January 21, 2013

Jan 21

Hey Everyone! Hope you all got to look at the pictures I sent! They are pretty awesome!! This week we´ve got transfers again, so we´ll see what happens, if I leave or if I stay... "Should I stay or should I go" (the song, haha)

 

This week we had 4 baptisms!!! Albertina Piriz 63, Celia Benitez 28, Raul Almiron 9, and Aldana Kigental 8. It was a huge success, and after a lot of really hard, challenging weeks, and little battles, we finally were able to see all the success! I also found out that my trainer Elder Taylor actually taught Celia 3 years ago when he was in my area, and it was amazing to see how we were guided by the spirit to find her, and to get her baptized to be able to recieve so many new blessings! We have been teaching her for like 6 weeks now, and it was honestly extremely difficult to teach her, because she´s got 4 little kids, without a father figure, so they are really really bad at behaving, and soemtiems threw rocks at us, or would come jump on us with their dirty little hands and feet and get us all dirty, or they´d yell during the lesson, and just a bunch of really annoying distractions! But finally we were able to teach her well enough to get baptized, and she is a completely different person now. It was a miracle that we found her as well, because we were just passing by, and I looked at hte house, saw her, and just stopped to talk to her, and she actually rejected us completely at first, but the spirit told me to just keep insisting, because personally I don´t like to insist more than once or twice when people reject us, but the spirit told me to just keep going, and she finally let us in and from the first charla I could tell that she was pretty prepared. But she had a lot of obstacles personally with her family and everything.

 

The baptism was awesome, but also had a lot of little obstacles of its own haha. Obstacle number one, the water was from the river, so it was like completely brown. Obstacle number two, two of the little kids started fighting, one pushed the other, and the one fell down and hit his nose really hard and started bleeding all over the place, and the blood got all over my companion´s shirt right before the baptism. Third obstacle, our branch presidente got really sick, and couldn´t make it, so we had to call and round up his councelors. Fourth obstacle the little kids that were going to get baptized didn´t show up for a whole hour, and we had to start really late. But haha even with all that, we were finally able to just get them all baptized, and it was a wonderful night, full of a ton of excitement, and true joy. This week was pretty crazy preparing for all that, but now that it´s over and they´re all extremely happy, I´m extremely happy too. Thanks for all the prayers, without them I don´t know that we could have done it! We just about stretched ourselves over the limit! But we also helped Maria Piriz move to her new house, so that was a lot of fun. But I´m out of time, thanks for everything, I love you all, hope all is well! Have a wonderful week!! I´ll answer all the questions next week! Love Elder Allsup

January 14, 2013

Hey Everyone, just a quick, short letter this week, because we went to Resistencia twice, so basically we didn´t really work a whole lot in our area, but it was great, and a lot of fun to see everyone! We went to Resistencia, and we got to eat at Macdonalds for the first time in almost a year for me. Plus I got to be with all my group from the MTC for like 2 days, which was super fun. I miss them a lot, and we get along super good. Some of my very best friends in my life now, because of everything we´ve all done together, and how much we´ve all progressed and learned together. So Resistencia was really fun. The busses we travel on are really nice, when it´s long distances. I would probably say even a tiny tiny bit nicer than an airplane, which is nice. But yesterday was really fun, because we made Tacos for Esteban y Miriam, so that they could try them, and they ended up loving them. It was really fun to cook in their house with them, and to just have a fun afternoon. THe tacos turned out excellent, and made me miss some of the food we all eat regularly, but I love the Argentine food still, so no worries. I also made Peanut Butter cookies for them to try, and they weren´t super stoaked about those, just because that type of food doesn´t exist, even in the least here. They don´t even know what peanut butter is, but it was funny, and they were excited to try them. This week we´ve got 3 baptisms planned, so all the prayers we can get would help a lot. Celia, Albertina, y Raul. Raul is a kid of 9 years, and he is super excited. His family was less active but we´re reactivating them and he´s goign to get baptized. Albertina is that Brazilian lady, she´s super sick, and super awesome. It´s amazing to see how much she´s been converted to the Lord. And Celia is the same lady that was going to get baptized a few weeks ago, she´s just been having a few little things stopping her, but with lots of prayer and asking, she´s going to get baptized this week. So we´re being really blessed lately! Despite the fact that me and my companion are so different, and we don´t always see eye to eye on everything. But I expected it, because i´ve had such amazing companions the last 3 transfers, that I had to get one to teach me something that is hard for me, and to test my patience a little. But we´re working through it, and we´re doing well. But thanks for everyhting. I love you all and hope all is well. Sounds like Sawyer is tearing it up in basketball! That´s awesome, keep it up! And Tean with his papers, that´s so crazy. I still can´t believe it. But i´m super excited to hear where he´s going. And Tance is driving still kills me, I can´t believe they´re all so old and growing up. Nuts. But Sounds like all is well, i´m really proud of each of you, always work hard, and do your best, even when it´s not easy. That´s what i´m learning right now in my mission. And somethign that Mom and Dad always taught me. Oh, and yesterday was pretty cool, Esteban and Hermano Machado, my two converts were the two to bless the sacrament, so that was really cool to see them both blessing the sacrament! It´s so cool to baptize priesthood holders, so that they can bless their own families and everything. Oh and tell Emma that i´m so proud of her and that I love her, and wish I could be there, but that i´m helping other kids to be able to enjoy what she´s going to enjoy, and that I know what she is doing is the absolute BEST thing she could be doing in her life, and I´d do anything to be there to support her. If you could tell her that, i´d really appreciate it! I love you all, thanks!!!

Jan 7, 2013

Hey Everyone! This week was pretty great! I got my package, and just wanted to thank everyone for everything! It´s all absolutely awesome, and I love it! I´ve let my companion try some of the things I love, and he has liked the majority of it! Haha, not so much on the sour patch kids. They don´t really have sour candy in his country, in Ecuador. But I´ve been enjoying all of hte things like crazy, and all the little toys i´m going to give away to all the members today, so that´ll be really fun, i´ll be sure to take some pictures. We´ve also made a ton of Tacos, and cookies with the members, because nobody has any idea of what Tacos are, and they don´t have cookies here, so it´s pretty cool to see how much they all love them! We´ve got some fun family night plans too with some of the treats and things. I´ll be sure to take a lot of pictures so you can all see.

 

On monday for New Year´s Eve, we had an amazing experience with Maria y Evelyn y Ruth. They invited us over to eat with them, and they cooked some really awesome food for us. They made some chicken, with real Mexican salsa, which I haven´t had mexican salsa since I left the states, because they never eat it here, because Argentine´s hate spicy food, and they don´t want anything to do with it, but she knew me and my companion liked it, and was willing to make it for us, which was awesome. I also gave Ruth that Book of Mormon in drawings, and I gave them each a few pictures of the temple, and some CD´s of the Book of Mormon, and I was able to give them quite a bit of things, and little 5 year old Ruth was so excited, and they actually bought us some really cool gifts as well, and Ruth gave me one of her little stuffed bunny rabbits that she´s had since she was a little baby, and used it to sleep every night. It was really cool to see how thankful they were, and how they just wanted to give us everything. I really wanted to give them everything I had! I was so thankful for them. It was a really awesome experience, and it was absolutely perfect. Just how I pictured my new years being, even before the mission.

 

The last few days it has rained probably harder than i´ve ever seen in my whole life. A HUGE storm came in from Brazil, and it´s been hammering us with just buckets, and buckets of rain for the past 2 days. But yesterday, even with the rain, Albertina, our investigator from Brazil, (Maria´s cousin) came with her daughter, and they absolutely loved it. Plus, she gave us each a 2 dollar bill of Brazilian "Reales", which was really really cool of her, and she also gave us a bag of brown sugar, because here they basically don´t have brown sugar. It´s really hard to find, and really expensive when you can find it, but in Brazil they use the exact same kind as we do in the states, so i´m really excited to be able to use that. It was pretty funny too, because yesterday we went to teach them, and they actually got locked out of their house, and we had to break a little bit of the window to get in. It reminded me of that mobsters and mormons movie. It was pretty funny. We looked like robbers for a few minutes.

 

On Thursday we went to Resistencia to renew my visa, but their system was down, so we weren´t able to do it, and they let us go into the city and look around. It was awesome. It´s so nice, and huge! But the travel was pretty brutal. It was 8 hours there and back, and we had to travel at 1 am in the morning, so i´m pretty beat, but it was a really fun experience. Resistencia is huge, it´s like salt lake, but with a ton of different stores and things. Pretty cool to be able to just walk around and check out all the new technology that I haven´t seen in a year, because i´ve been in small little isolated towns my whole mission, but I love it. It was a really fun week, and this week it looks like we´ll have to travel a few more times, but i´m excited, we´ll see how it goes. Oh, I also got to see Elder Adams! And we took a picture, even though I had just woken up from the 8 hour trip. So that was fun to see him. Thanks for everything, and all the support, and all the prayers. They are helping a lot, and we´re still working really hard here, doing what we can. I´m praying for everyone, thanks again for the package, I love it! Have a wonderful week. Love Elder Allsup

12/31/2012

Photo number 1: Picture of the family Campopiano, for Christmas I gave them a Preach my Gospel because the two boys will be going on missions this next year! She is the one that washes our garments every week. Awesome family

 

Photo number 2: I gave Esteban y Miriam (my converts) that picture of the first presidency, and I laminated it and put my testimony on the back and stuff, it was a really fun night with them.

 

Photo number 3: Baptism of Guillermo (9year old special boy) and Juan (18 year old) they both got baptized this last saturday and it was an incredible night! They both had been through a lot of missionaries but never were able to get baptized, and weren´t ever ready before, but the Lord blessed us to be able to get them both baptized!

 

Photo number 4: Another photo of baptism with the Branch Presidente (Older guy) and the 1st councelor (younger guy)

 

Photo number 5: A picture of Guillermo coming out of the water. He was SO stoked!! He absolutely loved it!

 

Photo number 6: A picture of Juan coming out of the water, he was super excited too!

 

Photo number 7: A picture of us and Juan coming out of the water

I sent a few photos in the last email, I hope you all enjoy them! It was really awesome being able to skype you all and see you all, and see how you are all doing! I was able to get a hold of Gigi and Papa for a few minutes too, which was great to be able to talk to all the cousins and aunts and uncles that were there. It really helped me a lot to talk to each of you and see your faces, and how excited you all were! I thought it would make me miss you all more, but it did the opposite to know you´re all doing well, and you´re still there, and still my family! And to be able to see Josh too was great. You all seem like you´re doing well, and I hope you were able to have a wonderful Christmas! We passed it really well, and were able to enjoy a lot of food, and a lot of company from the members here. They are all wonderful, and they all say hi to each of you! I showed them all pictures of you and that made it a lot more personal, which was really cool. Last monday I was able to give a few really cool gifts out to people. The first, I gave a Preach my Gospel to one of the really active families here, called the Campopiano family. They have a boy that is going to be leaving on his mission this year, and another boy that will leave in 2 years, and the mom is really focused on helping us, so I gave them a preach my gospel to be able to prepare and to be able to read together as a family. It was really cool to see how thankful they were, and it was cool because it really wasn´t a big deal. But through the Lord´s help we were able to give them something they really cherish. After that we went to Esteban and Miriam´s house, and I gave them each a picture of some temples, and one of those Priesthood cards we bought before I left, and I gave them the picture of the First Presidency you guys sent me in my last package. I put my testimony and laminated it, and they were really excited to put it up in their little humble home. Now it´s there bright and center for all to see, so that they can remember that we have a living profet to guide us in our days. Maria y Evelyn y Ruth weren´t there last week, but tonight we arranged to eat dinner with them, and i´m going to give Ruth that Book of Mormon in drawings to her. I wrote my testimony and marked a few stories so that she can start reading and understanding, and I wrote how as a family we always read that together for years, and it really helped me to understand, and I know she´s going to love it!

This week was really special, because we were able to baptize Guillermo and Juan. Guillermo is 11 years old, and when he was 2 they told his parents that he wasn´t going to live past 5, and if he did, he was never going to walk or talk. Now Guillermo is 11 and walks, and talks, and only has a slight handicap with his words and with his speech, But he´s extremely smart, and I love him to death. He always comes up and gives me a big giant hug when he sees me, and he´s really special for me. His parents were so happy to hear that he finally wanted to get baptized, because before there have been like 3 or 4 different companionships that have tried to baptize him, but he never payed attention in the lessons, and didn´t show that he wanted to, but we were able to use a lot of patience, and he was able to answer all the questions and he was really excited to get baptized. In the baptism, after the ordinance they gave his dad a few minutes to be able to give his testimony, and he got really emocional and expressed how imporant this day was for him, because he never thought his boy would live to have this day come. He got really emocional and thanked us a lot in his testimony for having patience and being able to teach him, but really it was all our Heavenly Father that made it possible. He gave us the opportunity and we were able to pay attention to the spirit and make it happen. The mom was also really emocional when she saw him come out of the water, and Guillermo had just the brightest, most wonderful smile you can imagine on his face, gave the Branch Presidente that baptized him a big hug, and looked right at his mom and waved with this million dollar happiness grin on his face, and she began to cry and looked so happy. I am so thankful to be a part of this wonderful event! It was so awesome! I love this family so much. The family in total are like 12 people. It´s a huge family, and now they feel just like my family.

We were also able to find some really prepared people this week from other members who have gotten really excited for the Missionary work, and how much we are able to work with members. My convert Maria has a cousin named Albertina, she´s Brasilera, from Brasil, and doens´t speak extremely well Castellano, so we got her a book of mormon in Portuguese and she is progressing really well, she came to church yesterday, and she actually went to the baptism on saturday too, and loved it! She´s like 62 years old and she´s just this happy, hard working little old lady, and I already love her to death! SHe is preparing to be batpized the 19th of January! We also had another cool encounter with another really active family, the family Elizalde, the mom´s brother drinks and smokes a lot, and he´s the only brother out of like 6 that isn´t baptized, and for CHristmas he drank way too much and had to go to the hospital, and that scared him a lot, because he lives alone with his 5 year old kid, and he is 42, and it scared him that one day he wouldn´t be able to control himself and do damage to him or his kid that can´t be repaired, so he decided to start listening to us, and he came to church too, and is excited to get baptized the 19th as well. It´s amazing to see how God prepares people through the members, and how he is blessing us so much right now! We have anther member, Santiago (He´s the bigger kid in the family that I gave the Preach my Gospel to, and the one that is going to leave on his mission this year) and he invited one of his friends to church yesterday, and he came! So we went to his house yesterday, and the kid´s name is Andrés, and he told us that for the past few months he´s had this "hunger" to look for God in his life, and to find the true church. It´s just absolutely amazing how our Heavenly Father prepares people when we are doing what we should be. We´ve been trying to be so so so obedient these past few weeks, that´s it´s gotten to the point where I can literally see how the blessings come as a result of our obedience. I´m so excited for all these people, and If you could all remember them in your prayers please to be able to help them, and to keep them strong to be able to get baptized and change their lives. Thanks for everything everyone, I love you all, and hope that you all have a wonderful new years! I´ll talk to you all next year!!!! Love Elder Allsup!

HAPPPPPYYYYYY NNNEEEEEWWWWWW YEEEAAAAARRRRSSSS 2013 CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!