In the meantime is sounds like they are working hard and Elder McAlister actually cleaned a bathtub!
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Family McAlister,
Well I can see that you guys got the same email as me saying that I will be ending my mission on the 28 of July! That email scared me to death! The time has really been flying by! I use to joke with the old missionary’s that were going to their houses soon and now I am that old missionary!!!
I am glad to hear that everyone is doing okay and I really love reading your guys letters. As time goes on I really can’t write in English anymore! It’s terrible! I make so many mistakes, it’s sad to say that English is my native language (HaHa)! I am guessing Brooke and Todd can move in the house on the 26 of May, that’s really cool! It’s really weird when you guys say that people are getting back from their missions because I feel like they just left!! I ended up getting the package from you guys and I ate the Reese’s right off the bat! But, I have been getting worse for treats! It’s weird!
This week was a pretty good week and a little weird! To start off we got to hear from Elder Oaks, one of the Twelve Apostles! He was in Santiago and that’s about 4 hours away from where I am. He was really focused on teaching with the spirit and teaching people how to pray! Because a lot of missionaries assume that people know how to pray, but not that many people really do know how to do it! We got to watch him talk over Skype and we had really bad connection at the beginning, until Elder Oaks stood up the connection got better! I really liked the conference and you could really feel the spirit.
With our investigators, none of them went to church! But they are reading the book of Mormon! When we were teaching Leandro, Caty and Hector. Leandro started to have questions about what we were teaching, so today we are going to go visit him and see what’s going on because last lesson he got very quiet. Nelson and Juan we have not been passing by for them as much and we are going to see this week if they desire to learn from us. Josefina we have not passed by her for two weeks. This week we are going to see if she wants to progress. Please pray for us that we can find some more news and that we can have a good week!
Well Elder Judkins that lives in our house, got really sick and I ended up staying with him while the other Elders went to a baptism from another ward. So I was in the house and I started to study and to clean and I have never, ever seen this house cleaner!!! The bathtub when I got here was really black and was gross and now it is very white and clean!
Thank you guys for all that you have done for me and I really miss you. Don’t worry I am working my hardest out here and will get back to the house crawling (HaHa)! I love you guys and can’t wait to hear from you next week!
Love you guys!!!
Elder McAlister
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Spiritual thought time! One talk I really liked from General Conference was Elder L. Whitney Clayton's "Choose to Believe", on how belief, testimony and faith are not passive principles. He said:
"God does not compel us to believe any more than He compels us to keep any commandments, despite His perfect desire to bless us. Yet His call to us to believe in Him—to exercise that particle of faith and to give place for His words—remains in effect today. As the Savior said, “I bear record that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent and believe in me.”
"Belief and testimony and faith are not passive principles. They do not just happen to us. Belief is something we choose—we hope for it, we work for it, and we sacrifice for it. We will not accidentally come to believe in the Savior and His gospel any more than we will accidentally pray or pay tithing. We actively choose to believe, just like we choose to keep other commandments."
This quote really reminded me of Sean this week. He has chosen to not be passive, but active about his beliefs, and that is why he is out serving a mission and helping bring the Gospel to the people of Chile. It's such a good reminder that we do what we do because we believe and not for any other reason. I am so proud of him, and even though I miss him, I know he is out doing what the Lord would have him be doing.
Enjoy a couple photos until next week...
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| Good friends Elder Hoopes and Elder McAlister, who use to live in the same house when they were in Chiguayante, got to see each other again. |
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| Doesn't look like Elder McAlister made these last very long ;-) |
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