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... 

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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