Mom,

That's good to hear about Pete! I hope he's going to be ok.

Those big bunch o' babies. When I get home I'll show them how to really eat spicy haha. They think they know spicy until you have home-made chipotle by a real mexican lady. That'll make your nose bleed!

Our ward has 4 elders, so the area is split. We visit the members in North Providence and Central Falls. They visit the people in Providence. Well, as of late, the members from providence have not been feeding them but instead have been inviting US over for dinner! Kind of bad, but also funny. It just goes to show, sometimes, you need to let go a little bit and have a laugh. One lady said "Are you coming to Thanksgiving at my house?" And I responded "Sure!!" So she went to ask the other elders if they wanted to come too, she told us that Elder Hansen said "Well, the point of these visits is to strengthen the spirit in your home, not just feed us." So she responded "Oh, well I won't have time for that, my whole family will be there." And walked away!!! I couldn't believe it! Elder Hansen is right, and I agree, but there ARE exceptions. Elder Phillips and I have actually been doing something kind of cool -- whenever we go to eat, instead of just leaving a simple "spiritual thought" we have started by doing the actual PMG lessons. So we're teaching these families the first lesson etc. So hopefully it will excite the members to bring more friends over to eat! So far it's working for us!!

Christmas, shirts -- more long sleeved shirts. I don't know what size I am, I can send it to you next week. GIft Cards are awesome. But I'm not really in dying need of anything, I'm pretty well off to be honest. I have every color of sharpie you could ever want, what else do I need?! I'm going to try to sell my iPod and buy the new nano, so if you know of anyone that wants my purple iPod at home -- let me know. It doesn't have a camera, but it can play video.

This week we found a new Mexican family! Raymundo and Dinora! They're fantastic, really catching on to the gospel. The husband was ok with baptism on our first visit when we talked about it. Dinora was a little set back, she has a really strong belief in la virgincita. But she said she wants to read, she also told me "Tu dudas de que voy a leer!" I was taken back! But it was a little true. She told us she actually loves to read and so we left 2 chapters with her. I think they'll make a great family in the church. They ahve one little daughter, Leslie and then it's them two, perfect! They've been married for 5 years and they talk openly about how much they appreciate one another. Raymundo told us how much he appreciates the fact that she is a good mother and cooks. I thought it was awesome to see that kind of love in not only a regular family these days, but a hispanic family, where the men are usually pretty hard-headed.

We are continuing with Maria, Fernando and the family. Hopefully things go well with them. We had a great lesson about families with Maria and Fernando last week but the kids didn't show up. Hopefully they took something from it. We found out they are not married, so we need to work on that as well. Lots to do in so little time! But we can do it! I can't think of too much else that has happened this week to be honest. Elder Phillips is doing great. We still have tons of cockroaches -- gross. Oh, and I made a delicious breakfast for myself this morning, you won't believe it unless you see it! So I attatched a photo.

I love you all, please pray for me!

Nov. 1, 2010

PEEETTTTEEEE :(

There was a lady in Bridgeport that asked for a blessing for her dog. haha, maybe.... No. Well, I'd rather he be put to sleep than struggle. How did you know he was sick? That dumb cat.

This week the weather was pretty good but it's starting to get really cold! It was 70 the other day, we didn't have to wear our jackets, but now today it's like 40!!! It's pretty annoying.

Smallest City in the World at 1.29 sq miles
over 18,000 people in it
7% graduation rate
92% hispanic

It's almost like the garden of Eden.
Last week we had a cool miracle! We were walking around contacting and we talked to this lady on her porch. She was outside smoking and we started talking to her. She is from Guatemala and as I talked to her I finally just asked "Are you a member?" and she nodded her head, she told me she was baptized when she was twelve. I asked her about her testimony about the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, she said she still believes. Now she is married with 4 kids. Her husband is Mexican. Her 17 year old daughter has a 6 month old, so I'm sure that has got to be hard. They are such an awesome family. The father seems VERY family oriented. I have great hopes for them and I have been praying and fasting for them very hard. I really hope they can see the happiness the gospel brings! This family could change so much.

I'm not really sure what else happened this week, we have been showing the ward that we are hard workers and the ward is very grateful. They told me "We could have another Elder Rogers" (They worship him here) but that was very flattering. I think Elder Phillips and I could do a lot here, and we already have a pretty good teaching pool! Maria's family (Guatemalan) is our biggest hope right now, so we'll just keep praying and hoping we can find more like them.

Spanish continues to be a challenge, but I feel like I'm at the point where I can say whatever I want, now I'm just being picky and trying to figure out how to say things in a more complicated way haha. But I'm really enjoying it.

I love you all, I'm praying for you.

-Elder Conner Allred

Oct. 25, 2010

NEW ADDRESS:
Elder Conner Allred
61 Shawmut Ave. #2
Central Falls, Rhode Island
02863


I totally forgot to tell you last week that I'll be training and that I was moving. Oh well. Anyway, my greenie is great! Elder Phillips is from Las Vegas and he's a great kid. His spanish is really pretty good and it's been a good first week! The elders that were in Central Falls left 5 weeks ago because one of them went home early, so we walked into a dead area -- but, now we have 6 investigators (4 thanks to the providence elders) and a half a page of contacts, so we've been working hard. Elder Phillips and I click really well. It's so great. He's a lot like Mickey Dailey haha. So we have a lot of fun together. He's not into cars, but his attitude is very much alike -- very ironic and inteligently humorous.

It was hard to leave Bridgeport -- I loved it there and I miss the people a lot. The people are mostly dominican or Guatemalan here, they all tell me I talk like a Mexican haha. They all speak in Vos, which is weird. It's like more informal than Tu form and it only changes present indicitive and present subjunctive, so it's really easy to learn and use. It's just weird to me though. We had a great little party with the people in Bridgeport and it really made me feel great. I'm going to miss the people there, they were so great. :( But, life moves on. I'll see them again, one day!

Our house is a huge dump, it's disgusting. I fount a garrapata (tick) crawling on my shirt the other day after I got up from praying. So I called Sister Pehrson to see if we should spray, she said no for now, we'll see if I just brought him inside or what happened. But I murdered him with a knife. Our utinsil drawer had only 8 cucarachas in it! I hate our house. It's really nasty. The area is a lot more ghetto as well. Our first night we didn't get home until 8 p.m. but I still took Elder Phillips out to scare him haha. We walked outside and some dominican kids yelled out "Los Mormones!!" So I yelled back "?!Que Onda!?" They definitely didn't realize we spoke spanish. We shared a little bit about Christ with them, one of them is an inactive kid. We said a prayer with them and then after that we went home and planned.

Well, I can't really think of much more at this point. We are having fun moving in and getting everything rolling! I feel honored that President Pehrson trusts me not only to train, but to basically open an area!! Que Chido!


Los Amo
-Elder Allred

Pictures: Saul and us
Stephanie Perez and Me (Inactive Member)
Elder Phillips and Me
p.s. I got the book!

10-12-10

Hi all,

Library was closed on Monday so we're finally getting our e-mails done! This week has been kind of slow but it's been a good week all in all. To be honest, I can't really remember what really went on -- my brain just kind of mixes things up all into one big ball and I can't discern between yesterday and 6 months ago.

We did have some luck with an old investigator named Brenda last week. She thought we were J.Ws the first few months the missionaries were meeting with her. Finally I asked her to compare her bible with mine and she found... they're the same! So then she said "Well, then what's this book?" So everything actually went really great with her! She seemed a lot less confused! But, tragedy struck. This morning during studies we got a phone call from her husband -- he says he doesn't want us to come over anymore to meet with her. So that kind of bums us out, but hopefully his heart will be softened. We just told him "if you need anything, give us a call."

We are teaching a part member family from Paraguay. Very interesting accent, too. TrabajaR. They have really american R's. The husband was pretty heard hearted up until now, for some reason he wants to meet with us. So we're happy about that. Last night we taught the restoration and we told him about the apostles having the same authority as Jesus Christ, he thought it was blasphemy and questioned me on it. It was such basic knowledge (so I thought) I didn't even know where to look to answer him! Finally I looked at Acts... DUH, acts of the apostles. And read him a few of the miracles done at the hand of Filipe. He is opening more and more, he just needs to have scriptures to back up what we say for him to believe. Which is fine with me, I feel comfortable answering questions with scriptures. I feel like I don't get the chance to do it enough, actually. People will usually just believe our testimonies, so it's fun to use a little spiritual knowledge. He asked last night though, "Why should I have to read alone? I will just listen to my wife read, we're going to be together forever aren't we? So we'll just read together." Those are the kinds of questions he asks. I was kind of stumped, I thought "Yeah, good point." I can't really explain to him the difference in studying alone and with someone. Personally, I like to study alone -- but I didn't have a good reason to give him to study alone, other than I like it! haha.

Elsi's daughter, Camila was in the hospital the other day! We gave her a blessing though and then we prayed that night asking that she would be healed by morning. She left the hospital at 12 the next day! Talk about a cool miracle, huh?

A woman in our ward named Amelia (Mexican) lives with her daughter, son and son in law. Her daughter is 7 months pregnant with her first child and has been married less than a year. They were sealed in the temple. Well, her husband decided he doesn't like whatever he's got so he skipped off to Mexico without any warning and just abandoned his wife/baby. So that has been kind of hard for her. She's 23 and is about to have a child! She feels pretty vulnerable. So we're having them over tonight with the Sanchez' to try to get a good friendship going. And, to have a little time away from sitting at their house in the dark. They need time away!

We're going to see if we can track down the ladies from Spain. The family they were living with have no idea what happened. They just took off randomly one day. The mom wants to stay past her Visa and from what the other family said she's a little insane. She is basically the boss of her daughter and wants to marry her daughter off to an American to get papers. So we're going to see if we can catch them near her highschool today. Hopefully we can, they definitely need some help in that family!

Transfers are coming up next week and I'm hoping I don't take off.

We moved apartments by the way. Same address, just apt. 111 now.

I love you and I am praying for you.
-Elder Conner Allred

Oct. 4, 2010

Mom

Thanks for the words. It's still hard but I'll keep moving on.

Conference went well, the brethren seemed to talk a lot about 1Timothy chapter 4 which is a great chapter. We had a few members show up and I thought my companion was going to have an aneurysm. He kept asking me "So, people don't go?" (Saturday morning) I said "No, honestly, people just throw it on TV and pay a little attention or are out working, especially the Hispanics." "But, why? Do they not care? Do they not understand?" haha. I was just thinking -- RELAX! They have lives haha. The Lord understands. We went to dinner with a member family on Saturday night and he about started to chew out the wife because she had been home all day and hadn't watched any of conference. I just kind of shook my head. She then started speaking English (that's when you know they're a little frustrated) and said "Elder, when you have children, you'll understand." Andale!. He means well haha. He's a recent convert of 3 years so I think he deserves a break haha. It's just really funny! To me, at least!

I really liked the talk about not looking back -- that was a great talk for me I think. I have a hard time not looking back. There were a lot of great messages about this and what I think I saw from this conference is that the world is being attacked, especially the saints, and we need to raise our children in such a way to be prepared to battle these attacks.

I have made an extensive study guide for how to read Spanish. We have an investigator who can't read. She is 30 something years old and has children etc. But she can't read! So I have split up each letter and we begin on Tuesday with lessons. I have a page on syllables and vowels and then 2 letters per page. I have written up some homework she can do that goes along with the lessons we teach as well. I'm excited to help someone learn to read! How cool!!

I can't think of much else that has happened this week. The Library has new computers, finally! I love you, I hope all is well at home. Happy Birthday!!!

Hopefully things go well this week. I love you.
-Elder Conner Allred

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