October 27, 2014

Dear Family and friends,

This week was a very interesting week. We had the Royals in the World Series.

Monday we spent the day with the Platte City Elders. We had dinner with the Anderson Family. We help Brother Anderson build a Green House around his fish pond.

Tuesday we spent the day in Smithville. During the day we stop by the Candy shop in Smithville. While we were there we talk to some makeup sells reps. They were from Jefferson City. One of them had tons of Questions and we left her with a Book of Mormon.  We had the hardest time trying to meet with people while the World Series was on. Everyone we talk to was excited for the Game. Every one we tried to see was watching the game.

Dogs on roof

Wednesday was district meeting.  It was on how to be come more effective as missionaries.  We visited with Bro. Fugget while his kids were riding their bikes. We had dinner with the Johnsons. After dinner we watched Ephraim's Rescue with the Johnsons. It was a great movie. I enjoyed watching it, there were sad parts but overall it was great. They liked it also.

Thursday we did service for the Lindsys. We help them trim their trees before winter.  We had dinner with our bishop. We then had a couple of things to talk with him about. He talked to us for a long time. When we got out there was lots of fog everywhere.

Friday was a good day we used Mormon.org for a while trying to get familiar with it and how to get more people to visit it.  We went tracting and meet some nice people. We handed out Books of Mormon. I hope they read some of it and become more interested.  We had dinner with the Balenskys and we had ribs, they were awesome.

Ready to work

Saturday we visited with Bro Poe. He took lots of pictures while the temple was being built.  We saw some of them and they were cool. We also attended a pre World Series game party that some members were putting on.  We have a hard time meeting with people since they are busy watching the game.

Sunday we sang in the choir. We heard some great talks on Christ like love.  We had dinner with the Smiths and they cooked some awesome fish.

Today while we were at the library we meet a less active member that just wanted to talk with us. She has been seeing the Lord working in her life.  She is needing help.

Thanks for the letter and Emails. I hope you all have a great week.  I hope the Royals win the World Series. Thanks for everything that you all have done for me.

Love,

Elder Allen

October 20, 2014

Dear Family and friends,

This week was a great week.

Monday we spent the day in Zona Rosa, an outdoor mall. We had dinner with the Ashcroft’s in Smithville. It was a very rainy day.

Tuesday we spent the day trying to see people. We visited with Josh and he is doing good. We were also expecting the transfer call all day. It came in the evening after 9. Elder Goro was told that he was leaving to go to Independence 2nd ward.

Wednesday was a packing day for Elder Goro. We also went around to most of the members so Elder Goro could say good-bye. Elder Goro needed a new prescription for contacts so Brother Mack took us to his office and tested his eyes.   We learned that one of the less active member that we were seeing on a weekly basis got arrested. He will be in jail for a couple of years for downloading bad things on his school computer.

Thursday was transfer day so we went to Independence to the mission office. My new companion is Elder Avey. He is also from Arizona from Phoenix. He has been out the same time as me. We came together just two different districts in the MTC. We had dinner with the Litster family. We meet with Brother Hitchcock this evening to invite him to church. Since it would be in Kearney we were giving an invitation to everyone.

Friday we spent the day in Smithville. We used 

Mormon.org for some time. We also visited Josh and we talked about the Tree of Life. We were also going around inviting everyone to the Halloween party the next day. We handed out a couple of Books of Mormons. We even found a couple people that had member friends. I hope they turn into investigators. We had dinner with the Morris. They asked us to see the Shanks family. The Shanks are new to the ward and we visited them for a while. They got baptized the beginning of the year.

 

Saturday was our meeting with the Ward mission leader. We then did some studies before the party. The party was at the Kissingers.  We help with the set up and we did parking. There were lots of neighbors and ward members. We stayed through the whole party. Got lots of food to take home.

Sunday church was in Kearney since our building was being used for stake conference for the other stake. Church was great.   We didn’t have any investigators that came.  It was interesting to be in a new building.  We had dinner drop off to us since Bro Philips had to go into work. We then went around to see some of the members. We had a great evening. We met lots of people this evening.

Thanks for all you do for me. I hope you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Benjamin Allen

October 13, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was a good week for us.

On Monday we went to the stake center. Since it was the first pday of the month most of the missionaries from the stake came down also. We played some volleyball and

Frisbee. We had dinner with Sister Murphy at Pizza Hut.

Tuesday we had two dinners. We first had one with the Lakenans. We got finished there and got a call from the Johnsons asking us where we were and why we hadn't called. They thought they signed up to feed us, so we went over and ate with them.  We then visited with Josh. We read with him in the Book of Mormon.  We also were asked to give a blessing to Brother Hichcock. He wanted one for his job interview the next day.

Wednesday was district meeting. We had a discussion on the new way that we teach the lessons using the pamphlets.  Before dinner we were tracting in an apartment complex and the management asked us to leave. We then went and visited the Tallents and asked them for referrals. We also reminded them about Meet the Mormons.   Dinner was with the Moores, they are temple workers for the temple here. They are awesome about sharing the Gospel with others. While we were there Brother Moore asked for a blessing for his sickness.

Thursday today we had weekly planning. We also went through the area book to get it ready for Ipads.  It was also rainy and cold.   We had dinner with the homesteads.  We then saw the Petersons.  He is the Elders quorum secretary and we went over the list of Elders to find out which ones to try and to exchange information.  They are related to the missionary Mom in the Movie meet the Mormons.

Friday we went on exchanges with the Zone leaders. I went to St Joe with Elder Sjoblem. We had a good day together. We did some service for a lady in the ward named Sister Dolman. We cleaned out her gutters. Some of them had lots of leafs and twigs. She sent us home with soup and home made bread. We tried to meet with a lot of people but most were not there. The members they live with were making apple juice from their homegrown apples.

Saturday we did studies together. When we were about to leave a member called want us to meet him at the hospital. They were in the maternity part of the hospital. We had to sign in and get clearance to get in that part of the hospital. After finally getting in we gave Sister Graft a blessing. We then made the trip back to Platte City.  We had our meeting with the ward Mission leader and had dinner with them. We had homemade pizza. We were able to talk with Sister Sam.   She has been in Utah because her cousin just came back from his mission.

Sunday we had ward council.  We then had church. The topic for the sacrament meeting was Reverence and why it is important. We talked about the importance of the sacrament in Gospel principles.   We had dinner with the Packards. They are the farthest north in the Ward. Their Family is big into acting. We left them with two Books of Mormons to give out.  We were able to finally meet Ron.   He was the member that we meet while shopping a couple of weeks ago.  He has a couple of kids that aren't baptized that we are going to try to teach.

We have had lots of rain this week.  I hope that it doesn't turn into snow soon.  It is starting to get cold in the nights. We had to scrape ice off the car windows once this week.

I hope you all have a great week.  I miss you all.

Love,

Elder Benjamin Allen

The church has told us that you should receive a letter talking about the I pads and that they are wanting the parents to buy them for their missionaries. This is done through the church and we will be able to keep them after our mission.

Oct. 6, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been a great week. It has gotten real cold. Elder Goro is from Oklahoma and needed to go home to renew his license and some other paperwork.

Monday was a great day. While we were shopping we met a member that just moved in to the area and didn't know where the church was. We were able to leave him with information and our number.  We had dinner with Bro Tibbs and Josh and Michelle were also invited.  We were able to hear Josh's testimony.

Tuesday we visited with the Johnsons. They are starting to settle into their new house. We went tracting and it was wet and rainy for part of it.

Wednesday was a special day; I spent the whole day with Elder Lokeni. Elder Goro went to a leadership meeting with some other Elders.  Elder Lokeni and I had a great day. We were able to see some less active members and find a couple people that talked to us.

Thursday we had weekly planning and we also spent some time using Mormon.org and learning what is on it and how to help our investigators use it. We had dinner and a lesson with Donnie and Breiana. We taught her the first lesson and invited her to baptism.  She accepted a date for November 1st. We also talked with Josh with Bro Davis. We talked about Conference.  He is doing great trying to live the word of wisdom.

Friday was our Zone conference. We got news that we will receive I pads this coming Christmas. We also learned how to teach the lessons using the pamphlets and make them shorter. We went to visit the Balenskys and when we knocked on their door the dogs got into a dogfight.

Saturday was Conference.   We watched it at the Platte city stake center and there weren't tons of people there.  We got Josh to watch both of the sessions. I enjoyed the priesthood session.

Sunday we watched Conference at the church building next to the temple.  Between the sessions we talked to a guy about the priesthood.  We had dinner with the Bueschers.  We invited a couple other people to come and watch but they didn't make it.

My Favorite talk was president Monson in the Priesthood Session and about the ship and what happen when it lost it’s rudder.

I hope you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Benjamin Allen