Hey família.
How are things going your way?  Well we baptized this week. That Guy we talked about who found us walking in the street was baptized on Saturday. He hás been preparing for this baptism for a long time now and it was done yesterday. We have been working a lot with the members for references. We have a new program similar to the older one. It was ounce Said that sometimes you have to GO back to the old way of doing things to accomplish the new difficulties. Sop we are giving DVDs and Scriptures to the members of the área to put a Picture and write a message to their friends. We then take the dedicated books or DVDs to their friends and try to talk to them about the gospel. It hasn’t gotten off the ground yet but we are trying.
    We managed to help Alexando and Suelly clean out their garage this week. Imagine it was Just like the good old days of cleaning out our garage. WE cleaned it all out in about 3 hours. Lunch fell through so they gave us lunch. It was a good Day and we had fun. I Love serving others. I see the importance in it. When we serve we also accomplish helping someone progress and it is hard to help someone progress with out you progressing with them. Sort of like walking with someone, you end up getting to the same destination at the end of the walk. I also managed to value the importance of working to help someone out. You feel much more accomplished in your life. You know that they will only give you a simple thank you and that seems to make all the difference in the world. I felt about 5 feet taller when I left their house. We have had many opportunities to serve members here and it hás brought about many blessings.
    We have been working a lot with our older investigators they seem to be getting more prepared each time we talk to them. We have seen so much happen to them and it is amazing that despite the crazy things that happen in life they seem to get back up again and keep going. I AM hoping and praying that we can help them follow all that they have found to be true. That we can help them follow all the answers they have been looking for.
    We carved a watermelon yesterday for Halloween. We were a Day late but that is all good. The watermelon was pretty funny looking carved. I and Elder Amorim had a good time and the Bishops son (Lucas) and Requiel were with us. I have pics that I’ll send to you.  My comp didn’t do too badly for his first time carving. I think I Will never GO back to carving pumpkins again for Halloween I think I Will probably just buy a watermelon and carve it for now on. 
We have been preparing Emerson and Itainy for a while now. They have been taught by many missionaries. Itainy received her answer a little while back and she hás been waiting for Emerson to get his. Well Sunday came. My comp was asked to GO in front to bless the sacrament. I was alone in the back benches and Emerson came and Sat next to me. The first thing He told me was. ´´ I read the part you marked in the Book of Mormon to read´´. ´´I prayed about it´´. “It’s True!!“ Well you know me and how well I can hold in excitement. It was difficult to hold it all back but good thing you taught me to be reverent in sacrament meeting. My comp saw that I was really happy about something. After sacrament meeting we talk to them and Emerson told my comp ´´ It is true“ He didn’t understand at first but acted like He did. We called him and his wife with their friends in to talk to us. The second time Emerson said it my comp looked surprised. They have decided to be baptized this Saturday.
Well I Love you all I hope is going well with you and that they move is going good. I will talk to you all soon.
Love Elder Allred

Hey Familia

It was a great week. I was called by the zone leaders to do a division in our zone in my district. It was a good day. I guess there were a few difficulties somewhere with the zone and they needed a break. So we woke up and left early to walk to the next area. I traded companions there and then walked back to trade again at the chapel here in Rio Doce. That was an exhausting trip. Then as we walked to our lunch appointment a guy stopped us on the street. He had invited us to talk to him. This guy we have been trying to find for almost 2 months now. He is Pricilla’s boy friend and has been taught by the missionaries before. Pricilla was baptized in March and so she has been preparing him. We have been teaching him, this week. The lord sort of put us in his way because that day he had been really wanting to talk to us. He hadn’t had the opportunity to get the number from Pricilla and found us. The amazing thing is that we had been doing a division. If not for the sudden division he would not have found us. We were scheduled to be in the 5th stage of Rio Doce during that morning.
We had interviews and I gave training at the district meeting. That was a lot of fun. I talked about finding the elects that are prepared by the lord is like finding rich minerals like the panners do. They don’t just pan for gold or other rich minerals but pic up all the minerals they can and with simple technique are able to separate the minerals that are precious. In any sense all souls are precious in the sight of God. SO that gives us even more incentive to teach all of the people we can teach and not just pick who we think are prepared. Many rich minerals can be lost if the panner is only looking for a certain type. I think it went well. I got my thoughts from thinking about all the family reunions we had in the Big Horns. I remembered one of the Uncles on the hike brought a pan with him and was panning in the river. It sort of went on from there.
Well we have been getting really close to a lot of good people here. Many of them are still trying to find an answer to their questions and that can only be done in Prayer. We are praying every night for them that they can receive what they need to realize that what we are teaching is true. We have seen many trials happen along the way but the Prayers are helping.
I gave an English class yesterday. I was expecting more people than those that came. Those that came were my companion and an old area 70. His name is Germilton and I and my comp have become good friends with him. This week he gave us each a tie and on Sunday we wore them to church. It is what he calls a relic tie and it is but it was a nice gift from him. He knows a lot about the scriptures and teaches us a lot of new things each time we visit him.
I’m anxious to hear how the move went and about Boise. It will be sort of different living there but I guess it will be easier to do mission reunions now, considering most of my group is from Utah and the other 2 are from Idaho. I hope all is going well with you. Megan the number of ward attendance is anywhere from 80-90 on average. So it is normal here.  Good to hear you had fun meeting Ron’s Family. I hope college continues to go well. Well I am going to be on later to read e-mails and such I love u all. I hope all continues to go well. I haven’t gotten the package yet I think perhaps it is because of the strike they had here in Brasil. Maybe track it and see if it got here or not. It seems every time I have a package sent here they decide to throw a strike again and then nothing gets sent to Recife. It hard to even send letters anymore here in the correios. But things will get better. I’m sending moms b-day letter today and I hope that Dad and Megan got there b-day letters that I sent them almost 2 months ago. Well I love you all hope all is going good with the move. I’m praying for you.
Love Elder Allred

Hey familia. So how are things going?
This week was a push to gat people marked for baptism but a good week to get references. We have received about 15- 20 references from the members. The one thing is that most of the references are really prepared by the lord and we are still trying to get them prepared for baptism. As far as Custodia we are preparing them for the meeting this Sunday. It will be exciting to see how far our labors have extended as well as the members that live there. I am hoping for a good outcome that way future missionaries can begin opening the branch out there. We went tracting the other day and tried a lot of the apartment houses here. We had a great success when we met a guy who just so happened to be in his sisters apartment to relax. He invited us in and we aught him the first lesson. It was a good experience. We will try and prepare him for baptism this transfer. We have done a lot of contacts and such it was really great to meet some of the people here. Also we are teaching an older couple now who actually made it to church yesterday!! One thing I am learning about the gospel is that it has everything we need for happiness and fills our lives when we are missing things. It is no wonder to me why anyone can learn the gospel and live by its teaching if they choose to. It is so simple to understand and everyone can find something they need from it. My favorite part of the mission so far is seeing the people make the changes themselves. It was always difficult for me to think about helping someone to change but in reality we just teach them according to what they need to know and invite them to make the changes themselves if they truly want it then they accept it and that is one of the best things to watch. The truth is they get their help to change because of the Holy Ghost. Elder Bednar said that our job as missionaries is to literally bring the spirit to them and then they have to choose to accept it or not. If they choose to accept the feeling that they get for the spirit than they themselves will be taught by it, it is interesting to me to look at it this way because in reality I am simply speaking according to what the Holy Ghost tells me and it is the one that teaches. Just some things I’ve been thinking about this week.

We did a lot of knocking on doors like I said. We had some good successes come from that as well. Right now we are just waiting for them to make the choices and we will begin teaching them more. Arcoverde is extremely hot now. It is beginning to be the hottest three months of the seasons. Summer here begins in less than three weeks but already it feels like I am in an oven. At least it is really dry here. The only thing I have to worry about is the sun. I am grateful for all the trees here it keeps us away from the sun. But the funny thing is at night it gets really cold. I guess that is because we are in the middle of the desert. There was a wedding this week in our ward. We were invited to attend and the new bishop wanted contact cards to place by the sign in book. It was a good wedding the stake president said some things about families and the relationships that were great. One bit of advice he gave was to allow every Friday night to be your wife’s night to choose what you will do. He said just because you’re married that it doesn’t mean the fun stuff stops, and encouraged the couple to date the same way when they met. My comp especially liked that part anyways…. We did a few contacts there. I met a friend of the brother who got married he is an English teacher and invited me out to his class this Thursday to talk to his class. That will be interesting. Three couples received their endowments in the temple Saturday including the couple that was married. The other two I have gotten to know really well here. I was a little bummed that I couldn’t go to see it.
Well Familia bem otimo quem eu ama bastante. I had better send this out I love you all I hope things are going well. I am praying for you all always. Love you
Elder Allred

Oi familia!!
So this week was good but some things happened that were difficult, it happens. We went to Caruaru on Tuesday for zone conference. I enjoyed it a lot but the only problem was that we didn’t get back until way late and so we had to do contacts and couldn’t teach. We received two contacts; both are people who wanted to learn more about the gospel. Ainelli is a young lady who is the cousin of that member who visited us here from Atlanta in July. She called her up and told her to find us, so we are teaching her and her friend now. We have a reference from a few weeks go that seems to never be home but she always comes to church. We are hoping to begin teaching her this week. We were doing our weekly activities in the church this week and the other reference came up to me and told me that she wanted to be baptized. So we will begin this week teaching here.

Elder N. Silva called me this morning during study and gave me a reference here of a lady who lives here. It is going to be really nice to teach. I love teaching references these are the people who are truly prepared by the lord through the members. If all the members in the world gave references out each week I believe the work for the missionaries and the wards would grow and I would be much easier to retain these members. Often times here in Arcoverde I feel like half the town are members. I am always finding new members everyday who haven’t been to church for years all because they lost interest. It is hard to take in sometimes. I think a fear I’ve developed and sort of calmed down also is teaching people who will lose interest, but I know with references it helps the work go and makes things much better for us!!!
We have a new bishop here in Arcoverde I will get to work with him at least for a little while longer. I’ve practically spent 1/4 of my mission here. Crazy huh?
Today I got my first real taste of mountain climbing Brazil style. We climbed a mountain peak here that I’ve wanted to climb since day one. I just haven’t found a comp crazy enough like me. Anyways we made it up and back. It was really good to use that skill once again while I am here. It brought back a lot of good memories and I got some good pics for you all. So things are really good.

I’ve been worried for you all there this week it seems every member sort of informs e when disaster strikes there. I guess the banks fell or at least that is what I was told and that people were losing their homes and everything to the banks. How is that panning out?

Hey so we will be going to Custodio this week and hopefully the next week too. I think it will all go really great. We will begin marking baptisms for the first of November!!! That is a great way to end a transfer. I am sort of enjoying Arcoverde while I can this might be the last I have here, but I think it will be exciting to see new places. Well I love you all I am glad you go the package and I am looking forward to getting this next one. I am praying for you all and I love you.
Love Elder Allred

10072009

Hey Familia. Como vai?
This week was a good one. WE worked really hard trying to find someone to baptize but really our investigators weren’t ready. But the lord answers prayers.  And he will give us the blessings if we will just do the work that is asked of us to do.  Conference was extraordinary for me. We got to watch it in English being that we were with more than just a few Americans. Anyways I have a few thoughts I would like to share on what my personal discoveries were if I may.
I believe that as individuals we have been asked to certainly make the changes necessary in our lives to bring others to a realization of the truth which the gospel has. The world is suffering from a big drop in all the qualities and attributes that were discussed during the conference sessions. We must not let those things slip away. Forgive me but I forgot my notes. There was one Authority that talked on tempered glass and how it was this tempered glass that saved his life from a pretty deadly car crash. He talked of the importance in being temperate in all things. Also Elder Holland’s testimony on the prophet Joseph Smith was so heart felt and gave our investigators that were present a new incentive. I can’t express the love I could feel from the Prophet during his talks. He talked on service and it truly brought it home for me on what our duties at home should be.
I think that conference really helped our investigators and really taught them the true values and the true order that exists in Christ’s Church. I was very grateful to take part in this my last conference during the mission. It will remain a favorite memory of mine. Well I talked of the Lord answering our prayers. It happened on Saturday after the 2nd session of Conference. We had been struggling to mark someone for Tuesday and it didn’t happen the way we wanted. A member came up to us saying her niece needed to talk to us. In talking to her we discovered that she had been to church 6 times already and had known almost everything including living the gospel principals. She has been marked for next Tuesday and she will be well prepared this week. The lord answers prayers for those who will go and do the work. Even if they can’t reach to that which they work for the lord does all the rest and makes it all happen. My heart was full and I was humbled.

My companion was transferred last night. We had given a good transfer of work and about 10:45 when I thought all was said and done and that we would stay together for another transfer my ol´ comp Elder Sudweeks called up. I could tell it was him because he was laughing when I said hi. He laughed for a little while after because he knows how transfers are and probably knew we thought we had dodged it and were sleeping. But it was a good kick to here him laugh and it made us happy. He asked for Elder Higgins and I handed the phone to him. He was transferred and I spent what would be the next hour cleaning and helping him get packed. The big thing was that he was transferred to my last area in Setubal 2 and he is with my last companion and good friend Elder R. Santos. So I know he will be well taken care of and will learn much…
That is my week. We had a good time working here. I am with Elder Amorim now and that will be a lot of fun. I can’t believe how fast it is going. I love you all I will be praying for you. Please send me the new address because I need to give the secretaries affirmation that I moved so I don’t get sent to South Dakota. If you want I could even tell them to send me to the Salt Lake City airport and you could pick me up there. Just an idea. Megan don’t worry if they don’t write back after a while they will get to it. Elder McBride told me he has been feeling bad about not having a moment. But the mission is like that sometimes. I love you and hope all is well. I will talk to you again soon. Good luck with the move.
Love Elder Allred

09282009

Hey família…
It was really great reading your letters today.. Thank you for everything. I Love you all.
Well I had an interesting week this week. We worked hard for the people to come to church. A lot of our families were really sick or unexcited to come to church this week but we worked with them through it all and many came to church. We had 6 people there and 3 of them were references from the members here. It was something that left me happy because it means I could go in and actually work. The other Sundays were very difficult because very few people came and we wouldn’t be able to work much. I will tell you about Felix. We met Felix last Monday during p-day and marked a time with him later that week. In talking to him, he is from Austria. He hás lived 13 years here in Brasil and speaks fluent Portuguese. Also I have practiced A little of my German with him but I have practically forgotten everything I learned from school. Anyways it was really good and we enjoyed the time we had speaking with him. He came to church and we could see the spirit he brought with him we will be working all we can with him to help him. He hás a huge desire to serve others and I recognize someone who the Llord hás prepared.
We helped Fatima go to church yesterday. She was very excited. She hás a son a daughter of hers who have been looking at the church. We have been teaching their family. She ahs had many questions for us and I have seen that she hás been very receptive to the messages we pass to her. She made it to church yesterday and we are going to be helping her.
We played basketball today right by the beach. The court was on the other side of the street away form the beach and it was perfect. WE played with Zé who was one of them we played basketball with last week. His mother is Fatima. He is really good. We played a few games of 1 on 1 and also 21. It was good to get the old skills out again. Haha. Not that I am the man or anything but anyways it feels good. Elder Higgins is way better and I think He only lost to me because He was in the Center for 3 games. Haha. But IF you can’t beat them normally beat them when they are tired.
We have been teaching a lot lately. Each day I find myself getting more and more attached to Rio Doce. I love this área and will miss it when I have to go. The members here are amazing and have been taking good care of us. We have had a many good things happen this week. Almost like 3 weeks of hard work Just to have a perfect weekend. But that is what I have learned about missionary work. Sometimes you hit rock bottom but if you keep working it all pays off. This next week we will be working with the members to bring references to general conference and also investigators. We hope to have a few activities this week to help us out with integration. We are hoping also that this DVD idea will work out.  Well I hope all goes well with the move. I am praying for you and for your success and health. Tyler, Green Machine sounds pretty sweet to me. but also loopey sounds cool. You decide bro it’s your car. haha.. You will have to drive me around when I get home anyways because my license expires the month I get back. Haha. Dad enjoy the time you have in Salt Lake I am praying for you. Mom I understand how it feels to be moving. I get that way before everyone of my transfers. But everything works out. I haven’t hated a single área I have passed through (knock on Wood). Just don’t let yourself think any different.  Megan, have fun at college and enjoy your dating! Hope everything works out with your calling. Love you all I Will talk to you again soon.  I am praying for you.

Love Elder Allred

Hey familia,
From the sounds of everything you are moving right along to getting moved. I understand that moving must be a little less easy to do without us there but the Lord will allow for things to fall into their proper place. Well I am very happy to see that your callings are going well. Dad I am sorry to hear that you were so sick but I am glad you are getting better.

So about my week this week. We had a lot of new things happen. We scheduled a baptism for 6:30 on Saturday night. Unfortunately they didn’t show up until 8 and we had to do a baptismal service as fast as possible. In the mix of things I had about 15 minutes to make brownies because we were running behind and had 30 minutes to be at church. I wished I would have known that or I wouldn’t have made brownies in the apartment and would have kept my mind busy in the kitchen at church. Anyways we put the brownies in to bake at the church oven and the pan I put one batch into was way too small for the amount of batter I made and well the members thought I was burning down the chapel. lol.. but not really. Needless to say they were all very patient with the waiting and the fact I forgot to grab a spatula to get the brownies out with so we just grabbed one from the pan. I also forgot a knife to cut them with so I fashioned one up with plastic disposable cups. They got there and we baptized them. Crislani and Lucio are two special children of our father in Heaven. They are siblings. Lucio is 11 years old and Crislani is 16. It was a good service and after working so long with them it was gratifying for us to see them. We had an n interview with the president and one of our candidates for baptism on Tuesday. That was an interesting ride to town and back. We woke up and left the house at about 7:30 to get to their home at 8:30 to pick up a bus at 9 and arrive 10 min late at the secretary’s office. Any sooner and I would have been tired as all get out because we had to get home in time for lunch appointments and teaching. That started the week off really good. haha. But I love my work and I am happy to be here. Of course I do not glory for this in myself as Alma states in chapter 29 verse 9 but I do it for the glory of the calling I received which is through Christ. Also if we look further in that chapter we find verses14-16 that talk about the happiness we have when others have such success. Our district baptized 8 this weekend!!!!!

Well as I can say our week was a lot of emotional ups and downs. We have met a lot of less-actives in this ward that are trying to get out of the rut they fell into. We have been working with them and trying to help them out. One is coming back because his son was baptized on Sunday. I was asked to baptize him Sunday and confirm his son and now he is coming back. It was good to see that. Along with a young Lady who was baptized about 3 years back she has also fallen. She has stayed firm to most of her standards but a few and wants to come back. It is a good process one that has needed lots of patience but I am happy to stand in my calling and to exercise myself according the needs of that calling and I won’t complain. I will have to get the quote about that which I just mentioned it is from Brigham Young. It’s probably my favorite quote.

We have really had a good success with the missionary program here. The Ward Mission Leader has a great program that will start getting the missionaries more references. We will try to get DVDs so we can make a member reference list. And then the exposition of the ward here will shoot off in about 2 weeks.

My greeny got hugged by a drunk the other day. It brought back good memories of my first few months on the mission. We have a lot of hard time partiers here. Saturday starts the big time stuff until Sunday. Well as we were walking a man yelled at us and said. Oi galego, seus galegos com olhos verdes. Vem ca!!! (Hey whitey, you whities with green eyes come here) he was toast and so we didn’t want to talk to him. Anyways he chased us down the road because we wouldn’t stop so he could make fun of us. It was a different situation I’ve never been chased by anyone who wanted to make fun of me before. But that was ok it makes for an interesting story now. We have been doing well as a companionship. My comp already teaches half the lessons. I am getting used to the area. Finally we have stem that will work out alright. Anyways I guess that is about it. I love you all I hope you all have a great day. I am always praying for you.
Love Elder Allred

Hey família.
How are you doing? Well this last week was pretty good for learning; I had to learn all the ropes again. Besides getting home a little late because I had to learn the área again so it was a good week. This week will be a better week and I think we will enjoy the time we will serve. A lot hás changed here since I was last here. Many members have moved and so there are some new faces to get to know. Also, the callings of some of them have changed, so I am getting used to working with the newer people. Our Ward Mission Leader is really good and I know we will have a lot of success with him. So how my companion reminds me of me is that he is pretty much like I was when I got on the mission. So I am trying to help him through that because I know that that isn’t exactly the easiest time. But, he speaks really good Portuguese and the people for the most part understand everything he says. We have been doing lots activities this last week with the members, trying to get them excited for the missionary work. It is a good experience and I think we will get a lot of confidence from the members. Our baptism fell through this week but she will be baptized next week with her younger brother. Some things happened and it didn’t go so well. The same thing happened in our other área of the district and so it was sort of an obstacle to get by. We will resolve everything and then it will be ok, but Saturday will be our baptism. I feel the wards will be really excited for this baptism especially because it hás been so long since they have had one. We have a lot of crazies here also and that makes the work a little interesting. One guy tried speaking English with me, that was pretty funny. We have a lot of people that only know what they hear at their church about our Church, so it hás been interesting trying to teach them what we really believe. But that is normal and I am getting used to it again.
So the work is good as I learn the new things I am supposed to learn, I am growing and that is important.
I am sorry I didn’t e-mail last week. We went to Maxeira and visited with a member from Arcoverde. She was visiting family and wanted to see me and Elder Brinkerhoff again. So we went there. But as the buses are as they are we were a little bit late getting home and we couldn’t e-mail. But I’ve learned that it isn’t good to do things like that the complicated way because it just makes everything complicated. Anyways it was an enjoyable Day and I thought of you. Dad I am sending your birthday letter soon. I need to pass by the post Office. You will get it soon. Would it be helpful if I began sending your letters to one of our family members’ homes when October hits? That way you will get all your letters. If you give me one of their addresses or tell me who to send it to when I send mom’s birthday letter out it will be sure to get to her.
I love Rio Doce I am sure we will have a lot success here and we will enjoy the time we have to serve. I hope I can do much better this week after having learned some things about what I am doing. That’s me I guess I get on to something and I have to learn usually a week in trail and error before I get it. My companion is a lot like me. He drops things like I do and doesn’t like to talk much in the morning after we wake up. Right now he is really quiet like I was at the beginning of the mission, so I told him about 6 months into the mission you’ll snap and be crazy just like the rest of us. It is sort of true about 6 months in something happens and we all go nuts and start talking to everyone.
So how is packing How is work and school and such? Tyler, tell Mrs. Bauer hi for me!! Well I hope goes well I love you all and I am praying for you always.
Love Elder Allred

Oi família
Well I was transferred can you believe it. I had believed that I was going to stay there in Setubal so you can imagine the surprise I had when talking to the assistants last night. Elder Davis was transferred and he was that was no surprise; he had been there for a long time. Then my buddy Elder Sudweeks says can I talk to E. Allred? Well I get on the phone and He doesn’t say anything I just laugh and say I can’t believe it. Then he said don’t worry you will like it. Well I packed until 2 in the morning because I had left all my stuff strung around the apartment and finally got into to bed to sleep. Yeah, so we get to the chapel to begin transfers and the transfers passed for a while with out my name and I was getting nervous already. Then the área Rio Doce comes up and I get this thought like that would be cool,, and so my pic appears on the screen and I am reopening Rio Doce… Remember I served here during my birthday and through January. Also my companion’s pic didn’t show up on the board and the president says you will be training!!! I also received another responsibility with training a new guy and the president looked at my face and the way I was taking it and
Said“ I think we have scared him“ So I am back. It was closed to the mission for a transfer and the good members here were really saddened by that. The most of all was our Bishop who is one of the best bishops I have worked with on the mission so far. He had been very saddened by the news. So the President didn’t tell anyone and I was told the key to our house was at the bishop’s house and the bus passes right in front of their home. We got off the bus. Two missionaries with each a backpack and two luggages and who happens to be on the street walking past? The bishop’s wife. The surprise she had when she saw two missionaries ready to work in the área again was priceless; needless to say she was happy to see that I returned to the área. She immediately ran home to tell the Bishop. The Bishop was so happy to get us to the house he left with out sandals to help with our luggage. It was an experience to see how surprised he was. They made us lunch and we chatted for a while in catching up. I pray that I and my companion will do a success here in the área. I want to help this área so much. Elder Craig Justin Higgins is my new comp; he is from Florida and hás many similarities to me. His Dad also works for the government, only as an FBI Agent and hás moved around a lot also. I will find a great joy in working with him. It brings back good memories of my trainer Elder Riddle and I hope to be as good a trainer as he was to me. Even IF I was half that it would still be sufficient. About the other responsibility I received you will hear from the mission they will send an e-mail explaining about it. My last Comp R. Santos was called as District Leader as I had predicted and stayed in the área.

We baptized Aerlane!!! She was baptized in the ocean. Can you believe that? She will be sending a letter and pics to you of that. I really saw how much Heavenly Father helped everything work in the end after we worked to hard. It is no difficult principal in hard work. It only hás one element and that is work and more work. You don’t even need to be super charged with energy you can be tired but IF you work the Lord will work out everything in the end even when things don’t GO right. That is what I saw personally this past transfer. Well I love you all I will be working hard. I want to wish Dad big congratulations on getting the job to Boise. I knew with out a doubt you would do it and could do it. I will be visiting Sioux Falls after my mission for sure. I know that this is the Will of the Lord for our family and support it. I am glad I had a little sense to pack all my things before leaving. Now the only question is IF it will be easy for you to move it all. If you don’t have room for some of them and want to sell them its no problem. The mission hás taught me that it gets to be a pain to acquire items and have to move. Haha..Well I Love you all I can’t wait to hear from you again.
Love Elder Allred

08/17/2009

Hey familia.
Well I was surprised to see my e-mail from last week didn’t go through apparently the address to dads e-mail won’t accept my e-mails anymore. So I will be sending this to both the work and the e-mail at home. Probably will have a spare sent to my home address.

Anyways, imagine a week of running around. It looks like we as a family have been running around a lot this week. We had a lot of people we met on the street this week. We also had a baptism planned. Our blessings came because of the hard work we did. So first of all our baptism fell through. But she will be baptized this weekend. I can’t explain why it fell through but I will be sure to include it in my journal for you to read when I get home. Nothing bad happened it is normal but everything happens for a reason and so we will go with it and baptize her this Sunday.

We have been teaching a reference from my ol buddy Elder Sudweeks. Their names are Joao and Cida they are an older couple and love the missionaries. We have become close with them and hope to help them to accept baptism. Today was Sr. Joao´s birthday and so he invited us and Sudweeks and his comp to a Brazilian churrascaria similar to the one in Salt Lake. We ate lots of meat today. The members and investigators are treating us well here so make sure the sisters there are getting fed well, which I know you always do!!!!
We had interviews with the President. That was a lot of fun. I always enjoyed the interviews with President because I get more strength to work for my week. I had told him I was a little stressed about the baptisms this transfer. I have already had 4 fall through. He said it is all going to be fine because he knows we are working hard for the lord and even though things don’t always work out we plant seeds. He then told me about his son who served here in Recife about 4 years ago. He said that a few weeks ago a missionary found a Book of Mormon given to an investigator of theirs with his sons name in it. And that this person was baptized because of the seed planted years ago. You can imagine how tall I felt after walking away from that interview. It was a good reflection period for me. I need to remember that I am working hard and being obedient and as long as I am doing the work I will at least leave seeds in good ground somewhere.
Luzia and her grandson will be baptized this week. They have come a long way and I am proud of their commitment and love they show. We took them to a Family home evening in the ward last night. They really enjoyed it and told me how much it relieved the stress they were having. It goes along with that same thing I learned on the mission. You get a group pf people together who are all smiling and happy it is literally impossible to be sad and depressed. A laugh is contagious and a smile clears away all the stress. That night she had been having such a difficult time she didn’t even go to church. But she went to this activity and saw everyone having a good time over some of the simplest games (telephone and scissors) that she forgot all about the bad day she had. I want to implement that in my life.

We met a new group of people. He came up to us on the street asking for us to stop by. His name is Lula and he has helped us reach many of his friends. He was so excited to come to church that he was ready before we even came on Sunday at 8 o clock. We will be working with him this next transfer if I stay. We will have transfers next week. So next Monday I won’t write. Wednesday will be our p-day in this occasion.
I hope you are all having a great day and a safe travel. I know it isn’t easy to say goodbye. Unfortunately we have to do that part a lot in life. I’ve learned to say goodbye a lot here on the mission. But I know that I will have an opportunity to see them again. They only last for a little bit. I hope Tyler will be alright these next 6 months. It won’t be long. I can’t believe I only have 6 months it doesn’t seem possible. Well I hope this letter finds you and that you have a great week. I love you and hope you have a safe trip.
Love Elder Allred