February 26, 2011

Dearest familia,

I don't know how but time is just flying by now.
It never seems to stop.
It's a good thing, just kinda confusing.

So, let's jump into things and then i'll share some life lessons at the end.

First, last saturday was P's baptism! it went super well, his family came down from Fort Collins to be with him, and it was a super special day. I don't really know what we did the rest of the day, but i think we just went back to work b/c our pday was shot anyways.

Sunday was church, my first one at a singles ward for a long time. It was really fun and I got asked to say the opening prayer on the spot. My first zone leader, Elder Tim Smith who is currently at byu, came back visiting and it was seriously amazing to see him again. Lots of man love. We talked to him about people that he had been teaching and how to be successful (b/c my comp has only been here a transfer) and we got a lot of good ideas. There's a quote we have on our board that says (totally paraphrasing) when you want to achieve things never done before, you have to do things that have never been done.~ some general authority.
So we're brainstorming wiht the spirit and seeing what we need to do.
Anyways, we then had a linger longer and had a bunch of good food after church and rushed to the stake center to have a meeting with the stake president. we talked about the work in the zone and set up a dinner for the next night, at his house, for the zone.
after that................good question, life got busy.
We had to deal with an emergency transfer.

An elder from the north (he was actually just comps with rodriguez (my first son) in sterling) was coming to my district. So we had to talk to the elder who was leaving to head north and get things squared away.
We had dinner with one of the dating couples in the ward...actually like the only dating couple in the ward, and it was fun when he realized that the meat for the enchilladas he was making was pork and not chicken...still tasted good though.

Monday morning was my first conference call with all of the zone leaders, the assistants, and president.
it was good to hear a lot of my friends voices. we don't really get to chat, it's just reporting numbers and getting announcements, but it's fun. Then we went and used a little more of pday to kick it with the district for 2 hours.
Almost all of our afternooon appointments cancelled, so we did some logistics for zone conference and drove out to broomfield for the dinner. Got the zone pumped for zone conference and then booked to boulder for FHE, it was a picture scavenger hunt. it was fun but not a lot of people showed which was lame-tastic.

Tuesday we were swamped with appointments and taught a lesson about snoopy and becoming more Christ like. It went well. Ate dinner at buffaloe wild wings with some awesome people, that was super fun.

Wednesday was Zone conference! So we got our zone over to westminster (which is like 2 miles outside our zone) and had that. We do "reviews" each time and it was good to see our zone do well. It was very spiritual, i got quoted by president, which made me feel good, and then our zone meeting at the end (just our zone) went super well.
We talked about the talk from Elder Scott in the last conference, and the 5 things he tells us to do. it went super well. So afterwards, back to boulder, dropping people off and getting to an appointment late. DId some more snoopy lessons, then out to dinner with one of my fav people in the world JW. we went to this high brow italian place called med on pearl st. it was tight. more lessons and then home.

Thursday we had the wonderful assignment to go to longmont and check 3 zones worth of cars for cleanliness in the morning. It took about 2 hours and by the time we were done i was filthy with engine oil and tire black, and quite cold b/c we didn't realize that it was still winter. colorado weather is super bi-polar. But, we got free lunch and to see a lot of friends. I got to see rodriguez which was awesome, he's doing really well. Went bk to boulder, super sleepy. Lots of lessons. Got pizza with a bunch of institute kids for dinner. Lots more lessons. collapse.

Quote from Pres. Monson "we watch, we wait, we listen for that still small voice, when it speaks wise men and women obey. We do not post pone following promptings of the spirit"
good guidance.

Friday was awesome. We had a meeting with a college student who had been looking into the church a while ago and we were able to get to know her and become friends which is super cool. I'm learning once again how to be 20 years old instead of middle aged with kids (due to being in a family ward) so our lesson went super well. and then we had another lesson with an investigator. he's joseph smith's great (multiple) grandson. He just got some things taken care of and is now hopefully in the clear to get baptized. we're siked. Had a lot more lessons (by the way we had a greenie with us b/c his comp was on exchanges) and ate at panera bread for dinner. That brings us to today. I'm super sleepy, super happy, and ridiculously hungry.

Life is good when ur busy doing something that you want to, that is worth while, and that you love. You have to throw everything you got at life b/c you get one shot in each moment. And if you don't, then you won't get all you can out of life.

But don't worry if you mess up, we all do, you just have to keep the right perspective and realize that not all "moments" are of equal importance, and even if they are important, we have a wonderful Savior who can take care of us if we strive to do what He asks of us.

Thank you all for your support. I love each of you and will see you sooner than any of us realize....
time goes by so fast. enjoy it
i used to be an "i can't wait until" person.
now I choose to be a "i'm enjoying now" person.
love you all
Elder Jonathan Allred