The people you know and the stories that never end

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...

"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

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

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

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

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

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.