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.