Second Chances

This week has been so crazy! It's been a really good week and we had some really good lessons and some really cool miracles. But Friday morning my companion went home. He talked with Salt Lake and his family and they decided it was best for him just to go home and start school and start training for football. It was pretty crazy. I miss him. He was a really good person and taught me a lot. Hopefully things work out for him back home and that it's all part of the Lords plan. I got a missionary from a neighboring Ward for at least another week. Transfers are next Tuesday. 

 The work is going pretty slow. We have a couple of really solid people but other than that the work is going a little slow. So we were out working at a slow time during the day we were just walking through some apartment complexes and we saw some people moving. We decided to help and afterwards he said he was a member. It took us both a little off guard because he was covered in tattoos. He said he was just barley moving down here and all the way here he was praying and thinking about how he could get back involved with the gospel. He had been in and out of prison for awhile and just really messed up but wanted fix his life. Next thing you know we are standing right in front of him. We are going by this week.

It's crazy how the Lord always answers prayers but what's cooler is he always gives us second chances. The Lord is all about second chances. This guy has been in some pretty low places in his life and all he wants to do now is make the gospel a part of his life and the Lord is all in. The Lord will always patiently wait for us to come back to him. He will always give us our choices and I'm sure some of them are so hard for Him to watch but he always will let us make our own choices. If it means we are going to need a second chance Heavenly Father is ok with that. Every one needs second chances. That's why our loving Heavenly Father sent His Son to atone for each of us. To give us those second chances that we all need. I'm so grateful for the atonement that was preformed so long ago but is so personal to each of us. The opportunity we have to make mistakes and learn from them. The love He has for each of us is almost overwhelming to think about at times. I stand all amazed.

Alec's mom talking:  I think Elder Lange is pretty sad about his companion going home! 

He wants to help us grow

Hey everyone! This week looked pretty promising. We had some really good appointments with some people. One of them was with a Part Member Family. They are super awesome. They are newly weds and are like 23 and 22. We get along with them pretty well. The husband is the Less Active one and she is investigating. We had a super good lesson on baptism and why she thinks she needs to get baptized. Its something the both of them have been talking about for awhile. He wants to baptize her so we have to get him ready at the same time. Their biggest struggle is paying tithing. They are load for being early 20 newly weds though. Hes got a nice brand new, tricked out mustang and shes got a mini coop. They live in a super nice house about  bought like a $2000 Bulldog. So our lesson was based on baptism and what they need to do to get there. It was really good and then they both came to church! It was awesome. Im super stoked for them. We saw quite a few little miracles this week. 

We got a couple of other people that want to start taking the lessons and be baptized. Im sure its gonna be super good teaching them this week. We are going to try and put some of them on date this week. Its been rough to get started but its all starting to pay off. 

Most times we face trials in our life is not because of consequences of bad things we have done, but because the Lord looks at us and sees a strength we cant see in ourselves and he wants to help us grow. 

These pictures are from a hike I went on in Payson a few weeks ago

I'm grateful to be a Mormon!

This week has been pretty good! Although this next week is all supposed to be up in the 90s. I'm not ready for that. It's already been pretty hot down here. Super weird because everywhere else still has snow. 

We met a couple of really cool people this week. One guy we were just out visiting a house trying to find someone else. His name is Gino. We knocked on his door and out came a huge Hispanic around the side of the house. It was around 9 at night and pretty late. He was really cool though. He asked who we were and we said Mormons and he kind of took a couple steps back. "Wow man you guys like worship sheep and stuff". I kind of laughed and told him that wasn't what we did. We told him we believe in Jesus Christ and then we became his best friend. He kind of told us about his upbringing. He said he had felt a lot of weight in his life due to sins. We explained how he could get those sins taken away from Jesus Christ's atonement. He grew up Christian and still didn't know that. He literally was mind blown about how that could happen. I'm excited to see him this week and start teaching him. 

It's crazy that even the most basic beliefs in our church can bring so much happiness. I'm so grateful for the knowledge we have. Even the smallest and simple truths. I know that this church is true. And so now that I know, I'm trying to share that with as many people as I can. I found truth and happiness in this church and so it's only fair to share it with others! I'm grateful to be a Mormon! 

I've never been so happy in my entire life!

This week was pretty darn slow. Not a whole lot went on this week. I'm mean we did missionary work and visited some less actives but no really cool experiences. We've been trying to meet with some people I taught while I was here. It's kinda cool to see the people drop off and think they don't really need the gospel and then realize something went missing in their lives. 

Well one night we were walking through an apartment complex and somehow my comp and I started talking about how we become happy and what makes us happy. We talked about sports and dates and food and more food haha but it clicked that I've never been so happy in my entire life. I thought it was kind of crazy. The things that make me happy was all left at home for two years and I've never been happier in my life. Just kind of reminisced in the car on our way home about how much happiness the gospel has brought me. There's no better feeling than the feeling that God appreciates your choices and what you are doing. I've experienced it a couple times before I left but so much more since I've been on my mission. I think it's all because I've had the chance to live the gospel more fully. "And moreover, I would desire that you should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments". Never have I been a happier person :)

I'm back in the Valley!

This week has been pretty good. It's not feeling too hot in the valley yet. It feels pretty good actually. Almost exactly like the mountains right now. Elder Kaufusi is good. He's a poly and wants me to gain as much weight as I can while I'm with him. I've already gained 7 pounds in this first week. This guy is just constantly eating. He is really good though. We get along. He is from Tonga and has lived in he US for about 5 years. Salt Lake City. 

The area is still the same as I remember it. The members are all super nice and even nicer because my comp. for some reason people just love Polynesians. Hey are so lucky. White boys work their butts off and nothing happens and then a poly comes around and they are like "Ooo, want to come in and talk". It's so dumb how much people love them for no reason haha. It's alright though because I'm his comp. 

So we had a Stake Conference yesterday and it was really good. Our Stake President talked about a meeting he went to with tall the Stake Presidents in AZ. There were some apostles there and they opened it up to a Q and A. Well our Stake President had a question that had been on his mind for a couple of months that he thought he would ask. He asked Elder Ballard and Elder Rasband "Our Stake has 3200 members and 2500 are less active, for the past seven years I've been Stake President we have had President Monsons invitation to rescue on the forefront of our minds and there seems to be not real change. What can we do differently?" They had him turn to a scripture and read it. It was 3 Nephi 18:32 "Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them." Wow what a powerful scripture. The apostles and a couple of general authorities told them to just keep ministering. Not matter what, not matter how hard it seems. 

At first when I got the call to get transferred down here I was pretty mad. This was my least favorite area. I felt like I worked my butt off last time I was here and didn't see any of my work pay off. I thought it was almost worthless down here. But as I've come back and listened to the talk I've had a new out look. I wanted to see my work pay off. I wanted to see others lives change and become better. But it doesn't really matter. We are here to minister. A lot of times in life we are not going to see the success of our work. We might not see the lives we've touched. We might not see if we got our children on the right path. We might not even see if our work is paying off in our own lives but sooner or later we will see he fruits of our labors. The atonement works if we are using it. Whether we see it or not. I'm so grateful to be ministering as a full time servant of the Lord. I hope all of you stay on the straight and narrow path and minister no matter what, even when you can't see he success behind the work. 

Y Nation (Were pretty sure Elder Lange wore this sweatshirt in honor of BYU beating the #1 team in the nation; Gonzaga this week!)

Missions can be full of heartbreak

This week has been alright. It was really slow and kinda hard. So all the Elders here in Payson got sick except me. So all of them were down with the flu and didn't want to spread it to anyone else. So I was stuck inside for like 3 days without doing anything. It was so boring and I just wanted to work so bad! Well Sunday rolled around and we went down to Young for church. I had to give a talk and it went pretty good but I still don't like speaking haha. Well at the beginning of the week we got a call from some members that had been fellowshipping Dani Brown. Our recent convert. She told us she had some bad news and told us that Dani had shot herself. They took her down to the valley hospital to try and take care of her. Her heart failed 5 times and ended up passing away that night. It was a heart breaker! I had dreams the next two nights about finding her. But it just helps strengthen my testimony in the Plan of Salvation. I don't understand how people can go through family deaths without that knowledge. It's so hard. But that's why I'm out here. Is to help other people with their lives. And to top it all off I'm getting transferred to an area I've already been in down in the valley! Man this week was pretty hard. But I guess you just gotta put your shoulder to the wheel and push along. It's a good thing a mission isn't about me, it's to help as many other people as I can. :)

Good thing my mom send me out with Uno cards because that's what we did most of the week.  

Here is Dani at her baptism

A Happier People

We had a pretty good week this week. We went down to Young this week and just did farm work the entire day! We cleaned out coops, laid new hay down, fed horses, shoveled dirt, dumped pools, realigned fence, really anything you could think of to do on a farm we did it. It was a pretty long day. But Young is really good. We are heading back down there this Saturday and Sunday.

Other than Young, our other two areas are doing pretty good. We still have the Gonzales family on date for March 4th. They are still on track for that date too so that's good! As we have been teaching them I've kind of noticed how much we expect from them. I mean between each visit we expect that they are reading every night, pray as a family, coming to church on Sundays, keeping commitments we leave with with along with the commitments from all the previous lessons. I notice we expect a lot from them. So I thought about the church in general and how much is expected from all of us. We are expected to do a lot! Keep ALL the commandments (at least to the best of our ability), go home teaching every month, visit families in need, prepare lessons for church, render service. All these different things and so much more. I started think about why we do it all. What makes it all worth it? Well first of all, the Lord expects a lot from us. He know we can do amazing things but also knows we make mistakes. He wants us to stretch ourselves. Grow and learn from all of our experiences. It's not just the church that expects a lot from us but Heavenly Father himself. And second of all is the happiness we can find in living the gospel.  "and surely there could not be a ​​​happier​ people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God" 4 Nephi 1:16. This is after they have gone through so much war, bloodshed, robbing, and loss but yet when they lived the gospel to the fullest it brought them so much happiness. We might be expected to do a lot but the lords blessings for doing so are 10 fold what we could ever imagine doing without Him.