Seeing the Lord's Hand in the Work

May 31, 2016

Dear Alley family & friends,

How's it going y'all? I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day. We as citizens of the United States of America (despite our country's imperfections that many people are quick to point out) really do have a lot to be grateful for. We have been blessed to live in a land of freedom. Freedom to speak out our opinions, to choose what to believe in and many other blessings that the Lord has given us. But freedom would never have been achieved if we didn't have such brave men and women who were willing to defend our country and freedom. For those who have lost their lives in their service and for those families and friends of those brave souls, we thank you for your service. More importantly, we love you for your service. May you all be blessed for your sacrifice.

For those who are curious about the title, the commandment of "acknowledging the Lord's hand in all things" (not sure where in the scriptures it says that or what general conference talk that teaches it) is something that's been on my mind recently. Being a missionary is not easy and the Huntington West area has proven to be very challenging lately. Because it was a holiday weekend, many people were out of town so we didn't get to meet very many people. For those we did meet through tracting, many of them would turn us away for various reasons. Not to mention that I really hate the heat and humidity here (yowza, it's been hot over here).

Nevertheless, I know that the Lord was and still is involved with us in this work. For example, Elder Lane and I have travelled to many different addresses in search of former investigators and less-active members. Apparently, many of them have moved out somewhere else. While we may not have gotten many people to teach, this did allow us to update the ward roster and area book, which can really help future missionaries to make more effective plans in the future.

Another example is that today, before coming to e-mail, there was a member family who was moving to Maryland but they needed help moving their stuff from the storage unit to their U-Haul truck. However, none of the other members were available to help. As a result, the zone leaders (who serve in the same ward as we do) called us to help this family since they were already tied up in another service activity. Well, we had two teaching appointments set up around that time, so we wouldn't be able to give a lot of time to help this family. However, both of those appointments were cancelled on us, so we were able to help this family get all their stuff in the truck. While I don't like teaching appointments falling through, I believe that the Lord made it happen so that we could help this family when other people couldn’t.

These are just a couple of examples to prove that the Lord is involved in this work. If the mission has taught me anything, it's that staying positive can give us "eyes to see" the Lord's hand in our lives. Well, I'm going to get off my soap box (basically, it means I'm done talking your ear off. ha ha). I hope you all have a great week. I love you all and miss you all. Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Elder Michael Alley