Hey! Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope everyone got my picture and letter! Elder Cook is on the left, Elder Keller is in the middle, and I am on the right! Thank yall for everyone who sent me a card/package/letter wishing me a Merry Christmas.  We are so happy and blessed to have a baptism today! I Know that Alexis has received a long wanted remission of her sins. Tomorrow she will have the privilege to receive the holy ghost to help her the rest of her life. We have another baptism date for Betty Zunega for January 5th. What a wonderful new years resolution, to become a mormon.

         So this week we have taught 11 lessons and plan on somehow getting 9 more between tonight and tomorrow. So on tuesday we ate with a hispanic member for lunch and it was BAD food. We all (including the member) got sick within 30 minutes of eating the food. We were sick for 4 days. Ya wasnt cool. I did not like it one bit. the food was good but it didnt sit well with ANY-BODY. We have had about 4 members come out with us this week to teach out investigators. We are very thankful for their devotion to help the work of the lord progress. I am So glad to be a member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints; "I know it, I live it, I love it."-Ann M. Dibb. I am so glad to have the priviledge to be a full time missionary and to help everyone I see with the gospel. I love the gospel with all of my heart and pray for everyone to have the opportunity to receive the gospel.

          I do not really know more to put than i just love the gopel. Thanks mom for being the most perfect mother everyone dreams to have. I love you so much. Thank you family and know that the lord loves you and COMMANDS us to preach the gospel. What a perfect time of the year to do so.

            I challenge everone to Get 10 passalong cards and give them to people and bear your testimony of Jesus Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. 

 

                LOVE YALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This baptism happened exactly one hour ago. We email today due to christmas and i will not be emailing again till wednesday january 2. The girl being baptized is Alexis Gonzales and it is her sweet 16 today!

Hello everyone!

     I really hope that everone is having a fun time preparing for christmas. i am having the time of my life here in texas. I am still in weatherford and i love it. We has 3 baptism dates this week and we taught about 15 lessons. We are doing great and i know that the lord is pleased with what i and every missionary is doing. it is very important to the lord.

     Well it rained alot in about 10 minutes on friday. ya it was dumb..... i wanted it to snow. but that is ok because i am still alive. so sorry i do not have much time today. but i hope everyone has a good week.

 We are having a baptism this weekend. i am excited. i know that we are being blessed because of our obedience and faithful acts to be better. i am glad to be a missionary.

  Hey yall! So what is everyone up to? Merry Christmas. So how is the cold up in Idaho? Or wherever everyone is. I am happy to be in Texas. Haha. It is cold and humid here. So it is chilly through the bone not to the bone. I am happy it is cold because i like the cold but i do not like to cold when i am sleeping. my companions do so i freeze at night. But DO NOT SEND ME A BLANKET. i am ok. i dont want to have to haul around another blanket.

         So if anyone is wondering if i am ok. i am. i am so excited to email because i have so much to talk about but when the time comes to email i have a moment where i do not remember. I do not know why i do not remember but i do. But is everyone excited to see Paden? He is a changed person. i know that he is a great person now. (he was before, now he is just "better") I am excited to get to speak to him on christmas. I dont think he will speak english at all so that i cant make fun of his silly mexican accent.. :) ya here in america its not all one accent, its every hispanic culture so i speak hispanic. but i am trying to get the San Luiz accent. that would be sweet. they talk in bursts of very fast spanish.

          Ya So this week we taught 25 lessons and got 17 new investigators. We have 3 Baptism dates currently and we are praying and hoping that they all go through. We are just doing great this week. So our mission president wants us to keep track of the people we talk to and bear testimony everyday and we wants us to have a minimum of 40 people per day. i know that this is possible. so if i do that for roughly 15 more months i will have talked to: about 18,000 People. ya doesnt seem like alot but if you mutiply that by 200,000 missionaries in the world it is: My phone says error. the number is too big, 5,760,000,000 billion people in 2 years if every missionary does their part. So roughly 2 more years until everyone has had the opportunity to hear the gopsel. haha ya that is crazy. So if anyone did not know about the growth of missionary work it has grown 400% so we pretty much have 200,000 missionaries that will be in the field in the next few years. this is amazing. i cannot believe what an impact this will do on the world. I am so excited and so proud to be part of this great missionary effort.

        So ya i am pretty exited for this next week of missionary work. i am glad to be a missionary. i know that i am doing the right thing. i am proud of the work paden has done and still is doing. i challenge yall to see paden and want to change your lives to grow as much as he did. it is quite an accomplishment he has done and i am proud of him.

             LOVE YALL>!!?><?>

 So Holy Crap!!! Time is going by so fast! I have been in weatherford for 12 weeks and we got transfers today and i am staying in weatherford for another 6 weeks. i am so excited! i love this area so much. So we got out trio finally. Elder Cameron Cook is from san diego california and he is waiting to go to puebla mexico. He is a sweet kid. he is a great example and he is full of the "greeny fire" he is and will be a great missionary. So how is everyones christmas going to be? Mine is going to be better. sorry i am pridefull about that. just kidding i love everyone.

        So we still have the baptism date for Alexis Gloria for the 22 of december. that is going to be so sweet. I am excited for her and her decision. So we also have been working with a number of families that are just golden.  they are progressing just nicely. i am such a happy missionary. i know that i am doing what i am suppost to be doing.

       So nothing really happened this week. I had a great birthday. thank you so much for everyones gifts. they were greatly appreciated.

 

Sorry it is such a short letter. gotta go.

Elder Dillon Glen Allen

  Well, Elder Keller and I will be getting a new missionary in our already too small apartment. He is a visa waiter going to mexico. He will be a good missionary. I am excited because all of the hispanic males are working during the day and we cannot teach the Females without a third man. Well we now have a third person. O ya we are going to baptize alot more. So that is going to be sweet but it will not be sweet because our apartment is litterally Small. Yes it is going to be an adventure.

           So this week was very eventfull. We found 11 new investigators. We also taught 13 lessons this week. I was very excited. So everything is suppost to be bigger in texas. Well i am proud to say that idahoans know how to cook thanksgiving dinner bigger. :) Thanksgiving was great. We ate with the Formans house. They are americans so we had the traditional everything execpt, MASHED POTATOES AND GRAVY...... ya what the heck no potatoes and gravy. o well. we also ate with the Torres family and had pork tamales and sweet coconut tamales. O they are gold in Corn husk. I loved them.

           So on friday, We found this man who was leaving to fort worth and we taught him a lesson and he came to church and know is a progressing investigator. His name is Julio Salazar. He is 75 years old. he is from El Salvador and he has lived in america for 45 years. he is a really cool guy who has being prepared by the lord.

          Yup so that is about all we have done this week. I would list all of the people we met but yall dont really know any of them. But yup that was our week. Thanks everyone in advance for the million presents i am going to get for my birthday because i know that my family loves me so much. (that was a hint to send me something, but yall dont have to because its the thought that counts)

Elder Dillon Glen Allen

Well Hello everyone! This week was sweet! We had a baptism this week. Tony and isabella gloria. i will send a picture today. Yes i love that family. they are all members now excepet the girls in the bottom left row with a red shirt on. Jessica. she has a baptism date for december 22. Welkl i am doing great! i love the mission.

Well its thanksgiving this week so, I am thankful for....

1. The very little rain that weatherford got yestarday.
2. A library i have to be here typing this letter.
3. A companion to always be here to help me out.
4. Zone leaders who share an area with us.
5. Long sleeve shirt to wear because it is getting "cold" in texas.... 45 degrees... :) warm
6. Glasses so that i can see very far away.
7. Planner to keep me organized.
8. A mission president to recieve revelation for the texas fort worth mission.
9. my bed to keep me warm
10. socks to keep me warm
11. jackets to keep me warm
12. letters to keep my motivation going
13. family to support me
14. a mother to love
15. a father to always see how much you look up to him the more you grow up
16. a brother to set the example to go on a mission
17. a brother to go on a mission when i get home. and if he doesnt want to. to bad its going to happen anyway
18. another brother that better go on a mission in 4 to 5 years that has potential to be the best missionary in the world.
19. a sister to always see that i need to grow up and mature alot more
20. a family to always love and to cherish for eternity
21. the priesthood to seal families together forever
22. friends to always help you through problems and to be there when you need them and to laugh with.
23.  A ring to remind me of joseph smith and the prayer that changed this history of eternity forever.
24. the book of mormon to proove the restoration really happened
25. the book of mormon to help anyone through problems in life
26. the book of mormon to let us know the great plan of salvation that god
27. the book of mormon that keeps everyone in the gospel continually learning and fortifying testimonies
28. technology that helps the work of the lord along much much much much faster
29. my legs so that i can run and proclaim the gospel to everyone
30. my feet so i can walk when i can no longer run
31. my knees so that i can crawl when i can no longer walk
32. my arms to drag me along when my knees are bloody
33. my mouth to testify when i can no longer move.
34. the opportunity i have to be a missionary for our lord and savior jesus christ
35. god loves us
36. gospel blesses families
37. dispensations
38. Savior and his earthy ministry
39. Great apostacy
40. the restoration
41. joseph smith
42. the book of mormon: another testimont of jesus christ
43. Prayer to know of the truth by the power of the holy ghost
44. agency
45. priesthood
46. prophets
47. reedeemer
48. pre earth life
49. The creation
50. agency and adam and eve
51. earth life
52. atonement
53. spirit world
54. ressurection
55. judgement
56. immortality
57. exaltation
58. Celestial kingdom
59. Through jesus christ we can be cleansed from sin
60. faith
61. repentance
62. baptism
63. holy ghost
64. enduring to the end
65. obedience
66. sabbath day
67. ten commandments
68. testimonies
69. fasting
70. sacrament
71. tithing
72. law of chastity
73. Word of wisdom
74. bishops and his councelors
75. decans
76. teachers
77. priests
78. high priests
79. elders
80. stake presidents
81. area of seventies
82. twelve apostels
83. first presidency
84. Thomas S. Monson
85. Holy Ghost
86. Jesus Christ
87. Heavenly Father
88. Heavenly Moter
89. priethood again
90. MY FAMILY!!!!!!!!!
91. the world and what it offers.... What does it offer look from numbers 92-142
92. water
93. propel
94. aquafina
95. filtered
96. bottled
97. fiji
98. smart
99. all other brands of water
100. perre
101. food
102. potatoes
103. mashed potatoes
104. curly fires
105. shoes
106. pants
107. shirts
108. ties
109. paper
110. pens
111. pencils
112. books
113. desks
114. chairs
115. carpet
116. backpacks
117. tooth brush
118. blankets
119. pillow
120. slippers
121. tables
122. concrete
123. air
124. clouds
125. moon
126. sun
127. stars
128. summer
129. winter
130. fall
131. spring
132. spanish
133. english
134. gift of tongues
135. laughter
136. board games
137. wakee six
138. monopoly
139. stratigo
140. soduku
141. word searches
142. ect

--

Elder Dillon Glen Allen

 So haha the pictures. i would be a good mexican. those are my yellow boots. the last picture is my companion now

Well i am going to be honest. i have no idea what happened last week due to me being in the middle of this week. We couldnt email on monday due to the veterans day and tuesday because of the conference we had with elder bowen of the seventy. i will write about the conference on monday.

So How is everyone doing? Any plans for thanksgiving? What about Christmas. I have not recieved any addresses in the mail of anyone. I want them. i want to write all of my family and tell them of my appriciation. I am so glad to be serving a mission. I am glad that i have this opportunity to be a missionary. I am practically overwhelmed with the spirit always and i dont know why 9 months feels like a dream. Well i am so glad that everyone is supporting me. i really feel the power of yalls love and prayers.

 

So sorry this ends up being a short letter, i am trying to remember something i can write about and it is not happening. So i am going to write about what i have leaned recently.

 

So everyone who has ever known me they know that i am pridefull. :) i dont think i am now. Here is how i avoid it. So i get angry pretty fast when people correct me and try to tell me they have a better way. when i get these such feelings i simply get out my pen and write down something good about the person or the situation. this has helped alot. the oposite of pride is humility. the fastest way to be humble i think and i have come to know is by the principle of Gratitude. just count your blessings everyone,,,,,, it works.

 

Well thats about all folks. have a good week and i will email you in about 4 days. :)

  Alright so the miracle of the week is Evelyn. We have been teaching her for a while now but she just has all of the perfect questions. If she would come to church she would have them all answered. Well i know that she recieved an answer that the Book of Mormon is true, all she needs to do now is to act of what she knows is true. She is all ready to be baptized. If we can catch her 3 times this week we will have a baptism date for her. I am so excited to see her progress. She is doing well.

           So This week was kinda good. Last monday We taught our current baptism dates, Tony Gloria and Jessica Garcia. They are great people who are ready to be baptized. I know that they are ready and that they do want this change in their lives. Their parents are members and they have come a long way. About 12 weeks ago they were going to get devorced and the missionaries knocked into them and started teaching them the missionary lessons to see if it would bring them back together. that is what we are still doing. we are not giving advice we are simply teaching the lessons so they can keep the commitments. they are praying as a family. ( all 9 of them) They all read together often. they are a blessed family to be able to stay together. Tuesday we taught The glorias again. We also taugh 2 other lessons. The weather on tuesday was wierd. it was freezing cold in the middle of the day and towards the night it was like 90 degrees. ya really wierd. Wednesday for halloween we were not aloud to go trick or treating haha so we had a district meeting instead with cinimon rolls and tootsie rolls. Yup it was pretty fun. Thursday we made armor out of cardboard for a lesson on the armor of god. i will send a picture next week of the sweet armor we made. Friday we found a new investigator names manuel. he is super ready to be baptized. we are going to set a baptizm date with him next lesson. Saturday we taught about 5 lessons and it was probably the most spiritual day i have had on my mission due to the constant teaching we had. when we are in a 45 minute lesson it seems like it is only 5 minutes. it is because of the spirit that we feed. Saturday felt like an hour long. Yestarday was the day i found out who i am and what i am suppost to do as a missionary. People who have gone on a mission know what i mean.

           So i am glad to be in weatherford. my spanish is going through the roof and my testimony is growing. i am lucky to be where i am. I am happy to be a missionary and to be able to help others change their lives. I know that i am supposed to be on a mission. If anyone is still having doubts if they should go on a mission then stop having them and go. a mission will bless your live and the lives of other exceedingly.

          Elder Keller is a really good missionary. His Spanish is Excelent. i am pretty sure he speaks more gramaticly correct that the natives around here. We are being 100% obedient and nothing is holding us back from reaching our potential. we are haveing so much exito here in weatherford. We have 2 baptism dates and 2 progressing investigators.

          So i do not have alot of crazy stories. Do not be supprised by anything that happens in the future is all i have to say.

 Well i have been hearing alot about a hurricane lately... What is going on? If people would just obey the sabbathe day than all of the natural desasters would not be happening. I gave a talk this week in sacrament meeting about the sabbath. ya i loved it. my ward mission leader also spoke.

    So i have a new companion, his name is elder keller. he is fired up and ready to work. alot different than my last companion. elder duncan is a hard worker just like me, his spanish is super good, i am glad to have him as my companion. well he is from cedar city, Utah, he was a punk before the mission. :) he still is but we are exactly the same. we enjoy playfully making fun of each other. it is very enjoyable.

    So the Miracle of the week is Joaquin. He is a man we trackted into. He went to a mormon church a while ago in mexico. he told us to go back. well we have no miles for the rest of the month in our car, so we are walking and we walked about 8 miles round trip to his house so that we could teach him. He said that he was pretty tired and to come back another day, but that is ok i said how about we come in for 10 minutes and walked into his house. He graciously let us in and we taught him about faith for 10 minutes and said a prayer with him. He is about 5 foot nothing. he is short. he looks like a mexican. i am really excited to teach him and to get to know him. well the trailer park that he lives in is infested with mexicans, about 75 mexicans live in about 15-20 trailers. it is sweet that  we finally found some hispanic people to teach and help them recieve the restored gospel.

    So i have been thinking that is is Christmas soon and i want to have EVERYONES adress so i can write a letter to them. Please!! :) Gugelmans,  grandparents Tubbs, Plowmans, Jared and Jeannie,  grandparents Allen, Angie and her family, Summers, Genes ( i dont know if i spelled it right, alma and lexi), Todd and angela, Travis and Ciesa??, umm.... John and camile, Peters, Lincoln and heather and anyone else that would like to hear from me. I am really wanting to do this everyone so send me your addresses through email or a hand written letter!! :) love all of you.

     So this week on tuesday, elder duncan, partriach carrol and I wento to the glorias for a lesson. it was a sweet experience to see the glorias want to make their family better through the gospel. the glorias are members and they are having a hard time right now with marriage. so all we do ( not get involved ) is teach the missionary lessons and apply it to their children. and some of them are not members. their children that are not members all have baptism dates.

       *( hahahaha ok this is funny, so i am emailing right now and some lady sat down accross from me and she will not stop looking at me and my nametag, she is literally leaning way over to see me, hahah funny)

    Wednesday elder duncan left to fort worth and elder border (my zone leader) and i sat in the appartment and waited for a while for our companions to get there. ya i got elder keller and he is a sweet missionary. we will do great this transfer.

    Saturday we found alot, i mean alot of hispanics. i am excited to start teaching them. We are doing great. and sunday was just and dandy as the rest of the week.

    So alot of people are emailing me and asking me what i want for my birthday and christmas... so here is what i would like ( but do not need) if you all want something to do.

    1) I would like a written testimony of my family members (including paden)

    2) The last 2 Gerneral Conferences on cd's

    3) Garmets...... 32 waist and medium shirt... cotton-polly deep neck.

    4) Picture of my immediate family, (Troy, shelly, wyatt, emmett, olivia and Paden) and a picture of anyone else, but i really want a picture with my immediate family.

    5) A tie

    6) Chap Stick

    7) Mormon tabernacle Chior Cd

    8) Lots of love

 

So i am loving the mission. i cannot believe that i have almost been on my mission for 8 months. it is going by too fast. i am not liking how fast it is, but i would not trade these experinces at all. So I love everyone and thank you for everything yall do for me. :))

Hello Everyone,

             So this week we set 4 Baptism dates. Jessica, Tony, and Bella Gloria, and jaime ocampo. Things are finnaly picking up! i am so excited to finnaly start teaching more people. i know that we are finding more people because of our obedience. we have been working so hard and being so obedient. it is finnall paying off. all four of them are being baptized on november 10.

 Well my email was to big. so i am doing fine in texas. it is starting to get cooler here. it is now about 75 ish most of the time. it is better than 115. I am super sick. i have had a constant migrane for about a week now and throwing up all over. we still did a really good job. i know that we are being blessed. So anyone have anymore cool stories?

        The miracle of the week is Jaime Ocampo. We knocked into him and he listened. he wanted to be baptized within 15 minutes of meeting us. He is super ready to be baptized. He is 24 and still lives at his parents house. His mom is super catholic and she does not like us at all. but he cleaned the yard and the house and washed the cars and showered and repaired the roof. We asked him why he did it. he said that he felt like he was a somebody when he reads the book of mormon. he is a cool guy. he read 8 chapters in less than a day. he cleanned everything in a day. he is an elect person. lets hope his mom stops hatting us.

         So exchanges are here. i am staying in weatherford. elder duncan is going to Fort worth. he has been there 3 times now. My new companion i get wednesday. His name is elder keller. i do not know who he is but elder duncan has a picture of him and he looks pretty cool. i am excited to meet him. Elder duncan is super excited to go to fort worth.

      Well talk to yall next week.

Well this past five weeks have gone bye so fast!! i cannot believe how fast the mission is going. I am getting a little moody because of how hard the area is. but i was put here because it is a hard area. i love a challenge. It is going to require 100% obedience of myself and my companion. Ya it is going to be a little crazy but we will do it. There is only one more week till transfers. i hope is stay in weatherford.

            Well i do not have any crazy stories this week. But we did find some really cool investigators and we are teaching them alot! They all have really good members that talk to them about the gospel alot! i am so excited to see them progress. we are not teaching much more. Alot of people stare at me as  a missionary. so when we had our regular clothes on people actually said hi and what not. very nice to be excepted by people. :)

           Well as i said, literally nothing has happened this week! anyone have any crazy stories? any Questions? Rumors? Something?

 Ya crazy story. alright so i ran into some random person that knows me. i have never seen this person in my life. but she knew my first and last name. So ya wierd. i still dont know someone from New York that has blonde hair. ya still dont know. i wonder how many people look like me?

           Alright so this week was sweet. First off this week was really slow due to the cold weather. it was about 45-50 degrees all week. ya not cold at all. my companion is from california and he is a little girl. hahah not really. but he is cold. he wears a huge trench coat. ya its pretty funny.

       Well i have been studying ALOT the past week. i am so greatful for all of the knowledge and maturity i have gained in the mission. i am so greatful for the atonement of our lord and savior jesus christ that allows us to repent of sins and transgressions that cannot usually be fixed.

       I know that through immersing yourself in the gospel by serving a mission will help anyone through anything.

 

well sorry everyone for who was looking forward  to hearing from me. i have ran our of time. You can always just write me a letter and i will write you back.

 

 

See Ya!!!

So this week it rained nonstop for three days. it was crazy. we logged our walking miles in at 13 miles in the porring rain with umbreallas. :) i had alot of fun because i got to use my boots that i have only used a few times. i am glad i have them. This week was kinda a wierd week. We found 6 new investigators and a ton of english people as referals. the english elders are baptizing up a storm and 90% of them are from us. sad how that works. but that is ok. the lords work will go forth. so our mission president is going around for interviews to everyones apartments this month. he told us if the house is a mess that he will hire a maid to clean our house. so they want me to get 50 bucks from my parents. Mom and Dad. dont send the money. i am going to make my companion clean. :) the house is going to be clean and i am excited to see my companion finally clean. before i came in my companion had been in this area for 4 months and he never did dishes or cleaned the bathroom.... GROSSSSS!!!!!! ya its been clean for about 3 weeks now. :) i am prideful about that.

               We are finding alot of success in weatherford. we are working with members and teaching alot of their friends. the members in the ward who do the most missionary work are a recent couple named Jacob and Itzel Payne. they are sweet they have at least one very solid referal every week that we teach with them in their house. the payne family is my favorite. i really hope i can stay in weatherford the rest of my mission because the ward has so much potential and i can help them reach their potentioal. it is already starting to happen. i love weatherford.

           Alright now about Mewtwo,,,,,.....,.,.,.,.   we took our trash out and in the dumpster we found at least 1500 baseball cards and pokemon cards. they are all 20 year old cards or older. Mewtwo is one of them.... Muahahaha.....(the muahahaha is for Jacob.... i will save it. mabe i will send it to you)   well we are going to a pawn shop to sell the baseball cards. we found alot of rookie cards that might be worth something. i am pretty excited. Dad can you send me an envelope for tithing for the ward. i might make some money today. :)

             So i have been learning alot lately. what i am really excited about is the church release mini preach my gospels in spanish and english. we get them for 4 dollars. i am super excited to get them. if anyone wants to study with me this week. i am studying preach my gospel chapter 6, christlike attributes. it will be worth your time because.... it will be. i am so greatful to be on a mission. if anyone who hasnt gone on a mission who is reading this who is able to go... GOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! you are missing out on the best experience that you can ever experience in this life. their are seen and unseen forces and blessing in missionary work. just being able to see a 50 year old man that is addictied to cigarretts and with major law of chastity problems and no morals, to a man who prays and thanks god for everything he as given him. also to see someone want to change and make covenants with the lord through faith with the hope that god will take care of them. if anyone has doubts of not serving a mission. in 17 months..... i will change your doubts for you. it is an amazing experience that even bill gates cant even buy.

                   sorry i am writing a ton and just about random stuff. i know that is church is true and through realization and action on the things that god has given us, you can be cleansed from sin and recieve everlasting life. why cant jack spearrow just join the church. its much easier to make covenants than to, kill a cracken, almost die by gun, knife, women, davie jones, drownding, a short drop and sudden stop, commidor norington... ect. o i know why, he likes his rum.... hahaha i thought humor would be funny. ya so i am fine hear in weatherford if anyone is wondering...(mom)  i love it hear. i would consider moving hear after my mission if their were one thing.... MOUNTAINS!!!!!!!   I am so homesick for mountains. i have a HUGE gut ache everytime i think about mountains. especially because hunting season is this month. YOU all better send be picktures of the bucks and elk you kill... (grandpa tubbs, jacob, wyatt, Josh, Dad- Go hunting for me and kill a deer.)

             Well everyone i love you all soooo very much. i love you like a fat kid loves cake. or a hobo likes a baked potato... or like wyatt loves hunting..... i will send some earplugs home for you mom. it is hunting season so that means wyatts mouth is going to be on hyperspeed. WELL love you all. Take care and if anyone loves me they will send me some pictures in the mail of the mountains. LOVE YALL>

Hello Family,

        So we are in weatherford and their are no hispanics here. it is very hard to find the few there are. when we find them we have to be perfect missionaries to be able to teach them in a way that they want us to come back. yes it is a challenge, but we are learnig very fast and we are also progressing. so everyone says that this area is the hardest spanish area. well as those who know me, thats a bad thing to tell me. why? well we are going to work hard then. :) look out weatherford. so this week we had a slow week but i know that is how it goes sometimes. i know that if we are 100% obedient we will have the success the lord knows we can have. this week we had been praying alot to find a family of four. we found a family of four just like we have been praying in faith to find. i know that this family has been prepared by the lord and is ready to make the baptism commitment. i know that through being 100% obedient we will be able to recognize every single spiritual prompting.

        So i finally got a new journal. i have been needing one. my old one got wet, (thanks to my loving companion) i am now transfering everything from my wet one to the new one. it is a long process but it is fun to see how immiture i was in the MTC. :)

       What i have learned this week is in D&C 59, Keeping the Sabbath Day holy. I know that if we keep the sabbath day holy we will recieve the blessings promised in this section.

      Nothing really crazy happened this week. I am still alive, i am not hurt. I love and thank all of you for your support.

Ok. so as all of you know, i got transferred to Weatherford, TX. the population is 25,000 people. their are sooo many trees here and it is so beautiful. only thing lacking is the :'( mountains. i miss the mountains so much. if anyone wants to make me a happy camper they can send me pictures of the samaria mountains, Powerhous, the M, skyline, the west hills and a picture of the ranch with the giant gorgeous mountains in the backround. i get a stomach ache everytime i realize their are no mountains. (sad face) so my new companion is very nice. he had dirty clothes the first time i saw him, it gave me a preview of the state of the apartment. uuuuuuu ya i opened the door and left my bags outside for a couple of hours until i had room to put them somewhere. Some people's children do not know how to clean. so besides the dirty apartment which is now all spotless, weatherford is sweet. the first meal i ate here i got sick for two days. i threw up alot and could not even keep water down, but i finally after 2 solid full days gave in to the hunger and mannaged to eat a banana. now i am eating like a horse. i lost 15 pounds when i was sick. ya i dont really know how but it happened.

           We have one baptism who needs alot of help and prayers to be able to be ready. besides her the area is kinda slow. but the area is so nice to work in. the hispanics when we find them are so nice and so receptable to the gospel. i know that we will improve in this area and i know that we can be doing better. i am so glad to be a missioary here in weatherford. so this week we taught a few people. their are alot of former investigators that missionaries stopped teaching that seem very "golden" (ready to be baptized) and all we have to do is correctly teach them and with the spirit. i know that through faithful, dilligent prayer anything is possible in the eyes of the lord. i know that the area i have been assigned to is inspired by the lord and i know why the lord wants me here and i am going to achieve all that the lord wants me to do here. i am so greatful fo the opportunity to be a missionary and i am soo overly greatfull for all of the support i recieve from everyone. thank you so much.

           Well i am trying to think of some crazy stories and in weatherford we have alot. so its farm land. so daily i see sheep and goats like dogs in the back of the bed of trucks. its pretty fun. i wrestled a 180 pound male goat at a members house last night. haha :) it lost horribly. i see dead armadillos being eaten by HUGE Voltures everyday!!! the members are so nice here. they pay for our bread, laundry soap and let us use their laundry. they are so nice. everyone is dirty rich, and they go on exchanges and buy us so much stuff. do not be supprised if i come home 200 pounds. it is impossible for me to gain all of that weight but that is alright. so their is not a hispanic ward or branch here, so we have to translate every week for any hispanics who show up. my spanish is going to go through the roof in this area. i am so excited. spanish is so much fun to learn and to speak. President Sagers says that spanish is the celestial language in heaven. i totally 100% agree. it is Sweet.

           So how is everyone doing. jacob looks like he is getting bigger in the picture. (i am still trying to get your nametag jacob!) i think about all of you so much. Grandpa looks like he is loosing weight and gaining alot of muscle. ( i might be a little jealous) and i am so jealous of MT Borah. Everyone say hi to Great Grandpa and Granny for me. i love them so much. if their is anything i can do 2500 miles away just let me know please. i am dieing to help everyone. um i really cant think of anything else. thanks Y'all for all yall do for me. ( i really do not speak like that- i think i dont) :)

Well i am being transferred to Weatherford my new companions name is Elder Duncan. i havent met him yet but i know he is a great missionary. Here is my address. 202 College Park #205 Weatherford, TX 76086. i do not have time so i will email later.

We had a baptism this past week! Her name is Florencia Salanic Sacalxot. She is from Guatemala and she has 14 kids in which 11 of them are still alive. She is 48 years old and she was married when she was 14! Crazy isn't it? We met her 4 weeks ago. we were talking to some drunk guy and she heard us say that we were missionaries and she asked if we would pray with her. And now she is baptized. It is a miracle that we even found her!

 

So the West Nile virus is spreading like crazy here. So they spray by airplane at night time. The planes are so loud at night! Its ok though because i cant sleep anyway. Does anybody have any solutions on how i can sleep? I have tried everything!

 

Transfers are next Monday and i am pretty excited because i think i am staying here in lewisville. i love lewisville! me and my companion are doing great. today we set some pretty big goal on how we can improve our obedience! we are working hard to be 100% obedient! we know that if we are the lord will bless us with success!

 

So in the picture there is the two in front who are the Hatfields and from left to right in the back is elder bingham, elder galvez, elder Campbell, and Zack. they insisted on lifting me up!! sister Hatfield is the member that is helping Florencia with whatever she needs. she is also from Guatemala!

 

So that was our sweet week, nothing really more interesting!

From Bro Hatfield:
We've had the pleasure of having Elder Allen in our home a couple of times recently. We had a neighbor who was in desperate need of help and Elder Allen and 3 other Elders stepped up and took on the task!

Very enjoyable young men who seem to be living the gospel, not just teaching it!

Thanks for allowing him to server our Lord! 

George and Argentina Hatfield

PS - I'll send these pictures two at a time.

so we have a baptism this saturday! her name is Florencia Salanic Sacalxot. we met her three weeks ago. ya she is awesome!!
 our district did so good this week. we were number 5 in the entire mission. we were number 20 last week. ya it is so sweet. i cant believe that we are doing so good. i do not have time at all to email. but i am doing fine here in texas. but this week when we set up florencias baptism date for the first of september, the spirit was so strong and i cant believe we did what we did. i love the mission and being a missionary. thank you for all of the help and support back at home.

so the reason for the grasshopper frog apartments is because everytime we go to these spacific apartments there is a dead grasshopper being eaten by ants. yeserday there was a frog. yup. life as a missionary is full of a lame sense of humor. so this week was full of all sorts of fun. elder campell on an exchange recked our car. it wasnt bad. just scratched the bumper. we were ok. :) me and elder campbells echange was sweet. elder campbell loves zelda and so do i.

 

alright so this week we taught 11 lessons. we are doing our best to invite others to come unto christ. my spanish is just flying through the roof. i cant believe all of the spanish i am kicking out. i love the mission. so we went to zone conference this week and it was sweet. we started out with president sagers started out and he talked for a few ours. i felt so awesome during the entire conference. i know this church is true. i love 3 nephi... it is actually jesus christ speaking for like 20  chapters.

 

ok so i want to share a story.

the eagle that thinks he is a chicken. ok so a little girl and her granpa were driving down a road when their car broke down and they managed to get to a farm house. the farmer was helping the grandpa fix the car when he noticed the grandpa was a famous baseball player. in the mean time the girl was looking at the chicken coop and she called her grandpa over to look. they all noticed an eagle in the chiken coop. so the grandpa asked the farmer why there was an eagle in the chicken coop. the farmer replied that they found an abandoned nest and their was one egg left. sot he farmer put it in the chicken coop and the chickens raised it. the grandpa offered the man money for the eagle. he wanted to try to help the eagle fly and reach its true potential. the farmer agreed and warned the grandpa that the eagle acts and is a chicken. so the grandpa and the grandaughter left to the field of the farmer. the grandaught asked what the grandpa was doing. the grandpa replied to the eagle and said your an eagle spread your wings and fly. the eagle flopped to the ground. the grandpa had a flashback to his childhood when he was just learning to play baseball. the little boy didnt get to play with everyone and he was very sad. his father said its alright lift your head a little higher. flashback to the present and they  went higher up the mountain. the grandaughter asked again what the grandpa was doing. and the grandpa said to the eagle you are an eagle spread your wings and fly. the eagle again did nothing. and the grandpa had another flashback to when he was a teenager. he stuck out in a baseball game and his dad came up to him and said its alright swing higher next time. flashback to the present and they went higher up the mountain to the top and as soon as they got to the top the grandpa had another flashback to when the grandpa hit his home run and was a famous person that had reached his true potential. flashback to the present and the grandaughter asked what the grandpa was doing and the grandpa replied to the girl. i am helping the eagle reach its true potential. he then said to the eagle spred your wings and fly and the eagle flew away.this is a great story. apply this to your lives after great thought and pondering.

 

thank you for all of your support and love.

Dear Family and Friends,

        So this week we did great. so our objective as missionaries is to invite and help people come unto christ and eventually get baptized. so to do this we ne to help people take the neccesary steps to do so. there are three easy steps they need to do to eventually be baptized. they are attend church at least twice, read in the book of mormon and then pray to know if they are doing the right thing and if all of these things are true. so this week we have a few people keeping commitments but none of them have made it to church. so this is a problem. but the big factor with hispanic people in texas is that if you can get them to church, usually they will be baptized. ya that is sweet when it happens. and its not going to happ without alot of key factors the investigator does and what us as missionaries do. so this week we had no investigators at church. we did have 16 lessons and 9 new investigators.

        elder galvez and I are a great team. we get work done. we find new investigators. working with members is the best way for missionary work. we are working with out few members in our area. we dont have alot of members, but with the members we have they love to help with whatever they can.

        so i am still reading the bible alll of the way through. no wonder the book of mormon contains the fullness of the gospel. holy cow the bible is confusing. so nothing really big has happened here. but ya if anyone would like anything from me just let me know.

Dear Family,

               Transfers were this week. elder jones is now in fort worth and now my new companion is elder galvez from peru. he is really sweet. he likes to do things perfectly. he is pretty sweet. anyway. so this week we taught 3 lessons with a member present. 12 other lessons, we got 10 new investigators, and 3 less active member lessons. ya we tor it up. we got a few other things too. for a grand total of 38 key indicators this week. if you dont know what key indicators are... read preach my gospel. so our mission is doing a book of mormon challenge. page 114 in preach my gospel. read the book of mormon in three months and highlight whenever it says the names of jesus and his attributes-(look up his attributes in chapter 6 in preach my gospel). highlight the doctrine of christ-( Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy ghost, endure to the end) and if you do that i promise you will learn more about the savior and have a dramatic change in love for others. DO IT!!!! it has blessed my life emensley. i am now starting to do it with the bible. also if anyone wants to learn more about christ...everyone should... read the 4 books of the missionary library. my favorite part in the book of mormon is still alma 37. i am emensly blessed. if anyone is having any doubts about the gospel or life in general. shame on you. not to take that a harsh way but go out and find the true church. there is only one. every single other one is just beyond confused. i know this church is true. Doubt is the oposite of faith. i love you all read the book of mornom to get rid of any doubts. if anyone is reading this that is of the age of going on a mission (males 19-25 women (21-26 i believe) GO ON A MISSION. you have no idea whos life you will change. if you dont go you will be in heaven adn you will look into the face of someone that you could have changed on your mission. Go on a mission.

            We have one progressing investigator. her name is florencia. we were.. haha talking to a drunk guy and we told him we were missionaries and florencia popped out of no where and was like.. what your missionaries. come to my house now and pray for me. after we prayed she wanted to give us a hundred dollar bill. i didnt want to inhearet namens lepresy for taking credit of what the lord does. so we didnt take the money. she is a sweet little lady that is from quatamala. the very next day she was at church. we are teaching her and her family everyday now. we have another investigator named Rubi. she was taught two years ago and she was not being taught anymore because she has to be married before she can be baptized. so we found her and ya she is still not married but she wants to be baptized. she is a sweet person and keep all of the commitments we give her. two weeks ago i met this man named juan paredes and he was drunk. i didnt think that he really remembered us. but we tryed contacting him this week and we recieved news he was in the hospital. we went to the hospital and translated for the nurses. he was so dehydrated his kidneys stared to fail. he is fine now. we have taught him a few times. 

          We went out to luiz hernandez (less active member) and taught his friend. after the lesson he wanted to take us to a chinese buffet. ya we ate alot. hispanics are very generous. we had a compitition who could eat the most sushi. i am hitting another growthspirt so i won. i ate 18 rols of sushi. it was sooooooooooooo good. i love sushi. we were told that each of the susi rolls had about 400 calories. so i consumed about 7200 calories in a matter of 20 minutes. haha i am so dumb. o well. i am loving it in texas. so the hottest it got this week when i checked was 111 degrees. at that point its not hot. it is just literaly crying with swet. if anyone would like to test how hot is is. but boil a pan of water and put your head 5 feet above the pan. ya its hot and humid. nothing really crazy happend this week. but i am now 6' 1'' and 160 pounds. ya its  sweet. thanks for all of your prayer and letters. my address is still the same. have fun this week in the cool idaho and utah and mexican weather. i will take the heat for all y'all. if anyone needs anything tell me and i will do my best. thanks and take care family and friends.

Dear Family,

its pretty warm outside.... this week we found alot of people to teach. i am supprised how fast i am learning spanish. transfer calls were this morning. elder jones is getting transfered to fort worth and i am staying in lewisville. my new companions name is elder galvez. we are not exchanging till wednesday. i will be the jr. companion. elder galvez is from peru and he speaks alright english.

 

so besides all of the heat, this week we taught 10 lessons. we are very consistant. we are teaching this man named emilio and he thinks its very funny to make fun of me and laugh. but its ok because i know he is just joking around. he is not progressing but he loves learning and talking with us. we are teaching another man who has a desire to be baptised. his name is raul. he is progressing and reading the book of mormon and praying. he had a baptism date but we had to bump it back. Emilia, she is a jehovah's witness. she loves learning but will not come to church. she prays beautifully. the rodriquez family is sweet. i love them. but the daughters boyfriend is a penacostal. ya its kinda weird. and finally olivia reyes. she is from honduras. ya she is a golden investigator. enough said.

 

 

so besides all of the heat i am doing very well. i love the mission and i am learning alot. this weeks sweet and crazy times. elder erickson (an elder in our district) got hit by a car and nothing happened to him. i salvaged his bike and took off all the parts that were good. when i was taking the bike apart it was mangled and beat up. he is lucky to be alive. ya we get yelled at all of the time. sometimes good most of the time good. but it is funny that some people swear at us. i love it. our branch covers three stakes. and two of the stakes are outside of our mission. so we can not go to the other mission to eat. so that leaves us with about 5 members in our area. its kinda hard but o well. not my will but the lord's. i am going on a beans and rice eating spree. because they are cheap and i love them to death.

Hello Family. So i have an analogy. so my goals for a missioin is an arrow. >>-----> ok there is a point on the arrow that narrows my goals. the point represents my 20 lessons a week and my 3 baptisms a month. that is my goal. i pierce with the tip. but the back of the arrow head is the killing force. i need to make sure my lessons are leading to baptisms and not just lessons. the stick of the arrow is to make my goal long lasting. and the feathers of my arrow is to make my goals fly and get to the destination safe and acuate. the feathers represent my obedience and willingness to serve.

Ok so this week we taught a total of 11 lessons! i was a little bummed. but that is a good number. we are teaching alot of people. i love the mission. we are teaching a family of like 8 the rodriques family. Albert, Joe, Luiz, Raul, Emilio, Emilia. ya they are all of our main investigators. so transfers are in a week. i will no longer be being trained. i will no longer be green. ya so they are starting to issue ipads to missionaries to further the work of the lord. i am hoping i get one. that would be sweet.

we found a few cucurachas (cockroages) in our appartment. they are huge. ya i hate them. we found a huge sign that says Crazy Joe's hotdogs. ya its in out apartment.

so i am doing good. i am not dead yet. it was 121 degrees. ya that was in out car. it was really only 111. so those are my main thoughts and things that i love. this is my favorite chapter in the BOM. alma chapter 37. if anyone wants to read it. ya it will be sweet. thanks for all of your support.

Elder Dillon Glen Allen

Hello family and Friends,

             Texas had good weather this week. it was only about 95. The humidity was bad this week. it was very humid and holy cow its a different feeling. so we helped out this man named julio. we dug up three trunks in the matter of ya an hour. so we went into his house and he had a life size virgin mary in their living room. ya it was funny. we said an opening prayer and they clapped and cheered for us. ya it was weird. then after the lesson they gave us like eight different sauces. ya then they invited us to eat with them. it was sweet. tuesday elder jones got food poisoning from some kind of food. ya i just chilled in the apartment and i realized how boring it is if you do not work. it sucked. well we made the long travel to highland to teach some guy named joe. we are also having a barbecue tonight with a member and joe will be their. this week was fun. we taught 12 lessons. it was sweet. well that was a little bit of my week. have fun family and remember........... the church is true.

So this week was sweet. we did alot. we had 3 member present lesson in members houses. ya it was cool. so we got a referall and this dude is just perfect. his name is raul martin trajullo. ya he is being baptized august 4th. its going to be perfect. so we got alot done. we had three other lessons. and one baptism date and one progressing investigator and one person at church. so it was a pretty cool week. i am on email at 10 am your time if you want to talk!!

So this week was the slowest week we have had. we worked hard but nothing happened. it is kinda a bummer. but o well. so there is nothing really that happened this week. we are just working hard and helping the work of the lord progress. so whats up with everyone? dont really hear much.

The weeks are blending together

So i had a dream last night that i was done with my mission. well i am going to work hard because its coming sooner than i expect. i am so just over excited to be here. i love the mission. i am so glad i have the opportunity to be here. so i love hearing from people by email and by letters. thank you so much everyone. the support from home really helps. so how is everyone? i am very curious if most of my family is alive. i can see how paden felt the first year and a half while i didnt write him. well besides all of the drama. whats new. is wyatt alive? haha of course he is. WRITE ME. i will write back. i have been lazy but i wrote 4 letters today. well things here in texas are sweet. i love it! the other day we counted how many ford mustangs we saw during the day. without passing by a dealership we saw and counted 126 mustangs. ya its the universal hispanic car. haha so we still have a baptism date for Jose Fuentez and he is sweet. he brings a friend with him to every lesson. we are teaching him and like 6 of his friends. we have this investigator named albert. you would have to meet him to tell what he is like. he is an awesome person. he feeds us carniasada everytime we go over there. Ya thats pretty much all of the week. so happy fathers day all you dads. i am glad that you loved Sister Serrato called you. she offered and i excepted. she speaks very good english. most of the hispanics do and they like to talk in english but i only talk to them is spanish :) so whats new with everyone? i wanna know. i will take some pictures this week. but holy crap i have gained alot of weight. i am 165 and i am getting taller. so ya. do not be supprized if i look a little chubby in the face. haha its not that bad!  well have fun everyone!