Stressful Week

Wow I can’t believe that it is P-day already again ha ha.   This week has been a really stressful week.  The two people that were supposed to be getting baptized were not baptized because something happened that made it so that they couldn't.  It was really hard to see that happening.  And the people that were supposed to get baptized this week probably won’t be getting baptized either because stuff happened to them also.  It really stresses me out when stuff like that happens. It seems like things were going so good and now they just fell off but I know things will improve for those people.

This week wasn't all bad though.  While we were walking home from an appointment a family of six called us over to talk, they seem really interested!  So we will see how that goes!  We also have a lesson with a contact who seems like he is really prepared also so we will see how that goes.

So today for P-Day we went to a place called Ouidah which is a place where the African slaves were taken from to wherever they were sent to go.  We also went to the temple of the pythons and to the beach, I took a lot of pictures but we came to email before going back to our apartment so I will send some pictures next week.

I want to end this letter by telling you about something really awesome.  Elder Rago and myself were walking down the road when a guy who was selling ties came and talked to us, he was asking 600 CFA for one tie which isn’t really a good price, Elder Rago was able to talk the guy down to 1000 CFA for 4 ties!  Which means 4 ties for 2 American dollars ha ha.  In other words I got a great deal.

It was a good week here in Africa. A few days ago I passed my one month mark here in Benin. It’s crazy how fast that month went by.  I hope you have a good week; can’t wait to hear from you!  I love and miss you tons!

God be with you till we meet again.....

All my love,
Elder Joseph D. Allred II

This Week Has Been Pretty Amazing!

Hey Mom!

Well I hope you had a good week, didn't receive an email so you’ll have to update me on all the excitement in Safford! (Not sure why he didn't get an email - I did send one - must be lost in cyber space.)  This week has been pretty amazing, probably my best one since I have been here in Africa.

On the good news we have committed four people to enter the waters of baptism! Two of which are young girls, one is going to be the first member in her family, her mother allows her to go to church and she is letting her get baptized so it's really amazing to see this young girl take such a big step. The other girl just turned 8 and has been so excited to be baptized, so we are working with her to get her ready for baptism.  The other two people were people that we contacted from members.

The biggest miracle I saw this week was by a man named Hiler. Hiler was been born and raised catholic, he began being taught by the first missionaries that came to my area but was dropped because he wasn't progressing.  I’m not really sure how we got to begin teaching him but we started again, the first lesson went well, we asked him to pray if the things we had taught him were true.  On our next lesson with him he had something to tell us, and this is a brief summary of what he said, "I fell asleep at work on my desk. While I was asleep I had a dream, I saw a pillar of light and an angel came. He told me the path that I was taking was the right one and that I shouldn't be worried.”  He was told that many times by the angel then he woke up and knew that the church was true.  It was really amazing to see it!

So that is what happened this week! It has been a good week.

So time for the sad news, it looks like we are going to have to drop Aminou.  It turns out the Aminou doesn't speak French, only Fon and so he didn't understand anything we had taught him, or anything we were saying.  It’s hard but it happens!  Other than that things are good!  I hope you are doing well, i love and miss you!

God be with you till we meet again....

Love,

Elder Joseph D. Allred II

Our apartment won the for the cleanest for the month of March so we got taken on a free lunch :)

Happy 2-Month Mark

Well it was good to hear from you and hear about your notes from conference!  And your right, I won’t get to see conference for about a month and it will be in French so I doubt that I will understand a lot of it lol but it’s all good.

So this was a pretty good week here in Benin, very hot but we got our first rain storms of the season!  Last night we had one of the biggest storms that I've ever seen.  I was very thankful to have a nice apartment to go back to and be safe.  Last night while I was lying in bed I was thinking of all the people here in Benin that don’t have the same protection that I do and it makes me feel bad for those people, but those homes may have little protection but it’s all they have ever known.  I know people have it hard but they are still happy and humble, that’s something that is hard to find in other areas of the world.

So this week we started teaching a few new people and the lessons are going well with most of them.  One problem we have is that people are always busy here but we always seem to find them at the right time!  I’m finally starting to get adjusted to the way of life here, like I said before it’s hard but it is starting to feel like I haven’t lived any other way after being here for these few weeks.

Anyway, I cracked a tooth, luckily President Weed is a dentist.....lol but it isn't anything major so it’s all good but I’ll need to have it checked when I get back to the United States in a couple years.

So I had a MAJOR first this week and that is that I had my first African Cheeseburger!  It was amazing haha. I hadn't had meat in a few days so it made it taste better! :) Anyway things are good, oh and HAPPY 2 MONTH mark :)  I've been out on my mission for 2 long but quick, hard but amazing months.  I hope you are doing well, love you and miss you!  God be with you till we meet again...

Love,
Elder Joseph D. Allred II

Pictures from last week's soccer game:

First baptism:

Moving on to Week Three

Hey there! I hope you are doing well.  Well I can’t believe week two is over and that I’m moving on to week three.  Things here in Africa are good.  I’m really starting to adjust to the way things are here.  It’s been hard to try and live the way they live but it becomes pretty natural after doing it everyday for 2 weeks.

Things to report this week: we didn't have any baptisms this week.  It was a hard couple days, we had a lot of potential people that we were preparing to get baptized but one after the other they all had problems and we weren't able to meet with them. That is something that really brings me down is when we have someone that I know is ready for baptism but then they take a step back.  We had a guy named Aminou committed to baptism but he didn't come to church on Sunday so we need to find out what is going on with him, the soonest we will be able to get him baptized is 3 weeks from now but hopefully he comes around.

This week we ran low on people to teach so we were forced to go door to door for the first time since I've been in Africa, it actually brought us quite a bit of success.  We have two lessons set up with people that we met by going door to door. Hopefully everything works out with them.  Ask me all the questions you have and I will do my best to answer them in the next letter.  This week we are short on time because we had an extremely busy day.  Thank you for all that you do for me!  I love you and miss you every day and you are in my prayers every day!

Love,

Elder Joseph D. Allred II