Week 88 Senri: Loving like Christ

Hey Everyone,
Things are going well here in Senri, and our whole Zone is seeing tons of miracles there have been several companionships who have found people who are really interested and are being taught and prepared for baptism so fast. Just the other week one of the companionships from the neighboring area found a 19 year old guy who is way into baseball and believes in god. They taught him the Restoration and he felt the Spirit and was interested in meeting again. After meeting two more times he agreed to be baptized two weeks later. He is now getting baptized this Saturday and is looking more than prepared to make it without complications. It is so amazing!

I also just finished the Book of Mormon today, reading it all the way through focusing on Charity. I learned so many amazing things from doing this exercise and have come to know more and more of the depth and divinity of Christ-like Love. One of my favorite scriptures that hit me the most was right at the end. It was Moroni 10:32-33:

32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

Christ’s Love is infinitely available for us, and if we “Love God with all [our] might, mind and strength” we will “keep [His] commandments” (John 14:15) and “feed [His] sheep” (John 21:17) and then we can be filled, cleansed, and sanctified by the “pure Love of Christ” which “Endureth forever.” So let’s “pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that [we] may be filled with this love,” and become “true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ” and “be like Him” and “be purified even as he is pure. Amen.” (Moroni 7:47-48)

Isn’t our Father in Heaven and His Word in the scriptures amazing! I love the Book of Mormon so much and can’t wait to start my next study tomorrow on the Atonement and Character of Christ. I hope that you all have a great week and see and recognize the many miracles of God happening all around you each day!

私はこの教会が確かに神様の唯一の真実の教会であることを知っています。

Elder Allred

I drew this the other day for an investigator

Week 87 Senri: Baseball

What a week! Zone Conference was great and such a needed boost of Spiritual nourishment and new ideas from all of the amazing missionaries in this zone. I am also so grateful for the Counsel of President Smoot and the things that I was able to learn about how to better minister like the Savior and use Family History in the work. We came off of Zone Conference on a Spiritual high and have been working hard all week. The investigators with a Baptismal date that we are teaching are all doing really great and still progressing towards their goals of being baptized. We were also able to commit two more investigators to be baptized on a specific day and have now been blessed with the miracles we are seeing and now have 5 Baptismal candidates in our area like Yamashita Choro of the Area presidency challenged us to do when he visited our mission a couple months ago. Missionaries in the Zone have also been seeing a lot of miracles and there have been 5 more Baptismal Candidates found this week. Miracles are truly occurring everywhere with the upcoming Renlund Choro conference and missionaries excersicing their faith in accomplishing what we have been Challenged to do. I love you all sorry this week is short, but I hope you all have a miraculous week!

奇跡を見ましょう！

Elder Allred

The ward Baseball game.

Week 86 Senri: The Father of Contention

My Family and Friends,

This last week was another great one, filled with awesomeness and

miracles galore! We are getting really close with a lot of our

investigators to commit to follow Christ and be Baptized. We have been

so blessed with such great investigators these last couple transfers.

We are also continuing the Book of Mormon Challenge strong and have

given out about 30 Book of Mormons these last few weeks. We had

another funny experience with it the other day too. We stopped a guy

at the park and told him we could answer any of his questions with the

Book of Mormon he struggled to think of a question that he had but

finally asked us, “The other day I offered a friend sigarettes and he

accepted them, and then the next day I offered him some more and he

said no. Why?”... We were way confused and we tried really hard to

figure out exactly what he wanted to know but in the end just found

out that he was drunk. He expressed to us that he was angry at his

friend and asked us what he should do so we shared 3 Nephi 11:29-30:

29 For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of

contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of

contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with

anger, one with another.

30 Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with

anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things

should be done away.

He looked at this scripture and then pointed to the first part and

said very slowly, “I am not the Devil,” he then moved his finger down

the verse and continued, “I am the Father of Contention.” And then he

nodded as if he had made his point and sat staring at us. We, not

knowing what to do, explained the importance of avoiding anger and

then gave him the Book of Mormon. He accepted it and told us that he

would read it. It was definitely the strangest contact of the week.

But me and Elder Dayley are both pretty proud that we placed a Book of

Mormon with the Father of Contention this week. We will pray for that

man.

Well things are going great here in Senri. The ward is so amazing and

I love the members. I hope that I stay in this area for the rest of my

mission because I can’t imagine a better place to finish strong and be

surrounded with people that I have grown to love so much. I hope you

all have a great week. Love you all!

Elder Allred

YSA Activity. Both of the people I am touching are our investigators and then my New Companion Elder Dayley is in the middle.

Week 85 Senri: Group

こんにちは！
It was such a fantastic week here in Senri ward. We saw lots of miracles, taught lots of lessons and saw General Conference!! I have been so inspired this week to work harder and harder in becoming a more Christ-like missionary and Minister in His work. I want to seek more Spiritual Revelation and develop the attributes and character of Christ more than ever. I am so grateful for the blessing and miracle it is to have stayed in Senri to work another transfer, and also to be doing it alongside Dayley Choro who is a fantastic missionary. It was a great transfer working with Mecham Choro and we saw a lot of Miracles together. I pray that the Lord will help us to continue to see miracles and further the progression of those of His children who we have the privilege to be have been working with. I know that Mecham Choro will be a great trainer. We have a lot of exciting things coming up. I’m excited to keep working hard for the members of this ward. 

The Book of Mormon Challenge is still working wonders. We met a bunch of people this week who after we gave them the Book of Mormon really wanted to learn more and we are going to teach them more and invite them unto Christ! I love you all so much! Have a great week!

頑張りましょう！

Elder Allred

Senri Area

Elder Mecham’s last English Class in Senri

Team IronMac!

Week 84 Senri: Kyoto

Hey everyone,
It has been another fantastic week here in Senri ward. We are continuing to see so much success with the Book of Mormon Challenge that we have been doing. Just the other day I was on an Exchange with Preston Choro, who is a first transfer right out of the MTC, and he felt impressed to hold a Book of Mormon all day as we worked. We were in the middle of contacting someone on a street near a college and someone started eyeballing the Book of Mormon that Preston Choro was carrying. Preston Choro noticed and started talking with him while I finished up the contact with the other guy. I was so amazed with Preston Choro, him being a greeny yet being so bold to stop this guy and talk with him by himself until I joined him. It turned out that the guy had actually just recently been studying religion and the Bible and was wanting to start studying the Book of Mormon. He agreed to meet again and we traded contact information and gave him the Book. Preston Choro is such a great missionary and we saw so many miracles together on that Exchange. Also this week we have been continuing to see lots of progress with our investigators with a baptismal date. All three of them have been coming to church and the members are so good about making them feel welcome and becoming their friends. We have just been so blessed this transfer with so many miracles and I am just so grateful for the Lord and His Love and the Joy of being a missionary. Have a great week everyone! Love you!

Happy Easter!

Elder Allred

Service in the Park with the Sakura!

Week 83 Senri: モルモン書チャレンジ

皆様への報告
It was another great week full of miracles. We were able to do a lot of work with one of the members who just returned from his mission. He has been working extremely hard to invite friends and fellowship investigators and is setting a great example to the rest of the ward and to his family. With his help we were able to teach a referral and commit him to receive baptism and to 8meet with us 2 to 3 times a week. We have definitely been witnessing the power of members and the necessity of teaching their friends. We have also been finding using  new method lately and it has yielded incredible results. It is called the Book of Mormon Challenge. It is where we contact people at their door or on the street and we tell them that we believe that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God and that it can answer any question that they have, and then we give them the Purpose of Life flyer that we have and show them the questions that are written there, which are things like, Where did we come from? Why are we here? And Where are we going? and then we tell them that they can use it as a reference for the types of questions that they can ask and then we tell them to challenge us. After they tell us their question we do our best to open to a scripture that answers or gives direction to their question. We have done it many times this week and so far we are 100% for people who have accepted the Book of Mormon after we have opened it up with them and answered their questions, and we have found many new investigators and very strong potentials. It is incredible to see how the Word of God and the Spirit have been softening hearts before our eyes as we have opened up the scriptures with them to answer the questions of their soul. I love the Book of Mormon and I am filled with so much Joy as people accept the call to read it and seek answers to their prayers. 

My favorite experience with this new challenge was the other day when a college student sincerely asked us a question you could tell had long been bothering him. He asked us, “When I was a little kid I loved video games and was so excited to play them, but since I became a college student I no longer have as much fun... Why?” And so we opened the Word of God and answered the question of his soul with a scripture from the Bible. 1 Corinthians 13:10-11:

“10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

The Word of God has the power to solve any question. Have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Allred

A new investigator who we did the Book of Mormon challenge with in a doughnut shop.