Monday, November 23, 2015

Rising Up

Elder Taylor and Elder Alley 
(Thank you, Elder Taylor for taking pictures!!)
Pilgrim place holders I made for Elder Alley and his companion. :)

November 23, 2015

Dear Mom, Dad, Aubrey, Ashley, and all my Family & Friends,

Wow, a record-breaking windstorm in Spokane! Yikes! And I thought the one before my mini-mission was nuts. Still, I'm so grateful that everyone was kept safe. I really enjoyed the pictures. Not even a windstorm can stop the fun at the Alley home! ;) Way to keep the fun going.

Before I tell you about my week, I'll answer Mom's questions:

2) The Listening Program is going well. I haven't seen any obvious results from it but I have noticed that I've been able to speak my thoughts a little better but that's all for now. Tonight should be my last phone consultation.

3) Yes, I did get one of the Thanksgiving packages. Thank you so much. Elder Taylor and I really enjoyed the mini pies and snack mixes. We are also excited to make some hot chocolate soon. Yeah! :)

4) What do I want for Christmas? What I would like is for everyone at home to send me a written letter containing their testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How has the gospel blessed your lives and how have you come to know that the Book of Mormon is true and that the gospel has been restored to the earth? I believe that everyone (even members) has a conversion story and I would like to hear yours.

5) We have two less-active members that invited us for Thanksgiving. One at noon and the other in the evening. So don't worry, we will be fed this Thanksgiving ;)

Now, you're probably wondering about my week in the mission field. Well, it's probably just better to share with you an excerpt from my letter to my mission president:

"My report for the work here in Flatwoods was that it was another slow week. The struggle has just been finding people to meet and teach with. To make the long story short, most of our investigators have asked us to visit them after Thanksgiving and apparently they change house numbers here, so we weren't able to find any new less-actives or former investigators because of change in address information.

However, the Lord has once again showed me some tender mercies. I've been feeling really depressed lately about how slow the work here has been going so I lost focus for a while. But one day, before we had our appointment with L (investigator), I felt impressed by the Spirit to look through the scriptures to find any references about getting back to the basics of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I eventually came across Jarom 1:11 in the Book of Mormon and this verse was very inspiring to me. If you replace the words "law of Moses" with "Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ" then this verse just tells you our missionary purpose. It was a much needed personal revelation and it gave me renewed determination to go teach the gospel. With this inspiration, we were able to teach L the restoration and this time I felt the power of godliness as we taught. We even got to give her a blessing of comfort. It was amazing!"

As you can see, this week had its struggles but I know that the Lord is watching over us. It's amazing what a little scripture study can do. I know that this work is the Lord's work and when I'm done, I'll be grateful that I chose to serve a mission.

Well, I think that's everything. I love you all and miss you all. Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Elder Michael Alley

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