Sean McAlister Called to Serve: Ashes from the Calbuco volcano

Sounds like another exciting week in Chile, from volcano ashes, arguing investigator brothers and losing his voice because he was sick.

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The family,

Glad to hear from you guys, it looks like everyone is doing good and I really liked the pictures from Thanksgiving Point! Sounds like the play that Sabrina did was cool and I wish I could have seen it. You were three different characters in the play, which was really cool! Good job Sabrina, and now you are playing softball!!The house sounds a little crazy with Tillie and Luna!!! haha I am glad to hear that Tillie is doing a lot better.

Well none of our investigators went to church, so I imagine that we need to find a lot more new investigators. We are still teaching Hector, Caty, and Leandro, and they are reading and stuff, but I don’t think they are going to progress because he is a pastor. We are also teaching Cristian and Soledad, and they are really cool. Cristian se bautizó in our church when he was younger and Soledad has never ever gone to a church in her life. They need to get married and they are progressing, but slowly. Now we really need to find some new people to teach.

Well this week I got sick and I couldn’t even talk, it was bad but funny for the people. I was trying to contact people in the street and teach lessons, but nothing really would come out of my mouth. I lost my voice! But now I have my voice back a little and I am coughing a ton, but I am still working hard. It’s getting really cold in the morning and night, but hot during the day!

We had a pretty fun moment this week. We are teaching two brothers Juan and Nelson and they are pretty funny to teach. They all of a sudden started fighting between each other over the Sabbath day! We were teaching about the Book of Mormon. Their fight didn’t even make sense, but it was super funny. They are both grown men that act like little kids, and they just argue about anything

Well I can imagine that all of you have heard that a volcano exploded not too far from us, and we got showered by ashes and it was crazy we couldn’t really see that much and ashes were entering our eyes every second. But nothing happened to us only a bit of ashes, which was crazy.

This next week is cambio and I have no idea what will happen because my comp is ending his mission next cambio. So next Monday we will find out what happens with us. To let you guys know I live with 5 other missionaries in the house. Elder Judkins (Oregon), Elder Castellon (Bolivia), Elder Allen (Washington), and Elder Gonzalez (Colombia).

I love you guys and have a really good week! Have fun and stay safe. The weeks are really flying by! I will write you guys next week and I can’t wait to hear from you. Love you guys a ton!

Elder McAlister

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Spiritual thought time! This weeks though comes from Elder Kevin W. Pearson in his April General Conference talk "Stay By The Tree,". He said the following on overcoming adversity and it is great council:

"Life’s journey is challenging. It’s easy to be distracted, wander off the path, and get lost. Tribulation is an inevitable and indispensable part of our eternal progression. When adversity comes, don’t let something you don’t fully understand unravel everything you do know. Be patient, cling to truth; understanding will come. Trials are like great mists of darkness that can blind our eyes and harden our hearts. Unless we are “continually holding fast” to the word of God and living it, we will become spiritually blinded rather than spiritually minded. Search the Book of Mormon and the words of the living prophets every day, every day, every day! It’s the key to spiritual survival and avoiding deception. Without it, we are spiritually lost."

We are here to be tested and we need to build our faith and testimony strong enough to overcome anything we might encounter along life's journey. Too many aren't "holding fast" and let themselves slip away from the gospel with eternal consequences to both themselves and their posterity.

Well that's another week in the books, so until next week enjoy some pictures from Elder McAlister sent this week…