Sean McAlister Called to Serve: February 2015

Monday, February 23, 2015

A Great Mission Conference

Elder McAlister is doing well and the work in the Concepcion District is moving forward. I exchanged one other short email with him while he was at the computer and his time was cut short today for writing emails, so his update isn't very long this week and he didn't have time to send pictures either, but it's always good to hear from him!

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Hey Everyone,

I am super happy to hear that everyone is doing really well. I would like to say that the tile is a lot smaller here in Chile but I think that I am the same height and I haven't changed at all. I don't think! I’m doing really well and Elder Ponce is working pretty hard! He is still very shy, but that's something that he will change in the mission. We are working really well but our ward seems to be shrinking a lot more everyday which is bad! I think it’s for the vacations.

This week was amazing and awesome! We ended up finding a new investigator that wants to be baptized. Her name is Nancy and she was taught once by my companion from the MTC, Elder Barnes. Before her husband didn't want the missionary's to teach his wife, but when we found her she told us that her husband died about 4 days ago and she wants to get baptized. So she now has fecha for the 14 of March and she went to church and loved it. I am really happy for her and she is very excited about the church. Also we are teaching Cristina, but we had to do a live or die lesson to see if she wanted to be taught a little bit more or not. She ended up not going to church and that was a little sad. The rest of our investigators are all on vacations and we are waiting for everyone to come back to Concepcion. We are working really hard and we have had some days that have been good. We are working on find more people to find to teach and that's all we need!

I had a mini cambio with an Elder Bryan who’s in my district, and we had a party. It was so much fun!! I met Elder Bryan here in this zone and we have become really good friends ever since. So I had a mini cambio with him, and we passed by some of his investigators that have fecha and I was seeing how well they work. It was so fun and we ended up buying Papa Johns, which I have not done for so much time and it was so good!

On Thursday we had a conference with one of the Seventy which was Elder Di Giovanni. He is from Argentina and it was a really good conference and I really did learn a lot about the faith to find people to teach. It was really good and I am really pumped to keep on working after we had the conference. We learned a lot and then he said that he was going to come check the houses and see if they were clean and to see the conditions of the houses. So Elder Ponce and I cleaned our house like crazy and guess what happened. He ended up not coming to the house because he wanted to go visit a bridge in San Pedro.

My district is doing really good, we had 10 people with fecha and everyone is doing really good! They are progressing and I am really pumped to keep on working with them. We had a really good district class and I am happy with the work that they are doing!

Today we ended up playing some dodge ball and it was pretty fun. It started off really good and then ii kind of went downhill from that. We couldn't play with our zones like last time and our team was a little weak. So we got killed in the games, but that's okay because there is always next time. I was hoping that we could play basketball or something different because I really want to play some basketball. But I can’t do anything about it!

Well thank you guys for everything, and I can’t wait to hear from you next week! Have fun and stay classy! I love you and have a good and safe week. Miss you guys!

Elder McAlister

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Spiritual thought time! This week I was reading from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's, April 2013 General Conference talk "You Can Do It Now!" He was talking about faith when he said: "There will be times when you think you cannot continue on. Trust the Savior and His love. With faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the power and hope of the restored gospel, you will be able to walk tall and continue on."

Then during the same conference, President Uchtdorf in his talk "Come, Join with Us", said "Please, first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."

Faith is so important for each individual within the gospel. We can rely on others testimonies when we are young, but at some point in each persons life they need to develop the faith to believe in God and our Savior if we really want to learn and grow as we need to in the earthly mortal test.

Although Sean sent no pictures this week, I did find the one below on the Concepcion mission blog from the recent Mission Conference he mentioned in his email, Sean is in the upper left picture...

Update.... I just found a few more pictures from the Mission Conference on the Mission Blog!

Elder McAlister is way at the back on the left standing up at this Mission Conference lunch.

Elders Ponce, McAlister, Moura, ?, and Byan and the Mission Conference

February 2015 Mission Conference with Elder Nicolas L. Di Giovanni (Area Seventy), Sister Di Giovanni, Sister Arrington and President Arrington

Some of the Mission at the February 2015 Mission Conference with Elder Di Giovanni. Elder McAlister is in the very back row, 6th from the left.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Where are those scriptures?

Busy week for Elder McAlister and Ponce. People to teach, funny experiences and a good p-day, except for getting his legs beat up (picture below). Lot's of pictures this week!

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The MAC Family,

Hey glad to hear all is well in the house of the McAlister’s! Sounds like you guys had an exciting week and I hope you had a good Valentine’s Day! Sorry to hear mom is sick but I hope that you will get better in this week. The little puppy is pretty cute and how big will she get? Sabrina looks like she is getting close to dunking in the pictures! The next star in the WNBA! Utah looks like it’s pretty hot, and its February still, so that's what Chile is like!!

This last week was pretty good and we are really pumped with what’s going on in our sector. All is going well with Cristina and she is progressing and we changed her dated for the 7 of March. We have noticed that she is learning slowly! We are teaching her and she wants to be baptized. She went to church and she really likes it and she has gone to church three times now and she wants to keep on going. Luis and Romina have left on vacations, like every single person in the Concepcion area because its summer time and everything starts back up in March so they are all leaving to have vacations and sector seems to be empty at times! We have been finding and working on finding. We are really working with the members and hoping that the ward can be a little bit stronger! This last Sunday we had only two Elders in the ward and five High Priests and this ward will soon turn into a rama if we don’t get the ward into it!

This last week my comp went to get a shot and we went up to Pedro de Valdivia and he got his shot there. When we were waiting, this guy walks in with his child. The kid says to his Dad that there isn’t that many people in the hospital today, but in ingles. So I sat there a little confused if I heard ingles or Spanish. I went over to talk to him and sure enough he is gringo. So I sat there and talked to him for about ten minutes and he seemed really cool. He is living here in Chile working in something?? I didn’t understand what he said haha! Oops! He is from Oregon and that was something weird that happened in this week!

Today we played some more soccer in the grass courts and we played against a different zone. We destroyed them, but it didn’t help that half of their team was Sister Missionaries and they were taking pictures while playing, so we had to split up the teams to make it even. It was really fun, but my legs got destroyed by getting nailed by two Elders, so we will see how I will be walking tomorrow. It was a lot of fun and I heard next week we are going to the beach!

This week we had a pretty funny visit where we went and visited an older woman from our ward. We have visited her before, and we left her a scripture to read in the book of Mormon. So we asked her if she read the scripture that we left her and so she left and went looking for her book of Mormon. 15 minutes pass and she tells us that she can’t find her scriptures and so I said that we will help her find them and we walk into a room and there is a stack of the Book of Mormon and D&C and the Pearl of Great Price together (I don’t remember how to say the book triple in English). She’s like I found these Bibles but I can’t find the Book of Mormon and we sat there and explained that those books were the Book of Mormon! She still didn’t get it! So we just shared a scripture from the "Bible!"

I love you guys and have a fantastic week! February is flying by and we are entering into March in two weeks, I thought New Years was last week! I hope to hear from you guys next week and I am hoping that all goes well. I want to thank you guys for everything and I am happy I have your support. Love you guys and have a good and fun week!

Elder McAlister

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Spiritual thought time! This week it's on Jesus Christ. President Thomas S. Monson, in his talk from October 2014 Conference "Ponder the Path of Thy Feet" said the following two quotes about our following our Savior and what he has done for us:

"As we strive to place Christ at the center of our lives by learning His words, by following His teachings, and by walking in His path, He has promised to share with us the eternal life that He died to gain. There is no higher end than this, that we should choose to accept His discipline and become His disciples and do His work throughout our lives. Nothing else, no other choice we make, can make of us what He can."

He then goes on to say...

"We need not walk by the shores of Galilee or among the Judean hills to walk where Jesus walked. All of us can walk the path He walked when, with His words ringing in our ears, His Spirit filling our hearts, and His teachings guiding our lives, we choose to follow Him as we journey through mortality. His example lights the way. Said He, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

What incredible gifts he has given up with the atonement, and his example to follow. Not only has he provided the way, and shown us the way, but will help us along the way to returning to both him and our Heavenly Father with our families.

Have a safe week everyone and enjoy a the pictures this week...