Sean McAlister Called to Serve: The Purifying Power of Gethsemane

Good to hear from Elder McAlister this week. The last few weeks have been hard for him and we have been praying that things work out. Please include Sean and his companion in your prayers.

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Hey everyone how is it going?

I totally forgot that Halloween was this week and in the states it’s a lot better there. More people dress up and there is a lot more activity's like carving a pumpkin. It’s not a very popular holiday here. I really miss eating pumpkin pie. Football sounds like it’s going awesome and the Steelers crushed the Colts (HaHa). I miss watching some good football. Glad to hear that everyone is doing great. Sounds like Sabrina is going to have a fun Halloween and it’s going to be a scary one (HaHa). Thank you guys for all your support and all that you guys do for me and thanks for your emails! They are helping me out a ton right now!

This last week was very, very difficult and very stressful. I learned a ton and we saw the Lords hand in our lives. My comp is still struggling and I still have hope that things can change up and I hope we can change our situation!

Last Monday we had a zone activity and we had a BBQ and we played a game that was a war with paint in water balloons. So we got covered in paint and it was super fun. Then we played a little bit of volleyball and soccer and it was a really fun activity. Then in the night we work.

Tuesday we had our conference with our Mission President and I really liked it. We learned how we should be contacting people in the streets and how to make goals with our contacts. Also we learned the reason we need to work with members and what is their role in the work. It was a very good conference and we got to listen to a talk from President Uchtdorf. Which was pretty much saying Satan wants us to be lazy and not work, He talked very well about the atonement of Jesus Christ and how it affects us as missionary's.

The rest of the week we visited people and we pretty much lost all of our investigators this week. We are down to two investigators and we have another that is just there, but not really progressing. Right now we are working with Gonzalo, but we couldn't find him this week and that was really hard for us. This week we walked so much and it was a very hot week. So right now I have to treat this sector like a new sector and act like we are the first missionary's in this sector. But on Saturday we were not having any success and it was very stressful and very hot. We walked and walked and every visit that we had planned fell through and we just we talking with people in the street and knocking doors. The other missionary's had a baptism at 8:00 so pretty much we were out of time and at 7:40 we knock on this door and this kid comes out and he says that his name is Milton. We ended up entering his house and we started teaching him. He then told us that he is searching for the truth and his friend died recently that day. He told us that he felt like we were sent to his house for a reason. We taught him a little and he accepted a baptism fecha and he said that he would come to church. But on Sunday he had the viewing and so he couldn't come, but it really was a blessing for us. After a week of losing every investigator and having a hard week. We received a blessing. It was awesome!!! So please pray for Milton and Gonzalo that they can progress! Thanks!

I hope that you guys can look up the talk that’s called "The Purifying Power of Gethsemane" By Elder Bruce R. McConkie. I read this talk a lot this week and it is a very strong talk about the Atonement and I thought that you guys might like to read it! It’s very, very powerful and it’s amazing!

Well thank you so much for everything and I love you guys a ton. I hope that have great week and keep on being awesome! I miss you guys a lot and I want to thank you for giving me this chance to serve here in Chile and to know this gospel. I love you guys and I can’t wait to hear from you next week!

Love You Guys!!!

Elder McAlister

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This week I shared the following from Elder David A. Bednar, in his October 2014 Conference talk "Come and See", speaking about why we do missionary work. He said:

"Latter-day Saints take seriously this responsibility to teach all people in all nations about the Lord Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. We believe the same Church founded by the Savior anciently has been reestablished on the earth by Him in the latter days. The doctrine, principles, priesthood authority, ordinances, and covenants of His gospel are found today in His Church."

"Devoted disciples of Jesus Christ always have been and always will be valiant missionaries. A missionary is a follower of Christ who testifies of Him as the Redeemer and proclaims the truths of His gospel."

This a great message from Elder Bednar, and should be a real inspiration for missionaries as they are out doing the very missionary work fulltime which he describes of sharing the message of the Lord Jesus Christ and His restored gospel.

Until next week everyone be safe and enjoy some ne pictures from Chile….