12-5-11

Hey Madre:

As far as the flight home I will be home at 4:18 as I think you know and if you guys want to go out to eat, that's fine with me! I'm not too picky. Have you spoken to the Stake President about when and where I will be released? I guess afterwords we'll just go to the house and I'll cruise around for a bit haha. I don't really know what else to do haha. We can sit around and read the scriptures or something hahaha. Or go to the movies, I'd like to see Puss 'n Boots, I've heard it's great. But, I don't know if I'll be able to sit still for that long; maybe we'll save that for Saturday.

I finished my home-coming talk already! I think you'll like it. Also, some of my favorite cake would be great when I get home -- with the hershy's on top. I have missed that stuff for a while now.

I'm excited to see your new Jeep! It sounds really nice. What's up with all these people getting engaged? Weird! It's crazy to see how many people have gotten engaged as I've been out. We'll see what happens. I feel like a prophet because of the Alexa business hahaha. I called that one!

This week was so stressful, as are most baptismal days but I'm going to start the letter on a different note first.

Last night we visited the Sanchez family and the Cruz family and Lopez family in derby as an early farewell to them. They are a few of the families that I worked with in Bridgeport, so it was really fun to see them again and get to visit a little and eat some great Mexican food! It was amazing!

The English speaking elders had a great week as well, they baptized their investigator, Kristin Zaichkin. She bore a great testimony about the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of it and the overall service was a great success. The Spirit was very strong and surrounded us abundantly. She is one of the more prepared investigators and I'm excited for her to grow in the church and continue learning.

I should have just brought my journal to the library, because I've been kicking butt at keeping my journal. I haven't missed a day in the last 8 weeks! It's been really cool. Anyway, I interviewed Henry Okokpu for baptism yesterday and he is so humble and just spiritually sensitive. Whenever I asked him a question he would first think, and then give his answer, it was so great to see how seriously he takes these things and really expects himself to do them. I believe that he will be able to do a lot of good in his own life and in the lives of others. He's 18 right now, so I'm hoping that he is planning on serving a mission, because he is a very bright man and he will be a worthy priesthood holder.

So, the baptism. Last week we asked our ward council to do two things -- get a pianist, and get someone to represent the Relief Society. During church they announced the baptism.

Alicia and Roger asked Elder Standage and me to baptize them and so that was very exciting for us. The night of the interview we saw that Roger (8), his sister Karla (7), and their friend Oscar (6) wanted to sing "I am a child of God" at the baptism. Elder Standage knows how to play piano (even though he says he doesn't) so he got on the piano and I took charge of leading the children. It was awful, but so cute that we had to do it haha. We Had the kids sing that for the opening hymn, I love having the kids sing because no matter how good or bad they are, the spirit is always there. Elder Standage and I arrived at the church at about 1:00 to start filling the font and after it got about a stair high we found that the plug had some issues and was draining! So I had to strip down and get into the font to fix the drain, luckily it wasn't too big of a deal so we continued filling and we got it filled right on time. It was actually REALLY hot, too. But hey, that's better than cold!

The baptism was set for 4:00 and at 4 we had Alicia there, Roger, and a family friend, Carmen. Very disappointing. at 4:10 our ward mission leader showed up with the programs and copied them off and then shortly after the second counselor showed up. In all we had about 10 people there; no one from the Relief Society nor a pianist showed up. So Elder Standage played the piano and I conducted the music. What's important is that Alicia felt the spirit very strongly. She loved it and Roger, after emerging from the water exclaimed "I want to do that again!" to which I replied "you can tomorrow when you take the sacrament!" He's such a funny kid, he's so sharp.

After the baptism we had our finishing hymns etc. and then Carmen and a few of the others brought refreshments so we enjoyed some Arroz con Leche and some Mexican bread. It was great, but we were so busy that we never got pictures of us all in our white clothes!!! Grr! That was really a bummer.

Yesterday we showed up to church and apparently the bishop had forgotten about the baptism and we were told that "it seems like a lot of people just forgot." I let the 2nd counselor know (and I hope this wasn't out of line) that "I [was] very disappointed in the ward council because we couldn't even get the two things we asked for. It was very poorly played out and I don't want to see that again." After that fiasco, Alicia and Roger were then confirmed (we switched spots, so I confirmed Roger) and Alicia again felt the spirit very strongly. It was so great to see them there and receive those saving ordinances.

Ashly on the other hand unfortunately did not show up to church. We are hoping that she will be able to meet with President Evans today though and speak with him. That's a story I'll save for when I get home.

Anyway, I love you very much. I have started again in the Book of Mormon, The gathering of Israel is the theme this time around I guess. It's funny how each time you read it, it's a different theme (at least for me.) I've learned a lot about the scattering of the tribes of Israel and the reason behind that. I always thought of it as this kind of "oh no! They were wicked and Babylon destroyed them so they got scattered!" but in reality it's part of the plan of God that we might know in these days that the gospel has been restored, and more importantly (in some respects) that the second coming is near.

Have a wonderful week!
-Elder Conner Allred

11-28-11

Hey Madre!
So the whole "coming home" business hasn't really set in, and I don't think it ever will to be honest haha. It's interesting because I feel like I can talk about this or that all I want but I feel like coming home will never really happen, I'll just sit around in the apartment on transfer call night, not get a call, and I'll just stay here for at least another 6 weeks -- it's difficult to imagine anything else. At the same time, these whole two years are just blended into one big mess, 2010 and 2011 didn't really happen in my life haha.

Thanksgiving was great! We went to the Chandri's home (a puerto rican family from the singles branch) so the four of us had a nice turkey dinner! The food was amazing and we had a really great time, I really appreciate the Chandri family for having us over. Something bad happened, they have converted me -- I want a Greyhound really bad. Sarah Chandri, their daughter of 23 is a foster mom for Greyhounds because after 2 years the racers retire them and kill them, so she takes them in, fixes the behavioral problems (if any) fattens them up a little and finds homes for them. Their new one is named Oscar, a purebread greyhound and he is absolutely RIPPED! They are such cool looking dogs. The only issues he has is that he's really timid around people but he's such a good dog, he just sits next to you and relaxes and is really calm, it was neat.

After the turkey we went to Alicia's house and taught her and Roger about tithing, law of chastity, fasting, and the 10 commandments. Roger is hilarious, Elder Urrutia taught me the sign language for all of them so I do that with the kids (and everyone else, who am I kidding?) and we got to adultery and I asked "So Roger, do you know what adultery is?" And he said "Yeah of course, it means don't be rude to adults" hahaha. It was awesome. I didn't really know how to explain it softly so Alicia popped in and said "When you're married, you don't marry anyone else." So that was really easy! Alicia is great, we're really excited for her. She's one of those people that was just destined to get baptized (I guess that's everyone that gets baptized, but you know what I mean).

Friday we went to the temple and it was a great experience. I learned a lot this time around, things I'm excited to get home and talk to you about. We just did one session and then had lunch in the cafeteria <-spanish? I'd write more, but I can't! haha.

Ashly is doing well, except that she had to sleep in the park the other day with her daughter because her mom kicked her out for getting in a fight with her brother. What a mess... Ashly also got some new kittens! Of which I have sent you pictures. I look really fat in the picture, It's gross. Edit that before that goes online hahaha. We set Ashly's date back to the 10th to give her a little more time, what a great way to finish my last weekend though.

Will I stand up and damn everyone, make everyone feel uncomfortable? definitely not. But the only way people will find salvation in the Lord is through the Book of Mormon and this church. If everyone that has paid for my mission wants me to pay them back, I will happily do so; but I plan on bearing my testimony that this church is true, Joseph Smith is a prophet, and the Book of Mormon is the work of God. In reality, he that hath an ear let him hear.

I'll be finishing the Book of Mormon in Spanish today, I have 3 more pages!
I love you!
-Elder Conner Allred

11-21-11

Madre,

Well this week has been pretty grand! Ashly came to church again and she brought her sister, Julianna (14), with her. She is progressing well but you can tell that Satan has it out for her. It's really hard for her because he's turning her own family against her, but we have seen that happen before. I talked to their whole family about Utah last week and now they all want to visit Utah because it sounds so cool haha.

Alicia Campos and her son Roger came to church this week too, Alicia is doing really well, I'm pretty sure that I haven't told you much about her. Alicia is from the Philippines and she married a Mexican guy here in CT. She speaks spanish pretty well and english also, but we teach her in spanish. Her son Roger is 8 years old. Her husband isn't super excited about the church, but he was able to listen in as we taught Roger the plan of salvation last week and his primary teacher told us that he was going on and on about it during class, so that was pretty cool. Alicia cooks food with her husband on the weekends at this place by the Yale hockey rink where tons of different people from all over set up little carts and sell food from their countries. It's usually 5-6 dollars and it's CHEAP! It's SO good. We go there every friday after district meeting and Alicia hooks me up haha. She's awesome.

This week we're headed to the temple and so we're preparing for that. I'm pretty excited to go and I look forward to making sure that I'm ready to serve diligently and worthily in the temple. (Hopefully I don't drive myself crazy like always). I guess we're going for a Christmas thing ( a little early, eh?) so I'm pretty excited.

These last few weeks have been a good time for reflection on my mission and also a time to do better than I have done in some areas and strive to do as I am and have done in others. It's strange to think that in only a few weeks I'll just be a normal Joe again. I'm excited to put into practice the skills that I have learned out here into my daily life and to share the gospel at home, school, work, etc. but it will be interesting to not have that mantle of a missionary. I'm nervous to see the difference that it will bring into my life but I guess it has to come at some point -- just didn't think it'd come so fast.

I'm not sure what else to tell ya this week! We'll talk in 7 days from now.

I'm going to put together my resume to send to apple, apparently if I get a job there, verizon gives an employee discount ($25 per/mo. Unlimited everything). So lets pray for that! haha.

Love you,
Elder Conner Allred

11-14-11

Madre,

Ashly came to church this week! Along with her mom, Maria, and her sisters Genesis(11), and Jaylyn(7). It was so great to have them there and it was so satisfying to finally have them come. We went over on Saturday and let them know that if they have another "emergency" to not worry about it and just go to church! Sunday rolled around and as church started we still didn't see them. We texted them and Ashly said she was going to be a little late (better late than never.) We decided to wait outside until they got there, they showed up at about 10:20 (Church started at about 9:40.) It was such an amazing thing to see not just Ashly and her Mom get out of the car, but Genesis and Jaylyn as well. It was so cool! So we walked in and got a row of seats and sat through the rest of sacrament meeting which was absolutely fantastic. The talks were on the scriptures and how to use them as a "guide" to life. After sacrament we took Ashly to the gospel principles class and elder Standage stayed with her and then I went with Maria to the Spanish class. We also took Genesis and Jaylyn to primary and Maria seemed to love that they would be taken care of during church. The class that I was in was on the last chapters of Hebrews. Maria even started to take notes as she listened, and the teacher, Sister Ruso, was very loving and kind to her.

After Relief Society we took Ashly and Maria down to get Genesis and Jaylyn and the primary president was so happy that they had come and really made them feel welcome. She told Maria "I need to ask you a favor, we really need them to be here for the primary program next week." it was so great! As we were walking towards the door Jaylyn looked up at her mom and says "Mom, I like this church." and it was just a sweet moment, it was silent for a moment and then we continued walking. It was so neat to see that connection. Children really know when they feel the spirit, it was so great. I was having a rough week, it was discouraging to see all the work we were putting into these families and not seeing much result. I felt like we were failing, but to see them come to church lifted my spirits and made me so inexplicably happy. The members were so kind to them. During sacrament meeting, Ashly's 1 yr old Jirelis was getting into someone elses crayon box and I could see Ashly was so stressed out! She couldn't reach her because she was over by me (about 4 chairs down) and I could see her kind of motioning as if to say "Get her!" I just kept watching and then the member in front of us reached into the box and handed her a crayon and something to draw on. It was so neat to see that instant love and care that people have in church. It doesn't matter who's kid it is, what's going on etc. We're all there with a single purpose and we are a single family worshiping together and working towards a similar goal.

Gotta love the not so "deep" doctrine haha. I bet it's in the same dimension, since dimensions don't really make sense anyway hahaha.

There was something else I was going to ask you, but I don't remember. Must've not been that important haha.

Well, not much else to report, I love you very much!
Elder Conner Allred

11-7-11

Hey madre, Well those are some cool pictures! I know it's weird to think about my homecoming, think how I feel! The time literally has flown by, and as the end is near and I am starting to have to face it, I'm now trying to continue to be diligent so that when I get home I continue to be a diligent member-missionary. I hope to be the member that I ask people to be for me. But, I've got 6 weeks until then! Going to make it a good transfer. Did Bishop have a certain topic that he would like me to address? To answer your question about my spanish prof. I just hopped online and asked her if I need to take aplacement test or what I need to do. I e-mailed her in spanish and she said that i'd be fine to enter her class, so I'm excited to do so! Well this week, Ashly and her Mom, Maria didn't make it to church, they had an "emergency." It seems that theseemergencies happen on a weekly basis, it's sort of frustrating. But we did have a great lesson with Maria and we're going back this week, so we'll see what happens. We set a baptismal date with Alicia Campos and her son Roger (8). We had a very interesting experience at Alicia's last night. Alicia's daughter's birthday was last night so Alicia invited us to come over and visit, have some cake, etc and so we did and upon arriving it was great. We sat down at the table next to a couple of members that were there and said hello to the people we didn't know. Someone asked us "are you brothers? you have the same name." So we told him no and explained that "elder" is a title given to us as missionaries. We sat down and I began to speak with Carmen (a member) and then another question was "what do you guys believe?" So I said "well, basically we believe that God loves all of us and that he still speaks so he calls prophets just like he did in the old days, to speak to us and tell us His will." This started the explosion. The man said "well I believe that there are many prophets in the world." and I responded that we believe in one prophet and that he was called by God and then I shared with them a parable that I made up, it goes like this. In a far away part of South America there was a class of spanish speakers that wanted to learn english. They had a lot of desire to do so and wanted to speak as perfectly as possible. Their teacher was one of the best, if not the best, and he was patient with each of his students. The teacher one day told the students that he needed to leave for a while, he had business to do in another part of the world. After a few days of having no teacher, the students began to worry -- they wanted to know how they were going to learn english without a teacher! So one student stood up and said "I'll teach the class, the teacher has left his notes here in his desk and I will teach you according to those words that he has left." So he did so, and a lot of people enjoyed his form of teaching, but another student thought that he could teach better, so he took a group that wanted to listen to him and teach English from the teachers notes, this happened with multiple students. One day, many years later, the teacher returned. The teacher looked around his classroom and saw that the class had divided! Each different group was speaking a different language, but none of them spoke English! The teacher then began to gather those that wanted to hear him again. But some of the students were now prideful, believing that they had learned English better than the teacher could teach them. I shared this story and let them know that this is why we are here as missionaries. To let people know that the Master has once again spoken and called a prophet. The spirit was there for about 0.002 seconds and then the beer got to them and we went all the way back to square one. It was a terrible experience. Hopefully it doesn't happen again. Those experiences are never worth looking forward to. Through all this, Alicia defended the church with her testimony, it was beautiful to see. She truly does have a testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ. Not much else to update on for this week. I love you and I'll speak to you next week! -Elder Conner Allred

11-2-11

Madre and Family,

So! Busyish week this week. Well, maybe not really it just felt like it haha. We started off the week really well last week on Tuesday by getting our car towed, so that was pretty darn lame haha. We had to go to the tow-company and get it out, plus pay the $50 ticket from the state. The car had been parked during street sweeping, which is useless out here, so they towed it.

Ashly still hasn't come to church, kind of a bummer but we're doing the best we can to help her come this week. We had a really cool experience with her on monday though. Her mom came in and asked us if we celebrated Halloween, of course we told her no because it's a pagan holiday.... psyche! We let her know that yes we do and all that jazz and then she had more and more questions! We gave her a Book of Mormon and we're going to go teach her tonight with Ashly and one of our younger members is going to come with us! It was a great opportunity to share the gospel with her. It was really funny, Ashly texted us the other day and said "my mom wants you guys to text her, too. Here's her number..." haha it was really neat.

We got transfer calls and it looks like I'm going to die here in New Haven! 6 more weeks! Halloween, if you didn't guess, was really boring. We were asked to be inside by 6 and so after 6pm we basically sat inside and read and did a whole bunch o' nothin! haha. It wasn't the best, but oh well.

Don't know what else to talk about right now, my mind is going a million miles a min. because I'm looking up spanish stuff and trying to figure out my school schedule. I have already talked to my spanish teacher, Senora Rubio and she seems like a really nice lady.

Look at this cool cake a lady made in our ward for us.

Oh, and we had a 5k race. Elders Kump and Standage ran in it.

Will talk to you next monday!!

Love you,

Elder Conner Allred

10-24-11

Dear Madre,

That's really rough about the elders. We're trying to not do that here because it can be frustrating to have missionaries that aren't kind or, what's the word... I don't remember. I guess subtle would be a good word. What did they ask Brinn to do? Do they even realize that maybe she doesn't have a testimony in the first place? Kind of a good place to start, I'd say. "if ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach." Kinda hard to help your friends understand the gifts of the Atonement if you haven't put them into practice in your own life. I'm glad he's doing his job, but I also wish he were focusing on the core issue as well. Teach her like she were his little sister.

Don't worry, I haven't bulked up, it's just fat -- thanks for the complement though hahaha. Speaking of which, (not really) can you edit a picture for me? I'll send it to you, I just need you to remove Elder Horton and I from it.

I got my flight plans this week! Really crazy how fast these last 6 weeks have gone, let alone the last 2 years! I will be landing in Salt Lake at 4:18pm (don't remember the terminal). We leave Boston at 9:50am, go to Phoenix (6 hour flight!) and have an hour layover, but we stay on the plane, then fly to Salt Lake.

Ashley is doing very well and her tumor, she found out, is benign! It's still a drag though because it's right on her brain stem so it causes a risk of paralysis if it is removed. She still has head-aches but from what she tells us, the medicine is helping to shrink the tumor. If it does begin to grow though she can have parts of it removed but for the most part it will be there for the rest of her life. We went over the Word of Wisdom with her last week and took away her last pack of cigarettes! haha. She was very excited though and she has been keeping the Word of Wisdom for the past week or so. She's so great, she really is putting her confidence in the Lord and doing all that she can to follow the commandments. It's great to see the conversion process, that always helps to strengthen my own testimony and realize where I have been lacking.

This week I have really picked up on my Book of Mormon reading again. I went from Alma 36-Helaman 1 in about a week and I hope to finish the BoM before the end of the transfer (next Thursday). I think I'll be able to do it, it was slowing me down when I would look things up or grammar principles so now I highlight all the things I want to study in yellow, so I can go back and check on the Spanish later. It's a neat experience and it has been so great to go through these chapters again. It's been especially neat to actually enjoy the war chapters -- usually I dread them. But this time around it's been really inspiring to read about Moroni's testimony and his faith which is firm in his beliefs. I absolutely loved reading about all the things he did to "preserve his country and his freedom" and then in chapter 60-ish it says that he handed the army over to his son and went home to rest for the rest of his days. As I read that I imagined what it must have been like for him -- traveling through the wilderness for years on end and fighting constantly, not being able to have a good nights sleep because of the uncertainty of if the the Lamanites were going to find them and attack or not etc. Then finally, after all this, he received what he fought for; peace was established and he could finally go home, sit down, and take a nice long exhale. He probably slept for days. It really is an amazing story.

We met with Bishop Peterson this week and had a great talk about goals etc. and what he wants us to do as missionaries, how we can help him, and what he expect out of the members as well. So we have a few plans that we are going to try and see if we can become a little more of a "missionary-minded" ward. I think it will be a great success since most of our members are in school at Yale and are able to see new people every day and create new relationships. We're a good bunch of missionaries out here, the members, I believe, like us and see that we're not going to scare away their friends. We're going to try to use the ward-missionaries a lot more often and see if we can get them to go out and do visits on their own, if anything they can just go a fellowship. We're also looking into having Preach My Gospel classes during the second hour. We'll pick 4 or so ward missionaries and have them come to these classes where we will teach out of Preach My Gospel for a month and then rotate the group, hopefully giving them the tools they need to understand how to use Preach My Gospel and how to teach from it.

I talked to my Spanish Teacher at the U. Sent her an e-mail and she is really nice! She's from Spain and she seems like a really great lady, so that will be fun.

Well, I think that's about it for this week! I love you and I'm praying for you.

-Elder Conner Allred

10-17-11

I think Conner is on the left??

Madre,
This week has been great and it has also been very successful for us. I don't remember if I talked to you about Ashley yet but we're teaching a girl named Ashley Santana (21) and she is from Puerto Rico. She has really been catching on to the message and it has been a really spiritual experience teaching her. It's been so neat to watch her change in just the two weeks that we have been meeting. So everything was going really well and then last Friday we stopped by and she sent her sister to tell us she was sick. Then we couldn't get a hold of her all weekend. We figured she had ran into some disagreeable information online or something so we got a little worried. Last night we went over to her house at about 8:00 and she was sitting just inside the door taking a break and we could tell she had been crying. We walked in and she was happy to see us, that was a good sign! Turns out that she was in the hospital because she had a really bad headache and they found a tumor in her head. We gave her a pass on the not returning our calls and stuff obviously haha. So we administered a blessing to her and set up an appointment for Tuesday, it was really relieving to see her and see that, for the most part, she is doing alright.

So we had a great run-in with the Jews the other day! They walk around Yale a lot and they were getting people to do a peace blessing thing, I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was pretty funny when they found out that I'm "as Jewish as Moses." I told them that I have Jewish heritage from my Mom's side and they got really excited, they gave me a yarmulke and had me recite a little prayer, it was so embarrassing . I said "no, I really can't we gotta go" but they insisted . So I spoke a little Hebrew which was thanking God for the commandments and then put this fruit next to the stick and shook them. Right after I got a call from Elder Kump and he says "It's so weird, we are driving down the street and I could have sworn that I saw a Mormon Missionary with a yarmulke on his head." haha. It was interesting. Funny story though.

We have a new bishop in the ward, his name is Bishop Peterson, he can't be more than 30 years old -- he's a really good guy and I'm really excited to work with him.

10-11-11

Hey Madre,

I'm going to have to keep this e-mail short unfortunately, we have a lot to do today. But, everything has been great so far! We are teaching a girl named Ashley -- she is Puerto Rican and she has a daughter who is about a year old. Ashley read the Book of Mormon since we last saw her and actually said her first prayer in which she asked for some help. It was great to hear the answer to the prayer that she received.

This week we were fortunate enough to go to Derby and visit the Sanchez family from the Bridgeport ward -- that was a lot of fun to see them again!

The weather here is still quite warm, it's kind of nice to have a long fall -- not something we are fortunate enough to experience in Utah.

I love you very much! The new area is awesome and these last two months will be sweet! I'm sure of it!

-Elder Condork Allred

10-3-11

Famiry,

GC was great! Wasn't it? I loved all the talks, honestly. I felt like every single talk had something of great worth -- I am sure we say that every conference, but I really do look forward to reading the talks again. That's so funny you talk about Bennett, I was sitting there the whole time saying to my companion "I swear I know that guy... who is that? etc." He's my Ortho! haha. That's really neat, good for him.

The new area is a lot of fun, a lot of city and a lot of people, unfortunately not many are willing to listen. We live pretty close to Yale but we work mainly in an area called Fair Have, and it's pretty ghetto -- last night I actually had a prompting to empty my wallet before leaving the apartment, nothing happened but it was still an interesting prompting to receive. We met a woman named Norma from Ecuador, she gave us her phone number and invited us to come by whenever we are in the area. We called the number, and it's fake... great.

The ward demographic is 2-3 hispanics and a bunch of whities. It's a great ward, I just don't feel like we get the support we need though. One of the hispanic ladies who is very strong has actually been asked to go to the english ward in Woodbridge, why, I don't know? I think it's silly honestly -- if they want to build a branch, they should be sucking in all the hispanic members to this one branch, not making them leave. The ward and spanish community could go places, but I feel that most of the members being returned missionaries, look down on us in some way and don't realize that even though they have been there and done that, we are still called of God and even though we are the small and weak, we are the vessels (if we are worthy of it) of the Lord. So hopefully we can make an impression and get the ward excited.

Mike is in the field! I have read a few of his e-mails home and he has already grown so much, it's really neat.

The bike is mine, yes haha. I'm glad it made it -- I only have one wheel because the front wheel that I had has a 27", not a 700c and it was old so i figured i'd replace it when I get home anyway.

Anyway, I love you and will send more next week!
-Elder Conner Allred

p.s. anything else you want to hear in my letters? And I got the letter from Brent.

Cons New Address 9-26-11

Hey Madre, My new address:

Elder Conner Allred
631 Elm St. #2
New Haven, CT 06511

This week was really awesome -- we've been having a really good time! I'm in New Haven, CT (Yale) and it's a really neat place. The campus is full of people that are WAY smarter than God (at least they think so...) so I'm just glad I don't have to teach the "Yalies" haha. It is really nice to be back in Connecticut and New Haven is the ONE spanish area that I did not serve in while I was in the CT, HAR mission so it feels pretty cool to have made the rounds. My companion is Elder Standage from Lehi, UT -- he is one transfer behind me so it's really nice to have two of us out here that speak the language well. He is a really smart Elder and we've been having a lot of fun.

Church yesterday was interesting! It was a great ward council but it's a little intimidating sitting in church / ward council with Yale students and graduates haha it's a really neat experience though.

This week we went to a woman named Mina's home (I think the grammar is shot on that phrase). She was a recipient of some of the Mormon Helping Hands service because her house on the beach was destroyed by Hurricane Irene. She fed us true Italian food and we tried to have a Italian/Spanish conversation, but it didn't work out so well so we stuck to English haha. It was pretty funny, she cooked basically everything with Wine and Coffee and didn't let us know until after we ate it hahaha. But she is a really sweet lady; she actually came to church yesterday, too!

The change for the member's as far as the HQ etc. isn't too great for the members, meaning, it's not that big of a deal. They don't really see much of a difference other than they won't see the mission President much anymore. Speaking of Mission Presidents, have you spoken with President Pehrson?

Well, not much else to report -- we have a few great investigators that we are working with so when I get to know them a little bit better I'll let you know how things go! I love you!!

-Elder Conner Allred

9-19-11

Madre,

The 350Z looks great! I'd have a hard time getting rid of it, too haha.

Not much going on this week except -- I'm getting transferred!! I'm going back to the land of my inheritance (somewhat). I'm headed to New Haven, CT the ONE place I haven't served in CT haha. So I have now officially gone to every spanish area in the Hartford Connecticut Mission. I'm not sure the address etc, but I'll let you know when I get there.

We had a party with the Elders from North Brookfield, their branch, and the ward/sisters from the Oxford area. Unfortunately it was mainly just the NB Branch that showed up, which isn't too surprising since the areas are so far away from each other. The Party did go well though, we had games for the kids and tons of food and some latin music. There were about 4 hispanics there so I got to talk to them, it was a lot of fun haha.

We went to the temple this week and I had some good insights and also left with a few questions, so I'll hopefully be able to find the answers to those.

Not much else going on this week! It's been a blur haha. I love you!
-Elder Conner Allred

9-12-11

Madre,

I hope and pray that I am not a quitter as well! haha. I feel like we're doing a lot of good in the ward and helping our members a lot -- but as far as new converts go, there isn't much going on. What should I do? I know what I need to do but it gets harder and harder each day to want to find, know what I mean? I go outside and immediately think "Can't wait to go out and get yelled at." I know we're doing a lot of good, but unless we have appointments I feel like we're just passing time and not really doing much.

Nick didn't show up to church yesterday to receive the Holy Ghost; apparently he was at his cousin's birthday party. Kind of a bummer. Well, a big bummer really. But we had a really good turn-out as far as less-actives go. A lot of our less-active members are coming to church, getting callings, and we actually have two ladies getting their endowment for the first time this Saturday. We're excited for the ward because it seems to be on the upswing.

This week we helped Brother Flint again. His basement needs cement so we dug some holes for him, about 10x4 feet and 4 inches deep so that they could pour the cement. It's nice to do a little manual labor and watch the progress as you go, it's rewarding. We had our weekly visit with them this week and it went well as usual.

Last week we started a Spanish Sacrament meeting which has been really great for the Spanish Speakers in the ward. I really like what the idea is behind it as well. Brother Gonzalez is spear-heading the operation and he has asked that we have a Spanish Sac. Meeting two times a month to help the Spanish Speakers feel comfortable. It's great because the overall goal here isn't just to split off and make a branch, rather to help them feel more comfortable, be able to give talks etc. but at the same time keep them in the ward and have them feel more a part of the ward. So far it has been great, one of the Brothers that hasn't born his testimony in years got up last week and bore his testimony so that was a great experience not only for him but for his family and us as well.

September 11 came and went quickly! To be honest I didn't even realize it was 9/11/11 until we got into our third hour at church. Our Elder's Quorum President, Brother Goguen spoke about it and helped us realize that the world changed that day, but the beautiful thing is that the Gospel never does. The simple truths that we have do not change -- Faith, Repentance, Baptism...

I love you very much and I miss you!

-Elder Conner Allred

9-6-11

Madre,
Don't worry too much about the money. Of course, no rush! I just didn't know when I called america first if they gave me the balance with that 800 or without.

Nick got baptized this week! So it was a great week for all. Nick's whole family came and supported him which was great because his father isn't very impressed with our beliefs -- maybe this will help him out? The baptism had about 60 people in attendance and it went off without a hitch (I think that's the idiom haha). We got pictures etc and I'll be sending those out in a letter on a DVD again.

Yesterday for P-Day (since the library was closed) we went to the Spencer Fair. It was $10 to get in but was a $10 well spent. They had some "dare-devils" and a demolition derby and even a hypnotist. Despite my warnings, one of the Elders decided that he would go up to be hypnotized -- he didn't last long -- I think he was too nervous about me telling him to not go, which I'm happy about haha. There was one part where the hypnotized had to hug their neighbor and that really was weird for him, I think that knocked him out of it because he was a little nervous and the spirit wasn't helping haha.

We met a very interesting family this week. The MonCrief [sic] family. They have decided that Joseph Smith was a liar and Brigham Young was a racist (I could have told them about the Brigham Young bit). The husband was baptized when he was 18 and the wife was born into the church. The husband wasn't there but we stood outside 'talking' with the wife for about an hour or more. It was going nowhere fast. Apparently they were writing a book about the church and then found on, of all places, the internet all the 'truth' about the church. Elder Horton said it was quite funny because to him her and I are exact opposites. We both came across the same information but took it in different directions. I looked at it and thought "wow, prophets really are just men, there's hope for me!" and she looks at it and thinks "These are prophets!! They should know EVERYTHING!" Anyway, she informed us that their names have been removed which is a bummer. But what most bums me out is the trap of the whole thing. All the anti-mormon doctrine is the same, always has been and always will be. Her husband is now writing a book against the church about how the Book of Mormon was really written. I brought up the Solomon Spaulding theory and even though she didn't confirm my guess, she did give me ample reason to believe that that theory is one of the theories that they believe in; which is ridiculous because if you look into the Spaulding theory, it holds absolutely no water under close scrutiny. Anyway, her sister is coming to live with her (Amy, 16) and wants to keep coming to church -- so we're going to need a lot of help for her. We're nervous to see what happens but hopefully all goes well and we can help her continue on the path.

Oh, and in studying about Judas, I believe it has been stated by the Savior that he is a Son of Perdition. But I'm unsure if it's talking about Judas or Satan.

John 17:12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and ^anone of them is ^blost, but the son of ^cperdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

I love you and miss you

-Elder Conner Allred

8-29-11

Hey Fam,

A job, that's on the top of the list... let me know if you hear of anything.
About the card, that's the same deal as the Best Buy card, I just don't want them to add random crap to my card like HSBC did. My idea is to buy the computer (spend maybe 1400) and spend at least 1000 on the card, then pay off 500 the next day so that I only have to pay 500 and I have a year to do so, thus keeping payments to a minimum. (i'd also like to see what the reviews on the card are though) Whatddya think? Or, I could just buy it outright but then that leaves me a smaller amount for a car. Did that $800 ever get into my acct by the way?

As far as the transition, I feel I'll do ok. I just need to get a job asap and get a calling when I get home. Tell Bishop Hobby to think about something for me if he can :). Heck, have him e-mail me if he feels so inclined.

The storm yesterday was a BOREFEST. There was strong wind from about seven am until noon, and rain on and off throughout the day. We weren't allowed to leave the apartment so we sat inside all day long. I read the church handbooks to pass the time, pretty interesting and cool how the church works. I also watched all the church movies, read parts of Rough Stone Rolling, read a few chapters in the Book of Mormon, wrote a few letters and by the time I finished all that it was about noon... Yes, it was a long day. Church was canceled and because of that Nick was not baptized. Daniel's funeral was still held though and it was a great service. The Bishop pulled Nick off to the side during the funeral and explained what we'll do for the baptism next week so Nick was satisfied. Daniel's service was great and we will all miss him. It is nice to have the 'good news' and know where he is and what he's doing.

I read in Alma 34 this week about this time being a time to prepare. We also had a great discussion with Brother Stokes about this life and afterwords. This life is a time to harness the stupid stuff we do in preparation for exaltation. We talked about how in the telestial and terrestrial kingdoms it will very much be like the movie Groundhog Day. Will you be able to satisfy your addictions etc? Probably! But that will get really old after a few thousand years and only eternity to look forward to. Silly enough, I look at the Celestial Kingdom like World of Warcraft -- only healthy. Constantly evolving. People ask "Why would anyone play that game? You can't win!" Because winning isn't the point, the point is to continue getting stronger, better, etc. The Celestial Kingdom is continually helping your children, spouse, our God, and ourselves become mroe perfect. We will constantly be growing in knowledge. What great blessings await us! We also talked about the Sons of Perdition, and their state -- that's a conversation we can have when I get home, remind me. We spoke about Judas as well, Brother Stokes had a really cool standing on what he believes Judas was thinking.

I don't know if I'd put this on the blog, just in case it might be found as doctrine by others. But it is up to you.
Brother Stokes noted that Judas probably had great faith, so his idea wasn't simply "i'm going to betray him for money" Judas didn't need money, he was loaded! What he wanted to do was to get the ball rolling. He was sick of the Christ being pushed around and treated like dirt, so he thought "If I do this, Christ will show that he is the Son of God and blow this place to kingdom come!" But then, something happened that Judas didn't expect... Christ died. "What have I done!?" Thought Judas. And killed himself. Joseph F. Smith taught that if Peter had received the Gift of the Holy Ghost his punishment would be a different story for having denied the Christ 3 times. That made my companion and I start to think -- "if Peter is ok... what about Judas?" Elder Horton said something really funny "I guess we shouldn't be surprised if Judas is the greeter at the Pearly Gates then." haha. I think what Judas was NOT doing was listening carefully. He didn't understand the resurrection. He acted before he thought. Anyway, interesting insight.

Not much else to report this week, I love you! And I'm not trunky! Just thinking ahead haha.

-Elder Conner Allred

8-22-11

Hey Famiry.

Well, we're pretty boring over here in Gardner, too! Not too much to tell you about except for the excitement that we have for Nick Pike's baptism this upcoming Sunday! Nick has been doing really well and he has lots of friends in the ward, so many that all the missionaries are doing is the opening and closing prayers! haha. This really hit me this week when I found that out. I think that two years ago I would have thought "Why aren't I doing more?" But I had an overwhelming feeling of peace come over me when our ward mission leader set up the program; I had this thought "This is how it's supposed to be." I love Nick, he's a great kid. But seeing him so involved in the ward and already looking forward to priesthood responsibilities helps me understand my place as a missionary. I carry the gospel to him, and then the ward steps in and does the rest. I'm just a simple mouth-piece. I can't really explain very well what I want to say, but it's basically this: The ward brings their friends to church, I give them the information they need with love and respect, and then the ward baptizes him, not the missionaries. When people ask "How many baptisms have you had?" I hope to respond "None, but the wards I worked with had x." Because that's how it should be! It's so neat to see how well Nick fits into the scheme of things here. He is so eager to start preparing the sacrament - I'm very proud of him and the Gardner ward.

This is probably useless right now, but I wanted to ask about a phone when I get home. I had a dream last night that I wasn't able to find a job etc etc. and it's been stressing me out! haha. I would like to see if I could get on a family plan with Megg and Spence and split the cost 3 ways or half or whatever they would like to get another iPhone. Or, do it with Brinlee as long as she has a job. The family plan makes it much cheaper ($60) per month. Also, I don't know what kind of work the family might have, but i'd like to get to work as soon as I get home if I can. The quicker I get on it, the easier the transition will be I think. Also, if Scott could see what kinds of prices he can find on cars and just give me a little information that would be great. I think I'm going to go with a nice 'ol trusty Subaru WRX. After seeing all my friends have one and how well they do on gas/fun/practicality. It makes me want one. 4x4 with a turbo that helpls me save gas... sounds good!

Not too much is going on -- it's getting cold! Weird! It was sixty this morning. Say good-bye to summer! haha. I love you very much.

Elder Conner Allred

8-15-11

Family,

Well it's mondey again!

HOLY CRAP TACEY IS A BEAST! She is getting so big that is so weird! She is so cute!

The Davis family is doing well, unfortunately our ward hasn't been able to raise enough money to fly them all home so they will be driving back probably this week is the plan so far. Please pray for them!

We set a baptismal date with Nick Pike (14) for the 28th of August. He said he had a hard week this last week, it was a good test for him though! He said he was having doubts etc and then finally came to the conclusion that it was true and that he needs to get baptized. We're really happy for him and we're working closely with him.

This week was a little slower than the past has been. It seems that a lot of the investigators we had have dropped us. But we did find someone new! Her name is Amber. We met her at the door and gave her a Book of Mormon. When we came back three days later she had read the whole testimony of Joseph Smith, the intro, tesmionies of the 8 and 3 and she's up to 1nephi chapter 8! She is great! Her boyfriend doesn't want to take any of the lessons but she is willing and I believe he is to, to get married so that she can be baptized. We have only had one lesson with her, so hopefully it will continue to go well.

Not much else to talk about this week! I love you all and hope all is well. Remember that it is upon the Rock of the Redeemer, which is Christ, that if a man builds upon he cannot fall.

-Elder Conner Allred

8-8-11

Hey Fam,

This week was kind of a glum one for our ward.
http://www.necn.com/searchNECN/search/v/43507257/hubbardston-teen-killed-in-minnesota-car-crash.htm

Daniel Davis was killed in this accident. We go to their house every tuesday to eat -- he will be missed. We actually took one last photo of the family before they left. The voice you hear on the video on the phone is our bishop, Bishop Nally. Everything has been a little hectic, of course, but the the rest of the family although injured is doing better.

Apart from the tragedy, this week was a good week. We made progress with Nick and yesterday we had 4 less-active members stand up and bare their testimonies! HOW COOL! One of them is the little sister of German Valdez (22) who just returned home from his mission and helps us out a lot. Maria is 17 and lives the life of every other 17 year old, so it's hard to be a latter-day saint. But she got up and bore her testimony about missionary work. It was so neat, made us feel like the Lord has worked through us. Maria has been doing a great job at helping her friends come to church and present the gospel to them.

I'm trying to think of what else has been going on this week! haha, It's been a good week, I know it has, but I just can't think! My brain is fried from studying spanish. I Constantly write down words that I don't know and try to translate from english to spanish in my brain. Last night I had a dream and in my DREAM I said something and can't remember what it was so I'm going insane trying to remember what I wanted to translate hahaha. I am a little OCD when it comes to translation. Maybe I'll go into translation when I get home.

Do the JWs still stop by? That will be a blast when I get home.

Love you!
Elder conner Allred

8-1-11

Hey fam!

I'll have to think of a good business name for Adam. haha. I love the choices that you have given already haha.

This week we went back to the Myler's home and took out some drywall. We were going to put up more, but then decided that if we put up the drywall, we would have a harder time doing the electrical, and since the drywall that was up was really old we decided to just take it all down and start fresh. It was worth it. It's been a really cool experience being able to help brother Myler out with his house -- I'm learning a lot of useful stuff. I learned how to make a three way switch work this week, too. (The switch that can be turned on and off from two different sites.)

I saw the "dentist" a few days ago. Joy Payne's sister is in town from Dubai and she is a dentist. So she took a look because I said one of my molars was hurting when I eat sweets. She said there is definitely a small cavity forming but I should be ok. Other than that she was really impressed with how clean I have kept my mouth -- she said she wouldn't have guessed that I haven't seen a dentist in 2 years! So that's good! haha.

I don't remember if I told you about the lesson we had with Sonia or not but we had a great lesson about the worth of a soul and the repentance process. (I think some of the family members needed a refresher.) She felt the spirit strongly and she enjoyed it very much.

Nick is one of the young men that we have been teaching that I believe I told you about -- he has a baptismal date for the 14th of August! He's awesome and very excited. He lives with his uncle's wife's mom; but he just calls her grandma. She may be accepting to the message as well, we have another lesson with them today to find out.

We went to the temple this week! (of course, I forgot to bring my camera to the library -- I'll send pictures later this week.) We watched Rosa Hernandez get her endowment and it was so awesome! I learned a lot of new things that I haven't realized before and altogether it was a touching experience. It was great to go to the temple again, and on top of that, to see some of the "fruits of my labors" as President Evans put it. I wish there was more I could tell you about what I learned, but we'll have to wait until I'm home haha. I did receive an answer to a prayer though. I asked to know if my work had been accepted and in the Celestial Room I opened up the scriptures and this is what I found.

Doctrine and Covenants 73
For verily, thus saith the Lord, it is expedient in me that they should continue preaching the gospel, and in exhortation to the churches in the regions round about, until conference...Now I give no more unto you at this time. Gird up your loins and be sober. Even so. Amen.

It's clear. So I'll continue.

I love you all and miss you. Gird up your loins and be sober!

Elder Conner Allred

7-25-11

Hey Mom,

I just found out that my leave of absence was accepted. THAT WAS A RELIEF haha. So I'll work on the University stuff next time we're in the library. I don't have much time to type right now because I was going through my UofU stuff. Weird that I have to do this, I don't like it! haha.

We had cake at church yesterday, I totally forgot why, too haha. So yes, we did celebrate Pioneer Day! This Saturday we will be going to the temple and I can't wait! It's going to be a great experience. Rosa will be receiving her endowment. The weather has been REALLY HOT. Today has cooled off quite a bit though.

We had a great Sunday with a new investigator there! Maria Valdez is one of our young women and she brought her friend Sonya over to dinner the other night -- we had a great lesson and talked a lot about forgiveness, Joseph Smith etc. She decided to come to church, and did! So that went fantastically. Hopefully she liked it. I was praying so hard for her.

I'm still reading Rough Stone Rolling, what a great book. I absolutely love it.

I'm sorry this one is so short, not much more time! I love you!!

-Elder Conner Allred

7-18-11

Thanks for the kudos on the photos. That's the home where we live! We're really roughin' it, aren't we?

This week I made a really funny connection with some of the mannerisms Elder Horton has to Chris, they're somewhat alike and it's funny to see that.

It's interesting you talked about that missionary who's dad died while he was serving. Elder Horton and I were talking about that and what we would do if a loved one passed away while we only have 5 months left. I think I would actually stay, to be honest. I think you would want me to finish strong. I don't see what coming home and crying would do to help the rest of the family, the loved one that died, or the people I could have helped. I'll expect that from my son when he is serving.

This week we taught Kaylyn again and it went well. She brought a friend along who is not very interested so that made it tough to stay on topic, but it was a great opportunity for fellowship. We definitely had fun! The Stokes family hosted dinner for us. The Stokes (the family we live with) were both seminary teachers at one point, so they do very well with the youth.

We taught Enrique again! He was delighted to tell us about how he didn't drink at all last week, that was really cool especially since we haven't taught him the Word of Wisdom. We brought along the Stokes' son-in-law, Anthony. He's from El Salvador so it was awesome. he served his mission in Uruguay about 2 years ago, so he did a great job. It was nice to have a native with us that has such a great testimony, it really helped Enrique feel more comfortable I think.

We worked with a less-active woman in our ward this week named Joy Payne. She's so cool! She is from Zimbabwe and her husband is from Panama. They have two kids, one of which we are trying to baptize, Tfadzwa (Tuh-fadz-wuh.) Joy was in the hospital last week and then hospitalized again the week that just passed. She always has a smile on though. We hung out with her at the hospital for a couple of hours and gave her a blessing. She left the next day!

We worked on our ward mission leader's home this week as well. Brother and Sister Myler are both from the east coast and both served in Spain! Bro. Myler is fairly young at 24 and teaches 4th grade. He's very well rounded and level headed. He is very good at construction etc. so he is adding 3 rooms and a master Bdr plus bath to the other side of his house! We went over and helped install dry-wall. He wants it done in the next 5 years, so it's not a huge rush but he's at least doing enough to get it done in that time frame. He works on it daily. I told him I wanted to learn how to wire a house so he said "well then, lets do it!" So I learned a little bit about wiring, it was really neat. Heck, maybe I can work with Adam when I get home.

Not much else to report this week. I love you all very much.

July 11, 2011

Hey Mom!

Go to your Mormon.org profile and see if there are any messages? I know that it requires a photo. Just make sure you have filled everything in. Mine only took a week.
You should at least call the Pehrson's or something. I love that man. He's like a 3rd father to me.

Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling is an amazing book. It's amazing to see how Joseph grows from this young, and quite frankly, stupid farm boy to the amazing Prophet that we hold in such high standards. I think it's even better to see that side of him because it shows how illiterate he really was at his age and there's no way he could have written the Book of Mormon. I'm already half-way through chapter 4 "A New Bible" and it's really a great chapter. The first one was kind of long to get through when it was talking about Joseph Sr's parents and Lucy's, but it has been getting better and better. I feel like I can relate to Joseph a lot. I love the story of Martin Harris when he loses the pages, he sits down and hits himself in the temples saying "Oh, I have lost my soul! I have lost my soul!" I don't know why but it just wrenches my heart -- but then D&C 3 comes and the Lord comforts them telling them that He is merciful.

Richard Bushman, I'm not sure. I might have given the D70 to Shane haha. I'll let Elder Walkenhorst know.

That's awesome to hear about Adam's jeep! haha. What a coincidence.

Well it's my first actual week out here and it went pretty well. We had two whole lessons in spanish. One with a peruvian man named Enrique and the other with a less-active family from Ecuador. Enrique seemed a little rough around the edges but is surprisingly kind and invited us to come back! I'm pretty excited to teach him -- I think this will be perfect if the less-active family comes back as well as he will have someone to relate to.

The less-active family is the Majors family. Nadia, the mother, married a white guy a few years after she got here and it apparently ended terribly -- he was a jerk I guess. She works for $12 70 hours/week. That is crazy. I made more money than that. I don't understand how I was running through all my money whereas Nadia can raise her 2 children on her income, pay for a car, pay for a home, pay for food... it really gives me perspective on the whole thing.

Had a great day at church yesterday, we taught elders quorum about eternal families. It was a really great discussion to have and to get to know each of the elders a little bit more. I also met the Bishop, Bishop Nally who is a wonderful man. He's very soft-spoken and he has a good sense of humor. Phew! haha.

We are teaching a girl named Kaylyn Parker! She was being taught by the missionaries in the town next to us (can't remember the name) but she lives in our area, so they passed her on and she is great. She loves the church and wants to be baptized. We're not sure, though, what might be holding her up. So with our next appointment we'll see how we can help her make this decision. I really hope she decides to do it... it will bless her life more than she can imagine.

The change to Boston is ok. It is definitely different, but I'll live. I've been reflecting on the past two years and I'm just trying to stay motivated and stay excited. I want to end well and know that I've done if not THE best, the best that I can right now, from now on. I am not a perfect missionary, nor a perfect person. But I hope that what I have done is at least acceptable in the eyes of the Lord.

I love you very much. I hope all is well. Keep praying for me! I need it!
Elder Conner Allred