February 6, 2018

This week was a pretty interesting week. Last Tuesday we had to do an emergency clean out on our old apartment, I had thought that the Hagan's, the housing inspectors, would call a few days before they were going to help us move all of our furniture to the new place. They ended up calling us the day before we were supposed to be all moved out and Elder Whicker and I hadn't done hardly any cleaning on the place. We happened to be on exchanges that night with the zl's, we had an appointment fall through so we decided that we better go clean. I didn't think that it would take that long to clean because for the most part it was pretty good. But as we were going through the closets and the cupboards I very quickly realized how much missionary junk had piled up. We threw probably half of our apartment away. There was so many cloths stuffed in closets that were not ever being used. We were living on the 6th floor and what was pretty cool was that there was a garbage shoot that we sent everything down. The shoot was working out well until we threw a bag that was a little too big in and it got stuck. I found a baseball bat in one of the closets and went from floor to floor getting it to slide down. After that we sent things down a little at a time but it worked out great. To make a long story short we ended up getting all of the garbage out of the place that night and then the next morning we woke up early and cleaned. The Hagan's showed up at 9 and we were all moved out and the place was looking good by 12.

Our new apartment is located in Redcliffe, which is a suburb just outside of Medicine hat, it will be nice living there because that is where most of our ward lives anyway. I forgot to take a picture for you guys especially mom, I think she will really like it haha. But we actually live on top of a pizza place and there is a bakery just a couple of doors down. The only way that I can even describe the place to you is that it looks like one of those old brick buildings that are on the main street in Roosevelt. I think it was built in the early 1900's. They have done a lot of remodeling on the place and it looks pretty awesome. Super clean and no indescribable smells. 

We had another zone conference on Thursday, it was pretty great I really enjoyed it. It had to have been the longest zone conference I have had. It went for 7 and a half hours, I wished that I had brought my pillow to sit on.. Our conference took place in Lethbridge, we had to leave our apartment by 6:30 in the morning to get there on time. While we were there our dinner cancelled in Medicine Hat so for our dinner time we decided to go and see the Benders. They had always told me to stop by if I was in the area. They were super excited to see me, we had ice cream and then sister Bender figured out that we hadn't had dinner from one of my comps. I told her that we were good that we didn't need anything but she made us some dinner anyways. She was like a grandma to me and still is. While I was talking to them I found out that the Carltons who I had been teaching had gotten baptized and that also Finola was going to finally get married to Lee, and then she was also going to get baptized around the 12 of February. It sure was great to hear about the people that I had grown to love and to see them progress in the gospel. 

On Friday we met with Shannon and Kyra they are both doing well, we taught them more about prayer and scripture study, and also obedience. The lesson went very well. We will be meeting with them again this Wednesday. They had slacked off a bit on their prayers and reading the scriptures but we re-committed them to doing them again. We are going to try meeting with them twice a week now and I think that it will help. 

On Sunday I had Brother Stubbs pick me up so that I could go to one of the wards that I am covering. He was on call and had to look at x-rays and stuff. It was really weird to go to church without a missionary companion. 

On Monday we had to drive out to Brooks for District meeting, we ended up splitting up with the zone leaders. Elder Grider came with me we had a good time. It has been crazy but fun being in a trio as you can probably tell from this email. We are going to try and get a ball night going with one of the YSA members. He said that as soon as I get it okayed that he could get his whole basketball team there who are all non-members, I think that this will be a good finding activity and I am hoping that President will give us the go.

Well this is just a bit of what has happened this week. I hope and pray that you all continue to do well. I sure do love you guys. Have a great week!! 

Love, Elder Allred 

January 30, 2018

This week was pretty great but also pretty sad. Elder Whicker finished up his mission on Sunday and flew home on Monday. I am really going to miss him, he was for sure one of my favorite comps. So it's kind of a weird situation. Elder Whicker had to go home about 4 weeks before the transfer ended, I originally thought that I would be getting a new companion but I didn't. I'm wondering if maybe there weren't any other three legs in the mission but I don't know. But anyway, since he left I am staying with another couple of Elders in Medicine Hat for the rest of the transfer. We have been super busy covering the two wards in my area as well as their ward. 

Elder Whicker and I did a lot of cleaning in our old apartment to get it ready for us to move out and he also spent a bit of time packing up all of his stuff, it was pretty funny he couldn't have had another pound in any of his bags they were so full with all the stuff he had collected. We also had another lesson with Shannon and Kyra it went really well. We taught them the third discussion, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Kyra is so fun to teach. We are going have to talk to them about baptism a little more and when you know that you are ready.

We also got to see Dave and Marriet again, they are doing well. We had an appointment with them Friday night with the Feciurs from the Bow Island Ward. I feel that it was pretty good to get them introduced to them. We are really hoping that they will come to church one of these Sundays. Elder Whicker and I also did some more service for them on Saturday, we helped them make some chicken feeders out of PVC pipe it was pretty fun. While we were there we got to meet Marriet's brother and sister in-law from Quebec. They both loved talking to us and I could tell that they really liked us. Marriet's brother was talking to us while his wife was taking their little kid down to nap. He said that she is going to have a lot of questions about us after we leave. I hope that will continue to spark their interest and they will start learning more about the Gospel. 

Well that was just a few highlights of the week. I hope that you continue to do well in all that you do, I sure do love you guys, keep up the good work! 

Love, Elder Allred 

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A member got us some Hutterite eggs and I swear 75% off all the eggs are all double yolkers!

Elder Whicker getting on the shuttle to Calgary 

                 ( I will be staying with Elder Harrara and Wiwchar for a few weeks)

January 23, 2018

Hey Fam, 

This week was pretty good, nothing too exciting happened. But it was nice to see Shannon and her granddaughter come to church again this week. Usually Shannon had only been staying for Sacrament Meeting because of her back problem, but since she has had custody over Kyra she has been staying for the whole time which I would have to say is a miracle. Kyra has been having a good time in Young Womens and has been accepted quite well. 

On Wednesday and Thursday we were out in Bow Island contacting some of the people the Bishop had asked us to visit. Things are pretty slow out there. The town has been tracked numerous times and most of the people that live there are all Mennonite and not really open at all. But we have had some great times serving the members and spending time with Dave and Marriet. On Thursday night we got to sing at the Lodge where all the elderly people stay and that was fun singing hymns with them. You could really see there faces brighten up and their moods change as we were singing about Christ. 

On Friday we got to help at the Food bank as usual, it's always fun to go help out there. We did a bit of weekly planning and then Elder Whicker had to do "My Plan" on the computer. It's a new program that missionaries are supposed to do to help them adjust back to the normal life. Elder Whicker is getting pretty excited to go home. We still don't know what is going to happen to me, there are two possible solutions. I could three leg it with the elders that we are living with right now or I could get a companion that would be emergency transferred that is on a three leg already. And then on Saturday we made some stop bys and cleaned out our old apartment. 

Well sorry this is kinda short, I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Love, Elder Allred 

January 16, 2018

Hey fam! 

Sorry that this is coming a little later then the usual, but here are a few highlights from this week.

This week was pretty great we got to teach Kyra and Shannon again, they are both doing well and are getting more and more excited to get baptized. Shannon is finally done with all the court papers that she had to do to get custody over her granddaughter, Kyra, so they have been super happy about that. We taught Kyra the Plan of Salvation and she really liked it and seemed to understand what we taught her. 

We also got to do some more service for Dave and Marriet. We helped them cut and split wood. At least this time it was a lot warmer. After we helped them with their wood they invited us for dinner, they always cook the best food. They have been investigators for quite a while now. We always try to have some kind of a gospel discussion with them while we eat. During the meal we talked about Elder Whicker going home in a couple of weeks, they were pretty sad about that but they did tell me that after he was gone they hoped that I would still come over with the new guy, I told them I definitely would. 

Something else that was pretty awesome was that we were invited by a member named Tammy to meet one of her son's friends who he had invited to come to mutual. She was still in with the young women when we got to the church. The young men had just gotten out and were starting to play some basketball. A couple of the Lehr kids wanted Elder Whicker and I to play with them and so we did. There were probably 10-12 of them all playing with us, I happened to get a fast break and I dunked it in my proselyting clothes, it was pretty funny to see all the guys' reactions. One of the kids that was on my team in the next possession threw me an ally-oop it was so sweet. After playing with them for a couple of minutes the young women got out and we were able to meet her. She is pretty sweet and we will hopefully be able to teach her in the near future.

I had the opportunity of watching Thomas S. Monson's Funeral.  It's sad to know that such a great man has passed away, I know that he was truly a chosen prophet to lead and guide us. We also got to hear from our new prophet, President Nelson this morning. He is such a great man, I know that he too has been chosen for us in this day to lead and guide us. I love what he said during his message to the world.

“Whatever your concerns, whatever your challenges, there’s a place for you in this, the Lord’s Church.”

I know that as we go to church and learn more about our Savior and the role that he plays in our lives that we can overcome our concerns and challenges.

Keep up the great work, love ya guys, have a great week! 

Sorry that it's a bit short but I hope that you all have a great week, I sure do love you guys! 

Love, Elder Allred

Herd of Antelope

Antelope

Cutting Wood with Dave and Marriet

While we were out in
Brooks, we had to pull some hair out of a drain in the
Sister's Apartment.

Deer

 

January 9, 2018

Hey Fam!

This week has been pretty great it hasn't been so cold. It had to have just been a cold snap that went through because pretty much this whole week it has been above freezing during the day. 

So the highlight of the week was the lesson we had with Kyra and Shannon talking about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. It went very well and Kyra already has a great desire of being baptized. Something that I thought was amazing was that Shannon was already reading the Book of Mormon with Kyra for betime stories and they were a little way through first Nephi. 

We are hoping that Shannon and Kyra will get baptized in the near future. The only problem is, before I got here Shannon says that when she prayed about a baptismal date she got her answer of being baptized in May on Kyra's birthday. She thinks that she had that as her answer because shortly after getting it she got custody over her granddaughter and she figured that they would be getting baptized together on Kyra's birthday. The only problem that I see is that Shannon is already ready for baptism and Kyra is going to be ready in the next few weeks, so in all reality they could get baptized a whole lot earlier. I think that it would be neat, and also neat for them to be baptized on Kyra's birthday but why would you want to postpone the wonderful blessings of baptism and the Holy Ghost?

Something that was pretty cool was that on Saturday we didn't have a dinner and so a member in the ward gave us a $50 gift card and a separate $50 bill for the Beef Eater. We thanked him and headed to the restaurant. We walked in and didn't realize just how fancy this place was. We ended up getting the top 2 most pricey things on the menu which was a steak with crab legs, and a steak with shrimp and then split the shrimp and crab. It came with a side of stuffed potato and french fries and all you could eat soup and salad. It was soo good maybe a little over priced though. Our meal was going to cost us a little over $100. But the thing was, that somewhere in the restaurant a pipe broke and there was water running out of the bathrooms and the kitchen it was crazy. We were one of two tables that the owner of the restaurant came up to and said your food is on me. We said oh no you don't have to do that and he said no its on me this was not as enjoyable as it should have been for you. So we got over $100 worth of food for free and ended up tipping the waitress $15 off of the gift card and then returning the money and gift card back to the member it was pretty awesome! 

We have also been moved out of our apartment temporarily due to members of the apartment smoking in it. Apparently there is not  anything in the contract that tells them that they can't smoke and so for our safety they have moved us out for the time being until we get a new one at the end of the month so we are going to be staying with another set of elders until we move into our new one. And then we will have to move everything out of our old apartment into our new one. 

Well I'm running low on time, but I sure do love you all and I hope that you have a great week!

Love, Elder Allred 

January 1, 2018

Hey Fam! Happy New Years! 2018

This week was great it has been super cold and our car is barely starting in the morning but other then that things have been good. I still feel like it should be 2016. Braden Hartle just emailed me and told me that he is in Canada, about 5 hours away! Sure is crazy to have someone I know visit Canada when back home I thought that nobody visited it. 

So some exciting news, we got our letter back that we sent into the police about our parking ticket that we had received for parking in the loading zone of our apartment complex. I forgot to take a picture of it so I could show you so I will have to next week. But apparently our complaint was good enough because it has been canceled, so that saved us a good 25 bucks. 

On Thursday we were at an older couple's home visiting them. The husband isn't a member. I have no idea why because he comes to church pretty much every week and has been through the discussions a few times. He is a great guy but maybe just needs some time. While we were over visiting them right before we were going to leave they got a phone call from their daughter in California. They had it on speaker phone so we heard the whole conversation. Their daughter said that she had some strange pains in her chest and was having a hard time breathing, she said that the doctors thought that it was a blood clot in the lungs and she said that she could possibly die at any time, and they were headed to the hospital that was about 3 hours away. It was pretty sad listening to the conversation. After the call ended they were a bit shooken up and we asked them if we could pray with them. Elder Whicker was asked to say it. It ended up being pretty good and the spirit was definitely felt. The next day we called them and asked them how she was doing and they said actually she is doing great! When they got to the hospital they went in met the doctor and surprisingly enough the doctor had the same thing a couple of years ago and he knew exactly what to do to help. As soon as he gave her a bit of medication she was 100 percent back to normal. It sure is interesting just how powerful a simple prayer can be. 

We also got to help Dave and Mariet Chop up and split some wood. It was fun being able to run the chainsaw. We had a pretty good system. Dave would bring over some logs I would chop them up with the chainsaw and Elder Whicker was splitting. After bringing some of the wood in and stacking the rest of it outside, we went in and Mariet had fixed us dinner. They always make a ton of food and it is so good. After dinner we talked a little bit about their religious background and talked a little about our church and even invited them to come to church. Elder Whicker and I don't know why they won't come but they are pretty great people. They have a nephew that is out serving a mission in England close to where Dave came from. Dave said that he is going to have it hard in that part of England. It has been neat though hearing them talk about their nephew and what he has been doing on his mission. 

Elder Whicker's Art

We also got to visit Sharon and Kyra, they are doing well they do have to go to court one more time to get everything finalized with Sharon taking custody of Kyra. We offered to give Sharon a blessing and she said, "Sure I could never turn one of those down."
So we ended up explaining to Kyra what a blessing was and what we would do and all that good stuff. Sharon and Kyra both ended up getting blessings it was pretty cool. We have planned to see them again Tuesday night and share the first discussion with them. We are pretty excited for that. 

Well that is just a few cool highlights of this week. I hope that you are all doing well I sure do love you guys and hope that you have a great week! 

Love, Elder Allred 

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