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

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

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

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

New Jericho Branch

Well another week has come and gone and here we are again!  This week went by really fast. You know what they say; time flies when you are working hard.  And that is exactly what we have been doing!

Like I said in the letter from last week Elder Boto and I have been working on finding new people to teach.  So we are now teaching a lot of new people. We have been really blessed in the people that we have found right now.  All week we were walking far and wide to teach our new people. They all live pretty far away from each other so we are working all around our area.

Yesterday at church some really amazing news was announced!  Right now I’m working in the sector of Jericho but all of our investigators [go to the] Gbedjromede Branch.  Yesterday the announcement was made that on the first Sunday in August the new Jericho Branch will start!  The people in Jericho will go to the same building but have their own branch. They are working on finding a building right now!  It’s so amazing to be here for this big change. I’m so excited for this!  This change is also very nice because there were so many people attending the old branch that I didn’t get to sit down at church for the past 4 months!

And for the other good news we had 6 investigators at church yesterday!  Ahh, what a great day! haha.  This is a really nice change, because the area has been struggling but I knew things would start to light up!

The package is amazing by the way haha. I haven’t eaten it all yet!  It’s so nice to see my beautiful tie again! haha (His favorite tie was stolen in the MTC so I sent him a new one.) The 4 x 4 Rubik’s cube is ridiculously hard lol but it’s all good!

Thank you for all that you do for me mom, I love and miss you! Have a great week!
Avec amour,
Elder Joseph D. Allred II

This is a van from another church! I think its awesome! haha The picture says it all!

Mom I'm here if you want to talk to me!

I have a couple minutes before my training starts

How are you today? Je suis tres bon! (I am very good)

I'm good. Not looking forward to another day of training. How's your day been? Any luck on the package yet?

I bet!  My day has been good. I cleaned all day!  Myself and Boto did laundry for one of our converts, and yes, the package is amazing!  What did you think of my Toms story? :)

I loved your Toms story. So glad you finally got the package. I can't believe that you are cleaning. Lol just kidding. Are you still in the same apartment that you were in with Rago?

I wasn't sure if it was appropriate or not to tell it. I didn't want people to think that my head was somewhere else and not on the work.  The package is amazing!  I love it!!!!  4 x 4 Rubik’s cube is freakin hard! lol 

I don't think there's anything wrong with the story. You're there for the culture also.

haha what a relief!  I was thinking about that all week!  Haha

I like the picture of you and the van. Did you ever decide about clippers for your hair?

I thought it would a waste of money. I’ll keep getting bad haircuts lol 

2 pour 1/2

Well another week has come and gone; can’t believe how fast it went!  This past week went by fast for us because we were so busy all the time!

As I said before and as you know Elder Rago was transferred about a week ago and I have to show the new missionary the area.  Well we got straight to work on that!  So this whole week we went around and I introduced him to the members in our area and our investigators!  And we started to work towards finding new people to teach, so that means asking people for contacts or going door to door!  Well we asked all the members in our area for contacts and that didn't go very well, so that means we were forced to go door to door!  We found a few new people who we are going to start teaching. I don’t know if those people will progress.  So as I said with Boto I’m forced to speak French and I think it’s really helping me!  I’m starting to speak really well so that’s pretty awesome!

And other than that it was a pretty normal week. So now I’m going to explain the 2 pour 1/2!  So in Benin Cotonou you can buy just about anything you want for pretty cheap and it’s either real stuff or fake crap!  So today another missionary and I went to an area of Benin with some really great stuff!  And we found a guy selling Toms, you know the shoes Toms!  So you know that whole thing about how you buy a pair of Toms and another pair is donated to a kid in Africa, well that’s kind of true....lol but not true at the same time.  It turns out when they get donated here people either sell them or steal them and resell them.  So I found a guy and we start taking, he says I want 12,000 cfa for 1 pair and I negotiate with him and we end up agreeing on 7,000 cfa. I couldn't decide which pair I wanted so I say I will give you 15,000 cfa for 2 pairs and he said yes! So I bought 2 pairs of Toms for 30 dollars American money which is half the price of one pair in the United States! Go me!! haha

Anyway this was a good week, things are good, I love you and miss you tons! Je vous aime beaucoup!

Avec amour,

Elder Joseph D. Allred II

Last week's baptism and new companion Elder Boto

Pictures from Family Home Evening

Big News for the week: My New Companion and a Baptism!

Well it sounds like you have been pretty busy the last couple days but busy is always good huh? haha ya I'm not really sure what happened I was here for a good amount of time and no response but that’s ok it’s all good! haha (We tried to chat last week but couldn't make a connection. I got his message at 8:30 p.m. our time which is 4:30 a.m. his time so it must have been lost in cyber space for some time.)

Anyway to answer your question about the Spanish stuff for Shelby, if she goes to the Provo MTC she will receive all of that plus more! haha At the Provo MTC they gave me 3 books to study French.  For Spanish I think it’s 4 and they give you the scriptures in your language. Plus other things so don’t worry about that stuff for her.  (His step-sister is going to Mexico on her mission so I asked about giving her some Spanish stuff that he had sent home from the MTC.)

Anyway so to talk about the big news for the week!  My new companion and a baptism!

Our investigator finally got baptized!  It was such a relief on me haha. We had been working with him for a pretty long time. The problem was he wasn't telling us everything. He hadn't received a response to his prayers but wanted to be baptized.  He ended up not showing up to his baptism interview twice.  But when all seemed lost he finally received his answer and he found it in a verse from Mormon Chapter 7 verse 10. (See below) I found it during my personal study!  So it was really great.  Anyway he was baptized on Saturday!  I’ll be sending pictures today. (No pictures made it.) 

Anyway so the other news...my new companion.  His name is Elder Boto and he is also from Madagascar! It’s been really great the past couple days.  The other good thing is he speaks really great French...and not really any English!  So he has been forcing me to speak only French and it’s been helping me quite a bit.  He thinks that I speak French really well but I still have a lot to work on before it’s really good.  I miss Rago but this is good for me.

Anyway other than that things are pretty normal.  I finally received the letter you sent with the Church News in it. I love the bookmarks inside. (I sent this around the 2nd week in April.)  And I received dad’s package but not yours.  I’ll let you know when it comes.  Anyway I hope you have a great day and week!  I miss you and love you sooooo much haha. Je vous aime beaucoup!

Avec amour,

Elder Joseph D. Allred II

Mormon 7:10: "And ye will also know that ye are a remnant of the seed of Jacob; therefore ye are numbered among the people of the first covenant; and if it so be that ye believe in Christ, and are baptized, first with water, then with fire and with the Holy Ghost, following the example of our Savior, according to that which he hath commanded us, it shall be well with you in the day of judgment."

Elder Allred and Elder Rago