Favorite Scripture

"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." (3 Nephi 5:13)

Monday, August 26, 2013

Teaching and Finding...All That Good Stuff

Well another week as come and gone and here we are again!  It sounds like things are going pretty good there. Well things here are good!  The week went by really fast. We were busy with all sorts of things and teaching and finding, all that good stuff.

So the news for the week is Romi was not baptized on Friday. There were some things that he didn't understand completely but things are well again and we believe that his baptism will be soon.  In other news our other progressing investigator Peligie is supposed to be baptized this Saturday. I think she is truly ready. She was prepared by the Lord before we started teaching her so it’s been truly amazing working with her. She is a different person now, the members love her and things are good.

Saturday we had an activity for the young single adults here in Cotonou and it was really awesome. It was at a place called OBAMA BEACH lol! It was a really successful activity. They had a huge number of single adults come out. We had our inactive young single adult there so that was good. He was playing the games with the other people and participating in the activities.  It was a great activity.

This week we are pretty busy as well again haha so I think it’s going to be a quick week!  I hope all is well I love and miss you so much!

Avec amour,
Elder Joseph D. Allred II


Elder Allred and Elder Méjean (from France)
at Obama Beach

Pictures from Ouidah trip last week

Monday, August 19, 2013

AFRICA IS AWESOME!

Well like you said another week has come and here we are again!  So this week was good. It went by super fast.  I don’t know why haha!  So things are good.

Boto and I are still working to find new people to teach, that is going well.  We found a family but they didn't come to church yesterday so I don’t know about them!  As for our other investigators things are good.  This Saturday is the Saturday Romi chose for his baptism date. We need to work with him on some things but I think it will still go through.  Our other major investigator is doing good, progression is great!

Things are good.  I love this place so much, AFRICA IS AWESOME!  haha So today I went to Ouidah....again! haha It was cool this time because I understood a lot more than the first time and my hair looks awesome, not stupid from a bad haircut! :) Anyway so that is awesome.

Last Saturday we did the service project and it was great! We cleaned a huge field. Lots of news people from Benin were there. I took lots of pictures but I’m only gonna send a few!

So, to explain the scary ride from the zoo, it’s a manual ride that some random guy pushes and it’s really scary. haha If the weight limit isn't right it’s kind of dangerous but it was awesome haha!
Well I hope you have a great week. I love you and miss you!

Avec amour,
Elder Joseph D. Allred II

Elder Boto - his new companion

Another visit to Ouidah - he must really like the snakes!

The leaf in the pocket is voodoo for bring me money
and take away bad spirits. If you take it without asking
bad things will happen to you......I took it without asking.... :)


Service Project - August 17, 2013



At the zoo

Thursday, August 15, 2013

j'aime beaucoup français!!!

Well another week as come and gone and here we are again haha.  This week was a pretty normal week. There isn't really much to report on to be honest haha.  We were very busy with teaching people.

Last week I told you about the woman we found; she is progressing great!  She came to church yesterday and loved it!  She is starting to make friends at church.  She got invited to eat dinner with a member yesterday.  All and all things are going great with her.

I don’t know if I have talked about Romi before but he is one of our investigators who is progressing really well.  He read the whole Book of Mormon already and he’s starting it again so that he can understand it better. That’s really all the big news for the week.

Yesterday in church I gave a talk in French without any help...I’m really starting to speak French!  I think it’s really helping that I live in an all French apartment.  I speak French all day everyday now; I speak more, it’s awesome, j'aime beaucoup français!!!  (I love French)

For the other news for this week, I went to a zoo today and it was awesome!!!  I got to pet a monkey and I saw a lion. Here they hit the animals with sticks to make them mad. It’s awesome. I went on a ride and almost died!  All and all the zoo was pretty exciting. I’ll send pictures next week.  They are awesome.

Well I hope you have a great week!  I love you and miss you!

Avec amour,

Elder Joseph D. Allred II

Zone Conference

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Six Months

Wow that week went by really fast haha crazy!

This was a really busy week. We had lots to do over the past couple days. Last Tuesday we had a zone meeting with all the missionaries in our zone, which was good. We talked about helping people progress when they are a little slow to progress. Then on Friday we had our zone conference with all the missionaries in our zone and another zone with President Weed.  Plus all the lessons we had with all the new people we are teaching.  Oh, and Sunday was the first day of the branch to Jericho.

The first day at the new branch was pretty interesting, and here is an interesting story to go with it.  So in our new branch we have no young men so I had to help with the sacrament. Our church building is an old school and the chapel has a lot of windows that look out into the hallways and stuff.  So there was this kid that is a new member who was sitting on a bench outside in the hallway and I was looking at him and all the sudden in the middle of the sacrament he passed out on that bench!!!  All of these people left the chapel to go help the kid. What spirit was there left instantly! haha It turns out he was really sick but he came to church because he had to be confirmed !  The branch had little attendance but that’s ok. People are pretty confused about which branch they are supposed to attend.

Anyway things are good with the people we are teaching. We found a woman who was really prepared for the gospel. She is progressing well, hopefully we will set a baptismal date this week.  Do you remember the family of 8? Well we are only teaching 3 of them now but they are doing great haha. They have come to church for the past 2 weeks. It’s awesome!

Well time for the big news for this week.  So in Benin there are 4-6 missionaries in each apartment, and I've been living with another American for the past 4 months. Well to his great surprise he was transferred today and another Elder came to our apartment. His name is Elder Méjean, and he is from Lyon, France.  So that means I’m in an all French apartment!  No one speaks English except for me haha. I love it though; this is going to make my French explode! haha

Things here are really good right now. This place is really starting to feel like home. I love these people, I love the culture....I don’t know how to describe it.  I hope you have an amazing week! I love you and miss you tons!

Avec amour,

Elder Joseph D. Allred II