September 19, 2017

This week has been pretty good. Lots of little miracles.

On Wednesday we had ESL which is always pretty fun. Elder Dolinars companion hit his 2 years and went home, so Dolinar was with us for a night. He is the District Leader so it worked out perfect. We got Danica interviewed and she passed for baptism. We also got to have Work Burgers. Brother Work makes the best burgers. Every Wednesday he makes them for us, he goes to Costco and picks up some fresh meat and then we BBQ it. I look forward to that every week. 

Thursday was a pretty average day nothing too crazy happened, lots of weekly planning. But on Friday we had a lot of good things happen. To start it off we had Garden service with Bob and John except Bob wasn't there because his brother died so he was up in Edmonton at a funeral so it was just John telling us what to do. This time we were spreading bark chips on a path through the garden. It was really cool, we got to see the new missionaries who came out a week ago who came into our zone. They seem pretty cool. We were working and talking to John and John said, "I sure do like being with you guys." I said, "Yeah its really fun working out here in the garden with you, we should totally go get some frostys together sometime at Wendys." He then said, "That would be really fun, in fact I will take you to the best shake place in Calgary!" So we set up a time that night to go out for shakes at Peters. 

After we worked at the gardens we made some stop-bys and then had dinner at the Redekop's home. They invited a couple that is their next door neighbors, they were maybe in their 70's. The husband was from Australia and his wife was from Canada. We talked a lot about Australia and how my Dad went on a mission like us to Australia when he was my age. After we had dinner his wife pulled out an Australian dessert called Pavlova, boy it was good. They claimed that it didn't have any calories in it. But there was lots of whipping cream on top so it had to have had some calories in it. 

After dinner we called John and he came and picked us up at our apartment and we headed to Peters. He paid for the shakes, we told him that we would but he insisted that he pay. The shakes were really good and it was kinda funny because it was just a bit out of our zone.. We were almost to down town Calgary. It was good though, we talked quite a bit about his work and just random stuff. We got to our apartment and before we left I asked him I said, "John, you have had a lot of questions about us and the church and what we do as missionaries is answer those questions that you have and teach you about our church." I said, "That doesn't mean that you have to come to church or you have to get baptized but is that something that you would like to do? And kinda paused for a second and he said,  "Yes I would like that." So we will be teaching him the first discussion either Saturday or Sunday. I am super excited, he is a great guy. 

On Saturday we did some help moving for a lady named Karen. After that we went to have interviews with President Miles. President and Sister Miles said that this is the happiest that they have seen me. I have defiantly been happy we have been having so much success lately it has been so great. In the interview President Miles told me that he doesn't want me to burn out on him. He made me promise that I wouldn't. It was pretty funny that he would say that because I feel that I am a long ways from going home. I have a lot of time before I will burn out. After interviews we helped at the food drive I will have to send some pictures of that too. I will do better at sending pictures.  

We had a Baptism! Danica was baptized. Elder Darrow and I gave the talks, I talked on baptism and Elder Darrow talked on the Holy Ghost. I think that I felt the Spirit more at this baptism then what I have ever felt at any other baptism it was amazing. 

We had dinner at the Burnett's home. She is a member and her husband is a non-member but a really good guy. After we ate we found out that he grows his own hot peppers in his backyard. He grows all the super super hot peppers. He is growing Carolina Reapers which we didn't get to try. I did get to try a little bit of a dried Carolina Reaper in Lethbridge and it was hot I can't even imagine trying it not dried, it is the second hottest pepper in the world. He did have the third hottest pepper in the world though which is called the Trinidad Scorpion. He cut a couple of little pieces off of the pepper for Elder Darrow and I. We put it in our mouths and started chewing. Elder Darrow chewed it up and swallowed it. I chewed it up and it felt like my head was going to explode so I spit it out. The heat was so crazy though. Elder Darrow ate half a carton of ice cream, and I had a couple glasses of milk. It was so hot I would get a mouth full of milk and just let it sit in my mouth for maybe 7 seconds and then I had to swallow it and get some more cold milk in my mouth. The heat finally went away after maybe 10 minutes. We have a video of it, I will send it to you when I get a chance. At Church on Sunday Sister Burnett broke down in tears to us and told us how much it means to her that we visit her and her family. She said, "You have no idea the impact that has on us."

When we got home that night we realized that we left our dinner calendars in the truck. Elder Darrow has had a cold and so I told him that I would go out and get them so that we could confirm dinner for that night. So I put on my runners and my hoody and headed to the truck. I decided that I would take the long way to the truck so that I could get a little run in that night. It ended up being about a mile. I got to the truck and got the dinner calendars and headed back. When I was waiting for the elevators to come down a guy came up to me and asked me if I was out on a run and I said, "Yep I was."  He said, "Man you are my motivation, I used to run but I haven't for a long time." I told him that I run everyday and he was pretty blown away. I asked him if he wanted to run Monday morning with us and he said that he would. So we got down stairs and he was there at a little after 6:30 waiting for us. He is from Libia and came over to Canada when he was 18 for school. He is now 28. So for the past couple of mornings we have been running with him. He is pretty out of shape which is too bad because I like to get a good run in but maybe we will have the opportunity of teaching him in the near future. 

On Sunday I had to speak in one of the wards. I still don't like getting up in front of people but I feel that it has for sure gotten a ton easier. I can see a change in myself and I think that it has been a big change. Elder Darrow and I were talking last night. We were talking about a couple of scriptures and trying to figure out some questions that we have had. Elder Darrow said, "I can't even believe that I am talking about the scriptures, back home I didn't even read them." I had to agree with him, it is crazy, back home I thought that the scriptures were definitely true but I didn't have a real desire to read and to study them. Being out here has definitely developed a desire in me to read, study, and ponder them to learn more about the scriptures.

Well this is some of the highlights of what has been going on up here in Canada I hope and pray that you are all doing well. I love you guys and hope that you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Allred

Elder Darrow 

September 12, 2017

This week has been awesome, it's pretty crazy to hear of all the crazy things happening in the world, with all the fires in Canada and the U.S, the earthquakes, and the big hurricanes. I am always forgetting that I am actually in a different country... 

Well we were able to finish up the lessons with Danica and she is going to be getting interviewed on Wednesday. Her baptism is going to be on Saturday and they have asked Elder Darrow and I to give talks at the baptism. I will be giving a talk on baptism, and Elder Darrow will be giving one on the spirit. We have been told that there are going to be some non-members from the family there, and the missionaries in our zone will be trying to get their investigators to the baptism as well. It is going to be a great experience.

We have been able to teach Aaron a few times this week, one of them was on the temple grounds of the Calgary Temple. He was able to go into the waiting room with Brother Hamilton, who is a temple worker, and was able to talk to him. He gave him a cool binder with a lot of information in it about temples it was pretty neat. 

At the beginning of this week we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and what was cool was that he realized that he was already starting to live the Gospel before he even knew what it was. He had exercised his faith and because he exercised his faith he had experiences that helped him come to know that it is true. And because he knew that it was true he has been repenting or changing his life to follow our Savior Jesus Christ. He has made some big changes in his life. He has been 2 weeks without coffee and 1 week without smokes. He is wanting to go 2 weeks without any smokes to know that he is done and that he isn't going to pick up another smoke. In 2 weeks he is going to be baptized.

Something that kinda hit me while we were teaching Aaron was that he said, "I like to pray, it makes me feel good." It hit me because it made me think what we all think about praying. It was cool to hear a person who hasn't said a prayer since he was around the age of 14, start praying and then feel good every time he prays, and to pray a lot because of how it makes him feel. 

For the past couple of days I have been thinking about one of the 10 commandments, to not take the Lord's name in vain. When we read that we instantly think to not swear by using the Lords name. When we were teaching Aaron about this Brother Spackman pointed something cool out. He said, "If we aren't doing what Christ would have us do while representing him we are taking his name in vain." When you think about it when we are baptized we enter into a covenant with God to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, keep His commandments, and serve Him to the end. So in a way we who have been baptized are representatives of Jesus Christ and His church. And it just makes me think if we aren't becoming like Christ and doing the things that he would do, we are taking his name in vain which is a pretty scary thought. Since non of us are perfect and are not like Christ because of the natural man that is in us we have been given the Gospel to have the opportunity to constantly repent and to become better and better. A famous scripture that talks about this is Mosiah 3:19 which says, "for the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." Elder Bednar talks about this verse and how bad men can become good, and good men can become better. I like how it says to follow the promptings of the Spirit because as we listen to those promptings which are good we will be led to become better and better people. 

This week we had a corn bust in both the Tuscany and Rockyview Wards. There were quite a few non-members that came to the ward parties. We talked to all of them, it's pretty strange to go up to someone you have no idea who is and talk to them, something that I would definitely not do back home. We invited Bob, a guy that we work at a garden with to come and to invite his family. He ended up coming and brought his daughter and son-in-law and their family to the corn bust. We were talking to his son-in-law, his name is Chris about the gardens and how nice they were and he said, "Man I sure wish that I had someone that would come and help me with my yard." We immediately offered to help. He was pretty shocked, he is a pretty well off guy. He is from Germany, and speaks english very well. We ended up going and helping him out. He is a really nice guy, we will have to go and help him out again. 

This week we might be able to pick up 3 new investigators, one for sure. He was referred to us by the Elders who are in Stathmore he seems super solid. I will have to let you know how that goes.

Elder Darrow and I gave each other hair cuts, they actually aren't that bad, they actually look pretty good I think, haha. I will have to send you some pictures, I have been slacking on that. 

Well that is pretty much it for this week, hope you are all doing well! Love you guys

Love, Elder Allred

September 5, 2017

This week has been really awesome. With school starting up again everyone is back from vacationing in the states. Today is actually the first day of school for all these Canadians. 

This last week has been pretty good we have been able to get into quite a few homes with the people that we are working with and invite them to the corn bust on Wednesday. The corn bust is where there is all you can eat corn on the cob, and it's Taber Corn, everyone up here thinks that the Taber Corn is the best of the best. So whenever we tell someone that, they just have to come. We are expecting to have a lot of non-members show up to the ward party so it will be interesting to see. 

For the past few weeks it has been smoky off and on here in Calgary from the British Columbia fires. It was really bad on Saturday, it was so smoky that you could feel it in your eyes. The sun was super red, I will have to send some pictures of it to you. 

But the highlight for this week was Aaron at Sacrament Meeting during fast and testimony meeting. Aaron bore his testimony at church, he went up there with his scriptures and told them of his story growing up, about the teacher Mr. Runno, and how he would teach the class about Adam and Eve and then in the next class teach them about the Big Bang. He also talked about his conversion story and how he had become a knower and not just a believer. He then told them, if I look a little shaky up here it is because I have gone without coffee for 6 days. Everyone laughed and then he pulled out an empty cigarette box and told everyone that he smoked his last one this morning and he is going to stop because he now knows that there is a higher power that he can rely on. In Gospel Principles we talked a lot about sealings and more on prayer. He bore his testimony to us all again. Something that was really crazy was that he payed fast offerings, he heard that's what we do and so he did it, and keep in mind at this point we had only taught him the first lesson. After the two church meetings we had another lesson with him and we put him on date for the 23 of September, and this will be a goal that he is going to shoot for and that will give him extra motivation to quit smoking. Today marks the 3rd day that he hasn't smoked. He has been smoking since he was 14 years old, he is now 47, it is pretty impressive that he has cold turkeyed it after all those years.

If all goes well, Danica will be baptized on the 16th and Aaron on the 23rd. 

I am really loving the mission. I am a bit tired right now because we got Adam, who is 17 in one of the wards, to invite a bunch of his high school basketball buddies to come and play ball with us today. I have been so excited that I had a hard time falling asleep last night. Adam's dad is one of the coaches at the Bowness High School, and he told him to get a few of the Varsity ball players to play. I can't wait it's going to be so much fun. 

Well I love you guys and hope that you are all doing well!

Love, Elder Allred