Jesus the Christ

Kumusta!

We have been teaching this family, the Gumaru family, and they have been progressing really well.  An example of how great they are doing was when we explained a little of the Word of Wisdom to them and left them a pamphlet and told them to read it, and they all really loved their coffee.  All of them in a family of 7, down to the youngest child.  But when we returned to teach the Word of Wisdom, they said, "You told us coffee is bad, and we read that coffee is bad, so we got rid of all our coffee."  We were stunned.   They have been coming to church and praying and are doing better than anyone else I've ever taught.  It's great. 

We had Zone Conference this week and it was about love and inviting people to be baptized and truly living the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was good.

I have been studying Third Nephi in personal study, because it's when Jesus comes to the Nephites after His resurrection and all the horrible things that happened to Him in Jerusalem.  I have been fascinated by every aspect of Jesus' life lately.  Obviously, I always have Jesus on my mind, but after reading Jesus the Christ and studying Him this long, it's amazing how overwhelming he was and what he did was, and how it all worked out. As a kid, I always took the idea of Jesus Christ for granted, but now He seems like a real person to me and I understand more and more of Him everyday.  He has Saved us from our sins and Redeemed us of our short- comings.  Because of what He did, we can return to him and our Eternal Father and sit with them in eternal happineness and understanding; if we just look to Jesus for the way back. The Gospel of Jesus Chirst is the purest, truest thing we can come in contact with in this life.  Everything else is made by man, granted there is truth in everything, if you look hard enough, but nothing holds the fullness as His Gospel does. 

I Love you all. Believe all things. Hope all things. Endure all things.

Mahal ko Kayo,

Elder Allen

Don't Know What You've Got 'til It's Gone

Kumusta!

After talking to you on Skype at Christmas, I decided to start trying to write more letters.  I usually sit down to write a letter and cannot think of anything to say.  That is something I feel I have come to learn about myself on my mission so far; I am not good at communicating through letters or emails or texts or anything like that, but I’ve gotten pretty good at talking to people face to face.  I need some interaction .  I think that’s something I’ve developed and I hope it’s something you notice as well, when I get home.   

I’m sorry I won’t be home until the end of October.  I feel bad for ruining any plans, but I hope we can still go on a family trip then.  I really want to go do something with my family when I get home.  I really want to do what you had planned in October and I feel kinda stupid for messing it up.   Can we still do it if we just push it back a little?  I’m sorry.

I can’t wait to get home and do things with you all and go places with you all like we used to.  I always loved family trips, but looking back now, I don’t feel like I appreciated the family part of those trips enough.  There is not a moment in my head that I remember being more happy or having more fun than I was with one, or some, or all of my family.  I oove you all so much, and I can shamelessly admit the truthfulness in the words, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone,” because I didn’t.  But instead of regretting what I wasted before, I promise to treasure each one of you that much more.  I promise to be a better brother and son. 

Football for Elders of the Cauayan Zone,  before Elder
Hufstatler  (with football) goes home.

I love and miss you all. 

Mahal ko kayo,

Elder Allen

Difficult Decisions

The missionaries from my zone all sang
Christmas Carols at the local prison.

I just dropped almost all of our investigators. It was a difficult decision, but sometimes it just needs to be done, and missionaries usually don’t want to do it.  So, I get to deal with it and I just happen to be the type of person who can let them go if they don’t want to come closer to Christ and keep any commitments.  Other missionaries can follow up in a few months to see if they’ve had a change of heart.  That may make me sound heartless. The APs told President Carlos that I had dropped almost all of our many, many investigators.  President Carlos pointed out that it’s a hard thing to do, but sometimes just needs to be done. Now we have time to seek out more lost sheep who may be ready for the Good Shepherd. 

Another inspirationl sign at the entrance of a neighborhood.
The typo "I'll" is a hint that English is not the local language.

We only have one real investigator right now, but it’s a family of 7; the Gumaru (Goo-ma-roo) family.  I still have a hard time saying that name right so don’t fell bad if you can’t.  While we are constantly looking for new people to teach, (usually by asking everybody for referrals, that always seem to wind up being in the APs area.)    We have changed the main focus of our work from teaching everyone who will hold still, and switched to seeking out the unfortunate less-actives that have been forgotten about through the years. The branch presidency kept telling us that there were only a few less-actives in our area and kept giving us the same five names we've always been going to, so we started seeking out the active members, and asking who of their neighbors were members. This way we have found tons and tons of members that have obviously been completely forgotten about.  So our job is to help them want to come back to the fold of Christ.  It’s the member’s job to befriend them again. Thats what we have been up to the last few weeks.

I hear it’s extremely cold in Utah, but is there any snow?  The worst is when its freezing and it won’t snow.  It’s hot here,  but it’s not a nice hot. I’m a long way from manila and it’s generally hotter up here than down there.  It was great talking to you after Christmas.  I’m not good at sitting down and typing messages to people.  I’d rather just talk to people. I love you so much Mom.  Have a great week, and enjoy the cold for me.

Mahal ko kayo,

I love you All

The APs get a car.  Sometimes Elder 
Samar and me get to ride in the back. 

Elder Allen

Remembering the Savior at Christmas

I know that the Christmas spirit is that of amplified love, joy, peace, and giving. In this time that we think about the Savior, we remember his humble beginnings which eventually lead to his eternal sacrifice and his triumphant return. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, He has been since the foundation of the world and will be for eternity.  We should live every day in the Christmas Spirit, always with a fullness of love, joy, peace, and giving always in remembrance of the Savior.

Elder Eli Allen

Typhoon Bopha

Editor’s Note:  It was a scary week as typhoon Bopha headed for the Philippines. It hit Mindanao, about 400 miles south of Eli, and left 600 dead and 100,000 homeless, those affected by the storm can use your prayers. Then Bopha turned back toward Luzon.  It looked like it would pass off to the north, but then it headed straight east...straight for Eli.  Bopha had 98 MPH winds when it turned for Luzon.  But miraculously, the storm fell apart as it came ashore.  It looked like it came across the Cagayan Valley as a few bands of ferocious rain between midnight and 2am Friday night.  We watched the satellite loop over and over.  It was pretty cool to watch it break up as it headed for Cauayan.

Kumusta!

We heard a little about the typhoon, but I didn’t realize it had caused that much damage, or even headed up this way.  Honestly, we couldn’t even tell there was a typhoon up here besides a little rain and cooler temps. Besides that, no damage here in the Cauayan mission. Thanks to your prayers. 

This is an insirational message, ala the Philippines.
That explains a lot. Puroks are the way little towns
are divided up. Thats my area.

Elder Elgan heads home Wednesday. I tried to convince him to extend his mission about 10 months, but no luck.  Elders Huffstutler and Hamblin were supposed to have 2 more cycles after this one but they have been cut down one cycle and go home in January.  Everybody’s leaving me. I need to make new friends.

The Plan of Salvation is difficult to teach here, because they don’t really understand concepts like that.  In America you can ask simple questions like, "Have you ever thought about where you’re going after this life?" and they may say something like, "Of course, who doesn’t?" or, "I’ve always wondered," but here you ask that same question the answer is almost always, "No."   They just don’t think that way.

 

The Cauayan Zone

But you understand the importance of the Plan of Salvation. which we all need to understand, because it is what the Gospel’s all about: Eternal Families.

I love you very much. Thank you for your prayers. I’m sure that’s what helped us out up here.

This is funny because its really how tagalog is.
He is asking if the other guy is going down.
The other guy is saying he is going down.

Mahal ko kayo,

Elder Allen

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kumusta!

Thanksgiving dinner at the Mission Home.
Photo shamelessly borrowed from
Sis. Shaner via Grace Nay.

This week was Thanksgiving.  We were invited to Thanksgiving lunch with President and Sister Carlos and the other Senior Couples.  'We' is Elders, Huffstutler, Miole, Bluth, Gloria, Samar and I. President Carlos cooked a turkey and a whole bunch of other things.  A little taste of home.  After eating we put up the Christmas tree.  Then when finished with that, we ate pie. Lots of pie. It was a good Thanksgiving. Then we ended the day by going to the very nice funeral of a really old member we didn’t know.  So it was a fun day.

Of the two Thanksgivings I have had on my mission, they were both great. Besides that our week has been pretty tough, getting punted everywhere. We just walk back and forth trying to catch people to teach while leaving a trail of OYM's (Open Your Mouth) preaching everywhere we go.

I helped set up the Christmas tree.

That’s all that has happened this week. Thanksgiving was great. And Thanksgiving sounds like it was great for all of you.

I love you all.

Mahal ko kayo,

Elder Allen

Elders Huffstutler and Miole,
as they normally appear.

Welcome to Cauayan!

Kumusta!

I didn’t tell you last week that there were transfers this week because I didn’t think there was going to be much of a change. I was wrong. I have been transferred out of Ramon and into my fourth area and my... eighth? companion. I am now in Cauayan 2nd branch, Cuauyan Zone, Cauayan Mission. My new companion is Elder Samar, the Elder that Elder Valdez trained back when I spent a lot of time with him in Alicia when I was in Jones.  We live only a few streets away from the Mission Home and live in the same house as the APs (Assistants to the President), Elder Huffstutler and Elder Miole, who were both my ZLs (Zone Leaders) when I was in Jones with Elder Elgan.  So we are having a pretty great time. New area and new companion, and I am very excited for this Cycle.  This is Elder Elgan’s, Miole’s, and Olivas’, and a whole bunch others last cycle, so it’s going to be an excellent six weeks before they go home.

Mahal ko kayo,

I love you all.

Elder Allen