November 28, 2011

Emporer Zerg, we meet again, FOR THE LAST TIME

Dearest family, it's me, here at a library in colorado........
i was really trunky last week b/c there was no one here
now there are tons of people here and i don't want to come home.
but i guess i will.
i love you all tons.
Keep being amazing
I'm still working hard, don't worry.
See you in a week.
God lives! with blessings for all of us. people need to know, so let them
Love
Elder Allred

-------

November 29, 2011

back, for the last last last last last time

so i'm finishing my trunky letter now
we just had one of the most spiritually powerful lessons of my mission
a girl just found out the church is true
everyone ended up in tears
she has a brother on a mission right now
she's coming to church on Sunday and is progressing fantastically towards baptism
Dang it feels good to be a gangster...i mean missionary
Love you all, if you need me i'll be here 30 mins and then i won't talk to you until i get home.
just got the email about being released, not thrilled.
much love
Elder Allred

until we meet again...on monday
all my love
Elder Allred

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December 1, 2011

Hour left
92.5
no big deal
just sent in my last zone leader report and mileage stuff
I'M FREEEEEE!
love you all
going to set someone for baptism now
2 people have gotten answers about the church
1 re-activated sister is now going on a mission
1 recent convert getting her patriarchal blessing
1 struggling member who i got to give a blessing to just got a job
0 more district meetings
1 temple trip
1 Christmas party
1 Church block
1 plane ride
Love

November 21, 2011

So, time left?
weird sensation, i'm in the middle of packing a giant box

Quite frankly i don't have a ton of time, or a ton to say (yes dad i'm taking a leaf out of ur book...(where did that phrase come from)).

anyways.
life is great
we had Elder Maynes of the 70 come and do a mission tour
we met with him tuesday as zone leaders, i went out with The Carol Family from my first ward right before that cuz we were in the area.
we were in fort morgan like 5 times this past week, tons of driving, i think we went around 800 miles or something, good times.

i'm not trunky, at least i'm trying not to be.
i'm pretty bummed to be going home.
but whatever, that's life.
still working hard, no changes there.
I love it.

The principle that's stuck out to me the most this week is one of my favorites,
that is THE LAW OF MUTUALITY
this law or principle is the exact opposite of the way most competition works in our society.

The law of competition says that in order for me to win, you have to lose.
the law of mutuality says that in order for me to win, you need to win first, and i need to help you.
This is the way that Christ lived. He lived for others.
And if you think about it, if we all lived to help other people, then that would mean that we wouldn't need to focus on ourselves at all (to a degree, bear with my sweeping generalities for a second)
and everyone would look out for us.
This is the gospel principle that drives us to serve others as ourselves, the results of love and charity toward all men.
Though salvation is a individual experience, it comes from the results of many working together for the benefit of an individual and the group.

It's awesome
Think about it.

Love you all tons
The next letter will be my last.

Weird.
Don't get trunky

Love you
Elder Allred

November 14, 2011

So this week i have not a lot of time (pun, get it, 20 days? lol) (not trunky) (for reals)
anyways
biggest news, i got my trunky papers aka my flight itinerary.
so i leave here at 9:10 aka 11:10 and i get in at 2:35 pa time.

i go to the mission home at 5pm on dec 4th
i'll be going to the temple december....2nd (which is my 2 year mark)
it's a friday, I don't know what time yet, but probably morningish.
i know people have lives. But anyone that could/want to come would be cool.

life is going great
to be honest, don't really wanna come home, but i guess that's life.

love you all
life is great
keep being awesome.
Love
Elder Allred

November 7, 2011

It's me! The Elder Allred!
didn't forget about me did you?

Life is awesome.
My companion and I are "tearing it up" as they say on the street, here in Greeley Colorado.
It's boss.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't want to come home.
People ask me if I'm excited and usually i just make a happy/sad/confused/crying/weird face in order to get across all the emotions i feel.
doesn't really work.

So, life is great.
This past week we had a ton of meetings, yes, we do believe in meetings.

Monday was halloween, so, we played basketball with the district, i found out how out of shape i am (but my forearms are straight wolverine status) but that's also ok, because when i come back home to sea level, it will be like i just became superman.
So, we had to be in by 6, so we and the Elders we lived with borrowed a charcoal grill and grilled some sirloin tip and Elk steaks.
It was boss. We lit a fire in the fire pit outside and had a great halloween.

Tuesday was awesome. We taught a ton of lessons. We found out that one of our investigators was in a play (anything goes, more on that later) and invited us to come, we
said we'd see what we could do. (more on that later). uhhh, had a great lesson, she had a question about who we are, really as people.
So we talked a lot about how we find out and how we get in touch with kind of our internal thoughts and feelings and what role God plays in all of it.
The other lesson that's sticking out to me from that day is our night one, where we have a pagan friend who's looking into the Church.

I used a hobbit analogy. We started the question with, what's in my pocket. We all took turns saying what we thought was in there, and then we found out who was right, which was me.
so we related that to the nature of God and how we can vote on it, and we can try and convince people that we're right, yet, it doesn't change fact.
God is God, and we can find out who He is by talking with Him.
It then went into a discussion about truth at large and how we find it, it was cool.

Wednesday began the run of meetings we've had this week.
2 district meetings followed by several more lessons and before you know it, the day was over.

Thursday we drove to Fort Morgan to the district meeting out there.
It was good, we had ROOTBEER MILK!
it was amazing.
Great night, great food, super hungry.
Quote of the day "at when all is said and done, you're just another guy without a duck"
such is the life of Elder Allred.

Friday we went to Loveland for Zone Leader Council, my last one, kind of. We have a meeting with Elder Maines of the 70 who's coming soon, so I get to go to a meeting with him, that will be sweet. It was aight, i'm just glad that I get to stop worrying about 16 other missionaries problems in a couple weeks. good practice for the future though right? (isaac if i try and have 16 kids, punch me, ok?) friday night was good........don't remember much else that happened.

Saturday was cool. We went to Texas Roadhouse with some missionaries and a member for lunch. Then we had previously gotten permission from our Mission President to see our investigators play. I just told him that our investigator had asked us if we could see her musical on pday, he was like sure. Then we found out it was "anything goes" and still didn't know what it was.... and, it was hilarious, just a little bit....anything goes-ish.
good times. lol.
then we weekly planned, the power went out, so we went to our ward mission leaders house, and then got taco bell.
That night had a district leader council within our zone.
Then home.

Up super early, though we ended up getting an xtra 30 mins of sleep ayways, on sunday for our 7am meeting.
Talked about zone re-organization next transfer.
it was weird talking about things that i know i won't be here to see happen.
Then church was awesome.
Great day.
Found some awesome people.
and that was about it.

This week looks good, though starting week 4 of the transfer, time is going to fly by...you'll see what i mean.

So,
moral of the story,
Don't get trunky, (yes YOU! not me, i'm not even close to trunky)

Remember who you are, and that God loves you
and set goals and make plans to be happy.
That's about it

Much love.
Elder J Allred

October 31, 2011

So, life goes on
here's a brief update!

I am not trunky :) !
seriously, i'm loving missionary service and i'm totally focused here.
i had the best week of my mission last week.

monday was transfers, pretty hectic, but also awesome, we ended up getting 2 new investigators that day alone with 3 hours of work and teaching several people.
we got a bunch of referrals.

tuesday was great, we had a super awesome with J preparing her for her baptism on Saturday.

wednesday was district meetings and snow. it snowed a bunch, but it's a good thing i had warm clothes. power went out during the district meetings we had so they were super cold.
good day

thursday pretty much everyone bailed, it's the first time that's happened in a while, but we were able to try and get in touch with a ton of people that were contacted by missionaries before.

friday was good, talked to some people that just really wanted to argue with us and they got frustrated when we wouldn't "scripture wrestle" as they said.
We told them why it wouldn't help. good times.

Saturday was super busy. we got a call in the morning that said the building hadn't been scheduled and that there was a party there. We ended up going over ourselves and making things work. lots of stress, but the baptism was awesome, pictures next week! then a lesson bailed on us, we didn't really get a pday, and then the halloween party was super fun.
horray!

sunday was awesome. i got sick, but we worked through it and had a great day.
lots of use of the word "great" this week.

sorry it's vague, we have a ton of stuff to do today.

My thoughts for the week have been directed how do I get to know the Savior more?
He's not here, so what resources do I have.
The answer that I've come to is Service.
If you couple together a bunch of scriptures, we find that we can't know Christ unless we have served Him, and we serve Him by serving others, and there's a ton of ways that we can do that.
Keep and Eternal Perspective.

Love you all tons.
Have a good week.
Elder Allred

October 24, 2011

So, this past week has been amazing
we've been finding tons of people to teach.
J is getting baptized on Saturday and asked me to baptize her!
we invited another girl we've been meeting with to be baptized, and she'll be baptized late November.
Everything is going amazing.
Elder Montague is getting transferred which is super sad, but that's ok.
I have no idea what to do with my life, WHICH IS OK! cuz right now i'm a missionary and i'm loving every second.
Keep me posted on life.
It's transfers, so busy time.
Anyways, that's about it.
Much love
J

ps: Everyone needs to read Alma 7:11-13
think about what in your life you need help with and then get that help!

Alma 7:11-13
11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.

October 21, 2011

So, here we are again, weird.
It's been almost two weeks since I've emailed, feels like eternity.
You know life is good when you look forward to something as small as emailing.
Right?
So, first things first, i'm not getting transfered as far as i know.
my new companion is cool, it'll be good times, i'm super sad to see Elder Montague go though.
We've had some great times together and yea, it'll be a sad transfer day.
So.....let's rundown the highlights reel.

Last time i emailed, the rest of the day flew by. We talked about the Book of Mormon for FHE, it was tight.
Then we played catch phrase and I was straight up boss-ing (doing really well).

Tuesday was awesome, we met with a ton of awesome people and had some super good discussions.

Wednesday was a day jam packed full of district meetings. Had one of the best discussions of my mission. Somehow the night disappeared, i'm not really sure.

Thursday we met with a new guy, super cool.
Long day and even longer night, we ended up in loveland at 10:30 to get a hide a bed for the farm house....nuts-o.
Got home at like 11:30, bed at like 1...no bueno.

Friday we finished the saga of E. Montague getting a bunch of cavaties filled...i can only wait and find out how my teeth are doing. We drove out to Fort Morgan to do a baptismal interview. Good times. such a long boring drive. Then when we got home our washer discharge pipe was clogged, and our land lord told us that we couldn't stick it out the window b/c there are fields of corn and what not near us, so......i scrounged up a pipe system that drained the washer into the sink. it worked well beyond the estimated expectations.
Also, one of the people looking into the church quoted Preach My Gospel without knowing it and it felt like I was in a pmg movie or something, it was awesome.

Saturday we got haircuts. Found out that there was a quiditch (yes from harry potter) tournament on the college campus. Went and watched....i can't believe that actually happened.
One of the most ridiculous things i've ever heard over a loud speaker "does anyone have jumper cables? the denver dementors seemed to have sucked the soul out of their car"
it was ridiculous.

Sunday was cool. Met with the stake president as usual. Went to a ysa conference in fort collins and got to see where the temple will be built there. I sang in the choir. It was eh.....
yea.
They needed way more practice, i had only been to two and I was one of the only tenors that could hold the part. no bueno.
Then lots of good things. Ate dinner with a couple that will soon be married!
Did some weekly planning and met up with our ward mission leader.
I also found out how to say "i make it rain" in german.
Good times.

Monday was a day of heavy contacting, it was super sweet.
Found a ton of awesome people walking around.
For lunch, we got ROCKY MOUNTAIN OYSTERS! good times.
We had a visa waiting missionary here waiting to go to Peru.
he wanted to have a colorado experience before he left...he didn't end up going with us, but it was still good times.

Tuesday was awesome.
Went out to lunch with the district and ate entirely too much.
Great day. and that night was even better.
we set up an appointment with someone who used to be looking into the church and after we met with her she decided to be baptized the weekend of thanksgiving!!!
we're super excited.

Wednesday was much more district meetings. Lots of interesting things. Headache.

Thursday, headache, felt sick, was sick, did work anyways.
Drove out to Fort Morgan again.
Got back and met with a bunch of people., was awesome.

and then today.
We went to the temple.
And now we're back.

Themes from this week:
Don't look beyond the mark. Focus on where you are and what you need to be doing.
also, don't look into things more than you need to. Blowing things out of proportion does not help anything.
The Book of Mormon changes lives.
You can't change without God.
God has a very detailed plan, we just have to figure out what it is and then have enough faith to follow it.

Belief+obedience=faith. no obedience = no faith. Faith is the power of miracles.....so if you want miracles in your life, be obedient (to God!)
horray
life is awesome.
I love being a missionary.

Much love
Elder Allred

October 10, 2011

So:
here we go

Previso:
the emails that will come today and in the following weeks will probably be vauge, bland, and sweepingly general.

All i got to say:
Deal with it. You can take it up with me in person in 8 weeks :)

So, first off.
No I am not trunky (wanting to come home and being a useless piece of garbage as a missionary).
I was slightly concerned last week when coming home became real. Having to think about where i want to go with my life,
where i'm gonna live, stuff like that.
So i made the mistake of trying to start figuring out my life. NOT GONNA HAPPEN!
i got super stressed and then realized that it was because i was trying to control things that I myself cannot control.
So i stopped trying.
The end.

Life lesson #1: don't try to control/do things that you can't!

So, to go rather quickly.
Conference was awesome.....i might have talked about that last week.
We set someone for baptism, she's so awesome!
Had interviews where we oversaw 3 district meetings, 3 interview sessions, inspected 8 cars, ate lunch, and did tons of other junk in the space of 5 hours.
it was intense.
learned time management.
got stuck on a road out to fort morgan in the middle of nowhere with low fuel, high speed winds, being late, and a screw in my tire.
o life lessons!
Got lots of prayers answered, we're starting to find a ton.
The zone is doing awesome.
Our district had a baptism set up every weekend for a month, we had to move one, but it's still going awesome.
The mission is changing the way we do things with reporting numbers, I'm not sure that i told you this, largely based off some things I addressed in ZLC.
I feel like dad, take a step back, look at it, then make a plan.
It's pretty cool.

Life is awesome.
Super happy.
Can't wait to see you all, but don't ever want to leave.
It's part of God's plan though.
That's about it!
Read your patriarchal blessing!

Much love
Elder Allred

General Conference

All are welcome to read, watch, or listen to conference talks by the Apostles and Prophet of these days! The Apostles are just like those during the time of Jesus, they are special witnesses of Jesus Christ, to testify of Him. Listen to their messages and feel of the spirit, peace and comfort it can bring to your soul. Please click here if you would like to view all of General Conference.

Please take some time to enjoy this highlight video of General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! Our Savior lives, and loves us. WE are HIS children!

~Nettina, sister, and blog updater of Elder Allred

October 3, 2011

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!!!

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

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!

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

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

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

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

August 15, 2011

Here it is
BOOM
the end
just kidding.

So, this past week flew by, i feel like i just emailed b/c i did on
friday!!! temple day
so
recap and rewind here we go.

Monday: started out with an adventure to the post office and institute......
had a lesson with a guy that we had contacted outside of his house the
week before. It went pretty well he's from Africa and is super Christian...though he may not fully
grasp the importance of it. As we were walking out of his house, we were late for an appointment.
So, we were cruising, but I had on my mind that we needed to talk to everyone.
So we contacted this guy, talked about families and the Book of Mormon.
we set up a time for wednesday when we could go back! awesome!
Then we had a lesson with a guy who is coming back to church.
He just hit the bottom of the barrel doing drugs, being an alcoholic,
and everything in between. so we're helping him get back on his feet spiritually.
Had dinner...i think?
then went to fhe at the local slaugh's house. We talked about
missionary miracles and shared stories, it was good times.
Then we went on exchanges again....horray?

Tuesday : quote of the day "can i get sealed to my xbox cuz i really
want that in heaven"
"yea, i read the scriptures, I'm in the Doctors and Covenants"
good times.
So
TUESDAY!!! SOMETHING HORRIBLE HAPPENED!
It happens once in the life of a missionary.
I got my trunky call.
For those of you not "down" with that "lingo"
it means that they are working on getting my flight home and they
asked me what airport I want to fly into.
So, I fly home on Monday, December 5, 2011.
good times.
we went tracting and the missionaries i was with were maybe a little more "inexperienced"so when it was my turn i didn't really go to the next house, i just looked for someone to talk to (much more effective than tracting) so we went over and had like a 20 min conversation with this nice older couple about family history, teaching, cu, life, kids, and everything in between they're super into geneology and we extended a couple of invitations to them locally and then eventually in salt lake. they're christian and very into their own church, but we were very polite and i feel like we made a super good connection, i need to follow up with those elders on that.
ate lunch....
GOT A REFERALLL!!!! horrayyy. Went and tried to see people in their area. then we switched over to my area (we were covering both for the day) and taught a returning~struggling member. it looks like the sun will start shining soon for her. Our "missionary lesson" was about turning frowns upside down. It was
pretty fun. Then we met with other people.
Played ultimate frisbee with the ward and a bunch of non-member kids. I'm starting to get un-fat. i can actually run and not die and i work out every morning, watch out isaac.! (not a threat, just a promise)
Then did stuf....not sure.
o, had a bomb lesson.....
exchanged.
went home.

wednesday we were supposed to have exchanges with the assistants, but
they had about a gazzillion e.t.'s to deal with.
Had 2 district meetings.
Then we had a lesson with a guy who was the one we contacted after that guy's lesson.
We taught him a really powerful Lesson 1 and then committed him to baptism!
He's super awesome and we're really happy with the progress he's making.
We set up a time to come back saturday to tel him about church (stake
conference)
Then we had a bunch of member missionary lessons. We made cold calls (to former investigators)\
i don't know if i shared the story about P, but I called this girl who had met with missionaries 2 years ago and she was like yea, i love the church... i just never got baptized. she wants to meet with missionaries again. and then....we found out she lives in thorton (super south) so we passed her off with our best wished down that way.
Had dinner. Played beach volleyball with the ward (sometimes being a campus missionary seems just too fun) Then a super legit lesson with a rm. And...exchanges again that night.
I think i may have combined part of thurs and tues cuz i was with the
same elders...so w/e

Thursday did stuff...had a gazzillion "+1" lessons...aka member missionary work lessons.
Super good.
Had the opportunity to stop in at a chiropractor who is a member b/c my backs been kinda acting up lately.
he took xrays...everything's pretty good but it looks like my spine has a slight scrolliosis still from when i was a teenager and my lowest two ribs are out of place... but he says he can fix it. yay.
More lessons :D
we went to dinner with one of their members and i fell asleep during dinner... first time that's happened...kinda... then i fell alseep in the post dinner message... yea i've been tired. Then more lessons, and good times.

FRIDAY=TEMPLE DAY!
we drove down with an awesome guy, our bishop's son. Went to the temple in littleton, saw gma+gpa's old place. Saw yarmo and lundgren *(elders) athen george pincock from boulder and jason bowerman (aug 31st mtc date) so that was awesome. saw elder gonzales which was super cool. Did one session, got some of the answers i needed. Came home emailed chilled had a lesson with a potential and she really wasn't open. she just kept telling us that things weren't biblical....like the fact that baptism is essential to enter the kingdom of God. It just kinda confused me a lot.

I've really been studying the doctrines of grace, personal accountability, and the Godhead. It seems like most Christians may not understand those fully.what a blessing it is to have a prophet who speaks for God and givesus God's (not man's) interpertations of the scriptures. More lessons...
ate dinner at like...9:20 when we got home.
good times.

Saturday was awesome. We planned a ton. We got a referral and taught him 5 minutes later. He's an interesting guy......yea.
More lessons. helped someone move. "a bag of arms=a town of converts" yea good day...

Sunday was stake conference.
Elder Clark from the first quorum of the 70 spoke about the 7 steps of
conversion.

1 Gain knowledge
2 Act/Faith
3 Test it to gain a TESTimony
4 repent
5 Get baptized/Renew covenants through sacrament
6 Recieve the Holy Ghost (daily)
7 Be obedient (endure to the end)

-if you look closely and compare with the Gospel of Jesus Christ (lesson 3, 2 nephi 31) it's pretty much the same thing. therefore, we become converted by living the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Super good conference. I stayed awake for his whole talk. I only fell asleep 11 other times before that (we counted) Then, a lot of people bailed, but we stayed and cleaned up all the chair, all the carpets, all the rooms, and swept the floor. and our ward was like..whoa elders. that's when we asked them for referrals! it was awesome, we have a bunch of lessons now with potentials this week! then we had lessons straight through until 3:30 when we got to eat lunch.
Good times.
Then we weekly planned.
Went to dinner.
"our ultimate goal in this life is to not look like frogs"
yea good day.

And now it's now.
We're finding like crazy.
I've never found so many people consistently in my entire mission. It's a super good feeling knowing that (as we say on the mission)
"you're the missionary your mom thinks you are"
I don't think i've ever been more "lost in the work" and it feels great.
I'm so happy and life is going well.
I hope that everyone has a great week.
If you love what you know, share it.
Boom.
Never underestimate your potential
Watch the Mormon message "Our True Identity" by Pres Uchtdorf, it's a goodun.
We've got tons of meetings this week and we're driving out to sterling (the sticks) to do a baptismal interview.
Hopefully i'll have more awesome news for you next week.

Much love!
Elder J. Arthur Allred

------

Our True Identity:

August 8, 2011

so i'm going to the temple, so my pday is friday this week, weird i know...
so i'll email you then...hopefully if we have time.
much love
J

-----

August 12, 2011

Soooooooooo
i spent like a ton of time going through emails (which is a good thing)
so this is going to be pretty precise...hopefully.

thank you all for ur prayers i'm loving greeley and doing super well!
so i just realized that i haven't told you about week one of this transfer so i'm going to talk about that and then talk about week 2 on my next email which should be monday:

got here
had an initial hard time settling in.
weirdness.

tuesday had some awesome lessons with cool people..........
had an intense lesson with an investigator who we stopped working with.
grace vs works....yea

wednesday was district meetings, solid...good...fun.

thursday drove out to ft morgan to go to district meeting out there...almost fell asleep at the wheel!!!
good day

Friday was zlcs so we went down to the mission home this time.
i gave a training on Christ like leadership
It was a good time, we all had a lot to share.
Good rest of the day.

sat was good, kinda pday, haircuts, tons of goodness.

sun was tough.
i had a migrane during fast and testimony meeting.
i bore my testimony.
had a bunch of lessons.
went tracting (knocking doors/walking around) with an awesome member and found a family for other
elders to teach.
we have been finding like crazy it's awesome.
...
.and more to come
long story short
i'm so busy i don't have time to be trunky it's awesome.
we've got a good day ahead of us.

love you all tons.
keep reading the book of mormon.
love
Elder J. Arthur Allred

August 2, 2011

August 1, 2011

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

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

-------
August 2, 2011

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

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

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

saturday a gazillion apoitments bailed on us.

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

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

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

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

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

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