Wednesday, December 31, 2014

A great Christmas week

A very busy Christmas week for Elder McAlister with lots of ward and mission activities.  We got to Skype with him on Christmas day for about 40 minutes, and he sounded and looked great.

He liked his Christmas package, and has already eaten a good bit of the food that was sent. On top of all the holiday activity, he found out he will be getting a new companion, his 8th while in Chile and fresh out of the MTC. He will be training this time, and seems excited about it.

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Well Christmas came and went really fast, but it was really awesome to talk to you guys, and I really had a good time. I wish we could have talked a little bit more, but that’s okay I loved the little time we had. I really hope that you guys had a good Christmas and I hope Sabrina got a visit from Santa. Sounds like you guys had a busy week and it really looks like you guys got some snow finally. I really hoped that everyone had a great holiday. I am sure it is weird just having Sabrina in the house and Brooke and Todd in Oklahoma, it was a different Christmas for you guys. I am glad everyone is doing well and I hope that Todd can do well on the test so that you guys can return to Utah. I hope that Tillie gets better and that’s a bummer for her. I can’t wait to see what the basement looks like when you guys finish, it sounds like it coming along! Jessica and Derek! You guys ate orange rolls without me! How rude haha!
Well this week we had a ton of activities and we all ended up going to Chillan for a conference and there was about 280 missionaries there. It was really cool and every zone did a sketch or sang a song about Christmas, but it was an awesome activity. President and his family was there even his kids came to visit the mission and it was fun. It was really fun to see all the missionaries that I have gotten to know through my mission and it was crazy. We had a ton of food and a lot of treats! They made a video for the mission and it was really good. It really focused on getting married in the temple so it was kind of weird for a mission video, but it still was good. Then we got to hear a message from a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, but I don’t know him. But it was a really good activity.
This week we also sang in the hospital and we had one of the Elders dress up as Santa Claus. It was a really good activity and people really seemed to like it. We ended up singing for about 2 hours and 30 minutes. So by the end we started sing really bad and really off tune. We were also giving out some gifts to little kids and there seemed to get happy when Santa came around giving them some gifts. 

We also ended up going to the church for a different activity and we played some dodge ball and basketball and soccer. Really I only played dodge and I was so happy because I can still throw pretty fast and hard. It was a good long activity and after that I got to talk to you guy on Skype and that was really fun. It really made my Christmas and this time you guys appeared really clear on the screen and we didn’t have that many problems.

We had cambios and I will be training a new missionary. I don’t know who it is yet! Tomorrow we have a conference and we get to meet our new comps and I well probably be getting a Latino but I am not sure. But as we say here in the mission I will be having my first son. But Elder Mills is leaving and he is going out to Tome. I am pretty happy with cambios and I am really excited to be training a new missionary. CRAZY!!!
We are really working on just finding and working with less active members. We are still working with Thomas but he is going to take a long time to convert him, and we are letting him read the Book of Mormon really good. Other than that we are really focused on finding people and that has been just a struggle in all Concepcion.
I hope that you have a good week and it was great talking to you guys and I really can’t believe next time is the last time we are talking on Skype. I hope that you have a good and safe week and I want you guys to know that I love you!
Love you guys!
Elder McAlister

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Spiritual thought time! I am sticking with Christmas thought for one more week, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said the following"
 
"While the Christmas season is typically a time for looking back and celebrating the birth of our Lord, it seems to me that it should also be a time of looking to the future. Let us look forward. Let us prepare for that blessed day when He will come again. Let us be as wise as those ancients who watched for His coming."

This really sums up what we should be doing all the time, not just at Christmas time, preparing for when Christ comes again, but Christmas is a great reminder to us each year.  The message of Christ is after all the "Gospel" or the "Good News".

Until next week, have a very Happy New Year!  Enjoy a bunch of pictures from this weeks email from Elder McAlister....


Elder Mills and Elder McAlister


The entire Concepcion mission.
Elder McAlister and Elder Donoso (His first companion)




Don't know who this is with Elder McAlister


Not sure who the Elder on the left is, but the other two are Elder McAllister and Elder McAlister.



Not sure who the Elder on the left is, but the other two are Elder McAlister and Elder Herrera.


Don't know who this is with Elder McAlister


Elder McAlister and Elder Gonzalez


Elder Hancock and Elder McAlister.


Not sure who the Elder on the left is, but the other two are Elder Hoopes and Elder McAlister.


Group selfie!


Elder Barraza and Elder McAlister.


Elder McAlister and Elder Stewart.

 

Elder Garcia and Elder McAlister.

Tables setup for Mission Christmas dinner.

Mission Christmas dinner.
Mission Christmas dinner.
 
 
Concepcion Zone Christmas caroling service project.

Concepcion Zone Christmas caroling service project.


Concepcion Zone Christmas caroling service project.



Some of Sean's Christmas gifts...GO STEELERS!

Sean's Christmas card from the family.

Fun Christmas picture from Sean from their 12th floor apartment.




 

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!



Another busy week in the mission.  Lots of activities associated to the Christmas season.  Sounds like he is really enjoying the work, and his district is doing well.  We get to talk with him around 3:00pm on Christmas day!!

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FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

Hey I am hoping all is well and I hope that you guys will have a great Christmas! The carpet looks really good downstairs and I loved the gingerbread houses and I really like number 3! But I don’t know who’s that is? I am glad to hear everyone is on vacations and ready for Christmas. I really can’t believe that it is Christmas! Yes I am a district leader here in Concepcion and we are doing really good in my district!  

This week was very interesting and very different from a normal week. I had a lot of fun! We had a lot of activity's this last week for Christmas and it’s been a lot of fun with the activities. We had a Christmas Activity for the ward and it went pretty good. People where acting as certain people from the bible and then we showed "He Is the Gift." It was a good activity and we got investigators to come and it started to rain right when we had the activity, but we still had few people come. Then on Sunday we had another activity and but of all Concepcion and some of the south mission. There was a choir and they sang some Christmas songs and it was really good. We were called to be ushers at the activity! So we had to get there at 4 and it started at 7 and we ended up leaving the activity at 10. We had over 530 people come to it and it was very successful. It was a fun activity and I got to see a lot of members from Chiguayante and Hualpencillo. So I really was happy because I got to see a lot of friends and some of the members that I reactivated in Hualpen. I had a great time there, but we pretty much didn't get to work that day in our sector because we went to church and then to lunch. Than we head over to the church to be ushers until it was time to go home. It was crazy!   

Claudia now doesn't want to go to church anymore and she doesn't want to give up all the illegal drugs. So we aren't really going to teach her anymore. We are still working with Thomas, but he is really focused on his church and doesn't look like he is going to progress at all. So we are working with the investigators that we have but I hope that you guys can pray for us to find some more people to teach! That would be awesome! Thanks!

This week I ended up having a mini cambio with one of the traveling assistants. I worked with Elder Herrera, and it was really fun, I had a blast. He is from Washington and we were joking the whole time. Even though we didn't enter that many houses that day, we had a ton of fun. Elder Herrera is ending his mission next week, so I was one of his last mini cambios in his mission. I might see him after the mission. We had a good day and we learned a ton from each other. 

This week I have been a little sick and after the mini cambio with Elder Herrera, at about 2:30 in the morning I just woke up and started running to the bathroom. I ended up throwing up everywhere, but it wasn't too bad. One of the Elders that I live with woke up and helped me clean the part that I didn't get in the bathroom. We started joking around saying that the bathroom really needed to be cleaned. It was a bad, but pretty funny because it was 2:30 in the morning and we were both tired and it’s that moment when you’re so tired that everything is so funny for you. That´s what happened with us! 

This week is going to be crazy! Tomorrow we will be going to Chillan for the Christmas Conference and the whole mission will be going and it’s going to be awesome. Then we have a Christmas dinner planned and we will be eating something very good! I hope! Then we have another mission activity, and I get to Skype you guys! So it’s going to be a crazy week and then this is our last week for this transfer and we have cambios next Monday. 

This week I am hoping I can skype you guys at 7:00 Chilean time. I am hoping that works out for you guys but that is what we are looking at. I am hoping that the internet is a lot better where we are going. I really can’t wait to talk to you guys and its coming up so fast. I only have about 45 minutes to talk to you guys but I am sure it will be good. 

Thank you for everything and I can’t wait to talk to you guys. I love you guys a ton and thanks for everything that you do. Have a good week and thanks for your emails. Have a fantastic week and Feliz Navidad. I love you and miss you guys a ton!

Love you

Elder McAlister

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Spiritual thought time!! This week I shared a couple quotes on Christmas from President Thomas S. Monson with Sean:

    "Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values. It is peace because we have found peace in the Savior’s teachings. It is the time we realize most deeply that the more love is expended, the more there is of it for others."

    "To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the Spirit of Christ."

and finally out of the scriptures in John 3:16

    "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

It is so import for all of us to remember the reason for the season and truly celebrate our Saviors birth. Everyone have a Merry Christmas and enjoy your time with family and friends.