Dec 1, 2013

This week has been very fun. 

Monday we had a wonderful p-day. We played basketball and volleyball. Then we ate at the Thompson’s for dinner. They had all four of us over and also 2 friends that are not members. Then for the lesson we were talking about what we were grateful for in our lives.  The parents then told us that they are grateful for the plan of salvation. They then went on to tell us how they lost a daughter. This has truly helped them see the big picture of life and how a family can be forever. It was very nice to hear their testimony on family and how they will be able to be with their daughter again. 

Tuesday Elder Arend was sick all day. This was a very slow day of sleeping and watching movies with Elder Arend. But by dinner Elder Arend was doing better. We then went to dinner with the Scerbo Family.

Wednesday we went with a member of our ward and went down south to try different members and a few referrals. Brother Nasca has received his mission call and going to Utah.  So he is trying to go out with us to learn some teaching skills. The first person we visited was Amanda she was a referral from mormon.org. She has gone to church and also has several friends that are members. Her friend in Missouri told her that she would send over some missionaries and have them teach her so she could be baptized.  The first thing she told us is that she wants to be baptized into the church. We had a wonderful lesson with her. Amanda is now on date for the first of the year.  Then we were able to the visit less active in Burlingame, Kansas 

Thursday was Thanksgiving. Lots of food. We first went over to the Paz family for a Thanksgiving lunch. There were 4 elders and then 2 sisters there plus 12 children and 6 adults. This was wonderful to talk the children and grandchildren of the Paz's.  This was at 12:00 and we left at 3:00 PM. Then we went over to Travis’s house at 5:00 PM. Travis had his parents and also his aunt and grandmother there. Travis and all of his family are not members but they had a great time talking to the sisters and us. They also had a lot of food and pie also. Travis really liked us coming over and talking with his parents about what us missionaries do and what we teach people. Travis knows a lot about the church and should be baptized shortly.

Friday was district meeting. This was the first district meeting since transfers in November. The last 2 weeks here has been zone meeting and also other mission meetings. Our district is the elders and sisters in Lake Shawnee and the elders in Kaw Valley Ward. Our district has 10 people on date and also several others that will be on date later this next week. Then after District meeting we went out and visited several members that are up in the ghetto part of Topeka. Then we had dinner with the Downs family. Sister Downs has two grandsons that are now ready to be baptized and we started to teach them. This is nice to see a family that is coming back to church and having children that are over 8 taught the gospel. 

Saturday we had a service day. We also had lots of lessons with members in our ward. We also had a meeting with Brother Scerbo. The sisters were very late to the meeting. Then we had dinner with the Wright family which is coming back to church. They have now come for 3 Sundays.

Sunday we had church then a meeting. The fast and testimony meeting was very wonderful. We had lots of us missionary and those planning on missions bear our testimony. There was us 4 missionary in our ward and also a recent missionary, Brad and also his sister, which leaves on the first of the year. This was a great testimony meeting. Then we were asked to go to the youth fireside. This fireside was Brad Kubie, a returned missionary from Pocatello Idaho mission.  He talked about the things he learned on his mission and how the youth can prepare for missions and how they can invite their friends to hear the lessons from us elder and sisters in the ward. This was very nice to see how he changed and the things he did that I can apply to my mission.  In our ward we have 4 that are working to go on missions. Joanna and Gerard both have their call and 2 other have their papers in.

This week we had lots of food and many great lessons. 

Hope you all are doing good and staying warm. I am doing great and loving the people I meet out here in Topeka. 

Love,

Elder Andrew J Allen

PS the dog is my new friend.  Thanks for the cookies and the tie.