Sean McAlister Called to Serve: Moving on from Concepcion...

Big changes for Sean as outlined in his email. He is off to a new area, about 2 hours east of Concepcion (See the map on the mission maps tab), and a new companion. This may be his last area during his mission because there are only two more transfers after this one before he comes home!

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The McAlister family,

I really felt like I wrote you guys 2 days ago and I really can’t think of what I should say (HaHa). The time it flying by and I am getting lost because I feel like weeks are days and weeks and months! It’s confusing me! I am happy to hear from all you guys, and I love reading your letters that you send me, so thank you for that. I totally forgot about Saint Patrick's Day because they don't really celebrate holidays here in Chile. Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!!! You guys all wrote me about the restaurants that you guys go to and it makes me crave them (HaHa)! I can’t believe that we passed two years since I opened my mission call! Time flies! I am happy to hear that my car left and someone bought it. I am glad that you guys had a pretty good week and Sabrina looks like she had a lot of fun with her hair!

I really can’t believe it, but today we had cambios and they came so fast! I turns out that me and Elder Ponce are getting separated and I am going to a place called Chillan Nuble and I will be with Elder Cortez who is from Bolivia. He will be ending his mission in June but I have heard that he has some motivation problems. I know I have the experience to help him out and motivate him to finish his mission strong. It turns out that I will be finding some good old friends out in Chillan, like Elder McAllister. I am going to the coldest sector of the mission and I will be dying there as a missionary. I will be living with 6 missionaries in one house, and i think it will be fun. I will miss the members and my sector in Concepcion.

Sad to say but I was released as a district leader, with 70% of the other mission District Leaders. They took the oldest leaders and are making them as senor comp and they are moving the younger guys up so they can gain so leadership experience in their mission. It’s sad but I understand why they did it and it has its purpose.

Well this week I had a few mini cambios to meet and strengthen the investigators of the other missionaries. I met some of them, and one of the will be being baptized this Saturday and the others need more time to gain experience and a testimony. On one of the mini cambios I met a guy that was visiting his family and he is from Sweden right outside Gothenburg and I was talking to him for a bit and it turns out that he saw me play there, but he didn't know me. I talked to him a little in Swedish and it was really cool! He told me that he will be going back to Sweden in a week but he talked about handball for a while!

This week we found some news, and we ended up having a miracle, though it’s sad, we ended up finding Ignacio again. He let us in his house and it turns out he father died and so we explained the Plan of Salvation to him and he will be being baptized in April. We also brought a family of 5 people to church just when President came to our Ward. So you could say that it was awesome! We are focused on Ignacio and the family Cuevas, that are progressing really well. I will be leaving this sector with people that are progressing really well!

Thanks for the letters and I will be writing you guys next week with some exciting news of a new sector and everything. I hope that you guys have a good safe week and I love you a ton.

Love you guys

Elder McAlister

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Spiritual thought time! I read this quote from Elder James E. Faust, back in 2007, when he was talking about our ability to change and improve ourselves. He said:

Each one of us has been given the power to change his or her life. As part of the Lord’s great plan of happiness, we have individual agency to make decisions. We can decide to do better and to be better. In some ways all of us need to change; that is, some of us need to be more kind at home, less selfish, better listeners, and more considerate in the way we treat others. Some of us have habits that need to be changed, habits that harm us and others around us. Sometimes we may need a jolt to propel us into changing...

..,Each new day that dawns can be a new day for us to begin to change. We can change our environment. We can change our lives by substituting new habits for old. We can mold our character and future by purer thoughts and nobler actions. As someone once put it, “The possibility of change is always there, with its hidden promise of peace, happiness, and a better way of life.”

We all have things we need to work on in our lives and things we need to change which is destructive behavior. I really like the last sentence of the quote "The possibility of change is always there", that gives me hope that we can change if we put my minds and resulting actions on the right path each day.

Until next week be safe and enjoy a few pictures of Elder McAlister saying goodbye to his Concepcion District before heading off to Chillan Nuble...