12/29/2014

I don't have very much to write ether sadly... Nothing excited happened this last week other than talking to you guys and having Christmas dinner with some other missionaries at this Mexican ladies house! I was some pretty good food!
 

Joel came to church on Sunday! That wasn't to much of a shock considering he is a rad cat! We are planning on baptizing him on the 17 of January, but I probably already told you that! jaja

Oh we did go Christmas caroling on Christmas Eve! that was pretty gnarly! I even made a maraca for when we sang Feliz Navidad to the Hispanics!! jaja it was super fun and then a bunch of Elders came over to our house and we had turkey that we got from the salvation army, they gave us some because we helped them out! Thank you salvation army!! jaja it was alot of fun we played stuff like Janga, Pig using the nerf basketball hope, and one of my personal favorites Scum!!!
 

It was awesome to talk all of you too, I enjoyed it a lot, it did make me home sick for a little, but i'm all good now

Eliza kinda reminds me of Mike Wazowski in that last photo!!jaja
Sorry Eliza!

 

Anyways love you guys and hope you are all doing well!!!

Elder Allen

Oh and you should be proud I patched up my soccer sweats by myself!!!! jaja

Feliz Navidad!!!

This week has gone by a lot slower than others, but not because it was boring, it just seemed like it took forever! I am super excited for Christmas! We've already found a place to skype! The dad works for Verizon so he said he had like 20 tablets laying around the house that we could use!! jaja I'm glad you guys liked those videos, they were super fun to make! Just make sure they get to dad as well! 

 

For service this week we helped out the salvation army! We were invited to come help by our old friend Jack Adams, the old dude who dropped a while ago, and it was a blast!! We were all put into an assembly line and we packed food into bags for people to come and get for Christmas, we also helped people pick out toys for their kids and then carried all of their stuff they got out to their car, and after we would help them we would give them, "he is the gift" cards and told them that Jesus loves them, it was a pretty rad experience!

I think I might have told you about Joel already, but if I haven't he is our awesome new Investigator who came from Utah, and was being taught by the sisters up there, but he moved so now we teach him and he is doing awesome! He had a smoking problem, but that didn't last too long after we gave his a blessing! jaja he hasn't smoked in a whole week, its amazing! We are planning to baptize him on the 17th of January, he just needs to come to church more!

Tree from Denise

 

I hope you are all doing great and I did get you letter, the Christmas card, and Your package, have you gotten my Christmas cards? Anyways Love you!!

 

Elder Allen

 

 

 

 

 

PS thanks for the "He is the Gift" cards you gave me but I've already got like thousands!     

 

 

A frame I made for the Family!

New Car EMMA

Holiday Cheermyster?

I thought Tressa might like this little guy!!

Funny you should talk about being the Holiday Cheermyster, we were visiting a less active family yesterday who is going through some struggles right now and guess what they were watching when we came in? The Grinch!! jaja it was at the part where he was being dubbed Holiday Cheermyster, Just a little tender mercy of the lord i guess jaja

Anyways this week has been pretty good, not our best, but that is because we had two meetings this week that took up most of our day. The first one was the Zone training meeting, which was pretty fun! Me and Elder Webb made a skit which I thought was pretty great, but it probably wasn't funny at all... jaja! The next day we had a Zone Conference in States Burro it was pretty fun! I got to see some familiar faces! 

 

Nothing else really happened, but our ward mission leader is a taxidermist so he got us some dear leather so we could make some home made moccasins! I'm pretty excited about that!!! 

Love you all a whole lot!!

Elder Allen

Everyone in the Pooler house is staying!

Like always I'm doing pretty grand! So transfer call was on Saturday, and guess what, all of the guys in the Pooler house are staying!!!! It was a pretty big shocker to hear that, I was almost sure that at least one of us was leaving, but nope! I have no idea when I can call you guys on Skype, or how long, but they let us call you on Christmas Eve to tell you! 

This week has been a pretty good one! I went on exchanges with Elder Murphy for a second time! this time we were in his area, we had a really fun time! there was a shooting right across the street from us... but that just helped us get more contacts, because a bunch of police cars came over and stuff so people started asking us what was going on, we told them that we didn't know, and then taught them about our church and the "He is the Gift" video! I also got a new suit from a member from his area!! she was super nice and the suit didn't fit anyone in there family so she just gave it me!! I will have to get the sleeves and pants hemmed up, but other than that it is a wicked suit!!

We met new guy this week named Joel Nava, who is very interested in the church! he is actually from Utah and was being taught be Sister Missionaries before he came down here! He is super nice and he went to church! A lot of people came to on Sunday, probably one our best days! One of our investigators named Jasmine came with her husband and her two year old baby! We met here randomly on the street one day while we were biking to Denise's house, she is only 18 and is still in High School, I don't know how she does it!

I hit my four month mark on Saturday, wow times going by fast!

Thanks! and again thank you for all of the pictures you send I love to see what is going on! I'm super excited for Christmas as well!! getting to be able to talk to you guys and my dad is going to be awesome!!!

Wish Matthew good luck for me, it sounds like he is going to have alot of fun!

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year as long as you let it be! it can turn into the most stressful if you don't take time to remember why we are celebrating this awesome holiday!!

I love you all! 

Elder Allen  

 

Pday bowling 

 

 

Thanksgiving was tough!!!

Thanksgiving was tough!!! We had four dinner appointments, and by the end I almost fell asleep on a members couch! I did learn something though! "Hispanics are really good at making Thanksgiving food!" our best appointment was our last one, that we had with a Hispanic family! and yes I did get the package, thanks!

Transfers are next week, but I'm probably not going anywhere, pero quien sabe? I hope that me and Elder Webb stay together another transfer. 

 

As for how this week has gone, it has gone pretty well! The days have been flying by its crazy how fast time is going by here! We did have a flat tire on Wednesday, that kinda stunk, because we had to hang out at car shop for a couple of hours, but other than that nothing too amazing happened this week, it just peachy down here in Georgia! Sorry not my longest letter. I love you all and miss you!!!

Elder Allen 

Exchanges, Golf, Baptisms, Surprise Visits and Hair cuts

The end of a pretty rad exchange!

 

I've probably said this before, but because Elder Webb is the district leader I get to go on exchanges almost every week! This week it was with one of our zone leaders, Elder Hinton! He is a pretty rad cat! We spent half of the exchange in a car shop though because they needed their car fixed, but we didn't let that stop us for doing the work! Fun Story, so as me and Elder Hinton were just sitting there in the car shop I spot a book on the table in front of us called "bible stories for kids: where did we come from?" so I decided to read it, and it had a bunch of false doc. so we decided to put a "Plan of Salvation" pamphlet  in it with our names and phone number, hoping someone might read it some day. So we walk over to the other side of the shop to play some checkers and 20 mins. later a guy walks in sits down at the table with all of the magazines and picks up the "bible stories for kids" book, opens it up and finds the "Plan of Salvation" pamphlet, and he just starts feasting on the word! meanwhile me and Elder Hinton are on the other side of the shop just creapin' on him checkin' to see how far he has made into the pamphlet and once he finished we went over and talked to him! 

 

We also got to go Golfing this week as a fund raiser for the cub scouts! It was my first time golfing and I did pretty terrible, but I had a good time!

 

and finally the baptism!!!!!!!!!!! I had the privilege to baptize Denise, and Elder Webb baptized Kathleen and Tom! The next day they were all giving the gift of the Holy Ghost and confirmed members of the church! Over all pretty awesome experience!  

 

!!!!Les Amo!!!!!

 

Elder Allen

P.S. Ryan and Tyler showed up this morning, bearing great gifts! jaja another fun story, they actually met my MTC companion, Elder Garcia, in church before they saw me because Elder Garcia works up in Hilton Head!

 

One of the members in our ward cuts hair... FREE HAIR CUTS!!!!! 

 

This is a quote that our mission president shared with us. Joseph Fielding Smith is talking to his wife, but I think it still applies to me and you guys back home!

" I know that the work I have been called to do is the work of God or I would not stay here one minute, no, I would not have left home. But I know that our happiness is dependent upon my faithfulness while I am here. I should be wiling to do this much for the love of mankind when our Savior could suffer as He did for us.... I am in the hands of our Heavenly Father and he will watch over me and protect me if I do his will. And he will be with you while I am away and watch over you and protect you in all things."- Joseph Fielding Smith

I hope you all know that "I would not stay here one minute, no, I would not have left home" if I didn't know that I have been call of God and that what I am teaching can lead people down the road to eternal life and a fullness of joy!

It is getting pretty cold down here, but not quite as cold as 15 degrees! I do miss that snow though! And I did get the package from the Kings, thank you The Kings!!



The good news is that I'm starting to like spicier things!
especially Valentina Sauce!!! 

I am kinda looking forward to thanksgiving... I am really excited about all of the good food I'm going to eat, but we already have 3 dinner appointments and I'm not looking forward to the "food coma" that will follow them... jaja! I get to look forward to alot of fried food... one of our appointments has already told us that he is making fried turkey and another one owns a fried chicken stand... super fattening... o well a few extra pounds never hurt anyone right...

 

 

We will be having three baptisms this Saturday!!! We will be baptizing Denise, her mother Kathleen, and her husband Tom!! It was going to be only Denise and Kathleen, but out of the blue Tom said that he want to be baptized! The spirit of Elijah has been working on him let me tell ya! When we first started teaching Denise and Kathleen, Tom would go and sit in his bed room, sometimes we wouldn't even see him come out! But one day as we got on the topic of temple work and family history! Tom is a big fan of family history! ahh yea! so we told him how our church was big on it too, and how we had a really nice family search program, that sparked his interest! From then on he started sitting in on our lessons, it has taken awhile for him to decide, but a few days ago he said that he wanted to!! Woot!  

 

Did we meet any new and exciting people this week? Yes!!! we met this really awesome guy named "Rasheen". He is a friend of one of our investigators who is one date! He had a lot of questions about the plan of salvation, but did we teach the plan of salvation? No, we taught The Restoration, and told him that we would answer all of his questions on a different day. We got him hooked!! Talk about being fishers of men! jaja!

Anyways love you all!! LES AMO! 

 

Elder Allen  

this is Carlos Antonio Lopez Del Torro he is a really awesome recent convert who is 89 years old and still rides a Harley! jaja

 

Everything is Grand in Georgia

Nothing really exciting has happened this week, but our investigators, Denis and her mom Cathleen are doing really well and they should be getting baptisms by the end of this month!! That is probably the most exciting thing that is happening right now...

 

We did go to South Carolina for our last p day and hung out with a bunch of other missionaries in that area, including my CCM companion Elder Garcia, so that was pretty fun i guess...

Oh today, after interviews with president Cottle We went and played soccer with our zone leaders, and at first it was alittle boring because there was only five of us playing, but then a bunch of Latino kids about our age showed up and wanted to play with us, it was crazy fun! 

Thanks for those photos by the way i love them! I'm sorry to hear that Cambrie died, We didn't know each other very well, but death is always a sad thing. But  luckily we have a Savior who has paid the price of death so that we will be able to live again!! yay!!!

Anyways I know that this is a short letter, sorry... anyways Everything is grand down here in Georgia, Love you guys tons!

Love 

Elder Allen 

Ninja Turtle Elders

All is well and the Trunk-or-Treat thing was awesome! As missionaries we put on a doughnut on a string game that all the kids loved!! and because there are four elders we dressed up as the ninja turtles and all the kids loved that too, but a lot of them wanted to get in fights with us... 

My pumpkin

Elder Ludeman's iron man

On Halloween night we had to come in early at 6 because president doesn't want us to be out late on holidays, so we carved pumpkins after weekly planing and what not. we got the patterns from the library so the pumpkins look really great! then we had a fire in the back and told scary stories it was a pretty fun time! 

Elder Casper's Jesus

It gets very bone chilling! the humidity and the wind make it a lot colder than it actually is! and my weird allergy to the cold came back!!

It got very cold on November 1st and of course that was the day we decided to bike all day! jaja 



 

 

Riverstreet

Savannah was a pretty sweet city, it reminded me a lot of New Orleans! We went to a place called river street, there it has a bunch of small tourist shop and stuff like Dana Point! and I got you guys a Christmas ornament!

There is really nothing left to say about the week, other than it was a pretty great one! love and miss you all!!!

 Elder Allen  

 

 

Downtown Savannah Today!

City Hall

We are finally going to downtown Savannah today!!!! I'm super excited!! As you may be able to tell by all of the exclamation marks!!!! This past week has been great! I went on transfers again with one of the zone leaders named Elder Hatch! He was pretty stellar! We got in a sword fight with some kids and after we proved ourselves worthy we were knighted by them, ha ha quite the adventure! 



 

Elder Hatch and I

Elder Webb and I have a pretty sweet new investigator! his name is Ulanzo (oo-lan-zo), Elder Webb started teaching him while I was with Elder Hatch. Him and his family really want to be baptized by the proper authority. He felt bad because he had been baptized, but it was by some guy he met in prison, we told him not to feel bad though because he was just trying to follow Christ's example. One of the coolest experiences I've had while I've been here is during the first lesson we taught him! We were talking about the first vision and he started starring at me and said "you've got something in you" that took me by surprise and I said "Is it bad?" and he said "no, its not, it is really good"! That just tells me that I must be doing something right!

No I haven't cooked anything off the list of recipes, sorry... I eat a lot of sandwiches and Tostino's pizza because it is really cheap, oh and of course cup of noodle.

 

The weather down here has been Heaven!! My companion says that October is the best time of year down here.

 

Thanks for the scripture! and I'm still lovin' all of the photos! We have a Trunk-or-Treat activity for our ward and we were thinking of going as the ninja turtles! ha ha ! If we do I'll be sure to send photos.

For service this week we helped an elderly gent. clean out his back yard and it got kinda hot so I decided to take a dive into his pool!

Anyways love you all!

Love,

Elder Allen 

 

 

 

My new planner.

 

 
 
 

 

This girl stole my camera and took some selfies

 

Ditch Digging

I'm doing great as always! this last week was not the best, because one of our favorite investigators dropped us... I can't remember if I've told you about Jack Adams, anyways he just strait up told us one day that he didn't want us to come by anymore and that he would never be a Mormon, that was the saddest moments of my whole mission, I don't think I've ever felt so sad for a person, because he was coming along so well and then he just let it all go! I loved that old man and I felt sad because he left the path that leads to eternal happiness! 

Anyways the other people we are teaching are doing well! they finally came to church, and Denise Brought her husband too!! he is really into genealogy so he really liked our family history center, and now we are teaching him too!! My trainer is still being stellar!! 

We just got a new library right next to us!!! It is way better than having to go to the church to write because the computers at the church are really slow.

Did I ever tell you how we dug a ditch for this man for three days in a row? Well this guy was building his own house, and we offered to help so we got stuck digging a ditch to put an electrical wire in so he could have electricity in his house, it was super hard and long, but it got us out of our morning studies! haha just kidding I like morning studies, but sometimes they can get a little aburrido!

Elder Webb is the district leader so I get to go on transfers ever week. this week I

went with Elder Murphy he is pretty stellar! The other two guys are the two elders who live with us Elder Casper and Elder Ludeman!

 

I'm glad you guys had such a great time in Cali, I love the pictures you sent me and I love seeing the family! That is awesome to hear that so many people from our ward are going on missions!! That is amazing! Time is flying down here and I've almost already been 3 months out!! Love ya.  I hope all is well!!

Elder Allen

Who knew getting an eternal companion was so easy.....

This is a diagram I made because the story of Les Mis can get kinda confusing!

 

 

This is Pollo he is a pretty sweet dude!! We got him and his wife going back to church!! The food is called pupusa I don't know what it is made of, but it could possibly be one of the best things I've tasted!