December 26, 2017

Zone Conference-Showing off White Elephant Gifts

Hey Fam,

This week was great! I hope that you all had a great Christmas this year, what a great time of year to be able to think about our Savior Jesus Christ, I hope that you could all feel of the love that he has for each and everyone of us. We had a zone conference on Friday and probably the main point was the question, what gift we wanted to give Christ for the rest of our missions and we were asked to write our thoughts down on a piece of paper. I think that that question can be changed to what gift do we want to give Christ for the rest of our lives. I know that as we focus on giving rather then what we are receiving then that is when we will feel of the perfect love of our Savior.

I had a great time last night being able to see you all and hear your voices I can't believe that it came and went so quick. Last night we had dinner at Sloans, it was the biggest meal that I had had all year it was awesome. After we had dinner a lot of us went down stairs and dressed up so that we could act out the story of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. My companion and I were wise men, one of our zone leaders were also wise men and our other zone leader was the star. There was also a non-member family there that were from Africa, they were neat family. Their daughter dressed up as a shepherd. It was pretty neat and I could tell that the spirit was felt there. We then went around the room to each family and shared something. We missionaries sung the song "Oh Holy Night." After that we headed over to brother Stubb's house so that we could face time you guys.

I told you guys a little bit about Shannon and Kyra, we went over on Christmas eve to there little party that they had and talked and ate all of the little desserts that they had made it was a pretty nice time. I found out that night that Shannon makes her own soap and she gave us each a bar, when she gave it to me I was like oh wow this will be so nice I haven't used soap for a few months.. and you should have seen her face it was so funny. It was pretty interesting soap it has oatmeal in it but it looks like some good stuff. Shannon is super solid she is good enough for baptism so she will be getting baptized soon probably with her granddaughter that we are hoping to start teaching this week. 

This morning we walked out to our car and it was -32 degrees Celsius it was so cold. It's just crazy when it goes from +7 to in just a couple of days to -32. But we got out to our car and it was too cold for the new tiwis (They were installed in all the mission vehicles about 5 months ago and they track how good of drivers we are) to work. When we got in the car to head to emails it was so funny we backed over a parking curb and got stuck so I had to get out and push the car while elder Whicker rocked it back and forth luckily we got out and didn't freeze.

Well I'm kinda running short on time but I sure do love you guys and miss you a ton, have a great week!

Love, Elder Allred 

December 19, 2017

Hey Fam, 

This week has been awesome!

I forgot to bring my planner to the computers so I will just have to try and remember some of the highlights of this week.

So last p-day we were playing soccer and Elder Whicker rolled his ankle, it wasn't super bad but just bad enough that he has been on crutches for a week now. He is just starting to walk a bit on it so we are hoping that in the next couple of days he will be walking. It has been hard to get out and do things because of it, but we have made things work out good for the most part. He was pretty bumbed when it happened because in about 5-6 weeks he is going to have soccer tryouts at UVU. When he rolled it he thought that it was over, but we found out that it wasn't as bad as what we were thinking it was, so he should be good by then. So pretty much Tuesday night and a big part of Wednesday we were in and out of doctor appointments with his knee that he has been having trouble with and now his ankle.

On Thursday I got to meet one of the investigators that we have in Medicine Hat, she has also been being taught for quite a while with the missionaries. She is pretty solid. We just so happened to have our dinner cancel on us and Shannon said that if you ever have a dinner cancel you call me. So we called her and went to have dinner. Before we started eating she said, "I will say grace." (I didn't know this at the time but she had only said a prayer once with the missionaries before). After the prayer she told us the good news about her granddaughter. Elder Whicker and his companion before me got her to pray for a baptismal date and her answer was May something, I can't remember for sure but that was the day that her granddaughter has her birthday. She filled me in on a lot while talking to her. She hasn't been able to talk to her granddaughter for 2 years until now. Her daughter got hooked up with a crazy guy that shut off all of her communication. Shannon's daughter and crazy boyfriend have just lost custody over Shannon's daughter's daughter for making her sleep out in a tent and a lot of crazy stuff. So Shannon is going to be getting her granddaughter on Sunday which has been a miracle. Shannon said, "I don't know why I got the baptismal date that I got but maybe it was because Kira (her granddaughter) and I are going to be baptized on the same day." Kira is 11 or 12 I can't remember for sure, but that has been pretty cool. I told her that I had a sister named Kira and she thought that was so cool she said that she will have to tell her granddaughter about that, she will be so excited.

We helped out at the food bank on Friday and did a bit of Weekly planning and then headed out to a town called Bow Island that is on the one end of our area. Since it is so far away and we don't have that many kilometers we stay at a member's house. This week we stayed at the Woodruffs, who is actually a brother to Wilford Woodruff in the Rocky View Ward so that was pretty neat. The work out In Bow Island is pretty slow as well, we have a couple that has been taught for quite a while but other then that no investigators in that part of the area. So we either tract out there or have member visits. That night we had an amazing dinner at Brother Smith's, he made us pancakes and bacon. It's not very often that we get a breakfast dinner but when we do they are always good. We stayed in Bow Island till Sunday, the ward there is so small. I am surprised that they call it a ward. I feel like it is a branch. The building is set up pretty strange. They have a carpet gym that is maybe as big as the one that we have back home. On one side of the gym there is a basketball hoop, and at the other side there is the pulpit and the stand and everything. Elder Whicker had to speak with a guy that just got home from his mission. After Church we headed back to Medicine Hat to help Shannon move a couple of things in one of her rooms to get it ready for Kira. Shannon doesn't have a lot and it is pretty cool to see the ward helping her out with pretty much whatever she needs.

Well that's pretty much the Highlights of this week.

I can't believe that it is already Christmas next week, it doesn't even feel like Christmas at all to me. There isn't any snow on the ground up here and it hasn't been that cold. It has been sitting around -5 degrees at night and 7 degrees during the day, its crazy. I am super excited to be able to talk to you all though, it will be fun. 

Well I sure do love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Allred

We were driving home and we saw this buck. I jumped out of the car to chase him to the lights so we could get a picture of him, but when I ran up to him he just stood there.. He finally got tired of us flashing him with the camera and started walking away, we chased him between a couple of houses and he dipped his head at us. We thought that he was going to charge us so we ran out of there. He ran down the street and we lost him. It was pretty cool though. ​

December 12, 2017 Elder Whicker, Medicine Hat

Hey Fam,

On Tuesday we got transfer calls and we found out that I was going to be getting transferred to Medicine Hat. It's weird that I was the one to get transferred after only being there for one transfer but so far I have had no complaints. I am in a great area with a great companion. 

On Wednesday we had service at the food bank and had dinner with Brother McDonald, one of our ward mission leaders and let him know that I would be getting transferred, we also called our other ward mission leader and let him know as well. We then made a few stop-bys to some people and then I packed. 

On Thursday we took all of my stuff to one of the transfer stations, which was maybe 20 min away from us, and then rode in a car for like 2 hours to go to Lethbridge. I then met up with Elder Whicker, my new comp, who I knew from the time that I was serving in Lethbridge. He is so sweet! He is wanting to play soccer at UVU when he gets home and so we have been working out quite a bit as well as running in the morning. 

On Friday we helped out at the food bank down here in Medicine Hat. We did some shopping and had our studies. We also had a ward Christmas party with our ward in Bow Island. It was really great we had a ton of fun. It was actually the first time that I had cut up a whole Turkey. Before the Christmas Party we were unloading our groceries and when we came down we had a parking ticket, we were in a loading zone unloading our groceries. We talked to Aaron about the whole thing and he gave us a lot of advice about how we could go about fighting it. We are probably going to go to court to fight it if President okays it with us. So that will be interesting, I've never been to court before haha. Elder Whicker is really wanting to go and President has let missionaries go before so we will have to see what happens. 

On Saturday we had a meeting with the ZL's because I am the District Leader again in this area. We did our studies and did some weekly planning. We didn't have a dinner and Elder Whicker had a couple of coupons a member had given him to Panago Pizza it was pretty good.

On Sunday we only went to one of our wards because the other one is so far away. This area is pretty interesting. We live in Medicine Hat but when we are in our other area we stay at a members house for 2-3 days. Our dinner cancelled because they were sick and so we had dinner at our pad and then went and sang at the Inner-Faith Music Concert. We met up at this old church with a lot of different religions, and each church got to sing for this big crowd. Elder Whicker and I had never practiced for it, the zone leaders just asked us if we wanted to join and we said sure. We sang 3 songs and one of them we sang was half in english and the other half was in German. We probably looked horrible up there but it was still fun and it sounded good to me hah. 

On Monday we had to drive to Taber which is maybe an hour away to have district meeting with the people in the district. Our district contains my comp and I and then two other sets of sisters. After District Meeting we drove maybe 30 min. back into this little town and did some stuff there. We found out that there was a military camp by the town, which was pretty crazy. I will send some pictures of it. 

A restaurant called Roosevelt

Chinook!

A guy in the ward who makes his own canes

Well Sorry this was kind of rushed and things. I am still trying to get everything down in the new area. I hope that you are all doing great, I sure do love you guys 

Love, Elder Allred 

December 5, 2017

Hey Fam, 

This week has really flown by. 

On Tuesday after p-day we had dinner with Sister Dusset, which was pretty fun. She is an awesome member. We then had a meeting with our bishop and talked about what we have been up to lately and then he gave us some names in the ward that we could go and visit. 

On Wednesday we got to help out at the food bank again. This day wasn't very busy because everyone is waiting for a Christmas hamper which didn't come out until Friday. While at the food Bank I met this guy named Tom, he had an injured leg and so I was helping him put all his food that he had gotten into his vehicle. After talking a little bit about his past and rodeo and all I told him that part of what we do out here is help people. I gave him a light the world card that had our number on it and he said that he would call us back. After helping out at the food bank we went and helped out a less active family move. It was honestly the worst move that I have ever been to. They had nothing in boxes, and it was super grimy. And to top it off they had one of those retarded lap dogs that would stand right in the way as we were moving out stuff, I was so tempted to just walk right over him, but I decided that that wasn't such a good idea. After we moved out all the big stuff which took about 2 hours our Zone Leaders had to go as well as the Mandarin Elders. Elder Crawley wanted to keep helping, and I wasn't about to stay there. It was frustrating me that we were doing all the moving while they were just sitting there watching us, so we ended up getting a ride home to our pad with the Zone Leaders. Towards the end of the move though we missed a call from Tom, Elder Crawley had the phone and when he found out it was Tom he gave me the phone and I called him back. He is a pretty sweet guy he said that we are going to have to meet up for a coffee and talk about Siksika. We haven't heard from him since but we will be giving him a call soon.

Thursday morning Elder Crawley and I went for a run to the church and met up with the Zone Leaders and the Mandarin Elders and played some ball which was alright, I just wish I had some good people to ball with. After playing ball we ran back, and where we are located in Calgary there are a lot of little hills. I would sprint up them and then jog down the other side and then turn around and sprint back up and meet Elder Crawley at the top. I am going to start to run every morning again like I did in my last two areas. I just feel better when I do. After studies and a bit of weekly planning we helped the Mandarins move, for some reason everyone is wanting to move all at once. After that we got stuck in traffic for quite a while and were a bit late to our dinner. 

On Friday we helped out at the food bank again and this time it was super busy. It was the first day that the Christmas hampers came out. We ended up having to leave early to have a lesson with Bethel, she ended up being about 45 min late, and we thought that she wasn't going to show up. Since we didn't have a car we had to start walking to dinner. While walking to dinner we got a call from the Sister Missionaries at the church, Bethel was there, we told them we had to go to dinner but we were able to set up to meet with her after. It was pretty cool though because Bethel was able to stay for the sister baptism and then we had a lesson with her after. I think that I may have talked a bit about her last week. She is from Southern Africa, she is here with her dad and her mom might be coming over soon. She is so solid she has been able to answer all of her questions that she has had through the Book of Mormon, this is her second time reading it and she is in Moroni right now. She is so ready for baptism, except for her same sex attraction which is really too bad. We then had dinner and then helped set up for the 5th Ward Christmas party.

On Saturday we Finished up our weekly planning and went to our 5th Ward Christmas party, we helped clean up and then made some calls to some of our potential investigators to try and set up some appointments. It's been hard to meet with them. 

On Sunday we had church all day, we studied for maybe an hour and then had to go to dinner. We were invited to go to the Reel's, who were going to have one of our potential investigators coming to it but the night before she had to got into the hospital and for some reason her phone went dead so we haven't been able to contact her for a while. But brother Reel did invite a new move in that is a part member family. They are a young couple just a bit older then me. We had dinner and played a game it was pretty great we are hoping that we can start teaching him soon. 

On Monday we had district meeting, had a quick lunch with the zone leaders and helped them with a service project at a lady named Jenny Aurora's. She is from India. We then had to meet up with the service guy at our apartment so he could fix our security alarm that we never use. I don't know why we even have one. We then had dinner and a lesson with Shalay. She is going to be getting baptized on the 16! 

Well I am getting super excited to talk to you all in a couple of weeks, I hope you are all doing well keep working hard! 

Love, Elder Allred 

November 28, 2017

Hey fam, 

This week has been pretty amazing actually. We have found so many potential investigators this week it's nuts, all we have to do is meet up for a lesson which seems to always be the tricky part. Especially for those who have really busy schedules. 

On Tuesday we had dinner with Sister Holloran and she took us out for fish and chips, idk why they would call fries chips but oh well it was good. They had a special deal that night that you could eat as many strips of fish that you could get down for like 15 bucks. I left that meal pretty full. We then had a meeting with bishop and the WML of 5th ward about the work. 

On Wednesday we had the apartment people come and check out our place to make sure everything is working right which it was. It was pretty funny because they couldn't believe that we could keep an apartment so clean. We then helped out at the food bank which is always pretty fun. We had planned to have a lesson with Rebecca and Byron but Byron was sick so we ended up going over there anyway and talking to them for a bit. They goofed up on their smoking plan which was too bad. I feel that it is always best to just stop smoking and cold turkey it. When looking back at the people that I have taught the ones that just stopped were the ones that were able to quit. 

Thursday morning we played ball with the district which was pretty fun. I just wish I had better people to play with. We did our weekly planning. We had our Thanksgiving dinner cancel which was too bad but we ended up going with our zone leaders to dinner with a family that was in their ward. It was a fairly good dinner. It could never compare with the Thanksgiving dinners we had back home though, those were the best! We then had a lesson with Shaley, the little 9 year old girl that we have been teaching and we put her on date for baptism on the 16 of December. It was pretty funny she was so scared of how she was going to be getting baptized and how she was going to be pushed down into the water. We had the lesson at Bishop Tingle's house and the bishop and his young kids were able to tell her about what they had seen and experienced about their baptisms, then the bishop gave here a visual on how baptisms are performed, it went great. 

On Friday we had to give the car to the Heritage so that they could go to a retrainer's meeting. We took the train through Down Town and over to the South East part of Calgary for the food bank. At the food bank Sister Zimmerman and I met this interesting guy. He was a straight up beach bum. He had dreaded hair and would only eat vegetables. He didn't have a ride so I told him that Elder Crawledy and I could help him get his stuff home, that he would just have to wait 30-40 min. He ended up waiting and all the vegetables that people didn't want I was giving to him. At the end of our shift we helped him carry his food over to the bus stop, we got on the bus which took us to the train and then road the train down to his house. His house was just a couple of blocks away from the train station. We had a great conversation with him and he told us that we could come over and teach him about the gospel sometime. So hopefully maybe this week we will be able to see him, the only problem is that he isn't in our area so we will have to pass him off to the elders in that area. We also had dinner with the Guidis in the ward that are from France. They are pretty sweet and they make some pretty good food.

On Saturday we had a great breakfast with the YSA ward and then helped them clean the church it was pretty fun. We were supposed to have a lesson with Ernesto, who was a former in the area book. He had to cancel though because he had to take his son to the pool but he seems like a pretty sweet guy. He is a black guy not that that really matters. He loves to play basketball, so that is pretty sweet, maybe I will get to play some ball with him. We then went to a ward baptism that we were invited to. That night we got a call from this lady who is a Jew she is 23 years old from Ireland. She sounds pretty solid over the phone she was talking about church and being baptized and all that stuff. I just wish that when Elder Crawley talked to her on the phone he didn't make it so awkward. We are hoping to meet with her sometime this week.

Sunday was pretty normal except their was a 17 year old girl from south Africa that came to church. She was also a former investigator that the sisters had in the area about 4-5 months ago. We have a lesson with her on Friday at the church, so we are really looking forward to that. The Young Woman's leader talked to us after church and told us that her dad doesn't like her being with the church. On time during a mutual activity she had the young woman's leader call the cops because she was afraid that she was going to be beat when she got home. So it will be interesting to see what happens. We started an exchange with the Mandarin Elders that night. Elder Chen came to my area with me and Elder Crawley went with Elder Peterson in the Mandarin area. 

Elder Chen and I had a great time together yesterday. He is going to be finishing his mission in around 9 days which is too bad, I will really miss him. He is from Taiwan. We had district meeting, had a lesson and role play with Eric who is preparing for his mission, called a media referral who seems pretty solid as well, had dinner with the Stake President, and a lesson with an eternigator named Sabrina. She has been being taught by several missionaries, she is super sweet. Elder Chen also gave me a haircut. It was not a fail this time haha. 

Well that is just a quick run down of the week, I wish I could write more but it is hard with the time that we are given. I hope you all have a great week in all that you do, I sure love you all. 

Love, Elder Allred

 

November 21, 2017

Hey fam, 

Canada has started to get a bit colder and there has been some snow on the ground for a couple weeks, but it has been nice because we have been having some chinooks, and they really warm things up which is nice.

On Tuesday we were going to exchange with a couple of elders in the zone because Elder Henderson was going to have to have another surgery on his knee( I was originally going to go with him while his comp and my comp went to Banff). What happened was that he tore his ACL in the MTC and had to go home and have surgery he had another surgery before he came back out. As of just lately he had been having some pain in his knee and they x-rayed it out here and found that the doctores forgot to pull out the pins in his surgery before he came back out. He decided to go home so we have had the car for two weeks. Which has been pretty nice. I just feel bad for Elder Henderson I don't think he will be coming back out. 

On Wednesday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. Since I am the DL I went to the zone leaders area it was pretty fun. 

On Thursday we had zone conference with Elder Natress and his wife. They are pretty sweet. That night was when we met Mark and Franky. A few weeks ago we had a couple that was referred to us by some sister missionaries and we hadn't been able to contact them. Just last week my companion and I both felt really strongly to go and visit them at this certain time, we went and knocked on the door, it couldn't have been a more perfect time. We basically got to know them a little bit and told them what we did, and they committed to go to church and to get baptized as they come to find out that this church is true. We don't think that they are married so that is a problem and they both smoke, but other than that they seem like they are pretty solid. We were going to have a lesson with them Saturday. They were walking to their relative's house and we were texting them back and forth and it was kinda weird because she stopped texting us. We ended up not having a lesson with them and they didn't come to church. It was too bad it seemed like things were going so well. They texted us yesterday and told us sorry and that they were just going through a rough time. So it will be interesting to see if we meet with them this week I really hope so.

On Friday we helped out at the food bank which is always fun. We also had dinner and a lesson with Eric who is preparing for his mission. He was with us when we were going to go and teach Mark and Franky the second time, it's too bad it didn't work out, we will have to get him another time. He made us this pizza that was pretty good the crust was just barely cooked. He was telling us while we were eating it that he has a new way of raising his dough in a cool house. He apperently has been having a hard time getting it to raise but what he does now is he puts the bowl of dough on his bed and throws his electric blanket over it to keep it warm... 

On Saturday we got to have breakfast with the YSA and help them clean the church. YSA is weird. 

Sunday was great pretty long but great. We got to eat dinner at the Clarks, sister Clark reminds me a lot of Michele Mansfield. Sister Clark has a couple of boys that will sometimes come and play ball with me on p-days. 

Elder Robbins

Elder Crawley from Ireland eating his Lucky Charms

Black Squirrels are everywhere here

Mission Posterity

Mission Posterity

Well This has been a fairly good week. I am really looking forward to this coming week. 

Chinook has made it really warm

I sure do love you all!

Love, Elder Allred 

November 14, 2017

Hey fam, 

This week has been good. 

Every Monday we have a lesson with Elroy Pantherbone, he is a native up here that lives in Calgary. He has a very strong testimony. I have noticed from being in Siksika and meeting with some of the natives around that they all seem to have pretty strong testimonies and they seem so close to the Lord. Elroy is a great guy he is always teaching us Blackfoot every time we go over there. It is interesting that they don't have a goodbye in their language, they say, "See you later my friend."

The Bishop in one of our wards gave us a list of people in the ward who are less active and active people who we could stop by. One of them was Sister Frank, who is 89 years old. We were at her home last night, and when she found out that I was from Roosevelt she just kept talking about it and Vernal. She also talked a lot about Logan and the cheese factory there. I found out that she has some family in Roosevelt. Their names are Tim and Sheila Davis. She showed me a picture of the family and I recognized one of their kids. I don't know his name but I saw him around school. It's been crazy the amount of connections that I have had from up here in Canada. 

This week we have done quite a bit of service, we worked at the food bank twice this week for 3 hours each shift. It's pretty crazy just how many people come through for food. It's pretty nice to talk to all of the people as they go through the lines. Most of the time we are helping them bag up their food but sometimes they have me in the back moving pallets of food around. We have been helping out on Wednesdays and Fridays. On Friday I got to see Josh, the crazy guy that I was teaching in Strathmore. I talked to him a bit. I found out that they had moved to the east of Calgary. It was cool to see him but I could tell he wasn't interested at this time in the Gospel.

On Thursday we have the opportunity during our zone conference to hear from Elder Natters, who is a member of the 70. I am pretty excited for that, it will be pretty neat to hear from him and learn from the things that he has to say. 

We weren't able to meet with very many of our investigators because of various reasons. But I think that this week will be good. One of the people that we are teaching had to have their apartment floor fumigated for bed bugs. It seems like these things have been everywhere here in Down town. The church building has had to be sprayed twice, once just before I got here and now they are going to do it again next week. Back home I thought they were not real it was just something you said as you were going to bed, but they are real and they are invading Calgary haha. 

I have been studying about conversion lately, mainly because we were asked to teach the young women at church. It went pretty well it was a bit quiet but it went well. It seems the more I study about conversion the more it seems to me that we need to have a testimony, but not only have a testimony but to actually live the gospel of Jesus Christ and as we do that we will become more and more converted. A testimony although important isn't good enough. I love what Elder Bednar says, "We need to know that the Gospel is true and be true to the Gospel". 

Well I sure do love you guys and I can't wait until I can see you all again in person. I keep seeing little kids at church that are around the same age as my brothers and sisters and I can't help but think of all the good times I had with them. 

I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Allred  

November 7, 2017

This week has been great. I'm not too motivated to write a letter for some reason, I wish that I could just call you guys and tell you all of the things that have been happening up here. It would be so much easier. It's crazy though because next month I will be able to face time you guys again. I can't believe that it is almost there again. The work is going great. 

We have been teaching one of the priests, who is almost done with his papers, the missionary lessons and then he will teach us. It is pretty cool to see his desire in becoming a great missionary. Elder Crawley and I got referred to a guy named Masias, we contacted him yesterday. He is a body builder, we went to his gym. I found out that he is a personal trainer and he wasn't too jacked but he was in the best shape, it was nuts. After we contacted him we did a bit of tracting and came up to a house that was being built. There was a car parked outside so we decided to knock. A guy came to the door and we told him that we were missionaries and asked if he needed any help. He at first said no but after talking to him for a bit he said he wouldn't mind some help. We have continued teaching Byron, they are still on track with cutting one cigarette out a day. When I went over there the first time it was like walking into a wall of smoke and it was so hard to breathe. The second time that I went over there I could barely smell it. Since they have committed to stop smoking they have not only been cutting out a cigarette a day but they have also been smoking outside. They are so cool I didn't know how I was going to be able to go into their home again but it all worked out. 

In Ward Council we have been talking about the Ward Christmas Party and it has really bothered me that they haven't said one word about how they are going to make this a missionary experience. We had dinner with our ward mission leader and we will be talking about that in the next one. I feel like things in this area could really pick up there is a lot of potential. 

On Saturday I got permission for Elder Crawley and I to go to Aaron's baptism it was great. We took the C-train all the way up from downtown to the crowfoot station, that this by the church in silver springs, then Elder Darrow picked us up. Aaron had Elder Darrow and I as the official witnesses. He told me on the phone that night that he felt a feeling that he had never felt before in his life. He said that it was really as if he was being washed clean. 

I am sure that you have probably heard of missionaries getting smart phones. It's kind of weird, I was talking to the guy that Elder Darrow is training and he said that a ton of the missionaries in the MTC all had their own smart phones. We are going to be doing a course on it so we will see, we might be getting smart phones. I never thought that missionaries would have phones. 

Calgary Tower

Clock by Bow Tower

Bow Tower

Map of downtown Calgary

My Breakfast Smoothie

Well this is just some of the things that have been happening this week, the work really is going well. I sure do miss you all, have a great week! I will be on a little later today to send some pictures. 

Love, Elder Allred 

October 31, 2017

Dinner with Lori Lang at a nice Italian Restaurant

Hey fam, 

This week has been interesting. We have so many referrals from members to go and visit people. It was nice this week to have the car. We have to share it with another set of missionaries. So one week we have it and then the other week we don't. It is pretty rough to be honest. We have a pretty big area but it is nice to have the Calgary Transit even though it is super slow. Since we had the car we were able to contact quite a few people which was nice. 

Probably the highlight of the week was when we went to visit Byron and Rebecca. Byron is an eternagator, which means that he has been being taught for a long time. I think that he has actually been being taught for 3 years. Rebecca is his wife and she is a member who comes to church every so often. Rebecca, I had met a few days before, when we stopped by to set up an appointment with them. As soon as we walked in the home it was like walking into a brick wall of smoke. I really hate the smell of smoke. We helped her carry up some thinks from her basement to the big garbage bin outside. She was very grateful. As we were taking her garbage out to the dump there were a group of black people outside and one of the younger ladies, maybe in her 20's, asked me if we were J-dubs and I kinda laughed and said no we're not. And then she asked, "Are you mormons?" and I then said, "Yes we are" and she said, "Aw man I love you guys." I was able to talk to her a bit and found out that she was being taught a while back and isn't too interested in us teaching her right now but wants to sing in the choir over Christmas so I gave her a card and she said that she was going to call us, she hasn't yet but we will see. We got an appointment which happened to be yesterday. 

We went over and started talking to them. They are both heavy smokers, each smoking about 2 and a half packs a day. Elder Crawley and I started reviewing what he and his companion had taught him last time which was the Plan of Salvation. And I kept getting a feeling that I should talk about their smoking problem which is why Byron hasn't been baptized yet. I felt that it would be super disturbing to them to ask them about it after only seeing Rebecca once and never talking to Byron, but I decided to ask them about it. After talking a bit about the CK (Celestial Kingdom) and Byron telling us that he wants to go there and to be sealed with his wife in the temple. It somehow got on the topic of them smoking. I asked them, "I don't want to be rude or anything but how many packs of smoke do you smoke in a day?" They then told us that they each smoke 2 and a half packs a day. I asked them, "Do you think that you could ever stop smoking?" Right away Rebecca said, "no, no way I can stop smoking." Byron was kinda hesitant but said that he thinks that he probably could. I told them of a quote that I really like that if you believe that you can you are already 90 percent there, and with the Lords help anything is possible. Byron said, "You know we could stop smoking, it costs a little over 10 bucks to buy a pack if we stopped we would be able to go on a vacation in a couple of months." That gave Rebecca motivation to stop. We then started talking about goals with them and they decided that they would cut out one cigarette a day. They are going to be starting on November first. If all goes well their last cigarette will be on November 30. I told them that for me, I like to write my goals down and put it somewhere that I can see it so that it can be a reminder. I pulled out a piece of paper out of my bag and Rebecca wrote down their goal, I got them to both sign it which was pretty funny and then to put it as the background on their cell phones. Rebecca also put the paper on their fridge. I then encouraged them to tell God their goal and to ask for his help and that we would be praying for them as well. Byron said the closing prayer and asked for help. It was really cool to see their thoughts change over the course of the time we were with them. They went from thinking that they couldn't stop smoking to believing in themselves that they really could stop. 

Yesterday we also got a call from our Zone Leaders about this person who needed help unpacking from a move. They moved from down town which was in our area to the other side of our area. The people moving was Robby, and Swan. They had just recently been married. They are East Indian. Robby's Mom has actually been being taught by the zone leaders and is going to join after she gets through her divorce. She is going to tell us more about it but she said that it was a planned marriage and that she only stayed with her family because of her kids. We were able to help them a bit. Swan is really interested in us teaching her and Robby but by the sound of it Robby might not be too interested so we will have to see what happens there. Robby's mom gave us some curry soup stuff which is pretty good and also some indian dessert bar things. It was really good.  Sorry I wish that I could write more but I am running out of time. 

The work is going great we have been super busy. I am finally starting to get to know some people after only being here for a week and a half.

Well I hope that you all have great week I love you guys! 

Love, Elder Allred 

October 24, 2017 Downtown Calgary

Gordan and Samantha

Aaron Arcand

Aaron's dog (part wolf)

My Son & Grandson!

New Area-Downtown Calgary

I am actually somewhere I thought that I would never be. I got transferred to downtown Calgary. My area consists of like 90 percent of downtown. My new area I thought that I would not like really at all. I don't like being in cities too much, but since I have been here I have actually really enjoyed it. There is a ton of work here because of so many people. We get referrals like crazy here. There are some huge buildings downtown. 

This week was pretty busy. Last Tuesday we went to Banff which was pretty cool. There are a lot of people that go there. We also went to Lake Louise. It was raining almost the whole time that we were there but it was still pretty fun. Elder Darrow and I went with Elder Dolinar and his companion, Elder Rice, who he was training at the time. I have some pictures to send but they won't send on the computer that I am on, so I will have to send them a little later. Later that night we were in a lesson with Gordan and Samantha and a couple of her friends when the transfer calls came in. We found out that I would be going to the Wildwood and 5th Ward areas which covers all of downtown Calgary and to the west. 

That night I really tried to visit all of the families that I had gotten close to, one of which was the Spackmans. That night I found out why Aaron's baptism got cancelled. Sister Spackman, who was going to be unable to make it and who was going to be giving one of the talks, told Elder Darrow and I what had happened. They have a little bit of a rebellious son who just got married to his second wife who really dislikes Mormons. Their son called a couple of days before the baptism and told them that they were never going to see them or their grandchildren ever again unless they would fess up and tell them that the Mormon religion is a colt. Sister Spackman wasn't going to come down and see us that night but since I was leaving she came down and talked to us for a bit. I really love them I feel so bad. They are such solid members. 

After visiting the members, less actives, and non-members that we had been working with, one of which was Aaron, we headed back to the pad, and started packing. I never quite was done until just before we had to leave for the transfer station. Elder Darrow picked up the new elder that he would be training and then we got a posterity picture. Then I met up with my new companion.

My new companion is Elder Crawley, who is from Ireland. He has a little bit of an accent but most of it is gone from the time that he has been here in Canada. You can still tell that he is for sure from another part of the world when he calls a shopping cart a trolley and a pair a slacks trousers. So far I am really enjoying the new area and the new companion. There is a lot of work here. There are so many people.  

The night of transfers we did a little shopping, had dinner, and had a lesson with a 9 year old girl. 

On Friday we did some service at the local food bank which is pretty big. We then had everything cancel on us including our dinner, so we ended up doing some weekly planning and getting to know everyone. 

On Saturday we had a lesson with Eric, who is preparing to go on his mission very soon. We had a pancake lunch with them. They are a pretty cool family. We then had to fill up the font for a ward baptism. I don't know why they put us in charge of it but oh well it worked out. We then had a chili cook off. I got to meet a lot of the members and the Clark family who really loves basketball. A couple of their sons are going to play ball with us today so that will hopefully be fun.

On Sunday we had to get up at 5:30 to go to Ward Council which was so hard I was so tired the whole day. We went from 5:30 to around 4. We then had dinner and dropped off some B'sOM. 

I got put in as District Leader again so that night I finished up preparing for District Meeting which was Monday morning. It went well, there are only 6 of us in the district so a little on the small side. 

So far I am really liking this area, I am excited to see what great things there are to come. 

I hope you all have a great week! Love you guys!

Love, Elder Allred

Banff 

The Gondola

Lake Louise Hotel

Lake Louise 

Banff Hotel