Week 41 Sumoto: Thrust in the Sickle with your Might

あいする兄弟、姉妹、皆さん こんにちは、

this last week has been all over the place Just like usual. my beloved companion has unfortunately fallen ill and we have been spending a lot of time at the doctors and in the apartment, but nevertheless miracles were beheld. my fAvorite one this week however was when i was on a comPanion exchange with a younger missionary named elder bailey in my area of sumoto. we had set the goal to go out And give out at least 1 book of mormon before the day's end. and so we ventured out and were turNed down one after another until finally later in the evening a younger japanese grammar teacher answEred his door and gave ear to our message. it was a way fun experience. me and elder bailey's japanese are still a work in progress and several mistakes were made as we attempted to give the mesSage of the restoration of christ's gospel whilE making connections to his profession as a teacher. but though our words were simple and our ability to answer his questions was rough, our testimonies were pure and the spirit was felt very strong as we testified of the truth. he accepted our book of mormon and then since he was a japanese grammar teacher i asked him if he had any corrections to our message. he just started laughing. then he gave a few pointers on testifying in japanese. then seeing a great opportunity asked him to demonstrate as if i were him and he was us. he accepted and took the book of mormon and testified to us that he knew that it was true and that he wanted us to read it to so that we could feel of the joy that it has brought him in his life. it was the greatest first contact in the world. never before have i started a contact explaining to someone what the book of mormon is and ended with the contact testifying to me of his testimony of the restoration. it was incredible! afterwards we set up a time to meet again and he saId that we would definitely read and wanted to talk more. i love miracles!

so that was a really cool experience and i was feeling pretty good about my japanese for being able to carry that converSation in the way that it turned out. but then the humbling came coming. at church i had an opportunity to translate one of our members talks from english to japanese while up at the pulpit. it was way hard but i felt like i did a half decent job that is until maekawa shimai, an 96 year old member who comes to church every week, came up to me and said that she was sure that i gave a great talk, but that she was sorry because she didn't understand it because she doesn't speak english. then later i was asked to read a scripture in japanese. i read the scripture for the class and then after, that same member called out (in japanese), "is it alright if we have someone read the scripture again in japanese because i don't understand english!" so apparently my japanese is still unrecognizable as japanese to some people, so i guess that i Have a lot more work to do than i thought. i am so grateful for humbling experiences in the gospel. i truly have felt so much joy this last week and am so grateful for the tender mercies of the lord And his love and strength in working each day. i know that i cannot do this work on my own, i owe absolutely everything to him. i love my lord and savior jesus christ and my eternal father in heaven with all of my heart and am so grateful foR this opportunity to share that joy with as many people as i can each anD every day. i love you all and am so grateful for the prayers and support that you are all constantly give to me. i hope that you have an amazing week. go be a light!

elder allred

I thrusted in the sickle with my might but I guess I am going to need

a stronger sickle…

Week 40 Sumoto: 母の日

happy mother's day everyone!

i was able to skype my family earlier Today and it was so great! man i miss them so much, but Each time that i have seen them out on my mission it has reminded me of how amazing it is that i get to be together with them forever. i truLy love them so much and knowing that no matter what happens if we hold out faithfuL to the end that then we will be able to be with each other eternallY in a state of never-ending happiness makes up for all Of the missed basketball games and delicioUs family dinners and nights where we are all laughing so hard together that ouR abbs are sore the next day, because the reason that i am out here is so that other people can have that same hope and joy in their own Families and homes. this gospel is incredible And it is true. I have never understood that more in My life than i do now as a missIonary. Love your families, forgive them, and do whatever it takes so that You can be together forever in the kingdom of god. this is real, and how great the importance to make it known to all the inhabitants of the earth. jesus christ is our savior and he is the waY to true and lasting happiness in this life and forever. i am sO grateful for this opportUnity to work and serve with the lord in sharing the good news of his gospel. i LOVE you all so much and hope That tHis wEek is Magical! yoshi! let's go be a light!

ぴかぴか🌟

elder allred

Me and Elder Osaka found baby bunnies at a park!

Here's the view from our apartment in Sumoto!

Mother's Day FaceTime!

Week 39 Sumoto: Transfer Alert

my family, my friends,

this last week me and Elder anderson got our transfer calls and we were both transferring out of marugame. it was way sad and we had a way hard time saying goodbye to our investigators and members who we had gotten so close to and had so many spirituaL experiences with. and the hardest lesson of all was fujiwara shimai's lesson. when we told her she was so sad and surprised. she starteD telling us how grateful she was for us and started to cry which made us all cry and then she told us that she would never forget us because we had changEd her life and she begged us to never forget her and to come back and see her again. we told her that we would come back for her baptism and she

said that she would work harder than ever to make it to baptism foR us. it was one of the saddest things i have ever dOne in my life. we then gave her our little information cards which we wrote notes on and she took them and read them and started crying Again. it was way sad but i am so grateful for the blessing and privilege that it was to be able to be apart of her progression and change to realizing that she is a child of god. she is so amazing i am going to miss her.

well my new area is sumoto it is way awesome but completely different from marugame. it is on the island of awaji which is basically an island off the shore of shiKoku which is an iSland of the shore of the main land japan which IS an island in and of itself. so i just keep getting sent to smaller and smaller islands. our area covers the whole island and doesn't really have a whole lot of people. our branCh has about 8 active members and they are way awesOme! i feel like i am back in the early days of the church when they would gather their sMall band of followers of christ in the livIng room of someone's home. it is so awesome. my companioN's name is osaka chōrō, he is a japanese missionary so i have really been thrown into the fire of the language because we basically have to do everything in japanese unless we are doing english class, or english study for him. i am Getting way better at conversational japanese with him too, i'm so excited too see what we are able to accomplish together this transfer. the only problem is that my english is getting worse, writing emails is getting a lot harder, because i don't remember how to be funny or say things in an interesting way anymore (but then again i may have never been able to do that) another awesome thing about this neW area is that our apartment is at the top of this huge hill and we are On the fifth floor, so at the end of the day when we gO home we have to get a head start to build up speed and then power our way up this giant hill to get back to our apartment, it is a way intense Way to end the day when you are already exhausted from a hardworking day of dendou, but when we finally get to Our apartment the view is amazing! i am going to love this area so much! well like always thank you so much for all of your love emails and support to me as i dO my best to serve our heavenly father and bring souls unto christ. i love you all and hope you week is superb!

elder allred

My last pic with Anderson Chōrō 

My New Companion Osaka Chōrō 

Me and Osaka Choro ready to take on a King Size!

Definitley shouldn't have done that!

Week 38 Marugame: Red Shirt Exchange

shimai kyoudai konnichiwa,

this week we had a companion exchange where we went to our district leader's area and i was able to dendo with him. at the beginning of the exchange we were making goaLs for what we would accomplish and we wanted to get really specific. so we decided that we were going to give out 2 book of mormons and find 2 new investigators and then we thought about what the new investigator might look like and we decided that we were going to make extra efforts to stop everyone wEaring a read shirt who was in between the ages of 16-30. right afTer we finished setting the goals i felt really strong that we were going to be able to reach our goals that day. i was so happy and the weather was so nice and we just went right out and started streeting and we were stopping everyone. we had given out a book of mormon (which is waY hard in japan) but had still had no luck with finding a new investigator and then we saw him. a 17 year Old wearing a red shirt. we stopped him and talked to him, turns out he already had a book of mormon and after teaching him a little more from it he became a new investigator. it was way awesome! then after we jUst went right on stopping everyone that we could find, and then while we were riding our bikes to go tRy to find some good housing, hill chōrō (my district leader) stopped suddenly and said that he didn't feel like we were going the right way so we turned around and started Housing at a place in the oppositE direction. not long after we started we met this guy from taiwan named setsu. he turned out to be pretty interested in the gospel and Agreed to meet again and wanted a book of mormon and

became a new investigator. it was so cool! we were able to meet all of ouR goals for The exchange and I am so happy that elder hill is as in tune with the spirit as he is. i learned a lot about faith and following the spirit from this experience and am so excited to staRt finding with the faith and trust in the spirit that hill chōrō doEs so

well. it was also one of the funnest days of missionary work that i have had so far on the mission. the Joy that comes from this wOrk is amazIng! i love you all and am so Crazy gratEful for you!

elder allred

We were blessed from on high to partake of delicious tacos while on the companion exchange! (Mexican food does not exist in Japan. It’s nuts!)

Hiking with Jheff