TRANSFERRED

So Monday of this past week is when we hear that we are going to be transferred or not. Only one Elder was told that he would be transferred. Then Tuesday morning the Assistants to the President called again and told me that I was being transferred to a city 5.5 hours away called Açailândia. Okay, I´ll admit, I cried because the morning of leaving my first area. It was almost like home again and you know me, I´m always a bum with having to say goodbye and change things BUT I LOVE THIS NEW CITY TOO! I was able to make 10 contacts on the day of the transfer and talked with people on the bus at the bus station, etc! I feel really dumb because I´ve fallen asleep several times the last few weeks without saying a decent nightly prayer or writing sufficiently in my journal. Satan wants to slowly lead us down to hell. I used my START STOP CONTINUE method that I learned at Timberline--HAH--Nathan--you see Timberline information can be used in America, Brasil or whatever part of the world--hah, just kidding.But I recommitted myself to better with the small and simple things. I feel that I´ve been doing fairly well but please pray for me to do even better and learn even more. My companion, NEW COMPANION, is Elder De Los Santos from Argentina! He is from Buenos Aires and is a couple years older than Elder Rodrigues. He has a sister of 23 years old and he is 25 and said that he received his testimony here on the mission---YES! Missions aren´t only to bring new people to the truth, it´s to strengthen the people already inside the walls so that one day we can sit in the mansion with our Heavenly Father. He is a burley Elder and walks at his pace AND THE GREAT THING IS THAT he plans things like a BOSS and we visit a bunch of recent converts and less actives! There are several strong young men in the ward that have already made visits with us! I had the chance to leave a message with a REAL FAMILY! It´s so great to see a full functioning family, ward, a CHURCH, pianos, youth programs, etc. I was soooo blessed to grow up in Provo and I definitely should have invited more friends to MUTUAL, FIRESIDES, CHURCH, ETC. We have such a great blessing there in Utah--take advantage of wherever you live and be a better missionary this week. Set a GOAL. Start out small if you need to. Açailândia is a city with people every where and we live smack dab in the middle of it--I love it! The solgados here are DELICIOUS and my companion loves to eat good FOOOOD!---YES---I´m always ready for some tasty food! This week I had the great opportunity to buy a new shirt and an AWESOME TIE---I thought about keeping it for a while---FOR OUR GREAT FRIEND PEDRO WHO WAS BAPTIZED THE SAME DAY AS LUKE! I hope that he likes it--I told Elder Rodrigues to give it to him with a picture of the baptism that I printed and a few words of encouragement.

 

Amber, I love your e-mails! WAY TO BE---ACHEIVING THE STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE AND ALL! Love you sister--I hope that everything is going good there in the amazing land of Poland!!!! 

 

 Please pray for me everyone to be the missionary that God wants me to be and pray for yourself and for each other so that we can all live in the Celestial Kingdom again some day! I´m praying for you all! Did you get my letters yet--I sure hope so!!

 

I love Elder Rodrigues!! He was a great trainer--I totally gave him my awesome 80-90 dollar shoes because he needed new ones. I love giving people things and trying to serve--it makes me feel happy! We had a GREAT TIME TOGETHER ---YA!

 

Okay, gotta go. Love you all!

 

--Elder Allen

HAPPY FEVEREIRO!

Hey FAMILY and people that maybe read parts of this e-mail on a blog or in the Lakeside 2nd Ward!! This last week was great! I feel like my Português is really improving and I can´t believe that on Mother´s birthday--the 26th of February I will have 5 months here in Brasil--time is flying by way to fast and there is still much more to be done---there´s always more to be done--isn´t it great that we always have something to do, someone to help, someone to teach, someone to teach us, someone to develop Christlike love for, someone to listen to, etc. I´m grateful for the daily schedule of a missionary! Sometimes I get a bit frustrated that some Elders like to sleep longer than is needful or don´t exercise or eat junk food and then end up sick in the house and others suffer because of it. I sometimes get a bit frustrated when one Elder doesn´t treat a sister in the ward with genuine respect and then her and her family lose respect for all of the Elders. It is a bit difficult sometimes to have the same name as other people that don´t always act in the way that name should be known---ELDER! Elder is a great calling from the Lord. The Priesthood Power of a full-time Elder can be amazing if you do your part. I love being an Elder and I know that there are things that I need to better and that we all have strengths and weaknesses and the mission is not only to help those that don´t know about the church but it´s also to better the members, us the missionaries, and me! I know that I have just as much to learn from the other Elders, and probably even more to learn from the other Elders then they do from me. I have already developed more love, more wisdom, more knowledge of the scriptures and a lot more and I hope that I can continue to understand even more of what the Lord wants me to do.

This week I made some awesome cardboard missionary name tag´s for Rogério and Henrique because they are always stealing mine when we visit them, during church, etc. Thanks five younger brothers for always doing stuff with me and I´m glad that we had a blast together and that you´re all having a blast right now were you´re at and I´m having a blast here where I´m at and that we´re going to have even more of a blast when we all live together in the Celestial Kingdom and ya--KEEP DOING WHAT´S RIGHT. I know that wickedness truly never was happiness, Just like Alma, the great Prophet, taught his son--Alma 41:10. Today, Elder Correia is going to be transferred and he´s been here in Araguaína for like six months--we´re going to go eat lunch with him during our P-day at a place called Giraffas! 

This last week I had the great opportunity to baptize a young boy named Henrique--he is ten years old! He reads his scriptures--the Book of Mormon--almost every day and it´s always great to study with him because he likes to study. I know that I sure wasn´t good at reading the scriptures like him, James, Luke and Hyrum when I was younger. I know also that I used to make everyone late for family trips--leaving on vacation, going to the store, etc. I also know that I didn´t do all of my chores as diligently as Spencer does, I didn´t laugh as hard as Rachel does, didn´t get as good of grades--like Nathan and didn´t make as many friends as Amber did but hey---I´m learning and becoming better every day and I´m grateful that I have all of you as examples! The following day in church though was the best. I didn´t play the piano because I think he friend--I plugged it in and something was messed up with the electricity and something popped and then it smelt like fire and the piano was shipped from the USA from the church and ya---I don´t know for sure but--there was no piano on Sunday. I gave the lesson in the Principles of the Gospel--it was my first 45 minute lesson all in Português--it was AWESOME AND GREAT PRACTICE AND I LOVED IT! Who knows if anyone understood anything but hey they were smiling and nodding their heads and so I think it was good--hah--no I think that everyone understood at least 90% of the things I was saying--hopefully they understood more of what the Spirit was saying because that´s more important. The man that helped us with the Service Project over at Hozana´s house ( a single mother that just moved and we moved dirt for her for like 3 hours!) came to church and seemed to really enjoy it! The cool part was that Presidente Alves blessed Henrique--that he would be a FUTURE MISSIONARY in his confirmation on Sunday--YA! Now, I´ve just got to stick with it and do my part to always keep contact with him. Never forget others and never forget that a few kind words can go a long ways. You don´t, DON´T have to baptize people to make a difference. You have to give your all to make a difference. But as we all know, we are just tools in the Lord´s hands and He is the one that does all of the real work---The Godhead make the difference! 

HEY I FINALLY WROTE AN E-MAIL OF DECENT LENGTH!! YES! 

Have a great week family in the SNOW! I´m sweating here--but I love it! Mother I encountered your letter in my baptismal pants but it was soaking wet and didn´t read all of it---some of it was destroyed but I think that I got the main message of the letter---THANKS A BUNCH--IT WAS AWESOME TO FIND THAT THERE! 

Love you family and keep up the good work. Thanks for everything. Don´t forget to be good member missionaries and pray for me and Amber.

TCHAU! 

--ELDER ALLEN, (GREGG!)

Happy Birthday James!!!

Hello everyone this is Gregg's mother, sorry I am a bit late posting this email which was sent Feb. 11, 2013

Hey James, I love you man---you are the coolest 10 year old in the world---I hope that you have an awesome birthday!

Keep looking away when Satan is present and don´t ever think that it´s okay to just go a little off the path that Christ has shown but sometimes we mess up a little and sometimes we mess up a lot and either way the best thing to do is ALWAYS---PRAY. Pray to God and ask for help and then with the Love of Jesus Christ you can make it back on the line!!

Happy Birthday to James, Shon, Joshua, Arrel, T-Ike and any other family member that has a birthday this month. Thanks for all of the prayers and love.

Way to be Sister Pace--you´re going to make a great missionary!! I´ll BE PRAYING FOR YOU! 

Don´t every forget that forgiveness is real everyone. It´s real--Christ is real and we ALL need to repent every single day. 

Love you lots family---extended family, Lakeside 2nd Ward, friends, etc :) 

Até mais!

--Elder Allen 

HERE'S A BAPTISMAL FOTO!!

Luke, my brother and Pedro baptized on the same day---a baptism here in Brazil and one there in Provo on the same DAY---YEA! This week we visited Pedro and/or called him almost every day leading up to the baptism. He is 53 years old, is single and lives with some of his brothers and sisters and their children. He studied the scriptures like crazy and asked for a Doutrina e Convenios and we gave it to him and he is just a great reader and always has a question! He had a few problems to take care of but was willing to change everything and live the commandments of God so quickly!! We really, Elder Rodrigues and I, wanted to baptize him (one of us at least) but we made a team decision that it would be better for a member to baptize him so that he could build a friendship there! Irmao Rocha--the Elder´s Quorum President baptized him!!! It was a great meeting. I played the piano, and bore my testimony. The four of us elders sang I like to look for rainbow´s while Elder Rodrigues played the guitar and the Spirit smacked me in the chest--I love the way the Spirit testifies during MUSIC!! THE SONG OF THE HEART IS A PRAYER UNTO GOD! Pedro bore his testimony that night and started to get choked up and talked about how the gospel was changing his life and he was very grateful--he gave me a big hug and said that he would never forget this day.  Sunday, Elder Rodrigues confirmed him and the three of us, (Elder Rodrigues, Pedro and I) bore our testimonies during fast and testimony----Pedro talked about how he wants to share the gospel with his family and it was an AWESOME AWESOME fast and testimony meeting and the Spirit was there and an investigator came with her daughter and a recent convert and a less active member---YA!! Well talk to you later---LOVE YOU ALL A BOATLOAD. THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALWAYS SENDING A MILLION E-MAILS---I LOVE IT!! Go get em Tiffany and Ivette received her call---WHERE?? Awesome! And did you say that Danielle Pace is going to serve---awesome! Love you all. Thanks and have a FANTASTIC WEEK!

--Elder Allen