June 14, 2010

From: Ryan Jay Allred

Sent: Monday, June 14, 2010 12:21 PM
To: Allred, Kevin
Subject: Scout Socks?

 

Dear Family!

           I know usually life is really good out here and everything is just soo exciting and AWESOME!  But I'm afraid I have some bad news.  This may be hard for some of you but I think Jennifer will take it particularly hard.  So take a deep breadth here it is.....I don't think I have any scout socks. :)  Actually I may have one or two pair packed away in my bigger box, but they probably have holes in them and I just kept them so I could hang them on the wall to remember how hard I worked in scouting.  So sorry about the bad news, I just thought you'd like to know.

           Other than that though this week was amazing.  I've got some good stories but I don;t think I'll have time to go through all of them.   The week started out with a great lesson with Ben  and Chandra who have now been coming to church every week for about 5 months.  They are doing very well:  Chandra who has been a life long member has been as if she had never left, and Ben expressed to me how he loves feeling the spirit at all of our meetings.  He even refers to the church as his church now with us and his friends.   I would really love for you guys to meet them, they are doing soo good.

       Then we drove out to the middle of Nowhere in Penn Valley where Elder Groberg dropped me off so I could go on a 48 hour exchange with Elder Kohagen who is serving out there.   That was interesting because although we are used to doing two or three exchanges a week with other Elders they normally only last 24 hours.   It was a lot of fun though and we were blessed with a lot
of success on those two days.  One of the neat things happened while we were talking to people down town.  We were crossing a street going  one direction and I noticed someone coming towards us going the other direction.  I really wanted to talk to him but I didn't want to do it in the middle of the road.  So we ended up just saying hi as we passed and we reached our side of the curb before he reached his.  I had a strong impulse to turn and say something to him but I had no idea what I would say so I just turned and opened my mouth.  I was pretty surprised when all I said was "Hey! Come back here!" and he turned around and walked back to talk to us.  Well surprise surprise it turns out he was interested and we were able to teach him a lesson and give him a copy of the Book of Mormon!   I had a lot of fun serving with Elder Kohagen, maybe it was just because i finally was with someone who plays soccer.  But it was great!!  After talking to people for a while we got back in the car and drove past a buss stop where we noticed some of the people we had talked to reading the material we had given them.  Life just doesn't get much better.

        We had zone conference up in Gridley this week and that was a neat experience.  I really wish you all could go to those because I just feel soo excited about life while I am there.  If we could always have the spirit with us like we do at zone conference not much would be able to pull us down.  It was cool because they brought in actuall investigators for us to practice our teaching skills on and make it more real.  Plus it is a neat experience for those who come.  During one of the practice sessions I notices Elder Haines (One of my former companions)  getting really excited on the other side of the gym.  It turns out one of the ladies being taught by the missionaries had pulled out some pictures of her children and it was a family Elder Haines and I had worked with in Rocklin.  Crazy.  It is a small world!

         To make it even better a couple of Elder came up to me at the end of the meeting and told me they had someone for me to meet.  It was Garrett Tharp who was baptized while I was with Elder Haines and he had moved up to one of the Yuba/Gridley wards.  We got to talk for a while and he is planning on coming to BYU-Idaho sometime soon, we may get to be roommates or something cool like that.  You all would love him.  But he also got to meet Elder Russel M. Nelson last month and he has been thinking a lot about going on a mission since then.  He would make the best missionary!  When he was preparing to be baptized, instead of us teaching him the lessons, he taught them all to us because he knew them so well and he testimony rocks!  He has had some great experiences that have shaped his life.  I love him!  It was great to see him, it had been almost 7 months.

       Well I am glad to hear that the priest quorum is studying Preach My Gospel so much.  It is a great manual.  Scott had asked me some questions about it so I'll include some of the things i told him about it because there have been a lot of changes in the Mission world lately. "So yeah things are changing up quite a bit out here.  I wouldn't say that they are moving away from PMG at all,  I'd say they are bringing us closer to it trying to make us PMG missionaries.  They are encouraging us to use the set lessons a lot less though and are encouraging us to create lesson plans according to the needs of those we teach.  Within the coming months they will no longer be teacher the missionaries in the MTC any of the lessons.  They will instead focus on helping the missionaries learn mostly how to receive revelation for themselves, then the last part they will learn how to teach others to receive revelation.

     They lessons I have been teaching have been a lot different lately.  We most try to help everyone find their own answers to any questions they may have through prayer, reading the Book of Mormon, and coming to church.  He has been fun to see people receive their own guidance and it has really helped me be a lot closer to the spirit as well.  for example last week we had a less active family ask us if we could teach them something that would help them find comfort during the trials that they are facing right now.  Instead of teaching them we showed them how to use the topical guide and let them teach us what they learned the next time we came around.  Sort of like Elder Bednar talked about last conference when he talked about teaching people how to fish rather than fishing for them.

           So no they are not moving away from PMG, they just want us to be guided by the spirit which is really what PMG has said the whole time.  As I have studied it on of the most important pgs to me has been on pg 133 where President Monson talks about the language of the spirit.   It comes to those who strive with all their hearts to know God (1 John 4:10-13) and keep his commandments.  So those have been my two main priorities, loving others and obeying the rules.   It is cool because it feels like they are trying to get it back to how it was in Joseph Smith's time where the missionaries really didn't have an agenda, they just went by the spirit."
        Anyway i love you all.  I hope you have a great Week!

Elder Ryan J 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.

 

June 21, 2010

 

From: Ryan Jay Allred

Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 12:58 PM
To: Allred, Kevin
Subject: Life is all about people!

 

July 21, 2010

Hello everyone!!

            I’m glad to hear everything back at home is going well.    Every time I see Sister Pendleton (my mission president’s wife) she asked how you all are doing and when I tell her she assures me that all of your happiness comes as direct effect of me being on a mission.  So you’re welcome.  J   But seriously it is good to hear about spiritual experiences you are having.  Those are really what bring us happiness.  As I study the talks from this past general conference I am finding a theme where the speakers are encouraging us to strengthen our faith.  Whether it is through strengthening our families or personally coming closer to Christ, faith brings hope that will lead to lasting peace.  There is no need to wait for the next life for that.   As you look throughout all of history you see that when people are happy it is not because of wealth or circumstances, it is because of faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ.

            And that reminds me of something I wanted to check up on.  In Conference Elder Richard G. Scott challenged each of us to create a study plan specifically to increase our understanding of the atonement.  Do you remember that?   Well if you haven’t started yet that is alright because it is going to take a while to do anyway.  Elder Groberg and I feel very strongly that if all the members of the church will follow this counsel the church will be strengthened from the inside and we will be able to reach President Hinckley’s challenge to double convert baptisms.  Preach My Gospel tells us on pg 2 that “As your understanding of the atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase.  You will feel, as Lehi did, the great importance to make these things known unto all the inhabitants of the earth.  President Ezra Taft Benson taught:  We are commanded by God to take this gospel to all the world.  That is the cause that must unite us today. Only the gospel will save the world from the calamity of its own self-destruction.  Only the gospel will unite men of all races and nationalities in peace.  Only the gospel will bring joy, happiness, and salvation to the human family.”

            So give it a try, remember the worth of a soul and the joy that comes from bringing souls to Christ.   I started by getting a list of talks about the atonement by latter day prophets and by combining the gospels in the bible to get a better picture of the events in the Saviors atonement.  Already in the past months my testimony has grown a lot.  I know yours will too along with your desire and ability to share the blessings of the atonement with others.

            As far as cool events in the past week here are just a few:  I think I told you about the guy who printed off 50 questions to ask missionaries when we went to teach him a few weeks ago.  Well we took his list and wrote down our answers to every one of them that way we wouldn’t have to worry about him trying to argue with is, he would just be able to read our responses.  He loved our answers and we were able to teach him again this week and help him understand the importance of the Book of Mormon.  We were also looking through our records and found out that his mother had been baptized while she was living in the home where he now lives.  We are excited for him because now he is being completely sincere and Heavenly Father leads all sincere seekers to truth.

            We also had a sweet lesson with a less-active family we have been working with and felt that we kneel with them and have them pray about the Book of Mormon.    They are a hard family to teach because of the little kids running all over the place but as the mother offered a kneeling prayer complete peace entered the room.  They all were able to recognize their answers to prayer the quiet feelings of the Holy Ghost.  It is a wonderful blessing to be able to be with people as they receive guidance from their Father in Heaven.

            So we had a great week with a lot of lessons and some fun tracting going on.   Tommy is still planning on getting baptized sometime in the near future and Benjamin is still coming a lot closer.  I feel completely at home in this ward, it is going to be hard to leave when I do.

            I hope you all have a great summer!!

Love YA!

Elder Ryan Jay Allred

--
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!

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.