first off...
my camera had a slight technical difficulty this week....i found out that cameras don't like being shut in car doors...
it still works as far as i can tell..just the screen looks like a spider web of doom....
so yea
how can i loose weight on the mission...any ideas?
for aunt Marilyn.....Nancy Harris who she went to college and lived near/with at DT is in my stake and says hi......she ended up marrying Robin Bramwell///Bramfield? something.....who aunt Marylin went to high school with in Littleton.
i started running in the mornings!
life is good.....
I'm happy.....
it's a choice
everyone should read the Book of Mormon before I get home...
will you accept the challenge?
much love
The weeks really seem to be ticking by now, it's a little strange. This past week has been ups and downs for Elder Yarmo and myself. This continue to go well, with our own trials and struggles thrown in.
To start off, we felt that our zone meeting went the way that God wanted it to. We put our time and effort into preparing and receiving revelation and we know and saw the spirit speak to several of our Elders. There were some who weren't as receptive, but we did everything that we could to help them use their agency for good. We have seen improvement in the key indicators over the past week, so hopefully a part of the improvement is them applying the things which we talked about at zone conference and choosing to be faithful.
As for our area, we're still working with an investigator who seems to be growing in spurts. She is still reading and praying daily, but sometimes she seems to be so strong and willing to do what it takes, while other times there are doubts and fears that creep to the surface. This is expected, and we're really just trying to stay on the path that she needs at this time. Our last lesson was about baptism, again, though this time we focused a lot on the symbolism and covenants we make. We've had some interesting experiences with other investigators who seem to have been interested in other things in meeting with us, who we're currently sorting through to make sure that they're sincere. We have made a huge leap with one this week, as we discussed the plan of salvation and the purpose of life. We've really been at his pace and level talking about God, his reality, the purpose of the scriptures and sincere prayer. We're happy with the progress he's choosing to make and we're planning on teaching the full restoration this week.
On a personal level, everything is going well, though this past week I did experience 5 days of straight headaches. I'm not really sure what that was all about. Studies continue to go extremely well, and I really have seen them grow through out my mission. I always think they can't get any better, but then they do. I've been really feasting on this past conference ensign and I've learned a lot from each talk, no matter what the topic. I love how the gospel uses the term "one-eternal-round" because its' extremely fitting for how well the gospel fits together.
So, that's all for now.
Elder Allred
Thursday, June 2, 2011
May 23, 2011
Dear family,
This past week has been a whirlwind. We ended up with a lot of sick investigators and members because of all the rain. It was a nice break from all the sun for me, as in Pennsylvania it rains quite a bit. One of our investigators, this last lesson, we had her answer three questions for herself about the Book of Mormon and we discussed them all and answered them each for ourselves along with our member who attended the lesson. The questions were, how does the Book of Mormon testify of Christ, How did I come to find out that the Book of Mormon is true, and What does it mean since I know that the Book of Mormon is true? The lesson ended up being very conversational, and we all just ended up bearing our testimonies of the Book of Mormon, including the investigator. We've seen a huge change in her countenance over the last couple of meetings. She told us that before when she read the scriptures that it was out of faith and because she wanted an answer, but she read John chapter 14, or 16, where it talks about Christ is the vine and we are the branches. She ended up expounding upon the scriptures to us and how they applied in her life. It was a very humbling experience to see someone so new to the gospel speak with the influence of the Holy Ghost and I can honestly say that I was taught during that lesson. I feel like the Doctrine and Covenants scripture where it says, both are uplifted and edified together, is a good way to describe what I felt. We also talked about the organization of the church and she loved it. Everything made sense, which is a sign of the Holy Ghost's influence, which we pointed out to her, and it was just fantastic. Most of investigators have been gradually taking off, more just left for random trips to Africa and other places. So, our thoughts have turned to finding. We've been brainstorming, but we are still super looking forward to receiving some guidance during zone conference.
Less Active work could be going better. We were just invited back into the Ward Council by the bishop who thinks that it would help to have us there. We're not sure if that would be on a regular basis or what but we'll see. Our ward's name has just been changed to the "Mountain View Ward" which is going to start the ball of changes that will be occurring over the next couple of months to our ward. Our Stake President has been counseling with us on some of the changes and it feels good to know that he trust our opinions and insights into the ward. I've learned a lot from President Williams and my interactions with the ward and stake leadership while serving as a zone leader have really strengthen my testimony of inspired leaders. I'm grateful to be able to learn from them and serve with them.
Elder Yarmo and I are doing very well working together. We've really been seeking out what it is that our zone is good at, struggles with, and needs right now. We've had an interesting journey of spiritual growth as we've prayed these past weeks to find out what exactly it is. First, we thought a lot about vision and helping our Elder's see the big picture and we were thinking about setting goals with them. However, about two days ago we were talking after planning and making an outline and both of us felt like the things which we had been preparing were the training, not that the zone needed, but what we needed in order to find out what the zone needed. I hope that makes sense, but we really felt like, the Lord had us study those things so that we would grow and learn in order to find out exactly what the zone does need and so we could find the vision of what we should train on. After we came to this conclusion, we almost immediately decided to center our training around the Atonement and the principle of faith in missionary work. We both were reviewing what we had talked about in ZLCs and I remember Elder Lundgren's comment about the "greenie fire" going away. We talked and came to the conclusion that the "greenie fire" is pure uncontaminated faith in God. It came as a slight surprise, but we both feel like most missionaries loose their complete faith in God and this work for many reasons, and then we started looking at each of our Elders and finding out what those reasons are so that we can address them. A lot of what we're talking about will stem back to vision and desire, but with a main focus on the role of the Atonement in missionary work. We feel like missionaries are afraid to repent because of some misconception that they can't make mistakes and still be a faithful missionary. This principle, along with an incorrect definition of "success" we feel lead to a lot of the problems that we see in discouraged missionaries and in our zone particularly. It's been a lot of work, but the result of feeling like we're preparing what the Lord wants us to is well worth it.
Overall, I'm really striving to lift others. I was pondering the other day on the Savior and just trying to feel out how He does missionary work and how I do it. I was also thinking about how to "align" my will. So, Elder Yarmo and I had talked about having the Elders make a list and then find out God's will, and I realized it's not so much two lists finding middle ground. Aligning our will with God's is finding out God's will and moving our 100% to his. There is no "middle ground", there is only humbling choosing to change so that we may more fully bless others. It's definitely been a humbling experience but one I'm glad I'm learning now. It makes Joseph Smith's statement about how (paraphrasing) "no man can do this work without revelation" seem so obvious and clear, as God is ready and willing to tell us what we need to do as long as we're worthy and ask. Lots of good thoughts this week.
Love, [okay he didn’t say love to President Ely]
Elder Allred
This past week has been a whirlwind. We ended up with a lot of sick investigators and members because of all the rain. It was a nice break from all the sun for me, as in Pennsylvania it rains quite a bit. One of our investigators, this last lesson, we had her answer three questions for herself about the Book of Mormon and we discussed them all and answered them each for ourselves along with our member who attended the lesson. The questions were, how does the Book of Mormon testify of Christ, How did I come to find out that the Book of Mormon is true, and What does it mean since I know that the Book of Mormon is true? The lesson ended up being very conversational, and we all just ended up bearing our testimonies of the Book of Mormon, including the investigator. We've seen a huge change in her countenance over the last couple of meetings. She told us that before when she read the scriptures that it was out of faith and because she wanted an answer, but she read John chapter 14, or 16, where it talks about Christ is the vine and we are the branches. She ended up expounding upon the scriptures to us and how they applied in her life. It was a very humbling experience to see someone so new to the gospel speak with the influence of the Holy Ghost and I can honestly say that I was taught during that lesson. I feel like the Doctrine and Covenants scripture where it says, both are uplifted and edified together, is a good way to describe what I felt. We also talked about the organization of the church and she loved it. Everything made sense, which is a sign of the Holy Ghost's influence, which we pointed out to her, and it was just fantastic. Most of investigators have been gradually taking off, more just left for random trips to Africa and other places. So, our thoughts have turned to finding. We've been brainstorming, but we are still super looking forward to receiving some guidance during zone conference.
Less Active work could be going better. We were just invited back into the Ward Council by the bishop who thinks that it would help to have us there. We're not sure if that would be on a regular basis or what but we'll see. Our ward's name has just been changed to the "Mountain View Ward" which is going to start the ball of changes that will be occurring over the next couple of months to our ward. Our Stake President has been counseling with us on some of the changes and it feels good to know that he trust our opinions and insights into the ward. I've learned a lot from President Williams and my interactions with the ward and stake leadership while serving as a zone leader have really strengthen my testimony of inspired leaders. I'm grateful to be able to learn from them and serve with them.
Elder Yarmo and I are doing very well working together. We've really been seeking out what it is that our zone is good at, struggles with, and needs right now. We've had an interesting journey of spiritual growth as we've prayed these past weeks to find out what exactly it is. First, we thought a lot about vision and helping our Elder's see the big picture and we were thinking about setting goals with them. However, about two days ago we were talking after planning and making an outline and both of us felt like the things which we had been preparing were the training, not that the zone needed, but what we needed in order to find out what the zone needed. I hope that makes sense, but we really felt like, the Lord had us study those things so that we would grow and learn in order to find out exactly what the zone does need and so we could find the vision of what we should train on. After we came to this conclusion, we almost immediately decided to center our training around the Atonement and the principle of faith in missionary work. We both were reviewing what we had talked about in ZLCs and I remember Elder Lundgren's comment about the "greenie fire" going away. We talked and came to the conclusion that the "greenie fire" is pure uncontaminated faith in God. It came as a slight surprise, but we both feel like most missionaries loose their complete faith in God and this work for many reasons, and then we started looking at each of our Elders and finding out what those reasons are so that we can address them. A lot of what we're talking about will stem back to vision and desire, but with a main focus on the role of the Atonement in missionary work. We feel like missionaries are afraid to repent because of some misconception that they can't make mistakes and still be a faithful missionary. This principle, along with an incorrect definition of "success" we feel lead to a lot of the problems that we see in discouraged missionaries and in our zone particularly. It's been a lot of work, but the result of feeling like we're preparing what the Lord wants us to is well worth it.
Overall, I'm really striving to lift others. I was pondering the other day on the Savior and just trying to feel out how He does missionary work and how I do it. I was also thinking about how to "align" my will. So, Elder Yarmo and I had talked about having the Elders make a list and then find out God's will, and I realized it's not so much two lists finding middle ground. Aligning our will with God's is finding out God's will and moving our 100% to his. There is no "middle ground", there is only humbling choosing to change so that we may more fully bless others. It's definitely been a humbling experience but one I'm glad I'm learning now. It makes Joseph Smith's statement about how (paraphrasing) "no man can do this work without revelation" seem so obvious and clear, as God is ready and willing to tell us what we need to do as long as we're worthy and ask. Lots of good thoughts this week.
Love, [okay he didn’t say love to President Ely]
Elder Allred
May 16, 2011
So update
i'm standing up at a library on the express internet thing:
brief summary
This week was awesome.
My comp and I work so well together
his name is Elder Yarmo from new hampshire and he said nettina's name right the first time before i said it.
the wall i felt like i hit i realized was Satan trying to stop a good thing from happening
it happens a lot in the mission field right before something really good is about to happen something crappy happens and tries to stop me.
This past week was bomb.
i ripped my pair of charcoal slacks playing 8 ball smash at FHE
but that's ok b/c the knees had holes in them (which were actually literally from praying, i never thought that would happen)
so i plan on getting some next time i go to zlcs in loveland at the van housen outlet...we'll see what happens.
tuesday was super good.....it was olivias bday so that was awesome.
wednesday we did exchanges that were good...
thursday was awesome. We met with this investigator that we've been working with for a while that knows the church is true but is kinda freaked out.... we had her kneel down and pray and ask heavenly Father if she should get baptized in the lesson. she did and as soon as she said "heavenly Father" the spirit just flooded the room....no questions asked she even stopped.....it was intense.... so she knew that getting baptized was the right thing... we left
and i really felt like i might have been consumed by the spirit... we were both just like... overflowing it almost hurt? in a good way
that makes no sense...
man
it was by far the best feeling i've ever had in my entire life
hands down.
friday was super good, weekly planning
saturday was tight
(ps: it rained all week ,it's been sweet, gray, gloomy, raining, its awesome, everyone else in colorado is hating it lol) We met again with an investigator and we didn't know what to do but
i just had this prompting to go over and pull one of the rolling chalk boards. so i wrote her name on it gave her the chalk and said write down all your concerns... she did it and like...had a decent amount and then i was like..(PS: i had no idea what i was doing) circle the most important ones... she circled a couple i said erase everything else. she did she was like huh, i guess those things don't matter to me...it was cool. then we wrote down CHoice A (which was "God's will") and Choice B which she named "other" then we saw how each choice would effect each of those things that mattered to her.... she found out that following God may influence some (but not the most important) to be a little harder...but in th elong term it's better. then i erased Choice A and B and wrote "right' and ''easy" and she just kinda stopped. there was a lot of silence during that lesson...it's something that i wasn't comfortable with at the begginning of my mission...but that's when the spirit really is able to speak to people.
so she thought a lot about that
then we quoted dumbledore about right and easy....
and so she was like... i know what i need to do. and she's super happy. she loves the way that she feels at church and when she meets with us. so she has a baptism date set.....still nervous but excited...and just like..yea
super spiritual experience again.
sat we ate with the rices, it was awesome.
sunday was good
tons of ppl at church.
and now today
good times
remind me when i get home to have a mexican horse race with everyone....
good times.
so
that's about it
i'm loving life
it's awesome
i'm happy
trusting in God may be hard, but it's right and in the end it's the absolute best thing
i love you all
talking to you on mother's day made me super trunky but the fire is back and we're tearing it up here in Boulder.
anyways
much love
take care
until next week
J
i'm standing up at a library on the express internet thing:
brief summary
This week was awesome.
My comp and I work so well together
his name is Elder Yarmo from new hampshire and he said nettina's name right the first time before i said it.
the wall i felt like i hit i realized was Satan trying to stop a good thing from happening
it happens a lot in the mission field right before something really good is about to happen something crappy happens and tries to stop me.
This past week was bomb.
i ripped my pair of charcoal slacks playing 8 ball smash at FHE
but that's ok b/c the knees had holes in them (which were actually literally from praying, i never thought that would happen)
so i plan on getting some next time i go to zlcs in loveland at the van housen outlet...we'll see what happens.
tuesday was super good.....it was olivias bday so that was awesome.
wednesday we did exchanges that were good...
thursday was awesome. We met with this investigator that we've been working with for a while that knows the church is true but is kinda freaked out.... we had her kneel down and pray and ask heavenly Father if she should get baptized in the lesson. she did and as soon as she said "heavenly Father" the spirit just flooded the room....no questions asked she even stopped.....it was intense.... so she knew that getting baptized was the right thing... we left
and i really felt like i might have been consumed by the spirit... we were both just like... overflowing it almost hurt? in a good way
that makes no sense...
man
it was by far the best feeling i've ever had in my entire life
hands down.
friday was super good, weekly planning
saturday was tight
(ps: it rained all week ,it's been sweet, gray, gloomy, raining, its awesome, everyone else in colorado is hating it lol) We met again with an investigator and we didn't know what to do but
i just had this prompting to go over and pull one of the rolling chalk boards. so i wrote her name on it gave her the chalk and said write down all your concerns... she did it and like...had a decent amount and then i was like..(PS: i had no idea what i was doing) circle the most important ones... she circled a couple i said erase everything else. she did she was like huh, i guess those things don't matter to me...it was cool. then we wrote down CHoice A (which was "God's will") and Choice B which she named "other" then we saw how each choice would effect each of those things that mattered to her.... she found out that following God may influence some (but not the most important) to be a little harder...but in th elong term it's better. then i erased Choice A and B and wrote "right' and ''easy" and she just kinda stopped. there was a lot of silence during that lesson...it's something that i wasn't comfortable with at the begginning of my mission...but that's when the spirit really is able to speak to people.
so she thought a lot about that
then we quoted dumbledore about right and easy....
and so she was like... i know what i need to do. and she's super happy. she loves the way that she feels at church and when she meets with us. so she has a baptism date set.....still nervous but excited...and just like..yea
super spiritual experience again.
sat we ate with the rices, it was awesome.
sunday was good
tons of ppl at church.
and now today
good times
remind me when i get home to have a mexican horse race with everyone....
good times.
so
that's about it
i'm loving life
it's awesome
i'm happy
trusting in God may be hard, but it's right and in the end it's the absolute best thing
i love you all
talking to you on mother's day made me super trunky but the fire is back and we're tearing it up here in Boulder.
anyways
much love
take care
until next week
J
May 9, 2011
So I hope everyone had fun on the call yesterday for Mother's day!
i felt like overwhelmed trying to talk to everyone at once since there's like 9 people...
however...next time we'll all be together..
anyways
i'm still going
i won't give up
just keep praying for me
i'm praying for all of you.
i know it helps.
so
hope everyone has a good wekk
talk to you all next monday
bye
J
i felt like overwhelmed trying to talk to everyone at once since there's like 9 people...
however...next time we'll all be together..
anyways
i'm still going
i won't give up
just keep praying for me
i'm praying for all of you.
i know it helps.
so
hope everyone has a good wekk
talk to you all next monday
bye
J
April 30, 2011
So, I've not really been managing my email time well this week so here we go.
I'm doing well
Easter was awesome.
We have a baptism for someone on Tuesday
I'm so happy
I'm so exhausted
And my challenge for all of you is to help someone else be happy this week.
love you all so much
talk to you in a week
Elder Allred
I'm doing well
Easter was awesome.
We have a baptism for someone on Tuesday
I'm so happy
I'm so exhausted
And my challenge for all of you is to help someone else be happy this week.
love you all so much
talk to you in a week
Elder Allred
April 23, 2011
Dearest Family, Friends, and Anyone else who may or may not stalk my blog,
Life is good.
We're in one of the best seasons ever here in Colorado that I lovingly refer to as the Bipolar Spring of Doom.
We've had days that are 80s and now it's snowing, gotta love Colorado.
This past week has really flown by, in terms of "transfers" (a 6 week cycle) this is the end of week 5 which means that transfer day is coming up pretty rappidly, CRAZY!
But, for new news.
Sunday we had our Easter Program. I sang in the choir and had a pretty good time. It went well overall, the Elder's Quorum President (President Gore, who's the man for taking us to BW's (hint mike...stalker)) and i actually graded each number, good times.
My fav was when our pianist lost the last page to one of the songs so it just stopped, and they played it off aight, but it was pretty funny.
We had a bunch of visitors come out to church including one student who we actually started to meet up with and teach this past week. She's pretty tight and has some really good deep questions about how to receive more guidance in her life and things like that, so good stuff there.
We had lots of exciting stake meetings and stopped by a couple of people's places, did dinner and went home for numbers to round out last week.
Monday was fun, we played dodgeball in the dark for part of their pday (ps: not the best idea) which made some memories.
Had some good lessons and passed out! (sleep is awesome)
Tuesday we met up with a religious counselor from a youth group on campus to talk about the church and stuff like that, good meeting. I think that it was a good day overall?
We have a "lesson" that we do each week with all the members of the ward here called a "+1". This week was on a principle called "bridging" where you take any object and relate it to a gospel principle, it's pretty fun. I never knew a pencil, bar of soap, paper click, bike tool, and a bunch of other random things were so gospel related.
Good times. Then we went to Buffaloe Wild Wings for dinner. And had stake visits after that.
Wednesday we found out that one of the students got his mission call to Ireland and Scotland....yea baller.
Ended up being completely booked with lessons the entire afternoon and then had a great institute class that night about the millennium, yea, gonna be awesome.
I was trying to start a new fashion trend so i was wearing my tie on the outside of this sweater and i got a 50-50 response from all the people i surveyed...i ended up deciding that it wasn't gonna happen, but my fav quote was "I wouldn't say it looks terrible, I'd just not recommend wearing it like that in public"-Michelle Lorenzi haha
O, and Wednesday was 4-20. For anyone who doesn't know what that is, it's a day where people celebrate marijuana.....yea, it's pretty ridiculous. CU boulder campus is pretty well known for it's opinion on the subject of marijuana and people come from all over to smoke on campus at 4:20 PM. I think the numbers are supposed to be 10,000-15,000 people killing brain cells all at one time?
Yea, there was a cloud of smoke over campus, pictures to come later.
We didn't go on campus all day and it was super sad to just see literally herds of people headed toward northern quad where it was going down.
However, the school did make a fortune on parking tickets, so that's a good thing right?
Anyways
Thursday we had back to back district meetings once again, which went well.
WE had some really good lessons and then 2 hour long meetings with a ton of the stake on a couple of different subjects where I have no idea why we needed to be there, but I guess that's just something I get to get used to.
Friday I went on exchanges with Elders Mena and De Spain in the Boulder ward and we had a good time.
And that now brings us up to now with snow in Boulder, a full day ahead of me, and a very empty stomach.
So, the things I've learned this week:
Hard work = Much Happiness...the harder you work, the more you feel like you've accomplished, the more people you help, and it just goes up exponentially.
One of the greatest temptations I feel like people have is procrastination. For a short period of time, you can put off the inevitable, have some fun, and be "care free". However, later on you will have over double the amount of stress, fear, no option but to do it (which makes people feel "claustrophobic"), and the end result is you still have to do it with less resources and good thinking processes. Yea, not good.
Faith is necessary. When we have an attitude of faith and hope, things go better.
There is a common thread through all walks of life whether it be karma, good energy, obedience to the commandments of God, or whatever it may be, but that good results in good returned unto you. This is true! Especially with attitude.
People are smart, and we can convince ourselves that a great day has gone absolutely terrible if we want to.
We can also find the good in almost anything if that's what we're looking for.
Always, look for something good and you will find it.
Last, God wants to bless us. The way He can more fully bless us is when we keep the commandments more dilligently, and pray (ask) for the blessings! The Bible Dictionary talks about how many of the blessings that God wants to give us are conditional only on us asking for them.
So do it!
Have faith and talk with, not talk at, our Heavenly Father!
Things go really well.
The work in our area is exploding, we went from a pool of 2-3 investigators when I got here to upwards of 15 now. It's the most I've ever taught at any time in my mission.
So, with great responsibility comes equally great work and energy needed. I'm all out, so it's a good thing God's on my side in this one.
Never give up, never surrender!
I love you all and care about the things that are going on, good and bad. Let me know if there's anything I can do!
Take care,
Until next week!
Elder Jonathan Allred
Life is good.
We're in one of the best seasons ever here in Colorado that I lovingly refer to as the Bipolar Spring of Doom.
We've had days that are 80s and now it's snowing, gotta love Colorado.
This past week has really flown by, in terms of "transfers" (a 6 week cycle) this is the end of week 5 which means that transfer day is coming up pretty rappidly, CRAZY!
But, for new news.
Sunday we had our Easter Program. I sang in the choir and had a pretty good time. It went well overall, the Elder's Quorum President (President Gore, who's the man for taking us to BW's (hint mike...stalker)) and i actually graded each number, good times.
My fav was when our pianist lost the last page to one of the songs so it just stopped, and they played it off aight, but it was pretty funny.
We had a bunch of visitors come out to church including one student who we actually started to meet up with and teach this past week. She's pretty tight and has some really good deep questions about how to receive more guidance in her life and things like that, so good stuff there.
We had lots of exciting stake meetings and stopped by a couple of people's places, did dinner and went home for numbers to round out last week.
Monday was fun, we played dodgeball in the dark for part of their pday (ps: not the best idea) which made some memories.
Had some good lessons and passed out! (sleep is awesome)
Tuesday we met up with a religious counselor from a youth group on campus to talk about the church and stuff like that, good meeting. I think that it was a good day overall?
We have a "lesson" that we do each week with all the members of the ward here called a "+1". This week was on a principle called "bridging" where you take any object and relate it to a gospel principle, it's pretty fun. I never knew a pencil, bar of soap, paper click, bike tool, and a bunch of other random things were so gospel related.
Good times. Then we went to Buffaloe Wild Wings for dinner. And had stake visits after that.
Wednesday we found out that one of the students got his mission call to Ireland and Scotland....yea baller.
Ended up being completely booked with lessons the entire afternoon and then had a great institute class that night about the millennium, yea, gonna be awesome.
I was trying to start a new fashion trend so i was wearing my tie on the outside of this sweater and i got a 50-50 response from all the people i surveyed...i ended up deciding that it wasn't gonna happen, but my fav quote was "I wouldn't say it looks terrible, I'd just not recommend wearing it like that in public"-Michelle Lorenzi haha
O, and Wednesday was 4-20. For anyone who doesn't know what that is, it's a day where people celebrate marijuana.....yea, it's pretty ridiculous. CU boulder campus is pretty well known for it's opinion on the subject of marijuana and people come from all over to smoke on campus at 4:20 PM. I think the numbers are supposed to be 10,000-15,000 people killing brain cells all at one time?
Yea, there was a cloud of smoke over campus, pictures to come later.
We didn't go on campus all day and it was super sad to just see literally herds of people headed toward northern quad where it was going down.
However, the school did make a fortune on parking tickets, so that's a good thing right?
Anyways
Thursday we had back to back district meetings once again, which went well.
WE had some really good lessons and then 2 hour long meetings with a ton of the stake on a couple of different subjects where I have no idea why we needed to be there, but I guess that's just something I get to get used to.
Friday I went on exchanges with Elders Mena and De Spain in the Boulder ward and we had a good time.
And that now brings us up to now with snow in Boulder, a full day ahead of me, and a very empty stomach.
So, the things I've learned this week:
Hard work = Much Happiness...the harder you work, the more you feel like you've accomplished, the more people you help, and it just goes up exponentially.
One of the greatest temptations I feel like people have is procrastination. For a short period of time, you can put off the inevitable, have some fun, and be "care free". However, later on you will have over double the amount of stress, fear, no option but to do it (which makes people feel "claustrophobic"), and the end result is you still have to do it with less resources and good thinking processes. Yea, not good.
Faith is necessary. When we have an attitude of faith and hope, things go better.
There is a common thread through all walks of life whether it be karma, good energy, obedience to the commandments of God, or whatever it may be, but that good results in good returned unto you. This is true! Especially with attitude.
People are smart, and we can convince ourselves that a great day has gone absolutely terrible if we want to.
We can also find the good in almost anything if that's what we're looking for.
Always, look for something good and you will find it.
Last, God wants to bless us. The way He can more fully bless us is when we keep the commandments more dilligently, and pray (ask) for the blessings! The Bible Dictionary talks about how many of the blessings that God wants to give us are conditional only on us asking for them.
So do it!
Have faith and talk with, not talk at, our Heavenly Father!
Things go really well.
The work in our area is exploding, we went from a pool of 2-3 investigators when I got here to upwards of 15 now. It's the most I've ever taught at any time in my mission.
So, with great responsibility comes equally great work and energy needed. I'm all out, so it's a good thing God's on my side in this one.
Never give up, never surrender!
I love you all and care about the things that are going on, good and bad. Let me know if there's anything I can do!
Take care,
Until next week!
Elder Jonathan Allred
April 16, 2011
Dearest Familia,
The biggest thing that I've been thinking about this week is families.
One of my favorite things is that we believe that families can be together forever, no "till death do you parts" or anything like that.
God loves us all, and wants us to be happy with each other forever after! HORRAY!
anyways
something to think about.
Now for the marvelous adventure that is my past week.
So Sunday was good, we had several investigators at church who really enjoyed it! Bishop Lamborne and Stake President Williams spoke and both talked about some really good things. Acting, persevering, growth. We had our weekly meeting with President Williams directly after church and that went really well. Our Elders in the Boulder Zone are doing fantastic and right now we have a couple of baptisms going on this weekend! More to come :D
PS: Side note, check out my mission president's mormon.org profile....check it out! http://mormon.org/me/3FS0/
So monday, we sent in our emails to president and key indicators for the week. Had lunch and an apointment. Took a part of our pday to play basketball with our district, however, right when that was about to happen, on of our elders, got a call from President Ely saying that he was getting Emergency Transfered in 2 hours. FANTASTIC! :D.
So, we were in charge of getting him to the mission office and working all the logistics of everything, finding out that all but 4 zones were having changes that day because of a bunch of little things here and there. So, that Elder took off to go be a district leader down in Aurora and we were supposed to pick up his replacement, at 11AM the next morning. So, we got all that squared away and made it late to dinner at 7. We had "stress management" for FHE that night which was quite appropriate. After wards we took care of some errands and made it home. So, we had another Elder with us on the floor that night and got a call at 11:10PM asking us if we were at the mission office yet to pick up the other Elder....yea. Needless to say we were out the door in 30 seconds and made pretty good time to the mission office.
We got him and the other Elder back to Boulder, at their house, a little after midnight and made it home and asleep by 1 AM.
6:30 came pretty early.
Tuesday we were go go go and full of appointments, so on top of not a lot of sleep i was pretty beat, but just running off of adrenaline.
We had a really good lesson about the ballance between Faith in Jesus Christ and what He asks us to do in order to accept His sacrifice, the whole Faith vs Works discussion. The answer can be found in James Chp 2, which states that essentially faith without works is dead and it is our faith that saves us. Horray for the Atonement!
So, that night I went on exchanges with the Flat Iron Elders and had the priviledge of sleeping on the floor....night 2 of not good sleep.
We went throughout there day (it was raining it was awesome) and had a good exchange. We found a family for them to teach!
Exchanged back, had some late appointments and then made it home to my own bed!
Thursday was back to back district meetings where we talking about setting plans to accomplish our visions and goals. We talked about the importance of commitments in the other meeting.
Got a lot done that day. I had my first Baptismal Interview in Spanish! that was fun, I had a translator sit in with me because I was seriously doubting my spanish abilities, but I ended up doing pretty well, which made me happy.
Friday more appointments, lots of good service in the afternoon. I was feeling pretty drained by 2 in the afternoon, but made it through.
More Good stuff.......and then went to international night about the Phillipines.
Very fun.
Now today!
horray!
emailing and who knows what
maybe a nap.
life is good
i'm happy
hope you all are too!
more pictures to come hopefully!
send some my way aight?
love you all, take care
Elder Jonathan Allred
The biggest thing that I've been thinking about this week is families.
One of my favorite things is that we believe that families can be together forever, no "till death do you parts" or anything like that.
God loves us all, and wants us to be happy with each other forever after! HORRAY!
anyways
something to think about.
Now for the marvelous adventure that is my past week.
So Sunday was good, we had several investigators at church who really enjoyed it! Bishop Lamborne and Stake President Williams spoke and both talked about some really good things. Acting, persevering, growth. We had our weekly meeting with President Williams directly after church and that went really well. Our Elders in the Boulder Zone are doing fantastic and right now we have a couple of baptisms going on this weekend! More to come :D
PS: Side note, check out my mission president's mormon.org profile....check it out! http://mormon.org/me/3FS0/
So monday, we sent in our emails to president and key indicators for the week. Had lunch and an apointment. Took a part of our pday to play basketball with our district, however, right when that was about to happen, on of our elders, got a call from President Ely saying that he was getting Emergency Transfered in 2 hours. FANTASTIC! :D.
So, we were in charge of getting him to the mission office and working all the logistics of everything, finding out that all but 4 zones were having changes that day because of a bunch of little things here and there. So, that Elder took off to go be a district leader down in Aurora and we were supposed to pick up his replacement, at 11AM the next morning. So, we got all that squared away and made it late to dinner at 7. We had "stress management" for FHE that night which was quite appropriate. After wards we took care of some errands and made it home. So, we had another Elder with us on the floor that night and got a call at 11:10PM asking us if we were at the mission office yet to pick up the other Elder....yea. Needless to say we were out the door in 30 seconds and made pretty good time to the mission office.
We got him and the other Elder back to Boulder, at their house, a little after midnight and made it home and asleep by 1 AM.
6:30 came pretty early.
Tuesday we were go go go and full of appointments, so on top of not a lot of sleep i was pretty beat, but just running off of adrenaline.
We had a really good lesson about the ballance between Faith in Jesus Christ and what He asks us to do in order to accept His sacrifice, the whole Faith vs Works discussion. The answer can be found in James Chp 2, which states that essentially faith without works is dead and it is our faith that saves us. Horray for the Atonement!
So, that night I went on exchanges with the Flat Iron Elders and had the priviledge of sleeping on the floor....night 2 of not good sleep.
We went throughout there day (it was raining it was awesome) and had a good exchange. We found a family for them to teach!
Exchanged back, had some late appointments and then made it home to my own bed!
Thursday was back to back district meetings where we talking about setting plans to accomplish our visions and goals. We talked about the importance of commitments in the other meeting.
Got a lot done that day. I had my first Baptismal Interview in Spanish! that was fun, I had a translator sit in with me because I was seriously doubting my spanish abilities, but I ended up doing pretty well, which made me happy.
Friday more appointments, lots of good service in the afternoon. I was feeling pretty drained by 2 in the afternoon, but made it through.
More Good stuff.......and then went to international night about the Phillipines.
Very fun.
Now today!
horray!
emailing and who knows what
maybe a nap.
life is good
i'm happy
hope you all are too!
more pictures to come hopefully!
send some my way aight?
love you all, take care
Elder Jonathan Allred
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)