March 29, 2010

Dearest Familia,

So it has once again been a week that feels like a day, and now I’m writing to you. Honestly not much to say so I’ll try and make this interesting.

So Tuesday we had lunch with our zone at our Stake President’s house. It was so awesome to get together with everyone. I got new missionary tags, it was awesome! Then, had a migraine but we went out tracting anyway and it was really good. We then had a couple of appointments and at about 5PM it started raining. Then it turned into little hail that they call gropple? Some weird word. And then it started snowing. And it was like East coast snow, 32 degrees, fat flakes that contain “a gallon of water in each one.” So we got a ride from our appointment to dinner and the snow was blowing horizontally and just pummeling people, so we were at some restaurant watching people fly down the street, it was crazy. We then had exchanges so Elder Taylor came and slept over at our place with me. We spent the next day doing a lot of service and shoveling old people’s driveways, that was awesome! We also found a new technique of leaving pass along cards, which I will include a picture of.

Thursday we had a good district meeting, I did my first “long training” about the atonement. The best subject in the world. We found out that we have to move in like 3 weeks, and we aren’t sure where we’re really going, it’s nuts. We offered to live in tents in our ward mission leader’s backyard and live off of locus, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen.

Friday, we had zone conference, which is now called Mission Conference. President Ely gave a n awesome training and we left IN THE SNOW to get into our car to find out that the battery was dead, yup, the car checking person had left the lights on. So we called the local missionaries and got a jump, and then went home finally. It was in Boulder, and we actually ended up getting lost, and found ourselves on CU campus. I kept looking for Kerry Ferber but I didn’t see her haha.

Saturday and Sunday were both pretty mild. We noticed almost everyone knows who we are, that’s one of the things I really like about being a missionary, and people usually do one of 3 things: 1, honk which is usually a good thing, they give us a little beep beep, just saying hey, 2, they look at us like “what the heck” and keep going, 3, they yell something which is usually really stupid. I think the one that made the least sense was “Go Satan.” I was just like… I don’t care if you are religious or not, or what you believe, just what?! I think I ended up blowing those guys a kiss, I don’t remember. But nothing really gets to me anymore, I’ve had too many people yell at me for anything and everything. Other than a bomb dropped on my face, nothing really phases me. You just have to take things, all of life in a stride, if it doesn’t matter let it roll off you, don’t hold on to it, make it fun. Blow angry people kisses :) Or my other favorite is the queen wave, like in Princess Diaries, just look like they complimented you and give them a little wave.

But yea, being a missionary is awesome, especially around Easter time. We get to celebrate Christ’s conquering death, so that we can one day live again with our Heavenly Father and be happy forever. Happy forever – sounds good right? It’s funny how when we knock on people’s door and say hey we have a message about happiness that we’d like to share, they just go “uhh not interested” … in happiness?! It’s like what?! We offer to help out, and “uhh no, I’ll just carry this 800 pound bag of fertilizer by myself” (sarcasm). This world and life is about people helping people… we’re all in this together.

I’m excited for General Conference, it’s more exciting than Christmas!

Love you all!
Elder Allred

March 22, 2010

So some random things first, I like the quote “it takes a long time to grow an old friend.” We saw this on an artsy sign on someone’s door while tracting, I liked it and still do!! Next, Thank you to the following people for writing me letters: Sechrist Family, Olivia, Ben & Melissa, Mallon Family, Isaac!! I love you all and you should be getting a return letter shortly, just give it some time! Mail makes me a very happy and productive missionary! I don’t know if I said congrats to Eric Slaugh yet, but congrats on your mission call my man! I’m pleased to announce that I finally have a decent looking 5 o’clock shadow! I’m well on my way to being wolverine when I get home! And lastly a quote from a member: “Don’t smoke unless you’re on fire” I like that, smoking is a disgusting habit, smells bad and you pay money to kill yourself, so you can spend years in the hospital and waste your already shortened life, your hair dies, your teeth die, and once again, you smell like flump aka really bad, so DON’T SMOKE PLEASE!!

Well, now that that’s done, let’s talk about life, the universe, and everything!

So after last weekend of amazing and all the Alex Boye awesomeness, pday wasn’t too wonderful. We didn’t really do anything fun :( Tuesday was better, we went to a member’s house and got our bikes “tricked out” … I can not fly on mine!! …psht no, I wish though! So we went and had a really good lesson with an investigator, he taught us how to play dominoes the “real way!” I came in second, and Elder Hiatt ended up winning, but the investigator played us and let us win, it was hilarious and awesome! Then we tracted like crazy, and I decided it really isn’t that bad if you make it fun! It’s awesome to see how grumpy people are haha, just because we try to help them out. “You’re doing what?!”…”Teaching about love and happiness, and families… oh and we’re offering free service!” …“No, no, no, I don’t like your kind.” It just makes me laugh. So then we walked along the tracks and it reminded me of home and walking the tracks with Joey Gallagher (shout out to Joey!!).

Wednesday was St. Patrick’s Day! So let’s just start of by saying that I forgot to wear green, I know… how awful (sarcasm), but with a white shirt, dark pants, and no green tie, I was pretty limited. I barely saved myself from utter destruction by severely drunk people, by throwing green grass on my head and running away like a little girl haha!

But it was another really good day. We saw a bunch of cool families and what not. We have a buddy at the Arvada Bike Shop, so cool! We were riding to dinner and all I hear is this “Allred, Yo!” Being yelled out of an apartment complex, and I just yelled back “Yo, where you at?” And he came out and we talked, and chilled for a while. The girls above him came out quite well into their St. Patrick’s day celebration and apparently, we Elders look really good haha. All I’m going to say is that it was an interesting conversation. Oh, I bought myself some dollar store aviator sunglasses, I love them! So yea, dinner was good, we cooked spaghetti with this mom and her teenage son and 8 year old-ish daughter, it was crazy fun! I make garlic bread like a gangsta (in t he way that Bishop Maxwell says Gangsta haha, if you haven’t heard him say it, you need to, it’s a must have in this life!). I also saw a bumper sticker that said “Naked Turtle” it made me laugh haha. And that was about it.

District meeting on Thursday morning was soooo good! I gave a training about being like Christ. I ended up with an analogy that we need to follow his B.E.S.T. example as missionaries. We are B-rothers, to our family here in Arvada that we need to help and strengthen. We are supposed to follow His E-xample in all we do, specifically with his love and patience toward all. We’re here to help S-ave people from, not their sins like Christ, but the pain and anxiety over some of life’s greatest questions, like “where do we go after this life” and not only do we offer them answers, but a way that they can know for themselves! Such a wonderful message!! Which flows into T-eachers. We need to be good teachers nd teach with the Spirit, because God knows everyone we talk to, and we don’t, and if we teach with the Spirit He’ll give us what we need to share/teach. Then Elder Bryan gave a great training on Thanks. And we had a Thanks-a-bonanza, and just went around, and gave thanks to our district. It was really unifying and awesome. These five guys (by the way “five guys” is such a good restaurant) are like my brothers and I love them so so so much! So the quote from the one was… “Live a Thank-a-bonanza life” it makes you feel happy, it makes others happy and feel appreciated, just give thanks! We had dinner at Qudoba, it was so good… with a family in the ward. She’s a ward missionary and her husband Isaac is like one of my favorite people, he makes drive shafts and he is just so awesome!

Then, oh yea, it was awesome… we were riding out to go and see some people/do work, and Elder Hiatt rode his bike off of a curb to get back on the road and completely bit it! His face/head/helmet hit the pavement, his bike flipped over him/wacked him/ran him over and he tumbled several yards cutting 4 holes through his jacket and white shirt to skin rash and his pants. I rode up expecting a pile of dead companion, but other than some tiny cuts on his elbow and knee he was completely fine!! There were no cuts or anything on his face… and I definitely saw his face hit the ground, his head was fine, no headache or bumps or concussion… I was just stunned. It really shows how God looks after His Missionaries. It made me happy… also, because I didn’t have to spend the night in the hospital with a dying companion! It was a miracle. So we went over to some nearby members house, the Tienvieri’s, I love them, and we kinda caught our breath and hung out. Brother T offered, and by offered I mean insisted, that he could take us shopping so that Elder Hiatt could get some more pants and what not. He is the man, so Christlike and loving, he’s just so awesome!

So Friday we had another excellent day where we did service at the food bank and left with sooo much food. They just love to take care of us, it felt like we had just gone shopping! We did some weekly planning and had a meeting with our Stake President. We talked about the lesson and topics we need to discuss with members, like missionary work, and Elder Perry’s training on helping families come unto Christ through fellowshipping and he acknowledged the “Is it old yet factor” And asked the question “is it done yet?!” …which really put it into perspective for me. That’s why through life we get so much repetition in Church, school, work, and life, so that we can GET IT DONE AND MAKE IT HAPPEN! Then we went to dinner with one of the directors at the food bank, she made us dinner, and she’s so nice. We talked with her and her husband, who are both actually ministers, about star trek and guy movies, it was fun. Then we went to dinner, yes we ended up with two dinners, and it almost killed me… with some awesome members. Then Walmart, with the T’s, so fun! And awesome! I felt like a little kid! Sister T was just like, no not that, that will fade, get this, look at this, this would be cute, etc. it was so funny and made me feel at home! :) oh by the way, Friday morning at midnight it started snowing, and stopped Friday night at midnight… so 24 hrs of snow, we ended up with like a foot, and now it’s almost gone 2 days later… I guess that’s Colorado for you!

Saturday was fun, we ate lunch with the district and had a Find Timmy (3^rd ward’s member’s dog) Adventure. Timmy is a tiny deaf dog who can only turn left. He’s also the coolest dog ever and does handstands when he pee’s, so cool! But he got out, so we went on an adventure to find him, and eventually made it happen. A bunch of our appointments cancelled that day, so it was pretty uneventful other than that, but it’s all good.

Sunday was good. We found out right before church that I was an uncle! Then sleepy church, sleepy choir practice, sleepy nap, walked around and saw some people, and had a pretty bland day. However, I will end with this. I think I have grown the most just this past week. While up until now I have been fighting to stay afloat in the work, I’m not just riding the waves and doing sweet tricks on my surfboard over whatever happens. It’s like, I just switched form defense to offense and now I’m “attacking the work” and enjoying helping people and sharing a message that has changed my life. I’m so grateful for you, my family, friends, and everyone that has made me who I am today.

I love you all. Until next week.

Elder Allred

Pictures for March 15 Letter

The Whole Mission -- where is waldo? aka Elder Allred
(click on the picture for the full size version)
Elder Hiatt, Elder Allred, Elder Bryan & Elder Slezack
Alex Boye!

Elder Allred & Alex Boye

March 15, 2010

So, this is my life in a nutshell, or turtle shell.

First off, Job 39:25, I don’t remember off the top of my head what it says, but I think it’s a good one/made me laugh. So I wrote down a ton of stuff in my last week’s planner, however I forgot it because I thought I was done with it, so I’ll do my best. I brought my ouranl, but I haven’t updated it, I know I need to, I will change my ways :)

So Monday was p-day, it was fun. Tuesday, I forget, we did missionary work :) This week was so slow, all of our investigators are sluggish it seems, so I’ll just give you the highlights.

So in big events this week, we’ll start with Thursday. Went on exchanges, no wait, that was Friday? No no, it was Thursday. So we went on exchanges. I was wit Elder Segwick who is a zone leader and Elder Hiatt went with Natjees (prounounces Natches). It was really fun, he’s such a good missionary, he’s exactly obedient and the big thing is, he talks to everybody and by everybody, it’s like crazy, he seems to run people down, it’s so funny,. It works. We did some good work that day. We got a return appointment out of it! And like 3 numbers, so that was good, a way good day! However that night we got an appointment from one of our investigators and we found out things weren’t too great and life seemed to be falling apart. Somehow the opinion was formed that if she starting doing the right things life would just be cake, but it wasn’t. It broke my heart. She thanked me though for being able to understand her… even though she’s older somehow I was blessed to be able to understand her situation and feelings. We told her to give it a bit; we’ll call her today and see how she’s doing. Another investigator we have is really good, but we have to wait a week to meet with her. Another got pneumonia :( and we probably will have to stop seeing another investigator which is sad. We got all this dumped on us and we’re praying a lot for finding and that’s our main goal this week; find people! We’re calling it operation Phoenix, Rise from the Ashes.

No, I didn’t get transferred, nor Hiatt, and it’s good. We’re working really well in unity together, we just gotta find people! So that was Thursday.

Friday was weekly planning and service, very fun.

Saturday, and Sunday were the big cool days. So we’ll go there. First of all, Saturday afternoon, we had been planning this idea that I had, because we’re all musical, to go into the “old town Arvada” and play music and street contact and stuff. So we did that form like 2-4pm and it was pretty successful. We learned a lot on how we can improve it and we plan on doing it again possibly every Saturday. But it was just awesome, we went around and talked to people, and it was good. I took a guitar and Elder Bryan and I walked around to couples and people sitting at tables outside and just sand/played them songs. We ended up having a discussion with two girls who both accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, and committed them to read Moroni’s promise and about Jesus visiting the Americas in 3 Nephi 11. Those passages are so powerful, I hope they read them. It was just good all around. At the end we sang I Believe in Christ, in 3 part harmony acapella, it went well and made me happy. Then we did some errands and a family bailed on us which was a bummer. That night was a concert called Soul Food that we’ve been advertising and promoting these past couple of weeks. It was a choir composed of all of these different faiths with Alex Boye, of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, he’s a soloist, singing, it was soooo good! Alex is hilarious, and we all want his cds, he’s so good! And he’s probably the most Christlike person I’ve ever met, if you even talk to him he just makes you happy. So we all got pictures with him, which I’ll be sending this week and next week. The concert was awesome, it was a fundraiser for the food bank where we work, and the food bank loves us, and it was good. We got to help out and stuff, it was awesome.

Then Sunday, the time change kicked my butt. We got messed up because our phone went off but our clocks said 5:30, so I went back to bed, it was too early, and I thought it was 5:30, and it’s a good thing we didn’t have early morning meetings. Then we figured out the time change, and got up and got ready. This week it was bring a friend to church and guess how many we had…0. Not very happy :( but it was what it was. So then we went to a member’s for lunch. I took a nap because it was raining and we couldn’t walk or bike. Then to Bishop’s for an early dinner, and then to an Alex Boye fireside for our stake! It was probably the most motivating thing I’ve ever heard. Better than John Bytheway! And probably on par with General Conference. It wasn’t like the same old dry this is the gospel… this man has a passion, and he was just hilarious. He’s black so he cracked a bunch of jokes and just told his conversion story how it was. I thought it was one of the most real things ever. It was like the Bible, similar to Saul, a Christian killer, and it says it in the bible. Alex wasn’t like that, he was a fighter and grew up… essentially I’d say half on the streets, he’s sooo strong. At one point he was homeless, and he was like “why me?” he found himself in the back of a parked abandoned van struggling to stay warm and opened up D&C 121 & 122, and said he’d always take his circumstances as they came. It was awesome. He also talked about the effects of music on us and what bad music really does to us. D&C 25:11; the song of the righteous is a payer unto God. So he asked the question, “what’s the opposite?” The song of the wicked is a prayer unto Satan, and shall be answered with a curse upon thy head, pretty much was the message he shared. It’s so true! He pointed out that it applies to every song, not just hymns. EVERY SONG, is either a prayer to God or to Satan. We get to pick who we pray to. He also listened to the radio and just flipped through the channels for 1 hour, and wrote down all the topics that they talked about; he read the list of things, non-edited, and it was absolutely disgusting what is being not only glorified, but AIMED at the age group of 5-20! It’s not even funny the things that were on there, it’s disgusting! We wonder why society is getting so much worse… it’s because standards have become lax. He pointed out that Satan doesn’t just tell us, boom do this bad thing, he wears away at us, and slowly the line between PG-13 and R blurs, anything is acceptable now, anything goes, and it’s just disgusting. He desensitizes us so that we don’t care or feel anymore, we can’t feel for our fellow men, we focus inward and it’s destroying not only society, but families and lives. I mean just look around; he pointed out that For the Strength of Youth, isn’t just rules, it’s not just guidelines, it’s inspired revelation from a Prophet of God to show us how we can be happy. What happens when we break the law of the land? We got to fail, how much freedom do we have? What happens when we break God’s law? We are bound by sin, by addictions, by guilt, by consequences. How much freedom does an alcoholic, a chain smoker, a drug addict have? None. It’s the same thing with all of the gospel laws and principles. People ask why we follow God’s laws and refrain from things, it’s not because we can’t, it’s because we gain freedom by having self control. He equated life to a performance. Every day we as people and I would say especially members of the church, as we go outside, people watch us, people judge our performance. If we drink, swear, lie, cheat, steal… people will remember it, and call it out and then judge all other members or people on it. Everyone remembers a bad performance much more than a good one. Think about American Idol… yea that person was good, but oh man did that one guy mess up really badly! It sticks with us. And yes, it’s hard to be a good example but Joshua 1:9… read it, God is with us. 2 Nephi 8:7, 12-13… why do we fear to do what is right? Why are we afraid of man? By the way; I have been really studying this, and Jacob is the man! Chapter 6-10 are like his General Conference talk. Jesus says in verse 13, I created the heavens and the earth and everything, and man. So I’d say people that don’t like you or yell at you, or tempt you, or even hate you… shall be as the grass, which means, we will eventually die, and will live again. But they have no judgments over us to tell us we are wrong, not like judges and stuff; but the everyday person who makes fun of the “Mormon kid” because he doesn’t drink or someone who flips you off on the road; don’t get mad, don’t get scared, our Father in Heaven and His son Jesus Christ are watching after us. I’m preparing a training on this exact topic. In the Bible there is the story of Elisha (2 Kings 6) on the mountain side, he and his servant; his servant is so afraid, and he says something like, be at peace, for they that are with us re more than be with them. The servants eyes are opened and he saw all the heavenly chariots and stuff; its just amazing! And that’s what we as children of our Heavenly Father are like, if we seek His guidance, He will protect us!

He loves us and wants us all to return to live with Him again. That is why I’m serving a mission; that is why I follow the commandments. Because it has brought, and continues to bring more joy to my life than I can possibly express or be worthy of.

There is always hope.

There is always a way to heal.

Continue to have faith my friends and family, pray always! He listens, and He cares.

I love you all.

Elder Jonathan Allred

Coming Soon

Sorry everyone for the delay in getting Jonathan's past... 4 letters up (basically a month of letters). I have been busy adjusting to life as a Mom and am frankly exhausted. Jonathan became an uncle on March 20 as we welcome Jared Gideon Smith into the world!

In the spare moments I will put his new letters and few pictures he has sent. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Nettina