Tuesday, December 28, 2010

December 28, 2010

Thanks for the message! Tell Daron thanks! The food is always the same. Yes i got the package, thanks for the super awesome chicken, I'm pretty sure my district has fallen in love with how annoying it is! HAHA but the pajama pants were nice to get since i forgot lounge pants, and the jerky was gone in 1 day. The Mtc Continues to treat me well, and dad you were right when you said they load the food full of stuff to keep you plumbed right! Anyway Christmas was Awesome! We had a Christmas eve devotional with the MTC presidents, they are leaving in 1 1/2 weeks, and we're getting new ones. Christmas day and for Sunday as well we had Elder Russel M. Nelson here He gave speeches on lots of deep doctrine concerning the names and origins of words and significance of others in the Christmas story on Saturday and the Abrahamic covenant, in priesthood on Sunday. Christmas day we also had a play from the Christmas carol. the classical Scrouge story, Elder Nelson stayed with us for that too. He was only on assignment for the first devotional and decided to stay with us for a while of his own accord.    The work continues to get harder although the time seems to fly by at an attroctiously slow rate, The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. My companion and i spent a day in a trio with an elder that moved into our district from a beginner district, he was too good for them. he's from salt lake, but we were happy when another elder was transferred into our district immediately afterwards so we have 2 new elders. The trio elder is also going to the monterrey east mission. so that will be cool. I seem to have become something of a big brother to lots of the elders here, they come to me for advice and with many different questions. Its interesting though. Also my companion and I are the companionship in the district all the 'cool' missionaries hate. we keep all the rules, no matter how stupid they are and we spend lots of time doing what we're supposed to so we met almost all our goals this week, we taught a lesson a day, memorized 4/5 scriptures, spoke less than our allotted amount of English, and we had 1 TRC appointment when we were signed up for a grand total of 0. and we also did 5/5 pmg companionship activities, this is all in Spanish btw, We've memorized Santiago 1:5, Efe 1:10, Amos 3:7, 1 Nefi 3:7 and we started on 1 Nefi 31:5 but didn't finish it. we also memorized our purpose (found on page one of pmg) and this week we are working on section 4 in the D&C and also the first vision. My companion and I taught a couple different sets of missionaries from different districts, and a couple of teachers playing as investigators in the trc. (Teacher Referral Center) its where we go to get feed back on our lessons, in form or another, we got compliments on out organization and planning for the lessons each time, however we haven't spend 1 second organizing or planning any of our lecciones. We are speaking only Spanish now except for P-day, Sunday, Gym time and after 9:45 at night. We stay super busy here, you have no free time, and if you do you're doing something wrong. Cause you can always study the language or read the scriptures sometimes both.  I'm loving it here.  the Mexican consolate has taken a vacation until mid-January, so chances of getting my visa on time are not good. but they also aren't being as stingy as they have been in the past, anyway my laundry needs to be moved and i am almost out of time! Give My Love to the Family.
 
Sincerely,
Elder Allen
 
(p.s. the dear elders are wonderful, i strongly recommend it, mail makes a missionaries day :] )


PART 2:
Also i need you to send me : the v neck sweater dillon borrowed, my priesthood line of authority, the newest family photo (5X7 and wallet sized), and one of my mission pictures (wallet size) and anything else you want to throw in  :) btw tell dillon to expect a package!!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Clarification

Just in case some of you are wondering, Shelly (me-Elder Allen's Mom) is posting on this blog.  I copy and paste the emails he sends to us onto the blog.  All your comments will be forwarded.  You can also write Elder Allen directly with the address provided via USPS or at www.dearelder.com  . 

No Phone Call

No phone call from the MTC.  When you think about it, it would be very hard to have all those Missionaries call home in one day...

Elder Allen wrote down his address before he left home.  There was no MTC Box Number in his address.  I have asked him about it and he will tell me on his next email home. 

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Address

While Elder Allen is in the MTC this is his address:

Elder Paden W Allen
Mexico Monterrey East Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 North 900 East
Provo, UT  84604  USA

Check out www.dearelder.com you should be able to send him a letter for free.  I will post his other addresses as they are needed.  Christmas packages had to be to the MTC today, so if you mail something he will probably get it around the 27th.  The MTC closed their mail room for packages due to the overwhelming amounts of them.  :)

Call if you have questions. 

First week gone already!

My P-days are on Tuesday so i will be able e-mail on tuesdays only. Also I only have 30 minutes, and yes there is a red timer ticking in the top right corner right now so if this gets cut short I am sorry, However This week has gone by super fast! they say that the first week is the longest, if thats true then i'll be home in no time at all haha. My district is all destined for different places in mexico, except my companion who is going to bolivia. Our district leader Elder Burdett, he is also going to Mon. East. and our whole district is super tight knit already, we do litterally everything together. The Language isn't going to be as hard as i thought, we started yesterday with only spanish, and both of our teachers are native speakers, one from edcuador, the other from guatelama. So when i get to mexico it really will be the language i learned when i get off the plane. I can understand about 90% of what is said. Friday we had a very spiritual expirience. It was our first time meeting the teacher from guatemala His name is hermano De Leon, we given the assignment to ask him questions, with out being to prying, and find someway we could help him and find something to teach him about based off of the answers to those questions, we had 10 minutes. Near the end of those 10 minutes, someone asked a question that opened him up and he told us that he didn't feel like he had the spirit with him as often as he used to. he also said he thinks he is ready to be a father but doesn't know if the time is right or if he will be a good father to his children. I had a very good feeling come over me and I had President Irings talk, "hand of the Lord expiriences" pop into my head. right after he finished telling us those things I asked If he kept a journal, Every one was shocked cause it was very off topic. After the silent moment in which he stared at me he said that he had one but hadn't written in it in months. after that we were given 10 minutes to coordinate our thoughts and prepare a 10 minute lesson for him. We taught him for 25 minutes, in which time we challenged him to keep a normal journal, and to start a second Journal for his spiritual thoughts and expiriences, maybe that would help him see that he does have the spirit in his life and maybe one day be a strength to his children, we also discovered he was only having prayer and scripture study with his wife; so we challenged him to do that personally to, and i taught him the principle of a prayer rock. we also challenge him to take a minute and listen to the spirit when he finished with his personal prayers, we answered his questions and Closed with me, my companion (Elder Aleman) and Elder Da Silva, (elder Burdett's companion He is native brazilian but moved here when he was young.) bearing our testimonies. It was such a powerful expirience, and we were all amazed because we had been there 2 and 1/2 days and we were teaching and answering question about the gospel to our teacher, i know that we are Ministers of God and that we have special abilities as such that help us know how to help people through the spirit. :) Anyway The other two elders are Elder Anderson, or orem on his way to guadalajara, and Elder Atkinson, A very hilarious apostate elder from Logan, he is haveing a hard time but we are all helping him (he's never worked a day in his life) and he is headed to tiajuana. We're a small district but we all are getting along very well so far, so its very nice. My Companion is half mexican and half el salvadorian who was was born in california and speaks about as much spanish as me so its nice and he is kinda like Braiden Salter, only not as quiet.
Anyway, thats all i wanted to share this week and my time is almost up so I gotta go. Until Next week... Adios.
-Elder Allen

First Email! December 15, 2010

Hola de the MTC!! The first day has been awesome! extremely tired because i have been up since 4 AM, but i am very excited to do the Lord's work, the spirit of this place is amazing! My companion in the MTC is Elder Aleman, and he is from Arizona destined for Bolivia, There is one other elder in my district is also going to the Monterrey Mexico east mission. I I can feel the greatness of the power of this place working on me my mind is already changing!
Con Amor,
-Elder Allen

Monday, December 6, 2010

The Countdown

Well after 4 months, Paden will be leaving in 9 days.  Farewell is this Sunday.  He is excited and so are we.

Th Countdown

Well after 4 months, Paden will be leaving in 9 days.  Farewell is this Sunday.  He is excited and so are we.

Friday, August 6, 2010

The Call

So after only 2 weeks and 2 days of waiting, Paden's mission call came on the day he said to expect it.

"You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You are assigned to labor in the Mexico Monterrey East Mission....You should report to the Provo MTC on Wednesday, December 15, 2010."

We are guessing that it will take a while to obtain a visa, so Paden will continue to work and prepare until then.  I will post all news and then after the 15th of December, all communication.

Elder Allen and his family are very excited.