Jan 13, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

We had an interesting week.  Elder Englund and Sister Harman were both sick. The weather was very cold the being of the week and warm this part of the week.

Monday was the First P-day here so we drove to the stake Center out of the zone and met with the Elders and Sisters from both zones in the stake. We played games and had a fun time. After dinner we couldn’t go out in the cold weather so we went to the Dinnings hoping that Shannah was there. She wasn't but we were able to talk with them about missionary work and how they can help the missionary work grow.

Missouri River

Tuesday we went to the post office so I could send a package home. While we were in line we were able to talk with the people in line about the gospel and we also talked to the postman about what we do as missionaries. We tried to see people but not having too much luck. We were able to see the Stcokets. He is finally home from the hospital.  He is doing better but just still recovering.

Wednesday Elder Englund didn't fell good. He didn't sleep at all during the night so we stayed in before and after District meeting. This was the first District meeting after being transfer to this area. We had a great training on how we should do studies. We had dinner with the Christians and they live outside of St Joe so in was a fun drive on a dirt road to their house. They fed us spaghetti and home made cookies.  When we left they sent us home with some food that they thought we could use. It was so nice of them to do that for us.

Thursday Elder Englund still didn't sleep so we stayed in most of the day. We were able to teach Debbie about prophets. She has a hard time remembering what prophets are.  We had dinner with the Burns and they have two very large dogs that came in at the end. Elder Englund was scared of them.  We saw the Concades and helped them move some stuff.  

Friday we had Brother and Sister Haws come to inspect the place and to have companion study with us. It went well and they are very nice and had lots to say to help us be better missionaries.  We went out to Savannah.  It is like 10 miles outside of St Joe. We went out there to see some less actives and potential investigators. We were able to talk with the Rudels and invite them to church. We tried to see some people but most were not living there anymore.  We had dinner with the Hales and they were babysitting another family, in the ward, kids and there were like 12 kids that were all younger than 12. Lots of things happened during dinner.

Saturday we only went out for dinner and after. Before dinner I was able to write my talk for Sunday on missionary work. We had dinner with the Buckleins. Then we drove out to Savannah again to try to see more people.

Sunday we had ward council in bishop's office. There were so many people in that room and it was so hot in there. After that we had church and the sisters and us spoke.  Sister Harman spoke first. Elder Englund spoke second. Then all the returned missionaries and us all sung, “Called to serve”. Then Sister Thompson spoke and I was the last to speak. All the talks were awesome and they covered so many different parts of missionary work. We had two of our investigators come to church. After church we meet with the Bishop and went over what we did the last week and what we could do this week.  We had dinner with the Voclaels. It was a great dinner. We learned that the new mission president coming in June is going to be President Best.

I hope you all are doing great. Thanks for the letters and the update on everything. I love all of you and hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Benjamin Allen

Here is a picture of me next to the Missouri River.