The burning of the white shirt...

The Chiguayante district is doing great, and working hard.  Elder Bravo and McAlister have found a new family to teach. P-day sounds like a lot of fun playing soccer. Hard to believe he has been gone 15 months the end of this week.

Each week his English and sentence structure is getting a little worse and requires more fixing, but thats a good sign of his Spanish language skills improving.

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McAlister Family,

Hey I am glad to hear from you guys and I hope that mom had a really good birthday. I am sorry last week we had a meeting with our President and I had no time to write. I want mom to know that I love her and that she is the best mom in the world. I hope you had a good birthday! Dad where is your new office now? And what happened this week with sports, everyone lost! Sad week in sports! Brooke so now when does Todd know if he has a job or does he keep on taking tests? Have you guys gone to a Thunder game yet? Jessica I hope all is going well for you and Derek, and that church that you went to sounds like a normal church in Chile! Sabrina you are a funny kid and I miss you! Looks like you had fun playing volleyball! I think that it’s funny that you guys ran into Makenzie at the Brick Oven. 

Well this last week was very hard, but I worked as hard as I could. My district has been doing really good and we brought people all the people with a date for baptism to church. So we have been working really well as a district. As in Elder Bravo things are still up in the air. So it’s kind of hard! But I am learning from this experience and I am finding a lot of weaknesses that I have as a person. This next Monday we have cambios and we will find out whats going to happen here in Chiguayante. 

This week we have been really working with the Gasparini family and with a new family that we found Josefina and Karen. They are doing really good and we will find out if they are going to progress in this gospel. Just to let you guys know Mirta moved and has left our sector so we are not teaching her anymore. What we really need to do is find and that is something that we are not having that much success with. Please pray for us that we can start to find in our sector and that we can find people that are ready to hear the message of the restoration.  

I ended up burning my shirt this week, after so much time of waiting and it was awesome. I felt like I was going to burn my hand off because the shirt lights up really fast and it was crazy. We did a video and we took pictures of it. But the pictures are on the camera of Elder Hoopes and he is not with us today so I guess I will send them next week to you guys. My shirt that I was wearing at the time smells so bad now and also my hands did also. I am coming up on 16 months I believe! Crazy!

We played some soccer today on a grass field and it was awesome. We played against the zone of Penco and we ended up in a tie. It was really fun and I scored our last goal to keep us up in the lead until the end of the game. I really like playing soccer now!

For Christmas I could really use a new pair of black pants that are long and slim look, because my pants are dying. It never hurts to have some more socks either. In this moment I am doing okay so I would love some chocolate from the states and I can’t think of anything else.

Thank you guys for everything and I hope that you have a great and safe week. I am happy to hear that everyone is okay and I love you guys a ton. I can’t wait to talk to you on Christmas soon. Crazy! I miss you and I love you guys!

Elder McAlister

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This is the spiritual thought I shared with Sean this week.  President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (one of my favorite speakers), in his October 2014 talk "Living the Gospel Joyful" was talking about obedience and the commandments.  He said:

"If you truly believe the great mission of our Heavenly Father is to exalt and glorify His children and that He knows best how to do it—doesn’t it make sense to embrace and follow His commandments, even the ones that appear difficult? Should we not cherish the light posts He has given that guide us through the darkness and the trials of mortality? They mark the way back to our heavenly home! By choosing Heavenly Father’s path, you lay a divine foundation for your personal progress … that will bless you throughout your life."

I like this perspective.  The gospel is not an easy thing to live, but if you have made the decision to follow the Savior, we need to follow him all the way, and not just think we can pick and choose what we want to follow because it easy, or not follow because it is hard. The commandments are there for a reason, and they outline the path we need to take to return to our Heavenly Father, and most importantly with our families.

Until next week enjoy some pictures from Chile…

The Chiguayante District

The Chiguayante District going a little crazy.

The Chiguayante District going a little crazy part 2.

The traditional missionary burning of the white shirt at the half way point of Sean's mission, a couple months late.

The Chiguayante District vs The Penco District in some p-day soccer!

GGGGooooooaaaaalllllllllll!!!!

The p-day soccer field.

Missed Halloween, but glad to be serving.

Elder McAlister is learning and growing so much on his mission.  He is learning that not all experiences are fun, but there is something to learn in every situation. Happy they have been able to find some new people to teach this last week, and share the gospel message with.

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Hey everyone,

Hey everyone I am glad to hear from you guys and I am happy that everyone is okay and doing well. Glad to hear that some of you guys had a good Halloween. Sabrina and mom are looking great in your costumes and I hope Sabrina had fun trick or treating. Did you get a lot of candy? Mom I hope the inserts will help your feet out and that’s kind of a bummer. Brooke how is Oklahoma? Are you guys in the city or on the outskirts of the city. I want to visit Oklahoma one day and see the Thunder play! Jessica how are you guys doing and are you guys still living in the same house and everything? Dad thanks for the spiritual thought I really liked it. Mom I loved your costume and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

This cambio has been very hard for me but it is amazing how much I have learned in this time. I have really found weak points in myself and I have been able to focus on them with my companion. I am changing little by little and it’s really helping me out as a person. I have learned that I really need to strengthen my patience and my love and my temper. I am really growing from this companionship even though it has been really hard I am looking for the good that is coming out of it. I really can see how God puts us with companions to helps us grow and all the experience that I am learning I will be able to use it in my life later on. God lets us be tried to let us fall and we can learn how to get up ourselves, but we always have his help. But I am doing really great!  

This week we spent a ton of time talking to people in the street and knocking on doors so that we can find and we found a few people. We are really focused on Gonzalo and we are hoping he can progress well. He has a ton of questions all the time, he is doing really well and I am happy that we are working with him. Also we are working with the family Gasparini again and they have lost a lot of faith so we are looking to help them out big time. We also are working with Marcela that we found this last week and her family is almost all active members and before she didn't want to talk to us and now she does and she is very good with the bible. Please pray for them and I hope that they can find the truth in our message! 

Halloween was just a normal day because this holiday is not that big here in Chile. There were still some kids dressed up but it’s still not like the United States where everyone is really dressed up and having fun. A lot of people throw eggs at houses and it’s a big mess. I really miss carving pumpkins, watching Charlie Brown, pumpkin pie and the Halloween dinner with the family. So I still remember the family traditions and I want to do them. There was a few more kids dressed up in the rich sector and on the other side there was nothing. One day Halloween will get really big here! We ate some gold fish this day and it was the craziest day ever! I miss Gold fish

I love you a ton and I hope that you have a great week. You guys are always in my prayers and in my thoughts. I really can’t believe how fast this year went by. In two months I get to talk to you guys! Crazy!!! I love you and take care and I can’t wait to hear from you next week!

Elder McAlister

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Spiritual thought time!  This week what I shared with Sean came from two different October conference talks, about prophets.  First, Elder Henry B. Eyring, in his talk "Continuing Revelation" he said:

"Don’t take lightly the feeling you get of love for the prophet of God. … That is far more than hero worship or the feelings we sometimes have of admiring heroic figures. It is a gift from God. With it you will receive more easily the gift of confirming revelation when he speaks in his office as the Lord’s prophet. The love you feel is the love the Lord has for whoever is His spokesman."

Then, Elder Russell M. Nelson, in his talk "Sustaining the Prophets" said:

"Our sustaining of prophets is a personal commitment that we will do our utmost to uphold their prophetic priorities. Our sustaining is an oath-like indication that we recognize their calling as a prophet to be legitimate and binding upon us."

I've been thinking a lot about the prophets a lately, and how important it is that we have one on the earth for us today. We are so lucky God loves us enough to give us President Monson to lead and guide us.

Here are two pictures from this week, one of the Gold fish he had, not sure about the other one…

Yummy Gold Fish!

Not sure why he sent this picture.

The Purifying Power of Gethsemane

Good to hear from Elder McAlister this week.  The last few weeks have been hard for him and we have been praying that things work out.  Please include Sean and his companion in your prayers.

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Hey everyone how is it going?

I totally forgot that Halloween was this week and in the states it’s a lot better there. More people dress up and there is a lot more activity's like carving a pumpkin. It’s not a very popular holiday here. I really miss eating pumpkin pie. Football sounds like it’s going awesome and the Steelers crushed the Colts (HaHa). I miss watching some good football. Glad to hear that everyone is doing great. Sounds like Sabrina is going to have a fun Halloween and it’s going to be a scary one (HaHa). Thank you guys for all your support and all that you guys do for me and thanks for your emails! They are helping me out a ton right now! 

This last week was very, very difficult and very stressful. I learned a ton and we saw the Lords hand in our lives. My comp is still struggling and I still have hope that things can change up and I hope we can change our situation! 

Last Monday we had a zone activity and we had a BBQ and we played a game that was a war with paint in water balloons. So we got covered in paint and it was super fun. Then we played a little bit of volleyball and soccer and it was a really fun activity. Then in the night we work.  

Tuesday we had our conference with our Mission President and I really liked it. We learned how we should be contacting people in the streets and how to make goals with our contacts. Also we learned the reason we need to work with members and what is their role in the work. It was a very good conference and we got to listen to a talk from President Uchtdorf. Which was pretty much saying Satan wants us to be lazy and not work, He talked very well about the atonement of Jesus Christ and how it affects us as missionary's.   

The rest of the week we visited people and we pretty much lost all of our investigators this week. We are down to two investigators and we have another that is just there, but not really progressing. Right now we are working with Gonzalo, but we couldn't find him this week and that was really hard for us. This week we walked so much and it was a very hot week. So right now I have to treat this sector like a new sector and act like we are the first missionary's in this sector. But on Saturday we were not having any success and it was very stressful and very hot. We walked and walked and every visit that we had planned fell through and we just we talking with people in the street and knocking doors. The other missionary's had a baptism at 8:00 so pretty much we were out of time and at 7:40 we knock on this door and this kid comes out and he says that his name is Milton. We ended up entering his house and we started teaching him. He then told us that he is searching for the truth and his friend died recently that day. He told us that he felt like we were sent to his house for a reason. We taught him a little and he accepted a baptism fecha and he said that he would come to church. But on Sunday he had the viewing and so he couldn't come, but it really was a blessing for us.  After a week of losing every investigator and having a hard week. We received a blessing. It was awesome!!! So please pray for Milton and Gonzalo that they can progress! Thanks!

I hope that you guys can look up the talk that’s called "The Purifying Power of Gethsemane" By Elder Bruce R. McConkie. I read this talk a lot this week and it is a very strong talk about the Atonement and I thought that you guys might like to read it! It’s very, very powerful and it’s amazing!  

Well thank you so much for everything and I love you guys a ton. I hope that have great week and keep on being awesome! I miss you guys a lot and I want to thank you for giving me this chance to serve here in Chile and to know this gospel. I love you guys and I can’t wait to hear from you next week!

Love You Guys!!!

Elder McAlister

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This week I shared the following from Elder David A. Bednar, in his October 2014 Conference talk "Come and See", speaking about why we do missionary work. He said:

    "Latter-day Saints take seriously this responsibility to teach all people in all nations about the Lord Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. We believe the same Church founded by the Savior anciently has been reestablished on the earth by Him in the latter days. The doctrine, principles, priesthood authority, ordinances, and covenants of His gospel are found today in His Church."

    "Devoted disciples of Jesus Christ always have been and always will be valiant missionaries. A missionary is a follower of Christ who testifies of Him as the Redeemer and proclaims the truths of His gospel."

This a great message from Elder Bednar, and should be a real inspiration for missionaries as they are out doing the very missionary work fulltime which he describes of sharing the message of the Lord Jesus Christ and His restored gospel.

Until next week everyone be safe and enjoy some ne pictures from Chile….

View of Chiguayante, Chile, where Sean is serving.

Elder McAlister at a service project.

Elder McAlister, Elder Hoopes, Elder McAllister and Elder Letelier at a service project.

 

 

 

 

 

Elder McAlister and Elder McAllister

Chiguayante District service project.

Chiguayante District on P-day

Elder Hoopes and Elder McAlister

Elder McAlister and Elder Hualinga