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

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

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

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

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

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