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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Monday, January 25, 2010
January 18, 2010
Ryan's Letter:
Subject: It will all work out in the end; if it didn't work out, it's not the end yet!
Beloved Family and Reader!
NOOOOO! Well after two wards and 12 months well spent in the Rocklin Stake, I guess the Lord sees fit to move me on. I got the e-mail this morning and it sort of felt like I was reading an eviction notice. I have 24 hours to be packed and on the road. So I am finally being transferred. I'm going to Auburn!!! Not like that means anything to any of you but aside from wanting to throw a tantrum because I have to leave Sister Moss I am really Excited! I'm also pretty nervous though. I have been out for over a year but this feels like my first transfer because I have no clue what Auburn is like even though it is only ten minutes away. Every other transfer I have had has been to an area I already knew pretty well. My new companion is Elder Shamo and I now nothing about him yet. I have seen him quite a bit in meetings so I know a little about his personality but that's all. This will be great.
Well we had one of the sweetest miracles last Monday so I hope you are excited for it. It may not mean as much to you because you had to experience the full two months experience to really appreciate it but humor me anyway. So, last Monday, we set a goal to do all of our emailing and shopping before noon so we could take a good four hour nap on our preparation day afternoon. We were actually pretty excited about it and had planned it for quite a while. However, nothing went right that day, at least not the way we had planned it. First the computers were really slow and we didn't finish our reports until almost noon. Then we had to rush to Roseville's Wal-Mart so he could take five minutes to make a picture CD. Oh, did I say five minutes, try and hour and a half! It only took him five minutes to load the pictures onto the computer and push copy, but it seriously took over an hour for the computer to copy them onto the cd.
By the time we got out of the store we realized that our perfect P-day had been shot, but we still had hopes for at least a little relaxation time. Elder Haines decided not to go to the post office to mail the cd home because he was pretty frustrated with it also we went to pick up our dry-cleaning. On our way home it was already about 3 p.m. but we happened to past the post office and Elder Haines made the quick decision to stop in and mail the cd because he remembered his mom was making some sort of album this week. So another thirty minutes wasted standing in line, or was it? Just two minutes after we found our position in line I turned around and saw the surprise of my life. Standing right behind us in line was Stacia Lenz! Again this may not mean very much to you, you were probably expecting me to say it was the prophet or something, but to me this was soo much better. The Lenz family is the most amazing family in the world! I am pretty sure my last emails have talked about them but just a quick run through... We tracted in to them almost 2 months ago and just felt soo good about them. Even though they denied our initial invitation to be taught we have put a lot of time , prayers, and fasting into working with them. Finally a week and a half ago we got into their home for the first time but they wouldn't let us set up another appointment. Then after all of the catastrophes on Monday morning we just happen to be placed right next to her in the post office for the ten minutes that she is in there for the day. Coincidence? I think not. I was so excited to talk to her!! And she finally agreed to let us set up an appointment. But I guess the sad news is that I am being transferred and will never get to teach them. But it was Amazing anyway.
Other than that we had a great week and were able to hit most of our gaols. LIfe is great and the church is True!
Hurrah for Israel!!
Love Elder "Feels like He's leaving home again" Allred
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
Subject: It will all work out in the end; if it didn't work out, it's not the end yet!
Beloved Family and Reader!
NOOOOO! Well after two wards and 12 months well spent in the Rocklin Stake, I guess the Lord sees fit to move me on. I got the e-mail this morning and it sort of felt like I was reading an eviction notice. I have 24 hours to be packed and on the road. So I am finally being transferred. I'm going to Auburn!!! Not like that means anything to any of you but aside from wanting to throw a tantrum because I have to leave Sister Moss I am really Excited! I'm also pretty nervous though. I have been out for over a year but this feels like my first transfer because I have no clue what Auburn is like even though it is only ten minutes away. Every other transfer I have had has been to an area I already knew pretty well. My new companion is Elder Shamo and I now nothing about him yet. I have seen him quite a bit in meetings so I know a little about his personality but that's all. This will be great.
Well we had one of the sweetest miracles last Monday so I hope you are excited for it. It may not mean as much to you because you had to experience the full two months experience to really appreciate it but humor me anyway. So, last Monday, we set a goal to do all of our emailing and shopping before noon so we could take a good four hour nap on our preparation day afternoon. We were actually pretty excited about it and had planned it for quite a while. However, nothing went right that day, at least not the way we had planned it. First the computers were really slow and we didn't finish our reports until almost noon. Then we had to rush to Roseville's Wal-Mart so he could take five minutes to make a picture CD. Oh, did I say five minutes, try and hour and a half! It only took him five minutes to load the pictures onto the computer and push copy, but it seriously took over an hour for the computer to copy them onto the cd.
By the time we got out of the store we realized that our perfect P-day had been shot, but we still had hopes for at least a little relaxation time. Elder Haines decided not to go to the post office to mail the cd home because he was pretty frustrated with it also we went to pick up our dry-cleaning. On our way home it was already about 3 p.m. but we happened to past the post office and Elder Haines made the quick decision to stop in and mail the cd because he remembered his mom was making some sort of album this week. So another thirty minutes wasted standing in line, or was it? Just two minutes after we found our position in line I turned around and saw the surprise of my life. Standing right behind us in line was Stacia Lenz! Again this may not mean very much to you, you were probably expecting me to say it was the prophet or something, but to me this was soo much better. The Lenz family is the most amazing family in the world! I am pretty sure my last emails have talked about them but just a quick run through... We tracted in to them almost 2 months ago and just felt soo good about them. Even though they denied our initial invitation to be taught we have put a lot of time , prayers, and fasting into working with them. Finally a week and a half ago we got into their home for the first time but they wouldn't let us set up another appointment. Then after all of the catastrophes on Monday morning we just happen to be placed right next to her in the post office for the ten minutes that she is in there for the day. Coincidence? I think not. I was so excited to talk to her!! And she finally agreed to let us set up an appointment. But I guess the sad news is that I am being transferred and will never get to teach them. But it was Amazing anyway.
Other than that we had a great week and were able to hit most of our gaols. LIfe is great and the church is True!
Hurrah for Israel!!
Love Elder "Feels like He's leaving home again" Allred
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
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