Dec 30,2013

This week was a great week. A baptism, food and family.

Monday we had P-day then we the interviews of Dale and Sean Siddons. This was a great time to see them ready for baptism the next day. 

Tuesday there were 8 baptisms in Topeka. There was a baptism at 12 and 5 at the stake center and one at the Jewell building at 6:30pm. The baptism of Dale and Sean was at 5 pm. The meeting started late because a family was late and people were slow changing into the jumpsuits. This baptism was nice because the Stake President and the Mission President we able to make it. The mission president was able to drive from Wichita to make to the baptism. There were 4 people baptized at the 5 pm session. After the baptism we were able to have dinner at the Scerbo house. Sister Scerbo is a great cook and loves to cook for us because she was a chef once in her life. This was a great day for us. 

Dale and Sean

Wednesday we had time with Brother Homewood opening gifts. Then we elders went over to the Scerbo house to Skype with Benjamin and my family at 11 Am. This was nice to see them and see how they had changed and the things that are happening with them. This was the best time to see my family and also Benjamin at the same time. Then at 2 pm we went over to the Bradfields house. The sisters Skyped their parents at this house. Then at 2 we ate a Dinner / Lunch. Then we played games, opened a few gifts and talked. They had us write a letter to our self of what we were grateful for this last year. This was nice to reflect of the things that have happened in my life. They told us that when we are done with our mission that we had to come back to visit them and then we can get the letter from them. Then we went with all of the other missionaries to go caroling to members in Topeka. 

Thursday we had weekly planning and saw several members in the ward. We visited the Kubie family. The Kubie family is one of the largest family in Topeka. They have had several children serve missions and one, Joanna Kubie leaving at the first of the year. We had a great lesson with them about missionaries work with their friends. They are a great family and have several people that they are working with. Then we had dinner with the Clark family. The Sisters were 20 min late. The Clark family was great having us over at the last second.  The family that was going to feed just the elders could not have us over so the Clark feed us. Then we followed the sisters out to the ghetto part of town to make sure that they made it safe to their appointment and back home. 

Friday we had district meeting. We then saw less actives and former investigators. We were able to see several people and invited them to church. Then we had dinner with the Fisher family and the sisters. We were able to talk about several family that the elders quorum wants us to talk to and help get to the temple. This was nice to see some members wanting help from us to help their friends in the church. 

Saturday we did service for the Davis family. They had us over to fix some of their siding on their house. We were able to talk to them about their friends and who would be interested to have us talk to them. Then we had correlation meeting with brother Scerbo and the sisters. 

Sunday we had lots of things to do. Our ward missionary leader was not at our ward so we did several tasks that he would of done before the confirmation of our new members. I was able to confirm Sean Siddons and Elder Arend confirmed Dale Siddons. Then we had dinner with the Ramsey family. There was lots of people at the Ramsey family, the sisters and their married children all came. Then we went to the youth fireside that a return missionary was speaking at. It was nice to see how his mission was different in London then here. 

This week I hope all of you can reflect on the different things that you are grateful for and things you can do to help you this next year. Hope you all have a great New Years and are all having fun. 

Love,

Elder Andrew Allen