Fatherhood

i had a kid! and hes brown! this last changes i stayed in achupallas here in the hills of viña and elder wilcox left to the very north of the mission in la serena! also in my district one of the elders left, one hermana, and we have a new zone leader. everything got changed up and its kind of sad because we had bonded so well but at the same time im really excited for the new group we have! we finished the month of march with 9 baptisms as a district which is incredible! usually zones dont get that many baptisms in a month. obviously i know that baptisms are not everything but i know that the lord blessed us because of diligence and obedience! now i think its key we develop humility more and more and keep up the other things!

my new missionary is named elder rios, hes 24 years old, and he is from santiago chile. not exactly the type of kid i expected but im excited to work hard with him and learn together! ive already learned so many things about chilean spanish that i did not understand before! elder rios comes from a tough backround.. he was pretty much a chilean thug before and was inactive until 23 years old. he worked from the time he was 16 to pay for the house that him and his mom lived in and support a life full of worldly worth. he has really come a long long way to be able to serve a mission and now that he is here he is a little bit emotional, but he has passion and thats what i love. he doesnt have a very good knowledge of preach my gospel or the scriptures but he knows how to show love for everyone. im hoping we can find a good medium between the way we work this week! :)

yesterday we had the baptisms of enzo! i think it was also the first time in my mission that i have gotten emotional about something... enzo recently turned 9 and therefore constituted a convert.. but really what we wanted the whole time was for him to carry his family back to the church. his mom who i have come to love very much has now come to church for about a month straight to help enzo prepare for his baptism. about 7 years ago her, two brothers of enzo, and his dad were baptized into the church and went inactive shortly after due to the father being offended. however yesterday at the baptism enzo`s mom got up to bear her testimony and at first directed what she was saying to enzo.. but then at her husband. what she said was incredible.. really she just bore testimony of the church and begged her husband to give it a second chance. we`ll see what happens but were going to everything we can to get the whole family going back to church and on the way to the temple!

ive been missing the temple a lot lately. ive realized more about the things i did in the temple than when i was actually going to the temple and now i just have this hunger to go! its tough because i know in some aspects to progress spiritually i need to go to the temple, but the hunger has also helped me to want it more for our investigators. i know that things we do in the house of the lord brings us blessings that last forever.

ive been a little bit tough on myself lately and i was really just asking for help from my father in heaven. every little mistake has just been bothering me a lot and i wanted to get rid of all the pain! its like as a missionary i tell people all day that through christ they can get rid of the pain and then i forgot for a little while that it also applies to me! daily repentance is the only way to healthily live the gospel and i know if we always remember that the atonement is individual that we willl be more happy!

we had a lot of great experiences this week but i cant remember any more and i dont have any time! but i love you, have a good time in st george. i remember that was right before i opened my call last year and it was an awesome vacation! oooo i also dreamed i was going to viña there. its haunted. <3 you guys

-elder allred - chilean street raptor

my photos arent working... dont know whats up. QUEEEE FOOOMMMMEEEEE