3-11-08

Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 2:35 PM
Subject: School Project? I thought I was done with homework for a while.

Hello everybody!

Sergio got baptized this last Sunday. He´s a pretty big fellow, and it took some effort to raise him back up out of the water, but everything worked out perfectly.

Sunday was also Scott´s birthday. Happy birthday Scott!

The other day when I went to put on my shoes, I discovered one and a half caterpillars inside. That struck me as odd, but I dumped them out and attempted to put on my shoe, when I discovered the other half of the other caterpillar. It turned out to be a cacoon! Did I spell that right? caccoon, kacoon, cakoon? English is so confusing!

I spent most of my time answering the following questions for Sheresa´s school project, so I´m including them in the email so it doesn´t look like I didn´t type very much.

What was your most memorable childhood moment and how did it affect your life?
Wow! Tough questions! I´d have to say that my most memorable childhood moment would have to be my baptism. Without my baptism, I wouldn´t be a member of the church, I wouldn´t enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost, I wouldn´t qualify for eternal life, and I definitely wouldn´t be here in Brazil serving a mission.

What do you think you need to do before you die?
Well, first of all, I need to finish my mission so that I can get married. Marriage is probably the most important on the list of things to do before death.

Who was/is your hero and why were they your hero?
Wait a second... I only get to choose one? Well, because this is Sheresa´s school project, I´ll choose James Madison (you know, the one they call the father of the constitution). He´s my hero because of his willingness to do that which he was inspired to do while valuing and accepting aid, opinions, and input of others to provide a more perfect constitution.

Tell me an experience that influenced your life.
Well, once upon a time (the spring of 1820 to be exact), there was a boy named Joseph. He had a question to which he couldn´t find an answer. Then he read a book (which happened to be very widely accepted at the time) that told him what he needed to do to find his answer. He did what the book told him to do, and something wonderful happened. That special experience would have to be the thing that most influenced my life.

What is your favorite quote/motto?
Have Fun and Choose the Right! (at the same time of course!)

In the past ten years, who has influenced your life the most and how did they influence it?
Drum roll please... and the winner is - Mom! That´s right, my mom! In fact, this is the second decade in a row that she´s won this award. You´d think that after winning the award for the first ten years of my life that she´d take a rest and let someone else have a chance at the next ten years. But once again, my mom has painstakingly given every effort to influence my life for the best.

What do you want to do with your life when you come home?
Well, I want to take it in my hands and squeeze out of it every drop I can. I´ll continue studying Computer Engineering, while looking for the Future Mrs. Elder Allred. Then the Future Mrs. Elder Allred and I will get married and we´ll raise a family.

Can you describe yourself in one sentence? If so, please do so.
Well, of course I can describe myself in one sentence, but then the sentence would be really long like this one, and it would take forever to read because I would have to include millions of adjectives that describe me with amazing accuracy like handsome, smart, witty, funny, strong, good-looking, and attractive, and then I would have to spend some time talking about how much people like me, and of course I would have to throw in some talents, and just to make sure people don´t get the wrong idea and think that I´m just bragging because of pride, I´d have to talk about how humble I am, and so the list of things that I would have to write about would just continue to increase, and then the sentence would get so long with conjunctions and commas that it would probably end up being grammaticly incorrect (which would be completely ironic in and of itself because this sentence is supposed to be decribing me, yet I would never write a grammatically incorrect sentence), and so you see that the entire purpose of such a task would be condemned as futile and no one would even understand what I was talking about, so why would I try to describe myself in one sentence, especially when I really don´t have time to spend writing such a sentence because I only have one hour to use email before we get to leave and start teaching people in Portuguese because that´s the whole reason I´m here in Brazil in the first place?


What advice would you give the people if you were the president?
Keep me in office! Vote for me again!

What would you do if you were the richest man in the world?
I´d buy a lot of bananas. Here in Brazil, bananas can be bought for about a nickel each. Thus, as the richest man in the world, I´d sure be able to buy a lot of bananas. Then, I´d give the bananas to all the poor people that don´t have anything to eat.


Well, goodbye for now!