Conference Is Legit!

Monday April 7, 2014

Hola Familia otra vez!

This week was really a great fun week. Conference like always was amazing! I especially loved Elder Ballards talk on MISSIONARY WORK! I think it was the only one that was focused completely on missionary work. He invited every member of the church to invite, at least quarterly, for someone to be taught by the full time missionaries. I really enjoyed his talk about Inviting and then following up. Following up is a huge deal in the mission. It is the gospel principle of "Return and Report".

Dad taught us that principle well as I can remember. He would always give us a job and then make us return and report our completed work. This principle holds us accountable to our commitments, others commitments, and ultimately holds us accountable to our heavenly father. I am excited to hear your inspiriation that comes from studying PMG so I can apply it as well. 

YES I thought of Jed during Monsons talk! That is so funny, my next question was if jed was watching!  Monson did seem a bit more full of energy and power this time. That was good to see. The same wasnt true for elder packer. But we know now that he has seen the Savior as joseph smith had. We were watching that session in spanish and one of our member roberto garcia that i have talked about before, he put his hand to his mouth and looked around at our three investigators and other members that were there! It was kind of like someone got swatted big time as they were going up for a dunk! I loved it. The three investigators we had there were mairely carlos and morena. Mairely wants to be baptised but she lives with carlos who doesnt want to commit to marriage or baptism right now. Morena is having a hard time right now as well. She feels alone, her kids are all married and gone and her husband is in jail for selling drugs. She came to a session on saturday as well so she must have really enjoyed it. 

Oh and Jabari Parkers Father got quoted by the prophet!!! That was pretty neat. On that note I hear that it is Uconn and Kentucky in the final. It is funny becuase one home that we pass often has replaced their oregon ducks flag outside with a kentucky flag. Go with the winning team right! Why not! We need to show to people that we are on the Lords winning team, we always win with him. 

Elder Garcia wanted to send a package to a missionary in Bolivia and so we went to the post office last pday. We were in line and in walked a little latino family. Their little girl kept running around but we were finally able to talk to the father. His name is Moises and he lived in utah for 3 years before his 4 years in Oregon. He accepted to hear our message! 

Tomorrow we are going to eat with the Rigby family, they have been assigned to serve in the spanish branch because hno. y hna rigby served spanish speaking missions. Their daughters are in spanish emersion as well. They said that they have invited some friends to come and we are going to do a family home evening and it is going to be their friends first exposure to missionaries. PRESSURE IS ON! I love it when members do this though! The Rigby's show the best example in the branch of how to do missionary work.

President Young is from Salt Lake and owned a bunch of McDonalds. He owns the one in park city still. He told us to fit in 4 hours of tracting this conference weekend. We did it but only found 1 hispanic home! It reminded me again of that animated video about simon peter knocking doors and getting rejected time and time again. Usually we can get someone to at least hear our door approach but yesterday we just had some angry people! It honestly made me happy though, this one man opened the door looked at us with disgust made the little "ehh!" grossed out sound and then slammed the door. If they just knew what they were missing out on! 

THE CHURCH IS TRUE! So many great messages from from conference! Love you all, till next week. 

-Elder Allen

 

General Conference Weekend!

 April 1, 2014
Hola Familia!

Estoy bien contento de estar aqui en el campo! I love missionary work! This week we taught Natalie the 10 commandments for a FHE and then we played bingo for the activity. We had a great discussion and the family is really progressing. However, Natalie's mother had a health problem and has to have a lump removed from her leg this week and so their family did not make it to church. This family is great though! She is always making us tons of peruan food and sending us home with more... She makes a ton of Pionono which is like a caramel role, and then she always makes us causa de pollo. Her food is delicious!  

This last pday we had a zone tour of Autzen stadium, since I have been here forever (6 months in the field now!) This was my third tour of the stadium. This was the best time by far though because we ran the stairs and played an actual game on the field. Yesterday we had interviews with president young and a bunch of role plays to do. They moved our pday to today because of it. Last Wednesday we also did a service project for president Bogardus. As I was digging through his pile of branches that we were chipping, I found a little Gardner snake. I thought about how I would always put snakes on Gregg when we would be fishing and decided I would put this one on Elder Johnson. Elder Johnson flipped out and snake sailed through the air and landed in the chipper! I tried to save it but it was done... After that experience we actually had a conversation about how we have the power to crush Satan's head. I say lets just put him completely through the chipper! I don't want to just tame the natural man I want to kill it! That way there is no desire whatsoever to sin. Later I also found a frog in the pile. Don't worry,  I didn't chip the frog : ) That night as we were doing visits with members we almost got hit by a drunk driver! I was bracing for impact but then she just barely missed... The lord really does protect us and it is evident that he does with dads crash this week. Is the truck done for? I am glad you are okay and that the job still got done too! 

This week we found 2 other less actives that are not on the member list! One of them is 21 and his mother wants to learn about the church now as well. She explained that she is the lost sheep and that her 5 brothers are in Guatemala serving in leadership positions in the church! We are going to teach her tonight! 

I love to talk to people about my family! every one of you Mom, Dad, Amber, Gregg, Spencer, Rachel, James, Luke, and Hyrum! You are the best. I love tell people about my family. That is probably the strongest part of my testimony, the fact that the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses and protects families. 

We got dropped by our long time investigator Ofelia. I was really bummed because she knows it is all true and good but her husband doesn't want a part of it at all. I hope that someday his heart can be softened and accept it with their whole family. 

During the interview with president he asked me to complete the sentence "I loved my mission because........" I would like to hear your responses Amber, Mom, and Dad! Why did you love your mission?  I answered that it is because it is making me more Christ like. I have been able to work full time on developing the attributes of Christ. He also basically told me that I would be transferred at the beginning of the next transfer. I love my mission president and his wife a ton. They are just great people and know how to get things done in life. 

All three companionships in our district also have someone on date to be baptized! As I was on exchanges with elder french from Idaho falls, we had a miracle lesson with Guillermo who also wants to be baptized now! 

take lots of conference notes and pay attention to the Doctrine first, then the invite, then the promised blessings. As we Identify these three things and then apply them, there is a 100 % guarantee that we will see the blessings. These are men called of God. 

I will probably watch half of the sessions in Spanish and half in English. 

Thanks for the prayers and the fasting in our behalf as missionaries and lets keep moving forward and cherish every moment. Thanks for all your support and love and I hope you have a great week! 

Love Elder Allen