Week 38

Yikes! Scorpions are no fun. Tell Laney she gets an A for effort. 

This week has been really great! We have seen some real progression with our investigators. 

Ron is still going strong for reaching his baptismal date for the 23rd of April. He came to church! He is the best! We also met with Ainar, the Estonian, and set him with a date for the 7th of May! We are super excited to help them both get moving in the right direction. 

I've come to a personal realization. I am to comfortable with my situation as a missionary. I need to grow more. But I don't know how I am going to do it. In order to figure it our I am going to keep that as a question to be answered during General Conference. If you have a question that you just can't seem to figure out a good way to answer it is by looking for answers in General Conference. I challenge you to do the same. It will make all of the difference. 

Sometimes I don't realize the blessings all around me, but instead I realize all of the things that need to change. I think this is a common thing amongst God's children. We all do it, and looking from the outside, it seems selfish. I need to change this. It reminds me of a scripture. Alma 22:15  "15...Yea, what shall I do that I may be born of God, having this wicked spirit rooted out of my breast, and receive his Spirit, that I may be filled with joy,..." My greatest disire is to become like Christ is and experience that joy that only comes through him." I challange you to keep that in your thoughts during this General Conference. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

~ Elder Josh Alger

Week 37

Yeah we are fine here in humble old San Diego. :) the most excitement we have seen here in the last week was a small bit of rain.

Here in Good old San Diego in the 4th ward we have added one Burmese man with a Baptismal date for the 23rd of April! And transfers have happened and I am still with Elder Anderson! We are having a blast together. We are playing cards right before bed and he is teaching me how to play guitar. It is a good time.

Fernando is doing well and Michael too. Jennifer just got hitched this Saturday. It was really exciting. She had a purple wedding cake and her godmother told a story about who should make the coffee in a married
couple. Which was hilarious because she is Mormon! 

I also got to see Elder Climer again! And to top off the week we got to spend a day as a tri-panionship with Elder Kunz because his companion ditched him a day
before transfers. We had all sorts of fun!

My favorite addition of the week would probably have to be George. He is so cool he said all he has to do it read and pray and he will know. He is ready. It is super sweet. He is also a Purple Heart veteran and had his fingers blown off and reattached in the Vietnam war. He isa real life hero. He is already overall striving to rid himself of bad influences. I am so glad that he asked the right guys to help him to do exactly that!

Well that is My week.
Love you all!
Josh

Week 36

 Here is what I have been up to...

Michael is doing great! He didn't make it to church this week because he was in Wisconsin on business but he is still super on fire with the Gospel.

 Jennifer is doing well too. She is actually getting Married this week! How exciting! She is so much happier with the Gospel. The difference is very noticeable.

Joseph has been off the radar for the past two weeks and we didn't know what to do to get a hold of him so we just hoped and prayed for something to happen so we could gain contact again. The result was Joseph just showing up to church! Of all the things to happen this was the best one. We weren't able to grab his number though so he is lost again until we find each other. So we are hoping and praying for that to happen again.

Fernando is doing very well too! He is a funny guy but we love him still the same. 😊 He is very sharp he remembers almost everything we teach him to the T. It is wonderful!

We also have been very busy adding new Investigators to our teach pool. Some of the more promising are Scott (a members 35 year old child), Linda  (a sweet grandmotherly type lady), Andrea (a middle aged woman who buys Bibles from thrift stores to hand out to those who need them), and Ainar (an Estonian fellow who lives with a member).  They are all great and we hope to move forward in the gospel with them! 😄😇

There have also been a few cool events that have occurred this week. One of which was a Pass-off lesson with the the Richardson's (our Senor missionary couple). We gave Jennie, one of our more resilient investigators, to the Richardson's because we know that they will help her make progress in the way that she really needs.

We also went to the Tidepools at Point Loma and had a blast. The tide was super low so we saw a lot of cool things.

And lastly we had our lesson with Tree. Yes Tree. People have strange names around here. And the name was actually quite fitting. He was making weird clicking noises with his mouth and waving his hands around like a Kung Fo master while we were teaching the whole lesson. He called it communicating with God, I called it strange, but yeah. We have a unique bunch in San Diego.

That's pretty much it for this week PEACE!

~ Elder Josh Alger

Week 34

I have had a Crazy week. Elder Climer and I were Getting stuff done! We had two baptisms on the 20th! Jenn and Fernando. Jenn was really in need of support and felt that the only people that she could go to for it was us, which wasn't the best because we have been super swamped with teaching. But by a miracle of sorts she held her act together and was baptized and confirmed a week ago and is doing much better now. Fernando on the other hand really enjoys the missionaries but wasn't as dependent on us as Jenn. He was super happy the week before Baptism and even asked me to perform the ordinance! And because Jenn and Fernando were baptized in the same service I just baptized both of them. It was a wonderful experience! Since then we have been meeting with
them and giving them the recent convert lessons. But there is a plot twist. Elder Climer is no longer with me 😢 he was emergency transferred (transferred in the middle of the transfer period) over to Ramona (the middle of nowhere). Buuuuuuuut now I am companions with Elder Anderson. He is a goof ball. We both get distracted easily so that is something we are overcoming together but I think we will work well together and even be good friends but only time can tell.

~ Elder Josh Alger