Dec 9, 2013
I'm glad you liked that last email, I put my whole heart and soul into it. I'm glad you got the picture of me and Elder B and our masterpiece. There are a couple of stories connected with that picture that I will start out with.

First: The Ward Christmas Party. That is why we decorated that tree. I was on an exchange with Elder B, I brought him into my area for the day. (Elder B is in my District and was trained by Elder Ault.) We went to the church building to do our online Proselyting for the day (Facebook) when we were spotted by the Relief Society. And they put us to work haha. We set everything up and then we returned to our house for lunch. We planned on meeting up with Elder T and Elder S, Elder B's companion, at 1 at the church building. We do weekly planning on Fridays at the church building. When we went back to meet them we were approached by a lady that asked us for the time, I told her. I then asked he if she needed any help (she looked pretty haggard) and she told me that she saw the sign about dinner (The Ward Party) at 6 and was going to stick around. I gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to read it while she waited! Her name was D. I got her some water from the drinking fountain and let her do some reading. When I checked up on her again she had read a little bit and had more questions about what we do as a church and we were able to answer. Eventually the party came around and we were able to give her a tour of the building and dinner! I'm not sure what will come of it but I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to serve her. I know I won't always see the fruit of my efforts but I felt the Spirit approve my efforts, that's a good feeling.

The Ward Party was a huge success, we had it set up so that you had to do a tour of the building before you got dinner haha. It was sweet, we had close to 40 nonmembers there. Christmas Miracle.

Story #2: (It's kind of a subplot to the previous story.) Sanhedrin. As I said, the Relief Society put us to work. The first order of business to take care of: (From Sister S) Rid her trunk of the two stray cats that had taken refuge there. We gladly accepted and to our surprise found two little kitty's!! One was really mean but the other loved us. So we named him Sanhedrin. (I later named his brother Teancum.) We took some extra time to have a little picture shoot with our little friends and then continued on our work. But the kitty's kept causing trouble. Whenever anyone would go in or out of the church they would make a mad dash for the building. They made it in the chapel once and we had to go corral them out. But when we went back for lunch Sanhedrin followed us! And then he sat there and meowed at the door... The whole time. When it came time for us to return to the church Sanhedrin gladly followed. No questions asked. And he actually kept Dolores company while she waited which was nice.

When the party rolled around we were given the assignment as greeters but with Sanhedrin and Teancum lurking about that quickly turned into Kitty Patrol. Regardless, it was a good night with lots of cute kitty pictures to follow. P.S. Sanhedrin is what the high council in Jerusalem was called at the time of Christ.

So cool that Silver Rush is in full swing once again! I actually thought about how it had been two years a little bit ago and had a mini heart attack. Whatever, growing up won't bring us down. Another thought came to me the other day... When I return from my mission I will have had 5 out of the last 6 Christmas Seasons of my life in basically full service mode. With my 3 years of Silver Rush, my selfish post-high school-pre-mission, and then my 2 years on my mission. How blessed am I!! I'm serious, the Spirit that is felt while spending so much time serving is incredible! I'm so grateful for it.

We did get our Christmas tree and the Christmas season is in full swing. We already have people inviting us over for Christmas and Christmas Eve, which is a huge blessing! Also this next week we get to go to the temple as well as have a Christmas Activity with the whole mission on Wednesday. I'm pretty sure that it's some sort of service project and I can't wait. It'll be fun to be with everyone in the mission. A family reunion! I'm glad to hear Elyse and Dal will be there, I'm not sure on the exact time yet but it'll be in the early afternoon. Probably sometime between 12 and 2.

Bro B is still coming along. He came to the Ward party but he missed church. I'm going to have to get on him. But he's doing great, he had us help do service for his nonmember neighbor. So awesome. I really want him to be called as our assistant Ward mission leader. I'm going to see what I can do!

We met with J on Monday, he didn't have a lot of time so it was short but he will be back in town this weekend and we're going to get him to the Ward party hopefully. And we want to get him over to the Christmas Lights as the temple as well. That'd be sweeeeeeet!!

We also found someone new!! His name is M. A few weeks ago we met him because one his neighbors told us to go introduce ourselves to him. He was hard to catch and we caught him once before Thanksgiving and he told us to come by after. That whole next week we still couldn't catch him. It was 830 on Saturday night, we were right by our house, I was freezing (the nights are cold now, especially on bike), and quite honestly ready to go home. But I got the feeling we needed to give M a try. So we did, and he was there!!! Hallelujah! We were able to talk to him and give him another Book of Mormon (his sister stole the other one we gave him) and we are going back this Thursday. And he also told us he couldn't go to church yesterday but he can make it this coming Sunday! Christmas Miracles.

I love the Christmas season on my mission, it's so incredible!

I've been studying the letter of the law vs the spirit of the law with Brother B lately. I've come to realize that the rules we have as missionaries are what we need to do, and that's the letter. But the spirit of the law focuses more on who we are and not so much what we do. That was e higher law that Christ brought. They already knew not to kill and he came and taught them to not be angry and you, by default, won't kill. I love the principle of obedience and the evidence I've seen on my mission that miracles follow a fine mix of faith and obedience.

But I hope you are all having a great Christmas Season!! I know I am! Things are swell in Lehi. I <3 you.

Love, Elder Alexander

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