Sean McAlister Called to Serve: Mother's Day Skype!

We got to Skype with Elder McAlister yesterday, and it was great to hear and see him. His is doing very well and is very happy in the work he is doing. I wish you could have heard him, he is the same old Sean with the sense on humor I miss so much.

To top things off we get to hear from him again today with an email, a voice recording, and a bunch of pictures. Was it Mother's Day, or Christmas with all these great gifts??

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Family,

It was really fun to talk to you guys yesterday! I think that it is really weird that, that was my last time to talk to you guys on Skype. The time has really gone by really fast and it’s been really fun. It seems to me that everyone was happy and I am sorry about all the music and sounds in the background but that’s just how Chile is. I really hope that the Skype chat made you guys day because it made mine.

I really hope mom had a good Mother’s Day and you looked pretty happy. You are by far the best mom in the world and the most caring mom I know. Being on the mission really shows you how much your parents do for you! I didn’t tell you guys but I got sick this week with food poisoning and its just brought me back to home think about when mom would take care of me. I really love you mom, and you are the best you really mean a ton to me!!!

Brooke really does look like she has been beaten up and did they say how long you are going to have that? Also congrats on the house!!! I loved how Jessica and Derek have nothing new!! Sabrina seems like she has really grown up and she seems to be a lot bigger and her voice is a lot different, but I hope she does good in her game this week!!

To explain my sector it is a lot more campo (country) than any other sector that I have had. And it’s pretty big because we need to take buses at times. It has some really good members and they are really a fun ward. We need to help them get a little bit more animated!

Investigators we are searching, we still have some investigators but they are not progressing very well. So really we thought about 20 ways to find yesterday and we are going to aplicar (apply) all of them this week. I hope that you guys can pray to help us to have the guidance that we need to find new people.

This week I thought I would try something and I send you guys a voice message if it works!! I hope it works!

I love you guys a ton and I am very happy with everything that is going on! Love you guys and have a good and safe week. Can’t wait to hear from you guys next week. Love you guys a ton!

Elder McAlister

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Spiritual thought time! This week comes from Bishop Gerald Causse in his April 2015 General Conference talk "Is It Wonderful To You?". If you haven't had a chance to read this talk again, I would recommend you doing so, it is such a great talk, he does a great job personalizing how we should be looking at the gospel. The following are a couple quotes from his talk, first he said:

"My brothers and sisters, is the gospel still wonderful to you? Can you yet see, hear, feel, and marvel? Or have your spiritual sensors gone into standby mode? Whatever your personal situation, I invite you ...never tire of discovering or rediscovering the truths of the gospel."

Later he said:

"To marvel at the wonders of the gospel is a sign of faith. It is to recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives and in everything around us. Our amazement also produces spiritual strength. It gives us the energy to remain anchored in our faith and to engage ourselves in the work of salvation.

But let us beware. Our ability to marvel is fragile. Over the long term, such things as casual commandment keeping, apathy, or even weariness may set in and make us insensitive to even the most remarkable signs and miracles of the gospel."

I like how he outlines that we can't just rely on big events or wonders to keep us strong in the gospel, but we need to rooted in faith and obedience to give us our true spiritual strength that will allow us to endure to the end.

We that's it for this week. We have a bunch of pictures to enjoy this week, some sent by Sean today, and other that were posted on the mission blog. Enjoy!