Baptisms

Family!

I hope you all are well! That's way sweet about the cats victory last week and that Brianna was able to head over to Weber to check it out. That's way cool and I hope you guys had a bunch of fun! Also, it was cool to hear about the trip down to Vegas! It's weird, but I have this weird desire to head back there after the mission. I can't believe it's the seven month mark either! Time is passing by more rapidly each month which makes me a little bit scared with all the stuff there is left to do! It really is so fun to be here and I really love Mexico and the prople. It was a little weird today though. We were in this bus and a family was talking in English. Elder McBride and I didn't know what to do! haha it was funny though.

This was a great week. We did end up baptizing Maria and her 2 grandkids though! It was about time! I was getting a little worried that I would never step in a font again. I baptized Maria, Elder Chatu Baptized the grandson, and Elder McBride baptized the little girl. It was way cool. the grandson almost didn't get baptized though because the first time he went under, he freaked out and didn't go through with it and then he started crying and didn't want to go through with it. It was funny, kind of. We finally talked him into it and all went well and all three were baptized. It was a waaaaaaay cool experience!

Other than that, the week really wasn't anything exciting. Just the normal stuff of contacting, teaching and eating some good food. Haha. We did go on exchanges this week and I went with another gringo. That was pretty interesting having the whole world looking at us ant trying to speak English to us. haha It ws a fun day. I'm not trying to be boring, but really this week was pretty normal. Something pretty cool though, Elder McBride really reminds me a lot of Derek(Jasper). Even his voice is way similar! haha It's cool.

Anyway, that's about it. I love you all soooo much and this week, I'm going to study "Of Things That Matter Most" by President Uchtdorf and last week I read the talk by Elder Holland. Sorry I didn't send that to you all!

Love ya!
Elder Alexander

January 24, 2011

Family of mine!

So I got some crazy news! Six American Missionaries came last Friday to Mexico and they didn’t want to send them with a few missionaries and have a bunch of problems with changes and everything and so they sent one with us! His name is Elder McBride and he’s from Gilbert, AZ. It’s weird living with an American, especially because I haven’t for almost 5 months. He’s a cool kid though and we’re getting him ready to baptize this Sunday! He hardly understands the language and he has an even worse time speaking it. He had been in Fresno, California for about 3 and a half months and so he hasn’t really had that much practice, but Elder Chatu is with me and we’re working to help him out the best we can. The best thing is that he wants to learn and as far as I know, He isn’t getting as stressed out as I was getting before. It’s gonna be way fun to be with him and we’re gonna get Working on baptisms!

Another waaaaaay cool thing happened just yesterday. There was a region-wide conference in all the stakes in the area and Elder Holland spoke to us as well as a number of authorities! It really was one of the coolest things ever. One thing I learned was that if just 50% of the youth of the Church would be going on missions like they’re supposed to, there would be 16,000 more missionaries n the field. It was way cool to hear! I’m really loving this place and with Elder McBride here, I realized that I understand about 99% of Spanish now that gets said on a regular basis. It was way cool! I still don’t understand all the words, but if I can hear the rest, I get it pretty easily. How cool is that! And I’m not taking any glory because I know that the only reason I speak and understand as much as I do is that I have really been blessed with the gift of tongues. It really is so cool this whole gift of the spirit thing. God is really all-powerful and I love him for what he’s done for me.

I really earned a bunch about that reading President Holland’s talk. It really is such a good topic.... All virtues stem from gratitude. If we have the humility to give thanks and recognize God’s hand in everything, we really will be able to make it through the toughest times in our
lives easily.

So that lady who was sooooooo awesome is named Maria Del Rosario and she just rocks. There is not a person more ready for baptism than she is. She is such a neat lady and she’s gonna get baptized this Sunday with her two little grandkids. She’s way excited! It’ll be an awesome day. My first baptism since October! Crazy, eh?

So this week of being Zone Leader has been a little difficult. There have been some ...challenges. I enjoy it though. We really get to know President Clark and the assistants better and they are really here to help us. It’s way cool. I’m happy, healthy, and learning how to play soccer. All is well with me. There is one thing I would ask: remember that my pants are busted up? Well Elder McBride came with some really durable Wrangler dress pants that are way sweet.... Mom, you always have said I have a Wrangler butt. Anyway, there’s a Wrangler store here so maybe I could buy two pair next week. I think I’m gonna go ahead and do it if you want to send some money or something. I think there’s plenty, but yeah.

I love you guys sooooooo much and I’ll talk to ya later!

Elder Alexander

January 17, 2010

Hey guys!

Well, I’m back after another fairly crazy week, but before I start out, I want you all to know that God is for sure there and he works miracles today! On that note, let’s start out with my crazy week, but I’m gonna go backwards this time to liven things up a bit. Today was a great day....well it has been so far I suppose. We started out with the normal thing Zone Leaders do. We have this big conference call we do at 10 in the morning, and then after that, we went to go play some ball at one of the churches, but no one had a soccer ball or basketball so I ended up buying a ball and then when we got there, an elder brought his volleyball and so we played soccer with that... there aren’t a lot of Mexicans who like basketball and so yeah.. I’ve gotta say though, I did not do too bad at all. I actually scored a goal! haha I think that because I know Spanish now, I can play soccer better. Who knows? After that, my comp, who is hilarious, and I went to this store called aladinos because I was told by Elder Robb, the assistant, that they had IBC Root Beer.... They did. Also, I wrangled up some chocolate chips and rice krispies so it looks like... We’re gonna make some Scotcheroos! And now I’m writing you all to tell you about it! haha. Good day.

Yesterday.... This is kind of the climax of the week. We were gonna have this baptism, right? Well, we split up in the morning to go for investigators (I went with another missionary to pick up a really cool lady. (More on that later) and when Elder Chatu got to the church, the lady we were going to baptize wasn’t with him and he had a letter in his hand. Selene is her name. She wrote the letter to the two of us to say that she
wasn’t worthy to be baptized and she didn’t come. It was kind of lame, but that lady I went for came with her two grandkids. She'll definitely be baptized quickly. So we had been working with this investigator who has her boyfriend and is kind of eternal, but her boyfriend left her last week so she was gonna get baptized yesterday, but her boyfriend moved back on Thursday so that blew it. She really knows it’s true and the only thing that's been keeping her back is her marriage situations so..... after the services yesterday, she comes up to us glowing and says more or less... I'm going to be able to get baptized! I’m getting married Tuesday! She was soooooo happy! She was crying! It was cool! The Lord works in mysterious ways! But he works!

So Saturday... Awesome experience! It'll be hard to explain everything here in this letter, but we were contacting, knocking doors, when this lady answered and invited us in. Without even really talking to her to start things off, she just started pouring out her heart to us about all the problems she has and about how she has so much faith that God will help her, but she’s just in a bad place. She's an awesome lady. In the 10 minutes or so she was talking, something amazing happened... I began to really love this 60 year old lady I didn’t even know. I shared D&C 121 with her to comfort her and then we went into the plan of salvation and the purpose of everything in this life. It was so cool. We invited her to be baptized, she said yes. We told her the date of the 30th, she said yes. I really know that the most important part of teaching is really teaching with love. She says she's met with all sorts of people from different religions, but she feels differently with us. She said my face radiated with love.... I really can’t believe it. That’s the power of the spirit. I was just testifying as I was feeling this love for this lady and the love of my Savior for her. It’s something I've never experienced before, but this I know: If we feel the Spirit testifying to us or through us, we will feel of the love of the Savior for us, and then we will in turn love whoever we are talking to. It was just amazing. She’s like my little aunt or something now. She’s great!

Ok so the other cool thing that happened were the interviews. What happened was that the assistants came to give a mini conference and so we helped them by presenting this presentation to the zone and then the zone leaders are always the last ones to get interviewed so we just hung out talking to Sister Clark (who told me about mom’s hugs) and then at last he interviewed me for about two minutes. haha he just asked how I was and if I needed anything and I said I was happy and yeah... that was about it. He’s a great guy and has a great spirit about him. I’m glad he’s my mission President!

Well, that’s about it... This week, I want to study the Divine Gift of Gratitude by President Monson. I think it’s just what I need right now. haha I’m very grateful to you all for the support and prayers you have given me. I’m not just talking to my family on this one. Whoever is reading this, I want you to know I am grateful for you and I love you. The Lord truly has blessed me with a great family and amazing friends!

Moving on.... the wishlist I suppose. Umm... maybe in the next package, you could sent a quote book or something. I’m always looking for inspirational or just cool quotes. I think there’s one in Deseret book called The Missionary’s Little Quote Book or sumthin like that. and yeah... That’s it! Haha.


Love you all! Thanks!

Elder Alexander

6 Month Tie Burning

It is tradition that Elders burn a tie at the end of every

six month anniversary in the mission.

Reunion with Elder Beltran!

Elders Carillo, Beltran, Mills

and Alexander

It was great seeing my

first comp again!

Back in Torreon

Me

at a local

soccer stadium.

Feeling right at home with Coca Cola

January 10th - 2011

Hey Guys!

Well, this was a crazy fun week! I love my new companion! He really wants to work. He’s just a goof and that makes it way easy to enjoy the work. I have learned a bunch this week about myself, about the Lord, and about the mission in general. So here’s just a look at what went down this week!

So, Monday was cool. I got my comp, wrote you guys, and afterward, we went out to work. They had a number of people they were teaching and it looks like this week, we’re gonna be baptizing two. The only thing we have to do with one is make sure her boyfriend doesn’t come back. She lives with her whole family and her mom is one of the most devoted converts I have ever met. She was living with her boyfriend for a long time so she couldn’t get baptized, but she knows it’s true. It’s pretty sweet.

Let’s see.... well, Wednesday kind of really started with the Zone Leader stuff. We went to the mission home to have leadership council which was sweet. All the ZLs (Zone Leaders) and the assistants and President Clark talked about how we can be better and what we have to do to help our missionaries in the zone. It was cool. I really learned so much from that experience and guess what! I got to see Elder Beltran again so that was a great reunion! Oh, something cool too. There are 4 of us from the Ogden area who are zone leaders. Me, Elder Welch, Elder Okey who is from Hooper and knows the Nish’s really well and Elder Lyon who is from Brigham City (I know it’s not really the Ogden area, but still, it’s pretty cool. Pretty soon Elder Lambert will be here and we’ll have someone from Logan too! Pretty cool stuff!

So this ward I’m in is one of the biggest wards in the mission, I’m pretty sure. We had 218 people in sacrament meeting! It was nuts to see a young men’s program passing the sacrament. I haven’t seen that since Utah! The members here are really cool. There’s a family who was living in Logan for a long time about 8 years ago and we hit it right off the bat talking about Utah. It was cool. Something king of lame though with another family whose sister and nephews were living in Clearfield; she died in a bad car wreck in Riverdale in November and left the three kids by themselves. There’s a fund if you want to donate though. It’s the Silvia Ramirez memorial fund at America First. She was born and raised in Torreon and served the mission in Oaxaca, Mexico. If you could help, that would be cool. It happened November 28th.

Oh, something else incredibly important happened! A pair of pants from missionary mall is looking bad! I forgot to take photos, but the pocket is dicintagrating and a belt loop is getting destroyed. Haha I don’t know if you could send another pair of those grey ones. That would be cool. Also, I heard a CD of instrumental hymns the other day that was all jazzy and stuff! I don’t know what it would be, but I would die to have that CD! Haha There’s a sax and everything. I just thought it was cool.

Anyway, that’s it for this week. In this upcoming week, we have interviews with the Pres., so that should be pretty cool!

Love you all!

Elder Alexander

New Year and New Responsibilities!!!

January 3, 2011

Happy New Year a few days late! I hear from the letters that all went well and everything. That sounds great that it was a little bit more laid back. For us, it was really normal. We just worked and had some fun, but didn't really have much success because everyone was shooting off fireworks and having stuff like that. I guess that's the biggest thing to do here: shoot off fireworks or your guns! haha We have been hearing a few gunshots at night and it's pretty fun. They aren't dangerous. They're just celebrating. I guess that's just what everyone does in Elder Lopez's house. His whole family goes out and shoots off their weaponry like their automatic weapons and all that kind of stuff. I guess his house is pretty crazy with narcs and stuff like that, but he says it's fun!

Ok, so I had some more really good food this week that I thought I was going to hate. We wend to a member's house on the first and he had some dead fish just laying out. Everything was there.... head, scales, bones and all. It was fun. He just cooked em right up for us! They tasted a‑maze‑ing! Umm... what else.... oh yeah! So we were eating at a family's house and one of their daughters served a mission in Dallas with a girl from Ogden!!!! How cool! I guess she was living in Ogden for a few months with this family of her comp about five years ago. Her name is Sister Seade and the family is McEntire - I don't remember how to spell it, but yeah....Her comp's name is Laura and I guess she was or is going to Weber state to study English, which is cool. I don't know if you all know them, but it made me pretty happy to talk about home with someone who has been there! I guess they live in North Ogden, but yeah. Cool, eh?

So the reason I was going to learn a lot is because I went to Santiago Papasquiero again, but this time with Elder Watson and yeah.... I learned a TON about what I need to be doing as a missionary and good ways to improve on the things I lack, which is cool. We left Wednesday in the evening and we came back on Friday in the morning way early. I learned a bunch again from Elder Watson and just seeing how the other Elders work and how I need to step up my game to help them the best I can.

Ok, so are you ready for the new responsibilities part! Today, I don't know if you remember me telling about it, but we had changes and we were almost certain that Elder Lopez was going to have changes and everything, so he bore his testimony yesterday and said goodbye to a bunch of families and everything and we got a phone call last night from the Zone leaders: "Elder Alexander, you have changes tomorrow. You have to be in Torreon at 1:30 to be in the change meeting.̈ YIKES!!!!! So I had another 3 hour bus ride to Torreon this morning and in the change meeting, guess what happended! So first of all, President Clark started talking about Enoch and how he was young and unexperienced and God still called him and he was abundantly blessed. Well, yeah.... I only have 6 months in the mission and I was just bumped up to Zone Leader today. How nuts is that! Ahhhh! I thought I felt underqualified before, but yeah, now is a whole nother animal! haha I am definitely going to need some prayers and support in the next few weeks because I have a feeling that I am about to go through a whirlwind of stuff!!! It's gonna be cool though. We're in the Torreon Reforma Stake and in the ward San Luis. My new comp is Elder Chatu and I know I'm gonna learn a ton from him. He has 21 months in the mission so he has plenty to teach. Cool, eh? I repeat, YIKES! haha It's gonna be a neat experience to learn a lot and I know the Lord's gonna help me out a lot here!

So that's this crazy week! I hope your week was a little more peaceful! haha

I Love you all so much and I feel like Enoch!

Elder Alexander