Hola!!!

Happy Farewell, Anthony!!!!!

So another week has gone by and I have some amazing news. First of all, we had another baptism this weekend and it was great. His name is Nelson and his sister is a member of the branch here. We weren´t 100% sure that he should be baptized because of some mental disabilities, but I remembered what President Gulbrandsen said about one of our investigators in Vicente López. Ask a series of simple questions such as: If you took a cookie and your mother asked you if you did, is it good or bad to say ´no´?¨ Simple questions like that help us learn if they can choose between good and bad. If they can, they can be baptized. We asked how we would teach him, since he could not understand or retain everything. President Gulbrandsen told us that if he has desires to be baptized and is showing a change of heart, he is ready. From that, he was baptized. It was wonderful to see the support of friends, family, and the branch.

Good news about Leonardo, as well. He just received the priesthood this last sunday and is very excited to become a fully active member of the church. He is the first to volunteer for things and really wants a calling. We asked him yesterday to accompany us for an appointment today and he was very happy to say yes. The whole family is doing great.

We just had our interviews with President Gulbrandsen and it was amazing. We received some wonderful news. He asked us if we were ok with staying with our companions for one transfer more. We said yes and he told us :¨This is the only way that I can find that you all can go to the meeting for all the missionaries in the three Buenos Aires Missions with President Eyring, Elder Ballard, and Elder Christofferson.¨ We could not believe our ears!!!  If it is the Lord´s will that we all stay the same this transfer, we will get to go to this meeting and participate in the cultural event for the temple!!! I am beyond happy right now. It will be an amazing experience and a once in a life time opportunity. Please pray that we get to go.

I was writing in my journal the other day and I want to share some of my thoughts.

¨I am reminded of when we would make pies with Mom. She didn´t need our help and it might have been easier without is. Still, she let us help. as we waited for the pie to be done, she gave us little treats; parts of the pie crust with cinnamon sugar that were delicious and helped us wait for the big treat while getting a sample of what it would taste like. Our Heavenly Father is much the same. He is letting us help with His work and His glory which is to bring to pass the inmortality and eternal life of man (our own included). This is the pie; after all the hard work, that is the ultimate goal and it is delicious to the taste. He lets us help with His work even though, at times, it may be easier if we didn´t. As we wait to receive this grand gift, we are given blessings that help us know what the ¨pie¨ will be like and they are also delicious to the taste. If we do our part, we will receive this great gift from our Eternal Father in Heaven. We may ask, ´Well, what if I mess up? What if I use walnuts instead of pecans? What if I burn the pie?´ You´re not going to do everything right the first time. I messed up my first three pies. The lemon pie didn´t have enough starch in it so it didn´t set up, but it still tasted good. Sometimes things don´t turn out the way we expect them to, or we ´mess up´, but we have the promise that if we do our best, everything will be ok; the Lord will make up the rest. The pie wasn´t pretty, but it tasted wonderful. ´What if I use walnuts instead of pecans?´ An experience from the life of Aunt Jane can help with that. She has a hard time telling the difference between a walnut and a pecan. One day she made walnut pies and pecan pies without knowing it. Turns out that the walnut pies tasted better than the pecan pies. The Lord knows what He´s doing. He knows better than we do. Though, things may not turn out like we want them to, the Lord knows the end result and it turns out to be better than our own. ´What if I burn the pie?´ One of the greatest gifts that our Heavenly Father has given us is the Atonement. Through His Son, Jesus Christ, we are able to repent. We can be clean again; we can start over. Even though we may burn the pie, we can start over and try again. It´s true that you will have to clean up and buy new ingredients, but it´s possible. Just as repentace can be hard and there are a lot of consquences, it´s possible. It is an amazing thing. One last thing I want to share before I move on is something that happened with Aunt Marie. Grandma Alvey was pickling and making jam, so she had a lot of sugar and salt. It turns out that this time, Aunt Marie´s pie was made with 2 cups of salt instead of sugar. The adversary has a counterfit for everything and if we are not careful, we fall into temptation and the end result is bitter to the taste. Salt looks just like sugar, but does not taste like sugar. Just as the adversary´s promised results appear the same, they are not. We need to be careful and look more closely to see if we are using salt or sugar.¨

There were my thoughts and I wrote them down. I testify of the counsel given by the prophets. Keep and inspiration journal nearby. Always write what you receive. Ask if it is correct. Ask if there is more and then write again. Keep repeating this process and you will receive some of the most precious and tender impression from your Loving Heavenly Father. He has not forgotten you here on this earth and is waiting to talk to you. I, sadly did not ask for more, so I do not know, this time, what more He had to say to me, but I am happy for what I have right now. He will use our own experiences to teach us in the moment and years after. It´s been about 14 years since some of those experiences and I was taught from on high through them.

Thank you soooooo much for the letters. They always bring light to my day. Thank you for your help with questions, research, and patience. You have all blessed my life greatly and I cannot thank you enough.

I hope you had fun at Pioneer Days. I bet it was exciting as usual. I can´t wait to see pictures. I´m happy with the fruits of your labors. I know that you are enjoying yourselves.

Have fun in Arizona. Take pictures of your haircut Mom. I still like your silver hair, but I understand if you want to color it. Say ¨Hi¨ to everyone for me (including Nathan). Best of luck and love, Anthony. Enjoy every minute of your mission; it´s too short to miss even one minute of it. Talk with everyone.

Dad, thank you for the research that you have done. I really appreciate it. I have one more question, what are the different type of visas? I know that you are working hard and I am very happy with all that you do. With all that everyone does. You are all doing your best and I can see the many blessings of the Lord for all of you.

The pair of shoes I have are boots meant for walking in the cold/snow and snowboarding. One of the Elders here said that the brand I have is an amazing brand and will last me for 2 years or more. If they are meant for snowboarding as well, I assume that they will last up to all the walking I have to do. I won´t need other shoes until I get back into the north. It will be too hot to wear my ¨snow boots¨ when I get back into the heat. I appreciate the offer, though. I am going to try and send some mail so I´m going to take out about $25 more. I am trying to be 100% obedient and I feel that writing people through you (though I greatly appreciate it) is breaking the rule of only writing emails to family. I´ll send all my letters in an envelope to you; please, then, send them to the addresses on the envelopes.

Wow, this letter is getting long. I love you all sooooo much. Please stay safe and well. I pray for you every day.

Love
Hermana Alvey

Nelson's baptism
Hermana's Alvey & Alfaro, Nelson, Matias, Elders Gregory & Warburton

Leonardo's baptism
Cintia, Hermanas Alvey & Alfaro, Leonardo holding Amor Mia, Elder Gregory

Hola!!!

Happy Birthday Benjamin!!!
Congratulations Anthony!!!

Hope all is going well for everyone. I am so happy to hear about the things that are going on. The pictures are awesome. I can´t believe the difference in the backyard. The fruit looks gorgeous.

You all look sooo happy in the pictures at the temple. It´s an amazing experience. It´s ok if you don´t understand everything. I had almost no idea what was going on my first time, but as I went every week in the mtc, I saw the blessings and understood more. I can´t begin to explain how I feel about the temple. It is a place of peace where you can receive counsel and comfort. You are literally taught from on high. Right now I am 5 hours away by plane from the nearest temple and it´s not even finished. Let the desire grow within you to go to the temple every week and then keep it for your entire life. I have been speaking with a member of the Branch here who just got back from his mission 3 months ago and it surprised me how much he had forgotten about being on the mission. Make the mission your life, not just a part of it. Look for the talk about the Fourth Missionary. There is great help within this talk to teach you how to serve a full and worthy mission.  Then you want to be able to say that you gave the Lord everything in these last two years. The choice you made when you signed the letter and sent it back to the Prophet was that you would give everything to the Lord. These next two years are not yours. They are the Lord´s and he is still blessing you along the way to grow and become stronger. It is an amazing blessing to be a part of His work. I have made a lot of mistakes on my mission and continue to do so. Please learn from my mistakes so that you can have a better mission. I am still learning how to give everything to the Lord. I want to be in control, but on the mission you learn that He is in control.  Let Him mold you. He doesn´t make mistakes; you can trust Him with everything. My habit is to know everything before I do something and be in control. It can´t be that way. There is sooooo much that you learn on the mission. You draw so much closer to your Heavenly Father and learn how to talk with Him. You see the Atonement work in your life and can share it with your investigators. Your example will make the biggest difference. If you don´t live what you teach, the Spirit will not be with you. Study the basics. Study them again and again. You will never learn everything about them, and the promise we have is that as we study the basics, we will be able to teach them in the simplicity that our investigators need. Look for the good in your companion. You won´t always have a perfect companionship, but you can still learn from them. Talk openly with them. Remember that your first loyalty is to the Lord; second, to your mission president; and third, to your companion. You are your first convert and your companion, your second. Pray for charity every day. Never lose a day without praying for charity. Study Preach My Gospel. Become a Preach My Gospel Missionary, it will change your mission and your life. Obey with exactness. The president of the MTC counseled us that obedience brings blessings and exact obedience brings miracles. Write in your journal every day. If you don´t one day will turn into a week and into a transfer and before you know it, your mission is gone. The small moments and things that make you happy, make them a big deal. You will enjoy your mission more.

I am not trying to sound self righteous or that I´m perfect. I have a lot of faults and don´t do all the things I have just said, but when I have done them, I have seen miracles in myself and in my mission. These can be two of the best years of your life, or two of the no-so-good. It all depends on you. The mission prepares us for our life to come now and in the eternities. All of this, also applies to those who are not in the mission. Just as Preach My Gospel isn´t just for full time missionaries, the things we learn on the mission aren´t just for the mission. Read about Zion´s Camp and why they did what they did. I believe that it will help you understand the ways of the Lord better.

Life here has been interesting. It´s been hot during the day, about 40 degrees Farenheit. (yes I did just say that it was hot) Yesterday at about 7 pm, all the lights in the neighborhood went out. It was also cloudy so there was no moon or stars. We were in the chapel when it happened so we had the emergency lights, but we had appointments to go to. We prayed about it and decided that there was one appointment that we couldn´t miss, so we called the others and said that we wouldn´t be able to make it. This appointment was with Leonardo. It really was my first baptism. He was so prepared and I was excited to be a part of it. He was baptized on saturday and confirmed on sunday. The filter here in Rio Gallegos for the water isn´t working too well, so in order for Leonardo to have warm water (instead of freezing to death) that was remotely clean (instead of brown) we stayed in the chapel all day boiling clean water and filling up the font. We didn´t have time to do that for the entire font, so we had to use some of the dirty water, but we were in the chapel for 6 hrs. Hermana Alfaro was stressed out and she was surprised that I wasn´t especially since it was my first. It all turned out well. His wife had to work and she just barely made it for the baptism. It was awesome.

Friday we had an activity set up by the missionaries. It was a movie night and guess what we showed the members, ¨17 Miracles¨. I love this movie and I hope that you had the opportunity to watch it. Everyone who came loved it. We didn´t have permission from President Gulbrandsen to watch it, so us 6 missionaries stayed in the kitchen making popcorn and talking. We had a lot of fun.

I hope all goes well with the doctor dad. Let me know what he says about your nose.

We might be having interviews next monday so that´s when I´ll be receiving my mail. I noticed that I kept spelling Hermana Alfaro´s name wrong. There is only one ¨r¨. Thank you soooo much for your letters, packages, and prayers. They help so much. Can somebody send me the address of Anthony´s mission? or his email? And the email or address of Nathan? I´m trying to do better about writing.

The computer that I am on doesn´t have a way for me to send pictures. The USB drive is broken. (did you put the music on the USB drive?) I have a lot of pictures to send, especially abou the baptism. Next week I will be able to send the pictures.

Well, it´s that time to play fútbol again. I love you all aaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllloooooooooooootttttttttttt!!! I´ll talk to you soon.

Love
Hermana Alvey

Hola!!!

Thank you soooooo much for your emails and answers. I really appreciate it. I´m glad to hear that you are all doing good and that the garden looks great. Are there any trees livings still? I hope so.

Well, things here are cooling off. We´ve had snow almost everyday and the ice is getting worse. I´ve fallen only once. ^_^ I´ve had my fair share of accidents this last week. It´s been pretty funny. I hit my head on a stop sign, got hit in the face by a volleyball, and fell down. Don´t worry, we´re having fun and there isn´t any permanent damage. As you can see, Hermana Alfarro is having a harder time in the snow than I am. This is the third time in her life that she has been in snow. I have yet to buy earmuffs and I´m going to have to buy another pair of shoes. The only pair left right now is starting to die. I´m going to try looking today. I am veeeeery grateful for our warm house and chapel. I thank Heavenly Father every day for my many blessings. It´s not only the homeless people but there are a lot of homeless dogs and cats in the streets. They have their own packs and territories. The other day, a dog that was skin and bones, with a hurt leg, followed us 10 blocks to see if we would take him into a warm house and feed him. It breaks my heart especially when I see dead animals in the street and frozen dead animals on the sidewalk. Sorry for the sad image. It´s an everyday thing here.

So the spanish is growing. Almost nobody here speaks english so it´s pretty much pure spanish.  Hermana Alfarro loves talking with people and helping them understand. She tries everyday to think of each investigator individually and process their needs. She loves to learn and is always asking me questions about everything. She is good with makeup and walking fast (which I am still developing). She has high goals and does everything to meet them. She is wonderful and I am grateful for all that I am learning from her.
 I am happy and we are having a ton of good times. Being happy is a choice. You´re happiness is not determined by what happens outside of you, but what happens inside of you.

Congratulations on becoming executive secretary. Any calling from the Lord is an amazing calling and I am so happy that you are worthy to receive a calling from Him. We were talking in Relief Society and I remembered something that President Gulbrandsen said to me. Every person who has the Gospel in their lives in these last days showed great faith and valor in the premortal existence. We are living in the last days before the Second Coming to prepare the world and the way. We have been blessed with this opportunity to share the Gospel with the world. It is a grand responsibility and we are told that our Heavenly Father saved His strongest and choicest children for this last great battle. You (parents included) showed extremely great faith in the premortal life and continue to do so. If you listen to the adversary when he says: ¨You´re nothing special. You may have been that way before this life, but not now. You have nothing to offer.¨ You are letting him win; he´s a liar. Don´t listen to him. You are a child of God who was chosen for these last days, and God doesn´t make mistakes. He chose each and every part of you. The color of your eyes, the type of hair you have, everything. Again, God doesn´t make mistakes. Please study Preach My Gospel. It is meant for everyone in all stages of life. Especially, please read the quotes from each prophet about missionary work in the beginning of the manual.

I am very excited for Anthony and the choice he has made. This is going to change your life if you let it. Please give everything to your Heavenly Father. Hold nothing back. Choose to be happy. Choose to do His will. Forget yourself in the work and don´t think about things at home. This will change and bless your mission. It doesn´t matter what other people do or think. The Lord will not judge you for their actions; He will look at yours. Read your purpose in Preach My Gospel. Your part is to invite and help others come unto Christ. If you invite everyone and try to help everyone, you will be ok. Pray everyday fervently and sincerely. Study your scriptures everyday and please do not forget your patriarchal blessing.

Best of luck with your operation, Dad. I like your nose just the way it is, but if you prefer to take some off the top that´s ok. I hope you will be able to breathe better. Stay safe.

I wish that I could share with you everything that I am learning, but there is neither time nor space. I feel like I would be writing the Book of Mormon if I wrote everything I have been learning on the mission. Speaking of which, how is the reading together as a family coming? What about the hymns? Right now, I am in Moroni and in Spanish I am in 2 Nefi. I am also working on memorizing the Scripture masteries in spanish.

Hermana Alfarro just told me that we get mail here in Rio Gallegos just as often as the people up north. I think it´s Usuaia that´s different. She said that she would pay for somethings if you could send them. We haven´t found a certain type of pen here and we were hoping that you could send it to us. Brand: Pilot (or which ever you can find) Color: black Point: 0.38 (the most important part is that it´s black and 0.38.) Thank you sooooo much. Also, if you think it won´t explode. Ranch Dressing would be nice. I feel bad asking for things, but I know you want to know what I need or would like since you aren´t here with me.

I love you all sooooo much. Thank you for everything you do. Your prayers, letters, spiritual experiences and thoughts,  and packages mean the world to me.

Well, I have to go. It´s time to go play sports. I´ll write again soon.

Love
Hermana Alvey

some Rio Gallegos

Hola!!!

 

So news from the south. I am now officially one province away from the end of the world. Did you receive my last pictures? or the ones I just sent?

 

So Rio Gallegos is kind of a mix between Mesquite, Nevada and Logan, Utah. It´s still pretty cold during the summer and the most windy. Hermana Milmont was here during the summer for two weeks and said that often the wind blew her against a wall it was so strong. I guess I lucked out when I came here in the winter. All of the missionaries here are telling me that hardly anyone comes to Rio Gallegos. Evidentally President Gulbrandsen said that only those the Lord trusts greatly are sent to Rio Gallegos. I don´t know what He wants me to do here, but I am grateful to be here. Yes, it is an opportunity to learn what it will be like in Logan, and I think that I will enjoy myself. I am sooooooo grateful for the coat you sent me. I would die without it. I am using my ski gloves so we shall see how that goes. So far I seem to be doing ok. I do need to buy some earmuffs, though. Which reminds me, I took out 25 dollars from my account. There are penguins here, but in the summer. One of the Elders here has a picture of one. I would really like to see the glaciers here. Sometimes President Gulbrandsen, during interviews, takes us to the glaciers. I would love that.

 

There are 10 missionaries in our area. There are so few of us that we are a zone and a district. We don´t have a district leader, we have zone leaders. I´m back in the same district/zone as Elder Haws. I wish that you could have heard his voice when he found out that I was here. It was hilarious. Also, Elder Ocares just got here too. He is in an area really far away, so they are on skype during our district meetings, because it would take them about 3-4 hours to get here. The areas are called Gaucho, 6 de Abril, Calafate, Centro, and (ours) Belgrano Sur. This is all of Rio Gallegos.  We play fútbol every P-day after internet until 5pm and then we buy food and work for the rest of the day. This district/zone is really close.

 

So about Hermana Alfarro. I have no idea about her cooking. She is more the athletic type. I am teaching her cross stitch and she is loving it. Never did she think that she could or would do things like that, but she really wants to learn things about the home (cross stitch, cooking, sewing in general, etc). She is from La Serena, Chile and returns home in October. She doesn´t speak very much english and her other companions from the states didn´t want to practice with her. She is excited that I want to help her learn english. Both of her parents are converts and she is an only child.

 

The Branch here is pretty small. The church is young here, but they have great leaders.  We are working on growing the trust between the members and the missionaries. There are two new converts named Virginia and Iris. They are the sweetest two young women you will ever meet. They are 23 and love music from the 70´s. They accompany us every day to visits and Iris really wants to be a missionary. We´ll see what happens. We do have our own church building and it is kept warm all the time (just like our pension).

 

I´m glad that you are all doing well. It´s not that mail doesn´t arrive in the mission, it´s just that there is not really anybody to bring the mail to us. It´s ok. I have a feeling, though, that I am going to be in Rio Gallegos for a while. The senior missionaries here have all been here for a while, so the idea is that next transfer, all the senior missionaries are going to leave and the junior companions will be the next generation. We´ll see what happens.

 

I love you all and wish you a happy Independence Day!!

 

Love

Hermana Alvey

This post was from June 25, 2012

Hola!!!

So, yes, transfers were yesterday. I was not transferred yesterday. I was transferred last thursday. I have been in Rio Gallegos for 4 days with my new companion Hermana Alfarro and her old companion Hermana Lobos. Hermana Lobos just left on the plane back up north to a zone called Zaratte. Yes, I have now officially made it to the south. ^_^

It´s pretty cold here. It´s kind of like a colder Vegas. It looks like a desert, has a lot of wind, but is a dry freeze. I like it. Hermana Alfarro is from Chile and so is Hermana Lobos. I´m excited to work with her.

So I am living in my thermals right now until I grow accustomed to the weather. Yesterday was a warmer day. It got up to 32 degrees.

Just so you know, we don´t get visits very often from the north so I probably won´t get my mail for another 3 months or when I go back up to the north, which means I may miss the open house of the temple. I was so sad about that when I found out.

I can´t believe that I am officially halfway through my mission. I really can´t believe it. It´s going by way too fast. I don´t know  what I´m going to do when it´s over. I am going to miss Argentina. The desire to talk to people is growing and I still can´t talk 100%. I have more voice than before, but a stubborn cough that has not gone away. I want to talk to people without problems of having to pause every five minutes and also, not being able to say some things I want to because of the language. I´m finally learning how to be a missionary and now I am given another challenge to overcome. Oh well, such is life. I am excited to be here, though.

We were supposed to get 28 new missionaries from the states, but they had visa problems so a few of the areas in our mission were closed. I wonder if Vicente Lopez closed.

I´m glad that you are all doing better and enjoying your trip. Where did Colten serve again? Keep going strong. I love you all so much and always pray for you. I love you and I´ll talk to you soon.

Love
Hermana Alvey

An alfajor from the bread shop.  9 pesos

L-R Hermana Alfarro (my new companion), Me, and Hermana Lobos (both are from Chile)

 

This is the June 18, 2012 post

Hola!!!

 

How´s everything going? Things here are moving along, especially with transfers this coming weekend. We have a lot to do right now. So some interesting news: the missionaries are having a hard time getting visas so we have missionaries leaving and almost nobody coming in. Because of that, we are now having to spread missionaries out further. The elders that were with us in Vicente López are now in other areas and we have the entire area to ourself again since wednesday. We are excited to start again, but it´s going to be hard. Our area is huge. The Lord would not give us something that we could not handle.

 

I´m hoping that my voice will come back soon. We have too much to do and I have been without it for over a week now.

 

We just got back from having helado with the elders. It wasn´t the best, but it was good to spend time with them before transfers. We are so excited for the temple to open. We just found out who is going to be here: President Eyring, Elder Ballard, Elder Christofferson, and a member of the Seventy (I can´t remember which). We really hope that we will be able to go. It´s so amazing to be here at this time with the temple so close to opening.

 

I have not received pictures of Benjamin´s graduation or answers, but I know that you are busy right now. It sounds like the trip is going rough; I´m sorry about that. I hope that it goes better. Congratulations to Jennifer and best wishes to Alice.

 

We are still working with the less actives and the new converts and we are working towards finding new investigators. We are struggling a lot with finding, but we still move forward with the promise that we will find with these families.

 

I bought a new note book and pen this week and had to write, so in church yesterday, I wrote some things that I have been thinking about for a long time. It´s not finished, but I´ll send you what I already have.

 

¨I´ve never been so tired in my life; spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally. In times like thse you learn a lot of things.

1. How deep your well of faith and testimony is.

- It´s times when you feel like you have no more to give htat you find you still have more. When you´re most tired, that´s when the adversary attacks you the hardest, telling you that ´You´re wrong. You don´t really know.´ If you don´t have a sure foundation of faith in Christ, you will fall.

2. You grow closer to God.

- If you turn to God in these times of trial you can grow closer than ever before. It depends on if you turn to Him or not. He´s always waiting. When it seems like you have nothing and you have nowhere to turn, when you want to give up, He is still there waiting for you. He is constant and never changes. As much as you love your friends and family, they won´t be there always; but He will. If you offer Him that broken heart with all your cares and worries, you will draw closer to Him and He will heal the hurt and help you become stronger.

3. You find out how strong you are and what you are capable of doing.

- Until you are stretched, how do you know how far you can stretch? Until you keep stretching further and further, how do you know your potential? We are called to do hard things, but we are promised that we will not be tested above our ability to resist. The Lord knows what we can do; we need to find out what we can do. The key is to look for His hand and His help. Somthing that will help is looking for the small everyday blessings and expressing gratitude for the tender mercies of the Lord. A grateful heart is a happy heart.

4. You treasure up the Word.

- We talk with our Heavenly Father through prayer, and he often talks with us through scripture. Elder Scott taught that memorized scriptures and hymns can be wondeful friends and counselors in times of difficulty. We are also promised many blessings from treasuring up the Word. In the very hour, you will be given that portion which shall be meted unto every man. You shall be able to teach with power and authority. You shall not be confounded before men. There are many more promises given and God does not lie. There is much counsel and consolation in the scriptures, again, it depends on if you turn to them or not.

5. What exactly is a broken heart and a contrite spirit.¨

 

And that was as far as I got, but I hope this helps you think some. I have to go, but I want you all to know that I love you and am grateful for all your support and love. Stay safe. Mom, please go to the doctor. Dad, please don´t stress. I love you sooooo much. I´ll talk to you all soon.

 

Love

Hermana Alvey