The Mountains are White Already to Harvest

Mis queridos, 

 I don't even know what happened this week, it went by pretty fast! The family I was talking about last week is doing all right, [S]'s baptismal date changed to December 2nd. But we have a baptism this Saturday! [Se], who I mentioned last week, is doing great and he finally told his wife this weekend about his baptism (he told us he wanted to keep it a secret from her so it could really be his decision) She cried, it was so cute! Finally I will get to be there for the first baptism of my mission it's been quite a journey to get here. Although, honestly, I feel like I've been learning I don't actually do that much to help people progress to baptism and confirmation. I mean, of course a missionary has an important role, but it's God that has prepared certain people to receive the gospel and the Holy Ghost that carries the message into their hearts. We just have the pleasure of working with them. 

  I also learned a lot this week about discerning where the Spirit resides. It's pretty special as a missionary to realize that I can tell pretty fast whether the Spirit is in a home or with a person or not. It's a very clear difference. We tried to get some more tracting in this week to put more effort towards finding people and met lots of interesting individuals. It's crazy how little we have to say for people to know exactly who we are. They open the door, we say hi, they see the nametags, and either go straight to "I'm not interested" or "Oh I love missionaries come in!" or if they're Hispanic they won't mind talking to us for a while but end up saying something like, now's not a good time and I have like two jobs so good luck finding me at home, or I'm Catholic so I'm good. Interesting part about serving in Utah, everyone knows who we are. It's a good reminder that we really do represent the Church, because people treat us exactly how they think about the Church, with love, indifference, or hate. I've said this before but there are so many people in the Church who need a friend and feel forgotten or judged, so please my friends and family, look outside your normal circles and serve/welcome someone in your ward, all souls are precious unto God! 

  We found some of my new favorite investigators this week, [B] is 9 and her family is less active, we found her through [S]. She got so excited about the book of Mormon when we taught her about it, I forgot how cool it is that the prophet Joseph Smith was led by God to find an ancient record buried under a rock by an ancient prophet named Moroni. She loved church, her dedication is so inspiring, she told us she waited outside for two hours for us to pick her up! Way to go. 

  Some other investigators we met in our complex(we actually spend a lot of time in our own apartment complex because there are a lot of Hispanics there) are [P] and His mom [R], at first they weren't super interested and they said what a lot of people do, that they believe in God and that all churches who teach you about Him are good. We testified about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, and it was powerful, by the end she was flipping through the Book and welcoming us to come back. The Spirit is so great!! 

  I also loved our lesson this week with our investigator [E] about the Plan of Salvation. As we taught, he said WOW. God is so merciful! He really loved it, and when those we teach get excited, we get excited too! 

  Side note, last P-day we had a zone-wide nerf gun war( hey missionaries need de-stress time) which involved a maimed zone leader (don't get too close to my companion lol!) But hey at least he didn't have to get stitches haha. 

  In other news, the mountains are now white! Snow is coming! And with that the holiday season, which is exciting because everyone is celebrating Christ, which opens more doors for us to talk to people. I am so thankful right now for my opportunity to be a missionary, I'm really starting to enjoy it and the spiritual power that comes with it. Christ lives! The heavens are open and God talks to prophets today! The Book of Mormon is true!

Have a wonderful holiday this week! Send me pictures of all your family gatherings!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Alley

P.s. My mission is getting Facebook soon, along with smartphones. Exciting new opportunities to communicate with God's children!  

Pps The second picture is [W], the daughter of one of our investigators. She's so adorable and drew a picture of all of us at church. Kids are my favorite