Pictures!!!!!

This week was great. Erica was Baptized and oh it was so good to see her do it. There is just so much joy when I was singing "when I am Baptized" and seeing tears in her eyes and not just hers. but to see the Spirit of truth touch her daughter and Grand- daughter too. The Spirit was so strong there at her baptism. It was just such a blessing to our prayers. Also Sam brought his girlfriend who isn't a member to church too! Ah what a great way to end a transfer. Even better I was able to talk to home on the phone yesterday it was great to talk to my family again. Now its picture time. Ok so half of these are at the Farm we work at on Wednesdays. This week the District Leader was traveling me, so he is there instead of the wonderful Elder Bishop. Other ones are random pictures taken.

Love you guys!
-Elder Allen

Well this week was tough, we pushed through everything though. I went to the doctors this week and that was crazy but as it turns out I have an infection and I have to treat it for the next 21 days! Ok so the fun story for this week is once again on the farm. We get there thinking we would be finishing the hedge only to find out that we are instead cleaning out horse stalls! And not just any horse a Stallion! We had to prepare the green house with new fertilizer which come from the horse stall! Wow this stuff was beyond smelly it was horid! Yet it needed to be done. this week is going to be fun though we will be having a movie time at the farm, he is going to make pizza and we are going to watch the restoration and eat pizza! Hahaha! Ah yeah we didnt find anyone new to teach really, but Erica is getting Baptized on Sunday and plus I get to call home. It will be mothers day! Happy Mothers Day everyone. Oh this is also the last week of this transfer, but I dont think I will be leaving anytime soon!

Love,

Elder Allen

A poem for my Mother

My Mother
You suffered in the beginning to bring me into the world...
Why? Because you loved me from the start.
You still kept me around even through all my young fits...
Why? because you knew I was young and you still loved me.
You listen to my learning mind when I always asked what if...
Why Because you wanted me to learn and become something you knew I could be.
You punished me when acting up, even though it hurt you to see me hurt...
Why? Because you wanted me to become a respectable man one day.
You got mad at me when inhaling my food at the dinner table...
Why? You wanted me to have manners so one day I could find a wife.
You gave me advice on dating, even though I sometimes didn't listen...
Why? You wanted me to be worthy to take a daughter of God to the temple.
My mother, my mother...I will honor you forever. . .
Why? you did so much for me, and well mom, I love you!

Two Weeks of Wonderful...

Ok so I will try to get this all in, if only I was a better typer! Ok so this is just great. The day after my last blog entry we went to a Farm where we've worked every Wednesday since then. At the Farm we trimmed hedges. And Mitchell the guy we have been trying to get in contact was there! Sweet! Well, we spent about 2 hours trimming the cedars he wanted us to trim. We only got one side done! Then we were called in for lunch by the dinner bell. Holy smokes I love farms! running in for our feast we find everyone in the kitchen. It was a huge old farm house table with nice table settings. Well we sit down and have a feast, with potatoes that were out of this world and steak, veggies, and a salad! Oh my was it good. There were 8 adults besides Elder Bishop and I and two little kids! Some of the farm hands look like the were from the 1820s! Then in the middle of the the meal questions come up. Elder Bishop and I had the chance to answer the question, which led into the first discussion. It was great teaching so many people at once the ideal teaching situation with them asking questions and it being an enlightening conversation instead of a lecture from the missionaries! There was however one point when the majority of the crowd got a little disrespectful to the topic at which we were discussing. Then to our surprise Mitchell calls everyone to be quite and tells them they are out of line. My insides jump for joy, to see someone showing respect for the amazing message of truth we share. Well the lesson went well and Mitchell actually asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon, because he wanted to do just what we invited to read and pray about it! We left them 3 copies of the Book of Mormon and an intro to the church DVD. It went well and we were very uplifted for the rest of the day. Thursday was a down day we really didn't get much done, we had horrible planning and did our weekly planning pretty much all day! Friday was District meeting! Out here in the mission we are given areas to cover and 2-4 areas make up a district. so we met with the other missionaries and I gave a lesson on finding when we teach, teaching when we find! This meaning when we are walking around talking to people we are teaching them right then and there something that applies to them, for this being the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and we all being children of God it is so easy to do. Then other part of it the finding when we teach, is the hard thing, asking people we teach if they know of others who can use the message we share. We then went to Port Elgin, the northern part of our area. there we taught Sally and her Mom, the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) with Brother Vickers who took us out to eat after the lesson to a place called Craby Joe's. There I had a wonderful T-bone steak. Saturday it was crazy it snowed! Ugh I thought I was all done with that stuff! Anyways it took more than that to keep Elder Bishop and I away! We headed over to the Franklins where we chopped wood, Wow what a work out my back was hurting for days after that! I was splitting logs for two hours! We then went down to work in Clifford, yet Elder Bishop had to use the washroom so we stopped at the Kebicks who let us in and bless Sister Kebick seeing us all bundled up made us some Hot Cocoa, with marshmellows of course! Then we went tracting in the the area for a while, then back to the Kebicks, because brother Kebick was coming to our next appointment! Our next appointment was way far down south part of our bondaries in a little town called Moorefield. Back at the Kebicks sister Kebick had wonderful soup waiting for us. She also told me to bring my pants back the next day so she could fix them, so my blue suit is all good now, my black suit needs new pants, they split one day when I was going down to say a prayer... awkward! Well in Moorefield we met with a mother and her daughter, the daughter seemed to be realizing what we were talking about more then the mom. The appointment however went for an hour! Church was great, I love Choir practice we sang great music with wonderful tenor lines! Then after church we went back to the Kebicks for a wonderful supper, that got all over me! Ugh now I need to take my suit to the dry cleaners! Monday I went in to email and well the computer deleted my blog entry. My preparation day was back to normal I was able to get letters in the mail made a few cards and started on an explosion box of favorite pictures and quotes for the Kebicks as a thank you for fixing my suits! At six we went to the Staff's home to get Erica back on the stop smoking program, I am proud to say she has stopped again and is set to be Baptized on Mothers day, so I will be able to tell my mom all about it then on the phone. On Tuesday we went to one of the families in our branch to help take down an electric fence that is around the Llamas! Things I do on my mission I tell you! We then ran home to change then went to talk to Erica! Who was doing great! Then we went to another Farm home for supper! I dont remember what we ate but I do remember there was fuzz coming off the salt shaker top... where the salt was suppose to come out! Haha! Oh boy! All of our appointments bombed for the rest of the day so we set up another one in Walkerton. There we taught a great lesson to this lady, who wanted to talk to her husband about meeting with us again. Wednesday was another fun day on Mitchell's Farm we finished the other side of the hedge. We didnt get much teaching in. We did find out that the workers are half and half on our message and they talk about what we teach with each other when we are not there! So, that is great! Then that night we taught the young man how to make a Mr. Noodle stir fry! Thursday we went to Port Elgin, where we met with a bunch of families! Friday was a finding day! We didnt have any appointments set so we just went out among the people! Saturday we met with the Mom and daughter once again which went great, it was there that the spirit confirmed my thoughts on the mother and daughter. The mother is not getting what we are teaching and the importance of the message but the daughter is and is showing signs of progression. Sunday we taught a lesson with a new Investigator! It was a great week, whew! I got it all in, well most of it! Hope you all are doing well too!

The Book of Mormon

Out here in the mission field we are given this wonderful book, evidence of Joseph Smith's calling, something anyone can hold in their hand, read, and ponder about. I know the Book of Mormon to be true scripture from God! I, along with millions of others around the world, have had that witness of its truth from the Holy Ghost. The Book of Mormon has that power to convert any mind and to strengthen any testimony. Its is one of the only books worth re-reading in the world! There is no way to have a shattered testimony while reading it daily. If there is one thing I have found in common with the people that go inactive at church is they stop reading it! For it would be impossible to leave the church with reading it! It is the strongest tool in the Lord's work! And I promise anyone who is reading this that if they have a desire to come closer to Christ and read this book they will come to know that He is their Savior. That they will grow a greater love and they will know that he has restored his church again on the earth through a prophet today!
This week I finished my reading of the Book of Mormon. It was amazing with over 7,000 references to Christ, its easy to call it "Another Testament of Jesus Christ"! This week has been really fun, we did get two new investigators last week and yesterday we gained two more on the way back from Kitchner, where we had an amazing Zone Conference. OK, so last week we went to a little town south of where we live to drop by a less active member who we wanted to visit, only to find he wasn't home and actually moved out a month ago. So we started walking the area, looking for people to teach. When we cam across a man working on his Cadillac, named Troy. We got to talking to Troy and he didn't seem too interested. Then we asked if he has ever had the chance to read the Book of Mormon, he jumped off his car stool and brushed his clothes and hands off and started heading to the door. He told us to follow him and teach him about it! Elder Bishop and I looked at each other, smiled, and went inside. We talked to him and his wife Janice about the wonderful message Latter-Day Saint Missionaries share, which is that God has called a prophet for us today, just as in the times of old. That the church Jesus Christ himself has formed many years ago has been restored. With it also that proper priesthood power that even Jesus sought for. It is why Jesus had to be baptized by John the Baptist! Anyways, they listened and Troy was almost jumping for joy because he says he has always had a problem with church and what we shared just made perfect sense and answered all his questions, it was music to my heart. After teaching them we went to a park to eat our sack lunches, great way to save money! Then while we were sitting there, 2 ten year-old kids with potty mouths came to play on the playground. One of them hollered, "Hey what are you doing?" I answered "eating an apple." He then asked if e could have one. So, looking at Elder Bishop, we both yelled sure! He ran over to claim his prize and then noticed our dazzling looks, inside out good looking suits, an our amazingly good ooking ties. He asked, who do you work for? I swallowed a bit of my apple and replied, "Jesus." He said, "Oh, do you believe in him?" Elder Bishop spoke up saying,"yup! Sure do, do you?" Then this bright young man started thinking said, "Well, I dunno, I never really thought about it before." Haha! This crazy kid! Elder Bishop while still eating, pulled out a pass along card and told the kid to go there and check out the website. That's my crazy story for the week.

We had Zone Conference yesterday, with about 24 missionaries in our zone, we met down in Kitchner and disussed the Book of Mormon. Ugh! Such a powerhouse meeting! I didn't want to leave, but we closed with our testimonies and took off. Then, on the way up we had Owen Sound's missionaries in our car and we wanted to do a drop by on a referral we got on Sunday. We dropped the Owen Sound missionaries off in a little farm town called Moorsfield, then we drove to see Justin. He was playing out in the front yard with his two kids aged 2 and 4. We talked to him or a bit and then he invited us in. We taught them a WONDERFUL 1st lesson about the truth that has been restored here on Earth. We left him a copy of the Book of Mormon to read with a few sections highlighted for them. Its just so amazing out here. I love this work! I love my Savior Jesus Christ and all that he has done for me. I know it is through my Savior Jesus Christ that I will be able to return to my Father in Heaven on day. I know that as people read the Book of Mormon they too can come to know the truth of our message. Thank you for taking your time to catch up on the ultimate mission life of Elder Allen. next week I will have real pictures of me and maybe my living quarters! Haha! I love you all and I thank you for all the support!
Love,
Elder Derek Allen

Pictures!

STOP!!!
You can not cross until you have heard the message of the restoration.
I have prepared myself for this moment, and I will sick the spirit upon thee.

Elder Bishop
Check out my new companion.
Here is is copying down investigator contact info out of the area binder and into his weekly planner.

In case the SPIRIT wasn't enough, HERE'S YOUR SIGN...
This is the sign post in the town of Walkerton that points the way to truth..
Look how studly I am standing beside it...haha




(All words are out of the mouth of Douglas, the older brother, and are not intended to make Derek, Elder Allen, seem silly or irreverent.)

Happy Easter!

Oh wow, okay so this week has been a blast. Tuesday Elder Peck and I went down to Kitchner, and had breakfast at Kora's it was so good, I had an omlet wrapped in a crape. Then I swapped out companions. Elder Bishop is such a great guy. Holy smokes, so its a blast out in finding. We don't let anyone go bye, It's just so much fun when you forget about how awkward it is to run across the street and talk to someone, but rather the thought is, can I sleep knowing I let them go bye. So I have had some nice contacting. My favorite was we were stopped at a red light and I noticed the car next to us had its windows down. So I roll mine down and hung out to see if there was a time we could come visit them to share the message of the restored gospel. However they were not interested, but hey, I didnt let them go by. Elder Bisop and I loved conference, on Sunday the Walkerton branch had a pot luck in between sessions. I made Cafe Rio Pork enchaladas which were a hit, I had two people ask for the recipe. I love cooking, its right up there with studying. There is an old lady who lives across the hall from us, that I make cookies for every preparation day. She loves them too! She is so funny, because I just throw whatever in them and hope they taste good. After they are done I taste them and if they are good, I give them to her. Ugh the only down side of this cooking is I am eating too much I have gained 5 pounds this week alone! Oh and we went to Port Elgin and met with an investigator there, who is a daughter of a less active and is 14. Its so amazing to see her mother's testimony coming back as she is helping her daughter. We also ran into a guy who ran to us. He was like I am a member and I haven't been in forever and I want to go back. Where do I start! I was just jumping for joy! He is such a great guy. He also came to priesthood session! Ugh it was such a great week. My journal however was a little shaky this week by that I mean I didn't write at all. See Elder Bishop and I just talk too much during planning that by the time we are done we have to go to bed. Elder Bishop is a great guy. He made fun of me the other day for a contact. I greeted a guy and he was like, "Sorry man I am an anarchist." so I said, "Okay, well I am dumb and new so I dont know what that is." He then told me they like to go around causing chaos and destruction, and I was thinking "WHAT!" so I replied,"okay so let me see if I understand, you just go around ruining peoples days and breaking stuff." He replied, "yeah, but i am still working on it." the only answer I could manage to get out was,"alright that's cool... I guess." Haha, I guess there is everything out there! Anyways I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Thank you for all of your prayers.
Elder Derek Allen