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