October 28, 2013 New Companion and new Home

Me in Elder Hernandez's shirt.  I have big shoulders to fill

Monday was a crazy day to be honest. At first I was planning on going to be in a tri-panionship from Monday to Wednesday (until I get my new companion because Elder Hernandez had to report to the Mission home on Monday) BUT Elder Oscarson (one of my Zone Leaders at the time) was made an Assistant  So he had to go early to get trained and such. So I went over to the ZL's early to be companions with Elder Cassiano (the other ZL). So basically I was District Leader/Zone Leader for 2 days haha. Not really, but kinda. It was fun for 2 days. 

Tuesday I was over with Elder Cassiano, and he called the Assistants and asked if I could lead the District Meeting in Elder Hernandez's absence, and they said yes! Well their exact words were "Yea, that would be good training for him"....... I don't know what that means, but I'll take it. So I lead District Meeting and it was fun.

Then Wednesday was Transfers! I was told that I wasn't being transferred  so I was happy. I went to the meeting, and I got my new companion, Elder Aranibar! He's a really cool kid from Peru initially, but he moved to Utah (West Jordan) when he was 13. So that is a little bit about him! He is really cool, and was in the same Zone as me before transfers. He was in Aguila and is actually Elder Mabey's trainer. Oh and at transfer meeting we found out we will be getting iPads this Wednesday. No iPhones, but President Toone said they would roll those out fairly soon after. Probably by my 1 year mark. 

Then Thursday was a pretty normal day. I have to lead the area because Elder Aranibar is new here, but it hasn't been too hard. We have a pretty small area, so it wasn't too bad. 

Friday we had my Post 12 week training meeting. That was fun, because we got to go to Tempe and see President Toone again! It was really cool, he's such a great guy. And then later that night we had an interview for Anselmo's baptism the next day haha. It was good that he passed! And after the interview we had a farewell party for a girl in Montana del Sur ward who is going to the Salem Oregon Mission! It was cool because the entire ward throws the party and they do so much for the future missionary! It is so cool.

Then Saturday we had the baptism! It was so awesome. A lot of members from the ward came to support him. So we were pumped. Oh, I got to do my the baptism.  

That is pretty much the whole week. 

Love you all

Elder Allen

October 21, 2013 Transfers this week

We have been teaching all of our solid investigators, Anselmo, Amy, Samantha, Ryan and Marc. It has been good. They were all sad that Elder Hernandez is leaving, as was I, but it should be a good transition because I will still be in the area, so I can lead the new missionary and introduce him to everyone. We should have Anselmo baptized this Saturday, which is good. He is married to an endowed member of 5 years. It is great that he has finally accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ into his life. It has been amazing to see his transformation, as he is the first investigator what I will have taught all the lessons to. I can't wait till his baptism. 

Not a ton more has happened this week. A week from today (Next Monday  we will be painting our new house that we will be moving into, and so we should be moving into there sometime next week.

I will be receiving a new companion, who will also be our district leader, this Wednesday  I don't know who it is yet, but I will let you know next week! I'm sure he will be a good guy and we will be hard workers together. 

That is about it! I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear form you again!

Love Elder Allen

 

Fun Zone activity (Shout-out to Elder Mabey)

Me and Hermana Haar in our Wildlife shirts.  

October 14, 2013 I am not moving yet!

Yea. Haven't moved yet! We should be moving this Friday, at least I really hope so! I'm getting sick of doing my laundry at the Laundromat. Our new house will be nice, and I will take pictures once we move in.

Mesa Arizona Temple

This past week I started reading Jesus the Christ, and oh my gosh... SUCH a good book. I seriously love it so much! It is a little dense to read, especially at 8am, but It is amazing! Then on Tuesday we went to the Visitors Center with Ryan and Alexa, after 2 times of not being able to go for one reason or another. It was awesome. We went and watched the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration  movie and it is reaaaaaaally good. (No "beware of pride, boy" quote though )

Mariachi Band for the Wedding

Then on Thursday I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, Elder Cassiano. He has been in my area before, so he knew what we were doing and where we were going, so it was easy. We had some good lessons with some people that didn't exactly follow what we had planned, but we taught what the people needed to hear, which is wayyyyy more important. 

Then on Friday we had the opportunity to go to the wedding of our investigator, Ryan. He is getting married to a Less Active member named Alexa (who is active now) and it was really cool. They were the ones who asked me to translate (yea right!) 

Alexa and Ryan's Wedding.  She cried when he placed the ring on her finger

That is pretty much all that happened this week. It was a good week though, we have a decent amount of investigators and they are learning about this wonderful gospel. 

Also, this upcoming week will be Elder Hernandez' last week in the field... It's sad. 

Love you all so much, 

Elder Allen

The Happy couple, Me, and Elder Hernandez

Preparing to Serve a Full-Time Mission!

I found this really cool picture online that describes what I did in preparation for preparing to serve a full time mission, and the whole mission call experience! Read the whole article here!

I'm moving!!

Well there was a lot that happened this week. It's been pretty great to be honest.

It started off pretty standard, with P-Day and a regular Tuesday, but then we went out with the Elders Quorum and it got interesting. We went to a family who was baptized into our ward, and then they got offended by something that someone said to them, and left the church, and now doesn't want anything to do with this religion. It was so shocking to me! It really hit home to me, and Elder Bednar's talk "And Nothing Shall Offend Them". It is so important that we choose the Gospel of Jesus Christ over being offended, because that's really what the choice is, if you cut to the core. 

Then we had Zone Conference. But ours was different, it was actually two zones because the Phoenix stake (the stake I'm serving in) has 2 zones in it. So it was us and the Phoenix zone that were there. It was amazing. I have the most Respect and Love for President Toone than almost anyone I have met. He truly is called of God to be MY mission president. He is so in tune with the spirit, it is amazing. 

Saturday was such a good day. We were able to go to the Stake Center and watch all 3 sessions of conference that day! It was amazing. Brother Frietz was the one who drove us and then he took us out to lunch in between the conferences. I LOVED Elder Dube's Talk and Elder Uchtdorf's Priesthood Talk. They were seriously the best. Oh yea, I gave a blessing in spanish for the first time... That was scary!

Sunday was a really good day too. Again, Brother Frietz drove us to conference, and it was a great experience. I loved President Monson, especially when he was talking about his Wife, I teared up. It was so adorable! 

That is basically all that happened this week!

Summary: General conference is the best thing in the world and this Church is true. I quote Elder Holland now when he said this about the Book of Mormon "...there is no other answer [for the divinity of the Book of Mormon] than the one Joseph gave as its young unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.” "

(The talk is Safety for the Soul, I highly recommend it) 

Much Love, 

Elder Allen

Oh P.S.! My mail man is Mormon, and he will be our mail man at our new place, so he will make sure that we get all of our mail, even if it has our old address on it! Great guy he is. 

September 30, 2013 Woot Woot

This week has been pretty cool. 

Monday September 23rd:

Sweet bouncy house

Not much happened this day. We just sorta had our regular P-Day. We played some Phase 10

Tuesday September 24th:

There was an Hermana in our district who went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leader, and so we got to see the iPads in action. It is pretty cool to have your whole area book, every Mormon message/video on LDS.org, and all of the scriptures all on one device. I am pretty excited for when we get to use them.

Wednesday September 25th:

We went to a stake talent show, and that was pretty fun to see the stake come together, both English and Spanish, to have a good time. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is what brings people together.

Texting and riding a bike, because I can!  

Thursday September 26th:

We taught an investigator. She has been taught by the missionaries before, but for whatever reason she wasn't baptized. We taught the first half of Lesson 1 (because we ran out of time) and she liked it a lot. She gave the closing prayer and she started crying during it. I think It's just a matter of time until she fully accepts the Gospel into her life. 

Friday September 27th:

This was a funny day. Elder Hernandez was hit by a car. Not only a car, a cop car. And not only a cop car, but a cop car pulling out of a police station. It was pretty funny to be honest. The reason I say it is funny is because he wasn't hurt at all from the hit. We were biking on the sidewalk in front of the station and there was a cop who was slowly pulling out of the station. I was leading and so I rode in front of him and the cop must not have seen me and so he kept inching out and he inched out enough to hit Elder Hernandez and popped his front tire. The police officer got him a new tire from Wal-Mart but it was a cheap one. Then later that same day we went over to a part member family's house and I invited a non member of the house (the father) to be baptized on October 26th and he said yes! So I am pretty excited. 

Saturday September 28th:

Not a ton happened on this day either, but we biked 12 miles, so that was a pain. 

Sunday September 29th:

Sunday was an amazing day. It was Fast and Testimony meeting because of General Conference (which I am beyond excited for, words cannot even begin to describe) and there were some great testimonies born. Then after church we went to Montana del Sur's old bishops hospital room. He trims palm trees for a living and he was up in one one day and he fell from about 20+ feet. He only broke his ankle and fractured a vertebrae in his back. The Doctors said he is really lucky that that's all that happened. Then later that night we had a Fireside at the chapel and it was amazing. Simply amazing. We asked our recent convert to bare her testimony and she started crying while she talked about how much the Gospel has blessed her. Then her daughters just randomly got up and decided to bear their testimonies too. They're 9 and 11 and they are not members because their dad thinks that they don't understand what they would be getting into if they were baptized. I wish he was there last night to hear them say what they said. They were so heart-felt and emotional. It was amazing. I teared up!

I love this work. It is the work of God, and I wouldn't change it for the world. 

I hope you all are doing well, (Shout out to Grandma Weight for her Birthday today!) and I love you all so much! 

Elder Allen