Week 44 - 7/11/16 - 7/17/16

W1 of T9 7/11/16 - 7/17/16
Bike Stats
Total: 1123.8 Miles
Week: 40.933
MaxSpd: 27.8mph
AvgSpd: 11.5mph
Time: 3hrs 32min 44sec


Hey fam! We had a great week! My new comp is Elder Hobbs from Wellington, Utah. The Lord truly is doing miracles here in Summerwood.

We had G's Baptism last week and that occurred through a series of miracles. I think that I told y'all about it last week. Ivie got baptized yesterday and she is amazing! We love her so much and she was on top of the world yesterday. She was found by missionaries, (actually by my old comp from Beaumont, Elder Biesinger) way back in late October, early November.She has been working with missionaries for over 6 months now and finally decided to get baptized. Truly this is the work of the Lord!

You know, I marvel everytime someone decides to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. It was said yesterday by President Rascon, that there are miracles associated with every baptism. And it is so true! Over the last month, I have taken a different mindset due to some slaps upside the head by Heavenly Father.  My mindset used to be kind of like this: We are out here and that is good. We are going to teach people and that is good. We will come in contact with people and that is good.

Well quit settling for good! Good is good and all, but there is sooooo much more for you to do out here. Start making things happen. These people don't have access to the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the only thing standing between them and their salvation is you. Kind of a sobering thought, isn't it? So that's why we are out here. We are out here to unlock the Atonement of Jesus Christ for them. Through us is the only way back to the Father, so you sure as heck had better be the kind of gatekeeper the Father wants you to be.


Quit standing in the way of Salvation and open your mouth.


Ok. That's my 2 cents for the week.


Y'all have a blessed week! Thanks for reading!


--

-Elder Allen


Ps. Can you believe that I have been out for an entire year?!  Haha, it only took me a year to figure all this out, that's amazing. I wish I had figured it out a lot sooner. 

Week 43 - 7/4/16 -0 7/10/16

W6 of T8 7/4/16 - 7/10/16

Bike Stats

Total: 1082.9 Miles

Week: 37.467 miles

MaxSpd: 30.1mph

AvgSpd: 11.7mph

Time: 3hrs 11min 21sec

Hey Fam!

Well, this was the last week of the transfer and good things are happening! G was able to be baptized this last Sunday due to a series of events that were nothing short of miracles.

Come around Wednesday, we went over to his house to plan his baptism with the Ward Mission Leader. Throughout us teaching him, he's been on the fence in deciding whether or not to get baptized. When we went over that night, he decided against being baptized, on the reasoning that he hadn't received an answer yet. Oh, I forgot to mention, it was just me and Bro Miller, the WML. We had gone on splits again and Elder Lacusta was with another Ward Missionary. So we sat there for an hour trying to resolve his concerns about the Book of Mormon and got nowhere with it. What it came down to and what we did is this: Get on your knees and pray. Right now. So we did. And it was amazing. We all felt the Spirit and recognized it. But he still didn't want to go through with it. So we committed him to read JSH.

When we came back the next day (Thursday) to check up on him, he had read it. But he still didn't want to get baptized. So we had to cancel the interview that we set up the next day with the District Leader, but we went ahead and called President Drake to come with us on Friday. Back up to Thursday, the member that we had with us challenged him to get down on his knees and pray about it that night and see if it was the right thing to do. Well, fast forward to tomorrow real quick. We had our lesson with President at the church and G comes in and right away we could tell that something was different. He sat down and started to talk. He talked about some stuff and about the church for about 5 minutes. Then he paused and said that he wanted to get baptized.

We weren't expecting that. We brought President to help us resolve his concern, not to interview him. G started telling us how the member we brought on Thursday, Bro Hay, had texted him Thursday night at 11:45 at night, reminding him to say his prayers. Which he did. He looked at us and he told us that he received an answer and it was one of those 'well duh' moments.

The miracles that were happening were unreal. We looked at President and he was smiling real big, so we asked President to interview him right then and there, which he did. So we left the room. We came back in after running home to grab some paper work and they were both there, smiling real big. G said that he had thoughts of postponing his baptism so his sister could come. We asked where she lived and he said that she lived in Florida. But then he dropped the real bomb. She was in Italy for a study abroad program till the end of August. Greg thought about it for a second and simply said, "I feel like I need to just do it this Sunday." So we proceeded to plan a baptism for this Sunday.

We went over there again Saturday night to be with G and his family and to talk about the Baptismal program.

Now, this is where it gets real.

We walk in and there was a lady that we had never seen before. She introduces herself as G's Sister and we were kinda like: What the heck? thought she was in Italy, right? Come to find out, she had flown in last night (Friday night) and surprised everyone. She had no idea that G was getting baptized. She had just shown up cause she was having knee problems and needed to come home. What the heck, right?!

Crazy that! She doesn't even live in Houston!! She lives in Florida!!

She just came to Houston to visit the family on her way home from Italy.

What the heck!?

The baptism was super cool! We love the family very much and everything just seemed to come together for it.

That was the big miracle of the week!

Transfers! I am staying in Summerwood and Elder Lacusta is leaving. I don't know too much going on, but we will see what happens here!

Love y'all!

--

-Elder Allen

Week 42 - 6/27/16 - 7/3/16

W5 of T8 6/27/16 - 7/3/16

Bike Stats

Total: 1045.4 Miles*

Weekly: 58.334 Miles

MaxSpd: 23.2mph

AvgSpd: 10.9mph

Time: 5hrs 18min 19sec

*Broke 1000 miles! Finally. Took me just over 6 months of biking.

That's a lot of biking! This is not including my first 3 1/2 transfers of biking 100+ miles a week in Beaumont. If I had to put a guess on how many miles I have actually put on this bike, it would be somewhere in the realms of 2500-3000 miles so far.

Well, this week was good! It was my Bday, Canada Day, and it was Mom's Bday too! On top of that, we did some good missionary work this week!

Our investigator, G, is set to get baptized this next Sunday! Super duper exciting! He is such a cool guy and has come such a long way! He was taught about a year ago by some other missionaries but then he had to leave town and lost contact with the missionaries, but then he moved back a few weeks ago and we got back in contact with him! But he is doing very well. The Lake Shore Ward had a baptism tonight and we took G with us to go and witness the baptism. The Spirit was super strong and the speakers said just what G needed to hear! It was wonderful!

Wednesday night, we went on splits with some Ward missionaries to go a do some rescue visits. I went with a new member to go and visit some less active members in the North part of our area. It's amazing to see what can happen when members and missionaries combine their faith. All the houses that we went to go and try were houses that Elder Lacusta and I had tried before. But when Thomas and I went to go and visit them, we got to talk to everyone that we tried. It was amazing!

Thursday night we were able to have a lesson with another investigator! It was our first lesson with her, but she had been to church with her member friend for about the last month. But, it was a very good lesson and we were able to set her on date for the 24th! She had to go to Las Vegas for a while, but she will be back soon! And we will start teaching her again!

We have another investigator who came back to church today after being gone for a few months due to some family problems! She was super close to baptism a few months ago, but she had to stop coming to church and meeting with the missionaries. But she is excited to be back and has decided to keep meeting with the missionaries! We are super excited to start teaching her again!

But, it's Independence Day today. I encourage you all to find an independence from sins. Choose to fight for the Lord! Don't be bound by sins, be obedient to the commandments and you will find yourself free!

Love you all! I'll talk to you later! Thanks to all who wished me a Happy bday! I wish you all the best and a Happy America Day!

--

-Elder Allen