October 17, 2016

This week has been great, we finally got Sondra on date and we are thinking that a couple more of our investigators will get on date soon. We might have to drop Josh though because he just gets crazier and crazier, it is kind of discouraging but we will just have to find some more and get some better ones to teach. Well hope that you are having a nice time. I sent you guys a letter for the first time, idk when you will get it. I found out that a member in the ward is going to Salt Lake and so I just bought about $40 of chocolate to send down with them! One of them is imported from Belgium, I haven't tried that one yet, but I bet it is good. I got some for you guys and some for grandma Jonna. I don't know how you will divy it up though.  I am thinking that Grandma could pick it up for you and somehow get it to you guys. Her name is Sister Lamay, her number is 403-813-2445. She will be in Salt lake Saturday sometime. Well thank you so much for the pictures and everything. I really would like that voice recording of Arika asking if you are picking me up though. It would be so funny.  
Arika looks like she has changed a ton!

October 10, 2016

We were at Drumheller, a little city that has the 5th largest dinosaur museum in the world. Get exercising it makes you feel better during the day. I know because I am trying to do 100 push ups in the morning and night as well as 1,500 jump ropes at night and morning. and then just little stuff in between like squats and curls and core stuff. Its better to get jacked then to get fat is what I have decided, and it will be either one or the other because of how much I am eating during the day. It kinda stinks but It will be awesome. I weigh 195 now, that means I have gained 19 pounds since I last saw you. It is hard for me to believe but kinda cool also. Have fun picking apples and have a good week I miss you and the rest of the family, I love you guys. 

Love, Elder Allred 

October 2, 2016

Allred Family,

My name is Cory Nelson, I am the ward mission leader for the Strathmore Ward where your son is currently serving.  I have had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with Elder Allred over the last few months and I have been very grateful for his spirit and desire to serve.  I have 4 sons of my own and love to have the missionaries in our home.  Your son has set a great example for my boys.  We are working hard to put a few pounds on him but he is working hard to keep it off.  I am grateful for all that you have done to prepare him to serve here.  He is a great young man and is working hard and changing lives here in Strathmore.

Have a wonderful day

Cory

Update: Sondra is awesome, I can tell she loves us. She really wants to get baptized now but she has promised her grandson that he could do it so when she visits the states which is going to be soon I am hoping that she gets it done. She is going down because that grandson is getting married. The crazy guy is doing great, he is starting to read the Book of Mormon.

September 26, 2016

My week has been pretty great! I finished the Book of Mormon again just a couple of days ago, that I started in the MTC, which was awesome. I learn something new every time, it is so weird. I had something in my eye and finally went to the eye doctor and he looked in it and asked me if I had been allergic to anything, and I said "no," but he found that I was. I was really amazed. All that he can figure is that it was from some mold or something in a grimy house. I really hate grimy houses. We went on splits for the first time in a while. So far I have gone on 2 splits. I got to go with Elder Wilgar, who is from Utah, he is one of our zone leaders. He is pretty cool but I found that their area isn't doing very well compared to ours. They have 3 people that they are teaching and we have 14. It is pretty crazy because we are only 30 minutes away from each other. Some more news is that we got a new missionary couple. They are from Farmington, Utah which is awesome. He is from California and served his mission in Iceland. His wife is from Washington and served her mission in France or something like that. They are spoiling the heck out of me and Elder Davis. They brought us some Chipolte from the states. They were going to bring Cafe Rio but they said that there was a tornado in Utah and it didn't have power. That is crazy, I think that it has to be another sign of the coming. Sorry it is short but I gotta get to p-day. Love you guys have a good week!

Love, Elder Allred

September 12, 2016

Not a whole lot to say this week, other then we picked up two new investigators. Eric's wife and then this one dude that is kinda crazy who believes in Arianism. I think that he will get baptized in the near future. When we were teaching him the first lesson I got the opportunity to recite the first vision for the first time! It was pretty crazy just how powerful and how much it brings the spirit. I know that he felt it, at least for a split second. We also got in with 11 less actives this week, that might be the highest that has ever been done in my area. We were so busy this past week and I believe that we will even be busier this week. I have reached a record high of 190 pounds, so I have gained 15 pounds since I left home. This scared the crap out of me because I didn't think that I looked much different. We get served meat every time for dinner so we are getting a ton of protein, and I have also been eating an egg every morning, sometimes two to get even more. Some missionary left a whole big thing of creatine, so I have also been taking that when I work out and I have been getting pretty solid. It also got down to 5 degrees Celsius yesterday and we should be getting snow everyone says. I haven't made it out to the Heterite Village yet, but they do set up stands out in the street every once and a while so I bought a big bag of potatoes and some whole wheat bread that they had made. They are pretty interesting but they have really good healthy food for cheaper than what is in the stores which is nice. Well hope that you all have a nice week. love you all!
Love, Elder Allred

Confederation Park Zone

September 5, 2016 Labor Day (Labour Day in Canada too!)

The chocolate, Derick wants me to send, has been on a little delay because I have been a little short on money because we went to Costco with a member and I got a ton of food and found a coat that is really nice and warm for $100. When I went to pay for it with the home flow it wouldn't except it just because it was Costco and I was using someone else's card to get in. So I had to pay cash and now I am practically broke for this month but I will try and get them to you guys. The one investigator, that is named Eric, that we met once and who has a wife who is Catholic, and is a professional softball player in the states, we are meeting with tonight. They are going to make us dinner and then we are going to get asked probably a ton of questions about our church which is going to be so awesome, I am so pumped for that. It is so fun to just get asked a question that you know that you can answer, it is one of the best feelings in the whole world. Hopefully she will come around and feel of the truthfulness of our church. He is interested in coming back and getting his Patriarchal Blessing and he really wants to be sealed to his wife. I have gone through all of the lessons with investigators, I am still taking my vitamins, and it is getting a little cooler, around 7-10 degrees celsius, mostly cloudy and really nice weather. So far I have noticed all of the same animals that we have back in Utah. The only thing that is different is that there are black squirrels. I have heard that they are very aggressive and mean. 

There was a pretty cool experience that I had this past last week. Last Monday we got back from p-day in Calgary and had our dinner with the bishop of the Strathmore Ward, and got back to our apartment at a little before 8, but I just felt pumped to go out and talk to people, which was really weird cause I never feel like that. So I told Elder Davis and he was down so we went out and started walking around and talked to everyone that we saw. The first person was a lady just outside our apartment and she had seen missionaries a ton and we talked with her for a bit and ended up giving her a Restoration Pamphlet with our number on it and she said that she would read it and hopefully sometime down the road she will call us and we can pick her up as an investigator. We them started walking down the road and came up to these two girls that were Catholic and we talked to them for a bit and one of them was a little interested in learning about our religion but didn't want us to teach her. So we gave her a pamphlet as well. We then kept walking and ran into a 26ish year old woman and her dad that loved researching about Big Foot. We talked with them for quite a while and ended up giving both of them Books of Mormon. The dad was from Western Canada and the daughter was from here in Strathmore but she attends a church that is right by our apartment. So we made a deal with her, if we went to her church that she would go to ours, and she said that she would so I will have to let you know how that goes. She was a really neat person she even offered to take us to Bamf. 

The next day was Tuesday, and since we got to meet so many people the day before we decided to do it again. And this time we ran into a Black guy that was in a hurry but we gave him a pamphlet. The next person that we met was Joy Yellowfly who was from the Siksika Reserve. She was just leaving the hospital that is right next to our apartment, picking up her son that had some problems, and she saw us and turned into a parking lot and got out of her car. I had never met her before so I didn't really know who she was until she said her name. She said how she had wanted to get a hold of us and meet with us so we decided that the next day which was Wednesday that we would meet with her. She is a less active that is down in the branch. 

The next day was Wednesday and we got to meet with her. She told us how she hadn't felt accepted in the ward and had been doubting that the church was where she needed to be. We shared a scripture with her in Alma 32, I believe that is talking about the seed and how it grows. On the next page in the next chapter I felt that I needed to share with her as well so I did and it was talking about how your prayers will get answered wherever you are. She was very thankful that we were able to make it to her house and share a message. She told us that the day before she saw us that she had been praying and then when she saw us Tuesday she said that it was like her prayers had been answered. I am so glad that Elder Davis and I followed what we were feeling and went out even though we could have just stayed in. It really shows that when you push the extra mile even when it is on you p-day and you don't have to go out and you still do, just how blessed you will be because of it.  

I am in Helaman now in my scripture reading and I got to Helaman chapter 5. It would have to be one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. I came across verses 6 and 7. It was talking about how Helaman had given his two boys the names of Lehi and Nephi. He gave them these names to help them remember who they were and to remember their ancestor's works, that were so good. And that you should do that which is good so that it can be said of you. When I read this I thought of all of the times that Dad and Grandpa Allred told me, Trevor you're an Allred, and you need to do all that you can to keep the name high, and to return with honor. I am striving to do that because I don't want to degrade the name not even a little bit. 

Well that is what is happening here in Strathmore, this week sped up a little from what it was last week but I think that it will for sure speed up a lot faster for this next week. One investigator that you can pray for is Sondra she is the one that reminds me of Grandma Angus she had her son die, I think by suicide because he had some depression. Well hope all is well and I love you all. 

Love, Elder Allred 

Yes please send me a video of Arika asking if we are going to pick Trevor up, I want to hear that before she forgets about me which could be soon. I think that Is so cute that she still does miss me. I really miss her and all of you guys. I hope that I get to go to bamf soon because it is starting to cool off. Thanks for emailing me have a great week! all of you - Elder Allred, Love you all tons as well!!

August 29, 2016

Homemade Bread!

Something that I thought was cool was that I saw a plane earlier on when I was here in Canada and it was a huge remote controlled plane that would shoot a mist or cloud out of the wings across the field. I didn't know what it was until I looked in the paper and found that it was how they fertilized their fields here. Its was pretty cool because he would be flying right by the cars and power lines and pull up the last second. This week was slow teaching investigators because of school starting up. Next week will be a whole lot better. This week contained mostly a ton of service. It was still fun. Things are starting to cool off here. The coldest it has gotten during the day is 10 degrees Celsius. I wish it would stay this temp. the whole time, it is perfect. Well I hope everything is still going good. Have a good week! Love Elder Allred. 

I have been reading in the Book of Mormon lately you know and right now I am in Alma 50. When I started reading the Book of Mormon I decided that I was going to mark every time that it says faith in there. You would really be surprised at how many times it is mentioned, because I know that I was. I have also started in the back of my triple combination, studying different topics like faith and the atonement, marriage, and so many more that is going to and already has helped me. I have gotten so much smarter in the scriptures it's blowing my mind. I had no idea just how simple and not complicated at all that they were. I hate reading out of the Bible, I mean that there are some good stories and lessons in there its just that they are so much more confusing. Especially the Old Testament. I really like what you said that the Savior helps us get through difficult times, I know that to be true as well. I can feel him helping me all the time, all that I have to do is turn to him and try to become more like him. I told Kiara that I weigh 185.2 pounds now but I am hoping that it is just muscle because I am working out hard every morning and night but especially at night. The temperature is staying around 10- 15ish degrees celsius and I still haven't gotten a coat so I am going to have to find time to do that. I have gotten a letter from Jath and 3 just barely and also one from the Bennets, it sure is exciting when you get something like that. You will have to tell them thanks for me. Well hope everything is going well keep working hard, and thanks for everything. Love you all- Elder Allred.  

Thanks for that. I miss being able to ride horses. I wish that I could do that out here in Canada. There are quite a few horses and cows out here. But mostly just fields and fields of grain and canola. There are several Hutterite people here where I am at and Elder Davis and I plan on trying to go to their colony and buy some of their fresh food. They are a strange breed haha. I see them at Walmart everytime that I go shopping, they look like a bunch of pioneers. Mom would love to see them I just know that she would. It is a little awkward when a ton of pioneer people are driving a new truck to Walmart, it just doesn't seem right. I get the opportunity this week to go to the temple as well as costco with some of our members who we did service with. I might be going to Bamf too pretty soon which would totally be cool because all that there is here are rolling hills like you said, no mountains. I miss seeing the mountains. Well hope your having a good time at work and everything. Love you guys too.-Elder Allred.

That is so cool that you got to take a nonmember to church. How did that go? It is always so exciting when we get one of our nonmembers to church. 

Love, Your Baller, Elder Allred