December 14, 2009

Ryan's letter:

Subject: I hope by then I will be ready....for Christmas!!

Dear Family!
I can't remember if I told you already, but it looks as if it is going to be a white Christmas. I hope we won't have any snow, but Nicholas Rosen will be dressed in white as he is baptised on the 26 of this month. He is a great kid and we are especially excited to see the entire family coming to church and enjoying it. Dawn also came to church for the first time last week and that was one of the most exciting things that has happened in loomis. I wish I could of been there but I got stuck in the singles ward for the day.
Elder Haines and I went on a total of four exchanges with missionaries within the past week, so including being separated on Sunday we were together less than three days last week. It was great to work with so many different wonderful missionaries, but it was pretty hard working another area one day then our own the next with out being able to see each other in between to find out what had been done the day before. We had a lot of fun though. Over the past few weeks I have been finding so many great scriptures about the doctrine of Jesus Christ and each time I do it gives me another boost to keep working. The one that has impressed me most is one I have heard hundreds of times before but it really hit me this time. We always talk about how the sons of Mosiah were such great missionaries but the reason why they are is what I like. In Mosiah 28:3-5 is were it shows us the great love that they had for everyone (freinds, family, enemies, everyone!) and how they got to be that way. The reason they could not bear that any human soul should perish is because they understood the doctrine of Christ. They had felt the power of the atonement and desired all to feel it. I guess that is really my hope, that as I gain a better understanding and TESTIMONY of the doctrine (faith, repentance, baptism/sacrement, and the Holy Ghost) I will have a greater desire and capacity to do missionary work. I really find myself drawn to any scritpure that has anything to do with this pure doctrine of Christ.
We tracted into a lady who seemed semi-interested in hearing our message but was about to dismiss us untill we asked if she would let us do some yard work. She didn't complain after that in fact she was pretty happy to have a religious discussion with us now. We set a return appointment with a plan to do yard work in the morning, then she would feed us lunch and we would teach a lesson. We went to her house on the designated day and found a sack full of food on her porch with a little note letting us know she wasn't going to make it. However on Thursday we showed up again in our work clothes and just asked her where to begin. She took us into her back yard and we realized we had been very fortunate to bring one of the young men form the ward with us. Her plan was for us to pull her pool out of the ground so she could re-dig the hole. The pool was made of heavy plastic and was about 6ft by 12 feet anf about 5 ft deep. At first we couldn't even budge it, but after emptying about 100 gallons of water, one ice-cream container at a time, we made some progress. With Elder Haines and Clayton on one side, and me on the other (good thing I have been doing my perfect push-ups) we lifted it out. Ok so I had the lighter side, but it was still pretty cool, and now we can start teaching her.
Well it's raining plenty and I'm loving it. Luckily I am in a car this winter.
I challenged each of our missionaries to search for a special spiritual experience to strengthen their testimonies this week, mine came as Elder Haines was practicing his violin in Bishop Astle's home. I was in the other room preparing for a lesson and I picked up an old NEw Era and thumbed through the pages. I found a nice one page article and read a simple story of how a young man gained his testimony of the Book of Mormon. As I pondered the article and my own testimony, the spirit witnessed to me again that the Book of Mormon really was written by Heavenly Fathers prophets. I was given a great peace in knowing that it is true. We have been given a lot of blessings out here, I guess it is our chance to now extend them to others.
I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.
Elder Allred