Please note all mail as of October 20, 2010 should be sent to the following address. The Mission Office is moving. All mail sent to the other address will be forwarded for 3 weeks and then stop. Mail that is sent to the new address before the 20th will be held until that date. Thanks!
Elder Jonathan A Allred
Colorado Denver North Mission
1250 Main Street
Broomfield, CO 80020
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
October 12, 2010
Dearest Familia,
It was so great to hear from all of you yesterday since I was able to briefly check my email. I hope everyone is doing well!
Shout out to Grandma Lois, Ryan Lynn, and Isaac for sending me letters!
It made my day.
So, we left off in my mission saga with me getting transferred back to Arvada 2nd and working there for a week.
So Monday we went and played frisbee golf and had a good ole' time.
Tuesday my companion went on exchanges so I was with the Zone Leaders all day. It was a super good day and we found like 3 new investigators. It's such a blessing to be able to help people be happy through something that has blessed my life.
Wednesday we had district meeting and I had a dr. appointment down in aurora where my companion had served, so he was pretty nostalgic. That night we did a program called "sweep for sheep" which is super cool where pretty much we go on splits and work in an area where members are...yea it works.
Thursday my companion and I were with one of the Zone Leaders because the other one was on exchanges, and there's a challenge in our mission called the nugget challenge...you can get 50 nuggets for 10$ at McDonalds...and you try to eat them all in one sitting... 25 is more than enough...that's how far I got, and then i finished the rest later...that night i woke up with a headache at like 3 in the AM...no good. not a good idea. We also met with our most progressing investigator S and taught her the plan of salvation. she is progressing toward her baptismal date in november very well.
Friday was awesome, we found a new investigator...and i forget what else.
Saturday we found 3 new investigators and had a great day.
Sunday was weird because it was my first time seeing most of the ward b/c i didn't see anyone on general conference sunday, and they were all like Your back! and i was like....I'm leaving tomorrow...so it was good but sad and really hard.
I found out Saturday that I was returning (and am currently in) Lousiville with Elder Lloyd this time. We're working well together already and focusing on finding people here to teach. It is 42 degrees here today and raining...i love it. lol
I want to leave you all with a message about hope.
Life is hard. I know. I don't know exactly all of your troubles or worries and cares, but there is someone who does. That is Jesus Christ, our savior. He knows the beginning from the end and knows what we care about and what we need. In times of trials you can know that you will get what you need, it won't necessarily be easy, but you can make it through it. And sometimes we just have to grit our teeth and take that next step...it's so much easier said than done as I'm finding out. But you don't have to do it alone. God loves us which is why he blessed us with families and with prophets to show us the way home to Him. He sent His son Jesus Christ to make amends for our sins and allow us to repent and do all that is necessary to live with Him again. After Christ rose, His saints were persecuted and God took the authority to act in His name off the earth for a time. But because He loves us he returned that authority, called the priesthood, to the earth again through a prophet named Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith translated a book, called the Book of Mormon, through God's instruction and power, to give the world another testament that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. We can know that Joseph Smith was a prophet by reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it, to see if God truly has called a prophet to guide us to this day. I've done this and I have felt the warmth and happiness in my heart, that is God testifying to me that The Book of Mormon is His word.
My invitation to all, who have and have not, to read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it is true. The truth blesses our lives by showing us the path by which we need to travel to be happy, not only in this life, but for all eternity. We can know that our families are eternal and that God cares enough to continue to guide us today.
If you need a copy of the Book of Mormon, you can get one for free, just visit www.mormon.org
Always have hope and faith.
Never give up and never surrender
I love you all
Jonathan
It was so great to hear from all of you yesterday since I was able to briefly check my email. I hope everyone is doing well!
Shout out to Grandma Lois, Ryan Lynn, and Isaac for sending me letters!
It made my day.
So, we left off in my mission saga with me getting transferred back to Arvada 2nd and working there for a week.
So Monday we went and played frisbee golf and had a good ole' time.
Tuesday my companion went on exchanges so I was with the Zone Leaders all day. It was a super good day and we found like 3 new investigators. It's such a blessing to be able to help people be happy through something that has blessed my life.
Wednesday we had district meeting and I had a dr. appointment down in aurora where my companion had served, so he was pretty nostalgic. That night we did a program called "sweep for sheep" which is super cool where pretty much we go on splits and work in an area where members are...yea it works.
Thursday my companion and I were with one of the Zone Leaders because the other one was on exchanges, and there's a challenge in our mission called the nugget challenge...you can get 50 nuggets for 10$ at McDonalds...and you try to eat them all in one sitting... 25 is more than enough...that's how far I got, and then i finished the rest later...that night i woke up with a headache at like 3 in the AM...no good. not a good idea. We also met with our most progressing investigator S and taught her the plan of salvation. she is progressing toward her baptismal date in november very well.
Friday was awesome, we found a new investigator...and i forget what else.
Saturday we found 3 new investigators and had a great day.
Sunday was weird because it was my first time seeing most of the ward b/c i didn't see anyone on general conference sunday, and they were all like Your back! and i was like....I'm leaving tomorrow...so it was good but sad and really hard.
I found out Saturday that I was returning (and am currently in) Lousiville with Elder Lloyd this time. We're working well together already and focusing on finding people here to teach. It is 42 degrees here today and raining...i love it. lol
I want to leave you all with a message about hope.
Life is hard. I know. I don't know exactly all of your troubles or worries and cares, but there is someone who does. That is Jesus Christ, our savior. He knows the beginning from the end and knows what we care about and what we need. In times of trials you can know that you will get what you need, it won't necessarily be easy, but you can make it through it. And sometimes we just have to grit our teeth and take that next step...it's so much easier said than done as I'm finding out. But you don't have to do it alone. God loves us which is why he blessed us with families and with prophets to show us the way home to Him. He sent His son Jesus Christ to make amends for our sins and allow us to repent and do all that is necessary to live with Him again. After Christ rose, His saints were persecuted and God took the authority to act in His name off the earth for a time. But because He loves us he returned that authority, called the priesthood, to the earth again through a prophet named Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith translated a book, called the Book of Mormon, through God's instruction and power, to give the world another testament that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. We can know that Joseph Smith was a prophet by reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it, to see if God truly has called a prophet to guide us to this day. I've done this and I have felt the warmth and happiness in my heart, that is God testifying to me that The Book of Mormon is His word.
My invitation to all, who have and have not, to read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it is true. The truth blesses our lives by showing us the path by which we need to travel to be happy, not only in this life, but for all eternity. We can know that our families are eternal and that God cares enough to continue to guide us today.
If you need a copy of the Book of Mormon, you can get one for free, just visit www.mormon.org
Always have hope and faith.
Never give up and never surrender
I love you all
Jonathan
Sunday, October 10, 2010
October 4, 2010
Dearest familia
the past week has been exciting
so monday was good we did pday, we went on a hike up to royal arch. so fun. Elders asay, de la cruz, and i ran up and down, we got down in 30 mins when it took everyone else 70. it was so sweet.
i had contacted president Ely about things going on and things that happened....so
tuesday morning i woke up and did normal stuff and got out of the shower to a message from him! that was fun. i called him back and it turns out that Elder Green who was training in Arvada 2nd (the ward i served in) had a companion that wound up going home...which stunk. So i was called back to replace him and my companion was sent off to be with some other missionaries.
So i will be going back to louisville on oct 11th as far as the plan is...and there is a chance i could be training...but we'll see.
So yes that's correct, i've been Emergency transferred and am back in Arvada 2nd ward.
It's been so good to see the Carroll's, Stiefvaters (i still sleep in the same bed), and Tienvieri's along with everyone else.
So Tuesday the rest of it, i had to pack up the area, get our dinner's cancelled, and all of our appointments delegated to other missionaries or members. It was hectic. I had like 0 time to pack and realized that i gained a ton of stuff...therefore i will be sending home a bunch of stuff soon. But the APs (assistant to the President) came to pick us up and we drove down.
Wednesday was district meeting which was super good. I felt super sick. Saw some people that i missed. Threw up after dinner cuz i'm sick lol. Then we went to this thing called "sweep for sheep" which the stake president here just started (he was like...Edler Allred, you're back!) we visited a bunch of people and knocked both doors on either side, it was so good. But by the end i had a migraine, and got a blessing and went to bed.
Thursday, felt like crap in the morning and had to take a 20 min nap. But it was good, then we went to do service on top of the apex center where we were before....so much dejavu.. Did visits, saw people.....nothing big....Saw Brother Carroll that night so good.
Friday went back to the food bank, went well. So many appointments didn't even have time to do weekly planning. I think it was either friday or thursday that we went to see someone and had a feeling to take another road....and we saw a teeanger from another ward walking with a friend who we invited to take the lessons......set up one for sunday...more to come.
Saturday began the wonderful phenomena of General Conference...i could talk about it for forever, but you all know how awesome it was. It felt good to stand with all the missionaries in the world who were awake lol..
Sunday was more General Conference and then we had dinner with Bishop and went to our appointment with S at her friend's house. Found out his dad is the bishop of a spanish ward around here. I got to talk to them in spanish for like 30 mins. And it felt good to be loved in the spanish culture again, i felt like i was in philly. I walked in and they were like oh so good to meet you, are you hungry? I told them we had just eaten and they were like, Oh, ok, then I'll just make you 2 tacos each. I laughed, but the tacos were amazing, i could have died happy. But then we taught the first lesson and set her for baptism for November. It was awesome. It's so nice to be with Elder Green. He's such a hard worker, loves to have fun, and just do the work. We're having a great time.
So that's about it. I have another week of "vacation" in arvada 2nd...lol
During this time i plan to work my butt off and find people to help.
I love being a missionary and i just want to keep going and having a great time.
I've also officially been out 10 months, which seems like forever and no time... it's weird.
anyways
love you all
stay strong
sorry this letter was blah super busy
love you
J
the past week has been exciting
so monday was good we did pday, we went on a hike up to royal arch. so fun. Elders asay, de la cruz, and i ran up and down, we got down in 30 mins when it took everyone else 70. it was so sweet.
i had contacted president Ely about things going on and things that happened....so
tuesday morning i woke up and did normal stuff and got out of the shower to a message from him! that was fun. i called him back and it turns out that Elder Green who was training in Arvada 2nd (the ward i served in) had a companion that wound up going home...which stunk. So i was called back to replace him and my companion was sent off to be with some other missionaries.
So i will be going back to louisville on oct 11th as far as the plan is...and there is a chance i could be training...but we'll see.
So yes that's correct, i've been Emergency transferred and am back in Arvada 2nd ward.
It's been so good to see the Carroll's, Stiefvaters (i still sleep in the same bed), and Tienvieri's along with everyone else.
So Tuesday the rest of it, i had to pack up the area, get our dinner's cancelled, and all of our appointments delegated to other missionaries or members. It was hectic. I had like 0 time to pack and realized that i gained a ton of stuff...therefore i will be sending home a bunch of stuff soon. But the APs (assistant to the President) came to pick us up and we drove down.
Wednesday was district meeting which was super good. I felt super sick. Saw some people that i missed. Threw up after dinner cuz i'm sick lol. Then we went to this thing called "sweep for sheep" which the stake president here just started (he was like...Edler Allred, you're back!) we visited a bunch of people and knocked both doors on either side, it was so good. But by the end i had a migraine, and got a blessing and went to bed.
Thursday, felt like crap in the morning and had to take a 20 min nap. But it was good, then we went to do service on top of the apex center where we were before....so much dejavu.. Did visits, saw people.....nothing big....Saw Brother Carroll that night so good.
Friday went back to the food bank, went well. So many appointments didn't even have time to do weekly planning. I think it was either friday or thursday that we went to see someone and had a feeling to take another road....and we saw a teeanger from another ward walking with a friend who we invited to take the lessons......set up one for sunday...more to come.
Saturday began the wonderful phenomena of General Conference...i could talk about it for forever, but you all know how awesome it was. It felt good to stand with all the missionaries in the world who were awake lol..
Sunday was more General Conference and then we had dinner with Bishop and went to our appointment with S at her friend's house. Found out his dad is the bishop of a spanish ward around here. I got to talk to them in spanish for like 30 mins. And it felt good to be loved in the spanish culture again, i felt like i was in philly. I walked in and they were like oh so good to meet you, are you hungry? I told them we had just eaten and they were like, Oh, ok, then I'll just make you 2 tacos each. I laughed, but the tacos were amazing, i could have died happy. But then we taught the first lesson and set her for baptism for November. It was awesome. It's so nice to be with Elder Green. He's such a hard worker, loves to have fun, and just do the work. We're having a great time.
So that's about it. I have another week of "vacation" in arvada 2nd...lol
During this time i plan to work my butt off and find people to help.
I love being a missionary and i just want to keep going and having a great time.
I've also officially been out 10 months, which seems like forever and no time... it's weird.
anyways
love you all
stay strong
sorry this letter was blah super busy
love you
J
September 27, 2010
You know how they say that a picture is worth a thousand words...i hope so b/c i have no time and not a lot to write about. my life is ups and downs this week. probably the happiest i've been on my mission and the saddest. however, i've learned that it's what we do when we're down and out that truly shows our character. that's when we prove who we are. i'm going to try next week to send out an update on anything cool that happened this last week.
But briefly here goes,
pday i don't remember what we did, nothing pretty much
the Boulder ward got a greenie (brand new missionary)...so there is a 3pan (3-person companionship instead of the normal 2), he's waiting to get his visa to go to mexico so they sent him here while he waits for it to clear.
tuesday we had a lesson with the w’s that was good
wed elder petrone had physical therapy, which they call physio therapy in canada....
thursday we ate lunch with an older sister in the ward that was good, i got us lost.
i had an old lady attack me and not let go so i had to walk around with her at service on thursday
friday we had district meeting and weekly planning
saturday just sucked
and sunday was super good with church, my companion on vicadin and Morgan's baptism.
then we went down the road to Boulder Ward's baptism, it was sweet
The church is true.
if you get sad, sit down and read The Book of Mormon
i love you all
J
But briefly here goes,
pday i don't remember what we did, nothing pretty much
the Boulder ward got a greenie (brand new missionary)...so there is a 3pan (3-person companionship instead of the normal 2), he's waiting to get his visa to go to mexico so they sent him here while he waits for it to clear.
tuesday we had a lesson with the w’s that was good
wed elder petrone had physical therapy, which they call physio therapy in canada....
thursday we ate lunch with an older sister in the ward that was good, i got us lost.
i had an old lady attack me and not let go so i had to walk around with her at service on thursday
friday we had district meeting and weekly planning
saturday just sucked
and sunday was super good with church, my companion on vicadin and Morgan's baptism.
then we went down the road to Boulder Ward's baptism, it was sweet
The church is true.
if you get sad, sit down and read The Book of Mormon
i love you all
J
Morgan's Baptism:
Baptism in the Boulder Ward:
September 20, 2010
sooooo
once again, i find myself in the library writing about another uneventful week.
let me give you the low down.
my companion isn’t doing so well.
We've been going to the chiropractor every other day.
he took x-rays and said that his hips were an inch out of place and his spine was messed up. so we've been on bed rest all week for me, it’s been pretty boring, I want to be working!!
monday we did like nothing, we went around and i found some sick (awesome) shoes for cheap.
tuesday....we did nothing. we did some service in the morning for the 2 hours we were allowed to be out and then at night we went to dinner...
During the day and in the future updated days to come i did the following
wrote songs on the guitar
wrote songs on the piano
learned how to play cruela devil on the piano
read the New Testament up to the book of Acts
listened to 4 hours of Jesus the Christ on tape.
designed a clothing company
played the most pointless 2 player game of monopoly ever
hibernated
read more scriptures
and ate food to break up the time...
yea that was about my week, but I'll go through and highlight some more things...
Wednesday i'm pretty sure we did absolutely nothing, i'm not even sure we left the house for more than an hour...
thursday we actually did stuff, it was aweosme. we had district meeting, our ride had an appointment and we had no way to get home. so we sat in the car for a while. saw a family, had dinner and went home to crash. it was a lot of walking around for Elder Petrone, but he toughed through it.
Friday.......nothing again....
Saturday.......nothing until the afternoon, when we did a service project.
Sunday was good. We had stake conference which was a broadcast from salt lake. We got to hear from President Hallstrom of the Presidency of the 70, who i've met a couple times, he comes to our mission a lot. then Sister Cook. then Elder Perry and then President Uchtorff. They all gave really good talks. But we had to sit in the last row of the overflow in the gym, so that if Elder Petrone had to get up to stand up (sitting hurts him) then he could get up. it was mildly uncomfortable, but it was good. Then we had a late dinner
and that brings us to today.
So, long story short is this:
2 player monopoly is absolutely no fun.
You can only read so much of the scriptures before you fall asleep
HOWEVER! the new testament is super good. something i never really really read before.
Don't eat over ripe plums,
and if you get bored, working out is a great thing to do.
Anyways.... life continues on.
and a fact of life is this:
WE cannot control all that goes on around us...if we could it would be dumb.
WE CAN control the way we respond to occurances and decide who we want to be.
It's true.
Anyways, stay close to the gospel my family.
Christ knows all, and He is ready to help us through any and all trials that we have to go through.
Take care of yourselves.
Much love
Jonathan
once again, i find myself in the library writing about another uneventful week.
let me give you the low down.
my companion isn’t doing so well.
We've been going to the chiropractor every other day.
he took x-rays and said that his hips were an inch out of place and his spine was messed up. so we've been on bed rest all week for me, it’s been pretty boring, I want to be working!!
monday we did like nothing, we went around and i found some sick (awesome) shoes for cheap.
tuesday....we did nothing. we did some service in the morning for the 2 hours we were allowed to be out and then at night we went to dinner...
During the day and in the future updated days to come i did the following
wrote songs on the guitar
wrote songs on the piano
learned how to play cruela devil on the piano
read the New Testament up to the book of Acts
listened to 4 hours of Jesus the Christ on tape.
designed a clothing company
played the most pointless 2 player game of monopoly ever
hibernated
read more scriptures
and ate food to break up the time...
yea that was about my week, but I'll go through and highlight some more things...
Wednesday i'm pretty sure we did absolutely nothing, i'm not even sure we left the house for more than an hour...
thursday we actually did stuff, it was aweosme. we had district meeting, our ride had an appointment and we had no way to get home. so we sat in the car for a while. saw a family, had dinner and went home to crash. it was a lot of walking around for Elder Petrone, but he toughed through it.
Friday.......nothing again....
Saturday.......nothing until the afternoon, when we did a service project.
Sunday was good. We had stake conference which was a broadcast from salt lake. We got to hear from President Hallstrom of the Presidency of the 70, who i've met a couple times, he comes to our mission a lot. then Sister Cook. then Elder Perry and then President Uchtorff. They all gave really good talks. But we had to sit in the last row of the overflow in the gym, so that if Elder Petrone had to get up to stand up (sitting hurts him) then he could get up. it was mildly uncomfortable, but it was good. Then we had a late dinner
and that brings us to today.
So, long story short is this:
2 player monopoly is absolutely no fun.
You can only read so much of the scriptures before you fall asleep
HOWEVER! the new testament is super good. something i never really really read before.
Don't eat over ripe plums,
and if you get bored, working out is a great thing to do.
Anyways.... life continues on.
and a fact of life is this:
WE cannot control all that goes on around us...if we could it would be dumb.
WE CAN control the way we respond to occurances and decide who we want to be.
It's true.
Anyways, stay close to the gospel my family.
Christ knows all, and He is ready to help us through any and all trials that we have to go through.
Take care of yourselves.
Much love
Jonathan
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