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