September 14th, 2015 -- Weekly Update

Hello everyone!

It has been very rewarding this past week, despite a couple of tough experiences. We took on a couple of divisions or splits, one with the Zone leader, Elder Lofgreen and the other with the district leader where I stayed with his companion, Elder Chan. Elder Lofgreen lives closer to the city which was super fun for me, talking to some interesting people. The last lesson was very interesting when he told me we were going to teach a Jehovah's witness who had trouble with accepting the Book of Mormon as more scripture. Going in, I didn't have much to go off of, but we just bore testimony and at one point he asked for MY take. I said that all we wanted him to do was to pray to see if what we had taught him was true and if the Boom of Mormon is true with a sincere heart. Pretty simple, but very direct. I'm pretty sure we all felt the Spirit pretty strong then. He took that in for a minute and Elder Lofgreen followed with his bit and asked him to be baptized. Then he asked him "And hermano Bernie, how long have you been a member of the Church?" To which Bernie answered, "56 years." I didn't even have to look at the camera, now out of the hiding place of Elder Lofgreen's bag and into his hand pointed at me for me to throw down my pamphlet in embarassment. They had both punked me pretty good. 25 minutes worth of teaching and it was a prank they played on me. Still, we all felt the Spirit and Bernie has actually had some time without going to church, so it was good for all of us, even if it was embarrasing for me, they were nice about it.

Yesterday, all of Mexico got to see the dedication of the Mexico city temple with President Eyring and Brother Holland among others speaking. Super great experience and I was even able to see some of the members from Escobedo! My favorite part was probably when we meshed with the choir singing "The Spirit of God"

Contacting one day, we were heading back to our house when someone from a house shouted to us "Hey, what are you guys doing here?" In english, in a perfect accent. Turns out, there is a North Carolinian here who leads a church just minutes from our house who also teaches a Bible class. After some talking he told us that he had met some other missionaries and really like what we do and even invited us to teach a class on our beliefs and give a Book of Mormon to all of his students! What an awesome opportunity and we're asking President if we can actually do it in October/November.

I finished reading a short talk by Gene R. Cook called "The Missionary Purification" and have felt that I should invite you all to read it as well. It talks about obedience as a missionary, but I'm sure that anybody can get a lot out of it as I have. As we become more and more obedient to the rules our leaders have set for us through inspiration and care, we can have the Holy Ghost with us more fully. This gift is so precious to me as someone who relies on inspiration in all that I do. Love you all!

-Elder Allgaier