Monday, January 25, 2016

Weekly Update -- January 25th, 2016

Hello everyone,

Baptism week!!! January 24th 2016, Juana Sifuentes Mata, was baptized by Elder Lopez! Super excited for her decision and that we were able to be the messengers that brought the big smile on her face that we saw yesterday. Apart from that, her two daughters and her daughter's boyfriend, German, all came to see her be baptized. AND, three members of a family who we've been teaching for a few weeks finally came to church yesterday! Seven investigators! Whoo, what a week. I'm really grateful for the opportunities we have to help in the progress of Heavenly Father's plan of happiness for us, exemplary in this baptism service. President McCarthur and his wife also took the opportunity to come and be apart of the program by bearing testimony before the ordinance on the truthfulness of the gospel.

This past Wednesday, we had the chance to see a worldwide broadcast for the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ with General Authorities like Bonnie Oscarson, David A. Bednar, Dalin H. Oaks and Ronald A. Rasband, to name a few, give advice on how we can fulfill our callings as missionaries a little better. All over the world, missionaries were watching live, except those between Finland and Japan due to the mission schedule. The theme was teach repentance and baptize converts, which was very meaningful because it taught me that we should teach in a manner that helps people to improve their lives through repentance to eventually become stronger members in the Church as opposed to just teaching them to believe in our message. An interesting thing that called my attention was that we shouldn't invite people to be baptized without teaching repentance first. A concept that can be overlooked in a lot of Latin American missions I think because of the general number of baptisms. It is really important that we are willing to submit ourselves to the will of Heavenly Father before taking the next step towards baptism; that's why the gospel of Christ is ordered as faith, then repentance, THEN baptism.

I hope your study with the Holy Spirit went well last week, this week I want to invite you all to re-read your favorite baptism story in the scritpures. My favorite is the story of Abinidi leading into the baptismal service with Alma performing the ordinances. Abinidi was awesome. Love you all, thanks for all of your prayers!

-Elder Allgaier


Juana's baptism!


Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Weekly Update -- January 20th, 2016

Hello everyone,

This coming Sunday, we have a baptismal date set for our investigator Juany and we are all very excited about it! She comes back from a trip from Mexico city tonight and we'll talk more to her tomorrow about her baptism. It's been very rewarding to see her progress from when we first saw her at a family party and she didn't even show interest, we ended up talking to just her daughter who is also progressing. A little later, she asked for a priesthood blessing and felt a great relief over herself as well as a relief of her pain and accepted a visit from us. Then her testimony she gave about her friend who recently passed away visiting her in her dreams was a very powerful experience in her conversion. Now Juany is going to walk a little further in the path to perfection with her decision to be baptized.

(I asked him a couple of questions including how the food is and these were a couple of his responses:) Food is good, almost always beans, meate, rice and tortillas, but every once in a while someone might switch it up with some tortas or chinese food!  It's fun to hear about returning missionaries and leaving missionaries. 

Yesterday, on the way to a zone activity waiting on the bus, my mind was wondering a bit and rested on a very specific moment when I was in the car in Brunswick after a 'movie in the parks' activity. I remembered very specifically a feeling of peace and clear thinking, clean from any anger or frustration I might've had at the time. Then, I remembered a similar feeling I had when I was arguing with my sister Kristyn. In an instant, my frustration of her not understanding me vanished and my perspective of what she might be feeling widened. I realized exactly what the Holy Spirit feels like based on these two memories given to me through the Holy Spirit. Now, it is much easier to be able to recognize inspirations and make clearer decisions. I'll invite you to study the work of the Holy Ghost this week in the scriptures and await any stories or epiphones you might want to share. Love you all!

-Elder Allgaier

Monday, January 11, 2016

Weekly Update -- January 11th, 2016

Hello everyone,

Running a little short on time this week because of all of the wonderful people who continue to write me this week and I love reading their stories and keeping up with them. Anyways, our two investigators, Anahi and Juany continue to progress and coming to church. This past week, they even asked us about the commandments since 'they're going to be baptized, they should know about the commandments.' They accepted and understood the doctrine with tithing, word of wisdom and law of chastity. Juany is leaving this week to Mexico city and won't be able to come to church again until her scheduled baptism date, the 24th!!

I can see various differences in my life in recognizing how much I have learned and grown since coming on the mission. Now passing 10 months, going on divisions with Elders who are in their first 2 or 3 months, I feel confident leading in an area and being able to talk to people very fluidly. This past week, Elder Lopez and I had rides set up for 10 investigators to come to church. Even though only two came, we felt very well in our capacity to get that much accomplished in one week with the great help of our members as well as two days worth of divisions. I invite you to watch the face to face with Elder Nelson that came out this past Sunday. The face to face videos look pretty cool from what I've seen. Sorry for the short email this week, but I love you all!

My bike
Pan Rosca a tradition here on the 6th of January



Elder Lopez on a very pretty day

Monday, January 4, 2016

Weekly Update -- January, 4th, 2016

Hello everyone!

Oh happy New year's, what a week. First off, we did divisions this week with the Zone leaders and I went to the more urban area with my old companion from Escobedo B, Elder Casiano! The team was back and we did some good work now that we are both more wiser and more experienced. During the divisions, he took me to do a little service project moving a member's boxes into her house. I found out after a little bit of conversation that the wife knew perfect english (which isn't too rare in the city, but its fun everytime I can talk with them in two languages) but spoke in a lot of spanglish, saying things like 'por favor, puede mover los boxes over there?' After a little more talking, she told me about her uncle, Eduardo Balderaz!! Some of you may not know that name, but he was the translator of the Pearl of Great Price, Jesus the Christ and (if I remember correctly) the current version of the Book of Mormon, to the Spanish language! I always find very interesting people in the city.

Yesterday, we had our two investigators at church again, Anahi and her Mom. Anahi can get baptized this week if she decides she wants to, now with the church assistance (attendance) requirement filled. Her Mom gave a super powerful testimony yesterday in fast and testimony meeting when she talked about her experience with the Jehova's Witnesses and her Mormon neighbor who recently passed away. She also talked about when Elder Lopez and I gave her a Priesthood blessing for her pain after she lost her job because of the intensity. Last week she mentioned having an interesting dream, but wouldn't give the details to us. Juany revealed in her testimony that the dream was her Mormon neighbor friend telling her that she sent the young messengers to her. SUPER powerful and I'm SUPER excited to continue teaching her in these following weeks.

Today... We had a Mission-wide activity at the offices in the middle area of the mission, which I have yet to hear happen before. A lot of fun to see all 200 (more or less) missionaries who cover the west half of Monterrey. We had a fĂștbol tournament between all of the zones (about 8 in total) and our zone, Anahuac, took home the bragging rights. In some (summary), a pretty good week.

I want to invite you all to do the same that our mission President just challenged us to do: read the entire Book of Mormon from cover to cover. You don't have to read the index, but do read the introductions and testimonies. Elder Lopez and I are already doing it with a few others in our branch and the district of missionaries and I'm in 2 Nephi right now. A little extra would be to share new things that you learn with a friend or family member. I like to hear newly learned things as well if you would like to send me an email. Thanks everyone, love you all! Here's to 2016!
-Elder Allgaier

divisions with Elder Casiano ending in compechanas (Elder Allgaier's favorite food!)

How we spent New Years (with Martinelli's sparkling apple cider, not alcohol!)

Mission activity