Week 6- The Lords Hand in Missionary Work

Friends and Family,

This week was great. We had a few investigators say that they wanted to be baptized! It's super exciting. I just hope they stay committed and don't give up. A really neat experience explains the title. We were biking to go and contact a referral, when all of a sudden we took a wrong turn and we were all the way down the wrong street. I had to stop and fix my bike anyways( not the tire this time. haha. The handle bars needed to be tightened). So right as we were about to turn around, Elder Lehr said that we should just try tracting the house we were in front of. We knocked and were asked to just come on in. We met Olivia, the Mom of three young daughters. They said they were willing to listen to our message. We started to share it with them and all of them were very interested. When we brought up baptism, all of them said they wanted to be baptized, even the daughters! I was jumping for joy on the inside. They were such intelligent kids, and I could really tell they desired to have the gospel. Their Mom really needs it as well. She said she has been struggling and that she wanted to raise here daughters in a much better environment. I know that God lead us to them. It's so important to be worthy of the spirit and so important to be willing to follow it. We also brought a member with us for the first time to Bob's, the investigator who served in the Vietnam War. It really helped Bob better understand our message because there was someone present that was able to relate to him better. Bob is becoming more and more interested. The spirit is really strong when we teach him. We just need to help him keep his commitments. We also met with James this week. He is such a neat guy. All of his friends look up to him. He stays out of trouble, although he hangs out with some guys that probably do get in trouble. He is really religious and loving, and he wants to be baptized. We set up a baptismal date. He was a little nervous and didn't want to rush things, but he still accepted it after telling him he could have more time if he needed it. We had stake conference this weekend. Funny story. Brother Donaho picked us up to take us to Alexandria. When we were 5 minutes down the road, I looked down at my feet. I realized that I wasn't wearing church shoes. Rather, I was wearing my cheap Walmart slippers! Haha. Luckily Brother Donaho was willing to turn around. He still gave me a hard time the rest of the trip. Haha. I just laughed about it.I almost wish I wouldn't have noticed because they were super comfy. I hope all of y'all are having fun and enjoying the first week of school. Love y'all!

-Elder Allen

Chandler(Elder Allen) at Stake Conference with Dawn Leone and the other elders in that stake.

 Chandler(Elder Allen) at Stake Conference with Jill Burch.

Week 5- Oh Snap!

Family and Friends,

First I will explain my title. Haha! This past week, we tried fishing. Since we have a dock on the river in our backyard, we can just fish off of that. We were at home for our lunch break, and after finishing my pb&j sandwich, I decided to cast a line out just to see if I could actually catch anything. Within 10 minutes, I actually caught something! I reeled it in and to my surprise, it was a big turtle! It was about 2 feet long. As I was pulling it out of the water, the line snapped and it fell back in, never to be seen again. It was a bummer deal, because I am not usually lucky when it comes to fishing anyway. But it was still really fun reeling it in. I went on exchanges this week with our district leader. His name is Elder Jacildo and he's from the Phillipeans. He is a great teacher. In our discussions with investigators and less actives, he was really good at helping them understand how the gospel and the scriptures can apply to their lives. I learned a lot from him and am trying to implement his teaching style into mine a bit. This week, I gained a stronger testimony of the atonement. I was struggling a little with a temptation, and I read in the scriptures that to overcome it, we must always turn to God. So I did that. I prayed to Heavenly Father and asked Him for strength to overcome the temptations. I know it was through the power of the atonement that I overcame them. That experience has really helped strengthen my testimony and relate to investigators, because most all of them have problems with temptation in their lives. I love how God gives us trials to help strengthen us. I hope everyone is doing great and can feel the spirit in their lives constantly. The spirit is so essential. I've learned that having personal study everyday really brings the spirit, and helps it to stay throughout the day. I know it can help each of your lives tremendously! Love y'all!-Elder Allen

             

Week 4- 1 Month!

Family and Friends,

How has it been one month already? It's gone by quick, but not at the same time. Honestly, looking back, it feels like a long time, but the good thing is that I've enjoyed all of it and there's no place I'd rather be. A few really crazy things happened this week. The first one is more freaky. We were at Zone Training Meeting and one Elder was talking about how our apartment was haunted. Apparently there was an Elder that thought he saw his sister as a ghost that wanted to grab him or something like that. I was so freaked out. So I went to bed, despite being a bit afraid of the dark, only to wake up to my companion freaking out and panicking! I freaked out too and asked him what was wrong, thinking that it was all happening again. He said something that I couldn't understand and then told me just to go back to bed, which was what happened in the story I heard as well. So for the next two hours, I was too scared to even move from under my sheets. He finally got up to use the bathroom and I asked him again what happened, only to find out it was just a bad dream. He dream a bee was coming to sting him and so he freaked out and woke up freaking out. I was able to sleep after that, but it was a super crazy night! Our apartment isn't actually haunted. The second story was more spiritual. We went tracting and Elder Lehr led us to start at an apartment building. We knocked on all the doors and no one answered. He then walked across the street and we decided to try this one house. We knocked twice and right as we were leaving a lady opened the door and let us in. We soon found out that she wasn't going to open the door because she thought we were Jehovah Witnesses, but she was prompted to open it. Her twin brother recently passed away, and she had been recently questioning how she could know which church was true, even though she was baptist. God prepared her for us, and Elder Lehr was in tune enough with the spirit to be able to lead us to her. It was a really neat experience. We plan on teaching her and her husband. It's been a good week. I've learned a lot! Something really important was that personal study is so important. Without it, my days were a lot harder. I finally made it more of a priority and it has made everything so much better. Hope everyone is loving the last few weeks of summer! Love y'all!

Love, Elder Allen

Week 3- 300 Years Old

Hey Everyone,

Did you know Natchitoches is the oldest city within the Louisiana purchase. It's pretty neat I got sent here. The people are so great. We met a couple more people this last week. We had a really neat experience. One evening, on our way home, the sisters saw us and stopped to talk to us. They said they would bring us ice cream if we contacted someone on our way home. We wouldn't ever turn that down. So we stopped at an apartment complex on the other side of the street from our apartment. I had to take the lead on this one and I was pretty intimidated. It was a group of 6 or 7 guys just hanging out in front of the building. I just went up and shared my testimony about Jesus Christ and gave them pass along cards. It was a really neat experience getting over a fear and feeling the spirit strongly. There was even one guy that was really religious and wants us to meet him again. We feel like he has some potential. He was serious about us seeing him again, which is really good because it's difficult to find good potential investigators here. Another funny thing- I got a flat tire again last Monday, so that was three flat tires, three days in a row. Kinda crazy! It's alright though, we got it all figured out and I haven't gotten another one yet. This week was difficult but great. At the beginning of the week, I was a bit discouraged because it seemed like we weren't having any good success and I felt like we were doing all this for nothing because none of our potentials were working out and we have very few investigators. It was after I talked with my companion and prayed that I felt better. All of this is for something. Whether or not we actually baptize someone, we are still making a difference for the better in the lives of others. We are bringing joy and happiness. We are motivating others. We are serving others. We are even shaping ourselves. But most of all, we are bringing the light of Christ into the lives of those we meet with our testimonies of the Savior. It is such a sacred privilege to be a missionary. I hope all y'all can find a way to be a missionary too. Love y'all. Hope you're enjoying your summer!!

-- Elder Chandler Lee Allen