August 2, 2011

August 1, 2011

so it's transfers
going to greeley to be a senior zone leader again.
i'll be on campus
i'll live with 3 other missionaries.
there's tons of gang violence there and it smells horrible (like cow
poop.....mushroom houses anyone?)

we set an investigator for baptism...
we have 2 other investigators close.
miracles going down in the mountain view ward.

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August 2, 2011

first and foremost
i hate change
consistency makes me happy and comfortable and peaceful.
this past week went well.

Monday i'm not really sure what we did...i think that we played basketball?
or not, i don't know...
shopping maybe?
whatever, stuff happened happened.

Tuesday i don't remember..
pretty much i don't remember the whole week cuz i don't have my
planner from last week on me.
so
i know that we had appointments and met with people.
all of our investigators were doing amazing.

saturday a gazillion apoitments bailed on us.

sunday morning i got called to give a talk.
the first speaker spoke for ever...so i had like 5 mins...so i tried
to cram my talk into like......2mins, and it was super jumbled..
so i just bore my testimony.
The ward gave me a card they all signed for my bday/departing.
i packed

Monday morning i packed
went to say bye to people.
emailed a little

i lost my flash drive with tons of important memories on it.
went to the mission office
saw a ton of people that were going home who i love and won't see again.
said goodbye

got on the transfer van
got to greeley
unloaded the transfer van in the rain.
drove to greeley
met elders in my zone.
got introduced to the tiny institute and tons of people here.
they're all super friendly...even more than boulder...which is super weird.
I didn't have lunch or dinner.
We went to an old folks home and played buzz word...
i destroyed.
went home. the farm house has no ac a broken washer, broken windows, 4 guys, 1 bathroom, dirty as anything, tons of flies and mosquitoes....
yea
i don't like change

only 125 days left or something.
i hit 20 months on the mission today, which means only 4 left

i love God,
but I don't really like Greeley (sorry ben)
i'm a Boulder boy...i think i've lived in a 5 mile radius the past
year and a 15 mile radius the past 20 months...
so this is very new and weird.
i just feel like a fish out of water.
i'm trying to learn all the lessons God has for me so i can leave this place of cows.
i love you all.
love you
I am counting my blessings too, mom.
love
Elder Allred

July 25, 2011

Dearest family,

So, let's get down to it.

Monday i emailed you...
we played basketball with our new mission president and assistants.
good times.
my first game was awesome.
but then we played...i thin it was 4x4 on a smaller court (*1/2) and
it was just terrible
it also didn't help that 80% of the other people were over 6 feet tall.
but President Toombs is a baller, pretty good. he can shoot, that's for sure.
our assistants are both pretty good.
anyways, there was tons of sweat and man love. good times.
so then we ate with the rices, more good times.
sister rice actually let me help do something in the kitchen (which i
think i did quite well!)
and it made me feel at home.
Next ,we chugged over to family home evening.
We had previously made a piniata...looked kinda like a blue blob...
and it got busted open pretty easy..
things got lame fast so we bounced home and crashed.

Tuesday we had leadership training which was amazing
we studied a lot out of the Law (DC 42) and learned a ton about
leadership and teaching.
We had some really great trainings.
After we dropped our district leader off and we were all kinda trunky.
we all have less than 5 months (he has like 3 weeks) so it was yea...good times.
we're still all working hard though, no worries.
Went out to Red Robin with our Elder's Quorum president, good times....
tried some people
and got dumped on.
sweet lightning though.
Oh, if you didn't know, Colorado has a Monsoon season, where right
about now (i think it's over...so in the past 3 weeks)
it will be sunny all morning and then just DUMP in the afternoon.
So, good times.

Wednesday we went on exchanges, so i took Elder Howell, our DL, with
me for the day.
It was in the 90's so most everyone was near a pool, where we did not venture.
we did have a good time though, i got a free 120$ skateboard from an
investigator.
We taught a baller lesson to one of our investigators
about the 10 commandments. we just went through 1x1 and talked about
the blessings and consequences of obedience and disobedience for each.
super good times.
then we had institute on talents.
we talked about how our talents are given to us so we can bless others.
and how others who know us well can often guide us in the right
way...so i need your help!
we...mmm.need your help! what movie?

Thursday was district meetings.
Long, sleepy.
Had a lesson with A new investigator and it was awesome. We talked
about his relationship with Christ and how it's grown and developed
since he's come to church and started to read the Book of Mormon.
Good times.
THen Beajo's for pizza, super good...
found out they have a pizza challenge.
2 people
1 hour
14lbs of pizza.
death

craziness.....
then we had a lesson with another newish investigator.
she's been reading and praying about the Book of Mormon iit was a super
spiritual lesson :D

Friday was good. Weekly planning.
lunch.
service at bead for life.
Then we had a lesson with another investigator.
we talked and his prayers and faith have shot through thte roof,
he came to church and asked how soon he can be baptized...
super excited.

Saturday we woke up at 4 am and went to greeley to help out on a church farm.
got eaten by mosquitoes and went back to boulder.
went on exchanges with the assistants.
i was with e. usavitch in broomfield 3rd.
we taught 2 new awesome investigators and helped them dig out a sandbox
space in their backyard. (blisters included!)
Then home, food, stuff...good times...

Sunday was awesome. we had a lesson with a future missionary and then
dinner w/our host family, SO GOOD.
tried to see people...
the end
crashed

So
other things i have to tell you
#1 i love to work.
mom and dad probably just fell out of whatever they were sitting in,
but i realized how much work does for me.
even when it's hard, it makes me feel good, like i have a full life,
like i'm accomplishing things, and it's such a huge part of God's plan
for us.
#2 i hate procrastinating, it takes work to not do it, but now that
i'm down with work it all...works out (pa dun dun crash)
#3 miracles do happen with faith and obedience.

LOVE YOU TONS!
i'm finishing Helaman.
I was to follow up on my Book of Mormon challenge!
How is everyone doing?
let me know
love you all tons
J

Pictures to make up for the short email

These speak for themselves...

July 18, 2011

yo
this is going to be quick

monday we caught and released some
then we played volleyball with our district
good times.

tuesday went on exchanges with the boulder elders and had a ton of good times
we saw a hitler elmo
lots of other good times....

wednesday was interviews and a ton of service

thursday was district meeting and got a new investigator!

Friday was a ton of potentials and awesomeneesss

saturday was a migrane and more awesomeness

sunday was good church and awesomeness

here are pictures to make up for this sucky email
i love you all a ton
enjoy the Book of Mormon!
<3
J

July 11, 2011

so this week has been awesome
i don't have a lot of time so i'll be quick, fishing day!

so this past week we found a miracle investigator.
we were checking on a less active and they had moved
and i was like...there's someone here we need to see
so we prayed
and i pointed to the house
we got in and taught the guy the first lesson
that's like the most "miraculous" thing i think has happened on my mission.
like i just knew...
it was awesome
we’ll call him A, we met with him yesterday and he's getting ready for baptism.
we had 2 of our most progressing investigators drop us.
that was super hard.
then we had some missionaries blow up at each other but we defused it and everything seems to be good.

i know that God gives us promptings that seem like they're frivolous sometimes, but i know that if we follow them then everything will fall into place like a puzzle.
last night we were driving, and i felt like this guy was gonna cancel (we're on the way to his house)
so i say call him. he cancels.. so i was like.. now what do we do? So I had a thought to go visit another guy, so we went, but then he wasn’t there... but when we got back in the car and started for home and we saw an ambulance and one of our members who works on it. She told us that when we drove by and waved at her it literally made her day!
so it's good to know that God has perfect timing, just like everything else.
It feels so good.

anyways
I gave up soda just so everyone knows, i really don't want to ever have a kidney stone again, and i feel better
I love avocado and guacamole (that's new right?)

EVERYDAY IS A SPECIAL OCCASION! don't wait around for one, make it so.
Remember who you are! Your potential

CHALLENGE!!!!
I'm challenging everyone to start today to read the Book of Mormon before I get home.
I'm in Heleman right now and I plan to read it through, and then 2 more x before I get home.
So, let me know if you accept or not, if not, then we can talk lol.
Love you all
thanks for your love and support
J

July 5, 2011

Dearest Family,

So, this past week has obviously been very eventful.
I want to start again with a thank you for all your prayers and thoughts and fasting, etc.

monday was not so good. The medicine (percoset) that i had taken was really messing with me. i read a ton of scriptures and slept a lot.

Tuesday was the same deal, I got yelled at (figuratively) by some of the office staff older sisters telling me that i had to rest and then by sister rice who was like...your body hasn't healed....cuz you didn’t stop. So tuesday i was instructed to rest, so we read a ton of scriptures at the institute, caught up on some of the old Mormon Times etc.

wednesday, started to feel a ton better. mood improvement.
We helped moved someone from the ward in the morning. Then we had a lesson with one of our investigators that went well, she brought a friend to the lesson and we talked about blessings and commandments. Institute was really good about faith (that's been the theme of my week)

some brief notes:
Faith applies in all spheres of life.
Faith is a principle of power (that comes from the spirit)
There is no faith where there is no obedience.
if we want to increase faith, ask how you can be more obedient.
Faith replaces fear
faith is a gift, so ASK FOR IT!
You are never too young to start enjoying life.
"when obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes a quest, then God endows you with power" Ezra Taft Benson.
Faith is definitely a two part plan: We have to believe and ACT!
It doesn't matter if you believe if you don't do anything about it.
and likewise if you do things but not for the right reasons (ex: tithing begrudgingly) then it benefits you nothing.
But when you have faith you believe and are obedience and you receive the power that President Benson talked about, which is (referencing another quote i don't have) is a full endowment of God's spirit.
Good stuff.

Thursday we had district meetings and i had a couple of the elders in the district set up a surprise party for Elder Yarmo so when we got there our room was decked out.
We had several lessons. so we got home at like 8:30 and found some stuff to eat and crashed.

Friday was Yarmo's bday, so we did what all good missionaries do on their bdays and went out and worked. we did service taught some lessons...weekly planned... and had dinner with our elder's quorum president, who is the man.

Saturday was ZLC: we met President Toombs. Super cool guy. got his background.....
traveled back to boulder, lessons, i don't remember what else.

Sunday was fast sunday. We met with the stake president and talked a lot about helping the members understand their role in missionary work. A common mentality is that the members help the missionaries with their work, but it's really the missionaries who help the members with their work.

So... yea we're working on a lot of different things, mostly just getting back to the core. Have a good ward mission plan, make sure the ward knows about it. and a promise we have from the head of the mission department (for the whole Church) is that if a ward or stake increases their efforts in missionary work then it will raise every ship in the harbor.
Sacrament meeting was good. our numbers have shrunk dramatically. had some lessons afterwards, ate with the rices and thats about it.

Monday was pday, we had a "meet the mission" for President Toombs in Westminster in the afternoon, so we had to cut pday short to go to that.....went to a ward bbq and then home. There was a rule this year that you could go watch fireworks but only with the members who you live with....ours were out of town. so we went home and were bummed...b/c all of boulder goes to the cu stadium and has a sing along/watches fireworks/good time, but we went home. but we ended up seeing like 4 different firework shows from the balcony, so that was ok.
and now it's today.

HAPPY DELAYED FATHER'S DAY DADDY!

I love you all
life is going better
I love my Savior and all of you.
Please remember HIM! always :D
lots of love
Jonathan - Elder Allred

July 1, 2011

Elder Allred had a kidney stone in June, here was an email he wrote on June 22:

Dear My loves
i'm super natuious
out of the hospital
on something that is 5x as strong as mophine
but not in kidney pain
i should pass the stone in 8 hours-3 days
i'm going to go take a nap
thanks for your prayers
don't worry about me
i'm all good and def inately on the mend
have a happy wednesday..?
much love and <3s
me

------

I want to thank each of you for your prayers the last week+.

Things have been really rough until about yesterday.

I was almost Emergency transferred because of some major issues, but whew I’m staying!

so.
my mood is doing infinity times better
i'm never taking any form of opiate again, i'll stick to advil or ibueprofin.
thank you all for your prayers and thoughts on my behalf

we set someone for baptism! we will have another set by next week
and last night we almost have another set, he knows he will get baptized just not when.

right before the blessings come, it seems like it always gets the hardest.
thank you for being such a support to me.

Love you tons
literally x infinity
Elder Jonathan Allred
Brother, Son, Missionary