9-13-10

Mom,

I got your package!

This week has been great! I'm definitely learning some patience, and how to bite my tongue. It's been a real test for me but I think I'm doing better. My comp is really OCD! haha. It's kind of fun to play around with though. He does things without even knowing he's doing them. Like he'll go around and shut the lights off or straighten my jacket so it doesn't get wrinkles or put the toilet seat down. So just for a little fun I'll put a wrinkle in the table cloth to see how long it takes him to fix it haha. He usually gets it right away. Have you ever seen Monk? That's my companion haha. He's a great Elder. We worked really hard this week! But didn't see a WHOLE lot of success as far as new investigators. The people from Spain didn't show up to the Mexican Party :S but it was a great party still! I'll go print some pictures and send them off when I can. These computers are definitely less than I'd hope for so it's almost impossible to send pictures.

Elsi is set for baptism on the 25th of September! We announced it in church yesterday!!! WOO!

My spanish has really grown in these past two transfers. I don't really have to look up grammatical things anymore, it's mainly just words I haven't heard before. Right now I'm working with subjunctive and conditional statesments though and indirect / direct objects! Fun fun!

We ran into a bunch of JW's this week which really kills me every time. I just want to bible bash with them but that definitely won't get us anywhere. But what frustrates me is the lies they plant into people and they make people so attatched to them that you can't convince the investigators that they can use their own brains!! I asked a person studying with JWs "How do you find out an answer if you have a question?" (after reading james 1:5) She said "ask someone with more biblical information than you." AHHHH BNO!OO!O!O!I!NO! NO! FALSE! One guy told us God doesn't communicate with man anymore, so I said "Isn't God the same today yesterday and forever?" And he said "definitely!" So that made me a little dumbfounded for a second... Come again?

I feel like I'm on crazy pills! It's like I'm walking around with a backpack full of a million dollars (eternal life with God) and saying "I'd like to give you a million dollars (eternal life with God)." and they say "NOOO way, only millionaires can have a million dollars." It blows my mind! Oh well. We continue fighting I guess.
Well, not much else is going on.

I love you and miss you!!
-Elder Susan

Things are going great and I did indeed just get my new companion! Elder Cohen is his name -- his grandmother is a practicing Jew. Elder Cohen had a bar mitzvah when he was 13, then converted to Mormonism when he was 20, 3 years later, he's serving a mission! He's got a great gringo accent in his Spanish, and has OCD really bad. He's great! He's so pure hearted, does everything with pure love and dedication. We're going to have a great time. He'll be a patience challenge for me, but I'm going to just focus on loving him the best I can and I really want to, this transfer, look at him as I look at my investigators, just love him unconditionally. I think this has been my issue in the past. I'm not very patient and I like to be left alone a lot of the time, so I want to change that, I'm really excited. But nervous, because I feel like I have a lot of pride -- so hopefully I can tackle that, too!

Earl unfortunately didn't pay us a visit. I was a little bummed out to be honest. I thought it'd be cool to have some crazy news like "A boat landed on our car!!!!" but unfortunately, it rained for about 5 minutes and then the sun came out again. SNORE.We had about 3 gallons of water prepared and the car was filled with gas constantly, we have a mission safety plan which we followed closely. We prepared for the worst, but nothing happened.

All last week we had really bad traffic on Barnum Avenue. Arson struck at a HUGE abandoned factory last week, this is what I think happened. This building is a huge waste of space, it's broken down and is used for nothing except a good place to go sell drugs. I think someone lit it on fire so that the city has to tear it down on their bill so that someone can build something new. It is a nice piece of land, but nothing anyone would want to buy and then pay for to clear it up. So I have a feeling as soon as the city tears it down (which they are doing because it's now too dangerous) someone will buy the land and build something on it. Then I saw at the gas station on the front page headline it said "Officer charged for arson." Maybe you can look it up and see if that's what it was talking about. Anyway, it was a traffic headache all week!


I always get a chance to tell people about grandpa out here. It's really funny, since all these kids have babies by the time their 15 all their grandparents are only in their 50s. So when I say "My grandpa faught in WWII" They want to hear all about him! haha. To me, he's not that old haha. It's really neat to tell people about our family history, people think it's really interesting. One lady in our branch wants a picture of me with her to show that she has met an ancestor of William Clayton. haha, I told her to come to utah and every 3rd person on the street is an ancestor of him. hahaha.

Anyway, we are really excited for this week to see how things get going! Saturday we have a Mexican party at the ward. All the Mexicans are making food for us and we are going to sit around and watch them dance. This will be really good for our younger investigators. We are teaching one 17 year old (sister of one of our members, Francisco who is 30's and his oldest daughter is 12, he's from Colombia) and we are going to start teaching an 18 year old Ecuadorian and her Mother. The rest of their family is in *drumroll* SPAIN! The 18 year old was basically raised there, so hopefully she can teach me the zeta! haha. She has a really interesting mix of Latin and Spain spanish.

I'm going to give that Bannana thing a shot out here. Can you believe Saul and Emmanuel have never had a Root Beer Float.... WHAT THE HECK?! So we're going to make those next P-Day.

We went and did some service for a family, the Perez family who I think I have written about before. Saul, Alejandro, Emmanuel, and the two of us went to their house and totally revamped their backyard. It was a complete mess, dangerous too. They had weed killer just lying around, the pool was still water for MONTHS now, it was just disgusting. We threw everything out and cut the grass and cut down all the overgrown bushes. Mulched the lawn and I got the duty... nay, the honor of taking the dead squirrel out of the pool that had drowned the night before. I picked it up with a shovel and hurled it over the fence. It was nasty. Anyway, Hopefully they can just get the lawnmower out and keep it up now! I learned how to keep a lawn nice though! I learned a lot from those mexicans! haha. If you just do the little things, take an hour a week to mow the lawn it will NEVER end up like their back yard, it's that easy! It's just like the gospel. Once a week -- go to church and take the sacrament. Yeah it's a pain and it's boring sometimes. But then you won't have a life full of sin and nasty stuff that takes 4 other people to help dig you out of.


Well, I love you all. Hopefully I can get some pictures off this week.

I'm praying always. I love you!
-Elder Conner Allred

8-30-10

I have read parts of that book (Rough Stone Rolling) out here actually. I absolutely love it. Not many people know that Joseph Smith had some alcohol problems! People find that to be a huge fault in him and mull over it for hours and it's hilarious because just look at our family and the amazing things that have come out of the alcohol abusers in it. We gave some blessings last night and it went really well. I gave one to Ligia . After her's Elder Trujillo gave one to Pablo. Pable is the non-member. After the blessing he was trembling a bit and was trying not to cry. He said "Porque estoy como asi, elderes?" At the same time, Elder Trujillo and I both said "El Espiritu." It was a really special moment.

Good news!!! ELSI HAS A BAPTISMAL DATE!!!!!!

We were all in class yesterday and right after the closing prayer I turned around to Elsi and I said "Are you ready?" and she said "For baptism?" and I said "Yes. Let's set a date for 2 weeks from now." And she thought about it. then said "Lets make it 3." WOO! 19 of September she's going down! How cool is that!? Her husband has been drinking a lot but they're working through things. I wish she would have told us that earlier. The Elders Quorum Pres. was an alcoholic. I knew he was having some issues like that. Elsi's husband I mean. So we're going to start working with him tomorrow. Really exciting!

So for your Pizza and Pickup-Lines you should read through Chapter 10 in PMG. It talks about how to ask questions and listen. Very useful tools for any situation!

This week we didn't do much finding. Elder Trujillo is about spent. But, all is well.


well. I love you and I'm praying for all of you. Make sure to tell annabeth Hi for me. I'm praying for her and Sarah. Love you all.

Elder Conner Allred

Hey Mom,

This week has been pretty good! I'm feeling OK, just keeping on going. We found some new investigators and things are starting to pick up again. Plus, the diarrhea passed, so all is well inside and out! haha.

We were actually supposed to go on a hike today with Saul, Emanuel, and us Elders but the weather is rainy so we are going to stay inside. President Pehrson approved Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp, so we're going to watch that today! Woo! Last week we watched Mulan and Spirit. Sounds boring, but it's nice to watch some good wholesome movies and take our minds off of things for a while haha. I'm sure you remember.


This week went well! We taught the husband of a member, Ligia (Ecuador). His name is Pablo and he got caught playing hookie. Anyway, it put him in a position of serious humility and he knows he needs to repent. We had an awesome lesson about the plan of salvation with them. Honestly, I thought "oh great, he's just trying to make his wife happy." But honestly, he's ready. He prayed at the end, kneeling and it was the most sincere prayer I have heard! It was awesome. We set a date with him for September 12th.

Elsi is doing ok. Her Husband gave us a ride the other day because we were watiing for the bus outside after an appointment with her. Before we left he dropped roses onto the porch. He's a weird guy, I can't figure him out. She was really depressed but she is in New York with a friend this weekend so hopefully she'll get a little bit of a break. Bless that woman, she's doing the best she can.

Alejandro Cruz and Mabel are preparing for the temple in December and Alejandro is getting the Melch priesthood!
Nothing happened with Mariela, she called and didn't show up to the appointment.
Mendes is doing great, just got ordained a priest.
Veronica and German are awesome. Still having problems with the step family thing but German has blessed the sacrament twice now!

Things are going quite well. The Lord is blessing us abundantly, hopefully I can continue to grow in this work and hopefully he is seeing my good works and I'm doing the best I can to please Him. It's hard but good. I'll just keep soldiering on.

I love you all, and I'll talk to you again soon! (p.s. I'll send some pictures next time I go to print some.)

Los Amo,
Elder Allred

8-16-10

Investigators... This week our pool has shrunk quite a bit. We have two new investigators named Silvia and Fernando from Ecuador. They are a great little family of four, friends of a member (Ruth) and Fernando's heart is really being softened. Josh actually taught them 2 years ago. So that's about all we're working with at this point!

We're going to hopefully start finding more people to teach and get some more work done this week. It didn't help that I was throwing up on Tuesday. That was gross. I ate some old meat and then Got sick from it. had like 4 days of Montezuma's revenge and threw up. It was awful! haha.

You are going to be very pleased in December with my portuguese when we can talk again! I'm getting a bible in Port from Elder Rolim . But It's a great language. It's grammar is almost the exact same, just different sounds, as spanish. But, of course -- I am working mainly on perfecting spanish. The one thing I get confused a lot in are Direct and Indirect objects. Like "N os Gustaria invitarle" or "nos Gustaria invitarlo" Cause the rule is, for direct objects (the Lo) "who or what is being ___ed?" Well, you are being invited.... But i guess it's supposed to be said with Le... Is this making sense? Anyway, it's coming along. I just need to figure out a few more things and work on my vocabulary mainly.


Hopefully we see more success this week. I am hoping to do well so we can get the ball moving again. Hopefully I'm recieving the correct promptings and things I need to do. I just hope I'm following the spirit. Or even recieving the spirit! I'm trying real ly hard to be as obedient as possible, I just can't figure out why things are going w rong. I hate to say it, but is it me? What's happening!?!? What the heck!? I hope this isn't my same old gripe as usual. Anyway. I just hope to see some fruits soon. Make me feel a little better. Just hope I'm worthy to be recieving the spirit and helping people.

Anyway, Not much else is going on. I miss you all and I can't believe I'm coming up on 8 1/2 months! Wow! haha. Miss you again.

8-9-10

The baptisms! They're going well, but unfortunately this week I don't have pictures because we forgot the camera. Mendes is Brazilian, I think I told you that, so that was a fun baptism. This week we also had 2 confirmations (mendes and Veronica).

I got the talks, thanks very much -- I just need to translate them for her haha. She doesn't read or speak a lick of English, but I think these talks will help Elsi quite a bit.
This week has been pretty crazy, I can't really remember all of it to be completely honest. We were all over the place getting things ready for the baptism and confirmations, it was insane! Alejandro Cruz baptized Mendes, really neat since it was his first time using his priesthood! Alejandro and his wife were just baptized last Feb and are still goin head first! He receives the Melk Priesthood in 2 months and will be entering the temple to be sealed in Feb! They had to baptize Mendes 3 times because he didn't go all the way under, but overall it went well and it all worked out! I think the main thing is to get in the water and just relax. You don't need to rush! Get set up, say the prayer, slowly put your hand on their back and put their hand to their nose and then tip them back and pull them up. I think everyone sees these videos from the church where it's this gorgeous flowing motion and gets a little too excited! haha. But it was a really spiritual day!

We got some people from Cape Verde reactivated. One of them, Nissy, just moved here a month ago -- was a primary teacher years back. She is 26 and she hasn't been to church in a little while so I sat next to her during sacrament. As the sacrament was being passed, she busted out into tears. She told me she felt embarrassed because she didn't even know why she was crying! But I told her I'm sure it's the spirit working his sanctification. She only speaks Portuguese so that's really fun! I get to practice that with her. She is great, we have really high hopes for her to continue. The relief society ladies said she seems VERY knowledgeable in the gospel.

Not much else has been going on that I can remember. We're going to do some serious finding this week and try to find some new people! I hope everything is going well at home. Love you!

I will keep annabeth and sarah in my prayers... This news is ridiculous!

-Elder Conner Allred

8-2-10

We had a baptism! She actually showed up! Helps when the rest of the family are members though. It's been a really cool experience to watch this family grow from where they were to where they are now. I believe the husband is even working on a repentance process so that he can hold the priesthood soon! They have their eyes set on the temple now (she even has the Buenos Aires temple pictures bookmarked on the computer) so that was a big win for everyone! I can understand why it would be difficult in Spain to have baptisms, the people are much more educated. But, when you baptize someone like that, they are usually much more solid. Easily converted, easily led away. So sometimes it's good to have to fight a little.

I miss Elder Rogers! He was a great companion, I learned so much from him in 6 weeks. He was a great example and I'm glad I get the chance to fill his shoes in Bridgeport. I feel like if I can fill his shoes here, the people will be very greatful. Even if I can't do EVERYTHING he did, as long as I try and show that I'm trying, they'll be greateful. They've had too many missionaries here that get too comfortable and slack off! So I'm going to do my best not to be a slacker!

Elder Trujillo, does SOUND like a native, doesn't it? He's 4 generations from Spanish (spain) ancestors. He didn't speak a lick of spanish before his mission and was raised in idaho. His dad is in the army and they have moved from places like Texas, Atlanta, Germany, Idaho, and a few other places. He'll be finishing his mission in 5 weeks so I won't have him for very long either! I'm excited to see what happens afterwords as well though. His goal is 8 more baptisms before he does home. 7 to go, and 6 after this Thursday.

We got a referral this week from Massachusets! One of their recent converts just moved here and she is frome Cape Verde. So my portuguese is being tested again! I taught 2 lessons this week in portuguese! Of course, it's not perfect, but the Lord really helped me out! I was able to speak on the phone with her and also teach those lessons all in Port. What a blessing!

Well, this week should be quite busy. New trainings and baptizing sure can be tiring! haha. But truly, I'm greatful that the Lord has allowed me to watch the changes in these people and allow me to be changed by them. I would have never understood the grace and charity that people have for others unless I served this mission. Veronica and German, weeks ago had nothing. Now, they still don't have much, but they are blessed with food on the table, and a little more work. 100% more than they used to have. They even feed us when they go over. It's hard to eat it because I know they don't have much, but I am so grateful for their service to us -- what great people we have here. Their hearts are just so darn pure, every last one of them here. They're great.

In one of those pictures, I think I'm not smiling... I was pretending to be a Mexican. Mexicans don't smile ahha.



How's Brinleast??? Hope she is good, I miss her. I miss all of you. Shaydyn looks great by the way in the picture you sent me! Has she been dieting still?? She looks really good!

Send some pics of fat pete and zorini!

I love you!
-Elder Conner Allred