I love Mesa!

Nov 3, 2013
Hello Madre!
I got the package and I totally loved it. You did great, I wore the
new tie you bought me to church . I'm a big fan of it. I love
the Thank You Cards as well. I may wait until I get home to send them
all out but we will see.


 We refer to missionaries that are going home as "dying" so I am
in my dying area, most likely at least.

The M---- family is doing good. I talk with them on Facebook every
once and awhile, they are still struggling quite a bit but O----- and
G------ came to church yesterday and they are planning on getting
baptized the end of the month. J----- and G------ are doing great as
well, J----- texted me yesterday and he seemed really good. I love
those two!

We had regional conference on Sunday. It was Stake Conference and it
was broadcast-ed from Salt Lake to all of the AZ Stakes. President
Uchtdorf and Elder Christofferson spoke and it was AMAZING! We are so
blessed to have the leadership that we do, they are so inspired.

We were able to go to the PHX Temple Open House one last time on
Friday with an investigator named B-----. He is a retired single old
man and he is awesome. He was blown away by the beauty of the temple
and now we are going to the Visitor's Center with him this week to
watch the Joseph Smith movie. I'm so excited, he is a really sincere
and honest man. He actually started investigating because of the
flooding a couple months ago and the missionaries were able to help
out.

On Friday night we got to go to the temple and do a session because we
weren't allowed to go anywhere unannounced. It was great! I got to sit
by President Jenkins during the session and it was great, sure love
that man. I love Mesa!

President asked me to come to a council on Thursday and we talked
about how the mission needs to be trained on planning during our
upcoming Zone Conference. I probably won't have to present the
training but I am a part of planning it. One thing I have learned on my
mission is the importance and the proper way of planning. I hope I can
keep it going when I get home.

Thanks for everything Mom. I love you.

Elder Alexander

Sent from my iPad

President let me go to the wedding!

Oct 27, 2014

Hello hello! 

Well, Elder H----- is a great kid. He is from a little town in Alabama, he only lived there for a year so there's no accent unfortunately haha. He reminds me a little bit of Elder K----, we get along great. The Ward is great as well, there definitely are a lot of Hispanics and it is probably the poorest area I have served in. But that means humble people! The members are very humble and welcoming people and so are a lot of the people we are teaching and the ones we have talked to on the street. Obviously we come across quite a few with rough edges, we're in the "ghetto" of Mesa, but that just keeps things interesting! 

I will tell you about the people we are teaching. First there is J----, N----, & Ji. J---- is the mother of N---- (9) and Ji--- (5) and they are Hopi Indian. J-----'s Mother is a member of the church and J----- really should be at this point too. She knows it is true but doubts herself and her ability to commit. We are going to teach her about the Holy Ghost this week and help her understand the blessings of the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I'm so excited for her. She is awesome. Ji-- is a little wild, with long hair, he reminds me of the kid from the Jungle Book haha.

President let me go to the J---- and G-----'s wedding! It went great, I guess there was a lot of confusion and frustration on the side of the ward sisters that Elder Sweeten had to deal with but it all worked out haha. I have to say the decorations and flowers turned out pretty dang awesome and the cake was great as well.

Saturday was a crazy day. President gave us permission to ride up with a member to our ward camp out near Payson, AZ! I really didn't think President would give us permission but he totally did and it was awesome. It was actually chilly, I think I might die if it is freezing in December. Which it will be. It was really fun though. A member took a picture of us so I will have to get that somehow and send it to you. When we returned from there we took off to the PHX temple open house w/ J----- and her family and our Ward Mission Leader Brother Carroll. They loved it. After that we stopped at this little train station and went on a mini train ride for Ji and N---- it was pretty fun. At two I went to the baptism of S-----, the man I talked to at Safeway and called me to let me know he was getting baptized. He called me that morning and I got to be a witness at the baptism and tell the story of how I knew him. It was great.  And then right after I headed to J----- and G------'s baptism. The Spirit was very strong and I had the opportunity to baptize G-------. Elder Sweeten baptized Junior. I know that the church is true and I'm so grateful for the chance I have had to see J------ and G------ accept the gospel. They know it is true. They still have some growing up to do but they are doing it and I am very proud of them. I love them!

Elder H---- crashed on his bike last night as he carried a pumpkin in one hand and a phone in the other. It was pretty awesome. He was actually on the phone when he crashed and impressively enough he saved the conversation, the lady had no idea he crashed!

Well, I love you lots!

Love, Elder Alexander

Sent from my iPad

         I don't have any pictures from the wedding but I can probably get some! Here we are at the baptism.   Thanks for loving my investigators. :)

We stopped by a family we are teaching and showed me how to carve pumpkins the right way. :)

How am I so blessed to get to attend two Temple Open House on my mission?

Oct 20, 2014
This is all a surprise to me to, I never really considered the option of coming                                                               home a few weeks earlier than my original release date. But as I spoke with
President, pondered my Patriarchal Blessing, and then heard from Dad it all kind
of made sense to get home and get started with college. I'm excited/nervous
because this all suddenly leaves me heading home in less than two months.
I will be flying home on Dec 18th.  It will be a pretty good Christmas present for
me too. :)

So I got transfer news... I was pretty sure I was getting transferred
after talking with President on Tuesday, I tried my hardest to talk
him into leaving me there but I guess ten months is a long time in one
Zone haha. But I got my official news on Saturday and I am headed to
the Mesa Stake, Poinsettia Ward. The Mesa Stake has oft been referred
to as "Little Mexico" and contains the Mesa Temple in its boundaries.
I'm really excited! I will be companions with Elder H------, I don't
know much about him but he just got done being trained. Seems like a
really good kid, I'm excited to work with him. And.... I'm bringing
Schwinny (his bike) out of retirement! I get to spend my last couple
months in the Southern part of Mesa on my bike, a lot like my first
six! I'm very excited. :)

J----- and G----- are still on track for the wedding and baptism
this week, I'm really excited. The wedding plans have continued, did
you know it takes 45+ minutes to decide on flowers alone? Haha, it has
been quite the experience organizing this wedding. Everything has
really come together. I'm going to try to get permission from
President to go to the wedding but we will see, I will be back for the
baptism though because me and Elder Sweeten will be performing the
baptisms. I'm really excited for them! I love them so much.

We got to watch Meet the Mormons last Wednesday. Wasn't that
incredible? I thought they did an incredible job, we have some
investigators that saw it and they loved it. I felt like they broke
down nearly every Mormon stereotype. I hope that movie can keep doing
well so everyone can see it! We also got to go to the PHX Temple Open
House on Wednesday as well with the M------ family and their
neighbors, M----- & N------. It was a lot smaller than Gilbert Temple but so
pretty. The Celestial Room is something else! How am I so blessed to
get to attend two Open Houses on my mission? I'm so grateful for the
opportunity the Lord has blessed me with.

I'm glad to hear that all is well at home. I want to close with a
quick story. A few weeks ago, at the beginning of the transfer, at the
end of a P Day me and Elder B----- were together in the van at about
5:40.  At 6 we begin proselyting again so we had to hurry and swing by
Safeway because we needed some baby carrots for a lesson we were going
to teach to a member family. As we walked in a gentleman and lady
stopped us and asked if we knew the missionaries that covered a
certain apartment complex they just moved in to. We got his address,
number, and name and called up the missionaries in his ward. Well
S-----, that is his name, called me yesterday to say thank you for
being there because him and his  fiance are getting married and baptized
this coming Saturday. He invited me to the baptism because I was there
to "get things started" as he said. I know that even if I didn't go to
Safeway that day somewhere, somehow S----- would have met missionaries
because God loves Him and wants Him to receive the gospel. But the
amazing thing to me is the fact that God loves me enough that He let
me be a part of it.

Love you!

Love,
Elder Alexander

Sent from my iPad

 This is me and Elder Sweeten at AZ Brain Food doing service!

Me and Elder Sweeten in front of the PHX Temple. Super pretty.

Elder Nelson had it right when he said this is the perfect place for missionary work!

Oct 13, 2014
Hello!
So much happened his week... Let me try to organize my thoughts!
J----- and G----- are still doing great. We got to go to the
Visitor's Center with them on Saturday and taught them about getting to 
the temple. We explained to them about how after their baptism they need
to set a goal to go to the temple and be sealed a year after. It is
very important to expand people's vision past the baptism, if you
don't progression ceases and converts aren't sure what to work
towards. I promised I would come back next year for the sealing. :)

We had another miracle. The M----- family has still been struggling
and we were set to meet with them on Tuesday night. Just before they
texted us and asked us to meet them at the Visitor's Center. When we
got there we watched a video by Elder Bednar. We thought it was about
the Atonement so we did a big ol lead in about the Atonement and
started it. To our surprise it was all about the Restoration of the
Priesthood.... We were able to tie it in well though and it ended up
leading into a discussion about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. So the
daughters name is O----- and she has wanted to get baptized the whole
time. G-----, the mother, has been a hold up because she just won't
come to work. As we talked we bore testimony that the Gift of the Holy
Ghost will help O----- overcome her emotional problems and receive
peace. Because we have seen that as we talk and the Spirit is there
she is calm and collected but as soon as we close it starts up again.
As we talked we talked about setting a date and we decided to find a
room to pray. We knelt down with them and they held hands and O-----
prayed. She prayed for help in her situation and help preparing for
baptism and closed. Then G---- said, "Do you have something else to
ask? I mean while He's here, because I feel Him here." O----- prayed
again and her prayer was this simple, "Heavenly Father, what day
should we get baptized? In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." We got up
and talked and O----- said October 26th kept coming to mind. They are
now preparing to get baptized on the 25th and confirmed on the 26th.
It's amazing! O----- is in the hospital now and will be for a few days
but G----- came to church yesterday! Miracles happen.

We are going to the Phoenix Temple Open House on Wednesday! The
M----- family is coming, J----- and G----- are coming, M---- and
N-----, and some Recent Converts, D--- and C-----. We are so blessed!
Elder Nelson had it right when he said this is the perfect place for
missionary work!

Well, this email isn't the greatest but I hope you have a good week!
We get transfer news on Saturday and I hope I'm blessed with another
transfer in the 18th ward. I love love love you!

Elder Alexander

Sent from my iPad

Me and Elder Sweeten have the exact same suit and matching ties. This
is our Zone Training Meeting outfit. :)

The Atonement can help us today in a very real way.

Oct 6, 2014
Hello!
That's awesome that you are all going to watch Meet the Mormons,
President Jenkins already saw it and he definitely suggests it! We are
going to see it on the 15th, we have a Family History training at the
Family History Library and then they're going to show it right after.
I'm pretty excited. :)

The wedding is coming along great! And so are J----- and G------,
they are seriously so awesome. The have a dress, a rig, J------ has an
outfit, the building is scheduled, we have flowers and decorations,
Bishop will be there, and we found a member who is going to take a
swing at making a wedding cake. :) We taught J---- and G------
about the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity Wednesday afternoon with
Brother Owens and it went really well. They are so accepting and
really get it. We also watched Conference with them on Sunday, both
sessions, with the McKays. They loved it!

This week was full of cancellations... I have found on my mission that
those come quite often. A member, Brother Cooper, helped me understand
more fully why that happens last night when we were visiting him. We
told him about a particularly tough day, Wednesday. We have roughly
eight set appointments and seven of them canceled that day. We got
home, planned, and went straight to bed. He told us that on his
mission he realized those days happened often too. He said he
eventually realized that those happened and when they did it was
completely out of his control (that darn agency thing). And that made
him realize that when a day went really well it still was out of his
control and was simply the power of God. I really loved that! And it
is super true. (Speaking of cancellations both of our set appointments
just cancelled tonight... Good thing we have back ups!)

We have had the opportunity to help he M------ family out this week
quite a bit. Their daughter has been having some real struggles with
anxiety and depression. She has little spurts of thoughts due to her
anxiety that cause her to almost harm herself. Her family has to
restrain her until she calms down and the thoughts leave. We were able
to go on Friday and Saturday and give her a blessing with members and
then teach them on Sunday night. I had a really comforting feeling the
first night we gave her a blessing and they told me her full name.
God knows her, He is aware of her and loves her. We were able to tell
her that last night and even though the thoughts would come and she
would try to resist in the end the member gave her a calendar of Jesus
and we committed her to look at the Savior and let him chase those
thoughts away. The Atonement is real, Christ suffered for more than
just our sins. In Alma 7 it talks about Him taking upon Himself our
infirmities and I know that is true. The Atonement can help us today
in a very real way.

I loved Conference! I especially loved Elder Uchtdorf's Priesthood
Session talk because self evaluation is something I have always
struggled with. I also loved Elder Bednar's, it was awesome! His story
of the boys and the ointment and bandages leading them to naturally
share what had blessed them is exactly what we have been emphasizing
in our ward! The more we realize what the Atonement can do and has
done for us the more we will desire to help others feel it also. I
also loved how he apologized for us being awkward, abrupt, and
relentless. :) Missionary in a nutshell!

Guess who we saw this morning! A----- and L-----!!! :) We were going to
get the van washed and we got to Country Club Rd, which is the
boundary of our mission, and I almost crossed it on accident but in a
last effort I turned sharply into some church that was feeding the
homeless. Everyone was confused why I turned in but then we looked
over and A---- and L----- were driving by! We were able to pull over
and talk to them. He is working for one of my previous Bishop's, Bishop
King, down in Lehi. They looked so happy and this morning I was
actually thinking about them! :)

Well I love you and I send my prayers out to the Binford's. Let them
know I love them. I love you all.

Elder Alexander

Sent from my iPad

The Holy Ghost changes our heart

Sept 29, 2014
Hello :)

We went and hiked up to Flat Iron this morning, that's the one that me and Elder B-----  did this time last year, and I'm pretty sore already haha. We woke up at 4:30 and made our final preparations before we took off. It was perfect weather and it rained the last couple of days so there was some water up there, a nice little runoff waterfall. The view is always pretty good up there, we started driving home around 12:30. We kind of decided on it pretty spontaneously last night but I'm glad we did it! :)

So you're probably wondering about the whole "Wedding Plans" thing... And the bulk of my email this week is going to deal with that. But not in regards to myself... It is in regards to our good friends J---- and ------! They are incredible and this was miracle week for them.

On Wednesday we went with Brother B------ to teach them the Plan of Salvation and it went really well. We took a sketch pad and drew it out for them, they had a lot of questions and accepted the truths we taught then very easily. We committed them to start from the beginning of the Book of Mormon and they were excited because we always leave them chapters to read but they finish them soon after we leave and aren't sure what to read. 

On Wednesday I was on an exchange with Elder G-----, who is a new missionary and I actually day trained him his first night in the mission, and I textd  G----- to see if she had been able to read. She told me that she was just about to read and had an experience the night before but wanted me to check her facebook because she posted it on their. We were able to swing by the church for a few minutes that night and saw her post. She talked all about how the night we taught her the Plan of Salvation her eyes were opened to her Heavenly Father. Her and J----- stayed up til 4 in the morning watching movies about God and she realized the magnitude of he Plan of Salvation and couldn't stop crying. She also mentioned that she felt a huge burden taken off of her shoulders and that she felt like she had been forgiven of her sins. It was pretty incredible. While I was at the temple on Thursday I got a very distinct impression that we needed to focus on the Holy Ghost when we met with them on Saturday. So we planned on teaching more about the Holy Ghost. Who it is, how it operates, how we receive it, how it feels, etc. Because we knew they had felt it and we wanted them to: 1. Understand that is what they were feeling. 2. Desire with urgency the gift of the Holy Ghost.

We saw on Facebook that they were planning on getting married in January so we were a little worried about that. A lot can happen in three months and the reception of the Holy Ghost is something I have learned can't be put off. It makes ALL the difference for those that are initially receiving the restored gospel. So going into the lesson Saturday I was praying very hard to know how to help them understand and feel that urgency. And the Spirit did the job! We had a great lesson, Brother G----- is a member of our ward and he came with as well as G------'s friend A-----. She is preparing to serve a mission! The lesson went well and they accepted it very well. They told us they knew the Book of Mormon is true and that they wanted to be baptized. When we asked when they felt they could get married and baptized they responded with... October! They are getting married on the 23rd and baptized on the 25th. The Holy Ghost changes our hearts.

So with this unfolding me and Elder S------ have become wedding planners. And I'll tell you what, we are pretty darn good at it. Through word of mouth and the wonderful 18th Ward members we found her a wedding dress in less than 48 hours, totally free!!! She is going to get it tailored by a sister in the ward but it is a nice dress. Now we have flowers, pictures, J-----'s suit, and everything else that comes with weddings! If you have any advice we would sure appreciate it haha.

We have been staying really busy which is super nice. A--- and K---- left on Friday, they ended up moving out to Cali instead of Utah though... I am praying for them, they don't have a super solid plan moving out there but I hope it is what is best for them. They need the gospel that is for sure.

Well I best be off.  I got my package and I loved it. It is already all gone haha. Thank you for your love! I love you lots. Tell Jordan I say hello!

Elder Alexander

Sent from my iPad