1-31-11

Family,
I got the packages! Thanks so much!!!!

Tell Brinlee happy birthday!!!!! Crab Core for Life!

Everything went well this week! We actually had a great week this week as far as helping our less actives and getting the baptism together. Our meeting went really well, we had the branch presidency there and our ward mission leader -- we went through each calling and we have set up to go out with our Ward Mission Leader this week and also to have correlation. We have a ward mission plan that we wrote out and presented to them and then we also made an excel sheet of all the home teachers etc; before they were just on a white piece of paper. We got to the church about 3 hours early and found that it was actually better that way. Usually we go 2 hours or less early to get ready and even though we had more than enough time this time, it was better to have some cushion. We got there and found that we didn't have the right key so we had to find some time anyway, and then it turned out that the baptismal font needs to run for 30 min, then stop, then run for 30 min, then stop, then finalyl run again till it's full; if you want the water warm! So we had plenty of time to do that and we got the programs and everything just went great. It was a small baptism, just Maria's family and President Coats baptized her (Stake High Council) and I confirmed her on Sunday morning.

Cynthia brought a friend to church as well! Go ward missionary work! She didn't even know she was doing missionary work, either. So that shows, I think, that the ward feels comfortable introducing their friends to us. I'm really excited. Her name is Alexandria, she's 28 and she's Ecuadorian. I asked her what she does for work and she said (in english) "dealer" I said "ohhhh. de las drogas?" haha. She laughed and told me that she's a card dealer at the casino in Norwich. I still call her the Traficante though (which means drug dealer) and she thinks it's funny! She invited us over this week.

Amanda went to New York this weekend -- where her "boyfriend" is. We gave her a call and she seemed reluctant to tell us what she was up to. Turns out, she left for the whole week though! I was pretty busted up about it. Sometimes I just don't understand why people make these choices. She had just tried to fix this, and now she's going back! I had a hard time with that because I felt like we could all see that it was obviously Satan, but she couldn't.

Christina has been ignoring us for the past week, so we are probably going to drop her for a while.

Let's see, what else is new...
Really not much! Oh yeah! My mission is going to be the Boston Mass mission starting July 1st. Surprise. I had a feeling, we're down to 68 missionaries.

I haven't gotten the scriptures yet, but they should probably come today, I hope. Our mail out here has been hectic because apparently when they get a little snow, the world collapses. I'm surprised the economy here hasn't crashed yet. These crybabies haha. Everytime we talk to people they ask "Well, you probably won't be able to get to my house with all this snow." And I simply respond "In Utah, we don't shut down the world when we get an inch! Unless someone dies, school is still in session!" These past two weeks they have had school off 5 times! And some guy on the news said "WE ARE A PART OF HISTORY!!!" I'm glad they don't live in Utah, they'd cry themselves to sleep! haha.

Last night we went to the Cambell's home. Br. Cambell is a stomach Dr. Beautiful home and he's in the branch presidency. He served his mission in SLC, spanish speaking. We were talking to his boys last night (5, oldest is 11) and we asked "Who is your favorite person in the Book of Mormon?" and the oldest responded "Nephi" then the next youngest said "JESUS!" That just made us all burst into laughter, it was a darn good choice! haha.

Anyway, not much else to report this week. We had a good week at church, Rosa and Angelica brought their mom to church and she was crying all through sacrament meeting. She liked it a lot. Emili Morel came (another LA) and she brought her husband this time! So things are still going well!

I love you all, keep praying for us, we need it.

-Elder Conner Allred