September 23

HELLO EVERYONE!!!

It sure is good to write in some ENGLISH!! I love Portuguese but sometimes it is just a great relief to be able to talk in your own languange. It sure is a lot easier to joke with people and get after people without offending them and sense of humor is much more advanced and vocabulary and ability to describe and teach and accent and knowing when to speak loud and soft and using tone of voice correctly, etc. I LOVE PORTUGUESE AND I AM GOING TO DOMINATE THIS LANGUAGE SO THAT I CAN SPEAK ENGLISH LIKE DEITER F. UCHTDORF SPEAKS ENGLISH---yes---mission impossible made possible baby! Dad, how is your Swedish going? How is Mason Bailey---tell Sister Bailey that I said hello and send him a BIG CHEST BUMB! It´s got to be loving it there in Sweden.

Hello Scott Amber Nathan Tiffany----MY WONDERFULLY AWESOME COMPANIONS IN THE MISSION FIELD! How are you all doing---sending you all a hug from Brasil!! Everyone sends each other hugs here--I know it sounds weird in English but it is totally normal---UM ABRAÇO CARA!!

The AWESOME ÉLDER that I trained---Élder Boccia---His father was an acoholic and his brother that returned from his mission is not going to get married in the temple and basically his mother is the one that kept him strong like a beast spiritually and he helped like crazy with his callings and in the Priesthood in Parana, Brasil!! His mother passed away two weeks ago and HE DECIDED TO STAY ON THE MISSION AND SERVE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST---he is totally my hero and he is awesome---what a great and wonderful privilege I have to be a missionary. I know that I am INCREDIBLY BLESSED---God must be awfully frustrated with me sometimes and the way that I complain, am prideful, don´t trust in His Son´s Atonement for myself (Yes the Atonement is for all of us and you need to forgive yourself and fight against the enemy and sin) We can be forgiven. Baptism is a sacred ordinance and the Sacrament is SACRED too! I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and that we come to know him through true repentance and then through humbly recognizing His hand in all things and the Hand of His Father in all things. There are two sides, Christ and Satan---there is no other decision--choose one or the other!!

This week Lucia was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday---IT WAS GREAT---I was privileged to play the piano in both meetings! 

Elder De Oliveira sure is a great companion. We are achieving goals as a Zone and the Lord is blessing us greatly. YOU CAN NEVER QUIT PEOPLE AND YOU HAVE TO BE MORE EXCITED, ESPECIALLY WHEN THINGS AREN´T GOING WELL YOU HAVE TO BE EVEN MOOOORE EXCITED BECAUSE YOU CAN ALWAYS always give yourself this rallying cry---Remember Him---Jesus Christ already paid for whatever is ahead of you. Study of Him, Learn of Him, Trust in Him, in Him we can find Joy, answers, success, happiness, knowledge, etc. 

I know that God is the author of the Plan of Salvation and we are a part of it!! I know that this is true and I am strengthing my testimony ever day! I know that repentance and true change of heart is needed by us all and we can always have changes and a renewal of heart WHENEVER WE DECIDE TO DO SUCH!! 

This week is going to be the last week that will count towards the month of September and so I have a lot,  A LOT of things to get done! I love our ward and I love it when people care. Be a person that cares, and if you don´t care then pray until you do because God CARES and he created you, without him you´re nothing and we should all love Him so CARE and forget what others think and work for Jesus Christ wherever you are. Maybe you lost out on past experiences but take the consequences and go forward--looking back for too long will only hurt you. Look back, learn, repent, change and then don´t look back again and plan so that you WILL BE STRONGER IN THE FUTURE!!

Love you all family and friends and Shady and Trenton and whatever other animals are still alive in Provo and the Ropes Course and the Lakeside 2nd Ward!!

September 23, 2013 has been and will be a MARAVILWONDERFUL DAY! 

Remember that Christ can make your frown a smile and we should smile and we should WORK HARD. I know that Jesus Christ lives! 

--Elder Allen

AWESOME LADY!!!

We found this AWESOME LADY  AND SHE IS SUPER PURE AND READY TO BE BAPTIZED!! So Elder De Oliveira and I have been trying to visit less actives because Elder Mazzagardi gave us a promise that if we visited less actives the number of baptisms would DOUBLE---WHAT---Promise from the Seventy--that´s pretty cool!! Anyways she has already been to church twice now and she had her baptismal interview on Sunday and she is going to be a GREAT MEMBER OF THE CHURCH! I don´t know why God is willing to bless me to be able to be a part of her life. She reminds me of Grandma Henderson or Mother, she is super pure and LOVES TO OBEY THE LORD! I know that she is developing a testimony SUPER FAST AS WELL! Love you all and have a wonderful week--thanks for all the great prayers AND AWESOME E-MAILS!!

Sincerely, Gregg 

--Élder Allen :)

September in BRASIL!!

Hello family!! How is life going wherever you may be? This week it rained twice in Teresina---MIRACLE!! We are entering the epic that everyone knows as the B R O Bro. In Portuguese the last three months of the year are like this: Setembro, Outubro e Dezembro and these months are the hottest of the year here in the Northeast of Brasil and so because of the "BRO" at the end of each of the names of these three months the entire state of Piauí knows that the "B R O Bro" is the hottest time of the year---it´s a pretty cool abbreviation---I like IT!

  This week we didn´t go on quite as many divisions with other Elders and so were were able to work quite a bit in our area!! We are preparing an elderly lady of about 60 years old to be baptized. We went to visit a less-active young man to reactive him, show him preach my gospel, the joy of the gospel, serve a mission, come back get married in the temple, understand the HUGENESS OF THE ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST AND know how to earn REAL joy and happiness on this earth and trust in the Lord in all that he does. We enter the "quintal" which is basically a patio and I asked him if I could enter his house and talk with those that were in inside---HE SAID SURE!! key: ALWAYS invite every single person to hear the message of the gospel. I am trying to develop more of this skill and teach more people at the SAME TIME!! I VERY MUCH DISLIKE teaching less than 5 people. I am here for two years and this is the time of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I know that sometimes we have to teach someone one on one and sometimes there are those that have special needs but usually it is best to teach as many people as you can! Invite, those in the home, neighbors and ask them to call their friends and then wait for a few people to gather---it´s much better than walking individually to each one of their homes!
Anyways---she told us that she doesn´t like her church very much anymore and that she was ready for a change so we TOOK THAT WAVE AND SAID GREAT---WELL HERE´S WHAT YOU´RE LOOKING FOR!! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is right here!! She came to church on Sunday---we got a member to drive his car to her house and we planned this morning to bomb her house this week with missionary lessons and she will be baptized on the 21st of September!! We just have to work and pray and do better to achieve out goals--not only of our area but also of the ZONE TERESINA!!

This week a super fun, awesome thing also happened---I GOT TO TEACH THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST AND TALK ABOUT THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS IN ENGLISH FOR LIKE AN HOUR!!! One afternoon I was getting a bit frustrated with our afternoon visits because we were visiting people that just aren´t progressing and so I said let´s go find some NEW INVESTIGATORS!! The afternoon is tough because everyone is working and all you find at home is people that don´t have much of a life or the elderly that are usually very SLOW to teach---but God loves them too--hah! Anyways we went to a giant paint shop, a hospital and a Language School asking if we could mark a visit when they have meetings with all of the staff! The Language School said that we could return that night and that I could practice English with them!! They spoke AMAZINGLY WELL---there were like 25-30 people and all they asked were questions about the gospel!!! I basically taught a lesson and bore my testimony for like 45mins to an hour and my companion just sat there smiling and understanding here and there---BOY IT SURE IS AMAZING TO TEACH THE GOSPEL IN YOUR OWN LANGUAGE---the words have soooo much more meaning and I feel so much more sincere and the Spirit was awesome---BOY I SURE NEED TO IMPROVE MY PORTUGUESE SO THAT I CAN TEACH LIKE I DO IN ENGLISH---still getting there!! One day I will speak this language FLUENTLY!! 

I love eating bananas with powdered milk and oatmeal in the morning. At night I eat eggs, rice with milk and beans or bread and butter!! I LOVE SERVING A MISSION AND I HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN AND SO MUCH TO DO TO BECOME BETTER AND HELP OUT THE ZONE---I still know that the President and God expect waaaay more of me and I know that I can be waaay more too but I have to be patient and DILIGENT AND SMART AND PRAY MORE OFTEN

--Love you all my wonderful, huge family!! Thanks for never giving up on me!

Love you guys. HI NATHAN AND SCOTT AND TIFFANY AND AMBER---YA WE´RE ALL SERVING TOGETHER!! 

--Élder Allen!

Our latest baptism - they are friends (boyfriend and girlfriend)