Finally got to the library. The weather was crazy this past week so we didn't get to the library on Monday. Not much has changed since saturday -- our baptism is on saturday with Nora and Gabriela! We're pretty excited! We will have the first baptisms of the year.

This week has been pretty busy so far. We've tried to bump up the amount of books we're handing out and lessons we're teaching. We're up to about 15 lessons per week so we're pretty pumped! I need a haircut really bad, I guess that's somewhat new. Umm, not much else is going on. I kinda told you guys everything last Saturday! The snow that hit was pretty crazy though. We got piled in with about 2 ft. of snow so we couldn't drive anywhere all Sunday or Monday, of course it would hit us AFTER Christmas. It was still a good time though, we enjoyed ourselves. On Monday we washed our clothes and watched Toy Story 3 in Spanish for P-Day... 3 times.

When we came back to get our car out of the snow (which we parked in a nearby Pentecostal parking lot) we found a piece of cardboard under the wiper that said "NO PARKING next time you will be TOWED" Meh... We're good to go! haha.

I threw in some pictures to look at. Los amo mucho y quiero lo mejor para todos!

Also, if you get some time, I'd like a new spanish book. Maybe http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Spanish-Practice-UItimate-Reference/dp/0071744185/ref=dp_ob_title_bk or something of the like. I'm starting to just memorize all the answers in the books I have and I'm not thinking anymore. Whatever you can find though would be great.

-Elder Conner Allred

12-20-10

Hi family!

So this week has been pretty good! Sailor is so cute haha. Oh man, I'm sad I'll miss her kitten years :( Great idea with the cat nip haha. Tayci can dance!??! When did this happen? When I left she could barely walk! My mind is about to explode! It's crazy how fast they're all growing. Whenever I want to make people feel bad (for example, last year this time a lady told me that I was bothering her during the christmas season because I was calling from the MTC. She told me I basically had no heart.) I tell them I have a niece I've never met. haha.

The Arguetas are great! We'll probably call from their house around 1 or so. Maybe later, to be honest I'm not 100% sure. But I'd think 1:00 would be good. They speak pretty good english so you can talk to them if you want as well.

I still have one tie left to open on Christmas!! haha. But that's about it. :( I'm doing better than elder phillips though, he has nothing left to open. This week we had a pretty good day of tracting, so hopefully some good comes out of it :S We'll see. We had a christmas party on Saturday which was great. But I'm trying to take the caffiene out of my diet again and so my head was swimming the whole time.

At church yesterday we had an awesome time! Gabriela and Nora of course came and all the seats were taken, so Gabriela sat alone -- ten minutes later Vanessa Recinos (one of the young women) left her family and sat next to Gabby! HOW AWESOME!!!!!! It was really sweet! The family is really getting involved in the ward, so we're happy.

We went over for an appointment the other day and Nora has 2 sons that are here in the states, Jose (12) just got kicked out of his house by his step-mom so he came to church and he gets along with us really well, he's a cool kid! So we're starting to teach him, too! Nora was asking us if there was anything we can do like if we knew any lawyers or anything. I was really caught off guard, I'm 20 years old! I don't know about that stuff! Anyway, when Jose got kicked out, Sister Argueta was of course, awesome, and left at 12:00am to go pick him up from Providence and take him to his mom. She is so great, I wish everyone was like her.

Anyway, I don't have much more time left, I love you and I'll be writing a special Christmas letter for you. I'm praying for each of you and may the Lord bless you this season!

Madre,

I got the package! Thank you! And yes, I left some things to be opened on Christmas day.

So far the girls from El Rey haven't come to church. We are hoping to get together with them this week, also Dinora's uncle may be interested as well so that would be great! I hate when people work on Sundays, because you can't really say much to that. It's one thing to get a sorry excuse like "I was sooooo tired." But it's another to have someone say "I work from 7 - 3" because that's a pretty good excuse for most people out here. But, we'll keep praying and tell her to tell her boss she needs the day off!

Nora and Gabriela are doing great! We had an awesome family home evening with the Argueta family in our ward. I don't know why the other elders in this area didn't use that family because they are SO missionary minded! They are amazing!!! Herbert and Alba are sealed in the temple and then they have 5 kids, 2 active (their youngest daughters). Alba calls Nora all the time to see how she is diong and takes her to all the activities. She even sits with her during the investigators class!! That's above and beyond the call of duty! Gabriela (i don't know how to say this in english) cayó muy bien (eww, the guy next to me just ripped one) with the young womens and two of them went to her house to pick her up for a firside we hosted last night. So great!

Last night we had our first annual ward fireside and I spoke! The theme was reverence, really stupid haha. But it went well. I was prayerfully preparing my talk a half hour before the fireside ;) and I asked one of the kids that was there early "What do you think of when you think of reverence?" (mind you, he's 7 years old) and he said "Behaving and being quiet." I then asked, "Why are we quiet at church?" and he responded "Because God is watching us." It was such an amazing response I used it in my talk. I read 1Kings 19 ( i believe) where it talks about God's eyes being open upon His house... This child in 5 words said a profound statement, words of a prophet, in a way everyone can understand. It was really neat!

We got a new baptismal date this week! Her name is Anyela and she is Dominican. We have taught her mom a little bit, but her mom literally told us "I don't like to think" so we kind of dropped her. But Anyela is awesome! She has sincere questions, and really reads! She picks apart the scriptures. She's a really driven girl, she's a senior in Highschool and she is just great. We're really excited for her. I told her "Anyela when you pray, be specific; if you want to know if we're just lying to you or not, ask!" So in her prayer she said "Padre, por favor dime si lo que estan diciendome son un monton de mentiras o no." Which means "Please tell me if what they are saying is a mountain of lies or not." I smiled to myself, it was such a good prayer. So she has a date of Enero 15, she just needs to read the Book of Mormon and talk to her parents! Her mom thinks we're great so I don't think it will be much of a problem.

We had our Christmas party this week which went really well, it was a lot of fun. We got the whole mission together and spent about 5 hours together. We played Christmas songs with Kazoos and we had a small Christmas special which I sang in. Elders Phillips, McLellan, Hansen, Larsen, Me and some others, sang The First Noel. It sounded great.

For Christmas, since it's on a Saturday, we will be able to call you from our cell phones. Elder Phillips and I will probably be at the Argueta home all day as they have invited us to come over and pasarla with them.

This week has gone well, I have had my ups, my downs, but I feel like we're doing a lot of good here. We have had some good successes. I would be lying to tell you I'm the perfect missionary. That I am anal about everything. But I'm happy to tell you that I feel like I notice where I need help, Yes, I need to stay off the couch in the morning! But at least I know I need help and I ask the Lord to help me. I love the atonement. I hope that each day, I can grow my testimony and share it with all that are willing to hear. I love you!!

p.s. Don't worry about Pete. He's happier now!

-Elder Conner Allred

December 6, 2010

Family!:
My shirt sizes are 14 1/2 32-33 Tailored fit please!!

This week went well! Nora and Gabriella have a baptismal date set for January 1st, 2011! We're pretty excited for them. The ward has been somewhat helping them, but not as much as we would have hoped. We had a lesson with them on the Tuesday following their first time at church. Apparently Gabriela recieved the up&down look from one of the other girls in the young womens and Nora didn't feel very loved. Hopefully they really did enjoy church this week, I felt like it went a lot better -- it also helped that we were able to sit with them during sacrament meeting.

Poor pooty :( I'd rather him be put down than suffer though. If you're waiting for me to get home and prolonging his suffering, I'd rather just remember him as the active gomer cat than come home and see him suffer and die :(

Lets see so what happened this week. Well, Elder Goncalves is now in Pawtucket, my grand-father (as far as mission genealogia goes) and this is his last transfer. He's an amazing teacher, kind of a weird guy, but he'll be great to learn from. We have changed the car share, so now We share the car with Pawtucket only which is nice so we don't have to make useless trips down to Providence and waste a gazillion miles!

This week we taught a less active member, the daughter of the secretary of la sociedad de socorro, he name is Lina. They're Colombian and have been here about 8 years. Lina is 19 and was baptized in Colo. But, has since fallen away from the Iron rod. She has a non-member boyfriend, and works at Dunkin' Donuts. We had a good lesson with her and she really reminded me of myself when I was home. Just didn't really worry at all. The warning bells haven't really gone off in her head yet. She says "I'll come back at some point, it's just not my thing right now." I didn't know eternal salvation was a trend, but we'll see what we can do to bring it back in style.

So about 3 weeks ago, Elder Phillips and I decided to go on a Gospel Spanish music hunt and entered a store called "El Rey." The girl that worked there asked us where we're from because we didn't look mexican, and we explained to her how the mission works and why we're here. So we have been stopping in here and there to say hello. The other day her friend was there as well, she has recieved the missionary lessons in Guatemala! The both of them have started to take the lessons! Really cool! We just need to get them to come to church. But we had a good lesson about prayer yesterday at the Laundromat haha. It was very much like running into Daisy in Hartford! Miracles happen!

Anyway, not much else has been going on this week. I hit my year mark on Thursday!!!! WOW! I'm pretty happy that I've made it! It's not easy, I feel like I have been carried the whole time. This week has been tough. Just hoping I have done the best I can. I love this place, I hope the Lord is happy. I just hope He knows that I'm doing my best, even when I'm not really "doing my best" I'm still just trying to keep fighting.

I love you, Merry Christmas!!

-Elder Conner Allred