Dear family,
I want to start with my sincere thanks and gratitude to each one of you for your thoughts and prayers on my behalf this past week.
Elder Martinez and I are having a fantastic time working for the Lord and this past week was super busy with lots of meetings.
Monday you guys know about.
Tuesday was my first official leadership training meeting where all the District leaders, Zone leaders, and trainers for the south half of the mission got together and learned stuff. I was assigned one of the 3 trainings and I think it went pretty well, though it was intimidating teaching the people who "raised me" on the mission. I got to talk about why our first impressions are so important with people and how we begin the "teaching process". When it all boils down, we are teaching people, not lessons. They need to know that. We're not missionaries to have more people in our church, or convert people, or any of that. We are missionaries to help people understand who God is, their relationship with Him, what they need to do in this life to be happy, not only now, but after this life. It's a wonderful blessing to be a part of such soul searching aspects of so many people's lives. After the super long 7-8ish hour meeting, got back to my area and snagged Elder Martinez for dinner with the Jones who I used to live with. We had some awesome Asian chicken curry or something cool. It was pretty bomb. Then we were wondering what would be the most effective use of our time and we decided to go and see a potential that Elder Rodriguez and I had contacted before Christmas. We went over and he was home! We got to talk to him and his fiance and had a great talk. They both said they wanted to read the Book of Mormon.
Wednesday I Had the first of many doctor appointments to come to get me back on track with some medical issues. got to go down to the "ghetto" aka Aurora Colorado to go to the drs, it was fun. Then, when we got home, Elder Martinez was really sick and ended up falling asleep (which was good for him) for several hours. So, I decided to use that time productively and took a little nap myself. I think that I'm learning very quickly (and E. Martinez is too) that leadership means more responsibility and less sleep. But, when he woke up he did feel better and we were able to go to dinner with an awesome family in the ward and had some really good broccoli cheese soup stuff. (notice a lot of my update is about the kinds of food i'm eating? #1 it's because i want mom to know that i eat more food than PB and J and corn dogs now, and #2 cuz i like food and I'm getting fat now that i have a car). anyways, after that we helped some other missionaries in their ward to visit some people and ended the night out that way.
Thursday was dr ap #2. over in brighton. We got back and ate lunch super quick and headed out to district meeting. We talked about revelation and how important it is in our lives and especially how essential it is to missionary work. We discussed finding and a program that the ZLs had outlined that I decided to implement in the district. What it is, is a bold invitation to invite others to come unto Christ. When we look at the blessings that knowing of the restoration in our lives has given us, it's hard to imagine where we would be without it. We know there are many who don't know of Christ and are searching for it. The Lord is preparing these people now (see Alma 16:16) and they are looking for the light that we have (a city that is set on a hill). These people see the light and desire it, we can't hide it, people know that we're different, but the way we act, talk, converse, pretty much everything. Those people are the ones that God is preparing. So our invitation to all of the dinner appointments we've had has been, will you share the blessings that you have received, put your faith in God that He has someone prepared for you to find, and invite someone in the next 7 days to meet with us and take the missionary lessons. It's a very bold and straightforward commitment that requires a lot of faith and work. However, in our Zone we've seen success in this invitation and I know that there is more to come. After district meeting we had to drive everyone home and made some stops before dinner. I don't really remember what we did the rest of the day...so yea.
Friday we did weekly planning once again....seems like it happens every week lol.
We had a good lesson with a sister and her brother who just moved in with her.
I also had the privileged/trunky experience of picking up one of the members in our district and his companion who was going home early (like 2 weeks) for school. I did get a cool pair of Dragon sunglasses from him though :D>.
Saturday we had a ton of appointments. We talked with the W family about how Small and Simple things bring about great things, and how the small and simple decisions in our lives now will determine our future. We had a lesson......with a guy....yea, it wasn’t so great... Then dinner was good....chicken. And we had another good lesson with DS about faith and it was sweet. Elder Martinez is an awesome missionary and i think the best thing about training is seeing the improvement in their teaching skills and how they listen to the spirit to help people in what they really need.
Sunday was once again a day of church and meetings. Don't really remember anything other than that.......yea. We had burritos and deep fried oreos for dinner.
it was so good.
Anyways, life is awesome again, it's all ups and downs and i'm working to push through the downs. But thank you all so much again for all you do for me. I couldn't do it without you.
And an invitation this week.
Think about all the blessings you have because you know about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. And if you love it, share it. Also, get familiar with this website it's awesome and it's a great tool to introduce people to our beliefs and what they are.
So
take care
work hard
play hard
and love lots
love you all
Elder Jonathan Allred
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