Elder Nicholes - Independence Missouri

A Homecoming

2011-10-30T22:40:00.000-07:00

The day finally arrived. The day that we thought, two years ago, would never come. The day that our son, Elder Alex Nicholes, arrived home safe and sound from serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Independence, Missouri mission. As you can imagine this was a wonderful day for us and as we could have never imagined, his release as a missionary was almost as hard as the day we dropped him off at the MTC. That statement may sound a little strange, but if you have ever sent a missionary out for two years and had the experience of welcoming your missionary home again, you know what I am talking about. I will attempt to explain what I mean as I describe what happened in our lives over the next 36 hours or so after Alex arrived home.

This blog entry will be very different than the entries that I have previously written. Over the last two years I have been writing all about Alex from his perspective through the stories that he sent home as part of in his weekly letters. This blog entry will be written completely from our perspective as the parents of a missionary who has returned home safely and honorably from a two year mission. So let's get started!

Alex's flight was scheduled to arrive at the airport at 7:15 pm Friday night. We of course, had already notified family and friends that if they would like to meet Alex at the airport, they were perfectly welcome to come and share in the excitement that we have been anticipating for the last two years. Since we have known for several weeks what time his flight was scheduled to arrive, we made sure to give ourselves plenty of time to travel from our home to the airport. We also wanted to give ourselves a little bit of extra time at the airport to settle in and get ready for the big moment. Just our luck, right off the bat as we entered the freeway, we ran into the typical Friday evening rush hour traffic. The traffic report on the radio was warning the evening drivers that this jam was serious and to be prepared to wait. When we were planning our trip to the airport earlier in the day, a traffic jam was not what we had anticipated. Luckily our freeway entrance was closer to the end of the jam rather than the beginning. Some of our friends who were also planning to join us at the airport, weren't so lucky however. Well we arrived at the airport, settled in like we planned and immediately noticed that there were several other families doing the same thing. They were holding hand painted posters welcoming their missionary home just like we were. In fact, there were probably a hundred people standing there at the bottom of the baggage claim escalator waiting in pure excitement. Alex wasn't the only one coming home from the Missouri mission. There were several other Elders and one Sister missionary who were also returning as well.

As the arrival time of his flight came and went, the crowd grew larger as more and more of us were standing there holding our "Welcome Home Elder ..." signs. We were all staring at the constant steam of people descending the escalator hoping to catch the first glimpse of anybody in a suit sporting a missionary name plaque. To our surprise, several passengers who had been on the same flight and were already entering the baggage claim area, informed us that there was a group of missionaries standing at the top of the escalator just out of our sight. While we were all waiting, they were talking and hugging and saying goodbye to their missionary companions whom they had served with for the last two years. Then finally, as all of us who were standing at the bottom of the escalator, the crowd started to cheer with excitement as these fine missionaries stepped onto the escalator and started to make their way towards us.

There was Alex, standing on the escalator right in the middle of the pack. You can probably imagine just how excited we all were to finally see our boy... Man, again after two year. Of course I have to say that at this moment it felt like the last two years had just flown by. Standing there in the airport watching Alex come down the escalator felt like it was just last week that we dropped him off at the MTC. He looked great. His patented "smile" and glow that he always carries with him was there and very familiar. I don't have to tell you just how great of a sight that was.

At the bottom of the stairs you can just imagine who was there to greet her missionary son first. If you guessed anybody other than his mother, in the first place you would have been wrong and the second place you would have been crazy to guess anybody else. You have probably heard the old saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words". Well, I think the following pictures tell more about the excitement and emotion of the whole experience than I could ever write.

I don't think that I have to tell you just how exciting it was to finally see Alex again and to hug him and talk to him in person. Especially knowing just how wonderful of a missionary he has been over the last two years and everything that he has accomplished. Who wouldn't be proud of their son or daughter knowing that they had just spent two years of their life serving their God and as well as their fellow men.

For some reason, our family is always the last to leave any party and this airport homecoming was no different. Alex had parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins and friends there to greet him. We all stood there talking and hugging for so long that when we finally looked around, everybody else had already gone. There were still a few strangers in the baggage claim area waiting for their bags, but the large crowd who had been there just minutes before, had now left. There were so few people around that we had a hard time trying to find someone who would be willing to take one last picture of our whole welcome home party. Luckily we were able to recruit a man who had been standing off to the side watching the whole experience. Then after the final picture we decided that it was probably time for us to leave and head for home.

On our way home we asked Alex where he would like to go to get something to eat. I know it had been a long day for me and I was hungry. It had also been a long day for Alex and he was probably hungry as well. Believe it or not, the place we chose to go after this huge event was... Crown Burger. If you aren't from the Salt Lake area, Crown Burger is just what you would think, a fast food burger joint. However, it isn't just any burger joint, Crown Burger was actually featured on the show Man vs. Food if you happen to be familiar with the Travel Channel. Anyway, enough of plugging the burger joint and on to the story that happened next. As we pulled into the parking lot, Alex still wearing his missionary suit and tags of course, spotted a woman sitting on the curb talking to a man in a wheel chair. Alex immediately grabbed his box of church pamphlets, selected two of them and walked up to these people introducing himself as Elder Nicholes from the Church of Jesus Christ. Alex struck up a conversation with them where he asked who they were and what they were doing. They noticed the missionary tags and asked Alex about his mission. It turned out that they were both members of the church and were very excited to hear that Alex had just returned home from his mission. Alex handed them both the missionary pamphlets anyway and we all wished them a good evening. This is where I insert an old but very fitting cliche, "you can take the missionary out of the mission, but you can't take the mission out of the missionary".

The rest of the evening went very well. We enjoyed our meal at Crown Burger where Alex informed us that it was getting late and that he needed to be home and in bed by 10:30 pm. We finished up dinner, said goodbye to the family and friends who were there with us and headed home. Once we arrived at home, we unpacked the car, reintroduced Alex to his home and new room just before Alex went to bed. If you happen to be reading this President, Yes... Alex made it home and in bed on time. For the rest of you who may think that being in bed on time seems a little silly for a returned missionary, well at this point Alex was still a missionary. His release from being a full-time missionary wouldn't happen until 9:00 am the next morning. Since being in bed by 10:30 pm didn't apply to the rest of us, we all stayed up and watched the previously recorded BYU vs. TCU football game. We won't be going into that, if you know what I mean!

The next morning, being a Saturday as well as the day after that very emotional day we just experienced, we of course slept in a bit. That doesn't mean to say that we didn't hear the rustling around of our missionary son who was up on time just like every other day for the past two years. As it turned out, since his younger brother just became Alex's temporary companion for a few hours, they had both gotten up early, gone down to the track at the high school to workout and were finally back home. When their mother finally wandered downstairs... well the following photograph tells the whole story.

If you think for a second that this picture was staged, I assure you that it wasn't. Alex had pulled his new junior companion out of bed, spent time exercising and now they were both fully engaged in companionship study. Alex still had about an hour left before he would be released from his service as a full-time missionary and he wasn't about to waste any of it.

Speaking of being released, remember at the beginning of this blog I told you that experiencing the release of a missionary son is almost as hard as dropping him off at the MTC. Well, here comes the experience that took us all by surprise. One that we will never forget and one that even though it was hard, we wouldn't trade for anything. Not long after the picture above was taken, we all were up, dressed and out the door to go meet with the Stake President. As it turned out, our Stake President had a conflict and wasn't actually able to be there to release Alex from his missionary service. However, the Stake President had delegated this responsibility to his first counselor who is also a very humble and spiritual man. As we entered the Stake President's office, we all sat down and the first counselor began to speak. I was focused on what the first counselor was saying and listening very intently to his words. After he had been speaking for a few minutes, I noticed that his voice began to crack. That is when, in a tearful tone he said, "don't start this...". What I thought he meant by saying that was that the spirit was very strong and he was starting to feel very emotional about what was happening. Then I glanced over at Alex as tears were streaming down his face. It wasn't the first councilor who was being overcome by this very emotional experience. It was Alex and his emotional response to being released from his service was affecting not only the first councilor, but the rest of us as well. I won't go into everything that was said during the meeting but I will relate one more thing that speaks to just how important being a full-time missionary really was for Alex. Once the first councilor was finished speaking and all was said and done, we all stood up to shake the first councilor's hand and make our way out the door. All except for Alex. He was still sitting there in his chair not wanting to leave. At that moment I could read Alex like a book. He knew that once he stood up and walked out of that office, his full-time missionary service would be complete. When he finally did stand up, he quietly unclasped his missionary tags from his suit coat and white shirt, put them into his pocket, shook the first councilor's hand and it was done. He cried all the way out to the car and most of the way home. This was a very significant moment for us because the day that we dropped Alex off at the MTC, we all cried in the car all the way home. Experiencing almost the same emotions the day Alex was released as the day Alex left, was something that we never would have expected. What a moment!

The rest of the day was wonderful for us. We spent the whole day in the mountains which was a little different for Alex since he hasn't seen any mountains for the last two years. We watched family videos, looked at family and mission photos and tried to catch up on as much of all that has happened over the past two year as we could. Later that night, Alex went to visit some friends and no, this time as a released full-time missionary, he wasn't in bed by 10:30 pm. But he wasn't too much later than that.

I have said this before on this blog and I will say it again. To all of you who watched out for our missionary son over the past two years. To all of you who taught him, mentored him, fed him, housed him, acted as surrogate mother, father, grandmother and grandfather. To all of his companions, church leaders, mission leaders and presidents and to those of you whom he taught and helped to bring into the gospel of Jesus Christ. THANK YOU!!! You will never know how much the Missouri, Independence mission with all of the people there in, mean to us and especially to Alex. We hope to met you someday and thank you in person as well.

Thank you again and may God bless you!

Love,
The Nicholes Family

Here's your sign

2011-10-05T21:31:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks for Alex have been unusual. But then if you consider that there is always something new and different going everyday of your mission, maybe unusual is normal. Alex only wrote us a quick email a couple of weeks ago due to the fact that he had a busy P-day planned.  He and several other missionaries were headed out on their P-Day to take a tour of the Community of Christ temple and the tunnels that run underneath it. When the opportunity arose to go on a tour like this, he figured that he should jump on it because he probably wouldn't have another opportunity. But, in his most recent letter home, he told us that the tour of the tunnels and the temple wasn't as exciting as he thought it would be. There just wasn't much that was out of the ordinary and the fact that he only wrote a couple of sentences about the whole tour, must mean that there wasn't much to write home about either.

Speaking of temples, Alex told us that this past week he also had the opportunity to work with some of the missionaries in the northern part of Kansas City. If you weren't aware of this already, that part of Kansas City is where the LDS church is currently in construction of the Kansas City, Mo temple. The temple is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2012 and will be a very exciting addition for the members of the church in the area. Alex told us that the temple is one of the smaller versions but where it is positioned, just off of the freeway, it appears suddenly as a seemingly large structure when you round the corner while driving along the freeway. The temple construction has resulted in a lot of new interest in the church from the people who live in that area. Alex said that every where they went, people were asking about the temple and what it's purpose is. Of course not everybody has been excited about the new LDS temple. Alex mentioned that he met one little girl who was very disappointed to learn that the giant pretty building just off the freeway, was actually a Mormon temple. She was really hoping that it would be a castle for a princess. Well, if you really think about it, this little girl might actually be right and maybe someday, she will be that princess.

Of course general conference was this last weekend and for those of you who attended the Priesthood session, you probably heard the marvelous priesthood choir. Well, we might be a little biased here because all of the choir members were from Alex's home town.  Alex told us that they arrived a little bit late to the Stake center and the priesthood session had already started. As a result, they missed the announcement about the choir being from Pleasant Grove.  Then later during the final musical number when the TV camera started panning around the choir members, Alex told us that all of the sudden he saw this red headed kid that looked very familiar.  After a little closer look, he thought, "hey I know that kid". Then the camera focused in on this kid's dad and then another person that he knew. Right then it dawned on Alex that the choir was filled with all kinds of familiar faces. Faces of people he knows from back home. Alex told us that it was really fun to see all of these people from home and know that they are all participating in the priesthood session of general conference.

So this has got to be one of the funniest stories that Alex has ever told us during his mission. He told us that about a week ago, he and his companion were working with the zone leaders in Olathe, KS. One night they decided to stop by a local BBQ place called Oklahoma Joe's, to get something to eat. While they were there, they just happened to sit down at a table right next to two people who Alex described as a Christian and an Atheist. How did Alex know that? Basically by the rather loud religious discussion that they were having over dinner. At one point during their discussion the Atheist pointed at the missionaries and said, "If there was a God and he really cared about these Mormons, he would have bought their lunch". Right after he said that, one of the missionaries got a big grin on his face. The Elder leaned over to Alex and said, "God did buy my lunch". As it turned out, that previous Sunday a member of the church had walked up to the Elders between church meetings and handed them gift cards to Oklahoma Joe's restaurant. So in reality, God did buy them lunch.  So there you have it! To quote a famous comedian, "Here's your sign". ;-) Oh but wait, that wasn't the end of the story. Alex and the other missionaries actually sat down and talked to this man for quite a while after his Christian friend had left. This man invited Alex and the other missionaries to come and talk to his Atheist group at some future date. Alex isn't quite sure how he feels about that, but it sounds like, at the very least, it could be a great adventure.

Just a quick side note. We are getting down to the end of these blog entries due to the fact that Alex will complete his mission at the end of this month. One of the many things that Alex has done over the past two years is make the most out of the time that he had while serving his mission. He is feeling very happy to be coming home and seeing his family and friends again. But at the same time, very sad that his service as a full-time missionary is coming to a close. He has told us many times that he wishes his mission could last forever because he has enjoyed every minute of it. I will try to fit in at least one more blog entry before Alex returns home. Of course that will depend on Alex and how much time he has to write home over the next few weeks.

Twenty-one and wrestling again

2011-09-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

As I started this blog entry, I noticed that it had been over a month since the last time I wrote about what Alex has been doing. The blog entries aren't this far apart because we are slowing down towards the end of Alex's two years of service, it is more because Alex has been very busy and has had little time to write home. So when we get letters from him, many times that are very short with just a quick summary of what he has been doing. After a months time, I think we finally have enough good information to make a descent blog entry.

Oh before I forget, today is actually Alex's 21st birthday. Alex didn't really want us to send him anything because he would just have to pack it up in about a month when he comes home. Hard to believe that Alex's two years is coming to a close in just over a month. Anyway, to celebrate his 21st birthday we made him a little video filled with all kinds of very embarrassing photos. These photo range from when he was just a little kid in elementary school to the last pictures we took of him just before he entered the MTC. We had the office Sisters in the mission office help us out a little by surprising Alex with the video. We told the Sisters that they had free rein to show the video to as many people as possible with the goal of making sure that Alex knows that we love him and are proud of all that he has accomplished. Of course everybody knows that you only embarrass the one's that you love the most, right? ;-) So if you happen to be in the Independence, MO area and would like to see a good video of Alex, I'm sure the office Sisters wouldn't mind showing it to you.

A couple of weeks ago Alex sent us a short letter and told us that he was coaching wrestling again. If you remember way back almost two years ago when Alex first arrived in Independence, his first area was Wamego, KS. While in Wamego Alex received permission from his mission president to spend some of his volunteer service time helping out at the high school as a wrestling coach. Well it appears that Alex will finish out his mission in much the same way as he began. No he isn't back in Wamego, but he is spending some of his service time at a local high school near Independence, helping out with the wrestling team there. Alex told us that this is kind of a poorer area of town and because of that, some of the wrestlers haven't been able to purchase wrestling shoes. Some of the team members show up to practice each day in just their stocking feet. If you have ever watched a wrestling match you have probably noticed that a good grip on the mat is essential to being a good wrestler. So trying to wrestle in socks is a very difficult thing to do which leads into a great story.

Alex emailed us one night after getting special permission from his mission president since he was sending this email on a day other than his normal P-Day. In his email he asked if we would be able to dig up some of his old wrestling shoes and send them out to him at the mission office. His intent was to help out some of the wrestlers by trying to provide them with some descent wrestling shoes even though they might be a little worn. After digging through Alex's stuff which has been put away in boxes for the last couple of years, we were finally able to find some of his old shoe. Unfortunately, none of the shoes were in very good shape. So we decided to get online, find a descent pair of shoe and send them out to Alex so that he could give them to one of the boys on he team. Here is where the story gets a little more interesting. As it turned out, we found a good pair of wrestling shoes on Amazon for not too much money. If you know anything about purchasing from Amazon, many times they are just an online presence for a lot of other smaller stores. We were a little surprised to find out that on Alex's next P-day after purchasing the wrestling shoes, he had already received them at the mission office. That is when Alex told us about where those shoes really came from. The sporting goods store that had actually sold and shipped the shoes is in Lenexa, KS. Lenexa just happens to be one of the cities in the Independence, Mo mission, so obviously the store didn't have to ship the shoes very far. Then Alex told us that the store is actually owned by a member of the LDS church. Who knew that when we purchased the shoes on Amazon that they were actually coming from somewhere in Alex's mission and going to serve someone in that same mission. The latest we have heard from Alex is that the shoes had been put to good use and the team is doing great.

Being in a mission with lots of church history sites Alex, at times, runs into people from back home. In Alex's letter a couple of weeks ago, he told us about being at the visitor's center in Independence talking with people as they toured the center. He started up a conversation with a couple who were there and asked them were they were from. Their response was American Fork, Utah. Alex told them that he was from Pleasant Grove, Utah. If you aren't familiar with the Utah Valley area, Pleasant Grove and American Fork are two cities right next to each other. In fact there is a fairly healthy rivalry between the two high schools in these cities. Anyway, the couple made a comment to Alex about Pleasant Grove being good but American Fork being better. Alex said that he had to teach this couple a little lesson about Good, Better, Best (if you don't get this joke, you better re-read Elder Holland's talk from General Conference). The couple noticed that Alex's mission plaque said "Elder Nicholes" and they told Alex that they knew a Chris Nicholes from Pleasant Grove. Alex responded with, "hey, that's my brother". It turned out that this couple was the parents of one of Alex's brother's best friends from high school. They had a good conversation right there in the visitor's center and caught up on a little news from back home.

Alex sent home a few pictures this week. About a month or so ago, Alex told us about spending some early morning time at Adam Ondi Ahman. He described a sunrise shooting through the clouds and how beautiful it was. I told him to get some pictures and send them home. Well he didn't get the picture of the sunrise but he did send some other picture from around the area.

Now here is a young man who is obviously out-standing in his fields. OK it is an old joke, but you have to admit that it is a good one and it fits the picture. :-)

Here is a handsome group of young missionaries. Except that one in the back doesn't look very happy. I think he was a little sad because he was nearing the end of his mission and was finally headed home. Someone once told me that the day that a missionary enters the MTC, the missionary smiles and his mother cries. The day that the missionary comes home, the mother smiles and the missionary cries. That is the sign of a mission well served.

Apparently there is a bit of a pranking war going on between the office Elders and the Sisters. The latest in the feud is sticky notes all over the office Elder's car. Oh the wicked web we weave when revenge is on our minds. Watch out Sisters! What goes around comes around. ;-)

Beams of sunlight through the fog at Adam Ondi Ahman

2011-08-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

As usual, "Busy" is the key word. But despite all of that, Alex managed to email us twice over the last couple of weeks which is now unusual. Anyway, one of the things that he told us is that his responsibilities as an assistant to the president will be changing a bit. Over the last week or so, both Alex and his companion have felt that they needed to get out more and work with individual companionships. During the past few months, they have been doing a lot of training session at zone conferences and working with the zone leaders, but they haven't worked much with individual companionships. Now with his new responsibilities, they will be able to do just that. Alex is very excited about this new opportunity. He told us that both he and his companion will be spending a lot of nights sleeping on the floor at various missionary apartments as they travel around the mission, but that is all part of the excitement.

In his latest email, Alex told us that he and his companion had already started traveling. He told us about traveling to Gallatin and spending the morning in scripture study while over looking the valley at Adam Ondi Ahman. Alex told us that they got up early in the morning so that they could experience the peacefulness. When they got there, the whole valley was covered in fog. When the sun started to rise over the horizon, they could see beams of light shooting through the fog. Alex said that it was one of the coolest sights he has ever seen. I reminded Alex that this would have been a great time to have had a camera ready. We would have really liked to have seen that sight as well. Since he will be spending a few days there, hopefully he will take his camera with him the next time so that we can share the same visual experience with everybody.

Since Alex and his companion won't be spending as much time in their home area, now that they are traveling. They were asked to turn some of the people that they had been teaching over to the Sister missionaries there. Alex was a little sad about that because some of the people that they were teaching were really progressing well. In fact before too much longer, Alex felt like some of them would be ready for baptism. Of course no matter who is actually doing the teaching, knowing that somebody is ready for baptism is always a great feeling. Alex is just glad to know that he was able to help out even though he couldn't be there through the whole process.

In his last email, Alex told us a cute story about wrestling. He started out the story by telling us that he had his first official wrestling match recently on a Sunday night. At first when you read that sentence you think to yourself, "official wrestling match", "Sunday night", "Missionaries". Ok, something sounds a little off with this story. But after Alex's explanation of what happened, it all seemed to come together and make sense. As it turns out, one of the mission president's grandsons was visiting the area with his family recently. This grandson is a little blond headed kid who reminded Alex of himself when he was little. Apparently this boy's grandfather had told him that Elder Nicholes would be dropping by a little later and that he was a wrestler. Upon hearing that news, this little boy immediately wanted to challenge Alex to a wrestling match. So there you have it. Alex's mission president had just scheduled a wrestling match between Alex and his little grandson.

Alex and his companion arrived at the mission home and after dinner, they all went to the conference room where there would be enough space for this wrestling challenge to take place. Ok, so this match seems a little lopsided but this is where the whole story gets really good. Immediately on the whistle, the little boy charges for Alex's legs. Good move, especially since that is what a good wrestler should do. The only problem was that with Alex being more in the 172 lbs weight class and this little boy weighing in at maybe 40 lbs., this little brave wrestler ran into Alex and immediately bounced off to the floor. Oh, but that didn't discourage or stop this little guy. He jumped back up and the wrestling match went on. After a few head shucks, granbies, arm bars and cradles, this little guy finally pinned Alex flat to the floor. So after a state champion season a couple of years ago, Alex has just started out his first official wrestling match in two years at 0-1. We aren't quite sure how Alex is going to recover from this loss. ;-)

Summer heat and new opportunities

2011-07-30T17:01:00.000-07:00

   It seems like these blog entries are getting fewer and farther between. Basically they have and that is mostly due to the fact that we don't hear from Alex as much as we used to anymore. He has been so busy over that last few months, that he rarely gets a chance to write home. This last month has been especially busy due to the transition from one mission president to another. The month of July is usually when a certain number of mission presidents complete their missions and turn the reins over to a new mission president.   This was the case in Alex's mission.
   When the previous mission president returns home and a new mission president takes over, it is a unique opportunity for both the missionary and the parents. With Alex serving as an assistant to the president, he and his companion automatically become part of the transition plan for the new mission president. This last month Alex and his companion have been traveling the mission and conducting zone conferences with the new mission president and his family. However, that isn't the only new opportunity that has come from the changing of the guard. We, as the parents of a missionary, had the great opportunity to attend the Sacrament meeting in which Alex's returning mission president and his wife, spoke.  This was a great opportunity where we were finally able to meet the mission president under whom Alex has been serving for almost two years.
    It was a wonderful day and a great experience for us when we were able to attend the homecoming Sacrament meeting in which Alex's former mission president spoke. The church building was literally pack with Ward members, friends and former missionaries. In fact at one point during Sister Van Komen's talk, she asked all of the former missionaries in the audience to stand. The number of people who stood up at that point had to be about half of the people in the audience. Keep in mind that the number of people in attendance that day spilled out of the chapel and into the cultural hall. Judging from the number of people, it looked more like a Stake conference than a normal Sacrament meeting. There were a lot of former Sister missionaries as well has senior couples who served in the visitor centers and in other capacities. There were also a lot of young men who served in the Independence Missouri mission as proselyting missionaries just like Alex. There obviously wasn't a lot of time, but we had the opportunity to briefly speak with President Van Komen right before the meeting started and to hear some wonderful comments from him about Alex. Following the meeting we also had the chance to speak with Sister Van Komen as well. As we stepped up to greet her, I introduced myself as Alex's Dad. That was all it took. Sister Van Komen just started talking all about Alex and all of the wonderful things that he has done as a missionary in the Independence Missouri mission. It was so great to hear directly from her knowing that she and her husband have been such a big part of Alex's life over the last year and a half.
    I mentioned that Alex and his companion have been traveling the mission visiting every zone with their new mission president and conducting training meetings. At one point just a few weeks ago, Alex contacted us and wanted to know more about my mission and the people that I had taught. He wanted to use these stories as part of the training that he was conducting during the zones conferences. Both Alex has well as his companion have had the opportunity to get to know personally some of the people their fathers taught while serving mission many years ago. They wanted to draw on some of those stories to help train current missionaries to love their missions and to take advantage of every opportunity. Alex told us that the training sessions have gone really well. On top of all of the training, Alex and his companion have also been going on splits with each of the zone leaders following the each of the zone conferences that they conduct. This has made for some very long days full of hard work and a lot of spiritual promptings. This kind of work has left these two young missionaries very tired but at the same time, very excited to get up the next day and do it all over again.
    In Alex's latest letter home he again told us all about how crazy life has been. Alex told us all about some of the recent zone leader splits that he has been a part of and some of the miracles that he experienced. I won't go into detail here but one of the stories was all about meeting someone that was just waiting for the missionaries to knock on their door. It was one of those kinds of stories where a missionary is prompted to go somewhere or talk to someone that he normally wouldn't have. The end result was an opportunity and an experience which neither Alex nor the zone leader that accompanied him that night, will never forget.
   One of the funnier stories this week was Alex telling us how much he likes the heat. Summer time in the Midwest can be very hot. Apparently they have had a few days where the temperatures have been over a hundred degrees. For most people as well as for missionaries, this is a sign that it might be a good idea to go inside where there is some air conditioning. For Alex, it is the opposite. The only explanation that Alex could give us for wanting to be out in the heat is that he loves to sweat. With all of the running and wrestling that he has done over the years, Alex is very used to sweating a lot and for whatever reason, he really enjoys it. If you think that is a little strange, well then you probably don't know Alex very well. Anyway, according to Alex, the hot weather also provides him with a great line for getting a conversation going. All he needs to say is "Wow, we sure are having some beautiful weather, huh?". After that comment, most people look at him with an "Are you nuts?" kind of look in their eye and wondering what he is talking about. Right there the conversation starts and Alex is off and running. Soon the conversation transitions into a gospel topic and before the person even knows it, they are hearing all about the gospel and message that the missionaries have to offer. Who would have ever thought that talking about the weather would be a great way to start a gospel discussion. Humm??? ;-)

Messing with the greenies

2011-06-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

This is going to sound like a broken record but every time Alex writes home, the underlying theme of the letter is telling us just how busy he is. To give you an idea, this last week he sent a short little email explaining that as he was trying to find time to write us, he was also typing up the mailing lists, working out the transfer rosters, figuring out the bus schedules for transfers, sending out emails to all of the Stake Presidents notifying them of the missionary transfers and typing up the leadership call list for the mission president. Apparently he and his companion had been in the mission office all day finishing up all of these last minute tasks before transfer notices go out in a day or so. In all of that emailing and scheduling, the one thing that Alex didn't get finished was sending out his weekly family letter to us. Well, we finally did receive his letter, but it wasn't until the next day. He had to get permission from his mission president to write home on Tuesday rather than Monday because he had run out of time the day before. I guess that is just how it goes. We will have the rest of our lives to talk to him, but Alex only has a few more months as a full time missionary. So making the most of it is obviously the top priority.

Alex's last couple of letters, once we finally got them, were filled with some great stories. I will try to retell some of them here and hopefully I will be able to capture the same spirit in which they were originally told to us by Alex. One of the first stories that Alex told us really pointed out just how far he has come in the last year and a half. One of the traditions that the mission president's wife has at each of the zone leader's conferences is to randomly pick a couple of missionaries to give a five minute talk on the spot. This was a tradition that was started back when the mission president and his wife first entered the Independence Missouri mission almost three years ago. The five minute talk is meant to prepare the missionaries for times when they are called on by a Bishop or Stake President to stand up in Sacrament Meeting or some other meeting and speak with no notice before hand. The idea is to stand up, quote a scripture, thank the Ward and bear pure testimony. The reason why this is significant is because back when Alex was first made a zone leader almost a year ago, he used to get really nervous during each of the zone leader conferences wondering if it was going to be his turn to give a five minute talk. Now step forward almost a year. Alex is now an assistant to the president and as part of his responsibilities at each zone leader's conference, he is expected to lead two different training segments, conduct the meeting, prepare for and clean up after the whole thing. After handling and completing all of those responsibilities, a five minute talk seems like a very insignificant cake walk in comparison.

Another story that Alex related to us in one of his recent letters was really about another missionary who had struggled a bit but is now really starting to shine. It started at a district meeting up in Platte City Missouri. The district leader in that area was conducting a meeting and doing a very good job. But for a missionary, something seemed out of place. During the after meeting review that the assistants hold with each district leader individually, Alex mentioned to this Elder that his mis-matched suit and pants didn't really look appropriate for a missionary. As it turned out, this Elder didn't really have a lot of resources when it came to outfitting himself for a mission and so he was doing the best he could. After hearing that, Alex and his companion decided that they would pool half of their monthly allotment to try to help this Elder purchase some new clothes. As they were preparing to pool their money, they talked to the mission president's wife and found out that the mission actually had a fund to cover just this very thing. So the next time that this Elder and his companion were in Independence for interviews, Alex and his companion grabbed the Elder and took him down to a local discount clothing store where they proceeded to set this Elder up with three new suits and some killer ties all for under $200. According to Alex, this has made a real difference in this missionaries attitude and life. Sometimes just the simplest changes can make all the difference.

Alex also included a story about one of their favorite investigator families. Unfortunately, this story goes more to show that their are ups and downs as a missionary and this story was one of the downs. Without going into all of the details, Alex told us that they had really made a lot of good progress with this family but for some reason, the parents just couldn't quite get past a few issues that they had with the Church. As a result, things kind of came to an end as far as teaching goes even though Alex still feels that they are some of the finest people that he has meet. At the very least, the seed has been sown. Maybe someday another set of missionaries will be there to help that seed grow and complete what Alex and his companion had started.

Finally, this story has to be one of the funniest stories that Alex has ever shared with us. It is all about messing with the greenies. One of the many highlights of being an AP is when the new missionaries arrive in the mission, every six weeks. The APs along with the mission president have the great opportunity of meeting these new missionaries at the airport and helping them get adjusted to their new life as full time missionaries. Well, maybe the words "helping them get adjusted" is a bit of an over statement especially when it comes to seasoned APs and new greenies. Alex told us that he and his companion had a little bit of fun with the new missionaries as they were helping them get all of their luggage loaded into the trailer at the airport. Here is how the story went. Picture this, a bunch of brand spankin new missionaries have just arrived at the airport in Independence and have just meet the mission president and the APs. They are all standing around the trailer as Alex and his companion are helping them load their luggage. As they are loading the luggage and knowing that all of these new missionaries are still a little shell shocked, Alex and his companion start up a little bit of a gospel conversation. Alex says to his companion, "Hey Elder, what would your interpretation be of Lamentations chapter 4 versus Romans chapter 15?". His companion responds, "Well I would have to refer you back to Romans chapter 3 to answer that question". Of course this little scriptorian discussion was all totally made up, but looking around at the faces of these newest missionaries, they were thinking that maybe they missed something during their training in the MTC. Alex said that their jaws were dropping all over the ground in awe. Then one of the greenies pipes up and asks, "Elders, how long have you been out?". Of course continuing in the vein of messing with the greenies, Alex responds, "Oh, about 5 months". Oh what a story, I'm sure there will be some repenting to do Elders. :-)

Life is busier than ever

2011-05-31T20:37:00.000-07:00

Now that Alex is an assistant to the President, we haven't heard from him quite as much. In fact just this week we finally got his first real letter since we talked to him on Mother's Day. Alex told us that life as an AP is crazier than he ever imagined. He said that when he was a zone leader he thought life was busy. But now as an AP, he and his companion are constantly on the move. Alex gave us a brief run down of what he and his companion have to do. Every transfer period, which is basically six weeks, they are traveling the mission and going on splits with every one of the zone leader companionships. They use this time to do training and to find out just how well the zone leaders and their zones are doing. In addition to that, they are helping to conduct the zone leader conference every month and also taking care of every odd and end that the mission president needs done in between. On Sunday evenings Alex and his companion are at the mission office making phone calls and collection the weekly numbers so that they can report them back to Salt Lake. We know this firsthand because during our Mother's Day call last month which happened to be on a Sunday night, Alex was constantly interrupted by phone calls from zones leaders who were calling to report their weekly progress. Then on top of all of that, they are also expected to continue their normal proselyting and teaching just like every other missionary.

Alex told us a story that is typical Alex. When Alex was called to be an assistant to the president, he had to leave Manhattan and report to the mission office about a week before regular transfers. His companion in Manhattan was also preparing to finish his mission a week later. This meant that two new missionaries would be taking over the Manhattan 2nd Ward area where Alex has been serving for the past 8 months.  When his Manhattan companion arrived at the mission office week later, just before going home, Alex was obvious there.  Apparently the mission president and his wife invite all of the departing missionaries to have dinner with them in the mission home. Alex told us that he and his Manhattan companion skipped out of the dinner that night and went tracting instead.   Alex told us that his former companion had a really hard time leaving the mission and that Alex had a really hard time watching him go. During that final night of tracting, Alex told us that he and his former companion found 10 potential investigators. Alex hasn't mention what has become of any of those 10 contacts but I can just imagine that when the time comes for Alex to return home, this is probably how he will spend his last night in Independence Missouri mission as well.

Alex told us in his most recent letter that he was able to travel back to Manhattan to perform the baptism of one of the people that he and his previous companion had been teaching. He said that the baptism went very well and that he really misses the Manhattan Ward. He also said that since both he and his previous companion basically left Manhattan at the same time, fortunately they were replace by two very good missionaries. Of course the work will always go on no matter what, but it is good to know that when a missionary leaves an area, that there are good missionaries who are capable of picking up where they had left off.

Alex told us kind of a funny story about what he and several other "white" missionaries did for Memorial Day. Apparently Alex and his companion are currently teaching several black people. So for a Memorial Day celebration, these good people invited Alex, his companion and several other missionaries over to their house for a good southern fish fry. Alex told us that as these gatherings go, there were quite a few people at this house, all enjoying each others company and having a good time. So many people that when one of the missionaries was asked to say grace, the line of people all holding hands during the prayer extended through the garage and into the house.   Of course everyone there were singing and dancing and having a good time. At one point during the celebration, Alex's companion decided to join in by "busting a little dance move" just to show what he's got. Well, I'm not sure what kind of moves this missionary had, but it caused the whole crowd to burst out laughing. Alex said that they all had a very good time and it was a unique experience for all of them.

In closing his letter this last week, this is what Alex told us about his last few weeks as an AP:

"I am very grateful for this opportunity that I have been given. I feel like I have grown so much in the past three weeks, its incredible. My testimony is growing by leaps and bounds, and I am loving my mission more than ever! I love serving the Lord, and seeing the miracles that happen when we work as hard as we can! The church is true!"

A quick transfer and a new set of responsibilities

2011-05-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

As you probably all know and I would be surprised if you didn't, last Sunday was Mothers Day. But when you have a missionary out in the field and in our case two missionaries out serving, Mothers Day is "our missionaries call home" day as well. So obviously we got to talk to Alex on the phone this past Sunday. He worried us just a little because when he was able to call home in the past, he usually called first thing in the morning. This time was a little different. We waited all day for Alex to call and by about 8:00 in the evening, we were wondering if he was going to call at all. His older brother who is in the Rochester, New York mission had already called us earlier that day and we had a very good conversation with him. But Alex hadn't called all day long. Then finally at around 8:00 pm Alex called to tell us that he was someplace other than Manhattan, Kansas. Yep you guessed it, after nine months in Manhattan, Alex finally got transferred. But the funny thing was, this last week was not transfer week so something very interesting must have happened.

So here is the interesting thing that happened.  Last Monday after P-Day was over, Alex and his companion traveled to Independence for their monthly zone leader conference. Alex arrived a little early and when the mission president saw Alex at the mission office, he asked Alex to join him in his office. Alex told us that when the mission president invited him into the office, he was a little nervous and had a hard time breathing. After a little bit of chit-chat, the mission president finally asked Alex if he would accept a call to be the new AP. That's right, Alex is now one of the assistants the mission president in the Independence, Missouri mission.

When Alex called us on Mothers Day, he was calling from the mission office. Being Sunday night, he and his new companion were in the middle of AP training.  Part of this training included contacting each of the zone leaders throughout the mission to gather the numbers for the week. We asked Alex what else his new responsibilities would include and he told us that he was still learning all about what it means to be an assistant and what he would be doing. Of course he and his companion will still be responsible for doing traditional missionary work which means finding new people and teaching the gospel. But in addition to that, they will also be responsible for traveling throughout the mission and doing a lot of training themselves. Then there is helping out with transfers, collecting and organizing mission data and who knows what else he will be asked to do. One thing that will be very interesting however, is that Alex will most likely be in the mission office when the current mission president finishes his mission this summer and the new mission president arrives. That whole transition will be a very interesting time in the life of an AP.

Obviously, with this news of Alex being transferred to the mission office, most of the Mothers Day phone call revolved around finding out more about this new responsibility. But before Alex left Manhattan, which apparently, according to Alex, is now called "Manhappenin", Alex told us all about the new people that he and his companion had been teaching. Alex mention again this week just how much he loves doing church tours and how the spirit is always so strong. Alex talked all about how some of the people that they have been teaching have already experienced some great changes in their lives. Alex referred to these changes as miracles. As you can probably imagine, when a missionary watches these kinds of miracles happen quite frequently, it makes everything that is sacrificed for a mission, worth it.

With the transfer to the mission office happening so quickly, Alex didn't get much of a chance to say goodbye to many of the people in the Manhattan 2nd Ward as well as the many other people he had come to know. So if you are one of those people, don't worry, Alex will be back as he travels around the mission as part of is assistant duties. Alex can't believe that he is on his last six months in the mission and has told us more than once that he doesn't want to come home. Of course we can't believe how fast the time has gone by to this point and that the next time we talk to him, it will be face to face at the airport.  But there is still a lot of new experiences that Alex will have over the next six months and we are very excited to hear all about them.

Beyblade, not just a sport for kids

2011-04-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

Finally, after several months of talking about a temple trip, it happened. The Missouri, Independence mission does not have a temple within the mission boundaries so the missionaries, on special occasions, are given permission to go to the Omaha, Nebraska Winter Quarters temple. The Winter Quarters temple is one of the smaller temples. Alex described it as being about the size of a large house. Alex accompanied several members of his Ward along with about 20 youth on this temple trip. He also had the pleasure of going with a few of the people that have recently joined the church in the Manhattan area. This was their first time attending an LDS temple.

This temple trip was all about baptisms for the dead. Since the Winter Quarters temple is one of the smaller ones, Alex as well as the others who traveled from Manhattan, were responsible for staffing the entire baptismal font area. Along with the 20 or so youth that went with them, they didn't have any trouble filling the whole area. Alex told us that when he got there, he recognized many of the temple workers from the time that he spent in the Lawrence 2nd Ward in Lawrence, Kansas last year. He said that it was really nice to see them and know that they were all there in the temple together. Alex spent most of the time on this temple trip as a witness during the baptisms. However, at one point he was able to perform a confirmation along side of the baptism font for one of the recent converts that some of the sister missionaries from his mission, had brought with them. Overall, Alex said that the temple trip was a really good experience and that he was really glad to have had the opportunity to go.

Church tours still seems to be the way to go when doing missionary work in the Missouri, Independence mission. Almost every week Alex is telling us about the people that they have taken on a tour of the Church building itself. Once they reach the baptismal font in the Church, the spirit is usually pretty strong and the common response from the people on the tour is that the feel a feeling that they have never felt before. Something that just makes them want to stay in that spot and never leave. The past few weeks have been no different. Alex has told us about several people who have taken a tour of the Church building. Without fail, the same spirit is there and the people respond in much the same way. I'm not sure if Church tours are a common thing in other missions, but is sure seems to work for Alex and the other missionaries in his area.

OK, so here are a couple of stories that Alex included in his last letter that were really good blogging material. Everybody who knows Alex, knows that he is just hungry for any kind of sport, especially if it has something to do with wrestling or running. So while Alex and his companion were out tracting the other day, they ran across a house where the garage door was open. When they looked in the garage, they noticed that there was a picture on the wall of the Olympic rings. At that point Alex made the comment to his companion that maybe the person who lived their was some kind of Olympic athlete. As it turned out, he was right. This just happened to be the house of one of the more famous decathletes of all time. Also living in the house were several other Olympic hopefuls who are very likely to be part of the 2012 Olympics. On top of that, when Alex and his companion approached them and asked if they would like to hear the missionary lessons, they agreed and were taught the first lesson right there. Of course they also left them with a few Books of Mormon and an appointment to come back and teach them more. Alex doesn't really know where all of this will end up, but for him, it was like a dream come true. Not only did he get to meet some Olympic athletes, he also got to teach them the gospel. If nothing else comes of this meeting, at least while Alex is watching the Olympics next year on TV, he can say that he taught the gospel to the athletes who are on the track right then running in the Olympics.

The second story that Alex told us was pretty funny and in the end, is just all Alex. Alex has always really liked little kids. In fact when in comes down to it, in many ways Alex is just a bigger little kid. This story just shows how big of a little kid Alex really is. Quite often when Alex and his companion go to a teaching appointment, they will take along with them, one of the members of the Ward. After one of their teaching appointments where they were accompanied by a Ward member, they decided to drop in on the Ward members family afterwards. As Alex walked in the house, he asked the Mom if they could drop off a bag of candy for their daughter since it was her birthday. While they were there, they noticed that the two boys in the family were playing "beyblade". OK, for any of you like us who don't have little kids any more, beyblade is probably not what it first sounds like. When I first heard this, I had visions of two little kids fighting it out in their living room with some kind of Japanese swords or something. Well, after looking up beyblade on the Internet, I found out that it is all about spinning up a couple of over-sized tops in a small arena and allowing these tops to bump each other until one of them topples over. Well, you wouldn't really expect a twenty year old missionary to know much about a beyblade either, but when Alex found out that the boys were playing, he told them to hold on for a second while he ran back out to the car. A few minutes later, in walks Alex with his brand new beyblade that he had just recently purchased. Everybody thought that Alex was just joking so when they saw him come back with this toy, they all busted up laughing. Alex didn't tell us how the actual beyblade competition went, but I'm guessing that there is a little lesson to be learned here. If you make friends with the kids, the parents are going to love you. That can open a lot of doors for missionary work.

Well as always, there are plenty of stories about all the people that Alex and his companion are currently teaching. Great stories about people coming to Church for the first time. Stories about baptismal commitments and stories about how the missionaries are helping to change people lives. If you would like to hear more about all of the great things that are going on in the Independence Missouri mission, just ask and we will be glad to share them with you.

Missionary work is a family afair

2011-04-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

We received word from Alex last week that transfers came and went and guess what… he is still in Manhattan. I mentioned before on this blog that Manhattan has been one of Alex’s favorite places to serve. Since he has been there for about seven months now, he was guessing that this would be the transfer when he would go. He told us that the last week leading up to transfers was kind of nerve racking. Alex told us that on the night that the assistants were supposed call, he was very nervous because he just knew that he was going to be transferred out. Then when the assistants finally did call, it was just Alex’s luck that he happened to be in the bathroom at the time. When the phone rang, Alex rushed out of the bathroom, hopefully dressed, so that he could hear what was going to happen. When Alex heard that he was going to be staying in Manhattan and not only that but he would be staying with his current companion, he was super excited. Of course as many things go on a mission, the Lord needs you where he needs you and apparently the Lord still needs Alex in Manhattan.

There is one small interesting fact about this transfer however. The fact that Alex’s companion is also staying in Manhattan makes the next transfer a little interesting. The reason why is because Alex’s companion will complete his mission at the end of this transfer and will be heading home. This might mean that Alex could be in Manhattan even longer or who knows what. Again, the Lord needs missionaries where he needs them. Of course Alex wouldn’t mind staying in Manhattan even longer, but it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months.

In both of Alex’s last couple of letters, he has told us about all of the great events coming up in the next few weeks. They have been teaching some people that have really come a long way and have made a lot of changes in their life. Alex said that it has been really exciting to see all of the changes and to also have them come to the Stake center to watch general conference. After attending the general conference broadcasts, the new investigators told Alex that they really learned a lot and enjoyed the talks that were given and had set a date for baptism. In Alex’s last letter home this week, he told us all about the baptism and how it was the most exciting news of the week. Normally Alex tries to have one of the Ward members perform the baptism but this new member had specially requested that Alex perform the baptism and that his companion perform the confirmation. This was a very special experience for Alex and something that I am sure, he will never forget.

Alex actually has a temple trip coming up in the next week. He wasn’t really sure how many of the newest members of the Ward would be able to make the trip. However, this week Alex told us that several of the people who have recently joined the Church are also planning on making the trip to the Winter Quarters temple. This will be the first time that Alex has had a chance to attend the temple since he left the MTC almost 18 months ago. He is very excited for this trip and I am sure that we will hear all about it next week.

Since we are on the subject of the temple, the temple has been something very special to Alex for a long time. Alex mentioned in his most recent letter home that there was one point during general conference when President Monson was talking about baptisms for the dead and how the youth have the opportunity to go to the temple to help with this work. Alex told us that this talked reminded him of the time back in high school when he and several of his friends would get up early in the morning before school, just so they could attend the temple and perform baptisms for the dead. Those were some very special times that he has never forgotten and probably never will.

According to everything that Alex has told us, things are going really well in Manhattan as well as throughout his whole mission. Alex was able to meet up with his old Lawrence and Burlington companion during transfers a little while ago and catch up on what each of them have been doing. Alex told us that it has been amazing how fast time has gone by. It was just a year again when Alex and his former companion were being double transferred out of Lawrence to Burlington. Those were some great times with some great successes. Speaking of successes, Alex says that they have some more baptisms coming up and that they have finally been able to build up their teaching pool and are teaching some really great people as well.

I haven’t done this very often in this blog mainly because this blog is supposed to be all about what Alex is doing on his mission rather than about us or his family. But I would like to share with you an experience that is very much about a mission, missionaries, Alex and his family. I am currently writing this blog entry as I sit in the mission home in Quito, Ecuador. This is significant because I served my mission in Guayaquil, Ecuador thirty years ago. My wife and I are here because my wife’s cousin and her husband are mission presidents in the Quito, Ecuador mission. This experience being here in Ecuador, has brought back so many memories of my mission and being a missionary. In our short time here my wife and I have been able to see missionary work take place from a mission president’s perspective. One of the most significant experiences that we had in our short time here was a visit to a city on the Ecuador/Columbia boarder called Tulcan. The reason why this experience was so significant was because of what happened on Saturday night just after we arrived. This experience allowed both my wife and I to participate in missionary work in exactly the same way as both of our missionary sons, Alex and Christopher.

We traveled to Tulcan with the mission president and his family to attend a district conference in the small Tulcan branch. Saturday evening before the conference, several of the branch leaders in Tulcan including both the Priesthood as well as the Relief Society, paired up to go out and visit some of the less active members of the church to invite them back. I had the privilege of going with one of the counselors in the branch presidency as well as the district president. We traveled to a very humble home of one of the members, not too far from the small chapel in the city. There we met with a less active member of the church where I was invited to share some of my missionary experiences as well as give the prayer before we left. This was a very special experience for me for several reasons. Those reasons include being back among the people who I had served thirty years ago, using my Spanish language which I still remember and because this is exactly the same experience that both our sons Alex and Christopher share with us in their letters home each week.

My wife had a very similar experience that evening in Tulcan as well. She accompanied several of the Relief Society sisters on visits and was able to experience what missionary work is like as a full time missionary. Since she was not able to serve as a full time missionary when she was younger this has been a new and very exciting experience for her. Even though she does not speak Spanish, she was able to understand and feel the spirit that was present in each of her visits. She was even asked to give a prayer, in English, several times during the two days that we were there. For us, this whole trip to Ecuador has been all about missionary work even though we are not currently called as full time missionaries. It has been an experience that has brought us very close to our missionary sons even though we are thousands of miles apart. Our time here in Ecuador, we will never forget. Whether we will ever be back, I don’t know. But we will follow in Alex and Christopher’s footsteps and serve as full time senior missionaries one day in the future.

Big gooey donut monster

2011-03-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

Time just keeps flying by. It seems like I just wrote on this blog and here it is a couple of weeks later and more news from Alex. Alex has been in Manhattan KS, for about 7 months now. Over that time he has had a lot of great successes as well as other great experiences. He wrote us this last week and sounded a bit nervous because transfers are coming up soon and he doesn't want to leave Manhattan. Everywhere that Alex has served has been great but so far Manhattan has been his dream area. There are probably a lot of reasons for that which include the members of the ward, the people that Alex has taught and baptized, being there for 7 months as well as also being the places where some of his relatives lived and grew up. Even though transfers come up in just over a week, we probably won't hear anything for at least a couple more weeks.

Alex told us all about another great experience that he recently had during an area conference. Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Seventy visited the Wichita area recently and of course all of the missionaries who are serving near there were able to attend a special missionary conference. Alex said that about an hour before the conference actually started, he and several of the other zone leaders were able to meet with Elder Pearson for a special training meeting. Alex described it as being a once in a lifetime experience to be taught on almost a one-on-one basis by a member of the Seventy. He also told us that he learned a lot from that special experience as well as from the rest of the conference. Alex said that Elder Pearson was very blunt in telling the missionaries exactly what needed to happen in their mission. He gave the missionaries a lot of valuable information that should help them make some changes and experience even more success.

We have only heard bits and pieces of this next story so I am going to try to fit some of the pieces together and see how it turns out. For the last couple of months, the Young Men's presidency in the Manhattan Stake have been planning a special mini missionary activity for the young men. This activity actually took place about two weeks ago in which many of the young men actually got to spend a couple of days with the missionaries while they went through a regular day as a full time missionary. As it turned out, part of this activity actually carried over into the regular missionary P-day. Because of that, the normal P-day was switched to Tuesday rather than Monday so that the young men could spend Monday working and tagging along with the missionaries. Of course we didn't know what the plan was and were wondering all day Monday why we hadn't heard from Alex like we normally do on a P-day. Anyway, once we finally did hear from Alex, he told us that the young man that he was suppose to pair up with, didn't show up. But that didn't bother Alex. He went and found another young man to pair up with and share the missionary experience. Alex and his companion had been visiting with one of the families that they are currently teaching and talked their 15 year old son into joining them for the mini mission activity. They found an old suit that happened to fit the young man that one of the former missionaries in the area had left behind. Through this activity, this young man was able to meet the mission president, the Stake president, the young men's president as well as all of the other young men in the Stake. I'm sure that after meeting all of those "presidents" and hanging out with the missionaries, he must have thought that everybody in the church is either called "Elder" or "President". From what we heard about this activity, it all went really well and the young men in the Stake came away with a good understanding of what missionary life is like.

Alex included in pretty funny story in his last letter that he said would be even funnier when we get the pictures. We actually did receive some pictures from Alex this last week, but apparently the picture that Alex is talking about in this story must have happened after he sent home his memory card. Alex has always really loved little kids and we have seen videos that he has sent home where he plays games with some of the families and then rewards the winners with Klondike bars, cookies or some other type of goodies. Alex started out this story by telling us that each week he and his companion go to one of the Ward member's homes for a weekly correlation meeting (I'm assuming that this Ward member is the Ward mission leader). The Ward member that they meet with has some young kids so before they start their correlation meeting, Alex and his companion conduct a room inspection to make sure that the kids are obeying their parents and keeping their beds made and rooms clean. Then if they pass the room inspection, they are rewarded with some kind of treat. So before they arrived, Alex and his companion stopped by the store on the way to their correlation meeting to pick up the reward. They decided that they would treat the kids to some giant donuts. These donuts weren't just any old giant donut, they were the kind that were HUGE. Once they got to the family's house and before they were able to conduct the room inspection, the littlest child (about 1 1/2 years old), reaches into the box of donuts and picked out the largest one of the dozen. Alex said that this donut was so big that it was basically the size of this child's head. One of the funniest things was that even though the donut was obviously too large for a kid this size, this little 1 1/2 year old almost ate the entire thing. But there came a point when the donut was just too much to handle and finishing it off just wasn't going to happening. I'm sure you can picture this whole event in your head even without the picture that Alex has promised to send. Seeing this tiny little mouth biting into this huge donut while the rest of her face is hidden behind nothing but mounds of sticky, gooey glaze. YUM...

So as promised, here are a few pictures that Alex recently sent home.

Here's the whole district.

Just looking at them you can tell that they are all out-"standing" in their field.

Watch out Elder. Remember Eve was tempted by a serpent too.

Alex with his Aunt and Uncle during their visit to Manhattan

That's our boy!!

The successes are great

2011-03-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

In the last several letters that we have received from Alex, he is constantly telling us how things are really picking up for them. Alex and his companion have been working really hard to build up their teaching pool and with the news that we got this week, they might have to work even harder at that. The news was really good. This past week two more people that they have been teaching for a while, were finally baptized. Baptizing people that you are currently teaching is a good way to have to go back to rebuilding your teaching pool. The people that Alex and his companion had been teaching weren't the only ones getting baptized that day. In fact Alex said that there were so many people in the changing room after the baptismal service, that he had to wait out in the baptismal font for the changing room to clear out. Here is how Alex was feeling at the time:

"It was a very neat experience to just sit there in the font by myself with all the doors closed. The spirit was really strong. It was a very good weekend for us."

Sometimes when you are in tune with the spirit, even some of the seemingly insignificant experiences can be powerful.

This seems like a never ending theme in Alex's mission. Alex is constantly telling us stories about how someone he has met or some experience that he has had, ties him back to people or places he knows from Utah. Well this week was no different and the experience that he recently had, following a Stake conference meeting, brought him even closer than just Utah. Alex told us that following Stake conference a couple of weeks ago, the Stake Patriarch's wife walked up to him and asked if he was Elder Nicholes. Of course Alex said yes. The Patriarch's wife then proceeded to tell Alex that she had just received a call from western New York. If you remember a couple of months ago, I wrote on this blog about how Alex's older brother had just been called and recently left to serve his mission in Rochester, New York. As it turns out, the Patriarch and his wife have a son who lives in New York and had called to tell his parents that Alex's brother Christopher was at their house in New York eating dinner. So here they are, hundreds of miles apart yet sharing some of the exact same missionary experiences. How cool is that?!!

So here is an interesting story that came from Alex's Aunt and Uncle who had recently returned from Manhattan, Kansas. I wrote about this whole experience in the last blog entry but this time we got the other side of the story directly from his Aunt and Uncle during a Sunday dinner at our house. They told us that while they were on their way to visit some of their friends who live near Manhattan and before they had actually seen Alex, they decided to stop by the church building in Salina, Kansas. As they pulled up to the church, they noticed that there were several cars in the parking lot which were all similar models with Kansas license plates. They pulled up the building, got out of there car and went inside the church to take a look around. While they were walking around, they could hear some voices coming from one of the rooms in the building. Once they finally tracked down the voiced to the Relief Society room, they cracked open the door and saw several well dressed young men in the middle of some kind of meeting. Well of course these were the missionaries from the Salina district in the middle of their weekly district meeting. Alex's Uncle quietly walked in the back of the room just to see if maybe Alex happened to be there. As he looked around at the Elders, he didn't see anybody he recognized and decided to quietly step out before he caused any kind of disturbance. Later on after his Aunt and Uncle finally met up with Alex, they told Alex the story about how they stopped at the church Salina and saw some several missionaries there conducting their weekly district meeting. To everyone's surprise, Alex told them that as a zone leader he just happened to be visiting the Salina district that day and was at that district meeting. Apparently Alex was sitting just out of sight on the other side of the room where his Uncle couldn't see him. Since all of the missionaries were so focused on what was going on in the meeting, they really didn't notice the visitors that had momentarily poked their heads in to the room.

In addition to that story, they also told us that once the members of the church in Manhattan found out about Alex's relation to their former Stake President, the members told his Aunt and Uncle all about the great job Elder Nicholes has been doing in their mission. I can't tell you just how proud that makes us feel as Alex's parents to hear stories like that.

Well there are a lot more stories that Alex has told about some of the great people that he and his companion have been teaching. Most of the details are a little too personal to share here but they are great experiences. Every week Alex shares more about the teaching moments that they have had and the spirit that is present during these moments. The response towards the gospel message that the missionaries share, has been very positive at times. Of course there are ups and downs and not everybody is as receptive as others, but from the letters that Alex sends to us, he is having a great time and that time is rushing by too fast.

The secret is out

2011-03-01T21:26:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a few weeks since I have written anything on this blog. It wasn't because I am lazy or procrastinating or anything, it is because over the last several weeks Alex has been so busy that he hasn't had much time to keep us up to date. He has written to us every week although with the library being closed on President's day and the various snow storms that passed through the area, Alex has had to write to us on a day other than his P-day. Because of that, he doesn't like to spent a lot of time writing because they have so much work to do. But it is always good to hear from him no matter how brief his letters might be.

Not many people knew this but I guess the cat is out of the bag now. Alex has an Uncle or rather his mother has an Uncle, who used to be the Stake President in the Manhattan Stake several years ago. They now live in Salt Lake but just recently travel back to Manhattan to attend the dedication of a new church building in the Manhattan area. This presented a rare opportunity for Alex since he is now serving in the Manhattan area as well. Alex hadn't told many people about his Manhattan, KS relatives mainly because the conversations would usually turn to reminiscing about old times rather than focusing on missionary work. Not that reminiscing is a bad thing but for a missionary, focusing on your mission is the number one priority.

So now that you have a little background, here is the funny part of the story. A few weeks ago when Alex's Uncle and Aunt were visiting the Manhattan area for the building dedication, the local Ward members held a potluck open house for them. A little later in the evening after Alex and his companion were finished with their teaching appointments, they dropped by the open house to say "Hi". As Alex described the scene, there were quite a few people talking and mingling with his Uncle and Aunt. As Alex entered the cultural hall his Aunt spotted him and immediately came over to give him a big hug. Normally missionaries aren't allowed to hug someone of the opposite sex while they are serving as a missionary. But in this case, since this was his Aunt and it had been almost a year and a half since they had seen each other, a big hug was the appropriate thing to do. Of course since Alex hadn't said much about is Manhattan relatives, most of the people there had no idea why this former Stake President's wife was hugging this random missionary. This drew a lot of funny looks and dropped jaws from the people in attendance. So like I said, the cat is now out of the bag and now everybody knows that Alex has some roots in Manhattan, KS. Ever since then, all kinds of Ward members have been giving Alex a hard time about not telling them about his Uncle and Aunt. Once again, it is a very small world. Alex didn't have a lot of time to chat that evening, but with the next day being P-Day, they were all able to meet up again and catch up on everything that has been happening at home and in the mission field.

Another transfer day has come and gone and Alex is still in Manhattan. He was lucky enough to be able to stay with his current companion, but he told us that almost every other companionship in their zone experienced a change. I'm not sure what kind of challenges or opportunities this presents for Alex, being a zone leader, but from the tone of his last letter, there are new experiences to be had by everybody. Alex has been serving in the Manhattan area for six months now and really loves it. He and his companion have been working really hard to build up their teaching pool since many of the people that they had been teaching were actually baptized around Christmas time. Alex told us that they are currently teaching some really great people and has shared with us many of his most recent experiences. He also shared with us some really funny stories but they are all a little too personal to recount here. Needless to say, Alex is very excited that he is able to spend at least one more transfer in Manhattan and wishes that he could stay forever. Of course, forever is a long time and we would like to see him come home once his mission is done so that we can give him a big hug too, just like his Aunt did.

Missionary work can be challenging in many different ways

2011-02-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

The weather was a factor this time in delaying Alex's weekly letter home. When he was finally able to write home, he told us about the severe storms that they have been experiencing in Kansas. Apparently the weather was so bad that it shut down the library for a couple of days. Alex said that the temperatures had been around minus twenty degrees. So due to the delay in writing home, Alex wasn't able to write a very long letter again. He did tell us just how much he liked his new companion and how well they get along and work together. Alex also told us that he is heading out to Wamego again for a few days to help the missionaries there build up their teaching pool a little more. He expected to be doing a lot of tracting over the next few days in Wamego and hoping that the Lord would bless the Wamego Elders with some new people to teach.

Tracting always sounds like a lot of hard work with not very much to show for it. But for Alex, his opinion of tracting is completely different. In his last letter home he talked about some of the tracting that they had done and the success that they have had just by going door-to-door meeting people. Here is what he had to say about all of the door knocking that they did while in Wamego:

"So we have been doing a lot of tracting and street contacting lately, and we have been having some pretty good success from it. I really, really hate the missionary mentality that tracting is a waste of time. I think it can be very effective if you have good people skills and the spirit. I think that is a big problem in why missionaries never have anyone to teach. All they do is try to contact former investigators and wait for their ward to give them referrals rather than actually going out and being proactive. I just hate the stigma that is around tracting, its ridiculous!"

What Alex is saying here is very true. Going door-to-door trying to talk people has always been one of the hardest ways to meet people and one activity that missionaries would probably like to avoid if possible. However, talking to people is what missionaries do and if done right and with the guidance from the Lord, it can be very effective and obviously Alex's personal experience with tracting has proven just that. Alex went on in his letter to tell us all about some of the teaching success that they had while tracting. He told us about some really great people that they met and some of the opportunities that they have for continuing to teach these people the gospel. During the two days that they were in Wamego, they taught nine lessons and most of those were people that they had met through tracting.

Alex included some exciting news about a temple trip that is coming up. One of the people that Alex taught and joined the church not long ago, will be going through the temple for the first time. As a result, Alex gets the rare opportunity to accompany this member to the temple. The other thing that is special about this experience is that the Independence Missouri mission does not have a temple within the mission boundaries. The closest temple is near Omaha, Nebraska in Winter Quarters which means that Alex would actually be leaving the mission boundaries by special permission. This will be the first time that Alex has been able to attend the temple since he left the MTC over a year ago. I'm sure that we will hear all about this temple trip and the special experience that surrounds it.

Alex told us a funny story this week in his letter home. Everybody in the mission knows that Alex is a bit of a heath nut. Every opportunity he gets, he tries to exercise and keep in shape. Also, as hard as it is sometimes on a mission, he tries to eat healthy as well. So apparently he made a bet with one of the other Elders in the Manhattan area. Of course a missionary betting with another missionary is probably not the most sanctioned mission activity, but in this case it was probably OK. As it turns out, a group of missionaries decided that they wanted to visit the local Mongolian BBQ restaurant in the area. While they were there, one of the other missionaries bet Alex that he could eat more BBQ than Alex. Well if you know Alex, he doesn't normally back down from a good challenge so the bet was on. Of course the more interesting part of this story is what the loser of the bet had to do. Well, knowing that Alex is a health nut, the other Elder decided that if Alex lost, he would have to eat a roll of Oreos and a piece of cake. That might be a consequence that Alex wouldn't want, but I think you would agree that most of us wouldn't mind losing that bet. Of course there is always the other side of the bet as well. If Alex won the bet, then the other Elder would have to workout with Alex for the next three days and finish every workout no matter what. Knowing Alex and the kind of workouts that he is used to, this Elder was going to regret that he ever threw down the gauntlet on this one.

So both Elders sat down with their very large portions of Mongonian BBQ and the contest started. Again knowing Alex, there was no way that he was going to lose and this other Elder never knew what hit him. As Alex explained the outcome in his letter, he really didn't have to eat that much BBQ in order to win the bet. All he did was eat as fast as he could which really messed with the other Elder's confidence and resulted in the other Elder giving up before either one of them had really reached their limits. What a strategy! If you can't break them physically, messing with them mentally can be just as effective. ;-) But the story doesn't end there. I guess this Elder didn't quite learn his lesson the first time so he made the mistake of challenging Alex again to a water drinking contest. This time the bet was who could slurp a cup of water through a straw the fastest. No problem again, Alex won that one too. Well apparently this Elder is a slow learner, but then again maybe not. After losing both of the previous challenges, he again came back with a third one. This time the challenge was who could make the most free throws. Doesn't sound like a big deal until you consider that Alex is a wrestler and this other Elder played on the varsity high school basketball team. Smart move Elder, but don't count your chickens before they hatch. ;-)

Delayed letters home

2011-01-26T20:43:00.000-08:00

With the holiday falling on a Monday, the library was closed which meant that Alex wasn't able to write home on his P-day like he normally does. Then apparently he and his companion had a zone leader conference that they had to attend so we didn't end up hearing from Alex for a few days later than we normally would. But it is always good to hear from your missionary and when we finally got his letter, he told us about many of the things that have been happening lately.

As I mentioned in the last blog entry, Alex and his companion have been working really hard to find additional people to teach. Sometimes that can be a little frustrating because some of the appointments that they set with people that they are just starting to teach, tend to fall through. But this is kind of expected when serving a mission even though knowing that, doesn't really make it any less frustrating. Through all of that however, Alex did tell us about some good things that have been happening with the people that they are currently teaching. His letter was short since they weren't able to write during their regular P-day time and they were a little short on time since they had another teaching appointment coming up.

In his next letter, he started it out with a lot of exclamation marks. If his punctuation alone could paint the whole picture, Alex was probably dancing around the library in excitement while writing home. You can probably imagine the librarian having to walk over and with a big "shuuuush", telling Alex to quiet down. The reason for all of this excitement was due to some news that he had received about a friend from back home. It all had to do with a decision to go on a mission. Alex told us that this was the biggest highlight of his whole week and it felt just as good as watching someone being baptized.

Alex did write us a little longer letter this last week but much if it was about experiences that can't really be shared through a blog. As I mentioned before, while serving a mission, there are times when things are going well, and other times when things get to be a little frustrating. The ups and downs are all just a part of the whole experience. He did tell us all about a priesthood meeting that he attended in the Salina branch and how wonderful and powerful the teacher was. Alex said that he felt a little "rebuked" after the lesson but it was a good kind of rebuking, if that is possible. Well it must be, because Alex said that the lesson was fantastic and probably the best priesthood meeting that he had ever attended.

Cowboy up and git 'ur done

2011-01-12T20:30:00.000-08:00

Alex's letter home was kind of a short one a couple of weeks ago. From what he told us, he and his companion spent the last week working really hard and actually taught more lessons during that week than they have ever taught before. But other than that, the week was fairly uneventful. With all of the baptisms that they had during November and December, most of their teaching pool are now members of the Church. So as a result, they are now having to work at rebuilding their teaching pool back up again.  But all of that is normal for a missionary. You have to take the up's with the downs and the famine after the feast.

Alex described a little bit about the crazy weather that they have been having in Kansas. First of all he told us about how the city of Manhattan was testing out the tornado sirens that day just as the do almost every week. I guess that is probably a good thing since Alex is sitting right in the middle of tornado alley.  Anyway, Alex told us that a couple of weeks ago they were in the middle of short sleeve weather with the temperature getting up into the 70's. That is pretty far out of the ordinary for this time of year. But just as quickly as the good weather came, it all turned back to winter again. Alex said that within just a few hours the temperatures were back down in the 20's. He even started out his last letter by telling us that they were in the middle of a snow storm which didn't really make him happy. The storm really only dropped about 3-5 inches of snow on the ground but that was enough to shut down all of the schools and keep a lot of people from going outside. Oh well, there you go with having to take the good with the bad and the up's with the downs, whether it is with a teaching pool or the weather.

Oh, I mentioned in the last blog entry under a picture of Alex all dressed up in a cowboy outfit, that we had no idea where he came up with those clothes. Well Alex must have read his own blog because he answered that question for us in last week's letter. As it turned out, there is an Elder in his mission that is just a few months behind Alex. Both this Elder and Alex have been serving near each other for most of the last year. Alex didn't give us a lot of detail about this Elder but apparently the Elder must have a cowboy background because all of the clothes belonged to him.  We still don't know what possessed Alex to want to dress up in cowboy clothes, but you have to admit that he does look good, right? :-)

There is another amusing story that Alex told us that must somehow be related to this whole cowboy craze. So one of the things that Alex and many of the other missionaries in the Manhattan area have been doing, is volunteering to help maintain the grounds at the zoo.  One day about a week ago while they were working at the zoo, Alex somehow tore his AmericanEagle jeans. When P-Day finally rolled around, Alex and his companion decided that it would be a good idea to go to Walmart to buy a new pair of jeans. However this time he wasn't looking for a name brand like he had before. He decided that any old pair of jeans would work and Walmart just happen to stock some really nice Rustler cowboy cut jeans for $8.50 a pair. Since that sounded like a really good price and the animals at the zoo don't really care how well the missionaries are dressed, Alex decided that he should try them on. So he went into the dressing room, tried them on and then came out to see how they looked. While he was in the dressing room, his companion started up a conversion with a 50ish year old Walmart worker who's job it was to watch over the dressing room area. Once Alex emerged from the dressing room, his companion started asking the woman what she thought about the jeans and if she thought Alex looked good in them. Well, after being prodded a few times by Alex's companion for an honest opinion, she finally said, "well don't think that I am a pervert grandma or anything, but DANG those look fine!!!". They all got a pretty good laugh out of it and Alex is now the proud owner of a pair of $8.50 Rustler cowboy cut jeans. Wow, the monkeys at the zoo are going to go "Ape" over Alex's new look. ;-)

It's transfer time again and as it turned out, Alex didn't get transferred but he does have a new companion. This is the third companion that he has had since he arrived in Manhattan last September. He just keeps burning through companions like they are a pile of kindling or something. Actually this is his previous companion's final transfer and he decided that he wanted to spend it training a new missionary for his last six weeks. Well Alex's new companion is somebody that Alex actually new before his mission. Apparently, they were both part of a group date that happened during high school but neither one of them remembered until a friend of Alex's new companion wrote and reminded him of the event. The funny thing is that this whole acquaintance ties back to someone that I know is reading this blog and goes by the initials of H. Mac.  Anyway, its a small world and true to form, Alex always seems to find ties back to his home whether it is with the people he meets or the companions he is currently serving with.

Alex also tells us that their teaching pool rebuilding is going really well. Several of the people that they are teaching have come to church and they are really excited about that. In fact one of the people who they are currently teaching told Alex and his companion that it had been over 14 years since he had been to church so by the fact that he is at church today, just means that the missionaries must be doing something right. Be grateful for all of the little things that go right and for some, even the little things mean a lot.

A Christmas phone call

2010-12-27T21:26:00.000-08:00

Alright, the last couple of weeks have been real crazy and I'm not just talking about Alex. In this blog entry I am going break from the usual and talk a little bit about Alex's family for a minute. Once you read the whole story, you will understand how a lot of what has been happening with his family, all ties into where Alex is current serving his mission.

So here we go. Alex has an older brother who just recently turned in his mission papers. Under normal circumstances, we would have expected a mission call about 2-3 weeks after he turned in his papers. Well things didn't quite go normally. Instead of just the normal envelope from the church, we received a called from our Stake President who informed us that the missionary department would like to know if Alex's brother would be ready to leave in 3 weeks. That's right, it's not a typo. They said 3 weeks, not 3 months! Our Stake President said that he couldn't tell us where Alex's brother was going at that time, but it was somewhere very important and of special significance. Thinking that we would have to wait another week for the envelope from the Church to arrive, we were surprised when it came the next day. When Alex's brother opened the letter we were all surprised to find out that he was being called to the Rochester, New York mission. That's right, the same mission where Palmyra, Fayette and many other very significant Church historical sites are located. With Alex now serving in the Independence Missouri mission and his brother soon to be serving in the Rochester, New York mission, we are going to have the greatest Church historical sites tour ever in about 2 years from now!! As you can imagine, trying to get a missionary out the door in 3 weeks has been crazy. I won't go into all of the details about Alex's brother's call here. I will save that for when I start his brother's blog in a few weeks. But needless to say, Alex is very excited, we are very excited and Alex's brother is extremely excited.

Back to what's up with Alex. Well this month has been pretty busy for Alex as well. I have already mentioned previously that Alex was expecting to perform several more baptisms this month and as of the last couple of weeks, those baptisms have happened. Alex wrote to tell us all about the most recent members of the church and their baptisms. He said that the baptismal services went very well and that the spirit was very strong. The only hitch that they ran into was that while they were filling up the baptismal font, they ran out of hot water and by the time they figured it out, the font was a bit chilly. Alex told us that during the baptismal service he and several other missionaries sang the song "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" from the children's hymn book. Alex told us that with only two verses, the song was a little short so he spent some time during the previous week writing a third verse. He didn't tell us what he came up with for the words to this new verse, but he said that it all went very well. I'm not sure that adding to even a children's song is Church approved, but hey, if you are so inspired, why not. Alex is very excited to see these new members of the Church learning and growing along side of the other members of the Ward. Alex even talked about how one of these new members has already been interviewed to received the priesthood.

Speaking of musical numbers, in the last blog entry I told you that Alex and his companion had been asked to perform a musical number during Sacrament meeting, the following week. Well, the duet actually did turn into a quartet. Alex and his companion recruited a couple of other members of the Ward to help them out. They all sang "Guard Him Joseph" and according to Alex, it went pretty well. He said that the others who sang with him had pretty good pitch and that he was able to blend in ok. In Alex's words, "I didn’t think we sounded too horrible". I'm sure it was great, but I am still waiting to hear a real opinion from somebody who was actually there. ;-)

Since this last week was Christmas, we got the rare opportunity to have Alex call home and tell us himself all about what he has been doing. As always, it was great to hear Alex's voice and to catch up on some of the details about his mission. Not only did we get to hear from Alex, we also got to hear from his companion and some of the other missionaries that were accompanying them on Christmas. We talked to Alex for quite a while on Christmas as they were all headed from Manhattan to Wamego where they were going for Christmas dinner. Of course the Christmas dinner that they were going to wasn't the first of the day nor was it the last. Just like on Thanksgiving day, they ended up spending time and eating breakfast, lunch and dinner with several different families. In fact Alex had to have his companion call us earlier in the day just to tell us that Alex would be calling a little later than scheduled because they had a teaching appointment along with breakfast at the home of one of their investigators. That was all good though, because it gave us time to get through all of our Christmas morning traditions as well. We got a short letter from Alex on Monday after Christmas since we had just spoken with him a couple of days before. Alex filled us in on how the rest of his Christmas went and the fact that he and his companion attended mid-night mass also. If you remember from a couple of blog entries ago, Alex and several of the other missionaries have been spending their P-Day playing ultimate frisbee with a member of the local Catholic church. As part of this new friendship, this catholic member invited the missionaries to attend mid-night mass on Christmas. Alex told us that it was very interesting and that it was fun to see their friend give one of the readings during the mass.

We got a package from Alex just before Christmas. Along with the Christmas presents that were included in the box, Alex finally sent us the memory card from his camera. Out of the 150 or so pictures along with a few videos, here are some of the highlights:

This is during his NASCAR period while serving in Burlington, KS. We still don't know why he was so into NASCAR, maybe because there are some really "Nas-cars" (say that with a southern accent and you will get the joke. ;-)

While Alex was serving in Burlington, KS last summer, he told us a story about how he and his companion helped a neighbor do a little demo on their house. The problem was that Alex is a little shorter than everybody else that was working there. So in order for him to be able to reach the ceiling, Alex had to pile up some of the debris and stand on it to get a little extra boost.

No, this isn't a picture of Alex but you can see a faint reflection of his feet in the window. There is a zoo in Manhattan, KS where the missionaries volunteer most weeks to help out. Alex told us that according to the records held by the zoo, this chimpanzee is the second oldest in the world. How they know that, I am not sure. Alex also told us that if you remember the scene in the movie "Return to Me" where the gorilla plays handsies on th window with one of the stars of the movie, Alex did the same thing with this chimpanzee one day as well.

Just a couple of caged animals at the zoo. Nothing more to see here. We are walking, walking...

We have no idea where Alex came up with the cowboy outfit here. We certainly didn't send him with the hat, the big belt buckle, the boots nor those jeans. It looks like he is back at the Wamego apartment, but why he is dressed up as a cowboy is still a question to be answered. Maybe someday he will tell us. ;-)

"Look Mom, lunch!!"

Sorry for the joke if this is really your child's favorite pet chicken. But it does look good! ;-)

Alex told us that this is the picture that he and his companion are using for their Christmas card this year. If you remember the Christmas card last year, Alex and his companion at the time did the same thing except they were jumping off a snow covered rock. If you haven't received your Christmas card from Alex yet, "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!"

A week of triumphs and tragedy

2010-12-15T20:22:00.000-08:00

Alex opened up his letter from a couple of weeks ago by telling us all about a baptism that took place the Saturday before. The person who was baptized was somebody that they had met through a referral from a relative that actually lives in Utah. Alex told us all about the miraculous changes that this man made in his life to get from where he was previously, to becoming a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In some of Alex's previous letters, he talked about several times over the last couple of months when they were teaching this man the gospel. He described watching a life change right before his eyes and how it has actually been one of the more eye opening and spiritual events that he has experienced so far on his mission. Of course Alex usually describes things in terms of sports and this is how he described this experience:

I remember Grandma pulling me aside one day and telling me that as good as it felt to win state [wrestling], baptizing someone on my mission would be a much better feeling, and she was soooooo right!!! Seeing [this man] change his life and be baptized was a way better feeling than winning state, I love it!!! I love being a missionary!

Alex spent most of his letter talking about the baptism and the Sacrament meeting the next day when they performed the confirmation. He talked about the strong feeling of the spirit that came over everybody that participated and also talked about the great testimonies that were given following the confirmation. This baptism was definitely the highlight of Alex's week if not his whole mission. Like I have already mentioned several times in this blog, every week for Alex just seems to get better and better. Alex is really looking forward to seeing more of the people that they are currently teaching, be baptized. Several of them are already attending church regularly and have really felt the spirit. Alex has really enjoyed serving for the last several months in Manhattan and really hopes to be able to stay there for several more months.  He really loves the Ward, the people and the members of the church there.

In his letter this week, Alex told us about an incident that happened to another missionary that nobody ever wants to hear about. Fortunately the accident did not cause any permanent damage but it was still very scary. Alex told us about how one of the missionaries in a nearby companionship and stopped suddenly on his bike which caused the bike to go end over end. Unfortunately, so did the Elder who was riding the bike and the first thing to break his fall was his face. Alex and his companion were in the middle of a teaching appointment at the time. Alex said that in the middle of the lesson they got an urgent text message to go to the hospital as quickly as possible. When they got there they found this Elder a bit beaten up and bloody. Since his face hit the pavement first, it knocked one of this teeth loose which he ended up have to have pulled later. Alex told us that they had to take turns sitting with the injured missionary while he healed for the next few days and that luckily all of the hospital tests turned up negative. It is a scary thing when something like this happens and fortunately in this case it appears that the Elder will be OK after his wounds heal up a bit more.

Alex and his companion had a great experience at church the other day. Not too long after Alex arrived in his mission, one of his companions introduced him to the guitar. Alex has always had a musical background but guitar wasn't this primary instrument. Well since then, no matter who his companion has been, they always seem to spend some of their time teaching through music. Alex has taught himself how to play the guitar and both he and his companion sing hymns. This time Alex and his companion were invited to play and sing for the primary children. Alex told us that it was a real blast and that he really loves the primary kids in his Ward. He told us that they sang a version of "Angels We Have Heard On High" and as they reached the end of the verse, all of the primary kids started singing along with them. Then after they finished singing to the primary, they decided to go into the nursery to sing to all of the little kids as well. The nursery kids didn't sing along with them like the older primary kids did, but Alex said that while they were singing, all of the little kids were very quite and really seemed to enjoy the music.

Ah, but here is the real kicker. After playing and singing for the primary kids, Alex and his companion were invited to sing a duet in Sacrament meeting next week. One thing that Alex did inherit from his mother is a musical talent. However, that musical talent only extends to playing musical instruments.  His talents seem to stop abruptly when it comes to actual singing.  So needless to say, Alex is a bit nervous about having to sing in front of everybody in Sacrament meeting. His last statement to us was that maybe he would try to recruit a few more people to help them out and maybe a quartet could drowned out a lack of talent. But hey, you have to give Alex points for trying. How many of you would actually have the guts to stand up in church and sing in front of 300 people. I told Alex that he needs to find a member of his Ward who would be willing to describe to us truthfully how it went. We would really like to hear about it.

So to finish out his letter, Alex told us a story that no mother of a missionary ever wants to hear. At least not until years after the missionary returns home. For some of us who have served missions, this story is really no big deal, but to the mother of a missionary, she can only imagine the worst. Alex told us about how they were traveling to Witchita one day and got stuck in a huge traffic jam. This traffic jam was so bad that apparently the highway was nothing more than a parking lot and it went on for so long that people started turning around and going back to where they came from. To Alex and his companion this traffic jam just presented them with yet another opportunity to spread the gospel. So they hopped out of their car and started talking to truckers that were stuck in the same jam. How they would do this was by climbing up on to the running board of the truck and then talk to the trucker through the side window. Here you might think to yourself, so what is the big deal? Sounds like a pretty good idea. Well this is where the mother of a missionary starts to cringe. Alex told us that since many of the cars were turning around, everytime a car would whiz by, they had to press themselves up against the truck just to keep from getting hit. Now of course every mother remembers teaching and warning their kids about the dangers of playing in traffic.  Well guess what, you all forgot to teach them about how equally dangerous it is to teach the gospel in traffic as well. So let that be a lesson to you!! ;-)

Developing your talents and other missionary preparations

2010-11-30T19:50:00.000-08:00

So to start out with, Elder Scott of the council of the twelve apostles visited with the missionaries a couple of weeks ago. Apparently he was assigned to speak at a Stake or regional conference in the Topeka area. One of the things that the general authorities will do while on assignment is hold special meetings with the missionaries while they are in the area and this conference was no different. Alex spent most of his letter talking about the meeting with Elder Scott and about the things that were said. During the meeting Elder Scott allowed the missionaries to ask him any question that they liked. This was one of Alex's favorite parts of the meeting. Alex told us that there is a missionary from South America in their mission who primarily works with the spanish speaking people and really doesn't speak much english himself. During the meeting this spanish missionary got up and asked Elder Scott some questions about his relationship with Jesus Christ. Of course the questions that the spanish missionary asked were in spanish and Elder Scott was able to translate for the rest of the english speaking missionaries. But there was one point when the spanish missionary asked Elder Scott a very personal question about Christ and at that point Elder Scott stopped translating and continued listening very intently to the question. His answer to this missionary's question was very short but yet very powerful. Of course since Elder Scott was no longer translating, the rest of the english speaking missionaries had no idea what was said or what his answer was. Finally another missionary stood up and asked Elder Scott if he could finish translating the question and his answer. Elder Scott proceeded to do so and as Alex described it, everybody's jaw just dropped at the spiritual insight that Elder Scott shared with just his very simple answer. Not long after that, Elder Scott again bore his testimony about his relationship with the Savior. Alex told us that it was spirit talking to spirit rather than just words.

Alex told us about a scary experience that they had during Sacrament meeting. Alex and his companion have been teaching several people lately and some of them have been attending church rather regularly. Well on Sunday during Sacrament meeting, one of the people that they have been teaching suffered from a seizure during the closing hymn. Of course things stopped right there and they had to call an ambulance to take this man directly to the hospital. Alex told us that they were able to go over to the hospital a little later to give him a blessing and that this man is doing Ok now although he is still having some health issues. That is the type of experience that you don't see everyday unless maybe if you actually work in a hospital emergency room. But for a missionary, this is the kind of thing that is totally unexpected yet also something that they need to be prepared for spiritually.

Once again Alex started off his latest letter by saying "Well, good things continue to happen here in Manhattan". Alex and his companion had a really good Thanksgiving which usually means that they ended up enjoying more than just one Thanksgiving dinner. This is the time of year where if Alex doesn't watch it, he might really get fat. During the holiday season people really like to have the missionaries over for dinner and sometimes that might mean more than one dinner per night. Thanksgiving and Christmas always seem to be some of the multiple dinner occasions. Well, by the time Alex and his companion got done visiting everybody on Thanksgiving, I think they had visited at least three different families, held a church history DVD "movie night" with one of the families and just had a good time all around.

Alex also shared a story about a girl he met at one of the families that they visited during Thanksgiving, who has down syndrome. For any of you who attended high school with Alex, you will probably remember how Alex spent several months helping out in the seminary class for many of the down syndrome kids. As a result, there was one special girl that decided that Alex was her boy friend and from then on, that was the way it was going to be. Alex was always very kind to her and tried his best to make her feel special. Because of this seminary experience and other similar experiences with these special kids, Alex has always had a soft spot in his heart for them. This girl who Alex met during Thanksgiving was no different. Alex told us that she reminded him of his old seminary "girl friend" back in high school.

Alex shared another little tidbit with us as well. I'm sure you all know how much Alex likes sports and also how much he really enjoys wrestling in particular. Well in Alex's words, here is a realization that he has come to:

"Isn’t it crazy how wrestling has allowed me to share the gospel with people? Legit! Yesterday in Sunday school we taught a lesson on developing our talents, and it really made me think about how wrestling has been a lot more for me than just a sport. It has helped me to reach out to people and help them. J.R. sent me a really nice letter, and I was only able to meet him because of wrestling. It made me feel really good!"

As has been mentioned several time on this blog, wrestling and his love of other sports has really had an impact on Alex's missionary work. From coaching at Wamego high school a year ago and developing a very good friendship with one of their wrestlers to using wresting stories in Sacrament meeting talks and even starting up conversations with people just through sports, it has made a difference.

Oh by the way, Alex also told us that he has received some really great letters recently from his friends back home. He is really sorry that he hasn't been able to write back but please don't let that stop you from sending the occational letter in the future. Alex has been busier than ever at this time in his mission and if he is able to find a spare moment or two, he will try to write. So he just wants you all to know that he is greatful for good friends.

Teaching the gospel in all places and at all times

2010-11-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

Ever since Alex became a zone leader, "busy" seems to be one of the main topics each week. Not that all missionaries aren't very busy all the time, but on top of an already busy missionary life, Alex and his companion have even had to resort to scheduling appointments on their P-day just to keep up. A couple of weeks ago Alex wrote us and said that they had traveled more in one week than ever before. Here is how he described just one day in a whole week of meetings, exchanges and conferences:

"But Thursday was an absolute nightmare! We had to drive to Wamego to switch back from exchanges early in the morning. Then we made a quick stop in Junction city on our way down to Salina for their district meeting. We got to Salina and had a great meeting down there. We had to drive all the way home from Salina, and then that night we had to turn around and drive clear down to Wichita for our leadership conference that was on Friday! Just on Thursday alone we drove over 400 miles!!!"

All of their hard work seems to be paying off and from what Alex has told us, many of the people that they are teaching have already decided that being baptised and becoming a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the right thing to do. Over the next several weeks, Alex told us that he and his companion have about six baptisms scheduled. Of course a lot can happen in just a few weeks for a missionary but they have been working hard and doing everything that they can to bless the lives of those that they are serving. Alex just keeps telling us just how great all of the people are that they are teaching. He loves going to their homes, talking with them, teaching them the gospel and getting to know each one them better.

So here is a rather interesting story that Alex told us. This story actually spans over the last couple of letters that he wrote. Alex starts out by telling us that he and his companion actually attended mass at the local Catholic church. How this all came about was that one of the favorite activities for the missionaries around Manhattan is to play ultimate Frisbee for a couple hours on their P-day. Well it so happened that while playing ultimate Frisbee, the missionaries came in contact with someone who is a very good member of the Catholic church. While talking with this person, he invited Alex and his companion to come on over and take a look around his church building. Alex and his companion thought that since they regularly invite people to take a tour of the LDS church buildings, this would be a good opportunity for them to do the same at a Catholic church.   Of course in return this good man also agreed to accompany the missionaries on a tour of an LDS church building as well. As it turned out, Alex and his companion also ended up attending mass at the Catholic church and agreed to come back the next week and teach a class to some of the church members there.

So the next week Alex and his companion went back to the Catholic church just as mass was ending so that they could teach the class that they had agreed to. Except this week there was a different Priest in charge whom they hadn't meet before. As they walked into the lobby of the church, they immediately ran into the Catholic Priest who was obviously dressed in his normal Sunday robes. The Priest walked up to Alex and his companion, looked down at their name tags and told them “looks like you boys are at the wrong church!”. Alex said that the Priest had a pretty good sense of humor and that they all got a good laugh out of it. Then just to top it off, as the Priest was walking away he commented to one of the other parishioners "I'll bet they are going to convert". Alex told us that it was obvious that he was being sarcastic and that the whole experience was pretty funny.

Alex went on to tell us about the class that they taught while they were visiting the Catholic church. He said that there weren't very many people who stuck around for their Sunday school class but there were a few. Alex told us that it was kind of hard to teach the class for obvious reasons. Walking into another denomination and basically telling them that what they believed isn't the whole truth, kind of puts you in a confrontational position.  But Alex and his companion were very sensitive to that fact and really tried to be as non-confrontational as possible. During the class Alex told us that the people who attended,were very courteous except for one man who wanted to bible bash a little. Of course the missionaries tried the best that they could be resolve his issues with a few scriptures and after that Alex said that the rest of the class went very well. Who knows what will come from this experience but Alex said that at the very least, it taught him a lot about what their investigators must be feeling when they attend the LDS church meetings for the first time. Through this experience, Alex can now be much more sensitive to their investigator's feeling and help them to feel more comfortable.

Of course, later on that same Sunday Alex and his companion also attended their own church meetings at their Ward building. Alex told us that it felt wonderful to be back at church that day and it was even more exciting because not only were they at church, they also had many of the people that they are currently teaching, attending church with them. Things seem to be going very well for Alex right now. Of course there are always ups and downs and Alex has also included a few of the downs in his letters as well. But he is very excited about everything that is happening right now and every day and every week just seems to bring more stories and new experiences.

Oh one last funny story. Through Alex's studies he seemed to have run across an interesting verse. In Alma 56:27 Alex claims that the scriptures are telling us that we should be sending him more packages more often.  Looking up the scripture it says:

"And now it came to pass in the second month of this year, there was brought unto us many provisions from the fathers of those my two thousand sons. " Alma 56:27

Of course this scripture is talking about the 2000 stripling warriors and the provisions that their families sent to them while they marched with the armies of Helaman. Alex being a missionary is like being one of the stripling warriors and I guess that since we are his parents, we need to make sure that provisions are sent to him regularly to help sustain him in the Lord's work. Funny thing is, his Mother just sent him a package the week before. So if any of you who are reading this feel that you would like to help re-provision a missionary, the address to the mission home where you too can send provisions is at the top of this blog. Thanks in advance. :-)

One down, one to go

2010-11-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

Alex started out his letter a couple of weeks ago by saying that the previous week had been the best week ever. It seems like we hear that every week. Can you imagine having your best week ever, every week? Most people can't even imagine a life like that. Alex is apparently living it now on his mission.

Alex told us all about a baptism that they just performed a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately for these missionaries, they have some really good people in their Ward who really love to help out with the missionary work. A brother in their Ward who together with his wife, played a big part in fellowshipping the person who was being baptized, was asked to perform the baptism.  From what Alex told us, the name of the person who was baptized was kind of hard to pronounce. So in order to make sure that the name was pronunced correctly during the baptismal prayer, Alex wrote down her name with all of accents and pronunciations on the back of a pass along card and taped it to the front of the baptismal font.  Alex told us that the baptismal service went off without a hitch and said that everybody felt the spirit. The next day (Sunday), Alex was asked to perform the confirmation during Sacrament meeting. You would think that since Alex has been out for a year now, performing a confirmation wouldn't be a big deal. But Alex told us that he was really nervous mainly because now it was his turn to make sure that he pronounced her name correctly.  This time there was no pass along card with the proper pronunciation taped to the front of anything, so he spent most of the morning before Sacrament meeting practicing the pronunciation to make sure that everything would go as smoothly as possible. He told us that at one point before the meeting, he was so nervous that it felt like the same nervousness he used to feel right before a big wrestling match. Well being nervous must really suit him because he wrestled very well in high school and he told us that the confirmation went very well in church.

I mentioned that Alex has been out on his mission for a year now. He just past his year mark about a week and a half ago, if you can believe that. Just as a personal note: when you send your son out on a mission and you go through the experience of dropping him off at the MTC, that goodbye moment on the curb can be really rough. Knowing that there are two long years ahead before you will see him again, seems like forever. This last year seemed to fly by. Now instead of two long years ahead, there is only one more to go. Right now even one year still seems like a long time, but given that the last one went by so quickly, I'm sure that the next one will as well.

During this last year, Alex has had a lot of great experiences. Some much better than others and some that were really tough to get through. I won't go into any of them again here because you can just read back through the previous blog posts to review many of those experiences.  There are many experiences that Alex has told us about in his letters that we haven't talked about on this blog.  The reason why is because the experiences just seemed to personal to be published in a public forum. But like I have mentioned before, if you want to hear more about these experiences, just come on over to the house and we will be glad to fill you in on more of the details.

For the last couple of weeks and probably even longer than that, Alex has been telling us all about a new missionary program that they have been using. It probably really isn't that new, but it is something that they have been doing lately and has proven to be a turning point for many people that the missionaries are teaching. The program that they have been using is really kind of like going on a church tour at Temple Square or any other church visitor's center. Except, rather than going through an actual visitor's center, the missionaries introduce people to the church by showing them around the church building itself. From what Alex has said, it allows some of the people that they are teaching to really see what the church building itself is like without having to feel nervous around all of the other church members who might be there during a regular Sunday meeting. It also allows them to feel the spirit that is always present in a church building. Alex has shared several great stories about the experiences that he and his companion have had while introducing new investigators to the church through one of these tours. During one of these tours, Alex told us that the person that they were teaching asked them if the building had an extra room that they could rent because it felt so peaceful just being there. Of course they were just kidding about wanting to rent a room, but they very serious about the peaceful feeling. According to Alex, these "Intoduction to the Church" tours are probably one of the best teaching tools that they have.  Introducing somebody to the church in this way, really makes a big difference in the way that people feel about the church, its teachings and especially about attending a regular Sunday meeting and being baptized.

Alex told us a interesting yet funny story that happened this last week. While he and his companion were out tracting, they tracted into a girl who claimed to be a "Campus Crusader for Christ". If you remember, Manhattan KS is the home of Kansas State University. Anyway they were invited in and taught the first lesson to her and a friend. Alex said that she seemed interested in what they had to say but seemed to just want to ask a lot of questions more than listen to what was being taught. Later, Alex and his companion were invited back to teach them again. But in the back of their minds they kind of knew where this next teaching appointment was heading. During the next appointment this girl told them that she wanted to share some of the things that she had been studying lately. Alex and his companion knew at that point that this would probably lead to a bible bashing session so instead of engaging in that, they just sat quietly and listened. At one point she wanted to read some scriptures from the New Testament and asked Alex if she could borrow his bible. Of course Alex said yes and she went on flipping through the pages of the New Testament and reading scriptures. Then when she had finally gotten through everything that she wanted to say, she turned to Alex and his companion and asked them if they would read the bible, pray about it in order to find out if it was true. Like these missionaries have never heard a request like before. The funny part about this story is that while she was flipping through the bible that she had borrowed from Alex, she apparently didn't notice all of the underlined scriptures in various rainbow colors that were a result of all of the reading and studying that Alex had already done.  I guess it didn't really dawn on her that if the missionaries really had a problem with the truthfulness of the bible, why did they carry one around, study it constantly and teach from it regularly. Interesting in sort of a funny way.

Alex told us that he has a pretty crazy week coming up.  He said that they have a lot of zone meetings, a leadership conference and some traveling to do over the next few days.  In fact things were so busy that he told us that they even had teaching appointments set up on their P-day just because that was the only time they had. Things seem to be busier than ever but he feels like that are being blessed a ton in everything that they do.

The work goes on even if you have to do it alone

2010-10-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Alex has had a exciting last couple of weeks. On top of it all, he has had one of the more unique experiences a missionary could have. One of the basic rules of being a missionary from the day they are set apart until the day they are released is to never be without your companion. Well, Alex has been without a companion for almost a week and a half. Of course he wasn't really physically alone, but as it turned out, his current companion was called into the office as the new assistant to the President. This new calling as an assistant required that Alex's companion needed to leave immediantely for the mission office in Independence which left Alex without a companion until the next transfers. That also left Alex as the only zone leader in Manhattan, juggling two zones and trying to schedule Ward members or other missionary companionships who could be temporary companions so that he wasn't left entirely alone. Alex told us that it was one of the most stressful weeks of his mission but his Ward members really stepped up to help him out and he even had some help from a Wamego friend.

When he wrote to us on his P-Day during this time, he told us that he had gone jogging in the morning as part of his daily exercise program. Being a little confused since he didn't have a companion to go jogging with, we wondered who accompanied him on his run. He told us that he had talked a couple of other Elders into going with him that morning but not exactly in the way that you would think. Of course Alex laced up his running shoes for a nice long jog while the other two Elders started up the car engine. It turned out that both of these other Elders ended up following Alex in the car rather than actually jogging along with him. In fact it was even worse than that. As one of the Elders drove the car, the other Elder brought along his pillow and blanket and slept in the back seat the whole time. Well these two Elders may not have enjoyed the same run along some new dirt roads that Alex found near their appartment, but at least they were good sports to get up early and go with him so that Alex could enjoy a good run on a P-Day.

Alex has really had a good time serving in Manhattan, Kansas. There are several reasons why he has been enjoying this assignment so much. One reason is that Manhattan is not too far away from Wamego where he first served almost a year ago. During that time in Wamego, Alex met a lot of really good people and it has been fun for him to go back there and spend some time as a zone leader. Alex told us that he recently got to spend the whole day in Wamego with one of the youth in the Branch, as his companion. This is the same kid that Alex used to wrestle with back when he was a voluteer coach at Wamego High School and also the same kid that spent spring break last year with Alex and his companion in Lawrence. Anyway, one thing that they were able to do while in Wamego was go back and revisit some of the people that Alex and his former Wamego companion had started to teach. Alex didn't really go into detail about how any of the visits went, but his said that they visited a lot of people, worked hard and had a really good day. He also said that the Elders that are currently serving in Wamego are doing well and are close to having a baptism there as well.

Alex wrote us this week and told us that he finally got a new companion after spending almost a week and a half without one. Alex only got to spend just a few weeks with his first companion in Manhattan and he said that he really learned a lot about missionary work and how to be a good leader. Alex was really sad to have to lose his companion when he was called to be an assistant because Alex said that they both really got along great together. But from what Alex said in his last letter, his new companion is going to be just as good and Alex is really excited about it. In fact Alex told us that a lot of really good missionaries were transferred into his zone including his old MTC companion who is one of the new district leaders. Alex is really looking forward to working with these new Elders for however long he is allowed to serve in Manhattan. Of course when it comes to new companions, one of Alex's first criteria for determining how well they will get along is how much does the new companion like to exercise. Of course that isn't the only criteria, but whenever Alex has gotten a new companion, right along with telling us just how good of a missionary and hard working they are, is something like "plus he loves sports and we get along really, really well". That's Alex, he isn't satisfied working hard doing missionary work during the week, he also needs a companion that is willing to workout hard on P-Day as well.

Despite all of the work that is involved with being a zone leader, the proselyting work is moving forward for Alex and his companion in Manhattan as well. Alex told us this week that they are planning on a baptism this weekend and that they have also found some new people to teach. He also went on to tell us a little bit about some of the people that they have recently met and how tough some of their lives have been. Alex is hoping that as they are able to teach these people some more, that they will be able to feel the spirit, recognize how the gospel could make a difference and really change their lives for the better.

Here is a bit of a funny story that Alex included in his last letter. Apparently during the week and a half while Alex was without a companion, the Relief Society President called and ask him if he would come and teach the sisters about faith for a few minutes. Of course Alex said yes and started to prepare the short lesson while trying to handle everything else that was going on. Well Sunday came along and Alex attended Relief Society meeting rather than his usual Priesthood meeting. Alex said that he was a bit nervous because the Ward that he is serving in now is huge which means that the Relief Society room is usually packed. So he started off the lesson by explaining to the sisters that since he has been on his mission, he has taught every auxiliary organization in a Ward except for the Relief Society. He got a good laugh out of the sisters when he told them that not only was this the first time that he has taught Relief Society, it was also the first time that he has ever attended a Relief Society meeting in his entire life. Alex said that the lesson went very well but the funny part of the story was that the following week Alex was invited back to the Relief Society meeting again to talk about the new missionary program and the pass along cards that they use. So after never having attended or taught a Relief Society meeting ever before in his life, Alex has now taught back to back weeks in the Manhattan Ward. Of course he joked with the sisters that now he would have to find a new excuse to come back to Relief Society next week.

Oh one last note, to the Hinds family, Alex says that you are one of his favorite families. But then I am sure Alex says that to everybody. ;-)

The people you know and the stories that never end

2010-10-05T20:23:00.000-07:00

A while back I commented about how Alex always seems to find connections between people he meets on his mission and people he knows back home. Well this story just goes to show that the world is small and the Lord works in mysterious ways.

So Alex told us a story in one of his letters a couple of weeks ago about how he and his companion were out tracking one day. They were walking through a trailer park when Alex spotted a couple of cars with Utah license plates. He really wanted to go and knock on the door of the car owner right then, but they were in a hurry for some reason and had to get going. A few days later, Alex and his companion were back in the same trailer park and sure enough, so were the cars with the Utah plates. This time they weren't in quite a rush so they decided to meet these people and hopefully catch up on a little home town news. Sure enough the car owners were from Utah and one of them was about the same age as Alex. During their conversation they started comparing high schools and people they knew. Soon they discovered that even though their former high schools weren't anywhere near each other, they still had friends in common. It turned out that this person actually went to high school with one of Alex's old wrestling buddies. The more they talked, the more they discovered common acquaintances that weren't even from their respective high schools.

So here is the most interesting part of the story. As part of the missionary duties, Alex and his companion commonly attend some of the leadership meetings on Sunday mornings. Attending these meetings gives the missionaries an opportunity to report to the Bishop about the people that they had met during the week. Even before Alex was able to report on the people from Utah, the Bishop of the Ward spoke up and said that he had received a call from a concerned parent in Utah who's adult child had just moved to their area. As it turned out the people that Alex and his companion had met and the person that the Bishop was talking about were the same people. Alex mentioned in his letter that there was still some work to be done in that home and was very excited that the people had invited these missionaries back anytime they wish.

There is another story that just keeps weaving its way in and out of Alex's whole mission experience. This one has to do with a young man that Alex met during his first assignment in Wamego Kansas. You probably remember from a previous blog entry how Alex had the opportunity for a while to be a volunteer coach for the wrestling team at the local high school. During this time he got to know a young man who was a member of the wrestling team in Wamego as well as a member of the church. After Alex was transferred from Wamego, the friendship between Alex and the young man continued. There were times while Alex was assigned to serve in Lawrence, when this young man came to visit the missionaries just to help them out. Now that Alex is back in Manhattan, which isn't far from Wamego, he now has a chance to return the favor and help this same young man in preparing to go on a mission himself.

Alex told us a story about how he and his companion were in a nearby city working with one of the districts that Alex is in charge of as a zone leader. During this time the mission president was also there conducting missionary interviews. Alex thought it would be a good idea to invite this same young man to the interviews so that he could get the chance to meet with the mission president. Of course at the time, this young man wasn't aware that the mission president was going to be there. Once the young man arrived, Alex and his companion ushered him into the Relief Society room where the mission president and his wife were waiting. Alex told us that once the whole thing was over, the young man had had the chance to talk with the mission president for a while and take part in helping to teach some of the other missionaries about the new teaching lessons that were recently introduced. Alex told us that this whole experience seemed to really touch this young man and get him excited to serve a mission as well. I'm sure that this won't be the last that we hear stories about this young man. For whatever reason, this will probably be a recurring event throughout Alex's entire mission.

So apparently Alex has a problem that just recently came up. The good news about this problem is that it is one of those kinds of problems that you generally wish for. Alex told us that they have been teaching several Samoan people lately and they love to have the missionaries over on the weekends to teach them. Usually after the missionary lesson, these good people also like to feed the missionaries. Most of the Samoan people that I know really enjoy good food and good company and I am sure that these people are no different. The problem that Alex has is that dinner is usually a little later at night that they are used to. According to Alex, eating that late at night especially after having eaten earlier in the day, just helps to put the weight on. You would think that with all of the running around that these missionaries do all day long, burning off a few extra calories wouldn't be a problem. But if you knew Alex, he is a bit of a health nut (unlike his old man) and tries very hard to stay in shape. But what a problem to have! Great people who are excited to learn about the gospel, good food and good company with whom to enjoy it. Wouldn't we all like to have that problem? :-)

In Alex's last letter he talked a lot about how busy he and his companion are in taking care of all of the zone leader responsibilities in addition to trying to get in some actual proselyting time. Much of his letter talked about attending the various meetings that they have and just how fast the time is flying by. Once he got to the end of his letter, he probably decided that most of what he talked about was just the day to day life of a missionary and his last week really wasn't full of a lot of new and exciting stuff. So to end off his letter, this is what he told us:

"So yeah that is pretty much it for this week, sorry I can't think of anything too cool, I ran over a possum yesterday…that was kind of cool ha ha. So I love you all so much and I hope things are going well!!!

Love, me!"

We don't know the exact condition of the possum at this time, but we are all now fasting and praying that the possum pulls through. ;-)

A mission is busy, busy, busy...

2010-09-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

"Busy" seems to be the key word for the past few weeks and that is what Alex has been experiencing since his transfer to Manhattan, Kansas and his new assignment as a zone leader. For the past couple of weeks he has only had a limited amount of time to even write home. Even on his P-day he has been busy taking care of all of the things that needed to be done. Alex gave us the rundown of how his first week went...

"Ok so here goes for this week! So wow I don’t think I have ever had so many meetings in my life! It is usually not this bad but this week was just a freak accident. On Monday night we had to leave to Independence so we could be at zone leader council on Tuesday. So that took up most of Tuesday and we didn’t get back until that evening. On Wednesday we had district meeting for the Manhattan district and that took up a good chunk of our day, and after that we had to drive out to Junction city to help move the sisters out of an old apartment. On Thursday we had to drive an hour and a half to Salina for their district meeting and of course we always have lunch after and then the drive home so that took up a huge chunk of Thursday. That night we had to drive down to Wichita so we could go to a leadership conference down there and that took up the entire day of Friday. So of this whole last week we only got one day to proselyte…lame!!! But the meetings were all really good and I have been learning a ton!"

And that didn't even take into account the time spent organizing the vehicle situation for the entire zone, meeting with the Stake President and High Councilors and then anything else that just happens to pop up. But the one thing that he did say at the end of all of the craziness is that he has never had more fun on his mission as he is having right now. Through all of the busy times, one thing that Alex is learning is how to organize better so that he is able to take care of all of his new responsibilities. He told us in his last letter that he is having to simplify some things in his life so that he can spent more time focusing on his mission and serving the Lord. He told us that this mission experience is really a once in a lifetime thing and now is the time to make sure that he serves as a missionary 100% of the time so that he has no regrets when his two years as a full time missionary are done. When we read this, it really showed us the maturity level that Alex is achieving in the decisions that he is making at this time of his life.

Well Alex reached another milestone in his life this last week. He is no longer a teenager. That's right, Alex is now a 20-something (minus the "something"). He didn't really tell anybody that it was his birthday because he didn't want anybody to make a big deal out of it. So if you happen to live somewhere in Manhattan Kansas or the surrounding area and just happen to know an Elder Nicholes, well guess what, Alex had a birthday and he is now 20 years old. So wish him a "Happy Birthday" the next time that you see him, especially from his parents and family.

Even though Alex didn't really tell anybody about his birthday, he told us that it was a really great day for him. First of all, he and his companion were able to baptize a woman that they and the Elders who were there before Alex, had been teaching. So for a missionary, having a baptism on your birthday is probably one of the best ways to celebrate it. Alex told us that the baptism went really well and that there were a lot of the Ward members in attendance. He said that the Ward where he is currently serving is very missionary minded which really helps to make the missionary work there a lot better.

As it turned out, there were a few other people who somehow found out about Alex's birthday. Alex told us that while he and his companion were filling the baptismal font before the service, he got a phone call. When he answered the phone, the next thing he heard on the other end was a bunch of people singing "Happy Birthday". At first he wasn't quite sure who it was and then he figured out that it was a group of his favorite people from the Lawrence 2nd Ward where he had served for several months last winter. Alex told us that it was really great to hear from them and that it was probably one of the best birthday presents that a missionary could receive. He still isn't quite sure how they tracked him down and got his phone number, but he is really glad that they did.

This week Alex gave us a little more information about what they are doing as volunteers in the community. If you remember in some of the past blog entries, Alex has talked about being a volunteer wrestling coach, raking leaves in the neighbors' yards, helping out at the community centers and various other volunteer services. But this one kind of took us by surprise. Alex told us that they have been doing volunteer work at the Sunset Zoo every Tuesday. He went on to tell us all about how wild it is to be sweeping the sidewalks right next to a bunch of crazy Snow Leopard cubs. He talked about how cool it was to be working next to the sloth bear exhibit and to see a big sloth bear hanging from a tree about 40 feet in the air, eating leaves. I'm sure that the next time that Alex sends home his memory card from his camera, we will probably see a bunch of pictures of all of the wild animals from the zoo. Maybe there will be a few pictures of him at the zoo and hopefully he will be standing on the outside of the animal cages. ;-)

Finally Alex mentioned a pattern that he has noticed lately about the Wards where he has been serving. For whatever reason, Alex seems to be drawn to the 2nd Ward no matter where he goes. In Lawrence he served in the Lawrence 2nd Ward. Now that he is in Manhattan, he is serving in the Manhattan 2nd Ward. All of this doesn't seem to be that significant especially when you consider all of the places he has served and will serve, until you consider that he came from the Battle Creek 2nd Ward too. For some reason, the 2nd Ward just seems to be the right place to be for Alex.

Big news, read all about it

2010-09-07T20:48:00.000-07:00

Alex sent us some big news this week. If you remember from the last entry, Alex told us that transfers were coming up soon. Well this last week was transfer week and the big news is that Alex was transferred out of Burlington. Alex has been serving in Burlington since last April when he and his companion at the time were sent there to serve as the first missionaries in Burlington for quite some time. Well this week Alex was transferred to Manhattan Kansas which is the home of Kansas State University. So after spending several months in Lawrence Kansas near Kansas University, now he is in back in a college town, only this time it is Kansas State.

On top of that news, there is more big news this week. Not only was Alex transferred to Manhattan, he was also assigned to be the zone leader over the Salina zone. This is all new territory for Alex not only figuratively but physically as well. Manhattan isn't like Burlington which was only about 16 blocks wide. No, Manhattan is much bigger than that and Alex told us that it will take him a couple of weeks to learn his way around. He told us in his last letter that he spent almost everyday this last week in one kind of zone leadership meeting or another. In fact we waited around all day to hear from him and when we finally did, it was because he has spent all day in a zone leader training meeting in Independence. He will be splitting with a lot of the missionaries in his zone and spending time supervising, teaching, training and reporting back.

Alex told us that he is very excited about this transfer for several reasons. That's not to say that he wasn't sad to be leaving Burlington. He had grown very close to not only the new members of the church there that he helped to teach and baptize, but also to every member of the branch and especially the family that he lived with there. He had a lot of success in Burlington and I am sure that he will never forget his time there. But with a transfer comes new challenges and new experiences. Being in Manhattan, Alex is very close to his first area, Wamego. As a matter of fact, he told us that he would be going on exchanges with the Wamego Elders soon and has a dinner appointment with one of the families of the Wamego branch that he grew close to while serving there. Alex is also very excited to be back in a university environment and a larger city. He is excited to be paired up with his new companion who is also a zone leader as well. Alex told us that he has been very impressed by his new companion and feels like he is being trained all over again. He told us that there is so much that he doesn't know and now with his new responsibilities and new companion, he is learning a lot which will carry him through the second half of his mission.

Alex didn't have time to fill us in on much of what he has been doing this week or about his new companion. Only to say they he and his companion are very much alike. They both like to eat healthy, get up early in the morning to go running and his new companion is another California Elder.

Before Alex left Burlington he had a little work to finish up. One of the last things he did before he left was to speak in church. Alex told us that he felt like he needed to ask the branch president if he could speak during the next Sacrament meeting. But before he had a chance to ask, he and his companion were having dinner at one of the branch councilor's houses and the councilor asked Alex to speak on the following Sunday. In addition to Alex, his companion would also speak as well as one of the new members of the church. Alex told us in his letter that he felt like his talk went very well. He didn't know at the time that he would be getting transferred out of Burlington and that would be his last opportunity to speak in the branch. But what a good way to end a long and successful run in the Burlington branch.

Alex told us a funny story about what happy during a primary sharing time recently. Well after Alex spoke in Sacrament meeting, we and his companion were asked to help out teaching the primary kids during sharing time. After he finished talking with the kids and teaching them the sharing time lesson, Alex and his companion decided to stay for the rest of the meeting. I'm not sure if Alex has been working his companion too hard or what, but for whatever reason his companion fell asleep during the rest of the meeting. Now I could understand falling asleep during a High Priest group meeting, but for any of you who have ever taught primary children, during sharing time there is a lot of singing and activity going on. This level of noise would make it very hard to even rest your eyes let alone fall asleep. Anyway at the end of the meeting one of the primary leaders came over to talk to this very tired Elder and told him that she usually gives out stickers to those who participate. She advised this Elder that he would not be receiving a sticker this week and that she would have to get in touch with his mother about it. They all laughed about it and I am sure that this Elder won't be falling asleep during sharing time again. I suspect that getting a sticker for participating in primary is probably one of the most significant honors that one could receive. A little advice to anybody who is thinking about falling asleep in primary, don't mess with the primary leadership. These ladies really know their stuff.

Putting your training into practice

2010-08-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

Alex has had a really great few weeks. In the last entry we told you about the baptisms that have happened in Burlington lately and how much success these missionaries have had. Well, this week has been just as exciting. Alex and his companion have been teaching a relative of one of their recent baptisms and now this person has also decided that they want to become a member of the LDS church as well. Every time Alex writes to tell us about the people he has been teaching and how they have felt the spirit and decided to become members of the church, Alex end his sentences with multiple exclamation points !!!!! He has been really excited about the work in Burlington and about the newest members of the church in that branch.

Another big moment or rather, week long series of moments, happened when Alex was able to attend the leadership training classes for missionaries. The missionaries are being introduced to several new lessons and being taught how to listen and teach by the spirit more. The way that Alex described it to us was that they were up and attending training classes from 7:30 in the morning each day until 5:00 in the evening. Alex went on to tell us that he never new that he could actually enjoy 36 hours of church in one week, but he did. And he loved it. Alex told us that when he got back from all of the training, the best part was putting everything that he learned into practice and seeing how well it works.

In addition to the week of missionary training, Alex was also able to attend a Stake priesthood meeting in Topeka as well. He told us just how exciting it was to go to the priesthood meeting because a lot of the people that he met while serving in Lawrence were also there. He got to see the Bishop from the Ward where he served as well as many of the other leaders from that area. Then while traveling from Topeka to Olathe for the training classes, they passed through Lawrence so he got a chance to drop by his old stomping grounds and say hi to even more people that he knows. All in all this week of training and meetings was a very spiritual and fun week for Alex. Besides all of the training, he got to hang out with many of the other top missionaries in the mission, play a little basketball on his P-day and even buy a "super sick nike k-state shorts at tj maxx for only $15!! Legit!".

There was one last story that Alex told us about that happened to him while he was in Olathe. One night Alex and several other missionaries had the opportunity to meet and talk with an older gentleman who also happens to be a Pearl Harbor survivor. This WWII veteran told these missionaries all about his experience at Pearl Harbor and how he was actually standing on the deck of the USS California as the Japanese fighter planes were attacking. During the attack this man watched a Japanese Zero fly just above the water in the harbor right directly at the ship that he was standing on. In fact this plane flew so close that he could see the face of the Japanese pilot that was flying the plane. This was actually a very rare experience for these missionaries because there are only about 10% of the surviving WWII service men and women still alive today. And of that 10%, only a small fraction actually served at Pearl Harbor during the attack. Hearing a story like that from an actual Pearl Harbor survivor is pretty amazing. Then to top off the night, these Elders were able to lay their hands on the head of this man and give him a priesthood blessing. I'm sure that this will be one of the mission experiences that Alex will never forget.

The Bishop of our Ward recently visited Independence Missouri and while there, met several of the missionaries. Of course being Alex's home Ward Bishop, he asked these missionaries if they knew Alex. It turns out that one of the Sister missionaries that he talked to, had also just returned from the training meetings in Olathe.  We mentioned this to Alex and he told us that this Sister missionary was part of his training group during the week so he got to know her quite well. Alex told us that she was a really nice girl and probably one of the best sister missionaries in the mission. It is always fun to hear from people who have come in contact with Alex even if it is kind of an indirect meeting. There is still a connection there and we are always happy to get any news we can about how Alex is doing.

Transfers are coming up again and like every other transfer, no matter where Alex has been, he really wants to stay where he is and not get transferred. The reason why is because he really gets attached to the people, the Ward or Branch and the missionary work in the area. In fact he gets so attached that wherever he is becomes the best place in the mission. So far Alex has served in four "best places" and I am sure that he will have an opportunity to serve in many more before his time is done. He loves it in Burlington and really wants to see it continue to grow.

As always, Alex included some more personal experiences in his letters. In some of these experiences, Alex talks about the testimonies of the people that he has been teaching and just how much the message that the missionaries have brough, mean to these people.  These kinds of experiences have really made a big impression on Alex in letting him know that where he is and what he is doing right now, is the right place for him to be.

A time and a place for special powers

2010-08-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

Transfers came and went and Alex is still in Burlington. Normally places like Burlington are just temporary missionary assignments during the summer months while KU is out and all of the students have gone home. But Burlington might become a permanent location for missionaries given the fact that there has been so much success there lately. Alex actually told us that his mission president emailed him not long ago and told Alex that he may just leave missionaries in Burlington for as long as they are having success. If you remember back when Alex and his previous companion were sent to Burlington, there hadn't been permanent missionaries assigned there for many years. Well, maybe with the passing of all that time, the Lord has decided that the Burlington branch just needed to grow a little more and the people there were ready for that to happen. From what Alex has been telling us, the work is still going very strong in Burlington and he is very excited about many of the people that they are currently teaching.

This week Alex will be attending a series of mission leadership meeting in Olathe KS. Since Alex is a district leader, he has been given the opportunity to attend these training meetings and take back what he has learned to all of the other missionaries in his district. Alex told us that this training is actually part of a world wide missionary training and that they will be introduced to 8 new lessons. Alex has been really excited about attending this training for several reasons. First of all he just wants to learn more about how to do missionary work better. Second, it gives him a chance to talk with many of the other missionaries in the mission to see what they have been doing. Finally, it gives him a chance to reunite with some former companions and just reminisce about the good ole days (of course since Alex has only be out for less than a year, the good ole days could be a recent as last week ;-). Anyway, I am sure that he will have a lot to tell us about next week when he gets back to Burlington.

In this week's letter Alex told us all about some funny experiences that has happened to him over the last couple of weeks. So I thought that I would try to recount the stories here. The first one he told us was all about a dinner appointment that he and his companion went to with the family of one of their recent converts. As Alex told it, they were trying to cook a turkey in a oil-less fryer but things just weren't going as well as they hoped. So to try to compensate for an under cooked turkey, they ended up going to a local restaurant. While perusing the menu, Alex noticed that the restaurant happened to be serving up a dish which is normally everybody's favorite, Mountain Oysters. Here in Utah they usually call them Rocky Mountain Oysters. Well if you aren't familiar with what a Rocky Mountain Oyster is, just follow this link to find out(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_oysters ). Anyway, it's just like Alex to throw up a challenge, he told the people that he was with that if he ordered them and ate one, they needed to do the same. Well it just so happened that they took Alex up on that challenge. Alex downed the first one and actually kind of liked it. So to keep up with the challenge, everybody else ended up trying them too. Alex told us that he got some good pictures of them eating these delectable cuts of choice steer parts and they all had a really good time.

Apparently this last week as been filled will service projects. During the week they helped a new church member line their driveway with rail road ties, helped another neighbor tear down a ceiling in an old house and knocked down a wall so that they could replace it with new sheet rock. Of course Alex has to always find a game or challenge in everything. So while they were knocking down the wall, Alex bet the others that were there that he could punch a hole right through the wall. If I haven't mentioned this before, Alex is no stranger to breaking things with his bare hands. For a number of years Alex took taekwondo lessons at a local dojo and when it came time for his black belt test, he had to break five different boards using only his hands and feet. Well it has been a long time since those days of being a taekwondo black belt so to make things a little easier, he tried to make sure that where he was going to hit the wall, there were no studs behind it. Almost needless to say, he had a little trouble punching through the wall and it really hurt his hand. Well Mr. Genius might have figured out that there were no studs behind the wall that he was about to punch through, but he failed to check for the cabinet that just happened to be built into the other side of the wall. As I was reading this story, I was just imagining that Alex was going to tell us that the next thing he did was go to the emergency room with a broken hand, but as it turned out, he just has some very sore and scabby knuckles. I would say that he probably learned his lesson and he won't be doing that again, but then he probably will.

Alex goes on to tell us more about this construction service project that they were involved with. Apparently the person that owns the house is about 6'3. Alex's current companion is also about 6'3. Alex, on the other hand is only about 5'9. So as they were working on the demolition and reconstruction of this wall, Alex had a harder time reaching the taller parts. So Mr. Genius kicked in again and he decided that the only way to reach higher was to pile up bit of wall debris and then stand on the pile. Alex told us that they got some pretty funny pictures of him trying to compensate for the short genes that he inherited from his grandparents.

Finally one of the funniest stories that Alex told us was about a little boy whose parents Alex and his companion have been teaching recently. As it turns out, this little boy really likes a cartoon called Naruto. I have never actually seen this cartoon but Alex told us that it is all about a boy called Naruto that has special powers by making hand signals that activates the Jutsu (not sure what that is but I'm sure if you are a kid, it is really cool). Anyway, whenever Alex goes to visit this family, he and this little boy always play fight and use their special hand signals to activate the Jutsu. Well this family came to church last week and of course so did this little boy. When Alex saw this boy in the hallway, Alex immediately started playing and held up his fingers in one of the Jutsu signals. When this little boy say Alex do this, in true reverent fashion, he told Alex "hey, No Jutsu's in the church!!!". Apparently before they got to church, this little boys father taught him what it means to be reverent in church. Alex said that it was one of the funniest things that he had ever heard. It looks like Alex got put in his place by a 3 year old. :-)

Fun and exciting times in Burlington

2010-07-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

Time just seems to be fly by. We are already starting to hit different anniversary marks with Alex's mission. In about another week, it will be one year since Alex received his mission call. The way Alex put it was like this:

"So this week has flown by! The longer I am out on my mission the faster it seems to go by! I am so close to my year mark I can taste it! Only three more months to go, and if they keep getting faster I am going to be home before I blink! It just blows my mind how fast the time goes by out here, but then at the same time it seems like it has been forever since I have been home."

In his letter home a couple of weeks ago, Alex went on to talk about how he is now so into missionary work, that it is hard for him to remember what life was like before being a missionary.

"I don’t really remember what it was like to wake up and do normal things ha ha. It is actually a really neat feeling, I finally feel like a real missionary. But I still feel like a greenie at the same time! Its crazy to see how much you learn out here too, I mean it feels like I don’t know anymore than when I left but when I think about the difference in Wamego [(first area)] and then here it is HUGE!!"

Getting into the missionary work and working hard is what makes the time go by so fast. Burlington has been a great place for Alex to do missionary work as well. Alex told us that he was finally able to perform a baptism in this area. He was so excited to tell us all about it in his letter. I won't go into all of the details here, but Alex told us that the baptismal service went very well and the person that was baptized was very excited to become a member of the LDS church. Alex told us that they are currently teaching several more people that have also been touched by the gospel and are close to being baptized. What a great blessing for the Burlington branch. It is always great to see the church grow whether it is in a small branch or a large ward.

One of the nice things about baptisms is that it provides an opportunity for a missionary who might have been transferred out of the area, to return to the area to attend the baptismal service. In this case, Alex's previous companion who had been transferred to a different city, was able to return briefly for this baptismal service. If you hadn't noticed already from several of the previous posts, Alex and his previous companion had become very good friends and loved working together in both Lawrence and Burlington. Being back in Burlington for the baptismal service also gave them a chance to relive some of the old days, OK maybe not that old, and do a little tracting together again. Alex told us that while they were out tracting once again, they ran across a bunch of guys that might have had a little too much to drink. When Alex and his companion met them, these guys were about to climb onto a riding lawn mower just to spin a few donuts. Alex and his former companion stopped to talk to these guys just to see what they were doing and ended up striking up a conversation about the church (as if that wasn't the plan all along ;-). They actually set up an appointment to teach one of them the next day but Alex told us that the appointment didn't turn out so well. However that isn't the end of the story. The next Sunday at church, Alex and his companion where sitting in Sacrament meeting when one of the members of the branch tapped them on the shoulder and told them that somebody was out in the hallway wanting to see them. It turned out to be this guy from the riding lawn mower contact. It turns out that this guy had walked all the way across town just to find the missionaries at the Mormon church and to ask them to come back and teach him more. The whole thing really surprised both of these Elders, that somebody would actually go to all of that effort just to find out more about the gospel. As Alex put it, usually the missionaries are having to work hard to find people to teach. How often does somebody just show up at the church and ask to be taught more. I guess we will see if there is anymore to this story later on.

I mentioned at the beginning of this entry that one of the people that Alex had been teaching was baptized a couple of weeks ago. Well this last weekend Alex was able to baptize two more people. Alex told us that all of these people are really great and that they all have wonderful testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel. In every one of his letters this last month when he talked about the people that he has been teaching and how close they were to being baptized, he has been so excited. Not just because these people were going to be baptized, but because they were happy to be joining the church and that it would be making a big difference in their lives.

We received Alex's memory card from his camera this week. That means that we have new pictures of where Alex has been and what he has been doing. I picked out a few of them that relate to some of the previous blog entries. A while back Alex told us all about the new (old) Schwinn bike that he picked up from one of the other missionaries. Well Alex sent us a picture of this sweet ride.

The internet picture that I posted of the bike was close, but the color was a little bit different. We haven't heard much more about this bike for a while. Although, Alex also sent us some video of he and his companion jumping their bikes off a ledge on the side of the road. From the looks of the video, it didn't seem like one of their more brilliant ideas. But it was funny ;-).

We aren't really sure what Alex and his companion were trying to do in this picture, but they sure seem to be excited about whatever it was. These two missionaries just loved doing missionary work and from the sound of all of Alex's letters, they always seemed to be excited to get going every day.

For some reason riding lawn mowers seems to be one of Alex's fascinations out there in Kansas. The last time that Alex sent home pictures from his camera, it also included a picture of him on a brand new riding mower just excited to take a ride. His other fascination seems to be NASCAR. We have heard several stories about discussions with people that they met that started off talking about NASCAR. Alex even gave us a run down on all of the top NASCAR drivers. All of these conversations eventually lead to missionary work and teaching the gospel, but hey, if NASCAR gets you a foot in the door, why not take it. In this case, if climbing on a riding lawn mower and doing a little community service gets you an opportunity to teach, the mission better start teaching missionaries how to work one of these things.

I have never actually been to Kansas or any of the other mid-western states. But I have heard that it is very flat. In this picture Alex is walking down one of the streets that heads out of town. If you click on the picture and take a closer look at this road, it doesn't seem to end until it hits the horizon where the earth finally curves enough that you can no longer see the road. The only place in Utah were you can see this same kind of thing is out near the Great Salt Lake on the Bonneville Salt Flats. This is where many car enthusiasts meet once a year to try to set new land speed records due to the fact that the salt flats are so flat and long. Everywhere else in Utah is mountains. I can just imagine that there have probably been a few car races along this road as well. Hopefully none of them involved any mission vehicles. ;-)

A couple of months ago Alex and his companion had the opportunity to tour a nuclear power plant. Here you see a couple of missionaries ready to teach the gospel no matter where they are. Give them a couple of hard hats, safety glasses and some gloves and they are ready for anything. In the letter that Alex sent home when he told us all about this tour, he was very impressed by all of the pipes, tubes and electronics that goes into running a nuclear power plant. He just couldn't get over just how complex a place like that is. Of course they couldn't actually get in to see the nuclear reactor itself, but they did get to see a lot of cool stuff.

It has been a long time since Alex was able to sit in a chair without touching his feet on the ground. I guess he still has some growing to do.

Alex sent us this video of a typical Kansas rain storm. Well maybe it isn't really a typical rain storm. More like a typical tornado. Luckily they were both safely inside of the church building rather than outside in the middle of the storm. Alex told us in his last letter that they had another tornado watch this last week. The way that he describes it is "fun and unusual". I think that I would describe it more as being a bit scary. He told us all about the chain lightning during the storms and how sometimes the lightning seems to go from the ground up to the clouds rather than the other way around. Just another day in the life of a couple of missionaries.

Being prepared for the moment

2010-07-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

It has been a few weeks since we updated you on all of the things that Alex has been doing. In the last entry we told you that Alex now has a new companion. The work is moving forward and Alex told us that several of the people that they have been teaching have been attending the LDS church meetings and are interested in joining the church. Alex is really hoping and praying that they will be able to hold some baptismal services fairly soon. These kinds of experiences really make a mission worth it. Especially when a missionary is able to share the message of the gospel with someone else and watch that person come to know and love the message. This is basically the type of experience that Alex has been having over the last few weeks and it has made him really feel good about all of the work.

Of course, in between all of the teaching and spiritual moments that a missionary has, there are those down times when they can just have some good old fashion fun. Alex told us a story about a recent Branch social that they attended where he had the opportunity to play a little sand volleyball. Little did the Branch members know, but Alex spent quite a bit of time playing volleyball with all of his high school friends before his mission. Of course I have never actually seen Alex play volleyball so we will just have to take Alex's word for it when he says that he plays fairly well. Well during the game, as we all know from our experiences with Ward basketball, the two sides got a little "competitive" and Alex decided that it was his turn to quite one of the more vocal members of the opposing team. It was Alex's turn at serving the ball and he claims that he was just "wrecking the other team" on his serves. Then with one very strong and well placed serve, apparently Alex knocked the smack talker right on his derriere. Alex never told us what the final score was, but he did say that they all had a really good time and the volleyball game was the highlight of the social.

If you know much about the Independence Missouri area, it is rich with LDS Church history. Since there is so much history there, many members of the Church also visit during the summer months. This presents a bit of a unique opportunity for missionaries in this area in that some of the visitors are friends and relatives of the missionaries that are serving there. Alex's grandparents where in the Independence area just a few weeks ago and took the opportunity to visit with the mission president for a few minutes. Then just about a week ago, one of Alex's good wrestling buddies also passed through Independence on a family trip. This time Alex happened to be at a zone conference near Independence and was able to find a little bit of time to see and talk to his friend. What made it even better is that his friend recently received his mission call and this would be the last time that they would see each other for the next three years. Alex told us just how much fun it was to be able to visit for a little while and just how much of a boost it was to his spirits. They didn't have very much time to talk because some of the other Elders had to get back to their areas after the zone conference to be on time for some teaching appointments. As always, when you are on a mission, the work comes first.

While Alex was at the same zone conference he also had another great experience. Of course whenever there is a conference of any kind in the mission, the mission president is always there. One of the things that Alex's mission president tries to do whenever he is around his missionaries, is to try to greet each one and spend a little bit of time talking with them to find out how things are going. This conference was no different. Alex told us that during many of their conferences they have an opportunity to watch a spiritual and motivational video about a football player who crawls a 100 yards across the field while his coach is yelling at him to do his best. These were all the details about the video that Alex included in his letter so if you have actually seen it, you probably have a better idea of what Alex is talking about. Anyway, this video must be very inspiring for the missionaries because Alex told us that it almost makes him cry every time he watches it. Well, later as the mission president was making his rounds and spending a few minutes talking with each of the missionaries, Alex finally had his turn. During their conversation, the mission president told Alex just how proud he was of all of the work that Alex had been doing. In Alex's words,

"Then he started crying and said that I was a 100 yard missionary if he had ever seen one. It made me feel so good!"

People ask us at times how we raised such a good young man. I tell them that Alex just came that way. All we did was allowed him to grow in our home.

So here is a funny story that Alex told us about in his last letter. It is all about a group of missionaries doing what they do best and that is preaching the gospel. Alex started out the story by explaining that he and his backpack are like a woman and her purse. His backpack goes with him everywhere. As Alex explained it:

"I never take it off and it goes with me everywhere I go, even if its not really needed. I figure you never know when you are going to need to give out a BOM."

Apparently the other night they were staying with the Elders from Topeka in their apartment. For whatever reason, they needed to go to Walmart at about 9 o'clock that evening. True to form Alex grabbed his backpack and put it on as they got out of the car. One of the other Elders started kidding around with Alex and giving him a hard time about always taking his backpack with him everywhere. Alex, half jokingly, told the Elder that you never know when you will need to give out a Book of Mormon and he was praying that it would happen at Walmart. They just need to show a little more faith. The other Elder responded by telling Alex that you can't pray for something like that just out of spite. Within ten seconds after their little test of faith, a man walked up next to them in the parking lot and started talking to the missionaries. Alex immediately asked the man if he had ever heard of the Book of Mormon. The man told Alex that he had. Then Alex asked the man if he had ever seen one. Right about that time Alex looked over at the other Elder with kind of an "I told you so" look on his face and a big grin. The man told Alex that he had never seen a Book of Mormon so Alex pulled one out of his backpack. Right there in the parking lot of Walmart they started introducing this man to the Book of Mormon and what it means for members of the LDS church. Once the conversation was over, the man left and the missionaries continued on into the store. Once inside, Alex pumped his fist in the air and they were all super excited about what just happened. Alex mentioned that the man was from another state so they probably wouldn't have a chance to talk to him again. But because he had his backpack with him, an opportunity to simply place a Book of Mormon and plant a seed, was not wasted.

Alex told us a little bit about what they did on the 4th of July. He said that they had met somebody new that day who was interested in learning more about the Church so they spent part of the day teaching as well as attending their Church meetings. Later on that night they enjoyed some BBQ with the family that they live with and watched the fireworks over Burlington. Alex said that the fireworks in Kansas put Utah fireworks to shame. That's not hard since Utah bans anything that shoots up over 15 feet and in Kansas just about anything goes. He told us that they spent the rest of the evening watching all of the big fireworks and making fun of the little fountains by calling them "Utah fireworks".

The other day Alex and his companion were walking through the church building and decided to check out the condition of the baptismal font. What they found was what you could classify as a mixed blessing. When they opened up the door to the baptismal font, they found that all of the recent rains had caused the sewer to back up. This left a pretty big mess that they now needed to clean up. The reason why this was a mixed blessing is because this could have been a disaster if instead of just checking things out, they had actually had a baptismal service planned and then found this mess. At least now it gave them some time to get everything cleaned up and ready to go for when they do have a baptism scheduled. Alex said that he wasn't really looking forward to having to scrub the font out with bleach, but hey, missionary work is missionary work. Sometimes it isn't pretty.

The end of a good run and the start of another

2010-06-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

It is time for transfers again. It is strange how fast six weeks goes by. The sad news about this transfer is that Alex's companion may be transferred out of Burlington which means that Alex will be getting a new companion. Alex told us in his last letter that he is really sad to see the end of the "triumphant run" that he and his companion have had. Alex also said that 4 1/2 months is a really long time for a missionary companionship to be together so they are really grateful that they were able to spend so much time together. These two missionaries have done a lot of good work over the last few months and have had a really good time doing it. This is the kind of thing that makes missionary work worth all of the effort that it takes.

From what Alex told us, it seems that two new assistants to the president where also called. Apparently one of them is also a former high school wrestler as well. Alex said that he got a call from a missionary friend of his who asked Alex what weight he wrestled in high school. Alex told him that he wrestled at 152 but now weighs around 170. It seems that maybe this new assistant to the president might have wanted to setup a little wrestling match on a future P-Day. Unfortunately, Alex is much bigger than the other missionary which meant that it really wouldn't have been a fair match. But who knows, there might be some other opportunities for Alex to coach a little more like he did in Wamego. Being a volunteer coach is a good way to get to know a lot of people in the community.

Alex and his companion spent their last week together trying to teach and work as much as they possibly could. Alex told us about several of the people that they are currently teaching along with several new people that they have recently met. Some of them have been very interested in learning more about the LDS church and have been spending quite a bit of time reading the Book of Mormon. In one of their visits, Alex mentioned that the person that they were teaching had a lot of questions about different things that they had read. Missionaries love it when people have questions because that just means that the person is very interested in what they are learning and also wanting to learn more. I mentioned that Alex and his companion had spent time this last week working as well, meaning that they spent time doing more than just tracting and teaching. Alex told us about a couple that they have been teaching who had recently cut down a huge tree in their yard but had not yet stacked the wood and cleaned up. So Alex and his companion decided to pitch in and do their part to help this couple clean up their yard. Later on that day these missionaries also baked a big double layer chocolate cake for the couple since both of their birthdays were coming up soon. A mission is really all about service in all different ways.

It seems that Alex and his companion have had a small problem that they have had to deal with lately. Apparently Burlington doesn't see very many new faces in town, especially two young good looking Elders. Alex said that almost everyday since they arrived in Burlington, there is some kind of incident that happens involving girls between the ages of 13 and 21. Now before you jump to any conclusions here, what I am talking about are incidents such as a car full of girls driving down the street and then going around the block or flipping a U-turn just so that they can drive past these Elders again. Alex said that it was really funny when a group of girls drove past them for a second time and had just turned around for a third. At that point both Alex and his companion quickly shot down an alley just so that they could ditch the girls. One of the funniest stories that Alex told what when they were in the super market one day and actually saw two girls run into each other at the end of an isle because they were so distracted checking out these two missionaries. There is nothing to worry about here, Alex said that these incidents happen almost every day and they both think that it is really funny.

Well transfer day finally came and sure enough, Alex's companion did get transferred. Alex now has a new companion for at least the next six weeks and they are both trying to figure each other out and trying to move forward with their missionary work. It is sometimes a little hard to get a new companion especially when the last companionship worked so well. But life as a missionary is always changing and there are always new things to learn from every new experience.

So here is a glimpse into the life of a missionary on a very busy day. Alex told us that they finally had a baptism the other day, which is really great. In addition to the family of the young man you was baptized, they also had a lot of people there who are currently interested in learning more about the LDS church. During the baptism service, Alex had the opportunity to give the talk about the Holy Ghost and what that means. Then in addition to all of that, Alex said that they had a really crazy Sunday too. Alex spoke in Sacrament meeting, taught the gospel principles lesson during Sunday School, helped teach the young men during priesthood meeting and then right after church the branch members ask Alex to put together a program to be presented at the senior citizens center. Alex said that part of the senior citizens program included Alex and a few other boys playing the guitar, singing a song and then teaching a small lesson about faith. Alex mentioned that one of the young men that participated in the program, gave their little group the name of "Elder Nicholes and the three Nephites". Then after doing all of that, they went home and help make dinner for the family that they live with and a couple that they have been teaching. I am sure that when Sunday was over, Alex was very tired but also very satisfied with all that he was able to accomplish.

In addition to all of these events that have happened in the last week, Alex also told us about some really great experiences that they had with some of the other people that they are currently teaching. Hopefully these kinds of experiences will continue and more good things will happen.

There is something to be learned in every experience

2010-06-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

Things seem to be going well for Alex and his companion. Alex wrote us last week to tell us that they had one of their best and craziest weeks ever. Their week included some really great experiences with a few of the people that they are currently teaching as well as one really awkward moment with another person during sacrament meeting.

Alex told us about a small community called Jacobs Creek not too far away from Burlington. He said that this place is so small that rather than being a town, you might just call it a gathering of houses and trailers. They originally went to Jacobs Creek to look up a less active member of the church. I'm not sure what happened with the person that they went to see, but since the town was so small, they decided to just start knocking on a few doors just to meet some of the people. At first, the idea of tracting in this little town might not have been the best idea. From what Alex told us, he has never been chased by so many scary dogs in one afternoon. Then came the worst and scariest experience of all. Here is how Alex told the story:

"... to top it off I got bit by Satan’s Chihuahua!! We knocked on this one trailer and this Chihuahua bolted out the door and bit my leg! But don’t worry no harm, it was just really funny."

But then, as it always goes with missionary work, after the trials comes the reward. Alex said that they knocked on the door of a really nice older couple who invited them in to talk. They all talked for a while and found out that the couple was familiar with the LDS church and had many ties back to Utah. At some point during the conversation, Alex's companion mentioned that he was interested in fixing cars and would like to be a mechanic. At that point the older gentleman asked them if they would like to see the completely rebuilt 1971 Chevy Corvette Stingray in his garage. Of course these missionaries said yes and of course they just had to get some pictures of this really cool car.

We didn't hear much more about how things ended up with this older couple, but Alex did say that during the rest of the week they were able to find several more people to teach and a few of them were very interested in hearing more about the church. Hopefully with some of these people, Alex and his companion will be able to continue the work in Burlington and help the branch grow a little more during the time that they have there. They have also set a small goal for themselves to give out a whole case of Books of Mormon during a six week period. So far they have placed about 25 books with about 25 more to go. I guess we will find out in a couple of weeks whether they made their goal or not.

If you remember back when Alex first learned that he would be getting transfered to Burlington, he said that one thing that keeps many of the people employed there is the nuclear power plant. Well, this week on their P-day, Alex and his companion had the opportunity to take a tour of the power plant. Apparently the people that they live with have the right connections to give a couple of missionaries the grand tour. Of course before they could go on the tour, the security people at the power plant had to do a background check on Alex and his companion and as you would expect, they both passed with flying colors. Alex said that they got to see the whole place except the reactor itself. That is one area where visitors aren't allowed and probably for very good reason. Alex said that the whole place just blew his mind. There were so many valves, pipes, levers, buttons and everything else that you could think of, it was just crazy. He said that he really learned a lot about how a nuclear power plant works and that it was really cool. As Alex stated it, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity since there are only 100 nuclear power plants in the whole country and only 3 in the western United States. Alex even got to see the control room where Homer Simpson sits. ;-) Anyway he did say that there are lots of radioactivity detectors throughout the plant and that they even had to be scanned for radioactivity before they left. Luckily the glow around these Elders had nothing to do with being radioactive.

Since this last Monday (P-Day) was also Memorial Day, everything in Burlington was closed so they had a little time to kill before the big power plant tour. For Alex, that means it is time to work in a little exercise just so that he can stay in shape. A little exercise for Alex apparently means a 6 mile run. Thankfully, as Alex put it, his companion was good enough to ride his bike along side Alex as he ran 2 miles to the local track, 2 miles on the track itself and then another 2 miles back home again. Then somewhere in the middle of all of that, Alex had his companion time him as he ran a mile on the track just to see how his time was holding up to his pre-mission days. According to Alex, his time was holding up pretty well. It's a good thing that missionary work keeps him so busy during the rest of the week, otherwise Alex might just pull a "Forrest Gump" and start running until he got tired and who knows when that would be.

Alex is having all kinds of experiences and opportunities as his mission goes on. Some of the experiences have to do with the people that he is meeting and teaching and other experiences have to do with where he lives and what is going on around him. One of the things that Alex and his companion have been doing is going out to meet some of the less active members of the Burlington branch. In addition to the Jacobs Creek experience, Alex said that they went to look up another church member who lived out in the countryside somewhere. When they got to the turn off that lead up to the member's house, Alex said that the driveway up to the house was full of mud holes. They really weren't sure if their little Ford Fusion was going to make it through. So they said a little prayer and then put the pedal to the medal. Luckily they made it through the mud holes but when they got to the house, they saw the man that they had come to visit staring at them through the front window. Alex's companion at that point made the comment that maybe they should have prayed instead that this guy wouldn't kill them. Anyway, the man turned out to be really nice and they ended up having a rather interesting visit, to say the least.

Other experiences include Kansas itself. Alex mentioned that when he first arrived in Independence Missouri, he wasn't quite sure what he had gotten himself into. When he arrived there it was late fall and everything looked brown and barren. That really made him miss the mountains of Utah. But now that it is spring going into summer, things have really changed. Alex said that the other day he actually experienced fire flies for the first time. He described it has looking at a whole field of Christmas lights all lite up and flashing. He said that Kansas is really a beautiful place in the spring and summer and that he really loves it there. But he still misses the mountains.

Alex also experienced going to the church services of another demonination. We didn't get the whole story as to why they were going to another church, only that they had gone with some people that they were teaching. From how Alex described the experience, it just seemed to be lacking. The minister talked about Christ during the sermon, but there just didn't seem to be a lot of substance to the whole thing. He said that the people were nice, but there just wasn't the spirit there that he is used to.

As they say, there is always something to be learned from every experience.

A Mother's Day phone call

2010-05-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

It was a big we last week with all of our Mother's Day celebrations. Actually one of the most exciting parts of Mother's Day was the fact that Alex had the opportunity to call home. He called us right after we got home from church and we were able to spend some time talking with him on the phone. To make sure that everybody could hear and had the opportunity to talk, we set up the speaker phone in the middle of the kitchen table. Then we all sat around the table and enjoyed our time as a complete family with one of our family members participating over the phone.

Alex told us all about his new assignment in Burlington Kansas. I think we mentioned last time that Burlington is a rather small town in the middle of Kansas. Alex told us that the whole town is about twelve blocks long by about twelve blocks wide. He said that the streets in Burlington are empty most of the time since there isn't a whole lot of traffic in a town of about 2,400 people. In fact most of the time they can just walk down the middle of the street and not even worry about being hit by a car or anything else. This is a real change from being in Lawrence where there is always a lot more going on all of the time.

Remember that slick 1980's vintage bike that Alex is so proud of? Well he told us that his bike isn't in such good shape anymore. Apparently he and some of the other missionaries were having a little too much fun riding their bikes in unusual ways (if you catch my drift). Alex must have landed his bike in a funny way which caused the shifter cable to break. Now a bike which used to have ten speeds, only has one. I'm not sure which gear his bike is stuck in, but Alex told us that it is good enough to ride around on since there are no hills in Burlington. Speaking of "no hills", Alex also told us that they can ride out to the edge of town, stand in the middle of the street and see one long straight road that only seems to end when it hits the horizon. That's how flat it is. So given that kind of terrain, there really isn't any need for more than one gear on his bike.

Getting back to the Mother's day phone call, hearing Alex's voice on the phone was almost like the good old days sitting around the dining room table and talking. In fact while he was still on the phone telling all about life as a missionary, I was able to fix Mother's Day dinner, have the kids set the table and call everybody to dinner, including Alex (well, virtually anyway). Once we all finally sat down at the table to eat and with the speaker phone still in the middle of the table, I called on Alex to give us a blessing on the food. At that point we all folded our arms, bowed our heads and let Alex bless our Mother's Day dinner all the way from Burlington Kansas. He gave a wonderful prayer over the phone but unfortunately he couldn't actually eat the food that he just blessed. But then that might have been to his advantage since it is his mother who is the cook in the family but she had the day off due to it being Mother's Day. Well, not too much longer after that, our phone call came to an end, we all said goodbye and look forward to hearing his voice again at Christmas.

The next day was Alex's P-Day which if you aren't familiar with the way a missionary's schedule works, it is basically the one day during the week that they have to write letters, take care of things like laundry, shopping and other errands and also get in a little basketball or other activities. Being P-day, Alex sent us his usual family letter but obviously since we had already talked with him on the phone the day before, his letter was kind of short. He told us a little more about the people that they are teaching in Burlington and how they have spent much of their time visiting members of the church who are less active at the moment. Since there haven't been any missionaries in the Burlington for quite a while, they are having to do a lot of tracting and figuring out other ways to meet people who might be interested in listening to the message that a couple of LDS missionaries have to offer. From what Alex told us, it sounds like they have been fairly successful in the short time that they have been there. But then there is only so much tracting that you can do in a small town before you run out of doors to knock. So being a little more creative like they did in Wamego and Lawrence with raking leaves and shoveling snow, might be the way they need to go.

This week Alex sent us another letter telling us all about the great week that he and his companion have had. I mentioned that they have only been in Burlington for a few weeks and they have already found several different people who are interested in listening to these Elders. Alex sounded really excited in his letter due to many of the experiences that they had during the past week. He described some of these experiences this way:

"But things are going really great out here! We had a killer week this last week! ... [The] weird part about being on a mission, you see a lot of stuff that you never saw back home. Like real world stuff, not just dumb high school drama like getting dumped by your girlfriend ;) lol. But yeah its weird trying to help people through all of these serious crisis’s and trials in their life when you have never experienced anything close to it. It’s a good thing Christ knows all about it, because I sure don’t."

That is the kind of experience that shows you that a mission for a young man is just as much about learning as it is about teaching others the gospel. It also teaches these young men that life is very different for a lot of people. Not everybody grows up in a nice house with a good family and great friends. Count your many blessings.

Alex told us that they discovered a new way to make tracting a little more successful. Go tracting in the rain. He said that the other day it was raining fairly hard but they decided that they would go out knocking on doors anyway. As it turned out, many of the people that they met must have felt sorry for these poor soaked missionaries and let them in to dry off a little. Tracting in the rain turned out to work so well, that they completely filled up their teaching appointment book. On top of all of that, a member of the church in the area also invited the missionaries over to teach one of their neighbors. So needless to say, these two missionaries are very excited about the work in Burlington. Hopefully things will continue to go well for them and they will be able to help the church grow in this little town.

One interesting story that Alex included in his last letter. From what Alex has told us before about Burlington, it is a town with a very diverse population due to the nuclear power plant nearby. There are many very nice houses in town and then there are some not so nice trailer parks. So the other night Alex and his companion decided to check out some of the trailers in town. They walked up to one trailer that Alex described as being very sketchy looking. He said that in addition to just the trailer structure, whoever lived there had also done a little remodeling work using plywood and parts of other trailers. They decided to knock on the door to see if they could talk to whoever lived there. Alex said that a man with long hair answered the door and as these missionaries introduced themselves and started talking, this man told them that he believed that God is a woman. His reason for believing that God is a woman is because only a woman could try us in this way. Well, they got a good laugh out of that and everybody left smiling. I guess that just goes to show you that everybody has their own way of thinking and their own beliefs.

Ready for the big move

2010-05-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

This last week marks Alex's first six months as a full-time missionary. We almost can't believe that six months has passed since that day back in October when we dropped him off at the Mission Training Center (MTC). In this short time Alex has gained a lot of experiences from being a district leader in the MTC to all of the time spent learning and teaching in Wamego, Platte City and Lawrence. From the letters that he has sent home, he has enjoyed every minute of his mission so far and we don't expect that to change at all. Alex has met, taught and learned from so many people in the various areas in which he has served. He has also had many other opportunities to use his skills from serving up meals at the Salvation Army to being a volunteer wrestling coach at Wamego High School. Every week we hear about new things that Alex is involved with and new people that he has met. There just seems to be so many opportunities, that I am sure the next six months will be just as exciting and fruitful as the last six.

Just one little note here. If you remember in the last post, Alex acquired a new bike which turned out to be a 1980's vintage Schwinn Sierra. I just happened to find a picture on the internet of what his new bike probably looks like and included the picture in the last entry. Since then Alex wrote and told us that the picture of the bike is "spot on" except that the handle bars on his bike are a little more goofy looking than the picture. But there you have it. If you happen to be reading this blog and also just happen to live in Kansas or Missouri and see an LDS missionary riding down the street, wave at him and tell him that his Mom and Dad say "Hi".

Over the past couple of weeks, Alex and his companion have been getting ready for their move from Lawrence to Burlington KS. Besides saying goodbye to many of the people that they have met and grown to love, they also needed to make sure that the people that they were teaching, continue to learn and progress in the gospel even after these two missionaries have left the area. Some of the people that they were teaching, they turned over to the sister missionaries. Others who have already developed a relationship with members of the Ward, will continue to be visited by those members. In the end, it is not about the missionary but about the gospel and the testimony that these people gain through the spirit. Long after these missionaries leave the area or the mission, the spirit that these people felt will hopefully still be with them.

Just before Alex and his companion left Lawrence, Alex conducted his last district meeting as the Lawrence District Leader. One of the recent changes, at least for this Lawrence district, is that they were allocated new 2010 Chevy Malibu cars to use in their missionary work. So after their last meeting, they all decided that it would be a good idea to take one last picture of themselves as a district. Except this time they would all pose in front of their new cars as if they were going to be on the cover of a new (missionary) rap album. So they lined up the cars and everybody took their positions on and around them. Alex mentioned that one Elder, who just happens to be a little more on the rounder side, decided that he wanted to pose on the roof of one of the cars. Well, from what Alex told us, the structural integrity of the roof of this brand new 2010 Chevy Malibu wasn't quite up to the standards required to support this slightly rotund missionary. Needless to say, this missionary left his mark on the mission that day. Luckily there was no permanent damage and the picture turned out fantastic. Just see for yourself.

After Alex sent us this picture, I enhanced it slightly and printed out an 8x10 to post on our refrigerator door. When Alex's Mom first saw this picture, she couldn't figure out why I had put a picture of a bunch of people posed on cars on our refrigerator door. Then I told her to look a little more closely. That's when it dawned on her that her son Alex was front and center in the photo. Nice job guys. I'm considering sending this photo to the Chevrolet marketing department. I'm guessing that with the recent economic trouble that they have had, they could probably use a little help from the missionaries. ;-)

So here is one more funny story from Alex about his companion on their last Sunday at church in Lawrence. Apparently there is a young family in their Ward who Alex and his companion have come to know. One day last week, the zone leaders paid Alex and his companion a visit so that they could team up and try to get a little more work done that day. I've mentioned before just how much Alex has really liked his current companion and apparently one thing that they have in common is their sense of humor especially when it comes to practical jokes. Well, while Alex's companion was out with one of the zone leaders, this young couple from the Ward just happen to be driving by and saw them. So to try to play a little joke on the zone leader who wasn't from that Lawrence area, they pulled up to the missionaries and started taking to Alex's companion about all of the new music CD's and DVD's that he had bought. Alex's companion, playing along with the joke, responded by saying that he and Alex would be over to their house later to check them out a little later. This, of course, would be a violation of the mission rules and apparently it took the zone leader by surprise hearing about the plan. Of course they finally let the zone leader in on the joke and then went on their way. However the joke didn't really end there. Apparently that next Sunday, which was Alex and his companion's last Sunday in the Ward before their transfer, Alex's companion was assigned to speak in Sacrement meeting. Unfortunately, the printed program had mispelled his name with a "ch" rather than a "ck" at the end of his name. So when this same Ward member got up to announce the Sacrament meeting program that day, he mentioned how great it was to have these two missionaries in their Ward and purposely mis-pronounced Alex's companion's name according to the way it had been printed. Then at the same time, over the pulpit, he also told the congregation just how much he enjoyed having these missionaries over to his house to listen to CD's and watch DVD's.  Well, the whole congregation got a good laugh out of that because they all knew just how hard working Alex and his companion are and what good missionaries they had been in their Ward. It all turned out to be a really good way to leave on their last Sunday in the Lawrence Ward. They knew that the Ward members had really appreciated all of the work that these two missionaries had done and also knew that it was really going to be hard to leave Lawrence.

Just as we mentioned in the last blog entry, Alex and his companion were both transferred together to Burlington KS. Burlington is a small town of around two thousand people with a very small branch of the LDS church. It is also the home to a nuclear power plant. What I find curious is that Alex asked us a couple of weeks ago at what age a man starts to lose his hair. We are now wondering if the nuclear power plant might be the reason for this question. Just kidding, I'm sure not everybody in Burlington glows in the dark. ;-)

Ok seriously now. From what Alex has said, Burlington seems like a really nice and conservative midwestern small town.  Alex mentioned in his last letter that he and his companion were able to ride their bikes from one end of town to the other without one single person yelling at them or flipping them off. He told us that it felt really great. There were even a couple of towns people that waved at these two missionaries in a friendly manner even before they had a chance to greet those people first. Alex told us that this was a really big change for them, coming from one of the most liberal cities in Kansas to one of the more conservative. Nothing like a breath of fresh air, even if the air might be a little radio active (ok, just kidding again :-).

Both Alex and his companion are staying with a really nice family from Burlington. Alex said that they live in a house that is from the very early 1900's and the coolest thing about the house are all of the little tunnels and passage ways that connect all of the rooms. They spent most of last week getting cleaned up and getting ready for the move, moving and then unpacking in their new place. They have already been out meeting the people in Burlington and plan to really hit it hard this week. With the move to Burlington, the mission president also had to put together a new missionary district. The district is made up of not only Alex and his companion in Burlington, but also several other Elders who are serving in a few of the other nearby towns. Just like in Lawrence, Alex is the district leader of the this new district. He told us that they call themselves the CoffeyCan district because they are in Coffey County Kansas. As much as Alex hated leaving Lawrence and the people that he taught there as well as the members of the Ward, he appears to be very excited to be in Burlington and to see what new opportunities this assignment brings.

By the way, Mother's day is coming this week which also means that we will be talking to Alex on the phone instead of just through letters.  It will be great to hear his voice and get a little more detail about missionary life and how things are going for him in his new area.

A change is in the wind

2010-04-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

One thing about missionary work is that you better always be prepared for change. It seems that change will soon be coming for Alex and his companion. From what Alex has told us in his last few letters, every year around the time that Kansas University finishes up their winter semester, at least a couple of the missionaries from Lawrence (the home of KU) are transferred out for a few months. I guess with the so many of the KU students heading home for the summer, this gives some of the missionaries a chance to spread out and serve in some of the smaller areas of the mission. Well, it appears that Alex and his companion will be doing just that and the really good news here is that they are both being transfered together.

Of course there is a downside to everything. But for missionaries, this kind of "downside" means that they must have been doing a really good job. What I am talking about is the fact that both Alex and his companion are really going to miss Lawrence. They have both spent the last three months in Lawrence where they basically started from scratch trying to find new people to teach. Now three months later, they are teaching some really good people and have really grown to love them and the Ward. At least one of the people that they are currently teching has asked these two missionaries who he can call and convince to let these missionaries stay in Lawrence. Well we all know that it really doesn't work that way, but sometimes we really wish it could.

These two missionaries have also grown very close to many of the people in their Ward. In fact in the last couple of letters Alex has referred to one Ward member as his Mom in Lawrence. I mentioned this before in a previous entry. Since his real mother can't be there with Alex during his mission, as his parents, it is always nice to know that there are good people everywhere that are willing to step in and do whatever they can make our son feel at home. To put it all in Alex's words:

"Well we had another good week here in fabulous Lawrence, Kansas! I have really grown to love Lawrence, and it is going to be super hard to leave! I really love the [the family we live with], our ward, our area, and all of our investigators. It is weird to think that I have already been here for three months, and I only have 9 days left here! Crazy!!"

Next stop, Burlington Kansas. Burlington is a fairly small town south of Topeka. Alex mentioned in his last letter that Burlington has a small branch of the LDS church and that there haven't been missionaries in Burlington since 1993. From the way that Alex has described Burlington, it seems to be a very small town where everybody knows everybody else. Alex mentioned that it will be very weird serving in a town that has less total population than his old high school. I guess Alex and his companion will find out whether all of that is true very soon. But no matter what happens, I am sure that they will find some very good people in Burlington to teach just as they did in Lawrence. But until then, there is still work to be done in Lawrence.

So Alex told us all about is new ride. No, I'm not talking about a car. I am talking about a missionary's favorite mode of transportation, the bicycle (Note: make sure you re-read that last sentence with a very sarcastic tone ;-). Yes that is right, Alex now has a new bike. Well, when I say "new", I guess what I really mean is "new" to him. It is a vintage Schwinn Sierra. So I just had to see if I could find this bike somewhere on the internet and this is what I found.

Alex will have to let me know if this is really what his bike looks like. There are no shocks to smooth the ride and the most interesting thing is that there are no fenders. I can just see him now, riding down a rain soaked street on a hot and humid summer day. We all know what happens to the person who is riding a bike in the rain with no fenders, right? You guessed it, Alex is going to end up with one long dirty wet streak right down the middle of this back. What's even better, this will all be enhanced by the fact that he will be wearing a nice clean white shirt at the time. I can already tell that we are going to have to send Alex some extra money so that he can buy a 2 year supply of bleach to cover up the zebra stripe he is going to have. Anyway, Alex claims that he likes riding this bike more than any other bike he has borrowed so far. From what Alex told us:

"It is so sick! I think it is from the late seventies or early eighties, but man I can haul on it! I can ride faster on that old bike than I could on the brand new Trek. [My companion]doesn’t like it so much because he had a hard enough time keeping up with me on the Trek, and now on my new Schwinn racer I haul butt! Ha ha."

Speaking of bikes, Alex also told us that he and his companion were a little frustrated with the mileage limit that they have on their car. So, to try to show that they are obedient and willing to take whatever they are given, they decided to see if they could put more mileage on their bikes in a two week period, than they had allotted to them for the car. Alex told us they biked over 35 miles around town one day while they were traveling between teaching appointments and visits. In the end they didn't quite meet their goal of 200 miles a week that they needed, but they biked a ton and loved it! Of course I am sure that this doesn't mean that they wouldn't have rather taken the car if they could have, but as the old saying goes, "When you are given lemons, make lemonade".

Ok, here is another funny story that Alex told us and I just couldn't resist including it in this blog entry. One of the things that Alex took with him when he left on his mission, was a camel back. If you don't know what a camel back is, it is a water bladder that you can fill up and wear like a back pack while you are hiking or riding a bike. There is a small hose that comes out of the top of the pack that you use like a straw to drink the water. Apparently Alex has really been taking advantage of having his camel back with him whenever they are riding their bikes. He claims that he must be the most hydrated missionary in the world. The reason he knows this is because they are constantly having to stop for bathroom breaks. This has become such a frequent event while they are traveling from one part of town to another, that they now have designated "peeing stops". One of the stops is at JC Pennys and the other is the local Hy-Vee grocery store.

Then on top of that, Alex also mentioned that whenever they stop at the Hy-Vee, they also have to make sure that they take advantage of the free blood pressure machine. Being the health minded athelete that Alex is, knowing his blood pressure, heart rate and weight is just something you do whether you are on a mission or not. Of course you could apply all of this to the scriptures.

"And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;"
"And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint." D&C 89:19-20

One last story before we share some pictures with you that Alex sent home recently. It seems that one of the people that they are teaching is also trying to stop smoking. So one idea that these missionaries came up with, was trying to substitute a bad habit with a good one. In this instance, they felt like it would be a good idea to use exercise as a way to overcome smoking. One thing that Alex used to do in high school was run on the cross-country team. So naturally Alex's idea went straight to running. Since the person that they are teaching happens to be female, Alex thought that maybe if this person decided to take the challenge, he could convince a couple of sister missionaries to run the 5k race with her. Of course the sister missionaries that Alex had in mind had no idea that they were being volunteered to run a 5k race. I'm sure that the story doesn't end here, so we will just have to wait and see where this ends up in a future blog entry. Stay tuned.

I promised you a few pictures before we finish up this entry. Every few months Alex sends home the memory card from his camera. The memory card usually contains some pictures as well as video of his apartment and some of the activities that the missionaries have been involved with. This one was no different.

If you know Alex, he doesn't do anything small. Everything has to be as big as possible. I guess in this picture he is trying to tell us that he is the king of the world... at least in his own mind. ;-)

That's right... Nicholes, Elder Nicholes

(If you don't get the joke, re-read the above caption with a British accent.

If you still don't get the joke, then maybe it wasn' t that funny in the first place ;-)

I'm thinking that even though Alex says that he loves his new bike, he is really looking to upgrade to this sweet new lawn tractor. This thing has got to have a top speed of oh say... 5 mph. Check out the chains on the back tires. It may not be fast, but he will never end up in a ditch on the side of the road again.

Weilding the sword of truth... What more can I say!!

Ok, there's not really a joke that goes with this picture. This is actually at the Kansas State High School wrestling tournament. If you remember back when Alex was in Wamego Kansas, he helped out for a while as a volunteer coach on the Wamego High School wrestling team. Alex later got permission from his mission president to attend the tournament to support one of the wrestlers who was also a member of the Wamego Branch and a future missionary.

Low single...

2010-04-05T20:35:00.000-07:00

We received a great email from Alex last week. He talked about all of the things that he and his companion had been doing and told us about many of the people that they have been teaching. Alex also discovered one of the talents that is given to many missionaries. That is the talent of being able to respond to assignments in a moment's notice and having to be prepared to teach and speak on any gospel subject.

Alex was asked to speak in church last week and had emailed us previously looking for some good personal experiences that he could use on the topic of faith. After thinking about it for a while, Alex settled on a wrestling story (like you wouldn't expect that) from his final home dual as a senior on the varsity wrestling team. If you were at the church meeting where Alex spoke, you already know how Alex weaved this story into the rest of his talk. For the rest of us who weren't there, I will try to recount what happened that night during his final wrestling dual and how Alex likely related this story to faith.

Alex has a cousin named Matt (actually Matt is Alex's Mom's cousin, but that is beside the point ;-) who had been helping Alex with some of his wrestling technique throughout Alex's senior year. Before this final home dual, Alex and Matt had been working on a takedown move called a "low single". Basically this move is where one wrestler pushes off from the other and then quickly moves back in on his opponent to tie up the leg below the knee. From that point the wrestler can easily takedown his opponent by throwing him off balance.

With the entire gym dark except for a single light shining directly down onto the wrestling mat, it is very difficult to see anything outside of the wrestling ring itself. Throughout the match, Alex's wrestling coach had been yelling out instructions from the side of the mat. But up to this point Alex had not heard any of what his coach had been saying nor could he see the coach or any of the people in the bleachers. Then at the beginning of the third period after the crowd noise had died down, Matt, who was sitting in the bleachers, yelled out loud and clear, "I WANT TO SEE A LOW SINGLE". Alex looked up at the bleachers from where he heard the voice and with an acknowledging expression on his face, he proceeded to take down his opponent several times with a low single.

Alex told us in his email that he had likened this story to faith. He and Matt had been working on this move for several weeks but Alex never had enough faith or confidence in his abilities to actually use it. Then during this final match, Alex's coach from the side of the mat, was yelling out different instructions. But there was too much crowd noise and commotion for Alex to hear and understand the instructions. Then when the noise finally died down so that Alex could actually stop and listen, he heard the instructions loud and clear from the person that had been teaching him the move. At that point Alex put aside his doubts in his abilities and put his faith in what he had been taught.

Since we were obviously not at the church meeting where Alex recited this story, I'm guessing that when he used this story in his talk, he said that it was like listening to the still small voice. Once all of the outside noise and commotion dies down and we are able to actually listen, we hear the voice loud and clear. Listening to this voice can give is the confidence and faith to follow the instructions that are being told to us.

For all of you who were in the meeting that day when Alex spoke about faith and for those just reading this blog entry, here is the actual event that goes with the story. The following is a video clip of the actual event taking place during the final home wrestling dual. Up to this point Alex was winning the match but had struggled on a few of his other takedown moves. His coach had been yelling out instructions from the edge of the mat during the entire match. The clip picks up at the beginning of the third period. Pay special attention to Alex's facial expression after his cousin yells "Low Single". Who would have known that the experiences of this night would be part of Alex's preparation for a mission.

So that was just the beginning of Alex and his companion's Sunday as missionaries. Oh, before I move on to tell you about the rest of his day, there was one other funny part to this story. As you probably already know, the mid-western states are notorious for tornados. So one of the things that I guess the people are used to who live in these states, are tornado warning drills. For whatever reason there was going to be a tornado drill sometime towards the end of Sacrament meeting. While Alex was standing at the pulpit giving his talk, he knew that at some point the warning bells would ring and that he would have to wrap up very quickly. Sure enough towards the end of his talk the warning bells rang right in the middle of talking about the stripling warriors. At that point somebody kicked Alex in the knee from behind, Alex abruptly ended his talk and the congregation got a good laugh out of the whole thing. Like I mentioned earlier, missionaries have to be prepared for anything. Who would have thought that a tornado warning drill would have been included in that list.

In addition to speaking in Sacrament meeting, Alex and his companion were also assigned to teach a lesson to the young men in another Ward. At the same time that they were supposed to also be attending PEC meeting in their home ward. They managed to find splits so that they could actually be in two places at once and were able to take care of their responsibilities. Then on top of all of that, they were asked to teach sharing time in primary for both the junior and senior primary kids. When they were orignally asked to teach the primary kids, they were simply told to teach about prophets and missions and that was about all the details that they were given. So being good missionaries who are always prepared, they just winged it. ;-) But when it was all said and done, everything worked out well. In Alex's words:

"The junior primary was a little rough because they didn’t really participate, but the senior primary was a blast! They asked us questions about what we do as missionaries, and we had everyone laughing! The teachers had more fun than the kids did I think ha ha."

Then right after their church meetings ended, they had other teaching appointments to attend to that day. All in all, a very busy day for a couple of missionaries. I am sure that by the end of the day, they were both very tired but also very satisfied with all that they had accomplished.

General Conference weekend was this last week with many good talks given by the General Authorities of the Church as well as the Prophet and Apostles. Alex told us in his latest email that conference weekend is like the super bowl for missionaries. They don't have to plan anything for the whole weekend and they get to watch conference and eat food at the institute building. Alex was very impressed by many of the talks that were given during the various conference sessions. He told us that the message that most impressed him throughout the conference was making the family stronger.

As usual Alex told us about several of the people that they are teaching and how well things are going. I won't share those stories here but in almost every email he talks about how great these people are and how much he looks forward to teaching them more about the gospel.

One last funny story for this week. For whatever reason, Alex asked us to contact his doctor who gave him his physical exam before Alex left on his mission. What he wanted to know was his exact height before he left because he now swears that he is taller because his weight has gone up even though he is still in the same shape as always. Alex also mentioned that there were a couple of pictures of him and his companion that were posted on a web blog called bakingandboys.com . It is a blog that is maintained by one of their Ward members who apparently really likes to bake. Anyway, the pictures on the web site show Alex and his companion with several pieces of very yummy looking cheesecake in front of them (Cheesecake tasting competition). I sent Alex back a response that maybe we should ask the doctor what his width was before his mission rather than his height. If he keeps eating deserts like that, his weight gain could be easily explained. ;-) Alex likes to do a lot of baking himself. But the difference is that Alex's recipes usually come from the back of a brownie mix box.

A couple more follow ups...

2010-04-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

Alex wrote us a few weeks back and told us that he and his companion had recieved permission to go to a Kansas University women's basketball game with a family in their Ward and some of the family's friends. Alex and his companion really enjoyed the basketball game even though the Jayhawks got creamed. The funny story about this whole event was that Alex told us that everytime the cheerleaders would come out on the floor to dance, he and his companion would look away. One of the family members that invited them to go to the game, noticed this and started joking with these good missionaries about not wanting to be tempted checking out the cheerleaders. :) Anyway, sometime during the event, Alex was able to get a picture of himself with the Jayhawk's mascot so I just thought that I would share it here.

Yep, I agree. The missionaries are #1! Since this picture was taken at a women's basketball game, I just hope that the person under the jayhawk costume wasn't actually a female. Otherwise this might be incriminating evidence of a mission rules violation. ;-) Just kidding!

You also might remember the newspaper article about Alex and the Wamego wrestling team. In addition the the above photo, Alex also sent us the original article from the Wamego Times (turns out I was right about the name of the newspaper :). So I took the opportunity to scan the article and include it here. The image below is probably too small for you to read. But if you click on the image, a larger copy will appear which should be big enough to read the entire text. Enjoy!

Patience and perseverance

2010-03-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

How time flys when you have a missionary. It's been a couple of weeks since we last wrote on this blog and Alex has had a lot of new experiences in that time. One of those experiences has been learning that everybody has their free agency. Alex wrote us last week and said that he has had one of the toughest weeks since he arrived in his mission. It has been a little rough at times trying to get things going in Lawrence. Alex and his companion have had some successes but they have also had some disappointments.

Six weeks ago when Alex and his companion arrived in Lawrence, they really didn't have anybody to teach. They were literally starting from ground zero. Since then they have been able to find a few people who have been interested in listening to the message that these Elders have. Unfortunately some of those people have also decided that they had heard enough. That is where the free agency part comes to play. Alex mentioned that a few days ago they had set 5 different teaching appointments. As the day went on, 4 out of the 5 appointments never materialized. Fortunately and unfortunately at the same time, the 5th appointment did work out. The unfortunate part was that when it was all said and done, it didn't go real well. Needless to say, it wasn't a good day in the life of a couple of the Lord's servants. They don't call a mission the hardest two years of a young man's life for nothing. But out of every experience there is a lesson. But as good as that lesson might be, sometimes it is hard to learn. Maybe this lesson is just to learn a little patience and perseverance.

It wasn't all bad though. One of the bright spots was that a young man from the Wamego branch (Alex's first area if you remember) decided that he wanted to spend his spring break working with Alex and his companion in Lawrence, Kansas. Think about it. A young man, just a senior in high school, wanting to hang out with the missionaries over spring break. For a missionary, it just doesn't get much better than that. To know that you have influenced someone else to the point where they feel that the best way to spend their spring break would be to help the missionaries teach the gospel. Alex told us just how much this young man enjoyed spending the week with the missionaries. Alex also said that some really good things happened and the whole experience was life changing. In Alex's words, "It Rocks!!!" Things also picked up the next day when they went out to teach some other people that they had been talking to. Alex said that during one of the lessons, the spirit was really strong and that the person they were teaching could really feel it. In the end, it really isn't the missionaries that change peoples lives, what it really is, is the spirit testifying to that person. I'm sure that they must have had many other great experiences that week. Of course weekly letters just can't capture them all. But the overall impression was that sometimes things go the way you expect and other times they don't. It is that whole free agency thing.

In most of Alex's letters he usually includes some kind of interesting story about an event that happened to him. Well this week wasn't any different. Alex told us about how he and his companion were baking some brownies to take to some of the people that they had been teaching. Making food for people is one thing that Alex picked up long before he arrived in the mission field. There were plenty of mornings when we would wake up to find Alex making breakfast for is friends after an early study session or temple trip to do baptisms. But anyway, back to the story. So while they were making brownies, Alex heard the phone ring and knew that it was a call from the mission president. Apparently they have set a special ring tone on the phone for the mission office. So Alex picked up the phone and sure enough, it was the mission president with a new assignment. If you remember back a few months, the last time Alex got a call from the mission president with a new assignment, the new assignment included a transfer to a different area. Alex was a little scared that this new assignment was going to turn out the same way and the last thing he wanted was another transfer. Luckily this new assignment didn't include a transfer. So here is the rest of the story in Alex's words:

[Mission President speaking] “Elder Nicholes, congratulations I have a new assignment for you!”, my heart just dropped, I thought I was getting transferred for sure! But he told me that I was going to be the new district leader and that my companion and I would be staying together in Lawrence. So I didn’t really know what to say, I mean it’s crazy! I barely know what I am doing as a missionary, let alone a district leader.

Yep, that's right. Alex is the new district leader over the Lawrence, Kansas area. We also received a nice letter from the mission president today. Among other things, it said just how well Alex has demonstrated leadership abilities and because of that and his strong testimony in the restored gospel, he has been called to be a leader in the Independence Missouri mission. This isn't the first time that Alex has stepped up to be a leader but most of the other times usually had something to do with sports. I'm sure that this leadership position will come with new experiences and challenges.

It seems like every week Alex is talking about new people that they are teaching. Sometimes they start out teaching somebody and things don't work out and other times they do. The thing to remember is that life as a missionary has a lot of ups and downs. You just have to learn to roll with them.

So here is a follow up to something that happened to Alex during his first few weeks in Wamego, Kansas not long after arriving to the Independence mission. If you recall, one of the things that missionaries do is try to volunteer some of their time to the community. In an effort to do that, Alex and his companion at the time, volunteered at the high school to help out with the wresting team. For those who may not know, Alex was a state champion wrestler during his senior year in high school. Anyway, the local newspaper found out that there were a couple of "Mormon" missionaries helping out with the high school wrestling team and decided to write a story about it. Unfortunately before the newspaper article ran, Alex got transferred from Wamego to Platt City. So finally, just today, we got a copy of the article that ran in the Wamego Times (OK, I'm not really sure what the actual name of the Wamego newspaper is). The article was titled "Mission on the Mat, Mormon missionaries assist Raider wrestling program". Too bad this particular newspaper doesn't have an online version, because it was truely a well written article. Since I can't really reprint the entire article here, I will try to just pick out a few quotes. The article starts out:

"Utah's 2009 state wrestling champion in the 152-pound weight class is back on the mat as a volunteer coach for the Wamego High School wrestling team.
He's 19-year-old Alex Nicholes, an elder in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon church), who was assigned to Wamego as the first stop on his two-year mission for his church."

------------------

... "Hartwick said Elder Nicholes has already made a positive impact on the WHS wrestling program. "He's helped make our team a team," the senior wrestler said."

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... "Nicholes credits his faith for his wrestling success. He has been wrestling since eighth grade.
"I put a lot of religion in my wrestling," Nicholes said. "That's where I get my strength from."
While he enjoys wrestling, Nicholes said the main benefit of being a volunteer coach is that he is "meeting great kids."

------------------

... "Only the LDS church officials know how long Nicholes' tenure at Wamego will be, but Hartwick and other WHS wrestlers hope this assignment lasts at least through the wrestling season. He has definitely found a unique way to help out in the community."

Those were just a few of the many things that this article had to say about Alex, his companion, wrestling and life as an LDS missionary. After having been in the local PG newspaper several times during his high school wrestling and track career, it was great to see Alex in the newspaper one last time for his wrestling accomplishments. But this time is a bit different. More importantly, he is in the newspaper for being a great missionary.

You never know who you are going to meet...

2010-03-09T18:06:00.000-08:00

Can you say "road trip"? I told you last time that one of the wrestlers from Wamego (Alex's first mission area) who is also a member of the LDS church, would be wrestling in the Kansas state tournament. This wrestler had asked if Alex would be able to go to the wrestling tournament to support him and help out in his matches. Alex and his companion talked to both the assistants to the president and the mission president and received permission to go to the tournament. What an opportunity! Not only would Alex get to watch wrestling again, but he would get to do it while wearing his suit, tie and missionary name tag. I'm sure that many people will take notice that there are a couple of Mormon missionaries wandering around a wrestling tournament and wondering why they are there. The more people who ask questions, the more opportunities to share the gospel.

Anyway, Alex and his companion got up early on the morning of the tournament and headed for Wamego to meet up with the wrestler and his family. After giving his companion a quick tour of the town, they met the family and were off to the tournament. To make a longer story shorter, the tournament didn't quite turn out the way everybody had planned. As we can testify, sometimes wrestling matches go your way when maybe they weren't suppose to and other times they don't when they should have. In this case it was the latter. On a more positive note, it always amazes me just how much Alex has influenced for the good, all the people he comes in contact with. This case is no different. Alex's influence and I am sure the influence of many others as well, will never be forgotten. Alex told us that despite the unfortunate outcome of the tournament, it was still an awesome day.

Well after their big day at the Kansas state wrestling tournament, it was back to normal missionary work and trying to find those who are willing and ready to listen to the message that the missionaries have to offer. From the time that Alex and his companion arrived in Lawrence, this has been their biggest struggle. But Alex told us that things are really picking up for them and that they are now teaching a number of really solid contacts. Of course you always have to take the bad with the good and missionary work is no different. There are always those who start out with a real interest in learning more about the gospel of Jesus Christ but then later, for whatever reason, don't want to continue. Alex and his companion have been experiencing this as well. But literally, in their case, as one door shuts another one seems to open up and the work moves forward.

Alex told us a story about how he and his companion where taking down the Christmas lights at a neighbor's house one morning. Seems a little late in the year to be taking down Christmas lights. If it were up to me, I would just forget about it and leave them up for next year. But that is a completely different story. Anyway, since they were having to climb up and down a ladder while working outside, they weren't dressed in their normal missionary suite and tie. While they were working, a couple of missionaries from a different denomination just happen to pass by and started up a conversation with Alex and his companion. At first these other missionaries didn't know that Alex and his companion were actually missionaries themselves, but from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As the conversation continued and the other missionaries started throwing out bible references, Alex was able to recite the references from memory even before the other missionary had a chance to look it up. Finally the other missionaries asked if Alex and his companion were Mormon missionaries. Alex said in his letter:

"...we weren’t going to lie, so I put my arm around one of them and said we sure are!!"

Needless to say, not a whole lot of progress was made on either side, but chalk one up to new experiences. You never know where it might lead.

Alex and his companion have really been working hard to get things going in Lawrence. Every week he tells us about all of the people that they are teaching and how well the work is going. The Ward that they have been assigned to is really stepping up and helping out in the missionary work. Alex has mentioned several times how much he enjoys working with the Ward mission leader and what great families there are in the Ward. Alex also mentioned just how crazy it is that there are so many ties back to home. He said that there are a lot of people in his area that have sons, daughters, nieces, nephews or grandchildren that live in Utah and some that even went to the same high school with Alex. Alex found out that one Ward member was actually at Alex's graduation last year.

It is always great to hear from Alex and to read all about the people that he has met. Hopefully Alex and his companion will be able to stay a little longer in Lawrence rather than getting transferred again. I know Alex would love that.

Rising to the challenge

2010-02-24T19:42:00.000-08:00

Well, in my last entry I told you that Alex got transfered yet again. He is now in Lawrence Kansas and loving it. I also told you that this was a double transfer, both Alex and his companion were transfered into Lawrence at the same time. One of things that Alex has mentioned in his most recent letters is that for whatever reason, Lawrence seems to be one of the tougher places to be for missionary work. When Alex and his companion got there, they literally had to start from ground zero. They had nobody to teach and no current referrals. But that's OK, it just means that they have more opportunities coming, to meet and teach new people. In fact that is exactly what they have been doing. After spending time shoveling snow, knocking on doors and talking with the members of their Ward, they have found some new people to teach and as Alex told us, things are looking better than ever in Lawrence Kansas.

So Alex told us a story about his first Sunday in the new Ward that I am sure all of you returned missionaries can relate to. Being new missionaries in the Ward, apparently both Alex and his companion were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting. Of course they accepted and prepared for their talks. But when it came time to actually speak in the meeting, apparently the person who spoke right before Alex's companion, had pretty well covered the topic. So right then and there on the stand, Alex's companion pulled a new talk together and spent his time talking to the congregation about the 8th article of faith.

"We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God."

Of course that is one of the shorter articles of faith but it carries a lot of powerful meaning. According to Alex, his companion did a "way good" job. "I was way impressed; he just whipped it out of his back pocket.". Alex went on to talk about proclaiming the gospel. Given that Alex is a full time missionary, you would probably expect a missionary to touch on this subject. Alex said that it all went really well. Besides talking about how important it is to proclaim the gospel and help in doing missionary work, he also told the members of the Ward just how excited he was to be there in Lawrence and how he was looking forward to working with them. He said that after Sacrament meeting was over, several of the members of the Ward told Alex and his companion just how much they enjoyed their talks and even shared with them a few referrals of people who they thought would be interested is listening to what the missionaries have to say. Does that sound like a typical missionary experience to you? It does to me and one that happens time and time again all throughout the world. Also keep in mind that Alex has only been on his mission for about four months and his companion has only been out for just a few short months longer than Alex. You know that the Lord is looking over these missionaries and allowing them to do things that they themselves may have thought were too hard to do just a few months ago. They both have many more of these types of experiences ahead.

At the end of one of Alex's letters he told us another story about one of their P-day antics. So on their P-day a week or so ago, several of the missionaries decided to go to a local restaurant that serves up some screaming hot Buffalo Wings. When they got there, they decided to take on the "Blazin Challenge". For Alex, this isn't the first time that he decided to take on a new challenge, not even with Buffalo Wings. According to what Alex told us, the challenge was to eat twelve of the restaurants hottest wings in under six minutes. Like I said, this wasn't Alex's first venture into spicy food. Before he left on his mission, we used to have contests on how many hot chili peppers we could put into a bowl of top ramen and still make it through the whole bowl. It got really exciting when we switched to habanero peppers a few times. Anyway, they met the challenge, conquered it and won their free t-shirts. Alex got the fastest time out of all of the missionaries and got his picture taken to be put up on the wall. Of course Alex made sure that he was holding his Book of Mormon when they took the picture. Forevermore immortalized as the fastest missionary Buffalo Wing eater. Almost as good as his state wrestling champion title. ;-)

Alex told us this week that they have some really awesome families in their Ward, but they did have one slight problem at church last week. You have probably heard about all of the snow storms that have been hitting the mid-west and east coast lately. Well, I guess one of these storms must have hit last week which caused church to be canceled. The only problem was, nobody told the missionaries. There they both were sitting on the front row in the chapel five minutes before the meetings were suppose to start and not another soul in the building. Oh well, sounds like they were blessed with a great opportunity to sit and ponder the gospel in the quite solitude of the chapel. I think that many of us would love to spend a quite moment like that in the chapel especially after one of those noisy weeks with all of the restless kids and crying babies.

Remember back in some of the earlier blog entries when Alex first arrived in his mission, he was assigned to Wamego Kansas and spent six weeks there teaching a lot of people and also working with the wrestling team at the local high school. Well it has been almost two months since Alex was in Wamego but he still gets news from the members of the branch there about what has been going on. One of the most exciting things that Alex reported to us in his last letter, was from Wamego. It looks like one of the wrestlers that Alex worked with and is also a member of the LDS church, will be competing this week for a state wrestling title. From what Alex has told us, this wrestler has been doing really well during the season, is currently ranked third in the state and has only lost one match all season. Alex is really excited for this kid because Alex knows exactly what it is like to win a title like that. Alex also wrote a letter to one of his former team mates who is still wrestling for the local high school here and also recently won a state title. One of the things that Alex told him was that a sport like wrestling really teaches a kid how to work hard and that wrestlers make some of the best missionaries. To all of you who have wrestled and served a mission, you know what Alex is talking about. To all of you who are wrestlers and thinking about a mission, apply everything that you have learned in wrestling to a new challenge as a missionary.

One last thing, you might also remember that during Christmas just before Alex left Wamego, Alex, his companion and several other young men from the ward (including the afore mentioned wrestler), sang some Christmas songs at the branch Christmas party. Well apparently the word never made it from Wamego to Lawrence about just how well the missionaries sing, because they have been asked to sing again in a few weeks at a Ward fireside. We'll have to see how well it goes this time around. I'm sure they will do great.

I just have to share one last quote from Alex's last letter:

"Lawrence is a blast! This is definitely the most fun I have had on my mission! My companion is awesome, the work is moving forward (slowly but surely), and Lawrence is a way fun place to be!"

It doesn't get better than that.

Three for three...

2010-02-09T19:19:00.000-08:00

Three for three, that is the number of months that Alex has been on his mission and it is also the number of times that he has been transferred. Yes, Alex got transferred again last week. He is now in Lawrence, Kansas not far from the University of Kansas. We aren't really sure why he has been moved around so much in his first few months, but with each move he seems to be getting more and more into the work. This wasn't just a normal transfer, by the way. The reason why I say that is because in a normal transfer, usually a missionary is paired up with a companion that has been in that area for at least the previous six weeks. This time, as Alex called it, this was a double transfer. In other words, both of the missionaries that were there before were transferred out and Alex and his new companion were sent in to take their place.

Alex said that he really had a hard time leaving Platte City just like he did when he left Wamego. He and his companion had done so much work and things had really started to reach the tipping point with the people that they were teaching. Alex said it best in his letter so I will quote it here rather than try to paraphrase it. In his letter he is talking about why he thinks that he has been moved around so much already:

"I work hard so I will get moved a lot and I won’t be able to see the fruits of my labor. ... I know that the people I have been teaching are getting baptized, but it doesn’t matter whether I am the one getting “credit” for it or not. As long as people are getting baptized, and I am able to get the work cranking everywhere I go. Honestly I really don’t care if I get the “credit” for baptizing a single person on my mission. As long as I can help the work go forward and lay a ground work for people, I am completely content with that. I know that our purpose is to baptize people, but people will get baptized because of my efforts.

It is weird to see because as soon as I left Wamego people starting getting baptized there and the same thing is happening in Platte City. It is so cool to see! I feel kind of like Jonny Appleseed ha ha. I just plant the seeds and move on, never looking back. I love it!! Sorry I hope that it all made sense; because it makes sense in my head. It is just weird trying to write it all down. Man I am so excited about this transfer! "

That is the way it should be. The Lord knows where he needs his missionaries and he will make sure that they get to where they are needed. Even if that missionary never gets to see the fruits that come from the seeds that were planted. The most important thing is that there are fruits.

So another interesting story to tell here and it goes back to something I mentioned in a previous entry. Remember how I said that for some reason, no matter where Alex is, he seems to find some tie back to Utah. Well, Alex has only been in Lawrence for less than a week and he has already run across a tie back to Utah yet again. As it turns out, Alex and his companion happen to run into an ex-NBA basketball player who now lives there. Things didn't really go very well with the meeting but when Alex told us the story, it just so happens that I used to work with the brother of this same basketball player at a previous job. I wrote Alex back and told him how he probably didn't know it at the time but he had actually also met this basketball player's brother back when Alex was a young scout and we were at a nearby scout camp. Yet again, funny how small the world gets sometimes.

Well this entry is a little shorter than some of the others, but then it has only been a week since the last time I wrote on this blog. Since so much had happened to Alex this week, I felt that we just needed to write it all written down and share it with all of those who are actually reading this blog. Things are going great for Alex even though he and his companions have had to almost start from scratch with each transfer. We just can't wait every week to hear more about the things that are going on in the Independence Missouri mission.

Change is just part of being a missionary...

2010-02-02T18:29:00.000-08:00

There are many ups and downs when you are serving as a missionary. It just comes with the territory. Sometimes things fall through with the people that you are teaching and other times there might be issues with your companion that need to be worked out. But all of those things just provide opportunities for growth and Alex is finding that out. Apparently Alex and his companion, for whatever reason, decided that it was time to move to a different appartment. So they spent this last P-day packing things up so that they could move. You would think that for a missionary, packing and moving wouldn't be that hard since they are used to moving from place to place. But Alex mentioned that moving everything from one house to another was a bigger job than they expected. He also mentioned that he enjoyed living where they were, but who knows, sometimes new opportunities come with new territory.

Speaking of opportunities, in the last blog entry I mentioned how Alex has had opportunities to exercise his priesthood through giving blessings. One of those opportunities involved a young man in his ward that had recently been in a car accident. Well the good news here is that this young man is recovering nicely but has still been in a lot of pain. So to cheer this young man up, Alex and his companion decided to visit him and bring him some gifts. Alex described these gifts to us as,

"... a pink suit coat with gold buttons, a clone trooper helmet, and the ugliest sweater you have ever seen!"

They even decided to sing to this young man a song entitled "I'll be your hero" by Julio Iglesias. For some reason Alex has decided that singing is his new talent. Singing seems to come up a lot in several of his last few letters. I'm not sure why singing seems to be at the center of several of his stories, like singing on the doorstep as they are tracting, singing at the Ward Christmas party, singing to a young man who needs some cheering up or singing on the video that he sent home to us. But it seems to be working for him so I say, "if it ain't broke don't fix it". Well maybe that wasn't the best way to put it. As far as something being "broke", if you heard his singing you would understand. ;-) Anyway, getting back to the story that I started with. Apparently their gifts and singing must have worked because Alex ended the story with "it was so funny!!!!". Did you catch that? Count them. Four exclamation marks!!!! It must have been hilarious (in more ways than one).

Alex said that the work as been going really well. They have been teaching over 20 people recently and several of them decided to come to church a couple of weeks ago. In his letter he said,

"But you have to remember who is really doing the work, and who is really in charge. Alma 26:12:
Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.
So the lord is definitely blessing us right now, so we just need to keep doing the right things and working hard."

Alex had another interesting new experience that he has never had before. Teaching "Sharing Time" in primary. His mother knows this experience very well, but it was all new to Alex. He didn't really go into detail about what they taught the kids, I'm sure it had something to do with missionary work, but in his letter to us he asked his Mom how she did it all of those years. Apparently the senior primary had a few problems that week. But I'm sure it all went well even with some disruptions from the senior primary. The kids probably really enjoyed having the missionaries come and teach them during sharing time. Just another one of those little experiences that will prove to be valuable later in life.

Here is a story that just goes to show you just how small the world is and who you might meet one day. Last summer before Alex left on his mission and even before he had received his mission call, he spent his time working and earning money for his mission. He became really good friends with his boss at work and many times his boss would tell Alex stories about his family back in Missouri. Well guess what Alex just discovered? The same people that he had heard stories about all summer long, are actually some of the very same people that he is now working with in the Ward where he is serving. It seems that no matter where Alex goes, he seems to find some connection with the people he meets that tie him back to Utah. Small world don't you think? Or was his mission call to Missouri and Kansas not really a coincidence? I think you know the answer to that one. :-)

I'll finish off this entry with an addition to one of the stories that Alex told in the last blog entry. Remember the story about the seven giggling girls that greeted the missionaries at the door while Alex and his companion were out tracking? Well apparently those weren't the only giggling girls that they encountered in the last couple of weeks. So here is the story. A week or so ago the Young Women's organization invited the missionaries to teach the beehives a lesson during their weekly activity night. So as good missionaries should, they showed up prepared and started teaching this group of young girls. Sometime during the lesson, the beehive leader stepped out of the room to go and talk to the older girls in a different class. When she walked into the room where the older girls were, they started complaining and asking why they hadn't been invited to class where the missionaries were teaching. The young women's leader was a little surprised by the girls' complaints and asked them why they would want to meet with the younger beehives. They have never expressed an interest in being with the beehives before. Well apparently the young women's leader misunderstood the older girls' complaints. You see, it wasn't because of the beehives that they wanted to be in the other class room. ;-) Alex finished up the story by saying, "So I guess we are causing a minor stir amongst the young women, oh man that is too funny."

Well it has been couple of full weeks for Alex and his companion. Alex mentioned that this week is transfers again and that they will find out within the next couple of days whether he or his companion will be off to a new place or if they will be able to continue the work that they started.

Amazing how things just work out...

2010-01-23T08:22:00.000-08:00

We have received a couple of letters from Alex since the last time we updated this blog. He has been in his new area for a few weeks now and working harder than ever to find people who are searching for the gospel. His recent letters have included more details about the people that he and his companion have met both members of the LDS church and those who are just listening to what the missionaries have to say. I won't share many of the details here of the stories that are of a more personal nature, but if you would like to hear more about them, just contact us privately. But I will say that just like with his last area, Alex has met some very great people some of whom he and his companion are now teaching and others who are helping them teach. Drawing from my own experience as well as from what Alex has told us, there are always those people in every area who are placed there by our Heavenly Father to just watch over the missionaries in a similar way as the missionary's own parents would. To those people, we say Thank You!

As always there are the funny missionary stories and this week's letter is no different. Alex, for whatever reason, decided to buy a new suit... well maybe not so new. He described it as a "super ugly suit that looks like it's from the 60's". Hey, I lived through the 60's and my suits weren't super ugly... ah well, maybe they were. ;-) He seemed to be really proud of this suit especially since it only cost $5. Leave it up to the missionaries to find a bargain. I am guessing that in this case, he might have overpaid for the suit. Apparently his companion also found an equally impressive suit and they both decided that they would wear their recently acquired duds to church the following Sunday. But before Alex could put on his suit, he had to take care of one minor issue. Choosing a tie to go with it. You see Alex inherited a very unique trait. He is very challenged in the area of selecting which colors go with what. A trait that is probably shared by many men only in Alex's case it is a bit more pronounced through genetics. So at a dinner appointment the night before and following the customary missionary spiritual thought that follows, Alex asked the hostess (one of those people that I referred to in the previous paragraph) for a little help picking out a tie. They must have done a really good job picking out a tie because Alex said that everybody at church loved their new clothes. I just hope Alex doesn't decide to send the suit home at some point. I don't think that I could re-live the 60's!

Besides teaching the gospel and working with the members of the church in his area, Alex is also receiving some good experiences in exercising his priesthood. In his last letter, Alex told us a story about how a young priest in their ward was recently T-boned in a traffic accident in heavy fog. The injuries were serious but not as serious as they could have or maybe should have been. As part of their missionary services as well as just looking out for another human being that you care about, Alex and his companion visited this young man in the hospital several times. As things go in these kinds of cases, Alex had the opportunity to use his priesthood to give a blessing. I'm sure this young man has also received many blessings and prayers from other family and church members as well, but calling on the Lord to help those in need can never be overdone.

He ended his last letter by telling us another funny story about going out tracking one day, knocking on a door and being greeted by a bunch of giggling high school girls. Trying to think quickly on his feet he didn't really know what to say to them so he blurted out something stupid, gave the girls some pass along cards and just move on to the next door. Keep up the good work Alex.

We received some more pictures and videos from Alex this past week. Most of the pictures were from Christmas time and all of the things that Alex and his companion were doing in Wamego.

You might ask why Alex is writing on a framed picture on the wall. According to what he told us, this picture contains all of the signatures of all of the past Elders who have worked in Wamego. Now that Alex has been transferred to Platte City, he is adding his name to the Wamego legacy.

Again you might ask, what is he wearing? Have the missionaries traded in their white shirts and ties for a more traditional monk-like robe? No, it is actually kind of an inside joke. In one of the videos that Alex sent home while in Wamego, he joked with this companion about buying matching snuggies. So for Christmas we sent both he and his companion matching embroidered snuggies. Alex loves his. We aren't quite sure what his old companion thinks of the gift.

Life in a new town...

2010-01-05T18:54:00.000-08:00

It's been a couple of weeks since we last wrote on this blog and a lot has happened. I mentioned last time that Alex had been asked to transfer to Platte City, Missouri. Well the transfer happened just before Christmas and Alex bearly had time to adjust before getting right back into things.

One of the nice things about the Christmas holiday is that missionaries are allowed to call home. Alex spent his last P-day before Christmas in Wamego, Kansas and we had set up a time with him when he would call on Christmas day. We had originally made arrangements that he would call home at about 10:00 am Christmas morning. This would give us enough time to take care of all of our Christmas morning traditions, eat breakfast and then be ready to talk to Alex. Well just before Christmas we recieved word that he would be calling a little later around 2:00 pm rather than at the originally scheduled time. That was OK, we would just have to wait a little longer to talk is all. So Christmas morning went as expected, and we waited around for Alex's phone call. Well just like Alex, instead of calling at the time that we expected, he decided to surprise us and call about an hour earlier. The phone rang, Susan answered and there was Alex on the other end. What a surprise!

It was really nice talking with Alex on Christmas. He had asked us if it would be OK for a couple of his friends to come over as well, so that he could talked to them also. We set up the speaker phone in the middle of the room and talked and talked until we all ran out of things to talked about. It was great. Alex told us all about his transfer from Wamego to Platte City. He told us about his new companion and how hard it was to leave his previous companion. He talked about his new apartment but didn't know much about the Ward yet because he had only been in Platte City for about two days. We filled Alex in on the current status of the PG wrestling team and caught him up on everything that the family was doing. Finally it came time for him to go and get back to life as a missionary. I can tell now why Christmas and Mother's day will be our new favorite days of the year. BTW, if you didn't know. Missionaries get to call home on Mother's day too. :)

We have heard from Alex a couple of times since Christmas through his weekly letters. In his first letter home after Christmas he told us that he still didn't get a chance to meet all of the Ward members. Apparently it snowed in Platte City, just enough to shut everything down. Being from Utah, I imaged a dumping of at least a couple of feet in order for church to be cancelled on Sunday. But Alex told us that the snow storm was more like 6 to 8 inches. 6 to 8 inches, what??? My Grandma drives to church in 6 to 8 inches. OK, well she would if she were still here with us, but 6 to 8 inches doesn't seem like enough to cancel church. Of course the members of the church in Alaska probably laugh at us Utahns for cancelling church in a 2 foot snow storm. The Alaskans probably don't cancel church unless there is at least 4 feet of snow and several polar bears wandering around the church parking lot. ;)

Alex told us a funny story of what happened to him and his companion on Christmas night. Apparently Alex's companion, who hasn't driven in the snow much, was driving back to their apartment after a dinner appointment or something. The next thing they knew, they were stuck in a ditch on the side of the rode. It took a few good samaritans and a couple of trucks to pull them out of the ditch. I'm not sure if that is the best plan for contacting new investigators, but hey, whatever works right! Anyway, I guess Alex is now the new designated snow driver from now on. We'll see if Alex can do any better.

Any of you who know Alex also know how much he loves wrestling and how many friends he has made through wrestling. In fact one of Alex's best friends who joined us on Christmas day when Alex called home, is also somebody Alex wrestled with and against over the years. Anyway, you would also know that Alex was chosen last year to represent his weight among the 5A high schools in the annual wrestling All-Star matches. Well the match ups for this year's All-Star matches were finally posted last weekend and as it turns out, another one of Alex's best wrestling friends was invited to represent his weight for the 3A high schools. And to top it off, Alex's friend will be wrestling against the same kid that Alex beat in the 5A state finals last year. Ok this may not mean all that much to you, but when we told Alex about the All-Star match up, it just made his whole day. In Alex's words "Ok I am so stoked about [the All-Star match]. I am giddy! This is so legit!!!". That was the first sentence in his letter home this week. We told Alex that we would be there to watch the All-Star matches so that we could fill him in on how they went. What does this have to do with Alex and his mission? Not a whole lot, but it does show how much Alex cares about all of the relationships that he has made over the years and how much he will also care about all of the relationships that he is going to make over the next two years.

Alex is really enjoying his current assignment and his new companion. Even though he was transferred from a place he loved and given a new companion, it doesn't seem like that has slowed him down at all. In his latest letter Alex told us about all of the good things that are happening. He filled us in on many of the new people that he has met in the last couple of weeks and how the work is progressing. At the end of his letter, he said that things are going well, they are working hard and good things are happening. You really can't ask for much more than that!

Time to make a move...

2009-12-23T13:56:00.000-08:00

Alex is getting transfered!! Can you believe it? After only just a few short weeks in Wamego Kansas, Alex is being transfered to Platte City, Missouri. Welcome to life as a missionary. Just when you think that all of your hard work is starting to pay off and there is no way that you could be transfered now, that is when it happens. But even though Alex won't be in Wamego to finish what he and his companion started, the work will go on. One of the downsides of getting transfered at Christmas time is that now his Christmas presents from home are going to have to catch up to him in a new city. Oh well, Alex will just have to focus on the real meaning of Christmas this week and enjoy his presents from home a little later. Even though Alex doesn't want to leave Wamego, he also knows that there is probably a good reason for this transfer and that there are more opportunities ahead.

Before Alex left Wamego, he wrote to tell us about all of the good things that were happening. They have been teaching several really good people, the youth in the ward have been very involved with the missionary work there and the Wamego High wrestling team is doing well. Alex and his companion even had the local newspaper come and interview them for a story about all of the volunteer work that they have been doing.

Last Saturday night Alex and his companion went to the Wamego branch Christmas party. They also invited several of the people that they are teaching to attend with them. Alex mentioned in his last email that he and his companion sang, I guess, during the talent portion of the party. He said that they sounded OK but they did better during practice. What do you expect from a wrestler! ;-)

Well, with Christmas coming up this week, we also have the opportunity to talk to Alex on the phone. He is planning to call us on Christmas day. That will be the best Christmas present we get this year.

Merry Christmas to you all!

In the thick of everything...

2009-12-07T19:05:00.000-08:00

As usual, Alex is right in the thick of everything and anything that he can find. He wrote to tells us that Thanksgiving was crazy. Alex and his companion celebrated Thanksgiving over and over again as they were invited to share Thanksgiving dinner with several different families. He really didn't give us a lot of detail about how all of the dinners went, but I am sure that the food and the company were excellent. Thanksgiving dinner is always good and missionaries can always make the best of a good dinner.

Alex just keeps telling us how wonderful all of the experiences are on his mission. The only problem is that there is only so much detail that he can provide in a letter home once a week. So we will just have to be satisfied with statements like:

"Again things here are going super well, and we are working really hard. We are having so many awesome experiences!!"

For all of you who know Alex well, you know that he has the ability to take any situation and find the fun in it. The more we hear about the things that he and his companion are doing, the more that statement is true. They are working hard doing all of the things that missionaries do, but the way that Alex makes it sound, you would think that missionary work is just non-stop fun. Well, when it comes right down to it, that is exactly as it should be. Finding the fun in everything even if that thing is hard.

Alex and his companion have been doing a lot of community service around Wamego. I mentioned before that they have been volunteering at the High School and raking leaves for many of the neighbors around town. By the way, I looked up the population of Wamego and there are about 4000 people who live there. Given that, they probably won't be running out of yards to rake any time soon ;) Alex has mentioned over and over again how appreciative the neighbors have been and that some of them have even sent "Thank You" cards and baked them banana bread. I remember Alex saying before he left that he wasn't going to get fat on his mission. Well with all of the Thanksgiving dinners and banana bread, he better be on a serious exercise program. But leave it to missionaries to not let any good deed go unre-rewarded. Now they are thinking about baking cookies for all of the neighbors. The fun just never stops with them :)

As you can tell, Alex and his companion have met a lot of good people around Wamego. Some of them have been very interested in what the missionaries have to tell them and have decided to allow Alex and his companion to teach them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a wonderful thing which just makes all of the hard work worth all of the effort. They have also been getting a lot of help from some of the members of the branch in Wamego. That is always a good thing and really makes the work go a lot smoother.

Here is a fun story for some of you, especially for those who went with Alex to those early morning temple sessions over the past few years and then came back to our house for breakfast before going to school. Well Alex is still trying to keep up that tradition. He may not have the opportunity to attend the temple, but he mentioned in his last email about how some people he knows dropped their house one morning to say "Hi". Well I guess Alex just couldn't resist inviting them in for breakfast before they headed to school. Some traditions just seem to work no matter where you are.

Christmas is getting closer and Alex mentioned in his last email that it feels a little weird to be away from home on Christmas. This will be his first Christmas away from his family, so please send him a letter or a Christmas card. He loves being out on his mission but also loves hearing from people back home. Especially at Christmas. And to any of you who live in Wamego, thanks for making Alex feel welcome.

Finally we are back in Kansas (Toto)...

2009-11-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

In Alex's last email, he filled us in on life as a new missionary in Wamego Kansas. We also received the memory card from his camera and it was full of pictures and videos. We thought it would take him at least a few months to fill up a 4 gig memory card, but leave it to Alex to make sure that we get the full scoop on what he is doing. Included on the memory card were two videos that he made with his companions. In the first video Alex takes us on a tour of his MTC dorm room and the dorm rooms of the other Elders in his district. He showed us things like the unmade beds, white shirts hung up in the closet, care packages sent to some of the missionaries by their families and treat drawers filled with candy and other snacks. For those of you who are familiar with MTV Cribs (which I'm not), Alex's version was called MTC Cribs and the spotlight crib was Club 207 (his dorm room number in the MTC). All pretty exciting stuff especially the part where he pins his own picture up next to the pictures of the other Elders' girlfriends as if he was the heart breaker that left all of these girls behind.

The next video followed the same format except this time Alex is in Kansas and the "Crib" is the house where he and his companion live. This time the tour starts out in the "General Authorities" guest room, which is basically the main room in this tiny house, proceeds into the dining room and then into the kitchen (all of which are about 4-5 foot steps apart). The tour of the refrigerator was most exciting followed by the pantry and upstairs bathroom. The cinematography made the whole thing just riveting. The video then continued into the basement, past the laundry room and into the bedrooms. Again, just very exciting stuff. You would really have to see it to believe it. But now we have a very good idea of where he lives, what he is doing and who his companions were and are.

I think I mentioned in the last post that Alex got permission to volunteer at the local high school to work with the wrestling team. Well, that is exactly what he did and he didn't waste any time doing it. Alex announced to us, both in his email and on the video, that he and his companion are now volunteer assistant coaches at Wamego High School, home of the fighting ... (hmm, I'll have to find that out later). Anyway, Alex said that the team needs some work and hopefully he can help fill in some of the gaps. The funny store about his first day as an assistant coach is that while Alex was out working with the team, his companion (still dressed in his suit as a good missionary should) was standing by talking with one of the team managers (a student at the high school). As they were watching how the practice was progressing, the team manager turned to Alex's companion and asked if he was Alex's Dad. We never heard what the response was, but on the video he just acknowledged that "yes" he is a very mature looking individual. As Alex's real Dad, I wish I looked that young. ;)

Alex also had a first taste of what it is like to be a missionary who is always prepared. Alex said that last Saturday night the 1st councilor in the Branch called and asked if Alex would give a talk the next day at Sacrament meeting. Of course as a good missionary would, he said yes and prepared to speak the next day. According to his email, the talk went very well. Alex was assigned to speak on 1 Nephi 19:23. He started out speaking on the assigned topic but then, again as a good missionary should, quickly switched the topic to "Every member a missionary". One of their goals is to work with the members and get them more involved in the missionary work. All I can say is, nice bait-and-switch and I mean that in the best possible way. ;)

Besides volunteering at the high school, Alex and his companion have been trying out some new ways to meet and serve people in the community. Since it is fall and Kansas is filled with big leafy trees, they thought it might be a good idea to rake leaves. Apparently the "serve first and teach later" idea has really been catching on. Who knew?? Oh yeah, the Prophet and General Authorities have been teaching that system, like, forever. Anyway, Alex and his companion went out one day to try their new idea and started raking the yard of one of their neighbors. It took them 5 1/2 hours and over 50 trash bags full of leaves before they finished. But after they got done with the leaf raking job, the owner of the house came out and started hugging them and telling them how much he loved the Elders. I guess the Prophet was right, serve first and teach later really seems to work. What are they going to do once all of the leaves in Wamego are gone? Maybe they will have to switch to shoveling snow. Do they get a lot of snow in Kansas??

Three weeks in the MTC and off to Missouri

2009-11-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

It has been 1 month since Alex left to serve the Lord as a missionary in the Independence Missouri Mission. He spend exactly 3 weeks in the MTC and finally left for Missouri on Nov. 11th. He was able to call us from the airport on the morning that he left the MTC. It was really great talking to him and we spent a half an hour with him on the phone. He filled us in on all of his MTC antics like dressing up in his Kansas wrestling singlet and going trick-or-treating in the dorms on Halloween. You might wonder why he had a Kansas wrestling singlet in the MTC, but that is another story. Nevertheless, since most of his mission is actually in Kansas and all of the missionaries in this MTC district were going to the same mission, the singlet kind of became their rallying flag and spent the whole 3 weeks pinned up on the wall of their dorm room.

Anyway, the letters that we received from him while he was in the MTC, all said that he was having a great time. He mentioned many times how spiritual the MTC experience was and how great it was to hear from the various General Authorities at their devotionals. Alex was called to be the district leader over 9 other Elders who were all going to the same Missouri mission. He told us many times just how wonderful all of the Elders where in his district and how he enjoyed having Elder Shepherd (from American Fork) as his companion. But at the same time, he was very excited to get out of the MTC and get to work in Missouri. On the day that they all left the MTC, Alex described it has finally getting out of jail, which is probably too strong a word, but he did say that the MTC experience was like a 3 week EFY on steriods. I guess there is nothing wrong with that. ;)

Alex has been in Missouri for about a week and a half now. Actually he isn't in Missouri at all. After spending the first day at the mission home for orientations, his first assignment took him to Kansas. The interesting thing about that is that he is actually in a small town just outside of Manhattan Kansas. For anybody reading this who is familiar with Alex's senior year at P.G. High School and everything that went into becoming a 5A Utah state wrestling champion, will remember the coaching and mentoring he received from his (actually Susan's) cousins during his senior year. The ironic thing is that his cousins all grew up in Manhattan Kansas and spent their high school years on the wrestling team there. It has only been in the last year or so that their parents moved back to Utah from Kansas. So in a sense, Alex has returned to where some of his wrestling roots came from. I mentioned the Kansas singlet earlier that became a rallying flag for Alex's MTC district. Well the whole reason why he even has that singlet in the first place was in honor of his cousins and their wrestling heritage. Funny how what goes around, comes around. To go even further with this story, in the last email that we got from Alex (which was also the first email from Kansas), Alex said that he had received permission from his mission president to go to the local high school and volunteer some of his time working with the high school wrestling team. It will be really interesting to see where that goes.

Obviously there is a lot that has happened with Alex over the last month and will be a lot more happening over the next 2 years. To put it all into a blog just isn't going to happen. But we will try to update this blog as often as possible as well as include some pictures and video clips as we get them from Alex. We have tried to tie this blog to Alex's Facebook page so that anybody that is linked to him there, will see the updates as they are posted here. I'm sure that there will also be a lot of experiences that we will not even hear about until he gets home in 2 years. But that is all OK because Alex has been called to serve a mission and that is where is focus should be. We will have the rest of our lives to catch up on everything else. If you would like more details about how Alex is doing, just give us a call or write us an email. If you would like to write to Alex, his mailing address is on his Facebook page. Feel free to write. We know he would love to hear from you.

Elder Alex Nicholes - Independence Missouri

2009-11-21T11:30:00.000-08:00

This is a family blog site that will be used to inform family members and friends about the missionary service of Elder Alex Nicholes.