Week 94 Baptism!

Romeo was baptized this Saturday! And then confirmed a member of the church and received the Aaronic Priesthood, which I was able to confer upon him!!! He is such a stud. He is in the Navy and is currently out to sea but he wants to get to the temple a soon as possible. I love him dearly.

Another highlight for this week is that I met Tom Kirchner for the first time! Tom is working towards being baptized in early June but is currently in Germany with his family. We FaceTimed him yesterday and it was great experience.

I am back to making cookies again! We have been having a hard time contacting people and I know that if you knock on someone's door with a plate of cookies they are much more likely to be kind to you than not. So on with the cookie making. Also the leadership in our wards are so fantastic that we just have to give them something to say thank you .

I love my mission. It is interesting thinking about the length of my mission and my contacts in all of the different areas and changes in myself over the years. I know my mission has been nothing but good for me and for those around me. I would recommend it. 

And also a shout out to Tim, my younger brother for getting his mission call to The Korea, Seoul mission to report in August! I am so proud of him. He has become a true follower and disciple of Jesus Christ and there is nothing better I could dream of for him. I love you Tim!

~ Elder J. Alger

Tom and his wonderful wife Bri 

The missionaries and Bishop with Tom (can you guess which one is the Bishop?)

Some members took us out to Chick-Fil-A to eat and I saw these teens in waiting to order their pre-prom dinner. I thought it was kind of funny . But hey, this Chick-Fil-A was pretty cool , it had a community couch.

Week 93 Progress!!!

This past week has been a blast! We have been a whole lot busier teaching less-active members and non members and some active members in the mix. Teaching is my all time favorite part of missionary work. When we teach an individual and they come prepared (hopefully), having read and prayed and contemplated what we had left them last time, we then follow up with them ask them about their experience, if it inspired any question and what they personally got from it. Then we get into the goods, an inspiring stream of thought with doctrine, soul searching questions, scriptures and personal testimony paired with experiences. The room fills with light and our minds and buzzing with excitement. Then you see the light in their eyes. They get it. They understand.... then we help them apply their new found knowledge and light with assignments to read ponder and pray about. Then we leave having had an amazing spiritual experience.

That is what it is like when missionaries teach.

I love the wards I am serving in. I love the people and everything they stand for. 

Salutations!

~ Elder Alger

Do you see Sara in this picture? I found this print in our primary presidents home.

The view from our apartment early in the morning.

Week 92 Easter!

Easter Sunday!

It has been a lovely week in fine Peñasquitos Zone. We have been teaching more and more since I have been here. It is great we are becoming more and more involved with the members and it is starting to show. I love doing the work of the Lord but it is a lot more effective and fun when we work with the local members.

I also had the privilege of going on a companion exchange with Elder Platt, our district leader. He is a strange one but he wants to do what is best so that is what counts.

Sunday was awesome! Especially in the Del Sur Ward. There were at least 3 families that had brought a neighbor or friend that normally would not come to church. I had opportunity to sit next to one of them named Nina. She Is from Russia and is super nice. Maybe we can get her to come again. Fingers crossed 🤞🏼. Hopefully we can see her again tonight. 

I love the work. 

~Elder J. Alger

Elder Platt and Me

Week 91 Living in Luxury

This week has been insane! My first week in Peñasquitos 3rd, and Del Sur wards have been super busy. We have been meeting a lot of the members. Our areas here, Peñasquitos and Del Sur are very affluent so knocking doors and talking to people in the street is so very much less than effective. Luckily, we have some of the best members in Peñasquitos Stake. The members are always thinking about us and our well being it is awesome. 

They are also pretty good at sharing the gospel. Just yesterday after a family home evening at the Harris home we were able to pin point 4 individuals the family is going to reach out to and invite to Easter Sunday. 

Elder Seavey is a great companion as well. Like I said last week, he is a redhead which already puts him up in my mind. To add to that he is a great bible scholar and can answer just about any question you might have about doctrine in it. He is also a great teacher. I think I am in for a real treat this transfer. 

Oh and lastly, we have 3 investigators with baptism dates, Tom R. (husband of a returning less-acitve member), Tom K. (19 year old German exchange student), and Talan (10 year old unbaptized child of a returning less-acitve member). I have met Talan but both Toms are out of town for about the next month.

The mission is AWESOME!

~Elder J. Alger 

We do not have a can opener in our apartment so we had to get creative...

This is the richest part of our area. It is in a country club and every house looks like a castle!

Family Home Evening with the Harris family making cookies

Silly pic with the Harris family

The Peñasquitos Zone at the San Diego temple earlier this morning

Week 90 God Bless Penasquitos!

Pq

I got transferred!

I am in a new city in our mission Called Penasquitos. It is super rich and we cannot do missionary work on our own here, only by working with members ( or so I have been told). I do not know much about this place yet but I will let you know next week.

In the mean time let's talk abut General Conference. I would have to say the Saturday afternoon session was my most favorite. I loved all of the speakers and I defiantly took the most notes. 

I love being a missionary. I am no longer a zone leader which means I get to spend ALL of my time doing missionary work and no Meetings! I am excited and to top things off I am companions with another redhead, Elder Seavey!

Love you! Bye.

~Elder J. Alger 

Bonus!

I received a sweet message this week:

Hi Sister Alger!  This is Sister Young from Poway. We have missed your wonderful missionary son in our area!  Tonight I got a text from the elders asking if they could stop by because they were thinking of me. My first thought was "I haven't  gotten a text like that since Elders Jensen and Alger were here. Makes me miss them". Before I could even respond there was a knock at my door and there was your son on splits with Elder Smith from our ward!  It was so good to see him!  I wanted to give him a big hug, but of course I couldn't!  He was only in my home for a few minutes but he brings such a wonderful spirit!  What a wonderful young man he is. You should be so very proud. I snapped this picture before they left. Please excuse me, I've been sick and I've was getting ready for bed when they stopped by!  I tried to have as little of me in the picture as possible! ❤❤

I love the hat and was glad to see he had it!  I know he had lost his just before he left our area. My friend and I were going to get him one for his birthday and then he got transferred so we didn't have the chance. Glad to see he got another one!!

Nicholle Young

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