A lot of new people out to church this week

Sounds like Elder Medina and Elder McAlister had a great week, and were very successful carrying out their plans.  I hope they continue to see this type of success, and I know it is due to the hard work they are doing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey everyone,

Well first off how is Sabrina and is she doing okay? That kind of sounds a little scary. I’m guessing you guys had a pretty good week. Sounds like the aquarium was cool and where is it? Also, you guys look amazing with those 3D glasses on (HaHa).  

This last week was amazing, we had really good success in our area! Sunday we had 4 investigators, 4 new members and 12 less active members go to church. It was awesome. We boosted our number of people that attend church by twenty. We are still looking at getting less active members in church. We are looking at having a ton of help from the members and I can tell you that we are going to boost up the assistance a lot and that is our goal. Also with our 4 investigators that have room to progress, but two of them need to get married. So we want to have two weddings soon, which would be cool. One of our investigators is awesome, her name is Yanina, and she is taking notes on everything. Right now she is doing awesome and loves to have us over. The only thing is she needs to get married and her boyfriend is a less active member. They are awesome and they also have Argentina pride, so they are perfect for my companion. Please pray for Yanina because she is going down the right track!

Elder Medina is really cool, he use to do MMA before the mission, so there is something that we talk about a lot. We have been practicing also, so I will have a little MMA experience after this cambio. He really talks about Argentina a lot. He loves to play futbol, and he is trying to learn English, and now I can see why people couldn't understand me at first (HaHa). We are doing great and working hard together!

This week we got in some arguments with some pastors, and that was pretty fun, I guess. We won both of them because my companion has studied a ton and that means he knows a ton of doctrine. This last week has seemed to bring out every person that wants to fight in doctrine, which has been crazy. We are trying our best to teach with the spirit but at times we just want them to stop talking, so we teach them. We were talking with one Jehovah Witness and he kept on saying that we had a cross in our church and how we are bad because we have a cross. Then we asked him where the cross in our church is and then he said that he knows there is a cross because he was Mormon for 6 years of his life. In that moment I realized we are talking to a guy that doesn't know much (HaHa), so we just ended it there and left. I don't get it why every pastor wants to fight with us now and there is a ton here in Hualpen.

I don't have anything more because this week was us working and helping people go back to church. We did have a lot of service, and we played some futbol which is helping us because everyone likes a little futbol here in Chile. I hope you guys have a good week and keep on doing awesome things.

Love you guys

Elder McAlister

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This week’s spiritual thought shared with Sean came from an article I read from RootsTech Family History Conference in Salt Lake City this quote from Elder Neil L. Andersen.  The article was specifically speaking about doing family history/genealogy work, but I took a little different perspective. He said:

"There is something powerful in searching out someone who needs temple ordinances, learning who they are, and then being part of their receiving these sacred ordinances. This is how you become “saviors on Mount Zion.” There is a joy and satisfaction that is only understood through spiritual feelings. We are linked to them forever."

Again even though this is referencing genealogy work, I think it also pertains to missionary work too., My family will forever be linked to Elder Hall and Elder Granquist, two young men serving a mission in Maryland, and one day tracted an apartment complex in Beltsville Maryland, and found a young couple looking for the truth.  My parents joined the church by being baptized March 4^th, 1967, forever changing the path of their family, and now Sean is out doing the same for others.