Week 42- Blessings!!!

Family and Friends,

This week ended up being great. The work here has been a little slow recently. We just didn't have a lot of people to teach and we were trying our best to find new people, but it just wasn't working out. We tried our best to humble ourselves and we prayed, and God blessed us with a couple new investigators who all have friends already in the ward. It was really neat! Nothing really on our part, God just gave us some opportunities, so hopefully they turn out great. 

A lot of fun stuff happened. We had dinner with the Elder's Quorum, we taught young mens, we went on exchanges. We were rained it a couple of times. It rains so much that the streets flood, so we get put on lockdown. So lots of down time. 

I'm doing great and it seems like things are starting to roll here. Haha. Anyway, love y'all!

-Elder Chandler Allen

Week 41- The Healing Power of the Priesthood

Family and Friends,

There were a lot of things that happened this week. I had crawfish for the first time this year. They were alright. I didn't like the way they seasoned them as much. But they weren't bad......so I thought. Haha. That night I woke up sick and started to throw up. Ughh. Haha. I got a blessing from my companion. I still felt sick until about 4 in the morning, then it just stopped. I felt good enough to sleep. I was pretty sick for the rest of that day, so I rested up. Then the next day, we got in an accident! haha. Luckily they weren't going that fast and they just hit the back bumper and wheel. No one was hurt, but we had to get a new car. We ended up getting it the next day, but I had to bike until then. It was fun for the first little bit biking, but then it got hot. haha. 

I went on exchanges with the Assistants to the President. I really enjoyed that. We had a good days worth of work.

A little miracle:

1. When we got in an accident, Beau, one of our investigators we haven't been able to get ahold of for a little while, saw us and texted us. We didn't have his phone number until then and then we asked if we could meet with him, and he said he could meet this week.

I also gave a talk in sacrament meeting. I was super nervous, but then a couple minutes leading up to it, I just felt at peace and really happy. Yesterday ended up being a great day. I'm just really grateful for this area. There are great members and they are all willing to do missionary work!

Love y'all!

-Elder Chandler Allen

The infamous crawfish.:/

A gourmet meal made by the famous Doug. No food poisoning here. Just deliciousness!!! :)

Week 40- Humility in Our Hearts

Friends and Family,

I think this week was fairly humbling. There were some challenges, but I think we just realized that without the Lord's hand, we really can't help others convert to the gospel. A lot of appointments fell through. Not a whole lot of people were home. I just felt like it was tough getting some effective work done. I think we still did good though. We built relationships. As me and Elder Johnson considered what to do, we just realized that if we humble ourselves and continue trying our best, the Lord will provide us with people to teach, and just like that, he sent us some people. haha. We showed up to sacrament meeting and there was a nonmember couple there with their member friends. I guess they are somewhat interested. The same thing happened the week before with a different couple and we found out they were still interested. Then another person referred us to their friend who used to meet with the missionaries. We'll see where that goes. But I'm just very grateful that the Lord has trusted us enough with His children. Elder Johnson helped teach me this great principle of humility.

One event that humbled me was while out tracting, I realized that I still wasn't very good at tracting. haha. I'm excited to improve, but in the moment it was kind of discouraging. Then we got rejected by someone. He was a little harsh about it. At that point, I was just really sad and discouraged, but Elder Johnson is so nice and he just picked me up when I was feeling down. I learned a lot from the experience.

We also had the opportunity to watch The Testaments with our investigator Doug this week. That movie and all the other church movies always strengthen my testimony, then we had a great discussion with him about the movie and God's love. Doug is making some good progress, especially since he is reading the Book of Mormon and Blueprint of Christ's Church.

It was a good growing week. Can't wait to improve this week, Love y'all!

-Elder Chandler Allen

Some of the Elders got to go to an off-season LSU football game.

Week 39- Life in BR

Friends and Fam,

I'm in Baton Rouge!!! There are so many trees here, and it's getting pretty humid. I enjoy it though. We are in a beautiful apartment complex. We are in a nice area. Lot's of nice people. The ward is big and very nice. There are a lot of either young couples with little kids, or older couples whose kids have moved away. One of my friends cousin is even in the ward, so that's neat. I know God put me here for a reason with the connections I had to Louisiana.

We had a really neat spiritual experience. It was a miracle. One of the people the previous missionaries contacted had read the Book of Mormon in only a week, and when we went over to talk to him about it, we just answered some of his questions, then we had him pray to know if it was true right then and there. I was a bit nervous, but just had faith, and he received an answer. He felt the Spirit touch his heart. It was so neat. That strengthened my testimony. I know the church is true.

Cool thing, LSU is in my area, although there are missionaries that cover that part, but we were able to go to a baseball game already! It was pretty fun. Weird to realize a lot of those kids were my age. And a lot of people showed up to the game. It was fun to see so many people there.

Elder Johnson is my new companion. He was my District leader when I was in Natchitoches, so we were super pumped to be companions. He is a stand up guy.

Love, Elder Chandler Allen

Week 38- Last Week in Chalmette

Family and Friends,

WOW! Time has flown by! I still remember my first night here in Chalmette. What an adventure so far! Mardi Gras, Christmas, Easter, New Years, and even my birthday and Thanksgiving. We had some great members take care of us while I was here. I love this Branch and wish the best for it.

This week was great though. Conference was amazing! I loved watching it. I gained so much Spiritual strength. I really enjoyed how a lot of the focus was on temples. I even studied temples this morning, and the power that we can gain and the knowledge learned therein. I hope all of you make it a goal to go to the temple. 

I also learned that sincere prayer helps us develop greater humility. I am certainly going to pray more sincerely and ask for specific blessings. I love learning about how I can be a better person, I just need to go out and do it now. Haha.

We went to a Christian concert this week. It was interesting to see how some people celebrate and show their love to God. It was fun and quite the experience.

Anyway, great week! I'm really going to miss everyone here. I'm a bit nervous for the new area, but I think I'll be able to adjust well.

Love y'all!

-Elder Chandler Allen

Elder Allen with Wilson. He will definitely miss him.

New Orleans Zone

Brother Landers, the Branch Mission Leader. 

Chandler with Brother and Sister Caswell

Brother Farrel, the Branch President, and his family.

Week 37- A Spiritual Weekend

Friends and Family,

This week was great. I felt like we got back to work from having a couple slow weeks. We found some new people to teach and made the best of what we had. I went on exchanges with Elder Goodsell. He is a funny, chill Elder. He has the best smile. It can make anyone smile. He's just a goofy guy in general. He loved the abandoned six flags. We both thought it was the coolest thing.

We were able to go to the temple on Saturday. It was great! I felt the Spirit so strong. I know that is where heaven and Earth connect. I was reminded of the importance of each individual soul. The Lord really did bless us for going there. You don't realize the importance of the temple until you go through it and feel the immense power of the Spirit. Make it a goal to visit the temple often, or if you haven't already gone, strive to do so. I promise it will be the biggest blessing in this life and in the life to come.

I also had a great Easter. We had church in the downtown building. There was 10 missionaries there at once. Haha. But there were lots of visitors coming from out of town down there on vacation, so lots of unfamiliar faces. We had two Easter dinners. I was stuffed! both with food and the Spirit. I really enjoyed thinking about our Savior all day yesterday.

It ended with our Branch President pulling a prank on us and cracking an egg on all our heads. Good bonding experience. Haha. Kinda gross though.

Anyway, what a Spiritual week. I'm so grateful for all those experiences.

Love, y'all!

-Elder Chandler Allen

Week 36- A Day Downtown

Friends and Family,

This week was good. Not a lot happened until Saturday. We went on exchanges with the zone leaders that day. It was pretty fun. I was with Elder Allen(haha). Literally. We were trying to find someone at a hospital to give a blessing to. We ended up going to the wrong hospital, but we had already paid for parking, so we just walked a mile or so to the other hospital and found him there. Haha. It was an adventure. Then we went to an assisted living place for the elderly and met with two guys. That was way fun. Then a member took us out to Cain's! Wooh. I love meal appointments.

Leon is doing good. Still making progress. We are just clearing up all the specific questions he has now, so that will be good. Hopefully in doing that, he will come to love the gospel and really embrace it.

Brother Naquin isn't doing so good. He's still sick and there's not really anyone there that can always take care of him. Hopefully we can get him in a better environment.

This week was good. The exchanges got me a lot more motivated. I'm excited to go out and do the Lords work.

Love, Elder Chandler Allen