I wasn't ever home sick at all, but I was a little sad waking up that morning and realizing it was a little different, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing at all. What kind of phone did Sawyer get? How is everyone? I'm doing really well here.
Today we had a HUGE nerf war again, and we actually waited till everyone was out of the building, and we played this awesome nerf game where two people escorted "hostages" and there were kamikazies and assassins with the nerf guns and things, and it was such a blast. We played for literally about an hour and a half, and we didn't even realize it.
The temple is closed so we have a big chunk of time to fill, and it was hilarious. I've also got some other funny things that happened this week. I got really good at "fake throwing up" on people, and I have been putting that skill to good use, and it's pretty funny to see the reactions.
I think instead of typing everything out, i'll just send you a copy of my Christmas schedule, since it'd take way too long to type. But I saw Ben on Wednesday, bad news is he's in a completely different building and things so I haven't seen him since, but I made sure to know what room he's in, so i'll go visit him sometime before I leave. We'll probably get our travel plans on Thursday, and i'm so excited. Tomorrow we've got a new district coming in, with 12 Elders, it's a big district. Me and Rogers always shine their shoes for them the first night and get to know them, so i'm looking forward to that tomorrow night, it should be a lot of fun. It's getting a lot better being a Zone Leader, it's not as stressfull anymore and we're having a lot of fun. I think people are getting really attached to us though, and it's going to be really hard to leave in 2 weeks.
I've been really trying to help people out, and it's working to help me be a better person, and it helps others gain more confidence. We took a lot of pictures the last few weeks, and i'll try to get those developed. I had printed about 50 last week but something with the machine went wrong and it didn't work, so now the next time I print them they're be like 100. I'm still trying to figure out the videos, because we have a ton of different ones eating the pies, and Harry Potter beans and stuff, and they're hilarious, so i'm thinking of just sending the whole card home instead, and having all of you just look at those, and just buy few more memory cards here. They have every size, and they're pretty inexpensive so i'm not worried about it. I'll let you know what i'm doing.
Ties- I'm good on ties right now too, I have been trading so i'm staying fresh on those. MP3- Just put like some Mo-Tab on there, and if you would, please put Franco Devita on there, and all the spanish songs dad showed me. I want so show the guys all the songs i've been singing. (Like Sera, Te Amo, Inconditional, Solo Importas Tu, and all those) I think it'll be hilarious to sing. Most of them know the whole thing of Te Amo, so I need to show them what they're missing haha. Oh also, will you make sure people know I leave January 9th, and if they have anymore letters or anything to send me, make sure they know it has to get here before then so I dont' have mail coming after I leave.
So if anyone asks, just have them give it pre-stamped and everything to you and you can do that.
Advice of the week: Be the Leader that people look up to you because they WANT to, not because they HAVE TO. I've actually been making a lot of cool quotes and i've received some cool inspiration on a lot of awesome phrases and things i've been writing them all down. I'll have to take a picture of them and send them to you.
I'm doing really well. I don't know if there is anything else to say as of yet. I'll send you my christmas day stuff and that'll be fun to hear about. And I'll probably write you some journal incerpts in there so you can hear some other funny things. Thanks for everything for Christmas, i'll explain that more in those letters, but they were all amazing and I loved it so much. I Love you all so much, and hope all is well, thanks again. Talk to you later.
Friday, December 30, 2011
December 25, 2011
I'm pretty sure this is the first Christmas we haven't all been together since little baby Sawyer was born. As I look back at the Christmas's we've had, I realized the ones I remember most aren't because of which gifts I've given, or what presents I've received, but the experiences we had.
We have spent Christmas with Papa and Gigi, some with Grandma and Grandpa. one year we drove 18 hours to Oklahoma to spend it with Blayne and Kim. We've had a Costa Rican Christmas at midnight with Xotchil and her family, and also the Blanco's. We have been in a different country for Christmas when we went to Guatemala.
As a family we have shared our Christmases with many different people in many different places. This Christmas I have the opportunity to share it with my temporary family, my companion, my zone, y district, all my teachers and my Branch Presidency here at the MTC. Next year I'll share my Christmas with the wonderful people of Argentina. Over the next two years, at least for me, I'm pretty sure I'll be be able to say I've had more non traditional Christmas's in my life than the "regular ones", but in our family we never have just a regular Christmas.
Though we've had some extraordinary experiences, the one thing that has stayed the same is we've always had each other. No matter where we were, that has stayed the same, we've always had each other. No matter where we were we made experiences and those we'll never forget.
This Christmas is special one and we'll all grow closer to the Savior through it. I know that Jesus Christ is our Eternal Savior. He is the entire center of our Plan from Heavenly Father, and he is always with us. We can speak to him through one of the greatest gifts he could ever give each one of us, which is prayer. I have a tremendous testimony that God really listens to us and hears our desires. We can call out to him whenever we are in need, and he is just waiting to send down comfort.
Prayer is the whole reason our Church is restored on this day, all because a 14 year old boy had the courage to reach out to our Heavenly Father through his faith, and by a single prayer the father and his son appeared to him. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet, and I know that the Book of Mormon was translated with the miraculous power of God. I strongly encourage all of you to exercise this amazing power and gift each and throughout every single day. And expecially during this special Christmas we can have as a family. I love you all so very much and I want you to know how special each of you are to me. Thanks for all our experiences, and being such a strong support to each other.
Love Elder Quynton Allsup
We have spent Christmas with Papa and Gigi, some with Grandma and Grandpa. one year we drove 18 hours to Oklahoma to spend it with Blayne and Kim. We've had a Costa Rican Christmas at midnight with Xotchil and her family, and also the Blanco's. We have been in a different country for Christmas when we went to Guatemala.
As a family we have shared our Christmases with many different people in many different places. This Christmas I have the opportunity to share it with my temporary family, my companion, my zone, y district, all my teachers and my Branch Presidency here at the MTC. Next year I'll share my Christmas with the wonderful people of Argentina. Over the next two years, at least for me, I'm pretty sure I'll be be able to say I've had more non traditional Christmas's in my life than the "regular ones", but in our family we never have just a regular Christmas.
Though we've had some extraordinary experiences, the one thing that has stayed the same is we've always had each other. No matter where we were, that has stayed the same, we've always had each other. No matter where we were we made experiences and those we'll never forget.
This Christmas is special one and we'll all grow closer to the Savior through it. I know that Jesus Christ is our Eternal Savior. He is the entire center of our Plan from Heavenly Father, and he is always with us. We can speak to him through one of the greatest gifts he could ever give each one of us, which is prayer. I have a tremendous testimony that God really listens to us and hears our desires. We can call out to him whenever we are in need, and he is just waiting to send down comfort.
Prayer is the whole reason our Church is restored on this day, all because a 14 year old boy had the courage to reach out to our Heavenly Father through his faith, and by a single prayer the father and his son appeared to him. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet, and I know that the Book of Mormon was translated with the miraculous power of God. I strongly encourage all of you to exercise this amazing power and gift each and throughout every single day. And expecially during this special Christmas we can have as a family. I love you all so very much and I want you to know how special each of you are to me. Thanks for all our experiences, and being such a strong support to each other.
Love Elder Quynton Allsup
December 13, 2011
I'm meeting with the Argentine consulate today and my planned departure date is January 9th 2012. I get to call from the airport, let me know if you are still thinking of sending a phone or phone card.
Its cool to see how our companionship is working out so efficient. There is an elder in here that is really starting to irritate me. He's a super know it all , one-upper and always talks about his home and girlfriend and all of us are just ignoring it now.
Tean and Tance, bring a portfolio to keep your letters in. It really helps a lot. Also come up with a address book ( a little one) that is loaded with all your addresses, or have people sign it and fill it out at your farewell.
We ate the Harry Potter every flavor jelly beans on Sunday. I'll send you the video, its pretty funny. We all had such a great time with them. It was an awesome experience to feel like we were just hanging out for once. On Sunday we got to hear from the BYU men's choir, they were so good. They were fun to listen to, they shared a story of a man who only baptized one person on his mission in the Netherlands. from that in just 60 years 21 missions have been served through the generations, and he thought he wasn't a good missionary. It was cool. Brandon Doman's older brother is in my Branch Presidency and he played with Steve Young's championship team, it is cool to hear his stories.
Advice of the week, Worrying doesn't solve tomorrow's problems, it only drains today's energy. Elder Taai (the one from the island) is doing well. He is being arranged a nice package, I play basketball with him alot. It's getting a little tedious around here, The Spanish is coming great and Elder Rogers and I will be teaching the next lesson.
Zone leader stuff is going well. Had to settle a few more problems this week, but I feel we'll be blessed for being obedient. I've had a few dreams where Spanish is involved a little bit, not all of it but its still cool.
Its cool to see how our companionship is working out so efficient. There is an elder in here that is really starting to irritate me. He's a super know it all , one-upper and always talks about his home and girlfriend and all of us are just ignoring it now.
Tean and Tance, bring a portfolio to keep your letters in. It really helps a lot. Also come up with a address book ( a little one) that is loaded with all your addresses, or have people sign it and fill it out at your farewell.
We ate the Harry Potter every flavor jelly beans on Sunday. I'll send you the video, its pretty funny. We all had such a great time with them. It was an awesome experience to feel like we were just hanging out for once. On Sunday we got to hear from the BYU men's choir, they were so good. They were fun to listen to, they shared a story of a man who only baptized one person on his mission in the Netherlands. from that in just 60 years 21 missions have been served through the generations, and he thought he wasn't a good missionary. It was cool. Brandon Doman's older brother is in my Branch Presidency and he played with Steve Young's championship team, it is cool to hear his stories.
Advice of the week, Worrying doesn't solve tomorrow's problems, it only drains today's energy. Elder Taai (the one from the island) is doing well. He is being arranged a nice package, I play basketball with him alot. It's getting a little tedious around here, The Spanish is coming great and Elder Rogers and I will be teaching the next lesson.
Zone leader stuff is going well. Had to settle a few more problems this week, but I feel we'll be blessed for being obedient. I've had a few dreams where Spanish is involved a little bit, not all of it but its still cool.
December 25
I decided to email both of you since I didn't know i'd be able to be writing on Christmas, so i wanted to make sure you got it, and I know dad always has his phone to tell him when he got an email.
But my plan is to write right now and then use the rest of my time later today and you can respond and we can have a little bit of a conversation. So I just wanted to kind of outline the schedule for you, and then i'll just write you in MUCH more detail because SO much has happened between last night and even right now which is 12:38 pm, but it's been an amazing day and last night was too.
So i'll just write a little bit of what happened, and then you'll get a much more descriptive letter or email either later today or tuesday or something. or send you my notes either tuesday or later today or something, but this has been such an amazing experience. We just got to have sacrament meeting with 2210 missionaries, and David A. Bednar of the 12 was actually there too, and I couldn't help but think it was probably either close to, or the biggest sacrament meeting in the world, at least for today. Then we got to hear an hour and a half long talk by him and it only felt like 10 minutes because it was so awesome. I don't think i've ever felt the spirit so strongly, I hope you all got my package today and were able to open it, and I hope Charli's made it to her as well.
Oh and after the sacrament with him I saw Jena Erlebach and we talked for a little while, and took a few pictures, i'll send you those when i can. I hope everyone liked what they got, I know it wasn't much but I wanted to do something for you here at the MTC. I opened all my gifts today I am so excited to go to Argentina.
This morning was really mixed, because I was so excited for Christmas, but opening all those awesome, and perfect gifts was really hard, and I couldn't help but start crying for a little while, not because I was sad or wanted to come home or anything, but because I realized how much I love all of you, and how much it meant that you'd take so much time and preparation to send me some of those awesome things. I can't wait to start playing with all those things, and later this week i'll try to send you the videos of all the nerf wars and things we've had. It's actually really ironic, about two weeks ago I was going to ask you to send me an airplane lego because another elder in our district had one and it was so much fun to play with, but then I thought, I don't want them wasting their time getting me a little toy, and then look what I got this morning! It was crazy! And I can't wait to play with it all. So hopefully you get this soon, I know you're probably at church now, but try to respond as soon as you can and maybe I can have time to hear a few stories and what everyone got, I love you all, Merry Christmas!!
But my plan is to write right now and then use the rest of my time later today and you can respond and we can have a little bit of a conversation. So I just wanted to kind of outline the schedule for you, and then i'll just write you in MUCH more detail because SO much has happened between last night and even right now which is 12:38 pm, but it's been an amazing day and last night was too.
So i'll just write a little bit of what happened, and then you'll get a much more descriptive letter or email either later today or tuesday or something. or send you my notes either tuesday or later today or something, but this has been such an amazing experience. We just got to have sacrament meeting with 2210 missionaries, and David A. Bednar of the 12 was actually there too, and I couldn't help but think it was probably either close to, or the biggest sacrament meeting in the world, at least for today. Then we got to hear an hour and a half long talk by him and it only felt like 10 minutes because it was so awesome. I don't think i've ever felt the spirit so strongly, I hope you all got my package today and were able to open it, and I hope Charli's made it to her as well.
Oh and after the sacrament with him I saw Jena Erlebach and we talked for a little while, and took a few pictures, i'll send you those when i can. I hope everyone liked what they got, I know it wasn't much but I wanted to do something for you here at the MTC. I opened all my gifts today I am so excited to go to Argentina.
This morning was really mixed, because I was so excited for Christmas, but opening all those awesome, and perfect gifts was really hard, and I couldn't help but start crying for a little while, not because I was sad or wanted to come home or anything, but because I realized how much I love all of you, and how much it meant that you'd take so much time and preparation to send me some of those awesome things. I can't wait to start playing with all those things, and later this week i'll try to send you the videos of all the nerf wars and things we've had. It's actually really ironic, about two weeks ago I was going to ask you to send me an airplane lego because another elder in our district had one and it was so much fun to play with, but then I thought, I don't want them wasting their time getting me a little toy, and then look what I got this morning! It was crazy! And I can't wait to play with it all. So hopefully you get this soon, I know you're probably at church now, but try to respond as soon as you can and maybe I can have time to hear a few stories and what everyone got, I love you all, Merry Christmas!!
Early November
My companions name is Elder Rogers, He's from Modesto California and he seems great. Everyone in my district is actually going to Resistencia and its 4 companionships of Elders. Believe it or not but I really love all of them. Its weird, it seems like i've known them my whole life.
Im having fun and staying safe. Im super busy. Keep praying and blessings will come "with obedience comes blessings, with exact obedience comes miracles"
Im having fun and staying safe. Im super busy. Keep praying and blessings will come "with obedience comes blessings, with exact obedience comes miracles"
Early November
The MTC is Great. I've had a lot of cool experiences already, and I pray for each of you everyday. I have a true testimony of prayer and I know it works. I have been a little sick the past few days, throwing up, and I haven't thrown up in like 3 years. I am great now. My P-days are on Tuesday so that is when I will write/email. Please send pictures and packages.
I cant wait for Tean and Tance to experience the MTC. Its so spiritual and nice to only focus on learning a language and teaching the gospel. We have a fake investigator and we have been teaching in spanish. We treat it like its real. I start saying words and phrases in spanish I didn't even know I had in my mind. I'm really happy here. We always pray and get treated so well. Do you have any questions for me?
I cant wait for Tean and Tance to experience the MTC. Its so spiritual and nice to only focus on learning a language and teaching the gospel. We have a fake investigator and we have been teaching in spanish. We treat it like its real. I start saying words and phrases in spanish I didn't even know I had in my mind. I'm really happy here. We always pray and get treated so well. Do you have any questions for me?
Early November, 2011
Dad - and rest of Family,
I want you all to know how proud I am to be an Allsup. Dad, I want you to know how proud I am to be your son. I can't tell you how much I've learned from you, especially about training my mind and teaching myself to think. I realized how important goals are, and that if I train my conscience to want something, my my body and actions will follow.
Me and Elder rogers made a lot of goals this week that he didn't believe we could accomplish realistically, so I shared with him those things you taught me and he couldn't believe how much they've worked. To see how far far we have com in absolutely stunning. We work better, learn faster and have more fun. We don't get frustrated as easy and are progressing because of what you have taught me.
You also taught me to be specific with my goals. I'll send you a picture of our Goal Sheet, its so awesome to see our progress. My Spanish is coming along great, I love learning the language. I can almost understand everything our teachers says, and if I have a question I use your advice and write it down and ask later.
Tance, How is school? Im glad you enjoy and are doing well in football. Thanks for being such a good brother and keeping the family cheerful.
Tean, You can do anything that is important to you. I know ho
w strong you are and when you want something,, you get it. Always know you can talk to me whenever you want, and always talk to the Lord, no matter what.
Mom, thanks for all the vitamins and stuff you sent with me. I didn't think I would use it but I have, You knew best! I love you!
Sawyer, check your email, I sent you one.
I want all of you to know I pray for each of you every night by name and I am proud to be in this family.
I love you
Elder Allsup
I want you all to know how proud I am to be an Allsup. Dad, I want you to know how proud I am to be your son. I can't tell you how much I've learned from you, especially about training my mind and teaching myself to think. I realized how important goals are, and that if I train my conscience to want something, my my body and actions will follow.
Me and Elder rogers made a lot of goals this week that he didn't believe we could accomplish realistically, so I shared with him those things you taught me and he couldn't believe how much they've worked. To see how far far we have com in absolutely stunning. We work better, learn faster and have more fun. We don't get frustrated as easy and are progressing because of what you have taught me.
You also taught me to be specific with my goals. I'll send you a picture of our Goal Sheet, its so awesome to see our progress. My Spanish is coming along great, I love learning the language. I can almost understand everything our teachers says, and if I have a question I use your advice and write it down and ask later.
Tance, How is school? Im glad you enjoy and are doing well in football. Thanks for being such a good brother and keeping the family cheerful.
Tean, You can do anything that is important to you. I know ho
w strong you are and when you want something,, you get it. Always know you can talk to me whenever you want, and always talk to the Lord, no matter what.
Mom, thanks for all the vitamins and stuff you sent with me. I didn't think I would use it but I have, You knew best! I love you!
Sawyer, check your email, I sent you one.
I want all of you to know I pray for each of you every night by name and I am proud to be in this family.
I love you
Elder Allsup
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