Real Adults Don't Have Pink Laundry

Mis Amigos y Querida Familia,

Yup. I don't know if I can claim to be a real adult because much to my dismay, I pulled out some pink laundry this morning. Muy triste. You'd think that having a year living away from home already would help me avoid these rookie mistakes. Guess I still have more to learn!

Anyway haha, the missionary life of Hermana Alley is going forward here in the CCM! It is now my fourth week and third letter to all of you! Crazy how time starts to fly. My first week I wouldn't have thought it possible. Now I'm about to be one of the older missionaries, by Mtc standards anyway. Native speakers are only here for three weeks, and the Hermanas that arrived with us left for their missions at the beginning of this week. Crazy! Today is P-day and we got to relax which was way nice. Hermana Fenton, Hermana Williamson, Hermana Lindsay and I watched Meet the Mormons together :) Would reccommend! Our first two P-days we went to the Mexico City temple which was amazing, but just takes up a lot of time.

My Spanish is progressing, I can now understand almost all of what our teachers say. But they always tell us the best practice is to speak with the latinos. When I try at meal times or with Hermanas in our casa, I honestly have a mini heart attack. Native spanish speakers speak soooo fast! Tan rapido! It takes all my concentration to make sense of half of what they are saying so I can respond in a way that makes any sort of sense. But it's good practice! I hope its a good sign that my spelling has been getting a lot worse lately because I mess up English and Spanish. We all joke about how our English is getting worse :P

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"
Matthew 28:19

I think the theme of my mission experience so far is that it is not more than I can handle, but it is certainly challenging. This week our district mixed with a native-speaking district to teach a lesson. So I got a latina companion for a couple hours who spoke no english!! Aaah! I felt pretty self-conscious about my language abilities. But what Hermana Moreno ended up teaching me most was more about the gospel than about spanish. In some of my lessons I've been hesitant to push my "investigators" with what I invite/commit them to do and change in their lives. But Hermana Moreno said we needed to commit her to be baptized on the first lesson! She's an amazing, bold, and caring missionary, and she reminded me that I am not here as a missionary to have nice conversations with people. I am here to invite them to come unto Christ, and that is through baptism! The best way I can help anyone with something is to help them bring Christ into their lives this way. Who am I to say when I think people are ready or not? This is God's work!

I'm starting to gain an appreciation of my opportunity to really study the gospel on my mission. I really want to be one of those missionaries one day who knows the scriptures so well she can pull out a scripture reference off the top of her head to help someone's concern.

My companion Hermana Lindsay and I had the opportunity to kind of look back in time this morning when some Hermanas we know asked us to act as members in their lesson. They've been here for less time than us, so their troubles with Spanish reminded us of ourselves a few weeks ago. I had an interesting experience with feeling the strong urge to jump in and help the Hermanas when they were struggling. But I knew I couldn't teach their lesson for them, and the Spirit was telling me to shhh and just testify when they asked me to. Despite struggles, the Spirit was present in the lesson, and afterwards I thought about how much symbolism there was in what I just did. Heavenly Father has given all of us the gift of choice in our lives. He can and will guide us, but he will not make decisions for us. That made me think of all the times I must have received impressions from the Spirit for what to do or say in a lesson and I might not have listened. God knows how his children need to be taught, and it's my job to listen and go and do. I'm so grateful for Heavenly Father's infinite patience with me as I learn to do that. Missionaries are a miracle, I'm telling you. God entrusts us with so much when we know how to do so little!

I haven't been super homesick yet, except for BYU football games funnily enough haha. When someone in my district said they were emailed the score of the first BYU game, I got a little too excited. Gosh I miss that! One of my cousins at the Y wanna update me haha?? I need to know how my Cougs are doing. Wow yup and now I'm sounding a lot like my Dad. Oh and speaking of my cousins, shout out to Nick Lee because two elders in my district are going to the Jacksonville, Florida mission!

One of the Hermanas' teachers

The MTC is quite the bubble and I don't hear much about the outside world. The only reason I heard about the hurricane in Texas was because some departing missionaries had to be redirected in their travel plans becasue they could no longer go through the Houston airport. I would appreciate some news about that! I'm praying for Texas and I know God will show his loving hand through all those selfless people who must be participating in the relief. Look for the good in every circumstance!

One thing my companion and I have been doing to keep our spirits up and also learn Spanish is singing hymns as we walk around the CCM. It's pretty fun! I also learn a lot from the little differences in translation between english and spanish hymns. "Called to Serve", or "Ilamados a servir" is a cool rough translation: "We are today called to serve to give testimony of Jesus. We'll go to a world in darkness in order to proclaim the light. Promptly, all promptly we will sing in union. Ready, always ready we'll be in tune the song. All we'll sing our joy is triumphant. God gives us power; we fight in the celestial cause!" Love it! Also side note the first time I sang Called to Serve with all the other missionaries in the CCM I had tears streaming down my face because it was a dream come true for me to have a black nametag on and sing that song with a crowd of fellow missionaries. I love being a missionary! I learn new reasons every day for why I am doing this, but I really loved what one of my teachers said the other day. He's only been a member for five years, and he's a returned missionary. He said his motive to serve was gratitude. Gratitude for how his life was changed and blessed by the knowledge of the gospel! He said that gratitude trumped all the hard times on his mission. I want to be like that! Eighteen months is a small gift to give the Lord for everything He has given me.

I came across this scripture recently and thought it was a great representation of what I am doing with missionary work. Alma 5:48-49 "I say unto you, that I know of myself that whatsoever I shall say unto you, concerning that which is to come, is true; and I say unto you, that I know that Jesus Christ shall come, yea, the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, and mercy, and truth. And behold, it is he that cometh to take away the sins of the world, yea, the sins of every man who steadfastly believeth on his name.

And now I say unto you that this is the order after which I am called, yea, to preach unto my beloved brethren, yea, and every one that dwelleth in the land; yea, to preach unto all, both old and young, both bond and free; yea, I say unto you the aged, and also the middle aged, and the rising generation; yea, to cry unto them that they must repent and be born again."

I add my testimony that Jesus Christ lives! There is no trial or temptation that He has not experienced, and yes He can heal our sins and broken hearts. The Savior leads this church, and I am always humbled to be His representative.

Love you all and love hearing from you! Update me about your lives! Even if I can't respond know that you made my day by sending a note!

Les extraño, les amo, cuidense,

Hermana Alley