November 22, 2010

So, for all of you who understand mission lingo, the big news for the week is already out of the bag. I'm having a baby. And for those of you who don’t know what that means... it means I’m training a greenie (brand new missionary!)

So anyways, this past week has gone by pretty dang quick.

Monday we played basketball and volleyball with our district, it was super fun.

Tuesday our District leader came out on new and improved exchanges with us, where he just comes out with us for a day. So we biked with him to the farthest point of our area, only to get stuck in a rain storm and have no one be home. It was fun. We did have a good time though.

Wednesday I had my last dr appointment. It was good. We got home and i really don't remember what we did (i don't have my last transfer planner on me) but we went and had a good lesson with DS.

Thursday we froze and did a lot of work. Had district meeting. Got a package from Ben, that was fun lol.

Friday was weekly planning and more hard work. We had a really good lesson with one of our Recent Convert Brittany's friends.

Saturday was a good day, we were out and about doing stuff. Then I got a call from President Ely. I'm gonna train this next transfer in Louisville. I'm excited and nervous, but i think it will be aight and a good experience. So, we were also like super sick on Saturday so we packed and went out to dinner with D. Found out that Elder Lloyd is going to Aurora, aka the ghetto of Denver.

Sunday we were super sick but made it out to church hopefully not infecting to many people. Finished packing and being sick. Had dinner with the Rice's a really cool family that reads my blog :D lol. Then biked home in the freezing cold and finished packing. I had to pack too because we're moving houses tonight. We're going to live with sister Janet Gordon, our Bishop's mom. She's super awesome.

Anyways, the trainers meeting is tomorrow morning adn that's when Nettina is supposed to drop stuff off at the mission office, so right now we're coordinating how we don't see each other b/c i would explode. Other than that, this week flew by. In fact this whole last transfer did. Hopefully this one does too.

My first thanksgiving away from home and my last Christmas. halleluljia....wrong spelling

anyways, next week i'm sure i'll have lots to talk about, but until then
I love you all

sorry this was kinda skimpy. But, things are going well, it's definitely winter. but the work is happening slowly but surely.

keep being awesome and good examples for everyone.
Happy grandpa-ness to Elder Hiatt.

Much love
Jonathan

November 15, 2010

Dear Family,

So, how is everything this week?
I thought i had my planner on me but i don't, so we're just gonna see what we can remember this week lol.

SO Monday was pretty tight, we played catch phrase with some other elders, good times. had dinner with the Stake President, so that was ok, i think it was good food? i don't really remember.

Tuesday it snowed. I don't remember how much, but yea, snow happened, it was enough that i wasn't too happy to be on a bike. Our dinner cancelled for that night (which happened every night but 2 this week!) so i really don't remember what happened that day................i think we went to hunt down some potential investigators....yea.

Wednesday, it didn't snow, halleluia. We needed to get out to the far end of our area so we packed up and went out to gunbarrell. Ended up getting there about lunch time so we bunkered down out of the cold at a Black Jacks Pizza for a lunch buffet of pizza. Great and terrible idea. Then we went around and saw people that hadn't been coming to church for 1-61 years. That was fun, we had some good talks on the doorstep, and then some not so good talks lol. We met up with sister Robinson, one of the Sisters in the ward who had served a mission, and went over the ward list to make sure we knew who people were and where they lived b/c that side of the area is so confusing. Our dinner ended up cancelling last minute, so we just worked through till 6:30ish and biked home for a quick dinner and passing out to sleep.

Thursday it snowed again, weak sauce. It was another morning of checking up on potentials and less active members (it seems like we do that a lot, kinda because we're trying to see people who were interested and haven't been seen in 2 years).
After that we went to a District Meeting. I got to talk about the Doctrines of Christ. Then we talked about why personal revelation through the spirit is so important.
Went home and our night appointment cancelled on us, so it was back to finding mode. No luck.

Friday we headed up to the church for weekly planning. We took care of that till lunch. Then off to an appointment with M&B where we discussed how to seek God's help through troubled times. We then went out to see that the air I had put in my tire had peace'd out and I had a really bad flat. So down to the bike shop we went, i got a new tube and some Bike slime, this stuff that you shoot in your tube and it seeps into any 1/8 inch punctures you have. Good stuff. However, that little detour made us late for our next appointment which ended up making us late for dinner with the 2nd councilor in the bishopric. It was good though, we ate a lot of pizza and talked with them and another couple that was over. After that, we got outside and found our bikes coated in frost b/c apparently the temperature had just dropped into the low 20s since we had gone inside. It was kinda cold. But it's only gonna get colder! the transitions are rough, but winter is here now and it's no big deal. We biked up a hill and down a hill to see someone who was out of town....so we went back up and down the same hill to get home, while trying not to turn into human Popsicles.

Saturday was actually a pretty good day. The morning we saw a bunch of people who had previously met with the missionaries and made appointments to come back later. Lunch was good ( i made an egg ham cheese grilled sandwich).
Then back out and the plan was to go tract this neighborhood of monster houses. But as we were riding along I had a feeling that we needed to go and check up on another former investigator who was totally not interested. So we did, and they were still totally not interested. However as we were walking away a guy putting up Christmas lights stopped us and asked how we found God. So that led into a 30 minutes discussion and we pretty much got his whole life's story about hard times and how that led to him figuring out what was important and what he really wanted from life was. We talked a lot about Christ and how a knowledge that there is life after this helps to give the little things perspective and that we can be comforted through anything. It was a really good conversation and we asked if we could stop by again and drop off a copy of Finding Faith in Christ. He said yea and was really excited, however, he's going to be in Boston for a week, so we'll see him the week of Thanksgiving when he gets back. It felt really good to just do what I felt like the spirit wanted and see results. I mean, we do it all the time and the "end game" might not be seen instantly, but in this situation it was good and it's nice to know that there's still a plan. After that we didn't end up tracting but setting up more appointments for the upcoming week.

Sunday we woke up and made it to ward council which was all about that World Wide Leadership training. Fun stuff. We didn't really talk about missionary work at all, so we left just kinda thinking about the sleep that we missed, but you know what, it's all good lol. Church was wonderful and we got to sit in on another 16-18 sunday school class. Lunch was good and then out and about. We ended up finding out that our media referral was bogus thus throwing off our plans a little, and that no one was home or everyone was watching the Broncos game. No good.
Our dinner then cancelled and it was freezing. But a wonderful family in our ward invited us over for dinner and we had a great time. Then we were able to make it to JW's birthday party to make an appearance and get home.

All in all, we didn't have the most "productive week", in the sense that we found a lot of people or we taught a lot of lessons. However, it was absolutely productive in teaching me a lot of key principles. I've definitely learned a lot more patience and understanding then I had a year ago. You know, things don't always go according to plan (in fact, i'd say not is more the rule than the exception).
I've learned that Attitude is Everything.
If you want life to stink and eveything to be going terrible all you have to do is tell yourself that it is. If you want to be happy and look at the bright side of life, you can. Doesn't change the facts. But it's the whole glass half full or half empty think. Your perspective matters a lot. There's a lot of things in life that you can't change. The weather, people's opinion of you, the choices that others make, what your hair looks like after you wear a beanie all day.... all you can do is choose how you want to feel about it. Not saying it's easy, in fact, i think that having a positive attitude is one of the hardest thing sometimes.
BUT, it's worth it in the end.
I've also learned a lot about persistence.
Giving up is EASY! it's the easy way out where there's no accountability and no failure. However, if you want to succeed in life, then failure has to be an option.
You have to take risks in order to have the payoff.
You have to work in order to see the fruits of your labor.
If you kick back and just let life float by, that's right, no failure, but also no success. What's the quote? The only real failure is when you don't try? or something a quote i like....i think i may have shared this before..
"the man on top of the mountain didn't fall there"
I guess what i'm trying to say is that I've learned the value of work.
I don't like to procrastinate anymore and i like to get things done and do my best, because that's when you feel good. At least that's true for me. Yep, i'm rambling.
None of this is doctrine, just some thoughts I've had.
So i love you all. This week was "slow" but you know what, that's life. It happens.
So, i'm just gonna put one foot in front of the other and see what life has next.
That's how we roll.
Love you all
take care and have a good week
pictures to come
Elder Jonathan Allred

November 8, 2010

WEEKLY UPDATE WITH ELDER ALLRED!
(snl reference)
great scott everyone
another week gone by
this week was extremely exciting and extremely boring, so let's get right down to it!
(I'm in a “Doc Brown” back to the future mood right now, deal wtih it)

So Monday, i emailed you guys, and then we went on a hike. it was the same one that we did with my other district, but it was still fun. Lots of younger missionaries who weren't adjusted to the altitude, i laughed.
PS: did anyone see the giant picture of Claire Pingree in the BYU magazine? I WAS LIKE AHHHHHH shout out to Claire from CO!!!!

Tuesday was a phenomenal exodus on bike for us. Elder Lloyd is still getting used to biking and well...i think it was the most i've biked on my mission. So in the morning we went and got my dumb package that came back to me from GA taken care of. Sent that out. After we went and played Musical bingo with all the old people with dementia and stuff. We talked with one of the members of our ward who lives there about the Book of Mormon. It was good to see that
some things are still there even when the majority of your mental capacity isn't. After that we biked super quick to an appointment with the Williams where we did the "faith-tea bag lesson"
do you know that one? ask the missionaries if you don't. Then, we had the great privilege to bike (after a good day of biking) from the south end of our area, all the way to the border of the Longmont Zone, the most north i've been. We never go up there cuz there's nothing there, but we had to help someone move a book shelf. So by the time we got there, we were both pretty beat, but still functioning. Then, we got to bike another couple of miles (in the freezing cold night) to dinner where we ate our own weight in food. SO GOOD!

Wednesday was a day of cancellations. it was awesome getting calls at 9:30 cancelling all our appointments from 10-4. It was good. So we went through the area book and worked on a lot of things that should have been fixed years ago, and people that should have been seen years ago too. Other than that, nothing big went down. Some awesome members gave us $50 to go to the 3 margaritas restaurant. They're a great family.

Thursday we started doing service for this lady who just showed up at the mission office asking for help. We went over to her place and found out....this lady is a Hoarder. Do you know what that is? it's different from “likes to save things,” or even, “has a lot of stuff.” It's: there are boxes from floor to cealing in every room of junk. I literally found a refrigerator box full of old subway bags.....not necessary. So we helped her organize it and get ready for a yard sale she's trying to have. The place was so nasty, it smelled like somoene had died in there ( more to come later). So after that, we went home and grated off the top layer of our skin until we felt clean. Had district meeting...horray....and then dinner. After dinner it was extremely dark (which is no good...cuz people are ready to go to bed and stuff) and had a rough time getting in with people.

Friday was another glorious day cleaning out the house of the hording woman. We were only there an hour so that was good....however, as we were trying to help her get rid of garbage and stuff she didn't need....we found out that throwing things away is def easier said than done...yea.
long story short, we helped get stuff out for the yard sale the next day and went home to purify again. We did weekly planning at the church and the zone leaders dropped off some safety driving video for Elder Lloyd so he can get approved driving status....Car next transfer? i would cry for joy!

Saturday morning, we got a call from our Hoarder friend who told us they were sick (no wonder) and that the sale wouldn't be happening. They were at their home in Broomfield ( they don't live at the apartment we were cleaning out) and asked if we could go over and put it back inside.....so we did. As we were doing so we went into the kitchen to see how bad it was...

-Faint of heart and stomach, this is where you stop reading-

We found rusted tuna cans from like the 70s. other things that cannot be said...and just terrible mess. Then i had the bright idea to open the refrigerator...... probably the worst idea I've ever had. Literally the entire inside was full of mold, gnats, worms, larva, and just bugs. It looked like George Washington had filled it up and left it all there since he died. The smell that came out was absolutely the worst smelling thing i can possibly imagine. We literally ran out of the house.
No good. Then we went home and really removed the top layer of our skin. It was really disturbing seeing that inside a refrigerator...i took a picture that i will try and send next week.
But after that lovely experience we had the opportunity to go and help some older sisters with yard work and then catcha a later dinner.

Sunday we both woke up feeling super sick (no wonder). We did make it out to ward council and church which were really good. We did lunch and some lessons out and about. Our dinner cancelled and that was about it. Overall, not a lot of missionary work (lessons taught) happened this week. We did get in touch with a lot of people and i know that this next week will be better.
these things happen and we all hit bumps, the key is to just go ok, it's a bump, but don't let it grow into something it's not.

This week i did a lot of studying of Charity.
Charity in it's purest form is love.
Charity is what drives us to take care of our families. To obey God's commandments.
And Charity is what drove the single most important event in the history of the world, the Atonement of Jesus Christ. When he made it possible for us to live with God again. The love it took to do that, for all of us, is incomprehensible. We can feel it in our lives as long as we do what He asks of us.

Anyway, this week was good. a quote i liked this week was "If you feel further away from God today than you did yesterday, who moved?" Good thought to think about

So, i love you all
take care and be charitable!
much love
Jonathan

November 1, 2010

Dearest Familia,

Another Day, another dollar, another week, that's right, holla.
...so that was lame. anyways lol. How is everyone?!?!?!? Sounds like the last week has been pretty good, so that's good to hear. I can't wait to get home and there will be some amazing like....8 person skype that we can do so i never have to go on a family fast again! But i will get to call home in 31+25 days! (Christmas!!)

Tomorrow i will officially be out on my mission 11 months....seems like nothing and forever all at the same time, i'm sure that i've expressed that sentiment before.
so true though.

So this week was good bad, all around just long. lol.

Last monday after shopping i just ended up taking a nap till dinner.......didn't really sleep well that night.

Tuesday was a good day, it got super cold at the beginning of this week and now it's back into the 80s. But tuesday we had a lesson with the Ws about Nephi, and about how he was probably super scared to go back and get the plates (Book of Mormon reference) but he did it anyways knowing that God doesn't tell us to do anything that isn't possible. (side note: 1 Nephi alone references Christ over 734 times in 51 pages) We also got to go to the old folks home and play some massive music bingo with old people who can't hear or remember song titles, it was fun lol.

Wednesday was a super good day! (Thursday balanced it out lol) We had interviews with our Mission President at 8 in the morning and it went super well. I love that man. We talked a lot about the specific work in our area and he gave me some tips about finding more people to teach. We went out that afternoon and found two new investigators! it was so awesome. 2nd door we knocked we got in a taught lesson one to a guy who was just visiting his girlfriend who was a non-practicing member of our church from the east coast. their big rottweiler named malcom made out with the side of my head for about 45 minutes. Then we went over and I fixed one of our friends, DS's, refrigerator.

Thursday.....was pretty long. In the morning we went out and absolutely no one was out or home. So we kinda exhausted all of our plans in about 30 mins, back ups and all, and then tried to stay active. District meeting was good and we were siked up for our return appointment with the one guy we met the day before. We got to the appointment and apparently his girlfriend ( who we had never met or heard of ) said that she thought her parents had sent us to find her.....therefore he was chill with us but asked us not to come back b/c it made his girl friend uncomfortable......it was pretty disappointing. After that, we went and tried to see some people...more not homes... Dinner though was really good. We ate with the Woods, a young couple, and bro. woods apparently knows, or knows of, Uncle David and he got him some hook up at NASA. Then we went and helped SIster Washburn (mother of Elder Ammon Washburn who is in Virginia, who i knew at college) prepare for a new member lesson that she was going to teach. She prepared a really great lesson so pretty much all we did was tell her how awesome she is.

Friday I had my Dr. appointment which went awesome, all is well! Then we weekly planned and went out....nothing big.

Saturday was tough b/c everyone was either recovering or still out partying from the night before seeing as it was halloween weekend.

Sunday was the same and we had to be in at 6PM b/c we didn’t want to be potentially exposed to any Halloween shenanigans.

So that was my week. it was tough, work wise, but you know that's life.
I was telling melissa i see three constants in life...
1 Change
2 Challenge
3 And God helping us get through it all.
Keep trucking forward family.

I love you all
Keep your eyes out for a package I sent about 3 weeks ago....don't know where it is.
Love you
Elder Jonathan Allred

October 25, 2010

Dear Familia and familia

This week has been super quick/long/crazy/slow/fast/good like always

So let us begin

Last Monday pday was ‘aight.....we went to the mall b/c there was nothing to do and i spent 0 MONEY! One of the things i'm realizing is like.....i don't need more stuff.....stuff is dumb. it's quality not quantity, you know... so yea, next, we played a lot of pool, it was fun, my comp is hilarious at pool...yea we'll leave it at that. then we went to dinner and had turkey burgers...i will never ever ever have one again...b/c
monday night i woke up at 12:30! and i was like...why am i awake... and then i realize, o, i feel terrible....dang i feel TERRIBLE! i then spent the next several hours until 9:30 AM throwing up everything that any human being has ever eaten. yea. gross. I called my mission president's wife at about 6:30 in the morning and she told me i probably had food poisoning, and that i would be violently sick for a couple more hours and then feel better. Pretty dang accurate. I layed down at 9:50ish and put on Jesus the Christ while praying that the 2 NyQuil things (the member we live with told me to take) would not be revisiting my mouth anytime soon. I ended up passing out till 5:30pm at which point i woke up feeling insanely better. I still felt like crap, but i didn't want to spontaneously combust anymore. I found out that my companion had read scriptures and done lots of other stuff and listened to the same Jesus the Christ tape (maybe like 2 chapters, all about John the Baptist) 13 times. I laughed, and then wished i didn't lol. So i ate a little something and we killed some time by playing yatzee. then i passed out again.

Wednesday I woke up feeling better but lazy cuz i hadn't done missionary work in 24 hours... so we decided to bike 15 miles to the other side of our area. We did, and i got us lost b/c we went a different way! It was fun, we ate lunch next to a lake with some fall trees around, it was a good view. Saw some people and set up appointments...then biked home. Elder Lloyd isn't used to biking close to 30 miles in a day, so he wasn't feeling to hot. So we let him catch his breath for a couple mins before we headed off to dinner. After that we went and read Jesus the Christ (By Elder James E. Talmage. This biographical study details the life and mission of the Savior using ancient and modern scriptures.) with DS and it went well. All about the pre-mortal ministry of Jesus Christ.

Thursday was a long day. I started feeling sick again :( but we did stuff anyways.
We stopped by a ton of potentials in the morning and tried to talk to some people....but not a lot of people were home. Had lunch and then went to district meeting......greenies are funny when they have no idea what they are supposed to do for a recitation....yea, it was good. this elder stood up and was supposed to give his thoughts about the standard of truth...but he just recited it and then had us all stand up and recite it together...our zone leaders were like...dying laughing, it was good times.
Then we went to see the mission office which has now moved in to the Broomfield building. and one of the senior sisters yelled at me to sit down b/c she said i looked sick, i said i am sick, and that was a mistake lol. But we eventually got out of there and went home to get some harvest book stuff done before dinner. After dinner we had a lesson with a part member family and just got to know them, it's a good thing when people understand that we are real people lol.

Friday was awesome....WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE! Elder Lloyd had his temple day, and i was like...we're not at the temple b/c why?!
So Thursday we called President Ely, and we went down for the stake temple day.
I did some work for the first time since I did my own and then we did two sessions and baptisms and confirmations...it was a really good temple trip. Side note: apparently there is another Tennis Shoes Among the Nephities book out......good?
Then we got a ride home and the members took us out to red robins where there was a tv in the floor when i walked in and i saw the yankee's getting stomped on.

Saturday was another long one, we had to do weekly planning since we missed it Friday, however after we went to an appointment with a new investigator named M, he's a teenager we talked to looking for answers. So we taught the first lesson and he committed to baptism. It was really spiritual, sharing the story of the first vision (if you have a moment, please watch this clip). There's nothing like sharing that truth with someone who hasn't heard it and seeing the light come into their eyes. it was good.
After than we had to run to an early dinner. Went well. And then after that we realized it was dark, cold, and we had nothing to do on a Saturday night. So we biked around and tried to talk to some people with no success seeing as everyone was out partying.....so we made calls and tried to set up more appointments for later in the week.

Sunday was good. It was the primary program which i always love. Then we had the wonderful opportunity to teach the young women about Exaltation. I forgot how exuberant teenagers are in church. I was like...was i this...happy...to be here? lol
but after we started talking, showing them we were real people, they warmed up to us missionaries. it was good. it's such a blessing to know what God wants us to do, and what he has in store for us. After that we had a super busy afternoon running around trying to catch people at home. We're starting to get into the holiday season which is good and bad. good cuz i love it, bad cuz people are not home and are super busy all the time. However, we did have an effective afternoon and went home to do some studies (cuz we missed it) at night.

All in all it was a good week.
Then this morning my companion cut my hair.
Pictures to come.

Love you all have a great week.
Elder Jonathan Allred

Happy Halloween!

At the temple!

Tree picture for the year (it's tradition!)

Shorts and a sweater vest... quite the fashion statement :)

October 18, 2010

Dear Family,

This last week was extremely awesome. My new companion Elder Lloyd, from Layten Utah, and I are getting along really well and working super hard.

I updated you guys on Tuesday morning I think...and yea, wow, feels like forever since then.

Tuesday we went around and found a new investigator (someone who wants to learn more about the church) we’ll call him “A”. He's like 70 years old and just this tiny guy. He was out walking in the cold weather getting around kinda slow, so we stopped and asked if we could help him with anything. He said he was ok, but he set up a time so that we could come and share the message of the restoration with him! Super exciting, that will happen tomorrow. Then we went over to bishop's Orchid shop and it was so humid in there. I walked in and was like...o man, this is what humidity feels like. It was weird after almost a year of complete dryness. Had a good dinner that night and then went to Walmart to get the weekly shopping done since we didn't have time on monday.

Wednesday morning was cool, we started off with a call from some other missionaries who had gotten a call from a college kid who wanted to interview some mormon missionaries for a class she was taking. So we made some time and walked over. We ended up in a 1 and 1/2 conversation about what we believe and why we believe it. Eventually when talking about why we believe certain things, we first and foremost have to go with what we feel, However, when all is said and done, God has all the answers and the easiest way to find out if something is true or not is to ask HIM! So that's essentially what we told her, is that there is no tangible proof, but you can know. God doesn't send neon signs of bolts of lightning to give us answers, he sends us feelings in our hearts and thoughts. It's a good thing to know that God answers pray.
So after that we had a good lunch. I've started my hot chocolate season and I bought myself a legitimate Hot Chocolate Mug at Walmart....I'll send a pic out. it's tight.
After that we went and saw B and MH for the first time since I've been back. We introduced Elder Lloyd and had a good chat. Then we got to go see the Williams for Hayden's birthday which was good, we talked about prophets and why they are so vital in God's church. Dinner with the Washburns was a fantastic preview to Thanksgiving (we had turkey and mashed potatoes and veggies, o it was so good)
Then we hobbled over to D's house and talked about the life of Christ. We're going to start reading Jesus the Christ with him, it will be awesome.

Random side note: i've decided that my morning workout needs to be more effective since if i lift and try to do like a strength exercise it doesn't work...so i need someone to send me some yoga exercises so i can get down with my inner-self.

Thursday i felt sick, but we went out anyways and it was good. Had district meeting in the afternoon. I'm pretty sure i mentioned that i'm in the same area but a different district now....so our mission office is moving into the building where we meet at now (for district meeting). it's weird. So after that we went and taught a member and his son about prayer. His son didn't have a really solid Christian background so we talked about who God and Christ are and that kinda deal it went well. Dinner was good, we ate with Roy Halliday's cousin. It's funny how like everyone here has a connection to him. I know people who went to high school with him, family, uncle's aunts, former home teachers, all that jazz. And i found out that he got good b/c in his basement, his dad put up a mattress with a tire on it, and he would just go down and throw a 100 pitches a night. i thought that was cool. Shows how much practice matters.

Friday was also good. We weekly planned hard core. Looked through our whole area book and made plans to see people who were interested in learning more but hadn't been seen in like 2 years and stuff. We had a really good dinner and afterwards Elder Lloyd didn't look to good and i was like...how you feeling man, and he said "i feel like there's no room in the inn" and i like died. So many religious references on the mission.

Saturday was good, we saw a ton of people and it was super good. When we got to dinner the Phillies game was on and I was like..NOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo. But i heard they lost sat. and won sun. It's ok, it's gonna be Phillies Rangers in the world series.

Sunday was also good, just forgot that we got another new investigator on saturday. but yea church was good. In ward council we talked about a fireside idea that i got from a couple other missionaries. Essentially what it is, is the youth of the ward all invite one or two or three friends to a Q/A night with the missionaries. I remember in high school and middle school all my friends had a ton of questions that i knew the answers to, but i wasn't that good at explaining it. So, the youth can bring their friends and get their questions answered by some people that do it 24/7. So yea, suggest that to the missionaries serving back home, i think it's a great idea. We're going to do it Nov 14th, and we'll see how it goes. When i was back in arvada we were prepping for it and it happened yesterday when i obviously wasn't there to see how it went :(. But yea, after church, we did lunch, caught up on some missed study time (since meetings start at 7:30). Saw lots of more people, got some slammed doors which is always fun, and then had another lesson with the Hafers.

All in all it was a very good week and it was so refreshing to see missionary work happening here. I love talking to people about truths that i've learned, that continue to make me happy. It's a sweet gig.

So some quick questions / things i need.
**Grandma and Grandpa Allred, i met Grandma's old visiting teacher i think her last name was Moore? i'm not sure, from Denver. She and her husband just moved into the Arvada 3rd ward and i met them at a baptism 2 sundays ago. They were like... we knew some allreds that lived 3 houses down, alice and dean, i was like...o yea, that's funny, that's my grandparents. So it was cool
**Still no one has told me about Celeste getting married....
** When the Phillies win the series someone's gotta get me a shirt
** when you send letters make sure to include the mission name under mine...
so it should look just like this:

Elder Jonathan Allred
Colorado Denver North Mission
1250 Main Street
Broomfield, CO 80020

that's about it
I love you all
and i hope you all have a great week!
Elder J Allred

PS: my thought for this week is on accountability.
President Monson said something like.....actually i have no idea...look in Preach My Gospel page like....160ish? about accountability, it's in a box on the left page at the bottom. Ok, so basically it says, at the end of your day, be accountable to Heavenly Father for the choices you made. For me it's a lot about did I fufil my potential to share the gospel today. but for each of you it may be as a mother, father, sister, brother, Latter-day saint, and son or daughter of God.

We all have a great potential, to become like our Father one day, if we choose now. There's an amazing scripture that I think is Is Helaman 14:30-31 It talks about how if we perish (spiritually) it's because we chose to. God gave us a couple things...#1 the knowledge between right and wrong and #2 agency #3 a knowledge of what HE wants us to do. SO...if we know what God wants us to do, and then we do it, then we chose eternal life. If we know what God wants us to do and we don't do it, then we chose not to have eternal life. God won't force any of us home to Him, that was the other plan.
We get to choose!
We all know who wins this battle of souls, we get to choose what side we're on.
Love you all
read those scriptures!
J

Address Change

Please note all mail as of October 20, 2010 should be sent to the following address. The Mission Office is moving. All mail sent to the other address will be forwarded for 3 weeks and then stop. Mail that is sent to the new address before the 20th will be held until that date. Thanks!

Elder Jonathan A Allred
Colorado Denver North Mission
1250 Main Street
Broomfield, CO 80020