Saturday, December 19, 2015

Christmas Bells are Ringing

whats up fellas. this week was a stellar week in the office and in our
own sector! we saw a lot of miracles happen and im hoping we can see
some serious fruit soon. i know we will actually.

first of all this weekend marks the end of a work that has been going
on for months. our christmas concert! last night was the first
concert, tonight is the second, and tomorrow night will be the last
one. literally the entire week we have just been running around buying
things, setting up contracts, and finalizing all of the work that is
needed to make it happen, and last night was amazing!! the choir is 24
missionaries inculding like 10 others that play different instruments.
there is an awesome amphitheatre on the beachside that fits about 500
people that we have for the weekend and our job has just been to make
sure everything is ready to go. ive honestly learned so much just in
these couple of weeks planning it what it actually takes to organize
and event like this. its been a great experience and they sound like
angels. weve been filiming it and also i think the church crew from
santiago is coming on sunday night and they might put it on lds.org!
but that has been the main focus all week and its has been a ton of
work to organize and make sure everything goes according to plan!

even though we had almost no time to work in our own sector and look
for investigators the Lord is blessing us with ways to baptize still.
its amazing seriously. last sunday this guy came to church because his
GF is a member AND THEY DONT LIVE TOGETHER ITS A CHILEAN MIRACLE!
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! no but really it was great news.
but anyways he has been a few times but missionaries never noticed or
just never talked to him. but he came to the church on tuesday to talk
with us and a missionary from our ward came and we got to know hima
little and  taught him the restoration there! it was one of the most
spiritual lessons of my mission! its so cool to think back and you can
seriously remember all of the most powerful lessons ont he mish. its a
cool feeling. but anyway he wants to get baptized, we just need more
time to teach him!! tonight hes gonna come to the concert a little
early and we`re gonna teach him on teh beach before it starts!

second miracle- a man named daniel has been going to church for about
the last 3 months. he has a slight mental problem and it casues him to
get distracted from the topic sometimes. we think but were not sure
that for this reason the missionaries didnt teach him. however the
other day he just showed up to the office as we were leaving to go to
an appt and was like hey can i go with you guys? then he preceeded to
hold his book of mormon in the air and say LETS GO PREACH THE TRUTH!
hahaha we couldnt deny him. so he came with us and it was awesome!!!
haha the guy is a real hoot, and he understands the gospel better than
me!! we decided to start visiting him and a couple days ago we went
and met his mom as well. she told us that his whole life he has been
almost obsessed as she called it with the bible and learning more
about God. he studied with evangelicals, jehovahs witnesses, and
belongs to the catholic church. but after knowing our church he read
the entire book of mormon and knew that it was true! it was really
really cool and afterwards he asked me to give him a blessing of
strength and reallly is was impressive teh love that i could feel from
Heavenly Father to him. its amazing how much God loves his sons and
daughters, especially those that he has given conditions or
disabilities to such as daniel. he has a natural gift of understanding
God``s will. daniel will be baptized the day after Christmas next
week!

Mario is progressing little by little. he wont be baptized tomorrow
becasue hes got some doubts about tithing. but were confident that
next week its gonna happen!

the elders from my old sector in viña told me that the Castillo family
might come to the concert tonight. itd be such a blessing to see them
again. i hope it happens.

love you guys and im praying for ya every day. happy a great Christmas
and we`ll be seeing eachother on Friday by Skype!

-elder allred - chilean street raptor

photo: selfie that i took with my homie elder roach before the concert
on the beach! also i took it with my brick phone camera.!

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Hey

woof. ill be honest guys this is really different. i could go on for
hours about all of the stuff im learning and how great of a time im
having but its definitely very different.

its gonna be pretty short this week but let me just start off by
saying that red team lost this morning in soccer. it was
disappointing, we only hit the crossbar about 38 times, but were
looking for a bounceback next week. president had a pulled muscle in
his foot so it wasnt fair.

we had some awesome experiences this week as well during proselyting!
since we get out later to start working we just decided that we have
to search for chosen investigators. in almost every contact that were
doing we are inviting the person to get baptized and i think we´ve set
like 9 baptismal dates this week. hahaha i dont know how many will
come to church tomorrow but weve been fulfilling our goal. we have one
investigator named mario that is a stud and has plans to come to
church tomorrow. he also has a baptismal date for the 20th and on
thursday accepted to live the word of wisdom. hes making a lot of
changes in his life. hes 50 years old and hes got a lot of potencial
to keep progressing if he keeps reading and praying!

we did have a sweet experience this week though... so on tuesday we
were running a little bit late to an appt and we were waiting at the
bus stop. seriously like 3 buses passed by wihtout stopping. we were
flaggin everyone down but nobody stopped and after about 20 min i got
kind of frustrated. but i know my comp was praying in his head and i
began to as well. the next bus that cmae by we got on and there was a
convert with her family that we had lost contact with for a couple
weeks. we talked with them and set an appt and everything it was a
miracle. then after finally getting to where we needed to be we went
with our bishop to visit this one investigator who wasnt home. really
its the worst when you leave with a member and then the person ends up
not being there. but then we got the impression to pass by this one
less active, hermano ordoñez, that had contacted us a couple days
back.

when he had contacted us we had set an appt for thursday, but even
though it was tuesday we went with the bishop. when he opened the door
he goes, i knew it! i knew it would happen! hah he invited us in
almost laughing as he looked at his two kids and goes i told them you
guys would pass by! on top of having an incredibly spiritual lesson
with this inactive ex stake councelor, we also had fulfilled a prayer.
the hermano is part of the marines in chile and figured out after
talking ot us that he had to leave for a week thursday morning. so he
told his 2 sons (non members) that the Lord would provide a way for us
to get in contact. haha so when we showed up with the bishop he was
telling us all about it! its a great fam and they have a lot of
potential to progress together. now they just need to stop working on
sundays.

love you guys hope you have an awesome week. the gospel is true.

-elder allred- chilean street raptor

photo- president took us out to eat chinese food to welcome me to the office :)

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Referral Secretary

Referral Secretary

Dear Allred Family,

Greetings from the Chile  Viña del Mar Mission. It is a pleasure to inform you of the new assignment of your son, Elder Wyatt Rex Allred, to serve as Referral Secretary of the mission.  Your son has demonstrated talents as a leader in sharing the Gospel and has shown a sincere desire to serve the Lord.

As Mission Referral Secretary, his primary responsibilities are to keep records of the baptisms in the mission and to make sure that the mission´s achievements are correctly recorded. I have total confidence in his abilities to serve in this crucial assignment.

I thank you for having raised a son in such an excellent way and I pray that our Heavenly Father blesses you as you continue supporting your son in his mission and in this new assignment.



Sincerely,

 

Raúl Antonio Díaz Navarro

Presidente de Misión

Misión Chile, Viña del Mar

A Whole New World

well, it happened. they moved me to the office and i am the new
registrador of the mission. i honestly dont even know how to say that
in english but im one of the three secretaries and in few words im in
charge of all the records, numbers, presentations, cellphones, and all
the other materials in teh mission. for my job youd think theyd call
somebody that knows how to manage computers well, however thats not
how it went. i guess the Lord calls on the weak sometimes to make them
stronger! :) haha but for real, i never could have imagined the amount
of work there is to do in the office. especially since yesterday we
had mission council so i had to prepare SO MANY THINGS! i havent
gotten to bed before 3 o clock the last three nights. but honestly its
been really fun .

im going to be here for 6 months. thats a long time. literally 1/4 of
my mission. so when i got here i wanted to make it different,
something fun. so we decided to start something as an office. elder
frampton, elder roach another secretary, and i made our first episode
of la oficina. haha on thursday we filmed and made the video in like
25 min and then on friday in teh council we showed it to all of the
zone leaders before giving our powerpoints, and they will show it to
the mission on tuesday in the replica. haha its pretty much just like
one of the opening scenes of the office, but with all of us from the
office. everyone had a good laugh. were already planning episode 2.

its going to be awesome working with all of these great elders. elder
osuna, is training me in my position right now and is my companion.
hes seriously been one of my heroes since the beginning of my mission!
hes from sinaloa, mexico, and has 2 changes left in the mission, hes
seriously such a stud! ive got a whole lot to learn though. keep me in
your prayers, its seriously scary thinking about me doing this stuff
on my own and messing up, because if you mess up, it can literally
destroy everything. we work in excel for almost everything. which
means that all of the programming taht is used to track all of the
stats of the mission is based on formulas.

its very different not being on doing normal missionary work. i
seriously feel really really different right now than i have for the
last year and 3 months of my life. i know the Lord only has the best
in mind for me and im going to give it my all, but i will miss working
all day every day to find the elect of God and help them be baptized.
i dont want to stop baptizing. even though we have much less time to
work in our sector now, since we are in the office until 430 each day,
i know we can keep baptizing and finding people!

i kind of knew before hand that this position was coming. everyone was
telling me, but its still a big shock. it helps taht president diaz is
so chill and his wife as well. theyre always joking around with us,
and since we didnt have time yesterday, on monday theyre taking all of
us to ruby tuesdays to welcome me to the office! also we play soccer
with president every p day and sometimes a couple other days of the
week as well. me and president are with the two other secretaries vs
the asistants and presidents son, and this morning we won. haha its
pretty sweet.

dont worry guys im not dead. i still love the mission. this work has
saved my life im sure of it. but its gonna be a little bit different
from here on out. when i get out of the office i will have two changes
left in the mission! i cant even believe it.

-elder allred - chilean street raptor

photo- me and my comp. and elder frampton wanted in on the photo too

Monday, November 30, 2015

The Dream Team

well changes are coming up this week on wednesday and i was almost
absolutely positive that we were both going to stay here in our
sector, but now im not so sure. people keep threatening us from the
office telling us that theyre going to split up the dream team.. it
would break my heart but we´ll see what happens. ill go where the Lord
wants me to go, and do what he wants me to do.

we had a fabulous week to rap up this change together. elder mcelhaney
is a stud. ive learned so much from him, and weve been good pals since
the beginning! hopefully we stay together. but we saw some progress in
our investigators this week and even though we didnt baptize this
change im absolutely positive we will in december! we have found a
good pool of investigators and we are just barely starting to sift all
of it out and find those that are chosen. thats the fun part.

4 investigators came to church. only francisco our homie that is 26
years old has a baptismal date, but the truth is that hes not ready.
we are gonna push it back and hope that his parents hop on the train
with him. his mom also came to church to see our wards primary program
that was 5 stars. her and his dad want to wait to commit to baptism...
because jimena, the mom, finds out in like 3 weeks if she has cancer
or not. on wednesday we had such a powerful lesson with a recent
convert and testified that she would have Gods help if she began to
show faith. well she went to church! hopefully she can keep taking
steps and we are praying that the results are good!

gabriela and adam also came. on tuesday we got there and they told us
that adam was moving out becasue gabrielas dad was kicking him out...
also he lost his job, and him adn gabriela had broken up. we went back
the next day to talk with adam alone and ive never seen a marine cry
before, but he did as we talked and shared a message with him. its
great and all that hes moving out and gabriela will have the chance to
decide to get baptized now, but i want them to be happy as a family so
bad. even if it doesnt happen while im here. theyre such good people.
on saturday morning we went back and made them pancakes with di´s
homeade buttermilk syrup and watched the joseph smith movie with them!
i think the pancakes worked cause they totally like madeout like right
in front of us. theyve been reading and praying together, now the
biggest obstacle will be gabriela telling her dad she wants to get
baptized cause hes a evangelical pastor.

roberto is progressing little by little, he wants to pass by everyday
this week to drink tea with him. chileans love drinking tea and eating
bread... even when its 875 degrees outside.

last story. this week i went on exchanges with elder almanzor. sounds
latino right? nope. filipino straight from the hoods of seattle. haha
hes a stud though. three years ago he was baptized and he left on the
mish when he was 24 years old. when he told his parents he wanted to
go on the mish instead of joining the marines like they wanted they
kicked him out of the house, so he sold his car, got a job, and lived
with his bishop for a year until he had enough to leave.

I love my comp, i love the people, i love the work. i love the mission.

the church is true. hold fast to the iron rod.

elder allred- chilean street raptor

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Rock Down to Electric Avenue

if im being brutally honest i have less and less desires to write this
thing every single week. its not that i dont love and miss you guys,
but internet time isnt even all that great anymore. i kinda just wanna
keep going. time needs to slow way down, cause its getting out of
control how fast it is passing by.

we had a week full of miracles. the Lord blessed us with so many
things i dont even think i remember most of them. but we found a whole
lot of really good peeps, and we really think thta december is going
to be a good month. im almost positive we are both going to stay cause
elder mcelhaney only has one more change here than me!
were gonna rock the boat this next month. thats seriously all i want
as i think about how fast time is going fast, all i want to do is help
as many people as i possible can board the old ship zion as my wise
friend M. Russell put it.

the lady that we found last sunday, jimena, yeah we have been teaching
the fam. the parents and their 25 year old son fransisco. theyre all
awesome. on thursday we taught them and then they invited us to eat
lunch saturday! even though the parents couldnt go to church on
sunday, fransisco went with us and a friend he has in teh ward! i want
these guys to progress so bad.. i watn to help a family! we have a
family home evening tonight and were gonna give them a good smack in
the face with the Spirit.

i think on wednesday i had one of the best experiences of the mission.
we taught adam and gabriela. adam was baptized when he was 15 but then
went inactive. gabriela was an investigator that i had a year ago in
belloto and was so close to getting baptized, but hten she moved in
with this guy. my comp and elder passey, who was here before me, then
contacted them randomly in the street and started teachign them again.
haha its crazy but long story short i love the heck out of them. on
tuesday they read 8 chapters in teh book of mormon together and
wednesday night we had alesson where we just talked really openly
about hteir potential. the weird part is that gabriela, whos not a
member, has a stronger testimony then adam. its tough but adam at one
point said to us, ^this is different from when the elders taught me
when i was a kid, if you guys left right now we would keep going to
church and working towards this because we feel different^. there is
literally nothing so sweet to hear in the mission than this! our whole
goal is to get people to have spiritual experiences that testify of
the truth. i love the mission. we hardly said anything to one another
on the walk home after. the spirit was so strong and we felt so much
love fore them its hard to describe.

another cool experience happened saturday night. we were passing our
house and i really needed to poop. like always. but something told me
to not stop, to just keep working and it would work out. well for any
other elder that might be okay, but for elder allred that usually
turns into big trouble. luckily i did it anyway, and after passing by
an investigator that i was sure was going to be there to let me use
his bathroom we walked away and almost into a man taht goes in english
^hello, who are you?^. hahaha long story short we talked all the way
to his house, gave him a book of mormon, answered his prayers, and im
pretty sure i broke his toilet.... oops :/.  it was a complete
miracle. and the guy speaks perfect english. robertos his name,
baptism`s his fame.

well, thats it folks. hope you all can choose the right this week.
also whoever can tell me by next week why it is taht nephi had to make
a new arrow after making a new bow in 1 nephi 16 will earn a big hug
from elder allred in 9 months.

love you all

-elder allred


photos: you know youve been in chile too long when they serve you
bread and mayonaise for an appetizer... and you like it.

Monday, November 16, 2015

The Lord's Time

so quick story, on interchanges last week i forgot to say that when a
sister from the ward asked me for a pic of my fam an di gave it to her
she asked me, where are you? after pointing myself out she laughed out
loud and began showing her family who also started laughing.
apparently ive gotten ugly on the mission guys.

well let me just start off this email by saying, i love the mission.
you learn or relearn something every single week, and i think this
week i learned a lot about the Lords timing!

the whole week we were just running around trying so hard to find
somebody because it was the last week to find somebody, get them to
church, and have the possibility of being baptized this change! well,
we found a lot of good people, and nobody could go to church this
week, and then yesterday after church we had a miracle. on wednesday
or something we were waiting for a taxi in downtown and we started
talking ot this guy selling peanuts or something about the book of
mormon. really all he wanted to do was argue with us, however another
man was listening and ended up getting in the same taxi as us. as we
were driving he turned to us and said hey my brother in law is mormon.
we talked for about 30 seconds before we pulled up to his house and
before we could get his name he was gone. but we went back yesterday
looking for him and his wife answered. she let us in even though her
husband wasnt there and we had one of the best first lessons ive ever
had with her and her 25 year old son. they both have been looking for
the true church and lately have been praying for an answer from God...
it was awesome!! obviously meeting the dad will be really important,
but it seems like a family with a whole lot of potencial!! they both
committed to reading and praying about the book of mormon.


we did have one person come to stake conference with us. her name is
maria ines and she was an investigator like a year ago and almost got
baptized but then backed out and nobody knew why. but she came with us
and weve been teaching her again, shes awesome, but crazy. in the
stake conference there was an area seventy, and a counselor to the
temple president in santiago. his talk was awesome. if you have any
free time at all, get to the temple. there are so many blessings
waiting, especially for those that work there and dedicate the time to
the Lord.

We also had zone conference with president this week in our stake
center. it was really good and the theme was all about the book of
mormon! by the end of the conference all i wanted was to preach the
good word. the book of mormon is true, theres no doubt about it. there
was a quote that i absolutely loved from president harold b lee, `one
who does not seriously study the book of mormon to understand its
doctrine and teachings cannot consider himself as a worthy candidate
of exaltation.`hahaha sick right? read the book.

so going back a little bit to the theme of the email i ahve two more
experiences. a couple weeks ago we contacted this 22 year old name
giovanni that was way cool. on friday we were on intercahnges and
nothing was going our way. all of the appts fell and we didnt have
anywhere to go. we couldnt find this guys house before but we decided
to call giovanni to see if he was home, even though he always had his
phone turned off when we called before. but we caleld, he answered and
ivited us over and it was way good. were gonna work with him more this
week.
second, on saturday night we were in the same situation but worse. we
hadnt entere in any houses and we were a little disappointe we couldnt
go to the saturday session of stake conf cause we didnt have any one
to take. but right after the conference would have been finishing we
were walking down this street and just felt impressed to knock a door.
its amazing how soft those promptings are! sometimes i think you cant
even recognize them until after you follow them and then you realize
it wasnt yourslef that thought about it, its awesome. but yeah anyway
we found this guy named miguel and his wife carina. theyre a young
couple, and tonight theyre gonna accept baptismal dates.

the Lord knows what we need, and what we need. if we are living right
and trust in him, we cant error because we will always be where he
wants us too. accept let downs and trials as part of his plan , its
the only way to take advantage of future blessings.

love youuuuuu

-elder allred - chilean street raptor

Monday, November 9, 2015

Boot Camp

im absolutely dead right now. we went so hard this week and i just
feel so ready to have a p day to chill out and figure out how were
gonna make something happen this week. stress is amazing. too much
makes you less effective, however just the right amount makes you
achieve your maximum potential. if i didnt feel pressured on the
mission to do things and have success i wouldnt be able to become the
person i need to be.

with that being said we also are dead physically because of our marine
friend. thursday morning i did the hardest workout on the mission and
one of the hardest in my life! this guy is crazy at 6 in the morning
he just takes us through like the forests of quilpue running up hills,
doing push ups in rivers, and pull ups on trees. my entire body hurt
after going thursday and then we went again today. hes insane. but it
actually feels really cool after and we feel accomplished!

but yeah we went so hard this week. we did everything we could to find
somebody that wants to listen to us... and we found her. her name is
carolina and she is 24 years old. her dad died of cancer last year and
she really wants to know where he is and if shes going to see him
again. shes awesome... but she didnt come to church!! other than the
fact that she smokes 20 cigarrettes a day, helping her get up to go to
church will probabaly be the toughest challenge, along with 99 percent
of all other chileans. its seriously so hard to motivate people here
to get up early. i feel like steve right now trying to argue with
everyone that 10 O CLOCK IS NOT EARLY!

its not like it was a bad week. we actually found a lot of news and
had a great time while doing it. i love my comp elder mcelhaney. hes a
boss and i learn something new from him every single day were
together. we laugh our heads off at all times of the day but when its
time to do the lords work he really knows how to put his head down and
go to work. its honestly been such a fun change so far! we are working
harder than i ever have in my mission. all i want to do is help people
get baptized and begin changing their lives. but its so much more than
baptizing, if you begin with the end in mind, which is making
covenants in the temple, the task of helping them get wet doesnt seem
as difficult. gods plan is so simple.

whenever i ask myself why missionary work isnt easier or why we cant
find people who are interested in an easier way, i just think of a
video with elder holland and president eyering called missionary work,
and the atonement. in little words it says that we cannot feel the
love and joy that christ has for all of us until we take that walk to
golgatha and experience just a sliver of what our savior went through!
i know i need to be careful in comparing the two, but elder holland
says it perfectly. it cant be easy. that would be contrary to god.

on the bright side we got cooked javelina and mexican beans and rice
from this less active mexican in our ward this week. i miss mexican
food so much... totally not the same here.

i love you guys. sorry i dont have that much to write about this
week... were gonna have miracles to tell next week dont worry about
it. its just taking a little bit longer that we hoped for.

stay fresh.

-elder allred - chilean street raptor

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Just a Small Town Boy

yo whats up guys. word from quilpue chile.

so this week was pretty crazy. pretty humbling. i love the mission you
know that? the lord knows exactly what we need every single day to
become what he wants us to be. thats why i love humbling experiences!

this week i had an experience that ive never had before. we recieved a
reference seriously like way out in the flippin boonies and it took us
like 30 trekking through the forest to get there. turns out they were
two less actives taking care of an evangelical church campground
place. but anyway the mom was a return missionary and they were both
endowed. we didnt really understand the strength of their testimonies
in the beginning but they began to tell us there wasnt any point in
talking to them because we couldnt help. however we refused to leave
until we had talked. so after sharing a scripture and still not
hearing why there were inactive the brother finally told us their
story. for 25 years they had been trying to fix a previous sin. were
not sure what happened but they had gotten to talking with a mission
president a little back to be judged before a council and it still did
not get resolved. somehow in the process of the years their files had
been lost and without the results of the council they still couldnt do
anything in the church and pretty much every leader told them there
was nothing they could do. the extent of that part were not sure, but
i am absolutely positive of the pain and suffering that i saw in their
eyes. becasue of what had happened with the leaders in the past they
had gone inactive and their son that was preparing for a mission did
not go. we realized as we walked away from their house how little
decisions tht we make go way beyond affecting just us. because of what
happened they could not get themselves to go back and try to go
through the repentance process again, making their children also be
taken out of the church, that will almost definitely affect their
grand adn great grandchildren in the future. it was really sad to see
especially hearing how strong their own personal testimonies were!

we also received a call from maribel this week who had a baptismal
date with her 12 year old son saying that her husband got mad and they
could no longer go to church nor meet with us. it was really hard.
they were awesome. we had some things happen this week that just
brought us to our knees and made us want to work even harder to make
things happen in our sector and in our zone! the day that happened we
were down, but we worked our butts off until at the very end of the
day we passed by an old contact and taught her and set a baptismal
date. she didnt go to church... but thats not the important part! the
lord will always reward us for our work, personally, as well as with
the fruits of the work. i dont know hwo to phrase that in english but
oh well.

i also struggled hard core this week with allergies. i was a walking
sneeze. i dont know what it is that is killing me but one day it was
so bad i couldnt even hardly open my eyes. we went ot the house and
elder mcelhaney gave me a blessing and i washed my face off. as we
left the house i felt completely normal again and we worked hard the
rest of the day!

jason is progressing but couldnt go to church. saturday night he came
to a ward activity but didnt really feel all that comfortable. i
remember that a big turning point for our convert christian in
coquimbo was when we started going with young mens leaders to invite
him to mutual. i feel like if we can help jason the same way and make
him feel included in teh ward that hes going to be able to progress
much more! thats kind of been something that was difficult for me to
understand in the mission... that social conversion is almost as
important as spiritual conversion. obviously the spiritual conversion
is absolutely needed, but at the same time people who stay active are
the ones that feel taken in and befriended by other members. thats
what a complete conversion means.

on tuesday i went on interchanges with elder giustozzi from argentina.
it was a sick day and we did so many contacts! at the end of the day
we knocked a house and some guy let us come in and his hosue was in
the middle of nowhere. when we got in he brought us in to the kitchen
to talk while he chopped off the heads and skinned quails and rabbit
in front of our eyes!! haha after teaching him and his two sons we
were served dinner... it was really... good.... im almost positive it
was not cottontail if ya know what i mean.

i honestly have no idea if i made any sense in this email. but stay
fresh guys. love you. dont ever abandon your faith. its become real
clear to me in the mission the difference between genuinely happy
people and those that only experience short spurts of happiness. alma
41:10 wickedness never was happiness. choose the right homies.

-elder allred - chilean street raptor

Monday, October 26, 2015

Guess Who's Back, Back Again

wazzzzz uuuuuuuuupppppppppppppppp?! guys... i dont remember anything
that has happened this week... all i know is that its been crazy and
that im in a different sector with a new companion..

so yeah see ya next week with the deets....



hah. jk.

so im in quilpue again... but in the actual zone of quilpue, not in
belloto where i started my mission a year ago, but we literally limit
my last sector, and my old pension is in our sector now! but the ward
seems awesome, super different than coquimbo, but awesome. plus i have
the sickest comp in the world!!! his name is elder mcelhaney and hes a
complete stud! hes from arizona (this is 4 american comps in a row but
thats chill) and he got to the mission 2 weeks before me but we go
home together! the reason that he got here before is because
originally he was assigned to el salvador and the day he got to the
mtc in provo, they told him the first presidency had changed his call
to chile and asked him if he accepted it haha! itd be crazy, but the
dude has got so much faith he doesnt doubt that the lord wanted him
here. so here we are! hes so cool and we really got along since the
moment we met, its gonna be a good change!

im not gonna lie.. it was tough to leave coquimbo. i love that place,
and the people there so much! it was really sad, but the good thing is
that patricia our investigator there is getting baptized this week and
is progressing really well! here in quilpue were working super hard to
revitalize a zone that is dying a little bit... it used to be a high
baptizing zone, but lately it has had very few baptisms due to many
factors including the fact that they took out a lot of missionaries
becasue the mission is getting smaller... but were gonna change it!
weve made some changes already and were seeing some results and really
i dont think ive ever been so pumped to just get out and find chosen
investigators! were gonna get it going and just find a ton of good
peeps! right now we have a couple of people that could progress but
nobody that is going to church.. but we aint worried. its gonna be
good. yesterday we started something called funday sunday wehre the
first companionship to set a baptism date with a new investigator gets
a prize at volleyball today and it actually worked really well!
amazing what little things can do to cause big changes. the glory is
in the details as nate carling always said.


on friday my comp had to go to a new leaders meeting and i had no one
to be with... so i teamed up with an elder from valpo and we went to
valpo together to a district meeting and to lunch! haha it was awesome
i was so happy to take a trip down memory lane in valpo! i love that
place its beautiful.

the first night i got here to quilpue my comp was vomiting in the
streets but hes so sick that he refused to call the nurse or go home
so we kept working. haha i got a video of it that is pretty funny. he
was making noises that i never even knew existed. the moral of teh
story is that were gonna have an awesome change. im just overall
really excited to get going.

i know that there are a bunch of cool stories of things that happened
this week but i cant remember anything becasue i had NO time to write
in my journal or do anything.

love you guys have a great week. do the little things and great things
will be brought about.

-elder allred - chilean street raptor

photos- mate sesh, and this circus dude that we contacted put his
toucan bird on my shoulder

Monday, October 19, 2015

It's a Hard Knock Life

well... this week was rough... and then good. kind of like every week.
but no oscar did not get baptized... :( that man has caused me SO MUCH
GRIEF.

this week we have changes and i have no idea what is going to happen.
on tuesday night theyll call us and tell us who is leaving and
wednesday early in the morning we´ll be on the bus to viña if either
of us leave. yeah i have 6 months here but i think theres a decent
chance i stay. elder frampton is the assistant now so ive got a little
swing in the office. i told him if they dont know where to put me to
just let me stick it out here in coquimbo. i love this place.

but yeah on monday we went to oscars house to have what was supposed
to be a great family home evening with the bishop in preparation for
his baptismal interview. the elders from another sector had even seen
him looking for a suit that morning for his baptism! and when we got
there he told us he couldnt do it. that his depression had hit him
again and that he couldnt go through with it. ah it was so hard to
hear. if this guy doesnt decide to get baptized in this life i cant
imagine him having another chance. hes received so many answers. ahhh
its so tough.

the good part is that patricia, this lady that we have been teaching
progressed so much this week! shes got a testimony of the book of
mormon, she came to all three hours of church, and is ready to be
baptized next weekend. hopefully we can get all of the lessons in that
we need to before then with changes and everything! but the best part
is that everyone befriended her so well in the ward and invited her to
two different familiy home evenings this week it was awesome!!! if i
stay.. we´ll have a baptism on saturday i believe.

this week we had interchanges with probably the most notorious sector
in the whole mission... andacollo. andacollo is considered one of the
most catholic places on earth. the virgen of andacollo is one of the
most renowned in all of chile. its a complete joke. every year people
walk on feet or on knees to this little village tucked up and away
from coquimbo like 2 hours on bus until they get to the virgin to be
forgiven for their sins for the year. the hardest part about it all is
that everyone is so like programmed with what they believe that
anything else than adoring the virgin just sounds so crazy. wooo, it
was tough. but i actually really enjoyed it and i feel like i learned
a ton. there are a lot of good people. i would love to work in a small
branch like that some day.

our convert christian got confirmed and received the priesthood this
week so that was tight! he´ll pass the sacrament next week and next
month he will be ordained a priest when he turns 16. also the bishop
called me saturday night to see if i could give a talk the next
morning in church. so i was like yeah whatever but not all that pumped
about it. however my topic was what are the things that helped me
prepare to serve a mission... it was so awesome! it helped me remember
so many things and so many people that helped me along the way to get
where i am at now. i learned a lot by doing it.

sorry this was kind of boring but all i want to do is go play soccer.
i dont know why but i hate writing these things. and writing in my
journal. but i know maybe someday they will come in handy again as i
look back on what will have been the best two years of  my life. the
mission is the bomb. im going all out this next change!

love you all

-elder allred - chilean street raptor

Monday, October 12, 2015

Elder Allred's Companion

Queridos Padres de Elder Allred,

Solo quería tomar un momento para... Nah I speak english


But in all seriousness I wanted to take a moment to write you and to thank you for all that you have done for your son to make him the fantastic missionary that he is. I have been with him for about 5 weeks now and they have been more than awesome. 

Your son is a very hard worker and enjoys every minute of it. He is always thinking about others, how he can help them, and what he can do to help them come closer to Christ. Not only has he been my favorite companion, but also one of my best friends on the mission. I have only worked with him for 5 weeks here, but I was in the MTC in mexico with him and got to know him there.

You have definitely raised a son who is confident and knowledgeable in the gospel. You can definitely be proud of what he has done with the Allred Name. We have laughed, we have almost cried, we have been stressed, and we have been determined. And through all of it he has pushed on. He is really a great missionary, friend, and person. He always talks about the changes that have happened in the mission and the advice and guidance that you gave him before the mission. I know that you were really a big part of his life and have always been important for him. Keep up what you have been doing and your son will go far. 

Some of the things that I really admire in your son is his drive to do what the lord wants him to do. After conference not only did he enjoy the talks, but he truly applied them to his life and has taught me ever so much. I admire his desire to have success and his drive to back it up. I admire the way he smiles and greets everyone, and how he has the heart that really means it. I admire the way that he fights for whats right when its hard, and only has the righteous desire behind it. And I admire the way he respects me and helps me grow everyday. 

I dont know how much time I will be with him here in the mission, but whatever time I get I will definetly cherish. I hope that it isnt only a mission memory but a faithful friend forever. 

Thank you again for raising, guiding, and supporting such a great son and sending him to be on the mission with me. 

Be proud.

Sincerely,
Elder Taylor Nielson

The Curious Case of Oscar Herrera

well i guess this is what happens when you put off writing the group
email until last cause i have like not time. its whatevs though im
totes down.

this. week. was. awesome.

we had a lot of miracles but ill just start from where im at. get it?
that was an elder uchtdorf quote. oh by the way holy smokes so i
downloaded the whole five session of conference last week onto my
pendrive and ive been listening to all the talks again and it has been
a blast. wow i would love to wind back 3 years and hear myself say
that one. but yeah anyway ive listened to elder christoffersons talk
like 3 times. that guy is pure power. his talk about the need for a
church needs to be listened to by every single person here in chile.
im thinking about replacing lesson one in preach my gospel and just
putting that in so that everyone can understand the doctrinal need of
an organization divinely appointed by god.

so yeah.. yesterday we had cristians baptism!!! it was so awesome and
the spirit was so strong! hes really come a long way and the best part
about it all was that he has become really good friends with our homie
cameron (thats alexis´ son) and he had the honor of performing the
baptism!! we were so pumped and it was just all around a good time.
tonight were gonna have a family home evening with him on the tenth
floor of a beachside apartment and eat some good food! woohoo!! also
hes coming to playing soccer with everyone in like an hour so that
should be chill.

on friday we had interchanges and i stayed in my sector with a
relatively new but training missionary from the south of chile in a
place called temuco. well that just happens to be the place where old
man oscar was born as well. so even though he told us not to come by
for two weeks we decided to go anyway... we arrived and we werent
getting anywhere. for about an hour it was the same old thing with
oscar we just kept coming to the same dead ends. but then his son, the
bishop came in and was looking for something. he stopped for a little
bit and was listening to us as the spirit told us EXACTLY what oscar
needed to hear. for a long time oscar had blamed his lack of not
receiving an answer from god to see if he should get baptized because
he struggled to concentrate in his prayers. but i have no doubt in my
mind that the spirit guided us into it and we asked him, oscar maybe
its not because you cant concentrate in your prayers that you havent
received an answer, maybe its becasue you already know what you have
to do and therefore god cant give you a stronger reply. the bishop sat
down and began to testify of it and that is when the spirit touched
his heart. i seriously thought i was in a dream as i heard the words
come out of his mouth that he would get baptized the 17th! THE OLD MAN
IS GETTIN DUNKED!!! im so pumped but i know its going to take a lot of
prayers and faith to get him there. he has a habit of falling into
deep depresssion at random times but i know he can do it. pray for
him.

another great experience was the day before as we taught the word of
wisdom to miguel (former atheist) and his mom patricia. they could not
grasp the concept of why tea and wine should be forbidden. it was
after about 30 min that the spirit finally touched the heart of
patricia and she suddenly interrupted us to tell us why it was
important and that she now understood why she had to keep it! it was
incredible! even though miguel had to go to santiago for the weekend,
she came to all three hours of church and stayed after for the baptism
as well! she could get baptized soon, miguel probably needs a little
more time. he has a girl friend in santiago that he sort of likes...
:/ but hes still progressing really well!

this week was tough mentally ill be honest. i think that for every
single time that ive been close to having success on the mission this
happens though. its like i start thinking a lot of negative things and
lacking a little bit of energy. i dont know if it was satan trying to
pull me down, or god trying to test my faith, but me and my comp both
felt it this week. we pushed through though without getting too down
and received the blessing of christians baptism. hopefully we can do
it again this week.

im tired, a little sick, hungry, and i need to poop really bad right
now but i dont think theres any bathrooms nearby. but ive never been
happier.

ive been reading acts lately and paul is such a boss. i just want to
be like him. acts 20: 21-31 really hit me hard. verse 24 says ¨but
none of these things move me, neither count i my life dear unto
myself, so that i might finish my course with joy, and the ministry,
which i have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the
grace of god¨

i know this is the only true church of christ in the world. make it
the center of your lives, trust in god, and discipline yourself enough
to listen to his counsels and the counsels of our leaders. love you
guys.

happy birthday to steve. you da bomb and i love you homie. enjoy hawaii. :)

-elder allred - chilean street raptor

Monday, October 5, 2015

Arrepentios Todos Vosotros

wow what a spectacular weekend of general conference am i right? it
was so amazing i loved every moment of it! pure power!

so i got a good joke to start off this week... how come the lamanites
always got their clothes dirty when they ate? because they never had
the plates!!! HAHA RIGHT?

yeah anyway sorry im done now. this week was... crazy. but good. but
at the same time frustrating. yet looking at it now it was miraculous.
on friday we had to head down to viña for mission council and spent
the whole day in conference and talking about the state of the mission
right now. the truth is... numbers have been going down. hard. we had
the lowest amount of baptisms last month in a long time. its time to
get back on track. people think its due to a lot of different things,
but i feel like more than anything its a mentality that needs to
improve. a hunger for baptism in the mission is so important. that
doesnt mean that if things dont go your way that you have to be angry
or sad, but if you always have the drive to help people get to that
moment of covenant making, you wont be leaving anything on the table.
its tough it really is, but ive never been so happy to do something in
my life. i realized it last night in a lesson after general
conference. the spirit was so strong and as we were there i was just
thinking to myself like i dont ever want to stop doing this. it was
awesome!

this week we literally committed like 10 people to go to the
conference with us and everyone was in! we were so pumped that we were
going to have them there to here our prophet address us! we were so
excited!... and then nobody came. not a single one, until the last
hour of the last session! we were down we really were, but during the
last session we decided to say a prayer together and we asked for a
miracle... 30 minutes later a mom and her son showed up. patricia and
miguel. patricia has been an investigator for a little while and just
recently started progressing a little and desiring to be baptized,
miguel is her 19 year old son that speaks fluent english and two weeks
ago did not believe that god existed. in 14 days he has started
praying, reading the scriptures, and came to church and now has a
baptismal date! last night in the lesson he told us he wants us to
pass by every day this week and he wants to go to church again and any
activity we have, including playing soccer today with us! seeing the
light of christ work in someone is one of the coolest things in this
entire world. also seeing the lord come through and provide a miracle
was a big testimony builder. we were so thankful that they were there
to hear the final talk given by elder bednar that enfatically stated
the need for our beloved prophets and apostles to guide us in a fallen
world.

if i had to choose a favorite talk right now i probably couldnt do
it... there were too many good ones. but a few in particular stood out
to me and i just wanted to make a comment on them. first of all i now
know what kind of wife i want, if anybody chooses to date me. elder
nelsons talk really made me think deeply about the kind of person i
want to be with for all of eternity, and elder hales talk helped me
know what i need to do to find her. sister marriots talk gave me hope
that no matter what comes our way everything will work out if we do as
elder maynes suggested and center our lives on christ like the clay on
the potters wheel. i know i have many weaknesses not only as a
missionary but as a person in general and for that reason i will
follow the counsel from larry lawrence and ask the lord, what lack i
yet?

really there were a million things that were awesome. but what drawed
the most attention to me is that pattern of the talks. i think the
call of personal worthiness, understanding the true purpose of
commandments, obedience, and the need for the sabbath day and the
sacrament to overcome all of those was a resounding general theme! it
was crazy. almost every body mentioned the same things!

other than the fact that i had to do interchanges with a ute fan my
week was awesome. i love this work, i love our prophets and church
leaders, and i love the lord. keep the commandments, stay worthy to
enter the temple, and if youre not there, start from where you are. i
know ive already shared too much but i want to end with a quote that
stuck with me ¨we dont have to be perfect, we just have to be really
good at getting better.¨

love you guys. pray that we have a baptism this week with cristian.
its complicated.

ps: who else love my good pal joey durants dad´s talk? get ponderizing ya fools.

-elder allred - chilean street raptor

Monday, September 21, 2015

I WILL SURVIVE

i heard everybody is calling me survivorman in utah is that true? if
anybody wants they could make me a cape and helmet or something cool
like that. i like blue and gray. well ill be honest i dont really know
where to begin. it was a crazy week, i dont know if it was news in the
states, but it was definitely news here to have a 8.3 earthquake with
an epicenter 40 min south of coquimbo followed by a tsunami that
destroyed a part of downtown in my sector. haha it was crazy!

but anyway ill try to remember as much as i can. wednesday at like 6
or 7 we were teaching a lesson to a new investigator name gonzalo
inside the office of his air conditioning business. haha and this guy
is huge and jacked. but it starts shaking a little bit and i have
experienced lots of little tremors so i was like oh yeah no big deal
and gonzalo goes [tranquilo chiquillos[ haha and so were just like
okay its gonna pass... BOOOOOM! i seriously thought the earth was
going to open up and eat me whole, it was super loud and suddenly the
whole building was swaying back and forth. haha so gonzalo loses it
and starts running to the door and we follow him like almost falling
over on the way. but yeah it lasted for like 3 min and nothing to bad
happened near us, but the street and cars looked like it was a
swimming pool it was moving so much. the real danger are the power
lines during an earthquake so we stayed in the entrance of the door,
and i dont know why but i thought it was kind of fun like i wasnt even
scared! i dont know it was weird..

so after it finished we decided to peace because gonzalo had to go
home to make sure his fam was okay. so we went to alexis{s house and
were with his family. the thing is is that our sector in coquimbo is
the entire  coast. pretty much two giant bays and near the beach on
one of them is our house. so at like 9 o clock all of the sirens in
the city started going off signaling what everyone was fearing. a
tsunami. so we had to run down to our house before the cops threw us
out from the area and grab our most precious things and our emergency
kit. haha ill be honest i got a little bit scared it that  moment. but
after we got it we went back to alexis{s house, hes our second
counselor in the ward, and did some visits to make sure other ward
members were okay. the problem is that the 18th of september is the
biggest holiday in chile, and the biggest party in chile is also in
coquimbo! so thousands and thousands of people were in pure panic
trying ot drive out of a town with all of the power out, zero
stoplights, and lots of debris and crap in the streets. it was pure
chaos for a few hours. but we stayed the night at alexis{s house.

in the morning we called president and told him our whole zone was
okay and everything and we went tp the church. only a few things had
broken in the church and a few families had spent the night there that
didnt have houses in the safe zones. we came to know that not the bay
where our house is, but the other that is where all of downtown is had
been destroyed by a tsunami. luckily they had evacuated it and it
appears that there have only been about 15 deaths, but man i felt like
i was in a movie for those 24 hours! the next day we went with some
other missionaries and some members to help start cleaning up the
mess. it was crazy.- you always hear stories about stuff like this,
but it was different seeing it.

ill send some pics of our efforts to help the people that lost
everything, but its sufficient to just say that within 5 blocks of the
shore in downtown, everything was obliterated. theres ships, freight
crates, buses turned over, and thousands of fish everywhere, including
some missing people. but yeah we have been spending a large part of
everyday going down to help clean out mud and garbage and we{ll
probably keep doing it this whole week.

there have been tremors every day since the earthquake but lets just
hope that nothign big comes becasue its possible that another comes
after that is even bigger!

for the 18th we got the day off and celebrated with lots of asados,
which is like a barbecue and some soccer. i couldnt believe it, it was
so much fun. but yeah its been a crazy week and i dont have much more
time to write.

we cut our own hair, and this week we have interviews with president
diaz in our houses. should be fun.

i know there is other stuff thats happened but im exhausted and ive
got ot go. know that i love all of you guys and im so grateful that
nothing bad happened. i know god looks out for his servants. im
serving with everythign ive got, and even though it  is the hardest
hting ive ever done it is also the most gratifying. i love the lord, i
love this work, and i love chile.

-elder allred - survivorman

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Earthquake in Chile

Querido familia de Élder Allred ,



Anoche, pasó un terremoto aquí en la misión Chile Viña del Mar. Les informamos que TODOS los misioneros(as) están bien. TODOS tienen acceso a agua y comida. Sus casas son lugares seguros y todo está bien.



Si tiene preguntas, sientese libre de preguntar por correo a 2011662@ldschurch.org



Le agradecemos y sentimos sus oraciónes para con nosotros.



Elder Webster

Secretario Ejecutivo

Misión Chile Viña del Mar

2011662@ldschurch.org

Dear family of Elder Allred ,



There has been a large earthquake here in the limits of our mission. We are happy to inform that ALL missionaries are safe and accounted for. We appreciate your pacience in recieiving this news. All missionaries have access to plenty of water and food. Their homes and things are all safe and sound.



If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at 2011662@ldschurch.org



We apreciate and feel your prayers on our behalf.



Elder Webster

Executive Secretary

Chile Vina del Mar Mission

2011662@ldschurch.org

Monday, September 14, 2015

Chau Brock Obama, Bienvenidos Liam Nielson

well we had changes.. and elder brock peaced out after one change here
like it was nothing. no but for real i loved that guy. even though
everybody thought he always hated his life because he never smiled we
got along so well and i really havent had that kind of a relationship
with a comp besides him.

wednesday morning we knew elder brock was going to have to go to viña
so 20 min before it was supposed to leave really early in the morning
we were already at the station. however we then received a call from
the assistants that president diaz changed the way changes work and i
also had to go to viña to get my new comp! A SEVEN HOUR BUS RIDE. haha
i didnt have my suit, i hadnt showered, i hadnt brushed my teeth, or
used my foot massager. nothing. i had to have a brother from the ward
bring me my suit to the terminal and just get on the bus to go to
viña. so yeah after the meeting i went back on the bus and it was
another seven hours to coquimbo where we got home at four in the
mornign and woke up at 7 to start the day. i was one hundred percent
dead. haha but it was kind of fun cause it happened in a lot of zones
so everyone was wasted.

there couldnt have arrived a more polar opposite than elder brock as
my comp. okay.. that came out wrong. not that i dont like him. we
actually still get along great. his name is elder nielson and we
actually arrived together to the mission and this will be his first
change as zone leader! in the mtc we werent in the same district but
we always played cage soccer against each other. but elder nielson is
from idaho, he is a lacrosse player, and he has always got a big old
smile all and just trying to pump pure excitement into people and
trying to help them to be happy as well! haha its great. yesterday
after saying a prayer with a family he said well in my family after we
say a prayer we all give each other hugs and say we love one another.
haha i almost started laughing thinking about elder brock saying that.
but elder nielson is a great guy and the most important thing is that
he loves working hard and being obedient! im pumped for this change to
stay in coquimbo and be with him. were going to find a lot of good
people!

one of the other cool things about changes is that we got a new
district leader.. and its elder wilcox my comp from the mtc and then
the field! he has changed so much in these last few months it really
was so cool to see him do our district meeting on friday! such a stud.
after the meeting we did intercahnges for the day and he came to
coquimbo with me and it was an awesome day! it felt like i was just
with a normal comp again like we had great unity and everything haha.
also we had two great experiences of the lord placing us in the way of
people that needed our help.
first we were walking and going to go visit this one investigator, but
the spirit told us to go a different way. so we did and on the way a
lady flagged us down. she was from the south of chile but she was less
active and her husband who was there wasnt a member. but her son had
been life flighted to the coquimbo hospital because he had been in a
bad accident and wasnt sure if he would make it. so she had us say a
prayer for him right there in the street and when we looked up they
were both crying and could feel the spirit so strong! it was great i
know that this sister needed us in that moment ot help here calm down.
then on our way back right after getting off the bus that is super
hard to catch we start wlaking and some guy pulls up next to us and
says his daughter has been super sick. he was an inactive return
missionary and so he couldnt give her a blessing. so we just gave her
a blessing right there inside of the car. it was crazy like everything
just happened perfectly. the lord works in misterious ways.

really my testimony of prayer just went up a lot this week. with
another investigator that had kind of lost interest we decided to pass
by and her 7 year old son had an emergency operation to get his
appendix taken out. but randomly we just decided to pass by again and
hse let us in to say a prayer for him because he was in a lot of pain.
well we said it and shared a scripture with her and the next day wehn
we came back her son was up and walking and feeling a lot better! and
now were sharing with her and her boyfriend! it was awesome.

we continue to work with oscar who is just on the fence about whether
or not he should get baptized. were gonna pray and fast for him this
week to be able to find out what is holding him back. cristian our
cabro chico is doing well but didnt come to church!!! ahhhrrhdkg! its
so frustrating waiting for so many people at church and nobody ends up
coming through. but hes gonna get baptized. i just need to learn some
patience.

if i could give a weekly advice to all of the hooligans for this week
it would be to not get to caught up in your cellphones or video games.
we have seen a ward member slowly by slowly lose his life to video
games. it seriously is so addicting that he doesnt leave his room
anymore except for school. hes fifteen years old man. it really is
sad. we try to say a prayer with him and for a kid taht wanted to get
baptized really bad less than two years ago, he now wont even say a
prayer. like seriously after having the most powerful lesson on prayer
that i have had on my mission, i dont even think he felt the spirit.
dont do it. go do somehting with your lives kids. JUMP OFF YOUR ROOFS
YOU CAN LITERALLY FLY! tell them what that means col.

love you guys hope you have a fabulous week. i cant think of anything
else. but i did take a good pic for my future wife when i propose to
her.

-elder allred - chilean street raptor

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

La Vina Viene

so usually i come with some things written down of stuff that happened
during the week but i pretty much blew it this week... however it was
an incredible week in the land of coquimbo!

i forgot to mention that elder viñas was coming to the mission this
last friday.. but anyway so last monday elder brock wanted to get his
hair cut, but i convinced him to save the money to buy a chorrillana,
and i would let him cut his hair with the machine i have in the house.
so we did it and bought chorillana even though we´ve been dirt poor.
haha so when we got back he started cutting his hair and i told him it
looked good, but he decided to go shorter on the sides. what he didnt
know what that the measurements were american not chilean, and when he
cut it it was so short! i literally fell on the ground laughing when i
came into the bathroom and looked and him and he goes i cant believe
you convinced me to try cutting my own hair for the first time in my
life right before a general authority came to the mission! it was so
funny i couldnt handle it. but elder viñas never even said anything.

so early friday morning we got on the bus to go to a place called
ovalle and listen to elder viñas and his wife give us some counsel and
it was so awesome! so first his wife got up to speak to us and usually
when an old lady gets up to talk and has a very very quiet voice you
get ready to fall asleep. but this lady was amazing! she taught the
most basic doctrine yet invited the spirit so strongly i dont know if
i have ever felt something similar! by the time elder viñas got up to
talk with us the stage was set. he talked a lot about the atonement
and then also the organization of the church and the importance of
priesthood holders. i was blown away by how many scriptures he cited
its seriously like he just had the bible and book of mormon memorized,
as well as every quote ever given by a general authority. haha
everything he taught he then cited to back up it was impressive. he
also let us share some of our own thoughts on the atonement and ask
some questions as we went along. it really was an amazing experience
and i just left feeling like there was absolutely without doubt in my
mind that that man and all of our leaders in the church are divinely
appointed by god!

right now were chillen in a trio because elder johnsons companion
finished the mish. until wednesday we will be with 3 comps until i get
my new comp on wednesday. yep i already know that elder brock is
leaving. for his last two changes of the mission president diaz has a
special assignment for him and he is going to salamanca. this
witchtown that is literally in the middle of nowhere with a troubled
missionary. haha so im actually super sad we only lasted 1 change but
im  SO PUMPED  that i get to stay in coquimbo. i literally think i
might have the most beautiful sector in the mission and i love
everybody here!! on wednesday ill get my new comp and were gonna hit
the ground running. i want to finish strong here cause i think it will
be my last change before i get moved to a different zone.

this week was pretty good with the work.. we found some good new
people including a pair of evangelical like die hard members! haha so
one day this one guy contacted us and told us to pass by his house. so
this week we went and this other dude answered and we asked for
claudio. he was like yeah just come in he´ll be right down. haha so
this guy comes down and we had never seen him before! turns out it was
a different claudio but anyways we shared with these two like 25 year
olds that play in the band for their church and they couldnt really
wrap their heads around the restoration in the first lesson but at the
end they wanted to jam for us! haha so they started playing the guitar
and clapping and like they wanted us to sing with them so we did it
was a great time. but i wont lie, i felt the spirit a lot stronger
after when we sang i am a child of god. it was a jam off. and we won.

other than that oscar went to church again but continues to refuse to
pray and ask about the church. he finally practically admitted that he
is afraid to receive an answer. now we just gotta figure out why and
how we can help him. I JUST WANT THIS OLD MAN TO GET BAPTIZED SO BAD!!
its so frustrating. sometimes i wonder why god gave agency to some
people. were gonna be praying and fasting a lot for him this change. i
still have faith in him..
im convinced that i am going to find a family this change. i put all
of it in 4 changes ago and fasted and prayed for it all of the time. i
just want to experience again what i got to see happen with the
castillo family in viña. when we put in our part, the lord always puts
in his. this area needs a family!

love you guys. i know this church is the true church of christ on the
earth, and its not even close. pray to know it if you dont, or if you
have forgotten it. have a great week!

-elder allred - chilean street raptor

i dont know if i ever sent a pic of the cross. so here it is

Monday, August 31, 2015

They see me rolling, they hatin

woah my mind is blown that i suddenly am on the downward slope..! thats seriously crazy.. twas a good week though and i got to celebrate the one year mark i my favorite guys house we burned a shirt and tie and ate some pizza and coke it was a good time! but for real how does one slow down time in life?

for as many new investigators that we found last week, we lost the same amount this week. it was seriously a tough week. we just had appointment after appointment fall through every day. we still worked hard, contacted a lot of people and helped others progress a little bit, but in terms of new peeps it was a bit of a struggle. thats really probably one the hardest things about missionary work.. when all plans fail jsut starting over and filtering out the ones taht arent going to progress to find the diamonds again. the diamonds exist, theyre just super tough to find! yesterday as the day was finishing up we did a contact that pretty much summed up our week. we were walking and we go up to contact this guy that had a skateboard in his hand probably like 30 years old and right when we start talking he just lifts up his shirt and shows us this tat of satan and walks away while staring at us. haha that pretty much sums it up.


one of our diamonds is christian this 15 year old that went to church with his mom last week and this week he went to mutual with some of the young mens which was awesome, but he had to travel to see his dad in santiago so he couldnt go to church! but he gets home tonight and were gonna help him accept a baptism date! his mom has been really enthused to come back to the church even though she never really had a testimony. however she does remember primary and how she felt back when she was just a little kid in the church. funny how that is huh? even as little kids one can see the difference that the gospel can make. like it says in alma, lots of times kids feel and do things that even confound the learned and wise!


on tuesday we did service with this one ward member and we just took out dirt from his lot with shovels and wheelbarrows for like 3 hours. it was serisouly so exhausting im like still kind of sore from it. but this last weekend we had stake conference here and it was one of , if not the best stake conference ive ever been to! president diaz and his wife came to gave a talk and they were both amazing and then to top it off a seventy from the north of chile came down and gave one of the most powerful talks ever. in his talk he made all of the young men stand up in the congregation and told them it was a commandment that they serve a mission and not to put it off for anything. haha it was awesome!

other than that not much happened... on saturday we had auditions for the christmas concert that were going to be doing as a mission. haha so i decided to try out and it was tons of fun but super hard! they tested so many things and then i had to do a solo and i pretty much nailed it if i say so myself but i dont know what they thought. haha nah they are only choosing 10 elder from the whole mission, but hey it was fun to try out adn just chill for a little while talking with other elders. very very very rarely do you ever just get to chat with people in the mission... i really miss it ill be honest. i feel like when alex told me that i would miss all of the small things like a car ride with di, or watching tv with steve i didnt understand it. but now i get it. just stuff like family dinners or things like that are taken for granted way too often. dont take anything for granted!"

love you guys hope you have a great week. the church is true. go to it. and get there on time.

-elder allred- chilean street raptor

the one year mark

Monday, August 24, 2015

Meet Me Halfway

hey guys whats up. we had a pretty stellar week here in coquimbo! we caught tons of pokemon and were looking to making it to the elite 5 pretty soon with brock on our side!

so yeah anyway this week was awesome because we found more new investigators than i have in any other week of my mission! every day we were finding new people and one of them ended up coming to church yesterday and as of now has a baptism date! his name is christian and he is fifteen years old. his mom is an inactive member for many years but shes came with him and they seem excited to learn more about the gospel!
but yesterday we were walking at sunset to their house which is like on the beachside and we get outside and suddenly mother earth just got really ticked off and there was a big earthquake! haha me and my comp stayed pretty calm, but this mom and christian start screaming bloody murder inside the house as they ran outside. she almost had a heart attack. but it was strong it shook the house pretty good, and then there was another one last night that woke us up and almost threw me out of my bed.

but anyway this week i went on interchanges with elder savaria this chilean that is a stud and i went to his sector. we had a great day and talked peoples heads off in the streets but we had a really cool experience at the end of the day too. it was like 14 minutes before we had to head home and we knocked the door of a future investigator and out came a different person. we started to talk with him and figured out it was this ladies cousin and he was staying there but really we were not paying much attention. there was like a huge party going on right next door, a bunch of drunks saying things to us from down the street, and some thugs kicking a soccer ball next to us too. but suddenly its like the spririt just shook us awake and told us to pay more attention! so we started following the spirit more and got inside his house and even with the music blaring loudly from next door we could feel the spirit super strong as we taught him about the restoration of the gospel! it was amazing. it was a great lesson learned taht throughout the day satan is always trying to distract us with little things to prevent us from accomplishing great things!
alma 37:6 is one of the favorite scriptures. through small and simple things the lord can work miracles among the children of men!

ever since we inherited the sector of the sister missionaries we have kind of been exposed to a richer and different environment. its like a whole new thing over there to try and adjust too. but its been cool to see how riches in this life can sometimes affect a persons perspective on who they are. its hard to remember sometimes that we are not from this world when we get caught up in the things of the world. i had the chance yesterday to give a surprise talk in church. i dont know if anyone was listening to me but i know that i learned through the spirit how important it is to pour out our hearts every day to god in prayer. it gives us so much strength to overcome the adversary and i swear ive seen it a million thousand times in the mission. is that a number?

last monday i went to the cross here in coquimbo for the first time with elder brock. the cross as i have been told is the largest statue in south america. and even though its pure apostasy it was kind of cool to see the entire bay and city. ill try to attach some pics but lately its been kind of dumb... also one night this week there was like this big parade that was SO LOUD of all of these like dancers and trumpet players carrying a big like statue thing of the virgin mary everywhere and receiving the remission for their sins. i wish i could party to have my sins forgiven.

sorry i cant think of anything else to write. im exhausted from playing soccer this morning and really all i can think about right now is eating a big old chorrillana. a chorrillana is lots of fries, eggs, chorizo (like a better version of hot dogs), meat, and peppers. its seriosuly the best thing ever.

hey i love you all and i know this is the true church. i can feel it everytime i testify of it to other people. 

................................i have one year in the mish on thursday................... wut?

-elder allred - chilean street raptor


well i have another virus soo..... hopefully next week!