email to Mom 5/27/13

Hello. I'm doing good. I got transferred to Kerns. Elder Weight stayed in South Jordan and is training again. My new companion is Elder Bennett. He is from Southern California and has been out 4 and a half months. Kerns is way different than South Jordan. There is a lot of Hispanic people. I am on a bike now. I'm not to happy about that. My butt hurts. We aren't really doing anything special for Memorial Day. Just another day as a missionary. Yes Sister Holtry did have a good chat with her son. You are right. This has been a long week. I’m glad work is keeping you busy. I haven't heard from Alison today. I'll have to email her and chastise her. I'm glad to hear that Ryan and Kristin are going to the temple this weekend! You did so good with talking about the restoration! I gave two talks yesterday. I felt bad because I talked for like ten minutes and Elder Bennett had to talk for 25.

There is a family here that is from Sudan. They come actively.  Last Monday, before I was here, Elder Bennett and his companion found out that their ten year old son wasn't baptized. They didn't realize he had to be baptized because he was baptized in the Catholic Church. The mom wanted him to be baptized though. So Wednesday, my first day in the area, we taught him. His name is Mony. His last name is Mony too. We had another lesson the next day. He was baptized yesterday. His little sister Achok is 8 and got baptized too. I got to baptize Achok and Elder Bennett baptized Mony. It was kinda cool. They baptize here a lot in Kearns. 

You are awesome. 

Love you 

Elder Alpin

Pictures 5/27/13

Elder Weight & Elder Alpin with their must haves!

Elder Weight (trainer in 1st area-South Jordan), Elder Alpin (transferred to 2nd area-Kerns)

Elder Alpin, Mony, Achok, and Elder Bennett at their baptism 5/26/13 in new area Kerns. 

email to Dad 5/27/13

Hey Dad! That is awesome that you’re reading the Book of Mormon in 30 days! Exciting!! I saved all my receipts and kept them in my top drawer. Then when I got transferred I threw them away and there was a whole bunch. I was so spoiled in South Jordan. We had a car. We had a full sized fridge stocked with food Sister Bell would buy us. She would buy our toilet paper and laundry detergent. A full basement. Now we have a mini fridge that hardly holds anything. Our room is tiny. I'm on a bike. It has definitely been an adjustment.

Love you!

On Mon, May 27, 2013 at 6:10 AM, tomalpin2002 wrote:

Elder,

Well it is Monday again and a holiday...40 degrees when I awoke this morning...aaaahhhhh!  Started the BOM over the other day and currently at Mosiah, when not reading then I am listening to it...while walking and driving yesterday.  Great talks in church yesterday about the Holy Ghost, very fitting since the Missionaries just baptized a brother.

Started my cleaning project yesterday with my files...funny how collecting/saving receipts seems so silly when sorting through them 2 years later! Lol  yep, just getting rid junk that is not needed, packing for the next move...might work on the storage unit a little bit today...needs to get warmer though.

Most curious about transfers and what the landscape looks like for you, are things changed at all? If so then we need details, if not, we need details.

Oh, guess what?

What do you mean you can't guess?

Ok, yesterday on the way home from church I took one or my detours to find a new area, determined to find downtown auburn hills...yep I found it!  pretty nice.  mom just told me Ryan, Kristine and the kids are coming this weekend...exciting for sure!

I will finish the BOM in less than 30 days...exciting for sure!

Love you son,

Dad

email to Mom 5/20/13

Hello! I am so happy to hear about the wonderful time you had. I'm so excited that you went to church there! Setting a great example. Did you invite Andrew and Liz to church with ya'll? I wish I could have been there with everybody. My week has been good. We went to the Draper temple on Tuesday! It was great. I love the temple. Is the temple close to where Andrew lives? I'm glad you had a good time at the ward. We didn't have those baptisms this weekend. They are working towards June 8 because that is when family will be here. It is kind of iffy though. Transfers are Wednesday. We found out tomorrow who is staying and leaving. 

Devin and Avi both received the priesthood yesterday!! It was awesome. We ate with the Loach family yesterday. He is the ward mission leader. They are from England. I could sit and listen to them talk all day. They are so funny. The mom reminds me of a mean English nanny. Hahaha. It has been kind of rainy the past couple of days. It has been hot though too. I get so distracted here in the computer room with all the missionaries talking and music playing. So sorry I can never concentrate well on the emails I write.

I don't know how I feel about you guys moving. I think it would be awesome to be closer to Andrew. I would totally miss Michigan though. Go where the Lord wants you to go!

Tell me all about your life and day. 

Love you. 

:) Elder Alpin

email to Dad 5/20/13

Hello! I’m glad you all had a wonderful time. I hope you told Zach and Kennedy and Andrew and Liz that I love them and miss them. When Elder Holland talked to us He gave us a chance to ask questions. One of the questions someone asked is How can I have greater pure love of Christ. Elder Holland shared a scripture in Alma 37: 36-37. V. 36 through your doings, thoughts, and heart. Pray for it. \

Your a grrrreat dad! Keep it up!

Love you lots! 

Elder Alpin

On Sun, May 19, 2013 at 8:07 PM, tomalpin2002 wrote:

Uncle Matt,

This is Kennedy,

Grandma and Grandpa are visiting and this is what we have been doing...I hit the baseball really far today and yesterday we went shopping for an outfit and a new babydoll outfit with flowers on it for my doll named Alice.  we spent the day at Zach's baseball game, he won!  we had hotdogs, hamburgers and french fries an Zach had cheese fries...yum yum!

This is Zach...at my game i hit a single, scored a run and had an RBI..we went to Dairy Queen and i had a snickers blizzard...it was good!  Sissy had an ice cream cone and she ate it so fast.  on the way home we went to Kentucky to get pizza!  we jumped on our new trampoline a lot and i got hurt a lot too!  we went to rafferty's on friday and ate bacon cheese fries and drove all over Clarksville, daddy got us lost and mommy told us which way to go to get home...yea!

Matt...this is your father...we had a great trip, the flight was really fast, just over an hour...mom was border line nerved up about half the way and was great once she calmed down.  we got this awesome upgrade for our rental car to a Nissan Pathfinder, the traffic was light and it was raining...mom decided we were going to pray the rain away because we came to see a ballgame and we needed some help...and yes it was a beautiful day with lots of sun, about 87 degrees.  we have played so many games...lots of fun!  interesting story about going to church today but i will leave that story for mom to tell.

Love you Son,

Dad

Baptism Pictures 5/13/13

email to Mom 5/13/13

HELLO. THANK YOU FOR THE EMAIL I LOVED IT.

Things I learned from Jeffrey R. Holland. 

He talked about how we can NEVER go back to who we used to be before our mission. Too many people come home and go inactive. You wont have a million dollar experience with only 25 cents of effort. 

It was so wonderful. I love him! 

This is my interpretation that was really clear to me as I read.

Doctrine and Covenants 18

V. 1 Replace Oliver Cowdery with your name. We desire or pray and ask to know if the Book of Mormon is true

V. 2 Replace written with read. He knew they were true because of the spirit, but needed help recognizing the truth. 

V. 3 He commands us to rely on the written words (Book of Mormon). Relying is like a crutch. With a broken foot (trial) we rely on a crutch which can help us move forward relying upon the word. When we rely on the word of God we can move forward. 

V. 4 We are able to move forward because it contains the fullness of the gospel. It tells us everything we need to do to return back to God. 

I really don't have much to say know because I talk to you yesterday! It was so nice seeing yaa'll. You look so great! Love you all so much. Stay classy, sassy, and fat<--- quote from grandma. haha. BYE

"We rode the tracks to go to temple square." Pictures 5/6/13

"We rode the tracks to go to temple square."       Pictures of Matt, his companion Elder Weight, Devin & his Mother at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah...

Devin at Temple Square

Devin with his Mom

Elder Weight, Devin, Elder Alpin

Elder Weight, Devin, Elder Alpin outside at Temple Square

Email to Mom 5/6/13

From: Matthew Alpin <matthew.alpin@myldsmail.net>
To: Jamie Alpin
Sent: Mon, May 6, 2013 17:46:55 GMT
Subject: Re: Sleep Over

Hello Mother and Father!

I'm glad you had a wonderful time with Alison. I'm glad so many people are able to go see Grandpa. I only wrote him that one letter. I'm really behind on writing people. There is so many people I want to write. Hey call Anna and tell her what the heck. I've written her like two or three times and she still has not written me and I don't know if school is over so I don't know where I should send another letter. So yeah will you call her and ask her for her email so I can just email her or give her mine and threaten her to email me or else. Thanks! I am so glad you and dad get to go to Tennessee! Tell Kennedy I say Happy Birthday! Lucky duck you. Do you read the emails I send dad? And does dad read the ones I send you? The ones I send you are for both of you by the way. Anyway I sent dad the pictures so don't forget to look at them! I am excited for Mother's Day as well! It will be great. We are going to call from a member’s home I think they have two computers so we will probably do it at the same time. You guys are only two hours ahead not three silly goose. It will be like six there. I hope Alison can be there! Devin is awesome! We had a lesson with him on Saturday at temple square. We were supposed to have two baptisms this past Saturday. It didn't happen though. Long story. Hopefully it will happen sometime in May. We have two baptisms this Saturday! I'm so excited. Yeah Elder Weight is awesome. Did I tell you that he was at the same scout camp I went to that one time? I never met him there, but still how crazy is that. I don't think I'll name my kids after him. Ha-ha…that would be a little weird. Last P-day we played gator ball I think is what it’s called. It was fun! So last week we went to chick-fila because we get half off. We were eating outside and this lady comes in gives us $30. Then her daughter comes up and gives us $20 and was like you have to take this or my mom won’t let me back in the car. Then this guy comes up and gives each of us a gift card for chick fila. Then a guy buys all of us an ice cream from there. All within an hour. It was crazy. I don't know why people are so nice. They are only taking a part of our mission and unless I’m in that area when the split it then I will stay in this mission. I like President Miller.  I’m sure our new one will be good. We rode the tracks to go to temple square. On the way back we met a guy getting baptized on your birthday. He was awesome and excited!! I love that the gospel changes lives. Sorry if my letters are kinda boring. I feel like I should give some encouraging scripture or testimony or something, but I can't think of anything.

Love you lots,

Elder Alpin

Email from Matt to Dad 5/6/13

5/6/13 Email from Matt to Dad…

You're awesome! Love you. These are of Devin and his mom. Devin is getting baptized on Saturday May 11. He is twelve and awesome! We had a lesson at temple square on Saturday.

5/6/13 Email from Dad to Matt…

My dearest Elder sunny boy,

This will be a quick letter today...long week, short nights, went to Clare yesterday, picked up Alison, took her to airport at 5am, running late today...so just want to say how much I really love you and pray you are doing well...can't wait for Sunday and to see your smiling face!

Send pics

Love Dad

email to Mom 4/29/13 & Pic

Happy Monday!
I saw Elder Needs at a training, but it was a distance away and I didn't talk to him. We do sometimes do lessons at temple square. I haven't yet. We are hoping to do it this weekend though. I am so excited for Alison. That is awesome! Sister Bell is home and is doing well. Her son and daughter in law (Sue) and Sue's sister Cookie are here now for a week. I love Sister Bell she is so funny. 

The interview with President went well. He had me put my shoe up on a chair and was like I can't wash your feet right now, but I will shine your shoes. So I stood there and he shined both my shoes. It was humbling. He is an awesome guy. He had me share my testimony on the atonement, book of Mormon, restoration, and two other things but I forgot. Last week went well. Elder Weight and I are getting along. We also went to the Salt Lake Temple and did a live session. It was awesome. Then we went and ate. I loved it. Yesterday at church I saw Mary Harrast at church! She is from Mt. P. I've only talked to her a couple times, but it was still really cool to see someone I knew! 

Moroni 7:9. I realized this is the same for missionary work. If you just go through the motions, it does not profit you. 

Here is a picture of Elder Binger and me at temple square. 

Love you All. 

Elder Alpin

email to Dad 4/29/13

Hey Dad!

So on Mother's Day it will probably be around 4 here that I can Skype. Sorry if that is inconvenient for you guys. I'm so excited for you to see Andrew! I wish I could be there. Tell him to write me! I've only written him once and need to again. There is so many people here who have been offended. It is sad! There is people who are so ready for baptism here too though! Let me tell you about Devin.

We talked to the 7th ward Young Women’s President to see if she knew anyone we could stop by. She gave us Devin's name. He is living with his grandparents in the next coldasac over. His grandparents are members. So we went over there. We talked to the Grandma. Like the first thing she said was. "My grandson wants to be baptized. Can you teach him?" We were like YEAH!! Devin is so awesome and prepared! He is 12. His mom lives there with them and has been inactive since 1998. Devin has been reading to his mom everyday and keeping all the commitments. His mom is super supportive too. And he came to church on Sunday! Guess who else came!? His mom! He is setting such a great example for his mom and grandpa. He is getting baptized May 11. He also has a 10 year old brother who came to church and might be interested in us teaching him. So exciting!! We had 10 member present lessons this past week! Things are picking up and it’s amazing!

Love you lots. Have a great day

Elder Alpin.