April 3, 2018

Hey fam! 

On Thursday I hit 21 months! 

On Friday we met with Dave and Marietta and showed them the Easter initiative and told them about General Conference. They said that they had watched it last year so I hope they watch it this year too! 

We also had a great time with the Lauries in the ward, we had dinner and then had an opportunity of showing them the Easter initiative. We then asked them who they felt, whether it was a friend or even a family member, could benefit from seeing this. Sister Laurie felt inspired to send it to her sister, which was super awesome. We also committed her to bear her testimony on the Savior as well in the message. At first she thought that it was a really good idea but then she started thinking of her sister's husband and how it might not be a good idea. I think just like sister Laurie, we can have those doubts but I know that as we act on the promptings that we first receive only good will come. 

On Saturday and Sunday we pretty much watched General Conference all day. I really loved this conference it was pretty exciting hearing of all the new changes in the church, and how it is better preparing us for the second coming of the Lord. President Nelson is a pretty neat prophet of the Lord, I loved hearing from him as well as all the other apostles and general authorities of the church. Every time I hear from them I feel better motivated to continually strive to do good. What a blessing it is to hear the word of the Lord from his servants.

On Monday we had District Meeting in Brooks, after that we helped move a guy. Later that day we met with Keith, a potential investigator who we tracked into. Before we went in to see him we said a prayer and asked that he would be humbled enough that we might be able to get in and share a message with him. We went up to the door, we had to knock a couple times but he came and answered the door and he said, "Sorry guys, today just isn't a good time." We talked to him for a bit and he just kept saying, "Yeah maybe we could meet up another time." He said, "Did we have a meeting scheduled today?" and we said, "No we didn't, we were just in the area and thought we would stop by and see how you were doing." He said, "Oh okay well come back another time as he was closing the door, and then he said actually why don't you guys come in, why not." I know that there's power behind prayer, all we need to do is have a little faith and then act. The story continues we got in he had just woken up from a nap and had to make his coffee, we got to talk to him and share the Easter initiative and testify of our Savior. It was a neat experience and the spirit was very strong, it was awesome. I also got a call from the mission office. I got my trunky call so that was super weird. 

Well I am loving the mission and all the little spiritual experiences it really has been great and will continue to be great! Well I sure do love you guys keep up all the good work! 

Love, Elder Allred

March 27, 2018

Hey Fam!

On Wednesday we had an appointment with Sharel, one of our potential investigators, who we tracked in to. She happened to be busy when we stopped by which was too bad. We are hoping to pick her up and start teaching her the discussions. We also met up with Shannon and Kyra for their baptismal interview. Elder Grider and Elder Wolfe did the interviews. They both passed which was great! They sure are neat, I sure have grown to love them.

On Thursday Sister Lehr had us help clean one of her non member's houses which was really fun. She came to a relief society event and was going to come to church but ended up not being able to make it. I am sure that she will next time. We also had a great dinner appointment with the Broadheads. They really are a neat couple. They love missionaries and they love doing missionary work, they had a couple of their non member friends come to dinner. They don't speak much English so Sister Broached, who is from Mexico, does the translating for us. The 2 ladies that they had over are from Mexico, they come up here every year to work for the Huber's on their farm.

Later that night we had a crazy experience. We were headed to the church to set up a couple of videos and pick a couple of songs for Kyra and Shannon's baptism. There was a stop light that we had to make a left hand turn to go past a high school to then get to the church. As we were headed to this stop light the light turned green and I told Elder Kretschmann, "Oh we got this." By the time we got up to the light it was yellow but I was determined to make it. I thought that I was good but the second car waiting at the light didn't think so. The lights came on. At that point I knew I was done. We were almost to the church when we had to pull over. The cop came up to the window and said, "Do you know what you did? And I said, yes I do I was cutting it close and I'm sorry I should have stopped." He said that when the light turned red I was at the cross walk just entering the intersection.. idk what I was thinking haha.  He then asked are you heading to the church? And when he said that I thought oh I hope he's a member. I told him that yes we were we were just headed there to get some things set up for a baptism that we were going to have on Saturday. And he said okay and took my drivers license and the registration back to his car. When he came back he said do you have any idea how much running a red light could cost? I said no I don't. He said in Utah how much is it? I said yeah I don't know. He said well up here it could easily cost 3-400 dollars. He then said I'm gonna let you off easy on this one. I said thank you so much, after that we talked a bit and found out he was a non-member but he had a few member friends. Man I tell ya there is nothing more stressful then getting pulled over by a cop.. 

On Friday we had service at the food bank which is always fun we had, for a couple hours district finding, which is where we as a district go out and try to find together. We had a fun time. One of the ladies that we talked to was spraying for bugs that were coming out from under her porch we asked her if we could help and she said no of course, but we were able to talk to her. We told her about how we were out here on missions for 2 years and how we were both getting pretty close to going home. We then started to talk about the book of Mormon and asked her if she would want one. She said no I'm good and just before she closed the door she opened it again and said ya know i think I will take a copy. It was a great experience, I hope that she will read it and feel of the comfort that it brings. You never know what will happen all you can really do is hope and pray. 

Saturday was Shannon and Kyra's baptism! There was a pretty good turn out, her mom, step dad, and sister came. It was a very spiritual experience one I will never forget. Shannon had to be dunked going frontwards because of her back which ended up working great. The water was a little higher than usual. Bishop baptized Shannon and I had the opportunity of baptizing Kyra.

On Sunday Kyra and Shannon were confirmed members of the church. Brother Stubbs confirmed Shannon and Elder Kretchmann got to confirm Kyra. Later that night we had dinner with the Lehrs and Williams family. Sister Lehr had Evonne, the lady we helped clean house for, came to dinner as well. We were able to share a little bit about Joseph Smith, the book of Mormon, and also how we can receive answers to our questions. It's pretty awesome when there are members that are excited and love doing missionary work. 

Monday we cut cucumbers and had our district meeting. We had a lesson with the Broadheads where we taught their non-member friends why we don't baptize infants. It was pretty great I really enjoyed it. Brother and sister Broadhead are so missionary minded. 

Well this is just some of what has happened this week. I hope you continue to do well. I sure do love you guys! 

Love, Elder Allred 

We have been collecting plants for our apartment.

Shannon and Kyra

March 20, 2018

Cookies the Sisters Made

Chocolate Loonies and Toonies!

Norm's Famous Cream Sodas

The baptismal font. It got backed up with sewer the other day good thing they got it cleaned up for Shannon and Kyra's baptism on Saturday. 

The Sidewalk We Cleared

On Wednesday we got up, I was super tired and so was Elder Kretschmann. But we got up and got ready for the day. It was Shauna Parker's birthday today and she wanted us to make her some cookies because the Elders last year had made her some. So we got Sister Fonda and Sister Miners to make us some cookies because of our lack of confidence in baking. We picked up the cookies from them in the morning and dropped them off at Shauna's later that night. When the sisters gave us the cookies they also gave us a card to write on, which was pretty cool because we were able to write her a nice note. We also got to meet her non-member boy friend he was a nice guy. Norm who actually isn't a member that we spend a bit of time with is going in for eye puncturing treatment on Thursday and he wanted a blessing, while we were over there he made us his famous cream sodas. We also helped him prune his Apple tree in the back. Other than that we had dinner with the lady who owns our place, she was pretty cool as well but other then that we just made a bunch of contacts. 

On Thursday we had to call for board updates, after that we had weekly planning. One of the great things that we got to plan for was Shannon and Kyra's baptism! We had dinner with Brother Stubbs that night and planned for it. After dinner we had a lesson with Shannon and Kyra on family history with Brother Halladay, who is the family history consultant. Shannon really enjoyed it and they are both excited to find names for when they go to the temple on the 14th of April. That night we asked them who they wanted to baptize them. Shannon is going to have the bishop baptize her and have Brother Stubbs do the confirmation. Kyra has asked me to baptize her and then have Elder Kretschmann do the confirmation for her. We are getting really excited for them, it's been neat to see them progress. 

We had zone conference on Friday and it took place in Taber so we had to drive 124 kilometers which was about and hour and a half to zone conference. It started at 9am and got done at 4pm. I really liked it, it's just rough having to sit there for soo long. But after that we drove home and had dinner. We then made some stop bys and tracked. That night we went on exchanges. I stayed in my area and Elder Wolfe came with me. 

Saturday was a pretty eventful day. We stopped by Pearl and Norm's house again, it had snowed and it was really warm so the snow was pretty wet and heavy. We shoveled their driveway and then went in and talked to them. Norm made us his famous cream sodas again. Pearl made us her fa famous onion soup. After that we had a very good and spiritual lesson with them. After visiting them we borrowed their snow shovels and helped their neighbor out with her sidewalk.

 After that we did some district finding and found 3 potentials who we have return appointments with that will actually be on Wednesday so that will be fun. We helped a guy move, we had a lesson with Shannon and Kyra, got some A1 pizza for dinner and then went to the father and son activity which was a nerf gun war. 

Sunday was pretty normal, we had church, our dinner appointment got changed to a lunch appointment. We had enchiladas! They were soo good I miss eating mexican food.. it is so scarce up here. After that we had our studies and had another lesson with Shannon and Kyra. We then did some stop bys. 

We did a lot of driving on Monday. At 9 we went and chopped cucumbers for the schools around town. After that we headed home and got changed and headed to Brooks for district meeting. By the time we got home it was 4. we did a little study, went to dinner, and then got into one of our potential investigator's house. His name is Jerry. He is an old guy that used to be a captain of a ship. He has diabetes and has only one leg but he is a cool guy. We talked a little about the Book of Mormon with him. We got his number and he said to call him back and we'll set something up. 

Well this is some of the highlights from this week. I hope that you all are doing well, keep up the good work! 

Love, Elder Allred 

March 13, 2018

Hey Fam!

This week was pretty great! Lots of fun things happened this week. 

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Shauna Parker, we did some contacting though our area book and tracked into Marcel, he was busy at the time so we set up an appointment for Thursday. We also had another lesson with Kyra and Shannon. We taught them the restoration of Christ's gospel. They are really doing well. 

On Thursday we officially got our smart phones!! They have been so nice to have. LDS tools is such a blessing as well as the maps on the phone as well. It makes missionary work so much easier. After we got our phones we had an appointment with Daniel, who we stopped by a few days ago, she is potential investigator. She said that we could stop by anytime during the afternoon while her kids were at school. We were both pretty pumped to see her. We also tracked into a guy on Wednesday, to our surprise he was excited for us to come back and teach him. To make a long story short they both ended up being busy and we were unable to meet with them. I am hoping that we will be able to meet soon that would be super sweet.

On Friday we did some service at the food bank and then came back and studied. After our studies we decided to go and contact people. The day started out really warm and then it just got super windy and cold. It was pretty funny because all the snow that had melted was freezing and it was sooo slippery outside, it was nuts. While walking around there was a guy that was walking back to his car who said, "hail satan" and then said, "just kidding." He then said as he was getting back in his car that he used to be Mormon. We didn't get to talk to him very long because he had to go. A few min later he drove by again. And yelled to us walk to the A 1 pizza place and I will get you a couple slices on me. We were pretty surprised but we headed over there and by the time we got there he was already gone for another pizza delivery so we got a couple pieces and ate them while we waited for him to come back. We had a nice visit with him and found out that he was a member but he said that he was no longer. He was a pretty sweet guy we are going to stop by to see him this week. He lives with his mom but he wasn't on the records.

On Saturday we headed out to Bow Island, we had a lesson fall through but we did get to do some service for Dave and Mariette. We helped them clean up a few bushes around their house. After we did that we had dinner with them. After dinner we taught them the plan of salvation. I think that it was accepted well, I just wish that they would come to church, we have been trying almost everything. I asked them if they would be able to make it for 9:30 and they said well that's right in the middle of us feeding our chickens. I told them that we would come extra early and help them feed them and then we could go to church. Dave sat there for a bit and said, "Ya know I think im gonna pass I don't really want to get up that early."  I guess  that all we can really do sometimes is invite. I have learned to make my success in the invitation and not to focus on what the outcome might be. 

On Sunday we had church, then had lunch with a member, drove home and had dinner with the Hubers. After that we had a lesson with Shannon and Kyra. In this lesson we taught them the Plan of Salvation. It was really nice to have the Plan of Salvation chips for a visual, Kyra and Shannon really liked them. They even took pictures of it on their phones. They had fun putting it all together and then teaching us what each step meant it was pretty cool. As we were leaving Shannon told us that the 24th is a solid date so it should be good as long as they can stop drinking coffee they're good!  

On Monday we chopped up some cucumbers did more stop bys and more contacting. We had dinner with the Sloans they are a pretty sweet family. We borrowed some tennis racquets from them so we could play some tennis today it should be super fun. It's still a little cold and there's still snow on the ground so we are going to do something with the volleyball net and make it work. 

Well this is a little run down of my week I sure do love you all keep working hard! I can't wait to see you all again! 

Love, Elder Allred

March 6, 2018

Hey fam!

This week has been one of the greatest weeks. To start off I finally got a new companion so I am no longer three leggin it with some other missionaries. My new companion is Elder Kretschmann, he is from Germany. Something that's pretty cool about him is that he is the 3rd or 4th oldest I can't remember but he has 9 siblings! And whats even crazier is that each one of them knows a different instrument. Its pretty funny thinking about it, the only thing that they are missing is a drummer but other then that they have it all haha. 

We have been meeting with Shannon a lot lately. We had one more commandment to teach Kyra and then they were both going to be good for Baptism. We prayed in our companion study for a date that we could maybe present to her and we came up with the date of March 24. Her original date was May 24. We went over to her house on Friday for dinner and so that she could meet the new elder. After dinner we had a lesson teaching them the last commandment. After teaching them we told them that was all of the lessons that we teach before baptism. We basically told them that we prayed about it and said that we felt that they could be more then ready for March 24 for baptism. Shannon to our surprise said sure that works for me, I just don't know if Kyra will be ready. Shannon really wants Kyra to know what she is promising before she jumps into anything. We told her that we will meet 2-3 times a week if we have to and we will review with Kyra the lessons. Shannon said okay sure that will be great we will shoot for that! So for the next couple of weeks we are going to review the lessons with Kyra. Shannon also has to stop her coffee and stop smoking her electric cigarette, but I believe that they will be ready for the 24th. We've also gotten a ton of referrals from members so that is going to be fun contacting them all. 

This week we also had stake conference which was pretty sweet. There was a member from the area 70 that was there as well as President and Sister Miles. The conference was great, definitely one of the best ones that I have been to. Shannon and Kyra came and had the opportunity of meeting both President and Sister Miles as well as the area 70. 

Well I hope that you are all doing well I sure do love you guys! Keep workin hard!

Love, Elder Allred 

February 27, 2018

Zone

Hey Fam! 

This week is transfers so I will be getting a companion. For most of this Transfer I have been a loner. I've been going to my wards with a member for most of this month and it's been weird not having a missionary companion, so it will be great to get a new one. I always thought that a three leg would be super weird and awkward but it was actually really fun, we had a blast. 

Right now I am with Elder Grider because his companion went up to Calgary today. He will be flying home tomorrow.  Kyra and Shannon  are still doing well and progressing. They should be getting baptized in the next couple of weeks so that will be super cool. We had a pretty great district meeting with Shannon yesterday. I was really hoping that we would be able to teach Shannon's mom, maybe we will this week though.  

Well I'm sorry for the shortness of this letter. Keep up all the good work, I sure do love you guys

Love, Elder Allred 

February 20, 2018

Hey Fam!

This week has been really great we have been super busy covering 3 wards, it's been a little hectic but overall it's been great. We have really been trying to meet with our investigators as often as we can and I think that it has really helped them progress and to keep what we are teaching them on their mind. Well here are just a few things that we did this week. 

We taught a few of the other Elder's investigators too this week. Guy, he's pretty funny and a great guy. Frank, who is probably the most solid right now for them, and Tori. 

Kyra and Shannon are still doing great, we only have a couple more things to teach them out of the commandments so Kyra has almost been taught everything. During our lesson on Wednesday night we were talking about baptism and confirmation. At the end of the lesson I asked them if they were getting excited to be baptized, Kyra of course was super excited and really can't wait to be baptized. Shannon said that she was getting more and more excited as well as time went on. I told them that's really neat and whats really cool is that right after you are baptized the next day after being interviewed you can go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. Shannon has a family genealogy book already put together which is super cool. We are going to get her introduced to family history in the next lesson. At the end of the lesson She said, "Ya know I have been thinking and I think that we may have to move the date to get baptized a little earlier." She is wanting to be able to go to the ward temple trip that's on April 14th. 

We met with Dave and Marriet they are doing alright. We introduced them to our bishop which was pretty good. He and his wife are going to stop by some time and visit with them. I think that if they can get some friends in the ward it will be really great. This time we were helping them burn some piles that they had. We cooked hot dogs and we taught them how to make smores it was pretty fun. 

I also got a call from the mission office telling me that my schedule for when I get home changed. Instead of getting home on July 4th I will be getting home on June 27th. I guess I will be making it for Travis' Birthday after all! 

Sorry it's kinda short it's getting hard to focus on writing emails. But I do hope you all are doing great I sure do love you guys!! 

Love, Elder Allred