Week 89 Lots of Fun and Miracles

Jill was Baptized!!! She is a great convert too! Probably on of the strongest I have helped along yet! She is the sweetest lady and is super excited for the Gospel too! I am just so happy for her. Sharing the Gospel is the best.

This week has Been crazy. We have been jumping all, over the place with exchanges in Poway and Ramona, and to top it off  a ward party, a baptism and a Mission President's Devotional. That is 5 major events in one week. I was super stressed and worried. Thankfully with Christ, the Prince of Peace, we can find refuge in the storm. 

We are looking for new people to teach now. If we were smart we would have been looking while working with Jill but hey we aren't perfect.

We are spending a lot more time with the members of the ward. For example today we went on a hike with Sister McVay an her family through the creek in the back woods. I should have pictures next week. More important than hiking though and way more rewarding is when we get to talk and converse about the wonderful truth of the Gospel. There is literally nothing better than helping someone who was completely lost in the confusion of the world and help them find the solace of Christ, our Lord. Someone we are teaching had a very powerful experience she shared with us. She was in her room playing one of her favorite songs, Amazing Grace, and the Spirit hit her and as she put it, "I went straight into prayer mode...". She felt the hand of our Savior on her hands. She found peace. She is making leaps and bounds.

Love ya! 🏼 

~ Elder Joshua Alger

This is us with Jill right before baptism

I had the wonderful opportunity to pray right next to this gorgeous field when I was feeling super stressed

Week 88 Loving Life!

Another Week in the Life of Elder J. Alger 

Baptism time! Jill Slovacek is going to be baptized! She has been making lots of friends and has been so inspired by the spirit. She is ready! The Gospel is so true. Jill was found by the missionaries here in the Highland Valley Ward back in October last year. She has since met with them as her health permitted. As she went along she realized in her heart that were some commandments she did not feel ready to obey and that was a tremendous wall for her blocking her. 

A couple of weeks ago she experienced a mighty change of heart. She realized how detrimental the sin was that she was holding onto and completely let go. She has since transformed. She is truly converted. It is truly amazing!

As for me the missionaries in the northern portion of the mission gathered together last Tuesday at Camp Wildwood, a church owned camp in our ward boundaries, and we did a super awesome, highly spiritual missionary conference. It was great! One of the things I learned was that if I am too worried about what I am supposed to do than I will neglect much of what others need. I need to change my perspective to completely and wholly focusing on the needs of all of the people I work with each and every day. Only then will I truly help change lives.

Love ya! 🏼 

~ Elder Joshua Alger

Elder Young and me sitting in the apartment enjoying being around each other :-)

This is Elder Anderson (the goofball) placing one of many less than attractive photos of himself in my iPad 

And a charming picture of Elder Young, my Beloved companion, right before our Silent hike.

Week 87 Loving Life!

Sometimes life give you lemons but not this week. We have been teaching and preaching like no body's business! We are working with Jill almost everyday leading up to her baptism date on March 18th. It is wonderful. We also are working with a gal named Andrea. She is a great person and is ready to change. She said "I think my own personal apostasy is almost over." That sure brought a smile to our faces. As for myself I have come to realize again that I can do so much more to help those around me. The biggest ah-ha moment I had was about my own prayers. As a missionary I think very often how we can help those we teach make the next big step like come to church or set a date to be baptized. I realized if I really wanted to help those people I need to pray for them specifically each day. This applies to you too. If you truly want to help someone else, to show Heavenly Father you truly want it to happen you better pray for it. It is so simple but hard to apply because we are creatures of habit. 

I love my mission and everything about it I hope you get to have similar experiences with your friends.

~Elder Alger

Week 86 Invested in the Lord's work

Another Week in the Life of Elder J. Alger 

This week has been pretty great! We added a new missionary to our ranks, Elder Ray. He is super chill but is here to work. I love him dearly.

The work is starting to get moving. We helped gal named Jill set a baptism date on the 18th of March. That was an experience. She has been meeting with missionaries since June last year and she really likes Mormons. She just has some major health issues that get in her way quite regularly. Please pray for her so she can make her date and enter into the Lord's kingdom.

As for myself. The realization that I will not stay on my full-time mission forever is becoming more and more real to me. And although I will not let coming home distract me from my service to the Lord I have decided that I need to do a little bit more preparation before I come home. Mostly spiritual preparation.

During Stake Conference this past week the spirit told me I should start thinking about making my own personal member missionary plan. And on top of that a personal temple plan to best prepare myself to get fully invested in all aspects of the work of salvation. I would recommend you doing the same. A plan helps us stay focused on the things that matter most and make our journey on earth as wonderful as possible.

Life is great! Almost to good to be true.

Love ya! 🏼 

~Elder J. Alger 

Rainbow

Petes BBQ

Steven, one of our investigators, kid

Do you see it? (hint: it's bigger on the inside)

Fridge pics from a little girl I drew a picture for.

Elder young and I on the road to success

Elder Ray and I at the Temple today

Week 85 (a week late)

Another Week in the Life of Elder J. Alger 

I almost sent this out last week but I forgot to click send and by the time I realized it was too late. But here it is.

This week was really fun. We went on exchanges a of couple times. Once with Elder Wilson, the missionary I trained and another with Elder D. Anderson (not M. Anderson). They were both really fun and I learned a lot. I need to be more diligent in loving the Lord and serving him out of love ️. That is what makes God who he is. And if I want be like him I better learn how to love.

I love the Lord so much. One of the things I have learned to love on my mission is being in the service of my fellow men. As some of you already know I very regularly make chicken noodle soup for the sick and cookies for those who need cheering up. It makes me so happy to show others how much I love them. Truly when you are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. (paraphrase Mosiah 2:17)

Love ya! 🏼 

Week 85

No, email this week, but we got this sweet text and picture from someone in Josh's ward. (I love those smiles!!!)

We are enjoying your wonderful son! Thank you for your sacrifice and service.

The Frandsens

Week 84

Your future is as bright as your faith. This week we focused a lot on Faith and Consecration. If you do not believe you can help your brothers and sisters enter in the waters of baptism and make a Covenant, or promise, with our Father in heaven to remain true to him and keep his commandments then it simply will not happen. Great things to come to pass unless we are willing to work for them. And then when we rely on our Savior nothing is impossible. 

Last Friday the Zone, a group of missionaries my companion and I have stewardship over, came together for a meeting where we all hoped we would be edified and brought closer to our God. After my companion and I finished talking about Consecrating, or dedicating, ourselves as missionaries to the Lord and his service we invited each Companionship of missionaries to find a room in the church building to Pray together and on their own to know and understand what they personally need to do next to become Consecrated Missionaries of the Lord Jesus Christ. This helped me tremendously. I realized that I was allowing Small common things to distract me and these distractions, which were not necessarily evil were hindering my usefulness to the Lord. 

I invite you to do somethings similar. Find a private place. Somewhere you are fairly sure no one else will be listening and get on your knees and Pray. Open up your heart to Our Father in Heaven. Let him know what you have done for him and where your heart is. Ask him for the help that you need to better follow him and his son Jesus Christ and commit to him to do all you can to do it. You will not be disappointed. If you do this with sincerity a light will turn on. And you will know what you need to do next in this journey that we call life. 

I love you all, I love my Mission but most of all I love the Lord.
I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

~ Elder Joshua Alger

Me and Elder Young at one with Nature in a wonderful camp in our area.