Week 13

Thank you to those who have been sending me short video messages.  I've been loving them! Sorry about not sending any responses last week but you'll get them all today.

The temp over here is definitely warm especially if your walking in it all day but it is not nearly as hot back home. The highs this week are between 96 and 90.

So guess what... I'm training a new missionary! Fresh from the MTC! I've only been out here for 3 months and they already have me showing new guys the ropes! It's super exciting but also makes me a bit nervous. I won't meet him until tomorrow though so you'll have to wait until next week to see him.

Well here it is.......

September 23, 2015
Today was weird. We had some technical difficulties with my companion's iPad. He updated to iOS 9 and his iPad wouldn't finish updating which resulted in his iPad being an expensive paper-weight.... but we were able to fix it by 5pm but it took up most of the day. After that we went to dinner with the Westre's, a returning member family. The are super cool and Sis. Westre is an excellent cook. Yummmmmm..... We had a little lesson afterward about Prayer and scripture study. That was basically our day. Not too bad.

September 24, 2015
Today is Thursday sooooooo it was interesting.... We kicked off the day with Weekly planning, (when we plan for the coming week, CrAzY RIGHT.😅) In between sessions of planning we had a teaching appointment with Ray. He is a good guy who really just wants to know all he can about the Church. He is not quite sold just off of our word but thankfully that is not what we ask. We ask all of our investigators to take God's word. So hopefully he'll take our advice and run with it.
After Ray we met with Ani. She was a fireball today. We had a hard time getting a word in but when we did it defiantly impacted her. She really appreciates us being there for her and supporting her through Christ. Her heart it in the right place and in the end that is all that matters.
We had to cut Ani's visit short so we could give a blessing to an even newer trainee who was feeling sick. I loved that that we're so willing to ask and that our response we'll be out as soon as we can. That is the way things should work. The Gospel makes so much sense if you just think about it.
After the blessing we were given a ride to my favorite family so far on my mission, the Trevinos. they are awesome. they are on the strait and narrow and are persevering through so many trials with there hand with God's I lost count. We had dinner and then Bro Trevino taught an FHE lesson. It reminded me so much of my childhood when my mom and dad would do fun little FHE lessons. I loved it!

September 25, 2015
So today I went on exchanges with Elder Orullian. He was sick so we weren't able to do any missionary work.We just stayed in the apartment all day... Lets just say it really made me appreciate missionary work. Mostly because the standards we have a missionaries literally make it so Missionary work is the only thing we can do if we are exactly obedient. If you plan on going on a mission you better do it for you or the Lord not for someone else. I got to know Elder Orullian a lot better though so it was a good day.

September 26, 2015
We kicked off the day with meeting with Greg. We talked with him about the baptismal interview questions. After we went through all of them and reviewed some doctrine to refresh his mind.

After Greg we met with Emmanuel. We taught Emmanuel about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Focused on repentance and how to do it. We also taught the Word of Wisdom. We gave him a blessing and will need to follow up about the Word of Wisdom in future meetings. He has such a desire to follow the Word of Wisdom. It is wonderful. I was the one who gave him the blessing and I nearly cried while giving it. He will be so blessed if he continues on this path. That was the highlights for today. Wonderful isn't it? :)

September 27, 2015
Today's highlight  was definitely meeting with Ross Maseuli and his family. Ross has been less active since he was a deacon. They currently go to his wife's church but his daughter has asked to go to her
dad's church before. There is definitely a lot of good potential in their family. They are great people!

September 28, 2015
Today was weird. I have come to realize that there is no normal day as a missionary. There are just so many different things you do throughout the week. Anyway. we kicked off today with the funeral of an apostle of God. Then we had to Rush over to the Daniels home to give Beth and her husband blessings. Then we went to the Trevino's to do some service, which ended up being building and sanding wood pallets into book shelves and a shoe storage bench. When we left the Trevino's we had a quick bit to eat and got over to Beth Daniels as soon as we could.
Beth was going to teach us on The Gospel of Jesus Christ but, Beth did not have her lesson ready. She looked a lot better tonight after her priesthood blessing. she asked a few questions and then we talked about the three parts of the Atonement. she really enjoyed it and said she would have her lesson on  The Gospel of Jesus Christ ready on Wednesday. To finish off the day we met with Charlotte Churchill. She said she would like to fellowship or befriend the Perez family so we prepped her for the lesson we will be having with the Perez's later that week. She is such a stud.

I Love you!


~ Elder Josh Alger

P.S. Could I get some sacrament sheet music, I was listening to my shuffle music lately and I have a feeling I'm going to be singing in Sacrament meeting soon. And some guitar chords and tabs of hymns and lullabies would be awesome. I've taken up guitar. Elder Andersen was teaching me but he is leaving so I'm going to have to fend for myself for a while.  Love you! And thank you!

Hand sketch from my Ipad

ME!!!!!!

Investigator's cool spray paint

Sweaty

District T-shirt pic

Sweaty again

Elder Orullian

We have Jalapeño cheddar bread too! My Favorite!

Week 12

September 16, 2015
Today has been absolutely fantastic! We kicked off our day by visiting with Brian, an investigator of ours. He and his girlfriend were very busy for the first half of our meeting preparing for a baby shower they were going to through for their friend. Brian's portion was to do some graffiti art for the party. It looked super cool. we taught the Plan of Salvation and he took it really well. Next time I think we should focus more on the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is so crutial in conversion. If an investigator does not gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon no action they take towards the Gospel will have lasting affect. After Brian we tried seeing a few Potential investigators to no avail. When we were finished finding we went over to the Dickson's home for dinner. It was very delicious, but what was even more delicious was the lesson we had with Ella afterward. we read about five chapters from the Book of Mormon with her and taught the importance of daily personal prayer and scripture study. After Ella we met with Sister Turner, a wonderful little old lady. She made me smile. :) Brother Dickson sang her a song and really brought up her spirits. and that finished our day. IT WAS Amazing!
September 17, 2015
Today was a day of planning as most Thursdays are. We did manage to have two teaching appointments though. The first appointment was with Ray, an investigator who really genuinely wants to know what we believe. He had a few things that were kind of hard for him to swallow. But we reassured him that if he pondered and prayed upon the things which we taught then God would make known unto him the truth of them. After Ray we went to go and see Ani. We caught her in the middle of packing her things to moved out. She was quite busy but still managed to talk to us one way for about an hour and a half. Occasionally we would be able to get a word in and we would reassure her that Jesus Christ is with her and will help her through all of her trials. She really appreciated the visit. After Ani's w had Dinner at Bro. Johnston Jr.'s. He is a great guy and it was an excellent dinner. We then spent the majority of our time after that helping him move his desk to his new office and getting to know him better.
September 18, 2015
Today was awesome!Met with Beth and did a quick Plan of Salvation lesson and committed her to bring a Joe to her lesson monday. Great lesson. We taught Sanchez the The Gospel of Jesus Christ and passed her off to Spring Valley. She took it really well and is totally willing to go to the Spring Vally ward. She is so awesome! Dinner at Amezcua's was awesome!We met with Victor tonight. He is super cool. He said he remembered meeting with the missionaries almost daily and he really liked it. We asked him what he remembered and he said it was fuzzy but he was able to remember a few things about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. We committed him to read the first chapter of the BoM and pray to know if it was true and if the restored Gospel is true.
September 19, 2015
Today we kicked off our day with visiting a referral from our mission President's wife. Sonja was a very nice lady. She is going through a really rough time and needs comfort and reassurance and love from her fellow brothers and sisters. We shared the Plan of Salvation with her and she expressed her true desire to live with her family forever. She really is a wonderful woman. After Sonja we had dinner and then taught Emmanuel. We met with Emmanuel duo o mono and taught him the Plan of Salvation. He believes that the BoM is true and the Plan of Salvation is true will still pray about it to God. He is such a stud! he really is wonderful and has a true desire to follow the straight and narrow path. that was our day! I hope you liked it! :D
September 20, 2015
Today was great. There was a lot of pondering involved with today. All day I was pondering what needs to happen to get the drive for missionary work up and running. I came to a conclusion of what we as missionaries can do to do our part. We will enter into the homes of all active members' homes, starting with Returning Members and Recent Converts and reaffirm or establish testimony in and of the Book of Mormon and then use that testimony as the driving force behind missionary work.
I truly believe that if we do this and align our wills with the will of the Lord along the way missionary work with the members will progress. Yeah.... so that is basically what we were focused on all day. It was a truly AMAZING day.
September 21, 2015
Today was good. We saw Tom and Em! They are awesome! Tom and Em said they would come to church next Sunday! It was so exciting! We haven't been able to meet with Tom or Em for over a month and a half. It is surely by the grace of God that we were able to meet with them.We were also able to have FHE with the Churchills tonight. It was great. We taught on family scripture study and the importance of it. The scriptures truly are amazing. That was my day.
Elder Alger out✌🏻️

Love you!

Week 11

September 13, 2015
Today was weird. We started with not having correlation with our ward mission leader because he is out of town again. Then we got to ward council and watched the at home portion of "Making the Sabbath more of a Delight", which was unusual. Then we couldn't find people to give some of our investigators a ride to church. Then we had our sacrament meeting go 20min overtime, then we gave a blessing to a resent convert's husband. Then after church we had an hour meeting with our Bishop trying to to figure out how to get the motor running with the ward with missionary work. We then we went to dinner at the Neder's. They are a super awesome family. We had New York style and Rib eye steak. It was very Delicious. Immediatly after the Neders we went over to the home of the Lemon Grove Elder's investigator Robin so Elder Andersen could give him a baptismal intervew. that was really fun! I was able to talk about the week with The Lemon Grove Elders and Robin is Geting baptized next Saturday! it was an over-all great day!
September 9, 2015
Today was no ordinary day. Why? Well first off we didn't have studies in the morning because we had to set up for zone conference which is kind of like a big seminar for missionaries. It was awesome but it took from 8am to 4:30pm. I learned so much. This Zone Conference was specifically focused on missionaries and members working together as a team. It makes so much sense now that I know but I didn't even know what I was missing out on before today. Or in other words 'I didn't know that I didn't know'. That's for you Landmark peeps ;D. But more on point we received conformation for using the method of members working with missionaries as a team at dinner today. At the Wester's, a returning less active family, we used the organization that was presented to us in the Conference and it worked! The Westers and us are united in bringing there friends closer to Jesus Christ and the Gospel! We received 3 referrals tonight! It was an overall great day! Peace out Dawg!👋🏼👏🏻✌🏻️☝🏼️👊🏾 Yeeeeah!
September 10, 2015
Hey! So today we taught an Evangelicall named Ray the Restoration. He loves gospel, especially when it is from the scriptures. And we met with Ani and taught her the  Gospel of Jesus Christ and the word of wisdom. She was a bit iffy about the word of wisdom so we stressed that she should pray to know Joe Smith was a prophet. It was a pretty good day. :D
September 11, 2015
Today was a rough day. We only taught one lesson today because Elder Andersen felt sick and we had to do extra planning. The planning was definitely need so I'm glad we did it. It is going to make next week be a breeze. This whole week has been weird though. With extra planning, zone conference, the ward pool party and district meeting there has been hardly any time for teaching. It definitely has messed with my mojo. Whatever that may mean. We did teach one lesson today though. And it was with Greg! I love Greg. We haven't met with him in about a week and a half because he has been very busy but we wear able to meet with him today. We taught him about the Ten Commandments with a returning member named Bro. Gonzalez. Because of his mind set we taught the lessons using hand gestures so he can remember them easier. It was quite fun. Bro. Gonzalez bore his testimony on the sabbath day and how it has blessed his life. Bro. Gonzalez is solid. We were very grateful to have him with us tonight. We invited Greg to church on Sunday and he said he would try but would never give a sure answer. Hopefully he'll be able to make it. That was my day. Elder out!

~ Elder Josh Alger

Week 10

September 5, 2015
Today was different from normal. President Schmitt's son Clayton was baptized. And we we had an investigator come and see it. Her name is Ella she has been progressing for a very long time about 2 months. She loved it! Her favorite part was the actual ordinance. Before the ordinance Pres. Schmitt taught about the gate to the strait and narrow and how it lead to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It was really cool how he did it. He had Clayton stand near the front of the chapel alined with the aisle between the pews and he had two missionaries stand at the opposite end of the aisle. He said that Clayton was standing at the gate to the straight and narrow path and the two missionaries were Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Pres. Schmitt then told Clayton that the gate symbolized baptism. told Clayton to walk down the aisle and said that as he  Then after the ordinance the APs taught the restoration to everyone in attendance. Then we had root beer floats and Pres. and Sis. Schmitt met Ella and want to go to her Baptism! It was awesome!
September 3, 2015
We started out today by meeting with Celeste, an investigator who has not been keeping the Commitments that will ring her closer to God. She was not willing to progress towards Him. We had what is known to Missionaries as a 'drop' lesson. A drop Lesson is when you tell an investigator who is not progressing that you will be meeting with them less often until they have that desire to progress towards our Heavenly Father once again. It gives the Investigator time and space to think about what they learned and reflect upon it.After we met with Celeste we read the BoM with a 91 year old lady in our ward named Mary just as we do every Thursday afternoon. It was fun but I honestly had a hard time keeping my eyes open when I wasn't reading. 😅 We all make mistakes right.😄
After we read with Mary we ran an errand for an investigator who is more or less home bound just in time for her to cancel on us. So we finalized plans for the coming week until our ward mission leader pick us up for dinner at his home.
We had nachos and they were pretty good! After nachos and some get to know ya we headed over to have a lesson with Ella with our ward mission leader.
It was a great time.
September 2, 2015
 Today was a very busy day. We had scheduled appointments from 12:30- 7pm. We started out with teaching Brian and Bridgette but Bridgette was busy with her daughter the whole time so we didn't really teach her. When we teach Brian without Bridgette the conversation can get very off topic very quickly. So next time our goal is to have Bridgette with us so she can bring in the conversation when it goes too off topic.
After Brian and Bridgette's we went over to Ani's. She is such a genuine good soul. Her intentions are so pure and godly. She is going though some rough times and really needs to rely on God and Jesus Christ so she can push through. We gave her some homework to help her understand the Atonement better from the Plan of Salvation pamphlet. As soon as she learns of the power of the Atonement she will have so much more freedom.
After a I we had dinner at the Dickson's. We had steak! Delicious! We had a great conversation about the Book of Mormon and how wonderful it really is and as we progress it become a completely different kind of wonderful.
After a wonderful time at the Dickson's. We decided to try a recent convert that we couldn't get a hold of earlier that day, Beth Daniels. We had a good meeting and answered a good bunch questions and helped her a little further down the path of righteousness.

Leave comments on this post on whether you all liked the in depth or brief posts.
Thanks :D

~ Elder Josh Alger

Videos for Week 9

This is a fun video my companion took on the way home from an

appointment. It was a good time! :D

Good bye until next week!

Week 9

So here is the in depth version of my week day-by-day.

August 26, 2015

Today was productive but very lead by the spirit. Our lesson plans did not go to schedule. We went over to Brian and Bridgette's after lunch an had the opportunity to speak to Bridgette's parents, one of which grew up in Utah. It was a cool coincidence. We went to Beth's after that and comforted her in a hard time and gave her a blessing. It really helped her. The last highlight of the day was going to the Perez's it was a late night visit because her girls were coming home from young women's. We read a part of a chapter from the BoM and committed them to read the remainder and the next chapter.

August 27, 2015

Today was odd. We met with Annie. We taught her most of the restoration. We weren't able to go though the whole thing because she easily goes off on tangents. Her baptimal date will have to be moved back to the 12th of September so she can be ready to be baptized. She has a crazy past and is very dedicated to church and Jesus Christ. Her heart is in the right place. Fellowshipping is going to be crucial with Annie. She is a wonderful and next to selfless woman. After Annie we went tot the Trevino's for dinner, the best family in the ward in my opinion. Then we went back to the apartment to finish our planning for the week and had a phone call Lesson with Sis. Churchill!?!?! I didn't even know that phone call lessons were even allowed! It was pretty cool, not as good as an in person lesson but still great! Then we went to Martel's. We got to his house and someone whom I am guessing was his dad came to the door and said Martel wasn't there. And when we asked when he would be there he said "It not gonna happen. I'm trying to be polite!" That was quite an interesting appointment. Then we started walking home and this lady named Sherry yelled at us from across a parking lot and said: "Hey! Hey! Are you Mormons!?" We said yes and we gave her a Book of Mormon and a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. She said she would go to church and just needed a church to go to. It was pretty cool.

August 29, 2015

Today was pretty cool. The first thing we did today was try to get Martel to a Baptism that another ward was putting on. Sadly we couldn't get a hold of him but while in that part of town we tried some old potential investors and found Derek. Derek is an awesome guy. He is going through some rough times but really desires to come closer to Christ and strive to be like him but he needs support from the people around him. So naturally we invited him to church where he can find the support he is looking for. We are going to pick him up tomorrow at 10:30! After that we went over to the Kimura's and talked to Sis. Kimura. She said that her son's schedule has changed so now he has Tuesday and Thursday off from work so we can meet with him now! After that we had dinner at the Dickson's. It was good food and a wonderful conversation about the Atonement. We then went to Ella M. After dinner was over. Ella was so happy to see us!  We read 5 chapters from the Book of Mormon with her and taught her about the Law of the Fast and the Law of Tithing.... Or should I say she taught us because she already knew most of what we had to say! What a great Investigator! After we were finished visiting Ella we went outside to wait for our ride home while out there there was a man named Juan came up to us. He asked us to give a blessing to his father who is recovering from an illness. We gladly accepted. Juan said that he had been trying to get someone over there for a month but was having a hard time and then we appeared. He said it was a blessing and a miracle. Super Cool! Just another day in the life of a servant of the Lord!

August 30, 2015 

This Sunday was pretty great. Sanchez came to church today! She hasn't been able to meet with us for the past few weeks because she hasn't been feeling well but she is feeling better now and came to church! The Perez's came to church too! The Perez's are so awesome. They love church and have been reading the Book of Mormon! Today's church was odd though. The first presidency of the church sent out a training video on keeping the sabbath day more holy and be a delight. We spent the 2nd and 3rd hours of church watching and discussing the video as a ward. It was cool! But different thankfully it didn't really effect the investigators in a negative way. They actually liked it. :D For dinner today we went to the Finau's and to our surprise Sanchez was there! Apparently Bro. And Sis. Finau invited her to dinner! Now that is good fellowshipping. We ate great food and has a great discussion on the Atonement of Christ and Sanchez had a beautiful testimony of the Atonement and how it has helped her in her life. It was great!

I love you!
~ Elder Josh Alger

Elder Andersen and I waiting at the bus stop... Fun times!

The actual bus! Exciting I know ;D

If you look toward the center of the Photo you will see the rare

species of the Missionariadorkus with his most prized possession The

ancient record of the Americas other wise known as the BoM!

This is the park where we meet many investigators. This moment

specifically is when someone didn't show up to meet with us.

A little panorama pic of the bus at the bus stop. :D

These next two are a glimpse of what the sky can look like in San Diego California.

This is a panoramic of the Spring valley park with the superb book

of scripture The Book of Mormon.

This is a pic of Elder Andersen being a goober on his photo booth app.