Weekly Update -- February 22, 2016

Somehow Elder Allgaier's email from last week did not reach me, but if he finds it and sends it again, I'll add it. Until then, we are on track this week!

Hello everyone,

Kind of a cool event this past week and that is that the Pope is in town (i.e. México) for a few days, so..... Everyone is watching his movements which are live on every tv in every home we walk into. Interesting saying prayers with that on in the background, but fun cultural experience. Also, I want to take this chance to send a few birthday shout outs. First of all, Grandpa/Elder Allgaier is turning the big 60 this year, whoo!! Don't count me on the exact number because I didn't ask, but around there. Also, my friend Sister Kendziora who is currently serving in the Buenas Aires East mission, has her birthday in March 14th if I remember correctly. Keep on preaching. And my big brother Tyler is turning one year closer to being able to rent a car!! Love you!

Quick update on Griselda, who we visited again yesterday after Church. She hasn't been praying which makes us sad because she will not have a conversion type experience without it. Saturday night, we gave her a blessing because she was really sick and we had a very interesting experience when we talked for just a little bit afterwards. I also took the chance to show her the line of authority of Priesthood I could show her. The Church is about as awesome as it is true. We were going to explain the Plan of Salvation with her, but she was busy making pies so I finally told her we could come by another time. The Spirit just wasn't there. We'll see how it goes with her this next week.

Yesterday I was able to give a talk on the blessings of sharing the gospel and being part of the obra misional, or mission work. I like the spanish translation because work has two meanings; 1. Trabajo, which is more laborous like a career and 2. Obra, which is more of an artistic work or show. It's a good representation of how I feel being a part of it and coming up on my year mark, I'm so grateful for how much my knowledge and testimony has grown through daily sacrifice. I'm also grateful to have been able to be a part of so many people's conversion, seeing them change from a more reserved and not really interested kind of person, to more questioning, searching for truth, more uplifted kind of person. It's those types of blessings that make this 'work' more of an art and less of a labor. Of course, the gift of tounges isn't a bad blessing either. For that reason, I want to invite you to take part of the missionary 'work' in any way you can imagine. It can be sending a favorite scripture to a friend along with a short testimony, accompanying the missionaries in a lesson (I personally like those a lot) or calling repentance to a city upon a wall, whatever. Maybe not the last one, but be creative. I know there is a certain Spirit that fills us whenever we can take part in this work and I hope you will be able to feel it this week. Love you all!!

-Elder Allgaier

Elder Zambrano taking a quick power nap on my shoulder

Ironing my tie after I accidentally spilled coke on it

million dollar candy courtesy of Grandma's Christmas package that finally came this week, thanks Grandma!

Toe improving condition (I think) in place of red, it is a nice green

Weekly Update -- February 8th, 2016

Hello everyone,

Oh my, Colinas is so great! The first day there was actually a mix up because one companionship got white-washed or both Elders were sent and Sister missionaries were sent in place. BUT, the new house the were going to live in was in a dangerous place for them to live so the assistants told us (Elder Zambrano, who has been here 6 weeks and I) to take that area, Colinas A, instead and the Hermanas would live in the area of Colinas B. The house is nice and has a very nice view from the roof of the valley of Huasteca. The ward has a very nice Spirit; especially coming from a smaller branch, I feel like we can focus more of non-members than the members here. There is even a Brazilian couple in the ward who moved in just a few weeks ago for work and the husband speaks no English and very little Spanish. I thought I was doing pretty well with my Spanish, then all of the sudden I try to talk with him and get humbled pretty quickly with my communication skills. Maybe it'll be a good opportunity to learn Portugese.

A lot of people here have a conversion story of 15 years or less which I find fascinating, especially as a missionary. I'll ask one member who will say her son went on a mission and she decided to get baptized as his last convert as a missionary. Another will say they gave up a crazy life of drinking and smoking, made a BIG change and now has a happy life with his family all active in the Church. I ask everyone when they invite us to eat with them and love listening to the stories. Mexicans, I've come to understand, are great storytellers. This week, I felt inspired to invite you all to remember your own personal conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ; what part of the gospel called your attention the most? If you have family who were baptized before you, find out what their story was as well. EVERY member should have a conversion story, whether they were born into the Church or had the missionaries teach them. How else do we gain a testimony? Love you all!

-Elder Allgaier

Elder Zambrano (from Hondurus) and I on the roof

Roof shot at night

Day shot from the roof

New companion, Elder Zambrano!

Afternoon siesta

This is a picture I took first day in Colinas. Story: After a night work out session, I was putting a weight back and it slipped when I picked it up, landing right square on my big toe. Oof it hurt, now it's a lot better. Just a nice warrior wound picture  I wanted to share with you to let you know I'm working :)

Weekly Update -- February 1st, 2016

Hello everyone,

Changes arrived last night, which is something new, but welcomed since we now have time to pack and get ready for our next area. The results are..... WHITE WASH! Which means both of us in Salinas A are leaving and two new Elders are coming in. More specifically, my mission brother, Elder Pisciotta who will be training! I've heard about a white wash here before and it was not easy; our neighbor who is a member and a taxi driver had to lead the area for the first week because of the size of the area. God speed to him and his kid (what trainees are called here). I'm going to the area Colinas B, with a Latin companion who's name I forgot. Sorry. I've learned a lot in this area and I'll probably remember it as where my capacity was expanded the most. Ups and downs of course, but all worth the miracles we saw in the end.

Juany was confirmed yesterday and even gave the class using the Gospel Principles manual on the gift of the Holy Ghost. Also in attendance, Hermana Rosales who was with about 8 kids, only 4 of whom are her own. She's been a great example to me having some troubles in her family, but still making the effort to put Heavenly Father first. Whether it be fasting, going to church, starting family prayer or forgiving someone, she's been there. I'll miss her, but remember how important the wife is in the family in part because of her.

This last week, I found the talk given by Elder Rasband on mission work, or more specifically, mission callings. I invite you all to listen to this talk again. I invited our friend Greg and his wife to do the same when they asked us about the application process this week when we saw them again. Also, we were finally able to give the Bible class! Almost didn't work out, but Elder Gale (our District Leader) and I went over last Thursday morning and gave a nice 45 minute class about our beliefs and history of the Church of Jesus Christ. Really cool experience being able to do that in front 27 18-25 year old people who had a solid background on the Bible. Three favorite parts 3. Someone asked how one could become a member of the Church 2. Another asked if we saw miracles in our work and I answered, looking him in the eye, 'every day' 1. Favorite part was when we got to the invitation to read and to ponder and to pray about the BoM to receive an answer and the whole class was quite, but the Spirit was talking pretty loudly. I promised an answer with the authority of a representative of Jesus Christ. Love you all so much!

-Elder Allgaier

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!

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

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

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 fútbol 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