August 29, 2017

This week has been amazing! The craziest things have happened this week. I will give just some of the highlights.

On Wednesday Elder Darrow and I got to teach at the ESL class that is at the church by the Calgary Temple, it was the first time that I have had the opportunity to do that. So now every Wednesday I get to go right by the temple to teach a ton of people from all of the world English. It really makes me think as simply as I can or else I have another word to explain to them, it's a lot harder then what you would think but it is super fun. 

On Thursday we got to go out on splits with our ward mission leader, Brother Melchin, who was a former 70 and every time we go with him he blows our minds while driving to appointments. Just when I think that I know a good amount, he starts talking and makes me realize that I only know a small portion of everything that there is to know. He is a great guy I sure learn a lot from him. 

Sunday was really great. It all started with Ward Council for the Rocky View Ward at 7:30 a.m. We went to Sacrament Meeting and Danica and Aaron came to church which was neat. By the way Danica's baptismal date is on September 16. After Sacrament Meeting we went to gospel principles and Aaron came in with us. He told us of what his Dad and Grandpa thought about, I guess you could say their part of what has gone down in history. He told Elder Darrow and I on Wednesday at Brother Works, when we had Work Burgers. But he told us all again in gospel principles class, his story goes like this, and I will try to make it as identical as he said. He said that we all lived on a planet with God and the planet was getting over populated so God put us on Earth to get rid of us then a few years pass and so God told Jesus to go and check on us and he found out that we were robbing, raping and pillaging. He tried to have us make peace with one another and the people ended up killing him and then through some kind of evolution he was able to resurrect himself from the dead, he was resurrected in three days. And after being resurrected, through some kind of communication was able to get in contact with God and told him to get me out of here. He then loaded up on the mother ship and hasn't been back since.

We were able to teach him a little bit about the Plan of Salvation with Brother Melchin and the guy he lives with in the ward named Brother Spackman, they are both pretty knowledgeable in the gospel. It ended up being pretty neat, Brother Melchin turned to Elder Darrow and I and asked is there anything else that you might add? I thought that it had all been covered really well and at first I didn't really know what to say, but I then thought that we should talk a little bit about prayer and so we pulled up a scripture, which happened to be one of the famous scriptures that we as missionaries use which is in the 10th chapter in Moroni, and talked about how as we pray we can receive and get an answer to any of our questions. Aaron when he heard this started telling us of an experience that he had. He said guys I think that this is true he went on to tell us that he has been reading and studying the Book of Mormon and that he has seen a change within him. At this point he was really starting to tear up. He went on to say when I first met Brian Spackman I swore like you wouldn't believe and now I don't have a problem, and not just with that, I have been able to feel better about myself and the only thing that I have been doing differently is going to church and reading the scriptures. He has read the Book of Mormon twice and is on his third time through it and is now cross referencing it with the Bible. He has to be the most solid investigator. Brother Melchin then talked about a verse in the 7th chapter in Moroni which says, "But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God". At this point he was really tearing up. I think that I told you that he has been investigating and researching the big foot people for something like 20 years (5 of them with Brian Spackman) and is all about the evidence. This was just another piece of evidence. 

He then had to tell us of another experience that he had. (He told us it in more detail yesterday when we taught him about the restoration). Last week he stopped at a truck stop to use the restroom. Before he walked in he looked out his truck window and looked up in the sky and said, buddy do you have any time? I have been hearing from everyone that this stuff is true and I just want to hear it from you. He walked in and there was a big line and he had to use a stall. He had a very strong feeling that he had to use a certain stall and it was being used by someone who was taking some time, probably making it really stinky in there, but every time a stall would open up he would let someone go in front of him because of the feeling he had of using this particular stall. He must have let 2-3 people go in front of him before the stall that he wanted opened up, but it finally did and he walked in and sat down and started doing his stuff, he looked up at the stall and there was a scripture written on it. The scripture was in Matt. 21:32, he didn't have any scriptures on him and on Sunday, in the gospel principals class he asked Elder Darrow if he would look it up because he never had the chance. So Elder Darrow looked it up and that scripture says, For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him. Brother Melchin interpreted it for him and told him that the verse he saw was telling him that he needed to repent and be baptized. This was the biggest piece of evidence for him. Something else that was interesting was that Sister Mcload just happened to be buying something at the truck stop and he went up and talked to her. He thinks that she was there so that he knew that it wasn't just a dream that he had. And yesterday he told us that he went into that same stall that he used just the week before, that had the scripture written on it, and when he went in there the scripture was gone, it was like it had never been written on the stall. 

I really love to hear people's conversion stories, everyone's is different but all so personal and special. Everyone even the people that grow up in the church have some kind of a conversion story. This week has really blown me away to hear of Aaron's conversion story. Aaron is a great guy, very smart, very down to business, and doing things right, and I really love the guy. 

When we went to teach him about the restoration yesterday, we walked in and he said, guys I have quit my coffee, I stopped this morning and have substituted it with hot chocolate. I still have my smokes but have really been cutting down on them. I want to learn more about the Addiction Recovery Program and also want to know what the correct order of prayer is. Aaron is sweet I love it when people actually try to know the truth. As we were teaching him he said, guys I really think that the Book of Mormon is true and then he paused for a couple seconds and said in a very bold voice, no guys I KNOW that the Book of Mormon is true. We taught him how to pray yesterday and will be talking to him on Wednesday about the recovery program and maybe even a little about priesthood blessings and the strength that he can receive through receiving a priesthood blessing. 

I love this gospel and how through it people really can and do change. 

Something funny also happened Saturday night. I had to have been at least 90 percent asleep because I was there but not there at the same time. I got up in the night being really thirsty and what I usually do is just walk through the dark, get one, and then walk back and get into bed. So I got up and started walking towards the door and I ran into something. I thought wow this is weird I could have sworn that this walkway was clear, and so I started walking to the right and ran into another thing I thought to myself this is really weird why would someone have put a couch in the middle of the path to get to the door. I thought oh well I will just have to climb over it and everything will be all good. So I stepped up on it and was trying to stand up to walk over it but I couldn't find my balance but that wasn't going to stop me and so I just kept trying to get over this couch, and all of a sudden something hit my leg and something said what, and that's what woke me up completely because what was happening was that I was climbing on Elder Darrows bed at like 3 in the morning. And then I said what the heck, that confused Elder Darrow because I wasn't the one who should be saying that it was him. I was super embarrassed and said, sorry man I was half asleep I thought that I was crawling over a couch. It was so funny.

We had dinner with one of the members in our ward and after we always share a spiritual message. After the message I just felt I should ask him some questions about his life, he did seem a little down so I was asking him about going back to school as a teacher and just a bunch of random questions and it was kinda weird at first but after a few questions he told us about an ulcer that he had and how he was going to go back to get it checked out again. His wife then turned to him and asked him, "Hunny since the Elders are here they might as well give you a blessing." He was a little hesitant in getting one but he said, "Well it wont hurt to get one." and so he asked Elder Chen to anoint and Elder Darrow to give the blessing, which just so happened to be his first one! I held the white handbook for him. A few days later which happened to be Sunday he came up to us and said, "Guys the ulcer is gone." He wasn't even eating the foods that he was supposed to eat for it to feel better and it was gone. I have been seeing crazy things happen like this all the time and you know it just can't be coincidences time after time. There really are miracles just like there have been from the beginning of time. 

Well That was this week, I would have to say it has been the best week so far. I am really having a fun time out here. I hope that you all are doing well, I love you all! 

Love, Elder Allred 

August 22, 2017

Well this has been another great week! I feel that it all started with the Sergo Juice that we had on Tuesday. There are a few families from Haiti and one of them always has us over for dinner, and they make some good food. Sergo, the dad, always has his little mixture of juice for us and he calls it Sergo Juice it's so funny, but oh so good. It makes me think of the juice mixtures that Grandpa Allred always made back home, I can't quite remember exactly what he called it maybe kicka poy joey juice or something like that. 

On Wednesday we had a zone conference that lasted for 8 hours... To tell you the truth I like zone conference, I just wish that they weren't so long. I thought that my butt hurt going on road trips but that was nothing compared to this. It was good though there is always good things talked about during them. One of the main focuses during the zone conference is the question that we sometimes ask ourselves, what would Christ do? I feel that it is an important question for all of us as missionaries to be constantly asking ourselves because we are representatives of Him and His church. But are we not all missionaries and representatives of Him and His church? I really feel that as we ask ourselves, what would Christ do? that we will find that we will change to become more and more Christlike and less of the natural man which is in us. That night we were in our apartment at 9 and since we have a gym in our apartment's basement we have been working out in the morning and at night in the times that we are supposed to be in. We were heading down the elevator to work out at 9 and I was super pumped to go work out. I jumped a little and the elevator stopped in between a couple of floors and the door opened maybe a fourth of the way (I never thought that that would stop an elevator). I was like oh crap and I thought that we were going to get out fairly quickly that it was maybe jammed or something but no.. We called the people out of the elevator and they said that they would send someone right away and it wasn't until 2 hours later that we got out. I was so bumbed I will never do that again. I guess sometimes we just have to learn from our own mistakes. 

On Thursday we had lunch with one of the members in the ward who calls himself the White Puerto Rican Jew. He is really cool, and super funny, but is one of those guys that is like Donald Trump. Kind of the same personality I think. I asked him why he calls himself the White Puerto Rican Jew and he just says because people hate Puerto Ricans and people hate Jews and I am white so why not be both of them. He drives limos around for people and knows a ton of popular people because of that. He knows a guy that owns the WWE (something about wrestling) He's got all the hook ups. We also got to play some softball with the Elder's Quorum in the Tuscany ward. I got a few home runs off of it and Elder Darrow was like unstoppable he is so good. Just being with them we got 2 referrals.

On Friday we went to a garden service with a guy and lately Bob a non-member, has been inviting his friend to come and help us with it and he has been asking us a ton of questions so we are going to hopefully start teaching him soon. We also had dinner with the Somerfelts in Siksika's parents house and the branch president who was in my first area, President Somerfelt was there with his family so it was sure good to see them again. 

On Saturday nothing too much happened we knocked on a ton of doors off of the three lists but other then that nothing too exciting. 

On Sunday we had our 6+ hours of church which can get really draining... But it was really good at the same time. We had dinner with a guy from the Tuscany Ward who knew the Horrocks from Roosevelt, the one who has the big roping arena that I had been to. He had also been to my companion's home town which was really weird. We then had a lesson with Danica and taught her the word of wisdom, so she is pretty much done with all the lessons now and she will be getting baptized very soon, probably in the next couple of weeks or so. 

On Monday we had our district meeting, my companion and I snuck out for a few seconds to grab a couple pictures of the eclipse but nothing really showed up too much. It was noticeably darker out though. I will have to send some pictures of what it was like up here. 

Today we emailed a bit and then headed over to Fusion, a really expensive sushi and Asian food place which is alright. My favorite thing there is the spicy crap roll. But I'm not so much of a fan of that kind of food. 

Well that's pretty much it. The mission is going great, I am loving it! Have a good week love you all!

Love, Elder Allred 

August 15, 2017

Calgary West Zone

This week has been crazy we have been so much busier having to cover another ward, it is crazy.

The thing that bothers me the most being out here and it makes me really frustrated is when people say that they have anxiety and they can't do something. There is a guy in the ward that we just recently took over that loves us missionaries and takes us out to lunch every week and has us share a spiritual message with him. He tells us how much he is blessed and receives miracles when we come over and all this and has a pretty strong testimony about the church but he is inactive and I don't understand why. He says that he has an anxiety with crowds but he takes us to Costco for lunch and talks to everybody where there are tons of people. I am pretty sick and tired of this anxiety stuff, I feel that we all have our discomforts and we just have to figure out how to get past them. I feel that in a lot of situations this anxiety stuff shouldn't be an excuse but I don't know maybe I'm wrong. But I do know that because of the Atonement we can get past anything some people just don't get it or just don't want to get it and it's super sad. 

But to end on a positive note the work is going great and I feel that I have the best companion in the world right now. We have been riding our bikes a ton to street contact and burn calories but one of the bikes broke while we were riding in the rain and so we are going to have to try and find another one somewhere or call the mission office and see if they can get us one. 

Just lately which has been really cool in a couple of our dinner appointments I have had the opportunity of sharing a spiritual message with them. Not that we don't share something every time but these were pretty cool. I love when you have something that you are going to share with them and then flipping through the scriptures you think or turn to something that you feel you should share with them. And after sharing it with them they say thank you that was actually an answer to my prayer or I was actually praying this morning for an answer about that. It's pretty crazy how the spirit works, we can be asking for an answer and get it, or they can get their answer through us as we are in tune with the Spirit.

Yesterday we were tracting and this has been the most successful tracting experience that I have ever had. It was so cool we ended up knocking on maybe 10 doors and there was only 1 that said no, not interested, and closed the door. There were 3 that we had a really good conversation with and the others weren't home. The first guy that we talked to, his name is Ed, is 85 years old and has just recently lost his wife. At the beginning he wasn't interested but we got talking before he closed the door on us and broke the ice and I ended up giving him our number and a plan of salvation pamphlet which he was flipping through and reading while we were talking to him, it was pretty cool. He said that we could come back and teach him. 

The second person that we talked to was this guy that had his door open and it smelled like indian food. The man who came to the door was a short little pudgy guy, I asked him if he was making some food and he looked at me like what are you freakin talking about, so I said are you from India and he said, yes I am why do you want to know? Then I told him how much I liked Indian food we talked to him for at least 30 minutes, it was so funny. We were hoping that we were going to be able to teach him the lessons but he told us no, I already know about your religion and then he went on about how all religions have something good about them. And I think that I somewhat believe him that a lot of religions have some good about them but what I like about this church is that we have the fullness of the gospel. The people may not always be the best, but Christ's gospel is. 

The third person was a lady from South America, and it was Elder Darrow's turn to knock and he gave the whole shpeel about how we are missionaries and how we do free service and all and she said that she wasn't interested and as she was closing the door I said, boy you have some nice plants growing out here in the front of your house. And she opened up the door and then had to show us her whole yard, the front and the back, it was pretty impressive, it made me think of what mom will be like when we are all moved out and the missionaries stop by haha. She also cuts hair so we are going to go over there to get our haircuts and talk to her and see what happens.

Well I sure do love you guys and I am having a blast out here with my new companion Elder Darrow. I hope that you all have a good week, and I look forward to the time that I can see you all again. Keep up all the good work!

Love, Elder Allred 

August 8, 2017 Training Elder Darrow

This week has been pretty crazy! I haven't had so many ties to home ever and I never thought that I would have as many as what I just had this week. It all started when I walked in the chapel by the mission home to pick up the guy that I was training and saw Sister Hawkins there. We were able to talk a little after the meeting and get a picture. She ended up going South somewhere but I am hoping that I will be able to serve around her sometime. I hadn't seen her forever. My new companion is Elder Darrow, and he is from Alaska, who lived maybe 30 min. from the Hawkins which was pretty nuts. He played baseball at a junior college down in Arizona for a year before he came out here. I told him where I was from and he said no way do you know Bailey Johnson, just so happens to be his girlfriend, and I said I think so, I never talked to her but I remember seeing her at school. She was really good friends with Rachel Miles. He also went to one of my friend's wedding. I am so glad that I got the companion that I have now, I was really worried that I was going to get someone that I was going to have a hard time getting along with but we are having a blast together. I really think that this may be the best transfer. 

This week has been super busy sending home Elder Bunch and picking up Elder Darrow. Picking up the new ward has also been pretty crazy, just trying to know everyone and everything. We meet so many people it's so hard to remember names. The work is going good we have had appointments after appointments. Lately we have been helping this Korean couple and we have only had the chance to share a spiritual message with him. He has been super busy with work and making his man cave, but he said that he was going to have us over for dinner after we get the flooring put in which won't take long at all and then we will start teaching him the lessons. Our other investigators have been gone for the long weekend and wont be back till this week. 

It is finally starting to cool off just a little bit it has been so hot. I have a few pictures that I want to send home but I need to get a SD card reader pretty funny that I still haven't gotten one and I have been out for a little over a year. So I will hopefully get it and send you some pictures a little later today. I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Allred

Sister/Cousin Jenny Hawkins

Elder Darrow

Elder Bunch

August 1, 2017

This week was pretty interesting, we ended up picking up two new investigators who seem like they could both be pretty solid. One of them is super big into big foot people and says that there are colonies of them all around. He says that he has been researching them for about 25 years. The other one is a Korean guy that we have been doing some service for. On Saturday we were helping him put up some sheet rock in his garage where he is going to build what he calls a man cave. It is where his is going to be doing his coding on the computer for work. He has never in the past thought of joining the church until just now and said that we could teach him more about the gospel, he wants to learn more. His wife is a less-active and they said that they are going to start coming to church. So just a couple miracles from this past week, having 5 new investigators in this transfer has been a miracle in and of its self when we started with zero when I got in, and I know that it wouldn't have been possible without the Lord. 

One Wednesday I got a training call, so on Wednesday we will be picking up my boy and then the next day we will be dropping Elder Bunch off. Then on Friday he will be flying home. My new comp and I are also going to be purging in an area in our zone so we will be covering two wards and getting a truck. I am super excited to be training and having someone who is going to be so motivated to get out and work. I think that it is going to be really good for this area especially where it has caught some fire. 

On Saturday we did the service for the Korean couple and then headed to another service at a house in one of the sister's area. This family I think has been struggling, the house was really messy the sisters were washing dishes and they wanted us to move an old couch that had a bed that would come out of it up the stairs. After some time of trying to get the thing moved up the stairs we soon realized that it wasn't going to be getting up there. I asked them, "What exactly are you wanting to do with this couch?" And they said that it was going to be going to the dump and so I asked them in a kind of a joking way, "Do you care if we take a sledge hammer to this?" And surprisingly they said yes probably because their mom wasn't home. So they went and got us some hammers and some hand saws and we had the couch completely torn apart in a matter of minutes and soon after had it up in the ally. After we got that done they wanted us to move another couch down from the upstairs and so we started off and the hallway going down was super narrow and Elder Bunch and I were getting pretty frustrated because we weren't getting it. But after taking a light fixture off of the ceiling and breaking a couple of coat hooks we got it down. They were all pretty happy that we were able to do it but we had to head off right after to make it in time for dinner. So we got on the bus and headed for our apartment, we got off at the closest bus stop and when we got off we had 14 min. until the bus at our apartment headed for the train so we sprinted for 2 min. to get home. I felt super gross so I took a shower and by the time we got all dressed up in our missionary attire and got out to the bus stop, 8 min. had passed, so we got to wait for 4 min. for the bus to come. I can't believe how quick we were I guess that's what happens when you have to get into these clothes everyday. (Yesterday we found out from the sisters that the mom was super happy that we were able to get the couch down and the other one up, she didn't know if we were going to be able to do it or not. So I guess we did a good job)     

This ward has changed a lot even from just the time that I have come in I think that this is the most missionary minded ward that I have had the opportunity of serving in. I'm loving the mission and can't believe that I am already 13 months out.. Love you all and hope that you all have a fantastic week!

Love, Elder Allred