Sacrifice and Gratitude

To the best Mom, Dad, Tyler, Brandon, Bryson, Alyssa, Ethan, and Ashlyn in the world:

I LOVE YOU!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING MY BIRTHDAY THE BEST DAY EVER!!!!  It really was the best.  Let's talk about what made it the best, shall we?  

The birthday package arrived promptly on Wednesday.  Dutifully, and like typical Hermana Allred, I put it right on my desk unopened so I could look at it and get excited.  That night, I did peek just to make sure the presents were wrapped, then shut it up tight again.  Wednesday night, I arranged them all on my study desk, and after exercise on Friday I had a little party!  I LOVED EVERYTHING.  Mom, let's talk about the little things.  I was dying.  I have been sitting, twirling my little crystal globe around during study, and my companions laugh.  Maybe the most classic Sister Allred gift I could ever imagine.  I also have been wearing the Utah necklace which I LOVE and flicking around in my new dress, which I also love.  I am wearing now the fresh gray skirt (love), and loved all the other clothes/shoes too. :)  AND I about died with the Florida pins.  It was the best birthday ever.  Sister Sokolowski said the watermelon cake was the best cake she had ever had.  Hahaha and I loved your pasta that Sister Clare made. :)  It was a great day.  THANK YOU!!!  I also got many birthday emails today and letters. :)  I loved it all!! Best day ever!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been a good week.  E. has really been doing well, and we were able to teach her this week about Chastity and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  She wants to be baptized very badly, and we are continuing to work with her to get her to that point!  Please PLEASE pray for her to come to church. That has been a big emphasis we have had this week.  I love seeing her change and her attitude change and her thoughts change about everything we teach and do.  She is great.

Monday was a day of miracles.  We stopped by to visit D. and M, two potential investigators.  At first, M (mother of D) was not interested in our message, but ended up in the living room with us as part of the lesson.  During our plans in the morning, we felt inspired to talk very frankly and boldly about our Church being the only true Church on the earth.  As we progressed through the lesson, we learned that D and M were sick of being confused by the doctrines of all the churches, and just wanted to know the truth.  We powerfully and boldly testified that our message would not confuse, but clarify.  That the more they learned about Christ's one restored Gospel, the more clear everything would become.  They were moved and both agreed to be baptized on June 8th.  When we were leaving, we asked D if he thought our message was true.  He said, "Well, I am not sure yet.  I need to ask God.  But if He answers the way I think He will, then it is true."  We left that lesson feeling the Spirit so powerfully.  One of those times when you feel it fill you up and it almost makes you shake.  You know in the Joseph Smith movie when he has to stand up when they are chained and rebuke the jailers for speaking horribly?  And he is just so powerful and bold?  That is how I can describe the kind of Spirit that we were feeling. M and D are Puerto Rican, but we taught them in English, so we passed them on to the English sisters this week.  It was so awesome.  Right after that, we had an appointment fall through.  We had prayed a lot the night before and had made plans to be more inspired planners.  We had several good back-ups, but we prayed by our car to know which the Lord wanted us to do.  The answer to my prayer came clearly:  "Do what Sister Sokoloski feels."  Sister Sokolowski lead us to a door she felt we should knock.  No one lived there - it was abandoned.  Across the street, there was a lady watering her plants and we knew we needed to talk to her.  We were able to talk to D, share parts of the Book of Mormon, and invite her to read it and find relief from her burdens.  It was a great lesson and a great testimony builder of the power of the Spirit in planning.  Best day ever.

I loved your letters this week.  Mom, I really liked what you said about Dad talking to everyone.  So this paragraph is dedicated to you, Dad!  Thank you for being such an example to me in so many things.  Especially in talking to and loving everyone.  I watched you for years in lines at stores talking to the people next to us and making them feel comfortable.  I watched you read the nametag of our cashier and ask about how they were doing and thank them for taking care of us.  I watched you talk to all of our neighbors and all of my friends and all the people at church and all of everyone!  As I grew up and started going places on my own, I just knew that that is what should be done! And I talked to everyone, just like you.  I had a good example.  On my mission, people wonder how I easily talk to the people around me.  And I tell them it is because I did it before I left!  Talking to people in Walmart or at the library is not something foreign to the Allreds.  Dad, you really do just love everyone, and you know that if you love them you should talk to them and make their day happier - make them smile or give them a compliment.  That has gone a long way for me on my mission and in my life.  Thank you for being such a good example of real love.  I love you!

Mom, I think the PMG study group is the best idea ever!  I love Preach My Gospel.  My suggestion would be to pick parts that you can actually use; that you think will help you in your personal life or missionary work.  Preach my Gospel has tips from start to finish of the missionary process! :)  Then apply them to yourselves, even though you aren't full-time missionaries.  We love using PMG with members and I love to read it and mark it up and write in the margins and talk about it.  You will love it too! Please tell me what you learn.  You are a great example to me.  Happy Birthday this week- I am sending a letter today. :)  I love you!

I named this letter "Sacrifice and Gratitude."  Gratitude is because I have been really grateful today and this last week for you and for the people who love me out here (like the Clares).  The Lord really does take care of me so much.  Sacrifice is because that has been a theme in my thoughts this week.  Dad, your letter addressed sacrifice in such a timely manner!  I have been thinking a lot about what it means to sacrifice.  It is frustrating sometimes to see that investigators don't keep commitments.  It makes us sad that they don't do the things they need to to get closer to God.  He has given us so much.  His Son gave the ultimate and perfect Sacrifice.  He sacrificed every living day of His life serving and loving and giving.  He continues to sacrifice so we can feel loved and watched-over.  He also asks us to sacrifice everything, like He asked His apostles in Galilee.  Everything we have should be the Lord's.  We can't achieve it all now, but every day we try to sacrifice by being obedient and offering our time and talents to the Kingdom.  So many people that we talk to here say that they love Jesus Christ.  That He is their everything.  That without Him, they are nothing.  That He saved their lives and makes life worth living.  But unfortunately, in the same conversation these people will say that they don't actively go to a church nor read their scriptures.  Like you said, dad, Love is sacrifice.  If we love the Lord, we really should give everything to Him.  One day, I will achieve loving Him perfectly.  I want to sacrifice everything for Him.  I will get there someday!  For now, I will keep trying. :)

I am getting transferred tomorrow! I will let you know where I end up.  Please pray for me and my new companion and my new area! I will report the miracles next week. :) 

I love you all so much! Thanks for everything!

Love, Hermana Allred 

Yes, we just saw each other yesterday.....and here I am again!

I am going to apologize in advance for any errors again... Because I
am plunking this out on my iPad again. My texting skills are a little
rusty, but I will do my best! :)


I loved seeing you all last night soooo much! Thanks for all being
there and skipping dinner to talk to me. I was very happy to see
everyone in their church clothes and happy! I love you all, even
though I wish your voices would stop changing while I was gone! You
aren't supposed to just grow up without me! 


So I am not sure quite what more to add (but don't worry, I always
have a ton of things to say). This week was another classic missionary
week. We had missed appointments and unkept commitments. But the good
news is, we did have two tours at the chapel this week! E,
Y, M, and L. loved it and we all felt the Spirit a ton.
It was really cool because we didn't know, but there was a baptism
taking place on the day of E's tour. We ended right by the
font, almost full, and talked about baptism. It was really powerful
and we found out a lot of her concerns about being baptized, so now we
can help her better. Right as we were leaving, everyone started coming
in to get ready for the baptism. It was a miracle and such a good
experience. Please pray that she will come to church next week!!


I still love being a missionary. There are so many blessing you get
just from doing your best out here. Mom, I loved the talk you sent me
about weaknesses and strengths. It really was something I needed, and
it was so so good. Dad, I also always love your advice and think about
your letters a lot as I am doing my missionary work. I learn a lot
from your example and the scriptures you send. Thanks!!


So I think I am going to have to retire my purple Snowbird shirt for a
few weeks. Here is why: Way back in December after Christmas, I
said to Sister Jackson, "You know, I don't know what is going to be
harder : Christmas, or the week my family is at Snowbird."  I know
it is coming up soon, and it is one of my favorite things! Haha I just
thought you could share that with everyone up there if they ask. I
will be missing them and you!


I continue to have a lot of fun with my great companions. We are
learning a lot and making goals to be better! I like being in a trio.


I am so grateful for the gift of tongues. It isn't something weird,
unnatural, or bizarre like many people nowadays believe. It is calm
and powerful, and it's purpose is to help people understand the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. The more I come to know about other beliefs, the more
solidly grounded I become on the Truth. What a blessing to have
continuing revelation.


I can't even believe I am almost two decades old. Since when does that
happen?! Super strange.

Boys, I really hope you send in that referral for your minecraft
friend. Maybe he will get baptized. You can do it really easily on
Mormon.org.  Good luck!

It is getting HOT here! Summer is just around the corner.  With it are
coming the bugs, geckos, and humidity.  I love Florida!! I am going to
shrivel into a raisin back in desert Utah!

Well, I guess that is it for this week! I laughed and enjoyed the
letters a lot about the California trip.  Thank you for all being the
best examples to me ever!

I LOVE YOU!

Love, Hermana Kara Allred

(Bowling on a P-day)

(Painting service project)

Malonlelei! Na'e Fa'ale'i au

Yes, if you were wondering, that is Tongan.  I am learning Tongan from Sister Fisi.  Well, if "learning Tongan" counts as saying, "Hi, I was born in Tonga."  Haha.  Who knows where the Tongan conversation would go from there, but I can start it at least! Anyway.

It has been another wonderful week in the Promised Land (Orlando -- American Fork is still 'Zion,' don't worry)!  We had a bunch of fun stuff going on.  The first one was a meeting for trainers and trainees on Friday.  I was really feeling the Spirit that morning, and I was super into what President and Sister Berry were saying.  They talked to the trainees about how a mission takes weaknesses of yours and turns them into strengths.  I was smiling and nodding, and President called me out.  He said, "Sister Allred is agreeing, and I am going to put her on the spot here for a minute.  Right after she came out, when she was still a new missionary, I was talking to her and she said, "President, am I ever going to be able to speak Spanish? It is just so hard!"  But now, if you were to hear Sister Allred speak Spanish, she sounds like a native."  I don't know how President knows about my Spanish now (I blame Sister Clare. :)), but it was really special for me to hear that from my mission President.  I always remember what Dad told me in one of his letters about his mission president - he asked me if I loved him and looked up to him and wanted to be a better missionary because of him.  I definitely feel that way about President and Sister Berry.  I know that part of the reason I was sent here at this time was to be with them.  President is so kind and gentle and very loving and powerful.  I trust in him as my leader and as my friend.  I am very grateful for him and the influence of righteous leaders.

We were able to meet with J. a couple days ago for the first time since his baptism.  It was the best thing ever. We sat down and talked to him about how he felt and how things had been going.  He said that the baptism was great, but the best thing about it was getting the Holy Ghost.  He shared with us an experience on how he had felt the blessings of it during the week.  He tells us about things that he ponders during work about the gospel.  During the lesson, he said, "But the greatest blessing of all is being able to baptize my son."  Right now, Jo is only 6.  But to hear that declaration of faith and trust from J. moved us all almost to tears.  He is preparing. He is preparing now to raise two good boys in the gospel.  He is preparing to receive the Aaronic priesthood, receive a calling, and do baptisms for the dead.  The difference in him is absolutely amazing. J. is a simple man in a great way.  He is not flashy or outspoken, just humble and hardworking.  We asked him what changed in him between the elders teaching him before and him deciding to be baptized.  He said, "I have been asking myself the same question!"  We laughed, and said, "Well, it was something! And we're glad it happened!"  J's conversion was not the lights turning on, it was a sunrise.  We all are not sure quite how it happened, but we are sure that the Spirit was guiding it.  I love him, and I love the Spirit.

I love being in a trio.  I think it is way more fun than just one companion.  We love it and it will be so hard to go back!  Something exciting is always going on between the three of us.  And we have 3x the ideas/revelation!

Florida is the best.  It is part of me now.  I love it so much.  We got to watch the Fort Lauderdale Temple dedication on Sunday, and it was wonderful.  They talked about Florida and the South-Floridian Saints (I counted Central-Floridian Saints also :)), and I am pretty sure that every time President Uchtdorf or one of the other speakers said the word "Florida," tears came to my eyes.  I love this land.  I love these people.  I love the trees and the clouds and the apartment complexes and the Walmarts and the accents and the fancy tires on old cars and the lizards and the temple and the wards and the rain and everything.  President Uchtdorf said as part of his talk, "Harriet this morning said to me, "Don't worry about your accent - everyone in Florida has an accent!"" Everyone laughed, because it is true.  I just can't even explain it.  I love it.  And the Lord loves his people here.  Whether they are true-southern Floridians or first-generationers from Uzbekistan or Sri Lanka.  I love the people here too.  I love it I love it I love it.

I also love the Book of Mormon so much lately.  I was contemplating how I gained my testimony of the Book of Mormon this week, and it really filled me with the Spirit.  I know the Book of Mormon is true because my life began to change when I really started reading it.  I changed as a person.  I became happier, I became more loving, I became more spiritual, I became more obedient, I became a better person.  I would stop halfway through a chapter to help wash the dishes or play with the kids as the Spirit directed.  I realized what was important and who I really am.  I gained confidence and purpose, and that has lasted with me and shaped who I am and the decisions I make.  I know that it is real, and the power in the Book is hard to explain but it is there.  We invite everyone in the world to try it out and see if it changes them too.  I want to invite you to recapture the vision of the Book of Mormon in your lives.  Why? Because you are my parents and siblings, and I want you to be happy.  The Book of Mormon makes me happy. :)  What a happy message we have, and what a clear way we have been given to access all the happiness God has for us.  I love it!

Thanks, as always, for the awesome letters and the many prayers.  I love you all so much and am excited to talk to you on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Hermana Allred (Or you can start calling me Tokoua Allred.... haha)

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)

The Windows of Heaven

Mom, Dad, "Elder Allred," Brandon, Bryson, Alyssa, Ethan, and 7-year-old-Ash:

Haha me and Sister Brooks have been laughing all morning about North Korea.  Just yesterday I was talking about Tyler all proud to my district leader, that he was going on a mission but wanted to be sure he was ready first and doing it for the right reasons.  Then I read the mission call story this morning and died.  Haha we have enjoyed that.  How many likes did you get?!

Speaking of Facebook, I need your help!!!  I have definitely caught the vision of Internet Proselyting lately - I love it!!!!  We have been trying to find groups to join of some interests we have so we can post/comment and start talking to people.  I have joined a couple of Book-lovers groups and posted about one of my favorite books - the Book of Mormon. :)  I also did some browsing to find a pin-collector group, and basically the only worthwhile one I found was an Olympic Pin collector group.  So I have a fantastic idea- but I need your help at home!  I will turn you into online missionaries too! :)  I took a picture of all the little pins I have collected here (....... did I tell you I have been collecting pins?) - most of them are from Boyd's LDS Bookstore and are like the Orlando Temple or tiny golden plates or angel Moroni or whatnot (Sister Boyd loves me and always tells me when they get new pins .... probably because I always buy them!).  So I want to post that picture on this page and talk about why I like collecting pins and how I really like my pins with religious significance because they are a tiny reminder of what I believe and what I stand for.  But I can't just post this church-pin thing out of the blue in the Olympic Pin Collector page - So I need you to take a nice picture of all/the best of the Olympic pins I have in my collection and send it to me!  Then I can post them both together and it won't be as awkward.  Hopefully I can start talking to someone that way.  Another assignment, my online minions!  Will you please start looking for facebook groups/pages that would be good for me to join?  Any interests I have or things that I might like or that would be easy to post about the gospel in.  For example.  Some missionaries joined a buy/sell/trade page in Orlando and posted that they were giving out Book of Mormons for free.  They found a waaaay less-active family who wants to be taught again through that!  Anything like that.  And Spanish would be best, but is not a requirement. :)  Thanks!

Along with that, we LOVE the mormon.org profiles lately.  I want to challenge you all to make one!  Be real.  Be funny, if you are funny (and you all are).  I took some time to fix mine lately.  It is such a great resource and tool for missionary work.  Who knows, maybe there is some 15 year old who loves soccer and DBZ who will find Brandon's profile and think that maybe he can be a Mormon too!  So cool.  Good luck. :)

Also, Brandon, I don't know if I answered this before, but we can't be facebook friends because they want us to be focused here.  But I have another assignment!  I want you all to look through your friends and see if there is someone you can share a gospel message with - either a mormon message or a scripture or a meme from 'the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' or 'mormon.org' facebook pages.  Haha are you sick of my assignments yet?! Also, if there is someone who wants the discussions online, you can tell me and we can be friends on facebook and teach them - no matter where they live!

I titled my email this week, "the Windows of Heaven."  That is how I feel about what has happened to us lately.  In Malachi, it says that when we pay tithing we will receive blessings from the Lord that are so great that we won't have room to receive all of them!  Me and Sister Brooks have seen that so much lately.  The standard of excellence for our mission is to find 2 new Investigators every week.  That has been a struggle on my mission - especially because (or I thought, at least) we are looking for Latino people.  This month our district has been ON FIRE with finding investigators.  I am convinced it was because we set an inspired goal at the beginning of the month to find 30 new investigators as a district.  This month, me and Sister Brooks alone have found 18 - and the rest of the district has been having similar success.  This week, we were blessed with 10 new people to teach.  10 new souls that have the opportunity to choose eternal life and a life of happiness here.  I think that is the coolest thing ever.  Let me tell you.  The Lord is hastening His work.  The missionaries are stepping it up.  The members are stepping it up.  The ward council is stepping it up.  And we are seeing the miracles pour out of the windows of heaven - we can hardly receive it all!

The most promising investigators we have right now are A, M, and A.  They are member referrals.  Al is the son of A and M.  They are amazing, and came to church yesterday.  Keep them in your prayers!  They are Cubanos and have been searching for peace their whole lives and haven't been able to find it.  We promised them that their search would soon come to a close. :)  

Here is a miracle with one of the new investigators this week.  Last night, we were one member-present lesson short of our district goal.  We had only one lesson planned for the rest of the evening, and that was with a member family at our dinner appointment.  On our way their, we received a phone call telling us that maybe we would want to do the Restoration at dinner - because the husband of one of the family members was not a member!  We had already planned to teach the Restoration through revelation ( :) ), so we were stoked!  We got there and talked to Michael's wife.  She said he wanted to take her to the temple and get baptized.  He was at all 3 hours of church today.  We taught a wonderful 1st lesson with the whole family and are teaching them again this week.  He will get baptized so soon.  And we miraculously hit our district member-present lesson goal. 

Our talks went absolutely great yesterday, maybe because it was Ash's birthday. ;)  It was one of the stronger experiences I have had with the gift of tongues.  I went up there with my bullet-pointed list and spoke Spanish sin pensar (without thinking).  I had to ask the Bishop for "inmortal,"  but other than that the conjugation and vocabulary flowed like it never has before.  I can speak fine, but rarely without some thought on how I should say it.  The Lord loosened my tongue so I could speak His words.  I was so nervous before, but felt that heart-pounding feeling right before that is the Lord's way of telling me that what I am about to say is from Him - that He wants me to open my mouth.  It was great.  Everyone felt the Spirit of missionary work in that meeting from the 3 talks - and one of the young women leaders commented that a young woman who hadn't really been interested in a mission before came and said she wanted to serve.  I know that He took over for us in our talks.  It was amazing.

I cannot believe everything the Lord is doing for us lately.  I had one of the happiest moments on my mission this week.  Me and Sister Brooks were just walking through a trailer park on our way to an appointment when it started to rain.  Like, really rain.  Florida rain. :)  I could not be happier to be a missionary than I was at that moment.  We were soaked to the skin but had a fire inside of the gospel.  We talked to someone and he commented that we were like a ray of sunshine in the rainy day.  I loved showing up to the women's conference that night, with hair slicked-down from the rain, a nametag, and a huge smile.  I was so proud to be a missionary.  There is nowhere in the world I should be but here.  It makes me happy.  Simple, missionary moments make me happy.  You make me happy too! :)  Have the greatest week. :)


Love, Sister Kara Allred

*Kara recieved this email today from one of her high school friends who is on a mission.

Sister Allred,

We downloaded our online training manuals and I was looking through it and saw this picture.  I think you may be famous!

"

Here is an excerpt from her letter dated July 5, 2013 relating to this very experience:

'Awkward moment number three of Monday:  Me and Hna. Nelson were prepping for one of our investigators, and a photographer man and his assistant popped in and asked if he could take a picture of our companionship.  We were like, "Um, sure!" so he snapped it and then left.  Later that day, this girl in my zone told me that the photo man was looking for me and wanted me to do a photoshoot with them on Tuesday.  Haha what is life?!  So eventually they got ahold of me and this girl from a Japanese district, and on Tuesday afternoon we tromped down to a chapel to have this weirdie photo shoot for two hours.  Haha two other girls in my zone did it as well, but in the morning.  I thought that maybe I would pop in with my change of outfits, pretend to hand out a passalong card and be done with it, but it was the biggest production ever.  They handed us over to this make-up/hair lady who totally did all of our make-up and our hair, then they brought in a British wardrobe lady who gave me this sweet pink blazer to wear, then they sat us down at these computers and had us take pictures for like 40 minutes.  Apparently they are trying to get pictures to tell people about the new rules with computers and technology.  So if you see a girl on a church website with awesome hair and a pink blazer at a computer, it is probably me.  Haha so strange.'

That's my girl, the online missionary training manual model.  So funny!

My name is Hermana Allred-I am a happy missionary, a geography lover, 9 months old, and I'm a Mormon!

I am going to just apologize right off the bat for any
spelling/grammatical errors that may follow. I am plunking this out on
my iPad in the library, so who knows what will fumble out!  Bear with
me.

I am so happy these days!!! And I will tell you one reason why: I have
been praying for charity.  One of the blessings that comes from those
prayers really is an increased happiness and purpose. I love it. I
love a mission.

Additionally, I love all Latinos. They are the best.  We have had the
good blessing this week to find neighborhoods that are door-to-door
Latinos. Seriously, almost every house! They as a people are so
friendly and inviting and we have been able to get a TON of return
appointments.  This makes us so happy because it means we get to teach
more!  I love being able to see things I like about both cultures and
decide what I want to adopt into my own life. I also love being able
to communicate with these people that I couldn't before.  Boys, I know
you are obsessed with Japanese, but HOW COOL IS SPANISH?! I can now
communicate with almost half of the geographical world! Plus, there are
people all around here who speak Spanish. It opens the door to
millions of new friends I can have and new people I can help bring to
Christ. :) love it.

This week we have continued to teach G, M, and F.
Also, we started teaching N and A. Ju and H are also
still in our teaching pool. We were also able to find a lady named
Y, teach her a lesson, and set a baptismal date with her! Hopefully
we will see that happen in April. Things are looking great and we are
finding new people every day!!

Here is something I have been thinking about this week.  The more I go
through life and the more I learn about God and how His plan works,
the more I realize that life is less about what happens to us, but is
about who we are.  The more I think, the less I believe that heaven
will be this wonderful place where everything goes perfectly and all
these things that have been driving us nuts here will finally
disappear.  Rather, I just think that we will be the kind of people
who won't be bothered by things.  We will have developed a strength
and a happiness that is so deep that it stands independent of
everything.  Heaven will still be a lot better than here, but
additionally we will be a lot better than we are now.  I want to
strive to be that kind of person.  One who is ready to die because
they have developed into an independently happy person.  Fascinating.
Love it.

Ty, I found a talk for you this week. It is called 'Securing our
Testimonies' from the October 2004 conference.  I will keep looking
for you!

I think I told you this last week, but I am speaking in sacrament this
week on Ash's birthday.  I am actually really excited for this.  Maybe
I already said this, but for me giving a talk is like taking the ACT
or doing a huge school project. I act like I hate it and it does
stress me out, but deep down I love it.  I guess it just puts my
testimony to the test and helps me deepen my reservoir of
understanding.  Fun stuff.

I have been just obsessed lately with learning (shocker). Haha that is
a love that has grown my entire life and doesn't cease! I am learning
all the time out here - about everything! I love studying the
scriptures and Preach My Gospel. I love deepening my understanding. I
also love using that understanding not in my words, but in the
conviction that comes from my heart. We acquire all this crazy
revelation and spiritual knowledge, but a lot of time others don't
need to hear all of that. They just need to feel the Spirit that comes
when you are speaking on simple topics - the Spirit that comes more
strongly because your personal testimony went a couple levels more
profoundly into your heart. I want to do this with every aspect of my
life.

Well family, I love you to pieces, but I sure hope next week I have a
Computer because my eyeballs just might fizzle out of my head
(familiar phrase, anyone?). :) missionary life is the best. This areas
the best. This mission is the best!! I love you and will talk to you
soon!

Con cariño, Hermana Allred

P.s. Yes, I am a big old halfway out lady. WHAT HAPPENED?!