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

7-5-2011

Hey Madre, 7-5-2011

It's very different here in the Boston mission! Just FYI, my P-Days apparently ARE on Mondays, but if we have a transfer meeting, they change to Wednesday. A little confusing, I know.

My area is Gardner Massachusetts. We live in an extension from a members mansion! It's a really nice place and the laundry is free! The Members are Brother and Sister Stokes. They are really great people -- Brother Stokes is a software engineer of some type but works mainly with Government Computer Security. We mainly stay in Leominster (Lemon-stir) and Fitchburg and we live in Lunenberg. So far I have met one peruvian man... :S. Our ward is completely english-speaking except for two families, and one of them basically refused to speak to me in spanish when I tried, so -- scratch that one! It's a little frustrating but I'll deal.

Our first appointment we had we had at a members home, my companion (Elder Horton, who is awesome!) asked me how often I taught spanish in CT, my response was simply "I think this is actually my first time doing an english lesson." So it's quite different here. If someone wants to come to church that speaks spanish, we have to translate everything!

p.s. Elder Horton is from Utah (forgot which part) and he entered the MTC also on Dec. 9th. So we've both been out 18 almost 19 months.

I got up and bore my testimony at church so that people would recognize me when I'm walking around. I think it also helps ease the awkwardness of a first impression to get up and show people my personality etc. The members are really nice people and have been very welcoming.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to Boston for the 4th of July fireworks! It was really neat! It was very different because we were told not to wear proselyting clothes and the crowd definitely wasn't either haha. I'm sure it's something that I wouldn't have even dared to ask permission to go to from President Pehrson haha. It was really a cool place though. We saw a lot of cool shopping centers and enjoyed the sights, there are some really cool street performers as well!. We got to Boston about 10am and got home about 1am! It started by getting to the church where we had to pick up the chains in the parking lot to get under them! The cars BARELY made it under. We walked over to the subway and hopped on to get into Harvard Square. We went shopping a little bit and got hungry so we headed over to China Town where we ate at a neat little Chinese rest. that only charged me $1.50 for a canned soda! What a deal!

After lunch we went to a really neat street of which I don't remember the name that had a ton of shopping centers (Chanel, Nike, you name it.) I bought some pins from a place called Johnny Cupcakes. It's a T-Shirt store that is set up like a bakery but when you open the fridges and stuff it's plates of shirts. We also found a used-book store where I found, for a great deal of more than 50% off, Joseph Smith: A Rough Stone Rolling -- I had to buy it! So I did.

We headed over to the river after shopping and got our places with some ward members near the edge and waited 4 hours for the fireworks. It was a loooooooong wait. But it was worth it.

I think that's about it for the update today. I love you and miss you. Hopefully I can keep using my spanish out here, but it seems that resistance is futile.

I'm going to include pictures from New London, our apartment, and the fireworks show.

Love you! -Elder Conner Allred

Conner David Allred to me
show details 11:48 AM (3 hours ago)




Mom, also -- Elder Walkenhorst wants to buy my D70. Could you send that out? The body, charger, battery, and CF card should all be in the box. He has a lens that I sold him already. Just send it to my old NL apartment addressed to him. Thank you!!