The Comeback Kid

Captains Log,

Star Date: 20-June-2016

We´ve begun to see mild signs of movement in the right eyebrow, lower lip, and right nostril. All muscles and ligaments in the top lip towards the right corner have recuperated. Smiles have been made, laughter has been shared. We´ve stationed more troops on the bottom lip and hope to be able to frown as well in the days to come. All forms of movement in the face have improved.

--

No but really im getting a lot better. im about two weeks ahead of where they thought i would be. in fact i feel almost normal now. just minor details that will go away im sure within this or the next week. The mission presidents wife wont let me stop going to the physical therapist... its kind of funny because teh first few sessions all they do is tell you how well youre improving and encourage you, and then once i didnt go for three days and came back all of the sudden they realize im getting better really really fast and since we pay by session suddenly they stop telling me how well im doing haha.

enough with the face. seriously im fine. other than the physical therapy miracle there were also a handful of missionary work miracles for us this week! including a special trip that i got to make to coquimbo on saturday with permission from President Díaz to see the baptism of an old investigator and friend of mine..... OSCAR GOT BAPTIZED! haha the old man finally did it! a year ago when i was in coquimbo i had hope that he would make it someday, but after i left i didnt think i would ever witness it! however the elders in coquimbo called me during the week and told me about it and i called President to ask him. i ended up giving a talk in the service and i was flooded with emotions as i saw so many people i love in coquimbo. Seriously love that place. the bishop was pretty emotional as well. hes spent a good time trying to help his dad take the step of faith. Congrats oscar.

we found two new student investigators this week knocking doors. both occasions was unplanned and very timely. its amazing to see how the Lord puts us where we neeed to be exactly in the moment when someone else is praying or needing a blessing in their lives. its not a coincidence. thats what ive learned. everything happens for a reason.

felipe and alda have their marriage date but are passing through some trials. its gonna take a leap of faith for them to get married on july 1 and baptized on the 3rd. apparently if felipe gets married right now he will inherit his fathers debt... i dont know why buts thats how it works.. we had a family home evening in the house of a member last night, played uno with them, and shared about faith in preparation for our lesson with them on wednesday. i know if they decide to keep the commandments it cant go wrong for them even when it seems like it well. Satan is pretty cunning in his ways of tempting people to make logical decisions instead of good decisions.

were also working a lot with a colombian investigator named fabian that is addicted to alcohol. such a nice guy, its just hard for him to keep his committments. we´ll see if he turns it around this week and if he doesnt theres not much more we can do. theres so many foreigners in serena its kind of cool. we´re also doing a family home evening with like 20 more or less active ecuadorians every sunday night. theyre natives from the jungle too so spanish isnt even their first language! its pretty fun. they serve us good cinnamon tea and empanadas so its chill.

well even though i received an extremely tragic phone call last night with the news on the nba championship from a couple missionary in Viña, im still pulling for the states on Tuesday. i need everyone to turn into soccer fans for a week and act like they care cause i do! im with an argintinian companion who could not be more confident that its not even gonna be close... but i know the boys will surprise everyone with the W!

its been an emotional week all in all. we´re working so hard we really are.. and the zone is having a lot of success. i guess its just that going back to coquimbo and everything made me start thinking about a lot of things. its not going to be easy to leave everything behind after giving everything to the work.

i love these people and i love the gospel and i know theres nothing more important in the world. dont ever give up on anyone. i went back and looked in my journal and remembered all of the disappointment i felt when oscar decided last minute not to get baptized. things happen, people change, and God can always mold his children into different people if they allow him.

Love you guys have an awesome week.

-Elder Allred

I Can't Move My Face

I´d say this was one of the more unexpected and interesting weeks that ive had on my mission so far...

let me just start off by saying that its true, i cant move my face. well just the right half of it. on wednesday my comp and i headed to lunch and in the middle of lunch with this family we´re really tight with i realized taht my comp, the family, and the two other missionaries in our ward were all giving me weird looks when i laughed... and then i started to realized that i couldnt blink my right eye, and that my mouth only moved on the left side, so when i laughed my mouth was like on my cheek.. (ill send a good photo). i guess when your face gets paralyzed the first thing you do is laugh, and then you think holy crap am i having a stroke or what?

well i waited until thursday morning and it still hadnt gone away so i called Hna Díaz and she told me to go to the hospital where a nice colombian nurse told me that i have Bells Palsy, or as chileans often call it La Boca Chueca. i always made fun of chileans because after drinking tea or something they would always cover their mouth before going outside because they said theyd get the boca chueca. i guess it was karma! no but in reality its a virus and they dont know how it happens. but the good thing is that it goes away.

These last few days i was supposed to be on complete rest to get rid of all stress, but President gave us permission to go out for appointments. so we just started calling a bunch of people to set appts. however i have been to two physical therapy sessions to get my face massaged, (and one time my back without my shirt on what?) and do some facial excercises. yes my excersizes literally consist of me trying to smile, close my eye, and breath through my right nostril. but im gonna tell Hna Díaz that the phyical therapy really is not necesary. i can do all of the excersizes on my own without somebody standing over my shoulder telling me that the corner of my mouth moved a little bit more than the 200 other times i did it while looking in the mirror. if you wanna know what it feels like to be a handicap in rehab, just get the bells palsy virus.

its been good in some aspects. on friday we found a super good family and gained a lot of confidence with them because at teh beginning of the lesson my comp made a joke and i couldnt stop laughing because everyone else was laughing at my face. its a good fam.

really im fine. it goes away in 1-2 months they told me, and today marks the end of my mandatory rest issued by Hna Diaz. so were gonna get back to normal work finally! it wasnt easy being in the house during the day.. i seriosuly went crazy. it was the first time in my whole mission that i wasnt able to go work because of sickness or other issues... like paralysis.

Felipe and Alda are trying to get a marriage date and were thinking of going out to this place in teh boondocks to marry them legally so that they can get baptized. theyre awesome!

love you guys, dont worry about me too much. have awesome week!

-Elder Allred - Chilean Version of Two Face

Cruisin North

flip i dont even know where to begin... why the flip do i even say flip? its so flippin stupid.

well im back in the north baby!!! but this time on the other side of the bay of my true love Coquimbo. im in La Serena as a ZL to finish my last two changes with E. Giustozzi my studly argentinian comp! i really wanted to train but basically President just told me there werent enough ZL to replace those that left and he needed me to go back up to the North. its chill im super happy to be up here and we have a sweet zone. its beautiful here!

transfer week was crazy as usual and even crazier this time because we didnt sleep sunday through wednesday, had transfers wednesday night, got back to serena at 3 AM, gathered everything from the zone that needed to go to viña on thursday, and then that same night at 12 left to viña for mission council. after a full day in viña with pouring rain on friday we got back on the bus at got home at like 2. Im exhausted. its been so fun though. i love my comp hes super tight and hes gotta a little more than a year so hes ready to work really hard!

weve been taking the trash out these last 2 days. we did a million contacts, found some really good future investigators, adn even though we havent taught much and we dont have tons of investigators im having so much fun just doing normal missionary work all day! seriosuly i missed it so much. im grateful for the love i developed to just teach adn have progressing investigators. our investigators felipe and alda came to church for teh first time on sunday and even though their 3 year old was running all over place being a clown, and tugging on the bishops pants, they had a good experience. felipe said hes gonna start coming every week! they´re a young couple, only 23 years old but theyre way cool. were working with them for a marriage and baptism date soon!

before leaving viña i got to see Jacob and Romina and talk with them outside teh office for about an hour. their sealing date is teh 9th of July, and same with Maria Elena and Raul the parents of jacob!!! im so happy for them its undescribable. theyre amazing and have such strong testimonies its so cool! im just hoping taht i can still go to their sealing.. President told me i could, but now that im so far north i doubt ill be able to which is kind of a bummer.. but we´ll see.

Im here, im healthy, and ready to just go all out in my last area. this area is really cool. the members are awesome it kind of reminds of a ward in the states cause its in the center of Serena. its really weird going from a tiny branch to a big ward. but theyre kindof a sleeping giant. everyone is really good but they sort of need to all go in the right direction to start to see some baptisms here. its been awhile.

love you guys so much. keep me updated on Steph and the boys. Good stuff.

-Elder Allred - Chilean Street Raptor

fotos - with jacob and romina, and my comp and i after our soccer game today with the zone.

Un Salto en Forestal Alto

Well im exhausted... and my body hurts... but im pushing to finish this letter and get up to our sector to work. we had a super intense soccer game this morning that included a few elbows and an occasional body check. things get crazy sometimes when you put north american football players on a small soccer court against fragile latinos.

im doing good though. honestly its been a huge help and relief to be able to play soccer every week. i feel like it takes out all of the frustration, and disappointment and you just forget about it all for a little while. its helped me to have more energy to keep going even work hard even though we dont have as much time in our sector to work as i would like. This week especially is going to be rough preparing for changes. a million things to go buy and prepare for changes and mission council, and a lot of presentations to make too. We`ll probably be late in the office every night considering that it will be the first and only time i help my comp do it all. its chill though, we have a good time.

if everythign goes well this week, were also going to have a baptism on saturday! Catalina wants to do it and we`ve been working really hard to help her...the only thing that would hold her back is the support from her family or if she decides to go to her soccer game on sunday instead of following through with it. Shes committed to do it though and ive got the faith that we can help her understand better so that she can make the decision with confidence!

other than that we`ve been working with a sweet family (the Reppeto`s) we found a week ago and theyre progressing really well. were gonna help them with a service project his weekend and hopefully help them feel comfortable to go to church as a family... the only reason they arent getting ready for baptism is because theyve lived together 26 years... and theyre still not married! common theme. But its been sweet because the branch has come alive and we`re leaving with the members to do visits every day! we had 3 less actives show up to church last week for the first time in years which was awesome! its crazy how much of a difference the gospel can make in somebodys life. it really shows in their lifestyle and happiness.

ive been downloading talks from byu devotionals this week and heard a few awesome ones. then yesterday it occurred to me to search for talks from Grandpa Rex... so i did and i downloaded one from the archives named Lift up Thine Eyes: Miracles Big and Small... its a talk that Rex did together with Nana. I had never known that they did that. Way cool! first thing that comes on is a story about alex asking if santa was real to Di haha! super wierd... i wrote down a lot of the things that they said in the talk and i loved it, but htere was something that really called my attention.. a story from Rex on his mission.

He told how his first change in the mission as he taught the restoration he began to have doubts about if he actually knew, or if anyone actually knew that it had happened... he began to worry about it which drove him to study Moroni`s promise and actually put it to test again for himself and eventually he felt in strongly in a lesson he was teaching that yes, joseph smith had actually seen God and Christ, received the priesthood, and restored the church of Christ..

it was amazing for me cause i felt such a profound identification with what had happened with my Grandpa in his mission, to what had happened to me in mine. the same way... i was struggling my first few months. i began asking myself if what i was preaching actually had roots in me and if i knew it was true. so i prayed hard, i wanted another confirmation. then i remember very very clearly that one day we did a contact in the street and i did something i had never done, i recited the first vision from memory in the street. and it was then that i felt an impressively strong and undoubtable feeling of the spirit take over my body and tell me that i did indeed know that it happened! it was good to remember that moment and appreciate the answers to prayers ive received countless times.

this is my last week in the office, and im pumped to continue the journey. ive got two changes starting next wednesday to leave it all out on the field... literally the mission field. and im 110% committed to do it. ive got a busy last week int eh office which will be good, i pray almost every minute of every day that i can finish here with a baptism in the branch, and if its not the Lord`s will i know it`ll be better anyway. 

keep on keepin on fellers. If its been awhile since youve received a spiritual renovation the book of mormon is true, put it to test. and even if it hasnt, do it again. our testimonies are the most important things we possess. 

Love all of you knuckleheads.

Somebody please tell Hilary Clinton to stop sending me campaign ads to my mission email and that ill get around to my donation when i get back.

-Elder Allred - Chilean Street Raptor

Poof

bueno amigos mios. It really sucked seeing you guys on Sunday....

hah.. haha.. sorry im just kidding. It was good. i was telling Di though that it felt weirder than all of the other calls ive done up to this point. I really enjoyed it though. you guys all look good. especially Col with his luscious locks!

ill be straight up honest... this change has been harder than the others.. its my last change in the office and even though ive been living it up and we have so much fun im just really really ready to have two changes outside working full time in the normal field. it gives you a different type of satisfaction working all day and just getting home after having given testimony ALL DAY. obviously i know what i do is important and that we help other missionaries be able to do what they do, but its gotten to the point where i feel like i have too much time to think about things. all i want to do is finish my mission as strong as i can and do exactly what the Lord expects of me and nothing less! im still working hard but sometimes i get off topic especially when the other two secretaries are dying as well and wont ever leave the office. we really do have a good time though i love elder staton and elder ammirati. Good guys.

President and the assistants went to interviews today and wont be back till friday but yesterday they surprised me with a birthday party in the office that included Dr Pepper, lunch, and a big huge Lucuma cake. if you dont know what lucuma is you`re missing out. its this deluctable celestial fruit that i will dearly miss. it was really good though. Hermana Dìaz got me a big package filled with more dr pepper, root beer, chocolate, and other candies. Theyre the best i love the office. Also this morning Elder staton, Ammirati, and my comp elder rogerson told me we were playing basketball at 630 at the church. which is normal, but what i didnt expect is cinnamon french toast in the office for breakfast haha! ive been treated well here. today these other two missionaries Elder ROjo(its funny because im elder todorojo) and Santa Ana are in Viña and theyre gonna take me out to lunch for mexican food, so the plans arent looking bad! I cant believe im 20 man... what the heck.

news from our sector - Catalina came to the conference and is getting baptized this saturday!!! were so pumped, it will be the first baptism in this sector since August of last year. Her family is going to attend and all of her soccer teammates as well. We also had a sweet lesson this week... we went with a sister from our ward and taught about the ten commandment adn the word of wisdom and while we were teaching Catalinaàs aunt and 8 year old cousin were there. her little cousin is almost always there when we teach, his name is augustin and hes our homie. what we didnt know is that he has some issues. at the end of the lesson we sang a himn and gave the closing prayer and before leaving asked if we could do anything else for them... Catalina`s aunt looked at us with a tear in her eye and told us that her son has problems with violence and always hurts other people, but that lately hes been better about it and she thinks its cause hes been hearing the lessons. she asked if we could start teaching him as well and if she could take him to church on sundays! we were like heck yeah you can take him to church. hes 8 years old right? chiste chiste. it was cool though.

we also had another investigator come to stake conference named Herminia. we have been teaching her son and daughter in law but she committed to come and came through and the other two didnt so that was a miracle! shes 86 years old and took the bus like 20 min to get to the stake center. dedication lets go! she`ll have a baptismal date this week.

Well, its been another awesome week. I love this work, i love the gospel, and theres nothing more gratifying than living it every day and sharing with everyone. 

Love you fam.

-Elder Allred - Chilean Street Raptor

photos: heres a pic of the squad, and my lucuma birthday cake.

The Goods

I pulled a hammy... im struggling here it really hurts. Just kidding i dont think i pulled it, but it hurts really bad. we had an intense soccer game this morning and we were gonna lose so president kicked it up like 14 gears and we pulled off the victory. The guy is one of the most competitive people ive ever met.. haha seriously he`ll do anything to win. It says in the missionary manual that we shouldnt keep score but he loves winning to much. its like an addiction... haha we play well together though so its a good time.

other than soccer and some good old office training we`ve had a decently smooth week. Everything is coming along well, my comp learns really fast and is better and most things than me. He has a lot more patience to be methodical with his work thats for sure. Sometimes i just want things to be right fast. its a weakness ive been able to see pretty clearly lately...

its actually made me ponder about something else a lot too. I feel like at the beginning of my mission i had zero talent, couldnt speak, didnt know how to teach, no idea about how the mission worked, and my testimony was below average. But if there is one thing i was forced to do it was to trust in the Lord 100%.. because there was no other option and i completely depended on him... Now id say i speak teh language pretty well, i feel the spirit when i teach and testify, and a lot of confidence in almost everything i do. which isnt bad at all.. but maybe its maybe me trust a little bit less in God and a little bit more in my own abilities... ive been working on it a lot, and studying it too. I think it happens to every missionary to a certain extent, but i wanna do everyhting i can to turn it around!

this week we saw some miracles in our sector. were working hard everyday to get out to our sector on time and its gonna well most days, but theres still room to improve a lot. on monday we found Luisa again, the investigator that had a dream about us helping her, and we taught about the restoration with a member from our ward! it was super powerful and we figured out that shes no longer living with Antonio her ex boyfriend/melchezidic(i butchered that) priesthood holder! she accepted a baptismal date and is ready to come to church tomorrow with us!!! lesss goooo!

Also we had an incredible experience last night with Catalina and the Calderon family. pretty much every time ive taught those guys its been with a different person. Twice on exchanges, once with elder ammirati and the elders quorum president, and this time with Elder Rogerson and our ward mission leader. So what happens is everytime Catalina`s dad feels the need to explain that he has problems with smoking and that he doesnt want to be pressured to do anything yet but that he wants his daughter to be baptized. but this time after doing it, he confessed to us in the lesson that he feels the same spirit in his home for the first time since teh elders came ten years ago in concepcion and they were baptized! he says he feels like the messages we share are directed towards him and not towards his daughter, and after my companion testified that its not because we planned it that way, rather that the spirit always helps us to feel what we need to change, the spirit just filled room so strong you could almost touch it! it was awesome, and even though he doesnt feel reaady to go to church, hes recognizing the spirit again, as well as his wife. Having your only son tell you hes gay when hes 14 is not easy. Nor is it easy having marriage problems with an unstable job and still trying to take care of your family. The gospel is the only thing that will save the Calderon family. I love those guys i hope they can keep progressing and the Catalina can lead teh way by being baptized.

i read a scripture this week that i wanted to share from 3 nephi 6:15 --  15 Now the cause of this iniquity of the people was this—Satan had great power, unto the stirring up of the people to do all manner of iniquity, and to the puffing them up with pride, tempting them to seek for power, and authority, and riches, and the vain things of the world.

satan takes gifts and blessing from God, and offers us the cheap worldy form of it. God gives us spiritual power, authority, and riches, and too often theyre rejected for something far less valuable. the trick is resisting the temptation to fall for the cheap substitute. 

I love you guys and i have everyone in my prayers. thanks for the support. The truth is i cant believe the clock is winding down. I still feel like i should be a young new greenie missionary. But i know that ill remember this time for the rest of my life and longer! Its setting the stage for everything taht comes after. I love the Gospel, these people, and my Savior. 

Cuidaos.

-Elder Allred - Chilean Street Raptor

Midnight selfie in the office with Elder Ammirati passed out. Late night view of our sector in the hills of Viña. 

sorry i still dont have a pic with my new comp. but we figured out his full name at birth it was - Kostyantyn Oleksandrovych Dovzhenko.

What a guy. Capo.

Black Suits and Blue Ties

well after 7 days of no sleep and a long process of preparing everything for transfers and mission council, im still alive! im so tired though guys, so tired. last night i hit the pillow and it felt like i blinked my eyes and i was up again without feeling any different. its been so much fun though and it was an incredible week!

first off my new comp among his many nicknames is known as "the most interesting missionary in the world". We also call him Ryan Reynolds sometimes, and the Ukranian Hammer. Hes a boss. His name is Elder Rogerson, but his official name when he was born was Constantine Alexandervich Dovjenko. Hahaha. Sick right? he was found in a Ukranian manufacturing plant and adopted by his parents that he now has. He`s live in over 20 countries and is the most diverse person ive ever met. what a guy! just when i feel like im getting to know the guy, I DONT KNOW ANYTHING. were gonna finish these six weeks and im gonna look back and realized i know less about Elder Rogerson than i did at the beginning when i met him. The MOST interesting. really though im happy hes my comp and hes doing a really good job in the office. he learns really fast and loves the Lord. 

We havent even gone up to our sector this week, ill stay one more change here in forestal alto, but regardless, its been a fantastic time. we welcomed the new couple missionaries, the Gould`s who are working with us in teh office. theyre tight. on Monday we had teh last dinner for those going home which was amazing and i said goodbye to a lot of good friends, and two of my best companions, Elder Swindler from Coquimbo, and Elder Larsen from the office. Really good group of missionaries. On Tuesday we got up at about 4 after having gone to bed at about 2, and headed to santiago. We welcomed the new missionaries with a presentation we had to come up with in about 15 min, but it turned out well, and then we had tuesday and wednesday to be with them in the mission home and do a lot of stuff, all accompanied by amazing food by Hermana Dìaz. it was solid!

Thursday was our only day to prepare everything in teh office and all of the stuff for mission council on friday! we got it done pretty late again and thursday night me and elder rogerson picked up elder frampton, and elder horton from the bus terminal to stay with us for the night. it was a good time, and of course we got our traditional màte in!

Were starting to cool things down and this next week should be a normal week. Catalina didnt come to church last week becasue it was raining, so and the Relief society president just didnt pass by her house to get her liek we had planned out. Frustrating stuff. Its all cool though. This week shes coming and shes gonna keep progressing. We had an amazing lesson with our Elders quorum president that went with us last week and he got in and just starting talking about soccer and chilean stuff with the dad, then he got the mom involved too and really helped us to open the family up and share with us. theyre gonna progress i know it!!! 

Jacob from the Castillo family emailed me this week and told me that hes been going through the temple classes with his wife he got married to about a year ago... AND IN AUGUST THEY`RE GETTING SEALED!!!!! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! i was so pumped to hear about it, im gonna do everything i can to talk President in to letting me go for it!!! theyve come so far, and im so happy for them. the gospel is the key to happiness, never been more sure of it in my life. spiritual barriers and limits can be broken when we start trying to make good actions, become good habits. I know God and Christ live. this is they`re church. i love the mission, ive never been happier, nor felt the spirit so strong in my life as when i see somebody in the process of conversion. and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them—Helaman 15:7... 

ive felt a change of heart in multiple ways and i dont ever want it to end. Have a great week yall, love you.

-Elder Allred - chilean street raptor

proselyting in the storm, and eating out at ruby tuesdays. First time ive had free refills in a year and 7 months.