June 22, 2009

Ryan's Letter:

Subject: Tranfers!


Hello Rexburg! And everywhere that's not California!
We had a pretty good week starting last Tuesday with president's interviews. I was actually pretty dissapointed because he ended up telling me what was happening with all the elders in my district for transfers. That sort of took all the surprise out of our phone calls this morning. Elder Miller is leaving but I'm still pretty excited for this next transfer. Unfortunately you guys won't find out until next week who my new companion is because I won't find out until tomorrow when we pick him up. It looks like I will end up spending most of the day tomorrow with Elder Petersen, who is from Grandma Allred's home ward, while we wait for our new companions.
Tuesday, I got a call from an inactive family from our ward whose house we had just visited about an hour earlier. She called to tell me her apartment was on fire and that everyone was safe but they would need some help. We rushed over and found over twenty emergency vehicles in her apartment complex and her building on fire. She lived on the bottom floor and another family from our ward live directly above them. Most of their stuff was saved but there was enough damage that they will have to demolish the entire building. We called the bishop and it didn't take long for the ward to make sure they had everything they needed, the church is soo great.
We spent most of the day on Wednesday in Sacramento (outside our mission) at the temple. Elder Miller ran into some friends from Utah so I ended up giving all the tours around the temple by myself. We had almost all the ward there including those without temple recommends. Our bishop has done a great job on focusing on the temple and trying to prepare everyone. Paula and Daphne Skordas got to go inside and participate in baptism for the dead, they loved it! It was an overall amazing experiance for everyone.
Right after we left the temple we went to an appointment with a lady named Linda. Before then I had only talked to her on the phone and she was really excited. She had gone online and requested a Book of Mormon because one of her docters had given her a priesthood blessing before a surgery. (Yeah for the docter who is missionary minded!!) So we taght her the first lesson and she said she had no reason not to believe what we taught. Her only concern was that she has always thought of God as more of an unexplainable power than someone with a body. So we encouraged her to pray (we do that a lot) and ponder what we taught. Before we even started we told her that she was going to have to make some big changes in her life but she was willing.
We met with Linda again on saturday and she had the same concern so we decided not to teach the lesson we had planned. Rather, I was reminded of the part in the Book of Mormon where Ammon explains to the King all about God right after he cuts all the arms off the bad guys. So we read that with her and I think she accepted it. Then we invited her to church but she said she couldn't come because of fathers day but she would try later.
Sunday morning Linda called and asked for directions to the church. Her father was sick and she was really excited to come even though her health only allowed her to stay for sacrament meeting. The ward was awesome at welcoming her and she loved it! Hopefully we will commmit her to baptism this week. She is amazing and she wants to go bike riding with us. Hopefully the ward will continue fellowshipping her.
Other than that we have a lot of people we are teaching and a lot of good potentials. There is a lot of work here even though I'm in one of the smallest areas.
Anyway, we had a very eventful week. Thanks for everything I love you!
Elder Ryan Allred