New Emails

Here are some of Alex's new emails!
haha this week was so nuts and SO FAST! Anywho haha it was so insane! We had like 8 or 9 lessons taught all the way up until friday again. Then, the good Lord stepped in and let us find 12 new people on Saturday! AWESOME RIGHT! Well that Saturday was nuts. We met this girl named Rachel who was totally hitting on me. She kept asking me, JUST ME, to come inside! I kept saying sorry we cant there has to be another man in the house. She didnt give up, she kept saying "but is so cold, are you sure?" haha she was insane, so after we get done teaching her Elder AK had invited her to church. We walk off and I get an impression that we cannot get her for church haha so I tell him i'll pray and see what God thinks. Well long story short we end up picking her up with a member. I was with Elder Lunt though because elder AK and sorenson went to the Camden branch for church so it was just us on an exchange. Elder Lunt goes "watch we'll go to pick her up and she'll be wearing something way immodest to try and catch your attention" and he called it completely. We get there and I have never seen so little clothing worn on the top half of a womans body other than swimming. So pretty much I dont even look at her the whole time haha I know that sounds mean but I wouldnt look at her. Anyways so we get to church and take her into Relief society and everyone is screaming at each other, so Elder Lunt and I are like what the heck haha. We walk out and after we talk to a way cool member named Sister Talbot, and she said a lady who comes to church named Michelle was teaching false doctrine. A little back ground on Michelle, she is a lady that elder fatiau and I met in my first 6 weeks. We started teaching her and she wouldn't ever let us teach, she would just always try and teach us. She comes to church because she loves to learn. She goes to 6 other churches besides ours. Within the first 2 weeks of attending church she asked our Branch President for 350 dollars for rent, we go over the next day and she has a candy store set up in her house. She wont control her 2 year old boy and just lets him run around and all over the stage during sacrament meeting and he falls a lot and get's hurt and she just screams in the middle of sacrament "Get up michael!" haha so yeah pretty much we have a handful with her! This Sunday everyone but 12 people left church because of her haha so we are praying things will get better and her heart will soften. So yeah this week has been pretty... interesting to say the least haha. Well then yesterday I didnt get to email you because we got to move into our new house, it is SO SICK! It's HUGE (missionary standards), haha so we are livin the life right now! As for skype this upcoming week I am STOKED! I'm 99% sure im staying here because im supposed to train for 12 weeks, so if I stay I already know where I will be skyping from. But if I get transfered on the 20th that would be awful and it would pretty much be last minute to let you know where I'll be skyping from. So just pray I stay! Well I will pray for you both continually, especially you for finals, you'll do great! Send me a picture of your baby bump! :) I LOVE YOU GUYS! Oh, and remember my new address is 201 Oak street Selma AL 36701, so any birthday or christmas packages anyone you know is planning on sending, make sure they go there, thanks :) haha you two are the best!

Okay first things first :) My new address is 201 Oak Street Selma AL, 36701. So start sending everything from here on our there, because we are moving tomorrow. Well that part about the hurricane blew my mind. Have you talked to anyone who lives in Kaysville that I know? Mostly Jessica? I heard it hit WAY HARD in Kaysville, so please get in touch with her. I'm very grateful to hear you are all okay though. That worries me. I guess I know how you must feel though haha I'm in hurricane and tornado country all the time haha. Well once again the time is just flying by! It's going way to fast haha I pray that it will slow down! Today was so amazing! We had a ZONE MEET, and President Memory (a lawyer), took 28 missionaries all to Golden Corral and then BOWLING! It was so much fun! I got to see Elder Fatiau and just hang out and get to know all the other missionaries, probably the most fun (as far a temporal fun, not spiritual :) ) I've had in a while! Oh I totally get where your coming from though about the Benadryl haha I was just doing what our Mission Nurse said to do haha apparently she struggles a little with dosages :). This week was really nice though. Thursday Elder Andoh-kesson and I went to Birmingham to a Trainer/Trainee meeting. It was so amazing to listen to President Holzapfel! In all modesty and respect, I will not be surprised to see him in the quorum of the 12 after his mission. A couple reasons why, the biggest one being, "Gospel Principles", yeah, guess who WROTE THAT? PRESIDENT HOLZAPFEL! How INSANE is that! Everyone in the whole world studies the "Gospel Principles" book that he wrote! Anyways this week was way fast! Elder Andoh-kesson and I are becoming so close! He is such an amazing missionary and has such a strong testimony! We are seeing success more than I could have ever imagined! I thank the Lord each day for the opportunity to be a trainer and work with such great missionaries right off the bat. I can definitely see the Lords blessings in my life as I am obedient, patient and desirous in my teaching, finding and training. I can't wait to talk to you guys on Christmas, I just want you to hear my voice haha I already sound like a red neck haha, but that doesn't change the spirit of my testimony! I hope you both had the privilege to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional last night. It was so spiritual and uplifting, and made me more grateful for my savior Jesus Christ and for my WONDERFUL family who never gave up on such a rebellious soul, such as mine. You are really such a blessing in my life, and I praise God each day for your lives, your health and your wonderful examples to me! There isn't really any stories that stand out in my mind about this week, but I only wish you could feel the spirit that is so abundant in my missionary work each day. This is truely the Lords work. I love you all so much! Oh and to answer your question about the "Less-actives", a scripture I love to use 3 Nephi 18:11-12. In twelve it says "this commandment I give unto you", and it's talking about the sacrament, so we always NICELY show them, that if they are not partaking of the sacrament, they are not only missing out on God's blessings, but they are breaking a COMMANDMENT of God and Jesus Christ. So I hope that helps you out! Can't wait to talk to you next!

I'm so excited to talk to all of you at Christmas! I'm planning on starting the Skype at 1, I hope that works out! That will mean it's going to be about 12 o'clock for you! I'll most likely be calling you all anyways if something goes wrong with the Skype or we cant figure it out. So just plan on being at shaylee's around that time okay :). Well good news, Elder Andoh-kesson and I are staying together, how awesome is that. I knew we would! Elder Lunt is getting transfered because he has medical problems and he needs to be closer to better medical care. Elder Sorenson from Logan is staying here in Selma so it should be pretty awesome! We have met the most LEGIT people this week! I'm so excited to start teaching them, because they've been waiting forever to have a change in their life, and this is the biggest and the best one! This week we went to President and Sister Holzapfel's home for a christmas social. It was SO GOOD! I got to hang out with Elder Fat again and just relax and talk with all the other missionaries. President gave us all some special gifts too. We got a CD of the TAB choir, and he order us all the COOLEST belt ever. It's a new model and kind of belt, and half of the money goes to people in need, so he got all of us one. He also gave every missionary a 72 hour backpack which is very helpful. Our new house is so awesome! There is so much room to just lounge around when we have off time. There is also the most comfortable lazy boy chair that is the BEST to read in! Well this week was way fast as far as time goes, but really slow considering the work. We had so many places to go, and parties to attend for the three churches we are over. We had to go to B-Ham so we taught a huge total of..... 13 lessons haha but the Lord helped us find some amazing people even considering those low numbers. Saturday and Sunday we went on an exchange and stayed in a retired couples house in a town called Magnolia. It is just a little branch, but it was really nice to go and celebrate christmas with them! We met with a lot of less active members and had probably the most powerful lessons I have had yet. The spirits promptings were SO STRONG it was almost like someone was talking to me, no joke. I shared two scriptures that were completely off topic, but that changed the whole spirit of the lesson and changed their desire completely to attend church. No doubt in my mind, they will be there sunday. The Holy Ghost is really the most amazing gift that heavenly father has given us. If we could just always listen to it and be in tune with it, we would not only live a much happier life, but we would live a more fulfilled and exceptional life. I have really seen the power and protection the spirit will bring, and I promise if you will just do what asked of you, keep the commandments and live your life according to heavenly fathers will, you will never be led astray. This church is true, Christ lives and loves us, and if we let him be our guide and our light we will not fail. Keep being exceptional, and always look for ways to improve. I love you both more than you could ever know.