5/31/2011

Ok so to first adress a few of the things that i got in family e-mails. Jacob and every other youth in the valley will continue to hug the edge of the road as long as the teacher remains, unfortunately we learn lots of bad habits when we should  learn good ones. Also I have recieved a few e-mails where expiriences with jehova´s witnesses have been mentioned... You all have NO IDEA! i wish i could have talked to the missionary that came to the house and talked with grandma, they are good people and do what they think is right but unfortunately they are very lost. They don´t even believe that christ was resurected. They also try to tell us we are neglecting tons of commandments, which are either already completed with the sacrifice of Christ or are not done publicly, they gather lots of knowledge, but with out the holy ghost to dictate truth from falsities they get confused very quickly, and if they don´t get the chance to listen in this life well hopefully they do in the next, i don´t doubt it, they´re good people for the most part. Actually last night i talked with a taxi driver who is a missionary for the Jehova witness church (i don´t know exactly what their name is in english) it was a very civilized conversation, whereas normally, testigos will jump down your throat and not give you a chance to talk, but we had the oportunity to listen to what he was sharing with the people, and his desires are very similar to ours, he then listened intently as we shared the story of Joseph Smith. It was a good expirience, many missionaries are rude with testigos, i´ve always tried my hardest to be as nice as possible and i´m starting to see that its working, the witness missionaries that walk in our part of monterrey now start to smile and wave when they see us, where before they werent the friendliest people. I want to help them so that their labors are valid after this life, right now their desires are wonderful, but they are  just lost.anyway, hold on a second while i hop down off my soap box...

Ok so this week we accomplished almost nothing, my companion got two of his wisdom teeth out, so we stayed in the house cause he couldn´t go out in the heat. We changed houses this week before he got them out, so we set up the house the first half of the first day, then the land lord came over with paint, so we moved everything and painted the house. it looks tonz better. we also have air conditioning now :) :) :) :) its AMAZING. I forgot what it was like to be in an air conditioned room. we did have a baptism this week which was awesome, the guy is from texas and naturally speaks englsh a bit better than spanish so we got to teach him in spanglish. it was cool to see him progress and make the necessary changes in his life. he about killed hermano Lozano (who baptised him) because he is very scared of water, after he went under he reached up and started flailing his fists, but he´s the happiest guy i´ve ever seen, (even though he´s convinced he almost drowned.

Anyway, thats all for this week ttyal. Love you all!

-Elder PadenAllen

5/23/2011

Ok first off no reactions etc to the ant bites, i had zit looking things for about a day but after i popped them they were gone i don´t have a mark on me.

My companion and I get alon great, alot better than i got along with my other companion. I can actually be myself with out making my comp. mad. which is awesome. I was with my new companion during the expirience last sunday. This week sucked. we didn´t get a whole lot of teaching in. we couldn´t find anyone new to teach. bt we were working on one side of the area, but we couldn´t find anybody whatsoever. everytime we switched over to the other side we found someone new who actually really had some interest in our message. it was really cool. we are now going to focus in the other half of the area. the side i don´t know very well because we never go there. its a little more sketchy, which means there are more drunk guys... lol. anyway. We should be having more success there. My companion has to go to the dentist this thursday to get his wisdom teeth removed. don´t know hy he still has them but whatever ha! Thats pretty much all thats new here Love you all!

 

-Elder Paden W Allen

5/16/2011

Paden had a week last week where he felt the power of the adversary.  It is to personal to share with the world.  To paraphrase, one of the new converts is truly an asset to the gospel and Satan doesn't want to loose him.  Paden is ok and he is doing well.  I have attached his testimony.  Shelly



This expirience has really affirmed in my mind the power of the adversary, it also was yet another testimony to me of the power of God. It wasn´t as exciting to be attack by an evil spirit as i thought it would be (movies lie) it was after all only ants, but still, it made me realize satan does have power in this world and that salvation is nothing to mess around with. It also helped me to understand that even though the devil has the power to make ants attack me he has nothing in comparison to god, who has the power over everything. I know that i´m supposed to be here otherwise the adversary wouldn´t have tried to drive me away as he did, i know the power of God is real and that if we are doing as we are supposed to we will be ok in the life and in the next. I Love you all, until next week:

Elder Allen

P.S. Remember to say your prayers.

5/9/2011

OK so those of you who don´t already know the story the guy my companion got angry at came to the baptism we had this sunday, he told us he wants to be baptised. Wow, what a miracle, from anti-mormon to baptize me in 2 months and with no help from us whatsoever, he has to quit smoking however. We also baptized the last member of the Aguilar Luévanos family, his name is Carlos Ivan, and he´s 16. but that means if they do everything lke they are supposed to i will be able to see them sealed in the temple a little over a year from now, his friend Fransisco baptized him. Also tomorrow is transfers I will be getting a new companion, Elder Bertels from California, usual a white guy here only has an average of one other white companion and i have never had anything else, its a little bit wierd but whatever.  I think thats pretty much it for this week, we did lots of knocking and sweating, thats always my favorite. It was good to talk to everyone in the fam. Congrats to Devin and katy, (I´m trusting mom to fix any spelling errors on names btw... lol) Also i promised mom i would describe the real situation down here, I´ve never seen anything, but its not uncommon to hear sirens or see a helicoptor buzzing really low. However the Lord protects his servants and something out of the ordinary has happened to put us out of harms way every time something would have happened, someone wasn´t home, we decide to go a different way, someone tlks to us on the street and delays us etc. but we are well protected here Love you all :) Talk to you next week.

 

-Elder Allen

5/2/2011

OK so this week was cool, mom, before i forget i need the tres leches recipe you hve there is a lady in the ward here that would like to know how to do it also the information for phone calls is at the end of this letter. You´ll need a phone card.

We are in the preocess of changing our house, we are moving into a brand new one that is always cool because it has air conditioning HAHA thats not common for missionaries houses here. and guess how hot it was this week. yeah 116.5 degrees on tuesday. woot.. but right now its about 50.... don´t ask me its just as wierd as utah/Idaho weather here, it just involves alot more hot sun.... although the humidity keeps you from frying like you do there where its super dry. i´ve not touched my sunscreen and haven´t had a single problem. anyway, the house its 3 rooms and pretty much whatever else we want the guy didn´t even want to charge us rent he was just going to give the house to us. its way nice in comparison to what we have now. the guy´s name is Efraín and he´s an investigator. he tried to give us his car and offered us his housemaid to clean the house every 2 days as well... wow! he´s a way cool guy, he told us if anyone else wanted it then of course he wouldn´t do it, but for us, he´d give us the shirt off his own back, which is really cool, we had to talk him into letting us pay lol.

Anyway, we had 3 Baptisms this week, Mario Eduardo Selatiel Salazar Gámez, (13), Eusebio de Jésus Aguilar Luévanos (23), and Alan Daniel Aguilar Luévanos (13) 2 of the sons of Antolín the last one will be baptised next week :) he is the tall one in the blue shirt. This week way way cool. Daniela has trouble with her family but we fasted to have her family´s hearts softened about a month ago and this week her sister and brother in law told her they would support her in her desicion to be baptised, we just have to get her mom to let her go to church... she´s 23 she should be able to but still lives with her mom so.....

ok the information for the phone calls is:

Sunday the 8th,

You will call me at 5:00 PM your time the number is:  (I left this off-Shelly)

Love you all!

Elder Allen