Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas people.. Don´t be sad, Ill be there NEXT YEAR!! wahoooo!!!

It was a good week. It was so hot... I miss snow, but it was good. Christmas here is a lot different. They dont do anything on the actual day.. its all on xmas eve. They stay up till 12 and make a lot of meat (thats what i want, to stuff myself full of salt before i sleep) and then shoot guns and rockets off and scream and play loud funk music until about 5 in the morning. Yeah, its SUPER reverent. They LOVE respecting Christ´s birth. I heard next year they are inviting Ossy Osborne to sing the annual "Silent Night."

 We had transfers and i stayed here. My new companion is Elder Carrol from Cary, North Carolina. He´s the man, i like him a lot. He´s getting here in a firestorm of change in the ward, with everyone kind of recovering from the recent shenanigans. Our new bishop made a churrasco for us though on Christmas Eve and we had a great chat about what we can do to start the new year right to help this ward. Pride is dangerous, avoid it.

Yesterday was a good day for us. We were able to catch up a bit and contact some good references. At night we went to my boy Jacson and his soon to be wife Danielle. Im not sure if I´ve told you about them but they give me a lot of grey hairs. Its a family of members that never had testimonies. We go there to teach Jacson who is getting married and baptized on the 21st of January, but we very rarely are able to teach much. His mother n law is a member that hates the church. And all she ever wants to do is ATTACK us with faithless questions. She is one of those classic people that somehow manages to blame the church and its members for everything bad that has ever happened in her life. Instead of trying to prove the church is true she looks for anything she can find to prove it is false. Last night after calmly listening to them argue about whether tattoos were sins, whether it was possible to engrave 500 pages on gold plates, and WHY Adam and Eve couldnt have children in the garden of Eden, we had had about enough, people that cant walk (read the book of mormon) dont need to worry about running (exaltation)  We explained to them that we are here to prepare people to be baptized. We explained that we will not answer their profound questions any more, and that we will not move on to the next lesson until ALL of the commitments are kept. We promised them that if the people took the committments we leave seriously, there would never be an unprepared baptismal candidate. Members or missionaries to not drive people away from the church. People drive themselves away. THEY do not decide when they are ready to be baptized, WE do. 

Point to the story: Read Moroni 4:5. Yes the sacrament prayer. Think about what we promise to do each time we take that bread and think about what the Lord promises. We promise to keep his commandments, remember him, and take his name upon us, or to pattern our life after his. He promises us his spirit. When we do not take the sacrament we do not have that promise. We do NOT have the spirit, and thus we do NOT have the capability to rationalize, and see things the way he does. We will lose ourselves, and we will do it fast. We will have doubts, and there will not be answers. We will become pessimistic, faithless, and frankly pathetic. I made myself a promise last night that I will never allow myself to be in a position where i cannot take the sacrament. Its the greatest gift the Lord offers us. But when we dont take it, we have no guarantee, and its a slippery slope as my father likes to say. Take the sacrament every week, and you will never cease to find answers to your doubts. 

Im so grateful for the invaluable learning i have gained on the mission. I told my companion yesterday its not so much the my core desires have changes drastically (they have a little..) but that the way i view things and my perspetive of God´s plan on earth is 100 percent different. Love you all, Happy New Year. 

Stay Classy.

I don't remember what happened this week

I am excited for Christmas. It doesnt feel like Christmas here... Its freakishly hot and no one has christmas trees..

This week was a blur.. it passed so fast. I know we went to Capão da Canoa (the beach) and did our division with the district leader there. Then the next day we went to Torres (right on the border of the next state) to have our district meeting, and made the long trek home para casa. Friday and Saturday we worked our butts off to make up for the time we lost, and we made some good progress. We were super stressed with where our 2 baptisms were going to come from this month, (president is breathing down the necks of the LZ´s to get their 2) but now we have some good options. I think I´ve talked about that elect Lutheran lady that doesn´t know she is elect? She finally came to church this week with her daughter! Too bad right after we found out her husband was searching mormons on the internet and came across some FILTHY anti mormon stuff.. That is gonna be a super interesting/awkward visit tomorrow night at 8. 

Yesterday we had our Christmas Conference in Porto Alegre. It was super fun. For our apresentation we did the Birth of Jesus Christ: Gaúcho version. Beyond my belief our no-nonsense president agreed to be our narrator. For anyone that understands Brasil, everyone outside of the Rio Grande do Sul hates gaúchos and their accent. So you can imgaine how funny is was to have a Paulista (someone from São Paulo) trying to immitate a Gaúcho with all types of crazy slang. It was super funny, Ill have to send the video home. But I also learned a lot. Sister gave an INCREDIBLE training on the meaning of the word "messias." She helped us understand way better how the prophecies in the bible truly were fulfilled, and how Jesus really is the Christ. She is amazing. So knowledable, I always call her when i get into doctrinal arguments with my companions, and she clears things up. 

I cant believe we are aproaching the end of another transfer. Every one seems to pass faster and faster. Stranger that two of my best friends on the misison, Elder Melo and Elder Lynn are leaving! Im going to the temple with them today. Next week is transfers, so my p day will be on Monday. I´m about 90 percent sure that I will be staying here, but we´ll see. 

I love you, Enjoy the spirit of natal. Stay classy. 

Oh yeah, and Im a hunter now. Tell everybody. The last picture is from the crazy tornado we had last week.

Time is Flying

Heyyy

My emails must keep getting increasingly boring. Every time I sit down to write one of these thingy´s i try to think back on the week and can´t remember anything that happened... Go figure.

Unfortunately we didnt have a whole lot of time to teach this week, but we were blessed with four baptisms. We worked our butts off against Satan for them, and as it always happens something ALWAYS goes wrong right before the baptism. But luckily for us it all worked out and they are all super excited to be members. Rosange is the best member missionary in our ward. She has given me more references in 2 weeks than my entire ward put together in 4 months. She is fantastic and talks about the church with EVERYONE. On the bus, in the streets, at her work. Its so pleasant to see one of your Recent Converts sharing the truth.

This week has been greatly administrative. We went to Osório this week to fix some apostasy that is going on there. Missionaries are kinda dumb sometimes. Then we spent almost the whole day yesterday trying to help Gravataí with some problems. This week we will be doing divisions almost the entire week. I won´t lie.. I´m starting to get tired. Not even so much my body, but I think more my mind. Its a lot of stress. But I am normally fairly good with handling tough situations and Ill get over it. The mission is just such a learning curve for life. It prepares you in all aspects for the challenges that will come.  

Sorry, I need to write things down during the week. Just know that I love you and pray for you all.

Stay Classy.

This is going to be short

It was a decent week, not as great as i hoped, but fine. Our pool is getting smaller and smaller. So we are going to have to go back into what i like to call the "finding stage." You returned missionaries know this stage as "hell." Just kidding. Yesterday we worked our butts off and taught 8 lessons, finding 10 new investigators. All the Lord asks for is our effort. If we are willing to give it, he is willing to bless us. Its not necessarily fun, but worth it if you are willing to take a walk of faith.

Friday we had a lidership conference in Porto Alegre. It was fun, but 105 degrees on a hot smelly bus is not fun. We had to bust it back in suits to do two baptismal interviews. Luciano (see pictures) passed and was baptized that night. He´s the man. Rosangie also passed, but then when i told her what time the baptism would be was like, wait, I´m not going to get baptized without my husband... Ahhh! Her husbands name is Reni. His brain is fried from 30 years of drinking. He just got out of a clinic where he was baptized by some dude from who knows what church. Basically as many times as we explain AUTHORITY he cant understand why the alcoholic from the clinic doesnt have it. He also is Brasilian, and believes that the only sins are killing and robbing. If you dont do those two things WHY do you need to do things like pay tithing, or live the word or wisdom. "Your not hurting any one else.." Yes, you heard me right, a guy that spent his families life savings putting him into a clinic off and on for 5 years thinks that he is only hurting himself. I love people.

Other than that we have just been doing fun finding activites to try and find new poeple to teach. Namely, knocking doors. But i have a new strategy that i would encourage all missionaries to follow. I call it "the wrong door approach." It goes like this.. You make up a name, and knock. You say does this person live here...? They say no.. why do you ask, and IMMEDIATELY come out to the fence. (Brasilians are super suspicious) Thats when i ask how long they have lived there, and show them my cute little pamphlet. Its genius. 

I love Hot tomales, Mitt Romney, and Coka Cola. The Great Apostasy happened. I PROMISE. If you dont believe me look up James E. Talmage. After that Christ decided that we were worth saving. How grateful i am for that. How grateful i am for the Restoration of the gospel. If you dont have a testimony of it, get one. It will make you so much happier.

Tchau gurizada.

Brasilian Stuff

Hello white people.

I had a good week, a tough week, but a good one. Let me get my venting off my chest first, as i normally do. Brasilians can´t say No. It drives me insane. They will waste your time, energy, money, and effort, without blinking twice before they will say NO. I think i have mentioned an Old Lady that used to love us and make us dinner that we were trying to help stop to smoke so that her and her granddaughter could get baptized. When we really started cracking down on her not smoking she suddenly started to disappear. Every time we would mark with her (we have been leaving early in the morning at 9 a.m. to walk 45 min to her house) she was not there. We have literally been doing that for 2 weeks trying to prepare her to get baptized. Saturday we met with her and told her 2 Elders were coming from far away to do the interview in an hour, she´s like yeah okay! The Elders waste their time and money and come, not there. I call her, the minute she hears my voice, hangs up. We have wasted SO much time on them, because they always pretended way interested whenever we talked to them, but never wanted anything. Brasilians can´t say no, and it makes me CRAAAAZZZYYYY!!!!

Advice to South American Elders: Don´t waste time on people! Cut them!

Have i ever spoken about my friend named Rafael? He´s the PUNK in the first picture of the baptism of Reni. He is that ladies son, and he makes her cry daily. He´s super sick, but ridiculously prideful, and super mean. (Basically he´s me) And I´m like his counselor. So Friday we get there and his mom asks us to talk to him cause he said he´s quitting school. (Very rare to finish high school here) So we sit down and have a very long conversation. Long story short as I´m trying to explain to big picture to him, cause he´s super smart, he just keeps telling me im just like his mom and i dont understand, that i had forgotten what its like to be 16 and have a girlfriend. It was right about then that I looked at him and thought i was looking at myself in the mirror. It was really weird. I then preceded to explain WHY is was so important that he doesnt quit school, doesnt break the law of chastity, and does serve a mission, so he could have the perspective on life that i now have. It doesnt mean i dont remember what its like to be him, its just that i understand so much better what things bring happiness, and what things dont. When we are young it is so incredible difficult to see past the next weekend, or the end of high school, then we grow up a little and realize how little some things matter. I am eternally grateful to the mission for that, there is no greater blessing.

Last night we had another fun drunk person experience. (for the 100th time) So we´re walking home a little late and see this dude on the side of the road with a paper towel in hand. Dude is in a BAD way, but like usual i did my customary compliment. Baaaddd idea. Dude immediately SPRINGS forward to my comp trying to grab him, and we jump back fists raised yelling at him not to touch us. He then preceded to ask my comp for a "patriarchal" blessing (slightly aggressively) and my comp still a little wigged out is like no, no i cant. Also a bad idea, the guy gets all indignant and  points his blood covered finger at my comp and starts questioning his worthiness. (for sure a member) By about that point I decided it was time to take off, so we start backing up and as soon as were sure he didnt have a knife took off. Love drunk people, especially mormon drunk people.

More advice to South American Elders: Don´t come home late!

The mission is fun. Its so painfully devastating at times but mostly its good. I´ve picked up a new good thing from my companion. Whenever something crappy happens he says something to the extent of " its all good, this is not going to affect my eternal salvation." I feel like thats good advice for all of us. When little crappy things happen lets remember the big picture. I´ve applied that in my mission. I am STILL going to get married to a hot wife in the temple. I am STILL going to be a DA in New York. I am STILL going to be saved at the last day. NOOOOO WOOORRRIIIEEESSS. (this is for you DI, stress free!) 

I love you all. Me and Evans are both staying here for one more transfer. Big shocker. Not too happy about it. But hey, Christmas is STILL 2 months away. Stay Classy Orem.

Happy Halloween

No Halloween is not celebrated here. Well, not really. Its mostly just another holiday they stole from the U.s. as an excuse to not work and get as wasted drunk as they can. Last night was CRAZY.

Things are good here. It was a tough week. Lots of problems we´ve got to resolve in the ward and the zone, but thats life. If you can´t resolve problems, you´re going to live them. Mostly I´ve come to the conclusion that EVERY major problem that ever happened in the history of the world starts with pride. Don´t be prideful. (Steve, Alex, Colin)

This is the last week of the transfer. We are going to the beach this week, and then we have two baptisms this weekend. Its going to flyyyy... 

New favorite obsession- Mormon.org. I watch Brandon Flowers video at least 3 times every p day. Mostly just as an excuse to hear Killers music... but hey, its the church website!

I love you all, sorry this is short. I have no doubt this is Christ's restored church. Anyone that leaves it must foolishly crawl around or over the Book of Mormon, which has stood for hundreds of years in spite of being critically attacked. We would all be wise to strengthen our own testimony of that book. There are more important things in life to be found in there.

This Email is not going to adequately explain what I want it to

Hey people

We went to the beach this week. It was awesome. I love the beach. See pictures.

I wont lie. I hate writing these things. Call it impatience. But i will pen out some thoughts I have had this week about Brasil and a man named Korihor. 

Korihor was an Antichrist in the Book of Mormon that used deviated lies about the church to mislead people. For example he would make up a doctrine of the church (how can we be responsible for Adam´s sins) and then feed that lie, because it wasn't true anyway! So it was easy! What does that have to do with Brasil...? Everything. The most frustrating thing for me here is the lack of commitment to do something important. In all aspects of life. This is so fundamentally important for us. I believe I have spoken a bit about an awesome mother and daughter we have named Suzanah and Suelen. They are great, they love us, and feel the spirit so strong with us. But will not read the book of Mormon. Them, and 9 million other Brazilians always have the same excuse. No i didn't read, when i read I want to really be in the right mindset, and I wasn't, so I didn't read. No I didn't go to church, when I go to church, I want to really pay attention, and I knew i wouldn't, so i didn't go. No, I cant pray tonight, Im not in the right mindset, when I pray, I want it to be good, so not tonight. Does anyone else see the irony with that excuse?? We never asked you to go to church and not pay attention... we didn't ask you to read without real intent... We asked you to read!! It is making an excuse based on an excuse that doesn't exist! And its NOT the real problem. So we spend 30 minutes dissecting something that isn't really the real cause! Does that make sense?? This is the common atitude here in Brasil. This is the devil working on the heart of the children of men. 

Sorry if that bit of rambling didn't make any sense. I'm in a super big state of thought process right now. How do I respond to that? Ohh okay yeah of course you should read and pay attention no problem. Of course you need to pay attention when you read and go to church, that's inherent in the invite. I just feel a super weak sauce lack of commitment to do ANYTHING! here in Brasil. And I get worked up about it. This is your salvation that I'm teaching you! I'm telling you how you can NOT go to hell. I feel like that is slightly more important than your soap opera. 

I love Brasil. I love the people here. I love my mission. This gospel is 100 percent true. And although Satan finds incredible complicated ways to impede our work, the gospel will spread to the four corners of the earth like a plague. A super sick tasty type of plague. I hope you are all well. I'm fantastic, just fat. God Bless.

P.s. Do any other missionaries LOVE it when you ask people to pray and they pray to you... I.e. I want to thank you guys for being here, I want to say thank you for my familiy, and that you guys get home safe... etc etc. I have to try hard not to stop them in the middle of the prayer and tell them to talk to God, not to me.

Yo

Òla Pessoal.

It was a good week. We were able to stay in our area the whole week and so that was good. We are seeing little miracles through our hard work. We were able to get 8 people to church, and although i get really frustrated with the lack of reverence/help there a few of them liked it. It is just devestating when we bust our butts of to get people to church, and then nobody helps/pays attention to them, the meetings are loud and irreverent and they have a crappy experience. Devastating. 

We are getting a lot of references though and have a huge teaching pool. Lots of people with baptismal potential. We also finally got an Elders Quorum President this week which was super helpful. We teamed up with a few elders to do a division Saturday and got some good visits done. I met an interesting person on that split. His name was Alex. We had seen him a few times in the street because he always yells retarted stuff at us.. But everyone does that, so I just ignored him. But then one time he yells out. Belo Horizone Mission 2004!! And I´m like whaaaattt... Keep in mind this guy is FULLY tatted with Saint Mary and demons.. and is frequently drunk. So that night we returned to talk to him. Long story short he shocked us by telling us he served an HONORABLE two year mission, and returned home. One little fight from the Bishop kept him from going to church for a little. He met a girl and got involved in Batuki, and to keep from sharing too many details quite literally delivered his life to Satan. It makes me realize how vulnerable we all are. And how with the littlest slip Satan can get an incredbily firm grip upon our hearts. If any one has seen the video of Boyd K. Packer that talks about the Crocodiles... invisible traps. Look for them, they are all around you. 

Life is good here. We had a baptism last night of a cute little girl named Alise. She is the one that lives in the house thats not safe for us to go to. The one where her dad was killed, her sisters current boyfriend killed her ex boyfriend, and the new boyfriend of her mom flipped a car full of guns and drugs... Yeah. I pray nightly that the church can be the refuge for her that her home is not. We´re going to the beach tomorrow. We will return Thursday night to a busy weekend. So much to do. Love the mission.

A igreja é verdadeira. Sabia?

What are we going to do

Helloooo Americans. How are you my friends??

It was a good week! We spent the whole week focused on building up Zion here in our area so that was great! We had some major disappointments with people not going to church and asking me " what do you want.." when we call them, but there was also some great blessings. Priscilla was confirmed this week and went to church in a skirt! What! Now the only thing that lacks is for her to take out her nose ring!

 

Speaking of piercings I had an interesting baptismal interview with a 15 year old this week very distressed about some of her "rings". I was like listen, Im a missionary, take the thing out to get baptized, and then talk with your bishop/woman leader. Then she was like no its not even bad, look, and whoop UP COMES THE SHIRT! Im like ahhhh! nooo! It gave me a good scare, but she was just showing me her belly button ring. Girls...

 

Yesterday we did a division with the assistants. It was fun to spend another day with my good buddy Elder Melo. He is a little rat. He loves looking through ALL my belongings to find things he can take home with him. But we had a great lesson with some new investigators that we have. Suzanah and Suelen. They are 40 and 15 and told me last night they are loving the Book of Mormon, loving us, but are scared to go to Church in fear of not loving it there. Almost like a Is it too good to be true? type of thing. We gave a powerful witness of the reality of the holy spirit, and invited them to pray earnestly to know if what we have certainty of, is true. They promised they would, and will also go to church this week. AGUA.

 

I have felt spiritually uplifted this week from my study. I really feel like the new dvd players we have received with training segments on preach my gospel are going to be great. The work is evolving and I feel confident in our ability to use it for good. Let me bear my solemn witness to my friend and family of the reality of The Living Church. The Church is guided by true revelation, of that I have no doubt. The Book of Mormon is a powerful testament of Jesus Christ, given to us by God as a source to know the truth of all things. Christ atoned for our sins allowing us to repent and use God´s ordinances here on earth to one day return to him.

 

Each day I have a renewed desire to find, and teach people these things, in preparation for the first ordinance of the gospel- baptism. Essa é a igreja de Cristo.

 

Vos Amo.

 

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

I hate Brasilian Pregnant Pictures

Hey people-

Its a good thing i have Di nagging me to death or I would forget to write something every week. 

I hope you were all spiritually edified by conference like I was. I have no doubt that these men are called of God to be his mouthpiece here on earth. I testify that God has a living prophet and 2 counselors, God spoke with men like Moses and Abraham anciently, how foolish would we be to believe he doesnt speak with men today. As Elder Callister taught us God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God still speaks with man. If you dont have a certainty of that, get one. Without it, life has little (or less) meaning. 

I think my favorite talks were Elder Callister, and Elder Christofferson about repentance. I ate up every word of these inspired men. And how exciting that Provo will get another temple!! I quite enjoyed the ohhs and the ahhhs after that, and then the laughter after announcing the Wyoming temple after the exotic ones. "I think I´ll dedicate that one." Our prophet is funny, and Wyoming sucks. 

I had a maturity moment this week. We were invited to eat dinner with our recent convert Dina this week, and she had gotten home late and was in a rush to make us a lasagna. Long story short she forgot to take off the plastic in the pastels (they make lasagna wierd here) and so it was full of plastic. She felt horrible. Me and my comp were trying to take off the plastic telling her how delicious the food was and that it wasnt a big deal, but her two kids worsened her misery by being total butt heads. Just straight complaining and telling her how dumb she was and refusing to eat. I wanted to be like "SHUT up you ungrateful little weiner, she worked her butt off to make this and a little plastic to pull off is hardly a big deal." 

Right as I thought that I saw visions of tantrums at the dinner table. I´d like to make a formal apology to all my aunts, grandmothers, my beloved mother, or anyone else that ever made food for me. I have a large certainty that i was one of those "butt heads."

It was a hectic week. We didnt have a whole lot of time to work in our own area, and for this i felt a lack. Between conference, meetings in porto alegre, and problems within our zone with missionaries we have done a lot of running and not a whole lot of spreading the restored gospel. 

It will be good to get back to the work this week, as we should have all week to be in our own area, and recompense (sorry di i cant think of a better word) for the time we missed.

The gospel is true, God called a prophet in our days, the Book of mormon is his living witness that these things are true. Dont ever give up what you want most for what you want now. It would be the biggest mistake of your life. 

Love

--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

The Mission

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Has anyone ever read the Tale of two cities? Does anyone else feel like the first line of that big pretty well describes their mission? I do.

I am so constantly filled with different emotions good and bad each day its hard to keep track. I get so frustrated with people completely disregarding our appointment and yanking our chain, disrespecting us. I get so frustrated with other missionaries and their lack of desire to work. But i get so happy when i find that one person who really does want to learn, and figure out more about life, that it makes it all worth it. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday were full of disappointment and despair. Our baptism fell, nothing worked right, and we just got kicked and kicked. But Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were just great. I really felt the spirit of the Lord as my companion, and me and my companion worked our butts off and found, taught, and brought many to church. We marked 6 baptismal dates. The Lord blesses us AFTER he tests our faith. Even the great prophets were put through trials and tribulations, before they reaped the fruits. 

Sorry i dont have more details, I write a super boring email when i write it at the end. Im tired, and just want to  go get a coke and take a nap. But sufficeth to say we are working hard and having fun. We have lots of good people to teach, and hope to baptize 6 people before the end of this month. Im so excited for conference, and we are going to the beach again this week. We will leave tomorrow, and come back Thursday night. Then we will run our butts off all weekend to try and recompense the two days we missed. We will do one more division for the two baptisms we have this weekend (Lea and João, sorry i haven´t said much about them) and then we´ll do it all over again. I love my mission, and have a testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ. 

I attached some pictures of the temple and our hike this morning. Love you all, sorry for the boring letter. It happens... 

--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

Over the Hump

Hey family-

I am officially over the hump, and it feels good. But not much has changed, im just more focused to work harder and make sure the first year goes as well as the first. If it goes anywhere near as fast ill be home like tomorrow.

My week was CRAZY. As usual it had its ups and downs. We actually had a few GREAT days, where i really thought we hit breakthroughs in our area. We marked 6 baptismal dates, and had some people at church. But then yesterday was a big kick in the gut. We were supposed to have a baptism, and spent almost the entire day (in the rain) going back and forth from the church (40 min from us) to fill up the font. Just to find out that it wasnt going to happen ten min before the baptism. The little girls dad rolled her car on the freeway. Oh yeah and that car just happened to be full of drugs and guns. After tried to recuperate and stop at a kid we´re trying to help, to discover he was in the hospital after cutting his wrists in a suicide attempt. As normal as these things are becoming to me I sometimes still marvel at the effect Satan has over God´s children.

The zone continues to improve. I think i´ve mentioned that last month was the worst month of this zone´s history, and so basically pres told me my biggest job here is just to get the morale up. So we´ve just been trying to jack everybody up, and excite them to do the work. We´re using the phone a lot, creating awards, setting goals, and trying to be the best missionaries we can be.

We did our division on the beach Wednesday and Thursday and it was simply incredible. (see pictures) Beaches like that dont exist in the United States.

Im happy and healthy (sort of) and working my butt off. I have a lot left to accomplish this last year, and so i´m going to do just that. Thanks for the prayers and support. Love you guys.

--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

One Year....What?

Hello.

Im just going to try and ignore the fact that I hit one year on the mission tomorrow. Im going to pretend I only have 3 months, cause thats what it feels like, and work like I´ve only got 3 months left. Man how the time goes...

I have been VERY sick this week. My lungs hurt very bad from coughing... Sister says that if it doesnt improve I cant travel this week. So Ive basically been downing Vicks faster than Di puts down a Diet Coke.

Let me tell you what i remember from my week. Yesterday we had a great special training meeting with President. He gave a training on the value of one soul, then the assistants gave one on baptismal invites, and me and Elder Evans finished talking about the little things on the mission. We shared the story of Naman, and how he almost didnt wash himself in the river to be cured. Sometimes we set aside the little things that can have big influences. It went well. After that we started our division with the Assistants. I traveled with Pres. Pavan and Elder Melo back to the office to spend the day in Porto Alegre. It was fun to be with Melo again, and we had a great day. We marked three baptismal dates!

The rest of the week was difficult. It is near impossible to get into doors in this area. People are incredibily hesistant to let us in and seem to ALWAYS be leaving, incredible how that works. Needless to say we have pretty much decided knocking doors here is absoultey worthless, so we are begging the help of the mission leader and bishop to get us references, and meanwhile going through a list of former investigators and inactive members trying to find people to teach. We have had mixed results. But we were able to find a gem! A little girl named Alisse that is cute as a button and is 8 years old. (my favorite age) She came to Church this Sunday and accepted a baptismal date next week. She is 2 sisters that are members but her mom isn´t. (Dad´s are rare here) So we will start trying to teach her mom as well.

This will be a fun week. Tomorrow morning early me and Elder Evans will take off to the Beach, we will spend the day with Capão Da Canoa helping them to find new investigators. We will sleep there and then head up the coast about 2 hours to the beautiful city of Torres, where we will watch a district meeting, and have lunch. (on the beach!) And then we will go back to Porto Alegre, about three hours, and return home, probably getting back the noitish. Stoked.

Pics:

1. Our District: District 50,

2. BOM and the mountins of Neópolis we will climb next week,

3. Me and my comp Elder Evans,

4. The Best district I ever had.. District Ferver Agua (boil water) Miss those guys

5. Ricky

--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

Gravatai

Helllooooo-

I am in a new city with a new comp, and I love them both. I am in Gravataí with Elder Evans. And its sweet. We are the LZ´s of the BEACH! Im super stoked. The zone has a lot of problems and is the lowest producing in our mission, but we are both committed to change that. We are ripping apart everything and starting all over, our biggest challenge is to get everyone excited! That is the key to missionary work, we know the tricks, but if you aren´t excited to do the work you will not baptize. Our zone is young, so im hoping we can just jack everybody up on the idea that we can do MORE! Were taking the attitude that we are too young to know any better!

We were going to go to the beach this week but we now have a specialized training with President this Wednesday so that wont work. We will give an hour training to our zone. Our area is mais ou menos. Unfortunatly the LZ´s weren´t too excited and left us with pretty much nothing. But we are working our butts off and found 15 news this week and a couple good ones with baptism potential. The ward is excited to have Elders ready to work and is helping us out well with references.

This is such a different place that i am used to. Caxias and Passo Fundo were so far from Porto Alegre, the interior literally feels like a different country. There is different people here, different religions, different everything. But im getting used to it well and liking it very much here.

I love the mission and have a strong testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks for the love and support.

--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

Tchau Caxias

Freak.

I am leaving Caxias tomorrow, and very sad about it. Last night was one of the most incredible experiences of my mission. We had a huge churrasco with all of my recent converts and a few members last night to say goodbye. It was so much fun. After we shared a message, we shared a video with some clips of Henry B. Eyreing, promising to the members that we would feel prompted to speak of the restored gospel. I had everyone look around and realize that each person was a reference from someone else in that room, like a big long chain, and because of their willingness, 2 families were changed forever. The spirit i felt was incredible. The power of the restored gospel has the capacity to literally change lives. Marcia (the kids mom) started bawling and totally made me cry. I was embarrassed. Dont tell anyone.

Saturday was the wedding of Eduardo and Silvana. Very cool. Aside from the fact that some dummy turned on the baptismal font after we had turned it off and flooded the chapel. Guess who cleaned it up? Before the wedding we were out tracting and had nothing to do. I said lets drop by some investigators that i was thinking about cutting. We go there and they are like no we dont have time. But I said no just give us five minutes real quick! So they let us in but said they had to go to a wedding shower. We taught a quick lesson and as im leaving i ask "So who´s getting married?" And they go oh my cousin is so she can be baptized in the Mormon church. I just started laughing and said Ill see you there!! They had mentioned two "pastors" before but who knew it was us! Needless to say they became MUCH better investigators Sat night. I was planning on inviting them to be baptized this week before I was TRANSFERRED!

The wedding was great. Poor people weddings are kind of awkward, and they dont go all that smoothly. But it was fun. Me and Alba managed to get like twenty people there, and Marcia made a cake and we bought refrí. So it worked out alright, and we did the baptism (see photos) which was much more important to me. This transfer has literally been one of miracles and blessings.

Im so sad to be leaving here. But so excited for my next assignment and adventure. Every night i get on my knees and try to thank for the family i have, and the opportunidade to be here. Both are priceless. I love you all.

Tranquilao como aviao

Hey Gente-

It was a good week full of rain and angry people. Each day i progress a little bit more on my path towards becoming a more christ like person. I love the mission and I love the people.

I wanted to start with a cool story of a sweet couple named Marcio and Sueli. Marcio is a member inactive since age 8. Sueli is his "wife" that is not a member but wants to find the right church. They have 2 kids together. Sueli told us that on Sunday she said the first prayer in a long time asking for a light in her life. That day at lunch we recieved a reference from our 2nd counselor of someone he had visited a long time ago but forgotton about. Sunday night we showed up at their door and taught them throughout the week. They came to church yesterday and are very excited. The Lord answers prayers.

Thursday and Friday were rough days full of rain. We are trying to open up a new neighbohood that we normally dont work in and it has involved a LOT of walking. We haven´t planned very well and i am incredibly tired as a result of it. Walking in pouring rain is not fun. Thursday we also did a move for Diego and Marcia and i literally broke my back moving a big furnace. Needless to say im more physically tired than ive ever been on my mission.

Saturday was a great day. Although we didnt teach many people we had the baptism of Mikael, Taçiane, and Hellen. They were so excited for the baptism and it was so exciting Sunday to see their parents there supporting them to be confirmed. I baptized and confirmed the girls, Caio confirmed Mikael. We had a family night with them last night and talked about temples. They are such a beautiful family that i truly love. Such an example of people that are literally willing to give everything when they have NOTHING.

This week we are super busy for a special sacrament meeting we will have out in my area. We are handing out tons of invites and trying to invite influential members of the community. The president of the region has already said he is coming and a few political figures. When we were talking about it in stake leadership meeting I was happy to hear the Stake Presidents name in the list of speakers and surprised to hear mine. Yikes. I will begin with a 15 min talk on the restoration, then the relief soc. stake pres on the plan of salvation, and finally Big Pres on families. Im nervous but excited. This event has the capacity to really explode our area.

I love what I´m doing. Im exhausted but ready to work even harder. Why? Because the Church is True, and Christ really visited this continent. Amen.


--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

Hey People

We had a good week. It was a slow week, and we ran into a lot of barriers, but it was good. Im really starting to feel the chaos we are creating in our new neighborhood. There have never been missionaries there and we are really making noise. You can tell by the people. The walk by us and whisper and i heard one person whisper that we were dangerous. I ran into a few colorful Jehovah´s witnesses and had almost all of the book of mormons i gave returned. Someone is really worried about losing money.

Again i dont really remember what happened. I just remember yesterday. Our lunch fell so we lunched at Caio and Alba´s. It was great as usual. But we walked FOREVER yesterday cause we didnt plan well and had lessons in three different neighborhoods. But most of the lessons went great, we marked three baptism dates and had a family night with Diego, Marcia and their three kids we will baptize this week. They are such an incredible family, literally willing to give everything when they have nothing. I love them. The only visit that wasnt so great was the last one. It is a couple named Mauricio and Sueli. We are trying to reactivate him and baptize her. But they have been complaining of bad spirits in their house and their three year old girl has been seeing things. We offered a dedicatory prayer but i had a hard time feeling the spirit there. The spirit is quite important in missionary work. Sabia?

Other than that im not really sure what happened. I just know that im working my butt off and learning a little bit more every day. I love this work I love this gospel. But most of all I love most of you. Depending on who is reading this. Just kidding.

Oh yeah and the message on the glass is of our apt floor. Some chicks wrote a message to us saying they want the "hot missionaries" I couldnt resist but to snap a photo.
--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

Hey Gente

Olá from Brasil. I send you my love.

It was a fantastic week once again. I´m starting to realize the feeling of thinking you cant work any harder or do better, and then doing it. Interesting to see that the Lord doesnt go without blessing us when we do that. We now have 11 investigators with baptismal dates. And I am just loving life. Let me tell you a little about the week.

Wednesday was terrible. It was going as one of those just awful days. People hiding from you, no one home, raining until the alma, people spitting on us and telling us to go home, i felt like crap. Finally at about 6 when we had not taught a single lesson i stopped in the road and bore my heart in prayer. Something, Anything, PLEASE. No less than 5 minutes later we found the house we had been looking for. We taught a sick lesson, and marked 3 baptismal dates. Mikael, Tásiane, and Ellen wil be baptized next saturday. They are kids of an inactive family we found and are reactivating. What a great family. After that we went to Cleberton, who basically told me to shove it the last lesson, and freaked out when I told him Santos (Saints) dont exist. What a change of heart. He raved about how fascinating he thought the life of Joseph Smith was and wanted his wife to be able to watch the film we passed. Complete change of heart. After that we taught one more lesson to a progressing family of 4 we have. Awesome day.

Thursday and Friday were rough as well. We ran into some sticky stiuations and lost José and Jussára. They are passing though some really rough times and frankly need more help from the police than the missionaries. We will continue to visit them but more cautiessly and udner the dirtection of our mission president. Saturday was so legit. We had an activity with the youth where we went to a really busy corner and handed out more than 3000 pass along cards!! It was so much fun!! Sunday was equally awesome. We did our normal division i went with Caio in his Car like normal and ended my night eating lasagna on Alba (Caio´s wife´s) stairs and arguing about whether she needed to buy me more pimenta. Love her.

Yesterday was just a spiritual feast. Zone Conference with a seventy! Elder Itchinose. Poweful beyond belief. Ive never met someone that could quite literally snap their fingers and bring the spirit, that could tell us we are crappy missionaries but do it with love. It was an experience I will never forget. Passo Fundo was there! So i got to see all my best friends! I sent pictures. AFter we trecked out to Ana Rech to contact a reference from a member. It was pretty good. It was an awesome day.

I love you all so much. Thank you for supporting me in this incredible work. The Lord is pushing me to my absolute limits and in turn molding me to be the servant he needs. I just need to do better at letting him do his work. He is preparing me for future things. I know it. I pray for you daily. Pray for me and my investigators.

P.s. The picture of the TV is Wayne if you cant tell. Every time someone puts on the film "On the Lord´s Errand" I cant help but to scream VOVÔ!! (GRAMPS!) when Wayne´s part comes. Its great. Miss that guy.

--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

Hey pessoal

Alright.. Sorry but this is going to be short. When i dont write stuff down i completely forget what happens. It was a great week filled with little miracles and unblievable frustrations.

So things i do remember. We are really starting to gain the confidence of the ward, they are seeing how hard we are working and for the first time here we have a few references! Unfortunately we still have TONS of problems here with the stake presidency. There is a lot of apostasy here and its starting to look frighteningly like an anarchy.

Basically the whole week i ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to hold together the marriages/baptisms of Eduardo/Silvana and José/Jussára. We are planning a HUGE party and doing the two weddings together but lots of bad stuff is happening and its sort of all falling on me. So now it got delayed and if i dont mark it by thursday it wont happen this transfer and then probably wont happen at all. Plan for them

I also found a lot of new people and fought with the Sisters. What else is new.

Im running out of time I am having the time of my life and absolteluy working my butt off. I know this is literally Christ´s church on earth and the only way to find real and lasting happiness. I love you all.

--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

God Bless America

Hello people.

Let me start off by telling you all how much I love my country. Seriously. No... SERIOUSLY. It rocks. If you don´t believe me, come to Brasil for a while. Just kidding I love Brasil too. But its not America. Happy Birthday America, and me! Im 20 now...

I had an incredible week. I literally am witnessing the hand of the lord bless this region and the members here. I can feel this place being on the verge of explosion, and it feels so good to have to work we´re doing be recongnized. There is so much area here and people that haven´t heard the gospel. The only thing that lacks is the huge distance to the chapel, about 30-40 minutes by bus depending on the day. But we are trying to fix that by creating a branch there. Basically it was summed up by my favorite comment of the week by my favorite guy Caio "You´ll come back here in 5-10 years and see this a ward, with maybe 2 or three duplas of missionaries, knowing that you started it all" That right there is the essence of why I´m here. And I love it.

We have a baptism this week! Its going to be such a load of my shoulders i´ve felt really pressured by the ward and people and its been a while. His name is Carlos, and he is legit. We also were able to mark a marriage/baptismal date for José and Jussára. And while they still fight like two mice over a piece of cheese they are excited. The last couple we are working with is Eduardo and Silvana. Eduardo is an ex-active member that has drinking and abusive habits with his "wife" that desperately wants to be a member of Christ´s church and have an eternal family. We are trying to do damage control and get them married too.

This week we found a lot of great people that i have a lot of hope for. Its too early to tell you about them because Satan always finds a way to screw up my investigators that i think will be golden. It REALLY sucks to return for a second visit to find them there waiting with the Book of Mormon to return. Someone is not playing nice with us... Lots of Anti Mormon crap here. But im stoked and i think we will have success with some of these people.

I love this church. I love my family. Im praying for Wayne. Im convinced that this is the only true source of happiness. As i commented to my comp yesterday we literally talk to people all day that tell us how crappy life is, and how many bad things have happened. I remarked that I don´t really remember anything REALLY bad happening in my life... its not cause im American or cause im Rich or lucky, its because we have the gospel, and we make correct choices that bring happiness, not sadness.

Im so grateful for that. I love you all.
--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

Yo

What´s up people

Ill be honest i don´t even really remember what happened this week... The mission is a blur. It was a good week i think? José and Josára are progressing really nicely we are working really hard to keep them animated to get married, stop smoking, and get baptized. We were able to find another 30 new investigators this week through our own efforts one named Carlos who came to church and accepted a baptismal date! Wahoo! Now he just needs to stop smoking! Im getting really good at stop smoking psychiology. You can do it! Keep trying! All right! Your the man! Jesus loves you!!

What else... Caio continues to be the man. So much so that i almost feel bad for using him so much. EVERY sunday we do a division without even setting it up. And without fail at least two other nights in the week. Last night he called me to see if i wanted to stop by and eat dinner, as he always does when we are in the neighborhood, and will drive us 40 minutes tomorrow morning to see an investigator. We share the same birthday on sunday and with certainty I should have a big cake there waiting for me. Its such a blessing to have a member thats willing to work.

The branch division continues to go slow and unfortuantley the ward meetings continue to fight. This is the last week of the transfer and we are going to work super hard to convince President closes this area is not an option. I cant think about how i would feel if it did and all my hard work was in vain. I wont let it happen.

Basically thats it. Today we made delicious tacos WITHOUT RICE OR BEANS. I love American food. And piment. Sorry i cant remember anything and this email is short. The pictures are of our district and the other great whore of all the earth, in Canela, that lights up at night!!

Love you all!! I am thouroughly convinced that we are the Lord´s servants here on Earth. Let us all be worthy to stand in front of him one day and be able to say we did our best. The Church is True.

--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

Relief Society President is the Worst Job Ever

E aí galeira

I hope you all enjoyed the ranch as much as it tortured me not to be there... Just kidding i actually rarely even thought of it, i was too busy answering ridiculous calls about nothing from Sisters, trying to keep my progressing investigators from COMPLETELY losing it, and trying to make people understand that this gospel was RESTORED!!

I don´t even remember what happened this week, so I´ll just give the highlights. Friday was sick. I went to Porto Alegre for a leadership conference with all the District and Zone Leaders. I got to see all my good buddies on the mish and got some great instruction from Pres Pavan and others. Then our secratery bought one less ticket back to Caxias for us, so i went with the LZ´s to Gramado instead! Gramado is one of the biggest toursist cities in all of Brasil and I´ve always wanted to go there. I didnt get to spend too much time there and it was too dark to take pictures but i slept there and it was sick.

Saturday was as depressing as Friday was awesome. We literally got our faced slammed every door we knocked. And lost SEVERAL investigators who got scared off by the stupid Quandrangular church. Sunday was also not so great. We had the most unfortunate excuse of a Leadership meeting with all the leaders in the ward to discuss the new branch that might happen. Ive never been in a meeting where i felt such a lack of spirit. It was a complete chaos with everybody fighting and wanting power. Me and 3 other people walked out. It is becoming so apparent to me how essential leadship is in a ward, and when you dont have it, the spirit does not reside and nothing gets done.

Dont get too sad though people yesterday was chique demais! I knew it was going to be a good day just from lunch. So the member puts on a movie during lunch (calm down ex missionaries it was On the Lord´s Errand) that talks abou the life of Thomas Monson. So im fully immersed when suddenly who pops onto the screen?? None other than Fwayne Chamberlain!! I nearly jumped out of my seat screaming THAT´S MY GRAMPS!!! No one believed me, i had to prove it. My grandparents are rock stars. But it only got better after. We rocked 7 lessons before our family night we marked, only to get a call that it was canceled. So we went to tell this family, he (Caio, ill tell you more about him some other time, best member ive ever had in my mission)) wouldnt have it. He called up a couple that i thought i´d lost, and told them he was cooking meat, and he´d be there in ten minutes to pick them up. Made all the difference in the world. It was an awesome family night.

Just to end i should tell you about this couple. José and Josára. Let me back up. Sunday night. I go there with Caio on division. AWESOME lesson. We teach law of chastity, word of wisdom. Invited them to stop drinking, smoking, drinking coffee, and to get married. They were so excited. We stole all of her cigarrettes, and all of his coffee. Re marked for thursday where we would share a message, and then go together to mark their marriage date. Im stoked. But as usual Satan is a punk. The next morning i get a frantic call from Josára saying José was freaking out, didnt want to live the law of chasity anymore or follow the church and kicked her out of the house. She asked if i could stop by but i was working in a different neighborhood way far away that day. Little did i know my family night was going to fall, and Caio was going to invite them to a visit they desperately needed. They are back on track and everything is good. Oh how the Lord uses us in little ways that we never imagine.

Im so grateful for my mission and the little miracles like this that bring me so much joy. Im so grateful for my wonderful family, that taught me the things im teaching today. I´m so grateful for my many friends that influenced me and are out doing the same thing im doing on the other side of the world. This is Christ´s Church. Of this I have no doubt.

P.S. District Leader of Sisters is very comparable to Nursury leader of Eli.

Ranch Sadness

I say to you all with a gritted smile and false sincerity... Have a great time at the Ranch.

Honestly i had a great week. I worked my firm yet well shaped little butt off all week and really saw the Lord bless our area. The ward is on fire here to help us create a branch out in my area, and i have been praying to find potential leaders this week, because that is what we are lacking. The Lord did just that and literally guided me to 2 elect families... That we found through a simple visit to an inactive family when we had nothing else to do. "It is by small means that great things come to pass."

Other things... I´ve been incredibly sick all week. I caught a very bad cold. But no biggie. I felt really good about my last district meeting, i went back to the basics and we discussed our central purpose as missionaries. And then i related it to Jacob 5, and we went through the parable that it contains. Very cool. I also think i witnessed a murder Thursday night. Not so cool. We were walking to the bus stop late at night when i hear blood curling screaming of a woman saying stop, please stop. 2 minutes we listening trying to figure out what to do.. what suddenly it just stops and everything goes dead quiet. So we call the police, and what do they do? Hang up on us. Shocker, nice going Brasil.

I also ran into another unfortunate problem here in Brasil, after i did not accept two members talking about how the stake president is corrupt and doesnt receive revelation. That was responded with "With all due respect Elder this isn´t the United States." I have seen way too many ex communicated bishops here, way too many wards where no one has trust in the leaders. I testify that I am representing the same church that exists where i live, the same one that receives modern revelation. If it doesn´t, we are the same as every other church, that doesn´t.

But enough of the bad stuff that happens here honestly it was an awesome week and we´ve all got fire in the bones to work!! I gave a talk Sunday that i though went well. I gave 3 suggestions to the member on how we can prepare for a mission and also improve daily. I shared 2 stories from my life. The first a riding experience with dad, where i was stuck, and needed his instructions to get up the hill. All the while knowing he was standing at the top, worrying and making sure i was going to succeed. I related this to prayer. The second, breaking a rule not to go sledding during basketball season, and breaking my wrist, suffering the consequences. I related this to learning to be obedient.

PRAY FOR THE BRANCH ANA RECH!! IM GOING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. HAVE SO MUCH FUN AT THE RANCH. ILL DROWN OUT MY SORROWS WITH A TRIP TO PORTO ALEGRE FOR LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE. I LOVE YOU ALL!!

--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

Helloooo

Hey Americans, how´s life in Paradise where Coke is refillable and people don´t LOVE taking pregnant photos...

So i don´t think i mentioned the best part about living with Zone Leaders... A washing machine!! Never again will i wash my freaking clothes by hand!! It is so great. Elder Halford and Feller spent the night with us Tuesday to do a division with the LZ´s. It was a lot of fun. We bought pizza from RIDICULOUSLY expensive Pizza Hut and shared some good laughs.

It was a great week full of sucess and failure. Its just so funny how the Lord´s waits to bless us. ALMOST always on the mission it just seems like he waits until we fall flat on our faces, and get back up to try again, that he rewards us. I have definatley felt that here. Its when we give ALL we have and THEN a little bit more, that we start to see the little miracles in our mission/life. This area is tough, EVERYONE here is a member of Nossa Senhora. They have A MILLION santos in their house, little images of Mary that they worship. It makes for some tough teaching, but its been a good experience. Something funny about this neighborhood... EVERYONE believes the United States is just full of conspiracy. Most have never met an American, and they don´t believe the 9/11 happened, or that we went to the moon, or that we killed Osama!! It is SO funny... seriously.

We had an awesome visit last night with a couple we are teaching Andreia and Zilmar. We watched the 20 min restoration movie and testified of its truths. It took a serious detour when the member we brought mentioned we dont drink coffee... (i almost killed him, members.) but i quickly avoided that and went back to the restoration. Haha the member made up for it by driving us home and buying us pizza! That same night we also taught a great lesson to another couple we are trying to get married. José and Josára. They had a FULL on fight right in front of us when we got there, and it got really ugly. But i asked if we could say a prayer and start teaching and the spirit was very strong. She testified of the problems she has had, (her son was killed by drug dealers last year, happens every day here, her other son is a complete alchoholic, also normal, and her ex husband beat her..) And she told us how much better things got when she found the church and the missionaries started coming. She has a real testimony. Now we just have to work with her "husband."

I love you all so much. I was so full of gratitude this week. I went to do two baptismal interviews this week in one of the poorest areas ive seen and just couldnt help but to swell with grattitude for the blessings i have in my life. Seeing the sadness of others tends to do that here. The church is true. Love you all.

CAIXAS

Hey people

Well i finally peaced out from Passo Fundo. And oh how i miss it.. I was in heaven.
Isn´t it funny how we think we have it bad but then realize how good we really had it...?

Now i am in Caxias do Sul! It´s rad. My companion´s name is Elder Gruchka, he´s Russian! Radder!

Anyone who is reading this probably knows me pretty well, and knows that i usually just tell things like they are. That hasn´t changed. This week sucked. It was the hardest week of my mission and first the first time in 9 months i TRULY felt depressed, discourages, and disanimated. I arrived in my area, which I pretty much felt was a cast off of what for 3 years missionaries didn´t want to take care off. Its clear out there from Center where i live, i have to take a 30 minute bus just to get there. And for this reason people have literally never even HEARD of the church. This is such a different experience for me. I´ve never seen such a heavily influenced catholic society. This city is super low surrounded by a big valley, and sitting way on top almost like a big rameumpton is the great whore of all the earth- A giant Catholic Church.

Long story short i worked my butt off. I did all day all week what every missionary hates doing. Kocking doors. What else can i do? But i am going to be a living testament this transfer that not only does the Lord bless us when we work hard it IS POSSIBLE to baptize knocking doors. Its just a mindset that people have pre set that its not. I dont have an option, so im just going to do it. Through nothing but pure grit we were able to get 35 new investigators and mark 5 baptismal dates. Pow.

Just so I don´t sound egotistical I didnt do it alone. I humbly enlisted the help of my Zone leaders and a few ward members and we spent 3 hours Sunday afternoon divided in EIGHT!! I was so grateful for the willingness of this ward to help me. This ward is on fire to grow! That something i didnt have in my last area, it was a dead feeling. Here people have this ZIP to spread the gospel. Even if we have to do it out in the middle of no where 40 minutes from the chapel!

This transfer is not going to be easy. On top of the area I am also training, and was called as Relief Society President. I mean, District leader of All Sisters. No, not joking. And i didnt even make it one week without incident. One of the Sisters called me with a dude following her, so i told her she couldnt go o that bairro anymore, and was gonna call President and see what we could do. I am now the most hated man here in Caxias. There´s a reason girls can´t baptize.

I love you all and miss you so much. But for now im just here telling people he came and that he´s gonna come again!! Pray for my success.

--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

FINALLY

Hello Mother and People.

Drive safe to California. We will be traveling together because I´m peacing out to Porto Alegre tomorrow morning. I have no idea where I am going, because our mission likes to stress people out as much as they can, so we will literally get to P.A, get a little slip that is our bus ticket, and good luck go there.

I thought i was very set on leaving here. But i am mixed between relieved and very sad. Mostly because of two things that happened yesterday. The first when we stopped by Marcio and Luzia, (the people I FINALLY managed to get married) and him asking me, "Elder, what would you say if I told you the only way Luzia will be baptized is if it is by you.." I´m like crap. This was exactly what Bishop was worried about. He called President this week and told him i needed to stay, but obviously Pres disagreed. The second though was even more painful. Di you know how much I love Sonya, Diesa, and their family. The fam with the Italian dude that won´t let them get baptized. I went to say goodbye last night and we had a really good lesson, and the daughter asked "Dad mom is gonna get baptized this month right??" He agreed!! 6 months i´ve been praying for that! Why does it seem like everything is finally coming together right when I am leaving...

It´s all good though I´m stoked for the new experience. We had a really good training meeting Saturday. President and the Assitents came here and it was realy fun to see everyone and re charge my spiritual batteries. My effort to be a better tool in the hands of the Lord was re energized.

So most traumatic moment of the week happened Friday. EVERYTHING fell through and so we were doing something i hate, knocking doors at night. And we were walking down this big hill and a cute little dog starting following us. At first i was annoyed, but then i kinda started to like him. We literally did not get in a single door for an hour and a half and this dog would not give up!! By the time to go home I was super sad I couldn´t take Baxter (yes i named him) up to my apt with me. I grew quite close to him. So as we were descending a kinda busy road i told him to stay put. He pretty much did the exact oppostite and went to my left just in time to hear me SCREAM and then get abused by the Ford Torus. I seriously almost cried. Especially when he didnt come out the other side and then i say what was left of him trying to make it to the other side of the road. I was scarred for life. Oh Baxter...

Other than that Traumafying moment we had some good stuff happen this week. I really strived to get this area ready for the next Elder to take care of my child. They will have good success. I´m super sad about leaving but I am excited for a change. I really would have liked to see a few more people get baptized but I genuinely feel like I left this city a better place than when i found it. For that i can leave in peace.

Pray for me in my new Area. I love each and every one of you. I´m glad the world didnt end May 21st. (what was that?)

The gospel is true keep it real

INTER!

Hey people

We had another difficult week, but im finding more and more that as i press through these tough weeks the better weeks seem better, and i get stronger as a missionary. We´re having success, but we´re just not finding new people to teach. If i wasn´t working my butt off i would understand but I AM!! It´s okay though i´ve got a couple ideas this week and we´re going to get right back to the pavement. Our LZ`s came to our area Wednesday morning to have breakfast and then go contacting to try and help find new investigators. I was really impressed to see their dedication and sacrifice to do that. That´s what good leadership is. Selfless sacrifice. It was a great example to me.

I am studying a topic now a days that i just cant stop thinking about. It´s AWESOME. The concept of Mercy & Justice. (Yes I know i am truly my father´s son.) And for that matter the nephew of Mike and Tom Lee, and the grandson of Rex Lee. But it just BLOWS my mind the in depth analysis the Book of Mormon gives us into the very brain of our Heavenly Father. Between 2 Nephi and Alma we truly have a comprehension of HOW PERFECT our father´s plan really is for us. We could never return alone to his presence, he completely saved us from sin, yet that does NOT mean we are not accountable for every FEATHER we ruffle here on earth. How sweet this world would be if we all had that knowledge...

I taught two of the worst 1st lessons i´ve ever taught this week... The first was with an old lady who had a son baked out of his mind, who would not stop screaming the words to ITS MY LIFE!!! We didnt even make it to Joseph Smith. The other was with a mom and her 13 year old daughter. The mom was completely ignoring us and talking very loud on her cell phone, and then just decided to completely get up and leave us alone with the 13 year old girl who was actually listening.. I dont want to go to Jail here in Brasil. So i abruptly ended my lesson and gave her a book of mormon, even though she didnt understand ANY of it. I tell you this to tell you how frustrating it is as a missionary when you know you have something special, and you get excited to share it, but its ruined by the adversary, and nobody REALLY benefits from it. Satan is a punk.

Sunday was a difficult day but mostly just awesome. There is this thing called Grenal here which is when the two big soccer teams play each other (Gremio & Inter) and its basically like the super bowl. Its impossible to teach. So we went to a members house to get some water and stayed there until it ended. Smart move Al, lets wait until the celebration to try and teach. Picture 300,00 people all SCREAMING with about half of them in the streets burning things, drinking, honking, and waving flags. My comp and I just stood there for a good 10 minutes in amazement. Flash back to 3 days earlier, me arguing with a hard core gremista that they had no chance. To which he replied alright, if Gremio wins, your buying me a jersey of Gremio. And if Inter Wins I´ll buy you on. I stopped by after to rub it in. He was in the corner with his head in his hands and when he saw me told me I was never invited back into his house. I almost fell on the floor laughing and trying to hug him. I told him DON´T buy me a white 2009 Inter Jersey size J, DON´T buy it there from that store in Center. I´m pretty stoked to pick it up Monday. He´s making a churrasco for us. Pow.

But Inter winning wasn´t the only good thing about Sunday. We did actually get something done. We had a really productive meeting with all the big guns in the stake. They are trying to divide the ward. There are more than 1,400 members in this ward, about 120 that attend!! Welcome to Brasil. So this meeting was basically okay lets shove everything onto the missiionaries for now until we can figure out who these 700 people are that we dont know. But it will be good. Im picking up an updated list tonight, and im basically going to go house to house to the old members and start eliminating names. The rest, is our job. We´ll go door to door and figure out who they are and what happened to the church in their life. This list will be a great tool, I won´t knock doors this week.

I love you all. I´m working hard i hope you are too. I know that this is the restored gospel. Keep me in your prayers, your in mine.

--

Elder Alex Allred
Terra de Gaúcho Tchê

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

Mother's Day Rocks

Hi People-

So much fun to talk with my dear mother and Nana. Tough to hang up as usual, but a truly magical hour that is insurmountable.

It was a pretty normal week. A good week, a tough week. We are really working hard to try and help this area succeed. But we dont have people to teach. And we´re not getting a whole lot of help from the ward. I´m also trying not to just knock doors, because anyone who has served a mission knows its not all that effective. Instead I am trying to follow the counsels of our leaders and seek out those that are lost, and use them to help you. Only problem is that those that are lost here in Brasil, like to move around like a blind fly. I have felt a little helpless, going from house to house hearing no they don´t live here anymore and no we don´t want to talk to you. But what can you do, just keep working.

Have I mentioned i hate dogs? Yes, i was bit again. Brasil has officially killed any chance of my children having a dog. Blame the country kids, she blew it for you.

I had my first REAL difficultly understanding as a senior companion. It was one of my worries when i heard I was training, cause obviously If i dont understand, No one will. But it wasnt because this person spoke all that fast, or blended words together, it was because she spoke spanish!! I was thinking to myself where is Jake, Tom, Dad, Mike, or any of the other 20 people in my family that speak Spanish when i need them! And more she was telling the most COMPLICATED story about this reference i was getting, referring to like 10 different people and im like WAIT, the brother of who´s second cousin-n-law?? Yeah i was totally lost. I think i managed to get the gist of what she said, but mostly i just did a lot of nodding. I need to study my spanish a little more...

I saw the most blown up baptism (of an 8 year old in our ward) i have ever seen Saturday. They had a trampoline, and a ball pit. Nothing like screaming kids to bring the spirit! Haha it was good though, i didnt think it would be very appropriate to stay for the festivities after so we just watched the baptism and peaced but we did get dragged in to eat some cake and drink some pepsi though. Those are just straight up tough to turn down.

It was a decent week. The highlight was definitely Sunday. Even though our apt fell, and we went to an old inv. that I cut because all they do is complain about how hard life is and then ignore me when i tell them how they can make it not so hard. I remembered why i cut them when i tried to sit down, saw a big fatty porn magazine, chose the other filthy couch without cushions, but had to move again when the local drug dealer knocked at the door. It was quite the eventful visit. Full of the spirit as you can imagine. Not.

Love you all. Hope your all doing great. The Church is True. Your in my prayers.

Apostolic Wisdom

Hello again people.

This week was pretty slow. It was good. But slow. Im REALLY trying hard to build up our teaching pool, and not do it by just knocking doors, because if there is one thing i have learned that is not very effective. I think Cole would agree with me on that front. So this has included going house to house on the GIANT list of inactive members i have in a little notebook, and trying to help them, while asking at the same time for them to help us. (Cole, i know you dont exaclty have this luxury) And in theory it should be working fantastically, with members coming back to church, and bringing their friends with them, only i cant find any of the houses!!! Brasil is very unorganized, and most of the time has wrong addresses, and even the right ones get changed, and people switch the number on their houses, and the numbers dont go in order... and AH!!

But the highlight of the week was definately our trip down to Porto Alegre for our mission conference. The reuninon with all my mission buddies was a blast (see pictures) and the feeling was undescribable when Elder Christofferson walked into the room. I wont try to descibe it or even say much of what he told us, sufficeth to say i know that man is an apostle of God.

But the festivites didnt end when we got on the bus to go home. While searching through my letters and finding 3 from Nana/Wayne that i loved, I also found one from my friend Pastor Allen! (Now Pastor Murphy) Remember him?? He´s the dude the wrote the pamplhet i found on the ground here, i took him up on his offer to write to him, and he responded with a 3 page letter of the biggest apostasy i have yet seen on my mission. I cant describe it, but its getting xeroxed and put up on my wall when i get home. Along with the 4 horrifying anti mormon pamphlets he sent me. (People are so dillusional it is seriously scary) I have never seen anything like this... But i am already working on my response letter. I´ve been pretty much studying straight apostosy in the Bible for 2 days, and by the end of this week ill be geared up better than Michael Weston. You want to go to war Pastor Murphey?? It´s on.

Aside from my Bible Bashing skills being increased it was a normal week. Full of lots of success and failure. Im trying Hard to help teach my son, and he has at least now learned how to say I LIKE, which is good and bad. Its good that he can say he likes things, but our lessons are now full of "I like my baptism", "I like the church", and my personal favorite, "I like Jesus Christ." Ditto Companion, Ditto. But in all seriousness i know he lived and died for our sins. It didn´t eliminate our personal responsibily but it did enable us to one day return to his presense. My mission is freaking hard but im learning more and more every day and im grateful for the wonderful experiences i am having. Rock on this week. Love you.