Sept. 30, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

I am still doing well here in Kansas City.  This week has been an interesting week.

Monday was p-day and we went shopping and went to A& W for lunch. We played basketball and volleyball this week. We had dinner with the Hansens and had home made pizza.

Tuesday we had Zone conference at our stake center. We had car inspections and our car got 3rd place and the sister's cars got 1st and 2nd. We got new books to go along with Preach my Gospel, which are to help us with the stress of a mission. We learned that the APs, all 3 of them are leaving this week. We got to listen to President and Sister Keyes. They told us that we will now need shoulder bags and not backpacks. We can now wear more colors of pants and suits. We also got to speak with president Goodson, the Stake president. We talked about what the ward and stake could do to help us missionaries. It was a great Zone conference. After that Elder Weatherford and I went on Exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Stevens to their area. We had dinner at Olive Garden with the ward mission leader and a young man leaving on his mission this week. He is going to the Scottsdale Arizona Mission.  The Ward Mission leader is a great man.  He is a convert to the church and has only been a member for 2 years. He has an interesting conversion story.

Wednesday, Elder Stevens and I saw lots of people.   We taught a new member lesson to Maria. We had a team up named David, he went on team ups with us the last time I was on exchanges with Elder Rudd.   We had dinner with the Olsens and learned that he works for P&G. He gave us some little handouts from them. We had an appointment with Donzell S. and he canceled.  Then we figured out that Sean was planning on meeting with us. We didn't know that he was planning to meet with us at that time but it did work out. We went with Bro. Belliston to see some people and no one was home or didn’t want to talk with us.

Thursday, We got to go to the Temple this morning. Bro Cunningham drove us there. It was 5 men in his little old car. His car was made in the 1994. We did make it there. We did the 9am session and after that when we were about to leave I ran into Brother Homewood the member that Andrew (Elder Allen) is staying with. We talked for a while and asked him questions and he told me that Andrew was doing great and being a good missionary. I am grateful that we have a Temple so close and can now attend it 4 times a year. After the Temple we biked a lot and try to see people that were not there. Before we got dinner we had do some service for Gail and Sister Pitt. We cut their grass and cleaned up the yard. They feed us lasagna and garlic bread and Ice cream.

Friday, We meet with Brother Hamm, we sweep his floor and shared him a message. We did a lot of biking and riding of the bus. We had dinner with the Mcreas they own like 5 houses around each other.  We had dinner at the old house that Bro Pollitt used to live at. After dinner we taught Kay (Bro Hamm's Ex wife) at Sister Gays place. She had lots of great Questions and knows lots about the church already. 

Saturday, we saw lots of people. It rained all morning we had lots of rain. We had dinner with Wazzer. She made us Nigeria food. It was awesome food. Bishop took us to see Donzell W. He is doing great still trying to quit to smoking.  We also saw Melvee she lives in the same place as Donzell.

Sunday, We had 5 people at church. It was fast Sunday since next week is general conference. We have been told that we can watch all 5 sessions in our ward building. We heard lots of interesting testimonies. Sister Wiemer stood up and told us how glad she was to have us missionaries working with her son Tonny to get him to come back to church.   We had dinner with the Cunninghams. They feed us Quinoa and beans with cheese and other toppings. It was good. We also had gluten free Brownies, which were good. We tried to see Mike but he wasn't home and we bike around to see some other people.

The suit I was wearing in the picture from the last district meeting was one I found in the apartment from an Elder before me. I might keep it since it fits well.  This week was good. A little slow since we had to bike everywhere. We did get to see lots of people. The weather has been nice and I think that I have seen more rain this week than in the last 3 years.  This Area is great we have lots of work to do here. We have stayed busy and the members are very helpful.  I am having a great time here on my mission. Thank you for the letters and prayers.  I love you all and miss you lots.

Love Elder Benjamin Allen.