Week 8

This Sunday was amazing! We had 5 Investigators at church this Sunday. The whole Perez family and Greg to be more specific. The Perez family loved church. But of course what's not to love. It was a fantastic day. When church was over we went back to the apartment after eating some cupcakes that were labeled "Eat Us" in the Church Fridge. We had lunch and chilled for an hour. We then crammed whatever studying we could before our dinner appointment with the Hurdsman's, a super solid family and committed them to find opportunities to serve. We then went to Bro. Matlock's and kind of said good bye for now and taught him about the importance of prayer. Then we went straight to Martel's place and that is where the magic happened. 

We had a great lesson with Martel. We taught the plan of salvation and he was blown away. He loved it! He really wants to go to the celestial kingdom so he can live with God and he wants his family there with him. He committed to continue reading the BoM and ask in prayer for truth. He also is going to share what he learned with the people he cares most about. He is going to make a great Mormon some day! Oh and we also got follow up appointments with him every Tuesday and Saturday weekly from here on! Amazing! It is times like this when there is no doubt that the Lord is working through us as his disciples!

The next Monday was very busy. Last Saturday we finished translating our paper Area Book, records of anyone taught by the missionaries, so we went out proselyting an hour earlier. It was weird but awesome at the same time. We stopped by a potential investigator's homes not knowing what might come of it and we ended up getting invited in and teaching both the woman we were going to see and her father. For the first 30 minutes we were there she and her father were almost bible bashing each other then they remembered we were there and asked what we believed. 

We taught them about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and they really liked it and didn't really argue after that. That's what the Gospel can do to people! We ended up getting a return appointment for this upcoming Saturday. It was a great lesson then we had a pass off lesson with some missionaries from the Carlsbad mission!

It is unusual for missionaries to do pass off lessons with an investigator after they have moved into an area with new missionaries when it is far away. It is even more unusual for pass off lessons to occur between separate mission boundaries! But I suppose Annie is just that special.Annie is solid. She wants to get baptized yesterday! But in our mission or really any mission we need to teach all of the lesson material required for anyone to get baptized. She has a baptism set for September 5th. I hope we can cover the material fast enough for her to get baptized on her assigned date. But this is a good problem to have. It is way better than having no one to teach. Count your blessings!   

~ Elder Josh Alger

 A super cool bike

Pics of the apartment

Pics from the hike today

Week 7

This week's highlight... Well there were actually two highlights for this week. The first being dinner with the Armstead family. We showed the "Mountains to Climb" Mormon Message and I felt the Holy Spirit one of the strongest times in my lifetime this point. It was undeniable proof of the divine nature and truth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The second highlight was in the church parking lot of all places. Elder Andersen, a member Jerry Scott, and I were scrambling around for about an hour trying to find someone to attend the Baptism of DJ Fox which was going on that night. After an hour of "I'm busy", closed doors and unanswered phones we decided to go on foot near the church. We didn't even take 50 steps and we found someone to teach.

His name was Donovan. He was a skateboarder. He was skating in the church parking lot and we decided to go see what he was up to and invite him to come unto Christ. We ended up giving him a church tour and giving him a Book of Mormon. He said he would give it a look and maybe come by the church Sunday around 11am. It was super cool. And I would like to say that having a member there that is befriending and sharing how the gospel has changed their life, is amazing and it truly makes a huge difference!
Elder Alger out ✌🏻️!

This is my first district in the mission before two of the elders left me.

The second is Elder Anderson eating Giant Pizza King at a Less-Acitve's house.

Week 6

Every day as a missionary is a great day. But Sunday was an especially great day and not in the way I would have expected. The Lord's timing is tricky and trying to be a missionary of the Lord at all times and in all places, even when you are called and set apart, is an exceeding difficult task. The reason why this day is so great is because I came to the realization I do not have to nor am expected to become a perfect missionary in an instant. It simply will not happen. It will take time and diligence and much reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Looking back my expectation for myself in a nutshell was to become equivalent to Jesus Christ over night. It was a ridiculous bar to set.  All I need to do is to strive to be worthy of all of the things my Lord Jesus Christ will call me to do. No matter my determination I will always need to rely on Jesus Christ. I must remember to give my weak things unto him so I can be made strong. I encourage all who read this blog to do the same work yourselves toward Christ step by step and line upon line. Do not overwhelm yourself and become discouraged.

Love,
Elder Josh Alger

This is Elder Andersen being a dork at the temple.

This is our attempt to take a nice picture at the temple :D

This is the closest I could get Elder Andersen to a normal pic

This is our dramatic, epic temple pose. I think it is fantastic!

This is is my attempt to get Elder Andersen to not look like a dork

My zone leaders, they are pretty cool

My whole district at the temple

This is Elder Regan. He is one of our Lao missionaries. This is

obviously one of his finest moments.

This is a picture of our whole zone before two of our elders leave for home.

This is Elder Hirst, one of my zone leaders. We were having a good

time on our way to an appointment.

This is Elder Clark. I spent a whole day with him on a cross zone

exchange or MTE. He is pretty cool; we had a good time together.

This is Elder Archambault (ar-sham-boh) being a dork, taking a

selfie when he was supposed to take a pic of me and the other elders.

Elder Andersen and I in real life on P-Day time!

Week 5

This Sunday was amazing! We had two investigators come to church! And one of them said they wanted to join the church! So, the Friday before, we ran into Sanchez at the local park and had a great discussion about God, Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. She said she would make it to church. At first because we didn't know how trustworthy she was we were skeptical of her word. It turns out she is super solid! She loved Relief Society and all of the other meetings we have! We talked for half an hour after church and she said after her 2 week vacation with her son and grandchildren she wants to "join this church". And probably the coolest part is she wanted to let us know that our efforts were well spent in bringing her to church.The second investigator is Ella. The only reason she is in our area is because she acquired vertigo because of an injury here in San Diego otherwise she would be up in Northern California with her family. The Lord works in mysterious ways. :) She has had the Dickson's, a lovely elderly couple, come by her rehab center and read the Book of  Mormon to her. They hit it off as easy friends and brought her to church! She is going to make a great Mormon someday!

~ Elder Josh Alger

Week 4

 I spoke in Sacrament meeting for my first time on my mission this Sunday. It was so stressful. I worked on it all week during personal study. The Bishop gave me the topic of missionary work. It was a broad topic so had to narrow it down so it would be impactful. I started thinking about what I most struggled with as a member missionary. I came to the conclusion that it was faith. But not only faith but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in the our Lord and Redeemer is so essential. It is this very same faith that brings us closer to Jesus Christ and his perfect example. We must have faith that our Savior has prepared those around us that they might receive the joy and happiness that we have already. We must put ourselves completely in his hands. In order to build that faith we must have learn to trust the Lord.We can do this by: First- Praying Daily (getting to know our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ by speaking to them directly), Second- having Daily Scripture study (reading Their words given to us by Their Holy Prophets), Third- Being Worthy of God's Holy Temple (or acting on His word giving the world another righteous example to live by), and Fourth- Daily Acts of Service (following Christ's selfless example in serving our fellow brothers and sisters. "... When you're in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your God" As you learn to rely on the Lord your joy will skyrocket and the joy of those around you.

Thank you and love you,

~ Elder Josh Alger

These are some of the beautiful flowers we have in San Diego.

This is what it looks like every other morning.

More beautiful flowers.

Bro. And Sis. Dickson made Hawaiian Haystacks because I suggested it. They loved it and gave us some leftovers. It was almost as good as Mom's :D 

This is what happens when you walk on your Mission. 

Week 3

My companion Elder Anderson is now Elder BATMAN! I'm not quite sure how it came to me during my very first mission president fireside, but one of his previously baptized investigators has a younger sister who always called him Elder Batman. It's kind of odd but it's also kind of awesome. The mission president fireside was awesome! And I actually got to connect with one of our investigators, Viola. It was pretty great. She liked it so much she wanted us to come by any day after five and anytime of the day on Saturday. It was awesome. We met with Ruben Samenaigo III on Monday. It was a two hour long meeting. Nothing really came of it. We tried to teach the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a little bit of the plan of salvation. But he didn't believe in God or that Jesus Christ is our Savior. So it was really rough. He's not very comfortable with the idea of God. Mostly because he doesn't see God is a loving Heavenly Father but he sees him as a tyrant. Someone who can be hypocritical and not receive any consequences. He doesn't understand the nature of God. I don't know what we can do for him. Hopefully we can figure something out. But earlier this week we got a great new investigator named Yasmin. She is awesome. She is still in high-school but she isn't like all of the nasty teenagers you might think fill a high school. She has an innocence about her. I'm really excited to teach her again.

Until next week!

Elder Josh Alger




Loving the beautiful San Diego!!!!

I took these on photo booth for fun one night after daily planning.

Week 2

Right now I'm in the Sweetwater 1st ward. It is two areas away from the ward we visited during vacation! It's crazy! I'm having a great time. My companion is a goob, just like me, but knows how and when to get down to business. I love him to death. He's from a small town up in Idaho called Blackfoot. I have learned to heavily rely on the Lord and his will. I know that if I am exactly obedient and diligent I will be aligned to the Lord's will in all of the work I do here in the Great San Diego Mission.

After church on Sunday we went out with Bro. Dickson, an older but energetic brother, to teach my first real sit-down investigator lesson! It was great. Her name is Elle but pronounced "Ella". We taught the Plan of Salvation it all want very well. It was an odd visit though because she couldn't read the Book of Mormon or much of anything we gave her because she's got vertigo and dizziness from falling down three steps of stairs. But we are getting a recorded version of the Book of Mormon so she can listen to it. She was excited for that. It was an amazing experience!

I am excited for all my days be filled with the Spirit of God so the children of our glorious Heavenly Father can hear His good word!

Oh and I got in a car crash with Bro. Dickson on Thursday night. No one got hurt but the car sure did. I'm attaching the pics.

Love you all!

Elder Joshua Alger

The pics this week start with the ones from the MTC and then on to the crash in San Diego.