The stone will fill the earth!

It has been an awesome week!! Where to begin, where to begin......

I know! Today, we are having a district activity in the which we are
carving pumpkins. We were invited to come in costume. In grand Sister
Allred style, I have been plotting this costume for not days, not
weeks, not even months, but for a year. In a few minutes, we will be
putting the final touches on a massive Mormon.org card. The kind we
give to investigators. It is huge, and there are spaces for my face
and sister Hernandez' face. I will send pictures next week. I must
admit, it is pretty awesome. Some things never change! :)

It has been another miracle-filled week! Let's go ahead and talk about
all if my favorite people.

We have been "teaching" W. for a few weeks now. Well, not really
teaching. We taught him and his wife once a few weeks ago, but haven't
been able to get a solid appointment since. However, we have seen hi
several times and he has come to church for two weeks in a row now. He
is really awesome. In Gospel Principles yesterday, he said how he
loved the way Mormons preached. How they did it with love and not
belittling to other faiths. He still is struggling with the concept of
being baptized again, but we have big hopes for him! Please pray
specifically that we can set up a time to meet with him and that he
can feel the desire to be baptized.

O. is struggling with a lot of problems in his life, and that is
making him anxious about his baptism. Please pray that the Spirit will
be able to touch his heart this week! We are hoping to do a lot of
service with them to help out.

J. is a new investigator we found last week. He is working towards
a date on December 6thh! We are having to adjust our teaching methods
because he was never able to go to school or learn how to read. This
is a new challenge! He also has no CD player and no access to the
internet. We are trying to read with him so he develops a testimony on
his own.

Speaking of no reading, on Tuesday we met a man who I will probably
always remember at a bus stop. He is from Guatemala and, like J.,
never learned how to read. This grown man started crying as he told us
about how he was a drunk and couldn't read. He told us how lucky we
were to know how to do such a beautiful thing. He lamented that he was
stuck; he couldn't progress anymore. It was so very sad and humbling
to see someone in a situation like that. We got his number and address
and assured him we could help. Unfortunately, both were wrong so we
couldn't get into contact with him. I hope he is ok.

We had interviews with President Berry this week. I love President
Berry. I know I was supposed to serve in his mission. He is such a
kind and gentle and inspired man. It is always a pleasure to be with
him.

Oh right! I am still reporting on our people! We also found R. and
B. this week. They are a miner and daughter from Mexico. We have
taught them twice and R. is thinking about baptism on the 29th of
November. She is awesome. B. is twelve and they are already
talking about her being a missionary. Miracles abound!

Also, last night we taught a wonderful man named J. He is taking
care of his old mother. He was very open and wants to be baptized. I
have never found so many new investigators on my whole mission! It is
such a blessing. I can't even believe it.

We are getting a lot better at teaching on the spot. It helps us to
fulfill our purpose as missionaries. I feel good when I teach. I
continue improving with practice, or I hope so at least!

It has been a good transfer. Me and Sister Hernandez are finally
getting used to each other! We are friends, and it is a blessing. I
continue to be surprised at how The Lord stretches me and helps me
develop into the sister He wants me to be.

I am happy. Life is good. I am so happy I get to be a missionary my whole life.

I know that the Spirit is real. I feel so uplifted by my personal
study every morning. A lot of this has come through me striving to be
guided by the Spirit in what to study. I invite you to try it! Try and
pray to be guided before. As I have done this, by the end of my study
I am shaking with the Spirit. I am excited and feel a burning in my
bosom and I want to go and do the Lord's work! A study journal has
also been really helpful for me.

This is all kind of random I guess, but life is just so good. God is
real, and He is our Father. He sent His Son to be our Best Friend. He
sent and sends prophets to guide and help us, and scriptures to fill
us with His Spirit. I know it!

He is also loving and gentle. He wants to forgive. He wants us to be free.

I love helping people see that light of happiness.

One more story! I had to go to the CVS this week for my prescription
(thanks, mom!). We walked in, happy as usual. We waved and said hello
to the pharmacists. Monique waved and said, "Wow, I want some of what
you have!" We laughed and told her we would gladly share some! Turns
out she was having a horrible day, but prayed before she got to work.
She told us that since she saw us, she wasn't having a bad day
anymore. Her sister is a member in New York. We invited her to listen
to the missionaries again. She was so excited. It felt so good to be a
ray of sunshine in someone's life.

Anyway, I love you so much!! Happy Halloween, and happy birthday to my
faithful writer!

Love,

Hermana Allred

Las Elderes

Family:

YOUR EXTRA PRAYERS WORKED!!!!   I really appreciate them.  We felt the blessings big time this week!!

Bummer, but I don't have a lot of time because I am trying to figure out some BYU stuff.  But I will try to get in everything I can; there is a lot!!

It was really hard at the beginning of this week.  I was really in a mood last Monday.  But the Lord has His ways of taking us to our very limits and then pouring out blessings on our heads!!  I wish I would just remember that every time.


This week, we committed G. to a baptismal date for November 22nd.  She is awesome and we are working on preparing her for that date!!  She came to church yesterday and brought her little sister too.  We are excited to keep working with her!

Also, we went to see a member family in the ward on an assignment from the branch president.  O, the father of the family, is not a member.  Very unexpectedly, we ended up teaching him about baptism and committed him as well to be baptized on November 22nd!  Miracles abound!!  He is very ready to be baptized.  We are so excited to be working with their family.

Additionally, the branch president came out with us to find people on Wednesday! We hit a gold mine because we were walking around a school at the time school got out.  A ton of Latino moms were walking to pick up their kids! We talked to four of them.  All four of them were spanish, and all four of them gave us contact info to get in touch with them.  Miracles of using our branch president's finding keys!!! So cool.

I have talked before about W and A.  They referred us to J and E, the other people they are living with.  We were able to teach J and E on Saturday, and they and W came to church yesterday!  It was awesome.  They are hungry for truth.  We are excited to meet with them again on Tuesday.

It was crazy and oh-so-awesome to have 4 investigators at sacrament meeting! What a blessing!!!!

The title of this email is "las elderes."  People don't really know what to call us - members included! We get las elderes, las elderas, las hermanas elderes, and my personal favorite, "the woman elders."  Haha.  Pioneering the sister missionary front!!

I am super happy.  Haha it was such a miraculous week.  Oh yeah, there is more!

We stumbled into many less-active, lost members this week.  I love being able to get their information so they can be taken care of by the church.  One of these was L.  We biked into L's complex, and we waved at each other by his second-floor door.  We stopped and started talking to him, and he told us he was baptized 10 years ago when he was 14!  We right then and there had an awesome lesson about the Restoration.  We talked about healing spiritual wounds.  We talked about the sacrament, priesthood leaders, and becoming whole.  About feeling the love of God.  About starting again.  We committed him to talk to the bishop of his ward the next day (Sunday) at church and start healing.  He said yes.  It was awesome.  I have such a testimony of the Lord's plan for each of us.

As we have been following our plans, we have felt the Spirit and been where we need to be.  I love talking to people.  I love giving out the little stickers that Aunt Traci sent me forever ago (I still use them all the time).  I love making people smile and offering service.  Service! Right!

We went to see a member referral this week (another miracle) to give service.  She had no electricity.  We cleaned with a flashlight in some places.  We (well, sister Hernandez [I was holding the flashlight]) bathed her dog.  We also cleaned the kitchen table.  Kitchen table?  Yes, the table.  And by "cleaned," I mean "de-roached."  There were probably 40 german roaches living in the table!!!!  I almost threw up, several times.  Hahahaha oh, the good times of missionary work.  We are going back this week to finish! Que dicha es! :)

I also crashed on my bike this week! It was hysterically funny.  I was trying to talk on the phone to a member and get to an appointment, and then brake with one hand.  Needless to say, I went sprawling.  I have some nice bruises as souvenirs, but me and Sister Hernandez laughed the whole ride to our appointment.  I am a real missionary now!

Family, you know, the Church is true.  I love obedience and hard work.  Like, I really love working hard.  And getting things clean.  People, houses, cars. souls. :)  I love getting better every day and getting improvement suggestions and trying my best.  BEING A MISSIONARY IS THE BEST!

Again, thanks for the extra prayers.  They really worked!


I love you,

Sister Allred

The Rock

Samurai Semoran has proved to be a rollercoaster of events and emotions! I would really appreciate a couple extra prayers as I am still trying to hit my stride here.  Thankfully, our teaching pool is filling up and we have been blessed to work with a lot of awesome people!


First, there is W. and A.  We met them one night biking through their neighborhood.  They are from the Dominican Republic and have only been in the country for a few months.  They have a really cute baby boy named William, and they are just the greatest family ever.  We taught them together on Tuesday, and have ran into W. several times since then on the street.  They are excited to keep meeting with us, and W. said he would be baptized if he came to know it was true.  We feel really good about them and are excited to set a baptismal date with them when we go to see them tomorrow.  Keep them in your prayers!

Second, we were visiting some former investigators that we had chosen when we met M.  She was just sitting outside of her apartment, and we introduced ourselves and talked a bit, then asked if she had a few minutes so we could sit down and talk more.  She did!  We went inside and had a really awesome Restoration lesson.  She was confused by difference in doctrine when she was younger in her churches, and has been looking for truth.  We all felt the Spirit as we testified of restored truth, peace, and church organization.  She also said she would be baptized when she got her answer.  We are meeting with her also on Tuesday and are excited to prepare her to partake of everything the Gospel has to offer her.

Additionally, we found A. walking in his complex the other day.  We had a short lesson with him about how the Restoration can help him, and we are coming to see him again on Sunday.  We have been blessed with more people to teach, and that has been awesome!

The Semoran Branch is really small and with a new Branch Presidency is trying to build up and stabilize.  Thankfully, there is a lot that we as missionaries can do to help! I am just going to put in another plug for the piano.  Keep practicing.  It's the 8 years that keeps giving for the rest of your life.  I am not the branch accompanist as I have been in other wards, but I continue to use my skills every Sunday and in between.

I have something very important to say:  IF YOU HAVEN'T GONE TO SEE MEET THE MORMONS YET, DO IT!!!!!!!!  Haha I am not sure exactly how that is working in Utah.  It is showing in three theaters here in the Orlando area.  All of us missionaries got to see it in two huge joint-zone meetings on Thursday.  I loved it.  It was the best.  I am so excited for the whole world to see it!!!!  A lot in the future depends on the opening week success, so please go support the Church and see it!!  Apparently it was initially made for the Legacy Theater in Salt Lake, but the test audiences liked it so much they decided to make it public!  We all felt the Spirit so strong, and it was really entertaining too!  The Candy Bomber was my favorite - it totally made me cry.  What made all the other missionaries cry was the missionary mom one, which was also really good.  Haha you will all love it. 

This has been a transfer unlike any other!  Sometimes I get tired, but I know what I have to do and that the Lord works miracles.  As I keep studying the doctrines and reading Preach My Gospel, a whole world of knowledge is being revealed to me!  There is so much to learn about Truth and the Source of all Truth.  I am so grateful to know where I can find truth.  It would be a nightmare to do a research project with all your sources being fictional stories and third-hand opinions.  Some people in the world today are sludging and sifting through a lot of fiction, a lot of "good ideas," and a lot of falsehoods.  They pull together a sketchy raft from the truth that they can pick out, and then drift on a sea of conflicting information (to use the analogy from President Uchtdorf).  They are always confused and always are unsatisfied.  I am so glad that from the time I was little, I have been able to go directly to the Fountain of all truth and goodness.  The Holy Ghost and the Holy Scriptures help me discern truth from error.  A loving Heavenly Father has provided me and everyone on the earth a Gospel that will not lead us astray.  Compared to the sketchy raft, it really is the Old Ship Zion (wow, I am on a conference roll!).  The ship that is true and sure with a prescribed course to exaltation. I know my Rock.  I know the Truth.  Every person who has truly accepted baptism or is moving through Primary right now also knows the Truth and the Rock.  Y que dicha es! 

Even when the storms come, the Anchor stays the same.  And He never goes away.


I know it!


I love you all a lot!

Have the best day ever!

Love, Sister/Hermana Kara Allred/Alfred/Ayered/Allrd

Everlasting Sunshine!

Mom, dad, Ty, Brandon, Bryce, Alyssa, Ethan, Ashlyn,

I am just going to warn you, it is another iPad week..... Sorry, mom. :)

This was the greatest weekend ever. Needless to say, because it was
conference. It was probably my favorite conference ever. I have so
much to say about it!

As I was reading in Preach My Gospel late last week, a part caught my
attention about how we need to prepare ourselves to have the Spirit
touch our hearts and testify of the truth of the words of the
prophets. I found myself in a situation similar to when Elder Bednar
challenged all the youth to do genealogy work: I really wanted to do
it, I just didn't know exactly how. So I responded like I did before:
I chose the best way I knew, trusting that The Lord would bless me for
acting in faith. I decided to read a conference talk on prophets every
day until conference. So I did! It was awesome. Saturday morning
during study, I wrote down three very specific questions regarding out
companionship, our investigator Gabby, and my own mission. I was
ready! And I was absolutely awestruck when the first session had
entire talks pointing directly at my questions. The answers were
unmistakable and clear as day. I have never received answers in
conference more clearly. I have a testimony that that came from my
simple and weak way of preparing. He consecrates our efforts when we
try. I thoroughly enjoyed all sessions of conference, and especially
liked that we heard talks in Cantonese, Portuguese, and Spanish of
course! I am so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints. I know that the men we listened to are prophets
of the very God.  So, so awesome.

After Saturday morning's session, I had a really awesome experience.
I started talking to a woman who had attended the session at the
church building named Sister Winkler.  She told me that she got
baptized in December and was so excited to receive her endowment soon.
I don't know what it was about Sister Winkler, but we just connected
really deeply. She told me her conversion story - how she had been
praying for years for direction from God when she had a dream that two
men, one of them a redhead, showed her to a church. A month later, two
missionaries knocked on her door. When she saw Elder Smith's bright
red hair and remembered her dream, she immediately wanted to hear
more. The rest is history! I was very touched by the Spirit as she
shared. I felt prompted to share an experience of my own!  I testified to
Sister Winkler that her conversion would last so much longer than this
life. That she too would be an angel to help the work. We felt the
Spirit very strong, and she said that I was a good missionary and
would continue to share the gospel after I returned home. It was such
a profound exchange. I don't really know why me and Sister Winkler
were supposed to cross paths for 15 minutes after conference, but we
were.  I am so grateful for moments like those. If we have eyes to
see people for who they are and the attention enough to care about our
lives, we both are edified and rejoice together.


We are now teaching G, an 18-year-old with a lot of questions!
She is so awesome. We are trying to help her see that there is
absolute truth on the earth, and that it can be found in the Gospel
(thank you, General conference!). We are also teaching J, who is
the boyfriend of a member. We desperately need more people to teach,
so please pray specifically for that!

Semoran is something else.  Haha it is so fun to be in the city. There
are so many people to talk to.

I continue to learn more about the Gospel, life, and being a good
person. I continue to try and be a better missionary, despite what
obstacles might come in the way. Please pray for me to be able to live
up to my potential!

I love this Gospel and I know that it is true. I love beautiful
Florida and the beautiful people in it.  I love my sister missionary
friends and my Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon and my Example,
Jesus Christ. I hope you have the best week ever and apply what you
learned in conference!

I love you so much,

Hermana Allred