January 25, 2010

Ryan's Letter:

Subject: Vacation Week!

Family and Loved ones!
Well, my world has been completely turned upside down since my last email. (For the better) Within minutes after I sent my last email a week ago, I received a phone call that changed everything. But first I had a couple of experiences that I forgot to tell you about last week.
First of all I wish I could tell you all about my last week in Loomis. Remember Ethan? He was the young man who came to church a couple of weeks ago and told us he was interested in converting. Well we found out that his family had no idea he was looking into the LDS religion but he felt really good about it and wanted to meet with us. He came to Family Home Evening with the singles ward the next day and then I went over with Jared Perez on Tuesday for our first lesson. It was amazing! Ethan had a lot of great questions and was willing to make commitments and work to gain a testimony. I could tell he really wanted it even though he had had no spiritual experiences before in his life. On Wednesday we came back and asked him how his first prayer was. He told us that how he felt his mind become very clear as he prayed and is excited to continue to pray. The spirit was very strong so I then extended the baptism commitment to him exactly as it is found in Preach My Gospel. The spirit was very strong even though he had to decline the invitation. He told us that his parents had talked to him the night before and told him he could not join our church. Then he told us very sincerely that if it were only up to him he would be baptized. The spirit and feelings of love were very strong; I could really feel his desire to follow Christ. The Missionaries are still working with him and are hoping to meet with his parents soon!
We had a couple other great experiences that week, but I guess you'll just have to read my journal because I just don't have time.
Anyway, back to the phone call that changed everything. Many of you may be familiar with how transfers work on a mission, but basically Elder Haines and I get an email Monday Morning and it tells us where everyone in the zone is going to transfer to. The problem is that it doesn't always tell us who their new companion is so we have to do some research to figure out who is currently in the area they are going to, I hope that makes sense. So when I found out I was being transferred to the Auburn Zone, I found out that Elder Gibson and Shamo were the missionaries who were currently in that ward. I knew Elder Gibson was going home so I assumed as I told you last week that my new companion was Elder Shamo. Well the call I received was telling me that President Pendleton had decided to transfer Elder Shamo out as well and send me in with Elder Smith to restart the area. So now neither of us knew the area at all and we have to learn the entire ward, all of the investigators, and the whole zone and prepare for our new zone meeting last week. IT has been the BEST week of my entire mission!!! I talked to President and he basically told me the first week I could just vacation because he wouldn't look at our numbers anyway! Sweet!
Elder Smith and I were in the same room in the Missionary Training Center, so I already knew him quite well. But I had never even passed through Auburn before. I have only been lost twice so far, good thing for good maps right Scott. Who needs a GPS? But seriously this has been one of the most successful weeks of my mission. We have found quite a few new investigators and have been able to re-establish expectations with all of the current investigators. Kyle was one of the investigators we picked up on Thursday and we took him on a chapel tour on Saturday. I had Elder Allen with me that day on exchanges and it was a great tour with his help. At the end we committed him to be baptized and he accepted to be baptized on the 27 of February. Saturday afternoon we drove past a lady chopping wood, so we jumped out and helped her. She only had a couple of hatchets so we got plenty of blisters, but she said she would come to church and we are teaching her next week. Later that night we ran into Steve who let us teach him and then he came to church yesterday! I love being able to just completely start over in a new area. There are no traditions to bind us down, we just drive around and do what we can. Probably similar to Christ in his Earthly ministry.
Sometime I will send you a video of my new driveway. We live with the Comstocks on Vista Bella Rd and it takes ten minutes to get up their driveway! We live out in the middle of Nowhere.
Anyway, lots of good stuff, I'm still alive. Thanks for sending the pictures of the family, I loved them. I'm glad Kristie got the PMG, USE It. It is Amazing.
I love you all. Hold on and don't miss me to much. I'm having a blast!
Elder Ryan JAY Allred


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