From: Ryan Jay Allred
Sent: Monday, June 07, 2010 1:10 PM
To: Allred, Kevin
Subject: The Power of Prayer
June 7, 2010
Dear Everyone!!
Wow I am getting invited to weddings left and right out here: Jason Aaron Allred, Steven Bassett, Jason Morgan Allred. Wait! I haven’t been invited to that one yet! But I guess that’s alright because I just checked my calendar and I think I’m booked somewhere else on that day. Sorry about that, I guess you’ll have to pick someone else to be your most honored guest. Unless you just carry around a full-size picture of me but I’m afraid I wouldn’t be much company that way.
So Schools out right!! Cool stuff, life is moving upward and onward. It is soo amazing to see all the things that are happening. I got a sweet letter from my amazing Mother that makes it sound like the whole family is progressing very well. If we just keep this up we’ll be progressing our way into eternity in no time! It’s neat to see Scott and Lorinda having a baby that is basically six months old, Jason and Trissa who basically embarrass the entire family in the middle of a restaurant (I wish I could have seen that it sounded hilarious), Kristie Graduating from High School and becoming a famous vocalist like she always told us she would when she was younger and getting a laptop just so she could email me more oftenJ, Jennifer becoming the fashion queen and DATING, Crazy, then Sheresa is already in High School and taking a college photography class, and Sarah roasting marshmallows and already playing hymns on the piano. Sweet!!
Well I have had a pretty fun week out here too. It has been especially fun for me to look back and see how much y testimony of prayer has grown in just a few days. Something like this happens every time I want a stronger testimony of something and that is the cool thing about prayer. We have had a lot of opportunities to kneel and pray with other missionaries and investigators to receive personal revelation about the Book of Mormon and two particular experiences really stick out to me right now.
Last Thursday I was out with a missionary working his area for the day. We had decided that we really wanted to find someone new for them to teach so we prayed over which people we should visit. Our first visit of the day was about a 10 minute bike ride down the road to meet a man named Matt. The missionaries had met him about a month ago and then they lost contact with him and we felt good about visiting him. We got there and guess what!! That’s right, he wasn’t home. So we figured that there must have been reason why we had been prompted to ride out there when all of our other lessons were in the other direction so we stopped and asked Heavenly Father if there was anything else He wanted us to do while we were there. During the prayer I had and images come to mind pointing me around a fence and into the neighbor’s front yard. We were a little hesitant to go there because they had already talked to him and he wasn’t interested but we felt good about it and went to try him again. We walked down to his driveway to talk to him and Guess what!! Yup, he still wasn’t interested. But we felt like we had done what we had been asked to do and we felt good about ourselves so we walked back up to Matt’s where we had left our bikes. Just as we got back into his yard Matt pulled up alongside us!! We ended up teaching him for about an hour and helping him to pray about the Book of Mormon. I have never had anyone who was soo excited to find out that Christ visited the Americas. We were very grateful for prayer that day, without it we would have completely missed him.
Then on Saturday I was with another missionary walking down a side street when we noticed two guys sitting out on the grass and we stopped to talk to them. They seemed interested and we asked them when they would like to meet and they suggested right then so we sat down with them. We felt that the first thing they needed was to know that they could communicate with Heavenly Father but neither of them had ever prayed before. They were both nervous but excited to try it and we were able to coach them both through their first prayers! Both were simple open and honest. And after they asked if they were only allowed one prayer a day! I love seeing that enthusiasm.
So anyways, I have definitely seen a lot for help in my personal struggles this week because of prayer. I know Heavenly Father can and will answer our prayers and we can use it as a great way to raise our thoughts a little closer to His. Give it a try, you’ll love it too and you can even go study it in the Bible Dictionary if you want the extra punch. Or you could fast (prayer on steroids!)
Benjamin came to church again by the way and we are very excited for him!! The work is moving forward, I love it!
And I love you all too have a great week.
Elder Ryan J Allred
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HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!
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