crash week 8/29/2011

this week i crashed about 5 times on the bike, not cool. it rained alot turning everything into smelly mud, unfortunately i crashed in every puddle i could. we found 13 new peopleto teach and pretty much dropped all the investigators that we did have and we had interviews with the pres. very exciting, it got me even more involved in the work, my companions bike broke yesterday and we had to walk the 5 miles back home it was great! Not.... thats pretty much all that happened this week, although we did find one guy that said he was ready to be baptised when he lived in the states but got deported... oops. good thing we found him though :) thats this weeks update, love you all talk to you next week!

-Elder Allen

Crazy Week-8/22/2011

OK so this week was kinda crazy,

My companion is DL so he had to go to Monterrey for a leadership conference, basically of 8 missionaries there are 3 of us with 0 responsiblity, but ne had to go to finish his visa, His name is Elder Reddish from Pocatello, tall kid with cleft pallet, its cool to know another gringo who isn´t from utah or california, anyway so it was me and Elder Santamaria from Puebla Mexico, the rest of the elders were at the conference, we just worked in the whole city for 2 days as we were the only 2 here.

Oh about a week ago i had a really bad pimple on my face or actually i thought it was a pimple... turns out it was a skin infection that you get from being too hot too long and in the sun alot, i had 15 sores on my whole body and they put my on some meds that are fixing me up real good, i still have to missive sore on my face though, its about the size of a quarter today, i´m just glad it shrunk last night :). anyway... i have realized this week just how much i have changed, before my mission when i was in church i was pretty much just another body... however. now when i´m there i really know the signifigance of it all, and i really appreciate the sacrafice the savior has done for us. i really look forward to sunday as a spiritual renovation its way cool as well, i´m still a goof as normal but when i have a responsibility i get it done better faster and while having fun :), anyway thats this week in a nut shell, oh also there is a member here named Humberto Medrano, he is a member who goes to the states every 3 or 4 days :) he told me that to send packages to his p.o. box in texas would be quicker and easier for everyone. here´s his address:

 

P.O. Box 71

Los Indios, TX 78567-0071

 

While i´m here in this area if you could send stuff to that address it would be really nice (=.

 

With Love,

Elder Allen

20 years...oops feels like 10 - 8/15/2011

OK so this week we did alot, we got work done! it was difficult to get people to church, only 2 investigatores came to church, 2 out of 16, oops, not one of them in church has a baptismal date, we have 10 people with dates and they didn´t go it was frustrating, thank you all for your Birthday wishes I feel like a kid still don´t worry, doubt i will ever get over that. i was using a bike that was uh, um forgot how to say this in english.... Prestado? oh lent! i was using a borrowed bike until i could get my own, i found one for 623 pesos about 55 bucks or something like that. I miss my other area but i´m making friends here as well, i like being on a bike alot more, you don´t waste nearly as much time traveling when your on a bike, that and my feet are not nearly as tired at the end of the day, the picture attatched is the last photo taking in my other area, the battery on my camera is dead and i need to buy another charger as i lost the one i had..... however, we are teaching lots of different types of people right now, last week we were in soriana, mexican version of walmart, and this guy came up to us and got mad at us cause my companion had talked to him in the street about a month ago, they wrote down his address and then never went by, so we went by this week, family of 5 their daughter has just had a child, their names are: javier sr.; apolinar, Maleni, Laura, and Javier jr. they are fairly interested, the parents not so much, but Laura with the baby has alot of intrest in the church, she´s 18 just had a baby 2 weeks ago and her ¨husband¨, as she calls him, is in prison in the states, he got picked up by immagration, but they aren´t married, nobody here is married it makes it difficult to baptize, as you have to be married to be baptized in the church, you just can´t be living with someone which is literally what EVERYONE does here in Rio Bravo. its frustrating, hopefully she responds well when we teach them the law of chastity, chances are that even the parents aren´t married, i´ve seen homes where 5 generations are all living in the same house and not 1 couple is married.... Anyway, this week was good, and hard at the same time. Thanks everyone for the happy birthday wishes again!

Love you all,

Elder Allen

New Area 8/8/2011

Hello Everyone,

So i now go around averywhere on a bike, the people here aren´t as used to seeing a blonde hair blue eyed man as the people in monterrey were. there have been many people ask me if i dye my hair, wear contacts or come up and pull on my arm hair to see if it really exsists :) It does don´t worry :) Haha i think its funny. I can almost see the states from here! HA Just kidding, but really i´ve seen more texas license plates here that i did while i was in texas! Its actually safer here than where i was in the city, to answer a few questions, yes i´m safe and well protected.:)

My companion is from guadajuato, a state in mexican more to the south, he´s a funny guy, Its alot more humid here than it was in Monterrey, i broke out with a rash because my skin wasn´t used to it. also its alot hotter here, somehow, i got a sunburn on my neck and back, wierd, considering i haven´t been outside without a shirt in about a year or so.

The church here is very small, we live in a small apartment above the house of the branch president, also the area is more rural, there are random farms everywhere, which i am more used to :) also at night its a little bit colder, :) that means i will actually be able to sleep! ha! the people here are also a little more humble and open, and they don´t live to work like the people in the city do, so its nicer to try and get appointments etc., for example we have to count numbers the normal number of lession taught with a member present that i had in monterrey was about 4 or 5 a week, here in one week we had 15..... its almost like vacation! just kidding, i think i will enjoy the work here, i just have to do that, work. hopefullywe see lots of success here in Monte Real.

Con Cariño,

Elder Paden Allen

transfers 8/1/2011

Friends and Familia,

This week was ok, we were going to have a baptism on saturday but he came out of the interview and said he was too nervous and wanted to wait a week, we had the font filled up and everything, i was disappointed i wouldnt be able to see him baptised but at least he still wants to do it, the next day he told us he just got super scared, which is understandable, he{s 78.. he has reason to be scared of water and lots of movement. Tomorrow i am leaving Guadalupe and Nuevo leon and i am being transfered to Rio Bravo tamulipas, border town, my companion will be Elder Cardona, hes mexican, that alone makes me happy, that means my spanish will get a ton better! Cant believe its august already, time flies when your having fun i guess. I am very nervous to leave the area i am in, its the only place in mexico i{ve stayed in for an extended period of time, but at the same time im ready for a change, i went around and said goodbye to a few members, so far its not as cool as when my other companion left, everyone cried when he left, when they say goodbyeto me they just say ok see ya later, :/ whatever haha

Anyway thats about all that happened this week.

With Love,

Elder Allen