Elder Allred's Mission Blog

2010-08-01T19:12:00.001-06:00

Top- Elder Allred & president Sorensen after he was Released.

Bottom - Seeing past companion Brett Christensen after 6 weeks. Great Reunion

He is Home

2010-08-01T19:08:00.000-06:00

He arrived home Friday July 30 @ 9:15 pm in St. George Utah amid thunder and lightening storms. It was a wonderful reunion. He is kind of like a fish out of water. Not quite sure what to do with himself, but his nieces and nephew are keeping him busy. After all the hugs and such we went and got him something to eat. He chose a Mexican place that is open 24 hours. We received a phone call from a newly returned companion Elder Christensen that couldn't wait until next week to see him. We arrived home and he showed up shortly thereafter to Elder Allred's surprise. What a great experience to see companions embracing one another after 6 weeks of being apart. It was a little strange for Elder Allred to call his x- companion by his first name. He joined us for family prayers and then he was on his way. Elder Allred was released Saturday morning @ 9 am and then preceded to unpack all of his belongings and organize his room. He e-mailed the mission office and his last companion about some stuff, played with nieces and his nephew, and started sharing many experiences from his mission.So at the end of the day Saturday some of his friends came by and had dinner with us and visited with him for a short while, then they left as he was so tired. He was able to get some good rest. Bore his testimony @ church and went to a single adult fireside. Went to a missionary prep class his father teaches and helped him teach the class. A dear friend who is an RM since December paid him a surprise visit on Sunday evening. Great to see old friends reunited.
What a wonderful experience he had, how amazing is this church to allow young men go out for 2 years to learn about another culture and other religions, and themselves. He has really grown into an amazing man. What a great privilege it has been of mine to be the mom of a missionary. It has truly blessed my life and the life of our family. I have so loved all the many wonderful missionary moms and people from the England London South Mission I have had to opportunity to get to know through my son and facebook and the LDS Missionary Mom website. They have changed our lives.Have a great week all and know we love and appreciate all of your love and support.

No Letter This Week

2010-07-27T16:14:00.000-06:00

Well Everyone you have all been so faithful in keeping up with Elder Allred's Blog. He is in his last few days, and I am sure so very busy and doesn't have time to write his last letter. Please pray for him as he returns home and to his life as a non missionary. This will be a hard transition for him and all those that are returning. I promise I will keep up on his blog for awhile and then I will turn it over to him. God Bless you all!!
All my love and best to each of you
Deniece ( Elder Allred's MUM)

Miracle's Never Cease

2010-07-27T16:05:00.003-06:00

This is the first part of my letter to President Shamo.

What an amazing week it was for Elder Bång and myself. We were able to see the hand of the Lord in literally everything we did. My heart is full of gratitude for the many things he has done for me always as one of his missionaries. He has blessed me way more than I deserve, and I always try to repay him somehow but it just never works. One great thing I learned this last week was the power of faith and the amazing feelings that come as you totally and completely lose yourself in the service of others in a very real and up close and personal way. I love talking to others and learning from them and trying to understand where they are coming from and how the gospel can help them in one way or another. The people that we were able to meet and teach are so wonderful. I will forever remember this our first week in the Redhill/Reigate area. Thank you so much president for allowing us to work there, it is such a blessing and a joy to be doing in essence the exact same thing all the other missionaries are doing. We are so excited to do as the savior did and lead by what we do rather than what we say to them. I heard the quote again a few weeks ago of “I want my actions to speak so loud that you can’t even hear what I am saying.“ We feel so strongly that this will really help them see that it is possible and as well as give them real ways they can do things by us already trying them out in our area. As I reflect and realize my time is drawing to a close, I am torn, my heart is sorrowful for knowing I have to leave for a time these people in England. I have grown to love them so much and care for them and have seen them in some ways in the way our Father in Heaven sees them. They have so much happiness and joy and great things waiting for them if they but follow the truth that God has revealed. I see so many not happy, families in distress and I know this what we are teaching is exactly what they need to find what they are looking for and nothing else. I want to keep helping them find it and leaven them makes me feel a little sad yet in the same breath this is now a second home to me and over these last two years I have loved every second of it. The good and the bad, the easy and the hard. I feel like I am becoming a little bit closer to what God really wants me to become, a long way off still but a little closer. President you have been instrumental in helping me so much. I have always felt your love and your encouragement. It has made me always want to do my best and to become a better disciple of Jesus Christ. Thank you so much for your sacrifice and devotion, words can’t express my thanks for all you have done.

Family, there have been so many amazing miracles this last week, I can't even begin to describe them or explain them to you. They is one scripture that does kinda explain how I felt, "And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do." 1 Nephi 4:6 We were truly led by the spirit to find those that would hear the voice of the lord. It was amazing to me as well because it wasn't like we knew for sure which way to go our exactly who to talk with but we had slight impressions and thoughts to do or go a certain way and it was the spirit guiding our path. It was so exciting as well as another scripture describes what happened, "Yea, and even all they who wrought miracles wrought them by faith, even those who were before Christ and also those who were after... And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God." -Ether 12:16&18

This is the essence of what I have really come to learn over this time of missionary service, Jesus Christ is indeed the very son of God, the only begotten of the Father in the flesh. He spoke to the prophets of old and revealed the great Plan of Salvation, he then came in the meridian of time to show us, truly show us a more excellent way, a perfect way to live. With this great life he lived he performed the one act that makes everything else work, it sorts it all out and he was the only one who could do such a thing as to suffer and bleed and die and then take his life back up. He lives I know it with my whole soul, the spirit has truly borne witness of this eternal truth to me time and time again. He is at the head of this work and this his only true and living church. I love knowing we have more witness than just the Bible or even just the Bible and the Book of MormonYea, I know that I am ^anothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will ^bnot boast of myself, but I will ^cboast of my God, for in his ^dstrength I can do all ^ethings; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." I really love the scriptures as it really describes how I feel, I can connect with it and I understand a portion of how Ammon must of felt. My cup of joy and happiness runs over at this very time. "And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our ^ajoy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some. Now behold, we can look forth and see the ^afruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are ^bmany; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us."Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all ^apower, ^ball wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a ^cmerciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name. Now if this is ^aboasting, even so will I boast; for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo. Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a ^bbranch of the tree of Israel, and has been ^clost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, ^dwanderers in a strange land. Now my brethren, we see that God is ^amindful of every ^bpeople, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen." These scriptures are amazing. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is so true, It is more true than I think we can even realize.

Family I love you, thank you for everything you have always done for me as a missionary and for my entire life. I am excited to see you and to further the work of the lord in our own land. Have a wonderful week love others in the way the Savior loved us.

Elder Allred

ELSM 08-10

Work is a Blast!

2010-07-12T10:08:00.001-06:00

This was a great week! We were on exchanges every day this week with the rest of the zone leaders and now we only have 1 left, then we will have done all 9. I had so much fun just finding and teaching and learning. Whenever we think we know how to do something this is when we learn actually we have a lot to keep learning. We met many amazing people, one that really stands out to me was a man from Nepal that came running after us as we were talking to people on the streets of Western London. He was a seeker of truth and a man yearning for knowledge that could help him and fortify his faith in God. We taught him on the grass in a busy intersection, it was amazing as at the end of teaching he prayed and really was just asking for answers from God. He was so sincere and so genuine. Yesterday after teaching him again the Elders in Staines invited him to be baptized and he accepted the invitation. What a special guy that ran for the truth. We were able to see some baptisms and sing and just everything was amazing. Word are not adequate to explain all that took place.
Hope you have fun @ young women's camp:)
No I haven't talked with Trevor much in the last 6 or 8 months how is everything going with him?
The kids sound so cute haha I am glad they are all loving church and all the different things that will strengthen them.
The ward that we go to is so wonderful. They are so loving and so kind. We got a new ward mission leader called this last week as well as set up some appointments to see some of the members and are just so excited to go and work in our area this week as well as get ready for moves and all the things going on until then.
Lots to do I know I love you all and thank you for your prayers and everything I cannot thank you enough!

Love from Elder Allred

Faith a Divine Trust

2010-07-12T10:02:00.002-06:00

Monday July 5th

Hey hey family! All is well in England. This last week has been amazing, so many exciting things and so much fun we have been having. Tue was our great p-day as Mon was our last zone conference. I found an amazing new suit that you can wash in the washer, so sweet! As well as got some goodies for you all J Then that evening and part of Wed was spent getting everything ready for our exchanges for Thurs. Fri, and Sat. It was wonderful going to work in Plymouth, Bournemouth, and Southampton over those three days. We saw many miracles from Heavenly Father as we worked with all the zone leaders from each of the areas. They are all such great missionaries with so much passion and desire for the work and wanting to help others and the missionaries in there zones. It amazes me that young men our age can really rise up and change and take so much responsibility upon themselves. In Plymouth I worked with Elder Judd, an amazing guy from down in Southern Utah. We really had a good time allowing the Lord to guide us from place to place and talk to those around, giving them an opportunity to accept the gospel. Oh yeah an Thurs. morning as I was shaving in there bathroom, a hot water pipe burst and started spraying everywhere water was all over in there bathroom standing water. We had to pull the carpet up and hang it up to dry outside. It was intense and slightly funny as we were rushing around to find the member that they live with so he could show us where the shut off valve was then finally it was shut off. An awesome experience and an awesome exchange as we really applied the counsel of "come what may and love it" and not allowing anything to affect us and how we handled the situation.
Off to Bournemouth Thurs. night and spent all day Fri working with an Elder Gardner from England, we too had some amazing experiences as we were contacting right in front of their chapel. Talked to loads of foreigners as it is a big university town and also a language study place so we met this sweet lady from Korea and later in the day we taught this other sweet Korean girl that is studying English at a school there for only a few months. She was amazing, so shy and quite but wow she shared a story with us about praying to God for help, she needed a new bike and she told him she would go to his church if he would help her they next day she received a new bike and a little while after that she met the missionaries and new this was right. She is now getting baptized on the 24 of July. It overall was a great time seeing the cultures of the world and teaching them the gospel and seeing how they take it and the happiness that comes as others begin to draw closer to their Father in Heaven.
Last was in Southampton with Elder Sorbonne, we were in the same MTC group and flew over from America together. It was so fun to be able to do missionary work together in this our last transfer. We also were able to go to their baptism that they had that evening. It was just a blast to be in this wonderful city walking the streets and meeting some wonderful people. This one man from Ghana we talked with for a few minutes about the game as they had just lostL, we then got into a great discussion about truth and what we teach as missionaries. We walked with him back to his house and taught him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He was so interested in learning, as he had a PHD in Statistics but the sad thing is it wasn't with real intent or a sincere heart. What an amazing guy though I really felt a love for him and saw the potential to help so many more people with a fullness of truth and understanding of the gospel. It was just sad to see someone not really care enough to give it a proper chance as he will now miss out on all that in till he comes around and changes. He will one day I believe. The baptisms that they had were amazing, true converts, seekers of truth and those that will build the kingdom. I love this work it is so exciting and fun to teach and testify of Jesus Christ, what more can you want to do than help others understand who he truly was and is, as I reflect upon this my heart is draw out with great warmth and love for him my savior my redeemer, my friend that has been someone who I have had all the faith in the world in as a missionary. In trusting in him he has shown me that I can always trust him and follow him and put my confidence in him.
I love you all and hope you all have a great week as you look for those in need and participate in being the hands of the Lord to assist in his work.

Elder Allred

Living Water-The Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives

2010-07-01T16:20:00.000-06:00

Elder Binks & Elder Christensen @ Elder Christensen's report to the Ward after returning home from his mission. Great missionaries!!!

Wow how blessed we are! I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude to our Father in Heaven for this opportunity and responsibility to serve him and his children our brothers and sisters. This time serving has been and still is that thing to which has brought me the greatest happiness that I have yet experienced in my life. Preach My Gospel does not lie but gives us that truth found within the First Presidency Message. Over the past few days and weeks I have been deeply reflecting on all that has happened to me over here. As I do so, a few things come to my mind and heart. 1^st I feel a great sense of love for these people, each and every one of them. They are truly amazing, members are such a joy to know and be associated with, also recent converts and all the less-active members are those to whom I have a great sense of love for. There are some exciting things going on at this moment in time. We just finished our series of ZoKos, 1^st we were in Crawley 2^nd in Poole and the last one was yesterday in Reading. These were amazing and lots of spiritual in-sights and a great abundance of the spirit of the Lord was poured out upon all those present. President Shamo taught us the Law of Moses and took us to the Law of Christ, each of his amazing counselors taught us. President Martin taught about spirituality and the impact we as missionaries can have, President Jones taught us about teaching and unfolding the principles and doctrines of the gospel in such a way as to allow the scriptures to do the teaching and getting those we teach to make a personal application. It was an amazing time being instructed by these great men, that are truly spiritual giants. I learned to much to share but simply put as president Shamo taught us from 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of theheart.

He taught us how this is what must happen to us as missionaries and really for anyone who is to truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ. It must be in us written on our heart, we must have that broken heart so the Lord can write upon it with the experiences that he provides for us. The spirit will come into our lives if we but invite in by the way we live, we must live clean, live with kindness and not be so busy that we miss the spiritual experiences to which the Lord is providing. When this takes place, what we do will speak so loud that people will not be able to hear what we say. We must truly show our faith by our works and also by what we say. These must go hand in hand as the Savior of the world taught us.

This last Sunday Elder Bång and myself went to the Epsom ward, our new ward where we will soon be working. We have come up with a vision of things and the way in which the Assistants will be used and how things will work, we hope it will have an impact upon the work as we will be able to have our own proselyting area for part time. This ward is amazing; they were so kind and welcoming to us. We were so excited to do more leading by what we do rather than what we say. I am so excited for all the things that are working out as we move forward with the spirit of the lord leading us in this his great work. This week and next week were going on exchanges with all the Zone Leaders. It is going to be amazing working with all of them also as there are so many new ones this moves.

I want you all to know how much I love you. I love you for who you are and what you have done and continue to do for me and all others. You, my family mean the world to me. I am sorry for not being perfect just yet... sorry for missing e-mails and anything else I may have neglected as I result of being in too big of a hurry. (Read Don't be in a Hurry” in the June Ensign) it hit me in the heart and helped me to realize some changes I need to keep making. “

Thank you for everything, thank you for making me feel loved and important in your lives. Thank you for the sacrifices that you have all made so that I may be out here serving the Lord. Thank you for just being you. Keep on this path. Let us all keep pressing forward, looking towards Jesus Christ and following all the things that he did and said.

PS: Read John 3&4 . Elder Bång and I taught about water, discussed this with the missionaries and what is the living water? We then asked them this question at the end...How are YOU going to lead THEM to the Living Water? Let us all ponder this and seek the guidance of God to know how to lead others to the Atonement of Jesus Christ that one event that will make all things right!

Quick question...Is there anything you would like me to bring back home? Anything you would like me to get for any of you? Just let me know!! :)

Yes Elder Christensen and Elder Binks are amazing!!! Send them my love and best wishes!

Much love from

Elder Allred

Life is Changing so fast!!

2010-06-20T19:50:00.000-06:00

The 28 New missionaries arrive to begin their 2 years of service to the Lord. (top)

Elder Ellsworth, Maria Seme (Peckham Ward member & family friend), Elder Allred, and Junior a returned missionary that served a 6 week mini mission in ELSM. Goodbye to a dear companion till they meet again in 6 weeks. (center)

Elder Allred & companion Elder Christensen,(from Delta) @ the London temple, as they say goodbye for 6 weeks. (bottom)

Changes , and Life goes on!!

2010-06-20T19:36:00.000-06:00

The past three months have just been one big blur...They have been filled with many sacred experiences with Elder Christensen and to see him off this morning was easy at first but now it has slowly hit me that they...are gone. Elder Ellsworth one of my favorites, someone who taught me so much and was such a good companion and someone who really helped me grow is now gone. Elder Timmons, an amazing missionary who introduced me to London and the way of teaching the people from Africa is also now on his way home. It was a sobering time spending these last few moments with them, but... it is one of happy thoughts as I reflect on all the amazing experiences we have all had together. I was filled with joy and happiness as I thought about these valiant missionaries. I was contemplating there brief two year service for the Lord and it is so awesome to see the Joy and satisfaction on their faces knowing they have given their all to the Lord and he was pleased for what they have done. This was a stark contrast from the experience seeing the 28 new missionary’s fresh out of the Preston MTC coming ready to see what this is all about, and trying to find their footing and figure out how to be a servant of the Lord and to have that complete trust and love for him. It was a blast to teach and practice with them and learn from them and see how prepared they really are. Many of them have lots of talents that will help them as they preach the gospel. I was so impressed by their character and their enthusiasm for the work it was great. They just were all gung-ho and wanting to get out and do the real work. You meet people and in an instant you really can fill this overwhelming love for them and who they are. This I feel is President Shamos' greatest attribute. He has so much love and is so caring for every single person, and wants them to feel loved and important and he wants them to succeed. What a gem of a man he is and a great example for us all.
Wow, so much has happened since I last wrote to you. First of all amazing miracles that bring warmth to my soul. Louise Joines, a Former In-Active member in Peckham ward that Elder Ellsworth and I taught has now been going back to church for a few months and this last Sat. her 8 year old son Jordan was baptized! The Elders had been teaching him after she had been coming back to church, so they wanted Elder Ellsworth to do the baptism before he went home, it was so amazing! Joy and true happiness really do come into people’s lives as they accept and live the gospel. We had the privilege to attend the baptism as well as pick up my new companion...Elder Bang... its pronounced Bong though. He is from Denmark, Copenhagen. What an amazing missionary and person. He is awesome and it is such a blessing to be able to serve with him. His parents are both converts and he and his family are just rock solid. I love working with him and it is going to be an exciting next 6 weeks with all these changes, all the new missionaries and just this work in general is exciting and fun! I love it so much. I did get my box...that was the one from Kyle right? It had MS buffalo sticks right? Thanks so much we tasted them and they were amazing!!! In the many activities we have been engaged in over the past weeks there have been a few things that really have stuck out to me. One, how amazing the scriptures are and the inspiration and joy they can bring to you as you really take the time to feast on those sacred texts, and sharing them as well and seeing someone else get the same joy and satisfaction out of reading them. Two how important it is to never take anything for granted and live in the moment, don't let anything else to effect you or make you un-happy we have that great power to choose the things we want in our life it is as simple as that choosing to overcome the hardships and trials and adversity and turn to your Father in Heaven because he will lift us up he will not leave us comfortless, we have to give him that time in our lives. Three how important it is to be happy and enthusiastic, with these two attitudes we can be such a great influence in the lives of others for the positive. I love this gospel; it is tried true and tested truth! Our savior lives, he did what no one else could do and has provided the only way to true happiness. This is it, and it is amazing to have in our lives. Oh how great it is to make this known to everyone. Let us all live our life in a way that others will open their hearts to what their Heavenly Father wants them to do. He wants one thing..."unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandments, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father'' Moses 7:33
We must truly always apply this one verse of scripture...''I will shew thee my faith by my works'' James 2:18. I love you all and thanks for all you do for me! You’re the best family anyone could ever ask for!
(We are his only family, He can’t get rid of us that easily. LOL)
Elder Garren Allred

Rich in History

2010-06-20T19:19:00.001-06:00

Oh what a day...we were able to spend the day visiting Windsor Castle with President and Sister Shamo and also their son Spencer. It was grand and amazing to see such a huge and indescribable castle that was so rich in history and had such intricate architecture you just went from room to room standing in amazement of how and maybe the better question to ask was why did they do it...why so fancy and so nice? So sorry for not writing in such a long time...so much has happened and it has all flown by like a dream. We have had all our Zone Interview days/Zoko's which were absolutely amazing, filled with excitement and reflection of all the miracles that the lord has provided to us since the beginning of the year. We had an awesome slide show of all the baptisms with some sweet music along with it and each time we showed it, lots of emotions came out and gratitude for being able to know and see such people come into the gospel. As I sat there reflecting on all these people, I thought to myself all the people the Lord had blessed me with to be able to teach and I was so filled with joy and happiness for everything that had been given by him and I realized once again that he is the one directing all of this work in such a way that he gets it all done in a manner that is beneficial to all involved. Over the past week we were out on the road all week going from city to city doing exchanges and it was amazing to go and work with all these wonderful missionaries as there is so much to learn from each and every one of them I just love being able to take it all in and grasp onto what can help me or maybe help someone else so we can all be the best missionary for our savior. He deserves that much and more for all he went through for us. In all the exchanges there were so many miracles big and small, but I think the thing I was able to notice most from all of them was how quick Heavenly Father is to guide us and give us that spiritual direction that we need to do his work. Time and time again an impression or thought or idea would come and by following them we were able to really assist him in this work. Teaching has to be one of my most favorite things to do; it is a challenge and makes us stay on the ball learning and growing all the time in order to be guided by God when we need it. As well as in teaching you see some grasp it and light them up inside and there really is no greater joy than seeing someone else fill the spirit of the gospel come into their lives. This work is all about others and when we come to realize that we begin to catch the fire of missionary work. My invitation to you is to teach someone (non-member) a gospel principle this next week and invite them to live it to learn its truthfulness for themselves. This work is true, so very true. It makes me happy inside and out! I love you all, thanks for everything that you all do, sorry this is short but look for some more soon...
Have a great week family!!!!!!
Love Elder Allred

Words are Not Enough!!

2010-06-20T19:10:00.000-06:00

What a week this last week was. One that will forever be remembered. Starting with Tue we went and retrieved the luggage of Presidents son and also the amazing new senior couple Elder and Sister McClellan. President played a funny prank on us... As we arrived at the airport he was talking to three South American looking brothers. We came up to them and President tried to play off on us that these guys were really interested in the gospel and learning. They were from Brazil and didn't speak much English and were doing a great job of playing non members. Then one of them pulled out a old missionary badge and told us there story, they were all members waiting for a friend coming from Scotland, it was a right good laugh! Later that day we spent time helping with them and then we shot off later in the day to go on exchanges with the missionaries in Staines. We rushed off and arrived up there and had subway for dinner. As we were eating we called them to let them know we had arrived and come to find out they were at the temple visitor center with an investigator that was getting baptized that weekend, mis-communication led us to go out finding in their area. We knocked on 3 doors in about 45min, set up some appointments and knocked into a guy named Andy. He had been taught by missionaries before and this was not too long ago. We went in and talked with him and prayed and taught, in the end it was a really good spiritual teach as we extended invitations. He really did not except any of them, how sad it was to see him exercise no faith and not understand the whole principle of putting the lord first. We left and spent the night at the missionaries flat. Had a great night and morning and all was ready for that day. We headed off to presidents house, and for that whole day we were doing technical stuff, Elder Christensen and Elder McClellan was running President and another mission president in training through our new mission key indicator analysis program and how to run it. It was very exciting seeing everyone run through this amazing program. While he was doing this I was questioning and taking in information from Spencer who served a mission in Costa Rico about 1 year ago and also now teaches in the MTC in Provo. We had a great long talk where I learned loads of new good ideas and different ways of running things to be most efficient and productive. For the rest of the day we were doing these things and figuring out how to get everyone ready and organized for all of their things. The next day we spent our time in preparation for the mission conference with Elder Quentin L Cook. We were working through all the logistics of getting everyone there and on time and also some planning for our exchanges. The next morning we headed off to Reading for an early start, it was amazing to see this all come together as a member of the quorum of the 12 came and instructed us for about 2 hours. We got everyone there and things were ready as we sat waiting for Elder Cook, he arrived about 5min early and we shook his hand and walked in to the meeting. He is such a nice man and so kind and inviting. He was our only speaker as well as his wife spoke for a short few min, It was amazing to sit and listen and be instructed by this spiritual of a giant man, he has so many great experiences and stories and all his knowledge to share it was wonderful. D&C 31:7 was a scripture he read to us and the day before I had been fasting to learn something or to just better understand some principles with regards to who prepares the hearts and who will establish the church. We must once and for all understand that we are not the ones doing it we are the Lords hands, we must do it his way and he is the one guiding them and using the hands in the way he wants. This is what really stood out to me as well as some other things concerning ch 3 and ch 11 in PMG as well as he told us to not have a narrow vision of missionary work to build the kingdom and really help others. He then bore the most powerful testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ I have ever heard in person. It was so amazing to hear his personal witness and what this really means to us as children of our Father in Heaven. It was a great conference, we did some running around and travel for the rest of the day. On Saturday we headed back to Reading for an exchange with the Zone Leaders and also later in the day Elder Toyn and his companion Elder Karjalina...haha I cant spell his name correctly. So we went on these two exchanges and it was amazing to be working with such good missionaries. Later that day at 5:30pm we went to the baptism of the Ynajosa family, the family we met @ the ASDA store at Reading. What a family, so ready and prepared for the gospel and what good hearts! They are so wonderful. I love them so much, you can just feel there pure hearts and the what the gospel has brought them! How amazing it was to see the Lord guide us by his hand to do such a small simple act to bring about such an eternal important decision. We had a celebration dinner at Nandos and then headed off to Bristol for a Stake Conference the next day. It took us a while to get there about 3 hour drive but we arrived safe and sound and then woke up this last Sunday and went to the Bristol stake conference at which Elder Cook again instructed us along with two other amazing speakers, they were both seventies, Elder Keron and Elder Ketcher. Such amazing talks, I learned so much as we sat there in the amazingly beautiful weather, it was 80+ degrees they opened all the windows and doors. The spirit was strong and powerful as all these leaders gave instruction. We left on a spiritual high and went off on exchanges for a few hours with Elder Joel and Elder Rantsha, what wonderful missionaries that work so hard and have such great faith and zeal for the gospel. We drove off to the temple to do Sunday night accounting. That was the crazy awesome busy week and for P-day this last Monday we went to Hampton Court.....Check out the place on the internet.I love this work and it is so true and does bring true and lasting happiness but only if we ourselves put in the effort that God requires of us. Enjoy your week and smile big!

Love Elder Allred

Losing our lives or Saving it?

2010-05-24T09:03:00.000-06:00

Sorry i am a few days late again....I will get better!
We often think in the realm of the natural and humankind. We are naturally selfish, prideful, vain, foolish, we are most of the time looking out for number 1. By doing this we lose our life, we lose happiness, lose eternal progression. The Savior knew how important this principle of losing our lives in the cause of truth and for the sake of the Gospel. He showed us the perfect way and gave us so much motivation to press forward and overcome the natural and allow the spiritual to take over and take effect. This last week I have been thinking about this, applying it to missionaries and this work it is exactly what is asked of us. It may not make sense or seem logical to us but to him who sees' and knows all things it is simple and clear. We had a busy exciting filled week this last week! It flew by so fast it seems like it was ages ago. We had two new missionaries along with a new office sister come into the field. We arrived at the airport to pick them up and they were wide eyed and excited to be here in England. What wonderful missionaries, it is so amazing to see all these people so willing to give up what they have for a greater cause and something that will forever change the course of their lives. We spent the day with them and also preparing for a ZLC (Zone Leader Council) and just getting all the pieces in place for this coming moves. Then on Wed. we had ZLC for most of the day. I had the chance to teach and instruct about the topic of losing our lives. I really learned a lot and feel it is such a gospel basic and foundational principle to us progressing into eternities. Later that night we took Elder Harding back to the office to have him finish packing for his flight the next morning. He was a missionary that extended for one week to finish some projects he was working on for president. It is really weird and sad to see so many missionaries leave and to be the one to take them is also a very strange feeling. Strange or not it is done and it just shows me that we really need to live every day to the fullest extent because one day what your doing might all end. We took him to the airport the next morning and prepared for two zone training days for that Fri. On Fri. we had two great zone training days all about the Book of Mormon, it was so inspiring and great to here all these amazing things about this book that Heavenly Father has given us. We then left some commitments with people regarding giving more Books of Mormon away and later that day some miracles started to be reported as missionaries diligently sought to share this divine book with those around them. We finished of the day by completing some projects for training and moves and all sorts of things. Then on Sat. we worked on more projects and prepared for our Sunday trip to the coast. We went to church in Chitchester and also delivered two mattress to them. It was a small and humble ward but wow were they strong in there testimonies of the truth. It was inspiring as the youth talked about the responsibilities of the Aronic Priesthood, as it was the anniversary of that this last week. They were amazing youth and it really amazes me how much Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to learn and grow and progress, that is what this is all about, all these things we do in our short and simple lives. How sweet is that, that the power and right to act in the name of God is given to such people to help them realize who they are and what they can become as you were talking about in your e-mail mom and how Satan wants us to forget that. The Priesthood combats the power of Satan. Later that day we had lunch with an amazing Senior Couple from Idaho and then traveled to help president out with a fireside in a place near the coast called East Bourne. What an awesome fireside about the Savior and who he is and his great relation to us in this Plan of happiness. We then shot off in a hurry to the office to account with everyone for the week.
Hey I love you all and am so grateful for all you do, your prayers and support are priceless. This Gospel is so true and is the only thing in life that is constant, something that will always bring us happiness and something that will ultimately bring us to where we all want to go. Jesus Christ is more than a savior, more than a mediator, more than a redeemer, for what he has done i will not fully understand but I know that he lived a life for others, he is the son of god. That is a fact, and with that it is humbling to know he made himself a sacrifice for us for all our errors and stupid mistakes. The atonement of Christ is one of the most amazing gifts to be given. It helps me each day as I feel the love and understanding and compassion that he had and still has for us...his brothers and sisters and friends. lets remember him and lose our lives in his service in which we truly find a life worth living.

Have a week of smiles:)

Love you all
Elder Garren Allred

I love this place!

2010-05-09T19:22:00.000-06:00

A Wonderful Place to Be!!! London Temple and a missionary in the England London South Mission

The Spirit is Awesome

2010-05-09T19:18:00.002-06:00

Letter to his dad this week. (Photo) He is multi-tasking, bringing lunch to someone in the office from the temple cafeteria, and making appointments on the phone. This last few days have been crazy and awesome all at the same time. I really just loving serving and growing and learning each and everyday of my life. Serving in the capacity that I am now serving in has taught me so much, how to trust God more and really how to exercise more faith and be more trusting in him and his ways. I have learned how little I really do know and how much more I need to learn and grow in my life. You know that scripture...Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth ..1 Cor 8:1, it is so true in the end the best thing that will change us is charity not all the knowledge that we have but true Christ-like charity. I love it, we must just serve and serve and serve until we cant serve no more! Thanks for part of the talk, I really enjoyed reading it! Yeah Stetson, that is so exciting for him I am well pumped! Thanks for all you do dad, love you so much, have a great week at work.

Elder Garren Allred

the Restored Gospel enables you to...

2010-05-09T19:09:00.002-06:00

Wow what a week.....full of some long lasting and amazing experiences. The crazy thing is, it is all going to fast and I fail to remember many things that happen and that is not good at all because I really want to remember all of these important and life changing times.
This last week some amazing things happened, I will highlight a few.... Tuesday we had a great district meeting in High Wycombe, Wednesday a wrench was thrown in the works with a Part-Time missionary coming in early for a training day but it all worked out in the end, I then did some work around the office. Thursday we traveled in the morning to the famous Bristol, for a ZT (Zone Training Day) it was awesome I really learned so much and felt like the lord really taught me a lot as we taught and trained. That evening we traveled back after president had a meeting and it was very late but we had a good time driving together, as president taught us and shared some cool stories with us. We learned a lot about what really happened with the Mountain Meadow Massacre, and loads of history and background upon it. I found it all very interesting and fascinating. The next day we finished up some projects and then welcomed Elder Hinkley to our mission for a day as he came to see our visitor centre and meet with President Shamo.We had the blessing to meet him and later that night with some others from the mission office we had dinner with Elder and Sister Hinkley at President Shamo's. What wonderful people, so humble and warm and inviting. They just really made you feel comfortable, for some strange reason General Authorities seem to have that effect on you. We ate an amazing meal and then Elder Christensen, me, and Elder Vistante taught at the end of dinner. It was great being able to sit there and share some thoughts and ideas and scriptures with a General Authority and then commit them all to do something, you know I don't think that will happen everyday.

Wow so sorry I haven't written for a while, it really has been an intense last couple of weeks filled with many amazing experiences and many blessings from the Lord. Please forgive me for not writing but hey on the bright side of things we get to talk on the phone for an hour this Sunday. My phone call will most likely be in the evening time around 7ish or 8ish, so there about 12 or 1 ? or i can call at a different time whatever works best for you.

I love you all and thank you so much for all the support and prayers it really means the world to me!

Much love
Elder Allred

So Great were the Blessing 's of the Lord

2010-04-25T18:01:00.000-06:00

Let me start off by saying how much I love you all. You are all a light and a beacon in my life and a true inspiration. You all make me want to be better and better each and every day. For this I am profoundly grateful because you really have helped me to become and keep becoming who I should be. This last week was intense, we were running from place to place for Zone Trainings, and at these the Zone Leaders and sister Shamo and the AP’s do some training with the missionaries while President does interviews. We had one of those every day except for Wed. and Sat. and Sun. this last week. I really learned a lot while going to these meetings. One of the greatest things I have learned is that, wow can I forget certain things pertaining to the scriptures so easy. It just reminds me how important it is to read them every day and really make the scriptures become a part of your life and in doing so you are truly feasting upon the words of Christ. This is something I feel very strongly about, 1 Nephi 15:24 tells us the effect the word of god can have upon us and what it will do for us. This is the one thing we must hold fast to in our lives where there are many things competing for our attention and trying to lead us away from God and happiness we must never forget those times and experiences when we were so happy and think what was I doing? When I think of that it almost always something pertaining to the Gospel or something that would be connected to it somehow. It makes me happy, I know it is Truth that is being taught, not some fictitious creation of someone’s imaginative mind, no it is not that, it is pure truth that can only be discerned spiritually. How amazing it is to know we can find out what is true by testing it, living it and then knowing if it be of God or of man? I love that.
I had the chance of going to Poole and we went on exchanges for a short while and I was able to go and teach Joan Caines, she is doing so well, and is staying strong in the gospel. My heart was full of happiness to see her progressing and staying steadfast in the faith. Also on that exchange we met this amazingly sweet lady, she kept asking us questions about what we do and how it all works and what not. We asked her what she believed and it was a very bazaar thing but we just listened and talked with her. I really thought she was so great. We then had a discussion about truth and what it is and how we can only know if we try it with things pertaining to the gospel and God and then we invited her to learn more and it was the nicest and most kind rejection I have ever had as a missionary, it was sad to see this sweet lady reject something that would truly help her more than she could ever realize. If there is one thing I keep learning is as a missionary we are truly only assisting in this work, at the end of the day God is the one that does the Converting with the agency of the one that is seeking him and they must choose him....
And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father...-Moses 7:33
We need to help them in making a correct choice by loving them and showing them the only way to true happiness is choosing him our father. To me this verse is a sweet gentle fatherly voice crying out for us to choose him; please choose me, your father. Each and every day we must choose him and in choosing him we will be abundantly blessed by our great and eternal Father.
Now here is a contrasting story, We were finishing up a training meeting in Reading and had just had dinner with President and Sister Shamo, and Elder Christensen was needing to find some short sleeve white shirts so we put it into the Satellite Navigator and it was leading us there in Reading to a ASDA, well it led us slightly the wrong way, and we had to back track and finally we arrived to the ASDA. Well it took us into the wrong parking lot, we were slightly annoyed with everything not working like we would of had it work but none the less we started going into ASDA, and Elder Christensen let these two people who pushing a cart in go first, then he said hi to one of them and he was a happy sounding guy so we started talking to him and soon asked where he was from because we knew it was not England, but found out he was from Venezuela. He was amazing, so kind and prepared by the Lord to hear the gospel. His wife and son then came out of one store and we talked for 10 min with them and set up a time for the Elders to go and teach them. The next day the missionaries in Reading went and taught this amazing family, they said you have those who are prepared and then you have these people. It was such a blessing to see how God is really in control of all things that are happening and we must just follow his lead. Soon these people shall be preparing for baptism and there family will be so blessed by the Gospel in their lives.
I love you all so much, have a good week!
I took money out of my account because I needed to buy a new suit as I only have the American one right now because my other one was thrashed, but it is getting fixed.
Much Love,
Elder Garren Allred

URGENCY, Knowing is not enough, we must apply!

2010-04-19T22:32:00.000-06:00

What a great week we had this last week. Sorry my e-mail is late we had zone training yesterday and it was a crazy night and we had to prepare for another zone training day today in Poole and then we had a short exchange with the elders in Poole and I was able to go by and teach Joan Caines, one of the ladies that Elder Roberts and I were able to teach and see baptized. She is doing so well and is happy and progressing well in the gospel and going strong. The ZoKo's we had this last week were really good, President taught us a lot about planning and how this can help us fulfill our purpose and what is most important when it comes to this important things in missionary work. Sister Shamo taught a lot about virtue and shared a great story from church history about Joseph Smith and blessing little children in one instance there was 27 that he was called on to administer to and bless, as this happened he could not finish. The next day someone came to him and asked him what had happened. Joseph responded that so much virtue went out of me that I could no longer do them. He then related this to the experience to the time when the women with the blood problem touched the hem of his garment and he felt virtue leave him...Luke 8:46. She taught us how important this is to have such virtue in order to allow it to touch someone else's life in such a way as the Savior did so it might have the effect of healing them. This I found was a very interesting thought and topic for discussion and thing to ponder upon. I talked about urgency and using our time wisely and changed and altered a scripture that I will send a copy attached for you to read. I really learned that how we view things and how we feel about it largely can determine the outcome of the said event or things we were trying to accomplish. If we feel urgent and understand what is most important and apply these things to our work, no matter what it is there will be more success I know because I have seen it and experienced it for myself it is truth. We also had a great opportunity to go to a stake conference in Plymouth where they were changing the stake presidency around. Elder Wickmen of the 1st quorum of the seventy was there and also Elder Ford an area seventy. On Saturday night when we were there dropping off some missionaries after and exchange that was amazing, I was in the chapel and started to talk to this nice lady and then this other nice lady come over and was talking with us and she had a American accent, I asked them what their names were and they just happened to be the wives of both the general authorities. They were so kind and sweet and gave me some advice about life and what not we had a good laugh together. Now the next day I was so blessed to see some people from RedRuth! I was able to see Hanna and Freda. It was so good to see all those old friends and people that helped me right when I came out as a missionary. We then were blessed with a great meeting with many amazing testimonies, and then were instructed by both of these awesome servants of god. Something in what Elder Wickmen said to us really hit home and touched me. He said we are virtually all the same and are here for the same things, Though we might be called to serve in different ways and capacities that never makes us higher or better than anyone else, it doesn't mean God loves us more or even that he really trust us more. It just is something at some point in time given to us to learn and grow and become what God wants us to become.
“ And when the priests left their labor to impart the word of God unto the people, the people also left their labors to hear the word of God. And when the priest had imparted unto them the word of God they all returned again diligently unto their labors; and the priest, not esteeming himself above his hearers, for the preacher was no better than the hearer, neither was the teacher any better than the learner; and thus they were all equal, and they did all labor, every man according to his strength.”Alma 1:26
To get others to follow the true path a real leader must be willing to follow the same path to which he is inviting the learning to follow. Go and do and invite others to follow. This is the method of the Savior the great master teacher. This really hit home as he spoke and I really love all that was said in those meetings.
I feel that the Lord has blessed me so much beyond what I feel I deserve, he has been too kind and too gracious. For this I praise him and his name forever. God guides us and answers our pleas and cries, He loves us, and he truly and fully loves us more than our minds can comprehend. I feel that love and know that it all comes from him and was manifest in a great way in the sacrifice of his only begotten son. Jesus Christ is more than what we think or believe he is more that what the words might be able to describe. I love him, what a big brother. We can’t ask for more than what we have already been given to us of God. This is the truth; this is in the only true church. The doctrine is all pure and true and it is amazing and provides joy and peace to my soul and mind. I love you all thank you for all you do and say and all your prayers. You’re the best! That is so cool Maria came and saw you all!!! I hope you had fun. Tell everyone hi and not to go back to being who they were before the mission....ha-ha they never would I know. Yeah Bracken, that is so amazing to hear and that will be sweet for Chandler. Yes p-days are more like p-hours when we have time or what not....it is worth it though!!!
Everyone is doing great that I have served with; I get to see them all often now and sometimes work with them. I was with Elder Zimmer on exchange this last weekend it was awesome. He and Elder Orme are going home in about 4 weeks.....ahhh its all going too fast. Have a great week.
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” Leonardo da Vinci

Much love from
Elder Garren Allred

Humor helps keep life in perspective!

2010-04-19T22:18:00.000-06:00

Ha-ha, hey you all know I love you and this is why I tease you! Plus you know me I am so careful nothing would harm me I hope so. This has all been so new and exciting and spiritually up-lifting in ways I would have never thought. Being called as an assistant was a very humbling experience and I felt so grateful for someone to give me the nice complements that he did. I really did not feel they were all true so it makes me want to do all I can to show him and the lord who they think I am and work harder and harder to become and keep trying to become more and more like the savior. What happened is on Sat night before the week of moves an assistant can be called, and as Elder Roberts was going home a new assistant was going to be called. That night we had a call from the Assistants to give us some announcements and what not but then before the end of the call they handed it over to president and he talked with elder Ellsworth for a min and then we and asked if I would like to sleep on a blow up bed...ha-ha and come and work with him a little more closer as his assistant. As this was all unfolding my heart was pumping and mind racing thinking I am not good enough for something like this, there are so many missionaries that are better than me for this and wow this is an overwhelming feeling but then as I talked with president I felt something, the spirit of peace and calmness overcame me and I knew it would all be alright if I kept relying on God and that sole thing then there would be nothing to worry about and that was it. I packed that night and they came the next day after church and picked me up and we went straight to presidents’ house to assist on moves and get things rolling. This life is all about this, it’s about progression, change and in the right direction is the way the Lord intended for us. All things in the gospel are directed to this sole purpose because in so doing we will be prepared to enter into his rest and joy and experience all that we has as we are his spirit children and can have everything because of his great and eternal love. I love this gospel it is exciting and joyful and to put it plainly it all good and nothing bad. My new companion is Elder Christensen from Delta Utah; he is an amazing missionary and friend already. He makes so many sacrifices and is so kind and loving and patient with me as many of the things that we are doing are new to him. I really love this guy, he is teaching me loads and I am looking forward to the times we will be able to spend together. My new address is now the temple address, so you already have that. We live about a 5 min drive from the temple which is also about a 30-45 min drive from Presidents home. Elder Ellsworth did stay in Peckham and his new companion is actually Elder Allred ha-ha from Calgary Canada, he is the best of the best even though he is a really young missionary I love him to death. Such a humble and hard working servant of the lord and a sly confidence that is a very good trait. We will always remain close I talk to him often and we were at a meeting together today at Presidents house so it is all good. These past few days have been a blur and a blessing. I am learning so much, soaking things up like a sponge and trying to get a feeling of everything and see how I can best help. We do a lot of training and teaching and traveling and exchanges. It is go go go, which is good and awesome to see the Lord help out and direct the going of us. That is the KEY to life I feel, be directed by the lord and it will all be okay and that is linked with faith and other great principles as well. We mustn't be directed by the world or our own selfish desires or the father of all lies, this is only going to led us to a pit of waste and unhappiness and pain and misery. No one wants that, I know, because we are all intelligent beings, that's debatable, but none the less we all want one thing, happiness? Am I right? And the only way we can have TRUE Happiness is within the Plan of Happiness. No other way. Not in the slightest. We sometimes think we can but oh how wrong we are. The gospel is simply beautiful and beautiful simple. "The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me."- Psalms 116:6
"And he did straiten them in the wilderness with his rod; for they hardened their hearts, even as ye have; and the Lord straitened them because of their iniquity. He sent fiery flying serpents among them; and after they were bitten he prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished." - 1 Nephi 17:41 Let not the simpleness lead us to perish but let it led us to Life Eternal. You’re all so amazing I love you all so much and thanks for all you do and it really and truly means a lot to me. Have a great week and go and make someone laugh this week and share the gospel as this the greatest work we can undertake. President was saying today in a meeting, “It’s the lord’s time, and my gift to him" we must love the lord because he first loved us. Have a great week and talk to you all later!

Lots of love from
Elder Garren Allred

April Fools on MOM

2010-04-04T22:10:00.000-06:00

Hey dad!
What a week, so I sent a fake funny e-mail to mom, just play along but know my leg is fine:) I am no longer with Elder Ellsworth in Peckham, this last Saturday I received a call from President Shamo to be his new assistant (wow talk about overwhelming and not feeling able to do something to that level and there are so many better missionaries than myself, and I just didn't think I was capable of something like this but hey the lord does what he thinks is best so I will just go along with that.) So the next day I was picked up by Elder Roberts(from South Africa) and Elder Christen(from Delta) then we traveled to Presidents house and for the rest of the day worked on moves with him. It was amazing and very interesting how it all works out. I was amazed at how it all is done. President has such a great love for all the missionaries, it is just so amazing. Moves were very trying as things didn't go as planned and lots of situations arose but it all worked out in the end and at the last min it was fantastic and then as the 4 new missionaries came in on this last Wed. we were able to teach them and spend time with them and learn from them. They are amazing and so ready for missionary work! Then on Thur. we had moves and the trainers and the golden's paired up. All the companions that were working with each other are just right and the lord knew that and revealed that to President and it was a blessing to witness that take place. It is awesome spending time with them at their home and seeing how this all works, the mission as a whole. I am nervous and excited and everything all bundled up together. Today we sent off the the departing missionaries, we drove them all around to the different airports, we sent Elder Roberts back home and some other missionaries and it was a bitter sweet experience to spend these last days with him as a tri of assistants. I love this work so much dad, it is true and amazing! Thanks for the sweet scripture, love you loads

Elder Garren Allred

I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord.

2010-04-04T22:03:00.000-06:00

Finally a letter to mom Friday, What a bunch of craziness.........well I am sad to say that Elder Ellsworth and myself are not staying together for another move. :( I have been moved to the office (because of un-forseen events, I accidentally broke my leg the other day) any questions or concerns call the office and you can talk to the sisters in the office but it will be fine. Nothing to worry about I am perfectly fine I promise. I will work in there and do paper work and and be an Office Elder. It shall be interesting to see how that goes, but hey it doesn't matter what happens, things happen for a reason. I am sad to leave Peckham, I really love that area, all the people and all the great members. There were many wonderful experiences that we had while up in London and Elder Ellsworth will be taking over the area and helping all the people that we were working with to be baptized. The two kids Adjies are hopefully getting baptized this Sun. in between sessions of Conference! It is way exciting they are going to make great members and that whole family is soon going to be baptized. Also so amazing are the others that are preparing for their Baptisms. Margret and Esther are coming up soon. It is great to see the elect listening to the voice of the father and following it. If we only can sort that simple thing out to isolate the things of the gospel and really focus on that then we will be guided and directed to the things that will bring lasting happiness. "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding." -Proverbs 3:13 This is what a mission is all about. You finding the wisdom, then getting the understanding and sharing that and helping others find the wisdom of the fullness of the gospel then they can finally be truly happy. I really have come to find this out, Happiness is right in the palm of each of our hands, it is down to us to search and seek and do all we can to find it. Its there, we just need to do something about it. I love missionary work, it is so awesome to know we are hear representing the Lord in being apart of this the most important work ever! Over the last few days I really have had to put things to the lord and pray for strength and just follow what I have felt. I really know this work is inspired of God, I am too weak and not smart enough to do it without his help. I am just excited to keep doing the work of the lord no matter what. Hey thanks for the package, I got it with the Scriptures and the suit paints. I think you are easily the best mom and family I know. Over the last few days I really have just learned to trust the lord and fully rely on him. I love you all and I will speak to you soon, Mon! Have a sweet General Conference weekend!

Much Love
Elder Garren Allred

Oh how lovely was the day!!

2010-03-15T23:43:00.000-06:00

Oh how lovely is the day! Today at 1:35 I had a practical driving test in Belvedere. I was slightly nervous because there was a lot of pressure riding on me to pass this test so I might be able to drive in the future. Having failed this part already once and being way annoyed and sad I just wanted to get it all over with and pass. As the examiner and I took off I was feeling pretty good, did a few things and made a few errors I was doing good so I thought, then we came to a large roundabout and I missed putting my indicator on, he reminded me all was all right, then on the next round it was a kind of a highwayish road so it was 50, then there was some signs reading 30 and another on with a 50, I was slightly confused so went in between both and he said slow down its 30, so I was like oh no I messed up again, and that happened again later down the road. We drove back to the testing centre, he talked to me about the speed limit thing and then said good job you passed! I felt very relieved inside and way happy to finally be done with all this stuff. Thank you for all your prayers and what not it really helped.
So last week was intense, many crazy things happened. We had an exchange with the AP's, zone training, and we were able to teach lots and meet a few way cool new people. So wed of this last week I was starting to feel a bit queasy in the stomach might have been something we ate or who knows, so Thursday I started to feel not as good as the afternoon wore on. We went out to lunch with this way cool guy named frank, stories will follow at a later time about him. Well at lunch I started to feel way sick to my stomach. After we left it wasn't looking too good for me, my stomach was in knots and ahhh it felt nasty. We hoped on a bus and started to go to the church so I could go and sort myself out, well......I didn't make it to the church I threw up at a bus stop. Still feeling ill after that we had to go to another teach. After we finished that we met the AP's for our exchange, I went with Elder Roberts(he goes home in 3 weeks) we had some time to go knocking but I was feeling pretty bad but we went anyway, we knocked 2 doors and met Dolly, an amazing lady from Gambia. We talked for 2 min at the door and then she let us in. As I talked for a min. I was doing alright, then Elder Roberts started to teach, as he did so I started to sweat and get the shakes, then I asked if I could use her restroom, she showed me there and as I got in once again I lost it and threw up in her toilet. Wow I felt so bad to do that but hey what can you do......I cleaned all up and went back down and we finished teaching. She is amazing by the way and we're teaching her again soon. I learned that the lord will provide if you need something and also there are so many nice people in this world willing to help and be there for you as everyone was while I was sick the rest of the night and couldn't really do anything. It was a good time.....ha-ha kinda sort of not really. This last week some good things are happening with the people were teaching all are doing well in progressing towards there baptisms on the 27th. I hope all of them keep learning and growing because you can start to see the positive effect the gospel is starting to have on their lives. I think that is one thing I have really learned this last week is how much we can really grow if we have the right tools and resources in our life and the Gospel of Jesus Christ provides all that we need to get what we want if we want the right things. Too many times people have their eyes set on the wrong things and that is where many go wrong, we must have our eyes single to the glory of God, this doesn't mean we must be some crazy fanatic but I see it as doing the things that will build us up and help us to become like our Heavenly Father. I love this work it is extremely joyful and exciting and the greatest time to learn and to see so many people make changes in their lives that help them receive the greatest rewards.
Thank you for all you do and all your support I love you all and think of you and pray for you all!
Thanks for sorting out the pants thing that will be perfect mom! Tell the kids all hi and I love them and hope they had fun skiing. Tell Aryana Happy Birthday! I am so excited for Karen’s baptism that is so sweet.
Thanks again for everything, sorry for all the stuff with the money, it is so expensive to get your license over here and I failed a few times so that didn't help. Also I had my small quad taken a few weeks ago with my small hymn book, so I have been thinking of getting a new small quad but tell me what you think? Love you all have a great week and make sure to listen to the voice of the spirit this next week.

With Love
Elder Garren Allred

2010-03-15T23:26:00.001-06:00

Hey yo life is good and wonderful! :) I love you all, I hope you know that and always remember that even if I am not the best at showing it or expressing it, but I truly love you all and am grateful for all you do and say and sacrifice for me and all others. I, we had an amazing week! Thanks to the tender mercies of the Lord, and I mean many tender mercies. I am so in awe as to the infinite love of our heavenly father. He really really does love us and trusts us. I know he does because I have seen it, and felt the great love that he has for us.

I love this work, I really love it. I love learning and being a small insignificant instrument in the hands of the lord. I don't say that to belittle us or myself but as the prophets state it is true and we must remember this in order to stay and remain humble. I had a great study this last week, reading Mosiah 4 I learned many great things from this chapter that taught me what is most important and how to get it, salvation is so simple. We must not complicate the lord’s work as it is not complicated. Through the Atonement and no other way, my heart is drawn out in thankfulness to him for this the only act that can provide what I really need and want in life which is happiness and eternal progression.

This last week we had some great teaches, we are working with less-actives more in trying to bring them back to the fold. What a blessing it is to be able to work with these people.

We’re now working with 4 amazing people to be baptized on the 27th of this month, Tracy and Benji will be baptized on this date as their mother will be back from Germany by then and also Margaret, and a new amazing lady named Ester. Ester is a miracle, she was found in north London, went to church a few times up there, lost contact with the missionaries and then the missionaries found out she didn't live in their area, come to find out the referral was given to the wrong set of missionaries in our mission and just on Sat. night we got her information from the other elders that live not too far from us. We called her and she was excited to hear from us, and excited to come to church, she came and loved it and we invited her to be baptized and of course she being elect, accepted. It really taught me that the work is in his hands we just have to be ready to follow what he prompts us to do or say so that we can help and assist him in the work. All these people are so wonderful and it is such a blessing to teach them because they help to invite the spirit into the teaches and they are there to learn to be better and draw closer to the lord which is the goal at hand.

Also we had sweet zone conference where the main focus was on the savior and the atonement and how this is the main thing we should be teaching people so the spirit will hit them and help change them so they can accept all the other restored truths that have come in our dispensation. I learned firsthand that we must always watch ourselves and work to learn and grow and learn new and exciting things or remember what the lord has already taught us which was really important at the time but we have forgotten it.

I have grown to love many of the members here in this area and just more people in general. Love it’s a commonly misused word or action but as I have had this great opportunity to serve the lord I have learned a little more what he means by love one another. I am going to attach some things for you to read that have touched me, hope you enjoy.

Thanks for everything, I love you all.

Have an immense week!

Love Elder Allred

Beareth All Things!

2010-03-04T23:18:00.002-07:00

I love this work, the trials that we experience as we draw closer to the lord really do refine and help our countenance to change and become more Christ-like. This last week hasn’t been the best or easiest but it really has taught me a lot about life and love and the savior. On P-day we went to the Tate Modern museum with a member, it was pretty fun and quite interesting. Art is just funny sometimes and people are slightly crazy I think. We then had a teach with one of the guys we were helping prepare for baptism and it was a good teach and all but he is so rooted in his other church it is hard for these simple truths of the gospel to sink into his heart, so needless to say he is no longer preparing for baptism but hopefully soon as we are still teaching him, and he really loved the plan of salvation so that was good. Tue we had a ZLC @ Presidents house and it was great as we focused on the savior and how that needs to be our central message in everything we say and teach, faith in him repentance because of him and baptism the proper way by the proper authority because of him restoring it in our days. We also went over our focus and theme for the year, which is the bread of life and the living water. Sister Shamo took us through the living water along with President Shamo, they really brought it to life and made it so real for all of us, the savior is such a master teacher and really knows how to get us to understand things and more importantly feel the spirit. Then over the next couple of days we taught the wonderful Benji and Tracy that are now probably getting baptized on the 13 of March, still waiting for their mom to come back from Germany so hopefully that happens soon. They are such good kids, so funny and fun to teach, they ask some good questions as well. Also this last week we have been focusing on teaching recent converts and everyone about Patriarchal Blessings, it has been amazing and inspired me to learn more about the from the old testament, so I studied that this last week and it is so cool to learn about our heritage and what others have done to help us be to this point in our lives now. I love to help people see that they can receive some amazing things from the Lord because it is really one thing that has helped me so much in my life up to this point. Then the rest of the days leading up to Sunday we taught loads of Less-Active people, which is great to try and rekindle that fire of a testimony that they have. I love you all and am so thankful for all you do. I know that when we seek the kingdom of God first all things will truly work out in life, as dad said it’s about Faith. Also in sacrament meeting l lady that was talking said this quote......
“What matters most is what last longest!” And that is our faith and our Families.
Have a great week Love you all!!

Elder Garren Allred

2010-02-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

Hello All,
Well it was a busy weekend. The lord blessed us so much as we were able to witness a sweet sister from Nigeria baptized, I was lucky enough to be able to perform the baptism. Fumi is an amazing lady with a very keen mind and a humble heart that was in search of the truth. She has a son that is 7, Ope. He is so cool, very smart guy. He is excited to be baptized in April when he turns 8. When met Fumi at church after a sweet member invited her to come to church, she was so ready and prepared for what we had to say. All we really did was go and teach her and the rest was taken care of. You should have seen the happiness of this member at the baptism; she was just so excited for her long time friend to enjoy the fruits of the restored gospel. Now this is just as Preach my Gospel has said that missionaries will have more success as the members do the finding and introduce their friends to the gospel. If this process can be done, the rate of people being blessed will be far greater than it is now. I have seen that members that share the gospel like this have a burning testimony, they are valiant in the faith, they always stand as a witness of Christ and they are friendly, happy and just good people that you want to be around. Each of us need to be a person like this, heavenly father is preparing people to be taught that are all around us, the key is to go out of our comfort zone and talk to these people about the hard things and then testify to them and invite them to try it for themselves, and promise them loads of great blessings. This is what each of us must do and why? Because the Savior commanded us to. Read the last chapter of Matthew. We should love the savior enough to obey his word and when we do this the joy and happiness will be far greater than what we now experience. I gave a talk this last week about this, BUILDING THE KINGDOM, it was alright but I always run over on time.........I talk too much.....sometimes.....I have been working on that but it hasn’t been going to good! Haha. So exciting about Karen and her baptism, tell her hi and I am so excited for her! Glad life is busy for you all, that’s some of the best times:)
Still a bit chilly.....Driving test is the 15th of March!!!!!!!ahhhhhh pray hard. No photos of grandma or grandpa yet. Don’t need anything I bought some new shirts and some cologne last week.
Zone is doing great, only a few moved. No sisters in the zone. So there are only 3 missionaries in our zone from America, so crazy how it is all changing, also our numbers of missionaries are going to keep decreasing so it will be an interesting summer coming up.
We have some sweet people preparing for baptism, Margret, and Clemence and the two kids from Germany, but now we are going to have to wait till March for their baptisms so there mom can be back from Germany.
Love you all, have a great week! Keep it real
Elder Allred
PS
Sorry I only had time to write one e-mail, so I love you all.....next week I will write to you all!

Great things come through Obedience

2010-02-24T22:06:00.003-07:00

Dear Familia:
Great things are meant to stay together! haha, so Ellsworth and I are going to be staying together for another move!!! WOOT WOOT. It is exciting as we have become really good friends and work well together, and I learn everyday from him.
Many great things have been happening in terms of the work. There is an amazing lady Fumi that is getting baptized this Sat., she is so ready even though we haven't taught her that much, she has such great faith and is so believing and a strong, smart women. We also have a sweet new lady named Margret that is now getting baptized on the 13 of March; she is so cool as well. There are also those two sweet kids that are getting baptized on the 27th of February, and a man named Clemence getting baptized on the 6th of March. Now I ask myself how does the Lord do such great work, because I can honestly say it is not us but him. All of these people are referrals, from members, and other missionaries. The true key to success is for people that are friends with non-members is to invite them to learn, to watch a DVD, to have a chat about life and what they believe in and why, to allow the spirit to prick their hearts, but we must help them be in an environment in which this can happen. This is what people have been doing for us and it has been amazing to see how successful it is if the person is ready and makes the right choice to at least try and test what we give them and invite them to do. Some cool miracles have been happening with that and also with teaching less-actives, it really is so fun and exciting to be able to go and teach a less-active family because you know the flame is in there, it is just faint and you can work with God in feeding the flame and getting a large fire going. This work is so great, it’s fun and happy and joyful. Sometimes it is hard but for every 100 hard things the 1 amazing thing the lord does and shows you makes you forget all the 100 hard things. As I have started over in reading the Book of Mormon a little while ago I am so amazed and inspired by the attitude of Nephi, among all these bad and hard things he really was always strong and stead fast and this because the Lord had personally reveled the truths of the kingdom to him. He then nourished this small testimony and because of this he endured to the end in a great way and has provided us with the hope and the teachings from the savior for us to keep on going.
This past little bit has been great, learning and continuing to grow and the thing I keep realizing is God does the work and creates the results if we put in our personal effort and then we can be a part of it if we do it his way which is the best and only right way. We must come to terms with this. I love this work, I am sad and slightly scared that there is only 6 months left of full time missionary service for me, but I am excited to work with the Lord in seeing many, many great and amazing life changing miracles happen.
Mission life is good, the food has been amazing as of late and I thank many of the sweet members and investigators for this. Also it is so wonderful just getting to meet new people every day and learn about them and why they do what they do and what their dreams and hopes are in life and the concerns and struggles they have and how you can be a guide to lead them to the correct path that is the only path where they can truly find all that there searching for. This is the path, The Plan of Salvation, which is carried out by the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness as restored by Jesus Christ through his humble and amazing servant Joseph Smith. I know it’s the true and the only path. I love you all, thanks for everything you all do, your love and support and examples. Yes I did get Tyson and Shawnee’s letter:) And I just got one from you with the handwritten letter and talk. Tell everyone hi and I love them. I hope your week is busy busy and fun!

Much love from Elder Garren Allred

Seek Yea First!

2010-02-16T18:12:00.003-07:00

Thanks for all you do family! You all are truly a light to me; I love you all so much. Thanks for the sweet goodies, they are much enjoyed and we feel blessed to have people love us as much as you all do, and to take the time and effort to send that and an e-mail every week, it makes a guy feel loved and what more can you want in life than to be loved by others. Thank you. Well this last week I learned so many great lessons of which I shall share a few with you.
First and foremost is to actually trust Heavenly Father, really believe that all things will be alright, have hope and wait for what he shall give us. At the start of last week things were going OK in the work not as great as we would of liked, some investigators started to waiver and fall off the charts, they began choosing to follow strange and diverse paths which is unfortunate to see because they miss out on the promised blessings from the lord which are far greater than anything we can attain on our own. Among these people are two amazing kids we are teaching, Benji & Tracy, from Ghana/Germany, they are the children of a recent convert of 7 or 8 months. They don't speak the best of English, well Tracy doesn't but Benji does pretty good. They are so smart and ask such good questions and are really in search of answers, and they are getting them and soon will be baptized by their father at the end of this month. The difference between these people and other people me meet are what they are seeking for in their life. These kids are close with their family and desire to know truth. They are seeking after the right things and because of that they are progressing in the gospel, and as for others that don’t progress it is their own choice and many times they allow Satan to blind them into following the wrong path. I feel this relates to each and every one of us in our lives, we must evaluate daily, weekly and so on of what we are seeking in life and what is the eternal value of that, then we must decide what is most worth our precious time in this mortal state. I love the gospel and how it opens up my eyes to see these things so I can avoid being blinded by the adversary. We also have another sweet lady preparing for baptism soon, Fumi; she is a star and so fun and smart I really enjoy teaching her because she wants to be taught and has the right motives and heart. On Fri. afternoon, as we went to go and get something from another companionship in our zone we met one of our investigators on the street. He is probably one of the smartest men I have met. When we first met him he had connected that the book of Mormon and bible work together and are both true and connected that to the apocrypha and how these all work together and they are all true. He had scriptures all over this white board on the wall it was quite intense as we talked and shared some things with him. It went okay, he didn't accept some things we said but we planned on going back. As we met him this day on the street, it started to get heated as he was trying to be confrontational as he wanted answers about things and we tried answering but it wasn't going well, I tried to help but I just kept making it worse so it ended as he was towering over me, and elder Ellsworth told him we can’t answer the questions you have in the way you want it. No good feelings were in me as we left and I really did feel bad that we couldn't answer him and help him to understand and as we talked about it Ellsworth helped me to realize that some people don't actually want our answers, and there are none as blind as those who will not see. It was an extremely intense experience that taught me to be more quite and listen to the spirit instead of just trying to answer a question all on your own, also that only those who want to be taught will be taught. Overall it was a great week with many learning experiences, experiences of being guided and directed as we were teaching the glorious truths of the gospel. I love this work so much; I just think it is so exciting to be involved with Heavenly Father in helping to bring salvation to the human soul. I am for sure sending that package today with some goodies in it and an SD card so let me know when you all get it. Tell everyone hi.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
I worked with an Elder Christiansen from Delta Utah when we went on exchanges with the AP’s, it was great. We brought this drunken guy into the church and taught him, he was so funny and was really interested despite him being drunk. So everyone have a great week and enjoy it all, I love you all so much and remember who to seek and what to seek first!

Elder Garren Allred

A Fantastic week, well mostly

2010-02-16T17:43:00.002-07:00

Trials are meant for our eternal gain but sometimes when we are caught up in them they only seem stupid and we wish they could be over. This last week I had three driving lessons from elder Ellsworth and it took up so much of our missionary time, then on Thursday I had my practical driving test which is where you have to drive around with this guy and he makes sure you are driving properly. Well I felt pretty confident that I was going to pass, slightly nervous. Well after driving with this guy for an hour I pulled up at the test center and sure enough I failed, I did alright but not good enough so now more money and time before I can officially drive here in England. After this I will admit I was quite frustrated and sad and just plain annoyed. Well in the end it did no good letting this affect me and in all honesty it didn’t really because after that we had zone training and we were teaching something so I was back into it all. It just taught me how we mustn’t let other things act upon us, we must act upon them and "come off a conqueror". This last week was really good, many great blessings. An amazing lady named Fumi is preparing for baptism and also a great guy named Henry Kanu is preparing for baptism coming up soon in Feb. Fumi is so great she has been searching for the right church and feels now she has found it, she had such great questions and was so kind, it was a pleasure to teach her as she just took it all in. Henry is also a great guy, we were teaching him about a month ago, we lost contact with him, he didn’t seem too interested but this last sun he came to church and really loved it and feels this is the path god wants him to follow and wants to be baptized. This last week some sweet truths have really stuck out to me. You can’t teach someone who doesn’t want to be taught, or it will be pointless to teach someone who really doesn’t care or is not very interested. Someone that hears the father’s voice will be a delight to teach. We had a great Zone Training talking all about being a Finisher, following a talk from Thomas S Monson...."Finishers Wanted" and learned about setting goals and key indicators and creating passion in the hearts of others. It was an overall very spiritual meeting that I really enjoyed. Just last night we had a great miracle, as we only had 30 min before we had to account, we went knocking over near our flat, after a few doors we talked to this semi nice lady from Africa and she let us in to say a prayer with her, as we walked in there were these two guys, one was so rude and un Christ-like we just pretty much walked out....feeling a bit annoyed and in desperate search a new people to teach. We walked not feeling impressed to knock any doors, and then elder Ellsworth and me saw a door we both went and knocked different doors. I met a cool guy from Sierra Leone he was way nice but very very catholic and a bit busy at that time, he said we could pop around later. As I turned elder Ellsworth was right there and a huge smile on his face, he said the lady he talked with was interested and was from Chile. We went back and she let us in, she is 26 and lives with her two brothers and mom. She was as a child, humble, meek, and teachable. An honest seeker of truth. It was a great teach and I felt so peaceful and happy sitting there teaching her. Hopefully next time we will be able to teach her whole family. It is just one more thing that proves to me our Heavenly Fathers love as it is so great and encompassing. I love this work it is so true and it is the only knowledge that will actual help us in a big way in our lives.
Thanks for your card with all the photos I loved it. My SD card will hopefully be sent this week sorry about that.
Thanks for the awesome story, wow that is great. What a touching experience. We’re teaching Sister Seme's friend tonight and hopefully all goes well. Zone is doing well, everyone gets on really good. Yes had 3 at church this last week, There are recent converts that come to gospel principles class. Hope you all have a fun and enjoyable week. Make someone laugh this next week! Thanks for all you do your all the best ever I love you all so much!!!!

Elder ALLRED

How do we serve God?

2010-01-31T22:59:00.000-07:00

The whole purpose and essence of our lives is to become all that we can become and that is to be perfect as the savior so stated it. Perfection is a difficult thing to attain and in looking at it like Mount Everest it seems like a daunting task. In becoming perfect we must be humble enough to take help from others and to take advice on how we can become a better person, not to think we know everything because that will lead to the distruction of ones self. We need to ask ourselves these questions; How do we treat others? How do we serve God? How do we follow in the Saviors footsteps? How are we doing in attaining perfection?
I have been very inspired by Jeffery R. Hollands talk given to BYU students entitled "How do I Love Thee?"
This last week has been that of many blessing from our Heavenly Father. Tayos baptism was fantastic, she is so amazing and so willing to follow the saviors voice. She is going to have many great and wonderful blessings in her life for the great decisions she is making now and also her 4 year old daughter will be greatly blessed. I feel she has a keen sense of recognizing the spirit.
The kids sound great, haha I can only imagine how funny they are all becoming. We had a great teach with Sika, Maria's neighbor, and just this last Saturday it was her birthday and we went by and dropped off a gift...the book of Mormon.......and talked to her whole family. They are wonderful and very warm and welcoming and we feel they are quite receptive to the gospel, so we will see where it goes from here.
One of the greatest things this last week was our temple conference, there were so many things taught to us from President and Sister Shamo and the Assistants and also a few other wonderful people. The spirit was there in abundance and overflowing to us. I love to feel my heavenly fathers love, to feel his joy and understand his ways is to be truly happy. I loved it all just so much and it makes me try my hardest to become a better person which is what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. The temple was a GREAT place of peace for me to reflect and drink deeply of the living water. This is part of our theme for the next year..... The Bread of Life and the Living Water.
This week shall be exciting as we extend baptismal commitments and establish those who were teaching to help them progress towards conversion to the true gospel of Christ.
I love you all so much thanks for everything that you do for me it is more helpful than you could ever know. Have a good week and as the guy from "Cool Runnings" so poeticly put it "Remember who you are and where you come from".

Love Elder Garren Allred

A great Relief!!!

2010-01-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

Wow what a great and wonderful week. This morning at 9am I took my driving theory test and thanks to all the help from elder Ellsworth and all the prayers I passed it. Now on to the practical test in a few weeks and I will have a full UK drivers’ license. I felt so relieved when I passed the test, an overwhelming peace came over me. Now I know it is just some silly driving test but it made me reflect how we are here on the earth for a test to prove our love to god, and if we do so I am sure the peace and happiness we will experience will be almost too much to handle. A fullness of joy as the scriptures describe it. Now this silly test for me has played out much like people’s lives, the first time I went to the take the test I totally forgot a paper and I wasn’t even allowed to take the test. This was due to my thinking it was no big deal and not reading the fine print. Waste of life if people don’t search and find out what they need to accomplish in their lives. The second time I knew what I needed to take with me but I lacked on the studying and preparation, I felt I didn’t have enough time to study and there were more important things to do and I didn’t want to spend more money on a silly book to help me study so that time I went and was able to take the test but failed, I was close but not close enough. So with the encouragement of others and a strong push from President Shamo I took it again, but this time I didn’t make the same mistakes as the first two times and the outcome was glorious a near perfect score. Now why did I tell you this somewhat pointless story, because our lives are like this, many people will make the first two mistakes and never learn from them and never get what they really want in life and have true freedom and only after putting in the time and effort to do the right thing will we be able to succeed at it and pass. Let’s all pass the test of this mortal life and go on to greater glory and live with heavenly father and Jesus Christ in the celestial kingdom. So that was my lesson learned for the week.
This last week was good, been struggling to find people that are good to teach, most of the people we were teaching turned into wasters and are no longer interested but heavenly father has given us some revelation for us that we are going to run with in our area to do more work and build up the kingdom in a great way. Tayo that sweet lady is getting baptized this next Sat. and we are so so so excited for her. she is so ready and is going to make a great member of the church and wow is it going to affect her daughter that is only 4 years old ,how great that is. We had a ZLC (zone leader council) at presidents’ house this last Fri. and it was great to be there with them and feel of their spirit and hear some intense and amazing stories. I love you all and thank you for all you do. I can’t say that enough you’re the best. Keep me in your prayers to finish my drivers’ license stuff that would be grand:) Have a great week and read Acts 5, and 20 amazing chapters with great stories about the early missionaries in Christ’s days.
Also go to BYU speeches and Look up LeGrand Richards talk about missionary experiences. Enjoy these gospel gems. Thanks for the food it was great, also if you’re sending a package you don’t need to put anything in it for winter as it is pretty much over. You could throw in that book from Tad R Callister, "The Inevitable Apostasy". Yeah I hear about my other companions ever so often, I will update you about them later.
Love you all have a great week.
Elder Allred

Happ New Year All Yall!!

2010-01-10T21:39:00.002-07:00

The Lord shall lead us not knowing before hand what you shall do
New years was great! Nope we haven't got the box from Tescos yet, and me and Elder Ellsworth are staying together here for at least another six weeks. Waaahooooooo! I am so glad your getting excited about your new calling, hey that movie is sweet we watched part of it at a members home, also when I was in pool we saw part of it being filmed, and I know some of the people they interviewed, man the youth of the church are so wonderful and strong. Yeah Maria treats us so kind, she is the best. They don't really do much of anything on new years here except a massive party up at the bridge and loads of drinking and people being crazy. Yes we had a great start to the new year with a baptism of Henry Hyde, a amazing guy that really understands the gospel and the doctrine sometimes just astonishes him and he seems to be so happy to learn of these great restored truths. Everyone else is coming along just great, We have 3 more people preparing for baptism so far in this month of Jan, This sweet lady Tayo is a referral from some recent converts, and she is getting baptized on the 16th, she really in so interested and seems to be happier as she grows closer to her heavenly father. Man loads of crazy things are happening now as we were supposed to have a mission conference at the temple but due to crazy weather it has been postponed and travel and missionaries going to there new areas is all up in the air. So i will have to keep this short. Let us know what's happening with Tescos, let Maria know and she can tell us when it shall come.
Have a great week and love you all lots. Thanks for everything and all the prayers and support.

Love Elder Allred

Happy New Year

2009-12-28T10:49:00.003-07:00

< content="Word.Document" name="ProgId">

Dear All;

Hey thanks for answering the phone when I called it was sweet to talk to you all! :) Yeah Elder Ellsworth and I are doing great; I really enjoy serving with him. Sweet Quilt you all got that is so nice of everyone. It was so fun to speak with Kyle & Heather and all the kids; I am so excited for them to keep growing and what not.
You will do great with your new calling mom, it is so fun and exciting to be a teacher, it’s one of my most favorite things to do. Ha-ha well hope everything works out with ASDA. Thanks for all of your support and testimonies I strengthens me to hear all of these wonderful things from you all. This weekend after Christmas was great, we had some good teaches and 6 great people come to church, a sweet family from Nigeria, that is the niece of one of the High Council men from our ward. She and her husband are really interested in the gospel, and surprised us by coming to church, it was so sweet. I love the gospel so much and how it really can help us if we will just let it, it’s all so simple we just must choose to do what is right and actual in the end or even in the middle it is easier to choose that. God is reaching down with his hand we must choose to grasp onto it and never let go. I shall be sending an SD card home this week, let me know when you get it and ahhhh moves is finishing next week. So we won’t be e-mailing next Monday, will be on Thurs again. Have a great week and enjoy life and have fun and make the gospel fun as well!!!

Love Elder Allred

We are in Texas

2009-12-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

I am sorry I am late with Elder Allred's blog. We are in Texas @ my families home. Not so warm though, but we are having a great time. It's been way too long between visits. Happy Christmas everyone. Thank you for your love and support. He is doing so great. We love being missionary parents!!

There is Beauty All Around

2009-12-15T21:36:00.000-07:00

What a week filled with many blessed experiences and some great things to learn from. We were blessed to be apart of the baptism of Paul Dankwah and Gifty Owusu, a sweet couple from Ghana. They were being taught a few weeks before I came here and they are just such a great couple with such a desire to draw closer to there Heavenly Father. They really were so so excited to be baptized and receive the gift of the holy ghost. Also we went on two exchanges this last week and I went with elder Foong in Brixton and we had some amazing miracles, committed this lady from China for baptism and she accepted it. They are having loads of success and it makes me so happy for elder Foong he is fantastic! I was also here in Peckham on Thursday with an elder Buckley from northern England, we had so many blessings. We had a great teach with Paul and Gifty in the morning along with another one with this amazing man from Bolivia that is getting baptized this next Saturday, Alfredo is his name. Then a recent convert brought her friend in for a chapel tour and she was way cool and quite interested and I am sure soon she will be fully blessed as she accepts the restored gospel. We also went and saw a lady that is less active and she was so warm, sweet and friendly and was so excited to see missionaries, what a blessing it was to teach her and then she was so helpful, she came with us to teach this Chinese man that lived close to her, Hong was extremely interested it was just kind of sad because he only spoke Chinese so we just left him with a BOM in his language and then we referred him to Elder Foong and two days later they went and taught him and he accepted a baptismal date and really wants to know what this feeling is that he gets when the missionaries speak to him. There is a man were teaching named Charley, from Serra Leone in his sixties, he is so cool and has come to church the last two weeks and has really enjoyed it all and from the events that have taken place with his wife calling us and telling us that he really needs to find God and change. We are hoping things keep going well and that he becomes more like Christ. I love this work it is so joyful and rewarding in so many ways. I see and feel many things that I never before saw or felt, I love these people, sometimes some of them are hard to love but if I think deeper and contemplate on the atonement I begin to feel a love for them. True happiness comes from losing our own lives to save another:) Your all the best family ever, thanks for all the love and support you give to me it really means a lot to me. Thanks for the cute drawing from Aryana and all the cool little goodies to give away:) I should be good on Ranch dressing for now and good on everything else thanks. In the Evening would probably be best, but its really up to you. Phone calls will be in the evening around 7 or 8 pm our time and we might do Skype but no video feed, but we shall know more details next Monday. Have a great time down in Texas and tell everyone hi and Marry Christmas and I Love them from me.
Thanks for the pictures I really loved them! Josh looks great. So do all of you. Thanks for all you do dad, your encouragement and love and guidance is so much appreciated. Love you loads and good luck with preparing for the preach my gospel class you will do amazing, I think you should share the "Beware of Pride" talk form Ezra Taft Benson with all the future missionaries, we had a whole zone meeting on it a while ago and it changed me and loads of other missionaries as well.

Elder Allred

Christmas Zone Conference

2009-12-08T13:20:00.000-07:00

More than HAPPY, JOYFUL

2009-12-08T13:15:00.001-07:00

I will try and answer all the Q's first.
Elder Ellsworth has been out one move before me. Yes we kind of have a Christmas tree. Yes there is a Tesco near us, we would love anything, Mexican stuff:) and some ice cream, the best time would be in the evenings after 9pm at the flat. Elder Toyn is doing great I saw him at the temple on the last moves just 2 weeks ago. He is awesome. Yes I really have been so very blessed with all the many amazing companions I have had they really all have taught me so much and I have loved all of the time I have been able to spend with them. YES Nando’s is amazing, kind of expensive but amazing. but all 4 times I have been there it was free because 'Frank' (Long story about who frank is, funniest guy ever, not a member but takes those missionaries that he likes most out to lunch every so often and he has taken us out a few times) actually we’re going to lunch with him today but not to Nandos, took us and it is fantastic Portuguese grilled chicken! Ha-ha no nothing special for Thanksgiving dinner, but we were at the temple all day, almost, doing a power point presentation for elder Ellsworth for an YSA Conference. We had Chicken and Chips though from a chicken shop....ha-ha it is a real ghetto fast food type of spot but it was fun! In different areas I have given more service than others, like here in Peckham were always teaching and don’t have too much time for anything else. That is so cool about dads calling I hope it all goes amazing and if I can help in any way let me know. Yes you can read the journals and everything. Haven’t really seen a Nutcracker but I will have an eye out for one. About the self-discipline thing: I feel it is one of the biggest traits and is a key to success and being happy and learning how to take advice and counsel from leaders and the lord. Yeah there probably could have been more help in that area. Most missionaries develop it in the field but it should all be started back home and refined in the field to become truly more Christ-like. Yes got the summer sausage:) you’re the best you know that mom! Elder Ellsworth says hi and he loves you and thinks you’re amazing. Yes the 25 days of Christmas have been awesome and I think you’re extremely funny with all of them! Thank you for all you do and all of the prayers it has been helping so much.
Well we had a busy busy week too much to tell, Tuesday we were at presidents house for a ZLC and learned so many great things about purity and having clean and pure thoughts and being more righteous so as to receive the blessings from the lord. We then finished some Stake correlation stuff and traveled with president to a meeting with the Stake Presidency for the Wandsworth stake. It was great talking with president and learning from him and feeling the Great Spirit that he always carries with him. Also on Friday we had a special Christmas Zokos, with a special program and watched some amazing outtakes from the Joseph Smith Film, our zone did a sweet rendition to Rudolph and our own London version of the 12 days of Christmas it was a great spiritual time and a good laugh. Then Saturday we had a baptism for Sam a very sweet girl that is really taking the gospel into the life and allowing it to change her and become a better person. Heavenly Father blesses us so much every day, a man that Ellsworth met on the bus came to church and really loved it and after we committed him for baptism. God prepares the hearts and makes them ready we just have to be brave and go out of our comfort zone. I love this work it is always hard but more than that a hundred times it is worth it all to see someone realize what TRUE HAPPINESS is, real lasting joy that can only come from the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and I love him for what he has done for us. Each day sometimes there is a hard moment and you feel like slowing down but you realize that he never did and it boost you up to press forward and do your very best.
Love you all have A sweet week and enjoy this time and serving others!
Love Elder Allred

New Area

2009-11-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

Ha-ha yeah I did need a lot of training when I first came out and still do:0! Yep I got the packages the big brown one and Elder Foongs, thanks so much. Not the flat rate envelope yet but I will let you know! Also I sent you guys some really amazing stuff, a box, let me know when you get it. Thanks Chris for the package:) Tell the family hi for me.
So wow! these last two weeks have been quite crazy, it was such a blessing to be serving with Elder Foong, he taught me so much and made me want to be a better missionary and person, he is still in Brixton and is doing well so were still in the same zone. I have really only moved one area over and its way different and amazing and there is so much success going on here due to the other missionaries and all the hard work they do and how great they are. I am now with an Elder Ellsworth, from San Diego. He is a really amazing missionary and great teacher. I am learning lots from him and it has been real fun so far and I think it will continue to be a really exciting Christmas. We’re teaching loads of people right now, a girl is getting baptized this weekend and then a couple from Ghana is getting baptized on the 19th and a amazing man named Alfredo from Bolivia is getting baptized on the 19th, heavenly father has blessed them loads and it is such a blessing to come into this and see it all unfold. The zone is great, it covers pretty much the south part of the city of London.....there is beauty all around here:) Heavenly Father really loves to hear from us, the last few days we have made it a point to have our personal evening prayer out loud, and it has been a great blessing to really have a conversation with Heavenly Father. I have felt more and more that he is listening to what I have to say and he wants to really help out and do things for me as long as I am willing to trust him and do what he has said and taught me. Prayer is such an amazing thing that we must all let it become a part of our lives.
I have really felt the saviors love and am learning so much as I go through reading the whole New Testament, in Luke 4:18, I really love where it talks about him healing the broken hearted and I feel and know that that is exactly what the gospel of Jesus Christ can do. We may not feel like our heart is broken or we may feel fine now, but if we always trust in our own wisdom we will fall someday and in our moment of need we will cry unto something or someone and want help. He will hear us but will be saddened that it took so long for us to come to him and listen to his voice. Let’s all become rooted in the faith and never stop growing in our knowledge of the gospel and love for it.
Missionary work is amazing, I love how amazing you feel when someone realizes that this is what they always needed in their life and now they are getting it! How exciting and fun is it to connect a son or daughter with a father that has been waiting for them to come to him. You are the best family, I love you all and am so grateful for you and your support and inspiration and allowing me the opportunity to serve out here. Thank for all the prayers and everything else it is really working. Tell Ton Ton hi and I hope to hear from him soon.
Oh yeah Maggie was the ladies name of the house Elder Foong and I stayed in, her husband is Stan and he is not a member. We will figure out the phone call no worries. Have a great week and enjoy the Christmas Season make it a great one!!!

Love Elder Garren Allred
in Peckham now!

Transfered to New Area

2009-11-27T14:45:00.000-07:00

Elder Allred's has left his greenie in new good hands. He has been transferred to Peckham London Area. No address yet. His new companion is an Elder Ellsworth from California. He is a Zone leader again. He loved being a trainer and truly loved his companion Elder Foong. He is just starting out so we hope to adopt him as our missionary so we can keep a missionary even after Elder Allred gets home. I will update his blog Monday after I hear from him and put his new address on here. Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday preparations. Hard to believe Christmas is upon us again. Christmas phone call Woot! Woot! Love to you all

OH How Life is Great!!

2009-11-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

This was a great week filled with some very interesting experiences. This amazing lady named Orientha came to Stake Conference with us this last Sun. and it was a great experience, the spirit of the lord was strong. There we were instructed by our leaders and friends. We were taught about walking a godly walk and it really made me to think about how I walk in terms of the steps I take and in what direction I am taking them. We must boldly walk on that straight and narrow path being lead by the spirit of the lord. Our father in heaven really loves us I feel it as I really TALK with him with my heart and let him know how things are going and what is on my mind. I know he listens. We are in a great search for new people to teach and to call the elect to hear the voice of the savior calling them all to come unto him and those, the elect will do as the apostles of old did in straightway leaving there nets. This last week we also had a leadership council meeting at the temple where we received some great instruction from president and sister Shamo and also our amazing assistants. There were many wonderful principles that we learned but most of all a scripture and story from the new testament really touched my heart.... found in John 6: 47-71.....but the one most of all that hit me was Peter answering to Jesus about there is nowhere else to go, he has the words and the way to eternal joy and happiness we must see this and feel it and follow that which we know to be true. This is truly the True and living Church once again restored by him the son of the living God even our Eternal Father I love him and love this work of his, thank you all for supporting and helping me to go forth and have the chance to be a missionary. Also this last week we met a man Barney, a training minister in another church and he wants us to teach him Mormon Doctrine and convince him of the truth. I just hope he truly has a sincere heart and real intent because he and his family were so nice and kind to us, so respectful and just made us feel loved. I want them to have the same blessing that I have of an eternal family. that’s what this is all about. I love you all and tell everyone hi for me, say hello to elder Cusick and elder Peterson. I am glad you got a new job already I hope you like it and everything works out just fine, mom you’re a superstar. Yes the limbs were here in the new area to which I just moved and I got to know them just a little bit but wow were they amazing, such powerful testimonies and a love for the gospel. Tell Kyle and heather and all the kids hi for me and that uncle Garren loves them a lot.
We won’t be e-mailing till next Thur. which is transfers day, I hope I stay but just make sure you send anything to the mission office. I will be sending a box to you all soon like this week. Warts are no problem, headache was a crazy thing I never get them and never like that no real explanation but it is fine now.
I want you all to know how much I love you and am grateful for all you do; you’re the best family ever! Always remember the strength comes from the lord and we must be doing what he has commanded us to receive that the greatest strength of all!!! Peach be the Journey:)

Elder Garren Allred

2009-11-13T12:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lateness of the letter. E-mail was all messed up, and we got letters through out the week. this is a combination of letter to dad and mom. Love you all and thanks for your support. He loves getting letters through the Post.

Whoa what a week!!

2009-11-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

Dear family;
Wag Wan, that is Jamaican for what’s up brother. Dad thanks for the incites from stake conference, what you all were is so true and what we are placing an emphasis on that as well only finding through the Less Active’s and Part Member families. A new map hum let’s wait on that one and I will check on the pins that we have. Love you so much dad your such a great example to me and help me to push and be a better person, I am so grateful for all the hard work you made me do it has been a great blessing as a missionary, you taught me a lot and I thank you for that. Have a great week, good luck with your studies!
Ah wow! I don’t even know where to start from this last week, it has been one of the craziest weeks ever as a missionary and some of the experiences we had I will never forget. I hope that’s a good thing.... We met a lot of great people and have had some very spiritual experiences with some less active members and some part-member families and new investigators, also some very strange and sad experiences. There was a mom and son we were teaching, that the elders before us found and were teaching, that just don’t get it, she said she knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet, but yet she wants to return to her old church that rejects those very things that she has come to know to be true. I was shocked and stunned, the only thing I knew to do was to boldly declare the truth and tell her the consequences of those actions. I will be forever lost and confused with people when they feel the truth and see it and understand it but neglect to allow it to change their lives. I feel this is the thing keeping people from becoming 'rooted' in the gospel as Alma teaches the Apostates the Zoramites, that it is not because the word or seed is not good but because they neglected to just do the simple things to nourish it. On a happier note we met some less actives and part members that no one had been able to contact for a long time and both of them are amazing, but it is going to take a great deal of effort from us and them to receive that which they truly want. The mom who did not join the church but allowed her son to join, then stopped him from going because she got into some anti church rubbish. We sat and talked and it was amazing, I felt the spirit so strong as we just testified of the most simple of truths and how we must believe, we must show faith. Elder Foong gave a great example to her and how in life a lot of people are just coasting along and letting life make them what it wants to make of them, but to achieve and gain greater heights we must go above and beyond what we are expected to do. These people are the ones that receive that eternal reward and can be there and help them right now, today.
So that was that and it was a great week. Sunday at church was amazing, so many good talks and lessons, I really learned a lot and then coming to the afternoon we had a teach with this lady from Ghana and her friend, they were going to teach us how to make fu fu with peanut soup. Wow it was nuts, the story must be told in person and have witness there because it was insane. This lady was a mad women, we sat down in her place and she said the food was ready and we said we wanted to bless it and the was the start of all the craziness, she jumped up and started shouting and praying all crazy and then about 5 min later I prayed and the food was brought in, she was telling us how to eat it and treating us like babies, and her friend told her to stop and it was crazy, a few of the people didn’t speak good English so we didn’t know what was happening, then I used the wrong hand twice to put the fu fu in and she yelled at me and I tried not to laugh and she not trying to hurt me bit my fingers so I wouldn’t do it again. At this point we were all laughing and the member was cracking up too, so we finished the food and got out in a hurry. We found out that the lady was a little drunk and what not but wow it was crazy and funny and a lifelong lasting experience. Anyway on a different note ''Worse than a quitter is the one who is afraid to begin'' We all must begin each day with a positive attitude and look for the light in a day that might have some darkness and especially in a world filled with darkness. As we find the light, then we must be that light to others, just like a yawn is contagious, so is joy and happiness! That is what this gospel is all about, understanding that the atonement is the greatest act of love and makes us make right decisions so we are full of joy and happiness. This can only come from the fullness of truth, which has so lovingly been restored by our Father in Heaven with so many witnesses for us to feel and read and see. Test it, try it, prove it, God does not lie:) I love this work his work and it is becoming a part of me, I know it is true now more than ever and this is only due to the small things day after day. I love you all, thanks for all the support and love and kindness, you all are the best Mom, dad, Kyle and Ashlee, Heather and the kids! I love you, always remember that! Have a great week and do something to lighten the load of another this week!!

Much Love
Elder Garren Allred

2009-11-03T12:11:00.002-07:00

The letter this week is to his dad as he didn't receive one from me because of Yahoo mail problems,(not sure what)but it finally went after the fact. Anyway he did receive his dads letter so he wrote his dad. It's a great letter so enjoy, just didn't answer all the questions I always ask.
Dear Dad;
What a great blessing it is to be able to serve our Heavenly Father full time and do this the most amazing and life changing work. It has been the greatest blessing to me to see and assist our father in this great work. This week we were given many blessing, and it all comes according to our faith. This polish family we are teaching is amazing, so kind and respectful, their daughter and her friend came to church this last Sunday and it was exciting to see young people so interested in the things they can’t see, and to exercise such great faith. The rest of the family was not as keen on going to church but with time they will feel and understand the importance of acting upon this message and accepting in with all their heart. The two girls loved church and the young women did a fantastic job at fellowshipping and making them feel welcome, this ward does such a great job at that, making everyone feel loved just like a real family. Had the opportunity to go on exchanges with our Zone Leaders this last week and it was great, I learned so much from Elder Ellsworth, such an excited and humble guy that truly wants to help people to be blessed by this great gospel. We experienced many miracles with different people we met and the lord leading and guiding our path. There is one man though that elder Foong and I stopped this last Tue. that I really loved, he was truly a Christ-like man. Edgar from Portugal. He is probably in his fifties, very smart and loves the lord, so warm and receptive to what we have to share, he was an honest seeker of truth. As we spoke with him I just felt so impressed that this man is going to be the means of changing many many lives, I felt his love and compassion for us someone he just met on the street, it is my utmost hope that soon we can teach him and his family, with his busy schedule it is going to be tuff, but I feel that it shall all work out. Elder Foong has been so great this last weekend, I had some funky headache thing and he gave me a blessing and just helped me to feel better. What a great guy, he is learning lots and picking it up fast. A few things have impressed me lately that I would like to share, first is, Not losing sight of what is most valuable and worth it. We must not become preoccupied with things that will waste away our time. To improve and become better we truly must seek the eternal. Also as I have allowed the scriptures to really speak to me, I have gained knowledge for myself about many great and wonderful things, I love the scriptures they can and will have a more powerful effect upon us than most anything else. They will convince us of the error of our ways and bring us closer to God and as were closer to God we are happier and more joyful full of love, we can then help others if they themselves what to be helped. If they don’t want to be helped we must learn to love them no matter what and as the savior said ask our father to forgive them because they truly know not what they do. I love you all and thank you for supporting and helping me to serve. You’re the best family ever and provide much joy to my heart knowing that our family can and will be forever! Love every day and have a great week!
PS: Hi to everyone, tell Brother Angus hi and all the priest to keep it up and fully prepare themselves to serve a mission. Enjoy the winter months fast approaching:)

We Must Go Forward

2009-10-26T10:35:00.002-06:00

This week has been full of many great and wonderful learning experiences. I feel the greatest thing that I have learned this week is to wait for the spirit to prompt you and begin to speak through you. How important it is to allow the spirit to speak is truly the essence of teaching as Christ would teach. This week we had not many teaches, and that was very sad but we did all we could to find some cool people and we did find a few and the lord blessed us in many other ways. The Polish family is not really showing a big interest in the gospel but tonight we are going by with a member that speaks Russian because the father of the family speaks Russian, and we are going to find out their level of interest and see if we will be able to keep teaching them and if they will except a baptismal date. On Fri. we had ZoKos and it was amazing. The spirit that was there was so powerful and strong you couldn’t help but feel the love of god at that time. We learned about Baptism and the doctrine behind it and why it is so so so very important, and it was fantastic, many things started to come into my mind about baptism and how vital of a role it plays in our progression in this life and how the Holy Ghost plays a huge part in what comes from baptism and receiving that remission of sins. We learned about rejection and how to not get down and how it will be hard and to lift our head up and press forward, this last week was filled with a lot of people rejecting this great gift we have, it didn’t hurt them to reject me, what hurt the most is they are going nowhere in life and are missing out on greater joy and happiness that only obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ can offer. Satan has blinded so many people so well and it is sad to see them like this, but if there is one thing I have learned it is to never slow down from lack of progression, we must work harder, smarter, and closer with the lord. I love this work with all my heart, I know it is the work of our Heavenly Father, this is true, he lives and loves us, he is truly guiding us through a living prophet and apostles, the Book of Mormon is the most powerful and correct source for us to drink from that spiritual well of water, I love what he teaches me as I read from those words. The power and influence of the Holy Ghost is real and the most glorious thing we can enjoy from our Heavenly Father; it is his way of connecting and teaching us truth. We must always go forward in our life and bring everyone else with us. I love you all, you are the greatest family and friends; you are a joy and inspiration to me each and every day! Tell Sister Jordan Hulet hi and keep up the good work! Make sure you just send packages to the office and it should be alright! Keep it up mom with your primary kids you are doing a great job I am sure of it! Love you all and make it the best week ever.
PS: Elder Foong is great, so humble and willing to do anything, also he is teaching me a bit of Chinese even though I am rubbish. We are having a great time together.

Love elder Allred

Golden is Right!

2009-10-19T09:58:00.001-06:00

Life is made up of experiences, if we choose to see what is positive from those experiences our lives will be filled with joy and knowledge, happiness and fulfillment. Elder Foong and I have already had some great experiences together what a blessing it has been to be able to be with him and learn and grow together in a new area. Elder Peterson mom can tell you all about Brixton’s my new area, he served here!!!:) No car, Busses and trains and tubes or underground thingy’s. We are a ways from my last area. The ward is called the Clapham Common Ward. We are the only one that lives with the member her name is Maggie; she is a sweetheart, from Gayna in South America and just makes us laugh. Don’t do too much cooking but I have been able to use my skills a tiny bit just not enough time to do such things. There are loads of homes and loads of people it crazy I love it so much. There are so many people from so many different countries it is amazing. Just on sat we had an amazing experience when walking up a road near our flat elder Foong stopped this polish lady and we invited her to church, the next day we went to go with her but she said she couldn’t so we were bummed but she said to come back later that night and we did and taught a whole Polish family, they are so kind and amazing and the father was so respectful and the son he helped to translate a lot for us and it was just a huge miracle we are teaching them all again on Tuesday so I hope and pray they progress and come to church so a great family can grow closer and stronger. Our investigator from Brazil moved to Norway but hopefully the missionaries will get in contact with him over there. But no worries we are teaching another lady from Brazil on Tuesday, she was so nice and were way excited about that:)
Yep got the letter and ensign article before I left:) So my new comp is amazing he is funny and so willing to do anything to try and do whatever is asked of him. What a humble and loving guy. He is called to speak Mandarin Chinese, so hopefully we can use that skill and start teaching some people that speak that language. I have seen elder Roberts a few times but not really splits at all or what not. The ward and people here are the best, so hard working and they just really love the gospel it is fantastic. The Bishop is just one amazing guy that makes you feel good about yourself, I hope we can do all we can to strengthen and lift up the ward and bring in some more strong priesthood holders. I love this work so much family, it is truly the work of the lord, divine help comes from above and it has changed my heart and desires, what joy comes to my soul when I feel the love from my father in heaven. He is there and he does truly love us, this is the greatest stuff in the world and we all must allow it into our lives and then to live it each day really live it and change. I am learning that I am constently changing out here and hopefully becoming a more Christ like person and that is what this life is all about, even though some many think otherwise they are very wrong. Live it, love it and laugh it all up.
Have the best week ever and tell everyone hi and love them very much.

Elder Garren Allred

The Lord Knows what he is doing!

2009-10-15T10:39:00.000-06:00

Well so much has happened I will try to explain to you what I can with the time I have. Thanks for the package sent to the office I got it mom:) So big news I am no longer in Woodley I am now in London again, in Clapham or better know as Brixton. I am Training a new missionary again, he is amazing I already know I am going to learn so much from him and all the different life experiences that we have both had. His name is Elder Foong from Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. I am not quite sure where that is at exactly but it sounds cool. He speaks Malay and mandarin and English. His mom and sister are members but his father passed away 4 years ago. I feel so blessed to be with him and be able to learn and grow together. So elder Zimmer and I finished off our moves together real nice, the lord blessed us with a great family to teach a Monday and two sons and a daughter. A member helped introduce us to them and it was just so amazing and hopefully soon they will be preparing for baptism on the 31 of this month. Also that lady named Trisha is doing pretty well just struggling to over come smoking and a few other things but she is a fighter and will soon get baptized. Over the last 1.5 weeks I really have learned so much and have felt so blessed by the lord for the outpouring of blessings he is always giving us. This is the fullness of truth restored by our savior and heavenly father my heart feels the truth of it and in my mind it is all so simple and clear the gospel just plain makes sense. I truly thank you all for everything you have done all you have taught me and helped me with. I love missionary work it has so much JOY involved in it. I feel extremely excited to train again and have the lord humble me again and teach me so many things just as he always does. One thing I have really been working on is prayer and making my prayers more heartfelt and meaningful and sincere, this has greatly changed my heart and given me new strength and a greater desire to work harder and with the spirit of the lord. Blessings and Miracles come by faith and this is shown in our prayers. I have seen and felt the power of some investigators prayers and when done with the right attitude and heart so many things begin to happen. I hope you start feeling better mom you are always in my thoughts and prayers. Thanks for the amazing story of missionary work what great things are happening to bring people true and lasting happiness. Glad to hear you got the box back:) My DI suit is in RED RUTH in a closet hahaha it was fun and great while it lasted. Mom I love you so much your the best ever, I love everyone and please keep me in your prayers so I cant help this amazing new missionary become a great servant of the lord and I am going to need guidance being in a new area and all.
We live with a member and she is a sweetheart. Recently I have learned so much from 4th Nephi and all that we must do to stay in a state of constant peace and happiness, what a blessed people they were but they forgot to remember what the lord had taught and done for them and how much we must never forget these basic and most important truths of the restored gospel. I love the savior and my heavenly father I love this work and I know it is all true, I just know it with all of my heart and soul that this is what matters most. Have the best weekend ever and I will e-mail on Monday as normal :)

Love you all
Elder Garren Allred

Aiming High!!

2009-10-05T11:32:00.001-06:00

WOW! what a conference weekend, loved every minute of it and felt so uplifted and my strength returned. We are so truly blessed to have a prophet and apostles and those being led by the lord to teach and reveal truths to us and to help us make it happily through our mortal state. I took so much from what they said, the Passion from Holland needs to be us, the love and understanding of repentance from Anderson, and the way we should be with Love that president Uchtdorf taught us. It was a spiritual boost from the lord. We were able to go to every session of conference, they were delayed except for a few live sessions but it was truly fantastic. The week we had was nice as well. Met a cool new guy from Gambia, that is some very different religion but he seems quite interested in what we have to say and he came to conference on Saturday night and thought it was alright also Amauri came as well but we found out he might be moving to Norway before the months over, so we might see if he would like to get baptized before he goes. We shall see, but he is doing amazing and such a great guy, he is planning on coming to work in Cedar City (Brian Head) maybe next year which would be sweet! On Tuesday I went on exchange in Oxford, didn’t get to see much as we were running mad in traffic and from teach to teach with 2 really young missionaries, it was way fun to feel the spirit working with them not knowing beforehand what they should do it is great. Also had a meeting with the stake president and President Shamo to discuss the whole stake and it was really good, some new ideas and great things are coming into play and the work is going to go forth in a great way. It is really exciting. We are really helping this one lady change her life and get her going in the right direction. It is so hard for some people and I do feel so much sorrow for her, her pain and all that she has been through, but as sad as it is all of this has been brought upon by small decisions to not follow our father in Heaven and his commandments, and it has had a huge and devastating impact upon her life, but what a blessing it is that our savior has provided a way back, the atonement provides a way back no matter what we have done, so we can always turn back to our father in heaven, this vital doctrine is and will ever stand as the most amazing thing to me and the act of love and unselfishness makes me stand in awe and wonder. By really living the gospel and letting it sink deep into our souls we can allow the savior to heal us and help us not only to return to our father in heaven in eternal joy and happiness, but we may be healed NOW. This is what the restoration was all about, we just need to step up to the plate and do what must be done and act as the savior would. Family I love you all so much and friends and everyone, I truly know god our spirit father lives and loves with a capacity we cannot comprehend. He has sent his son in his infinite love to do what we alone could not do, and they came again to restore eternal truths through a boy that was searching for simple truths. This is the fullness of joy, ONLY found in living by the guidelines our heavenly father has reveled through his holy prophets since the beginning and as he continues to reveal today. The Holy Ghost has taught me this, in such a way that no words can explain how I feel when my heavenly father teaches this and brings to remembrance what has always been and will always be. Live it and love it:)
So glad you all had a great weekend! So glad the package has been found:) Sorry if it was my fault it got lost. I will let you know when I get the one from the mission office. Thanks for the amazing poem. Yeah Bahama Mama hotdogs, Trevor introduced me to them. I love loads of things over here, it is all good!!!! No I haven’t heard from Trevor lately... let me know how he is. Nope nothing, I am doing great don’t need anything, just lots of prayers for the people of Reading and us missionaries:)
Milk bottles from a member that gives us milk ever once in a while and we just wanted to see how high we could stack them:) Yeah they treat us nice; the flat is well posh, lush beds so comfortable. Haven’t heard from Coxey or Chris or really much of anyone but they are always in my prayers I love these people in England they keep teaching me so much. Have the best week ever!!!!! Tell me one cool miracle that happens this next week! I love you all so much and thanks for all that you do and the support it means the world to me and helps so much:)

Elder Garren Allred

Milk Bottle Tower

2009-09-28T13:46:00.002-06:00

Our milk bottle tower, we drank them all

Elders Zimmer & Allred

2009-09-28T13:33:00.003-06:00

Today is Part of Eternity!

2009-09-28T09:14:00.001-06:00

What a beautiful and wonderful week, filled with many great experiences. It was such a blessing to hear from and learn from one of the lords servants. Elder and Sister Texiera were amazing, I learned so much from all the things they shared with us and the stories they shared really increased my faith and gave me some answers I had been searching for. Most of all I felt the quite comforting assurance of the spirit that gave me much strength and personal revelation. We were taught many wonderful things, really just about having everyone do equal work and put the workload across the board and get everyone doing better and rising to their full potentional. It was so amazing to see the whole mission in one building and the spirit and strength that was there was so powerful. It is so important that we are always an example of the lord Jesus Christ; people watch us and learn for the good or bad from what we do and say. So before the conference I went on an exchange to Farnbourgh with elder McLachlan, he is a wonderful missionary, it was a bike area so I had a blast getting to ride bikes around and we just had so many miracles, as we followed the spirit the lord truly placed people in our path that were ready to receive the gospel. I just love it all so much. As well the sisters that are in the Reading ward gave us one of their investigators who they found out lives in our area, he is amazing, Amauri from Brazil and the craziest thing is he worked at Brian head back in 2005-06 and loved it. He is a cool guy and came this last Sunday to church for the first time and hopeful will be preparing for baptism soon! So many blessing come all the time. Then if things can’t get any better than this on Sunday evening as we were out knocking, we got a call and it was Alan the amazing man in Poole from China, well he got baptized and was so happy and told me just how he knew this was all true and that this is the right path for him, he is amazing. That was such a blessing to hear and know that he is doing good even with the hard trials that life sometimes brings us. Also when I was studying this last week I read something that just really struck me and was really profound I thought. The gospel was restored to the earth...'To make life sweet today, to give contentment to the heart today. Some of us look forward to a time in the future, a salvation and exaltation in the world to come, BUT TODAY IS A PART OF ETERNITY!' David O. McKay. I really loved that and it is so true the gospel is here for us now not just for the future, live and enjoy life today by allowing the gospel to become a part of us and love every minute of it. Ha-ha no tom - tom for driving, just Elder Zimmer which in essence is better ,no batteries required well food sometimes so I guess it’s even. Some missionaries do buy them and use them though. Hopefully going to take my driving test within the next 3 weeks I am still studying:) We do have article of faith cards and teach them sometimes to people but I would say we don’t really focus on it enough because the cards are so amazing and beautifully put. Oh man tell elder Peterson hi and much love from his Boy and elder Zimmer says hi as well! Have the best week ever mom and family, love you all enjoy general conference, it is going to be amazing, I am so excited for it and to receive many good things. Tell grandma Gibson hi and great job on giving up snacking:) I would love a photo of all you when you go down for the holiday.
Cheers and Love you all
Elder Garren Allred

What A Week!!

2009-09-21T16:29:00.001-06:00

Well what a week it has been out here, had a zone meeting on wed with President Shamo and the assistants and the great Reading zone. It was a wonderful time, Sister Shamo shared some amazing stories that I just loved so much and was so grateful to know there are so many people out there being Disciples of Christ. Also on Wed. we went on exchanges with the missionaries from Newbury and I went with an Elder Obike from Scotland, it was a great time and we met lots of great people and met a lady that reminded me a lot of Joy and Joan in Poole, her name is June and they are helping her progress towards baptism on the 10th of Oct., she is just a sweet lady that has a great desire to learn of the gospel. Also had an exchange on Sat. with the assistants, I was with Elder Roberts here in his area where he spent 4 1/2 months and it was so great to see the lords hand in the work that night, we stopped by a few people to teach and one thing lead to another and we were at this one amazing ladies house that is a member, but she had just been going through a rough time and Heavenly Father led us to her that evening to bring her comfort and peace in a troubled time. I felt so calm and warm inside as we spoke to her, it is great to know Heavenly Father is always there for us. Church was great on Sunday and a lady gave a talk that I really enjoyed, she talked a lot about going and doing, she took a phrase from Luke, I think which was go and do thou likewise, Jesus said this to his disciples and it was great for me to continue to realize that it truly is all about following in the Saviors footsteps and doing as he did, loving as he loved being as he was. As a missionary you truly have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, I sometimes just feel frustrated as this message is so clear and simple and profound, yet others are so blinded as to what true happiness really is, it is knowing you have a divine destiny, a loving and perfect father in heaven, a brother that has given up comfort and safety to die and suffer more than what we could ever suffer, just so that we can get back to our father in heaven, it’s about earthy and heavenly families, it’s about faith in something greater and hope in the best and charity with pure intent to just help others when and where ever you can, this is true happiness. It hurts when people are missing out on such things and you do sometimes feel as Alma did in wanting to cry with the voice of an angel. We are teaching a lot of people at the moment that haven’t given it there full heart or allowed god to fully help them and it’s hard because they are the ones that must make the choice to give god the chance to make them great. Thank you for all you do, your great examples of hard work and endurance and love and kindness, mom, dad, Ashlee and Kyle and everyone else I know, I love you all so much. Thanks for what you have taught me and helped me come to know what is true. This next week we have this mission conference with Elder Texeria with everyone in the whole mission coming to Reading!
No foot fungus problems I think:) socks are good. That birthday package didn’t get sent back to you?? Sorry about that mom. So that’s crazy how long dad has been the bishop? Man sounds like you all have a lot going on the next few weeks, enjoy it all so much and tell grandpa and grandma hi as you go visit them and also hello to grandpa and grandma Allred and thanks for the e-mail!
There does seem to be some great history here but we don’t get into that much, also yes blessings have been some on the times when I have felt most joy either being the voice of the blessing or just standing in. What a great thing our father wants to do for us, always help us and give us what we need, all we really have to do is ask and then go to work. Hey have the best week ever!!!! Enjoy your week:)
Love Elder Garren Allred

2009-09-17T10:45:00.004-06:00

This week has been fantastic what a blessing it is to serve the savior by helping others to understand the atonement so that his sacrifice will not be in vain. We have had such a busy week, ZLC on Tues. that was amazing as we were able to have a great discussion and learn from the spirit and one another. We have been talking about this thing called the 4th missionary and how there are 4 types of missionaries and how we must all become like the 4th missionary which in essence Christ is the greatest example of that. it is a long thing written up by a mission president in 2002 and now he is in the 70 and it has been wonderful teaching us how really everything were giving back to Christ is not really that much because it has been all given to us by him anyway and the greatest thing we can and must give in order to become perfect pure and clean is our will our choices must become his choices our will needs to be thrown out the window and to chose the best will which is that what our heavenly father wants us to do. what a hard thing but it can be done and just like you said dad with the small things, diligently study the scriptures, sincere prayer, going to church meetings with full purpose of heart these small but simple things turn the hinge on our gate to eternal life. we are teaching a lady that has went through the roughest of the ruff lives, and she is preparing for baptism the 10th of Oct. I hope and pray she will call upon the lord to give her strength to overcome the things of the world in order to have the things of god, eternal joy and true lasting happiness. Something Satan professes to give but vainly cannot for he has nothing of that nature to give, he is so clever and it is so vital for us to know him and his tactics so we can build a safety net around us so that his fiery darts may not get to us. We had just short 3 hour exchanges with elders in Bracknell and Oxford and also some sisters in Baisnstoke. Such wonderful missionaries here in the zone, they teach us so much and help us to learn great lessons of life.
Sounds like you all had a great week, glad you enjoyed San Diego:) thanks for the package it got here safe! Tell Marsha hi and love ya. Ha-ha awesome you met someone from London that’s sweet, how did the little missionary work go with a pass along card and all? ;) HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY GRANDPA GIBSON!!!!!!!! tell him that for me. Dad, sounds like you enjoyed that time with Elder Cook and some of the other amazing men. Thanks for your thoughts and insights I loved them, I would love those notes once you have them typed up and hopefully soon I will send you some stuff you can use with maybe helping with those problems that we so often see in the world. and in the church.
I had a scripture for you in James 1:19, I love the part where it says quick to hear, what a great thing James taught us and I realized how important that is in all aspects of life in relationships in families in church and just in life, the most important thing though is to listen to the quite promptings of the holy ghost and if we are quick to hear those we will be what our heavenly father wants us to be which is something far greater than what we could ever imagine. Soon hopefully we shall go to Oxford and tour the town on p-day and take some photos it does seem like a great place and we met some amazing people there on the street. That Jam sounds well good, save some for me ha-ha or we can just make new stuff. The meeting with president was amazing as I said, he is such a great man that posses so much love it puts me in awe, he is so kind and gentle but firm and clear, so quick to listen and help in any way he possibly can and wants to be right there in the front lines leading the pack. I love him so much and am so grateful to be here serving with him, I learn so much each time we have the chance to talk or to listen to him. President Shamo is the man, reference to 1 Nephi 8....can’t remember what vs. sorry. Their home is in Cobham, Surry the mission office is at the temple in New Chapel, Surry.
Don’t know anything about a postal strike here in Reading but who knows. I hope you start feeling better mom you all are always in my prayers, I love you all so much and am so grateful for all you do and say and the great sacrifices you make to support me out here, it makes it all much easier to have a family like you that is golden! Have a great week and have fun and do something exciting that draws you closer to the savior, maybe read in chap. 9 of Preach my Gospel "go about doing Good" and do something like that this week. I know god loves us I feel it, he does listen to us and he will help us always and he does what will help us most. The book of Mormon is amazing I love it so much it truly is the word of god, a loving and all knowing father. This is the savior’s church being led by prophets and apostles, this is the fullness of the truth here on the earth, how great is this, to have this pure knowledge? I know because it has been made known to me in so many different ways mostly because of the feeling that the holy ghost gives me.

Love you, Later:)
Elder Garren Allred

A Great New Area, A Great Companion, A Great Work!!

2009-09-10T11:09:00.002-06:00

It is a great place just out in the suburbs of London. Yep still a ZL with Elder ZIMMER, we have 6 other companionships in our zone, 2 new missionaries and 4 total sisters, 2 from Germany. No small package yet, will probably get it from Elder Orme tomorrow as we have a meeting at president’s house.
The new area is great, a little mix of everything really, quite a few English people and a little bit of everything else. I also bore my testimony yesterday and it was nice, I remembered you were going to bear yours and that was in my mind but I didn’t cry sorry:) I wish I would of done a lot of things, Take the gospel a little more serious, share the gospel with friends more , try and seek for opportunities to do that, show more love and respect to all my family, learn to teach more in church or at school and how to use and apply the scriptures, learn to be less selfish and more charitable. Probably could think of loads more if I had time to think about it all.
No mess ups with laundry ha-ha knock on wood :) Not too much reminds me of home, I mean England really isn’t too much different or so it feels like that now. The culture is mixed but mostly British. Tell Duke and Mary Fern HI. I have used the recipe book a few times, but I should use it more,thanks for the reminder. Yeah Elder JUDD he is cool, came out when I was training Elder Toyn so about 4 and half months now. Yeah SUU won that’s awesome hope they keep it up, have fun in San Diego enjoy the sunshine. Tell Marsha hi and thanks for everything she did for me and that wonderful job it really helped out a lot to work there and talk with all those return missionaries I loved it.

We are teaching some great people right now but not too much exciting stuff, hopefully soon though because we want to find a family like mid thirties and what not so I am feeling more miracles from our Heavenly Father coming soon. So many amazing people though here in Reading, some Less Active that are coming back to church and loads of recent converts so we have been busy teaching and some little finding. Attitude is everything mom you are so right! That’s why I love reading the scriptures every morning because it just gives you a good attitude for the day and lifts you up builds your faith and gives you the strength and courage to face the storms of life, what power in such a small thing, the world really does treat it as a thing of naught, we really need to help them see how amazing the scriptures are. This is truly the fullness of joy serving others and in turn being served by the love of god, I know he lives he is our spiritual dad speaking and is looking out for us day in day out, what a loving brother in Jesus Christ we have to lay down his life so we can all be back together someday and progress and move forward upward and onward. Love you all and thanks for everything you do, your all the best ever, have an amazing week and enjoy the days as they come :)

Elder Garren Allred

WOW! So much change, it's crazy!

2009-09-03T14:21:00.003-06:00

So, I have left Poole and now am in Woodley, Reading Zone Leaders area! So much time has passed and it is all so crazy how fast life goes and how much the lord blesses us.Very sad to leave all those amazing people that I have come to love so very much in Poole and I have been changed by all the great things that have happened in that area, the lord is truly mindful of us and our needs, what a blessing it is to have this great knowledge.

New flat is amazing so very nice....pics will soon follow.
DA's in Poole pretty much every day it was amazing and way fun to get to know the members and see how much they cared about missionary work. New area don't know yet????
Yes Elder Orme did all the driving and now I am with Elder Zimmer and he has a license as well so he will be doing all the driving as well and hopefully I will pass and get it all sorted. Yes I did get a backpack, its amazing, waterproof so my stuff stays safe. Some sight seeing not too much did a bit in Poole.
There has been a lot of people baptised but me personally in Poole has only been Joan Caines. I will send a letter with all that information :) No Austin was in Welling and never got baptised:(
Elder Zimmer has been out a few more months then me he is from Bountiful, Ut and is a great guy, he was trained in Redruth just like me and served with Elder Peterson for 6 weeks. So many amazing people in Poole doing so great, that man from china has a date for the 26 of Sept for his baptism, he is so amazing and such a great guy, I bet one day he will be a seventy in China! Had loads of changes this week with transfers and it has been intense. Am so excited about my new area, to see the lords hand in bringing about many miracles and blessing the lives of all the people in Woodley. Its always exciting to met a new ward as well and just is going to be a great time meeting new faces and have great experiences. I love the gospel so much and love Jesus Christ, to know him is to feel love from him and wow how much love I feel from him as i learn of him and try to become more like him each day of my life, its hard but so great. I truly know because of the sure witness of the holy ghost that these things are true so many wonderful things like knowing we have a father that is watching out for us loving us and helping us, teaching us with so many things like a prophet, the scriptures and life's experiences.
Hey mom I miss you too your amazing and so great easily the best mom ever, thanks for all that you do your love and support it means the world to me. Tell everyone hi and to have a amazing time with school.
I will be e-mailing Mon as normal so have a great weekend and I will be sure to bear my testimony:)
Love you so much, and everyone take care
Elder Allred

Preparation Takes Time

2009-08-24T16:48:00.002-06:00

What a week full of miracles and fun and lasting joy and happiness, cant believe I get to do it again this next week but maybe a bit better!

Flag is Welsh:), so glad you got the package. Failed the Theory test.....:( so close too, I don't know if I will take it again as it all cost so much money.....sorry about that. But hey I laughed about it because what can you do but come what may and love it'. Sorry about the guy coming, but he already did....they had a family reunion up at a chapel on Leigh Hill. That's so amazing about Angie tell her congrats from me and for Jon as well!!!! Doing much better with Journal writing and I have plenty thanks though. Zone is doing alright trying to get it on the up and up, kind of a lull right now so we all need to pick it up and allow the Lord to help us out. There are 6 other areas in our zone so 12 missionaries.
So miracle first, this morning before we came to e-mail we stopped into this Chinese guys shop to teach him about the BOM and gave him one and we are taking him on a chapel tour this next Wensday. So amazing it was and he is so prepared, he has been in England for 17 years and his shop is on the end of our street so he has be said hi to us many a time and befriended us for all this time but know one shared the gospel with him till now, he wants to find the truth and has such a willing heart it is amazing and exciting. Alan, from Hong Kong. It is so amazing how just being nice and friendly with someone totally prepares them to receive the restored gospel, and then we just need to have the courage to share it and boldly bare our testimony and they WILL fill the power of the holy ghost and in all hope act upon those things to have a better....best life they could ever have following their Father in heaven and his way.
My study this last week has been so amazing I am just so excited about the BOM, in Jan I started reading it for the 1st time like actually reading it and taking it in from Cover to Cover, I just finished Alma this week and I am in aw as I read and pray and feel the peace and understanding as the scriptures nourish my soul. I am so excited to finish it all and then start all over. I have read it once before but not really READ it not like I have now and it is so great!
Have an amazing week love you all family!!!!!

Elder Allred

Healthy Physcially & Spiritually

2009-08-17T13:57:00.001-06:00

What an amazing week filled with some amazing experiences. I love missionary work and meeting new people and getting to know them and help them see the greater perspective of life. I had a slight cold but it got kicked fast. Yes I got both MOM cds:) Yes Got the SD card as well:) Let me know when you get the Package I sent it should be there soon?:) So this last Monday we were out knocking after teaching a RC(recent convert) Joan, and we buzzed into a flat complex and knocked on some doors, talked to some crazy Russian guy and the next thing we know the guy next door lets us in. He was amazing and we had such a spiritual and smooth and amazing teach, one of the best ones I have been in and I just knew that heavenly father was working through us, as we finished it off and left his house, I was jumping for joy like I had just scored the winning goal in a big futball match, it was so much fun and amazing. Also this Wednesday we had zone meeting and elder Orme and I gave a presentation and we came up with 'The Nine Strings of Unity'. These nine points will unify anyone attached with scriptures and a string with a cool quote, I will send you a copy of it all this next week. It was amazing and then later that night we had a short exchange with the assistants and I was with elder Binks, oh man we had a good time, we knocked into these younger people and taught them the restoration, this 16 year old girl totally felt the spirit, her sister’s boyfriend left the room and she told us she had this funny filling down in her belly like a warm fuzzy feeling when we shared the first vision. It was so cool and this next week we're hoping we can go by and teach the whole family. Also on Sunday we parked the car and walked to a DA we had, and met some amazing people, this one cool experience: this girl in her mid 20’ies she was carrying some KFC and was crossing the road so I started to talk with her and she was way cool and laughing and we walked across the street and taught her a little more and invited her for a chapel tour, it was amazing because she was so interested and happy and excited. Also on that same walk, a man from Madrid tapped me on the shoulder and tried to speak in his broken Spanish, anyway he was amazing and asking us all sorts of questions and it was so funny because we really couldn’t speak to him but we tried for like 20 min. and gave him some stuff and told him when he goes back to Spain to look it up and he was excited to! So much amazingness, the lord puts people in our path to treat them as he has treated us, with unconditional, love and care and concern.
Hey Kyle we’re teaching this amazing man from Fiji he is in the Army and is getting baptized on Sept. 12, he is so amazing and is totally seeking out the gospel and embracing it and it has brought peace and happiness more fully into his life. He is such a cool guy and is so nice and willing to learn and follow the lord, I am so excited to keep teaching him. Also some RCs of ours went to a single adult conference in South Hampton and loved it so much and had loads of fun. It’s so exciting to see others excited about the gospel and allow it to really change them and to push through the hard times with the help of the lord. Hello Larissa, Kendra, Mara and Maddie, and Bro. Jones. I will be getting that hat back from you after another Laker Championship this next year:) Yeah Jamie, she will do amazing with Miss SUU, also Erika. You are going to have loads of fun mom I hope you don’t have too much stress:)
Don’t really need anything thanks, the ranch was so so so so so so amazing I, we loved it!
So many good things and things I have learned I cannot write a hundredth part as Mormon would say. But I love you all so much and have a wonderful and amazing week filled with miracles and the hand of the lord in each day, 'love more laugh harder and live better':) Thanks for the e-mails and support your all the best ever.
Kyle and Heather and kids thanks for the awesome Video I loved it so much and was cracking up, they are all so cute and growing up so much it is crazy, you’re amazing parents and are such great examples to me, I love you all and hope you have a great week.
All My love
Elder Allred

My 1st year highlights

2009-08-13T11:42:00.001-06:00

Come with me on my journey of the 1st year of my mission, and enjoy

Make a Smilebox slideshow

A Wonderful 1st Year serving the Lord!!

2009-08-12T13:37:00.003-06:00

This past Saturday Aug. 8 (Elder Allred’s Hump Day) we had two of the most amazing ladies I have ever met enter the waters of baptism. Between the two of them they have 150+ earthly experiences, 30+ grandchildren and are as sweet as they come. Joy Shearing a lady that has been doing family history for 22+ years has a few of her children that are members and many other family members and friends and a late husband that was a member has come into the fold. What an amazing experience and it was so great to see a family unite and become closer and she had so much happiness and peace come into her it is amazing. She has had a change of heart and it in turn has changed my heart I love it all so much seeing her make the choices and do the simple things and see big changes.
Joan Caines, a woman E. Roberts and I knocked on her door on the 4th of July after Carl Jones baptism, she said to come back Monday, we did and the rest is history. She is the kind of women you want to have in your life, sweet, kind, always thinking of others, very patient and full of love. What a blessing it has been to teach these two kind wonderful sisters and she them embrace the gospel. I was blessed with the opportunity to baptize Joan Iris Stella Caines, and I just felt so much peace as we stood in the font and as I was able to say the prayer and allow the work of heavenly father to move forward so that the lives of all of his children may be blessed. I just felt an immense joy in my soul and felt so blessed to just be a part of such an amazing experience. Words really can’t do it justice.
So great to hear your week went well! Glad you enjoyed the coast and the seafood. Thanks for the Hump day package I did get it:) I hope the other package turns up soon. Also I will be sending a small package home this next week with some little bits in it:)
It has been a week full of interesting experiences and a few fun trials, my theory test went sour, I brought the wrong piece of paper and so I lost the money to book that test and had to book another sorry about that so my next test is for the 21 of Aug. Also had some fun exchanges and went to Yeovill for a day:) Got rained on loads and had a blast. We also had a miracle referral this last week. A man from Fiji called a chapel in our zone and asked if he could come to church. He went and loved it and they set up a time to teach him again, come to find out he lives in our area and we taught him and the chapel this last week and he came to church with us he is amazing and will be here for three months on a program but then going back up north so we set a baptismal date with him for the 5 of Sept and he accepted it and he wants to take his family to the church as well. It was so exciting and he is such a cool guy Simione Kitiane or something close to that. It is wild to think I have been gone for 1 year. Time has just flown past so fast its crazy, I have loved it so much and have learned so much and have really felt myself being changed and am so excited for the next year I have to learn and grown and see many many more miracles and see gods hand in the work every day! I love you all so much and am so thankful for all you do which is so much I couldn’t do it without you and I am just so so grateful. This gospel is true it is the fullness and is being lead by Jesus Christ himself through a living prophet on the earth today, The scriptures especially the Book of Mormon change us as we read them with our hearts and apply and remember those things they were taught and resolve to do better. Heavenly Father loves us and it is so great to really know he is there, our father with a body similar to ours not something we can’t comprehend or understand. One day he may wrap us in his arms when we do all we can to return to live with him. Make it a great week! Love you all!

Elder Allred

Aug 3rd

2009-08-12T12:56:00.003-06:00

People change other people’s lives when the spirit changes them and touches their spirit and helps them to realize there is so much more to life than what meets the eye, love and kindness, compassion and patience are some of the greatest things that come from this restored gospel. This week has been amazing, we had a ZLC at Pres. Shamo’s house, it was such a great experience to be taught by him and the spirit, he went through Judges 7 with us describing the story of Gideon’s army and how we are like the 300 battling Satan and with the sword of the lord we can slay him and win the battle. Then also on Wed. we had Zokos here in Poole and again amazing, Sister Shamo taught us about so much and Pres. Shamo went over with us Judges 6 about the type of man Gideon is. We also had Jersey over here on exchange for a bit and we had a crazy rest of the week, prepping for Sandra’s baptism. It went great, the ward was amazing and is always doing so much for us and the missionary work here in Poole, and it is such a blessing to be a part of all these miracles that are happing so often. A member that has been baptized for 1 year invited us over to teach and answer questions for her granddaughter, it was awesome teaching her and then her mom had a few questions, it was just so great to see the gospel answer all the big questions that we have in our heart and how beautiful it is to each receive those answers from our heavenly father in prayer! Also a friend of a member that swim together came to church and is really interested so we will be teaching him this week after he does some family history. I am baffled sometimes here because of all the blessing heavenly father keeps giving us and the members are just doing so much good work and sharing the gospel with all of their friends and being great examples it makes me strive to always be a better servant of the lord! Joy and Joan are getting baptized this sat at 6:30, it’s going to be a very special one as they are both over 70 and have such a loving and great spirit about them. I am just so excited for them to enter into this amazing promise with their heavenly father. Elder Orme is amazing were both having a great time trying our best to lead the zone and help them out in any way we can:)
Hey I am so excited for you all to spend some time at the coast, that’s actually what we did for a tiny bit of p-day, it was nice, we went to the pier and beach in Bournemouth, a really big tourist place. Scoped out some places to play beach football one of these days soon! Loving life right now and forever, I just can’t believe how fast time flies when you’re having fun and seeing the hand of god in your life every day. I love the gospel with all my heart it’s what drives me to be happy, helps me with any problem I need help with, gives me comfort and strength and just plain makes life the best. I am so grateful for all you have done for me and the great examples you all are to me Thanks for putting up with me all those years when I must have been hard to deal with:) God does help us and sends us so many things to assist us in being successful in this life, the Book Of Mormon is one of those huge things, what a blessing it is to have that in our possession, I love reading it and felling the spirit from its pages and learning how I can become better and change to become more like Christ.

Ashlee I hope all is well, sorry you couldn’t go to the coast but hey you are strong:) Hope you enjoy your time with the house all to yourself because it won’t be like that for long:) Have a great week.

Kyle thanks for your video man that was great, you could do those once a month or so that would be sweet! Hope you and Heather and the kids are doing great! Love you all so much, enjoy the beach and all the sweet crab, AHHH it’s amazing and taste so nice. We’re going to see this wicked castle next p-day, a battle took place there and the castle got all messed up.

Dad, hope you had a great time on the river! Can’t wait to see some pictures!

Love you all family and everyone Else!!!!!

Elder Garren Allred

Where Much is Given, much is expected!!

2009-07-27T10:03:00.003-06:00

Hello me familelia,

What an amazing weekend filled with many blessings from our heavenly father. Elder Orme and I are getting on just amazing and loving it here in Poole, there are just so many amazing people here and I just love it so much. We have Sandra Murphy getting baptised this Sunday after church, she was taught by other missionaries and made the decision to get baptised after going to the temple and coming to others baptisms. It has just been amazing seeing the lord prepare people to receive this glorious gospel. Also the two older amazing grandmas Joy 83 and Joan 71 are getting baptised on the 8th and they are just wonderful. I love them so much and it is great to see these older people accept the gospel. It has made them happier and smile more and really just have a glow about them, every time I walk away from teaching them I can't stop beaming, they are so special and I have learned so much from them and it has just be great.
So glad you are having a good time in Lewiston, tell everyone hi!! I will be doing my License this first part of Aug hopefully all done within the next two weeks, also a plus is when I come back I can get my insurance a lot cheaper for having an international license.
Mom those are amazing stories wow thank you for sharing them with me I loved them so much.
We have been studying this thing about being the best kind of missionary and really the biggest thing I have learned is that we need to not only give of our time and strength, but our heart, so many people in there lives withhold there heart from any and everything and it is mostly due to fear but we always just need to remember to trust our heavenly father and keep him in all the decisions we make in life and we will always be okay, he will never leave us comfortless. :) Sunday was amazing as it was all about missionary work and it just made me think deeply of how much I love these people here in England that have changed my life by them changing there's, I feel so close to them and it really makes me so happy to see them progressing in the right way. Gordon this last week got a calling and is going to receive the aronic priesthood, it is all just so amazing!
Elder Orme is amazing way fun, loves sports and Golf, comes from a great Idaho family and is such a hard worker and loves the people. I am so excited to learn form him and grow.
Have the best week ever love you all so much. On the 5Th of Aug I am taking my Theory driving test, so please pray for me thanks:)

Love Elder Allred

Special Letter from Missionary Mum /Transfer Week

2009-07-20T10:25:00.006-06:00

This is a letter from a Sister Readhead in Garren's ward in Poole. It is transfer week so we won't get letters until Thurs. She keeps me informed when he is so busy and doesn't have time to write much. She is a sister I connected with from the Missionary Mum website. Boy I really love this connection.
Hi Deniece,
Just to let you know what was happening with your son's parcel. He finally got the ticket with the parcel details to me yesterday. He had been trying all week to drop it by but they have had another very busy week. Apparently they had their car broken into and that took precious time sorting out and reporting to the police etc.. I don't think anything was taken and they are alright. It was done when no one was about.
Anyway I phoned Parcel Force the English end of the USPS, I finally got through to a human being. I found out that they have returned it to the sender! I was unable to find out if there were charges on it. It made no reference to charges on the delivery card so may be the Elders who came after your son in his last area were in and knew about the charges the Postal Services wanted to make! I don't know the whole story but anyway it's apparently on its way back to you. I think it's probably a good idea to send via the Mission home, next time, because I'm sure they would pick up the charges if any were made in the future. But like you said there shouldn't have been any if 'Gifts' were stated on your package.......
Well also, to let you know, your Elder is doing so well, yesterday we had another confirmation from the baptism on Saturday. They also had their investigator class full with so many people. I got to talk with two ladies they are teaching, a lady called Rose, who has only been here 3 weeks and who has been working in the US so her English is very good, from Poland. And another lady from Australia, who's name escapes me right now (Never great with names, but trying hard!) It's so great and there is a real Missionary buzz in our Ward right now and it's down to your son and his companion they are working flat out. Sadly I hear Elder Roberts his companion will be moved on Thursday which is really sad for us. I'm sure we'll have another lovely Elder but it does seem to indicate your lovely son will be staying with us here in Poole. I can't tell you how much we love our Elders here in Poole. I hope he feels our appreciation for the fantastic work he is doing and if his e-mail is short again this week. Know he loves you and it's because they are just so rushed off their feet with all the teaching they are doing to some really golden investigators and recent converts. He is a Total Star. Always with a great smile and firm hand shake. He looks and sounds happy. We had an extra two Elders in church yesterday and when I stopped to talk with them they said they were from the Temple, I guess from the Mission home, wanting to meet the newest members but also, I'm guessing, to help back up our Elders with the big class they had yesterday.

Have a wonderful day.
Love
Christiane Readhead

Meeting President & Sister Swinton

2009-07-13T12:48:00.002-06:00

Wow! It was great being able to attend President & Sister Swinton's missionary homecoming this past weekend. They really are spiritual giants and loved serving with our sons and daughters. It was great to get to meet them. We met some of the missionaries who had served with Garren. They loved him and said he is a well prepared missionary, which really makes a mum feel better knowing her son was prepared. It was so great to meet their four sons and thank them for the support they gave their parents. What a great Family. thank you President & Sister Swinton we love you and know the Lord has many great things in store for you.

Spiritually intense Week

2009-07-13T12:25:00.003-06:00

It has been an amazing week filled with many special experiences that I will never forget. Life is so important and to love and express love freely and to always help others. Man it is so not about us or what we want but its about them (those that don't have the gospel in their lives) it is all about helping them to find what is already inside there waiting to come out and be the happiest person in the world. Sorry about the packages, so this is where we are at, I have the slip for one of the packages, I will give that to Sister Readhead, don't know about the other package, not got the letters yet. Did get my SD card and prophet CD:) Yeah that would be best to just send it to the mission office, also remember it has to go through normal mail to not have a customs charge, it's alright though no worries it will all get sorted out.
Gordon Rae Wright was baptized and confirmed this week, what an amazing and spiritual experience that was, he is such a humble and patient and child-like guy when it comes to prayer and church. He reminds me a lot of dad, funny enough except for the fact that Gordon is pretty much almost blind. (so is Jerry) Elder Roberts and I spoke and one of the young men preparing for a mission did the baptism. So great to be able to witness GODS hand in this the greatest work in the world.
Also had a sad phone call this week for Elder Roberts, his Nana pasted away, she wasn't a member as well, but he was really close with her so it was rough for him but he is doing amazing now, we had some great experiences together as we prayed and needed that strength from Heavenly Father. I felt it so much I knew just as I had always known that these things are true, that the plan of salvation is a true plan. The spirit lifted us up big time and we were able to see many miracles:) Thanks for all you do mom your the best mom ever you do so much for me and I am so grateful for everything....:) I am so glad you had a good time in Salt Lake meeting everyone, in one of dads photos was a sister missionary named Sister Mills, so funny you got to meet all those amazing missionaries. This week was amazing and this next one is going to be as well, Josiane is getting baptized on Sat., after she goes to the visitor center at the temple, I am so excited......:) I love teaching the gospel it flows in my blood now:) have the best week ever!!Thanks for the photos I loved them!!! He is amazing isn't he? The Swintons are truly loving servants of the lord. Changed many lives over here and will for many years to come. Elder Cusik is such an amazing missionary man he is awesome i love that guy. I don't know about that being prepared to be a ZL but who the Lord calls he qualifies:) I am glad you had an amazing time with them, thanks for that I am sure they loved the support and meeting you! Thanks for all you do dad you are such an amazing example and have taught me so much about life that carries me through my mission. You are such an amazing and fun dad I am so grateful for all the experiences we have had together. Have the best week ever and tell everyone in the ward hi!!!! :) Love you

President Shamo is amazing!!

2009-07-13T00:18:00.002-06:00

E-mail is messed up again so its gonna be way short, sorry....... Carl was baptized it was amazing thanks for all the prayers.......:) Gordon is getting baptized this sat and it is going to be equally amazing:) We had a conference with Pres. Shamo his wife and daughter on Thur, wow amazing, words cannot describe the spirit and love and great time that was.

Thanks for the package with profile of a prophet I got that:) Loved the grocery box and the Ben and Jerrys:) Aps name is Craig Cusick, I will let you know later about the guy coming to Cedar.

Love you all so much sorry about the e-mail it was all messed up. Have an amazing week, I hope it is working all smooth next week.

This was such a great week and I loved every min. of it and next week is going to be crazy as well:) Ahhhh I love being a missionary so much its the best ever.
Love
Elder Allred

Thank you President & Sister Swinton

2009-06-29T15:43:00.008-06:00

Well the e-mail is not working so I hope this makes it too you all. This week was amazing, we had the temple conference and the last time we would be with president and sister Swinton, it was sad but also great to ponder over all the great times we have had so far with them and all the amazing things we have learned. I loved the time we had to spend at the temple. It was amazing, as I was able to just sit there and think and feel the peace that only my heavenly father can give me.I was just so
happy to know what I know,it really makes me sad when people are missing all these amazing things but then you see people accept it and all the joy in the world comes in. Carl is getting baptized this sat,he is from America and it’s the 4th so that’s going to be so amazing I am so excited for him because it is exactly what he needs in his life right now! Also Gordon is such an amazing guy, even though he hasn’t read the book of Mormon yet he is still excited for baptism he just believes and feels the spirit at church and as we teach him so he wants to cont to feel that. It’s so mazing to see these great changes come into people’s lives. Also this girl from Cameroon she was a member referral, she accepted a baptismal date for July 18 so many blessing from Heavenly Father it is just great to see miracles each and every day of our lives, even just small ones. Studying recently has been amazing as I feel I keep learning so much and have much to learn from everyone around me, it is so great how we can learn something from everyone and can increase our capacity to love as we feel our heavenly fathers love. Lots of driving this last week it has been fun hopefully soon I will be taking some test and getting a UK one. It is crazy to think June is almost over I just can’t believe it so insane. Hey thanks a million for the delivery mom and the great card with that amazing letter from Trevor.I hopefully will get my packages and letters soon, thanks for all you do family you’re the best.One great thing I have really learned recently is just how much we have to work hard, have our mind focused on what’s the most important thing and put all our trust in god, we have to believe that anything is truly possible with his help, it is up to us and drawing near to him so we can be guided directly by him. I have learned so much from other missionaries, they are all amazing, staying happy and excited even though things do go how they might want them to go, they still work hard when it is the hardest thing to do, they don’t allow rejection to get the better of them they push through and still have smiles on their faces, they laugh and have so much fun, they love more than anyone else could love. This is amazing to see young men care for others with so much of their souls. I love this work so much it is hard but the best
ever I know it is all true I see and feel the truth on a daily basis, and most of all it has helped me draw nearer to my Heavenly father and his son Jesus Christ. It is my hope that we can endure it all with a cheerful heart and a big smile Elder Roberts is amazing by the way, he baked a cake for me on the 23 and we had it at district meeting, always serving me and just being an amazing missionary I love learning so many things from him! Mom dad and Ashlee and Kyle and everyone else, love you all so much and thanks for helping me to become who I could only become with all of your help. I am forever grateful for everything you have done for me in my life. Funny note, we taught sharing time yesterday, it was the most fun ever! The little kids were so cute and just the comments they make crack me up. Now I see why Christ said be as a child. Have an amazing week love you all so much!!!!!!! Pray for Carl he will need it.
Love
Elder Allred

Where much is given Much is EXPECTED!

2009-06-23T10:55:00.002-06:00

Wow what a crazy fun and awesome week! Poole is such a great place right on the coast; it is the 2nd largest natural harbor in the world and is an amazingly beautiful place. Elder Roberts and I feel very humbled by our call to white wash into a new area and to be serving all our fellow missionaries. We have 6 companionships in our zone, 3 district leaders and many amazing missionaries. 2 New golden’s in our zone as well, one of them is an Elder Allred from Canada, so funny!
At the time being we are teaching some amazing guys. Gordon Wright a man we found our second day here as Heavenly Father totally lead us to this man, what a miracle that was. Carl Jones is the other one that the other missionaries had taught only once, both have baptismal dates coming up in July so that’s very exciting. They are both such awesome guys and so ready to accept the gospel right now in their lives. The Ward here is so amazing I can’t believe it, they are so warm and friendly and willing to help in missionary work wherever they can, and it has been such a blessing to be placed by the lord here in Poole. Thanks Sister Readhead for doing that......I am sorry about the short e-mail and lack of information last week, it was just so crazy!
I am going to have the best birthday ever because it is a temple conference on the 24 and it is our last meeting with President Swinton:( This move is going to be one of the craziest ones ever with all these changes and a new pres and 13 missionaries going home.... Elder Roberts is such an amazing missionary, from South Africa and such a hard worker and so loving and amazing with the people I have a lot to learn from him and his example. No worries about letters and the package I got it mostly sorted out and I might be able to get it on my birthday. Yeah we would love anything from Tesco’s or ASDA, Mexican anything just surprise us thanks mom your amazing :) Hope miss Utah went well and you had fun up there:)
The flat is great its actually a house and no bugs or mice, amazingly great beds. Redruth is not part of our zone:( but tell everyone from there HI for me and that I love them all so much!!!!!!! I miss them and hope they are all doing well. Obi was baptized in Welling this last week and elder Toyn said it was awesome! Miracles happening here in the ELSM, it is the greatest thing to see lives changed and true and lasting joy come into the hearts of our brothers and sisters. The conference up at HYDE Park was amazing and life changing, what a blessing it is to have a prophet and apostles on the earth today teaching us the word of the lord, the greatest thing that stuck out to me was how the work is not about us, but it’s about them, others that don’t have what we have been given, it’s about allowing light to come into lives where it has been missing, it’s about finding eternal truths that are unchanging and life altering, it’s about LOVE, learning to love, sharing love and feeling the love of our savior, he does love us more than our minds can comprehend. I know, with all the feelings of that love in my body I know I have tasted that fruit which is most sweet and makes one happy. I love this restored gospel, I love knowing who I am, and what I can become with the help of Jesus Christ, the Atonement is the greatest act of unselfish love known to the world, it will heal and make everything right! This is the lord’s work, he is at the head leading it all, we are weak and simple, but as we humbly yield to the spirit , we can also become as he is Strong and all loving. Thank you all for everything you do you are the greatest family one could ask for. I love you all so much and pray and think of you daily, I am so grateful for you helping and supporting me as a missionary. There is no greater work at this time in my life and I thank you so much for allowing me the chance to do this. Just remember what the prophet Joseph said about the Book of Mormon, that this book will draw you nearer to God more than any other book, it has changed me, my heart, my desires, my outlook on life, my understanding and has done just what it said it would do. I am closer to God now, always remember that.
Love you so much!!!!!!!!
Elder Garren Allred

Missionary MUMS are Great!!!!

2009-06-18T15:07:00.003-06:00

Well a very sweet mum in Elder Allred's new area sent me a sweet e-mail and photo's. So here is more information. His new companion is an elder Roberts from South Africa. They are both new to the area. They spoke in church on Sunday and already had 3 investigators with them. Their ward is pretty large especially for England, about 120 members @ sacrament on Sunday. I don't know if he will get everyones birthday cards on time, as he never told me he moved. Oh well, he will eventually get them.Thank you so much Sister Readhead. You are great!!

I've moved

2009-06-15T08:07:00.001-06:00

All we got this week was : Wow so much to talk about, don't know where to start, and Oh yeah I moved.
Here is his new address:
Elder Garren Allred
20 Person Avenue
Poole
Dorset
BH14 ODT
England

Miracles & Dissappointments

2009-06-01T10:00:00.000-06:00

Time flies when you’re having fun!
Glad you enjoyed your time at Kyle’s and heathers sounds like it was a blast! This week was full of miracles and disappointments, Austin was not baptized due to family troubles, it was sad to see his wife not understand and not even care to understand. Hopefully soon though he shall be getting baptized, he wants to but we will see how things work out. On an Amazing note though, we got to go to the temple to the visitor’s center with some of our investigators on Fri. night. Obi loved the temple and the Joseph Smith movie, it was such a great time, as we watched that movie I kept just having that feeling that wow this man went through a lot to bring the fullness of the gospel back to the earth, he understood it all though and that is why he was able to endure it well, you could see how the lord strengthened him and I felt that same strength as we were there confirming that truth that he was and is a prophet of God. Sat we had a short AP exchange and the greatest miracle I have seen in my life happened, Heavenly Father had this women Joy call us just at the right time and we went and taught her, we were supposed to, it was supposed to be Elder Toyn and Elder Jackson but wow I just can’t really explain it with words. Anyway Joy and her daughter Jasmine are great investigators and will hopefully soon be baptized. :) Christopher has fallen off the face of the world but hopefully something soon will happen. The new apartment is amazing, and treating us well. We are so excited to go to the Hyde Park chapel this next Saturday for the dual mission conference. It is going to be amazing. I love this work, talking to all these great people and sharing what means most to you and helping them realize there is more truth out there that can bless them and their families. This is the best, thank you all for everything you do, I am so grateful for your support.
PS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you and have a great week. Moves are next week so we won’t be e-mailing until Thur......:) Love you all!!

Elder Allred

We Will Not come Down!!

2009-05-25T09:21:00.001-06:00

My Dearest family:
As we were in elder’s quorum this last Sunday we listened to the talk from pres Uckdorf from last conference, called 'We are doing a great work and cannot come down'. As I herd this man speak I felt something burn within me I felt as if my savior was telling me something, I cant explain in words but I know with a surety just as I know the sun will rise in the morning that heavenly father was communicating to me it was amazing. I feel so blessed to know god, and his son Jesus Christ, and have the opportunity to feel the spirit. It makes me so happy and joyful and peaceful. As we have these kinds of experiences we then desire that every other person have the same blessing we do and feel that same feeling. Ah I love the gospel and every single thing about it so much. This week has been amazing filled with so many miracles’ I just cant believe it and the blessings heavenly father has poured out upon us, I think sometimes why us, doesn’t someone else deserve these same things but then I am just so thankful for everything that he does. Austin Ofulue is getting baptized on the 30th he is an amazing man with such an understanding of what were teaching him and he is so kind to us and always praising us and just makes you feel good, he has two boys Yemex and Orunex that will hopefully be getting baptized in June and maybe his wife will follow in time. Austin lived in America for some time and is just such a humble and great man that will be an amazing servant for the lord. Also Obi Adibe is getting baptized on June 20, he is a shy guy from Ebu land in Nigeria and has lived here for a year her loved church this last Sunday and is in the process of looking for a wife so were going to try and get him involved in the single adults stuff so that is way awesome. He is so great and reads the book of Mormon so much and totally understands it and what it’s all about.
Also an awesome part member family were teaching right now, the mom is a member but her 3 daughters aren’t so were teaching them all and hopefully the dad soon, they are so much fun to teach and its just great seeing a family draw closer together through the restored gospel, and hopefully one day get to go to the temple to be sealed. They are the Stevens family. So glad you had fun and enjoyed all being together:)
So true about Rcs they really need to be looked after and loved, love is the biggest thing for an endless conversion. We are teaching Christopher on Tuesday but he hasn’t been coming to church due to work but hopefully we will be able to help him. Tell all the people of REDRUTH hi and I love them all so so so much, they are amazing and sorry I haven’t spoken to them in a while. Also could you let Rob and Gemma know my new address so they can post my t-book. Thanks mom
I really feel my heart has been changed, because of the saviors love for me I now love others people I sit with on the bus I care for them and desire there eternal happiness and that’s only because I have felt it so many times. The atonement astonishes me and the way it works and the love the pure and undefined love that is behind it, for these things and this knowledge I am so very amazed and grateful. I know it’s all true each and every day something happens and it teaches me again that this is true and the right way if I want happiness forever and now. This is the one and true living church being lead by a prophet of god and his 12 apostles and many other amazing and humble servants. We are so blessed lets never never forget that. Because of this knowledge we have we Know we are doing a great work and cannot and will not come down.
I love you all so much I thank you for all the support and everything you have done for me in my life and giving me the chance to serve a mission!! Thanks so much everyone. Thanks for the letter with the photos mom I loved it:) Make this week greater than the last enjoy yourselves.

Love Elder Allred

OOOPS!!!

2009-05-24T22:17:00.000-06:00

I forgot to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day and that is what the phone call was all about!!! So HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! You all prepared me so much in so many ways it was just what I needed to be ready. Thanks for the great phone call I loved it. Yeah Josh man he is awesome and its crazy he is coming home soon. Sweet enjoy your time at the ocean and yes Martha and Al would be great for the gospel. Ha-ha MOM we will remember to eat and do better:) No you don’t need to send any food there is lots of stuff here but thanks mom:) Yeah Kyle that’s so amazing he will be so awesome, he does work with the youth really good.
I am glad you enjoyed Brian and St George, and have fun with Kyle and the family!!! I sent that SD card and it should be here this week soon so enjoy.
So yeah this last week was great, many great things happening and great people changing there lives and accepting the restored gospel. So excited for them and the blessings they are going to receive as they come closer to the lord. One thing I did want to share was what we talked about at our last Zoko, it was personal revelation, and how we can and need to receive that to do the lords work. It was amazing because I started to see how heavenly father answers me so I can know when he is saying yes, it feels like a fire tingling starting in my heart and going throughout my body, more and more I am learning about how the holy ghost gives me answers and I see now how we can help others realize that these same things are happening to them. I love this church that Christ has restored for us, I love the people here and everywhere, I love my heavenly father and I just want to make him happy and I see how he is so happy when one of his children comes to the fold. This work is grand and bigger than all of us that’s why Christ is directing it and I love feeling his presence around us. Thanks for all you do family and all the support, I couldn’t do this without you. I love you all so much :)

Have a great week and make it a fun and productive one! Elder Toyn and I are having a blast.

Love Elder Allred

It's been soooo Nice!!!!

2009-05-24T22:04:00.001-06:00

Devastation is the greatest thing ever. We have been using this a lot more and really helping people see that this is the most important path they will ever walk. They need to realize how significant this is, it’s the difference between celestial or teresterial glory and those are a huge gap. We have had so many miracles this last week it has been so awesome to see the lords hand in the work hour after hour and to be his instrument, what a blessing. Had zone meeting on Tue. and two exchanges this week so we were all over the place but let me just tell you about Austin, he is Nigerian but lived in America for 4 or 6 years has 3 boys and him and his wife. They have been living here for about 1 year. Austin and two of his boys came to church this last Sunday, Austin’s second time and his boys first time, it was such a great Sunday we loved it so much. Austin is getting baptized on the 30th of this month and I really feel so good about him and we are going to start teaching his boys and hopefully his wife this week. Also my heart was full of joy this last Sunday when I was able to see Allen passing the sacrament it was so amazing and on the 29th of this month we are taking some recent Converts and Investigators to the temple, and to go to the visitor center and do baptisms. Elder Toyn and I are being so blessed and each night I think why does heavenly father do this for me, he blesses me way more than I deserve and I just am so humbled by his love for all of us and the great blessings that come from service and being happy while we serve. Thanks for all the e-mails I love you all so much and hope you have a great time with Kyle and Heather. You guys have made it possible for me to be out here and for that I am so grateful. Love you all and make it a great week. I will send some photos next week.

Much love Elder Allred

ps: Hugh B Brown is amazing pres Swinton shared a story about him going on his mission with us and wow we don’t have any trials like they used to have. I Love feeling the spirit and as we cont to draw closer and closer to our savior the spirit is poured out upon us and this is where the joy and peace and happiness come from. Love you all!!!!

Such a Great Week!!

2009-05-04T10:26:00.005-06:00

Such an exciting weekend. First things first, your all amazing and I love you all so much, the mission is the greatest place, I love heavenly father so much and my love for him and his son my brother Jesus keeps growing so much each and every day. Thank you for the seed you helped me nurture from a young age I am so grateful. Ah so amazing the prophet, man, god’s servants are amazing they have such pure hearts and great motives.
Congrats on everyone who graduated and or made it through another year at school... Maybe a shirt here or there but not lots. Yes we will for sure get the letter; the old flat is a 5 min walk from our new one. So Mother’s day stuff.....don’t know when we will be calling for sure but around 1 or 2 or maybe 11 or 12, sorry I have no information yet. Awesome about your new calling mom you are so amazing with young people. :)
So it was so exciting to be there for the sorting hat and find out who my new boy would be, it’s very funny that I am training in the area where my daddy(Elder Peterson) was trained. Elder Toyn was thrown right into it all as we have had teaches and bap commitments and the whole lot. He is doing so great and is such a great guy with an amazing attitude and a hard worker. Our weekend was intense; we moved all our stuff from the old flat to the new one just with our suitcases. Ha-ha so crazy. Church was great Toyn and I were the first to bear our testimonies and I just love sharing my love for the lord with others he has been so good to me I must share it with others or else that would not be fair. We had a great teach sat night with a man named Ivan from sari leaon or however you say it. He was taught down there for a bit and lost contact when he moved up here. As we watched the restoration DVD I felt so happy and warm inside and I could tell all 3 of us were feeling the same. We asked him how he felt about that and he said he knows Joseph Smith was a prophet chosen by god, our jaws hung open and we committed him for baptism, too bad he is going on holiday for 3 weeks so it won’t be until the 21 of June unless he progresses faster. Also an amazing Nigerian family were teaching, actually tonight with Allen, they are so kind and great to us we love them and they are preparing for the 24 of may so I hope we can help them progress because the happiest thing of all would be to see them at the temple one day soon. Were having the time of our life, busy crazy hard sad and hectic but the best time ever. This is all going too fast. I am sending that SD card TODAY sorry about that. Tell everyone hi and much love. Yeah I was so tired and forgot my suit coat and got made fun of a bit. Good job on school dad you are amazing. Don’t ever feel guilty for serving and getting blessings, that’s how it works. Plus not everyone can do the amazing job you have done dad, you have such love, and are so fun. You help the youth stay happy and learn correct gospel principles. Happiness is a by-product of service, or at least that’s how I feel now. I am most happy when I forget about myself. New apt is amazing, tell you all about that this Sun :) I don’t know for sure when we will be calling sorry, but try and get Kyle on conference call or something for Sunday. :) That’s crazy about Chandler, send them my best :) Alma 17-22 great chapters with an inspiring change of heart.
Love Elder Garren Allred

So much Craziness

2009-05-03T19:30:00.004-06:00

So I am staying in WELLING!!!! and my new comp is Elder Toyn from Salt Lake City Ut right in the heart of it all about a block from the temple I think. He has only been out 3 weeks so that's crazy. I totally feel unprepared to help train another missionary but I pray that the lord will help me and help us to learn and grow in the gospel and in our friendship. There were 13 new missionaries that came in, it was way exciting. We are moving to a new flat in Thamesmead.
Long story I will tell you when we call on the 10th, don't know any details yet just that it will be on that day! probably about an hour I think on the phone. :) Tell Mindy Hi! so cool about the new house. Coxy Allen did get Confirmed and it was so great, he is coming on a teach with us tonight. We have some great new people we are teaching and what not so its awesome a family from Nigeria but the father live in Chicago for a bit. Hymns really are amazing and do so much good. I love singing them more and more. Have a great time with graduation and hope all goes well. Mostly too busy to watch football but talk to people a lot about it so that's fun. Haven't had to worry about my packages, thanks so much there are great and I did receive that one with the special PMG that's amazing, thanks so much mom I love you loads you are the best. We went to the temple today to get our new missionaries so that was fun and awesome. I am staying as a district leader and our zls are elder Binks and Droubay amazing missionaries. Elder Cusick is the great AP that is coming home tomorrow, he lives in Orem UT, so yeah try to find out and go to his homecoming that would be awesome!
The lord has blessed me I havent been ill and allergies are great:) Little kids are great thanks for that story and tell the grandkids hi and I love all of you.
So we really have had a great last week and so much going on not enough time to write it all but we will be speaking on the phone soon so yeah!!!
Had an amazing experience on the bus the other day I will share, I was on the phone calling people and when I hung up this man with his wife in the back waved his hand for me to come over, it was kinda strange so I went over and talked and it was great. They had some concerns about blacks and the priesthood because his wife was being taught by sis missionaries in Denmark I think for a while, but she was put off when she learned about that but they were so warm and nice and we are hopefully going to be teaching them soon, they have loads of friends in Nigeria that are members so it is great. So much happening and so exciting to be training a great amazing new missionary. Elder Toyn and I are going to have a blast......:)

Love you all and I will be e-mailing on Monday like normal:)

Love Elder Allred

Trials make us stronger

2009-04-20T12:03:00.001-06:00

Thanks so much for your prayers. Adebola and Coxey were baptized on Sat even though Satan didn’t want them to be. The ward was amazing and the members really helped us out to make these men ready.
Tell Brandon good luck with all those test. Oh man I am so excited for Dillion, he sure is going to love it and learn and grow so much! Tell him hi for me and he is doing the greatest thing he ever could do. Yeah Trevor, that’s way awesome, I am so excited for him, I haven’t herd from him in a long while now. Good to hear all is going well, tell the White family hi and thanks for all they have done for me.
I did receive my box and thank you so much it was amazing and many people loved it and the contents of the box, ha-ha the cds are so great many nights filled with much laughter as we have listened to some of them. Sd card is going to be sent this week with a few goodies. Hope you enjoy:) Yeah its crazy transfers are next week so I won’t be e-mailing till Thursday but I will try and get a letter sent off:) Teaching tools maybe like laminate pictures that can help people see the process of the gospel of Jesus Christ , maybe ask Ryan or just look online if not no worries:) thanks for the small book of Mormon and D&C I loved it. Tell Kyle hi and congrats on the business doing well.
Anything for new converts that you think is cool, nothing I can really think of. We are really struggling with retention here but it is something we're trying to work on. So cool enjoy the temple with her and tell Katie hi that’s so awesome the temple is the greatest place ever, when I just think about it I feel something in my soul stirring and such comfort in my heart. I have seen my blog a few times your doing a great job, I easily have the greatest mother ever!
So this week was crazy preparing for the baptisms and also interviewing someone for a baptism and loads of travel and meeting some great people and watching two of our brothers be baptized, but only one confirmed:( WOW what a week! Coxey wasn’t there for his confirmation so pray that it will all go good for next Sunday, it was complicated but he shall be good for next Sunday. We had an amazing zone meeting on Fri. and I loved it so much as we spoke about Paul and his mission and some of the things he did and how he ended his mission. It was so amazing and I learned so much from Paul and how we need to be as a missionary and a disciple of Jesus Christ. The baptism on Sat. was really amazing, we had members baptize both of them, and it was just a great spiritual time as there were amazing talks and just such a great spirit present, I really felt the love that my savior has for me, and every single person. I feel an ounce of how he must feel when you see people push from the light so hard. I know what we are sharing and living is the truth, it is simple and clear and direct, it doesn’t conform to the worlds standards and brings something into your heart and life that can’t be found anywhere else. As I have gone through trials I have felt myself being torn down but because of the savior I have been strengthened even more. I love him and my heavenly father so much and am so grateful to Joseph smith for not following the world’s ways and going to the only source for all truth and light. Missionary work is so rewarding, I love it so much. I love you all so much and thanks for all you do!
I will send pictures of the baptism next time, sorry about that. Have a great week and read Messiah 2-4 this week, amazing chapters!

Much love from
Elder Garren Allred

How Great Thou Art!!

2009-04-15T13:12:00.000-06:00

Sorry I didn’t e-mail you mom, ahhh I am a bad son. Love you so much and thanks for the Easter cards and the e-mail in the post that was exciting and happy to get! Haven’t got the package yet soon hopefully and I will be sending the sd card this week, then take all the photos off and send it back thanks:)
Coxey is doing amazing, he is done smoking as of today we made him some special stuff to quit smoking and we are doing a special fast today for him. Wow that’s crazy about the hard drive crashing....got to always have a back-up plan. We had the best Easter Sunday ever. Five amazing people came to church, the baptism for Adebola and Coxey is planned for this sat and it was just a great week and weekend. Met this amazing new girl named Marian, she is 24 and from the Gambia. She totally just accepted it all and a baptismal date on the second teach. It was amazing, we do have some trials to work through with her because she normally works on Sunday but heavenly father will provide. That’s so crazy Ryan is home, so cool. Tell him hi and what an amazing missionary he is. You’re so right Coxey has changed so much in his life in such a short period of time and it’s all because of the atonement and it just blows me away at how much it truly changes a person and all for the better. I love my brother Jesus Christ, what an example and he is more loving than I could ever imagine, I feel his love for me on a daily basis and that’s what the gospel is all about is allowing him to change our heart and give us all that we want, eternal happiness, eternal families, eternal progression. That’s cool that there is an UK LDS bookstore online, that’s way awesome. Yes we can get phone cards way easy at the post office so no worries :)
Hey you should sign us up for the amazing race mom, we would dominate! haha. So cool for Bryce! Man that’s so crazy so many missionaries coming out of Cedar. Not really craving much at the moment but thanks for that mom, if I do I will let you know. That would be cool tell our new mission pres hi if you do have the chance to meet him. Tell pres Monson hi at the graduation as well! So what a week we had, loads of running around and some great new people we have begun teaching. We had some crazy miracles’ one with this lady named bola, she was walking back from school the other day we stopped her and she was sad and kind of depressed we talked about Christ and his love for us. We went around a and taught her, she said we were an answer to her prayers, she was just not happy and knew we were men of god and it was so great too bad she is hardcore involved with her Pentecostal church but when we taught her the second time we brought this amazing member and taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, she asked if her baptism counted by her pastor....ahh I was all like sorry but no it didn’t count well not fully and it was way amazing because he accepted that and knows what we’re teaching is the truth. I am so grateful for the b of m and its power in touching people’s hearts it comforts them and brings the spirit into their lives and helps them to make that connection with heavenly father and understand more about everything. I love you all so much and am so grateful for all you do, your support, your love, your e-mails. I know that this is the fullness of the gospel. I know I have a real father in heaven and he truly does love me and looks out for me and I know the holy ghost is such a real influence I have felt that power so many times in a teach on the street helping me talk to others and just so many times. As for myself I am weak, I know understand how Ammon felt in Alma 26. Heavenly father does all these great things for us, my heart pours out with gratitude for him and all that he has given me.
On a funny and light note we went to some Pentecostal church last night, they were rocking out and it was great, I was holding back from laughing so hard they were having so much fun and just have such a passion for Jesus Christ I feel it’s something we can learn from them.
Love you all and have a great week. I will send photos of the baptisms from this upcoming next week.
Love Elder Allred :)

2009-04-06T14:56:00.002-06:00

Elder Peterson , his companion, and me @ Zone Conference

Spiritually Drained, Nephi Style

2009-04-06T14:52:00.002-06:00

Yes our brother Christopher got confirmed!!! Thanks for all the prayers. We have about half and half with our members but we pretty much only teach black people. Maybe 80 to 100 active members. Oh yeah we watched Saturday morning, priesthood, Sat. afternoon, and the Sun. morning sessions. They were all so amazing and I loved the spirit and the love that you could feel from the leaders of the Lords kingdom. As Elder Holland talked about loneliness and the Savior and what he went through and how our love for him will fill our empty heart, which is so true because I have felt way lonely out here @ times, but the spirit and his love and atonement fill me up with love and strength. I really took out of everything about how we need to continue to increase our faith and grow and learn and not lose sight of the real true purposes of life with meaningless activities that won’t be important in the eternities. Well we had such a crazy and amazing and awesome week! ZoKos on Friday were amazing and we really talked a lot about faith and the miracles that can be a part of our lives. I saw Elder Peterson @ zone conference. It was great. Here is a picture we took together. One of the missionaries shared a special experience about him going to a convert families sealing, he talked of the gratitude that he had to just be a part of such an amazing experience. I felt the spirit so strong as it touched my heart, I learned then that is what missionary work is all about, eternal families, not just mortal families but us as children of a heavenly family, re-uniting and being able to be together for eternal happiness and it struck me so deep and I was filled with the joy that Lehi describes as he partook of the fruit. I love this restored truth of temples and I love the ability to learn truth through the warm comforting feelings that the Holy Ghost gives me. I am filled with gratitude towards my father in heaven and my savior for making all of this joy and happiness possible. Also we were able to see Joy Okonkwo baptized, it was in between conference sessions at the stake center and it was so awesome. What a humbling and great experience it is to be an instrument and assist the lord in the work of bringing about salvation to our brothers and sisters. She is so funny and she smiled so big at us as she was baptized and received the Holy Ghost. Allen loved conference and is doing really good, pray for him to have help to quit smoking. He is doing great but needs to give it up by this next Sat. Also teaching this new lady Sa'de, she is so funny and we committed her for baptism last time and she was all joking with us that her dog needed to be baptized, soo funny she was just cracking us up, but her date is for the 2nd of May. People accept the gospel, the lord is the one that does it all, and I am so weak and not skilled and lack so much, as the new apostle said I am a no buddy, but the lord makes us strong and lifts us up to do a work beyond our own understanding. I love you all so much and am so grateful for all you do for me and the sacrifices you have made for me in my life. I have been just having so much fun with all these great people, its hard work but the most rewarding I have ever experienced in my life thus far:) Hope to hear from mom next week, hope she is alright??:)

Love you All have a great week!

Elder Allred

2009-03-30T10:55:00.001-06:00

What a great week, the Lord has been truly mindful of us and those that we have been teaching this week. The Baptism all in all went well; it was crazy and worked out thanks to Heavenly Father doing all the work, sad thing Christopher wasn’t able to get confirmed due to work.....so please pray for him to get confirmed on the 12th. So sad but hey it will all work out and he will have the holy ghost soon!!!
Coxey's story is one that keeps unfolding like a fairytale. He is so amazing and has changed so much and has been so blessed for all the changes in his life. We almost have already taught him everything after about one week, its crazy he came with us to the baptism this last Saturday along with Adebola and Joy and they all loved it and it was so great! Coxey loved church and everyone hit it off with him really good, then we had a dinner appointment Sunday night and the member invited him as well so it was such a great time. We moved his baptism up for the 18th so we will hopefully be having Joy now on the 11th and Adebola and Coxey on the 18th. All of these people are so amazing and I love them so much they are really embracing the truths of the gospel and they can feel the effect it is having on their lives! Hi Paula and Jennifer!!! Hope you had fun with my amazing family! So true about enjoying other cultures mom, we have much to learn from one another and it is so great to be united it one thing which is the gospel of Jesus Christ!
We will watch some of conference at a stake center and some probably at a member’s home with our investigators. I shall be thinking about you guys as well.
Oh cool a box....send some cool stuff to give away! :) You can send it to our flat it will be just fine:)
Thanks for your amazing e-mail, love talking to you and hearing a bit of what’s happening in your lives So many amazing things happened this last week not enough time to describe it but last cool story. Mary a referral from London, well we called her yesterday and she said we could come over first teach and she has 4 kids at home from 7-14. It was a blast talking about the B of M and Joseph Smith, ah I loved it so much and we’re going back on Wed to teach, I hope things go well as they are hardcore Roman Catholic background but that doesn't stop them from progressing. Love you all so much and thanks for everything I am so grateful for all you do for me.
I know Heavenly Father is right there, and he is mindful of who I am and my life, Joseph smith was an amazing boy that truly did restore the fullness of the gospel for us. The Atonement is truly amazing and the greatest act of love ever, I know these things are all real and true because I feel them and see the changes they make in others lives and in my own life. Love you all make it a great week!!!!

Elder Garren Allred

Blessed To Be A Part of This!!

2009-03-26T09:38:00.003-06:00

Wow! So this last bit has been amazing so many miracles have happened it is just so awesome to see and feel the lords’ hand in the work. Ha-ha sounds like you had a blast on your short holiday! So awesome Kyle is going to the temple with the youth, and Happy Birthday ARYANNA! :) Yeah we have been having great DAs. Transfers were today but Timmons and I are staying!!! Thank Heavens. But this next transfer cycle ends on the 30th of April. Hey don’t worry and beat yourself up mom your great and we can always do better, all of us all the time.
So Christopher is getting baptized this Sat., yeah so exciting and amazing and so much stress but everything is all worth it!! Please pray for him that all will work out. We got a referral that was taught a bit in London and first teach we committed him for the 18th of April and he is so cool and excited, Adebola is his name, he is also from Nigeria. Joy is doing great as well she is so amazing and happy now that she reads everyday and it is just so great to see the fullness of the gospel come into someone’s life and for them to just bring it all in.
So the most amazing experience of my life......Sun. night we got flogged from an appointment and were walking down the high street and this drunk man stopped us, poured out his problems and his heart to us and he has pretty much hit rock bottom, Alma the younger style. We told him if he wasn’t drunk tomorrow we would take him out for lunch, so the next morning we gave him a call, he was so happy to hear from us and we went and ate lunch with him. Taught a first and the word of wisdom....and committed him for the 25 of April for baptism. To the shock of both of us he accepted it all. Since then we have taught him every day and yesterday at a members home, oh yeah forgot to mention he is homeless. He is loving the Book of Mormon and is totally changing his life around it is the most amazing experience of my life, he is such a great guy and is so excited for church and just ahhhh I can’t put into words how I feel and since he has been changing he found a place to live and is just working on sorting out a job. He is from Canada but his parents are from Namibia. Coxy Allen is his name and meeting him has forever changed my life. After all of these experiences I can't and never will be the same; the gospel is the happiest thing in the world and everything that comes from it. I feel my heavenly fathers love for me, I feel the love of my savior for me and all of the things he has done for me that I can’t do for myself. The scriptures combined with prayer have changed me and continue to change me daily. I love feasting upon them and learning from what heavenly father wants to teach me. This is truly amazing to be a part of this work, I realize he does all the work we just get to be a part of it and that is the greatest blessing ever. Coxy was telling us ever since reading the book of Mormon and praying that his is happy and can feel the changes coming. True story, it is so important to just be yourself, your best self, but we are still humans not some sort of crazy robot....ha-ha.
Tell Cassandra and Bryce Hi. Yes I got your card and loved it!!!!! Ha-ha so fun. I hope you got my letter. So cool tell Paula and Jennifer HI that is so awesome they are awesome ha-ha I bet your so way excited! Thanks for everything mom I love you all so much and am so grateful for all of you and what you have done for me. My rock is now built upon the savior and it is where it’s going to stay. The spirit has taught me so many things that I just know deep down in my soul that all of this is true:) Love you all. I will be e-mailing Monday and back on the normal schedule.

Love Elder Allred

Happiness is A Truth that can only be found by living the way God wants us to Live!!

2009-03-18T13:12:00.002-06:00

Yeah Arizona! Man that's crazy, good luck Nick!
Wow that lady in Quartizite remembered me....so long ago. that's awesome, I loved going down there and chilling with grandma and grandpa! Tell them hi.
Man have some awesome fun in Zions. Yeah I had to put in for a temp licence and then I have to take lessons in a month and thenI can take my practical driving test. So not any money for a little while should be coming out and it should only be like 170 or 200 dollars.....ahhhh I know but its for the lord. Yeah 2 lessons before I can take the test. Tell Jack and Beth hi!
Okay so wow this week has been crazy awesome, Christopher Agunlade is amazing and getting baptised on the 28 of this month. He is so cool and just embracing the fullness of the gospel, last night we had a fireside with Pres and Sis Matthews serving on the London Temple pres, they served a mission in Nigeria and came and told of there experiences. We had two of our Investigators there that are both from Nigeria and it was just so amazing, the spirit was so strong there as they talked about missionary work and the hand of the lord in everything they did. That's what I want to do in something like 40 years!!!!!! So yeah Christopher is just doing great and I am so happy and excited for him and he is getting really excited, also Joy Okonkwo she was the other one that came to the fireside and loved it too! She is getting baptized April 18, and Khrishna Garung the man from Napale came to church and really enjoyed it even though he probably understood nothing but the spirit is what teaches us all things and that's a universal language. Last Mon night we knocked into a way cool lady...white.....named Sara she was so sweet and it was a great experience because we skipped the door because they were just walking in and when we walked back past it we remembered we did'nt knock it, and we really felt we should and a few min on the doorstep and she invited us inside. hopefully she comes to church this next Sun. because this is exactly what she needs in her life. So I found out Jace Burgess served in ELSM and in the Welling ward...I don't know if you know him but he lives in Cedar. Any who....a few more Miracles,are you ready, well on Sat. a lady on the high street I really felt impressed to stop turned out to be from America and her husband is a Member but not active for like 10 years, but they just recently came back from a trip to Texas where his family lives and are all active members, they had there baby blessed when back in Texas and she had been wondering more about the church and was thinking about having the missionaries over.....my mind and heart were in knots I couldn't believe what I was hearing. So we're calling and hopefully going by to see them this next week so that was amazing! The Woolwich High Street is insane, we got condemmed this last Sat. on it by this preacher guy, it was so funny but way sad how people act sometimesI wish everyone would just have open hearts and allow the truth into them, but hey trials make us stronger and I want to be a spiritual body builder! Love you all, thanks for everything keep up on the good works, make this week better than the last!
Love Elder Allred

"It's really hard to hear with so much out there"

2009-03-10T10:45:00.002-06:00

Thanks for the package I loved it and it was fun. Thanks for that talk I really loved that, those are the kinds of things to send.....great JOB MOM, it totally gave me some spiritual food that was much needed. Ha-ha that joke was great I loved it so much, nasty I bet all those girls wanted to throw up. Oh I hope you start feeling better, I will pray harder for you... ahhhhh snow is nice that’s awesome. Heck yeah pasties are amazing! Oh man with a Texas flair that sounds great. Good job on your member missionary work it is so.... much appreciated. You’re the greatest mom slash family in the whole wide world. Thanks for keeping in touch with all those amazing people in Redruth, I wish I had more time so I could as well but hey we all have eternity to become better friends. This week has been so crazy with the best random experiences...... So Tue. we had Zone Mt and it was amazing, we talked about pride and how I need to get rid of a lot of pride, things I never would have thought of as pride but it was so great I learned so much. We had an exchange real quick with the APs and that was great, Elder Cusick is the greatest and Duaway, you will have to go to Cusick's homecoming up in Provo area he comes home next moves. We have two people most likely getting baptized this month, first of all is Christopher...aka Adewale Agunlade, that’s his Nigerian Tribal name. He is amazing and came to all of church this last week and is such a great guy, he is just so nice and is excited about it, all we are planning to take him to the visitor center at the temple before his baptism soon. Then we have Khrishna Gaurang, from Nepal, who hardly speaks English.....he makes me laugh so much I love teaching and talking with him, his prayers are the best ever, last time we were teaching he said the prayer and was all like, thank you god, I happy now, thank you for the friends that teach me about you god, and it was just so awesome. Also we were teaching these guys form Albania this last week and one of them was really good friends with the missionaries in Albania and called them, I spoke with a missionary in Albania how crazy is that....he was from Provo, an Elder Humphries or something like that. It is so hard to teach here because of all the different languages, but so much fun, and I am realizing how important the spirit is especially when they probably can’t fully understand what it is your saying.....like last night we knocked into a group of French people and it was just so funny because one of them just kept looking at us like we were crazy and he didn’t really know what it was we were talking about. Prayers are key and just connecting with people on the same level , a spiritual and happy and amazing level is what has to be achieved. I love being able to share what it is we have to share with others, the b of m brings so much light into our lives when we truly feast on those words meant for us. I love you all and thanks for everything you all do, I am so thankful for your sacrifice for me to be out here.
Much love Elder Allred

Letter to Dad

2009-03-02T13:19:00.005-07:00

Such a crazy and awesome week filled with lots of new people to teach... Sweet I am so excited for Dillon, he is going to be an awesome missionary. We got separated when finding people on the high street, it was funny and that happened on a bus the other day too, I was talking to a lady and Timmons got on the bus and I was taking down her information and ran to get on the bus and he just drove off, 5 min later Timmons is walking up to me laughing. Ha-ha, that guy who wants to start his own church is so crazy and funny, we told him when that when he was baptized he becomes a member of this church and he was all like no I just want to be baptized, it was so funny; we will see when he comes back from Nigeria in 2 or 3 Weeks. Oh tell Ron and Bev and everyone hi! Yeah when both comps are not on the same page it makes the work way hard and the people suffer the most. Tell Josh and his family hi! Man it is crazy how long we have all been gone! Yeah you can see the Thames River from our flat, such a nasty river, so ghetto it makes me laugh. Thanks for all the support, it is so awesome and makes me feel like a million bucks. I have fallen in love with the scriptures and it has changed me, they are now real to me and the stories and people in them are real, bearing testimony to people and relating the gospel to so many things has opened my mind to the amazing thing we have to share which is truth and full knowledge, which brings about happiness, lasting, real, amazing and unexplainable happiness. I love the gospel dad, thanks for setting the example for me and teaching me so many things and always putting up with all my whining and everything. Good luck with school and keep doing great serving, it truly changes us when we serve our
fellow man.
Love Elder Allred

Let the truth be know!

2009-03-02T11:01:00.001-07:00

Ha-ha me judge you on your spelling, are you kidding me. We all know how bad of a speller I am. I might as well be a 4 year old typing on the computer. Ha-ha yeah sis Chorley, she is amazing, I love that ward they were great! Hey I know Elder Leeds, he was in the same zone as me, and he served in Bitiford! Yes for bus contacting, ha-ha so awkward sometimes, for example this last week I was talking about the restoration and quoting the first vision to a guy on the bus and I could totally tell these two teens were listening and what not, then the man got off and I just felt so funny. It is so awesome though and you meet so many nice people. Man that’s crazy Ryan is going home......intense. One of the greatest blessings I have found serving a mission is realizing where your foundation needs to be, which is what I would say happens when you’re on a mission. I have to be built upon Christ so that nothing will destroy me, so what a blessing it is to come to realize these things in a very real and amazing way, its like what Paul says to the people of Corinth, about how charity edify. Pure love is giving up your life for our brothers and sisters like when we are on a mission. We cook quite a lot; the ward is about 80 to 100. Lots of young men not too many women.
Ha-ha Maddie met Pres and Sis Swinton? Wow that’s funny and weird. They are the best ever and have so much love for us, their testimonies are so strong and they strengthen me every time I hear them speak. I don’t know Robs e-mail....hey Gemma when you read this leave a comment and put your e-mail so my mom can e-mail you!:) Yeah Hanna was baptized and ROB did the baptism, how amazing is that? I just love all of those people in Redruth, they truly all are my family!
It’s actually been warm here the last little bit, haven’t gotten my package yet but soon I bet ha-ha who knows. Yeah I did speak with Kylee and Amy they’re great and make me laugh so much!
We have only 4 missionaries in our district, me and Timmons and two sisters, Mills and Sorenson. They both go home soon.
So we taught the most amazing and coolest guy ever, Ade Damola, met him on the street one night. He was so excited for us to come around and learn more, after we taught the restoration and talked about the Book of Mormon, he was so excited to read it and find out the truth. The 2nd time we went by, I have never seen someone so excited and happy to read and talk about it. We were all so excited he was all like hey, let’s pray before we go any further.....We extended the 11 of April to him and he is praying about it. He is so amazing and nice and just understands what it is we’re all about and the amazingness of the Book of Mormon. He works loads just like everyone here in London but were going to do all we can to help him come to church. Also taught this funny guy from Nepal, speaks little English, so funny we taught him and committed him for baptism.....I don’t know if he fully understood what we were talking about ,but he was all like....I baptize and make promise with God....we’re all like yes. The most simple teach of my life and so pure and awesome, good times meeting so many people from so many countries... We met a lady the other day from a country I didn’t even know existed.
I have learned some things about up here....I need to teach more simple and I have to have the spirit so they can feel something because most of the time they won’t understand what we’re teaching fully! Love you all and hope your week is great!!!!!!! I love the scriptures I have found a new passion as I see how real they are! I traced Amulekes ancestry back in Alma 10:2-3 it was way fun!
Take luck!
Love Elder Allred

The Spirit Does Feel nice!!!

2009-02-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

Ha-ha thanks for the joke mom that was way funny!!!!! I feel like that sometimes with investigators; trying to understand them sometimes is so hard....
Week has been crazy and amazing and fun! Yeah we are getting used to each other and it has been fun. Ha-ha I think it will take a bit to get used to the area and the bus routes and where we are half the time, like the other day I got lost from Timmons on the High St. and it took 20 min to find him, so so funny! Oh man I have already learned so much from all of the people. The way they act and their passion for Jesus Christ is amazing, just sad that so many don’t have the fullness of what he has to offer them.
Yes it is Pancake Day tomorrow!!! Ha-ha I wonder what happens. Thank you for keeping in touch with everyone because it is really hard for me being so busy all the time and I wish I could talk with them more and help them but at some point we all have to fish for ourselves. Oh man your food sounds good; you were always such an amazing cook mom cooking such great food for all of us, thank you for being the best! Tell Grandma and Grandpa on both sides I say hi and all the family, I hope all is well and I think and pray for them often.
Yeah Kyle is amazing; I am so excited about their adventures in Montana and with their new ward!
So cool about all the kids getting married , yeah Marriages, it is the next best thing I hear after a mission :) Tell all of the kids @ SUU hi and thanks for being great examples to me, what great people they all are!
The Priesthood is amazing and such a blessing in the lives of Heavenly Fathers children.
We had such an amazing time @ Zokos (Zone Conference) this last Friday in Crawley, I felt so good as we talked about the scriptures and why we’re out here and what missionary work is all about, a new sense of commitment and doing all we can with the work, and drawing close to the tree (Jesus) so that others may see and get the blessings that have been given to us. I am just so happy when I have the chance to share the gospel, because when I feel Heavenly Father talk with me and help me, I want that for everyone else because you can see they are lacking that in their lives.
I did see Peterson at Zokos, he is near but in a different zone, there are lots of Africans here, Ganna, Nigeria, and loads of other people from all these random countries. We walk and ride the bus a lot, and the church is a 30min bus ride, grocery is not far and what not, yeah we have all the normal stuff in our flat:) I would say it’s one of the poorer areas of London but not that poor.
So some sweet experiences this last week..... I love bus contacting; I have been sworn at a few times but met so many nice people. We taught a guy yesterday, we stopped him when he was leaving his house, he was telling us how he was going to start his own church and all this crazy stuff, so we asked if we could come back in 40min to teach him, we came back and taught him and talked, he had a Book of Mormon on his shelf all dusty and said he didn’t have time for all of this. E. Timmons said the closing prayer and I then asked if he had been baptized, the answer was no and we talked some about that and he was all like when can you baptize me....soon soon he said.....ha-ha we laughed and said we have to teach you stuff first. So we will see how that goes if he still wants to make his own church or join the true and already perfect one set up by Christ himself, about 20min after that we stopped this kid on the street and talked with him, then when we were going to walk away a man jumped out of his car and was all like man how do you guys do that, we laughed and told him the truth that it was God, not us doing the teaching, but then when we started stating the truth about prophets and the BoM, he was all like no thanks.... so sad to see people turn from the truth.
I have learned that it is about being real and trying to be in there shoes so we may understand them and relate to the people, then to show love by telling the truth to them and bearing testimony of these things, the power of prayer and testimony are amazing.
The truth really does set you free, which is what the gospel is all about is true happiness and true joy, I love you all and thank Heavenly Father for all the people in my life most of all the Savior and what he has done for me what no one else could do, I will do all I can to return back and live with Heavenly Father I want us to be together forever. Happiness doesn’t have to end, we just have to work for it. I hope you all have an amazing week and feel the spirit as you go about doing good!
Sorry but for some reason the photos won’t send and are taking forever, hopefully it will work soon, otherwise I will just fill up the 2g memory card and send that home at the end of this move!!!! Love you all
Love Elder Allred

WOW What a Change!!

2009-02-16T08:59:00.003-07:00

Yeah it has been crazy, I moved this last week to the London area, lots of people from all over the world, it has been a big change, no car, loads of buses and it is so awesome we can contact on the buses. I do love it up here in Welling, this is the area where Elder Peterson started his mission, this last Sunday was great, an awesome new ward and all this new stuff so I am just getting used to it all and what not it will just take some time. It was so so hard to leave Redruth, it was like leaving home!!!! When I got that call that I was leaving it guted me and I just wanted to cry but, you soon realize that Heavenly Father knows what he is doing and I am super excited for London and all that can happen up here. I just hope and pray for everyone in Redruth so that they will be watched over and protected, I will never forget any of them! They molded me into the missionary I am today. So awesome what you did for Valentines day, I am glad Miss SUU is over and all that stress is gone from you now. We have already had some cool experiences up here, on Friday when we were leaving an appointment and going back to the bus, we stopped and talked to this man named Sheyi, he was so cool and later that day we went back and taught him and then on Sat. we went with a member and taught him, it was so cool but then he didn't come to church on Sunday so that was sad but hey blessings will come and its awesome just to see the Lord do the work and we just have to work our hardest and put in all the effort we can and trust in him! Hope all is well in the ward and with everyone, It is totally different here in London, so many cultures and people from different countries, it is awesome meeting so many great people, the gospel really can bless them all in there lives if they just receive it.
I do have a hard copy of the article.....:) and yes cds will work over here and your package is getting sent to my new area in London!!!!

My new ward is the Welling ward, new comp is Elder Timmons from Goshen Utah!

Garren's 1st Area - Camborne/Redruth

2009-02-15T22:45:00.001-07:00

Take a minute and enjoy a scrapbook of Garren's 1st area

Make a Smilebox photobook

Transfered

2009-02-12T10:02:00.002-07:00

Well we haven't heard from Elder Allred, but we know from people we e-mail and are in contact with in the Camborne / Redruth area that he was transfered to the London area. It is a big area so we are not sure exactly where he is. Keep checking and I will post as soon as we hear. Thank you all for your interest in his mission adventures.

LDS Magazine

2009-02-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

Hello All:
Transfers are this week , therefore we won't here anything from Elder Allred probably until Thursday. Here is a link to a wonderful article written by his Mission Presidents' wife Sister Swinton, about the wonderful baptism of Rob & Gemma's family. Elder Allred and his companion are mentioned in it. Enjoy!!!

http://www.ldsmag.com/mission/090204tin.html

WOW!! Amazing Week Read On!!!

2009-02-02T13:31:00.004-07:00

Add Imaged;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_m1YIgTycdtU/SYdZbN7BOgI/AAAAAAAAAHI/QVBAMBu5u6E/s320/rob,Gemma%27sbaptisim.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298301810753223170" />
Family I would like to start off sharing the most amazing experience of my life..... Sunday after church we stopped by Rob and Gemma because they weren’t able to come to church due to a sick Freya there 2 year old. We had a great chat with them and the spirit was strong. Monday night we went and taught Sabbath day and tithing, set a date for the 14 of Feb for them to be baptized, all was well and we were excited! That night while finding we got a call and they said they prayed and wanted to be baptized Sat......we smiled and almost cried. The week was amazing planning for a baptism for a family 5 of which were getting baptized 3 that are too young but soon will be baptized. Everything went perfect because they had faith and exercised their faith and got the answers they needed to make that decision. They can fill it in the home and see the change that happens when you allow the gospel into your lives. How beautiful that is to see, I know heavenly father was smiling so much as he saw this happen. Sat. morning of the baptism, got a phone call from President......'Hey elders were going to come to the baptism'. Wow that was exciting to have President Swinton and Sister Swinton come to that baptism. We also were able to get two of the girls we're teaching Lisa and Hanna to come to the baptism. Vanessa came, Kylee came, and Jo and loved it and it couldn’t of went any better. Also Rob’s sister from Preston drove down with her Husband to come and her Husband baptized the 3 kids. The Mom is a member of the Redruth ward so what a family event, and to just have the chance to be a part of it melted my already soft heart. The sister spoke, and a member named Jole, (we took him and his wife on the teaches to Rob and Gemma's), spoke and President Swinton had some remarks as well. The feeling that was there was amazing and I want everyone to feel that, the spirit of our Heavenly father feels so so good! The greatest part of it all was fast and testimony meeting, we had Mark there and his wife and two girls we sat and played with them during sacrament meeting while we were touched by the testimonies. Then there is was, one of the strongest feelings I have ever had from the spirit as Gemma bore her testimony and Rob bore his, As I heard these two amazing people tell everyone what they know and why, tears kept streaming from my face I think I was the happiest person in the whole wide world, I in all honesty cannot explain the feeling I had inside my heart it overtook me with all love and happiness and peace! I sat there in amazement and couldn’t believe what I was feeling and how blessed I was to meet this family and not just that but all these people in Redruth, this has now become my home, I love it and all of these people with all my heart. The most amazing part of all this is that Heavenly Father did all the work the spirit touched their hearts and gave them the answers and then they made the best choice they every could of made. They remind me of Kyle and Heather except with more kids....ha-ha. I just love them all so much and Vanessa, Kylee, Amy, Jo, Debbie, and her girls. The gospel truly blesses lives if we allow it to and always follow the commandments we can’t stray unless we want to lose that feeling. Also Mom check in that Meridian Magazine, Sister Swinton is writing an article about all of this and this family. I love my Father in Heaven more than words can describe, and Mom and Dad you have made me who I am today along with Kyle and Ashlee and every other person in my life, I will be forever grateful for everyone of you!!!
I hope you Get the card soon!!!:) Oh thank you for a package, moves is on the 10 of Feb. so we will see what happens!!!
Mark is doing good, Baptism planned for the 14 of Feb. pray for them and their family, I know opposition is going to come up but it’s amazing when people read the Book of Mormon with their heart they feel it and know it’s true and can’t deny it.
Oh yeah it was kind of snowing a bit this morning, really crazy huh!!!
Glad to hear all is well back home I love you all and thank you every day for everything all the prayers and just everything!!!!
The Preston temple is about 6 or 7 hours away.
The book of Mormon is amazing and I know more than ever that this is the word of God in its purest form, meant for me today and tomorrow to help with anything I need, Heavenly Father talks to me through the scriptures. I love them!!

All my Love
Elder Allred

The Spirit feels so nice

2009-01-26T09:09:00.004-07:00

What a great week we had! So amazing and fun and just overall great. On Tues. we had an exchange with the zone leaders and I went to Plymouth with Elder Elmer, he is such a great missionary and we had a blast up there, I drove all around Plymouth and I was kinda nervous cuz its a big city but I have gotten quite good at driving with lots of prayers and the lords help.
Farnsworth and I spoke in sacrament meeting this last Sunday and it was great, I actually enjoy speaking now, its not too bad.
The Baptism was amazing!!!! Your Dream Convert! Vanessa is such an amazing lady and so sweet and kind. Elder Farnsworth baptised her and I confirmed her. She feels the spirit so much and thats what totally has converted her and she reads loads and just is so excited to learn more!!! I cant wait to take her on teaches and we might start teaching her son. I love when she says prayers, it is my favorite thing because you can totally tell she is talking with Heavenly Father. Some funny things this last week when I was up in Plymouth, this old lady with 2 teeth ate a chip right in front of our window at night and just stared in the car, I almost died I was laughing so hard it was so funny!
Hey I am sending my 4g memory card home with everything on it, let me know when you get it alright??? Thanks, hope you enjoy all the photos and videos and such!
I really am getting more and more into the B of M, its so amazing how it was written for us today and there are just so many things we can learn from it and studying it. Rob and Gemma and 6 kids are doing great, man I just love there family so much they are so nice and sweet to us. We're also teaching a husband of a part member family and they are so amazing as well. Mark and Haily are there names, they made us salmon cakes last night,aaaahhhhhh so lush. Don't be too hard on yourself mom, life gets busy and I realize now how much time I wasted on stupid things and things that were so dumb, but yeah I just love the gospel and all of the things it teaches us, I love feeling the spirit and love that Heavenly Father has for me, I cant even describe how good it feels! Thanks so much for being the most amazing family and allowing me to be out on a mission and supporting me, I will be forever grateful for this!! I love you all!!!!!
Yeah me and Farnsworth get along great, Only us and another set of missionaries in Helston, our ZLs are in Plymouth. Yeah I can drive a stick just fine now....haha cant believe I couldn't do it before, I am probably going to have to get my drivers liscense.....ye haw! Thanks for all that you do dad, your amazing I love you so much!! Time is going by way to fast I love it out here! Yeah I have herd from Trevor a few times.Oh yeah and Elder Peterson is awesome his family seems so amazing! The Best Trainer ever! Make everyday the best day ever!!!!

PS: You might get a call from our bishop, haha he is coming to the states and I gave him your number!!!!

Elder Allred

Another Amazing Week

2009-01-22T13:28:00.001-07:00

Thank you, I did indeed get that package!! The Scripture Covers are so sweet, thank you so much, tell him thanks! Oh yeah the video you sent didn’t work......:( oh well.
Transfers are the 2nd Tuesday in Feb.! It’s going so so fast. Ah so sweet have fun at the temple open house and no joke such a great missionary tool! That’s good to hear about Kyle and Heather I hope everything continues to go well. You’re all in my prayers all the time.

So this week was so intense and fun and spiritual. Vanessa is doing so great and is excited for her baptism this Sat. I am so excited for her, every time we go to her home the spirit is so strong over there you truly can feel God’s love. Rob and Gemma and their family are doing great as well, they are so nice and sweet to us and they loved the plan of salvation, I mean come on who wouldn’t! Such great times over there. We also had a great zone meeting this last Fri. in Exeter and I got to drive the whole way, which was fun! We talked a lot about the tree of life and about how we can focus on all that we can do to help our brothers and sisters partake of this amazing good fruit! I want to see everyone eat it and keep eating it! Then Saturday we had an exchange with the AP's which was a blast, I learned so much and felt the spirit so strong. I just love missionary work it’s such a blast, yeah it’s hard sometimes but thats what makes it that much better and sweeter!
We had an awesome experience on Sat. before the exchange, we went on the High ST in Camborne for 40 min and the first lady we stopped was hardcore born-again, I let myself get frustrated with her and we didn’t get anywhere, I walked away slightly mad but just kept praying and praying in my head that we would find someone and I would let go of the anger, we were walking back to the flat and I felt I should turn around and we did and stopped this amazing kid Dre, he was so cool and we taught him and his girlfriend on Sunday, it was way cool, but he just called us today and said it wasn’t right for him right now but someday. So what a miracle! My testimony of so many things have grown, the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God and softens hearts and allows us to feel the spirit, I know with all my heart that Heavenly Father loves me and that because of this he gave his son, my bond with the savior has grown so much! I truly love him for the suffering he went through on my behalf what pure and selfless love he has. I love talking with Heavenly Father, prayer is as real as talking in person to someone, he hears me and knows what I need. Such exciting and happy stuff! The first vision is the best, I love sharing it with loads of people, something about those words bring peace into the conversation its amazing!
Thanks for everything all the support and love and prayers you’re the best family in the whole world!!!!!!!
Hey tell President Monson thanks when you see him @ graduation!!! Lucky!

Make this week the best week of your Life!!!! Love you all and Smile so everyone knows your happy!
Love Elder Garren Allred

The Wind is Real, I feel it !

2009-01-12T08:54:00.001-07:00

This week was intense meetings and loads of traveling!!!! I loved every min of it. I love going out and talking to people about the gospel it is such a blessing to have your testimony strengthened every day from loads of amazing experiences and just seeing the hand of the lord in every aspect of the work. New suit is black and grayish with faint blue and pink pin-stripes. So lush! Feet are doing amazing!!! Shoes are such a great blessing!
Yeah AMY!!!! That’s so amazing, awe I am so excited and happy for her, nothing is better than I temple marriage! Tell her congrats and tell everyone hi! You and dad are amazing and so fun; I am the luckiest kid in the world to have gotten parents like you two!! Man I sure love you so much!
So exciting about Brandon I am so so so happy for him! The gospel really does bring new light and joy into our lives and we are all better people for finding the truth! Yes I would love to hear his testimony and get his conversion story that would make my year!!!! Thanks for being so great and doing things like that for the missionaries and all those people and having a big fiesta!!!
Yeah I hope you liked the boxes!!! Oh yeah ah any cds will work, if you could talks from John Bytheway and that Hugh B Brown stuff, I would love that and some fun and different church music! :)
Driving has been so fun and challenging we have almost hit mirrors and been so close to walls and such ha-ha your heart just falls into your stomach but heavenly father has protected us!
We have the most amazing people that the lord has blessed us with right now to teach, Vanessa is more amazing than you could ever imagine, she is doing so well for the 24 of this month and she is already planning to go to the temple this next month!!! How sweet is that, we have had some great spiritual experiences, teaching her and Rob and Gemma. When the truth is told to those wanting to know if it’s true and those that have a soft heart the spirit then touches them as it has as we have been able to teach. Vanessa said the closing prayer last time we were there and I just wanted to cry I was so happy to hear her speak with her father in heaven it was amazing. We have met loads of crazy and interesting people chief among them was this man named Jonathan a 'gipsy' wow it was intense, when we walked away from his door we couldn’t help but laugh some of the things he said....He wanted us to come back but I don’t know how I feel about that. The spirit was saying uh-no. Farnsworth is a great missionary were having a blast together its so much fun!! It’s as simple as reading the BOM praying properly, going to church and starting to live the commandments and you get the answers you want, that are exactly what Vanessa was talking to us about. She wanted to feel that what we were describing and what other missionaries have talked to her about.
We were over at this one teach and I was bearing my testimony of my love for Jesus Christ and it was the first time I really got emotional and it all started to sink in about him and the love he has for me and just so much started flowing for me and yet the man we tried to commit for baptism denied it, so so so sad when people deny the Atonement and don’t allow it to bless and help them understand about this life.
Happiness is a by-product of helping others. Your never made truly happy by serving yourself. I love that quote it’s so true..
I have started to learn that a little more fully now and I LOVE almost every min out here, yeah there are trials and loads of sadness, but hey there is also loads of happiness in it...... have a great week! Love you family! Read 2 Nephi 8 & 11 as a family for some amazing mind blowing scripture happiness

Elder Garren Allred

Fun News

2009-01-06T13:07:00.002-07:00

We had a letter waiting from Garren's mission president for us when we got home on Monday Jan.5th. The Lord has called Garren to be a District Leader in the Plymoth Zone in the ELSM. He has already seen growth, and blessings in his life if you read his letter. We are so excited for him to learn some great leadership skills. We hope you all have a great New year!!!
All our love
The Allred's

Blessings Come

2009-01-06T12:19:00.002-07:00

I am truly grateful for my Heavenly Father and the blessings he has provided me with. He has kept us safe, guided and directed us in our work. Made words and thoughts come to my mind that have been inspiration from him....not me. He is truly mindful of me, and everyone else. I now have learned more about faith and trust. We have been safe in driving, he has protected us and things are going good now, I finally can drive a stick!!! and on the other side of the road with about half as much space as we have to drive in America, and it was all with Heavenly Father helping me along the way. I had to let go of my fears and trust that he would help us and he has. Elder Farnswoth has been out one move less than me so about 1 and a half months....He is an amazing missionary and we are having a blast together. He is from Linden Utah, also lived in California and has 7 siblings I think. He most likey is related to the Ellsworths in Cedar City, as we were talking about them and he said yeah I think I know them! Yeah my companion has put a lot of trust in me and has loads of faith in me and Heavenly Father!
Fast Sunday was amazing I loved it more than words can describe, we had Vanessa there, she is amazing and her son came too, he really begged her to come so that was awesome. She is so nice and sweet and is really progressing in the gospel, she is getting baptised on the 24. We also had a new family that we taught on Fri. that came with all 6 of their kids. Rob and Gemma are the dad and mom. A true blessing to teach them, it was a referral from a member, Robs sister served a mission in South Africa and she invited Gemma to church. She Liked it and we talked at church and then we went and taught them. Well actually we didn't teach, the spirit totally did. All I remember is we all started to get teary and as testimonies were borne and invitations were made the work was directed by the hand of the lord. I am so excited for them and their family to now have the gospel in there lives. It was one of the greatest teaches so far on the mish. They loved church and they were so excited for us to come around!! Please pray for these people specifically! Thank you. We haven't played too much football but we are gonna start trying to with la's and non members. We do loads of things on p-day, golf, bowling, visit sites and what not. Sounds like all is well back home, I love getting your e-mails, they are all amazing. Thanks for all you do for me and all the prayers, they are totally working!! Reading the scriptures really does make your day better, look for opportunity to share the gospel each day. That's so exciting about Brandon; have him write me his testimony and conversion story! Haha I am glad the girls came and saw you! I bet that was fun, yeah they are pretty amazing girls. Haha I am glad they had faith in my driving!
I love you all so much and am truly grateful for all of you and all that you do and say to me and those around you. You have blessed my life and changed my life for the good, thank you.!!! We have loads of meetings this week going up to Stains for a meeting and then to Poole for zone conference....haha. Life is great, life is wonderful, I love it so much and the gospel is truly the greatest and most amazing thing in the world and in life!!! 1 Nephi 8:12 I think, talks about fruit. Yeah man read that stuff!
Hey if you do send stuff send me some new cds and some talks on cd, like John Bytheway, prophets and what not. Love you all!!
Elder Allred