Nov 24, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was a great week for us.

Monday we spent the day with the Platte city Elders. We also got a car from the Sisters. It was the Purple one, the same that I drove in St Joe.

Tuesday we went to the Lindsy’s and had cookies. We visited with them and got to know them. They told us that we should only serve in one area so they don't have us leaving after just coming to an area. We went to the Library and learned about the movie the Church is putting out called “He is the Gift.”  We had dinner with the Bakers. They had invited their less active Son and his Family to join also. It was cool to be able to meet them. The kids were fascinated with us and what we do.

Wednesday we had district meeting. The topic was how we can better invite people to do something. We also talked about “He is the Gift.”  We had lunch at the Chinese Wok. We then went on Exchanges with Platte City Elders. I stayed here in this ward and Elder Tolmam came with me.  We were able to talk to a few people as we tracted. We had dinner with the Heckels. They took us to a Chinese buffet in Smithville.  We visited with Keven and answered some more questions that he had and talked more about the Temple and Church buildings. He said that he had taken his son over to the Temple to see it all lit up.

Thursday we exchanged back after studies. We then had weekly planning. We went by the Tallents to see if they could help us.  We first help him position his axel for his tuck. Then he cut off a lock on the bike Elder Avey was riding. It was an old lock fror an Elder that is gone.  Brother Tallent used an acetylene torch to cut it off. We had dinner with the Litsters and we watched the new video the mormon message about refiners fire.  We then saw the Balenskys and talked with them about conversions and what is needed to get one.

Friday we spent the day in Smithville. It rained part of the day. We went tracting while it was raining and talked to some great people.  We also meet Isaac's friends and talked with them. We went to Panera Bread with Sister Murphy. We were about to purchase our food when a guy we didn't know paid for it. It was nice to see that there are great people around us.  We stop by the Delows to ask some questions. While we were there we talked to Brother Dedelow about his Coworker. We also gave him a blessing since he was getting sick.

Saturday we had our meeting with the Litsters. We saw a big deer just walk past in their backyard. We also help the Bueschers set up their Christmas tree. We also had stake conference. Our mission president and his wife were there. There we heard some great talks.

Sunday was also stake conference.  The Holmsteads drove us there and back. We also had lunch with them. We were able to see the Hitchborns. We visited with them and learned about their life story. We had dinner with Bro Frieson. We then got a call asking if we could come by and give Brother Shanks a blessing.  We went over and gave him a blessing.  Very interesting how we thought of their names as we planned and turns out that there was a reason for needing to be there.

I hope you all have a great week. Have an awesome Thanksgiving. I keep you informed about transfers this week. I miss you all.

Love,

Elder Benjamin Allen

Nov 17, 2014

This week was an interesting week for us. We gave up the car this week so we were on bikes.  We also had the first snow.

First Snow

Tuesday was my first time riding bikes in this area. We did some tracting and we talked to some people. We even handed out two Books of Mormon.  We had dinner with the Wilsons. We had a tower activity with them and the kids were so happy to help. It's been getting dark faster so people are less willing to talk with us.

Wednesday was our Zone conference.   There were three stakes at this one.  The topic for the day was The Book of Mormon.  We were instructed how to use it more effectively.  Lunch was provided by our ward. It was cool that they had the opportunity to do that. We also talked to President Thomas, our stake president. He talked about how we should be working with our Ward mission leader, their roles and responsibilities.  We had dinner with the Shanks. They are a new family in the ward and Recent converts. We talk about Jesus and what he asks us to do.  We went with Brother Morris.  He drove us around and we tried a couple of people.

Thursday we had weekly planning.   We then went out and saw people.  It was real cold.  We found some more people to try to teach. We had dinner with Bro Frieson. He took us to Cheaters.  We were able to talk about his conversion story.

Friday we had Brother Johnson's Interview. Him plus Sister Johnson drove us to the Stake Center. There we meet the Zone leaders. One of them interviewed him.  We also went on exchanges. I went with Elder Hart to St. Joe.   We had a busy day, saw a couple of people and taught a couple of lessons.  We had dinner with the Case family. They cooked us a southern breakfast. In the evening we saw Aaron.  He was a guy that they tracted into. He was very interested and had read before we came back.  We read with him and his daughter. She was 8 and caught on to lots and was correcting her dad saying Nephi wrong.

Brother Johnson's Baptism

Saturday was when we exchanged back. We had the hardest time finding a ride to the church. We need to fill the font before the baptism. Bro Frieson gave us a ride since he was going to the temple.  The Baptism went great.  There were lots that came. Elder Goro and Dunn came.  The Johnson’s daughter and granddaughter came. They were in Harrisonville when I was there.  The Sister missionaries and us sang the musical number. It was if the Savor stood beside me.  Elder Avey gave a talk on the Holy Ghost after a couple hours notice.   We had dinner with them afterward.

Sunday Brother Johnson was given The Gift of the Holy Ghost. I had the opportunity to stand in the circle. Bro Keeney gave an awesome talk about why we need rules and struggles. Elder Avey and I taught Sunday school since Brother Listster was in Alaska.   We had dinner with the Painters.  It was fun to watch their little kids.   We had berry cobbler for dissert and it was so good.

Here is the answer to your question.

We are in the Platte City north Zone. There are 4 Elders and 4 sisters in our district, Newmark and Platte city. My companion is the District leader. 

Thanks for the emails and letters. I hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Benjamin Allen

Oh by the way transfers will be on Thanksgiving. There is a possibility that I will leave but won't know until Tuesday before.

Nov 10, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This was a great week; there was tons of service to be done.

Monday was a monthly missionary gathering at the Stake center. There were lots of sports played and board games to play. We had dinner with the Cantwells. We learned that he was on a video that was show in the World Series.

parking for Halloween party

Tuesday we did some service for an old lady in Smithville.  We raked more of her leaves outside her house from some giant trees that she had. We also went to the Johnsons to see if there was help needed. Bro Johnson is getting baptized this Saturday. It was cool that when we came over we were also able to answer some questions that just came up.  We had dinner with the Keeneys and they had invited one of their friends over for dinner with us and then to go to mutual.  We were able to answer some of her questions and talk about the Book Of Mormon.

Wednesday we meet all kinds of people, as we were tracting.  We talked to lots of people also handing out some Books of Mormon

Thursday, Brother Tallant went with us to do some service for a lady that we had tracted into a week ago. We filled like 10 bags with leaves and some of the bed of his truck.  Smithville has a drop off site for leafs and compost. So we didn't have to pay anything.  We also visited Josh and he has gotten busy with school and other activities.  We had dinner with Bishop and his wife. We had Jack Stacks BBQ. It is one of the famous BBQ shops here in KC. We then had a meeting with him, we almost stayed the whole night talking about the progress of the investigators and Members.

Friday was Zone training and we talked about the importance of Goals and how this mission has a goal of 500 for year. We all brought sack lunches so we could all eat together.  It was super fun. They also talked about asking everyone if we could come back to teach more. We tried that and got some referrals as we were tracting.   We helped the Elder Quorum move a less active family into a different ward.  We didn't have a dinner after service so we went to a Chinese food place to eat.

  

Saturday we attended a funeral. It was for Harley's wife. She was one of the people that founded Nellies, the sweet shop in Smithville. We are there at least once a week so we got close to them.  It was held at the First Christian Church here in Smithville. It was interesting to see how it was done at a different church. They used scriptures that we know more about because of modern revelation. There was lots of the ward that show up.   Afterward we had our meeting with Brother Litster, we had it at the Library. It was interesting to have it in the library.  We had planned to do service with Sister Thomas. She had something happen so she didn't make it home on time. So we went by some members looking for Service. We went to the Johnsons and they had more for us to do, plus more questions that they had.  On our way back I felt prompted to stop by the Austins. It was the perfect timing. We were able to visit with them and help them out a little bit. The Kissingers had made chili for us to pick up.  On our way there and back we saw tons of Deer.

Sunday was ward conference. We sang in the Choir. The stake president spoke and Bishop. They talked about how we need to be unified to get things done.  They used the Royals as an example.  They also talked about how technology is good but bad.  We need to be careful using it.  President Thomas in the last hour talk about being prepared for the second coming. He also talked about how we need to take it into our heart and be changed.  We had dinner with the Smiths and they had pumpkin donuts. We visited with the Shanks and shared Alma 34:37&38 talking about being Thankful since we have so much.

I had a great week. I hope you also had a great week.  Thanks for the Letters and have a great week. 

Love,

Elder Benjamin Allen

November 3, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week was a great week. We were able to do lots of service and talking to people.

Tuesday we started out the day by helping Bro. Tallent. We dug out his garden to replace the boards that made the raised garden.  We talked to him about his conversion story and how it has blessed his life. Later in the day we saw Sister Stock. She is a recent convert; she was having her birthday this day.  We meet her husband.  We had dinner with the Page Family.

Wednesday was our district meeting day. We talked about what we can used to find answers to gospel questions. We did some tracting at some duplexes that were in our area. We meet some nice people. We also meet some people that had lived here in Kansas City. They were living in the outskirts with very few neighbors. I also found a new pair of sunglasses on a grass field.  We went out with Brother Tibbs. We saw Josh and it was great that Brother Tibbs was there he just connected with him.

Thursday we went to the library and watched lots of the videos the church has made.  While we were at the Library we visited Quinn, the Bueschers son.  He was getting books for his trip to California. We had a great day visiting with some less actives.

Friday was Halloween!  We spent the day in Smithville.  We talked to the owner of a T-shirt place. He was informing us that we need to listen to the Radio and the news. He thought we were to uneducated in today’s world.  We started raking leaves for people in Smithville.  The House we picked was a house with tons of leaves.  While we were raking an old lady came out to thank us. She was so happy that we had come to help her. She had no one to call to take care of the leaves.  She was so grateful that she was crying.  We had dinner/ party with the Ashcrofts. After our dinner we were grounded to our apartment for the rest of the night. 

Saturday we had a busy day. We had our weekly meeting with Brother Litster.  In the afternoon we drove to the Stake Center. We help set up and prep for the Fireside that evening. Elder Avey and I also did parking.   The Fireside was for Jeremy and Jenny Guthrie.  Bro. Guthrie is one of the starting pitchers for the Kansas City Royals. He pitched in the 3rd and 7th game of the World Series.

Brother Guthrie spoke on what is success and how we need to achieve success. He also talked about goals and how they can direct our life.  He served his mission in Spain. While he was waiting for his visa he spent one day in this mission. He talked about how the visitor center and the Jail strengthened his testimony.

Sunday was Fast Sunday. We had lots of meetings before church. Church was great. We talked about sacrifice in the Gospel principles.  It is interesting how people have their own sacrifices that will help them grow.

Thanks for all you have all done for me. Thanks for all the letters and support you all provide to me. I hope you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Benjamin Allen