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

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

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!

Brock the Rock

heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, hows it goin? we just got done playing soccer with a bunch of elder and members from our ward... it makes it kind of tough to want to sit down and write things but oh well here goes nothing.

this week was really good, but were just struggling to find that golden investigator. all the people that we find that are really good almost always live together. its seriously a major problem in chile. everybody gets married, and then separated, but since the divorce laws are so complicated here nobody gets married again. yes i know its not ideal to have to get divorced and remarried but i swear its a very uncommon thing to find someone that has been married to another person for more than 20 years here. but anyways were in the search for some solid new peeps who are ready to accept the gospel, there really is nothing more exciting than finding somebody that has real intent and is receptive to the spirit!

were right there still with oscar, the bishops dad, and the espejo family. this week monica, the mom, came to church and loved it and then later in the afternoon came back with martin her son to a baptism for another ward with us.. its so frustrating. a different person from that family comes to church every week and its not even for good reasons. they just get lazy and stay in bed or watch tv all day and lose the motivation. sometimes it gets old being the cheerleader but i love them and i really want them to progress as a family! oscar is a little bit down becasue of the constant fight he has with depression, but he is still showing signs of progress. he gave up tea, coffee, and on friday he committed to stop smoking! i want that old man to get baptized so much. i know as soon as he does it he  would receive a stronger answer about the gospel than ever!

on friday this week i did my first replica as a zone leader. a replica is just taking everything that we learned in mission council in viña with president, and holding a conference in our zone to teach them teh exact same thing. but its laid back and a lot of fun and its cool to do something different every now and then.

other than that theres not much going on. i cant believe were already in week four of this change... seems like elder brock just barely got here to coquimbo. its crazy how time works in the mission... i seriously just cant even comprehend it sometimes because its different than anything else ive experienced! 

but it was hilarious becaue this week we decided to pass by fernanda, this one 16 year old atheist whose mom is a member. and before with elder swindler we serisouly ALWAYS talked and joked with her and tried to get her to open up and nothing worked. but anyway we get there and she opens the door and instantly she was just completely different! haha she told us to come in even though she knew we couldnt without a member, and then she gave us her phone number and todl us to come back the next day. haha it was ridiculous. my comp is working miracles. must be the spirit.

so yeah thats the week. but hey i love you guys and im thinking about ya every day. check out this steam room pic i took with the shaquille oneal jersey i bought in the flea market for like 2 and a half dollars.

yall have a great week now.

-elder allred - chilean street raptor

if you look really close you can see tony starks beachside house in teh backround