so this is going to be short.
i loved conference.
Please, everyone, just think about your relationship with God....who is He?
HE IS YOUR LOVING FATHER IN HEAVEN. Think about your prayers.
If you haven't prayed think about why. If you don't believe in God, then, the way to find out is prayer.
take time to talk to Him.
You WILL feel better, because it is absolute TRUTH that He is there.
He exists.
No debate, no vote, and no intelligent argument can change the FACT that God is real, and that He loves you.
He has standards for us to keep, to help us be happy and remember Him.
When we forget, He will pick us back up as WE DO ALL WE CAN.
He has blessed each of us with so much, we must utilize all of these blessings.
Never Forget WHO YOU ARE.
Sin is beneath your divine potential as a son or daughter of God.
DO NOT TRADE THIS FOR ANYTHING.
I Know that Christ is our Savior.
HE can help us change.
HE IS THE ONLY WAY, THE ONLY WAY, To find LASTING-ETERNAL HAPPINESS.
His message is not one of contention, or hate, or cohersion, but IT IS one of love, peace, happiness, choice, and hope.
Find out the truth for yourself.
Don't let anyone tell you but God.
Don't let yourself be convinced by your own desires either.
"Some consider good and evil adjustable according to their own situation and interest. They wrongly believe that there is no divine law and, therefore, no sin" _President Uchtdorf.
DO NOT FALL INTO THE LIE THAT WHATEVER YOU DO IS COOL WITH GOD.
HE LOVES YOU.
BUT, This does not mean He loves your sins.
Get rid of them. Change, and FIND HAPPINESS.
This is where it is, and forever will remain.
To FIND OUT THE TRUTH,
READ THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERY DAY!
Do this.
Do it for a week.
write how you feel in your journal, and pay attention to upward trends.
God WILL bless you as you do these things.
I know it, because it happened to me.
more love
Love you all
Elder Jonathan Allred
To get a free copy of The Book of Mormon to read, click here, and a missionary like Elder Jonathan Allred can deliver it to you!
To find a church building and a description of a church service for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints click here, ALL are welcome!!!
Monday, October 10, 2011
September 26, 2011
Dear Family,
So life as a missionary is awesome.
I've been seeing, recently, how protected we are from so many temptations. Even if they're not bad things, just the simple temptation to waste time. I talked to a kid the other day who plays several hours of video games a day and i was just blown away by the time spent essentially doing nothing. Reminds me a lot of my life before the mission!
Priorities have been a huge theme on my mind lately, the whole Good, Better, Best.
There are good things in life, not bad, just living below our potential when that's what we settle for.
Then there are better thing.
Then the best things.
The questions that I've started asking myself to judge if i'm doing the best things, or even important things are:
1- Is this important for my future
2- Does this matter in the eternal perspective
3- Would God want me to spend time, money, or effort on this?
4- Why does this matter to me?
Most problems in my life come from not keeping an Eternal Perspective.
Last week I talked a lot about obedience and how when we understand who God is we choose correctly.
I don't think I mentioned, however, that it's never too late to stop being imperfect and to move past things.
God doesn't stop loving us, even when we make poor choices. He wants us to come back (and often extends that invitation)
and experience happiness again.
No matter where we are, the pathway back is still there.
So, a little about me.
I don't know where to start.
Life is good.
I'm happy, learning more and more every day about how to be a better missionary.
The more you know, the more you realize you don't know.
We're working with a girl who has just taken off like crazy.
We really have been focusing with people on how they've seen God's influence, and direction in their lives before, so that they can see how God will talk to them as he gives them an answer about the Book of Mormon. Most people are surprised to hear that we don't want them to believe that the Book of Mormon is truly God's word because we say it is. We invite all men to read and pray sincerely asking God if it is true. It's a good thing He told me it was :).
We're working a ton with the local church members to invite people to activities and just to learn more in general.
We're all pretty stoked for the media initiative that's coming to denver...beggining Saturday. see if they mention it in General Conference eh?
anyways
long story short
love you all
HOW IS THE BOOK OF MORMON READING GOING?
i want a report from everyone.
i need to ask you what blessings you've seen in your life from reading the Book of Mormon.
I expect an answer from everyone, THANK YOU!
much love
Jonathan Elder Allred
So life as a missionary is awesome.
I've been seeing, recently, how protected we are from so many temptations. Even if they're not bad things, just the simple temptation to waste time. I talked to a kid the other day who plays several hours of video games a day and i was just blown away by the time spent essentially doing nothing. Reminds me a lot of my life before the mission!
Priorities have been a huge theme on my mind lately, the whole Good, Better, Best.
There are good things in life, not bad, just living below our potential when that's what we settle for.
Then there are better thing.
Then the best things.
The questions that I've started asking myself to judge if i'm doing the best things, or even important things are:
1- Is this important for my future
2- Does this matter in the eternal perspective
3- Would God want me to spend time, money, or effort on this?
4- Why does this matter to me?
Most problems in my life come from not keeping an Eternal Perspective.
Last week I talked a lot about obedience and how when we understand who God is we choose correctly.
I don't think I mentioned, however, that it's never too late to stop being imperfect and to move past things.
God doesn't stop loving us, even when we make poor choices. He wants us to come back (and often extends that invitation)
and experience happiness again.
No matter where we are, the pathway back is still there.
So, a little about me.
I don't know where to start.
Life is good.
I'm happy, learning more and more every day about how to be a better missionary.
The more you know, the more you realize you don't know.
We're working with a girl who has just taken off like crazy.
We really have been focusing with people on how they've seen God's influence, and direction in their lives before, so that they can see how God will talk to them as he gives them an answer about the Book of Mormon. Most people are surprised to hear that we don't want them to believe that the Book of Mormon is truly God's word because we say it is. We invite all men to read and pray sincerely asking God if it is true. It's a good thing He told me it was :).
We're working a ton with the local church members to invite people to activities and just to learn more in general.
We're all pretty stoked for the media initiative that's coming to denver...beggining Saturday. see if they mention it in General Conference eh?
anyways
long story short
love you all
HOW IS THE BOOK OF MORMON READING GOING?
i want a report from everyone.
i need to ask you what blessings you've seen in your life from reading the Book of Mormon.
I expect an answer from everyone, THANK YOU!
much love
Jonathan Elder Allred
September 19, 2011
my letters have been pretty horrible as of late
I'm sorry to tell you, but this one will be no exception.
The life of leadership really isn't that easy and I had to spend like 30+mins just going through numbers and reports and writing President about all the issues in the zone.
I got to read all of your letters and it sounds like everyone is doing well! horray!!!!
i'm so happy for all of you.
so quick highlights.
then i'll get to the meat.
Monday was good.....ya
tuesday we had a companionship that was about to explode so we did a long term emergency exchange where (we were already on exchanges) i had to grab one and e. montague went with the other, so i had a district leader and a greenie with me for tuesday (we drove like 2 hours of craziness) and managed to get some stuff done.
wednesday the exchange ridicusloulyness continued.
R's BAPTISM! it was awesome, the spirit was so strong. "I feel like I'm surrounded by a warm marshmallow" was how someone described it.
Thursday we found a new investigator named J!!!
did lots of things, horray.
friday same, a missionary in the district won free bbq for a year.
saturday i took a nap (3 hours) on our pday awesome.
then ward activity, J came :)
Sunday was awesome. Good times.
Then today.
Dealing with lots of Elders, found a couple of kinks in the way the work is going in the stake but we're working on ironing them out.
Mostly,
The Themes that have stuck out to me this week have been service and an eternal perspective.
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: you all have to write me about a future (10 years plus) goal you have.
it can be anything.
If people thought about the long term perspective all the time, sin would drop dramatically.
I've been surrounded for the last year by college kids who think that drinking, and smoking, and immorality will lead them to a full life as they just "do their thing" "live life" whatever.
It's an absolute lie.
I won't be apologetic for the truth.
Drinking, smoking, drugs, immorality, a lack of self-control and self-mastery, combined with the absence of the spirit and a vision of who you are leads no where but to failure.
ARE WE NOT ALL CHILDREN OF GOD? (the answer is yes, we are)
If so, why in the world would we stop ourselves from achieving this eternal potential.
We know what the end game is, we know the score and what happened, no surprises, no fumbles on our side.
God wins.
With every choice we make, we chose the side that we will stand on.
Moral of the story is, The majority of sin disappears when people remember their relationship to God and other's relationships with Him also.
"I AM A CHILD OF GOD, AND SO IS MY NEIGHBOR"- Elder L. Tom Perry
Remember that.
I love you all tons.
Don't do anything that would dam your progression as a Child of God.
take care.
Elder Allred
PS. my thought got cut off by me...
if there is stuff in the way, we need to say what is it and why is it there.
then what do we need to remove it.
then we do what it takes, asking for God's help.
there is no road block that he can't turn into a stepping stone.
There is a way!
Then when that bad is gone there is room for more good!
much love everyone
Elder Allred
PS: GET READY FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE! It's GONNA BE AWESOME!
I'm sorry to tell you, but this one will be no exception.
The life of leadership really isn't that easy and I had to spend like 30+mins just going through numbers and reports and writing President about all the issues in the zone.
I got to read all of your letters and it sounds like everyone is doing well! horray!!!!
i'm so happy for all of you.
so quick highlights.
then i'll get to the meat.
Monday was good.....ya
tuesday we had a companionship that was about to explode so we did a long term emergency exchange where (we were already on exchanges) i had to grab one and e. montague went with the other, so i had a district leader and a greenie with me for tuesday (we drove like 2 hours of craziness) and managed to get some stuff done.
wednesday the exchange ridicusloulyness continued.
R's BAPTISM! it was awesome, the spirit was so strong. "I feel like I'm surrounded by a warm marshmallow" was how someone described it.
Thursday we found a new investigator named J!!!
did lots of things, horray.
friday same, a missionary in the district won free bbq for a year.
saturday i took a nap (3 hours) on our pday awesome.
then ward activity, J came :)
Sunday was awesome. Good times.
Then today.
Dealing with lots of Elders, found a couple of kinks in the way the work is going in the stake but we're working on ironing them out.
Mostly,
The Themes that have stuck out to me this week have been service and an eternal perspective.
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: you all have to write me about a future (10 years plus) goal you have.
it can be anything.
If people thought about the long term perspective all the time, sin would drop dramatically.
I've been surrounded for the last year by college kids who think that drinking, and smoking, and immorality will lead them to a full life as they just "do their thing" "live life" whatever.
It's an absolute lie.
I won't be apologetic for the truth.
Drinking, smoking, drugs, immorality, a lack of self-control and self-mastery, combined with the absence of the spirit and a vision of who you are leads no where but to failure.
ARE WE NOT ALL CHILDREN OF GOD? (the answer is yes, we are)
If so, why in the world would we stop ourselves from achieving this eternal potential.
We know what the end game is, we know the score and what happened, no surprises, no fumbles on our side.
God wins.
With every choice we make, we chose the side that we will stand on.
Moral of the story is, The majority of sin disappears when people remember their relationship to God and other's relationships with Him also.
"I AM A CHILD OF GOD, AND SO IS MY NEIGHBOR"- Elder L. Tom Perry
Remember that.
I love you all tons.
Don't do anything that would dam your progression as a Child of God.
take care.
Elder Allred
PS. my thought got cut off by me...
if there is stuff in the way, we need to say what is it and why is it there.
then what do we need to remove it.
then we do what it takes, asking for God's help.
there is no road block that he can't turn into a stepping stone.
There is a way!
Then when that bad is gone there is room for more good!
much love everyone
Elder Allred
PS: GET READY FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE! It's GONNA BE AWESOME!
September 12, 2011
aight, still not a lot of time, let's do this
THANK YOU to the following people who sent letters and things in the
past little while:
Stiefvater family
Elder Mena
The Rice Family
The Hamblin Family
Courtney Chew!
Mike Gore (the boosss)
Gma-Lois
G-ma Allred+G-Pa Allred
Lydia Crystal
Mom+Dad+Olivia
Ben Bowman
Dibe+Alex Hall
+Everyone else who i forgot!!!!
Love you all tons!
Other notes: all my clothes are falling apart! good thing i know how
to use a needle and thread, i think i'll make it another 3 months.
I'm still in greeley if you didn't know! horray!
I think that's it...
so
Miracles are happening
We're having a baptism this week for RS, been a long time coming. He's in a family ward that we cover b/c it's closed right now. he's awesome.
my bday was awesome......i don't know if i told you about it...didn't i?
no i guess not.
i don't have my old planner on me.
Long story short, there were some giant rainbows, i did really good in ultimate frisbee, lots of good things happened.
mostly missionary work.
i took a video that night, so u'll all see it at sometime.
this week is what i have in front of me....so.......
transfers were crazy.
tuesday we spent 9 hours getting trainers and their greenies
everywhere......the rest of the day was like blah b/c we were so
tired.
wednesday was a ton of district meetings.
some interesting lessons.
i love sharing what i know is true...that's all you really can do.
Thursday we had to go out to fort morgan for a district meeting.
came back
elder montague had a dentist apointment.
went on exchanges with the assistants, so i went back to boulder.
friday morning talked to this crazzzzy guy. good times.
got back
did work son!
saturday....got a hair cut. got a new journal.
did more work!
crazy thing of the day.
a family of 4 ran out of gas and money and wandered into the institute
so i made them dinner!
it was pretty cool.
sunday was awesome.
the bishop combined everyone and introduced the "I'm a Mormon" campaign.
it's a great way to introduce people to who we are and what we really believe.
good day.
that's about it.
life is good.
My thoughts have been turned recently to theme's that I've learned and
been taught on my mission:
#1 Truth:
There is truth out there.
True is the fact that the sky is blue, that cars run on gas, it's fact.
There is truth if God is there or not. Lots of people view that as a
subject thing....however, it's not!
#2 Goals/Vision:
Where there is no vision, the people perish. If we don't have a
vision of what we want to do, we can't really accomplish anything.
Without a goal there can be no real success!
We need to set goals and create a vision and then work to get there,
one step at a time!
#3 Progression:
Life is not for sitting down or staying still in one spot.
We're never "good with where we're at", life is a mountain that we
have to keep climbing or we slip back.
work is key
#4 Self Mastery:
In order to progress and learn and accomplish goals, we have to be
able to control ourselves.
There are many things that we like to do, good things even.
However, if we let our priorities be determined by "good" things or
unimportant things, then we lose the power of accomplishing the "best" things.
#5 Balance:
There is a need for balance in life, without it we get lost.
Times for fun, times for seriousness, times for jokes, and times for work.
There's many more.
But, just remember that God is there, HE has a plan for us. It's not a secret.
If we're not sure about a part of it....ASK HIM!
It's really that easy.
A loving Father in Heaven, ALWAYS ANSWERS!
we just need to remember that He often answers through our thoughts
and feelings.
Remember to look for the way that He answers, not what we expect.
So
That's about it
Until next week.
I love you all.
Make good choices.
Elder Allred
THANK YOU to the following people who sent letters and things in the
past little while:
Stiefvater family
Elder Mena
The Rice Family
The Hamblin Family
Courtney Chew!
Mike Gore (the boosss)
Gma-Lois
G-ma Allred+G-Pa Allred
Lydia Crystal
Mom+Dad+Olivia
Ben Bowman
Dibe+Alex Hall
+Everyone else who i forgot!!!!
Love you all tons!
Other notes: all my clothes are falling apart! good thing i know how
to use a needle and thread, i think i'll make it another 3 months.
I'm still in greeley if you didn't know! horray!
I think that's it...
so
Miracles are happening
We're having a baptism this week for RS, been a long time coming. He's in a family ward that we cover b/c it's closed right now. he's awesome.
my bday was awesome......i don't know if i told you about it...didn't i?
no i guess not.
i don't have my old planner on me.
Long story short, there were some giant rainbows, i did really good in ultimate frisbee, lots of good things happened.
mostly missionary work.
i took a video that night, so u'll all see it at sometime.
this week is what i have in front of me....so.......
transfers were crazy.
tuesday we spent 9 hours getting trainers and their greenies
everywhere......the rest of the day was like blah b/c we were so
tired.
wednesday was a ton of district meetings.
some interesting lessons.
i love sharing what i know is true...that's all you really can do.
Thursday we had to go out to fort morgan for a district meeting.
came back
elder montague had a dentist apointment.
went on exchanges with the assistants, so i went back to boulder.
friday morning talked to this crazzzzy guy. good times.
got back
did work son!
saturday....got a hair cut. got a new journal.
did more work!
crazy thing of the day.
a family of 4 ran out of gas and money and wandered into the institute
so i made them dinner!
it was pretty cool.
sunday was awesome.
the bishop combined everyone and introduced the "I'm a Mormon" campaign.
it's a great way to introduce people to who we are and what we really believe.
good day.
that's about it.
life is good.
My thoughts have been turned recently to theme's that I've learned and
been taught on my mission:
#1 Truth:
There is truth out there.
True is the fact that the sky is blue, that cars run on gas, it's fact.
There is truth if God is there or not. Lots of people view that as a
subject thing....however, it's not!
#2 Goals/Vision:
Where there is no vision, the people perish. If we don't have a
vision of what we want to do, we can't really accomplish anything.
Without a goal there can be no real success!
We need to set goals and create a vision and then work to get there,
one step at a time!
#3 Progression:
Life is not for sitting down or staying still in one spot.
We're never "good with where we're at", life is a mountain that we
have to keep climbing or we slip back.
work is key
#4 Self Mastery:
In order to progress and learn and accomplish goals, we have to be
able to control ourselves.
There are many things that we like to do, good things even.
However, if we let our priorities be determined by "good" things or
unimportant things, then we lose the power of accomplishing the "best" things.
#5 Balance:
There is a need for balance in life, without it we get lost.
Times for fun, times for seriousness, times for jokes, and times for work.
There's many more.
But, just remember that God is there, HE has a plan for us. It's not a secret.
If we're not sure about a part of it....ASK HIM!
It's really that easy.
A loving Father in Heaven, ALWAYS ANSWERS!
we just need to remember that He often answers through our thoughts
and feelings.
Remember to look for the way that He answers, not what we expect.
So
That's about it
Until next week.
I love you all.
Make good choices.
Elder Allred
September 6, 2011
so problematic
i left my planner in the car and i'm like straight out of time.
long story short
i'm staying in greeley
big shout out to people and my list of them and the thank yous are in
the car....sad day
pretty much
love you all
i'm alive and good
i wish isaac and olivia would write me.
that's about it
i'll catch you all up next week
J
i left my planner in the car and i'm like straight out of time.
long story short
i'm staying in greeley
big shout out to people and my list of them and the thank yous are in
the car....sad day
pretty much
love you all
i'm alive and good
i wish isaac and olivia would write me.
that's about it
i'll catch you all up next week
J
August 29, 2011
So, this email is going to be a little different, i'm kinda just gonna thought puke all over you so here ya go...
So,
21 years.
I've realized (and continue to do so more every day) that life is not
an independent accomplishment.
Life beings with teamwork (yuck)
and boom people are brought into this world.
We have families given to us by God so that we don't all just explode with emotions and disease right off the bat. I've ridiculously appreciative for each of you and all that you've done for me. I've been quite the project, but i feel like I've gotten quite rounded out do to all the trials and guidance i've received from
each one of you and Heavenly Father over the years.
I'm trying not to think about it and at the same time come to grips with the fact that I have 15 weeks left......15 weeks.....3 months......2 transfers....under 100 days.
I'm definitely not trunky.
in fact i think i'm the opposite
i don't want to have to go back to the real world and deal with drama and other stuff that doesn't have a book that tells you how to do it, and the spirit poured out ABUNDANTLY to help people in something that
isn't only worth while, but essential to eternity.
I really don't wanna become a bum again, so i won't.
i love structure
i love work, especially hard demanding work.
i hate procrastinators.
i hate disobedience....weird parents? think back on who i was.
i think if i met the pre-mission me we would get in a fight.
My reputation right now is "uptight zone leader". which is really funny. It's only the disobedient missionaries that think that, but i'm ok, cuz straight up i don’t care what other people think of me.
When missionaries who may or may not be gorrillas start picking up cars, i put my foot down.
such is life.
It feels good to stand up 100% for what you know is right.
i love it, not being in leadership, but just sharing truth, and not being afraid
knowing who i and and who i want to be.
knowing what i will and won't do and WHY!
it's awesome.
So, we set R, a 2 week old street contact for baptism this past week :)
it feels so good to boldly invite someone to accept eternal life.
We did the spiritual thought on unity for fhe on monday.
it was funny, everyone love it.
i made the corny statement that we need to remember that unity begins
with "you-nity".
it was good times.
Tuesday i took of one our district leaders with me on exchanges and made him contact really attractive daughters of God, even talking to some i was like whoa...and i've been on campus for a while.
the weird thing is i haven't seen any since that day.....
had a lot of good times.
one of the coolest things about campus is frisbee tuesdays...
we have to be at all activities and so we got to play frisbee i did really good
*miracle*
dad and mom i hope ur sitting down.
I LOVE, LOVE, getting up in the morning at 6:30.
yes, God can make changes we didn't think were possible Ether 12:27 right there.
I work out in the mornings (i'm actually in better shape that i was right b4 i left for my mission)
so i'm super happy.
long story short....
good day tuesday.
wednesday was district meetings
i gave a training to another district about finding and just talking to people. i shared Grandpa's story of many years and many missionaries. We went searching in the church for "investigators"...good times.
had a bunch of good lessons.
institute was good...
thursday we had a giant training on mormon.org (which i was going to tell you about in depth, but i will only do briefly now) in oct the church is going to start a "media initiative" in Denver/area with tv commercials, billboards, bus stop signs, taxi headings, radios, internet, everything about mormon.org
so members need to know what it is to answer questions that will come.
mormon.org is to dispel myths about us/help people get to know who we are help others understand that we believe in Christ
and give them an opportunity to learn more.
MOST PEOPLE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE CHURCH/SEE THESE ADDS WANT TO
COME TO CHURCH.
that is the #1 invitation they want.
most people get the temple confused with church and don’t think they're welcome.
anyway, that was super long
set a guy in windsor ward for baptism (it's a closed area, so it gets absorbed into our area)
friday was good
lots of lessons, lots of re-doing a missionary program we have running on all the campuses....it's falling apart so me and another district leader who was on exchanges with me re-formated a couple things and
elder montague and i are getting it ready to launch mission wide. good things...
saturday was pday, we cleaned and waxed the truck, it looks great
(thank you parents for teaching me how to work hard and not complain and do practical things...my companion hadn't waxed a car in his entire life).....
had a "back to school bash"
weekly planning
good times.
sunday was good
......
long day.
Moral of the story is life is awesome.....
apparently i'm coming home soon
not quite sure about that.
we'll see what happens.
I love you all tons
thank you for all ur love and support
keep living righteously
found out some people I taught in boulder are getting baptized!
love
voe
and love
Elder Allred
So,
21 years.
I've realized (and continue to do so more every day) that life is not
an independent accomplishment.
Life beings with teamwork (yuck)
and boom people are brought into this world.
We have families given to us by God so that we don't all just explode with emotions and disease right off the bat. I've ridiculously appreciative for each of you and all that you've done for me. I've been quite the project, but i feel like I've gotten quite rounded out do to all the trials and guidance i've received from
each one of you and Heavenly Father over the years.
I'm trying not to think about it and at the same time come to grips with the fact that I have 15 weeks left......15 weeks.....3 months......2 transfers....under 100 days.
I'm definitely not trunky.
in fact i think i'm the opposite
i don't want to have to go back to the real world and deal with drama and other stuff that doesn't have a book that tells you how to do it, and the spirit poured out ABUNDANTLY to help people in something that
isn't only worth while, but essential to eternity.
I really don't wanna become a bum again, so i won't.
i love structure
i love work, especially hard demanding work.
i hate procrastinators.
i hate disobedience....weird parents? think back on who i was.
i think if i met the pre-mission me we would get in a fight.
My reputation right now is "uptight zone leader". which is really funny. It's only the disobedient missionaries that think that, but i'm ok, cuz straight up i don’t care what other people think of me.
When missionaries who may or may not be gorrillas start picking up cars, i put my foot down.
such is life.
It feels good to stand up 100% for what you know is right.
i love it, not being in leadership, but just sharing truth, and not being afraid
knowing who i and and who i want to be.
knowing what i will and won't do and WHY!
it's awesome.
So, we set R, a 2 week old street contact for baptism this past week :)
it feels so good to boldly invite someone to accept eternal life.
We did the spiritual thought on unity for fhe on monday.
it was funny, everyone love it.
i made the corny statement that we need to remember that unity begins
with "you-nity".
it was good times.
Tuesday i took of one our district leaders with me on exchanges and made him contact really attractive daughters of God, even talking to some i was like whoa...and i've been on campus for a while.
the weird thing is i haven't seen any since that day.....
had a lot of good times.
one of the coolest things about campus is frisbee tuesdays...
we have to be at all activities and so we got to play frisbee i did really good
*miracle*
dad and mom i hope ur sitting down.
I LOVE, LOVE, getting up in the morning at 6:30.
yes, God can make changes we didn't think were possible Ether 12:27 right there.
I work out in the mornings (i'm actually in better shape that i was right b4 i left for my mission)
so i'm super happy.
long story short....
good day tuesday.
wednesday was district meetings
i gave a training to another district about finding and just talking to people. i shared Grandpa's story of many years and many missionaries. We went searching in the church for "investigators"...good times.
had a bunch of good lessons.
institute was good...
thursday we had a giant training on mormon.org (which i was going to tell you about in depth, but i will only do briefly now) in oct the church is going to start a "media initiative" in Denver/area with tv commercials, billboards, bus stop signs, taxi headings, radios, internet, everything about mormon.org
so members need to know what it is to answer questions that will come.
mormon.org is to dispel myths about us/help people get to know who we are help others understand that we believe in Christ
and give them an opportunity to learn more.
MOST PEOPLE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE CHURCH/SEE THESE ADDS WANT TO
COME TO CHURCH.
that is the #1 invitation they want.
most people get the temple confused with church and don’t think they're welcome.
anyway, that was super long
set a guy in windsor ward for baptism (it's a closed area, so it gets absorbed into our area)
friday was good
lots of lessons, lots of re-doing a missionary program we have running on all the campuses....it's falling apart so me and another district leader who was on exchanges with me re-formated a couple things and
elder montague and i are getting it ready to launch mission wide. good things...
saturday was pday, we cleaned and waxed the truck, it looks great
(thank you parents for teaching me how to work hard and not complain and do practical things...my companion hadn't waxed a car in his entire life).....
had a "back to school bash"
weekly planning
good times.
sunday was good
......
long day.
Moral of the story is life is awesome.....
apparently i'm coming home soon
not quite sure about that.
we'll see what happens.
I love you all tons
thank you for all ur love and support
keep living righteously
found out some people I taught in boulder are getting baptized!
love
voe
and love
Elder Allred
August 22, 2011
Dearest Familia,
Busy week....let's do this thing:
So
Monday, emailed you
played basketball......
had a lot of cool stuff happened.
we ate dinner with the whole ward, pizza, good times.
after was fhe we played apples to apples...
sometimes its really hard to be in a singles ward (sarcasm, sorry).
then we went on exchanges...i took one of the greenies in the zone who
is 6'7" 350 lbs with me.
good times.
Tuesday we had to study for 2 hours during companionship study b/c
he's a greenie and that's the way things work now.
then lunch....tons of lessons, good times.
gave a blessing.
.....yea long day.
Wednesday was district meetings.
we had a lesson with an investigator but when asked if he was gonna
show up told his nonmember friend "doubt it"
good times.
not.
Then, we had to go do a baptismal interview in Sterling (aka the
middle of absolutely no where).
So we got in the car at 3:45 drove to sterling did the interview and
got home at 8:45.
Good times.
The Elders from Yuma (also in the middle of nowhere)
came and slept at our house that night so that we could all go into
zone conference together.
THURSDAY WAS ZONE CONFERENCE!
good times.
i let a role play on revelation through prayer for 3 of the zones.
then lots of training.
we had a zone meeting after where Elder Montague and I talked about parables and how we can each get what we need to out of them if we're looking for things.
We then made a "road map" of Christ's life where we read passages from the Book of Mormon about specific events and had the Elders write down their thoughts and impressions.
It was pretty powerful.
Then at the end we selected three of them to share their testimonies.
It was awesome.
Then back to greeley (zc was in loveland).
had lessons., ate (completely uncooked) steak for dinner. God bless YSA’s.
Then more lessons...
then the most interesting thing of the day.
We had a less active stumble (literally) into the institute at like 8:45 for our 8PM lesson...
Let's just say...yea he was completely hammered. So, we talked to him. at 9:11 his plan was to drive no. I said absolutely not, in maybe some different words than that, but i called President Toombs, and he gave us permission to "do what we needed to and call him when we got home". So, we ended up playing pool with this drunk guy until like 10:30, periodically asking him questions and having him walk lines.... i'm not sure what time we got home, but all i know is, he left 100% sober and we left with clean conscious....b/c i was not going to let him drive intoxicated.
one of the weirder things i've done as a missionary..but that's that.
Friday lots of lessons..............investigator lesson with a street contact, super good.
had dinner with 2 potentials and a bunch of members and it was awesome...
just tons of good work going on.
saturday was pday....
taught 2 investigators...good times.
sunday was church we had 3 at church.
long day.
the life of a ysa missionary is never dull...let's stay with that.
then that night we tried to hook up a washer and dryer.... i had looked at it briefly, but my companion (i thought) had done a more in depth check of the situation so we got the stuff he said we needed (totally un-neccesary)... so, after me installing them so that they would work, I+another Elder ended up not trusting it (because it was not the best situation, where things were breaking off....)
LONG STORY SHORT
we ended up setting back up the old washer and dryer after a long process of trying to make the new ones work. i got a lot of practical experience....yea good times.
other than that
life is good
school is back in session today so there are gazillions of people to contact.
we're having tons of success i'm having tons of fun
i'm super happy.
I love the Book of Mormon
and all of you
Take care
J
Busy week....let's do this thing:
So
Monday, emailed you
played basketball......
had a lot of cool stuff happened.
we ate dinner with the whole ward, pizza, good times.
after was fhe we played apples to apples...
sometimes its really hard to be in a singles ward (sarcasm, sorry).
then we went on exchanges...i took one of the greenies in the zone who
is 6'7" 350 lbs with me.
good times.
Tuesday we had to study for 2 hours during companionship study b/c
he's a greenie and that's the way things work now.
then lunch....tons of lessons, good times.
gave a blessing.
.....yea long day.
Wednesday was district meetings.
we had a lesson with an investigator but when asked if he was gonna
show up told his nonmember friend "doubt it"
good times.
not.
Then, we had to go do a baptismal interview in Sterling (aka the
middle of absolutely no where).
So we got in the car at 3:45 drove to sterling did the interview and
got home at 8:45.
Good times.
The Elders from Yuma (also in the middle of nowhere)
came and slept at our house that night so that we could all go into
zone conference together.
THURSDAY WAS ZONE CONFERENCE!
good times.
i let a role play on revelation through prayer for 3 of the zones.
then lots of training.
we had a zone meeting after where Elder Montague and I talked about parables and how we can each get what we need to out of them if we're looking for things.
We then made a "road map" of Christ's life where we read passages from the Book of Mormon about specific events and had the Elders write down their thoughts and impressions.
It was pretty powerful.
Then at the end we selected three of them to share their testimonies.
It was awesome.
Then back to greeley (zc was in loveland).
had lessons., ate (completely uncooked) steak for dinner. God bless YSA’s.
Then more lessons...
then the most interesting thing of the day.
We had a less active stumble (literally) into the institute at like 8:45 for our 8PM lesson...
Let's just say...yea he was completely hammered. So, we talked to him. at 9:11 his plan was to drive no. I said absolutely not, in maybe some different words than that, but i called President Toombs, and he gave us permission to "do what we needed to and call him when we got home". So, we ended up playing pool with this drunk guy until like 10:30, periodically asking him questions and having him walk lines.... i'm not sure what time we got home, but all i know is, he left 100% sober and we left with clean conscious....b/c i was not going to let him drive intoxicated.
one of the weirder things i've done as a missionary..but that's that.
Friday lots of lessons..............investigator lesson with a street contact, super good.
had dinner with 2 potentials and a bunch of members and it was awesome...
just tons of good work going on.
saturday was pday....
taught 2 investigators...good times.
sunday was church we had 3 at church.
long day.
the life of a ysa missionary is never dull...let's stay with that.
then that night we tried to hook up a washer and dryer.... i had looked at it briefly, but my companion (i thought) had done a more in depth check of the situation so we got the stuff he said we needed (totally un-neccesary)... so, after me installing them so that they would work, I+another Elder ended up not trusting it (because it was not the best situation, where things were breaking off....)
LONG STORY SHORT
we ended up setting back up the old washer and dryer after a long process of trying to make the new ones work. i got a lot of practical experience....yea good times.
other than that
life is good
school is back in session today so there are gazillions of people to contact.
we're having tons of success i'm having tons of fun
i'm super happy.
I love the Book of Mormon
and all of you
Take care
J
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