Awesomeness!!!

This week was super good and things were great amongst our district. I´m praying that God will allow our entire district to stay together so that we can make things better here in Acailandia. In fast and testimony meeting we had 155 people. Does anyone know how many people usually are in the sacrament meeting of the lakeside 2nd ward?? Elder Boccia and I had an AWESOME planning session this morning and we were planning and full of ideas and excitement--it was GREAT!! We have been helping a lot of young men prepare for missions. There are nearly 10 young men here in the ward that could be serving missions and so the mission president has asked us to work with a lot of them. We have family home evenings with their families, we give them our Preach My Gospel dvds and we go on splits with them and they make visits with us and I´ve given practically all of my ties away and now have like five ties and they are all purple, blue or brown. MOTHER!!!---if you could maybe send me some new ties that would be awesome--I can´t have anything super thin or super fat or bright Pink or Purple but if you could send like maybe 15-20 ties of red, brighter green, brighter, HAPPY COLORS, orange, etc. that would be awesome--but they have to be COOL TIES!!!--hah, no just kidding, but, if you could ask Nathan to maybe go shopping with you--he can pick out the swag!! How is  Tiffany doing????

Love you all!!! My time is up already. I´ll talk to you next week. 

--Gregg (Elder Allen) 

Happy Birthday Hyrum!!!

HEY HYRUM---HOW IS IT BEING SICK--I MEAN SIX--have you had a lot of people already tease you with this joke. Don´t let them get to ya--just tell them that you are six with an X! Hello family--how is life in the great city of Provo, Utah?? Life here in Brasil is great as always and it is really hot and I´m always sweating. Thanks a boatload for the great package that I received from everyone. I loved the new pants and the two new shirts are SPECTACULAR!! I love being a missionary and I am super happy to be living here in a place where I know that I will probably never get sick because it is ALWAYS SUPER HOT!! Nathan--how is the mission prep going?? Spencer, how are the merit badges. The best thing to do on your mission prep journey is to learn to LOVE PEOPLE AND TRULY DEMONSTRATE YOUR LOVE FOR THEM---list the three people that most frustrate you in your life and go do a BOATLOAD OF ACTS OF SERVICE FOR THEM and pray for love and show your love and then continue onward with faith and God will help your love to grow. I heard about Scott and the baseball deal---that stinks that he lost but, oh well, he´s always a great sport about things. ALWAYS BE HAPPY PEOPLE--DON´T BE A MOODY BUM--NOBODY LIKES A MOODY BUM. Be organized and never quit and listen to the Spirit the first second that he talks to you. Here is a small bit of what happened this week:  Don´t ever dwell on the past, just learn from it and look towards the future with great joy. I´ve learned a lot with this on the mission---you can´t be a perfect missionary and everything is never going to go as well as planned. The most important thing is to just LOVE THE PEOPLE AND ALWAYS BE HAPPY!!! You are going to work miracles there in Jamaica. This week we had a small meeting with some of the youth and the bishop of the ward. He talked of his love for the Savior Jesus Christ and at the end everyone had a turn to share their testimony. My companion and I taught a young man named Wanderson and he was baptized close to two months ago. He shared his testimony and started to cry and said that the other night he was reading the Book of Mormon and he just felt this huge feeling enter into his chest and fill him with warmth and happiness. He stopped and could barely even talk the rest of his testimony. IT WAS AWESOME!!! I´ve totally been praying for this kid to strengthen his testimony and I want him to stay strong. FOREVER STRONG!!! We were able to get his sister to come to the meeting and his mother came to a fireside with the Mission President and his wife!!! Yes--the whole family is PROGRESSING!! Jesus Christ lives and loves us--I know he does!!

I let Elder Hatch take over with the piano--he is a member of my district and is from Idaho Falls, Idaho!! I need a dog.--HAH, just kidding. Been hunting lately Nathan with all of the boys?? HEY ISN´T SCHOOL OUT??? How was the year for everyone?? I hope that you all had a FABULOUS TIME!! Today for lunch I made beans, rice, linguica with alho and it was SUPER GOOD!! Love you all. Thanks for being my supporting family.

Elder Gregg Allen

Happy May!!

Sent Monday May 20, 2013

 

Hello EVERYONE!! How was your week? Thanks for all of the great e-mails. This week some miracles happend here in the ward. Two families that have been inactive for over four years returned to FULL-TIME ACTIVITY!! The father of one of the families was called as the new young men´s president and the other family has three young men that were interviewed and prepared to recieve the priesthood--they are going to receive the priesthood this week! One of these three is nineteen years old and he is going to go and visit a few people this week with Elder Boccia and I!! I am receiving a boatload of awesome information from the Lakeside 2nd Ward---sooo many missionaries--that sure is awesome. The mission is great---you´ve just got to keep on top of things. I am grateful for the scriptures and for the General Conference talks. I know that Elder Boccia was sent here to be my companion for a reason and I now that Jesus Christ lives and loves us. This week I taught a lesson to a family that had two you boys drown this past week. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and Elder Boccia taught really well and with the Spirit. I am grateful for your constant example as always Amber--thanks for your e-mail---I will go and print it. I hope that you all have a great week, in Provo, in Poland and soon to be in OREGON---go DUCKS!! Spanish, Polish and Portuguese---yayo---what a great combo!! Love you guys.

--Elder Gregg Allen

This Week!!!!

Hello family!!! It was great to hear your voices again!!! I´m so EXCITED FOR YOU NATHAN----you are going to be such an amazing missionary--I know it!!

 My companion let me talk to his brother--it was pretty awesome. He sure is a great missionary--Elder Boccia--he is from Parana Brasil. When he was younger he used to travel to Paraguay buy things there and then return to Brasil and sell them for a lot more--this is how he earned money to serve here on the mission.

This last week, Isabela, age 17 sang for the beginning of sacrament meeting. Elder Boccia baptized her since it was his first baptism--we are now trying to baptize the rest of her family. This week Elder Boccia and I had the chance to give a lady a priesthood blessing and afterwards she felt completely better she said--it was pretty neat. She then came to church and it was great to see her there. Elder Hatch helped me teach the English class on Saturday and he played Waterfall on the piano--basically perfectly for everyone and they all loved it--the size of the English class has diminished a lot lately. I love to buy powdered milk and make it with water here in the house because the milk here is really expensive---my powdered milk with the packets of oatmeal were SUPER DELICIOUS---thank you family.

I love being able to listen to music and feeling the Spirit of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We had an awesome family home evening this week that the Elders and I planned!  We invited two inactive families that have been inactive for four years and THEY CAME!! The father of the one family CAME TO CHURCH, HE MOVED HIS RECORDS INTO THE NEW WARD AND WE MARKED ANOTHER FAMILY NIGHT IN HIS HOUSE TOMORROW WITH THE BISHOP --I am so glad to have had the chance to be help his family ----God is really the one that helped them --I am just a servant, only a servant. I know that  God lives and loves us all and that we can always return and feel his love when we are willing to let him in. Only follow good examples okay and remember that Christ lives and that this is HIS CHURCH AND THAT THE GOSPEL IS A GOSPEL OF JOY!!
Love,
Elder Gregg Allen

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMBER!!!

Hey-----AMBER YOU ARE THE BEST MISSIONARY IN THE WORLD AND I LOVE YOU! 

This week was pretty good. José Vitor likes to go and visit people with us--he is a teacher in the ward. He is 14 and wants to know if you saw his friend request on facebook Spencer??

Elder Boccia likes to run and clap his feet in the air. He is pretty crazy but he´s a great missionary and teaches with a lot A LOT of ENTHUSIASM!!

I love you all! I hope that Goldie has a great baptism and that everything works out with the garden and all. This internet is SUPERSLOW.  This week we are hoping to help Markin accept a baptismal date and enter the waters of BAPTISM!! 

gotta go--love you all!!

HAPPY APRIL!

Hello---HELLO EVERYONE---HOW IS LIFE GOING? Thanks for all the wonderful e-mails:

 

JAMAICA---SERIOUSLY---SCOTT!!!!! ENGLISH SPEAKING??? HOW CAN THAT BE? IS THIS A JOKE OR IS HE SERIOUSLY GOING TO JAMAICA??---CONGRATULATIONS SCOTT--YOU ARE THE MAN!!!

 

This week we reveiwed the Plan of Salvation the night before the baptism with Isabela--she was BAPTIZED SATURDAY NIGHT BY ELDER BOCCIA---HIS FIRST BAPTISM HERE ON THE MISSION!!!

 

Amber thanks for your e-mail of working hard and taking everything one day at a time. Keep up the good work there in Poland--I love telling other people that you are serving there!!

 

This week after Isabela was baptized she shared her testimony and all she could say is I´M SOO HAPPY, I´M SOO HAPPY AND IT WAS PRETTY COOL. It was a great meeting and we sang a bunch of hymns! Church was good. I bore my testimony.

 

Tell Holly and Joe--thanks for all the GREAT E-MAILS--YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!!

 

YESS--I RECIEVED A LETTER FROM AMBER, RISHI, THE PACKAGES---NEW SHIRTS, PANTS, ETC.---I LOVE IT!! LOVE YOU ALL!

 

We just have to help the less actives here to be a bit less lazy---LAZINESS NEVER WAS HAPPINESS AND LAZINESS AND PROCRASTINATION ARE OF THE DEVIL.

 

Love you all and I´ll keep praying for you. Talk to you all later!!

 

--Elder Allen

 

Happy Easter !!

Hello and Happy Easter everyone!

CONGRATS TO TASHA---BABY COMING SOON!!

AMBER´S B-DAY IS THIS MONTH!!!

NATHAN YOU GET YOUR CAST OFF SOON?

I am now training Elder Boccia from Paraná Brasil! His father died a few years ago and his mother was inactive until he turned ten and was baptized. He has 9 years as a member and went through the Curitiba Temple! He is a great missionary and we invited Isabela to be baptized like the second day he arrived and she accepted and we are going to have family home evening with her and a few inactives tonight!! She is going to be baptized on April 13! Church was good--I decided not to play the piano because I kind of destroyed the last meeting with my terrible piano playing. We spent of bunch of time organizing things here in the house. Love you all. Have a great week--I´ve gotta go already!

THNKS FOR ALL OF THE GREAT E-MAILS---NO E-MAIL FROM AMBER???

UNTIL NEXT MONDAY!! PLEASE KEEP PRAYING FOR ME AND I´LL PRAY FOR YOU!!!

Love, Elder Allen