Thanks to Elder Allred

Allred Family,

I just wanted to take some time and quickly present myself and write you an email. I`m Elder Larsen from Highland, UT. Im currently Elder Allred`s companion and, well we are in our last few days together. I just wanted to thank you for raising Elder Allred in a great way. I consider Elder Allred a great friend and I highly respect him. He is an incredible missionary. I have learned from him how to be spontaneous and follow our thoughts/inspirations. In my mission there have been a lot of times where I think of something that would be cool to do or that might help out an investigator or less active, but then I would wait for the best moment and sometimes forget to do it. Elder Allred on the other hand is impulsive and if he thinks of something he just does it. Due to this type of action we have seen a lot of miracles and have been able to find some great people to teach. I really appreciate your son and all he has taught me and for the frienship he has shown me. I hope that we can meet up after the mission and hang out sometime. Thank you again for your son and I hope that everything in your family is going well and that you can all be happy and smiling all the time. The church is true and it is the greatest source of happiness that I have been able to find in my life. I love the Lord, I know He died for us, and that He loves us and desires that ALL of us can get back to Him someday. I know we can only achieve this if we act, talking, feeling, and praying are not enough. May we all strive to be at our Father`s side one day. I hope you have a great week!

Elder Larsen

Getting Swoll

this week elder frampton and i decided to start getting yoked every day. so we are eating 3 sandwiches, 2 tuna and mayonaise, and 1 pb and j every day after lunch. its been a great experience so far. i can literally feel myself getting huge every single day. just wait guys.

so we just got back from sandboarding. yeah we literally went to some sanddunes in a place in viña where you can rent sand boards and ride down these huge hills! haha it was so tight. but im filthy. all i want to do is shower and sleep. it was exhausting hiking up the hills after going down. even worse than sledding i promise. but it was so fun. except for when i dropped my camera in the sand and now it wont turn on.... its chill though. we hit up some subway after and i drank soda off tap for the first time in a year and 6 months. so that was cool.

im entering the 4th quarter boys. time to strap up. ive got some goals and im determined to achieve them. one of them is just to head into my next sector just excited to work and turn the branch around. its a struggling branch with very very few baptisms. but were gonna make it work. just like my good friend marshall mathers once said "im not afraid, im not afraid, to take a stand, to take a stand, everybody, everybody, come take my hand, come take my hand, we`ll walk this world together through the storm, wahtever weather, cold or warm, just lettin you know that youre not alone, "holla" if you feel like youve been down the same road."

javier istn going to get baptized tomorrow. as much as i begged for him to do it for my mom cause its her birthday he just wouldnt commit. nah for real though he needs to understand the law of chastity better and build a little more faith up. he`ll get there, and he`ll be a leader in teh church someday, i just wont be there for his baptism. ive gotten over things like that though. you plant thousand of more seeds than the fruit that you harvest in the mission. sometimes you just gotta know that the work that you put into the mission sometimes wont be manifested for years. i may not even know about it in this life. but every single time i open my mouth to testify i know that it could make a difference somewhere down the road. and ill know about it after this life.

on monday we had an amazing council with president as an office. we went over everything that Elder Teixeira had said the last weekend and then decided as a group what things we were gonna try out as a mission and what htings not. president explained to us right there in the meeting that we were not called to office to complete our office work, even though it still is important, but rather to give input and be a team to rely on for him. i really do feel the love and confidence that he has in us. it was cool to see him put his foot down on a few things and show taht he has the keys to run this mission. there will be some changes as a mission and were hoping so see the results down the road. on wednesday we have changes, and on friday mission council with the office and all the zone leaders. its gonna be an awesome week. 

love all of you. choose the right. those who keep the commandment will be happy. its a pretty simple law and i know its true.

-Elder Allred - Chilean Street Raptor

photos- me every night with my chips and avocado with juice, and the two other photos are from the easter island museum we visited last monday. a mohai and shrunken head. and a two headed goat that lived one week.

The Vineyard of the Seas

well guys i dont have much time again. ill be honest this time its becasue i put off writing the group email until the end. i ddont know why i just dont ever want to write this thing!!

the biggest news is that Danilo got home from the south. over the last two weeks we knew it would important to stay in contact with him. we called him like every other day to see if he was reading the bom, talk about his vacation, or tell a joke that we had come up with! but it worked out great becasue he attended a little branch in the middle of nowhere near temuco calle caracautin! haha there were like 7 people in the meeting he said but he participated and everythign. Danilo was prepared long before we ever met him. in England when he lived over there he almost got baptized as well, and when he got back to chile and met his GF that is a member it was pretty obvious what God wanted him to do with his life! his baptism is tomorrow and he wants me to baptize him! please pray for me. he weighs like 240.

javier also got back from his camping vacation and has plans to attend church and then stay after for the baptism. if he receives an answer, which he well, he will be baptized on the 21 of febrero. the guy is a machine. he explained the first book of nephi better than anyone ive ever heard. he reads the book of mormon and understnads everything the first time. he has a gift. hopefully he can receive an answer this weekend!

pablo is also coming to the baptism. we have a family home evening with him and a sweet family from teh ward tonight. its gonna be sweet.

i love this ward. its seriously the best ward in teh mission. im just sad that i have to leave in two weeks to the other one. were determined to baptize these three future leaders in the church. we seriously have the coolest investigators in teh world right now. 

we had a pretty cool experience on thursday this week. a few different times over the past couple months we have ran into this chick from utah and her chilean husband that lived in utah for a while and is less active. shes not a member. on wednesday we ran into them again and shes a lot bigger than she was before. because shes supposed to have her baby in like 2 weeks. when we talked with them they were not doing to well. their 1 room house is falling apart, he`s hardly receiving anything for his job, and they dont have much food to feed themselves. we told them to come to the office the next day because the bishops storehouse is next door. 

in reality we had no idea how the thing even worked but we got there and the lady told us that she would need to go to church with her husband and fill out a form with the bishop and then the next thursday they could come back and see what happened. when we translated for her you could see the pain in her eyes, and a nearby worker was watching us. as we were leaving he handed me about 40 dollars in pesos and told me to give it to her. when we got out and i gave it to her she asked who it was from and after a little convincing accepted it from me. she told us to please tell the man thank you and slowly fell down to support herself against a post and jsut starting crying. i dont know how desperate she was for it, nor what she was feeling, but its just evidence that angels are always looking out for us. im sure tons of people go in there every day needing help, and i dont know what the man decided to give it to her, but it was a miracle.

i love the mission, the experiences, the people we meet, and seeing the Lord`s hand every single day out here. its amazing.

i know without a doubt that the church is true, and that God has a plan for each one of us. keep on keepin on. 

-Elder Allred - Chilean street raptor