Jan 5, 2015

            

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been a very cold week, lots of Ice and freezing rain.  We have also had a lot of dinners this week.

Monday was a good day. We spent it at our place since everything was to far away since we were low on miles.  We had dinner with the Snyder family.  They had invited one of their home teaching family to come over also. Brother Burkmen came. We had the opportunity to teach the Plan of Salvation to all of them. We also saw some people here in Chanute. 

Tuesday was our interviews!  We all meet in Paolla and had district meeting and Interviews. On our way up we drove through snow and more falling snow. We talked about the importance of the Spirit in teaching.  It was good to see president and his wife.  We had a little time to work in Iola before dinner. There was no snow when we came back. All had melted when the sun came up.  We ate with Brother Slaugh. He thought he had gotten Pork ribs but turned out to be Beef ribs.  It was good.  It was Brother Hannon's Birthday so we went over and celebrated it with him.  We also talked to Bro Ethridge. He works for a movie theater supplies and repair center.

Christmas Eve - Elder Allen as a Shepherd - 3rd from the left

Wednesday we did a little driving since there were people to see. We were able to meet with some of them.  We meet with Sister Isom’s dad. He is 91 and is still getting around. We read from the Book of Mormon with him. He has tons of stories to tell.  We also meet a member in a nursing home. He was happy to see us. He had lost his Book of Mormon with traveling and wanted one from us.  We didn't do much for new years eve. We went to bed the same time.

Thursday was New Years. It was also our weekly planning day. This week we had more people that we talked about. We had an appointment with Doug. Turns out to be neighbors to the Hannons (our recent converts.) We took Brother Hannon and it went well. He is in his 80's and has lots of knowledge. His has lots of the same beliefs as us. We had dinner with the Guernsys.  He had invited the Hannons to come also. It was a good evening and good for members to get to know others.   We saw the Mcguires, Brother Mcguire had 5-heart bypass surgery the week before. He is doing good.   He has lots of stitches looks like a big zipper on his chest. There was freezing rain for part of the day. It made the road slick.

Friday we were able to teach RJ and the Shaws about the plan of salvation.  It was an interesting teaching with so much going on. We did a lot of tracting and contacting potential investigators. Got told a lot that they weren't interested.   We had dinner with the Hannons. They have seen the blessings of the Gospel and feeding the Missionaries.  We had an appointment with AJ and his family. We had Brother Patton come with us. Turns out that they weren't there. We were able to talk with Brother Patton about his family and how we can help him and them.

Saturday was more tracting and contacting people.  We were able to find some people that accepted Books of Mormon.  There was lots of rain today. Made lots of Mud.  We had gone to the Guernsys to pick up my coat. She had sewn it back up. I had slid on Ice and ripped a seam on the side of the Coat. Good thing it was on a seam.  They had invited the Sisters to come over and we just showed up. We all ate with them. It was an awesome evening.  We visited the Pass family. We talked about the blessing of coming to church in hopes they would come tomorrow.

Sunday we woke up to find more frost and Ice. Church wasn't canceled but not everyone came. We helped with the Sacrament. It was a long time since I have needed to help.  We had two investigators that came. It was great. We had James stay for Gospel principles and it was on Adam and Eve.  We didn't have a dinner but before church was over we did. Brother Slaugh had invited us over.  After that we spent time seeing people in Iola. We meet a less active that hadn’t seen Elders since he moved. He talked with us forever. He showed us his old bike collection/ hobbie.

Thanks for all the letters and the support you give me and all the other missionaries. I hope you all have a great week. Happy New Year!

Love,

Elder Benjamin Allen