Weekly Update -- December 14th, 2015

Hello everyone,

Elder Lopez and I had a fantastic week where we saw a lot of miracles. I think difference was when we had divisions this past Tuesday with our district leader Elder Long and a returned missionary who served in Las Vegas. A few small things we changed was praying with the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood stated in the prayer. Also, using representatives of Jesus Christ in place of Missionaries.

The biggest thing, however, that made this week so successful was starting the 40 day fast of anything we could think of in our current actions that wouldn't invite the Spirit to testify of our words. We each wrote down our own lists and ended together the 24 hour fast with a prayer and asked Heavenly Father how many of His children He had prepared for us to be baptized this week. This is how I really believe prayer is meant to be a communication between Him and His children. We received an answer of one for this past week when we prayed on Wednesday which meant someone already had to have been to church a few times. I realized that our neighbor, Juan, had already been to church with past missionaires and was also going through some trials with learning English, trials with his family as well as with his job. After realizing he could be baptized this week if we were inspired to do so, we did EVERYTHING within our power to make it possible, which is when Elder Lopez and I really understood faith on a much more profound level. Peter said even the demons believe in Jesus and the Son of God, but the difference between belief and faith is similar to the difference between knowledge and wisdom (there's a T.S. Eliot quote that I really like similar to this concept). We talked to Juan right then and answered a question he had about a chapter in the Book of Mormon and felt the Spirit very strong. We were inspired to put the baptismal date for the 11th, just two days later and he accepted! After his fair share of trials and a guiding hand from us, we were able to have a baptism just as planned two days later. One of the most special lessons I've learned on my mission so far.

Tonight we find out if one of us is leaving Salinas Victoria and I'm thinking I'll have a 50 50 chance of taking on a new area. I've really learned a lot here and a lot with Elder Lopez and my companion. As an invitation, I would like to recommend studying on the topic of faith and answering the question that I will also try to answer better this week. How can we exercise faith in Jesus Christ? A few chapters can be James chapter 3 and Alma 32. Feel free to use the footnotes. Also, why did Jesus Christ say that Peter had little faith. Thanks for everything, love you all!

-Elder Allgaier 

BAPTISM!!

A future missionary and recent convert in our branch -- Lupita.

Zone Conference

Weekly Update -- December 7th, 2015

Hello everyone,

Kind of a tough week, but I made it to Pday and was able to talk it out with some great Elders. One big part of serving a mission for me is building mental muscles. Just like with physical muscles, your mental muscles go through exercise, working out how to solve problems, deal with stress, talk to a wide variety of people and building a huge pool of doctrinal information that the Spirit can pull from at the exact moment you need it when someone asks you a tough question. It definately exhausts your brain, which is why I need eight hours of sleep every night. But, I believe that one of the reasons the Church chooses younger members to be missionaries is to build the testimonies, because this is the truth. All of the answers are there, one just has to need it, needs to be pushed a bit to be strengthened. Just know that the Church is awesome.

More frequently, we have been going to lessons with a recent convert of about eight months named Lupita. Super strong in her testimony and doesn't have a lot of fear of bearing her personal testimony in front of strangers. She wants to serve a mission as well and I'm pretty confident she will be a pretty good one. We have talked to her recently about getting her patriarchal blessing and a temple recommend apart from getting her mission papers in. Also, this last Sunday, Arturo came to the Gospel Principles class and bore his testimony at the end to the three investigators that were there about how happy he has become in these last few months after being baptized without even being asked. He fully takes on his new responsibility as a Melchizedek Priesthood holder with scripture study, activity in the church, missionary work and personal dignity. It's so rewarding to see the progress of converts' testimonies.

The new church video for Christmas came out and I invite you to watch it if you haven't already and then share it with a friend. The Church is putting a big emphasis on referrals this year to help us missionaries out. I like to think about how we can find more people like Lupita and Arturo, but who are just waiting for someone to give them a little push start. One thing I read about in a talk named 'the consecrated missionary' (or something like that) is that this work is changing lives, changing the world. If we want to have a result like that, there has to be a price. 

Love you all!

-Elder Allgaier

me with a machete

after we made the elote stand

(Oops! I missed these few pictures from last week.  Sorry!)

Weekly Update -- November 30th, 2015

Hello everyone!

Super exciting week ending with pday today when all four Elders in the Salinas Victoria branch decided to take a field trip to the city of Monterrey. So much fun! We went to a pet shop where they had dogs, fish, exotic birds, monkeys, snakes, sloths, turtles and even an albino crocodile! We spent the 35 pesos to be able to take some pictures and see the more exotic animals upstairs. Then we ended the trip with some good ole' compechanas.

Earlier, a recent convert of about 4 months named Ana expressed that she wanted to build an elote stand to earn some money to visit her family due to the fact that she really doesn't have any income despite being a single parent with three kids apart from collecting plastic bottles. We took advantage of the opportunity to help her build it in the back wall of her house facing the street this past Saturday. Elder Lopez was a carpinter before the mission for some time and a less active member who lives two doors down is a contractor for his living. We all helped out taking out the back wall and building a more solid one w

ith an opening window for her to sell elotes. It took all afternoon, but it was the most rewarding activity we had done all week, plus it was some good experience for me to get to practice some home improvement methods.

Stake conference was this past weekend as well and I found myself noticing a lot of familiar faces and realizing I had been in the same stake since coming to the field. Coming up on 9 months in the mission! It's crazy to think about how many people I've been blessed to get to know and the impact they've had on my life as well as my impact on theirs. At the end of the conference, Arturo and Oveth, a couple of ex-less-active members were ordained to be Elders and recieved the Melchizedek Priesthood (did I finally spell it right?). When we went to teach Arturo how to give blessings of confort for Elder Lopez's nail punctured foot from the service with Ana, he was beaming from excitement. It makes me so happy to see him like that.

As I'm coming up on 9 months, I think it's appropriate to address the youth (to any who might come across this). I made the decision to go on a mission in Primary, I even remember telling a classmate in 3rd grade that I was going to serve a mission when I was older, not really knowing the depth of the decision. It made the day, when the decision finally had to become solid, so much easier because my plans were already made. Make a solid decision now whether you want to serve a mission or not. It will bless you in the long run. To include everyone else, everyone can read D&C section 4, the rally for all missionaries. Thanks for everything and happy birthday Ele!

-Elder Allgaier

Weekly Update -- November 23rd, 2015

Hello everyone! Last week, I mentioned we just got short changed and when we were trying to figure out why, Elder Lopez asked the assistants who told him 'The President just kind of walked in and decided to do short changes.' Even with a curve ball like that, we had an amazing week! Apart from a few less active families coming (one for the first time since moving here about a year ago) we had an investigator come!!! It was so exciting and during the gospel principles class, Elder Lopez gave a great lesson on faith, somehow using handcuffs as an object lesson. Everyone liked it, being a little more active than the usual read and discuss style. Waiting in the office for changes (notice the Christmas decorations) My first picture with Elder Lopez! First sweater day in the middle of November!!  We also had the chance to do a service project in the area of Hidalgo, which also happens to be an international hotspot for mountain climbing. We spent the morning cleaning up the house of prayer for the branch that meets there with the President and his wife and another senior couple missionaries, Elder and Hermana Page. Still one of my favorite parts of the mission, service projects. I put myself in charge of cleaning up the spider webs before being the pile collector after others had swept among other things. Another Elder Gale had found a Christmas CD and put it on while we were cleaning being that nobody celebrates Thanksgiving here, so there's not really a stopper between November and putting up Christmas decorations. People are getting into the Christmas spirit, even in the offices! Today, for pday, the zone went to the activity and everyone chipped in to buy a LOT of eggs and drinks and the Hna's were super nice by taking command of that and making the Elders super happy. Don't worry we all offered a hand when they would let us, but they cooked that brunch pretty much between the four of themselves. Zone activity Before getting into the Christmas Spirit, still being Thanksgiving season in the States, I want to invite you to have a little talk with someone close to you and express why you are thankful for them. Also, some little things you are thankful for to get you through the day. I am personally thankful for the other missionaries who help me a TON destressing when we're able to get together. Also, for the chance I have right now to be able to share the gospel with everyone and anyone as a full-time missionary. I'm thankful for my family and all of the support they give me during this time. As well for the Atonement that we can ALWAYS become better people and not have to worry about mistakes we have made in the past as long as we look to the future. Love you all. Also... Happy early birthday Mom!! -Elder Allgaier   The mission president's blog: http://monterreywest.weebly.com/presidente-y-hermana-mcarthur.html (you should be able to find a picture of the service we did in Hidalgo soon)

Weekly Update -- November 16th, 2015

Hello everyone,

First of all, while we were just in here writing for this week, Elder Mendoza received a phone call from the Asistants saying that we are getting a companion change TODAY as soon as pday is over. So my new companion is going to be Elder Lopez. Too bad because I was expecting to be with Elder Mendoza until just before Christmas and he introduced me to some cool spanish music and herbal tea that made this last sick week much easier. In any case, I'm excited for Elder Lopez!

Yesterday was one of the most rewarding Sundays in a long time when a recent less active, Arturo, was ordained a Priest and received the Aaronic priesthood! He is really into studying the gospel doctrine in the manuals and even motivated his wife to come to church for the first time since I've been in Salinas Victoria. She learned about eternal temple marriage and realized she wasn't sealed to Arturo. She seems very excited to put that on her list of things to do after her husband receives the Melchesidek Priesthood in two weeks!

Side note, I received a letter from the Urbana ward primary filled with letters thanking me for being a missionary! Thank you so much to all who helped putting that together, it made me very happy! I really wanted to send a picture, but I'm having camera problems right now so maybe I'll pose one when they pass. Thank you so much Primary!!

This past week, both Elder Mendoza and I have been a little sick with the 'gripa' which can be interpreted to anything from the common cold to a missing limb. With that difficulty, it was very hard to focus in teaching and have the Spirit with us, giving me a strengthened testimony of how important it is to convert by the Spirit! I love the scripture D&C 42:14 ("And the Spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith; and if ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach.") for this experience and want to invite you all to read it. I also like remembering the ponderize challenge and if you don't already have a scripture for this week, feel free to take this one! Love you all!

-Elder Allgaier

Weekly Update -- November 9th, 2015

 Hello everyone!

 For p-day today, the missionaries in our district had an activity in the branch building here in Salinas Victoria and we had a huge pile of chicken nuggets and fries from a meateria (directly translated, more like a meat shop) for $2 american dollars a person. Awesome. Nice relaxing pday which was well needed.

Sometimes, this area can be pretty tough getting people to take a bus ride to come to our church when they have barely enough money to buy food for their family, apart from the fact that we are having trouble finding what the mission calls 'escogidos' or people who have been prepared for us to receive the message we have about the Plan of Salvation or the Restoration. Also, the branch assistence is very variant from week to week, making it difficult for those who come to have consistent friends in the church. Last Wednesday, we took the advice of our district leader, Elder Long, and contacted the whole day. We had a new best numbers of my whole mission day, but still, nobody came to church. I receive a lot of comfort in knowing that my purpose as a missionary is to share the gospel, not to have control of others' agency.

 Defining success really helps me focus on what is important and search harder for those who are prepared to accept the message we have. I want to invite you to take a step back sometime this week and define what success is in your personal life. I've heard it from a leader before when he said 'it can be hard to see all of the opportunities of a forest when you are standing in front of a single tree' meaning to find opportunities for success, we might have to look in other places or gain a bigger perspective. I hope this will be edifying. Love you all!

-Elder Allgaier

Zone pictures -- Salinas Victoria

District?

Weekly Update -- November 2nd, 2015

Hello everyone!

This past Wednesday, we had the awesome opportunity to have Elder Piper, of the Quorum of the Seventy,  come visit the mission and give a talk with the President and both of their wives. He also happened to serve in the Monterrey mission as a young man, obviously agreeing with us saying that this is the best mission in the world. Super uplifting experience hearing from all of them, but I especially liked how Elder Piper used his 90 minutes or so taking questions from missionaries and answering each one of them with such knowledge, maybe a 20 minute answer with examples and a role play for each one. Some of them were 'how can we better unify the visions of Ward and mission?' or 'how can we better view the fruits of our labors even if our numerical goals are being completed?' Amazing man and my testimony of revelation and the general authorities has been strengthened.

Recently, we haven't been having a lot of success with investigators in terms of asistence to church, which is hard sometimes. But, we have been having a lot of success with less-active members. Yesterday, there were four less-actives attending, three who were there for the first time in years! The one who had been there before was Arturo, who drove us to church in his bus he drives for his work; pretty fun way to get to church. He is preparing for the Melchizedek Priesthood along with three others in the branch. Arturo is really excited about that and asked us just last night how he could get a copy of the Liahona to have something to read when he's taking breaks from his bus routes. It's really rewarding being able to see him turn from having next to no interest in the church to getting excited about it again.

Yesterday we gave out two different Liahonas to Arturo and two of the same copy, but one in English the other in Spanish to our taxi neighbor to learn English better. The different sections for kids and adults really helps one learn a language better. Anyways, I want to invite you to read one of those articles in the next copy that comes out or the most recent that you received, it makes for great study material. Thanks for all of your prayers, love you all!

-Elder Allgaier

... really the only picture I took this week holding a chicken we put on top of our neighbor member's dog