Week #26 Happy Newbert!

Hey champs!

The ol' phone calls this week were awesome! Thanks for calling, family. I was REALLY hoping you would. Anywho, long story short, I don't have too much to update everyone on- Christmas was great and the Bennings even got us some way cool gifts. Though it couldn't even hold a CANDLE to Crimbo with the ol' family, it was still a splendid day.

Can't say a whole lot happened the rest of the week that's worth writing about. It seems California isn't quite as excited about missionaries as you'd expect during Christmas and New Year's. We did carol to some nursing homes though and that was fun. They were very appreciative. Some of them even threw out requests and applauded. Some of them slept.This is probably my last week with good ol' Elder Wheeler. It's been real. Odds are I'm definitely getting transferred this time, so the last day I will receive any mail at this address is a week from today (Monday). Any mail that comes after next Monday to the Mecca Court address will not be received by ol' Elder Balagna. So, if anyone is unsure about when a letter will get here, send it to the Mission Home address.

That would be greatly appreciated.Thanks again for all the Christmas stuff. The pictures utterly pleasant and the T-shirts are crazy awesome as well. The Great Apostasy is way way good and it has also really opened my eyes to the dangers of global warming. Thanks again for errbody who sent me letters/stuff during the season. It made life spectacular. Thanks to Lee for the Calvin and Hobbs comics!

Happy New Year!
Elder Al

A Christmas Video

Alex emailed this video for Christmas, so enjoy! He said to apologize it is sideways...

Week #25 - Merry Crimbo!

I can't wait to talk to everyone this week!

Speaking of outrageous, news for this week:

We picked up two new investigators tracting- both very cool and one was for the singles ward which is pretty awesome. He's a very cool guy and had lots of good questions. We're meeting again tomorrow afternoon.

Annie (the girl I knew from BYU) is back in town again and it's still weird. Pretty cool though. What are the odds? She has a bunch of my friends in her phone and she was texting them saying how I was in her house. Crazy.

Our host family is having us (or I guess keeping us...since we live there) for Christmas which should be way fun.

Cara's husband is softening up a TON toward the church...awesome. Pretty amazing.
Speaking of Cara, she bought us REALLY nice sweaters and ties for Christmas (not the one I'm wearing in the video- she got me a somewhat similar style that's green). The tie's awesome too.

Other than that, thanks a lot for the mail this week and thank you so much the Decatur 1st Ward and the Isons for the packages they sent!!

My presents might be a little late this year for everyone. Sorry. Hehe.

Much love all around!
Elder Al

Week #24 - yaD noitaraperP

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week was a delight. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but Cara has been taking her two eight and nine year old kids to church the past few weeks and they LOVE it (more than their other church). We're going to start teaching them both on Tuesday which is pretty awesome. It'll be pretty neat to teach kids. Also, on top of that, her husband came with her to the ward Christmas party (he drove separately in case he felt it necessary to head out early on account of not enjoying himself with those wacky Mormons) and it went VERY well. He stayed the whole time and made a bunch of friends and he's going to start golfing and hunting with some of them. In the words of Cara, "He doesn't stand a chance." Hehe. Maybe not for a while, but sooner or later he'll join the posse.

I was pretty psyched to see signs for The Day The Earth Stood Still remake. What an incredible movie.

In other news, the Oakland Temple trip is coming up and I'm way excited. President asked if I could play "Our Savior's Love" on the organ in the chapel in the temple. Given that I have had no organ experience I hesitated, but then I decided it's probably the only chance I'll ever have to play on a white organ (it's in the temple, no less). I practiced it on the organ at the church and it went really well, so it looks like it'll work out great. I'm pretty excited.

As for the ol' Christmas list, I've thought of a few things:The Great Apostasy (James E. Talmage); Any good vocal solo sheet music (I thought Jonny might know some good ones); Any good pictures of family (maybe even some with me in them); Broken Things To Mend (book by Elder Holland).

Anyway, that's about all I've got for the week. The ol' excursion remains awesome and the gospel remains even more awesome (and true).

Merry Crimbo!
Elder Al

Week #23 - A Brighter Yellow

Hey pants!

Still kickin in ol' California. I had an insane case of food poisoning up until yesterday. Pretty rough. The last couple days consisted of me blowing up out of each end. Please make sure that makes the blog.

Anywho, I'm pretty recovered now, and Cara gave me a haircut this morning, so things are looking up. I don't have a whole lot to report this week due to said sickness, but things are excellent. One of our investigators named Ann just made a major turn. She started asking about modern day prophets and why they were important and stuff- she mentioned how she'd heard a lot about Joseph Smith but not too much about a prophet today and was curious. We had a REALLY good discussion and she really started to see how everything applied to her and why this stuff is actually important which was a MAJOR breakthrough with her. We also taught Cara's best friend this week (sadly she lives out of our area, but Cara invited her to sit in on a lesson) and it went VERY well. She's golden. She kept saying how all of her questions kept getting answered throughout the lesson and she couldn't believe how perfect it all was. We told her at the end how the Lord will answer our prayers if we ask Him with faith and then mentioned a bit how the Spirit speaks, and she said "Oh trust me, I've felt it. I feel it right now- I know it's all true. It's incredible." She had a bunch of questions that led STRAIGHT into the Plan of Salvation, so basically I wish she was in our area and we could keep teaching her. Oh the ol' gospel. Too true for school.

I was asked to sing a really cool song for our Zone Developement Council called My Shepard Will Supply My Need. It went really well. Pants.

Welp, I don't really have much else. Hope you all have a splendid week and what not!

Elder Al

What am I thankful for?

In honor of Thanksgiving, I decided to make a list of the top 15 things I'm thankful for (not in any particular order):

1. The Mom and The Chief
2. The Chief's moustache
3. The rest of the fam
4. My titles in pool
5. The Gospel and all things related
6. The Priesthood
7. My magic box
8. Jesus The Christ (Amazing Book)
9. Music
10. My Bobblehead
11. Piano
12. How all my friends say "The Chief"
13. Superman and all things related
14. Support on the mission
15. BYU

Week #22 - Chalk and Chalk. Where's First Wok?

Happy Thanksturkey!

Looks like I'll be sticking around Fairfield for at least six months, so go ahead and keep sending mail to the same address. I suppose I'm pretty content with that. I wouldn't have minded a change, but it looks like Ol' Elder Wheeler and I will be sticking around together for at least another six weeks.
Anyway, this was by far the best week of my mission! I was extremely fortunate to get to baptize Cara- it was absolutely incredible. It's amazing to see how much the gospel changes people. She was glowing the entire time and then when we were getting into the font I looked across and saw her- she looked like a little girl. She was so excited and she gave me a thumbs up. Definitely an incredible experience and the whole service was fantastic. Cara has become pretty tight with a ton of the women in relief society and is fitting in VERY well. They all love her. Pretty incredible. Definitely not the same person we started teaching!!

Here's a picture of us before the baptism.

I'm wearing jeans today for the first time since I left. They aren't as comfortable as I remember. I was kinda disappointed. It's getting pretty chilly at night around here, but the days are still really nice. It's really hard to believe it's almost Christmas. I can't wait to call the ol' household and hear the Chief's Barbara Streisand impression again.

Welp, that's about all I've got. Mail info's still the Fairfield address, the baptism was amazing, and the gospel changes lives. And pants. Enjoy Thanksgerrrrrrrrrving!

Elder Al

Week #21 - Skittles and Berries

Well pants, the day finally arrived. Cara set the date for her baptism last Friday and asked me to do the honors. I'm pretty excited. It'll quite possibly be my last Saturday in the beloved area of Fairfield California, so this could be a nice finish. Who knows though, I may end up staying here for a full six months. I'll find out in about six days. But, either way, she's getting baptized! She's so excited which is really cool to see. I can't believe how much she's changed and progressed since we first started teaching her. She's a completely different person. She had her interview last Saturday, came to church Sunday where it was announced that she'd be getting baptized, and we're meeting tomorrow to get the program all set up. It was actually a little funny...we asked her last Friday if she'd be baptized a week from the following day and she said that she'd have to wait one more week (she had some huge service thing she committed to the following Sunday and said she'd feel really weird not making church after she was baptized). Maybe it was a cheap shot, but I said "That's fine. I might get transferred though, so I may be missing it." She then decided she'd be able to figure things out with her Sunday plans and get her shifts covered. :-)

Other than that, we talked with some really cool people this week. It never ceases to amaze me how exciting the gospel really is. I get so pumped when people ask questions. It bothers me a lot to look back at how I used to discuss religion with people back at home. I honestly thought I had the best answers and now I realize how much better I could have done explaining things and answering stuff. Oh past self. You have so much to learn. Odds are I'll probably be saying that same thing about myself now in a few months. Pants.

Anyway, that's really about all the big news I have this week. I'm a little low on time so I gotta head out but have a fantastic week and you'll get pictures soon of Cara's baptism! Also a big fat thanks to everyone for sending me absolutely no mail this week.

Love,
Elder Al

October 2008 Pictures from the mission

Elder Balagna's Missionary District Photo
A HUGE Tree!
Elder Balagna hiding in the HUGE tree!
Alex posing in front of a lighthouse!
Alex ON the lighthouse!

A neat missionary closet!
Super Alex's Superman Quilt and Superman Pillow

Stake Pumpkin Decorating Event - everyone is welcome to decorate a pumpkin and display it.

Alex's Superman Pumpkin!

Halloween treats from home make a missionary very happy!

No mail from home makes a missionary sad...

Week #20 - Plasti-tack

Best week ever!

So, for starters, we taught 25 lessons this week. Awesome. We had one really good lesson with an investigator for singles- Anthony. We had a guy named Chris from the singles branch teach with us who was a MAJOR help. He joined the church when he was about 18 and served a mission the next year in the Philippines. He's a crazy strong member and it's pretty amazing to hear him talk about how much the gospel's changed his life. Anyway, that lesson went really really well but that's not even why this week was awesome. The following paragraph will explain.

Cara (apparently her name isn't spelled with a "K" like I thought. Disappointing. That's how Supergirl spells it.) was at church last Sunday (and this Sunday) and loved it. The talks were PERFECT for her this week as well as the testimonies last week. Anyway, we got to her house for our lesson with her last Wednesday, and she said "Boy am I happy to see you guys!" and she had made us sandwiches. They were pleasant to the taste. She was much more excited than usual, which we were pretty sure was a good sign. Turns out, in the past two days, she had read over half of the Book of Mormon, and said she absolutely knew it was true. The first thing she said was "I'm ready to be grafted in!!" (referring to Jacob 4). She had some questions she had written as she was reading that she asked us and she was SO excited the whole time. She started getting a little emotional when she was telling us thanks for sticking with her for so long and she said after MUCH prayer, study, and research she finally understood that it was perfect. She was telling us about all of these experiences she'd had just in the past week that led her straight to the church and these discussions she'd had with people trying to "save" her from it that she completely came out on top in (one of them is now meeting with us this Thursday). It was so fun to hear her talk about that especially because one of her big issues before was that she was afraid she couldn't defend herself if people tried to talk to her like that. Long story short, she's ready to get baptized and we're setting the date this week. Yes! I'm crazy excited for her.

Other than that, things are splendid.

Thanks to everyone for all the mail and sorry to those that I've yet to respond to.

Happy early November!

Elder Al

Week #19 - Happy Novemberween

Happy Birthday you crazy lil Jonny!

This week was fantastic. Although my life is put at risk daily as I get into our car (the Lord is on our side. No one can tell me He doesn't give missionaries a little extra protection and I've never been so serious when I pray for safe travel) and I constantly have to swallow my pride knowing that I was voted best driver in my graduating class and instead I'm putting my life into the hands of someone who has just about demolished our hubcap on every curb we park next to, broken off a huge chunk of curb when he slammed the front of the car into it in the church parking lot this morning (which left many pleasant dings and scrapes), and is still working on understanding traffic lights and stop signs (I've yet to see improvement, but you never know...we've only been at it for six weeks), things are good.

So as for why the week was fantastic, we taught many many lessons, had an EXCELLENT lesson with Kara, who finally decided to come to church (the testimony meeting was incredible...they were all way good and Kara REALLY enjoyed it) and stayed all three hours. We went by her house later that day so we could talk a little more about how she liked it, and we drove up only to see her on her front balcony reading the Book of Mormon. She loved church, she's getting really excited about everything, and it made my month. On top of that, we had another "right place at the right time" experience with Emily - the girl we found for the singles branch. We showed up to her house just to see how she was doing, and it turned out her friend Amanda was there, who was Catholic but wasn't sure she agreed with a lot of Catholicism. So, Amanda was very open and asked us many questions, and Emily wanted to know about the Plan of Salvation because we told her we'd expand on it last time we saw her. Well, Amanda basically taught a huge chunk of the lesson we were going to teach when she explained her view of heaven, and she was also VERY thrilled to hear about our view on the fall of Adam and Eve. She also thought it was amazing that we had "such a better understanding" on all of the concepts and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon. She told us "I'll read it. I really will." We didn't even ask her to, so we were fine with that. The lesson was probably one of the best I've ever had, and the spirit was crazy strong (and helping us out a ton). Both were at the singles branch today. Fantastic.

Halloween was awesome. Every year the stake president puts on this HUGE dealy where he buys about fifty million pumpkins and has anyone who wants to just go on over to his house and carve them. He's done it every year and then he puts them all over his yard and we light them all up. He likes having missionaries there so they can talk to people as they carve. My pumpkin, just so everyone knows, was absolutely incredible and probably my best work ever. The pumpkin itself was a BEAST so it was insanely difficult to do. But, long story short, it was the best one in the yard and pictures will be sent home shortly.

Other than that, Proposition 8 stuff is insane and I have absolutely no idea how not everyone sees it for what it is. If I hear that not letting gay people call their domestic partnership "marriage" is discrimination one more time I might jump off a cliff.

Anywho, other than that craziness, things are amazing. The gospel's still true so that's really nice. I've gotta head out but have a swell week!

Elder Balaaaaaaaaagna

Week #18 - Boo-gers!

Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!

Welp, another week has passed and next time you hear from me I will have hit my four month mark. Time's going by like crazy. Things are certainly interesting with this new companion... :-D He's quite the character. Last week was pretty crazy- we had some good visits and some pretty fun tracting stories. One really old lady opened her door and went "I'm Jewish. ALSO I'M AN ATHIEST" and she slammed the door as hard as she could. I suppose she's not ready. I'm still not really sure I understand how she's a Jewish Athiest. We had a really good lesson with Kara this week. It seems like just about every lesson with her (she's picked up on this as well and has brought it up many times), what we planned to teach is exactly what she's recently had questions about. We resolved a big concern that we didn't even know was there- so that was fantastic. Slowly but surely. Rough week for Kelly. His son died unexpectedly last week and he's had a lot going on as a result. He called us to say that he "hadn't forgotten about us" and really wants to meet again as soon as he has time. We had an excellent discussion with Gary (the Frank Sinatra guy). I really think this one may actually go somewhere. At first with him it was pretty clear that he was an why he was an eternal investigator, but now we're really starting to crack him open. Good stuff.

Welp- I need to head out. Happy Halloween!

A Halloween Funny, by Yours Truly: Why did the ghost like being a ghost? Because it was "spook"tacular.

Boofully yours,
Elder Balagna

Week #17 - Free Smells!

Hi everyone!

Thanks a ton for the swell, surprising, sensational and stupendous 100 Day present! You are quite the family! I'll have to let you know some of my favorites next week. They were all crazy awesome.

Aside from that it's been a crazy week. Nothing too exciting- we've been driving people around and having to do a bunch of stuff that took up time and wasted our miles because of transfers. This car situation is not the greatest. But, we've got some new people in our zone who seem pretty cool so that's a plus.

We had a really cool experience with someone who's now an investigator for the singles branch. My story telling won't do it justice and I don't have much time to write today, so here is a very basic version: We had just seen her Saturday and invited her out to stake conference, and then I remembered that I was given invitations for a Halloween dance party at the singles branch to hand out to less actives and what not. I was annoyed with myself for forgetting, and then the ol' trusty comp suggested we just go over and deliver it anyway. We were way lucky to even catch her at all Saturday and we felt a little "brushed off" but I decided we might as well give it a shot. When we were near her area, I suggested we park and just walk the rest of the way because we needed to save miles. So, as we finally get near her house, there she is walking from one of her neighbors and she said "Hi guys!" (sidenote: had we not parked and walked, she would not have been home when we stopped by her house, and during the week she's in San Francisco so it would have been at least another week before we could maybe get ahold of her) and she walked over. We invited her to the Halloween party, and then she just started asking a couple questions that were VERY basic. From what we had learned about this girl before, we were under the impression that she was one of those people that knew all about us and believed it was all true but didn't ever want to be baptized. After talking to her for about forty minutes in the street, we found out that's not at all the case. She had the perfect questions and they basically led us to teaching her almost two full lessons. It got to a point where I explained why baptism was important and what it really was, to which she asked "Well what do I need to do to be baptized?" Excellent question. We explained more and she asked if we could come over next weekend to teach her more about everything. We said thanks but no thanks. Ha just kidding. We set up a time and she gave us her cell number and was excited. Pretty awesome stuff. We were on quite the spiritual high the rest of the day.

Anywho, I don't really have too much more to update about. Sorry this one's a bit short. I think the "greenie mail" period has definitely come to a close but it was good while it lasted.

Just so all of you friends back at home know, I'm still accepting letters. :-D

Have an extraordinary week- much love all around! Elder Al

Week #16 - Ice Cream for I Scream!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! A very special birthday letter will arrive soon.

This last week's been pretty nuts. We've been insanely busy but unfortunately it wasn't quite due to missionary work. Our car was finally taken away and totaled, but sadly we are not getting a new car. The entire mission is down three cars, so instead of getting a new one like we were told we would, we didn't get anything. Being without bikes and having to cover a Singles Branch (which covers the entire stake) made this even more exciting, and our travel coordinator suggested bus transportation and rides from members. Easier said than done I suppose. Thankfully, the first ward elders (who used to be on bike but last transfer got a brand new Corolla) offered to pretty much give up their car for us and go back to bikes. So, after two days of walking (and accomplishing little), we did get a new car which was quite helpful.
Friday and Saturday our zone put on puppet shows of Bible Stories (Noah's Ark, David and Goliath, Daniel and the Lion's Den, and Jonah and the Whale) at a crazy big festival dealy in Rio Vista. They were a HUGE hit. Elder Walton, Elder Allred and I wrote all the scripts and they were pretty well done, if I do say so myself. We also did most of the voices and puppeteering and got pretty into it. The kids loved it and we actually got some good contacts as well.

Also, I made another trip to Rio Vista today because a sister that's going home in a couple of days wanted me to sing with her and the other sisters in sacrament meeting- Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It went well and the woman who played piano for us asked me to marry her daughter. We blew a lot of miles having to make three trips to Rio Vista in three days though.

Other than that, we had quite the experience with Kelly (the 89 year old guy we're teaching). We had about four people that were somewhat nearby that we decided to visit (while we were on foot). Kelly was one of them- they were all somewhat scattered, but he was the farthest one away. So we were just going to visit all four, him being last, and then head back to the house. Out of nowhere I decided we should just go see Kelly first and then see everyone else afterwards (it really didn't make sense to do that...it added a lot of time to our walking). But, it turned out that we showed up about twenty minutes before he had to go to the doctors office all day. He wasn't thrilled about going at all and he told us that he had just been thinking about us and wanted to be able to talk and pray before he went. After reading a bit from the Book of Mormon we asked him if he'd like us to give him a blessing instead.

(FYI - If you're not familiar with what a blessing is, here's the definition:
Priesthood Blessing: A blessing given by a Melchizedek Priesthood holder, by the laying on of hands and by inspiration, to one who is sick or otherwise in need of special counsel, comfort, or healing. If the blessing is for the sick, consecrated oil is used (James 5:14–15). Priesthood blessings are given by the authority of the priesthood for healing, comfort, and encouragement. Brethren who perform ordinances and blessings should prepare themselves by living according to gospel principles and striving to be guided by the Holy Spirit.)

He asked me to offer it and afterwards he prayed and thanked the Lord for sending us and for the comfort he received- he also said how he knew the words spoken were straight from God. After the prayer he told us he felt tons better and was very grateful for us stopping by. It was way cool. It also turned out that the other three people we planned on visiting weren't even home.

I'm a little short on time- transfers are tomorrow so today's a full day. Everything's staying the same for me but a lot of people are leaving. Sounds like things will be interesting. That about wraps her up.

Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Al

Week #15: Native American Wind Chimes Festival 08

To Whom It May Concern:

The Gospel's still true. This week was fantastic. It was a little crazy with all the moving and and the companion switch but overall it was quite fantastic. We had a pretty amazing lesson with Kara. She's basically at a point now where she knows being baptized is the right thing to do but she's just a little worried about it. Part of the reason is she feels she doesn't know enough, but hopefully the talk by Elder Neil L. Andersen at General Conference helped a lot ("you don't know everything, but you know enough"). She recorded conference on Tivo because she's out of town until next Friday and she was pretty excited about seeing it. I never really thought about how cool it was that we get to sit down and watch a prophet and twelve apostles speak to us twice a year. I'm pretty sure everyone who watches (including me) says that they feel like each speaker is speaking directly to them. Anyone who tells me our leadership isn't inspired can go paint a shed. :-)

(If you'd like to listen to any of the talks given at General Conference, here's the link: http://www.lds.org/conference/languages/0,6353,310-1,00.html )

Anywho, we're teaching a guy named Kelly who's 88 years old. I don't know if I've mentioned him but he's awesome. He's pretty spry for his age. It's pretty neat to be teaching someone all about life after death when he's actually pretty close to seeing it for himself. He loves the Book of Mormon and has been reading it like crazy. He says it's an "epic novel" and he just can't stop reading. He was telling us how much he loves the stories (especially Alma) and how he loves the way it goes more in depth about certain things like life after death. His wife passed away a couple years ago so he really likes reading/learning about where she is right now and what it'll be like later on. Nifty stuff.

My new companion is an excellent teacher. When we teach he's very smooth and knows exactly what he's doing. The first day he got here he wanted to call and see who the designated driver was. Sadly, it was him (he's been out for a year). His hands NEVER leave the ten and two position so we're good to go. Anywho, he's a good person. This whole "fresh start" thing has been EXCELLENT. The ol' self confidence level has gone way up and it's fantastic to kinda be in control of the area and lead all the lessons. Anywho, I gotta head out but love love and more love to all you peeps back in the states.

Elder Al

Week #14 - Pants!

Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Kind of an unexpected finish to the week. Yesterday afternoon, Elder Singleton got a phone call from president asking if he could do an emergency transfer today at noon. Apparently, one of the Elders who shared my room at the MTC- is going home. He was struggling a lot and decided to go home. So, that was a little unexpected and kinda depressing. Today I'll be getting a new companion named Elder Wheeler.

Aside from that, it was a pretty good week. We ended up teaching about sixteen lessons this week which was pretty exciting.

We move into the Benning's house tomorrow and that should be really fun. They have a really nice house and an incredible piano on the second floor. I did get everyone's mail last week though in case you were wondering - the Bennings gave me what was sent to their house and we're still in our old apartment so I got what was mailed there. I don't really have too much else to write home about. I had the greasiest...most garlicy and most disgusting meal I've had yet last week. Even the salad was garlicy and terrible. Oh and to top it off, there was again only an option of milk to drink. Milk is not a good thirst quencher. It also tastes gross without cereal, cookies, or chocolate.

Sorry it's a bit of a short update this week. Not too much to catch everyone up on. But, all is well and I'll let everyone know how the new comp is.

Bye!
Elder Al

Week #13: Hop Scotchin' It!

Good day!

As of September 25th, my new address will be:

Elder Balagna
2114 Mecca Ct
Fairfield, CA 94534

However, we're not actually moving into that house until a week from today. We were first told that we'd move the 25th, so that may be the end of our contract in the apartment. Today the family we're moving in with said they wouldn't quite be ready until Monday, so we may end up living with a couple other elders for a few days (who knows though- we might stay in our apartment). To be safe, don't mail anything to the apartment that would get there Friday or later.

Anywho, The Jelly Belly Factory was nice. Not the most exciting tour, but it was good. They had a sample Jelly Belly Bar which was absolutely fantastic. You could sample as many as you wanted. They also had a gigantic Jelly Belly Man out front which really brightened my day (to say the least). (See pictures below)

As for other exciting news, we were fed Chinese food Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night. It felt like home except I really thought I might vomit after the third helping. Members had yet to feed us Chinese once since I'd gotten here, and then three different families fed it to us in a row (including lunch, which members rarely rarely rarely ask us out to lunch).

On top of that, Kara had quite the story for us. We taught her a lot about fasting and what it does for us and committed her to try it with us on Sunday. We told her it could really help her find more direction and figure out what she wanted to do. I guess that day, she opened the news paper and saw a huge article on some new machine that's basically trying to simulate the big bang theory. She was a little annoyed with it and turned a few pages to finish the article. Then, she turned back a couple of pages and a quarter (this was a brand new news paper that she just opened up) was laying face up displaying the "In God We Trust." This made her pretty happy, and then upon moving the quarter, she realized it had been sitting over a tiny box under a "this day in history" section (that apparently she NEVER reads) and it said something about the Mormon Pioneers. Needless to say, she was pretty excited and she said she went out and bought another skirt. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but one of her "big things" is that she HATES skirts/dresses and doesn't ever buy them. She even said the only fight she ever got in with her husband was over a dress, and she said she didn't think she could ever be a member of our church because she'd feel awkward not wearing one. Well, a couple of weeks ago she said she bought one "just in case," and then after this experience she went out and bought another in preparation for attending church often. :-D

I don't know if you've heard much about Proposition 8, but it's huge out here. It's about the gay marriage issue. Basically, the entire fight is over NOTHING but the word marriage. Apparently, because we don't say that a guy/guy or girl/girl couple with ALL THE SAME RIGHTS as a guy/girl couple is marriage, we don't practice "equality for all." If Proposition 8 fails to pass, public schools have to teach that gay marriage is the same as marriage and we can't preach in church that it's wrong or we could be sued, etc etc. The First Presidency got really involved and is having all the members in California work to make sure it passes, The church has joined a huge coalition of Christian and Non-Christian denominations to go out and do a bunch of stuff to help make sure that it does. Crazy stuff.

I'm out of time- but thanks for all the emails and mail.

Mucho (fancy word for "much") love,
Elder Al

Two Super Missionaries!

A few photos!

Two busy missionaries! Elder Singleton and Elder Balagna in sunny Fairfield CA!

Always time for fun - guess where these guys spent their Preparation Day?

The Jelly Belly Factory - Elder Balagna has been looking forward to this for quite some time!

A peak inside:

Week #12 - More Powerful than a Locomotive

Good day, errbody!
This will probably be a quick update- I don't have a whole lot of time. But, things are excellent. Our investigator Anthony came to church and he brought his friend Rob, who also wants to start taking lessons. So, a new investigator! We were pretty excited. Seems like we've been blessed a whole lot more than usual lately as far as investigators go, so I'd like to throw a shoutout to the man upstairs for helping us out so much in the past few weeks.

I'm sorry to inform everyone that we never made it to the Jelly Belly Factory last week, so I'm holding off on sending pictures home because we're supposedly going today. I'm pretty excited- mostly because we get free Jelly Bellies. I may have mentioned that last week but I just can't stop thinking about it. It's almost too awesome for words.

On the 25th we'll be moving in with a family in our ward named the Benning's. They're way cool. I'll have more information on that next week with an address and hoohaw. The weather's been much more tolerable lately. Just a wee bit cooler and it'll be perfect for wearing a white shirt and tie. There's also a bunch of fruit everywhere, and a bunch of people are giving us free homegrown fruit. It tastes pretty amazing. Plums, pears, apples, etc. Delicious. Peach season I guess is over which is terrible news. The peaches out here are amazing. One family gave us some of their homegrown peaches all the time and it always made my week.

Anywho, that about wraps it up for this week. Thanks again to everyone who sent mail- mail makes my day. I'll try and respond to all of them soon!

Elder Al

Week #11 - It's Turtle Time!

Hi there everyone!

What a week it has been. What a week. It was insanely hot again which was great because I was really hoping that the temperatures wouldn't drop below freezing.

Other than that, we had transfers and had some really cool people leave us. That's the way the cookie crumbles, I suppose. I don't really have a whole lot to report this week but things are going extremely well. We taught a lot of lessons this week and there's one new investigator that seems pretty solid. We tracted into her and it turns out she's also really good friends with an awesome family in our ward. We taught her the first lesson and we're also teaching her again next week. She had some good questions which was nice. It's always a plus when you know they're actually taking stuff in and thinking about it.

I had a pretty neat experience when I tried to send in my reading for my defibrillator.
(Alex has an internal defibrillator that paces his heart and has the ability to restart his heart if it should stop...he also has a transmitter that he connects to a land phone line which sends a monthly report of the defibillator's activity to his physician.)
For some reason, I tried it in three different homes of members (one of them I had sent it from last month) and none of them would work. It wouldn't send in my reading and I tried about fifty times and I was getting a little frustrated. So, we ended up visiting a VERY less active member who never answers the door and we decided we'd ask to try it at her house just to see if it worked. Well, she answered the door, and she was more that willing to let us try sending the reading. She has a pretty serious heart problem as well and was very interested in mine. Her phone worked on the first try when I sent in the reading. We were able to talk with her for about forty minutes and it was a REALLY good discussion- first about heart problems and then about the gospel. I don't really know why she stopped going to church- she still seems like a strong member and she still knows it's all true, so hopefully she'll come back soon. It's been years. We'll see!

That's really about everything cool for the week. Sorry I don't have much. Today we're going to the Jelly Belly Factory for a free tour (which comes with a free bag of Jelly Bellys) so I'm pretty psyched about it. I still haven't had a chance to meet Carol Shelton but from what I hear she's a total doll. (When Alex opened his mission call and he said "Santa Rosa California", I told him that it was the home of Charles Schulz - the creator of the Peanuts cartoon (and Linus). He thought I said "Carol Shelton" and was puzzled. If you click on the You Tube video of his mission call you can listen to the exchange.)

Love to everyone!
Elder Al

Week #10 - Rice filled Ping Pong with Bacon & Cheese

Best week ever! Almost. Actually best day ever. The week was alright.

First off, I'm safe for transfers as well as Elder Singleton - so we're both pretty happy about that. So, we'll be stickin around the ol' Fairfield for another six weeks. However, they told us a couple weeks back that they're going to move us into a member's home "very soon," but we still haven't heard anything so who knows. Either way, we're still in the area, but we may have a change of address sometime. I'll have over a week's notice though so it's no biggie.

Anywho, yesterday was crazy amazing. It was pretty incredible the way Elder Singleton and I would both feel impressed to go to a certain place and had perfect luck with each one. The Spirit had a full agenda and was sure to let us know. I've never had an experience quite like it, so I've been saying many thankful prayers. Basically, we ended up with two new investigators within two hours (kinda rare to pick up even one investigator in a week in our area...or at least it has been) and we finally caught three different people at home that we've been trying to get ahold of since I got here. Everything we did wasn't even written in our plans, but one of us would just throw out a name and each one sounded perfect. The last girl we saw (a new investigator) we've been trying to see for about four weeks. She works all the time and we can never catch her. We both decided to go over at about eight thirty pm, and there was one light on. We debated on whether or not it was too late, and Elder Singleton kinda laughed and said "I'm wondering if this is just Satan trying to trip us up." So, that's when I told him we were going in, and it turned out she was home for the first time. She'd read a little out of the Book of Mormon, wants to come to church, and was really excited about volleyball (we play every Wednesday with the singles) and is going to come with her friend this week. Amazing.

We also decided to see if a guy named Anthony (we're seeing 2 "Anthonys" right now) was home. He apparently went to one of the other wards one Sunday and had a lot of good comments about it. He's in his mid twenties and we've been trying to catch him at home for a long time. We went there and he was out front watering his lawn. We'd never met him, but he greeted us with a hearty "What's up my brethren?" and asked if we were hungry or thirsty. He was a pretty awesome guy and we taught him the entire first lesson and bits and pieces of the second out on his lawn. He was definitely following it and was interacting a ton which is always a plus. So, he wants to meet with us next Sunday night and he's going to go to church.

Much more stuff but I'm running out of time. On Saturday we went to a couple's house that lives in Rio Vista for a traditional "end of transfers dinner." It was way fun and eight missionaries from the zone went. They have a bunch of recording equipment and the guy's way good with music (sadly there was no piano). Our zone leader and I decided to write a rap about our zone and record it because he had a bunch of awesome beats. Long story short, it sounds freaking awesome. We're getting the recording on cd today, so you'll probably be getting a copy.

Kara's still doing great. She said now that her friends know she's looking into the church, they're praying for her that she'll find Christ. She kinda laughed and said "all that's resulted from their prayers is me coming closer to joining, so either you have Christ or they're praying to the wrong person."

Welp, that about wraps her up.
Elder Alex

Week #9 - The last week of my first transfer!

Hey Champs!
I'm officially in my last week of my first transfer! I don't know if I'll get transferred or not next week- we'll find out like two days before. I'll be able to let everyone know in my next email if I'm going. I've got mixed feelings about it. It would be really cool to stay here with my companion. I really like the area though and the people are great, so I don't know. I've got a really cool zone here too. We'll see I suppose.
As for awesome news, we had two investigators at church!! Last Wednesday we had an incredible lesson with Kara and she kept talking about how good she felt about everything. She said everything seems leading her toward the church (even though people are giving her a hard time about it) and now she's finally accepting that it's probably what she needs to do. So, she agreed to come to church and really enjoyed it- all the talks ended up being perfect for what she needed to hear so the Lord was definitely helping us out. She got really excited and said for our lesson this Wednesday she's cooking us brunch.
We also had that girl Emily (I think I mentioned her last week) call us and ask where the singles branch was so she could go. She ended up knowing ten people there so it went really well too- she's planning on coming next week and we're going to teach her a little bit. I don't know if I ever said anything about this- my companion and I cover the fourth ward and also the singles branch. So, it was nice to have someone attend each one and make both sides happy.
The Relief Society President at BYU Summer term while I was Elders Quorum President's name is Annie. It turns out her family lives in my ward, and she was home for this week and leaves for BYU in a couple of days. So, we had a little catch-up talk and that was kinda cool. Can't say I expected to run into many people I knew on my mission.
That's about all I've got over here. It was a crazy busy week. We had to make up for the slowness of last week, and I think we did alright. Thankfully, I still haven't caught any sickness, but I'm knocking on wood as we speak.
Much love to all you peeps! Marshmallow Peeps are so gross.
Elder Al

Week #8 - Slow Week

Good day, loved ones!

Not a whole lot to report this week. My comp got pretty sick so we couldn't do too much in the middle of the week. He looked terrible. He's much better now and just has a bad cold. I'm hoping I dodged the illness. So far I'm good to go, but who knows.

I gave a talk in church yesterday over "opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit." I was introducted as "fresh out of the MTC" (as I am every time my name is mentioned in the ward...) but thankfully, I had a lot of people tell me afterward that I don't seem new at all, so that was good to hear. Hopefully they weren't just trying to boost my confidence. Anyway, it was a cool topic so it was fun to expand on.

I got a lot of mail this week. Thanks to errbody. Lee Barwick sent me an awesome package, make sure on the blog he knows that he's way cool. [LEE- ALEX SAYS YOU'RE WAY COOL]

We tried out our music presentation dealy for a few members this week and it went really well. We've got a few different songs that we do and we have some tie-ins to missionary work that we explain from the lyrics as well as a lesson that goes with it. So, that's working out quite nicely, and the bishop even gave a little plug for us at church, so we've got more appointments. It's pretty nice to see the members warming up to us and they're becoming a lot more willing to suggest friends who might want to talk. We can tell the Spirit is helping.

Two new investigators this week! Anthony, a huge black guy in his twenties who likes to play volleyball with the singles branch on Wednesdays agreed to start taking lessons. We taught him once already and he set up another time for us to teach on Wednesday. He's a really cool guy so I hope things continue to progress.

We also got a media referral from a girl named Emily who's 18. She had called in and asked for missionaries to deliver her a Book of Mormon and a Bible and to teach her about them. We were pretty excited about that, and when we got there, Elder Singleton said he was pretty sure he'd been there. Sure enough, a few months prior, he had tracted into her before. Apparently she's gone to church a ton and then went to college. She lost the number for the missionaries so she figured she could get back in touch this way. She's home on weekends, so we'll be teaching her then. Looks pretty promising, so keep that one in your prayers.

Anywho, that's about all there is over here. Happy Earth Day!

Amicably,
Elder Balagna

Week #7 - Working Hard!

Welp, here's another update. It's high time you got one I s'pose. It's certainly high time.

Hello there! Not a whole lot to report this week. It's been crazy busy and I did exchanges with the zone leader and the district leader so that took up about three days of the week. It was nice and we had some really good lessons. I got to teach a lot which was a major plus.

Kara Valentino agreed to come to church this week and was really looking forward to it, but sadly her son told her the night before that he was in charge of some program that they were doing and he wanted her to see it. It started at nine am, which as luck would have it is exactly when our ward starts church. Crazy Satan and his wacky antics.

I got a massive bug bite on the back of my foot. It's huge and I almost took a picture until I remembered the time I got the white sock bite on my forehead in Alaska that was almost the size of Canada. I tried to take a picture of that one and it came nowhere NEAR doing it justice. So, take my word for it. It's humongous. Probably bigger than the ol' Jonny's head when he was a kid. Oh, Jonny I'm just playing with you! Don't give me that look! You lil goof.

We taught a guy named Rob all about the restoration and it was a REALLY good discussion. He's having a lot of problems in his life but he's way cool. He was picking up his kids from a member's house where we were eating and then we all started talking and it got pretty deep. He cried a wee bit and the spirit was stronger than Chief looked in that one picture where he's doing the hurdles.

Anywho, that's about all I've got for this week. Bruce C. Hafen's talking to us tomorrow which is way exciting. We're all pretty pumped. Merry Christmas and enjoy Honest Abe's birthday.

Elder Al

Pictures, Pictures and more Missionary Pictures

Two great missionaries!

Alex in front of the Provo Utah Temple.

MISSIONARY TALK: "Elder Balagna...you have a banana in your ear." Elder Balagna says: "I can't hear you - I have a banana in my ear."

Alex and the members of his district at the MTC

Successful training at the MTC - it's time to move on!

Where in the world will Elder Balagna and Elder Norton go?

First stop - the Golden Gate Bridge!

Next...the intersection of Lehi Ct. and Kolob Drive. :-)

Physical and Spiritual Strength - an Alex Video

Alex is "famous" for his videos on his Facebook web page. Here's a fun clip of him "exercising" his strength in the MTC.

Week #6: Frank Sinatra is alive and well!

Hey there friends, colleagues, and distinguished governors. What a day!

"Gee wiz, why such a day, Alex?" Because today I woke up and had a nice tall glass of Tropicana Orange Juice to celebrate P-Day.

Thanks for all of the emails/letters this week. They were fantastic. The stories/homemade comics were delightful and the tetracycline and nadalol were delicious as always.

This week was pretty spectacular. I got to meet Gary, who had me sing about five Sinatra songs for him. His equipment's WAY cool. He gave me a lot of really good tips for singing more "Frank-like" as well which was pretty neat. He definitely knows his stuff. He sounds JUST like Frank Sinatra, and his whole style of singing is just like his too. So anywho, we're going back there this week. We got to talk a little gospel with him too which went really well.

Our lesson with Kara got cancelled which was disappointing, but we're still meeting with her on Wednesday. Last time we talked to her she had some questions about what her pastor had taught about what Mormons believe. One thing I'll never understand: If someone hears something from their pastor/priest/anything that they know is just flat out wrong about our church, wouldn't you think that they'd be a little incredulous when it comes to asking more questions? I know there are a lot of really respectable and knowledgeable religious leaders out there, but honestly, when are you ever going to hear a pastor say "I don't really know of any reason why you shouldn't join that church. Go right ahead"? Anywho, Kara is pretty strong willed, and after talking to her we saw that she was actually pretty annoyed with some of the false things that she'd been taught (i.e. Mormons don't believe in the Bible) so she's even more set on learning more and a lot more open minded.

President Stoddard "heard a rumor that I was quite the piano player" and asked me to play a prepared musical number a week from tomorrow. Bruce C. Hafen from the seventy is coming to speak to the entire mission and everyone's way excited. We read a couple of his talks and they're pretty amazing. One's called The Restored Doctrine of the Atonement and it's excellent. But yeah- I'm working on learning the Jon Schmidt version of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief. Hopefully I can.

I was talking to the coolest guy of all time with most amazing conversion story ever, the other day. His life story's pretty amazing in itself, but I don't have time to go through it all. Basically, he's awesome. He had some problems with his wife and they were divorced. Soon after, she and her current boyfriend (now husband) were set on ruining him. During all this, he found a Book of Mormon, and the first scripture he opened it up to was in Alma...I don't remember where but it is where he talks about how sweet was the joy after his pain or something like that. Well, he loved the Book of Mormon, but also realized how his wife had pretty well ruined his life. He hit rock bottom and found himself sitting in his house with every light off contemplating death. He just said a prayer where he basically told God that he was going to do it and asked to please stop him. As soon as he finished praying, two missionaries knocked on his door (all the lights were out in his house and it was eight at night) and said that they had a message from Jesus Christ. Way long story short, he was baptized.

We did a thing called "grafting the vineyard" with a bunch of missionaries and President Stoddard. The new missionaries did this activity where we were asked a question about our church, and while standing on a chair, we had to 'soap box preach' about it and clear up confusion and everyone else posed as nonmembers asking questions. Well, my topic was about the priesthood, and one of the sister missionaries threw a bunch of questions at me. I don't want to brag, but President Stoddard said that he was really impressed at how "calmly but boldly" I dealt with the situation. :-)

Anywho- gotta go- love, peace and cherries,
Al

Week #5 - July 28, 2008 - Tales of a Brand New Missionary

Hey there friends and foes!

My first week is out of the way. It's crazy nice weather here. My companion's really cool (Elder Singleton...he's from Canada) and things are going well. The only thing that I'm really trying to get used to is tracting. (Going door to door) Not a whole lot of success here, so tracting is pretty common. I can't say I'm too fond of it yet. However, I have a much greater appreciation for nice people. It's pretty surprising how rude people feel they need to be. They could just as easily say something like "I really appreciate what you do, but we're not really interested. Have a nice day though!" Which some people do say, but very very few. Most will either tell us to quit wasting time, that we're going to hell, or to stay away from their house. We came up to one girl's house who looked mid-thirties/early forties who as soon as we got there said "Um...NO THANK YOU" (in the most annoyed-teenage girl persona she could muster) and then she said "And we will be getting a 'no soliciting' sign for our door to keep people like you away from our house. We're not afraid to call the cops."

We did get to teach a couple of people though, and the lessons were amazing. One girl in her early forties named Kara talked to us for about an hour. She's a hairdresser. She was pretty friendly and open with anything I had to say, which made me feel very at ease. I guess my companion had talked to her a few times before, so she's familiar with everything and is keeping commitments so she's doing well. We did a lot of Q&A this time and it was awesome. Lots of really good questions, and if I do say so myself, lots of really good answers. The Spirit was definitely helping out a lot. It's pretty cool when you finally understand what they mean when they constantly tell you in the MTC to let the Spirit work through you and not rely on your own knowledge.

I played the piano a few times. One elder took a video of me playing "All of Me" when he found out I could play and showed everyone.

One thing that's way nice though is I was eating at an Italian family's house (They love me - Balagna is a pretty good last name to have around here) called the Muzzio's, who said to tell Mom and Chief that they'd take care of me. The meal was pretty amazing. Anyway, I was talking to them and we got on the topic of hobbies, then singing, then Michael Buble, then a five year investigator two doors down who was WAY into Michael Buble and Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin etc who apparently sings exactly like all of them. He's almost sixty and he has all of this karaoke type stuff and he sings for a lot of gathering dealies. Anyway, the Muzzio's think I'm the one who'll have that magic touch when it comes to finally getting him to join the church, and they said anything's allowed when it means a potential baptism (meaning singing some Frank songs with him). Haha, so who knows. Either way it'll be fun to talk to him, but as for getting him baptized, who knows. It would be really cool though.

I did have two baptisms on Saturday- a guy named Robert and girl named Bianca. Given that I did nothing to get them to that point, it was still pretty cool and Robert asked me to talk on the Holy Ghost at his baptism. I got to know him two days before and he was really cool. I think he's 26. So, that was really neat. I saved a couple of programs from it. The one even has my name in it! It's been a while since I'd actually seen a baptism, so it was a way cool experience.

I got a free tie from an elder who's going home in a few months. He said that I was way cool and he wanted to be my godfather, so he let me pick one of his ties and then he wrote his and my name inside the back. What a nice fella. Kind of an ugly tie though. I didn't want to take a nice one.

We tracted into a man named Michelon. He was awesome. We kinda felt like just asking if he needed help with anything rather than introduce the church right off hand, and it turned out he and his wife were moving a ton of stuff and needed help. So, we helped and then sat down and touched a bit on the restoration and then Alma 32 about faith- and he said that the night before he had been praying for help and praying to have his faith strengthened and basically said that we were sent from God. Kinda nice to hear that after you've been told you're going to hell. So that was really cool and we're meeting with him again on Wednesday.
Anywho, gotta wrap things up but thanks for all the email and what not- the pictures are always nice!
Love- Elder Al

July 22, 2008 - Alex has arrived in Santa Rosa CA!

We received our first letter from Alex upon his arrival in California. His mission President gives each missionary an addressed and stamped envelope with a piece of stationery and the missionary's first assignment is to write a letter home to let everyone know that he has arrived safely. Here's Alex's account of his arrival on Monday, July 21, 2008:

I'm at the mission home and safe. It's very nice here and the Mission President and his wife are awesome. We stopped at the Oakland CA Temple on the way to Santa Rosa - it was closed but it was AMAZING! It had a terrace where you could walk up and see for miles. I took a ton of pictures.

(If you'd like to see a picture of the Oakland Temple, here's the link: http://www.lds.org/temples/main/0,11204,1912-1-49-0,00.html)

Then, from there we went to the Golden Gate bridge. WAY COOL! You could see Alcatraz from there too. More pictures of that too!

So, anywho, things are fantastic. We had our orientation, and I'll have my interview pretty soon. I'm starting to realize that I'm actually here so it's kind of a shock at this point. I'm way excited but a little intimidated. I'll find out tomorrow where my first assignment is.

We get two temple trips each year. I'm really excited. We either go to the temple in Oregon, Sacramento or Oakland. It depends on where you're serving at the time.

Well, flight was good and drive was good. Two elders had to take a later flight because it was overbooked. They just got here. Glad it wasn't me! :-) That's about it.

I love you!
Love, Al

Week #4 Begins - He's on his way!

On Monday, July 21, about 8:10am we received a phone call from Elder Balagna from the Salt Lake City UT airport! It was GREAT to hear from him. We were able to talk to him for about 30 minutes and we could just hear the excitement in his voice as he was preparing to leave. He left with 14 missionaries for their Santa Rosa assignments. He told us that he would be arriving at the Oakland CA airport, driving about 2 hours to Santa Rosa and spending the night in the mission home. On Tuesday he would be leaving for his first area.

It was amazing to us that after almost 3 weeks in the MTC he had made such good friends - and how difficult is was for all of them to say good-bye. What a tremendous experience!

We are out of town for the rest of the week celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary so we won't be able to check the mailbox for Alex's first letter until we get home. Our guess is that his P-Day (preparation day) is Monday - so we're hoping to get an e-mail then and we will post again with Alex's current news as well as his new address.

Happy Pioneer Day! :-)

Life at the MTC

These are the pictures Alex took at the MTC (Missionary Training Center). On July 21st, Monday, he will be leaving the MTC for Santa Rosa California to begin serving in his assigned area.

Elder Balagna and Elder Norton - companions in the MTC. It looks like they're studying the right books!

Alex and his "Fourth of July" Care Package from Mom & Dad - from the looks of the empty box, he and his buddies enjoyed every morsel!

MTC Roommates: Elder Balagna, Elder Norton, Elder Young and Elder Hills.

Alex "resting" in his bunk with his Superman Quilt and Superman Pillow Case! Almost like being home!
Elders Balagna and Norton riding the bus to the Temple and then standing outside the Mt. Timpanogus Temple. Alex has always LOVED the Temple and couldn't wait until he could attend. That makes the 6th temple Alex has attended since his 19th birthday on April 15th!

Alex and his friend from his floor at BYU - Morgan. Morgan entered the MTC at the same time as Alex. When Mom and Dad left Alex it was great to see that he had a college friend there to keep him company!

Alex in class at the MTC - so much to learn - so little time! :-)

Elder Balagna just being "Alex" with Elder Norton!

Preparation Day (P-Day) at the MTC - Elders Balagna and Norton - nametags still attached!

Week #3 - Last week at the MTC

Thanks a lot for the emails and the "dear elders" and letters. They're crazy awesome. And thanks for the pictures. Katie looks like a fantastic new niece! Tell her I said hi and I'm excited to see her when she's a toddler. The Lucy and Gracie pictures were nice too. They brought me back.

So as for my flight, I leave for Santa Rosa CA at 8:50am Mountain time from Salt Lake next Monday (July 21st). We're leaving the MTC at 5 am, so hopefully three hours early at the airport will be enough time. I think I'll be able to make quick calls to everyone. I don't know what time exactly, but it'll probably be around eightish your time.

I don't know when I'll get my new mission address but if you could make sure that everyone on the blog knows not to send anything here that won't get here before Saturday (July 19th) that would be fantastic.

Other than that, stuff's fantastic here and I really appreciate all the letters. Batman comes out in two days. Make sure to let me know how terrible it is.

Everyone in the district's doing well. We had another really good testimony meeting with each other after the devotional last night. It's pretty awesome.

Oh- there's a scripture that I wanted up on my blog: Alma 18:34-35: "Ammon said unto him: I am a man; and man in the beginning was created after the image of God, and I am called by his Holy Spirit to teach these things unto this people, that they may be brought to a knowledge of that which is just and true; And a portion of that Spirit dwelleth in me, which giveth me knowledge and also power according to my faith and desires which are in God."

That's really about all there is here. Not a whole lot's changed. I study a lot. It's pretty cool. Sunday was extraordinary. We watched the Joseph Smith movie that night and it was still amazing times forty nine.

That about wraps her up. Sorry I don't have more info. I'm way pumped to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wanted to let you know that we prayed for Elizabeth G. in Zone and District prayer last night.

I love you!
Warmest Regards, Elder Al

Letter From Al - July 2nd

First letter from Alex written the first day in the MTC:

I'm still alive after my first day. It sounds like the real work starts tomorrow, but so far things are delightful. I'm done w/my "dork dot" [sticker on name tag to identify new missionaries], so that's way nice. I don't feel like a newbie as much.

We met with our branch president and zone leaders tonight after a crazy, awesome orientation. I got called as the district leader. Hopefully I'll figure it out. I don't have much of an idea what I'm doing with it yet, other than teaching lessons, unifying our district, and going to meetings. I'm also the only one who can get our mail, so I guess that's pretty cool.

All of my roommates are awesome and excited to be here. They're all going to Santa Rosa with me. My companion is really cool, and excited about being as good as he can be. We were told in orientation to do our best, to do away with "teenager talk", such as "guys", "man", "dude", etc. We're both helping each other break the habit. It's way cool being called "Elder', and calling each other "Elder".

I've run into 8 people from my floor at BYU last semester. It's pretty crazy. Elder Hills is the one I knew from school who was going to Santa Rosa, and he is rooming with us here. Everyone's really jealous of my pillowcase and blanket [both made with love by Mom, Superman themed, of course].

Other than that, it sounds like I get email access the next 2 Wednesdays for 30 min. Oh, and the Provo temple just closed and will stay closed until I leave. Figures.

Anywho, stuffs way good and I love you all, times 50.

Love,
Elder Balagna (Al)

Week #2 - Continued - Update from Alex!!!

We just received our first e-mail from Alex! Here's his update:

Everything's great and I finished my first week! All of the newbies get here today and I'm pretty excited to feel like I'm a pro who's been at the MTC his whole life. Basically, the days consist of at least ten hours of study. My teachers are excellent and I'm learning a ton. I feel like I know more about the restoration and how to explain it than I've learned my whole life. I got to teach three "mock-discussions" yesterday to "investigators" and they went pretty well. Last night my companion and I were asked to give the first lesson to an entire district and they were going to do some critiquing after we were done (the district was just as new as we were). So, we went in, and the lesson went better than it EVER had. I finally understood Doctrine and Covenants 100:5-6 (I think those are the verses) where it says open your mouth and it will be filled. We were completely guided by the spirit and we played off of each other really really well. So, it was a pretty neat experience and everyone in the class was way impressed. The teacher said that we were ready to leave. :-)

By the way, www.dearelder.com is amazing and they come daily- I wouldn't mind at all if it stayed that way :-) I was called as district leader and it's pretty cool. I teach on Sunday and I lead all of our classes, keep a bunch of stuff organized and go to meetings. My branch president is a great person so it's been nice to get to know him. My district is fantastic. Last night we had a devotional with Alexander Morrison (Quorum of the 70) and we had a "district devotional review" where we're all supposed to go around the room and say what we liked and bear testimony. After that, the spirit was way strong and everyone bore REALLY good testimony of the meeting.

A brief rundown of the week: Today's my first P(preparation)-day, I'm doing laundry, and luckily despite the temple being closed here for the remainder of my time, they're letting us take a bus trip to Timpanogus to go to the temple there today. I'm way excited. The food here is VERY good, so that must be new. Fast Sunday's meal was amazing. I play piano for sacrament and priesthood meetings, they let us watch fireworks on July 4th, I'll be sending home pictures today.

Anywho, bye everyone!
Love- Elder Al

Week #2 - Waiting for a letter

Well, Alex will have been been in the MTC for exactly 1 week tomorrow and we haven't heard anything from him...probably because we're in Dayton OH with Cari and James and their family. Cari had a baby girl, Katelyn Faith, this morning and we're here helping out. Katelyn was 5 lbs 15oz and 19 inches long. Unfortunately, right after the C-section she had trouble breathing and was transferred to the NICU at Dayton Children's Hospital. Terry is spending the night with Katelyn, James is at the Base Hospital with Cari and I am at their home with Logan and Tyler. According to Papa (Terry) Katelyn is doing well and we hope both mom and baby will be home by the end of the week. In the meantime, we're sure that a letter from Alex awaits us in our mail at home. Terry will be returning home on Thursday and we will make sure that we post Alex's update as soon as we receive it!
Until then, thanks for supporting Alex. For your information, E-mails sent to him through www.dearelder.com, if sent before 1pm are delivered to him that very same day. You just need to send them to his MTC address which is listed on the first page of the BLOG - right hand side. It's a free service and from what I've heard - missionaries LOVE to receive mail! :-)

Alex in the Lobby of the MTC standing near a favorite painting of Christ

Entering the MTC - Week #1 - July 2, 2008

Alex outside the MTC - 11:20am July 2, 2008

Alex and Dad outside the MTC

Entering the MTC

Mom putting on Alex's Nametag

Alex, Mom and Dad (I think Alex looks a bit more excited than Mom and Dad!)
Well, it's time for me to take over the writing of the "BLOG". Yesterday was truly "the best of times and the worst of times". We arrived at the Missionary Training Center in Provo UT at about 11:20am. After dropping off Alex's luggage, getting his immunization papers squared away and parking the car, it was time to go inside. As he checked in, Terry and I waited "patiently" for him. When I asked him what they were talking to him about at the desk his response was "Secret Stuff". Basically they welcomed him, gave him some initial instructions and handed him his missionary nametag. From what I understand, it's a tradition for parents to put the nametag on the new missionary. Although the "waterworks" started for us earlier in the day - this step didn't help us keep our emotions under control one little bit! Although I'm smiling in the picture - I was only smiling on the outside. After a few more pictures, we went into the chapel area where we listened to a 30 minute presentation on the MTC and missionary work in general. We learned that each day the missionaries in the MTC consume 400 gallons of milk. WOW! We also learned that 52 languages are being taught to the new missionaries preparing to enter the mission field. It's truly an amazing place. The opening hymn was "Called to Serve" - and I didn't hear a single female voice. The missionaries were singing and all the moms were crying...as we all knew that in just a few minutes our boys (and girls) would be going through the "missionary door" and we would be going home. Ever since Alex was a little boy he dreamed about going on a mission and now his dream has come true. He's finally ready to "teach and preach and work as missionaries do" and we're very grateful for that! (Words taken from a favorite Primary song..."I Hope They Call Me On a Mission") We will miss him each day, but we are so happy that he will be spending the next two years serving our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, full time. We thank all of you for supporting Alex with your kind words of encouragement. Although he won't be able to personally post on the BLOG, he will e-mail me with his weekly report and I will post it for him. I will also send him copies of all of your comments - so thank you for those as well!

Alex would love to receive mail! You can go to http://www.dearelder.com/ and send him an e-mail letter while he's in the MTC. His current MTC address is posted at the top of the BLOG.