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.

9/3/2012

Pictures:

First two pictures are of my daily planner, I like to put pictures on them so they aren´t just the same everytime, maybe a hint for all the future missionaries!

Second image is our baptism we had!! So awesome! Their names are Maria (The Older) and Evelyn (The Younger) THey are the two that realized all the churches weren´t true, and they called us. They are so awesome. They have so much faith, and they are so obedient. Even to the Sabbath day, they ask us any single little thing they are unsure of so that they are super obedient to all of the commandments and things. THey are a huge example to me, in how they want to serve the Lord and his commandments. Really cool. Also, the little girl Ruth, is super intellegent, and the other day we showed up, and the mom of the little girl, (Evelyn) told us that Ruth had soemthing she wanted to share with us, and Ruth said, "I prayed and asked god, and he told me the church of the missionaries is the only true church of God." She´s only 5 years old! Haha how awesome is she! How awesome of an example is she to all of us? We all need to try to use our faith like that, and I know that The Lord can really help us like he helped her to know!  They were so happy after their baptism. It was so awesome to see their faces, and how truly happy, and joyful they were. I wish you could have all seen their faces as they came out of the water, and how truly joyful they were!

So is Xotchil living with you all now? Or is she living with Rosse and Giovanni? I´m not sure I understood really well. That´s awesome that she´s there though, with all of you! How´s her english? I will be able to speak to her in both languages when I get home, that´s pretty cool! Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting, and to hear these people´s testimonies is amazing. They have such faith, and they really have a great attitude about it, even though it´s extremely difficult to be a member here. It made me remember when Tean was a kid, and he said "I´d like to bury my testimony" haha I told my companion that and he was laughing forever. My companion sends his "Hello´s" to everyone. 

Dad- Thanks for that idea about the Study Journal, I started it, and it´s going to be something really important in my life, I can´t wait to share it all with you when I go home. It´s going to be really cool to have in my life, and in my mission.  Thank you.  

Tean, and all other future missionaries- You need to start reading Preach my Gospel and the scriptures. I promise you that it will help you more than you can imagine. But don´t just read, start to study. I wish I had done that to prepare more. I know it´s extremely hard, and seems boring, but once you really start to do it, you´ll love it. Please start to read and study, It will help you so much, and you can really tell which missionaries studied and learned before their missions. Please go buy Preach my Gospel and just start reading from page one, and also the Book of Mormon. I know it will be difficult, but SO worth it you can´t even imaginE!

I love you all, thanks so much for all you do, sounds like all is well, study good in school!! Nos Vemos!