December 24 2012

First photo is of when we ate that amazing Brazilian lunch!!

 

Second photo is of me and my new companion Elder Landires

 

Third is of me and Elder Christensen, he went to my high school and we were good friends, he´s in my zone! ASK TEAN HE´LL KNOW WHO HE IS!! Elder Christensen remembers him!

 

Fourth Photo, i´m with Guillermo, the special kid that we´re going to baptize this weekend, he´s so awesome, and super excited

 

Fifth Photo is of the activity we did on Saturday, with the mom of Guillermo, she´s so awesome, I love that family so much! which turned out amazing the activity

 

Sixth photo, same thing, but with the dad of Guillermo

 

Seventh with other members, some converts after a few months!

 

Eighth is some members with the cookies!

 

Ninth is the same, but with my convert, Evelyn on the left

 

Tenth is of the little kids putting on the frosting

 

11th también

 

12th is Maria, Evelyn and Ruth, my converts.... SO AWESOME I love them so much. Have this photo ready when I call you!

 

13th is of Me and companion and Ruth, not sure why Ruth looks like she has a demon inside of her!

 

14th is of me and some of the little kids, they were helping me out with the cookies hahaha

 

15th is of me and lots of the women members. THe one standing up next to me is Celia, the one that is preparing to be baptized!

 

16th is of me and a Pasta Frola, that my convert Maria gave to us, that´s my favorite argentine dessert... she makes them better than any i´ve ever tried before

 

 

How´s everyone doing! I´m doing really great. This last Saturday we had our Christmas activity with the sugar cookies, like we always do at Grandma´s house, and everyone absolutely loved it!! I sent a lot of pictures, but seriously everyone had such a blast. It was awesome because during the day, we went to a member´s house to bake all the cookies, and to cut them all out and use the cookie cutters and things, and there were about 5 little kids helping me, and I´m pretty sure I was covered in about 4 pounds of flour afterwards, but it was hilarious. I just kinda let them do their own thing, and the cookies actually turned out great. They tasted good and the kids had a blast. The funny thing was, I was kinda just focused on the decorating part, but the adults started to try all the cookies that their kids were making, and almost one by one came and asked me for the recipe and how to make them, and the frosting too. So I´m thinking that this week we´re going to do another activity to show everyone how to make them and all that. It was such a great time. It was cool too because Maria, my convert basically organized the whole activity by herself. On Thursday all the women got together and made a lot of the desserts, and then they all brought them for Saturday night. There were 3 huge pizzas, and music and drinks and all sorts of awesome stuff. It was fun to see all the members interact with eachother. Plus Celia, the investigator that is going to get baptized next week went with all her kids, and her kids seemed to have a great time, especially decorating. I´m pretty sure they each decorated like 4 to give to her, and she didn´t have any more room to hold them haha.

 

But this morning I was studying a little bit about when the Savior was born, and I got onto a cool track of scriptures that I was able to find some interesting things that taught me a lot about him, and his life, and his role in our lives. I first started reading in Lucas, and then I somehow got to Ether 12:11 I think it is, where it talks about how Christ is "The more excellent Way" (Not sure if that´s the right scripture,so if i´m wrong sorry) And I was reading about how Christ literally is the most immense, and maximum gift that our Heavenly Father could ever give to us. He really is the way to reach the most eternal happiness known among all of the universe, the Gods, and eternity itself. As I began to comprehend that a little bit more, I really began to love my Savior even more, and began to recognize his influence in my own life. I hope that this Christmas we can all take a second to think about the importance. I know everyone says that every single Christmas, but it´s important. It´s not to say that the gifts, and the music, and the food aren´t important, but it really does make a difference if we can all take a second to recognize the true importance of the Savior in our lives, and what he really accomplishes for us. I love each of you so much, and i´m so thankful to my Heavenly Father for each of you, and your influences in my life. I´m really excited to talk to you, and I hope that we can all talk and have a great time tomorrow.

 

Tonight we get to be out until 11 so we are able to visit more members and be with more of them, and actually get to eat, because here in Argentina The 24 of December is celebrated as Christmas, and tomorrow isn´t really a huge deal, so everyone does all their partying and festivities today. So i´ve been able to prepare some really cool gifts for some of the families we´re really close to, and i´ll be sure to take pictures for next week. I love you all, I hope all is well, and hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!! I know I sure will!

December 17th, 2012

December 17

Wow, that´s awesome Dad, thanks for the letter, That´s really cool to hear more about your mission. Were you able to baptize a lot of people? Were you ever a leader in your mission, such as Zone Leader or District Presidente or Asistente or algo? How was the mission organized back then? I´m sure it´s changed a lot. It´s really cool to finally be señor companion and be able to see the difference that I can make personally in my area. I´ve decided to utilize a lot more the members to be able to have a better relationship between them and the investigators, so that when the investigatores get baptized they can already be aquianted and have a lot of friends. It´s been cool these last few weeks to have some of the members go look for the investigators in the morning, so that not only do we not have to do it, we can be in another place getting other people, but the members and hte investigator can talk and have a good relationship. Also i´ve chosen to start doing a lot more service for the members. In the last 3 weeks we´ve done like 10-15 hours of service, which is actually quite a bit, and i´ve never seen another missionary do so much, which I don´t say to try to brag, but I have seen a big difference in how willing the members are when we´ve done service for them, rather than just ask them for a million things, and have them give us lunch. It´s been a really cool growing experience with the youth too, as we´ve been working more with them, getting them excited for EFY and things like that, which makes me really happy to see that I can be making a difference here in the area personally, applying the talents and things our Heavenly Father has given me personally. It´sreally cool to start applying the talents God has given us, and to keep working on the things we struggle with. My new companion is from Ecuador!! His name is Elder Harry Landires, and he´s awesome! It´s really funny because he knows all the songs that we used to listen to when we were younger, like Franco Devita and Luis Miguel, and sometimes we just start singing them, which is pretty funny. It´s really cool now too that I actually know what I´m saying and I can understand it! Thanks for all your emails. They´ve really helped me a lot to be able to focus more, and to keep what matters most in my priorities. Today was really cool, I started to study something really interesting, I started to study what it takes to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in our lives, and I started searching the scriptures and all the other books and things, and it´s amazing how you can just get lost in the scriptures finding little treasures. Studying that today really made me think a lot of you Dad, and how you´re always telling me to put God First, because I started reading a lot in Mateo and in Juan and things, and they´re always talking about how important it is to put God first, and to love him with all your heart. I made a cool little checklist to keep myself inline to be able to keep the first commandment, because as I began to study, it was saying how we need to Love God, and love our neighbors and things, and then I started thinking, well how do we do that? How do we love God, or show our love, and for our neighbor, and I came across a cool chain of scriptures. I found out by keeping the commandments we love God, and it´s cool, because i´m working on a really big project right now in my studies. It´s called PURIFY ME and what i´m doing, is I started a list on "How to Purify and Sanctify Yourself in God´s Standards" and what i´m going to do, is make a huge list, of the actual, literal steps to purify and sactify yourself, but breaking it down to the very littlest that I can. For example, Step 1 would be something like 1) Have Faith

----To have faith you have to: (And here i´d put how we gain faith, and how we do the steps to actually do the steps to gain faith)

Step 2) Repent (Or something like that, i´m just putting examples)

I´m not sure if this is making sense, but it´s really cool. And i´m breaking it all down the most I can which will be really cool. I want to have a huge long list of all broken down steps of exactly how to do it. So when I finish I´ll send it to you. I´m learning so much by doing that. Thanks for always teaching me those types of things, and teachign me to always analyze what it is God wants me to get out of passages of Scriptures. I didn´t include this part in my main email, but if you can please email it to mom so she can put it into the Blog that would be great. Thanks Dad for everything. I love you so much! I´m making a lot of cool traditions too for when I get home, I´ve thought of a lot that i´m goign to start doing the year I get home, which will be cool. Like every Christmas Eve everyone cooks a meal from their mission or something. I´m really excited, it´ll be awesome. Love you dad thanks for everythign, Have a good week. Love your son Elder Allsup

 

Hello, Everyone

 

So we had transfers, and I stayed here in Santo Tomé, but got a new companion from Ecuador, his name is Elder Harry Landires!! He´s almost as tall as me, and really dark, and talks pretty different than the people here, which is pretty funny, because he´s always asking me things in spanish, and he´s always asking me how to say things or what things mean. Oh he´s only got like 6 months in the mission which is really cool too. he´s the first companion I have that has a lot less time than me, which is pretty awesome! It´s challenging, but it´s a lot of fun. It was hard to say goodbye to my other companion Elder Martinsen, because we got really close, and we got along really well, but i´m excited to work with Elder Landires, and to get to work! Yesterday was pretty cool because Hermano Machado, the guy that waited 20 years to get baptized, passed the sacrament for the first time yesterday in church! That was pretty awesome to see how emotional he got. And Yesterday Esteban y Miriam invited us over for lunch, and they cooked us this huge meal with Capibara again! Here it´s called Carpincho, i´m not sure if Capibara is the real name in english or not, maybe you can look it up, but it was so delicious, and I gave them some of those sour warheads you sent me last package, and oh it was hilarious. Their 3 year old little daughter tried it first, and her face was absolutely priceless! I´m getting really attached to these people here. I love them so much. Especially my converts. I really see them basically as my own family now, and it´s really cool i´ll be able to spend Christmas with them, so i´ll be spending Christmas with my own family basically.

 

Yesterday our other investigator Celia went to church again! She´s so awesome. It´s so cool to see how prepared she is! She has a lot of questions and things, but it´s looking really good for her to get baptized in a week or two, so we´re really excited about that. This last tuesday we cut the lawn of our Branch Presidente´s house, and that was really fun. He had an electric lawn mower, which for here is like something really big, nobody has lawn mowers, they all just use macheties and things, but it was wierd cutting the lawn with a big chord in the way. It was actually more like vaccuming really, which was cool. It was cool the difference we made in the lawn, it looks great. We are also working really hard with a family called Galvan, which is a family of like 10. They´re all members but the parents aren´t married yet, but they´ve been together for like 20 years, they got baptized before they got together, and she was basically forced into marraige by her parents, and the guy she´s married to doesn´t want a divorce yet, so things are really complicated, but we´ve been able to reactivate them, adn they have a little special child named Guillermo, and he´s so awesome. He´s not extremely special, but it´s hard for him to talk, but the little stud just LOVES some people. Every time he sees us he comes running up the hill and comes and gives us a huge hug, and he mumbles just enough to be able to hear what he´s saying, but we got permission from the family, and from presidente and as long as he can understand the commandments, he can get baptized, which is like his DREAM because he´s had to watch his whole family get baptized over the years, and he really wants to, so we´re going to see what we can do to help him out, so if you can please pray for him and for Celia, and for Juan, Juan is a friend of this Galvan family that´s been going to church the past year, but he hasn´t really wanted to get baptized, but just a few days ago he told us how much he wants to get baptized! So we´re seeing some pretty awesome blessings here right now, and could really use all your prayers to help out! Hopefully we´re looking at like 2-3 baptisms in the next 2 or 3 weeks, so we´re really excited!

 

It´s really cool to finally be señor companion and be able to see the difference that I can make personally in my area. I´ve decided to utilize a lot more the members to be able to have a better relationship between them and the investigators, so that when the investigatores get baptized they can already be aquianted and have a lot of friends. It´s been cool these last few weeks to have some of the members go look for the investigators in the morning, so that not only do we not have to do it, we can be in another place getting other people, but the members and hte investigator can talk and have a good relationship. Also i´ve chosen to start doing a lot more service for the members. In the last 3 weeks we´ve done like 10-15 hours of service, which is actually quite a bit, and i´ve never seen another missionary do so much, which I don´t say to try to brag, but I have seen a big difference in how willing the members are when we´ve done service for them, rather than just ask them for a million things, and have them give us lunch. It´s been a really cool growing experience with the youth too, as we´ve been working more with them, getting them excited for EFY and things like that, which makes me really happy to see that I can be making a difference here in the area personally, applying the talents and things our Heavenly Father has given me personally. It´sreally cool to start applying the talents God has given us, and to keep working on the things we struggle with. My new companion is from Ecuador!! His name is Elder Harry Landires, and he´s awesome! It´s really funny because he knows all the songs that we used to listen to when we were younger, like Franco Devita and Luis Miguel, and sometimes we just start singing them, which is pretty funny. It´s really cool now too that I actually know what I´m saying and I can understand it! Lots of cool changes lately, and it´s been a lot of fun. So all is well here! Apart from our pension doesn´t have air, and in the pension at night it´s about 95 ish degrees, so it´s a little hard to sleep in like a pool of sweat, but i´m being really blessed to be able to just endure it. But the heat is getting here. Wow I forgot what it was like to sweat like when I first got here in the mission. Pretty crazy. But I love you all, thanks for everything. I´ll let you know next week what time i´ll be calling home on Christmas! Hope all is well, and that all are doing what they need to be doing! I´m really excited! Love you all, have a great week. Love Elder Allsup!

12/10/2012

Hey Everyone! HOLA DE SANTO TOMÉ ARGENTINA!!!

Sounds like everyone is doing well!! Sorry I haven´t sent any pictures for a little while, the computers have been a little crappy lately and I can´t figure out what´s going on. I´m not able to hook up my memory cards to the computer or my camera either. Really weird, but i´ll figure it out. I´m hoping it´s just the computer i´m using. So my mission president´s wife a few months ago had a stroke, and she´s been recovering in Buenos Aires, but this last week she was well enough to go back to the states, so my mission presidente and his wife went back to the states, and they´ll be there for a few months, but they didn´t release him, they just basically have a "substitute teacher" in right now, and his name is Presidente Digiovanni, which is pretty cool. He seems really awesome, I haven´t gotten the chance to meet him yet though. So if you could all keep Presidente and Hermana Heyman in your prayers that would be great, so that they can come back without problems.

This last week we did a family night with my converts Maria y Evelyn y Ruth, and Esteban y Miriam, which was a blast. We did a cool little game where everyone has a piece of paper, and I give them directions on what they have to draw, but they aren´t really specific, and it ends up that they have to draw a person, but nobody ever gets it right because I throw them off so much, and it´s hilarious to see what everyone draws, and then we relate it on how Prophets are so important, because even though The Bible and things have all we need, sometimes we need more specific directions. And so we read about prophets and how important they are, and it´s really fun. I´ve done it quite a few times here in Argentina with family nights. IT´s something I learned when I was still in primary like 10 years ago. We did it, and it´s always just stuck, and it´s a lot of fun. The Hermana Maria taught us how to make Pasta Frola too, which is a really good dessert that they eat here, adn it´s my favorite dessert, and it´s amazing, so now I know how to make it, and ii´m excited to make it all for you.

Last night, we also got to try Carpincho! I don´t know if you know what that is, but it´s supposedly Capibera or somethign like that in english, and it´s not really found in the states. Maybe you can look it up and see if you can find a picture, but it´s like a big otter looking thing, and it´s pretty famous here because they hunt it a lot, and i´ve ALWAYS wanted to try it, and finally last night a member invited us over to try it, and it was extremely good. I loved it. You just aren´t argentine until you´ve eaten Carpincho. So now I just need to try aligator, and i´ll basically be full Argentine! Haha but no it was really good, and I was really excited about being able to try it.

I´m planning some really cool Christmas ideas for here in this area too, which will be really fun. I´ll be sure to send a lot of pictures and things, but right now i´m planning on giving out a lot of gifts to my converts and hte members here. Like All the testimonies you all gave me last year, i´ve saved them for until now, and i´m going to translate them all and give them to the members or people that are struggling, and i´m going to film it, and theyll love it. I´m also planning on giving away a ton of the pictures and little fotos i´ve got of all the temples and of Jesus Christ and the pencils and CTR rings and all the little htings i´ve got, so that´ll be awesome, and i´ll be sure to send photos. Also we are planning to have a really cool activity where we make tons of sugar cookies with all the cookie cutters that Grandma gave to me. I´m going to make a ton of dough, and we´re going to let the members cookie cut it and decorate them with all the things she sent me. So i´m really excited about that.

This week was really successful for us. Now that i´m Senor companion i´m having to figure out my style of working, and i´ve finally found "my groove" to say it like that. This week we sent a ton of members to go look for people sunday morning to go to church, and we had a wonderful attendance. More than we´ve had in a long time. so that was really cool to be able to find my style and to see the success. We found a really cool lady named Celia, she´s got 4 kids and she´s like 25 years old without a husband and lives with her mom. We just felt like clapping her house, and she almost started crying right in the first lesson because she needed us so badly. And she went the very first sunday that we invited her, so we´re really excited about her. Please pray for her, and for Sole and Alberto, and Guillermo. Those are the people we´re teachign right now, and i´m running out of time to tell you all about them, but they´re great. I love you all, thank you so much for everything, I hope all is well. Stay strong, and enjoy this wonderful Christmas season! It´s almost 120 degrees here already, so enjoy the cold! Haha I love you all, have a wonderful week. Thanks for everything. Love Elder Allsup

Elder Quynton Allsup

12/3/2012

Hola a Todos! Como están? This week was a pretty good week. Yesterday was really cool, because Esteban got to bless the sacrament for the first time, and he did awesome! It was so cool. When he got done he looked over at me, and I just gave him a thumbs up and he had a huge smile! He´s so awesome. He invited us over to have a BBQ at his house, but the type of BBQ where they just make a huge fire, and put a grill rack with a ton of raw meat and just let it cook for like an hour over the coals, and it was so delicious. Me and my companion made empanadas of chicken today, all from scratch. We made the dough and everything, and they turned out great. Can´t wait to make them for all you guys! Me and him are thinking of starting an Argentine restaurant when we both get back. Well when I get back, he goes home in a week. But we make such good food. Seriously i´m pretty sure we could sell the food we make for some pretty good money. Especially bread. We´ve gotten really good at making bread.

This week was pretty cool, because we´ve been visiting all the less actives, and we´ve been meeting some great people. This week we visited like at least 15 less active members, and this week about 10 of them came to church. Which was a really cool miracle to know that the Lord has plans, and he really can use us, even if it´s just a little lesson of 20 minutes, and how it can change a lot of people´s week. It´s amazing to see how the Lord can use us as just little tiny tools, to really make such a difference in others´ lives. Just like he´s done with each of you in my own life. I can remember distict times with many of you, especially my family, where someone did something extremely tiny for me, and they probably didn´t even realize it was a big deal, but it changed my whole day, or my whole perspective, and it really helped. I really encourage everyone to look for those little opportunities. It really doesn´t have to be something big. My companion is a really good example of that, and he´s taught me a lot, in the sense of that. Sometimes he´ll just do cool little things, and it just changes a lot, my whole day sometimes. Sometimes he´ll wash the dishes when it´s my turn, or sometimes he´ll just make something to share, or sometimes he´ll do some other tasks that we usually take turns on. Just tiny little things, but they make a huge difference, it´s pretty interesting how different it is. So try it. Everyone. Try doing something little for a few people this week, and see how things go, it´s pretty crazy the differences you´ll see.

This last saturday I got a little sick. After lunch we got back to the pension, and all of a sudden out of nowhere I got a fever of 102, which is pretty bad when it´s already like 100 degrees outside and you don´t have air conditioning, so inside doens´t make a huge difference. It´s all gone now, but it was a little weird, just basically that day and a tiny bit yesterday were really severe, but now i´m completely fine. I think my body was just telling me to slow down a little and rest for a second. Which I think is probably good for each of us every once in a while to just take a break and rest! Take a break, make yourself something good to eat, and just rest without thinking of all the things that stress you out. Try just opening up the scriptures to any single page, and figure out what our Heavenly Father wants you to learn from that page. I´ve done that a few times this week and i´ve actually had some pretty cool little experiences with it. Dad always taught me that the Book of Mormon only has a very tiny amount of content for how much could have been put into it with all the records that the people had back then, so what all is there is of the most importance. Try reading the scriptures that way. Try to treat every single page like Mormon put it in the book for you specifically, and try to figure out why it´s there, and how it can benefit you. It´ll change your views, and you´ll have experiences like you´ve maybe never had before reading the scriptures. I love you all, and i´m so thankful for each of you, and for always supporting me. Thank you for all your prayers, i´ll need them this summer. It´s GETTING HOT! I´m already sweating like crazy, but it actually doesn´t get to me nearly as bad as last year.. Wow, that´s a little weird to say "as bad as last year". Can´t beleive i´ve already been here that long! But I love you all, stay strong, thanks for everything. ENJOY the snow! Love Elder Allsup!

11/27/2012

Hey Everyone! Sounds like everyone is doing well! Everything is going pretty good, we found some great people yesterday because it was a holiday here, and all the families are together, so that was great, and we made some really good home made italian bread. Me and my companion are cooking like crazy. Today I made no bake cookies, which were delicious! The area is doing really well. I made a really good area plan for our area, and we´ve been passing by all the less actives and other members, and we´re finding some really good people to teach! I also fixed the bottoms of my shoes this week, and it turned out pretty great. I got really lucky with the guy I took my shoes to. Sometimes they don´t do very good, but he did great, and I think they´ll last me my whole mission now because I chose some bottoms that the police here use, so that´s good.

  I also made an awesome study plan to read The New Testament, Old Testament, Jesus the Christ, The Book of Mormon, and The Doctrine and Covenants with the Pearl of Great Price, in the rest of the time I have in my mission, so that will be really fun to do. But as for all that, things are good here, the branch is doing much better, and we have about 40-45 people coming, which is about 10-20 more than when I got here, so we are seeing some really good success. I hope all is well up there! Sounds like Thanksgiving was great! Thanksgiving isn´t a holiday here, so I completely forgot about it until I saw all your pictures! Can you believe that! Forgetting about Thanksgiving, What´s wrong with me?? But I guess that just means i´m really focused, so that´s a good sign I think.

 This week I studied my patriarchal blessing a lot, and I encourage all of you that have them to pull them out every once in awhile. There are things now that I´m understanding better and better than ever before, and with the help of the scriptures we can really find the full potential of them in our lives. Thanks for all the support from everyone. My companion is from Blackfoot Idaho if you all didn´t know, and he´s goign home in like 2 weeks, which is sad because we get along really well, but it´ll be fun. I am just sick of killing my companions! (killing is a term used to refer when you have to send a missionary home for his last transfer) Because i will have done it 3 times! Nobody else in the mission has done it 3 times before! Haha so i´m pretty excited, we´ll see what The Lord has in store for me! Everyone should take a few minutes this week, sit down, and just start writing all your blessings. It´s amazing what Our Heavenly Father gives us!

 Sorry I don´t have a really cool thanksgiving email for you all, I totally forgot about it, so i´ll have a better one next week! Also, i´ll be sure to get that Advice for Missionaries list that i´m making done here soon. It´s so exciting that everyone is getting their mission calls! Not too long and we´ll be getting Tean´s! Wow, I can´t believe that. So Connor Kikel is going to Cordoba Argentina, and Preston Sharp is going to Spain?? Wow that´s crazy! Who else has their call? It´s so funny because the only other countries, literally, that people here in this part of Argentina make fun of is Cordoba and Spain, because they both have really distict accents, so that´s going to be funny when we all get back talking to eachother in our accents. Cordoba is known for "singing" when they speak ,because it´s really high pitched, and they dance with their words, and Spain is known for having a lisp when they speak, whenever they pronounce the "S" so that´s pretty funny. Plus they speak in a different form there. But i´m way excited for them! Tell their families i´m super excited and i´ll get that list out really soon! Love you All, have a great week! Love Elder Allsup

11/20/2012

Hey everyone! Hermano Machado got baptized!! Andrea had to travel to her mom, she´s really sick but we´re going to see what we can do this week. Sorry i´ve had a million things to do this week and don´t have time to write a whole lot, but here´s the story of machado:

20 years ago he entered into one of our churches, and since that day he´s been going to church almost every single week. But he still just didn´t have a strong testimony of things, and his family never supported him, because they´re all catholic, however he still went to church, and when I got to the area I felt really good about him, and we started to teach him like 3 months ago, and it still didn´t work out, so we left him, but about 2 weeks ago we stopped by to see how he was doing, and talked with his 12 year old daughter (The reason he didn´t get baptized for a long time, because she said she´d leave the house if he got baptized) and we talked to her, and thigns went great, the next day we talked to him, and he told us that he was ready. And now 20 years later here we are, the Elders that the Lord had used to help this awesome guy make a sacred covenant. The story is a little longer, but that´s the just of it, and I feel so blessed to have been apart of his conversion after such a long time. It is truly a miracle, and he´s glowing with happiness. I know this is the True gospel of Jesus Christ, and he watches over us and he has a plan. I love you all, thank you so much for everything!!

11/12/2012

1) Me and Elder Rogers! I got to see him in this Zone Conference!

2) Me and my companion Elder Martinsen with my 1 Year mark sign

3) The Ice Cream Challenge I did of 1 Kilo (2.2 LBS of Icecream)

4) Me with the Icrecream

Hey Everyone! Sounds like everthing is going great!! Tean is getting his wisdom teeth pulled? Ah that sucks. I remember mine, it wasn´t awful but it wasn´t the funnest thing i´ve ever done. That´s so exciting he´s getting his papers in. I can´t believe that! Sounds like work is going really well for him! Keep it up Tean, that´s really important and it´s going to help you a ton to save up and to start working really really hard, because here in the mission you´re going to work harder than you´ve ever worked before. Tance is getting good grades! That´s wonderful to hear! keep it up Tance, that will help you more than you can know to get a good habit of getting good grades and working hard in school. And Sawyer made the high school basketball team! Woah that´s great! You´ll have to tape all her games so I can watch them. That´s great finally one of Dad´s kids gets to play high school basketball!

 

Things are great here! I´ve been cooking a ton with my new companion and we both love to invent and cook things, which is a lot of fun! This week I completed one year! And here in our mission we have a tradition that when the Elders complete one year they have to eat a whole Kilo of icecream (2.2 Lbs of extremely rich icecream) which I thought would honestly be a breeze, and I wasn´t worried about it, and was really excited to try it. So I begin the day by starting to prepare, and didn´t eat a big lunch and went running and things to make some room, and at night we go buy the icecream and I start to eat, and to blaze through it no problem, until I get to about half way when I realize it was starting to physically hurt my stomach because it started to expand, so I just kept going, until I had like 5 bites left, and I literally couldn´t do it, but of course my companion started to just yell and telling me to just finish and kinda cheering me on and just making me do it basically, and I shoved it all but like 2 bites in, but I couldn´t do it! I ran into the bathroom and threw it up because I literally couldn´t do it with all the sugar and stuff!! I wasn´t sick or anything, and it didn´t make me sick at all or anything, but I couldn´t believe how hard it was! But it was hilarious and really fun. I´m going to do it again when I get the chance in the next week or two. I can´t just let 2.2 lbs of icecream beat me like that.

 

 But we have been working really hard. And Andrea and her family, the ones we´ve been teaching are going to get baptized this week as long as everything goes well! Also El Hermano Machado that was going to get baptized like 2 months ago, do you all remember him? Well he didn´t get baptized because his 12 year old daughter didn´t want him to before, but we talked to her, and then we went by last week, and we talked to him, and he´s going to get baptized too this week! So if everything goes according to plan, we´re going to have 4 baptisms this saturday!!! Woo Hoo!! I´m super stoked!! We also got to see the monkeys again yesterday, but extremely up close. We were about 4 feet away from them and I saw the tree just start moving like crazy, and I look over to see 5 monkeys playing together. It was so cool! So much fun to just watch them play and have fun in their own little monkey way! Me and my companion are getting along great. I love him already. We´re going to be great friends after the mission too. But we´re working really hard, it´s getting a lot hotter here, and we´re finding really good people to teach and we´re really excited.

 

 Sounds like everyone is doing great! Hope everyone is doing their prayers and reading and things, and I hope all the future missionaries are reading preach my gospel regularly. Tell everyone Hi for me and that I love them! See you all next week. Love Elder Allsup

Nov 6, 2012

Hey Everyone, I´m still here in Santo Tomé, but I got a new companion. His name is Elder Martinsen, and he´s from Idaho. We are getting along really really great. We are also having a lot of fun together, and i´m excited to be here. He´s also going to finish his mission in 5 weeks. Haha President keeps putting me with all the missionaries that are ending! I´m not sure why! But all my companions have been really good leaders here in the mission, so that´s really cool. I´ve been learning a lot and i´m excited to keep learning, and this transfer i´m Missionary 1, which is basically the one in charge, and it´s my first transfer being missionary number 1, so that´s exciting and pretty fun to be able to lead now.

 

But we´re working really hard, and sounds like everyone is doing really well! I don´t have time this week sorry, this internet shop is a little full and we got here a little late. But sounds like everyone is good, and we are still teaching Andrea and her family now! They all came to church, so we´re really excited, and we´re hoping they can get baptized this week or the next week, we´ll see. But if you could please pray for them, that would help a lot. Thanks for all hte support, next week i´ll have a better email, sorry I don´`t have time today. But I love you all, thank you all for all you do, and next week Ill try to send you the lists! Love Elder Allsup

 That´s crazy Tean is already starting his papers! And Tance is already playing again! Seems like yesterday he broke it! That´s cool you´re getting things done in the backyard. Sounds like it´ll be really nice when I get home, and when I can see it all.

 I can´t believe I´m completing 1 year in the mission this week. It seems like yesterday I was in the MTC or opening my call!! I learned a lot this week about how God blesses us. He really blesses us when we do all we can to obey him and to do what he needs us to do. It is getting really really hot here already, but surprisingly the heat isn´t getting to me like it did before. I think it´s because i´m so completely focused here. It´s like I don´t even want to sleep because I just want to go out and work. It´s almost a burden to get home at night and have to go to sleep at night. I am so focused that I don´t even know what day it is sometimes! But I´m seeing so many blessings that it´s amazing.

He is blessing me with not having anything else really matter a whole lot. I am just loving to work, which before I really enjoyed working, and leaving to go teach and things, but it´s actually like addicting now. I think it´s because i´ve really basically given all I have to work, and I know that i´m being blessed for it. I encourage each of you to really do the same. Obviously the Lord doesn´t require you in your lives to do what i´m doing, but do everything you can and he´ll bless you.

Read your scriptures. Go to church. Go to seminary AND PAY ATTENTION. Go visit the less active members in your quorums, Go and invite your non member friends to church. These things bless our lives, and the lives of so many others. I testify to each of you that God has given us these things to strengthen ourselves, and others. I gave a class yesterday in church and It was about hte personal responsibility we have, and the work. If we work hard, it doesn´t have to be a burden. If we do all we can for the Lord, it becomes fun. Thank you so much Mom and Dad for always teaching me these things. I was able to teach yesterday and help these people to understand that those thigns don´t have to be "work", and they can be fun. I love you all, and i´m so thankful for your examples! I´ll try to write more next week. Have a wonderful week, and WORK HARD!!!!!!

10/29/2012

Saturday we had the baptism of Esteban y Mirian!! It was great! I was able to confer Mirian a member yesterday too. The first one i´ve done personally here in Argentina. Yesterday was pretty crazy, the night before last I couldn´t sleep because the thunder was so loud, and the lightning lit up the whole room and was super bright, and I got up to go look outside, and didn´t realize my companion had gotten up too, and we scared the crap out of eachother. But it´s been raining like crazy, and yesterday the bishopric and us, and Esteban y Mirian were the only ones in church, which was pretty crazy to only have like 8 people. But the baptism was great and everything went smoothely.

 

 We have transfers this week so we´ll see what happens. I get a new companion no matter what, but I think i´ll stay here in Santo Tomé for at least another transfer. So that´s exciting, and i´ll let you know. Next Monday we have Zone Conference, so I´ll have to write on Tuesday, just to let you know, so you´re not waiting an email. But i´m doing really well here. It´s getting really hot, but the rain is refreshing us a little bit. But it´s been raining harder for longer than i´ve ever seen. I´ll make my list of what i´d like for my package, and i´ll send it the next week, because I hear around Christmas the packages take a lot longer. Thanks for everything! Hope all is well! Love you all, thanks for the support!

10/22/2012

This week was really big! I hope you all remember Esteban y Mírian from a few weeks ago? The house that we were walking, and I just had a slight impression to go clap and we went, and they attended the conference? Well they have been coming to church for about a month now, and the week before last, we got all the arrangements for them to get married, and we paid for them to get married and everything! So on friday they got married, and we invited them to have a BBQ in their house, and we paid for that too, and this Saturday they´re going to get baptized! Wow, it´s so awesome! They are so humble, and so obediente, and really want to progress in the Church. We are literally seeing how the spirit is changing their lives. It´s so amazing how ready they were. They both gave up alcohol, Esteban stopped working sundays, and they are keeping every single other commandment. It´s amazing to see their progression. If you could all pray that they can get baptized this saturday please, it would be great. THanks for all the prayers. I can feel them.

 

It´s starting to get really hot here, but it´s been raining the past 3 days, so that helps a lot. But it´s extremely humid, which makes it hard to breathe, and we sweat even more in the humidity, but it´s nice to get out of the freezing cold. We have been traveling a lot this week, which is really fun. We had a few conferences this week in Oberá, Misiones, which is pretty close to my other area, and I love traveling and getting with all the other Elders, and it´s a lot of fun to get to know the other areas of the mission. But 3 weeks ago my mission president´s wife had a stroke, and she´s in Buenos Aires recuperating, so be sure to pray for her too please. The mission presidente is in Resistencia now, still managing the mission, and he goes to visit every once in a while, but he´s doing well. On Wednesday we had interviews with him via Skype, which was pretty interesting, but pretty funny. We also are teaching some really great people. Andrea Santarén. She´s a reference from a member, and she´s extremely sincere. She´s about 40 years old, and her husband works on a farm really far away, so he´s only here for about 15 days at a time, and she´s got 5 kids, so that´s pretty rough on her, but she´s really awesome, and she´s going to get baptized in 2 weeks we are hoping. We are also teaching some other really good people. My companion is finishing his mission this week, and he´s heading back to Peru, so that´s a little sad. We get along really well, and we work extremely well together. He´s a really great companion, and It´ll be a little hard, but i´m excited for a new companion and to get to know someone else!

Something I learned well this week: Sometimes we think about how much we are going to give the Lord. DON¨T. Give it all and he will teach us that no sacrifice to him is in vain. I learned that really well this week. We worked so hard I could barely walk last night basically! But I´m really happy about it. Thanks for all the support, and for the prayers. Hope all is well. love you all! Love Elder Allsup

10-15-12

This place is closing, so i´m unable to write a letter, we don´t have internet for the rain, i´ll try to write next week, sorry, love you, all is well,  I love you, thanks for everything. Have fun. Tell everyone to check next week for a really really awesome email from me, lots of cool thigns happening! Gonna be a great week, so tell everyone on Facebook to look at the next letter! Love you all tell all hi for me

10-8-12

Hey Everyone! Pretty crazy week, It´s rained all week pretty much without stop, but this Tuesday, a week ago, we were about 2 miles from the apartment, at about 7 pm, fairly late in the afternoon, watching the lightning storms while walking to an appointment, when the Zone Leaders called, and asked if we had food, and water, and we responded that yes we had water and food. Then they said, look we don´t have a lot of time, we have to notify the rest of the zone, but go back to your apartment right now, and if your apartment doesn´t hold up, go to the church. A little puzzled, we just said, alright, no problem, and started walking toward the pension, when a HUGE storm hit. The biggest i´ve ever seen in my life. The wind was knocking us over, the rain literally hurt hitting our backs, and the streets started to fill with water really quickly. We were in a really really poor part of our area, and it was a disaster. The power lines started to fall, and we were walking in about 1 1/2 feet of water, watching the water carry things down the street. It was literally the first time I have ever been physically scared of a storm, and literally the first time i´ve ever been scared that something very serious might happen to me or my companion. It was really really dangerous, and we started to basically run to the apartment, and it was literally like trying to run in a little river because of all the water. I still can´t believe we made it to the pension without any harm, but we did. Both of our umbrellas were pretty destroyed, and my boots were pretty messed up, but they´re fine now. It was amazing! I don´t have a lot of time because it´s still storming here, and the internet is going in and out, but i´ll write more next week. Hope you all loved General Conference! It was great, and really cool to be able to translate things. Some of the messages didn´t translate or something so I was able to translate for our branch! It was pretty cool, but I hope we can all put into practice all the things we´ve learned! I love you all, i´ll write more next week. Have a wonderful week, sounds like everyone is good, i´m proud of you all! Have fun on your trips and things! Love Elder Allsup

PS. Tean go on your mission with the good news!!! Congrats with working with Andy, sounds like it´ll be great, work hard and have fun with it!

10/1/2012

Hey Everyone!

Wow, Tance coached? That´s pretty cool, seems like it´d be a little hard, but that´s cool he did well. That´s great he´s getting good grades. I know that is something that will help anyone in their life, and to set good habits forever. That Missionary retreat sounds like fun. What exactly did they do? That´d be great if Tean could be working 2 jobs, because I know that working really helps, and it doesn´t matter what type of work, it´s all great. That´s really awesome Tean got his Eagle. That´s something I wish I would have done. I know it´s soemthing that he´ll never forget. And Sawyer got braces? Woah that´s crazy. Sounds like a hassle. The puppie sounds like fun, you´ll have to send a picture of it so I can see. Yorkies are pretty fun. I hope we have Goats milk when I get home, whether we have tons of goats or not, I hope we are still able to have the milk!

General conference will be good, we are going to travel about 2 hours to watch it, the same place we went last sunday, and it should be a lot of fun. We´re really excited. The food is good, I´m trying to eat a lot better, it´s really hard with our schedule, but i´m trying. Any tips for losing weight, or a good snack that´s easy to make? This summer is going to be hot, and i´m going to try and excercise a lot better and eat a lot better so I don´t gain weight. I´m learning to make a lot of good food, and my companion is from Peru, and he´s teachign me to make a lot of things too, so that´s good. I haven´t gotten any packages yet, but that doesn´t mean they haven´t arrived, if they don´t get here in a few weeks i´ll let you know.

Some things really cool yesterday - Maria, our convert, got called to be the Releif Society Presidente! She has less than a Month being a member and she´s already the Presidente, how cool! So the next time any of you don´t feel ready, Just think of her! Less than a month being a member and she´s already got a huge calling. It´s amazing to see how prepared they are and how willing they are to serve the Lord, because her daughter, our other convert is in the young womens already. How cool! I also gave a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting, which was pretty cool to do it all in castellano and not have to write anythign word for word.

Other than that, not a whole lot happened this week, still working hard, and trying to find those that the Lord has prepared. Thanks for all your prayers, I know they are helping me, and supporting me. Stay strong everyone, and prepare for the general conference!

I love you all, thanks for everything! Love Elder Allsup

9/24/2012

Hey Everyone, first, the photo is of Me and my Companion with Elder Ávila, of the 70. He came, and yesterday we had a district conference, and he gave one of the best talks i´ve ever heard.

How crazy, Tance got injured again? Sheesh. Sounds like that kills. Are they going to have to break the bone or anything? What are they going to do to heal it up? A month without sports is going to kill him! That would be rough. Be strong Tance, keep working hard, and if you can´t physically, work hard mentally. Use this time to study well so that when you´re ready to go, your mind will be even stronger. THings like that happen for a reason. Before the mission I didn´t really pay attention, or try to understand why things like that happen, but I promise if you pray, and read the scriptures, and ask Heavenly Father for an answer, he will answer you, and you will know what he wants you to do. I encourage everyone to do that with the trials and things that are passing through. We need to ask our Heavenly Father SPECIFICALLY about what we want to know, then begin to read the scriptures, search the answer, and pray hard, and I know he will answer, because he has done it in my life many many times.

Mom, I was thinking, you should do what The Mckee´s did with Miles and his mission, with a big board in the family room, of a map of my mission in Argentina, and put where i´ve been and some pictures around it. That would be really cool, I always loved looking at the one that they had. Ask Charli how to do it, i´m sure she´d be more than willing to help you out with it. Send me some pictures when you have it!

Tean, I know that because you made plans to go to that retreat, God will bless you. I know how hard it is to work things around with Work, and how uncomfortable it is to ask people, but that´s really cool you were able to attend that. I know that it probably really helped you with the mission, and I know that things like that are inspired, and we should all really try our hardest to attend those activities, because the Lord inspires them, and helps us to make them turn out the way they need to. That´s cool that you are all working on the backyard, should look great bythe time I get home, and i´m glad you´ll have goats because the milk here is really different, and I can´t wait to start drinking real milk again! How was the lunch with Xotchil and Charli? what did you do? I love the Temple Dedications, and I hope that when this part of Argentina gets a temple, we can all attend together! The temple dedications are really special. That´s cool you were all able to go to that.

This week was a really spiritual week for me. We were really struggling with having some new investigators that were willing to progress, and to find the poeple that God has prepared, but this week was really awesome. On Thursday we were walking to one of our old investigators, and we were trying to think of things we could do to find more people, and not just walk aimlessly, and we started to walk down a road, and I just had a thought come to my mind, "I think we need to walk down the other road...." So we walked down the other road, and started to just clap a few houses, but nobody was there, and we were about to leave, when I had another though, " Go to the end of the road, there has to be someone here that is ready to listen to us" and we found a family of 3. Esteban (25) Mírian(24), and their little 3 year old girl Valeria. They aren´t married, yet, but They are so awesome. We had that conference yesterday, but the thing is, it was 2 hours in travel to get there, and it was a little hard to get our branch to go, so we hired a bus to take us, and the bus left at 6 in the morning, but Esteban and his family comitted themselves to go, and when we went to go pick them up yesterday morning at 6 AM, they were all ready outside and Esteban had even cut his hair for the meeting, (he had a big long rat tail the day before) and they are really ready. They loved the conference and felt the spirit really strongly. I know God plans things. And I know he guides those that are worthy, and willing to let him guide them. I know that this Church really is guided by Jesus Christ, and through his church leaders, he guides each one of us IF we pay attention, and listen to the spirit, and we are willing to do our part. I know that Joseph Smith restored this church. He was commanded to do so many things, and each time I learn more and more about him, and the Book of Mormon, the more and more thankful I am that God loves us enough to help us in times of Trial. Thank you all for your hard work and support, I hope everyone is reading and studying the scriptures and praying a lot, and going to church. Those are the things God asks of us, and if we do them, he blesses us. It´s as simple as that. I love you all, I hope you can understand this email, I wrote it really fast and a little all over the place.

 

Sawyer, you be strong too, I know braces probably aren´t super fun, but you can do it! You are stronger than most guys I know, so just be strong, and use your Allsupness to overcome it!

 

Me and my companion are great, we are working really hard, and getting along great. He´s a great Elder and i´m really excited to be working with him. and yes it´sstarting to get really really hot already unfortunately

 

Love, Elder Allsup

9/17/2012

Hey Everyone! Maria and Evelyn are doing great, and hopefully going to get callings this week, so that´ll be awesome! Not a whole lot to write this week, pretty average week. But I did want to see if you are able to see all the pictures I send? Are they working fine? I hope so. This week we met a woman with 18 children, and she´s less active, and all her kids are members, so we are going to be working with them a lot hopefully. But imagine 18 kids! Wow... Also here in Santo Tomé, there are frogs everywhere, which is awesome. Just walking along hte street we see frogs every 5 or 6 steps, and they are pretty funny to watch. Hermano Machado was supposed to get baptized this week, but he told us that if he gets baptized, his 13 year old daughter will leave the house because she doesn´t want him to get baptized. It´s really difficult, that a little 13 year old girl is stopping her dad from doing something so big in his life. But we are going to continue working with him. It´s already super hot here, and we are already sweating a ton, but we´re getting used to it again. And Diego and Martha are also slipping away a little bit. The old guy is going pretty crazy and they aren´t willing to come to church right now. So we are lacking a few investigators, but we´re still working really really hard. Thanks for all your prayers! The Homecoming pictures are great. They are both so grown up, I can´t beleive it! They look so old, but really good. That´s cool they were able to do that! That´s cool about your story mom. it´s Amazing how well you can listen to the spirit. It´s something that is extremely hard for me, especially with all the distractions, but i´m getting better at it. Sounds like everyone is good! Thanks for all the insight and quotes! Thanks for all the support, I love you all! Have a great week, Nos Vemos

9/10/2012

First Photo, we did a barbeque today, and it was super delicious

Second Photo, same thing, but raw

Third Photo, WE SAW THE MONKEYS ON SATURDAY!!! Right next to our pension!! So we ran to get our cameras, they are so awesome, this is a picture of hte mom with her little baby on her back!

Fourth Photo, Same thing, of the sweet monkeys!

Fifth Photo, us with Grape Fanta!

Sixth Photo, just a little glimpse of how green everything is here in our area

Hey Everyone

I am loving this area more and more every single day. It´s so awesome. I´m loving the mission so much. Me and my companion are getting along great, and he´s already one of my best friends. We are working so hard, too. We basically jog from house to house, and we measured it out a few days ago, we walk an average of about 10 miles per day. It´s a lot of walking, but I got used to it the first few weeks of my mission. Now it´s normal. But still, there are days when i´m pretty beat.  I love this branch. The members are so great. And they are starting to help us out a lot more, and it´s really cool to see the progress.  Some cool things this week, is that everyone in the mission is crazy about Grape Fanta, the soda, because it´s only sold in Brasil, and since my area is basically Brasil, it´s the only area in the mission where it´s sold, so this tuesday we did divisions with another Elder, our District Leader, and of course we flew to go buy Grape Fanta, and it´s hilarious how much all the other Elders are so envious of it, Especially all the latinos, because it´s not really sold in south america. So we went to buy a pizza, and grape fanta, and it was pretty awesome. 

We found a really awesome family this week, They are like 75 and 76 years old, Diego and Martha, and they are super ready. They are a reference from Maria and Evelyn, those that got baptized last week, and they are already so obedient. Diego has a lot of health problems, and he can´t walk very well, but he´s hilarious. Anyways, we taught them the word of wisdom, and asked them if we could trade all the tea they had for juice, and Martha went inside, and brought out like a huge grocery bag of tea they had, and it was so cool how willing they were to be obediente to a commandment that two 20 year old kids taught them. They feel the spirit super easily, and it´s really cool to see how they light up in the lessons. Diego cries almost every lesson that we have, even though we´re outside with chickens and dogs surrounding us. It´s really fun to teach them. 

Also, this week, by Martha and Diego´s house, there are like 4 wild parrots, and every single time we pass, they say, "Hola!" like 54 times, hahaah it´s hilarious.  Also, we were able to see the Monkeys this week that live by our pension! It´s so awesome! There are 4, The dad, who is pure black, the mom is like a cream, and two little baby monkeys that are hilarious.  Yesterday, we got to travel to the District Center to watch the Temple Dedication of Buenos Aires, and it was really awesome. Just like the one we got to see for Oaker Mountain but for Buenos Aires, and the temple is beautiful. The cool part is that D. Todd Christofferson speaks spanish and he directed the whole thing, and then a lot of Argentines spoke. It was such an awesome experience. When Elder Eyring spoke, it was really powerful. And the cool thing too is that all the other apostoles that spoke, spoke in english, and there was a translator, so that was a cool experience. 

That´s so awesome Tance and Sawyer sang! Sounds like it went great! And Tean will be a cashier, that is awesome!! I´m proud of each of you, that´s great!  That story about Grandma and Grandpa is hilarious, I´m sure it was hilarious for the others to watch. ´That´s cool Bro Quick said that, I remember how cool he was with all the youth, just like Ryan Dodge. Our branch really needs people like that. It´s hard because there are a ton of inactive youth here, but there aren´t a ton of activities and things to keep them active, that´s something I´m really thankful for, to live in a big ward with really fun people, and lots of activities.  Tell The Dodge´s to name one Quynn. that´s awesome! Who cares about favorites! That´s a great talk abou the ensign, i´m going to put that in practice, because we always ask people if they need soemthing to just call, but that would be awesome to just start doing it without them even knowing, or just to show up one day. Thanks for that idea!  How´s the ward doing? Tell everyone I say hi, and that I pray for them every day, and thank you for all the prayers I receive.

Thanks for everything from everyone, I really appreciate all the support, I hope you enjoy the emails, I´m working hard for each of you! I love you all, thanks.