September 9, 2013 I didn't get transferred!

I didn't get transferred! Me and my companion, Elder Hernandez, are going to stay here for another 6 weeks. This will be Elder Hernandez's first and last area, so that is kinda cool. 

Facebook has been really cool to use! For those of you that don't know, we are now allowed to use Facebook for an hour a day for proselyting purposes. If we are teaching a lesson, however, we can go on longer. It is pretty cool because you can see how the Lord is hastening the work of salvation; the whole world is now open because of the Internet! A lot of really good friends of mine (S/o to Tia, Lucy and others) have given me some referrals of people who might be interested in the gospel, or at least hearing a spiritual message.

Monday:

Margarito got baptized! I'll send some pictures in another email, but it was a really cool baptism because there was a ton of his family there who are not members. 

Tuesday:

First day of facebook! It was a bit of a pain at first, because we had to hide LITERALLY (and I mean that in the dictionary definition way) every post ever that doesn't pertain to missionary work. At first I hated it because it was a lot of work, but I realized that all of that stuff doesn't matter and I'm glad that it is gone. 

Wednesday:

I went on exchanges with the Zone Leader, Elder Oscarson. Hes a good hard worker from Chicago (shouts to McClicky) and he is reallllly good at Spanish. He helped me make my language study time more effective.

Thursday:

We got some new investigators! We went over to a less active girl in our ward and she has a fiance who isn't a member. She told us that they really want to get sealed in the temple, so we are going to talk to him about Baptism and now we are teaching him! She has a son from her first marriage, Mark, who is 9 and he wants to be baptized too! So we should have them be baptized in the near future. 

Friday:

Friday was pretty chill. Because of Weekly Planning, studies and Facebook time, we didn't have a ton of time to go out and teach, but that's okay, because we had a good day on Facebook. I got 5 referrals, so that is always good :)

Saturday:

We had service after we did some studies in the morning, so we went over to some peoples house and cleaned up their yard. Then we went to Arby's for lunch (yum). I had forgotten how good Arby's is... 

Sunday: 

I had the opportunity of going to the meeting that the Zone leaders have with the Stake President. I went because one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Anderson, is leaving today :'( I'm going to miss him, hes a really funny and cool guy. And a great missionary. But he was leaving so they wanted someone who is staying in the mission to go! So they chose me! And so I went to the meeting and got to meet the Stake President, President Porter. Hes a great guy who is really on top of everything. 

That's pretty much all that happened! 

Love you all so much! 

Elder Allen

Hey!

Hello Everyone.  

BIG NEWS!!!!!!

We get Facebook on Tuesday. We will be able to get on for an Hour a day and try and teach lessons on the Internet. So that will be a big change. Apparently we have to go through and Delete all of our old posts... Or Hide them... I don't know. All I know is that is going to take FOREVER. Stupid social networking. But yea. Then they announced that in the coming months (probably by Christmas) the whole mission will have iPads and iPhones. So that's a lot of changes!

 

The Sunsets in Arizona are beautiful

Okay so this has been a slow week for me, so not a whole lot has happened to be honest. We have a baptism today for Margarito who has only been here for 2 months, so he doesn't know any English. Then we had interviews on Tuesday with President Toone, and that was nice. He told me he would try to keep trainers and trainees together for the whole 12 weeks. So hopefully that will happen. I don't want to leave and I don't want Elder Hernandez to leave.

Other than all of that, it's been a slow week. 

Dad: I went to an investigators house and Tremors was on. So That was a tender mercy of the Lord (It was in Spanish though)

That's all! Love you all so much and Miss you tons! 

Elder Allen 

August 26, 2013

Trevor is living in an apartment in South Phoenix.  The mission home has asked us NOT to publish his address for his own safety.  If you would like to have it, please email me and I will send it to you.  ckallen05@gmail.com

Elder Hernandez, my companion is a great missionary. He is always focused and very set on the work. He's a great trainer. I'm sad that he leaves so soon (as soon as he is done training me, his mission is over) and that is sad. I also live with Elder Burtenshaw who is being trained by Elder Hyer. They're English elders so we don't talk about them... Just kidding they're cool guys.

When I need groceries, we shop at the devils store: Walmart  It's really not that bad, it's just kinda gross sometimes. I try to buy healthy food, but that is hard. 

Lately I haven't had to use the backpack or bladder/Camel-back too much. It's been nice to be honest. The backpack is a little bigger than I need and it makes my back sweaty. But it is so convenient when I need water. If I don't use my backpack I use this little Mexican knit sling bag that I got at the Mexican store.

There is a zone in my mission (I believe the Tempe Zone) has iPads and iPhone 5's. So I hope I get transferred there eventually! And they all have cars. President Toon told us on the first day that this is a "test mission" Where the first presidency likes to test out ideas for the future of mission, aka iPads, iPhones, all missionaries in cars etc... So maybe one day yea.

On to my week!

Monday August 19th

Me, Elder Hernandez, Kassandra, Jaykeena, Gicela, 

Panchito and Tonatiou

That was last P-Day so not much happened. We went to the Mexican store and I got a lot of stuff haha. It was all half price because the lady who owns it is a member. I got a sling that fits a Libro de Mormon perfectly and not much more. Then I got a bigger one that  fits some more stuff. Then I got a Mexican sweatshirt that has a bunch of different colors (it's really cool) and finally a nice big blanket. It was all only $19 so it wasn't too bad haha.

Tuesday August 20th

Tuesday we went to the Temple visitors center with Gicela and her family and Panchito. It was really cool. We watched Testaments in Spanish  and I could follow along okay! Then we went to Deseret Book and I got the CTR Ring, and me and Elder Hernandez pitched in and got Gicela and her family a Child's Hymn CD so they can listen to it. Oh and we saw President Toone there haha. Hugging him is always awkward... He's so tall.

Wednesday August 21st

Not much happened on Wednesday... We went on splits with the Elders Quorum.

Thursday August 22nd

We went to the Mesa Temple and did a session at 6:30 in the morning. It was early but of course it was worth it.

Friday August 22nd:

We left weekly planning early to go give someone in our ward a blessing with the Bishop. We actually had to call president Toone to get permission to leave the mission, because we were going to the Mesa and Phoenix mission to get to the hospital. The blessing went well, and he should be doing better by now. Then we went by our progressing investigator, Margarito, and he had been praying for a baptismal date! He wants to be baptized on his mom's birthday, a week from today!!! I'm so excited for him.

Saturday August 23rd:

Nothing.......

Sunday August 24th:

Hostess came by the church (yes the company) and the gave us a TON of boxes of blueberry muffins... They were good. And free. Then we went out with some members to see some people, but of course no one was home or didn't answer the door. Woot. :(

That's my week!

I love you and miss you all so  much. I hope you all are doing well! I pray for you all everyday, and I can't wait to see you all again. 

I can't imagine doing anything else in my life right now. 

Elder Allen

Crazy Week, First Baptism

Okay, I am going to break this down by day now, because that seems easier. 

Monday August 12th:

It was a pretty chill day, obviously it was P-Day which is always nice. Then we had FHE at the church building for all of our investigators and the Hermana's in our ward (Haar and Bryant) taught about the Plan of Salvation to all of them. It was a pretty nice day.

Tuesday August 13th:

Nothing much happened on Tuesday to be honest. We had a district meeting and then went to Panda Express. So that was awesome as always.

Wednesday August 14th:

Wow we met with our investigator several times. 

Thursday August 15th: 

MISSION TOUR! 

That was an awesome day. Elder Carden of the 70 came and talked to us pretty much all day. It was a really cool experience and he said a lot of awesome things, but it basically broke down to work more with the members. They are the key to furthering the work of salvation. Once we were done with the mission tour, we didn't have a lot of time to go out and proselyte  so we went to our investigator to make sure all was well. We were with the ward mission leader to teach her about Tithing. She was totally down for it. 

Friday August 16th:

Not much happened today but we showed our investigator the John Tanner video, what an inspiring man he is!!! I love that video, it is so good. 

Saturday August 17th:

Our investigator GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!! It was a great day, I'll send the pictures. 

Sunday August 18th:

We were on our way to a referrals house, and while we were knocking on their door an African American man asks me "Do you think I'm going to Hell for smoking this here blunt?" I sighed and didn't really want to respond, but I said "No, not if you plan on repenting for it. Smoking that would be breaking a commandment because it is against the law of the land." He went on to yell at me for telling him he was sinning and then asked me why my first name was Elder. I explained to him that it is a title that sorta means teacher. He then asked me what tribe of Israel I was from. When i said Ephraim, he yelled at me again calling me an "idomite" I don't know what that means, but apparently I am one. Then he looked at my companion, who is from El Salvador, and said "You need to find yourself. You have been called to preach the word of God, this white boy isn't."

So that was interesting....

I used to love dogs, then I came to Arizona...

This week has been pretty good. We haven't had a ton of success, we only got 1 new investigator this week, and it is the daughter of one of our other investigators. We started off the week pretty slow to be honest, but then we had a Zone Conference and it revitalized our work effort. We have these things called OYM's (Open your mouth) and it basically means we stop and talk to whoever is in our path. Our goal for the week was to get 140, and by the time Wednesday rolled around we were at something like 30. We hunkered down on Thursday through Saturday and we got around 70 for those 3 days. Not too bad. But then Sunday came and from 6:30 to 8:45 we got 61 OYM's and a good 7-8 Potential investigators! It was a pretty great way to end the week. 

Now to answer some of your questions: 
Laundry?  Do you go to the laundry mat? 
Yes a member takes us to the laundry mat every P-day morning and it costs $2.50 in total to do my laundry, so not too bad. 
What Spanish ward to you report to? 
We report to the ward called Montana del Sur (there should be a tilda on that second n in montana)
How is the food?  Do you get fed by the members?  Have you had to talk in church yet? 
We get fed by members almost every night for dinner, so that's nice. The food here is so good. It's all real Mexican food, which is a nice change from Taco Bell. I have not had the opportunity to give a talk yet. 

Short letter this week.