I love Walkerton!

hAha! Its been such a great week! I am loving it here in Walkerton! Its a huge area and full of adventures! I found my new favorite shop in a little town called Mildmay. It is called the Cheese Haus! I have grown a love of cheese lately and really don't know where it came from, its getting to the point where I think it might be an addiction! I gave a talk in sacrament meeting this week! Wow now that was something, so I wrote this talk but when the time came for me to give it I started out in a different way and gave a completely different talk! I gave the talk on the importance of member missionary work! Us missionaries are not suppose to be finders anymore but to be teachers and the members are to be the finders! The prophets and apostles having been calling to the members of the church to be better missionaries in the everyday life for 51 years now! It started with David O. Mckay! Anyways, It was amazing because I don't think I could have ever written a talk like that! It is such a blessing to have this spirit guiding me in action and in words! I love being a missionary! I know this work I am doing to be the most important thing for me to do!
Erica is doing great, by my next letter she will have been baptized! She gets baptized this Sunday! Its so exciting to see her change! She has become very active in the activities committee in the Branch! We have found many more people to teach! We have a long list of potential investigators! We also had a very special moment happen this week! There is a Lady know through out the mission as a tough one to crack! She is very hard to get to work with the missionaries! She puts on this nativity thing at our building that is open to the public and is world known! With thousands of people coming to see it. Idk google Walkerton Nativity! You will prob find it! Anyways during this Nativity she keeps missionaries away because she doesn't want it to be a finding tool for us! However this week she opened up to us! She told us of how she brought some of her friends to the missionaries years back and how they shattered her trust! She then went to say that, every time she hears me sing its like an angel singing and that Elder Peck and I carry such a sweet spirit with us! And that she has some friends she wants us to meet and possibly teach! I almost broke down in tears at this moment! I know personally I have been working so hard to get to the heart of this lady all last transfer and oh what a blessing it is to have been worthy of her trust! We have a fun relationship she plays the organ and I direct for Sacrament meeting so we communicate on the music very often! She is an older lady who I just found out went on a mission herself. So now with the trust of the branch I know there will be more miracles heading towards this branch and just hope I am lucky enough to witness it!
This week was rough though we did spend 26 hours tracting this week! We did find some people to add in our teaching pool! Thanks for all the support, I love you all!
Elder Allen

End of transfer wrap up...

This week was great we finished the transfer with a bang! We started Erica on the non smoking workshop and she hasn't smoked in a week! She is such an amazing lady! We worked hard all week! We had a day of deep clean where we spent most of the day cleaning all around the apartment! Its so amazing at the feel of the Spirit in a clean home! We had interviews with President Middleton and those where great. He had me teach him the first lesson and then gave me some pointers on how to welcome the spirit even more in! My chest is doing good. It was a cause of stress but through relaxing breathing every morning and night I am doing much better! I am glad to say I will be spending another great transfer here in the Walkerton Branch with the wonderful companion of mine Elder Peck! This week we have members lined up to feed us and we have a potential investigator we are going to meet with that I have a feeling is an answer to my prayers! I am loving it here in Canada, my face is still smooth I have coco butter I put on it and chapstick in my pockets to protect me from the killer wind that cuts through you all the way to the bone! Oh and today I cut my hair, and decided to trim my eyebrows, because my wonderful girlfriend Shanel decided to wax them before I left on my mission and they grew back crazy! So while trimming them the shaver hit the comb weird and sent it out of my hand and the razor onto my eye brow so now I have half of my left eyebrow gone! Thank goodness for pens! HAHA! Hopefully it will only take a transfer for that to grow back! I just finished chapter 3 this week, been studying that the whole time, now its time to repeat it! I love studying! This is a new found joy! Oh yeah yesterday was a Canadian holiday called Family Day, hence why I am writing on Tuesday. Everything closes for Family Day! Well it was a great week. Hope you all are doing well! I love you and thanks for all the support!
Elder Allen

This week has been hard...

I have been having really bad chest pains. Like knives in the bottom of my lungs. It was also the second week in a row without a new investigator but, yeah so I am a little down. I am now working with the mission doctor about my chest pains, looks like my asthma might be back. I think it is because of the cigarette smoke all over in the homes I have been in. The camera is great, although it only holds three pictures because there was no memory card, and I don't have the money to get one so I take tree pictures a week. I haven't got any letters from home yet, hopefully they will come. the reason I like those is I only get email once a week but letters can come anytime. Oh Erica's baptismal date might be pushed back, we can't get a hold of her. She is missing, and we still need to get her to stop smoking. Hm yeah I don't know. I am loving studying time. I love to study, I love the gospel! I have to give a talk in two weeks, If I am still in Walkerton, next Monday I will know for sure where I am going. Hopefully next weeks letter will be a little bit better to read. Sorry I am really not feeling to good. I love you guys, take care!
Elder Allen

Another great week in "Rock-er-ton"

Great week, we had a huge snow storm, over a foot of snow! It was great! Way fun tracting in it! I love my boots! I just go right through the snow, the people laugh at us going through their yard, its a great conversation starter. We didn't get any new Investigators this week yet we do have many appointments for this week. The killer is the wind on your face! Its like a knife to your face! Another fun thing to do is helping people getting out of the snow. The fields are all white! haha! Snow mobiles are everywhere and its fun to see people riding around on them! One thing I really got into this week was reading great talks! I love studying the gospel, its amazing to see all that the Lord has given to us.
This week I have gained a testimony of blessings! As we keep the Lord Commandments He blesses us. He want us to do it, all we need to do is ask for the help. This week I got a bad cold, I woke up with no energy, I would say a prayer for help in doing the work. It was such an amazing thing as right when we get out and are doing the work, I get so much energy I don't know what to do with it, yet then when we return to the apartment the energy is gone and I feel horrible! However, that is all behind I am doing great now and loving the snow, by the way its still snowing!
Erica! She is back in the game, she has such a hunger for the gospel! She is almost done with the Book of Mormon, and already has a testimony of it. She attended church for the first time yesterday! She jumped right into it! She did bring up the question about the Word of Wisdom, we told her all about it. Her reply was ok I am fine with drinking water! She does have a smoking problem, two packs a day, $500 a month! Yet she wants to stop and she starts the 15 steps 7 days to stop smoking program tomorrow! She has also set a baptismal date for Feb 28 2010! This is a month away and she has a lot of work, if you could just keep her in your prayers!
Thank you for all you do and for your support!
Elder Derek Allen

Lovin' every minute

wow, it was a little slow this week. Erica committed to go to church! We gave her a tour Sat afternoon however she was a no show when Sunday came around. This week we didn't get a lot of finding hours in we only got 21, yeah we had to clean out a bap. font! So there is a lady in our branch who is a floralist, and every year she puts on a nativity display with over 3,000 nativities at the branch building and they open it to the public to come and see for free. well they put boards over the font and decided to use that as a closet space to store this stuff! yeah, we had a long talk with her and told her that in order for baptisms to occur we need to show our Heavenly Father that we are ready for them, and by that actually having a font ready to use! Yeah crazy its been like that for two years! So we tore up the boards covering the font, 23 screws we had to screw out! then there were 6 spiders and spider webs in the font and the chain was rusted over! so we did a deep scour on the font one day and found another place to store the nativity supplies! Investigator wise we did find one new one this week. Her name is Melinda, we met her on the street. She was just let out of Jail and lives an hour away, yet her family told her they were not coming to get her. She was really down. Elder Peck and I just went to a mail drop place that was way far from were we wanted to go, but idk the spirit was guiding us, because after the mail was dropped off we came across Melinda (18) on the curb crying. I went and sat next to her and asked her if she was ok, dumb question! She replied are you serious. Well then she told us about how she was arrested and how her life is so bad, she then asked what we were. We shared the we are representatives of Jesus Christ. Well, as it came we went to Coffee Coulture (Canada's Starbucks) and taught her the first lesson. We also taught her about Christ and his atonement, which touched her so much, to know that she had an older brother who was perfect and took upon him all of her sins and died for her. That is was possible for her to be clean again! As she said she has never been so lost and yet so found in her entire life. Here she was stranded in the middle of nowhere, knowing nothing about where she was and didn't know how to get home, yet found the love of Jesus Christ. We left her with a Book of Mormon, which made her cry when we told her it was free. I wish there could be more to this story but that afternoon, we were to meet her in the library, yet she was a no show and we have no idea where she is now! Calvin is still meeting with us but taking it slow, Pedro is taking his time its so hard with us not being able to communicate that well. Yet once again it was a great week! Lots of blessings! Hope you all are doing great! I love you all, and thank you for your support.
Elder Derek Allen

A Great Week

Wow, way to to make me cry in the library, poor Elder Peck he thought someone died! I am doing good, I bought most of the warmth I could get! I am sending pictures this week, show them to Shanel because I am not sending her all of them and not sure if she would want some of them! Trying to get everything going still, Its hard opening a new area. Oh my shoes broke, I am taking them in to get repaired though!
This week was great, I don't think its possible for a bad week out here! Walkerton and Hanover are the place we spend most of our time! Its so great to see peopele come unto Christ. Erica... yeah she is still sick, we meet with her tomorrow, but IDK she may get dropped! Pedro, he is our Third investigator, loves us! He watched the Restoration DVD and loved it and has been showing it to all 13 Thia men in his house. We just got a Book of Mormon in Thia at Zone Conference yesterday! I am so excited to give it to him. We have 3 new investigators, who are just amazing. Sheryl is a DJ at the radio station here in Hanover, we taught here right there in the radio booth, way cool. Maybe next time we will be able to get on air with her and teach Ontario the wonderful and amazing message of the restoration. The members are great here I love them all, they keep us well fed! I am fed some form of Beef and Potatoes every day! Haha! But its ok, trick to cooking ribs is soak them in the slow cooker with apple juice, apple juice makes the meat moist! next Invest. is Feranda, she is a single mother who lives by the church, she found us, she says she isn't interested but she is always asking more and tells us through her questions she is searching, we just have to wait for her to realize we got what she is looking for! The last one in Calvin, we came to his door on Sat. it was the messiest house ever, just think of Kurtis' house before it was cleaned and times it by 50! This guy had trash everywhere, walls were falling apart, his dog and cat went to the bathroom everywhere! I had dried dog poop next to my feet when we were giving him the lesson. He was in his boxers and there were really bad pictures of him and his girlfriend all over his fridge. Yet last night at 7 we met with him once again, and wow the spirit was so strong this time. His house was clean his walls where looking good, pictures were gone and he was cleaned up! We are teaching him once more tomorrow, He was also committed to baptism last night. Our goal is to have a date by Sunday and to have him there at church! Elder Peck and I are doing great, having a great time walking little old downtowns and talking to people and tracting, there are so many lost sheep out here and we are working all we can with the spirit, because its the lords work and his glory we are just his tools, it is through him that all we do is possible and I am so grateful to be a part of his work!
2 Nephi 7:5-7 though times get hard I am working for the lord and am called of the lord and I know he will protect em and be with me through all that happens. I am not ashamed to Be a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a rep of our Savior Jesus Christ, my elder brother! I love you all and am so grateful for your support. God be with you tell we meet again!
Elder Allen

Some pics from my first week.

As soon as I get emails from Derek, I will post them on here.
I haven't been receiving the forwarded emails...
However, here are some pics I received...

Here is Derek freezing his hiney off, with Lake Huron in the background.

Here is Derek with his trainer, Elder Peck, in the mission home.

Here is Derek with his President and President's Wife in the mission home.