Subject: Another sister! They already outnumbered us!
So, how did the marriage go? Any grave errors? Congratulations to the newly weds! ... Wow that´s so weird. Scott´s married. Well, at least I´ve got one more sister to give me some dating tips for when I come back from the mission.
Well, since everyone is in the mood of giving gifts and presents because of the wedding, let´s not forget another important date coming up. That's right! My "slump day!" I'll hit a year and and half this Sunday.
Packages welcome.
This last weekend was our stake conference. Even though it was in a chapel farther away, we were still able to get 9 investigators there in only 4 trips. Elder Soares of the First Quorum of the Seventy (conselor in the Brazil Area Presidency) presided and gave an amazing talk on faith. Our mission presidente and his wife (Presidente and Sister Richardson) also spoke at the conference. "He speaks the same way you do Elder Allred," noted one investigator. I think my lower voice makes my accent a little stronger.
Carnaval is a Brazilian holiday that come from some Latin words meaning "party of the flesh" (meaning not your typical Holy Ghost-inviting experience). Presidente said that for the 5 days of carnaval we´ll probably have to stay in our houses from 2 pm on to avoid both spiritual and physical danger. This wasn't a problem last year because I was in Mauá (up in the hills), but now we are right on the beach in the center of town. I don't know how we´ll get any teaching in this next week.
Teaching Pool (Please remember these people in your prayers):
-Ricardo (dad, 35), Ingridy(daughter, 15, and Richard(son, 6): Ricardo is separated from his first wife (which wasn´t really a wife, legally speaking), and now we have to help him understand a little better the law of chastity to prepare for baptism. He´s already given up coffee (we had to wrestle him for the coffee two weeks ago) and only smoked one cigarrette on Monday (that´s down from 2 packs/day). His goal is no more. Ingridy is ready for baptism, but we´ll wait until her dad's ready to baptize her.
-Maria de Lourdes (single, ~65): She went to church for the first time on Sunday and has been one week without coffee. She'll be baptized on March 1st.
-Valéria (mom, single, ~35), Dawid (16), Critiane (Recent Convert, 15), and Adrielly (13): Valéria is finally ready to give up the cigarrettes now that we did a detailed explanation of the charactaristics of a life in spirit prison. David and Adrielly just need to get a little firmer on church attendence before we'll let the get baptized. We're working on getting them to seminary.
-Talita (recent convert): Only member in her family.
-Bianca (kind of single, 23): We're helping her get the strength to break up with her drug-addicted boyfriend to aviod all temptation to not stay completely virtuous.. She´s been without coffee for 3 weeks now.
-Amorim (step-dad, 27), Cristiane(mom, 36), and Edcarlos(14): Edcarlos is firm. He's already been going to seminary. He´s going to be baptized this Sunday. We had a very serious talk with Amorim last night to help him understand the importance of marriage. He and Cristiane kind of have a complicated situation that only miracles can solve. Luckily we've got some miracle-providing angels ministering in our area.
-Renato (less-active), Claudeci (less-active), and Bruna (20, not baptized yet): We´ll help them firm up again.
Love you all!
Goodbye for now!
--
Elder Jason Morgan Allred
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
February 24, 2009
Subject: Captivity
Due to wickedness in Babylon, the Elders wait captive in their own apartment...
Day 1 in captivity-
Saturday. Good thing we bought ice-cream to get us through this. We had to retreat back home at 3pm according to some safety rules in place in our zone during Carnival.
Day 2-
Sunday. We´ve been liberated to go to church and then eat lunch at a members house. Talita and Cristiane were confirmed members of the church and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. At lunch, the member cuple advised us to eat quickly to return home before 2pm. Despite difficulties, we were able to take 6 investigators to church (which means they weren´t out partying all night with the rest of Babylon!). During this time, the church sends away the youth on a camping trip to keep them of the roads and away from the TV.
Day 3-
Monday. It´s so hot. Water is in short supply (actually, we have an endless supply, but that fact doesn't really fit into the type of literary atmosphere I'm trying to create with my captivity story). We were able to stay on the streets until 6pm. Cristiane, the newest member of the ward, informed us that she turned down a part time job that she was offered to work on Sunday. It may seem like a little thing to us, but she would have earned R$40. That amount is more than 4 times her mother´s daily wage, and her mother is the soul bread winner of a family of 4 that lives in the poorest home I've seen. She needed to have a lot of faith to turn down that job.
Day 4-
Tuesday. P-day. Today should be the last day of confinement. I tried to pass the time reading. I'm sure I've read every Ensign from the past 5 years, along with the entire mission library, and the entire standard works. I also spent the time writing a few letters, only to find out that the post office has been shut down during these days of wickedness.
Well, we fight to build Zion in the middle of all this Babylon junk.
--
Elder Jason Morgan Allred.
Due to wickedness in Babylon, the Elders wait captive in their own apartment...
Day 1 in captivity-
Saturday. Good thing we bought ice-cream to get us through this. We had to retreat back home at 3pm according to some safety rules in place in our zone during Carnival.
Day 2-
Sunday. We´ve been liberated to go to church and then eat lunch at a members house. Talita and Cristiane were confirmed members of the church and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. At lunch, the member cuple advised us to eat quickly to return home before 2pm. Despite difficulties, we were able to take 6 investigators to church (which means they weren´t out partying all night with the rest of Babylon!). During this time, the church sends away the youth on a camping trip to keep them of the roads and away from the TV.
Day 3-
Monday. It´s so hot. Water is in short supply (actually, we have an endless supply, but that fact doesn't really fit into the type of literary atmosphere I'm trying to create with my captivity story). We were able to stay on the streets until 6pm. Cristiane, the newest member of the ward, informed us that she turned down a part time job that she was offered to work on Sunday. It may seem like a little thing to us, but she would have earned R$40. That amount is more than 4 times her mother´s daily wage, and her mother is the soul bread winner of a family of 4 that lives in the poorest home I've seen. She needed to have a lot of faith to turn down that job.
Day 4-
Tuesday. P-day. Today should be the last day of confinement. I tried to pass the time reading. I'm sure I've read every Ensign from the past 5 years, along with the entire mission library, and the entire standard works. I also spent the time writing a few letters, only to find out that the post office has been shut down during these days of wickedness.
Well, we fight to build Zion in the middle of all this Babylon junk.
--
Elder Jason Morgan Allred.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Feb 3, 2009
Elder Jason Allred's Letter:
Subject: Zone Conference!
Hello everybody!
We had zone conference this last Wednesday. Sister talked about how miracles happen according to our faith, obedience, and diligence. And then President talked about how our faith is always tested and how the evidence of our faith is our works.
We´re helping Cristiane and Talita get ready for baptism this next Sunday. They´re pretty firm.
We did a mission fast on Sunday for help to find those who are being prepared by the angels.
This is one of my most favorite missionary talks:
Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn't it go better? Why can't our success be more rapid? Why aren't there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don't people just flock to the font? Why isn't the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?
You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.
Now, please don't misunderstand. I'm not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.
For that reason I don't believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.
If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, "Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass," 16 then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn't an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn't an easier way.
The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Jeffrey R. Holland, "Missionary Work and the Atonement," Ensign, Mar 2001, 8
Goodbye for now!
--
Elder Allred
Subject: Zone Conference!
Hello everybody!
We had zone conference this last Wednesday. Sister talked about how miracles happen according to our faith, obedience, and diligence. And then President talked about how our faith is always tested and how the evidence of our faith is our works.
We´re helping Cristiane and Talita get ready for baptism this next Sunday. They´re pretty firm.
We did a mission fast on Sunday for help to find those who are being prepared by the angels.
This is one of my most favorite missionary talks:
Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn't it go better? Why can't our success be more rapid? Why aren't there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don't people just flock to the font? Why isn't the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?
You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.
Now, please don't misunderstand. I'm not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.
For that reason I don't believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.
If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, "Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass," 16 then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn't an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn't an easier way.
The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Jeffrey R. Holland, "Missionary Work and the Atonement," Ensign, Mar 2001, 8
Goodbye for now!
--
Elder Allred
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