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Monday, November 24, 2008

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

Monday, November 17, 2008

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

Friday, November 14, 2008

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...

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

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

Monday, November 3, 2008

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