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.