Another Freezing Week

Wow, it is now the coldest time of the winter! And of course I am as far North as we go here in the Canada Toronto West Mission. We also have a very large area, in which some areas you have to take a train to get to, others you have to jump on a plane. However Elder Stacey and I will not be getting on the polar bear express or on a plane, as far as I know, however there was another town two hours north of us we did go visit this week! It was a great trip that turned out well. We went to a town called kapuskasing, were there were 11 less active families! Most of which were part member families! It was fun talking to them, most of them want us to come back and teach the rest of their families. Hopefully we will get some more kilometers so we can! It has been really cold so we taught a lot of members, and had a few hours of finding, but over all it was way fun! Hope all is well for everyone else!
Love,
Elder Derek Allen

A great Week in Timmins

Wow Timmins is starting to grow and i am not sure if I am ready! The Lord's work is now moving forward and we are teaching a whole lot of (9) fun people. We met this group of young friends who thought we were just crazy for being out knocking on doors at -40, they they hurried us inside, and we had a good talk. they gave us a great compliment saying they have talked to missionaries before, but they seemed like they were just throwing stuff at them, and how they like how we actually talked to them! We are meeting with all three of them this week on Saturday! Elder Stacey is doing good, he is a little shy at times, but is becoming more bold all ready! He listens and is not afraid to try new things. I really think that is all Timmins needs is a little bit of a spin, so we thought of how we can do this and stay warm at the same time. Sense it is like -40 up here right now! Well here in Timmins there are a lot of members, but few people who come to church. A lot of the people that don't come to church are in a part member family! So we have created a drop by binder of part member and former investigators and we do just that all day. Drop by a bunch of people, then of course to meet someone new we knock on the door to the right. We started that just on Saturday and we ended up gaining four new investigators. It is coming mostly from the extra effort of talking to everyone we see as we are dropping by. Its as if the Lord knows we are going to be by this house at this time and puts someone there. Well on Saturday I finally gave up and called Sister Carroll about my hemorrhoids that were not getting better, so i went to the hospital, a thing I hate doing, because it is a waste of finding, so i prayed about if I should go and asked Elder Stacey for a blessing, but the prompting came loud and clear, that I needed to be going to the hospital. So we went to the ER and in the waiting room we see a inactive member who we have been trying to get in contact with. He married a non member and has two non member kids! So we talked in the little time we had, just friendly chit chat, then he got called in, and I felt like hitting myself in the face for not setting up an appointment, so i prayed for a second chance. I was then called in, and was places in a room and on the other side of the curtain was this non active member. So while waiting for the doctor I started talking to him about his scripture reading and prayers. He said he needs to to better, so we talked about why its so important to read your scriptures and to pray everyday, and I asked, "Will you do it this week?" he replied, "yes, yes I will" Then I followed up with to see when we can come over and visit with his whole family and he loved the Idea and we are going over this week to meet his whole family! The Lord really does lead this work. The doctors appointment was pretty pointless for me, he just gave me meds that I already had and sent me on my way but I was able to talk to someone that I needed to talk to. Ok so a funny story now, we were dropping by someone that was investigatoing the church 4 years ago, we didnt think they lived there anymore, but decided to try anyways. Our knock was answered by this native woman who rushed us into her house, as Elder Stacey was trying to take off his boots, she hollered at us to not be scared and sit in the living room. Now being way confused, she then sayed I need you here now, for Satan is in my home right now! Then went on to tell us how her daughter and her boyfriend were fornicating in her house and how she was kicking them out because it was a bad thing to do! i then saw a poor little baby and a toddler who where kids of these two adults getting kicked out of the house. My heart then became sad. I asked the daughter if we could help in anywhay and she said my mother would not like it all if oyu helped me! Knowing now we were in a bad situation I knew we had to get out but this woman would not let us out. my poor companion looked freaked out. Especially when the woman called the cops to get her daughter and boyfriend out of her house. In my mind I am thinking great now the cops are going to show up and we are stuck in this crazy house! So we kindly told the lady we had to go, hoping there would be tender mercy to let us free of this mess, however she replied no you are going to sit down and read me something from the bible! So we sat down and read the last chapter in proverbs! Hahaha, sorry I shouldn't laugh! Anyways the cop shows up and he says we can leave and we are thankful, but however this woman would not let us go, finally she was loosing it and we took the chance to give her a pass-along card and slide out the door! Pretty crazy, eh! My studies are going great I feel though, I am learning my purpose as a missionary and ready to do anything the Lord has for me to do. Well thank you for your time in reading this, I love you and have a great week!
Elder Derek Allen

Moving North - - -

To:
momof6boys@ymail.com
Well Elder Omer and I had a great last week together. We had another person baptized. Can, he also got the Aaronic Priesthood. We did a lot of Chinese tracting, and found a lot of new investigators. So due to the fact Elder Allen knows no Chinese he is getting the boot to way up North to Timmins the most north area of the mission! So I will probably freeze. We went to Niagara Falls last week so my stay here wasn't in vain I got a picture of the falls. Plus I made Chinese friends. I decided I hate goodbyes too. Told a recent convert I was leaving and had to hear her cry, its so sad you make such great friends and then off you go. I miss the Tas so much and I am going to miss Sue too. They are such good friends and I will probably write them often. I got a great package from my mother! And I have been reading the books she sent me, they are a good read I read during my spare time. 30 min at meals and then an hour at night. I should almost be done with the first book today or if not after my long trip up north. Sad thing is now I have to drive again. And I don't think president listened to me when I asked not to drive in the winter! oh so up in timmens I am going to be follow up training. So that should be way fun.... Maybe there I can send pictures so that will be exciting you will be able to see pictures again. As for packages and stuff just send them to mission office for now. I don't know the address for my new home. All I know is its going to take 12 hours to drive there!
Well tell next time.
Elder Allen
P.S, sorry for my horrible skills at writing back to people i have been busy but I woke up early to pack this morning so I can write everyone back today! i love you all look forward to hearing from you

St. Catharines

Well this week has been great. We found six new people who wanted to learn more. Well it is hard not to just jump into work with elder Omer its great to be serving with him. Our first night here we had about 20 min. Tell we had to be in so rather then me unpacking we went staight to work. we went to what I thought was the middle of no where and we go to the street and see a person walking our way abnd he turned out to be chinese and ainvited us over to his house right then to teach him. yet that didnt turn out to be so hot, but it did turn out to be useful Eldedr Omer taught him in chinese about prayer. Then the next day we met up with him again and he brought two friends along with him! Oh yeah so I am the English missionary and Elder Omer is the Chinese, so we teach a lot. Sad story is we have way more chinese investigators then English. Mostly cuz we are on campus a whole lot where we are not suppose to be and he can contact in chinese cuz no one knows what he is saying so I just do nothing. I do laugh with the suprized chinese people at this goofy blonde hair blue eye missionary speaking nearly flawless chinese. I was talking to one this week and he told me my companion speaks better chinese then most chinese! We also picked up a new English investigator this week too, he is from Clagary. He said he knew some friends that were members but they never told him anything about the church. It made me think about how much I shared with my friends. its sad that we dont really know who is interested, but we sometime put no in their mouths for them. Progressing we have two china. Can who is getting baptized on Sunday as of right now, but as Elder Omer and I talked about it we think it would be good to push it back, so we can have time to really teach him everything else. Then we have Jamie who is a sweet girl who just seems so elect, but has a few hard struggles but she loves the prayer thing. She is just so good at it. The first time I met here she was like really excited about how she prayed and how it helped her. Its one of the best feelings to see people come closer to God. And well we had a great baptism this week, Su! She is just really amazing girl. She is going to be a great missionary someday. The night of her baptism we left it to go downtown to contact and she calls saying she just saw us and wanted us to come over. So we went to the bus stop and were talking when some people walked by who we contacted and she chipped in her testimony and how listening to us has improved her life so much. Then the next day she was confirmed and we were teaching like 3 people at the school library and she was there and joined us for a lesson. Then the person who we were teaching asked if we had any commandments and Su just says, yes we do but we are not talking about that today, maybe another time. Here she handdled it so well, like she studding PMG herself!
I am doing great with Elder Omer. he is really fun to serve with. And to be honest I love being Junior again! :) In his Language study I spend the hour cleaning our apartment which is really bad. I am just trying to get rid of the mold and gunk that is everywhere in the apartment. Today we are going to look for a new apartment though .I am learning a lot from Elder Omer, and I am working on my listening too. Well not just my listening but my body language in my listening. i am the worst at matching my body language to my feelings I almost feel sorry for those I talk to.
In my studies I started a new study of the Book of Mormon. I am marking a whole lot so my reading is going way slow. I started at the begging but I do that for the first 30 min then look at a lesson we are teaching that day and it takes me to a chapter in the Book of Mormon then I read that chapter and that normally takes me to the end of my study! Hopefully I can get the apartment clean this week so I can just extend my study during Elder Omer's Language study.
Well hope you enjoy my week as much as I did. Love you all!
Elder Allen

A new chaper

So Pawsay was Baptized this weekend in Kitchner with her friends there to join and support her. I am going to miss th Ta family so much. Another thing touched me this week and that was the sacrifice done by the Woodstock Branch. We really have amazing members here that help the missionaries so much. Brother Leigh has really stepped up to his calling with everything and is helping the work go forward. Sister Jones is just a fun lady, and is the perfect young woman's president. And she is a great help to us and the young women we are teaching here, Tamlasay and the Francis girls. And the Gomez family, a family who knows who they are. They understand the role of our father in heaven and will do anything it seems like to help investigators come closer to Christ. They sacrificed more then anyone could have every asked for this week to help Pawsay's baptism take place! Without them I don't know if it could have gone as well. So I wanted to thank them. Yet as much as I love this area, it is time for me to say goodbye.
I got a call from president this morning telling me it was time to pack my bags and i was departing this evening. Not sure who or how I am going to tell anyone, but It is here. There is a lot happening here and I know Elder Brown will do great carrying it forward. So as for me I am heading to the Hamilton Zone into a nice ward in St. Catharines Ontario, right by Niagara Falls. I will be serving Zebra, by that I mean my companion is a Chinese missionary and i will still be English, way fun if you ask me. I am way excited to see what the Lord has planned for me there. Oh yeah I also put in a picture of our district with a Zone Leader on the far left.
Hope you enjoy the Baptismal pictures. I love you all.
Love,
Elder Allen

80 Rockwood Ave 301B
St. Catharines, ONT L2P 3P2

What a Week!

Well ok so the Karen field is so white here and Paw Say is getting baptized this Sunday and we have about 8 others who are so ready, but just wont set themselves to do it yet. So we had a fun trip to Kitchner and we taught over 40 Karen people and then went home I added some pictures of it today! hope you enjoy them. I love these people so much and hope to be able to have enough money saved up to go back to Thailand with my Ta family in 2012, then refer some more friends I make there to the great missionaries in Thailand. Christmas is coming so soon and I am just way excited! The weather is getting cold, I brought out the scarf yesterday! We also came across this loaded community that gate was left open so we went tracting in there for an hour, wow, those houses where huge! We also had a great Zone Conference this week, It was mostly ran by the assistants, and was such a wonderful meeting. Also we went to the rememberance day service and that was way fun so I put some pictures from that on here too! Next week there will be white! :)
I love you all, and hope you have a great week.
Love,
Elder Allen

Birthday Celebrations

So much to tell, a few things I will leave out this week... in hopes my wishes come true and I will share it with you then and it will be one big great surprise. Well the week started off slow, then my birthday came up and I went to the Ta's where I think I had my second best birthday of all times the first one of course would be the one I had at home with Aunt Paula, My wonderful grandparents, my parents and of course the best brothers of all, and dont forget Rigo! However at the Ta's ma Paw Say made me a great Thai Spaghetti for my dinner and then we brought out the cake! Which of course was so good. Ta Mla Say got mad at me for not being happy, I really do stink at being happy when its all about me! Yet I put on the happy thankful face and we had a great time! After the cake we opened my presents. I had a new hat made by Paw Say and I got a new purple shirt from Karen State(look it up, its the best place on Earth). Then as is custom They had the singing time and we went around singing songs of worship! I have never had the Spirit at my Birthday Party like this one. And probably the best of all Paw Say asked me to Baptize her this month! :) So life is going great. Thank you all so much for everything you have been doing for me I love you all!

Love,
Elder Allen