Weekly Update -- November 28th, 2016

Hello everyone,

First things first, I want to wish a very happy birthday to my awesome Mom! Thanks for all that you have done for our family, we love you! Ok, changes are in and I'm going to Rome stake with Elder Barrientos, being his last companion seeing that he goes home just after Christmas. Super excited to get to know my (probably) last area! It's exactly by the mission offices and the biggest city area in Monterrey, if not Latin America. I figure it'll be a good place to get some last minute souveniers.

Last week we had our stake conference in Anahuac and it was fantastic. Seriously, I got a lot out of the messages that were shared. A video was shown featuring Elder Bednar who talked about the purpose of work/service in the Church. Imagine three connected circles 1. Learn 2. Do 3. Be. Elder Bednar (echoed by Stake President Tapia) said that we LEARN so that we can DO things better. But we DO things so that we can BEcome better people. More specifically, become more like Christ (see 3 Nephi 27:27) Sometimes people get disanimated because of the work that being a member of the Restored Church requires. Home teaching, studying, service, callings, etc. etc. BUT, if we really focus on the importance of WHY we study and WHY we work, it gives us a wider perspective to be able to support the load. Great talk. If you can find it, watch it!

The new Christmas video finally came out to the public and it is awesome. Watch it too if you haven't already. We're helping you with that by putting it on youtube anyways, don't worry. But I really want to express my excitement for the worldwide service day this week. Remember the invitation before? To plan a service for December 1st? This week, I invite you to execute it. God's speed everyone, see you in Rome!

-Elder Allgaier

Zone pic

District pic

Elder Navarro studying before starting divisions

The picture we'll look back on playing fútbol for our countries in 8 years from now

Compechanas with Elder Guerrero, now time to go home

Pday fútbol before going our seperate ways

Oops! Missed pictures from November 21st. Sorry!

Panoramic from on top -- 1

Panoramic from on top -- 2

Panoramic from on top -- 3

Panoramic from on top -- 4

Panoramic from on top -- 5

Panoramic from on top -- 6

Panoramic from on top -- 7

Elder Reed and Elder Chavarria in the grafiti box

Chupando piña!

Celebrating afterwards at Sirloin

Weekly Update -- November 21st, 2016

Hello everyone,

Another week down, getting close in the Christmas call countdown. Happy thanksgiving to you Americans, enjoy the turkey and as an early invitation to switch things up, go ahead and express at least one thing you are grateful for while you're all together. Tables turned!!

This morning we climbed the famous 'Cerro de la Silla' to get some great pictures for the post mission slide show (which I will include) and had a great time spending time together as a district. It's coming to a close of this change now and many are thinking about who is going where. I think I'll be moving next week, or at the very least have a new companion. Who knows.

As far as spiritual experiences go, this week we had the opportunity to hear Pres. Valenzuela talk with us as mission leaders (of district and of zone and of sisters). I was surprised on how much emphasis was given on 1. Simple doctrine like the atonement 2. The importance of companionship unity and 3. New ways of working with members to share the gospel. Very uplifting meeting and fun to be apart of. Remember the video I recommended last week? As a double table turning second invitation, I invite you to send that video to someone you feel inspired to share it with on Facebook this Thanksgiving weekend. Let the miracles commence. Love you all, thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

-Elder Allgaier

Oscarin, a youth in the branch

One of our investigators plays the guitar for a living and played us a song one night

Thanks for the silly string!

Passing by parade that stretched for blocks, something similar to the fourth of July type holiday here

District activity today climbing the 'cerro de la silla'

At the top

Sunrise shot

Climbing to a good photo place

Good photo

Weekly Update -- November 14th, 2016

Hello everyone!

Hope your election week went well, because everyone made sure I remembered who I voted for by always asking me, 'Did you vote for Trump?!' I'm taking the advice of one american companion who said he decided he's from Canada from here on out to avoid looking racist. Anyways, it is finished. For important news, we had a multi-stake conference yesterday including a broadcast to all stakes in México where we listened to General Authorities Elder Benjamin de Oyos, Sister McConkie and President Nelson. I was surprised to hear that all of them spoke Spanish! Have you ever heard President Nelson speak Spanish? I have. He has a very american accent, but spoken it was.

We had a great opportunity with the Branch President to be the means of three beds getting to three men who have all been sleeping on concrete floor. One of them was Inocente who was baptized a month ago, now living with his son (who is taking the missionary lessons this week) who he hasn't seen for years until just recently. The next person was a recently activated young adult who will be getting the Melchizedek Priesthood in two weeks, Daniel. Great guy. Jesus was our last visit who has back problems making it difficult to get up in the morning to work or go to Church, espcecially with the cold season starting up. Just a very fulfilling hour to do service.

The point of telling this story is for the invitation, which almost always comes in the third paragraph. After being given an in on what's going to happen with this year's Christmas initiative by the Church, we are all invited to take part in a worldwide day of service onDecember 1st! There's a video you can watch on YouTube https://youtu.be/LYPJq_r425o to find out more, but we're very excited about this coming Christmas. Go ahead and plan a service project now. Don't worry, there's no Thanksgiving in Mexico so we're not getting ahead of ourselves. Love you all! Take luck!

-Elder Allgaier

Service project painting a house (Elder Reed said, act like we're doing a baton hand off)

Good friend Juan Israel doing visits with him this week

A family who I visited 16 months ago in Escobedo who we visited again this last week, one day they will be baptized

Unloading the truck on the first stop at Inocente's house!

Weekly Update -- November 7th, 2016

Hello everyone,

Pretty relaxed week, but topped off really well with Jesus' confirmation and three new people coming to Church from our teaching pool. Jesus is scheduled, according to our branch President, to get the Melchezidek Priesthood this coming stake conference in just two weeks! It's crazy how clearly you can see the progress of the Church here.

You are all formally invited to vote tomorrow. If there's one thing I learned from my POLI 110 class at BYU it's that 20 years down the road, citizens get upset for poorly planned policies because youth don't vote! Let's all join together and change the perspective of the country from 5 years to 50 years. I voted about a month ago, you surely can too. Love you, have a great week!

-Elder Allgaier

White board after the zone meeting last Tuesday

I've had this duck on my phone since arriving in the area (about 4 months now) and have had no idea where it came from...

...Until Saturday when we went to look for less-active members and found this guy outside, finally putting an end to my search

Our house, freshly cleaned