Sunday, July 24, 2016

Off to a Good Start!

Charlie demanded a picture be taken of him :)



Elder Lane
Our District: Elder Kropushek, Elder Boar (my comp), Elder Yocam, 
Elder McCrae, Elder Powell, Elder Adams, and I


July 18, 2016

Dear Alley Family & Friends,

How's it going everyone? I hope you all are recovering well from the last couple of busy and emotionally draining weeks. I also hope that Aubrey and all of my cousins will have fun at EFY and that Max's transition from mission life to "normal" life goes smoothly. Have fun with that one bro ;) Ha ha. Still, I hope everyone is doing okay.

Well, as I said in my last e-mail, my new companion is Elder Boer. He is good ole, hard-working farm boy from Star, Idaho (he said it's located somewhere outside of Boise). He loves hunting and anything that involves being outdoors. What makes this companionship interesting is that he actually came out on the mission field with me (we weren't in the same MTC zone but we were in the same travel group) and I knew him when we were in the same district back when I was serving in Parkersburg North, WV. And that was over a year ago! #ElderAlleyIsGettingOldInTheMission ;).

So with all this in mind, that means that there are one of two possibilities that could happen to me: 1) I could transferred to a different area for my last transfer so that Elder Boer could take over and get my replacement settled in, or 2) We both finish our last two transfers here in Huntington West and kill each other off! How crazy would that be? Personally, I'm willing to bet that we'll just both finish our missions here in Huntington West. But, you never know.

Anyways, so I already knew Elder Boer and I was so excited when I found out that we would be companions because he is a good, hard-working missionary. In fact, right after he got settled into the apartment, we just got right to work. The results are that, within just four days of being together, we already found a ton of potential investigators and picked up two new investigators! It was awesome! So we are off to a good start.

One story that I would like to share with you happened on the second day of our companionship. One counsel that President Salisbury gave to the mission recently is that we should stay and work in one area all day. The reason for this counsel is that we, as missionaries who have cars, have a terrible habit of driving from one person's house to another and not get any lessons or finding opportunities in (it's a long story). Well, my goal for this transfer is to put that counsel to that test. So, instead driving from house to house, Elder Boer and I just picked a couple addresses to go to and either walk there or drive and then walk there. If they fall through, then we just tracted around that area for the rest of day. This resulted in a lot more opportunities to talk to people.

On the second day of our companionship, Elder Boer and I found this one family in their backyard swimming pool and talked to the father. We did our usual missionary intro and invitation to learn about the restored gospel and we then set up an appointment with him and his family this evening. However, the real story is that after we left this family and worked the area for the rest of the day, we were making our way back to our apartment when we ran into the father again and he was surprised to see us still out and about. As a missionary, I love seeing shocked reactions from people who see us walking around trying to spread the Word of God. For me, this allows more teaching opportunities because that usually gets people curious as to why we do what we do. It's always an awesome experience.

Well, I'll go ahead and let you guys go. I love you all and miss you all. Take care everyone.

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Elder Michael Alley  

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