Starting Over

hey guys seems like yesterday i was writing my email from last monday. the weeks really do fly by. even though the days feel like eternity. but almost every day is really fun, and spiritually uplifting. i feel like ive hit a point in the mission where im just comfortable where im at! now thats not to say that im not working hard or that i feel like ive arrived, just that ive accepted and realized more or less that im on a mission. sometimes it still shocks me. haha its crazy how it happens really... sometimes it hit me at random that im in another hemisphere saving the souls of people who i was destined to meet! we see the lords hand in the work every. single. day. everything that we do is guided by him as long as were obedient and diligent.

a couple weeks ago our apartment was fumigated to get rid of the fleas. it didnt do anything. in fact im pretty sure it got worse. now theyre radioactive and more aggressive.

this week we pretty much started over. we had run out of investigators and people werent progressing so we dropped a lot of investigators and found a bunch of new ones! they all have their own individual needs spiritually but all of them have potential. we dont have a single investigator with a baptism date, but were gonna put a bunch this week! we have good relationships with a lot of people and have found a lot of golden investigators. 

for this month in our district we are going to study chapter 6 of preach my gospel and have a presentation every week. as ive started to study it more in depth i realize how well examples that we have in the scriptures show us how we can become more like christ. as we read their stories, and follow their promises, not only will we become more like christ but we will always be blessed and be happy! just like steph is my hero on the court and i strive to shoot, dribble, and pass like him, i also strive to do the things that my savior did while on the earth. faith is a funny thing, sometimes you dont know you have it until you take another step and see the light a little bit more ahead. if you havent seen patterns of light in youtube i highly recommend it! gosh i really do love steph though..

this week i received news from my dad that his sister had passed away. patrice was always the most loving and caring aunt in the world! i have only good memories of the times we had together and i know that the love she had for her family has helped lots more people than even she imagined to stay strong in the church. shes created a family that will last a lot longer than just this life. it will last forever. shes is now preparing this home above with lots of her other family members and i know that she will see us all again one day! thanks for everything patrice.

i had a really cool experience this week! right after our interviews that we had with president this week in the stake center, i had interchanges with one of my zone leaders elder staton! but there was a funeral for the mom of one of the brothers in my ward so i was talking with him for a sec and this one guy that was sitting down with his wife looked at my plaque and said, did you have a dad that served in concepcion chile? i said yeah and he gave me a hug and told me that he had done interchanges with him 35 years ago on his mission! turns out he lives in a ward in our stake! so i took a photo with him and hopefully you recognize him dad! he had a lot of good things to say about you!:)

it was a great and very uplifting week! today we have less time to email because were gonna go have a zone activity in some cool place in downtown viña! love all of you and hope you have a great week. christ lives, this is his church, and we are his hands on the earth.

-elder allred - chilean street raptor