August 26, 2013

Hello Family

This last week has been fun.

Monday P-day and also was packing up the apartment and Elder Packs stuff and my stuff.

Tuesday, Work at the zoo. We help move rocks and trim trees and bushes. I was able to drive the golf cart many different times to back of the zoo through different Employees gates and in different animals cages. That night we moved all of my stuff and the apartment stuff to Brother Homewood’s House and did not get home till 11:00 pm.

Wednesday was transfers in Emporia.  Elder Pack drove down to Emporia. Emporia is about an hour and half drive from Topeka. Made it in Emporia at 9:15 am. The school bus was late by an hour to the Emporia chapel. Because Elder Pack left I had to stay in Emporia until Elder Corvalan came from the Colorado side of the mission. The bus was scheduled to arrive back at the Emporia Building at 5:30 PM but it did not. The bus finally came about 9:45 PM. This was 4 Hours late, the Bus driver got lost several times and took an hour stop to find were she was. In Emporia for those 12 hours, I help the missionary and ate food and we missionary's played Volleyball with 4 ward member in the building.  There were 6 elders and 2 sisters that were all stuck in Emporia for that time.

When the School bus finally came it was very dark. We had to unload the entire bus because all of the stuff was mixed up and going to the different missionaries in the Topeka area. The school Bus finally left the Emporia area at 11:00 pm. This is when I found out that Elder Colvalan my new companion could not drive because he does not have a US passport or drivers license. This meant that I had to drive home. The AP Elder Taylor gave me permission to drive home because I can drive and I know how to get home.  Because I know Topeka the best out of all the missionaries that were coming up from Emporia to Topeka I had to drive them all to their homes before I was able to drive to Brother Homewood’s house. This was a long trip, driving to 4 different apartments and helping them get into their apartment. Finally at 1 AM we finally drove into Brother Homewood’s Drive Way. That was one long Day.

Thursday we had to unpack every thing and put together the room and beds. Unpacking took us about 4 hours and then after that we had to plan for our next week. We were stuck in our apartment at Brother Homewood’s until 5:30 PM.

Friday I had to drive my companion to the hospital because the need to schedule doctors appointment because he brook his finger playing football. That is why Elder Covalan came to Topeka because of the hospitals in Topeka.  Then we had lunch and then went out to work. That night we went out to eat with the Thompson Family to this restaurant, Collage Hill Pizza Pub.  That was some good Pizza in Topeka but not as good a Glory Days Pizza. Saturday Brother Homewood told us that the Pizza place we went to got robbed that night. I am glade that we were not there when it got robbed.

Saturday lots of trying different people and visiting different investigators. Melody Mills is still planning to be baptized on September 14th. Husky are still having trouble with the law because of their older son so we were not able to have a lesson with them.

Sunday was church and meeting and different visits to ward members.

This week has been fun because I am now able to drive the mission car and have a new companion and apartment.

Elder Colvalon is from South Jordon Utah but was born in Argentina. He was called to the Colorado Springs mission and was adopted into the Kansas Wichita mission. He has been out for one year and has a broken finger. He was called Spanish speaking but is in an English ward.

Brother Homewood is an old man in the ward. He is 85 and still doing great. He walks 4 Miles each day and still has time and energy to do other activities. The missionaries now live with him and he loves it. He loves to tell us different stories about his days in the air force. He has a small cat that does not like me but I OK with that. In Brother Homewood’s house we only have 2 rooms to our self but it is nice to live with a member.

Have a good week and keep out of trouble

Love Elder Andrew J Allen

August 19, 2013

This Next week is going to be fun.

New House

New Companion

New Car

This week is the first transfers for me.

On Tuesday me and Elder Blake move to Brother Homewoods house.

Wednesday Drive to Emporia for transfers Bus

Thursday Shop and unpack all of the stuff

This last week has been slow but awesome. This Friday we put our investigator on date of September 14th and have visited many less active family in the ward. Melody was going to meet with us Thursday but had family come over so we postponed it to Saturday. Saturday was going very well and had promising light in the next few hours of the day.

Melody was having a good day, and she was reading out of the Book of Mormon when we stopped by to visit her. She had a big Question of why the Book Of Mormon had Prophets, had the priesthood and why need the priesthood in our days. We the talked about baptism and gift of the Holy Ghost. This then made it possible for us to invite her to be baptism on September 14. She accepted the date and said she would prepare all she could to be ready on that day. This was a wonderful lesson with Melody.

We were not able to meet with the Husky Family because of work. They both have jobs and the hours are not always the same week to week.  Our phone died on Monday. We received a new phone, that is not a problem now.

The photo is of the Topeka zone this last Thursday and Elder Pack.

 

Elder Pack

Zone conference

August 12, 2013

This last week has been interesting,

Monday was P-day, played Disk Golf

Tuesday was service at the zoo, Planted Tobacco plants (see image) and trimmed in the Bear cage.

Wednesday was Topeka and Manhattan zone conference.

Thursday told that Lake Shawnee Elders had to move that is us and had dinner with our apartment host, Sister Long.

Friday, Day of tracking and walking to different ward members.

Saturday moving a ward member and ward missionary leader meeting

Sunday was church which included ward counsel and visiting less active members

This week we taught Melody and Roy and Jody. Melody is doing great with reading the Book of Mormon but she is not Praying for a answer about the truth of Joseph Smith and the  Book of Mormon. This week we talked about the importance of praying with real intent and doing every thing to gain an answer. Coming to church and praying before and after reading and pondering what you read. Roy and Jody are a new family that has had the first 2 lessons and are loving what the church has brought to there life. They are trying to stop Smoking and have their son turning himself in to the Government. He has been on the run for 4 months and local police are staking out there house. Roy and Jody do not like the influence and wordiness of their son at their home. There son finally turned him self in on Saturday and their life is doing great.

On Saturday we had no dinner appointment and we were thinking that we would have to cook our own food after a Sunday. In ward counsel we sent our dinner calendar around and had a few people sign up for other days in the week but not for Sunday. Then Sister Brost came up to us and told us that she prepared for dinner for her family. They are going to have pork and her packages of pork had 8 pieces and her family only needed 6 of them. Before church she wondering what she going to do rest of pork but when she saw we did not have a dinner that was her answer.

This week we are moving back into our area. We are now going to live with Brother Homewood. This move is happening with transfers on August 20th. If you can send all mail to the mission home until I can get the new address. The Colly Creak ward is getting double covered this next transfer. Because we live in a members home in Colly Creak they will use our home for the new missionary’s coming in. That leaves us leaving in our own area. Within the next few Transfers all of the wards in the Kansas Wichita mission will have two sets of Elders or Sisters.

Thanks for all the letters and postcards.

Love Elder Andrew Allen

August 5, 2013

Hello Family

This week has been slow. This week we did not have the car to drive. We spent our time biking and walking to appointments. Even though the week was slow we still visited many less active members.

Most weeks the ward signs up to feed us every day. Not this last week. The members fed us Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  A few days we had to cook our own food. We went to this pizza place on Friday next to our apartment called Glory Days Pizza.  There is a Member, Joanna Kubie, that works there and she gave us 50% off of our order and free drinks. Joanna is waiting on her mission call because she put her papers in last Tuesday.  On Sunday we went with Brother Reinch to help administer the Sacrament to an elderly sister.  After this visit he asked us who was feeding us. We told him nobody was. He took us to his house and fed us. His wife felt impressed that she need to cook a big meal for her family of 4 not knowing that the Elders did not have a dinner appointment after Fast Sunday.

This week Melody Mills our main investigator had to leave town because of a family death. She is still praying and reading the Book of Mormon even though there was a death in the family. She still has not come to church this last 5 weeks. She has gained a small testimony about how the Book of Mormon is a testimony of Jesus Christ.

Nathan did come to church this week, this was a surprised to us. This last week we had to tell him he could not go to scouts. Nathan is 21 but he looks like he is 15. His friend Kaleb was taking him to Scouts each Tuesday. We brought this topic up with bishop about him attending Scouts with his friend Kaleb.  The Bishop told us we need to tell him he was to old to attend because of his age.  He took this hard because his only friend is Kaleb.  We told him could go to the YSA activities.  We had Mikel come from the ward come and take him to the activity this last Saturday and become his friend. This helped Nathan have another friend at church.

This week biking and walking took up lots of our time.  The member that is the closest to our apartment is a mile away.  Most of the members that we visit are in Oakland and it is about 10 miles away. We can take the public Bus to Oakland but the bus doesn't run after 6 PM.  Friday there was an appointment a five so we took the bus and arrived in Oakland at 3 PM. The appointment went great with this less active family and we finished at 6pm.  Because the bus stopped for the night we decided to walk home. This was a long walk because distance we had to walk. It took us 3 hours to arrive at our apartment but we spent time at Glory days Pizza for dinner. That was a fun afternoon.

 This Saturday we need to go to the back side of the lake next to our house. We road our bikes around the lake to this neighborhood and we ran into a RLDS family. This Family let Elder Pack and I in. This family wanted to know what was different about the two churches. They do not believe in Brigham Young being a prophet and celestial Marriage and Baptisms for the dead.  They still believe in tithing and Book of Mormon.  We invited them to call us this next week and set up a time to watch the Prophet of the Restoration. They really seemed interested in this video about Joseph Smith and the church.

In the Topeka Zone, we had a missionary needing to be transfer to Garden City Kansas because of medical reason. This left a group of 3 missionary's covering 2 wards. One of the AP volunteered to come up and help this missionary. Elder Owens is not happy about this because he is stuck with this AP, Elder Straiten for 3 weeks. This week on Thursday my companion needs to go on splits with Elder Owens because he is the District leader. Every transfer the district leader goes to each area and sees how it is going. This leaves me with the AP.  It is going to be a fun having an AP as a companion for 24 hours.

Thanks For all The Letters and Emails

Love Elder Andrew Allen

July 29, 2013

This last week has been fun. These last few days have been raining and cold.

Tuesday the Zone went to the Zoo like all ways. We planted more grass for the zoo. There is a Lot of work they have set apart for the missionary's to do. This week we had fun holding an alligator and feeding them. Holding an alligator is not a normal thing for visitors to do at the zoo. These alligators have been here at the zoo for 6 weeks and will leave in 2 weeks. When the alligators leave the building will be dissemble into all the usable parts and trash. They will then have us rebuild the building for the next animal.

This week we had the car to drive around. The weeks we have the car we can travel to the farther parts of the ward without wasting time walking or waiting for the bus. The car is very nice to have in the rain. I wish we could have a car all the time. This last week on P-Day I fixed my bike. I aligned the tire and put a new tube in the back tire. The bike now rides nice; I have only spent $45 on it.

This week I had to go with the Zone Leaders on splits. Thursday was fun to spend time with Elder Blake. Elder Blake only has a month left on his mission. He knows lots of Spanish. Elder Bennett went with Elder Pack to cover my ward. The zone leaders have a full time car because their area is the whole town of Topeka. They now cover the Spanish branch. Their branch only has 30 members that come each week. This was interesting to spend time, hearing a lesson in Spanish but only know a few words that where spoken. Elder Blake taught 5 lessons with me that Thursday. One of the lessons the sister asked for a blessing. I was able to do the anointing of the oil. Then Elder Blake performed the blessing in Spanish. This was a neat experience to help a Spanish sister, when I could not speak or understand her. The only good thing about this 24 hours with Elder Blake was that dinner was with a convert in the Colly Creak ward and they spoke English.

This week we meet with a sister Melody Mills. She has been seeing the missionary's since 2002. This time she has made lots of progress with reading The Book of Mormon. Every night she has read and prayed to know if she should be baptized. She loves to see how the Book of Mormon is like the Bible. She has a 17 year old daughter and a 9 year old son. The children do not want to talk with us but they will listen to the lesson.

This week we also talked to Nathanial. He is a friend with a recent convert named Kaleb. He is 21 but only looks like he is 15. He also has a mental handicap. This might be hard with teaching him things and him remembering what we taught him. We taught him about the Book of Mormon. He is doing great. He came to church and stayed all 3 hours. This next week we are going to bring up about Plan of Salvation.

The ward has a high number of members that are not active. The ward is putting us to work in helping get a hold of these members and talking to them about why they do not come to church.  The member are very helpful in helping find rides and people to come with us to house of single sisters. The mission has a new idea that is we get the member involved in missionary work that they can fill our schedule with people to teach. This new lesson we teach is a MML. Member Motivation Lesson are being taken fairly well. The member are also helping us get into home of Less Active and Non Members to do service with them.

This week coming up will be busy with teaching and doing service to help people. Hope all is going good in Mesa and it is not to Hot. Have fun and thanks for the Emails.

Love Elder Andrew J Allen

July 22, 2013

Today has been fun. Our zone, Elders went and played Frisbee Golf this morning. I was OK for the first time I got 21 over par out of 15 holes. There is a member that takes us and has the Frisbees that we use.

This week has been fun but very slow. We share a car with two elders, Elder Tubbs and Allen. They had the car this week. That leaves us to get rides or walk or bus. Last Saturday we found a member with bike that he was going to sell. I got it for $20 and it works good but need work on the back tire because it is does not have a good tire. That is why we walk and get rides from members.

Working at the Zoo is fun. Every week on Tuesday we walk in and help them trim trees, plant trees and remove stuff. This week we took piece of land and planted grass on top of it. This grass grows fast and is nice to work with. See the Photo of the after work. 

Nathanial is our new investigator this week. His friend was baptized 2 months ago. He has a hard time learning if taught fast but he is willing to learn and read the Book of Mormon. We missed him at Church but he has been Reading out of the Book of Mormon this last 4 days. This week we also saw the Melodie Mills. She is a reoccurring investigator. She has meet with missionaries for the last 8 years on and off. She has come to a point in her life that she need to read the Book of Mormon before she meets with the other missionary form the LDS church. This last Sunday she read a total of 12 pages in two days.

In church this week I had to say the closing prayer. We had to teach the 9 years old boys in primary. This class was fun with 8 boys that wanted to talk about video games and not about the lesson. This week the Paz family fed us 3 times this week. We talked to them about missionary work and temples. They have been members for the last 20 years. They are a fun and nice family that likes to have the missionaries over because of the spirit we bring to their house. They have 14 grand children and a set of twins that are two. They look all the doors in the house to keep the twins out of them. They love to help drive the missionaries also.

The ward Missionary leader in the ward is very nice. He helps us every week and loves the missionaries that he has been able to work with. He works for the Mars plant that is in our Area. He works with IT, getting the computers up and running and all of the work Cell phones to the network. He has told us he could take us in and show us the inside of the factory. The make all the candy like M&M, 3 musketeers and lots of chocolate. He gave me a t-shirt and other candy.

Love Elder Andrew J Allen

July 15, 2013

Dear Family and Friends

This is the first week in the mission field. President Bell is fun and nice also is his wife. They have a nice house in Wichita that can hold all of new missionaries. In the new group of missionary's there are 23 of us. There are 9 sisters and 14 Elders but 7 of these missionaries are waiting for get paper work for Brazil.

In the mission field there are still a few problems that the office is still trying to fix. Transfers were fun because there were a few problems in how many vans and trailers they got and needed. They need more space for luggage and people. I was in the van for an hour to get to Emporia where there was the first stop on the van. I was glade I did not have to go to Lamar because than was a all day trip out there. Then there was another hour drive to Topeka with my companion Elder Pack.

I am in the town of Topeka. This is next to Missouri and Nebraska. My area is the Lake Shawnee Ward. This ward is about a 150 active members and about a 430 total members. This is a nice ward and people. They feed us each day and are nice to let us in to talk to them about member missionary work. In the Wichita mission the goal is to have the members find and invite their Friends and co workers to hear the message of the missionary's.

My companion is Elder Pack. He is from Denver, Colorado. He is turning 20 in September this year. He has been out on his mission for 9 months and this is the second area in his mission. He was called to serve in the Missouri Independence mission but was transferred to the Wichita Mission. He is very nice and is trying to become a band teacher. He plays the trumpet in high school and in collage. He is a hard worker and loves to talk to the members and get them to read out of the Book of Mormon.

We stay in a member’s house in the Colly Creak ward. Sister Long is very nice to us. We have our own kitchen and laundry machines and also our own hot water for our bathroom. The house is very nice and we have our own door and carport. Each Friday we mow her lawn with her riding lawn mower. This is a wonder full house for the missionary's to live in. She has 4 children and lots of grand children. Her husband died in 2011 but they were Temple presidents and had different service in the church.

In this area our main goal is to work with the members and have them come back to church. After the missionary broadcast the Work of Salvation the church has added a new key indicator for us to measure.  This is member motivation lessons (MML), these lessons help show and teach the members that they need to invite there friends and family to meet with the missionary's. These lessons can also help the less active members come back to church.

Monday is P-Day. Emails happen at 10:00 and also after shopping, at the Stake Center.

Tuesday is service with the Alligators and Tigers (zoo)

Wednesday is week Planning

Thursday is meetings as a zone or mission or a district

Friday is mowing lawn at Sister Longs house

Saturday is day to find new investors and teach

Sunday is church.

This last week has been fun and I have learned a lot from everyone. There is lot I don't know but I am learning lots each day.

This week we ate with a David Kubie a member of a big family in our ward at a restaurant named Glory Days Pizzas. His sister is Joanna Kubie works at this pizza place. She took her dinner break to talk and visit with us about a mission because she is putting in her papers this next month. The subject came up about her boy friend Leland Clement. She said he left for the MTC a week ago and asked if I saw him. The funny thing is I was his Zone Leader in the MTC and got to know him very well. Elder Clement was talking about her and I was able to meet her because she is in my ward.

Love Elder Andrew J Allen

Ps on Mail you need to put Elder Andrew J Allen because there are 4 Elder Allen in the Kansas Wichita Mission

Tell Emily and Cassandra I loved their owls they sent.

July 5, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

Last night was a late night full of a movie and fireworks.

This week was great. I have been here at the MTC for 10 Days. The food is OK some days and great others. The nice thing is there are many choices to chose from. This last Sunday was a long day because Benjamin and Elder Smart and I had to be out the door a 7.00 AM to eat so after sacrament meeting we could stay for branch counsel.  If you had not heard I am a zone Leader. I thought Church that started an 8:30 AM was early but 8:00 AM is when we have Sacrament. On Wednesday our Branch and Zone Received 21 new Missionaries. These new Missionaries are going to California and Georgia. Elder Smart and I have to answer all their questions and help them. Our Branch here at the MTC grew from 25 members to 39 members.

This week has been long and lots of study. Each day our class has about 7 hours of class and 2-3 hours of personal and companion study time. During this time we can only study out of the Preach My Gospel and Scriptures and the MTC study Guide. There is a lot of time in our classroom during the week. In the MTC my teachers are Brother Wynn and Tunner, volunteers come in and play like an investigators they were or know. These Volunteers are seen by many sets of missionaries. I have two investigators Elder Smart and I teach. The first is Randy and he is ready out of the Book of Mormon and loves every thing we teach him.  The second is Dave(Brother Tunner) and he is very interested in what we have to teach but we can only have the baptism after he gets out of his house arrest and is cleared from the prison.

Last night we had a devotional that was about a branch president and his son in law and how he died to protect our country and the respect of the army to his Friends and family. Then we as the MTC watched a movie, The 17 miracles. This was a funny and sad movie. The movie ended at 10:20 PM, and we were able to go out side and view the BYU fireworks and have ice cream. This week has been very fun and spiritual. Benjamin and I have seen lots of people at the MTC that we know, like Brent Hakes, Brooklyn, Gabe from our stake, Blake Stone, Tanner and Keith from School and also Aaron Moffit from Easter pageant angles.

Love Elder Andrew Allen. 

June 28, 2013

This week has been a blast. The food is very good. Benjamin and I are in the same branch and zone. We even share a room together with 4 other elders. In our group there are 6 sisters, 3 going to Kansas and 3 going to Benjamin's mission. The group of missionary's I am in is fun to be around. This Sunday we are in a branch of 19 missionary and 3 of us will have to give a talk. Thanks for everything

Love Elder Andrew