MTC Pictures

We just received some pictures form Elder Logan Rogers, one of Sean's Mexico MTC Instructors, from when Sean was in the MTC.  It's great to see him looking so happy and healthy.

Left to Right: Elder Silva (Instructor), Sister Porter, Sister Mohun, Elder McAlister. Elder Barnes (Companion), Elder Ault, Elder Beck, Elder Phillips, Elder Smith, Elder Brand, Elder Hansen, Elder Ballard, Elder Rogers (Instructor).

Sean's Mexico MTC District with their MTC instructor Elder Silva.

Sean's Mexico MTC District with their MTC instructor Elder Rogers.

Elder Barnes, Elder Silva (MTC Instructor) and Elder McAlister

Elder Sila (MTC Instructor) and Elder McAlister

Elder McAlister at the Mexico MTC

Elder Barnes, Elder Logan (MTC Instructor) and Elder McAlister

Elder Logan (MTC Instructor) and Elder McAlister

Sean's Mexico MTC District doing some kind of a pose.

Bikes and Mice!

This weeks email from Elder McAliser has a few funny stories, and news of what sounds like might be their first baptism of Sara Flores on November 2nd!!

Unfortunately, he still hasn't received the package from home we sent a couple weeks ago, so still no pictures this week...let's hope that changes next update.

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Hey Everyone,

Chile is awesome and I’m loving my mission. The language is coming, and right now it seems slow but really I’m learning super fast. I can understand a lot of the conversations and speak in most. The Gospel topic conversations are the easiest for me. I’m glad that I am learning Spanish and can’t wait to speak really well.

Me and Elder Donoso are doing amazing. This last week we just clicked, and we are working really well; it’s like we are best friends. We had a rough start but now we are doing awesome. He is helping me a lot with the language and our planning is so much better now. Elder Donoso is from Cordon, Argentina.

This week we had another mini cambio and I worked with our Zone Leader, Elder Escarate. It was super fun and very helpful; he has only two weeks left of his mission and he says it goes by so fast. During our mini cambio, all the lessons got cancelled so we ended up doing a lot of contacting, which was awesome and now my contacting language is really well. I had to stay the night at Elder Escarate’s house and their house is something else (HaHa). The missionary's in the house are awesome, so it didn't matter to me.

Funny story this week. We have bikes at our house, but they are awful. They have no brakes and pretty flat tires and are just falling apart. We tried them out anyways. So we were riding them and my front tire popped so we had to fix that. Then after that we went taught a lesson and we were riding to the next lesson and Elder Donoso’s back tire popped. We went and found someone who could fix the tire. As you can tell, we had a bad day going already, and we had to hurry to our next lesson because we were super late. Our lessons that we did teach this day went really well. We were running super behind and we needed to get to our church. Elder Donoso cuts through a park and I try to go around this corner and I’m going pretty fast and next thing I know I’m falling and my bike started sliding on dirt. As soon as I stop sliding I just pop up and I make eye contact with a teenage kid who is on the side walk. I yelled esta bien and tried to get back on my bike and ride off, but my chain had fallen off so I get off my bike to fix it. Next thing I know I have about 15 kids around me asking me if I’m okay and getting the dirt off me and in my mind I’m like leave me alone. I got my bike fixed and went as fast as possible to the church. I didn't get hurt or anything. All I got was a small scrap on my ankle and the world’s smallest cut on my hand, but that was super funny.

Another funny story. So this morning I just got out of the shower and I hear Elder Donoso yelling for everyone to come to our study room. So I got my clothes on and went to the study room. I see Elder Donoso and he says there was a mouse in his back pack, and when he opened it, the mouse jumped out and run into one of my shoes. At first I was like no there's not but then he was acting serious so all four of us made a plan of how to get the mouse out of our house. We opened the door to our study room that leads outside. Elder Bueno walks over and picks up my shoe and he says that there is nothing there. All of a sudden a mouse pops out and 4 guys start screaming like little girls and hitting the mouse. We ended up getting it outside, and killing it because we hit it about 100 times. Elder Bueno took my shoe and hit is straight outside and it died. It was so funny and now me and Elder Donoso won’t go into our study room for awhile. I think our neighbors think we are weird because we sounded like little girls screaming while trying to kill it (HaHaHa). Those are two super funny things that happen this week.

In all seriousness we are doing really good, and our investigators are doing great. Sara Flores is looking to be baptized on November 2. I hope that everything is going well for you guys and thanks for your love and support. I want you guys to know this church is true and I love this Gospel. I love you all and thank you for giving me this opportunity of sharing something we all love.

I love you guys!!!

Elder McAlister

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This week I leave you with my thought that I shared with Sean from Elder David Bednar from conference talk in the Priesthood session a while back:

“My beloved brethren, you and I, today and always, are to bless all peoples in all the nations of the earth. You and I, today and always, are to bear witness of Jesus Christ and declare the message of the Restoration. You and I, today and always, are to invite all to receive the ordinances of salvation. Proclaiming the gospel is not a part-time priesthood obligation. It is not simply an activity in which we engage for a limited time or an assignment we must complete as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Rather, missionary work is a manifestation of our spiritual identity and heritage. We were foreordained in the premortal existence and born into mortality to fulfill the covenant and promise God made to Abraham. We are here upon the earth at this time to magnify the priesthood and to preach the gospel. That is who we are, and that is why we are here – today and always.”

Until next week when we have another update (and hopefully pictures)....watch out for mice in your shoes!

Splits with the AP's this week!

Another update from Elder McAlister!  Sound like a normal missionary with plenty of challenges and interesting experiences.  I was able to exchange a few quick emails back and forth today, and he was asking for money to replace the pants torn by the dog (see his email below) and some shoes that were destroyed by mud.

It's great to here him speak of their investigators and the progress they are making.  I wish he could feel better about picking up the language, but he most likely inherited my brain for language, so that could be a problem ;-).

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Hey Everyone,

It sounds like everyone is having a party and a good time, which is good to hear. I hope that Brother Foster is okay and doing well.

This week has been really hard. My companion has been acting like a little kid, and randomly will tackle me and toss my study table. At times I want to kill him (haha). But, it has been a hard week because he hasn't done any planning with me because he is the district leader and gets calls at night and that's when he plans. So most of the time, I don't know where we are going or what we are doing. One of the days the President came down to visit Linares and Longavi, which was good to see him. We had our interviews and had meetings with the assistants which is a lot of fun.

 We had a mini cambio, which is when Elder Donoso worked with one of the assistants, and I worked with a different Elder. I was able to work with Elder Flores who is from Peru, and he speaks no English. So we went contacting, and we were going house to house and we got 2 new investigators and 8 Future investigators which was really good for the amount of time we had, and we are still working in a new sector. Anyways, we were walking and we see this dog just lying in the street, like most of the dogs do. So we go to contact this one house near the dog. We start yelling halo which is like yelling hola but it’s just different when yelling at a house. Then the dog just went crazy and went to attack us, which wasn't fun because I was right next to the dog. The dog ended up ripping my pants and I ended up kicking it, which nether one was fun. I went the rest of the day contacting and working with a big rip in my pants (haha). I'm just glad the dog didn't get to bit me.

Lately we have been using members as a good source for referrals, and having them come with us to lessons which they have been awesome. We have a small branch, but also a lot of non-active members in Linares. It’s been fun but super hard just because of the language and not being able to say completely what I want to say, or just have a conversation with people. So right now the Spanish feels like it’s coming really slow and part of the problem is Elder Donoso wants to learn English and tries to only speak English to me and it’s not helping me. I’m hoping soon it will start to click and I’ll be able to understand the conversations really well.

Our casa is pretty nice but I like the other one a lot more because it had a couch and was more furnished. This one is empty and pretty big for four Elders. It’s starting to get warmer in the mornings and that has been really nice. I forgot to tell you about Elder Watson and Elder Bueno, who are the other Elders in our casa. They are awesome and I want them to be my companions in the future.

Our investigators are doing okay. Sara Flores just needs that last little push and we will have a baptism which would be awesome. She has been coming to church and everything; it’s just baptism that scares her. We also have a man who is Eduardo and his wife is a member but he´s not yet. Then we have a little girl named Fransica who is awesome and has been coming to church. We have been meeting with her and her family, and her family is non-active and she is 8 years old and not a member. Then Margarita, who was our best one, but we haven’t seen her for a while, which is killing us and we have no clue why she’s never home. Those are our best investigators down here and they are doing great, other than Margarita which we don't know what’s going on there.

I want to thank you guys again for everything and how awesome you guys are. I’m having a good time other than Spanish which is killing me. But soon I will love Spanish as much as English. I love you guys and stay strong in the church.

Love you McAlister family

Elder McAlister

P.S. I haven't gotten the package yet and our street is Luis Carrera, Linares, in Chile and our house is around there.
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Again this week I leave you with a thought shared with Sean from his Mom:

My thoughts come from Elder S. Gifford Nielsen's conference talk:
One of my favorite songs and scriptures as a teenager. Alma's heartfelt plea: "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!" Alma 29:1. Concerning the hastening of the work Elder L. Tom Perry added these comments: "This is the most remarkable era in the history of the church. This is something that ranks with the great events that have happened in past history, like the First Vision, like the gift of the Book of Mormon, like the Restoration of the gospel, like all of the things that build that foundation for us to go forward and teach in our Father in Heaven's kingdom." And the final scripture found in D&C 76:22, the Prophet Joseph Smith says, "And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!"


Until next week when we have another update...be careful out there everyone and watch out for those lying dogs!

Moved to a new casa

Another update from Sean, it sounds like a busy week with a move to a new house and General Conference.  It's great to hear that he and Elder Donoso have a good group of investigators to share the gospel message with.  We send him the equipment he needs to send pictures, so hopefully soon we will get to see some of the things he talks about.

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Hola Everyone,

     Hey everyone i hope that you guys are doing well and that you’re having fun. This week was not a normal week at all. I Also missed being with the family for General Conference. I thought about the breakfast we have on Sunday morning which sounds really good to me. I missed talking about conference with you guys and playing bingo. I also missed Priesthood which was really good this year. But I missed watching and going to the Asian Buffet. It was really good here and I was able to watch it in English which was really nice. I love it a lot and was hoping we could do it every weekend. I hoped that you guys loved it as much as me and I can’t wait for the next one!

     This last week we moved into a different house which is nice but it’s about 2 times bigger than our last house so its empty and I really miss carpet. But the moving took us about a full day because we had to help the other family move out of our new house and helped them move into their new house. The house is awesome and its super big but empty, and no furniture or oven or stove. So we feel really broke right now. But it’s starting to warm up and it’s still cold in the mornings which is okay for right now. 

     The Spanish is something that is killing me but it’s going to be coming to me very fast very soon. But people are always thinking that I should be perfect at Spanish by now but I’m only starting my third week. In general conference I realized with time and with faith in God I will be teaching in Spanish in no time. I am able to understand a lot of conversations and am able to answer most questions but it’s still hard for me. My companion speaks enough English and I speak enough Spanish we get by. The Spanish here is also super fast and slurred as could be. But the people are very kind and very helpful.

We lost one of our best investigators who was Maria Elena. But we picked one up that was better than ever so far she loves everything that we believe and is doing really good. We have about 8 good investigators that are doing really well. Our best ones name is Margarita and she is doing amazing, she came to General Conference and loved it. This is making my mission so much better. 

The moving and unpacking took up about two of our days. Our contacting is going okay people say they will meet with us and half the time never talk to us again. But we have picked up some really good investigators which is awesome. The dogs down here are not all scary; some love you and follow you for about 5 miles if you just give it one cracker, which is funny. The food here is really good and we don’t eat at anyone’s houses for dinner we only each lunch, which is like eating 3 dinner appointments in a row. The lunches are so big and the dinner and breakfasts are super small.

I don’t have much time because we have to go buy stuff which is needed. So I will tell you when I get the package, and thanks for sending one. Thank you guys for all you support, and thank you for your prayers, I hope that you can pray for our investigator Margarita, who is doing awesome. I love you guys so much and I will send pictures when I can.

I love you guys!!!

Elder McAlister

P.S. Stay strong in the gospel, because God has given us everything and we give him such little. So follow him and his example and endure to the end and love his gospel and all his children!

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The following was shared with Sean by him Mom this week:

President Monson spoke in conference:
The holy scriptures contain no proclamation more relevant, no responsibility more binding, no instruction more direct than the injunction given by the resurrected Lord as He appeared in Galilee to the eleven disciples. Said He: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” 

The Prophet Joseph Smith declared: “After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel.” 


Have a great week everyone!

First full week in Chile

Sounds like Sean is very busy, and didn't have the time to write much this week, he only answer a few of the many questions sent by family members.  We will be sending him the equipment this week he needs to start sharing pictures.  He seems to be adjusting well, and is have many interesting experiences.

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Hey everyone,

It sounds like everyone is having a good time and the pictures are awesome to get. Sundance looks like a lot of fun and I’m hoping dad’s birthday was fun. I’m glad that Mom, Jessica and Brooke were able to go to the Relief Society General Meeting and I hope the talks were really good.

This last week has been really hard and really fun so it’s mixed emotions at times. The Spanish is coming but slowly, but I’m able to understand more than I can talk right now. Soon we will be moving into a different house, and it’s much nicer than the one we are in right now so that’s a plus. I haven’t pulled out the sleeping bad yet but I will for sure use that in the winter, because right now it is summer.

The dogs here seem to get really scared when I go to grab a rock, so that was a nice tip from you guys. The new area is really hard but a lot of people here are really nice and are very inviting when it’s cold outside. Right now we have two investigators, Sara Flores and Maria Elena that are doing really well, and they came to church with us on Sunday. Contacting hasn't been going well, and that is hard.

The communication with my companion is going okay, but very hard at times because we can’t understand each other. My zone it awesome! Today, on our p-day, we played some soccer and I scored two goals but they are amazing down here in Chile at soccer. I have gone shopping for food, but that’s for in the morning and around 11 at night. Here in Chile we wake up at 7:30 and lights out at 11:30. That’s the times here because the people of Chile don’t get up early. It seems like it’s hard for them to get up for 9:00 church (haha). The people here clean their cars all the time, and never clean their houses, so the houses are gross looking and the cars are clean but not nice cars. The one nice car I have seen here was a Porsche, which was like seeing a space ship in America on the street (haha). We found the house with the Porsche, and we are going to contact it this week (hahaha).

Flying kites here is awesome; they get them out about two miles away and do some pretty cool tricks. I tried to record it, but you can’t really see the kites. Me and my companion went up to some kids and told them we were police and they were playing on private property and told them they had to leave. They started saying they were sorry, don’t take our kites away, we won’t play here again (haha).  Their faces were priceless, but then we told them that we were missionaries, they let us fly their kites. The kites are so cool here; I’m going to have to buy one at some time.

My companion and i love to beatbox, so we do that all the time while we walk down the street and that’s pretty fun. I have been marking my scriptures like crazy and the marking pencils have been very handy so thank you for those. I would love to send you pictures so, a USB cable or the SD receiver would work just fine.

Oh I almost forgot, so apparently I look like some big actor down here and everyone tells me that. We have been having problems with teenage girls here because I look like the actor (haha). At times I’m still told the person doesn't like me because I’m American and they think I’m super rich with helicopters, planes and multiple houses with pools. I have to tell them every time I’m just a normal person in America. Me and my companion use “Ether 12:4” a lot, and I love it because I can talk about it the easiest. When I teach people are always like can you do that in English now, and I’m like sure I guess so (haha). People that don’t hate Americans always use the English words they do know and tell me them. So I get told “what’s up man” a lot here and it’s so funny to hear. Our name is supper hard to say down here, and no one can say it right.

I’m running super low on time today so I will tell you more next week, but I love Chile so far and the people and food are great. So thanks for your guys love and support.

I love you guys, you’re a great family!!!

Love,

Elder McAlister

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One of the thoughts shared with Sean this week came from President Ezra Taft Benson: 

“I have often said that one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work! If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. Work, work, work—there is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work.” 

I think this message applies to many parts of our lives...we need to work hard to accomplish our goals.  Until next week.

News from Chile!

Just received this picture and email from Sean's mission president:

Dear Brother and Sister McAlister,

Sister Arrington and I had the great pleasure of welcoming your son, Elder McAlister, to the Chile Concepción Mission. After we met him at the airport when he arrived on Friday, we enjoyed lunch together with the other new missionaries.  Afterwards, we held an orientation and testimony meeting, and Elder McAlister met his first companion, Elder Donoso, who will train him to be a missionary. They will be laboring in the sector of Linares 1B and located in the zone of Linares.              

A mission is a wonderful experience filled with challenge and success that strengthens the testimony and spirituality of each missionary. The greatest support you as a family can give your son during his time as a missionary is that of uplifting letters. Missionaries look forward with great anticipation to each letter from home. In addition to using email, you can send packages and letters to our address. The U.S. Postal Service and the Correos de Chile do a good job of delivering mail and packages.

     Elder Sean McAlister
     Misión Chile Concepción
     Castellon 1063    Oficina Norte
     Concepción, Chile
     Casilla 2210

You may also send letters (and only letters taped shut; no envelopes) via the "pouch.

     Elder Sean McAlister
     Misión Chile Concepción
     POB 30150
     Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

We encourage each of our missionaries to write to their parents each week. Please let me know if a reminder to him is needed.

It will be our privilege to work closely with Elder McAlister as he serves here in Chile.  We are blessed to have him join us in this mission and know that he will have many life changing experiences as he proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your support and for sharing your son with us.

Sincerely,

President & Hermana Arrington  

Elder McAlister is in Chile!

As you know from the blog posts last week, Sean is now in Chile, and it sounds like he is doing great!  His p-day has switched to Monday now that he is in the mission field, so we will be hearing from him on Mondays.  So if you want to write him, it's best you send your email before Mondays so he will read it on his p-day. We need to figure a way for him to send some pictures, as he seems to have some limitations for uploading pictures through the computer he is using, we would love to see where he is.

Sean is in a city called Linares, in the northern part of the Concepcion mission, about 125 miles northeast of Concepcion and 200 miles south of Santiago. The south Pacific ocean is about 50 miles to the west (out of his area), and to the east are the Andes, with the closest mountain peak being 38 miles to the mountain "Nevado De Longavi" (10,637 FT). The city has a population of close to 90,000.  They are coming to the end of their winter there, and Linares has a mild Mediterranean climate, so the temperatures average in the low 60's during the day and upper 40's at night, with a good amount of rain.



Here is a Sean's email this week:

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Hey Everyone,

I was also glad to talk to you on Thursday. It was awesome to hear all of your voices and to hear what’s going on. I’m glad that everything is going well you guys, and it sound like nothing has changed too much since I left. I’m sorry if I spell anything wrong in these emails, it’s on a Spanish keyboard and it’s hard to type on.

Well I got in Chile around 9 AM, and we had a little greeting party of missionaries and the President at the airport for us. It was cool to talk to them and the missionaries. The streets were empty when we were driving to the President’s house because everyone is still celebrating the holiday. We had interviews with the President and talked about the money down in Chile. We get 100,000 mil each month which sounds like a ton. But things cost around 1000 in the general area for cheap things.

My first companion is from Argentina, and his name is Elder Donoso. So far I really like him and he speaks very little English. We are working it out just fine. Chile is much different than I thought. We are in an okay area called Linares. There are dogs all over the place and some have broken legs, skinny as can be, and just scary looking. It makes me sad to look at them and I always want to pet them but I can’t. Some of the dogs travel in packs and you can’t walk near the ones in the packs. I haven’t been attacked by a dog yet, but I was almost bit by a house dog haha.

We have gone tracking mostly because it’s pretty much a new sector and there were only two missionary in the area. I have to say everyone one in Chile has a super nice fence and then a scary looking house haha. They all have fences to protect their houses and keep people and dogs out. The insides of houses are crazy looking. I would love to send pictures but I don’t have anything to connect to the computer to send them.

It’s been hard to track here because you have to shout to knock on the door and most of the time they don’t ever hear you. I have been told straight to my face from the person I’m talking to that he hates all Americans and wanted me to get off his street, which was just a little scary. They speak super fast down here and it is so hard to understand anything they are saying. They also speak a little different then the Mexican Spanish, but I’m going to survive just fine.

Church was okay, it’s about a 40 minute walk to get there, and for the whole three hours I had no clue what was going on. Give me a month and I will be able to understand most of what people say. Here in Chile you don’t have to look both ways to cross almost every road, which is really nice. The food is also really good, and lunch is when we eat the most. We usually eat at a member’s house for lunch and they give us so much. I think I have had the best bread in the world in Chile, I love it so much.

The weather during the days is really nice, but in the mornings and nights I hate it. It is so cold I wear about 4 shirts including my thermals and my sweats. They also gave us three warm blankets but I’m still freezing. So I’m going to break out my sleeping bag. Just to let you guys know that I did get my package and I loved it Thank you for everything in it. It was awesome to have and I love the watch you guys got me. The candy and pudding make me happy every time I am hungry, and I love the picture that Sabrina had drawn for me.

We are going to meet with four people this week that we have planned times with. The people here are very strong Catholics or atheist. We are still working hard and keeping our heads up. Oh, on the second day here. The other missionaries baptized a man named Edward and he always tries to speak English haha. People look at me very strange here because I am very tall compared to them and a little whiter then they are. Chileans don’t look like other Latino’s, they all have a very German look to them.

Our casa is weird to me and it only has four lights which is sad. We don’t have to put anything in the fridge right now because it’s so cold here. The showers water is heated by lighting a gas stove type thing which I have never seen but usually it’s a super cold shower in a super cold morning. So far I love it here in Chile and it’s been really fun, I do wish I knew more Spanish but I will push myself to learn it. Thanks for all your emails and your support, I love you guys. You’re the best family!!!

Love,

Elder McAlister

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Below is a picture of "Nevado De Longavi" which is the closest big mountain in the Andes to where Sean is:

Nevado De Longavi

Two thoughts/scriptures shared with Sean this week.  

The first from his Mom:

My thought for you for the week is the chapter of Moroni 7. The whole chapter is great but I want to focus on verse 26: "Whatsoever thing ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is good, in faith believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be done unto you." and verse 33: " And Christ hath said, "If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."

The second on from Dad comes from Elder Bruce R. McConkie on missionary work:

”I am called of God. My authority is above that of the kings of the earth. By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my Master and he has chosen me to represent him. To stand in his place, to say and do what he himself would say and do if he personally were ministering to the very people to whom he has sent me. My voice is his voice, and my acts are his acts; my words are his words and my doctrine is his doctrine. My commission is to do what he wants done. To say what he wants said. To be a living modern witness in word and deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous latter-day work.”

Have a great week everyone!  I know Sean would love to hear from you. As soon as I have his physical address I will update the main page of the blog with that so letters can be sent.