From: Ryan Jay Allred
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 11:54 AM
To: Allred, Kevin
Subject: Three Weeks! I only have three more weeks!!!
Hello Friends!!
Can you believe it? We only have three more weeks until general conference in October!! I am pretty much more excited for this than anything; it is to missionaries like the Super Bowl is to the rest of Americans, only conference is a whole lot better. I have been listening to the talks from six months ago over the past week and I am soo grateful for them. I feel with each one as if Heavenly Father were speaking to me and I am becoming more and more familiar with his voice. I hope you are all getting ready!
I'm feeling a lot better this week physically but we did have some pretty big disappointments. We got a call on Tuesday from the Kelley family asking us to come and help them move the following day. :( They are still in Gridley but they now live a block outside of our ward boundaries so they will now be taught by the other Elders. It is actually a lot better situation for Cynthia and the two kids because they are in a more positive environment and they are very close to the church, but we sure are going to miss teaching them. Then we got a call the next day from Savina who asked to stop taking the lessons because she was afraid of what her family would think, and we have had a tough time contacting a lot of the other people we are teaching.
On the other hand, we have had some wonderful things happen especially with the ward members. Throughout my mission the majoriy of the people I have taught have come from tracting and street contacting but when I came to Gridley I felt very strongly that our success would come as we utilized the members in the area. So with the help of Brother Hamblin we have been working to organize activities such as cottage meetings and ward parties and use them as ways to find people to teach. Then this past Thursday we had a wonderful experience with many of the ward members. We had quite a few people meet at at the church then we divided them up into companionships and sent them out to visit and love some of the people we were teaching. I went out with Brother Dewsnup to teach Vick who is a lot of fun to teach. He is really smart though and so we have to pull him back on track quite a bit but the Spirit is there and it is sure working with him. At the end we all met back at the churcha nd everyone was excited and giving each other high fives because everyone had some success. It was awesome! That night, with all of their help, just about every family that we are teaching was visited and invited to church. From now on the ward has decided to try it once a month.
Last week we picked up a new investigator named Susan who we had met while she was walking her dogs. She was really hesitant to let us come visit with her but finally agreed to meet us at a school. Well she got scared and didn't show up but the next day we happened to tract into her and she let us teach her in her home. Our third lesson was this week and it was just a follow-up visit to see how her reading in the Book of Mormon was going but it turned into something amazing. As we talked with her she wondered how she would recieve her answer to prayer so we were able to help her recognize times in her past where she has felt the spirit. Then as we left we assigned her the first 12 verses in 2 Nephi:31 to read before we take her on a chaple tour this week. We also challenged her to stop after each verse and ask herself what God was trying to tell her. We decided to practice with her using the sixth verse and as she read it the spirit bore witness to her that it was true. We asked her how she felt and she could just describe it as joy. The verse taked about baptism so, seeing that she was recognizing the spirit, we challenged her to be baptized. She accepted but is still unsure so we haven't set a date yet. She is very shy so this whole week we will spend helping her to meet members so she will be comfortable at church. I am really excited for her and I think she it excited too.
Yup, that's about it for this week. I guess Jordan is home now, WELCOME HOME. I hope you all have a great week and I will write again next week.
Love YA!
Elder Ryan J Allred
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HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!
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