Week of Miracles 11/28/2011

This week was a miracle,

Lots of things happened this week that made it a miracle. We fought with colds and finding new investigators the first half of the week, we didnt think it was going to be a good week. But we endured, knocking on door after door when it was necessary. But we did get a chance to visit veronica´s father, we listened to him talk and we gave him advice in his life for about 2 hours, we left and felt very good about it all. Veronica came to church this week, :) Her Dad finally let her,we just had to introduce ourselves formallly with him. We also had a lesson with Veronica and her sister Judith this last Saturday, However we arent allowed to teach sisters alone, we have to have a male with us 18 years and older, it doesnt matter who just a third member, so we took Maudiel with us, an Investigator that lives about 7 blocks from Veronica. Judith has a bad habit of attacking us with questions and picking apart our religion, looking for something wrong in any little thing she can find. We listened for 20 minutes while Judith asked a question and Maudiel answered, defending the Church and our beliefs for us. Judith was suprised to learn that Maudiel isnt even a member yet but has known us for the exact amount of time she had. after Judith was calmed down we invited Veroinca to be baptised and she accepted, the hardest part with that will be getting her Dad to sign the paper as she is only 17 and can´t sign her own paper yet. Also yesterday, we were eating Dinner when i got a Text from Martha, an Investigator that can be Baptised tomorrow if she wants. it said ´´Brothers,(thats what everyone calls us if they dont know to call us Elders.) Can you come to the house I need to talk to you. -Martha´´ Antonio, her husband, who might be a member but we arent sure yet as he has no records, was very bitter against God because his work sent him on Vacations for 2 weeks and he doesnt know if he´ll have a Job when he comes back. I shared wiht him 3 Nephi 13: 31-33 and other advise as well. He will be looking for work these 2 weeks and if he keeps his Job, well thats great, but if he doesnt at least he´ll have a head start. but we were able to help them when they were super upset and it felt good to do so. Thanks giving day I didnt even remember it was thanksgiving until we got home and there was a note on the door to go downstairs and talk to the Bishop (who lives below us) he suprised us with a turkey dinner :) It was great. being close to the border a few people celebrate Thanksgiving but as it is an American Holiday the Majority of the people dont celebrate it. This sunday we had 14 investigators come to church 10 of which showed up all by themselves. we had the Baptism of David and Brandon Luna Gloria who are 2 of the sons of the sister that we baptised 2 weeks ago. It was super spiritual. Also those of you that dont speak Spanish the picture of the sign says ´Dont Drive with Hunger.´ its an advertisement in front of a snack shop. Maudiel is progressing beautifully and has expressed the desire to serve a mission after being baptised, and he will be a great missionary!!! The picture with the family in front of the Christmas tree is Martha Antonio and their kids Gabriela and Nayelle. This week was awesome, it required diligence but we were blessed  in the end :)

With Love,
--

-Elder Paden W Allen

Mosiah 4:30 & 5:5

Working to make the world a better place, one door at a time.

Noche Mexica-ha-ha-ha-na!!!! 11/21/11

Dear family and friends,

This week was what i would describe as wicked sweet, although those probably arent the adjecives most effective to be used when talking about the Lord´s work. We had a mexican Night, or a Fiesta as we would call it there, it was in the stake center and we were told to invite all of our investigators to go and enjoy. So we did and we also invited the members to invite theirs friends.. to make a long story short we had 19 investigators show up. If we had music and tacos in sacrament meeting there would be no problem getting people to come to church :) however we also had 10 people come to sacrament meeting :) oh yeah it was SICK! another adjective that really doenst make sense when used in that way, but hey! whatever :) I included a picture of me and three investigators, Veronica, Javier and Maudiel. Veronica is progressing nicely, only she cant come to church yet cause her dad wont let her. Javier and Maudiel want to be missionaries after getting baptised. :) its way cool. Maudiel even asked us if he could come with us on a few visits even if he isnt a member yet :) we didnt have a baptism this week becuse David, the young man who had a baptismal date, feels like he hasnt recieved an answer yet, but hes still interested. Things are going very well here in Nuevo Laredo, calm and peaceful, full of work and good tidings.

Love you all,

Elder Paden W Allen

Excellent Week

Buenas tardes todos amigos y familiares,

So, this week was an absolute killer; seems like yesterday i was sitting in another cyber writing last weeks email. things have progressed rapidly, we have a baptism planned this week and 3 more the week that follows. the blessings of unity in the companionship, exact obedience, and hard work are coming to pass... as promised. :) we had an awesome expirience this week as it sucked really bad untill about friday. We couldnt find any new people all week untill we went in splitz with a couple brothers from the ward. i went with Javier, who is leaving in december to serve a mission in the Dominican Republic, and my companion went with his older brother Isreal who goes to Puerto Rico the same day. My companion found everyone we had been looking for this week and Javier and I got lost, and decided to contact a random street, we found 8 new investigators the in 3 different house holds in 1 1/2 hours. Saturday night we were walking back to the house after a fairly depressing day when the phone rang, it was Macaria and Jorge a couple i had found with Javier the day before, they wanted a ride to church... of course we already had who in mind cause the is only one member that lives within half a mile. so i dialed the number and beep! we´re out of minutes, which means i can recieve calls but not make them, unless they are on the plan the mission has, which of course involves other missionaries. so we called the district leader and he called the sister and told her to call us, she called us at 9:45pm yes Grandpa tubbs its a sin i know ;) (you are all allowed to laugh he can´t smack me for atleast another year and a month (: ) but to make a long story short they showed up early to church :) in all my time in Mexico someone has NEVER called us asking for a ride to go to church, NEVER! and we alwayd leave our phone number. :) it was awesome i really enjoyed it, the blessing come rolling in eventually, we just have to be patient and diligent. this week we have Angelica who will be baptised on saturday. she syas that she thought we were all pretty wierd untill she visisted a members home and saw the sister fighting to control her toddler, she said: (translated of course) ´´thats when i realized you all are normal´´......... Thanks... i think... Lol anyway, thats it for this week i´ll talk to yáll next week. :)

Con much Amor,

Elder Paden W Allen

Baptism for the first time in 3 months :)

Hello everyone,

Glad to report that the mission president is no longer thinking about sending me home as we were able to baptise somone this last week (its a joke dont freak out mom). Her name is Angelica Gloria Santos, her sons are also listening to us, they are David (17, short hair) Bruce (21, LONG hair) Brandon (9) and Jessica(7), armando is also present, he is a close familly friend and was rapidly removing all his piercings before the photo. lol. it was the first time we had met him. also this week we found an investigator that was a refferral from the district leader, we knocked on her doors and when she answered she asked us what ward we were from..... people dont even know the name of the church here, much less the organization, we then listened as she explained to her sister who we were what we did. she explained everything to us from Joseph Smith to our daily schedule... she works with a returned missionary, the only thing is that her uncle is the Pastor of the local pentocost church.... yep. we are excited to teach her, never had an expirience like this one before it should be interesting, her family askes us about 1,000,000,000 questions per minute about everything from who is Joeseph Smith to what happens after death... I´m excited. Angelica´s Children all have baptismal dates, david is planned for this saturday, bruce and brandon for the week after. if we do it right david can baptize them :) that would be super cool! my companion baptised angelica and i confirmed her the day after in sacrament meeting, it was the first confirmation ive ever done. it was super cool. we are finding lots of people that want to listen to us and learn and actually progress. but at the same time we find a TON of peole that want nothing to do with us. thats part of missionary work however, I´m just excited to get back to work tomorrow. :)

Con Cariño,

Elder Paden W Allen