27th of February 2012

Hey all,

ok first off here is a link that was sent to me, its a short video about missionary work, a member showed it to us while we were at his house this week it is really good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMIoiUO61tU . there are spanish subtitles obviously because a mexican sent it to me but that doesnt change the quality of the video, eh? :) 

     Anyway, this week was fun as iwas threatened to be deported HAHA it was one of the funniest things i have ever seen, but i had to go to the migration office to renew my FM3 non-migrational permision card, which is like my license here in mexico, but i didnt have the first card they gave me last year cause we always have to send it back to mexico city and then they sent me an electronic permission to print out the renewed card in the city where i am serving. the lady didnt understand that (she was just the receptionist) and when she called the official over saying i was here illegaly she handed him the paper, which he read, he than handed me my passport and the permission i had printed out and said ´´its the first door on your left´´ my companion thought it was the funniest thing, but thats the least important part of what happened this week.

     We had a baptism this saturday right after a stake tracting activity. the young men and young women came to our area and we taught them how to contact someone, or knock on their door, and then we all went out and knocked on every door of every person that live in this one colony that is fairly new. from that activity we have 86 new refferals, and we have about 3 weeks worth of knocking doors done in 2 hours. it was probably the coolest part of the whole week. other than the baptism that is. Miguel Angel Madrid Geronimo was baptised, his sister was baptised a month before he was and helped us alot while teaching him the lessons. it was a super spiritual baptismal service.

    Also, we are teaching Dolores, who was a referral from a lady in our ward, and she is one of those people that we leave the pamphlet with her that is for the next lesson we will teach when we return. She reads it like 4 times and then teaches us the lesson before we can say ´Hola´ the next time we come back. She is a great investigator. :) very easy to teach.

    We also contacted one of the referrals that was given to us from the activity this saturday. the guy is about 23 and his wife is expecting a baby. he is from chiapas but lives here in nuevo laredo and has since hes been like 9. but he told us he wanted to read the book of mormon because he is looking for the true church and feels he can find out some answers by reading it. he couldnt have been more right! we are super excited to teach him, even though his schedule is super tight cause he works 2 jobs and studys, he sleeps from 2 to 6 in the afternoon everyday. tough schedule.

     Anyway, thats the update this week! Love you all!

-Elder Paden W Allen

Yep 2/20/2012

Sup all,

This week was fairly boring, not a whole lot went on. i had to do alot of splitz with my district so i spent alot of time traveling and traveling. i spent a day in Anahuac, which is in the next state, Nuevo Leon. its alot like good old malad even though its like 4 times the size. its very very very small for this part of the country. the city i am in right now is a bit bigger than Logan i think its safe to say.

We{re teaching a lady right now who is about 40, she has 3 kids and her Brother just came back from a high security prison in guadalajara, shes a single mom named Dolores. she is prepared beyond belief. she basically teaches herself and we just sit there and gawk. this week i returned to read my journals and i have realized that i am not anywhere near who i was before i left. i realize now how much i had to mature, and  like they say here......Y Lo Que Falta! we´re starting to change where we are working but not too much because if we continue baptising like we have been in the colony where we are working they will split the ward and form a new branch and construct a new chapel in this colony because its super far away from the chapel right now. we just have to find more worthy priesthood holders.

Anyway thats the update this week, Love you all and talk to you next week!

Elder Paden W Allen

13th of February 2012

Hello everyone,

This week was particularly strange. it was long but short at the same time and we did lots of work with out accomplishing ANYTHING. it was difficult as it was cold and rainy all week, one day snow almost fell. it was great!

Tuesday was by far my favorite day this week. I didnt sleep at all monday night, a half an hour to be exact, and tuesday was the zone conference. We always start a zone conference with a demonstration of pictures of Baptisms. There were a ton from our area and it was good to see them. but there was one photo in particular that when i saw it i felt the spirit SUPER strong. it was the picture of sister Martha Alicia de Lazaro, and her daughter Gabbi. I saw that picture and just started bawling cause i could feel the spirit so strong. Here is the funny part. after the slideshow i had overcome the tears and was all right, but we started singing the opening hymn and it was the same story, i started to bawl, it was quite embarassing cause i had to say the opening prayer. needless to say i said a quick hard to understand prayer, the Mission Pres was conserned that maybe my mom had died or something. He requested a special interview with me and i told him it was just a series of super strong spiritual expiriences. It was one of the best yet most embarassing moments in my mission. the only time that  was more embarassing was when i said that an investigator was sexy instead of a good person, a noobie mistake in my first area. Its a difference of one word that is easily misunderstood by americans. i used ´´estar´´ instead of ´´ser´´, but thats a different story.

This week was hard to find new people to teach but it was good for me as it was a reguvinating expirience. :)

Love you all!

Elder Allen

Most Recent: Week of Tears 2/6/2012

Family and friends.

This week was one of the hardest weeks i have had in my mission. I had to do lots of traveling to Anahuac. i small town in my District. it took up alot of time and i had to do a baptismal interview. that wasnt the hard part. the hard part was we lost practically 3 days of work in our own area. it was depressing. I had nightmares all week long. didnt sleep hardly at all. We didnt have any investigators in sacrament meeting. it just wasnt too fun. it just reminds me that Even missionaries have trials. actually missionaries have about 50% more trials than a normal person. We had a super awesome period of blessings in this area and now we are seeing the trials.

The weather has been crazy. Super cold then super hot. its not the most enjoyable thing in the world. Tomorrow we have a Zone conference in Monterrey. it will be good. I am putting even more of my heart into the work this week. before i have been working with reservations. this week is a new story... Elder Allen SUPER MISSIONARY!!!

With Love,

Elder Paden W Allen

 

D&C 4... Word.

Second week training

Friends and family,

 This week was a good one. we had 5 baptisms and we are working hard. we had a leadership conference in Monterrey for the district leaders. It was good and we learned ALOT there wqas a bunch of stuff tht i learned there that helped me drastically to understand what it is exactly that I have to do as a missionary. Which is a super good thing cause i was a bit nervous, not anymore though :) we did lose lots of time however and we didnt find too many new people to teach, which will be difficult to make up for in the coming weeks. But the work is definetly progressing in this area there are alot of people that are more than ready to hear the gospel. Its really awesome to be involved in the work of the Lord in this period of time!The people that got baptised are: Sergio, Rosa Maria, Jessica, Pedro, and Jose Manuel it was a bit complicated to get them to the service but it all worked out in the end :) Thankfully :) It was one of the most spiritual baptsmal services i´ve been apart of in my mission.

Love you all!

Elder Allen

P.s. this week i had to move the pictures i had on my desk into my room cause they were making me trunky LOL

New Responsibilities

Friends and Family,

This week i aquired several new responsibilities as District Leader and Trainer. Its wierd but thats ok, not liking the whole giving permission thing, but its my job now. I dont feel any different i think that is why its so wierd.

My New Companion is from Sinaloa Mexico, Cuilacan, His name is Rùben Daniel Hernàndez Valle, hes little bigger and reminds me of a samoan, he like to sing Disney music, i think i`m gonna have Tarzan stuck in my head in spanish for the eternities, Not a bad thing... ``En mi Corazon...´´

We had a super awesome expirience this week as we contacted a refferral form a member. we found the son first, he`s 19 and acccepted a baptismal date. we found the parents later and had a supèr spiritual lesson teaching the plan of salvation. As Missionaries we are authorized to promise blessing by the power of the priesthood and in the name of Jesus Christ, but only when the Spirit prommpts it. I had never done it in my mission. They had a daughter die young about 12 years ago and we promised them with that authority that if they strived to follow christ with all their hearts, accepting ordinances and covenants they would see their daughter again and would be able to spend eternity with her. It was super spiritual and was special, one of the most powerful expiriences in my mission.

This week i fought alot with allergies, Spring seems to be starting here and as such the pollen etc is running rampant. For 3 nights i couldnt sleep even with allergy meds becaus ey eyes we super red and itchy. Not been a fun adventure.

Thats all the super exciting news for this week, Comments, suggestions, jokes and Gossip are all welcomed and will be responded to the next week end.

Love you all,

Elder Paden W Allen

Week in the house

Hello All,

So other than the fact that tuesday we lost the whole day trying to donate blood, well my companion anyway, as i´m american and cant do it. We were there from 7AM to 6PM.. not good. thursday and half of friday we were in the house resting as my comp had half his toenail cut off because he had an ingrown toenail... Not fun also we dont have a whole lot of time caus etoday are transfers and my companion is saying goodbaye to everyone. He is going to monterrey i will be made trainer and district Leader... Super nervous about that. Dont want to screw up... Sorry its short this week you´ll get the full update next week, NO TIME this week.

With Love Elder Allen

First week without a baptism in a month and a half :(

Family and friends,

So this week was a bit depressing as the baptisms we had planned fell through, but thats ok cause they just had to wait a bit longer as they have to get married first. the oldest daughter (13) wanted to get baptised this sunday but her dad wants her to wait for the rest of the family, they will be baptised the 28th of January. they are from puebla and go there frequently to sell things here that are authentic from there, such as really delicious food :) the cheese is amazing, anyway, thats the depressing part.

The good part is we found a fair amount of new people this week and the majority of them have accepted baptism. :) When i got here the area had 60' refferals in the house that had not been contacted, there are now 9, this week we plan on getting it done.

I include 创The compass创 its the mission news basically, its in spanish but my zone came out #1 and my companion and I are diplayed as the Companionship that baptised every week in december, or the successful companionship, as that is the goal of the mission, baptise every week, its really hard to do and really very tiring, and the majority depends on the blessings you recieve, because we can go out and work 12 hours a day and sweat blood, but we wouldnt get anything done. We have to have the spirit with us in order to be successful.

This week went by super duper fast and it was fairly normal, lots of door knocking and being rejected, but the one door when they let us in is worth it. :)

Love you all!!

Elder Paden W Allen

Merry Christmas

This week was killer, again. We went to monterrey and took pictures at the temple after an extensive talent show were ´´cantan santos angeles´´ was sung at least 95489650 times, a delicious dinner were the mission president sat at our table (we´re priveledged like that) and 2 days of traveling :) It was great. we acted a narration, actually i wrote it, my companion read and i acted... not gonna lie i was nervous as all get up. it was a story about the 4th wise man from the americas named Pekú. it was nerve wracking.
Other than that nobody let us into there house cause nobody wants to see the mormons when their small, 3 room house is full of 33 smelly mexicans who just ate about 45 pounds of bean tamales..... it was exciting.
we spent the christmas relaxation time we had with a family in our ward cooking and answering life questions. it was fairly entertaining. thats pretty much it this week, i enjoyed talking to the familoy, glad grandpa liked his boots, and hope you all had a wonderful christmas and have a happy new year too, you all have fun watching the fireworks and sipping fancy apple juice, i´ll be curled up in my semi warm bed crying myself to sleep.... Just kidding :) Have a good one!!!
With Love,Elder Allen

Happy New Year!!

Hello Family and Friends,

 

This week was difficult as the majority of the people were drnking, and missionaries can´t be in an enviroment where people are consuming alcohol. So we didn´t find too many people to teach, also nobody showed up to church as everyone was all out partying. Investigators that is. We did have a baptism though, Jessica Yajaira Campuzano Gúzman. A young woman of 11 years she is a member of a part member family.

 

The Noise was incredible with all the fire works that the people were using. The Firework that that is most popular is one called `paloma´ its a triangle shaped firecracker made of newspaper and gunpowder... it blows up and is louder than a grenade. we went to sleep at 10:30pm and it sounded like war outside because everyone has like 100 palomas each. they say that your ears ring at midnight because of all the fireworks, but we were asleep and missed it. Oh well.

 

I included a picture of a pitbull puppy that we gave to a family who didnt have christmas because they didnt have money. Also their German Sheperd, Rot Wiler mix was stolen let out etc. so we had found a lady who was giveing out pit bull puppies for free because she hadnt been able to sell them and the mom was starting to killl them, so we played santa :) It was fun :) the 2 little girls love her and they put their doll´s clothes on her and carry her around in a stroller. :)

 

Wishing you all a happy new year!!

 

Love you,

Elder Paden W Allen

19 Diciembre 2011

Fam and friends,

This week went by quick even though it was a bit stressful. it rained almost all week long and has been about 20-40 degrees all week.  this morning the sun came out and its now about 60 outside, but the buildings are all out of cinder block so its still about 30 degrees inside. the humidy is crazy there are salt deposits on the buildings in the mornings beacause of it. it looks like snow but its not cold and the ants seem to be attracted to it.

This week On the 15th of december (when i finished a year in the mish as i´m sure yáll know :)) Veronica got baptised its been a special expirience to be able to teach her and see her change and grow and progress even though her dad has been against it since the begining. But her mom signed the paper and was baptised at noon the 15th :) we had an interview this morning of Bruce, (The guy with long hair) he will be baptised tomorrow. Lots of blessings here in Nuevo Laredo. :) Bruce plays in a hard rock band and cut his hair last week :) big step for him btw. :)

We are trying to get 3 different couples married, 1 in close and just needs more money, another is getting all the papers together, and the other isnt even close but we just found them too. we also found 2 families this week, 1 went to church  yesterday. this week we will be going to Monterrey for the mission christmas party. The district leader says there will be a suprise there but we arent sure what it is. super excited to see what it is. we leave tomorrow at 3 and dont get back untill thursday morning. Gonna be crazy :) will try to send pics :)

Lots of Amor,

Elder Paden W Allen

( i was fighting with sending e-mails with the sig. so i had to take it off :()

P.S. i included 3 pics one of me and one of bruces guitars, one of veronica´s baptism and one of me my comp and Patty a recent convert that moved to chiapas this week.