Week 100 Senri: Questions & Answers

Hey friends,

It was a week of good things. We worked really hard and were able to give out a lot of Book of Mormons. I figured out that since me and Mecham Chōrō started 2 and a half transfers ago doing the Book of Mormon Challenge with people, where we tell them to ask us any question and we answer it with the Book of Mormon, we have given over 100 Japanese people a copy of the Book of Mormon just in our companionship. And from what I hear there are missionaries all over the mission who are accomplishing similar feats. It has been such a blessing answering people’s questions with the Book of Mormon. My testimony of its truthfulness and the power of the Word of God contained within it has been strengthened so much. Just yesterday we were at a YSA activity and we were going around to everyone and daring them to ask us a question that we couldn’t answer with the Word of God. Nobody could. It is such a testimony of the perfectness of Christ’s Gospel that through it we can answer all questions. Some answers may not be the most direct, but every one directs us to Christ and gives us the direction we need so that we can receive those answers on our own. I love the Gospel of Christ so much!

I have began to understand how Nephi must have felt when he declared, 

“2 And now I, Nephi, write more of the words of Isaiah, for my soul delighteth in his words. For I will liken his words unto my people...  4 Behold, my soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ” (2 Nephi 11:2,4)

I too truly delight in the Words of the Prophets and I delight in likening them unto others to prove that Jesus is the Christ and will come again and His people shall be redeemed. I love the Scriptures! Study and ponder them everyday and it will change your whole life. I challenge you to come up with a question you have and then find the answer this week in the Scriptures. I promise that the answer is there. Have a fantastic week!

Elder Allred

万博公園

オールレッド長老より

Week 99 Senri: Tender Mercies

Hey all you awesome people,

This was a pretty crazy week that included getting the police called

on us. The guy downstairs got way mad because we had 4 missionaries in

our apartment and apparently in the apartment contract it says that we

can‘t do that But our mission president used to be a lawyer and he

said he will take care of things, also I am pretty sure that the guy

downstairs has settled down quite a bit, and it was a miracle because

one of the members that showed up to help happened to be his old

coworker. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

As for the work we have 2 people who we are teaching who are converted

to Christ and will for sure be baptized in the coming weeks. We are

working with several others and we have great hopes and are really

hoping to see the miracles of the Lord in helping these precious souls

come unto Him and partake of His Love and Joy. We also however have

been saddened by the disappointing choices of some of the other people

we are teaching though, but we will continue to press forward in

Faith.

Also this week we focused as a Zone on Family History and in helping

others download the Family Search app and create their own accounts to

do Family History. We saw a lot of Miracles and it was way exciting to

help people get excited about making their own genealogy. I have grown

to love my pedigree so much and I love talking to people about my

family! I hope that everyone in our Zone came to feel a similar

excitement and spirit as they lead people to engage in this glorious

and divine work.

I am also loving the Jesus Christ Challenge that we are doing as a

mission reading through the whole Book of Mormon so much! It has been

filling me with Love towards Christ and an increased clarity and

motivation to apply the things that I am learning at Zone Conference

and District Meetings. Our week was just full of exciting steps of

progression and Faith. Thank you all so much for your love and

support. Have a fantastic week!

Elder Allred

We went to KFC on a Companion Exchange with my old pal Elder Satō!

Week 98 Senri: 15 Copies of the Book of Mormon

Hey Everyone!

This was such an exciting and eventful week in the Kita Osaka Zone. We

had MLC, Zone Conference, a 4 day typhoon, and a challenge to give out

as many copies of the Book of Mormon as possible. All along the way we

saw many miracles and received great revelation for our areas and the

work. This last week during our Book of Mormon Week. We ended up

giving around 50 people a copy of the Book of Mormon as a Zone even

with the rain and Conference. Elder Trevisan and I were able to see

such a tender mercy of the Lord last night too. We had a goal to give

15 people a copy of the Book of Mormon throughout the week and at

about 8:30pm last night we were at 14. We didn’t know how we were

going to give out one more copy that late at night when there are not

many people out and about, but we had faith that God would provide the

way. We said a prayer and then felt to go to a nearby Lawson and try

stopping someone over there, but there wasn’t a single person around.

We tried stopping a couple people on bikes but they wouldn’t stop for

us. Finally we saw an older man with a bike pushing it towards the

main road. We stopped him and he remembered meeting missionaries

decades ago. He said that he felt that we were very pure people and we

told him about the Book of Mormon and shared Jacob 3:1-2,

1 But behold, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart.

Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding

faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead

your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your

destruction.

2 O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the

pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your

minds are firm, forever.

He loved the scripture and then we offered him the Book. He was so

happy to take it and and said that he might call us to meet again. We

were able to get back home just in time for curfew and were both so

filled with Joy because of the Miracle that the Lord provided for us

in accomplishing our goals. It is so great to be a missionary of the

True and Living God. Onward ever onward!

オールレッド長老より

Week 97 Senri: Miracle Homestretch

皆様、
It has been a week full of transfers and miracles! I am especially grateful for the miracle it is to stay in Senri and serve here for one more Transfer. Me and my new companion, Elder Trevisan, have already seen so many miracles and are excited to see big progress with this area, the members and all of the wonderful people that we have the privilege to teach. Trevisan Choro has been out for about a year and is from Italy 🇮🇹 in a town near Venice called Udine. He has been making me some way delicious pastas and is saying that we will have to make Pizza of the motherland one of these times. I am way excited to work with him and also to learn a little Italian. We are really going to try to focus on Unity this transfer, as a companionship and as a Zone. 

I am so excited for MLC and Zone Conference which are coming up this week. I have a stronger desire than ever to work with all of my Heart, Might, Mind and Strength in order to be a tool in the Lord’s hands to bless as many people around me as possible. I look forward to receiving guidance and revelation for the Zone and for the friends that we are teaching and leading unto Christ this week.

The other day we had a really amazing experience with one of the people we have been teaching who has a baptismal date but just doesn’t want to go to church. We told him that if we first study it out in our mind and heart and then ask God with real intent whether or not it is right for him to go to church and be baptized then God will cause our hearts to burn to tell us that it is right or he will give us a stupor of thought if it is wrong (D&C 9:8-9). We spent the lesson studying it out through scriptures and lists of pros and cons and concerns and then finally we knelt down to ask our Heavenly Father for direction. Before we began to pray we asked our friend if he believed that God can answer our prayer right then, and he answered at first hesitant but then finished with a confident “Yes, I will choose to believe this time” and so we bowed our head and asked Father in Heaven if he should go to church and be baptized or if he should not. The Spirit answered our prayers and afterwards he described how he and all of us felt during the prayer. He said that when we asked about being baptized and going to church and paused that inside his chest he felt it a warmth and a calm and he started to feel really excited, and then when we asked if he should not be baptized he said that that feeling immediately left. He told us that it was the first time that he has ever felt something as he prayed and that he now understood what it means to feel the Spirit. He is now committed to come to church and be Baptized. And because of his experience with prayer he has become more converted to the reality of God and the truthfulness of His Gospel. It made me reflect a lot and think about how we are not just trying to get these children of God baptized, but we are helping them to be converted to Christ and desire to be baptized. We teach repentance and Baptize Converts. I am so grateful for this experience and for the Lord helping me to deepen my Conversion. I love my mission so much and I promise that I will serve my Father in Heaven for the rest of my life. I hope that you all have great weeks this week filled with miracles and tender mercies.

頑張りましょう！

Elder Allred

Me and my new Companion Elder Trevisan!

Week 96 Senri: Takayama Kyoudai’s Baptism

Hello everyone!
It was another great week in Senri. We were able to have a lot of meaningful interactions with our investigators and also several members. We are spending a day a week with one of the Members who are preparing to serve a mission in Boston and it has been way fun and a great experience working with him and teaching people about the Gospel he will be preaching for the next 2 years. Another big highlight this week was Takayama Kyoudai’s Baptism in Sennan. I was so grateful that I was able to go and see it. It touched me when I met him again after so long and saw how truly converted he is. I teared up when I saw him sitting on the front row crying during the musical number and then Itsuku Kyoudai (A less active who was reactivated recently who I became good friends with while I was in Sennan) moved to the seat next to him and put his arm around him and cried himself. He is going to be such a great member, and also his mother came to his baptism and was very touched as well by his testimony and the beautiful musical number that was done before the ordinance. Weeks like these do so much to remind me what missionary work is all about. I love my Savior Jesus Christ with all my heart and I want to be a better representative of His infinite Love. 
頑張りましょう！
I love you all and am so grateful for all of your support!

Elder Allred

I only have this picture of my and Sato Bishop but I will get the Baptismal photos and send them next week! 😅

Week 95 Senri: Hot and Humid

It was a great week this last week. It has been getting really hot and

humid, but we have been finding good new potential investigators and

working a lot with one of the youth in Senri ward who has recently

received his mission call and so we have been taking him out to find

and teach and to do the Book of Mormon Challenge. We were able to give

out a bunch of Book of Mormons this last week and Dayley Chōrō and I

have now given out 53 copies of the Book of Mormon as a companionship.

It has been a couple pretty miraculous transfers working together with

him and they have been filled with growth both as an area and

individually. I am so grateful for the blessing that he has been in my

life and for the friendship that we have made.

We have been working with some pretty great investigators and are

excited to see them progress and a couple of them are almost for sure

going to be baptized next transfer and we have been so blessed to be a

part of their progression and to be able to make the friendships that

we have been able to. I am reading the Book of Mormon from the

beginning again looking for attributes of the Character of Christ and

have had some great Personal Studies and learned some things that I

really need to do better. I just want so badly to become a true

disciple of Christ and be filled with Charity and continually

strengthen and lift and minister to those around me. I fall subject to

the Natural man far too often and need to rely more fully on the

Atonement of Christ to give me the strength to put off the Natural man

and become a Saint (Mosiah 3:19). I love this Gospel so much and hope

with all my heart that those we are teaching will receive it and allow

it to fill their lives with Joy and Light. I’m so grateful for each of

you and pray that you are all doing well. Have a fantastic week!

Elder Allred

Elder Daley and me with one of our investigators and a visitor from the states

Skype Meeting in a digital Missionary Age