Hello Fam and friends,

This week was rather quite interesting, we had lots of work to do and very little time to do it. to start off with was the zone leader council. which took up half Tuesday and all of Wednesday. Tuesday to set it up and Wednesday to do it. after that we had little tie to work in our own area which was involved in splitz with Apodaca which is in the city but still a half an hour away from where we are. it was quite interesting.... of course there is the normal chat of hey what you gonna do when you get back? what did you do when you were at home? many people are surprised when i tell them that i worked in a pumice mine plant, they find it very extreme, even though I see it as something normal. he also wanted to here one of the stories i have thought up so i explained it to him after we had finished our nightly planning. the kid doesn't like these kinds of things, he´s a baseball jock that wants to be a team player scout someday, but he said that even with those barriers that he has his attention was called :) made me feel good. anyway......

This week we were trying to find Martha who had her baptismal interview last Saturday but has no desires to be baptised yet. she has come to church constantly for like three months now. she just doesn't feel that she is ready. but when she didn't come to church this week we knew something was wrong. we also hadn't seen her dog all week, normally the little french poodle comes running whenever we knock on her door. So visiting her roughly painted pink home we were surprise by excited barks from the dog, and we could see someone behind her house sweeping water around on the patio, although we couldn´t tell who it was do to clothing that had been hung in the narrow alleyway that leads to the back porch of her house.  so we shouted until the woman came out to see what the problem was and when she emerged from behind the dripping blanket strung across the walkway we recognized Martha´s daughter Isabel. She told us that Martha had taken vacation days and left the state and had been in Sabínas coahuila since last Saturday night... she must have left exactly after the baptismal interview... we also did lots of service this week, we helped a lady tie her dog up so that it would stop attempting to hang itself from over top the concrete railing and i had to explain to an ignorant woman about chickens and salmonella so that she would move it out of her house and tell the small children running around not to touch it and if they did to watch their hands. i also clipped one of its wings so that it wouldn´t escape the cinder block fence that is the poor bird´s cage; i also clipped the front of its beak off so that when it pecks it wont draw blood... again.. haha, in a couple of weeks i will have to go back and clip its spurs.... its starting to get big and its going to start crowing too. we´ll see how long they last before they turn that poor young rooster into a KFC main dish. :) Its been a fairly exciting week and things seem to be going good so until next week,

Dear Family,

This week has been crazy. we finished the transfers and sent the missionaries home. I sent 2 old companions Home. 1 that i was good friends with and the other that i didn't really get to know. Now i know why President says that the Assistants have to be stronger that the other missionaries, now i know why he says the Assistant´s Job is harder than an average missionary´s. 1- You get rather trunky talking about home with 18 other missionaries who are going home, just to go out and work for 3 days trying to get the results you would have had working for....6.   2-  you have to do it every 6 weeks, apart of daily reports, weekly reports, meetings, training meetings splitz damage control traffic control ETC. Its very occupying. there is very little time to one´s self. from 9:45-10:00 every night and 4.00-6:00 every Monday afternoon. not the most ideal schedule for a normal person. but for a missionary its very awesome, 0 free time, lots of work and lots of Joy for doing it :)

last week i barely had enough time to write on Monday and didn't even get my clothes washed or anything. president gave us Wednesday to recover from Tuesday night when we went to sleep at 2 after help weight suitcases and getting things ready, and got up at 3 to go to the airport. i took a shower before laying down and then slept in my suit so i would just have to get up and go. i was in the airport with a 5:00 (Blond) shadow at 4 in the morning helping the other missions mission president´s wife cause she doesn't speak Spanish and trying to get 4 American missionaries through immigration and stressing cause the line was half a mile long because of a cancelled flight. but it all went over well. i finally got to wash clothes and everything else on Wednesday instead of Monday i also slept from 10 to 2. that was my p-day..... yep lol

The rest of the week was great we taught 2 investigators that we had had for a long time but this time on levels of spirituality that were higher than normal. which is how it should be, they now both have baptismal dates. :) one we planned and it worked out just like we had practiced and the other was almost ruined by a member who started talking right as i was about to invite to baptism, destroying the moment. so we prepared another lesson and came back a day later took control of the lesson and invited her, who in turn accepted. the is a hoarder and 2 times a week we go and help her throw things away. normally the things she had gathered while we weren't there throwing things away, but Hey! its progress. i would suggest (for those of you involved in missionary work) in sharing your testimony over more than one thing. Pure Testimony as Elder Bednar says. short simple powerful and true. when you vomit your religion on a person they are naturally repulsed..... i wouldn´t recommend that!

Anyway i gotta Bounce and i think i am out of things to say for now, so this is Elder Allen reporting, over and out.

Love you all,

Dear Family,

...And thus the end is near. I am proud to announce the coming of the end of transfers. in 2 days........... I started this email and then had to run to catch a taxi and go to the airport at 8 at night to get a missionary that had supposedly arrived from Bolivia without advising us. we get there and look in the 3 international terminals then send a few calls over the intercom, and Pres. Walker calls and says it was an error of the west mission and the church system. that the elder that had arrived was from El Salvador. Our Elder from Bolivia is still in Bolivia. Great..... that was the fourth trip to the airport today.

     The first trip involved sending a missionary home then waiting for a bunch of 16 missionaries. Which actually arrived as 32 16 for us and 16 for the west mission. I was missionary traffic control. good thing is i had more or less memorized the faces and names of the missionaries that were coming to our mission so i could relatively tell who ourmissionaries were. the other mission had it easy as they just smiled and waved. We took 2 small short airline buses to the offices got them all settled in and took off to the airport for the second trip. I´ll be right back i have to go to the bus station to buy another bus ticket........so i will continue this email when i get back.... like at 11:00PM... More of less. I probably wont finish this untill tomorrow. I lied i am back 11:05 i decided to finish now or i never will. second trip was only 3 the third was only 2 missionaries so it was alot easier and quicker. 

     This week went flying by. We were planning transfers and attempting to work all at the same time. then we were up last night untill midnight planing transfer plans looking up bus times and checking to make sure everyone travelingt never got stuck alone etc. it was exciting. i literally had no P-day today. luckily i have my clothes in the dryer :) anyway i am out talk to you all next week.

Dear Famiy and friends,

for those who are interested Andrew Rutherford, who is swimming in the Olympics is an RM from my mission. :)

OK so this week was alright i got a long awaited letter from a family that was baptised while i was in Nuevo Laredo. The converts most faithful i have seen in my mission all live in Nuevo Laredo and if i ever have the chance to visit the mission after the mission i Will be visiting there at least! What Dillon says about Alma 37 is right, it is a very good chapter in the book of Mormon where we can learn countless things from that chapter. I came across it in my normal reading about 3 days after he sent his Email. 

This week i had a couple of health revisions and they told me not to worry about anything and they gave 2 2 medications to fix the few problems i do have. All is well until the next check up in 4 and a half months.

We have been helping President Walker this morning to plan a few transfers that are taking place tomorrow, We will be planning missionary transfers all week and next Tuesday is transfers for the whole mission. I am really excited. STUDY ASSIGNMENT: :) other than PMG as Dillon challenged i am also inviting you all to study 1 nephi 3: 1-5 When nephi and his brethren are sent back to pick up their wives etc. Its not so much about what happens when they get there but what they learn in the journey. what can you learn about it. let me though then i will share what we have learned this week from this chapter. :)

Gotta go, Love you all,