Another Week in the Books

August 15, 2016

Dear Alley Family & Friends,

How's it going y'all? Man, these past few weeks have been really hot and humid and this week was no exception. Elder Boer and I have been doing a lot of tracting (door-knocking) and, after being outside nearly all day, we just come back to our apartment drenched in sweat. Can't wait for the day when I can just come home, sit down and lean back on my sofa without feeling how sweaty my back is. Eww. ;) Oh, well. I heard that once we get to the end of August, the weather will start cooling down. Thank goodness.

Anyway, enough of my complaints about heat and humidity. This week was pretty good. It felt slow because many of the people we tract into are very quick to down our message of the restoration and our offering of the Book of Mormon. Let's just say that they are a living example of 2 Nephi 29 (hint: A bible! A bible! We have got a bible and need no more bible!). Now don't get me wrong. I do respect all religions. But it really does get annoying having our message rejected after a while. Work with me people! ;) Oh, well. It is what it is.

There are a couple highlights that I would like to share from this week that were pretty cool. I already reported this to my mission president, so here's an excerpt:

 "We had an awesome teaching appointment with D (one of our current investigators). She's been struggling with smoking and I felt impressed to have us, her and Brother P (a member who always comes with us to these lessons) read from 3 Nephi 11: 31-38 together. When we got to verse 34, she had some concerns about being "damned". Remembering a lesson that I had in one of my priesthood quorums back home, I explained to her that Jesus Christ meant that if we don't keep His commandments then we stop our progress in coming to Him, just like a water dam stops the flow of water. Brother P and Elder Boer gave great insights on this lesson as well and that seemed to really help her. She even set her own date to be smoke-free by August 31 and baptized on September 17. It was an awesome lesson!"

"Other than that, mainly just a lot of tracting and working an area all day. We did find a few more potentials that we will follow up this week, so stay tuned. However, my highlight of the week was getting compliments from random people we run into about how impressed they were that we would go preach God's word while other people our age would just waste their lives on nothing. Most of them weren't interested in learning our message but the fact they would compliment us like that always makes me feel good. Now that's a tender mercy from the Lord. Just thought I would share that with you."

Not a bad week if you ask me ;) Well, I think that ought to do it. I hope all is well back home. I love you all and miss you all.

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Elder Michael Alley