Jan 22, 2018 A Pretty Good Week

This week really has been pretty awesome! 

Started off with a really cool spiritual confirmation. I had been praying the past little while since President Monson passed away that I would be able to have a confirmation that the new prophet really was selected by the Lord. Well Tuesday afternoon as we were watching the announcement to the church members as soon as President Russel M. Nelson began to speak I felt the spirit wash over me in such a powerful way that I could not deny it. It is ever so amazing to me that God does really hear our prayers and answers them individually. What a blessing it is to have a prophet on the earth in our day and have the capability of knowing ourselves that he is just that, through personal revelation. God does still love us and for this reason he gives these great tools and teachers, to help us prepare to return to him. 

As a mission this week we received another really awesome tool. On Tuesday we attended a zone conference training meeting where we received the new smartphones. Finally we have received authorization to proselyte online. Along with the new smartphones we have received access to applications such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Skype to use in our teaching efforts. During the past couple of days we have already seen a huge increase in responsiveness to our messages! The communication is an essential part of this work and these new tools will allow us to reach out to more people on a much broader scale. 

 I’d like to finish up by sharing two cool little miracles that happened this week.   

First of all my companion and I have gotten back on the exercise grind lately getting meaningful workouts in to start of the day right. Haha we only had some small dumbbells so we were doing what we could with those but all the time wishing we had something more. Well this week we were helping a lady clean out and organize her storage room when I came upon an old bench and bar. She said she was going to throw it out and that if we wanted it we could take it. We were like YES we totally want it! Haha. So she gave it to us. It was pretty funny because we live like 30 minutes from her house so we were walking through the city trying to carry all this equipment and weight. We got a couple of funny looks haha. 

The second miracle is even better. We haven’t been able to get an investigator to church for quite a while now but Nono promised he would come this week and we were really excited. Well yesterday morning rolls around and we head over to his house to pick him up. We toke the door and nothing so we toke again and still no answer. It was getting pretty late and we had to get to the church so we decided to leave. As we were walking there I felt pretty disappointed because we were just so excited for him to finally come again. Anyways we show up to the church and start welcoming everyone. A random guy just randomly showed up so I introduced myself and invited him in to sit with us. Well he ended up staying all 3 hours and loved it. Turns out he is the grandson of an old member who lives out in Puerto Real. She is pretty sick and is confined to her house so he moved over to help take care of her. He got curious from all the stuff she told him and decided to come check it out!  So that was way awesome, now we have 2 citas with him this week :) 

So overall a pretty good week. I wish you all the best. Keeping you in my prayers always. 

Love y’all, 

- Élder Alex M. Childers 

Jan 15, 2018 Service and Social Media

Its been a pretty fun week, we were able to find some good service opportunities (my fav). We helped with two moves and met some really cool people through them. 

Then we were also able to help one of the members, Enrique in his campo. He got polio when he was a kid so one of his legs is pretty messed up and he walks with a crutch all the time. This man is a beast though. He knows how to do literally everything and he is self taught. First of he started with a shoe store. He figured out how to repair shoes and opened up a shop. He ended up running the place for 40 years! He saved most of his money and when he retired he went across to Puerto Real just on the other side of the bay and bought a plot of land. When he bought the land it was just dirt. He has done so much to it! Including building their entire house themselves! They started off just with one room, which is now the living room. They would use it for everything. The tractor was even parked in there! It was truly impressive, and it is still a work in progress. They are adding on two new rooms for visiting family on the side. We went there to cut wood because the house is only heated by a fire burning stove. So we cut a ton of firewood and stacked it so it can dry over the summer and be usable next winter. Since they are not connected to the power grid the electricity is provided by solar panels on the roof. They also have hot water thanks to a cool solar water heating contraption they’ve got. Elder Moffat and I just loved being out there playing around with axes and wheelbarrows, it brought back tons of fun memories. We are hoping to go back sometime soon because they promised to teach us how they slaughter the chickens haha. 

Well we also received some other crazy news this week. We are now an online proselytizing mission. On Wednesday we got facebook on our iPads and its super weird! This upcoming Wednesday we are having a conference where we will be trained in how to use it and also receive the new smartphones. Really exciting stuff! I was thinking the other day how many changes have happened during just my time in the mission and it's crazy. The Lords work is rolling forward and filling the whole earth as prophesied. It will be a great blessing for us to have these new tools that will enable us to reach out to even more people. 

Thank you for the love and prayers! 

- Élder Alex M. Childers 

Jan 8, 2018 Dia de los Magos

Well this week has seriously been all over the place. 

Most people have been super busy with the holidays because it was dia de los reyes magos. Basically their Christmas here. Instead of santa bringing gifts the 3 wise men bring them. Its pretty interesting how Christ has been completely taken out of the picture though. A lot like how Christmas in the states becomes more about Santa and less about Christ every year. Oh yeah so we decided to make cookies for all of the people who live in our building for New Years and they loved it! Now we are great friends with all of them. We’ve seen a bunch of them in the street the past couple of days and most of them have stopped to greet us which is cool. 

With the holidays everyone has been super busy with family and parties so we ended up in the street a lot contacting people and knocking doors. We were able to have a lesson with Jose Antonio which went pretty well. We changed his baptismal date to the 27th because he said he didn’t feel quite ready yet. On Sunday he was sick with a fever and wasn’t able to make it to church. Hopefully he will get better and we can meet some more this week. 

I have still been listening to conference talks almost every morning while I get ready. I was cooking breakfast Wednesday morning and it just so happened that two of Thomas S. Monson’s talks came on. One from Saturday afternoon and the other in priesthood session. They both included stories he’s shared a few times and I like a lot. I was thinking about how much I loved his talks because they are always humorous yet powerful. I thought back on watching the priesthood session with Dad when he gave the talk “Examples of Righteousness” during which he wiggled his ears. About 20 minutes later as we were doing our daily planning we got the call that he had passed away. It was really sad because he’s the first prophet that I really remember well. I’m sure he is in a better place now though, happy with his loved ones. My companion and I watched the short film the church has made that is available on the gospel library application. It’s called  “On the Lords Errand: The Life of Thomas S. Monson.” It is way good! When you have a little bit of time watch it! He truly was a prophet of the lord, I love teaching that principle to people. If God called prophets in biblical times, why would he leave us in the dark nowadays? The answer is, he hasn’t! “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” It is such a blessing to have living prophets in the latter days. I’m so grateful for the teachings of the prophet Thomas S. Monson that have truly effected my life. I invite all to study his talks and teachings they will change your life. 

Lots of love, Feliz día de los Reyes! Have a great week :) 

- Élder Alex M. Childers 

Hey!

Wow thats so crazy the ward splitting again already. So much growth going on around there. What families did we lose/ gain in the ward that I would know? 

Thats great the brother warner is the bishop, he will do a good job, great guy. 

Real bummer that its been such a bad snow year. Sorry guys, I guess its all just being saved for me next year! Can’t wait to hit the slopes with ya’ll again :) 

I’m glad you mentioned that about Nelson, I thought that he might the one who sealed you but I wasn’t sure. Thats so awesome! Yeah I’m curious to see who the counselors will be too, my guess is he keeps them the same.. but we’ll have to wait and see! 

It looks like I will be here for the next 6 weeks. My companion and I are both staying this transfer so that’s nice. I was a little stressed thinking I might have to pack everything up and move again. I got the package with the Nutella this week and its soooo good! Its a huge glass jar! Should last us for quite a while, thanks :) 

Thanks for informing me about the christmas money too, rebajas start today so I’m going to try to find some slides and stuff cause mine keep falling apart. 

Anyways thanks also for sending the master tonic recipe. I’m going to try to find the ingredients at the store today. That stuff is the best :) 

Also yeah thanks for getting on that new calendar too. I’ve been just trying to note down a couple things each day in a notebook so i can fill in when it gets here. 

Hey we talked about Moses chapter 1 in church yesterday! Really cool section :) 

There is power in the lords name! 

Love you :) 

- Élder Alex M. Childers