Sean McAlister Called to Serve: Elder Ponce bitten by a dog.

Finding new people to teach, cambios, find more less actives and a dog bite...sounds like a busy week for Elder Ponce and Elder McAlister...

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

Hey guys,

Hey thanks for all the letters and I am really happy to hear from you guys. I would like to wish Todd a Happy Birthday, and how old are you turning? I have heard a lot about the Super Bowl today and it’s been crazy here with all the Americans! Let’s go Steelers for the next year! How was the Super Bowl dinner that I missed out on?

So this last week was really good, and we are doing a lot better this last week! We had to organize a lot in our ward and in our area book. We made a list of the less active and the list has been amazing and a wonderful tool in our sector. This last week we found more less actives that are really good, and they are looking like they will progress very good. We did ended up finding three news this week, two of them are amazing and I am pumped to be working with them. They are Luis and Romina, and they are a couple that we found and they are amazing. I really learned from the experience of not finding people to teach, people not progressing, pressure and a hard trial. When we got out of the lesson, we went crazy and started to cheer and it was a moment when I knew that god loves all of us so much and he is always there! In our trails he will show himself and guide us, and that is a true testimony builder for me. It was awesome and then we ended up finding Camila who is someone that we found on Sunday, and she has a family of 5 and I hope that they will do well and progress. I am pumped to work this week to end this cambio good. Wish us luck!

This week we had a mini cambio and it was really fun! I went with Elder Watts and we worked hard and we had a really good day. I am in charge to doing mini-cambios with the Elders of my district to see how they are working and if they are working. We had fun and they have some cool people that they are teaching in this moment. They have one investigator that is from the states but lives here, and it was fun to meet him and teach him. Then we had an activity and all the members got mad because they we planning to do a surprise birthday party for the comp of Elder Watts. They wanted me to leave and it got really uncomfortable. The thing was we didn't know and it wasn't the Elders birthday yet! They are going to do it another day, but it was really weird!

We finally got to see meet the Mormons, and I really liked it. It was in Spanish so the lips where very different then the words. I want to see it again, but we can’t. We also had a conference that day with the President. We are really focusing our mission on working with members and nothing else. I really liked it and we are working now 100% with the members and there is no other option here in Chile.

Well one day we were working and we were at a fence of a house and we are yelling at them to come out and all a sudden a dog comes out of nowhere and attacks my comp and bites his hand. Then it strips all the papers that I had in my hands, so we had to go to the office and then we went to the hospital. He ended up getting a shot and he will get 5 more! (HaHa) It was really funny because it was very little but the shots are hurting him more than the dog bites! But he is fine, it was very little but the rule is that you have to get shots si o si!

Thank you guys for everything that you guys do and I miss you. I can’t wait till next week to hear from you. Stay safe and have a really good week. Love you guys and keep and being awesome!

Elder McAlister

Sorry for the short email I am short on time today!

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

Todays thought comes from Sean's mom from someone asking her this week what her favorite scripture is:

I have a lot of favorite scriptures and there are a lot that I think of. I like Romans 8:38-39 and Psalms 18:2 My rock and my Redeemer, Helaman 5:12 For it is upon the Rock of our Redeemer. But the one that always sticks out in my mind is found in Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God.

There are a lot of hard things that happen in this life. We are tested and tried. We feel physical pain and sometimes we are tried beyond what we think we can handle, but when we are tried if we will just hold on and stay strong and remember to be still and know that God is in charge, we can make it through our trial triumphant, a little wiser and a little bit stronger. As the saying goes "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it". Our Savior is our support, our healer, our comforter, our strength if we look to Him in all things we can't go wrong.

Until next week, here are a few pictures from Elder McAlister...