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

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.

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

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

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