Elder Braden Allred : Week 43 Sumoto: That'll Do Bike, That'll Do

hey y'all,

this last week i learned a lot of things. it was so good! one of the things that i learned is that i strongly dislike my bike, but i love my bike... it's complicated. it's like a pet dog. you love it so much and it's your best friend in the whole world... then it pees all over your room and tears up all of your favorite things and there is hair everywhere and it just drives you crazy. as a missionary my bike has become my best frieNd but this last p-day i finally got it looked at for a problem that started back in tottori. i gave it to the shop and the first thing the mAn said when i showed him what was wrong was, "whoa, that's a big problem, it will probably take me about 6 hours to fix it." (well there goes our p-day) i then proceeded to walk back to the church with osaka chōrō, speaking all manner of murmurings againsT my bike and fortune. he then said his favorite words, "it's like the gospel..." (every time he wants me to do something he relates the situation tO the gospel and makes his way salvation). he explained how my bike problem was like sin and since i didn't want to go throUgh the repentance process back when it was a little problem (back in tottori) it has become a lot bigger and harder to resolve and will probably cost me a stinking ton of money. so basically he called me a sinner and that it was my fault that my bike was falling apart. i continued murmurIng and murmuring as we walked from place to place until i finally started to let my heart soften and admit that i should have been smarter. then the phone rang and it was the bike shop. he called and told us that my bike was done 5 hours early and we could come pick it up. when we got there the man had completely fixed my bike, cleaned it, and put air in all of the tires and then charged me practically nothing. he even changed out the brakes because he noticed that they had gone soft. i love him! at that point i realized how silly all of my murmuring was and decided to change my attitude. i love my bike. it's awesome. i learned a very valuable lesson about firstly, taking care of problems while they are small and not letting them get out of hand, and second, i should admit when i have made a mistake and not be a murmuring lemuel and face the consequences and then commit to be better rather than just feel Sorry for myself and my unfortunate bike circumstances.

also this week i had zone conference and it was so great. many tears were shed as we talked about how to better apply the Gospel of christ into our lives. welch kaicho gave us training and i swear every single word that comes out of that man's mouth is just a river of heavenly wisdom and it is just so fantastic. i learned so much about what the gospel of christ is, it was amazing! then after a delicious egg salad sandwich for lunch we received training from the zone leaders and such and trinca chōrō's training (one of our zone leaders) was a question teaching Role play and he was acting as the investigator. he is from washington dc and was just converted about 2 years ago so it was cool to have him acting as the investigator. then at the end of the role play someOne jokingly committed him to prepare to serve a mission and everyone laughed. trinca chōrō laughed along and then said, "you joke but you know that is actually just what my missionaries did." he then got very serious and said that because of those missionaries' boldness in his lessons he was baptized and is now here serving a full time mission. he then started to choke up as he began to say how much he loves his missionaries. he named each one and then testified of how much he loves being a missionary So that he can bring people the joy and happiness that his missionaries brought him. i felt it pretty hard as he spoke. that is truly what this is all about. bringing joy and love to those of heavenly father's children who have no clue what they are missing. i want to be bolder in proclaiming his love aS i go forward from this point. i love this work and am excited to continue it on! i love you all have a great week.

elder allred