Happy Thanksgiving!                                                                    November 28, 2013

I am currently at the Main Campus for the Thanksgiving activity. We had the devotional at like 9:30am, which Russel M. Nelson spoke in! It was awesome. The spirit you feel when an apostle walks in the room is incredible. He spoke about a lot of things, but something that I really liked was that we need to put ourselves aside and serve the Lord. Our missions aren't about us, they're about being His servants and bringing salvation to His children.This is something I've tried to remember and work on. I notice that when I'm focused on my purpose as a missionary, I am so much happier and I am so much more receptive to the Spirit. 

So, as I've been thinking about family and friends, I've come to a realization - I don't miss you! And I mean that in the best way possible. I guess it'd be more of a "happy-miss" haha. I realized that the work I am doing has made up for the emptiness that comes from being away from loved ones. I also know it's only been three weeks, but still. That feeling of peace and comfort, in spite of being away from everyone, is how I know that I'm in the right place doing the right thing. There's no other explanation as to why I'd be happy to be away! I know our Savior loves us and is mindful of us.

Also, I'm so stoked to be out of the social media game. PHEW. I just love learning and being around amazing elders and sisters every single day! Every time a teacher or leader talks about their mission, this awesome feeling of excitement washes over me. I want to tell people about the joy they can have in their lives! I just cannot wait!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to give out some "thank-yous." Mom & Dad, thank you so much, SO MUCH for everything you have ever done for me. I can't believe where I am today and a lot of the credit goes to you. Thank you for never losing hope and always remaining faithful. I want to be just like you two. Thank you for always making sure I knew how much you loved me. Thank you for helping me when I was in trouble, instead of being angry with me. Thank you for making sure I knew that you loved me unconditionally. Thank you for being my friends. Thank you for not pressuring me into serving a mission, but letting me choose for myself. there is nothing I want more than to serve the Lord, and I'm glad through my challenges and trials that I've been able to learn and grow. I love you both so much and can't thank you enough for everything.

Grandma Marda (she's been living with us) - you are INCREDIBLE. I don't know how I am so blessed to have you in my life. The love and kindness you have shown to EVERYONE is so amazing. Your genuine desire for everyone to be happy is something that I want and try to emulate. You are an incredible example of someone who loves as the Savior would love. Thank you so much for your cards and your Thanksgiving message! I always love getting cards and letters from Grandma Marda. The effort you and grandpa have made to be in our lives makes me so grateful and makes me remember how blessed I am. Thank you for always loving me, my friends, and whoever it may be that you came in contact with. I hope that I can be like you one day.

Boy, my hand hurts. I'm going to have such strong hands in 2015. Probably will be recruited by massage schools from all over the world. Gosh I can't WAIT to speak espanol with mis padres!! It's going to be so so so cool. Soooo now after we write letters, we're doing a humanitarian service project. It'll be sweet! I am just so excited for the future. Thank you for your most recent packages! I love getting all of that fun stuff. The Christmas lights are sooooo FLY. I wore one around my neck and everyone loved it. Hehe. I'm having so much fun here. Our most recent purchase as a district was a couple of spray bottles. We've had battles and shoot outs a couple times. We like to pull pranks on each other and other districts in our zone. My favorite district to mess around with is the district of elder Johnson "Juanson," Elder Brush, Elder Carmack, Elder Clark, and Elder Romeril. Romeril reminds me of the turtle on finding Nemo haha. He's hilarious. Elder Juanson and I are companions today because Elder Buhler wanted to go do some other activity.

Gosh dang I can't wait to leave the MTC. Kind of bittersweet...

This will probably be really broken Spanish, but oh well....Yo se que el Evangelio traera muchas bendiciones a nosotros. Yo se que Jesucristo es una persona real. Yo se que el Expiacion es muy real y mediante el Expacion, podemos recibir perdon por nuestros pecados. Yo se que mediante el Expiacion, podemos regresar a vivir con Dios, Jesucristo, y nuestra familia. Familias son eternas. Yo se que. Yo so que el Espiritu Santo puede guia nosotros si invitamos lo. (*note from Suzette, Alec's mom: This was a handwritten letter that I typed up just as it was written. I speak Spanish and know that there are grammatical errors, but didn't change anything. I think Alec's doing great for just 3 weeks! It will be fun to look back and see his progress with the language.)  

Hope that made sense! It's one thing to speak, but another to write. I've been thinking about all of you all day, and man, I'm so blessed. I'm writing this last part at about 11:00pm. Got back late from Main Campus. We put together meals for our service project (*they assembled 350,000 meals that day!). Disaster relief stuff. Way cool and fun! Oh also, we sang "Hope of Israel" for the choir number during the devotional. SUPER powerful. And we also sang that hymn that't not in our Hymn Book - "Come Thou Fount." We opened the meeting with that song. I LOVE IT. It's been in my cabesa toda dia. Whistling that tune por DIAS! 

I have anxiety about not writing about everything I want to. But I have to sleep. I love you all so so so much. Sipples, Storrs, Hollands, Mendenhalls, Bursells, Martins, Jana, Parks, Hartvigsens, Adams, Ganowskys, James/Hier...ALL OF YOU!

Paz y Bendiciones,

Elder Alec "The Dairy Drawer" Sipple