J. is baptized!

Here we are at another Monday in Orlando! Time is passing very quickly all of a sudden.  I am not used to it!

This week was an interesting one, but a good one.  I guess we will start with the best, which is J!! We met with him every day this week, and went on a temple tour with him and his boys.  Haha I went on exchanges to Goldenrod on Thursday, and when I saw J and J (J's 6 and 4 year old sons) the next day, J. looked right at me and said, "I didn't see you last week!!" (....we assumed that meant "I didn't see you yesterday")  Haha we had a good laugh at that.  Now the old Sister Missionaries are just part of the family!  This week we all talked about J going on a mission and good stuff like that.  J was nervous but excited for his baptism, and it was exciting to help him feel ready.  The ward has been great helping us with Juan, and we have a lot of good people who are friends with him and ready to help him from the beginning of this exciting journey.  The baptism yesterday was wonderful, and he said he felt a lot of peace and calmness.  Another soul who gets the chance to fight for eternal life! So cool.  Please pray for him that he will find strength through the start here so he can keep going forever.  We love him and his family.  Hopefully he will baptize J in a couple years. :)  He will be/is a great addition to the ward.

On Thursday, like I said, I went on exchange to Goldenrod (an English area) with Sister Kirkham!!!!!!!!!!  Yes, the same Sister Kirkham that was formerly known as Katie, my BYU Admissions coworker! It was so fun to work with her as a missionary.  It was cool too because we knocked into a lady who only spoke a tiny bit of English, but I started talking to her in Spanish and we went into her house and taught a lesson! She is excited to have the Spanish Elders teach her.  It was so cool to just be in the right place at the right time. That is why I know Spanish - so we can offer the blessings of the Lord to anyone, anywhere. :) It is such a useful tool to have in your pocket. :)  I never could have learned without the Lord! It is so funny that I used to think I just wasn't cut out for learning languages.  It was a weakness.  The Lord makes weaknesses strong when we use them for Him!  I am a witness of that.

On the said exchange, we ate dinner with one of my favorite people, Sister B.  I learned several lessons from this dinner.  Let's talk about them!  Sister Benamor is a member of the Goldenrod ward, which attends the same chapel as Valencia does.  I met Sister B my first week in the library, and I asked for her name so I could remember it.  Ever since, I have said hello and we have talked and become friends.  Then we ended up having dinner with her the one day I was in Goldenrod! I had kind of had a migraine and wasn't feeling well when our appointment came, and she was more than happy to give me a cool cloth and sit me in the breeze by the door and tell me I didn't have to sit and look at the food when I felt so nauseous.  That was such a blessing that I really needed.  I was so grateful that I had made the effort to be Sister B's friend before.  Then, in my time of need, I had a support and strength that I needed!  So lesson #1 - be friends with everyone.  Lesson #2 - Sister B was just baptized in January.  After dinner, she shared a little of her conversion story with us.  It was one of the most beautiful testimonies I have ever heard.  It was so real.  More or less, she said, "Before I was baptized, I only cared about myself.  I only did things for me. I demanded things.  I didn't care about other people, and I didn't care when I did wrong things.  Now, everything is different.  I think about others.  I am independent.  I am learning to control myself and be better.  I care when I do wrong things - and that is huge!  I ask Heavenly Father for strength to keep being better.  And people notice."  I feel the Spirit so much thinking about that testimony.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ changes us.  This Sister changed, so much.  I am grateful to be a part of such a hopeful Change.  That the big Change that can come upon all of us is through that beautiful Atonement that we focused on not too long ago.  We fail, and that's ok.  He just wants us to try again.  I love that. 

Here is a little "Life Lesson from Sister Allred's Mission Book" that I was thinking about this morning.  One of the things I have learned is how to do things I don't want to do.  Before, I liked to do just about everything I did because that is how I am (does that make sense?).  I really enjoyed doing what I was doing most of the time.  Now, I don't necessarily enjoy everything I do (what, did you really think Kara Allred would ever enjoy getting up at 6:30 a.m.?).  I get sick and tired, and then I don't want to do anything!  I get discouraged and depressed, and then all I want to do is go to bed or listen to music.  As a missionary, the last thing we ever do is nothing/sleep/listen to music!! We work.  All the time.  And so I grit my teeth and I work!  I grit my teeth and I get out of bed!  You don't always have to love everything you do as a missionary, but you do have to do it.  What a great life lesson.  I won't always love everything.  I can train myself to love things, but there are going to be times where I just don't want to do it! And do you know what I will do? I will grit my teeth and do it anyway.  If it is getting up at 3:00 am to take care of a sick kid, if it is preparing a Relief-Society lesson after a crazy week, if it is disciplining a wayward child, I will do it even if I don't want to.  And the Lord blesses us for that.  We look back on it and are grateful that we trusted in the Lord.  And eventually, we come to love the things, I would suppose!  I am learning to be happy even when I am stressed, tired, and discouraged.  That is something priceless.

I love you all a lot!! Thanks for everything you do for me!  I am so grateful to have such a wonderful family. Keep being so awesome!  

I LOVE YOU!!

Love, Sister Allred

All of a sudden, time is going by really fast!

I love you all so much!! Happy Easter!!!!!  I loved Easter so much out here.

Mom- thank you for the package!!! I loved it so much - especially all of the special witnesses of the Savior.  So awesome.  I love you. :)

Easter! I loved it!! I really, really hope you all have seen the "Because of Him" video that they have on mormon.org.  If not, please go and watch it.  We love it.  Everyone has loved it.  I honestly even forgot to dye eggs (and this is me we are talking about) because we were so involved in helping people know about this Atonement, this Resurrection, this Second Chance.  I am so grateful for our Savior who really did all of that back then so He can help us every day now.  It was such a happy thing to be able to talk about that to everyone this week.

In fact, on our way out of the library we had a cool experience on Saturday.  We passed a woman on the bench, and went back to talk to her.  We asked her if she was excited for Easter, to which she replied that she had to work.  We asked her if we could share a video with her, and we sat right down on that bench (all 4 of us!) and watched the Because of Him video.  We started talking about Christ and the Atonement, and drifted into parts of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon.  W. loved it all, set up a return appointment with us, and started reading the Book of Mormon before we even left.  She also speaks Spanish; she is from Puerto Rico! It was a really neat experience.

J. is doing great!!!!! His baptismal interview is tonight, and his baptism should be happening at 4:30 on Sunday.  We have been amazed at the change we have seen in him this week as he is opening up to us and members about questions, concerns, and hopes.  He seems so much happier and more confident- I can't wait to see him post-baptism!  :)  The members have really been stepping it up too - providing friendship and Family Home Evenings with him.  We are so excited.  Yesterday after church, we were talking with J. and a member named Brother Silva.  Brother Silva asked J, "So do the Elders or the Sisters teach better?" (J. has been taught before by other missionaries)  I loved J's response.  He said, "Well, the Sisters explain things differently."  He didn't say that either one of us were better or clearer or more powerful - just that we explained things differently.  I really enjoyed that - that is why the Lord needs all kinds of missionaries.  No one is better than the other- we all just teach differently.  That is why the Lord needs all of us, because some people respond better to different styles.  We shouldn't try to change ourselves to be like someone else, because then maybe we would lose opportunities that are specifically ours.  It is fun to be a part of this experience.  With E and K, I felt like any missionary in the world could have helped them get baptized because they were really ready. 

 J. is different - for whatever reasons, he needed the two companionships I have been in.  To explain things differently.  To help him overcome his fears and concerns.  It is special to be a part of something like that.

Yesterday, we had the best time ever! We had an appointment to teach a potential investigator named M.  When we came, we ended up teaching M, her husband O, and their two daughters, R (who has a baby girl) and E (who is 15).  M explained that E didn't believe in God, along with some other challenges their family was having.  E said to us that she thought God was a myth, but believed a tiny bit because of what her parent's had told her.  We taught the lesson and tried to adjust to needs, and it went well.  At the end we invited O to say the closing prayer.  We all knelt down, but he got nervous and backed out.  We then invited E to say the prayer.  We taught her a little bit, then suggested she could ask if God existed.  She prayed, and half way through started choking up.  She thanked God for her family and her niece, and thanked Him that the missionaries could come and teach her more about Him.  She thanked Him for being there, and closed.  We were all amazed! We looked up to see her crying, and she apologized and said that since she was little she has got emotional when she talks about God.  We were able to teach her and the whole family, there on our knees, about the Spirit and how it talks to us.  We asked her what she thought God was saying to her, and she said, "To learn more about Him and to have an open mind."  She told us she would read the Book of Mormon with an open mind.  It was such a miracle and the Spirit was so strong.  

This week has passed so fast.  It is all going so fast.  I love my companions.  I love my area.  I love my mission, and I love lately being able to see how much I have really grown.  Thanks for supporting me and praying for me.  I love you so much.

Love, Sister Allred

A lot of changes!

So, I hope you had fun in California without me!!!!!!! The pin-trading lanyards..... haha I do find a small amount of solace in the two Disneyworld pins I received from a member on Thursday. It's a sign. :)

So I have two new companions! Their names are Sister Fisi (who came out with Sister Jackson and Sister Brooks) and Sister Sokolowski (straight from the CCM).  Shockingly, 'Allred' is harder for the Latinos to say than 'Sokolowski.' Who would have known?  :)  Sister Fisi's family is Tongan.  She is from California/Oregon, is 22, and is SO AWESOME.  I love her so much.  She is a very good teacher, is very patient, and really adds dignity and maturity to our companionship.  That is so great.  Sister Sokolowski is also the best! She is from California also and loves to do all the new things that we do as missionaries.  She is super excited to speak Spanish and help investigators and work with the ward and all of that good stuff.  We are excited to help her too!  It is different to have 3 in a companionship, but not bad.  We are having so much fun and a lot of success.

Success story #1:  J. is an investigator we have been teaching who had been formerly taught by other missionaries.  He has a testimony, but we were struggling to help him accept a baptismal date.  The first lesson after transfers was with him, and we prayed to know exactly what we should teach him.  We came up with a very detailed lesson plan that we felt good about.  The lesson went well, and at the end we invited him to be baptized on April 27th and he accepted!  He is a Mexican single father with 2 young sons.  They all showed up to church yesterday in their Sunday best, and we are so excited for his baptism!  Please keep praying for him!

M. is doing very well, and A. and M. are reading the Book of Mormon every day.  We had a good member-present lesson with E. this week, and A. should be out of the hospital (he broke his hip).  Things are going so well.  We are trying now to cycle through our other investigators and balance time between them and the other people we are working with who are progressing (like less-active members).  We have one, Sister G, who is really trying to get a new job so she can come to church every Sunday.  I love working with so many people who are willing to change what they do and who they are to come closer to Jesus Christ.  Things are just popping in Valencia! :)

The ward is doing great too.  They are helping us out, inviting investigators to their homes, bringing people to church, and calling people they have visited with us.  I love that.  I love to see the ward helping with this work of salvation so much.  It is a wonderful thing!

We had a sisters'-retreat kind of thing this week that was the BEST.  It was so fun.  All of the sisters in the mission got together and we had workshops about hair, skin, laundry, mending, cooking in a pinch, you name it! We also had a missionary mall, which is where I got that cute plum cardigan that I am wearing in the picture that I imagine sister Clare sent you.  It was the funnest day ever and a great little refresher on being domestic.  I will get there some day!  (I will let you know how me and Sister Fisi's cooking experiment goes)

In relief society this week, I sat next to a lady who was visiting from Puerto Rico.  She isn't a member and went to the Ft. Lauderdale temple openhouse with her member cousins in our ward.  I was asking her about the experience, and she ended up sharing with me how different she felt inside - something that was peaceful and good.  We shared a very spiritual moment talking about what she experienced in the temple, and then the lesson started.  The whole time I was thinking about her and what I could say.  By the end, I said a prayer to guide me in what I needed to say.  I turned to her after the lesson and told her to listen to the missionaries in Puerto Rico.  That they could help her feel what she felt in the temple all the time, and help her to know how she could be with her family forever.  She agreed, and I told her that her member friends would be happy to help.  I can't wait to follow up with them this week.  I think she will get baptized in Puerto Rico. :)

I love Preach My Gospel.  What did you learn this week?  I learned that the Book of Mormon can answer whatever questions we have - whether it is something like "Who is Jesus Christ?" or "How can I find a job?".  We were able to use this part of PMG to help our investigator Aldo yesterday.  The things in that inspired manual help me every day to prepare better to teach more powerfully.  I love this "rich resource of learning."

I am learning so much lately, and the Lord is helping me be purged of my imperfections so I can be more effective - a more effective teacher, a more effective missionary, a more effective student, a more effective daughter, a more effective wife, a more effective mother, a more effective Relief Society sister, a more effective church-member, a more effective person, a more effective disciple of Jesus Christ.  That is what a mission does to you.  It takes crazy teenagers who love the gospel and turns them into grounded adults who are equipped to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I still am and always will be Kara, but being Hermana Allred helps all the good things about Kara go so much deeper, and all the not-so-good things about Kara get scraped out in the adversity.  I like still being me, but I am a better version of me.  I never knew that I would need a mission to help me do that, so it's a good thing the Lord does.  I am excited to keep learning to embrace all of the life that happens out here. 

..... and I guess that is better than Disneyland (for now). :)

I love you!

Love, Hermana Allred

Hermana Allred, hace de las suyas

Wow, was conference the best, or was it the best?!  I was so inspired about so many things.  I can't wait to talk to you all about Preach My Gospel.  Shall we start? :)  On page 22, something stood out to me lately that has changed my studies.  It says, "Plan your study by asking: What will I be teaching today? How can I plan my study to best help those I teach? Which ideas and suggestions from this section will I incorporate in my study?"  Before, I thought that meant read the lessons we were going to teach that day from Chapter 3.  While sometimes this is the best thing to do, it is not always!  We are supposed to study what will help our investigators progress.  I have found this week that sometimes that is studying inspired questions or a Christlike attribute or the Holy Ghost or working with your companion in unity.  It has helped me have more effective studies guided more by the Spirit!  I love Preach my Gospel.  I hope that you take up Elder Ballard's challenge and start studying it! I know you will do great.  It is an inspired book. :)  Tyler- read it every day!

I love listening to living prophets.  They have such power.  I can never deny that the office of Prophet was restored to the earth starting with Joseph Smith.  I know that they are real Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Those simple words are the only ones I can think of to convey my surety of this blessing.  I know it.  I love it.

This week started off on an interesting note!  If you think that going on a mission solves all of your problems and makes you good at everything you used to be bad at,  you might have to think again.  I am still a horrible driver, and I still forget things.  For example:  last Monday, after all of our P-day activities, we were leaving the house to go to a family home evening with some members and investigators.  I walked out of the house after Sister Brooks, closed the door, and then said, "Oh, well I might need the keys, don't you think?" Then I tried the handle.  And froze.  And me and Sister Brooks stared at each other open-mouthed.  I had locked the keys inside.  Car keys, house keys, and all!  It was like 5:30, and the landlord's office had closed.  We found a neighbor and called around and waited for the person that they sent, who showed up......with a ruler.  Haha he tried to break in, but he couldn't.  We had to spend the night at our friends, the Clares.  On blow up mattresses on the floor.  GOOD ONE, SISTER ALLRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I was so embarrassed and felt SOOO bad.  But thankfully we got a new key when the office opened the next day.  Sheesh.  Haha who knew I would miss the duplex? ;)

(Our little sleepover-I am so ashamed!)

Another awesome story.  We were contacting in one of our favorite neighborhoods, and talked to a lady by the mailbox in the middle of the trailer park.  Her friends were NOT happy to see us there, and told us we weren't allowed on the property.  We had visits to make, so we went anyway and ended up finding a family painting their house.  A few minutes later, Sister Allred and Sister Brooks were swishing around in their skirts, waving red-paint-laden paintbrushes around while trying to keep up a conversation with M. and H.  It was way fun, and the house looks great.  So the next day we showed up again, and before we headed back into the neighborhood stopped to talk to a lady on the bench close to the mailboxes again.  Her name was E.  She was super nice, and started crying when Sister Brooks shared a verse from the Book of Mormon.  She accepted a copy and an invitation to watch conference.  We were just wrapping up when we hear, "I thought I told you to not come back!"  The same lady who had got mad at us before marched right past with an "I'll be back!"  We told E that we had better go (haha), and hurried off.  As we were leaving the lady started yelling that we weren't supposed to be on the property and that no one wanted to hear that religious garbage.  The last thing we heard was an "I do!"  And we ducked into the next street with E. defending us!  So that was cool, and we finished painting the house that day, but the real awesome part came in the next day!  I decided to try and find E. on facebook, even though that was the only name we had.  We looked her up and found her!  And she had posted a huge status about how two Mormons (Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - thanks, Elder Ballard) were talking to her about Jesus Christ and it was what she needed to hear, and then this lady came and she stood up for us.  We were in shock! Like 20 people liked it, and there were several comments.  It was so exciting.  We are now friends on facebook. :)  Hopefully she accepts all of the gospel someday!

We also had another unanticipated service opportunity, where we helped a family haul branches to be bundled from their huge tree.  We love giving service.  I love telling people that we do what we think Jesus would do- help people.  I also love telling them that the best service we can give is to teach them about the message we have.  Being a missionary is so fun.

Oh right, back to my old tricks.  I say that because I am training again next transfer! The weird thing is that I am training with someone else - 2 trainers and one trainee!  I am excited for the challenge and fun this will be.  3X the power! :)  I'll let you know all about my 2 new companions next week when I know who they are!

The members are really stepping it up here. It almost makes me think the Second Coming is soon (haha, but what doesn't?).  I love to see them excited about their friends and the gospel and the work. :)  It is so fun.

Our investigators are doing great!!  A. and M. are really progressing.  We were very sad that J. didn't come to conference yesterday, because they answered a lot of his questions.  But we keep pluggin along!  Our member referrals are easily our most solid investigators.  We are newly excited about E. and M. - please keep them all in your prayers!   I love being a missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I keep learning so much every day.  Something I have learned during my whole mission is to not expect perfection of myself.  I expected myself to be the perfect missionary, with the perfect testimony and perfect confidence and perfect everything.  Well, turns out the only Perfect Person ever was Jesus Christ.  He wants us to be perfect, but first we must perfect the art of fixing our imperfections.  We can't give up on ourselves because we aren't perfect.  We have to be real enough to acknowledge our faults and change them.  We don't need to be perfect, just perfecting.  I am learning to love my imperfect self while trying to always be better.  It has been really hard, but a good lesson that I will continue to use my whole life.  Remember that He doesn't expect you to be perfect either.  Nephi didn't build his ship in a day, and that was part of the Lord's plan.  He doesn't expect us to build our ship in a day either. 

I love you, my imperfect-but-perfecting family!

(.... and you are pretty close to being perfect. :) )

Love, Hermana Allred

P.S. are you sick of the word 'perfect' yet??

(Our District)