Monday, January 13, 2014

"The 2nd Mile"

Jan 13, 2014
Your baby is 20. Read it and weep. The birthday went pretty well,
I got the package and I loved that tie! You're getting quite the eye for paisley's.
As you know Elder Holland didn't show.... But the meeting was still great
and I got to see Elder Keeler, Elder Corbridge, Elder Armatage, Elder
Stockdale, and Luke Van Skyhawk!! The man that talked was Elder Wright
from the 6th quorum of the 70. He said that he compared his taking
over for Elder Holland was like buying a ticket to the Beatles and
then having the Dixie Chix show up haha. He was a good sport and did
really well. He even showed a video clip from Elder Holland speaking about 
how the mission should change people's lives, and how you shouldn't go back
to what you were before your mission and that we need to be continually fortifying 
ourselves. Other than the meeting we just did good ol missionary work!

Found out that we get to go to the Gilbert Temple open house once, I'm stoked.

I was thinking of Grandma yesterday and I met some people in my ward that 
lived in Price that think they know her! Pretty neat.

On Tuesday we had Zone Training Meeting, which is basically District
Meeting but with the whole Zone. We focused on faith and repentance. I
gave a training called "The 2nd Mile" that Dan taught me about. I
basically talked about the times when The Lord withholds His blessings
for the first stretch of obedience, or the 1st mile, and then releases
them once we have struggled through that and we break through into the
2nd mile filled with blessings. Basically The Lord lets us prove
ourselves and we are blessed since we are more capable to endure.
It went pretty well.

Your lesson you taught in Gospel Doctrine, we did in another Zone training 
meeting about the council in heaven. We practiced making the decision to 
follow Christ and come to earth. We weren't sure how it was going to work 
out but we tried it and it went really well. As we did it, I was trying to convince
someone acting like they were on the fence that following Christ is what they 
needed to do. There was somebody trying to argue Satan's idea and I thought
about how much easier his idea sounded. He probably made it sound like 
everyone would automatically win. But God promised us all that we would hear of Christ.
We all have the chance to return to Him, He promised it! It really hit me.

We had interviews with Pres. On Wednesday and it went pretty well. I
love that man! I don't know if I told you but my favorite part of
being a Zone Leader thus far is getting to know him better. He is full
of a lot of wisdom and he is pretty darn funny too. We think he might
dye his hair but don't tell anyone that.

Lastly me and Elder C--- did this workout Friday morning...
Basically what you do is go all out for 20 seconds and rest for 10
seconds for 12 minutes straight. We alternated between push ups, pull
ups, crunches, and squats. It was rough. For our warm up we biked
about a mile to a members house and biked back after. Basically... I
literally threw up 6 times. And I almost passed out when we got home.
The room started spinning and then I fell back into the wall. Luckily
I was in the bathroom and proceeded to upchuck for a couple minutes
until I felt all better. But we are going back for some more tomorrow!
Haha, I even bought some protein today.

Well I love you a whole lot. I've been studying ACTS lately. I want to
read the whole New Testament since you and Dad are. I really have
been learning a lot about what it means to stand as a witness of
Christ. Peter is becoming my hero. So many people threatened him on so
many occasions but all he did was preach, preach, preach no matter
what. There was one time when they were before the Sanhedrin and they
got beaten... But! They talked about how blessed they were to be
counted worthy to be beaten for Christ's name. And it's true! We are
so blessed to get denied everyday. Obviously I don't want to be denied
but I feel so honored to be shamed in His name.

Well... That's about it! Hope you're not frozen yet. 

Love, Elder Alexander

Sent from my iPad

Monday, January 6, 2014

God continues to put us in situations that make us stretch and grow.

January 6, 2014
We went on some good P Day adventures today. It was a hoot. I got myself some
early birthday presents. Can you believe it, your baby will be 20! I got the package today,
I'm actually at the office a lot more now taking care of some stuff for the Zone so I may
get mail a little quicker, if I catch it on the right days!

That's cool that you are all getting together, tell everyone that I
say hello and I look up to their boys. Wait some chicken tortilla soup
in my behalf and a grilled cheese with pesto!

The new responsibilities are going pretty well to this point!  But I'm liking it! It 
really shows that God continues to put us in situations that make us stretch and grow.
 Whenever I start to get complacent The Lord throws me something a whole lot bigger than me.  
I survived my first week in the car. There were a few close calls but
nonetheless I arose victorious. I can hardly remember Monday and
Tuesday... It seems like that was so long ago. I do remember that we
rode in Brother K-- (the Ward Mission Leader in the Monument
Ward) car. He has a Shelby Cobra... That thing is ridiculously fast. I
missed the new year since we were in bed by 1030 but that's ok.

On Wednesday I was united with my newest victim, Elder C---. He
is from Denver, he has been a Zone Leader for three months, and he
goes home in two transfers. We are still in the get to know you stage
but he is pretty legit. Super funny and really cares about people
which rules. I'm super stoked to be with Elder C----- because he feels 
like he has really figured things out and he is ready to go. These last few
 months are going to be his best, He is teaching me a ton!  We sat through
 transfer meeting which lasted from 10 until 12  and afterwards we changed
 into our non Proselyting attire. I don't remember if I told you but President planned an 
all day New Years party. We had lunch and then we played field games for a few
hours. After that each of the Zones were given a scripture story to
reenact in three minutes. We had Moses parting the Red Sea so we had
Elder A---- (from NZ) be Moses and he parted the Red Sea by doing
the Hakka. It was pretty sweet. After that we had dinner and cleaned
up. The rest of the night was spent making sure that our Zone was all
settled in and everyone knew where to go.

On Thursday we had Missionary Leadership Council. This is where all of
the Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, AP's, and president get
together. As Zone Leaders we each are accountable for the amount of
baptisms are zone had for the past month, and how we tried to
accomplish it. We also set an inspired goal for January and three ways
we want to accomplish it. Our goal for our Zone is 5. The three things
we are focusing on are making sure that our missionaries understand
the principles of faith & repentance, they are teaching it, and living
it. We also want to make sure that the missionaries build up their
Wards to sustain the work they do, so it doesn't just die when the
missionaries get transferred. Lastly we are putting an increased
emphasis on accountability to ensure that we are being accountable to the Lord.

After MLC we called an emergency Zone Meeting for Friday where me and
Elder C---- laid it down. We basically told everyone that we have
immense potential in our Zone but in order to reach it we must be
clean so that The Lord can trust us. It was with a lot of love though
and the Spirit was definitely there. It has been awesome to have so many
awesome missionaries to pray about.

We've already had to plan about four meetings... Haha. It's been
really fun though. Tomorrow we have Zone Training Meeting and we feel
that it will be pretty good. We made one assignment and the Sister
told us that she had been thinking about what we assigned her to talk
on for a couple weeks! The Lord has definitely helped us out.

We had some excitement on Sunday. One of the Elders in our Zone ran
away in the middle of the night! President called us in the morning to
let us know. Luckily he turned up again and I'm super happy because
after talking to President he decided to stay.

My new area is in the Mesa East Stake in the 34th Ward. It's kind of
dead right now. It's a lot like my first area. Basically we have
awesome members but they are pretty apathetic towards missionary work.
It's just not a priority. But seeing as we only cover their Ward now
they better jump on it! I'm excited though. We ate dinner with an
investigator, O---, and his wife last night. She made us Wassacaca
and Empanadas... She's Venezuelan. It was heaven. So good, I can't
even explain it.

Well, I better get going. Thank you for the birthday wish and package.
They have a birthday party planned and Jeffery R. Holland will be there!

I'm really grateful for all of the support! Wish me luck tomorrow, I'm
going to have the AP tagging along with me all day!

Love you all!

Sent from my iPad