April 28, 2014

This week has been long. Had meetings and tracked down less actives and referrals

Monday we had P-day.

Tuesday we had Zone Conference. President Bell and the AP came to Salina to be with us all day. It started at 9 am. We left Great Bend at 7 AM to be at the Church building before 9 AM.  Elder Pack was doing car inspections and helping missionaries fill out incident reports and had The Vehicle Olympics: where missionaries compete for bragging rights (and an extra 100 miles for the month). The Great Bend ward helped with the lunch. President Methvin from the stake presidency had us play a game.  We finally finished at 5 PM.

President Bell

We even had visitors stop in to say hi. Brother Taylor and his wife stopped in to talk to us. Brother Taylor was one of the first AP in the mission when it split. He was an AP until he went home in October. Then he proposed 8 day later and got married about 8 weeks later.  Brother Taylor and his wife both talked about his mission. Sister Taylor talked about the timing of his mission call to the time he left on his mission. If he would of left in May when he was available he would not had the opportunity to help start the KWM and help President Bell.

 

Andrew and Brother Taylor

Wednesday morning we helped Sister Siefkes mow her lawn. Then we had Weekly planning. Then we taught seminary before mutual. During mutual we had a lesson with Jim and Shae at the church. Jim and Shae are doing good. We are working with them to get married. Then we had a lesson with Cristina and Cristal.

Thursday we had time to contact less actives and referrals. Lots of these less actives were not home. Then we had dinner with Sister Mcowan.

Friday we drove out to Larned. We had lots of Referrals and members in Larned to contact. Then we had dinner with the Perezs.

Saturday we first went over to Cristina and Cristal to help them with their sink. Then we went out to Hosington to see the Curtis family. When we got in and sat down Elder Nelson pants ripped.  The inside seam of his pants ripped about 15 inches. This was funny to see his reaction and also the Deiah Curtis. It ended up that the Sister Curtis had a sewing machine but did not know how to use it.  I was able to get the machine to work so we were able to fix his pants.  Then we had a lesson with Jim and Shae and Brother Cromie. We were able to talk about temples.

Sunday we had Church. None of our Investigators came to church. Then we had a lesson with the Curtis family and Morice Yarmer an investigator. Then we went to the Carlitions for dinner. The Carlitions invited a less active to dinner and we were able to meet this family.

Thanks for all the letters and the Emails

 Love Elder Andrew Allen

Shoes that have been worn for 10 months and new shoes

April 21, 2014

This week has been great. The Great Bend Ward had a baptism and the Mission President came and visited.

Monday we went over to Brandon and JR’s to play with the soccer ball with them. Then we had dinner with them and Cristina and Cristal.

Tuesday we had district meeting. Brother Voss in the ward was able to drive us up to Hays. District Meeting was long but we were able to talk about the ideas we had to share the video "Because Of Him" Then we got back into town and was able to see a few members and less actives. Then we had dinner again with Cristina and Cristal and family. We then were able to have a lesson with them about Jesus Christ and show the video with the family.

Wednesday President Bell came to Great Bend to Interview Edwardo for Baptism. After the interview President Bell took us four missionaries out to eat for lunch. He took us to Perkins. After lunch we went with the Spanish elders for Weekly planning then he told us that he would also come to ours. But President ended not coming to weekly planning with us because he had to get to Wichita for a meeting. He then told us that he would come to the baptism on Saturday and also work with us on Saturday and stay for our talks on Sunday. I was not looking forward to Sunday because president would be there when I was talking.  We ended up going to teach a lesson with Brandon and JR. After our lesson we played ball with them. Elder Nelson sprained his ankle while playing.

Thursday we ended up doing Weekly planning. After weekly planning All of our appointments ended up falling through. Even our dinner had to bring us dinner because Sister Hudson was called to work.  It was a long day.

Friday we also had a long day. We were able to have dinner with the Sheffield family and show the Because of Him video with them.

Edwardo

Saturday we had a Baptism at 11. Edwardo got baptized.  Lots of the ward members came to the baptism. Even the AP came to the Baptism. We showed the “Because of Him” video between the talks and the baptism.  Every one liked the video.  After the baptism Elder Nelson and I went to Lyons a small town to work with the less actives. We were able to visit Sister Hickling and the Enfield Family.

Sunday was Easter Sunday. In ward council Elder Nelson and I presented the training of working with the ward to pick 5 families and fellowship and work with them for 4 weeks. The ward Council liked the plan that was given to us from Elder Martino of the 70.   Then we had church. Elder Grow And Elder Nelson And I all talked in church. My talk was about CPR (Church Read Prayer) and how it will bless our life. During church we showed the “Because of Him” video to the entire ward. We then had Easter lunch with Cristina and Cristal and Family. Then at 5 we had Easter dinner with the Siefkes. Sister Siefkes even asked us to help her prepare the meal for her.

This week was great.  Hope all of you are doing Great. I love all of you and hope you all had a great Easter.

Love Elder Andrew Allen

A Miracle in Great Bend.

We were visiting a less active in the Great Bend Ward. Their cousin Chris, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was visiting with them for a few weeks. Chris has a daughter that he was working to get from her mother in Tulsa. He had been going to court for the last 4 years to work on getting his daughter back from her mother who is a drug addict. We meet with Chris on Tuesday and talked about reading each night and praying and coming to church would help his life. Elder Nelson felt inspired to tell him if he would read and pray and come to church that he would be able to get his daughter back. On Thursday he left to get down to Tulsa for his court on Friday morning. That Friday night he called his family in Great Bend and was able to thank us and talked to us about his Court hearing. He had be give a week from the Judge before he was able to get his daughter back. During that next we he continued to pray and read and go to church. Chris Finally got his daughter back after 4 years of work. This is cool to see how Chris put his trust in the Lord and was able to get what he wanted. It might not all ways happen this quick but if we put our trust in the Lord but we will always see the blessing in our life.

April 14, 2014

This week was great.

Monday we had P-day. We then had dinner with the Enfield family. We had Family Home Evening with them. We talked a lot about CPR (Church, pray, Read the Book of Mormon) in their life. This was a fun night with them.

Tuesday we had district meeting. After district meeting I went on exchanges with Elder Jacobson.  We stayed in the Hays ward. We did service and had meetings,  dinner and lessons.

Wednesday morning we drove to Rush Center to meet back up with Elder Nelson. Then with Elder Nelson and I went out and did Service and had a lesson with Brandon. Had dinner with the Siefkes. Then after Dinner we had lesson with Cristina and Cristal. We talked about what they read and answered their questions.

Thursday we had weekly planning. After weekly planning we went to the Office Product store and got papers copied and laminated for our ward and us. Then we had time to call all of the referrals we received this week. We had 6 new referrals by Thursday.  In a normal week we might get one but we got 6 in half a week. We then had dinner with the Philips family. They made us cook for this dinner. This was fun because Elder Acosta And Elder Grow both do not know how to cook. Elder Nelson and I had to help them a lot to cook breakfast food. The food turned out good and now one has died from it. After dinner we visited the Jenifer Tervino’s Family. They were not there but we were able then to try other less active families.

Friday we had a fun time working with our less active and investigators. Then we had dinner with the Schied family in St John. It was sister Schied birthday. This was the first time to have dinner with this family. After dinner we were able to stop in with Cristina and Cristal and family and talk about the Book of Mormon and talk about Stake Conference.

Saturday we had Stake Conference. At 11 am we went to visit one of the referrals that we received. His name was Jim Wonsetler. He is friends with Brother Crone in our ward. We taught him and his girlfriend the restoration lesson and invited them to be baptized on May 24th.  They said that they would read and pray this next week. Then we left at 4 PM to drive to Salina. Sister Douglas was able to drive us up to Salina. The Adult session of Stake Conference was about missionary work. Elder Lawrence Spackman from Canada came and talked to us about the importance of using tools we have been given to help us in missionary work. Then At 8 pm we left to drive back to Great Bend. We did not get home till 10pm. There was a storm when we drove home.

Sunday Stake conference stated at 10am. The stake broadcasted it to all of the church building through windows media player. This was nice not to drive back to Salina. Cristina and Cristal and kids came and watch it with us. All of the talks were about missionary work.   

After this we went over to Cristina and Cristal house for lunch and to talk about conference and their reading. We were then able to see the Curtis family and Talk about CPR in their life. They then fed us dinner. We were also able to follow up with the Sheffield family about the commitment we left with them.

Today we were able to teach Seminary today at 6:30 in the morning. There were only 2 students that were able to make it to day. Deiah Curtis and Carter Sheffield.  This was nice to have a small class to teach. We were able to talk about the prophecies in 3rd Nephi.

This week we had a busy week. We received 8 referrals and now have 3 on baptism date of May 24th. Hope all of you have a great Easter Sunday.

Love,

Elder Andrew J Allen

Picture of the storm.

April 7, 2014

This week was great. I was able to watch general with a less active family and investigators.

Monday we had P-day. We played games and also emailed. We had dinner at Sister McCowan. Sister McCowan had a great meal prepared for us to have. After dinner we had a lesson with Lin Smith. Lin Smith came to church a few weeks ago and this was the first time we were able to have a lesson with her. Lin’s brother, in Colorado, is a member and asked us to start to teach her.  When we got to Lin Smith’s house with Sister Siefkes she asked for us to come back on Wednesday.

Tuesday we had time to work with several less actives and meet several nonmembers.  We meet with Chris Smokes a less active that is related to the Trevinos in our ward.  He is from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was visiting his family for a few days before his court date to get his girl back. Elder Nelson told him that if he would read and pray for the next few day before his court he would get his daughter back.  We had dinner with the Thomas family. After dinner we had a lesson with Cristal, Cristina and Brandon we talked about how we can build faith by reading and praying and Church attendance.

Wednesday we had weekly planning and then a lesson with Lin Smith. This lesson went wonderful because Lin already believes some of what we taught but she promised to read and pray. Sister Siefkes also helped a lot because they knew each other from nursing school. Then the Phillips brought dinner to the church for us. After dinner we had a lesson with Cristal, Cristina and Brandon.  We talked about the Word of Wisdom. This was a great and difficult lesson because it does not have weed in the Word of Wisdom.

Thursday we knocked a lot of doors and not a lot of people wanted to talk. We also had lots of lessons with less actives and members. During the day we got a call from Chris telling us that he was going to get his daughter back in a week. It was nice to hear that he did what he needed to do so he could get his daughter back.  We then had dinner with the Hudsons. They live in Pony Rock, Kansas. Brother Hudson showed us all of his air soft guns and equipment. Brother Hudson has his own Air Soft field and Game field.

Friday we had a meeting in Salina for Zone training. Sister Douglas drove us up to Salina and back. During this meeting we were trained on using Church tours and using the CPR plan for less actives. This CPR plan helps members build their faith and knowledge about the gospel. The First Step is to read the Book of Mormon. Second is to Pray about it and before each reading time. Final step is to come to church.  This was a great Training. Then we had dinner with the Sheffield. About 2 weeks ago we had a water blowing hair challenge with them and Elder Grow lost. So this time we wanted to get them back.  Elder Grow was in Hays for the day so Elder Gonzalez was with Elder Acosta. Before Dinner we told Elder Gonzalez how to play and how to get Aliva back. It was great to see Alivia wet with water.

Saturday we went over to Cristal, Cristina and Brandon to watch General Conference. Every one had a Question before we started. So we spent both sessions with them on Saturday. Then we went to the church for the priesthood BBQ before the last session on Saturday.

Sunday we went back to Cristal, Cristina and Brandon’s to watch General Conference. We had a great time and were able to see our Question answered by the speakers. All of them loved to hear conference. Then after dinner we went to The Soile family. They live in Saint John. This is about a 30 minute trip from Great Bend. At the Soiles house we had a fun time looking in their Tornado shelter.

Brother Solie

Tornado Shelter

Thanks for all the Emails and mail. I hope all of you are doing great and are not sick. Thanks for every thing. I hope all of you can apply something you learned from conference to you life.

Love,

Elder Andrew Allen