my big focuses the last couple months is using the scriptures in our lessons and I've seen a huge difference when we teach through the scriptures! I know that they speak in a way far stronger than I can, and being able to expand on them is such a blessing. It's amazing how many things each scripture can resolve.

I love in 3 Nephi chapter 23 when Jesus Christ calls Nephi to bring the record which has been kept forward. At first when I read it I thought about how intimidating that would have to be for Nephi, here's the Savior of the world proof reading the record which they have been commanded to keep. It really goes to show how important this record was. The Savior found something that wasn't perfect and they were able to fix it. Everything in the Book of Mormon is for us, today. How amazing!!!

I learned so much this week and I'm so grateful for the ways that Heavenly Father prepares us for His work. We have experiences every day that prepare us for eternity. I want to tell you about Herman who showed me that this week. He was a referral from the American Sign Language Missionaries. His wife passed away from cancer this past Christmas Eve and it has been really tough on him. Since we contacted him on Thursday night we have stopped by every night and talked with him. He has the most incredible stories in the world, he's still searching but everything he says testifies that God has prepared him. When I talked to him Saturday night he was in a rough spot, really depressed. It broke my heart when I asked him if he believed there was peace out there for him and he said no. It's interesting because Herman knows that he will be with his wife again, but he just wants to get there. He doesn't see his purpose to live anymore. He used to use the phrase (I really like it) "Live life living." But now he doesn't want to live at all. He often says "my wife was my life", it's amazing how much he loved her. It really is amazing.   

That following day he came to church and afterwards he went on a hike. He told me that as he was walking a subtle thought entered his mind. "Maybe there is peace after all." That wasn't him that was the Spirit, and I told him to grasp to that and we can help him reach it. It's only been a few days but I can already see him changing.  We are going to teach him the first lesson tomorrow and I can't wait, I know that the restored gospel will give him a reason to live. I'll keep you posted on him!

I love this gospel and the peace it brings. I know that Heavenly Father truly does want us to be happy. Yes, this is a time to prepare to meet Him. Yes, we will face trials to achieve that. But I do not believe that we ever have to be sad. Sure we will be, but God wants us to be happy and I know that.

 Dad, hope your knee is healing well. I keep you in my prayers always. Love ya!

I love you lots! Have a good week and remember to "live life living."

Love, Elder Alexander

                                                                   MissionConference  

      

My old Ward Mission Leader, Bro. Olson, got me some scripture cases form El Salvador!! They're sweet. Here's the Book of Mormon one..

                                                                     And the Bible

I experienced my first Monsoon

Sept 2, 2013
Well let me tell ya, when it rains it pours. Literally. This week, we had rain. The first wave of it was on Tuesday I believe, we were going to talk to a referral with a young man named Tate that is about to head to Peru on his mission. We were walking up to the door and the lady was sitting outside, we she saw us she yelled, "I can not talk to you today!!" in an angry (what we believe to be) Yugoslavian accent. As she storms inside a single drop of rain falls in front of me about the size of a 50 cent coin. It was completely sunny. As we got back in the car the heavens were opened and gallons upon gallons of water fell upon us. It was insane. It lasted all of  6 minutes but it was nuts. (I believe the Yugoslavian woman was behind it but that's neither here nor there.)

  And then on Friday I experienced my first Monsoon. Just as we got back to the apartment for dinner (the member we were going to eat with had to cancel, but we had left overs so don't you fret) it started trickling. Within fifteen minutes the right outside our apartment was a like and right out back there was a river. The wind was absolutely INSANE. The thing is the ground in AZ is so hard. So, when you pour tons of water on it it doesn't seep in. It flows. The roads were rivers, in some places I heard it was up to peoples waists. We obviously didn't go out on our bikes but a member in a big ol truck came and picked us up which was nice. The next day all the water was dried up and there were seriously fallen trees around every corner. And dirt covered the roads. I actually crashed on my bike because of a darn sand bank that was left over on the sidewalk.

Emerald is in our area but she is actually about to move to our Zone Leaders area so we're probably going to move her this week but we're going to teach her tonight! As for Jamie and Marlysa they love us too much to stop meeting with us haha. They just like their smokes and drinks a lot and they're having a hard time letting that go. They also have a lot of legitimate questions, we're stilling working with them. Focusing more on Marlysa right now because Jamie is a little stagnant. We fasted for them yesterday so we're hoping to see miracles ensue. 

This week we found a lot of new people by going to members that the ward hadn't heard from for a while and finding out if they still lived there. They never still live there. So... We teach the people there! It's an awesome way of tracting because we have a different purpose and then we find out when they moved in where they're from and boom their walls are down. It's been cool.

We also had a lot of people cancel, or just not be home which is ALWAYS discouraging but we did pretty good at staying on our toes and staying motivated. I was able to go and watch the movie about Joseph Smith yesterday and it was amazing. I've seen it tons but this time it really hit me when he was riding his horse to Carthage. The scene right before he says to the brethren, "My mission is to testify of Christ. I know He lives." (Something like that.) And he knew that he was going to seal that testimony with his blood. I have that same calling, obviously at a different level but still it's the same. Would I be willing to seal that testimony with my blood? I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. The Spirit testifies it to me every single day.

Thank you for everything, I'm going to include some pictures for you so ENJOY!!! I hope you have an awesome week, tell everyone I love em!

Love, Elder Alexander 

                                         This is my friend Sharon. She is doing so awesome. 

                                                                   

                                                                  SUPERSTITION ZONE